Following the detection of its first omicron case Saturday in Haidian district of Beijing, the Chinese capital locked down certain communities and office buildings just weeks before the Winter Olympics and the Lunar New Year holiday. The city opened 30 emergency testing points in Haidian on Monday as it rushes to contain the spread Jan 19, 2022 05:37 PM As the world celebrate Mothers Day on May 10, Amitabh Bachchan penned his blog on mother Teji Bachchan, remembering how his mother shaped his life. Talking about the most important moments of his life from big premieres to his win in the general elections to his return home after the grievous accident on the sets of Coolie, the actor showed how his mother was with him at every moment. He also shared photos in remembrance on his blog. He started with the photo of the wedding day of his parents Teji and acclaimed poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan. Sharing his own photo with mother, he wrote, In Allahabad, perhaps a first conscious moment of what a photograph means for me.. never ever thought it would become a life line - pictures !! That bush shirt was special .. very ahead of all the fashion in those days .. but Ma had it made .. her aesthetics were always supreme. T 3527 - Every day is Mothers Day..to the most beautiful Mother in the World .. my Amma ji pic.twitter.com/zAV3RE6SX6 Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) May 9, 2020 Talking about his mothers immaculate sense of style, he shared another piece of trivia about him wearing a jamavar shawl to a wedding reception, At the wedding reception of ManMohan Desais son Ketan with Shammi Kapoor jis daughter , Kanchan, a renowned journo covering the event stated I had come wearing a carpet. Guess they were unaware of the jamawar shawls from Kashmir - very specially crafted and rare antique shawls. Talking about his most favourite photograph with Maa, he added, At Allahabad , at a close friends place, the occasion.. a formal lunch for the visiting Chinese delegation.. that suit and tie specially made for the day. Talking about how his mother continues to guide him and his family, he added, We live with Ma the entire day .. no matter what the occasion , or circumstance they keep you company by your side .. guiding you, caring for you, ever optimistic , ever inspiring , ever giving the never say die spirit. Amitabh perhaps summed up the thoughts of many as he wrote, Every day is Mothers Day .. many odes to her in words in expressions come .. sentiments are similar .. say something put it up they say .. fine have put it up .. in compliance with world wide sentiment .. but each day is hers .. shall ever be so. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON They say love thy neighbour. But when your neighbour tries to act smart, you cant help but try and set them straight, right? Now while India has its own quirky neighbours, Nepal too isnt far behind when it comes to having encroaching neighbours being a pain in the a*s. I mean, no offence but lets admit that nobody appreciates snooping neighbours, do they? But perhaps living right across from each other often makes people forget all about their boundaries. Just like how the Chinese media recently claimed that Mt Everest is in China, matlab yeh Geography toh sirf books mein hoti hai na? Post showing Everest in China, CGTN deleted old tweet. In new tweet CGTN said, Everest located on China-Nepal border. pic.twitter.com/c1bx8hJmbB Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) May 10, 2020 To give you a better understanding, Beijings state-run media house, China Global Television Network (CGTN) recently posted a tweet featuring Mt Everest and said, located in Chinas Tibet Autonomous Region which infuriated Indian and Nepalese users on Twitter who began calling out China for spreading fake news with #BackOffChina trending on the microblogging site. Even though CGTN has since made appropriate changes to the caption, it didnt do much good because thousands of users had already seen the original post and the damage was done. Both Indian and Nepalese users are trolling China right, left and centre for trying to make incorrect claims. Well, thats not happening. Maybe they think Nepal is part of China's Tibet region. And that's not cool at all. Bourne Reacher (@4aBr1ghtFuture) May 10, 2020 Fake will always be fake. World knows where Mt. Everest lies. Why Chinese media reporting false news. Mt. Everest lies on Nepal territory. #backoffchina (@shivakhanal4all) May 10, 2020 Nepalese people have taken personal offence over the matter. This is our mount everest 8848 we don't want this to used and marked as yours.nepal government should act upon this. This is unprecedented words that has beem used here. this is unacceptable .#backoffchina pic.twitter.com/0KBtEvTBP8 . (@shivarajkoiral) May 10, 2020 Ouch. #backoffchina Suddenly all parts of the world becoming part of China...come on China...at least be sensible after Corona disaster which you donated to world Umasankar Thiyagaraj (@umasurgeon) May 10, 2020 A word of caution? #backoffchina gentle reminder #nepal if you side with #china they will take not only Mount Everest but everything. rbajaj (@rbay_9) May 10, 2020 Well, no matter what they were trying to imply with that misleading caption, but if history is to be believed, China does have a tendency to call what belongs to others their own, or worse, try to take it by force...*coughs* Arunachal Pradesh *coughs*. 10.05.2020 LISTEN Today, I woke up to an infographic from Ernest Adu Gyamfi; an evangelist I've come to trust over the past five years with a caption " At the Ideal time you shall Peak". This statement brought into memory what was said by the Ghana Health Service on how Ghana peaked on April 25 in terms of COVID-19 cases. Whilst I believe as health professionals, we should butter up, I also believe we should critique when it's necessary. It is clear that as of today, Ghana's case count stands at 4263 making us the country with the highest number of cases in West Africa. According to experts, the surge in the number of cases should not be our major cause of worry when taken in the context that we've also got a relatively fewer number of deaths, 22-thus a true sign that we're doing something right. Howbeit I think we should keep up with our enhanced contact tracing approach as spread continues to go up as failure to do so will stretch our already groggy health system. I've learned over the years that in matters relating to public health, communication is very integral in determining the rate of spread of infectious diseases. More to it, many people tend to evaluate their own risk perception of what is the trend out there, so if we are not circumspect in terms of communication in such times, there is the likelihood people would hang loose. For me, to say we're at the peak is too early as our numbers depict more cases of expanded surveillance and not an expanded epidemic spread. That said, I think in as much as our enhanced contact tracing approach proved fructiferous, we should now home in on the cases we record as a result of routine surveillance. For example, in the last 3 updates, cases from routine surveillance have gone up by 85% pointing to the fact that our contact tracing strategies couldn't fish out persons with more epidemiological relevant risk. A case can be made for the 500 people who were infected with the virus during an outbreak in a construction facility with a workforce of 1300- a 38% infection rate. This in some experts view is a true representation of how the spread is in our communities. In epidemiology, it's very dicey commenting on peaking levels as you need certain characteristics in your active cases such that you have a deceleration leading up to your peak so that you will be seeing a smaller percentage increase in active cases recorded over a period. Going forward, while I dissent on future lockdowns or stricter measures, coupled with the in-house production of rapid test kits, I propose a community level screening and a survey to ascertain the extent of the spread. Strict adherence to social distancing protocols and proper use of masks should also be encouraged. 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 Are you an Indian stranded abroad? Here is what you should do India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, May 10: As the government starts evacuation of thousands of Indians stuck abroad due to coronavirus lockdown, the home ministry has issued guidelines for stranded Indians and for people who need to travel abroad. The Home Ministry stated that as many Indians who had travelled abroad for employment purposes or studies or tourism or business are still stranded, the government of India is facilitating this evacuation to alleviate their distress in these trying times. Here are the key take aways from MHA order Priority will be given for return to India 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 emergencies, pregnant women, elderly, those required to return to India due to death of a family member, and students will also be given preference, the home ministry said. The cost of travel will be borne by such travellers. Based on the registrations received, the Ministry of External Affairs will prepare flight or ship wise database of all such travellers, including details such as name, age, gender, mobile phone number, place of residence, place of final destination, and information on RT-PCR test taken and its result. This data will be shared by MEA with the respective state and union territories in advance. The MEA will designate state and UT wise nodal officers who will co-ordinate with the nodal officers designated for this purpose by the respective states, the home ministry said. The MEA will display with at least two days notice the schedule (day, place and time of arrival) of the incoming flight or ship on their online digital platform. The home ministry said as per information available, many Indians who had travelled to different countries before the lockdown, which was first imposed with effect from March 25, for various purposes such as employment, studies, internships, tourism, business are stranded abroad. "Due to their prolonged stay abroad, they are facing distress and are desirous of returning to India urgently," Bhalla said while issuing the SOP. According to the SOP, all Indians wish to return to India will register themselves with Indian Missions in the country where they are stranded, along with necessary details as prescribed by MEA. They 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 the Department Of Military Affairs (DMA). Only those crew and staff who are tested COVID-19 negative will be allowed to operate these flights and ships. 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. 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 the flight or ship, the MEA will facilitate thermal screening as per health protocol. Only asymptomatic travellers would be allowed to board. Passengers arriving through 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) in duplicate will be filled in advance by all passengers coming from any point of entry - land, sea or airports - and a copy of the same will be given to Health and Immigration officials present at the airport, seaport or landport. While onboard the flight or ship, the health protocol of MoCA and DMA will be strictly followed. This would include wearing of masks, environmental hygiene, respiratory hygiene, hand hygiene to be observed by airline or ship staff, crew and all passengers. On arrival, thermal screening, as per health protocol, would be carried out. All passengers shall be asked to download ''ArogyaSetu'' app on their mobile devices. Passengers found to be symptomatic during screening shall be immediately taken to a medical facility as per the health protocol. The remaining passengers shall be taken to suitable institutional quarantine facilities, to be arranged by the respective state and UT governments. These passengers shall be kept under institutional quarantine for a minimum period of 14 days. If they 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 government. If you are in India but work abroad and need to travel immediately, here is what you should do Such persons will apply to MoCA or an agency designated by MoCA for this purpose, along with necessary details, including the places of departure and arrival as prescribed by MoCA. Only those persons shall be allowed to travel to the destination countries who are citizens of that country, hold visa of at least one year duration of that country and green card or are OCI card holder. In cases of medical emergency or death in the family, Indian nationals holding six months visa can also be allowed to go. Before their tickets are confirmed, MoCA will ensure that the destination country allows entry of such persons in that country. The conditions, if any, imposed by the destination country will have to be fulfilled by the person intending to travel. The travel from India shall be by non-scheduled commercial flights that are being arranged by MoCA for bringing back stranded Indian nationals from abroad. The cost of travel, as specified by MOCA, will be borne by such travellers. (Alliance News) - An imposed quarantine on people flying into the UK will add to the confusion of Britons trying to figure out their future travel plans, a consumer group has warned. The UK prime minister has said it will "soon be the time" to bring in a period of quarantine in order to stave off Covid-19 infection from abroad. The situation has been described as "chaotic", with calls for the government to set out a plan to support the travel industry through the crisis. Addressing the nation on Sunday night, Boris Johnson said: "To prevent re-infection from abroad, I am serving notice that it will soon be the time, with transmission significantly lower, to impose quarantine on people coming into this country by air. "And it is because of your efforts to get the R down and the number of infections down here, that this measure will now be effective." It has previously been reported that it will be a 14-day quarantine, and Airlines UK said it had been told by the government that the plan will be in place by the end of the month or early June. Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, said: "This news will add to the confusion that British travellers are currently facing when trying to work out whether they can travel as planned, safely re-book postponed holidays, and when they will receive the refunds they are entitled to under consumer law for cancelled trips. "The situation is chaotic: the guidance issued by the government against travelling abroad is indefinite, and yet some airlines and travel companies are selling flights and holidays due to depart within the next few weeks which carry no warning that they are unlikely to go ahead as planned. "Airlines and holiday companies must now be given clear FCO guidance on what dates it is appropriate to sell flights and holidays for. "The government must also urgently produce a plan to support the travel industry through this crisis, so carriers and holiday companies can comply with the law and refund consumers without fear of going bust." Johnson did not mention arrivals by sea, and he did not make clear whether it would include passengers on internal UK flights or on flights from the Republic of Ireland. However, The Times has previously reported that travellers from Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man will be exempt from the quarantine. The newspaper also reported that "authorities will conduct spot checks", with punishments for those not adhering to the rules including "fines of up to GBP1,000" and deportation. Peter Drobac, a medical doctor specialising in infectious diseases and an academic at the University of Oxford, said there is merit to the idea, but said it will require a lot of planning and infrastructure at a "really fragile" stage. He said the country has to figure out how to keep down the R value, the number of people the average infected individual would spread the virus to, outside of a lockdown. Drobac told the PA news agency: "All the experience that we have from the countries that have been trying to do this suggests that it's really hard and it's really fragile. "This is going to be a knife-edge balancing act, to try to ease the lockdown while preventing a second surge. "And so every intervention that we can make that can keep the R down should be considered, and I think in relative terms, the quarantine becomes more valuable the less domestic transmission they have." Commenting on the enforcement of a quarantine, Dr Drobac said: "You can't wave a magic wand and say we're having a quarantine and expect it to work. "There's got to be a lot of infrastructure in place to make that effective." He added: "I think, in short, yes, this should have been done a long time ago, but given the current state of affairs, it makes sense to consider this now." Drobac, a global public health academic, said this quarantine plan would have been a "smart" thing to do in February and early March. "And that might have made a really big difference," he said. On Saturday, Airport Operators Association Chief Executive Karen Dee said: "Quarantine would not only have a devastating impact on the UK aviation industry, but also on the wider economy." By Catherine Wylie, PA source: PA Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. More snow on the way in Pennsylvania; here's how much to expect The Kaduna State Government says it has recorded two more COVID-19 related deaths. Governor Nasir El-Rufai stated this in a tweet on his verified Twitter handle, adding that the two latest fatalities included a senior citizen from Makarfi and a lady from Zaria. In the tweet, released at 11.04 p.m. on Saturday, the governor revealed that two more persons had tested positive in the state, bringing the active COVID-19 cases to 87. He said the two new cases were a male from Igabi and a female from Chikun Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state. The state recorded its first reported COVID-19 related deaths on May 2, when a patient, a retired civil servant, who reportedly concealed his travel history to Kano, died before the result of his test was out. The state government had raised an alarm that the majority of COVID-19 cases in the state had travel history and that illegal inter-state travel was widening the spread of COVID-19 in the state. Muyiwa Adekeye, spokesperson to the governor, said in a statement that illegal travels increased the danger of community transmission of coronavirus as infections had been recorded in some rural communities around the state boundaries. Mr Adekeye appealed for vigilance and active involvement of all residents in the effort to avert peril. He said positive COVID-19 test results have been recorded in seven LGAs of the state Giwa, Igabi, Kaduna North, Kaduna South, Makarfi, Soba and Zaria. (NAN) Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has backed an international inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, but he cautioned that it should be independent and not simply blame China for the global pandemic. In an interview with The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, Anwar also said his country was too economically dependent on China and needed to diversify its economy. He also called for greater ASEAN unity in handling tensions in the South China Sea. Anwar Ibrahim is the founder and president of the People's Justice Party. Credit:Bloomberg "I think if they are doing that [an international inquiry] I am very supportive, although I dont share this Trump mantra of blaming it on China. But if you want to have independent research or study on the cause and the impact, I think rightfully so," he said. "If there is research or a paper or a policy sanctioned by the Trump administration against China, naturally we have to re-look at it and not to subscribe to, to just support that." By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Doha-Thiruvananthapuram evacuation flight which was scheduled to arrive by 10.45 pm on Sunday has been cancelled. The flight which was supposed to bring 181 passengers from Doha was not granted landing permission by the Qatar authorities. An airline official told The New Indian Express that the pilot and crew were ready for take off and they have waited for an hour inside the cockpit, but didn't get the permission from the airport authorities in Doha. Meanwhile, Thiruvananthapuram District Collector S Gopalakrishnan said the reason for cancelling the landing permission by the Interior Ministry in Qatar is unknown. However, the authorities are hopeful of rescheduling the flight on Tuesday. The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has cautioned President Akufo-Addo against calls by the clergy to lift the ban on church activities and other social gatherings in the country following rising cases of COVID-19. There are reports churches are persuading the president to open up and allow them to fellowship. However, the GMA in a statement Saturday warned the infection rate of COVID-19 could worsen if the President takes off the order against public gathering and social functions. His Excellency the President of the Republic should not lift the ban on social gatherings for religious activities, schools, marriage ceremonies, funerals etc. Government must ensure the prompt and continuous distribution of PPEs to all health workers at their various institutions (or places of work) at all times. This will guarantee the safety of all health workers as they continue to render care to patients, GMA added. ---starrfmonline Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Tsering Ngodup Lama (The Kathmandu Post) Kathmandu, Nepal Sun, May 10, 2020 07:08 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd6f755f 2 News Nepal,travel,destination,tourism,coronavirus,COVID-19,Ghandruk Free Every year between March and May, Biswas Gurung, a trekking guide and tourism entrepreneur from Ghandruk, would hardly get time for anything else apart from work. During these three months, hundreds of trekkers from around Nepal and across the world would visit Ghandruk, a picturesque village in Kaski district, within the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), and guides like Gurung, specialized in organizing guided treks in the region, would be in high demand. If not guiding trekkers along trails, Gurung would be busy helping out at his family-run Shakti Guest House, a four-room lodge in the heart of Ghandruk. With hundreds of trekkers passing through the village, the guest house would operate on almost full occupancy, and every helping hand made things easier, said Gurung. But things are markedly different this year. It is early May, almost the end of the Spring tourist season, and Ghandruk is empty. The dozens of small hotels and lodges are empty and the narrow stone pathways that characterize this quaint Gurung village are deserted. There are no trekkers basking in the sun, drinking warm tea after a long hike. Lodge owners arent busy preparing meals on the kitchen fire, bedsheets arent laid out to dry, the chimneys arent billowing smoke. Instead, there is an eerie silence. In early March, when many governments began to advise their citizens against non-essential travel, villagers from Ghandruk to Langtang who rely on tourism to make a living nervously followed unfolding events. In the final week of March, when the Nepal government announced a complete nationwide lockdown, along with a restriction on all international flights, the little hope they had held out was dashed. On March 14, the last of Gurungs guests left the village for Pokhara. The Kaski Tourism Management Committee then announced the closure of all hotels, lodges, homestays in the village from April 10 to May 14, said Gurung. Ever since then, there hasnt been much to do but stay home. In Langtangs famed Kyanjin Gompa, the nearly two dozen hotels and lodges have been shut for more than a month. With no trekkers, Kyipa Tamang and her family, who run the Superview Hotel, spend their days in the fields planting potatoes. Its a huge blow to us, said Tamang. The months from March to May are some of the busiest for us. During these three months, all our 16 rooms run on full occupancy. Already in February, when COVID-19 wasnt as widespread as it is today, Tamang had noticed a drop in the number of tourists visiting Langtang. The number of tourists began to drop dramatically in mid-March, she said. With no business, Tamangs staff asked to go on leave so that they could return to their villages. In Langtangs famed Kyanjin Gompa, the nearly two dozen hotels and lodges have been shut for more than a month. Marissa Taylor Crises are not new for those of us who live in the Langtang Valley, said Tamang. Just five years ago, the 2015 earthquakes dealt a huge blow to all of us. Many in the valley lost their lives, and the trekking trails that provide livelihood to so many of us here were badly destroyed. In 2015, the year of the earthquakes, the number of tourists visiting Langtang dropped significantly to just 5,016, compared to the previous years 12,265. Read also: Nepal suspends visa-on-arrival for nationals of countries badly affected by COVID-19 But we are resilient people. Damaged trails were rebuilt; so were lodges and guesthouses, and the number of tourists visiting the Valley increased with each passing year, she said. Langtang had made a difficult but almost complete recovery, with a record 21,945 tourists visiting the valley in the 2018-19 fiscal year, according to data from the Langtang National Park. But I dont think overcoming this crisis will be that straightforward. Theres so much fear and uncertainty surrounding the virus, and even if the lockdown is lifted, I dont think things will go back to normal, says Tamang. With medical experts citing social distancing as the most effective tool to curb the spread of the virus until a vaccine is developed, which many experts say is unlikely to happen within the next year, tourism entrepreneurs along Nepals various trekking routes are faced with an uncertain future. Tourism is the mainstay for most of these villages, providing most of their incomes and employment. The villagers here estimate that there wont be tourists for another year or so, said Gurung. For a village like Ghandruk, where tourism is the main source of income, people are beginning to worry. We have 57 hotels here in Ghandruk, and many more are under construction. Businesses might have closed but interests on business loans still need to be paid, and it is beginning to worry people. With no business, many in Ghandruk, says Gurung, are going back to agriculture to keep themselves occupiedand fed. The same is happening in Kyanjin Gompa. We have around 22 to 23 hotels here in Kyanjin, and ever since the lockdown, people have started working in the fields to keep ourselves occupied and to grow our own vegetables, said Tamang, who has been planting potatoes, cauliflower and buckwheatthe only crops that grow high up in the Himalayas. People here are deeply worried about how long the current situation will go on, she said. But a more immediate worry for us is the lockdown. Our village relies on Syabrubesi, which is a two-day walk away, for food. If the lockdown continues, we are worried that the food we have stocked will run out and therell be no way for us to get more. Topics : This article appeared on The Kathmandu Post newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post An NSCN (K-YA) militant was nabbed by security forces in Assam's Sivasagar district and arms and ammunition were seized from his possession, a Defence spokesperson said on Sunday. Acting on a tip-off, a joint team of the Indian Army and the Assam Police apprehended the militant from Singphan Reserve Forest along the Assam-Nagaland border on Saturday, a statement issued by Defence Public Relation Officer (Guwahati) Lt Col P Khongsai said. The apprehended cadre of the proscribed outfit has been identified as 37-year-old Laipa Konyak from Namsa village in Mon district of Nagaland, it said. A .22 bolt action rifle and five cartridges were seized from the insurgent, the statement said. "It is suspected that the individual was actively involved in extortion activities in the region," it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Banned terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen has appointed Gazi Haider as its new operation chief in Kashmir, replacing Riyaz Naikoo who was killed by Indian security forces in a highly successful operation last week. As per a statement issued by the outfit on Sunday, a copy of which IANS accessed, Hizbul Mujahideen announced the appointment at a meeting of its council under the chairmanship of United Jihad Council (a Pakistan-based conglomeration of several terror groups sponsored by ISI) and Hizb supremo Syed Salahuddin. The meeting had been called to mourn the death of Naikoo and his aides, Mohammad Bin Qasim and Mohammad Adil who were killed Beighpora in Pulwama district of south Kashmir. Besides announcing the appointment of Gazi Haider, the banned group based in Pakistan, during the meet, also announced Zaffar-ul-Islam as "deputy of Haider and Abu Tariq as his "chief military advisor". The UJC chief, as per the statement, called Naikoo and his associates martyrs' and hoped that their "blood will surely benefit their separatist movement in Kashmir." Hizbul Mujahideen has been seeking Jammu & Kashmir's secession from India and merger with Pakistan. One of the most wanted terrorists, Salahuddin during the meeting praised the "determination" of the mujahideen (terrorists) towards the separatist movement. The participants at the meet avowed that the separatist movement "will continue till its logical conclusion and nobody will be allowed to exploit the sacred blood of martyrs," statement said. On Saturday, a video of Salahuddin surfaced on the internet where he appeared distraught by the killing of Naikoo and his aides. Speaking in Urdu with a Kashmiri accent, he was heard saying, "It's a shock for all of us but these 'shahadats' (sacrifices) are going on in Kashmir since long. Since January this year, 80 mujahideens have given their 'shahadat' and all of them were highly educated and trained." However he acknowledged that it was a lost cause for Hizbul Mujahideen, saying, "Mujahideen also broke the back of enemy (security forces) in Handwara, Rajwar recently but the enemy (India) has the upper edge." Boris Johnson tonight vowed to 'reverse rapidly' the coronavirus outbreaks raging in Britain's care homes. In his address to the nation this evening, the Prime Minister said there is 'much more work to be done' in tackling the 'awful epidemics' in both care homes and in the NHS. The virus has devastated homes for the elderly, with experts warning cases are pushing up the UK's average rate of infection, or R, and are providing one of the biggest barriers to lifting the lockdown. One of the aims of the lockdown was to lower the R to below one. It is believed to be between 0.5 and 0.9 at the moment, though there are fears the care home epidemic could push it back to one. The government has come under increasing pressure for its handling of the care home crisis, which has cost the lives of thousands of elderly residents, with ONS data suggesting as many as 6,000 had died from the virus. It estimates that one in five of all UK coronavirus casualties have been in care homes. In his speech tonight, the Prime Minister acknowledged the horrific impact of the virus on care homes and said: 'We must reverse rapidly the awful epidemics in care homes and in the NHS, and though the numbers are coming down sharply now, there is plainly much more to be done.' Boris Johnson said tonight that more needs to be done to reverse the coronavirus outbreak in care homes The virus has ravaged care homes in the UK, with thousands of residents thought to have died. Pictured is the Care UK Oak House care home in Slough Mr Johnson added that increased testing will help to tackle the outbreaks in both settings. He said: 'If we are to control this virus, then we must have a world-beating system for testing potential victims, and for tracing their contacts. 'So that all told - we are testing literally hundreds of thousands of people every day. 'We have made fast progress on testing but there is so much more to do now, and we can.' He added: 'We have the R below one, between 0.5 and 0.9 but potentially only just below one. 'With ever increasing data, we will be monitoring the R and the number of new infections, and the progress we are making, and if we as a nation begin to fulfil the conditions I have set out, then in the next few weeks and months we may be able to go further [in easing lockdown].' Responding to the address, the general secretary of Unison, Dave Prentis, warned: 'If safety isn't paramount, then infections will increase and there'll be a second wave that risks overwhelming the NHS and social care.' He says many health, care and other key workers use trains, buses and the Tube to get to work, saying their safety 'must not be compromised by crowded public transport'. And he says the government 'must ensure the NHS and the care sector have guaranteed supplies of protective equipment and there's a comprehensive test, track and trace programme in place before any mass return to work'. Dr Ron Daniels, an intensive care consultant based in Birmingham, said: 'The reality is that the effect of a second wave is just so unknown that it is too risky in most health professionals' view to relax lockdown right now. 'We would like to see our capacity in NHS hospitals back down to below usual levels before we can safely do that.' 'Do we have enough beds to cope with a second wave if lockdown is relaxed too much? Absolutely not. We're still over our usual capacity.' 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 A worker at Newfield Nursing Home in Sheffield tenderly holding hands with an elderly resident Jack Dodsley He added: 'The relative impact of any second wave all depends on how many members of our public have already been exposed to this novel coronavirus. Of course, we don't know. 'It may be, as some optimistic estimates suggest, as high as 60-80% of the public who have been exposed. That would mean that a lot of people had had exposure to (the virus) and not developed symptoms and just gone about their lives as normal. 'But the more pessimistic, the more wary estimates, suggest that somewhere under 10% of our population have been exposed. 'If that's true, then we expect the second wave - if lockdown is relaxed too quickly and too aggressively - could even be bigger than the first.' The Prime Minister said the government 'will not hesitate to put on the brakes' if the virus starts to spread widely again. Sir Keir Starmer told Sky News that the Labour Party had pushed the Government to 'speed up' its response to the pandemic. He added: 'We pushed the Government on lockdown, we pushed them on testing, we pushed them on PPE. 'Now we pushed and challenged with the purpose, which was to try to get them to speed up. 'And I said that under my leadership we're not out to score party political points. 'So it was to get them to speed up and to ramp up.' Earlier this week, workers claimed that care homes are still struggling to get enough PPE despite the deaths of nearly 6,000 residents. 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. The UK's current rate of infection, or R. The care homes epidemic is believed to be pushing the UK's R rate up The five tests that need to be met for coronavirus lockdown restrictions to be relaxed in the UK 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. The ONS bulletin, released weekly, showed last week 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. 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. Officials have previously warned that levels of coronavirus infection are likely to be at least five times higher among hospital and care home staff than in the wider population. They are 'particularly worried' about healthcare workers picking up the disease and spreading it among the wider community or to other patients. Ministers have been told they need to 'get on top' of this urgently before the lockdown can be lifted. Earlier, hospitals were accused of trying to 'emotionally blackmail' care homes into taking back coronavirus patients by leaving them by the gates. Paramedics were said to have left pensioners at their homes in the early morning with no staff around. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has been told that several hospitals returned people despite suspecting or even knowing they were infected (pictured: Clinical staff care for a patient with coronavirus) A care home boss in the north of England told the Sunday Mirror: 'The hospitals call and say that the residents are positive but just want to go back to their homes. 'We stand firm but it feels like emotional blackmail.' It comes following revelations that hospitals may have broken the law by sending patients with coronavirus back to care homes without telling their managers they had the virus. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has been told that several hospitals returned people despite suspecting or even knowing they were infected. These patients triggered outbreaks in homes, claiming the lives of other vulnerable residents. Care home outbreaks 'leaking' out to public Coronavirus outbreaks in care homes are now 'leaking' back into the community and driving the epidemic, Government advisers have said. Experts say widespread cases in care homes are pushing up the UK's average transmission rate and are providing one of the biggest barriers to lifting the lockdown. The stark warning highlights how the failure to protect Britain's care homes from the virus has not only cost the lives of thousands of elderly residents, but has also had devastating consequences for the entire population. Senior officials have warned that levels of coronavirus infection are likely to be at least five times higher among hospital and care home staff than in the wider population. They are 'particularly worried' about healthcare workers picking up the disease and spreading it among the wider community or to other patients. Ministers have been told they need to 'get on top' of this urgently before the lockdown can be lifted. Advertisement Rachel Beckett, of Wellburn Care Homes, said: 'Hospitals have told us we were breaking the law by not taking positive patients, which is not the case.' She said one resident at one of Wellburn's 14 homes in the north went to hospital and tested positive - but was sent back still showing symptoms. Ms Beckett said the home would not admit her until she was negative but paramedics 'put pressure' on staff 'to the point where they were becoming emotional'. She added that relatives of the women were very upset, and the home eventually admitted her but she was still positive one week later. Ms Beckett said that in another incident a resident was sent back at 3am 'because there was nobody to say no'. The CQC is investigating after being informed by care home managers that hospitals discharged patients into their premises without telling them they had the disease. Kate Terroni, the watchdog's chief inspector of adult social care, said: 'We have heard of a few incidents where this has happened and it has resulted in infections spreading to other residents in the care home. 'In cases where it looks like the information wasn't disclosed by the hospital, we are looking at whether the hospital breached their regulations and whether we can take action. It's an issue we take really seriously.' The CQC enforces a series of regulations, enshrined in law, that health and adult social care services in England must comply with. Breaching some of these rules is a criminal offence and the watchdog can bring prosecutions. The CQC is also investigating whether care home residents have died from noncoronavirus conditions due to a lack of visits from GPs. Chief executive of Care England, Professor Martin Green, said hospitals are discharging people at night because there will not be senior staff there to resist it. Coronavirus cases and deaths in hospitals have continued to gradually decline, with today's death toll standing at 269, the lowest for six weeks. However, the weekend always sees a drop in daily deaths, with 626 recorded on Thursday. 'So we can go to work but can't see our family?' Furious Britons hit out at Boris Johnson after PM urged nation to 'go back to work' but asked them to maintain social distancing with people outside their household Prime Minister Boris Johnson has come under fire after he urged the nation to return to work this evening - but also asked people to maintain social distancing and only interact with people in their own households. The conflicting advice has led to fury online, with devastated Britons questioning why they are expected to mix with work colleagues while avoiding close family and friends. The Prime Minister also urged people to avoid public transportation, alongside the order to return to work. Piers Morgan led the criticism, posting on social media: 'So, the Prime Minister is urging millions of non-essential workers to go out to work - but also telling people we still can't see family or friends even if we maintain the same social distancing rules as non-essential workers at work? 'Makes no sense. I can drive 100s of miles to sunbathe alongside complete strangers on a beach, maintaining 2m distance - but not see my parents? This is ridiculous. 'I haven't seen two of my sons for 10 weeks. They live 10 minutes away, next to a large common. Am I allowed to go and see them, if I stay 2 metres away? The answer appears to be no, yet I can see 1000s of strangers a day in my local park if I stay 2m away 'Do I have to get my sons & myself temporary jobs on a building site so I can see them?' A father wrote: 'So I can't see family, I can teach a class of kids but distanced, I can't send my son to nursery as it's closed and he can't go to his grandparents but it's okay, I can play sport with him!' One person added: 'Can't see my boyfriend, friends or family yet but I can go to work but I shouldn't take public transport to get there ?? Ok Boris.' A second said: 'So nothing is mentioned about friends and family again?! And he wonders why people are not sticking to lockdown. 'Jesus throw us a bone over here. Almost 2 months!!! While a third wrote: 'Boris Johnson, so one thing you didn't mention.. When can we see our family again? We can go and chill in the park, sit on benches in the sun and some can go to work.. but we can't see our loved ones?' FREETOWN (Reuters) - Sierra Leone's president Julius Maada Bio has accused the main opposition party of orchestrating a spate of violent incidents, deepening a political standoff that risks undermining the country's efforts to contain a coronavirus outbreak. At least 18 people have died in three riots in separate parts of the country in recent weeks, including a disturbance at Freetown's central prison on April 29 which started after an inmate tested positive for the virus. In a televised address, Bio claimed members of the All People's Congress (APC) party were behind the violence. FREETOWN (Reuters) - Sierra Leone's president Julius Maada Bio has accused the main opposition party of orchestrating a spate of violent incidents, deepening a political standoff that risks undermining the country's efforts to contain a coronavirus outbreak. At least 18 people have died in three riots in separate parts of the country in recent weeks, including a disturbance at Freetown's central prison on April 29 which started after an inmate tested positive for the virus. In a televised address, Bio claimed members of the All People's Congress (APC) party were behind the violence. "These attacks are therefore premeditated, orchestrated, and executed with a clear objective to make the state ungovernable," he said in the unscheduled broadcast on Friday. The APC has denied the accusations. "It is shocking, the claims the president is making," party spokesman Sidi Yayah Tunis said. Last week, the United Nations called on the authorities and all political parties to work together to avoid distracting from the fight against the virus, which has so far infected 291 people and killed 17. Since then, two prominent opposition members have been detained without charge. Amnesty International and local rights groups have called for their immediate release. Without referring to specific incidents, Bio said any recent arrests were not politically motivated, but linked to investigations into the violence. The authorities will take further steps to protect security and rule of law, he said, without giving further details. As part of the country's response to the health crisis, courts have been closed and those considered to be serious offenders can be held without bail, the chief justice ruled last month. The APC and Bio's Sierra Leone Peoples Party are long-time foes. After beating an APC candidate to the presidency in 2018, Bio launched a crackdown on alleged graft that has resulted in several former APC ministers being imprisoned. (Reporting by Cooper Inveen; Editing by Mike Harrison) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Today we'll look at Ansell Limited (ASX:ANN) and reflect on its potential as an investment. In particular, we'll consider its Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), as that can give us insight into how profitably the company is able to employ capital in its business. First of all, we'll work out how to calculate ROCE. Second, we'll look at its ROCE compared to similar companies. Then we'll determine how its current liabilities are affecting its ROCE. What is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)? ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. Generally speaking a higher ROCE is better. In brief, it is a useful tool, but it is not without drawbacks. Renowned investment researcher Michael Mauboussin has suggested that a high ROCE can indicate that 'one dollar invested in the company generates value of more than one dollar'. So, How Do We Calculate ROCE? The formula for calculating the return on capital employed is: Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) (Total Assets - Current Liabilities) Or for Ansell: 0.099 = US$208m (US$2.4b - US$335m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2019.) So, Ansell has an ROCE of 9.9%. Check out our latest analysis for Ansell Does Ansell Have A Good ROCE? ROCE is commonly used for comparing the performance of similar businesses. We can see Ansell's ROCE is around the 11% average reported by the Medical Equipment industry. Separate from Ansell's performance relative to its industry, its ROCE in absolute terms looks satisfactory, and it may be worth researching in more depth. The image below shows how Ansell's ROCE compares to its industry, and you can click it to see more detail on its past growth. ASX:ANN Past Revenue and Net Income May 9th 2020 It is important to remember that ROCE shows past performance, and is not necessarily predictive. Companies in cyclical industries can be difficult to understand using ROCE, as returns typically look high during boom times, and low during busts. This is because ROCE only looks at one year, instead of considering returns across a whole cycle. Future performance is what matters, and you can see analyst predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company. Story continues Ansell's Current Liabilities And Their Impact On Its ROCE Current liabilities are short term bills and invoices that need to be paid in 12 months or less. Due to the way ROCE is calculated, a high level of current liabilities makes a company look as though it has less capital employed, and thus can (sometimes unfairly) boost the ROCE. To counter this, investors can check if a company has high current liabilities relative to total assets. Ansell has current liabilities of US$335m and total assets of US$2.4b. Therefore its current liabilities are equivalent to approximately 14% of its total assets. A fairly low level of current liabilities is not influencing the ROCE too much. What We Can Learn From Ansell's ROCE Overall, Ansell has a decent ROCE and could be worthy of further research. There might be better investments than Ansell out there, but you will have to work hard to find them . These promising businesses with rapidly growing earnings might be right up your alley. If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them). 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 love for their children is this big," the President of the Council of Ministers wrote on social networks. In this regard, Zeballos urged the population to fulfill their mothers' wishes and to take care of themselves. "We may not be able to physically be with our mothers, but we can hug them with our words, and remind them how important they are to us," he expressed. Hoy, el mejor regalo para nuestra madre es saber que estamos bien, porque asi de grande es el amor por sus hijos. Cumplamos su deseo y cuidemonos. No estaremos fisicamente pero podemos abrazarla con palabras, recordandole lo importante que es para nosotros. Feliz #DiaDeLaMadre Microsofts purchase of the video game giant behind Candy Crush Saga shows how gaming has become a kind of social platform. (EPA-EFE/Shutterstock) Games arent just where kids go to unwind anymore. Theyre where kids go to hang out. Opposition Congress on Sunday hit out at the recently announced crop diversification scheme by the M L Khattar government, saying there was a conspiracy to eventually stop the procurement of paddy at Minimum Support Price (MSP) by discouraging a large number of farmers from cultivating the crop. Under the new autocratic order and scheme brought out by Khattar government, they now want farmers in eight different blocks which have been identified and 19 blocks in total to not cultivate paddy at all and punish the farmers by denying them MSP for paddy in case they still choose to grow this crop, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said. They also want to deny farmers in 26 other blocks the right to grow paddy on Panchayati land. This is despite the fact that state government's another (crop diversification scheme) 'Jal hi Jeevan Hai' scheme, launched last year, was surreptitiously closed and put under the table, he added. Surjewala addressed a joint press conference with Haryana Congress president Kumari Selja through video conferencing. The Haryana government had on Wednesday announced Rs 7,000 per acre incentive to farmers for switching from water-guzzling paddy to other crops and said permission to sow paddy will not be given in panchayat areas where the ground water depth is more than 35 metres. The Congress leader asked if punishing the farmers by denying them MSP for paddy in case they continue to grow it in these blocks was the way forward. By doing so, aren't the farmers lives and livelihood being endangered by this government What is the guarantee of success of this new scheme when their Jal Hi Jeevan Hai' scheme failed? both Surjewala and Selja asked. Surjewala said under the 'Jal Hi Jeevan Hai' scheme, seven blocks in the state including Assandh, Pundri, Radaur and Ganaur were identified in which crop pattern over 1.37 lakh acres was to be shifted from paddy to other crops including maize. He said farmers were promised incentive of Rs 2,000 per acre, free hybrid seeds and payment of crop insurance premium, but the scheme failed and peasants were left high and dry. Now, with this latest scheme, the government is again experimenting with the lives and livelihood of farmers in 19 new blocks, two of which fall in Kaithal district, four in Kurukshetra and one each in Fatehabad and Sirsa. Besides, there are 11 more blocks whose names have not been announced so far, he said. In addition, there are 26 blocks, largely of northern Haryana, where farmers do their cultivation on Panchayat land by taking it on lease have been prohibited from cultivating paddy. All this points out to a complete and inept government solely directing its schemes at eventually stopping the procurement of paddy at MSP, that is the main conspiracy behind it, he claimed. He said Congress is not saying that crop diversification should not be done, but how can farmers be deprived of right to till their land to sow the crop of choice. Under the Mera Pani Meri Virasat' scheme, the farmers have to diversify at least 50 per cent of their cultivated paddy area by growing alternate crops like maize, cotton, bajra and pulses in those 19 blocks where ground water level has depleted to 40 meters. For these blocks, farmers will not be permitted to cultivate paddy in any new areas where paddy was grown during last year and they will be given incentive of Rs 7,000 per acre to switch over to other crops. Besides, in agriculture lands of Gram Panchayats in 26 blocks where ground water level has depleted to 35 meters, the Panchayat will not permit paddy growing in their lands. Surjewala said that with these orders, farmers will not be able to sow paddy in the 19 blocks spread across 2.30 lakh acres of land. He said that the previous Congress government had constructed Rs 400 crore Dadupur Nalvi canal, which would have proved to be a boon, especially to northern parts of Haryana by helping in water recharging, but the BJP led dispensation scrapped the project. On one hand this government gives plea of water conservation, on the other hand they take decisions like scrapping the canal project which was to help raise water level, Surjewala said. Secondly, they have adopted stoic silence on SYL canal issue and despite court ruling in Haryana's favour, no effort is being made by the government to ensure the state gets its due share, said Surjewala. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) COLUMBIA With less than a month to go until South Carolina's June 9 primaries, election officials around the state are stocking up on protective gear, training a dwindling group of poll workers on how to properly sanitize voting locations and bracing for the possibility of both longer lines and later results than usual. Some counties are hundreds of poll workers short of the amount they would need to have all of their voting locations fully staffed, prompting Gov. Henry McMaster to offer potentially mobilizing the S.C. State Guard to help fill some of the vacancies while counties launch last-minute recruiting efforts. Even if enough workers sign up, some previous polling locations like senior living centers and some churches do not want to be used this year due to the virus, meaning election officials either need to find other locations in the precincts or consolidate them, which could lead to even longer lines. Meanwhile, state election officials are working to distribute gloves, masks, cleaning materials and cotton swabs for use on the touch screens to make sure that both poll workers and voters minimize risk on election day. Among other measures, election officials are planning to ask voters to hold up their IDs for verification rather than handing them to the poll workers, wiping down the voting machines after each use and sanitizing pens for the sign-in sheets if voters do not bring their own. The state has added an extra COVID-19 training video to the ordinary poll manager training process that workers need to go through before election day, which explains how to maintain social distancing in the polling locations and keep all materials sanitized. "We want it to be as safe as possible, and the mantra we've been telling the workers and voters is bear with us," said Dorchester County Elections Director Todd Billman. "This may, depending on turnout, take a little bit longer than usual," he added. "Our number one objective is always to make sure people can vote, but safety has to take precedence, so sometimes things go a little bit slower than we would like." Hovering over all the preparations are several lingering uncertainties. Multiple lawsuits are pending that could expand voter access to absentee ballots, and the state Legislature is reconvening in Columbia on May 12, when they could potentially offer some additional funding or legal fixes to make the process go smoother. Earlier this year, the S.C. Senate unanimously approved a bill that would extend by one day the amount of time poll managers have to open mailed ballots, allowing them to begin opening them at 9 a.m. the day before the election. But the bill, overwhelmingly supported by election officials who say it would give them a valuable head start, is now sitting in the House Judiciary Committee, and it appears unlikely that it will be able to get through the legislative process in time for the primaries. The change could be even more important now than when election officials first requested it because the number of absentee ballots submitted is expected to be much higher than usual. Already, with weeks left until the deadline, Charleston County has received triple the number of returned absentee ballots that they got for the entire June 2016 primaries. "That's a lot of mail to go through in less than 12 hours, and I don't think people really realize the time it takes," Cramer said. The state Election Commission received $6.3 million from the federal government after one of the coronavirus relief packages passed through Congress. But those funds are for the entire election year, meaning the commission needs to preserve some of it for November general elections that will likely be even more burdensome. State lawmakers planned to kick in an extra $15 million when they met last month, but negotiations over that funding bill broke down due to an unrelated dispute over state-owned utility Santee Cooper. That money could still come as soon as next week when the Legislature reconvenes. The federal funds are already being put to use though. The state election commission has boosted pay for poll managers who work the June primary by $30, bringing the total up to $165. If the managers also work the runoff elections on June 23, they will receive a total of $45 above the typical base pay. Charleston County election officials reached out to about 1,100 people who had worked the polls in previous elections, according to project officer Isaac Cramer. Of those, 476 expressed interest in working the June primaries, 193 declined and the rest have yet to respond. In Richland County, the situation is more dire. Interim director Terry Graham said they hoped to have 900 to 1,000 poll workers for the primaries but have only around 400 signed up. "We are well below what we need," Graham said. "Hopefully these COVID numbers start leveling off and people get more comfortable and willing to work." Others say they are still in relatively good shape considering. "We've not hit a panic button yet, and I hope we don't have to," said Greenville County Elections Director Conway Belangia. "We will cross that bridge in the next two weeks or so, but right now we're moving judiciously ahead." S.C. Elections Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire said the federal funds have also gone towards buying more protective gear and cleaning materials, high-speed scanners for the mail-in ballots, carts for curbside voting and the additional costs incurred by higher-than-usual absentee voting, like printing and postage. Over the final few weeks before the primary, Whitmire said they would work with the governor's office and the counties to make sure they have the equipment they need and to try to fill the poll worker vacancies. "We're asking everybody to be patient," Whitmire said. "We're all in this together." You are here: Business China's banking regulator on Saturday announced an investigation into China CITIC Bank for the leakage of confidential client information. In March 2020, the bank provided transaction details of a personal bank account to a third party without the authorization of the client, the customer protection bureau under the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) said in an online statement. The bank has failed to fulfill its confidentiality duty to depositors and is suspected of violating the legitimate interests of customer, said the CBIRC. The bureau will initiate the investigation procedures in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, the statement said. Earlier this week, a Chinese stand-up comedian accused China CITIC Bank of disclosing transaction information of his personal account. / Lawmaker's Response to Musk Is Brief and to the Point Some point out that it's harder to dismiss the jobs Tesla provides Under the Vande Bharat Mission, Hyderabad international airport on May 9 facilitated the first arrival evacuation flight from Kuwait. Landed at 10:07 pm from Kuwait, the flight was carrying about 163 Indian citizens. Government of Indias Vande Bharat Mission, the biggest-ever evacuation drive of Indian citizens stranded across the globe amid the COVID-19 lockdown has taken off in a big way. Contributing towards this national cause, GMR-led Hyderabad International Airport handled the first arrival evacuation flight from Kuwait on 9th May. The national carrier Air India flight AI 988 from Kuwait landed at the airport on 9th May at 10.07 PM with 163 Indian citizens. To facilitate the arriving passengers and aircraft crew, the Hyderabad International Airport kept the international arrivals and the entire stretch right from the aerobridge to the arrivals ramp fully sanitised and fumigated. This included sanitisation of every nook & corner of building and public areas including washrooms, chairs, counters, trolleys, railings, doors, lifts, escalators etc. The airport also ensured social distancing among passengers right from the aerobridge to across the terminal. All arriving passengers and aircraft crew were brought out from the aircraft in a batch of 20-25 passengers. Each passenger was screened by thermal cameras positioned at the aerobridge exit by Airport Health officials, as per the directives of MoHFW (Ministry of Health & Family Welfare) prior to Immigration formalities. Also Read: Clash between Indian, Chinese troops in North Sikkim, both sides suffer minor injuries Also Read: After health ministry, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal says weve to learn to live with coronavirus After the health screening of passengers, CISF personnel, in their protective gears, escorted the group of passengers to immigration clearance. Glass shields were provided at each manned immigration counter to avoid any personal contact between the passengers and Immigration officers. Each counter had specified social distancing norms in place. The concerned Airline, their ground handling staff and airport personnel were available to guide the passengers and to enforce the social distancing norms. Every baggage was sanitised by the disinfection tunnel integrated to the baggage belt as arranged by the airport. The baggage trolleys were kept fully sanitised for passengers use. The passengers were also provided seating arrangement with complimentary boxes of food. As per the governments norm, the passengers were taken for mandatory 14 day quarantine at the designated locations in the city. After the exit of all passengers, entire processing area at the international arrivals and ancillary zones were again fumigated, disinfected and sanitised and kept ready for next set flights in subsequent days. Also Read: Maharashtra Police says 7 deaths, 786 personnel test positive for COVID-19 For all the latest National News, download NewsX App A total of 786 Maharashtra Police personnel have tested positive for Covid-19 till Sunday including 76 personnel who recovered from the disease and seven others who succumbed to the pandemic. Out of the total personnel, 698 are constables and 88 officers. Out of the 786 cases, 379 cases or more than 48% cases and four deaths are from Mumbai Police. 56 FIRs on Saturday for lockdown violations The Mumbai Police on Saturday registered 56 FIRs over lockdown violations against 138 people and arrested 69 violators. A majority of the cases were reported from the central region which recorded 21 FIRs followed by the western region with 16 FIRs. In all, 20 FIRs were against illegal use of vehicles, 19 for gathering and 14 for not wearing masks. 2,004 FIRs for not wearing masks A total of 2,004 FIRs have been booked in the city for not wearing masks since the beginning of the lockdown till Sunday. Overall, 6,012 FIRs have been registered against 11,442 people and 7,007 have been arrests. A maximum of 3,908 FIRs are for gathering in public places. 28,979 auto drivers booked The citys traffic police have so far booked 28,979 autorickshaw drivers and collected a fine of 1 crore from them since April 1. About 1,034 of these vehicles were fined because they were caught transporting vegetables or other goods. Another 27,945 autorickshaws were fined for plying passengers in suburbs. 366 Covid-related cybercrimes in state The Maharashtra Police registered 366 cases including 16 non-cognisable complaints against Covid-19 related hate speech, fake news and other cybercrimes in which 198 people have been arrested during the lockdown till Sunday. A majority of 35 cases are from Beed followed by 29 cases in Pune rural, 26 in Jalgaon and 21 in Mumbai while remaining districts have registered less than 20 cases, said Balsing Rajput, SP, Maharashtra Cyber. Rajput added, We have pulled down 102 controversial posts from social media. 2,405 migrants leave for home In a coordinated effort with other government departments, the Sakinaka police on Sunday sent back 1,196 migrant labourers to Lucknow in a special train. Ankit Goyal DCP zone 10 confirmed the development. The labourers were taken to the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) in buses. The train left around 1.45 PM. Another 1,209 stranded migrants, mostly labourers, were sent to Bihar from Jogeshwari and Meghwadi. A list was prepared by Meghwadi and Jogeshwari police and they were sent in a special train from LTT around 4.25 pm. Man booked for taking morning walk The Bandra police on Saturday booked a 23-year-old Parel resident, Siddhant Chavhan, for taking a morning walk at St Andrews Road, Bandra (West) after receiving a tip-off from an alert citizen. It was not clear how he travelled from Parel to Bandra. (Inputs from Suraj Ojha) The Dutch government is all set to ease their coronavirus containment measures, allowing primary school children to go back to school part-time starting May 11. According to a Reuters report, staff in Springplank school in the Dutch city of Den Bosch, have installed plastic shields around students desks and disinfectant gel dispensers at the doorways as part of post lockdown preparations. Reuters New infections in the Netherlands have been declining for weeks and the government announced a schedule to relax some of its lockdown measures on Wednesday, with elementary schools to reopen on May 11. Our teachers are not worried, said Rascha van der Sluijs, the schools technical coordinator told Reuters. We have flexible screens that we bought so we can protect our teachers if students are coughing," she added. Reuters Many schools including the Springplank have remained open with skeleton staff for a handful of students whose parents work in essential sectors. Most of these pupils whose parents work in sectors such as healthcare have been taking classes online. Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, announced that primary schools would reopen in the Netherlands on 11 May. The countrys infectious disease control institute found that the risk of infection from opening schools was manageable, reports The Guardian. Reuters Prime Minister Mark Rutte said, "To start, children in primary schools will attend school half of the time. 'For example, one day one half of the pupils, the other day the other half. The starting date for all schools and daycares is 11 May." Reuters Each district is setting its own policies for reopening, with many planning to accept students only on alternate days. At some schools, the teachers will wear medical masks. As of Friday, there have been 42,093 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the Netherlands, with 5,359 deaths, according to data from the National Institute for Health. Of those, 1.3% of infections and one death were registered among people under 20 years old. Savvy shoppers are using an app that tracks supermarket websites to jump their way to the start of the queue to avoid waiting weeks for a delivery slot. Almost 2000 Brits have signed up to Visualping, which was developed by engineers in Canada, to get alerts when Tesco, Ocado, Morrisons and Waitrose update their delivery times. The coronavirus pandemic has lead to a huge increase in online grocery orders as millions avoid travelling to the supermarket for fear of catching the deadly disease. Savvy shoppers are using an app that tracks supermarket websites to jump their way to the start of the queue to avoid waiting weeks for a delivery slot. Pictured: A delivery driver for Ocado online supermarket delivers a shopping order in Ironbridge, Shropshire Long queues and stripped shelves at supermarkets has also caused a rise in the public shopping at wholesalers as people wait weeks on end to get a delivery shop. More than 1200 Brits are using Visualping to track orders at Tesco, while a further 427 are tracking Ocado's website and 92 keep tabs on Waitrose, according to the Telegraph. Serge Salager, the chief executive of Visualping, told the newspaper that 1,737 UK shoppers are 'taking advantage of automation'. To cope with unprecedented demand, supermarkets are releasing delivery slots for as little as two hours a day, Visualping analysis showed. Almost 2000 Brits have signed up to Visualping, which was developed by engineers in Canada, to get alerts when Tesco, Ocado, Morrisons and Waitrose update their delivery times. Pictured: Shoppers queue using safe distance measures at Waitrose supermarket on April 22, 2020 in Rushden And while lockdown boredom has turned the UK into a nation of amateur bakers, many have struggled to get their hands on flour. As a result, more than 700 Brits have signed up to Visualping to monitor Shipton Mill, which produces flour for the nation's bakeries. Mike Smith, a chef using the site to monitor Shipton Mill, added to the Telegraph: 'I am a chef and out of work, but trying to bake bread for my neighbours, friends and family, for something to do and also just to help people in this crisis. 'So I have been trying to buy bread flour, which is hard to find. I used Visualping to automate checks for when a delivery slot would be available.' Ashwini M Sripad By Express News Service BENGALURU: Madanayakanahalli police inspector KP Sathyanarayan sang the National Anthem to soothe angry workers, and his act is winning the internet. Bengaluru cop sings the National Anthem and calms down enraged migrant workers crowd demanding they be sent home.@XpressBengaluru @AshwiniMS_TNIE READ: https://t.co/04tEuWK0Jc pic.twitter.com/OtUuwuUCoY The New Indian Express (@NewIndianXpress) May 9, 2020 Two days ago, migrant workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh landed outside the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) on Tumakuru Road, demanding they be sent home. Soon, there was a buzz that the government was not arranging for trains even though many had registered on Seva Sindhu portal. They were angry, they started assaulting the police. When I started singing the National Anthem the crowd too started singing. After a few minutes, there was peace. When people were no longer agitated, I explained the features of Seva Sindhu to them and they listened, he added. UN: Syria Armed Groups Use Global Focus on COVID to Escalate Fighting By Lisa Schlein May 09, 2020 The U.N.'s top human rights official is warning that armed groups in Syria are using the global focus on COVID-19 to regroup and escalate fighting in the country. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet calls the upsurge in fighting a ticking time-bomb that must not be ignored. She says targeted killings and bombings are taking place throughout the country, many in populated areas, putting civilian lives at risk. The U.N. human rights office reports nearly all of the attacks have occurred in northern and eastern parts of the country under the control of Turkish forces and their allies or of the opposing Kurdish-led Democratic Forces. It says scores of civilians have been killed from improvised explosive devices since March. The High Commissioner's spokesperson, Rupert Colville, says the world's fixation on the coronavirus pandemic has diverted attention away from Syria's long-running civil war. This, he said has encouraged various armed groups, including the Islamic State, to regroup and inflict violence on the population. He told VOA it is hard to know how or why the Islamic State group, which purportedly had been defeated, is re-emerging. "But they are now clearly coming out and claiming responsibility for some attacks and may have been responsible for other attacks before that They appear to be active at least in a number of areas in the country To what extent and how organized they are and how capable they are in continuing to expand their operations is not clear. But they are there and they are acting again," Colville said. Syria's nearly decade-long civil conflict reportedly has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced nearly 12 million as refugees in neighboring countries or within Syria itself. U.N. Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has called for a global cease-fire. High Commissioner Bachelet echoed this call and says Syria's various armed groups must do so, as well. She warned the country risks entering another spiral of extreme and widespread violence if current violations and abuses continue to spread and escalate. She urged Syria's combatants to end this ongoing mayhem and to give peace a chance. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 Senior Congress leader and former Defence Minister A K Antony on Sunday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene immediately to prevent starvation deaths in the country in the wake of the nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Noting that the situation on the ground was "very difficult", the Congress leader said it was high time the prime minister announced a relief package for the poor and a financial stimulus for the economy. "The situation is very difficult. The prime minister must intervene immediately. Otherwise, there would be deaths due to hunger and starvation," Antony told PTI. He also urged the prime minister to take care of the problems of the migrant labourers, the poor and vulnerable sections of society and provide them with a relief package that includes food and cash. He also demanded an economic stimulus package for reviving the country's economy and putting it back on rails. "It is high time the prime minister should intervene and come out with a relief package for the poor people and an economic stimulus package for the industry," he said. Seeking early action on this front, the former defence minister felt the economic activity in the country was totally shut due to the lockdown and if timely steps are not taken it could be too late. "Otherwise, there will be a total economic crisis in the country," he felt. Antony also wrote to the prime minister expressing concern over the serious situation in the country and saying that unless there is immediate government intervention, there would be many deaths because of hunger and starvation. "These deaths would outnumber the casualties because of COVID-19. This is a tragedy that should be avoided at all costs," he told the prime minister. He also said that as seen across the world, if unchecked, this virus could bring the entire healthcare system to its knees, and cause innumerable loss of lives. The Congress veteran said though he supported the lockdown earlier, the restrictions are creating economic woes that are being compounded on a daily basis. "Therefore, this difficult period requires the government to provide a steady financial helping hand to our citizens," he said. He said Indians, most of them young are already in extreme financial as well as mental duress because of the deteriorating economic situation and the resultant closure of any fresh employment opportunities. Income and wages of crores of our citizens including our farmers, daily wage workers and those in other informal sectors who together make up over 80 pc of India's workforce, as well as our enterprises starting from the SMEs are seeing significant fall during these distress times, he said. Antony also felt that crores of migrant workers who are moving back from their workplace to their native villages will struggle for employment opportunities in their home localities with limited economic activities. "The first financial package that was announced by the finance minister did provide partial relief, but the current circumstances demand a far more comprehensive and substantial economic relief and stimulus package at both an individual as well as institutional level at the earliest," the former defence minister told the prime minister in his letter. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) - The coalition agreement will allow KANU legislators to attend Jubilee Party's Parliamentary Group - Raphael Tuju said the two parties formalised their long-standing relationship and further deposited the agreement to the Registrar of Political Parties - This came hours after President Uhuru called for a Jubilee PG meeting at State House Jubilee Party and Kenya African National Union (KANU) have signed a post-poll deal allowing the Gideon Moi led party to sit attend Jubilee's Parliamentary Group Meetings. The ruling party's secretary-general Raphael Tuju confirmed this development hours after President Uhuru Kenyatta called for a PG meeting. READ ALSO: Kipchumba Murkomen turns to God amid looming changes on the Senate Majority seat Raphael Tuju said Jubilee had entered into a coalition agreement with KANU. Photo: Raphael Tuju. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Kisii: Woman captured on CCTV stealing 7-month-old baby arrested in Nyamira According to Daily Nation, Tuju said though the two parties had a pre-election agreement, it had not been deposited with the Registrar of Political Parties. "To avoid any challenge of ambiguity, the two parties have chosen the path of a post-election agreement to formalise the relationship they already have," The SG said. READ ALSO: My wife chose alcohol over our children - Nairobi man narrates The agreement, which was deposited to the registrar on May 8, will give KANU legislators power of attending Jubilee's PG meetings. Jubilee's SG and his KANU counterpart Nick Salat signed the coalition agreement. This unfolded on the eve of a Jubilee Parliamentary Group Meeting which is set to take place at State House on Monday, May 11. This will be the first meeting of the strongly divided Jubilee legislators since the re-election of Uhuru and Ruto into office in 2017. 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. Eastleigh residents' plea to Uhuru | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke An app that will revolutionize the way Standardbred horses are sold online is now available on both iOS and Android devices. Available today, the app HoofBid offers buyers and sellers of Standardbred horses an unmatched digital experience leveraging the latest technology at a price that is affordable for anyone to sell or buy. HoofBid brings unique features for the Standardbred horse industry: Integrated data search from Standardbred Canada. Create your horse listing with data supplied by Standardbred Canada search for your horse and have data automatically populated so you know you have accurate information. Sunday Night Auctions. No longer are you going to have to try and remember when an auction ends on a horse. We do auctions once a week Sunday Night at 7:00 p.m. eastern time. Entries will be released on Friday so you will be able to track horses that interest you watch them race over the weekend and then buy them on Sunday night. We use the latest technology to link race videos right into the app. Add your horses win from The Meadowlands (racetracks from US and Canada are being added everyday) with the date and race number you can add the video to your listings in seconds. Our app provides an integrated partnership with Standardbred Canadas TrackIT web-based service that allows users to get lifetime past performance lines and live up-to-date pedigree information. HoofBid is offered in the United States and Canada in both the App Store and Google Play at no cost to download. Two types of listings will be offered to Hoofbid registered users: Regular Listings. These listings will be priced at a flat fee of $99 and includes lifetime racelines and live up-to-date pedigree data, photos and owners comments. Sunday Night Auction Listings. The cost for an auction listing is $99 and 2.00% of the final bid amount. If there are no bids placed, 2.00% will charged on the starting bid amount. Upgrades offered include: Featured Listings. Featured listings will showcase your listings for app users. This will be offered to sellers for $29.99. Race Videos. Race videos offer buyers the opportunity to see the horse in action. You are able to choose a video from one of the 19 tracks currently offered (with more added every day). Race videos are available from tracks like The Meadowlands, Woodbine, and Harrahs Philadelphia and more. Race videos will be offered at an introductory price of just $.99. Yes, under $1. Newsletter signup. Allows users to sign up for our email newsletter at no cost. The first version of Hoofbid app is being released by Hoofbid Standardbred Sales Company, LLC. Hoofbids founders, Jeff Davis and Frank Tatulli, are standardbred owners and breeders who first met in 2012 at the United States Trotting Association Driving School in Goshen, New York. Hoofbid will alter the way horsemen buy and sell their horses, said Jeff Davis, co-founder, and President. Hoofbid has been in development for nearly a year and allows for a seamless experience of selling and buying horses at a fair price. Also, we believe that the ramifications of Coronavirus pandemic this year, horsemen will be looking for an easier, better way to buy and sell their horses without the worry of social distancing. For more information, visit our website at www.hoofbid.com. App Store is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Google Play is a trademark of Google LLC. (Hoofbid) Ever since 15 Dec 2019 when a peaceful protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that turned into disruption and arson around the Delhi Jamia Millia Islamia campus, posters or placards featuring Gandhi were widely displayed. At the Shaheen Bagh and other protest encampments, along with Gandhi, the images of Gautam Buddha, B. R. Ambedkar and Maulana Azad were also shown by the side of the national tricolor. The protesters, largely members of or driven by the political parties opposed to the ruling BJP or the Islamists and Leftist/Communist organizations, were interestingly seen falling over each other showing their love and loyalty to Mahatma Gandhi. Some Gandhians, for their own reasons, also jumped on the bandwagon. The enthusiasm of Muslims and their leadership at the forefront of the anti-CAA protest and their loud incantation of Gandhi made me curious to examine what had been the Muslims attitude towards the leader who, at the behest of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, was named the Father of the Nation. First of all, at the time of Partition - let this be understood clearly - when mass migration was taking place on religious lines, promises were made to the non-Muslims of Pakistan that, if they wanted, they could cross over to India. In fact, Maulana Azad had expressed his apprehension that Hindus couldnt stay in Pakistan because Western Pakistan was militant. He foresaw the Hindus would either flee or would be made to run away. Echoing the same sentiments, Gandhi had also asserted that Hindus and Sikhs who did not want to live in Pakistan, had the right to come to India. In that situation, the Government of India is bound to provide them citizenship, employment and facilities to live a comfortable life, wrote Gandhi. As Gandhi cared for the non-Muslim population in Pakistan, both East and West, he also dedicated his life toward forging Hindu-Muslim communal unity. His attachment to the Muslim community was well known from his South African years when he had taken up the legal cases on behalf of the Muslims of Indian origin. In India, he supported the Khilafat movement and, after independence, went on fast on one occasion to have a large amount of financial compensation delivered to Pakistan. On the side of the Muslims or their elite leaders, however, Gandhi wasnt held in very high regard. Certainly, he wasnt revered by the Muslims in the same proportion as the Hindus did. Mohammed Ayoob, in a Foreign Affairs (19 Oct 2017) article, pointed out that the Muslim elite felt their identity under greater threat with Gandhi at the helm of the Congress than they had before he became the undisputed leader of the party. A large number of them considered him to belong to the implicit Hindu nationalist tradition. In their view, Gandhi imperceptibly equated Hinduness with Indianness by his dress, vocabulary, and demeanor and his obsession with the protection of cows, considered sacred by Hindus. In the opinion of the Muslim leaders, with the appearance of Gandhi at the helm, what was by then a national movement turned into a populist one. As a leader interested in mobilizing the masses, writes Ayoob, Gandhi couched part of his political terminology in Hindu religious idioms. He used the term ram rajya (governance by the Hindu deity Ram), for example, to signify that a just order would prevail after independence. But that alienated much of the Muslim elite because it alluded to a mythical Hindu golden age before the advent of Islam in India. Gandhis deliberate adoption of the attire of a Hindu holy man, or 'sant', also repelled large segments of Muslims. The use of the term mahatma - great soul - by Gandhis acolytes as his title introduced Hindu spiritual terminology into the political arena and further increased Muslim alienation. Gandhis incorporation of the Khilafat movement with his non-cooperation movement against the British was staunchly opposed by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League. According to Jinnah, the Khilafat movement was antediluvian that sought to preserve the authority of the Ottoman Sultan as the Caliph of Islam after World War I. Restoration of the Ottoman caliphate was a retrograde step in history that was initially supported by the Khilafat Committee formed in 1920 by another stream of Muslim leaders with the two -- Shaukat and Muhammad -- Ali brothers in the vanguard. With the extension of Gandhis support, the Khilafat Committee turned into a movement that too fizzled out by 1924, but not before it had caused irreparable damage to his expressed goal of Hindu-Muslim unity and the freedom struggle. Gandhi was distrusted by the Muslims as much as by a section of Hindus. At the time he broke his 21-day fast (in 1924) which Gandhi had decided to start and complete in a Mussalman house of Muhammad Ali, the Muslims showed utter lack of respect by staying absent. Later, the Khilafat Muslim leaders also broke away from Gandhi accusing him of being too much dependent on non-violent means. Some of them foul-mouthed him too. Factionalism among the Muslim leaders with a strong pull toward Muslim League, the Hindu-Muslim riots in different places and suppression with a mighty hand by the British were also the reasons for the Khilafat movement to fade away. But, by this time, Jinnah and not any other Muslim leader or Gandhi had become the rallying face of leadership for the majority of Muslims. There were exceptions like Abul Kalam Azad, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan and others. Much later, close to the granting of Independence to India, when Gandhi had traveled to Noakhali (in former East Pakistan and now Bangladesh) to help put down another widespread fire of violence between the Hindus and the Muslims, his stay was resented by the Muslims and their leadership. A BBC documentary recorded that Gandhis routes to peace marches were deliberately dirtied with animal bones (most likely of the cows) and the Muslims boycotted his meetings. On 12 Feb 1947, A. K. Fazlul Huq, who later became the first Prime Minister of Bengal, declared at a rally that Gandhis presence in Noakhali had harmed Islam enormously. The conditions in Noakhali became so ugly that Gandhi had to discontinue his mission halfway, he headed for Bihar on 2 Mar 1947. A month later, Gandhi received telegrams from Congress party workers in Noakhali briefing him on the attempts to burn Hindus alive. On receiving such reports, Gandhi was reported to have responded that the situation in Noakhali demanded that the Hindus should either leave or perish. Coming back to the Shaheen Bagh protests, if the organizers were so fond of Mahatma Gandhi, they should have prayed and observed fasts, worked toward greater understanding between the Hindus and the Muslims. Instead, the participants were lured to the feast of biryani and masala-tea and a City Councilor like Tahir Hussain was found mobilizing all resources for the protest site (In March 2020, Tahir Hussain was arrested in connection with the Delhi riots). The Gandhian protesters would not have allowed the venue to be used as the disguised forum for the militant Islamists. Dr. Binoy Shanker Prasad hails from Darbhanga and currently resides with his family in Dundas, Ontario (Canada). A former UGC teacher fellow (at JNU) in India and Fulbright scholar in the USA, he has taught politics and authored conference papers, articles and chapters on Bihar in previously published books in the United States, India, and Canada. Dr. Prasad administers a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/OverseasBihari and has sponsored Aware Citizenship Campaign at a micro-level in his home-town. While appreciating Andhra Pradesh governments efforts in stepping up testing for Covid-19 in the state, the central team from All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health (AIIHM & PH) on Sunday expressed concern over the growing number of Covid-19 cases in the state. On Sunday, the state recorded 50 new positive coronavirus cases and one more death, taking the total number of Covid-19 cases in the state to 1980 and death toll to 45. Kurnool accounts for the maximum number of Covid-19 cases in Andhra Pradesh with 566 patients. 16 people have died after getting infected with coronavirus in Kurnool. The central team members Dr Madhumita Dubey and Dr Sanjay Sadhukhan, who toured Kurnool town in the morning, held a meeting with senior officials of the district to review the Covid-19 situation in the state in general and Kurnool in particular. Also read: 14 states see dip in number of active Covid-19 cases, shows data Dubey said the state government should come out with new appropriate strategies to contain the fast-spreading virus in tune with the growing number of cases. She suggested that testing, tracing, isolation and quarantine should be done faster and, if necessary, the government should take the help of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for contact tracing. She advised the state government to enhance the capacity of human resources, quarantine centres, Covid-19 care centres and hospitals to face the challenges effectively in case there was a largescale outbreak of coronavirus in the coming days. The central team member appreciated the way Andhra Pradesh was leading in conducting tests in a big way, which was resulting in identifying more positive cases. So far, the state government ha conducted 1,73,735 Covid-19 tests, including 8,666 tests in the last 24 hours alone. Dubey said the central team had come to Kurnool to extend handholding to the state and the district administration in preventing any further spread of Covid-19. After examining the situation in all aspects, we shall make appropriate recommendations to the state government, she said. Professor Sadhukhan said since it was not possible for the government to continue the lockdown for an indefinite period, the government should mentally prepare the people to live with coronavirus after the lifting of the lockdown. We need to educate the people on how to maintain self-restraint to prevent the spread of the virus, he said. District collector G Veerapandian explained the efforts that are being made by the Kurnool district administration in containing the virus and to bring down the death rate. He said though the number of cases was going up in the district, the recovery was also equally faster. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Students walking along the University of New Mexico mall, east of the Student Union Building, might not realize that on May 8, 1970 50 years ago almost to the day that very stretch of walkway, was bloodied as 11 people (some accounts say 10) were bayoneted by members of the New Mexico Army National Guard during anti-Vietnam War protests. Hospitalized for two weeks, former teacher John Dressman was stabbed in his thigh, an injury that cut into his femoral artery. Former KOB-TV reporter and photographer Bill Norlander was bayoneted in his chest and arm. I was thinking Ill just stand there and let these guys go by and Ill film them walking past me, only I didnt realize they saw me as part of the problem. Stephen Part, then a writer for the Daily Lobo, recalled that anybody who had a camera or could write was sent out to cover it sort of all hands on deck. He was bayoneted in the back as he bent over to help another injured person. The UNM protests, which had been going on for five days, were the result of a series of events, said Dianne Layden, 76, who was a teaching assistant in the English Department and a Ph.D. student in American Studies. In addition to the ongoing war in Vietnam, protesters were angry about President Richard Nixons decision to extend the war into Cambodia, Layden said. Then on May 4, Ohio National Guard members fired into a crowd of demonstrators at Kent State University, killing four. That same day, actress and peace activist Jane Fonda gave a fiery talk to about 700 students on the UNM campus. She and the students were denied a request to speak with then-UNM President Ferrel Heady. Two days later Layden was among several hundred students who conducted a sit-in strike inside the Student Union Building that lasted 48 hours. By this time, UNM classes were canceled. On May 8, Layden and hundreds of others held a protest march, walking from UNM, west to Robinson Park at Eighth and Central. When they rejoined the sit-in strikers, maybe 4:30 or 5 p.m., local police officers came in with a restraining order to have the SUB evacuated, she said. Many complied, but others, including Layden, did not. A Journal story from the time said 122 people were booked into the city-county jail Downtown. As the arrested strikers were escorted out of the SUB through doorways near the northwest side of the building, truckloads of New Mexico National Guard soldiers were arriving on the east side of the building. Bayonets fixed to their rifles, they began a south-to-north mall sweep. Then-Gov. David Cargo maintained that he dispatched the National Guard at Headys insistence; Heady, however, said he did not want them. Dressman, a 22-year-old new teacher in Santa Fe at the time, was visiting his girlfriend, now his wife, a UNM student who lived just blocks from the mall. He grabbed his camera hoping to get dramatic photographs. From a raised seating area outside the SUB cafeteria, Dressman saw a guardsman running toward him. He jumped about four feet to the ground below, where a couple of other soldiers broke rank and came running after me, he said. Dressman parried one rifle thrust toward his upper torso and then turned to get the hell out of there, but not fast enough. He was stabbed from behind in his thigh. Losing blood quickly and nearly unconscious, students helped him to a makeshift clinic set up in Zimmerman Library and staffed by medical personnel from the Bernalillo County Medical Center, now UNM Hospital. A tourniquet was placed around his leg before he was transferred to the hospital, where he stayed for two weeks and received numerous blood transfusions. Doctors repaired his femoral artery, saving both his life and his leg. Covering the protests for KOB-TV, Norlander, now 76, saw the arrival of the National Guard soldiers. His camera and tape recorder were clearly marked with the KOB-TV logo as he began filming; nevertheless, the soldiers pushed forward in a line, jabbing at him with their bayonets. There were about six holes in the shirt I was wearing, but only one strike got me in the chest and another got me in the left arm. The chest puncture was not as deep as his arm injury, which went nearly all the way through, he said. Students helped Norlander to the field clinic in the library, where he was bandaged and sent by ambulance to the hospital for stitches. One of his biggest regrets, besides being bayoneted, was in the excitement I had run out of film in my camera, Norlander said. I kept on shooting but didnt get any footage. Part, now 74, was a writer for the Daily Lobo and a graduate student working on a masters of fine arts degree in photography. When I first got to the mall, looking north there were families pushing strollers and people walking dogs. I was sort of at the center, and when I looked south I saw the National Guard had pulled up in (troop carrier) trucks and was unloading. Others also noticed and began getting the heck out of there. As the soldiers swept through the mall, Part said he witnessed a guardsman strike a civilian in the chest with the butt of his rifle, which was particularly unnecessary because the man was on crutches and had a leg in a cast. When someone came to help the man up, a guardsman bayoneted the good Samaritan in the elbow, creating a blood-spurting wound, he recalled. Part was retreating when he noticed that the man with the elbow injury collapsed into a nearby flower bed. Part pulled out a handkerchief to wrap around the mans elbow. As he was bent over, he felt a bayonet stab in his back, just above the hip. He walked to the makeshift clinic and was transferred to the hospital for stitches. Part subsequently developed his photos and delivered them to the Daily Lobo, which ran them prominently. In later years, Part became an Albuquerque Public Schools social studies teacher, retiring about two years ago from La Cueva High. The Rivers State Government, on Sunday, declared Princewill Osaroejiji, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Youth Leader in Eleme Local Government Area wanted. This was contained in a statement issued in Port Harcourt by Paulinus Nsirim, the state Commissioner for Information and Communications. The statement said that Mr Osaroejiji was declared wanted by the state government over his alleged involvement in criminal activities. It said that N5 million would be given to anyone who provided reliable information that would lead to Mr Osaroejijis arrest. The state government also said that two hotels: Prudent Hotel at Alode, Eleme and Etemeteh Hotel in Onne, would be demolished for allegedly flouting governments directive on the closure of hotels. NAN reports that Governor Nyesom Wike recently ordered the closure of all hotels operating in the state as a way of curbing the spread of COVID-19 in the state. (NAN) The media watchdog has been urged to investigate Channel 4 after it aired comments by actress Miriam Margolyes in which she said she had wanted Boris Johnson to die from coronavirus. Yesterday there was growing anger about the way the broadcaster has handled the hugely controversial remarks made on Friday nights episode of chat show The Last Leg. One Tory MP said Ofcom should investigate and demand an apology from Channel 4. Another Conservative MP expressed disbelief at how Left-wing luvvies felt this type of remark was acceptable. Tory MPs have urged Ofcom to investigate Channel 4 for Harry Potter actress (pictured) Miriam Margolyes's comments about wanting Boris Johnson to die The row was sparked when presenter of the show Adam Hills asked Miss Margolyes how she felt the Government had handled the virus crisis so far. Speaking from her home through a video link, the actress, 78, replied: Appallingly, of course, appallingly. Its a disgrace, its a scandal. I had difficulty not wanting Boris Johnson to die. I wanted him to die. Then I thought that will reflect badly on me... so then I wanted him to get better. There were concerns yesterday at the way the presenters Mr Hills, Josh Widdicombe and Alex Brooker had failed to step in during the conversation with the Harry Potter actress. Yesterday when asked if it would be apologising to Mr Johnson, a Channel 4 spokesman said the programme was live and unexpected comments can happen. It added that the actress had gone on to say she wanted Mr Johnson to get better. But there was fury from the Conservatives about the comments from the long-time Labour supporter. Bill Cash, the Tory MP for Stone, said: It is an outrageous comment to make and completely in flagrant breach of the broadcasting act. I believe Ofcom should look into it and demand an apology. Pictured: Boris Johnson in March. Yesterday when asked if it would be apologising to Mr Johnson, a Channel 4 spokesman said the programme was live and unexpected comments can happen And fellow Tory MP Andrew Bridgen added: You really have to wonder what world these Left-wing luvvies inhabit and who they talk to that they think these sorts of comments are acceptable. Ofcom said last night any complaints would have to be assessed before a decision is made on whether to investigate. It was unable to say last night whether it had received any complaints. Channel 4 has already suffered difficult relations with the Conservatives after a series of incidents including its decision to replace Mr Johnson on a debate with an ice sculpture. And the broadcasters former news and current affairs chief described him as a known liar. Tourism has advanced its way to the skies and is now taking a dive underwater. A new incredible submarine is finally accessible and can give tourists underwater tours of the sea like no other. The submarine is called the Triton DeepView 24 and is designed to take 24 passengers into the depths reaching into the mysterious 100meter plunge. This journey allows them a view like no other with vast panoramic windows and all the comfort for almost 15 and a half meters included with air-conditioning, comfortable seats, and enough space to stand up in. Triton Submarines have previously manufactured the Limiting Factor submersible last 2019 and made a record-breaking achievement of diving into the deepest point of the ocean known as the Mariana Trench located 10.927 meters from the surface. Triton Submarine This Floridian company gave a statement regarding the DeepView 24 saying that it is the "most significant commercial tourism submersible" that has ever been offered in the span of the last two decades. The company explained that the vessel is virtually silent and entirely non-polluting. Other factors that make it amazing is that it is easy to board and load off and even gives the passengers a generous room for mobility due to its spacious access hatch. The company continued saying that the DeepView 24 was actually developed as a response to the increasing demand of travelers and tourists that are looking for an adventure and experience like no other. The company aims to offer a "sub-sea tourism" experience as international popularity has started to pick up after programs like Blue Planet II. According to the company, they are able to offer a perfect hull of the Triton DeepView 24 that in turn creates an entirely new generation of different stewards for the deep ocean. The DeepView 24 This vessel has already been commissioned by a certain hospitality firm known as the Vinpearl to provide their guests with experiences on both the Hon Tre Island located in Nha Trang, Vietnam. This vessel was previously manufactured at Triton's facility located in Barcelona, where it was able to pass sea trials back in March. It is now on schedule to operate ticketed dives for certain resort guests this coming December. Read Also: 2,000-Year-Old Vessel Found 'Sewed' Together with Ropes and Wooden Nails in Croatia Gives Clue on How Ancient Romans Build Ship Bruce Jones CEO According to the Co-Founder and CEO of Triton Submarines, Mr. Bruce Jones, the Triton DeepView 24 packed with its amazing panoramic view represents a certain quantum leap forward within the submarine technology. This being their ability to provide vastly improved experiences for their guests. The CEO continues stating that out of about 60 tourist subs that have previously operated in the past 34 years, their DeepView 24 is currently superior in all respects. In addition, the CEO notes that the variation in size along with the models that seat from about 66 passengers gives of the confirmation that there is a sub suitable for a wide variety of operations around different locations. Bruce Jones also noted that the DeepView experience is great for guests to promote proper "environmental stewardship" after being able to experience what it's like on the seafloor environment. Read Also: A 30lb Moon Rock is Being Sold for $2.5 million! The Fifth-Largest Meteorite is Bigger than What Apollo Brought on Earth! A Shramik special train carrying 1,208 natives of Chhattisgarh, who were stranded in Gujarat due to the lockdown, will arrive in Bilaspur district of the state on Monday, officials said. This is the first Shramik special train to be reaching the state, they said. "The first train ferrying migrant labourers, students and others from Chhattisgarh, who were struck in Gujarat amid lockdown, will arrive at Bilaspur station at around 10 am on Monday," a statement from the Public Relations Department said. Arrangements of health checkup and buses to ferry them to quarantine facilities have been made at the railway station, it said. Bilaspur Collector Sanjay Alang on Sunday reviewed the preparations and gave necessary directives to the authorities concerned, it said. After the train reaches the station, passengers will be given hand sanitiser and mask before they disembark. A health department team will be posted at every gate of the railway station for their medical examination and screening, he said. The labourers will be sent by buses to their villages and districts, where they will be kept in the quarantine centres. At least 60 buses have been arranged for natives of Bilaspur district. Two ambulances will also be kept ready outside the station for emergency situation, he said. Meanwhile, the district administration has ordered to shut all shops and other commercial activities around the railway stations as a precautionary measure in view of the arrival of the migrants, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. Russian troops helping Venezuela search for members of failed incursion: Report Iran Press TV Saturday, 09 May 2020 7:17 AM Russian troops are helping Venezuela in its search operation for members of a force, which recently made an unsuccessful incursion attempt there, by operating drones over the Latin American country, according to a report by local news outlet El Nacional. Citing deleted tweets from a military command, known as ZODI La Guaira, the local media reported on Friday that at least eight Russian Special Forces members will be "operating drones to run search and patrol operations" near the northern state of La Guaira. El Nacional posted a screenshot of the tweet which it said was later deleted on Thursday. It also reported that an aircraft arrived at Venezuela's international airport on Thursday in order to join the search mission. El Nacional said this tweet was also later deleted on Thursday from ZODI La Guaira military command's profile. It was not immediately evident why the tweets were deleted. The Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Friday, ZODI La Guaira posted a tweet saying the military command "categorically denies interference by the Russian military" in its ranks. The post included a screenshot of a tweet from user @YourNewsAnonLat about Russia's alleged support, saying the claim was "Fake News." The post did not address the screenshots of the previous alleged tweets from the account. Before dawn on Sunday, a group of US-backed mercenaries tried to intrude into the northern state of La Guaira on boats, but Venezuelan authorities foiled the attack which was launched from Colombia killing eight of the armed men and arresting several others. In a state television address on Monday, Venezuelan President Nicolas said authorities had detained terrorists involved in the Sunday attack, including two Americans. The two US citizens were identified as Airan Berry and Luke Denman. Maduro showed the US passports and other identification cards belonging to Berry and Denman, noting that they had been working with Jordan Goudreau, an American military veteran who leads the Florida-based security firm Silvercorp USA. Goudreau later admitted that Berry and Denman were working with him in the operation. Maduro claimed that the plot was coordinated with Washington and aimed to oust him, but the White House denies any involvement. In a video broadcast by Venezuelan state TV on Wednesday, Denman said his mission in Venezuela was to seize control of and secure the Caracas airport so that his team would be able to bring in a plane to take Maduro to the US. Denman, however, did not explain how his team was going to capture the Venezuelan president. Speaking in a virtual press conference after the release of the Wednesday video of Denman, the Venezuelan president said US President Donald Trump is the direct chief of the invasion. He said Venezuela would seek the extradition of the plot mastermind Goudreau. Top prosecutor requests extradition of US veteran Separately on Friday, Venezuela's Chief Prosecutor Tarek Saab said his office had requested the detention and extradition of Goudreau and two Venezuelans accused of involvement in the failed marine incursion. Saab said Goudreau and the two opposition Venezuelan politicians, Miami-based political strategist Juan Rendon and exiled lawmaker Sergio Vergara, were wanted for their involvement in the "design, financing, and execution" of the plan to invade and overthrow Maduro. Rendon has said that while he negotiated an agreement with Silvercorp late last year, he cut ties with Goudreau in November and that Goudreau went forward with the failed operation on his own. Vergara did not immediately respond to a request for comment. US law enforcement officials are investigating Goudreau, though it remains unclear if he will be charged. Trump does not recognize Maduro's government, making it highly unlikely that his administration would accept any extradition request. Washington has been openly calling for the ouster of Maduro, increasing pressure on Caracas in recent months by indicting the leftist leader as a "narco-trafficker" and offering a 15-million-dollar "reward" for his arrest. Washington has also slapped harsh sanctions on Venezuela. Opposition figure Juan Guaido, propped up by the US, declared himself "interim president" of Venezuela in January last year and later launched an abortive coup with help from a small number of rogue soldiers. There was also an attempt at assassinating Maduro with a drone in 2018. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ghanaian Engineer and Scientist, Ing. Dr. Bright Atsu Sogbey has warned that Ghana is heading for catastrophe if President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo does not stop Electoral Commission from going ahead with the planned voters' register update for elections 2020. Dr. Sogbey, who is the President of Science and Technology Advocacy Renaissance for Africa, stated "Ghana is heading for doom, if the President in his own wisdom, does not act wisely as King Solomon...to steer affairs of the country to safety as Ghana prepares for elections 2020." Since the lifting of the Covid-19 partial lockdown weeks ago, the EC has been taking steps to start the voters registration exercise, in spite of a court injunction against their move. Opposition party figures have been raising objections at the moves of the EC, while incumbent party members insist the EC must be allowed to do their work. But Dr. Sogbey argued in a write up, copied to ModernGhana that the compilation of a new voters register doesn't guarantee any political party winning 2020 elections, but surely guarantees escalation in infection and death rates of COVID-19 when over 20 million Ghanaians are forced to queue for registration for a new voters register. "In the current situation where COVID-19 confirmed cases have reached over 4,000 while death toll inches up, one does not need to be a rocket scientist to predict the catastrophic nature of this pandemic for Ghana hence the need for a timely intervention by the Head of State," he insisted. He said the alarming nature of the rate of infection and death, is a clear indication that, but for timely intervention by the President, Ghana's situation would have been far worse than that of the developed countries, as Ghana's limited capacity will soon be overwhelmed. Ing. Sogbey noted that in the face of the fast-rising Covid-19 infections, EC may compile a new voters register alright, but may not be able to carry out elections 2020, saying that the exercise threatens to even worsen Covid-19 infections and deaths. He there called on all Ghanaians to speak up, saying, "We have to get involved, we are citizens, Ghana is calling us, decision making is not a one man's show, government never for one man, we are all sinking in a common boat, we have to get involved for the rescue. " According to intelligence data, one member of Russia-led forces was killed and another four were wounded. Russia's hybrid military forces on May 9 mounted 17 attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine. Read alsoKyiv initiates reboot of Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas settlement "The Russian Federation's armed groups violated the ceasefire 17 times in the past day," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation said in a Facebook update as of 07:00 Kyiv time on May 10, 2020. Russia-led forces opened fire from proscribed 120mm and 82mm mortars, anti-tank missile systems, grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, and small arms. Under attack were Ukrainian positions near the town of Krasnohorivka, and the villages of Kamianka, Vodiane, Opytne, Pavlopil, Shyrokyne, Slavne, Starohnativka, Novotroyitske, Khutir Vilny, Krymske, Novotoshkivske, Triokhizbenka, and Orikhove. Joint Forces returned fire to each enemy attack. According to intelligence data, one member of Russia-led forces was killed and another four were wounded on May 9. Since Sunday midnight, Russia-led forces have attacked Ukrainian positions near the town of Avdiyivka and the village of Orikhove, using 82mm mortars, grenade launchers of various systems, heavy machine guns, and small arms, the update said. There have been no Ukrainian army casualties since Sunday midnight. Tyler Camerons mom Andrea tragically passed away in February 2020 due to a brain aneurysm. In an interview with Us Weekly, Cameron told the magazine how he and his brothers plan to honor his late mom this Mothers Day. Tyler Cameron | David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images How Tyler Cameron plans to honor his mom Cameron was recently interviews by Us Weekly to promote his new Quibi show, Barkitecture. During the interview, he revealed how he and his family plan to remember their mother on Mothers Day. Were going to find a way to celebrate her. My mom is a beautiful soul and a beautiful spirit and we will celebrate her and were going to figure out what we want to do, he said. I think its going to be a moment that me and the brothers spend together. Well reflect and be thankful and grateful for the, for me, 27 years Ive had with her and just make the most of the day. He has been spending time with his brothers After his mothers death, Cameron has made sure to spend time with his loved ones. For the past few months, Cameron has been staying with his brothers in Florida and communicating with fans online. Being here with my little brothers and then just being able to stay busy [has helped]. Also, like, being able to connect with the fans and everything like that, Cameron told Us Weekly. Im going through things, theyre going through things and after our workouts, we have these calls and those calls are not only great for them, but theyre therapeutic for me too. I really enjoy connecting with them and hearing what theyre going through and sharing what Im going through. Why Tyler Cameron is not ready to start dating again In a recent episode of E!s The Rundown, Erin Lim interviewed Cameron. During the interview, Cameron revealed that even though he is single he is not ready to start dating again. Lim asked Cameron if he was dating anyone and he told her, I am dating nobody right now. Do you want to date someone? Lim asked him. Yeah, I think right now I had a lot going on in my life, Cameron responded. Ive had a lot going on in my life lately. You know, my mom passed you know, and we have this whole quarantine going on, so who the heck can date right now? Cameron then told Lim that at the moment hes focused on spending time with his family. My main goal right now is focusing on my little brothers, taking care of them, kinda getting them where they need to be. I know Ill be able to get through all this, but my youngest brother Hes 20-years-old. Hes a baby, Cameron said. So to be there for him, and to kinda get him where he needs to be is kind of whats you know the silver lining of all this quarantining and the coronavirus is like Ive gotten to be able to just be here for two months post moms passing. So thats, you know, its been a blessing. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan announced on Sunday that India has developed indigenous Covid-19 testing kit. Elisa, developed by Pune-based Institute of Virology, detects antibodies for Covid-19. National Institute of Virology, Pune has successfully developed the 1st indigenous anti-SARS-CoV-2 human IgG ELISA test kit for antibody detection of #COVID19, Harsh Vardhan tweeted on Sunday evening. This robust test will play a critical role in surveillance of proportion of population exposed to #SARSCoV2 infection, he said further in the tweet. National Institute of Virology, Pune has successfully developed the 1st indigenous anti-SARS-CoV-2 human IgG ELISA test kit for antibody detection of #COVID19 . This robust test will play a critical role in surveillance of proportion of population exposed to #SARSCoV2 infection pic.twitter.com/pEJdM6MOX6 Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) May 10, 2020 Indias tally of Covid-19 positive cases crossed the 62,000-mark on Sunday after the country reported more than 3,200 new cases in the last 24 hours. According to Union health ministry, the country recorded 128 deaths due to Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 2,109. The number of people who have recovered stood at 19,357. The highest number of cases continued to be reported from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi and Tamil Nadu. The health ministry further said that as many as 6542 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the national capital. Seventy three people have died from the infection while 2020 have made a recovery, as per the health ministrys data. The number of Covid-19 positive cases crossed the 20,000-mark in Maharashtra on Sunday, according to Union Health Ministry data. The state reported 1,165 cases on Saturday, taking the total number of cases to 20,228. It took Maharashtra only nine days to go from 10,000 cases to 20,000 cases. Authorities are now focusing on 10 states that account for the most number of cases and deployed central teams to 10 states that have witnessed or are witnessing high caseload and a high spurt of cases. WASHINGTON - As requests for ventilators from the national stockpile reached a crescendo in late March, President Donald Trump made what seemed like a bold claim: His administration would have 100,000 within 100 days. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/5/2020 (619 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. FILE - In this April 20, 2020, file photo a nurse pulls a ventilator into an exam room where a patient with COVID-19 went into cardiac arrest at St. Joseph's Hospital in Yonkers, N.Y. An analysis of federal contracting data by The Associated Press shows the Department of Health and Human Services is now on track to exceed 100,000 new ventilators by around July 13, about a week later than the 100-day deadline Trump first gave on March 27. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File) WASHINGTON - As requests for ventilators from the national stockpile reached a crescendo in late March, President Donald Trump made what seemed like a bold claim: His administration would have 100,000 within 100 days. At the time, the Department of Health and Human Services had not ordered any new ventilators since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in January. But records show that over the following three weeks, the agency scrambled to turn Trumps pledge into a reality, spending nearly $3 billion to spur U.S. manufacturers to crank out the breathing machines at an unprecedented pace. Ventilators ordered by U.S. Department of Health and Human Serivces following President Trump's March 27 pledge to produce 100,000 ventilators in 100 days. An analysis of federal contracting data by The Associated Press shows the agency is now on track to exceed 100,000 new ventilators by around July 13, about a week later than the 100-day deadline Trump first gave on March 27. By the end of 2020, the administration is expected to take delivery of nearly 200,000 new ventilators, based on the APs review of current federal purchasing contracts. That would more than double the estimated 160,000 ventilators hospitals across the U.S. had before the pandemic. We became the king of ventilators, thousands and thousands of ventilators, Trump boasted in an April 29 speech. But over the past month, demand for ventilators has decreased even as the U.S. death toll from the novel coronavirus has surged past 75,000. After observing unusually high death rates for coronavirus victims who were put on ventilators, many doctors are using them only as a last resort. Thats raising the unexpected prospect that the United States could soon be awash in surplus ventilators, so much so the White House is now planning to ship thousands overseas to help boost the virus response of other nations. In a speech to Republican members of Congress on Friday, the president credited his son-in-law, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, with heading up the effort to purchase the ventilators. We built, and we built, and we built, Trump said. Now we have nine factories that are throwing out ventilators at numbers that nobody can believe. It was really theres not been anything like that, since the Second World War, where we did the same thing with other types of product. Daniel Adelman, a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business who teaches health care analytics, said the U.S. government is now buying more than twice the number of ventilators it needs, even under a worst-case scenario forecasting the spread of COVID-19. But Adelman said mathematical models cannot predict with certainty how many ventilators will be needed if there is a resurgence of the coronavirus later in the year or if there is another pandemic in the future. It seems incongruent with the forecasts that youre seeing, Adelman said of the government purchases. Id probably rather they order too many rather than ordering too few. ___ In patients with severe cases of COVID-19, the virus attacks the lungs, causing fluid to collect in tiny air sacs called alveoli. That makes it difficult for the lungs to transfer oxygen from the air to the blood, which can be deadly. To treat these low oxygen levels, doctors have historically relied on ventilators. The Strategic National Stockpile, the federal governments emergency reserve of medical supplies, had about 16,660 ventilators ready to deploy at the start of March, with an additional 2,400 out for maintenance. By the middle of the month, health officials and governors in states with the worst virus outbreaks began expressing concerns that the supply of breathing machines could run out, potentially leaving thousands of critically ill patients gasping for air. Among those calling for additional ventilators was Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.), who predicted on March 24 that all of the ventilators in his state would be in use, and patients in need would be left without proper treatment. Cuomo said projections showed New York would need at least 30,000 additional ventilators to get through the mid-April peak of the outbreak. At that point, FEMA had sent New York 400. Trump expressed skepticism at Cuomos figures even as his administration rushed to send New York 4,000 additional ventilators about one-quarter of the nations entire emergency stockpile. Still, Cuomo pleaded for more. You pick the 26,000 people who are going to die," Cuomo said at a news conference, It wasn't just New York, however. Similarly dire projections of a ventilator shortfall were also then circulating within the White House. The scariest day of my life was about a month ago when, after a long day of meetings, my team told me that we were going to be needing 130,000 ventilators; that we were short hundreds of thousands of ventilators, Trump recounted in an April 14 briefing. I had governors requesting unreasonable sums that the federal government just didnt have. By late March, a bipartisan chorus of state governors and members of Congress were calling on the president to exercise his emergency authority under the Defence Production Act to force U.S. companies to produce ventilators. Trump had resisted invoking the Korean War-era law, which grants the president sole authority to direct U.S. industrial production of critical supplies in times of national emergency, saying the private sector was stepping up production of ventilators and other medical supplies on its own. But on March 27, Trump changed course, announcing that he would invoke the Defence Production Act to produce ventilators, which meant companies would have to give priority to federal orders over other customers. In the next 100 days well, first of all, weve already delivered thousands of them but within the next 100 days, we will either make or get, in some form, over 100,000 additional units, Trump said. ___ By the start of April, FEMA officials confirmed to the House Oversight and Reform Committee that demand for ventilators would soon outpace the available supply. To ration what was left, FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor directed that the remaining ventilators in the national stockpile be designated as a strategic national asset to be provided to states only on a case-by-case basis where hospitals could demonstrate an exigent need to sustain life within 72 hours. Federal purchasing records show that three months into the pandemic, HHS, which includes the Strategic National Stockpile, had not yet placed any orders for new ventilators in 2020. That changed within three days of Trumps March 27 edict, with HSS signing a $350 million deal with Zoll Medical Corp. Records show a flurry of about a dozen big orders with other ventilator makers over the next two weeks, most of them no-bid contracts exempted from the typical federal purchasing rules due to the national emergency. In a typical year, U.S. companies produce about 29,000 ventilators, according to data cited by the White House. Though several domestic manufacturers had already announced they were adding extra shifts and hiring additional workers to ramp up production, APs analysis of HHS contracts show that even with the emergency no-bid orders the traditional medical device makers would deliver about 73,990 new ventilators by July 6 the 100-day mark since Trumps March 27 pledge. It was clear additional industrial capacity would be needed to get 100,000 units by the presidents deadline. General Motors, which had shut down auto production, had already entered into a partnership on March 20 with Ventec Life Systems, a small ventilator company, to simplify an off-the-shelf design for rapid production at GMs Kokomo, Indiana, plant. Though GM had announced it was working night and day to launch production, Trump accused CEO Mary Barra via Twitter of dragging her feet, and revived his long-running feud with the company over its 2019 closure of an Ohio factory that Trump had pledged to save. As usual with this General Motors, things just never seem to work out, Trump tweeted on March 27. General Motors MUST immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in Ohio, or some other plant, and START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!!!!!! GM had sold the Lordstown factory in 2019. The president also took aim at Ford Motor Co., tweeting that the rival automaker should also GET GOING ON VENTILATORS, FAST!!!!!! On April 8, HHS announced it had reached a $489.4 million deal with GM to produce 30,000 ventilators by the end of August, with the first 6,132 delivered by June 1. The following week, HHS announced a $336 million contract with Ford and General Electric, which teamed up to make 50,000 of GE Healthcares ventilators by July 13. Assuming all the companies meet their deadlines, APs analysis shows the national stockpile should surpass 100,000 new ventilators by mid-July. ___ HHS declined to release to AP its contracts with ventilator producers without a Freedom of Information Act request, a legal process that can often take months or even years. But APs analysis of the limited contract data available online and figures taken from HHS media releases shows the agency will spend more than $2.9 billion for 198,890 ventilators by the end of 2020, an average per-unit cost of $14,618. Whether thats a good deal for U.S. taxpayers is difficult to determine because medical device makers generally don't publish their prices. HHS is buying at least 13 different models of ventilators from 10 different companies, all with different capabilities, features and accessories. When AP sought details from HHS about the per-unit cost of four models from manufacturer Hamilton Medical, the agencys press office provided figures that did not add up to the totals announced in earlier media releases. An HHS spokesperson said the previously provided figures were wrong and would be corrected on the agency's website. AP found several instances where the U.S. government had purchased the same models of ventilators before the pandemic. For example, contracting data does show that in December the Department of Defence bought a single, portable ventilator from Zoll Medical for $12,260. Under its current contract with Zoll, HHS is purchasing 18,900 of the same model for slightly more than $350 million. That works out to about $18,500 each, which would be a more than 50 per cent increase from what the Pentagon paid less than five months ago. A HHS spokeswoman said Friday the government was paying about $12,100 for each ventilator, and that the additional money was for hoses, face masks and other related supplies needed to treat COVID-19 patients. The ventilators also came with a wheeled plastic case with power port, which cost an additional $722 each, according to HHS. The Defence Department did not respond to questions Friday about whether its 2019 ventilator deliveries also included accessories. Zoll's top executive said his company's pricing had remained consistent. Zoll is supplying the U.S. government with its requested products at our usual and customary government pricing, absorbing the additional costs associated with Zolls rapid increase in production capacity, Zoll CEO Jonathan Rennert said Friday. We are focused on fulfilling the governments order on time and meeting this urgent public need. Erik Gordon, a business professor at the University of Michigan who studies the medical device industry, said ventilator companies are probably incurring increased costs as they ramp up production to meet high demand. Manufacturers havent had time to bulk buy additional parts and probably had to add workers to make more of the machines, he said. U.S. ventilator makers have raised production from a rate of about 700 per week in February to about 5,000 per week by early April, according to the Advanced Medical Technology Association, an industry trade group. If you dont have time to change your manufacturing processes to get those economies of scale, you get there by brute force, extra labour, said Gordon, who teaches a course in monetizing medical device ideas. Your costs actually go up, not down. With the federal government buying most of the new ventilators being made in the U.S., state governments and hospital systems urgently seeking the machines have often been forced to go through middlemen or foreign suppliers. Cuomo has compared the free-for-all bidding to going on eBay, and said during a March 31 briefing that New York had ordered 17,000 ventilators from China for $25,000 each. We are paying $25,000 per ventilator, and we are broke, Cuomo said. The last thing I want to do is buy a single ventilator I don't need. More than a month later, only 2,500 of the Chinese machines have been delivered, according to Cuomo's office. In a separate case, New York officials are trying to recover another $69.1 million paid to a Silicon Valley electrical engineer who promised 1,450 ventilators that never materialized. ___ With nearly 200,000 new ventilators set for delivery to the federal stockpile by the end of the year, Trump is declaring victory. But it is now unclear whether the stockpile of new ventilators will be needed. In the little more than a month since Trump announced the buying spree, a series of medical studies has spurred questions about whether ventilators are effective at saving the lives of critically ill COVID-19 patients. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on March 30 found that only 1 of 7 patients older than 70 who were put on a ventilator survived. For patients younger than 70, just 36% lived. In New York City, state officials say 80% or more of coronavirus patients placed on the machines died. The studies have caused doctors to reevaluate the use of ventilators in favour of less intensive forms of respiratory support. Trump administration officials say the new ventilators could still prove valuable if the virus outbreak were to intensify into a second wave after the warm summer months. Its very important that we have a completely refreshed and a comprehensive stockpile going into the fall, Dr. Deborah Birx, a medical adviser on the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said at a briefing on April 21. I think thats why weve continued to bring in those shipments and work on the ventilators so that those would be available not only for the United States but certainly if other partner countries have this level of tragedy. Trump said he intends to ship thousands of the breathing machines overseas, where the needs are greater. On Tuesday, Mexico said it received a shipment of ventilators from the United States. Trump said last week Russia is also set to receive U.S. ventilators, along with other countries. People dying because they dont have ventilators, and theyre not equipped to do what we did, Trump said Friday. So were giving thousands and thousands of these ventilators away to many countries that have suffered greatly: Italy, France, Spain, so many countries. And Nigeria called. Tremendous problems in Nigeria. Tremendous problems all over. And so theyre very happy. 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. ___ Krisher reported from Detroit. Associated Press writer Marina Villeneuve in Albany, New York, contributed to this report. ___ Follow AP Investigative Reporter Michael Biesecker at http://twitter.com/mbieseck and Krisher at http://twitter.com/tkrisher ___ Contact APs global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org >>> President Ho Chi Minhs thought, lifestyle and morality forever illuminate Vietnams revolution: Politburo member In his opening remarks, Tran Quoc Vuong, Politburo member and permanent member of the Party Central Committees Secretariat, highlighted the path for national salvation found by President Ho Chi Minh. Under the leadership of the President and the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), the national revolution has overcome a range of difficulties and challenges to gain various victories, Vuong said. Vo Van Thuong, Politburo member, Secretary of the CPV Central Committee and head of the CPV Central Committees Communications and Education Commission, urged each official and Party member to make greater efforts to serve the nation and people as reminded by the late leader. HCMA Director Nguyen Xuan Thang said President Ho Chi Minhs thought, morality and lifestyle is the valuable guidance for the Vietnamese Party, army and people to surpass difficulties and challenges. He stressed the significance of enhancing the studying and following of the Presidents though, morality and lifestyle in Party building and rectification. The seminar, which saw the participation of more than 300 leaders, managers and scientists, looked into President Ho Chi Minhs life and career, as well as his great contributions to Vietnams revolutionary cause and communist, worker and national liberation movements in the world. President Ho Chi Minhs thought, morality and lifestyle has become huge, valuable heritage of the Vietnamese Party and people, which will light up the CPVs revolutionary cause forever, the delegates said. On this occasion, they proposed orientations, tasks and solutions in socio-economic development, Party and political system building and national defence in line with the leaders thought. As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ Rescuers warn that peopel should not be swimming outside or fishing during the quarantine Since the beginning of May, Ukraine has drowned 21 people, including fishermen and swimmers who did not count on their strength. The press center of the State Emergency Service reports that. It seems that the Ukrainians have already opened the swimming season and, not following the quarantine recommendations, have begun to visit water bodies. The consequences of such a disregard for their own safety did not take long: only since the beginning of May, water has already claimed 21 lives, the report said. The State Emergencies Ministry talked about several precedents. In particular, a 17-year-old man drowned on May 8 in Chernihiv, northern Ukraine, in front of witnesses. The body of the guy, who was at the bottom of the reservoir at a distance of about five meters from the shore, was recovered by the workers of the rescue diving service. And in Vinnytsia in Lake Guralnya, a man born in 1999 was engaged in underwater fishing in a wetsuit and disappeared. The search for the man lasted two days, but his body was never found. "Therefore, given the number of emergency events near water bodies, rescuers warn: for the time of quarantine restrictions, you should refrain from walking and fishing on boats! Watch carefully for storm warnings and do not allow children to visit rivers, lakes and even small ponds," the State Emergencies Ministry said. As we reported earlier, on Friday, May 1, employees of the State Emergency Service continue to extinguish individual fires of decay in the Chornobyl exclusion zone and Zhytomyr region (northern Ukraine). Nearly 1,000 workers from Tamil Nadu, stranded in Maharashtra, reached Tiruchirappalli on Sunday by a special train, even as the Southern Railway operated similar services to ferry over 3,000 workers to destinations in Manipur and Andhra Pradesh among others from the state. As workers belonging to other states and stuck in Tamil Nadu have been leaving for their respective states, 969 men arrived at Tiruchirappalli from Pandharpur in Maharashtra. Similar trains left Chennai, one each for Srikakulam in AP and Jiribam in Manipur, besides another from Tirupur, Southern Railway said. "Shramik Special from Pandharpur (Maharashtra) arrived at Trichy at 11:50 am with 969 passengers belonging to Tamil Nadu. District and Railway authorities received them after letting them go through health formalities. They proceeded to their native districts by buses arranged by the district officials," Southern Railway General Manager said on his twitter handle. He further tweeted that two Shramik (Migrants) Special services were operated from Chennai on Sunday. One departed for Srikakulam carrying 881 passengers, while the other left for Jiribam in Manipur with 1,081 people. In both cases, the passengers were registered and nominated by the Tamil Nadu govenrnment. "Thermal screening of passengers done & social distancing ensured while boarding & on board by keeping middle berth vacant," he tweeted. Further, a similar special train carrying 1,140 migrant workers left from Tamil Nadu's Tiruppur to Muzaffarpur in Bihar. On Saturday, special trains were operated from a couple of cities in Tamil Nadu to various destinations. A train left for Jagannathpur in Odisha from here with 1,038 passengers, and another ferrying 1,126 people to Danapur in Bihar departed from Katpadi (Vellore). Also, 2,280 people (1,140 passengers in each train) began their journey to Jaunpur and Akbarpur, both in Uttar Pradesh, by two separate trains from Coimbatore. On May 8, a train was operated to Saharsa in Bihar from Coimbatore with 1,140 guest workers. "Wish all of them have a safe journey. I am glad they will be with their family soon," Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami had said. Thermal screening of passengers was done at the railway stations and people were requested to maintain individual distancing throughout their journey. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 'If the virulence of COVID-19 has muted the toxicity of the BJP's communalism, it will be an example of good coming out of the pandemic,' notes Amulya Ganguli. IMAGE: Demonstrators at a protest against the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship (Amendment Act) law in Kolkata. Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters It is odd that Human Rights Watch chosen the present moment to release a report calling on Parliament to repeal the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. It is obvious that harried as the government and the people are by the pandemic, neither will take much notice of the international watchdog body's observations, however effective they might have been a few months ago when the agitations against the CAA, the National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register were at their height. Now, these issues have been pushed very much to the background and constitute no part of the public discourse as the government and every individual grapple with a crisis, the like of which they have never faced before. Besides, the deadly impact of coronavirus has affected the whole world. As a result, the governments and human rights activists outside India will have little time to consider the comments of the HRW. IMAGE: The New Delhi police detain a youth as he argues with them after they cleared the site of the long-running protest against the CAA in Shaheen Bagh. Photograph: Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters For all practical purposes, the CAA-NRC-NPA issue is no longer live. That doesn't mean, of course, that they have lost their salience. It is obvious that once the situation returns to normal, they may again come to the fore if only because of the deep concern which they have caused among India's largest minority and also the 'secular' camp. But there is also the possibility that the present crisis is so lethal and apocalyptic that conditions may not become normal any time soon. Moreover, the normality of the post-lockdown period may prove to be quire different from what it was earlier. The reason is that the social and economic fallout of the present cataclysmic times is likely to be so deep and widespread that few can predict how the scene in India and, indeed, in the world will look once the toxic virus has been eliminated. IMAGE: A masked Kashmiri with his head covered with barbed wire attends a protest after Friday prayers in Srinagar. Photograph: Danish Ismail/Reuters Apart from COVID-19's impact on society and the economy, even the effect of the seemingly incurable -- as of now -- infection on individuals is unclear. As is known, there has been a doubling of the incidents of dometic violence ever since the lockdown came into force according to the National Commission for Women. How this rise in intolerance will affect marital and familial lives is not known. Moreover, such turmoil in personal lives can be exacerbated by a dire economic fallout if the growth rate plummets to 1.6 per cent as Goldman Sachs has said. At all levels, therefore -- personal, social and economic -- the country will face an unprecedented upheaval. How such disturbed conditions will affect political life is another unknown. What is known, however, is that it will be unrealistic to expect a return to exactly the kind of politics which the county saw, say, at the beginning of the year when the government was vigorously pushing through its pro-Hindu agenda on Kashmir and citizenship among other things while the Opposition and the Left-Liberal activists believed they had found in the CAA-NRC-NPR controversies a range of issues which would push the government onto the back foot. They were also encouraged earlier by the support which their stance on Kashmir and the citizenship issues had received from sundry international organisations, including the UN. The HRW's report is a reflection of that outlook. IMAGE: Omar Abdullah, the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, walks outside his home in Srinagar following his release from detention, March 24, 2020. Photograph: Danish Ismail/Reuters But now foreign governments and organisations dealing with civil liberaties do not have the time to look at India's domestic issues. The attitude of the BJP and other political parties, too, may undergo a subtle change. It has to be seen whether the BJP will be as gung-ho as before on Kashmir and the ciitzenzhip initiatives. As the release of Dr Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah from detention shows, the government is looking at making a new beginning in the Union territory. Even if the cornerstone of its policy is to revive the political process under a new pro-BJP outfit, the Apni Party, led by a former People's Democratic Party minister, Altaf Bukhari, it is obvious that the latter will not find it easy to function if the former chief ministers remained in jail. IMAGE: A Tablighi Jamaat member walks towards a bus in the Nizamuddin area of New Delhi that would take him to a quarantine facility. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters A more nuanced approach to politics by the BJP is also evident from the way the party has distanced itself from its rabid supporters in the media like the right-wing television channels which made much of alleged Muslim perfidy by using the Tablighi Jamaat's violation of the stay-at-home diktat at a gathering in a New Delhi mosque. Instead of the shrill denunciations of the television anchors, the BJP's chief minister in Karnataka, B S Yediurappa, said that 'not a word' should be said against the Muslims as a community. BJP President J P Nadda also echoed this view, suggesting that the party is no longer willing to repeat the acerbic comments which characterised its approach to the Delhi assembly election. If the virulence of COVID-19 has muted the toxicity of the BJP's communalism, it will be an example of good coming out of the pandemic. Amulya Ganguli is a writer on current affairs. The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps has denied media reports linking its officers to the rift between security personnel where a soldier was allegedly beat up in Benin on Saturday during the ongoing enforcement of lockdown order by the state government as part of the measures put in place by the government to contain the spread of the corona virus in the state. It was reported that the rift ensued between a Police Officer and a Soldier (though on mufti) after the soldier allegedly refused to wear a face mask. To set the record straight, there is no Civil Defence officer that is involved in the unfortunate incident among the security men in Benin-City between 1 pm and 1:30 pm at the popular Lagos Street/Oba Market Street junction in downtown Benin, the allegation is false and a calculated attempt to smear the image of the Corps and existing synergy between Corps and Nigeria Army. There has been a lot of talk that the security agencies dont get along, that is not the case between Civil Defence and Nigerian Army, both agencies have the same spirit, the spirit of defending the country. As a citizens friendly organization, we are very civil in our operations, and base on the order of the Commandant General of the Corps, Abdullahi Gana Muhammadu, he has since ordered that, no personnel should carry arms during Covid 19 lockdown/curfew enforcement and this is been adhere to nationwide. The Commandant General, appreciate media outfits in the country for collaborating with the Corps in discharging our duty, and it is a clear fact that the role of the media in information dissemination, public enlightenment and education to people at the grassroots and urban areas cannot be underestimated. But the journalists should work in line with the ethics of the profession, part of which required the publishing of only verified and accurate stories in order not to mislead the general public. Consequently, Commandant General has immediately directed a full-scale investigation into the matter. Signed Ekunola Gbenga Media Assistant to the Commandant General Meghan, Duchess of Sussex inspired young women all over the world to live their best life, even before she became a member of the royal family. While she was an actress on Suits, Meghan also ran a lifestyle blog called The Tig, which encouraged its readers with phrases like, You are enough. The blog had to close when she became engaged to Prince Harry. But readers of The Tig, along with all her new fans, will be excited to learn there is something special in the works. Now that Meghan has left her royal duties behind, she may be returning to the world of lifestyle advice. What is Meghan Markles blog, The Tig? Meghan Markle | Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images In 2014, Meghan launched her blog, The Tig, sharing advice on beauty, fashion, health, travel, and anything else thats required to live an inspired lifestyle. The blogs name is a shortened version of her favorite wine, full-bodied red, called Tignanello. As the story goes, when Meghan first tried Tignanello, she finally understood what people meant when they referenced the body, structure, and finish of a wine. She finally got it. And so Tig became her shorthand for getting it not just with wine, but with everything in life. According to the BBC, before The Tig, along with all of Meghans social media accounts, were shut down, she had over 3 million Instagram followers, 800,000 Facebook likes, and 350,000 Twitter followers. She was trying to show people you could live your best life no matter what your circumstances were, Amanda Dishaw, editorial director of Effervescence Media, told the BBC about Meghans blog. Although her social media had to be taken down, Meghans fan-base only increased when she joined the royal family. And in many ways, with the philanthropy and service work that she did as a duchess, Meghan was still sending the same message, encouraging others to live their best life. Meghan Markle may relaunch a lifestyle blog Meghans many fans will be excited to learn that she may be relaunching her lifestyle blog. Royal expert, Myka Meier recently appeared on the podcast, Royally Obsessed to discuss the Duchess of Sussexs future plans and her potential return to social media. I think Meghan is going to have another Instagram, Meier said. I think shes going to do a Goop, like a new version of The Tig I have a friend with a little bit of insider knowledge, and I think shes already working on something, Meier continued. 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. Is Meghan Markle relaunching her blog to make money? Because of Meghans enormous fan base, she could potentially make millions by returning to the lifestyle industry. A blog alone could make large sums of cash from affiliate marketing, something she and Prince Harry could really use since theyve given up the Sovereign Grant to be financially independent. In comparison, Gwyneth Paltrows lifestyle company, Goop, which Meier compared Meghans new venture to, is worth $250 million. But not everyone feels that Meghan will want to compete with Goop. Although she was a lifestyle blogger before, she has always been about philanthropy, as well as her focus on the empowerment of women and girls, author Leslie Carroll, who wrote about Meghan for her book American Princess: The Love Story of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, told Fox News. 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 also felt Meghan wouldnt want to re-launch The Tig in exactly the same way it was before. Throughout her life, her trajectory in my opinion has always been a forward one, which would make me inclined to speculate that if she were to relaunch a blog any blog she wouldnt go back to her previous one, said Carroll. She felt that if the duchess were to return to blog-writing, it wouldnt be under the Tig name. The consensus seems to be that Meghan would not want to focus on money-making ventures, like pitching her own products, but that she would want to bring back the blog to help women feel encouraged. However, that doesnt mean she couldnt still be making money with affiliate marketing. Meghan Markle will be treated to breakfast in bed by son Archie and husband Prince Harry to mark Mother's Day in the US, a royal expert claims. While the annual celebration of mothers is marked in March in the UK, America's holiday is held in May. Last year Meghan had only given birth to son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor - who turned one on Wednesday - a week previously. Having since moved to California after quitting as senior members of the Royal Family, this Mother's Day the Sussexes are likely to celebrate at their ultra-luxury Beverly Hills hideout that belongs to Hollywood tycoon Tyler Perry. Meghan Markle will be treated to breakfast in bed by son Archie and husband Prince Harry to mark Mother's Day in the US, a royal expert claims. Pictured: Meghan and Archie in a video clip filmed to mark the young royal's first birthday Grant Harrold, aka The Royal Butler, told FEMAIL: 'I am sure Little Archie, with his father's help, will make sure Meghan is spoiled the same way all other mothers across the USA are hopefully spoiled on this special occasion, which may even include breakfast in bed. 'But Archie may need some help from his father to accomplish this little task!' Due to social distancing, the Duchess of Sussex, 38, will be unable to spend the day with her own mother Doria Ragland, whom she hasn't seen since her recent move to the US. The Sussex family are in lockdown after California governor Gavin Newsom issued a 'stay-at-home' order in the state. However, Grant insisted the pair will enjoy catching up over a video call to mark the special holiday. Due to social distancing, the Duchess of Sussex, 38, will be unable to spend the day with her own mother Doria Ragland, whom she hasn't seen since her recent move to the US The Sussexes are likely to celebrate Mother's Day today at their ultra-luxury Beverly Hills hideout that belongs to Hollywood tycoon Tyler Perry 'As we have seen Meghan is very close to her mother, but due to social distancing the Sussex family will unlikely see her in person,' he said. 'But, most likely as with all other families, they will turn to Skype, Zoom, or FaceTime video call.' Perry's home is where Meghan and Harry celebrated Archie's first birthday on Wednesday, having a 'smash cake' and Zoom chats with friends and family, a source told People magazine. The couple filmed a sweet video of the former Suits actress reading Duck! Rabbit! to Archie, filmed last week and shared to the Save the Children Instagram account - part of a celebrity-backed fundraising campaign launched in the US by Hollywood star Jennifer Garner, who is friends with Meghan. The clip was met with great excitement from royal fans, who noted how much Archie looked like Harry, 35, at the same age. Oprah, 66, is believed to have gifted little Archie a huge collection of children's books, including the story the Duchess read in the video. Meanwhile, it's been revealed a biography about the couple is set to be released worldwide online on August 11, with the hard copy on sale from August 20. The book has the full title Finding Freedom: Harry And Meghan And The Making of A Modern Royal Family, and will be published by Dey Street Books. The publisher reportedly had briefings with people close to the couple and publication is likely to be serialised ahead of a full release. Today Prince Harry shared a video from his LA home to mark the opening ceremony of the Invictus Games, which has been cancelled due to coronavirus, in which he said life has 'changed dramatically'. The recorded accounts of the second lynching of an Afro-American male in the city of Chattanooga in 1885 vary. One version states that on September 7, 1885, Williams shot a white street car driver, Polk Mitchell, because he tried to enforce Chattanoogas segregated seating ordinance that required all black males to sit in the back of the vehicle. This account claims that when Williams refused to comply and move to the segregated section, an argument ensued and Williams shot Mitchell and fled the scene. He was later caught and put in the Hamilton County Jail. He was forcibly removed from his cell by a lynch mob and was hung from the rafters of the third floor of the jail, one day after his arrest. Another account goes into greater detail as to the parties and events that led to the lynching. Charlie Williams was a roofer who was highly regarded by the local builders who used his services. Before becoming a street car driver, Polk Mitchell had been a member of the Chattanooga Police Department and became the assistant police chief to Chief James A. Allen after he moved from Nashville. Chief Allen had gotten crossways with the citys mayor who had called for his resignation. The crux of the dispute was a campaign to raise money by issuing tickets by the police department that were supposed to be filed in the city court so that the City of Chattanooga could collect the fines and keep the money. However, Chief Allen preferred that the cases be lodged in the county courts thus depriving the city of significant revenue. Another aspect of the scandal with the police department was the loose policing of the approximately 100 prostitutes in an unofficial red-light district that just happened to be near the police headquarters. Chief Allen would periodically raid the brothels to placate the general public but as soon as the prostitutes paid their fines they were allowed to go back in business. Mitchell was eventually fired as a police officer because he was seen kissing his wifes cousin who happened to be a prostitute on a public street in downtown Chattanooga. During his tenure as a police officer it was alleged that Mitchell had beaten Charlie Williams and this unforgotten incident was what sparked the confrontation between the two on September 6, 1885, when Mitchell had gone back to his old job driving a mule drawn street car. When Mitchell stopped to pick up a passenger it was Charlie Williams who confronted the former police officer about the beating he had given him. An oral confrontation took place but ended with Williams being put off the trolley but not before the black roofer swore that he would get even with you you son of a b _ _ _ _ and went home and got a pistol. At a stop called the Lookout Switch, Williams again confronted Mitchell and this time it went beyond talk. A fight took place and the trolley driver was shot three times with one bullet piercing his heart. Williams fled the scene but was apprehended in a corn patch on the side of Chattanooga Creek. A crowd of over 500 angry citizens gathered and followed the police to the Hamilton County Jail. With the crowd getting more boisterous, Sheriff S.C. Pyott tried unsuccessfully to contact the governor in Nashville for armed troops. As a result, the sheriff called out two local militias to assist them, but they primarily consisted of young boys and were not allowed to load their rifles with bullets. Sheriff Pyott initially was able to calm the crowd but eventually they returned to the jail. In the meantime, a hurriedly impaneled coroners inquest was held and ruled that Mitchell met his death from pistol shots fired by Charlie Williams. The militia came to the jail and the sheriff ordered them to form a single line in front of the jail gate with fixed bayonets but no ammunition in their rifles. Knowing they would not be shot the mob rushed the jail and eventually found Williams in the last cell on the second floor. After some difficulty they finally broke through the steel bars and grabbed Williams. He was taken to the third floor where his hands and feet were tied and a rope thrown across an iron beam. The noose was made from mosquito netting and initially broke in the mob's attempt to hang Williams. Eventually a rope was found and Williams was pulled up about eight inches off the floor and strangled to death. After he died the body remained suspended for about 30y minutes in order that everyone could pass by and view the dead body before Williams brother came by and the body was released to him and Charlies mother and father at about 1 a.m. Another coroners jury was set up and their finding was that Williams met his death at the hands of an unknown mob. At 1:30 a.m., an hour and a half after the mob broke in and hung Charlie Williams a telegram arrived from the governors office authorizing an armed militia to defend the jail. * * * Jerry Summers (If you have additional information about one of Mr. Summers' articles or have suggestions or ideas about a future Chattanooga area historical piece, please contact Mr. Summers at jsummers@summersfirm.com An undertrial of the Amritsar Central Jail, which is packed with around 3,000 inmates, has tested positive for coronavirus after being brought by the police on production warrant. Partap Singh, who had been lodged in the jail in a robbery case registered against him in Tarn Taran district, was brought on production warrant by Chatiwind police for questioning in a murder case on May 6. According to the jail authorities, he had been living with around 200 inmates in a barrack of the jail. Chatiwind police station SHO Suhail Qasim Mir said, Partap tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday. He is now admitted to Guru Nanak Dev hospital here. After coming out of the jail, Partap came into the contact of around 24 people, including two judges and four policemen. ADGP (jails) Praveen Sinha said, This is the first Covid-19 positive jail inmate in the state that had been living in a jail for a long time. Earlier, three cases had surfaced but these inmates were those who were sent to the jails after being arrested by the police recently. Earlier this week, Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, a dreaded gangster, had tested positive for the contagious disease in Gurdaspur, but his second and third reports were found negative. He was brought on production warrant by Batala police from the Patiala jail. Meanwhile, Punjab jail minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa was not available for his comments despite HTs repeated phone calls. Chatiwind police station SHO Suhail Qasim Mir said, Four policemen had come into Partaps contact. They have been isolated. As Partap is asymptomatic, we have requested the health department to go in for his retesting. Partap was also produced in local courts twice on May 6 when he was brought from the jail and later on May 8. According to a letter issued by a chief judicial magistrate (CJM), Amritsar, the copy of which is with HT, as many as 20 persons, including two judicial magistrates of first class (JMIC) and lawyers, had come into Partaps contact during the hearing. Amritsar civil surgeon Dr Jugal Kishore said they have taken the samples of the two JMICs for testing and other persons have been called for testing on Monday. He said, The doctors deployed in the jail have been directed to screen all those inmates who had come into the accuseds contact. After their screening, all the inmates will be quarantined for 15 days. Protesters were back on the streets of Baghdad on Sunday, three days after Mustafa al-Kadhimi was appointed as Iraq's new prime minister. Black smoke filled the air as protesters set alight tyres on Al-Jumhuriyah Bridge in the capital. The leaderless protesters are seeking early elections, an end to Iraq's sectarian political system and for the ruling elite to step aside. The protests began on October 1, when thousands of Iraqis took to the streets to decry rampant government corruption, poor public services and a scarcity of jobs, despite the country's oil wealth. Al Jumhuriyah Bridge connects the heavily fortified Green Zone, where most government and foreign embassies are based, with the main protest camp at Tahrir Square. Protesters continue to occupy Al-Jumhuriyah Bridge, which remains the only key bridge sealed off by protesters since the protests began in October last year. On Saturday Iraq's new Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi vowed in a statement, broadcast on state television, that his government will release all detainees arrested during the protests. MADRID, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday called on citizens to maintain vigilance and precaution as approximately half of the country prepares to move into the second stage of the four-phase plan to ease lockdown restrictions which were put in place on March 15 to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Around half of Spain will benefit from the lifting of restrictions, but Sanchez warned in a televised speech "the virus has not disappeared. The fight will continue, and will not end until there is a vaccine." Many areas, including the Basque Region, Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia in the north of Spain, will move into Phase 1 (the second stage) on Monday after meeting the criteria set by Spanish health authorities to ease lockdown restrictions. These areas will be able to open outside terraces, while shops under 400 square meters can also trade and meetings of up to 10 people within provinces can also be held. Sanchez said Spain has "demonstrated many things, its huge strengths ... What has set it apart has been the magnificent response of the people, thanks to exceptional responsibility and social discipline," adding that Spain had shown itself to be "humane," with "all of society joined together by bonds of affection and care." "We have saved lives, but we have lost many more," he continued, "each fatality hurts us. These lives that we have lost weigh heavily." "In the meantime, we will have to live alongside the virus, which is why the healthcare system must be reinforced and its capacities strengthened and this will count for little without the responsible efforts of the people," he explained. Madrid and Catalonia are among the regions unable to ease lockdown measures for the moment and the prime minister repeated that not all Spain would move out of lockdown at the same speed. "The virus does not end at the provincial borders. The de-escalation will be guided by the principles of scientific advice and prudence," he informed. Sanchez also discussed the social and economic problems caused by the virus with almost 600,000 jobs destroyed in two months: "rebuilding means driving the creation of employment as soon as possible. We can achieve this together," he commented. According to official data on Saturday, 26,487 people have lost their lives from 223,578 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Spain. Friends of the Italian woman who was kidnapped in Kenya while volunteering as an aid worker celebrated after learning of reports that she has been freed. Silvia Romano has been released in Somalia after an 18-month ordeal, Italian officials said Saturday.Italian news reports said that after her kidnapping, Silvia Romano ended up in the hands of militants linked to Somalia's al-Shabab Islamic extremists. Romano was seized as gunmen looking for a "mgeni" - Swahili word for visitor - fired weapons indiscriminately during an attack in Chakama, according to Ronald Kazungu Ngala, a friend of the woman who witnessed the attack. On Sunday, he said he couldn't believe she was finally free and he hoped he could see her before her return to Italy.Silvia Romano landed in Rome on Sunday afternoon. Italian news agency ANSA reported that she's in good condition. (Image Credit: AP) The multi-purpose recreational park which is on a land size of about four (4) acres, has been temporarily released to the Prestea Huni Valley Municipal Health Directorate, to be used as holding and insolation centre for people suspected to have Covid -19 in the Municipality. The move by the mining firm, Golden Star Bogoso Prestea Limited (GSBPL) on Friday, May 8, was influenced by its commitment towards the host communities, as it continues to prioritize their health. The release of the facility is among other things the company is doing, to help in the fight against the Covid 19 in its operational areas. At the short ceremony at the recreational park in Prestea to officially release the facility, the Finance and Administrative Manager of GSBPL Rodney Oddoye stated that, as a company, it has always been their way of supporting in difficult times, hence the several support they have provided since the outbreak of the disease in Ghana. He said, Golden Star has so far provided some water storage systems at various public places in the operational areas, where water is supplied intermittently, just to make sure people get free water to wash their hands to prevent contracting Covid 19. We have given out water poly tanks to major lorry stations in our catchment areas which include Bogoso, Dumasi and Prestea. YOM, a water tanker contractor of GSBPL has agreed to provide free water to fill these poly tanks from time to time. We have also supported the three CHIP compound health facilities in our catchment areas including Brakwaline, Himan and Bondaye with complete sets of veronica buckets, to help with proper handwashing in these facilities, Mr. Oddoye stated. Above all, Mr. Oddoye further said, the release of the recreational park will help deal with Covid 19 in the Prestea Huni Valley Municipality. He said, this very centre where we are holding this ceremony has been given out to the management of the Prestea Government Hospital, to serve as a temporary holding and isolation centre for Covid 19 cases, that may arise in the Prestea Huni Valley Municipality. The Medical Superintendent at the Prestea Government Hospital thanking GSBPL confirmed the first case of Covid 19 in the Prestea Huni Valley and pleaded for calm. He advised against stigmatization and pleaded with everyone to observe the precautionary measures and better still stay at home. On behalf of the chiefs, Nana Adu Panyin II, Chief of Mbease Nsuta expressing sadness over the case recorded Thursday May 7 2020, called on the Health Directorate and GSBPL to intensify education on what isolation centre is. So not to be blamed for spreading the disease in Prestea and its environs. Later at the same event, the Third Party Contractors, through GSBPL donated some items amounting over Ghc44, 000 to be distributed to the clinics scattered in the Prestea Huni Valley Municipality. The items included gallons of hand sanitizers, gallons of liquid soaps, veronica buckets, waste bins, and paper tissues. The Third-Party Contractors who made the donation were LOCOMS, Amaray Enterprise, P2W, Petrosol, Western Transport Services, Kruger Brent Security and Primus. The rest were ERAM, Scrap dealers, Environmental Services Contractors (Bronsons, Braodleaf, Inubellem, Ralph Amonoo, Perfect Atom) YOM Water Tanker Services and Erdmac. The 8 May 2020 notification by the Uttar Pradesh government suspending all labour laws is unconstitutional and regressive. Hurriedly drafted with little more than a short-term outlook, it will not attract any investment into Indias most populous state. Worse, it could create labour-capital hostility and cart the state back to the 1970s, with constant clashes between trade unions and managements. This notification will not pass the Union governments executive signature and the Presidents assent, under Article 254(2), necessary since labour is a concurrent subject Entries 22, 23 and 24, List III of the Seventh Schedule read with Article 246 of the Constitution of India. And in case it does, the judiciary should, and will, declare it void. Finally, a three-year moratorium on laws is not a trigger for investment, the core objective; it is a deep dive into the ocean of policy uncertainty. Heres what the official release, based on decision of the Uttar Pradesh Council of Ministers, states: It is needed to give concessions to new industrial investments, new industrial establishments as well as ongoing industrial establishments and factories from the operation of labour laws, temporarily for some period of time. Hence, in the next three years, operation of current labour statutes are allowing certain concessions, as it has become imperative. An enabling ordinance has been brought for temporary exemptions, namely Uttar Pradesh (Temporary Exemptions from Certain Labour Laws) Ordinance 2020. This Ordinance is not available yet and we wait for it to be made public. Barring three, all laws, rules and regulations covering factories, shops and offices, stand suspended for three years. The three exceptions are laws on bonded labour (Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Rules, 1976), for construction workers (Building and Other Constructions Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996), and regulations around employee compensation in case of accidental injury, and timely payment of wages to employees (Workmens Compensation Act, 1923). While precise details are awaited, the implications based on current reading are regressive. Suspension of minimum wages The suspension of Minimum Wages Act, 1948 read with Uttar Pradesh Minimum Wages Rules, 1952, under which a minimum wage has to be paid to workers, will impact their earnings negatively on the political and economic front (a matter of executive decision) and is a violation of workers fundamental rights on the constitutional side. So, while wages will be paid on time under the Workmens Compensation Act, 1923, the amounts need not be in tune with the Minimum Wages Act and Rules. This suspension is in breach of fundamental rights. Every person who provides labour or service to another is entitled at least to the minimum wage and if anything less than the minimum wage is paid to him, he can complain of violation of his fundamental rights under Article 23 and ask the court to direct the payment of the minimum wage to him so that the breach of Article 23 may be abated, the Supreme Court ruled in the Sanjit Roy versus the State of Rajasthan judgement, (1983) 1 SCC 525, Para 3. We are of the view thatthe fundamental right enshrined in Article 23is violated by non-payment of minimum wage to the workmen, the Supreme Court had ruled a year earlier, in the Peoples Union for Democratic Rights and others versus Union of India and others judgement, (1982) 3 SCC 235, Para 11. Suspension of factory laws The suspension of the Factories Act, 1948, read with the Uttar Pradesh Factories (Safety Officers) Rules, 1984, the Uttar Pradesh Factories Rules, 1950, and the Uttar Pradesh Factories Welfare Officers' Rules, 1955, will have wide adverse impact. These laws regulate two aspects of labour benefits and safety. With their suspension, the following aspects will end on the financial front: working hours, leaves, holidays and overtime rules; facilities to women employees; canteen facilities; and suchlike. But what is even more worrying is the impact on workers on the safety side. With their suspension, the following features are under threat: fire safety rules; rules around facilities like first aid; safety equipment and related committees; maintenance and examination of critical equipment like lifting machines, pressure vessels, hygrometers, electrical apparatuses, ovens and dryers, and so on. The most dangerous for workers and society alike will be the suspension of regulation of hazardous processes and waste management. The 7 May 2020 gas leak incident at the Visakhapatnam polymer factory, LG Polymers India Pvt, that left more than 300 people in hospitals, is still an ongoing crisis. Suspension of shops and offices laws With the suspension of the Shop and Establishment Act, 1953 read with the Uttar Pradesh Dookan Aur Vanijya Adhishthan Adhiniyam, 1962, and the Uttar Pradesh Dookan Aur Vanijya Adhishthan Niyamavali, 1963, the service industry will be affected. This is a law designed to regulate the payment of wages, hours of work, leave, holidays, terms of service and other work conditions of people employed in shop and commercial establishments. Specifically, these laws oversee hours of work, rest days, festival holidays, weekly holidays, leave rules, overtime rules, working in night shift, health, safety and welfare including first aid and fire safety. Additionally, rules framed for women employees will not be applicable anymore. Hence all protections through rules given to women workers, including sexual harassment rules, and facilities to women employee (night shifts, transportation facilities) will be nullified. Separately, the suspension will impact the maternity benefits to pregnant women workers. List of suspended major laws Here is a list of 18 major laws that Adityanath has suspended. By no means, the list is short. In fact, there is over-regulation in the domain of Indias business. But while the excessive laws and regulations are a problem, suspending them blindly is not the answer. It needs deeper thought, greater application of mind. Uttar Pradesh Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Rules, 1975 Uttar Pradesh Factories (Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazards) Rules, 1996 Uttar Pradesh Factories (Safety Officers) Rules, 1984 Uttar Pradesh Factories Rules, 1950 Uttar Pradesh Factories Welfare Officers Rules, 1955 Uttar Pradesh Industrial Employment Model Standing Orders, 1991 Uttar Pradesh Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 1983 Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 (Applicable for Uttar Pradesh) Uttar Pradesh Industrial Dispute Act, 1947 and Rules, 1957 Uttar Pradesh Minimum Wages Rules, 1952 Uttar Pradesh Payment of Gratuity Rules, 1975 Uttar Pradesh Payment of wages Rules 1936 Uttar Pradesh Private Security Agencies Rules, 2009 Uttar Pradesh Dookan Aur Vanijya Adhishthan Adhiniyam, 1962 Uttar Pradesh Dookan Aur Vanijya Adhishthan Niyamavali, 1963 Uttar Pradesh Industrial Establishments (National Holidays) Act, 1961 Uttar Pradesh Industrial Establishments (National Holidays) Rules, 1965 Uttar Pradesh Labour Welfare Fund Act, 1965 and Uttar Pradesh Labour Welfare fund Rules, 1972 All this chaos for three years We wonder what this policy will deliver to Uttar Pradesh. Even if we believe that these suspensions are fine and pass the Union and Judicial muster, we fail to understand what Adityanath will get or how Uttar Pradesh will benefit by designing a policy for just three years or how such a policy will attract long-term capital. Investors need policy stability, consistency and predictability. A three-year window of regulatory concessions add up to nothing for any new and serious investor. By the time a factory is built and all licences and permissions received, it could take anything between 18 to 24 months. The reform stories of two chief ministers Yogi Adityanath is using the brute force of an axe to hack laws, rules and regulations, while all it needs is a scalpel to conduct a surgery and remove the gangrene of rent-seeking, red tape and other frictions to doing business. Yogi must learn from Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who has delivered real reforms, with the same policy objective of making the state more attractive to investors. But he has done it with a far greater political, labour and legal sensitivity. There are five sets of reforms that Chouhan has unleashed, all of which will attract capital, entrepreneurs, jobs, wealth and growth to Madhya Pradesh. These reforms are around processes registration in a day, licences for 10 years instead of one, shops to be open from 6 am till midnight, reduction in registers from 63 to one and returns from 13 to one, and raising the threshold for labour inspections to factories employing 50 labourers from 20 earlier. Across India, reducing regulatory cholesterol is one thing. But suspending all laws, rules and regulations is like throwing the baby with the bathwater. If the two chief ministers are to be compared, Chouhans policies show maturity and experience, Adityanaths the whims of thoughtless action. The intentions of both are the same attract industry to their respective states, create jobs. But while Chouhan has gone about it within the purview of law, while Adityanath is standing on the edge. He must retract this policy, rethink the details through and redraft new policies. If he doesnt, the Union and the Judiciary will. And if policy thought is too much trouble, he could simply copy-paste Chouhans policies. Gautam Chikermane is Vice President at ORF, while Rishi Agrawal is co-founder and CEO at Avantis RegTech. The views expressed are personal. This article first appeared in ORF. Is it safe that over 30 million Americans are now unemployed and dependent upon the government? Is it safe that the suicide rate is escalating? Is it safe that we have a dramatic increase in domestic violence, child abuse, drug abuse, and mental illness? Is it safe that the UN estimates that over 200,000 children could potentially die because of government imposed poverty? Is it safe that we are letting criminals out of jail while simultaneously preventing American citizens from exercising their 2nd Amendment right to purchase a firearm? Is it safe to close churches and keep open our liquor stores? Is it safe to prevent medically deemed elective surgeries but allow elective abortions? The so-called experts have for many months told us what we must do to be safe. They change their minds frequently in estimating the severity of the virus, the projected death toll, and the fatality rate. They tell us Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) doesn't work and is dangerous, yet thousands of physicians around the country are using it safely and successfully. Hundreds of thousands of patients take HCQ daily for a variety of auto-immune diseases without incident, yet we are told a short course of HCQ is dangerous. We are then advised as to which large businesses are essential and which private, often family owned small businesses are shuttered, with their employees being cast onto the 30 million-strong rolls of the unemployed. Similarly, in the healthcare industry we are told by government bureaucrats which procedures and surgeries are essential and who must defer treatment of their ailment for a later date. Many of these decisions are being made arbitrarily. I have seen several patients with significant disruptive conditions being told by this new class of bureaucrat that their medical issue is not essential and they need to wait for definitive treatment. In Canadas Ontario up to 30 patients have died due to delayed cardiac surgery. This is happening across the world. Big Brother government is not the answer. Individual liberty with personal risk assessment is the answer. While we need to continue to protect our most vulnerable citizens, we must allow the young, healthy and those living in regions minimally impacted by the virus maximum freedom to get back to work and to exercise their God-given, constitutionally-protected rights. Our Constitution was created with the express intent of limiting and restraining government, not for despots to use in restraining our rights to Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness. This virus is dangerous and contagious, but permitting this virus to be used by said despots to control the day to day lives of American citizens is imminently more dangerous. The American spirit is strong. In order to defeat this virus, we must permit the citizenry to get to herd immunity. This means that a significant percentage of the population must be exposed to develop protective antibodies. Herd immunity is accomplished either by natural immunity (exposure), or vaccine induced immunity. A vaccine may become available but likely not until next year or beyond. We cannot continue to be quarantined until a vaccine is available (as a side note, an AIDS/HIV vaccine is still not available). The young and the healthy have proven to do well against this virus. Of all fatal cases in New York state, two-thirds were in patients over 70 years of age; more than 95 percent were over 50 years of age; and about 90 percent of all fatal cases had an underlying illness. We are learning that many were exposed (unaware) and had little or no symptoms. We must continue to protect these folks at greatest risk, but we can never get to herd immunity by quarantining the healthy herd. It is time to open up our schools, our places of worship, and our businesses - with some commonsense precautions. It is time to allow the American citizens to get back to work, and normalcy, not the new normal that government bureaucrats wish to impose upon us, that grants them dictatorial powers, while treating us as subjects, denying us the rights that are granted us by the Constitution. Jeffrey I. Barke, M.D. is a board-certified primary care physician in Southern California Advertisement A huge crowd of protesters have clashed with police while breaking social distancing laws during a rally about Victoria's coronavirus lockdown. Ten people were arrested as about 300 protested on the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne on Sunday. Victorian residents frustrated by the state's relatively severe lockdown measures were joined by conspiracy theorists including anti-vaxxers and those who blame the global pandemic on 5G technology. They held signs that read 'fight for your freedom and rights' and 'don't lock down the people, lock up the government'. Demonstrators, including families with small children, could be heard chanting for the police to release the people who had been arrested. One man locked in a standoff with police had blood dripping down his face as officers stood their ground during the violent protest Police escort a man away from the protest with face tattoos. He was handcuffed as he was moved into the police paddy wagon One man was tackled to the ground as the crowd shouted 'what is his crime?' Someone else with blood on his head could be seen surrounded by officers wearing bullet-proof vests. Another man named Walter, from Orbost - fours hours east of Melbourne - was escorted into a paddy wagon and fined $1,600 for breaking social distancing restrictions. He said it was a small price to pay to 'spread the message', The Age reported. 'The police just want to intimidate you and scare you,' Walter said. One woman bizarrely told reporters she had government documents proving the virus was manufactured intentionally over four decades ago. 'I have evidence of the virus being created in the '70s with documents to prove it,' she told the Herald Sun. A man named Walter, from Orbost - fours hours east of Melbourne - was escorted into a paddy wagon and fined $1,600 for breaking social distancing restrictions (pictured) One man was tackled to the ground by police (left). Another was escorted away from the demonstration by officers in face masks (right) A man dressed all in black is dragged away from the scene in Melbourne's CBD on Sunday. It's understood he was one of ten people to be arrested at the protest Protesters clashed with cops outside Parliament House in Melbourne CBD, Sunday, May 10 She also claimed a 'universal coronavirus vaccine' was created in the early 2000s by US authorities who want to force 'a global microchip of humans and mandatory vaccination'. 'It's all written in the New Testament,' she said. 'We do not consent.' Crowds also chanted for Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to be arrested. Gates has been targeted by trolls who believe he will use the COVID-19 vaccine to inject tracking devices into the bodies of recipients and achieve world domination. Police said the majority of the ten arrests were for failing to comply with the Chief Health Officer's directions. Three people were charged with assaulting a police officer, while a fourth was charged with allegedly throwing a bottle at police. One officer was taken to hospital with a rib injury suffered during the violent protest. All offenders were released pending summons. A police spokeswoman confirmed capsicum sprayed spray was used during the arrest of one person and that the crowd dispersed shortly after. 'Police are continuing to investigate the events of today in order to identify other people who were in attendance,' the spokeswoman said. 'Once individuals are identified, we will be issuing them with fines and will consider any other enforcement options.' Police officers look on as protesters gather outside Parliament House in Melbourne, May 10 A police officer confronts a man as protesters gather outside Parliament House in Melbourne Footage of the demonstration showed a large police presence as Victorian residents and conspiracy theorists banded together with signs that read 'fight for your freedom and rights' Theories linking coronavirus to the rollout of the new 5G network have swept the globe during the health crisis, despite experts' desperate efforts to debunk the claims. Chief Health Officer Brendan Murphy said a number of conspiracy theorists had contacted him, describing their views as 'nonsense'. 'There is absolutely no evidence about 5G doing anything in the coronavirus space,' Prof Murphy told reporters in Canberra. 'I have unfortunately received a lot of communication from these conspiracy theorists myself. It is complete nonsense. 5G has got nothing at all to do with coronavirus. 'Similarly, I understand people have the right to protest, but they should not be breaching those social distancing rules and if they are, they should be held to account.' Australian professor of medicine, and public health advocate John Dwyer described conspiracy claims that 5G causes the deadly virus as 'dangerous nonsense'. He also refuted claims 5G technology is harmful to our health. 'At this time in the fight against the epidemic, this is dangerous nonsense. Even to have a few people think differently that social distancing isn't for them is a silly idea and is putting all of us at risk,' he said. Victorian health minister Jenny Mikakos today called the protest 'disappointing'. 'That is incredibly disappointing that some individuals don't understand that these restrictions have been put in place to keep them safe the whole of Victoria safe,' she said. 'I know that the whole of Australia, the whole world in fact, is waiting with great anticipation (for) a potential vaccine being developed for coronavirus.' The protesters will demand the government lifts 'absurd' lockdown rules and reopen the nation immediately, and have been encouraged to print these signs for the occasion A pamphlet for the event urged people in 'any state, any country' to 'peacefully stand on the steps of your government building and demand answers.' 'Do not be deterred by this continued fear mongering and false reporting,' one female protester posted online. Victoria has been in a state of emergency since March 16, with stage three restrictions designed to stop the spread of coronavirus in place. Under the restrictions, Victorians are only supposed to leave their homes for food and supplies, medical care and caregiving, exercise, and work or education. Premier Daniel Andrews indicated on Friday he would be making a series of announcements regarding the lifting of restrictions throughout the week. It came after Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed a plan for a gradual return to normality, but it is up to the states when to implement the measures. The woman said the primary reason for Sunday's 'peaceful protest' was to 'stand up for our lawful rights... and to hold our government accountable for the unlawful directives they have tried to force upon us.' The lockdown rules have been 'sold off as lawful, in our interests and to protect us from a ''deadly'' coronavirus ''pandemic'',' she added. COVID-19 has killed in excess of 270,000 people globally, and infected 3.9 million. In Australia, there are 6,941 known cases, including 97 deaths. A pamphlet for the event urged people in 'any state, any country' to 'peacefully stand on the steps of your government building and demand answers' The woman said any fines distributed on the day would 'not be lawful' and that guests should not consent to being told that the gathering is not essential. 'This peaceful gathering IS an essential gathering,' she said. 'Do not consent to being told it is not.' 'The Australian public is now aware and not afraid to stand up and hold the Daniel Andrews and Scott Morrison governments accountable. 'We will stand against this misinformation about an app, mandatory vaccinations, the 5G installation and and all related coronavirus deceit, and call on the government to lift the absurd shutdown and to re-open our state and country now.' Police Minister Lisa Neville on Friday pleaded with the organisers of the two protests to cancel their plans to take over the city. 'I am just making a plea here to protest organisers... to cancel those protests,' she said. Anti-vaxxers were present at the protest - arguing the government's lockdown rules are not lawful. Pictured: A separate protest on vaccinations 'We have come so far and to blatantly breach these restrictions like that put Victoria Police in a difficult position, put our community in a difficult position and tie up police resources that we don't need tied up. 'If you are thinking about going to those protests, don't. If you do, Victoria Police will be there.' Protesters said they would welcome police and urged them to stand by their side. 'Of course Victoria Police will be present. We call on them to stand alongside us,' one said. Commissioner Ashton urged protesters to have patience as lockdown restrictions could be lifted after the state of emergency ends on Monday. 'We get on top of this and we can start to enjoy more freedoms again,' he said on Friday. 'We are potentially not far off seeing some easing... so just be patient with us a bit longer.' Under the current restrictions, Victorians are only allowed to leave home for essential reasons and can be fined $1,652 if caught breaking the law, under some of the most restrictive conditions in the nation. For decades, the best-selling vehicles in the United States have been pickup trucks. Hulking, gas-powered models from Ford, Ram and Chevy have had a grip on the market that seems unbreakable. But there will always be companies that try to upend the status quo, powered by idealistic thinking and, ideally, deep pockets. One such company is set to take its shot this summer with a single-seat car called the Solo. A tiny, three-wheeled electric, it will be available in Los Angeles later this year. So many vehicles are being driven by one person, said Paul Rivera, chief executive of the Solos manufacturer, ElectraMeccanica, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Why does everybody think they need to drive around and leave three or four empty seats? Nearly 90 percent of Americans who commute by car, truck, van or motorcycle drive alone, according to the Census Bureau. Positioning itself as a right-size alternative to hauling around all of that excess automotive tonnage, the Solo takes up about a quarter of the space of a typical S.U.V. It also looks like a car at least from the front with the usual hood, grille and headlights. Take a peek from behind, however, and it tapers down to just one wheel. A Toronto woman is calling on the Canadian government to bring her ailing father home from Somalia, a country already ravaged by civil war, floods and famine that is now also struggling to cope with an outbreak of COVID-19. Hawa Mire, 33, who is active in the city's Somali-Canadian community, is desperately worried about Yahia Mire, 60, who has diabetes and heart disease. He travelled to Somalia two months ago, before it went into lockdown to battle the novel coronavirus. "Like many Canadians, my dad went on vacation. He was very excited about it. He wanted to visit some family members and got stranded," Mire told CBC Toronto. Since the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Somalia just over a month ago, the country is now reporting hundreds of new cases and dozens of deaths. But because the Somalis have to send samples to South Africa for testing and wait for results, the spread is likely worse than the numbers suggest. UN Food and Agriculture Organization "It really just doesn't have the health infrastructure to manage the situation that's happening right now and the numbers are low because the testing isn't happening," said Mire. According to Global Affairs Canada, 323 citizens in Somalia have signed up with Registration of Canadians Abroad, a free service that allows the federal government to notify Canadians in case of an emergency abroad or a personal emergency at home. The service also gives them important information before or during a natural disaster or civil unrest. But Global Affairs hasn't said how many Canadians in Somalia have expressed a desire for repatriation amid the COVID-19 outbreak. This is just the latest challenge for the economically fragile east African nation, which has been trying to recover from decades of civil war, and is now battling flooding and the threat of famine, in addition to repeated attacks by the armed jihadist group, Al Shabaab. Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre recently made a plea to countries friendly to Somalia for financial assistance to fight COVID-19. Story continues "Tragically, we are also forced to face and deal with floods locusts are also threatening our farmers," said Khayre in a statement posted to Twitter. Twitter Meanwhile, Mire says this shortage of medical supplies and facilities to take care of a growing number of COVID-19 patients makes her desperate to get her father home. "He's a diabetic, he's on a particular heart medication and we're worried about him not only running out of that medication, but if he were to get sick, where would he go to seek the appropriate medical care?" In a statement to CBC Toronto, Global Affairs Canada says it is aware of Canadian citizens in Somalia who wish to return to Canada and are unable to leave the country. "The Government of Canada continues to work with airlines and foreign governments to facilitate flights to Canada from locations with few international flights or with restrictions on travel," Global Affairs spokesperson Sylvain Leclerc wrote. But Leclerc said the federal government has to consider several factors, including the number of Canadians who want to leave and airspace closures, to identify the departure points for any repatriation flights. "Unfortunately, it will not be possible to ensure the return of all Canadians who wish to come home. Canadians unable to return to Canada should monitor local media and follow local public health advice on lock-downs or shelter-in-place orders." But Mire says that's of little help to her father. "Not all of us have the same ability to hunker down, and my dad, who's in his 60s, [is] at risk of contracting the disease, possibly fatally, without the right kind of health infrastructure and support in place without the family." At a time Covid patients in several parts of the country are being denied a decent burial for fear of spread of the virus, the sarpanch of Manuke village in Ludhiana set the right precedent. He not only helped authorities make preparations for the last rites of Gurjant Singh, the 56-year-old Nanded returnee who died on Saturday, but along with tehsildar Manmohan Koshik, he also sensitised the villagers about the situation. This comes in the backdrop of the protests in Verka village in Amritsar last month, where residents stood against the cremation of a former hazoori ragi (hymn chanter) of Golden Temple, Bhai Nirmal Singh Khalsa, who died of Covid-19. Gurjant, a labourer under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), was cremated at village crematorium on Saturday evening. Marks were drawn at the cremation ground to ensure that the people follow social distancing. Manuke village sarpanch Gurmukh Singh said, Gurjant travelled a long distance to come home and be among his people. In these circumstances, if we deny him the right to be cremated here, it would be a grave injustice. He further said, For how long we will continue to be scared of the decease and snap ties with our loved ones just because they have incidentally come in contact with the virus. I was shaken when the residents had denied the cremation of hazoori ragi Nirmal Singh Khalsa in the village crematorium in Amritsar. We need to change this notion. We just have to start living with the virus and maintain a safe distance from the infected persons. Congratulations, krant.hln.be got a very good Social Media Impact Score! Show it by adding this HTML code on your site: Krant.hln.be scored 64 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 3/5.0 Stars by Social Team This CoolSocial report was updated on 3 Jun 2016, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. krant.hln.be is very popular in Facebook and Google Plus. It is liked by 592 people on Facebook and it has 8 google+ shares. 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Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND Rajesh Kumar Thakur By Express News Service PATNA: With one more death of a COVID-19 positive person reported from the Patna Medical College and Hospital in Patna, toll reached 6 in Bihar on Sunday. The state also reported 52 fresh positive cases also on Sunday, the total count of positive patients in Bihar rose to 663. The 60-year-old OVID-19 positive person had come recently from Delhi and was quarantined at Atahamgola in Patna. After testing positive, he was admitted at PMCH on May 8 as a resident of Belachhi village under the Barh PS. Principal Health Secretary Sanjay Kumar said that the victim was suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and died after getting tested positive due to cardiorespiratory arrest. 335 active patients are under quarantine out of 663 tested positive while 322 have already been cured. So far, according to official figures, 34,150 testings have been conducted. So far more than 100 migrants have been tested positive in the state after their return from other states. Meanwhile, judging by the increasing cases of COVID-19 positive, the state government decided to allow sample testings facility at two private labs in Patna and Muzaffarpur for the first and the second stage of test at fixed rate of Rs 1500 and 3000. Sanjay Kumar, principal health secretary said that the path kind diagnostic Pvt Ltd at Patna and the Path kind of Diagnostic Pvt Ltd in Muzaffarpur were allowed to test. By Trend The cases of the coronavirus infection have been revealed among compatriots in Azerbaijan who recently arrived from Russia, Ramin Bayramli, Chairman of the Management Union of Medical Territorial Units (TABIB), said at a briefing of the Operational Headquarters under the Cabinets Cabinet on May 9, Trend reports. Bayramli noted that according to the statistics for Baku city, the majority of infection cases has again accounted for Yasamal district with 19.8 percent. COVID-19 cases in Nasimi district has increased as compared to the last week standing at 16.7 percent. Nasimi district accounts for the majority of COVID-19 cases recorded today. Around 14.3 percent of the infection cases account for Binagadi and 11.8 percent is in Sabunchu district. He went on to add that 22 percent of those infected belong to the age group of 50-59 years, while 18 percent accounts for the age group of 30-39 years. Around 43 percent of those who died from COVID-19 are from the age group of 60-69 years. One of those died belongs to the age group of 40-49. The patient was also suffering from a long-term chronic illness. 10.05.2020 LISTEN A man who allegedly inflicted multiple wounds on his wifes head with an axe for denying him sex is in trouble with the law. Victus Kuudiyiri, 35, a security man, has been remanded in prison custody in Wa, while the woman has been sent to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi for medical attention. He has been charged with attempted murder and the docket on the case forwarded to the Attorney-Generals Department for advice. Kuudiyiri, whose plea was not taken when he appeared before the Wa Magistrate Court, presided over by Mr Sydney Braimah, will reappear on May 20, this year. Quarrel According to the prosecutor, Sergeant Ali Katebor, Kuudiyiri, who did not like the idea of his wife denying him sex, locked her up for several hours in their apartment on May 1, this year. He said not satisfied with that act, Kuudiyiri again picked up a quarrel with the wife, and when a misunderstanding ensued between them, he picked up an axe and violently hit the woman's head with it. He said the woman fell down unconscious and realising what he had done, Kuudiyiri took to his heels. Sons phone call Sergeant Katebor said the couples 10-year-old son, who witnessed the act, picked up her mother's mobile phone and called her aunt, who went to the scene and rushed the unconscious victim to the Wa Government Hospital. He said because of the gravity of the injury, she was rushed to KATH. According to the prosecutor, three days later, Kuudiyiri reported himself to the Wa Police and was consequently arrested. He was arraigned before the Wa Magistrate Court and charged with the offence of attempted murder and remanded, pending further investigations. Meanwhile, the Upper West Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mr Francis Aboagye Nyarko, has cautioned aggrieved people not to take the law into their own hands under any circumstance but report any misunderstanding to the police. ---graphic.com.gh She's been cooped up at home like the rest of the nation amid the UK's coronavirus lockdown. But Keira Knightley stepped out for some fresh air on Friday as she and her husband James Righton enjoyed a socially-distanced celebration to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day in London. The actress, 35, appeared in great spirits as she engaged in conversations with their neighbours on the street during the rare sighting. Stepping out: Keira Knightley and her husband James Righton enjoyed a socially-distanced celebration to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day in London Nailing springtime style, the screen star sported a boho-inspired midi-dress complete with a V-neckline and floral printing throughout. The Bend It Like Beckham thespian opted for comfort in the footwear department as she complemented her effortlessly-chic appearance with brown sandals. With her tresses worn in a straight fashion, Keira went make-up free and rounded off her look with circular-framed shades. Musician James, 36, with whom the film star shares daughters Edie, four, and Delilah, eight months, looked equally casual in a white T-shirt, snakeskin print shorts and brown sandalled shoes. In good company: The actress, 35, appeared in great spirits as she engaged in conversations with their neighbours on the street during the rare sighting Turning heads: Nailing springtime style, the screen star sported a boho-inspired midi-dress complete with a V-neckline and floral printing throughout All in the details: The Bend It Like Beckham thespian opted for comfort in the footwear department as she complemented her effortlessly-chic appearance with brown sandals Paying their respect: Friday commemorated the official surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allied forces on May 8 1945, following the Second World War Following tradition: The poignant commemorations were led by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, who each laid a wreath at a memorial near Balmoral Friday commemorated the official surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allied forces on May 8 1945, following the Second World War. The poignant commemorations were led by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, who each laid a wreath at a memorial near Balmoral. The Red Arrows also carried out a spectacular flypast over the Capital while RAF Typhoons flew over Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast as the Air Force pays its respects. The Queen addressed the country from Windsor Castle, which was followed by the nation's singalong to Vera Lynn's wartime classic, We'll Meet Again. Radiant: With her tresses worn in a straight fashion, the brunette went make-up free and rounded off her look with circular-framed shades Low-key: Musician James, 36, with whom the film star shares daughters Edie, four, and Delilah, eight months, looked equally casual in a white T-shirt, snakeskin print shorts and brown shoes In a heartfelt message to the nation, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said 'our gratitude will be eternal' to the 'soldiers, sailors and airmen fought the Nazis with courage, ingenuity and stubborn endurance.' Keira's appearance comes after her PORTER interview in March, where she revealed she has backtracked on her controversial decision to 'ban' daughter Edie from watching fairytales. She said: 'Shes watched all of them now. When we watched Sleeping Beauty, she said, "Its not OK, that man kissed her without her permission!"' Toast: The Anna Karenina star held onto an empty glass during the outdoor observation Enjoying some downtime: The mother-of-two put on an animated display as she chatted to locals Long-term: The couple, who have been in a relationship since February 2011, married on May 4th 2013, in Mazan, Vaucluse The Pirates Of The Caribbean star originally claimed she had 'banned' her daughter from watching Disney films due to their lack of feminist messaging. Speaking in 2018, she said: 'Im being very careful about fairytales with my kid because I dont like the message that a lot of them have'. 'So The Little Mermaid has been banned. Cinderella has been banned. I havent looked at Snow White again, but that may be banned, as well.' WASHINGTONFormer U.S. president Barack Obama launched a far-ranging attack on the Trump administration in an address to former aides Friday, warning that the rule of law was endangered by the Justice Departments decision to drop charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn and criticizing the White House response to the coronavirus pandemic as chaotic. There is no precedent that anybody can find for somebody who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free, Obama told hundreds of members of the Obama Alumni Association during an online discussion moderated by his friend and former White House adviser Valerie Jarrett. Obamas comments were first reported by Yahoo News and confirmed by several people who heard his speech, including one who described the former president as being in quite the mood. Obama, who last month endorsed Joe Biden his former vice-president and the Democratic Partys presumptive nominee has signalled to people around him that he is eager to engage more directly and pointedly with U.S. President Donald Trump in an attempt to rally Democrats around the cause of his friend and to vanquish a man who has set out to dismantle his legacy. The news of Attorney-General William Barrs decision to drop the criminal case against Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, has been somewhat downplayed in the media, Obama said, during his talk with Jarrett. Obama said that such action only added to the urgency of electing Biden. Flynn admitted that he had lied in a January 2017 interview with the FBI about his contacts with Russias ambassador to Washington during the presidential transition. The FBI was investigating whether members of Trumps campaign might have colluded with the Kremlin to influence the 2016 presidential election. Career prosecutors and criminal law specialists were stunned by the Justice Departments decision to drop the case, calling it highly unusual and questioned its legal grounding. The move was recommended to Barr by a U.S. attorney in Missouri who had been tasked with reviewing Flynns case, after years of Trump and his allies arguing that Flynn had been treated unfairly. Trump has called the case against Flynn a sham and part of an FBI-led coup to remove him from the presidency. After being consumed for months by the coronavirus, Trump returned with a vengeance this past week to his grievances over the Russia investigation, saying it was an act of treason engineered by human scum. Obama has publicly adopted a studied posture of muted disapproval during his post-presidency, but privately has been caustic in his assessment of Trumps overall performance. That was especially clear during his discussion of the administrations response to the pandemic. In a brief audio excerpt posted online by Yahoo, Obama said the challenge was greater than Trump. This election thats coming up on every level is so important because what were going to be battling is not just a particular individual or a political party, Obama said. What were fighting against is these long-term trends where being selfish, being tribal, being divided and seeing others as an enemy. That has become a stronger impulse in American life. And by the way, were seeing that internationally as well. Its part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty, Obama continued. It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset of whats in it for me and to heck with everybody else when that mindset is operationalized in our government. Obama, who campaigned vigorously for Democratic candidates in 2018 and barnstormed for Hillary Clinton four years ago, has told friends he is deeply concerned that Trump, despite his recent stumbles, will be able to successfully leverage the bully pulpit of the presidency at a time when Biden is confined to campaigning from his basement in Delaware. Read more about: Stepping up his tirade against the Puducherry Lt Governor, Chief Minister V Narayanasamy on Sunday alleged that the former was preventing through several 'unacceptable' and 'objectionable' ways, the flow of revenue to the fund-starved territorial administration. In his daily press briefing, the Chief Minister said, "the police department has been instigated by Kiran Bedi to file cases against liquor merchants on flimsy grounds." "The police have no right to intervene in the working of the excise department and hence by misusing their authority they were unnecessary dislocating the working of the liquor business by taking action against the merchants."It is known to all that the licensees authorised to import liquor from other places or those selling the product within the Union Territory remit the excise duty before doing their business. The duty thus paid in keeping with Excise rules by the merchants ultimately comes to the State Exchequer, he noted. The Chief Minister said during the current lockdown the merchants were put to unnecessary hardship by "overstepping attitude of the police." He accused the police of "dancing to the tune" of the Lt Governor by filing false cases against liquor dealers on the basis of complaints given by those indulging in blackmarket activities. On reopening liquor shops, Narayanasamy said as far as his government was concerned no definite decision could be taken on the matter. "Already there was a legal battle in Tamil Nadu where the shops were now closed. We are not in a position to take a definite step and we will wait till the lockdown comes to an end on May 17 to decide on reopening the shops," he said. The Chief Minister said that his government could not go in for online sale of the liquor as very strong infrastructure and technical facilities were required to be done. The creation of the facility would take much time, he said. The cabinet had at its meeting on Saturday decided not not to take any decision for the present on reopening the liquor shops in the Union Territory. It was decided at the meeting that the government could wait for the next few days before the ongoing lockdown comes to an end and take a decision on reopening liquor shops, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 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United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe The army on Sunday confirmed that a heated confrontation took place between Indian and Chinese soldiers in north Sikkim on Saturday, resulting in injuries to troops on both sides. The army statement came on a day Hindustan Times reported that scores of Indian and Chinese soldiers were involved in a tense face-off at Naku La in Sikkim and the scuffle left 11 soldiers injured. Incident of face-off as referred to in the (HT) article did take place. Aggressive behaviour by the two sides resulted in minor injuries to troops, the statement said. The army said temporary and short duration face-offs between border guarding troops do occur as boundaries are not resolved. The statement said two sides disengaged after dialogue and interaction at local level. Troops resolve such issues mutually as per established protocols, the statement added. Four Indian and seven Chinese soldiers were injured during the confrontation that involved around 150 soldiers. The Asian giants have a long-standing border dispute that led to a war in 1962. The festering feud causes around 400 face-offs every year along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The face-off at Naku La was not the first time Indian and Chinese soldiers got into a fistfight. In August 2017, Indian and Chinese soldiers threw stones at each other and also exchanged blows near Pangong Lake in Ladakh. The clash near the LAC aggravated bilateral tensions as it happened at a time when the two neighbours were locked in a long standoff in the disputed Doklam plateau close to Sikkim. The 73-day Doklam standoff between India and China along the Sikkim border was likely to be the new normal, the Centre for Joint Warfare Studies (CENJOWS) said in 2017, making a strong case for building military capabilities as China respected strength. In a paper titled Looking Beyond Doklam, the CENJOWS, a think tank set up by the defence ministry, said it was crucial for India to demonstrate strength as peace along the disputed border will be constantly and continuously under stress with increase in frequency, intensity and depth of (Chinese) transgressions leading to more and more standoffs. On Doklam, China had accused India of trespass and preventing its troops from building a road in the remote Himalayan plateau that is claimed by both China and Bhutan. The standoff ended with withdrawal of troops by both armies. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Rahul Singh Rahul Singh covers military affairs. He has been a journalist for 18 years. ...view detail As businesses reopen gradually under restrictions, the San Antonio area continues to see more cases of COVID-19. On Saturday, officials reported 52 confirmed new cases, pushing the total in Bexar County to 1,887 since the start of the pandemic. No new deaths were reported, leaving Bexar Countys death toll from COVID-19 at 56. Of the new cases, seven were at Bexar County Jail, where a coronavirus outbreak has prompted officials to test every inmate and employee. So far, 303 inmates and 55 staff members have tested positive. An additional 18 new cases were identified in what officials call congregate settings such as assisted living facilities and retirement homes. Five of the new cases are under investigation to determine the source of the infection. Mayor Ron Nirenberg, speaking at the daily city-county coronavirus briefing, said data on San Antonios hospital capacity were encouraging. Sixty-two patients with COVID-19 were in hospitals Saturday, one fewer than on Friday. Of those, 35 were in intensive care and 21 were on ventilators. That left more than 30 percent of the citys staffed hospital beds and 78 percent of its ventilators available, the mayor said. The numbers are very strong, Nirenberg said. The mayor also noted that the number of people who have recovered from COVID-19 continues to increase. Some 970 people had fully recovered as of Saturday, up from 927 on Friday, Nirenberg said. Since the start of the pandemic, 51 percent of all patients in Bexar County with confirmed infections have recovered fully. Nirenberg, joined at the briefing by County Commissioner Justin Rodriguez, urged residents to continue to wear face coverings when in public and to maintain 6 feet of separation from others. Nirenberg emphasized the need for social distancing and rigorous sanitary practices through Mothers Day weekend, traditionally a time for family gatherings. We do have to continue to practice the physical distancing as best we can, Nirenberg said. Make sure you pick up the phone if youre unable to visit your mother. Said Rodriguez: Were not over the hump. The city recently opened two free walk-up testing facilities at Woodlawn Lake Park and Las Palmas Branch Library. On Saturday, 150 people were tested at each facility, said Jennifer Herriott, assistant director of community health for the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District. Over the summer, the city likely will operate free testing sites at schools, she said. As of Saturday, 33,502 people had been tested in Bexar County. Of those, 6 percent tested positive. Statewide, 7.7 percent of people tested have been positive for COVID-19. Nationally, the positive rate is 16 percent. On Friday, hair and nail salons and exercise facilities were added to the list of businesses allowed to reopen across Texas, provided they maintain a 6-foot distance between customers and operate at no more than 25 percent of the buildings maximum occupancy as determined by the fire marshal. Nirenberg said the city is educating business owners on the guidelines for reopening and may provide personal protective equipment for use by small businesses. He said businesses that flout the guidelines would be subject to being cited. Our hope is that people will comply with these orders, because it helps us to continue to open up the economy, he said. As for workers displaced permanently by the pandemic, Rodriguez said the city will look to offer job training and stipends to help them prepare for new occupations. Were going to see people probably who worked in the hospitality industry or service industry that maybe want to change gears, Rodriguez said. We want to make sure that theyre ready, whether it be for a health care job or an (information technology) job. diego.mendoza-moyers@express-news.net A pair of wooden bear sculptures seem to guard a closed Grizzly Mini Mart and Gas Station along Highway 140 in the heart of Mariposa on April 29. The gas station is one of the few businesses still open during the day in Mariposa. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) The Sierra Nevada towns that dot Alpine County have no hospital. Nor do they have a single doctor's office or clinic. In this region of small unincorporated towns, the workers who comprise its fellowship of coronavirus first responders look a bit different from their counterparts in metropolises a few hours away. They're a mix of civic-minded locals serving as volunteer firefighters and EMTs, and ambulance contractors who come when called from neighboring counties. Until the coronavirus outbreak, a nurse practitioner ran the county's only healthcare facility, but she recently left to help in an Army clinic in Texas. Now, residents must go out of the county, in some cases across the state line to Nevada, for healthcare, or call 911. That's why health and law officials in the least populous county in the state and other nearby rural counties that draw anglers, backpackers and skiers have united in a single message to tourists who can't seem to keep away: Stay home. Alpine County Sheriff Rick Stephens issued a blunt plea in late March to anyone considering a trip to the county. "I, myself, haven't seen my children or grandchildren in over two weeks," he said in a statement. "My staff is isolating themselves on their days off so that we may be here to serve you. Lately, they had to respond to calls that were unnecessary due to visitors not following the advice given by the CDC and our local public health officer. You will be putting my staff and their families in danger from unnecessary exposure." Dr. Richard Johnson, the Alpine County public health officer, agreed there's no medical care to treat visitors who fall ill with COVID-19. Theres no way we would even have ground or air resources to get them out," Johnson said. "Its a dangerous assumption that you can come and look at us as a safe haven. It is an unsafe haven. Remote California counties in recent weeks have seen waves of tourists hoping to escape their cramped apartments and stay-at-home orders in cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles. In Alpine County a few weeks ago, visitors snapped up all the gas and food at one of the areas few convenience stores, leaving shelves bare, tanks empty and residents without other options, Johnson said. Story continues The county, which locals dub the California Alps, has just one confirmed coronavirus case among its 1,100 residents, which officials said may give visitors a false sense of security. The community probably has more cases and instances of community spread, Johnson said. A new testing site will open soon in South Lake Tahoe in El Dorado County as part of the state's initiative to expand testing in rural California. Johnson hopes that will provide his county with more perspective on the level of coronavirus activity there. I have no idea if theres a lot of mild disease going on in the community, he said, adding that the vast majority of the area's older residents are extremely compliant with stay-at-home orders. This 2014 photo shows the wood-beam Markleeville General Store, a de facto community center, in Alpine County. The store on Highway 89 serves as a full grocery store and also sells fishing and camping gear. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) Although 17 of the Golden State's remote counties still have fewer than 30 confirmed cases apiece, they grapple with the same problems as big cities: a shortage of testing kits and protective equipment for their first responders as they prepare for a possible surge in patients. Many rural towns are served by one of Californias 34 critical access hospitals, which serve sparsely populated areas that are more than 35 miles from the nearest hospital, and house as many as 25 beds. These facilities, which include hospitals 15 miles from another hospital in mountainous terrain that makes emergency response especially challenging, have contracts with larger institutions. Rural hospitals often transfer their most critical patients to larger facilities because they lack intensive care units. Many would probably need to transfer gravely ill COVID-19 patients who require ventilators. Its not just having the piece of equipment, said Jan Emerson-Shea, chief spokeswoman at the California Hospital Assn., an industry trade group. You have to have the staffing who knows how to use it. They dont have that level of skill set. They dont provide that level of care, so just getting ventilators isnt going to help them. But not all small hospital administrators have faith that larger hospitals will be able to take their COVID-19 patients if they, too, are overwhelmed. Matthew Matthiessen, chief executive of John C. Fremont Healthcare District, has his temperature read while being screened by EMT Doug Michael in Mariposa on April 30. All employees at the hospital have to be screened for symptoms of COVID-19 and are asked questions if they have any symptoms of the disease before they are allowed to go to work. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) The only hospital in Mariposa County, known as John C. Fremont Healthcare District, does not have an ICU, but over the last two months it has worked with local public health officials to procure ventilators. Normally, the hospital would transfer critical patients to Fresno or Modesto, each about 90 minutes away by ambulance, but if hospitals there are overwhelmed, Mariposa officials anticipate being told to seek help elsewhere. Instead, since early March, the hospitals nurses with ICU training and experience have provided a group of nurses with a crash course in critical care ventilator management. Under normal circumstances, the hospital wouldnt offer that training, in part because it doesnt have an ICU. The hospital also created a COVID-19 wing that can serve up to 16 patients. We do have a plan because what we expect is to be told, We cant take your patients, you need to keep them there,' said Thomas Wilkinson, the hospitals chief nursing officer. As cases of COVID-19 mount in California, counties like Mono small, rural, wedged between the Sierra and the Nevada state line have been left to vie for resources: not only medical treatment and equipment but also food and other essentials. Stacy Corless, chair of the Mono County Board of Supervisors, said in March that the county has set up food banks and food delivery programs but "everyone is left empty-handed" because the local economy depends on the steady stream of tourism that officials have been forced to stave off. Some locals were initially feeling wary about visitors who trickled into town looking to escape big-city outbreaks. The county supervisor said she was hounded in March by residents asking whether officials could put up a road block or check drivers' IDs as they come up the mountain. However, in early May, Corless said everyone had gained a new, optimistic perspective about the outbreak. "As is the case pretty much everywhere, folks in Mono County now realize that we crushed the curve," Corless said. "They are anxious to safely reopen the economy." Some 26 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Mono County, and one person has died. The hospital, Corless said, has basically been "flipped upside down" to accommodate a COVID-19 patient area and a "clean" area for others. By early May, the hospital had surge capacity, she said. This 2018 photo shows a natural meadow near Alkali Lake in Mono County. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) As residents grapple with how to plan for a future with so many unknowns, many have sought refuge in helping others. Although Mono County doesnt have the political power of its coastal neighbors, it does have a strong community of people who are busy sewing masks for healthcare and other essential workers. In Inyo County, within a few days of a call for volunteers,120 people signed up to sew and quilt masks for workers. For locals, banding together is a familiar feeling, an act replicated during wildfire season or any time a natural disaster strikes. In Inyo, with one of the state's largest percentages of residents 65 and older, neighbors are checking in on neighbors, going block by block, making sure the elderly have what they need. "In small, rural, isolated towns there are a lot of people who really want to help out," said Inyo County Supervisor Jeff Griffiths. "We have food delivery for seniors who are quarantined, personal shopping for people who shouldn't be going out at all, check-up calls for older folks living by themselves, and we also have a volunteer hotline that is able to help people navigate the resources out there." The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest is a protected area high in the White Mountains in Inyo County in eastern California. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Inyo County has 19 confirmed COVID-19 cases and one coronavirus-related death. Healthcare workers "have the equipment that we need in the hospital setting," Griffiths said. There are two critical access hospitals in the county, one with 24 beds and another with about 10, he said. But Inyo has had difficulty keeping shelves stocked at its five grocery stores, Griffiths added. The county of 18,000, a stop along the road to the ski slopes of Mammoth Mountain, is a destination for campers, climbers and nature lovers who make trips to Death Valley National Park, the city of Bishop, Lone Pine and Badwater Basin. As in neighboring Mono County, tourism is a bedrock of the local economy. "There's been a bit of perception from people from the more metropolitan areas that this is a good place to escape to and that outdoor recreation is an appropriate thing to do during a pandemic," Griffiths said. The county has asked visitors to stay away until the virus is under control. It's a loss for a region that would see hundreds if not thousands of climbers during peak season. "We prioritize the safety of folks over recreation," Griffiths said. "We love it when you visit, just don't visit us right now." LOMPOC, Calif. - Residents in this central California agricultural community are keenly aware of their town's reputation. Wedged in a valley just north of ritzy coastal Santa Barbara, the town established originally as a temperance colony is 30 percent low-income, had its highest number of homicides ever last year and is home to a federal prison. The medium- and low-security prison in Lompoc has largely been seen as a bright light, offering stable jobs with good benefits. But now residents fear a new stigma they won't be able to shake: Their town is home to the nation's largest covid-19 outbreak in a federal prison. "The prison is in our city limits, the sick inmates are filling our local hospital beds, yet I have no control over any of it because it's a federal facility," said Lompoc Mayor Jenelle Osborne. "I'm getting emails and phone calls from people who are afraid, who are asking me to do something, and I have to tell them I am powerless to do anything." As the coronavirus bolted through one-third of the Federal Bureau of Prisons' 122 facilities last month, cracks began to appear in the once symbiotic relationship between the prisons and their towns. The bureau's fumbling of the crisis, which enabled the virus to percolate within the prisons and beyond, is stoking fear and resentment of the prisons - and sometimes of prison staff who live in those communities. So far, 45 inmates across the country have died. The Bureau of Prisons announced last week that 70 % of tests of inmates for covid-19 have come back positive. As of Friday, 3,701 of the bureau's roughly 140,000 inmates had tested positive for the disease. No prison staff have died but nationwide, 527 have tested positive, according to federal data. Residents in Lompoc and other prison towns, including Butner, North Carolina, and Oakdale, Louisiana, say having a prison with a high infection rate unnerves them, especially when they encounter unmasked and ungloved prison staff in grocery stores, pharmacies or restaurants. "We have people who come in with prison uniforms two to three times a week," said Antonio de Jesus Rodriguez, owner of Floriano's Mexican restaurant, which provides pickup orders to customers. "Some are wearing a mask, but some are without one. It's kind of mind-boggling. As I'm taking their order I'm thinking, 'You are in a hot spot; why aren't you taking this more seriously?' " The Washington Post reported last month that the Bureau of Prisons allowed the virus to fester in dozens of prisons before taking action to stop its progress. It did not provide masks to correctional officers or inmates until after dozens of inmates were quarantined, and often after inmates had died. Prisoners with coughs and body aches continued to line up, just a few feet apart, for their meals and medication. And temperature checks, for both inmates and staff, did not become routine until the disease had permeated dormitory-style settings where 100 or more prisoners sleep and live within a few feet of one another. In a statement, the bureau said it began responding to the coronavirus threat as early as January, and is using "screening, testing, appropriate treatment, prevention, education, and infection control measures." It also said that starting April 1, it began to minimize gatherings and that "inmate movement in small numbers" is being allowed for essential activities, such as visits to the commissary, laundry, showers, telephone and health care. The Bureau of Prisons' mishandling of the coronavirus threat prompted Rep. Frederick Keller, R-Pa., to introduce legislation last week that would require the bureau's director to be confirmed by the Senate. Michael Carvajal, the current director, was appointed by the U.S. attorney general, as past directors have been. At the Lompoc Federal Correctional Complex, two inmates have died of covid, 905 inmates had tested positive and 34 staff members had contracted the disease as of Friday, federal data shows. Nearly one-quarter of the covid-19 cases in federal prisons nationwide are at the Lompoc prison. The number of inmates who have tested positive at the prison is double the number of positive cases in all of Santa Barbara County - which has reported 450 non-prison cases among its population of nearly 450,000. The prison has 2,700 inmates. The prison's coronavirus cases are a burden on the compact town of 40,000, where locals and the prison system share the same fire department and hospital. The mayor believes the spread of coronavirus in the community is largely due to the prison and could have been curbed if prison leaders acted sooner and were more transparent. She estimates that nearly 60 percent of prison employees live in Lompoc. "We've reached out, but either a lack of experience or lack of leadership has caused them to circle the wagons and say, 'We will deal with it internally,' Osborne said. "This secrecy does not build trust with the community." The Bureau of Prisons responded: "We have an open line of communication with public officials surrounding our facilities." The prison, though, has argued that details of how the pandemic are being handled must be kept private. The bureau has asked local officials not to publicly disclose information regarding internal controls, the number of hospitalized inmates or the location of hospitalized inmates. "The BOP believes that such disclosure creates a security and safety risk," reads the request obtained by The Post. It's a 15-minute drive from one side of Lompoc - past ranch-style homes, the heavily muraled downtown off Ocean Avenue and the railroad that runs through town - to the prison on the city's other edge. The razor-wired top of the prison rises out of planted fields of kale, artichokes and lettuce that surround it, immediately next door to Vandenberg Air Force Base. Five miles from the prison in downtown Lompoc, American Host Restaurant owner Dennis Block said "it's a little scary" for him and his employees to know "that there's 100 cases down the street." In April, when a local doctor donated $1,000 to the breakfast and lunch spot to provide free meals to the community, Block and his crew took steps to protect themselves. More than 150 burritos were delivered to the local hospital, police department and convalescent home. For the prison workers, Block's employees set up a table on the patio next to the parking lot, loaded about 50 tinfoil-wrapped burritos onto it, then watched from inside the diner until the prison worker who collected them drove away. Block said his greatest worry isn't exposure at his restaurant - it's down the street from him at Lompoc Valley Medical Center, where coronavirus-infected prisoners are being treated and sometimes dying. "Basically, they are importing the virus into our community," he said. Nick Clay, director of the Santa Barbara County Emergency Medical Services Agency, said the prison has converted an old factory on the prison grounds into a medical ward that will treat up to 20 inmates with severe covid-19 symptoms. "They're really taking active measures that are focused on resolving this issue," Clay said, defending the prison response. The Rev. Jane Quandt of the Valley of the Flowers United Church of Christ drives by the prison a few times a week. Construction of the ward did not begin until mid-April, three days before the first inmate's death, and after many had landed in the local hospital. It opened Wednesday. Quandt said she hopes the community does not blame the prison for the spread of the virus. "This is a federal institution. So ultimately it's got to be run by the federal administration" in Washington, she said. "This is one of their babies and they're not taking very good care of it, at least not here in Lompoc." - - - Just north of the Falls Lake reservoir sits the town of Butner in rural Granville County, North Carolina, about 30 miles north of Raleigh. Tidy brick and siding-wrapped homes line grid-patterned streets dating back to World War II, when it was Camp Butner. In 2008, Butner residents opposed efforts to add a federal biodefense research center to a cluster of government-owned facilities that dominate the region. Along with the federal prison, there's a state prison, psychiatric hospital, addiction-treatment center and a facility caring for disabled people. At the time, Butner residents said they feared lethal pathogens - with no known treatment or vaccine - could escape the facility. Now, similar fears have been renewed with covid-19 and the prison. As of Wednesday, seven inmates have died. At least 306 of the 4,500 inmates have tested positive, along with 39 staff members who have been infected. In early April, Pine Grove Missionary Baptist Church introduced social distancing and protective gear to its twice-monthly food bank. As volunteers in masks and gloves carted boxes of pasta, frozen meat and canned goods to cars and trucks of local families, conversation repeatedly turned to their collective anxiety over the prison. "They were concerned with the possible spread of the virus within the community, considering that many of the [prison] workers live in the community," said Michelle Ross, who helps run the food bank, about six miles from the prison. In March, the outbreak crept closer to the Rev. Marcos Leon of St. Bernadette Catholic Church in Butner. Three parishioners - two nurses and a doctor working at the prison complex - told him in confidence that they were exposed on the job and had to self-quarantine at home. They were "truly afraid," Leon said. "It was the fear they were going to die. Then it was: 'I feel so bad because of my children. I'm living in a house where I have to be separated from them.' " The church's prison ministry regularly offered Mass, confession and one-on-one spiritual guidance to inmates until March, when prisons banned visitors. Butner and Granville County officials say they don't expect the covid-19 outbreak will alter appreciation for the prison as a local employer offering good-paying jobs. But correctional officers who live in and around Butner say they know some people fear them, said William Boseman, a retired Butner correctional officer and union representative for the officers. When people see the prison workers in their dark-gray uniforms walking down the street, they cross to the opposite side. In grocery stores, people scoot to the next aisle. "They are being ostracized," Boseman said. "When people know you work at this place where there has been an outbreak, they treat you different. They treat you as if you are automatically contagious." - - - The first covid-19 death of a federal inmate took place six weeks ago - on March 28 - at a prison in Oakdale, Louisiana. As of Friday, six more of the 1,800 inmates had died. There have been 115 cases of covid-19 among the prisoners and 26 among the staff. On the boot-shaped state of Louisiana, Oakdale sits just above the ankle. About 110 miles west of Baton Rouge, past the flooded rice-field crawfish ponds of the Cajun prairie, a meandering country road lined with towering Southern pines subtly opens into a meticulously planned, four-lane highway that drops you into the town of fewer than 8,000 people. It only takes five minutes to drive from the center of town to the Oakdale Federal Correctional Complex. Along an access road to the complex, a long row of fluorescent pink and white signs with handwritten biblical psalms and motivational quotes flickers in the spring breeze: "Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision." Jane Willis and her husband, Greg Willis, are in their mid-50s and have been the pastors at the Christ Church of Oakdale for 15 years. They broke ground on a new church near the prison to house their growing congregation a few months ago, before the pandemic. As the news broke of the covid-19 outbreak at the prison, Jane Willis felt called to do something for the shift workers driving in and out of the prison complex, past their property each day. So she made signs. "I saw the workers going back and forth and it broke my heart for them," she said. "I was thinking of a way we can encourage them as they go to work to know they're not alone." The couple's son works at the prison, as do 15 members of their congregation. One of them, Aubrey Melder, 53, a correctional officer, said when he saw the signs on his way to work the first time, his eyes filled with tears. Melder has felt supported by the community, but he has also felt its fear. "When they look at you, you can tell they are uneasy," he said, describing the few times he went to the grocery store in his uniform. "It scares them a little bit." Corey Trammel, a union president representing the correctional officers, said the community of Oakdale has long supported the prison workers, and he doesn't blame them for being afraid of contracting the virus. "I hate it for the community, and I hate it for our employees," said Trammel. "If our prison would have let people know what was going on and our warden would have protected us and our community, then people would not have to look at us like that." In response, the bureau said in a statement: "We do everything we can to maintain open lines of communication with public officials. Our Executive staff are willing to discuss with them everything they are doing to combat this virus." Gene Paul, mayor of Oakdale and a lifelong resident, said the outbreak at the prison created chaos and left people in the community panicked. "Everyone is wondering, 'Am I going to be next?' " Paul said he now is in close contact with the warden, but he wishes the Bureau of Prisons would have handled the crisis better from the beginning. He said buses of newly sentenced inmates were continuing to arrive at the prison until a few weeks ago. The bureau said that, overall, inmate movement is down 95 percent. However, they are legally obligated to accept new inmates brought by the U.S. Marshals Service. Those inmates are being quarantined for 14 days before entering the general prison population. Paul estimates that half of the prison staff live in Oakdale and, although many are angry with the bureau, that rage is not directed at the people who work at the Oakdale facility. In early April, Paul pulled a brown SUV into the Christ Church of Oakdale parking lot for a "Park and Praise" event to boost prison staff morale. As prison employees zipped by on the access road, Paul and dozens of other Oakdale residents waved and honked their horns. Christian music blared and several people stretched their hands to the sky. A woman waved a sign that read: "Not all Heroes Wear Capes." The prison workers smiled and waved back. - - - Green reported from Lompoc, California. Clabby reported from Butner, North Carolina. Marie Elizabeth Oliver reported from Oakdale, Lousiana. The East Timorese government is facing an unprecedented constitutional challenge, after 19 MPs submitted a petition to the countrys Court of Appeal requesting President Francisco Guterres be investigated for allegedly violating the charter. The MPs, 18 from previous coalition partner CNRT party and one from UDT/FM, are furious Lu Olo as the President is also known, hasnt allowed nine of their colleagues to take up their nominated positions in cabinet, two years after the 2018 parliamentary elections. People wearing protective face masks queue to enter a shopping center in Dili, East Timor last week. Credit:EPA Xanana Gusmao's CNRT-led alliance collapsed earlier this year after Parliament failed to pass the 2020 state budget on January 17. The budget has not yet been approved, exceeding the 60-day limit prescribed by the constitution, the group of MPs argues. In their petition, they say such failure should have triggered dissolution of Parliament. Abujas foremost private educational institution, The Regent School, has donated all its school beds to one of the nations capital isolation centres for the treatment of coronavirus. The school has been at the forefront of those rising to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Immediately after a lockdown was announced in Abuja in March, the school decided to assist in solving the critical challenge of inadequate beds at Isolation Centres in the Federal Capital Territory. The Regent School immediately donated all the beds in the schools hostel towards the setting up of a 360-bed Isolation centre. This project is led by Sahara Energy Limited. We were told that there will be a need for beds, the Board of the school donated One hundred and Eighty beds and mattresses. We are not only a school for academic excellence; we also give back to society. We are sure that our students would be happy to know that the beds are being used to save lives and we have since ordered brand new beds for our hostels, Olusegun Akinola, the Vice Principal of The Regent School, told reporters at the new Isolation centre. The Medical Adviser and Coordinator of the centre, Dr Peter Nmadu, who took Journalists round the facilities was full of appreciation to The Regent School, Sahara Energy and other Corporate bodies who contributed to equip the centre. READ ALSO: We cannot but appreciate all those who have put these together .The Regent School in Particular. A good number of the beds you can find here are from The Regent School, Dr Nmadu said. The Proprietress of the School, Mrs Amsa AbdulRazaq, said We must all do all we can to support efforts of the Government in fighting COVID-19. We are one humanity; we must look out for each other. This is what we teach our students, to grow up to be responsible citizens. The Regent School, Abuja, is an international school, with Nursery, Primary, Secondary and A-Level College. The school has been in existence for 20 years, The Regent School has consistently produced the best IGCSE results in Nigeria. The Isolation centre will be commissioned and handed over to the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 at Thisday Dome, on Tuesday, May 12. Sure, it might be warm Wednesday, but what about the rest of the week? A cardiologist has slammed United Airlines after finding himself on a packed flight out of New York on Saturday. Ethan Weiss took to Twitter to share a selfie from his seat on the 737 jet teeming with passengers. 'I guess @united is relaxing their social distancing policy these days? Every seat full on this 737... This is the last time I'll be flying again for a long time,' he stated beneath the snap. Ethan Weiss took to Twitter on Saturday sharing a selfie from his seat on board a United Airlines flight out of New York on Saturday Weiss then shared a screenshot from a United email he received April 30, in which the company claimed they were 'automatically blocking middle seats' so passengers could practice safe social distancing. However, his selfie showed that many middle seats on board the flight were occupied 'I guess a lot has changed in 10 days,' Weiss wrote beneath the screenshot. Weiss went on to explain that he was among a group of 25 nurses and doctors who had been flown out to New York City from San Francisco for free by United so that they could serve in The Big Apple's hospitals amid the coronavirus pandemic. The groups was all flying back to San Francisco on Saturday. In a statement, United told DailyMail.com: 'Our flight to San Francisco had an additional 25 medical professionals on board who were flying for free to volunteer their time in New York - we've provided complimentary flights for more than 1,000 doctors and nurses in the past few weeks alone.' Weiss slammed the airline for filling middle seats and appearing to relax its social distancing policies While United has blocked customers from booking middle seat options, they can not always guarantee they will be unoccupied. The company's website states: 'Given our significantly reduced schedule, we want to ensure customers have an opportunity to get to their destinations, particularly in places where we're only operating a single flight per day, so some flights may have more customers on board than others depending on the particular route or frequency. However, most flights currently depart with many unoccupied seats. ' As for Saturday's flight home, Weiss remarked that fellow passengers on the plane were 'scared and shocked'. He stated he had 'no idea why most of them are traveling.' In recent weeks, there have been several reports of packed planes flying across the US, causing anxiety among passengers. Earlier this week, a shocking video showing a 'packed' American Airlines flight departing from New York City went viral online. Weiss sent out a sting of tweets expressing his disappointment in United Grandmother-to-be Krissy Maloney shared the video to Facebook, and wrote: 'We flew from NYC, the US epicenter of Corona, no one said anything to anyone about distancing or even to pull your mask from under your chin.' 'Just beware if you have to fly, the airlines are doing nothing to make anyone feel like air travel could be safe. 'If my grandson wasn't coming any time now I would not have flown and if I knew the airline was going to completely lie about taking precautions than I would have driven.' In a statement to DailyMail.com, American Airlines refuted Maloney's claims, saying 'the flight was not full, and not every seat was occupied,' adding that their COVID-19-induced safety protocol was fully complied with on Maloney's flight. US Airline Coronavirus Safety Measures American Airlines: Blocking off 50 percent of its main cabin middle seats and any seats situated near the flight attendants' jump seats. The policy is effective through May 31. Hawaiian Airlines: Crew will manually assign seats to 'increase personal space onboard' and prevent the booking of middle and adjoining seats. JetBlue: Not barring middle seats outright, however, flight staff are limiting the number of seats for sale on most aircrafts 'to provide additional space between individuals who are not traveling together.' Spirit Airlines: Middle seats on most of Spirit Airlines' aircraft will be blocked, according to the company's website. There is no end date specified. Southwest Airlines: Instead of blocking off middles seats, the number of passengers allowed on board has been capped. Passengers are responsible for picking their own seats and managing their own space needs. The policy began May 2. United Airlines: Passengers are limited from booking middle seats 'where available.' Aircraft that have two-seat rows will only allow one passenger to book a seat while the other remains empty. Additional spacing procedures include blocking off seats directly next to the booked seat, whether it be directly in front of a window seat or beside an aisle seat. The policy is in place through May 31. Advertisement US airlines are collectively burning more than $10 billion in cash a month and averaging fewer than two dozen passengers per domestic flight because of the coronavirus pandemic. Even after grounding more than 3,000 aircraft, or nearly 50 percent of the active US fleet, industry trade group Airlines for America said its member carriers, which include the four largest U.S. airlines, were averaging just 17 passengers per domestic flight and 29 passengers per international flight. 'The U.S. airline industry will emerge from this crisis a mere shadow of what it was just three short months ago,' the group's chief executive, Nicholas Calio, said during a prepared testimony at the US Senate on Wednesday. Net booked passengers have fallen by nearly 100 percent year-on-year, according to the testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee. The group warned that if air carriers were to refund all tickets, including those purchased as non-refundable or those canceled by a passenger instead of the carrier, 'this will result in negative cash balances that will lead to bankruptcy.' US airlines have canceled hundreds of thousands of flights, including 80 percent or more of scheduled flights into June as U.S. passenger traffic has fallen by 95 percent since March. Calio said airlines 'anticipate a long and difficult road ahead. ... History has shown that air transport demand has never experienced a V-shaped recovery from a downturn.' The US Treasury has awarded nearly $25 billion in cash grants to airlines to help them meet payroll costs in exchange for them agreeing not to lay off workers through September 30. Major airlines have warned they will likely need to make additional cuts later this year to respond to a long-term decline in travel demand. SELINSGROVE An assistant middle school principal in the Selinsgrove Area School District identified by state police as the subject of an investigation into an attempt to solicit nude photos of minors has resigned. Christopher Morrison gave no reason in his letter of resignation, Superintendent Chad Cohrs said Saturday. He had been suspended with pay. The resignation of Morrison, who had been with the district for four years, is on the agenda for Mondays school board meeting, he said. State police are investigating an attempt to solicit nude pictures of minors that occurred in Snapchat. A screenshot taken by one of the young girls engaged in a group chat with a male who was asking for nude photos is part of the investigation said Snyder Count District Attorney Michael Piecuch said. After taking the screen shot, the girl involved terminated the chat and blocked the account, police said. No one has been charged but a state police in a search warrant affidavit say Morrison confessed to a father of a victim. That father had put the screen shot in a Facebook post with a request that the male call him. Police said that the father missed the call, but when he returned it, a man who identified himself as Morrison asked him to remove the Facebook post. It was during the conversation that Morrison is alleged to have admitted asking the girl for intimate images, according to the state police affidavit. The state police investigation began May 3 and Morrisons residence was searched the following day. As we recently embarked on the long-awaited phase 2 and are ready to go back to normal, it is essential to remember that Italy is not out of the woods yet. Precautions will continue to be a part of the daily life for a long, long time. So, what do our new lives looks like and what are some activities that we can enjoy as we learn to live with covid-19? Social distancing Following the latest decree, one of the most wondered questions was if it would be possible to visit loved ones. After nationwide discussions, the government clarified who we can actually visit, and it is limited to extended family members who live in the same region. You are, though, allowed to meet up also with your significant other, even if you are not legally married. However, this does not give a free pass to organize gatherings with friends or throw dinner parties. Unfortunately, it is still not possible to catch up with friends in person, and our social lives will seem to be continuing on Zoom and HouseParty for a longer time. Aperitivo-to-go vs. delivery After long weeks of lockdown, its time to have another taste of that pasta dish that youve been craving! Unlike phase 1, when restaurants were allowed to operate only through delivery apps, now it is once again possible to go to a restaurant or a bar in person. Yet, this is strictly for take-out purposes, and it is not allowed to actually eat or drink in the establishment. Be warned that enjoying your take-out in piazzas or outdoor spaces with friends or companions is also prohibited. You can still take your order home and enjoy it with your family though - a luxury to savor during the pandemic! In fact, many restaurants and bars are serving special menus that promise the same dining experience. A perfect solution to replicate a Roman aperitivo or dinner as you also help out business to get back on their feet! It is also possible to stop by your favorite bar for a real espresso -to go- or get a cono di gelato from your preferred gelateria on the way back from your daily walk. Parks and monuments One of the best news about phase 2 is the reopening of parks and the possibility of going for a walk or a run without having to worry about staying close to your living quarters. Finally, it is time for a stroll in Villa Borghese or Giardino degli Aranci to enjoy the sun. It is also a great time to appreciate your favorite Roman monuments without the crowds. Organize your daily run around the historic center and stop for a quick photo break to snap a few pictures of Rome from a new perspective. If you are interested in culture, museums are also set to open one by one starting from 18 May, another great activity to enjoy alone while social-distancing from friends. Remember, all roads lead to Rome, so enjoy this eternal city as much as possible, even during a pandemic! Shopping -with a mask- and a visit to the hair salon Another progress that is coming soon is the gradual opening of shops. The government, as well as the Lazio region, are working on the last details to give them the green light. Hairdressers and beauty salons are also anticipated to be back in business in the upcoming weeks. The instructions for safety measures are still unclear. Yet, a limited number of customers inside the shops and upgraded hygiene protocols will be a given. Business owners and customers will all have to pay attention to limit the risks as much as possible. Regions have different protocols for the use of masks, but it is always obligatory to wear one in public areas such as supermarkets and public transportation. The same will be expected in shops, beauty salons, and other shared spaces. Traveling away Currently, it is not possible to travel outside of the region without a valid motive such as work purposes or other emergencies. However, this does not mean free-movement inside the regions either. All travels should be motivated by a necessity and it is not yet allowed to travel anywhere for leisure. Therefore, driving to a nearby 'comune' for a stroll or day-trips to Lazio beaches are also still out of the question. Nevertheless, the government is currently working on a travel bonus to offer economic benefits to the citizens who will opt to spend their vacations in Italy. A hopeful sign that we might get to spend some time at the beach after all! Even though phase 2 still seems harsh, the authorities are closely monitoring the situation and in case of improvement, further liberties will be granted to the citizens in the following weeks. The restrictions are expected to continue for the next few months- if not longer- and the phase 3 will only start after the finding of a specific cure or vaccine. Meanwhile, we will have to live with covid-19, be extra careful and make sure to abide by the rules. Stay strong, stay safe, stay Roman! Ph: Alessia Pierdomenico / Shutterstock.com Mystery surrounds what is causing a creek in Melbournes north to turn bright pink over the weekend. Edgars Creek, at Coburg North, turned an almost fluorescent pink on Saturday, but authorities arent sure whats behind the worrying phenomenon. Victorias Environmental Protection Authority wrote on Facebook Saturday that its investigating the bizarre occurrence. EPA officers are investigating the cause of the strange discolouration which happened near Adnette Court, the department said. Melbourne woman Tara DeGraft-Hayford told The Age she first thought it was a plastic sheet placed over the creek. It looked quite thick and so bright, almost like some kind of soap - but not. It was weird, she told the publication. People are furious after Edgars Creek in Melbourne's northern suburbs turned pink. Source: EPA Victoria On Facebook, people questioned whether the lake had been polluted. It looks horrific, one woman wrote. Pity any species using this habitat for survival aquatic and terrestrial. Others questioned whether it was toxic. I am about to burst into tears, another woman wrote. How can anything like this happen in today's modern world let alone Melbourne's Northern Suburbs? I feel sick to the pit of my stomach seeing this. Someone taking advantage of Covid19 to pollute Edgars Creek, Coburg North today @guardian @theage pic.twitter.com/dFRX3xbTSn LottiP (@Spy_Fragments) May 9, 2020 While its a somewhat unusual site its not the only body of water in Victoria to change into a shade of pink. Melbournes Westgate Park has resembled fairy floss in the past but its due to a natural process. Parks Victorias Mark Norman explained back in 2017 that the Westgate Park lake turns pink due to the green algae at the bottom changing colour after a high level of salt. He added it turns pink most summers. Story continues EPA Victoria has been contacted for comment over its investigation into the lake discolouring in Melbournes north. The Westgate Park lake turns pink. It's pictured here in March, 2019. Source: AAP Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play. Gov. Gavin Newsom, center, with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, right, in front of the Navy hospital ship Mercy at the Port of Los Angeles. (Los Angeles Times) It has become a pandemic staple: Every day at noon, Gov. Gavin Newsom stands before a camera, usually in the state's emergency operations center, for a digital-age version of the fireside chat. In his trademark stream-of-consciousness style, Newsom delivers an overview of the coronavirus' effects on the Golden State to thousands of people watching on social media or tuning in on TV. He gives the grim tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, outlines the latest steps by state government to help Californians cope, and assesses what's going on in the state that day. The governor uses no script during these daily briefings, riffing extemporaneously as if he's live-streaming all the data, facts and figures he's absorbed over the last 24 hours of meetings and reports. More often than not, he breaks a bit of news. This is the Newsom the outside world sees: a calm, confident and intelligent (and verbose) governor handily guiding his massive state through an unprecedented crisis, informed by science and a sincere desire to protect the public's health. Newsoms tone of tough-but-necessary action has been consistent from the start, in stark contrast to the bumbling, confusing messages from the White House. Behind the scenes, however, the governor seems to be operating at the same chaotic pace that characterized his first year in office, when he tried to do 5 million things at once and often had to backtrack on public pronouncements. And it has played out the same way in the pandemic, with Newsom making missteps that undermine his otherwise impressive performance over the last three months. There is no guidebook for managing a state through a crisis of this magnitude, and every governor should be afforded some leeway in the mad scramble to make the right decisions without the benefit of precedent. And that goes double for the governor of a state as massive, as diverse and as demanding as California. Even in stable times, its a difficult state to manage. Story continues Our purpose is not to quibble over stumbles by a well-intended and competent governor, but to suggest how he might do better in the coming months. California is facing a massive budget deficit, an ongoing economic crisis and a pandemic thats likely to be around to some degree for years to come. The state needs the best from Newsom as we move out of the emergency response phase and start putting California back together for the long haul. So let's start with what Newsom has done right. Its not an exaggeration to say that there are people alive today because of Newsom's expeditious action. His aides say he began monitoring the outbreak unfolding in China in January, aware of its potential impact on California from having governed through the SARS coronavirus outbreak in 2003 as a San Francisco county supervisor and the 2009 swine flu pandemic as mayor. In March, while President Trump was still dismissing the new coronavirus as no real threat to Americans, Newsom ordered non-essential businesses to close and Californians to stay at home to slow the spread of the disease it causes, COVID-19. At the time the closures may have seemed extreme, but they turned out to be prescient. In April, medical examiners in Santa Clara County revealed that the new coronavirus had been circulating, and killing people, in California weeks before initially thought. As a result, California is faring much better than states where governors were slow to take pandemic precautions. Georgias Gov. Brian Kemp comes to mind. Kemp was one of the last governors to issue a stay-at-home order for his state and one of the first to allow businesses to reopen. Now, Georgia has become a COVID-19 hot spot, with 1,395 deaths as of Friday afternoon. Thats more than half of the deaths California has logged in a state with one-tenth the population. We were also grateful that Newsom has suspended his role as Twitter foil to President Trump. He seems to have recognized that theres little political gain in calling out the president's gaffes when the state desperately needs federal assistance in obtaining pandemic supplies and filling a predicted $54-billion budget deficit. Indeed, Newsom has made a point to praise Trump where appropriate, such as when the president sent a Navy medical ship to Los Angeles to treat patients if the state's hospitals became overwhelmed. (They didn't.) When the federal government sent California 170 broken ventilators, Newsom didn't slam the feds, but figured out how to get them fixed. Newsom has also picked up the leadership slack left by the Trump administration. In April, he announced that he would leverage the state's relationship with manufacturers and its sizable (if quickly depleting) budget to buy millions of medical-grade face masks each month. He and the governors of western states have banded together to share best practices and confer on strategies to reopen businesses in their states. Newsom's strength has always been the ability to take the broad view and to dive into big initiatives. He's said more than once that he's not interested in the process of governing but in the outcomes. So it's no surprise that his stumbles during the pandemic stem from improper attention to the process. Here's a telling example: The first weekend in May was expected to be another hot one in Southern California, with people venturing to the beaches for a bit of cool air as they had the weekend before. But then law enforcement agencies reported that the governor was planning to close all the states beaches on May 1 to prevent groups of people from gathering and potentially triggering more coronavirus outbreaks. Local officials reacted quickly, asking that he not punish the entire state for the crowding reported at some Orange County beaches. The next day, the governor claimed he never intended to close all the beaches, and was in fact only targeting Orange County. And the memo police agencies said they'd received from his office? It never got to me, he said. That explanation did no favors for Newsom's credibility. It was also perplexing. Whats wrong with having a change of heart after receiving new information and input from the public? That's what we want our elected officials to do. Inattention to process was also a factor in a number of other pandemic-related initiatives the governor touted before all the details were in place. One example was the governors announcement on April 24 of a plan for idled restaurants to provide three free meals a day to home-bound seniors, a win for both businesses and at-risk residents. The program would be administrated by local officials, he said, which surprised many local officials who had no idea such a program was in the works, according to a report by CalMatters. Thousands of people quickly signed up for the service, but have yet to receive meals. Both Democratic and Republican legislators have complained that the governor fails to keep them in the loop or provide details about spending. They were particularly concerned about a ballyhooed $990-million deal with the Chinese electric car company BYD to buy millions of medical-grade masks, and it took weeks for the governor's office to share the contract's specifics. The state constitution grants the governor wide executive power to respond to emergency situations, but it doesnt relieve him of accountability. And local elected officials often find out about policies that would affect them at the same time as the public, such as when Newsom said last month that schools might open as soon as July. It was a surprise to some local superintendents, who were still working on how and when they might safely reopen their schools. And when Newsom noted in early April that he was going to send 500 ventilators to other states, it caught Santa Clara and Riverside county officials off guard. They were still madly scrambling to secure ventilators for their hospitals; in fact, Riverside had been denied a request for state-provided ventilators. Senior administration officials defend what may seem like premature announcements and inadequate communication as simply the cost of rushing to launch so many new initiatives quickly in a bureaucracy that generally moves at a glacial pace. Better to go too fast to help people who are hurting, they say, than to move too slowly. That's a fair point. But as we've seen from several of the governor's misfired initiatives, laying the proper groundwork for big new policy shifts is essential to the success of those efforts. In any case, these are minor missteps that could reasonably be chalked up to an ambitious, impatient, multitasking governor who is operating, as they say, without a net. But as we move into phase 2 of the pandemic response, Californians need to see a steadier hand on the controls. Newsom should slow down a bit and attend to the important processes of governing as he leads California through one of the most challenging periods in modern history. For the record: 11:08 AM, May. 11, 2020: This editorial incorrectly states that Geogia, which has more than half as many COVID-19 deaths as California, has only a tenth of Californias population. Georgias population is about one fourth of Californias. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Made Anthony Iswara (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, May 10, 2020 14:29 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd70ae97 1 National #THR,THR,holiday-bonuses,#holiday-bonuses,workers,#workers,COVID-19,#COVID19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia Free A recent Manpower Ministry circular on holiday bonuses (THR) may violate workers rights as it gives grounds for businesses to defer bonus payments, critics have said. Airlangga University labor expert Hadi Subhan said the new policy, which was designed to assist companies struggling financially as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, might instead encourage "stowaways": businesses that were fully capable of paying the THR but chose not to. Employers already have strong [bargaining power in negotiations] without the circular. With the circular, workers will now be increasingly oppressed, he said on Thursday, calling on businesses to be transparent about their financial situations. The ministerial circular issued on May 6 stipulated that companies could pay the THR in installments or delay the bonuses for an agreed period of time if they were unable to pay them. The company would need to be transparent about its financial condition and hold employer-employee dialogues to reach an agreement, which would then be reported to local manpower agencies, the circular said. However, Hadi said the circular contradicted a 2015 Government Regulation on wages and a 2016 Manpower Ministry Regulation on holiday bonuses, neither of which made any allowances for delays or non-payments of the THR. The regulations instead require businesses to pay bonuses equal to one month of each workers salary seven days before certain religious holidays Idul Fitri in this case. Failure to meet the deadline, according to the previous regulations, will result in a penalty of 5 percent of the total THR payment on top of the compulsory bonus. 2020 holiday bonuses delayed? (JP/Made Anthony Iswara) Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI) president Said Iqbal objected to the new policy, saying that the option to defer should only be given to small and medium enterprises. He said the two prevailing regulations required all employers to pay holiday bonuses to employees who had worked at the company for more than one year without any prior negotiation. Employees who had been on the payroll for less than one year had a right to receive bonuses prorated to the length of their employment. The group has brought the circular to the Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN) and will set up help desks in 30 provinces where workers will be able to report unfair compensation by their employers. The group has also urged workers and employers to disregard the circular, except in cases where companies can demonstrate losses over the past and current year. We must reject the ministrys circular. Employers must provide 100 percent of their employees holiday bonuses. Providing less than full holiday compensation or releasing the funds in installments is simply out of the question, Said Iqbal said in a statement on Thursday. Read also: Businesses must have adequate support to prevent layoffs: Experts Indonesian Employers Association (APINDO) deputy chairman for labor affairs Bob Azam denied that employers would exploit the policies outlined in the circular to avoid paying bonuses. Bob said the late fees would deter companies from delaying THR payments. He said the majority of companies would pay the bonus and only a small number would misuse the policy. He welcomed the ministrys new regulation despite the fact that it was slightly different from what his organization had proposed in April. APINDO suggested that the THR should be deferred until December. The contradictions between the circular and prevailing regulations, he said, were because the previous policies were not made for emergency situations, and thus new guidelines were needed. He said the deferral would allow companies to pay expenses, such as wages, electricity and taxes, to stay in operation during the pandemic. The conditions in each company are different, so it is more optimal to leave the matter in an employee-employer settlement. Do not let other parties act as if they know the company better than the ones inside it, he said. Although she did not directly mention the circular, Manpower Minister Ida Fauziah told the media on Friday that THR negotiations should still be settled between employers and workers in line with new policies. [The key is] to look for a collective solution between employers and workers to overcome this THR payment, Ida said. [...] Employers must transparently disclose their financial performance. Read also: Concerns arise as government undermines rule of law in pandemic response Last month, the Industry Ministry discussed the possibility of providing soft loans to enable businesses to pay Idul Fitri holiday bonuses because companies were withholding or cutting bonuses, citing the COVID-19 downturn. Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita told kompas.com on Thursday that the soft loan proposal seemed impossible to achieve. He declined to give further details. Larry Kudlow, director of the U.S. National Economic Council, speaks to members of the media in Washington, D.C., on Friday, May 8, 2020. House Democrats are aiming to vote on their next relief proposal as soon as next week, which could include money for state and city governments, testing and another round of direct payments to Americans. The next Democratic legislation could approach $2 trillion. Lawmakers have passed four major relief packages to address the damage from the coronavirus as the unemployment level has surged to levels unseen since the Great Depression and many businesses remain shuttered. "It's not that we're not talking. We are. It's just informal at this stage," Kudlow, the director of the White House's National Economic Council, said on ABC's "This Week." Senate Democrats and Republicans have a conference call scheduled on Monday with Kudlow and White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett to discuss ideas for next steps. Kudlow and Hassett held a conference call with 50 members of the House on Friday to discuss the coronavirus response. The White House has halted formal negotiations with Congress until late May or early June as it waits for more information about how state re-openings and the previous round of relief impact the economy. White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said on Sunday that the Trump administration is in informal talks with U.S. lawmakers from both parties regarding the next coronavirus relief package. However, Republicans in the Senate and White House are downplaying the need for more aid as they push for a quicker reopening of the economy. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has not ruled out another relief bill, has called for a pause on new aid to assess the impact of the first round of relief. White House economic advisor Hassett said the administration may support a limited form of relief for state and local governments after evaluating the impact of current measures. "We think we have a little moment, a luxury of the moment, to learn about what's going on so that the next step that we take can be prudent," Hassett said on Sunday during an interview with CNN's "State of the Union." "President Trump has signaled that while he doesn't want to bail out the states, he's willing to help cover some of the unexpected Covid expenses that have come their way," Hassett said. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday that the administration is pushing for a payroll tax cut in the next aid package to allow people to take home more money from their paycheck, despite criticism that the tax cut would not help the millions of people out of work. He also echoed comments from Kudlow and Hassett on the administration skepticism regarding financial assistance for cash-strapped state and local governments. "We just want to make sure that before we jump back in and spend another few trillion of taxpayers' money that we want to do it carefully," Mnuchin said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday." "We're willing to spend whatever it takes. But whatever it takes needs to be done carefully," he said. The virus outbreak has killed more than 78,000 people in the U.S. The unemployment rate jumped to 14.7% on Friday after a record 20.5 million workers lost their jobs in April. Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State may not have resisted the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) from intervention in the state on the efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus in the country, the governor only insisted on transparency and authenticity of the processes. NCDC officials who went to Kogi State last week on a mission ascertaining the zero record of coronavirus infection in the state declined being quarantined for two weeks before being allowed into other parts of the state on arrival from Abuja, the Federal capital Territory (FCT). Kgoi and Cross River states are the states in Nigeria that are yet to record any case of coronavirus infection. The NCDC had decided to move in to confirm the record and ensure that the states are truly immune from coronavirus cases. Unfortunately, the NCDC officials that went to Kogi State last week refused to quarantine for two weeks when being directed by Governor Bello. The bizarre is that this is the same condition NCDC and the Nigerian government give to people who migrate from one part of the world or country to another, While NCDC and the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 claim Kogi State government refused to cooperate with their activities, Kogi government accuses the Abuja coronavirus squad of putting pressure on Kogi State to announce fake coronavirus cases in the state. The Minister of Health, Osague Enihare, had at a briefing in Abuja protested that the Ministrys officials and NCDC personnel were turned back in Kogi State without completing their mission. The NCDC D.G. also noted that they are only rendering support to states. The Commissioner for Health in Kogi State, Dr. Saka Haruna, was said to have alleged last Thursday that Kogi State is under pressure from Abuja to declare coronavirus cases where there is none in the state, adding that they are asking for announcement of fake coronavirus cases. Governor Bello in a telecast on the NCDC controversy, monitored from Lagos, had insisted that either the officials from Abuja observe two weeks quarantine before carrying out their duties or had option of leaving the state. The Kogi State Governor had said that there is no cause for alarm in Kogi State over coronavirus infection; saying that the health facilities have been strengthened to handle any case. Governor Bello said that he deliberately did not shut down the state completely; adding that the state government engage in enlightenment of the people on precautionary measures to prevent coronavirus infection. He declared: we dont cause fear, we dont cause pandemonium in trying to contain the spread of coronavirus. He warned that nobody should come into the state to cause fear and anxiety which the state government has put under control. The Kogi governor insisted that there is no need for panic over coronavirus. He said that death rate has dropped in Kogi State in the period of coronavirus epidemic in Nigeria, saying that containing coronavirus is simply applying science and commonsense, not lockdown or causing tension and panic. Let them go and ask their sister agencies in Kogi State, death rate has dropped remarkably in the state; we have put measures in place that can handle the situation. Coronavirus cannot be fought with fear and panic; it can only be fought with science and common sense, it can be fought with science and governance, Governor Bello had declared. He reiterated that no one should come to the state to create fear. Name: Gavin Clarkson Gavin Clarkson Political Party: Republican Republican Occupation: Business & law professor Business & law professor City of residence: Las Cruces Las Cruces Relevant experience: President Trumps deputy assistant secretary for policy and economic development; tribal finance consultant; business & law professor; tech and real estate entrepreneur President Trumps deputy assistant secretary for policy and economic development; tribal finance consultant; business & law professor; tech and real estate entrepreneur Education: BA & MBA from Rice University, doctorate in technology and operations management from the Harvard Business School, J.D. from Harvard Law School. BA & MBA from Rice University, doctorate in technology and operations management from the Harvard Business School, J.D. from Harvard Law School. Campaign website: www.gavinclarkson.com What is your opinion of the coronavirus response packages passed by Congress and signed by President Trump? Is there anything you would have done differently? I support what President Trump has done so far, but I believe our leaders need to take a more aggressive approach to China and make the communists pay for the massive debts we are incurring responding to what their negligence has unleashed on the world. What actions to restore the economy, if any, do you feel Congress should take once the outbreak has been contained? Pass payroll tax cut; make permanent 2017 TCJAs full expensing of business investments and fix Retail Glitch; suspend or reduce federal regulations and paperwork requirements; suspend penalties for regulatory violations where person made good faith effort to comply; require Congress to vote up or down on regulations that impose costs. What is your position regarding climate change? What actions should Congress take, if any, regarding the environment? While we all want to protect the environment and enjoy clean air and water, the case for man-made climate change is scientifically weak and does not justify crushing human economic prosperity. President Trump was right to withdraw from the Paris Climate Deal and other efforts that harm more than help. What is your opinion on energy initiatives that have been introduced both on the federal and state level such as the Green New Deal and the New Mexico Energy Transition Act? These are big government schemes that will only give more power to bureaucrats and do little to protect the environment. They will ruin New Mexicos economy and should be opposed at every turn. Fracking bans have been introduced in Congress by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and presidential candidate Joe Biden indicated in a debate he would support a ban. Where do you stand on the issue? I fully oppose fracking bans. Oil and gas and hydraulic fracturing contribute mightily to New Mexicos economy. Mining and fracking are also essential to my #FrackChina proposal: make Communist China pay for the coronavirus outbreak; achieve enduring American energy independence; end our reliance on China for critical minerals. What is your position on the leasing of federal land for oil, gas and mineral development? Do you agree with the removal of energy development in a 10-mile radius around Chaco archaeological sites? Are there other areas of the state that should be considered for similar treatment? I want to end dual taxation for on-reservation job creators and energy projects so tribes will receive all the tax revenue from energy extracted from their lands, unleashing at least $2 billion into New Mexicos economy. A 5-mile radius protects Chaco without destroying economic prosperity for 22,000 Navajo allottees. What are the most important actions Congress should take regarding people now living illegally in the U.S.? What about for those who want to come in? My wife waited 14 years to become a citizen. Our immigration system is fundamentally broken. We must end birthright citizenship, visa lottery and chain migration. I oppose amnesty. Once the border is secure, I might consider a path to residency and possibly a path to citizenship for military veterans brought here illegally as children. Do you believe the borders are secure enough? If not, what do you propose should be done to increase security? Our border is not secure. I support not just the wall, but a high-tech wall with monitoring equipment including motion detectors, infrared, and ground penetrating radar, all of which will need to be connected by high-speed optic fiber lines to command stations. Such infrastructure would also contribute to economic development. Do you favor a federal ban on the sale of military style semi-automatic rifles? If so, what would you do about the millions of such weapons now legally owned by American citizens? What other, if any, gun law reforms would you support? When the federal government wanted to subdue Indian tribes, the first thing they did was confiscate their guns. I oppose automatic weapons bans, red-flag laws, and a national gun registry. Self-defense is a God-given fundamental human right. Shall not be infringed means exactly that. Due process is another fundamental right. Federal spending plays an important role in New Mexicos economy. What should be done to increase other economic drivers here? We lead the nation in federal dollars per capita but are dead last in private employment per capita. Getting government out of the way with fewer regulations will grow our economy. When I was part of President Trumps team at Interior, we repealed 22 regulations for every new regulation proposed. Congress passed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement as a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement. Are there any other trade initiatives youd like to see Congress pass if youre elected? I support President Trumps prioritizing American workers and our national interests. I strongly supported his America First trade policies in 2018 when even most Republicans doubted they would work. Weve now seen real results from this agenda with USMCA and China making serious concessions towards free and fair trade. Do you favor or oppose a national single payer health system? No. The reason healthcare is so expensive is because socialists have been trying to make it free for so long. We no longer have a free market in health care. Competition and choice are the only policy options that will lower costs. Do you favor or oppose limits on late-term abortion, and do you believe tax dollars should or should not be used to fund abortions? I support banning late-term abortions. Tax dollars should never be used to fund abortions. My pro-life activism started in high school. While in grad school at Harvard, I chaired a Christian abortion alternative center empowering young women to make the choice for life regardless of personal, family, or financial circumstances. What should be done at the federal level to address the crisis of opioid addiction? Any other drugs? Local drug courts combining punitive powers with rehabilitative programs seem to offer the best hope of dealing with a crisis that federal policy has exacerbated through crony subsidies, making pain a vital sign, mandating abuse-deterrent formulas, outlawing generics, prohibiting maintenance therapy, and over-regulating Medication Assisted Treatment options. Why do you want to be a member of Congress? Ninety-five percent of my students cannot get a job in New Mexico upon graduation. In addition to serving on the Senate Judiciary Committee, I want to champion those whose voices are not heard in the halls of Congress especially those economically disempowered due to federal regulations and corporate welfare schemes. Personal background Have you or your business, if you are a business owner, ever been the subject of any state or federal tax liens? No. Have you ever been involved in a personal or business bankruptcy proceeding? In 2010, Lois Lerner sabotaged capital gains tax treatment for outside investment into tribal economies because I outed her IRS for racist auditing practices against tribes. I filed Chapter 7 in 2012 after massive commercial real estate losses due to Obamas economy all fully disclosed during my presidential appointment process. Have you ever been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of drunken driving, any misdemeanor or any felony in New Mexico or any other state? If so, explain. No. Name: Elisa Maria Martinez Elisa Maria Martinez Political Party: Republican Republican Occupation: Executive director, New Mexico Alliance For Life Executive director, New Mexico Alliance For Life City of residence: Albuquerque Albuquerque Relevant experience: I have worked with every level of government from the Governors Office and administration to working with the Congressional Select Panel on Infant Lives. I worked with the New Mexico Legislature for more than five years, and I now serve on the White House Coalition for Hispanic Engagement. I have drafted legislation, served as a policy analyst, expert witness and media spokesperson. I have worked with every level of government from the Governors Office and administration to working with the Congressional Select Panel on Infant Lives. I worked with the New Mexico Legislature for more than five years, and I now serve on the White House Coalition for Hispanic Engagement. I have drafted legislation, served as a policy analyst, expert witness and media spokesperson. Education: Bachelor of Arts in Economics, University of New Mexico Bachelor of Arts in Economics, University of New Mexico Campaign website: ElisaForNM.com What is your opinion of the coronavirus response packages passed by Congress and signed by President Trump? Is there anything you would have done differently? The coronavirus response packages provided urgently needed relief to businesses and citizens alike. The CARES Act was not a perfect bill and contained too much waste, such as money for the Kennedy Center, but the consequences of inaction grew every day we did not do something. What actions to restore the economy, if any, do you feel Congress should take once the outbreak has been contained? We must revitalize the economy by supporting legislation that allows for business growth, job creation and the restoration of consumer confidence. This includes deregulation and lessening our economic reliance on China while bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. What is your position regarding climate change? What actions should Congress take, if any, regarding the environment? I believe that humans have a moral obligation to be good stewards of our land and our natural resources. Environmental problems are best resolved by providing support for the advancement and the development of technologies that improve our environmental health, not through heavy-handed mandates that suppress our economy. What is your opinion on energy initiatives that have been introduced both on the federal and state level such as the Green New Deal and the New Mexico Energy Transition Act? I strongly oppose both the Green New Deal and the New Mexico Energy Transition Act. The GND carries a $93 trillion price tag and would cost the average New Mexico family $70,000 during the first year of implementation. It would lower our GDP, eliminate millions of jobs and increase energy costs. Fracking bans have been introduced in Congress by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and presidential candidate Joe Biden indicated in a debate he would support a ban. Where do you stand on the issue? Fracking is an important component of Americas energy plan. A ban on fracking would cut 7.5 million jobs, reduce our GDP by over $1 trillion, increase household energy costs and harm our energy independence. Here in New Mexico, we would lose over 140,000 jobs and $8 billion in state/local tax revenue. What is your position on the leasing of federal land for oil, gas and mineral development? Do you agree with the removal of energy development in a 10-mile radius around Chaco archaeological sites? Are there other areas of the state that should be considered for similar treatment? Nearly 35% of New Mexico land is owned by the federal government. I am open to expanding energy development on federal lands, if done responsibly and with the input of local communities. In the case of the Chaco archaeological sites, I agree with the Trump Administrations moratorium on land leasing. What are the most important actions Congress should take regarding people now living illegally in the U.S.? What about for those who want to come in? Our broken immigration system must be reformed in a manner that upholds the rule of law, protects the American worker and ensures our national security. Legal immigration should continue under a merit-based system. Do you believe the borders are secure enough? If not, what do you propose should be done to increase security? No. I support the Trump Administrations efforts to build the wall, while increasing funding for additional border security agents, ICE personnel, immigration judges and detention centers. Do you favor a federal ban on the sale of military style semi-automatic rifles? If so, what would you do about the millions of such weapons now legally owned by American citizens? What other, if any, gun law reforms would you support? No. I believe that such bans would violate the Second Amendment and inhibit law-abiding citizens from protecting themselves and their families. Federal spending plays an important role in New Mexicos economy. What should be done to increase other economic drivers here? New Mexico is one of the most impoverished states and ranks first in dependence on federal spending. We must do more to diversify our economy by increasing the amount of private sector jobs. We need to support the private sector, rather than continue to harm it through excessive taxation and regulation. Congress passed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement as a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement. Are there any other trade initiatives youd like to see Congress pass if youre elected? I will support trade initiatives that aim to decrease our trade deficit while concurrently protecting the American worker. Such initiatives ought to increase our exports, provide job growth and protect U.S. sovereignty. Do you favor or oppose a national single payer health system? I strongly oppose a national single payer health system. The extreme Medicare-For-All proposals would cost as much as $47 trillion, by some estimates, and only result in decreased quality and access to health care, and increased taxes on hard-working families. Do you favor or oppose limits on late-term abortion, and do you believe tax dollars should or should not be used to fund abortions? I favor limits on late-term abortions and oppose tax dollars being used to fund abortions. As the Founder of the New Mexico Alliance for Life, I have fought for the rights of women and unborn children and defeated the expanding of abortion up to birth and infanticide in New Mexico. What should be done at the federal level to address the crisis of opioid addiction? Any other drugs? I support President Trumps Initiative to stop opioid abuse, which included funding to educate Americans about the dangers of opioid abuse, reducing over-prescription, cutting the supply of illicit drugs, and assisting Americans with addiction recovery services. I believe similar efforts should be applied to combating the impacts of other drugs. Why do you want to be a member of Congress? New Mexico is first in everything bad and last in everything good. For too long, our elected representatives have neglected to uphold our traditional New Mexican values. I am a political outsider with a record of accomplishment, who will provide a needed voice for hardworking New Mexicans. Personal background Have you or your business, if you are a business owner, ever been the subject of any state or federal tax liens? I paid off a small personal tax lien from several years ago that I was unaware of because my address had not been updated. Have you ever been involved in a personal or business bankruptcy proceeding? No. Have you ever been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of drunken driving, any misdemeanor or any felony in New Mexico or any other state? If so, explain. No. Name: Mark Ronchetti Mark Ronchetti Political Party: Republican Republican Occupation: Former Chief Meteorologist at KRQE Former Chief Meteorologist at KRQE City of Residence: Albuquerque Albuquerque Relevant Experience: Former Chief Meteorologist at KRQE Former Chief Meteorologist at KRQE Campaign Website: markronchetti.com What is your opinion of the coronavirus response packages passed by Congress and signed by President Trump? Is there anything you would have done differently? I believe the president took the action necessary to help small businesses. Next, there are thousands of small businesses that didnt get help they needed because they didnt qualify, or big businesses who shouldnt have taken advantage, did. We need to help small businesses get capital they need to survive. What actions to restore the economy, if any, do you feel Congress should take once the outbreak has been contained? We need to develop a strong response to China and focus on bringing jobs of critical industries to the U.S. to protect ourselves moving forward. Prescription drugs, manufacturing, and rare-earth minerals are areas we need back in the U.S. Congress should continue economic stimulus to keep businesses on their feet. What is your position regarding climate change? What actions should Congress take, if any, regarding the environment? I oppose the Green New Deal and environmentalist extremism. While the atmosphere is warming and there are steps we can take to protect our environment, we cant restrict our economy when countries like China and India continue unrestricted pollution. The financial burden would crush our middle and lower class. What is your opinion on energy initiatives that have been introduced both on the federal and state level such as the Green New Deal and the New Mexico Energy Transition Act? I strongly oppose the GND it is not serious legislation. With a price tag of $93-trillion, it will crush our economy. The purpose of the GND isnt about the environment, it is a complete restructuring of the American and NM economy with free college, guaranteed income and universal healthcare. Fracking bans have been introduced in Congress by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and presidential candidate Joe Biden indicated in a debate he would support a ban. Where do you stand on the issue? I strongly oppose a ban on fracking. It would completely destroy our state budget and create national security issues when we have to import more foreign oil. Weve been fracking safely for 60 years in this country. Giving up energy independence is a terrible financial, environmental and national security decision. What is your position on the leasing of federal land for oil, gas and mineral development? Do you agree with the removal of energy development in a 10-mile radius around Chaco archaeological sites? Are there other areas of the state that should be considered for similar treatment? Our energy independence saves the average family $2,500 a year in energy costs. Fifty percent of our oil and gas comes from public lands, so we must continue to use federal land. We should work with those who are concerned about energy production around cultural sites to find a solution. What are the most important actions Congress should take regarding people now living illegally in the U.S.? What about for those who want to come in? I oppose amnesty because it incentivizes even more illegal immigration. Decriminalizing border crossing and dangling free health care encourages well-meaning families to put their families at risk by illegally entering the country. Allow them to apply in their home country and when legally approved move to the U.S. Do you believe the borders are secure enough? If not, what do you propose to increase security? Our borders are not secure enough and we need a barrier, more staffing or increased air patrol for a more secure border. We are the drug superhighway into the U.S. and sanctuary cities in New Mexico exacerbate our crime problems. Congress has kicked the can down the road long enough. Do you favor a federal ban on the sale of military style semi-automatic rifles? If so, what would you do about the millions of such weapons now legally owned by American citizens? What other, if any, gun law reforms would you support? I completely support the Second Amendment and oppose such a ban. A law-abiding citizen who responsibly handles their guns doesnt need the government to come knocking on their door. I support stronger penalties for criminals who commit crimes with guns in this state. Federal spending plays an important role in New Mexicos economy. What should be done to increase other economic drivers here? Given COVID-19, we must ensure that businesses are receiving the funding they need to keep struggling workers on payroll. We need to increase and protect funding for our labs, as they provide great jobs that attract talent and innovation to our state. New Mexico should be at the forefront of national defense and scientific innovation. Congress passed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement as a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement. Are there any other trade initiatives youd like to see Congress pass if youre elected? We need to continuously evaluate our trade relationship with China. COVID-19 has made it clear we cannot continue to export industry to China at the expense of American jobs and national security. We should be continuously reviewing our agreements with other countries to confirm we are putting the American worker first. Do you favor or oppose a national single payer health system? I completely oppose a single payer health care system. It would be disastrous. Medicare-for-All would drive up costs, and everyday New Mexicans would be forced to give up their employer-based insurance which they like. Patients would lose their doctors and the ability to choose what insurance plan would best fit them. Do you favor or oppose limits on late-term abortion, and do you believe tax dollars should or should not be used to fund abortions? I absolutely oppose late term abortions. The fact that New Mexico is one of the late term abortion capitals of the country is a tragedy. I do not believe federal funds should be used to fund abortion. I support the Hyde Amendment which is currently the law of the land. What should be done at the federal level to address the crisis of opioid addiction? Any other drugs? Federal funds to help those struggling with opioid addiction have helped address the issue in the past few years. We must cut off illegal international and domestic supply chains. Much of that can be done by increasing checks at points of entry and securing the border away from major checkpoints. Why do you want to be a member of Congress? I want to fight for the state of New Mexico. Too often petty political fights in Washington take center stage and its the people here at home who get left behind. I want to make sure that my two girls can grow up in New Mexico where chasing the American dream is possible. Personal background Have you or your business, if you are a business owner, ever been the subject of any state or federal tax liens? No Have you ever been involved in a personal or business bankruptcy proceeding? No Have you ever been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of drunken driving, any misdemeanor or any felony in New Mexico or any other state? If so, explain. No The Rivers government on Sunday demolished two hotels in the state for allegedly flouting COVID-19 order in the state. Governor Nyesom Wike, after issuing an order recently banning hotels from opening their doors for business in the state to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus, had repeatedly warned that any hotel caught violating the order would be demolished. The two hotels that were demolished are Prudent Hotel, Alode, Eleme, and Etemeteh Hotel, Onne, according to a statement from Mr Wikes media aide, Simeon Nwakaudu. Mr Wike personally monitored the demolition, Mr Nwakaudu said. It appears one of the destroyed hotels is owned by a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which is the ruling party in Rivers state. If we can do this to a PDP person, then you know we are not discriminatory, Mr Wike told reporters. Whether you are in PDP, SDP or no party, you must obey the law. If any other person does the same thing, the same rule will apply. The governor said, Government has no alternative but to apply the Executive order which I signed before the lockdown of Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt. I called all the Traditional Rulers and Council Chairmen and told them to ensure that no hotel operates in the State. We are not saying it will be forever. This is for now, so that we know where we are, to reduce the cases and check the spread. We said no hotel should operate within this period. Unfortunately, the PDP youth leader in Eleme joined others to flout the Executive Order. Therefore, the executive order will be applied. He explained why the Rivers government is focusing on hotels in its fight against the coronavirus. Look at the rate of infections, most of these people are found in hotels. Look at the man that died, he was at Mingi Hotel in Rumumasi. Due to that contact, we have had other seven cases. People should help us and support government for Rivers people to be safe. Security Council will meet to review the strategies and achievements or setbacks, moving forward. All we are doing is to protect our people. Some people may not like our strategies, but our objective is to achieve results. Mr Wikes administration has taken some other controversial decisions in the past in its fight against the coronavirus, including the arrest of oil workers who were accused of entering Rivers State in violation of the lockdown. The governor has repeatedly said that the lives of the people in Rivers must be put above business and has vowed to take on businesses, including oil and gas companies, if they do not cooperate with his government as far as the coronavirus is concerned. There are 21 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Rivers State as of April 9. Despite repeated CDC recommendations, some Americans remain reluctant to wear face masks as COVID-19 pandemic spread rapidly far and wide in the United States. That begs the question: why? When the outbreak began to overrun the country, the Surgeon General even told Americans not to wear masks. His reasoning was that masks had not been proven to stop the spread of disease. Somewhat contrarily, he also said masks should be reserved for front-line medical workers. Eventually many Americans began to realize how the government's recommendations made no sense and started to wear masks of their own volition for the logical reason: If masks protect people working in hospitals, wouldn't they protect people at the grocery store, too? On April 3, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a statement, "The CDC continues to study the spread and effects of the coronavirus across the United States. We now know from recent studies that a significant portion of individuals with coronavirus lack symptoms ('asymptomatic') and that even those who eventually develop symptoms ('pre-symptomatic') can transmit the virus to others before showing any symptoms." Better late than never. Yet, there was already a study in The New England Journal of Medicine on January 30 that suggested the virus could be transmitted by people without any apparent symptoms. Hence, the United States government waited a long time without warning its citizens about how COVID-19 could be transmitted between humans, perhaps causing many more people to get sick than otherwise would have. Now, many cities and states have started to implement rules to require people out shopping to wear masks. However, those rules are not always being followed by Americans or enforced by businesses and the police. For example, at "protests" against a social distancing policy occurring at state capitols across the country, almost none of the protesters carrying guns wore masks, even as they crowded up against each other and spat in the faces of journalists and security guards. They are using their menacing presence to try to pressure lawmakers to abandon a feasible epidemic protection policy or to make it so hard that they pull back from enforcement. In fact, in a number of cases around the country, there have already been examples of people murdering, or threatening to murder, store employees for daring to keep their customers and staff safe. Calvin Munerly, a security guard at a Family Dollar store in Detroit, Michigan was shot and killed after telling a customer she must wear a mask. Also, in the Detroit area, an unmasked man wiped his nose on the shirt of an employee after being told to leave. In the city of Stillwater, Oklahoma, the city manager announced he was rescinding a requirement that all customers must wear masks after a number of threats were made against workers, including one threat to shoot them. In Ohio, Governor Mike DeWine also pulled back from a requirement that people wear masks. In both cases, the mayor and governor still "recommend" that people wear masks; but if some sick people refuse to wear masks, they're still going to infect others, whatever the government "recommends." DeWine's irrational justification explains part of the reason why some Americans don't wear masks. Some Americans, who are mostly on the right-wing, have a deformed idea about what "freedom" means and will refuse to comply with any laws or regulations they don't like. To raise the theoretical idea of "freedom" in such a situation makes no sense, as wearing a mask does not infringe on anyone's rights or require any kind of meaningful sacrifice. The number of radical reactionaries in America who refuse to wear masks for delusional theoretical reasons is relatively few as a proportion of the whole population, but they still form a much larger number than in the other countries. From the very start, most Americans didn't wear masks simply because they had no experience with them. When I asked some people living and studying in the U.S. why they thought Americans didn't wear masks, they said it was "cultural." Personally, when the news was first spreading in China in early January of a virus, the full details of which were unproven at the time, I thought wearing a mask wouldn't make a difference. But when it became clear after study and observation how bad the pandemic could get, I quickly adapted to wearing a mask outside my hotel room. That China, Japan, and South Korea already had a culture of wearing masks and had already faced the 2003 SARS epidemic, clearly made it easier for people to don masks from day one. Americans faced a longer learning curve. There are some other factors, like racism and individualism. There has been a rise in hate crimes against Asian-Americans, either because the victims were wearing masks or because they weren't! Finally, the idea that it is necessary to wear masks to protect the whole population from transmission, not just oneself, is somewhat at odds with America's extremely individualistic culture. But, surely, we've had enough time to learn the importance of mask-wearing by now. Mitchell Blatt is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/MitchellBlatt.htm Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. If you would like to contribute, please contact us at opinion@china.org.cn. Uttar Pradesh reported five more coronavirus deaths on Sunday as 102 fresh cases surfaced, pushing the state's infection tally to 3,467. So far, 79 people have died of the infection in the state. A health department official on Sunday said three deaths were reported from Agra and two from Meerut, the worst-hit districts in terms of fatalities. Till now, Agra has reported the maximum 24 deaths followed by 13 in Meerut. Vikasendu Agarwal, Joint Director, Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, said in a statement that 102 fresh cases were reported across the state, taking the infection count to 3,467. He said so far 72 districts in the state have reported coronavirus cases. Of the fresh cases, the maximum 22 were reported from Meerut, 13 from Agra and nine from Ghaziabad. So far, 1,653 COVID-19 patients have been discharged after treatment while the count of the active cases in the state stands at 1,753. Earlier in the day, Principal Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad told reporters that the Medical Education Department has devised a ''mentor institute system'' through which doctors can seek guidance for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. "If doctors at the Meerut medical college face any difficulty, they can speak to experts at Lucknow's Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences," he said. Similarly, doctors at the Kanpur medical college, which caters to patients from central UP, can consult experts at King George Medical University in Lucknow. Those at the Allahabad medical college can seek advice from the BHU team. He said in order to strengthen the fight against the virus, an electronic COVID care support (ECCS) network has been established. Through this system, medical advice will be provided to hospitals and doctors, he said. If doctors at any hospital do not know symptoms of coronavirus and lack knowledge for its treatment, they can contact the ECCS team for advice, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At the foot of the Acropolis hill, in the touristic Koukaki district, the coronavirus lockdown has silenced the sound of Airbnb customers' wheeled luggage. The tourist industry in Athens, as in many other European capitals, has ground to a halt, with planes grounded and restaurants, museums and archaeological monuments all closed. This has left a huge hole in the Greek economy which had been recovering from a decade of crisis. Owners of small apartments in Koukaki, who had been renting them on the Airbnb platform in order to provide income during the financial crisis, are once again struggling. "The reservations stopped abruptly," laments Romina Tsitou, an Airbnb host since 2014. "I hope I won't have to put them for longterm rental, but I may have to if this situation drags on," she adds. For the time being her two Airbnb apartments accommodate medical staff. Stefania Dimitroula has already put her apartment up for long-term rental. "Since the beginning of the summer of 2018, it was fully booked via Airbnb, almost exclusively by foreign tourists," the 32-year-old woman said, but "100 percent of the reservations for April, May and June have been cancelled". Being unemployed, she had no other choice. "I was counting on the earnings of this apartment, around 1,000 euros per month, to compensate for the loss of my job," she explained, expressing pessimism about the summer season, which the Greek government is hoping to jumpstart on July 1. Long-term rentals are becoming "a major trend", according to Patrick Tkatschenko, a real estate agent in Athens. "Airbnb is suffering a huge blow," he told AFP. - Airbnb slashes staff but will adapt- The "hard hit" American home-sharing platform announced on Tuesday that it will slash a quarter of its work force - some 1,900 people all around the world. "We are collectively living through the most harrowing crisis of our lifetime," Airbnb co-founder and chief executive Brian Chesky said in a blog post. This year the San Francisco-based company's revenue will be "less than the half" of the 2019 figure, and Chesky admits he doesn't know when the tourists will return. Still there are many who believe that holiday apartments, rather than hotels, have a future, as safe havens away from the crowds. Enrique Alcantara, president of Apartur, the holiday apartment owners' federation in Barcelona, foresees a 85 percent drop in sales revenue for 2020. He predicts though that holiday apartments "are going to adapt more easily to the new times that lie ahead, to the new needs of the tourists, mainly as far as security is concerned". In Athens too, despite the staggering drop in holiday reservations, there remains a glimmer of hope. "Tourists will benefit from private apartments in order to feel more secure in comparison with hotels where they will have to interact with more people," Stratos Paradias, president of the Greek Federation of Property Owners and of the International Union of Property Owners, told AFP. He also thinks apartments that manage to stay in the short-term rental market will bounce back "faster than elsewhere" because "Greece is considered one of the safe countries thanks to the way it has handled the COVID-19 pandemic". - Holding fast to short-term rentals In Barcelona, Sybille Campagne's holiday letting calendar is empty. "For July-August, all reservations were cancelled," the 43-year-old French woman explains. Nevertheless she isn't considering taking her apartment off the Airbnb platform because it accounts for 80 percent of all her reservations. Juan Quilis, a 35-year-old telecom technician who owns an apartment in Seville, is also sticking with short-term rentals for the time being. "I'm not too worried for now, because I have a savings cushion but if I see that things don't come around, I will put my apartment in long term rental. As a last resort." In France, Airbnb expects to see its reservations come back swiftly thanks to its local clientele, with the French particularly fond of staycations. Aurelien Perol, Airbnb director of communication in France, expects last-minute reservations to rise as lockdowns are lifted. Meanwhile in Amsterdam, holiday rentals spiked in mid- April and have plummeted since, according to the local newspaper Het Parool. - 'Purge is necessary' A study conducted by Spitogatos, the most popular online property ads network in Greece, found a clear rise in apartments listed for long-term rentals in mid-April, accounting for 30 percent of the market in central Athens. Spitogatos CEO Dimitris Melachroinos thinks the long-term rental sector will keep rising as it will be seen as "a safer option". This new turn in the real estate market will also lead to much-needed regulation of the sector. "The short-term rentals practice grew out of control in Athens in recent years. The purge provoked by the COVID-19 crisis is necessary," Paradias says. In Koukaki, the number of short-time rentals skyrocketed between 2017-2019, from 360 to 1,150, according to AIRDNA, which analyses rental platforms like Airbnb. As a result, property prices have nearly doubled causing problems for local apartment seekers. burx-chv/kan/pvh/mtp Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated the graduates of military academies upon Victory Day. The message was published on the Kremlins website on Sunday, TASS reports. "We will go ahead with developing and improving our armed forces. Under any circumstance we will implement the plans for reinforcing all arms and services and equipping them with advanced weapons and other hardware, including strategic ones, unparalleled high accuracy and hypersonic systems, unmanned aerial vehicles and robotized combat systems," the message runs. Putin stressed the need for enhancing the intensity of combat training and for practicing "new methods of cooperation by troops during snap checks with the use of the most advanced technologies that will determine the image of Russias Army and the Navy in the future." "It is a great honor and responsibility to start ones career on the sacrosanct day of May 9, when our country and the whole world celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Great Victory, pay respects to the immortal heroism of the Soviet people, and the courage and valor of the Red Armys soldiers and commanders, who defended the Motherland, quashed Nazism and saved humanity from slavery and extermination," Putin said, adding that the Russian army should be always prepared to provide an adequate response to any threats. He expressed the certainty that the newly-commissioned officers would cope with their tasks professionally and decently. Putin promised to do his utmost to provide proper conditions for career military officers service and everyday life. Also, he thanked the teachers, who instructed future officers and taught them the basics of the "unwritten laws of military honor and comradeship.". Saturday's Cargolux flight from Guadalajara to Luxembourg had to be deviated after one of the crew members was feeling unwell. The airline declared that the illness was not related to Covid-19. The crew took the decision to land in Gander, a town in Newfoundland, Canada, in order to have him hospitalised. The aircraft continued its flight on Sunday morning and is expected to arrive in Luxembourg Sunday evening at 5.15pm. TDT | Manama Bahrains ongoing measures to enhance its Counter-Terrorism efforts in association with the UN Counter-Terrorism Office has received United Nations praise. Describing Bahrains work as pioneering and continuous, the Undersecretary General of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Office, Vladimir Ivanovich Voronkov, thanked Bahrain for joining the initiatives of the UN Counter-Terrorism Office and combating financial terrorism acts. Voronkov was speaking during the closing of the national virtual workshop, organised by the National Committee for Follow-up of the Kingdom of Bahrains commitment to all UN Security Council resolutions, headed by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for International Affairs, Dr Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa. The workshop, held from 6-7 May, in partnership with the UN Counter-Terrorism Office and the task force responsible to implement counter-terrorism, focused on building capacity to protect the non-profit sector from terror abuse. Commenting, Dr Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa stressed the Kingdoms keenness to enhance partnership with international organisations, namely the United Nations. The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for International Affairs highlighted that drying up the sources of terrorist financing is the main pillar of any strategy to combat terrorism, citing the issue of the (Iranian Future Bank) branch, which was a centre for financing terrorism and money laundering. Over 100 members participated in the virtual workshop, which had the UN Resident Coordination as a participant in the opening and closing sessions. FREMONT (BCN) Tesla CEO Elon Musk vented on social media Saturday about Alameda County public health orders preventing Fremont's Tesla plant from resuming production, and threatened to file a lawsuit and move operations to another state. "Frankly, this is the final straw. Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately. If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependent on how Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is the last carmaker left in CA," Musk posted on Twitter. "Tesla is filing a lawsuit against Alameda County immediately." Musk targeted Health Officer Dr. Erica Pan, who maintained Friday that production at the Tesla plant could not yet resume. "Tesla knows far more about what needs to be done to be safe through our Tesla China factory experience than an (unelected) interim junior official in Alameda County," Musk tweeted. The county's health department issued a statement Saturday afternoon, saying that it had been working closely with Tesla in a "collaborative, good faith effort to develop and implement a safety plan that allows for reopening while protecting the health and well-being of the thousands of employees who travel to and from work at Tesla's factory." Although the department didn't announce lifting restrictions, the statement said "we look forward to coming to an agreement on an appropriate safety plan very soon." The department said many businesses and residents had made sacrifices to protect community health. "It is our collective responsibility to move through the phases of reopening and loosening the restrictions of the Shelter-in-Place Order in the safest way possible, guided by data and science." Fremont's mayor on Saturday issued a statement urging county officials to work with businesses, seeming to support Musk. "As the local shelter-in-place order continues without provisions for major manufacturing activity, such as Tesla, to resume, I am growing concerned about the potential implications for our regional economy," said Fremont Mayor Lily Mei. "We know many essential businesses have proven they can successfully operate using strict safety and social distancing practices. I strongly believe these same practices could be possible for other manufacturing businesses, especially those that are so critical to our employment base." Mei said she wanted to the county to engage with local businesses and come up with ways to reopen. "As we have done for over a decade, the city is prepared to support Tesla as soon as they are able to resume automobile manufacturing operations and are committed to a thoughtful, balanced approach to this effort that remains safe for our Fremont community," Mei said. 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. Todays Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. Email address By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy UPDATE: Savannah Camele was found safe and Ricky Trujillo has been detained, Pueblo police said. -- An AMBER Alert was issued for a missing 3-year-old girl last seen south of Fountain, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation tweeted Saturday. Savannah Camele is believed to be with a man named Ricky Trujillo, authorities said. He is believed to be dating a relative of Savannah's, said Pueblo Police Department spokesman Sgt. Franklyn Ortega. Gazette news partner KKTV reported that authorities said the 3-year-old was with her grandmother and Trujillo when the man allegedly assaulted the child and pushed the grandmother out of the vehicle before fleeing about 12:35 p.m. The two could be traveling in a 2006 white Ford Explorer with a broken rear window covered in plastic and black tape and spiked black rims, authorities said. The license plate number is CO AGA013. The two were last seen near Hanover Road and Old Pueblo Road, just south of Fountain. Anyone with information regarding Savannah's location was asked to call 911. An @AMBERAlert has been issued for 3-year-old Savannah Camele, requested by @EPCSheriff. We're currently working to obtain pictures of Savannah. Call 911 with information. pic.twitter.com/fiixEr4DfV CBI (@CBI_Colorado) May 9, 2020 RELATED: Midland County added no new cases over the weekend, according to the daily reports from the state. Midland County's numbers stay at 66 cases and eight deaths. Gladwin County and Isabella County each added one new case, bringing their totals to 17 cases and one death and 62 cases and seven deaths, respectively. Bay County added seven cases over the weekend, bringing its total to 192 cases and nine deaths. Saginaw County added 10 new cases and four deaths, bringing its total to 789 cases and 83 deaths. MidMichigan Health which covers a 23-county region and has medical centers at seven sites, including Midland was listed as having 26 COVID-19 patients on the state page, defined by the state as confirmed positive patients, including those in ICU and patients who are currently pending and under investigation. The health system reported eight COVID-19 patients in ICU and 40% bed occupancy, the percentage of staffed inpatient beds occupied by any patient regardless of COVID-19 status. This data, according to the website, reflects the status in health systems and hospitals 48 hours prior to the time that it was posted to the state page, which was May 7. The state also is reporting no COVID-19 positive residents at four of Midland Countys long-term care facilities, Brittany Manor, Medilodge of Midland, Midland Kings Daughters Home and Stratford Pines as of May 7. Gladwin Nursing & Rehab Community and Gladwin Pines Nursing Homes also are reporting no COVID-19 positive residents. The state on Sunday added 382 new cases and 25 deaths. The state on Saturday added 430 new cases and 133 deaths. Sixty-seven of the 133 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 47,138 cases and 4,551 deaths. The Midland County Health Department website reports 29 probable cases as of May 8, which includes individuals who have symptoms of COVID-19 but have not been tested, meet the COVID-19 case definition and have had close contact with a lab-confirmed positive COVID-19 case. These are often household members of positive cases. The numbers will be updated every Friday The health department also is reporting 45 recovered cases as of May 8, which includes individuals who have a lab-confirmed positive COVID-19 result and have completed their isolation and are symptom-free. This differs from the state definition of individuals who are 30 days from symptom onset. The numbers will be updated every Friday. The average death age is 75, 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 27% age 70-79. State statistics show 53% of coronavirus deaths are male and 47% are female. The state lists the total recovered at 22,686 cases, as of May 8, which represents COVID-19 confirmed individuals with an onset date on or prior to April 8, 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; 35% Caucasian and 18% unknown, and the top three races in deaths as 41% Black/African American; 49% Caucasian and 5% 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. The structure of governance in most African countries, and for this editorial, Ghana, is devised to get the hallucinating citizenry to accept the ruling government irrespective of some questionable actions which otherwise would normally be challenged. There have always been strong media backing for our governments to stifle objective criticism to pave the way for incumbent governments mediocre ways of running our country. The ruling elite has always preyed on the ignorance of the ruled, aided by the media that turns the odd blind eye by not reporting on matters as objectively as they should. It has, therefore, become increasingly difficult to change the mental orientation of the population. The minority in our society pushing the mantra of change are easily silenced and destabilized or forced to retract or join forces with the ruling elite for their own survival. It is shameful and disturbing how a lot of well-meaning Ghanaians fighting for change have gradually been corrupted and influenced against their own ideology. Effectively, fighting this rot in society, i.e. seeking transparency and accountability proves to be dangerous, expensive and long-suffering for proponents, agitators, or perpetrators, perhaps the worse being lack of support from the masses to cast their ballots in the positive direction Ghana in its fourth Republic since 1992, 28 (twenty-eight) years, have come a long way, yet, the only changes we see have been a switch between the 2(two) major political parties NPP and NDC taking turns to run the country on the average, every 8 (eight) years. to the detriment of the rest of the population. Untruths and unachievable manifesto promises are the order of the day. Once elections have been completed and a new administration takes over no questions are asked about undelivered manifesto promises and this has become the norm. Excessive government expenditure supplemented by foreign borrowing with nothing to show for except the sudden wealth of government appointees and their families is the only way to describe how Ghanaian governance system works. The time has come for us to demand a real change that will begin to overhaul our structure of government, civil service and the constitution as a whole. It is also time for a government who is willing among other things, to lead by example and cause an influence of change within the population. The time is now to make people face the consequence of their actions without fear of favour. Too long have we looked on unabated the recurrence of scandals upon scandals. Looking around and seeing the number of abandoned government projects by various administrations and institutions beats my mind. It is time for courage to cause a real change, a change not only by the power of the thumb but by the collective will of the masses to make the country work again. We must not accept the norm where each of the big parties takes turns by slightly improving upon the achievement of the other whilst scoring well below the pass mark. Some of us have been calling for the removal of both NDC and NPP simply because they have nothing more than what they have already shown. The change must come and very quickly. The year 2020 must be the year where the norm and status quo is unsettled and toppled for the beginning of the new Ghana agenda. There is a greater need for the electorate to be courageous and vote for the third force, Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) at December 2020 general elections for a real change to occur in the history of Ghana. It is never too late to muster up the courage to steer your vote in a new direction to try the next alternative government in the PPP to realise what they can bring to the people of Ghana as we have experienced both NDC and NPP in countless times to no avail. It is, therefore, appropriate to try a different approach to how our country is run. By: David Aikins-Bekoe Youth Organizer Progressive Peoples Party UK [email protected] Dr. Otiko Afisah Djaba, Exe. Dir. of HDMF 10.05.2020 LISTEN As the World celebrates this years Mothers Day amid Coronavirus pandemic, the Henry Djaba Memorial Foundation has called out all mothers to be celebrated - particularly those who have regardless of their poverty, disability and other challenges stood firm to nurture their children into responsible persons in society. The Executive Director of the Foundation, Dr Otiko Afisah Djaba in a statement issued in Accra described Mothers as frontline workers of every society or nation even before the arrival of Coronavirus, during and beyond. These mothers including female nurses, doctors and female security personnel continue to risk their lives for their nations in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 and ensure there is food on the table for their children and families. She emphasized that Mothers were essential workers who had transformed billions of lives through thick and thin, and are still nurturing, inspiring and urging children on. Dr Otiko Djaba said, Being a mum is a 24/7 job for 365 days of your life; the clock never stops. So, this Mothers Day 2020, The Henry Djaba Memorial Foundation wishes all mothers a special happy Mothers Day. We appreciate the love and sacrifices you make for us at the expense of yourselves, the discomfort of pregnancy, painful delivery, sleepless nights of nursing, nurturing and watching us grow up. The Former Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection on behalf of her Foundation gave a special acknowledgement and profound gratitude to mothers with disability, with breast cancer and other ailments, Kayayei mothers and mothers who care for children or people with disability and the sick. Stressing, It is not easy to be a mum and to be a mum with disability or to be a Carer of children with disability takes exceptional courage and commitment. Dr. Otiko Djaba, on the other hand, encouraged those who had lost their mothers to remember that a mothers love does not die, the memories do not fade, the good times spent with her remain forever, and must thus celebrate their lost mothers in their hearts. She also charged mothers, who neglect their children, who abuse children, who are irresponsible, who forsake them, run away from their children or throw them away to have a change of attitude, mind and heart, since motherhood she indicated, is a precious gift and a gracious lifetime opportunity. What mothers do, especially seeing us through lifes challenges and this pandemic, will echo through eternity and we cannot thank you enough - except to say WE LOVE YOU. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all mothers and God bless you. Ayeekoo!!!. Gwyneth Paltrow hosts a panel discussion at the JVP International Cyber Center grand opening on February 03, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Gary Gershoff/Getty Images) The internet was set ablaze last week by the news Elon Musk and Grimes decided give their newborn baby the name X A-12 - and now Gwyneth Paltrow, herself no stranger to unusual monikers, has had her say. The Hollywood star and ex-husband Chris Martin were perhaps the original Grimes and Musk when their decision to name their daughter Apple in 2004 made similar waves. Now the 47-year-old has taken to social media to acknowledge her own controversial name choice for their daughter, but also admit Tesla CEO Musk and musician Grimes have beaten her and the Coldplay frontman. Read more: Elon Musk and Grimes announce unique baby name Posting on Instagram, Paltrow wrote: "#chrismartin I think we got beat for most controversial baby name." Add the fact we all know how to pronounce Apple, it is safe to say X A-12 far exceeds the Paltrow-Martin offspring in terms of controversy and uniqueness. Elon Musk and Grimes attend the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 7, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/WireImage) Both Musk and Grimes, real name Claire Boucher, have gone public to shed light on the pronunciation of their baby, but, as both appear to give differing explanations, we are still really none the wiser. Speaking on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast Musk explained: "It's just the letter X and then the is pronounced 'Ash.' "A-12 is my contribution. Coolest plane ever. It's pretty great." Meanwhile Grimes responded to a question from a follower on social media which seems different to his explanation. She wrote: "its just X, like the letter X. Then A.I. Like how you said the letter A then I." Well that clears that up. Read more: Grimes explains how she and Elon Musk came up with their new son's unusual name Musk did say the name wasnt his idea, saying he left it up to Grimes who he said is great at names. The 48-year-old also when on to say how much he is enjoying being a dad to little X A-12: "I think it's better being older and having a kid. "I appreciate it more. Babies are awesome. They're little lovebugs, wonderful, it's great." A Chicago mother-of-three has died from coronavirus a week after she delivered a healthy baby girl and was released from a hospital, despite suffering symptoms and being tested for the virus. Unique Clay, 31, gave birth to a baby girl on April 30, but suffered a fever during labor and was tested for COVID-19. Family members want to know why she was still sent home with instructions to take Ibuprofen, despite being confirmed to have the virus and having a newborn baby to take care of. The family say Clay's baby daughter appears to be healthy. Postal worker Clay, who died on Tuesday, was Chicago's first letter carrier to be killed by the virus. The University of Chicago Hospital would not comment on Clay's case, citing privacy laws, but extended their sympathy to her family, WFLD reports. Unique Clay, a 31-year-old Chicago mother of three, died after testing positive for the coronavirus and giving birth to a healthy baby girl Clay also had worked for the US Postal Service and was Chicago's first letter carrier to succumb to the virus Alan Brown, Clay's father, described the heartache and confusion that came after his daughter's passing. 'When they did let her go home, they gave her ibuprofen and we were told from watching the news that that feeds the virus itself, you're supposed to give them Tylenol,' he told WFLD. The World Health Organization, or WHO, initially warned against prescribing the anti-inflammatory because it may theoretically strengthen the ability of coronavirus to cause infection, or worsen symptoms. However, WHO has since reversed its stance on the painkiller due to a lack of evidence, and now does not recommend against using ibuprofen. 'It hurts. It hurts, it honestly do,' Dajah Brown, Clay's sister, told WFLD. 'I don't understand why she was sent home that quick, then being instructed to take medication that feeds into the disease. It was just not handled at all. Someone needs to be held accountable,' said Dajah Brown. Alan Brown, Clay's father, described the heartache and confusion that came after his daughter's passing: 'When they did let her go home, they gave her ibuprofen and we were told from watching the news that that feeds the virus itself, you're supposed to give them Tylenol' 'It hurts. It hurts, it honestly do,' said Clay's sister Dajah Brown, reacting to her passing and demanding answers. 'Someone needs to be held accountable,' she says Friends praised Clay as a mom and someone who wanted to make others happy. 'I don't know I would just like people to know that she was really, really a nice girl and she just gave her all to family and I just wish this had never happened,' said Liz Price, Clay's hair stylist and friend says. Colleagues at the Irving Park Post Office where Clay worked the last two years released balloons into the sky Saturday in her memory. More than 30 mail carriers in Chicago have tested positive for coronavirus. Clay (pictured) was the first letter carrier in the city to succumb to the virus Colleagues at the Irving Park Post Office where Clay worked the last two years (pictured) released balloons into the sky Saturday in her memory More than 30 mail carriers in Chicago have tested positive for coronavirus. Illinois state has had 76,008 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and 3,362 deaths Across the country, there have been 1,348,761 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with 79,892 killed. Circuit used data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to rank the metropolitan areas with the most delivery drivers. This was deter For most of the last two months and change, cruise line stocks have moved up -- and largely down -- together. When Carnival (NYSE:CCL) (NYSE:CUK) shares move in any given week, Royal Caribbean International (NYSE:RCL) and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NYSE:NCLH) go along for the ride. A rising tide lifts all cruise ships? There was a bit of divergence last week. Carnival stock rose 2% for the week, moving higher after announcing firm plans to start sailing again on Aug. 1 through eight ships out of three ports in Florida and Texas. Norwegian tumbled 10% last week, slipping after an SEC filing raised concerns about the cruise line's ability to continue as a going concern. Royal Caribbean split the difference, closing out with a 2% decline for the week. Passing ships It's not a bad thing to see the three publicly traded cruise line stocks go their separate ways. It's actually a healthy sign that the market is finally starting to assess each player on its own merits. You have to go back a long way to find the last time that each stock had its own compass. A week earlier was a great week for all three stocks. Carnival and Royal Caribbean rose 17% and 14%, respectively. Norwegian Cruise Line led the way with a 27% pop. All three moved lower the week before that. Carnival and Royal Caribbean clocked in with identical 5% declines, and the typically more volatile Norwegian tumbled 12%. This past week was the exception to the rule. Investors either love all of the cruise stocks one week or they hate them, and despite an overall strong recovery for the battered stocks over the past few weeks, Wall Street is still a landlubber. Norwegian Cruise Line continues to be one of this year's hardest hit stocks, down 79% in 2020. Carnival and Royal Caribbean are only faring relatively better, treating their shareholders to year-to-date declines of 72% and 70%, respectively. The divergence is welcome at this point, as it means that one company won't be paying for the sins of another. Will Royal Caribbean and NCL follow Carnival into firming up their returns to travel with scaled-back fleets this summer? When Norwegian reports quarterly results on Thursday, will every positive or negative morsel be interpreted as gospel for its larger peers? The cruise line as a whole has taken a hit to its reputation, but each of the three players is navigating the waves differently. Royal Caribbean put out an encouraging note on Friday, pointing out that bookings for 2021 are within historical ranges of where things were in the past this time of year, with prices actually slightly higher. This is a sharp contrast to Norwegian's warning, just a few days earlier, that bookings were down. Royal Caribbean's update mentioned that just 45% of the passengers on its cancelled trips were requesting refunds, a welcome improvement to Carnival's update last month, with 55% of their customers wanting their money back. Investors are at the point where they're starting to discern between the three cruise line stocks, and that's good news for stock pickers. With a potential shakeout and a likely recession looming, they can't all be winners, but maybe now we're seeing that they won't all be losers either. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is not willing to contest the legislative council polls due later this month unless elected unopposed, said senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, adding that the ruling alliance partner Congress was firm on contesting two seats, which is likely to force a contest. Raut said that the ongoing political drama has upset the Shiv Sena chief, who has sent a message to Maharashtra Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat to withdraw partys second candidate. Raut clarified that Uddhav is not afraid of contesting an election but the current situation doesnt warrant political battles. He added that the legislative council polls for 9 seats on May 21 were being held to avoid a constitutional and political crisis in the state. Raut was referring to the constitutional requirement for a chief minister or a minister of the state to get elected to either of the two houses within six months of taking oath. Uddhav is currently not an MLA and his six months as Maharashtra CM come to an end on May 28. Late on Saturday night, Thorat announced that Rajkishor Modi, the partys Beed district president, will be its second candidate. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already fielded four candidates. The Nationalist Congress Party and the Shiv Sena have announced two candidates each. With Congress also fielding two candidates, it would require a contest between the candidates of the ruling coalition. Do we tell people that while they are locked up in their homes; when there is a question mark over their livelihoods and health, political parties in Maharashtra cannot unanimously decide on an election? This would be a blot on Maharashtras tradition. Uddhav Thackeray never was and will never be interested in such politics. He is upset over this development. He wanted to contest only if it was unopposed. We are not scared of contesting, but this is not the time to contest elections. It is time to tackle the situation. We have taken this election out of no choice as the state was heading towards instability, Raut told reporters on Sunday. He added that if there is voting on May 21, all 288 MLAs would have to come to Mumbai and it would not send a good message to the people of Maharashtra at a time when it is battling Covid-19. Also Read: Covid-19 cases double in Maharashtra in 9 days, tally now above 20,000 Raut, however, added that there is no tension between the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies over the issue and all leaders are currently in talks with each other to find a middle ground. He also expressed confidence that the MLC elections will be contested unopposed. Clikc here for Coronavirus Live Updates The Sena leader added that both BJP and Congress didnt have adequate numbers to get all their candidates elected. The BJP too does not have enough numbers to get their fourth candidate elected. It is their responsibility as well that election is held unopposed. They [BJP] do not have enough votes for their candidate; they would have to engage in horse-trading. They should also think if an election should be forced upon Maharashtra at such a time, Raut said adding that Thackeray and Devendra Fadnavis should discuss this issue. I think Devendra Fadnavis and chief minister Uddhav Thackeray should discuss this issue. I am not saying they should take a step back or we should. The election should happen unopposed. The chief minister of a state is in the fray. The situation in the state is serious and people want a stable leadership. At such a time, nobody should take advantage of the situation to suit their politics. Six migrant workers were killed and 12 injured when the truck they were travelling in overturned in Madhya Pradesh late on Saturday, police officials familiar with the matter said. According to police, the group of 15 labourers, including 14 from Uttar Pradesh and one from Madhya Pradesh, was travelling to Agra from Telanganas Hyderabad in a truck carrying raw mangoes when the accident took place in Narsinghpur district, around 240 kilometers from state capital Bhopal. Five of the labourers were killed on the spot while another died during treatment at a hospital in Jabalpur. All the deceased labourers belonged to Uttar Pradesh. They have been identified as Nihal Singh, 40, Ranvir Lodhi, 42, Nem Singh, 38, Indresh Pandey,40, Chhotu Tiwari,40, and Sandip Dixit, 42 Narsinghpur additional superintendent of police Rajesh Tiwari said. He added that they were trying to ascertain how the accident took place. They were engaged as labourers, mainly at construction sites and factories. Gurukaran Singh, superintendent of police, Narsinghpur, said that they do not have knowledge of any payment made to the driver or owner of the truck. The truck driver or owner was perhaps known to some of these labourers, said Singh. Apart from the migrant workers, the trucks driver and cleaner were also injured in the accident and undergoing treatment, officials said. Yogesh Kumar, of Hinona in Etah district, said they had been quarantined in Hyderabad. After quarantine, they didnt have enough money for food, due to which they decided to return home, Kumar said. The officials from district administration said one of the injured labourers showed symptoms of the cold. Dr R Tiwari, superintendent of the teaching hospital of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College, Jabalpur said, One of the two labourers who were referred to our hospital had symptoms of cold. His sample had been taken in Narsinghpur itself. He was admitted here in an isolation ward but he left the hospital without telling anyone. Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan termed the incident as unfortunate and said: The truck accident in Narsinghpur has claimed several precious lives. The untimely deaths and grievous injuries have caused me immense pain. I pray their souls rest in peace and their families get the strength to overcome their grief. On Friday, 16 migrant workers were run over by a freight train near Maharashtras Aurangabad as they slept on train tracks after a long journey on foot in an attempt to find transport to go back to their home towns in Madhya Pradesh. The incident triggered widespread discussions on the need to ensure safe travel for migrants to their home towns amid the nationwide lockdown to check the spread of coronavirus pandemic. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The gutted carcass of a freshwater dolphin has been found in a river sanctuary in Bangladesh, officials said Sunday, sparking fears fishermen are taking advantage of the virus lockdown to poach the endangered creatures. Locals in the southeastern town of Raojan found the remains of the 62-inch (157-centimetre) long Ganges river dolphin on the banks of the Halda River, fishery department official Abdullah al Mamun told AFP. It had suffered a sharp and deep incision from its neck to tail and layers of its body fat -- from which oil is extracted for use in traditional medicines -- were missing, he said. The dolphin is the second to be found dead in the same sanctuary since Bangladesh imposed its lockdown to tackle the coronavirus, said Manzoorul Kibria, coordinator of the Halda River Research Laboratory (HRRL). Bangladesh prohibits the killing of Ganges dolphins, which are categorised as endangered under the International Union for Conservation of Nature's "Red List" of threatened species. A local official, who asked to remain anonymous, said locals were starting to trawl the Halda river, as understaffed police who usually patrol the region were busy enforcing the lockdown in Raojan. "They are trying to make a living by catching fish illegally," local forestry department head Yasin Nawaz said, adding that the same nets also often caught dolphins. Once the creatures are trapped, they prove easy pickings for poachers who sell their fat and oil, Kibria said. "Many local villagers believe dolphin fat can cure diseases. It fetches a good price." Kibria added he feared the latest death could be the start of a "killing spree" of the rare creature. The Ganges river dolphin is found in the river systems of Nepal, Bangladesh and India and has a population of between 1,200 to 1,800, according to the World Wildlife Fund. They can weigh up to 100 kilograms (220 pounds) and grow to 2.6 meters (eight feet) long, are known for their long beaks which have 28 sharp teeth on both sides of their jaws. The Halda river is home to around 170 dolphins, according to HRRL. Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. If 80% of Americans Wore Masks, COVID-19 Infections Would Plummet, New Study Says It sounds too good to be true. But a compelling new study and computer model provide fresh evidence for a simple solution to help us emerge from this nightmarish lockdown. The formula? Always social distance in public and, most importantly, wear a mask. If you're wondering whether to wear or not to wear, consider this. Half a dozen very kind and concerned readers sent some form of this link today, proving that our blog community might skew Conservative but still has the greater good in mind.Checkit: By Rod Nickel WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned that if provinces move too quickly to reopen their economies, a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic could send Canada 'back into confinement this summer.' Trudeau, who represents a Montreal, Quebec riding, said on Saturday that he is concerned about the virus' spread in that province, the country's epicenter. Canada's death toll rose 3.5% to 4,628 from a day earlier, while cases approached 67,000. By Rod Nickel WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned that if provinces move too quickly to reopen their economies, a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic could send Canada "back into confinement this summer." Trudeau, who represents a Montreal, Quebec riding, said on Saturday that he is concerned about the virus' spread in that province, the country's epicenter. Canada's death toll rose 3.5% to 4,628 from a day earlier, while cases approached 67,000. Nearly 60% of Canada's deaths have occurred in Quebec, where there are numerous outbreaks in nursing homes. Although health officials have pointed out a flattening rate of daily cases in many provinces, Trudeau said Canada was "not in the recovery phase yet." "We are still in the emergency phase . . . The vast majority of Canadians will continue to need to be very careful." (Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Franklin Paul) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Common Folk has had to close its downtown shop and reinvent itself online to support local artists. It's also doing online activities through its Facebook page. Common Folk Virtually Supporting Local Artists NORTH ADAMS, Mass. The Common Folk artists collective is doing its part to support the creative community during the pandemic. With COVID-19 shuttering the downtown the collective knew it was important to find ways to protect the creative community and keep them together. "Without the members, the collective isn't a collective," Common Folk's communications director Makayla-Courtney McGeeney said. "Sticking together and having everyone on the same page helps the organization grow and continue to offer benefits, even if things shift a little." She said a majority of members have benefited from selling their work in the Common Folk store on Main Street as well as in other stores and restaurants throughout the city. With the city essentially shut down, there are no longer physical venues to share work. "Some artists, particularly those in the collective, depend on foot traffic on Main Street to make a living from community members purchasing their art at our space," she said. "Without that, they can't make a living and contribute back to the community. It's a continuous circle. A community thrives and overcomes when everyone can support each other." So Common Folks, like so many outlets, has moved art sales online for the time being. But the novel coronavirus pandemic has caused deeper concerns among members, with many creative people losing their income. "A large majority of creative people do not work full time in their craft. In the midst of COVID-19, many lost their part-time jobs in addition to losing access to creative resources," McGeeney said. Common Folk is part of the North Adams Artist Impact Coalition, a larger group of cultural organizations intended to combine efforts in order to better serve area artists. Members of the collective include various independent artists, musicians who have canceled tours and taken to livestreaming performances, and even staff from Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art who have been laid off. "We are firm believers in collective action. We see first hand the significant benefits of people working together towards a common goal," Creative Director Jessica Sweeny said. "The North Adams Artist Impact Coalition is a bigger collaborative comprised of all stakeholders in the creative world here. And we are working together with data that we have collected locally to address the needs of the creative people that live here." Beyond more tangible resources the two groups also look to keep the artist community connected when they are forced to be apart. McGeeney said they are hosting virtual craft nights as well as open "Common Ground" discussions. They also look to share member art on social media, art supplies and other pick-me-ups. This is something they extended to the entire community through Community Supported Art (CSA) boxes. "When things started to shake up with Covid-19 in March, it seemed like a good time to sprinkle a little love around the community," Sweeny said. "This idea was also an equitable way to support all the members who sell work in our brick and mortar while we worked to build out our online store." McGeeney said the member-curated boxes are themed. She said they put together a date night box with hand made wooden spoons and even a cabin fever box with VHS tapes, CDs, and records. They also believed it to be important to supply their members and the community with art supplies so they can keep on creating "We also knew that no one would want to go to the store, especially just for art supplies, and in order to create at home, they needed supplies," McGeeney said. "While everything in the world changed each day, we gradually adjusted our store to meet the needs of our members and the public. Shortly after, creator members signed up to sell their own curated boxes of their specific items, similar to having their own retail spot in our physical store." Sweeny said Common Folk by nature is flexible and throughout its existence, has adapted to different scenarios. She cited the members long search for a space of their own and noted for many years they were essentially "nomadic." "Adapting has been important to us far before COVID-19 affected the globe," she said. "An artist collective only works to directly serve the members and their needs, so when those needs shift, we shift." Sweeny said it is important to not only support each other and local businesses during the pandemic but also the creative community. "The artist community is threaded between all facets of a community," she said. "They work at our favorite restaurants, they are volunteers for critical emergency and essential services, they work for essential services, they are our favorite entertainers, and keep us inspired. And we all could use a little inspiration right now." As the world continues to escalate its response to the rising impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Landmark Arabias home-grown brands have joined hands with Etaam, the Saudi Food Bank, to support the most vulnerable segments in Saudi Arabia that have been adversely affected. Landmark Arabias brands including Centrepoint, Splash, Babyshop, Shoemart, Lifestyle, Max, Home Centre, and Home Box are contributing a portion of their online proceeds during the first 14 days of the holy month of Ramadan, ensuring free food supplies reach the most vulnerable communities in need. Furthermore, customers making purchases in-store can add SR5 (1.3), SR10 ($2.6), SR20 ($5.3) or SR50 ($13.2) to their receipts and contribute the specified amount to the Etaam food bank. As a home-grown retailer catering to millions in the region, Landmark Arabia has been led by its mission to add value and support the well-being of the communities it serves. Through the initiative, the company aims to support the affected families in Saudi Arabia that require critical resources during this unprecedented time. Speaking on the initiative, Nisha Jagtiani, Group Director, Landmark Group, said: Food security is the single most significant requirement for societies everywhere particularly during a pandemic. This was our key reason to partner with Saudi Arabias largest food bank, Etaam to support their noble cause during the holy month of Ramadan. We have been in this region for several years now and have a deep commitment to our communities and the societies we live in. Now more than ever, we need to collectively leverage our capabilities in support of our communities to make a meaningful impact. Our partnership with Etaam is one of the ways in which we are supporting the lives of the people most in need. We are grateful that, we are able to play our part and provide essential relief to people across kingdom and will continue to do all that we can to protect them. For his part, Faisal Al Shoushan, CEO of Etaam, said: We thank Landmark Arabia for partnering with us in bringing this worthwhile initiative to fruition. In line with our guiding philosophy to look for unique and different ways to positively impact the society we live in, Etaam is proud to join hands with one of leading retailers in the region that shares our values and vision and has contributed immensely to advancing the Saudi economy. We believe our synergies can create a sustainable social alliance that will provide sustenance to those most severely impacted by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. - TradeArabia News Service Ethiopia has a very diverse topography that includes both flat and mountainous areas and receives an average of about 1.2 metres of rainfall annually, generating several rivers that originate in Ethiopia and flow through its southern, eastern, northern and western borders. Forests and wildlife are common, with huge pastures and rain-fed crops. It is believed by many Ethiopians that Egypt has captured their Blue Nile waters, established its ancient civilisation and present renaissance, leaving them in poverty and deprivation. This is not true; Ethiopia has built a great history and civilisation in East Africa. Currently, Ethiopia is trying hard to revitalise and develop its security in the region, as well as promote the vision of electrical links between its dams and neighbouring countries to export electricity, just like the Congo in West Africa. Unfortunately, Ethiopia, like many others, believed that Egypt after the 2011 unrest would be too overwhelmed to fight for its water rights and made sure to use that opportunity and lay down the corner stone of the Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile in April 2011. They increased the capacity of the dam several times until it reached the latest design capacity of 74 billion cubic metres in the beginning of 2012. It should be mentioned that a dam with this capacity gives Ethiopia total control over the Blue Nile waters. However, Egypt returned to the negotiating table in June 2013. The negotiations on the Renaissance Dam were a ploy to distract Egypt and Sudan until it becomes a reality that cannot be changed. Egypt has been negotiating in good faith until it was obvious that the negotiations were not going anywhere, and announced the failure of negotiations and the need for an international mediator to facilitate the GERD talks and ensure that negative impacts are minimised on the downstream countries Egypt and Sudan. In November 2019, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia agreed to a time frame for the negotiations under the supervision of the United States of America and the World Bank, with the aim of reaching an agreement on the rules for filling and operating the dam so as not to cause significant harm to the downstream countries. The negotiations continued with positive statements from all participants, until we Ethiopia did not attend the last session in Washington in February 2020, and announced its sudden withdrawal from the negotiations. Ethiopia has argued that the draft of this agreement is an extension of the old colonial agreements for the management of the Nile Basin water, in an attempt to provoke upstream countries aiming to be strengthened by them in this international confrontation. Ethiopia has since made statements filled with violent accusations and false allegations, including that the Washington agreement did not highlight Ethiopia's right to "reasonable and equitable utilisation of the waters of the Blue Nile" and that the US should not underestimate this Ethiopian right under the pretext of water needs in the two downstream countries. In addition, Ethiopia has been calling for the redistribution of the Nile waters according to the Entebbe Agreement which was previously rejected by Egypt, Sudan and the Congo meaning enforcing the water allocation according to the Ethiopian preference and that of some upstream countries. Ethiopia continued to claim that it took all steps that ensure that the Renaissance Dam would not harm Egypt, but rather claimed that the dam will bring Egypt tremendous benefits, playing the role of the adversary and the judge at the same time. If we examine the Ethiopian actions regarding other transboundary rivers, we can notice that this same exact ploy has happened before with its neighbouring countries Somalia, Eritrea and Kenya, where it built dams on shared rivers without prior notifications, studies, negotiations, or agreements, and without taking into consideration the reasonable and equitable utilisation of water. Recently, the Ethiopian media has repeatedly stated that Ethiopias plan was initially to fill the Renaissance Dam in three years, but agreed to Egypt's request to extend the period to seven years, in order to not harm Egypt, which will cause tremendous losses in the dam's electricity sales during this period. The truth is that the Ethiopian demand to fill a dam of this magnitude in three years is a provocative request, whereby Ethiopia seeks to deepen its policy of domination in the region. The dam has a capacity of 74 billion cubic metres, and filling it over three years requires 25 billion cubic metres annually, in addition to 3 billion cubic metres lost annually to evaporation from the reservoir surface, meaning, storing 28 billion cubic metres annually from the rivers natural flow. The average annual flow of the river is around 49.5 billion cubic metres, meaning that Ethiopia wants to store 28 billion cubic metres annually, which leaves Egypt and Sudan together with 20 billion cubic meters, that is of course assuming it is not a dry year. Which leaves us with the question: what would happen in a dry year scenario? Will Ethiopia store the water in the dam, while Egypt and Sudan suffer? Ethiopia claims that the Renaissance Dam is for development purposes and for the good of the Ethiopian people. Lets examine that claim carefully. The GERD will supposedly generate 12,000 gigawatts of electricity annually, meaning that the annual electricity production of the Renaissance Dam will reach 12 billion kilowatt-hr. The price of electricity in Ethiopia for household use is only one US cent, and the commercial price is 1.8 cents per kilowatt-hour, making the average local price (domestic and commercial) about 1.4 cents/ kilowatts-hour. This means that if the electricity of the Renaissance Dam is used solely within Ethiopia, then the total revenue of electricity production is about $160 million annually, which will not be enough to cover the expected annual expenses for operating and maintaining the dam and paying the annual instalments for the dam loans. Assuming the government raises the local electricity price 3-4 times in order to cover the annual income for operation and maintenance costs, and the instalment loans, can the Ethiopian citizen live with this increase in power prices? In order to be able to afford the operation and maintenance costs of the dam, the Ethiopian government must raise the local electricity price and export part of the electricity abroad. The economic feasibility study of the electrical connection with Egypt and Sudan was based on the export of more than 3 megawatts to Egypt and Sudan (about more than half of the dam's electricity, one-third for Sudan and two-thirds for Egypt) at a price of 8 US cents per kilowatt-hour, which increases the annual income of the dam to about $550 million, which covers the costs of operation and maintenance, and provides an annual premium for dam loans to be repaid over 15-20 years. It may be necessary to double the internal price several times and increase the export price to 9-10 cents per kilowatt to be able to better pay the dam debt. However, after Ethiopia has revealed its true face with Egypt during the negotiations, Egypt will of course, not import any electricity from Ethiopia. On the other hand, Sudan alone will not be able to absorb this large amount of electricity aside from the fact that it has not yet started the construction of electricity transmission lines from the dam site and its need to develop its own internal electrical network. Moreover, Ethiopia has not finished the transmission line to transfer the dam's electricity to its own internal network (financed by a Chinese loan), and it may need one to two years to be completed, and it is desperate to double the price of local electricity three or four times to compensate for the deficit resulting from Egypt not purchasing Ethiopian electricity. Meanwhile, there are many obstacles that prevent the filling and operation of the dam, since the middle part of the dam still has a long way to go and the establishment of electricity transmission lines for the Ethiopian and Sudanese internal networks could take years. Now the question to ask here is: why is Ethiopia in such a hurry to start filling the GERD? * The writer is the former Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation in Egypt Search Keywords: Short link: The streets of San Francisco's Tenderloin District have experienced a 300 per cent increase in the number of homeless tents since the coronavirus outbreak began, according to a federal lawsuit filed by the community and a law school. Residents, businesses and the University of California Hastings College of Law are suing to demand the city clean up drug needles and human waste which have littered the streets. The litigation also demands that assistance be provided for individuals living in sidewalk tents, arguing they are at an increased risk of contracting COVID-19. About 400 tents currently occupy the neighborhood as San Francisco has had 1,943 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, which has been blamed for 34 deaths. The lawsuit argues homeless people living in sidewalk tents are at an increased risk of contracting COVID-19. A man is pictured sitting inside his tent in Tenderloin last month The streets of San Francisco's Tenderloin District have experienced a 300 per cent increase in the number of homeless tents since the coronavirus outbreak began, according to a new federal lawsuit. Homeless people are pictured in Tenderloin last month David Faigman, chancellor and dean at UC Hastings, which is heading the case in federal court, says the suit was filed because 'our neighborhood has become a pandemic containment zone,' reports Fox News. 'The city has basically cordoned off our area. Tents are blocking the streets. Tents are blocking doorways. There are needles in the streets. There's open-air drug dealing' Faigman says. The Tenderloin is home to more children, elderly persons and vulnerable populations per capita than any other neighborhood in the city. Faigman adds that those populations are not being protected due to a lack of public COVID-19 testing. He says residents fear the 'virus is raging in the neighborhood.' 'There's no other neighborhood in San Francisco that would tolerate that, and they would stand up and be counted. Tenderloin needs to stand up and be counted,' Faigman said. A plan by Mayor London Breed that began Wednesday to address the problem in the 49-block Tenderloin calls for homeless people to stay in 'safe-sleeping' encampments and for enforcing rules requiring sidewalk tents to be at least six feet apart. The city also closed off some streets and parking areas to provide space for the homeless, including wash stations and restrooms, along with health services and access to food, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Faigman called the plan 'entirely inadequate.' The lawsuit also calls for providing assistance to homeless people living in sidewalk tents (pictured last month) in San Francisco's Tenderloin District A homeless man huddles inside his tent in Tenderloin in April. About 400 tents currently occupy the district 'It essentially institutionalizes the status quo. It simply keeps everybody in place. It is a Band-Aid when a bandage is needed,' he said. 'It was thrown together in response because they knew the lawsuit was coming, but it clearly does not provide a real solution.' Faigman charged that San Francisco was taking a 'hands-off' approach in tackling its homelessness crisis. He said the city should welcome federal oversight as a 'way to break through political barriers and accomplish what they want to accomplish as well, which is to clear the streets and protect the people of San Francisco'. ST. LOUIS Gunfire appears to have done more damage in the city on Saturday than the coronavirus, police reports show. During a period that stretched over 10 hours, there were at least 10 people shot in St. Louis. Two men were killed in the incidents. Heres a summary of Saturdays crime log: At 1:14 p.m, near the intersection of Delmar and Taylor, 28-year-old Roderick Williams had a gunshot wound to his head and torso. Not conscious and not breathing, the police blotter says. The report was later updated to say that the victim was dead. At 4:27 p.m., in the 3000 block of North Florissant Avenue, a 28-year-old male was shot in the chest. At 6:43 p.m., in the 3600 block of Michigan, a male was shot. The report was updated to say the victim was a juvenile, shot in the leg. At 8:07 p.m., in the 3100 block of Providence Place, a 54-year-old male was shot. Unconscious and barely breathing, the terse report says. Later, the report is updated to say homicide requested. It was updated again to say that the man died at the hospital, and to adjust the time of the shooting. Two screaming toddlers watched on as their father was dramatically dragged to the ground by police at a tense anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne on Sunday. Hundreds of Victorians frustrated by the state's lockdown measures gathered at the steps of state parliament, joined by conspiracy theorists including anti-vaxxers and those who outrageously blame the global pandemic on 5G technology. The protest reached boiling point when police began separating protesters who were breaking social distancing and lockdown laws. Dramatic footage captured by onlookers showed the father being spoken to by a group of police, while his two young children lay in their nearby pram. Crowds began to form around the man as the incident escalated and officers attempted to handcuff him. A father was dragged to the ground by police while his two distressed toddlers cried during a tense anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne on Sunday Dramatic footage captured by a concerned bystander showed the father being arrested by police, while his two young children lay in their nearby pram The man's partner (pictured) screamed at him to calm down and urged him to not resist arrest Three other officers then pulled the pram with the distressed children away from the father, prompting onlookers to scream at the police. 'Oh my God!,' one woman screamed as more bystanders gathered around. 'F**k off!' another witness yelled at the officers. The man's partner then rushed to tend to her screaming children, while a swarm of more than 20 police officers surrounded the father. 'Honey please calm down!' she yelled out to her partner, who was pinned to the ground by at least five officers. 'Don't resist! Honey calm down please, I'll get help,' she continued. 'Babe, remember what I said to breathe, you haven't done anything wrong.' Two officers keeping the crowds at bay then told the woman to stay with her kids. 'They're with my friend, I told her to get them away from here,' the mother responded. Bystanders tried desperately to calm down the hysterical mother. 'His kids were taken away from him, this is absolutely disgusting,' a shocked witness shouted. Police escort a man away from the protest with face tattoos. He was handcuffed as he was moved into the police paddy wagon The tattooed father was loaded into a police van after his dramatic arrest in Melbourne on Sunday. It's not known what the man was arrested for Later in the day, the man was seen reuniting with his partner and children on the street after being released from police custody Protesters clashed with cops outside Parliament House in Melbourne CBD, Sunday, May 10 The man was eventually picked up off the ground and walked away by a crowd of at least 20 officers. Hordes of onlookers started booing the police as they led the man across the street and into a police van. Later in the day, the man was seen reuniting with his partner and children on the street after being released from police custody. It's not known what prompted the father's dramatic arrest. Protesters held signs that read 'fight for your freedom and rights' and 'don't lock down the people, lock up the government'. Demonstrators, including families with small children, could be heard chanting for the police to release the people who had been arrested. Another protester with blood on his head could be seen surrounded by officers wearing bullet-proof vests. The father poses for a photo with his family after being released from police custody Another man named Walter, from Orbost - four hours east of Melbourne - was escorted into a police van and fined $1,600 for breaking social distancing restrictions. He said it was a small price to pay to 'spread the message'. 'The police just want to intimidate you and scare you,' Walter said. One woman bizarrely told reporters she had government documents proving the virus was manufactured intentionally over four decades ago. 'I have evidence of the virus being created in the '70s with documents to prove it,' she told the Herald Sun. She also claimed a 'universal coronavirus vaccine' was created in the early 2000s by US authorities who want to force 'a global microchip of humans and mandatory vaccination'. 'It's all written in the New Testament,' she said. 'We do not consent.' One man locked in a standoff with police had blood dripping down his face as officers stood their ground during the violent protest A man dressed all in black is dragged away from the scene in Melbourne's CBD on Sunday. It's understood he was one of ten people to be arrested at the protest Footage of the demonstration showed a large police presence as Victorian residents and conspiracy theorists banded together with signs that read 'fight for your freedom and rights' Crowds also chanted for Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to be arrested. Gates has been targeted by deluded trolls who believe he will use the COVID-19 vaccine to inject tracking devices into the bodies of recipients and achieve world domination. Victoria Police confirmed 10 people, including two of the event's organisers, were arrested. The majority of those arrested were fined for failing to comply with the lockdown laws while three offenders are expected to be charged with assaulting a police officer. Another protester is also expected to be charged for allegedly throwing a bottle at police. All offenders were released pending summons. A police spokeswoman confirmed capsicum sprayed spray was used during the arrest of one person and that the crowd dispersed shortly after. One man was tackled to the ground by police (left). Another was escorted away from the demonstration by officers in face masks (right) A pamphlet for the event urged people in 'any state, any country' to 'peacefully stand on the steps of your government building and demand answers.' 'Do not be deterred by this continued fear mongering and false reporting,' one female protester posted online. Theories linking coronavirus to the rollout of the new 5G network have swept the globe during the health crisis, despite experts' desperate efforts to debunk the claims. Chief Health Officer Brendan Murphy said a number of conspiracy theorists had contacted him, describing their views as 'nonsense'. 'There is absolutely no evidence about 5G doing anything in the coronavirus space,' Prof Murphy told reporters in Canberra. 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 have unfortunately received a lot of communication from these conspiracy theorists myself. It is complete nonsense. 5G has got nothing at all to do with coronavirus. 'Similarly, I understand people have the right to protest, but they should not be breaching those social distancing rules and if they are, they should be held to account.' Australian professor of medicine, and public health advocate John Dwyer described conspiracy claims that 5G causes the deadly virus as 'dangerous nonsense'. Australian professor of medicine, and public health advocate John Dwyer described conspiracy claims that 5G causes the deadly virus as 'dangerous nonsense'. 'At this time in the fight against the epidemic, this is dangerous nonsense. Even to have a few people think differently that social distancing isn't for them is a silly idea and is putting all of us at risk,' he said. Victorian health minister Jenny Mikakos today called the protest 'disappointing'. Coronavirus: What you need to read Coronavirus maps: Cases and deaths in the U.S. | Cases and deaths worldwide Vaccines: Tracker by state | Booster shots | For kids 5 to 11 | Guidance for vaccinated people | How long does immunity last? | County-level vaccine data What you need to know: Omicron variant | Breakthrough infections | Symptoms guide | Masks FAQ | Delta variant | Other variants | Follow all of our coverage and sign up for our free newsletter Impact of the pandemic: Supply chain | Education | Housing Got a pandemic question? We answer one every day in our coronavirus newsletter As the Islamic Republic continues to suffer from devastating economic conditions and the coronavirus crisis, Ayatollah Khamenei has suggested that its leaders could enter into talks with the United States. As IranWire writes, the Supreme Leader, who has been firmly against any negotiations with the US following escalating tensions over the last two years, has used religious rhetoric to justify his apparent willingness to put an end to the communications deadlock. Posting on Twitter, Ayatollah Khamenei referred to one of Shia Islams most important figures, Hassan ibn Ali, to indicate a change in policy. "Imam Hassan Mojtaba [the second Shia Imam] is the bravest figure in the history of Islam, he tweeted. He was willing to sacrifice himself and his reputation among his supporters for peace, to safeguard Islam and protect the Koran, and to guide future generations." The Leaders religious reference conjures up a key moment in Islamic history, in which the second Shia Imam came to an agreement with Muawiyah, the Umayyad caliph, in 661 AD. The compromise was the ultimate gesture of peace, preventing a war between the Sunnis and the Shias, while at the same time securing the leadership of Umayyad, a Sunni. It constituted a significant sacrifice for the Shias, but is believed by Shias to be a judgment that protected the sanctity of the religion and ensured its resilience for the future. Following the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), by order of President Donald Trump, Ayatollah Khamenei has repeatedly refused to grant permission for discussions to take place between Irans foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, dismissing the idea of the Iranian government negotiating with the Trump administration a "double poison." But as Iran approaches the second year of fresh US sanctions, as oil sales and exports have fallen from nearly three million barrels a day to 300,000 barrels a day and its revenue out of the countrys reach, and as the coronavirus pandemic has further crippled the economy, Ayatollah Khamenei has had to change tack, conjuring "the peace of Imam Hassan" and the importance of sacrifice in order to protect the sanctity of the Islamic Republic. The current economic crisis has left Irans leaders with little power to improve the situation, much less make demands on the international stage. A History of Evoking Religious Parables Both Irans moderate and conservative politicians and strategists have often used Imam Hassans negotiation as confirmation that finding peaceful solutions with foreign enemies can be both practical and a show of strength. In fact, this is not the first time the Supreme Leader has linked this historical act with current events. He cited the peace agreement when Iran entered into secret talks with the US in Oman during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking of the need for"heroic softening" against the enemy. Then, in August 2014, on the eve of President Hassan Rouhanis first trip to New York after being elected, Khamenei conceded: Diplomatic skills mean acquiring flexibility and power skillfully and promptly. Another definition for it would be heroic flexibility, for which Imam Hassans Peace Treaty is the most glorious historical example. The peace of Hassan was used to justify the groundwork for the nuclear negotiations and the eventual lifting of sanctions. In the political lexicon of the Islamic Republic, the "peace of Imam Hassan is in direct opposition to the "Hussein uprising whereby Hussein Ibn Ali, the third Shia Imam, refused to compromise with Muawiyah's son, Yazid, and eventually lost his life in the Battle of Karbala. This Islamic reference to not giving in to the enemy, not compromising and staying true to ones belief is also regularly used by influential Iranians to justify actions and behavior. According to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Supreme Leader has the "absolute authority of the jurist" (Velayat-e faqih, also referred to as the Guardianship of the Jurist) and so holds the real power in Iran, and is superior to the president, the head of the executive branch of government. Yet, despite the dire state of Irans economy and the ongoing political, social and economic devastation caused by coronavirus, Ayatollah Khamenei's tweet does not necessarily mean he will endorse negotiations, not least because he posted it on the anniversary of the birth of the second Shia Imam. All recent evidence suggests that Iran will not hold open talks with the Trump administration six months ahead of a US presidential election the regime will want to see what happens in November. At the same time, any negotiations with the US whether they are with the Trump administration or an administration led by Joe Biden, who was vice president during Barack Obamas tenure and at the time the JCPOA went into effect will not be an automatic process. Extensive preparations will be required on both sides, and wrangling will also have to take place within Irans complex web of political, religious and military powers. The Leaders tweet could indicate a willingness to make such preparations, or at least a hint that he is not ruling out the possibility of negotiations. And what better way to justify this decision to his supporters than to evoke noble examples of similar situations in Islamic history and literature? Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. US sets up new military base in Syria's oil-rich Dayr al-Zawr: Report Iran Press TV Saturday, 09 May 2020 6:33 AM The United States has reportedly established a new military base in Syria's oil-rich eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr after bringing in reinforcements to the war-torn Arab country. The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) quoted reliable sources as saying on Friday that the new US base is located in Day al-Zawr's al-Jazrat area. The US-based monitoring group reported that more than 300 trucks, carrying ammunition, weapons, military and logistical supplies, had entered Syria over the past few days and that most of those trucks headed to al-Jazrat. It further said the US forces are expanding their base in the al-Omar oil field in the eastern countryside of Dayr Al -Zawr. Recently, it added, American soldiers and other US-led coalition troops had arrived at the base. Washington runs several military bases in Syria, mainly in northern and eastern regions where the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are operating. The US has been plundering Syria's natural resources and collaborating with Takfiri militants to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The Damascus government, which is conducting a military campaign against the foreign-backed terrorists, has repeatedly called for withdrawal of the US occupation forces from Syria. Trump extends national emergency to continue Syria occupation On Friday, US President Donald Trump extended for one year the "national emergency" for Syria in order to continue its occupation of the Arab country. According to a White House statement, Trump took the decision "to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States constituted by the actions of the Government of Syria." "The United States will consider changes in the composition, policies, and actions of the Government of Syria in determining whether to continue or terminate this national emergency in the future," it said. Terrorists step up attacks The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet warned Friday that Syria's situation is a "ticking time-bomb" as terrorist groups such as Daesh exploit the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to mount more attacks on civilians. "We are receiving more reports every day of targeted killings and bombings from one end of the country to the other, with many such attacks taking place in populated areas," Bachelet said. "Various parties to the conflict in Syria, including ISIL (Daesh), appear to view the global focus on the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to regroup and inflict violence on the population." Nearly all of the attacks have occurred in northern and eastern parts of the country under the control of Turkish armed forces and affiliated armed groups, or of the opposing US-backed SDF militants. Bachelet said, "If the current patterns of violations and abuses continue to spread and escalate, there is a risk the country will enter another spiral of extreme and wide-spread violence committed with impunity by all parties to the conflict." Syria plunged into foreign-sponsored militancy in 2011. Takfiri terrorists overran parts of Syria before government forces retook almost all of them with help from Damascus' allies, namely Iran and Russia. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos state, says his administration may be forced to review the ease of lockdown if residents continue to ignore public health guidelines. President Muhammadu Buhari had eased the five-week lockdown he imposed on Lagos, Ogun and Abuja to check the spread of COVID-19. But there have been complaints of non-adherence to the guidelines of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), particularly on social distancing, since Monday when residents were partially allowed to move freely. Speaking during the maiden briefing after the ease of a five-week lockdow, Sanwo-Olu said: another round of interminable lockdown of movement and business activities would be introduced if there is no improvement in the adherence to the guidelines initiated to break the cycle of transmission of the dreaded virus. The Government, he said, was taken aback, watching residents going about their businesses in the last five days after the ease of lockdown without complying with the public health guidelines despite massive advocacy. Sanwo-Olu said the crowd observed at various banks and markets across the state flouted the public gathering directive, noting that the government would not watch while people violate the States guidelines towards combating the pandemic. As a Government elected to uphold security of its citizens, which include health security, we will not hesitate to review the terms of the easing of lockdown if we do not see an improvement in adherence to our public health guidelines in the next couple of days, he said. We will be forced to take a painful decision of bringing the entire system under lockdown if we continue to see evidence that Lagosians are determined to flout the rules. As we eased restrictions on movement, we have increased our testing capacity and we are also actively increasing our isolation capacity. Members of the public will also see a change in our isolation strategy in the weeks ahead, as we transition towards decentralisation. What this means is that, we will be introducing community management of cases, by accrediting and incorporating primary healthcare facilities and private healthcare facilities for the management of mild-to-moderate cases of COVID-19 patients. However, we will guide this initiative carefully to ensure that it is not done at the expense of the capacity required to handle other medical cases. Sanwo-Olu said the state governments order restricting the operation of commercial motorcycles, popularly known as Okada, had been defied, directing the police to confiscate any commercial motorcycle seen flouting his directive. The governor also instructed security personnel to strictly enforce the ban on inter-state movement, directing the police to turn back all pedestrians trekking to Lagos from boundary highways. We are at a critical point in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic where every citizen of the State needs to take responsibility for their health and wellbeing, he said. As citizens, we have a great burden upon us, to behave responsibly. These times demand a lot from us, in terms of actions and behaviours that may not be comfortable. To stay alive and well, we have to abandon old habits and customs, and adopt new ones. The governor said there would be a change in the dtates isolation strategy in the coming weeks, pointing out that Lagos was transiting towards decentralisation of management of COVID-19 cases, which would lead to the accreditation and incorporation of primary healthcare facilities and private hospitals for the treatment of mild-to-moderate cases. T he Government's new "stay alert" slogan for the next stage of the UK's fight against coronavirus has divided opinion. The "stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives" message that has been drilled into the public for weeks is expected to be dropped for a call to "stay alert, control the virus, save lives". Boris Johnson is expected to unveil a five-tier warning system during his address to the nation tonight similar to that used for terror attacks, ranging from level one to level five at the most severe, with Britain currently on level four. The new system will be assessed by a Joint Biosecurity Centre which will be tasked with identifying local spikes of infections. Some questioned whether the slogan was strong enough / REUTERS The Prime Minister is planning to urge workers who cannot do their jobs from home to begin returning to their workplaces while following social-distancing rules. The new slogan is understood to have been drawn up by Australian strategist Isaac Levido and Ben Guerin, the Conservatives' 2019 election social media strategist. Social media users flocked to question whether "alert" was too weak a word. Top-selling Harry Potter author JK Rowling responded immediately saying: Is Coronavirus sneaking around in a fake moustache and glasses? If we drop our guard, will it slip us a Micky Finn? What the hell is stay alert supposed to mean? Andy Burnham, the Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester, tweeted that it feels to me like a mistake to me to drop the clear stay at home message. One critic posted an image of the new slogan, adding: "What would happen if you gave an Apprentice candidate 2 hours to design a pandemic slogan". But in a since-deleted tweet, the Bruges Group think tank praised the message. The Governments new slogan is good. Green replaces red for a calmer feel," it wrote. "Stay Alert replaces Stay Home and underlines individual responsibility. Control the Virus is a positive message. Its within our power to achieve. Another accused the Government of "infantilising the population", while others accused ministers of "mixed messaging". Twitter user Dr Xand van Tulleken jibed: "6:22 on Sunday morning. Im alert. Are you?" Addressing the criticism on Sunday morning, Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick told Sky's Sophy Ridge: "As we've now passed the peak of the virus, it's right that we update and broaden the message to the public." He added: "We should be staying at home as much as possible, but when we do go to work and go about our business we need to remain vigilant." Asked if it was "too woolly", he replied: "Well, I hope not". Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworh said the new slogan was not clear enough / Sky News But shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said clarity was "desperately needed" over the new slogan, warning it risks ambiguity. He told the show: We need absolute clarity from Boris Johnson. Theres no room for nuance in this. This virus exploits ambivalence, it thrives on ambiguity and I think the problem with the slogan that has been briefed to the newspapers is people will be looking slightly puzzled, questioning What does it mean to stay alert? What are the Government saying with that?" Meanwhile, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon refused to adopt the slogan, while other devolved leaders and politicians feared it could be less effective. It follows warnings from top scientists that the country's death toll could hit 100,000 if social distancing restrictions are eased too quickly. Boris Johnson will make a speech to the nation this evening / AP Experts at the London School of Tropical Hygiene, Imperial College London and others concluded in a report, seen by the Sunday Times, that there is "very limited room for manoueuvre". But unions have warned ministers that their three million members will not feel comfortable for returning to work given the stay-at-home message of recent weeks. The trade union movement wants to be able to recommend the Governments back-to-work plans, Unison, Unite, the GMB, Usdaw and the Trades Union Congress wrote in a letter to the Observer. But for us to do that we need to ensure that ministers have listened and that we stay safe and save lives at work too. Mr Johnson acknowledged the scale of the danger, saying well have to work even harder to get every step right now the peak is passed, before making a mountaineering analogy. He added ahead of the announcement later: This is the dangerous bit." Loading.... The PM will chair a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee with Cabinet ministers, leaders of the devolved nations and London Mayor Sadiq Khan before his 7pm pre-recorded address. On Monday, the Government will publish a 50-page document outlining the full plan to cautiously re-start the economy to MPs after figures suggested the overall death toll for the UK has passed 36,500. The UK's official death toll rose by 346 to 31,587 on Saturday, as police admitted they were "fighting a losing battle" with trying to keep Brits at home over the sunny Bank Holiday weekend. WASHINGTON (AP) The Senates top Democrat on Sunday called on the Department of Veterans Affairs to explain why it allowed the use of an unproven drug on veterans for the coronavirus, saying patients may have been put at unnecessary risk. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York said the VA needs to provide Congress more information about a recent bulk order for $208,000 worth of hydroxychloroquine. President Donald Trump has heavily promoted the malaria drug, without evidence, as a treatment for COVID-19. Schumer's request comes after a whistleblower complaint filed this past week by former Health and Human Services official Rick Bright alleged that the Trump administration, eager for a quick fix to the onslaught of the coronavirus, wanted to flood hot spots in New York and New Jersey with the drug. Major veterans organizations have urged VA to explain under what circumstances VA doctors initiate discussion of hydroxychloroquine with veterans as a treatment option. There are concerns that they are using this drug when the medical evidence says it doesnt help and could hurt, Schumer said in an interview with The Associated Press. He said given the fact the malaria drug, despite being untested, had been repeatedly pushed publicly by Trump, VA Secretary Robert Wilkie must address whether anyone at the department was pressured by the White House or the administration to use hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. Schumer said Wilkie also should answer questions about a recent analysis of VA hospital data that showed there were more deaths among patients given hydroxychloroquine versus standard care, including how much patients knew about the drugs risks before taking it. Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of N.Y., speaks with reporters after the Senate approved a nearly $500 billion coronavirus aid bill, Tuesday, April 21, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)AP Wilkie in recent weeks has denied that veterans were used as test subjects for the drug and that it was instead administered at government-run VA hospitals only when medically appropriate, with mutual consent between doctor and patient. Still, Wilkie has repeatedly declined to say how widely the drug was being used for COVID-19 and whether the department had issued broad guidance to doctors and patients on the use of the drug. In a weekly call with veterans groups this past week, Wilkie continued to defend VAs use of hydroxychloroquine. He dismissed the recent analysis of VA hospital data showing no benefits to patients, suggesting the poor outcomes were because the cases involved older, very sick veterans. He has not said whether the department will continue to use the drug. Use of this medication for treatment of COVID-19 is considered off label perfectly legal and not rare, he wrote in an April 29 letter to veterans groups. The analysis of hospital data, done by independent researchers at two universities with VA approval, was not a rigorous experiment. Researchers analyzed medical records of 368 older male veterans hospitalized with confirmed coronavirus infection at VA medical centers who died or were discharged by April 11. About 28% of veterans who were given hydroxychloroquine plus usual care died, versus 11% of those getting routine care alone. The VA recently said most of its recent bulk order for hydroxychloroquine was being used for approved uses, such as treating lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, but it didnt provide breakdowns. Wilkie in recent weeks took advocacy of the drug even further than Trump by claiming without evidence that it has been effective for young and middle-aged veterans in particular. In fact, there is no published evidence showing that. Veterans are very concerned that we still do not have clarity on the VAs past and present use of hydroxychloroquine in treating veterans with COVID-19, Jeremy Butler, chief executive officer of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told the AP. Now that the federal government issued an emergency use authorization for remdesivir to treat COVID-19, we need answers to these questions as well as the VAs plans for administering, or not administering, remdesivir, he said. President Donald Trump watches as Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie walks away after speaking about protecting seniors, in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, April 30, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)AP In a tweet Sunday, former VA Secretary David Shulkin urged the department to immediately curtail use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. With studies showing no benefit, VA should restrict use exclusively to clinical trials, he wrote. Shulkin was fired by Trump in March 2018, and Wilkie replaced him. Schumer said his main concern is determining whether the VA had conducted any clandestine studies to determine whether hydroxychloroquine was effective without their permission. He said theres also concern that the department wont address specifically where the drug was sent or how its being used. These are people who risked their lives for us, Schumer said. They should be treated only with the utmost dignity, respect and high standards of care. The drug has long been used to treat malaria and other ailments. A few, very small preliminary studies suggested it might help prevent the coronavirus from entering cells and possibly help patients clear the virus sooner. But the Food and Drug Administration last month warned doctors against prescribing the drug for COVID-19 outside hospitals because of the risks of serious side effects and death. Photo: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images In December 2016, President Obama announced punishing economic sanctions against Russia in retaliation for its email thefts and other actions taken to help elect Donald Trump. The purpose of the sanctions was to let Russia know that its election operation, which had been undertaken with Trumps encouragement, would not be rewarded. Michael Flynn, Trumps incoming national security adviser, wanted to send a very different message to the Russians. In a secret conversation with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Flynn reassured the Russian that the incoming administration would steer U.S.-Russia relations in a different direction. Obama was trying to punish Russia for its act, and Flynn was trying to undermine the punishment. (Weeks later, Congress would vote to lock in sanctions by a veto-proof margin, enraging Trump and prompting him to try, futilely, to undo them.) At the time, Flynns secret conservation with Kislyak was closely related to the FBIs ongoing investigation into illicit contacts between the Trump campaign and Moscow. Flynn falsely told a pair of FBI agents that he and Kislyak had not discussed sanctions. His motive to lie was obvious: The sanctions threatened to deny Russia the payment it had been sniffing around Trumps campaign for. Two years later, he confessed in court to having committed perjury. Now that the special counsel that prosecuted Flynn is gone, and the Department of Justice now in the hands of Trump loyalist William Barr, the department has abandoned its own prosecution. The rationale for forgiving Flynns lies is that the FBI had no reason to talk to Flynn in the first place. Even if this objection were valid and there is much more to say about this, because it cuts to the heart of the issue it would hardly justify the extraordinary favor Flynn received from the Justice Department yesterday. FBI agents interview people all the time. People often get convicted if they lie. It is vanishingly rare, perhaps completely unprecedented, for the Department of Justice to turn around and withdraw its charges against a confessed perjurer. A range of former prosecutors struggled to point to any previous instance in which the Justice Department had abandoned its own case after obtaining a guilty plea, reports the New York Times. The defense of Flynn essentially granted him extraordinary leniency that almost no ordinary criminal defendant in the United States would receive. But even this defense, which presumes that Flynn had been charged for illegitimate reasons, does not hold up. Flynn was under investigation in the first place because the FBI was investigating the Trump campaigns covert ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Barr claims that the FBI did not have a basis for a counterintelligence investigation against Flynn at that stage. But the basis for the investigation is obvious. Flynn had previously been paid tens of thousands of dollars by Russia, was now holding covert discussions with the country that had helped his campaign win the election, and was at the time of the interview publicly lying to the public and other members of the Trump administration about the call a lie that exposed him to Russian blackmail. Even if we assume Flynns behavior was impeccable, he was at minimum a very material witness to the investigation, having been a member of the campaign and privy to many of its communications relating to Russia. Of course the FBI had a basis for interviewing Flynn. If Muellers treatment of Flynn shows anything, it is not the overzealousness of the prosecution, but the difficulty of proving in court the misdeeds of a presidential ally. Prosecutors allowed Flynn to escape charges for concealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to advise Turkey, which he received at the same time he was serving as Trumps foreign policy adviser, and for which two of his partners were charged. During the campaign, Flynn apparently assigned a Republican operative to obtain stolen Clinton emails, but the scheme failed and the operative died (perhaps allowing Flynn to escape prosecution as an accessory to the crime). In the end, of course, Muellers probe was unable to establish a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. An important factor in this failure was Trumps ability to dangle pardons to the key lieutenants who might have had the ability to incriminate him Flynn, along with Roger Stone and Paul Manafort. In 2017, Trump sent a message to Flynn to stay strong. Flynns loyalty has now been rewarded. Barrs approach toward the Mueller investigation has been to turn the presumption of guilt upside down. Having failed to establish to the high standards of a court that Trump engaged in a criminal conspiracy, Barr has publicly misrepresented the Mueller report as vindication, distorting its contents to the point that even its taciturn author protested. Half the report consisted of massive evidence of Trump obstructing the investigation but rather than use this evidence to cast doubt on Trumps innocence, as one would intuitively do when the subject of a criminal probe acts like they have something to hide, Barr concluded that it was unfair to accuse him of obstruction at all, since prosecutors failed to prove the case Trump was obstructing. He is now slowly working backward from this twisted conclusion. He has selected outside prosecutors to go back through the Mueller investigation, investigating the investigators and setting the criminals free. As Barr revealingly told CBS when asked how history would view his decision, History is written by the winners. He is rewriting the history of the Mueller probe, recasting the crooks and low-lives who sought out and benefited from the illegal intervention of a dictator as its heroes. On the same day as the Justice Departments extraordinary announcement, Trump held yet another phone call with Vladimir Putin. Trump told reporters he discussed the hoax with the Russian president. I said, You know, its a very appropriate time, because things are falling out now and coming in line and I wouldnt be surprised if you see a lot of things happen over the next number of weeks. If anybody could intuitively grasp Trumps ambition for how a justice system should operate, it is Putin. Trump has spent months making such promises of vindication for his friends and retribution against anybody who helped investigate them. Unlike many of his boasts, these seem not to be empty. In Barr he has found an operator who is capable of bringing his debased vision of justice to life. (Newser) A pulmonary blood clot killed the brother of an Idaho woman who's facing charges in the disappearance of her childrena case that attracted worldwide attention with revelations of her doomsday beliefs and connection to three mysterious deaths. Autopsy and toxicology reports were released Friday for Alex Cox, who died in Arizona in December, the AP reports. In July, Cox fatally shot his sisters estranged husband, Charles Vallow, in what he said was self-defense. Police in Gilbert, Ariz., said that detectives investigating Cox's death will review the autopsy report and that the case is still active. Lori Vallow, Cox's sister, is being detained in Idaho on charges related to the disappearance of her two children: Joshua JJ Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17. They were reported missing in September. story continues below Lori Vallow moved last summer from suburban Phoenix to Rexburg, Idaho. She married Chad Daybell two weeks after his wife died in October. Although her obituary said the death was from natural causes, law enforcement became suspicious when Daybell quickly remarried. Tammy Daybells remains have been exhumed, but the autopsy report has not been released. Lori Vallow believes she is "a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ's second coming in July 2020," according to divorce documents Charles Vallow had filed. She and Chad Daybell were involved in a group that promotes preparing for biblical end times. Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell moved to Hawaii in December, shortly after police went to her apartment in Rexburg to check on the children at the grandparents request. Lori Vallow was arrested in Hawaii in February and is being held on $1 million bail. (Read more Lori Vallow stories.) Mixed expressions on the faces of passengers. Some tense faces at the time of boarding turned happy after landing of the plane. And an impromptu message from the captain that garnered many likes on social media. In a way, these aspects sum up the expectations and relief of stranded Indians abroad as Air India Express ferried 181 people, including four infants, from Abu Dhabi to Kochi on Thursday evening. It was also the first flight under the 'Vande Bharat Mission' wherein nearly 15,000 Indians, stranded in different countries, are to be brought back to the country. "From the cockpit I could see... there were mixed faces, (some) thrilled, happy... more of a mixed reaction," Anshul Sheoran, who piloted the Abu Dhabi-Kochi flight, told PTI. There were some passengers who had medical conditions and wheel chair requirement. "Then I thought of a passenger announcement. It was impromptu (message)... there was no time to think about," the pilot said referring to the nearly three-minute onboard announcement and added that he also wanted to give the message of "we are coming back home". Air India Express and Air India together will be operating 64 flights to different parts of the world till May 13. The first flight -- IX 452 -- came to Kochi on May 7. Deepak Menon, the lead cabin attendant on that flight, said lots of passengers thanked the crew after the flight landed. "While boarding, they (passengers) were little tense... after landing they were very much happy. They said thanks, we are proud of you...," he said. There was four cabin crew members and two pilots on the flight that was operated by a Boeing 737 aircraft. "I thank everyone for their wishes and prayers... Also, I am extremely grateful to my family and neighbourhood. I got support from them also," Menon said. There have been instances of airline crew members not being allowed or not treated properly by residential associations and societies amid fears of coronavirus infections. Personally, the crew wore Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for nearly five hours. When asked whether he has any particular message for passengers, Sheoran remarked that he just wanted to say that they are in safe hands and would get them back home soon. "We will live up to national expectations, like always," he added. After requisite tests for COVID-19 and following necessary safety protocols, crew members will be back for their next flight. As Sheoran said in the announcement, "we are all dressed in hazmat suits as per the safety protocol but we will still be wearing our warm smiles underneath". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Today, the Journal begins its candidate endorsements for the June 2 primaries. In the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, the Journal endorses Mark Ronchetti. The former TV weathermans entrance into the race in early January surprised many political insiders and energized disillusioned Republicans who thought they had little chance of competing for the Senate seat against well-known Democrat Ben Ray Lujan, who is leaving his House District 3 seat. Since then, Ronchetti has proven hes a viable candidate, although this is his first political campaign. According to the most recent campaign finance reports released in mid-April, Ronchetti raised $650,000 since announcing his candidacy, outdistancing Republican rivals Gavin Clarkson, who raised almost $318,000, and Elisa Martinez, who raised more than $170,000. Ronchetti also finished second behind Martinez (198 votes to her 241) at the state Republican Party Pre-Primary Convention in March. With name recognition all across New Mexico, courtesy of decades of television newscasts, Ronchetti has the potential to win a statewide race, unlike his GOP opponents. And beyond his inherent likability, hes not relying on the coattails of President Donald Trump. In fact, Ronchetti has shown the most independence from Trump among the Republican candidates for any race in New Mexico, a good sign he would put our states needs before party politics. Ronchetti says he felt strongly enough about public service to quit what he called the best job in the world and to lay it all on the line. That took conviction. He was the chief meteorologist for KRQE where he worked for 13 years after seven years at KOAT. The high-profile jobs have given him insight into our culturally and geographically diverse state and allowed him to connect with many New Mexicans. Ronchetti says he wants to restore some political balance to New Mexicos congressional delegation; all five in office today are Democrats. In his candidate interview, he harkened back to days when Democrat Bill Richardson and Republican Joe Skeen worked together in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Democrat Jeff Bingaman and Republican Pete Domenici worked on issues together in the U.S. Senate. New Mexico, not party ideology, was the priority. A victim of a home invasion and car break-in, Ronchetti told the Journal editorial board that crime was the issue that put him over the top in his decision to run for Senate. Far too many New Mexicans can relate to that. The father of two young daughters, Ronchetti also is concerned by the states lagging public education system, the inequities that exist for those who cant afford to send their children to private schools, and is a big supporter of charter schools. Hes also made reclaiming critical jobs from China an issue in his campaign. And he says he and his family will continue to live in New Mexico if he wins. I want to make sure that my two girls can grow up in New Mexico where chasing the American dream is possible, he wrote in his candidate questionnaire. Ronchetti says New Mexico Republicans need someone with a megaphone to speak on their behalf, that Democrats face zero push back and zero accountability for their policies, and he relishes the opportunity to rebuild the GOP party in New Mexico. He says New Mexicans are innately conservative, particularly on issues like abortion and gun control. Asked directly by the Journal editorial board if he can beat Lujan, Ronchetti said he wouldnt be in the race if he didnt think so. And he has the charisma to pull it off. His upbeat personality and Reaganesque optimism make him the best candidate in the GOP field. Hes also the fresh, young face New Mexico Republicans need badly. A matchup between Ronchetti and Lujan promises to be an interesting and competitive Senate race, the likes of which sadly New Mexican voters have not been afforded in decades. Read the Q&As: U.S. Senate primary candidates 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. Around 40 percent of the hospital staff who have undergone tests for the coronavirus at Cairo's Al-Zahraa University Hospital have been found positive for COVID-19, an official has said. Thirty-eight staff members tested positive for COVID-19 out of a total 101 people who underwent tests at the facility, Mahmoud Siddiq, vice president of Al-Azhar University, to which the hospital belongs, said on Saturday. Fourteen cases were confirmed at the hospital late last week and 24 others were detected on Saturday, Siddiq said in comments to Sada El-Balad satellite TV channel. The newly-detected cases include eight kitchen workers, an administrative staff member, and the rest are medical staff: doctors, nurses and other medical workers, according to Siddiq. The new cases were due to be transferred to an isolation hospital in Cairos northeastern Nasr City district on Sunday morning. A worker at the hospitals kitchen and his wife, who is an administrative worker at the hospital, are believed to be the source of the infection, he added. The hospital is planning to conduct 100 tests on Sunday for those who came in contact with the infected staff members, he said. The hospital is no longer receiving patients and its emergency department has been shut since Thursday for sterilisation. The hospitals dialysis and intensive care patients have been transferred to other hospitals affiliated with Al-Azhar, Seddiq said, adding that the hospital may close for 14 days. Egypt's health ministry has not provided a tally of doctors who have been infected or died from the flu-like virus. The Doctors Syndicate, however, has said that nine physicians have died as of Friday, and the latest tally of infections among medical staff it provided in late April was 90. A health ministry spokesman said last week that only 12 percent of infected medical staff members contracted the virus while on duty at hospitals, while the rest got infected outside medical facilities. A set of financial incentives has been adopted recently for Egyptian medical staff as part of the government's efforts to support members of the healthcare sector amid the coronavirus crisis. Search Keywords: Short link: Bangladesh eases lockdown restrictions for businesses in some parts Dhaka, May 10 (UNI) Bangladesh has eased the nationwide lockdown imposed to curb the COVID-19 spread by allowing some of the businesses to reopen in different parts of the country like Dhaka and Chattogram, an official said on Sunday. Dilshad Begum deputy commissioner (DC) told UNI that Rajbari districts have reopened a wide range of shops, while some kept their businesses shut due to dilemma amid virus fear. All the business people in Rajshahi, Sylhet, Chandpur and Feni and a significant number of them in Chattogram and Dhaka have decided to keep their businesses shut until Eid-ul-Fitr to contain the spread of coronavirus. They say "the best revenge is to live well", and what better way to do that than to go shopping? A peculiar phenomenon is sweeping Asia as people emerge from lockdown into their deserted cities. Take the flagship Chinese store for French brand Hermes in Guangzhou as a case in point. It counted $2.7m (2.45m) in sales on the day it reopened in April - the biggest single-day takings at a luxury outlet in China. The retail upswing is called 'revenge shopping' - an overindulgence by people who have missed their favourite outlets due to lockdown - and it's taking the world by storm. In cities across China and India and in Singapore, long queues are forming outside outlets such as Apple, Nike, Gucci and Lancome, and economic expert Jim Power said Ireland can expect a repeat performance: "There is a view out there that everything will be dead forever but for a lot of people the animal spirit will take over and they will be straight back on the street as quickly as they possibly can. "Spirits are low and anything that will rekindle it has to be welcomed - the Asians are embracing it and I have no doubt we will embrace it in Europe and Ireland too." Despite the uncertainty in the coming months, Mr Power predicted two key factors will influence people's retail sprees. "First of all, psychologically it's good for people. Puritans might describe it as 'conspicuous consumption' but a lot of us enjoy it and it lifts the mood. There is a reason its called 'therapy' - people feel it can be good for their sense of well-being. "Happiness is made up of a lot of different things - family, exercise, reading and so forth - and part of that is going into shops and looking and buying stuff. And if it makes people feel better, great, if it keeps people employed, then all the better." The second factor driving the craze, Mr Power said, is that people have built up a nest egg because they are spending less on commuting, restaurants, drinking out, beauty treatments, the gym, holidays and hobbies. "Over three months, a lot of people's incomes haven't particularly suffered because of Government support schemes and a lot are still working without the opportunity to spend it. So clearly there is going to be a significant build-up of personal savings during this period and that will spur people back to the shops." On what people have managed to squirrel away, he said: "Over a three-month period, I would say people will have been able to save around 1,000 or 2,000." Mr Power believes that talk of economic uncertainty will not deter people from buying their little luxuries. "The period that we are living through has been incredibly tough on spirits and on the mind. And people are missing the stuff they would normally do, so the first opportunity they get to remedy that, they will take it. There is no doubt in my mind, if the pubs were to reopen tonight, they would be packed. "A lot of people will feel 'we made a lot of sacrifices, we suffered, it's time to reward ourselves'." Some retail outlets, such as those on the high street, may benefit from the first flush of binge-buying, but others will miss out on the surge because of the Government's summer-long five-phase plan. Those that will remain in lockdown until the end of July and August include large shopping centres, hair salons, gyms, pubs, bars and nightclubs. That prospect has caused some to call on the Government for an early release date. LVA chief executive Donal O'Keeffe recently said pub owners should be treated the same as cafes and restaurants. "We fully respect the need to continue to protect the public health," he said, but he added: "If other venues who serve food and alcohol are allowed to reopen in phase three, then pubs should be granted the same opportunity to trade." (Photo : From Wikimedia Commons) Scientists find that pangolins can carry viruses without it affecting them. Pangolins have been making headlines since the coronavirus pandemic started. This is because they are believed to be the animals responsible for transmitting the coronavirus from bats to humans. According to a recent study, pangolins lack two virus-sensing genes, causing them to carry a specific virus without suffering from it. Scientists say that these genes sense when a virus enters the body and raises the alarm, triggering an immune response. In simple terms, pangolins could be thought of as 'silent carriers' of the virus. Scientists are not sure how the pangolins are capable of doing this, but say this could help determine a plausible approach in beating COVID-19. The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology. Also Read: The Link Between Pangolin Viruses and Human Pandemic Remains Cloudy The Connection Between Pangolins and COVID-19 One of the most renowned origin theories for the coronavirus is that it transferred from a pangolin to a human at a wet market in Wuhan, which is known for selling exotic wildlife. Scientists suspected that the bat coronavirus infected another animal, an "intermediate host," which then transmitted the virus to humans. Fingers were pointed at pangolins for being this host. To test the theory, researchers have studied the genome sequence of pangolins and compared it to other mammals such as humans, cats, dogs, and cattle. Leopold Eckhart, one of the authors of the study from the Medical University of Vienna in Austria, said that they found that pangolins have survived through millions of years of evolution without possessing any type of antiviral defense that is used by all other mammals. He added that further studies of pangolins would reveal how they manage to survive viral infections. It could also help in the development of new treatment strategies for people with viral infections, he says. Time for Pangolins to Redeem Themselves After being blamed for transmitting the virus, pangolins can now reclaim their reputation, not for being a carrier of the virus, but for aiding and contributing to finding a cure to the disease. In humans, COVID-19 can cause an inflammatory immune response, which deteriorates a patient's condition further, called a cytokine storm. Suppression of gene signaling using drugs could be a possible treatment option for severe cases of coronavirus, the authors of the study said. However, Dr. Eckhart warned that the approach could pave the way to secondary infections. He adds that the main challenge is to reduce the response to the pathogen while controlling the virus. He says that an overstimulated immune system can be controlled by reducing the intensity or by altering the timing of the defense reaction. Although the study was able to identify genetic differences between pangolins and other mammals, it did not explore the effect of those differences on the antiviral response. As of now, scientists don't fully comprehend how pangolins can survive coronavirus. They only know that the lack of their two signaling genes might have something to do with the process. They believe that further studies need to be conducted to understand how pangolins can help in stopping the virus entirely. Read Also: Stray Dogs, not Pangolins, Helped Bats Transfer the Coronavirus to Humans, New Study Reveals Steve Hare is the chief executive of Sage The Covid-19 pandemic is, first and foremost, a human crisis. We are seeing a profound effect on people and communities around the world. The pandemic has clearly also introduced considerable economic uncertainty. While we cannot predict the long-term impact, we do know that the survival of small and medium businesses will be critical to the recovery. They are at the heart of communities and make up 60 per cent of the UK's private-sector workforce that's 17million individuals who rely on these companies for their livelihood. At the moment, the small business community is effectively being propped up. Our data suggests that more than a quarter of the UK's small and medium businesses have furloughed more than half their staff under the Government's Job Retention Scheme. These businesses are leaning heavily on emergency funding, and one of the most crucial challenges facing Britain's leaders over the coming weeks is how to evolve this to offer sustainable and practical longer-term solutions. The lifting of lockdown does not indicate a light at the end of the tunnel for smaller firms. Many still expect to suffer from enormous contractions in sales well into the summer. It is critical that the Government recognises this and offers flexible support for the community well into the future. Smaller firms want the Government's furlough scheme to continue, but with more flexibility in how and when they bring staff back to work. Top-up payments to enable a gradual return at reduced hours is the most popular option, along with shorter furlough periods. Suggestions from the Chancellor that there will not be a 'cliff edge' end to the scheme are welcome. We simply cannot afford to pull the rug from under the feet of these businesses, and withdraw what has become a lifeline for a major part of our economy. Small and medium businesses will be critical to the recovery, says Steve Hare But a nuanced and sophisticated approach is needed recognising the incredible diversity of small firms rather than broad-brush guidance that is likely to harm more businesses than it helps. As the UK takes meaningful steps towards a return to work, half of the firms in this community still feel unprepared to return safely and half again have not even started to plan for a lifting of restrictions. Also, 50 per cent acknowledge that their business will need to change for the long term when they return to trading. Smaller firms are naturally agile and can adjust quickly and those using technology and data are armed with valuable tools to help them adapt faster but we must take every possible step to help support this shift. The winners of this crisis will be those that recognise and adapt to the fundamental change we are facing. The losers will be those that try to return to 'business as usual' in an environment that has changed beyond recognition. The Queen's recent speech echoed wartime slogans and called on UK citizens to show solidarity and strength in the face of adversity. If there are comparisons to be drawn with wartime, there is no doubt that the UK's key workers are firmly on the real front line of the battle but smaller firms are drawing the most fire in the economic fight. I believe this crisis has brought out the best in people. We are leaning in, pulling together, and being there for each other and our communities. But I see how much the current context is hurting small firms; they feel the impact profoundly. As individuals, we must commit to helping these businesses and our local communities to survive this shock. Coupling decisive and targeted Government action with grassroots community support will provide our small firms will the best chance of weathering the storm. We will be poorer as a country if we do not take action now to support our small firm champions. Steve Hare is chief executive of FTSE 100 software giant Sage. Prime Minister Scott Morrison tours a farm in fire-ravaged Sarsfield, Victoria. Credit:AAP Local councils and communities will be offered $650 million in federal cash to rebuild after the summer bushfires in a new program that follows months of argument over the wait for assistance. Prime Minister Scott Morrison will promise the funding as a way to support local jobs with projects that could include construction, events, landscape and water development, and replacing produce and stock. The commitment is the last major element of the $2 billion bushfire recovery fund announced at the height of the bushfire crisis in January, with the latest cash going to 30 communities that suffered the worst of the damage. At least six of the communities are in or near the key seat of Eden-Monaro in southern NSW, where the government is trying to win a looming byelection despite a chaotic Coalition fight over the choice of candidate. Mexican authorities arrested two men for strangling three sister nurses who worked in the nation's state-run hospitals. Authorities ruled out coronavirus-fears as the motive to the crime. Initial investigation showed the suspects planned to rob the women. The men, who were in their 20s, worked as a nurse and a municipal market worker. According to the investigators, the killings had no connection to the sisters' work at the hospital. The Crime On Friday, Mexican police authorities found the bodies of the three sisters who worked in state-run hospitals. Initial investigation showed they were strangled to death. Their murder stirred further alarm in the country as more healthcare workers have reported being targeted and attacked due to COVID-19 fears. Two of the sisters were employed as nurses at the IMSS, Mexican Social Security Institute. The third was reportedly an administrator at a local hospital. State police found their bodies in a house in Torreon, a city in the northern Mexico border state of Coahuila. They were allegedly murdered on Thursday. The National Union of Social Security Employees denounced the crime, saying it was "outrageous." Under Attack In recent weeks, medical professionals and health care employees have started changing into civilian clothes before leaving hospitals to avoid getting hit, kicked off public transport, or have bleach poured on them. According to news reports, a head nurse who worked at Vargas's hospital, a Jalisco doctor, and a nurse in Sinaloa were reportedly assaulted in the streets and doused in bleach. On April 23, Dr. Alondra Jovanna Torres was doused in bleach while walking her dogs near her home in Guadalajara. Her quiet morning was shattered when someone behind her screamed and splashed her face with the cleaning agent. Torres said the liquid hit her left eye and slid down her neck. The pain quickly followed. The color of the medical scrubs she'd been wearing began to fade. On April 3, a woman who was identified as Imelda "N" said she was attacked at the end of her workday in the Newfoundland neighborhood. An unidentified individual followed her as she walked home. He later threw chlorine at Imelda. The liquid hit the nurse's face. The incident also happened to six other nurses in the state of Jalisco on March 28. Fabiana Zepeda, the head nurse of Mexico's national health system, said they had recorded dozens of attacks on staff in twelve of the country's states. Many more, however, are being reported through social media. "We invite you, sincerely, to respect us," she pleaded during the health ministry's daily coronavirus presentation. In April alone, at least 44 attacks against medical personnel across the country were listed. The violence varied-some nurses experienced being struck in the face, discriminated, refused public transport, and scalding liquid thrown onto their faces and bodies. Authorities say the victims are likely targeted primarily due to a rumor that medical personnel is spreading the virus throughout Mexico. Some doctors and nurses were receiving threats, accusations, and harassment on their social media accounts. "These attacks show the lack of education and the ignorance of people," Dr. Patricia Maldonado, a doctor who works at a Guadalajara hospital, said. Want to read more? Check out the latest news from the Americas: Things were so much clearer when just about everything was locked down. Now, with states lifting coronavirus restrictions piecemeal and by often arbitrary timetables, Americans are facing bewildering decisions about what they should and should not do to protect their health, their livelihoods and their neighbors. Is it safe to join the crowds at the beach or eat at a restaurant? To visit the elderly parents you havent seen in nearly two months? To reopen a struggling business? In many cases, the less-than-satisfying answer from the experts is: It depends. There will never be a perfect amount of protection, said Josh Santarpia, a microbiology expert at the University of Nebraska Medical Center who is studying the coronavirus. Its a personal risk assessment. Everybody has to decide, person by person, what risk theyre willing to tolerate. The quandary comes as the confirmed death toll from coronavirus in the U.S. on Tuesday surpassed the 58,220 American service members killed in Vietnam, according to Johns Hopkins University. Globally, at least 216,000 have died, thought the true toll is undoubtedly much higher because of limited testing, differences in counting the dead and concealment by some governments. With the crisis easing in many places, France, Spain and Greece were among the latest countries to announce their plans for restarting their economies. As governments make their moves to reopen businesses and schools, the next decisions made will be personal. Jill Faust, 53, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, said she would hesitate to eat at an indoor restaurant when such businesses are allowed to reopen in her community Friday. We would have to know ahead of time what precautions theyre taking," she said, citing the way some restaurants may rely on limited seating, well-spaced tables, masks for employees and disposable cups and plates. Even then, she said, it might not be worth the trouble. "Going to a restaurant to me is this lovely, relaxing experience where you can sit with people and relax and catch up after a long day. If your experience is going to be limited by all these safety concerns, why spend the money? she said. Story continues In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said schoolchildren could return to classrooms as early as July, though a formal decision had not yet been made. President Donald Trump signed a measure ordering meat processing plants to stay open to prevent shortages. Unions responded by accusing the White House of jeopardizing lives and prioritizing cold cuts over workers health. As restrictions loosen, health authorities will be watching closely for any sign of a resurgence of the virus. On Tuesday, for example, Germany reported an uptick in the infection rate since some small businesses were allowed to reopen just over a week ago. But it was too soon to say whether the loosening was to blame. Around the world, confirmed infections exceeded 3 million including 1 million in the U.S., according to the Johns Hopkins tally. In China, where the pandemic began, cases have slowed to a trickle from the peak in February and March that even forced a delay in the country's ceremonial parliament meeting. State media reported Wednesday the National People's Congress would convene on May 22. In the U.S., the uncertainty ahead was spotlighted in Georgia after businesses such as barber shops and tattoo parlors were given the go-ahead to reopen. Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said people could find the changes perplexing. In reality were under a stay-at-home order until April 30, Johnson said. Yet you can go get your nails done, you can go get a tattoo, you can go to movie theaters, you can go to bowling alleys. Its those kinds of things that leave people confused. Mixed messages are coming from even the U.S. Congress. The House is scrambling for ways for members to work from home after a revolt over convening during the pandemic, and said they wouldnt return to the Capitol on Monday. The smaller Senate, however, plans to convene there. The decisions people make are likely to vary widely depending on where they live, and how close that puts them to known virus clusters. In Georgia, where COVID-19 has killed at least 1,000, many new cases are still being reported. But even in places with fewer known infections, people are facing uneasy choices. In Omaha, Nebraska, where businesses can reopen next week, teachers Michelle and Mark Aschenbrenner said they are eager to dine out again. Mark Aschenbrenner has set up an appointment for a long-delayed haircut. I think were four weeks too early, he said of the plans to lift restrictions. But I think Ill probably still go because weve been stuck at home for seven weeks and were going stir crazy. With warmer weather enticing more people to venture out in the weeks ahead, it will be up to individuals to exercise caution. You cant swear that if somebody happens to cough on the beach chair to your left and then you have a breeze that blows that over across you, that you dont have the exposure in that way, said Dr. Marybeth Sexton, infectious-disease specialist at Emory University School of Medicine. Even following guidelines to maintain 6-foot (2-meter) distances may not be enough. That rule is based on how far a different coronavirus, SARS, spread among airline passengers. When doctors treated more than a dozen COVID-19 patients at an Omaha hospital, researchers found genetic material from the virus at greater distances on window ledges, cellphones, in hallways and on toilet seats, Santarpia said. That doesnt mean people shouldnt go out. But they should be very deliberate in doing so, limiting visits with relatives and friends to moments that matter, said Dr. Emily Landon, who leads infection control at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Mothers Day May 10 in the United States may qualify if Mom lives nearby, she said. But limit the number of people involved and wear masks the entire time. Even if you check to make sure everyone present has been feeling well, accept that there will be risk, she said. The virus remains a long-term foe. The president of the Japan Medical Association, Yoshitake Yokokura, said he thinks it will be difficult to hold the rescheduled Tokyo Summer Olympics even in 2021 without an effective vaccine. In the shorter term, it will be up to individuals as much as policymakers to make the decisions that will help chart the virus course. I think everyone still needs to use their judgment. Im not having a book club in my house. Im going to my doctor for an allergy shot because thats safe to do, said Landon, the Chicago infection-control expert. You can try and make it political, make it about freedom, but its a virus. Its biology. Biology doesnt negotiate. ___ This story has been corrected to show that Jill Faust's hometown is Council Bluffs, Iowa. ___ AP video journalist Haven Daley in San Francisco contributed. ___ Follow AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak Around 15,000 villagers in the surrounding areas of LG Polymers India Ltd on the outskirts of Visakhapatnam will have to wait for some more days to return to their homes as the residential localities are yet to completely sanitised following the leakage of styrene gas that killed 12 people on Thursday, officials said on Sunday. At a review meeting held by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Sunday, the officials told him that though the styrene vapour residue in the ambient air in the area has come down to safe levels, experts were making an assessment of the situation in the five villages surrounding the plant. State minister for industries Mekapati Gautam Reddy told Hindustan Times that the temperature levels in the styrene gas storage tank had come down to the normal level and even National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) representatives had endorsed it. However, there is an issue of contamination of food, drinking water and other essentials in the houses of these villagers because of the styrene gas impact. They have to be removed. Even clothes in their houses have to be thoroughly washed. We are yet to assess the contamination of ground water in these villages. So, it is always better to allow people only after ensuring that everything is safe and secure in the villages after getting green signals from the experts, Reddy said. The chief minister, too, directed the officials to see that the villagers were allowed only after taking proper sanitation and safety measures. It requires a massive sanitation drive. A large number of animal carcasses have to be removed from the area and drains have to be cleaned, so that they would not pose further problems to the villagers, the minister said. Till such time, the evacuees have to stay put in their relief camps. We cannot tell immediately as to how long they would have to stay there, but we hope to restore normalcy in the area in a couple of days, Gautam Reddy said. The minister said the anxiety of the evacuees to return to their villages was understandable, as they were worried about their belongings. They all left homes unlocked and ran for their safety on the fateful day. And the police had to break open the doors of some other houses to bring out people who had fallen unconscious while they were asleep, he said. He said directions had been issued to the Visakhapatnam police authorities lock the houses which were deserted by the people and keep a vigil on the other houses whose doors were broken. We shall ensure that their belongings are safe, Reddy said. Visakhapatnam district medical and health officer Tirumala Rao said 411 patients were undergoing treatment in various hospitals and many of them had completely recovered. We shall discharge them and send them back, only after getting clearance from the government, he said. The chief minister asked the officials to complete the distribution of compensation that he had announced for the bereaved families, the affected persons and the villagers who were evacuated from their homes on account of the disaster. By Express News Service VISAKHAPATNAM: Director General of Police Gautam Sawang, who visited the plant from where the toxic gas leaked, and took stock of the situation also faced the ire of locals. The angry locals tried to stop him, demanding arrest of the LG Polymers management. Police had a tough time pacifying and dispersing the agitators and make way for the DGP. Speaking to the media, the DGP asserted that the situation was under control at the LG Polymers plant. Sawang explained that a team of scientists having expertise in chemicals and oils will be visiting the plant to suggest the way forward. He assured the locals that safety measures and mechanisms were under control and there was absolutely no need to panic. He said government officials, including Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney, technical experts, scientists and special teams of the NDRF were reviewing the safety measures. I believe that the other storage tanks in the plant are absolutely normal and there is nothing to worry,'' he said. On the probe into the tragedy, the State police chief said that the matter was under investigation and a five-member committee constituted to look into the issue would also take expert technical inputs and continue the probe. Clarifying on the level of containment and when the locals can return home, Sawang said experts sought 48 hours (on Friday) as per protocol to bring normalcy. Asked about bailable cases registered against the LG Polymers management even as the disaster left 12 people dead and several hospitalised, the DGP said the cases were registered under relevant sections. China has furiously hit back at what it dubbed 'preposterous allegations' made by the US over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic. The 30-page, 11,000-word article came as a report claimed Chinese President Xi Jinping personally asked World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom to 'delay a global warning' about the threat of Covid-19 during a conversation in January. Germany's Der Spiegel published the allegations this weekend, citing intelligence from the country's Federal Intelligence Service, known as the 'Bundesnachrichtendienst' (BND). But WHO insisted the shock reports are 'unfounded and untrue' shortly afterwards, claiming Dr Tedros and President Xi 'did not speak on January 21 and they have never spoken by phone.' On Saturday, Beijing issued a lengthy rebuttal of what it claimed were 24 'preposterous allegations' made by the US concerning its handling of the coronavirus outbreak. The Chinese foreign ministry has fiercely rejected accusations made by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that Beijing concealed information about the deadly virus at the start of the pandemic. Pictured: Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian speaks during a daily briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing in February Pompeo has also accused China of withholding virus samples he said were needed for vaccine research - as President Donald Trump insisted earlier this week there is enough evidence to prove President Xi's regime misled the global community. 'As Lincoln said, you can fool some of the people all the time and fool all the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time,' the article's prologue said. The lengthy rebuttal gave a timeline of how China had reportedly provided information to the world in a 'timely', 'open and transparent' manner to rebuke suggestions it had been slow to sound the alarm. Keen to dispel suggestions the virus was deliberately created or somehow leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, it claimed all evidence shows Covid-19 is not man-made while insisting the institute is not capable of synthesising a new virus. The article cited media reports which claimed US citizens had been infected with the virus before the first cases were confirmed in Wuhan, although there is no evidence to suggest this is the case. It also rejected criticism of Bejing's handling of the case of Li Wenliang, the doctor who first attempted to raise the alarm over the outbreak of Covid-19 in Wuhan. The article asserted that Mr Wenliang was not a 'whistle-blower' and he was never arrested, despite Western reports to the contrary. It came as the bombshell Bundesnachrichtendienst report claimed President Xi asked WHO Director-General Adhanom to 'delay a global warning' about the threat of Covid-19. According to the BND: 'On January 21, China's leader Xi Jinping asked WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to hold back information about a human-to-human transmission and to delay a pandemic warning. A bombshell report in Der Spiegel claims Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) personally asked World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom (left) to 'delay a global warning' about the threat of COVID-19 in January. The pair are pictured together in Beijing on January 28 of this year. The WHO has denied the allegation 'The BND estimates that China's information policy lost four to six weeks to fight the virus worldwide'. The WHO released a statement shortly after the publication of the shock claims, calling them 'unfounded and untrue'. 'Dr Tedros and President Xi did not speak on January 21 and they have never spoken by phone. Such inaccurate reports distract and detract from WHO's and the world's efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic,' the statement read. It continued: 'China confirmed human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus on January 20 [prior to the alleged phone conversation]. 'The WHO publicly declared on January 22 that 'data collected suggests that human-to-human transmission is taking place in Wuhan.'' If the claims were true, they would bolster President Trump's assertion that the WHO is 'China-centric'. Relations between Washington and the WHO has soured throughout the crisis after Trump consistently accused the body of siding with China, saying it has been hand-in-glove with Xi Jinping in covering up the outbreak. Pictured is a lab in Wuhan that is certified to handle dangerous pathogens Donald Trump doubled down his attacks on the World Health Organisation last Monday. 'The World Health organisation has been a disaster everything they said was wrong and they're China-centric,' he stated at the event, held last Monday Back in April, the Trump Administration alleged the WHO was becoming a tool of 'Chinese propaganda', and the president moved to halt funding of the organisation. Last week, the President launched a fresh attack on the organisation during a Fox News virtual town hall meeting. 'The World Health organisation has been a disaster everything they said was wrong and they're China-centric,' he stated at the event, held last Monday. 'All they do is agree with China, whatever China wants to do. So our country, perhaps foolishly in retrospect has been paying $450million a year to the World Health Organisation and China's been paying $38million a year but they were more political than all of our leaders previously. 'What they did, what World Health did, was they missed every single call and we're not going to put up with it.' Relations between Washington and the WHO has soured throughout the crisis after Trump consistently accused the body of siding with China, saying it has been hand-in-glove with Xi Jinping in covering up the outbreak. Director-general Adhanom has hailed China as an exemplar of how to handle an emergency despite widespread skepticism of the country's official coronavirus death toll. Earlier this week, Trump also said there was enough evidence to prove President Xi Jinping's regime misled the global community. 'Well, I don't think there's any question about it. We wanted to go in, they didn't want us to go in. Things are coming out that are pretty compelling. I don't think there's any question,' the president said Sunday. 'Personally, I think they made a horrible mistake, and they didn't want to admit it,' he added. Why did China build a virus lab in Wuhan? Chinese officials decided to build the Wuhan Institute of Virology after the country was ravaged by an outbreak of SARS in 2002 and 2003. SARS, another kind of coronavirus, killed 775 people and infected more than 8,000 globally in an epidemic that lasted about eight months. It took the Chinese 15 years to fully complete the project, which cost a total of 300million yuan (34million). The French helped design the building. Its crown jewel is a four-storey lab with the highest biosafety level of P4. It's the most advanced laboratory of its type in China. Construction of the lab was finished in 2015 and it officially opened on January 5, 2018, after passing various safety inspections. Describing the significance of the P4 lab, China Youth Online billed it as the 'aircraft carrier of China's virology'. The state-run newspaper said it 'is capable of researching the deadliest pathogens'. One researcher, Zhou Peng, told state news agency Xinhua in 2018: 'We are proud to say that we are already at the forefront in the field of studying the immunity mechanism of bats, which carry viruses for a long time. 'Bats carry viruses but are not infected [by them]. [They] provide hope for mankind to study how to fight viruses.' Advertisement His comments came as a Department of Homeland Security report shared on Sunday revealed US officials believe China 'intentionally concealed the severity' of the pandemic in early January and hoarded medical supplies. The four-page report dated May 1 that was obtained by the Associated Press notes that China downplayed the virus publicly but increased imports and decreased exports of medical supplies. The document accuses China of covering their tracks by 'denying there were export restrictions and obfuscating and delaying provision of its trade data.' It lends weight to a leaked dossier drawn up by the Five Eyes intelligence alliance which describes how Beijing made whistleblowers 'disappear', destroyed early virus samples and scrubbed the internet of any mention of the disease in the early stages. The 15-page document brands Beijing's secrecy over the pandemic an 'assault on international transparency' and points to cover-up tactics deployed by the regime. It claims that the Chinese government silenced its most vocal critics and scrubbed any online scepticism about its handling of the health emergency from the internet. China has roundly come under fire for suppressing the scale of its early outbreak which did not afford other nations time to react before the disease hit their shores. Five Eyes - the pooling of intelligence by the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - laid bare its scathing assessment of the Xi Jinping administration in a memo obtained by the Australian Saturday Telegraph. It describes how Beijing was outwardly downplaying the outbreak on the world stage while secretly scrambling to bury all traces of the disease. More than four million people around the world have contracted the highly contagious virus, and at least 279,000 have died. There are currently at least 1.3 million cases of coronavirus in the US and more than 79,000 deaths. Last month, British MPs warned China had cost lives by spreading disinformation about the coronavirus outbreak. The Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said that as the country where the outbreak originated, China should have played a central role in collecting data on its spread. But it accused Beijing of seeking to 'obfuscate' over what was really happening form the outset. No human-to-human transmission, no travel bans, but lots of praise for China: WHO's reaction to coronavirus December 31 China first reports a cluster of unusual pneumonia cases in Wuhan to the WHO January 4 WHO tweets about 'a cluster of pneumonia cases' in Wuhan with no deaths, saying investigations into the cause are underway January 5 The WHO issues its first guidance on 'pneumonia of unknown cause', saying there are a total of 44 patients and 11 in severe condition. Main symptom is listed as fever, with 'a few patients having difficulty breathing'. The WHO says there is 'no evidence of human-to-human transmission' and that 'no health care worker infections have been reported' January 7 China says it has identified the cause of the pneumonia as a 'novel coronavirus', initially named 2019-nCoV by the WHO January 9 The WHO praises China for identifying the new virus 'in a short space of time' and repeats its assessment that the virus 'does not transmit readily between people'. It also advises against travel or trade restrictions on China January 13 WHO says it is now working with authorities in Thailand after reports of a case there, and may call a meeting of the Emergency Committee January 14 The WHO tweets saying there is 'no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission in China', though later clarifies and says there may have been limited transmission via family members Jan 20-21 - WHO's field team in China conducts a brief field visit to epicentre Wuhan Jan 21 The first case is confirmed on US soil in Washington, in a person who had travelled from China a week before Jan 22 A report from the WHO team sent to Wuhan notes 'human-to-human' transmission is taking place, but says more research is needed to assess 'the full extent'. The report notes confirmed infections in 16 medics, a clear sign of transmission from patients The team recommends avoiding large gatherings, isolating infected people, and a focus on washing hands as the best way to combat the virus's spread The same day, that WHO Emergency Committee convenes for the first time. Afterwards, Dr Tedros says he has spoken with the Chinese Minister for Health, and praises the government for its 'invaluable' efforts to halt the virus. He calls a second meeting for the following day Jan 23 With the Emergency Committee split, Dr Tedros says he has decided not to declare the virus a public health emergency of international concern. Referencing the lockdown of Wuhan, which was announced the same day, he says he hopes 'it will be effective and short in duration'. He praises China's 'cooperation and transparency' in tackling the virus Dr Tedros says there is limited evidence of human-to-human transmission, mostly among families or doctors treating the virus. At this point, there are 584 confirmed cases and 17 deaths globally, including in Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Thailand and the US He recommends screening at airports and tells countries to put testing facilities in place, but stops short of recommending a travel ban Jan 28 Dr Tedros and other senior WHO officials meet Xi Jinping in China, agreeing that a panel of experts should be sent to monitor the outbreak. He praises 'the seriousness with which China is taking this outbreak, especially the commitment from top leadership and the transparency they have demonstrated' Jan 29 Dr Tedros gives a speech praising China's efforts to contain the virus, saying the country 'deserves our gratitude and respect' for locking down swathes of the country to prevent the spread. He notes a few cases of human-to-human spread outside China, which he says 'is of grave concern' and will be monitored closely Jan 30 The WHO Emergency Committee reconvenes early and declares a public health emergency of international concern. It comes after confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission in Germany, Japan, Vietnam and the US Dr Tedros again praises China for 'setting a new standard for outbreak response' with its lockdowns, and says the small number of cases outside the country 98 is 'thanks to their efforts' Despite noting that a majority of cases outside China have a history of travel to or from Wuhan, he again recommends no measures to curb international travel or trade Jan 31 Donald Trump announces travel restrictions on people coming from China Feb 3 Dr Tedros gives a speech to the WHO updating on coronavirus, saying there are 17,238 cases in China and 361 deaths now though to be an under-estimate He praises Xi Jinping for his individual leadership, and insists that cases outside China 'can be managed' if world authorities work together and follow recommendations which include no ban on travel or trade, supporting countries with weak health systems, investment in vaccines and diagnosis, combating disinformation and urgent reviews of emergency preparedness Feb 7 Dr Li Wenliang, a doctor who first reported the existence of coronavirus and was initially silenced by China, dies from the virus Feb 10 The WHO's team of experts arrives in China to assist with the outbreak Feb 11 The WHO names the disease caused by the virus COVID-19, saying it avoided including a geographical name because it risks 'stigmatizing' people. It says it will not be using the name SARS-CoV-2 because it risks causing 'unnecessary fear' by linking it to the 2003 SARS outbreak Feb 12 Dr Tedros says the number of new cases being reported in China has 'stabilised' but adds that it must be 'interpreted with extreme caution' and the outbreak 'could still go in any direction' Feb 16-24 WHO team of experts convenes in China, visiting affected sites and sharing information on the best ways to tackle the crisis Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a daily press briefing on COVID-19, the novel coronavirus, at the WHO headquaters in Geneva Feb 17 Dr Tedros begins chairing daily updates on the coronavirus response, with each briefing beginning with an update on the number of infections including from China, which are repeated without caveats He give an analysis of Chinese data on some 44,000 confirmed cases. He says the data shows that 80 per cent of cases are mild, 14 per cent lead to severe disease, and 2 per cent are fatal. The disease is more severe in older people, with the young largely spared. He urges world leaders not to 'squander' a window of opportunity to get ahead of the virus and prevent it from spreading Feb 26 Donald Trump announces a dedicated coronavirus response team, which Mike Pence will lead Feb 28 The team of WHO experts delivers its first report on the coronavirus. Among its major findings are that the disease likely came from bats, that it is spread through close contact with infected people and not through the air, and that most common symptoms include fever, dry cough and fatigue The report praises China's response as 'perhaps the most ambitious, agile and aggressive disease containment effort in history' saying lockdowns were achieved 'due to the deep commitment of the Chinese people to collective action' and had achieved a rapid decline in cases Mar 9 - The whole of Italy is placed on lockdown as the virus spreads, the first European nation to enter total lockdown Mar 11 - The WHO declares coronavirus a pandemic, meaning it is spreading out of control in multiple locations around the world. At this point, cases have been reported in more than 100 countries Mar 13 - WHO says Europe is now the new epicentre of the virus after cases increase steeply, with Dr Tedros noting 'more cases are now being reported every day than were reported in China at the height of its epidemic' Mar 19 - China reports no new domestic infections from coronavirus since the pandemic began Mar 20 - Dr Tedros issues a warning that 'young people are not invincible' to the virus after data from outside showed large numbers of people under the age of 50 ending up in intensive care Mar 25 - As Donald Trump begins touting hydroxychloroquine as a potential coronavirus treatment, WHO warns that no drugs have so far been approved for treating the virus The same day the organization calls for an extra $2billion in funding to help tackle the virus Apr 3 - As millions of US citizens sign on for unemployment benefit, Dr Tedros and the IMF call for debt relief and social welfare to help people through the pandemic Apr 6 - The WHO updates its guidance on masks to say they are effective at stopping spread of the virus, but must be used in conjunction with other methods. It comes after the CDC updated its guidance to advise people to wear masks in public Apr 8 - Following Trump's first barrage of criticism for the WHO, Dr Tedros urges world leaders to 'stop politicising the pandemic' unless they want 'more body bags' Apr 13 - A group of scientists convened by WHO to research a vaccine for coronavirus issue a joint statement urging world leaders to keep listening to the scientific community when responding to the virus Advertisement Wuhan airport drill for passenger with a new type of coronavirus last SEPTEMBER, French athletes falling sick in the city in OCTOBER and a warning by Bat Woman expert A YEAR ago... so when did Covid first erupt in China? By Ian Birrell for the Mail on Sunday On the afternoon of September 18 last year, the customs office at Wuhan Tianhe airport received an emergency message that a passenger on an incoming flight was unwell and distressed with breathing difficulties. Staff at the glistening modern airport rushed into emergency mode, donning protective masks as managers unleashed their action plans. Soon afterwards, 'the Wuhan First Aid Centre reported that the transfer case had been clinically diagnosed as a novel type of coronavirus', according to a journalist from a state media agency. This was, the agency reported, a drill to test responses in advance of the World Military Games, which were being held the following month with 10,000 competitors due in the fast-growing city in central China. Officials passed with flying colours. Pictured: Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli, who is world-renowned expert on coronaviruses, inside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan in 2017. Shi Zhengli warned about the danger of eating bats in a paper she published in March last year Yet what a strange coincidence they picked that particular exercise, given what was soon to unfold in Wuhan as birthplace of a global pandemic. As one person later asked on social media: 'Why did they choose a new coronavirus to drill?' Now this question has become all the more pertinent with last week's revelation that French athletes think they caught Covid-19 while competing in those games. Several fell ill with bad flu-like symptoms during the event, which took place over nine days from October 18. 'A lot of athletes at the World Military Games were very ill,' said Elodie Clouvel, a world champion modern pentathlete. This followed the revelation that a fishmonger treated in a Paris hospital for suspected pneumonia on December 27 had been confirmed as a victim of the new virus. He was baffled since he had not travelled abroad. This is very significant. China notified the disease to the World Health Organisation four days after the Frenchman was in hospital and did not put Wuhan into lockdown for a further 24 days. One study found this virus spreads so fast that if officials had acted three weeks sooner, they would have reduced cases by 95 per cent. Even one week faster could have cut numbers by two-thirds. Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, is a transport hub. Over three crucial months from December, there were 7,530 flights between there and other parts of China, carrying more than one million passengers and ten direct flights to the UK. Yet even in January, Chinese leaders prevented expert outside teams from investigating the virus, silenced doctors trying to warn citizens and refused to admit there was human transmission until January 20. Little wonder that as the world death toll soars, families are devastated and economies shattered, there are growing calls for an international inquiry into the origins of this pandemic, despite the brazen defiance of Beijing's Communist Party chiefs. So what do we now know about the origins of the virus outbreak? Certainly as that exercise at the airport proved, these are not unpredictable events. Pictured: a woman being disinfected before going into 14 days of quarantine after she recovered from coronavirus in March The Mail on Sunday can reveal that last year, Shi Zhengli a world-renowned expert on coronaviruses, known as Bat Woman for her cave expeditions to collect samples from the nocturnal mammals warned explicitly about the dangers. In a paper published with three colleagues in March 2019, she admitted it was 'highly likely' there would be a coronavirus outbreak originating from bats 'and there is an increased probability this will occur in China'. Zhengli, who helped prove the link to bats through consumption of civet cats in the 2002 SARS epidemic, said: 'Chinese food culture maintains that live slaughtered animals are more nutritious, and this belief may enhance viral transmission. 'It is generally believed bat-borne coronaviruses will re-emerge to cause the next disease outbreak. In this regard, China is a likely hotspot.' She was, of course, correct. But China's politicians did nothing to close down their hideous markets selling animals grabbed from the wild until on January 1 they suddenly shut the one in Wuhan they blamed for this latest eruption of disease. A stream of expert papers has pinpointed the virus to the market. One typical study by leading Chinese scientists insisted the cluster of mysterious pneumonia-like symptoms began emerging on December 21. 'All current evidence points to wild animals sold illegally in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market,' it said. Many experts around the world agree with this analysis. Even last week, a paper in Nature by Chinese scientists pointed to the possibility of pangolin (a scaly mammal) as 'intermediate host' of SARS- CoV-2, which causes the disease. They said, rightly, that failure to control the illegal wildlife trade threatened public health. Yet the market link remains unproven. There are valid questions over whether the coronavirus might have inadvertently leaked from two laboratories in the city one near to the market, the other China's first with top-level bio-security status. President Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo, his Secretary of State, said they have seen evidence that the virus came from one of the laboratories. Reports suggest several US intelligence agencies suspect the same but lack a 'smoking gun'. The Mail on Sunday has exposed poor security, including a picture of a sub-standard seal on a refrigerated vault holding lethal viruses, and an admission from the head of Wuhan Institute of Virology's bio-safety team of deficient safety procedures. An academic paper in February by Botao Xiao, a bioscience professor at South China University of Technology, and Lei Xiao, a researcher based in Wuhan, concluded 'the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan'. Pictured: A medical worker in Wuhan checking the drip of a coronavirus patient in ICU in January The document entitled The Possible Origins Of 2019-nCoV Coronavirus was published on a site used by scientists to share research. It called for tighter security in high-risk laboratories but was mysteriously withdrawn after two days. This explosive paper seen by The Mail on Sunday said 605 bats were kept in the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control, which is about 500 yards from the market. It described how bats attacked, bled and urinated on one researcher, forcing him into quarantine on two occasions. 'It is plausible that the virus leaked,' it said. Some in the media have dismissed such suggestions by conflating them with online conspiracy theories about man-made diseases and bio-weapons presumably driven by loathing of Trump rather than sympathy for China's totalitarian regime. Yet we need to establish the truth if remotely possible. 'It would be incredibly useful to know where the new coronavirus came from so we can prevent this happening again,' said Devi Sridhar, professor of global public health at Edinburgh University. So how much can we decipher on the details and timing of this outbreak by sifting through academic research papers, media reports and social-media posts? Let us start with a fascinating report in the respected South China Morning Post, based on data said to come from the Beijing government that traced the virus to November 17. It did not rule out the possibility of earlier cases. The report pinpointed a 55-year-old from Hubei as the first known case. Yet the authorities, it said, could not pinpoint who was Patient Zero from the nine initial cases four men and five women, aged between 39 and 79. Pictured: staff line up as they prepare to spray disinfectant at Wuhan Railway Station in March There were then one to five new cases each day and on December 27, a hospital doctor called Zhang Jixian confirmed they were dealing with a new coronavirus. This conflicts with an influential study published in January by Chinese researchers in The Lancet, which claimed the 'symptom onset date' of the first identified patient was December 1. This study also found that 27 out of their sample of 41 patients admitted to hospital in the early stages 'had been exposed to the market'. Wu Wenjuan, one of the authors and a senior doctor at Wuhan's Jinyintan Hospital, which specialises in infectious diseases, told the BBC Chinese service that their first patient was an elderly man suffering from dementia. 'He lived four or five buses from the seafood market and because he was sick, he basically didn't go out,' she said, adding that three more people developed symptoms in the following days, although only one had 'exposure' to the market. Her words tie in to a graphic in the study that shows one case on December 1, three on December 10 and then none until December 15. Only one of the initial four cases was linked to the market but then all of the next ten. Wuhan's government claimed that the first confirmed case fell sick on December 8, a man who recovered from the illness. It said that he denied going to the animal market. Yet that Lancet study also contains another intriguing nugget. The first fatal case is identified as a man linked to the market. Five days after 'illness onset', his wife 'a 53-year-old woman who had no known history of exposure to the market' also turned up before doctors with pneumonia and was hospitalised in an isolation ward. Wu Wenjuan also told the Wall Street Journal that their earliest cases included a 49-year-old trader at the market who fell ill on December 12. Seven days later, his father-in-law who had not been exposed to the market caught the illness. Then doctors and nurses started falling ill by December 25, which was revealed by reports in state media. These cases all clearly imply human-to-human transmission several weeks before it was publicly admitted by Beijing. This crucial information was finally confirmed to the world just four days before that important paper was published in The Lancet. Five days earlier, Li Qun, head of China's public health emergency centre, even told state television that 'after careful screening and prudent judgment, we have reached the latest understanding that risk of human-to-human transmission is low'. Yet another paper in the New England Journal Of Medicine confirmed that Chinese doctors saw evidence of human transmission 'among close contacts since the middle of December 2019'. And a team from Wuhan Centre for Disease Control published a paper in Nature Microbiology last month that mentioned swabs being taken 'from patients in Wuhan with influenza-like illness from October 6, 2019, to January 21, 2020'. The beginning of October is earlier than any other experts have indicated signs of this virus. These researchers found nine out of their 640 swabs tested positive but then concluded that this suggested 'community transmission' in early January this year. One blogger also spotted a tantalising fact: in July last year, China's National Health Commission issued an edict on protection against infectious diseases that urged all localities to strengthen their monitoring of 'flu-like cases, unexplained pneumonia'. The bulletin unsupported by relevant data and absent from a similar earlier notice added that after any outbreak, there must be quick 'epidemiological investigations, laboratory tests, and implementing measures such as disinfection and treatment of epidemic areas to prevent spread'. Clearly that failed to happen. In their defence, China's authorities were confronting a new virus. Yet their country had already seen two previous 'zoonotic' (animal-to-human) coronaviruses emerge within its borders this century, inflicting less lethal pandemics on our planet. Significantly, Lianchao Han, a Chinese dissident and former foreign office official, says: 'The lack of bioethics and their money-driven race to find vaccines for viruses make Chinese scientists very reckless in handling the most dangerous virus. 'Their repeated refusal to let international experts investigate the origin of the virus makes it very suspicious the regime is hiding something.' Many mysteries still swirl around this saga. Last weekend, claims that 'Bat Woman' Shi had defected with a stash of secret documents were denied in Chinese media. Chinese 'netizens' [millions of web users] have queried if Huang Yanling, a student at Wuhan Institute of Virology, might have been Patient Zero after becoming infected in the laboratory. This was denied, with officials saying she had moved to another part of ChinaSo many questions; so few answers. Yet as the global death toll passes 275,000, one thing seems certain: the culpability of China's authorities in covering up the new disease that erupted with such terrible force from somewhere in Wuhan last year. Former Strictly Come Dancing star Arlene Phillips has launched an investigation into her shock axe from the BBC series. The choreographer, 76, served as a judge on the panel from 2004 until 2008, before she was succeeded by 2007 winner Alesha Dixon amid an ageism row - claims the BBC has firmly denied. On leaving the series, the media personality said: 'I think it was handled so poorly. You then never forget those moments of turmoil.' She wants answers: Ex-Strictly judge Arlene Phillips has launched an investigation into her axe (Arlene pictured with Bruno Tonioli, Len Goodman and Craig Revel Horwood in 2008) The dance expert used information laws to search for documents about her axe, which was discussed in the House of Commons when solicitor Harriet Harman called for the BBC to revive her role. Discussing the controversy and her findings over 11 years on, Arlene claimed on the latest episode of Sod's Law Podcast: 'I've got the Freedom of Information and looking at the chaotic way that led up to it was shocking. Most is redacted. 'There's some information there and even that's chaotic, let alone what was redacted from the report. 'Nowadays, they could have given me the chance to resign or build a story around it. I didn't have a contract that automatically rolled on to the next year, but I think it was handled so poorly. 'Shocking': Following an ageism row, the choreographer (pictured in 2018), 76, claimed: 'I think it was handled so poorly. You then never forget those moments of turmoil' Take over: Arlene served as a judge on the panel from 2004 until 2008, before she was succeeded by 2007 winner Alesha Dixon (pictured on the show in 2011) 'You then never forget those moments of turmoil.' The Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows the nation 'right of access' to information held by public authorities. Former BBC1 controller Jay Hunt previously defended axing Arlene from Strictly as she insisted the decision enabled a 'young, black, woman presenter' to replace her. Elsewhere in the interview, theatre director Arlene also revealed she's interested in creating a counselling group to help celebrities who have fallen from fame. She added: 'I think those people can struggle. As you age, or even when you're young, the next group come along, then the next. 'One minute you're the focus of everyone's attention, the next you are nowhere and pushed out of the way. It's very hard to deal with and I know what that feels like.' BBC representatives declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline. In March, the TV star admitted she's struggling to cope with self-isolating amid the coronavirus pandemic. During an appearance on Good Morning Britain via live link, Arlene confessed she's finding it 'difficult' being away from her family as she's forced to communicate with her loved ones 'through a screen'. 'People can struggle': Elsewhere in the interview, the theatre director also revealed she's interested in creating a counselling group to help celebrities who have fallen from fame Despite her challenging sacrifice, she stressed the importance of social distancing during the global crisis as she said: 'I've got to do it!' On being kept apart from her nearest and dearest, the choreographer told hosts Piers Morgan and Lorraine Kelly: 'I have to look at them through a screen and that's been difficult because I'm quite close to my family.' The dance specialist also revealed she aims to maintain her youthful-looking figure with home workouts: 'I keep thinking I need to go for a run around the house but then I think, "oh I can do it tomorrow", but I need to challenge myself.' An empty Salt Lake City International Airport. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer Some airlines are being less than forthcoming with refunds despite a record number of cancellations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dwindling cash reserves and decreased revenues have made airlines more conservative in how they handle money, putting the burden on the consumer to fight for their money back, in some cases. The US Department of Transportation ruled that if a flight that touches the US is canceled, customers are entitled to refunds. Customers can request refunds via phone or, in some cases, social media or text. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Airlines have lost billions since the beginning of March as they've been forced to cancel flights and largely suspend operations while still incurring the astronomic expenses associated with the operation. Lufthansa, one of the world's largest airlines, is reporting losses of around $1 million per hour as it prepares to accept a government bailout and US airlines are no different. United Airlines reported losses of around $100 million per day in March, Forbes reported. Rapidly declining incoming cash flow combined with dwindling coffers have made airliners more conservative with how they distribute funds, even when consumers are entitled to their money back. Just because a flight is canceled, airlines aren't jumping to hit the refund button and it will often take a phone call or other customer-initiated procedure to secure the funds. Here's why airlines aren't automatically refunding passengers and what you can do to resolve potential issues. Airlines in the US are required to issue refunds when a flight a canceled. A flight departure board with canceled flights. REUTERS/Mike Segar The US Department of Transportation has said that customers with a canceled flight are entitled to refunds, even with the current situation surrounding the airline industry. The government felt the need to remind airlines of the policy after it received complaints from passengers not getting their money back after a flight cancellation. Story continues Every country is different but if the flight touched a US point, it's subject to Department of Transportation rules. Foreign airlines with canceled flights to the US may try to claim otherwise but they can be held to account by filing a claim with the federal department. A flight also doesn't have to be canceled in order to get a refund. A Delta boarding gate in Raleigh. Thomas Pallini/Business Insider If the airline makes a change to a booking before the flight departs, not including day of departure delays, a passenger can request a refund for what's known as a schedule change. Every airline is different but if the delay is severe enough, they can make the case for a refund. Here's a list of requirements for a schedule change refund at some airlines: American Airlines (for tickets issued after April 8, 2020): More than four hours. Delta Air Lines: "An arrival delay of 90 minutes or more." United Airlines: "The scheduled departure or arrival time changes significantly." JetBlue Airways: 120 minutes or more. Airlines are continually changing their schedule change policies as the coronavirus pandemic has caused many to rethink their flying plans as demand hasn't justified their typical number of routes and frequencies. United Airlines has made multiple changes to its policy since the start of the pandemic, generating a backlash among customers with flights delayed by hours. Even if a flight is canceled, the burden is on the customer to retrieve the refund from an airline. A Delta Air Lines ticket counter in Boston, Massachusetts. David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe/Getty Images While it may seem obvious in the current pandemic that customers with canceled flights would want a refund, the customer is still required to actually request the funds be returned. f an airline was to automatically issue a refund for every canceled flight without passenger input, they'd be doing a disservice to those who would prefer to rebook instead of receiving a refund. Whether it be essential workers or stranded travelers, there still is some demand for travel and not everybody with a canceled flight wants a refund. Immediately issuing a refund would deplete the booking of any value that could be transferred to a new flight and trap funds in a refund process that typically takes a few business days. This process can be done over the phone for most airlines, with some of the more technologically advanced allowing the process to be done on a website or on social media. A Delta Air Lines customer service representative. Reuters The era of multi-hour hold times for airlines is no more as the influx of cancellation requests has subsided. Once a customer manages to get through to an agent, the process only lasts a few minutes for most. Some airlines will also allow passengers to make the request over social media channels including Twitter and others, including Spirit Airlines, which will let you do it over text with WhatsApp. Airlines have had to process so many refunds in recent months that it's become mundane. So, why the headache just to get a refund when most planes are grounded? Grounded Lufthansa aircraft in Germany. Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters Airline tickets are basically interest-free loans passengers give to airlines that are only repaid at the time of the actual flight. The money brought in by the pre-purchase of tickets helps keep an airline's business going by funding payroll, aircraft purchases, day-to-day operations, and expansion. March 2020 not only saw the tap turn off with no new bookings but customers wanting all their money back at once. "The airlines are trying to preserve their cash flow," Henry Harteveldt, airline industry analyst and co-founder of Atmosphere Research Group, said in a March interview with Business Insider when asked why airlines might not be quick to offer refunds. Instead of being generous with refunds, airlines are hoping that customers will take a voucher, the equivalent of store credit, instead. Offering a voucher allows airlines to keep the money that's been paid while extending the repayment date on their end. "[The airlines are] hoping that once conditions normalize or return closer to normal, people will take the trip that they are planning," Harteveldt explained. For those airlines still refusing refunds for canceled flights, there are two avenues for resolution. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao. Bill Pugliano/Getty The Department of Transportation allows for consumers to file a complaint if they feel the airline is violating federal rules. The process is lengthy and requires a manual review process in which the airline can present evidence in its defense but can help customers get the desired outcome and may result in the airline being issued a violation. Another option is for the customer to dispute the charge with their credit card company. Credit cards. Joe Raedle/Getty Images Another option is for the customer to dispute the charge with their credit card company. In that case, both parties submit evidence to support a claim and if the airline doesn't respond within the allotted time period, usually 60 days, the cardholder wins by default, and the credit is made permanent. While the claim is being investigated, most credit card companies will also issue a credit that can be used in the interim. If the case is lost by the cardholder, the credit is reversed. Read the original article on Business Insider Jesus points out two "remedies" to distress: have faith and know "He has reserved a place for us in Heaven". Today Mother's Day is celebrated in many countries. I want to remember all mothers with gratitude and affection, entrusting them to the protection of Mary, our heavenly Mother. This thought also goes to mothers who have passed on to another life and accompany us from Heaven ". Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Pope Francis today called on Europe to face the effects of the pandemic "in a spirit of harmony and collaboration" and on Africa, to collaborate in the initiative to plant one million trees in the Sahel, in his reflections after the recitation of Regina Caeli, together with Mother's Day. Before the recitation of the Marian prayer, which was again streamed lived from his private Library, he commented on the passage of the Sunday Gospel (cf. Jn 14: 1-12) which introduces Christs so-called 'Farewell Discourse'. He underlined how " the Lord indicates two remedies for distress. The first is: "Have faith in me" (v. 1). It would somewhat theoretical, abstract advice. Instead, Jesus is trying to tell us something specific. He knows that, in life, the worst anxiety, distress, arises from the feeling of not being able to cope, from feeling alone and without reference points before what is happening. This anguish, in which difficulty is added to difficulty, cannot be overcome alone. We Christs help. This is why Jesus asks to have faith in him, that is, not to rely on ourselves, but on him". "Then there is a second remedy for the distress, which Jesus expresses in these words: "in my Fathers house there are many dwelling places. [] I am going to prepare a place for you(v. 2). Here is what Jesus did for us: he booked us a place in Heaven. He took our humanity upon himself to carry it beyond death, to a new place, to Heaven, so that where He is we are too. It is the certainty that consoles us: there is a place reserved for each one of us. Each of us can say: 'there is a place for me'. We do not live aimlessly and without destination. We are expected, we are precious". Let's not forget this: the dwelling that awaits us is Heaven. We are only passing here. We are made for Heaven, for eternal life, to live forever. " "There are ways - he said again - that do not lead to Heaven: the ways of power, the ways of worldliness, the ways of self-affirmation. And there is the way of Jesus, the way of humble love, of prayer, of meekness, of trust. It is not the way of my protagonism, it is the way of Jesus protagonist of my life. It is going on every day asking him: 'Jesus, what do you think of my choice? What would you do in this situation with these people? " It will do us good to ask Jesus, who is the way, for directions to Heaven. May Our Lady, Queen of Heaven, help us to follow Jesus, who opened Heaven for us. " It was after the recitation of the Regina Caeli that Francis spoke about Europe and Africa. "My thoughts - he said - go today to Europe and Africa. To Europe, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950. It inspired the process of European integration, allowing the reconciliation of the peoples of the continent, after the Second World War, and the long period of stability and peace we benefit from today. May the spirit of the Schuman Declaration never fail to inspire those with responsibilities in the European Union, called to face the social and economic consequences of the pandemic in a spirit of harmony and collaboration. " "And my gaze also turns to Africa, because on 10 May 1980, forty years ago, during his first pastoral visit to that continent, Saint John Paul II gave voice to the cry of the Sahel populations, severely tested by drought. Today I congratulate the young people who are working on the 'Laudato Si Trees' initiative. The goal is to plant at least one million trees in the Sahel region that will form part of the 'Great Green Wall of Africa'. I hope that many can follow the example of solidarity of these young people ". Today - he said finally - in many countries, Mother's Day is celebrated. I want to remember all mothers with gratitude and affection, entrusting them to the protection of Mary, our heavenly Mother. This thought also goes to mothers who have passed on to another life and accompany us from Heaven ". (Newser) For mother's Day, Forbes reminds us of a salient fact: "All moms work." Other factslike moms getting paid an average wage of 85% what men make, and being laid off faster than men during the coronavirus pandemicare part of WalletHub's article on the best and worst states for working moms. "Progress appears to be taking shape at different rates across the nation," writes John Kiernan at the media outlet. "Not only do parental leave policies and other legal support systems vary by state, but the quality of infrastructurefrom cost-effective day care to public schoolsis far from uniform as well." With that in mind, here are WalletHub's top and bottom 10 states for working moms: story continues below Best: Massachusetts Minnesota Vermont Connecticut District of Columbia New Jersey Rhode Island Maine New Hampshire Wisconsin Louisiana Mississippi Alabama South Carolina West Virginia Idaho Oklahoma New Mexico Nevada Georgia (Click for the full list . Or read more about the coronavirus economy .) Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. By Express News Service BHOPAL: A truck loaded with mangoes and also carrying 20 migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh turned turtle in Narsinghpur district of Madhya Pradesh on late Saturday night, killing five workers and injuring 13. According to official sources in Narsinghpur district (200 kms from Bhopal), all the injured have been admitted at the Narsinghpur district hospital, where two migrant workers are stated to be critical. All the 20 migrant workers on board the mango-laden truck from Hyderabad were natives of Etah and Jhansi districts of UP and were desperate to return to their homes amid the lockdown and loss of jobs. With one of the injured migrants showing COVID-19 like symptoms, that particular worker has been isolated from other injured workers, after taking the samples of all the workers for novel Coronavirus tests. All injured are admitted at Narsinghpur district hospital. According to additional district magistrate (ADM-Narsinghpur) Manoj Thakur, the mishap happened at around 11 pm on Saturday when the truck overturned on road near Patha village under Mungwani police station area. Two injured workers are in very critical condition, he added. With this incident at least ten migrant workers from UP returning home from Maharashtra and South India in trucks, by cycles or walking back in desperation to reach home have died due to illness, heat stroke or in accidents in Narsinghpur, Barwani, Shajapur, Khandwa and Rajgarh districts of MP in last two weeks. The Saturday late-night mishap in Narsinghpur district happened just two days after 16 migrant labourers walking back from Maharashtra to MP were run over fatally by a goods train while taking rest on railway tracks in the western state's Aurangabad district. Lakhs of migrants from different states are left stranded in other states due to the nationwide lock-down and have also lost jobs. Married At First Sight's Stacey Hampton certainly loves the finer things in life. And it seems her two sons, Kosta, four, and Kruz, two, have developed an eye for luxury designer brands just like their famous mother. On Sunday, the 26-year-old law graduate was gifted a pink Louis Vuitton Logomania scarf worth $680 as a surprise on Mother's Day by Kruz. Expensive taste! Married At First Sight's Stacey Hampton was gifted a pink Louis Vuitton scarf worth $680 for Mother's Day by her two-year-old son, Kruz Stacey shared a photo to Instagram of herself wearing the pricey accessory. 'I got a beautiful scarf for Mother's Day but no smiles here. Thanks Kruz,' she wrote in the caption, as her son pulled a face. In the picture, Kruz was wearing a Fendi T-shirt worth $300. Lucky lady! 'I got a beautiful scarf for Mother's Day,' Stacey wrote on Instagram It can be assumed the scarf was bought by either Stacey's family, whom she is close to, or Kruz's father, Rebels bikie boss Shane Michael Smith Shane, who split from Stacey in 2017, lives close to his ex-partner and children. In a recent YouTube video, she explained that while the exes were on good terms, they 'just weren't right for each other'. Single parent! Stacey has two sons, Kosta, four, and two-year-old Kruz 'Nothing happened to him, I live down the road from him,' Stacey said. 'We're co-parenting at the moment, he's good, a good dad, he loves his boys. Very supportive. 'Nothing happened to him, we just didn't work, I was very young when I met him.' Bhopal, May 11 : Former BJP legislator Jeetendra Daga from Bhopal has tested Corona positive and many senior Congress leaders who have a rural travel history are said to be under special care after the capital reported 39 fresh cases on Sunday. The total cases in Bhopal stand at 743. Ujjain, 237 and Jabalpur, 123 are other major affected towns. The state corona count spiralled to 3,614 with 157 new cases reported overnight. Indore again reported a steep rise of 78 cases leaving the 47-day Shivraj Singh Chouhan administration worried. Food packets for nearly ten thousand people being prepared at his residence and being distributed in different parts of Bhopal. He has been meeting many people over the past two months. It is feared that Daga got corona from meeting any of these. However, after Daga's report questions are being asked about how many people were in contact with him for the last two months. After Daga reported positive in Bhopal, his entire family has been quarantined. According to preliminary information, the former MLA has visited many rural areas during the lockdown. He has also met many senior Congress leaders. Some members of Daga's family have symptoms of cold and cough. Daga is admitted to the Chirayu Hospital after his second positive report was released on Saturday evening. The area in three km radius of his house near the airport has been declared as a containment range. Barricades have been placed. Some more sample reports are expected by the evening. This is expected to increase the number of patients in the capital. While the death toll in the state has risen to 215 by Sunday evening Indore leads with 89 deaths. Ujjain 45 and Bhopal 30 are the other cities with major casualties. The State administration is also under stress over the heavy casualties among the migrant labour force returning from other states or passing through the state. Five migrant labourers died and 15 were injured on Saturday night when a truck they were travelling in overturned near Narsinghpur, about 200 km away from Bhopal. The group of 20 started their journey from Hyderabad and they were headed to Madhya Pradesh's Jhansi city and a town in Uttar Pradesh in a truck carrying mangoes. Those injured have been admitted to a hospital, they said, adding that two of them are critical. All of them were tested for coronavirus after one labourer showed symptoms of highly contagious illness Xisha Islands in the South China Sea Photo: VCG Dozens of US Navy vessels have been stricken by the coronavirus, yet by the end of April, US warships still frequently flexed their military muscle in the South China Sea. On Wednesday, two B-1B supersonic heavy bombers cruised over the skies to the northeast of the island of Taiwan. Such frequent moves made people think: What on earth does the US intend to do in South China Sea? Since the US released its 2017 National Security Strategy, which labels China a "strategic competitor," the Pentagon has dramatically stepped up its efforts to provoke, deter and contain China. Yet the deadly COVID-19 pandemic has upset US deployments just as the country became the global epicenter with the highest number of infections. Four US nuclear-powered carriers, including USS Theodore Roosevelt, have been forced back to port after crew members contracted the novel coronavirus. The absence of these core forces of US global operations created a huge and instant "vacuum" in the Western Pacific. Against the backdrop, why did the US military mount activities in the Western Pacific and the Taiwan Straits all of a sudden? First, this is a quick and convenient way to demonstrate US' military existence in key areas of the Asia-Pacific regions. Second, the US wants to support certain secessionist forces on the island of Taiwan, as the move meanwhile completes its tactical missions. Spying and searching for underwater nuclear submarine activities have been one of US military's tasks in the region. After major US warships have been docked, the duty of detecting nuclear submarines can be conducted only by US military aircraft. Besides, US carrying out relevant operations can also boost the confidence of secessionist forces on the island of Taiwan and send them a signal that the US military has not abandoned their influence in the region even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Third, Washington is showing Beijing its determination to maintain strategic deterrence in the South China Sea. US military is aware that reconnaissance aircraft or anti-submarine aircraft cannot fully display strategic deterrence, so it deployed four B-1B Lancers and around 200 airmen to an Air Force Base to Guam, and sent two B-1B supersonic heavy bombers to cruise the Taiwan Straits. The B-1B is valued for its stealth, high speed, and capabilities of carrying larger weapons payload. Obviously, Pentagon policymakers are attempting to use the strategic bombers as fresh instruments to strategically deter China in the Taiwan Straits Some worry the mid-air collision between a Chinese fighter jet and a US spy plane in 2001 near Hainan Island may happen again, and that the US might deliberately create friction in places around China to divert Americans' attention from US mishandling of COVID-19. Such concerns are not superfluous. China has to make preparations. Washington is seemingly still aggressive and provocative. But, as a matter of fact, this it is just a bluff, and the Americans simply cannot fight and win an unjust war. The author is a Beijing-based naval expert. The coffin of former SDLP MLA John Dallat leaves St Mary's church outside Kilrea for burial in the church graveyard The only surviving sister of murdered backpacker Inga Maria Hauser broke down in tears when she learned of the death of campaigning politician John Dallat. The East Londonderry SDLP Assemblyman, who passed away aged 73 last Tuesday after a lengthy illness, single-handedly prevented the still unsolved case from being closed. It was his years of persistence that forced police to re-investigate - efforts that were rewarded last year when a file on a 61-year-old suspect was sent to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS). The family of 18-year-old Inga, who was strangled while on holiday in Northern Ireland in 1988, were hugely grateful to Mr Dallat for keeping the case active. Expand Close Inga Maria Hauser. Credit: PSNI/PA Wire PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Inga Maria Hauser. Credit: PSNI/PA Wire Their solicitor Claire McKeegan broke the news of the politician's death to Inga's sister Friederike Leibl in a heartbreaking telephone call. "When I told Friederike about John's death, she became very upset. They know that he had been an advocate for Inga Maria when she had no one. John went out of his way to assist them. He had even invited some of the family to stay at his home later this year," she said. He treated Inga Maria like she was one of his own children. He remembered the time she went missing and wanted so much to help because he cared so deeply Claire McKeegan, solicitor for Inga Maria's family Claire explained how Inga-Maria's case resonated strongly with Mr Dallat, who was a "young father with a young family" when she was abducted after getting off the ferry from Stranraer to Larne. "He treated Inga Maria like she was one of his own children. He remembered the time she went missing and wanted so much to help because he cared so deeply," she told Sunday Life. "At one point there was only a junior detective constable in Derry leading the murder investigation and the police were going to close the case, but John's tenacity made sure that never happened." One of Mr Dallat's last public appearances came last Christmas, when he attended a memorial service for Inga Maria in Ballypatrick Forest Park, where her body was discovered. Expand Close Keeley Moss and Claire McKeegan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Keeley Moss and Claire McKeegan He was battling cancer at the time, but in true selfless style told Sunday Life he did not want to talk about his illness because it would detract from appeals for information about the murder. Addressing a crowd, Mr Dallat said: "The greatest Christmas present that Inga Maria's family could receive is information that could lead to her killer being prosecuted. I would like to appeal again to anyone with knowledge of this to contact the police. There are people living in the area who know something. I would ask them to search their conscience and tell the police what they know." Paying tribute to Mr Dallat, who was buried in his native Kilrea on Thursday, Claire said: "I have never seen anyone quite so passionate about a case. "John was tenacious and absolutely 100% devoted to it. When I spoke to him about it, it was like Inga Maria was one of his own children." Another to praise the deceased politician was Dublin-based author Keeley Moss, who has written extensively about Inga Maria's case and campaigned for justice on the murdered teen's behalf. She said: "John was an incredible man, the most hardworking person I have ever known. He was kind and generous." Keeley often joined Mr Dallat travelling across Northern Ireland to raise awareness of the case and meeting with police officers working on the new investigation. Expand Close Keeley Moss and John Dallat / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Keeley Moss and John Dallat "The case being re-opened was down to John - he just never gave in," she said. Police believe Inga Maria was murdered by a lorry driver who she accepted a lift from after getting off the boat in Larne. He then dumped her body in a shallow grave in Ballypatrick Forest Park. A file on a man arrested in connection with the murder, who is on police bail, is being considered by the PPS. The suspect was a regular user of the Larne-to-Scotland ferry and used an articulated lorry to move livestock across the sea. Expand Close The coffin of former SDLP MLA John Dallat leaves St Mary's church outside Kilrea for burial in the church graveyard / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The coffin of former SDLP MLA John Dallat leaves St Mary's church outside Kilrea for burial in the church graveyard Police have confirmed he was seen with scratch marks on his face not long after Inga Maria vanished and there was concern in the community that he had been involved. Several years ago, priests at Catholic churches in the north Antrim area made an appeal to their parishioners to come forward with any information they had about Inga Maria's killer and also subject themselves to a DNA test. Around the same time, in one of the largest DNA screenings ever undertaken in the UK, 2,000 samples failed to produce a definitive match to a male genetic profile found at the murder scene. cbarnes@sundaylife.co.uk A Government minister has admitted the NHS contact tracing app to control the coronavirus crisis may need to be ditched before it's even been rolled out nationwide. Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, said the app may need to 'adapt' or 'move to a different model' amid teething problems since its launch in the Isle of Wight - but denied a new one would be made from scratch. He said officials were 'paying attention' to how other countries were using technology to keep on top of the crisis. Other nations have adopted an app model which stores data in a more favourable way, which has fuelled a backlash over privacy concerns. The 'centralised' model used by the NHS is believed to have caused reluctance to download the app - which ministers have previously denied is a problem. It follows a survey which found only 52 per cent of Britons would download the NHS contract tracing app. But experts have said that around 60 per cent of the population - 40million people - will need to download 'NHSX' to make the software effective, potentially as high as 80 per cent. With lower levels of usage, it may help to reduce the strain on the NHS by reducing cases, but it would not necessarily crush the coronavirus crisis, which has killed at least 31,600 in the UK. Only 52 per cent of Britons said they would download the NHS contract tracing app (pictured) - but experts say it needs 60 per cent of the population for it to work The NHSX app is a key piece in the UK Government's plan to get the country out of lockdown, integrated in their test, track and trace strategy. The app alerts users when they have been in close contact with someone who has reported symptoms of COVID-19. NHSX requires smartphone users to download it and share data the moment they test positive or display signs of Covid-19. The app then sends a notification to all mobile phone users in recent proximity to them advising them to self-isolate. 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 But its design has repeatedly been singled out as being different from those used by other European countries. NHSX's app stores data about infected cases and their contacts in a 'centralised system', meaning when a person chooses to share their data it is sent to a computer server anonymously. But Google and Apple's own version, which has been adopted by several European countries including Germany, the Republic of Ireland and Switzerland, is decentralised. It means phones directly communicate with each other and the app does not harvest location data. Some may be discouraged to download the app because of a cloud hanging over data protection. Mr Jenrick told The Andrew Marr Show this morning that as far as he was aware, the government was not developing a rumoured second app. However, he said: 'We have an app that is being rolled out on the Isle of Wight but we are also paying attention to what is happening elsewhere in the world.' Mr Jenrick was asked specifically three times by host Andrew Marr on whether the government is developing a second app, before adding: 'As far as Im aware, were not developing a second app but we are paying attention to other apps that exist elsewhere in the world. 'If we need to adapt our app, or move to a different model, obviously we will do.' An Opinium poll taken by the Observer suggested that just half the population were willing to download the NHS app. But experts say 60 per cent of the population or more will need to download the app for it to be successful in its mission. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told Sky's Sophy Ridge on May 3: 'The idea is that we will encourage as many people to take this up as possible. 'This is going to be a huge national effort and we need for this to work 50-60 per cent of people to be using this app. 'Not everybody has a smartphone, and I appreciate that for various reasons not everybody will download it but it will be the best possible way to help the NHS.' But researchers at the University of Oxford believe the app can only be effective when used by 80 per cent of the population. Insiders on the app development team reportedly say that NHSX starts to become very effective at reducing infections with take-up above 50 per cent. Lower numbers can still limit cases enough to prevent intensive care units from being overwhelmed. The app design was inspired by technology in Singapore, who have been using the app 'TraceTogether'. Based on the TraceTogether website, only 25 per cent of the population had downloaded the app since its launch on March 20. The low adoption rate is exacerbated by the fact that the technology depends on users encountering other people who have also downloaded the app. Anyone who does not have it cannot be traced and told they are potentially infected, disrupting the programme. Even if a third of the population adopted the technology, only nine per cent of close contacts will be covered, according to Farzad Mostashari. The former national coordinator for health information technology at the US Department of Health and Human Services did research into the feasibility of contact tracing through smartphones. It doesn't bode well for the NHS version, which Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced would be trialled on the Isle of Wight on May 4. The NHSX app is a key piece in the UK Government's plan to get the country out of lockdown, integrated in their test, track and trace strategy. But it's been fraught with complications since trialling of it began on Isle of Wight this week - such as that older phone models are not compatible Some 140,000 residents were urged to download the app as part of a pilot study before being rolled out across Britain. A source close to Isle of Wight Radio says it's estimated around 90,000 adult Islanders have mobile phones. More than 50,000 Islanders have downloaded the app, according to Nadine Dorries, minister at the Department of Health, an uptake of 55 per cent. Residents have complained the app is fraught with complications, such as that older phone models are not compatible. Concerns have been raised today about its reliance on self-reporting and the risk it could be used to 'prank' people. Users who download the app voluntarily opt-in to record details of their symptoms when they start to feel unwell. The software will alert people if they have been in close contact with someone who later fell ill with coronavirus so they can self-isolate and be tested if necessary. Dr Michael Veale, lecturer in digital rights and regulation at University College London, said the UK is effectively the only country to use self-reporting, rather than verified tests, in its app. Dr Veale, who is part of a team working on a rival app, told Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday: 'That appears to stem from, not a lack of number of tests potentially, but really something that hasn't been focused on enough - the tests aren't fast enough in the UK compared to other countries. 'And so the UK seems to claim it's stuck using self-reporting because it can't get a test turned around within a few hours. 'And this is really a worry. In other countries we're working with, they are very clear that self-reporting will not be allowed on their app because it can be misused or used to prank or used to target people deliberately and put them into quarantine without them knowing.' It follows comments from Jim Killock, the executive director of the Open Rights Group, who said: 'Someone might feel that they are fed up with their boss and want to cause some trouble so they self-report and get half of the work force sent home to self-isolate.' There is also the risk of over zealous self-reporting of symptoms if they are included in an extensive list. People could be over cautious when entering information in the app which could have far-reaching consequences if dozens more are told to self-isolate. But a diagnostic expert asked to consult on the Government's app has criticised it for focusing on only two symptoms - coughs and fever - at the exclusion of other symptoms. Nick Summerton, a GP with 32 years' experience, told the Sunday Mirror the app risked ignoring 10 symptoms other than fever or cough, which are also the only two symptoms listed on the NHS website. 'We have to get these fundamentals right. It is basic public health,' he said. WHAT CONCERNS WILL STOP PEOPLE DOWNLOADING THE APP? The success of the app for reducing infections is not known yet, but a number of difficulties have been thrown up by users in the Isle of Wight. Data protection Fears over privacy have also been raised by MPs on the Commons' human rights committee, who said they had 'significant concerns'. NHSX's app stores data about infected cases and their contacts in a 'centralised system', meaning when a person chooses to share their data it is sent to a computer server anonymously. But Google and Apple's own version, which has been adopted by several European countries including Germany, the Republic of Ireland and Switzerland, is decentralised. It means phones directly communicate with each other and the app does not harvest location data. 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. Experts believe this approach is less likely to face a legal challenge. Isle of Wight resident Omar Lakhssassi told LBC News: 'It's caused a bit of a split opinion across social media here on the Isle of Wight. 'Many people including myself are very happy to download this app and to try and make a difference to the data recording so the Government can track and trace people that have Covid-19 symptoms. 'Some people though are quite dubious - they are worried about their privacy being breached, and very vocal on social media, saying they won't download this app.' NHSX insists it will delete people's data when they get rid of the app. Ian Levy, technical director at GCHQ's National Cyber Security Centre, has reassured users that the app is safe to use. The Government has insisted that all data will be completely anonymised, with Mr Hancock rejecting claims the app could open the door to 'pervasive state surveillance'. He said that was 'completely wrong'. Incompatibility Islanders have said the app will not install on Huawei, iPhones and Samsungs released before mid-2017. And complaints have been pouring into local Facebook groups, many of which moan the app saps battery - however others have said this is not a problem. This may be because people have different versions of iOS software. Phil Clarke, from Cowes, who has a new iPhone, said he found it 'easy to download' but told MailOnline: 'My mum tried to download it and it said her device wasn't compatible even though it's a Samsung smart phone'. Bluetooth issues There is concern the apps will yield false positive alerts because the Bluetooth tracking system is over sensitive. The app keeps a trace of others who have been in close contact through Bluetooth signals that transmit an anonymous ID. These low energy Bluetooth signals perform a digital 'handshake' when two users come into close contact, but keep that data anonymous. An expert told MailOnline the Bluetooth technology only 'listens' for other phones when the handset is locked. It means that when two locked iPhones with the app are together, they will not record contact - a problem highlighted by TraceTogether users in Singapore. Advertisement Expatriates evacuated from Maldives arrive at Cochin Port Kochi, May 10 (UNI) The first group of 698 persons evacuated from Maldives arrived at Cochin Port on Sunday by the ship 'INS Jalaswa' of Indian Navy. The ship is berthed at BTP Jetty and the disembarkation procedures are being carried out at Samudrika Cruise Terminal, an official press release said. The group comprises 595 males and 103 females. Of this, 14 are children below 10 years and 19 pregnant women.Though majority of passengers are from Kerala and Tamil Nadu there are repatriates of 18 other states/UTs also in the ship. Passengers showing covid symptoms are being disembarked first followed by others in small groups, district-wise. By Lambert Strether of Corrente This is going to be a pretty random post, and Im not even going to add a potted history of masks (not even in Asia). Im going to start out with my own simple experience of mask-wearing, and then give a random selection from the incredible ferment of mask-making by many small artisans and manufacturers all over the world. (Note that small artisan goes all the petites mains of the House of Chanel.) Massive uptake of mask-wearing would have significant health benefits, and shaming doesnt seem to be working real well. Maybe if we start thinking of masks as fashion items, uptake will improve. To begin, my starting point is the surgical mask, like this: Cloth, with loops on either side to fasten round the ears, creating a loose seal. (I am not talking about N95 masks[1] or respirators, because they are products built to industrial standards that small artisans cannot meet.) The first surgical mask, of ordinary cloth, was invented and worn by Paul Berger, a French surgeon, in 1897. By 1913-1919 their use in the operating theatre was general. Today, the cloth was been replaced by non-woven microfiber, petroleum-based (naturally) and produced (naturally) in large textile mills by machine[2]. The best comes from (naturally) a single source in (naturally) Germany. Because Im not a player of American roulette where you point the gun at somebody elses skull (while mentally congratulating yourself on your own rugged individualism) I wear a surgical mask (as pictured above) outdoors, and will do so for the duration of the #COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, the surgical mask[3] being disposable is not designed for comfort, or aesthetic pleasure, or self-expression, or any of the other reasons one might choose to wear an article of clothing. The problems I have: 1) The mask is a duty to wear, not a pleasure to wear. I am not a fashion plate, being an old WASP codger. That said, I do choose my clothes to, well, reinforce my (perceived) class position, but the mask as something that is not really trying very hard to be an article of clothing does not allow me to do that. 2) The mask is disposable. Well, not, of course, because I wash mine and hang them out in the sun for several days. That said, throwaway culture is unattractive and wrong. I hate to think that filling up landfills is a requirement to keep others (and myself) safe. 3) The mask loops irritate my ears. Not badly, but I do feel a twinge, and since I have to wear glasses in order to see, I worry about the twinge becoming permanent. 4) The mask requires fiddling.. Everybody says, Dont touch the mask! because either it has the virus on it, or will after you touch it but thats not possible for me. I wear glasses, my glasses are constantly slipping down my nose, and to prevent the mask and my glasses from interfering with each other, I need to adjust the mask. I also need to shape the mask around my nose. 5) The mask is unpleasant to breath through. The mask does not deprive me of oxygen, but the sensation of blowing the mask away from my mouth, and then inhalling the mask back toward my mouth, is unpleasant. Its like having a paper napkin held over my mouth at all times. It may be that cloth would be more pleasant than non-woven fabric. 6) The mask steams up my glasses. When its hot enough outside, my breath gets steamy possibly by being held behind the mask and then my glasses fog up. With that, I will present a large number of tweets about masks from small artisans. I cant find anything about how to prevent my glasses from fogging up, but I can find material on making masks a pleasure to wear, eliminating fiddling, and fixing mask loop problems. When Im done with that survey, Ill venture into more exotic forms of masquing. Making Masks a Pleasure to Wear I have been long fashion-forward masks for some time; this caught my eye back in March: Coronavirus: Nigerian celebrities wear blinged-up masks https://t.co/0L3iPnKXr0 BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 15, 2020 Of course, this mask is practical only if you have servants to clean the jewels, but fashion shows are not about practicality. The essential point is to bring the mask into the world of fashion (much as Nike did with what we once called sneakers). Of course, most masks are not bejewelled; instead, makers mostly vary the fabric. For example, this mask might find some uptake in, well, Michigan: My wife has been making masks for a while now, experimenting with templates, fabrics, interlinings (Suitsupply suit bags are really good, apparently), copper wire for a nose pinch. She also knows I'm a massive fan of camouflage. This is an old skirt of hers. Thanks, babe. pic.twitter.com/d9BQe7xFQj Braulio Agnese (@bagnese) May 5, 2020 Here are more pretty masks with various fabrics: Custom made mask, different fabrics and elastics to choose from! pic.twitter.com/ZicVkdlPeo Jade Designs (@Jade_Designss) May 8, 2020 Here is an example of self-expression through fabric supplied by the customer: I had a customer ask me to make 3 masks out of @CrownRoyal bags 1 bag for each mask and we used the draw strings for the ears pic.twitter.com/AktIjDj2we Faded Fairy (@i_suicide_fairy) May 7, 2020 Here is a pretty mask with a restaurant use case (but see Appendix One): Making Masks Reusable This is, I think, a matter of the fabric used (which in my view would also need to be decorated as normal fabric (see above), as witih silk-screening, applique, etc. The Independent: New technology is also likely to revolutionise the use of face masks. At present most masks are not designed to be reusable but a new process, initially developed at Bar Ilan University in Israel, is set to change that. Pioneered by a Tel Aviv-based company, Sonovia, the new process uses very high frequency sound waves to impregnate textiles with virucidal (but safe for humans) zinc oxide and copper oxide nano-particles. The new potentially virus-killing masks will be reusable and capable of being washed and re-used around 90 times. 90 times is certainly better than one. However, it does seem to me that a mask business model could be constructed along the razor and blade business model, where the breath-through section which could be medical grade was replaceable. Here is a second example of a reusable mask. From WRAL in Raleigh, NC: [Raleigh teenage brothers Dylan and Connor Clark] said they saw a need in the market for facial coverings that were comfortable and reusable. Its been really fun for me and my brother to just stay up late at night to do something to help the community, said Dylan. CopperSAFE masks are infused with copper, a naturally occurring antimicrobial, self sanitizing element, which one study suggests is better than common materials at preventing the spread of infectious diseases. At $15 a pop, they are also completely washable, available in youth sizes and can be customized. The masks are currently being manufactured at a cut and sew facility near Asheville, but the brothers said they are exploring partnerships in Garner and Greensboro. NIce to see that theres some textile manufacturing capacity left in the United States. Note the self-expression possible. through corporate branding: Hot seller: Raleigh brothers 16, 14 have a hit on their hands with neckware-mask startup | WRAL TechWire https://t.co/5qvD1csRQq CopperSafe (@CopperSafeMasks) May 7, 2020 Flare! Here is a third example of a reusable mask, also with copper. From Associated Press: Facing the growing pandemic, CoureTex is producing reusable face masks embedded with fine threads of copper. The incorporation of copper into the masks fabric acts as a barrier to the transmission of bacteria, fungi, and viruses. This family-owned and operated company, which obtained an invention patent in 2018, says it is the only business in the world to manufacture this type of product. Its antibacterial and antimicrobial fabric assured by British certification company Intertek and Brazils Senai has also been used against the H1N1 virus. One of the masks distinguishing characteristics is that, unlike paper masks, it can be washed more than 50 times, which, according to its creators, means that it lasts up to one year. And here is an example of a botched rollout of copper masks, in Hong Kong. South China Morning Post: The masks were patented and developed by the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA), a government-funded non-profit organisation. They incorporate copper as a key filtering component and its name, CuMask+, is derived from the chemical symbol for copper. More than 2.5 million Hongkongers, as of Friday, have registered to receive a free washable mask, which was manufactured by Crystal International Group, the Hong Kong-listed company awarded the contract without facing competition. The CuMask+ was greeted with derision by some Hong Kongers: 4/ Serious design flaws discovered in Govt's CUMask No nose wire allows mask to fall off easily, copper filter moves easily, filter fiber comes off after repeated handling, the trademark & award not related to the filter design pic.twitter.com/ccJ1o4E4lH Hong Kong Be Water (@BeWaterHKG) May 9, 2020 More derision: This is why I wont wear underwear over my head: Apple Daily reporter got the govt free mask online but wasnt allowed to choose the size. Hence thisThe design is so ugly that ppl compare it to underwear. Why cant Hong Kong govt just do one thing right? https://t.co/fvlHEdCn7t pic.twitter.com/OfjhwNinlH Vivienne Chow (@VivienneChow) May 6, 2020 A salutary lesson! Making Masks That Dont Irritate the Ears My ears are not this bad (caution: Surgical textbook-style colored plate material ahead): One of the downsides of wearing a mask for at least 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 3 months, is you can develop really painful endless strap blisters on the top of the ears. But with no locally transmitted cases for 2+ weeks its all upside really. Content warning: ew pic.twitter.com/R5jLgCvw6Q Hong Kong Hermit (@HongKongHermit) May 6, 2020 So here are some solutions for ears. The 3D printing community has been printing ear savers: Ive been printing ear savers! It helps protect your ears from face masks. Message me if youd like some! Just pay for shipping pic.twitter.com/j3DJMkJyRk on twitch (@StellaChuuuuu) May 10, 2020 Here is a solution for loops that are fabric, not elastic: Discovered a trick with face masks that have ties instead of elastic. Put both ends through a pony bead. Then you can tighten or loosen to customize them to fit around your ears. More comfortable than elastic. pic.twitter.com/yAWmBR1wec Pamela Smith Jansury (@PJansury) May 6, 2020 This one bypasses the ears entirely: My mom is making these headbands to donate to healthcare workers! If the masks have been hurting your ears and think this would help, DM me! pic.twitter.com/wGN8HIBkv9 lilan (@official_lilan) May 9, 2020 The difficulty with all the above, is that you have to have carry the mask and some other item (like an iPhone with dongles). Here is a design that doesnt loop around the ears at all: Clearly, this mask would not irritate the ears at all. Morever, it solves the issue of fiddling, becase the front of the mask is metallic, so you could clean it with alchohol (unlike fabric). But I cant tell what prevents it from sliding down round the neck. Readers? Making Exotic Masks I didnt add this to my list of requirements: New mask design after liquor shops are open pic.twitter.com/NTC9AeMlWt Vikas kumar. BJP (@kumarvikasbjp) May 3, 2020 Kill it with fire: I like this mask design pic.twitter.com/NBj3nDLpyl LovePower (@LovePower_page) May 8, 2020 Doggos and puppers: This is a leather pup hood commission I took on before I made my dark red mask. They had a good idea what they wanted in the mask and I had a lot of fun bring it to life . They were very happy with the design and how it came out over all and so was I. pic.twitter.com/cAQ8hceXGf Patches Pup / Jed Jackalope (@JedJackalope) May 5, 2020 Onre more for Michigan: I really dig Omega's design #DandyAndTheClown pic.twitter.com/MgMQ7EowkA Jyn Erso Lives With A Face Mask! (@JynErsoLives) May 9, 2020 And of course, this famous one: Why did plague doctors wear beaked masks? https://t.co/tqWUh4rJpR Now this is a face mask ! Marc Rolland (@Atomic7263) May 8, 2020 Conclusion Now, its complete because its ended here, as the Fremen say. Readers, what is your mask experience? What do you think your mask experience should be? Oh, and I forgot the basic premise of the post: that #COVID-19 is not not the first pandemic, and will not be the last. The next one could be really bad. So, culturally, we had better get masked up. NOTES [1] The precursor to the N95 mask was invented by a Malaysian doctor named Lien-teh Wu during a pneumonic, zoonotic pandemic (!) in Manchuria and Mongolia, which he determinted to be airborne via autopsy, then not accepted in China. [2] I fantasize of the cloth portion made from banana leaves or bamboo, like Ghandi spinning cotton by hand, for example. [3] When I say surgical mask, Im referring to the construcion, cloth and loops, not to the grade. From The Fashion Law: It is well understood that masks must be made with strict [often legally-governed] standards and patterns in mind, Emily Brayshaw, a professor at the University of Technology in Sydney, asserts, while also observing various labeling guidelines. (The existence of such strict federal regulations when it comes to masks is almost certainly why designers who are making masks have begun to emphasize that they are non-surgical,' per GQ). Such standards which include the use of specific medical-grade textiles and coating technologies that aid in filtration (to ensure that the masks do, in fact, serve to block minuscule airborne particles), and manufacture and storage of the masks in an environment that meets the legally-defined quality system requirements can be difficult to meet. As many of the designers that have set out to make masks and other PPE told GQ, they now find themselves facing manufacturing quandaries, with some stalled by unclear guidelines and a lack of access to medical-grade fabrics. Even if the majority of fashion-made masks are not the same as traditionally utilized by medical professionals, given the overwhelming shortage of masks, the FDA recently revealed that it will observe some slightly more lax rules when it comes to masks. As indicated in a March 2020 release, the government entity stated that during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, it will not object to the marketing and distribution of certain face masks without the usually-required prior-clearance, a move that stands to enable brands that want to help to do so without having to get too far into the weeds from a legal perspective. Cloth masks are better than no masks. This is not a post about medical-grade surgical masks. However, I dont see a reason why medical-grade textiles and coating technologies cannot be made available in a less vertically integrated system than we have now. Odd lots, we called then, back in the day. APPENDIX: Jack Vance, The Moon Moth From the opening scene of this great short story. Edwer Thissell arrives on the planet Sirene in the city of Fan to take up his ambassadorship, and is greeted at the spaceport by the local agent, Esteban Rolver: Masks are worn at all times, in accordance with the philosophy that a man should not be compelled to use a similitude foisted upon him by factors beyond his control; that he should be at liberty to choose that semblance most consonant with his strakh. In the civilized areas of Sirene which is to say the Titanic littoral a man literally never shows his face; it is his basic secret. Gambling, by this token, is unknown on Sirene; it would be catastrophic to Sirenese self-respect to gain advantage by means other than the exercise of strakh. The word luck has no counterpart in the Sirenese language. Thissell made another note: Get mask. Museum? Drama guild? He finished the article, hastened forth to complete his preparations, and the next day embarked. Strakh seems a lot like Leguins shifgrethor on the planet Winter, or, well, face in some Asian cultures. The lighter grounded and Edwer Thissell stepped forth. He was met by Esteban Rolver, the local agent for Spaceways. Rolver threw up his hands, stepped back. Your mask, he cried huskily. Where is your mask? Thissell held it up rather self-consciously. I wasnt sure Put it on, said Rolver, turning away. He himself wore a fabrication of dull green scales, blue-lacquered wood. Black quills protruded at the cheeks, and under his chin hung a black-and-white-checked pompom, the total effect creating a sense of sardonic supple personality. Thissell adjusted the mask to his face, undecided whether to make a joke about the situation or to maintain a reserve suitable to the dignity of his post. Are you masked? Rolver inquired over his shoulder. Thissell replied in the affirmative and Rolver turned. You cant wear that mask! sang Rolver. In facthow, where, did you get it? Its copied from a mask owned by the Polypolis museum, Thissell declared stiffly. Im sure its authentic. Rolver nodded, his own mask seeming more sardonic than ever. Its authentic enough. Its a variant of the type known as the Sea Dragon Conqueror, and is worn on ceremonial occasions by persons of enormous prestige: princes, heroes, master craftsmen, great musicians. I wasnt aware Rolver made a gesture of languid understanding. Its something youll learn in due course. Notice my mask. To-day Im wearing a Tarn Bird. Persons of minimal prestige such as you, I, any other out-worlder wear this sort of thing. Odd, said Thissell, as they started across the field to-ward a low concrete blockhouse. I assumed that a person wore whatever he liked. Certainly, said Rolver. Wear any mask you likeif you can make it stick . This Tarn Bird for instance. I wear it to indicate that I presume nothing. I make no claims to wisdom, ferocity, versatility, musicianship, truculence, or any of a dozen other Sirenese virtues. For the sake of argument, said Thissell, what would happen if I walked through the streets of Zundar in this mask? Rolver laughed, a muffled sound behind his mask. If you walked along the docks of Zundarthere are no streets in any mask, youd be killed within the hour. Thats what happened to Benko, your predecessor. He didnt know how to act. None of us out-worlders know how to act. In Fan were toleratedso long as we keep our place. But you couldnt even walk around Fan in that regalia youre sporting now. Somebody wearing a Fire Snake or a Thunder Goblinmasks, you understandwould step up to you. [H]e might ring his dueling-gong and attack you then and there. I had no idea that people here were quite so irascible, said Thissell in a subdued voice. Rolver shrugged and swung open the massive steel door into his office. Certain acts may not be committed on the Concourse at Polypolis without incurring criticism. [Rolver] went to a closet, brought forth a mask. Here. Use this Moon Moth; it wont get you in trouble. Thissell unenthusiastically inspected the mask. It was constructed of mouse-colored fur; there was a tuft of hair at each side of the mouth-hole, a pair of featherlike antennae at the forehead. White lace flaps dangled beside the temples and under the eyes hung a series of red folds, creating an effect at once lugubrious and comic. Thissell asked, Does this mask signify any degree of prestige? Not a great deal. After all, Im Consular Representative, said Thissell. I represent the Home Planets, a hundred billion people If the Home Planets want their representative to wear a Sea Dragon Conqueror mask, theyd better send out a Sea Dragon Conqueror type of man. I see, said Thissell in a subdued voice. Well, if I must . . . Rolver politely averted his gaze while Thissell doffed the Sea Dragon Conqueror and slipped the more modest Moon Moth over his head. Sorry to quote at such length, but its such a wonderful story! And we might meditate on what a much more masked culture would look like. Jim Malatras, president of SUNY Empire State College, left, listens as New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo takes one final question while leaving his daily CCP virus press briefing at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, on April 28, 2020. (Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images) New York Is Investigating 85 Cases of a COVID-Related Illness in Children: Cuomo New York authorities are investigating 85 cases of illnesses related to COVID-19 in children, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a daily update on Sunday. Cuomo said that New Yorks Department of Health is looking into the dozens of inflammatory illness in children, which is known as Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome. It has similar symptoms to Kawasaki disease. Two additional deaths are being investigated in connection to the cases, Cuomo told reporters. This does not present as a normal COVID case, he said, adding that those cases tend to be respiratory. Its possible that these cases were coming in and were not diagnosed as related to COVID because they dont appear as COVID, he said, adding that three people have died in relation the mysterious condition. He noted that New York health authorities will report the cases to other state departments of health about their findings. The illness has taken the lives of three young New Yorkers, the governor said on Saturday. This is new. This is developing. Nurses work at a drive-thru testing site for the CCP virus at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., on May 6, 2020. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters) We thought children could be vehicles of transmission but we didnt think children would suffer from it, Cuomo said in announcing the child deaths, adding that the development is really painful news. In a press release, Dr. Jane Newburger, the director of the Kawasaki program at Boston childrens hospital, said a small number of children developed serious inflammatory syndrome along with COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. The syndrome often leads to hospitalizations. We want to reassure parentsthis appears to be uncommon. While Kawasaki disease can damage the heart or blood vessels, the heart problems usually go away in five or six weeks, and most children fully recover, Newburger said. She added, Rarely, but sometimes, the coronary artery damage persists. Because of this, Kawasaki disease is the most common cause of acquired heart disease in children in developed countries. Prompt treatment is critical to prevent significant heart problems. New York nursing homes also must start CCP virus testing twice-weekly for all staffers and will no longer be sent COVID-19 patients leaving hospitals, Cuomo announced Sunday after facing criticism over the handling of nursing facility outbreaks. New York City is responding to complaints about racial disparities in enforcement of social distancing by ramping up a corps of city workers to try to keep people in line without involving police. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A nurse at a New York City hospital was arrested Thursday after police say she stole a credit card from a patient who later died of COVID-19. Danielle Conti, 43, took a credit card from a 70-year-old patient while he was being treated at Staten Island University Hospital, the NYPD said. Conti is facing charges of grand larceny, petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, police said. The hospital released a statement to local media Thursday saying that Conti, who was hired in 2007, has been temporarily suspended and faces termination over the felony charges. We are working closely with the law enforcement authorities and the hospital is conducting its own investigation, the statement said. Protect yourself from scams: 10 COVID-19 scams spreading right now that people are falling for Anthony Catapano died of COVID-19 on April 12 after more than a week of treatment at the hospital, according to a Facebook post in April from his daughter, Tara Catapano. She said that when she went to pick up her father's things, several items were missing, including his cellphone, eyeglasses, two cellphone chargers, money and a buzzer. Two weeks later, Catapano said she got a bill for her father's Amex with two charges for gas and groceries listed during the time he was in the hospital. Because visitors weren't allowed in the hospital during the pandemic, Catapano believed a hospital employee stole her father's credit card, used it and then returned it to his wallet. "This behavior is disgusting and unacceptable," she wrote. "I am going through so much with losing my father, this is the absolute last thing that I need." Follow N'dea Yancey-Bragg on Twitter: @NdeaYanceyBragg This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NYC nurse accused of stealing from dying COVID-19 patient W ales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have all rejected Number's 10 new "stay alert" slogan and say they will instead keep the "stay at home" message. Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick told the BBCs The Andrew Marr Show that the Government wanted the whole of the United Kingdom to move as one" in any easing of the coronavirus lockdown. Boris Johnson has officially unveiled the new "stay alert, control the virus, save lives" slogan and is due to detail it futher during tonight's pre-recorded address to the nation . But devolved governments in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have power to make their own decisions on a number of matters, including health. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who said she had first heard of the slogan in the Sunday newspapers, said that the "clear message" to Scotland was still to stay home" due to "the critical point we are at". She tweeted: The Sunday papers is the first Ive seen of the PMs new slogan. Nicola Sturgeon warned it was not time to lift the restrictions yet / PA It is of course for him to decide whats most appropriate for England, but given the critical point we are at in tackling the virus, #StayHomeSaveLives remains my clear message to Scotland at this stage. She later doubled down on the message, tweeting: "STAY HOME. PROTECT THE NHS. SAVE LIVES." Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford, who described the Welsh Governments relationship with the UK Government as one of fits and starts, stressed the stay at home slogan had not gone away in Wales. He was backed by the countrys health minister Vaughan Gething who said there had been no discussion or agreement about the Governments new slogan with the other three nations of the UK. He added: The fewer contacts you have with other people, the more you suppress your own risk and the risk to others. So being alert is important but staying at home has not gone away. First Minister Arlene Foster said the region is also sticking with the stay home, save lives message. Speaking to BBC Northern Ireland radio on Sunday, she said: On the whole, the message is to stay at home. We will say we are not deviating from the message at this time. She earlier said any changes made to the regions lockdown measures following Mr Johnsons announcement will be nuanced. Her Stormont colleague Deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill tweeted an image of the current messaging on Sunday morning, with the stay at home slogan featured. With official figures suggesting that the UK death toll has passed 36,500, Mr Johnson acknowledged this is the dangerous bit ahead of his 7pm pre-recorded announcement. But the PM hopes to restart the economy by encouraging people back to work while maintaining social-distancing rules. However, the change in tact drew widespread criticism , with the Liberal Democrats acting co-leader, Sir Ed Davey, saying the change makes the polices job near impossible and may cause considerable alarm. Boris Johnson is set to address the nation at 7pm / PA Other politicians also spoke out against the new slogan, with Andy Burnham, the Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester, saying that it feels to me like a mistake to me to drop the clear stay at home message. Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said it risks ambiguity, adding: We need absolute clarity from Boris Johnson. Theres no room for nuance in this. This virus exploits ambivalence, it thrives on ambiguity and I think the problem with the slogan that has been briefed to the newspapers is people will be looking slightly puzzled, questioning What does it mean to stay alert? What are the Government saying with that? So I hope that Boris Johnson will offer us that crystal-clear clarity tonight that is desperately needed. Ian Blackford, the SNP leader in Westminster, said: What kind of buffoon thinks of this kind of nonsense? It is an invisible threat. Staying alert is not the answer. Mr Jenrick hit back at the criticism, saying a broader slogan is needed as the Government tries to restart the economy. In the ongoing fight against the dreaded novel coronavirus disease, code-named COVID-19, different states in Nigeria, including Gombe State, adopted various measures, albeit in line with the accepted established protocols by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). Even before Gombe State recorded its first COVID-19 index case, Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya had swung into action, mandating the establishment of several COVID-19 isolation centres complete with hundreds of bed spaces, sanitary facilities like running water, hand sanitizers, personal protective equipment for the health workers, ventilators, oxygen concentrators as well as a conducive working environment for the health workers to ensure that they were not infected by the index case and contact cases they were likely to treat. For the records, Gombe has some of best COVID-19 isolation and treatment centres you can find in the region, with facilities for the treatment of mild to severe cases. Gombe is also one of the few states to put machineries in motion for the establishment of its own testing centre, having already procured PCR machines waiting for accreditation by NCDC. Undeniably, Gombe State Government was one of the first states, outside the Federal Government, to set up a COVID-19 Task Force under the chairmanship of a renowned immunologist and public health expert, Prof. Idris Mohammed and its terms of reference ranged from ensuring that the preventive measures put in place by the state government were strictly adhered to and to come up with innovative programmes that would further strengthen the containment efforts and battle against the COVID-19 menace. Also, at a time many states had not fully grasped the extent and severity of the COVID-19 crisis, Governor Inuwa Yahaya had imposed a partial lockdown on the state and restricted the inter-state movement of persons to avoid the transmission of the dreaded virus from the affected states. If other states had adopted the proactive stance of the purposeful Governor Inuwa Yahayas administration, I believe the rapid spread of the virus would have been greatly curtailed and the people would have been better for it. The Gombe State Government had already ramped up the education and mass sensitization of the populace on established safe practices such as frequent hand washing, proper disposal of sanitary products, wearing of face masks and safe social distancing by avoiding congregation of large crowds and keeping a suitable distance from one another to curb community transmission. Again, Gombe State was one of the first states to restrict social, cultural and religious congregations involving large gatherings. Appropriate sensitization to that effect was embarked upon to avoid rumour-mongering and the propagation of falsehood among the populace. To ensure that every segment of the society was carried along in the buildup to the announcement of the restriction orders, the Governor first had series of engagements with traditional rulers, religious and community leaders, heads of security agencies and local government officials. Also, being fully aware of the negative socio-economic impact of the lockdown on the people, particularly their means of livelihood, a compassionate Governor Inuwa Yahaya constituted a multi stakeholders relief and palliative committee under the chairmanship of His Royal Highness, the Emir of Gombe, Alhaji Abubakar Shehu Abubakar III, to ensure holistic distribution of palliatives to all nooks and crannies of the state, particularly to the needy and vulnerable, including the widows, the indigent, the infirm and the physically-challenged as well as family members of those in isolation. These preventive and palliative measures have a multi-pronged objective to curb the spread of the virus and cushion the effects of any harsh negative impact respectively among the masses as a result of the restrictions and preventive measures. Even representatives of WHO, UNICEF and other international humanitarian bodies hailed the steadfast and result-oriented approach adopted by Governor Inuwa Yahaya to the extent that one country representative described him as :the last best hope for the Northeast geopolitical zone. It is instructive to note that while some states have recorded multiple deaths, Gombe State, to the glory of Almighty Allah is yet to record any from Covid-19. Governor Inuwa Yahaya has mandated a robust testing regime some may say aggressive in which hundreds are being tested whether they have shown symptoms of the virus or not. While some other states only test those that have shown symptoms of the virus, it is different in Gombe State as the government, heeding to the advice of health experts, is testing all and sundry, especially those intercepted or those believed to have had contacts with the confirmed cases. As Gombe State was trying hard to attend to its first set of index cases of COVID-19, reports of a protest staged by some asymptomatic carriers of the virus at the Kwadon Isolation Centre were on social and some traditional media recently. Truth is some crucial issues at stake seemed to have been blown out of proportion in the media, especially the social media, though a number of print media also feasted on the story without properly interrogating to know what exactly the issues at stake were. Thus, attention was diverted from the proactive efforts taken by the Gombe State Government and even the isolation centres health officials and managers to decisively tackle the COVID-19 hydra-headed menace. The Task force has already put things on records as to what the isolated covid-19 asymptomatic cases in Kwadon were agitating for as against what was peddled. The alleged non-provision of drugs by the centres health officials and the presence of a woman with a smelly wound as well as the welfare of their immediate families were brought forward by them. It should be noted that all the cases tested positive before they were brought to the centre, but they have not shown symptoms of the disease, so the health officials averred that they could not be administered with drugs unless they showed symptoms to avoid any unhealthy side effects. Their stay at the centre, therefore, is for observation and to prevent them from infecting others in the wider community. Therefore, the reported protest arose from a misconception of the treatment process on one hand and the whole covid-19 pandemic on the other as they wanted to be given medication, which the health officials deemed unnecessary and even dangerous. Well, the issues have since been resolved, and the ultra modern centre is functioning optimally and cohesively in line with the foresighted Governor Inuwa Yahayas well-known mantra of health for all, all year round. Clearly, it appeared the media pounced on the story in an attempt to get materials to inform the public about happenings in the society. But as media practitioners, lets be always cautious, especially at a time like this. Lets not sensationalise issues. It does no one any good if at this time we spread news that create panic rather than douse tension among the populace. It has since emerged that fake news has become the order of the day during this period. The media shouldnt be seen to be giving space and time to people whose major occupation is to create chaos in our ongoing battle against COVID-19. The Kwadon incident, it seemed, also gave some politically docile individuals an opportunity to vent their anger of not being in public domain for some time as they equally cashed in on that to score low political points. As a people, the greatest disservice we can do to ourselves at this time is to politicize the issue of COVID-19. For Gods sake, this is a disease that has no respect for any divide religion, ethnicity, race, creed, political or any group that one belongs to. It is therefore, incumbent on all of us to contribute our quota in curtailing the spread of COVID-19 and eliminating it in our society. The earlier we realise that the fight against COVID-19 pandemic is one that we all must work assiduously to win, not just in Gombe State but in the country at large, the better for us as a people. Misilli is the Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity) to Gombe State Governor. Saudi-led coalition liable for possible leakage from stranded decaying oil tanker off Yemen: Ansarullah Iran Press TV Saturday, 09 May 2020 6:04 PM The spokesman for Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement has held the Saudi-led coalition fully responsible for a possible oil leakage from a deserted decaying tanker moored in the Red Sea , which could result in a potential environmental disaster. "We have long been calling for the maintenance of the Safer tanker. Nevertheless, the US-backed forces of aggression, besides their unjust blockade, have deliberately created obstacles and prevented any maintenance," Mohammed Abdul-Salam said in a post published on his official Twitter page on Saturday. He added, "They (members of the Saudi-led alliance), therefore, bear responsibility for the repercussions of any spillage. Washington should also be held accountable for providing them with political and military support to press ahead with their aggression and siege." Last June, UN aid chief Mark Lowcock told the Security Council that a leak or explosion of the vessel could be much worse than the Exxon Valdez oil spill of the late 1980s in Alaska. "If the tanker ruptures or explodes, we could see the coastline polluted all along the Red Sea," Lowcock, the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said. "Depending on the time of year and water currents, the spill could reach from Bab el-Mandeb to the Suez Canal, and potentially as far as the Strait of Hormuz," he added. The Safer tanker reportedly allows vessels to anchor offshore and transfer oil extracted and processed from installations in the Ma'arib oil field in central Yemen. The tanker is said to contain 34 crude oil tanks of different sizes and volumes, amounting to a total capacity of around 3 million barrels. The ship has been moored several kilometers outside the Red Sea port of Ras Isa, north of Hudaydah. Yemeni air defense deter Saudi-led warplanes Separately on Saturday, Yemeni air defense units thwarted Saudi airstrikes against various areas in the country's northern province of al-Jawf. The spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree said a squadron of Saudi-led warplanes tried to bombard several areas in the afternoon. It was when the domestically-built, long-range Fater-1 (Innovator-1) surface-to-air missile defense system intercepted the military aircraft and forced them off the Yemeni airspace, he added. Saree noted that the jets left the area without conducting any air raid. Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in order to bring former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crush the 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Mimisola Daniel Chocolateskinned Mimisola Daniels is one of the hottest babes in Nollywood. She is a scriptwriter, producer and actress who has featured in over 40 home movies including television series and soaps. Mimi, as friends and fans fondly call her, sheds light on her journey so far in this interview. Enjoy it. How did you come into acting? I am Mimisola Daniels. I came into acting by myself and later met Toyin Abraham through a friend. I worked with Toyin for a while before joining Future Concept Group led by Dele Ogundipe. Would you say life is treating you well? As you can see, Gods grace is written all over me. So, Id say life has been treating me even better, to the glory of God. Tell us about your growing up. I was born in Warri, Delta State and had part of my elementary school there before moving down to Ibadan where I attended Staff School, University of Ibadan. For my secondary education, I attended Queens School, Apata, Ibadan, though I sat for my Secondary School Certificate Examination at Genius Royal Academy. I later proceeded to Olabisi Onabanjo University where I had my Diploma in Industrial Labour Relations and degree in Economics. Would you say that your childhood dreams are becoming true? I love money a whole lot, so Ive always wanted to be a businesswoman or just do something that had to do with counting money. And trust me, its becoming true gradually. How many movies have you featured in? I havent featured in thousands of movies but Ive lost count already. Is Surface your first movie production? No, Surface is my 5th movie. I did Ewu (Risk) Inioluwa, Mothers Wish, Ranti Mi, and then Surface. How did you come about the storyline of Surface? If you look around closely, youd find out that these things happen everywhere. I have a couple of people that such things have happened to, so I decided to put it out there for people to learn one or two things. How were you able to cast a 3-weeks-old baby without his parents being scared of exposing him that early? Ill forever be grateful to the family of the baby, because trust me, it was really a great risk I cast the baby three days to the shoot, and I called my director that I wanted a newborn baby. I could remember a friend told me that we cant achieve that and I said there is no crime trying. Then, I got in touch with a friend who spoke to her uncle and he obliged us because he loves our industry. So, I had both father and mother on set! I was actually scared at some point because there was a scene where I ran out with the baby and he didnt blink, I had to tell my director to cut and I told his mom to please wake him up. But thank God, it all turned out a success. The baby is now a big boy, we should be working together soon. If not acting, what would you have been doing? If not acting, it would be business all the way. I am still into business, though acting seems to be taking larger part of my time. How were you able to fit into the role you played in the comedy series, Awaaladun? I was able to fit in because its my job. I should be able to act every role given to me; there shouldnt be any role I wouldnt be able to fit into. Do you act under influence? Hell, no! I dont act under influence. I am too hyper to act under any influence. Are you hooked or still single? Im not hooked; Im still single. Yeah, I know it sounds weird and I know people dont take me serious when I say Im single. I wouldnt know if you have a cute brother (laughter). Can you describe your kind of man? Any man who is more mature than I am is cool for me. Why did I say so? Its because any mature man would be able to handle me. It takes a very mature man to be a husband. How do you handle your male fans? I got used to them as time went on. I handle them maturely because I realised I cant do without them. Kissing or sex, which one do you prefer? Kissing all day I love kissing more than sex hands down. What pisses you off most in a relationship? I would say lies and pretense. What movie are you working on now? I am definitely working on something. Its a secret for now. What has the COVID-19 lockdown stolen from you? I had to cancel the shooting of my next project due to the lockdown. *** Source: Daily Sun Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor Washington President Barack Obama launched a far-ranging attack on the Trump administration in an address to former aides Friday, warning that the "rule of law" was endangered by the Justice Department's decision to drop charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn and criticizing the White House response to the coronavirus pandemic as "chaotic." "There is no precedent that anybody can find for somebody who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free," Obama told hundreds of members of the Obama Alumni Association during an online discussion moderated by his friend and former White House adviser Valerie Jarrett. Obama's comments were first reported by Yahoo News and confirmed by several people who heard his speech, including one who described the former president as being in "quite the mood." Obama, who last month endorsed Joe Biden, his former vice president and the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee, has signaled to people around him that he is eager to engage more directly and pointedly with President Donald Trump in an attempt to rally Democrats around the cause of his friend and to vanquish a man who has set out to dismantle his legacy. The news of Attorney General William Barr's decision to drop the criminal case against Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, has been "somewhat downplayed" in the media, Obama said, during his talk with Jarrett. Obama said that such action only added to the urgency of electing Biden. Flynn admitted that he had lied in a January 2017 interview with the FBI about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to Washington during the presidential transition. The FBI was investigating whether members of Trump's campaign might have colluded with the Kremlin to influence the 2016 presidential election. Career prosecutors and criminal law specialists were stunned by the Justice Department's decision to drop the case, calling it highly unusual and questioned its legal grounding. The move was recommended to Barr by a U.S. attorney in Missouri who had been tasked with reviewing Flynn's case, after years of Trump and his allies arguing that Flynn had been treated unfairly. Trump has called the case against Flynn a sham and part of an FBI-led "coup" to remove him from the presidency. After being consumed for months by the coronavirus, Trump returned with a vengeance this past week to his grievances over the Russia investigation, saying it was an act of treason engineered by "human scum." Obama has publicly adopted a studied posture of muted disapproval during his post-presidency but privately has been caustic in his assessment of Trump's overall performance. That was especially clear during his discussion of the administration's response to the pandemic. In a brief audio excerpt posted online by Yahoo, Obama said the challenge was greater than Trump. "This election that's coming up on every level is so important because what we're going to be battling is not just a particular individual or a political party," Obama said. "What we're fighting against is these long-term trends where being selfish, being tribal, being divided and seeing others as an enemy. That has become a stronger impulse in American life. And by the way we're seeing that internationally as well." "It's part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty," Obama continued. "It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset of 'what's in it for me' and 'to heck with everybody else' when that mindset is operationalized in our government." Obama, who campaigned vigorously for Democratic candidates in 2018 and barnstormed for Hillary Clinton four years ago, has told friends he is deeply concerned that Trump, despite his recent stumbles, will be able to successfully leverage the bully pulpit of the presidency at a time when Biden is confined to campaigning from his basement in Delaware. Border guards in the southern province of An Giang have arrested two men who were transporting 40kg of white crystal suspected to be crystal meth from Cambodia to Vietnam. (Photo: laodong.vn) The men are An Ngoc Ha, 35, residing in Nguyen Ly commune, Ly Nhan district, northern Ha Nam province, and Nguyen Van Tai, 20, in Dong Phuong commune, Kien Thuy district, the northern port city of Hai Phong. They, together with the 53-year-old driver, Vo Van Beo, from An Phuoc commune, An Phu district, An Giang province, were caught in Quoc Thai commune, An Phu district on May 8 night. Ha and Tai confessed that they came to Cambodia on May 6th to transport the drugs to get a total payment of 65 million VND (2,800 USD). Competent agencies are completing procedures for further investigation and legal proceedings for the case./. Global resentment is growing against China as facts pour in, and many countries now hold the Communist Regime accountable for criminal negligence that led to the spread of coronavirus. Coronavirus has changed our lives for good. Global resentment is growing against China as facts pour in, and many countries now hold the Communist Regime accountable for criminal negligence that led to the viral spread. One Italian journalist, Francesca Marino, even said that China should be sued for war damages citing global recession after the lockdowns. However, due to a multi-trillion dollar connectivity programme called Border and Roads Initiative (BRI), China continues to prey on weak nations with weaponised healthcare and enhanced strategic depth while the rest of the world mourns lost freedoms and economies. As China embarks on purchasing troubled and marked down assets and stocks, countries like USA and Greece could be gearing up to brace new waves of economic refugees resulting from coronavirus-led demographic changes. They say a tiger never changes its stripes. The London-based Henry Jackson Society, while assessing Chinas potential culpability in spreading pandemics, has identified ten counts of infectious disease control violations, some that were in place after the SARS outbreak. As we speak, Chinas wet markets are back in business in no time while the rest of the world is preparing for multiple relapses and waves of the coronavirus outbreak. Like with SARS, the world unnecessarily lost significant lives to coronavirus since China habitually hides facts, silences doctors and whistleblowers, and recklessly continues BRI-related manufacturing and cross-border movement. Once called the conduit of prosperity, BRI for countries like Iran and Italy has turned into the vehicle of terror which brings economies to its knees. Ali Reza Raeesi, Irans Deputy Health Minister points at Chinese students and workers for spreading coronavirus in Iran. A member of Irans COVID-19 Committee has stated that in Tehran alone, 23,000 people were hospitalised for acute respiratory infections between 19 February and 20 March and only 9,000 were discharged during the same period. During the same time, Golistan province with just 1.9 million inhabitants indicated a staggering number of 327 doctors and nurses testing positive for coronavirus. On 17 March, Los Angeles Times reported that Iran was home to ninety percent of 18,000 coronavirus cases across West Asia. Given the enormity of the crisis, Iran for the first time since Khomeinis 1979 revolution, applied for an IMF-loan. Gilgit-Baltistan, known to the world as an important staging post on China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), has also become the epicentre of coronavirus infections in Pakistan. Ignoring Indian claims on the region, China is building rails and highways and placing pipelines through Gilgit to import energy resources from West Asia and Africa. According to Pakistans National Institute for Health, Gilgit reported 36.7 coronavirus cases per million on 21 March compared to the national average of 3.07. Almost all of Gilgits patients, comprising of religious students and pilgrims, contracted the infection in Iran. Balochistan, which is a transit point for residents of Gilgit, has been placed on high alert after passengers in its quarantine centers were suspected of having infected local people. Pakistan while brushing aside local concerns wants to go ahead with the completion of CPEC. Shafqat Inqalabi, a local author and historian, calls Chinas presence in Gilgit and Muzaffarabad an invasion. He says, China, which is using the coronavirus pandemic to fulfill its global ambitions, is illegally exploiting Gilgits land routes and natural resources. If locals are not getting jobs or revenue from CPEC, then why should they let Chinese workers return, especially since they could be potential carriers of the virus? Tahira Jabeen, a prominent activist from Gilgit says, The conduit has brought both comforts and troubles. In addition to Chinese workers, it also brings epidemics of narcotics and terrorism to Gilgit. Nagar Valley along the CPEC is worst-hit by coronavirus and government has locked down many villages here. We are constantly exposed to inherent vulnerabilities of a global structure which is aimed at serving Beijing. Gilgits other neighbours like Kazakhstan and Tajikistan have shut down border trade zones and transport links with China to circumvent the pandemic. Upbeat due to increased strategic clout, China is employing BRI to browbeat Western democracies and to hijack decisions in multilateral organisations like the United Nations. Ethiopia, which currently heads UNs World Health Organization (WHO), is a prominent BRI beneficiary. Ethiopias Tedros Ghebreyesus, who sought Chinas help to become Director General of WHO, is viewed as guarding Chinese interests by underplaying human-to-human transmission of coronavirus and misguiding countries into keeping borders open. While terming China a victim of coronavirus, he calls President Xi Jinping a hero for playing politics of generosity, not realising how many countries admonished China for sending faulty testing kits and masks. Chinas obsession of installing friendly regimes is undermining democratic institutions in many BRI-member countries. The Pakistani regime, for instance, is often found suppressing voices criticising CPEC. Dependency on China to fight pandemics dampens Pakistans leverage to negotiate debt terms, and like Sri Lanka, could eventually result in confiscation of assets. Other BRI-members which owe large portions of GDP and sovereignty to China include Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Myanmar, Maldives, Mongolia, and Montenegro. Like a Trojan horse, BRI is invading and inflicting economic terror on vulnerable neighbours. Chinas rising demand for animal protein has turned BRI-members into conduits of trafficking of a variety of exotic animals, which hastens wildlife extinction. Embroiled in a debt trap, these countries would fail to respond fittingly as new pathogens sprout future pandemics. If past behaviour is a predictor of the future, then the world should not allow an irresponsible country like China to employ BRI to expand its control over global supply chains and let the West sustain the grave consequences of its policies and practices. Countries desiring to immunise their economies must detach from BRI module and seek help from international consortiums to rebuild local manufacturing and human resources. In an internal all-hands meeting with its employees, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has announced that Google will be carrying out the work from home, until the end of the year. The current work from home policy that Google is adhering to will remain active till June 1st. The Information's report further revealed that the return to the office would be done in a gradual, incremental way. Pichai has also stated that employees who need to return to the office wont do that before June or July, claims the report. Moreover, they will be putting emphasis on the safety measures, with an entirely different in-office experience. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment For the most part, people around the world have been content to abide by government restrictions in the wake of COVID-19, but sometimes some of the new rules seem off somehow. How is that we can buy lottery tickets but churches cant even meet in parking lots at a safe social distance? Is that willful persecution or just a good precaution? How can we tell the difference? Robert P. George of Princeton is a world-renowned scholar and a widely respected expert on our rights and governmental responsibilities under the United States Constitution. He offers guidance and clarification for what makes a legitimate government action and what crosses the line into anti-religious bias. Below is an edited excerpt from his conversation with John Stonestreet, and you can hear his full conversation by going here. We should have concerns. Now we have to be careful to keep our concerns in check. They have to be reasonable concerns, but there are reasonable grounds for concern here. There always are in circumstances in which catastrophes, whether theyre manmade or natural a war or an earthquake that freedoms will have to be to some extent limited or abridged. But whenever that happens, no matter how good the cause is, we have to be careful to avoid doing the kinds of things that will permanently limit our freedoms when we get beyond the catastrophe. There will always be people who are too eager to have power that comes at the expense of other peoples liberties, and they will use disasters when people legitimately and rightly give up some freedom for security, for safety. They will seize on that, seize the opportunity to grab more power for themselves. And so, we have to be worried about that. Its very wrong to condemn anyone who expresses concerns as a nut or as a conspiracy theorist. Now you can go too far. You can imagine that theres nothing the government has to do or that we need sacrifice any liberties in the face of a disaster. Again, whether its a war, whether its a pandemic, whether its an earthquake or hurricane or something like that, you can go too far. But its important to keep things in balance. We must avoid erring in either of the two directions. Were going to need to insist on our rights. Now, we dont want rights that are greater than anybody elses rights, greater than the rights of members of any other religious community, greater than the rights of secular people. We should be willing, as Christians, to do our part to make our share of sacrifices, including the sacrifice of mobility, staying home, even not gathering for religious services where those sacrifices are in fact necessary. But we should not be willing to make those sacrifices, and we should stand up to government, when those sacrifices are not necessary and theres some other agenda playing out here. Now let me put on my constitutional law scholar hat here. When it comes to what are called neutral laws of general applicability, that is laws that are not targeted at any particular religion or other group, theyre neutral theologically and of general applicability. That is, theyre meant to apply to everyone. When it comes to those sorts of laws, only under the narrow circumstances, only under the most compelling conditions should we and do we ask for exemptions. But when we look at our situation today, we see that in some states, churches remain closed. The government is not even permitting Christians and other believers, also people from other religions, synagogues, mosques to gather in the church building or on the church lawn or for that matter even the parking lot in cars. While at the same time we see liquor stores open, we see lotto sales outlets open. We see abortion clinics open. Now we have to begin wondering, wait a minute, this does not look any more like a neutral law of general applicability? The laws are not fair or not being administered fairly, I should say. The government is favoring, lets say, abortion clinics over churches, favoring liquor stores, which generate revenue for government among others, so do lotto sales. There are powerful lobbies behind those so-called industries. That includes the abortion industry with its powerful lobby. When we see favoritism, then its time to stand up. The other point Id make here is the sacrifices that people are being asked to make, the restrictions that theyre being asked to labor under need to be properly modulated. There are times when the correct thing to ask people to do is to stay away from gatherings of any sort, but as conditions change or as conditions become clearer and it becomes clearer that we can afford to have people get together so long as they observe proper social distancing norms, then the laws should change in order to accommodate that. At a minimum, theres no reason now, certainly in most parts of the country for people not to gather for services in a church parking lot, for example, perhaps staying in the cars. In some cases, it would be acceptable from a public health point of view to gather physically, maybe even in the church building itself, maybe staying six feet apart. There are ways to accommodate the legitimate religious needs of people. Short of a complete ban on any gatherings where a complete ban on gatherings is not absolutely needed. The other and final point Ill make is this distinction people want to draw between the essential and the non-essential. Now of course from the believers point of view, our faith is essential. Now that doesnt mean that we necessarily have to be able to get together in community. Although Christian faith is never purely an individual matter. Christian faith is always a matter of community and not just the atomized, isolated individual. But it does mean especially for those from sacramental traditions that were sacrificing something very, very powerful, very, very profoundly important when we are not able to get together for our worship. Thats not something we can dismiss as inessential. If the government wants us to bear that burden, it in turn must meet a very high standard of proof, a very high standard of showing that these sacrifices really are necessary to protect human lives. Originally posted at breakpoint.org It has the makings of the proverbial hare and tortoise fable. Slowly, the Congress Party in the coronavirus pandemic is not looking bad at all. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah are less and less visible, Rahul Gandhis visibility is on the rise with carefully-curated video press conferences and interviews with top-notch economists. Fielding questions may appear routine or innocuous but PM Modis failure to address any press conference in six years has made Rahul look slightly better. What is more refreshing is Rahuls sense of positivity, refusing to attack and criticise Mr Modi just for the sake of opposing him. There are of course glaring holes in Rahuls bid to raise questions and seek answers from Raghuram Rajan and Abhijit Banerjee instead of directing Congress-ruled states to launch with their own version of Nyuntam Aay Yojana (Minimum Income Scheme), Nyay. But in terms of optics, the grand old party seems to be staging a comeback in the wake of the Modi-Shah inertia. Your money or your lives? The Narendra Modi governments move to evacuate hundreds of thousands from the Middle East is being touted as a success and comparisons are being drawn between this and the massive airlift evacuation from Amman in October 1990 due to the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. However, there is a big difference in the way the central government dealt with it then and now. During 1990, Indian expats, labourers etc didnt have to pay a single penny. Now each Indian has been asked to pay for their evacuation (ranging from Rs 20,000 to Rs 1 lakh for a single ticket). Not Singhvi Thi khabar garm ki Ghalib ke udenge purze; dekhne ham bhi gae the par tamasha na hua. There was a huge buzz and speculation about the exit of a prominent Congress Party lawyer to the BJP but it turned out to a false alarm. Apparently, it was handiwork of some in-house rival from the legal fraternity, which resulted in wild speculation on social media. The lawyer was presumably Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi and he struck back on Twitter with a borrowed quote, gossip is the devils radio and don't be his DJ. George Harrisons lyric, Devils Radio, was inspired by a church billboard Harrison had seen, Gossip: The Devils Radio... Dont Be a Broadcaster. Singhvi then launched a frontal attack on the Modi regime asking why the states are being given special economic packages and why the Opposition was not being consulted. But Congress insiders insist that the BJP is attempting to engineer defections from the Congress. According to them, whenever lockdown is lifted, some Congress leaders may be lured to switch sides. Looks like Singhvi would not be one of them. Monsoon cloud The offices of major political parties in the national capital are completely shut. The BJP headquarters at Deen Dayal Upadhaya Marg has not seen any senior office bearer for weeks now. Similar is the case of 24, Akbar Road, where only security personnel and some karamcharis can be seen. Senior leaders of various political parties wonder if the coronavirus pandemic would permit the Monsoon Session of Parliament to commence in July. No longer Delhi Delhiites in the National Capital Region (NCR) i.e. Noida, Gurugram, Ghaziabad, Faridabad. had never felt away from being Delhi. But the coronavirus pandemic has suddenly made them aware of the geographical boundaries that divide Delhi from its satellite towns. Many among the well-heeled and also bureaucrats felt the pinch when they had to obtain a pass to move in and out of Delhi. Impatient Scindia & Co. The patience of the Jyotiraditya Scindia camp in Madhya Pradesh is wearing thin over the delay in the appointment of the young Scindia in Narendra Modis council of ministers. Madhya Pradesh BJP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has also shelved a move to expand his ministry, which would have accommodated those who had defected from the Congress to the BJP. Govind Singh Rajput, a former minister in the Kamal Nath government who resigned his MLA seat to join Scindia in the BJP, turned restless, demanding a cabinet berth for his master. Rajput, a former state youth Congress chief known for his lung power, however, learnt that his call went not only unnoticed but frowned upon by his new political masters. Rajput was reportedly told not to speak out of turn. Bizmen get Eid blues Eid ul Fitr is less than a fortnight away but the festivities are missing. Shopkeepers in Lucknow, Bhopal, Delhi, Hyderabad and other parts of the country are deeply exercised over the Eid shopping season getting wiped out. Business leaders in garments, footwear, bangles etc, are also alarmed by WhatsApp messages and Urdu newspaper advertisements by some influential Muslim leaders asking the community not to shop and buy new clothes in the wake of the coronavirus. Political kite-flying The Congress in Uttar Pradesh may be a big zero but there is no dearth of party leaders in the state. While Priyanka Gandhi manages to draw some media attention through her tweets and statements, the rest of the young and not-so young face a near blackout. Former Union minister of state Jitin Prasada has found a rather novel way of attracting attention. Prasada uploaded a picture of himself flying a kite with his son at his Shahjahanpur residence. His effort to fly a kite during the lockdown has been successful. Follow the latest coronavirus news in Ireland and across the world on the Independent.ie live blog. 22.00 10/05/2020 'Gaelic Games return unlikely while social distancing is in place' - GAA president John Horan Expand Close Kerry legend, the late Paidi O Se / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Kerry legend, the late Paidi O Se GAA president John Horan has effectively ruled out a return to competitive action as long as social distancing measures remain in place in society. Speaking on the 'Sunday Game' Horan said the risks of Covid-19 infection involved in GAA clubs, players and members getting back together too soon were too great and that's why facilities will remain closed until July 20 at the earliest. Horan did say that the July 20 date could change if the public health picture changes but "policing" the guidelines in the Government roadmap, released last Friday week, was not a responsibility the Association was going to place on its volunteer members. Horan said the GAA would be prepared to use the first two months of 2021 to finish a 2020 inter-county championship if it got going in October or November but cast doubt as to whether the 2020 Allianz leagues will now be finished. Read More 21.00 10/05/2020 Conor Skehan: 'Doomsayers predict disaster, but what if they're proved wrong?' Expand Close Boy's face, looking at camera, cropped view with digitally placed Ireland flag on his face. Stock picture / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Boy's face, looking at camera, cropped view with digitally placed Ireland flag on his face. Stock picture 'The media seems to be full of practitioners of the dismal science who are busy predicting how badly the world's economy will fare in the aftermath of Covid-19. You will find some of them in this paper today. What happens if they are wrong? Does anybody have a plan for success? Does anybody have a plan to accommodate a rapid recovery? 'If there is any relevant lesson from history, it is surely the resilience and adaptability of humans in the face of adversity. A famous quotation from 1966 about economists' forecasts noted that "Wall Street indices predicted nine out of the last five recessions". 'By all means, be prudent and plan for scenarios of severe, deep and protracted economic contraction, but somebody, somewhere also needs to make a plan to take advantage of the opposite if that happens.' Read More 20.15 10/05/2020 Boris Johnson's speech on easing lockdown restrictions in full British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a televised address to the nation tonight to explain what would change and what would stay the same during the next phase of the country's coronavirus lockdown. The full text of his address is below: It is now almost two months since the people of this country began to put up with restrictions on their freedom your freedom of a kind that we have never seen before in peace or war, and you have shown the good sense to support those rules overwhelmingly. You have put up with all the hardships of that programme of social distancing, because you understand that as things stand, and as the experience of every other country has shown, its the only way to defeat the coronavirus - the most vicious threat this country has faced in my lifetime. And though the death toll has been tragic, and the suffering immense, and though we grieve for all those we have lost, it is a fact that by adopting those measures we prevented this country from being engulfed by what could have been a catastrophe in which the reasonable worst-case scenario was half-a-million fatalities. And it is thanks to your effort and sacrifice in stopping the spread of this disease that the death rate is coming down and hospital admissions are coming down. And thanks to you we have protected our NHS and saved many thousands of lives. And so I know - you know - that it would be madness now to throw away that achievement by allowing a second spike. We must stay alert. We must continue to control the virus and save lives. And yet we must also recognise that this campaign against the virus has come at colossal cost to our way of life. We can see it all around us in the shuttered shops and abandoned businesses and darkened pubs and restaurants. And there are millions of people who are both fearful of this terrible disease, and at the same time also fearful of what this long period of enforced inactivity will do to their livelihoods and their mental and physical wellbeing, to their futures and the futures of their children. So I want to provide tonight - for you - the shape of a plan to address both fears. Both to beat the virus and provide the first sketch of a road map for reopening society. A sense of the way ahead, and when and how and on what basis we will take the decisions to proceed. I will be setting out more details in Parliament tomorrow and taking questions from the public in the evening. I have consulted across the political spectrum, across all four nations of the UK, and though different parts of the country are experiencing the pandemic at different rates, and though it is right to be flexible in our response, I believe that as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, there is a strong resolve to defeat this together, and today a general consensus on what we could do. And I stress could, because although we have a plan, it is a conditional plan. And since our priority is to protect the public and save lives, we cannot move forward unless we satisfy the five tests. Visit our Covid-19 vaccine dashboard for updates on the roll out of the vaccination program and the rate of Coronavirus cases Ireland We must protect our NHS. We must see sustained falls in the death rate. We must see sustained and considerable falls in the rate of infection. We must sort out our challenges in getting enough PPE to the people who need it, and yes, it is a global problem but we must fix it. And last, we must make sure that any measures we take do not force the reproduction rate of the disease - the R - back up over one, so that we have the kind of exponential growth we were facing a few weeks ago. And to chart our progress and to avoid going back to square one, we are establishing a new Covid Alert System run by a new Joint Biosecurity Centre, and that Covid Alert Level will be determined primarily by R and the number of coronavirus cases, and in turn that Covid Alert Level will tell us how tough we have to be in our social distancing measures the lower the level the fewer the measures, the higher the level, the tougher and stricter we will have to be. There will be five alert levels. Level One means the disease is no longer present in the UK and Level Five is the most critical the kind of situation we could have had if the NHS had been overwhelmed. Over the period of the lockdown we have been in Level Four, and it is thanks to your sacrifice we are now in a position to begin to move in steps to Level Three. And as we go everyone will have a role to play in keeping the R down by staying alert and following the rules. And to keep pushing the number of infections down there are two more things we must do. We must reverse rapidly the awful epidemics in care homes and in the NHS, and though the numbers are coming down sharply now, there is plainly much more to be done. And if we are to control this virus, then we must have a world-beating system for testing potential victims, and for tracing their contacts. So that all told - we are testing literally hundreds of thousands of people every day. We have made fast progress on testing but there is so much more to do now, and we can. When this began, we hadnt seen this disease before, and we didnt fully understand its effects. With every day we are getting more and more data. We are shining the light of science on this invisible killer, and we will pick it up where it strikes, because our new system will be able in time to detect local flare-ups in your area as well as giving us a national picture. And yet when I look at where we are tonight, we have the R below one, between 0.5 and 0.9 but potentially only just below one, and though we have made progress in satisfying at least some of the conditions I have given, we have by no means fulfilled all of them. And so no, this is not the time simply to end the lockdown this week. Instead we are taking the first careful steps to modify our measures. And the first step is a change of emphasis that we hope that people will act on this week. We said that you should work from home if you can, and only go to work if you must. We now need to stress that anyone who cant work from home, for instance those in construction or manufacturing, should be actively encouraged to go to work. And we want it to be safe for you to get to work. So you should avoid public transport if at all possible because we must and will maintain social distancing, and capacity will therefore be limited. So work from home if you can, but you should go to work if you cant work from home. And to ensure you are safe at work we have been working to establish new guidance for employers to make workplaces COVID-secure. And when you do go to work, if possible do so by car or even better by walking or bicycle. But just as with workplaces, public transport operators will also be following COVID-secure standards. And from this Wednesday, we want to encourage people to take more and even unlimited amounts of outdoor exercise. You can sit in the sun in your local park, you can drive to other destinations, you can even play sports but only with members of your own household. You must obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them. And so every day, with ever increasing data, we will be monitoring the R and the number of new infections, and the progress we are making, and if we as a nation begin to fulfill the conditions I have set out, then in the next few weeks and months we may be able to go further. In step two at the earliest by June 1 after half term we believe we may be in a position to begin the phased reopening of shops and to get primary pupils back into schools, in stages, beginning with reception, Year 1 and Year 6. Our ambition is that secondary pupils facing exams next year will get at least some time with their teachers before the holidays. And we will shortly be setting out detailed guidance on how to make it work in schools and shops and on transport. And step three - at the earliest by July - and subject to all these conditions and further scientific advice; if and only if the numbers support it, we will hope to re-open at least some of the hospitality industry and other public places, provided they are safe and enforce social distancing. Throughout this period of the next two months we will be driven not by mere hope or economic necessity. We are going to be driven by the science, the data and public health. And I must stress again that all of this is conditional, it all depends on a series of big Ifs. It depends on all of us the entire country to follow the advice, to observe social distancing, and to keep that R down. And to prevent re-infection from abroad, I am serving notice that it will soon be the time with transmission significantly lower to impose quarantine on people coming into this country by air. And it is because of your efforts to get the R down and the number of infections down here, that this measure will now be effective. And of course we will be monitoring our progress locally, regionally, and nationally and if there are outbreaks, if there are problems, we will not hesitate to put on the brakes. We have been through the initial peak but it is coming down the mountain that is often more dangerous. We have a route, and we have a plan, and everyone in government has the all-consuming pressure and challenge to save lives, restore livelihoods and gradually restore the freedoms that we need. But in the end this is a plan that everyone must make work. And when I look at what you have done already, the patience and common sense you have shown, the fortitude of the elderly whose isolation we all want to end as fast as we can, the incredible bravery and hard work of our NHS staff, our care workers, the devotion and self-sacrifice of all those in every walk of life who are helping us to beat this disease, police, bus drivers, train drivers, pharmacists, supermarket workers, road hauliers, bin collectors, cleaners, security guards, postal workers, our teachers and a thousand more, the scientists who are working round the clock to find a vaccine, when I think of the millions of everyday acts of kindness and thoughtfulness that are being performed across this country and that have helped to get us through this first phase, I know that we can use this plan to get us through the next. And if we cant do it by those dates, and if the alert level wont allow it, we will simply wait and go on until we have got it right. We will come back from this devilish illness. We will come back to health, and robust health. And though the UK will be changed by this experience, I believe we can be stronger and better than ever before. More resilient, more innovative, more economically dynamic, but also more generous and more sharing. But for now we must stay alert, control the virus and save lives. Thank you very much. 19.20 10/05/2020 Coronavirus UK: British lockdown restrictions on work and exercise to start easing this week - Johnson Expand Close Screen grab of Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressing the nation about coronavirus (COVID-19) from 10 Downing Street in London. PA Photo. Picture date: Sunday May 10, 2020. See PA story HEALTH Coronavirus. Photo credit should read: PA Video/Downing Street Pool/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Screen grab of Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressing the nation about coronavirus (COVID-19) from 10 Downing Street in London. PA Photo. Picture date: Sunday May 10, 2020. See PA story HEALTH Coronavirus. Photo credit should read: PA Video/Downing Street Pool/PA Wire British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the coronavirus lockdown will not end yet, urging people to "stay alert" to the risks as he outlined plans to begin slowly easing measures that have closed down much of the economy for nearly seven weeks. While his government was giving directions for England, it wants the United Kingdom's other constituent nations - Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland - to take the same approach. But there were immediate divisions, with Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon saying she was sticking with the existing "stay at home" message. Johnson tonight announced a limited easing of restrictions, including allowing people to exercise outside more often and encouraging those who cannot work from home to return to their jobs. "This is not the time simply to end the lockdown this week," he said in a televised address. "Instead we are taking the first careful steps to modify our measures." Read More 18.10 10/05/2020 Sun, sea and sand: Travel industry preparing for a bonanza fire-sale this autumn Expand Close BACK IN BUSINESS: Flights to the Canary Islands including Lanzarote are set to resume as early as July. (Photo by: Mikel Bilbao/VW PICS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp BACK IN BUSINESS: Flights to the Canary Islands including Lanzarote are set to resume as early as July. (Photo by: Mikel Bilbao/VW PICS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Sun, sea, sand and sangria seem further away than ever and a seismic shift paralleled only by the aftermath of 9/11 will change our foreign holidays long after Covid-19 restrictions are eased. Yet the industry is preparing for a bonanza fire-sale this autumn to win back consumer confidence. It is predicted we will see flight prices tumble as airlines fight for survival. Some operators will eventually drop off the grid, falling victim to financial woes brought on by the crisis. After this, industry experts predict the cost of a foreign holiday will increase again after a coronavirus vaccine is found and airlines look to recoup losses. Until that vaccine comes on-stream, foreign holidays are likely to be a very different experience. How we board, disembark and travel on aircraft will have to be adjusted to protect passengers. Since the Covid-19 crisis erupted, holiday bookings have slowed to a trickle. Sunway Holidays said it is seeing just "one or two" new bookings every day - mostly for winter holidays or Christmas trips to Lapland. Bookings with Click & Go are 98pc down on where they were expected to be before Covid-19 halted travel. But tour operators, airlines and airports are getting ready for when restrictions are eased. Read More 17.45 10/05/2020 High-risk route to recovery if future leaders don't err on side of caution The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC) was set up after the financial crisis to advise the Government on how to avoid the sort of policy decisions that led to the collapse of the State's banking system in 2008 and the bailout two years later. As the economy roared back from recession and took off like a rocket, as Michael Noonan once predicted it would, in the 2010s the Fine Gael-led government politely ignored the IFAC's warnings to avoid expansionary budgets and ramped up spending on things like pensions and cutting taxes. Only in the last budget was a more cautionary approach taken, with tax cuts shelved in the face of a hard Brexit. The Covid-19 pandemic is now dealing a serious blow to the economy (which may yet be compounded by a no-trade deal Brexit). Yet Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Greens are promising major investment in health, housing, transport and climate action while not increasing taxes or cutting welfare. The IFAC is once more sounding the alarm bells. Its chairman, Sebastian Barnes, who was appointed earlier this year, told the Sunday Independent: "I think it is risky to make these commitments without knowing what the whole picture is going to look like and it may complicate the hard fiscal choices that need to be made in the coming years." Read More 17.03 10/05/2020 Another 12 people have died of coronavirus and 236 more cases confirmed 12 more people have died of coronavirus in Ireland, the National Public Health Emergency Team confirmed this evening. There have now been a total 1,458 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland. As of 11am this morning, another 236 people had tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 22,996. 17.00 10/05/2020 Dr Ciara Kelly: 'Generation X - we've lived this lockdown life before' Expand Close Back in the game: Dr Ciara Kelly at home after beating the virus. Photo: Owen Breslin / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Back in the game: Dr Ciara Kelly at home after beating the virus. Photo: Owen Breslin "We learnt to live with crippling boredom from our earliest memories. Unemployment. Being broke. Going nowhere. These are part of our DNA. "So I say to you, Generation X, this is our time. This is what we have trained for. Less frail than Baby Boomers. More boring and resilient than Millennials. "We've got this. We know lockdown life. We've lived it before. This is a second youth for us." Read More 16.35 10/05/2020 Nobel scientist predicts virus will 'burn out' in next two weeks Expand Close Prof Michael Levitt says the numbers suggest the virus will burn out / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Prof Michael Levitt says the numbers suggest the virus will burn out A Nobel Prize- winning scientist has predicted, through analysing raw data, that Ireland's death rate and infection will "burn itself out" in the next two weeks, enabling an earlier exit from lockdown. Professor Michael Levitt, of Stanford University, was speaking after he correctly calculated the demise of China's spread, long ahead of most health experts. In early February, as many scientists warned of exponential growth, Levitt forecast the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in China would taper out at around 80,000, with 3,250 deaths. Three months on, China has a total of 82,885 cases and 4,633 deaths - in a population of 1.4bn. Now Prof Levitt has calculated that Ireland's infection is burning itself out and will 'taper off' at around 30,000 cases and fewer than 2,400 deaths. Ireland now has 22,385 cases and 1,403 deaths. He says the death rate is more difficult to predict, due to a number of factors, such as some countries counting coronavirus deaths in those who would normally have died from underlying health conditions. Read More 15.35 10/05/2020 HSE calls on the poetry of President Michael D Higgins to inspire nation to persevere with physical distancing Expand Close President Michael D Higgins (Danny Lawson/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp President Michael D Higgins (Danny Lawson/PA) The HSE is calling on the words of a poem by President Michael D Higgins to inspire people to keep going with physical distancing and other safety measures to combat the coronavirus. It is running a new campaign called Hold Firm, based on a poem penned by the President in 1993. The poem Take Care is part of a 60 second TV ad . The message is: Now we need to motivate and inspire people to keep going with those actions that help us to stay safe and protect each other. Staying away from the people we love and the things we enjoy is not easy. Its not us. But, this is us taking care of each other, supporting our colleagues on the frontline and essential services, and the people most at risk in communities all across the country. The poem Take Care reads: In the journey to the light, the dark moments should not threaten. Belief requires that you hold steady. Bend, if you will, with the wind. The tree is your teacher, roots at once more firm from experience in the soil made fragile. Your gentle dew will come and a stirring of power to go on towards the space of sharing. In the misery of the I, in rage, it is easy to cry out against all others but to weaken is to die in the misery of knowing the journey abandoned towards the sharing of all human hope and cries is the loss of all we know of the divine reclaimed for our shared humanity. Hold firm. Take care. Come home together. Madagascar puts COVID-19 'cure' on sale Several African countries have put in orders for 'COVID-19 Organics' - a plant-based remedy championed by President Andry Rajoelina - despite WHO warnings that it is not yet proven Madagascar is putting its self-proclaimed COVID-19 cure on sale despite warnings from the World Health Organization that the plant-based remedy is not proven. Several African countries have already put in orders for the tonic, which President Andry Rajoelina launched last month saying it had cured two people. On Friday, a delegation from Tanzania arrived to collect their consignment with foreign minister Palamagamba Kabudi saying Madagascar had made Africans proud. Read More Claims nurse contracted coronavirus in Dublin hospital after she was refused permission to wear face mask Expand Close Physician works with critically ill patient in hospital. Stock picture / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Physician works with critically ill patient in hospital. Stock picture The Philippine honorary consul to Ireland has disclosed a Filipino nurse contracted the coronavirus in a Dublin hospital after she was refused permission to wear a face mask. Raymond Garrett said that nurse infected her roommate who worked in a Dublin nursing home and a third nurse who lived with them was put at risk. In her case, the promise of hotel accommodation for health workers unable to self-isolate in their homes did not materialise. The consul said he wanted to raise his concerns with the hospital but he did not do so because the nurse was fearful of coming forward. The nurse had been in Ireland three months, working in a large Dublin hospital, when the first coronavirus outbreak occurred. She became infected with the virus at the end of March. Read More 14.28 10/05/2020 China and South Korea report spikes in cases as experts worldwide watch to see how much infection rates rise in second wave Expand Close People wear face masks in Beijing (Mark Schiefelbein/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp People wear face masks in Beijing (Mark Schiefelbein/AP) China and South Korea reported new spikes in coronavirus cases, setting off fresh concerns in countries where outbreaks had been in dramatic decline, and new protests against pandemic restrictions erupted in Germany despite the easing of many lockdowns in Europe. In the United States, former President Barack Obama harshly criticised his successor Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic as an "absolute chaotic disaster". The United States has seen 1.3 million infections and nearly 80,000 deaths in the pandemic, the most in the world by far, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, health officials are anxiously watching to see just how much infection rates rise in a second wave as nations and states emerge from varying degrees of lockdown. China reported 14 new cases on Sunday, its first double-digit rise in 10 days. Eleven of 12 domestic infections were in the northeastern province of Jilin, which prompted authorities to raise the threat level in one of its counties, Shulan, to high risk, just days after downgrading all regions to low risk. Authorities said the Shulan outbreak originated with a 45-year-old woman who had no recent travel or exposure history but spread it to her husband, her three sisters and other family members. Train services in the county were being suspended. "Epidemic control and prevention is a serious and complicated matter, and local authorities should never be overly optimistic, war-weary or off-guard," said the Jilin Communist Party secretary, Bayin Chaolu. Jilin also shares a border with North Korea, which insists it has no virus cases, much to the disbelief of international health authorities. South Korea reported 34 more cases as new infections linked to nightclub-goers threatens the country's hard-won gains against the virus. It was the first time that South Korea's daily infections were above 30 in about a month. President Moon Jae-in said citizens must neither panic nor let down their guard, but warned that "the damage to our economy is indeed colossal as well". Across Europe, many nations were easing lockdowns even further on Monday even as they prepared to clamp down on any new infections. Germany, which managed to push daily new infections below 1,000 before deciding to loosen restrictions, has seen regional spikes in cases linked to slaughterhouses and nursing homes. By Saturday, the country's public health authority said new infections were above 1,000 again. German officials have expressed concerns about the growing number of large demonstrations, including one in the southwestern city of Stuttgart that drew thousands of participants. Police in Berlin stepped in on Saturday after hundreds of people failed to respect social distancing measures at anti-lockdown rallies in the German capital. Chancellor Angela Merkel and the governors of Germany's 16 states last week cleared the way for restaurants, hotels and remaining stores to reopen. The country's football league resumes next week, despite a number of professional players testing positive for Covid-19, and more students are returning to school beginning on Monday. France, which has a similar number of infections as Germany but a far higher death toll, is also letting some younger students return to school Monday after almost two months out. Attendance will not be compulsory right away, leaving parents to make the difficult decision of whether it is safe to send their children back to school or not. Residents in some Spanish regions will be able to enjoy limited seating at bars, restaurants and other public places beginning on Monday but Madrid and Barcelona, the country's largest cities, will remain shut down. Mandatory quarantine for UK arrivals 'makes sense' to hold back a second surge A 14-day quarantine for travellers coming into the UK should have been brought in long ago, but could help the country now as it faces a "knife-edge balancing act" coming out of lockdown, an expert said. The Government will reportedly enforce the mandatory quarantine for all UK arrivals within weeks as part of measures aimed at avoiding a second peak of the coronavirus pandemic. It is thought the measure will be announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as part of his address to the nation on Sunday evening. Dr Peter Drobac, a medical doctor specialising in infectious diseases and an academic at the University of Oxford, said there is merit to the idea, but said it will require a lot of planning and infrastructure at a "really fragile" stage. Crisis in our nursing homes: It's time to ask the hard questions Expand Close Stock photo / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Stock photo Now that the spread of the coronavirus has been contained, questions mount about the preparedness of the country for a crisis that has claimed more than 1,400 lives and infected 22,500. Shock has given way to a questioning of what just happened. Paul Bell, the Louth county councillor and organiser for Siptu, has identified at a "developing anger" amongst frontline workers. The 42,000 health workers represented by the union in care homes, hospitals and other health care settings are "beginning to catch their breath", he says. "There is a high degree of concern and developing anger about what happened in nursing homes and residential settings, and the fatalities," he said. "And a lot of our members are asking the question: why 6,700 health workers tested Covid-19 positive and why have five of us died?" Read More 13.15 10/05/2020 Coronavirus Ireland: five healthcare staff have passed away from illness and over 3,000 are currently on Covid-related leave Expand Close HSE chief operations officer Anne OConnor (Photocall Ireland) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp HSE chief operations officer Anne OConnor (Photocall Ireland) Five healthcare staff have passed away from the coronavirus while over a further 3,000 are on Covid-19 related leave. Healthcare staff remain a priority group for testing and may be tested several times as the HSEs testing strategies evolve. It remains five as reported at the daily press conference in the evening, so yes, sadly five healthcare workers in total have passed away from Covid-19, said Dr Colm Henry at the weekly HSE Covid-19 briefing this afternoon. He said that testing remains a concern for healthcare workers. 12.26 10/05/2020 HSE predicts cost of PPE will be 1 billion in one year 11.01 10/05/2020 Weekly HSE briefing from the Mater Hospital in Dublin, which has been "at the forefront" of the pandemic HSE CEO Paul Reid: there is "uncertainty" if a second wave will take place as restrictions are lifted as restrictions are lifted, hospitals cannot be maxed out, vulnerable groups must be supported and the cost of investing in PPE and contact tracing is one "we have to face" numbers in ICU continue to trend down, confirmed cases also has been reducing.They are down 55pc compared to the peak. Bed occupancy has increased in hospitals as non-Covid patients are treated non-Covid services are now being resumed, but this "won't be easy". Three priorities - maintain focus on Covid patients by capacity levels kept at 80pc to allow for surges, protect healthcare workers through international advice and utilise the capacity in public and private hospitals Cancer services will be prioritised as well as time dependent surgeries campaigns and radio adverts will kick off next week encouraging people who have symptoms to seek help "on schedule" to deliver 100,000 tests a week from May 18 120 staff actively involved in contact tracing with routine cases PPE: 3m items of PPE were distributed over the last week. Demand for 200,000 masks per day has now risen to 1.2m - 120m masks will be delivered from South Korea "very unpredictable road" still ahead HSE COO Anne O'Connor: 1.8pc increase on ED attendances, but still over 20pc down compared to this time last year 27 waiting on trolleys, 310 people who were delayed in hospital discharges due to Covid outbreaks in residential care settings 72 people in ICU last night 47 community testing sites in place with 30 open 242 requests this week were made for staff accommodation; with 3,010 staff absent on Covid-related leave Dr Colm Henry 70pc of the total number of cases have recovered in a community setting Q+A contact tracing app will be on a bluechip basis and will compliment current contact tracing process those who will have the app downloaded and have been in close contact with a confirmed case will receive a push notification the app is set to come into place at the end of May; it is voluntary, anonymous and users must be over 16 Citywest is the only self-isolation facility open at the moment all staff at nursing homes have been tested "full support" has been provided from the government for contact tracing costs greater levels of asymptomatic cases in incidents with large outbreaks automated way of contacting people being put in place to assist contact tracing shortage of N25 masks for healthcare workers worldwide 281 consultants have signed up for contact tracing future testing to include testing healthcare workers and not just on outbreaks. Five healthcare workers in total have passed away from the virus 60 flights came in last week with 12m PPE items. "Flush supply" of PPE to be stockpiled is not available and are distributed as they come in One third of elderly people have atypical symptoms 13pc of PPE delivered last week went to home care as it has become a bigger concern less than ten cases confirmed in Irish prisons which is remarkably low 10.46 10/05/2020 Coronavirus cases reach four million worldwide Coronavirus has infected more than 4 million people and killed over 279,000, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. A total of over 277,000 have died worldwide while more than 1.3 million have recovered from the virus. South Koreas president urges calm amid concerns over new coronavirus surge Expand Close South Korean President Moon Jae-in (Kim Min-Hee/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp South Korean President Moon Jae-in (Kim Min-Hee/AP) South Koreas president is urging citizens not to let their guard down, but said there is no reason to panic amid fears of a new surge in the coronavirus outbreak in the country. President Moon Jae-in made the comments in a speech on Sunday as his health authorities detected a slew of new cases linked to nightclubs in Seouls Itaewon district in recent days. Officials on Friday said they detected at least 15 infections linked to a 29-year-old man who had visited three Itaewon clubs before testing positive on Wednesday. Earlier, South Koreas caseload had been waning for weeks, prompting authorities to relax their social distancing rules. The infection cluster which recently occurred in entertainment facilities has raised awareness that, even during the stabilisation phase, similar situations can arise again anytime, anywhere in an enclosed, crowded space, President Moon Jae-in said. Read More Pandemic brings outbreaks of bullying and ostracism in Japan Expand Close A woman wearing a face mask cleans the menus of a restaurant in Tokyo (Eugene Hoshiko/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A woman wearing a face mask cleans the menus of a restaurant in Tokyo (Eugene Hoshiko/AP) The coronavirus in Japan has brought not just an epidemic of infections, but also an onslaught of bullying and discrimination against the sick, their families and health workers. A government campaign to raise awareness seems to be helping, at least for medical workers. But it has made only limited headway in countering the harassment and shunning that may be discouraging people from seeking testing and care and hindering the battle against the pandemic. Apart from fear of infection, experts say the prejudice against those even indirectly associated with the illness also stems from deeply rooted ideas about purity and cleanliness in a culture that rejects anything deemed to be alien, unclean or troublesome. Read More 09.26 10/05/2020 ASTI confirms it will engage with the calculated grades process for Leaving Cert Expand Close Issues: ASTI president Deirdre McDonald / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Issues: ASTI president Deirdre McDonald Education Editor Katherine Donnelly reports The secondary teachers union, ASTI, has confirmed it will engage with the calculated grades process for the Leaving Cert, but says students should receive the full marks for the cancelled oral and practical exams. The issue of the 100pc for orals and practicals is among a number of major concerns that the union says it wants to address as matter of urgency. The ASTI delivered its verdict on the calculated grades process after a meeting of its Standing Committee which went on for about 12 hours, over two evenings. Previously, the other second-level teachers union, TUI, announced that it would support the calculated grades system, but said it was seeking clarification on a number of issues. Read More 09.02 10/05/2020 Three members of White House coronavirus task force enter quarantine Expand Close White House coronavirus response co-ordinator Dr Deborah Birx listens as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr Anthony Fauci speaks during a coronavirus response meeting (Evan Vucci/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp White House coronavirus response co-ordinator Dr Deborah Birx listens as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr Anthony Fauci speaks during a coronavirus response meeting (Evan Vucci/AP) Three members of the White House coronavirus task force, including Dr Anthony Fauci, have placed themselves in quarantine after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19. Dr Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a leading member of the task force, has become nationally known for his simple and direct explanations to the public about the coronavirus. Dr Faucis institute said that he has tested negative for Covid-19 and will continue to be tested regularly. It added that he is considered at relatively low risk based on the degree of his exposure, and that he would be taking appropriate precautions to mitigate the risk to personal contacts while still carrying out his duties. Read More WATCH: Businesses that do not comply with Covid-19 safety measures will be shut down Business Minister Heather Humphreys said inspectors from the Health and Safety Authority will be able to shut down workplaces that do not comply. She was speaking at the launch of the Governments Return to Work safety protocol for workplaces to reopen once the lockdown lifts. They include regulations for social distancing, hand hygiene, first aid and mental health support for returning workers. 08.10 10/05/2020 'Covid has cost me millions but I can't complain' Expand Close TRANQUILITY: John McColgan and wife Moya are staying in their cottage overlooking the Baily Lighthouse in Howth. Photo: Gerry Mooney / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp TRANQUILITY: John McColgan and wife Moya are staying in their cottage overlooking the Baily Lighthouse in Howth. Photo: Gerry Mooney The Aer Lingus flight out of JFK at 9pm on March 13 to Dublin wasn't a happy one for John McColgan. On the journey home he was consumed with "how best to work our way out of this", he says. The previous day hadn't started too badly, despite the number of Covid-19 cases in New York rising all the time. He had had lunch in Manhattan with his friend, the actor Gabriel Byrne. That evening John went as usual to Radio City Music Hall on Sixth Avenue to oversee Riverdance - the global phenomenon he created with his wife Moya Doherty and Bill Whelan 25 years ago. During that night's show the great impresario received the bad news from the promoter Jim Glancey. It would be the last performance of Riverdance for the foreseeable future. Read More Top official casts doubt over plans to reopen schools Expand Close Sean O Foghlu said report was a working document. Photo: Tom Burke / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sean O Foghlu said report was a working document. Photo: Tom Burke The Department of Education's most senior official has raised major doubts about schools being able to reopen in September, the Sunday Independent can reveal. Secretary general Sean O Foghlu told Opposition TDs during a teleconference on Friday that there would be significant accommodation challenges presented by having to operate smaller class sizes to comply with public health guidelines in schools. Three people on the call said Mr O Foghlu was not optimistic about reopening schools in September as planned under the Government's roadmap. One suggested that his remarks raised the prospect of installing prefabs in schools across the country in order to ensure socially distanced classrooms. The department said decisions on reopening schools would be underpinned by public health advice, the return-to-work protocol published yesterday and other countries' experiences. Read More Reality bites: Watchdog warns on tax hikes and pension age as recession kicks in Expand Close Business Minister Heather Humphreys (Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Business Minister Heather Humphreys (Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland/PA) he next government will have to consider tax hikes and spending cuts to deliver an economic recovery, the State's budget watchdog has warned. With unemployment close to 30pc and the cost of the State's emergency measures now at over 13bn and rising, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Greens are this weekend being told to reconsider the "very risky" proposal to keep the pension age at 66, as well as look at increases in property and inheritance taxes in programme for government talks. The dire warnings came from the chair of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, Sebastian Barnes, who said the State is now facing the "most dramatic" recession in its history. His comments came as it emerged yesterday that the Department of Education's most senior official has raised major doubts about being able to reopen schools in September. JERSEY CITY A 33-year-old man said he was held up at gunpoint at his West Side Avenue store Friday night. Mina Yousef, a worker at Saint Marks Pizzeria and Deli, told The Jersey Journal Sunday morning that a man pointed the gun to his side as he was forced to hand the man all the cash in the stores register. Yousef said the man left with almost $3,000 in cash. It was just crazy, Yousef said. Yousef was the only person working in the 420 West Side Ave. store Friday night. He said the man walked in at 7:57 p.m. and walked to the back of the store where he was. I thought he was going to shoot me, Yousef said. The worker said the man went into boxes under the shelves as he repeated, Im not playing. I will shoot you. The man then put the gun to Yousefs side and made him open the register and hand over the cash, including lottery money, Yousef said. Yousef added that the man demanded the worker to go to the back of the store while pointing the gun to his head, threatening to shoot. He said he did so and the man ran outside towards Ege Avenue. Yousef said the incident was caught on surveillance. Information from the Jersey City Police Department was not immediately available. Washington: The Trump administration is tightening visa guidelines for Chinese journalists in response to the treatment of US journalists in China, as tensions flare between the two nations over the coronavirus. The Department of Homeland Security has issued new regulations, set to take effect Monday, that will limit visas for Chinese reporters to 90 days. There is a potential to extend the visa. Those visas previously didn't have to be extended unless the employee switched companies, and they were considered open-ended. The regulations don't apply to journalists from Hong Kong or Macau, two territories considered semiautonomous, according to the regulations published Friday in the Federal Register. The agency noted what it called China's suppression of independent journalism , " including an increasing lack of transparency." It was the latest strike in a tit-for-tat over media rights between the countries. In March, China said it would revoke credentials of all American journalists at three major US news organisations, in effect expelling them from the country, in response to US restrictions on Chinese state-controlled media. Tensions between the two nations have only increased in recent months as leaders trade barbs over handling of the pandemic that has crippled economies worldwide and killed more than 275,000 people, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. President Donald Trump has said the Chinese government's response was slow and inadequate. His administration has lashed out at its geopolitical foe and critical US trade partner, pushing beyond the bounds of established evidence. Trump and allies repeat and express confidence in an unsubstantiated theory linking the origin of the outbreak to a possible accident at a Chinese virology laboratory. US officials say they are still exploring the subject and describe the evidence as purely circumstantial. But Trump, aides say, has embraced the notion to further highlight China's lack of transparency. US officials also believe China covered up the extent of the coronavirus outbreak and how contagious the disease is ? to stock up on medical supplies needed to respond to it, according to US intelligence documents. China strongly rejects the US version of events. China's official Global Times newspaper has said leaders were making groundless accusations against Beijing by suggesting the coronavirus was released from a Chinese laboratory. The populist tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily said the claims were a politically motivated attempt to preserve Trump's presidency and divert attention from the US administration's own failures in dealing with the outbreak. While the virus is believed to have originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, most scientists say it was most likely transmitted from bats to humans via an intermediary animal such as the armadillo-like pangolin. That has placed the focus on a wet market in the city where wildlife was sold for food. Although many care insurance companies are offering relief to help their costumers overcome the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, many drivers are not pleased and are considering to switch their insurers, said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. Compare-autoinsurance.org has launched a new blog post that presents the reasons why drivers are switching their insurers even if the companies are offering relief. For more info and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/how-the-coronavirus-related-car-insurance-discounts-and-refunds-are-making-people-to-switch-providers/ With most states under stay-at-home orders from governors, traffic is down almost everywhere, and that means lower crash rates and fewer insurance claims. For these reasons, car insurance companies are cutting their insurance premiums, sending checks, or they are offering credits on monthly bills. A recent study done by market research company J.D. Power shows that insurance providers need to figure out fast how to deal with the current situation caused by the pandemic. Although many insurers have offered refunds and discounts to their customers, that hasnt made many people love their providers. "Auto insurance satisfaction levels continue to decline," according to J.D. Power. Since March 24, J.D. Power has conducted weekly pulse surveys and collected more than 4,000 responses in total. Their study has highlighted the following trends in the car insurance industry: Premiums reliefs actions werent big enough to make a difference. Only 37% of consumers are aware of their carriers announced premium relief as of April 14. 57% of the aware population believes that the actions taken by the insurers are enough to relieve financial pressure, while 46% of the aware believe that the action taken by insurers will arrive in time to make a difference. Among unaware consumers of their carriers announcements, a majority indicate that any relief is not likely to arrive in time to make a difference. Also, consumers who are aware will still seek further premium relief, even if they believe recent actions would ease the financial pressure. A surge in shopping/switching is likely to happen in the near-term. Peoples' satisfaction with and perceptions of auto insurance companies are dropping, which is what drives them to find better deals elsewhere. Customers that expect to be contacted, but arent, are almost twice as likely to switch carriers. In the absence of carrier-provided options, consumers appear increasingly likely to resort to shopping, switching, or cancellation. Given the ease of online shopping, those carriers that are less able to help their customers find solutions may encounter retention challenges on certain customer profiles. Only 42% of the asked consumers said they wont be taking any actions to manage their insurance costs. Telematic devices are likely to become more important as consumers see new benefits. 40% of auto insurance customers say they are more willing to consider usage-based insurance. This figure is nearly three times higher than it was before the pandemic started. The majority of drivers expect their average number of miles driven to remain lower post-COVID-19, while 38% are expecting driving behaviors to return to normal. Those consumers that see reduced vehicle utilization to continue into the medium-term, are especially interested in UBI programs. Non-standard insurance markets are likely to be impacted. Non-standard companies could be especially impacted over the next several weeks as their customers become aware. Non-standard markets may have to deal with switchers that see cancellation as an alternative to not finding an acceptable rate. More than 50% of consumers who are seeking payment relief have lower credit score quality. For additional info, money-saving tips and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/ Compare-autoinsurance.org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. U.S. Vice President Pence's spokesperson contracts coronavirus People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 08:40, May 09, 2020 WASHINGTON, May 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's spokesperson, Katie Miller, tested positive for the coronavirus, President Donald Trump confirmed Friday. Calling the person in question a "press person," Trump said during a meeting with congressional Republicans that "Katie, she tested very good for a long period of time and then all of a sudden today she tested positive." "She hasn't come into contact with me," Trump said, referring to Miller, wife of his senior adviser and speechwriter, Stephen Miller. "She's spent some time with the vice president." The president said Pence knew about Miller's infection and "has done what he has to do." White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said during Friday's briefing that a member of Pence's staff had been infected with the virus, without identifying who exactly the person was. The diagnosis of Miller, 25, delayed Pence's flight in the morning to Des Moines, Iowa, as six staffers disembarked the plane due to close contact with her, according to U.S. media reports. Two journalists were also summoned to the White House for a rapid test. A senior administration official reportedly informed the media on Air Force Two, before Miller's identity was revealed, that "the vice president and the president have not had contact with this person recently." Miller's positive test came just one day after she tested negative. Trump and Pence also tested negative for the virus Thursday, following the confirmation that a personal valet to Trump tested positive. Miller's infection with the coronavirus raised fresh concerns about possible transmission of the contagion among senior administration officials. Trump, however, said he was not worried, adding that "strong precautions" had been taken in the White House. Miller is the second staffer in Pence's office to test positive for the virus after an aide's positive test in March. McEnany said at the press briefing Friday that measures are in effect to keep the virus from spreading among staff. "We have put in place the guidelines that our experts have put forward to keep this building safe, which means contact tracing - all of the recommended guidelines we have for businesses that have essential workers we are now putting in place here in the White House," she said. Trump told reporters Thursday that he would be tested for the coronavirus daily. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Liquor does not always spell chaos, as is the popular perception. Images from Goa, after liquor shops were allowed to open in lockdown 3.0, show buyers lazily shopping and taking off. No long lines, no police lathi-charge.That was not the picture in Delhi, Mumbai or Tamil Nadu. When liquor sales resumed in Mumbai on May 4, there was a stampede outside shops. There was no physical distancing. Just jostling crowds trying to get to the booze. Mumbai sold 16 lakh liters of liquor worth Rs 62 crore in one day. By evening, the Municipal Commissioner had reversed the permission for liquor shops to do business. The Delhi administration, unlike Mumbai, decided to ride out the chaos, and in fact, used it as an opportunity to impose a 70 per cent corona virus tax on MRP. Karnataka, which did a record-breaking sales of Rs197 crore on Day 2, is following the Delhi example and will impose a 10-15 per cent corona charge on tipplers. No Corona Link These sales figures clearly indicate that consumption of alcohol is a popular habit across classes. One is risking social chaos if the natural propensities of people are bottled up. Without getting into ethical issues, what pray is the connection of fighting corona virus with banning the sale of liquor? Liquor has no relation to the spread of the pandemic, as Punjab Chief Minister, Captain Amrinder Singh passionately points out. The virus thrives in and is spread by the mucous of infected persons. On the other hand, liquor may not be an essential commodity like rice and dal; but for many, it is equivalent to, say, the use of soaps and cosmetics that we have got used to. Supporters of the temperance movement point out that the buying and consumption of liquor creates crowding and thus the conditions for the social spread of the infection. This would never be the case if liquor is sold like medicine at pharmacies fixed timings, social distancing; and consumption at home. Home delivery via an Amazon or the neighbourhood delivery boy is also an option. Come to think of it, the corona ban on liquor is a heartless policy. We are bottling up people at home; and adding insult to injury by denying them the one thing that makes the evenings pass away easier. Bad Business Sense There is the business side of it too. Laments Captain Amrinder Singh: When our share of state GST has not been paid by the Centre, what right has the Union government to deny us this source of revenue. State excise, the duty imposed on liquor sales, is a large portion of the states revenues. Maharashtra, for instance, raked in Rs 24,000 crore for the last financial year. By that count, the state has already lost Rs 3,000 crore over the last 45 days of lockdown. Tamil Nadu similarly collected Rs 30,000 crore in taxes on liquor last fiscal, and has lost nearly Rs 3,500 crore over the lockdown so far. It is no wonder that states are pushing for the opening up of liquor sales. The RBI estimates that excise duty on alcohol accounts for around 10-15 per cent of the states Own-Tax revenue; and as a revenue head it is either the second or the third highest contributor to states incomes after Goods and Services Tax. This brings us to the last leg of the proposition. Consumption of liquor in reasonable proportions is recognised in most developed societies as normal social activity. Historically, it has been around since the advent of Man. However, from time to time, conservative civil society has tried to stamp out drinking, declaring it as an evil practice that destroys families. In recent times, prohibitionists in the US launched a huge Dry Crusade and succeeded in getting Congress to ban liquor in 1920 via an amendment to the US Constitution. What arose in the years of prohibition was illegal distillation, criminal gangs and a huge loss of revenue, ultimately leading to a repeal of Prohibition in 1933. The failure of Prohibition everywhere hasnt prevented us from giving it a shot ourselves in Gujarat, in Nagaland and now Bihar. The results are well known. Prohibition remains in name alone. While the well-heeled have the privilege of ordering home deliveries of the brands they desire, the poorer classes ingest illegally brewed hooch that, over the years, has killed and maimed thousands. Prohibition is dead but its ghost lingers on. Socially, the stigma around liquor is crudely propagated, while state governments continue to make a show of devising some controls on consumption and distribution. The time has come to de-criminalise liquor as the state of Goa has done successfully. Considering that 50 per cent or more of the price of every bottle finds its way to the coffers of state governments, it is preposterous that tipplers are treated with such scant respect. The district administration here on Sunday asked Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh governments to look into complaints made by migrant workers that they had to pay train fare to return their home in Uttar Pradesh. Over 1,140 migrant labourers from West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh reached Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh on a special train in the morning and some of them complained that they had to shell out Rs 1,000 to board the train. On Saturday, labourers returning from Rajkot in Gujarat had also claimed that they were charged Rs 725 train fare. Sub Divisional Magistrate Sarvesh Kumar Yadav said, "Authorities here have informed the Gujarat administration and Andhra Pradesh government in this regard through a letter and on phone. Along with this, it has been requested to initiate action against Gujarat Police and Government Railway Police." Of the total 1,145 migrants who returned from West Godavari, 270 are from Ballia, while rest are from Deoria, Kushinagar, Maharajganj, Ghazipur and Mau, he said. "The migrant labourers were medically screened on their arrival and provided water and food packets. They then boarded 55 buses and left for their respective destinations," the SDM said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A six-alarm fire broke out Saturday night in a residential section of Paterson that required help from other fire departments, the citys public safety director confirmed. Firefighters were battling the flames at the 80 block of Beech Street, said Paterson Public Safety Director Jerry Speziale. Mutual aid from nearby fire departments, including Hawthorne and Haledon, responded to the scene to help combat the blaze. Six houses were involved and no injuries were immediately reported Saturday night, Speziale said. The American Red Cross was notified to assist displaced residents, he added. Additional information was not immediately available. Tower 2 is currently operating on scene of a 6 alarm fire in at least 6 buildings in Paterson. Posted by Hawthorne Fire Co#2 on Saturday, May 9, 2020 Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com. US blocks vote on UN bid for global ceasefire over reference to WHO Iran Press TV Saturday, 09 May 2020 9:29 AM The United States has blocked a vote on a United Nation's bid for a global ceasefire during the coronavirus pandemic over reference to the World Health Organization (WHO). The Security Council has spent more than six weeks seeking the resolution in support of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' call for a global ceasefire so that the world could focus on fighting the deadly virus. The United States has refused to endorse the resolution over its mentioning of the WHO and urging support for the UN health agency's operations during the pandemic. On Thursday night, the French diplomats thought they had engineered a compromise in which the resolution would mention UN "specialized health agencies" --an indirect, if clear, reference to the WHO -- which appeared to have the support of the US mission. But on Friday morning, the US switched its position and "broke silence" on the resolution, raising objection to the phrase "specialist health agencies", and blocking movement towards a vote. "We understood that there was an agreement on this thing but it seems that they changed their mind," a western Security Council diplomat said. "Obviously they have changed their mind within the American system so that wording is still not good enough for them," another diplomat close to the discussions said. "It might be that they just need a bit more time to settle it amongst themselves, or it might be that someone very high up has made a decision they don't want it, and therefore it won't happen. It is unclear at this moment, which one it is." The new coronavirus, which causes a respiratory disease known as COVID-19, emerged in the city of Wuhan in December last year, incrementally affecting the rest of the world. US President Donald Trump has claimed the WHO had failed to disclose or respond to "credible" information in December that suggested the virus could be spread through human-to-human transmission. Trump has accused the WHO of siding with China and reliance on Chinese data, blaming it for "all sorts of false information about transmission and mortality" that was circulated amid initial reports. "In our view, the council should either proceed with a resolution limited to support for a ceasefire, or a broadened resolution that fully addresses the need for renewed member state commitment to transparency and accountability in the context of Covid-19. Transparency and reliable data are essential to helping the world combat this ongoing pandemic, and the next one," a spokesperson for the US mission at the UN said. Trump has described the coronavirus pandemic as the worst attack ever on his country while pointing the finger at China, saying the outbreak has hit the United States harder than the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor during WW ll or the 9/11 attacks two decades ago, which led the country to wage two deadly wars against Iraq and Afghanistan. China believes that the US president is trying to divert attention from his poor handling of the coronavirus outbreak in his country in order to back up his presidential bid. Trump claimed last week that he had seen evidence linking the virus to a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan and threatened new trade tariffs on China. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said there is "enormous evidence" backing the coronavirus-leak scenario. China has strongly denied suggestions the lab was the source. The World Health Organization, senior US scientists and even the US intelligence community have rejected the claim despite pressure from the White House. Meanwhile, Germany's Defense Ministry and the country's foreign intelligence agency, the BND, have privately cast doubt on American claims that the coronavirus pandemic originated in a Chinese lab. On Friday, Der Spiegel reported that an internal memo prepared for defense minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer "classifies the American claims as a calculated attempt to distract" from Washington's own failings. Trump is attempting "to distract from his own mistakes and direct Americans' anger at China," Spiegel cited from the document. Public broadcaster NDR has also cast doubt on the existence of a reported joint paper from the "Five Eyes" intelligence alliance of Britain, the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand that allegedly accuses China of playing down the extent of the virus outbreak. BND chiefs told MPs in a confidential Berlin parliamentary committee hearing that its "Five Eyes" partners claimed to have "no knowledge" of such a report, NDR wrote. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's office, responsible for oversight of the BND, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The US president, who is seeking re-election in November, has ramped up his anti-China rhetoric in recent weeks. This comes as his attempts to reopen his country's crisis-ridden economy faces opposition from health officials and many state governors while the coronavirus fatalities in the US continue to soar. US Democrats have criticized Trump since the epidemic erupted in Wuhan late last year, saying he has failed to develop a comprehensive and effective plan for testing Americans for the coronavirus and tracing contacts of those who are infected by the virus, which has so far infected almost four million people and killed over 271,000 across the world. Australia annoyed as US pushes Wuhan lab COVID-19 theory Meanwhile, Australian officials have expressed frustration over the fact that their push for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus is being undermined by the White House. Australian officials say their government's push for an inquiry into the origins of the novel coronavirus outbreak should not be exploited by the United States amid a row with China, which has been accused by Washington of covering up initial data on the deadly viral pandemic and the coronavirus-leak at a Chinese laboratory. Canberra called last month for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, which apparently erupted in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year before growing into a global pandemic, and said the plea was "reasonable" and not targeted at any specific country. The Chinese foreign ministry has censured the calls for an inquiry as "political manipulation" and said Australia should "give up its ideological prejudices." Canberra caught between a diplomatic row between the US and China is both a major trading partner to Beijing and a military ally of Washington. Sources close to the Australian government said Washington's attack on China has given Beijing room to argue that Australia's request for an independent inquiry is part of a US-led agenda to blame it for the coronavirus outbreak. On Friday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison reiterated his conviction that he has seen no evidence to support the theory the virus came from a medical lab, and that the most likely source was a wildlife market in Wuhan. He also said the goal of the inquiry was to know how to prevent another outbreak. During an interview on ABC radio on Friday, Australia's Trade Minister Simon Birmingham also responded to criticisms about whether an inquiry would hurt trade with China and underscored his country's independence. "We're not doing this as some sort of lapdog of the United States," he said. "You'll see there are some marked differences between some of the things that the Australian Government has said and some of the commentary coming out of the United States and that's because we take our own analysis, our own evidence, our own advice and we will take this issue through to the World Health Assembly." China's foreign ministry has said the calls for an inquiry are "political manipulation" and said Australia should "give up its ideological prejudices". In February, China's Wuhan Institute of Virology dismissed rumors that the virus may have been artificially synthesized at one of its laboratories or perhaps escaped from such a facility. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. The streets, humming with hymns on Sundays, Zydeco in the evenings and drumming with the steps of people headed to work in the morning, were threaded by ice cream parlors and candy shops, the favorite routes of schoolchildren running home, and the familiar faces of neighbors greeted by name. This was the heart of the Fifth Ward before it was a highway. Before a vibrant artery of Houstons black community was hauled off, paved over, striped and severed from the city and from itself. Historian Kyle Shelton, for his book Power Moves, once counted the Fifth Ward landmarks lost to a single highway interchange, I-69 and I-10, built in the late 1960s to usher suburban commuters downtown: 686 homes, 101 businesses, 11 churches, five schools and two hospitals. Progress is often someone elses plight. But in Houston, communities of color had to pay a disproportionate price as patterns of destruction repeated themselves. Freedmans Town. Third Ward. Independence Heights. Now comes a new project, bigger than any before, and theres reason to believe the Texas Department of Transportations $7.5 billion expansion of Interstate 45 will leave more wreckage in its wake. Houston, we cant let that happen. The project, while urgently needed in some ways, should not proceed without major changes, especially regarding transit, housing and the environment, including increased flood protection, that can lessen the pain to affected neighborhoods and earn wider support for one of the largest public works projects in Houston history. The best and perhaps last hope for reform may come as soon as Monday, when Mayor Sylvester Turner is expected to deliver a letter to TxDOT demanding major changes to the plan after more than a year of intense scrutiny by experts, public officials and hundreds of citizens. In an interview with the editorial board, Turner said he is seeking more than the mere tweaking of flaws in this much-maligned plan. His aim is more audacious, imploring the states transportation officials to do something few highway projects ever have: to leave the city as a whole and not just its traffic patterns better off. That will require a paradigm shift, at TxDOT, Turner said, away from measuring success in highway miles and prioritizing the transport of cars and trucks over the movement of people themselves. Its not just about expanding roadway capacity to move more vehicles, Turner said. Its about a shift in thinking so that we design these projects to move more people from point A to point B, not just more vehicles and to do that in such a way that we are not dividing or decimating communities. We applaud the mayors sustained engagement on this issue especially amid a global pandemic and encourage him to stand firm in the coming weeks, when negotiations with the state will test his resolve. Turner must rally ordinary Houstonians to support his demand that TxDOT build a highway that enjoys the support of the city through which it will run. Every Houstonian should ask: Is shaving 15 minutes off someones commute from The Woodlands a temporary fix since traffic will likely overwhelm the added capacity in a few years worth slicing through someone elses church? Flooding someone elses living room? Polluting someone elses front porch breeze? We argue no. Houston deserves more from this project. Thats what Turner is asking of TxDOT that the project be more than that. The I-45 expansion has the potential to benefit all of Houston and the wider region as well and not just by making it easier and therefore cheaper to move people and goods throughout the city and its suburbs, something that has helped Houston grow so fast while at the same time remaining comparatively affordable. Parts of this plan will improve neighborhood connections, reverse years of bad engineering that has left I-45 flooded during periods of heavy rains, and provide smoother commutes for many. It will take leadership for Turner to resist the pull of economic and political expediency that would have him see this as merely another highway expansion and keep focused on what matters long-term for our city: quality of life, continuity of communities and, yes, the movement of our people in all modes of transportation. Specifically, the expansion must enhance transit options, especially Bus Rapid Transit, reduce Houstons post-Harvey vulnerability to flooding and strengthen, rather than further divide and displace, communities through which the rebuilt freeway travels. If the agency rebuffs the mayor and others who have demanded improvements, then the project will be a tragic mistake and a colossal waste of money. To its credit, the agency has welcomed the citys year-long effort to influence the project, despite how far along the agency is in its development. On Friday, a Houston-based spokesperson for the agency declined to say how much flexibility TxDOT has with regard to the design of the project, but pledged to respect the mayors vision. TxDOT will await the definitive ask from Mayor Turner, Raquelle Lewis said. Upon receipt, we will respectfully and judiciously consider his request and work together to define our path forward. The agency has also long acknowledged many negative consequences of its plan. Roughly 345 places of businesses and 1,000 residences are in the potential path of the bulldozer. As is, the project would mean: The condemnation of dozens of buildings in Independence Heights, the first city in Texas incorporated by African Americans, including the historic Greater Mount Olive Baptist Church, which will be relocated. Increased air pollution for schools and other facilities near the widened highway and the elimination of green space in others. Turner said thats why, in its current design, the project would be bad for the city. With changes, though, hes convinced it could be transformative. The way I have evaluated this, the mayor told us, is to consider the consequences of saying, no dont build it at all. Just leave it alone. But those of us who have traveled I-45 thousands of times know that in its present configuration, I-45 is a bad freeway. It floods. Its dangerous. And it is working against the neighborhoods adjacent to it. He knows hes urging TxDOT to do something thats not easy or even second-nature to an agency that has for so long been focused on highway capacity as a main metric of success. Thats a tall order, but thats what we are after, he says. We agree. If the project can be improved, and redesigned where needed, it could lead to an improved transit network, reconnected neighborhoods and reduced flooding in addition to dislodging congestion. Three areas to address So far, despite all the citys Herculean efforts, the talks between Houston and TxDOT have been just that talk. With the agency nearing the release of its Final Environmental Impact Statement expected anytime this spring its time to turn the discussions into action. We urge significant changes in three broad areas: 1. Incorporate the expansion of commuter buses that voters overwhelmingly endorsed in last years Metro bond vote. Dedicated lanes would allow buses to run at least as well as a commuter train on tracks. Metro and TxDOT have decades of successful collaboration to build on. 2. Mitigate the displacement of people. The highways imposing footprint must be narrowed through methods such as reducing frontage roads from three to two lanes. People whose homes must be moved must be compensated and provided for. There must be a concrete plan, funded by TxDOT, and the Houston Housing Authority, to relocate residents to improved, nearby affordable housing. 3. The project must be designed to help, not harm, the environment where it can, including by reducing air pollution and boosting its role in reducing flood risk. Well address specifics in the coming weeks. Bottom line: If TxDOT cant or wont work with Houston to make these or similar changes, the project shouldnt be built. TxDOTs demonstrated willingness to evolve gives us hope. A decade ago talk of expanding a freeway with a focus on transit and neighborhood revival would have gone nowhere. Instead, TxDOT has embraced the idea that its giant highway project must serve more than drivers. As Thomas Lambert, president and CEO of METRO, told the editorial board last week: Its a 50-year project, not a one-year project. It will have lasting impact. Whats yet to be seen is whether Turner can convince TxDOT, in the building of this highway, to take the high road. We need to know that this monumental project will truly make our city a better place to live and work. That growth, this time, cannot come at the expense of people in its path. That Houstons destructive pattern of plowing thoughtlessly through communities of color in the name of progress is indeed in the rearview mirror. Correction, May 11: In Sundays editorial about the need for changes to the I-45 expansion plans, a reference to past problems with an interchange involving U.S. 59, the highway was incorrectly referred to as I-59. It has been upgraded to an interstate, but that interstate is called I-69. In addition, a reference to the plan shaving time off the commute from Kingwood to downtown should have read from the Woodlands, as I-45 does not go to Kingwood. - An ice cream vendor in Davao del Norte passed away from heart attack after learning that he was not a beneficiary of social amelioration program - He was identified as Lolito Estelloso, Jr., 49 years old, a resident of Barangay Apokon, Tagum City - According to a resident who was able to record the incident in a video, Lolito felt really upset because almost all of his neighbors were given assistance - His family is currently in contact with the Tagum City LGU for assistance PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed An ice cream vendor in Tagum City, Davao del Norte died on Friday due to heart attack after learning that he was not included in the list of beneficiaries of social amelioration program (SAP). In a report by ABS-CBN News, the man was identified as Lolito Estelloso, Jr., 49 years old, a resident of Barangay Apokon. The incident happened at the Department of the Interior and Local Government office at the Capitol compound of Davao Del Norte. He was immediately rushed to the hospital, but later on, died. According to Ryla May Lapudji, another resident who was able to record a video of the incident, Lolito was frustrated because they were not included in the list of recipients of the cash subsidy. Ryla recounted that Lolito felt really upset because almost all of his neighbors were given assistance. It was explained to Lolito that he was not chosen to be a beneficiary for he has a livelihood, being an ice cream vendor. His wife shared that Lolito was not taking maintenance medicine even though hypertension was in his family's lineage. Meanwhile, his family has been in contact with the Tagum City LGU for assistance. According to Philippine Information Agency, SAP is a cash emergency subsidy program for millions of Filipino families whose lives are greatly affected by the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). It is mandated by the Bayanihan To Heal As One Act, signed by the President last March 25, 2020. PAY ATTENTION: Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news! In a previous report by KAMI, a frontliner in Rizal has recently passed away due to heatstroke while he was on duty. At present, the Philippines is under a state of calamity while the entire Luzon is under an ECQ to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019. Please like and share our amazing Facebook posts to support the KAMI team! Dont hesitate to comment and share your opinions about our stories either. We love reading about your thoughts and views on different matters! In this video, a 4Ps member replied to critics and provided an explanation as to where her cash aid goes! Check out all of the exciting videos and celebrity interviews on our KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel! Source: KAMI.com.gh The recent rise of the Independent Venue Coalition of Oregon, a group of small and independent music venues in the state whose existence is under threat because of the pandemic economy, is a trenchant reminder that small business must be considered, collectively, as a kind of quasi-industry that should be considered too big to fail as we rush to consider, for example, the airline, automotive or banking industries. Its not enough to bail out large corporations, or, worse, allow large corporations to partake of relief and emergency funds intended for small businesses. We must rescue and protect our independent businesses, the ones that do so much of the work to make our neighborhoods, our towns, our cities our lives all the more worth it. Bix Frankonis, Portland NEWARK The calls for patients in cardiac arrest came in one after another. A 39-year-old man, followed by a 65-year-old, whose neighbor called 911 after getting no response when he rang the doorbell. Then a 52-year-old womans heart stopped, as did that of a 90-year-old, who had collapsed on her bedroom floor. The ambulances turned on their sirens and screamed through red lights. But what the paramedics did after rushing to the victims or more precisely, what they did not do is a window into how a deadly virus has reshaped emergency medicine. After confirming that the patients hearts had flatlined, they declared each of them dead at the scene, without attempting CPR. Before coronavirus cases hit hard a few weeks ago, John McAleer, a paramedic who responded to the call for the 90-year-old woman, would have begun chest compressions. His partner would have started an IV to administer epinephrine, which acts as a stimulant. They might have used the defibrillator to try to shock her heart back to life. He would have done this even though studies have found that only about 1 to 3 percent of people found in her condition can be resuscitated. For that is what emergency workers have been trained to do: make every possible effort to save every life. New Delhi, May 10 : Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari on Sunday claimed there were more Covid deaths in the national capital than are being reported by the city government, while accusing Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of not conducting enough tests. Speaking to IANS, Tiwari accused the government of hiding data of those who died due to the infection. "They are hiding data on deaths. We have the information that there are more deaths happening than being reported by the government." On the AAP government hiking the VAT on petrol and diesel, Tiwari said the Centre ensured that while it hiked the taxes, the burden is not on the public. "What Delhi has done is an injustice. We know people are stepping out only in case of emergency in the lockdown. However, despite this, Delhi was the first state to hike the taxes on fuel and put the burden on the public." Tiwari also said Delhi is not the only state which is suffering due to revenue loss. "All the governments across the country are suffering due to revenue loss. While all are looking for ways to generate revenue, 70 per cent fee on alcohol is too much. No other state has increased so much tax," Tiwari said while referring to the 'Special Corona fee' on alcohol, which is 70 per cent of the MRP. He slammed the Delhi government, saying it is trying to hide its failures. "This (coronavirus crisis) was a test if they know how to run a government. They will not be able to say what they have actually done for their people. Advertisement is one thing but the real picture is before everyone." Tiwari said all the arrangements done by the city government in Delhi amid the coronavirus crisis are not up to the mark. "All the arrangements are in bad shape. People are not ready to go to the city government hospitals. People in the city are preferring the Central government hospitals." Tiwari also hit out at the Kejriwal government over tests, saying that people are asking for tests and are running from hospitals to hospitals for getting them done. "People are asking for testing but they are not being tested. Even the police constable who died of Covid had to run from hospital to hospital. If there are not enough hospitals, they should make more arrangements. Makeshift arrangement can also be done. But letting people die because you don't have enough arrangement is highly inhuman." Tiwari also slammed the Aam Aadmi Party government for doing "nothing" for the corona warriors. He said at least six doctors from the Jag Parvesh Chander Hospital tested Covid positive. "Their contacts are waiting for tests. They are not being tested. Even if they were to stay at home, there should be some doctor suggesting this. But they are still waiting for the tests." Even the condition in the quarantine centres are bad, Tiwari said, adding while somewhere there are no fans, somewhere there is no water supply. "We need to take special care of the patients amid the coronavirus crisis. They (Delhi government) only speak, but no arrangement has been done on the ground." UP assembly polls will be about '80 per cent vs 20 per cent'; BJP will win: Yogi Adityanath UP Assembly will be able to accommodate only 200 of 403 MLAs with social distancing: Speaker India pti-PTI Lucknow, May 10: Only 200 of the 403 MLAs will be able to sit inside the Uttar Pradesh Assembly if social distancing norms are implemented in the House as there are not enough seats, Speaker Hriday Narayan Dixit said. However, Dixit is "optimistic" and feels that by the time the next sitting of the Legislative Assembly is convened the situation will improve. "At present, the House is not in session. The Monsoon Session of the UP Legislative Assembly should be held some time in August and I am optimistic that by then the situation would have changed," the speaker told PTI in an interview. Coronavirus crisis: Uttar Pradesh Congress creates portal to receive complaints on COVID-19 lockdown When asked to elaborate, Dixit said, "If we adhere to social distancing and leave one seat vacant, we will not have enough seats. There are 403 MLAs. Already there are not enough seats for everyone." "There is a shortage of 10-12 seats. The work goes on as (generally) 10-12 (members) are absent. In these circumstances, if one seat is left vacant then not more than 200 MLAs will be able to sit," he said. On being asked that if the pandemic situation persists, whether video-conferencing will be considered for functioning the House, the 73-year-old lawmaker said no decision has been taken so far in this regard. "A number of meetings are being held via video-conferencing. The prime minister and the UP chief minister have held video conferences. The work culture of the entire world has changed due to the coronavirus outbreak. The impact of culture change will be experienced in all directions, and if the need arises, then pondering will be done over it. As of now, there is no such thought, he said. At the same time, he virtually ruled out the work from home option. "We cannot do this (work from home) from the Legislative Assembly's point of view. The reason is that debates take place inside the House, there is communication and questions (are asked) and answers (are given). As of now, there is a remote possibility of this (work from home). But there are many changes, which are taking place due to the pandemic, and it may impact this (Assembly), and when there will be an impact, we will contemplate (on it)," Dixit said. The speaker also said that a control room has been set up in the assembly through which the MLAs of the state highlight the problems in their constituencies during the COVID-19 induced lockdown. Coronavirus positive cases in India nears 63,000-mark, 127 deaths in 24 hours "Lok Sabha Speaker held a video conference with the speakers of all the legislative assemblies. At the meeting, it was decided that a control room will be set up in all the legislative assemblies. Through the control room, the MLAs of the state highlight the problems in their respective assembly constituencies and seek intervention," Dixit said. He asserted that under the leadership of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, efforts are underway to combat the coronavirus pandemic. "We are getting good results as well. Physical distancing is the only way out and people are following it. MLAs are also making people follow social distancing in their respective constituencies," he said. At present, there are 307 BJP MLAs in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly followed by the Samajwadi Party which has 49 MLAs. The Bahujan Samaj Party has 18 MLAs, while there are seven Congress MLAs in the UP Legislative Assembly. BJP ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) has nine MLAs. The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party has four MLAs. There are three Independent MLAs, while there is one MLA each from the Rashtriya Lok Dal and the Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Apna Dal. The Uttar Pradesh government has appointed senior IAS and IPS officers to monitor the fight against coronavirus in Agra, Meerut and Kanpur, which are among the worst-hit districts in the state. The decision came after a spurt in infection cases and lockdown violations in the districts in the past some days, Director (Information) Shishir said. Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Information) Awanish Awasthi said on the directions of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, UP State Industrial Development Authority MD Anil Garg and IG Deepak Ratan have been given the command of the COVID Care (a monitoring unit) in Kanpur. Principal Secretary (Infrastructure) Alok Kumar and IG Vijay Kumar have been posted in Agra while the charge of the monitoring unit in Meerut has been given to Irrigation Department Principal Secretary T Venkatesh and IG Laxmi Singh. Orders have also been issued to post two senior officers of the Health Department in the each of the three districts. The officers will submit a report regarding the districts to the chief minister every morning and evening, Awasthi said. The chief minister during a review meeting on Sunday told officials that the coronavirus lockdown must be strictly implemented, a statement issued by the UP government said. Adityanath reiterated that the state government is committed for the safe and successful homecoming of migrants. "The medical check-up of all migrants workers must be done," he directed. Awasthi said on Sunday, over 70,000 people returned to Uttar Pradesh in 57 trains. "About three lakh people are expected to return in the coming days," he said. Adityanath has also said that people involved in the preparation of food in community kitchens in the state should be tested on a daily basis. The community kitchens must be regularly sanitised, he told the officials. "People cooking food in various community kitchens should be medically tested on a daily basis. Cleanliness must be ensured at these community kitchens. These should be regularly sanitised. It should also be ensured that the community kitchens prepare adequate food for the needy," the CM said. He asked officials to encourage the use of 'Aayush Kavach COVID' app and said the coronavirus testing capacity in the state should be increased. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Trend Azercell Telecom LLC has launched a charity initiative on the occasion of a significant date May 9th, the Victory Day over Fascism. On the 75th anniversary of the Victory, which coincided with the coronavirus outbreak, the leading mobile operator pleased with the valuable food packages the veterans of World War II, who have been a true example of patriotism, heroism and bravery for the younger generation. Azercell has visited and congratulated all World War II veterans living in various cities and districts of the country within the frame of this charity event. Azerpost LLC operating under the Ministry of Transportation, Communication and High Technologies arranged the delivery of the holiday gifts to the relevant addresses. Notably, Azercell has always paid special attention to all our veterans, who own huge merits for the historic victories in the different war years. Thus, the company has been conducting an exclusive campaign for war veterans since 2015. Taking advantage of this offer veterans receive 100% bonus of the amount of first top-up in a calendar month. It should be noted that, Prepaid (Sim-Sim) subscribers with the status of war veterans can join the campaign by contacting Azercell Customer Service offices. It is worth noting that, during the World War II, Azerbaijani people sent more than 600,000 of sons and daughters to the frontline, who have demonstrated real heroism both on the battlefield and in the rear for the sake of victory. Azercell wishes long and healthy life to all veterans who defended the Motherland by taking part in various wars. Our victories are still to come! --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz A hospital consultant has appeared in court accused of domestic violence offences. Paediatrician Dr Atul Mohan appeared at Lisburn Magistrates' Court on Thursday via video link from police custody. The 62-year-old consultant, with an address c/o Craigavon Area Hospital, was charged with common assault against the same female on two days - May 6 and April 25/26 this year. Mohan confirmed he understood the two charges against him. Defence solicitor Ruairi Gillen told the court that Dr Mohan would have been freed from the police station after he was charged on Wednesday night but there was no suitable address for him to go to. "That's been rectified," he added because staff at Craigavon Area Hospital have confirmed he can stay at on-site accommodation. A prosecuting lawyer suggested the case could be adjourned for two weeks but Mr Gillen revealed that "before he was charged last night a withdrawal statement had been made while he was in the custody suite", so he was asking for the case to be listed next week. "It seems relatively straightforward," said the lawyer. "A statement is made, a withdrawal statement is made, there's a statement from the police officer and there's been a bit of a lull so no one seems to be over burdened." Appearing at court from Lurgan custody suite, Dr Mohan told District Judge Amanda Brady: "It's a total disaster at the moment." He asked her: "I was just wondering, if I give a statement of undertaking can I go home?" The judge replied that when a withdrawal statement is made, the police and PPS have to go over their domestic protocol, and that takes time. "I think you should stay at the hospital accommodation and stay away from the complainant while that is done," said District Judge Brady, who adjourned the case to next Thursday. She told Dr Mohan that "because of your occupation and because of your situation, I have put pressure on the prosecution to try to turn this around and resolve it within a week as opposed to two but you must understand that protocols swing into action and they have to be followed... the police have to be allowed to do their job." Dr Mohan was freed on his own bail of 200 and barred from contacting the complainant or going back to her home. Sohrab Hura, the only Indian photographer after Raghu Rai to be a member of Magnum Photos, as well as Martin Parr, Matilde Gattoni, Vasantha Yogananthan and Paromita Chatterjee among others have donated their stunning pictures for Prints for India. All net proceeds will go to the NGO Goonj. Prints for India, the photo print fundraiser featuring some of the most world-renowned and emerging photographers is running an initiative to raise funds for migrant workers stuck in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. This fundraiser is scheduled to run for four weeks starting April 24 and has a total collection of 70 images. Over and above this, Prints for India will also announce a secret photographer for a week-long flash sale each Friday. Every print is an unsigned edition, of exhibition quality and is priced at 80. The sale features several well-known photographers as well as emerging talent including Martin Parr, Matilde Gattoni, Soham Gupta, Sohrab Hura, Ed Kashi, Sanjit Das, Andrea Bruce and Laura McPhee among several others. Founded by four photographers who met during a Magnum workshop with Martin Parr in New Delhi in early 2020, the initiative is an attempt to aid the millions of day laborers and migrant workers suddenly trapped with no resources or income. According to the website, all net proceeds from the sale of the prints will go to the Rahat-19 program of Goonj, the non-governmental organisation which is currently running a pan-India aid mission for migrants, daily wagers, and the most vulnerable whove been affected by the national lockdown following the Covid19 pandemic. These are some of the pictures up for sale On set of Winter Photograph: Anurag Banerjee Shot by Anurag Banerjee an independent Mumbai-based photographer, whose work Love in Bombay documents intimacy in public spaces in the city, this picture is available on printsforindia.com. Banerjees Love in Bombay has been published in several print magazines and online. In October, he self-published his first handmade photobook Im not here about his evolving relationship with his home and the idea of home. Story continues Untitled Photograph: Matilde Gattoni Up next is Matilde Gattonis photograph of a little girl who wanted to be photographed while she was doing a story on her aunt, a tea plucker in West Bengal. Gattoni is an award-winning French-Italian photographer based in Barcelona who covers social, environmental and human rights issues around the world. Since the start of her career in 2000, she has worked extensively in the Middle East, South and Central Asia and Africa and has covered topics such as droughts, refugee emergencies, illegal mining, mass migrations, large scale land grabbing and climate change for more than one hundred newspapers and magazines worldwide. From the Series 'Help Desk - Random Acts of Administration' Photograph: Ole Witt This is a picture by Ole Witt shot outside of the Gujarat High Court. Is of a coordinator whos improvised his desk on a scooter. Witt studied photojournalism and documentary photography at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hanover and continued his studies at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India. His work has been published in magazines such as Spiegel Online, Stern etc and has been exhibited at several international festivals. Ole Witt was also among the finalists of the Lensculture Exposure Awards 2017, the VGH Prize 2018 and the BFF Forderpreis 2019. The series to which this photograph belongs won him the Kolga Newcomer Award in 2018. The Workers Photograph: Vasantha Yoganantha Photographer Vasantha Yogananthan draws inspiration from the imagery associated with The Ramayana and its pervasiveness in everyday Indian life, the seven-book project A Myth of Two Souls explores the space between reality and fiction. Gurukul Photograph: Paromita Chatterjee Paromita Chatterjees photograph features two young girls from the Ma Anandmayee kanyapeeth, a women-only hermitage in the heart of Varanasi. After a busy day at the gurukul, two hours in the evening are allotted for the girls playtime, she writes. Here two girls are seen relaxing on the ashram terrace. When the girls leave behind the serenity of the ashram and plunges into the river of life, they carry a part of Gurukul with them, refuse to give up their moral or ethical upbringing at the hermitage. Flying Family Photograph: Erinn Springer Also on sale is this picture by Erinn Springer, a Wisconsin-born documentarian based in NYC whose work explores ephemeral moments and enduring relationships between people and place. The picture was shot when she was travelling to Jodhpur in 2018. Albemarle County officials listened to residents passionate objections and changed their proposed budget to add more paid fire and rescue staff. The result isnt perfect, but its significantly better than an earlier plan that would have stripped some rural communities of much of their emergency coverage. Initially, the countys fire and rescue department planned to boost coverage for Crozet and Pantops, two busy growth areas, by shifting personnel from the more rural Stony Point and East Rivanna stations, respectively. Stations at those locations utilize volunteers part of the time; but because volunteerism has declined (here and elsewhere), leaving gaps in coverage, Albemarle provides full-time paid staff to help fill the gaps. Last year, Crozets fire chief argued eloquently for more staff to serve his territory, which includes one of the countys prime growth areas. Residential and commercial growth has generated more calls for help. Yet because modern life does not give people the time for intensive training and service, among other reasons, the growth has not produced a corresponding increase in volunteers. The gap between the number of calls for help and the number of fire and rescue personnel who could answer those calls was widening. Albemarle County Fire Rescue, the countys paid emergency services branch, did the responsible thing and sought to fill that gap, and to help the Pantops area as well. But it did so by proposing to shift personnel from Stony Point and East Rivanna. The result: no net increase in personnel to serve an increasing need; instead, a reshuffling of existing resources, creating winners and losers. Now, from one point of view, this is logical. If resources cant be increased, then it makes sense to deploy existing assets where they are most effective in this case, where the most people live, and therefore the greater need exists. But that is a cold, statistical response to issues, literally, of life and death. Residents of Stony Point and East Rivanna angrily protested that their lives and property were being put at risk. Even though coverage would be pulled from other stations outside their communities, residents argued that the lengthy response times would be potentially deadly. Sometimes cold, hard logic must be applied, in cases of extremity (think triage in the age of COVID). But county officials never successfully made the argument that no other options were available. Turns out, alternatives were available. When pushed, ACFR found a different solution. Its now is planning to hire additional staff after all. And it will implement other strategies to better utilize its staff. The budget for 2021 presented by ACFR Chief Dan Eggleston now includes a plan for 10 new positions to provide weekday, daytime fire staffing at the Crozet and Pantops stations. Funding includes $168,872 for next year for added personnel, with hopes of a federal matching grant. Another $1.9 million is slated for a fire engine and two ambulances. For rescue squads, the proposal also adds 12 positions to provide 24/7 Advanced Life Support EMS coverage at the Ivy and Pantops stations. ACFR also would implement cross-staffing, in which personnel are trained to operate both ambulances and fire engines, thus making broader use of existing staff. That could enable Stony Point to get daytime ambulance service as of July, while East Rivanna probably would have to wait until September 2021. ACFR also would employ dynamic staffing, in which personnel would be assigned to stations on a short-term basis as needs fluctuated. These solutions show that with a little bit of work and ingenuity plus the willingness to spend more money answers can be found. The new budget proposal strikes a good balance between additional funding and creative use of existing staff. This is not the best time to be asking for more public money, granted. But fire/rescue officials have made a good case for added coverage, while residents in many neighborhoods have said loud and clear that they dont want cuts in services. This exercise in democracy also shows how powerful public opinion can be. Residents wouldnt accept the countys first proposal, but demanded something better. They got it. View this post on Instagram Happy Mothers Day to ME and to all wonderful mothers out there. God bless us all. Remember Gods got us always. Follow me on Tiktok- REALJULIETIBRAHIM #superwomen #supermoms #atoasttolife #tiktoknigeria #tiktokghana #tiktokinfluencer #shadesbyjulietibrahimcosmetics #duduke #dudukechallenge #happymothersday Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday demanded audit of PM CARES Fund and said the account of money received and spent be made public. New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday demanded audit of PM CARES Fund and said the account of money received and spent be made public. On 28 March, the Centre set up the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund with the primary objective to deal with any kind of emergency situation like the one currently posed by the COVID-19 outbreak and provide relief to those affected. "The PM-CARES fund has received huge contributions from PSUs and major public utilities like the Railways. It''s important that prime minister ensures the fund is audited and that the record of money received and spent is available to the public," Rahul said on Twitter. The Congress has questioned the government over setting up of a separate PM CARES Fund by the prime minister for fighting coronavirus, demanding that the same be merged with the PM National Relief Fund. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Theresia Sufa (The Jakarta Post) Bogor Sun, May 10, 2020 13:10 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd706ce8 1 National elephant,COVID-19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,Taman-Safari,Taman-Safari-Indonesia,West-Java,zoo,Sumatran-elephant Free Taman Safari Indonesia in Bogor, West Java, has welcomed a newborn male Sumatran elephant to its park. The elephant calf, which was born in the park on April 28, was named Covid because he was born during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sodik, an animal keeper at the park, said that Covid weighed 82.5 kilograms at birth. His parents are a 46-year-old female elephant named Nina and a 44-year-old male elephant named Kodir, both from Riau. Other keepers who were also monitoring Covid's condition said that the elephant calf was lively and in good health. Read also: Indonesian zoos launch Food for Animals fundraiser as pandemic devours revenue Taman Safari Indonesia Bogor director Jansen Manansang said that Covids birth had brought the total number of elephants in the park to 51. Taman Safari Indonesia is currently closed indefinitely because of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country. Zoos across Indonesia are struggling to make ends meet as a result of the lack of visitors. A survey conducted by the Indonesian Zoo Association (PKBSI) last month showed that 92 percent of the associations members in Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok and Borneo 55 zoos had stock to feed their animals only until mid-May. People who want to help Taman Safari Indonesia cover its costs may donate through a transfer to BCA account number 6801777811 in the name of PT Taman Safari Indonesia. FILE PHOTO: The spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on the island of Lesbos LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal is to take up to 60 unaccompanied children from Greek refugee camps, according to Socialist Party lawmaker Isabel Santos, as concern mounts over the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the vulnerable group. The children are expected to arrive in Portugal within the next few weeks, Santos was cited by local news agency Lusa as saying during an online conference to celebrate Europe Day. The member of the European Parliament did not specify a date. At least 5,200 unaccompanied minors live in Greece, many of them under harsh conditions in camps on islands in the Aegean. Human Rights Watch said the Greek authorities had not done enough to address the "overcrowding and lack of health care, access to adequate water, sanitation, and hygiene products" in the camps to limit the spread of coronavirus. Portugal, which has reported 27,406 cases of the virus, with 1,126 deaths, said it was willing to take in some children as part of a voluntary European scheme to relocate around 1,600. Other countries, including Germany, Ireland, France and Luxembourg, are also involved in the initiative. The first relocations took place last month when 12 minors were transferred to Luxembourg, since when Germany has received around 50 children. Santos, who said Portugal was the first country to offer assistance to Greece, was critical of the European response to the issue, saying the relocation scheme "had failed" since its introduction. "These children live under bad conditions," she said. "They live in refugee camps with the triple, quadruple and in many cases up to five times the population they are able to accommodate." Hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees fleeing conflicts and poverty in countries such as Syria have used Greece as a springboard to gain entry to other European countries. In February, tens of thousands of migrants tried to enter Greece after Turkey said it would no longer prevent them from doing so. Turkey now hosts about 3.4 million refugees and migrants, while Greece has about 120,000 who are waiting for asylum applications to be processed. (Reporting by Catarina Demony; Editing by Mike Harrison) Daewoong Pharmaceutical Unveils Phase 3 Clinical Data of Fexuprazan, A Novel Potassium-competitive Acid Blocker Details Category: Small Molecules Published on Sunday, 10 May 2020 13:41 Hits: 1461 - Selected as a Poster of Distinction for presentation during Digestive Disease Week 2020 - Proved its efficacy with outstanding inhibition of gastric acid secretion and safety - Proactively targeting the anti-acid secretion agent market valued $37 billion SEOUL, South Korea I May 8, 2020 I Daewoong Pharmaceutical (Daewoong) unveiled for the first time the phase 3 clinical data of Fexuprazan, a novel gastroesophageal reflux disease agent at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2020. The abstract of Fexuprazan has been rated in the top 10% posters of all American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) abstracts selected for poster presentation and selected as a Poster of Distinction for presentation during Digestive Disease Week. Fexuprazan is a novel potassium-competitive acid blocker (P-CAB) developed by Daewoong, which reversibly blocks the proton pump that secretes gastric acids located in the cannalicular membrane. It is a next-generation of proton pump inhibitors (PPI), which are widely used for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). A phase 3 clinical trial of Fexuprazan was conducted in Korea in patients with erosive esophagitis, and additional clinical trials are ongoing for other acid-related diseases. The phase 3 clinical trial in patients with erosive esophagitis was conducted in 25 hospitals in Korea. Fexuprazan showed 99% of mucosal healing rate at week 8 and was well tolerated in the patients. Fexuprazan also showed improved symptom relief. Particularly, in the patients with moderate to severe symptoms, Fexuprazan exhibited significantly faster and better heartburn relief compared to Esomeprazole and this heartburn relief was shown to be maintained during nighttime. Furthermore, atypical symptom such as cough was also improved with the treatment of Fexuprazan. Coordinating investigator Oh Young Lee M.D., Ph.D. at the Division of Gastroenterology of Hanyang University Hospital said, "Through this promising results in the erosive esophagitis patients, Fexuprazan has proven to become a best alternative for the treatment of GERD and to fulfill the medical unmet needs of the current therapies by providing with the fast and effective relief from heartburn as well as endoscopic healing." Sengho Jeon, CEO of Daewoong, said, "We are committed to developing a novel and improved therapeutic options, and are very excited that Fexuprazan will be a valuable addition to the current treatment for acid-related diseases. We expect accelerated development of Fexuprazan through partnerships and will soon have a unique opportunity to commercialize Fexuprazan in the global markets such as US and China. In January, Daewoong signed an agreement with Moksha8, a leading pharmaceutical company in Latin America. As Daewoong began the successful entry into the global market, Fexuprazan is expected to position as a next global blockbuster drug in the anti-acid secretion agent market valued $37 billion. SOURCE: Daewoong Pharmaceutical A day after the ruling Congress announced its second nominee for the May 21 election to nine seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has conveyed the polls should be "unopposed", senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said on Sunday. Thackeray, who is not a member of either Houses of the state legislature, is one of the nominees for the elections, which became necessary after terms of the sitting MLCs ended on April 24. "(Shiv Sena president) Uddhav Thackeray personally feels that the election for the nine seats of the Legislative Council take place unopposed. He expects so because he wants to dedicate most of his time to ongoing fight against coronavirus," Raut told reporters. He, however, parried the questions on whether the Congress, an alliance partner in the Sena-led state government, fielding another candidate could lead to voting by MLAs, who forms the electoral college for the MLC elections. "A similar question needs to be asked to BJP which has fielded four candidates. Like the Congress, the BJP has also fielded one extra candidate. "Instead of asking the Congress to bring down its nominations from two to one, you should also ask the BJP that why it has fielded a fourth candidate," he said. As the Congress had earlier decided to field only one candidate for the May 21 elections, there were nine candidates in the fray for as many seats. But on Saturday evening, state Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat tweeted that Rajkishore alias Papa Modi will be party's second candidate besides Rajesh Rathod, a Jalna zilla parishad member whose name was announced from Delhi. Thorat said he was confident that both will win. Modi is the party's Beed district unit chief. The 288-member Maharashtra Assembly forms electoral college for the polls, and a candidate needs 29 votes to win. The Congress has 44 MLAs. The last day of filing nomination is May 11, scrutiny of nominations will take place on May 12 and the last date of withdrawal of papers is May 14. The Shiv Sena and NCP, other two ruling alliance partners, have so far announced two candidates each, while the opposition BJP has announced four candidates. Thackeray and incumbent deputy Chairperson of the Legislative Council Neelam Gorhe are the nominees of the Sena while Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari are the candidates of the NCP. Former NCP MP Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil, Gopichand Padalkar, Praveen Datke and Ajit Gopchhade are the nominees of the BJP, which has the highest 105 MLAs. The BJP nominees filed their nominations on Friday. Thackeray will be filing his papers on May 11. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hong Kong: Breakthrough at LegCo welcomed The Government today welcomed the successful handling of a number of bills and subsidiary legislation by the Legislative Council House Committee (HC) at its special meeting yesterday afternoon. In a statement, the Government said that in accordance with Article 73 of the Basic Law, one of the major functions of LegCo is to enact laws and that the HC plays the most essential role in LegCo in performing the constitutional function of making preparations for LegCo meetings. Such work includes deciding if bills committees are required to be set up to scrutinise the bills submitted to LegCo and monitoring the progress of these bills committees. The statement noted that starting from last October, the HC has held 17 meetings and spent more than 30 hours of discussion but still failed to elect its chairman and deputy chairman for the current term of LegCo, thereby seriously impeding the committee and jeopardising its normal operation, creating substantial backlogs of bills that affect social development, the economy and people's livelihood. At the special meeting yesterday, the HC completed the handling of a number of bills and subsidiary legislation which had not been dealt with for seven months since last October owing to the delay in the chairman election that brought the HC to a standstill. These include 13 bills submitted by the Government during the current legislative session, Legal Service Division reports on 31 subsidiary legislation gazetted since March 27, the motion on the endorsement of the appointment of the Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal and four Reports of Bills Committees. "The Government is pleased to learn that the impasse in the HC has finally ended which enables the continual scrutiny of bills and subsidiary legislation proposed by the Government. The Government will continue to fully co-operate with LegCo in its work of scrutinising laws in the remaining term of office of LegCo. As of May 8 this year, there are 26 bills that LegCo is scrutinising. Of these, 15 were proposed during the current legislative session, while the other 11 were first read in the past two legislative sessions and respective bills committees have been formed to scrutinise them, the statement said. Among the 11 bills, the bills committees have completed scrutiny of seven bills which have yet to be introduced to the full council for the resumption of second reading debate. Of the seven bills, the HC has finished scrutinising the bills committee reports of six bills, including the National Anthem Bill and the Trade Marks (Amendment) Bill 2019. The Bills Committee on the National Anthem Bill, after 17 meetings and over 50 hours of deliberation, had reported to the HC on June 14. At the HC meeting on June 28, the HC raised no objection to the Government's plan to resume the second reading debate on the bill in the 2019-2020 legislative session. "The national anthem is the symbol and sign of the country. The legislative principle of the National Anthem Bill is clear, that is to fully reflect the legislative purpose and intent of the Law of the People's Republic of China on National Anthem as a national law, which is to preserve the dignity of the national anthem and promote respect for the national anthem; and at the same time to give due regard to the common law system practiced in Hong Kong, as well as the actual circumstances in Hong Kong, the statement said. In accordance with the National Anthem Bill, a person would only commit a criminal offence if the person publicly and intentionally insults the national anthem. It would not constitute an offence to express one's opinion as long as they are not expressed in the form of public and intentional insults to the national anthem, the statement added. Therefore, it is completely untrue and fabricated for certain LegCo members to claim that the law is 'draconian', the statement noted. The Government said it hopes that LegCo members would support the Government to continue to take forward the legislative procedures of the aforementioned bills, so that the efforts by the Government, LegCo and relevant stakeholders in formulating policies would not go down the drain. This story has been published on: 2020-05-10. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. In support of Covid-19 relief efforts, Sadafco Bahrain is contributing SR1 million in cash and Saudia products to "Fina Al Khair" initiative, by the Royal Humanitarian Foundation in support of the Covid-19 relief programmes to protect the health and safety of citizens. This initiative reflects Sadafcos strong commitment to the principle of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its support for programmes that promote social stability, the company said in a statement. As regional countries gradually begin to relax Covid-19 lockdowns, Sadafcos contribution of essential foodstuffs will help families affected by the loss of earnings and income during the recent period of social distancing, it added. Wout Matthijs, CEO of Sadafco, said: As a major regional manufacturer of foodstuffs, and as a company with a strong sense of our responsibilities to society, it is vitally important that we step up to help families impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak. We are working closely with organisations in Bahrain to ensure that those in need are receiving everyday essentials. The contribution lies at the heard of Sadafcos promise to address social causes and raise awareness of the plight of those facing extraordinary circumstances. In the face of adversity, Sadafco moves forward with its determination to be a force for good in the countries in which it operates. --TradeArabia News Service A bipartisan group of two dozen U.S. Senators sent a letter to President Trump, urging him to reject the demands of the oil refining industry, which has called for exemptions to biofuel blending requirements. Its the latest chapter in a perennial war between ethanol producers, corn growers, and politicians from the Midwest on the one hand, and oil refiners and their allies from the Gulf Coast and Pennsylvania on the other. The global pandemic and the collapse of oil prices has devastated both sides. Demand for ethanol tracks gasoline consumption, so the steep drop in fuel consumption has hit ethanol producers very hard. But refiners are also curtailing processing and shutting down some facilities temporarily as demand has fallen off of a cliff. In mid-April, a group of five governors from oil-producing states sent a letter to the EPA, asking for waivers from the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which requires oil refiners to buy a certain amount of ethanol each year and blend it into the nations fuel mix. The macroeconomic impacts of COVID-19 have resulted in suppressed international demand for refined products, like motor fuels and diesel, wrote Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R), Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R), Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon (R) and Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D). Requirements to purchase ethanol present[s] a clear threat to the industry under such circumstances, they wrote. Refining runs declined from 15.8 million barrels per day (mb/d) for the week ending on March 20 to 12.45 mb/d in mid-April. [W]e are at a point now where costs must be minimized to keep these vital national security assets operating, Geoff Moody, vice president of government relations at the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, a lobby group for refiners, wrote on the groups website in April. He said there is a need for a waiver from the RFS. Related: Does Nuclear Power Have A Future? In this zero-sum war between ethanol and refiners, Corn States are pushing back. Support for ethanol has bipartisan support in the Midwest, and writing to President Trump, a group of 24 Senators warned against a waiver. Waiving the RFS would cause further harm to the U.S. economy, especially our most vulnerable rural communities, the letter said. More than 70 corn ethanol facilities, representing 6.1 billion gallons of ethanol, have been idled. Another 70 have curtailed processing rates, according to the Senators. (Click to enlarge) Roughly half of U.S. ethanol production has been idled, taking output down to a record low since the EIA began tracking data back in 2010. Both sides are only months removed from the last fight over waivers, an open wound that was instantly reopened at the onset of the pandemic. The resiliency of Americas renewable fuel industry has already suffered as a result of the EPAs drastic expansion of the small refinery waiver program in recent years, the letter said. In the first few years of the Trump administration, the EPA increased waivers to small refineries, allowing them to get out of blending requirements. The moves are widely seen as causing havoc in ethanol markets, crashing prices for ethanol credits. The waivers incensed farmers and ethanol producers. Related: Shale's Decline Will Make Way For The Next Big Thing in Oil The Trump administration has seesawed back and forth between corn and oil, trying to minimize the outrage from each camp. He threw some bones to Big Corn, such as allowing year-round sales of E15. But he has been unable to find a middle ground, and its not entirely clear if there is a way to please both sides. The issue doesnt receive much mainstream press but could be vitally important to his reelection. Many corn states just so happen to be important Midwest swing states Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa, for example. At the same time, the global pandemic and a sudden economic recession (or worse) has scrambled the electoral map. The energy industry is in crisis, and even Texas no longer appears to be a shoo-in for Trump. By Nick Cunningham, Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Amid reports of migrant workers escaping from quarantine shelters in Odisha, Union minister Pratap Sarangi has sought round-the-clock security at the COVID-19 quarantine centres to prevent inmates from fleeing and infecting others. Some migrants, who were kept in schools in Ganjam after returning from Surat, reportedly fled the quarantine centres on May 3. This "exposed the gaps" in the state governments management plan, Sarangi, who hails from Odisha, said in a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Sarangi urged the chief minister to ensure foolproof security at the centres by formally engaging at least three persons in each quarantine centre. The persons, preferably from nearby villages, should be put on eight-hour duty, he said. In the letter, the union minister said, while bed, food, toilet, sanitation and personal kits were ensured for the returnees at the quarantine centres, the vital aspect of maintaining tight security at the Gram Panchayat level temporary centres had been neglected. "As a result, many inmates breached rules, escaped from the quarantine centres and infected others. "This not only created panic among people but also exposed the gaps in the governments management plan, leading to slowing down of the movement of the stranded people by road as well as by rail," the Union Minister of State for MSME, Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries said in the letter, a copy of which was released to the media on Sunday. The whole process was "further delayed" as a PIL was filed in the Orissa High Court, he said. The high court, which had passed an interim order on Thursday had suggested that state should ensure that only those tested negative for COVID-19 are allowed to return. The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the interim order of the Orissa High Court. Against this backdrop, he urged the chief minister to ask the chief secretary to clear the confusion and contact his counterparts in different states who are "more than willing" to facilitate the movement of migrant labourers and others, Sarangi said. The minister pointed out that well before the Centre permitted inter-state movement of migrant labourers and others, Patnaik had on April 21 unveiled a roadmap detailing the planning and action, including vesting the powers of the district magistrate and collector with sarpanches, to deal with varied aspects of management of migrant labourers during their mandatory quarantine period. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Millions of people in France and Spain were set to embrace a relaxation of stay-at-home rules on Monday, but Britain extended its lockdown as countries plot their way tentatively through the coronavirus crisis. Fears of a second wave of the pandemic, which has killed more than 280,000 people worldwide and wrecked the global economy, stalked much of Europe and the world. With millions out of work and economies flatlining -- including in the United States, where 20 million people lost their jobs in April -- governments are desperate to reopen, but most are choosing a gradual approach. In France, people from Monday morning were able to walk outside without filling in a permit for the first time in nearly eight weeks, teachers will start to return to primary schools, and some shops -- including hair salons -- will reopen. Bars, restaurants, theatres and cinemas will, however, remain closed. Spaniards outside of urban hotspots such as Madrid and Barcelona -- which remain under lockdown -- made plans to meet friends and family in bars and restaurants that have outdoor spaces. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was too soon for Britain to do the same. Almost seven weeks after a nationwide stay-at-home order was put in place, more than 31,800 have died during the outbreak in Britain -- the worst toll in Europe and second only to the United States. - 'Colossal cost' - Johnson, who himself spent a week in hospital with COVID-19, said on Sunday the measures had come "at a colossal cost to our way of life" but added it would be "madness" to squander the progress by moving too soon. "This is not the time simply to end the lockdown this week," the 55-year-old said, but he unveiled a "conditional plan" to ease the measures in England in the months ahead. Some European officials have been emboldened by declining death rates: France's toll of 70 on Sunday was its lowest since early April, and Spain's daily fatalities have dropped below 200. But the risk of a second wave was underscored by a resurgence in South Korea. Although widely praised for its handling of its initial outbreak, the country has been forced to shut all bars and clubs in the capital Seoul after a cluster of infections. China on Sunday reported its first infection in over a month in Wuhan, where the outbreak first started late last year before going on to infect more than four million worldwide. There was uncertainty in Germany, too, with at least one district forced to reimpose restrictions after an outbreak at a meat processing plant. And even as the country loosened its lockdown restrictions, the latest German data also indicated the infection rate was rising again. - Bustling bazaars - In Spain, however, they were getting ready to celebrate. "We have already set a date for dinner on Wednesday, just 10 of us. I can't wait to touch someone, to kiss and be kissed," said 66-year-old Beatriz Gonzalez in the Spanish city of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. Belgium and Greece are among other European nations set to ease lockdowns on Monday. Turkey had already eased some restrictions and let over-65s out for the first time on Sunday. Iran, the Middle East's worst-hit country, has also relaxed its lockdown measures, and bazaars and shopping centres in the capital Tehran were bustling again after being nearly deserted for weeks. But health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour warned the situation "should in no way be considered normal," as one region recorded a spike in death rates and reimposed a lockdown. And the resumption of league football in Europe was dealt a blow after confirmation of infection clusters among players in Spain, Germany and Portugal. Football bosses in all three countries, however, insisted that season restarts planned for the coming weeks were still on track. - Jet-skiing president - Russia and Brazil both passed grim milestones at the weekend. Russia's caseload surpassed 200,000 and is expected to become the highest figure in Europe within days, even as the number of deaths remains relatively low at fewer than 2,000. While officials say the figures reveal the effectiveness of Russia's testing regime, an opposition-allied doctors union said the authorities were under-reporting deaths of medics. For Brazil, the signs are more ominous. Officials confirmed more than 10,000 had now died in the hardest-hit Latin American country. Scientists warned that the real figures could be many times higher, given a lack of widespread testing. In a sign that officials were not yet facing up to the crisis, President Jair Bolsonaro, who has likened the coronavirus to a "little flu" and criticised regional lockdowns, was reportedly seen jet skiing. - 'Absolute chaotic disaster' - Bolsonaro and his ally US President Donald Trump have repeatedly called for their economies to be reopened, even as the virus spreads through their populations. The disease has also moved into the White House inner circle, with a valet to President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence's spokeswoman testing positive. Pence's office said he was not in quarantine and would be working at the White House on Monday. Americans are increasingly sceptical of Trump's record on the issue, with more than half disapproving to his approach, according to a poll average by RealClearPolitics on May 6. He has also faced sharp criticism from his predecessor Barack Obama, who said in a leaked tape that Trump's handling of the crisis was an "absolute chaotic disaster." But Trump's advisers were out in force on Sunday, appearing on talk shows to push for an end to locally imposed lockdowns. Small anti-lockdown protests have meanwhile emerged in US states including Florida, as well as outside the US, with some demonstrators arguing that the restrictions violate their rights. burs-jj/bgs/to Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 08:33:13|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A healthcare worker hands out testing information to people waiting at a drive-through COVID-19 testing site on Northwest Side of Chicago, the United States, on May 6, 2020. (Photo by Joel Lerner/Xinhua) by Xinhua writers Tan Jingjing, Xiong Maoling Leading epidemiologists said as many states across the United States are lifting stay-at-home orders and reopening businesses, the failure to flatten the curve and drive down the infection rate in places could lead to many more COVID-19 deaths. WASHINGTON, May 9 (Xinhua) -- An influential COVID-19 model produced by the University of Washington has revised its projections earlier this week, estimating over 134,000 COVID-19 deaths in the United States through August. Some other well-known COVID-19 models cited by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also raised death projections, such as the one produced by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which projected over 107,200 deaths by May 30. Leading epidemiologists told Xinhua as many states across the United States are lifting stay-at-home orders and reopening businesses, the failure to flatten the curve and drive down the infection rate in places could lead to many more COVID-19 deaths. Forecasts of deaths will help inform public health decision-making by projecting the likely impact in coming weeks, said the CDC. The CDC has cited 13 COVID-19 death projection models on its websites, including those produced by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) of the University of Washington, Columbia University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Los Alamos National Laboratory and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Among them, the IHME model, often cited by the White House, projected 134,475 COVID-19 deaths by August 4, with a range of 95,092 to 242,890. "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," said the IHME in a release. The revised projections reflect rising mobility in most U.S. states as well as the easing of social distancing measures expected in 31 states by May 11, indicating that growing contacts among people will promote transmission of the coronavirus, according to the IHME. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Michigan are projected to have the highest cumulative COVID-19 death tolls through August. The updated modeling approach indicates that the United States appears to be in a "prolonged epidemic peak," according to the IHME. People walks along a trail at a park in San Mateo County, San Francisco Bay Area, the United States, May 4, 2020. (Photo by Li Jianguo/Xinhua) After weeks of shutdown measures, many U.S. states have begun to slowly open up. "The re-opening of states, if done under safe and responsible conditions might work, but great concerns continue to be present if this is done prematurely and without careful individual compliance with social distancing or the proper use of face masks," Kent Pinkerton, professor of pediatrics from the School of Medicine at the University of California, Davis, told Xinhua. "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," said IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray. "We expect that the epidemic in many states will now extend through the summer," he said. First responders wheel a man on a stretcher in the Brooklyn borough of New York, the United States, on May 8, 2020. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua) As of Saturday afternoon, over 1.3 million people have been infected across the United States, with the death toll surpassing 78,600, according to Johns Hopkins University. Stanley Perlman, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Iowa, told Xinhua premature opening is "most likely" to lead to a spike in new COVID-19 infections. While some areas are witnessing flattening of curve, a nationwide significant decline is yet to come, with the country stuck on a prolonged plateau. Zhang Zuofeng, professor of epidemiology and associate dean for research with the school of public health at UCLA, told Xinhua it is worrying that the rate of new cases is increasing while at the same time some states are easing up. "We're one country. If we're not moving in the same step, we're going to have a problem," he said. Zhang is particularly concerned about Florida and Texas, where cases have been rising steadily and the potential for explosions seems high. "Many states that reopened economies are still seeing rising COVID-19 cases and deaths. Reopening may lead to sharp increase in new cases and local outbreaks, which may cause significant rise of nationwide COVID-19 cases and deaths," he said. According to a recent projection from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, partially reopening would cause 45,000 additional deaths by June 30 relative to not reopening. Fully reopening would lead to an additional 233,000 deaths. "Weighing health and economic issues are tough in a country that is so polarized," Perlman told Xinhua. Probably the most difficult challenge facing the United States and COVID-19 is to "practice patience," Pinkerton noted. Iran sent 40,000 test kits to several countries, appreciates Indian Parsis help: Zarif Iran Press TV Saturday, 09 May 2020 8:04 AM The Iranian foreign minister has stressed the importance of international cooperation on the response to the coronavirus pandemic, thanking Indian Parsis for sending aid to Iran, and saying that Tehran has sent 40,000 COVID-19 test kits to several countries. "The Parsis of IndiaZoroastrians whose ancestors long ago emigrated to Indiahave remained ever faithful in their love for Iran. Grateful for their Covid-19 package for Iranians," Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a tweet on Friday. Up to 69,000 Parsis, who are Zoroastrians of Iranian origin, currently live in India. Zarif also said that 40,000 "advanced Iran-made test kits" have been exported to Germany, Turkey and other countries. "[We are] in this together," he added. The export of Iranian diagnosis kits comes after Tehran announced last week that it had permitted the export of test kits after a reported surge in their production. Speaking about the export of diagnosis kits last week, Vice President for Science and Technology Sourena Sattari said that Iran is currently producing many products needed to combat COVID-19 which it could not produce before. Iran has become needless of importing most medical products related to the coronavirus, he said. Facing widespread US sanctions, Iran stepped up indigenous efforts to develop necessary medical equipment following the COVID-19 outbreak, quickly developing mass production lines for medical supplies such as ventilators, test kits, masks and disinfectants. According to the latest numbers released by Iran's Health Ministry on Friday, 104,691 Iranians have contracted the disease, with 6,541 deaths. 83,837 people have also recovered. On Friday, Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said that Zarif had sent a letter to UN chief Antonio Guterres, reminding him of Washington's "illegal withdrawal" from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and the resulting bans imposed on the country. Mousavi said Zarif reminded the UN chief of Washington's "blatant and continuous violations of the UN Charter, specifically violating article 25, threatening the credibility and sovereignty of the UN and international peace and security". Article 25 requires UN member states to comply with decisions made at the UN Security Council, which officially endorsed the Iran nuclear deal in 2015. Numerous world leaders and figures, many within the US, have called on Washington to stop its unilateral sanctions against Iran as the country grapples with the virus. Washington has, however, continued enforcing its strict widespread bans against Iran, announcing its newest batch of sanctions last week. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Days after Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb declared Tripura COVID 19-free, the state witnessed an abrupt spike in coronavirus cases with over 130 people testing positive for the disease in just one week since May 2. All the new cases are from two battalions of the BSF in Dhalai district. The first two patients in the state -- a woman from Gomati district and a TSR jawan in north Tripura -- had recovered from the disease in April. After taking into account the fresh cases, the state government declared Dhalai district as a red zone and marked five locations -- two battalion headquarters, a base camp at Gandacherra, a border outpost with Bangladesh at Kareena and Kamalpur town -- as containment zones. Expressing concern, Additional Chief Secretary (health) SK Rakesh said, "The numbers have increased all of a sudden. We are hoping that the virus will not spread further as it has been contained within the BSF battalion's headquarters. However, we are ready to deal with any situation. Currently, the government is upgrading the facilities at GB Pant Hospital." Two Border Security Force (BSF) jawans tested positive for COVID-19 on May 2. The very next day 12 more personnel of the paramilitary force were diagnosed with the disease. The numbers kept increasing as several jawans and their family members tested positive for the disease over the next few days. Tripura currently has 132 active cases. Principal Secretary (Home) Barun Kumar Sahu, in a letter to BSF's Tripura frontier IG Solomon Minz, sought an inquiry into the origin of the recent COVID-19 cases. Dhalai District Magistrate Brahmeet Kaur said the administration was conducting door-to-door surveys, as part of its efforts to contain the disease. "We are continuously spraying disinfectants across the district. Red zone protocol will be followed in Dhalai. Civilians and vehicles won't be allowed to move unless necessary. Only essential services will be available." Assistant Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Subrata Chakraborty said people in Dhalai are not venturing out of homes in the wake of the sudden spurt in cases. "Most shops have downed shutters and vehicles were off the roads. People in towns and villages were scared of coming out of homes. Only healthcare professionals were moving from one house to another to collect swab samples and gather information," an official said. The state government, meanwhile, has started an intensive swab collection drive and identified three new hospitals for COVID-19 treatment. It has also revised the compensation amount from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 10 lakh for death of frontline workers, including doctors, healthcare workers, police personnel and journalists. The chief minister asserted that that there had been no instance of community transmission in the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Popular Nigerian actress and entrepreneur, Mercy Aigbe ran into controversial man of God, Pastor Odumeje, also known as the lion himself, during an outing. The Nollywood star couldnt help but strike a pose with the founder of Mountain of Holy Ghost Intervention Deliverance Ministry after meeting him for the first time. Taking to her official Instagram page, the single mum of two shared the photo with the caption; The Lion Himself , Indabosky Advertisement Read Also: Emeka Ike Fires Back At Follower Who Said His Ex-Wife Fits Him More Than His New Wife See the full post below: Sowmya Mani By Express News Service TIRUCHY: Many videos of daily wage workers asking for help are doing the rounds on social media. But how many of them actually get help? If the video lands in the hands of people like Manoj Dharmar, of Shine Treechy and Jeevanandhan, a Headmaster in Tiruchy, chances are, help would be delivered, even if it means travelling 250 km (return distance) to deliver the goods. But what started as a journey to help the needy, became a humbling experience for these good samaritans, when the villagers paid them back with some locally grown produce. In Sirumalai, a forest area in Dindigul district, there are a group of daily wage workers who have been left penniless since the lockdown began. These people work as coolies and depend on their daily wages. Being a hilly region, access to groceries isn't easy. "Since the lockdown began, we have not been able to go to work. Both my husband and I do coolie work. Since the past 45 days or so, we have not been able to do any work. We haven't been able to buy rice or even tea leaves. The ration rice is just enough for a one-time meal. We aren't even able to feed our children," says Tamilselvi from Sirumalai. Manoj got the video and decided to act on it. He joined hands with like-minded people like Jeevanandhan, and arranged for groceries for 25 families. Each kit cost Rs 700 and has atta, oil, sugar, tea, toor dal, rice, salt, chilli powder etc. "We received a video and felt that we had to help them. We raised the funds through social media and received the amount required at lightning speed. We took the groceries in 2 cars and delivered it to them." said Manoj. They were pleasantly surprised when the villagers refused to take the kits for free. They felt that they must give something back. "They gave us 3 gunny bags of Bangalore Brinjal (Chow Chow) which is locally grown there. Five of us travelled in 2 cars to Sirumalai from Tiruchy," said Jeevanandhan, Headmaster of Subbaih Memorial School. Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Presidential Council of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) has denounced Saturday's shelling of the Maitigua International Airport by forces of the Libyan National Army (LNA) As this Sunday marks a special day when people give that extra appreciation to their mother for their selfless love and care, Google Doodle also joined hands in being a part of the same and dedicated its Doodle on Mother's Day 2020. Amid the coronavirus lockdown, Google Doodle gives you the option of creating a virtual card for your mother and show your love through virtual greetings to mothers anywhere around the world. Each year Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May. Today's Google Doodle reads, "Happy Mothers Day! Craft and Send Art From Your Heart in Today's Google Doodle". On clicking the doddle, which shows Google letters in craft setting, you enter a small window with set of design options, for creating a card. You can opt for the designs and place them on the empty card. The different craft icons available include heart, flowers, animals, appliques. You can make changes in design by clicking the undo button on the left of the icon bar and go back to designing. Once the card is complete, click on the "Send" option and you can share it with your mother via email or share it on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter. So tell your mother what she means to you. The Google Doodle blog said, ''All that glitters is not gold, but sometimes it comes in handy. Whether they're near or far, make Mom a little piece of art from your heart in todays interactive, digital card-maker Doodle. Happy Mother's Day.'' Mother's Day began in the United States, at the initiative of Anna Jarvis in the early 20th century. So, if you are running out of ideas on how to greet your mother on this special day, try making a wish virtually. Happy Mother's Day! The hopes of a man who became a ragpicker was shattered after being unable to spot discarded objects on the empty streets here due to the ongoing lockdown. But help came from Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren when his attention was drawn to the plight of the man. The chief minister gave him a rickshaw, some cash and masks on Sunday, a release from the Chief Minister's Office said. The man, identified as Raj Kumar Ravidas, told the chief minister that he became a ragpicker to feed his family after his rickshaw was stolen. "Our government is sensitive to the poor and the needy. Immediate assistance is provided whenever such matters come to our notice," Soren said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Author, Emily Giffin really doesnt like the Duchess of Sussex. It seems to go beyond that, though, Giffin seems to really hate Meghan. Giffin, who penned the novel Something Borrowed, doesnt appear to have a personal connection to the duchess or the royal family. She, however, has dubbed herself a royal watcher and regularly offers commentary on Meghans every move. While most of her comments have flown under the radar, she took everything a step too far recently. In a lengthy Instagram post, Giffin ripped Meghan for reading a story to her child for charity. It didnt take long for Giffins post to go viral, and in publishing it, she pretty much summed up why Meghan and Prince Harry walked away from royal life. Emily Giffin slammed Meghan Markle for being phony and unmaternal Ahead of Archies first birthday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex released a video of Meghan reading a picture book to the baby. With Prince Harry behind the camera, Meghan held a squirming Archie while reading a simple picture book. The video said to benefit charity, seemed pretty uncontroversial, but as is the case with anything the couple does, the controversy came. Giffin dove into the video, analyzing every aspect of it, according to The Washington Post. She lambasted Meghan as phony, called her unmaternal, and accused the mother of one of being desperate for attention. While her most recent musings may have grabbed the attention of the media, its certainly not the first time shes digitally attacked the Duchess of Sussex. One Twitter user pointed out that Giffin released a scathing assessment of Archies name shortly after his birth. Emily Giffin has locked down her social media since the controversial comments Giffin may be able to dish out criticism, but it appears as though she cant take it. After her rant went viral, she quickly locked down her social media. Giffins Instagram page and Twitter profile are now set to private. Kaitlin Menza, a write and the co-host of Royally Obsessed, captured portions of the rant. Man oh man does Something Borrowed author Emily Giffin hate Meghan Markle pic.twitter.com/bjnoDNTY9p Kaitlin Menza (@heykmenz) May 6, 2020 The decision to lock down her social media seemingly came after she began receiving backlash for her statements. She Knows points out that Giffin may have been attempting to drum up publicity, but thats seemingly backfired. Fans of the Duchess of Sussex flooded Giffins Amazon author page to leave one-star reviews. In one creatively titled review, Giffin was accused of being a Karen. The slang term, popularized by internet memes, refers to a person who often voices insignificant or imaginary complaints in an obnoxious or entitled manner. Giffin later issued an apology. Giffins rant and apology perfectly exemplifies why the Meghan Markle and Prince Harry left the royals behind Giffin may have written a lengthy explanation about her aggressive posts, insisting that the attack wasnt racially motived, but rather, motived by her deep feelings about the royal split, but even her apology proves a point she likely didnt intend. Giffin, even in her explanation, shows that there is, quite literally, nothing in this world that Meghan can do right to some people. Giffins musings were also a perfect example of the type of behavior that drove Meghan and Prince Harry to seek refuge in life as private citizens. Meghan Markle | Ben Birchall WPA Pool / Getty Images Admittedly, Giffins rant is only the latest example of how poorly the media has treated Meghan. In January 2020, Buzzfeed gathered 20 headlines that compared the British Medias coverage of Meghan and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. The Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William have gotten a much more positive spin from the British media than Meghan and Prince Harry. At every turn, Meghan was vilified often while exhibiting the same behavior or actions as her sister-in-law. Sadly, the royal split has done nothing to change that. The only thing that has seemingly changed is Meghan and Prince Harrys location. If a person can muster up so much vitriol over a video of a woman reading to her child, what could Meghan possibly do that would receive a glowing endorsement? Nothing seems to be the answer. One can surmise that if Meghan and Prince Harry had reversed roles, with the prince narrating the story, critics would be suggesting that Archies mother is disengaged. A fire broke out at a hospital in Moscow where coronavirus patients were reportedly receiving treatment, forcing authorities to evacuate more than 200 people. According to reports, one person was killed in the incident and several others were left injured. The blaze that started in a patient's room in the hospital has since been put out, the emergency ministry was quoted as saying in local media reports. Read: Russias Regions Battle Coronavirus Their Own Way The cause of the fire is still unknown but Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow has said that a thorough investigation will be carried out into the matter. "In one of the buildings on the ground floor of the hospital No. 50 there was a fire. The fire was quickly extinguished. All patients are evacuated and will be transported to other hospitals. Unfortunately, there were some casualties. According to preliminary data, one of the patients died. I am sorry for his family and friends," Segei wrote on Twitter. Read: Russia Bans Online Videos About 'man-made' Origin Of COVID-19 COVID-19 in Russia The hospital was one of the many facilities in the Russian capital of Moscow where coronavirus patients were being treated. Several regions in Russia, including Moscow have been under lockdown since March to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus that has killed over 1,800 in the country and more than 2,79,000 people worldwide. Read: Russia's Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova Tests Positive For Coronavirus (Image Credit: AP) When the news broke that Britain was going into lockdown, Mark Cribb admits his first reaction was to panic. His 12-bedroom boutique hotel, beachside cafe and restaurant in Bournemouth would have to close, slashing his income to almost nothing potentially for many months just as the crucial summer season approached. But with dozens of staff and his own livelihood at risk, it wasn't long before his entrepreneurial mind started to whirl. Small business owners can apply for 3,000 of free advertising in DMGT's newspapers 'After 'panic stations!' my second thought was, 'how do we get out of this?',' says Cribb, whose leisure company Urban Guild usually turns over 4.5million a year. Determined to keep going somehow, Cribb has converted the car park of his hotel, Urban Beach, into Bournemouth's first drive-through restaurant, where customers pre-order, pre-pay and then drive to an allotted bay at a set time where their freshly cooked evening meal is loaded into their boot all contact-free. 'We managed to get a website set up in 72 hours and launched last weekend,' says Cribb. 'We took 1,800 compared to a normal Saturday night's takings of around 30,000, so it's a drop in the ocean, but it felt great to be actually doing something. To walk into the kitchen and see the burners on was quite emotional.' Cribb, who hopes to expand the drive-through service to offer sales of frozen food, says he is living off his overdraft 'and with the help of some very patient suppliers'. He is waiting for a 300,000 Government-backed emergency coronavirus loan to be approved. 'The sector is really on the brink and we need a lot more help from Government,' he says, 'but the great thing is seeing the support we've got from the community.' It is stories like Cribb's, of bravery and a determination to keep calm and carry on even as a severe economic downturn threatens the existence of millions of small British firms, that has prompted the Daily Mail and General Trust, the owner of The Mail on Sunday, to launch a groundbreaking support package in collaboration with the Federation of Small Businesses. That's the spirit: Boutique hotel owner Mark Cribb From this Wednesday, small business owners can apply for 3,000 of free advertising in DMGT's stable of newspapers. Your 3,000 fund will give you access to a branded advert in the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, the i newspaper and the Metro. On top of that, you will get online adverts on Mail Online, one of the world's biggest news websites, and Metro.co.uk, which is read by millions across the UK. Support from our community is great Boutique hotel owner Mark Cribb To help you get the most out of your fund, a dedicated local account manager from Mail Metro Media, our marketing experts, will be on hand to tailor the advertising campaign to your business and to your customers. We will even create adverts for you if you don't have them ready to go. DMGT will hand out 1,000 funds. But businesses will need to meet our criteria and will be subject to assessment by a panel of representatives from DMGT and the Federation of Small Businesses. To qualify, business owners must employ no more than 150 staff and have an annual turnover of less than 6 million. Your business must also have been in operation for more than six months. Unfortunately, that means the newest start-ups, which may have yet to start trading properly, are unable to apply. Reboot your business with FREE adverts worth 3,000 The owner of The Mail on Sunday Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) is offering free advertising in our newspapers to 1,000 small firms who have been hit by the coronavirus crisis. DMGT has launched the scheme in collaboration with the trade body the Federation of Small Businesses to help small firms bounce back as the lockdown is eased. WHAT YOU GET 3,000 of free advertising in The Mail on Sunday, Daily Mail, Metro, the i, Mail Online and Metro.co.uk. A local account manager to ensure your advertising is tailored to your business and customers. Adverts created for you by us if you dont have them ready to go. A choice of when the adverts run. WHO CAN APPLY You must meet the following criteria: Your business employs 150 people or fewer. Your annual turnover doesnt exceed 6 million. You are in a position to redeem the 3,000 advertising fund before September 30, 2020. The 3,000 funds will be handed out based on the strength of your application. It will be popular so dont delay. ... AND HERES WHAT TO DO Applications will open on Wednesday, May 13. Go to grants.fsb.org.uk and create an account. Provide details including: number of employees, turnover and when you want to start advertising. Include a brief description of how the adverts would help your business recover and how your company has coped during the Covid-19 crisis. We will contact you by email within seven days if you are successful. For full terms and conditions see: grants.fsb.org.uk/terms-and-conditions.html Your firm will need to be in a position to spend the 3,000 fund on adverts in our newspapers before September 30, 2020. Any credit left by that date cannot be carried over. In their applications, businesses will need to explain how the fund will help them get back on their feet or keep helping them to help their local community. We are also asking you for a brief description of how your company has coped during the Covid-19 crisis. These might include adapting to the lockdown measures by supporting vital services, such as health workers or by getting food to the needy. This will be taken into consideration in the panel's assessment of your application. You will need to submit a high resolution version of your company logo and details including the number of employees on the books, estimated annual turnover it doesn't need to be exact and when you would like to start your advertising campaign. Businesses that are still unable to trade due to the lockdown will be able to say that they do not wish to place any adverts until they can accept customers again. Pub boss Shiv Lewis is determined the 150-year old Garibaldi pub in Redhill, Surrey, will survive the coronavirus crisis Some may wish to promote the other work they are doing during the crisis. In short, you will be able to create an advert with us that works for your business and decide when it should appear. To apply, go to grants.fsb.org.uk. Successful applicants will be notified by email. Martin Smith, Mail Metro Media's executive director of Direct Sales, says: 'Businesses are facing the toughest challenges imaginable and we are committed to supporting them as best we can. 'As a company, we match our words with action, which is why we are providing 3million of free advertising for hundreds of small firms, who are so vital to this country's economy.' Were busy... and thats to be celebrated Pilgrim Brewery's Rory Fry-Stone More and more brave businesses are adapting to these extraordinary times by launching extraordinarily creative new ventures. The 150-year old Garibaldi pub in Redhill, Surrey, has survived wars, recessions and the threat of being turned into flats. Its general manager Shiv Lewis is determined it will survive the coronavirus crisis as well. The pub's off-licence means it is able to sell drinks off-site, but she also wanted to be able to sell essential groceries to the community. 'We looked at finding a supply chain but all the cash-and-carrys were overwhelmed and weren't taking new customers,' she says. Thankfully, she found MyPubShop, a new, not-for-profit initiative created by the e-commerce outfit StarStock, which enables pubs and cafes to sell online. Pilgrim Brewery's co-owner Rory Fry-Stone Backed by suppliers such as Brakes and Bestway, MyPubShop means pubs can source and sell groceries as well as beer, wine, spirits and soft drinks. When customers place an order with The Garibaldi via MyPubShop, they are called with a pick-up time and can buy anything from baked beans to freshly pulled pints of draught ale, all contact-free. 'I'm a complete technophobe, but even I can manage the platform and it's been an absolute lifeline for us,' says Shiv. 'Turnover is still down but only by half, meaning we've been able to pay our bills and our suppliers. 'We've also been able to keep an eye on our local community and support our local breweries, such as Pilgrim Brewery in Reigate, so they can keep trading too.' Sam Ulph, of StarStock, says that the coronavirus crisis meant it couldn't launch a new e-commerce product as planned, so it launched MyPubShop in just seven days so pubs could keep trading. More than 7,000 businesses and customers have already signed up to the site, which is backed by pub chains including Admiral Taverns, Greene King and St Austell. 'It's free for pubs to use and means they can sell anything from the basic essentials to hot meals, fish and chips, Sunday roast, whatever they like,' says Ulph. 'Some cafes and delis are finding that they're making more money from deliveries and takeaways than they were before lockdown.' The independently owned Pilgrim Brewery in Reigate, Surrey, says it is the oldest craft brewery in the South East and, by focusing its business on sales via its Tap Room and outlets such as The Garibaldi, as well as local delis and farm shops, has been able to keep turnover the same as this time last year. 'The local support has been incredible,' says Pilgrim Brewery's co-owner Rory Fry-Stone. 'I think everyone was in a state of shock at the beginning but by concentrating on retail sales and bottled beers we are keeping our heads above water. 'We love this industry and at the moment we're busy, which in the current climate is something to be celebrated.' Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Claire Jiao and Ditas Lopez (Bloomberg) Sun, May 10, 2020 22:05 618 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd71804f 2 News Manila,Philippines,travel,tourism,coronavirus,COVID-19,Airport Free Manilas international airport will allow international charter and commercial flights to resume arriving on designated days, beginning Monday. Inbound international chartered flights will be permitted to land at Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Mondays and Thursdays, while commercial ones will be allowed on the other days of the week, the civil aviation authority said in a statement. That schedule will last for a month, until June 10. Read also: Philippine economy shrinks first time in two decades The Philippines suspended all commercial passenger flights to and from the country on May 3 because of the coronavirus outbreak, while allowing outbound flights to resume the next day. It cited congested quarantine facilities for Filipino workers returning from overseas as the reason for the suspension. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the insufferably pompous impeachment witness against President Trump who was billed as Mr. Straight-Arrow, and wore his medalled military uniform to congressional hearings to get the point across, has been, like former Defense department official Evelyn Farkas, caught declaring one thing for the cameras, and another thing in secret testimony under penalty of perjury. According to Breitbart News: Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman admitted he made up elements of President Donald Trumps call with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an official summary. Prior to the call, Vindman included a discussion about corruption in the talking points provided to the president but Trump did not use them in the call. ...and... But Vindman clarified during his testimony that the president did not bring up the topic rooting out corruption during the phone call, but he included it in his summary of the call anyway. When asked by the Democrat counsel about whether the summary he wrote was false, Vindman hesitated. Which meant he shouldn't have included them. If Trump said it, sure, put it in. If he didn't, don't put it in. Anything else is fiction. This isn't complicated. Here's Don Trump Jr.'s scorn: Strange that the media isnt talking about this... couple of months ago he was so great they would write about him all the time, but I guess that was when he was a useful idiot to their hoax? Alexander Vindman Admits Making up Parts of Trump Call Summary https://t.co/JysYkFGDRz Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 9, 2020 Vindman later spuriously clarified that he had put the talking points in because they were 'U.S. policy'-- as if that were something President Trump were entirely foreign to. It rather recalls his Ukraine congressional testimony during impeachment in which he justified his arguments against Trump as not following foreign policy, too -- (as he incidentally determined it). Which comes off as pretty darn obnoxious for a guy hailed in the lefist press as a classic American military hero. Don Trump Jr. definitely noticed: Strange that the media isnt talking about this... couple of months ago he was so great they would write about him all the time, but I guess that was when he was a useful idiot to their hoax? Alexander Vindman Admits Making up Parts of Trump Call Summary https://t.co/JysYkFGDRz Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 9, 2020 And remember all the slavering praise Vindman got? Here's one element from a selection of letters cherrypicked and published by the New York Times read: Here is the epitome of public service, a person who knows what truth, honor and duty mean and why they matter. This is what patriotism looks like, what courage consists of, what a hero is. Colonel Vindman continues his work of defending and protecting our nation. His example gives the inspiration we need. His action renews our faith that one person can make a difference, that sunlight will break the darkness. Thank you, sir. There also were pious pompous stunts on his behalf, lapped up by the press: More than 1,000 military veterans have criticised Donald Trump for his attacks on Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, saying the president has prioritised a personal vendetta over our national security. President Trump fired Lt. Col. Vindman from the National Security Council after being acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial. He was one of the key witnesses in the impeachment inquiry, along with ambassador to the EU Gordon Sonland, whom the administration has also fired. In an open letter , the veterans write that the presidents dismissal of Lt. Col. Vindman is an assault on the military and all who have served in it, as well as on the foundation of the US itself. A guy like that who throws stones at the president seems to have a pretty slack standard for truth for himself, even on seemingly small matters. Apparently, it's O.K. if he does it, because he sets foreign policy. Trump, by contrast, is just this supplicant, subservient to the deep state in Vindman's view. That's not how things go in normal-world. Trump is the commander in chief, and Vindman is an insubordinate subordinate with a penchant for slanting the truth. He was too smart to do it under oath, which would have exposed him to perjury charges, but he was perfectly happy to put it in a memo, the better to Get Trump. It all boils down to yet another one like Farkas, being exposed to saying one thing in public to sway the public and another thing under oath. Call him the male Evelyn Farkas, except that there are probably a lot like him out there. There's probably nothing to stop him now, but it doesn't mean there shouldn't be. The constant lies at odd with sworn testimony from the same people is clearly a bid to sway public opinion against Trump. This is getting to be an Obama administration pattern. Image credit: PBS, via YouTube, screen shot, detail, enhanced If there is any blessing when it comes to Covid-19, it's that our children aren't dying. One thing we've learnt in the past four months (that's how recent it is) is that Covid-19 is mainly a disease of older people. The numbers behind it tell us that children are largely being spared. One number when it comes to children, however, is striking. This is a virus that has put one-third of the world's population into quarantine. Unprecedented in human history. And a major part of that quarantine is keeping children home from school - 1.1 billion children are currently being kept out of school. This has never happened before, not even during World War II, so Covid-19 breaks yet another record. And in spite of all the effort being put into home schooling using technology, there is evidence that teachers working remotely with their pupils can provide 40pc of the education that would normally be provided. Many fear that the most vulnerable are being left behind. Some countries are carefully reopening schools. These include China, Taiwan, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Why close schools? Why were schools closed, if children don't especially get sick with Covid-19? There was a fear that children might be 'super-spreaders' - but the science tells us this is not the case. Does the science also tell us that schools in Ireland should begin to reopen? It's perfectly understandable that once the virus began to spread, parents worried about their children. We now know there was no need to worry too much. An analysis of almost 80 studies by child healthcare experts has concluded that the vast majority of children who have been infected either show no symptoms at all, or very mild symptoms and recover. Mercifully, deaths have been very rare. It's not fully clear why this is. Ideas include children having a stronger innate immune response to the virus. Innate immunity is like a shield against germs. It's a bit like the wall with all kinds of sensors to detect different germs including viruses. Children may have more of these sensors and can mobilise them more quickly than in older people. It has also been suggested that children have less ACE2, the lock that the virus needs to open to get inside the cells it infects. Another possibility is that childhood vaccines offer some protection. The measles vaccine was shown to possibly protect against SARS. The BCG vaccine has generated much interest as a possible protector against Covid-19 and many millions of children have been vaccinated with it. These vaccines may be strengthening their defences. A final possible explanation is that children get more colds from other Coronaviruses which protect against Covid-19. Overall, this is good news. But what about whether children can spread Covid-19? The evidence shows that they can, but at no higher a rate than grown-ups. Part of the fear here was that Covid-19 might be like flu, which children spread more than adults. Respiratory illnesses love children, most likely because of all the coughing, sneezing and spitting going on at close quarters in school. Children are more likely to catch flu when compared to adults, who have some protection from previous infections. They are also in contact more with other children from whom they might catch flu, which would justify the closing of schools. Studies have shown, however, that children are less prone to infection with Covid-19 compared to adults. A study of the Italian town of Vo examined the entire population of around 3,000 people. No child under 10 was infected, comparedwith 3pc of the population as a whole. Another study in Holland of 2,000 people revealed that the rate of infection in adults was twice that in children. And as ever, any children infected had a very mild disease. Several studies have been carried out to estimate how many people caught Covid-19 from children compared to adults. One study found similar infection rates, while another showed less infection from children. Studies in Iceland and Holland have revealed that children rarely infect adults, and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has issued a statement saying that child-to-adult transmission 'appears to be uncommon'. It's still not clear whether the closing of schools was an important factor in the slowing down of the spread of Covid-19, however, as some of these studies were done after schools were closed. We may well find out when schools start to reopen, but it will be difficult to disentangle the role of schools compared with other measures should we see a second surge. This leaves us with a clear scientific basis for stating children are no more responsible than adults for spreading infection, and may in fact be less responsible. It was outrageous to hear of parents being prevented from bringing children into shops, and of insults being thrown at children or their parents. Hopefully this just reflects the generalised fear people have about Covid-19. The science now tells us there is no need to be afraid of children when it comes to catching it. Should we reopen schools? We are weighing up the economic damage being done by the lockdown (which has a health cost), against saving the lives of the vulnerable. We now need to weigh up the damage being done to our children by keeping them at home (and the economic damage of parents having to stay home to mind them), against the risk of the virus spreading again and targeting the vulnerable. Studies show that when children were kept home from school (during storms in the US, or during the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, or during a two-month teacher strike in Belgium in 1990), children performed less well in education later in life. School closures have been shown to affect younger children most, who need more guidance and supervision. A worrying study in Norway concluded that school closures there cost the economy 160 for every day the school is closed per child - because of decreased parental productivity in the economy and lower earning potential for the children later in life. Less well-off children are predicted to suffer most, because of less access to online resources and difficult living circumstances. Some countries have tried to lessen the impact. Finland only started distant learning when it concluded that almost every school child could take part. South Korea gave teachers time off teaching to allow them to adapt to new teaching methods. And when it comes to reopening, measures are in place to ensure social distancing and hygiene are maintained, and they may even provide transport for children to get to school. Denmark has focused on the very young and those who have to sit final school exams, because the impact on them is greatest. Germany is also ensuring final-year students can sit their exams. If the science supports the conclusion that these two ends of the educational spectrum might suffer the most, shouldn't Ireland do the same? The jury is still out on whether opening schools fully might lead to an increase in viral transmission. But shouldn't we think about the pupils who might suffer most from their schools being closed and take the risk on them going back to school? We want to make sure the brave new post-Covid-19 world of the future is as good as we can make it - if not better than before. Opening schools is one way to do it. Otherwise we might be damaging the future prospects of our children. And who wants to do that? Luke O'Neill is professor of biochemistry in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology at Trinity College Dublin 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... U.S. lawmakers urge world leaders to back Taiwan's participation in WHO ROC Central News Agency 05/09/2020 08:41 PM Washington, May 8 (CNA) Leaders of the United States congressional foreign affairs committees sent a letter to 55 countries Thursday, urging them to support Taiwan's participation in the World Health Organization (WHO). As the world seeks to combat the spread of COVID-19, "it has never been more important to ensure all countries prioritize global health and safety over politics," the letter read. It also highlighted Taiwan's strengths in the field of public health, noting that Taiwan had successfully contained the COVID-19 coronavirus, recording only 440 cases as of May 7, and had donated more than 10 million surgical face masks to its international partners. While Taiwan was invited 2009-2016 to participate in the annual meetings of World Health Assembly (WHA), the governing body of the WHO, it has since been excluded from the meetings, because of Beijing's displeasure at Taiwan's 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen () and her political party, the letter said. By prioritizing China's political interests, the WHO has undermined Taiwan's ability to contribute to the international COVID-19 response and also endangered the health and safety of the island's 23 million people, the letter said. "Diseases know no borders. We urge your government to join us in addressing the pressing issue of Taiwan's inclusion in global health and safety organizations," the letter read. Pushing for Taiwan's invitation to the WHA's May 18-19 virtual session is "the right place to start," it said. The letter to the 55 countries was signed by Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Jim Risch and Ranking Member Robert Menendez, and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel and Ranking Member Michael McCaul. On Sunday, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) issued a statement thanking the members of Congress for their "concrete actions in support of Taiwan's international participation." Taiwan, under its formal name the Republic of China (ROC), was expelled from the WHO in 1972, a few months after the People's Republic of China replaced the ROC as the "only legitimate representative of China" to the United Nations. From 2009-2016, Taiwan participated in the WHA as an observer under the name Chinese Taipei amid better relations with China during the then-Kuomintang administration. Since 2017, however, China has persuaded the WHO not to invite Taiwan to WHA events, in line with its hardline stance against Tsai and her independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party. (By Stacy Hsu and Matthew Mazzetta) Enditem/pc NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Six migrant labourers were killed and 14 others injured, one of them seriously, when the truck in which they were travelling overturned in Madhya Pradesh's Narsinghpur district, a police official said on Sunday. Five of the victims died on the spot, while another one died during treatment, the official said. The accident occurred near Patha village, around 40 kms from the district headquarters on Saturday night when nearly 20 migrant labourers were going in the truck to Jhansi, Etah and Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh from Hyderabad, Additional Superintendent of Police Rajesh Tiwari said. As per the initial investigation, the lorry, which was also carrying raw mangoes, was being driven at a breakneck speed, he said. "While five labourers died on the spot, two critically injured were rushed to a hospital at divisional headquarters Jabalpur- for treatment, where one of them died around 6 pm on Sunday," Tiwari added. Thirteen others, who suffered injuries in the accident, including the truck driver, are undergoing treatment at the (Narsinghpur) district hospital. They have been quarantined, he said. The bodies of the deceased were sent home after post- mortem, the ASP added. The driver has been booked under relevant IPC sections. In a bid to overtake another vehicle, the truck lost its balance and overturned. Truck drivers usually drive the vehicles very fast if they are carrying perishable commodities like vegetables and fruits to the market, he added. "The ill-fated truck was on its way to a mandi (market) in Uttar Pradesh," the ASP added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Washington DC: The Indian and American pharmaceutical companies are currently working together on at least three possible vaccines to fight the coronavirus, India Ambassador to the United States, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, said on Saturday. Sandhu said that India is a "reliable partner" to the US and has been able to fulfill whatever assistance Washington has required."Both International Centre for Medical Education and Research (ICMER) and here the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have been collaborating for a number of years. There is a close cooperation exchange of information. Plus, as I said, collaboration, the at least three vaccines, on which Indian companies, and the United States companies are working together," Sandhu said. He further noted that this is not the first time when the two countries are collaborating over the exchange of information related to medical research. In fact, he said, about two or three years back the ICMR and the CDC had together developed a vaccine for another virus, named the rotavirus. "It has helped not only India but the United States as well along with many other countries," Sandhu said. The US and India have been closely cooperating during COVID-19 crisis and are providing all possible assistance to each other. The leaders of the two countries are in regular touch since the outbreak on the virus. The US has provided almost USD 5.9 million towards health assistance to India to curb the spread of COVID-19. Meanwhile, India also exported a consignment of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) tablets to the US, last month, after a request by President Donald Trump. The HCQ is an anti-malarial drug and has only been recommended as prophylaxis of COVID-19 as per the national taskforce for COVID-19. It is not a cure but this protocol has been recommended by the national task force for mostly frontline healthcare workers and has been approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for restricted use in an emergency situation. Apart from domestic use, India has also exported close to three million of HCQ tablets to more than 87 countries, garnering praise from heads of state of various nations. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has ordered a probe into the drowning of several Afghan migrants last week after reports that Iranian border guards allegedly forced them into a river. Afghan authorities had already been investigating the incident, but Ghani on May 8 formed a new 10-member team to look into the deaths after 18 bodies of migrants were recovered, some of them bearing signs of torture. Officials claim the migrants drowned in the Harirud River while illegally crossing into Iran from Afghanistans western Herat Province. A decree issued by Ghani orders the team to carry out a thorough investigation into reports about the deaths of several countrymen along the Iranian border," the presidents office said in a statement. Abdul Ghani Noori, the governor of Herat Province, said earlier on May 8 that out of 55 Afghan migrants who were forced into the river authorities had so far recovered 18 bodies and six were still missing. Human Rights Watch (HRW) on May 4 called allegations that Iranian border guards beat and then forced Afghan migrants into the river shocking. Afghan officials said last week that the Afghans were beaten, tortured, and then forced into the Harirud River by Iranian border guards. The allegations are indeed shocking, Patricia Gossman, an associate director for the Asia division at HRW, told RFE/RL on May 4. It really requires a very thorough investigation into what exactly happened, she added. Gossman said if proven, the actions of the Iranian border guards would amount to a very serious human rights violation. Abbas Musavi, a spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, said the "incident" took place on Afghan soil. "Border guards of the Islamic Republic of Iran denied the occurrence of any events related to this on the soil of our country," he said in a statement on May 3, adding that Tehran would launch an investigation. Decades of conflict, extreme poverty, and high rates of unemployment force thousands of Afghans to illegally cross the border to Iran every year. There are currently up to 1 million registered Afghan refugees in Iran, while the country hosts another 2 million undocumented Afghans, according to the United Nations. Based on reporting by AFP To bolster the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Sunday held a video conference with the MLAs and MPs of different divisions of the state and sought their suggestions. The video conference, which has been planned in various slots for different divisions, started with the Udaipur division on Sunday morning. Rajasthan Assembly Speaker CP Joshi stressed that citizens and the government need to change their way of functioning. He said political parties should try to allay people's fears over the spread of the infection. During the video conference, Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria raised the issue of migrant labours and claimed that the people with valid movement passes were being made to wait for hours before entering the state. "A number of labourers are still walking on foot to reach their native places and there are no proper arrangements for food and water, he said. Kataria said the Congress government needs to focus on tribal areas where hunger is likely to become a major issue in coming days. BJP MLA Kiran Maheshwari requested the chief minister to allow the opposition party MLAs to carry out inspection of quarantine centres so that improved feedback could be provided to the government. Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) MLA Rajkumar Roat suggested Gehlot to make a programme for the revival of old wells in tribal areas through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) which would help tribal people in irrigation and other purposes. The chief minister, in the video conference, informed the leaders about the works being done by the state government to handle the prevailing COVID-19 situation. He said the state government wants to take everyone along in the fight against the deadly disease. Gehlot said Rajasthan's mortality rate, recovery rate and doubling rate of COVID-19 patients are far better than the national average. Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and members of the council of ministers also attended the video conference. The chief minister is scheduled to interact with MLAs and MPs of Jodhpur, Bikaner, Bharatpur and Kota division on Sunday evening. The video conference with the MLAs and MPs from Jaipur and Ajmer divisions will be held on Monday. There are a total of 3,741 coronavirus cases in the state and 107 people have lost their lives due to the disease. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Western Cape has seen a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases over the last week, raising concerns it will move to level 5 lockdown again. On Saturday, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize visited the Western Cape to discuss the rise in infections in the province. This followed a call from health portfolio committee chairperson Sibongiseni Dhlomo for the government to intervene to lower the spread of the virus in the province. The ANC in the Western Cape, meanwhile, wants the government to impose a level 5 lockdown in the province. The DA-led Western Cape government must face the fact that half of the people infected in South Africa come from this province, the ANCs Danville Smith said. This province faces its biggest health challenge ever and needs to go back to the level 5 quarantine urgently to slow down infections. Mkhize, however, said the spread of COVID-19 in the Western Cape was not out of the ordinary. He said the government will provide the province with support, including additional resources and healthcare worker training, to address the increase in cases. Western Cape Premier Alan Winde also dismissed calls to move the province back to level 5, as it is too early for such drastic measures. Speaking to eNCA, Winde said the worst is yet to come as they are currently doubling their numbers every eight days. He said this increase is in line with expectations. We know well move to 80,000 infections in one week, said Winde. Western Capes high number of cases Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced yesterday that South Africa has recorded 9,420 confirmed COVID-19 cases. The Western Cape contributed 4,585 cases to that number. The severity of the outbreak in the province is clearly illustrated in the number of infections per 100,000 people. Media Hack reported that the Western Cape has 70 infections per 100,000 people. This is much higher than the Eastern Cape (16), Gauteng (13), and KwaZulu-Natal (12). The reason for the rapid increase in cases, Mkhize explained, is caused by cluster outbreaks in certain areas. The cluster outbreaks and the early onset of local transmissions is what led to the higher COVID-19 numbers in the province. Cluster outbreaks are happening in commercial settings like factories and retail shops, said Mkhize. He said these cluster outbreaks can happen anywhere, adding there is nothing the Western Cape is doing differently which is causing the higher numbers. He congratulated the Western Cape government for its case management however, he urged the province to strengthen its quarantine process. Western Cape versus Gauteng The two provinces with the highest number of COVID-19 cases are the Western Cape and Gauteng. These two provinces have a very different trajectory in terms of COVID-19 infections, though. Gauteng had a rapid rise in cases, which was followed by a plateau after the lockdown was implemented. The Western Cape, in comparison, has seen a steady rise in cases since the pandemic hit the province. The charts below show the difference in the growth in COVID-19 cases in the Western Cape and Gauteng over the past month. Active COVID-19 Cases (Active Cases = Total Cases Recoveries Deaths) Total COVID-19 Cases COVID-19 Deaths Infections per 100,000 people Now read: Why South Africa must move to level 2 now 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) Photo credit: DARPA via C4ISRNet From Popular Mechanics DARPA is working with the U.S. Navy to create a class of ships that would be completely unmanned. If successful, it would represent a ten year leap over the current pace of technological development. The Navy is still working on a separate project to develop optionally, or lightly manned warships. The U.S. Navy is teaming up with DARPA to develop autonomous, robotic ships that are completely human free. The NOMARS (No Mariners Required Ship) concept, if successful, would be a huge leap over current unmanned surface vessel development efforts. The result could be a warship able to do the tedious, dangerous, and dirty jobs all by itself, keeping human-crewed ships safe from harmand boredom. The Navy, struggling to grow the fleet on a flat defense budget, is making a big push into unmanned surface vessels, or USVs. The Navy plans to build ten Large Unmanned Surface Vehicle ships , 200 to 300 foot long vessels displacing 2,000 tons, in five years. LUSV would act as a scout, sailing ahead of the fleet to detect threats early, or floating magazine, carrying a large load of missiles. LUSV would ideally be autonomous, or optionally manned with a small crew. NOMARS is a separate, parallel effort to develop an entirely autonomous ship. While LUSV is based on existing ship designs and will have built-in accommodations for humans, NOMARS will be an unmanned ship from the ground up. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) told C4ISRNet that the project will take what the Navy wants to do with the ship, hull size requirements, and other factors and try to make a ship out of it. NOMARS promises to be a totally different breed of ship. NOMARS would likely be much smaller than a similarly capable human crewed vessel, as designers could strip out everything related to human habitation. The ships bridge, combat information center, living accommodations, mess, recreation room, bathrooms, and even hallways would all become redundant, shrinking the size of the ship dramatically. LUSV, based on small ships used to resupply offshore oil rigs, will still have all of these features but with hardly anyone to use them. Story continues An artists depiction of NOMARS shows the sharp difference between a completely unmanned ship and an optionally manned one. The NOMARS concept ship sits low in the water with a high mast for sensors and communications. The robo-ship has what looks like four angled launchers for missiles, possibly reloaded from within the hull. The ship lacks windows, rails, walkways, or anything supporting a human crew. DARPA admits that taking people completely off ships may not even be possible but if it is, NOMARS would be a huge asset to the Navy of the future. A robotic ship could dutifully do the boring work of sailing and down the coastline of countries such as North Korea, eavesdropping on radar, radio, and cell phone communications. In wartime it could use its missile launchers to enhance the firepower of the U.S. fleet or outmaneuver an enemy fleet, presenting a threat from a different direction. It could even electronically impersonate warships such as cruisers or even aircraft carriers, luring incoming anti-ship missiles away from manned warships. A NOMARS-type ship is inevitable. Until recently, the primary driver to build an unmanned warship was to build an inexpensive ship that did not require an expensive human crew. Now the COVID-19 coronavirus has given the Navy another reason to go unmanned: humans get sick. The coronavirus sickened sailors on more than two dozen warships, including more than a thousand on the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt. The virus sidelined the Roosevelt and several others while the Navy struggled to take care of its sailors. An unmanned warship does not get sidelined by illness and would be unaffected by a pandemic. In 30 years when robo-warships ply the seas for the U.S. Navy, a virus will partially be responsible. Source: C4ISRNet You Might Also Like At a City Council budget hearing, the administration announced its delaying the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project yet again. Construction is now scheduled to start in the fall instead of the spring. [Politico] The NYPD is once again under fire for targeting people of color after the violent arrest of a man in a social distancing enforcement action outside a deli at East 9th Street and Avenue D. [Gothamist] The Allure Group, former owner of Rivington House, is under scrutiny for its management of a Harlem nursing home during the COVID-19 crisis. [Daily News] The beloved East Village business. Gem Spa, will not reopen. [EV Grieve] One of the citys oldest bars, Paris Cafe in the Seaport District, has closed for good. [Tribeca Citizen] The city is handing out face masks in public spaces, including at Seward Park Monday morning and the Alfred E. Smith Rec Center tomorrow morning. [NYC.gov] P.S, 20 teacher Christine Drago is making the most of virtual learning and making sure her students and their families get the support they need during a difficult time. [Channel 7] Forgtmenots grocery is featured on tv. [Channel 4] The Ohio Lake Erie Commission recently approved its 2020 Lake Erie Protection & Restoration Plan. The plan reflects the state of Ohios strategic priorities for the next two years to protect, preserve, and restore Lake Erie and its watershed, as well as to promote economic development associated with Lake Erie, according to the commission. Additionally, the plan serves as the framework for administering the Lake Erie Protection Fund and securing federal funding to implement projects in Lake Erie, the commission stated. The commission organized its plan into nine priority areas it says addresses current and emerging issues in the Ohio Lake Erie basin. The following are the priority areas and the goals for each: -Nutrient Pollution Reduction: Reduce excess nutrient loads from point and nonpoint sources to Lake Erie and its tributaries to achieve state and Great Lakes targets. -Habitat & Species: Protect, restore, and reintroduce native flora, fauna, and fish that will contribute to the overall health of Lake Erie. -Dredge Material Management and Maritime Infrastructure: Implement beneficial use of dredge material projects for each Ohio Harbor in time for July 1 ban on open lake disposal. The second goal is to identify and invest in maritime infrastructure areas for Ohios Lake Erie harbors and ports to sustain and prepare for existing and emerging port activities. -Invasive Species: Minimize the potential for invasive species to negatively affect native plants and animals and their habitat. -Areas of Concern: Progress toward delisting the Maumee, Black, Cuyahoga, and Ashtabula designated areas of concern from the list of Great Lakes Areas of Concern -Toxic Pollutants: Reduce persistent bioaccumulative toxic pollutants in Lake Erie. The second goal is the clean-up of brownfield and other toxic pollution sources to reduce toxics contribution to Lake Erie. The third goal is to work toward goals set forth through Annex 3 of Great Lakes Chemicals of Mutual Concern. -Beach and Recreational Use: Maintain and improve water quality for safe and healthy recreational uses of Lake Erie. -Tourism, Jobs, and Economy: Promote economic opportunities that sustain and advance communities and their economic sector assets associated with Lake Erie. -Water Withdrawals: Support the Great Lakes Compact, which serves as the binding agreement between the eight Great Lakes states for the protection and management of Great Lakes waters. Ohio has established a permitting program for new or increased water withdrawals and consumptive uses within the basin. The state will continue to maintain and manage the waters of Lake Erie and its consumptive uses within Ohios basin area. The 2020 plan also includes a list of accomplishments from its previous plan that was released in 2016. Among those accomplishments was removing five Beneficial Use Impairments from the four Lake Erie Ohio Areas of Concern. Another was launching an updated Beaches and Harmful Algal Blooms Advisories system. Another accomplishment included implementing $18 million to reduce, repair, and replace home sewage treatment systems in 27 counties of the Lake Erie Basin. Another was the publishing of two two Nutrient Mass Balance studies by Ohio EPA to characterize loading of nutrients in key watershed basins. The Ohio Lake Erie Commission was established in 1990 and coordinates state efforts to protect and restore the lake. The commission participates in federal and international Great Lakes policies and programs, and engages with local communities and other stakeholders for outreach about Lake Erie resources, according to the report. The commission is comprised of the directors of six Ohio agencies: the Environmental Protection Agency and the departments of Natural Resources, Resources, Health, Agriculture, Transportation, and Development Services. Five additional members are appointed by the governor and two board members of the Great Lakes Protection Fund who serve as ex-officio members of the Ohio Lake Erie Commission. More information regarding the plan can be found at https://lakeerie.ohio.gov/LakeEriePlanning/LakeErieProtectionandRestorationStrategy.aspx The coffins of two members of France's fabled foreign legion killed in its anti-jihadist operations in west Africa were on Thursday given a guard of honour in a Paris, a city otherwise deserted by the coronavirus lockdown. Soldiers wearing face masks stood to pay their respects as the convoy with the hearses transporting the bodies of the two soldiers passed through the city devoid of its usual crowds. As is traditional, they crossed the Alexander III bridge across the Seine in the centre of Paris prior to a commemoration ceremony at the Invalides memorial complex. The two French legionnaires died in separate incidents in Mali. Kevin Clement, 21, was killed by enemy fire in an anti-jihadist operation. Brigadier Dmytro Martynyouk, who reports said was born in Ukraine, died from wounds caused by an IED explosion in April. Forty-three French soldiers have been killed in the Sahel region since Paris deployed troops in 2013 in its former colony to help local forces battling jihadist insurgents. The numbers of France's Barkhane force have been increased from 4,500 to 5,100 soldiers, in a move Paris hopes will give them the upper hand on the ground where jihadists have upped attacks in the last months. Lockdown porn is the Democrats frantic, pulsating desire to keep Americans locked down indefinitely to save just one life. The reality is that the Wuhan virus is less deadly than first thought and that the lockdown is the real killer. Theres a lot of data behind this post, so Ill keep it brief while urging you to follow the links. Remember that Americans agreed to a short lockdown to flatten the curve that is, to give our healthcare system some lead-time to cope with a predicated onslaught. Now, however, people trapped in Democrat-run states are told either that this abnormal America will continue either until the virus is eradicated or theres a vaccine. The unspoken deadline is probably the election, for Democrats hope a bad economy will make Trump lose or at least get a Democrat-majority Congress. To this end, Democrats keep moving the goal by telling Americans that, unless the lockdown continues, mass death is inevitable. Governor Gavin Newsom warned Californians, Were not going back to normal until either total immunity or vaccination. In Michigan, the Attorney General used the state police to shut down a 77-year-old barber. The leftist media is also on the job. The Atlantic assures its credulous readers that nothing can reopen until every American has been tested and tracked: To allow the recovery to begin, the United States must implement the kind of strategy that other countries have used to defeat the coronavirus. It must test widely to find infected people; trace their contacts, who might themselves have been infected; and isolate that potentially infectious group from the rest of the susceptible population. Setting up this kind of infrastructure was one of the initial goals of the social-distancing measures that states and cities started in March. The Washington Post, in a headline, warns its readers that any efforts Trump makes to save the economy will kill Americans: As deaths mount, Trump tries to convince Americans its safe to inch back to normal. Thats how the left sees things, as an amalgam of base emotion and a lust for political power. In Reality World, things are different. There, we learn that the Wuhan Virus isnt that bad unless youre unfortunate enough to be in a nursing home or a state with a power-mad Democrat governor imposing draconian lockdowns. Whats going on in nursing homes is a tragedy: Of the 39 states (and Washington D.C.) that are reporting nursing home deaths, 19 states attribute more than half of their coronavirus deaths to the nursing home population. [snip] How much of our population is made up of nursing home residents? There are about 1.4 to 1.5 million people living in nursing homes, according to Dr. Tanya Gure, section chief of geriatrics and associate professor in internal medicine at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. If we go with the high estimate, that means that nursing home residents account for .46 percent of the population of the United States, yet nursing home residents account for approximately 43.4 percent of coronavirus deaths (or 51.6 percent if you double New Yorks count to compensate for the exclusion of nursing home resident hospital deaths, per Kerpens suggestion). Thats a staggering statistic. This didnt have to happen. Instead of locking down healthy people, we should have redoubled our efforts to protect the vulnerable. Heres another statistic: 60% of Wuhan Virus deaths occurred in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, all Democrat-run states with huge lockdowns instead of targeted approaches. Youre pretty safe elsewhere. Arizonas anti-body testing is following the same pattern thats found in other regions: More people have had the virus than we first realized, making the mortality rate at most 0.2%, and possibly lower. Trump was right. A model says that masks, not lockdowns will slow the disease: If you do get extremely sick, though, the medical world is always coming up with better treatments. Finally, despite the medias sick, desperate hope that Georgia Governor Kemps opening his state would result in mass deaths, the opposite is true: Today marks the lowest number of COVID-19 positive patients currently hospitalized statewide (1,203) since hospitals began reporting this data on April 8th. Today also marks the lowest total of ventilators in use (897 with 1,945 available). We will win this fight together! pic.twitter.com/byxACEiQCp Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) May 9, 2020 While the Wuhan Virus isnt deadly, the lockdown is: An Oakland study says social isolation is expected to cause 75,000 more deaths of despair over the next decade, with employment serving as the best antidote. An Australian study claims lockdowns will cause more suicide deaths, especially among the young, than they will save lives from the Wuhan Virus. Lockdowns will cause an extra 1.4 million tuberculosis deaths in the next five years because people are not getting tested or treated. We can expect epidemic childhood diseases to surge as people delay vaccinations and health checks for their children. Its not the disease thats killing us; its the prevention, and this prevention needs to stop immediately. DHS Document Reveals 11 Coronavirus Cases in US Secret Service, Report Claims Sputnik News 01:55 GMT 09.05.2020 Earlier in March, the Secret Service reported that one of its employees had tested positive for the novel coronavirus and was sent directly to quarantine without coming into contact with any other employee, according to the federal law enforcement agency. Several members of the US Secret Service reportedly now are infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus, according to Department Homeland Security documents obtained by Yahoo News. According to a DHS daily report, there are currently 11 cases of COVID-19 registered in the Secret Service. Along with the 11 cases, there are reportedly 23 employees who have recovered from the disease and 60 others who are on self-quarantine. It is unclear whether the listed employees have been in contact with the US president or vice president, as well as those reportedly infected. "To protect the privacy of our employee's health information and for operational security, the Secret Service is not releasing how many of its employees have tested positive for COVID-19, nor how many of its employees were, or currently are, quarantined", Secret Service spokeswoman Justine Whelan said. Whelan asserted that the Secret Service is following coronavirus-related guidelines, without, however, saying how many employees working in the White House complex have tested positive for the coronavirus. "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. The Secret Service continues to follow guidance issued by the CDC to ensure the health and welfare of our employees and those they come in contact with", Whelan stated. This comes as an aide to Vice President Mike Pence and a spokesperson for the VP have tested positive for COVID-19. The White House stated that both Pence and Trump continue to test negative for the disease. Earlier in March, the Secret Service announced that one of its employees had the coronavirus and had been sent to quarantine without having contacted other employees. The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the US is 1,283,908 people, while the disease has claimed over 77,000 lives, according to data provided by Johns Hopkins University. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The UK government will bring in a 14-day quarantine for anyone arriving in the country from anywhere apart from the Republic of Ireland in response to the coronavirus pandemic, said a report. The new restriction, which will require air passengers arriving in the UK to self-isolate at a private residence, is expected to take effect at the end of this month, BBC reported The quarantine would mean people might be expected to provide an address when they arrive at the border, the report said. It is not clear how long the new travel restriction would be in place and whether non-UK residents would be allowed to stay in rented private accommodation. It is also not clear whether there are plans to quarantine people arriving to the UK via other modes of transport. Hospital waiting lists could see a backlog of 7.2 million people by autumn due to lockdown delays. A study into the harm done by the Covid-19 restrictions suggested that delays caused by the virus have meant 1.3 million extra patients were added to waiting lists to see specialists, on top of the 4.4 million people in February. As many as 3.5 million people could need an outpatient appointment as services return this month, and the entire NHS waiting list could surpass 7 million before October, analysis by healthcare provider Medefer estimates. Chairman of the British Medical Association Dr Chaand Nagpaul told the Sunday Times the findings highlighted the fears of many doctors that non-coronavirus patients were not being properly looked after. He said: 'Many ill patients are not getting the care they so desperately need now and, crucially, risking their conditions getting worse, and with some maybe even dying as a result.' Professor Derek Alderson from the Royal College of Surgeons of England said that patients who could wait for a month four weeks ago will not be able to endure constant postponement. PPE supplies arrive from Tianjin, China at Bournemouth International Airport today Last month medics warned that up to 2,700 cancers were being missed every week as the numbers being referred by doctors for urgent hospital appointments or checks had dropped by 75 per cent. Professor Karol Sikora, a cancer specialist, had warned that the impact of the coronavirus outbreak could result in 50,000 cancer deaths. And in April Cancer Research UK figures showed the numbers of patients being referred urgently to hospital with suspicious symptoms has dropped by 75 per cent since the start of the outbreak. Sarah Woolnough from Cancer Research said: 'They have absolutely plummeted. 'People are really worried about going into a health setting. In a way, it's a measure of the effectiveness of the message, "Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives". 'You begin to see the unintended consequences. You've got two problems going on. You've got people not seeking help and screening has been paused. So you're not detecting cancers early in the way you would like to. Medical staff outside Mater Hospital in Belfast join in the applause during the nationwide Clap for Carers amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis 'What's so worrying for us is that we spent the past decade saying, 'if you suspect cancer, please seek help'. Steven McIntosh, from Macmillan Cancer Support, added: Theres really worrying evidence that fewer people are coming forward and getting cancer symptoms diagnosed. If youve experienced signs of cancer you must urgently contact your GP. Hospitals have been given the order to resume services that came to a stop in March to allow more capacity during the ongoing crisis. The action led to the postponement of millions of operations. Doctors have said some may have already died due to the drastic measure. Chief executive of the NHS Confederation, Niall Dickson, said that resuming services would not simply be a matter of returning to normal - and could be 'more complex and challenging' than preparing the NHS for the coronavirus outbreak. AROUND P320 million of financial subsidy is expected to be disbursed to more than 64,000 rice farmers in Bohol and Negros Oriental from the Department of Agriculture's (DA) Financial Subsidy for Rice Farmers (FSRF) in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to DA-Central Visayas Director Salvador Diputado, the latest report from Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP)-Bohol indicated that the release of the P5,000 dole out started on Friday, May 8, 2020. DA-Central Visayas said that the region's main agriculture office was able to submit 64,033 names of rice farmers to DA Central Office for the processing of the said subsidy. The number surpassed the regional target of around 62,142 rice farmers. Based on the guidelines, only rice farmers tilling below one hectare and are duly registered in the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA) are qualified to avail of the P5,000 cash assistance under the DA's FSRF. Of these, 1,497 farmers have already received their cash subsidy because they already have an existing LBP account. "These 64,000 rice farmers, whose names we submitted to Central Office, took us sometime in encoding. We needed to verify and validate to avoid duplication of entries. There are instances that some farmers will fill-up the RSBSA forms twice or thrice because their farms are located in different municipalities," Diputado said in a press release. The FSRF is an intervention that will support the rice farmers who are affected of the quarantine due to Covid-19 pandemic. Diputado said that for Central Visayas, only Bohol and Negros Oriental were included due to the areas planted to rice. This is in accordance with the guidelines of the program. Meanwhile, DA said export shipments of agri-fishery products from January to March 2020 grew by 12 percent to $1.31 billion (B), from $1.17 B recorded for the same period in 2019, citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Agriculture Secretary William Dar said this is a complete opposite of the total Philippine exports during the period, which dropped by 5.16 percent to $25.73 B. The biggest agri-fishery export earners were banana, coconut oil, canned tuna, fresh or dried pineapples, desiccated coconut, other prepared fruits (e.g. banana chips), Carrageenan, prepared or preserved pineapples and other cigarettes containing tobacco. Banana was the top farm export commodity in terms of value, with over $489 million shipped out from January to March this year. (JOB with PR) Australian celebrities are marking Mother's Day in very different ways this year, as coronavirus restrictions keeps many families apart. Olivia Newton-John's daughter Chloe Lattanzi has revealed she is unable to see her mother, with Nicole Kidman stuck on the other side of the world from hers. Meanwhile, stars such as Tammy Hembrow and Candice Warner have posed for adorable pictures at home with their young children, as others post emotional tributes to their later mothers, who are no longer with them. Emotional: Stars are marking Mother's Day in different ways this year, as COVID-19 keeps many families apart. Pictured: Tammy Hembrow with children Wolf and Saskia on Sunday David Warner praised wife Candice with a sweet Instagram post on Sunday. As she posed with their three children at home, he wrote: 'Happy mother's day @candywarner1 kids absolutely love their mummy sooo much.' The couple are parents to daughters Ivy Mae, Indi Rae and Isla Rose. 'They love their mummy so much': David Warner praised wife Candice with a sweet Instagram post on Sunday as she posed with their daughters Ivy Mae, Indi Rae and Isla Rose (pictured) Tammy Hembrow shared a picture posing with her two children, Wolf and Saskia. As they clambered around her Mercedes G-wagon, she wrote: 'Becoming your mama completely changed my life. Not always easy but always worth it. I never knew a love like this existed until you. Blessed today and everyday!' Meanwhile, Carrie Bickmore is enjoying a cosy day with her family in Melbourne. Snuggled up! Carrie Bickmore is enjoying a cosy day with children Oliver, Evie and Adelaide, along with partner Chris Walker (pictured) The Project host shared a picture snuggled in bed with children Oliver, Evie and Adelaide, along with partner Chris Walker, to Instagram on Sunday morning. Michelle Bridges shared a throwback picture hiking with son Axel Bridges Willis. Michelle wrote: 'To all who receive so much from our caregivers it's a day to be grateful, this for me includes those people who have been so incredibly loving and supportive. How lucky are we Axe? New adventures await.' Throwback! Michelle Bridges shared an old picture hiking with son Axel (pictured) Elle Macpherson commemorated the day by sharing a throwback picture of herself with her mother Fran and son Flynn, shortly after he was born in 1998. 'This pic was taken soon after Flynns birth - we look so young but I was 35 and mum was just a few years older. Mum I love you to the moon and back,' gushed Elle. Sylvia Jeffreys is celebrating her first Mother's Day this year, after welcoming son Oscar with husband Peter Stefanovic back in February. Memories! Elle Macpherson commemorated the day by sharing a throwback picture of herself with her mother Fran and son Flynn (pictured), shortly after he was born in 1998 'The MD bar has been set impossibly high,' joked Sylvia on Instagram. Jasmine Yarbrough is celebrating her first Mother's Day too, writing: 'My heart is so full because of you Harper May, thank you for choosing me to be your Mumma.' She welcomed daughter Harper May with Karl Stefanovic on May 1. 'The MD bar has been set impossibly high': Sylvia Jeffreys (pictured) is celebrating her first Mother's Day, after welcoming son Oscar with husband Peter Stefanovic back in February Amanda Keller revealed the day is 'bittersweet' for her. 'Thrilled and grateful to be a mum to two exceptional young men, but sad my Mum isn't here with me,' Amanda wrote to Instagram. She then mentioned charity Motherless Daughters Australia to fans, who can help 'women and girls navigate the emotional impact of losing your mum.' 'My heart is so full': Jasmine Yarbrough (pictured) is celebrating her first Mother's Day too, after welcoming daughter Harper May with Karl Stefanovic on May 1 Jessica Rowe also addressed the emotional impact of Mother's Day for many. The mum-of-two wrote: 'Today isn't a good day for everyone... some of you may be mourning your mum, missing your mum, unable to be a mum, or have a cr*p relationship with your mum. 'Life is never what it seems or summed up in a 'perfect' Instagram image. May you be gentle on yourselves and find some peace among the pressure... big love.' Reflecting: Amanda Keller revealed the day is 'bittersweet' for her as her mother is no longer with her. Pictured: A throwback photograph of Amanda's mother that she shared with fans Nicole Kidman is unable to spend Mother's Day with mum Janelle. As the actress self-isolates with husband Keith Urban and their two daughters in Nashville, her beloved mother is back home in Sydney, Australia. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald on Sunday, Nicole said: 'I would love to be able to have a cup of tea with mum and sit on the balcony and talk about life, and have her tell me what I should be doing.' Making things even more difficult for the Australian actress is the fact that she was unable to see her beloved mother Janelle on her 80th birthday in March. 'Talk about just gut-wrenching. At least there's FaceTime and technology because that's been a saving grace... It's been really hard,' added Nicole. 'It's been hard': Nicole Kidman is unable to spend Mother's Day with her mum Janelle (pictured). She is self-isolating in Nashville, where as her mother is at home in Sydney Similarly, Chloe Lattanzi is unable to see mum Olivia Newton-John this Mother's Day. The American-based beauty will spend the day video messaging with the Australian icon instead, with coronavirus restrictions keeping them apart. 'I cannot wait until I can hold her in my arms and squeeze her,' Chloe told 9honey on Saturday, acknowledging it is a 'very hard time' for many families right now. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 04:10:39|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KILIFI, Kenya, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Somali militant group al-Shabab has freed an Italian aid worker who was abducted in Kenya's coastal town of Malindi in November 2018, police confirmed on Saturday. James Mugera, Kilifi county police commander, confirmed that Sylvia Romano, an Italian volunteer, who was seized from her hotel room on the evening of Nov. 20, 2018, has been rescued following intelligence leads. "It's true that a multi-agency team working with the Italian government has managed to rescue her. They are waiting for further directions on whether to fly her to Nairobi or Mombasa and then back home to Italy," Mugera said. Mugera said Romano was rescued in Somalia following heightened surveillance and negotiations to secure her release between the government of Italy and suspected al-Shabab militants. He said Romano is expected to be flown back to Italy to receive specialized treatment since her health had deteriorated for the past two years. According to Kenyan police, Romano is believed to have been sold to al-Shabab militants in Somalia after Italy failed to hand over ransom to facilitate her release. Five people were shot and wounded when the militants abducted the 23-year-old volunteer with the humanitarian group, Africa Milele Onlus. Three suspects, who were arrested in connection to her kidnapping, are still in police custody waiting to undergo trial after they pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act within Kenya. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 08:09:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close The UN Security Council holds a meeting on the Iraq issue at the UN headquarters in New York, the United States, March 3, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) The United States is responsible for an impasse in the Security Council over the adoption of a resolution on COVID-19, a Chinese diplomat said. UNITED NATIONS, May 9 (Xinhua) -- The United States is responsible for an impasse in the Security Council over the adoption of a resolution on COVID-19, a Chinese diplomat said on Saturday. Security Council members had agreed on the text of a draft resolution thanks to the great efforts by France and Tunisia, the co-penholders. China supports the text. The United States also expressed its support. Surprisingly and regrettably, the United States later reneged, making it impossible for the Security Council to adopt a resolution. The United States undermined the unity of the Security Council and should take full responsibility for today's situation, the Chinese diplomat said. China has demonstrated maximum flexibility. China will continue to stick to the current text. China favors a Security Council resolution that supports the UN secretary-general's appeal for a global cease-fire, promotes humanitarian response and ensures the safety and security of UN peacekeepers, the Chinese diplomat said. China favors a resolution that supports the World Health Organization (WHO). This position is favored by all council members except one, said the Chinese diplomat, noting that the WHO plays a central role in the coordination of the global fight against COVID-19, in providing essential public health assistance. The WHO is essential in helping developing countries, including African states, cope with the pandemic, the Chinese diplomat added. The WHO's role was fully reflected in a Security Council resolution on Ebola. The resolution won broad support of the council members. Superstar Rajinikanth on Sunday warned the ruling AIADMK against reopening state-run liquor outlets in Tamil Nadu, saying if it was done, it should not harbour "dreams" of coming to power again, apparently in next year's Assembly elections. In a tweet, he also asked the government to work out alternate modes of revenue generation. His remarks came a day after Tamil Nadu moved the Supreme Court, seeking a stay against a Madras High Court order directing closure of liquor shops in the state. The AIADMK cannot have "dreams of coming to power again if the government re-opens TASMAC shops at this juncture," the veteran said in the tweet. "Please #Look out for better ways of filling the coffers," he added. The Tamil Nadu government had on Saturday moved the apex court challenging the High Court order for closure of TASMAC (Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation) liquor outlets on grounds of violations of COVID-19 guidelines, arguing that it would lead to "grave losses" in revenue and a complete halt in commercial activities. The Madras High Court had on Friday ordered closure of liquor outlets in the state, noting there were huge crowds and no social distancing was being maintained by tipplers. It, however, allowed doorstep delivery of booze through online mode. The Tamil Nadu government, in its appeal on Saturday, termed the HC order a case of "judicial overreach" and said online sale and home delivery of alcohol were not possible in the entire state. Opposition parties in Tamil Nadu, including the DMK, had eaarlier welcomed the High Court order directing closure of the TASMAC outlets. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Karabakh ombudsmans office: Azerbaijans anti-Armenian, genocidal policy has clear chronology US official, Barzani are photographed against backdrop of Greater Armenia and Kurdistan map Armenia ex-defense minister, army General Staff chief, some others criminal case court hearing kicks off FM: Most important direction continues to be international recognition of Artsakh US selects Los Angeles to host Summit of the Americas in summer 2022 Karabakh Foreign Minister: Return of refugees can only be like mirror Iranian president arrives on official visit to Moscow All CSTO peacekeepers leaves Kazakhstan Artsakh Foreign Minister: Unacceptable to bracket NKAO and NKR together Karabakh FM: Format of OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs' visits needs to be restored Media: Air communication between Turkey and Armenia will start on February 2 Artsakh FM: Azerbaijan attack on Karabakh will mean attack on Russia Gold prices hardly change American professor angers Erdogan's son-in-law 15 years pass since Hrant Dink assassination 563 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Guterres offers Merkel job at UN Armenian church revamped in Iran World oil prices going up Newspaper: ECHR rulings increase after Armenia revolution in 2018 Newspaper: Armenia ex-President Sargsyan to give interview instead of press conference Azerbaijan MFA falls into hysterical rage by France FM statement The Pope to donate 100,000 to help migrants on border of Belarus and Poland Fourth vaccine against COVID-19 is not enough for Omicron World is on verge of country defaults French Foreign Ministry considers unacceptable Azerbaijan statements about Pecresse US to return two valuable artifacts over 4,000 years old to Iraq Germany may consider halting Nord Stream 2 if Russia attacks Ukraine Israel successfully completes test of anti-ballistic missile system Plane landing in Sochi struck by lightning Putin and Aliyev discuss Ukraine situation Greek PM Mitsotakis threatens Turkey with sanctions Handelsblatt: US and EU abandon idea of disconnecting Russia from SWIFT international payment system Artsakh President meets representatives of non-governmental organizations Avalanche kills person in Iran Erdogan says he is pleased with decline in volatility of lira NEWS.am daily digest: 18.01.22 Turkey and Azerbaijan to start laying gas pipeline to supply Nakhichevan UK begins to supply Ukraine with anti-tank weapons Armenian PM holds meeting on Armenia's Transformation Strategy until 2050 Nagorno-Karabakh: Remains of another Armenian soldier found in Jrakan region Tehran to not accept any border change in South Caucasus Dollar holding relatively steady in Armenia Armenia special representative: Future process depends on Turkeys constructiveness degree Erdogan: Gas from Mediterranean to Europe can only be pumped through Turkey Iranian Consul General discusses customs cooperation in Nakhijevan Inecobank brings Apple Pay to customers Parliament vice-speaker says he is familiar with Armenia proposals on border demarcation commission work US Secretary of State to visit Kyiv Russia, Iran and China to hold joint naval drills OSCE Chairmanship on Aliyev statement: We reiterate our full support to Minsk Group Co-Chairs Artsakh NSS denies rumors about penetration of Azerbaijanis into Karabakh villages Indonesian parliament approves bill to relocate capital Armenia PM to Bulgaria colleague: Our interstate relations are marked by continuous development of cooperation Armenian President meets Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Azerbaijan to ban foreigners from visiting Nagorno-Karabakh occupied part European Parliament new speaker elected Armenian National Interests Fund participates in Abu Dhabi Sustainable Development Week summit North Korea fires missiles for fourth time this year ECHR recognizes violation of Armenian PM's rights after 2008 elections Turkey reveals plans to produce combat aircraft Karabakh official: Azerbaijan presidents impudent behavior is due to OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs silence Azerbaijan special services force Artsakh resident to intelligence work Copper price is stable Minister of State: OSCE MG Co-Chairs must accept exercise of Karabakh people's right to self-determination Armenia President, UAE Minister of State discuss possibilities of cooperation in science and technology Investigation into criminal case of several Armenia soldiers returned from Azerbaijan captivity is over Canada sends detachment of special forces to Ukraine Armenia ex-President Kocharyan, former deputy PM now MP Gevorgyan case trial resumes 2 more persons die of coronavirus in Artsakh Armenia family has 10th child Converse Bank brings Apple Pay to customers Gold is getting weaker Lacote: French institute to operate in Armenia (PHOTOS) Ardshinbank Brings Apple Pay to Customers Armenia President in UAE, meets with Emirati environment minister Armenia legislature approves changes to several laws Differences in data on coronavirus deaths in Armenia are corrected 360 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Norway to begin Breivik early release hearing A policeman was attacked by some people in Nagpur on Saturday night after he asked them to maintain social distancing amid the coronavirus outbreak, an official said. Constable Nageshwar Dasarwar (38) sustained minor injuries in the attack that took place at around 9:20pm on Guru Nanak Nagar Road here, the official added. A case has been registered with MIDC police station, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) For the first time in weeks the oil news isnt all bad. Output cuts are starting to make big inroads into supply, and demand is beginning to recover, ever so slightly, as something more like normal life resumes in parts of the world. But theres a double risk on the horizon: Just as lifting lockdowns too soon could bring a second spike in virus infections and deaths, loosening the hard-fought restraint in oil production too soon risks a second oil-price collapse. With the easing of draconian measures to restrict peoples movement, the first signs of demand picking up are still very tentative and localized. This is about beginning to claw our way up from the depths of Aprils demand destruction. It is still far from the year-on-year growth we experienced before the novel coronavirus struck, or from any kind of meaningful start at drawing down ballooning stockpiles. But it might just be an initial turning of a corner as long as theres no need to stop the global economy again to keep the COVID-19 outbreak under control. The way China has gotten back to work is instructive. Congestion on roads in major cities has soared during peak commuting hours, but it remains depressed outside those times, with traffic levels still well below normal during the weekend and on holidays. Meanwhile, people are choosing to drive rather than take public transport, boosting gasoline demand, a trend thats likely to continue for a considerable time in big cities around the world. In Beijing, for example, subway passenger numbers are still more than 50 percent below pre-virus levels, according to analysis by Bloomberg NEF. As some parts of the U.S. begin to ease lockdowns and people take to the roads again, gasoline demand has slowly started to recover after falling to more than a 30-year low in the first week of April. And gasoline stockpiles, which reached record levels in early April, have started to come down. But consumption is still only at a level last seen in the early 1990s and efforts to reopen businesses and get people back to work will have to become much more widespread before it gets back to anything like normal. Jet fuel demand was hit even harder and is still down by about two-thirds from five-year average levels for the time of year. It is showing little sign of recovering, with planes still grounded and much uncertainty over when and whether people will embrace flying again. By contrast, diesel demand was never hit as hard as other transport fuels, in part because trucks have kept on trucking. And the onset of planting season across much of the northern hemisphere may provide a boost for distillate fuels in the coming weeks. Nevertheless, stockpiles are still rising, in part because refiners are producing more of the stuff as they try to minimize the amount of jet fuel theyre making. But we are still a long way from seeing much relief for crude producers and they need to continue exercising restraint. On the supply side of the equation, reductions are finally kicking in. On May 1, the output cuts of nearly 10 million barrels a day agreed to last month by the so-called OPEC+ group of countries, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, finally came into effect. Early signs are that big cuts are actually being implemented by both countries. Russian production of crude and condensate, a light form of oil extracted from gas fields, averaged 9.5 million barrels a day in the first five days of May, according to Interfax Information Services Group. Saudi export shipments are also down, according to tanker tracking data monitored by Bloomberg. Market-driven declines are also happening elsewhere. Weekly data for the last week of April show U.S. production falling below 12 million barrels a day for the first time since February 2019, excluding the impact of Tropical Storm Barry. Monthly figures show its been in decline since November, confirming what I wrote previously. However there is still too much crude being pumped out of the ground and into storage. U.S. crude stockpiles are still rising, even though the rate of increase has started to slow. Consultants Rystad Energy see U.S. production falling by a further 1.3 million barrels a day by the end of June, based on early communication from producers. But lets not get carried away. This is just the start of the beginning of a recovery, or maybe just the first glimpse of the end of the collapse. Rising consumption and falling production are only just starting to narrow the gap between supply and demand, and the massive inventory buildup hasnt stopped yet, much less gone into reverse. The real risk may be that when all the financial pain of output cuts and the human cost of job losses starts to pay off with higher oil prices, producers take it as a signal to restart the pumps, as if the whole oversupply problem got solved overnight. The output restraint has to last long enough not only for supply and demand to be brought back into line, but for stockpiles to be brought back down again. Its important for everyone to keep that in mind. While the impact of the collapse in the oil price and production volumes has created hardship for all those who depend on the business, the effect is particularly devastating in places where oil is the lifeblood of the economy and where there are no reserves to draw on. You think its bad in Midland? Try Warri, Nigeria. In his May 6 op-ed, Its time to end the Chinese blame game, Cui Tiankai, the Chinese ambassador to the United States, admitted unlike in his recent New York Times op-ed that the first case of the novel coronavirus was in Wuhan, China. However, if China wants to rebuild trust between our two countries, then that raises the question of why the regime at the outset would not allow scientists in from other countries, especially American scientific and medical experts, to help identify the source and potential lethality of the coronavirus. That may have saved thousands of lives and trillions of dollars, and minimized the social and economic impacts being felt worldwide. (Kingston, Jamaica) Jamaica is ranked first out of 14 Caribbean countries in terms of the overall number of tests administered for the coronavirus (COVID-19). This was disclosed by Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, who commended healthcare professionals for the critical role they play in facilitating the countrys increased testing capacity. He was speaking at a digital press conference on Wednesday (May 6) from the Ministrys New Kingston offices. Providing further details, Principal Medical Officer and National Epidemiologist, Dr. Karen Webster Kerr, noted that the figures used for the ranking were as at May 5, when 5,993 tests were recorded. The latest update on May 7 brings the number of tests done locally to 6,417. Jamaica is followed by the Cayman Islands, which has undertaken 3,050 tests, then Barbados with 2,629. Trinidad and Tobago and The Bahamas round out the top-five countries, recording 2,121 and 1,485 tests, respectively. Dr. Webster Kerr noted, however, that the Cayman Islands surpassed Jamaica to take the top spot in terms of the number of tests per population, at 46,000 per million. With 2,024 per million, Jamaica is ranked ninth. Jamaica has a population of 2.9 million, while the Cayman Islands has a population of 65,604. The other countries involved in the evaluation are Belize, Haiti, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Turks and Caicos. Jamaicas capacity to conduct tests for COVID-19 was recently boosted with the commissioning of a COBAS machine, located at the National Public Health Laboratory in Kingston, which has capacity for a maximum 1,140 tests per day. This is in addition to the donation of two diagnostic machines and 7,500 testing kits by major shareholder in the Jamaica Public Service (JPS), the South Korea-based East West Power Korea (EWP), to the National Influenza Centre at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI). This has improved the testing capacity of the Centre from 200 to 986 per day. In total, Jamaica now has the capacity to conduct approximately 2,126 COVID-19 tests per day. PHOTO: RUDRANATH FRASER New Delhi, May 10 : The Centre on Sunday said that it has identified and set up adequate health infrastructure and health facilities for COVID-19 management in the country. It said the public health facilities dedicated for COVID-19 case management are categorised into three categories - Dedicated COVID Hospital (DCH), Dedicated COVID Health Centre (DCHC) and Dedicated COVID Care Centre (DCCC). The DCH, that is the first category, offer comprehensive care primarily for those who have been clinically assigned as severe. The second category, i.e. DCHC offer care for all cases that have been clinically assigned as moderate. While the third category that is DCCC, offers care only for cases that have been clinically assigned as mild or very mild cases or COVID suspect cases. "The DCCC are makeshift facilities which may be set up by the states/UTs in hostels, hotels, schools, stadiums, lodges etc, both public and private. These facilities shall have separate areas for suspected and confirmed cases. Every Dedicated COVID Care Centre is mapped to one or more Dedicated COVID Health Centres and at least one Dedicated COVID Hospital for referral purpose" said the government. Till today there are 7,740 facilities in 483 districts have been identified in all the states/UTs that include hospitals and facilities of the state/UT governments as well as the central government. There are 6,56,769 isolation beds, 3,05,567 beds for confirmed cases, 3,51,204 beds for suspected cases, 99,492 oxygen supported beds, 1,696 facilities with oxygen manifolds and 34,076 ICU beds. The Centre has asked all states and UTs to notify and upload the assigned three types of COVID dedicated facilities on their websites for public information. "32 States/UTs have already uploaded the information on their websites/public information platforms and the rest are in the process of doing the same" said the government. In view of the need for further increasing the testing capacity for COVID-19 at National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the procurement of a high throughput machine as per the recommendations of Empowered Group 2 was approved. The Cobas 6800 testing machine has been successfully installed at NCDC now. NCDC is providing support for testing of samples from Delhi, NCR, Ladakh, J&K and various other states, as per need. Presently the testing capacity at NCDC is about 300-350 tests per day. With Cobas 6800, which is a high throughput machine with the capacity to test around 1,200 samples in 24 hours, the testing capacity for COVID-19 at NCDC has been significantly enhanced. "So far, a total of 19,357 people have been cured. In the last 24 hours, 1,511 patients were found cured. This takes the total recovery rate to 30.76 per cent. The total number of confirmed cases is now 62,939. Since yesterday, an increase of 3,277 has been noted in the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases in India," said the government. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) China took it as one more poke in the eye from Australia. Weve become a nation that China likes to belt around, something that it does because its now so big and powerful that it can. China has options. If it wants to tell its people not to study or holiday here it can and quite likely will. It can also look elsewhere for its raw commodities. And if it wants to use its military to cut off vital shipping lanes to our north, then it can do that too. Loading Another unfortunate spin-off of the Prime Ministers focus on Chinas knowledge of COVID-19s origins was that it enmeshed Australia in Trumps attempts to make China entirely responsible for the pandemic purely for his own electoral purposes. Trump and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, are fully engaged in a disinformation campaign on this front. They need to make Trumps mismanagement of the pandemic in America someone elses fault. As he should, Morrison has walked back at speed from any implied connection with this effort, which is just one more outrage by Trump in a multitude of outrages. So many dreadful things have either been encouraged, said or done by Trump that each new one barely registers anymore. He doesnt care about protesters who want an end to social distancing mandates brandishing firearms in a state congressional house. Nor, even more disturbingly, does it appear to bother large numbers of Americans. This is but one example of the rising depravity of public discourse in modern America. Similarly, America is now reopening for business with Trumps blessing, without having overcome the first wave of COVID-19 infections. Incapable of emotions that are not related to compensating for his own insecurities, he has given up trying to fight the virus. Trump is not the first incompetent to inhabit the White House but none of his sub-standard predecessors have strip-mined the nations forms of governance and moral standing like him. Nor has it been done with such solid and consistent support from so many American voters. That should concern Australians. Trump has a good chance of re-election. Polls suggest he is not far below the 46 per cent vote that gave him victory in 2016. And if he loses in November, what happens to those tens of millions of Americans who are devoted to his destructive style of political leadership? Theyll still be there. The seeds of Americas long-term decline have germinated and its hard to see how Joe Biden will have the standing or the energy to reverse that. The US in 2020 resembles a failed state, with a fabulist for a leader and political polarities that cannot be reconciled even by an untreatable pandemic that has already killed 80,000 citizens and is certain to kill many tens of thousands more. Knowing this, whether Australia can afford to continue to place so much trust and reliance on America is an open question, given that the disparity between the two countries' values is becoming greater. Loading We've learnt that we have less in common with America and Americans than we thought. These first few months of the COVID-19 era have demonstrated that Australia has a stronger polity. Australians have behaved better, for longer, than Americans. For all our shortcomings and the stresses of the past two months, weve maintained a spirit of solidarity and a firm notion of whats best for ourselves and our community. The pandemic has sharpened and redefined the strategic challenges Australia faces not just in the next year or two but for decades to come. One great power is heading off on a strange, self-obsessed trajectory and the other has no interest in benign co-existence. We will have to become more self-reliant in every sense. This will be expensive but there is no other choice. INS Magar departed from Male in Maldives on Sunday for Kochi in Kerala with 202 Indian nationals, the Indian Navy said. INS Jalashwa, the first ship carrying evacuees from Maldives under Operation Samudra Setu' reached Kochi harbour on Sunday morning with 698 Indian citizens, the Navy said in a statement. INS Magar, designed for landing operations, had made all necessary logistic, medical and administrative preparations at her base port in Kochi to comfortably accommodate civilians before setting sail towards Maldives. "A total of 202 personnel have embarked the (INS Magar) ship, which includes 24 women, two expectant mothers and two children. One of the men, who hails from Tamil Nadu, has a fractured leg, the statement said. While heavy rains at Male made conditions difficult, the ship made arrangements to ensure safety of people, the Indian Navy stated. "An entirely separate section of the ship with essential facilities like food and washrooms has been prepared to accommodate the evacuees, and a separate mess has been allotted for ladies, infants and senior citizens," it mentioned. The evacuees have been divided into groups to avoid crowding at common areas like the dining hall and bathrooms, the Navy noted. Air India is operating 64 repatriation flights from May 7 to May 14, while the Navy has 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 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 non-scheduled commercial flights till May 14 to ferry around 15,000 Indian nationals from 12 countries. Under the mission, the Navy had launched the Operation Samudra Setu (Sea Bridge) under which it dispatched two ships to Male to commence the first phase of the evacuation operation from May 8. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Forecasting Crude Oil: This Method Has Been the Undefeated Champion Since 1998 The battle between Elliott waves and supply/demand forecasting approach continues In case you just landed on Earth via Martian spaceship, 2020 has seen the biggest crash in oil prices ever. This chart captures crude's three-month, 80%-plus nosedive to 3-decade lows. (Price data as of May 1, 2020 and does not reflect the unprecedented April 20 plunge into negative territory at -$40.32. Yes, minus $40.32). Ask any economist with a few post-nominal letters what caused oil's crash, and they wouldn't think twice about the answer; namely, the largest supply surplus in modern history caused by the coronavirus-travel bans and subsequent contraction in fuel requirements. Says these headlines: "Crude Oil Prices Slammed Again on Supply Glut" (April 22 Daily FX) "Nowhere to Go: US oil prices fall back below zero as traders face supply glut." (Apr. 21 aljazeera.com) "Oil Sides with Rising Glut Spooking Investors" (Apr. 27 Wall Street Journal) As a March 12 CNN Business surmised: "It's a nightmare scenario for the oil market." Indeed, the news events pertaining to crude oil and the global economy are nightmarish. However, the idea that oil's crash was a direct result of the supply glut is erroneous. Case in point: This chart of the week-over-week supply of US crude oil stocks shows that the historic glut we see today didn't occur until months AFTER the collapse in oil prices was well underway. (Source: ycharts) In fact, predicting oil's 2020 crash was possible only by focusing on a leading indicator, the Elliott wave pattern underway on oil's price chart. Here, we go back to beginning of 2020, when oil prices were enjoying a 35% rally to 9-month highs. Then, mainstream energy analysts were looking higher amidst a perfect bullish storm of escalating tensions between the U.S. and major oil producers in the Middle East (see: Soleimani assassination, retaliatory missile strike on U.S. military bases in Iraq, and the Strait of Hormuz closure) -- AND -- would you believe, a supply... deficit. Yes, as recently as January all these factors had the pundits "preparing" for oil to be "sent back to $100" (Jan. 8 CNBC). See: "JP Morgan Raises 2020 Oil Price Outlook" (Dec. 17 oilprice.com) "Falling Supplies Support Crude Oil Rally" (Jan. 8 Seeking Alpha) "Oil Surges 35% in 2019 and Hedge Funds are Betting on More" (Dec. 31 CNBC) The largest oil crash in history occurred -- instead. That leaves standing the forecasting model of Elliott wave analysis. It started preparing investors for a massive turn in oil prices as early as December 16, 2019 -- before the first coronavirus case was documented on December 31. Here, we recover these forecasts from the Elliott wave vault: December 16, 2019, Elliott Wave International's Short Term Update cited the debut of the world's largest, $2 trillion IPO, Saudi Arabia's natural petroleum and natural gas company Aramco as proof that oil bullishness had reached a dangerous peak, warning the "onset of the next far more serious decline in the oil market." January 17, 2020 Elliott Wave International's Monthly Commodity Junctures called for oil prices to be slashed in half from current levels and said: "The big narrative when you start looking at the weekly and monthly crude oil charts is -- any strength we see is going to fail." February 7 Elliott Wave International's Daily Commodity Junctures showed this bearish projection and confirmed oil's trend was now down: "The high of the year is in place in crude oil and we will fall to $33 a barrel -- at minimum." March 6 Elliott Wave International's Energy Pro Service: "The headlines are likely to cite the lack of a coordinated OPEC production cut as the driver for today's 10% freefall... but it's right in line with our forecast for the downward acceleration in wave 3 of (3). The market should trend on down in an impulsive manner." March 9 Elliott Wave International's Short Term Update: "Crude oil is on its way to [its lowest level since 1999]." Predicting negative $40 price per barrel for WTI wasn't possible. It happened in part because CME allowed the contract to be priced below zero to stimulate demand. The point is: Across several different publications, different Elliott Wave International's analysts were able to maintain a bearish position and anticipate a massive sell-off in crude by using one single forecasting model: Elliott waves analysis. In fact, Elliott Wave International's President Robert Prechter addressed this very topic at the 2016 Social Mood Conference as part of his keynote presentation. There, Bob discussed the enduring "battle between Elliott waves and the supply/demand theorists" for the title of successful oil forecasts. There, Bob engages his audience in a 30-minutes slide show of oil charts, newspaper clippings, Elliott wave analysis, and historic data that leads to one dramatic conclusion: "In truth, the supply/demand model failed to predict any of the dramatic turns in oil prices since 1998." Remember the 2008 "Peak Oil" climate? That's when a supposed record supply deficit was going to send oil prices to the moon. Instead, Bob Prechter published this bearish warning in his June 2008 Elliott Wave Theorist: "One of the greatest commodity tops of all time is due very soon," -- a "pretty bold call in the middle of a freight train going up when the world is running out of oil." The crash from $147 to $32 a barrel in the following five months of 2008 shocked mainstream analysts. In his presentation, Prechter shows that since 1998, the supply/demand model failed while the Elliott wave model succeeded to forecast 8 major turning points in oil prices. In his words: "Why do supply/demand theorists fully embrace the trend at the perfectly wrong time, time and again? They do it because their model doesn't work." And, as the oil crash of 2020 proves, the Elliott wave model still works. The lessons from Bob Prechter's 2016 presentation are as relevant today as ever. Fortunately, if you weren't there to see it in person, our friends at Elliott Wave International are re-releasing the complete, 30-minute live video footage -- FREE -- to all free Club EWI members. Free, watch Robert Prechter's timeless 30-minute video right now. This article was syndicated by Elliott Wave International and was originally published under the headline . EWI is the world's largest market forecasting firm. Its staff of full-time analysts led by Chartered Market Technician Robert Prechter provides 24-hour-a-day market analysis to institutional and private investors around the world. 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. No whizz. No bang, No fizz or pop. The Prime Minister's Sunday night sermon was a pyrotechnic-free affair. What many had hoped would be a road map out of the lockdown offered a few tasty morsels of hope, but for the main part served up much of the same old dispiriting gloop. Put away the party Pimm's, people. We've got a while of this to go yet. The country had been through the mangle during these past two months of lockdown, the PM acknowledged. Henry Deedes: Social distancing, our loss of basic freedoms. He could have added all those dreary Downing Street briefings we've had to put up with to that list of daily horrors Social distancing, our loss of basic freedoms. He could have added all those dreary Downing Street briefings we've had to put up with to that list of daily horrors. Our setting was an unnamed room in No10. The PM sat behind a desk, twiddling his thumbs. Every now and then, he threw little rabbit punches toward the camera for emphasis. Boris insisted the lockdown had come at a 'colossal cost to our way of life' which could be seen among 'the shuttered shops and abandoned businesses and darkened pubs and restaurants'. He announced a new 'DefCon'-style [Defence Readiness Condition] system to measure the threat of coronavirus where 'one' would mark its eradication. Currently, we remain at 'four' but are in the process of moving to 'three' There was a hollow, melancholic tone to his voice as he conjured up this ghostly image. However, having sacrificed so much already, he insisted 'it would be madness now to throw away that achievement by allowing a second spike' Restaurants, pubs and hotels will have to stay closed until July to curb the spread of Covid-19. An empty pub is pictured above in Norfolk There was a hollow, melancholic tone to his voice as he conjured up this ghostly image. However, having sacrificed so much already, he insisted 'it would be madness now to throw away that achievement by allowing a second spike'. That said, he had a strategy to address some of our fears. 'A shape of a plan' was how he described it. He announced a new 'DefCon'-style [Defence Readiness Condition] system to measure the threat of coronavirus where 'one' would mark its eradication. Currently, we remain at 'four' but are in the process of moving to 'three'. On top of that, he promised increased testing and more vigilant plans to track the disease. The Prime Minister urged commuters to refrain from using public transport and cycle instead After this brief flurry of sparky initiatives, he produced the giant wet blanket. 'No, this is not the time simply to end the lockdown this week,' he announced. 'Instead we are taking the first careful steps to modify our measures'. These modifications turned out to be measly-sized portions. Gristly scraps at best. From Wednesday, we were told, people will be able to spend unlimited amounts of time out doors for exercise. They could sunbathe in the park. They could play sport, albeit only with members of their own household. Better than nothing. Though anyone who's ventured out in London's Royal Parks over the past fortnight will know most people are now doing this anyway. The rules on sunbathing and exercising have been loosened only slightly, and fines have been increased for other breaches of the lockdown This was the first step of the PM's plan. If the rate of infections could be kept down then he hoped to progress to step two in June by allowing schools to return. Step three would possibly come in July when 'some of the hospitality industry' would be allowed to resume trading. Notice that crucial 'some'. I suspect that means only those which have outdoor spaces for people to gather. Caution peppered every utterance. 'I must stress again that all of this is conditional it all depends on a series of big ifs,' Boris said, repeating his belief that, although we had passed the peak of infection, coming down the mountain was far more perilous. 'If there are outbreaks, if there are problems, we will not hesitate to put on the brakes,' he stressed. He braced himself to end on a flourish. 'We will come back from this devilish illness,' he said, jabbing his jaw outwards confrontationally. He hoped that, despite everything, the country would become 'more resilient, more innovative, more economically dynamic, but also more generous and more sharing'. He signed off by reiterating the Government's woolly new slogan 'Stay alert. Control the virus. Save lives' which had caused confusion throughout most of the day. No one was quite sure what 'stay alert' meant. Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon gleefully announced earlier she would be ignoring the Government and continuing to advise Scots to remain indoors. So, not the cheeriest end to the bank holiday weekend. It is increasingly clear, should we ever return to our normal state of affairs, it will come more drip by drip than a steady gush. And at this rate it's going to be a long old summer. An Iranian national flag flutters during the opening ceremony of the 16th International Oil, Gas & Petrochemical Exhibition (IOGPE) in Tehran By Parisa Hafezi DUBAI (Reuters) - Washington has yet to respond to Iran about a prisoner swap, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei was quoted as saying by the government's website on Sunday, reiterating that Tehran was ready for a full prisoner exchange with the United States without preconditions. If a swap goes ahead, it would be one of very few instances of cooperation in an otherwise deeply frayed U.S.-Iran relationship, which has grown more hostile since U.S. President Donald Trump took office. "We have stated our readiness to discuss the release of all prisoners without preconditions ... but Americans have not responded yet. It seems to us that Americans are more prepared than before to end this situation," Rabiei said, according to the government's website Dolat.ir. Both countries have called for the release of prisoners because of the new coronavirus outbreak. Iran is the worst hit country in the Middle East, while the United States has reported the highest number of deaths worldwide from the virus. Three Iranian officials told Reuters last week that a prisoner swap between the two countries was in the works. Michael White, a U.S. navy veteran who has been detained in Iran since 2018, is a likely candidate to be swapped. He was released from prison in mid-March on medical furlough but remains in Iran. "Washington is aware of our readiness and we think there is no need for a third country to mediate between Tehran and Washington for the prisoner exchange," Rabiei said. "However, if the American side agrees, the interest section of Iran in Washington will inform the U.S. of our views on the details, including how and when the exchange will take place." Tehran and Washington cut diplomatic relations shortly after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution after hardline Iranians seized the U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Switzerland looks after U.S. interests with Tehran. Story continues "We are worried about the safety and health of jailed Iranians in America ... We hold America responsible for their safety amid the coronavirus outbreak," Rabiei was quoted as saying. It is not clear exactly how many Americans Iran may hold, but they include father and son Baquer and Siamak Namazi. Several dozen Iranians are being held in U.S. prisons, many of them for breaking sanctions. Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in December that Tehran was ready for a full prisoner exchange with the United States, tweeting: The ball is in the U.S.' court. In mid-March U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Tehran to free American prisoners as a humanitarian gesture because of the coronavirus. Last December, Iran freed U.S. citizen Xiyue Wang, who had been held for three years on spying charges, and the United States released Iranian Massoud Soleimani, who faced charges of violating U.S. sanctions on Iran. The United States is set to deport Iranian professor Sirous Asgari, who was acquitted of stealing trade secrets, once he receives medical clearance to leave, U.S. and Iranian officials said on Tuesday. Relations have grown more hostile again since 2018 when Trump exited Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with major powers and re-imposed sanctions on Tehran that has crippled its economy. Iran has responded by gradually scaling back its commitments under the agreement. Animosity reached historic heights in early January when top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad. Iran retaliated on Jan. 9 by firing missiles at bases in Iraq where U.S. troops were stationed. (Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Susan Fenton) Five migrants who were walking to Old Delhi railway station to try and catch a train to their hometown in Bihar were robbed of their cash and mobile phones by four drug addicts who assaulted them with iron rods and sticks and threatened to stab them if they resisted in the early hours of Thursday, the police said. Left with little hope of getting back home, the migrants decided to fight back, chased the suspects and caught one of them. The robbers had left us with nothing. So, we thrashed the one we managed to catch hold of, one of the victims, Vijender Kumar, said. The police later nabbed the remaining three suspects and recovered the robbed items, but they remain in their custody as case property. We have returned to our rented homes and abandoned the plan of walking to our homes. A journey that earlier felt doable suddenly feels impossible now. We are afraid there would be many people waiting to rob us along the railway tracks, Vijender said. The five men, who work in the furniture markets of Hari Nagar and Kirti Nagar in West Delhi, had heard about trains leaving for Bihar from Delhi stations. They said they hardly had any money left and were surviving on the food distributed at hunger centres. We didnt know that we had to fill forms to be eligible for the journey. No one told us that trains were departing only from New Delhi railway station. Since we always boarded our trains from Old Delhi railway station, we decided to walk till there, Vijender said. We had decided that if we didnt find a train, we would walk along the railway tracks to our villages, he said. Having packed sprouted grams and some beaten rice, the men began their walk in the early hours of Thursday. But when they neared a railway gate in Prem Nagar, close to Patel Nagar in central Delhi, they were intercepted by four men with sticks, iron pipes and knives, said Sanjay Bhatia, deputy commissioner of police (central). The robbers beat us with sticks and rods and threatened to stab us if we did not hand over our phones and cash, Bijay Kumar, another victim, said. The migrants lost 2,100 in cash, three mobile phones and their Aadhar cards. I had kept my phone in my bag, so it didnt get robbed, Vijender said. As the suspects began to flee with the robbed items, the migrants decided to chase them on the railway tracks. We had nothing to lose. So, we thought we would fight them, no matter the cost. One of the robbers wasnt able to scale the railway crossing gate. We caught hold of him, Vijender added. Soon, the police arrived at the scene and interrogated the nabbed the suspect, 21-year-old Amar. Amars interrogation, the CCTV camera footage of the routes the suspects took while fleeing, and local intelligence helped us catch the other suspects too, including a 12-year-old boy. They are all drug addicts, DCP Bhatia said. All the stolen mobile phones and cash were recovered from them. We provided the victims with food and stay for the night, the DCP said. But the migrants walked back to their rented homes in the morning. We havent told our families about the robbery. Instead, we lied to them that the police sent us back, Vijender said. He had enough credits in high school, said one of his college advisors, Shubhik K. DebBurman of Lake Bluff, biology department chair. He arrived with a very strong record. He could have graduated in three years or less, but he chose four years, DebBurman said. The South Eastern Railway has decided to reduce the speed of all goods and special trains to 40 km per hour in its Kharagpur-Bhadkar section till Monday morning owing to the movement of migrant workers at different places along the railway tracks, an official said here on Sunday. All staff in the section, including Railway Protection Force (RPF), gateman and trackman, have been asked to be vigilant regarding the movement of migrant workers along railway tracks, the official said. Speed of the trains has been reduced to 40 km per hour between 8 pm of Sunday and 8 am on Monday in the Kharagpur- Bhadrak section across West Bengal and Odisha after migrant workers were spotted walking along the tracks at different places, he said. Loco pilots have also been instructed to run trains with a strict vigil and have been asked to blow long whistles during movement, the official said. The superintendent of police of Birbhum district also urged the Eastern Railway authorities to provide advance intimation about the movement of trains in order to prevent any incident like that of Aurangabad in Maharashtra where 16 migrant were killed after being run over. On Saturday, the driver of a track maintenance van, which was moving at a slow speed, spotted around 20 labourers walking along the tracks near Nalhati station in Birbhum district and stopped it in time, thus preventing any untoward incident, the SP said in his letter to the divisional railway manager, Howrah, of Eastern Railways. The SP said a special police control room is functioning at Suri to closely monitor the situation. During the lockdown period, the movements of the regular trains have ceased, while movements of goods carriage trains have escalated for the transportation of essential commodities. Some special trains are plying, too, carrying migrant labourers or railway employees, he wrote. "To rule out the possibility of any incident, it is requested that intimation regarding movement details of all kinds of trains passing through Birbhum district may be given well in advance to the special police control room," the SP wrote in the letter. He said that 193.4 km long tracks of Eastern Railway pass through the Birbhum district. The SP said that round-the-clock mobile patrolling has been intensified to prevent movement of migrant workers and other persons along the tracks. Police personnel have also been deployed at different strategic locations along the tracks to maintain vigil, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 13:57:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WASHINGTON, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Three top U.S. public health officials, all key members of the White House coronavirus task force, have begun self-quarantine for two weeks after contact with a person who has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to U.S. media reports on Saturday. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN he will begin a "modified quarantine" after making a "low risk" contact with a White House staffer who tested positive for the virus. The "low risk" assessment means Fauci was not in close proximity to the person who tested positive during the time when that person was known to be positive for the virus, CNN reported. Fauci said he will telework from home and wear a mask for 14 days. He tested negative for the virus on Friday and plans to be tested daily from now on, it reported. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), had a "low-risk exposure" with a person at the White House on May 6, and "will be teleworking for the next two weeks," a CDC spokesman told several U.S. media outlets. Redfield "is feeling fine, and has no symptoms," the spokesman said, adding if Redfield needed to visit the White House for official business, he would follow CDC safety guidelines for essential workers who may have been exposed to the virus. Those guidelines call for temperature checks, screening for symptoms, masks and social distancing. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), had sent a note to his staff on Friday disclosing his contact with a person who had tested positive for COVID-19, and "is now in self-quarantine for the next two weeks," a spokeswoman for the FDA was quoted by The New York Times as saying. "Dr. Hahn immediately took a diagnostic test and tested negative for the virus," the spokeswoman said. Sources did not identify the person to whom the three officials had been exposed. But the self-quarantine came after the disclosure on Friday that U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary, Katie Miller, tested positive for the virus. Miller has attended numerous meetings of the White House coronavirus task force, which also includes Fauci, Redfield and Hahn, according to The New York Times. Earlier this week, the White House confirmed that one of U.S. President Donald Trump's personal valets has tested positive for the virus. White House staff are being tested daily for COVID-19 and undergoing daily temperature checks, White House spokesperson Judd Deere was quoted by The New York Times as saying. As of Saturday night, over 1.3 million people have been infected with COVID-19 across the United States, with the death toll surpassing 78,700, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Enditem Business School Lecturer, Professor John Gatsi has said the data published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the macro-fiscal situation of Ghana is the true reflection of the Ghanaian economy. According to him, whiles Ghanaians know the fiscal deficit to Gross Domestic Product in 2019 to be 4.5%, the Fund knows the true state of the budget deficit in 2019 as 7.5%. The clarification by the IMF will generate further political debate about the economy. The data published by the IMF shows the true state of the economy. The whole issue about misreporting is not about misreporting of economic data to IMF but to the people of Ghana through the budget. We believe the data published by the IMF to be true. So, what is the IMF explaining to us?", he questioned. Below is the article by Professor John Gatsi, Business School Lecturer and Head of Finance at the University of Cape Coast IMF clarification on macro-fiscal data does not change the true state of the Ghanaian economy-Prof. John Gatsi The clarification by the IMF will generate further political debate about the economy. The data published by the IMF shows the true state of the economy. The whole issue about misreporting is not about misreporting of economic data to IMF but to the people of Ghana through the budget. We believe the data published by the IMF to be true. So what is the IMF explaining to us? The people of Ghana know the deficit in 2019 to be 4.5% but the IMF knows the true state of the deficit in 2019 was 7.5%. We believe the correct data was presented to IMF and what is now known as misreporting is to Parliament via the budget. The explanation by IMF is strange and may be tagged as involving in domestic politics. We are guided by our Constitution and financial management principles, objectives and strategy enshrined in the public financial management act ,2016 (Act 921) in which the finance minister is the main executive member with financial management responsibility. It is therefore the finance minister who should face the country to explain the data agreed upon with the IMF. It is unnecessary for the IMF to attempt to do what the finance minister should be doing. Now to the substantive issues. Take for example that Ghana raised $2bn in a year but spent $3bn and decided to divide the extra $1bn into $600M and $400M and stated in its financial statement that over expenditure was $600M but disclosed in the notes to the financial statements that the country over spent another $400M which was also approved by Parliament. Now how much is the over expenditure that parliament approved on behalf of the people? The answer is $1bn. Now, why did IMF accepted the figures presented by government in its dataset? Answer is that it is the true picture about the Ghanaian economy therefore the true picture of the deficit, reserves, debt to GDP ratio and primary balance as well as GDP growth presented by IMF from the data supplied by government remain the true state of the Ghanaian economy. Ask any of the IMF team, a member of the minority or member of government that if they are taken as consultants to look at the macro- fiscal data in the budget and that of IMF data for a client to provide macro-fiscal situation of Ghana to take / make critical and informed decisions will they look at the true state as presented by IMF or not?. Accountants will tell you the purpose of the notes to an account gives extra critical information that you must use without which your assessment of the account is meaningless and incomplete. The separation or no separation of financial sector and energy costs does not take away the fact that the true state of the economy is what the IMF data presented and the granting of the $1bn Rapid Credit Facility was based on the true state of the macro-fiscal situation that is why the IMF attached it to the disbursement letter to Ghana. WASHINGTON Amy Lappos, the Connecticut woman who a year ago alleged unwanted physical contact by former vice president Joe Biden, says she has been attacked on social media by individuals falsely suggesting she is hiding additional allegations against Biden. The attacks started after Lappos tweeted about an interview in which another woman, Tara Reade, came forward with a sexual assault allegation against Biden. The online commenters have suggested Lappos is withholding part of her story because she backs Bidens 2020 presidential campaign. Pinned at the collision of the #MeToo movement and the hyper-partisan 2020 election, the onslaught of tweets, Facebook messages and text messages have left Lappos, 44, traumatized and scared, she said. For Lappos, who says she is a survivor of unrelated sexual violence, the attacks open deeply painful wounds. I want to make sure that the message I tried to send last year about bodily autonomy and survivorship - I wanted to make sure that that story is preserved, Lappos said in an exclusive interview with Hearst Connecticut Media. And I dont want to be weaponized. I support Joe Biden right now. Lappos was never sexually assaulted or harassed by Biden, she said. Her story is unchanged from when she first told it in early 2019: Biden pulled her head toward his and rubbed noses with her at a Greenwich fundraiser in 2009, where she was working as a congressional aide to U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn. Lappos is one of eight women who have alleged that Biden initiated unwanted or inappropriate physical contact with them. After their allegations emerged, Biden promised on April 3, 2019 to be more respectful of peoples personal space. The Biden campaign did not respond to requests for further comment Saturday. Reade, who last year accused Biden of inappropriate touching, expanded her claim in late March to include an allegation of sexual assault against Biden dating to when Reade worked in Bidens Senate office in 1993. Reade called for Biden to drop out of the presidential race in an interview with journalist Megyn Kelly, part of which was released this week. Biden said the alleged assault of Reade never happened in a statement and interview on May 1. He requested the Senate and National Archives find and release any complaint from Reade from his offices personnel records. Despite all the allegations, Lappos, a Democrat, said she plans to vote for Biden in the Connecticut primary and general election. Did I want to end up with Joe Biden, two white males in the election? Not really. I dont see it being so progressive, said Lappos. However, Joe Biden is the obvious choice to beat [President Donald] Trump right now and therefore, I support him. Lappos also said she believes something did happen to Reade, but has some skepticism about the exact details. I believe and support Tara Reade. I give her the benefit of doubt, said Lappos. I will not participate in any of the bashing of her because I do believe that she speaks from a place of trauma. Lappos first publicly disclosed the unwanted contact she says she experienced from Biden in 2019 on Facebook and then, in interviews with the Hartford Courant and Hearst Connecticut Media. When the news broke, her front lawn in Milford was flooded with reporters and her phone started ringing and buzzing incessantly, she said. Online messages poured in from people who applauded her for speaking up or dismissed her as a liar, she said. I wasnt expecting the amount of push back that I got - push back, from primarily older male Democrats, said Lappos. It was all social media. Some of them were so disgusting. The outpouring of attention - much of it negative - forced her to rebrand her business as a grant writer for non-profits, Lappos said. Democrats ended friendships with her. Eventually, things quieted down. Then, on March 25, 2020, a self-described socialist and podcaster Katie Halper released a podcast interview in which Reade described her sexual assault allegation against Biden publicly for the first time. Lapposs name surged in the news media again and online. Lappos spoke to the New York Times, the Washington Post and USA Today as they vetted Reades claims. People began tweeting lists of the women who had made allegations against Biden, some inaccurately stating that all the women had accused Biden of sexual harassment or assault. Lappos said she tweeted at some asking them to remove her from the list or use different language. Sometimes, they blocked Lappos and continued tweeting, she said. On May 2, someone tagged Lappos in a Twitter thread about the Reade claims. Lappos had not read Halpers social media posts but did listen to the podcast interview with Reade, she said. Lappos decided to tweet: Katie Halper also chose only to speak to Biden accusers who support Bernie for her article. I never heard from her because I support our nominee and loathe Bernie [Sanders, senator from Vermont and presidential candidate]... Thats a smear campaign posing as journalism. That afternoon, Halper retweeted Lapposs comment adding: Youre a Biden supporter accusing him of something? By all means, I will speak to you. Did you reach out? A screenshot of Halpers tweet was shared with Hearst Connecticut Media. The tweet appears to have been deleted from Twitter. Halper retweeted Lapposs message a few more times on May 2. Halper tweeted, A Biden supporter is publicly tweeting that she has an accusation against Biden. Someone may want to talk to her. Halper suggested Lappos message her at one point and later said Lappos would not talk to her. Halper and Lappos never spoke, Lappos said. She noted that Halper did not tag Lappos in her tweets about her. Attempts to reach Halper went unanswered Saturday. The exchange unleashed a wave of people who began suggesting that Lappos was hiding an assault, with some suggesting shed been raped, to protect Biden. Lappos called herself a survivor in one tweet. Thousands of people tweeted at Lappos with comments like: So Biden raped you too? Now you dont want to speak up because it doesnt suit you politically? and mocked her saying Biden raped me but I am still way more into Biden than loathsome Bernie. Facebook messages piled on, too, private messages shared with Hearst Connecticut Media show. Lappos grew particularly worried when she received a random text message describing alleged examples of presidential infidelity and urging her you should not be cover [sic] this up today. Lappos showed the text message to Hearst Connecticut Media. Its retraumatizing to keep hearing the word rape thrown at me and that Im protecting rapists. Thats been a nightmare, said Lappos. As it was escalating, there is definitely a fear. You hear a noise and youre like s***. The mailman comes and youre Oh god did somebody mail me something weird. I want to make sure there is no belief that I was raped by Biden, Lappos said. Lappos spoke up in the first place, she said, because she wanted to support Lucy Flores, a Democratic politician from Nevada who said Biden made her feel uneasy by kissing her on the back of the head at a campaign rally in 2014. Biden said in response he never believed he acted inappropriately. Lappos was working at a Democratic fundraiser at a home in Greenwich in 2009, when then-vice President Joe Biden grabbed her head and pulled her close to rub noses with her, Lappos has told numerous media outlets. She was standing in the kitchen with a group of other volunteers when Biden stopped to talk to them. It was so weird, said Lappos. I remember when he grabbed my face and was pulling me forward, I remember thinking Is he going to kiss me? I had no idea what the hell he was doing he was talking to me while he had his forehead against mine and was rubbing my nose. He was saying something to me. And to this day I have no idea what it was because I just kept thinking Oh my god, his face is pressed against mine. Lappos said the interaction was witnessed by three Himes staffers and was discussed among the low-level staff after the fact. Among the staff, jokes were made that Biden tried to make out with me, Lappos said. Hearst Connecticut Media tried to contact the staffers Lappos said witnessed the interaction, but did not hear back. Lappos never filed a complaint of any kind about the interaction, she said. She does not remember meeting Biden on any other occasion. Lappos never told Himes about the interaction, she said. In an interview, Himes confirmed he never discussed the alleged nose rub with Lappos after the event in 2009, nor after she spoke about it publicly in 2019. Lappos worked for Himes from July 2008 until Nov. 2016, she said and a Himes spokesman confirmed. As Lappos has reflected on the interaction with Biden over the years, she has come to view it as an uncomfortable violation of her personal space by a powerful individual in a professional environment. As a woman whose background includes previous sexual violence and abuse, she said, she was particularly alarmed by the invasion. Lappos was raped twice while a minor, once by someone she knew in high school, she said. The #MeToo movement has highlighted not only that sexual harassment and misconduct are unacceptable, she believes, but consent is necessary for physical contact between individuals. I think this discussion - this bodily autonomy discussion - is so overlooked, she said. An 18-inch radius around myself, that is my space. When that is space is respected and understood that that is your space to decide how you interact within that space I think that uplifts the understanding of rape and molestation. Lappos said she does not regret speaking up about her experience with Biden in 2019. She knows continuing to speak to the press about her story may further fuel her harassment. I have the right to my voice, said Lappos. I will not feel ready to let this go or heal from this until my voice is heard. emilie.munson@hearstdc.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson Please register or log in to keep reading. No credit card required! Stay logged in to skip the surveys. - The Kenyans were tested for COVID-19 and only those who tested negative were allowed to board the repatriation flight - They will be quarantined for 14 days before being allowed to head to their respective homes - As of Sunday, May 10, the government had evacuated stranded Kenyans living in UK, India and China A plane carrying Kenyans who were stranded in China as a result of the coronavirus pandemic has arrived in Nairobi. Mercy flight KQ 883 left Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport on Saturday, May 9, at 8.27pm and touched down at Nairobi based Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) a few minutes before 3am on Sunday, May 10. READ ALSO: 7 Kenyan truck drivers test positive for COVID-19 in Uganda Kenya's ambassador to China Sarah Serem (in dotted shirt) was at Baiyun International Airport to see off the over 160 Kenyans. Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Source: UGC READ ALSO: 7 Kenyan truck drivers test positive for COVID-19 in Uganda According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the flight had at least 160 Kenyans aboard. In a separate story, TUKO.co.ke reported that calls for repatriation of the citizens started gaining steam following xenophobic attacks that broke out in China. READ ALSO: Bungoma: Mzee wa miaka 84 afumaniwa kitandani na mkaza mwanawe READ ALSO: Kilifi woman gifted new house by Governor Amason Kingi after she delivered quadruplets Section of Chinese nationals blamed Africans for the continued spread of the virus between mid-March 2020 and April 2020. The attacks saw hundreds of Africans living in China thrown out of their houses while others remained unable to carter for their livelihoods as a result of the economic freeze caused by the pandemic. As of Sunday, May 10, the government had evacuated stranded Kenyans living in UK, India and China. Nairobi governor Mike Sonko disclosed he was among wellwishers who paid for air tickets for some 10 Kenyans who could not afford the costs. Globally, the virus had infected 4,101,641 people, some 1,441,734 had recovered while 280,435 others had succumbed. In Kenya, as of Sunday, 649 people had contracted the virus out of which 207 were recoveries and 30 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. Eastleigh residents' plea to Uhuru | Tuko TV. Source: TUKO.co.ke Ghanas Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation, Anthony Akoto Osei like many others have been stuck in the United Staes for more than a month. Our manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in The Minister was on an official assignment before the announcement of a lockdown and closure of Ghanas borders by President Akufo-Addo. Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana, President Akufo-Addo and his government instituted some measures to control the spread of the disease in the country. Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation, Anthony Akoto Osei. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Woman gets new oven from John Dumelo It is as a result of this that a partial lockdown was announced in certain parts of the country. This lockdown has been lifted in these areas. However, there is also a closure of the countrys borders - air, sea, and land. The president first announced the closure of Ghanas borders on March 22, 2020. It has since been extended to the end of May 2020, meaning the Evaluation Minister will be out of the country for a while. Meanwhile, there have been growing calls by some Ghanaian travellers affected by the travel ban for the government to facilitate their return home. READ ALSO: Mahama says government is failing Ghanaians on COVID-19 One such person is rapper Michael Owusu Addo popularly referred to as Sarkodie and his colleague Pappy Kojo. YEN.com.gh also earlier reported that Divine Narkotey Aboagye, a Ghanaian student of the Graduate Faculty of Illinois State Universitys (ISU) School of Communication has been adjudged Outstanding Graduate Student by the university. The graduate student award is given annually to acknowledge a student who has shown unmatched excellence in teaching, research, and service. "If you want to die, please die alone" Health Minister to uncooperative Ghanaians | #Yencomgh(opens in new tab) READ ALSO: Ciara Antwi: Story of how Rev Obofour prophesied wife would deliver triplets told (video) Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: YEN.com.gh Here are todays leading news stories: Society -- Vietnam did not report any cases of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Sunday morning. The countrys tally is still at 288, with 241 having recovered. -- The bodies of two remaining victims have been found after a boat capsized along Thu Bon River in the central province of Quang Nam on Friday afternoon. The boat was carrying 11 people, of whom six were rescued while five others went missing. -- An official of the tax office in Bo Trach District, located in the north-central province of Quang Binh, has been suspended for driving under the influence of alcohol and challenging traffic police officers after he was pulled over. -- One person was killed and 14 others injured, while more than 4,300 houses were damaged after a downpour accompanied by strong gusts battered multiple districts in the northern province of Phu Tho on early Saturday morning. -- Police in the central city of Da Nang confirmed on Saturday they had arrested 10 suspects, many of whom are teenagers, for smashing car windows and stealing property from the vehicles, causing damage worth over VND200 million (US$8,600). Business -- Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc called for greater efforts to restart the national economy with the aim of achieving a GDP growth rate of over five percent this year during a teleconference with the countrys business community on Saturday. -- PetroVietnams crude oil output exploited in the first four months of 2020 reached 7.2 million metric tons, exceeding its set target by 7.7 percent, despite difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and a sharp decrease in oil prices. Lifestyle -- Bars and pubs in Ho Chi Minh City have been allowed to reopen following a long shutdown due to the COVID-19 epidemic, while discos and karaoke shops are still banned, the municipal administration announced on Saturday. World News -- The novel coronavirus has infected over 4.1 million people and killed more than 280,400 around the globe as of Sunday morning, according to statistics. Above 1.4 million patients have recovered from COVID-19. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A 30-YEAR-OLD Limerick social care worker in hospital with Covid-19 has urged youngsters to take the threat of catching the deadly condition seriously. The city woman, who does not wish to be identified, due to the fact she cares for a vulnerable group in society, is currently in Nenagh General Hospital after contracting coronavirus. It has left her feeling in total shock and terrified and she also revealed that the first tests cleared her of the condition which has claimed hundreds of lives here. Shes been forced to take antiobiotics inhalers, a cough bottle and even given lung physio exercises to do to fight off the virus. Speaking from her hospital bed, the care worker said when she was first tested alongside her colleagues, it came back negative. She had earlier assumed this, as workmates who tested positive were contacted. She started to feel symptoms on April 26. While most people who contract coronavirus experience flu-like symptoms, the care workerss experience was different. I had no temperature, no cough, none of the symptoms we are being told to watch out for. Instead I had severe vomiting and diarrhea. On the morning of April 28, I had a call from the HSE to say I was negative. I was still ill so my GP said to ring an ambulance immediately, and I was brought to the regional. They swabbed me and that night at 11:30pm I was told I was positive, then brought to a Covid unit in Tipperary, she explained. Asked why she felt she caught Covid-19, she says shes not sure. Shes expeditiously hygienic due to the fact she has underlying conditions including breathing and stomach issues. I was pretty vigilant with my personal protective equipment and hygiene. But as I work in a residential setting with a large number of people living and working there, bacteria can spread very rapidly, especially if there is residents who would not fully understand hand hygiene, she added. Upon being told she had contracted Covid-19, she said: So many news reports only focus on mortality rates. So every say you wake up wondering how youll feel that day and will you be worse than the day before. Physically I got worse around day five of the disease. I had very high fever spikes and headaches and chills with a very bad cough. Fortunately, she feels she is improving, and hopes to be out of hospital in a fortnight, all things going well. She paid tribute to the staff in Nenagh, adding: From the doctors to cleaners, everyone has been so kind and gone out of their way to ensure I have the best medical care. But they would also come in the night if I was awake to make sure I wasnt scared. Despite staff being under huge pressure, they never let that stop them caring for the patients. Urging people to take it seriously, she said: Think of the people who do not have good immunuty and realise you could be affecting them. Some people are carriers and dont know. The Dakshina Kannada district administration has made arrangements to quarantine non- resident citizens arriving here by flights from various countries amid the COVID-19 crisis. The first repatriation flight from Dubai carrying 170 passengers is expected to land at the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) here on Tuesday. Nearly 1,000 rooms at lodges, hostels and service apartments have been kept ready as quarantine facilities for the NRIs. The authorities have reserved rooms in 18 hotels, lodges and six hostels for the mandated two-week quarantine. The returnees will be given the option of staying either at hotels or in government facilities, sources said. All the quarantine facilities will have the services of doctors to monitor the health of those coming from abroad. Around 3,000 Indian citizens have sought repatriation to DK and Udupi districts from different countries, sources said. Some of them will arrive in ships once the services are started to the New Mangalore Port. Only people belonging to DK district will be quarantined here, while those from Udupi, Uttara Kannada districts and Kasaragod in Kerala will be sent to their respective destinations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A student from the University of La Verne fabricated a hate crime attack to bring attention to the country's problem with racism was arrested according to a recently published article. Fabricated Hate Crime Attack Dominguez Pena, a student from the University of La Verne, claimed in February of last year that a masked man inside the campus assaulted her after finding a "smoking backpack" in her car. She told the same story to police officers, and because of this, University officials shut down operations for 24 hours. According to the report, Pena was found bruised at the bottom of the stairwell inside the campus. She then claimed that she was attacked and assaulted by a masked man. However, speculations started when she denied medical assistance. Why Did the Student Fabricate a Hate Attack? Professor Judy Holiday believed that the reason why Pena fabricated the hate attack is to bring attention to the ongoing race problem in the United States. She also added that the student was motivated to make the fake hate crime attack because of her experiences with racism as a minority. She said: "It was very distressing to hear that a student fabricated racist threats, especially as those threats did so much damage to the reputation of other individuals and the university." Holiday added: "It was also distressing to think about the fact that racism in the United States is so profoundly a part of the lives of people of color that a student felt compelled to do something illegal and immoral to bring attention to the problem." Charges Filed Against the Student Following the investigation conducted by the La Verne Police Department and Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, Pena was charged in March due to falsified hate attack, perjury, impersonation, and filing of false police reports. Rod Leveque, University of La Verne Office of Strategic Communications Executive Director, said that the hoax committed by Pena was very upsetting. However, Leveque did not give comments when he was asked if the university disciplined the student. Leveque said: "The incidents last year were extremely upsetting to the university community. We take a lot of pride in being a diverse and inclusive campus, and we hope that the conclusion of the criminal investigation will allow us to continue to come together and focus on our mission of providing an excellent education to our students." Developing Reports About the Case of Dominguez Pena Dominguez Pena, who sent ten fake racist attacks against herself, false police report, false impersonation and one count of filing false claims with the state victim's compensation fund, was already arrested according to a recently published article. According to the report, making criminal threats and filing a false claim are both felonies. Police authority said: "A series of nine additional incidents followed the initial threat. At one point, the threats escalated to a point where the University of La Verne canceled classes for a day to 'reset' and deal with the threats." The police added: "The threats were directed at the University of La Verne, the student group, herself and members of the group." Moreover, Pena's bail was set to $200,000 and is scheduled to present herself before the Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday next week. Read a related article: By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Former Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh has been rushed to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi on Sunday evening following pain in the chest. According to AIIMS sources, the former PM was brought to the premier hospital at 8.45 pm. "Currently, he is in ICU and his condition is being monitored. Dr Nitish Naik and his team is looking after his situation," said a source. "All his parameters are fine. He is under observation at the AIIMS," a source close to him said, adding that he was taken to the hospital after he felt "uneasiness". Singh is a senior leader of the opposition Congress and currently represents Rajasthan in the Upper House of Parliament. He was the prime minister between 2004 and 2014. In 2009, Singh underwent successful coronary bypass surgery at AIIMS. Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Sunday expressed concern over the health of former Prime Minister. "Much worried to know former PM Dr Manmohan Singh ji has been admitted to AIIMS. I wish him a speedy recovery and pray for his good health and long life," Gehlot tweeted. Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel tweeted, "Praying for good health of Doctor saheb. We are sure he will be fit and fine at the earliest." RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav also tweeted, "Saw the news of Dr Manmohan Singh ji being admitted to hospital. My sincere prayers for the speedy recovery of Manmohan Singh ji, the humble, intelligent, scholar, true gentleman and one of the best PM." His son and RJD chief Tejashvi Yadav said, "Wishing for the speedy recovery of respected Dr ManmohanSingh ji." (With PTI Inputs) When nothing works, desi nuskha does its magic! A ghost is on the prowl in a village in Odisha. Apparently hired by the gram panchayat, the sari-clad woman with chalk-white skin roams around at night to ensure that people follow the lockdown. As excepted, her payal goes chhan chhan when she walks. Villagers scream and retreat as soon as they see her. This does seem like a scene from a comedy horror film! Full marks for creativity to the person who thought about this. We also need to educate people so that they do not take the pandemic lightly and do not fall for rumours, says film director Madhureeta Anand. Model and actor Renee Dhyani says its a great idea to use quirk and humour to send across a serious message. And she would love to play this ghost! This is out-of-the-box thinking. I would love to play this ghost. I love the way she dresses up and walks in the video, says Dhyani. From cops wearing corona shaped helmet in Chennai to a man dressed as Yamraj in Delhi warning people not to break the lockdown, authorities are coming up with all sorts of quirky ideas across India to contain Covid-19. But this ghost surely sets a tough benchmark! SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Prerna Gauba Prerna Gauba writes on fashion and food, for the daily Entertainment & Lifestyle supplement, HT City. ...view detail The more than 3,500 Australians whose homes were destroyed by last summers fires are facing a one-two punch of hardship that has few peacetime precedents and is generating growing concerns about victims safety and mental health. The buffer of community events, rebuilding efforts and in-person therapy that sprang up after the fires has largely vanished as public health authorities have instructed Australians to have little to no contact with anyone outside their immediate households. Bush-fire relief centers that once offered donated clothing, meals or a warm embrace have been mostly shuttered. Volunteers who came in droves to clear noxious rubble and build new fences around burned-out farmland have left. The relief center in Quaama, near Cobargo, where Ms. Marshall lives, was forced by the authorities to shut down in March. At the time, 40 or so people were still visiting daily, some of whom remained in need of basics like water and internet access. It reopened recently, though with a limited capacity. We were the last real evidence of help, said Veronica Abbott, the centers coordinator. When the day is all too much, youve just got to go hide in your bed, she added. For a lot of people, thats the only way they can stay warm. Plan Ghana said the economic hardship that the pandemic has exerted on the people coupled with the closure of schools in the country could force parents to give off their children for marriage as an alternative source of income for the family. Mr Kamaldeen Iddrisu, the District Development Coordinator, Upper West Regional Programme Unit of Plan International Ghana, made the observation at a sensitisation forum at Wechiau at the weekend. Because of COVID-19, now economic activities are not going on as it used to be, so the people can be tempted to marry off their children so that they get money to do other things, he explained. Selected stakeholders including traditional authorities and Assembly Members attended the forum organised by the Upper West Regional Youth Parliament in partnership with the National Youth Authority and the Plan International Ghana. It was to sensitise the participants on the need for them to join forces towards the fight against teenage pregnancy and child marriage as the COVID-19 pandemic had increased the risk of twin occurrence. Mr Iddrisu said Plan International Ghana is committed to ensure that every child enjoyed his or her rights with particular interest in ensuring equal rights for girls. Some of the participants identified irresponsible parenting as a major setback to the fight against the menace of child marriage and teenage pregnancy. They said some parents were not willing to support other stakeholders in prosecuting perpetrators of such acts but rather compromising the process. Mr Sumaila Shaibu Poleenaa, the Speaker of the Upper West Regional Youth Parliament, entreated parents to take an interest in the development and wellbeing of their wards. He said child marriage and teenage pregnancy could thwart the development of the girl child which could affect the community and national development in the long run. Mr Polenaa implored the participants to educate their constituents on the dangers involved in perpetrating the acts as perpetrators would be prosecuted when apprehended. GNA Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi has slipped into coma on Sunday, the doctors attending to him said. According to a medical bulletin issued by the hospital where he is admitted, the doctors said that his brain could not receive oxygen because of the respiratory arrest he suffered on Saturday. This situation affected his brain and led to coma, they further said. The 74-year-old bureaucrat-turned politician has been put on ventilator at Shree Narayana Hospital in Raipur and doctors have described his condition extremely critical. According to Jogis family members, he fell unconscious at his residence on Saturday morning. Ajit Jogis son Amit said that the health of his father deteriorated suddenly while he was having breakfast. As per a health bulletin released by the hospital on Saturday, Ajit Jogi was given cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) at his residence by a senior intensivist before he was rushed to the hospital. Three UN troops were killed and four more wounded when their convoy hit a roadside bomb early Sunday, officials said, in the latest violence to hit the war-torn West African state. UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned the attack and called on the perpetrators to be brought to justice. Chadian peacekeepers were on a routine patrol in Aguelhok commune in the north of the country, the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, said in a statement. Three soldiers were killed and four were seriously wounded in the blast, it added. We will have to make every effort to identify and apprehend those responsible for these terrorist acts so that they can be brought to justice, said MINUSMA mission head Mahamat Saleh Annadif. I bow before the remains of these brave blue helmets who died in the service of peace in Mali. UN Secretary-General Guterres also condemned what he described as a cowardly attack. Guterres called on the authorities in Mali to spare no effort to identify those responsible so that they can be brought to justice swiftly. The statement from his office also said that attacks targeting United Nations peacekeepers could constitute war crimes under international law. The UN mission has some 13,000 troops drawn from several nations deployed across the vast semi-arid country. Mali is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that erupted in 2012 and which has claimed thousands of military and civilian lives since. Despite the presence of thousands of French and UN troops, the conflict has engulfed the centre of the country and spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger. Laying roadside bombs is a favoured tactic of jihadists active in the Sahel. Also known as improvised explosive devices, they kill and maim scores of victims every year in Mali. Lisbon, May 10 : The beach on the island of Porto Santo, in Portugal's Madeira archipelago, will be the first to open to swimmers and sunbathers from Sunday but the rest of the country will have to wait until June to take a dip in the Atlantic. The regional president of Madeira Miguel Alburquerque said the restaurants and changing room facilities will remain closed, however amid the COVID-19 pandemic, reports Efe news. The rest of Madeira's beaches will remain closed until May 15, providing the coronavirus remains controlled. The Portuguese government is preparing a guide for local authorities when it comes to opening up beach areas. The health authorities will outline social-distancing rules on the sand and parking spaces will also be regulated. There are at least 481 oceanic beaches and 133 river beaches in Portugal. So far, Portugal has 27,406 COVID-19 cases with 1,126 deaths. Police officers in face masks patrol Red Square on Victory Day marking the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Valery Sharifulin\TASS via Getty Images Russia has now recorded more than 10,000 cases of the novel coronavirus for the seventh day in a row. On Saturday, the country recorded 10,817 new cases of the coronavirus in one day and 104 deaths, bringing the country's total cases to 198,676 and deaths to 1,827. The country has risen to be the fifth-hardest hit in the global coronavirus pandemic. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Russia recorded 10,817 new cases of the coronavirus in one day, marking the seventh day in a row the country counted more than 10,000 cases. Reuters reported that Russian authorities said Saturday the new cases bring the total number of cases to 198,676. The country's coronavirus taskforce said that 104 people had died overnight, bringing the national death toll to 1,827. The new totals mark Russia's ascent to the top rank of countries hit hardest by the novel coronavirus pandemic, as it has now surpassed that of France and Germany to become the site of the fifth-most infections in the world, Reuters noted. Moscow, the country's capital, has been under lockdown since late March in response to the pandemic, in addition to some other regions. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the steady, but stable, climb of new cases are just the beginning of the virus' hit to the country, according to CNN. "The daily increase in cases has relatively stabilized but this mustn't calm us down, the situation is still very serious," Putin said. "The peak is not behind us, we are about to face a new and grueling phase of the pandemic... the deadly threat of the virus remains." Business Insider's Will Martin previously reported that the virus rapidly tore through the country after most others were hard-hit in April. On April 1 Russia had 2,777 confirmed cases, while the US had around 220,000. By May 3, Russia was up to 134,000 compared to the 1.16 million reported cases in the US. Many healthcare workers and Russian media reports have highlighted frontline workers who are critical of the state's handling of the virus, specifically the sluggish rate of distributing supplies to those treating coronavirus patients. Read the original article on Business Insider A Delhi government letter seeking reimbursement of Rs 6.5 lakh spent on sending around 1,100 migrants from the national capital to their native Bihar on a special train on Friday has triggered a row. In a letter in response to the demand, Bihars disaster management department principal secretary Pratyaya Amrit on Saturday cited clause 11 (c) of the railways guidelines issued on May 2 saying the local state government authority shall handover the tickets to the passengers cleared by them and collect the ticket fare and handover the total amount to railways. The decision of the GNCTD [government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi] in making payments for buying bulk tickets for all passengers and then to seek reimbursement from Government of Bihar (GoB) is in violation of the aforesaid guidelines issued by the Ministry of Railways, said Amrit. Amrits letter came in response to that of Delhi governments nodal officer PK Gupta seeking the reimbursement for the transportation of the migrants, who arrived in Muzaffarpur on Saturday. He said the Bihar government has a policy of reimbursing the railway fares paid by migrant labourers on arrival in the state. In consonance with this policy, we shall reimburse the fare to the railway passengers and not to the GNCTD, the letter said. HT has seen copies of both letters. Gopal Rai, Delhis labour minister, acknowledged they had written to the Bihar government on May 7 seeking the reimbursement. He added since there was no response to their letter, the Delhi government paid the railways Rs 6.5 lakh to send the migrant workers back home. We had sent a similar letter to Madhya Pradesh and it responded and paid the cost for the first train that went from Delhi. Delhis ruling Aam Aadmi Party spokesman Sanjay Singh said the railways runs these special trains after the fares are paid but the Bihar government wants workers to come first and pay later. He said the Delhi government said it will not allow the workers to pay money and hence paid the railways. Who are you trying to fool [Bihar chief minister] Nitish Kumar and BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party]? Singh tweeted. Tens of thousands of migrant workers from states like Bihar have been stranded in Delhi since the lockdown to check the Covid-19 spread was imposed on March 25. The railways last week began running special trains for the people stranded because of the lockdown. As per the Centres guidelines, either a state where a special train originates from or the one where it terminates has to bear 15% cost of a ticket. The Centre will take care of the remaining 85% of the sleeper class rates. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Home Regional News East Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday said the Maharashtra government should give permission to private vehicles for ferrying migrant labourers to their native places during the lockdown. Raising concern over migrant workers setting off for their hometowns on foot, Raut said they were falling sick and some have also died. The labour class is walking back home, this is not a good picture. Their children are with them. Railways is not ready to operate trains for them. The state government should give permission to private vehicles to ply, Raut tweeted. People are falling ill while walking. Some have died. Even then their walking hasnt stopped, the Rajya Sabha member further said. Sixteen migrant workers sleeping on rail tracks while returning to Madhya Pradesh were crushed to death by a goods train in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra in the early hours of Friday. The labourers, rendered jobless due to the coronavirus-enforced lockdown, had set off for their homes on foot along the rail tracks apparently to escape police attention. On March 28, four migrant labourers were crushed to death when a speeding tempo ran over them on Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway in Maharashtras Palghar district. Does Paget Berry from Below Deck Sailing Yacht look familiar but you cant put your finger on it? The first mate recently joked about how he resembles Prince Charming from the animated movie, Shrek and now fans cant unsee the character who is Berrys doppelganger. Paget Berry |Karolina Wojtasik/Bravo Berry shared a photo on Instagram with the uncanny comparison. Okay guys, I been getting a lot of comparisons these days and it has been settled! Prince Charming from Shrek is the winner You may now resume your lives, he captained the photo. Fans agreed and responded they can totally see the similarity. Lolololol Ive actually thought this for years , Kassie Duggan, girlfriend Ciara Duggans sister replied. Apparently this was a crew decision One person remarked that Berry actually resembled another animated character. Seriously? I was thinking more Kristoff from frozen. , the person wrote. But Berry said the decision came down to the crew hes quarantined with in Italy. All my current crew mates made the decision, he replied. He took some ribbing from another person on the post. Hey, at least its an upgrade from potato! Berry bantered back and forth with the person and Duggan eventually joined in too. Youll take anything big boy, she joked. The Below Deck Sailing Yacht account was here for the banter too. Living for this side convo. . Adding, OMG that is amazing. hey, he was the heartthrob! Another person asked Berry if stew Georgia Grobler referred to him that way. Grobler and Berry have had a pretty flirtatious relationship on the boat. But Grobler hilariously wrote, No, I said Shrek. He recently did this very Prince Charming thing for a guest Berry was asked to deliver a birthday cake to a guest shirtless. While some crew members would have no problem stripping down, Berry admitted he struggled with body image, but wanted to make the guest happy. When I was in school, I was a little bit chubby, he shared in a confessional. And I was bullied for it. I still feel as though theres a part of that inside me. Like as soon as I take my top off. I still feel really self-conscious like someones going to be like, Oh f**k, Why are you doing it if you look like that? He delivered the cake but only after doing massive amounts of pushups and pullups beforehand. While he was a good sport, he confessed he was stressed about the delivery. Im sh*tting myself, he laughed in a confessional. Its bigger than people realize. For me to go out and do that. Berry is also Ciara Duggans Prince Charming Berry and Duggan have been working and living together on a yacht in Italy. The couple shared what it was like while in isolation during the pandemic and really seem to be making the most of the situation. Now that we are in the thick of the quarantine how is everyone coping? I know that people who work on yachts are in a pretty fortunate situation, working on a boat is a little like quarantine anyways! You get used to it! Berry remarked on Instagram. Duggan posted about the couples life traveling together too. Reminiscing about the first time @pagetberry and I went to Bali and I learned how to make several traditional Balinese/Indonesian dishes , she shared along with a gorgeous photo of pasta. Below Deck Sailing Yacht is on Monday at 9/8c on Bravo. The pandemic is also being used to silence political prisoners, activists say. As many as 114,000 inmates, the United Nations says, are held in overcrowded, unsanitary prisons and detention centers, including tens of thousands democracy activists, political opponents, journalists and bloggers. Instead of a mass release of prisoners to prevent the spread of the virus, as other authoritarian governments in the region have done, the government has denied the inmates visits from families and lawyers. Our Divisions Copyright 2021-22 DB Corp ltd., All Rights Reserved This website follows the DNPA Code of Ethics. No COVID-19 case has been reported in 10 states and Union territories in the last 24 hours and the recovery rate has increased to over 30 per cent, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday, asserting that India was moving fast on the path of success in the fight against the pandemic. According to health ministry data, 1,511 COVID-19 patients recovered in the last 24 hours -- the highest number of recoveries recorded in one day. India carried out 86,000 tests for COVID-19 on Saturday and India's testing capacity now stands at 95,000 samples per day, Vardhan told reporters after inspecting a COVID-19 care centre in the Mandoli area in the national capital. India had started from one laboratory and now there are 472 laboratories testing for COVID-19, he said. Till Saturday, 16,09,777 tests for COVID-19 have been conducted in India, he said. "We are moving fast on path of success in the fight against COVID-19," Vardhan said. He also said that central teams are being sent to Delhi and nine states to assist their governments in managing the outbreak. The states where teams are being sent are Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and West Bengal. The government is making all efforts at every level to ensure that no stone is left unturned in the fight against COVID-19 anywhere and states are given all help they need, Vardhan said. Talking about the status of containment of COVID-19 in the country, Vardhan said, "Prior to lockdown, on March 25, 2020, the doubling rate was 3.2 when measured over a period of 3 days, 3.0 when measured over a period of 7 days and 4.1 when measured over a period of 14 days. Today it stands at 12.0 over a three-day window, 10.1 over a seven-day window and 11.0 when measured over a 14-day window." Similarly, the fatality rate stands at 3.3 per cent while recovery rate has improved to 30.7 per cent, he said, asserting that the situation has improved due to the lockdown. This also reflects on the quality of healthcare being provided to the COVID-19 patients, he added. "It is also heartening to note that in 10 States/UTs, no new case has emerged in the last 24 hours -- Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Goa, J&K, Ladakh, Manipur, Odisha, Mizoram, Puducherry," Vardhan said. There are four states/UTs -- Daman & Diu, Sikkim, Nagaland and Lakshadweep -- that have not reported a single case till date, he said. India has total 36 states and Union territories. "Adequate healthcare infrastructure and facilities have been set-up across the country for COVID-19 management. These have been divided into three categories viz. Dedicated COVID Hospitals (DCHs), Dedicated COVID Health Centres (DCHCs) and COVID Care Centres (CCCs) with adequate number of isolation beds, ICU beds and other facilities," Vardhan said. "A total of 855 Dedicated COVID Hospitals have been identified across the country with 1,65,723 Beds (1,47,128 Isolation Beds plus ICU Beds); 1,984 Dedicated COVID Health Centres with 1,31,352 Beds -- 1,21,403 Isolation Beds + 9,949 ICU Beds; and, 4,362 COVID Care Centres with 3,46,856 beds," he said. Delhi has 17 COVID Care Centres with a capacity for around 5,000 beds, Vardhan said. While stressing upon wearing masks or face-covers, washing hands regularly and observing physical distancing, Vardhan said, "These habits will help us in combating COVID-19 as well as other diseases also." "Government's efforts have proven successful in the past to eradicate Small Pox and Polio. Together we will also fight and defeat coronavirus," said Vardhan. He also informed that States/UTs as well as Central institutions have been provided with around 72 lakhs N-95 masks and around 36 lakh Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). "Based on the active COVID-19 confirmed cases being treated as on date, we have noticed that only 2.48% of these COVID cases have required ICU facility, only 1.94% of them have required oxygen support while mere 0.40% have required ventilator support," Vardhan said. Vardhan stated that 20 countries of the world where maximum cases have been reported, have total population which is almost equal to the population of India i.e. 135 crore and they have collectively till date reported almost 84 times the number of cases in India. In case of mortality these top 20 countries have reported 200 times the number of deaths reported in India, he said. This containment of the disease in India has been possible due to proactive, pre-emptive and graded approach taken by the central government in collaboration with the States/UTs, he asserted. Vardhan also hailed the "corona warriors" for their untiring efforts in the fight against coronavirus. The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 2,109 and the number of cases climbed to 62,939 in the country on Sunday, registering an increase of 128 deaths and 3,277 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry. Phuket Opinion: Far from over PHUKET: Phuket Chamber of Commerce President Thanusak Pungdet scored three bullseyes with his manifesto of what Phuket needs, and fast, delivered at Phuket Provincial Hall this week. opinioneconomicstourismCOVID-19 By The Phuket News Sunday 10 May 2020, 09:00AM Food relief efforts continue in Chalong. Photo: Chalong Municipality First and foremost, feed Phukets hungry first, and give them work as soon as possible so they support themselves. This is not a matter of pride, this is a matter of human security, safety and dignity. We know other areas of the country have their own problems of rural poverty and seasonal crises, be they flood or drought, yet as Mr Thanusak pointed out Phuket is fully dependent on tourism the one sector fully shut down by COVID-19 restrictions around the world. We dont grow rice, produce vehicles or textiles, and we are most certainly not a hub for any technology or other form of information skills or services. Take away tourism and everything disappears with it: property, shopping, even schools will be affected as people move away to find work. Mr Thanusak also called for efforts be made to start drawing up plans so that the island will be prepared for when some form of tourism, most likely some attempt at attracting domestic tourists, a source market that largely has been left with no disposable income. The real trick to that one is where will the workforce come from? Theyve all gone home. Somehow the private sector is being expected to make sure they will have trained staff on hand for when any tourists turn up. How can they do that when they have no income at all to pay them, even if just for training? Some form of skills development project must be launched. As for any return of international tourists, Mr Thanusak hit the nail on the head. Start now or be left well and truly behind. Vietnam has already their battle plan for recovery. Theyll be targeting young travellers. It will be able long time before foreign visitors return in substantial numbers, so at least start figuring out which source markets are to be targeted next. The best we have heard from our tourism minister so far is just the domestic tourism concept. Beyond that, the only source market anyone has made noises about is China. Hopefully the floodgates will not be opened anywhere to the same extent as the heyday of money-grabbing exploits of a few years ago. We do not say that in any form of xenophobia, over-reliance on any single source market must not be allowed again. But Mr Thanusaks third point, his call for Phuket to be a special economic zone, was very familiar. This plea has for Phuket to have more autonomy in order to cater to the islands needs not Bangkoks has fallen of deaf ears for more than 20 years. Pattaya was granted special status and can elect its own mayor, but that took the influence of the likes of Kamnan Poh to make a reality. Bangkok has always kept a tight hand on the purse strings for Phuket while the hundreds of billions of baht this island has generated each year for decades has not been poured back into any serious form of development. We keep hearing bleating about fixing traffic, while no one has the guts to mention public transport, not to mention the failed state of public water supply and the still-ongoing upgrade of power lines all over the island that speak tomes as to the lack of attention Bangkok has given Phuket. As long as the money kept coming, it was deemed no serious change was needed. In short, Bangkoks management of the island has been plainly unsustainable. Phuket should not have income from only tourism. Phuket must have a plan for development, and must consider in which direction Phuket will go Right now, the problem is about people going hungry, but after that there must be a concept that moves Phuket in a different direction for the better. Yes, Mr Thanusak, but sadly were not going to hold our breath on that last one. Work to dismantle the old Binh Loi Railway Bridge connecting Ho Chi Minh Citys Thu Duc and Binh Thanh Districts began this week as part of efforts to develop the citys water transport. Built in 1902, the 276-meter railway bridge featuring six spans was the first of its kind to cross the Saigon River. While the bridge has a historical value, it is crucial to replace it with a modern one as the old bridges vertical clearance was only 1.8 meters, which posed an obstacle for boats traveling underneath. According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport, the bridges dismantlement that started on Friday is expected to be done in 40 days. Workers are seen working on the dismantlement of the 118-year-old Binh Loi Railway Bridge in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, May 8, 2020. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre Once the work is done, the city will be better connected with southeast provinces by large waterway vessels. It will also help alleviate the pressure from road cargo transport. The Ministry of Transport has also agreed with the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee to keep two spans of the old Binh Loi Railway Bridge and a watchtower on the riverbank in Thu Duc District intact for preservation. Two spans of the old Binh Loi Railway Bridge will be kept intact for preservation. Photo: H.TK / Tuoi Tre The more-than-a-century-old bridge on September 14, 2019 wrapped up its 117 years of helping trains traveling on Vietnams lifeline north-to-south railway system cross the Saigon River, as a new Binh Loi Railway Bridge was put into operation on the same day. The new bridge, the construction of which started in 2015, is located 12 meters away from the old one. The new Binh Loi Railway Bridge is located 12 meters away from the old one in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre As it has a vertical clearance of seven meters, the new bridge allows boats carrying 200 to 300 passengers as well as vessels and barges with a tonnage of up to 2,000 metric tons to pass through. Cost for freight transport via the Saigon River, now that the old bridge is dismantled, can go down by 30 to 60 percent compared with road transport, depending on the distance as well as cargo loading and unloading conditions. The old Binh Loi Railway Bridge in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam has a vertical clearance of only 1.8 meters, posing an obstacle for boats traveling underneath. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre Workers are seen working on the dismantlement of the 118-year-old Binh Loi Railway Bridge in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, May 8, 2020. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre Workers are seen working on the dismantlement of the 118-year-old Binh Loi Railway Bridge in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, May 8, 2020. Photo: H.TK / Tuoi Tre Workers are seen working on the dismantlement of the 118-year-old Binh Loi Railway Bridge in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, May 8, 2020. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre A part of the old Binh Loi Railway Bridge in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam is dismantled, May 8, 2020. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre A part of the old Binh Loi Railway Bridge in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam is seen being dismantled in this photo taken on May 8, 2020. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre Workers are seen working on the dismantlement of the 118-year-old Binh Loi Railway Bridge in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, May 8, 2020. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre Workers are seen working on the dismantlement of the 118-year-old Binh Loi Railway Bridge in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, May 8, 2020. Photo: H.TK / Tuoi Tre A part of the guardrails on the old Binh Loi Railway Bridge in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam is dismantled, May 8, 2020. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre Construction materials removed from the old Binh Loi Railway Bridge in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Manmohan Singh, 87, is under observation at the cardio-thoracic ward of the premier hospital New Delhi: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh was admitted to the AIIMS in Delhi on Sunday evening after he complained of uneasiness, sources said. Singh, 87, is under observation at the cardio-thoracic ward of the premier hospital, they said. He was admitted under Dr Nitish Naik, a professor of cardiology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), around 8.45 pm. "He is under observation," one of the sources said. Singh is a senior leader of the Opposition Congress and currently represents Rajasthan in the Upper House of Parliament. He was the prime minister between 2004 and 2014. Now that the spread of the coronavirus has been contained, questions mount about the preparedness of the country for a crisis that has claimed more than 1,400 lives and infected 22,500. Shock has given way to a questioning of what just happened. Paul Bell, the Louth county councillor and organiser for Siptu, has identified at a "developing anger" amongst frontline workers. The 42,000 health workers represented by the union in care homes, hospitals and other health care settings are "beginning to catch their breath", he says. "There is a high degree of concern and developing anger about what happened in nursing homes and residential settings, and the fatalities," he said. "And a lot of our members are asking the question: why 6,700 health workers tested Covid-19 positive and why have five of us died?" Questions are already being asked of nursing homes, where 60pc of deaths occurred. Last week, a care assistant at St Mary's in the Phoenix Park made a protected disclosure to the Health Service Executive alleging shortcomings in the nursing home's response to the crisis and "rationing" of personal protective equipment. Half the residents were infected with Covid-19 and 24 residents died. Families are asking questions, too. Complaints about Covid-19 issues to the health watchdog, Hiqa, have increased. Residents, families, staff and advocates have raised 284 "concerns" with the regulator about Covid-19, Hiqa said. In Europe, where nursing home residents account for half of all deaths, several countries have launched investigations amid allegations of malpractice or negligence. Last Friday, Swedish prosecutors launched an investigation into provision of PPE and protocols at a home where 35 residents died. Bell believes there will have to be a forum of some sort to examine Ireland's response to the pandemic and to give voice to the unheard stories of thousands of staff, residents and families affected by the virus. He said the battle stories coming back from the coronavirus trenches are of shortages of PPE, training, accommodation to self-isolate and a fear of speaking out. People, particularly in the private sector, felt there was no channel of communication to report their concerns, he said. The chief medical officer, Tony Holohan, was questioned on RTE last week on the wisdom of declaring nursing homes safe for visitors, contradicting Nursing Homes Ireland's advice to members to lock down. Visitors to nursing homes shouldn't blame themselves because there was "epidemiological" evidence they did not bring it in. Asked if staff did, he suggested that the virus moves with people: "People who work in nursing homes will have picked up the infection, and that's the mechanism through which to get into nursing homes." But the role of hospitals has also been raised. The health regulator, Hiqa, told the Sunday Independent that it received information about two hospitals discharging a resident to a nursing home before their Covid-19 test results had come back. It raised the concerns with both hospitals. TDs such as Stephen Donnelly in Fianna Fail, Alan Kelly, the Labour leader, and Roisin Shortall, of the Social Democrats, have questioned the transparency and accountability of official information and decision making. An Oireachtas committee to examine the official response to Covid-19 was set up only last week. These are just three stories worthy of its attention. Click here to read the full article. As a student of rock history, Lenny Kravitz considers himself a lifelong fan of Little Richard, the rock & roll architect who died Saturday at 87. Long before Kravitzs own career would take off, he met Richard in the late 1970s at a time when the pioneer had abandoned rock music to devote himself to his faith. They attended the same Los Angeles church during Kravitzs teen years, and the pairs lives would continue to intertwine until their last conversation just last year. Kravitz called Rolling Stone from his Bahamas home to discuss a life of listening to and learning from Little Richard. I had heard him since I was baby in our house. My parents had all these great records, 45s, and, of course, listening to the radio in the car when I was toddler in New York City. So I was familiar with his songs. I had probably first heard Tutti Frutti or Good Golly Miss Molly. More from Rolling Stone Whats amazing is that his recordings, compositions and the production were so dynamic and timeless. When you put them on today which I have the force and the energy that comes out of the speakers is still so mind-blowingly strong. I think back to if I was alive in 1955 and heard that coming off the radiopeople mustve been really freaking out. [His music] sounds just as fresh and just as powerful today when were used to hearing so many sounds now. It helps me to see how strong and how pure and how new that was then. Now you can understand why people were saying that it was the devils music. He was fearless in a time where there was a lot to be fearful of. To be that bold, to be that flamboyant, to be that original, he didnt care what would happen or what the results would be. He was just on a path. He knew who he was. He knew what he came to do. I think that is so amazing and so powerful, especially at that time. To be a black man and invent this powerful art form that would influence every race in every corner of the world, and to then have the flair that he had with his dress, with his makeup, with his hair, with his attitude. It was beautiful. I dont know how many folks at that time had the power to be that fearless and that fierce. Story continues I saw him play when I was a kid. We ended up in the studio together in 1991, when the Gulf War broke out. Sean Lennon, Yoko Ono and myself did a remake of Give Peace a Chance. There was a video and a recording where the words were rewritten to fit what the current events were. Richard came in and sang on it and was in the video. That was the time I got to work with him. Where I got to see him the most was in the church. When I was a teenager, around 14, 15, 16, I used to go to a church up on Adams Boulevard, up on the hill where we called Church Row. Theres a lot of churches up that street on Adams, east of La Brea and Crenshaw. Richard Penniman went to that church at the time. He would do sermons, and he would sing and perform gospel. For a couple years, I went to that church and would see him there every weekend and got to know him. It was a time when he was really focusing on the spiritual area of his life. That was a whole other side of him. He had done so much and been through so much. Im speculating I knew him, I was a kid and he was a beautiful human being to me but I feel like he needed to reconnect with God in a way that he wanted to and in a time when he was looking for saving and to be redeemed. It was interesting because you know his personality, youve seen it, but he was very soft-spoken, humble and he dressed very conservatively. He put on a suit. His hair at the time was a short little afro. No chemical, no hair-do. I think he was really trying to walk the straight and narrow, as they say. That was his journey. I cant really speak on it much more than that, but I could see he was really dedicated. He was reconnecting with God. Some people can do that while theyre still doing what theyre doing, but he was an all-in kind of guy. He stopped singing secular music and dove in. He went back later. I think he really needed to disconnect to do that. I spoke to him about a year ago. Its always so sad. I was down here in the Bahamas, actually in the studio, and called him. He was in Tennessee. I was getting ready to go on tour and I said, Im going to come see you. Ill try and find you somewhere on this tour so I can come over to sit with you and talk with you. It never happened, which really saddens me. I knew at the time that he was laying low. But he was wonderful. We talked about that time at church. It wasnt about Lenny Kravitz or who I am now. We went straight into conversation about the old days in Los Angeles going to church. It was beautiful to talk to him and just talk about that. See where your favorite artists and songs rank on the Rolling Stone Charts. Sign up for Rolling Stones Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Ho Quoc Tuan, lecturer from Bristol University in the United Kingdom The Chinese economy is opening its doors to the wider world though its exports are still strongly decreasing due to cuts in orders. Many European economies are also slowly resuming their trade with their partners, and this shows that consumption and demand from these nations will not be able to bounce back immediately. There has been a strong wave in wage reductions, layoffs, dismissals, and even bankruptcy. My friends working in the financial sector in Shenzhen said that the wave of bankruptcy among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will surge along with that of banks with, for example, Gansu bank being recently disbanded. Also, debts incurred by Chinese state-owned enterprises will continue swelling. No government, however financially strong they are, can fill up such big debts. The State Bank of Vietnam has been extending its financial support to enterprises and people. However, such assistance will sooner or later have to stop, especially assistance to cover debts.Thus, while accepting an increase in public debt and boosting spending, the state would need to have more effective solutions to remove debts in the economy and support private enterprises, especially SMEs. However, it is first necessary to identify such debts. The revenues of 19 state-owned economic groups and corporations managed by the Committee for Management of State Capital (CMSC) are forecast to reduce by almost VND280 trillion ($12.1 billion) in 2020. Seven of these 19 entities have begun not to ensure financial balances. In order to partly solve this thorny issue, the CMSC has proposed access to a state-funded credit package. However, with such consecutive losses made by these state-owned enterprises (SOEs), will the package be able to help them out of difficulties? Song Hong Corporation was already struggling severely before the pandemic arrived, Photo: Le Toan Bouncing back For instance, just before the COVID-19 pandemic swept over the world, Song Hong Corporation was reported to have been suffering from losses of trillions of VND equivalent to hundreds of millions of US dollars meaning a big risk of losing all state-owned capital. Thus, it will be unfair if this instance is included in the list of losses caused by the current crisis. Before the outbreak, Song Hong was almost clinically dead. From this case, it is also necessary to remember the sad stories of 12 major projects managed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and with a loss of more than VND12 trillion ($521.74 million). Currently many of these projects are still bogged down in huge difficulties. Thus it would need to stress that providing financial assistance to such projects and groups and corporations may not only lift them out of difficulties, but instead may drive them into bigger debts. No light may be seen at the end of the tunnel in these cases. Meanwhile, numerous SMEs that have been performing well but are affected by the pandemic would need support from the state in order to strongly bounce back. This is a wise way of support as effective firms must be assisted. Those that are very flexible and active will boost production and business and rake in profits, and then they can pay all debts, unlike many poorly-performing SOEs. If these big SOEs are provided with huge loans, it is unsure how much money will be left to support private enterprises, especially SMEs that are performing quite better as Party General Secretary, State President Nguyen Phu Trong recently stated, the private economic sector must not be disregarded and fair treatment must be given to them. Thus there would be no reason why big SOEs should receive more support than SMEs. However, one can argue that there will be thousands of people out of work if these SOEs go out of business. In the US, big corporations have also been calling for help from the government to avert bankruptcy. But many US economic experts and managers of big investment funds have opposed this call, arguing that the US government needs to pour money into social security activities, including supporting those sacked by these corporations, and to let the corporations collapse. A zombie remains nothing but a corpse, regardless of how much blood it gets. In the US, a strong wave of debate and protests have occurred against many listed firms and those backed by private investment funds receiving support from credit packages for small-scaled enterprises. Many have demonstrated their dissatisfaction because many big companies with numerous advantages in access to capital in the financial market have been scrambling for support earmarked for small-scaled firms. Thus the problem is that it is necessary to identify who can cause and embrace bad debts before thinking about saving them. In the current context of the economy facing massive difficulties, now is the time to determine how to remove losses, and not pour more money into these huge debts. Radical solutions The US and the EU are considering the establishment of toxic debt banks. The European Central Bank has twice urged the EU to found such a bank for the Eurozone in order to shift billions of toxic debts out of the accounting sheets of credit institutions. The goal is also to provide bigger liquidity for private-owned commercial banks so that they can continue extending loans to customers. Yannis Stournaras, Governor of the Bank of Greece, supports this view, stating that only a toxic debt bank can help remove overdue debts quickly. Meanwhile, Vietnam has past experience in dealing with this issue through the establishment of Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) in 2013. However, difficulties in solving assets and bonds of VAMC remain, such as the purchase and sale of debts at state-owned commercial banks. Establishing a toxic debt bank and allowing it to perform more freely under the direct management and supervision of the State Bank of Vietnam can enable VAMC to perform more effectively than it is doing now. More than ever, this solution needs to be applied. Vietnam needs to radically take advantage of its experience in dealing with bad debts so as to support banks before everything becomes worse. Renowned investor George Soros has recently advanced an idea about issuing perpetual bonds in Europe in order to finance the European Recovery Fund. I think that this is a suitable solution to answer the thorny question of who to save. Because ministries and agencies have complicated relations with SOEs, it will be difficult to identify which enterprises will be, and should be, supported transparently. The best solution is to establish a post-pandemic reconstruction fund in order to co-ordinate all support activities and provide money under clear, transparent, easy-to-understand, and easy-to-supervise standards, regardless of who needs support. This fund can provide guarantees for SMEs and micro-sized enterprises in accessing loans at very low lending rates at commercial banks, within a tenure of one or two years, and with limited loans suitable to the scale of each enterprise. The processes and procedures for the loans and guarantee must be simplified so that National Assembly members and the media can supervise. This fund should be operated by an independent group of people who are not from the government and ministries. It can be provided with capital quickly so that it can make swift decisions about what sectors and enterprises, and whom to extend financial assistance to. To this end, the fund must have input money. So where will the money come from? The government could issue perpetual bonds, with the benefit that it can help the government lessen its burden in debt payment as it will never have to pay original interest, and the government will not have to look for a new sponsorship source when the bond matures. Thus, though it may increase public debt, the bond is quite safe as it is guaranteed by the government and will not remarkably pressurise fiscal policy. This is a sturdy solution as it ushers a way out for the problem of state budget spending and seeking loans to support activities against COVID-19. The bonds can be issued in the market in order to attract banks who can use the bonds as reserved assets. In the case of no-one buying such bonds, the central bank can purchase them. Tom Campbell Occasionally, I get notes or emails from readers, often with a kind word, but sometimes not so kind. I am appreciative that people are willing to spend time reading my thoughts and one reader asked who I read on a regular basis.I try to read writers from various disciplines and from liberal, conservative and moderate philosophies. One of my favorites is David Brooks. He's a reformed conservative who now describes himself as a moderate, a contributor to the PBS NewsHour, a columnist for The New York Times, guest lecturer at Duke, and author of several books. Recently, he wrote two columns I can't get out of my mind.In the column titled A Nation of Weavers, Brooks says we are living in a time when the basic norms of decency, civility, and truthfulness are under threat. He credits much of this to 60 years of excesses in what he calls hyperindividualism, the emphasis on personal freedom, self-interest, self-expression, and single-minded personal fulfillment. Brooks calls it the era of "You do you."But he is observing a counter-cultural movement as he travels from towns like Wilkesboro, NC, to Houston, Texas. People are working to counteract self-absorption. He calls these people weavers, folks who build community and are weaving together the social fabric. Especially in this COVID-19 pandemic, he finds weavers trying to spiritually hold each other so we can get through this together." 'I am broken; I need others to survive,' an afterschool program leader in Houston told us. 'We don't do things for people. We don't do things to people. We do things with people,' said a woman who builds community for teenagers in New Orleans." He cites a North Carolina nurse, with an eight-month-old baby, who left her infant to go to New York to help at the height of the pandemic there. We see it in a Chapel Hill church that feeds those who are hungry (either for food or community) every day outdoors at noon or in several Raleigh houses of faith offering canned food giveaways. Neighborhoods have established phone trees, checking in with neighbors, shut-ins, and those who are lonely. Even as they practice social distancing the "we precedes me."On the other extreme is what Brooks calls "rippers." "The rippers, from Donald Trump on down, see everything through the prism of politics and still emphasize division. For the rippers on left and right, politics is a war that gives life meaning." They thrive on disruption and dissension.Despite what you might hear or read Brooks says the rippers are not winning. America, he says, is more united than at any time since 9/11. "The pandemic has been a massive humanizing force - allowing us to see each other on a level much deeper than politics - see the fragility, the fear, and the courage."I'll bet you can identify weavers, those who demonstrate hospitality, generosity, and encourage interdependence. I'll wager you also know some who are rippers, who want to divide us, stereotype others, call names and rip the social fabric. Getting us to hate each other gives them power.Are you a weaver or a ripper? Which will bring you and those around you more joy? Many believe we are at a turning point in this state and can decide how we want a new North Carolina to be. Weaving and textiles are a proud part of North Carolina's heritage and I want to live in a state of weavers. By Express News Service CHENNAI: A string of crimes have been reported from across districts just within two days of liquor stores being opened. Most of them have been attributed to intoxication-induced derangement. Does alcohol really trigger people to commit crimes? Experts say that though alcohol does not lead to direct violent behaviour, it amplifies inhibited tendencies in people after consumption. There is a definite correlation between alcohol use and violent tendencies. Other impulsive behaviours linked to alcohol abuse are rash driving, fighting over trivial reasons, irritability and high risk sexual behaviour, says psychiatrist doctor Vivian Kapil. For instance, women whose husbands frequently drink face five times higher emotional violence, three times higher physical violence, and six times higher sexual violence compared to those married to teetotallers, says the fourth National Family and Health Survey. So, did the lockdown help many kick the habit? Experts say that while the initial days of the defacto prohibition imposed on the country did cause a spike in crimes related to alcohol deprivation, the 44-day lockdown was a long-enough time for many to kick the habit. Around 7-8 of my patients have given up the habit, claims psychologist N Sethil Kumar, of the Kasturba Gandhi Memorial De-addiction Centre. The lockdown helped them realise how much relief spending time with their family can provide. They were also surprised at the amount of money they were able to save by giving up drinking. The withdrawal, however, may not be easy for many trying to kick the habit. Its crucial that family members are supportive and empathetic of the trauma an addict may undergo while giving up alcohol, add experts. Research also shows the biggest problem in dealing with alcoholism and addiction is moralization -- wherein a preference is converted into a value. Alan Leshner, a former director of the USAs National Institute on Drug Abuse says the biggest hindrance to treating addiction is moral interference. One of the major barrier is the tremendous stigma attached to being an addict, he says in published works on drug addiction. ...the common view is that drug addicts are weak or bad people, unwilling to lead moral lives. The gulf in implications between a bad person view and chronic illness sufferer view is tremendous. There are many who believe addicted individuals do not even deserve treatment, writes Leshner. The explanation relates well to the situation in India, where protests over alcohol is more on the moral grounds than for health reasons. The protests for complete prohibition and denial of liquor to those producing medical prescriptions are a reflection of that, say experts. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A 27-year-old man still has not been found after he went missing while kayaking in the waters off of Staten Island last Saturday, according to police. Jonathan Derbyshire, 27, of Huguenot Avenue, was last seen on May 2 at about 3 p.m. in a kayak on Raritan Bay. A spokesman for the NYPDs Deputy Commissioner of Public Information said on Saturday that there were no updates in the investigation. Police previously asked for the publics help to locate Derbyshire. Police described Derbyshire as white, about 510 tall, weighing about 185 pounds with a muscular build. He has hazel eyes, brown hair and a tattoo of an American flag tattoo on his forearm. He was seen wearing a grey bathing suit. The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its all night search last Sunday morning for the kayaker that went missing in Raritan Bay. NYPD divers were part of a search team for the Derbyshire in the area of Arbutus Avenue and Nicolosi Drive near Wolfes Pond Park, Princes Bay, police said. The Coast Guard was called at about 3:12 p.m. on May 2 when three kayaks -- each with one person on board -- all overturned in Raritan Bay. A Good Samaritan rescued two of the kayakers from the water, but Derbyshire was unaccounted for when emergency crews arrived on the scene. After receiving the call on Saturday, Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook launched a response boat that arrived on scene and began searching for the third kayaker. People with information are encouraged to contact the NYPDs Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-8477 (TIPS) or for Spanish, 1-888-577-4782 (PISTA). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential. Walmart continues to work with officials in Quincy on the timing of reopening the store after an employee of that location died of coronavirus. In a message Sunday morning, Walmart said the company is still working with Quincy officials to decide on when the store can reopen but no timetable was given. The Quincy Walmart, located at 301 Falls Boulevard, closed last week after the 69-year-old employee died of COVID-19. The store was given a deep cleaning and employees were tested after the worker died. More than two dozen employees tested positive for COVID-19, according to Quincy health officials. The Avon and Abington locations were both closed on May 6. It was the second time the Abington location closed. Workers at the Abington location had tested positive for the virus. Avon health officials said the Walmart there was also closed so employees could be tested. Both locations were given a deep cleaning. The nature of this virus makes it nearly impossible to track the source of anyones infection, so we are planning to work with health officials to review our measures, and determine additional steps, such as COVID-19 testing for associates and others who work at the store, Walmart officials said in a statement. The Avon Walmart will be open from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. but the hours will be adjusted to normal times soon. The Abington store will be open from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. The Walmart in Worcester was shut down on April 29 after employees tested positive for coronavirus. A total of 81 employees had tested positive. The Worcester Walmart reopened last week. Worcester city officials said nearly 400 employees were tested and the store was cleaned before it was allowed to reopen. Walmart paid for the testing of the employees. CNN reports that a group of Massachusetts lawmakers also wrote to the company over the failure to keep workers safe. The letter, obtained by CNN, said, We are writing to express serious concern about your company's failure to keep Walmart employees in Massachusetts safe amidst the coronavirus. Walmart employees, like so many workers, risk their health every day for a paycheck. Walmart needs to treat them with the respect they deserve, but they are failing in Massachusetts. We demand to know what Walmart is doing to keep workers safe and stop the spread of COVID-19. https://t.co/c9A6pW5l1h Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) May 9, 2020 The lawmakers wanted to know what safety policies were in place. Related Content: Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 20:12:35|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close People cross a street near the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, April 24, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Sources did not identify the person to whom the three officials had been exposed. But the self-quarantine came after the disclosure on Friday that U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary, Katie Miller, tested positive for the virus. WASHINGTON, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Three top U.S. public health officials, all key members of the White House coronavirus task force, have begun self-quarantine for two weeks after contact with a person who has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to U.S. media reports on Saturday. Anthony Fauci (front), director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), attends a press conference on the COVID-19 at the White House in Washington D.C. March 9, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN he will begin a "modified quarantine" after making a "low risk" contact with a White House staffer who tested positive for the virus. The "low risk" assessment means Fauci was not in close proximity to the person who tested positive during the time when that person was known to be positive for the virus, CNN reported. Fauci said he will telework from home and wear a mask for 14 days. He tested negative for the virus on Friday and plans to be tested daily from now on, it reported. Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Robert Redfield (front) speaks during a press conference with members of the White House coronavirus task force in the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on March 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), had a "low-risk exposure" with a person at the White House on May 6, and "will be teleworking for the next two weeks," a CDC spokesman told several U.S. media outlets. Redfield "is feeling fine, and has no symptoms," the spokesman said, adding if Redfield needed to visit the White House for official business, he would follow CDC safety guidelines for essential workers who may have been exposed to the virus. Those guidelines call for temperature checks, screening for symptoms, masks and social distancing. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), had sent a note to his staff on Friday disclosing his contact with a person who had tested positive for COVID-19, and "is now in self-quarantine for the next two weeks," a spokeswoman for the FDA was quoted by The New York Times as saying. "Dr. Hahn immediately took a diagnostic test and tested negative for the virus," the spokeswoman said. A screenshot of the report about Katie Miller published on the website of Politico on May 8, 2020. (Xinhua) Sources did not identify the person to whom the three officials had been exposed. But the self-quarantine came after the disclosure on Friday that U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary, Katie Miller, tested positive for the virus. Miller has attended numerous meetings of the White House coronavirus task force, which also includes Fauci, Redfield and Hahn, according to The New York Times. Earlier this week, the White House confirmed that one of U.S. President Donald Trump's personal valets has tested positive for the virus. White House staff are being tested daily for COVID-19 and undergoing daily temperature checks, White House spokesperson Judd Deere was quoted by The New York Times as saying. As of Saturday night, over 1.3 million people have been infected with COVID-19 across the United States, with the death toll surpassing 78,700, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Top-seed and favourite China were crowned champions at the FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup on Sunday by virtue of superior points tally despite their final match against the USA ending in 2-2 draw. India which had Viswanathan Anand, Vidit S Gujrathi, P Harikrishna, B Adhiban, Koneru Humpy and D Harika in its ranks, finished a poor fifth in the six-team event. China won the top prize on the basis of having won the round-robin stage. The No.1 seed had topped the league table after 10 rounds with 17 match points and 25.5 board points followed by USA (13 MPs, 22 BPs). In the final, the top board clash between the heavyweights Ding Liren (Elo 2836) and Hikaru Nakamura (Elo 2829) ended in a 38-move draw. The match featuring Hou Yifan and Irina Krush also saw honours being shared. The win for China came from Yu Yangyi, who was consistent through the tournament, as he beat Wesley So. American Fabiano Caruana showed why he is rated so highly by beating Wei Yi in 43 moves. China had incidentally suffered its only defeat in the double round-robin league to USA in the 10th and final round on Saturday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The crisis we are living through has shown the very best of Britain: from the selfless commitment of frontline NHS and social care staff to the 750,000 who came forward as volunteers. But the pandemic has also shone a cruel spotlight on one of our greatest failings: our attitude towards the elderly. As the Mail revealed on Saturday, there is growing evidence that some hospitals, in a desperate race to clear beds before coronavirus cases surged, are sending patients suffering from Covid-19 back to care homes without telling their managers. The coronavirus pandemic is shining a cruel light on this country's greatest failings - our attitude towards the elderly Now Covid-19 is ravaging care homes nationwide. Those who are most vulnerable have become, in effect, sitting ducks, while scientists fear these institutions are now seeding the infection back into the community. Since the Mail began powerfully exposing this crisis, politicians have lined up to express horror at the mounting Covid-19 death toll of care home residents. In the Commons last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he bitterly regrets what is unfolding. But it is politicians who are primarily responsible. Years of dithering, indifference, under-funding and trepidation means social care in Britain does not reflect and instead neglects the needs of an ageing population. Policy experts and campaigners like myself have argued for years that this would result in tragedy but official attitude seemed to be out of sight, out of mind. Suddenly, these warnings have become a dark reality. Until April 29, Covid-19-related fatalities in care homes were not even included in the Governments daily death toll and the initial exclusion of these figures was symptomatic of shocking abandonment. The latest figures reveal there have been about 6,000 coronavirus-related care home deaths and that number is rising. Britain is neglecting the needs of an ageing population - and it's the politicians who are responsible for this I have heard heartbreaking stories of older people who would normally have been admitted to hospital being left to suffer at home or in their care home. In one appalling case, an elderly woman was taken to hospital with a broken shoulder and sent swiftly back to her care home after it was strapped up. She was badly dehydrated and urgently needed to be put on a drip, but the hospital refused to re-admit her, demanding that she be rehydrated in the care home. A few days later, she died. This crisis is worsened by the dismal failure to carry out comprehensive testing which could have enabled infected residents to be isolated and staff to self-isolate or carry on working depending on their test result. Health Secretary Matt Hancock recently announced testing would be extended to all care workers and residents, but homes still say they are still waiting for testing and for many it is simply too late. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that testing would be available for all care workers and residents, but many have not received it and for some it is too late We need action now to arrest the carnage and to prevent it happening in the future. The Governments attention must be broadened beyond the NHS to ensure patients within the social care sector are treated with parity of esteem, not like second-class citizens. The NHS and social care should be integrated under one national body with free basic care funded nationally, rather than relying on local resources which cannot meet rising demand. We must also question the adequacy of social care oversight as The Care Quality Commission has failed to ensure decent standards. Yes, structural change will be meaningless without extra cash, but with imagination and political will, that can be achieved. Extending national insurance, possibly integrating it into income tax and introducing windfall taxes on the turnover and profits of online service providers, retailers and tech giants, could help achieve this. There should also be greater incentives for savers to put more money away for their old age as part of their pensions or innovative products such as a Care Isa or Family Care Plans. Whatever happens, the coronavirus pandemic is a call to arms. It is said that a civilisation can be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. Sadly, Britain is failing badly. Maharashtra housing minister Jitendra Awhad, who had tested positive for Covid 19 in April, is now recovered and discharged from the hospital. He tweeted about his wellbeing on Sunday and thanked the hospital staff for taking good care of him. Awhad also said he will be back on the field in a month. I also would like to thank the hospital staff including nurses, ward boys, doctors and other employees for all that they have done for me and I will be indebted to them all my life, one of his tweets said. For Coronavirus Live Updates Awhad was the first minister to get infected from the virus in the state after he came in contact with a coronavirus infected police officer from Mumbra during his routine food distribution drives. Along with Awhad, 14 members of his staff and an ex-NCP MP and his wife, too, had tested positive. Awhad first tested negative in the second week of April, though after a week on April 21, he was admitted to a private hospital in Mulund for breathing problems. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 Awhad in his tweet said, My fight with Covid-19, going on for the last few days, is finally a success. I have now recovered and will be going home today. I will be back in a month with the same enthusiasm to work for the people of my state. He added that he has been advised one months rest by the doctors after which he will resume work. He also asked his supporters and party workers not to meet him during this period as per the doctors advice. 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 liberalisation in China would inevitably lead to greater democratisation. 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. Ms 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 ... JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You should upgrade or use an You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.You should upgrade or use an alternative browser A 56-year-old Nottingham man was killed in a crash Friday in Lancaster County. According to the Pennsylvania State Police at Lancaster, Joseph M. Stratton was killed in the single-vehicle crash on Nottingham Road in Fulton Township. The crash occurred around 2:36 p.m. when Stratton was driving east, just west of Balance Meeting Road. State police say he was driving too fast for the rainy conditions and left the road, hit an embankment and rolled over. He was ejected from the car, and died at the scene from his injuries, police say. 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. Mothers everywhere are valued as selfless souls whose love holds families together, as single heads of households whose strength and courage ensures survival, as encouraging nurturers who bring out the best in us. But mothers who are on the frontlines, especially during the COVID-19 crisis, take on double duty as leaders at home and at work: first responders, medical personnel, everyday workers who are caring for the community as well as their families. Here are stories of five such San Antonio women. Tabitha Tristan After a draining 12-hour shift at the University Hospital emergency room giving her all to care for strangers, nurse Tabitha Tristan goes home for a crucial part of her day protecting her family from the novel coronavirus. When she gets there, though, she cant hug her children Elijah, 4, and Evan, 1, even after slipping off her navy blue scrubs and maroon Nike sneakers with the gold swoosh. She cant kiss her husband, Joshua, even after putting the garments in the washer and sanitizing all the surfaces shes touched. She doesnt want to get near them until after shes taken those steps and a hot shower to get rid of all traces of germs. Thinking of their smiling faces as she goes through the disinfecting protocol is her salve. Knowing theyre waiting at the door melts my heart, Tristan, 28, said, no matter how bad the day. She knows its an uncertain time to be a health care worker, but shes proud to work in the hospital and especially in the emergency room, caring for people in crisis. When she graduated from nursing school three years ago, she started at the emergency room and hasnt left since. Nursing has been her calling since she realized as a teen that service to others is a privilege. To reach her goal, she studied at San Antonio College, the University of the Incarnate Word and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News Tristan works 7 a. m. to 7 p. m. with team members who rely heavily on each other during these trying pandemic days. Like her family, the team is part of Tristans support system. When a coworker learned Tristan couldnt find toilet paper, for example, she dropped off a supply of rolls at 6 a.m. Depending on the day, Tristans ER duties vary. She juggles roles that range from taking temperatures to triaging victims of horrific accidents to resuscitating the most critical. All while protecting patients, her colleagues and herself from a deadly virus that still isnt well known. Its very motivating to come to work, Tristan said. Youd think that during these times wed be afraid, but were not, were ready. Today she has a respite from tending to the needs of the afflicted. This Mothers Day, shes grateful to be home, cradling her children without worry. Roberta Gonzalez Every third day, Roberta Gonzalezs work takes her to Fire Station 37, away from her 7-month-old twin boys, Trey and Tiger. When dispatchers send emergency calls to the station, the fire engineer heads out with fellow firefighters on what could always be a life-and-death matter. The stakes are higher now with the novel coronavirus, but everyone on her 10-member team knows they can count on each other. The calls are never the same, she said. And each one offers an opportunity to help someone on what could be the worst day of their lives. Whats constant is the trust thats built up on the team that spends a third of their lives together at the station. For Gonzalez, Mothers Day is a time to spotlight the hard work and constant commitment of all mothers. This is her first as a mother herself but she find herself on duty at Station No. 37. Her husband, Oscar Gonzalez, also is a firefighter, and their children are in the care of Robertas mother today. It means a lot to me, Roberta Gonzalez, 37, said. Ill be working, but I try to enjoy my time with my babies and focus on whats important. Its a blessing to have her as my mom and supporting me as a mother. Gonzalez said working on holidays comes with the job. Bob Owen, Staff-photographer / San Antonio Express-News She wants her role to help show young girls that becoming a firefighter is a viable career for women. Last summer, Gonzalez took part in the first #Hero Like Her Camp where 80 teen girls tried out firefighting skills. She didnt have that option when she was growing up, so shes pleased to be part of the San Antonio Fire Departments campaign to bring in more female firefighter candidates and to be a mentor for them. There is no reason women shouldnt be on front lines if this is what they want to do, Gonzalez said. As a mother of two boys, she believes her job has more meaning now. She said all moms share the same desire to bring their best for their children. The thing I love is that Im showing them what its like to have a work ethic, Gonzalez said. I want them to grow up and see theres a woman in a strong role serving the community. Luz Arrendondo For the past 17 years, Luz Arrendondo has worked at Mi Tierra Cafe y Panaderia, moving from busgirl to head baker among the downtown restaurants golden glow of candle-lit altars, colorful wall-spanning murals and long strands of sparkling Christmas lights. Shes worked shoulder to shoulder with co-workers on many holidays, including Mothers Day, one of the busiest days at the restaurant that until this COVID-19 crisis was open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Because of restrictions designed to slow the spread of the deadly virus, Mi Tierra, like many restaurants, had to close its dining room. It shifted to take-out and curbside service. Crediting Mi Tierra owner Pete Cortez and his family for her own familys success, Arrendondo was among the first to volunteer to work the curbside booth and engage with the public. Josie Norris /Staff Photographer I need to be on the front lines for them, she said, referring to the Cortez family. They gave me a lot of in my life. At this moment they need me. Arrendondo lives in her South Side home with her daughter, Gissel, 25, and Gissels 14-month-old son, Ikal Poston. She called the toddler her love and happiness. Gissel said at first she worried about her mother possibly getting exposed to the virus by working the curbside service, but knowing her mother takes the necessary precautions eases her mind. Arrendondo beams with pride when she talks about her grandchild and three children. In addition to Gissel, she has sons Irving, 29, and Ian, 15. Her two oldest were valedictorians of their high school classes and her youngest son has had numerous achievements, she says, smiling broadly. Today, the woman known as La Mama de Bakery will be staffing a booth outside the restaurant selling its traditional sweet bread. The proud mama said she doesnt mind working on what should be her own special day. We need to take care of our mothers, Arrendondo, 50, said. I cant stay in the back. Cathleen Martinez Thirty-three years ago, Cathleen Martinez was born on a Mothers Day. Today, the San Antonio Police officer is celebrating the holiday as a mother herself; she gets to spend the day with Layla, her 4-month-old daughter. Its an amazing feeling, Martinez said outside of the West Patrol Substation at 7000 Culebra. Im experiencing a different kind of love now. The youngest of five children, shes the only member of her family working in law enforcement. Martinez said as a child she saw a lot of bad things happen to good people, so she decided she wanted to join SAPD to be part of change and creating peace. Shes been on the force for eight years. Josie Norris /Staff Photographer An optimist, Martinez sees this COVID-19 crisis as a time to try to see the good in a bad situation and the unknown days ahead. Unfortunately there isnt a playbook for the pandemic, she said. As a first-time mom, it was hard for her to leave her daughter after maternity leave was over. And there was the added fear of the novel coronvirus. Her station set up temperature checks and outfitted her with masks and gloves. Martinez knows shes taken the necessary precautions to disinfect herself when she gets home, but when she hugs and kisses her daughter, theres that lingering question: Was it enough? Still, shes happy to have a job that serves a bigger purpose. We all took an oath to serve and protect, Martinez said. Well do whatever we have to do whether its an active shooter or virus, were all going to stand our ground and do our jobs. Even if it that means not going home to our families at the end of the night. Sheryl Samuel Sheryl Samuel delivers floral arrangements in times of joy and grief. Its a little like a physical representation of what she does as a pastor at Behold One Ministries, her church on the West Side. As she delivers flowers for A Dreamweaver Florist & Special Events, she also delivers words of hope. (I) either pray or say encouraging words, Samuel, 64, said. This Mothers Day, the mother and grandmother is thrilled to be working again, spreading happiness to other mothers. You only have one mother, Samuel said, as she waited inside the shop at 603 S. Alamo St. for her next round of deliveries. They dont come in twos. Coronavirus restrictions closed the shop for four weeks, creating a stressful time for employees as well as for owner Terry Martin. Now that the store is open again, he said, safety procedures are a priority. Employees wear masks and gloves and deliveries are left on porches, to minimize contact. Samuel recognizes shes at increased risk of contracting the virus, but she said driving her van filled with vases bearing fresh ferns and flowers to churches, weddings and graduations provides an important lifting of spirits during this difficult time. Josie Norris /Staff Photographer Thats especially important on Mothers Day, she said. Martin praised Samuels work ethic and positive attitude. Shes so flexible, she can do it all, Martin, 58, said. She waits on customers, washes the trucks, cleans the plants, she does it all. Samuel sees the healing power of flowers. For her, faith is the flower of her life. Corona did something to a lot of people, Samuel said. This is a time to self-examine ourselves and to be grateful that were still here. Vincent T. Davis is a reporter in the Greater San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Vincent, become a subscriber. vtdavis@express-news.net | Twitter: @vincentdavis Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal As the coronavirus began to take hold in New Mexico in mid-March, state officials knew that nursing and assisted living homes held a vulnerable population. So the state took steps to protect the residents, banning most visitors and urging temperature checks to detect the virus in staff. Yet, even with the state public health restrictions, which were based in part on federal guidelines, the COVID-19 virus came out of hiding in the following weeks. An explosion of cases erupted inside New Mexico long-term care facilities a trend seen across the country. More than 342 long-term care patients in New Mexico have tested positive, with 79 people dying of the highly contagious disease as of Friday. Another 238 staff members at the homes and assisted living centers have tested positive. The number of impacted long-term care facilities in the state doubled in the span of four days earlier this month. Part of the increase in positive cases is likely due to the state mandating testing in late April in all of the states 71 nursing homes, said state Department of Health Secretary Kathy Kunkel. But the expanded testing led to the discovery that employees at some homes had been spreading the virus without knowing it. There were staff who were asymptomatic who were positive, Kunkel told the Journal last week. So that was a huge problem. Im glad we uncovered it. With just 10 people infected statewide back on March 12, state officials hoped to head off the virus by announcing a public health order to restrict visitors to long-term care facilities, exempting patients receiving end-of-life care. On Friday, the state reported a total of 4,673 positive cases and 181 deaths. This disease keeps teaching us, Kunkel said. We keep learning more and more, and I would say that on March 12 there was no indication that if you were asymptomatic that you could be shedding the virus. And now we know better, unfortunately. Had we known that, we would have found a way to test March 12. But on March 12 we were still fighting for the resources to do the testing that we needed to do. Some 5,315 people live in New Mexicos nursing homes. Another 4,435 residents live at about 268 assisted living facilities. The nations first major COVID-19 outbreak came at a Washington state nursing home in February. Forty residents died, putting health officials everywhere on notice. Everyone knows the most vulnerable population are the elderly, elderly in a congregate setting. Weve watched other states struggle with this, Kunkel said. The concern, the anxiety that this could happen to us was always there. We did take every precaution that we knew of. I think the one problem we did not anticipate was asymptomatic staff. Theres just not words to express how bad we feel. On Friday, 31 long-term care facilities reported positive COVID-19 cases. As the long-term care COVID-19 cases mount in New Mexico, the push for testing, mitigation and prevention is in overdrive. Once theres a positive, I can send in a rapid response team. We can test everybody. We can keep coming back to test. We can evaluate. Are you really doing everything you can in terms of infection control? Kunkel said. But the better practice is to keep that out in the first place. With industrial grade products, the New Mexico National Guard is beginning to disinfect all nursing homes in the state. And,there are other new prevention strategies. The DOH discovered that some senior care facilities reporting no positive cases were using disinfectant spray on staffers shoes as they come in. And those facilities required staffers headed into work to change into scrubs. So thats been mandated for all the facilities in the state, Kunkel said. Bernalillo County Fire Departments emergency management division, with expertise in toxic hazmat containments, has been enlisted to train EMS departments statewide to teach nursing home facilities how to better prevent an outbreak. Were going to do everything we can to keep it out, said Katrina Hotrum-Lopez, secretary of the state Aging and Long-Term Services Department. There are no easy answers to this. Every day we get up, and this team attacks this aggressively. Cases spread quickly In the 30 states that report this data, there are now more than 16,500 deaths in long-term care facilities, as of April 29, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. For 10 states, this represents half or more of their COVID-19 deaths. On April 28, the state identified a dozen residential facilities in New Mexico as having COVID-19 cases. Within four days, on May 2, that number had doubled to 25. Most were either in Albuquerque or the hard-hit area of northwest New Mexico. But one nursing home outbreak occurred in the northeastern New Mexico town of Clayton, population 3,000. The towns three positive cases so far were identified as all coming from the Clayton Nursing and Rehab Center. By Friday, the virus had been detected in 31 senior care homes. Seven of those were deemed to be high risk by the state Department of Health after reporting 10 or more positive cases. Deaths have been reported at 11 of the facilities. About half were nursing homes, the others assisted living. State officials interviewed by the Journal last week declined to say whether they expect the deaths to mount. But the spike has prompted the DOH to begin deploying a SWAT-like response team at facilities with a high number of positives. Tests have been administered to 100% of staff in those homes, Kunkel said, and other measures are taken to combat further spread. What were finding in our facilities is that staff are tired and everyone is working around the clock and we need to make sure these facilities are sterile and clean. We try to eradicate the infection, Hotrum-Lopez said. Bernalillo Countys emergency management division has hazmat expertise that can help. They are experts in isolating an infection or the problem, and establishing hot, warm and cold zones (for containment purposes), she said. Theyre teaching staff (at nursing homes) how to use the appropriate PPE, how to put it on and take it off appropriately, and which PPE to use in which zone, Hotrum-Lopez said. DOH spokesman David Morgan said in an email that nursing homes and assisted living facilities are on board with testing. Kunkel added, I would say they are panicked at the first sign of a respiratory infection. They are desperate to identify a problem and address it as quickly as possible. Any facility with at least one positive COVID-19 case among residents or staff is now testing all residents and staff weekly, Morgan told the Journal. At the remaining nursing homes and assisted living facilities with no COVID-19 cases, the DOH is doing surveillance testing of 15% of residents and staff weekly to try to stay on top of any new cases and prevent spread. Staff without symptoms Kunkel said keeping up with requests for COVID-19 tests is a daily challenge. On March 12, as the state instituted the visitor restrictions, the state lacked the capacity to test at long-term facilities as extensively as it does now, she said. All through that time, the governor had to fight to get the state the resources and by that I mean swabs. Just the resources to do that kind of testing, that was something we still have to struggle with, Kunkel said. In New Mexico, 36% of nursing home facilities had deficiencies related to infectious disease control, according to a 2017 Kaiser Family Foundation analysis. Moreover, a Medicare.gov website states that the average number of health deficiencies found by inspectors at New Mexico nursing homes was 11.5 over the past three years, higher than the national average of 8.2. But Kunkel said it isnt fair to blame the senior care facilities with COVID-19 outbreaks for improper or nonexistent infection control. The CDC didnt tell us that asymptomatic staff could be passing this with absolutely no symptoms at all. Weve been mandating that you take your staffs temperature on the way in and the way out. That was the CDCs guidance on how you protect people. But that kind of screening missed the asymptomatic employees. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, the DOH reviewed and ensured infection control protocols at the facilities, Kunkel said. I dont think nursing homes were cavalier, she said. From my perspective, nursing homes and assisted living facilities have been compliant. I just think that the recommendation from the CDC (about asymptomatic transmissions) didnt come fast enough. Linnea Forsythe, the state long-term care ombudsman, said most of the concerns and complaints from families and residents who have contacted her independent agency have focused on the ban on visitors, staff not wearing PPE and the quality of patient care. Before the pandemic hit, families and the ombudsmans office could visit patients in the facilities and see what was happening, Forsythe said. Now, the state public health order prevents even ombudsman staff from entering the facilities. So Forsythe has sent 350 computer tablets into the senior care facilities so patients can contact her agency. DOH inspectors perform compliance checks via computer. Kunkel said residents of long-term care facilities have every right to be frightened. But she wants them to know that were every day looking for greater protection. Every day. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 20:15:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A man has a meal beside statues at an outdoor restaurant in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, April 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan) There is no scientific evidence to support Washington's repeated allegations that the novel coronavirus emanated from a research lab or a wet market in the Chinese city of Wuhan. BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Officials and scholars around the world have recently stressed there is no scientific evidence to support Washington's repeated allegations that the novel coronavirus emanated from a research lab or a wet market in the Chinese city of Wuhan. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday agitated for "significant evidence" on the virus' origin from Wuhan. However, he did not specify what the evidence is nor deliver any concrete proof to validate his claims. The origin of the novel coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic remains unclear, according to Army General Mark Milley, U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Did it come out of the virology lab in Wuhan, did it occur in the wet market there in Wuhan or did it occur somewhere else? And the answer to that is we don't know," Milley told a press conference earlier this week. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley testifies before the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing on the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Budget Request from the Department of Defense on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., the United States, on Feb. 26, 2020. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua) Top U.S. infectious disease expert and health official Anthony Fauci clarified that the current scientific evidence shows it is highly unlikely that the virus was manmade. "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," he noted in an interview published on Monday by National Geographic. The virus "evolved in nature and then jumped species" as "everything about the stepwise evolution over time" strongly indicated, said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. During a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Republican Representative John Ratcliffe failed to answer questions on the virus' origins purported by U.S. President Donald Trump, who had nominated him as director of national intelligence, the country's top spy agency. According to CNN, when Senator Angus King asked Ratcliffe whether he had seen evidence that the virus originated in a lab, he said he had not. When Senator Tom Cotton asked Ratcliffe if he had seen evidence that the virus originated in a Wuhan market, he said he had not. Medics work at al-Abassia Chest Hospital in Cairo, Egypt on April 29, 2020. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa) The U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) has agreed to the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified, according to a statement from the Office of Director of National Intelligence last week. "The IC 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 said. For its part, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the Trump administration's claim on the virus' origin remains "speculative," as the organization had not received any data or specific evidence from the U.S. side. "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," Michael Ryan, director of the WHO's health emergencies program, told a virtual press briefing on Monday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNBC on Tuesday that without proof, the U.S. accusations on China for the virus' origin were serious and wrong, because the U.S. government did not deliver any proof. Medical staff process a swab sample collected from a resident of an area under the enhanced movement control order in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia, May 10, 2020. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua) "We consider it not a proper time, being somewhere in the middle of a severe crisis, an unprecedented crisis, to try to blame everything on the international health organization (the WHO) or, the next day, on China," Peskov said. Britain has also seen little evidence that the coronavirus is man-made, British Health Minister Matt Hancock was quoted by Reuters as saying. The novel coronavirus spread extensively around the world since late 2019 and the single "Patient Zeroes" is absent in most countries, the latest study by the University College London Genetics Institute has shown. "The results add to a growing body of evidence that SARS-CoV-2 (novel coronavirus) viruses share a common ancestor from late 2019, suggesting that this was when the virus jumped from a previous animal host, into people," the university said in a statement on Wednesday. "This means it is most unlikely the virus causing COVID-19 was in human circulation for long before it was first detected," it added. JACKSON COUNTY, MI Michigans stay-home order has been extended again, but the people of Jackson County are still focused on giving and inspiring hope amid the pandemic. The need for food and protective equipment has continued to grow with the coronavirus outbreak. From homemade masks to donated meals and fundraisers looking to address those needs, here are five more hopeful things happening in Jackson County. Parma teenager send masks across country, world Rhiannon Skursky has sewn over 1,260 masks in the last month to help fight COVID-19. It started rather simply. Rhiannon Skursky, a 13-year-old from Parma, wanted to sew a few masks for a family friend who is a nurse. That was at the end of March. Four sewing machines and five tables of fabric later, the teenager has crafted over 1,260 masks. They have been donated throughout the Jackson County community to USPS, Jackson Prison, Oaklawn Hospital, Center for Family Health and more. Word of her efforts traveled fast, and now her reach has expanded to as far away as Nevada, Texas, Florida, Minnesota, California, Missouri, Guam, Australia and the United Kingdom. Some of the masks sent elsewhere were sold for about $3 each to help fund materials for more masks. In between school assignments, Skursky said she can sew up to seven masks in an hour. With the help of her family, the operation has grown to produce as many as 21 masks per hour. Tonya Brush, Skursky's mother, has made sure the family volunteers in the community often. Each month, they typically volunteer 50 hours total, she said. This was our way of giving back to the community while we couldn't be out there helping like we used to, Brush said. It makes me feel good because there's that foundation that I know that I built for the children. Skursky plans to continue making the masks as long as there is demand. To purchase Skurskys masks or find more information, visit her Etsy page. Local church starts drive-through food distribution Jackson Seventh Day Adventist Church hosted the first of many food distribution events Tuesday, May 5. Food will be available to anyone in need during the pandemic. Those in need can simply pull up at 3600 County Farm Road and volunteers will load food into their trunk. We are prepared for 150 families to go through, said Janet Allen, a volunteer. Nineteen families were fed in the first food pantry drive-through, Allen said. The need in the community is still there, she said. Ive talked with many people who are so in need of food and its just a blessing to be able to give it to them. The distributions will continue each Tuesday for at least the next few months from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Allen said. To donate, visit https://www.jacksonsdachurch.org/ or send a check to the church. Jackson businesses support essential grocers at Pollys Several local businesses have been showing support for Pollys County Market employees as of late. The Jackson and Brooklyn stores have received donated meals on several occasions amid the outbreak, said Beth Sullivan, human resources director for Pollys. Meals have come from Reardon Reality, Huntington Bank, Lammers Heating and more. The community and people in Brooklyn, Adrian and Chelsea have been just as awesome, Sullivan said. While store employees are forced into the thick of things, the show of appreciation goes a long way, she said. Spring Arbor University student contributes to COVID-19 fight with 3D printed mask bands Noah Waldron's self-made 3D printer prints bands to help customize mask wearing. Each band has notches in it so nurses can adjust their mask to meet their preferences. When his freshman studies left him with a self-made 3D printer, Spring Arbor University freshman Noah Waldron decided to put it to use. The electrical engineering student has made 300 3D-printed band adapters to make mask-wearing more comfortable, a university news release said. The bands have gone to nurses at Henry Ford Allegiance Health, where Waldrons mother is a nurse. Each band has notches so the nurses wearing them can adjust them to their own preferences. The staff at the hospital are working hard to keep us safe in the fight against COVID-19, Waldron said in the release. Printing the headbands is one small way that I can use my skills and resources to give back. The Powering Positivity campaign by MLive Media Group highlights how Michiganders are supporting one another during the coronavirus pandemic. It is sponsored by The MediLodge Group. Read more hopeful stories from Jackson County: Grass Lake staffers create graduate tribute: Things that give us hope in Jackson County amid coronavirus pandemic Making face shields in the basement: 5 things that give us hope amid the COVID-19 crisis in Jackson County Three things that give us hope in Jackson amid coronavirus Jackson nurse gets early morning send-off from friends: Things that give us hope amid COVID-19 pandemic Honoring lives lost During this pandemic as I listen to news, read newspapers and watch television stations reporting the latest information on COVID-19, I applaud the Houston Chronicle for devoting two entire pages daily to the most recent statistics across the world, our country and this state. Daily, we follow new cases, those who have recovered and those who have died. What strikes me as missing are the names of those who have died from this deadly virus, a virus that has now taken the lives of more human beings than the entire Vietnam War. In todays world, the focus appears to be less on honoring those who have lost their lives by naming them than by counting them. Every mother who has lost a son, every father who has lost a daughter, every sister who has lost a brother, every wife who has lost a husband or husband who has lost a wife or parent who has lost a child grieves over such a loss and because of distancing right now, their grieving is isolated without even a nod to the name of the loved one who has passed. If we can devote two pages to the statistical analysis of this pandemic on a daily basis, could we not also list the names of those who have passed from us in this city? I am not talking about an obituary, but rather a listing of those who have passed daily, weekly or monthly. Pat Williams, Houston The names of COVID-19 victims are not routinely made available to the public by any government official, unless in the rare case of a death being reviewed by a medical examiner. The newsroom has, however, begun writing about victims whose names are confirmed through other means, and those stories will soon be grouped together on a special page on houstonchronicle.com, and in a special section of next Sundays newspaper. - Michael Lindenberger, deputy opinion editor Pulitzer prizes Regarding Pulitzers laud Palestine paper, Houstonians, (A1, May 5): Kudos to the Houston Chronicle for front-page coverage of the Pulitzer Prize to the Palestine Herald-Press editor, Jeffery Gerritt, for exposing the sordid conditions at county jails. In this time of often politicized reporting, it is refreshing to get the unvarnished truth about serious local issues. Im reminded of the immortal words of our third president, Thomas Jefferson, who said, Were it up to me to decide whether we should have government with no newspapers or newspapers without government, I would not hesitate a moment to choose the latter. Gabriel M. Gelb, Houston Exoneration Regarding 11 years later, officials agree hes innocent, (A1, May 5): District Attorney Kim Oggs second exoneration of a wrongly convicted person gives hope to all Houstonians that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. Gods blessings be upon James Harris, held 11 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He has been through hell. I hope that state reparations come to him quickly because he deserves reparations for the lost 11 years. Thank you Kim Ogg for opening the District Attorney Offices Conviction Integrity Unit. The DNA database is very important to justice. I remember that only a short time ago, the justice system frequently denied DNA testing. This change is good. Sally Lehr, Houston An editor who worked for Jared Kushner at the New York Observer described him as lacking empathy and unable to understand grief, in a recent Washington Post op-ed. Elizabeth Spiers recounted an incident where Kushner used the memorial of a staffer to congratulate himself. She drew parallels between Kushner's behavior in that incident and his claims that his coronavirus response team is successful despite being made up of inexperienced volunteers who failed to secure medical supplies for the US. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Senior White House Advisor Jared Kushner is pictured at a daily coronavirus press briefing on April 2, 2020. Win McNamee/Getty In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Elizabeth Spiers, a former editor at the New York Observer, described Jared Kushner, now a senior advisor to President Donald Trump, as someone unable to emphasize or understand other people's grief. "When I knew him, he seemed constitutionally incapable of considering the humanity of other people as a starting point," Spiers wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Post, where she described Jared Kushner's comments at a memorial for an employee at the Observer who had died. Related: What Its Like to Be a Deathcare Worker Collecting Bodies Spiers, who worked for Kushner after he bought the Observer, told a story of Kushner launching into a "supercilious monologue crediting himself with finally getting the paper published on time after what he described as chaos when he arrived," after he was asked to say a few words at Tyler Rush's memorial. She uses the incident to say that Kushner has always tried to credit himself as successful at any expense. Her op-ed comes in light of reports that the coronavirus response team was staffed with inexperienced volunteers who were struggling to get medical supplies for the US. In late April, during an interview with Fox News' "Fox and Friends," Kushner called the response to the novel coronavirus "a great success story." At the time the death toll in the US surpassed 60,000. As of Friday, May 8, the US death toll is now beyond 77,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. Story continues "After bungling many high-profile efforts to address various problems and often making them worse (see, Middle East, peace in), he keeps being handed more responsibilities with higher stakes. He has wasted taxpayer resources and endangered lives trying on policy roles usually reserved for the country's top experts with the sophistication of a child playing dress-up, cavalierly discarding them when he can't fit into them," Spiers wrote of Kushner's role in the current administration. However, for her, it makes sense. Kushner, she said, used the memorial to boast and congratulate himself. Spiers was astonished that he would use the memorial to make a speech and then not understand why it was upsetting. "He could not register the grief of the people in the room that day for the same reason that he apparently can't register the grief millions of Americans are experiencing now as their lives are upended by COVID-19 and people they love become sick and die," she wrote. She said the senior advisor is then able to lie in front of cameras and use his position to "trade favors," while blaming others for failures that inevitability were a result of his "mismanagement." Kushner didn't understand why anyone would be in the role of a journalist or be doing a job they couldn't monetize, Spiers claimed. For him, she said, that meant they weren't smart. Spiers also described Kushner as a man who saw relationships as transactional and "this failure of empathy permeated everything he did." The White House did not respond to Business Insiders email request for comment at the time of publication. Business Insider For more coverage, visit our complete coronavirus section here. As the death toll inflicted by the coronvirus pandemic continues to climb in California, the United States and across the world, a new study released Friday by an Oakland nonprofit projects an additional 75,000 "deaths of despair" over the next decade in the United States. Undeniably, policymakers must place a large focus on mitigating the effects of COVID. However, if the country continues to ignore the collateral damage specifically our nations mental health we will not come out of this stronger, Benjamin F. Miller, chief strategy officer at Well Being Trust in Oakland, said in a press release. The study attempts to project the number of deaths due to drugs, alcohol and suicide, and notes that "deaths of despair" have been on the rise for the past decade. Researchers at WBT looked at nine different unemployment scenarios, and found that additional "deaths of despair" over the 181,686 in 2018 could range from 27,644 to 154,037 from 2020-29, depending on the speed at which the U.S. economy recovers. Indeed, the sale of alcohol online has spiked since shelter-in-place orders came down across the country, with some delivery services reporting more than a 400% increase in year-over-year sales. A recent poll also showed that nearly two-thirds of Americans said they felt nervous, depressed, lonely or hopeless on at least one of their past seven days. For each of the four emotions, close to 2 in 10 Americans said they felt that way on three or more days. And 14% said they felt reactions such as sweating, becoming nauseous or hyperventilating when thinking about their experience with the pandemic. Well Being Trust The WBT study comes as the United States sees Depression-level unemployment numbers, with the Labor Department saying Friday that 20.5 million jobs vanished in April in the worst monthly loss on record, triggered by coast-to-coast shutdowns of factories, stores, offices and other businesses. How quickly the economy and the job market rebound will impact the number of "deaths of despair," according to the study, which looked at three levels of recovery: slow (same as the Great Recession), medium (twice as fast as the Great Recession) and fast (four times as quickly). The study assumed a peak unemployment rate of 15% in the third quarter of 2020. Even using the most optimistic projection means 27,644 deaths of despair, with researchers concluding 75,000 deaths as the mostly likely scenario. All of this comes as local, state and federal officials struggle balancing reopening the economy while protecting people from COVID-19, which has killed 78,746 people in the United States alone so far, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University. "We already had a major problem on our hands," Miller told USA Today. "Now people are disconnected and lonely with a level of uncertainty, fear and dread." Read the full study here. The Associated Press contributed to this report. MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE: Sign up for 'The Daily' newsletter for the latest on coronavirus here. A teachers' union has been accused of 'blocking' learning by advising against online lessons because they say it does not replicate the in-school experience and puts teachers at risk of an increased workload. It comes as Britain's biggest trade unions threatened to tell millions of members not to return to work unless the government introduces policies to ensure workplaces are safe. Leaders of unions such as Unite, Unison and the General, Municipal, Boilermakers (GMB) have written an open letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson demanding he guarantees 'the right policies and practices are in place to make workplaces safe' in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The National Education Union (NEU) has told its members that online classes should be kept to a 'minimum' while schools are closed. Documents, provided for both primary and secondary educators, added teachers should only give lessons from their home or video call with students in 'exceptional circumstances.' A headteacher from Brighton explained he had hoped teachers would produce a couple of online lessons per week to keep pupils engaged with their schoolwork. He told the Telegraph: 'Some teachers say that they are not willing to do it and that you cant make them because the unions say they dont have to. There is not a huge amount I can do if I am honest.' The Government is considering plans for pupils to be taught on a 'week on, week off' basis in smaller classes when they return to schools - which is being planned for June. The National Education Union (NEU) has told teachers that recorded and live-streamed classes should be kept to a 'minimum' while schools are closed The NEU guidance for primary teachers states: 'Teachers should not live-stream lessons from their homes, nor engage in any video-calling unless in exceptional circumstances, with the parent. 'Online lessons are not desirable for primary children as the teacher-pupil interaction is not easily replicated.' Educators in primary schools have also been advised 'taking care of your physical and mental health is crucial' amid lockdown, with teachers working at home told they can 'only carry out a reasonable workload' which 'must be negotiated with staff.' 'Teachers should not be asked to personally contact their students daily, except where they have agreed with the headteacher a system/ rota for contacting vulnerable children and families,' the document said. 'Teachers must not use personal phones, emails or social media to carry out this contact.' The NEU guidance added schools 'should suggest activities that children can complete on their own,' as 'many children need a lot of guidance when working and cannot be left for long periods of time to complete complex tasks. It was also said that 'tasks which do not need the internet or a device such as a laptop or tablet to access them are preferable, as some children and families will not have internet access or more than one device to use.' Teachers at secondary schools were advised online lessons 'should be kept to a minimum as the interaction needed between teacher and pupils in schools is high and cannot be easily replicated for a young audience, even at KS4 level. 'Any school which carries out online lessons must have protocols in place to protect staff and safeguard pupils, and no teacher should be expected to carry out any online teaching with which they feel uncomfortable or in the absence of agreed protocols.' It added: 'At this time, teachers should not be expected to carry out routine marking or grading of pupils' work. To do so would be to disadvantage those who do not have the resources and support available at home to make that fair.' The document, which was published on March 26, also said 'teachers should not be asked to personally contact their students daily, except where they have agreed with the headteacher a system / rota for contacting vulnerable children and families. 'Teachers must not use personal phones, emails or social media to carry out this contact.' Parents have reportedly complained to schools about the lack of work set by teachers, with some saying it is 'shocking' and 'infuriating' that a union has advised teachers not to provide lessons online. Documents, provided for both primary and secondary educators, added teachers should only give lessons from their home or video call with students in 'exceptional circumstances' Pictured: An empty playground at Edmund Waller school in South London on March 19 'Parents are desperately trying to struggle with working from home,' one mother said. 'I found the fact that its unions blocking it to be really shocking.' Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU, said the guidelines are not about 'preventing learning' but were put in place to manage the workload of educators and students. He said: 'Arrangements for online learning must also protect teachers' and childrens' privacy and ensure children are kept safe while online. The NEU is supporting teachers and families to do the best they can with the resources available to them.' Students could return to schools on a 'week on, week off' basis in new plans being considered by Westminster, the Express reported. The proposed system would see pupils spend alternating weeks at home and school, with educators in at-risk categories continuing to teach from home. Class sizes would also be smaller to allow social distancing inside schools, with proposals also suggesting playgrounds would be split into 'zones'. It comes as union chiefs have threatened to derail plans to reopen schools on June 1 unless the government accept a range of 'essential' safety demands for teachers - including a national 'test and trace' system. Students could return to schools on a 'week on, week off' basis in new plans being considered by Westminster (Pictured: A school in London on March 19) The unions have written to Education Secretary Gavin WIlliamson ahead of Boris Johnson's address to the nation on Sunday night The re-opening of schools in June is expected to form part of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's address to the nation this evening. Much of the content of the address is believed to have been briefed to Westminster Lobby correspondents, causing concern among unions. Among the demands made by teaching unions, is a commitment to provide cash for the deep cleaning of schools as well as adequate supplies of PPE. Also, unions want the power to close schools delegated to a local level in case of further isolated Covid-19 outbreaks. Teachers will 'vote with their feet' and not show up to work if they are not convinced by the plans, said Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders. Writing in the Times Educational Supplement, Mr Barton said unless the plans are thorough, teachers - as well as pupils - 'simply won't turn up'. And according to the National Association of Head Teachers just 10 per cent of heads think it is safe to open in the coming weeks. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has said schools are set to reopen in a 'phased manner' but has not set a date. The Department for Education said this date will be based on 'scientific advice'. Last week, an NHS chief warned the Government it should be wary about reopening schools too early as scientists do not fully understand the extent of coronavirus transmission between children. Meanwhile, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford confirmed on Friday that schools in Wales would not be opening on June 1. Faced with 20,000 coronavirus deaths and counting, the nations nursing homes are pushing back against a potential flood of lawsuits with a sweeping lobbying effort to get states to grant them emergency protection from claims of inadequate care. At least 15 states have enacted laws or governors orders that explicitly or apparently provide nursing homes and long-term care facilities some protection from lawsuits arising from the crisis. And in the case of New York, which leads the nation in deaths in such facilities, a lobbying group wrote the first draft of a measure that apparently makes it the only state with specific protection from both civil lawsuits and criminal prosecution. Now the industry is forging ahead with a campaign to get other states on board with a simple argument: This was an unprecedented crisis and nursing homes should not be liable for events beyond their control, such as shortages of protective equipment and testing, shifting directives from authorities, and sicknesses that have decimated staffs. As our care providers make these difficult decisions, they need to know they will not be prosecuted or persecuted, read a letter sent this month from several major hospital and nursing home groups to their next big goal, California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom has yet to make a decision. Other states in their sights include Florida, Pennsylvania and Missouri. COVID-19 Hits Already-Troubled Nursing Home Insurance Market Sats one insurance specialist: Before March, going into 2020 the market was already distressed for long term care providers. Now I would say its about as difficult of a market that Ive ever seen. One-Third of All U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Are Nursing Home Residents or Workers: NY Times At least 27,700 residents and workers have died from the coronavirus at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities for older adults in the United States, according to a New York Times database. The virus so far has infected more than 150,000 at some 7,700 facilities. In 15 states, the number of residents and workers who have died accounts for more than half of all deaths from the virus. Watchdogs, patient advocates and lawyers argue that immunity orders are misguided. At a time when the crisis is laying bare such chronic industry problems as staffing shortages and poor infection control, they say legal liability is the last safety net to keep facilities accountable. They also contend nursing homes are taking advantage of the crisis to protect their bottom lines. Almost 70% of the nations more than 15,000 nursing homes are run by for-profit companies, and hundreds have been bought and sold in recent years by private-equity firms. What youre really looking at is an industry that always wanted immunity and now has the opportunity to ask for it under the cloak of saying, `Lets protect our heroes,` said Mike Dark, an attorney for California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. This has very little to do with the hard work being done by health care providers, he said, and everything to do with protecting the financial interests of these big operators. New York Nowhere have the industrys efforts played out more starkly than in New York, which has about a fifth of the nations known nursing home and long-term care deaths and has had at least seven facilities with outbreaks of 40 deaths or more, including one home in Manhattan that reported 98. New Yorks immunity law signed by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo was drafted by the Greater New York Hospital Association, an influential lobbying group for both hospitals and nursing homes that donated more than $1 million to the state Democratic Party in 2018 and has pumped more than $7 million into lobbying over the past three years. While the law covering both hospital and nursing care workers doesnt cover intentional misconduct, gross negligence and other such acts, it makes clear those exceptions dont include decisions resulting from a resource or staffing shortage. Cuomos administration said the measure was a necessary part of getting the states entire health care apparatus to work together to respond to the crisis. It was a decision made on the merits to help ensure we had every available resource to save lives, said Rich Azzopardi, a senior advisor to Cuomo. Suggesting any other motivation is simply grotesque. Nationally, the lobbying effort is being led by the American Health Care Association, which represents nearly all of the nations nursing homes and has spent $23 million on lobbying efforts in the past six years. Other states that have emergency immunity measures are Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts; Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, Nevada, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin. Their provisions vary but largely apply to injuries, deaths and care decisions, sometimes even to property damage. But there are limitations: Most make exceptions for gross negligence and willful misconduct, and they generally apply only during the emergency. Toby Edelman of the Center for Medicare Advocacy is troubled that homes are getting legal protections while family members arent being allowed to visit and routine government inspections have been scaled back. Nobody is looking at whats happening, she said, adding that immunity declarations could make even gross or willful negligence suits harder since homes could argue any deficiencies were somehow tied to the pandemic. Everything cant be blamed on COVID-19. Other things can happen that are terrible, she said. Just to say were in this pandemic so anything goes, that seems too far. Among the situations for which lawyers say nursing homes should be held to account: Homes that flouted federal guidelines to screen workers, cut off visitations and end group activities; those that failed to inform residents and relatives of an outbreak; those that disregarded test results; and homes like one in California, where at least a dozen employees did not show up for work for two straight days, prompting residents to be evacuated. Just because you have a pandemic doesnt mean you give a pass on people exercising common sense, said Dr. Roderick Edmond, an Atlanta lawyer representing families suing over COVID-19 deaths in an assisted-living facility. If you take the power of suing away from the families, then anything goes, said Stella Kazantzas whose husband died in a Massachusetts nursing home with the same owners as the home hit by the nations first such outbreak near Seattle, which killed 43 people. They already knew in Washington how quickly this would spread, she said. They should have taken extreme measures, sensible measures. And they were not taken. While the federal government has yet to release numbers on how the coronavirus has ravaged the industry, The Associated Press has been keeping its own tally based on state health departments and media reports, finding 20,058 deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities nationwide. All the new immunity laws notwithstanding, there is a potential wave of lawsuits coming. Illinois lawyer Steven Levin said hes received dozens of calls from people considering suing homes over the outbreak. Florida lawyer Michael Brevda said his firm gets 10 to 20 calls a day. And a lawyer in Massachusetts said hes gotten maybe 70 from families with relatives at homes struck by the virus. Were getting inundated, said David Hoey, whose practice near Boston has been suing homes for 25 years. Theyre grieving and theyre confused. . `My loved one just died from COVID. What can I do? American Health Care Association CEO Mark Parkinson said the notion of lawyers gearing up for lawsuits in the middle of a battle to save the elderly is pathetic and doesnt consider the hardships nursing home workers have endured. The second-guessing of people after a tragedy, if those people did the best that they could under the circumstances, is just wrong, said Jim Cobb, the New Orleans attorney who successfully defended nursing home owners charged in the deaths of 35 residents who drowned in Hurricane Katrina. Theres a lot to be said for someone acting in good faith in the face of a natural disaster and state of emergency, and they should have criminal immunity. AP reporter Candice Choi and investigative news researcher Randy R. Herschaft contributed to this report. Photo: A resident from St. Josephs Senior Home is loaded into a bus in Woodbridge, N.J., Wednesday, March 25, 2020. More than 90 residents of the nursing home in Woodbridge are being transferred to a facility in Whippany after several tested positive for COVID-19, according to a spokeswoman for CareOne, which operates the Whippany facility. The facility has moved its residents to other facilities to accommodate the new arrivals. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits California New York Massachusetts Homeowners The United States could begin seeing outbreaks of measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases because children are failing to get necessary immunizations during the covid-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. A newly released study found vaccinations for children and vaccine orders dropped precipitously in late March, about a week after President Donald Trump declared a national emergency due to the novel coronavirus. As social distancing restrictions are relaxed, diseases beyond covid-19 could spread, it warns. "The identified declines in routine pediatric vaccine ordering and doses administered might indicate that U.S. children and their communities face increased risks for outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases," the authors wrote. "Assessment of state and local vaccination coverage is needed to quantify the impact among U.S. children of all ages and prioritize areas for intervention." The study is based on data from the federally funded Vaccines for Children Program, which covers about 50 percent of Americans under 18, and broader tracking data collected by the CDC. The decline in vaccines was not as severe for children under 2, and vaccination numbers for that group have begun to tick back up, the study found. But as of mid-April, about 1,500 young children a week were getting measles vaccines at sites tracked by the CDC, compared to 2,500 a week before the pandemic. Among older children, the numbers are much worse - only a few hundred a week are getting their measles vaccines, instead of thousands. The researchers credited intensive efforts to get vaccines to younger children through well-children visits and direct outreach to families. Guy Culpepper, a family doctor in Frisco, Texas, said he has reached out to all his patients and urged them to get their immunizations. But he still has a quarter-million dollars worth of unused vaccines sitting in his office. "We get focused on the storm around us and forget every other kind of trouble," he said. Other countries are experiencing similar problems. The World Health Organization warned last month that more than 117 million children are at risk of missing out on measles vaccines because immunization campaigns have been delayed or canceled amid the pandemic. Children generally get their first measles, mumps and rubella vaccine at about 12 to 15 months, and the second when they are 4 to 6 years old. Gaps in vaccinations have already resulted in lower immunization rates; there were more measles cases in the United States last year than at any other point in the past quarter-century. Amazon is circling the troubled owner of Odeon Cinemas, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Sources said the online shopping and technology giant, run by billionaire Jeff Bezos, has run the rule over America's AMC Theatres, the world's largest cinema chain, which also owns Odeon in the UK. The duo are thought to have held talks about a potential takeover of AMC by Amazon. However, it is not clear if the discussions are still active or if they will lead to a deal, sources said. Amazon is circling AMC Theatres, the troubled owner of Odeon Cinemas, according to sources A deal would mark a pivotal moment in the history of the film industry and would give the streaming giants an even tighter grip on Hollywood. Amazon and Netflix have shaken up the film industry in recent years by offering subscriptions to watch films and television shows at home and on the go. However, they have not yet made a move into cinemas. AMC is reportedly on the verge of bankruptcy, giving Amazon the opportunity to snap it up on the cheap. The company is the latest target on Amazon's hit list as it looks to take advantage of the coronavirus crisis, which has left many major firms in need of rescue. Amazon is understood to have held talks about running the National Lottery in recent months and is said to be eyeing a takeover of satellite company OneWeb, the British firm backed by Sir Richard Branson, which filed for bankruptcy in March in the US. Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 as an online bookstore, but has since grown it into one of the world's largest companies, with a number of giant divisions. It is now the world's best-known shopping site, it has a huge cloud computing business and a popular video service, and even produces its own films and television shows through Amazon Studios. It became the first streaming service to win an Oscar in 2017 for its movie Manchester By The Sea, starring Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams. Further expansion? Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 as an online bookstore The company bought supermarket chain Whole Foods Market in 2017 in a sign that Bezos was willing to spend money buying non-web-based companies. Buying a cinema chain would enable Amazon to control the screening of films, giving it greater dominance of the industry. Amazon's interest in cinemas is not new. In 2018, it looked at buying American arthouse cinema chain Landmark Theatres, but lost out to the eventual buyer, Cohen Media Group. Netflix was also reportedly in the running to buy Landmark. But a takeover of AMC would be on a different scale as Landmark only had about 250 screens in the US, while AMC has about 10,000 around the world. Amazon certainly has the firepower to buy AMC, whose stock market value has collapsed in recent years to just $420million (339million). Amazon generated profits, or net income, of $2.5billion in the first three months of this year. AMC was bought by Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda for $2.6billion in 2012, but it bought back $600million worth of shares in 2018 after Beijing cracked down on overseas investments by Chinese companies. Amazon bought supermarket chain Whole Foods Market in 2017 in a sign that Bezos was willing to spend money buying non-web-based companies Under Wanda, AMC launched a major expansion plan, and in 2016 bought Odeon in the UK for 920million from British financier Guy Hands' private equity firm, Terra Firma, and US group Carmike Cinemas for $1.1billion. The deals turned AMC into the world's largest cinema company, with 1,000 outlets and 10,000 screens around the world. However, the expansion plan backfired and left AMC saddled with debts that are now close to $5billion. Last month, AMC raised $500 million from bond investors in an effort to stay afloat during the crisis. However, investors still questioned whether AMC could avoid bankruptcy, given its parlous financial state. A group of AMC's lenders reportedly hired lawyers to advise on restructuring options last month, underlining AMC's financial strife. In 2019, it generated revenues of $5.5billion, but made a loss of $149million, with its net debt standing at $4.7billion. Licence to kill: AMC will not show the new Bond film No Time To Die Since the coronavirus crisis struck in early February, AMC's shares have halved. But even before the pandemic had shut down cinemas around the world, AMC's share price had slumped by 80 per cent since the end of 2016, shortly after it took over Odeon and Carmike. Last month, AMC stunned the industry when it announced it would no longer screen films made by Universal Pictures, one of the largest studios in Hollywood and behind new Bond film No Time To Die. This followed comments made by NBC Universal Media chief executive Jeff Shell, who suggested Universal could start releasing films on demand at the same time as in cinemas after the successful release of Trolls World Tour. Amazon declined to comment on its interest in AMC. AMC did not respond to requests for comment. Cinema operators in the UK are hoping to reopen outlets by mid-July, in time for the release of Tenet, the new blockbuster by director Christopher Nolan. The industry has been lobbying the Government to allow them to operate, having drawn up detailed plans to allow for social distancing, including staggering showings to limit crowds and ensuring groups from different households are not sat close together. As many as 68,000 migrant workers, who wanted to return to their native states, have been sent back home from Haryana in past four days. The Haryana government is providing for free transport facility through 5,000 buses and 100 'Special Shramik' trains for them to reach their states in a safe and systematic manner, an official statement said here on Sunday. The first Shramik Special train from Haryana carrying 1,200 migrant workers, stranded in the state amid the coronavirus-led lockdown, had left for Katihar in Bihar from Hisar railway station on Wednesday. The statement said after Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's announcement to send every migrant worker, including agricultural labourers who wanted to go back to their home states, about 68,000 of them have been sent back free of cost through various trains and buses. The statement said more than 1,100 buses carrying migrant workers have been sent to various states till date, including 890 buses to Uttar Pradesh, 152 to Rajasthan, 44 to Madhya Pradesh, nine each to Punjab and Uttarakhand and two to Himachal/ Adequate arrangements are being made by the government to keep these workers in shelter homes and bring them to railway stations and bus stands for their onward journey to their native states. Among migrants sent back home, 28,000 have been sent to Uttar Pradesh, over 12,000 to Bihar, 9,550 to Uttarakhand and 6,500 to Madhya Pradesh. The spokesman said 435 labourers have been sent to Rajasthan, 221 to Punjab, 54 to Himachal Pradesh, 46 to Kerala, 32 to Assam, 39 to Maharashtra, 27 to Gujarat, 41 to Jammu and Kashmir, 10 to Delhi and 18 to Andhra Pradesh. Similarly, about 10,000 Haryana residents who were stranded in various parts of the country, have been brought back to H. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The federal minimum wage hasnt changed from $7.25 since July 24, 2009, but in the United States of Tipping, an employer only needs to pay hourly tipped employees $2.13 cash per hour, minimum. If all goes well, tips should bring the average wage up to the federal minimum, but as we know things are not going well. As stay-at-home orders are extended, restaurant industry workers have either become essential employees or been laid off without options for another job. Only seven states require employers to pay tipped employees a full state minimum wage before tips. Wage structures in other states can severely impact how service-industry workers make a living in the best of times. And in the worst of times, like in ahem a pandemic, the situation can be dire. I was working my last 2 weeks as bar manager at a restaurant before my states stay-at-home orders were put in place. Those were the 2 weeks I was supposed to transition into the role of brand manager for a new restaurant, but when stay-at-home orders came down, my former restaurant, unable to execute to-go orders, shuttered under the pressure. The new project was immediately halted and my colleagues and I were let go. RESTAURANT CULTURE IS ADAPTING AND DISAPPEARING With restaurants coming out of the slowest months in the industry (looking at you January and February), the drastic decline in sales across the board is unsurprising. To-go orders are not as profitable as dine-in service and, like my former place of work, may not be enough. Even before stay-at-home orders, Omar Anani, chef and owner of Saffron De Twah closed his Detroit restaurant for the safety of the staff and community. We took a huge hit financially but it was the right thing to do. We could have rode it out but sitting in the restaurant all day waiting for carryout orders would have been a waste of time. The art of dining and conversation, be it ice cream, prix-fixe menus, or wine, is the main business model for many places. But in a virtual landscape, all of that encouraging customers to try new or different experiences is lost. Now a customer needs to know what they want, and can get it, with a click of a button. Some restaurants, however, have been able to rally the support through social media campaigns, word of mouth, and branded delivery vans or food trucks. Theyve transformed their business model by adding grocery options to their carryout offerings, reworking menus to fit carryout, or ramping up their large volume carryout offerings to maintain and meet the direct needs of people around them. Or, like Anani and his staff, theyve been donating their time to provide meal kits to the industry workers who were laid off. Theyve fed hospital workers and those on the frontlines while continuing to purchase from local farms and suppliers. And each of these businesses have observed a common trend among the tip lines on their carryout orders: theyve been higher. VIRTUAL NODS AND TRANSACTIONS OF GRATITUDE I actually called a customer to make sure she meant to tip $50 on a $44 order, says Miranda Johnson, Marketing Director and Taproom GM at B. Nektar in Ferndale, MI. She did, and I immediately burst into tears. Weve always had some really great tips in general, but during this time the tips go to those working on delivery and carryout, she says. As for the future, I think people will be way more aware of what goes into service and I hope they will continue to be generous with how they tip. Especially on carryout orders. Traditionally, tipping has only been associated with a dining experience. Carryout orders were a component of tipping many people never thought about and may have regularly left the tip line blank or filled in a zero. Were recognizing new facets of service and tipping more appropriately, or fairly, says Alicia Banaszewski, whos spent 10 years working Front of House in the industry. Tipping is changing for the better because of the current situation and a different kind of service is being highlighted. There are also many campaigns out there that keep the conversation of tipping relevant and changing. Nick Britsky of NickDrinks.com put together a social media campaign in an effort to help bartenders who are temporarily out of work. GoTipEm.com is a database of over 4,700 bartenders from all 50 states that lists their PayPal, Venmo, and cash apps. The idea is to use GoTipEm every time you post a photo of a drink to your social media, says Nick Britsky. Select a favorite or random bartender and tip them a few bucks. A little bit goes a long way. Even without making a purchase from a closed establishment, people are sending tips electronically. I personally experienced the kindness from one of my brewery regulars who tipped me $5 on a Saturday night as he enjoyed a beer from the local brewery where I previously worked. Before, people tipped bartenders really well at busy bars to ensure good service rather than getting exceptional service and tipping accordingly. Now, we are seeing people paying gratitude or gratuity for the service and place, says Anani. And gratitude for people. ClevelandTips.com is another example of this. This virtual tip jar encourages site visitors to send tips to Clevelands hospitality industry by highlighting a random worker of the day and partnering with restaurants and pubs in a tip match. TIPS AS THE NEW LANGUAGE FOR COMMUNITY CARE I have never been money motivated. Its a passion and love for the hospitality which extends beyond the hours of Saffron De Twah, says Anani, who is currently supplying the meals through generous donations from local business owners, community sponsorships, and his companys funds. I learned that from my mother who constantly puts everyone before herself. Its during these times you see peoples true colors and the ability of humans to stand together and rise above a challenge. And what going above and beyond looks like, especially in these times of hardship, is community care. How the restaurant industry has come together has inspired others, like the pay-it-forward movement #FeedTheFrontLine. This social media campaign encourages owners of businesses and individuals to purchase large quantities of food from local restaurants and have it delivered to local hospitals, ICUs, ERs, police, and fire departments. Thus, keeping the workers on the front lines fed while supporting a local restaurant, to encourage profits that keep their doors open and continuing payment for their staff. Its a movement that supports the local community through the chain of economy. Brandy Ochab, co-owner of Petes Place Restaurants, has been overwhelmed by the kindness residents and customers have shown them. Its humbling to not only see, but be a part of. And on top of paying it forward, all of those orders include a generous tip for our entire staff. It makes a world of difference for us, our employees, and those working hard on the frontlines. As the industry adapts and provides food in new ways, the landscape of dining and tipping will inevitably shift. What is valued as exceptional service, meeting the customers expectations and holding food and drink to a certain standard, will still be important but so will stories of community members and essential staff. And right now, we can show that value in tips. At the end of the day, if you look up the definition of a tip or gratuity. It is not mandatory, says Anani. It is based on a level of service or hospitality that goes above and beyond. Greatist is the fastest-growing fitness, health and happiness media start-up. Check out more health and fitness news, tips, healthy recipes, expert opinion, and fun at Greatist. 2020 Greatist. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Technology companies ranging from major professional services firms to scrappy startups are building apps and wearables for businesses to track and stop the spread of coronavirus among employees in the workplace. The technology is called digital contact tracing, and although few big organizations have publicly committed to using the tools so far, technology companies see the new category as a major opportunity as offices reopen, and are often repurposing existing technology to focus on Covid-19 tracking. Digital contact tracing for the enterprise is a new field, said Laura Becker, an analyst covering employee experience and benefits for IDC. But digital contact tracing for companies could be worth billions, she estimates, as companies re-open offices and look for ways to assure employees it's safe. "Looking at larger organizations that would probably be more apt to institute something like this, like organizations that employ over 1000 people, and if I take a percentage of those that don't opt in, even with all of those assumptions, I'm still looking at like a $4.3 billion potential market for this," Becker said. Apple and Google, among nonprofit groups, are creating software for contact tracing, too, but their system is targeted at the public and will be used by public health officials in Europe to make free contact tracing apps that work on a national scale. Apple and Google's software isn't going to be bought and sold, making enterprise tracing apps the likely market where people will make money off of this technology. It might also work better in workplaces, because the more people that use these apps, the more effective they are, and employers can theoretically mandate them, gaining full coverage at offices and campuses. PwC, which is building a contact tracing app, says that nearly a quarter of CFOs they surveyed said they plan to evaluate the technology as part of their office reopening strategy. Some questions still remain before big companies start cutting checks for enterprise Covid-19 technology, including whether it makes employees feel safer, if it's legal and appropriate to deploy to employees, and if the technology works at large scale in the field. "Electronic contact tracing and testing are useful. They're necessary, but insufficient conditions for controlling this in the workplace," said Mark Barnes, health partner at Ropes and Gray, a law firm. "I've had a problem with trying to explain to employers that it's more complicated than just adopting a mandatory app and mandatory testing." Enterprise contact tracing technology can decipher where an employee has been and who they have been in contact with, enabling companies to tell them to go home and isolate if they are at high risk for coming down with Covid-19, potentially heading off a larger outbreak. Barnes wrote earlier this month that it's likely legal for private employers in the United States to mandate that employees use a contact-tracing app as a condition of employment. He said in an interview that each individual product is different, and issues including whether they track people off the clock, and whether employees self-report they are positive for the virus, are critical. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) says that when he first announced he would run for the U.S. Senate, he didnt know what Montana and the country was going to look like in the short period thereafter. With the covid-19 crisis, all his time has been taken up by being a governor, not a candidate. So far, that has only helped him in his campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Steve Daines. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 00:01:21|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on May 9, 2020 shows a damaged car after heavy shelling in Bab Ben Ghashir of Tripoli, capital of Libya. Three civilians were killed and dozens of others were injured by indiscriminate shelling that hit the Libyan capital Tripoli on Saturday, a local official said. (Photo by Hamza Turkia/Xinhua) TRIPOLI, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Three civilians were killed and dozens of others were injured by indiscriminate shelling that hit the Libyan capital Tripoli on Saturday, a local official said. "Abu-Salim, Bab Ben Ghashir, and the area near the Mitiga International Airport have been hit by heavy shelling since early morning," Amin Hashemi, information advisor of the Ministry of Health, told Xinhua. "The initial casualties include three deaths and dozens of injuries, all of whom are civilians," Hashemi said, adding that the death toll is likely to increase as the shelling had not stopped yet. The UN-backed Libyan government accused the rival eastern-based army of launching dozens of missiles on different areas in Tripoli. The eastern-based army has been leading a military campaign in and around Tripoli for over a year, in an attempt to take control of the capital and topple the rival UN-backed government. Since the beginning of the armed conflict, hundreds of civilians have been killed and injured while more than 150,000 others displaced from their homes, despite the repeated international calls for ending the violence. Enditem The killing of a black jogger in Georgia has galvanized activists, entered the national debate and stirred up the presidential campaign, not unlike other high-profile shootings or arrests of black men and women under disturbing circumstances. But this killing comes in a period of particular racial pain, as a graphic video of Ahmaud Arbery's fatal struggle with two white attackers has surfaced amid a pandemic that is disproportionately sickening and killing African Americans. The result is a view among some black leaders that race relations in the United States are at a low point, with President Donald Trump's often divisive rhetoric and the pandemic's economic crisis - also battering nonwhites at higher rates - now punctuated by the stark video of a violent death. African American leaders are not hiding their anguish. "This killing is just the most egregious example right now of how sick people are and how racist they are in this country at the moment," said Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J. "It's not just what's happening in the South in this isolated incident." Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, placed the shooting in the context of the broader national landscape. "When you have hate emanating from the Oval Office, why are we surprised?" Bass said. She also urged Americans to put the events in a larger context. "If you could do anything to help this country, could you please draw the connections?" she said. Arbery's killing, which occurred in February, became a flash point last week when the video emerged that showed him trying to jog by a white pickup truck with two armed white men aboard. Three shots can be heard as Arbery struggles with a man holding a long gun. The other, perched on the bed of the pickup, can be seen with a handgun. Arbery would have turned 26 on Friday. Additional video emerged Saturday that is believed to show the moments before Arbery's death. The Atlanta Journal Constitution published surveillance footage showing a figure entering a house under construction shortly before the shooting, lingering for a few minutes, then jogging toward the location where the men confronted Arbery. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirmed that the video is part of its investigation. Lee Merritt, an attorney for Arbery's family, tweeted that the figure in the video is believed to be Arbery. Both Meritt and the owner of the house said nothing was taken from or damaged at the site. Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is using the shooting to press his case that the country is divided and has lost its moral compass, and that he is the leader to restore it. "Lynched before our very eyes, lynched so plainly, unmistakably and without mercy," Biden wrote of the killing in a post on Medium late Friday. He added, "This vicious act calls to mind the darkest chapters of our history and more recently, the awful specter of white supremacists on the march in Charlottesville, of massacres in houses of worship, of a rising pandemic of hate." Biden has used the phrase "pandemic of hate" several times to describe the shooting, implicitly tying it to the covid-19 outbreak. Trump has also expressed dismay at the shooting, saying on "Fox & Friends" that the tape of the incident was "very, very disturbing." He added, "I looked (at) a picture of that young man, he was in a tuxedo. ... I will say that that looks like a really good young guy, and it's a very disturbing situation to me." But he also raised the possibility that the episode could be more complicated than it appears, an argument that angered black activists who saw it as a nod to Trump's largely white coalition. "You know, it could be something that we didn't see on tape," Trump said. "If you saw, things went off tape and then back on tape." White House aides did not respond to questions about the comment, which was made before the additional video emerged Saturday. The two white men in the truck, a father and son, were charged with murder Thursday, 2 1/2 months after the killing and two days after the public release of the video. One of the suspects, Gregory McMichael, told police that Arbery looked like a man who had recently burglarized several homes in the area. The Brunswick News, the area's local paper, reported that there had been only a single break-in in the area in about two months - a gun stolen from a car parked outside a home owned by Travis McMichael, the other suspect. Bass said this fits the pattern of a "classic lynching," when perpetrators would often cite some purported offense by the victim as a pretext for violence. Attorneys for the suspects could not be located. Many Republicans, including Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp - who called the video "absolutely horrific" - have expressed dismay at the killing. Ralph Reed, a Christian leader based in Atlanta and founder of the socially conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition, called the killing "deeply hurtful" and "a painful reminder of our tortured past." "I don't believe the Georgia of today is the Georgia of the 1950s or '60s. We've come a long way," Reed said. "But moments like this bring back that past." He said leaders from both parties need to work together to address income inequality and health disparities, though he cautioned that Democrats and Republicans often come to different policy prescriptions. He is pushing for school choice programs, for example, which many liberals oppose. But the nation's politics remain heavily divided by race. Many black leaders blame Trump for an atmosphere they say gives racists license to speak out and worse; of the 57 African Americans in Congress, 55 are Democrats. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the only black Republican in the Senate, echoed Bass's point. "Every. single. time," Scott tweeted. "The excuses pour in - 'he looked suspicious' ... 'we thought he was committing a crime.' The fact remains, #AhmaudArbery was hunted down from a pickup truck and murdered in cold blood." Both Bass and Scott called for the passage of federal anti-lynching legislation, which has passed in the House but stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate. Several civil rights leaders noted that it took a vigorous social media campaign, and the emergence of a startling video, to bring attention to the shooting and the sluggish investigation that followed. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Sunday said the environment is affecting her family directly. "I have four kids, three of whom are African American boys," she said. "They are afraid. They are angry. Hate crimes in the United States have risen since Trump's 2016 election, which civil rights leaders attribute in part to the president's divisive language as well as the larger polarization of American politics. Every major candidate in the recent Democratic presidential primary issued calls for racial justice and worked to appeal to black voters (with varying success). Biden prevailed largely because of his support from the African American community, and his current rhetoric suggests that a focus on racial inequities will be a central part of his message in the fall. Biden, who served as vice president to the first black president, has promised to appoint a racially diverse cabinet and to nominate the first black woman to the Supreme Court. At least three black women are on his list of possible running mates: Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.; Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla.; and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. Any Democrat hoping to win in November requires the support of nonwhite voters. Barack Obama in 2008 won just 43 percent of the white vote but overcame that deficit by turning out minorities, said Cornell Belcher, who was a pollster for the former president. Obama's margins among whites in 2012 fell to 39 percent, meaning he had to attract even greater numbers of nonwhites to win. Hillary Clinton attracted just 37 percent of the white vote and didn't sufficiently make up the gap with nonwhite voters in her failed attempt to win the White House in 2016. Political strategists often cite demographic trends that suggest the country will become majority nonwhite in the next two to three decades. "If we are in fact a democracy - and if in a democracy, the majority rules - there is going be a transfer of power," Belcher said. "As we get browner, we see an increase in this racial aversion, we see an increase in these incidents. This is how America tears itself apart." Amid these volatile dynamics, several killings over the past decade have attracted enormous attention and crystallized the racial divide. In 2012, teenager Trayvon Martin was shot in Florida, prompting Obama to call for "soul-searching." In 2014, Michael Brown was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. That same year, Eric Garner died after being put in a chokehold by a New York City police officer. In each case, African Americans mobilized to protest what they saw as brazen racial injustice, while many conservatives framed the incidents as more complex and often sympathized with the challenges facing police officers. The Arbery shooting appears likely to join this list of painful flash points. But it comes at an even more fraught moment. Trump has been accused by civil rights activists of insensitivity at best, and racism at worst, throughout his presidency. Following the clash between white supremacists and counterdemonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, he declared there were "very fine people on both sides." In July 2019, Trump tweeted that congresswomen of color should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came." In early 2018 he referred to African and other nations as "s---hole countries," and at one point he suggested a U.S.-born federal judge could not be impartial in a case involving Trump because he was "Mexican." Trump has rejected the charges of racism, saying that his presidency has been enormously beneficial to African Americans and other minorities. Some civil rights activists are pushing for systemic changes to disrupt what they call an underlying setup that allows racist behavior. "This is about a set of written and unwritten rules in this country that incentivizes this type of behavior," said Rashad Robinson, who heads the Color of Change coalition. "It's not just the occurrence of a shooting like this. It's not just the disproportion of deaths that occur from a virus. But it's all of the ways in which the system is set up." He cited discriminatory behavior by bankers on loans to black-owned businesses and the prevalence of minorities in service-related jobs that can't be done from home, putting their health at risk. The pandemic's devastating impact has shifted the discussion of race in recent weeks from a series of troubling incidents, and the bitterness of the broader political atmosphere, to an ongoing death toll that is disproportionately taking black and Latino lives. Figures suggest that social distancing rules are being enforced unequally. The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, for example, recently released data showing that of 40 people who had been arrested for social distancing violations in the borough, 35 were black, four were Hispanic and one was white. All of this, many black leaders fear, has resulted in a particularly toxic racial atmosphere, one that the Arbery killing has only aggravated. "I'm telling you that it's exacerbated right now," Watson Coleman said. "I don't care if you're black walking down the street with a Bible in your hand - if a white person sees you, there's a good chance that you're going to be confronted." - - - The Washington Post's Sean Sullivan and Cleve R. Wootson Jr. contributed to this report. And that's all from us tonight. We'll be back at 6am with tomorrow's live blog, covering Victoria's last day under lockdown before restrictions ease at 11.59pm. Here are some of the things that you need to know from today: Victoria's restrictions have been eased, but experts are reminding us to remain vigilant; There is now a fifth reason to leave home - visiting friends and family. Here's the list of everything that changes in Victoria on Wednesday; And here's what's happening in the other states as well; Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the national cabinet have started reopening Australia's economy, but there are cautionary tales from other countries that have done the same; There are a number of medical mysteries surrounding coronavirus, including why it has devastated some cities and countries while leaving others relatively unscathed, and why COVID-19 is killing people in the UK who are black or Asian at higher rates than other groups. Here are the latest numbers for Australia: Thanks for joining us for a big day, we look forward to having you back again tomorrow. THE case of a Romanian national who is accused of murdering pensioner Rose Hanrahan at her home in Limerick city more than two years ago has been formally sent for forward for trial at the Central Criminal Court. Alexandru Lordache, 45, who has an address of Dreptatii Street, Bucharest, Romania is accused of murdering the 78-year-old widow at New Road, Thomondgate sometime between December 14 and December 15, 2017. The defendant, who was arrested by police in England last summer, first appeared before Limerick District Court in January following his extradition from the United Kingdom. The Director of Public Prosecutions previously directed trial on indictment before the Central Criminal Court and the case has been adjourned on a number of occasions since January to facilitate the preparation of a book of evidence. During a procedural hearing last Friday Detective Garda Enda Haugh confirmed the book of evidence had been completed and that he had served a copy on the defendant. Sergeant Michelle Leahy said the Director of Public Prosecutions consented to the matter being send forward for trial to the present sittings of the Central Criminal Court. Judge Marian OLeary noted this and having issued the statutory Alibi Warning, she remanded Mr Lordache in continuing custody pending his appearance before the Central Criminal Court in the coming weeks. The judge granted an application to extend legal aid to cover a barrister and a senior counsel. The murder of Rose Hanrahan sparked outrage and anger in the local community and further afield and led to one of the largest and most complex gardai investigations in Limerick in recent years. Mr Lordache is the first person to be arrested and charged in connection with the arrest of the 78-year-old widowed pensioner. Given the current trial lists at the Central Criminal Court and the Covid-19 restrictions, it is unlikely that any trial will take place before Easter 2021. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dyaning Pangestika (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, May 10, 2020 08:46 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd6fa167 1 National sexual-abuse-on-campus,Ibrahim-Malik-UII,Ibrahim-Malik Free The University of Melbourne has stated that it has zero tolerance toward inappropriate behavior, a representative from the university said on Saturday in response to allegations against Ibrahim Malik, a student finishing his master's degree at the university's Melbourne School of Design who has been accused of sexual violence by at least 30 women in Indonesia. Read also: High-achieving UII student to be stripped of honors after 30 women report him for alleged sexual abuse The University of Melbourne is committed to ensuring that all of its campuses are places where students, staff and visitors are safe and are treated with absolute respect and courtesy," the university's representative told The Jakarta Post through a written statement. Two female alumni from the campus had also reported Ibrahim for alleged sexual harassment to the university's Safer Community Program, the university said. "The university takes all allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior extremely seriously and a senior staff member has contacted both women to check on their welfare and provide advice on the universitys student complaints process," the representative stated, adding that the university had offered wellbeing support to the alumni, who currently live outside Australia. "The university has also contacted the male student and offered him support and assistance." Read also: Pressure mounts for Australia to cancel scholarship of student accused of sexual abuse Separately, a spokesman from the Australian Embassy said the embassy had been notified of Ibrahims alleged sexual misconduct. We are aware of allegations of sexual misconduct by an Australia Awards scholar. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and its programs have a zero-tolerance approach to sexual misconduct claims, he told the Post on Friday. We take all allegations of this nature seriously and manage them in accordance with our policies and Australian law, he continued, adding that the embassy was unable to provide further details due to privacy constraints. Two of the women who reported Ibrahim told ABC that Ibrahim had sexually harassed them during his time in Melbourne. T he Duke of Sussex has reflected on how dramatically life has changed, as he marked what would have been the opening ceremony of the Invictus Games. In a video message posted on social media, Harry urged the Invictus family to look out for each other, while also paying tribute to healthcare workers. The 2020 games were due to be held in The Hague, but the event has been postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus outbreak. The competition brings together current and former wounded, injured or sick servicemen and women from more than 20 countries. In the clip, shared via foundations official Twitter page, the duke says: As we commemorate VE Day this weekend and pay tribute to the service and sacrifice of the entire Second World War generation, we should have also been gathering together in the Netherlands to kickstart the Invictus Games 2020 in The Hague. Life has changed dramatically for all of us since I was last in The Hague, but the IG (Invictus Games) 2020 team has done an incredible job to adapt so quickly to the situation, and they are busy putting plans in place for next year. The new dates will be shared with you very soon. I hope that all of those in the Invictus family are coping well and supporting each other through this challenging time. Harry said he continues to hear amazing stories of families coming together over online platforms, but urged people to look out for those that have gone quiet, or that are no longer visible on the chat sites. He added: You guys are the best at this, so I have no doubt that youre all rallying around and supporting one another. Although we cant be together in person, Im really happy that there are plenty of virtual activities planned for this week, and I encourage you all to get involved if you can, because you never know, it might be fun and a change from the norm. Throughout this week, we will be seeing and hearing from many Invictus competitors, their experience and resilience in dealing with mental health challenges is something we could all learn lessons from. He added the same can be said of our incredible healthcare professionals working hard to keep everyone safe. Harry said the Invictus Games Foundation will be hosting a virtual conference with international speakers and participants sharing their thoughts and experience of resilience and why the Invictus spirit is so important. THUMB AREA Huron County reported another confirmed case of COIVD-19 on Sunday. Hurons numbers now stand at 35 cases and one death. Sanilac Countys number remain unchanged at 37 cases and five deaths. Tuscola County reported three more confirmed cases and no additional deaths for a total of 134 cases and 17 deaths. Statewide, the number of deaths jumped by 25 to 4,551, and the number of confirmed cases in Michigan rose by 382 to 47,138. To protect yourself against the coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends: washing your hands often using hand sanitizer avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands maintaining a distance of at least 6 feet from others covering your mouth and nose with a cloth face cover when around others Cover coughs and sneezes Cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched surfaces daily All three counties of the Upper Thumb now have drive-thru testing options available, as the Sanilac County health department debuted its testing this week, which is available in the department's parking lot in Sandusky. Testing there is available from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Individuals can call the health department set up an appointment at 810-206-0682. Drive-thru options are also available at the Tuscola County Health Department in Caro and the Great Lakes Bay Health Center for Huron County in Bad Axe. The Tuscola County testing also runs from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Huron County testing runs from 10 a.m. to noon p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Ex-president of the Islamic Republic, Mohammad Khatami, has warned that people in Iran might resort to violence as an answer to their state of hopelessness and despair. He has also warned that a "cycle of reciprocal violence between the people and the government" could occur in the clergy-dominated Iran. In an "online speech", the mid-ranking cleric reiterated that the community may "express its dissatisfaction through violence to get rid of frustration and despair. Khatami has argued that the government for its part may resort to reciprocal violence and create an unending cycle. "The cycle will cause more hatred and violence on both sides, creating numerous complications", Khatami insisted. Khatami has been largely banned from appearing in the tightly-controlled Iranian media and in public events since 2017, but it seems the hardliner-dominated regime occasionally allows him to speak out of political expediency. While the former President warns on "reciprocal violence" almost all anti-establishment protests in recent years have been heavy-handedly suppressed by the country's security forces and intelligence agents. In recent years, human rights organizations have repeatedly condemned harsh crackdowns on protests in Iran. One of the bloodiest episodes of unrest occurred last November, leaving thousands of casualties. Almost six months after the mid-November uprising that shook Iran for almost a week, the Islamic Republic government still refuses to officially announce the number of people killed. Reuters estimated that 1,500 protesters were killed by security forces. Numerous videos and photos showed the people were unarmed and security forces used military weapons against pockets of protesters. Islamic Republic officials have so far admitted that about ten of its security forces were killed in the protests. The countrys ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also described the protesters as "thugs", supported by Iran's last royal family, including the former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi who lives in exile. Nonetheless, even several members of the so-called reformist camp within the Islamic Republic ruling circle expressed concern that the mid-November unrest was a protest to "lack of civil liberties" in the Islamic republic. Following the protests, a renowned Islamic theologian, Abdul Karim Soroush, warned in a speech that there would be an increase in violence by protesters and even a group of people might take up arms if the government did not address their tribulations and demands. With Irans economy in deep crisis due to U.S. sanctions and recently under more pressure because of the COVID-19 pandemic, some fear renewed protests in the coming months. Referring to a barrage of conservative attacks on his old proposal for "national reconciliation", Khatami maintained that had the offer been accepted, the situation would have been better, today. Mohammad Khatami's plan for national reconciliation was categorically rejected in February 2017 by the Islamic Republic Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "Some people talk about national reconciliation; however, that does not make sense to me," Khamenei said, sarcastically adding, "The people are already united. So why do you talk about reconciliation? Are the people against each other?" Almost a year after Khatami's proposal was insolently rejected, tens of thousands of protesters poured into more than 100 cities across Iran in December 2017-January 2018, chanting slogans against the twin camps dominating the country. "Reformists! Fundamentalists! Your days are over!" they roared. At the same time, Deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs, Hossein Zolfaqari, acknowledged that the January protests were the reflection of the people's will to leave all political factions of the country behind. Although economic issues triggered the protests in late 2017 and early 2018, the main slogans of the protesters were directly against the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, the government, the clergy, corruption, and mismanagement. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, May 10, 2020 15:56 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd71075a 1 National TNI,TNI-AD,TNI-Commander,Indonesian-Military Free Former Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen. (Ret.) Djoko Santoso died at the age of 67 on Sunday morning at the Gatot Subroto Army Hospital (RSPAD). Gerindra Party politician Habiburokhman confirmed the death of his fellow party politician on Sunday. He died this morning, a few days after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage, Habiburokhman said as quoted by kompas.com. Djoko had been hospitalized since May 2 and underwent surgery for a cerebral hemorrhage the day after. Born in Surakarta, Central Java on Sept. 8, 1952, Djoko was known as a prominent military figure. He graduated from the Military Academy in 1975 and held various high-ranking positions in the army, including chief of the Pattimura Military Command in Maluku from 2002 to 2003 and chief of the Jayakarta Military Command in Jakarta in 2003. He served as army chief of staff from 2005 to 2007, before being appointed as TNI commander by then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2007, a position he held until his retirement in 2010. In 2015, he joined the Gerindra Party and was appointed deputy of the partys steering committee. During the 2019 presidential election, Djoko Santoso chaired the Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno campaign team. He is survived by his wife Angky Retno Yudianto and three children. (trn) With the social distancing caused by the coronavirus pandemic, many religious institutions, their leaders and parishioners have had to find new ways to stay connected with God and with each other. Pastors have had to figure out how to continue providing religious services, a word of hope and a different form of social interaction as churches remained closed. Gov. Charlie Bakers closure of nonessential businesses extended to churches since most would have more than 10 people gathering at one time. Some Western Massachusetts pastors have found strategies for continuing to provide a genuine connection without seeing their congregants in person. Their best allies during this crisis have been social media and virtual platforms like Facebook and Zoom, as well as telephone calls and texts. Holyoke pastor Felix Vazquez and his wife, Jamylette Anaya, have led the nondenominational Christian church Un Nuevo Amanecer (A New Dawn) since 2016 with an average attendance of 40 to 50 members during services at 68 A Winter St. Vazquez said that when Baker issued the order to limit the number of people in establishments, he immediately canceled services at his church. I thought if he had stipulated it, it was something serious ... I immediately opened a Zoom account and since we have a separate Facebook group for members, I started every night at 9 p.m. for an hour to give a short teaching to motivate and support them, from Monday to Sunday, Vazquez said. Vazquez used to open the church three days a week for religious services. Through his two accounts, Zoom and Facebook, Vazquez keeps in communication with his parishioners supporting them in their prayer requests. Lucy Rodriguez, has been the pastor at Iglesia Pentecostal Del Dios Vivo Inc. (Pentecostal Church of the Living God Inc.), located at 920 Meadow St. in Chicopee, for the past 13 years. The congregation stands at close to 25. She said the transition to providing religious services through Facebook was a little different. At first Rodriguez kept in touch with her parishioners by phone, and then she started using Facebook Live to conduct services. I had been telling the church to prepare since December because I felt that something bad was coming for the people, for the city and since Hurricane Maria happened in Puerto Rico I had already started telling them to prepare with food , water, medicine, clothes and have your documents up to date in a briefcase, she said. Vazquez said as news of the virus began to emerge he also urged his congregants to stock up on supplies for a month. Rev. Manuel Santiago of Templo Bethel of the Movimiento Misionero Mundial, Inc. (World Missionary Movement), has been a pastor at the Chicopee church at 680 Chicopee St. for 28 years with 60 or so members in his congregation. Santiago said he stopped church services on the advise of the Movimiento Misionero Mundial Council and the governors order. The church now offers services virtually through Zoom. Needs are met, we have a board and if there is a need we communicate by phone," he said. Pastor Eli Serrano has led the nondenominational Restoration Worship Center, for the past 11 years. With a congregation of about 1,500 members, he said the transition from providing religious services was in person to a virtual platform was a little easier for them since they were already practicing their own video production and editing platform. The Springfield-based Restoration Worship Center has a team of six trained pastors and over 400 volunteers, Serrano said. The challenge is that there are two churches. We have a congregation completely in English and another in Spanish, so we had to make several adjustments, but the most important thing is to be able to communicate with people on a personal level," he said. We have worked internally to connect with those in need since its something that is already part of our culture - providing for the needy at an emotional and spiritual level for our community. Whether the congregation is made up of thousands or just a dozen people pastors said the greatest need among the parishioners is to feel a human connection even if they are confined to their homes due to social distancing. For Rodriguez, the fact that her church is closed saddens her since her parishioners want to meet again in person. People want to come to church because there are many people who feel depressed, scared. There is a lot of depression and a lot of anxiety. They call and ask when they are going to open the church and I tell them that when they allow us ... I would like the mayors to let us open the church already, Rodriguez said. Her plan, once the church can reopen, is to put three members in a row of five chairs. Both she and several of her members are chaplains and have lifesaving Red Cross first aid certification. Santiago said said his congregants are eager to hold in-person church services again. All the brothers and sisters from church are very excited to return and that is a wonderful thing because their faith has increased ... many people through Facebook are reconciling their relationship with God and when everything is normalized, they want to join the church. Serrano said that if they allow the church to open this month, they already have a logistics plan. When they give us the green light, we have a logistics plan for social distancing, cleaning, how often are we going to be cleaning the different areas, he said. Before the pandemic, RWC provided three different religious services on Sundays, and after each service, a team of volunteers cleaned the venue located in the Chestnut Accelerated Middle School Theater in Springfield. Vazquez said there was much anxiety in his congregation about the pandemic, but he thinks he made the right decision to close his church that first week of March. Vazquez offers his religious services in Spanish and English. He said that in his church the greatest need has been the prayer requests he receives daily from families and friends. We always ask our brothers and sisters in faith if there is any need because we as a church are there to supply that need whether it is economic or material and spiritual, he said. Related content: A new US study available on the preprint server medRxiv* reveals certain genetic variations that are associated with infection susceptibility and diverse clinical presentation of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) including asymptomatic cases and severe forms of the disease in younger patients. The ongoing pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) brought to the attention the pressing public health demand to adequately understand human genetic variation in response to the viral challenge. MERS Virus Particles Colorized scanning electron micrograph of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome virus particles (yellow) attached to the surface of an infected VERO E6 cell (blue). Image captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Credit: NIAID Humans and viruses have evolved together for millennia, resulting in genetic polymorphisms that guide the host responses to viral infection. Consequently, clinical variation in COVID-19 severity and symptomatic presentation may be a result of differences in host genetic factors related to the immune response. This is why researchers from the University of California San Francisco, the University of Texas at Austin, and St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis (United States) decided to appraise the genetic architecture of host response to viral infection, especially taking COVID-19 into account In-depth exploration of the host viral response In this new study, the researchers utilized the data from the UK Biobank population-based cohort in order to evaluate the relationship between host genetics and its viral response. They have analyzed the data of 7,924 participants in total (predominantly of European ancestry). The goal was to appraise 28 antigens for 16 viruses that have been linked to neurodegenerative diseases and malignancies but also to put the emphasis on the SARS-CoV-2 test in a separate subset of UK Biobank participants. Accordingly, they have conducted integrative genome-wide and transcriptome-wide analyses of antibody response and positivity to viral antigens. Pleiotropic associations between lead variants affecting antibody levels and several chronic diseases with viral risk factors were explored in depth. Symptom span explained by HLA genetic variations Study findings confirm that human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II and III genes are pivotal host genetic factors implicated in regulating the immune response to diverse viral antigens, with potential implications for complex diseases. Furthermore, the researchers have also discovered that specific HLA alleles linked to multiple common infections are associated with SARS-CoV-2 positive tests. More specifically, based on 1028 subjects tested for SARS-CoV-2, they have identified seven class II HLA susceptibility alleles (five associated with other viruses). "Considering genetic variation within the HLA region, our results not only confirm its pivotal role at the interface of host-pathogen interactions, but also highlight the overlap in variants, classical alleles, and genes that mediate these interactions across virus families and antigens", emphasize study authors. Associations between HLA alleles and SARS-CoV-2 status may indicate a different clinical course with milder infection or asymptomatic status, which led to lower odds of being tested despite exposure. This is especially valid as data used in this study was collected early in the epidemic when severely ill individuals were prioritized for testing. If true, the associations may be more robust when comparing more severe cases of COVID-19 to asymptomatic carriers. Influencing the viral receptor The research also pointed towards the inverse relationship between genetically predicted angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) gene expressions and a positive SARS-CoV-2 testing result. Albeit ACE2 plays a critical role in enabling SARS-CoV-2 cell entry, the virus appears to down-regulate ACE2 expression once inside. "We suspect that decreased ACE2 expression may reduce viral infection by limiting available receptors for viral entry, and once a cell is infected, the reduced expression may aid SARS-CoV-2", explain study authors. SARS-CoV-2 viruses are binding to ACE-2 receptors on a human cell, the initial stage of COVID-19 infection. Conceptual 3D illustration credit: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock Research implications "Understanding the interplay between host genetic factors and immune response has implications for public health and may facilitate the discovery of novel therapeutics including vaccines," said study authors. "Upon further elucidation of the risk of infection and COVID-19 severity, our results suggest that HLA typing may be a feasible tool in the SARS-CoV-2 response for identifying at-risk populations and, prioritizing vaccine distribution", they conclude. Naturally, further research is needed in order to understand the viability of this approach in diverse populations, whereas therapeutic research on ACE2 inhibitors will elucidate what is happening behind the downregulation of SARS-CoV-2 receptors after infection. *Important Notice medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. New Delhi/Islamabad, May 10 : Banned terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen has appointed Gazi Haider as its new operation chief in Kashmir, replacing Riyaz Naikoo who was killed by Indian security forces in a highly successful operation last week. As per a statement issued by the outfit on Sunday, a copy of which IANS accessed, Hizbul Mujahideen announced the appointment at a meeting of its council under the chairmanship of United Jihad Council (a Pakistan-based conglomeration of several terror groups sponsored by ISI) and Hizb supremo Syed Salahuddin. The meeting had been called to mourn the death of Naikoo and his aides, Mohammad Bin Qasim and Mohammad Adil who were killed Beighpora in Pulwama district of south Kashmir. Besides announcing the appointment of Gazi Haider, the banned group based in Pakistan, during the meet, also announced Zaffar-ul-Islam as "deputy of Haider and Abu Tariq as his "chief military advisor". The UJC chief, as per the statement, called Naikoo and his associates 'martyrs' and hoped that their "blood will surely benefit their separatist movement in Kashmir." Hizbul Mujahideen has been seeking Jammu & Kashmir's secession from India and merger with Pakistan. One of the most wanted terrorists, Salahuddin during the meeting praised the "determination" of the mujahideen (terrorists) towards the separatist movement. The participants at the meet avowed that the separatist movement "will continue till its logical conclusion and nobody will be allowed to exploit the sacred blood of martyrs," statement said. On Saturday, a video of Salahuddin surfaced on the internet where he appeared distraught by the killing of Naikoo and his aides. Speaking in Urdu with a Kashmiri accent, he was heard saying, "It's a shock for all of us but these 'shahadats' (sacrifices) are going on in Kashmir since long. Since January this year, 80 mujahideens have given their 'shahadat' and all of them were highly educated and trained." However he acknowledged that it was a lost cause for Hizbul Mujahideen, saying, "Mujahideen also broke the back of enemy (security forces) in Handwara, Rajwar recently but the enemy (India) has the upper edge." Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 10) Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III is pushing for the expansion of mass testing with areas currently under lockdown anticipating a transition to a more relaxed general community quarantine. In a statement, the senator said mass testing conducted by the Health Department in all provinces must cover more people in order to give health officials a clearer picture of the extent of COVID-19's transmission. "Let us remember that even among the quarantined population, the threat that the virus had already invaded their communities and even homes without them being aware of it is also high," Sotto said. Sotto cited what happened in the Senate, where 20 employees tested positive for the coronavirus during a rapid testing conducted on staffers who went to work on Monday as the legislative chamber's session resumed. According to Sotto, the said employees complied with the government's order to stay home, did not get exposed to anyone with COVID-19, and did not show nor feel any symptoms of the highly contagious disease. "Kung sila na nasa bahay lang at sumunod sa lahat ng health protocols ay nag-positive sa virus, siguradong mas malala ang pwedeng mangyari kung ma-lift na ang enhanced community quarantine at ang lahat ay papayagan ng lumabas ng kanilang mga bahay, said Sotto. [Translation: If they tested positive for the virus despite staying at home and following all health protocols, what might happen should the enhanced community quarantine be lifted and everyone is allowed to go outside their houses will definitely be worse.] The results of expanded mass testing coverage will also warn government leaders against prematurely lifting the enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila, the local epicenter of the pandemic, and other high-risk areas, the senator added. "The premature lifting of the strict quarantine regulation could lead to a worse second COVID-19 wave, Sotto said. Metro Manila and other high-risk areas remain under enhanced community quarantine until May 15. All other provinces are under the more relaxed general community quarantine until mid-May. Several Metro Manila mayors previously said they lean towards extending the lockdown in their areas for 15 days more amid the steady increase in the number of coronavirus cases. Meanwhile, the Quezon City government has recommended a transition period to the general community quarantine should the enhanced quarantine period end in mid-May. This will boost the city's economy and protect the health of local residents and workers while preventing the coronavirus from spreading, according to Mayor Joy Belmonte. However, all 17 mayors of Metro Manila agreed yesterday to defer the decision on whether to lift or extend the lockdown in the capital region to the Inter-Agency Task Force. A total of 10,794 have been infected with COVID-19 in the Philippines. 719 have died from the illness, while 1,924 have recovered. Jackie Trad has fallen on her sword, resigning as Queensland's deputy premier and treasurer. The announcement came less than 24 hours after she announced she was temporarily standing down from ministerial duties while she faced her second integrity probe in 12 months. Health Minister Steven Miles has been appointed deputy premier, Cameron Dick will take on the role as treasurer and Kate Jones will manage state development. Craig Crawford will become the new minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs, while Gladstone MP Glenn Butcher has been promoted from the outer ministry. Former Queensland Deputy Premier Jackie Trad (pictured) announced on Sunday she is stepping down as deputy premier and treasurer after it was revealed she was facing an integrity probe for the second time in 12 months Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk unveiled her new-look cabinet on Sunday, saying they were permanent appointments that would remain in place until the state election later this year. 'I've acted swiftly and decisively,' she said. 'This is 100 per cent what Queenslanders expect of myself and my team, to be focused on dealing with the health and economic crisis we have before us.' Queensland's Crime and Corruption Commission on Saturday confirmed it was investigating Ms Trad over allegations she interfered in the selection process for the principal of a new high school in her South Brisbane seat. Ms Palasczcuk said Ms Trad's decision to resign was based on the best interests of her family, the community and the party. 'She does not want there to be any distraction for the government as we respond to the COVID-19 crisis,' she said. The premier would not be drawn on the investigation or whether she supported Ms Trad to stand again, except to say: 'I support all of my team recontesting the next election'. Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles (pictured) is the newly appointed deputy premier replacing Ms Trad Earlier this year Ms Palaszczuk said it was widely known that Ms Trad had damaged her own government. The remark was made after it was revealed her deputy failed to properly declare a $695,500 home she bought in March 2019, located near the Cross River Rail project she was overseeing at the time. Queensland's corruption watchdog looked into the matter but found no evidence to support a reasonable suspicion of corrupt conduct. However, it did push for changes to the way conflicts of interest are dealt with, including criminal penalties if MPs fail to declare such conflicts and don't update their register of interests. The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) quoted a BBC News journalist as saying that the Vietnamese Party and State have placed a top concern on the people, while publicising, sharing and updating pandemic-related information and data, as well as taking drastic and urgent measures to curb the disease and support affected subjects. Washington-based The Diplomat ran an article highlighting the guidelines and measures undertaken by the Vietnamese Party and State in fighting COVID-19, emphasising that a strategy to mobilise resources of the whole society has helped Vietnam in successfully controlling the pandemic. The article stated that through effective efforts to curb the disease and support the people, the Vietnamese Party has affirmed its leadership role. Japans Nikkei Asian Review also published an article highlighting that Vietnam has won worldwide praise thanks to its successful control of infection cases and prompt restarting of the economy. The speed in flattening the COVID-19 transmission curve displays Vietnams skills and acumen, and is a story of success as there have been no deaths reported in the country, according to the article. On May 8, the State Committee on Overseas Vietnamese (OVs) Affairs organised the reception of medical supplies, including 43,000 masks and treatment medicines, donated by Flamingo Holding Group to support the OVs communities in Russia, the UK and France. Deputy Chairman of the Committee Luong Thanh Nghi emphasised that the timely and practical support for the OVs has demonstrated solidarity and affirmed that OVs are an inseparable part of the nation. Earlier, during an online meeting on May 6, the Veterans For Peace (VFP) New York chapter congratulated Vietnam on its achievements in the fight against COVID-19. Chapter President Susan Schall emphasised that Vietnams strength and determination helped the country to record such major successes in containing the disease. Vietnam quickly assessed the risk from the pandemic and mobilised all possible resources to protect its citizens and prevent an epidemic crisis, she said. HALIFAXAnother resident of Nova Scotias largest long-term-care home has fallen victim to COVID-19. The Northwood facility, which has more than 400 residents, is the site of the provinces worst outbreak. Provincial health officials said Saturday that deaths related to the viral infection had risen to 47, with 41 of those cases reported at Northwood. The facilitys CEO, Janet Simm, issued a video statement Saturday to express her condolences to those who have lost loved ones during the outbreak. As well, she said staff on the front lines have worked tirelessly to deal with the outbreak. I want to encourage our staff to maintain hope through these very difficult times, Simm said. I can tell you that the hope is very real here at Northwood. We continue to be united in our resolve to get this outbreak under control. Simm said Northwood is receiving a great deal of support from the rest of the health-care system, and she noted the facility recorded its single largest group of recoveries this past week, with 48 residents winning the battle against the virus. Another 53 residents were expected to be declared recovered this week, she said. As well, Simm said 65 staff members had recovered from the virus and had returned to work. Across Canada, long-term-care residents account for more than 80 per cent of deaths caused by the virus, even though they account for only 20 per cent of the cases. Weve got to do better as a nation, Canadas chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, told a news conference Saturday. Nova Scotia had 1,011 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Saturday, which included three new cases. Seven individuals were being treated in hospital two of them in intensive care and 743 patients have recovered from the viral infection. Meanwhile, the three other Atlantic provinces reported no new cases Saturday. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in New Brunswick held steady at 120 and the province has yet to report any deaths. The province has only two active cases now that 118 people have recovered. As a result, the province has started reopening businesses and loosening restrictions on certain activities. As of Friday, stores, offices, restaurants, libraries, museums and campgrounds started opening but only if they had a plan that spells out how they are meeting public health guidelines, including physical distancing, hand hygiene and allowing staff to remain home when ill. In Newfoundland and Labrador, health officials said the total number of confirmed cases stood at 261, the majority of which are in the provinces eastern region. The province has added only two new cases in the past week. Meanwhile, four people remain in hospital two in intensive care and 244 people have recovered. The province has reported a total of three deaths related to the viral infection. Prince Edward Island was reporting no new cases on Friday, with all 27 confirmed cases now considered recovered. Read more about: Belarus Pushes Aside COVID-19 Fears To Hold Victory Day Parade By RFE/RL's Belarus Service May 09, 2020 MINSK -- Thousands of people jammed the center of the Belarusian capital to watch soldiers and military units march as part of celebrations marking the defeat of Nazi Germany, celebrations that took place despite serious concerns about the coronavirus. President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who brushed aside warnings from the World Health Organization and criticism from many Belarusian political figures, made passing reference to the coronavirus in his public address during the May 9 events. "Belarus celebrates this significant date at a difficult time," he said. "However, our current difficulties are dimmed by the hardships and losses that befell the heroic generation that saved the world from the brown plague" -- a reference to the Nazis. Victory Day has long been a major secular holiday in Belarus, as in Russia and some other former Soviet republics. Fading memories, however, have changed the way the war's end is marked from country to country. Ill will among Russia's neighbors following Moscow's interference in Ukraine in 2014 has also changed how countries mark the day. This year, with the countries that normally hold Victory Day parades canceling due to spiking infection and death rates, Lukashenka has downplayed the pandemic as a "psychosis," vowing to go ahead with celebrations. The country has more than 20,000 confirmed infections, and the death toll is nearly 200. Experts in and outside of Belarus believe the figures are widely undercounted. Thousands of soldiers and dozens of military units goose-stepped through Minsk's center, past reviewing stands and thousands who lined the parade route. Some people appeared to be wearing masks, but few observed social distancing -- standing some distance one another to minimize the possibility of infections -- as they stood shoulder-to-shoulder on risers. Lukashenka earlier this week called on leaders of other countries to attend the event. "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. The fact that Belarus went forward with its parade, while Russian leader Vladimir Putin, whose country faces skyrocketing infection rates, was seen in some places as a pointed message directed at Moscow. Russian politicians, meanwhile, downplayed and even criticized the invitation and Lukashenka's decision to go forward with the parade. Russia was represented in the official ceremonies by its ambassador to Belarus and Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said Belarus's decision to hold the event was its "sovereign right, which we respect." Activists from the Youth Bloc group turned up at a rehearsal of the parade carrying a mock coffin and dancing to protest the continuation of such a gathering in the face of the pandemic. Their stunt was meant to echo Ghana's "dancing pallbearers," an Internet meme that has become popular since the coronavirus emerged from central China months ago. Victory Day is the most important national holiday in Belarus and other former Soviet states. The Kremlin canceled the parade through Red Square over concern about the spread of the coronavirus, which has infected nearly 188,000 Russians and left at least 1,723 dead. The Minsk parade raised the concern of the World Health Organization, which called on the country's authorities to impose social-distancing measures and avoid large public gatherings to slow the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. With reporting by Interfax, BelTA, dpa Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/belarus-pushes- aside-covid-19-fears-to-hold-victory -day-parade/30602550.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Whilst it may not be a huge deal, we thought it was good to see that the Candy Club Holdings Limited (ASX:CLB) Non-Executive Chairman, James Baillieu, recently bought AU$81k worth of stock, for AU$0.092 per share. However, it only increased shares held by 1.5%, and it wasn't a huge purchase by absolute value, either. See our latest analysis for Candy Club Holdings Candy Club Holdings Insider Transactions Over The Last Year In fact, the recent purchase by Non-Executive Chairman James Baillieu was not their only acquisition of Candy Club Holdings shares this year. They previously made an even bigger purchase of AU$3.3m worth of shares at a price of AU$0.08 per share. That means that an insider was happy to buy shares at above the current price of AU$0.072. While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. We always take careful note of the price insiders pay when purchasing shares. Generally speaking, it catches our eye when insiders have purchased shares at above current prices, as it suggests they believed the shares were worth buying, even at a higher price. Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid AU$3.6m for 52.46m shares. But insiders sold 725208 shares worth AU$59k. In total, Candy Club Holdings insiders bought more than they sold over the last year. Their average price was about AU$0.068. It's great to see insiders putting their own cash into the company's stock, albeit at below the recent share price. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by individuals) over the last 12 months, below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction! ASX:CLB Recent Insider Trading May 9th 2020 Candy Club Holdings is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket. Story continues Insider Ownership Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. It's great to see that Candy Club Holdings insiders own 43% of the company, worth about AU$7.3m. Most shareholders would be happy to see this sort of insider ownership, since it suggests that management incentives are well aligned with other shareholders. So What Do The Candy Club Holdings Insider Transactions Indicate? It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchase. And the longer term insider transactions also give us confidence. However, we note that the company didn't make a profit over the last twelve months, which makes us cautious. Along with the high insider ownership, this analysis suggests that insiders are quite bullish about Candy Club Holdings. That's what I like to see! In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Candy Club Holdings. To help with this, we've discovered 6 warning signs (2 are concerning!) that you ought to be aware of before buying any shares in Candy Club Holdings. If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt. For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading. Advertisement The streets of Paris remained deserted today ahead of the easing of France's draconian eight-week lockdown tomorrow, amid signs that the public have been spooked into house confinement. On the final day of what has been one of mainland Europe's toughest responses to coronavirus, the streets around the Eiffel Tower, down the Champs Elysees and the Avenue de l'Opera were ghost-like. The few people who left their homes wore face masks or went for a once daily form of exercise. A police officer even made time to take a picture of the Arc de Triomphe. Ahead of the government's lifting of lockdown alongside Belgium, France reported another 70 coronavirus deaths today. Today's figures are the lowest since lockdown began on March 17. Meanwhile Emmanuel Macron's opinion polls have fallen during the crisis. Around March 19, the French President enjoyed a 51 per cent approval rating according to a poll conducted by Harris Interactive. By the end of March (30-31), Mr Macron's approval ratings had fallen to 39 per cent with a disapproval rating of 57 per cent according to a poll conducted by Elabe as the death toll rose. A man wearing a protective mask walks on the streets of Paris on the last day of total lockdown confinement, May 10, 2020 A jogger runs on the deserted Champs Elysees avenue with the Arc de Triomphe in the background, May 10, 2020 View of the Champs Elysees in Paris, on the last day of France's draconian eight-week coronavirus lockdown, May 10, 2020 According to an Ifop-Fiducial April 30 poll, the President's approval rating had risen from the late March slump to 40 per cent, though this remains nearly 10 per cent lower than when he imposed the lockdown. Tomorrow, hair salons, clothes shops, florists and bookshops will open again. Bars, restaurants, theatres and cinemas will remain closed, and primary schools will take small numbers of pupils. Face masks will be compulsory as the public uses public transport again to get back to work. Men, women and children of all ages will be allowed to move outside without having to present a form on demand. But people will only be able to go 60 miles from their home. There are concerns within the population that the Macron government's lockdown is being lifted too quickly. One bookshop manager from Lyon said he was 'scared to death' about reopening. 'It's a big responsibility to have to protect my staff and my customers', he added. Many parents are also torn over whether or not to send their children back to school, in a sign that - like in Britain - the French government's coronavirus messaging has been too effective. France recorded 70 coronavirus-associated deaths today, the lowest daily death toll since lockdown on March 17, 2020 The number of new cases has been fallen since the late March high, down to 579 confirmed cases of coronavirus on May 9 View of the Trocadero square by the Eiffel Tower in Paris on the last day of France's eight-week lockdown, May 10, 2020 View of deserted Avenue de l'Opera empty to traffic with the Opera de Paris in the background on the last day of confinement A policeman takes a picture of the Arc De Triomphe in the French capital on the last day of confinement, May 10, 2020 'Our efforts during the lockdown worked and saved thousands of lives', French officials claim The eight-week lockdown in France 'worked and saved thousands of lives', officials have claimed. France's health ministry argued one of the most draconian lockdowns in Europe saved many more lives as 70 coronavirus deaths were reported today. Today's toll was the lowest announced since Marcy 17, the day the lockdown in France began. Saturday had also seen a record low toll of 80 deaths. France tomorrow will emerge from lockdown, although many restrictions will remain in place nationwide. 'Our efforts during the lockdown worked and saved thousands of lives,' said the health ministry. 'They need to succeed so that this new phase succeeds,' it said, warning the epidemic is 'active and evolving'. Advertisement Preschools and elementary schools are set to start up at first, and classes will be capped at 10 students at preschools and 15 elsewhere. Administrators were told to prioritise instruction for children ages 5, 6 and 10. Due to the slow startup, as well as ongoing fears about Covid-19, school attendance will not be compulsory right away. Parents and guardians may keep children at home if they prefer. Students with parents who want or need to send them to school are not guaranteed places in the smaller classes and only will be allowed to attend if their school can accommodate them. Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer estimated that 80 per cent to 85 per cent of France's 50,500 preschools and elementary schools will open this week. Junior high schools in regions with fewer virus cases are expected to reopen on May 18. A target date hasn't been scheduled yet for for high schools. Given the ambiguous education guidance and uncertainties over spreading coronavirus, French parents are conflicted as they puzzle over making the most responsible decision. Cecile Bardin, whose two sons are 6 and 2, said she thinks it is 'too soon' to put them back in their nursery and primary schools in Paris. 'I am not reassured at the moment, because it will be very difficult to keep safe distance at school, especially for the little ones, who will want to play together,' she said. Mathilde Manaud and her partner are raising their 3-year-old and 7-year-old in Le Pre Saint-Gervais, in the French capital's eastern suburbs. They agreed to send the children kids back to school if there are spaces. 'Truth is, we don't know whether we are right to do so or no, we don't know if it's a mistake. We ask ourselves this question every day, and we change our mind every day,' Ms Manaud said. 'We are trying to convince ourselves that if they are reopening, they assume they can handle the situation.' View of the Champs Elysees in Paris on the last day of France's draconian eight-week coronavirus lockdown, May 10, 2020 France's President Emmanuel Macron wears a protective face mask with a blue-white-red coloured ribbon as he gestures while speaking with schoolchildren during a class during a visit to the Pierre de Ronsard elementary school in Poissy Returning students will find their classrooms running differently. Teachers will wear masks and remind children to social distance from each other and to wash their hands several times a day. Mr Macron sought to reassure parents and teachers while visiting an elementary school in a town west of Paris last week. Macron said schools would reopen gradually because he wants 'things done well.' School director Mathieu Morel warned the president that 'children remain children. There are spontaneous moves which are hard to prevent.' The school expects about 50 children out of an enrolled 181 to come back this week. Some mayors in France have refused to reopen local schools. Michele Berthy, mayor of the town of Montmorency north of Paris, sent parents a letter saying the government's health guidelines were 'unenforceable.' 'Although I'm for the relaunch of our economy, I am certain that public health must remain our priority,' he wrote. Mayors in other areas set local restrictions on enrolment, such as limiting school access to children of essential workers such as police officers and health care providers, and to families whose living conditions are precarious. That's the situation in Paris, where Ingrid Rousseau hoped to send the youngest of her two children, who is 6, back to school. She doesn't know if her son will be allowed to go, even though both she and partner are working. 'I don't feel quite up to the job of teaching,' she said. 'We are swamped. We don't have enough time.' Paris officials estimate about 15 per cent of the city's students will be able to go back to school. Other towns and cities think they can serve about half of the children normally in preschool and elementary school. Scientists are still split on the role that children play in transmitted the new coronavirus, which has infected over 176,000 people in France, killing at least 26,300 of them, according to government figures. Health officials have repeatedly said that children appear to be the demographic that is among the least-affected by Covid-19. The World Health Organisation has reported that children seem to mostly suffer only mild symptoms, although some severe cases and deaths have been recorded as the virus continues to spread globally. Other infectious disease experts say while children can acquire the virus and may be infectious, it's clear they are not super-spreaders of Covid-19 as they are believed to be with influenza. Lakhs of students of government schools in Jharkhand will re-join their classroom activities on digital platform sitting at home through special educational broadcasts on DD (Doordarshan) Jharkhand from Monday. The daily education bulletin, designed by the Jharkhand Education Project Council (JEPC), will be aired for three hours-from 10am to 12noon and 1pm to 2pm-on weekdays that would help children with limited access to digital resources. The classes would be aired from May 11 to June 10 and it could be extended on basis of the response, education officials said. Education of approximately 42 lakh students from Class-1 to Class-12 in government schools of Jharkhand has been affected since March 16 due to closure of schools in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic. In a bid to continue the education activities of students in lockdown, JEPC firmed up an agreement with the DD Jharkhand for three hours of daily broadcasts on week days. The initiative has excited the students to experience the new form of education. Rupanshu Sawarn, a class-10 student of High School, Bhuli Nagar in Dhanbad, said, This will be a unique experience. I am excited to attend such classes. We have already faced major educational loss due to prolong lockdown. I hope digital classes would help reduce our losses. Director of Doordarshan Kendra, Ranchi, Subodh Kumar said, The live classes will be available at channel 79 of DD Free Dish and 1566 of Dish TV. Besides, we will also provide live streaming on YouTube. Students can attend the classes by logging in DD Jharkhand. The recorded version will also be available on YouTube which students can see anytime. State education department has also asked all deputy commissioners of Jharkhand to ensure broadcast of DD Jharkhand at local cable network so that maximum students of the state could get benefit from the initiative. State Programme Officer (Quality Education) at state education department, Abhinav Kumar, said, The channel is available at networks of some cable operators. But, there are few cable providers who are still not providing it. The DCs have been asked to ensure the broadcast through cable network. Giving details of the classes, Kumar said the digital classes would start with Meena Ki Kahani and Life Skill at 10am, contents of which have been provided by Unicef, which will be applicable for all students. Subject wise routine has been fixed for all classes from Class-1 to Class-12 from Monday to Friday. The slot of 10.30am to 11am has been fixed for class-1 to class-5 students, while the second slot of 11am to 12 noon for class-6 to class-9 and class-11. One hour slot of 1pm to 2pm has been fixed for students of class-10 and class-12 students, he said. Kumar said, We have prepared videos in which teachers will be seen teaching. The video graphics have been prepared for the topics which are complicated in nature so that students can understand it properly. After finishing of daily classes, we will provide a tollfree number and email ID where students could register their doubts. After collecting doubts of one week, we will arrange a panel who will clear all doubts of students, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Seated at your workstation, Pickett says you want to aim for 90-degree angles at your ankles, knees, hips and elbows. It is key to start at the hips and then stack the head on the neck, the neck on the upper back and then the whole spine should be centred over the pelvis, he says. This will make a vertical line from the top of the head through to the centre of the pelvis. Then, Pickett says, you want your knees and torso to form a 90-degree angle, and the same with your ankles and feet, with your feet flat on the ground (you might need a foot rest). Your elbows, too, should form a right angle, with your shoulders in a relaxed position and forearms resting on the desk, he says. And your wrists should also be relaxed, with your hands slightly raised and curved on your mouse and keyboard. Your seat Once youre positioned in your chair, aiming for those right angles weve spoken about, Pickett says its about subtly softening those angles. For example, with an adjustable office chair, offload your hip joints by slightly tilting the base of the chair so the front end moves down by a centimetre or two, putting your knees slightly lower than your thighs. You can also slightly tilt the upper back of the chair backwards so its not quite vertical, roughly 3-5 centimetres back. Were actually getting the true fallout now of poor ergonomic positions. Luke Pickett, physiotherapist, Melbourne Physio Clinic At home, Pickett says its important to use a chair with at least a back rest. The higher the back of the chair goes up, the less likely you are to slump, he says. Loading Deb Sutherland, chair of the occupational health group at the Australian Physiotherapy Association, recommends using a cushion if you need to raise your position at a table, to pad your seat, to raise your thighs or to support your lower back. Use a box or books for a footrest if your seat is too high. For those strong enough, using a fitness ball is great for maintaining core strength. This does take time to build the endurance, Pickett says. He recommends starting with two 30 minute stints in the morning and afternoon, and gradually increasing. And when it comes to working from the couch, Pickett says you should avoid it. But if its really too enticing, keep the session to less than 30 minutes. Your screen A good rule of thumb is to position your screen so that the top is at your eye level. Your eyeline will then fall slightly below this, approximately at nose to chin level on the screen, Pickett says. This is the area on the screen you should be mostly working in. If you prefer to work lower on the screen, then lift the screen higher. The same logic applies with positioning oversized screens (21 inches or larger) your eyes should be level with the top of the space that you primarily work within on the screen. Pickett warns its especially important with larger screens because they compel you to move your head instead of just your eyes. Other factors? The screen should be about 40-60 centimetres from your face, Pickett says, and it should also be slightly tilted so the bottom is coming towards you, only by about 10-20 degrees. If you use two screens, Pickett recommends determining approximately how much time you spend on each. If you work 75 per cent of the time on one screen, then youd centre that one and pop the other to the side. If you more evenly split your time between screens, then youd position them side-by-side with your nose in line with the inner edges of each screen. Loading And try to avoid working predominantly from a laptop. Its impossible to work ergonomically, Pickett says. Your desk Keep in mind that you want your work surface to be at the height of your elbows, or slightly below, says Sutherland. Too high, and it will require you to raise your arms and shoulders, potentially causing discomfort or injury; too low (such as a coffee table) and the sustained forward-bending can harm your neck. You want a desk that is large and deep enough to fit your equipment comfortably, as well as your forearms. Also make sure you are not seated too far from the desk, otherwise youll be carrying the weight of your out-stretched arms. And given being upright is the ergonomic gold standard, Pickett is all for the standing desk, even a DIY one made up with books or an ironing board. Ive seen some great home renditions, Pickett says. The challenge is getting the screen stacked up at the correct eyeline height with the keyboard at the right 90-degree elbow level. Your mouse and keyboard Your keyboards position will be relative to your elbows position. Your elbow is below your shoulder and then your elbow is at 90 degrees and wherever your fingers lay, that should be the centre of the keyboard where youre typing, Pickett says. He adds that your index fingers should be able to comfortably reach the keys G and H. The mouse should be positioned immediately to the side of the keyboard and subtly closer to you, by about two centimetres, to enable you to reach it comfortably. Saifullah Mir aka Ghazi Haider, the 26-year-old who was radicalised to join the Hizbul Mujahideen by Riyaz Naikoo six years ago, will be the Hizbul Mujahideens new face of terror in Jammu and Kashmir, a senior security official said on Sunday evening. The official said Saifullah Mirs appointment to lead the Hizbul in Jammu and Kashmir had been announced by Saleem Hashmi, the spokesperson for the terror group headquartered in Pakistan-occupied Kashmirs Muzaffarabad. Hashmi also named Zafarul Islam as the so-called deputy chief operational commander in jammu and Kashmir and another terrorist, Abu Tariq Bhai, as his chief military adviser. Naikoo along with his associate Adil Ahmed was killed in an operation carried out by Jammu and Kashmir police and troopers from the 21 Rashtriya Rifles. Naikoo was hiding in a secret bunker in his village. Saifullah Mir had gone missing in 2014 (J&K Police) Saifullah Mir, who is also known as Musaib and Doctor Saif because he treated terrorists injured in police encounters, is a class 12 pass out from Malangpora in south Kashmirs Pulwama district unlike his mentor and predecessor Riyaz Naikoo who had completed his graduation. Saifullah Mir opted for vocational training after school. Once he was through with the bio medical course at the government-run ITI in Pulwama, Saifullah got himself a job at Srinagars National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology as a technician, according to security officials. He held onto the job for three years before Riyaz Naikoo finally had his way and motivated him to join terror. Security officials said Saifullah had been classified as an A category terrorist and had mostly been active in south Kashmir districts of Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian. He is also said to be completely familiar with Riyaz Naikoos network and activities to raise funds by looting orchard owners and get cuts from illicit cultivation of opium in south Kashmir. Police officers in Kashmir said apart from terrorism, the Hizbul Mujahideen has also been involved in narco trade. Investigators had recently busted a Hizbul Mujahideen terror funding module with the arrest of Hilal Ahmad Wagay, a resident of Nowgam, Awantipora, Jammu and Kashmir. Wagay was caught with 29 lakh cash in Amritsar, by Punjab Police on April 25. This money was being transported to the Kashmir valley to be handed over to Riyaz Naikoo (now killed), Chief operational commander of Hizbul Mujahideen. This case has been taken over by NIA, the National Investigation Agency had said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Hyderabad, May 10 : The annual event to distribute fish 'prasadam' among asthma patients will not be held this year in view of the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing lockdown. The Bathini Goud family of Hyderabad on Sunday announced that the event, held in the first week of June every year, will not be organised this time. Harinath Goud, the head of the family, said they decided not to distribute fish 'prasadam' this year, keeping in view the public scare due to coronavirus and the lockdown restrictions. This is the first time in many decades that family will not be distributing the fish 'prasadam'. The Telangana government has already extended the lockdown till May 29. "Even if the lockdown is lifted, it will not be possible to follow the physical distancing norm and hence we decided not to organise the event this year," Harinath Goud said. He cautioned people against some fake messages being circulated in the name of Bathini family about fish 'prasadam' distribution. Every year, the family distributes fish 'prasadam' to asthma patients on Mrigasira Karthi, which heralds the onset of monsoon and normally falls on June 7-8. People suffering from asthma and other respiratory problems reach here every year from various states to received fish 'prasadam' from the family which claims to be distributing it free of cost for 175 years. Last week, a NGO working for child rights had urged the Telangana government not to allow the annual event in view of the coronavirus pandemic. Balala Hakkula Sangham had said the state government should not facilitate the event. Reiterating that that the 'fish medicine' is unscientific, its BHS Honorary President Achyuta Rao said the state government should not facilitate the Bathini brothers in administering it. Thousands of asthma patients from various parts of the country gather in Hyderabad to receive fish 'prasadam' (offering), as the medicine began to be called by Bathini Goud family a decade ago after rationalists challenged its efficacy. 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 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. The family had been distributing the fish medicine at their ancestral house in Doodhbowli till 1997 when the communal riots in the old city had forced it to shift the venue to Nizam College grounds. Subsequently, the government persuaded them to permanently shift the venue to Exhibition Grounds. New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday (May 10) urged the migrant workers in the national capital to stay and not travel back to their homes on foot, saying 'it's unsafe'. He said the government is arranging more trains for them. "We are arranging more trains for migrants. I appeal to them to not travel on foot. It is not safe. We take your responsibility. We are here to take care of you," he said in a video message. Speaking of the coronavirus cases in the city, Kejriwal said with 381 new cases, the tally in the national capital stands at 6,923. "In Delhi, 75 per cent of COVID-19 cases are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms. We have made arrangements for treatment of those at their homes with mild symptoms. Among the total 6,923 cases, only 1,476 are admitted at hospitals whereas rest are getting treatment at their homes or quarantine centres," the Chief Minister said. He added that at least 82 per cent of 73 coronavirus deaths in the national capital were of those who were above the age of 50. "We are seeing that there are more deaths among elderly people," Kejriwal said. The Chief Minister said the government has also issued an order for requisition of ambulances of private hospitals, adding that the decision has been taken in the wake of shortage of state-run ambulances. "They (private ambulances) will have to be pressed into service when the government requires their service," Kejriwal said while addressing an online media briefing. My partner Jamie and I have visited Bordeaux every summer since we met. The understated grand architecture gives it the feel of a mini-Paris, but with friendlier inhabitants. We stay at l'Hotel Particulier, a charismatic boutique hotel located just 100m from Saint Andre Cathedral, and within walking distance of the main attractions. On Friday night, we'd dress up for La Tupina, a 50-year-old Michelin Star restaurant in the historic district. Fusing Sud-Ouest traditions with fine-dining, it's a real treat. On Saturday morning, Cafe Piha is perfect for strong coffee and a filling breakfast. From here, we'd hire a car and head for the countryside of endless grapevines and sunflower fields. My favourite thing is to drive north for an hour and visit the world's best wineries. After a day of arguing about Google Maps and Spotify playlists, we'd head to Mama Shelter's rooftop bar for the best views of Bordeaux, casual dining and tasty cocktails. On Sunday morning, I'd fill Jamie with freshly baked croissants and sneak off solo to Rue Voltaire, for a peek around the shops without him. I might then chance my arm to look around high-street Promenade Sainte-Catherine, or high-end Cours de l'Intendance, but Jamie tends to quickly cop to my plans, so he'd likely call a halt. Cue coffee and refuelling before making our way home. Aisling Quinn's interactive online fitness platform, Sweat25, delivers live Pilates, boxercise, yoga, high-intensity-low-impact classes and more. See sweat25.com This will allow donors to make charitable gifts to Alive and take advantage of tax incentives, such as bequests, appreciated stocks and securities, and IRA qualified charitable distributions. The senior citizen might have been suffering from anxiety or depression after being diagnosed with coronavirus, leading to the suicide Mumbai: A 60-year-old Covid-19 patient committed suicide on Saturday at Seven Hills hospital in Mumbai. The patient was found to have hanged himself with his pajamas from a steel rod on the ninth-floor terrace of the hospital on Saturday afternoon. An official said that the senior citizen might have been suffering from anxiety or depression after being diagnosed with coronavirus, leading to the suicide. The deceased, a resident of Vikhroli was tested positive a week ago. A case of accidental death was registered at MIDC police station and further probe was on. Talking to this newspaper, Mumbai police spokesperson Pranay Ashok, said The incident took place in the afternoon at around 12.45 pm. The patient committed suicide by hanging himself with the help of pyjamas to an iron rod on the ninth floor of the hospital. He was declared dead after a medical analysis. As per forensic experts, an autopsy cannot be carried out on a Covid-19 patient's body as there are high chances of the disease getting transmitted. Dr Shailesh Mohite, head of the forensic science department at civic-run Nair hospital, said, After a detailed investigation, the police and the forensic team have certified that there is no foul play involved. Postmortem cannot be conducted in this case as there are 100 per cent chances of contracting Covid-19 infection to the doctors and the team performing autopsy. However, former dean of civic-run Sion hospital Dr Suleman merchant said, Along with the treatment, these patients also need proper counselling. The fear of Covid-19 itself sounds very negative, the medicos, para medicos and other staff also need some good mind boosters to keep their spirit in active mode and happy. So that the patients feel cheerful and have the confidence of walking free from Covid-19. Indias Covid-19 cases crossed 60,000 and fatalities rose above 2,000 with 3,172 new infections and 117 deaths on Saturday. According to officials, Prime Minister Narendra Modi may meet chief ministers as early as Tuesday to discuss the next stage in the exit from the nationwide lockdown. The focus of the meeting will be on further resuming economic activities. Indias coronavirus cases hit 60,000, fatalities exceed 2,000 The number of fatalities due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) crossed 2,000 and total infections rose above 60,000 on Saturday, doubling in roughly 11 days, as the country prepares to resume more economic activity while bracing for a spike in infections because of increased movement. Read more Injustice with migrants in West Bengal, says Amit Shah Union home minister Amit Shah has written to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee that the Centre was not receiving the expected support from her government in helping migrant workers reach home, an allegation the Trinamool Congress (TMC) rubbished as outright lies. Read more Covid-19: What you need to know today How do you coexist with a virus? How do life, work, and play go on when a highly infective and potentially fatal disease is still extant. It is unlikely the Covid-19 disease will be wiped off the face of the Earth, like small pox was. It is unlikely that there will be a tipping point, a safe-after date, beyond which the virus will not pose a threat to humanity. Read more Covid-19 cases surge in 4 states after returning migrants test positive A spurt in Covid-19 cases in Bihar, Odisha, Rajasthan and Jharkhand since May 1,has been linked to migrant workers who have returned from various cities across the country, state officials said, confirming the fear that rural India is no longer safe from the coronavirus pandemic that has affected 62750 people nationally so far. Read more 55 arrested after police, migrants clash in Gujarats Surat Police in Gujarats Surat fired tear gas shells on Saturday to disperse angry migrant workers, who had taken to the streets at Mora demanding that trains be arranged for their return to their homes in Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and Bihar. Read more Indian Covid-19 test kit production scaled up to lower imports Pune-based MylabDiscovery Solutions has increased its manufacturing capacity from 20,000 coronavirus disease (Covid-19) tests a day in early April to 200,000 tests now, after tying up with Serum Institute of India (SII) Ltd, ensuring that just one domestic manufacturer can meet Indias current testing needs, which are projected to cross 100,000 by the end of the month. Read more ICMR will develop indigenous vaccine to treat Covid-19 India has taken the first step in developing the first make-in-India vaccine against coronavirus disease (Covid-19), with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Bharat Biotech partnering to develop a vaccine candidate, the research body announced on Saturday. Read more Graphic: Mukesh Sharma; Source: Daily Covid-19 bulletins by state govt; all data as of May 8 Privatise MGNREGS to revive aggregate demand The impact of the ongoing lockdown is evident in the manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index number for April that came out on Monday (a contraction after 32 months of expansion; and the lowest since the index began, 27.4). Read more Second White House Covid-19 infection raises questions about workplace safety US vice-presidents press secretary became Friday the second White House official to test positive for Covid-19 in recent days raising questions about protection from the virus at the countrys safest workplace as American businesses seek to reopen and pick up from where they left off before the lockdown. Read more US FDA gives emergency use approval to Covid-19 antigen tests The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday issued an emergency use authorisation (EUA) for Covid-19 antigen tests. It is a new type of test that is easy to carry out and can help with early detection of the virus, right at the doctors clinic itself. Read more Violence escalated at the Kastanies-Pazarkule crossing, on the Greek-Turkish border, at the beginning of March - ALexandros Avramidis/Reuters Greek border forces were probably responsible for shooting and killing a migrant trying to break through the Turkish-Greek border fence at the beginning of March, an investigation has suggested. More than ten thousand migrants and refugees were stuck in no-man's land between the two countries for weeks after the Turkish government announced it was opening its side of the border with Europe - using them as pawns in a political stunt designed to pressure the EU into helping further in tackling Syrias refugee crisis, at the end of February. Thousands remained trapped as the Greeks refused to accept them. It took until mid-March, when the full force of coronavirus hit, for Turkey to transport the migrants back from the Greek border. After a week of tension at the border, violence escalated at the Kastanies-Pazarkule crossing on March 4. This was the day that Muhammad Gulzar was shot with live ammunition. Greece and Turkey clashed over who was responsible. At the time a spokesman for the Greek government vehemently denied they were responsible or had used live bullets. An open-source investigation released on Friday by Bellingcat found that evidence pointed towards Greek forces being responsible for killing Mr Gulzar and wounding at least six other people that morning. Mr Gulzar had previously lived in Greece, they said, but had temporarily returned to Pakistan to get married. Bellingcat got hold of Mr Gulzars death certificate which showed he was killed with a 5.56mm bullet. Using open-source videos from that morning, investigators put together a timeline that tracked and geolocated the people wounded. Audio forensics showed in at least one video live ammunition was present. The time gap between the crack of the bullet and the bang of the muzzle blast indicated that whoever fired these shots was within 40-60 meters, they said. Greek soldiers can be seen within that distance in videos, just over the border fence while despite scores of videos Turkish soldiers cannot. Greek forces, who are known to have been armed with M4 & M16 rifles and Minimi LMGs, all of which are weapons that fire 5.56mm rounds, were seen all across the border fence that day. Lawyers representing Mr Gulzars family are requesting Greece launch an investigation into who is responsible. The Greek government was not immediately available for comment. Weather Alert .An arctic cold front will move across the region on Wednesday, causing rain to change to snow Wednesday afternoon and evening. ...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 4 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 6 AM CST THURSDAY... * WHAT...Mixed precipitation expected. Total snow accumulations of one to two inches and ice accumulations of a light glaze. * WHERE...Portions of southwest Indiana, western Kentucky and southern Illinois. * WHEN...From 4 PM Wednesday to 6 AM CST Thursday. * IMPACTS...Plan on slippery road conditions. The hazardous conditions could impact the evening commute, especially along the Ohio River. The transition from rain to a wintry mix and snow may not occur closer to the Tennessee border areas until after 7 PM CST. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS...The combination of gusty winds, falling temperatures and wind chills, and falling snow will cause hazardous travel. Freezing of residual moisture on roads from rain earlier Wednesday could also cause some icing of roadways. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Slow down and use caution while traveling. && Indonesia's government on Sunday condemned what it called the inhuman treatment of its nationals by a Chinese fishing company that allegedly kept Indonesian fishermen as virtual slaves, leading to the deaths of at least three of them. Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told a video conference from the capital, Jakarta, that 49 Indonesian fishermen, ranging from 19 to 24 years old, were forced to work an average of over 18 hours a day on at least four Chinese fishing boats. Marsudi said some of the fishermen were either not paid at all or did not receive the amount they had agreed to. The tireless work and poor conditions on the ship caused illnesses among the crew members, killing at least three Indonesians, whose bodies were cast overboard into the Pacific Ocean, she said. We condemn the inhuman treatment against our crew members working at the Chinese fishing company, Marsudi said. Based on the information from the crews, the company has violated human rights. Marsudi said almost all of the fishermen were repatriated to Indonesia from four Chinese fishing vessels after undergoing a mandatory coronavirus quarantine at a hotel in the South Korean city of Busan, where their boats were docked after 13 months at sea. The move came after videos released by local media in South Korea drew a public outcry. On May 5, an unidentified Indonesian fisherman told the South Korean television station MBC about the unfair treatment the crew members received while working on the Chinese boats. The station also aired a video that showed the dead body of another Indonesian fisherman being thrown overboard one of the vessels. Two other Indonesian fishermen who had previously died were also cast overboard, the fisherman said, adding that some crew members were sick for over a month but received no medical care. The crew members received less than $300 for a full year's work as opposed to the $300 per month that their contract had called for, according to a group of Indonesian lawyers who represented 14 of the 49 fishermen. Marsudi said the Chinese government has paid special attention to the case and authorities from the two countries will set up a joint investigation into the allegations against the Chinese fishing company. We will ensure that the company has to fulfill our crews' rights, she said. As the result of an Associated Press investigation in 2015, about 4,000 foreign fishermen, mostly from Myanmar, were rescued and freed after being stranded on several remote eastern Indonesian islands, including some found to have been enslaved for years. The treatment of both the Myanmar and Indonesian fishermen falls under the US government's definition of slavery, which includes forcing people to keep working even if they had signed up for the jobs, or trafficking them into situations where they are exploited. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India has reported 62,939 coronavirus cases as of Sunday, with Maharashtra alone reporting 20,228 of these infections. For the third consecutive day, India reported an increase in number of cases by more than 3,000 and the toll reached 2,109 According to the report submitted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on 10 May (Sunday), India has reported 62,939 COVID-19 cases as of Sunday, with Maharashtra alone reporting 20,228 of these infections. For the third consecutive day, India reported an increase in number of cases by more than 3,000 as the toll has reached 2,109, a report by Maharashtra's Public Health Department stated. The number of cases in India started rising in the week between 21 and 28 March. A week later, a rise in cases was witnessed in Maharashtra. The highest daily rise in the number of cases all over India, however, was reported on 6 May, with 3,900 new infections. As compared to global mortality rate, which is 6.9 percent, India's toll to confirmed cases percentage currently stands at 3.35 percent. The highest mortality rate was recorded in West Bengal at 9.57 percent, where 1,786 cases and 171 deaths have been reported. On 5 May, the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) sent to the state had said that the mortality rate in West Bengal was 12.8 percent. This figure stood lower in Maharashtra, where the mortality rate was 3.85 percent, higher than the national average. Of the 128 new COVID-19 deaths in India, 48 were recorded in India's financial capital. With 7,796 infections, Gujarat reported a mortality rate of 6.05 percent. The figure in Delhi, which has the third highest number of cases in the country, stood at 1.12 percent. Tamil Nadu, however, reported a 0.67 mortality rate, despite having the fourth highest number of cases at 6,535. Kerala, which has received praise for flattening the curve has witnessed four deaths among the 505 confirmed cases so far, bringing the mortality rate to 0.79 percent. Bihar and Odisha, with 591 and 294 confirmed cases respectively, too have reported figures under 1 percent. Report of coronavirus cases... by Srishti Kapoor on Scribd In Maharashtra, Mumbai is the worst-affected city, with 12,864 cases and 489 deaths. Pune, Thane and Navi Mumbai have, so far, registered 1,975, 800 and 780 cases, respectively. While COVID-19 has been observed to have a higher impact on the elderly and those with co-morbidities, the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra has been reported in the age group of 21-30 years. According to the report, at least 4,197 in the age group have contracted the virus. Of the total infections in Maharashtra, 62 percent of males contracted it while 38 percent among them were females. Additionally, co-morbidities were present in 72 percent of the cases. Of the 2,25,524 samples tested, 92 percent gave a positive result. Of the 12,823 patients undergoing treatment, 2 percent are critical and 79 percent are asymptomatic. India, however, continues to handle the outbreak better than some countries, reporting 56,342 cases in the outbreaks 15th week. At that time, USA reported 9,83,457, cases, France 1,28,121 cases and China 84,341 cases. India trails behind South Korea, credited for battling the coronavirus pandemic effectively, have reported 13,385 cases in the 15th week. Deputy Minister of Information, Pius Enam Hadzide hit back at the largest opposition party, National Democratic Congress (NDC), saying the misinformation, deliberate distortions, and warped analysis put out by its flagbearer, John Mahama has been bemoaned and roundly condemned by many well-meaning Ghanaians. According to him, since the NDC has no vital information on the Covid-19 cases, g it was invited to offer cover to their Flagbearer who has been badly bruised by the politicization of the COVID-19 Pandemic started by him. Addressing Journalists in Accra, the Deputy Minister said Just days ago, the Presidential Candidate of the NDC, Mr. John Mahama in one of his COVID-19 political broadcasts on Facebook, embarrassed himself by ignorantly questioning why the government had accessed an IMF facility, claiming that no other African country had done so an outright fabrication from a man who occupied the high office of President a few years ago He added that twenty (20) other African countries, including all the ones Mahama specifically listed, have accessed the IMF facility of $18 billion for African countries to help cushion them through the crisis. He, however, noted although the facility is interest-free and without the suffocating conditionalities the IMF imposed on Ghana when forced by a toxic mixture of incompetence and insensitivity, Mr. Mahama and the NDC went for a bailout and policy credibility. Whiles it may ordinarily be a good thing for the NDC minority to have found their bearing and a voice several weeks after Ghana started confronting and containing the COVID-19 pandemic, it is pathetic that even upon hindsight the minority is still unable to offer any pragmatic alternatives but merely rehash those same lame queries that Mr. Mahama has asked during his political broadcasts on Facebook, he said. Mr. Hadzide hinted that several weeks into COVID-19 and after several media engagements; both at the Presidential and other levels, it is disappointing that such deep levels of unawareness is being exhibited by the minority. He explained that it is disappointing for the minority to say it is unaware of the public education is ongoing across the various Metropolitan, Municipal, and Districts Assemblies (MMDAs). GHANAIANS STRANDED ABROAD Touching on Ghanaians in Abroad, the Deputy Minister of Information said It is shocking, even embarrassing, that the NDC is still latching onto their very bogus proposal that the government should have repatriated Ghanaian students from Wuhan! The students themselves have spoken to several media outlets and shown gratitude for the much wiser decision of the Akufo-Addo government He noted that schools have in fact reopened in Wuhan and not a single Ghanaian student in China was infected by Covid19. He stressed instead of conceding that the government exercised far superior judgment - as we always have the NDC keeps repeating the bankrupt and expired proposal. He said Under the able leadership of President Akufo-Addo, monthly stipends for Ghanaian students studying abroad on Government Scholarship have been paid upfront and in advance. Yes, the second quarter i.e. April, May, and June have already been paid. This administration inherited an accumulated arrears of one year from the NDC and Mr. Mahama Hon. Hadzide also stated that while Governments have declined the invitation of the NDC to engage in a blind and partisan banter on COVID-19, it is also imperative that for their education, it restates some of the facts around Ghanas very effective and successful COVID-19 Response Plan. The Deputy Minister of Information also emphasized that very early into the global outbreak, President Akufo-Addo constituted a COVID-19 Task Force made up of technical persons, including Epidemiologists, Virologists, Medical Doctors, Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service Officials, and Security Heads among others. The COVID-19 task force is coordinated by a former Deputy Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Dr. Asamoah Baah. It is this task force of persons of reputable background knowledge, and expertise that advice H. E. the President on the policy options in fighting COVID-19 and not politicians masquerading as medical doctors in partisan COVID-19 teams he noted. He justified that claims from the NDC saying Science has been relegated to the background and that the President seems more interested in his re-election than in the safety and life of Ghanaians is false and without basis. He said The NDC cannot be allowed to approbate and reprobate on this matter. In one breath they claim, the scientist at Noguchi and all other testing facilities deserve this nations thanks for the commitment they have shown in this national effort so far and in another breath indict them by claiming that they misuse scientific terminologies without empirical basis He stressed that President Akufo-Addo has led from the front and continues to address the nation honestly and regularly. President Akufo-Addo addressed the Nation and announced Ghanas preparedness way before Ghana recorded its initial cases. The President announced an initial investment of GH35 million into our preparedness. This has now being ramped up to some $100 million for Ghanas response he explained Hon. Hadzidze debunked claims by the NDC that the Government made no provisions for the eventuality of an outbreak in Ghana is not just unfortunate but also unfounded. He said It is regrettable the minority in Ghanas Parliament has lowered the bar on public discourse by making serious and yet unsubstantiated allegations. They claim that blatant falsehoods have been told to garnish the administrations image without providing an iota of evidence. In asking the question couldnt Ghana have close its borders earlier, the NDC Minority suggest that by January 20, 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 a global health emergency What they deliberately did not add was that the WHO recommended that there was no reason for a measure that unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade at the time. For the records, the WHO declared COVID-19 global pandemic on 11th March 2020. Subsequently and when there was reasonably sufficient basis, Ghanas borders were close on March 22, 2020 he added. Hon. Hadzide outlined that to limit and stop the importation of cases, a number of steps were introduced including, enhanced screening and surveillance at our points of entry to ensure that persons with manifested symptoms were identified and isolated. He added that this was escalated to the issuance of a travel advisory to ban non-Ghanaians and persons without Ghanaian residence permit from coming into Ghana from countries with significant recorded cases. Data from port authorities indicated that there was a drastic decline in arrival numbers. This was followed by mandatory quarantine of persons who were not affected by the ban. Ghana also closed its air, land, and sea borders subsequently, he hinted. Three months after the first round of national elections in Iran, a behind-the-scenes battle over the parliament speaker's post is pitting several conservatives against an ambitious former mayor of Tehran. The new 290-seat parliament, or Majlis, is dominated by hard-liners whose victories in February were all but assured through the disqualification of 9,000 candidates -- including scores of reformists and moderates -- by a watchdog loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Most of the deputies will be inaugurated on May 28, before the next speaker is chosen through a direct vote in parliament. Yet with weeks to go, media report that a growing number of conservatives are already fighting for the leadership post that has been held for the past 12 years by the relatively pragmatic Ali Larijani, who recently recovered from COVID-19. An ally of President Hassan Rohani, Larijani is in his second and final term and did not run in the February 21 parliamentary elections amid speculation that he has presidential ambitions. Former Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, a onetime commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)'s Aerospace Force and national police chief who's lost three bids for the presidency, is seen as a top contender to succeed Larijani. The canny Qalibaf, 59, who has in the past positioned himself as a moderate, has faced accusations of corruption during his mayoral tenure. Some hard-liners have cited such allegations while vowing to prevent him from grabbing parliament's most important seat. Qalibaf has reportedly traveled to Khuzestan in the southwest and other provinces to lobby for support while facing an increasing number of hard-line rivals, including several who served under former President Mahmud Ahmadinejad (2005-13). Rivals On All Sides Media speculation has mounted this week about Qalibaf's chances of success. The semiofficial ILNA news agency reported on May 4 that the tide could be turning against the ex-mayor due to support for lawmaker and former Education Minister Hamidreza Hajibabaei. But the Fararu news site suggested on May 5 that Qalibaf could be inching closer to his goal, following the apparent decision by Alireza Zakani to sit out the race. Zakani is seen as an influential potential rival who, unlike Qalibaf, faces no opposition from his fellow hard-liners. Qalibaf on May 4 retweeted Zakani's announcement on Twitter while saying that the next parliament will be "a Majlis of work and brothership in resolving people's problems." Iranian political analyst Ali Afshari says he thinks Qalibaf still has the best chance of winning, due to what he described as support from the office of Ayatollah Khamenei, who is said to have been pushing for a compliant parliament. "It is likely that the same intervention that put Qalibaf on the top of the list in Tehran, creating an imposed unity [among conservatives], makes him the speaker," Afshari, a former student leader based in Washington, tells RFE/RL. Apart from Hajibabaei, who is seen by some as Qalibaf's most significant rival, other reported contenders include Mostafa Mirsalim, a hard-line former culture minister who ran in the 2016 vote won by Larijani, who faces a hostile parliament through the conclusion of his term in 2021. Cleric Morteza Aghatehrani, the secretary-general of the ultraconservative Endurance Front and a former imam of an Islamic institute in New York, has also been cited as a likely challenger to Qalibaf. But analysts including Afshari have argued that Aghatehrani, who served as a spiritual adviser to Ahmadinejad, has little chance of success if he vies for the post. Others, including Fereydun Abbasi Davani, a former head of Irans Atomic Energy Agency who survived a 2010 assassination attempt on the streets of Tehran, and Seyed Shamsedin Hosseini, who served as economy minister under Ahmadinejad, have publicly expressed their intention to compete for the post of Majlis leader. Ali Nikzad, a former Ahmadinejad cabinet member who campaigned for Rohani rival, hard-line cleric, and current judiciary head Ebrahim Raisi in the 2017 presidential election, has also been named as a possible Qalibaf rival. Rare Competition The reformist Sharq daily suggested recently that such competition for the speaker's post within the establishment faction is virtually unprecedented, as the race for parliament speaker has usually played out among two or three contenders. "The fight for the post among hard-liners is so competitive that everyone sees themselves more qualified to sit in [the speaker's] seat," Sharq said in report published last month. For his part, the editor in chief of the conservative Jomhuri Eslami daily, Hojatoleslam Masih Mohajeri, complained last week about "worrying reports" on the Majlis battle. "About 10 individuals long for the parliaments speakership. Instead of praying in the nights of [the holy Muslim month of] Ramadan, some of them hold post-sharing meetings," Mohajeri wrote before warning that "the plague of political infighting," "division," "corruption," and a "disregard for peoples suffering" threaten the country's officials. Saeid Golkar, assistant political science professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and senior fellow on Iran policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, argues that the battle signaling rifts among establishment conservatives means little to Iranians who have grown increasingly disenchanted at the worsening economy under intense pressure from crippling U.S. sanctions, mismanagement and corruption, and state repression. There has also been sharp criticism of the Iranian leadership's initially slow response to the coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly 6,500 and infected over 100,000 Iranians, according to official figures. The actual COVID-19 infection figures are believed to be significantly higher. The historically low turnout for the February vote -- the worst since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and following a brutal November crackdown on anti-establishment protests and outrage over the clumsy handling of the IRGC's downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet -- appeared to highlight the popular frustration and discontent. "While the competition is essential for hard-liners -- especially since the presidential election is just a few months away and the succession of the supreme leader [might loom] -- it is not important for ordinary Iranians," Golkar says. At least two people were killed and more were injured in western Afghanistan on May 9 when police clashed with hundreds of protesters angry over what they insisted was unfair distribution of food aid during the COVID-19 pandemic, a local lawmaker said. Protesters in the western Ghor Province were claiming the humanitarian assistance was being given mainly to people with political connections. Gulzaman Nayeb, a lawmaker from Ghor Province, said seven people had been killed and 14 injured. Mohammad Arif Aber, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said two people had been killed and five injured after police opened fire in response to some of the 300 or so protesters throwing stones and firing weapons and trying to storm the governor's residence. Aber denied that aid was being handed out unfairly. Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) Chairwoman Shaharzad Akbar said that group is probing "worrying reports of police firing on protesters." Reuters said Akbar told it earlier this week that his commission had received numerous complaints from Afghans about the unfair distribution of supplies and other aid meant to help some of the country's 37 million or so people cope with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. "We hear repeated complaints from people that the ones who are receiving the limited aid that is there are not the ones that are most deserving, they are the ones who have connections to local authorities or local officials," it quoted her as saying. Afghanistan has 3,778 confirmed cases of coronavirus infections and 109 deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally, although testing is sparse and those figures are thought to be unreliable. The executive director of the Afghanistan Journalists Center said the dead on May 9 included a local volunteer radio presenter who was sitting in his nearby shop when a stray bullet struck him in the head. Based on reporting by Reuters Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 20:55:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Sunday urged that more famous brands be created to better meet the demands of China's consumption upgrade and national development. Boosting the growth of brands and constantly raising the quality and influence of Chinese products and services is an important aspect of implementing the strategy of expanding domestic demand and promoting high-quality development, Li said in a message to the online event 2020 China Brand Day. He called for the implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy, continually promoting mass entrepreneurship and innovation, adhering to putting quality first, deepening brand awareness among the whole society, and guiding companies to uphold the spirit of professionalism and craftsmanship, so that more brands that are famous and of high quality will be created. Organized by the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, and ministries including commerce, agriculture and rural affairs, as well as the Shanghai municipal government, the event featured an online Chinese brands expo and an online international forum with more than 1,300 companies taking part. Enditem External Article 10 May 2020 Across the country, hotels that were shuttered at the start of the coronavirus pandemic have become eerie, empty shells. Front desks are devoid of receptionists ready to check-in guests, rooms are collecting dust. And with the summer season on the horizon, life for UK hoteliers is about to get much harder. "It couldn't have come at a worse time," says Sheena Kennedy, owner and manager of the Lindeth Fell Country House, a 14-room bed and breakfast in the Lake District owned by her family for 35 years. "We usually hope for a very good Easter, May, and the summer, of course, to keep us going over the quieter winters." As soon as lockdown started, Kennedy cancelled all of her bookings and returned all customer deposits up to June. "I'm now very worried about the bookings that I have in place for July, August and September," she says. "We're waiting to hear on Sunday if there's any news on that, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if I'm doing the exact same and refunding those remaining deposits." The majority of Britons who had planned a domestic holiday in the UK this year believe that it is unlikely to go ahead, according to domestic tourism research from VisitBritain. "Those domestic summer holidays lost are not likely to be replaced with only a minority who have cancelled holidays looking to replace them," says Patricia Yates, chief executive of VisitBritain. If lockdown doesn't lift by this summer, it would be a huge financial blow to many of the 13,000 hotels and over 35,000 B&Bs and guest houses in the UK, which make around 30 per cent of their annual revenue during the summer months. Chris Tate, partner at audit, tax and consulting firm RSM, says hotels that host corporate events skew the market's revenue figures because they are busiest from October through November hiding just how dire the summer drop-off can be for the rest of the market. Thousands of Russian military officers were awarded diplomas in graduation ceremonies across the country on Saturday, when Russia celebrated the 75th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Graduation ceremonies took place in 36 military educational institutions, with 12,500 new officers expected to join Russia's Armed Forces this year. President Vladimir Putin congratulated the graduates in a video message. "The lessons of the Great Patriotic War (WWII) and our country's entire history teach us that our army must always be strong, capable of meeting any challenges and threats," he said. Putin's message was echoed by Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu in an address to graduates at Moscow's Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. A ceremony for naval graduates also took place at the Naval-Military Academy in Crimea's Sevastopol. The Soviet Union lost an estimated 26 million people during WWII, including 8.5 million soldiers. Press Release May 10, 2020 Bong Go urges concerned government agencies to align efforts to ensure safe return of stranded workers in Metro Manila to their home provinces Senator Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go reminded concerned government agencies to assist stranded workers in Metro Manila so they could return to their home provinces safely once travel restrictions are lifted and proper protocols are in place to avoid the further spread of the COVID-19 disease. "Habang inihahanda natin ang pag-implementa ng Balik Probinsya Program, unahin na po natin yung mga stranded na probinsyano dito sa Maynila na nahiwalay sa kanilang mga pamilya dahil sa quarantine at travel restrictions na ipinapatupad," Go said. The Senator said that various forms of assistance, such as food and transportation, should be provided, especially for those who are stranded in Metro Manila due to the travel restrictions. "Tulungan natin silang makauwi, bigyan natin sila ng transportation, food at livelihood assistance, at siguraduhin natin na ang kanilang pag-uwi ay hindi magiging sanhi ng lalong pagkalat ng sakit," he said. Go has coordinated with the Department of Social Welfare and Development for the provision of transportation assistance and transitory packages for stranded workers. The Department of Transportation has also committed to ensure their safe travel back to their home provinces. "Importante na mabigyan sila ng tulong para sa pagkain, transportasyon at pati kabuhayan," he said. For those who have lost their jobs, Go urged the Department of Labor and Employment and LGUs to assist affected workers by providing cash for work programs and other livelihood assistance necessary once they return home. Go also said that proper health protocols should be in place so that people who will return to their provinces will be ensured that they will not bring the virus to their hometowns. "Sundin dapat ang quarantine measures, magkaroon ng COVID-19 testing, at kailangan may certification from health officials bago bumiyahe para masigurong hindi kakalat ang sakit pag-uwi nila," he said. Meanwhile, the inter-agency council tasked to implement the "Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa Program" based on Executive Order No. 114 is also aligning efforts of various national agencies and local government units in preparation for the expected movement of Filipino families who have expressed willingness to relocate to their home provinces after the COVID-19 crisis. Go said that, as the proponent of the Balik Probinsya program, he will continue to help national agencies in implementing the program immediately to benefit all affected Filipinos who wish to relocate to their home provinces. "Bilang proponent ng programang ito, patuloy akong makikipagtulungan sa Executive branch. Sila naman ang may mandatong mag-execute at mag-implementa nito," Go said, stressing further that the Executive branch must implement necessary measures that will support the objectives of giving Filipinos a better future after the COVID-19 crisis. "Layunin po ng programang ito na mabigyan ng bagong pag-asa ang mga Pilipino para may hinaharap silang maayos na kinabukasan at tutulungan sila ng gobyerno kung magpasya silang bumalik sa kanilang mga probinsya," he said. Go also emphasized that the BPP is an initiative for those who have voluntarily committed to return to their provinces and start life anew. "Marami nang gustong umuwi. Pero walang pilitan po ito. Unahin natin ang mga gusto nang mag-balik probinsya habang hinahanda natin ang iba pang mga programa para ma-enganyo ang iba pang taga-Maynila at ang mga negosyante na mag-relocate na rin sa iba't ibang parte ng bansa," he explained. Senator Go emphasized that the whole government should learn from the experiences encountered during the COVID-19 crisis, particularly the difficulties in controlling the spread of a disease and the challenges of delivering government services in overpopulated urban centers. "Sa Bisaya pa, 'natagam' tayo sa sobrang centralized ng populasyon at resources natin sa urban centers. Let this be a learning experience for us all," Go said, emphasizing the need to provide long-term solutions to better address various social, economic, and health issues in the future. As a legislator, Go said that he will help formulate long-term plans and push for key legislative measures necessary to encourage more Filipinos to go home to the provinces to have a fresh start. He mentioned earlier that he will support proposed measures that will encourage investors and businesses to expand their operations in the provinces and grant them incentives to boost development and availability of economic opportunities in the countryside. "Bilang isang mambabatas at bilang isang probinsyano rin, gusto kong tiyakin na may magandang kinabukasan ang ating mga kapwa Pilipino pagbalik nila sa kanilang mga probinsya. In line po ito sa vision ni Pangulong Duterte na magkaroon ng better opportunities ang ating mga kababayan kahit saan man sila sa bansa," Go said. "Tulad nga ng sinabi ni Pangulong Duterte, starting fresh in the provinces will give Filipinos HOPE for a better future after this COVID-19 crisis," he added. This is the Masonic masterchef who has helped keep 100 hungry mouths fed during lockdown. Marty McToal's meals-on-wheels service has been bringing hot meals daily to the elderly and vulnerable in his home town of Larne since the end of March. Together with his wife Fiona and three staff, they have delivered over 4,200 individual meals to those unable to leave their homes. He has been a member of the Masonic order since 1999 after being recommended by boxer Dave Boy McAuley. "We believe in playing a key role in our communities and our meals-on-wheels business is central to that," he explained. "Our community is like family and we do what we can within our power to help." Marty's Catering Services, which does weddings and outside catering alongside its meals-on-wheel service, operates from St John's Masonic Hall in the port town. "In the past eight weeks our meals service demand has doubled and my wife, Fiona, and three staff have been such a fantastic help; the other staff have had to be furloughed," he said. "In an average day we are up at the crack of dawn preparing home-made meals such as roast beef, gammon, stew, mince casserole, all the Northern Ireland favourites, and a dessert - anything from apple pie to rhubarb crumble - for 100 people in all sectors of the community, and this number is growing daily. "We do this from our catering facility in St John's Masonic Hall. We then hit the road in our four vans to deliver the food. "We are able to supply the meals at just 4.50 per two-course meal and the response has been absolutely fantastic. "These people, many of which are elderly and vulnerable, enjoy the daily delivery, a chat to the driver and the nourishment of a home-cooked meal." Marty and his team also deliver to nurses at the local hospital when the canteen facilities close in the evening. "Our business is ready to help to deliver food to anyone who needs it, all they have to do is get in touch," he said. "This pandemic is bringing out the best in many people and uniting the community, and it is fantastic to see." NORWALK Its the kind of spring day to give you hope that the mounting COVID-19 death toll, so conveniently out of sight, has reached some sort of crescendo and is subsiding. The sun is shining on the people, two, three, four, swanning across the little one-lane span over the Silvermine River on their therapeutic cabin-fever walks. The dogwood flowers are just opening, while the last vestiges of the bright pink magnolia petals are rusty, shriveled wrecks on lawns and curbs. Some people are wearing masks and those who arent maintain a respectful social distance as they saunter across the Perry Avenue bridge. To me, this has always been an upscale netherworld, where you cant be sure if youre in New Canaan, Wilton or Norwalk. All you know is the houses are big and nice, if you like the $700,000-plus price tags. Theres also a lot of history here. Thats what got Andrew Glazer, a builder, interested in tackling the restoration of the old textile factory that for a long time was the Silvermine Tavern, which he bought back in 2015. On the adjacent two-acre parcel he built four houses to subsidize his interest in keeping alive the inn where celebrity guests included the actors Spencer Tracy, Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, Liz Taylor and Katharine Hepburn. The landmark Silvermine Guild Arts Center, a short walk away, was founded by Solon Borglum, a sculptor whose better-known, racist brother Gutzon created the Mount Rushmore National Monument. Glazer, and his Tavern at Graybarns, an Americana restaurant, should be in the vanguard of the effort to reopen and bring back to work the 160,000 people in the Connecticut restaurant business who lost their jobs in the coronavirus pandemic and might be the last to come back to an industry thats on the verge of devastation. But the first round of openings that Gov. Lamont would announce Friday, focused only on outdoor dining. That isnt going to save anything, Glazer and others, such as Scott Dolch, executive director of the Connecticut Restaurant Association, warn. April was cold and had 20 rainy days. Were sitting socially distant at a four-top that Glazer plans to bookend with Plexiglas, in the bar area of the Tavern complex. Outside the window, the river down below is a 20-yard-wide pond, then constricts to go over a small falls as it heads south to the Norwalk River. Glazer is nursing a cappuccino and hes talking about the 40-plus things he has come up with to bring back indoor dining and revive an industry where the profit margins, even in good times, are single-digit. Behind Glazer is a stack of cardboard boxes that on Mothers Day will be packed with salmon or standing rib roast for 200 people. Its Thursday and the $225 holiday dinner for a family of four has already sold out. Theyll be delivered by three servers among the dozen or so people Glazer, 67, has kept on after receiving his forgivable federal loan. The way he sees the future, the Graybarns valets show patrons where to park. The restrooms have attendants who clean and sanitize after every use. The lobby has a hand sanitizer station. The hosts present diners with printed statements on protocols. Staggered reservation times keep the lobby flowing and departing diners go out a different door. Glazer is ready to take the temperatures of patrons if the state wants it. Its about giving patrons confidence that they can go out, eat and have a good time, again. All staffed will be masked and gloved. Servers handle the full plates and the bus crew only touch dirty plates and utensils. We are not the same people that we were two months ago. No one is, Glazer says. There is no going back to normal. We all know that. Theres a new normal, or probably the word normal shouldnt be used. Theres a new society thats come with this, and we will never go backwards. So to think that people will go back to their old behavior, in this area? These people know. Theyre not going to take risks. I understand youre going to have isolated incidents and knuckleheads. People in this area, Fairfield County, will mitigate their risk. Theyll assess the situation and decide whether its OK or not. A frequent patron of the big-box hardware stores, Glazer says theres no reason why restaurateurs cant make their customers feel comfortable. He thinks that restaurateurs like him should have more of a say in the soft reopening of Connecticut on May 20. Its hard, I get it, he says. But they should ask for help and I do not feel like theyre asking for the right help. Because those of us who have the largest stake, not only are we happy to do it, we have to do it. Thats where the restaurant businesses is really going to have to get to. This was the iconic country inn. Lamont is the first to admit hes living and learning in this public crisis, but unless restaurants can get a lifeline quickly, theyre going to become another statistic of the pandemic. kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT JK Rowling wasn't the first writer to use a cafe as her office. As a fairly poverty-stricken single mother, she has said, she sat in a local cafe with baby buggy beside her - and it was there she wrote the first of her series of Harry Potter novels. Back in the 1950s, Irish (and internationally acclaimed) novelist and short story writer Mary Lavin spent most of her days sitting in Bewley's in Grafton Street, her two older girls at school, the youngest in a buggy beside her. And there she wrote many of the stories which would appear in the legendary The New Yorker magazine. And that is something one could never imagine happening in Bewley's as we have known it in more recent years. Because it isn't Bewley's: it is located in that beautiful, historic building in the heart of Dublin's "fashionable" quarter. And it carries the Bewley's name. Expand Close 1997 and presidential contender Mary McAleese has a coffee with then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Bewleys on Grafton Street in 1997 / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp 1997 and presidential contender Mary McAleese has a coffee with then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Bewleys on Grafton Street in 1997 But to those who knew Bewley's when it was owned by the Dublin Quaker family of that name, it bears little resemblance to the original. For a start, it was never "fashionable" itself. It was what could be called shabby-genteel, the glass-topped tables dulled by many millions of scratches as cups and plates were clunked down, accompanied by layered cake stands from which you made your choice, unsupervised by staff members. Indeed, when Bewley's suffered its first closure in 2004, and there was a similar outcry to today's, people questioned about it fondly recalled "skiving out" in their youth without paying their bills, having consumed a few thousand calories' worth of cream cakes and sticky buns. That they had contributed to the closure never seemed to have occurred to them. In those days, too, a feature of your tea or coffee was a jug of thick, heavy, almost clotted Jersey cream, delivered daily from the Bewley family herd on the outskirts of the city. Expand Close US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2009 enjoying a coffee in Grafton Street. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2009 enjoying a coffee in Grafton Street. It gave a uniquely rich flavour to the tea and the never-to-be-forgotten coffee, the scent of which stretched from top to bottom of Grafton Street, from the huge blender in the window, supervised by what would now probably be called a barista, in starched gleaming whites and a perky chef's hat. If you were buying coffee for use (no takeaways then), you could choose your own blend (mine used to be six ounces of Blue Mountain Kenya and two ounces of Special French to the half pound. It was sublime). It was then ground to your preferred density, or left for you to grind at home. The cafe was always full, but there was never a queue. Nobody went there for "the experience". They just went there for cheap, nourishing lunches, and the luxury of the coffee, tea and confectionery, also at an economical price. That and the impeccable, speedy service delivered by waitresses, all of whom seemed to be elderly, and none of whom ever appeared rushed, but managed to deliver with remarkable speed. That was the Bewley's ethic, embodied in Victor Bewley, one of the city's great philanthropists. Expand Close Then Minister for Health Micheal Martin on the first day of the smoking ban, enjoying breakfast in Bewleys. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Then Minister for Health Micheal Martin on the first day of the smoking ban, enjoying breakfast in Bewleys. In 1972, he had transferred ownership of the cafe to his workforce, so he could concentrate on his charity work with the Travelling community. Nine years later, sadly, Bewley's was on its knees, despite its thriving tea and coffee importing business. So when the Campbell family took over the business in 1986, it was welcomed by all Bewley's loyal customers. Slowly but surely though, Bewley's became nothing more than a name. The soul had gone out of it, just as the huge lumps of cherries had gone out of the legendary cherry buns, replaced by pinkish shreds. The Bewley family ethic, which their name represented, could not survive in a harsh era as expansion led to franchising out of the brand and personalised service disappeared in favour of apparently untrained staff with unfortunately less than acceptable manners, along with frequently having to wait nearly half an hour to get your coffee. And the prices went up. The Campbell family claim that the annual rent of 1.5m to a development property company controlled by Johnny Ronan has been the main contributor to the cafe's demise. And they have announced that post-Covid health restrictions will make it impossible to trade profitably. Expand Close Ronnie Drew outside Bewleys in 2004, to protest keeping the cafe open. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ronnie Drew outside Bewleys in 2004, to protest keeping the cafe open. Bewley's will not be the first, nor last, business on Grafton Street to sink under the rent burden, so frequently described as "Celtic Tiger-era" level. Some might argue that in any era there is an ethical shadow over it. Somehow, one imagines the shade of the great Victor Bewley would agree. ATLANTA (AP) As more states push to reopen their economies, many are falling short on one of the federal government's essential criteria for doing so having an efficient system to track people who have been physically near a person infected with the coronavius. An Associated Press review found a patchwork of systems around the country for so-called contact tracing, with many states unable to keep up with caseloads and scrambling to hire and train enough people to handle the task for the months ahead. The effort is far less than what public health experts say is needed to guard against a resurgence of the virus. The result is a wide array of strategies and little national coordination. With few exceptions, most states reviewed by AP are going it alone. Many other countries dealing with the pandemic are taking a national approach to testing. As late as Friday, the website for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said detailed guidance on contact tracing for states was forthcoming. Well not ever control the whole country unless we have the same strategy, said Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, a former CDC official. Right now, thats not what were doing. Contact tracing is a pillar of infection control and typically requires in-depth interviews with those who may have been exposed. The number of public health employees needed for the work throughout the U.S. remains up for debate, but some estimates are as high as 300,000 people. Louisiana, which has been hit hard by the virus, had only about 70 people working on tracing contacts this week. By comparison, North Dakota, with less than a fifth of Louisianas population and no serious outbreaks, has 250 case investigators and will soon bring on an additional 172 staffers. With more than 37,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, Pennsylvania is still working to determine how many people it will need in the field. In Texas, coordination will be left to individual counties. Health experts worry that a scattershot approach will only prolong the crisis, and they urge a more coordinated strategy. In South Korea, for example, the national health agency oversees the effort, gathering and sharing data on the movement of confirmed cases with local health departments. The country has seen its case count plummet and remain low. Story continues There is little consensus in the states on basic questions such as how extensive the tracing should be and whether cellular data should be used to assist in identifying people who may have been exposed at a public location. Some states have taken decisive action. Utah has 250 people at the state health department assisting local agencies in tracing contacts, and it can add 500 more staffers if needed. Massachusetts expects to spend $44 million on an aggressive contact-tracing plan and has already begun hiring and training the 1,000 people it expects to need. Other states are slower to create robust tracing systems. California, with nearly 40 million people and more than 37,000 confirmed cases, has limited tracing ability. It recently announced plans to establish a contact-tracing workforce and train 10,000 people. In Los Angeles, the nations second most populous city, those found to be positive at drive-thru testing centers are being asked to sign up for a contact-tracing website. Pennsylvania initially conducted tracing until the state began seeing community spread of the virus, and its ability to follow contacts was overwhelmed. Now it's trying again. State officials estimate that it will take six hours to conduct basic tracing if an individual reported just 10 contacts. Washington state, which experienced the first major outbreak in the U.S., was also overwhelmed. It now has about 700 people focused on tracing contacts, with plans to expand the workforce to 1,500 by the second week of May. One major challenge for states is the ability to conduct widespread virus testing, which has been hampered in part by the difficulty in obtaining testing supplies. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has said that for the states contact-tracing plan to work, daily testing needs to increase from about 4,000 tests to 20,000 or 30,000 tests. The CDC said Friday that it is working with state and local jurisdictions to identify needs for surge support staff to assist with contact tracing and other infection-control measures. Currently, states seeking help must rely on CDC staff members who are embedded with state health departments and other agencies. After a $1 billion congressional appropriation this week, the CDC plans to prepare teams of experts to help states coordinate contract-tracing efforts. The CDC Foundation has launched a COVID-19 Corps hiring campaign to bring in dozens of workers. Having the ability to trace contacts was identified as part of core state preparedness responsibilities outlined in the White Houses guidelines for reopening. Some states, such as Georgia and Tennessee, are easing social and business restrictions even as they try to build up their contact-tracing ability. Georgia Public Health Commissioner Kathleen Toomey said the state plans to retrain some employees for contact tracing and use a new mobile app to track infections. It will ask infected people to voluntarily share their cellphone data so the state can find other contacts. That sounds like a great plan, but by their own words its being finalized and customized. It hasnt been tested, said Dr. Harry J. Heiman, a professor of public health at Georgia State University. The idea that were going to start opening the doors before these things are in place, I think is irresponsible. ___ Dearen reported from Gainesville, Florida. ___ Associated Press writers Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, and Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report. Manmohan Singh Health News, Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh admitted to AIIMS Delhi, Manmohan Singh's age is 87, Indian economist and politician Dr Manmohan Singh health update: Former Prime Minister and an ace Indian economist, Dr Manmohan Singh (87) has been admitted to Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) hospital. Hospital officials said, that Dr Singh is medical observation after complaining about chest pain Manmohan Singh Health News: Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was admitted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Sunday following chest pain. Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has been admitted to AIIMS after complaining about chest pain, hospital officials said. The 87-year-old veteran Congress leader was taken to the AIIMS cardio-thoracic ward and is currently under observation. In 2009, Singh underwent heart-bypass surgery at AIIMS, in which five grafts channels to bypass blocked arteries were implanted in surgery. He currently represents Rajasthan in the Upper House of Parliament. He served as the prime minister between 2004 and 2014. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh admitted to AIIMS, under observation at cardio-thoracic ward: Sources Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 10, 2020 For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Should Healthy Adults Be Injected With the CCP Virus to Expedite a Vaccine? In a race to find a vaccine for COVID-19, some medical professionals and politicians are advocating the use of a controversial method called human challenge studies (HCS), where healthy volunteers are injected with a candidate vaccine or a placebo followed by an attenuated CCP virus. Proponents of the HCS argue that more lives will be lost the longer it takes for an efficacious vaccine to be developed. Thirty-five lawmakers headed by Reps. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) and Donna Shalala (D-Fla.) sent a letter (pdf) to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration last month urging for all options to be considered in accelerating the development and deployment of a vaccine as the enormous human cost of the COVID-19 epidemic alters the optimization of the risk/benefit analysis in favor of more rapid approval and deployment. We write to assure you that Congress understands that a more risk-tolerant development process is likely appropriate in the case of a COVID-19 vaccine, Foster and Shalala wrote in the letter. In the case of accelerated human trials, justifiable risks may be taken by parallel testing of multiple dose levels, advancing more rapidly from phase to phase and potentially by challenge trials that involve deliberately infecting volunteers who have received candidate vaccines or placebos to confirm the efficacy of those vaccines and are at very low risk of serious disease from the infection. Dr. Rajeev Fernando, infectious disease specialist and rapid responder at three New York hospitals, supports HCS if it can speed up the process of finding a vaccine. I really support these kinds of trials right now, he told The Epoch Times. As a matter of fact, if I had an option, Id be more than happy to be a part of these trials. Fernando, who is also the founder of Chiraj Charities, said everything is a risk versus benefit situation, so people should be allowed to assess for themselves and make an intelligent decision regarding participation in the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus challenge studies. The virtue of a human challenge trial is that it cuts to the chase, so to speak, with 100 percent of those in the study exposed, Kirk Allison, a faculty member in Health Humanities at Saint Scholastica College and Adjunct Professor of Theology at the University of Saint Thomas teaching bioethics-related courses, told The Epoch Times in an email. According to Allison, the number of participants needed in a challenge study in both the vaccination and placebo group are lower to obtain a statistically significant result. This is an advantage since an adverse result following exposure would become apparent with far fewer individuals exposed to the vaccine than in a traditional phase 3 efficacy study. Opponents of the HCS, however, say that there are ethical concerns to consider since there is still much that is unknown about the novel CCP virus. Where youre going to give somebody a virus on purpose, you really want to understand the disease so that you know what youre doing is a reasonable risk, Mathew Memoli, who has conducted many challenge studies and is an immunologist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in Science Magazine. Fox News medical contributor Dr. Janette Nesheiwat stated it more bluntly on Fox News, We are knowingly asking volunteers to inject themselves with a deadly pathogen that could potentially kill them. Nesheiwat questions the need for challenge studies as the vaccine trials are already moving at an extraordinarily fast pace to get a vaccine out in 18 months. Traditionally, it takes about 10-15 years to get a vaccine on the market and it costs millions of dollars as the vaccines have to go through three different trial phases. A doctor looks at protein samples at Novavax labs in Rockville, Md., one of the labs developing a vaccine for the CCP virus, on March 20, 2020. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images) In the standard trial phases, Fernando says that in phase one, probably less than 100 people are clinically assessed for adverse effects and to confirm the safety of the candidate vaccine before moving on to the second phase involving several hundred test subjects. The last one, thats the real one, which you have to watch these people very closely, Fernando said. Thousands of people are monitored over a long period to study the efficacy of the vaccine. To address the concern of the length it normally takes a vaccine to be developed and how to make it available for the public quicker, Dr. Deborah Birx, senior coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said on Fox News Sunday, that several different candidate vaccines were being studied simultaneously, while doing compressed phase one, phase two, phase three trials in an overlapping way, moving forward when you have a good safety and immunogenicity data, but not with the level of pauses that are often present in vaccine development. Whether a vaccine will be available by next January, Birx says that depends on whether we can execute and execute around the globe, because you also, for phase three, have to have active viral transmission in the community in order to study its efficacy. Opponents Say Too Much Is Unknown About COVID-19 Human challenge studies have been conducted for a long time since they were first experimented on in 1796 when Edward Jenner inoculated a young, healthy boy with the pus of a smallpox sore, only after he was first given the supposed vaccine that consisted of pus from a cowpox sore on cuts of the boys arm. The boy did not fall ill to the disease. HCS has evolved since then to help scientists learn about certain diseases and their treatments. They are particularly used to test vaccines for a disease that has therapeutic treatments or can be cured. It is deeply concerning for opponents of the CCP virus challenge studies when there is still much that is unknown about the virus as physicians continue to learn new things about it. In addition, there currently is no treatment or a cure for the disease if a consenting volunteer develops a serious illness. Allison says to address the adverse effects that may arise from the vaccine study in a standard trial or an HCS, participants in the studies should be covered for any expenses and costs proceeding from participation (including for any adverse medical outcomes). He furthers states that compensation could be covered by the federal government similar to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration. The program was set up in 1988 to compensate children injured by a vaccine listed on the vaccine injury table (pdf). The program has extended to compensate adults injured by the flu vaccine since the same vaccine is given to children and is listed on the vaccine injury table. Coronavirus infects 26 employees at seafood plant in Astoria, Oregon, US May 10,2020 | Source: AP Twelve more workers at Bornstein Seafoods in Astoria, Oregon, United States, have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the outbreak to 26. The Clatsop County Public Health Department began testing workers at the seafood processor on May 2 after the company informed the county that one employee had tested positive. The county finished testing all 200 workers earlier this week, The Astorian reported . Of the positive tests, 17 live in Oregons Clatsop County while the rest live in Washingtons Pacific, Grays Harbor and Cowlitz counties. Bornstein Seafoods has shut down two plants at the Port of Astoria in response to the outbreak and advised employees to stay home. Michael McNickle, the countys public health director, said the prevalence of the virus among workers at the facility was lower than he expected after the initial positive tests. Over 3,030 people in Oregonian have tested positive for the coronavirus and at least 124 people have died of the illness. The virus causes mild to moderate symptoms in most patients, and the vast majority recover. But it is highly contagious and can cause severe illness and death in some patients, particularly the elderly and those with underlying health conditions. 2020 Republic. All rights reserved. Theme(s): Others. Food processing units in the city started operations in Katraj and Ambegaon with minimum capacity after the government eased curbs, according to officials. The food processing units include ice cream, spice, carry bag, gas chimney, soap and chikki manufacturers. Naval Kishore Ram, district collector, said, We want all the big, medium and small scale industries to start operating. The state government will provide them with all necessary help. Sanjay Shirsath, manager of A1 spices, said, We are into manufacturing coriander and turmeric powder. We have got all the requisite permissions and we operate between 9am and 5pm. Currently, we are working only with 20 per cent of our strength and expect our staff strength to grow in the next few months. The Covid-19 crisis has hurt us badly and the revenues have fallen flat. We expect the government to provide us with the necessary support like financial packages and other amenities, so that we dont end up being sick units in the future, he said. Ambalal Chaudhary of Shree Samartha Ice Cream Factory in Katraj, said, The Covid-19 crisis and lockdown has led to the downfall of revenue earnings as we were shut during the summer season which is the peak season for business. However, there is a demand from the market now and we are catering to it. More than fifty per cent of the staff have stopped coming to work citing the dangers of the contagion, he said. Paras Bhagat, detergent and soap manufacturer, said, We have been sustaining losses from the last forty days as the entire manufacturing has been shut. Now, restoring the supply chain is a tedious task, but we are confident that business will become stable in the long term future, he said. According to officials industries like fabrication units, refrigeration, plastic moulding, display counters, powder coating, corrugated boxes, agarbatti manufacturers and furniture are still closed. Former President Barack Obama recently blasted the COVID-19 response by the Trump administration as an absolute chaotic disaster" and argued Joe Biden, his vice president and likely 2020 Democratic nominee, could help unify the country in the wake of the pandemic. This election thats coming up on every level is so important because what were going to be battling is not just a particular individual or a political party, Obama told about 3,000 former members of his administration in a conference call Friday, according to audio obtained by Yahoo News. What were fighting against is these long term trends where being selfish, being tribal, being divided and seeing others as an enemy. That has become a stronger impulse in American life." Obama, who recently endorsed Biden and said he will take an active role in the fight against President Donald Trump, argued the administration displayed the same behavior internationally as well." Its part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty, he said. It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mind-set of whats in it for me and to heck with everybody else when that mind-set is operationalized in our government. Nearly 80,000 Americans with COVID-19 have died and more than 1.3 million have tested positive, according to Johns Hopkins University. The former president also touted Bidens service as a White House ally overseeing the Obama administrations stimulus program and responses to H1N1 and ebola outbreaks, according to The New York Times. Trump has maintained that he responded quickly to the outbreak, particularly by cutting off travel from China in late January, a move he says saved tens of thousands of lives. Hes also noted that the U.S. has helped other nations on medical equipment and testing. Trump said last week that, I think we saved millions of lives, The Associated Press reported. But the president also downplayed the virus several times earlier this year, saying it was totally under control and comparing it to the flu until his public health experts recommended nationwide social distancing measures to slow the spread of the outbreak. Those measures were implemented in mid-March and the president has pushed states to roll out phased plans to reopen the economy, which has been hit with unemployment unseen since the Great Depression. Trump has argued that the Obama administration left his with a broken system and a broken test, but COVID-19 did not exist until late last year and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this year struggled to create and distribute a functioning test. The U.S. has since tested more than 8 million people. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told AP that Trump was shutting down travel from China while Democrats were pursuing a sham witch hunt, in reference to Trumps impeachment. While Democrats encouraged mass gatherings, President Trump was deploying PPE, ventilators, and testing across the country," she added. Obama also had sharp criticism for the Justice Departments decision to drop its criminal case against Trumps former national security adviser, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russias ambassador. Obama said he worried the basic understanding of the rule of law is at risk." There is no precedent that anybody can find for somebody who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free, Obama added. Trump has repeatedly said the way the Justice Department and FBI treated Flynn was a disgrace." The Justice Department said last week that it had concluded that Flynns interview by the FBI was untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBIs counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn and that the interview on January 24, 2017 was conducted without any legitimate investigative basis. Related Content: Cooperative Nafed is procuring pulses and oilseeds from farmers at support price during the current lockdown, the government said on Sunday. "2.74 Lakh tonnes gram (chana) has been procured from 9 states namely Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana," the agriculture ministry said in a statement. That apart, Nafed has bought 3.40 lakh tonnes of mustard from 5 states - Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana. Around 1,700 tonnes of sunflower has been procured from Telangana. In pulses, 1.71 lakh tonnes toor (arhar) has been procured from 8 states - Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Odisha. The Union Agriculture Ministry said it is taking several measures to facilitate farmers and farming activities at field level during the lockdown. Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar is regularly monitoring the situation. Food Corporation of India (FCI) is the government's nodal agency for procurement and distribution of foodgrains. It mainly purchases wheat and paddy from farmers at the minimum support price (MSP) for maintaining the central buffer stock. Nafed procures pulses and oilseeds from farmers on behalf of the government. Regarding sowing area coverage of summer crops, the ministry said that paddy has been sown in about 34.87 lakh hectare area as compared to 25.29 lakh hectare during the corresponding period previous year. About 10.35 lakh hectare area has been sown under pulses as compared to 5.92 lakh hectare during the same period last year. The area under coverage for coarse cereals rose to about 9.57 lakh hectare as against 6.20 lakh hectare. Sowing of oilseeds has been completed in about 9.17 lakh hectare area from 7.09 lakh hectare. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sparked phase two of the Texas economy's reopening on Friday along with strict conditions on companies, new questions had arisen about the manner of enforcing the said rules. In Texas's most populated county, Harris County, locals lit up their phone lines with nearly 10,000 tips on the probable violations. However, at the same time, challenges in court are revealing weaknesses in both the local and state rule's patchwork, as well as the governor's last-minute decision to remove all criminal punishments for the violation of orders depicted grunts from several officials of the law enforcement. According to the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, during its weekly guidance to the prosecutors of the state, if Gov. Abbott will continue "changing the tunes he plays as he heads Texas out of the COVID-19 crisis," there is a small motivation "to put your necks on the line" to implement a rule that may not be valid the next day. Ever Changing Rules At the present rate, this news phase is going, the guidance stated, next week, one order could mandate haircuts, then after a few days, there will be a reversal of the punishment. It also added, "Who knows anymore?" Meanwhile, the danger of a maximum of 180 days in prison, as well as charges of up to $1,000, had just resulted in three apprehensions that were broadly reported in the media. According to the report, there were three too many, for Gov. Abbott, who had called continuously back stricter procedures. For instance, last week, last week, when the governor struck down any local charges for those refusing to wear a face mask in public and ordered agencies of the state to allow ample cautions before they levy citations. In a statement about his decision which was sent to media, Gov. Abbott said, "Throwing Texans in Jail who have closed their businesses, which is not their fault," is irrational and that he won't allow it to happen. Gov. Abbott Said to be Changing His Own Rules On the contrary, Art Acevedo, the Houston Police Chief, blistered the governor on social media for his criticism of the local officials. They utilized the enforcement tools he had included in his own rule or order. "Respectfully," the police chief posted on Twitter, "you shouldn't issue orders" that would include the imprisonment of violators "to cover the science, just to turnaround" and criticize those who implement his executive order to conceal the political counterattack. The governor's actions, Acevedo added, "are hypocritical." In the meantime, the Texas Supreme Court has already hinted that even noncriminal COVID-19 constraints "may not stand up in court." According to the licensing and regulation department, early this week, they had almost 300 active investigations into massage therapists, barbers and cosmetologists that have allegedly violated local and state orders to remain closed. As to how many of the said businesses will be contested, remains unseen. The agency said they are still opening welcoming complaints and evaluating cases for violations of the TDLR rules, as well as the "cosmetology/barbering/massage therapy" regulations during the EO. Check these out! K Rathna By Express News Service MYSURU: Like most businesses across the globe, the famous yoga and ancient healing art schools in Mysuru are going through a rough patch during this pandemic. There are around 1,500 yoga centres in the city that teach different forms and styles of yoga, along with various healing and meditation practices. However, compared to regular yoga institutes, schools teaching ancient healing arts have been hit more as most of the students that enrolled at these schools were from other countries. Some of these schools are attempting to hold basic yoga and pranayama lessons online, but most techniques are difficult to teach through a screen. Teachers in Gokulam, a tourist hub for yoga, say renting out a property here is an expensive affair, and that owners are also raising rents right now, making survival harder than usual. C Raghavendra, who holds Thai yoga bodywork classes at his centre Imosha in Gokulam, says that several foreigners from different countries came to his centre to learn the ancient art form. This massage therapy combines assisted yoga, elements of acupressure, reflexology and physiotherapy, and involves two people. Explaining his predicament, Raghavendra says, Our finances have been greatly affected. We have to pay rents, pay salaries to the staff and take care of our families with limited resource. If this situation persists, our problems will just get worse. We don't get many Indian students, these ancient art forms are preferred by foreigners, which is unfortunate. He adds, Apart from the business side of things, it is a matter of preserving our ancient art forms, which may get lost if they cannot be sustained." G Murali Mohana, founder of Yug Yoga Shale and the first to introduce and teach aerial yoga in China in 2012, told TNSE, There have been no foreign tourists since January. It has become challenging to pay rents and salaries. Mysuru Wadiyars contribution to yoga The erstwhile Mysuru Wadiyars were the first patrons of yoga in Mysuru. Then-ruler Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar was a yoga enthusiast, and a disciple of Tirumale Krishnamachar, the first yoga guru of Mysuru Yoga Shale. Around this time of year, Annie Salvatore usually prepares to greet an influx of summertime visitors eager to learn how to cook 19th century style, build a corn husk doll from scratch, or learn the timeless trades of blacksmith or pottery throughout the living history museum that she and her family assembled themselves 47 years ago. Instead, nearly two months after the site of the Historic Cold Spring Village closed due to the coronavirus outbreak, she has found herself trapped in a quagmire of indecision that boils down to this question: Will the museum village be able to reopen at all? Salvatore, the executive director of the Historic Cold Spring Village and a 2019 inductee into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, has been forced to temporarily lay off two of her eight staff members. In the summertime, when the historic site is visited by more than double the 20,000 patrons it receives throughout the fall, winter, and spring, Salvatore typically hires between 18 to 20 people to perform hands-on activities in the 18th and 19th buildings sprawled throughout the grounds. Were in a quandary. Were caught. We dont have directions to where to go next," Salvatore said. If the governor allows sites to open, how are we going to make it happen? Theres got to be social distancing, and we cant have people go in buildings, because some of our buildings are ten by ten square feet. Beyond the difficulty of abiding by social distancing regulations once the museum village is allowed to reopen, Salvatore is struggling to receive enough funds to maintain the grounds during its indefinite closure. In the wake of the cancelation of the museum villages largest fundraiser, originally scheduled to take place on May 5, the Historic Cold Spring Village has been relying almost solely on revenue made from the villages Cold Spring Brewery, which has been offering curbside pick-up throughout the pandemic. But, income from the brewery continues to severely dwindle, Salvatore stating that the establishment is currently only providing service on Saturdays and Sundays because it lacks the traffic to remain open the rest of the week. Very few people are comfortable going out, other than for food shopping, Salvatore said. In an effort to increase funds and rescue the museum village, Salvatore is requesting online donations from the public, as well as reopening the Cold Spring Grange Restaurant located in the village this weekend for take-out options. Still, she emphasized that the fate of the museum village is dependent upon further reopening guidance from Gov. Phil Murphy and when exactly that will come. The next weeks will determine the future of Historic Cold Spring Village, Salvatore said. The Red Mill in April 2020.Scott Faytok | For NJ Advance Media Over 100 miles North of Cape May, the Red Mill Museum Village, a Clinton-based institution with a history stretching back to the early 19th century, is not currently in jeopardy of closing, but is awaiting a reopening that promises to be difficult, according to Executive Director Paul Muir. The museum has had to endure substantial economic losses as a result of the pandemic, most notably like the Historic Cold Spring Village the cancelation of its single largest day fundraiser, the Red Mill Derby, which regularly raises approximately $30,000 for the site. Last year alone, the event drew over 200 people to the museum for a day of live music, catered food and refreshments, and, of course, a televised viewing of the Kentucky Derby. The museum was also forced to cancel the entirety of its school tour season, scheduled to kick off April 2 and continue through to the end of June, which regularly draws over 4,000 children to the grounds. Theres sadness and disappointment to lose that opportunity, because thats really what were about," Muir said. "And of course theres a significant financial loss by not offering those tours. Although the Red Mill intends to release new digital content like virtual walking tours on its Facebook and YouTube pages, these losses, as well as the the museums continued closure, has resulted in groundskeepers, tour guides, workshop leaders and welcome center staff members being furloughed. Still, Muir expressed his happiness that core employees, including the curator of collections and curator of finance, were able to be kept on staff. To take away the ability to do something that they love is something we dont ever want to do at the Red Mill," Muir said. "So this is going to be difficult, but we have a commitment to our employees, not only for the financial stability but for the mission and passion for them that they can still pursue what they love to do. In an effort to compensate for its losses, the Red Mill Museum Village has established a sustaining donor opportunity, for which individuals can donate $1,000 to the Red Mill Museum Village in exchange for membership benefits including unlimited museum admission, guest passes and tickets to an event of their choosing. Were looking for businesses and some of our sponsors of events from last year to come on as sustaining mission-based sponsors, to help us deliver our mission albeit digitally at this point, Muir said. Individuals can also support the museum by making direct donations or by registering for a number of other membership options. Stating that the mission of the Red Mill is to serve the community, Muir expressed his frustration that the pandemic has limited the villages ability to do so for a number of months, and for an unknown amount of time beyond. Still, he remained optimistic that those who understand the value of the Red Mill Museum Village will continue to support it. We always look for opportunity, and we look for the silver lining, so something like creating the sustaining donor now and implementing it because of coronavirus is hopefully of benefit to us in the future," Muir said. We want to be there for the community as much as we can, and then, if the community is able to, they can help support us so we can continue to do that. Even museums separate from the lands of New Jersey are not immune to the financial impact of the coronavirus outbreak sweeping across them. The Battleship New Jersey Museum & Memorial, an 887-foot long, 45,000-ton ship that navigated the waters of World War II, Korean War, and the Vietnam War prior to dropping its anchor in Camden in 2001, has furloughed two-thirds of its 88 staff members since closing in mid-March. The Battleship has been closed since mid-March.Courtesy The Battleship New Jersey Museum & Memorial After receiving a loan of $250,000 from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a Small Business Administration initiative designed to help businesses keep their workforce employed during the coronavirus pandemic, Phil Rowan, CEO of the battleship, confirmed that the museum has rehired six full-time employees and increased the hours of three others from 32 to 40 a week. These employees include security guards, repair workers and maintenance staff that work to keep the battleship fully functional even as it remains closed to the public. We will bring back more once the all clear is given by the State of New Jersey, Rowan said. To further compensate the museums losses, Rowan is also seeking approval for a $2 million loan through the Economic Industry Disaster Loan Advance program, which provides economic relief to small businesses that are suffering financially as a result of the pandemic. Throughout its closure, the battleship has reduced costs by shutting down exhibits and lights, turning down the heat and discontinuing its working relationship with vendors, including its regular housekeeping agency, trash collectors and audio tour device suppliers. The ship is moth-balled, Rowan said. While stating that the museum will reopen once the state deems it safe, Jack Willard, director of marketing, group and event sales for the museum, said that it will initially offer general admission tours to limit and spread out tour guests and prevent crowds. We will not be able to offer group tours, special events and overnights when we first re-open. We will bring back these programs once its deemed safe for larger groups to congregate, Willard said. All visitors will need to wear face masks, and essential staff will provide masks to any individuals arriving without them. While the battleship is not currently in danger of sinking financially, the museum is seeking donations of any amount and encouraging its supporters to purchase battleship merchandise to strengthen its capacity to remain afloat. Soaring above the depths of the seas, a New Jersey museum created to educate patrons about what can be achieved in the skies is dually enduring extreme financial cutbacks due to the pandemic. The Aviation Hall of Fame & Museum of New Jersey in Teterboro was established in 1972 to highlight the states centuries-long contribution to the development of human flight, as well as demonstrate the career potential in commercial or military aviation, aerospace engineering or aerospace. Exterior view of the museumCourtesy Aviation Hall of Fame & Museum of New Jersey According to Ralph Villecca, executive director of the 10,000 square foot establishment, the museum has already temporarily laid off two of its three staff members the third being Villeca. Similar to actions taken at both the Red Mill Museum Village and the Historic Cold Spring Village, the layoffs were partially the consequence of the museum having to cancel its largest fundraiser of the year the Wings & Wheels Expo, a two-day village and and military aircraft and car show originally scheduled for this June. The museum has also sacrificed revenues from eliminating its six annual Open Cockpit Weekends, in which visitors can sit in the cockpit of historic aircrafts and get the feel of flying. Villecca said he will likely need to cancel a third cockpit weekend scheduled for June. Its very complicated and very, very, very frustrating," Villecca said. "Its putting a significant strain financially on our institution. Just like the battleship administrators, Villecca has received a loan from the Paycheck Protection Program to cover salaries and utilities. But unlike a battleship that requires approximately $10,000 to maintain each day the museum cannot put the funds to use for typical daily operations while it is closed. I dont know how (the loan) technically works for a museum, because technically were not open," Villecca said. Its not like I can bring employees back and start working." To save costs, Villecca said that the museum, currently unoccupied, has shut off its heat and other utilities. He added that he intends to draft a fundraising letter to share with the friends and patrons of the museum, which he has thus far been quite reticent to do in his awareness that he alone is not facing economic strains brought upon by the pandemic. In all candor, I know a lot of folks are hurting from this," Villecca said. Im okay, but I know there are many people that are not in this situation and are not okay. Despite its financial difficulties, Villecca stated with certainty that the doors of the museum are not in danger of permanently closing. If we had to be closed for a year Im just projecting an incredibly worst case scenario yeah, that could impact our viability," Villecca said. "But if its for a few more months, were going to be hurting hurting significantly but were going to survive. As he looked forward to the states reemergence from the crisis, Villecca, a former employee in the aerospace industry who described himself as one of those nutty guys that used to jump out of planes, expressed his profound desire to re-establish a semblance of normalcy in a workplace that doubles as his "home away from home. We feel a sense of loss that were not doing what we normally do, advancing all of the things that we believe in and that we love about the museum, about aviation, about educating young people and all the wonderful careers they can have in space, Villecca said. Our nights at the museum, our summer programs, our school tours thats all just stopped. And its a void for all of us. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Caroline Fassett may be reached at cfassett@njadvancemedia.com. Gov. Ned Lamont, like most elected leaders, sees the future with optimism. His view of where well be in a few years, shaped by the coronavirus crisis, is no exception. Were going to learn from this pandemic and the pain and the crisis, and I think were going to be better and smarter for it. And I think Connecticut will be better off for it, Lamont said Friday. We talked about the future a week after Hearst Connecticut Media rolled out The Road Ahead: Life After COVID-19. The future is about readiness as much as vision, of course, and in that spirit, I asked Lamont to weigh in on some of the predictions in the pages of last Sundays edition in education, economic security, voting, food-buying, health care, race relations, how we work, and Lamonts business background, communications technology. What would be a real tragedy, if we dont learn from this, if we go back to the same old ways, that we dont understand the importance of public health for our future, Lamont said. Critical care nursing homes Lamont agrees with the experts who told my colleague Rob Ryser that nursing homes will be leaner and more like hospitals, offering higher levels of critical care. One of the reasons we got hit hard is were close to New York, another is were old, and another is, we were more likely to have people living in nursing homes than just about every state in the country, Lamont said. I think thats a big mistake financially, its a big mistake for grandma, she prefers to be at home if theres any way we can come up with a financial system that works. And now with COVID we realize its not the best from a public health point of view as well. So, fundamental change is coming in nursing homes, which have seen 60 percent of all coronavirus deaths in Connecticut. Nursing homes will focus on acute care and anybody else who is able to stay at home, were more likely to make it possible for them to do so. A pandemic, not a cyber-attack As with a lot of the changes we outlined, making it happen is something else altogether, fraught with pressure to keep things the way they are. Lamont, a pragmatic optimist, sees those pressures, for example, in regional cooperation between towns. Before we get to that explosive subject, lets revisit the past, last August in a charter boat on Lake Ontario with Lamont and his host, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. While trolling for steelhead trout, they kicked around threats that could shut down their states. We talked a lot about cybersecurity, Lamont said And then all of a sudden COVID happens. Thats the nature of predicting. Lamont was naturally thinking about an electronic infrastructure attack, with his background in digital telecommunications. But, to repeat, the future is about readiness, not accuracy. Its the economy The economy looms biggest of those threats right now, after health. The picture was mixed in our pages as several economists warned of a difficult recovery for Connecticut. Lamont agrees with that. What I see is terror in peoples eyes. Its sort of like the Great Depression, he said from firsthand experience handing out food at Rentschler Field in East Hartford. You look at them and you realize they had a pretty good job up until six weeks ago and theyrerooms sitting in a pretty decent car but they worked paycheck to paycheck and now theyre waiting on line two hours to get some potatoes and onions and some dairy products. What I think is that people are going to put a real premium on economic security, he said. That means families may save more and spend less, as Hearst business writer Alexander Soule reported, as we saw after the Great Depression. But it also means, in the optimistic view, a new spirit of cooperation that I wrote about in a debate with fellow columnist Colin McEnroe utopia vs. dystopia. Which way will we go? I cited Yale economist and Nobel Laureate Robert Shiller musing over the possibility that well see policies and market changes that reach toward income equality even in the richest state, where we have more than our share of the super-rich. My hunch is rather than taking people down, I think youll see a new emphasis about economic security, a new emphasis about the safety net, a new emphasis upon health care that takes care of everybody and takes care of those racial inequities, Lamont said. Thats part of a safety net thats going to be newly important going forward. Quickly, he made it clear were not talking about some kind of Shangri-La, that progress is slow. Progress on race? Slow progress is especially true in the racial divide, which coronavirus has laid bare. If you didnt learn a lot about racial health disparities in the last two months, you werent paying attention, Lamont said. If youre African American youre twice as likely to be infected and twice as likely for it to be fatal compared to a white person. All of a sudden, the racial dimension took on a whole new dimension, didnt it? But will that change? Community awareness is less than collective resolve. I think well learn a lot and well understand the urgency of it and well take it very seriously, he said, but Americans can get distracted very quickly. Where we live and eat and work Lamont, as the governor, sees the states strengths in a post-coronavirus world. Take office space and how we work. Experts told our reporters well see less dense workplaces with not only more telecommuting, but radically different kinds of video conferencing, involving avatars and other forms of virtual reality. It is happening, my God, look how Zoom has taken over our lives, he said. Pretty soon you will be in that room with them remotely. And by the way, people will be a lot less likely to jump into an airplane where the air doesnt circulate than they were two years ago. We do make airplane engines and other aerospace components here, so that could be a worry, too. But back to the office environment, a combination of more remote work and proximity to the biggest cities could help this state. Thats all good for Connecticut because all of a sudden I can be in Bethel, Barkhamsted or Putnam and I can be in that conference room in midtown Manhattan or wherever I need to electronically, Lamont said. Then theres the long-pondered question of whether Connecticuts suburban-dominant lifestyle will come back in vogue. Talk to real estate brokers, theyll tell you what theyre hearing right now, the phones are ringing off the hook, Lamont said, maybe overstating the upbeat picture in the spirit of the real estate industrys famous half-full ethos. COVID-19, he said, might signify more than a once-a-century pandemic. If its a once every ten year storm, I want to make sure that if Im under stay-at-home, Ive got a little back yard. I think the world is changed in terms of what our priorities are now. Much of the forecast assumes well seek out less close human contact, which might or might not be true, in grocery stores, for example. Restaurants will be fundamentally changed. The idea of a big, crowded restaurant may be different, I think youll see a much bigger takeout component to it in the next ten years, Lamont said. Less incarceration? New priorities stand as a recurring theme throughout the Hearst Connecticut Media reporting on Life After COVID-19. One optimistic view of the criminal justice system came from Mike Lawlor, a former ranking state lawmaker, later former Gov. Dannel Malloys top adviser on criminal justice issues. He believes prisons will continue shrinking as we see less arrests not only because of demographics but also because Connecticut and other states have embraced reforms. That means, all the more after coronavirus, treating crimes that arise from addiction, mental illness and trauma differently, Lawlor, now a professor at the University of New Haven, wrote. Yes and no, Lamont said. The long-term trend away from mass incarceration is in place, but he said, Im around long enough to see low crime periods and high crime periods....I see that were going to be going through some economic stress in this state and this country as we dig out from under the pandemic. Im not predicting crime but I want to make sure were always vigilant. New school lessons One reform-minded education professor, Sousan Arafeh of Southern Connecticut State University, suggested in Life After Covid-19 that moving away from testing and empirical assessments as the main metric of success as has happened in the crisis could benefit students. Lamont was skeptical of that, saying, Im not sure how that plays into COVID. But he did embrace the idea, reported by Hearsts Linda Conner Lambeck, that schools will have a more seamless integration between online and in-person learning; classrooms will not be for lectures, they will be for activities and lectures will be online. He noted that he appointed Richard Levin, former Yale University president and later CEO of Coursera, an online education aggregator, as co-chairman of the higher education group on the reopening committee with an eye toward that integration. Classrooms are going to be smaller, maybe more project oriented, Lamont said. Regionalization, to a point Back to that touchy regionalization topic prodding small towns to combine services Lamont didnt go out on a limb in 2019 along with Senate President Pro-Tem Martin Looney, who proposed strict rules. But hes behind the moves and he, like some of the experts in Life After COVID-19, sees an added urgency now. I went right for the jugular and asked Lamont whether well see Darien and New Canaan combine high schools, just to pick one rivalry among small, adjacent towns. Oh no, no no no, thats the Shias and the Sunnis, that will never happen, Lamont said. Still, he said, the states financial picture along with lessons from coronavirus will make merged services more likely. Our bonding capacity is tapped out so everybody wants a new school, theyd better have enough scale in there or else Im not interested in funding the whole thing. So I think there will be some economic incentives for smaller towns to figure how to share resources, even that high school. Some high schools, maybe. Maybe. Lamont was most ardent about cooperation between states, as weve seen among the seven Northeast states. Coronavirus will accelerate that, he said, to the point where emergency planning will see states ply their strengths in a unified way. Whos gonna make the high-end stuff, like ventilators? We are, Lamont said. I can see some debates there. Political stability One expert told Hearst the collapse in oil prices could lead to more instability in the Middle East, especially as Iran, which is more diversified, gains power. Lamont also worries about that although its a bit outside his job description. The oil-based economies like Saudi and Russia are in a pickle that will make them more dangerous, Lamont said. Tying global stability back to U.S. health, he added, I think COVID could potentially ransack Africa.... and were going to realize that were in a small world, were in it together and if we dont help them deal with COVID it comes right back into our back door six months from now. And speaking of politics, stepped up mail-in and absentee balloting, long sought by Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, could be a clear result of coronavirus. Lamont sees that happening. I know weve got some constitutional legal things to work through but it makes all the sense in the world and I do not want those 65-year-olds, which is my age, going into a voting booth in August or November, he said. For now, the balancing act is about restarting the economy before we see sweeping changes in laws. Political leaders have got to convince people that its safe to go back in the water and that we have a safety net for them, Lamont said. And in the long run, hes an optimist but he doesnt expect fast, dramatic changes. Ive learned that we talk a big game but we change slowly. But we change consistently. Thats called progress. dhaar@hearstmediact.com Afia Brewer was initially skeptical about the coronavirus pandemic. Im not going to lie, said Brewer, a 32-year-old loan officer and mother of two. In the beginning, when it first started spreading, I questioned it. I was on Facebook asking if anyone knew anyone with this virus. Then her mother, Arriejay Hopkins, got sick. Hopkins, a lifelong Detroit resident, was recovering from knee surgery and it appeared she had a cold that was getting worse. It turned out she caught coronavirus from her husband, who works as a security guard. Hopkins went to the Sinai Grace Hospital on March 29, Brewer said. Three days later, Hopkins was in the intensive-care unit. Brewer flew from her Atlanta-area home to Detroit, but no hospital visitors were allowed. Hopkins died on April 6, at age 63. Because of the pandemic, Brewer never had a chance to say good-bye. Hopkins was cremated, and plans for a memorial service are on hold. Its been a staggering loss, Brewer said. Her mother was full of life, a very, very social person who never missed a party. A woman who loved traveling, going to casinos, card games with friends, fancy clothes and big hats. A matriarch who anchored a family that included three grown children and 12 grandchildren. Mama was my best friend, my therapist, Brewer said. We spoke every day. Its still hard because Im so used to calling her and I cant. ... The tears come very day." The quickness of Hopkins death made it even harder, she said. It seems we were just talking and laughing on the phone. How did this happen? This weekend is especially difficult. Brewer, who has two young children herself, will be marking her first Mothers Day without her mom. I dont even want to think about it, she said Friday. But she does want to send a messages to others: Coronavirus needs to be taken seriously, and for that reason, think twice about visiting your mother on Sunday. You can love from afar, Brewer said. You can speak to your mom through a video chat or FaceTime. But you cant speak to her when six feet under. So think about that when youre coming in and out of her house. Its a message echoed by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and medical professionals this Mothers Day. The last thing you want to give your mother for Mothers Day is a case of COVID, said Dr. Russell Lampen, an infectious disease specialist for Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids. He noted that COVID-19 has a 10% mortality rate for people age 70 and older. For this Mothers Day, my recommendation is that you give Mom a phone call, you do a FaceTime meeting, you do a drive-by and wave versus an in-person visit, he said. I know its hard, but my wife and I arent going to get together with my mother -- were going to drive by, honk and wave and keeping going, he said. Knock on wood, hopefully we can do a combined Mothers Day and Fathers Day in June. Brewer said that shes learned the importance of the stay home, stay safe message in the hardest way possible. Everybody really, really needs to respect social distancing, Brewer said. They need to respect this virus. Its real. I dont want them to have to become a believer the way I did. More: Pa. had an early plan to protect nursing home residents from the coronavirus, but never fully implemented it 5-year-old in NY dies from mysterious illness believed to be connected to coronavirus, 73 children sick Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy dies from complications related to coronavrius: report Famous war photographer beats coronavirus at 97, credits determination and red wine for long life FILE PHOTO: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters building is seen ahead of the IMF/World Bank spring meetings in Washington BLANTYRE (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a $91 million loan for Malawi to help fund a balance of payments deficit exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fund said in a statement. "The COVID-19 pandemic is having a severe impact on Malawi, creating an urgent balance of payments need," Tao Zhang, deputy manager of the IMF, said in the statement. "The authorities have been proactive in mitigating the impact of the pandemic, including through increased spending on health care and social assistance ... and ensuring food security through purchase and storage of agricultural harvests," he added. The low-income southeast African country, which so far has reported 37 coronavirus cases and three deaths, was already suffering from economic stagnation linked to drought, leading to increasing unrest over falling living standards. Malawi's main export is tobacco, which makes up about half of export earnings, alongside other crops such as tea and sugar. The World Bank said last month it had approved a $37 million funding package to help Malawi respond to the coronavirus. (Reporting by Frank Phiri; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Helen Popper) Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 18:13:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Amid the further containment of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), China is powering ahead in returning to work and resuming business and production. The following are the latest facts and figures: -- A China-Europe freight train carrying anti-epidemic supplies on Saturday left Wuhan, once hit hard by COVID-19, heading for Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. The train departed Wujiashan railway container center station at 10 a.m., loaded with 294.42 tonnes of anti-epidemic supplies such as masks, protective suits, goggles and medical devices, according to the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (China Railway). -- International hospitality groups are gradually resuming full operations in China. As of Friday, all of Hilton's 250 hotels in China's mainland have resumed business, while more than 98 percent of over 470 hotels of InterContinental Hotels Group PLC in China had been in operations since May 5. -- China's rail freight volume, an indicator of broad economic activity, rose slightly in the first four months of the year, a sign of recovery from the COVID-19 shock amid continuous efforts to contain the epidemic. The country's state-operated railways carried a total of 1.09 billion tonnes of freight during the January-April period, up 2.4 percent year on year, according to data from the China Railway. In April alone, the railways transported 267 million tonnes of cargo, an increase of 0.2 percent from one year earlier. Enditem Amaravati, May 10 (IANS) With the first batch of foreign returnees set to land here on Monday, the Andhra Pradesh government has made adequate arrangements for their arrival. Image Source: IANS News Amaravati, May 10 : With the first batch of foreign returnees set to land here on Monday, the Andhra Pradesh government has made adequate arrangements for their arrival. Arrangements, including screening, medical and transport, have been made at the three airports in the state for returnees from the US, and other countries. "Arrangements have been made at Visakhapatnam, Tirupati and Vijayawada airports for the returnees. All those expenses will be borne by the state," said an official. On arrival, the returnees will be directly sent to dedicated quarantine centres in special vehicles, as per the order of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, issued here on Sunday. Reviewing the lockdown scenario, he asked officials to focus on the control measures to be taken at 11 check-posts along entry points to the state and develop a standard operational guidelines. State government officials said all those entering Andhra Pradesh, will be monitored and tracked through an app till they reach their destination. Moreover, to track returnees' health condition, details will be shared with local health workers, and village volunteers. Also, all the returnees will undergo tests and be put under home isolation for the specified period. The corona is raging in Madhya Pradesh. At the same time, 10 Tablighi Jamaat member of Andhra Pradesh kept for 14 days at Quarantine Center in Sheopur, Madhya Pradesh on suspicion of corona infection have not been released even after 39 days. Meanwhile, an FIR was lodged against him and the court was also granted bail, but the police kept him in the quarantine center. They were released on Saturday evening when the District Court expressed strong displeasure over the attitude of the Sheopur Police. Let us tell you that 22 tabligi of Bangladesh, Bengal and Andhra Pradesh were found in Sheopur mosques on 1 April. Earlier, the Sheopur police had said that all these tabligi are living by giving information, so no police case was filed, but they were quarantined in Dhengda hostel. Later an FIR was registered. Also Read: Digvijay Singh targets Jyotiraditya Scindia over relief material Mamata is scared: BJPs campaign after no press meet by Bengal CM in 9 days Corona outcry worldwide, number of infected crosses 4 million Questions raised on drug called Sanjivani for Corona, shocking results found With Nepal gearing up to ease the lockdown measures and allow factories to resume production, health authorities have warned that people entering the country in cargo trucks, especially from India, could increase the number of coronavirus cases, according to a media report. The health authorities warned that cargo truck drivers and their helpers have been entering Nepal without undergoing proper health screening and reaching all major cities, The Kathmandu Post reported, as the number of coronavirus cases in the country rose to 110. The mayor of Birgunj Metropolitan City, Vijaya Kumar Sarawagi, told the newspaper that the number of cargo trucks entering the country via Birgunj-Raxaul border point daily has reached around 700 and each truck carries two to three people-driver and their helpers. "We just disinfect the truck's wheels, windshield and the driver's seat and measure the temperature of its occupants before allowing them in," Sarawagi was quoted as saying. "We cannot disinfect the people and they are reaching all major cities across the country." Besides the Brigunj border point, hundreds of cargo trucks are also entering the country via several other border entries such as in Bhairahawa and Nepalgunj. "We all know that drivers and their helpers cannot stay inside the truck all the time," said an official. "Chances of the disease spread will be high when they come out and come in contact with other people," he said. Representatives of local levels that share borders with India have asked authorities concerned to perform coronavirus tests on cargo truck drivers and their helpers before allowing them entry into Nepal. "We have been prohibiting Nepalis stranded in Indian borders from entering the country to prevent the transmission of the virus. But we are not paying attention regarding the risk of the disease spread from the people entering the country in cargo trucks," the official at the Health Ministry told the Post. Birgunj Mayor Sarawagi said that risk could be mitigated if the incoming cargo trucks are stopped at border points and the goods are sent to their destinations in domestic cargo trucks. People who do not have high temperature and other COVID-19 symptoms does not necessarily mean that they are free from virus, making the disease difficult to diagnose without proper testing, health officials say. Nepal is among the nations with the lowest number of coronavirus infections. As of now 31 people infected with the virus have been successfully treated. The number of active COVID-19 patients currently undergoing treatment at different hospitals across the country stands at 79. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The diplomat said that now it is about several thousand people in respect of whom requests have been made Open source The German authorities filed a series of requests regarding an invitation to work for Ukrainians. Ambassador of Ukraine to Germany Andriy Melnyk said this in interview with Radio Liberty. Now we are having such a direct dialogue regarding the needs that the German side has stated. And over the past years, tens of thousands of Ukrainians ... First of all, they were students. They came to Germany during the harvest. Not only strawberries, but especially asparagus and other agricultural products in Germany. We have a number of official requests from the German authorities," the ambassador said. He added that now it is about several thousand people for whom requests have been made. "I am convinced that it is thanks to this systematic view that we will be able to find solutions that will be in the interests of both the Ukrainian workers and the Ukrainian state, and our German partners," the diplomat said. As we reported before, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba denies reports that his Ministry allegedly banned Ukrainians from traveling abroad for seasonal work. 698 Indians from Maldives arrive in Kochi Among the evacuees, 440 people were from Kerala, 187 from Tamil Nadu and four from Delhi. The rest were from 17 other states and Union Territories. Indian Navy Ship INS Jalashwa, deployed for the first phase of 'Operation Samudra Setu', enters Kochi harbour with a total of 698 Indian nationals stranded at Maldives, under 'Vande Bharat' mission, in Kochi, Sunday, May 10, 2020.(PTI) Sorry! This content is not available in your region An alert goods train driver saved the lives of 20 migrants crossing the tracks by applying the emergency brake just 100 metres away from them near Pune. According to a Times of India report, the migrants were walking on the tracks between the Uruli and Loni stations without realising that a high-speed goods train was approaching from the opposite direction. PTI On May 8, at around 7 pm, the driver from the Daund section under the Solapur division noticed a large group of migrant workers walking on the same rail track his train was moving. A railway source told TOI that their luggage made it clear that they were migrants and that some were also seen squatting on the tracks for rest. As soon as the loco pilot saw them, he applied the emergency brake. The train was running at a high speed but fortunately, it stopped just around 100 metres away from the migrant workers. a railway source told TOI. Wikimedia Commons. The guard and the locomotive pilot immediately alerted the control office about the incident and cleared out all the migrants from the railway tracks. The railway ministry has been sending messages on social media about the risks involved in walking on rail tracks amid lockdown, to no avail. A senior official of the Pune division told TOI that all the station masters, deputy station superintendent trackmen, gatemen in Pune rail division have been told to keep a watch on the tracks. A railway protection force official said that people who were seen walking along rail tracks were being sent to quarantine centres with the help of Pune police. A freight train ran over 15 migrant labourers between Jalna and Aurangabad of Nanded Divison of South Central Railway (SCR): Railway official #Maharashtra https://t.co/0sxdrbhCJs pic.twitter.com/aCF3mXVEI6 ANI (@ANI) May 8, 2020 The above incident happened barely 14 hours after 16 migrants who were sleeping on the tracks in Aurangabad were run over by a goods train. The Indian Railways said on Twitter that the accident occurred between Badnapur and Karmad stations in Parbhani-Manmad section. The injured persons were taken to the Aurangabad Civil Hospital. According to news agency PTI, the workers were walking to Bhusawal city from Jalna in central Maharashtra along the rail tracks. They were returning to Madhya Pradesh, their home state, an official at the Karmad police told the news agency. They were sleeping on the rail tracks due to exhaustion when they were run over by the goods train coming from Jalna, BICEPP, the Business and Industry Council for Emergency Planning and Preparedness continues to provide valuable COVID-19 information on its website, BICEPP.org. BICEPP continues to be critical conduit for the Los Angeles business community facing the consequences of COVID-19. Important Information specific to the issues businesses are facing during the current pandemic is coming in at an accelerated rate, and our website is a great place for businesses to visit and obtain the most helpful information, said Les Borsay, current BICEPP President. BICEPPs mission is to provide a forum for information exchange to enhance emergency preparedness and contingency planning within the business community. Current BICEPP President, Les Borsay is available for interview opportunities for media organizations in the Southern California region. Please call (213) 386-4524 or email us at info@bicepp.org to schedule. Participation in BICEPP can benefit businesses by updating them with the latest techniques and information in the emergency planning and preparedness process. BICEPPs role is to bring together the resources of business and industry with public service agencies to help educate and prepare the community. Since 1983, BICEPP has provided a forum for information exchange to enhance emergency preparedness and contingency planning within the Los Angeles business community. Free reusable masks will be sent out to Hongkongers starting on Monday under a scheme that has proven a public relations headache for the government. Under the plan, every resident is eligible to receive the masks which can be used up to 60 times. But the roll-out has been anything but smooth for the administration, after links were revealed between the mask designer, a government-funded non-governmental organisation, and some of the manufacturers. The giveaway comes after Hong Kong recorded three new coronavirus cases two travellers returning from Pakistan and one from Britain taking the tally to 1,047, with four related deaths. The last case of local transmission was three weeks ago, and although some social-distancing rules have been eased recently, health authorities stress the city cannot let its guard down. About 2.78 million residents have already signed up to the scheme, at qmask.gov.hk, and the government will start sending out SMS texts on Sunday to alert recipients that Hongkong Post will begin making deliveries the next day. If no one is home, a collection notification card will be issued and from the second working day people can take the notice and their ID to the designated post office to collect the masks. The sign-up period for the scheme runs until June 6, although people can still take part after that by visiting a post office. Hongkong Post said it would only notify applicants using SMS and the messages would not ask for any personal information. Each household will also receive a pack of 10 disposable masks in the weeks to come. The reusable masks incorporate copper, which has antimicrobial properties, and adopt the chemical symbol of the metal in the name, CuMask+. They were designed by the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel and cost about HK$40 (US$5) each. In seeking manufacturers, the government decided against launching a public tender and initially refused to name the companies it chose. But officials eventually relented to mounting public pressure, and identified the producers, some of which had ties to the institute. Story continues A company supplying raw materials, Esquel Group, confirmed its vice-chairwoman Teresa Yang was chairwoman of the NGO. Yang made a declaration to its board about Esquels involvement in February, and neither the company nor the chairwoman was involved in the discussion process of the development, materials supply and production of reusable masks, the company said in a statement on Saturday night. Explaining its decision, the company said that during the procurement process, the institute contacted the sales department and expressed extreme difficulty in securing raw materials. Esquel supplied 450,000 yards of the innermost cotton fabric at cost, the company said, putting the price at HK$3.8 million (US$490,000). The company that was awarded the contract to manufacture the masks, Crystal International Group, confirmed its executive director Wong Chi-fai was a director of the institute, and he disclosed his interest to the NGO in February, according to the company. Crystal International rescheduled its existing orders and reserved considerable resources to make the reusable masks at its Vietnam facilities, it said. The head of a company responsible for sterilising the masks said the controversy surrounding the scheme was not surprising. Everything has two sides, said Ronna Chao Wei-ting, the chairwoman of Novetex. Her factory had set aside existing orders to handle the governments masks and the company would not make a profit off them. While every Hongkonger is eligible for the masks, the required cleaning might pose a challenge to elderly people suffering chronic illnesses. The Hong Kong Public Doctors Association, with 6,000 members, asked operators of care homes to avoid having their residents use them. Nor should patients or visitors use them when in hospitals or at outpatient clinics. Most of the older adults living in [residential care homes] have chronic illnesses that require them to visit or stay at hospitals and clinics frequently, the association said. In addition to the tight manpower situation in [residential care homes], it is impossible to help all residents to clear their masks properly and thoroughly every day. The association said it had asked the Hospital Authority whether it would require patients or visitors to wear surgical masks instead and if they would be provided. The association also wrote to the Social Welfare Department asking whether it had provided guidance to residential care home operators on the proper use of the protective item. As the administration tries to get past the public relations difficulties, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department has run into its own problems over face protection available for street cleaners. A labour union said some government-employed cleaners complained their supervisors would not allow them to accept free masks from any group because doing so could flout the anti-corruption law. Its outrageous, said Li Mei-siu, vice-chairwoman of the departments Staff Rights Union. Why does the department think there is a transfer of benefits when Hongkongers like me want to show some appreciation to the street cleaners? Li called the departments welfare division and was told the free masks could be considered a transfer of interests. Its disrespectful to the cleaners who need the masks, she said. The government gives the cleaners 50 masks a month but that was not enough because they got wet after 10 hours of use in the warm weather, Li said. A department spokesman said workers had enough masks but could ask for more if needed. While grateful to anyone who wanted to give the cleaners free masks, others needed them more, the spokesman said. Additional reporting by Denise Tsang Help us understand what you are interested in so that we can improve SCMP and provide a better experience for you. We would like to invite you to take this five-minute survey on how you engage with SCMP and the news. More from South China Morning Post: This article Coronavirus: Hong Kong residents to begin receiving reusable masks from Monday first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2020. I am familiar with the native opera of my home city Xian China. The opera and its music accompanied with all my early life, and it gave me most of my traditional education, music education. For me, the opera and its music is like a music legend, and it reflects all the typical characters of our native people and our nation. For the reason I had relatives who were a couple and both worked in an opera institute, I got a lot of chance to show up in their theatre to see the shows, which was sometime official show, sometime a rehearsal, and it lasted all my elementary school period. The native opera is called Meihu. It is like singing and acting with a full storyline. A real opera. I really appreciated the actresses singing part: The songs were very gentle and sweet, and the lady sang like a spoiled girl complaining something with a smile, always with wonderful costumes style of 300 years ago or further. Sometime the main character was a female general, sometime a princess, being very pretty and attractive when acting. Accompanied with the song, the music was changeable too. The instruments included hu qin, ban xian, erhu, and others. The instruments made the opera more dramatic, sometimes it was like a river flowing peacefully , and sometime it was like a storm with a light, showing the internal feel of the character, the restless ,and stress, and hard to make decision mood. Actually the opera originally came from the nearby countryside several hundred years ago. The opera group often visited the countryside area to give shows for the farmers after their harvest. The opera is so popular in Xian Shaanxi province China. You would hear it everywhere, from the radio broadcast, or in the corner of a park, or in a tearoom afternoon show. Sometimes, there is only one actress with one instrument player, and they will be a show. The opera makes the native peoples life thrilled with its beautiful lyrics and music, and stories inherited from the history. Meihu opera will last forever and nurtures the native residents, the residents will keep their music legend to represent their self-identity and culture identity. Could AXIS Capital Holdings Limited (NYSE:AXS) 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. On the other hand, investors have been known to buy a stock because of its yield, and then lose money if the company's dividend doesn't live up to expectations. In this case, AXIS Capital Holdings likely looks attractive to investors, given its 4.2% dividend yield and a payment history of over ten years. It would not be a surprise to discover that many investors buy it for the dividends. Remember though, given the recent drop in its share price, AXIS Capital Holdings's yield will look higher, even though the market may now be expecting a decline in its long-term prospects. Some simple analysis can offer a lot of insights when buying a company for its dividend, and we'll go through this below. Explore this interactive chart for our latest analysis on AXIS Capital Holdings! NYSE:AXS Historical Dividend Yield May 10th 2020 Payout ratios Companies (usually) pay dividends out of their earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, the dividend might have to be cut. As a result, we should always investigate whether a company can afford its dividend, measured as a percentage of a company's net income after tax. Although it reported a loss over the past 12 months, AXIS Capital Holdings currently pays a dividend. When a financial business is loss-making and pays a dividend, the dividend is not covered by profits. Its important that investors assess the quality of the company's assets and whether it can return to generating a positive income. Consider getting our latest analysis on AXIS Capital Holdings's financial position here. Dividend Volatility From the perspective of an income investor who wants to earn dividends for many years, there is not much point buying a stock if its dividend is regularly cut or is not reliable. For the purpose of this article, we only scrutinise the last decade of AXIS Capital Holdings's dividend payments. The dividend has been stable over the past 10 years, which is great. We think this could suggest some resilience to the business and its dividends. During the past ten-year period, the first annual payment was US$0.80 in 2010, compared to US$1.64 last year. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 7.4% a year over that time. Story continues Businesses that can grow their dividends at a decent rate and maintain a stable payout can generate substantial wealth for shareholders over the long term. Dividend Growth Potential While dividend payments have been relatively reliable, it would also be nice if earnings per share (EPS) were growing, as this is essential to maintaining the dividend's purchasing power over the long term. AXIS Capital Holdings's earnings per share have shrunk at 41% a year over the past five years. With this kind of significant decline, we always wonder what has changed in the business. Dividends are about stability, and AXIS Capital Holdings's earnings per share, which support the dividend, have been anything but stable. Conclusion To summarise, shareholders should always check that AXIS Capital Holdings's dividends are affordable, that its dividend payments are relatively stable, and that it has decent prospects for growing its earnings and dividend. We're a bit uncomfortable with it paying a dividend while reporting a loss over the past year. It's not great to see earnings per share shrinking. The dividends have been relatively consistent, but we wonder for how much longer this will be true. With this information in mind, we think AXIS Capital Holdings may not be an ideal dividend stock. It's important to note that companies having a consistent dividend policy will generate greater investor confidence than those having an erratic one. Still, investors need to consider a host of other factors, apart from dividend payments, when analysing a company. Taking the debate a bit further, we've identified 2 warning signs for AXIS Capital Holdings 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. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 05/10/2020 ADVERTISEMENT [ Spoilers Warning: This report contains spoilers revealing whether Stephanie and Erika are still together or if the : Before the 90 Days couple has broken up]. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT So are Stephanie and Erika still together? Did the : Before the 90 Days couple split or are they still together? ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. couple Stephanie Matto and Erika Owens were shown getting their relationship back on track on : Before the 90 Days' most recent Season 4 episode -- so did their romance last, or has the couple broken up? Are they still together now?Stephanie, a 29-year-old from Yonkers, NY, and Erika, a 24 year-old from Port Augusta, Australia, are currently starring on : Before the 90 Days, which premiered its fourth season in February. They are the franchise's first-ever same-sex couple.Stephanie, who's originally from Czech Republic and moved to America when she was seven years old with her mother, revealed she's been hurt many times before but fell for a woman online, Erika, whom Stephanie called quirky, fun, and gorgeous.Stephanie said she and Erika are both bisexual and began talking about a year before the season began filming. Stephanie couldn't wait to meet Erika in person, touch her and spend time with her.Stephanie admitted she wasn't ready for Erika to meet her mother yet because she had kept her bisexuality a secret from most of her family and friends, so she decided to travel to Australia and get to know Erika there before taking such a serious step in her life."Erika doesn't deserve to be a secret," Stephanie admitted."But I just know for a fact my mom is not going to be thrilled I'm flying to Australia to meet a woman... I don't want anything to come between me and my mom. I just want her to accept my life the way that it is."Erika, a photographer and self-declared "colorful weirdo," noted there weren't many bisexual women in her small town in "The Outback," and so she was lucky to have met Stephanie.Erika said her parents just assumed she was gay but she had never officially come out to them.While they had known each other for a year, Erika told her friends she had only been romantic with Stephanie for four months.But Stephanie said their connection was unlike anything she had ever experienced before, and so she hadn't ruled out the idea of getting engaged by the end of her trip to Australia.Stephanie had decided to be celibate after her last relationship because she was tired of being hurt and screwed over, but she was willing to sleep with Erika during her trip if the girls discovered they're right for one another.Stephanie, however, was essentially going to risk her life since she has a severe disorder called aplastic anemia, which is a complete failure of the bone marrow. Certain bacteria can be very dangerous for Stephanie -- even the common cold could kill her.Stephanie admittedly found herself jealous of Erika's friends and plans pretty often. She said Erika lived a much more exciting life, while she typically sits home and watches TV with her dogs.Stephanie worried their lifestyle differences might become an issue down the road, and she was right.After three flights, 30 hours of traveling, and a lot of medications and precautions, Stephanie made it to Australia and the pair had a joyous meeting at the airport."She is the most beautiful, best smelling, best dressed, most amazing human being. I probably like her way more than she likes me right now, but it's okay, we'll work on it," Stephanie told the cameras.The pair stayed in a hotel room that night and kissed, but their relationship didn't go any further physically.But two days into her trip, tension started to build when Stephanie found herself uncomfortable on a date Erika had planned for them in which the girls took their shirts off and made colorful molds of their breasts.Stephanie thought the activity was "really strange" and "a little too much" for their stage of dating, but Stephanie thought that perspective was ironic since Stephanie was already anticipating she would move to America."You're telling me that you want to have this next big relationship [and have me move] and whatever, and then on the other hand, you're essentially telling me you're not ready to be intimate, and that's really confusing," Erika confessed to Stephanie.The pair had another disagreement during a dinner date that night when Stephanie asked Erika to uninstall a dating app that had been on her phone.Stephanie asked Erika if she would delete the app, and Erika snapped about Stephanie not trusting her in their relationship.Stephanie didn't think it was a big deal and that deleting the app would be a sign of respect, so she cried about how Erika had shown her "true colors." But Erika complained about Stephanie's jealousy and control issues and stormed off.And the arguing didn't stop there. Stephanie's struggle with jealousy and insecurity became increasingly more apparent when she met Erika's friends at a subsequent social gathering.Erika had hooked up with some of her friends before, including a man named Adam, and so Stephanie put him on the spot and asked if he had lingering feelings for Erika.Erika was mad Stephanie brought up their problems in front of her friends when they were supposed to be having fun, but Stephanie argued she had every right to ask a couple of questions.Erika accused Stephanie of yelling at her, and then she said, "I'm done," before storming off."This is ridiculous," Erika complained.At this point, Stephanie was close to giving up on her romance with Erika."I came here thinking Erika was the person I was going to spend the rest of my life with, that she would be the person that would understand my illness and make me feel more comfortable coming out to my family," Stephanie said in a confessional."Now, after all of this, I'm kind of realizing how much I still don't know about her. And I don't see how we're going to make any sort of commitment by the end of this three weeks. I'm not even sure if I want this relationship any more."After spending the night apart, the girls realized they needed to talk things out and communicate better.Stephanie apologized and said she had never intended to cause drama and was "a screwed up person" who's not perfect.Erika admitted it was hard for her not to be affectionate and to be questioned all the time, but Stephanie assured her that she loved her. Erika therefore suggested they start fresh, and the pair bonded over activities such as swimming with great white sharks."I'm ready to come out to my parents and introduce [Steph] as my girlfriend," Erika said. "I just hope that one day soon, Steph will do the same, because I don't want to live the rest of my life hiding my relationship."In the latest episode, Erika did just that, and her parents were completely supportive, encouraging, and kind to both girls.Erika said she was "extremely proud" of her parents for taking the news so well, and she called it an "amazing" moment in her life.Stephanie then revealed Erika might possibly move to New York to be with her, and Erika's parents even appeared okay with that because they said they just wanted their daughter to be happy and independent.: Before the 90 Days' Season 4 cast Tell-All reunion had reportedly been set to film at a studio in New York City in March similar to past seasons, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, those plans ended up being postponed.Instead, the show ended up filming a reunion remotely, with everyone participating via Skype, during the first weekend of May.The @FraudedByTLC Instagram account, which is run by a woman named Katrina, also has a podcast called The Fraudcast, which she co-hosts with Hanekawa Dravon, the ex-wife of : Before the 90 Days Season 3 star Benjamin Taylor During a recent episode of The Fraudcast, Katrina revealed details about what went down on the reunion, including the latest on Erika and Stephanie's romance."I do have some Tell-All tea about Stephanie and Erika," Katrina said. "They are barely on speaking terms in real life and on the Tell-All!""It's not pretty, you guys... A lot of you guys are asking, 'Are they still together?' And not only are they NOT together but they're not even speaking to each other. And that sort of antagonistic fighting with each other continues through the Tell-All."Katrina also appeared on Katie Joy's "Without A Crystal Ball" YouTube channel on Thursday and revealed additional information about the demise of Stephanie and Erika's partnership.Katie acknowledged rumors are swirling that Erika already has a new girlfriend, and then Katrina dished, "I think the Stephanie that Erika got in Australia is not the Stephanie that she had been engaging with for the last nine months prior to that.""They are barely on speaking terms. They are pretty volatile with each other on the Tell-All," Katrina added. "And I don't know that Erika gets any actual closure or answers."Katrina said Erika will be shown raising her concerns and issues and then Stephanie starts "crying her crocodile tears."Katrina said Stephanie made it "all about her" at the reunion taping, which prevented Erika from "being heard and getting her point across."Katie noted Stephanie, on the surface, seems like a good person and maybe she and Erika just weren't a good match."My own personal opinion is that I think Stephanie doesn't know how to be real Stephanie," Katrina explained, adding that Stephanie is much more conservative offline."She is so her online persona, and I don't fault her at all [for that]. But I don't know if Stephanie knows who she is outside of her online persona."Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage! New Delhi: Gulshan Khatoon, 22, of village Basta, Bihar, went into labour in the wee hours of April 29. Nine months pregnant with her first child, Gulshan was taken to the nearest hospital, Simri PHC, about six km from her home. Her husband, a migrant worker, was stuck in Mumbai due to the COVID-19 lockdown. When she reached the hospital that night 3 am, despite being in labour, Gulshan was denied entry and made to wait outside for two hours. Gulshan and her family pleaded with the doctor on duty but he along with other hospital workers flatly refused to treat the pregnant woman because she was Muslim. Desperate for treatment, Gulshan's family took her to the district hospital in Buxar, which was 30 km away. With no ambulances showing up despite being promised, the family managed a private jeep to travel. But even after reaching Buxar, Gulshan's trauma was far from being over. The Buxar hospital asked for blood tests and ultrasound before admitting the woman. Since these facilities were not available at the hospital, Gulshan's family took her to a diagnostic centre and managed to get blood tests done by the afternoon. The hospital, however, refused to admit Gulshan without the ultrasound report. Finally, Gulshan's family decided to move her to a private hospital in Kesat, a further 30 km away. When doctors finally managed to operate on the woman, her condition had already worsened. Gulshan gave birth to a stillborn. Depressed at having lost her firstborn, Gulshan now blames the government imposed coronavirus lockdown for her loss. "Eating roti with onion paste" Gulshan is one of many women affected by the nation-wide lockdown imposed on March 24 to contain the spread of COVID-19. Since the Tablighi Jamaat fiasco in Delhi's Nizamuddin in early March, several pregnant Muslim women across India have reported still-births and other medical services due to denial of services, discrimination and neglect meted out to them by healthcare professionals on the basis of their religion. But Islamophobia is not the only way in which coronavirus has affected expecting and new mothers in India. Tucked away in Baragaon village in Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi district, 28-year-old Guddu Devi makes a paste out of onions and chillies, applies it to two dry rotis, and eats them with salt every night before bed. The frugal meal is nothing compared to what she sees pregnant women eat in films, television commercials and public service advertisements. But at eight months of pregnancy, Guddu has nothing better to eat. Guddu's husband Ramesh is a daily wage worker in Delhi. With the coronavirus lockdown cutting off cross border movement on March 24, Ramesh has been stuck in a room in Delhi's Punjabi Bagh. Jobless and penniless, Ramesh who worked as a construction worker, has neither been able to go home to his pregnant wife, nor has he been able to send any money home for nearly two months. All their savings are now over. "I don't know when I will get to see my husband again. I am always hungry," Guddu says. At this stage of the pregnancy, women should eat all kinds of nutritious food, she adds. "I watched in a film once that a pregnant woman wanted to eat ice cream at night and they travelled across the city for it. I don't even have two square meals a day," Guddu rues. In the past few weeks, her husband Ramesh has made frantic calls to several helplines, seeking help for his family at home. "I have no idea how to return. The last few times I tried to venture to the station or cross the border on foot, I was beaten by police" he says. With work drying up, Ramesh was himself starving in Delhi while his wife, mother and two-year-old daughter starved at home. He has no idea about the trains that have been started by the Delhi government recently to ferry migrant workers back to their homes. It was only after an NGO got wind of his condition and offered to help that Ramesh could manage to receive some food. The activists also managed to send food Guddu and her family in Jhansi. "But how long will a few kilos of grain last?" a distressed Guddu asks. Guddu is one of the thousands of women who are either pregnant amid the global coronavirus pandemic. Like many, she too is facing the brunt of an unprecedented lockdown designed to restrict the spread of coronavirus. Maintaining social distancing is vital to contain the community transmission of COVID-19. The rising cases have also worn the healthcare services thin with reports of widespread neglect. The "Nightmare" of birth "The situation is a nightmare for women," says Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director of Population Foundation of India, an organisation that works for the health and reproductive rights of women, particularly the underprivileged. With transport services restricted and medical services as well as ASHA workers engaged in fighting COVID-19, reproductive services have come to a near standstill, especially in rural areas. Muttreja states that while the lockdown is essential, the health ministry needs to pay greater attention to how it will affect services related to maternal health care. "Data over the last decade shows that a large number of families from lower income groups now choose institutionalised births as opposed to home births. This is a welcome change. However, with limited transport services and available medical facilities, it is difficult for pregnant women to reach hospitals on time, she says. The womens rights expert explains that the positive and much needed shift to institutional births even among low income groups has led to fewer experienced midwives being available at the village level. This becomes even more crucial during the lockdown when government services are stretched thin and private healthcare is struggling to meet the countrys maternity needs. Muttreja goes on to stress the dangerous trend of stigma and bias against minority communities and its impact on the reproductive health of a large number of underprivileged Muslim women. "We need stringent action against such cases. Healthcare cannot discriminate on the basis of religion and such neglect of vulnerable women during pregnancy is atrocious," she tells News18. PFI has intervened to help several such women including Gulshan Khatoon to seek justice at the district level. "I couldn't hold my baby" The COVID-19 crisis has not just affected women in rural India but also urban and socially able women, in myriad ways. Tasneem Huzefa Sadriwala, 23, gave birth on March 16 in Mumbai, just six days before the lockdown. After delivering a healthy son, albeit a couple of weeks prematurely, Tasneem returned home in three days, only to catch a fever. "For nearly a week, I did not touch my newborn baby. I was worried I might have coronavirus so I did not even feed him for fear of infecting him," she says. Tasneem later got herself checked and her fever turned out to be caused by malaria. "This is the worst possible time to become a mother. I am constantly scared of the virus affecting my baby or me," Tasneem shares. While childbirth in India is an almost festive occasion that attracts families and friends from far and wide, Tasneem has ensured that no relatives other than immediate relatives come to physically visit the baby, even to bless it. "When I became pregnant, it was a different world. It is not the same as the one my child has been born in," Tasneem says, adding that coronavirus would change the way everything worked, including maternity and parenting norms. Delhi-resident Dr Ramya Ranjith also feels the same. Ramya, 29, gave birth on April 18 amid the lockdown. While the delivery went without a hitch, Ramya says that the days immediately after that were a struggle. "The lockdown was announced so suddenly, we had no time to prepare for the baby. We had not bought baby clothes or supplies. For days, we had nothing to clothe the baby in," the Dwarka resident recalls. 20 Million babies A medical health professional herself, Ramya also stressed that though her C-Section went without a hitch, it was important for maternal healthcare professionals to maintain sensitivity and be considerate toward women, especially those delivering for the first time. Due to coronavirus, the staff was already stretched, meaning she had to spend long hours in her hospital room alone and scared. "It's an emotional time for a woman, right? And this pandemic is unlike anything we were prepared for. All that is needed is a little bit more consideration," she says. "We are delivering babies by ourselves without our families. At these times, hospital staff needs to act as the woman's family and support her through the tough time". The argument for sensitisation of maternal healthcare professionals has merit but the reality of healthcare in India perhaps lies in the contrast in its access. In India where the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) in the years between 2010-17 was 61 percent, as many as 34 percent pregnant women below the age of 30 died during pregnancy (2015-17), as per data by the Sample Registration System (SRS). In 2017, over 1,600 women between 15 and 30 years of age died of complications related to pregnancy and delivery. Hundreds of women die every year due to unsuccessful or illegal abortions. As per predictions made by a top United Nations body, India is expected to record the highest number of births in the nine months after since the imposition of lockdown in March. Between March and December, the country is expecting 20 million new births. With COVID-19 wearing out healthcare system of India thin, is India equipped to deal with the COVID-19 baby boom? Can it contain the impact it will have on women's mental and physical healthcare as well as India's deplorable child mortality rate? But these questions mean nothing to the distraught Gulshan Khatoon who lost her first baby due to hate and inadequate access to healthcare facilities. Her baby did not make it to the predicted list of 20 million. Jennifer Hawkins celebrated her first Mother's Day with six-month-old daughter Frankie Violet on Sunday. The model, 36, shared a number of precious photos with her baby girl to Instagram, and said she loved 'being a mummy' in the caption. Proud father Jake Wall, 37, also shared sweet pictures of the mother and daughter duo to Instagram, taken inside their $20million mansion in Sydney's Newport. 'Love being your mummy!' Jennifer Hawkins, 36, (pictured) celebrated her first Mother's Day with six-month-old daughter Frankie Violet, on Sunday 'Love being your mummy Frankie girl!! Special day!!' Jennifer penned online. 'Last night was 'special' too, she (Frankie) wanted to be up partying with me at 3am! Sums up motherhood - imperfectly perfect!! 'Happy Mother's Day to my beautiful mum and all you wonderful mummas out there, and looking down on us,' she continued. So sweet: The model shared a number of precious photos of the pair to her Instagram, and said she loved 'being a mummy' in the post's caption Too cute: Jennifer also shared a short clip of Frankie holding onto a card with 'mama' and a love heart written on the front Family: The former Myer ambassador also took the opportunity to wish her mother Gail Hawkins (pictured) a Happy Mother's Day Jennifer accompanied the caption with sweet photos of herself cradling Frankie while relaxing on her waterfront patio, as well as one with her mother Gail Hawkins. Proud husband Jake also took to his Instagram account on Sunday, sharing precious photos of Jennifer cradling their baby girl at their Sydney home. One picture saw Jennifer, in a purple maxi dress, gazing down adoringly at a sleeping Frankie, who looked sweet in a white ensemble and matching headband. His girls: Meanwhile, proud husband Jake Wall, 37, shared precious photos of Jennifer with their baby girl Frankie to his Instagram account on Sunday Memories: 'Mama,' Jake simply captioned the post, which included two photos of the pair, alongside a purple heart emoji 'Mama,' Jake simply captioned the post, alongside a purple heart emoji. Jennifer announced their daughter's birth in an Instagram post on October 22. The former Miss Universe Australia first revealed they were expecting a child together in May last year. Power couple: Jennifer announced their daughter's birth in an Instagram post on October 22. Jennifer and Jake are pictured in January 2017 Priorities: Jennifer expressed her desire to start a family in September 2018, following her departure from Myer after 12 years as the department store's ambassador Jennifer expressed her desire to start a family in September 2018, following her departure from Myer after 12 years as the department store's ambassador. Speaking at her final runway show for the retailer, she told the Herald Sun: 'I'd love to have a family, it's taking the time to look ahead. I want to have the time to be able to do that.' Jennifer married property developer Jake in Bali, Indonesia in 2013, after eight years of dating. At first, the Tigard-Tualatin School Districts weekly food distribution program operated on the fly. It was supposed to run on overdrive for two weeks and fill the gap for families with children in the districts backpack program during a temporary closure while the coronavirus crisis blew over. Students in the backpack program rely on food provided by the schools during the week, and have food sent home with them for weekends. School board members Ben Bowman and Maureen Wolf, Margie Greene, executive director of the Foundation for Tigard Tualatin Schools, and Tigard-Tualatin Education Association president Scott Herron huddled to determine how to do it. They used a contingency fund of donated money for shopping sprees at local groceries. Those first couple weeks grocery stores didnt have enough food, says Bowman, a candidate in the Democratic primary for the Oregon Senate. People were panicking. We had these volunteer shoppers going to stores and people would yell at us because they thought we were hoarding. It was this very, very tense beginning. And, unsustainable as it became clear the crisis wasnt going to blow over. The schools would stay closed. Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter So, under the leadership of The Foundation for Tigard Tualatin Schools, the program has morphed into an extraordinary partnership between administrators, teachers, support staff, students, school board members and the community. They call it Packed with Pride, and its funded by community donations. The Lam Research Foundation came through with a $100,000 grant. The Resident Aid Fund of Tigard chipped in another $25,000. Packed with Pride has raised about $250,000 so far and has more coming in. The money helps, and so does the ability to buy in bulk. The rest is done with muscle and sweat. We did this call for volunteers to see what was out there, Bowman says. I think over 600 people have signed up on the website.A small army gathers in the Tigard High School cafeteria on Thursdays to pack 850 boxes with enough food to get five people through the week. On Fridays about half of the boxes are picked up curbside at Tigard High. Volunteers deliver the other half. The outpouring of support and donations from our community has been absolutely phenomenal, says Metzger Elementary principal Jessica Swindle. It takes roughly $10,000 a week to create the boxes and get them ready. Organizers believe they can make deliveries until August at least, and maybe into September if necessary. The program is targeted toward families with students in the Tigard-Tualatin schools. Others in the community with needs are referred to a similar program being run out of a neighboring church. This is probably as close to a wartime-stance footing as our current generation as seen, Tigard-Tualatin superintendent Sue Rieke-Smith said. People understand this is no joke. I think its the way our district is living its values. More in The Oregonian/OregonLive -- Coronavirus restrictions dont keep a dying woman from having her wish honored. -- Gresham Highs student body president rallies her classmates after the schools coronavirus shut down. -- Guardian angel keeps Hillsboro small businesses afloat during the coronavirus crisis. -- Glencoe teacher gets students and staff members dancing to raise funds to fight coronavirus. -- Special Olympics Oregon adds online after coronavirus shuts down activities. -- Students at Ridgeview High bring their teachers to tears with heartfelt video. -- Portland artist and local business executive team up help Portland nurses. -- Ken Goe kgoe@oregonian.com | @KenGoe Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. People seeking to enter Himachal Pradesh from red zone localities in other regions in the country will be tested for coronavirus, while all migrants returning to the hill state will be kept in institutional quarantine, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said on Sunday. Thakur said two special trains from Bengaluru and Goa will bring back stranded Himachalis to Una on Monday and Wednesday. "Proper arrangements would be made at Una railway station for ensuring proper social distancing at their arrival. Arrangements of masks, sanitisers and food packets will be made at separate district-wise counters," he said at a meeting with state officials. The state government has urged the Union government to run special trains from Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal, Bihar and other regions to facilitate return of Himachalis stranded there. The chief minister said priority will be given to bring back students as they are the most vulnerable group. He said 52,763 people of the state stranded in different parts of the country have registered to return to Himachal Pradesh in their own vehicles. About 63,044 people want to leave the state for their native places and 30,219 have already left HP, he added. The chief minister said workers should be persuaded to stay back as their exit may hamper developmental projects in the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) sacw.net - 10 May 2020 Some 7,000 migrant labourers from distant Jharkhand, Bihar and other northern states have been working at the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant near the southern tip of India. The L&T, a big and powerful builder, has employed these unskilled workers as its contracted labourers. Some of them have been employed by other local sub-contractors also. These labourers have been complaining for a long time that the contractors, sub-contractors and head-hunter agencies had been taking a huge cut from their wages as their own fee or commission. When the Corona curfew was announced two months ago, the construction work was stopped after the local population protested against it. Instead of making arrangements for these migrant labourers to go home, they were forced to stay inside the Koodankulam nuclear power plant campus throwing all the IAEA-stipulated sterile zone restrictions to the air. They were forced to stay inside hot and clumsy corrugated iron-sheet sheds in a very cramped condition with little or no sanitary facilities. They were not given sufficient food or safe drinking water either. According to inside reports, these workers were given poor quality wheat flour and potatoes for days together. There have been murmurs going on about all these issues for quite some time. But when the Koodankulam authorities tried to resume work in Units 3 & 4 without giving any due consideration to the workersa safety and well-being by letting in outside workers to work along with them, these migrant laborers started panicking. They were afraid that Covid-19 virus could easily spread if outsiders could enter the worksite and mingle with them. The local people, however, were afraid that these migrant laborers who were held inside the nuclear power plant premises against their will without work, or food or wages, could sneak into their communities and indulge in anti-social activities. In fact, some such intrusions did take place and the local police intervened and handled the situation. The migrant labourers have been sick and tired of their subhuman existence and wanted to break free from their servitude. They did revolt against all these on May 4, 2020 but the Tirunelveli district administration intervened and asked them to sign up online for departure to their native villages. Some 3,431 people signed up and waited for their turn to go home. When nothing happened for days together, the frustrated laborers revolted on May 9, 2020 and engaged in pelting stones on local police and other officials. Two police officers were hurt and admitted to the local hospital. The KKNPP administration, the contracting L&T company administration, subcontractors, district administration, and the state and central governments want the laborers to stay put here in order to resume the construction of the nuclear power plants once the Corona curfew is over. This holding of the workers against their free will and consent makes these nuclear worksites forced labor camps. Instead of providing them decent wages, better living facilities and safe work environment, the authorities are forcing them not to go home. The migrant workersa revolt at Koodankulam gives rise to a few important and pertinent questions. If 7,000 young and able-bodied men revolt in unison inside a nuclear power plant campus, can a few hundred CRPF officers who safeguard the largest and substandard nuclear power plants keep things safe and secure? The neighboring villagers are deeply worried about their safety and security. The local officials are saying privately that these workers have been damaging equipment and stealing components at the worksites out of anger and frustration. Two police officers have been hurt in the May 9th scuffle and admitted to local hospital. Naturally, the local police must have filed a few cases on some of these workers and their leaders. Since all these incidents take place inside the nuclear plant premises without any access even to the press, only the official version is being heard and reported to the outside world. Moreover, the local police and the revenue officials are trying to pacify the workers, and cover up all the pertinent issues. They try to please the state and central governments, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) and the Department of Atomic Energy for obvious reasons. One cannot be sure if most of these officials would be impartial and do justice to the migrant and unorganized laborers. In the light of the above situation, the Peopleas Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) has demanded setting up a apeopleas safety committeea to safeguard the interests of the migrant laborers who are languishing in a distant land without the knowledge of the local language (Tamil) and English and without any local friends or a support system. We have also requested the Collector and the Superintendent of Police to let a team of our lawyers meet and talk to these workers. The plight of the migrant workers and the unorganized laborers is so pathetic and heart-wrenching all over India. They were left high and dry by the state and the central governments and most of these workers had to walk hundreds of kilometers to go back to their villages. When they were on their way, the governments blocked state borders and stranded them right on the highways. Many workers and their family members died on the way without food and water. Some of them were run over by trucks and trains when they were resting or sleeping on their way home. Indiaas Home Minister, Amit Shah, has suddenly woken up to the plight of the migrant workers and written a letter to the chief minister of West Bengal on May 9, 2020. He has written: aMigrants from West Bengal are also eager to reach home. Central govt is facilitating but we are not getting expected support from W.B. State Government, which is not allowing the trains to reach W.B. This is injustice with W.B. migrant laborers. This will create further hardship for them.a Even as he is worried about the migrant workersa hardships, his own partyas chief minister in Karnataka, Yediyurappa, has stopped trains and buses from ferrying the migrant workers to their home states because of the lobbying of powerful construction companies. To put things tersely, the migrant laborers and unorganized workers all over India are being callously neglected, systematically harassed, and held against their free will and consent. This is indeed a gross violation of these poor workersa fundamental human rights. The Indian civil society and the international community should take note of this pathetic inhuman situation in India and come to the rescue of the poor migrant laborers and unorganized workers. S. P. Udayakumaran, Ph.D. Coordinator: Peopleas Movement Against Nuclear Energy President: Green Tamilnadu Party May 9, 2020 Tara Reade granted her first on-camera interview to TV journalist Megyn Kelly. Reade called on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race. Reade says Biden, then the senator from Delaware, sexually assaulted her when she was on his staff in the 1990s. Biden denies it. Republicans have picked up the #MeToo movements call of believe women." They accuse powerful Democratic women who support Biden of hypocrisy for having defended the word of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaughs accuser, Christine Blasey Ford. Cartoonists also commented on the Department of Justices motion to dismiss its criminal case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Flynn admitted he lied to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador. The Justice Department said the FBIs interview with Flynn was unjustified by its counterintelligence investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Supporters saw this development as a rebuke to overzealous prosecution. Critics saw it as Attorney General William Barr using his power to protect President Donald Trumps friend. Other topics in this weeks editorial cartoons include an invasion of bee-killing murder hornets as if we dont have enough to worry about; the perils of restarting (and not restarting) economic activity amid persistent coronavirus infections; the White Houses refocusing of its coronavirus task force from public health to the economy; the toll of the virus on meatpacking workers; Trumps television interview at the Lincoln Monument; a Supreme Court decision throwing out Bridgegate convictions linked to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; and graduations at a distance. Cartoons were drawn by Bill Bramhall, Dana Summers, Drew Sheneman, Scott Stantis, Walt Handelsman, David Horsey, Phil Hands, Joel Pett and Joey Weatherford of Tribune Content Agency; and A.F. Branco, Mike Luckovich and Michael Ramirez of Creators Syndicate. View more editorial cartoon galleries. A Yahoo News/YouGov poll has stated that almost one in five American citizens are not willing to get vaccinated, even though a majority of those who were polled (55%) stated that they will take the vaccine once it is available. READ: German Chancellor Angela Merkel Calls For International Cooperation In Search For Vaccine Americans split over vaccine About 100 research groups are pursuing vaccines with nearly a dozen in the early stages of human trials or poised to start. Its a crowded field, but researchers say that only increases the odds that a few might overcome the many obstacles that remain. Were not really in a competition against each other. Were in a race against a pandemic virus, and we really need as many players in that race as possible, Dr. Andrew Pollard, who is leading the University of Oxfords vaccine study, told The Associated Press. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. governments top expert has said: You need more shots on goal for a chance at getting a safe and effective vaccine. The first cautious tests of March, when small numbers of volunteers got injections to check for side effects, have turned into larger studies in China, the U.S. and Europe to look for hints that different vaccine candidates really protect. READ: UK PM Johnson: Coronavirus Vaccine Hunt Is 'most Urgent Shared Endeavour' Earlier this week, world leaders and philanthropists met on and ledged $8.1 billion to fight the Coronavirus outbreak. According to reports, the money will be used for the research, development, manufacturing, and distribution of a possible vaccine and treatment of COVID-19 patients worldwide. The online donor conference was attended by leaders from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Spain, and other major countries in the world, including organisations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. READ: COVID-19: World Leaders Pledges $8 Billion To Research Vaccine; US Gives The Event A Miss Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft has previously stated that the vaccine development to prevent coronavirus could take nine months to two years. In his GatesNotes blog, the business magnate said that the world will return to normalcy only when we have the near-perfect drug to treat COVID-19, or when almost every person on the planet gets vaccinated against coronavirus. Gates admitted that near-perfect drug to cure COVID-19 is unlikely to happen anytime soon and most of the drug candidates right now are nowhere near that powerful. The 64-year-old business tycoon said that the world needs a safe and effective vaccine, and that too with billions of doses, to return to normalcy. READ: WHO Says Deliberately Infecting People With COVID-19 Virus Could Speed Up Vaccines President Xi Jinping holds a welcoming ceremony for Kim Jong-un, leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, in Beijing, Jan 8, 2019. [Photo/Xinhua] President Xi Jinping on Saturday replied in a verbal message to Kim Jong-un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on Saturday, after Kim sent a verbal message Thursday congratulating China's achievements in containing the COVID-19 pandemic. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that he was pleased to receive a warm and friendly verbal message from Kim, also chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of DPRK. Saying that the epidemic prevention and control work in China has achieved results with major strategic significance after arduous efforts, Xi said he was also concerned about the COVID-19 control work in DPRK and the health of DPRK people. Beijing stands ready to strengthen anti-epidemic cooperation with Pyongyang and provide support within its ability according to Pyongyang's needs, he said. : Congress veteran and former minister Juvvadi Ratnakar Rao passed away at a hospital in Karimnagar district of Telangana on Sunday due to age-related illness. He was 92 and is survived by three sons, a party leader said. "He passed away at tha hospital at around 6 am today (Sunday). He was admitted to the hospital on Saturday evening, senior Congress leader and MLC T Jeevan Reddy told PTI. Ratnakar Rao was ailing from age-related health issues, Reddy said. Ratnakar Rao was elected to Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly thrice in 1989, 1999 and 2004 from Buggaram assembly constituency and served as a Minister for Endowments between 2006 and 2009, Reddy, who was his cabinet colleague, said. The funeral would be conducted in Ratnakar Raos native village Timmapur this (Sunday) evening, he said. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao expressed condolence over the death of Rao and gave instructions to accord a state funeral. Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president and MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy, and several party leaders were among the others who expressed their condolences. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Elementary school teacher Luciana Lira would often get calls from her students and their parents when they had questions about assignments in her class, English as a second language, especially since her Stamford, Connecticut, school moved online. But the call on March 31 was different. It was from a student's mother, whom she had met only a few times at parent-teacher conferences. "Miss Lira, my name is Zully - I'm Junior's mom," the woman told her in Spanish, gasping between breaths, Lira recalled. "I need your help. Please call my husband and help him and my son. I'm at the hospital, and I'm going to have an emergency C-section." Zully said that she was about to give birth to her second child but that she had covid-19 and was in respiratory distress. She and her family had recently moved to the United States from Guatemala. Lira called Zully's husband, Marvin, and he gave permission for her to communicate with medical staff and act as the go-between for the family. Zully and Marvin asked that their last names not be published for privacy reasons. Doctors monitored Zully for two days, then delivered her baby, Neysel, five weeks early. The infant, who weighed 5 pounds, 12 ounces, was sent to the newborn intensive care unit for observation, while Zully was put on a ventilator and remained in a coma for more than three weeks. "They didn't think she was going to make it," said Lira, 42. And the news worsened from there. Junior, 7, and his stepfather needed to be tested for the coronavirus. If positive, they could quarantine at home, but there was not a plan for what would happen to Neysel. Lira had been in contact with the hospital monitoring the situation. She decided there was only one option, and called Marvin. "I know that you don't know me, and I don't know you," she recalled telling him. "But if you want, I can take the baby with me until after you are tested. Then you can come and get your son from me." Marvin sobbed and agreed to her proposal. "I'm going to trust you," he told her. So on April 7, with Zully intubated in intensive care, and Marvin and Junior isolated at home, Lira bought a car seat, bassinet, diapers and formula at a local Target store, then drove to Stamford Hospital to bring home a newborn for the first time since her son, Christopher, was born 11 years ago. When news came back two days later that Junior and his stepfather had tested positive for the coronavirus (Neysel had tested negative), Lira's family quickly settled into a new routine of feedings and diaper changes. Now, Lira handles most of the daytime caregiver duties while also teaching ESL online classes for grades K through 5 at Stamford's Hart Magnet Elementary School. Then she's also up most of the night with Neysel, she said. "I'm exhausted, yes, but it's very rewarding," said Lira, a schoolteacher for two decades who is donating her own funds to eight other students' families to help with food and rent during the pandemic. "Neysel is a preemie, so he needs to be fed every two hours or so," she said, "and he loves to stay awake most of the night. But I am honored that the family wanted me to help." Although Zully was recently released from the hospital and is recovering at home with Marvin and Junior, she is still too weak to walk on her own and hold Neysel, Lira said. So Lira will continue to care for the infant as long as necessary. "More than anything, I would love for Zully to have him back and hold him in her arms on Mother's Day," she said. "But that may not be possible, so I am happy to do what I can." Word about Lira's kindness quickly spread through the community after another teacher at her school, Joy Colon, shared a post on Facebook about how her friend had stepped up. Soon, local reporters were calling and dozens of friends and strangers were chiming in with offers to help with baby supplies. "Lu was always amazing, and now the world knows," said Colon, 43, who has known Lira for 17 years. "Not one person who truly knows her is surprised by her actions, but we remain in awe." Several days after Lira brought Neysel home to join Christopher, 11, and her husband, Alex, 45, who works for a bank, she realized there was probably another reason she had stepped in to care for the baby, she said. In 2009, she was expecting twins, and at her fourth-month checkup, doctors told Lira that the heartbeat of one of the babies had stopped, she said. Her baby boy, Christopher, was delivered six weeks early during a four-hour C-section. "They wanted to intubate me, but I wouldn't allow it - I wanted to meet my baby," she said. "The medical team was worried that I wasn't going to make it. I was in pretty bad condition after the delivery." Like Zully, Lira spent several weeks in critical condition in intensive care, while her son was whisked away to the NICU at Stamford Hospital. "We were miracles - just like Zully and Neysel," she said. Lira is making a scrapbook for Neysel, and she has regular FaceTime visits with Zully and Marvin to fill them in on their son's first smiles, his sleep schedule and his sweet demeanor, she said. The infant regularly naps on her lap while she conducts Zoom meetings with her ESL students - some of whom like to offer her baby advice. "One of my students told me, 'Mrs. Lira, you have a big responsibility on your plate right now, so if you need help, my mommy has a baby girl and she knows a lot about babies,' " Lira said. "It's been nice to teach these kids that they can be compassionate and caring to somebody they don't know." Lira has started a GoFundMe for Neysel, whose parents have lost their restaurant jobs, she said. More than $26,000 has been donated. "My hope for this family is that they'll soon have their baby home and be able to hold him in their arms," Lira said. "When he leaves me, I will miss him a lot." Then she laughed. "But I have a feeling that one day, he will be one of my students." Iran says it is ready for unconditional prisoner swap talks with the United States because of fears that the coronavirus could put the lives of the prisoners at risk, Iranian media reported Sunday. An Iranian website, Khabaronline.ir, quoted Cabinet spokesman Ali Rabiei as saying there is a "readiness for all prisoners" to be discuss without condition. "But the U.S. has refused to answer, so far," said Rabiei. "We hope that as the outbreak of the COVID-19 disease threatens the lives of Iranian citizens in the US prisons, the US government eventually will prefer lives to " Rabiei said Iran considers the US government responsible for the health of the Iranian prisoners, adding that "it seems that the U. has more readiness to bring the situation to an end." Rabiei did not elaborate but Iranian media in recent months said there are several Iranians in US custody, including Sirous Asgari, a 60-year-old university professor. Last week, US officials said they were making progress in efforts to secure the release of a detained Navy veteran in Iran. But they were also pushing back on Iranian suggestions that a swap was in the works for the imprisoned Iranian American officials have been trying to deport since last year. Ken Cuccinelli, the acting deputy Homeland Security secretary, said Wednesday that the cases of American detainee Michael White in Iran and Asgari, the Iranian imprisoned in the United States, have never been connected. He expressed frustration with recent comments from Iranian officials that there may be a link between the two and complained that Iran had been slow to accept Asgari's return. White, of Imperial Beach, California, was detained in July 2018 while visiting a girlfriend in Iran. He was convicted of insulting Iran's supreme leader and posting private information online. He was released from prison in March on a medical furlough that required him to remain in the country. White is among tens of thousands of prisoners granted medical furloughs by Iran, which was one of the first countries to be hit hard by the spreading coronavirus. Trump administration officials have repeatedly said they consider the release of American hostages and detainees to be a high priority. In December, Iran released a Princeton University scholar held for three years on widely disputed espionage charges in exchange for the release of a detained Iranian scientist. In March, the family of former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran 13 years ago, said they had been informed by U. officials that they had determined that Levinson was probably dead. Officials have not said how they reached that conclusion. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mayank Singh By Express News Service NEW DELHI: India launched Mission Sagar on Sunday as part of the governments outreach initiative towards five Island nations in the Indian Ocean amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) in a statement said, "Indian Naval Ship Kesari has departed for Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and Comoros, to provide Food Items, COVID related Medicines including HCQ Tablets and Special Ayurvedic Medicines with Medical Assistance Teams embarked." Also, as part of Mission Sagar, Indian Naval Ship Kesari would enter the Port of Male in the Republic of Maldives, to provide them 600 tons of food provisions. India and Maldives are close maritime neighbours with strong and extremely cordial defence and diplomatic relations. COVID-19 related essential medicines including HCQ Tablets were already sent earlier to Mauritius, Maldives and Seychelles. A team of select medical personnel was also dispatched earlier to Maldives to augment their preparedness to fight this crisis. FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES HERE This deployment as Mission Sagar is in line with Indias role as the first responder in the region and builds on the excellent relations existing between these countries to battle the COVID-19 pandemic and its resultant difficulties, added the MoD. The deployment is in consonance with the Prime Ministers' vision of Security and Growth for All in the Region SAGAR promulgated in March 2015. SAGAR highlights the importance accorded by India to relations with her neighbouring countries and further strengthens the existing bond. The operation is being progressed in close coordination with the Ministries of Defence and External Affairs, and other agencies of the Government of India. By Jessica Jones and Guillermo Martinez MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's daily death toll from the coronavirus fell to its second lowest since mid-March on Saturday, as half the country prepared to move to the next phase of an exit from one of Europe's strictest lockdowns. Spain began to loosen its lockdown this week, but Phase 1 will include a considerable easing of measures that will allow people to move around their province as well as attend concerts and go to the theatre. Gatherings of up to 10 people will be allowed. The country's daily death toll from the coronavirus fell to 179 on Saturday, down from 229 the previous day and a fraction of highs above 900 seen in early April. The cumulative death total rose to 26,478 while the number of diagnosed cases rose to 223,578 from 222,857 the day before, the health ministry said. "We've managed to retake 99% of the ground lost to the virus," said Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in a televised address on Saturday. But he warned people moving to Phase 1 to be "prudent" and "cautious". He said a national period of mourning would be called once the whole country had passed to Phase 1. Some 51% of the population will progress to Phase 1 of a four-step easing plan on Monday after the government decided the regions in which they lived met the necessary criteria. In regions that made the cut, such as the Canary and Balearic Islands, bars, restaurants and shops will open at reduced capacity, and museums, gyms and hotels will open their doors for the first time in nearly two months. The country's two biggest cities - Madrid and Barcelona - do not currently meet the criteria for easing and will remain on Phase 0. Emergency Health Chief Fernando Simon on Saturday urged Spaniards not to think of it "as a race" and said it was possible Madrid would be ready to move onto the next stage within a week. Still, some regional governments were unhappy about being held back on Phase 0. Story continues Andalusian leader Juanma Moreno, a member of the opposition People's Party, complained he had not been able to submit an easing proposal based on administrative health districts rather than provinces, as other regions such as Catalonia had done. "I will ask that this decision be reviewed and the same criteria be applied to us as to the others," he said. The Madrid region's deputy president Ignacio Aguado on Friday said he "regretted" the government had not allowed Madrid to move forward and said it would apply to move to Phase 1 on May 18. The government will still encourage homeworking where possible and companies will have to implement staggered start and finish times to ensure distancing measures. In a positive step for Spain's tourism industry, which contributes around 12% of economic output, hotels will be allowed to open all rooms and nature tourism will be allowed for groups of up to 10. Scores of joggers and cyclists poured down Madrid's six-lane Castellana Avenue on Saturday morning, one of several major transport arteries closed off to vehicles for the weekend. "I think it's really good, what they've done with the Castellana is fantastic," said Madrid resident Carlos de la Torre, out for a morning jog. Madrid's city hall pedestrianized 29 roads over the weekend to prevent crowds from building up where runners and walkers are forced to share pavements and walkways. Cyclist Maria Galeote welcomed the move. "There's so much space between people, I think it's great," she told Reuters. "The bike lanes are packed with runners, walkers, as well all the cyclists. This gives us some room to breathe." (Reporting by Nathan Allen, Guillermo Martinez and Elena Rodriguez; Writing by Jessica Jones; Editing by Catherine Evans and Christina Fincher) Dorothy Doris (Haring) Hoffman passed away peacefully on May 4, 2020 in Mulvane, Kan., after a long struggle with health complications. Dorothy was born Jan. 18, 1937 on the family farm south of Glen Ullin. She was the oldest daughter of Theodore and Ella (Will) Haring. Dorothy attended high school in Hebron and graduated from Parks School of Business in Denver. Dorothy married James (Jack) Peter Hoffman in April 1959 and recently celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary. Together they raised four children. They moved often in their early marriage as they followed Jack's career with Gambles. They lived in North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and settled in North Platte, Neb., making numerous friends along the way. Dorothy enjoyed selling Avon and had a lengthy career with the company. She operated a home daycare and followed those children for the rest of her life. Dorothy graduated from Mid Plains Community College School of Nursing in 1983 and worked many years at Linden Court nursing facility and more recently as tumor registrar for Great Plains Regional Medical Center. She was a longtime member of St. Patrick's Catholic Church where her deep faith was nurtured and in turn she extended God's love to so many others. It was her faith that also helped her through her recovery from breast cancer. She was an active member of many organizations at the church. Dorothy found great joy in furnishing her home with whimsical items, particularly ones that blinked, moved or played music. She also enjoyed reading, cooking, canning, sewing, listening to music, and scrapbooking. She had a passion for genealogy and spent much of her time researching, compiling and adding to this information. Dorothy loved playing cards and board games. Her children and grandchildren are comforted by the fact that now one of them may finally have an opportunity to win a board game. Holidays will not be the same without her famous peanut butter balls, peanut brittle, and party mix. Dorothy had a tremendous love of family and treasured her annual trips to North Dakota to see family and friends. As much as she loved her children, she had an even greater love for her grandkids and enjoyed following them in their sporting events and school activities. She also volunteered many hours in her community for organizations such as RSVP and North Platte Visitor's Center. She is survived by her husband Jack, children Mark (Sharon), Derby, Kan., Lynda (Jim Cooper), Grant, Neb., Donna Rodriguez (Joe), Wellington, Colo., Julie Elliott (Michael), Lenexa, Kan. Six grandchildren, Mari Hoffman, Emily Rodriguez, Madeline Hoffman, Christopher Rodriguez, Brady Hoffman, and Sara (Justin) Barnes; one great-grandchild, Corrinne Barnes; stepsiblings Darlene Snyder, Joanne Hines, John Snyder and numerous nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her parents, sisters Lucille Emter and Nyla Seidel and stepsister May Snyder. In lieu of flowers the family ask you consider a donation in her name to North Platte Catholic Schools or the Susan G. Komen Great Plains foundation. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, cremation has taken place and a funeral will be held 11 a.m. June 20, at St. Patrick Catholic Church in North Platte, Neb., with a rosary to be said at 10:30 a.m. Family and friends who cannot pay their respects at this moment because of the current pandemic are encouraged to offer prayers for the family and support via phone call, text, email or may visit the Memory Wall at www.smithfamilymortuaries.com. Condolences may be sent to Dorothy's family at 11455 E. 84th Cir S Derby, KS 67037. Graveside service and inurnment at North Dakota Veterans Cemetery, Mandan, is planned for a later date. From the B-25 "Devil Dog" to the T-6 Texan, Houston warbirds took to the sky this Sunday. More than two dozen rare, historic airplanes made a 125-mile trip across Greater Houston beginning at 2 p.m. The flight was previously planned for Friday, May 8 but was postponed due to stormy weather. If you were awed by the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels' flight demonstration earlier last week, this flight of vintage WWII warplanes will be another high-flying spectacle. See the complete flyover here: BEIJING -- China has been actively sharing scientific knowledge on COVID-19 with global medical practitioners and researchers through multiple platforms. The COVID-19 Academic Research Communication Platform, jointly built by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Health Commission, the China Association for Science and Technology and the Chinese Medical Association, has included 124 journals and 952 articles and reports, and received more than 2.97 million visits as of Friday. The platform includes updated information on COVID-19 academic research, diagnosis and treatment plan and guidelines for drug treatment and pharmaceutical care. Multiple departments and research institutions have been actively involved in COVID-19 data sharing to provide timely, comprehensive and transparent information. The National Microbiology Data Center and the National Pathogen Resources Collection Center jointly established the Novel Coronavirus National Science and Technology Resource Service System on Jan 24, releasing the first electron microscope picture of the virus and strain information. The Chinese Academy of Sciences has opened an online scientific literature sharing platform for COVID-19 since the end of March, providing open services of information browsing, searching, and sharing to promote the international exchange of scientific research on COVID-19. Vice Minister of Science and Technology, Xu Nanping, said China has shared COVID-19 scientific data and prevention and control strategies with the world in a timely manner, and has carried out in-depth cooperation and exchanges with other countries in basic research and treatment plans. US regulators have approved a new type of coronavirus test that administration officials have promoted as a key to opening up the country. The Food and Drug Administration on Saturday announced emergency authorization for antigen tests developed by Quidel Corporation of San Diego. The test can rapidly detect fragments of virus proteins in samples collected from swabs swiped inside the nasal cavity, the FDA said in a statement. The antigen test is the third type of test to be authorized by the FDA. Also read: Coronavirus India Live Updates: Lockdown 3.0! Total cases near 60,000; govt's stimulus likely next week Currently, the only way to diagnose active COVID-19 is to test a patient's nasal swab for the genetic material of the virus. While considered highly accurate, the tests can take hours and require expensive, specialized equipment mainly found at commercial labs, hospitals or universities. A second type looks in the blood for antibodies, the proteins produced by the body days or weeks after fighting an infection. Such tests are helpful for researchers to understand how far a disease has spread within a community, but they aren't useful for diagnosing active infections. Antigen tests can diagnose active infections by detecting the earliest toxic traces of the virus rather than genetic code of the virus itself. The FDA said that it expects to authorize more antigen tests in the future. Quidel said Saturday that the test can provide an accurate, automated result in 15 minutes. The FDA's emergency authorization allows us to arm our health care workers and first responders with a frontline solution for COVID-19 diagnosis, accelerating the time to diagnosis and potential treatment, Douglas Bryant, CEO of Quidel, said in a statement. A genetic material test by Abbott Laboratories used at the White House also takes about 15 minutes. The company said it specializes in testing for diseases and conditions including the flu and Lyme disease. Quidel stock has more than doubled in value since the beginning of the year, closing Friday at 158.60. The US has tried to ramp up testing using the genetic method, but the country's daily testing tally has been stuck in the 200,000 to 250,000-per-day range for several weeks, falling far short of the millions of daily tests that most experts say are needed to reopen schools, businesses, churches and other institutions of daily life. That's led White House adviser Dr Deborah Birx and other federal officials to call for a breakthrough in the antigen tests. There will never be the ability on a nucleic acid test to do 300 million tests a day or to test everybody before they go to work or to school, but there might be with the antigen test, Birx told reporters last month. Recently, the National Institutes of Health announced 1.5 billion in research grants aimed at fast-tracking the development of rapid, easy-to-use testing approaches including antigen tests by the fall. Also read: Coronavirus vaccine: ICMR, Bharat Biotech join hands to develop vaccine for Covid-19 Also read: Liquor in Lockdown: Delhi govt issues 4.75 lakh e-tokens to buy alcohol A former House of Reps members, Ibrahim Baba wrote to president Buhari over an alleged massive outbreak of coronavirus in Azare, a town in Bauchi state. In the letter dated May 8, 2020, Baba averred that the proximity of Azare to Kano and Jigawa might be responsible for the increased cases of Coronavirus in the town. The former lawmaker appealed to President Buhari to direct officials of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to visit the town, saying that over 100 Coronavirus deaths has been recorded in the town in the last one week. TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) The part-owner of a Hong Kong bookstore specializing in texts critical of Chinas leaders reopened his shop in Taiwan on Saturday after fleeing Hong Kong due to legal troubles, saying he was grateful for the chance to make China's Communist rulers less than happy." The opening and accompanying news conference came days after Lam Wing-kee was splattered with red paint by a masked man while sitting alone at a coffee shop in Taiwan. Lam suffered no serious physical injuries and showed little sign of the attack other than a red tint to his hair. Chinas leaders dont want to allow a bookstore selling tomes that would make them uncomfortable or impact on their political power, Lam, who moved to Taiwan a year ago, told journalists. He thanked supporters in both Taiwan and Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous Chinese territory, for the opportunity to start over. This makes (Chinas leaders) less than happy, said Lam, who raised nearly $200,000 through online fundraising to finance his new venture. Commenting on Tuesday's assault, Lam said the Communist Party appeared to think it could stifle the shops business in both Hong Kong and Taiwan by using underhanded methods of all sorts. However, on a slightly pessimistic note, he added that Chinas policies had left little room for idealistic young Hong Kongers other than into the big sea. Lam was one of five shareholders and staff at the Causeway Bay Book shop in Hong Kong, which sold books and magazines purporting to reveal secrets about the inside lives of Chinese leaders and the scandals surrounding them. Along with others, he was taken across the border and put into Chinese custody in 2015, but was released on bail and allowed to return to Hong Kong in June 2016 in order to recover information about his customers stored on a computer. After refusing to return to China, he went public with accusations that he had been kidnapped and brought to the mainland, where he says he was interrogated under duress about his business. Following the detentions, the shop was forced to close while edgy political texts have largely disappeared from mainstream book retailers under pressure from Beijing. Story continues Lam moved to Taiwan last year amid fears over proposed legislation that would have allowed suspects to be extradited to China, likely face torture and unfair trials. Concerns over the legislation, which was later withdrawn, sparked months of sometimes violent protests in Hong Kong, a former British colony that has retained its own legal, political and economic system after being handed over to the mainland in 1997. Hong Kong police last week arrested 15 prominent lawyers and opposition figures over their alleged involvement in the protests, prompting further concerns that the city's civil liberties are being eroded by Chinas increasingly stringent political controls. Although claimed by Beijing as its own territory, self-governing Taiwan, with its flourishing democracy and robust defense of civil rights, has become a safe haven for critics of the Chinese government. Two high school students who turned out for Saturday's event at the minuscule shop on the 10th floor of a business building in Taipeis Zhongshan District said they saw its reopening as a sign of both hope and defiance. It offers Hong Kong people a safe place to develop, said one of the students, Hsu Shih-hsun. Taiwan's own experience with dictatorship and martial law under Nationalist Party leader Chiang Kai-shek, who fled to the island with his government ahead of the Communist takeover of the mainland in 1949, adds special resonance to the values the bookstore represents, said the other student, Wang Tsung-fan. I think that this bookstore coming to Taiwan makes us Taiwanese extremely proud. We can give Hong Kong a helping hand, Wang said. After all, our own freedoms were not easily won. Recently, photojournalist Lori M. Nichols spent a day at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center's Madison campus to document how the shelter is coping with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Editor's note: The following reporting and photographs were done in conjunction with NJ.com's "24 Hours in Crisis" project. Read the full project here. Don't Edit Batman and Robin, top right, are among the few cats at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. This room is usually full, however on this day, only two of the 12 cages in this room had cats occupying them. (Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Rooms usually filled with kittens playfully pouncing on toys or cats taking their second or third nap of the day are darkened at the Madison campus of St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center they are empty. The lights are still on in two of the cat rooms, but only two of the 12 cages in one of those rooms are being utilized. Many of the cats have either been adopted out or placed in foster care, as have many dogs and small animals. When it became clear the how serious the COVID-19 outbreak was, St. Hubert's like many shelters in New Jersey worked to clear many animals in their care out of the shelter, unsure of what to expect in the coming weeks and months. Don't Edit Rooms usually filled with cats are empty and dark, and a sign directs people to a location where they can wash their hands to help stop the spread of COVID-19 at the Madison campus of St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. (Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) St. Hubert's has temporarily closed its North Branch and Noah's Ark locations. There are less animals residing at the Madison campus to help reduce the workload for its staff, who are working reduced hours and without the help of numerous volunteers who would normally be cleaning cages and kennels, washing and folding laundry, socializing animals, answering phones, and so much more. Don't Edit Manager Tom Burke, standing, leads a staff meeting at St. Hubert's, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. Fifteen staff members spaced themselves well apart from each other to follow social distancing guidelines. (Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Tom Burke, manager of Medical and Administrative Services, leads the staff meeting in Ring 1 at the Madison campus. While staff usually meet at this time each day, the 15 team members in attendance now space themselves well apart from each other in the large room to follow social distancing guidelines. Most keep their faces covered with masks or bandanas. Don't Edit Behavior technician Nellie Booth sits with one of the dogs during the staff meeting at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. (Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Don't Edit Don't Edit Medical care supervisor Kim Lehner, left, and kennel attendant Michael Oulman, right, hold dogs as clinic technician Leslie Diaz puts drops in their ears at St. Hubert's, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. (Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) After the team meeting, medical care supervisor Kim Lehner and clinic technician Leslie Diaz continue examining and vaccinating dogs. Other than wearing face masks throughout their shifts due to the COVID-19 outbreak, it's business as usual for the medical team. Staff at St. Hubert's have been divided into two separate shifts the morning team working from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the afternoon teams from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. with the shelter closing in between shifts in an effort to lessen interaction between the two shifts. Don't Edit Medical care supervisor Kim Lehner, kennel attendant Joe Pagani, and clinic technician Leslie Diaz carry puppies to an exam room to be treated at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center's Madison campus, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. (Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Don't Edit Clinic technician Leslie Diaz plays with a puppy in an exam room at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. It's business as usual for the medical staff, with the exception of wearing face masks throughout their shifts due to the COVID-19 outbreak. (Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Don't Edit The Neonatal Kitten Nursery at the Madison campus of St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center is darkened, only used for intakes and storage of kitten supplies, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. (Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) The lights are out in the Neonatal Kitten Nursery. The room is still used for intake of new arrivals, but Nursery manager Samantha Friedman and veterinary technician Nick Eckert are now temporarily caring for neonatal and critical kittens out of their homes, since these kittens require around-the-clock care. These kittens, once healthy enough to no longer need such specialized care, are typically put into foster care until they are healed and ready to be put up for adoption. Don't Edit Behavior technician Carly Fairweather supervises play group at the Madison campus of St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. (Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Behavior technicians Carly Fairweather and Nellie Booth supervise dogs Hank, Lima Bean, Annika, Luna, Evi, and Bryan in play group at the Madison campus of St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center. A brief rain shower makes for wet play in the fenced-in area, but the pups don't seem to mind they chase each other, roll around on the concrete, and jump up to give quick hellos to both Fairweather and Booth. Don't Edit Don't Edit Annika is chased by Bryan during play group at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. (Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Play group allows for time where several dogs have a chance to run around and play with each other in a large fenced-in area. It's a great way to help the dogs expend their energy, but this time also helps the behavior technicians view each dog's personality in a more relaxed setting time in a kennel can be stressful for some as well as how the dogs interact with each other. Don't Edit Luna gives a good shake as behavior technician Nellie Booth supervises play group at the Madison campus of St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. A light rainshower made for wet play group time but didn't stop the dogs from having fun. (Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Don't Edit Behavior technician Nellie Booth leads Evi back to her kennel after play group at St. Hubert's, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. (Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) After approximately half an hour of play group, the dogs are led back inside to their kennels, one by one, prompting a chorus of barks and howls from those who weren't outside. Don't Edit A sign informs staff that there is only one cat in Get Well Room #3 at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center's Madison campus, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. (Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Get Well Room #3 has only one resident: Woody, an orange boy, who is craving some love and attention. Normally this room along with two others housing cats with medical needs would be filled with cats, all in need of extra medical care. Don't Edit Woody, the lone cat in Get Well Room #3, seeks out attention at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. This room would typically be filled. (Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Don't Edit Don't Edit Potential cat adopter Will Wallace, of Basking Ridge, pets Trouble at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center's Madison campus, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. (Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) In the early evening, Alexis Canary and Will Wallace, of Basking Ridge, arrive at the shelter, faces covered, eager to add a cat to their family. The two are introduced to three cats available for adoption: Cheetah, Keesa, and Trouble. Almost immediately, they are drawn to Cheetah's slightly crossed eyes and full orange figure. But Canary and Wallace also fall in love with Trouble, and are heartbroken over his sad story: his owner had passed away and has been in a shelter since March. Don't Edit Potential adopters Alexis Canary and Will Wallace play with Cheetah at St. Hubert's, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. (Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) They decide to spend some one-on-one time with both Trouble and Cheetah Cheetah first, because Trouble was living up to his name, unsure of getting into a carrier to be taken into a different room for the visit. The cats naturally have different personalities and needs: Cheetah seeking a quieter home; Trouble seemingly a little tougher to win over at first, but not easily startled. Don't Edit Potential cat adopters Will Wallace and Alexis Canary, of Basking Ridge, spend some one-on-one time getting to know Trouble at the Madison campus of St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. (Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Don't Edit Will Wallace and Alexis Canary, of Basking Ridge, smile as they walk out of St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center with Trouble, the cat they chose to adopt, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. (Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Approximately 90 minutes after meeting three cats available for adoption, Wallace and Canary walk out of St. Hubert's face masks lowered and smiling with Trouble, the cat who ended up in the shelter after his owner had passed away. After considering the needs of each cat, and their own lifestyles, they decided that Trouble was meant to be. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. Lori M. Nichols may be reached at lnichols@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Lori on Instagram at @photog_lori. Demonstrators returned to the streets in Huntington Beach, California, on May 9 to protest against the states continued coronavirus lockdown orders, video shows. The state government modified Californias stay-at-home order on May 8 and entered Stage 2 of their re-opening plan, meaning in addition to essential activity, curbside retail is allowed, along with the infrastructure to support it. Reopen protests also took place in Kansas and Washington on Saturday, among other parts of the country. As of May 8, there were 64,561 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in California, and 2,678 deaths, according to the California Department of Public Health In these videos, anti-lockdown protesters waving American flags can be heard cheering and chanting USA, USA. Credit: Sophia Lee via Storyful 74 Shares Share Art is a way to find yourself and lose yourself at the same time. When troubled, we experience the monkey mind, thinking of worst outcomes, or replaying past events. A creative pursuit helps stall that process by helping us actively practice mindfulness. There is no wrong brush stroke in art; you simply incorporate that into the painting and create something beautiful out of it. A good philosophy for life too, it seems. The experience of being an inpatient during this pandemic can be isolating and unnerving. This is a unique period in the history of mankind, and we are rallying forces to combat a deadly virus. Why not incorporate art to help support recovering patients and overwhelmed caregivers? Making art is a deeply personal undertaking that can be practiced in solitude with a few simple tools. It can be calming and akin to meditation in those physically well enough to try it. In prehistoric times, there was an intense focus on the idea of a body-mind relationship. Even Hippocrates believed that body and mind are a unity, and to affect one is to affect the other. Louie Pasteur, the famous microbiologists dying words were, the pathogen is nothing; the terrain is everything. So, what if we worked on making the mind and body conducive to healing, thus focusing on the terrain, while the disease is being treated by cutting edge science? Nurturing hope, love, and joy using music and art therapy can make a huge difference. Coronavirus is affecting millions and taking countless lives. Of equal importance is the resulting moral injury, burnout, and isolation affecting our collective morale. Using every available resource is crucial now. As children, we are encouraged to indulge our creative selves. Parents proudly display their childs art on their refrigerator and office space noticeboards. Whether the art is good or not is immaterial. The fact that it was produced is celebrated. Funny how we lose this ability to revel in the process of creation as an adult and become critical instead. Personally, while going through a traumatic time, art classes helped me tremendously. That hour of wielding my charcoal pencil was a time out from dealing with the mess that was my life. I would take joy in whatever I created, even if it was as simple as sketching a spoon or a basket of fruits. There is something immensely gratifying about letting creativity express itself through you. Art played a huge role in channeling my difficult emotions into something beautiful. It doesnt diminish the work one has to do to overcome a struggle. It simply helps in the healing process. When my critically ill patients get extubated, they are relieved to be free from the uncomfortable tube that was a barrier to their speech and expression. Encouraging them and providing bedside rehab is my priority at this juncture. I try to get them out of bed to chair as soon as possible, while treatment continues. I ask the family to get photos and play music, which always helps cheer them up. When my patient can hold a fork to eat, I give them a page from a coloring book for kids. Often the pens slip out of their hands. Improving their coordination while getting past their frustration, bolsters their confidence, and teaches them to be patient with themselves. With time, it improves their dexterity and gives them hope. A small intervention that reminds them that their recovery and independence is within reach. A lady who found herself paraplegic after an awful car accident was at a loss while adjusting to a new life and going through a divorce. A previously healthy and happily married woman, she was now desperately dependent on others for daily activities. During these challenging times, she found her outlet in art. Emotions that were too difficult to name or express had a release every time she touched her canvas with paint. She talks about it passionately in a popular TED talk. Her road to recovery was filled with stories of creativity. Today, she is a well-known artist and has a rich collection of paintings, a beautiful expression of the human experience. Art is known to help post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and those in palliative care. A dying patient can feel a range of emotions, and so can the people around them. Dedicating a portion of their day to a creative pursuit can help brighten their life. Art is a healing modality that is vastly underappreciated and underutilized. More so, it is a simple way to make a remarkable difference. Giving emotions an outlet and boosting a persons morale is a crucial step in recovery. Some hospitals dedicate a room for art therapy. Usually available only to patients and only to those who can physically reach that place. Caregivers need creative outlets too. The range of human suffering that we encounter has a profound effect on our consciousness, whether we are aware of it or not. Art can help patients and families alike. It can help healers and those being healed. It requires very few items to start with, some encouragement, and the courage to unleash our creativity. The output itself matters less than the process itself. Big Magic is a fantastic book that illustrates these ideas well. In Elizabeth Gilberts words: Art and creativity help add texture to our experiences. It helps us live with courage. To bravely express the treasures inside of us is to risk delight. To revel in the happiness of our creations is to accept our gladness and live our most creative lives in the ruthless furnace of this world. Art heals. It is a cost-effective, simple, and highly enjoyable therapeutic modality. Just as language is integral to our lives for communication and self-expression, art and creativity are vital to our well being. Engaging in creativity is practicing mindfulness. I firmly believe it is time to take art therapy into all healing spaces. Sonali Mantoo is a critical care physician. Image credit: Shutterstock.com A minor clash broke out between Indian and Chinese troops in North Sikkim's Nakula area a few days ago, in which both the sides suffered minor injuries. Sources said that the heat was paved off after local level interaction and dialogue. Troops of India and China had a face-off in Nakula area of North Sikkim a few days ago in which soldiers of both sides sustained injuries. The face-off was resolved after the intervention and dialogue at the local level on both sides took place, Army sources said. Incidents of a face-off between Indian and Chinese soldiers in North Sikkim did take place. Aggressive behaviour and minor injuries took place on both sides, they said. Both sides disengaged after local level interaction and dialogue, the sources said. Army sources said that such temporary and short duration faceoffs keep occurring as boundary issue between China and Indian has not been resolved. Troops resolve such issues mutually as per established protocols. This has occurred after a long time, they said. India and China were engaged in a 73-day standoff in Doklam after Chinese troops were building a road from their territory to the Jhamphiri ridgeline. Also Read: After health ministry, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal says weve to learn to live with coronavirus Also Read: Maharashtra Police says 7 deaths, 786 personnel test positive for COVID-19 Tension between India and China on the politico-economic front were also reported after India recently revised its FDI guidelines to prevent opportunistic takeovers/acquisition of Indian companies, in the backdrop of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The revised guidelines stated that an entity, which shares land border with India or where the beneficial owner of an investment into India is situated, can invest in India only through governments route. Reacting to which, China called the amendment discriminatory and against the general trend of liberalisation. Also Read: After Vizag gas leak, MHA issues guidelines on restarting manufacturing industries For all the latest National News, download NewsX App MILAN (Reuters) - Large Italian companies have requested 18.5 billion euros ($20 billion) in state-guaranteed loans to weather the coronavirus crisis, state-backed export credit agency SACE said on Saturday. Last month the Italian government approved a package of emergency measures offering liquidity and bank loans to companies hit by the health emergency. MILAN (Reuters) - Large Italian companies have requested 18.5 billion euros ($20 billion) in state-guaranteed loans to weather the coronavirus crisis, state-backed export credit agency SACE said on Saturday. Last month the Italian government approved a package of emergency measures offering liquidity and bank loans to companies hit by the health emergency. One of the measures allows medium-sized and large companies to ask SACE to guarantee new bank loans, provided the firms refrain from approving dividend payments for a year. The credit agency said that banks had received 250 requests for state-guaranteed loans so far. It pledged to act quickly to ensure fresh funds were available for cash-starved companies, adding that once it received a request from a bank it could issue the guarantees within 48 hours. SACE said it had already given the green light to requests for 30 million euros in loans. The motorway and airport units of infrastructure group Atlantia and high-street retailer OVS are among companies to have expressed interest in such loans. More than 30,000 people have died as a result of the coronavirus outbreak in Italy since the crisis started in February, the third highest death toll in the world. Rome, which shuttered all businesses not deemed essential until May 3, has forecast a full-year GDP drop of 8% this year, before a partial rebound of 4.7% next year. ($1 = 0.9225 euros) (Reporting by Francesca Landini; Editing by Pravin Char) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. School staff have called for time to prepare - and possibly a staged return - to get Victorian students back in their classrooms. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews will make an announcement on Monday which is expected to detail how pupils will get back to learning within weeks. Premier Daniel Andrews speaks on coronavirus restrictions on Friday. Credit:Eddie Jim News Corp reported on Sunday that students would head back to school in two weeks but Australian Principals Federation head Julie Podbury told radio station 3AW it was "not true". Teachers and advocacy groups have called for a careful plan for the return to on-site schooling, if it occurred before the end of term two on June 26. New Jersey is set to receive 4,400 vials of remdesivir, the only drug so far proven to help patients with the coronavirus, from the federal government to help manage the nations second-largest outbreak, the states top health official announced Saturday. The news came shortly after President Donald Trumps administration announced its plans for distributing the drug to hard-hit areas. New Jersey will receive 110 cases, each with 40 vials, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said. Persichilli added that he department is working with the states 71 hospitals on a distribution plan that will be equitable and consistent to where the greatest need is. Remdesivir is an antiviral that improves the time of recovery from 15 days to 11 days, she said during the states daily coronavirus press briefing in Trenton. That proves that this drug can block the virus. The U.S. Health and Human Service Department announced it will ship 14,400 vials of the drugs across the country. The drugs maker, Gilead, has donated 607,000 vials to the federal government, which the department said is enough to treat 78,000 patients nationwide. The drug was created by Gilead Sciences as a potential treatment for hepatitis C and later ebola. Gov. Phil Murphy joked about one thing. "Im just wondering if we could petition the manufacturers of Remdesivir to change the name to something like Pill, Murphy said during the states briefing. It could roll off the tongue a little more easily. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the drug emergency use authorization, which is different from full approval. The FDA grants emergency use authorization after evaluating available evidence and balancing potential risks with possible benefits. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases conducted a clinical trial that involved 1,063 patients that began on Feb. 21, and found that patients who took remdesivir had a 31% faster recovery time than those who received a placebo. The data was not sufficient to determine if the drug was associated with lower mortality, the federal Health and Human Service Department said. New Jersey, a densely populated state of 9 million residents, has reported at least 9,116 deaths attributed to COVID-19, with at least 136,085 total cases, in a little more than nine weeks. State officials Saturday confirmed another 166 deaths and 1,759 new positive tests. Only New York has more cases among American states. Officials said the number of cases and hospitalizations in the state is dropping. But there were still 4,628 coronavirus patients hospitalized as of Friday night. And Murphy said residents need to keep practicing social distancing and remain under his stay-at-home orders to prevent numbers from surging again. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com. Biju E Paul By Express News Service ALAPPUZHA: Lending a helping hand to the evacuation of Indian expatriates from San Francisco in Covid-19 hit USA is a Malayali. Vincent Varkey, security and protocol officer of the Indian Consulate General, is a native of Kuttanad and he is in the team of officials tasked with evacuating Indians. According to Varkey, the consulate made all arrangements to evacuate the first batch of Indians from the US. The Air India AI 174 flight arrived at San Francisco with a 20- member crew led by Captain Sandeep Bakshi. As many as 217 passengers have been selected from a list of 6,000 for the first flight, which will leave for Mumbai at 11.30 am on Sunday. It is scheduled to arrive at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport at 3.30 am on Monday, he told TNIE over the phone from SF. Among the passengers on board the first flight, there is only one Keralite. The Kozhikode native had arrived in the country on a student visa. The remaining passengers are from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Karnataka. There will be a connecting flight from Mumbai to Hyderabad on Monday, said Varkey. SF was selected for the first evacuation because the number of Covid cases reported in California state is comparatively less than other states of the US. The state authorities introduced lockdown immediately after the outbreak of the pandemic and that helped to prevent its spread, he said. Consul general Sanjay Panda and deputy consul general Rajesh Narayan Naik are leading the evacuation drive. The consulate hired a medical team to screen passengers outside the airport. Another screening will also be arranged inside the airport by a medical team of the airport authority, said Varkey. There will be another evacuation flight from SF to Bengaluru via Delhi on May 13. Vincent had worked with the NSG Black Cat Commando wing for more than seven years before being appointed on deputation for the security of embassies. Two years ago, he was posted in San Francisco. He worked as the security guard of Narendra Modi when he was Gujarat chief minister. He had worked as the PSO of LK Advani for three years when he was the deputy prime minister. I worked as a security guard of chief ministers Rajnath Singh, Jayalalitha, Karunanidhi, Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Farooq Abdulla, Parkash Singh Badal, Bhajan Lal and others, he said. The 44-year-old is the son of Vakkachan and Thankamma of Kiliyalamvelil house, Pullangady, Chambakulam, in Kuttanad. He joined Assam Rifles at the age of 18. It was in 2001 that he joined the NSG on deputation. In 2007, he returned to his parent unit and was again appointed on deputation in the External Affairs Department two years ago. Heydar Aliyev was born on May 10, 1923 in Nakhchivan city of Azerbaijan. In 1939, after graduating from the Nakhchivan Pedagogical School, he entered the Architecture Department of the Industrial Institute of Azerbaijan (now the State Oil Academy of Azerbaijan), but the World War 2 impeded the completion of his education. Since 1941, Heydar Aliyev headed a department at the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Nakhchivan, and in 1944, was sent to work at state security bodies. He received special education in the cities of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) and Moscow. In 1957 he graduated from the History Department of the Azerbaijan State University. Having worked for twenty five years at state security bodies, Heydar Aliyev served as the deputy chairman of the State Security Committee under the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan SSR since 1964, and from 1967, held the office of chairman of the committee, and rose to the rank of a major general. Elected as first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan at the Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan in July 1969, Heydar Aliyev became the head of the republic. Elected as a candidate to the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union's Communist Party in 1976, and a member of the Political Bureau in 1982, Heydar Aliyev was appointed the first deputy chairman of the USSR's Council of Ministers. While on this position, Heydar Aliyev headed the most significant areas of the USSR's economic, social and cultural lives. For twenty years, Heydar Aliyev was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Azerbaijan SSR, and for five years, worked as a first deputy chairman of the USSR's Council of Ministers. In October 1987, as a sign of protest against the policy pursued by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union's Communist Party and, personally, by Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev, Heydar Aliyev resigned from his post. In connection with the tragedy committed on January 20, 1990 in Baku by the Soviet troops, Heydar Aliyev, appearing the next day at the Representative Office of Azerbaijan in Moscow with a statement, demanded that the organizers and executors of the crime committed against the people of Azerbaijan be punished. As a sign of protest against the hypocritical policy of the USSR leadership towards the critical conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, in July 1991, he left the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After returning to Azerbaijan in July 1990, Heydar Aliyev first lived in Baku, then moved to Nakhchivan, and the same year was elected a deputy to the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan. In 1991-1993, he held the post of chairman of the Supreme Assembly of the Autonomous Republic of Nakhchivan, deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Azerbaijan. In 1992, at the constituent congress of the New Azerbaijan Party in Nakhchivan, Heydar Aliyev was elected chairman of the Party. In May-June 1993, when, as a result of a crisis in the government, the country was on the verge of a civil war and faced the peril of losing independence, the people of Azerbaijan demanded to bring Heydar Aliyev to power, and the then leaders of Azerbaijan were obliged to officially invite Heydar Aliyev to Baku. On June 15, 1993, Heydar Aliyev was elected chairman of the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan, and on June 24, by a resolution of the National Assembly, he proceeded to fulfilling the authorities of the president of the Republic of Azerbaijan. On October 3, 1993, as a result of the nationwide vote, Heydar Aliyev was elected president of the Republic of Azerbaijan. At the election held on October 11, 1998, he was re-elected president of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Heydar Aliyev, giving his consent to be nominated as a candidate at the 15 October 2003 presidential election, relinquished to run at the election due to health problems. On December 12, 2003, national leader of the Azerbaijani people, President Heydar Aliyev passed away in the Cleveland hospital in the US, where he had been undergoing medical treatment, and on December 15, was buried at the Alley of Honor in Baku. The Rashtriya Lok Samata Party led by former union minister Upendra Kushwaha on Sunday observed "black day" across Bihar and staged a two-hour dharna to protest against the state government's decision to not allow media personnel into quarantine centres. He also alleged that the Nitish Kumar government failed to provide relief and financial assistance to farmers and migrant labourers who have been bearing the brunt of the coronavirus-triggered lockdown. The state government has failed to provide relief to migrant labourers and farmers and is not allowing the media to report the truth from quarantine centres as reporters and photographers have not been allowed to go inside these facilities," Kushwaha said in a 97 second video-clip which he posted on his Twitter handle. Terming the government's decision to ban the entry of media personnel into quarantine centres as "undemocratic and unconstitutional", he said the restrictions were imposed to hide its failures. Kushwaha observed the two-hour dharna in his native village Jawaz in Vaishali district, where he has been residing since the lockdown was enforced in the country, RLSP Bihar unit's media in-charge Bhola Sharma said. The party's national treasurer Rajesh Yadav, state unit spokesman Bhola Yadav and others staged dharna at its headquarters here, Sharma said, adding that social distancing norms were followed and leaders wore face masks during the protest. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tesla announced the resumption of production at its main plant in Fremont. The statement runs as follows: "Tesla is the last major carmaker remaining in California, and the largest manufacturing employer in the State with more than 10,000 employees at our Fremont factory and 20,000 statewide. We understand the impacts COVID-19 has caused and have a responsibility to look out for the livelihoods and safety of our personnel, many of whom rely on us and have been out of work for weeks due to the impacts of shelter-in-place orders. Given the Governors recent guidance, which is supported by science and credible health data, the state and federal governments classification of vehicle manufacturing as national critical infrastructure, and our robust safety plan, Tesla has started the process of resuming operations. Our employees are excited to get back to work, and were doing so with their health and safety in mind." Earlier, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he pulls the company's headquarters out from California and sue Alameda County. Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier? Sign up to receive news and updates from this site directly to your desktop. Breaking News Columbia Breaking News Greenville Breaking News Myrtle Beach Breaking News Aiken Breaking News N Augusta Breaking News Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time. Success! Please click the 'Allow' button in the 'Show Notifcations' alert in your browser if one is available. Thank you for signing up! Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page. The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) is calling on government to strictly enforce the covid-19 preventive measures. GMA made the call in a statement dated May 9, 2020, and jointly signed by its president, Dr Patrick Ankobea and General Secretary, Dr Justice Yankson. The call came as Ghana's confirmed coronavirus cases increased from 4,012 to 4,263 and deaths moved from 18 to 22. The Covid-19 pandemic is real, it is here with us in Ghana and is still a major health threat to all persons living in the country, the statement says. Non-adherence to the Covid-19 preventive measures at this point in our collective fight against the disease has a huge potential to erode any gains made so far. This also has the propensity to escalate further spread of the disease, it says. It warned that President Nana Akufo-Addo should not lift the ban on social gatherings for religious activities, schools, marriage ceremonies, funerals, among others. Our international borders should also remain closed for now, it stated. It urged government to ensure prompt and continuous distribution of PPEs to all health workers at their various institutions. ---Daily Guide Rajesh Abraham By Express News Service KOCHI: In A quiet move, India has opened commercial operations of national carrier Air India Express, allowing overseas passengers to travel to some of the Gulf countries and Singapore, provided they get the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) clearance and requisite permissions from the destination countries. An Air India Express flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Bahrain scheduled for departure on Monday at 1.00 pm has allowed Bahrain nationals and residents to book tickets. Only Bahraini nationals/citizens and valid resident permit (RP) holders are permitted to enter Bahrain. Passengers travelling from Thiruvananthapuram should cross-check with their respective sponsors to make sure their RP is valid, said an official. We have not made it official and want to check the response in a quiet manner, said the official. When contacted, an Air India Express spokesperson confirmed the development, but added that the travellers will have to get clearance from the MHA and also permission from the destination country before boarding the flights. Its not an easy process. There is a lot of documentation involved, he said, adding that about 20-25 passengers have booked tickets. The airfare for the Gulf sector is priced at `30,000 per ticket. Some travellers have called us to say the ticket prices are on the higher side. But this is not a full-fledged operation and hence the higher price, said the official, who did not wish to be named. Another flight is scheduled for Tuesday to Singapore from Kochi airport. The passengers eligible to travel to Singapore are citizens of that country, permanent residents and long-term pass holders, according to an Air India Express message. Kochi-Singapore bookings are open, the spokesperson confirmed. Official expects restrained resumption of flights An Air India Express flight to Oman from Kochi, which airlifted 13 Omanis on Saturday was perhaps the first official international commercial flight from India after the country shut international air travel for passenger flights on March 22. The flight also had three medical professionals from Kerala. They had to resume duty in the Gulf country and we allowed them to book tickets, an official said. Kapil Kaul, CEO and director of aviation consultancy firm CAPA Advisory, said he expects a very restrained resumption of commercial flights by the Indian government by next week. He said the ongoing flights could be considered only as repatriation flights and not scheduled international flights as the government has not formally approved the resumption of flight operation. Delcy Rodriguez is subject to travel sanctions that are binding on all Rio Treaty parties, and Trinidad and Tobago is a party to the treaty. This was the response of the United States Embassy Public Affairs Section to questions from the media with respect to the controversial visit of Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez to Trinidad on March 27. Nine new cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths were reported in Cumberland County in Sunday's report from the state Department of Health. Of the nine new cases, three came from residents in long-term care facilities. The DOH still shows 8 facilities in Cumberland County now showing 200 residents and 54 staff members who have tested positive, with 32 deaths. The county overall shows 434 total positive cases with 33 deaths. Sunday's results showed nine positives out of 177 total tests for a rate of .05%. In the county totals, 254 of the 434 total positive cases are in long-term care facilities, or 59%. Of the county's 33 overall deaths, 32 are from long-term care facilities. SCI Camp Hill remains with five total positive cases. In the past 14 days, 167 new cases have been reported in the county. That puts the county's per capita rate for the 14-day period at 65.91 cases per 100,000 people in the county, the lowest rate since April 23. The southcentral region saw 130 new cases in Sunday's report with Dauphin County reporting 26 new cases and Franklin County reporting 15. Overall, the region saw 1,408 new cases over the previous 14-day period, putting its rate of cases per 100,000 people at 81.52. Statewide, the Department of Health reported an additional 1,295 positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 56,611. The state is reporting an increase of 19 additional deaths Sunday, bringing the statewide total to 3,707 deaths in Pennsylvania. There are 227,772 patients who have tested negative to date. County numbers in the southcentral region (through May 10): Adams County (pop. 103,009): 3 new cases; 159 total cases; 1,845 negatives; 5 deaths Bedford County (pop. 47,888): 0 new case; 29 total cases; 3335 negatives; 1 death Blair County (pop. 121,829): 0 new cases; 28 total cases; 1,447 negatives; 0 deaths Cumberland County (pop. 253,370): 9 new cases; 434 total cases; 2,208 negatives; 33 deaths Dauphin County (pop. 278,299): 26 new cases; 823 total cases; 4,778 negatives; 36 deaths Franklin County (pop. 155,027): 15 new cases; 493 total cases; 3,609 negatives; 12 deaths Fulton County (pop. 14,530): 0 new cases; 8 total cases; 133 negatives; 0 deaths Huntingdon County (pop. 45,144): 62 new cases; 181 total cases; 463 negatives; 0 deaths Juniata County (pop. 24,763): 0 new cases; 93 total cases; 208 negatives; 1 death Lebanon County (pop. 141,793): 6 new cases; 811 total cases; 3,183 negatives; 16 deaths Mifflin County (pop. 46,138): 2 new cases; 52 total cases; 846 negatives; 0 deaths Perry County (pop. 46,272): 1 new cases; 35 total cases; 361 negatives; 1 death York County (pop. 449,058): 6 new cases; 773 total cases; 8,621 negatives and 13 deaths Case counts by region to date (through May 10): Northcentral 9 new positives; 872 total positives; 9,985 negatives; 15 inconclusive Northeast 213 new positives; 11,236 total positives; 34,331 negatives; 123 inconclusive Northwest 6 new positives; 313 total positives; 7,796 negatives; 16 inconclusive Southcentral 130 new positives; 3,810 positives; 28,037 negatives; 56 inconclusive Southeast 885 new positives; 36,452 total positives; 107,068 negatives; 818 inconclusive Southwest 24 new positives; 2,902 total positives; 40,055 negatives; 31 inconclusive Long-term care facilities in the Midstate (through May 10): Cumberland County: 8 facilities, 200 residents, 54 staff, 32 deaths Adams County: 3 facilities, 23 residents, 4 staff, 4 deaths Dauphin County: 3 facilities, 183 residents, 39 staff, 24 deaths Franklin County: 6 facilities, 64 residents, 10 staff, 4 deaths Lancaster County: 30 facilities, 516 residents, 139 staff, 141 deaths Lebanon County: 5 facilities, 66 residents, 12 staff, 10 deaths York County: 6 facilities, 11 residents, 3 staff, 1 death ZIP code-level counts (through May 10): 17013: 43 positives, 264 negatives - +1 17015: 19 positives, 145 negatives - +2 17050: 48 positives, 263 negatives - +1 17055: 39 positives, 309 negatives - +1 17011: 107 positives, 283 negatives - +7 17007: Less than 4 positives, 25 negatives 17065: Less than 4 positives, 29 negatives 17324: Less than 4 positives, 51 negatives 17241: 11 positives, 121 negatives - +1 17257: 120 positives, 176 negatives - +7 17240: 5 positives, 14 negatives - +1 17025: 14 positives, 149 negatives 17070: 21 positives, 179 negatives 17043: 6 positives, 79 negatives - +1 17019: 14 positives, 132 negatives - +1 Email Tammie at tgitt@cumberlink.com. Follow her on Twitter @TammieGitt. 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. He just hasnt told the country or his coronavirus task force or maybe even himself. But this is the only conclusion you can draw from all the ways Trump has backed off from his own government guidelines and backed up his end-the-lockdown followers, who, like most of the country, have grown both weary of the guidelines and desperate to get back to work and paychecks. But, in keeping with my D-Day analogy, Trump has basically decided to dispatch Americans into this battle against this coronavirus without the equivalent of maps, armor, helmets, guns or any coordinated strategy to minimize their casualty count. Hes also dispatching them without national leadership, so its every platoon, or state, for itself, maximizing the chances of virus spread between people who want to go shopping and those who still want to shelter in place. Hes also dispatching them without a national plan to protect the most vulnerable, particularly the elderly, and without setting the example that everyone should wear a face mask and practice social distancing whenever at work or in a public setting. Finally, hes dispatching them without a plan of retreat if way too many vulnerable people are infected and harmed as we take to the malls of Omaha and beyond. Other than all that, Trump is just like F.D.R. I fear that when these shortcomings become apparent, it could trigger a low-grade civil war. On one side would be those who ask their neighbors, Who gave you the right to ignore the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and heedlessly go to a bar, work or restaurant and then spread the coronavirus to someones grandparents or your own? And on the other side would be those who ask their neighbors, Who gave you the right to keep the economy closed in a pandemic and trigger mass unemployment, which could cost many more lives than are saved, especially when alternative strategies, like Swedens, might work? A new Mason-Dixon line could emerge between states led by governors who want to equip their people with the maximum protective gear and safety guidelines and those governors who are keen to reopen their states for business as usual gear and guidelines be damned. Last week the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously threw out the convictions of the two Chris Christie cronies tied to the notorious traffic problems in Fort Lee that became the Bridgegate scandal. But who worked the cones? Im referring to the way in which then-Governor Christie tried to wisecrack his way out of a question at a press conference a month after his landslide re-election in 2013. Reporter Matt Katz of WNYC radio had asked about rumors that Christies minions had shut down two of three local access lanes to the George Washington Bridge to get back at Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for not endorsing his re-election. I worked the cones, actually, Matt, Christie replied. Unbeknownst to everyone I was the guy out there in overalls and a hat working the cones. Youre not serious with that question. Christie followed that with a dig at then-Assemblyman John Wisniewski, who was heading up a committee looking into the decision by Port Authority officials to rearrange the aforementioned cones. A month later, the joke was on the governor. Under a subpoena from Wisniewskis committee, Christies old pal from Livingston High School, Port Authority staffer David Wildstein, handed over a raft of emails. Among them was the email from Christie staffer Bridget Kelly to Wildstein containing that notorious quote about traffic problems. Before long the feds were on the case, beginning an inquiry that led to the convictions of Kelly and Bill Baroni, the former Republican state senator whom Christie had appointed to New Jerseys top position on the bistate agency. After the Supreme Court threw out those convictions Thursday, I put in a call to Wisniewski, who left the Assembly after running unsuccessfully for the 2017 Democratic nomination for governor. Wisniewski said the big question left unanswered after all that legal wrangling is what Christie knew at the time he tried to joke his way out of the burgeoning scandal at that press conference. Even if he had nothing to do with the implementation, he must have been briefed about it, which is why he knew about the cones, said Wisniewski. Wisniewski, who has a law practice in Middlesex County, noted that in her opinion Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the proper venue for prosecuting Kelly and Baroni would have been the New Jersey courts. Though their conduct did not violate federal law, Kagan wrote, the two could have been tried under a state law governing the unauthorized exercise of official functions. They could have been prosecuted and the unsaid question is Why not? Wisniewski said. The reason is the attorney general worked for the governor of the state of New Jersey or in other words, for Christie. But another former assemblyman who served on the joint legislative committee investigating Bridgegate, Republican Mike Carroll of Morris County, disagreed. Carroll said any effort at a state prosecution was diminished after the U.S. Attorney told committee members the feds were looking into it. We were told by the feds that we should tread lightly because there might be a federal prosecution, Carroll said. But the federal prosecutors under U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman had a big problem, he said. No one had a clue what law was broken and so the prosecutor invented a law, he said. You know the old saying: There are no two words in the English language more dangerous than crusading prosecutor. Carroll, a staunch conservative and critic of federal overreach, said this decision takes a shot at both the prosecutors and the federal judges that let the prosecution go forward. When youre beaten 5-4, thats one thing, he said. But when youre reversed 9-0 thats really something. If the case had been handled with a charge of official misconduct on the state level, it might have been settled way back in 2014, Carroll said. It would take a week to try, he said. But it probably would have been pleaded out and they would have gotten pre-trial intervention and left office in disgrace. That punishment would have fit the crime. But once the feds got involved both Baroni and Kelly faced potential federal prison terms of many years. Its difficult for any defendant to fight a federal prosecution that has unlimited resources. But their victory sets an important precedent for other crusading prosecutors. So alls well that ends well. But things might have started out a lot better for all concerned if Christie had taken that question about the cones seriously. ADD - CHRISTIE SAID HE CALLED FOR A LANE-CLOSURE STUDY: Hiding in plain sight during all the inquiries about who ordered Bridgegate was this quote from that press conference: I didnt even know Fort Lee had three dedicated lanes until all this stuff happened, and I think we should review that entire policy. Because I dont know why Fort Lee needs three dedicated lanes to tell you the truth and I never knew it until this whole happening came about. My urging to the Port Authority would be to review that whole policy. I sat in that traffic, before I was governor, at the George Washington Bridge. And the fact that one town has three lanes dedicated to it? That kind of gets me sauced." But I do believe and I told Chairman Samson this, that we should look at this. One lane maybe. Three lanes? I dont quite get it." Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 14:09:03|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Four security force members were killed and seven others missing, presumably captured by Taliban militants, during clashes in Afghanistan's northern Balkh province Saturday night, local police said Sunday. Enditem As cases of the coronavirus spiraled upward in New York City, leaders of other big cities watched with worry, searching for ways to avoid an escalation of the magnitude that might overwhelm hospitals. In Chicago, the nations third-largest city, fear of explosive growth the kind that overtook New York City, Detroit and New Orleans has faded in recent days, but the Chicago area has faced its own stubbornly high numbers. Cook County, Ill., which includes Chicago and its closest suburbs, has added more cases of the coronavirus than any other county in the United States on some recent days. On Friday, Cook County added more new cases than the five boroughs of New York City combined. Watching a city of such global importance go through this absolutely horrific experience is so incredibly sad to see, but also of course a cautionary tale for the rest of us, Chicagos mayor, Lori Lightfoot, said of New York City. She said she had conferred with mayors in many of the countrys largest cities in recent weeks. All of us have to be prepared, and thinking about, How do we not become the next hot spot? she said. One Wednesday in early March, Abra Morawiec realized something seismic was happening at her farm stand. The month had been pretty quiet at the Feisty Acres table in the Union Square Greenmarket in Manhattan. But that day, at the very start of social distancing, she had sold out of everything by 2 p.m. I had to go home three hours early, Morawiec said. After wondering whether her small farm on the North Fork of Long Island would survive the pandemic, this was good news. But the boom for Feisty Acres has coincided with a virtual collapse at large-scale operations like Crescent Duck Farm, also based on Long Island. In operation for more than a century, Crescent produces one million ducks a year about four per cent of the industry total and was the supplier of choice for fine-dining restaurants in New York, including Jean-Georges and the River Cafe. Those restaurants are closed now, and Crescent has been forced to lay off 80 per cent of its workers. When the lockdown came to the metropolitan area, the earth shifted under New Yorks farm-to-table supply chain. All farms are reckoning with the disappearance of the restaurant market and the logistics of getting food directly to consumers. But the agricultural landscape has completely reversed. Farms with a single crop meant for use in restaurants, like microgreens or edible flowers, face disaster, while those with diverse offerings (and especially root vegetables) have become bulwarks of the social order. After decades of struggle to prove they are sustainable businesses, small farms seem to be flourishing, while factory farms, in many cases, find themselves too big to pivot. Blue Star Farm, a 10-acre operation in the Hudson Valley north of New York City, is feeling a kind of uncomfortable success since Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a stay-at-home order. The farms sales have increased during the quarantine. Blue Star sells at a weekend farmers market in Hudson, New York, that was a social hub before the pandemic, and is now on the front line for feeding the community. We thought wed feel the pinch of losing the restaurant business, but were hitting demand now that we would usually see in July, said Mark Decker, who owns the farm with his wife, Susan. Our sales are up 25 or 30 per cent from what we would normally do this time of year. The market opens at 9 a.m., and one day, we sold out by 12:15, he added. I told Sue its lucky she didnt take the dog. Because they have been able to shift their sales directly to consumers at farmers markets and through CSA subscriptions farms like Blue Star and Feisty Acres are ideally suited to survive a pandemic. A CSA (community-supported agriculture) program which essentially allows people to buy shares in a farms produce before it is harvested has been vital to the success of Sang Lee, an 80-acre organic farm in Southold on Long Island. The farm is known for its salad greens, organic vegetables and hard-to-find radishes, ginger and bok choy. Lucy Senesac, a manager at Sang Lee, said the farm has been inundated since mid-March, when throngs of New Yorkers headed to second homes on Long Island. Insane crowds, she said. Everyone is out on the North Fork all of a sudden, and everyone wants vegetables, more than we can supply, she said. Its hard, managing all the phone calls. Im having to hide a little bit. The crowds at the Sang Lee farm stand were so large that Senesac decided to close it. She retooled the farms website to offer pickup options, so customers could show up, immediately get their vegetables and go home. Before the pandemic hit, Norwich Meadows, a 230-acre farm three and a half hours north of New York City, sent most of its organic fruits and vegetables to restaurants; the rest went to farmers markets and its CSA. It is not a small farm, but the wide variety of crops it offers has saved it. We dont mess around, said Zaid Kurdieh, owner of Norwich Meadows, on his approach to planting a huge number of crops, including ground cherries, an addictive, candy-sweet tomato that he helped establish as a garnish at chef-forward restaurants. Recalibrating has proved considerably more difficult for commercial operations like Crescent Duck Farm. In early February, weeks before there were any known COVID-19 cases on Long Island, Doug Corwin began to scale back production at Crescent, where his family has raised birds since 1908. He had been closely following news about the outbreak in China. When I saw them building that hospital in Wuhan, I started reducing my supplies of breeding stock and eggs, Corwin said. The last thing I want is to have product stuck in the freezer. All the better chefs only want it fresh. When an employee tested positive for the coronavirus, Corwin, unable to provide safe work conditions, shut down production on March 30 and laid off 47 unionized workers more than 80 per cent of his employees. Im thankful that I stopped it when I did, he said. We had one person test positive, and now shes fine. Corwin says an operation the size of his cant make it on retail sales alone, even when the demand for fresh meat on Long Island has risen to height-of-summer levels. Currently, one of Crescents best customers is Miloskis, a poultry farm and meat store in Calverton known for its rotisserie duck to-go. Miloskis has gone from buying 10 boxes a week to 25 boxes a week, he said. But I need to sell 3,000 a week. Corwin said the presidential executive order invoking the Defence Production Act to keep meat-processing plants open was encouraging. He is retrofitting his plant with Plexiglas partitions, and has gloves and masks on order, and is hoping to bring back his workers and reopen in early summer. But for that to happen, his restaurant clients must reopen and start serving duck again. Lets hope that the powers that be have the foresight for whats best for us, Corwin said, so we can climb out of this. Pope Francis is calling on leaders of European Union countries to work together to deal with the social and economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. The pope noted in his Sunday blessing that 75 years have passed since Europe began the challenging process of reconciliation after World War II. He said the process spurred both European integration and the long period of stability and peace which we benefit from today. He prayed that the same spirit that inspired European integration efforts not fail to inspire all those who have responsibility in the European Union to deal with the coronavirus emergency in a spirit of harmony and collaboration. Throughout his papacy, the pope has urged European countries to resist nationalism and instead pull together on issues like migration. During the pandemic, hard-hit countries like Italy and Spain have that insisted EU leaders demonstrate solidarity. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 08, 2020 | 12:44 PM | PADUCAH Some kids look up in the sky and see more than stars. They envision their future dream job - being an astronaut. West Kentucky Community and Technical College's Challenger Learning Center at Paducah is offering kids and adults alike the chance to ask questions about what it's like to be in space from Kentucky's only astronaut, Colonel Terry Wilcutt.Between now and May 11th, the center's Ask An Astronaut project will be promoted through its social media channels for community members of all ages to have the opportunity to send in questions they would like to ask Colonel Wilcutt about his career. A 30-year career that includes being a veteran of four space shuttle flights and currently serving as the Chief of Mission and Safety Assurance for NASA."We will choose ten questions and those ten individuals will be invited to a Microsoft Teams session to meet Colonel Wilcutt and ask their questions," said CLC Director Mellisa Duncan, who will moderate the session. The winners will be notified via email on May 13 and the Teams session will take place on May 18.The session will be recorded and added to the center's Facebook page as one its Challenger Connections - outreach videos with special STEM projects to help kids relax and have fun during the COVID-19 pandemic."This project and Ask an Astronaut is our way of continuing to share what we do at the Challenger Center at Paducah and how exciting science, technology, engineering and math can be," said Duncan.Follow the Center's Facebook page at facebook.com/ChallengerLearningCenterAtPaducah and its Instagram page at instagram.com/challengerpaducah.For more information about Ask an Astronaut, contact Mellisa Duncan at mellisa.duncan@kctcs.edu. On the Net: There have been many firsts in Ottawa's municipal arena during these COVID-19 days, from virtual council meetings to Zoom news conferences to online community open houses. On Friday, the latest "first" came from Ecology Ottawa and a number of other groups, which held an online rally to call for holding the urban boundary steady. As far as rallies go, it lacked chanted slogans and crowds waving placards. But while it didn't have the visual and audible impact an offline rally might, it did attract more than 500 people. Who can remember the last time an in-person rally attracted that many people to city hall? The rally is in advance of one of the most important firsts ever at city hall a major policy debate Monday that will occur online, with public delegations phoning in their comments. Provided by Ecology Ottawa The once-in-a-decade issue is the urban boundary expansion, a policy decision that will literally affect the growth of this city for decades to come. The crux of the argument is this: the city says we need to add 181,000 homes to the city in the next 35 years or so. The hold-the-liners want those new homes to be accommodated in existing neighbourhoods and on empty land already approved for residential development. The city's planners and Mayor Jim Watson don't believe residents or builders are prepared for the sort of change communities would undergo if the boundary remained steady. Instead, they're advocating to add up to 1,650 hectares to Ottawa's urban edges. More than 23,000 new homes would be built in these newly urbanized areas. And home builders have suggested that even 1,650 hectares won't be enough to absorb Ottawa's growing population, which the city forecasts at 1.4 million by 2046. Add in serious questions about housing affordability there are many points of contention about how, or even if, border expansion affects house prices plus rising infrastructure costs in a spreading city, some communities' unwillingness to accept dramatic change, and whether expanding the urban boundary squares with the city's declaration of a climate emergency, and you've got yourself one messy policy debate. Story continues Jean Delisle/CBC Different way to do democracy It's hard to imagine, then, why anyone thought the urban boundary debate would be the ideal test-case for something the city has never tried in its history. Everyone is figuring out how to live with the COVID-19 pandemic, including city hall, where councillors have met for three virtual council meetings so far. They went fine, but the public isn't allowed to participate at council the way they are at committee. When council voted in late March to allow virtual committee meetings, it directed staff to figure out how to let the public speak, starting with the one on the urban boundary. The rules for the virtual meeting will be more stringent than in-person meetings. If you want to give your five-minute deputation, you have to register online by 9 a.m. Monday, before the meeting starts. In so-called normal times, members of the public could keep signing up to speak right through the meeting, until councillors began debating. And if you can't or are not inclined to register online, you could have done so by phone or email but that deadline was Friday evening. The mayor argued on CBC's Ottawa Morning this week that sharing one's opinions virtually actually makes it "easier for the public to participate in the process, simply because you don't have to go and get daycare, you don't have to pay for parking or come down to city hall." He may have a point: as of Friday evening, a whopping 150 people had signed up to speak and that's on top of the 150 who've already sent in written comments. The last time we saw that kind of action at city hall was for the Salvation Army debate, which spanned three exceedingly long days. Trinity Development Group Could have been delayed Coun. Shawn Menard, who's been calling for the urban boundary to remain steady, said at Friday's rally: "This vote really shouldn't be happening at this moment." He argued more time is needed to question many of the assumptions made in the staff recommendations, from the financial implications of expanding the boundary to the declaration that the public wouldn't accept intensification. But perhaps another reason the vote shouldn't happen is because it's a major policy decision being made in the most unusual times most of us have lived through. Yes, there's been a year of consultations. And the city says more than 45,000 people "have been reached." The report's been out for three weeks longer than is legally required but during a time when we are preoccupied with a dramatic and stressful pandemic. The city has argued that the urban boundary question must be decided soon because it paves the way for other major policies that follow, including the official plan and transportation master plan updates. But city manager Steve Kanellakos mentioned recently the transportation plan work may have to be put off anyway, due to COVID-19 related constraints facing staff. So what's the rush? In fact, there is no legal reason this decision needs to be made now. Council put off a byelection for months, so it could certainly have given the public a bit more time to adjust to the COVID-19 reality, to start paying attention to issues other than handwashing and physical distancing. At the very least, it could have chosen a less vital issue with which to experiment with an untested democratic process. To bolster the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Sunday held a video conference with the MLAs and MPs of the state and sought their suggestions. At the video conference, that lasted for nearly 12 hours, Gehlot held discussions with the MLAs and MPs from Udaipur, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Bharatpur and Kota divisions over issues related to the pandemic. Barring the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, lawmakers of all parties and Independents from five divisions attended the video conference. The legislators, including leader of opposition Gulab Chand Kataria and former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, appreciated the initiative and gave their suggestions for containing the spread of the virus, addressing the issues of migrants, providing them job opportunities and for the revival of economic activities. The chief minister said the suggestions given by the MLAs and MPs will be considered by the state government. In his opening remark, Gehlot said the government has managed the situation well and informed the leaders about the works being done to handle COVID-19 crisis. Rajasthan's mortality rate, recovery rate and doubling rate of COVID-19 patients are far better than the national average, he said. Assembly Speaker C P Joshi stressed that citizens and the government need to change their way of functioning in view of the pandemic. Political parties should try to allay people's fears over the spread of the infection, he said. Kataria raised the issue of migrant labours and claimed that the people with valid movement passes were being made to wait for hours before entering the state. "A number of labourers are still travelling on foot to reach their native places and there are no proper arrangements for food and water," he said, adding the Congress government needs to focus on tribal areas where hunger is likely to become a major issue in coming days. BJP MLA Kiran Maheshwari requested the chief minister to allow the opposition party MLAs carry out inspection of quarantine centres so that improved feedback could be provided to the government. Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) MLA Rajkumar Roat suggested Gehlot to make a programme for the revival of old wells in tribal areas through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which would help tribal people in irrigation and other purposes. Vasundhara Raje suggested that the state government should further focus on quarantine facilities and shelters on border areas in view of the movement of migrants. She said it was important that only hotspots be marked as red zones and not the entire district, and urged the chief minister to push for this during the meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday. The chief minister said that the lawmakers gave their support in the fight against coronavirus. Several of the MLAs and ministers also raised the issue of two per cent tax imposed by the state government on sale and purchase of agriculture commodities recently and demanded that the decision be reviewed. Along with Congress and BJP MLAs, CPI (M), BTP, RLD and Independent MLAs attended the video conference. Barring Union Ministers Arjun Ram Meghwal and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, MPs from these divisions were also present. Gehlot is scheduled to interact with the MLAs and MPs from Jaipur and Ajmer divisions on Monday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The police in Adamawa on Sunday confirmed the killing of three suspected criminals by a mob in Yola. Residents of the area also told PREMIUM TIMES how the suspected criminals were apprehended and lynched. Suleiman Nguroje, the Adamawa police spokesperson, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the three persons were suspected members of a crime group called Shila Boys. Mr Nguroje said that the incident occurred at 9.00 p.m. on Saturday in Nassarawo area of Jimeta. We received a distress call that Shila Boys attacked and robbed some people and were later attacked by a mob while attempting to escape. Our personnel, who arrived at the scene later, met the suspects in a pool of their blood; they were taken to a hospital where medical officers confirmed them dead, he said. The police spokesman said that members of the group, mainly made up of young men of ages 15 to 25, disguise as commercial tricycle operators within the city. They take passengers and rob them in the process, they use dangerous weapons to attack and rob their passengers, he said. Mr Nguroje said that although no arrest had been made, the state commissioner of police had directed a thorough investigation into the matter. He urged residents of the state to avoid unlawful acts and support the police to ensure the adequate fight against crime. Criminals are advised to repent or face the full weight of the law, he said. How suspects were caught Residents Residents said the suspects were caught while trying to snatch the handbags of some passersby. The Shilla boys were caught around 9 p.m. this Saturday while trying to snatch bags and mobile phones of some women who were coming out of the Specialist Hospital, a witness who asked not to be named for fear of arrest said Sunday morning. They were chased by angry passersby and were caught near microfinance bank. They were killed instantly to serve as a deterrence, he added. The suspects had earlier reportedly attacked some shops along Bauchi street and Damilu during which they snatched phones and valuables and inflicted injuries on some residents. It seems these Shila boys are on a rampage and have changed tactics because from snatching handbags or phones they are now robbing people, a resident of the area, Grace John, told PREMIUM TIMES. This Saturday, they wreaked havoc at one chemist along Bauchi street here in Jimeta. They snatched about six phones and injured six victims, Ms John said. Speaking on the repeated attacks by the Shila boys, a public affairs commentator, Mustapha Ribadu, said: This Shilla boys epidemic is going out of hand, Jimeta and Yola no safer. Another Yola resident, Ijai Mamza, suggested a base where the criminals operate from. It seems Shila boys headquarters now is Damilus, opposite gate of air force quarters guard. Advertisements They are operating at free will, unchallenged, snatching phones and valuables and inflicting injuries on their victims. I am calling on the local authorities to act as a matter of urgency to curb the activities of these satanic groups in the state capital Yola. Also speaking, a public school teacher who simply identified himself as Mallam Baba said, the Shila boys are sons, our brothers, our neighbours, and our siblings. The time of blames games are over, we are not going to hold our hands and wait for the government and security agencies to tackle the situation alone. Yes it is a government responsibility to protect our lives and property, but we have to give our on quota. Like I said, Jimeta is falling! Indeed it is, for the past five years Jimeta is experiencing this issue of Shila boys. Killing them is not the solution, the solution is we must work together, our stakeholders must sit down together with our traditional institution the likes of Masu Anguwanni, Masu Jimillu, and thank God our amiable Hakimi-District head is already doing his best interns of curtailing the situation. Please if you know that your son, brother or your neighbour is among those boys, please report him to the nearest security instead of him being killed by a mob, Mr Baba said. Getting funding has always been challenging for female entrepreneurs and there are indications the coronavirus pandemic is making it even more difficult. Research published this month by US-based investment house Shatter Fund, one of the largest venture capital firms focused exclusively on female-founded and led companies, found capital for female entrepreneurs has frozen or declined in most cases. The research conducted with more than 40 women-owned businesses internationally found 52.4 per cent had experienced a decrease in available capital and 19 per cent had experienced deferred or delayed investment. Entrepreneur Phoebe Yu raised a $2.5 million seed round for her homewares startup Ettitude. Of those surveyed, 11.9 per cent had experienced no change and 11.9 per cent experienced an increase in available capital while the remainder hadn't noticed. NDT Global, a leading supplier of ultrasonic inline inspection (ILI) and integrity services, has completed, 1,000,000 hours without a recordable injury. NDT Global has developed a global safety culture by taking a proactive and preventative approach to safety. Employees are encouraged to identify and report potential hazards and implement a 'stop work' if unsafe to continue. Niall Walsh, Head of HSEQ, comments: "We are delighted to announce that we have reached the significant safety milestone of achieving one million working hours globally without a recordable injury. This is equivalent to 17 months without a recordable injury and is a testament to our strong safety culture and continuous improvement in safety, which we believe are key elements to success." Our key objective is zero harm to people and the environment and we are committed to operating our facilities and delivering customer inspection projects safely, through our many safe work systems and programs such as the "9 Life Saving Rules"; "See It-Own It-Share It" and "Employee Safety Recognition". "We continue to identify keyways to improve our safety program and culture to ensure all employees go home healthy and safe every day." adds Walsh. NDT Global is a leading supplier of ultrasonic pipeline inspection and data analysis. Its state-of-the-art inspection fleet provides the entire inline inspection service (ILI) spectrum for onshore and offshore pipelines worldwide. NDT Globals full range of services includes geometry and deformation inspection, metal loss and crack inspection, defect assessment and fitness for purpose investigations. First run success, best data quality and rapid report delivery are its key benchmarks. A skilled engineering and project management team, complemented by one of the best data analysis teams in the industry, has inspected and analyzed pipelines worldwide. The company has offices in Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Spain, UAE, UK and US. --Tradearabia News Service It is normally the stuff performer's nightmares are made of, playing to an empty room, but on Saturday night, Australian jazz singer Emma Pask did just that. Emma Pask and her band play at The Sydney Opera House. Credit:Cole Bennetts Pask was chosen by The Sydney Opera House to launch the first of their concerts live streamed from the stage of the hallowed Joan Sutherland Theatre. The room was empty but for a handful of camera operators, crew and band. Just 20 people filled the space that would normally hold more than 1500. "I felt relaxed because I didnt have thousands of faces to connect with, but I also missed that," Pask said. "In some ways it felt like a dress rehearsal with the band, but also knowing there were people out there watching, whether it was 10 or a thousand people I don't know how many were watching, you were able to conjure some energy from that." Mosques provide important community services that are needed now more than ever, but many may not survive without help. This Ramadan, mosques in the UK and across much of Europe and North America are going through a financial crisis due to coronavirus lockdown restrictions. We have a duty to help these essential places of worship, which often simultaneously function as community hubs, charities and education centres, to protect the spiritual, social and physical wellbeing of Muslim communities and the wider society. Muslim-led charities, which offer important support for the most vulnerable members of various communities, have also been hit hard by the pandemic. While all charities experienced some reduction in income since the beginning of the crisis, because the lockdowns coincided with the month of Ramadan, the economic toll of this public health emergency has been particularly high on Muslim charities. Many Muslim charities receive a significant portion of their donations perhaps 35 percent or more during the month of Ramadan. Much of this fundraising is now impossible due to social distancing measures. Some of these charities, particularly the larger ones, may emerge relatively unscathed from the crisis. They have large reserves, as well as automated residual donations, much of which will continue. Many mosques, however, lack this infrastructure. In the UK, for example, it can cost around $2,500 a month (2,000) to keep the smallest of mosques open. For the bigger mosques that serve tens of thousands of congregants, monthly costs often exceed $125,000. Most mosques have little to no cash reserves, and survive simply on collection bucket donations from one Friday prayer to the next. Others rely on larger, one-off donations they receive during the month of Ramadan to stay afloat throughout the year. With lockdowns and other restrictions continuing with no end in sight, however, many of these places of worship are now facing the prospect of closing their doors for good. This would be a tragedy and not just for practising Muslims. Mosques are much more than just places of worship. They provide much-needed community services like supplementary education, welfare and aid, counselling and even career and legal advice. They help children with out-of-school clubs and classes. They support women and the elderly, and are hubs for charity and interfaith work. Despite the odds being stacked against them, many mosques across Europe and beyond also joined the front-line fight against COVID-19. In the UK, for example, mosques swiftly transformed their facilities to serve as morgues, hospices and food distribution centres during this time of crisis. Some mosques even directly made PPE donations to local hospitals. The services offered by mosques are essential for the economic wellbeing of not only the communities they serve but society at large. In the UK, 50 percent of the Muslim population is facing poverty and deprivation. Any service delivered through or by a mosque that helps these communities to be economically productive and self-reliant, without using government resources, benefits not only Muslims but all taxpayers. What this means is that if the pandemic takes away British Muslims places of worship, socialising and support as well as a disproportionate number of their lives there will be dire consequences for all communities. Just like businesses, charities and the self-employed, mosques need a lifeline. Large Muslim-led charities, which have built the necessary safety nets to ride out this crisis thanks to the generosity of Muslim communities, now need to do everything they can to support mosques that are essential for the survival of the communities they care for. My charity, Penny Appeal has already issued tens of thousands of pounds to various mosques at this difficult time, and is setting up a special COVID-19 mosque bailout fund, as we expect demand to increase in the coming weeks and months as mosques burn through their limited reserves. But these are just short-term solutions. In the long term, we should work to make mosques and all places of worship and assistance financially independent and sustainable. In Muslim-majority countries, most mosques are supported by waqfs or inalienable charitable endowments. The waqf system, which was built over many centuries, has protected faith-based institutions through times of war, famine, and yes, even pandemic. Combined with sound financial management and investments, these endowments can ensure that mosques can weather any storm, and continue to provide the support that Muslims and people of all faiths and none receive from these places of worship. This is not a model limited to Muslim-majority countries: similar to the waqf model, the Church of England is sitting on a combination of ancient endowments and investments worth 8.3bn, making it the UKs biggest charity (its income is more than three times that of Oxfams). British Muslim communities have just not had the relative time to develop these strong financial safety nets. We need to develop similar systems to protect mosques in Europe and North America. But until then, charities, organisations and individuals who have the necessary financial means should do everything they can to help these essential places of worship, support and solidarity. Since the beginning of this pandemic, mosques have been on the front line of the fight against COVID-19, encouraging social distancing, distributing key health information, and offering support to people from all backgrounds and faiths. Just as they have stood by our society at its darkest hour, we must do the same for them. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. 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. A dedicated BrandBucket agent will manage your domain transfer from beginning to end, ensuring a secure and easy transaction. They will manage the receipt of the domain into one of BrandBuckets secure registrar accounts and then complete the transfer to you. 1. Verification and registrar choice After we receive the payment and verify it, we will reach out via email to confirm which registrar you want the domain transferred to. We also provide a link to our tracking system, where you can communicate with us, check on the status of your transfer, view your invoice, and download your logo files. 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. BrandBucket has vetted and supports the following registrars: GoDaddy Namesilo Uniregistry NameCheap Google Domains Network Solutions Name.com Dynadot Amazon Route 53 123 Reg Gandi 2. We request the name from the seller. Once we know where you would like the domain transferred, BrandBucket will request the domain from the seller. All of our sellers are very responsive, making for a quick process. 3. Transfer the name into your account As soon as we receive the name from the seller, we start the transfer into your account and guide you through the whole process. 4. Verify with the buyer that the transfer is complete Once we confirm that you have received the name, we consider the escrow process to be complete. Only then do we release payment to the domain seller. New Delhi: Five Air India pilots, who had undertaken cargo flights to China, have tested positive for coronavirus during the pre-flight COVID-19 test. According to report, all five pilots are currently asymptomatic and are based in Mumbai. The pre-flight COVID-19 test is carried out 72 hours before the pilots are rostered for flight duties. "All of them are asymptomatic and based in Mumbai. They had undertaken cargo flights to Guangzhou, China," a report said. 10 May is a sad date to remember for Luxembourg. Precisely 80 years ago the Grand Duchy was invaded by the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany. It was the beginning of a dark chapter of occupation that would ultimately last 4 years and 4 months. In the early hours of the morning, German forces crossed the Our, Sauer and Moselle, bringing an end to Luxembourg's independence. Thousands of people would be killed during the occupation. The French counter-offensive, under the command of General Petiet, was unsuccessful due to the enormous force of the Germans, and thus retreated back to the Maginot line. Below is a recording of the announcement on French radio. Radio France 10 May 1940 Thousands of Luxembourgers and refugees fled to France, leaving behind almost all belongings. Even the Grand Ducal family fled to France, before moving on to Portugal, Canada and finally London. Only in September did Grand Duchess Charlotte address her people for the first time through the BBC: "It is a long time ago that we decided to step away and flee the country. It was a difficult but a necessary step to take. But despite that, I know that we all reject and disagree with the enemy's exploitation of our home in every way possible." Extrait Grande-Duchesse Charlotte Nazi Gauleiter Gustav Simon took charge of the country from July 1940, organising it according to the Nazi model and ideology. French was strictly forbidden on all levels. Avenue de la Liberte became the Adolf-Hitler road. Over 10,000 Luxembourgers were forcibly recruited. 5,700 Luxembourgers died in the years leading up to 10 September 1945, when the Americans crossed the border in Petange. (Natural News) Coronavirus test kits in Tanzania have raised suspicions about their accuracy. President John Magufuli expressed during an event that he found them so unreliable due to the fact that certain animals and even a fruit have tested positive for COVID-19. He further stated that the test kits were imported from overseas, but refused to specify where. In order to evaluate the quality of the COVID-19 test kits, security forces in Tanzania obtained non-human samples from a goat, a papaya, a quail and even a sheep. The samples were assigned human names and then shipped off to a laboratory to be tested. Lab technicians who worked on the non-human samples werent informed about their true origins. The test results showed that the goat, quail and papaya were found positive for COVID-19, which may have serious implications. According to Magufuli, this means some people could have received positive coronavirus test results despite not actually being infected. This puts into question the countrys actual number of coronavirus cases. As of press time, the country has 509 reported cases of COVID-19, including 21 deaths. However, the actual number of cases could be higher because Tanzania goes days without providing updates. A dirty game is going on in Tanzanias coronavirus testing lab Magufuli, who initially downplayed the threat of the coronavirus, suspended the head of testing at Tanzanias national health laboratory on May 4, one day after he revealed that the lab had tested the non-human samples, noting that there was a dirty game going on at the laboratory. Hassan Abbas, chief government spokesman of Tanzania, said that the country has formed a team to conduct further investigations on the laboratory that did the tests. They will release the results of their investigations as soon as they are complete. (Related: African coronavirus cases SPIKE by 43 percent WHO warns that continent could be the next epicenter of the pandemic.) The equipment or people may be compromised and sometimes it can be sabotage, said Magufuli in a speech broadcast through the countrys state-run news outlet. Magufuli further cast doubt on the foreign aid Tanzania was receiving, saying that it may not always be good for this nation and that they shouldnt accept all of it. Coronavirus test kits donated by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma Africas testing capacity has expanded sharply since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the help of test kits procured from the WHO, the Jack Ma Foundation and other philanthropic organizations. Jack Ma, Chinese billionaire and founder of the Alibaba Group, has donated thousands of test kits and protective gear to African nations. John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said that the Jack Ma Foundation had provided them with a lot of coronavirus test kits. We are very instrumental in training, providing training to nearly all countries and providing them with test kits, said Nkengasong. Weve also in the last couple of weeks and months distributed tests from the Jack Ma Foundation that have been validated and proven to be very, very reliable. Nkengasong told journalists that the Africa CDC affirmed that the Tanzanian coronavirus test kits are working very well. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also expressed their confidence in the reliability of the test kits. When questioned regarding the veracity of the coronavirus tests, Matshidiso Moeti, head of WHO Africa, said that the tests procured through their organization and through the donations made by the Jack Ma Foundation were not contaminated with coronavirus. Magufuli turns to alternative sources of aid for coronavirus Losing any trust he had in the WHO and the Africa CDC, Magufuli has stated that he was sending a plane to Madagascar to collect an herbal mix that the country was touting as a cure for COVID-19. The herbal mix has not gone through internationally recognized scientific testing. President Andry Rajoelina of Madagascar has claimed that the herbal cure, known in the country as Covid-Organics, shows results within a week and that it has already cured two people so far. Magufuli, in a speech, said that he was communicating with Madagascar regarding this COVID-19 cure. They have got a medicine, he said. The medicine will be brought in the country so that Tanzanians, too, can benefit. Pandemic.news has the latest news on the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa and the rest of the world. Sources include: SHTFPlan.com Independent.co.uk GlobalNews.ca WHO.int [PDF] VOANews.com Reuters.com : In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the COVID-19 (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill and the Quarantine Bill will be introduced into the National Assembly, this Wednesday, by the Prime Minister, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, to amend a number of enactments to cater for the impact of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). The Attorney-General, Minister of Agro-Industry and Food Security, Mr Maneesh Gobin, elaborated on the two Bills, this evening, during the press briefing of the National Communication Committee of Covid-19, and recalled that strict lockdown measures were put in place in the country with a view of ensuring the safety of the population and preventing the spread of the virus. With reference to the Quarantine Bill, he recalled that it will repeal the Quarantine Act, which dates back to the year 1954, and re-enact a reformed and modern appropriate legislative framework so as to provide more measures for the prevention and spread of communicable diseases. The new legislation has been rendered necessary on account of the impact of the novel coronavirus, pointed out the Minister, adding that the Ministry of Health and Wellness is the Quarantine Authority in Mauritius. According to Mr Gobin, both Bills will include strict sanitary measures that will be enforced in public transport, schools, metro, offices, elevators, taxis and other public places. These sanitary measures will also be applicable at the airport with the arrival of repatriated Mauritians from other countries, he added. The Minister highlighted that any person who refuses to answer or knowingly gives a misleading answer when questioned by a quarantine officer, will be committing an offence and may be liable to a fine not exceeding Rs 500,000 and to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years. The Bill also makes provision, in certain cases, to authorise persons to follow medical treatment in private hospitals at their own costs, he stated. With regard to the Court of Justice, he said that there will be amendments that will help the Chief of Justice to issue directives for Courts to operate under strict conditions. The Minister cautioned the population that individuals who are not abiding by rules will be subjected to penalties. He called for solidarity and sacrifice from all citizens to help the country shore up its economic activities in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. #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 Thursday, May 14, 2020, will mark Leah Sharibus 17th year of existence on earth. By that day, she will also have gone deeper into her 3rd year as a captive in Boko Harams custody, ministering to the needs of the terrorists in an unfamiliar desert terrain. Lest we forget, Leah was abducted, alongside 109 other female students, from Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi in Yobe State on February 19, 2018. While most of the girls have since been recovered and reunited with their families, the poor girl was denied her freedom after refusing to renounce her Christian religious faith for Islam. Well, Leahs birthday isnt the essence of this piece. It is about what her present ordeal portends for the future of Nigeria. Culture, paraphrasing Edward B. Taylors more robust definition, is about the totality of the pattern of behavior of a particular group of people, So, Leah Sharibu reminds us of a Yoruba saying: omo eni ku, o san ju omo eni nu lo (Ones child is dead is better than ones child is missing). Had Leah been involved in an accident and died in the process, people would have mourned her passing and accepted her fate as: God giveth, God taketh. Yes, that would have brought a closure to the whole thing and nobody would think about it again. After all, death is also part of life! But, for the girl to be taken away from a sovereign nation state, to which her parents had willingly surrendered their powers to self-preserve and fend against enemies, domestic and foreign, is an anomaly. The fact that they will also remember the girl and her plight on a daily basis kills them slowly and erodes their confidence in the Nigerian State. Reports even had it that the teenager is now carrying a baby for the terrorists. Still, government is there, pretending as if there are no Leah Sharibus, still languishing in the terrorists den! Unpretentiously, the first thing as State has as its core responsibility to every citizen is the safety it provides over life and property. Once that is lost, the State no longer has any moral rights to demand civic duties of its citizens. Instantaneously, civic responsibility dovetails into inanities, and makes no sense. Had Leah been the presidents daughter, would the Nigerian State have treated her that way? When Iyabo, former President Olusegun Obasanjos daughter, was molested by some criminals on the way to Cotonou, the man used his mighty powers to close Nigeria-Benin Republic border; and Beninese knew no peace until Hamani Tidjani was arrested and brought back to Nigeria to face justice. When Yusuf, President Muhammadu Buharis son, was also involved in what some Nigerians arguably termed a self-induced accident, Nigeria was literally shut down, until the presidents son fully recovered. But Leah is not even the daughter of a Local Government Chairman, let alone a state governor. So, why mustnt she be made to bear the negative consequences of being born a Nigerian? By the way, are Leahs parents asking the government to be nice to them? I doubt! Again, what is the consolation for Leahs family and why must the Sharibus believe in a country that has failed them? For Gods sake, do we need to be grandstanding, telling the world that all is well when, indeed, we are not safe in our country, when we are not being protected? If a friends daughter was kidnapped and, in two years, nothing has been done by those saddled with the constitutional responsibility of rescuing her, what hope do I have as ordinary citizen, in case it happens to me? As we know, the principle of reciprocity and being reciprocal are surely not one and the same. They are two different things! While the former connotes a kind of obligations, a cultural tie, attached to it, the latter simply means reciprocating a gesture. Simply put, reciprocity goes beyond just returning a favour. Instead, there is a serious expectation attached to it. It means that the governor of a state will rather die than fail to do what is expected of him. Otherwise, he needs not take up the role at all, in the first place. Impliedly, whether its Buhari whos the president or not has nothing to do with the office he occupies, and the constitutional prescriptions of his official roles as president! In the present case, he is only involved because the buck currently stops at his desk. This means he is there because he has to perform the statutorily-stipulated roles! Otherwise, he has lost the moral right to be called the president, except we are saying that he is the perfunctory head of a failed state. Take it or not: a strategy has to be physical. It has to be seen and capable of being articulated. It must have spelt-out principles, expectations and Modus Operandi so that other people can also use it. Strategy means certain well-thought-out and actionable plans are put in place. Though the journey to the top begins with an idea, when the chips are down, hope has never been seen to work the wonders of a strategy. Yes, one can hope against hope! But that will be in the metaphysical realm, where we are expecting certain forces, unknown, indefinable and unseen from the invisible realm, to intervene in our affairs. But, again, that cannot be a strategy! This also applies to the COVID-19 pandemic that is currently threatening world peace. Nigerians need to be reassured, based on scientific and empirical facts, not just having mere hopes that a pandemic that has reduced prophesies to mind games and revealed their purveyors as stargazers will just wake up one day and disappear. No! It wont, unless the Buhari-led administration comes up with a workable, pragmatic plan that will teach Nigerians how to rise above copy-and-paste safety stuffs that seem to be heeding only the clarion call of a virus disease that currently has no vaccine and no medical treatment protocol. Coincidentally, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned Africa to stop being copycats! What this means is that it will not be out of place for Nigeria to devise local means and peculiar ways of defeating COVID-19. Unfortunately, from what we have seen, nothing is presently Nigerian! Not even the face masks! May the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us peace in Nigeria! *KOMOLAFE writes in from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State, Nigeria (ijebujesa@yahoo.co.uk) abiodun KOMOLAFE, O20, Okenisa Street, Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State. Year 12 students at Sydney's most populous schools will be among those with the least face-to-face teaching when school resumes on Monday, with some schools unable to provide more than two days of class for HSC students alongside social distancing requirements. At two of Sydney's biggest schools - Cherrybrook Technology High School with about 2000 students and Westfields Sports High School with more than 1600 students - year 12 will return as a year group for one official day each week. Cherrybrook students will also attend when they have a double lesson, while at Westfields they will go one extra day sorted by alphabet. Westfields principal Andrew Rogers told parents in a letter it was the only way his school could have every year group back one day as per Department of Education guidelines while ensuring only 25 per cent of students were on campus. Bengaluru, May 10 : Alarmed over sudden spike in Covid cases since some "infected" people began entering Karnataka from other states without being properly checked, the state government decided to permit only Kannadigas stranded in other states or overseas countries and free from the virus to return, an official said on Sunday. "Only Kannadigas, stranded in other states or foreign countries due to the extended lockdown will be allowed to return to their home state through the inter-state borders and airports in Bengaluru and Mangaluru from Monday," an official from the State Disaster Management Authority told IANS here. With about 1,200 Karnataka citizens due to return from overseas this week in flights beginning early Monday, only asymptomatic and non-Covid among them will be allowed to enter into the city for the mandatory 14-day quarantine in hotels, guest houses or hostels. "Even Kannadigas in other states across the country have to register their name and other details on the state government's portal Seva Sindu for a pass to enter Karnataka through the inter-state borders in their or hired vehicles," said the official. The decision to regulate the entry of people into the state amid the extended lockdown was taken at a meeting Chief Minister B.S.Yediyurappa held with a few ministers and top officials at his residence here. The southern state's Covid-19 positive cases shot up to 848 till date, with a high of 53 cases on Sunday due to the return of infected people from Ajmer, Ahmedabad and Mumbai to Bagalkote, Belagavi and Shivamogga in Malnad region, which has been a green zone without a single case so far. "Kannadigas will be allowed to enter the state subject to the availability of quarantine facilities in cities and towns they want to return across the state. They should travel to the state only after getting e-pass from the state portal or on the three applications - Aarogya Setu, Apthamitra and Quarantine watch on their smartphones," the official said. The passes will be given after the returnees inform the state government online the place of arrival at the inter-state border and date for entering the state with a health certificate from the state where they have been stranded since the lockdown began. "On entering the state through the border or landing at airports or seaports at Mangaluru or Karwar, they will have to be under quarantine for 14 days before they can travel to their city, town or village," noted the official. Only those willing to undergo 14-day quarantine must register their names online for entry pass into their home state on the dedicated portal. "The returnees will be tested for Covid-19 even if they were tested negative in the state or country where they were stranded during the lockdown," reiterated the official. "In the event of a death of a Kannadiga or a citizen of the state, his or her body will not be allowed to be brought into our state. The last rites should be performed at the place where death occurred," added the official. As many as 276 Vietnamese citizens were flown home from Vancouver, Canada, on May 8th and 9th. (Photo: VNA) The passengers included those under 18 years old, elderly and sick people, stranded tourists and students who did not have accommodations due to dormitory closures. This was a joint effort of Vietnamese competent agencies at home and representative agencies in Canada, national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines, and competent agencies of the host country. The Vietnamese Consulate General in Vancouver sent officials to the airport to help the citizens with necessary procedures. Upon their arrival at Van Don airport in the northern province of Quang Ninh, the passengers were kept under quarantine and had medical checks-up in line with regulations. Earlier, Vietnamese competent agencies had coordinated with the Canadian Embassy in Vietnam to bring home a number of Canadian citizens. In the coming days, more flights will be arranged to bring back Vietnamese citizens home from other countries depending on the pandemic's developments, quarantine capacity of Vietnamese localities, and demand of Vietnamese citizens living overseas./. Amid days to recognize some very important people, more states are allowing businesses to reopen this week. Here are some of the top things you need to know. Mothers Day You probably celebrate her all year long, but your mom still does get an official date on the calendar in her honor: Mother's Day, which is this Sunday. Given social distancing practices still in place in many parts of the country, though, itll probably be unlike any previous one. For those who still have their mothers with us, don't let the day pass without letting her know how much she means to you. Fauci to testify Dr. Anthony Fauci, a key member of the administration's coronavirus task force, is slated to testify in front of the Republican-led Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee at its Tuesday 10 a.m. hearing, COVID-19: Safely Getting Back to Work and Back to School. Primary amid pandemic Officials in Nebraska are forging ahead with plans for the states May 12 primary despite calls from Democrats to only offer voting by mail and concerns from public health officials that in-person voting will help the coronavirus spread. Top Republican officials in the GOP-dominated state have repeatedly urged voters to cast early, absentee ballots, but they argue that voters must have the option of voting in-person. West Virginia was slated to have its primary election Tuesday, but Gov. Jim Justice moved that to June 9. States stay-at-home orders phasing out Restrictions on movement are slated to end this week for several states. And more types of business are being allowed to reopen. One such state is Kentucky, which begins its phased reopening of its economy on Monday with manufacturing, construction, professional services, fan-less horse racing and more. Armed Forces Day Saturday is Armed Forces Day, a holiday to honor all branches of the armed forces. President Harry S. Truman led the first instance in 1950. The previous year, Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson announced the creation of Armed Forces Day to replace separate Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force holidays. The Associated Press and CNN contributed to this report. Employee Engagement Groups At the American Cancer Society, Employee Engagement Groups (EEGs) serve as a resource for their members and the Society by fostering learning, generating dialogue and supporting multicultural engagement. We have six very active groups in place including: the African American and Black EEG; MiACS our Hispanic Latino EEG; the Military Families and Veterans EEG; the LGBT and Allies EEG; genACS our millennials EEG, and our AAPI EEG. Every EEG welcomes all members of the Society, including full-time, part-time, and temporary employees, regardless of identity, background, or heritage. Staff from every region and department are involved in these voluntary, employee-led groups, and many staff participate in several EEGs. A few examples of projects the EEGs have undertaken include creation of community engagement toolkits; representing the Society at large-scale community events such as PRIDE festivals; and hosting external speakers for continued staff education. In addition to their direct impact on our business goals, participation in our EEGs provides staff the opportunity to expand their peer networks, and develop team leadership skills. Kerala reported seven new coronavirus cases on Sunday-- the highest in the last weekincluding three who returned from the middle-eastern countries. Four other cases are of transmissions from primary carriers, said chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The state, which has maintained a relatively healthy graph with high recovery and low mortality rates, has heightened vigilance after the return of expatriates from the Gulf began under the Vande Bharat Mission along with the movement of migrants. Seven flights from the Middle East and a navy ship from Maldives carrying stranded residents has arrived in the state during the last few days. The state government is conscious of the need to step up vigilance at this crucial juncture and is thus observing a complete lockdown on Sunday to prevent a third wave of infections. For Coronavirus Live Updates The first coronavirus case in the country was reported in Kerala when a couple of students from China tested positive upon their return in January and the second wave was seen in March when some infected returnees from foreign countries jumped quarantine to become the super spreaders of the disease. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 Most of the returnees from Arab countries arriving now, apart from the UAE, have not been tested for the disease, which is a cause of concern for the administration. Most of the 500 passengers, who landed in the state on Saturday from Oman, Kuwait and Qatar were not subjected to anti-body tests to detect coronavirus infection. In a positive development, North Kerala district Kasaragod, once a hotspot with 180 cases, has turned Covid-free with the discharge of the last patient on Sunday. According to the latest data, 489 out of a total of 512 positive cases in the state have been discharged, leaving 23 under treatment in hospitals. Could a new type of ultraviolet lamp be used in stations, airplanes and schools to kill dangerous viruses, becoming a gamechanger in the COVID-19 fight? Researchers at Columbia University have been working on such uses for years, and the current pandemic could confirm the value of their efforts. UVC lamps have long been used to kill bacteria, viruses and molds, notably in hospitals and in the food-processing industry. As the coronavirus pandemic knocks world economies on their heels, this technology is experiencing a boom. But UVC (for Ultraviolet-C) rays are dangerous, causing skin cancer and eye problems, and can be used only when no one is present. The New York subway system, following the example of Chinese subways, plans to use ultraviolet lamps to disinfect its trains, but only during nighttime closures. A team at Columbia's Center for Radiological Research is experimenting with so-called far-UVC, rays whose wavelength of 222 nanometers makes them safe for humans but still lethal to viruses, the center's director, David Brenner, told AFP. At those frequencies, he explained, the rays cannot penetrate the surface of the skin nor of the eye. That means they could be used in closed and crowded spaces where contamination risks run high, with potentially huge promise for use during the current pandemic. In late April, President Donald Trump offered confusing remarks about somehow projecting ultraviolet rays into people's bodies to kill the coronavirus. He appeared to be inspired by federal research on the effects of natural light on the virus -- but natural light has no UVC rays. In 2013, the Columbia team began studying the effectiveness of far-UVC against drug-resistant bacteria. It next examined the rays' use against viruses, including the flu virus. Only recently did it turn its attention to the coronavirus. "We were thinking, how can we apply what we are doing to the current situation," Brenner said. But to test the impact of UVC on the extremely contagious coronavirus, the team had to move its equipment into a highly bio-secure laboratory at Columbia. Experiments carried out starting "three-four weeks ago," Brenner said, have already made clear that UVC rays destroy the virus on surfaces within minutes. The team next plans to test the lamps on viruses suspended in the air, as when an infected person coughs or sneezes. In parallel, tests are being conducted to confirm that these rays are harmless to humans. For 40 weeks now, the lab has exposed mice to far-UVC rays for "eight hours a day, five days a week, at intensities 20 times higher than we might think of using with humans." The results? After testing the rodents' eyes and skin, "we have found absolutely nothing; the mice are very happy -- and very cute as well," Brenner said. The experiment is set to continue for 20 more weeks. The findings cannot be fully validated by the scientific community until all remaining steps have been taken, even if the team has already submitted its preliminary results to the journal Nature. - 'The world has changed' - But the pressure to reopen the world's economies has become so enormous that factories are accelerating their production of ultraviolet lamps without waiting. "We really need something in situations like offices, restaurants, airplanes, hospitals," Brenner said. If UVC lamps have already been in commercial use for two or three years -- notably in the diamond industry, where they can be used to distinguish artificial from real gems -- potential clients are now legion, say companies producing them. "We felt for a long time this is a great application for this technology," said John Yerger, the CEO of Eden Park Illumination, a small producer based in Champaign, Illinois. But with the pandemic, "the world has changed a lot in the last three months," he added. And the US Food and Drug Administration has relaxed its regulation of tools or agents that can be used for disinfection, encouraging manufacturers to find a solution. "There will be thousands and thousands of these things (UVC lamps) for sure," Yerger said. "The question is, will it be millions?" "What we are seeing is a tremendous amount of customer interest" to produce lamps for airlines, cruise ships, restaurants, movie theaters and schools, said Shinji Kameda, chief operations officer in the US for Ushio, a Japanese manufacturer. Production of its 222-nanometer lamps, sold for $500 to $800 and already used in some Japanese hospitals, will be stepped up in October, he said. In the meantime, Brenner said he has been losing sleep. "I spend nights thinking -- if this far-UVC project had started one or two years earlier, maybe we could have prevented the COVID-19 crisis," he said. "Not completely, but maybe we could have prevented it being a pandemic." This photo taken on March 26, 2020 by Columbia University researcher Manuela Buonanno shows an experiment being conducted on the use of a special kind of ultraviolet rays against the coronavirus David Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University in New York, is seen in an undated photo provided by the university's medical center A model of a far-UVC lamp, the Care222, produced by the American subsidiary of the Japanese company Ushio, which provided the photo; far-UVC rays are being tested for their ability to kill the coronavirus Avery Mills, a 20-year-old student from Columbus, Ohio, and Omar Albakour, a 25-year-old dentist from Syria, first graced the small screen as an engaged couple on TLCs 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days Season 3. Avery was raised Christian but converted to Islam in her late teens. Soon afterward, she met Omar on a Muslim dating appand the rest was history. Omar sent his fiancee an engagement ring in the mail, and they married after just a few days together in Lebanon in Feb. 2019. On a recent episode of TLC GOs digital-only series, 90 Day Fiance: What Now, Avery and Omar updated viewers on how their marriage is going. Averys mom, Teri Mills, had always been supportive of her daughter but wary of her growing relationship with someone from such a different cultural and religious background. Teri and Avery sat down together on What Now? to discuss Averys potential future with her husbandand even a possible move to Syria one day. Avery Mills | Avery Mills via Instagram Avery and her mom clashed about her new religious practices on 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days While Teri has always seemed like a supportive mom, she and Avery butted heads at first about Averys conversion to Islam, her decision to wear a hijab, and her budding relationship with Omar. Teri was concerned that Avery was too young (just 19 at the time) to make such life-changing decisions, in addition to being worried about her safety. Avery and Omar decided to get married right away when she went to visit him in Lebanon. My mom flipped out, Avery recalled on What Now, and she insisted on coming along. In a 90 Day Fiance throwback clip, Teri told Avery that she wasnt about to let her daughter head off to Lebanon alone to meet a man she didnt know well. You are becoming a different person, Teri told her daughter. Girls have disappeared, and they have joined ISIS. So Im going to come with you and support you in a marriage that I was surprised [about]. Avery and her mom sparred about the differences in her daughters behavior and beliefs. She was also wary of Omars cultural background and concerned about his potential beliefs about issues like polygamy (which a select number of Muslims practice, but Omar does not) and womens rights. At first, Averys mom predicted that her daughter wouldnt stick to her conversion to Islam, or at least her commitment to wearing a hijab, for the long haul. But Teri ultimately got along with Omar and now seems happy about her daughters marriage. The young brides mom said she hoped her daughter would stay in the U.S. On Omar and Averys recent episode of 90 Day Fiance: What Now, Teri seemed happy for and supportive of her daughter as they discussed her relationship with Omar. She even hoped that Avery and Omar would live in Ohio, as close by as possible, so she could spend time with both of them and any children they might have in the future. Still, she has some remaining concerns about Averys safety, especially in traveling across the world alone. Avery was about to reunite with Omar in Lebanon after eight months away from her husband. Teri admitted that she was more than a little worried about her daughter as she prepared for the trip. In just a couple of days, Avery is leaving to go to Lebanon to be with Omar, Teri said. Shes actually going to be traveling alone, so I am worried. She asked her daughter to stay in touch with her throughout her trip and to send her the address of each hotel shed be staying at with her husband. Avery agreed, but seemed to think her mother was a tad overprotective. Teri also fretted that Avery might be planning to use the trip as an excuse to move in with Omar in a different country. Now, next question. When are you coming home? she asked Avery. Youre not going to try and stay there at all, are you? I swear on the law that Im coming home, the 90 Day Fiance star promised her mom. Im just worried about you, Teri confessed, adding that she desperately wanted her daughter and son-in-law to live in the U.S. And I dont want you to move to another country. I just want you guys to be here. While Avery agreed that she and Omar hoped to live in the U.S., she explained that they were trying to be realistic about the likelihood of Omars visa application being approved. Of course, we do too, Avery assured her mom. But we cant just settle for Plan A. We have to have other things in line, and thats what we have. The 90 Day Fiance star added that, if Omars visa was denied, the young couple had discussed living in Syria if the civil war ended. Im going to be honest with you, Avery told Teri. He said if the war ended, and it was actually 100% safe, he would want to live in Syria. Were going to try to come here first, but I wouldnt be opposed to moving to be with him. Whats more, Omars family wanted him to raise any children he might have with Avery in a Muslim country. To Omar, familys everything to him, Teri told TLC producers. But it is upsetting that my daughter would possibly have to move out of the United States. I really just want her here, and I dont want our family to be separated. Most importantly, though, Teri didnt believe the unrest in Syria was about to end anytime soon. I dont think its safe, Teri worried. I really, truly just dont. Avery promised her mom that she and Omar wouldnt do anything to put themselves or their future kids in danger. If it is unsafe, we wont move there, she said. Omar and Avery discussed their various options in terms of building a life together After Omar and Avery shared an emotional reunion in Lebanon, they discussed the practical matter of where they would live if Omars K-1 visa application was denied. If the visa doesnt come, do you want to move back to Syria? Avery asked her husband. I hope so, Omar said. But the 90 Day Fiance star wanted to make sure that she wouldnt be in any danger in her future home. Make sure its super safe, because my mom, she wants us to be safe, Avery said. Omar agreed, adding that hed never take his wife to an unsafe area. And right now, he lamented, Syria wasnt safe enough for them to settle there. In the next two years, Avery told producers, theyd have to choose another country as their home base in the event that the visa process was unsuccessful. We need a place where we can both work and be financially stable, but still be safe, Avery explained. The couple discussed the possibility of moving to Canada, where its often easier for Syrians to get a visa application approved. They also considered Abu Dhabi and Dubai as potential home cities. And while it doesnt appear that Avery and Omar live in the same country yetat least from social mediatheyre still together. After recent rumors indicating the pair had split, Avery took to Instagram to assure fans that they were still a happy couple. Im not sure why there is an article saying Omar and I arent together, but we are very much happily married and we have never split up, she wrote in a sweet caption. So for the people that rushed to my page to see if the tabloids were true they arent Still my best friend. Terra Eubanks' children are beginning to learn: When Baton Rouge is in distress, "Mommy goes to work." She's a nurse in the emergency room at Baton Rouge General, and for the last decade she's cared for the region's sickest patients through floods, shootings, explosions, and now, a once-in-a-lifetime coronavirus pandemic. +9 Mom with coronavirus gives birth, recovers in time to hold baby for Mother's Day Abi Bordelon was beyond careful during the final weeks of her second pregnancy as the novel coronavirus spread across Louisiana. I live my life to serve other people," she said. Lately, when she gets home from her 12-hour nursing shifts, the 35-year-old mom finds herself tip-toeing to the shower so she can scrub off any germs before her three youngsters come running in to embrace her. Sometimes she hears them crying through the bathroom door, waiting for her. "That's hard as a mommy. You want to get to them and you can't," she said. But she can handle it if it means she can help other people. A few weeks ago, Eubanks who is pregnant and due to give birth to her fourth child in September contracted COVID-19. She took a week off from work and slept for 20 hours a day. She video-chatted with her babies from afar while she recovered and thankfully, her pregnancy appears to have been unharmed. "As a mom, you never get a break, but this time, I had no other option," she said. "I would've never missed work if my boss hadn't made me." She's thankful to be back in the emergency room helping others recover. "Who goes to work in a ER to get a break?" she joked. "I do." Vaccine news in your inbox Once a week we'll update you on the progress of COVID-19 vaccinations. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up +7 'It feels so good': Coronavirus survivor reunited with her family after 47 days in hospital Forty-seven days after coronavirus patient Tera Greene was admitted to the hospital in critical condition, she wept and praised God as she was Her kids are young, and likely won't remember much from this time. but she's trying her best to document the moment, taking photographs when she can in her masks and gowns. When they grow up, she wants her kids to know: "There was a lot of devastation and in the face of adversity, we showed care and compassion and the utmost medical care and mommy was a part of that." Her 5-year-old son Beckham knows she's caring for COVID-positive patients and frequently asks her about her day: "What was wrong with your patients? Did you give them a shot to make them feel better?" Mother's Day weekend coincides with her birthday. But this year, they're having to forgo their traditional family get-together for a smaller celebration at home. But on Saturday, she got the best gift of all. She learned she was having another baby boy. +11 Coronavirus canceled traditional high school graduations. How do schools plan to replace them? With their senior year dramatically cut short by the coronavirus outbreak, the Class of 2020 is receiving a lot of attention these days to try Beckham came to her recently and said, "Guess what? Dad got us all shirts that say 'I Love Mommy' for your birthday." She told him that you're not supposed to tell people about surprises. "But mom," he responded, "it's not a surprise that we love you!" HOUSTON Trump administration officials spoke optimistically about a relatively quick rebound from the coronavirus Sunday as life within the White House reflected the stark challenges still posed by the pandemic, with Vice President Mike Pence self-isolating after one of his aides tested positive. A balancing act was playing out the world over, with leaders starting to loosen lockdowns that have left millions unemployed while also warning of the threat of a second wave of infections. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin predicted the American economy would rebound in the second half of this year from unemployment rates that rival the Great Depression. Another 3.2 million U.S. workers applied for jobless benefits last week, bringing the total over the last seven weeks to 33.5 million. I think youre going to see a bounce-back from a low standpoint, said Mnuchin, speaking on Fox News Sunday. But the director of the University of Washington institute that created a White House-endorsed coronavirus model said the moves by states to re-open businesses will translate into more cases and deaths in 10 days from now. Dr. Christopher Murray of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said states where cases and deaths are going up more than expected include Illinois, Arizona, Florida and California. A reminder of the continued threat, Pences move came after three members of the White Houses coronavirus task force placed themselves in quarantine after coming into contact with the aide. An administration official said Pence was voluntarily keeping his distance from other people and has repeatedly tested negative for COVID-19 since his exposure. He plans to be at the White House Monday. Families, meanwhile, marked Mothers Day in a time of social distancing. For many, it was their first without loved ones lost in the pandemic. Others sent good wishes from a safe distance or through phone and video calls. The virus has caused particular suffering for the elderly, with more than 26,000 deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities in the United States, according to an Associated Press tally. At a senior center in Smyrna, Georgia, 73-year-old Mary Washington spoke to her daughter Courtney Crosby and grandchild Sydney Crosby through a window. In Germany, children who live outside the country were allowed to enter for a Mothers Day visit. Germanys restrictions currently forbid entry except for compelling reasons, such as work. In Grafton, West Virginia, where the tradition of Mothers Day began 112 years ago, the brick building now known as the International Mothers Day Shrine held its first online-only audience. Anna Jarvis first held a memorial service for her mother and all mothers on the second Sunday of May in 1908. Sheltered safely at home with the family together would be viewed by Anna Jarvis as exactly the way she wanted Mothers Day to be observed, said Marvin Gelhausen, chairman of the shrines board of trustees, in an address on YouTube. Matilda Cuomo, the mother of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, called into her sons daily briefing so he and his three daughters could wish her a happy Mothers Day. I am so blessed as many mothers today are, she said. The governor announced two policy reversals a day after an Associated Press report in which residents relatives, watchdog groups and politicians alleged he was not doing enough to counter the surge of deaths in nursing homes, where about 5,300 residents have died. Nursing home staff in New York will now have to undergo COVID-19 tests twice a week, and facilities will no longer be required to take in hospital patients who were infected. The U.S. has seen 1.3 million infections and nearly 80,000 deaths, the most in the world by far, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, 4 million people have been reported infected and more than 280,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins. In the U.K., Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a modest easing of the countrys coronavirus lockdown but urged citizens not to surrender the progress already made. Those in jobs that cant be done at home should be actively encouraged to go to work this week, he said. Johnson, who has taken a tougher line after falling ill himself with what he called this devilish illness, set a goal of June 1 to begin reopening schools and shops if the U.K. can control new infections and the transmission rate of each infected person. We will be driven not by mere hope or economic necessity, he said. Were going to be driven by the science, the data, and public health. Germany, which managed to push new infections below 1,000 daily before deciding to loosen restrictions, has seen regional spikes in cases linked to slaughterhouses and nursing homes. France is letting some younger students go back to school Monday after almost two months out. Attendance wont be compulsory right away. Residents of some Spanish regions will be able to enjoy limited seating at bars, restaurants and other public places Monday, but Madrid and Barcelona will remain shut down. China reported 17 new cases on Monday, the second day of double-digit increases. Five were in the city of Wuhan, the original epicenter of the pandemic where a strict lockdown was lifted last month. Another five were in northeastern provinces, including Jilin, which borders North Korea. Despite the new cases raising concerns about a reignited outbreak, 82,000 third-year middle school students in Beijing returned to classes Monday to prepare for their high school entrance exams. And Shanghai Disneyland, closed since late January, reopened, with reservations required and social distancing measures in place. Visitors wearing masks and often Mickey Mouse ears or character costumes were checked for fevers at the gate. South Korea reported 35 new cases Monday, the second day in a row that its daily jump was above 30 for the first time in a month. Many of its recently confirmed cases were tied to nightclubs that welcomed hundreds of people after reopening. Authorities in the Seoul metropolitan area subsequently ordered the temporary closing of its nightlife establishments to guard against a possible resurgence. ___ Jordans reported from Berlin. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed. Follow AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak Back to index2020-05-09A | A- | A+ Zoa Morani donates blood for COVID-19 plasmatherapy (20:01) Mumbai, May 9 (IANS) Producer Karim Morani's daughter Zoa Morani donated her blood for plasmatherapy trials for COVID-19 treatment at Mumbai's Nair hospital today. Zoa, who has recently recovered from coronavirus along with her father Karim Morani and sister Shaza Morani, took to Instagram to inform everyone about her blood donation. She also mentioned that any person who has recovered from COVID-19, can take part in the cause. "Donated my blood today for the #plasmatherapy trials at #nairhospital.. it was fascinating!!! Always a silver lining i suppose... the team there was so enthusiastic and careful. There was a general physician on standby just incase of emergency and the equipment brand new and safe!!! All #Covid19 recovered people can be a part of this trial, to help others covid patients recover! Thank you Dr Jayanti Shastri and Dr Ramesh Waghmare for taking such good care of me.. hope this works #covidrecovery #IndiaFightsCorona," shared Zoa on Instagram on Saturday evening. Zoa shared photographs from the hospital clicked during and after her blood donation. She also informed in her post that her blood donation has been acknowledged with a certificate and a Rs-500 remittance by the hospital and she feels "super cool" about it! Follow @News18Movies for more Advertisement By Bill Hughes and Mike Cooper May. 10, 2020 | PADUCAH By Bill Hughes and Mike Cooper May. 10, 2020 | 02:53 PM | PADUCAH The Kentucky primary election has been moved from May 19th to June 23rd, but that's not the only change that voters should know about. Secretary of State Michael Adams and Governor Andy Beshear have announced that strict requirements are being waived so people can vote by absentee ballot if they are worried about catching or transmitting COVID-19. They are also allowing in-person voting by appointment at courthouses beginning June 8th. On June 23rd, any remaining in-person voting will take place, but most precincts will not be open as they usually are. These practices are to make sure social distancing guidelines are followed. McCracken County Clerk Julie Griggs told West Kentucky Star voters should arrange to get an absentee ballot. The State Board of Elections (SBE) will be mailing out postcards to every registered voter by May 22nd explaining how to request an absentee ballot. Griggs explained that voters can request a ballot in the following ways: 1. Calling the McCracken County Clerks Office at 270-444-4702. 2. Request a ballot by email at: julie.griggs@ky.gov 3. The SBE will be opening up a secure online portal in a few weeks whereby voters can request their ballot online. State law requires absentee ballot requests be received in the clerk's office by June 16th, and completed ballots must be received by 6:00 pm on June 23rd. For those that cannot vote by mail or choose not to, in-person voting will be available in the Clerks Office starting June 8th and continuing through June 22nd from 8:30-4:30. The office will also be open on two Saturdays during that two week time frame to accommodate voters who cannot come in during normal business hours. On Election Day, June 23rd, there will be only one voting location as precincts will not be open that day. All in-person voting on Election Day will be in the County Clerks Office from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm. CDC guidelines for social distancing will be followed for all in-person voting, so if this is the choice of the voter, a longer than usual wait should be expected. It is the top priority of the McCracken County Board of Elections and the County Clerks Office to conduct a safe and secure election and to uphold the integrity of the election process. Griggs added that patience during these challenging times is appreciated. The number for the voter registration and elections department at the County Clerk's office is 270-444-4702. Griggs suspects that voter turnout may be lower than normal, even though it's a presidential election year, because people won't be as familiar with how it will be done. "In the primary, the turnout is always lower than what it is in the general election. I do think the voter turnout will be heavier in the city precincts because of the mayor and city commission race," she said. When asked if she has heard of any concerns from voters about how secure their absentee vote would be, Griggs said not yet, but if she does, she'll give reassurance that her office has handled absentee ballots in every election. Griggs said, "We'll still do that part of the process the same as far as keeping them in a secured vault, locked, that sort of thing. So, the voters can definitely be assured. I don't want people to think there's more room for voter fraud or anything like that. Our process will still be the same, just on a much larger scale." Your tax-deductible gift today powers our reporters and keeps us independent. We rely on you, our reader, not paywalls to stay funded because we believe important news and information should be freely accessible to all. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe By Pallavi Gogoi | NPR Our news is free on LAist. To make sure you get our coverage: Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter. To support our non-profit public service journalism: Donate Now. It was just a few months ago when things were looking up for Latinos in the U.S. Wages were rising and unemployment had hit a record low. As the U.S. economy marked its longest expansion on record, Latino families marked better times with milestone purchases. They bought more homes than any ethnic group, including whites. Another positive: a record number of Hispanics began attending college, with enrollment nearly tripling in the past two decades. Now, that historic wave of Latino prosperity appears to be at risk from the coronavirus pandemic. The devastation in job losses is widespread in America, as the unemployment rate has climbed to 14.7%, the highest level since the Great Depression. But the latest U.S. jobs report shows that Latinos are the worst hit, with a record jobless rate of 18.9%, higher than any other ethnic group. Research shows that minority communities are especially vulnerable in economic downturns. During the Great Recession just over a decade ago, Latino fortunes were harmed far more than whites, and the damage endured. It took longer for them to regain lost jobs and wages. And it's especially hard for immigrants. "Migrants are not only the first ones to lose their job, but will be the last ones to regain it," said Manuel Orozco, a director at the Inter-American Dialogue and also a senior fellow at Harvard University's Center for International Development of the Inter-American Dialogue. This time, the pain could be far worse. The USC Center for Economic and Social Research's Understanding Coronavirus in America is tracking survey data nationally and in L.A. County. For an interactive version of this chart visit https://covid19pulse.usc.edu/ (Courtesy of USC) In the span of just two months, millions of jobs have evaporated, particularly from businesses that employ a large number of Hispanics -- hotels, restaurants, bars, building services. No one is traveling or going out to eat during the lockdowns and that has sliced 5.5 million jobs from restaurants and bars, and another 839,000 from hotels in April alone. And with offices shut down, it's led to another 259,000 job losses from building services -- an industry with over 40% Hispanic employees. It includes workers like Anabel, from El Salvador, who has lived in Los Angeles for 12 years. (She asked NPR to use only her first name, since she is undocumented.) Until recently, Anabel worked two jobs -- four days as a cleaner at a Beverly Hills designer store and one day a week at an office building -- making $14 an hour. But the store closed a few weeks ago. She still has the the building job, but that's just four hours of work, and she makes barely enough to make ends meet. Anabel says she didn't pay her May rent. It was the first time she was delinquent. "All of us here in the apartment building have gone to the manager and said we can't pay," Anabel told NPR. "How can we pay without jobs?" She says the building manager has warned renters not to fall too far behind, otherwise they'll be sent packing once the statewide moratorium on evictions is lifted. Anabel says she picks up food from the local church and a food pantry. She's sewing masks to make some money. Activists and economists who track the Latino community worry that Anabel's plight is widespread. Many domestic workers who are undocumented have also lost income in large numbers. This largely hidden workforce is more than 2.5 million strong, according to the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Many of them are out of work because of social distancing. They include house cleaners, and people who cook, do laundry and care for their clients' dependents. More than half of them identify as Hispanic or Latina (more than 90% are women), and most of them are primary breadwinners for their families, according to a survey titled the Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work. Among the country's lowest paid jobs, these workers have very little savings, they don't qualify for federal or state relief programs, and have few places to go for help. The U.S. Hispanic population has more than doubled in the past two decades. They have made enormous strides during the economic recovery of the last decade, but they are still very vulnerable. Hispanics still earn about 25% less than white workers do. And even though their poverty rate fell to an all-time low recently, it was still more than double the rate of non-Hispanic whites. The hope was that the recent wins would continue, and lift the community from out of America's underclass. The coronavirus has arrested that march forward with no end in sight, for now. Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. The Andhra Pradesh government has taken to online platforms to impart education in the times of COVID-19 and academics have braced up to the new medium with eagerness and enthusiasm. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has also directed the officials to log into online courses. The state has been conducting virtual classes using the Skype, Cisco, Teamlink, Google Meet and Microsoft Team to conduct online classes. In the times of lockdown, over 24,000 students and 933 teachers are taking part in the online classes. Lectures on various subjects are uploaded on YouTube and their links are being shared to enable those students to get the benefit, who do not have reach to online facility. Lecture notes are also being shared through WhatsApp and e-mail. Presently, 5979 classes have been organised covering various streams such as B. Tech, M. Tech, BA, MA, MCA and MBA among many others. Efforts are on to complete the pending syllabus and engage students in a productive manner during this time of lockdown. At a higher level, Universities are encouraging students to get enrolled for free online courses from platforms like Udemy, Coursera, etc and utilise resources like MOOC, SWAYAM, and NPTL too. For school education, Doordarshan lessons are being conducted for tenth class students, which are broadcasted daily for two hours in the morning and evening. Radio lessons are also broadcasted daily. The State self-learning app named Abhyasa is also loaded with tenth class subject videos pooled from Dhiksha and are coupled with objective type question papers, which are posted for practise. Also Read: Hyderabad international airport facilitates first Vande Bharat evacuation flight from Kuwait to Hyderabad Also Read: Clash between Indian, Chinese troops in North Sikkim, both sides suffer minor injuries The government plans to create a WhatsApp group at every school, which will include Teachers and tenth class students. Important practice questions will be posted daily on the TV/Radio lessons in these WhatsApp groups, which students can answer from their home and send photos of the answer sheet, which can be evaluated and returned with feedback. Webinar and pre recorded videos in SCERT YouTube channel on questions and answers, discussion and keywords for each and every important topic will also be available. On the same lines, online classes will be telecast, broadcast and also will be posted in WhatsApp groups for all the lower classes during the months of June and July. A webinar series is organised from May 4 for all teachers and daily self assessment tests and notes are shared because of the new curriculum of the state. Counselling sessions are also being provided by some universities with the support of their Psychology Department to cater to the needs of the students and the society at large, during these times to beat fatigue, despair and monotony. The phone numbers for the counselling are posted on the University website. As of now, Sri Padmavati Mahila Vishvavidalayam, Adikavi Nannaya and Yogi Vemana University are offering counselling. Also Read: After health ministry, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal says weve to learn to live with coronavirus For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Top stock pickers at investment bank UBS say Australia's sharemarket has staged a full recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, rallying 20 per cent despite a near-certain recession and widespread unemployment. Most sectors have already "digested" the crisis and are looking ahead to the 2021 financial year, the bank claims, confounding analysts who expected a drawn-out recovery after pandemic scares fuelled a 40 per cent drop in early March. Australia's sharemarket has defied expectations to stage a long-term recovery just weeks after the market plunged 40 per cent. Credit:AAP "It's like the market is on fast-forward," Pieter Stoltz, equity strategist at investment bank UBS, told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. "I'm surprised at how quickly it's priced in this recovery." Analysis by Mr Stoltz assessing what companies were set to benefit from the relaxing of coronavirus restrictions highlighted a number of businesses in the retail, transport and gaming sectors. nursing home Jeremy Hogan / Echoes Wire/Barcroft Media via Getty Images Long-term care facility residents and workers make up one-third of US coronavirus deaths, according to a new database from The New York Times. In about a dozen states, they account for more than half of all deaths from the virus. Nursing homes have been considered "death pits" during coronavirus due to residents' age and underlying conditions, as well as tight quarters and overburdened staff. Prior estimates suggested COVID-19 deaths related to long-term care facilities made up about 20% of total US deaths. In Europe, the proportion is closer to 50%. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. About one-third of all coronavirus deaths in the US are residents or workers in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to an interactive database compiled by The New York Times. The figure is startling, given that only 10% of coronavirus cases occur in such facilities, and less than 0.5% of Americans live in them. Long-term care facilities which in this case includes nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, memory care facilities, retirement and senior communities, and rehabilitation facilities in certain states have been particularly affected, with residents and workers making up more than half the states' coronavirus deaths, the report found. The Times' data are based "official confirmations from states, counties, and the facilities themselves" since there's a lack of comprehensive data from some states and the federal government, according to the report's authors, Karen Yourish, K.K. Rebecca Lai, Danielle Ivory, and Mitch Smith. The database includes deaths of residents and, where available, employees. "Given the wide variability in the type of information available, the totals shown here almost certainly represent an undercount of the true toll," the team wrote. Story continues In this April 17, 2020, photo, Dr. Gabrielle Beger, left, takes a nose-swab sample from Lawrence McGee, right, as she works with a team of University of Washington medical providers conducting testing for the new coronavirus at Queen Anne Healthcare, a skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility in Seattle. AP Photo/Ted S. Warren Nursing homes have been hotbeds for coronavirus cases and deaths since the beginning of the outbreak in the US The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers nursing home residents to be a high-risk population when it comes to contracting or dying from COVID-19, the illness the novel coronavirus causes. Not only are residents vulnerable because they're older and tend to have underlying conditions, but they also often live in close quarters and are cared for by burdened staff who frequently travel between rooms. "They're death pits," Betsy McCaughey, a former lieutenant governor of New York who founded the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths told The New York Times on April 17. "These nursing homes are already overwhelmed. They're crowded and they're understaffed. One COVID-positive patient in a nursing home produces carnage." The first coronavirus deaths at a US nursing home occurred in suburban Seattle. By the end of March, at least 43 deaths were linked to the Life of Care Center in Kirkland, Washington, Business Insider previously reported. At least 94 residents and staff at the Long Island State Veterans Home at Stony Brook University contracted the virus, and 32 residents died. On April 17, the Times reported that at least 7,000 people had died from COVID-19 associated with nursing homes, making up almost 20% coronavirus deaths in the US. The publication's latest findings that at least 25,600 residents and workers have died from coronavirus related to long-term care facilities, making up one-third of US coronavirus deaths suggest the earlier data was a grave underestimate, or that nursing home-related deaths are rising at a faster rate than coronavirus deaths in the general population, or likely, both. In Europe, as many as half of COVID-19 related deaths occurred in long-term care facilities, the World Health Organization reported. Read the original article on Business Insider If you are currently a print subscriber but don't have an online account, select this option. You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE). 40 prisoners return back to Indore Central jail after testing negative for virus Movement of all doctors, nurses, paramedics should be unhindered, says Cabinet Secy PM Modi to meet chief minsters on Monday at 3 PM UP has 1884 active Covid-19 cases: Official 'Urge all states to allow evacuation of stranded migrants': Railway Minister Railways to gradually restart passenger train ops from May 12 Maharashtra records 1,278 Covid-19 cases, its highest tally ever in a day HT File As fresh coronavirus cases and deaths surge around the world, countries are trying to figure out how to reopen hoping the coronavirus does not come surging back. Health officials and governments were divided in Germany and Italy on how to balance lives and reopen economies. Click here for the complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic Officials were scared that crowds thronging the streets of Rome, Milan will threaten recovery. Germany saw a new spate of infections in slaughterhouses as 190 cases were reported in Coesfeld. Seoul was forced to close 2,100 bars and nightclubs after 1,940 people tested positive. India, expected to gradually start reopening from May 16, has seen 62,939 cases and 2,109 deaths due to Covid-19. British Airways planes parked up in Gatwick after being grounded due to the coronavirus outbreak. Photo: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images Airlines boss Willie Walsh will be grilled by MPs tomorrow over controversial plans to cut more than a quarter of the British Airways (BA) workforce. The chief executive of BA's parent company International Airlines Group (IAG) will be asked to justify the culling of 12,000 BA jobs when IAG has 8.7bn ($10.8bn) cash reserves. Walsh is also likely to be quizzed by the transport select committee about the decision to make deep cuts at BA but no redundancies at IAG's Spanish airlines Iberia and Vueling. This is despite BA contributing around 60% of group profits last year. The hearing tomorrow is part of an investigation into the impact of COVID-19 on the aviation industry. Huw Merriman, chairman of the Transport Select Committee and Conservative MP for Bexhill and Battle, told The Mail on Sunday: "We are trying to work out what IAG's strategy is. "Are the job cuts all about surviving the coronavirus crisis, or is it a plan Willie Walsh has had all along to cut costs and he's using the pandemic as an opportunity?" READ MORE: New setback for airlines as UK proposes fresh quarantine plan BA furloughed more than 30,000 staff before announcing the redundancies last month and has gone on to secure a combined 1.17bn in commercial loans backed by the Spanish government and the Bank of England. IAG declined to comment. A further blow to the aviation industry came yesterday when the UK government announced plans to introduce a 14-day quarantine for people arriving to the UK. It follows attempts by many other countries to stem the spread of coronavirus and prevent a second wave. Airline bodies said the plan would cause "immeasurable damage" to the industry and Walsh said BA would not restart flying if the UK imposed a quarantine. The measures, expected to be introduced in early June, would require travellers, including those from the UK, to provide an address of where they will stay for the two weeks. Anyone caught breaching the quarantine would be fined up to 1,000 or deported. I've hardly moved from this couch in weeks, but right now my heart rate monitor says I'm at 132. That's double my normal. That's like if I'm climbing a mountain. How come? Nobody knows. Nobody ever knows. And why has my fever been spiking again? Do I need to go back to the ER? I'm on week six of this crap, and I still don't know if I'm getting better or worse, but people want to act like the threat is behind us? Wait, no, that's not right. This is actually week eight for me. I started getting symptoms right before New York shut down. I mix up my dates. My mind is all foggy. I've been a nurse for 30 years, and now I can't even remember if my last Tylenol was five minutes or five hours ago. It feels like electricity is burning through my spine, and nobody can tell me why. It's like I'm sucking air through a straw. When I stand up, my ears start ringing until dizziness forces me back down. Every symptom is a whole new mystery. This virus is unpredictable and so, so violent. I'm up to 140 now. See? It's relentless. How long can a heart last like this? The palpitations come a few times every hour and go on for a minute or more. It's just banging, banging, banging, banging. It hurts too much to talk. I'll try again later. I have to lie down and breathe through it. That's what they tell me to do. - - - The next morning, Wednesday, May 6 My heart rate is back down now to 105. That's nothing to celebrate. That's still considered abnormal, but it's typical now for me. I didn't use to be like this. I'm healthy. I'm a vegetarian. I've got grown kids in the military and a teenager at home, and we hike and kayak. I'm a positive, hard-charging person. Maybe I got it at the VA hospital where I work, but we didn't have any confirmed cases yet. Or my son might have had an exposure and given it to me. Who knows? It's one more mystery. I didn't even notice I was sick until another nurse asked why I was coughing. I figured it was allergies. Take some Zyrtec and get on with it. Hardly anybody here in Syracuse had covid at that point. What were the odds? Then, after I tested positive, I thought I'd get a mild case. I told my husband: "Relax. I'm fine." I don't have diabetes. I don't have hypertension, COPD or anything like that. I thought I could stay home, take care of myself and be back at work in a few weeks. Right away I started running a temperature of 103, and the Tylenol couldn't control it. I was shaking and cursing all day in bed, and the symptoms spread from there. I was head-to-toe exhausted. I wanted the whole world to let me alone. I had equipment at home from my nursing work, and I started checking my vitals and saw my blood pressure shooting up. I've never had that. I'd get up to shower and start gasping for air. My son was also covid-positive, and he ran a high fever and recovered within a week while I kept on getting worse. Maybe because I'm older? Or because I used to be a smoker? You can't get a definitive answer on anything with this. I started coughing to the point of throwing up. I coughed until I was incontinent. My lips were chapped from dehydration. I had headaches. Migraines. Heartburn. Rashes. I lost 16 pounds in the first few weeks. I would lie down at night after taking melatonin and Benadryl, soaked in sweat and terrified of what might be coming next. What if I fall asleep and stop breathing? More Benadryl. More melatonin. Maybe try a Xanax. I'd lie there for hours but it was nonstop insomnia. I'd turn the TV to Lifetime for a distraction, but I couldn't make sense of what they were saying. One day, my son needed money to buy groceries. I said I'd give him $80, but I couldn't count it out. I couldn't do the math. I handed him $50, then $70. I asked him: "Is this really happening right now or is this a hallucination?" He took the cash and counted it himself. He begged me to get help. I went to urgent care. The X-rays showed pneumonia, so they told me to go to the ER. I didn't want to risk a secondary infection at the hospital, and I knew they didn't have any magic treatment for this virus, but I couldn't take care of myself. There wasn't any choice. I wrote down my end-of-life wishes, and I had my son drop me at the ER. I'm having another palpitation. Hang on. Are these panic attacks? I never had them before. It feels like my heart is trying to jump out of my chest. Breathe. Stay calm. What is there to be calm about? It's up over 150 now. Something is really wrong with me. I need to go rest. I need to figure this out. - - - A few hours later OK. I'm a little better. It's hour by hour. I'm not sure I can handle it again if I have to go back to the hospital. That first stay lasted 10 days, or at least that's what they told me. I couldn't tell days apart. I had a little glass isolation room with a curtain they kept closed. There was nothing to see out the window except a parking garage across the street. I couldn't have visitors, and most of the doctors and nurses were afraid to stay in the room. It was okay. I was too sick to talk and too scared to feel lonely. I appreciate what they did. They were honest about what they didn't know, and they tried. They kept throwing stuff at the wall to see what might stick. They gave me a malaria drug, but it did absolutely nothing. They gave me an antibiotic for pneumonia, but I still couldn't breathe without 15 liters of oxygen. They tried vitamin C, magnesium, shots of blood thinner, baby aspirin, Tums, multivitamins, Xanax, cough syrup with codeine. It was like fixing a car when you don't know what's broken. They gave me inhalers and breathing exercises to do every hour, but my oxygen level kept dropping. They wanted to put me on life support, but I was afraid I'd never come off. The doctor came in and said: "We have a team ready to revive you in case you start to code. We're going to watch you closely." Watching was all anybody could do. Then, one morning, my fever started to go down. Nobody knew why that happened either. But it stayed down for 36 hours, and they said I could go home. Now I've got my oxygen on a long extension cord. I can make it to the kitchen or the bathroom if I'm feeling good, but usually I stay here in the den. My husband never caught it, so we're staying apart. He works as a manager at Wegmans, and if he got sick, we might be out on the street. The $1,200 stimulus went to rent and hospital co-pays, and now we're burning through our savings. I try not to think about it. I watch the news and check my vitals, but they're always bad. My family stands in the doorway to visit sometimes, and other people text or call. "Are you feeling better yet?" It's like they're becoming impatient. They want to feel safe going out. We managed to buckle down for a while, but now it's getting nice outside, and people need to work. The deniers and the protesters are coming out. One of my relatives went on Facebook and wrote that this whole virus is overblown, or maybe even a hoax. People want to minimize. "Are you better yet? Why aren't you better yet?" I don't know. I don't know anything. My brain keeps racing with unanswered questions. Are my lungs scarred? Is my heart damaged? Can I get sick again? Will I be hiking the Adirondacks this summer or lugging this oxygen tank from the den to the bathroom for the rest of my life? I hate this virus. It's been two months of uncertainty and I don't think I can take any more. Why are my legs burning? Why is my skin so hot? I need answers. I need help. - - - The next morning, Thursday, May 7 I'm back at the hospital. My fever won't come down. The doctors say I have blood clots on my lungs and a mass on one of my organs. They're trying to figure it out. There's no timeline and no prognosis. All I know is they're admitting me. I've been crying my eyes out. The morphine is making me in a fog. When will this damn thing let me alone? The horses on Chennai's Marina beach were slowly starving to death because of the lockdown until Shiranee Pereira decided to take a hand. Aditi Phadnis reports. IMAGE: Starving horses at the Marina beach in Chennai. Photograph: Kind courtesy Shiranee Pereira Everyone who has grown up in Chennai knows about them. They are beautiful piebald horses that clip-clop along the Marina Beach on breezy evenings, their heads down, ears up as the children on their backs squeal with delight. They are wonderfully tame and will nuzzle children if allowed to. On good days, you can actually see the sea smiling at the sight. The pretty picture comes at a cost. Joy-ride horses on Marina work hard to earn their keep. Owners can earn up to Rs 300 to Rs 500 a day from joyrides and offer the horses at weddings, etc. From the earnings of Rs 15,000 or so per month, the horses have to keep themselves and their owners fed. At the best of time, they never get enough to eat, though they work in the morning and evening and again, late at night. In normal times. But this is the age of the lockdown. There are no children, the beaches are empty and there's no work for the horses. The owners's stock of feed is finished and there's no way to replenish it. The horses are standing tethered all day and all night, both fore and hind limbs standing on stone and garbage in the sweltering heat. And basically, starving to death. IMAGE: Shiranee Pereira of People for Animals was awarded the Mahaveer Award for 25 years of selfless dedication in the care of voiceless animals. Shiranee Pereira runs the Chennai chapter of People for Animals and she just couldn't stand it. Truth be told, she has been thinking about the rehabilitation of these horses for months, she confessed. 'While we are certain that this misery of using these horses for joy rides should end forever and we hope to rehabilitate these horses to better environs, you will agree that to attend to their hunger and thirst is a priority at the moment,' she tweeted, hoping to raise money via crowdfunding for the animals. IMAGE: Shiranee Pereira with one of the horses. In the meantime, she managed to put together 40 bags of wheat bran for immediate feed. Wheat bran is -- each bag costs around Rs 1,100. But then another problem arose: How to get it across to the horses. A long rigmarole followed as she petitioned police stations with the name of each horse to be fed (there are 117 of them) painstakingly written out in quintuplet so that passes could be issued to the PFA van which could then drive down to the beach and dole out the food. Wheat bran stocks in Chennai also ran out and it had to be ordered from outside the state. But the state borders had been sealed. So the next best solution was to cut the grass at the animal shelter she runs outside the city and feed that to the horses. For Pereira, it was enough that the hungry horses managed to eat at least something. Jessie, a brown and white piebald, had a foal two weeks ago. He is called Alex. Mother and child dug into the buckets of oats and wheat bran and Pereira felt she had got her reward: There was visible improvement in the health of the horses after a week's feeding. Then the PFA caught a lucky break. Responding to her appeal, M A R M Muthiah, chairman of the Madras Race Club, sanctioned Rs 5 lakh towards wheat bran flakes for the horses. "I can't tell you how happy I feel," says Pereira. "A great weight has rolled off my mind. This is an incredibly kind and compassionate gesture". Pereira's ultimate plan for the horses is to relocate them so that they can retire with freedom to graze in green pastures and live out the rest of their lives with lots of love and care. But she is conscious that this is a life-versus-livelihood issue and has to be approached with sensitivity. The horses are the only source of livelihood for the owners. In fact, when some slum clusters from the beach were relocated to housing elsewhere for a better quality of life for the inhabitants, many horses were simply abandoned because obviously the owners could not take them along in a block of flats! Pereira is, however, appealing to the conscience of the city as a collective. "Namma Chennai should be a city that the world will look at, as a city of compassion and care. We can't close our eyes to our backyard," she says. She is hoping that with a buy in from owners and the government (and she accepts it will be a complicated negotiation), the horses will eventually be rehabilitated. But till then, at least there's something to eat -- and on a good day, even carrots! Your browser does not support the audio element. An undergraduate student in Hanoi went missing for months despite her familys tracking efforts. Private investigators found out she was being held hostage by her boyfriend, a thug active in drug dealings. A detective agency in the capital had a visit from an elderly couple wrinkled by the stress of worries over their daughter, Hong, who had been missing for months. From their account, Hong was a university sophomore and was considered a good girl with fine looks. Last year, she was regularly returning to her hometown in Nam Dinh Province, 84km south of Hanoi, bringing along academic results on a high scale. For a few months, however, school representatives contacted her family, saying Hong had been constantly playing truant and had to retake three courses. Unsettled, her parents sent Mai, their niece, to Hongs place in Hanoi as a roommate, but more importantly as an undercover supervisor. Mai said that Hong frequently came home late, and sometimes she would be away for days. Once she saw a spiky-haired man with tattoos all over his arms and a huge necklace escort Hong back home on a black bike with no license plate. Over a phone conversation, her parents forbade her from getting anywhere near such a man. A few days later, Hong left without a note. Her whereabouts remained a mystery for months. The number one suspect was the black bike without a license number and the tattooed man. Almost sure that he had taken her, detectives had a quick meeting to run through previous cases where thugs were involved, but nothing sprang to mind. Duong, a member of the detective team, came to see Mai for further clues. She said that Hong often talked on the phone to a person named Thang. Once Thang said he would take her back to Hai Phong City [120km east of Hanoi], but she was very scared, said Mai. The search was narrowed down to the northern city, but the reason why Hong was terrified was still a mystery. The investigators believed this was likely a blackmail case. Detective Ngoc Anh managed to access Hongs phone dial list. The final call was made to number 0913 xxx. Duong dialed that suspected number, saying, Is that Thang? Are you home? Tell Hong to call me now. Im at the club. Speak up! a male voice answered. Which club? Tran Nhat Duat. Who are you? Once the conversation stopped, the team got one more important clue -- Thang was probably working for a nightclub on Tran Nhat Duat Street. That night, four investigators disguised themselves as motorbike taxi drivers and took their positions near beer bars around Tran Nhat Duat Street. At around 2:00 am, a black bike bearing no license plate shot out heading toward Vinh Tuy Bridge. He was tailed by one detective, who got spotted because of the headlight. The thug cut his tail at the corner of Nguyen Trai-Van Quan Streets in Ha Dong District in Hanoi. The dead end The next evening, Duong and a female colleague, both dressed up smartly, got into the club where their suspect was possibly working. Ordering two Mojitos, they settled for ease of observation. The female agent asked the bartender, Youre from Hai Phong, too, like Thang? Well, Thang the bald head? Hes based around the toilet area. An investigators take turns watching their suspect, ready to tail him on a motorbike. Photo: Vu Tuan / Tuoi Tre Duong searched for him there several times but he did not turn up. They saw him ride his bike away at around 3:00 am, however. They let him go so as not to be conspicuous. The team decided to capture his image and sent back to Mai for verification, so they equipped themselves with a hidden camera. They tricked him into getting out of the place by faking a phone call, saying there had been a package delivery for him from his hometown. They got his image, which was confirmed by Hong very soon afterward. That very night, the detectives tailed Thang again after his night shift and found that his flat was located around Buou Bridge, near K Hospital in the capital. On the following evening, the investigators came to that neighborhood looking for Hong. The landlady said that a girl came to stay with Thang last month, but she left the next day and had not come back since. That must have been Hong, but where could she be then? The team decided to confront their target. To the rescue Once again, the detectives dropped by the club, but their suspect was not there. They learnt that he had asked for one week off for a home visit. They got his home address after a little quarrel with the receptionist, and set off immediately that night. The next night, the thug came out with a masked girl riding pillion. They stopped by a hotpot restaurant where a dozen thugs were waiting. The girl removed her mask and joined the feast. She had no idea her picture was already taken and sent to the agency. Notified, her family immediately caught a taxi to go straight from Nam Dinh Province to Hai Phong, 86km apart. Meanwhile, the team of detectives hit the road from Hanoi. The two parties agreed to meet in Hai Phong. At 9:00 pm, Thang, Hong, and the other drunkards left the place for round two at a karaoke parlor. Two hours later, police officers from Le Chan District, Hai Phong budged into their room. More than 20 people were dancing vehemently. Pink pills were scattered on the table. They were taken to the police station where Hongs parents were waiting. Later, the young girl wrote a thank-you letter to the detective agency, telling them how thankful she was to have been rescued. She said that only two months after their first date, she realized Thang was such a dangerous thug, and he forced her to do as he said. Otherwise, he would have hurt her and her family. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Su-25 attack aircraft are seen during the Victory Day Air Parade in Moscow, Russia, May 9, 2020. (Xinhua/Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr) Putin promised to hold a "broad and solemn" celebration after the pandemic ends, describing this as a duty to those who suffered and won during the war era. MOSCOW, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Russia on Saturday briefly celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory against the Nazis in World War II, amid its intensified battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. The country has indefinitely postponed the traditional parade of ground troops and military equipment on Red Square and other mass events this year, for the first time since 1995 when May 9 was declared a national holiday. President Vladimir Putin laid flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier outside the Kremlin wall and delivered a televised address to the nation congratulating veterans and all people on the 75th anniversary of the great victory. In his speech, Putin promised to hold a "broad and solemn" celebration after the pandemic ends, describing this as a duty to those who suffered and won during the war era. "The spiritual and moral significance of the Victory Day remains invariably great and our attitude to it is sacred. This is our memory and pride; the history of our country, the history of each family," he said. A refueling aircraft Il-78 and a strategic bomber Tu-160 are seen during the Victory Day Air Parade in Moscow, Russia, May 9, 2020. (Xinhua/Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr) The Russian leader later attended the march of foot and horse guards of the Presidential Regiment in the Kremlin. A total of 75 aircraft and helicopters of the Russian Aerospace Forces, including Tu-160, Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3 bombers, as well as fifth-generation Su-57 fighters, flew over Red Square. The aerobatic teams the Russian Knights and the Swifts also took part in the air show, with their planes painting the sky with the three colors of the Russian national flag. Helicopters are seen during the Victory Day Air Parade in Moscow, Russia, May 9, 2020. (Xinhua/Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr) A naval parade was also carried out in Russia's second largest city of St. Petersburg, in a smaller form than usual. In Sevastopol Bay, Crimea, ships belonging to the Russian Black Sea Fleet lined up and fired salute shots. The fleet is also featured in video tours of its battleships, which are being broadcast on TV. The national and naval flags were raised on all warships, submarines and support vessels of the Russian Northern Fleet. The Immortal Regiment, a tradition in which millions of people across Russia parade with portraits of relatives who fought in World War II, is taking place online. People watch the Victory Day Air Parade on their balconies at home in Moscow, Russia, May 9, 2020. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi) The legal document marking the extinction of Nazi Germany was signed and became effective on the night of May 8, 1945, Berlin time, which was already the early hours of May 9 Moscow time. This marked the end of the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, an integral part of World War II lasting from 1939 to 1945. The catastrophic war claimed about 27 million lives of people from the Soviet Union, according to official statistics. More than seven decades later, Russia is facing another war -- this time, against COVID-19. The country has tallied a total of 198,676 COVID-19 cases so far. The single-day increase has been over 10,000 for seven consecutive days. LONDON (Reuters) - A trial of Britain's proposed coronavirus test-and-trace app being conducted on the Isle of Wight off the coast of southern England is going well, Transort Secretary Grant Shapps said on Saturday. 'The trial in the Isle of Wight of that tracking app, the NHSX app designed to help assist people, is going well LONDON (Reuters) - A trial of Britain's proposed coronavirus test-and-trace app being conducted on the Isle of Wight off the coast of southern England is going well, Transort Secretary Grant Shapps said on Saturday. "The trial in the Isle of Wight of that tracking app, the NHSX app designed to help assist people, is going well. People have been downloading it enthusiastically and I know that the plan is later in the month to make it more widely available as well," Shapps said at the government's daily news briefing. (Reporting by James Davey and Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Alex Richardson) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Wizz Air has opened booking for flights from Kyiv, Zaporizhia, Lviv, Odesa, and Kharkiv. Three international airlines, namely Czech Airlines, Wizz Air, and Lufthansa, have announced their plans to resume flights from Ukraine within the period from late May to early June. Read alsoUkraine's FM comments on resumption of local, international air traffic In particular, Czech Airlines plans to resume flights from Ukraine on May 24. This refers to those from Kyiv and Odesa to Prague. "Destinations which we will connect with Prague as early as May 25, 2020: Kyiv up to seven flights a week; and as early as May 25, 2020: Odesa up to three flights a week," Czech Airlines said on its website. Hungarian airlines Wizz Air, the largest discount carrier in Central and Eastern Europe, has opened booking for flights from Kyiv, Zaporizhia, Lviv, Odesa, and Kharkiv from May 23. Most flights will be operated from June. Germany-based Lufthansa will partially resume its air services from Ukraine on June 1. While one can book flights from Kyiv to Berlin. As UNIAN reported earlier, the European Commission recommended extending travel restrictions for non-EU nationals at the bloc's external borders until June 15, saying "the situation remains fragile both in Europe and worldwide" over the coronavirus pandemic. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Catherine Triomphe (Agence France-Presse) New York, United States Sun, May 10, 2020 13:06 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd70639a 2 Science & Tech UV-light,health,coronavirus,COVID-19 Free Could a new type of ultraviolet lamp be used in stations, airplanes and schools to kill dangerous viruses, becoming a gamechanger in the COVID-19 fight? Researchers at Columbia University have been working on such uses for years, and the current pandemic could confirm the value of their efforts. UVC lamps have long been used to kill bacteria, viruses and molds, notably in hospitals and in the food-processing industry. As the coronavirus pandemic knocks world economies on their heels, this technology is experiencing a boom. But UVC (for Ultraviolet-C) rays are dangerous, causing skin cancer and eye problems, and can be used only when no one is present. The New York subway system, following the example of Chinese subways, plans to use ultraviolet lamps to disinfect its trains, but only during nighttime closures. A team at Columbia's Center for Radiological Research is experimenting with so-called far-UVC, rays whose wavelength of 222 nanometers makes them safe for humans but still lethal to viruses, the center's director, David Brenner, told AFP. At those frequencies, he explained, the rays cannot penetrate the surface of the skin nor of the eye. That means they could be used in closed and crowded spaces where contamination risks run high, with potentially huge promise for use during the current pandemic. In late April, President Donald Trump offered confusing remarks about somehow projecting ultraviolet rays into people's bodies to kill the coronavirus. He appeared to be inspired by federal research on the effects of natural light on the virus -- but natural light has no UVC rays. In 2013, the Columbia team began studying the effectiveness of far-UVC against drug-resistant bacteria. It next examined the rays' use against viruses, including the flu virus. Only recently did it turn its attention to the coronavirus. "We were thinking, how can we apply what we are doing to the current situation," Brenner said. But to test the impact of UVC on the extremely contagious coronavirus, the team had to move its equipment into a highly bio-secure laboratory at Columbia. Experiments carried out starting "three-four weeks ago," Brenner said, have already made clear that UVC rays destroy the virus on surfaces within minutes. The team next plans to test the lamps on viruses suspended in the air, as when an infected person coughs or sneezes. In parallel, tests are being conducted to confirm that these rays are harmless to humans. For 40 weeks now, the lab has exposed mice to far-UVC rays for "eight hours a day, five days a week, at intensities 20 times higher than we might think of using with humans." Read also: On mission to eradicate virus germs, China firms see the UV light The results? After testing the rodents' eyes and skin, "we have found absolutely nothing; the mice are very happy -- and very cute as well," Brenner said. The experiment is set to continue for 20 more weeks. The findings cannot be fully validated by the scientific community until all remaining steps have been taken, even if the team has already submitted its preliminary results to the journal Nature. 'The world has changed' But the pressure to reopen the world's economies has become so enormous that factories are accelerating their production of ultraviolet lamps without waiting. "We really need something in situations like offices, restaurants, airplanes, hospitals," Brenner said. If UVC lamps have already been in commercial use for two or three years -- notably in the diamond industry, where they can be used to distinguish artificial from real gems -- potential clients are now legion, say companies producing them. "We felt for a long time this is a great application for this technology," said John Yerger, the CEO of Eden Park Illumination, a small producer based in Champaign, Illinois. But with the pandemic, "the world has changed a lot in the last three months," he added. And the US Food and Drug Administration has relaxed its regulation of tools or agents that can be used for disinfection, encouraging manufacturers to find a solution. "There will be thousands and thousands of these things (UVC lamps) for sure," Yerger said. "The question is, will it be millions?" "What we are seeing is a tremendous amount of customer interest" to produce lamps for airlines, cruise ships, restaurants, movie theaters and schools, said Shinji Kameda, chief operations officer in the US for Ushio, a Japanese manufacturer. Production of its 222-nanometer lamps, sold for $500 to $800 and already used in some Japanese hospitals, will be stepped up in October, he said. In the meantime, Brenner said he has been losing sleep. "I spend nights thinking -- if this far-UVC project had started one or two years earlier, maybe we could have prevented the COVID-19 crisis," he said. "Not completely, but maybe we could have prevented it being a pandemic." When it comes to wine, most of us have a favourite we return to time and again as we know we're unlikely to be disappointed. But relying on a faithful Pinot Grigio or Shiraz when choosing a tipple could mean you're missing out on trying something that may be even better suited to your taste. Fortunately the experts behind wine app Pingza have shared a test that will help reveal the type of wine you are most likely to enjoy based on your love of other food and drink. Shoppers who prefer zesty flavours like mango and passion fruit, for example, might want to pick up a bottle of rich and highly aromatic wine like those made with Gewurztraminer. Wine experts have shared a test that will help reveal the type of wine you are most likely to enjoy based on your love of other food and drink. Pictured: stock image Which white wine best suits your palate? Take the quiz to find out 1. 'An apple a day' - or would you pick something else from the fruit bowl? A: Tangy tangerine B: Fresh mango C: Crisp apple 2. When the temperature rises, which dessert do you reach for? A: Lemon sorbet B: Passion fruit mousse C: Creamy, smooth cheesecake 3. Cooking up a storm? What do you go for? A: Grilled white fish, or a fresh salad B: Thai curry, or Stir fried greens with soya sauce and tofu C: Roast chicken with all the trimmings OR vegan sushi 4. There's always room for pudding! What do you reach for? A: Key Lime Pie B: Tropical fruit salad C: Apricot tart RESULTS Mostly As: Cool & Crisp You will favour lighter, crisp wines with subtle citrus and apple aromas. Youll probably prefer Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire over that from New Zealand - ditto un-oaked Chenin Blanc from the Loire over South Africa. You should try other classic French wines such as Chablis. Also Italian Vermentino, Pinot Grigio and Bacchus, grown in English vineyards! Mostly Bs: Fruity & Fragrant You probably know that aroma is very important to you, and provides much of the pleasure of wine drinking. Rich and highly aromatic wines include those made with Gewurztraminer (which means spice in German) and Muscat; and for slightly more subtle perfumes look for Torrontes (probably Argentina). You might also enjoy Riesling from Alsace, and off-dry Chenin Blanc from the Loire (Vouvray) in France. Mostly Cs: Elegant & Smooth You like wines with a refreshing acidity, but a round mouthfeel, too. There are many wines that could fit the bill, particularly Chardonnay, whether from Tasmania or from sub-regions in Burgundy such as the Macon. Don't forget about whites from Bordeaux, which are usually an enticing blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc. Advertisement Those who reach for a crisp apple or creamy and smooth cheese cake would be better off with wines with a refreshing acidity, but a round mouthfeel, like a Chardonnay. Pingza wine expert Tom Surgey told FEMAIL the mini-quiz is designed to suss out exactly what kind of wine drinker you are. At the end, you're given character traits - such as 'light and easy-going' or 'elegant and energetic' for white and red wine. 'The eight questions carefully pinpoint your palate preferences, meaning it knows the wine you'll enjoy, even if you don't,' Tom explained. At the end, you're given character traits - such as 'light and easygoing' or 'elegant and energetic' for white and red wine, which help you select wines you'll enjoy when you're shopping 'For instance, people who prefer delicate herbs like thyme, bay-leaf or basil will prefer wines made from subtly aromatic grapes like Melon de Bourgogne used in Muscadet (light and easy-going) rather than the full whack of herbaceous, floral Gewurztraminer (fruity and fragrant). Pingza wine expert Tom Surgey told FEMAIL the mini-quiz is designed to suss out exactly what kind of wine drinker you are 'If you drink your coffee black or prefer strong tea then you like bitterness and astringency so you'll probably like Chianti made of Sangiovese grapes or red Bordeaux (elegant and energetic). 'Others are more obvious; your preference for fruit naturally indicates the type of fruit flavours you'll enjoy. 'For example, bananas and mangos show tropical fruit preference for New World Chardonnay like those from Argentina, compared to people preferring apples and pears who Pingza recommends would enjoy a crisp Chablis.' Once you've deduced the type of wine you're likely to enjoy coiffing, the app shows you the supermarkets with the best deal on that variety, from Aldi and Lidl to Waitrose, Ocado and Marks and Spencer. You can then either jump online and order a few bottles - if you're lucky enough to get a delivery slot right now - or pick one up at your local branch when you're next shopping for essentials. Pingza is available on the Apple app store, Google Play, or https://www.pingzawine.com/ During a press conference on Friday morning, Vic Reynolds, chief of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, said that the new team investigating the death of Ahmaud Arbery, the 25-year old Georgia man who was killed in February, obtained arrest warrants for two individuals on Thursday evening after reviewing the case for just 36 hours.he said.Reynolds said he couldn't answer as to how other agencies proceeded with cases, but indicated that his team believes the agency involved with the case, before GBI, was conducting a thorough investigation.he said.Prosecutor Tom Durden, who was assigned to the case in mid-April after the second prosecutor recused himself, said that he requested the GBI investigate the evidence in the case and other "matters" on Tuesday, but declined to elaborate further.The shooting gained widespread national attention earlier this week after graphic footage of Arbery's final moments circulated online.The video shows Arbery running at about a jogging pace in the direction of a white pickup truck, where two armed men appear to be waiting for him. Arbery is killed during a physical confrontation that breaks out at the front of the truck.According to GBI , the Glynn County Police Department asked them to investigate the public release of the footage on the same morning it was posted.Former investigator Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, his son, were arrested for felony murder and aggravated assault on Thursday evening, over two months after the shooting occurred. Gregory McMichael told police at the time of the incident that he saw a man, who he believed to be a burglary suspect, "hauling ass" down the residential street and decided to pursue him, according to a police report obtained by The New York Times.Gregory McMichael told The Washington Post shortly before he was arrested thathe said.Wanda Jones, the victim's mother, told CBS News in an interview after the footage leaked that her son was jogging at the time of his death: Couples in France who live far from each other will be forced to remain apart under coronavirus restrictions after French ministers rejected a proposed change to the law which would have allowed long-distance travel for the reason of love. Mireille Clapot, a member of the ruling centrist party LREM, suggested love should be added to a list of acceptable reasons for people to travel more than 100km (60 miles) from home when lockdown restrictions are eased on Monday. Ms Clapots proposal, which she referred to as a lovers amendment, was rejected during a debate on legislation in the French parliament this week. The law has restricted public liberties so much that it is very close to banishing love, the MP warned, arguing that many couples had been separated since 17 March due to the lockdown. Although Olivier Veran, the French health minister, thanked Ms Clapot for a moment of tenderness from her amendment, he said the government did not want to increase the number of exceptions to the rules in law. Around 50 French MPs have already called for an exception in the legislation to include visiting a newborn baby as an acceptable reason for travelling more than 100km. From Monday, people in France will no longer have to fill out a form to leave their house, with trips up to 100km from home and gatherings of up to 10 people allowed without justification. Longer journeys will need to be justified for work or compelling family reasons using a signed form. The legislation will also extend the countrys state of emergency until 23 July, with the new restrictions set to be reviewed in three weeks so long as there has not been a widespread increase in new virus cases. The new rules will allow for the reopening of some shops but bring in quarantines for people arriving in any French territory from outside the EU, Schengen Area and the UK, and the compulsory wearing of face-masks on public transport. France has recorded more than 26,000 deaths from Covid-19, as of Sunday morning, and more than 175,000 cases of the virus. Kerala detected two more positive COVID-19 cases on Saturday -- both airlifted by the Centre from abroad under its 'Vande Bharat' mission to bring back stranded Indians and expatriates in other countries -- hours after the state declared it has flattened the coronavirus curve. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the new cases is "a warning to those coming back from abroad and for other states to be on the alert". He also said there is a need to strengthen "our mitigation efforts and preventive measures". Kerala was among the first states in India to report the deadly virus infection, but it has also earned global praise for having effectively managed to tackle the crisis by being among the states with much higher recovery rates and much less-spread outbreak so far. For several days in the recent weeks, the state has reported either nil or just 1-2 fresh cases. It has got only 17 active cases now, while fatalities have been only three. Out of the total 505 infected so far, Kerala has till now cured 485. Earlier this morning, Kerala's Finance Minister Thomas Isaac had tweeted that the state "flattened the curve" on the 100th day of the confirmation of the first case of COVID-19. "We are bracing ourselves for the 3rd wave," he said. Vijayan had also said on Friday that Kerala has flattened the curve, but had cautioned that the state needed to be careful to avoid another wave of the deadly virus. He had also asserted that the state was ready to fight it in such an event. Speaking to reporters after two more cases were detected on Saturday, Vijayan said the total number of cases detected so far in the state has gone up to 505 and there are currently 17 under treatment. "One patient from Idukki, who was under treatment, has been cured today, while two new cases are now under treatment in Kochi and Kozhikode. "They (the two new patients) reached the state on May 7 in the Abu Dhabi-Kochi and Dubai-Kozhikode flights respectively," Vijayan said. These two were among the first-day flights under the 'Vande Bharat Mission'. With the return of expatriates and also Keralites from other states, the number of people under surveillance has gone up to 23,930, of whom 334 are isolated at hospitals, Vijayan said. The Chief Minister said 485 of the total of 505 infected people in the state have been cured. "The new cases being reported is a warning to those coming back from abroad and other states to be on the alert. We need to strengthen our mitigation efforts and preventive measures," Vijayan said. The Chief Minister said entry passes are mandatory to enter Kerala through check posts bordering neigbouring states and those without it would be sent back. Those wishing to come to Kerala should register through the COVID-19 'Jagratha Portal' and start their journey only after getting the pass, he said. "The pass is mandatory. Based on logistics and for crowd control,there is a limit on the number of people who can cross the border every day and passes are being issued according to that, Vijayan said. He said there were some people who had reached the borders without necessary documents and it was not acceptable. Till now, 54,262 passes have been issued and so far, 21,812 Keralites from other states have reached back home through five border check posts. Vijayan also said that special non-stop trains would be run from Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai to the state to bring back the stranded Keralites. "We hope that the first train will be from Delhi to bring back the stranded students there. The date will be announced soon," Vijayan said. The chief minister also said 152 expatriates from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia arrived at Kozhikode on Friday. Apart from 142 Keralites, there were eight from Karnataka and two from Tamil Nadu. "There were 128 adults and 24 children, including 78 pregnant women. Of these, 114 were sent home and the rest were transferred to various Covid Care Centres," Vijayan said. He said another flight from Bahrain to Kochi arrived on Friday with 181 passengers, in which there were 25 pregnant women and 28 children under the age of 10. Three flights from Muscat to Kochi, Kuwait to Kochi and Doha to Kochi were expected to arrive in Kerala tonight. Two more Air India Express flights, carrying 362 people from Oman and Kuwait, arrived at Kochi from two Gulf nations on Saturday night as part of the 'Vande Bharat Mission'. These people included eight infants. All passengers would be subjected to COVID-19 rapid test at the airport and will also be quarantined after completing formalities at the airport. Another Air India Express flight from Doha, carrying 177 passengers and six infants, was expected to arrive here in the early hours on Sunday. The chief minister also said that as per the recommendations of an expert committee, people coming from other states would first undergo a medical check-up and those without any symptoms will be sent home for 14 days quarantine. "If they show any symptoms, a PCR test will be done and they would be transferred to Covid hospitals," Vijayan said. So far, 36,648 samples have been sent for testing, he said. A naval ship will also reach Kochi on May 10 with 698 Indian nationals including more than 400 Keralites, who were stranded in Maldives. By Trend The number of coronavirus tests conducted in Azerbaijan has been revealed, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani Management Union of Medical Territorial Units (TABIB). As of May 9, 7,420 tests were conducted to detect new cases of infection. In accordance with the data, in general, 188 ,950 tests were conducted throughout the country. Healthcare workers in Springfield, Jacksonville and Sellersville, Pennsylvania, have received care packages containing Serious Lip Balms. The owners of the Jacksonville company, Megan Luckey and Khara Koffel, launched a Help the Helpers campaign in April and reached its $2,000 goal in days. Memorial Health Center and HSHS St. Johns Hospital in Springfield and Passavant Area Hospital in Jacksonville will distribute the lip balms to healthcare professionals in their facilities. We are overwhelmed by the support of our followers, said Koffel, who grew up in Pennsylvania before moving to Jacksonville. We are so thankful to our healthcare workers so decided to raise money to purchase at cost lip balms and send them to hospitals in the cities we live in and love. Andigo Credit Union and Consumers Credit Union said a planned merger has received regulatory approval and approval by a vote of Andigo members. The newly combined credit union, which will operate under the name Consumers Credit Union, will serve more than 163,000 members and have more than $2.3 billion in assets. The merger will make the new credit union the fifth-largest in Illinois. The combination of our two strong, healthy credit unions will provide us with the scale we need to innovate and to dedicate resources to deliver exceptional member experiences, both in-person and digitally, said Mike Murphy, CEO of Andigo Credit Union. The merger will become official June 1, but the two credit unions will run their respective operations as they are now until June 2021. The combined credit union will employ more than 475 people in the Chicago area and offer members 18 branches, access to a national shared branching network and more than 80,000 ATMs worldwide. Sean Rathjen, CEO of Consumers Credit Union, will be CEO and Murphy will be president of the newly combined organization. We are incredibly excited to partner with Andigo Credit Union, Rathjen said. For more than 80 years, Andigo has provided outstanding service to their members, and we look forward to building upon that tradition as we combine our two great credit unions. Compiled by David C.L. Bauer A nurse from New York has been accused of stealing a credit card from a coronavirus patient who was hospitalised and using it for groceries and gas. Danielle Conti, 43, was charged with grand larceny, petty larceny and criminal possession of stolen property after allegedly charging items to a former patient's credit card who died from Covdid-19, according to the New York Police Department. Anthony Catapano, 70, was hospitalised at Staten Island University Hospital on 4 April for the novel virus, his daughter told CNN. At the time of the alleged theft, the man was lucid. He later died on 12 April from complications of Covid-19. "I was in shock and disbelief," Tara Catapano, his daughter, said. "Obviously, I knew it had to be a hospital employee because visitors weren't really allowed." Ms Catapano took over her father's finances in 2014 after her mother died. Typically, she would not pay close attention to what her father spent, but then she saw a charge for gasoline on the statements when he tended to pay cash. Upon looking further, it was discovered the charge was made on 9 April while he was in the hospital. Police later analysed security footage from the gas station and discovered what appeared to be Ms Conti using the credit card for her purchase. Other items missing from her father's possessions were his cell phone, eyeglasses, and cash in his wallet. "They take an oath to protect, not to harm," Ms Catapano said. The hospital released a statement, stating: "Danielle Conti has been temporarily suspended and faces termination in response to the felony charges. We are working closely with the law enforcement authorities and the hospital is conducting its own investigation. Ms. Conti has been an employee since 2007." Ms Conti was expected to appear in court sometime in September, a NYPD spokesperson said. But Ms Catapano wants more answers as to why someone would take advantage of a patient while on his "deathbed". "He is my father, he is a person," she said. "I am disgusted (Conti was) supposed to be taking care of him and instead ... stole from him." Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 20:46:47|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Burak Akinci, Yasin Akgul ISTANBUL, May 10 (Xinhua) -- In Istanbul, Turkey's biggest metropolis of over 16 million and worst-hit city by the COVID-19 pandemic, emergency health care staff are at the vanguard of anti-COVID-19 battle. "We are an army and this is a battle that we have fought hard to win," Fatih Turkmen, a 37-year-old emergency medicine specialist, told Xinhua. Turkmen is the Istanbul European provincial ambulance service chief of Turkey's health emergency hotline 112 which employs over 5,000 personnel. Their task has been devoted since the start of the outbreak mid-March to essentially coronavirus-related cases. Due to the COVID-19 spread, the staff at the hotline's branch have been coping with a sudden surge in calls, both for medical intervention and for advice on symptoms. "Apart from people calling with what seems are coronavirus symptoms, others are calling to ask us medical advise, to which we gladly tried to reply," Turkmen said. "We didn't differentiate anyone, and we were able to respond to all the calls, up to 40,000 each and every day. With our fleet of 181 ambulances, we were very busy but we managed," the doctor indicated. At the command center, the personnel who answers the call first asks patients their symptoms and if they are deemed serious enough to be hospitalized by a doctor, the nearest available ambulance is sent to the patient's address with personnel wearing protective gear, disposable gowns, masks and gloves. All this service is free of charge. All the personel involved in the transportation of a patient to a health facility change their suits from top to bottom each time that they go on a call. Each team member works for a 24-hour straight shift after which they are able to rest for 72 hours in an hotel for isolation, away from their families to prevent any contagion. Turkey has recorded over 137,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 3,739 deaths. According to the Ministry of Health, about 60 percent of all cases were recorded in Istanbul. The numbers of infections has dropped in the last ten days and nearly 90,000 people have recovered, according to the ministry figures. Turkey is planning to gradually ease lockdown measures in late May. Turkmen said that the emergency team equally treats everyone in need of care. Nearly half a million Syrian refugees live in Istanbul, according to official data, and they received the same treatment, officials said. "We worked very hard and there were no complaints among our personnel despite the fact that some of us contracted the virus, and we kept our motivation going," Turkmen said. Enditem Dear Editor: In 2018, we lost over 1,500 Pennsylvanians due to gun violence. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Pennsylvanias firearm death rate is an alarming 12.5 per 100,000. Even more alarming is the fact that the firearm homicide rate per 100,000 women in Pennsylvania is 8 percent higher than that of the national average. We have a problem here in Pennsylvania concerning guns, and we do not have the leadership in our legislature to solve the issue. Our kids are going to school every day fearing that their school could be the next headline. Men and women are going home to abusive relationships every evening worried they could be the next nightly news story. There needs to be a monumental change in the way our state sees guns, and how we create law about them. To do so we must elect common-sense gun reform leaders. We must elect competent people to our general assembly, starting right here in the 31st State Senate district. I am proud to say we have one of those candidates here, and I am proud to support Shanna Danielson for the 31st State Senate district of Pennsylvania. As a teacher, Shanna has witnessed the mental toll our current climate of gun violence has taken on our children, and Shanna knows what must be done to fix the problems we have in Pennsylvania. I hope you will support her on the June 2 primary and on Nov. 3. Drue Cappawana Upper Allen Township Love 2 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 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. A Colombian national under U.S. sanctions for his ties to Nicolas Maduro is helping the regime in Venezuela with a gold-for-oil products scheme with Iran, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing seven sources with knowledge of the matter. According to some of the sources, Alex Nain Saab Moran sanctioned by the U.S. for orchestrating a corruption network in Venezuela from which Maduros regime has profited has recently traveled to Irans capital Tehran with executives of Venezuelas state oil firm PDVSA as part of a deal in which Iran is sending gasoline additives and parts for refineries in exchange for gold from Venezuela. A Miami-based lawyer for Saab, Maria Dominguez, denied any participation of her client in any such events in a message to Bloomberg. Last July, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Alex Saab over a corruption scheme that has enabled Maduro and his regime to profit from food imports and distribution in Venezuela, at the expense of starving Venezuelan people in the horrific economic crisis. Alex Saab engaged with Maduro insiders to run a wide scale corruption network they callously used to exploit Venezuelas starving population. Treasury is targeting those behind Maduros sophisticated corruption schemes, as well as the global network of shell companies that profit from the former regimes military-controlled food distribution program, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in July. Last week, U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams said that Maduros regime in Venezuela is paying Iran in gold for help with Venezuelas crumbling oil industry. Those planes that are coming in from Iran that are bringing things for the oil industry are returning with the payments for those things: gold, Abrams said in conversation at the Hudson Institute, a conservative Washington think tank. In April alone, Venezuela loaded 9 tons of gold, worth around US$500 million, on airplanes for Iran, in exchange for Iranian help for repairing Venezuelas crumbling refineries, sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg last week. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Safehaven.com: Thiruvananthapuram, May 10 : Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday said the state had recorded seven new cases of coronavirus - mostly those who had returned from other states or other countries. The seven included those had come from Abu Dhabi on May 7 and another two had come from Chennai. In the state, 489 cases have been cured at present and there are 20 positive cases under treatment, Vijayan said in a Facebook post. "A total of 26,350 people are under observation at their homes while 362 others have been kept under observation at different hospitals across the state," he said, adding that there were 33 hotspot areas. As the entire world celebrates Mother's Day today (May 10, 2020), a number of small-screen stars opened up about their special bond their mums while a few others opted for a social media shout out with special messages, notes, and pictures. Shivin Narang confessed that its hard to sum up his bond with his mum a few words. The Beyhadh 2 star stated, "She holds a very special place in my life. Her commitment and dedication and genuine love for us has no bounds. My mom used to scold me for my mischief and protect me when needed. She made me study, she made me grow. Right from the day I shot my first portfolio till today, she' been a huge support. She gave me a lot of strength so I could come to Mumbai and pursue my dream." Yeh Ristha Kya Kehlata Hai star Mohsin Khan revealed how hes been helping his mom in lockdown whilst stating that every day is mothers for him. He said, "I helping ammi in household chores in the time of lockdown but she tries her best not to let me do. Sometimes without our knowledge she does everything and sometimes me and my brother does the same. I feel blessed to have her as my mother. Every day is mothers day for me. Funnyman Kapil Sharma wished his mother and wife Ginni Chatrath in a special post on social media. Kapil shared their collage and wrote, My mother n my babys mother thank u maa n @ginnichatrath for everything love u both happy Mothers Day to all the beautiful mothers in this world#mothersday #happymothersday #unconditionallove #love #blessings #gratitude (sic) Meanwhile, Sharad Malhotra revealed that he is not able to meet his mom whos in Kolkata due to the lockdown. As a result, the actor sings a song for his mom on Mother's Day and dedicating a special post on Instagram. Sanjivinis Surbhi Chandna collaborated with a leading daily to plan a surprise for her mother on the special occasion. Arjun Bijlani shared a heart-warming video message and wrote, Happy Mothers Day.Miss u so much . If god gave me one wish I would send this virus back so we all could meet and hug our loved ones . Thank you mom for everything. My soul mate . Shweta Tiwari and Drashti Dhami too wished their mums whilst sharing some adorable pictures online. Check out their posts below: ALSO READ: Mothers Day 2020: Shivin, Namish & Other TV Actors Thank Their Mothers For Being The True Warriors iStock/NanoStockkBy: ERIN SCHUMAKER, ABC News (BOSTON) -- Dr. Mary Bassett addressed an audience in Boston last October. "This epidemic is complicated, and like all epidemics, it tracks along fissures in our society, Bassett, a professor at Harvard's public health school, told the crowd. Bassett was talking about the opioid crisis, but her turn of phrase was prescient. She just as easily could have been referring to the COVID-19 epidemic, for which the United States has emerged as the epicenter, making up a third of the world's infections and a quarter of its deaths by May. Like past epidemics, COVID-19 is exposing cracks that already existed in our health system -- and widening them. "Any time you have a whole population exposed to a disease, it reflects the structural underpinnings and the failures of our society," Bassett told ABC News in April. The United States has the largest gross domestic product in the world and one of the highest per capita. But its health doesn't reflect that wealth. Instead, Americans are sicker than residents of other high-income countries. The United States leads the developed world in diabetes prevalence, and has a higher heart disease death burden than other high-income countries, data show. Asthma rates in the U.S. rise every year. And all three chronic conditions are considered comorbidities that raise patients' risk for developing severe and deadly COVID-19 complications. Our chronically ill populace comprises one layer of America's strained health system. Stark inequality that's concentrated in communities of color makes up another. Then there's the health care system itself, experts tell ABC News. Despite spending twice as much on health care as other high-income countries, studies show the U.S. fails to produce healthier citizens. Instead, the sick sometimes face crushing medical debt and the uninsured cycle through our emergency rooms. Without a nationalized public health response system in place, experts say government leaders in many cases panic and throw money at acute problems like COVID-19, but show little appetite for proactive investments to bolster population health. Working in tandem, those failings appear to have worsened the United States' COVID-19 outbreak, experts said. Decision-makers can use that list of failings as a roadmap to make improvements now, experts added, or they can once again neglect the cracks in the system, until the next pandemic hits. An unequal footing While the United States is among the world's wealthiest countries, there are stark differences in how that wealth is concentrated. According to the Brookings Institution, the net worth of a typical white family is $171,000, nearly 10 times greater than a black family's typical net worth of $17,150. That wealth gap trickles down into various opportunity gaps, which are reflected in disparities in infection and death rates during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as a black-white health gap that existed before COVID-19. Preliminary demographic data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) appears to bear this out. Thirty-three percent of hospitalized COVID-19 patients are black, compared to 18% of residents in the surrounding community, suggesting an overrepresentation of black Americans among hospitalized patients, the agency notes. In New York City, the country's biggest COVID-19 hotspot, more than 20,000 residents have died, black and Latino residents are more likely to die of COVID-19 than their white and Asian neighbors. Those disparities include direct health care access problems, including higher uninsured rates among Latino and black Americans than among white Americans. There are also less obvious health disparities than access to doctors or health insurance. A lifetime of social conditions, including where Americans are born, live and play, shape their health. So do education and employment opportunities. Housing plays a role. Incarceration and immigration status matter, experts say. As COVID-19 has devastated the black community, it's also unmasked the effects of structural racism to the wider public, according to Dr. Camara Jones, an epidemiologist and past president of the nonprofit American Public Health Association, who has also worked for the CDC. "COVID-19 was rolled out as an equal opportunity infector, and all of a sudden, the black bodies are piling up so quickly that people cannot normalize it or ignore it," Jones said. Black Americans fare worse than white Americans on nearly every measurable metric of health, including cancer death, HIV infection and maternal mortality rates. COVID-19 has made those disease disparities strikingly clear. Because black Americans are more likely to have diabetes, obesity and asthma, the underlying health problems that predispose them to develop severe COVID-19 complications, they're also more likely to be hospitalized or die from the new disease. "This is not genetic," Bassett stressed. "This is related to the way in which we structured our society." While there's some variation between individuals when it comes to fitness, genetics and luck, "the reasons we get sick, or not, have more to do with our society than any biological features that we may have as individuals," Bassett said. An analysis published last month by New York University's Furman Center, for example, found that the strongest neighborhood factors linked to high COVID-19 rates were having a large share of black and Hispanic residents; having a high proportion of overcrowded apartments and having a large share of residents without college degrees. Since college-educated workers are more likely to be able to work remotely than people without a college education, people without degrees risk being exposed to the disease on the job, or are forced to choose between their health and a paycheck in some cases. And because fewer than 1 in 5 black workers and 1 in 6 Hispanic workers are able to work remotely, according to the Economic Policy Institute, on-the-job exposure disproportionately affects people of color. "What it is showing is that we have huge schisms of opportunity and experience and exposure in a society structured by race," Jones said. "We actually have a system that does that. We have a system of opportunity and assigning value in this country, and thats what we call racism," she added. "If we were not to react to this data, we would be doing what racism often does especially structural racism showing itself through inaction in the face of need," Jones said. While improving health care, education and neighborhood safety are important, those problems won't be solved overnight. President Donald Trump addressed the disproportionate number of black Americans dying from COVID-19 during a White House press conference in April. "This is a real problem, and it's showing up very strongly in our data," he said, adding that his administration would do everything in its power to support African Americans and address COVID-19 racial disparities. In the short-term, Jones and Bassett pointed to the importance of addressing black Americans' acute needs during the outbreak. Frontline workers, and not just doctors and nurses, but also subway employees, bus drivers, janitors and delivery people, need personal protective equipment and paid sick leave. "The important thing here is to make it easier for people to avoid exposure, just like its important to make it easier for people to eat healthy food," Bassett said. In Bassett's mind, that includes challenging the impulse to blame those who fall ill for getting infected. "All that anyone who gets infected will have been guilty of is breathing," she said. The cost of care and medical debts deepen the risk The U.S. spends more on health care than any other country, with little to show for it. Even before the pandemic, health insurance costs for middle-class families were rising, to say nothing of the 27.5 million Americans who were uninsured pre-pandemic. Many Americans are perpetually on the edge of falling into medical debt, with 1 in 3 people reporting that they wouldn't be able to cover an unexpected $400 medical bill without borrowing money or selling their belongings. With no national health care system and 33 million Americans filing for unemployment in recent weeks, citizens' access to affordable health care is only likely to get worse. "Of course that will have a bearing on health insurance, because so many of us have our health insurance through our jobs," Bassett said. The interdependent relationship between health and housing creates a relentless cycle, according to Leo Beletsky, a professor of law and health sciences at Northeastern University. Medical debt and ill health are risk factors for being homeless, he explained. "When you lose housing, youre more susceptible to a lot of health issues. People who have health issues are more likely to lose housing," Beletsky said. Without reliable and affordable health services, the homeless lean heavily on the hospital system. "Most folks who are homeless cant access primary care outside of the emergency room, and they utilize the ER far more than is really necessary. Their care bills end up being extremely large without really conferring much benefit to those folks," Beletsky said. "We basically help when it's too late. It costs a lot of money, requires heroic interventions and people continue being sick," he added. "It's very much a microcosm for our health care system in general. Rather than investing in prevention, we dump an enormous amount of resources at a time when it really is too late." The incarceration factor There's also significant overlap between being incarcerated and being homeless, another vulnerable group that's been hard hit by COVID-19. According to a report by the Prison Policy Initiative, formerly incarcerated people are nearly 10 times more likely to be homeless than the general population. In New York City, half of people who are released from prison move directly into the city's shelter system. "It's one situation of mass living to another situation of mass living," said Dr. Alysse Wurcel, an infectious disease physician at Tufts Medical Center. Shelters, jails and prisons contain a population of sicker-than-average people living in tight quarters, where social distancing is impossible and sanitation is often an afterthought. It's an environment ripe for disease spread. Shelters in Seattle, Boston and San Francisco have all reported COVID-19 outbreaks. Jails and prisons have fared even worse. Chicago's Cook County jail emerged as one of the nation's COVID-19 hotspots after more than 800 detainees and correctional officers tested positive. More than 14,500 people in prison have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the outbreak, according to the Marshall Project, which is tracking prison data from all 50 states and from the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Instead of flattening the curve, the number of new infections is doubling each week. More than 5,000 corrections officers have tested positive for the disease, an ABC News analysis found. "I wish there were more attention paid to the fact that incarceration is a comorbidity factor," said Kate Chatfield, senior adviser for legislation and policy at The Justice Collaborative, a criminal justice research and advocacy organization. The prison population is also disproportionately black and poor. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, nearly 40% of the prison population is black, compared to 13 percent of the overall population. "All of the things that would lead to bad health outcomes," Chatfield added. "And that's just upon custody." Being in detention presents its own health risks. Every year served in prison reduces life expectancy by two years, an analysis published in the American Journal of Public Health found. The COVID-19 infection numbers being released by prisons and jails are likely an undercount, experts say. It's unclear how many jails and prisons are thoroughly testing their populations, if they're testing at all. "If youre not finding cases, you're an ostrich in the sand," said Wurcel, who is consulting Massachusetts jails on how to respond to COVID-19. "We are learning that rapidly in Massachusetts. Its pretty much everywhere." Cycle of panic and neglect One of the many eye-opening moments of the pandemic was watching U.S. governors bid against one another for ventilators, during a time when it was believed that there would be a severe ventilator crisis. Although that anticipated shortage did not come to pass, residents in states with governors who could negotiate well would live, it seemed, while others would die. Lack of national coordination has deepened division between states, resulting in some states adopting strict lockdown measures, while others have opened back up for business. It's also fueled a brutal cultural war between those who say their livelihood depends on returning to work and those who fear dying from the virus, should it be allowed to spread unchecked. The splintered response to the pandemic in the U.S. has not only pitted Americans against one another, but also appears to be part of a larger trend of not preparing for the future, experts say. Between 2008 and 2017, for example, funding cuts resulted in 55,000 jobs cut from local health departments across the country. Dozens of rural hospitals have closed over the past decade. And in 2018, President Donald Trump disbanded the global health security and biodefense unit, which is responsible for pandemic preparedness. "Our job was to be the smoke alarm," Beth Cameron, the first director of the unit, wrote in the Washington Post. "Keeping watch to get ahead of emergencies, sounding a warning at the earliest sign of fire all with the goal of avoiding a six-alarm blaze." "You are doing something to prevent harm so you never see that harm realized," Beletsky said. Prevention is a hard sell, he added. It's far easier for politicians to justify spending money on a crisis that's already in motion, like COVID-19. "There you can justify pretty unlimited resources." "People cant wrap their heads around working upstream and preventing problems," according to Beletsky. In turn, lack of upstream investment in affordable housing and health care, in preventative medicine and paid sick leave, in education and safe and healthy neighborhoods, have all exacerbated the United States' COVID-19 crisis, experts said. Whether the harsh light COVID-19 has shone on outbreaks in prisons and shelters, and on racial disparities in COVID-19 deaths will force policymakers to invest in communities of color and in public health preparedness or usher in criminal justice reform, remains to be seen. "There's a lot of talk about getting back to normal after COVID-19, but there's a range of issues where getting back to normal isn't desirable," Beletsky said. "There are rays of hope in that. There are also a lot of reasons to be pessimistic." Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. An Inkster woman who claimed her boyfriend told her to steal alcohol for him the afternoon of May 2 was cited for larceny and violation of Gov. Gretchen Whitmers Stay Home, Stay Safe executive order when she tried to flee following an unsuccessful liquor larceny at Rite Aid, 22521 Michigan Ave., Dearborn. Police officers were summoned to the pharmacy for a larceny in progress, where a store employee, who noticed a woman with a basket full of vodka, brandy, whiskey and tequila, offered to take the purchase to a register for her. She became agitated, and said she was going to pay for the items, but then tried to run out of the store with the merchandise, which the employee managed to grabbed away from her. She also left an empty purse behind in the store. The woman, who was described as black, and wearing a black shirt, left the scene in a 2001 black Pontiac Bonneville, in the front passenger seat. The vehicle was seen traveling westbound on Michigan Avenue. Dearborn police initiated a traffic stop, and the woman was positively identified as the suspect. She admitted to the attempted theft, using her boyfriends demand as an excuse. Her empty purse, which she left at the pharmacy, was returned to her. Get ready to have your temperature taken and don't hug Mickey Mouse. Those are two of the takeaways from a video issued by Shanghai Disney Resort that walks Chinese visitors through what they can expect when the park re-opens on Monday. During its earnings call last week, Disney CEO Bob Chapek announced that the Chinese resort would be the first of its parks to reopen, albeit at lower capacity. Shanghai Disneyland is reopening on Monday. Credit:AP He said Shanghai Disneyland has a capacity of 80,000, but that the Chinese government is restricting it to 30 per cent, or 24,000 . "We are going to open up far below that to have our training wheels on," he said. In a few weeks, he said the park will ramp up to the new limit." Amaravati: In the times when schools and colleges remain closed due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Andhra Pradesh government has taken to online platforms to impart education. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has directed the officials to log into online courses. In order to ensure that the academic activities continue, the State has been conducting virtual classes using the Skype, Cisco, Teamlink, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. In the time of lockdown, over 24,000 students and 933 teachers are taking part in the online classes, said the statement released by the state government. The statement further informed that those who have no reach to the online facility, lectures on various subjects are uploaded on YouTube and the links are being shared to enable the students to get the benefit. Lecture notes are also being shared through WhatsApp and e-mail for the convenience of students. Presently, 5979 classes have been organized covering various streams such as B. Tech, M. Tech, BA, MA, MCA, MBA and other disciplines. In order to maintain the balance in curriculum, the education institutions are also making efforts to complete the pending syllabus and engage students productively during this time of lockdown. Andhra govt said that at a higher level, Universities are encouraging students to enroll for free online courses from platforms like Udemy, Coursera, etc and utilize resources like MOOC, SWAYAM, and NPTL too. Doordarshan lessons are also being conducted for tenth class students which is telecasted daily two hours in the morning and evening. Radio broadcast is also being done on a daily basis. State govt has also curated app for online classes like self-learning app named Abhyasa which is having tenth class subject videos pooled from Dhiksha and objective type question papers were also posted for practice. The Government plans to create a WhatsApp group at every school which will include Teachers and tenth class students. Important practice questions will be posted daily on the TV/Radio lessons in these WhatsApp groups, where students can answer at their home and send photos of the answer sheet which can be evaluated and feedback will be given. Webinar and pre-recorded videos in SCERT YouTube channel on questions and answers, discussion and keywords for each and every important topic will be available. On the same lines, for all the lower classes during June and July, online classes will be telecast, broadcast and also will be posted in WatsApp groups. Keping in mind the mental health of students and teacher the state has also organised counseling sessions which is being organised by some universities with the support of their Psychology Department to cater to the needs of the students and the society at large during these times to beat fatigue, despair and monotony. Phone numbers for the counseling are posted on the University website. As of now, Sri Padmavati Mahila Vishvavidalayam, Adikavi Nannaya and Yogi Vemana University are offering counseling. The COVID-19 pandemic has left its mark on the harness racing industry in more ways than one. Now, beyond the current shutdown, one racehorse will serve as an ongoing reminder of the efforts to flatten the curve. Meet 'Staytheblazeshome', a filly with a new name in tribute of a call to action in Nova Scotia by the province's Premier. Originally purchased from the Atlantic Classic Yearling Sale as Goddards Gigolo, Staytheblazeshome received a new on-track moniker from owner Randy Getto, who works as a nurse away from the racetrack. They all have names when you buy them and theyre usually named after their mother or father or the farm where they came from, but we really werent liking the name she came with, Getto told the Cape Breton Post. With COVID going on we were all hearing the premier talk about staying the blazes home and since we have lots of connections to health care we kind of liked what Stephen McNeil said and thought that would be a good name so we renamed her. Although some in the harness racing industry consider it bad luck to rename a horse, Getto and co-owners Susan Macsween and Wayne Hardy weren't about to let that superstition deter them. Well, its always been considered bad luck to tell stories or take pictures of a horse that has never raced, but weve followed that before with other horses and they didnt work out anyway...we have nothing to lose, Getto laughed. Staytheblazeshome is doing just that as she prepares for her rookie season at Northside Downs. President Moon pledges to expand unemployment insurance Marking his three years in office Sunday, President Moon Jae-in addressed the nation on both crisis and opportunity in the COVID-19 era, vowing to respond boldly to the worsening economy. To that end, his administration will strive to make Korea a globally leading "digital powerhouse," create more jobs through the "Korean New Deal" and expand unemployment insurance. Moon said he will upgrade the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the control tower behind the much-lauded Korean quarantine system, to the Disease Control and Prevention Administration. The details in the special address are not novel, with the exception of the President's official pledge to expand unemployment insurance. But buoyed by his 71 percent popularity, Moon lent a persuasive push to urge the National Assembly and the public to cooperate. Moon expanded on the Korean New Deal by saying it was a "preemptive investment" to found a digital infrastructure and create jobs, he said. He added that contactless industries that fared well amid the virus onslaught such as medical services will be intensively fostered. Regarding possible job loss in building the digital infrastructure, Moon said the task will require massive labor. Further buttressing job disappearance will be the expanded unemployment insurance and ramping up on employment support programs. To his credit, the President minced no words in addressing the crisis at hand. He said the economy was in a wartime situation, "with no bottom and no end in sight." He did not dismiss a possible second wave of COVID-19 in fall or winter, and urged continued vigilance over recent infection cases. The stress on inter-Korean cooperation took somewhat a backseat to the dire economic situation, and rightly so as North Korea has yet to respond to Seoul's proposal for cooperation on fighting pandemics. The economic vista ahead amid the pandemic is grim. With the global economy forecast by the International Monetary Fund to contract 3 percent, and that of South Korea to shrink 1. 2 percent this year, a change in how we grow economically and protect people is inevitable. Yet, we have to ask, however, whether there is sufficient time, financial resources and relevant action plans to realize the President's vision, and to ask people to take part in the burden-sharing. In his address, the President identified Korea's "DNA to overcome crisis" and expressed deep gratitude to the people for their work in "relatively rapid stabilizing of the pandemic." It would be hard to deny the swelling of pride when he mentioned the goal of "a Republic of Korea that takes the lead in the world." The President no doubt knows that such sentiment can be exponentially transformed into powerful energy, only if properly channeled. Michael Joseph Martin, Bangladesh's last Armenian, has died aged 89, bringing an end to the more than 300-year presence of the once thriving and powerful minority Christian community. Martin spent decades as custodian of the Armenian Church of the Holy Resurrection which was founded in 1781 in what was once the heart of the Armenian community in Dhaka. Armen Arslanian, the church's warden who is based abroad, said Martin "was instrumental in maintaining the survival of the Armenian Church in Dhaka. "Without the many personal sacrifices and complete devotion to the church, the premises and the history of the Armenians in Dhaka would not have survived today," he added as he announced Martin had died on April 11. The Bangladeshi capital was once home to hundreds of Armenians who first arrived in the 16th century and became major traders, lawyers and public officials in the city. Martin came to Dhaka in 1942 following in the footsteps of his father who had settled in the region decades earlier. He was originally a trader. Martin -- whose Armenian name was Mikel Housep Martirossian -- went on to look after the church and its graveyard where 400 people are buried, including his wife who died in 2006. When their children left the country, Martin became the sole remaining Armenian in Dhaka and lived alone in a mansion in the church grounds. "When I walk, sometimes I feel spirits moving around. These are the spirits of my ancestors. They were noble men and women, now resting in peace," Martin told AFP in an interview published in January 2009. - Palatial homes - The marble tombstones he tended display family names such as Sarkies, Manook and Aratoon from a time when Armenians were Dhaka's wealthiest merchants with palatial homes who traded jute, spices, indigo and leather. "The earliest surviving Armenian tombstone is that of Khojah Avietes Lazar who died in Dhaka on June 7, 1714, this makes the known Armenian presence in Bangladesh to be over 300 years, similar to that of the community in Kolkata," Liz Chater, who did extensive research on the Armenian presence in South Asia, told AFP. Martin had said the Armenians, persecuted elsewhere, were embraced in what is now Bangladesh first by the Mughals in the 16th and 17th centuries and then by the British Empire. "Their numbers fluctuated with the prospects in trading in Dhaka," Muntasir Mamun, a historian at Dhaka University, told AFP in 2009. But they dominated business. "They were the who's who in town. They celebrated all their religious festivals with pomp and style," he said. The decline came after the British left India and the subcontinent was partitioned in 1947 with Dhaka becoming the capital of East Pakistan and then Bangladesh after it gained independence in 1971. In his last years Martin worried about who would take over as the church caretaker after his death. "This is a blessed place and God won't leave it unprotected and uncared for," Martin said. "When I die, maybe one of my three daughters will fly in from Canada to keep our presence here alive," Martin said, speaking broken Bengali with a thick accent. "Or perhaps other Armenians will come from somewhere else." The present warden of the Armenian Church visits Bangladesh every two to three months. Analysis | 12 January 2022 | News Why or why not: The dilemma for startup investors There have been tremors within the startup community worldwide with the latest Theranos scandal. Though startu...Read more WESTPORT There may still be a high tide of social distancing, but a rejuvenated beachside mainstay hopes to help bring area residents back together. Joeys By The Shore Featuring Elvira Maes Coffee Bar has opened for business at 222 Hillspoint Road in the historic building on the corner of Compo Hill Avenue, across from Old Mill Beach. After a rent dispute with the town prompted Joey Romeo to close his beloved restaurants at Compo Beach and Longshore Club Park last year, after 32 years of operation, a new partnership with the relatively new owner of Elviras appears to be a fortuitous match. He has 30-plus years of experience running a business and I was coming in with next to none, said Betsy Kravitz, who purchased Elviras a year and a half ago. When she and her husband Hal came out to Westport two years ago from Los Angeles, the realtor took them to the Elviras first thing as an introduction to the neighborhood they now call home. We had heard rumblings that it was potentially for sale, she said, so they moved forward and bought it. The first year, however, was intense and they saw there was a need for a partner. We met, kind of fell in love with each other, on a friendship level of course, and it kind of all just worked out, Kravitz said of Romeo. And he comes in with this fabulous reputation in the neighborhood, she said. Everyone knows him and loves him. After Betsy read about us leaving the beach, she contacted us, Romeo said. She thought it would be a great thing for us to join forces and do something. I think itll be a home run for him, said Brian Sikorski, a neighborhood resident. Its kind of a good place to come down and commiserate with neighbors and stuff, he said of Elviras I think as the pandemic ends its going to be a good place for the neighborhood. While it was originally due to open April 3, COVID-19 delayed that. The pair finally decided it would be safe to start up Saturday, May 2, with a limited menu available for takeout throughout the day. We felt comfortable enough that it should open, Kravitz said. And it kind of felt like the neighborhood needed it a little sign of hope and happiness. I think the whole neighborhood is happy, said Maggy Anstey, who lives nearby. You have to have a water hole, said her husband, Josey Anstey. Its such a great community, Romeo said, noting that the new location combines the best of the two establishments food, coffee and, down the road, different offerings like flowers, specialty foods and other items. Our lobster rolls are probably what were best known for, he said, noting that kids are especially fond of their French fries. Its a relief, said customer Ben Sturner, who is thrilled to be able to get food in the neighborhood during the day without having to travel out to the Post Road. Small businesses in Westport, he said, thats the way to go. Los Angeles County Sheriff Villanueva Subpoenaed Regarding COVID-19 Jail Policies Civilian Oversight Commission issues its first Subpoena, only months after voters approve Measure R. Los Angeles, CA The Justice LA COVID-19 Response team commends the Civilian Oversight Commision for utilizing their subpoena power provided by Measure R during the COVID-19 health crisis. Sheriff Villanueva is legally required to appear on May 21st. The commission exercised its newfound subpoena power to obtain information from the Sheriffs Department regarding the current situation inside the jails. The spread of COVID-19 inside of LA County jails is a systemic problem and requires immediate investigation by the Civilian Oversight Commission. ADVERTISEMENT Sheriff Villanueva has refused repeated requests to appear in front of the civilian oversight commission. It is critical that the Sheriffs Department implement constitutionally mandated procedures to protect people who are incarcerated from contracting COVID-19 in LA County Jails. This requires compliance with guidelines issued by public health agencies, including the CDC and DPH, to mitigate the spread of the virus. Commissioner Priscilla Ocen issued the following statement: Its outrageous that the Sheriff is not here to answer questions about what is happening inside the jails. Lives are on the line, and we seek to steer LA County leaders towards actions that will save the lives of those who make up LA Countys jail population. The COC is committed to being an independent investigative body, and we will continue to use our power to hold the sheriff accountable and ensure transparency for Los Angeles. Mariela Alburges, Measure R Implementation Director: This is a victory for the people of Los Angeles. The Sheriff has not been transparent and has repeatedly lied to our community about the conditions inside. This subpoena is the first step in ensuring that we hold the Sheriff accountable and improve the conditions inside LA County Jails. Diyar Al Muharraq, one of the largest real estate development companies in Bahrain, said it has completed all infrastructure works related to a mosque being built for the residents of its Deerat Al Oyoun development. European Construction, which will be responsible for constructing the new mosque, will initiate the mobilisation process later this month to ensure operating at maximum efficiency with the commencing of construction during June 2020. Designed by Arab Architects, the 1,217-sq-m mosque is set to become an important landmark to Deerat Al Oyoun serving over 600 worshippers. It is expected to be completed and handed over by the first quarter of 2021. CEO Engineer Ahmed Alammadi said: "We have high hopes in European Construction as the official contractor of this mosque, given its extensive experience in the kingdom, which is in line with our mission to professionally accomplish all projects both efficiently and effectively." "It has a proven record in successful construction of over 20 years. The company provides a wide list of construction and maintenance services for real estate development companies," he stated. Diyar Al Muharraq is one of the largest integrated cities in the kingdom, offering a variety of housing solutions in a luxurious modern lifestyle. It maintains a uniquely balanced blend of residential, commercial, recreational, and healthcare facilities, creating a fully integrated and futuristic model city.-TradeArabia News Service In just a few short weeks, the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Oil Economic Recovery provided the Railroad Commission with several dozen recommendations to help the industry through the current economic downturn. The task force coming together as quickly as it did demonstrates the resiliency of the industry, Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil & Gas Association, said in a phone interview. The task force was formed by Commission Chair Wayne Christian, who asked eight industry associations, including TXOGA, the Permian Basin Petroleum Association and Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association to lead the effort. Ed Longanecker, president of TIPRO, said the task force was an extension of what various industry associations had been doing. We had been reaching out to our members prior to the task force to solicit ideas to work on, Longanecker said a telephone interview. He said he sees it as an ongoing process, with recommendations continuing to be made to the commission. We focused on two principles: jobs for employees and survival for employers, Staples said. Every sector of the industry is stressed, he said, and that extends to other sectors, such as the financial sector. Thats how broad and big the industry is, he said. But the task force focused its recommendations on helping small operators who produce 1,000 barrels or less and have shallower pockets and less economies of scale than their larger peers, Staples said. Longanecker agreed. He said that while the task force tried to take a broad view, the goal was to provide small producers with regulatory relief. This crisis does not discriminate, he said. Still, the things that can be done for the industry should be done regardless of size, Staples said. From an immediate standpoint, Longanecker said recommendations focused on regulatory relief not just from the Railroad Commission but other agencies like the General Land Office and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on extending deadlines and on fees. Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick has asked Comptroller Glen Hegar, to consider providing relief on severance taxes. At the public meeting where the three Railroad Commissioners voted 2-1 to not implement production cuts, or prorationing, Christian asked the task force to come up with recommendations to address flaring and submit them by the June 16 public meeting. Both Staples and Longanecker pointed out that their associations, along with a number of producers, are part of the newly formed Texas Methane and Flaring Coalition. Weve already started conversations ahead of the meeting on June 16, Staples said. We will be having more robust conversations and be crafting recommendations. I know emissions are declining for the wrong reasons because of a lack of drilling activity. We want to demonstrate our commitment to high environmental standards in good times and in bad. He predicted a focus will be on best practices. Best practices are very important. When theyre developed, theyve been proactive in raising the bar and everyone is challenged to meet that bar, he said. Longanecker called flaring a fine topic to focus the task forces efforts on, saying the industry has made tremendous investments in technology to mitigate flaring, and the new coalition is looking at fostering collaborations to develop best practices. Staples believes the Texas oil and gas industry will be a player on the global oil scene, and the Permian Basin will be on the front lines. Her has three reasons for that optimism: infrastructure, innovation, and technology. We have the geology, we have the ports and refineries, the midstream capability to move product. When obstacles come up, this industry uses innovation to find solutions. And because the Railroad Commission maintained certainty when it declined to implement prorationing, technology will advance and be showcased moving forward, Staples said. Air Astana will resume scheduled flights from Almaty and Nur-Sultan to regional centres across Kazakhstan following the end of the national state of emergency on May 11. Services to Aktobe and Kyzylorda from Almaty and Nur-Sultan will re-start on May 12 and 13 respectively, whilst flights to Oskemen from Almaty and Nur-Sultan will restart on May 13 and 14 respectively. All flights will be operated by Airbus A320/A321 and Embraer E190-E2 aircraft. Flights to more cities across the country will resume as soon as local airports re-open. Flight information and tickets are available online at www.airastana.com, airline ticketing offices and booking centres, as well as at Iata / Air Astana accredited travel agencies. - TradeArabia News Service A search is on for two teenage girls who disappeared while out tubing on a lake in Utah. Priscilla Bienkowski, 18, from Utah Lake and 17-year-old Sophia Hernandez, from Eagle Mountain were on Utah Lake, 30 miles south of Salt Lake City when it is believed they suddenly got caught up in an intense storm. The girls' haven't been seen since. The Utah County Sheriff's Office searched for the pair for most of Friday and resumed their search on Saturday. Priscilla Bienkowski, 18, was out on Utah Lake near Salt Lake City with a friend when it is believed they were caught in an intense storm Priscilla Bienkowski, left, had only been friends with Sophia Hernandez, right, for a few months The friends had bought two inflatable pool toys to use on the lake which were later found three miles apart. A fisherman later found one of the girls' cellphones and personal belongings on the beach along with the car in which the pair travelled. The temperature of the lake was 57 degrees on Thursday morning. Storms on Utah Lake are notorious for suddenly appearing. In this map released by Utah County Sheriff's Office, a vast area of the lake is being searched 'As a mother, of course you can think the worst. But I'm trying to be positive and trying to keep a level head because it's not going to serve me or anyone to just lose it and lose my cool,' Sepulveda,Bienkowski's mother told ABC 4. 'I need to be strong for myself. I have other children and I have lots of family and I need to be strong for Priscilla because this is how she would want me to be,' she said. 'Priscilla, if you see this message. I want to know to know that miracles do happen. Your family are all here and we're just praying that we will see you again.' Search and rescue teams were pictured getting ready to head out onto the lake on Saturday A search has been ongoing since the women disappeared on Wednesday after a storm struck Sophia Hernandez, 17, was out on the lake using a couple of inflatable toys and haven't been seen since Wednesday afternoon The girls had bought inflatable toys to take onto the lake in the hours before their trip. This photo is from a Facebook group dedicated to praying for the pair 'We don't like the word, 'recovery,' but we're leaning that direction, simply because if the girls were someplace besides in the lake, we don't have any reason to believe that they wouldn't be in contact with family. This is extremely out of character for them,' Sgt. Spencer Cannon said. 'As minutes go by, hope diminishes and all the evidence we have suggests they went into the lake. We have an eyewitness who saw them a short distance of where they entered.' Community members are organized a candlelight vigil for Priscilla and Sophia for Saturday night. Authorities are asking that anyone who saw them after 3pm Wednesday to call (801) 794-3970. The Jamia Millia Islamia on Sunday sent its students from Jammu and Kashmir back to their native places in a special bus arranged by it. Two university guards, who are former armymen, are also accompanying students in the bus, the varsity said. These students were stranded in hostels due to the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, the university said. The bus was properly sanitised before leaving for Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research University for medical screening of students, guards and drivers for fever and other symptoms related to the coronavirus, it said. The university is making arrangements for hostellers to send them back to their homes in their respective states, it said. Meanwhile, boarders of the girls and boys hostels wrote to the vice-chancellor stating it is impossible to vacate the hostels at this time with their belongings. They urged the administration to reconsider its decision asking the students to vacate their hostel rooms. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) No COVID-19 case has been reported in 10 states and Union territories in the last 24 hours and the recovery rate has increased to over 30 per cent, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday, asserting that India was moving fast on the path of success in the fight against the pandemic. According to health ministry data, 1,511 COVID-19 patients recovered in the last 24 hours -- the highest number of recoveries recorded in one day. India carried out 86,000 tests for COVID-19 on Saturday and India's testing capacity now stands at 95,000 samples per day, Vardhan told reporters after inspecting a COVID-19 care centre in the Mandoli area in the national capital. India had started from one laboratory and now there are 472 laboratories testing for COVID-19, he said. There are 4362 corona care centres across the country where 3,46,856 patients with mild or very mild symptoms can be kept, he said. "We are moving fast on path of success in the fight against COVID-19. The doubling rate for the last three days is 12 (days). The recovery rate has crossed 30 per cent. Out of around 60,000 COVID-19 patients, about 20,000 have recovered and gone home," Vardhan said. "Our mortality rate is still at 3.3 per cent.... In the last 24 hours, there has been no case in 10 states and Union territories. There are four states or Union territories where there has not been a single case till now," Vardhan said. India has total 36 states and Union territories. He also said that central teams are being sent to Delhi and nine states to assist their governments in managing the outbreak. The states where teams are being sent are Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and West Bengal. The government is making all efforts at every level to ensure that no stone is left unturned in the fight against COVID-19 anywhere and states are given all help they need, Vardhan said. "The Central government has distributed 72 lakh N95 masks and 36 lakh personal protective equipment kits to the States so far," he said. Vardhan also hailed the "corona warriors" for their untiring efforts in the fight against coronavirus. The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 2,109 and the number of cases climbed to 62,939 in the country on Sunday, registering an increase of 128 deaths and 3,277 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Lopez, who grew up in Sydney after her parents migrated from Spain, joined Aberdeen as a graduate and has been a fund manager at the firm for about 15 years. In her time with the firm, the largest active manager in the UK, she's had stints in London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand, covering everything from health care, to materials, banks and technology firms. Stock pickers have faced stiff competition from low-cost index funds in recent years, but Lopez argues the pandemic has vindicated Aberdeen's focus on deep research to find quality businesses, with strong balance sheets. "We always say you never know when the proverbials going to hit the fan, but when it does, you really want to have a strong balance sheet,'" Lopez says. Market volatility and emergency equity raisings have also thrown up the opportunity to buy stock cheaply, including through raisings by Cochlear and Auckland International Airport around the peak of the market panic. Lopez, who has covered Cochlear for almost 10 years, was surprised when the hearing implant maker sought $800 million from big investors in late March, but the fund bought in as as a chance to remove solvency risk, and to back future profit growth. "That was one that we liked, and we participated, and we bought more of," she says. Cochlear issued shares in the raising at $144 each, they were 26 per cent higher at $181.66 last week. Auckland International Airport, which is dual-listed in Australia and New Zealand, was trading near record lows at the time of its raising in early April, but Lopez says tourism is of such importance to NZ that the company would not be allowed to fold. Aberdeen participated "strongly" in the capital raise. "It was trading below book value, and that company has never traded below book value since its IPO," she says. As well as providing a window for buying shares at reasonable prices, the pandemic is also forcing investors to think about how companies might be affected by long-term or "structural" changes in people's behaviour. Loading Two small cap stocks it has been adding to the portfolio are cloud services provider Megaport and data centre operator NextDC, both of which should benefit from higher data consumption and more of us working from home. At the other end of the spectrum, Lopez thinks owners of office blocks could be among the losers from more of us working from home, especially at a time when the supply of office space is rising. The fund has sold its holdings in Dexus, Australia's largest office landlord. After the sharp rally during April, Lopez says valuations in the local market no longer reflect the uncertainty about the economy. The fund was buying about four weeks ago, but is more on the sidelines now, she says. "From a personal opinion, I think the markets are out of sync at the moment with the actual economic reality thats hitting many of our companies," she says. "The very sharp bounce that weve seen, to me it sort of feels a little too soon and too strong." Are you a landlord having difficulty collecting rental payments or just wanting to offer support to your tenants? These options can help you keep afloat. The COVID-19 pandemic has created a difficult situation for Australias residential rental system. Scrambling to curb transmission of the virus, the government has placed the country under lockdown causing many businesses to halt operations. This has almost instantly resulted in loss of jobs or reduced hours for many workers, adversely affecting their capability to pay rent. But while many tenants are faced with the challenge of sustaining lease payments at a time when their incomes have become unstable, landlords are also under financial pressure to keep their investment property loan repayments covered. The governments announcement last March of a six-month moratorium on evictions was clearly welcomed news to tenants experiencing financial stress because of the outbreak. However, the government has abandoned attempts to achieve a nationally consistent approach to address the issue instead leaving it to the states and territories to settle on the finer details on how to provide support for those affected. This has left landlords with more questions than answers as Australians are now faced with different sets of legislation and financial support depending on where they live. So what support is available for residential landlords in each jurisdiction? New South Wales The state government has announced a $440m package to help both landlords and tenants affected by the economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. This includes financial support through land tax waivers and rebates. Residential landlords will also be able to apply for a 25% rebate in land tax on the basis that the same rental reduction is granted to their tenants. However, if a tenants reduced income as a result of the pandemic requires further reductions to their rental payments, then its advised that both parties open a discussion to reach an agreeable rate during this time. Landlords can apply to the NSW civil and administrative tribunal to seek eviction if they are in financial distress at any time, and after the 60-day stop if it is fair and reasonable in the circumstances of the specific case. Under the scheme, a landlord or managing agent must negotiate with a tenant who is struggling to make rental payments, with dispute resolution by NSW Fair Trading. Unpaid rent accrues as arrears during this period, but tenants will not be blacklisted. Queensland The government has provided a $400m land tax relief program for residential and commercial tenancies, allowing landlords to apply for a waiver of up to three months and a deferral of three months of land tax. Landlords must provide rent relief to the affected tenants of an amount at least commensurate with the land tax relief to be eligible. Victoria The state government has offered a $500m package comprised of $420m in land tax relief for commercial and residential tenancies, and $80m for residential tenants in hardship. Landlords who will provide rent relief to tenants financially impacted by the coronavirus pandemic will be eligible for a 25% discount on their land tax, while any remaining land tax can be deferred until March 2021. Western Australia The state government has committed $30m rental assistance for residential tenants who were laid-off and are struggling with their finances. Under this scheme, the state government will shoulder rents of up to $2,000, which will be paid directly to the landlord. This grant will be provided in addition to rental reductions negotiated between tenants and landlords. South Australia The South Australian government recently announced a $50m tax relief package for residential and commercial landlords, modelled on similar packages in NSW and Victoria. Under the emergency scheme, landlords will be offered a 25% reduction on their 2019-20 land tax liability on affected properties but would be required to pass on the full benefit of the tax relief to their tenants impacted by COVID-19 restrictions. SA has already cut land tax by $189m from July and extended a $13m relief package to allow deferment of 2019-20 land tax bills by six months. Tasmania According to the government, residential landlords who are experiencing hardship and unable to meet land tax payments should contact the state revenue office. The commissioner will consider deferring any outstanding land tax until 30 June or may organise alternative payment arrangements. In addition, interests will not be applied to any outstanding 2019-20 land tax debt. Australian Capital Territory The ACT will give landlords a land tax rebate if they cut tenants lease payments by 25% for up to six months and will match 50% of the rent reduction to maximum of $2,600 during the same period or $100 each week. Residential tenants and landlords may also reach an agreement to delay rental payments if a tenant is not earning income. Any outstanding rent during this period will be a debt owed to the landlord but is free of interest for the six months of the moratorium period. Northern Territory NT has recalled parliament last week to pass more coronavirus emergency legislation, including residential tenancy laws. The government has indicated that its working on measures to create fairer terms for new leases, and longer negotiating periods between tenants and landlords. Dhaka, May 10 : Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who was freed from prison in March after serving 25 months in two corruption cases, was receiving treatment at her residence here amid the coronavirus pandemic, her family has said. Following her release on March 25, Zia was taken to her home 'Feroza' despite demands from the her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leaders to transfer her to the United Hospital for better treatment, bdnews24 reported. "It (transfer to United) is not possible right now due to the current state of the country. She is undergoing treatment at home. All the members of the medical board that was formed for her treatment are expert physicians," Khaleda's sister Selima Islam told bdnews24 on Friday. Kheleda was still in "home quarantine" and gradually improving, Selima said and added her sister has not recovered from illness. "She is suffering from arm and leg pain. Her fingers are still bent while she is suffering from diabetes as well," Selima said. One of Khaleda's doctors told bdnews24: "She needs long-term treatment. She has to undergo physiotherapy, follow-up and monitoring for a long time." Khaleda had been in prison since February 2018 after she was sentenced to a total of 17 years in two graft cases involving Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust. She was initially kept at Old Dhaka's abandoned central prison, but on April 1, 2019 she was moved to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University for treatment. Coronavirus-induced lockdown notwithstanding, hundreds bid adieu to Ganpat Landge, an Army jawan who died in Siachen, on Sunday at his native village in Latur district of Maharashtra. Landge was cremated with full military honours, after his 18-month-old son son and brother lit the funeral pyre. Earlier, his mortal remains were brought to his village Lodga on Saturday midnight from Pune. His body, wrapped in the national tricolour, was taken out to the village crematorium on a decorated vehicle amid chantings of slogans like "Shahid Jawan Amar Rahe" by villagers. Landge, who joined the Mahar Regiment in 2013, died in Siachen on May 6 due to some respiratory problems, district soldier welfare board officer Major Omkar Kaple said. Landge is survived by his wife, a son, and parents. Osmanabad MP Omraje Nimbalkar, Ausa MLA Abhimanyu Pawar, and police officers were present on the occasion. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mayank Singh By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Troops of Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) and the Indian Army clashed in Ladakh and Sikkim along the Sino-India border. Confirming the face-off in North Sikkim Indian Army sources said, Incident of face-off took place. Aggressive behaviour and minor injuries were reported on both sides, disengaged after dialogue and interaction at the local level". The incident in North Sikkim took place on Saturday around noon near Naku La at more than 19000 ft altitudes, ahead of Muguthang which is the last post along the LAC. The Chinese have been creating a problem in this area, which has been always peaceful, since 3-4 years and is causing problem regarding the boundary position which otherwise is clearly demarcated, said another source. Muguthang in the Tibetan language means open space. Ladakh saw the faceoff on Sunday morning. Chinese became physical with Indian personnel to which the Indian Army tried and stop and in that, there was a physical brawl, said another source and added that the scuffle took place on the Indian side of the LAC near the Nallah. It has been resolved but both sides are in the area. Confirming of the face-off, three different sources admitted that it was the PLA which took an offensive posture since end April and it began first by a moment of the vehicle inside the Indian side of the LAC on 27 April. The Indian Army confronted the PLA personnel and issue was resolved. Army Sources in Headquarters said, Temporary and short duration Face-offs occur as boundaries are not resolved. Troops resolve such issues mutually as per established protocols". A third officer having knowledge of the LAC told, Every year military activities recede all along the LAC due to inclement weather and terrain conditions thus face-offs recede for about 6-7 month. He also confirmed that the number of crossing has increased and there are multiple locations of the face-off. As reported first by this paper, 11th September 2019, Indian and Chinese Army troops were involved in a face-off in Ladakh, the first since over a year when an Indian Army patrol was moving in the northern bank of Pangong Tso, or lake, when Chinese troops objected to their presence. Many areas of the Pangong lake are disputed. Similar aggressive posturing took place in Chumar and Yangtse areas of Ladakh in the past. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held their first informal summit in April 2018 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, months after the Doklam standoff. In August 2017, Indian and Chinese soldiers threw stones at each other and had a physical brawl near Pangong Tso Lake near LAC. On 16 June, 2017 a 73-day long stand-off in the disputed Doklam plateau close to Sikkim started. As a normal exercise, a protocol is followed all along the LAC. We are keeping vigil all along the border, told the third officer. India and China share 3488 kilometers long Line of Actual Control which is divided into three Sectors: Northern, Central and Eastern Sectors with a differing line of perceptions. Both the countries have set protocols to resolve issues and the local commanders are empowered to take decisions to resolve such matters. HOUSTON - Trump administration officials spoke optimistically about a relatively quick rebound from the coronavirus Sunday as life within the White House reflected the stark challenges still posed by the pandemic, with Vice-President Mike Pence self-isolating after one of his aides tested positive. A balancing act was playing out the world over, with leaders starting to loosen lockdowns that have left millions unemployed while also warning of the threat of a second wave of infections. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin predicted the American economy would rebound in the second half of this year from unemployment rates that rival the Great Depression. Another 3.2 million U.S. workers applied for jobless benefits last week, bringing the total over the last seven weeks to 33.5 million. I think youre going to see a bounce-back from a low standpoint, said Mnuchin, speaking on Fox News Sunday. But the director of the University of Washington institute that created a White House-endorsed coronavirus model said the moves by states to re-open businesses will translate into more cases and deaths in 10 days from now. Dr. Christopher Murray of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said states where cases and deaths are going up more than expected include Illinois, Arizona, Florida and California. A reminder of the continued threat, Pences move came after three members of the White Houses coronavirus task force placed themselves in quarantine after coming into contact with the aide. An administration official said Pence was voluntarily keeping his distance from other people and has repeatedly tested negative for COVID-19 since his exposure. He plans to be at the White House Monday. Families, meanwhile, marked Mothers Day in a time of social distancing. For many, it was their first without loved ones lost in the pandemic. Others sent good wishes from a safe distance or through phone and video calls. The virus has caused particular suffering for the elderly, with more than 26,000 deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities in the United States, according to an Associated Press tally. At a senior centre in Smyrna, Georgia, 73-year-old Mary Washington spoke to her daughter Courtney Crosby and grandchild Sydney Crosby through a window. In Germany, children who live outside the country were allowed to enter for a Mothers Day visit. Germanys restrictions currently forbid entry except for compelling reasons, such as work. In Grafton, West Virginia, where the tradition of Mothers Day began 112 years ago, the brick building now known as the International Mothers Day Shrine held its first online-only audience. Anna Jarvis first held a memorial service for her mother and all mothers on the second Sunday of May in 1908. Sheltered safely at home with the family together would be viewed by Anna Jarvis as exactly the way she wanted Mothers Day to be observed, said Marvin Gelhausen, chairman of the shrines board of trustees, in an address on YouTube. Matilda Cuomo, the mother of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, called into her sons daily briefing so he and his three daughters could wish her a happy Mothers Day. I am so blessed as many mothers today are, she said. The governor announced two policy reversals a day after an Associated Press report in which residents relatives, watchdog groups and politicians alleged he was not doing enough to counter the surge of deaths in nursing homes, where about 5,300 residents have died. Nursing home staff in New York will now have to undergo COVID-19 tests twice a week, and facilities will no longer be required to take in hospital patients who were infected. The U.S. has seen 1.3 million infections and nearly 80,000 deaths, the most in the world by far, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, 4 million people have been reported infected and more than 280,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins. In the U.K., Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a modest easing of the countrys coronavirus lockdown but urged citizens not to surrender the progress already made. Those in jobs that cant be done at home should be actively encouraged to go to work this week, he said. Johnson, who has taken a tougher line after falling ill himself with what he called this devilish illness, set a goal of June 1 to begin reopening schools and shops if the U.K. can control new infections and the transmission rate of each infected person. We will be driven not by mere hope or economic necessity, he said. Were going to be driven by the science, the data, and public health. Germany, which managed to push new infections below 1,000 daily before deciding to loosen restrictions, has seen regional spikes in cases linked to slaughterhouses and nursing homes. France is letting some younger students go back to school Monday after almost two months out. Attendance wont be compulsory right away. Residents of some Spanish regions will be able to enjoy limited seating at bars, restaurants and other public places Monday, but Madrid and Barcelona will remain shut down. China reported 17 new cases on Monday, the second day of double-digit increases. Five were in the city of Wuhan, the original epicenter of the pandemic where a strict lockdown was lifted last month. Another five were in northeastern provinces, including Jilin, which borders North Korea. Despite the new cases raising concerns about a reignited outbreak, 82,000 third-year middle school students in Beijing returned to classes Monday to prepare for their high school entrance exams. And Shanghai Disneyland, closed since late January, reopened, with reservations required and social distancing measures in place. Visitors wearing masks and often Mickey Mouse ears or character costumes were checked for fevers at the gate. South Korea reported 35 new cases Monday, the second day in a row that its daily jump was above 30 for the first time in a month. Many of its recently confirmed cases were tied to nightclubs that welcomed hundreds of people after reopening. Authorities in the Seoul metropolitan area subsequently ordered the temporary closing of its nightlife establishments to guard against a possible resurgence. ___ Jordans reported from Berlin. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed. Follow AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak Himachal Pradesh reported three fresh cases of COVID-19, taking the total virus count in the state to 56, officials said on Sunday. While two persons tested positive in Bilaspur, one case was detected in Kangra district, they said. Two people quarantined at Swarghat in Bilaspur district along the HP-Punjab border have tested positive, Bilaspur deputy commissioner Rajeswar Goel said. The two are taxi drivers and had recently ferried two families from Gujarat's Ahmedabad and Haryana's Gurgaon to their native places in Mandi and Kangra districts respectively. As the two showed symptoms during screening at the border, they were quarantined and their samples taken, he said, adding that of them is from Gujarat. They are being shifted to Nerchowk's Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Government Medical College and Hospital (SLBSGMC) in Mandi, he said. Samples of their contacts will also be taken for testing. Kangra Superintendent of Police Vimukt Ranjan said one person from Kangra district tested positive for the virus at Tanda's Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College (RPGMC) on Sunday. Details of the Kangra patient were not immediately available. The number of active cases in Himachal Pradesh now stands at 14 four in Kangra, three in Chamba, two in Hamirpur and Bilaspur each and one each in Mandi, Una and Shimla districts. While 35 patients have recovered from the infection in the state, three have died. Four people were shifted to other states for treatment. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Employment Opportunities At the American Cancer Society, our employees are the soul of our lifesaving mission to save lives. Our employment opportunities are as diverse as our people and include every discipline found in other business enterprises. As an organization, we adhere to a set of core values that help inform all our decisions. But what really sets us apart is that the work we do has global impact and every passionate, dedicated American Cancer Society staff member contributes to each groundbreaking achievement we make. Description GIS 10 May, 2020: The Government of Mauritius has reiterated its high level political commitment to implement the action plan of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) at the earliest so as to exit the list of High Risk Third Countries issued by the European Commission on 07 May 2020. In a communique issued, yesterday, by the Ministry of Financial Services and Good Governance, the authorities reassured the global investment community that Mauritius remains a credible and trusted jurisdiction. According to Government, the list is not yet final and needs to be submitted to the European Parliament and the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers for approval, following which it will then become effective on 1st October 2020. Mauritius also reiterated its commitment to implement the FATF Action Plan in the shortest delay despite the sanitary curfew prevailing in Mauritius since 20 March 2020. It is recalled that the authorities delivered on their commitment and a first progress report was sent to the FATF on the agreed date. The FATF process has been halted due to the Covid-19 situation and the progress report could not be assessed. The country has obtained technical assistance from the EU funded AML/CFT Global Facility and the German Government through the German Development Agency, the GIZ to support the implementation of the FATF Action Plan. Even during the sanitary curfew, Mauritius has continued to work extensively with the technical assistance providers. The communique highlights that unlike in the past when there were always fruitful consultations in line with EU practice prior to any major decision being taken, the present decision is contrary to the spirit of dialogue and partnership which binds Mauritius and the EU. Mauritius initiated actions to open a dialogue with the European Commission as soon as the authorities took cognizance of the proposed listing of Mauritius through a press article published on 05 May 2020. The EU listing is a direct consequence of the listing of Mauritius by the FATF on its list of Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring, stipulates the communique. It is recalled that the Government of Mauritius has, in February 2020, given a high level political commitment to the FATF to implement the Action Plan within agreed timelines and is taking all necessary measures to honour its commitment. In addition, under the FATF Action Plan, Mauritius does not have technical compliance issues. The Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) legal framework has been extensively revamped and as at date, Mauritius is largely compliant or compliant with 35 out of the 40 Recommendations as compared to 14 largely compliant or compliant ratings at the time of the publication of its Mutual Evaluation Report in September 2018. More importantly, Mauritius has achieved the FATF expectations with respect to what the FATF has termed the Big Six Recommendations. These are: the criminalisation of the money laundering offence, the criminalisation of the terrorism financing offence, the implementation of a framework for targeted financial sanctions, customer due diligence, record keeping and the reporting of suspicious transactions. In its public statement, the FATF has identified the areas in which Mauritius has to demonstrate an increase in the level of effectiveness of its AML/CFT system. This situation is not unique to Mauritius, states the communique. Other countries including FATF members, which have been assessed so far have yet to achieve a high or substantial level of effectiveness in the same areas. #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 South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) threatened legal action on Friday against the Oglala Sioux Tribe and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe if their coronavirus checkpoints are not removed within 48 hours. The big picture: Native Americans and other people of color are more likely to become seriously ill from the coronavirus due to chronic health conditions and the effects of economic inequality, several studies have found. What's happening: The tribes, which have issued strict stay-at-home orders, are allowing reservation residents to travel through South Dakota for essential activities like medical appointments, CNN reports. Health questionnaires must be filled out when residents go through checkpoints. "South Dakota residents who don't live on the reservation are only allowed there if they're not coming from a hotspot and it is for an essential activity. But they must also complete a health questionnaire," per CNN. Stay-at-home orders have not been issued for the state. Where it stands: No South Dakota counties where the tribes are located are reporting deaths associated with COVID-19, but they are reporting more cases than the surrounding areas, per the state's health department. Most cases in South Dakota are located in Aberdeen and Sioux Falls, on the other side of the state. South Dakota is reporting 34 coronavirus deaths and 1,234 cases as of Saturday. What they're saying: Noem said Friday the tribes need to make a deal with the state to restrict highway travel. Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe chairman Harold Frazier said on Friday that the tribe consulted with the South Dakota Transportation Department, federal agencies and public schools. "We have not stopped any state or commercial functions as you claim in your request," Frazier said. Go deeper: The coronavirus' double whammy on vulnerable populations Of the total 364 Shramik special trains that were run across the country till Saturday midnight, as many as 167 originated from Gujarat, in which over two lakh migrant workers were ferried to their home states, a senior government official said on Sunday. Ashwani Kumar, Secretary to Gujarat chief minister, while sharing the data related to the Shramik trains that were run from different states till Saturday midnight, said that around 46 per cent of these trains started from Gujarat, the highest for a state. He said that the trains that started their journey from Gujarat, carried over two lakh migrants to different states, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. "Till Saturday midnight, 45 Shramik special trains originated from Maharashtra, 36 from Punjab, 25 from Telangana, 24 from Kerala, 20 from Rajasthan, 14 from Karnataka, and 11 from Haryana," he said. In addition to this, 56 more trains will carry around 67,200 migrant workers to their home states from different parts of Gujarat, including Ahmedabad, Sabarkantha, Viramgam, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot. Some of these trains have already started their journey early on Sunday, while some others will leave by Sunday evening, he said. "With this, the number of migrant workers reaching their home states from Gujarat would be 2,68,800," Kumar said. "It is the result of the government's preparation and commitment to ensure the migrants safe return to their home states," he added. Of the 56 trains running on Sunday, 42 are going to Uttar Pradesh, five to Madhya Pradesh, three each to Bihar and Odisha, and one each to Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, and Jharkhand, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) They are Americans from two different worlds, but when the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. hard, they decided to take the same step -- riding it out across the border. Cities such as Toronto and Vancouver in Canada and Puerto Penasco in Mexico are some of the places that Americans are taking shelter in during the crisis, and many say they have few regrets. While they miss their family and friends back home, the ex-pats say they feel more comfortable in their current locations, since the U.S. leads the world in cases and deaths by a large margin. Canada has some 67,000 cases and less than 5,000 deaths and Mexico 29,000 cases and less than 3,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. New York state alone has more cases and deaths than both countries combined (330,000 cases and 21,000 deaths). "Its a strange feeling not being able to see your parents, but I know that were not seeing each other to protect each other," Ellen Borenstein, 28, a California resident and student who is currently renting an apartment in Toronto told ABC News. MORE: Trump closes border with Canada to nonessential traffic Despite that separation, some of the ex-pats say their new neighbors and communities are making their stays as comfortable and friendly as they can. PHOTO: In this March 19, 2020, file photo, the border crossing into the United States is shown in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Quebec, Canada, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues in Canada and around the world. (Graham Hughes/Zuma Press via Newscom, FILE) The U.S. closed the borders to Mexico and Canada for all non-essential travel on March 20 and they will remain so until at least May 20, according to the State Department. State Department representatives said they do not have an estimate of the number of Americans who are currently living in either Canada or Mexico. Immigration rules allow U.S. visitors to remain in either country without a visa or permit for a maximum of six months. Data from the Canadian government indicated there were 284,870 Canadians who said they had U.S. citizenship during its 2016 census. Mexican officials could not provide data on the number of Americans with Mexican legal status. Borenstein said she was studying at York University in Toronto when the pandemic hit, and she was concerned about contracting the virus on a plane ride back to her hometown of Upland, California. She also said she would still have to pay rent on her Toronto apartment, so for her, it was more feasible and safer to wait for the curve to flatten on the other side of the border. Story continues "I used to live in Italy, and I have friends there who were telling me about the virus," Borenstein, who has a study permit, said. "I knew this wasn't going to be a one or two-month thing." PHOTO: A person rides her bicycle past fenced off cherry blossoms at a park during the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto, May 1, 2020. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP) Becky Kurtz-Jantzen, 68, of Show Low, Arizona has Mexican residency status and typically spends her winters in a house that she had her husband own in Cholla Bay, Mexico, in Puerto Penasco which she said has a population of about 62,000. She said she grew concerned about the pandemic, because of her health risks as a diabetic and her husbands role as an essential worker in an Arizona factory. They agreed for her to stay in the Mexican house with the couple's three dogs while he went back. "I truly believe this is the safest place for me," Kurtz-Jantzen told ABC News. "With all of the people in Phoenix, I know I'm better off here and at lower risk of catching the coronavirus." MORE: Nightmare scenarios as travelers attempt to fly with pets amid coronavirus Cody Littlefield, 32, who moved to Toronto with his wife back in November, said he was grateful that he did so before the pandemic hit. He was visiting family in San Diego before the border was closed and was able to make it back in time. Aside from living in a lower-risk location, Littlefield said he was his permanent residency status allowed him to get access to the country's free health care system. "In my mind, it was going to get worse, and I didnt want to be stuck without health care," Littlefield told ABC News, adding that he had to visit the doctor twice for non-COVID related issues since March. 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. As of Friday, the U.S. has more than 1.27 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 76,000 related deaths, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Audrey Macklin, a professor of law at the University of Toronto, said while the Americans living in the country may feel safer solely by virtue of not being in the U.S., they still have to follow the strict rules in place to prevent the disease's spread. Macklin said anyone who entered the country as a traveler to wait out the pandemic before their six-month allowance ends, won't be able to do much if they have no contacts in Canada. "For them, they'll be staying more in their house during their stay," Macklin told ABC News. However, some of the Americans said the pandemic has helped them to connect with their new communities. Borenstein said she has joined Facebook groups with other ex-pats and has frequent video chats. She's also gotten closer with other neighbors and they have lent her their ears and aid when she's down. "My friend from across the street came by and stood on the other side. She helped me walk down the street to the supermarket because I had anxiety," she said. "I've made some of the best friends during this." Borenstein added that she feels that Canadians are taking more precautions with the virus. She said people in the city are staying at home, wearing their face coverings and taking steps to ensure they are spaced out. "No matter what belief or background or political party they belong to, [Canadians] are saying the same thing, 'Social distance,'" she said. Kurtz-Jantzen said the Mexican residents in her town have been helpful to her and the other nationals who have been living since the border closed. She said the support has been beneficial and kept her at ease. "It is a very close-knit community," she said. "Everyone here, we all take care of each other." PHOTO: In this undated file photo, the Strand, in Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico, is shown. (Peter Bischoff/Getty Images, FILE) Kurtz-Jantzen said the community's strong precautions against the virus has been the most reassuring aspect of her stay. The Mexican neighbors have adhered to social distancing and other practices without any complaints, she said. Ron Egley, 66, who moved from southern California to Puerto Penasco in September 2016, said he too has been impressed with the local residents' reaction to the virus. Egley, who visits his hometown frequently to see his daughter and other family members, said he feels safer and more comfortable in Mexico in light of the reports of people protesting stay at home orders in the U.S. "People have come together here in the city, packing up care items, food donations, holding fundraisers and rallying around the city. We are not seeing anything in shape or form what we're seeing in the news from California and Arizona," Egley told ABC News. Borenstein said Canadians are feeling the same frustrations and economic hardships as Americans who are protesting, but their patience has helped to keep the number of cases down. "I go through waves, some days I really want to go home California," she said. "My favorite doughnut shop just reopened and I really want to go therebut then I look at the numbers and I realize that this sacrifice is worth it." Kurtz-Jantzen said she does miss her husband and her mother, who is in her 90s, but they wouldn't want to put her in harms way. She said they are confident this crisis will pass soon. "My mother feels when Im here in Mexico, she feels Im so happy here. So now shes relieved that Im here," Kurtz-Jantzen said. 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 Americans waiting out coronavirus in Canadian and Mexican border cities reflect on time away originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Alya Nurbaiti and Marchio Irfan Gorbiano (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, May 10, 2020 08:53 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd6fa680 1 National ASEAN,COVID-19,coronavirus,Muhadjir-Effendy,testing-capacity,PCR-test,flattened-curve Free Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy has claimed that Indonesia recorded only a moderate number of COVID-19 cases compared to other ASEAN countries and said the number continued to go down, dismissing Indonesias patchy testing capability and the highest death rate in the region. Were on the right track. There is a decreasing trend of cases, though not dramatically. I thank all the people who have complied with the governments COVID-19 precautionary measures, Muhadjir said during a press briefing on Friday. The statement came amid the governments policy to ease travel restrictions and plans to gradually lift social restrictions in June. On Saturday, Indonesias COVID-19 team reported the highest number of new cases in a single day, which was 533, bringing the total to 13,645 cases. The data, critics and scientists have said, were not accurate because of Indonesias low testing capacity, which stood at fewer than 1,600 a day since March 3. As of Saturday noon, Indonesia has tested 108,669 people, which means it has conducted 0.39 tests per 1,000 people, one of the lowest test rates in the world. Muhadjir considered the total number of confirmed cases unexceptional as Indonesia had a population of 273 million compared to the 6 million in Singapore, which recorded 22,460 cases as of Saturday. He added that the countrys current growth rate of cases was not as extreme as in Europe or North America. According to the graph made by ourworldindata.org, starting in the fourth week after its first reported cases, the cases number in Indonesia doubles every five to seven days. Were grateful that the exponential growth is not as rapid as predicted. The peak is at 500 cases a day, he said, adding that the number of fatalities was plateauing as well and that all these data were used by the government as a guide to create policies regarding COVID-19 handling in the near future. A disease surveillance and biostatistics researcher at the Eijkman-Oxford Clinical Research Unit, Iqbal Ridzi Fahdri Elyazar, however, was skeptical about the governments claims. The government is not looking at the right curve, the epi curve. They use analytical tools that are invalid, inaccurate, not trustworthy and dont met the epidemiological standards in assessing the COVID-19 situation, Iqbal told The Jakarta Post on Saturday. According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, an epidemic curve, or epi curve, is a visual display of the onset of illness to assess the distribution of cases over time. An epi curve shows the daily infection rate. Indonesia had yet to have an epi curve and therefore, any claims of a decline in cases were not based on the right tool. What the government had been displaying was a curve showing the daily cases reported by the authorities, not the onset of infections, Iqbal said. The Health Ministry, he said, should have made epi curves to get a clearer picture of what was happening. To determine the onset of infections, a thorough epidemiology study should be done. But because it takes time and is costly, usually experts use other measures, such as the date when symptoms start showing, or the date when samples are taken, because some COVID-19 patients show no symptoms, Iqbal told the Post. The infection rate could not be determined by daily reported cases unless the test result came back positive for COVID-19 on the very day the people contracted the virus. Meanwhile, the government has yet to reveal the average time gap between the sample collection and the test result. Some patients reported they had to wait for their test results for nine to 14 days, Kompas daily reported. Wide testing is just as important in supporting the epi curve. Indonesias testing coverage is still very low with only 0.39 tests per 1000 people, far less than in neighboring Vietnam, which has conducted 2.68 tests per 1000 people, Singapore with 30.02 tests per 1000 people. Authorities in Iceland, meanwhile, have conducted 154.4 tests per 1000 people. Therefore, the claim that the peak number of cases is at 500 is groundless. The number of cases reported each day very much depends on the number of tests conducted. More test means more confirmed cases, said Iqbal. He criticized the governments claim about the plateauing trend of the death toll, saying the government was once again departing from the World Health Organizations protocol, which requires to include the death of patients suspected of being infected with COVID-19 in the number of fatalities. As of Saturday, the government has reported 959 deaths, but some regions that reported deaths among suspected patients indicated that the toll could be much higher. The WHO predicts that Indonesias death toll is four of five times higher than reported, he said. The government also failed to mention that the death rate is still high at 7 percent nationwide and 8.8 percent in the capital Jakarta. The government needs to immediately release the epi curves of each province, city and regency as the interaction between humans, viruses and the environment are unique in each region. The Health Ministry has all the data needed [to make the epi curve], Iqbal said. Saundra Andringa-Meuer, who has recovered from the coronavirus, has joined with dozens of other American virus patients and some U.S. businesses in taking a new legal step: They are attempting to sue China over the spread of the virus, which has killed at least 75,000 people in the United States. Read more ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. Before the coronavirus outbreak, Saundra Andringa-Meuer was a healthy 61-year-old mother of six who never smoked or drank alcohol. Then she became seriously ill with the disease after traveling from her Wisconsin home to help her son move from college in Connecticut. She was hospitalized in March, ending up in a coma and on a ventilator for 14 days. Doctors told her family she had a slim chance to live. When she emerged, she was told she was the sickest COVID-19 patient they had seen survive. Now Andringa-Meuer has joined with dozens of other American virus patients and some U.S. businesses in taking a new legal step: They are attempting to sue China over the spread of the virus, which has killed at least 75,000 people in the United States. I do feel that they hid it from the world and from Americans," she said. "I dont feel we had to have the loss of life. I dont think we had to have the economy shut down. It disrupted all of American lives. I do believe we need to right some of these wrongs. So far, at least nine lawsuits have been filed in the U.S. against China claiming authorities there did not do enough to corral the virus initially, tried to hide what was happening in the outbreak center of Wuhan and sought to conceal their actions and what they knew. Eight of the lawsuits are potential class actions that would represent thousands of people and businesses. One was filed by the attorney general of Missouri, which is so far the only state to take legal action against China. The cases face several hurdles under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which states that foreign governments cannot be sued in the U.S. unless certain exceptions are met. And those are not easy to prove, experts say. We think its going to be an uphill battle for them to ultimately take advantage of those exceptions," said Robert Boone, an attorney in Los Angeles who specializes in class action cases. FAQ: Your coronavirus questions, answered. One exception involves commercial activity that directly affects the U.S. Another is misconduct inside the U.S. under certain circumstances that is traceable to a foreign government. A third exception is whether the foreign entity explicitly waived its immunity, such as through language in a contract. Attorneys who have filed the lawsuits say they can prove those claims, and, if they win, find some method of collecting damages, perhaps by seizing Chinese bank accounts or other assets in the U.S. if the Chinese refuse to pay. In one case filed in Miami federal court on behalf of Andringa-Meurer and many others, attorneys Matthew Moore and Jeremy Alters are suing the Chinese Communist Party as an entity separate from the Chinese government. "They have their own assets. They are recognized as an independent organization. We are going to argue they are not a part of the government," Moore said. "There has been personal injury that happened in the United States. Added Alters: They're going to have to pay ... We can say, Were not going to do business with you anymore. When you hit them in the (gross domestic product), it hurts. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang defended his countrys record of fighting the virus. He said the lawsuit filed by the Missouri attorney general is very absurd and has no factual and legal basis. Since the outbreak began, China has proceeded in an open, transparent, and responsible manner, and the U.S. government should dismiss such vexatious litigation, he said. Efforts are underway in Congress and in some state legislatures to make it easier to sue China and other countries. One bill was introduced by Republican U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Martha McSally of Arizona, and GOP U.S. Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas in the House. The Chinese government must be held accountable for the pain its inflicted across the United States, McSally said in a statement. The proposed legislation "will give the U.S. a piece of justice. READ MORE: U.S. officials crafting retaliatory actions against China over handling of coronavirus pandemic In New Jersey, three Republican state lawmakers introduced a resolution urging President Donald Trump and Congress to pass a bill letting citizens sue China for mishandling the pandemic. State Sen. Jim Holzapfel and Assemblymen Greg McGuckin and John Catalano said in a statement that they believe Chinese leaders did little to stop the spread of the virus and that residents and local governments should be legally allowed to recover some of what they lost financially. It's not clear if any of the legislation will pass. If the bills were enacted, legal experts say they could open the floodgates for hundreds more lawsuits against China. If that immunity were stripped, its going to produce a gigantic burden on the court system, said Boone, the class action lawyer. "Thats a factor that will need to be weighed in deciding whether to pass it. As for Andringa-Meurer, she said she's still somewhat frail but getting better all the time. Im weak, but Im fabulous. Im alive," she said. "I want to give back, not only to the doctors and nurses who gave me the opportunity to live. They are the heroes. But also to all of the Americans who were affected by this. ___ Associated Press Writer Michael Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed to this article. The U.N. Security Council reflected Friday on the lessons learned from World War II on the 75th anniversary of its end in Europe, as the world faces its biggest collective challenge since then the coronavirus. How we react to the new challenge before us the COVID-19 pandemic could be as significant as how the world rebuilt after fascism was vanquished, U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo told a virtual meeting of more than 80 nations, including nearly 50 foreign ministers, organized by Estonia, which presides over the Security Council this month. The end of six brutal years of war, massive death and destruction in Europe marked a turning point. From the devastation, the European Union, the United Nations and NATO were born, along with a new world order. The European High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell attends a video conference with Europeans Foreign Ministers in Brussels, Belgium, April 22, 2020. COVID-19 is a test of our humanity, but also of the multilateral system itself, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said of the disease caused by the coronavirus. The rules-based international order with the U.N. at its core must be upheld and strengthened. He expressed concern that the pandemic has rattled societies and exposed vulnerable nations to great peril. It has the potential to deepen existing conflicts and generate new geopolitical tensions, Borrell said. It is a reminder that peace, democracy and prosperity must constantly be nurtured, expanded and made more inclusive. Several diplomats warned that, 75 years after World War II, some of the characteristics that marked Nazi Germany are reemerging on the world stage. The voices of populism, authoritarianism, nationalism and xenophobia are making themselves heard ever more loudly, the U.N.s DiCarlo said. We must confront those who would drag the world back to a violent and shameful past. Germany, which was an aggressor in World War II and is now a leading nation on the European and international stage, also expressed concern about rising nationalism. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas addresses the media at the Foreign Ministry in Berlin on March 17, 2020, to comment on the situation concerning the spread of the novel coronavirus. (Photo by Tobias Schwarz / AFP) In Germany, we have a saying: He who closes his eyes to the past will be blind to the present, Foreign Minster Heiko Maas said. He urged political support for international institutions and multilateralism, and threw his governments support behind the U.N. chiefs call for a global humanitarian cease-fire. On March 23, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the cease-fire to focus attention and resources on fighting the virus. Dozens of nations and at least 16 armed groups have signed on, but so far, the 15-nation Security Council has been unable to adopt a resolution supporting the truce. The United States, which accuses Beijing of lying and covering up the spread of the coronavirus early on, has butted heads with China at the Security Council over the language in the draft resolution. The Trump administration has blasted the World Health Organization for what it says is a bias favoring China and has suspended funding to the agency. Washington wants a reference to supporting the WHO in the fight against COVID-19 removed from the draft resolution. China wants it to remain. In this file photo taken on Feb. 8, 2020, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference at the African Union headquarters. France and Tunisia, which drafted the text, thought they found a way around it, changing the WHO reference to specialized health agencies of the United Nations of which there is just one. Washington rejected that on Friday afternoon, ending yet another week without support from the U.N.s most powerful body for Guterres now seven-week-old appeal. The feud between the two powers has frustrated diplomats who want to see strong support from the council for a global cease-fire, but fear the foot-dragging will further corrode the councils credibility, which has found itself paralyzed on other important crises, including the war in Syria. Council resolutions require nine votes in favor and no vetoes from the five permanent members, which include China and the United States, to pass. A mysterious syndrome has killed three young children in New York and sickened 73 others, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Saturday, an alarming rise in a phenomenon that was first publicly identified earlier this week. The syndrome, a toxic-shock-like inflammation that affects the skin, the eyes, blood vessels and the heart, can leave children seriously ill, with some patients requiring mechanical ventilation. Many of the symptoms bear some resemblance to a rare childhood illness called Kawasaki disease, which can lead to inflammation of the blood vessels, especially the coronary arteries. The illness has taken the lives of three young New Yorkers, Mr. Cuomo said during his daily briefing in Manhattan. This is new. This is developing. Until now, parents and public health experts had found some solace in the notion that the coronavirus and the disease it causes, Covid-19, largely spared children the worst effects of an illness that has claimed more than 21,000 lives in New York State alone. But any sense of relief was shattered this week when a 5-year-old in New York City died from the syndrome, which doctors described as a pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome. The Mail on Sunday today launches a 3million support package to help Britain's legion of small firms beat the coronavirus crisis. The owner of The MoS, Daily Mail, the i and Metro is giving away 3,000 of free advertising in its newspapers to each of 1,000 small businesses as they prepare to do everything they possibly can to bounce back from lockdown. Our campaign is supported by organisations representing hundreds of thousands of local firms which are the lifeblood of the economy. The owner of The MoS, Daily Mail, the i and Metro is giving away 3,000 of free advertising in its newspapers to each of 1,000 small businesses It also aims to raise awareness of the part we can all play in supporting local businesses as the lockdown restrictions begin to be lifted. The advertising giveaway, which is being launched in tandem with the Federation of Small Businesses, will be open for applications from Wednesday. It is The Mail on Sunday's way of doing our bit to help family firms that provide incomes for millions of local people in towns across the country, as well as assist start-ups that could turn into the behemoths of tomorrow. Small companies, which have been battling bravely to keep going with little or no sales, employ 17million people. This represents a huge 60 per cent of the private sector workforce. Our free advertising offer comes hot on the heels of the Mail Force initiative by MoS owner DMGT and its partners, which has raised more than 6 million to fly in millions of items of vital protective equipment for medical staff and care sector workers amid a global shortage. The 3million advertising aid package is launched at a critical moment for many businesses. Two major studies today reveal that swathes of small firms face an uphill struggle to reboot their businesses after lockdown. A survey by Sage the FTSE 100 giant that supplies small companies with accounting software found one in three firms expect sales to be 50 per cent lower after lockdown is eased. A survey by Sage the FTSE 100 giant that supplies small companies with accounting software found one in three firms expect sales to be 50 per cent lower after lockdown is eased Separate research from specialist legal firm Buckworths found a quarter of small firms do not think the Government's existing support measures will be enough for them to survive the economic crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Almost half of the 500 businesses polled are not optimistic about their future and 35 per cent of small firms in the retail, leisure and hospitality industries think it will be a whole year before they fully recover. There are also concerns that small companies are slipping through the Government's financial safety net. Much of the help provided through banks has been loans as opposed to grants. Small operators are known to be reluctant to take on extra debt. Kirsty McGregor, founder of consultancy The Corporate Finance Network, said its research suggested that fewer than two per cent of small businesses have made inquiries about applying for the Government-backed loans. McGregor said: 'Some of the Government loans have been great, but some have been really difficult to get and very few people have shown an interest.' Last night, national organisations working with small firms and self-employed traders said those suffering will need much more Government support. British Chambers of Commerce director general Adam Marshall says small businesses have driven prosperity in communities UK Hospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said the lockdown had been particularly 'painful' for leisure and hospitality firms which could face another six months of hardship. 'It's hugely important that people support companies within the community and continue this habit of using local firms as we come out of this.' She said it would be extremely helpful if members of the public could do their bit to back small hospitality firms by postponing rather than cancelling their bookings. British Chambers of Commerce director general Adam Marshall said: 'The resilience and innovation of small businesses have driven prosperity in communities the length and breadth of the country for decades.' Mike Cherry, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: 'Our members will be hugely grateful to The Mail on Sunday for this generous offer of support. It's fantastic to see you getting behind them. 'The pandemic is likely to have an impact on businesses for months if not years to come. 'Easing the lockdown won't mark the end of the challenges they face and they'll need a lot of help to get back on their feet. 'It won't be enough to rely on word of mouth to attract new customers. A lot of small firms won't have the funds they need to get the word out there. We urge every eligible member to apply to be part of this advertising giveaway.' Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. The National Institute of Virology in Pune has successfully developed the first indigenous antibody detection kit for COVID-19 that will play a critical role in surveillance for coronavirus infection, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday. The test kit has the advantage of testing 90 samples together in a single run of 2.5 hours, so that healthcare professionals can proceed quickly with necessary next steps, Vardhan said. "National Institute of Virology, Pune, has successfully developed the 1st indigenous anti-SARS-CoV-2 human IgG ELISA test kit for antibody detection of COVID-19," the minister said in one of a series of tweets. "This robust test will play a critical role in surveillance of proportion of population exposed to SARSCoV2 infection," he said. This kit was validated at two sites in Mumbai and has high sensitivity and accuracy, Vardhan said. The ELISA-based testing is easily possible even at district level, he said. Developed in a month's time, the testing kit would help to study the presence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies in the Indian population. It is cost-effective, sensitive, rapid, and a large number of samples can be tested at any level of clinical setting, public health centers and hospitals. The Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Virology, Pune, technology has been transferred to Zydus Cadila for mass-scale production. The Drug Controller General has granted commercial production and marketing permission to Zydus, Vardhan said. The ICMR recently has cancelled orders for about half a million COVID-19 rapid antibody test kits from China after they were found to be giving out inaccurate results. The testing technique is used to detect antibodies in the blood of people who may have had coronavirus infection. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Kwara State Government announced the death of a COVID-19 patient on Saturday evening. This is the first death related to the virus in the north-central state. According to the spokesperson of the Kwara State Technical Committee on COVID-19, Rafiu Ajakaye, the patient recently arrived Kwara from Lagos with his wife and a child shortly after he suffered a stroke. The three of them were treated as suspected COVID-19 cases and their samples taken. The man died before the test results were out. The results later came out positive for COVID-19 for the three of them. Mr Ajakaye said the man has been buried while everyone involved in the burial has now had their samples taken. READ ALSO: Because of the peculiarity of this development, the Rapid Response Team has moved in to bring all those involved into the isolation centre, including the wife and the child. Also, apart from the family of the deceased, the government announced four new positive cases of COVID-19 from people who allegedly sneaked into the state from other states. PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported the influx of inter-state travellers into Kwara against the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari banning interstate travels. In the last few days, scores have been arrested by security operatives. The new cases bring the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Kwara to 28. Nineteen patients are active while eight have been discharged and one dead. The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) explained that monitoring the Ghanaian terrain since the lifting of the partial lockdown in Greater Accra, Greater Kumasi, and Kasoa, indicates that most people were taking things for granted and believe that the pandemic was over. Mr Pontius Pilate Apaabey Baba, NCCE Upper East Regional Director, told the Ghana News Agency in a telephone interview that; COVID-19 was a ticking time bomb, which if not handled effectively could explode at any time, but if managed well could be defused. He therefore called on both public and private actors in the campaign against COVID-19 to intensify the effort, we must collectively work hard, the advocacy must be intensified and we must move step-by-step forward until we defeat COVID-19. Mr. Apaabey Baba said the NCCE through its Anti COVID-19 Public Education Civic Education Advocates continues to intensify its public education on the pandemic to ensure compliance with basic protocols and directives from President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. We must not look at the messages as being routine, the most important thing about the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Ghana Health Service (GHS) directives are that they look basics but very critical for survival of mankind, the NCCE Director explained. While expressing gratitude to the several interventions by both state and non-state as well as the several individuals involved with education on the pandemic, he said the Commission equally expresses worry on some citizen's non-compliance with the directive on social distancing and urge citizens to do a lot mare in that regard. He said over this period, the Commission in collaboration with the Church of Pentecost, mounted intensive public education throughout the communities, towns and villages to ensure that people understood why they should adhere to the health protocols. He said as part of the campaign dubbed: NCCE Anti COVID-19 Public Education Campaign, the Commission had also adopted Strategies for radio discussions, dawn and dusk street announcements at market places, Community Information centers as well as one-on-one talks. He commended the Upper East Regional Area Head of the Church of Pentecost (COP), Apostle Agyemang Nkrumah, who have agreed to extend the collaboration until May 30th, 2020. Mr Apaabey Baba said the Commission additionally has embarked on direct interaction or face-to-face public announcement using public address systems and mega-phones at drinking bars, Artisanal shops, food venders, animal markets, livestock markets, vegetables sellers markets, and roadsides/youth Parliament bases. Other spots identified are lorry stations, commercial transport stations, wood sellers centres, washing bays, Chemical shops, Grinding mills, Chop bars, tricycle (Yellow-yellow & Cando) operators, maize and millet sellers markets. He reiterated that; COVID-19 can be defeated through effective communication, if we fail to comprehensively educate our people to understand the need to adhere to the WHO and Ghana Health Service preventive protocols then COVID-19 will continue to spread. We need to disarm and demobilize the ravaging forces of COVID-19 through proactive and relentless communication, when communication fails then the forces of coronavirus disease will continue to overwhelm mankind and our health facilities will be overburdened, Mr Apaabey Baba stated. He said the focus of the NCCE broader COVID-19 communication strategy was to arm the citizenry with knowledge power, exposed the operational modalities of the enemy COVID-19 and strengthen each individual not to fear, but stand firm and observe all the protocols rigorously. He said as civic educators, we were helping the people to understand President Akufo-Addo's measures and directives put in place to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. He called for massive support for the NCCE to intensify the public education on COVID-19 which must be relentless, to ensure that we all understand, so we need to educate people in the local language they understand best, and break down the COVID-19 jargons to the lowest level for people to appreciate. GNA [May 10, 2020] Singapore's BIGO Technology Donates To "Memory Of Generations" In Honor Of Veterans Rallying support from Russian communities and content creators to give back to military veterans MOSCOW, May 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Singapore company, BIGO Technology (BIGO), celebrated Russia's 75th Victory Day by donating to "Memory of Generations," a charitable foundation that provides holistic support and medical care for military veterans who valiantly fought for the freedom of the Russian Federation and aided in ending WWII. BIGO rallied its in-app communities on Bigo Live and Likee Live via popular content creators, igniting viewers' support and patriotism. A campaign was organised with content creators battling out by performing Russian revolutionary songs in-app in a nationwide talent competition, uniting millions of fans for a single purpose - to donate to the Memory of Generations Foundation in support of military veterans, especially during this difficult COVID-19 pandemic period. Popular broadcasters, Bigo Live Username "play_with_me" and Likee Username "ST??'N???" have been voted via the campaign as "Victory Day" ambassadors and will present the proceeds on behalf of BIGO o "Memory of Generations" later in the month. BIGO hopes to be a platform for spreading positive messages and maintaining social connections especially during COVID-19. During this special time, BIGO encouraged their communities to reminisce on their past victory by sharing their reflections and pictures of Victory Day memorabilia on their app wall. Through these activities, BIGO hopes to spur conversational topics surrounding their history, veterans' sacrifice and to express gratitude towards them. Over 1 million Russian viewers enjoyed the 2-day campaign which ran from 8 May to 9 May, as the apps showcased a number of different talented broadcasters. "Being a part of and contributing to such a memorable day in Russia carries significant meaning to us at BIGO. As we are a technology company that believes in bringing people together, we hope that through this initiative we are able to bring the Russian people together digitally, in a time when we are physically apart. We also hope to alleviate feelings of isolation by providing a plethora of infotainment content on our apps," Mike Ong, Vice President for BIGO Technology says. Ekaterina Kruglova, Executive Director for "Memory of Generations" says, "The Organization provides daily medical care for veterans and we ultimately aim to improve the quality of lives. Due to COVID-19, we have had to abandon our plans and most events have been cancelled; this is why we are grateful to partner with a global firm like BIGO. We believe this will amplify our efforts in building awareness and is a step in the right direction towards digitizing our communications and events." About BIGO Technology BIGO Technology (BIGO) is one of the fastest-growing Singapore technology companies, with more than 30 offices and 6 R&D centres around the world. Powered by Artificial Intelligence technology, BIGO's video-based products and services have gained immense popularity, with around 400 million monthly active users in more than 150 countries. These include Bigo Live (live streaming), Likee (short-form video) and imo (instant communication). BIGO is dedicated to connecting the world and to enable everyone to share their beautiful moments. With a vision to be a content platform that inspires one billion people's lives, BIGO aims to empower a new generation of users with an exciting new social language where they can showcase, discover and stay connected in a positive and creative online environment. About "Memory of Generations" The MEMORY OF GENERATIONS Charitable Foundation is the only non-profit organization in Russia that provides targeted high-tech medical assistance and holistic care to veterans of all military veterans of our country. The foundation was established on June 22, 2015 and their work spans the country from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1166102/BIGO_Technology_celebrated_Russia_s_75th_Victory_Day_giving_military_veterans.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the first flight carrying expatriates arriving on Sunday, the capital is all set to receive them. The flight carrying 182 passengers on board is scheduled to arrive by 10.45 pm. A mock drill to evaluate the final preparations will be held in the morning. The arriving expatriates will mostly be from Thiruvananthapuram, Kanyakumari, Kollam, Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta. At Thiruvananthpuram airport, passengers will be screened for body temperature using thermal face recognition camera before they will be checked for other Covid-19 symptoms through seven specially set up counters. Anyone with symptoms will be taken to the Medical College Hospital immediately. Those without symptoms will be sent to care centres abiding by protocol. They will be transported in KSRTC buses with police escort. District Collector K Gopalakrishnan and City Police Commissioner Balram Kumar Upadhyay evaluated the preparations on Saturday. Strict instructions The district administration has urged all persons who have been moved to care centres to follow the guidelines strictly. There could be instances where members of the same family might be sent for home quarantine as well as to care centres. In such instances, all should cooperate with the authorities and follow the instructions and not insist on home quarantine for themselves too, said the collector. In the care centres crowding should be avoided. All should stay inside their rooms and not come in contact with those staying in other rooms. People consuming medicines for other diseases should continue them without fail. Waste including used masks, tissue and food waste should not be thrown away but rather disposed in specified boxes. Those under observation should not share any of their possessions including mobile phone, bowls, clothes, magazines, books, papers or snacks. They should also clean their possessions and toilet with disinfectants after use, said the collector. While in quarantine, if anyone is going through psychological issues, they can call the mental helpline number 9846854844. If there are any symptoms or illnesses, the people under observation can either confide in their care taker or call the Call Centre (1077) or Disha helpline (1056/0471-2552056). Measures in place At Thiruvananthpuram airport, passengers will be screened for body temperature using thermal face recognition camera before they will be checked for other Covid-19 symptoms through seven specially set up counters. Anyone with symptoms will be taken to the Medical College Hospital immediately. A year ago, I visited the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in HCMC. I talked to the doctors about measles, typhoid and dengue fever. I did not think to mention respiratory diseases. Gareth Ward I had never heard of the coronavirus. Now the world has changed, with the biggest pandemic challenge of our lifetime. In the past, Asia has faced SARS, and Africa has faced Ebola, but now the whole world faces Covid-19. As I write, it has been several weeks since the most recent case of local transmission of Covid-19 in Vietnam. The world media is reporting on how Vietnam has managed to contain the virus to less than 300 confirmed cases in a population of over 97 million people. I would like to share a few reflections on Vietnams approach, how Vietnam and the U.K. can cooperate to keep the situation under control globally, and crucially, how we can rebuild our economies and societies for the better in a new normal. In a short space of time, Covid-19 has become a major factor in all our lives and work. My team, for instance, has supported British nationals in Vietnam infected by the virus and has helped thousands of British tourists return home. I have been touched by the dedication and compassion of the Vietnamese healthcare professionals who have helped save the lives of British nationals and made our work here possible. We have all had to learn new healthcare terminology. We have had to adapt to new ways for working. We have all had to learn new digital skills as our children have been out of school. We have all had to make difficult decisions to remain away from our family and friends. Vietnam responded to the Covid-19 outbreak early and robustly, initially closing schools and contact tracing and isolating those arriving from abroad. The success of this approach has been based on a combination of strictly monitoring all people entering the country; ramping up testing and tracing; communicating actively with communities; and effectively treating those infected. A woman from Ha Loi village in Hanoi brings home-grown vegetables to sell at a market, a day after Covid-19 lockdown on her village was lifted, May 7, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy. Undoubtedly, Vietnams recent experience of SARS and existing infectious disease burden both played a role in the prompt response and prepared people to follow public health guidance. Vietnam has for many years been proactively working with international partners in disease control. For instance the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) has offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, conducting world leading research on epidemiology. Globally, we face an ongoing and evolving challenge. New waves of infection cannot be ruled out, we mustnt be complacent. Vietnam, along with the rest of the world, faces complicated decisions in choosing how to balance public health benefits and economic cost. There are many unknowns: how to reopen borders in a safe way, how to treat those who become unwell as effectively as possible, how to accelerate the vaccine development and deployment process. What is known is that unless the pandemic is ended everywhere, people will continue to become unwell and die, global economic recovery will be delayed and the risk of resurgence will remain. Only through coming together can we develop affordable treatments and vaccines, which are accessible to everyone who needs them, as quickly as possible. AstraZeneca, a leading U.K. pharmaceutical company, and the University of Oxford are already making good progress, with a commitment to developing and distributing the university's Covid-19 vaccine candidate ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 which is currently undergoing human trials in the U.K. We will also continue to work closely with ASEAN to promote closer economic cooperation and champion the mutual benefits of free trade, which are key to economic recovery and future growth. No one country or organization has the answer, and global collaboration and partnership at a scale never seen before will be key to tackling this pandemic. The UK has committed over 6.5 billion ($8 billion) in aid and financial support through the United Nations and other bodies to tackle the pandemic and support the worlds most vulnerable people. We see it as part of our responsibility as a major aid donor to work with international partners on healthcare issues. Thats why we recently co-hosted the virtual Coronavirus Global Response Summit, which resulted in an $8 billion commitment by world leaders to fight Covid-19. We will also be leading a virtual Global Vaccine Summit in June to raise the level of ambition. I am proud of the research and innovation being undertaken here in Vietnam with U.K. organizations, for instance the vaccine development being undertaken by Vietnamese company VABIOTECH, which builds on technology shared by Bristol University. British healthcare companies and experts want to make meaningful and long-lasting contributions to Vietnamese society. Our experience of the impacts of the pandemic has been a sobering reminder that while governments and international organizations agree funding structures and set strategic directions, it is those on the frontline, such as researchers, healthcare professionals and key workers who risk their lives to translate these into actions that save lives. I hope that the lessons we are all learning about public health, social cohesion and what we can achieve when we cooperate, are remembered as we move towards a new normal. This pandemic is affecting us all, but those hardest hit are the poor and vulnerable groups who will bear the health and economic costs of the pandemic for the longest. We have an opportunity to rebuild institutions that are more inclusive and sustainable, and I hope that co-operation between the U.K. and Vietnam can set an example for that. *Gareth Ward is the British Ambassador to Vietnam. A sudden rise in the number of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in Tripura and a steady increase in patients in Assam have resulted in the tally in the North-East to cross the 200-mark on Saturday. It took just four days for the figure to double from 100 to 200 plus Covid-19 cases. The first case in the region was detected in Manipur on March 24 and it took 24 days for the figure to reach 50 and another 18 days to cross 100 on May 4. Till Sunday morning, the seven states in the region had 212 cases. Tripura leads the tally with 132 cases, followed by Assam with 63, including one patient from Nagaland who was tested and treated in Guwahati, and Meghalaya with 13. Manipur had two cases and one each in Mizoram and Arunachal Pradeshall patients in these three states have recovered and have been discharged. No fresh cases have been reported there in over a month. Nagaland hasnt recorded any case till date. There has been a sudden spike in cases in Tripura, which had claimed Covid-19 free status on April 24 after the first two patients had tested negative. But on May 2, two personnel of the Border Security Forces (BSFs) 138th battalion in Ambassa were found positive. A day later, 12 more people from the same battalion tested positive. The trend continued in the next few days with more positive cases getting confirmed among BSF personnel and their family members of the forces 138th and 86th battalionboth stationed in Ambassa of Dhalai district in the state. 17 persons found Covid-19 positive in Tripura today from 86th battalion of BSF, Ambassa. No civilian found positive among them, Biplab Kumar Deb, Tripura chief minister, tweeted late on Saturday. Alarmed with the spurt in Covid-19 cases without any known source of infection, the Tripura government has asked BSF authorities to conduct an inquiry. The state has also requested Delhi-based National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to send a team to the state to probe the cases and arrest spread of the respiratory disease. Assam has also witnessed a rise in cases following the opening of the states borders for residents returning back from other parts of the country after the Union home ministry allowed inter-state movement. Two women from Jorhat, who returned from Mumbai in an ambulance, as well as the driver of the vehicle, were found to have been infected with Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, on Saturday, taking the states tally to 63 cases. Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the two women were bringing back a cancer patient. Questions have been raised on why the ambulance driver was allowed to leave the state. The driver left for Mumbai and we allowed him to go as he was asymptomatic. Now on our request he has been stopped in Bihar for hospitalization (sic), Sarma tweeted on Sunday morning. Till Sunday morning, Assam had recorded 34 recoveries and two deaths. Twenty-seven Covid-19 patients are still recovering in various hospitals. After a gap of 19 days, Meghalaya recorded another positive case on Saturday taking the states tally to 13 cases. While one patient has died, 10 others have recovered and two are under treatment. All cases in the state have links with the first patient, a doctor from Shillong, who died on April 15. Unfortunately we have another positive case in Shillong. Its a person working in the same house (the first patients house), Conrad Sangma, Meghalayas chief minister, tweeted on Saturday. As a precaution, health department was retesting all the primary contacts (of the first patient) and in the process we found this positive case. The person is safe and healthy and showing no symptoms (sic), he added. (With inputs from Priyanka Deb Barman in Agartala) U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump on Friday joined seven World War II veterans ages 96 to 100 in Washington to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe. The president and first lady arrived at the World War II Memorial and participated in the laying of a wreath. During a tour of the memorial, they stopped briefly in front of a wall etched with the phrase: "Here we mark the price of freedom." White House officials described the veterans as "choosing nation over self" by joining Trump at the WWII ceremony. Timothy Davis, director of the Greatest Generations Foundation, which helps veterans return to the countries where they fought, told The Associated Press that the U.S. soldiers were originally scheduled to travel to Moscow for a commemoration event. He said that with international travel out of the question during the COVID-19 pandemic, the veterans talked to him about trying to commemorate the day in Washington. Nazi Germanys commanders signed their surrender to Allied forces in a French schoolhouse 75 years ago Friday, ending the war in Europe. Chinese mainland reports 1 new imported COVID-19 case People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 08:57, May 09, 2020 BEIJING, May 9 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland reported one new imported case of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Friday, bringing the total number of imported cases to 1,681, the National Health Commission said Saturday. The new case was reported in Tianjin, the commission said. Of the total imported cases, 1,505 had been discharged from hospitals after recovery, and 176 remained hospitalized with four in severe conditions, the commission said. No deaths had been reported from the imported cases. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Patna: After remaining in lockdown for 45 days as part of a directive issued by the Center to flatten the curve of Coronavirus pandemic, the district administration in Patna on Friday ordered the reopening of a number of businesses though not without conditions that aims to keep the numbers of COVID-19 victims to a minimum. Among the businesses that were allowed to open are hardware stores, auto part shops, auto repair shops, construction material outlets, appliance shops, computer retailers and mobile stores, among others. Shops that opened on Friday had been preparing for it for the last couple of days making sure every area in the store was properly sanitized and cleaned and proper arrangements were made outside the store to maintain social-distancing. Store owners are also required to put face mask and serve only those customers who also wore mask. Stores are also ordered to make arrangements for hand sanitizers or provide hand soaps in the absence of sanitizers. Those who show any sign of coughing or sneezing are not allowed to enter any shop. The administration will take proper action against business owners in case of any violation of the national lockdown that continues to remain in effect, Patna District Magistrate Kumar Ravi said. Interestingly, despite the opening of many shops, it was apparent by the number of customers that they were still afraid to go in what could be a crowded place. Most shops had a very few customers on Saturday though this will certainly change as the numbers of new cases of Coronavirus continues to remain within control, one shop-owner in Kankarbagh said. Meanwhile, Patna police on Saturday issued tickets to nearly 400 people for violating various Coronavirus-related traffic rules. With a ban on two people riding the same two-wheeler, over 280 people were fined for the violation of this law. Police also seized a number of cars and two-wheelers when violators failed to pay the fine. By one estimate, police in Patna fined traffic violators on Friday to the tune of roughly Rs. 3 lakh. India's Ambassador to the United States Taranjit Singh Sandhu on Saturday said that the Indian and American pharmaceutical companies are working together on at least three possible coronavirus vaccines. "There is close cooperation, exchange of information, collaboration. There are at least three vaccines on which, Indian companies and the US companies are working together. Besides, we are an important part of the supply chain," Sandhu told news agency ANI. India is a "reliable partner" to the US and has been able to fulfil whatever assistance the latter has required, he added. "About two or three years back, we together developed a vaccine for another virus called Rotavirus. It has not only helped India and the United States but many other countries," Sandhu added. Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) was earlier identified by the US Food and Drug Administration as a possible treatment for novel coronavirus infection. Anticipating that it might produce positive results, India exported the drug to the US as a potential treatment for coronavirus patients. Trump later thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allowing the export of HCQ. Meanwhile, India's coronavirus tally rose by 3,277 in the past 24 hours, including 127 deaths. With this, total cases in the country now stand at 62,939, including 41,472 active patients and 19,358 cured or discharged or migrated and 2,109 deaths. India has been under a coronavirus lockdown since March 25. The lockdown is expected to be lifted on May 17. Also read: Coronavirus India Live Updates: 75% COVID-19 cases in Delhi asymptomatic or with mild symptoms, says Kejriwal Also read: Economic stimulus package this week; relief for MSMEs & workers; reforms on cards A female pronghorn pauses while eating wildflowers along a highway near the Mojave Desert town of Beatty, Nev. It is unclear why the creatures are returning to the unforgiving desert in and around Death Valley National Park. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) More than a century after railroads, ranchers and hunters vanquished their ancestors, pronghorn antelope are returning to this unforgiving expanse of desert along the California-Nevada border. A photo of a lone male and a harem of five does shared on Death Valleys Facebook page in late April was only the latest indication that the American pronghorn, North Americas land speed champion, may be extending its migratory range into the Mojave Desert once again from cooler seas of sage nearly 100 miles to the north and east. Its not all gloom and doom, woohoo! the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Assn. announced to wildlife advocates nationwide. If nothing else, enjoy the feel-good photo and I hope youre doing well. The pronghorn's reappearance here is a bit of a mystery, as most animal species are making tracks for higher and cooler elevations as the climate warms. Some say the interloping antelope could find themselves in dire straits once summer heat blankets the park. Laura Cunningham, California director of the nonprofit Western Watersheds Project, sits among wildflowers in the Mojave Desert near the town of Beatty, Nev. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Along with the recent photo, park officials noted: Pronghorn may be some of the newest residents to our park! While on patrol, rangers have recently spotted a herd of these quick-footed animals and at least one lone male exploring the park, likely the result of a migration that has been years in the making. While pronghorn have been witnessed in the park on occasion for the past two years, they added, this increase in their presence suggests these graceful creatures may become long-term residents of the valley. Recently, a group of biologists spent the morning photographing a doe that was guarding a newly born fawn in a patch of desert scrub just east of the parks northern boundary near the town of Beatty, Nev. Additional analysis is needed to determine whether the deer-like animals with forward jutting black horns are establishing residency in the usually desolate 3.3-million-acre park. In the meantime, their spring season ventures into the Mojave in recent years open the door to some obvious questions. Story continues Exactly where are they coming from? Are they rediscovering ancient migratory routes in arid lands punctuated by scattered mountains and plateaus or creating new pathways into areas where drought and rising temperatures are upsetting the delicate balance between life and death for such species as desert tortoises and Joshua trees? One biologist who has been tracking recent pronghorn wanderings from the Ubehebe Craters volcanic field in the northern half of Death Valley to the tiny desert berg of Shoshone near the parks southern end has proposed an answer. Pronghorn antelope may be rediscovering ancient migratory routes in arid lands punctuated by scattered mountains and plateaus, lured by blooming wildflowers near the Mojave Desert town of Beatty Nev. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Pronghorn are following lush buffets of rain-fed wildflowers, said Laura Cunningham, California director of the nonprofit Western Watersheds Project and a resident of Beatty, about five miles east of the park. Weve been getting some nice blooms triggered by erratic storms in the higher elevations of the northern Mojave Desert over the past five years or so, she said. By piecing storm events, wildflower blooms and reported pronghorn sightings together, its hard not to think that there may well be new migratory patterns unfolding before our eyes. In other words, she added, pronghorn are taking a giant step out of the sage and into the desert to dine on the flowers of spring in the northern Mojave: [Desert] dandelions, desert pincushions, primrose and desert golds. Kathleen Longshore, a research biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, would not go that far. But she pointed out that seasonal rainfall patterns vary significantly over the national park and can have huge ecological consequences. It is not all that unusual for northern sections of the park to get hammered by late-winter storms that alter the rugged landscape with layers of mud and rocks and refresh the entire landscape with carpets of grass and wildflowers. We can test Lauras theory, Longshore suggested, by documenting the movements of members of a pronghorn population in the Nevada National Security Site, about 50 miles northeast of Death Valleys boundary line, that were recently fitted with tracking collars. It shouldnt be difficult to determine whether some of the pronghorn showing up farther south than they should be may have wandered out of that Nevada security site herd to browse land that greened up after seasonal storms, she said. In any case, she added, Theyre not going to hang around in the desert much longer. The Mojave is a tough place for pronghorn in summer. Pat Cummings, a game biologist with the Nevada Department of Wildlife, agrees. If those animals dont have a source of standing water, theyre going to be in a pickle, he said. In Death Valley, the party is over in June. The highest temperature ever recorded on the planet was in Death Valley on July 10, 1913 134 degrees. The park's headquarters in Furnace Creek is 190 feet below sea level. Nearby Badwater, at 282 feet below sea level, is the lowest spot in the Western Hemisphere. On summer days, some visitors crack eggs there just to watch them fry in the heat, inadvertently creating problems for park staffers by attracting coyotes. A pronghorn antelope pauses while eating wildflowers along a highway where cattle once grazed near the Mojave Desert town of Beatty, Nev. "Pronghorn are following lush buffets of rain-fed wildflowers," said Laura Cunningham, California director of the nonprofit Western Watersheds Project. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Scientists say pronghorn evolved in cooler climates when the Western Hemisphere was home to the American cheetah and, in order to survive, they developed superb survival equipment speed and vision. When threatened, pronghorn, which have been clocked in bursts of 60 mph, do not run for cover, but for wide open spaces. Prior to the westward expansion an estimated 40 million pronghorn inhabited the grassland, deserts and sagebrush flats of western North America from Canadas prairies to northern Mexico. By the early 20th century, their numbers had been reduced to fewer than 20,000. Bucks weigh up to 150 pounds, does around 90. From ground to shoulder they stand about 36 inches high. Pronghorn have large eyes that protrude from the skull, giving them a field of view of more than 300 degrees. Before the mid-19th century, pronghorn roamed the hills and flatlands of the San Fernando, San Gabriel, Antelope, Perris and Moreno valleys and the Baldwin Hills. In his book "Here Roamed the Antelope," Glenn A. Settle quoted Antelope Valley pioneer John D. Covington (1867-1949): "When I was a boy, 30 cowboys and myself made a count one day and counted, as nearly as we could, 7,000 antelope." Desert dandelions and desert pincushions carpet an area frequented by pronghorn antelope near the Mojave Desert town of Beatty, Nev. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) In a 1906 book, "California's Mammals," Frank Stephens wrote: "In 1877 I saw two dozen antelope near Perris. In 1878 I saw one near Riverside. Today [1906], there are very few in southeastern California." Now, pronghorn have joined a small but growing list of animals reclaiming ancient haunts without the help of costly, and often controversial, state and federal reintroduction projects. Among them are wolves in Northern California forests and Pacific fishers, red foxes and wolverines clinging to survival in the cold, steep slopes of the Sierra Nevada range. Peering through binoculars at the doe nibbling wildflowers near where her kid was hiding, motionless, in grass and desert shrub from predators, Cunningham mused to no one in particular, Wouldnt it be great to see baby pronghorn taking their first steps in Death Valley? President Vladimir Putin told Russians they are "invincible" when they stand together as the country on Saturday marked the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in lockdown from the coronavirus. With cases surging and authorities urging Russians to stay in their homes, celebrations of this year's Victory Day were muted after the Kremlin grudgingly postponed plans for a grand parade with world leaders. Instead of columns of military hardware and thousands of troops marching through Red Square as planned, Putin walked alone to lay flowers at the Eternal Flame outside the red brick walls of the Kremlin. In a solemn televised speech, he made no mention of the virus, despite Russia having the fifth-highest number of confirmed infections in the world. Putin instead highlighted the sacrifices made by the Soviet Union in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War and hinted at the threat now facing the country. "Our veterans fought for life, against death. And we will always be equal to their unity and endurance," Putin said. "We know and firmly believe that we are invincible when we stand together." An honour guard marched past Putin after his speech, as Russian television showed images of Red Square empty under cloudy skies. Military helicopters, bombers and fighter jets flew over the city, releasing smoke in the red, white and blue of the Russian flag. State television counted down a minute of silence later in the evening, to commemorate the millions who perished in the war. - Surge in virus cases - The pandemic hit Russia later than western Europe but the country has seen a major increase in cases, with more than 10,000 new infections registered every day this week. On Saturday officials said the number of confirmed infections had risen by another 10,817 to reach a total of 198,676, putting Russia behind only the United States, Spain, Italy and Britain in total cases. Russia says the increase is due in part to a huge testing campaign, with more than 5.2 million tests carried out so far. The country's reported mortality rate is much lower than in many countries, with 1,827 dead from the coronavirus as of Saturday. Critics have cast doubt on the numbers and accused authorities of under-reporting deaths. The pandemic has been a major blow to Putin's political plans for this spring. The postponed Victory Day parade, which was due to be attended by world leaders including China's Xi Jinping and Emmanuel Macron of France, had been meant as a showcase of Russia's increased global prestige under Putin. He was also forced to postpone a vote last month on constitutional reforms that would have paved his way, after being in power for more than 20 years, to potentially stay in the Kremlin until 2036. - Political trouble for Putin - Officials are hoping both events can still be held in 2020 and Putin said Saturday that Victory Day celebrations would take place this year "properly and on a grand scale." But no dates have been set and much will depend on when the outbreak comes under control. As with others around the world, Russians are deeply worried about the long-term economic impact of the pandemic and polls show many are increasingly frustrated with the government's handling of the crisis. One survey by independent pollster Levada this week showed Putin's approval rating falling to a historic low of 59 percent in April. Authorities across the vast country have ordered a range of quarantine measures with Moscow, the epicentre of the epidemic, in a strict lockdown until the end of May. Several Communist politicians were detained in central Moscow while trying to stage a small rally by unfurling red Soviet flags and playing the accordion. They were released after several hours. The capital's streets were largely empty on Saturday, although a few residents wandered out under the grey skies and drizzle. Pensioner Vladimir Trofimov told AFP it was important to mark the anniversary despite the pandemic. "This holiday is not only about the parade on Red Square," he said. "It's about victory, every person feels victory in their own heart." While most other ex-Soviet countries also remain under lockdown, Belarus went ahead with its traditional military display. President Alexander Lukashenko has dismissed the dangers of the coronavirus and some 4,000 troops paraded in Minsk before crowds of spectators, many not wearing face masks. Despite a plea from the World Health Organization, Lukashenko said Belarus had no choice but to hold the parade as "the eyes of those Soviet soldiers who perished for our freedom are watching." New Delhi, May 10 : Light rainfall and dust storm in the national capital and neighbouring regions brought a much-needed relief from the sweltering heat, with weather predictions emphasizing that this condition is likely to stay for a few more days and will delay the onset of the heat wave. Kuldeep Srivastava, Head of IMD's North-West Meteorological Centre said, "The activity is due to western disturbance. It has resulted in dust storms, thunderstorms and light rainfall. The wind speed is currently 60 km per hour." This weather condition will persist for one or two hours and then move towards west and east Uttar Pradesh. "Temperature will drop and will be around 35 degrees celsius." Mahesh Palawat, Vice president Meteorology and climate Change at Skymet Weather also echoed similar predictions. He said that there is a western disturbance and cyclone circulation over Punjab and Haryana, that is why it rained heavily in Punjab, north-Haryana and north west Uttar Pradesh -- Meerut, Saharanpur and Moradabad. Palawat, however, emphasized that the weather condition will persist till May 14. "Till then, there will be short spells and some activity. Due to this condition, temperature may drop by 2-3 degrees. It will be around 38-39 degrees. Heat wave will not come before May 15," he added. Besides this, Delhi's Air Quality Index is in the moderate category and due to isolated rainfall and gusty winds, it will improve during the day. According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research, air quality stood in the moderate range at 104 micrograms per cubic. F riends, family members and couples who have been separated for almost eight weeks will be able to meet up in parks under England's new lockdown rules. As long as a two-metre distance is maintained, and people "stay alert," they will be allowed to sunbathe or chat with one other person from a different household, a Government official has confirmed. It means loved-ones who have been forced apart for almost two months will be able to reunite in person, provided they respect social distancing rules. The easing of restrictions, which will come into force on Wednesday, initially sparked some confusion as Boris Johnson indicated in his national address on Sunday evening that sunbathing could still only be done with members of the same household. He said: You can sit in the sun in your local park, you can drive to other destinations, you can even play sports, but only with members of your own household. But a Government official later confirmed that as long as they stay two metres apart, people will be allowed to relax and chat with another person from another household. Mr Johnson had previously warned people that if friends outside of a household asked to meet up, they should refuse. Addressing the British public at the start of the lockdown on March 23, Mr Johnson said: You should not be meeting friends. If your friends ask you to meet, you should say no. You should not be meeting family members who do not live in your home. One month since UK lockdown - In pictures 1 /14 One month since UK lockdown - In pictures The M5 motorway, looking south towards Devon PA A nearly-deserted Reuters Square in Canary Wharf PA A popular riverside walk alongside the Thames near London's Tower Bridge is almost empty PA The concourse of London's Waterloo station is almost devoid of travellers PA Empty streets and pavements surround Little Ben, a cast iron miniature clock tower, situated at the intersection of Vauxhall Bridge Road and Victoria Street PA Horse Guards Parade in London is empty as tourists stay away PA Liverpool waterfront is practically deserted PA Empty streets in Newcastle upon Tyne PA An empty shopping arcade at Windsor Station PA King's Parade, with King's College (left) and the Senate House (distance) in Cambridge PA A view of a near-deserted Waterlooville town centre in Hampshire PA The day after the strict measures were introduced, the PMs spokesman insisted the rules are clear when asked about couples who did not live together. He said: When you are out of the house, you should only do so with members of your own household or if it is for work reasons. Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast The PMs spokesman said at the time that exemptions to the rules on being outside the home applied in two scenarios key workers taking their children to school and children living with two separated parents. Love Island may have been cancelled for the summer but bosses are already thinking of reviving the show for the autumn and could be going to the Canary Islands. The summer series was scrapped in the wake of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic but a delayed series could reportedly be filmed later this year. A source told The Sun on Sunday: 'The location is up in the air, as Majorca would maybe be a bit chilly by September/October, but the Canary Islands could be possible. Revival: Love Island may have been cancelled for the summer but bosses are already thinking of reviving the show for the autumn (host Laura Whitmore pictured) 'Casting was well under way for the summer season and producers don't want to lose some of the gems they had hand-picked. 'The winter series lacked a few standout characters, so they had been careful to find reality TV wannabes with looks as well as brains and personality.' MailOnline has contacted representatives for Love Island for comment. ITV bosses pulled the plug on the summer series, revealing it was a logistical impossibility to safeguard 'the wellbeing of everyone involved' amid the pandemic. Delay: The summer series was scrapped in the wake of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic but a delayed series could be filmed later this year (Paige Turley and Finley Tapp pictured) Fans have been assured the dating programme, which was due to begin filming in June, will be back 'stronger than ever in 2021'. Earlier this month, host Laura Whitmore revealed Love Island received more applications than ever before it was postponed. She 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. A source said: 'The location is up in the air, as Majorca would maybe be a bit chilly by September/October, but the Canary Islands could be possible' 'Great news is that there have been more applications then any other series! Next year is going to be BIG. Stay safe (sic)'. Prior to that, Kevin Lygo, ITV's director of television, explained that the show was cancelled because the broadcaster couldn't guarantee the safety of the contestants. He added: 'In normal circumstances we would be preparing very soon to travel out to the location in Mallorca to get the villa ready but clearly that's now out of the question. The source added: 'The winter series lacked a few standout characters, so they had been careful to find reality TV wannabes with looks as well as brains and personality' 'We are very sorry for fans of the show but making it safely is our prime concern and Love Island will be back stronger than ever in 2021.' The reality show is just one of many programmes that have had to halt production after Britain was plunged into lockdown to combat COVID-19. The most recent series of Love Island aired in January 2020 and was won by Paige Turley and Finley Tapp. The office building of music label T-Series has been sealed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) after one caretaker tested positive for COVID-19. According to T-Series spokesperson, there were caretakers who would work and stay at the office premises in Andheri, which is now sealed to contain the spread of Coronavirus. "Some of them are migrants who couldn't go back. There are rooms, kitchen and all facilities for them at the office building. But one of them got tested positive for COVID-19. "There are two-three people who are also getting tested, but their reports are pending. For safety reasons, the BMC has sealed the office. It was anyway shut for employees since March 15," spokesperson told PTI. On Sunday, death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 2,109 in India, with cases climbing to 62,939. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Shereef Elnahal Public hospitals are poised to be key assets in all states of emergency especially global pandemics. Yours is no exception. New Jersey has only one public health hospital: Newark-based University Hospital. Our EMS team assisted New York City in responding to the September 11th tragedy. Our hospital and trauma center were at the ready for folks impacted by Hurricane Sandy. We became northern New Jerseys Ebola evaluation center, servicing Newark airport. And yet, University Hospital has stepped up to meet this global pandemics impact on our state perhaps like no other crisis. The hospitals chronic financial strains, caused by years of underfunding and infrastructure needs, cannot be addressed as quickly as we would like, and have also contributed to our historical lag in quality scores against hospitals with easier access to capital and staff. All that aside, with this unprecedented-in-our-lifetime pandemic, the value, necessity, and crisis leadership that we have offered from the beginning of this pandemic has made a compelling case for continued, public support for University Hospital. We are also poised to play an invigorating role in the conversation around greater public health protections that is sure to come out of this period. Our hospital averaged more than 200 coronavirus patients daily during the peak in April. And during the height of this crisis, we were within the top 10 New Jersey hospitals for admitted coronavirus patients. Medic Bryan OBannon of the U.S. Army working hands on with patients at the emergency tent at University Hospital in Newark on Monday, April 20 2020. (Edwin J. Torres for Governors Office). The pandemic has hit Newark particularly hard. Population density is high. Economically vulnerable households make staying home from work less practical. More of our service area is essential, front-line workers, making work from home an option for fewer people. Barriers to physical distancing occur on multiple levels due to complex, socio-cultural factors. In addition, the citys population already has a high prevalence of underlying medical conditions that stem from health inequities born out of a legacy of structural racism. This makes outcomes worse for those who contract coronavirus in Newark, and across communities of color. Despite these challenges, University Hospital has risen to serve our public obligation to meet the needs of as many residents in New Jersey as possible. Staff for the North Regional Morgue, operated by the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management, help load the deceased into refrigerated transports. (Edwin J. Torres for Governor's Office/University Hospital). First, we collaborated with the Department of Health, National Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers to set up the Meadowlands Field Medical Station (FMS) in Secaucus, in order to decompress northern New Jerseys hospitals to make room for patients who need intensive critical care. In cooperation with Epic, our electronic medical record provider, our patient registration system has been extended to New Jerseys three FMSs. Keith Peterson, RN, and Kimberly Russo, RN, assistant nurse manager, in the Emergency Department at University Hospital during the COVID-19 outbreak in Newark in April. (Edwin J. Torres for Governor's Office/University Hospital). Second, University Hospital is using its 24/7 Medical Coordination Center (MCC) to coordinate transfers of patients to the Meadowlands FMS from northern New Jersey hospitals. We are also offering crucial intelligence to the state Regional Operations and Intelligence Center (ROIC), the Department of Health (DOH), and Gov. Phil Murphys office, and assisting with the allocation of critical supplies and resources. Third, we are leveraging our status as an academic medical center to research promising therapies and testing platforms. Physician-scientists at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School are the principal investigators in more than five clinical trials testing different therapeutic regimens for coronavirus, including trials involving remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and other novel antiviral therapy trials set to begin in the coming weeks. Savitri Harilall, RN, handles medications for COVID-19 patients in the Emergency Room at University Hospital. (Edwin J. Torres for Governor's Office/ University Hospital). We are also one of only a few hospitals in New Jersey providing a novel therapy that may be the most promising of all options convalescent plasma. Matt Platkin, the chief counsel to Governor Murphy, has been one of the most prominent donors in this program. University Hospital is also undertaking epidemiological investigations that will better equip public health officials, the scientific community, and policymakers to make informed decisions around this virus. This includes studies of asymptomatic health care workers to probe if and how they contracted the virus, with the hope of offering intelligence and statistics to better understand the virus and how it spreads. Kawanna Ouzts, a technician in the Emergency Department at University Hospital in Newark, shows a sense of optimism after a busy week. (Edwin J. Torres for Governor's Office/University Hospital). Fourth, we are assuring access to routine outpatient care during this pandemic through a partnership with Rutgers New Jersey Medical School to offer healthcare visits using telehealth. In addition, we are launching a community engagement strategy to keep residents informed of critical information related to these services and other pertinent resources on general health and wellbeing. Part of University Hospitals role has always been to serve its community and the community we serve is among the most vulnerable in our state. Our patients rely heavily on Charity Care and Medicaid, and this funding may be increasingly threatened during the upcoming economic recovery. We think that would be short-sighted policy, as New Jersey could stand to lose an asset on which it has always depended to shoulder crises and never more so than now. University Hospital has always been there for our state. We are honored to do so, and always will be. Shereef Elnahal, MD, MBA is the president and chief executive officer of University Hospital in Newark. Refrigerated trucks for the North Regional Morgue, operated by the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management, parked near University Hospital. (Edwin J. Torres for Governor's Office/University Hospital). Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. The Star-Ledger/NJ.com encourages submissions of opinion. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Senator Ted Cruz called San Antonio City Council's decision "nuts." Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images San Antonio City Council in Texas has unanimously voted to label terms including "Chinese virus" and "kung-fu virus" as hate speech. It was responding to a growth in racist and antisemitic incidents in the city, triggered by the coronavirus crisis. "Unfortunately, during times of crises, we do see the best of humanity and sometimes we also see the worst," said Mayor Ron Nirenberg. Senator Ted Cruz called the decision "nuts," saying that the city council was "behaving like a lefty college faculty lounge." It comes after Trump faced criticism for his use of the term "Chinese virus" at a White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Related Video: How Viruses Like the Coronavirus Mutate The city of San Antonio in Texas has unanimously passed a resolution condemning the use of terms such as "Chinese virus" and "kung-fu virus" as hate speech. It also encouraged residents to report "any such antisemitic, discriminatory or racist incidents" to the relevant authorities following several incidents in the city since the pandemic began, reports San Antonio's WOAI-TV. The move, which also covers anti-Semitic speech, was criticized by Senator Ted Cruz, who called it "nuts," adding that the city council was "behaving like a lefty college faculty lounge." He tweeted: "This is NUTS. SA City Council behaving like a lefty college faculty lounge, triggered by Chick-fil-A & the words 'Wuhan virus.' "If they want to investigate someone, start with NYT & CNN who both repeatedly (and rightly) referred to it as the Chinese coronavirus.' #NoSpeechPolice." Story continues The hate speech resolution, which was put forward by Mayor Ron Nirenberg, was voted through 11-0 by the San Antonio City Council, to ensure "the safety and well-being of all community members, including the Asian and Jewish communities." "Unfortunately, during times of crises, we do see the best of humanity and sometimes we also see the worst," said Nirenberg. "There has been a rise of hate speech throughout the course of this pandemic." Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales also highlighted how a Chinese restaurant that had been operating in the city for nearly 90 years had become a target of hatred, the Independent reports. "They have been the victims of hate speech and hate crimes, with vandalism and that sort of thing on their property," she said. Trump recently faced criticism after he doubled down on his use of the term "Chinese virus" at a White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing in March, saying "it's not racist at all." Responding to a reporter who questioned his continued use of the phrase, he said: "Because it comes from China. It's not racist at all. No, not at all. It comes from China. That's why. It comes from China." The World Health Organization has urged people not to use other terms such as "Chinese virus" or "Asian virus," noting that "the official name for the disease was deliberately chosen to avoid stigmatization." Read the original article on Business Insider Some will find this patriotic, others xenophobic. But I think the larger difficulty with Morrisons narrow interest in our stories is that it mistakes what a story is. A story is never one story. It is tangled with thousands of other stories. To say that you are only interested in a particular subset of stories is to believe your world can be walled off from the worlds that other people inhabit. It is to opt for simplicity over complexity. This helped make sense of something that has always left me uneasy. Eight years ago, Scott Morrison was asked what novels he liked. He named two Australian books, then said, "I don't read international fiction. I just don't relate to it. I'm interested in our stories." Luckily the show was brilliant and addictive. Its attentions were spread generously: its subjects were refugees, blue-collar workers, small towns, low wages, power, faith and family. One of the striking things about the show was the way these stories were tangled together. Understanding only one of the stories, you discovered as you watched, was as good as understanding nothing at all. A few weeks ago, I watched the new ABC drama Stateless, about people in an immigration detention centre. To be honest, I might not have watched it if a couple of friends hadnt been involved in making the show. We were mid-pandemic, and I wasnt sure a drama about one crisis was the thing to watch during another. Loading Morrisons predilection for simple stories was on display on Friday. Asked what might happen if the virus exploded, whether shutdowns might return, he could barely bring himself to countenance the possibility even though everyone knows it exists. Instead, he kept telling the same story he has been telling since the virus reached our shores progress, onwards, forwards not backwards. Any interruption to the narrative is not permitted. When the government finally got around to releasing its first set of modelling, a few weeks ago, rather than telling us about the future, much of it simply backed in the Prime Ministers story about what had already happened. It told a familiar story of adversity overcome. Stubborn optimism is not a sin limited to the right. Many people on the left hoped, perhaps even allowed themselves to believe, that after this crisis the world would change dramatically. This was an easy story to tell early on respite was needed from gloom, the future seemed a long way off. But now were there. And what are the early signs? First, that the coming contest will be fierce. The president of the Business Council of Australia last week called this a once in a generation opportunity to recraft the kind of society we want to be. The council is not the force it was, but such words should still terrify the left. This is an organisation that always returns to the tired solutions of cutting taxes for corporations and weakening protections for workers. And these, of course, belong to a simple story too: that if the rich get richer their money will trickle down to workers. Second, that things could well get worse, not better. In my last column I noted Tony Abbotts prediction that patriotism will be in and globalism out. Last week, Labors Kristina Keneally decided to fulfil the prophecy, raising the prospect of cutting migration in order to put Australian workers first. Sure, there is a legitimate and complex debate to be had about how our migration system works. But Keneally is sharp, and knew what she was doing. One common feature of simple stories is the presence of simple villains, like migrants out to take Australian jobs. Labor might not be aiming to win the race to the bottom on xenophobia, but it wants to make sure it puts in a decent showing. Beijing is trying to calm rising nationalist sentiment after a growing chorus of voices called for China to take advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic by invading Taiwan. A number of commentators on social media have called for the island to be reunified by force something Beijing has never ruled out but some analysts say the authorities want to play a longer game and are now trying to cool the nationalist fever. An article published earlier in the month in the magazine of the Central Party School, which trains senior officials, drew historical parallels with the Qing dynastys conquest of the island in the 17th century to highlight the importance of patience and careful planning. The Qing, who came from Manchuria, seized power in Beijing and northern China in 1644 and gradually consolidated their control over the Chinese mainland in the following decades. But the last remnants of the defeated Ming dynasty fled to Taiwan in 1662 and expelled the Dutch colonists. An 18th century map of Taiwan drawn up following its conquest by the Qing dynasty. Photo: Handout The 5,000-word article in Study Times, written by historian Deng Tao, said the Qing had spent the next 20 years preparing for the invasion and conquest of the island and argued that they had also used political, diplomatic and economic measures to achieve their goal rather than just relying on force. Deng said the Qing had managed to isolate the islands rulers diplomatically and sent representatives to the island to court support among its Han Chinese residents by offering them incentives to return to the mainland and escape the heavy taxes imposed by their rulers. In the meantime, the Kangxi emperor had been building up and training an invasion fleet that successfully took the island in 1683 and incorporated it into the Qing empire. Recently a number of commentators and retired military commanders have called for Beijing to retake control of the island, where the defeated Nationalist forces fled in 1949 following their defeat in the civil war. Story continues Some former military leaders have argued that the United States which is bound by law to help the Taiwanese government defend itself is presently unable to do so because all four of its aircraft carriers in the Pacific have been affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. Some legal commentators, including Tian Feilong, an associate professor at Beihang University, in Beijing, have called on the government to consider the use of force and argued that an anti-secession law ratified in 2005 gave it the legal authority to do so. Tian argued in an article published on the news website Guancha.cn that political and social developments on the island meant it was impossible to resolve the situation peacefully and said anti-government protests in Hong Kong showed that the one country, two systems model which Beijing hoped to use as the basis for reunification with Taiwan had failed. One commentator argued that the anti-government protests in Hong Kong showed peaceful unification under one country, two systems was impossible. Photo: Warton Li Official communications between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have been frozen since 2016, when Tsai Ing-wen, from the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, was elected as Taiwanese president and rejected the one-China model as the basis for relations. But in a separate article published on the social media platform WeChat, Qiao Liang, a retired air force major general who is seen as a hawkish voice on the mainland, argued that now was not the right time to take Taiwan by force. He warned it would be too costly and risky and said China should wait until it had the economic and military strength to challenge the US. A Beijing-based military source said the mainland authorities still hoped the situation could be resolved peacefully and the majority of Taiwanese still wanted to maintain the status quo. Maintaining the stability and prosperity of Taiwan before and after its unification is still the top priority for the mainland, the source said. Lee Chih-horng, who lectures in cross-strait relations at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said the articles by Deng and Qian indicated that the government wanted to stick to its own timetable for Taiwan unification. Cross-strait relations have deteriorated since Tsai Ing-wens election as Taiwanese president. Photo: AFP The Beijing leadership has now realised that they need to cool down the nationalist fever as calls to take Taiwan by force have become too emotional, with many on mainland social media stirring up the topic for attention, Lee said. As Qiao said, Beijing realises now is not a good time to take Taiwan back by force, but [President] Xi [Jinping] will come out up with the ultimate solution to solve the Taiwan issue. Two years ago Fang Bing, a professor at the Peoples Liberation Armys National Defence University, told state broadcaster China Central Television that Beijings timetable for unification with Taiwan would neither be slowed down when the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang comes to power, nor stepped up when the DPP becomes the ruling party. Sign up now and get a 10% discount (original price US$400) off the China AI Report 2020 by SCMP Research. Learn about the AI ambitions of Alibaba, Baidu & JD.com through our in-depth case studies, and explore new applications of AI across industries. The report also includes exclusive access to webinars to interact with C-level executives from leading China AI companies (via live Q&A sessions). Offer valid until 31 May 2020. More from South China Morning Post: This article China tries to calm nationalist fever as calls for invasion of Taiwan grow first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2020. North Korea is forming another elite tech unit, this one for the SMC (Strategic Military Command), the unit that will control long-range ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. The new SMC recruits were taken from recent graduates of one of the armys two year technical schools. In North Korea, young men are conscripted to serve up to ten years in the military. Given those long terms of service, the military can justify long training courses to provide an adequate supply of technical specialists. The troops recently moved to the SMC had received training in computer programming, communications and related technical subjects. So, rather than being assigned to headquarters and tech units throughout the army, they will be in the SMC. This is disappointing for some of these troops, who hoped to eventually qualify for further tech training courses. On the plus side, the SMC is one of supreme leader Kim Jong Uns pet projects. It is no secret that Kim believes SMC, armed with reliable ICBMs and nuclear warheads, is the key to the survival of his North Korean dictatorship. The new recruits could tell that they were selected for a special unit because the screening process excluded any troops who had a family member in a labor camp (for any reason) or was missing (likely fled the country). Those who made it past the screening were given a promotion (from private E-2 to Lance Corporal E-3). Other benefits will include more food and better accommodations. That means electricity most of the time and adequate heat during the long cold weather season. SMC troops will not have to tend farms and livestock as most troops do. While they would have been spared much of that by being assigned to a headquarters or support unit, unless it was a very senior headquarters (corps and above), even tech troops are liable for occasional non-military agricultural or construction duty. This SMC recruiting effort was unexpected and somewhat improvised. This indicates another impromptu Kim Jong Un decision, something he is noted for. There has been no official announcement about the SMC personnel effort. It was discovered via the chatter that regularly gets out of North Korea because of the continued presence of Chinese cell phones and internal Internet. The average North Korean does not consider all information about the military top secret as most families have at least one member in uniform. Then there is information like this that the government does want to be known to the outside world. The North Korean ICBM and nuclear weapons programs have always been long on bluster and short on performance. At the moment North Korea has some long-range ballistic missiles that could, if they were reliable enough, be considered ICBMs. But tests of these missiles, which cannot be hidden, have mostly been disappointing. Same with nuclear weapons development. The weapons developed so far generate a large explosion but apparently not a reliable one nor a weapon designed to survive the rigors of an ICBM launch. Troops know that being in the SMC early on is beneficial for them. Some have heard about the American equivalent, called missileers and featured in numerous unclassified videos, some of which have made their way to North Korea. Being a North Korean missileer wont mean much unless North Korea gets its ICBMs and nuclear warheads working reliably. The SMC and its weapons have the highest priority in the military. But that can change in an instant if the government changes its mind, for any number of reasons, including leader Kim dying or being removed from power. The SMC gets a disproportionate share of the military budget which, in turn gets over 20 percent of GDP. About five percent of the adult population is in the military or some other uniformed service. All these generate a pervasive of dread and uncertainty about what comes next, even among the new North Korean missileers. This is a graphic opinion dream sequence triptych. I had a dream. Or maybe it was a text from a friend. But it went something like this: "A single nurse beside the bed of a dying COVID patient. The nurses have become angels of mercy. Family members do not get to come in. Doctors are too busy. "A strange nurse becomes ones soulmate to leave for the other side. "Soulmate" - inspired by Max Cassady Crossing Guard 22 year-old RNs right out of school. Because their survival rate is much greater to exposure than more experienced nurses. COVID RNs are going to be our next PTSD Vietnam veterans." Thanks to my friend Max Cassady for inspiring this graphic dream sequence. Truth is, we know a few of these young health care workers who have been thrown into the fire of this coronavirus pandemic. One of our family friends is a 24-year-old travel nurse who just took a job at one of the most over-whelmed hospitals in New York City. Nurses rock. You signed on for this, but you didnt sign on for THIS. A tribute to the coronavirus heroes serving on the front lines Death is our greeter: Doctors, nurses struggle with mental health as coronavirus cases grow Thanks for your service, one and all. Coronavirus in Alabama: Full coverage Check out more cartoons and stuff by JD Crowe With Lincoln in backdrop, Trump complains about being a victim Alabama mayor caught in the jaws of coronavirus hot spot wants to reopen Alabama physician exorcises his coronavirus demons through art Chill, Eagles fans. Youll be crazy about Jalen Hurts Miami Dolphins are thankin for Tua Coronavirus: Do snake handling churches disinfect their snakes? Easter 2020: Empty tomb. Empty church. Full heart Fearless Fauci is more loyal to truth than to Trump Pandemic politics: We dare you to vote Trump: Im a cheerleader for the country When The Golden Girls debuted in 1985, the hit sitcom, which followed four mature women living their very best lives in Miami, Florida became an instant sensation. Though the show ended nearly 30 years ago, its cult following has remained with a new generation of fans becoming obsessed with the series. The series followed, Dorthy, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia, portrayed by Beatrice Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty respectively. The actresses had found success previously only for it to skyrocket again with the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning series. When Queen Elizabeth IIs mother, The Queen Mother first watched the series, she was instantly enamored and so were other members of the British royal family. The British royal family was obsessed with The Golden Girls In her 2010 memoir, Here We Go Again: My Life in Television, Betty White recalled the British royal familys obsession with The Golden Girls. In 1988, The Queen Mother requested a performance from the actresses as a part of the Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium and they were happy to oblige her. The ladies did not want to offend the then 88-year-old Queen Mom with some of The Golden Girls raunchiest material so they tamed their 7-minute bit. The Queen Mother was reportedly delighted. White remembered the Queen Mom laughing until the paramedics came. Apparently, Princess Diana was also a huge fan of the sitcom. Diana, Princess of Wales, during her official visit to Hong Kong on November 7, 1989 in Hong Kong | Georges De Keerle/Getty Images Princess Diana loved to impersonate people and tell jokes Though she struggled within the stringent confines of the British royal family, Princess Diana never lost her iconic wit or her hilarious sense of humor. She had a great sense of humor and was very good at remembering jokes, royal photographer Jayne Fincher told Daily Mail. She always had a joke up her sleeve and she used to tell quite a few dirty ones. She had a really funny laugh too, it came right from her stomach. Once she saw something funny she was off that was quite incredible at the time, because royals did not do that. In fact, the princess hidden secret talent was that she could to dead-on impersonations of people. Apparently, Diana is a terrific mimic, not unlike the late Jacqueline [Kennedy] Onassis, reporter Cathy Horyn wrote in Vanity Fair in 1997. [Marguerite]Littman says shes been told by friends that Diana does a dead-on imitation of her Louisiana drawl, which is as slow as Karo syrup. I tried to get her to do it for me, but she wouldnt. Diana, Princess of Wales, wears an outfit in the colors of Canada during a state visit to Edmonton, Alberta, with her husband. | Getty Images. Princess Diana and Freddie Mercury used to make Golden Girls scenes super dirty Though she never requested a personal performance, Princess Diana was as obsessed with The Golden Girls as the Queen Mother. In fact, she used to watch episodes of the show with her good friend, Queen legend, Freddie Mercury. In 2013 British actress Cleo Rocos revealed that the princess once spent the day with herself and Mercury watching the show. The group spent the afternoon drinking champagne in front of reruns of The Golden Girls with the sound turned down and improvising show dialogue with a much naughtier storyline, she told Vanity Fair. After asking about the groups plans that night, Diana, in full mischief mode, insisted on joining. New Delhi: Heavy security forces were deployed and one house was surrounded in Shadnagar on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Monday morning. A suspected Maoist was shot dead in the operation carried out by the Telangana Police. MoS Home Kiren Rijiju said: "It's a serious matter that our security forces are engaging with the militants." "We should not speak anything, or speculate when an incident is going on," said on Hyderabad encounter. More details awaited For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Syracuse, N.Y. Two people were shot early this morning at the Regional Transportation Center, and Onondaga County deputies have one person in custody, according to the sheriffs office. The two people shot have non-life-threatening injuries, according to sheriffs spokesman Sgt. Jon Seeber. Deputies responded to the train and bus station at 1 Walsh Circle at about 2:07 a.m. to a reported shooting with multiple injuries. As officers arrived, they encountered a man who was armed with a handgun in the lobby, according to a news release from Sheriff Gene Conway. A deputy fired a service weapon once, and no person was hit, Seeber confirmed. The suspect was taken into custody with no injuries, Seeber said. As of about 6 a.m. today, no charges had been filed. One person shot suffered a wound in the abdomen. The other suffered a shot in the leg, according to deputies. Both were taken to Upstate University Hospital. No deputies were injured, Seeber said. The investigation is ongoing. The William F. Walsh Transportation Center is near the Central New York Regional Market. The transportation center is operated by Centro. Amtrak, Greyhound, Megabus and Trailways operate out of the center. Got a story idea or news tip youd like to share? Please contact me through email, Twitter, Facebook or at 315-470-2274. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 8 By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend: It is necessary to tighten the penalties for violating the rules of the quarantine regime in Azerbaijan, Musa Guliyev, chairman of the Committee on Labor and Social Policy of the Azerbaijani parliament, said. Guliyev made such a proposal at a parliamentary meeting, Trend reports on May 8. The chairman stressed that in this regard, the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offenses could be amended after the consultations with the Operational Headquarters. Guliyev added that the non-compliance with the rules of the quarantine regime may lead to the second wave of coronavirus infection. "Therefore, everyone must be aware of the responsibility, the chairman said. While speaking at the opening ceremony of a modular hospital complex on May 7, the Azerbaijani president touched upon this issue, urging everyone to comply with the rules of the quarantine regime." Speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament Sahiba Gafarova stressed that while meeting with voters, the MPs must remind of the importance of observing the rules of the quarantine regime. Coronation Street has joined forces with the mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence to work on a storyline about racism. Doreen Lawrence was consulted by the soap's writers about the plans, which will explore prejudice faced by the Bailey family. The ITV soap will tell the story of the generational divide about attitudes towards racism in the family and will show how Ed Bailey shrugs off a racist incident, which shocks his sons Michael and James. Baroness Doreen Lawrence (centre) meets with actors Trevor Michale Georges, Lorna Laidlaw, Ryan Russell and Nathan Graham on the set of Coronation Street earlier this year to watch filming of a special episode created with the help of the Stephen Lawrence Foundation The storyline will also explore how the prejudice makes Ed re-evaluate his attitudes towards James being gay. Stephen Lawrence, 18, was stabbed to death in Eltham, southeast London, on April 22, 1993 Coronation Street producer Ian MacLeod said that it felt like a 'really interesting story' to explore the 'generational gap' in the family's attitude towards racism. He added: 'The younger contingent think you should deal with it head on, and zero tolerance, where Ed and Aggie have a slightly more 'keep your head held high and ignore it because you will never change these idiots' minds' view.' The story was originally intended to be broadcast on Stephen Lawrence Day on April 22. Mr MacLeod said this meant they 'consulted quite heavily with Baroness Lawrence and made sure she was happy with it'. The broadcast was delayed because of changes made to the TV schedules because of coronavirus, but the storyline will begin next Monday on ITV. Baroness Doreen Lawrence (pictured). Coronation Street has joined forces with the mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence to work on a storyline about racism Baroness Lawrence, 67, has campaigned tirelessly over her 18-year-old son's murder since he was stabbed to death by white thugs at a bus stop in Eltham, south-east London, in April 1993. Two of the student's killers were jailed in 2012, but three others have dodged justice over the murder. Last month, Labour announced that Baroness Lawrence will lead a review by the party into why coronavirus has disproportionately affected Britain's black, Asian and minority ethnic populations. For almost 44 years, the Saddle Rack club offered Bay Area residents all the trappings of a rural honky-tonk: line dancing, Tex Mex food, a mechanical bull. Now the Fremont venue is closing permanently, the latest casualty of COVID-19 and a stinging economic shutdown. In a note posted on their website, managers of the Saddle Rack said theyd considered various ways to contort the business so that it fit in a new era of social distancing. After weeks of painful discussion, they decided it could not be done. Even when the coronavirus goes away, how are you going to tell people they have to stand 6 feet apart on a dance floor or in a close bar? asked Andy Buchanan, one of the original club owners, who retired in 2017. His concerns reflect a much larger quandary for the nightclub world, which for generations has been defined by close contact with people packed tightly in a bar, or in a booth, or beneath a disco ball. Buchanan has many fond memories of the club, which he helped build at its original location in San Jose. The first building was a smorgasbord with an attached bar, and the owners kept tearing out walls until they had a 26,000-square-foot space that could be either a nightclub or a barn. Over the years, the club featured live performances by the royalty of country music as well as rock acts. Merle Haggard, Alan Jackson and Blue Oyster Cult all played at the Saddle Rack. Famous acts including Brooks & Dunn dropped by for after-parties after headlining at the Fillmore, Buchanan said. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. They moved to Fremont in 2003, and the business continued to thrive, drawing up to 1,800 people a night. The club offered two-step and line-dance lessons, and live bands performed on Saturdays. Owner Gary Robinson wasnt immediately available to talk over the weekend. He and his employees expressed overwhelming sadness in their farewell note. Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan WASHINGTON - Republicans are increasingly nervous they could lose control of the Senate this fall as a potent combination of a cratering economy, President Donald Trump's controversial handling of the pandemic and rising enthusiasm among Democratic voters dims their electoral prospects. In recent weeks, GOP senators have been forced into a difficult political dance as polling shifts in favor of Democrats: Tout their own response to the coronavirus outbreak without overtly distancing themselves from a president whose management of the crisis is under intense scrutiny but who still holds significant sway with Republican voters. "It is a bleak picture right now all across the map, to be honest with you," said one Republican strategist closely involved in Senate races who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss concerns within the party. "This whole conversation is a referendum on Trump, and that is a bad place for Republicans to be. But it's also not a forever place." Republicans have privately become alarmed at the situation in key races where they are counting on GOP incumbents such as Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Thom Tillis of North Carolina to hold the line. Multiple strategists said they believe GOP candidates will recover once the nation - and the presidential campaign - returns to a more normal footing, casting the November elections as a contest between Trump and presumed Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Democratic Senate candidates in the most closely watched races also could be benefiting from a lack of scrutiny and negative ads with the nation's attention consumed by the pandemic. But a return to normalcy ahead of the elections is far from a given as the death toll continues to rise and economic data paints a grim picture, meaning the president's handling of the pandemic could be the determining factor not only for his reelection but for Republicans' ability to hold onto the Senate. In short, as goes Trump, so likely goes the Senate majority. The emerging consensus of several Republican strategists is that GOP incumbents should be able to hang on in states Trump won in 2016 if the president can hang onto those states himself. That list includes North Carolina, Arizona and Iowa, which Democrats are heavily targeting this cycle. The flip side for Republicans is that states Trump lost in 2016 - such as Colorado and Maine - could be out of reach. Many GOP strategists have already written off Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., barring a major shift, and some have doubts that Collins will be able to continue her trend of faring far better in elections than Republican presidential candidates she has shared the ballot with. Republicans currently hold a 53-to-47 seat advantage in the Senate. "The political environment is not as favorable as it was a few months ago," said another Republican, one of a half dozen officials working on Senate races who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly assess the party's outlook. Of the 35 Senate seats up for grabs this fall, Republicans are defending 23 of them. Strategists from both parties said the key battles for Republicans remain races in North Carolina, Arizona, Colorado, Maine and, to a lesser extent, Iowa. Republicans are banking on picking up at least one seat now held by a Democrat - Alabama, where Sen. Doug Jones won a special election in 2017 against a Republican challenger accused of sexual misconduct in the 1970s - but acknowledge they are playing defense in the vast majority of the marquee races. Potentially competitive races looming in the second tier of Senate campaigns - where Republicans are also on the defensive - could pose an even bigger problem for the GOP if the party is forced to spread resources throughout the country in a difficult political environment. Both Senate seats are on the ballot in Georgia, a state whose changing demographics are trending in favor of Democrats. In Kansas, Republicans fear that flawed GOP candidate Kris Kobach could again emerge victorious from a primary but lose a statewide race, as he did in the 2018 race for governor. And Senate Democrats' ability to get popular Montana Gov. Steve Bullock to run against Republican Sen. Steve Daines revived a once-dead race into a closely-watched contest, particularly as Bullock benefits from the wave of political goodwill voters have afforded to state executives during the pandemic. "It's a good time to be a governor," said Sen. Todd Youn, R-Ind., who heads Senate Republican's campaign committee, though he vowed Daines would win in November. A third GOP strategist acknowledged that Colorado, Arizona, Maine and North Carolina had become "incredibly competitive" but said there was little sense yet that Democrats would be able to seriously compete in the next tranche of states that Trump won handily in 2016. Still, Democrats have benefited from two key developments, said Jessica Taylor, Senate editor for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report: The emergence of Biden, not Bernie Sanders, as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and emerging evidence that the public does not believe Trump is managing the pandemic effectively. "We see this as at least a 50-50 chance for the majority to flip," Taylor said. The first quarter of 2020 was also a boon in fundraising for Democrats, with 10 challengers outraising GOP opponents in seats currently held by Republicans: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, North Carolina and South Carolina. The only closely watched race where the Republican incumbent raised more cash than the Democrat was Sen. Joni Ernst in Iowa. Republicans warned there are clear obstacles - none moreso than strong Democratic fundraising, and the fear that small-dollar Democratic donors will be more resilient in the economic downturn than high-dollar GOP donors. Democrats also plan to attack GOP senators for their opposition to the increasingly popular Affordable Care Act, with 2020 marking the first Senate elections where Democrats can target a large swath of Republicans for votes early in the Trump presidency to repeal the health law. "Democrats have expanded the Senate map and put Mitch McConnell's majority at risk with impressive challengers, record-breaking grass roots fundraising, and a focus on the issues that matter most to voters like defending coverage protections for pre-existing conditions," said Stewart Boss, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Republican senators are trying to assert the powers of incumbency - contending they are doing their jobs effectively for constituents during the pandemic - as they run public-service-announcement style campaigns. During private calls with donors, through news coverage and in ads, Senate Republicans are touting the $2 trillion economic rescue package, known as the Cares Act, passed by Congress. It includes a popular small business lending program that has become a centerpiece of Republican efforts to show how they have responded to the virus outbreak and its devastating impact on the economy. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who is up for re-election in November, last week launched a statewide ad campaign that featured constituents who benefited from the Cares Act. One Nation, an affiliated nonprofit linked to the main super PAC dedicated to electing Republicans to the Senate, also ran ads last week showcasing Collins' efforts to secure personal protective equipment for her state. Gardner, who leads a Senate panel overseeing east Asia policy, highlighted that he secured 100,000 masks for Colorado from Taiwan. "I think the one issue in this campaign - this particular election - is going to be how did we respond to this crisis? I think all other considerations are going to be secondary," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who twice ran the Senate GOP's campaign arm and is on the ballot this fall. "If you're an incumbent, you can demonstrate how you would react to the crisis by actually doing it." Non-officeholders in campaigns this year - including Biden - have struggled to break through the pandemic-saturated news cycle. Yet GOP officials acknowledge it's difficult - if not nearly impossible - for senators to separate themselves from the president, noting the damage done to Republicans Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Joseph Heck of Nevada when they tried to distance themselves from an embattled Trump during the 2016 campaign. "It's not always ideal for him to be like, lavishing praise on you," said a fourth Republican strategist familiar with Senate races. "So it's a really tough dynamic." In private, senior GOP officials have also expressed concern that senators weren't getting credit for the popular federal aid that has been doled out nationwide during the pandemic, as voters have tended to direct praise instead to their own governors. National Republican Senatorial Committee executive director Kevin McLaughlin stressed to donors on a recent conference call that GOP senators had to "subtly and respectfully" remind voters of the Senate's accomplishments. "About 90 percent of Americans have favorable view toward the Cares Act, and each of our senators played an important role in getting that passed," Young said. He added: "Then you consider the number of individuals our senators have been able to connect with virtually over this time, at a time when they most want to hear from and or see their United States senator, you know, this could be quite beneficial toward our incumbents." Already national Republicans have mapped out a strategy to redirect anger about the coronavirus crisis away from the Trump administration and toward the communist regime in China. In a private, 57-page strategy memo distributed to candidates by the NRSC and leaked last month, a Washington-area Republican strategist advised GOP candidates to avoid defending the president and instead pivot to attacking China for the coronavirus. The NRSC said the memo was simply part of a routine distribution of material to candidates. But GOP strategists said efforts to target China will continue throughout the campaign. "I would expect Republican candidates to forcefully define China's role in causing the chaos here that we now have in the United States and also highlight how some Democrats have a little too cozy relationship with China and seem reluctant to criticize the communist government for how they allowed this problem to fester," said a GOP official familiar with party strategy. But Republicans also believe the sinking economy - which on Friday reported a 14.7 percent jobless rate for April - will help determine the fate of incumbent GOP senators come November. Several Senate Republicans have already stressed the need to carefully reopen businesses and other economic activity - warning of the long-term impact to the country if the lockdown continues indefinitely. "Everyone's fortunes are tied to the economy," said a particularly pessimistic Republican official. "It's going to be a tsunami." - - - The Washington Post's Paul Kane, Scott Clement and Erica Werner contributed to this report. Seven killed in Afghanistan's Ghor as protest over food aid distribution turns violent Iran Press TV Saturday, 09 May 2020 4:38 PM Seven people have lost their lives when protesters, angry over alleged unfair distribution of food aid, clashed with police in Afghanistan's western province of Ghor, a report says. At least 14 other people were also injured in the clashes on Saturday, said Gulzaman Nayeb, a lawmaker representing Ghor, adding that the protesting crowd turned angry during bread distribution in the Feroz Koh city, the provincial capital. He said that growing unhappiness at the distribution, which was allegedly favoring people with political connections, sparked the protest amid the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Mohammad Arif Aber, a spokesman for the provincial governor of Ghor, police forces opened fire after some individuals from the around 300 protesters began throwing stones, started firing guns and trying to storm the governor's house. He denied that the aid was being unfairly distributed. The chairman of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), Shaharzad Akbar, said on Twitter that the group was looking into the "worrying reports of police firing on protesters." The government in Kabul has recently started distributing bread to poor families through bakeries on a daily basis throughout the war-ravaged country as the restriction imposed by the pandemic have led to many job losses and rising food prices. Akbar told Reuters that the AIHRC was being inundated with complaints from the public that food aid was being distributed "unfairly." "We hear repeated complaints from people that the ones who are receiving the limited aid that is there are not the ones that are most deserving, they are the ones who have connections to local authorities or local officials," she said, adding it was not possible to verify the extent to which this was happening. Official figures by Afghanistan's Health Ministry shows that as of Saturday, 4,033 people have tested positive for COVID-19 and 115 others have died of the contagious disease. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address A bombshell report claims Chinese President Xi Jinping personally asked World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom to 'delay a global warning' about the threat of COVID-19 during a conversation back in January. Germany's Der Spiegel published the allegations this weekend, citing intelligence from the country's Federal Intelligence Service, known as the 'Bundesnachrichtendienst' (BND). According to the BND: 'On January 21, China's leader Xi Jinping asked WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to hold back information about a human-to-human transmission and to delay a pandemic warning. 'The BND estimates that China's information policy lost four to six weeks to fight the virus worldwide'. The WHO released a statement shortly after the publication of the shock claims, calling them 'unfounded and untrue'. Scroll down for video A bombshell report in Der Spiegel claims Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) personally asked World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom (left) to 'delay a global warning' about the threat of COVID-19 in January. The pair are pictured together in Beijing on January 28 of this year. The WHO has denied the allegation 'Dr Tedros and President Xi did not speak on January 21 and they have never spoken by phone. Such inaccurate reports distract and detract from WHO's and the world's efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic,' the statement read. It continued: 'China confirmed human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus on January 20 [prior to the alleged phone conversation]. 'The WHO publicly declared on January 22 that "data collected suggests that human-to-human transmission is taking place in Wuhan."' If the claims were true, they would bolster President Trump's assertion that the WHO is 'China-centric'. Back in April, the Trump Administration alleged the WHO was becoming a tool of 'Chinese propaganda', and the president moved to halt funding of the organization. Last week, the President launched a fresh attack on the organization during a Fox News virtual town hall meeting. Relations between Washington and the WHO has soured throughout the crisis after Trump consistently accused the body of siding with China, saying it has been hand-in-glove with Xi Jinping in covering up the outbreak. Pictured is a lab in Wuhan that is certified to handle dangerous pathogens Donald Trump doubled down his attacks on the World Health Organisation last Monday. 'The World Health organisation has been a disaster everything they said was wrong and they're China-centric,' he stated at the event, held last Monday 'The World Health organisation has been a disaster everything they said was wrong and they're China-centric,' he stated at the event, held last Monday. 'All they do is agree with China, whatever China wants to do. So our country, perhaps foolishly in retrospect has been paying $450million a year to the World Health Organisation and China's been paying $38million a year but they were more political than all of our leaders previously. 'What they did, what World Health did, was they missed every single call and we're not going to put up with it.' Relations between Washington and the WHO has soured throughout the crisis after Trump consistently accused the body of siding with China, saying it has been hand-in-glove with Xi Jinping in covering up the outbreak. Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has hailed China as an exemplar of how to handle an emergency despite widespread skepticism of the country's official coronavirus death toll. Earlier this week, Trump also said there was enough evidence to prove President Xi Jinping's regime misled the global community. 'Well, I don't think there's any question about it. We wanted to go in, they didn't want us to go in. Things are coming out that are pretty compelling. I don't think there's any question,' the president said Sunday. 'Personally, I think they made a horrible mistake, and they didn't want to admit it,' he added. His comments came as a Department of Homeland Security report shared on Sunday revealed US officials believe China 'intentionally concealed the severity' of the pandemic in early January and hoarded medical supplies. The four-page report dated May 1 that was obtained by the Associated Press notes that China downplayed the virus publicly but increased imports and decreased exports of medical supplies. Why did China build a virus lab in Wuhan? Chinese officials decided to build the Wuhan Institute of Virology after the country was ravaged by an outbreak of SARS in 2002 and 2003. SARS, another kind of coronavirus, killed 775 people and infected more than 8,000 globally in an epidemic that lasted about eight months. It took the Chinese 15 years to fully complete the project, which cost a total of 300million yuan (34million). The French helped design the building. Its crown jewel is a four-storey lab with the highest biosafety level of P4. It's the most advanced laboratory of its type in China. Construction of the lab was finished in 2015 and it officially opened on January 5, 2018, after passing various safety inspections. Describing the significance of the P4 lab, China Youth Online billed it as the 'aircraft carrier of China's virology'. The state-run newspaper said it 'is capable of researching the deadliest pathogens'. One researcher, Zhou Peng, told state news agency Xinhua in 2018: 'We are proud to say that we are already at the forefront in the field of studying the immunity mechanism of bats, which carry viruses for a long time. 'Bats carry viruses but are not infected [by them]. [They] provide hope for mankind to study how to fight viruses.' Advertisement The document accuses China of covering their tracks by 'denying there were export restrictions and obfuscating and delaying provision of its trade data.' It lends weight to a leaked dossier drawn up by the Five Eyes intelligence alliance which describes how Beijing made whistleblowers 'disappear', destroyed early virus samples and scrubbed the internet of any mention of the disease in the early stages. The 15-page document brands Beijing's secrecy over the pandemic an 'assault on international transparency' and points to cover-up tactics deployed by the regime. It claims that the Chinese government silenced its most vocal critics and scrubbed any online scepticism about its handling of the health emergency from the internet. China has roundly come under fire for suppressing the scale of its early outbreak which did not afford other nations time to react before the disease hit their shores. Five Eyes - the pooling of intelligence by the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - laid bare its scathing assessment of the Xi Jinping administration in a memo obtained by the Australian Saturday Telegraph. It describes how Beijing was outwardly downplaying the outbreak on the world stage while secretly scrambling to bury all traces of the disease. More than four million people around the world have contracted the highly contagious virus, and at least 279,000 have died. There are currently at least 1.3 million cases of coronavirus in the U.S. and more than 79,000 deaths. Last month, British MPs warned China had cost lives by spreading disinformation about the coronavirus outbreak. The Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said that as the country where the outbreak originated, China should have played a central role in collecting data on its spread. But it accused Beijing of seeking to 'obfuscate' over what was really happening form the outset. The committee called on the UK Government, working with international allies, to actively 'confront and rebut' disinformation coming from foreign powers. In its report, the cross-party group also named Iran and Russia as being responsible for disseminating false information about the Covid-19 virus and suggested other countries were also involved. Its main criticism, however, was reserved for China. It highlighted the way Li Wenliang, the doctor in Wuhan who first raised the alarm about the new disease, was forced to confess to 'making false comments' before his death from the virus in February. 'Such deliberate misleading of the WHO (World Health Organisation) and scientists in other countries obscured analysis in the critical early stages of the pandemic,' the committee said. 'Disinformation about Covid-19 has already cost lives. It is essential that the Government issues clear and transparent messages at home to confront and rebut disinformation spread by foreign powers. 'It must also work closely with allies to present a united front where possible, and to help ensure that vital international research efforts are not compromised by propaganda and bad data.' Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat said Beijing had initially 'allowed disinformation to spread as quickly as the virus'. He added: 'Rather than helping other countries prepare a swift and strong response, it is increasingly apparent that they manipulated vital information about the virus in order to protect the regime's image. 'The Government needs to tackle these lies with a clear and quick response, working with our allies to show a united front in the face of false facts and deadly disinformation.' Wuhan airport drill for passenger with a new type of coronavirus last SEPTEMBER, French athletes falling sick in the city in OCTOBER and a warning by Bat Woman expert A YEAR ago... so when did Covid first erupt in China? By Ian Birrell for the Mail on Sunday On the afternoon of September 18 last year, the customs office at Wuhan Tianhe airport received an emergency message that a passenger on an incoming flight was unwell and distressed with breathing difficulties. Staff at the glistening modern airport rushed into emergency mode, donning protective masks as managers unleashed their action plans. Soon afterwards, the Wuhan First Aid Centre reported that the transfer case had been clinically diagnosed as a novel type of coronavirus, according to a journalist from a state media agency. This was, the agency reported, a drill to test responses in advance of the World Military Games, which were being held the following month with 10,000 competitors due in the fast-growing city in central China. Officials passed with flying colours. Pictured: Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli, who is world-renowned expert on coronaviruses, inside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan in 2017. Shi Zhengli warned about the danger of eating bats in a paper she published in March last year Yet what a strange coincidence they picked that particular exercise, given what was soon to unfold in Wuhan as birthplace of a global pandemic. As one person later asked on social media: Why did they choose a new coronavirus to drill? Now this question has become all the more pertinent with last weeks revelation that French athletes think they caught Covid-19 while competing in those games. Several fell ill with bad flu-like symptoms during the event, which took place over nine days from October 18. A lot of athletes at the World Military Games were very ill, said Elodie Clouvel, a world champion modern pentathlete. This followed the revelation that a fishmonger treated in a Paris hospital for suspected pneumonia on December 27 had been confirmed as a victim of the new virus. He was baffled since he had not travelled abroad. This is very significant. China notified the disease to the World Health Organisation four days after the Frenchman was in hospital and did not put Wuhan into lockdown for a further 24 days. One study found this virus spreads so fast that if officials had acted three weeks sooner, they would have reduced cases by 95 per cent. Even one week faster could have cut numbers by two-thirds. Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, is a transport hub. Over three crucial months from December, there were 7,530 flights between there and other parts of China, carrying more than one million passengers and ten direct flights to the UK. Yet even in January, Chinese leaders prevented expert outside teams from investigating the virus, silenced doctors trying to warn citizens and refused to admit there was human transmission until January 20. Little wonder that as the world death toll soars, families are devastated and economies shattered, there are growing calls for an international inquiry into the origins of this pandemic, despite the brazen defiance of Beijings Communist Party chiefs. So what do we now know about the origins of the virus outbreak? Certainly as that exercise at the airport proved, these are not unpredictable events. Pictured: a woman being disinfected before going into 14 days of quarantine after she recovered from coronavirus in March The Mail on Sunday can reveal that last year, Shi Zhengli a world-renowned expert on coronaviruses, known as Bat Woman for her cave expeditions to collect samples from the nocturnal mammals warned explicitly about the dangers. In a paper published with three colleagues in March 2019, she admitted it was highly likely there would be a coronavirus outbreak originating from bats and there is an increased probability this will occur in China. Zhengli, who helped prove the link to bats through consumption of civet cats in the 2002 SARS epidemic, said: Chinese food culture maintains that live slaughtered animals are more nutritious, and this belief may enhance viral transmission. It is generally believed bat-borne coronaviruses will re-emerge to cause the next disease outbreak. In this regard, China is a likely hotspot. She was, of course, correct. But Chinas politicians did nothing to close down their hideous markets selling animals grabbed from the wild until on January 1 they suddenly shut the one in Wuhan they blamed for this latest eruption of disease. A stream of expert papers has pinpointed the virus to the market. One typical study by leading Chinese scientists insisted the cluster of mysterious pneumonia-like symptoms began emerging on December 21. All current evidence points to wild animals sold illegally in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, it said. Many experts around the world agree with this analysis. Even last week, a paper in Nature by Chinese scientists pointed to the possibility of pangolin (a scaly mammal) as intermediate host of SARS- CoV-2, which causes the disease. They said, rightly, that failure to control the illegal wildlife trade threatened public health. Yet the market link remains unproven. There are valid questions over whether the coronavirus might have inadvertently leaked from two laboratories in the city one near to the market, the other Chinas first with top-level bio-security status. President Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo, his Secretary of State, said they have seen evidence that the virus came from one of the laboratories. Reports suggest several US intelligence agencies suspect the same but lack a smoking gun. The Mail on Sunday has exposed poor security, including a picture of a sub-standard seal on a refrigerated vault holding lethal viruses, and an admission from the head of Wuhan Institute of Virologys bio-safety team of deficient safety procedures. An academic paper in February by Botao Xiao, a bioscience professor at South China University of Technology, and Lei Xiao, a researcher based in Wuhan, concluded the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan. Pictured: A medical worker in Wuhan checking the drip of a coronavirus patient in ICU in January The document entitled The Possible Origins Of 2019-nCoV Coronavirus was published on a site used by scientists to share research. It called for tighter security in high-risk laboratories but was mysteriously withdrawn after two days. This explosive paper seen by The Mail on Sunday said 605 bats were kept in the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control, which is about 500 yards from the market. It described how bats attacked, bled and urinated on one researcher, forcing him into quarantine on two occasions. It is plausible that the virus leaked, it said. Some in the media have dismissed such suggestions by conflating them with online conspiracy theories about man-made diseases and bio-weapons presumably driven by loathing of Trump rather than sympathy for Chinas totalitarian regime. Yet we need to establish the truth if remotely possible. It would be incredibly useful to know where the new coronavirus came from so we can prevent this happening again, said Devi Sridhar, professor of global public health at Edinburgh University. So how much can we decipher on the details and timing of this outbreak by sifting through academic research papers, media reports and social-media posts? Let us start with a fascinating report in the respected South China Morning Post, based on data said to come from the Beijing government that traced the virus to November 17. It did not rule out the possibility of earlier cases. The report pinpointed a 55-year-old from Hubei as the first known case. Yet the authorities, it said, could not pinpoint who was Patient Zero from the nine initial cases four men and five women, aged between 39 and 79. Pictured: staff line up as they prepare to spray disinfectant at Wuhan Railway Station in March There were then one to five new cases each day and on December 27, a hospital doctor called Zhang Jixian confirmed they were dealing with a new coronavirus. This conflicts with an influential study published in January by Chinese researchers in The Lancet, which claimed the symptom onset date of the first identified patient was December 1. This study also found that 27 out of their sample of 41 patients admitted to hospital in the early stages had been exposed to the market. Wu Wenjuan, one of the authors and a senior doctor at Wuhans Jinyintan Hospital, which specialises in infectious diseases, told the BBC Chinese service that their first patient was an elderly man suffering from dementia. He lived four or five buses from the seafood market and because he was sick, he basically didnt go out, she said, adding that three more people developed symptoms in the following days, although only one had exposure to the market. Her words tie in to a graphic in the study that shows one case on December 1, three on December 10 and then none until December 15. Only one of the initial four cases was linked to the market but then all of the next ten. Wuhans government claimed that the first confirmed case fell sick on December 8, a man who recovered from the illness. It said that he denied going to the animal market. Yet that Lancet study also contains another intriguing nugget. The first fatal case is identified as a man linked to the market. Five days after illness onset, his wife a 53-year-old woman who had no known history of exposure to the market also turned up before doctors with pneumonia and was hospitalised in an isolation ward. Wu Wenjuan also told the Wall Street Journal that their earliest cases included a 49-year-old trader at the market who fell ill on December 12. Seven days later, his father-in-law who had not been exposed to the market caught the illness. Then doctors and nurses started falling ill by December 25, which was revealed by reports in state media. These cases all clearly imply human-to-human transmission several weeks before it was publicly admitted by Beijing. This crucial information was finally confirmed to the world just four days before that important paper was published in The Lancet. Five days earlier, Li Qun, head of Chinas public health emergency centre, even told state television that after careful screening and prudent judgment, we have reached the latest understanding that risk of human-to-human transmission is low. Yet another paper in the New England Journal Of Medicine confirmed that Chinese doctors saw evidence of human transmission among close contacts since the middle of December 2019. And a team from Wuhan Centre for Disease Control published a paper in Nature Microbiology last month that mentioned swabs being taken from patients in Wuhan with influenza-like illness from October 6, 2019, to January 21, 2020. The beginning of October is earlier than any other experts have indicated signs of this virus. These researchers found nine out of their 640 swabs tested positive but then concluded that this suggested community transmission in early January this year. One blogger also spotted a tantalising fact: in July last year, Chinas National Health Commission issued an edict on protection against infectious diseases that urged all localities to strengthen their monitoring of flu-like cases, unexplained pneumonia. The bulletin unsupported by relevant data and absent from a similar earlier notice added that after any outbreak, there must be quick epidemiological investigations, laboratory tests, and implementing measures such as disinfection and treatment of epidemic areas to prevent spread. Clearly that failed to happen. In their defence, Chinas authorities were confronting a new virus. Yet their country had already seen two previous zoonotic (animal-to-human) coronaviruses emerge within its borders this century, inflicting less lethal pandemics on our planet. Significantly, Lianchao Han, a Chinese dissident and former foreign office official, says: The lack of bioethics and their money-driven race to find vaccines for viruses make Chinese scientists very reckless in handling the most dangerous virus. Their repeated refusal to let international experts investigate the origin of the virus makes it very suspicious the regime is hiding something. Many mysteries still swirl around this saga. Last weekend, claims that Bat Woman Shi had defected with a stash of secret documents were denied in Chinese media. Chinese netizens [millions of web users] have queried if Huang Yanling, a student at Wuhan Institute of Virology, might have been Patient Zero after becoming infected in the laboratory. This was denied, with officials saying she had moved to another part of ChinaSo many questions; so few answers. Yet as the global death toll passes 275,000, one thing seems certain: the culpability of Chinas authorities in covering up the new disease that erupted with such terrible force from somewhere in Wuhan last year. BANGKOK (AP) Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has cautioned the countrys 1.3 billion people against any complacency in the fight against the coronavirus. On a Sunday radio talk show, Modi said that people will have to change their habits by sticking to social distancing, wearing masks and not spitting in public. There should be no negligence at any local level due to overconfidence," he said. We have to be very careful about this for a long time to come. He also said that a traditional system of Indian medicine, known as Ayurveda, which strongly recommends yoga exercises and drinking hot water, can be extremely helpful in building immunity. Modi put India under a strict lockdown on March 25. The restrictions, which run until May 3, have been eased somewhat by allowing shops to reopen and manufacturing and farming activities to resume in rural areas to help millions of poor daily wage earners. India has confirmed 25,671 cases of the coronavirus, including 824 deaths. In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region: HONG KONG PROTESTERS DEFY BAN: Pro-democracy demonstrators gathered in a Hong Kong mall on Sunday, chanting pro-democracy slogans despite a ban on gatherings. Police entered the Cityplaza shopping mall in Tai Koo to disperse the crowds. The demonstration follows the arrests last week of 15 former lawmakers and pro-democracy activists on charges stemming from huge rallies that started last June against a controversial extradition bill. The bill was later withdrawn, but protests continued for several months. Hong Kong reported no new coronavirus cases on Sunday for the third time in a week. The city has confirmed 1,038 cases, including four deaths. INDIA'S MUSLIMS REASSURED: A Hindu nationalist organization chief has assured Indias minorities, mainly Muslims, that there will be no discrimination on the basis of religion in the battle against the coronavirus. Mohan Bhagwat, head of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, said in an online address Sunday that no group can be blamed as a whole for the acts of some of its members. The RSS is the ideological mentor of Prime Minister Narendra Modis Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Bhagwat's remarks came amid criticism by the BJP and Hindu groups of an Islamic missionary meeting in the Indian capital last month that triggered a surge in coronavirus cases. Muslims comprise about 14% of Indias 1.3 billion people. Story continues NEPAL EXTENDS LOCKDOWN: Nepal extended its lockdown to May 7 and the closure of its borders to May 13 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Information Minister Yuba Raj Khatiwada said the decision was made by the Cabinet on Sunday. The first lockdown was announced on March 24 and has been extended several times, shutting down schools and major markets and prohibiting people from leaving their homes. Flights have been halted and road transport has been barred. Nepal has 51 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with no deaths. CHINA SEES NO DEATHS AGAIN: China on Sunday reported no new deaths from the coronavirus for the 11th straight day. It also confirmed 11 more cases, raising its total to 82,827. Five of the new cases were in Heilongjiang province, a northeastern border area with Russia that has seen a surge in infections. Another was in Guangdong province, a manufacturing and tech region bordering Hong Kong in the south. The other five were imported from overseas. China has identified 1,634 imported cases in all. 931 NEW CASES IN SINGAPORE: Singapore reported 931 new cases to raise its total to 13,624. Most of the new infections are from foreign workers dormitories, which have been locked down as the government struggles to curb the outbreak. HONG KONG HELPS STRANDED CITIZENS: Hong Kong is trying to help more than 5,000 residents return home from India and Pakistan after those countries banned all international flights to combat the coronavirus. The Hong Kong Immigration Department has reached about 3,200 residents in India and 2,000 in Pakistan, scattered around both countries, according to a government news release. The government plans to fly back residents in phases, starting with chartered flights from New Delhi and Islamabad for those in and around those two cities, as well as the sick, pregnant woman, children and the elderly. Passengers will have to pay for their flights. BANGLADESH PASSES 5,000 CASES: Bangladesh reported 418 new cases of the coronavirus on Sunday, raising its confirmed total to 5,416, including 145 deaths. The South Asian country of 160 million people has only 25 facilities to test suspected cases, meaning the actual number of infections could be much higher. Health experts say the situation may not peak until the end of May, raising concerns in the country, which has a fragile health care system. SOUTH KOREA HAS 10 MORE CASES: South Korea on Sunday confirmed 10 more cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, a continuation of a slowing caseload in the country. The additional infections mark the ninth day in a row that South Koreas daily increase was below 20. The state-run Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the caseload stood at 10,728, including 242 deaths. SRI LANKA ASKS KUWAIT TO EXTEND WORKERS' STAY: Sri Lanka has asked Kuwait to allow thousands of overstaying workers to remain in the country until May 30 because Sri Lanka is under a 24-hour coronavirus curfew. Kuwait has granted an amnesty from April 1-30 to all undocumented foreigners to leave at Kuwaits expense without paying fines. More than 15,000 Sri Lankans are currently overstaying in Kuwait. They had been given until Saturday to leave. Sri Lanka's international airport has been closed since last month due to the pandemic. The Indian Ocean island nation has confirmed 460 cases, including seven deaths. ___ Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak. Karnataka witnessed the biggest spike in COVID-19 cases in a single day with 53 people testing positive on Sunday, taking the tally to 847 and reported one more death, increasing the number of fatalities to 31. Belagavi, with 22 cases, Bagalkote and Shivamogga with eight cases each and Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada with seven, were the biggest contributors to the tally, the health department said. This was the biggest spike in a single day in the state, a senior government officer told PTI. Shivamogga is the home district of Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, which had earlier been in the green zone. Of the eight cases from Shivamogga, seven are from Yediyurappa's assembly constituency Shikaripura. The other cases were reported from Kalaburugi (3) Bengaluru (3) and one each in Chintamani in Chikkaballapura district and Davangere. Eight of the nine people affected in Shivamogga and who had returned from Ahmedabad were contacts of Tablighi Jamaat infected people, sources in the district administration said. The single death reported was that of a 56-year-old woman in Bengaluru Urban district. The woman, who died of Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI), had been admitted to a private hospital on May 4 and shifted to another one on May 6. She died on May 7 and the lab reports on May 9 confirmed that she had COVID-19, the department said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) For years Nils Melzer has been researching on behalf of the UN just how vile and degrading the mistreatment of prisoners can become. But learning that states that are supposed to be champions of human rights can be as brutal as any other with people who cross them was quite a shock. The case that made Melzer reassess his beliefs is that of Julian Assange, who, he says, had signs of "prolonged psychological torture" while in the UK. First I was shocked that mature democracies could produce such an accident. Then I found out it was no accident. Now, I am scared to find out about our democracies the UN official tweeted on Sunday, marking a year since his visit to check on Assange at the UKs Belmarsh top security prison. Today one year ago we visited #Assange in prison. He showed clear signs of prolonged psychological #Torture.First I was shocked that mature democracies could produce such an accident.Then I found out it was no accident.Now, I am scared to find out about our democracies... pic.twitter.com/enElUmA1fK Nils Melzer (@NilsMelzer) May 9, 2020 Melzer became a vocal advocate of Assanges rights after delving into his case last year. In April of 2019, the co-founder of the transparency website WikiLeaks was kicked out of Ecuadors embassy in London, where hed enjoyed asylum for years. He was then jailed by Britain over skipping bail. The case of alleged sexual abuse in Sweden, which led to a request for extradition of Assange and ultimately landed him in trouble with British law, has since been dropped. Still, Assange remains locked at the prison usually reserved for most dangerous violent criminals in the UK, even as his health reportedly is further deteriorating with him behind bars. Now he is formally wanted by US justice over alleged computer crimes, though his defenders say this is nothing but Washingtons attempt at retaliation for his having exposed Americas dirty secrets. WikiLeaks rose to greater prominence after publishing footage of the mass killings of civilians in Baghdad in US helicopter airstrikes. It released secret documents on that countrys wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as classified US diplomatic cables, CIA hacking manuals and other sensitive material. The publisher faces an effective life term if tried and convicted in the US. No changes in Assanges legal situation are expected before September, when his extradition hearing may resume. The proceedings were postponed last week due to social-distancing measures in the UK, which have disrupted the work of the court system.After medical experts accompanying Melzer during last years visit concluded that Assange was a victim of psychological torture due to his arbitrary detention, the UN official called on the four nations the US, UK, Sweden and Ecuador involved in his case to launch a formal probe. None would oblige, even though their ratification of the UN Convention against Torture means it was their responsibility to act, Melzer told journalists last October. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Cant get out with family and friends to enjoy New York Citys shoreline? No worries -- a series of family-friendly virtual activities celebrating the citys dynamic waterfront has been planned for the month of May by artists, advocates and the Department of City Planning (DCP). Virtual events will continue through the end of the month, and include collaborative artistic works, virtual tours, virtual conferences, coloring activities, surveys and trivia games. The shoreline is one of the citys most treasured, valuable and vibrant resources, said DCP Director Marisa Lago. The activities will keep residents connected with the next Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, a work in progress by the DCP aimed at making the citys 520 miles of waterfront more accessible and active. The report will be released at the end of the year. While we all miss spending time by the water, New Yorkers can get informed and participate in waterfront planning with this very special series of creative online events, Lago said. We hope these opportunities will help keep New Yorkers of all ages connected with the waterfront from their homes. City Councilwoman Debi Rose said the program will allow residents to celebrate spring and enjoy one of the citys most precious resources. I encourage adults and children to check out these online programs and share with their friends and neighbors, she said. The virtual program includes several components. Walking the Edge will highlight a different artist each Friday at noon. The artists will create prompts, questions or activities to help New Yorkers think about the waterfronts future. Waterfront Passport is a guidebook for residents to view and participate in virtual waterfront-related activities from home -- each weekday. Users can log their progress through the waterfront activities and dive into a different theme each week: The Working Waterfront (Week of May 11) Natural Resources and Recreation (Week of May 18) Adapting our Waterfront (Week of May 25) The Passport acts as a choose your own waterfront adventure manual, allowing participants to complete several online activities. #WaterfrontWednesdays is a partnership between DCP and local organizations that work on or with the water. Aimed specifically at schoolchildren, the program encourages New Yorkers to explore and enjoy their waterfront from home. The DCP is collaborating with Jamaica Bay Rockaways Park Conservancy, the city Economic Development Corporation and the city Department of Environmental Protection to explore their key waterfront initiatives. Additional waterfront events will be planned throughout the summer. Irans Chabahar port is playing a key role in Indias efforts to provide humanitarian aid and medical supplies to Afghanistan amid the global Covid-19 crisis, people familiar with developments said Friday. Chabahar port continues to be operational and this is our conduit for assistance to Afghanistan, one of the people cited above said on condition of anonymity. India has made a commitment to supply 75,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan, of which 5,000 tonnes was shipped via Chabahar last month, while another 10,000 tonnes was despatched to the Iranian port Thursday, the people said. Chabahar port is very much in use and it is coming in very handy when we are dealing with humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan, the person said, adding India is now looking at the possibility of supplying more items needed by Afghanistan, such as tea and sugar, via the Iranian port. The Iranian port, for whose development a tripartite agreement has been signed by New Delhi, Kabul and Tehran, was granted a waiver from US sanctions in view of its importance to Afghanistan. Indias played constructive role in Afghanistan and its support for efforts for peace, reconciliation and development had figured in discussions in New Delhi on Thursday between Zalmay Khalilzad, the US special envoy for Afghanistan, and external affairs minister S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. The US sides expectation was that India would continue to play a positive role and India has to be a part of the process to effectively contribute to the process, the person said. India clearly conveyed its concerns regarding a recent surge in terrorist violence in Afghanistan and the role played by Pakistan-based terror sanctuaries during the meetings with Khalilzad. Khalilzads short visit to India amid the Covid-19 crisis highlighted the level of urgency regarding the situation in Afghanistan and the discussions took in the gamut of developments in the war-torn country, including internal developments, the impact of the US-Taliban agreement and efforts aimed reconciliation between Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his rival Abdullah Abdullah, the people said. The Indian side highlighted the threat posed to Afghanistan by terrorism and the increase in attacks by the Taliban on security forces, as well as concerns about the impact of the violence on the Afghan constitutional set-up and on minorities such as Hindus and Sikhs, the people added. At the same time, India and Iran have cooperated to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, the people said. A total of 1,142 Indians, including pilgrims from Kashmir and Ladakh and students, were repatriated from Iran while more than 1,000 Iranians have been flown back from India. The Iranian side helped arranged treatment for some 300 Indians who tested positive for Covid-19, while India has provided medical assistance and medicines. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Chennai, May 10 : The city police here have arrested a bakery owner for a WhatsApp message giving out a wrong impression about the Muslims, police said. According to the police, 32-year-old Prashant, owner of the Jain Bakeries and Confectioneries sold his products online. In a Whatapp message, he had said: "Made by Jains on orders, no Muslim staffs". The police arrested him for giving the wrong impression about the Muslims. On the night of April 12, she said, nearly two dozen Tyson employees were admitted to the emergency room at a hospital, MercyOne. Tyson employed interpreters to communicate with its diverse work force, which includes immigrants from Bosnia, Mexico, Myanmar and the Republic of Congo. But misinformation and distrust spread. One worker who died had taken Tylenol before entering the plant to lower her temperature enough to pass the screening, afraid that missing work would mean forgoing a bonus, said a person who knows the workers family and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their privacy. Workers at the plant were confused about why so many colleagues seemed to be getting sick and missing work. Supervisors told them that it was the flu, some said, or warned them not to talk about the virus at work. In an emailed statement, Tyson said it had worked with the information available to us at the time to help keep our team members safe. The company said earlier information from the Black Hawk County Health Department would have helped its decision-making. Dr. Nafissa Cisse Egbuonye, the director of the Black Hawk County Health Department, said that before the state changed the rules on April 14 to help speed public health investigations, she was legally prevented from sharing the names of employees who had tested positive with the company. But she said that she had been in constant communication with the plant and shared her concerns. I think they had enough information, she said, to take the necessary measures. The son of the Oyo State head of service has been caught in a job scandal. Ayobami Agboola, whose mother, Amidat Agboola, was appointed in 2019, was criticised on social media on Saturday after a user said he promised to use his mums influence to secure him a slot. Sulaimon Adesola said Mr Agboola promised to include his name in a list of ghost workers in Oyo State. It is a fairly common practice in some states and the federal service for corrupt officials to use names of non-workers, widely known as ghost workers, to receive illegal pay. The allegations against Mr Agboola came up after he and his accuser disagreed online over the response of the Oyo government to the coronavirus pandemic. Mr Agboola said his friends criticism against the Seyi Makinde administration was because he could not secure a ghost job under the government. Mr Adesola, however, said it was Mr Agboola who promised to use his mothers influence to secure him a slot. He posted screenshots of their chats, compelling Mr Agboola to admit. Although Mr Agboola confessed having the conversation, he said he never assured his then friend of any slot. He said he was only joking and that Mr Adesolas aim was to blackmail his mother. I want to state categorically that I know nothing about any racketeering scheme, I only egged someone I assumed was a friend on because he was doing pro bono work and I admit I should have been clearer to him as he started pestering, he wrote on Twitter. Many Nigerians online criticised Mr Agboola for his conduct. Mr Agboolas father, Hosea Agboola, is a former Senate deputy chief whip, and was recently appointed chairman of Governor Seyi Makindes advisory committee. Why I promised to offer ghost work Agboola Mr Agboola later told PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone interview that he truly promised Mr Adesola a ghost worker slot to keep him in his team. He approached me and I held him on because he was working for me. He was doing a pro-bono job for me and I wanted to keep his hope alive which he was never going to get, he said. When asked about the nature of the pro-bono job, Mr Agboola said: He worked on social media campaigns for me and I felt the best way to keep him happy is to promise him a job. Mr Agboola accused Mr Adesola of being a political jobber who helped to campaign in the last Oyo State governorship election. He said he made him a promise because he did not want to lose the man to another political party. Mr Adesola did not respond to this newspapers phone calls and a text message seeking comments. *** Source: PREMIUM TIMES STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The EMTs at Priority One Ambulance were adjusting to the new daily conundrum as the coronavirus (COVID-19) took over Staten Island: Do you toss or reuse that mask and gown, unsure if thered be any personal protective equipment (PPE) left at all in a few days time? Then, a timely donation of equipment from the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation gave them some much-needed breathing room. We were doing what we had to do at the time, said Christopher Magnus, operations manager for the Graniteville-based private ambulance company, which handles non-emergency and emergency transfers of patients between hospitals, assisted living facilities, nursing homes and medical clinics. We were always worried that we were running out. The Tunnel to Towers delivery of face masks and other PPE couldnt have been more timely for his 90-member staff, Magnus said. Were busier these days, and getting PPE has been rough. They do some great work, and it definitely helped us out, big time," he explained. Magnus said he understands why hospital emergency departments are the first priority when it comes to PPE, but that does not ease the challenge of protecting his staff and patients during a pandemic. Maybe you have a three-day supply one day, and your trying to buy it, even though the prices are inflated, he said. But they supplied us with face shields. They were great guys, very generous. So far, the foundations COVID-19 Heroes Fund has provided 100,000 meals, and sorely-needed PPE to EMTs, ambulance workers and health-care workers, first responders and nursing home workers on Staten Island and all over the country. In fact, the foundation will soon have delivered 3 million pieces of PPE, said Frank Siller, its chairman and CEO. But, for Siller, that is not nearly enough. So, a new fundraising initiative is now underway. FUNDRAISING PRINT SALE To recognize and honor the heroism of front-line workers, the foundation has teamed up with Staten Island artist Scott LoBaido, who created Sunrise: A Tribute to First Responders, a painting depicting a firefighter, police officer, member of the military, health-care worker and an EMT -- raising a tattered American flag at sunrise, as the bottom of the flagpole jams the coronavirus into the ground. Prints will be on sale for a limited time, from May 10 through Memorial Day, May 25, for $100, at Tunnel2Towers.org. Those who become an $11-a-month donor to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation between now and Memorial Day will receive the print for free, Siller said. Were really, really excited about this painting, said Siller, who recently received a presidential citation from President Donald Trump for the foundations efforts aiding front-liners in the midst of the coronavirus Not only does it depict greatness and heroes, but, at the end of the day, itll raise money so we can buy even more protective gear for those on the front lines. LoBaido, known as an at-times controversial political artist, said this painting is not political, its American. He said he was influenced by the iconic images of Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima during World War II, firefighters raising the flag at 9/11s Ground Zero and the recent flyover salutes to todays heroes performed by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and Air Force Thunderbirds, which the artist incorporated as a last-minute touch to his work. After I finished the painting, I went down to see the Blue Angels at the boardwalk, LoBaido recalled. Theyre flying around, paying homage and tribute. How can I not include them in the painting? Its the perfect balance. One hundred percent of the proceeds from sales will go into the COVID-19 Heroes Fund, established in April by the foundation to assist healthcare workers battling the coronavirus pandemic. The fund has grown to over $5 million, Siller said, and the goal is to raise $10 million. The fund had an initial $1 million set aside to provide temporary mortgage payments for families of health-care workers who lose their life to COVID-19, leaving behind young children. Currently, the foundation has assumed mortgage payments for 25 first responders and front line workers. No one on Staten Island has qualified thus far, Siller said. The foundation was created by Siller, along with his siblings, in honor of their brother, firefighter Stephen Siller, an off-duty firefighter who died on 9/11 after running to the towers to rescue those trapped in the World Trade Center. And though the foundations truck and three cargo vans have delivered PPE to all five boroughs of New York City and to other U.S. cities, including Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., Siller stressed that charity begins at home. Being a native Staten Islander, my heart is here, first and foremost, Siller said, noting that the very first deliveries of PPE went to Richmond University Medical Center and both Staten Island University Hospital campuses. Were in a position to make sure we give back to Staten Island, he said. The community of Staten Island is second to none. Staten Islanders always step up to help someone in times of need. Were based here, and well most certainly take care of Staten Island. The original painting, which is 5-feet-wide and 6-feet-tall, is encased in a gilded frame and will be moved and displayed from place to place, Siller and LoBaido said. Maybe it will be put in hospitals, maybe a police station, Siller said. Eventually it will be auctioned off. Im in the business of raising money. If we dont raise it, we cant give it away. The prints are signed by LoBaido and are 20 inches tall and 16 inches wide. LoBaido, whose artwork has raised funds for the foundation many times before, said he considers this work his most epic painting. He said it is fitting that the painting is being unveiled on Mothers Day, and credits his late mother, Karen, with teaching him the value of charity. I love being able to give to my community, he said. My mom taught me that. She said to take care of the less fortunate. It was great hooking up with the Siller Foundation. Its just a great, great organization. Everybody is a gem. Everybodys heart is in the right place. A ute driver has died after crashing into an M1 barrier on Monday morning, forcing the closure of two southbound lanes and creating six kilometres of congestion at the peak of the delays. Emergency services were called to the M1 stretch in Shailer Park, just before exit 28, about 6am. The view on a north-facing traffic camera on the M1 at Daisy Hill, very close to the crash scene, just after 7am. Credit:Department of Transport & Main Roads Police said investigators believe a Mazda single-cab ute, travelling in the southbound lanes, crashed into the motorways barrier before coming to a stop. The male driver was rushed to Logan Hospital in a critical condition, but he was declared dead soon after arriving. UAE organisations are experiencing increased demand for individuals with deep technology skills, according to a new research by the International Data Corporation (IDC). The research commissioned by Microsoft titled Future of Work Skills and covers findings from key markets across the Middle East and Africa to examine insights, trends and challenges that the region is facing amidst its digital transformation journey. The report finds that over 90% of organisation in the UAE are in the process of implementing their digital transformation initiatives. However there remains a gap in the depth of digital experience and skills needed to support these ambitious journeys. This is especially in the case of specific business functions such as marketing, sales and human resources. As it stands, 66% of businesses in the UAE expect to see an increase in positions that require deep technology skills over the next two to three years. Recognising the cloud as a foundational technology needed to drive digital transformation, almost 73% of UAE-based organisations are already using some form of cloud-based solution. However, more than half of surveyed companies still lack the cloud computing skills they need, while 67% agree they will need even more advanced skills in coming years. UAE organisations are also aware that digital skills are not the only capabilities needed to help them compete in the digital age. This is evidenced by the fact that 41% of companies indicate they are lacking necessary networking skills and 53% believe they will need more of those skills in the future. A key strategy is to retain and upskill existing staff, with 77% of companies saying they find this an effective approach to acquiring the digital skillsets they require. In fact, with the goal of developing a future-ready workforce, almost 70% of companies have reskilling programmes in place, many of which are now available for people to attend remotely. To address the skills gap, Microsoft has set up a virtual training ecosystem designed to benefit, not only students and young professionals, but also employees specialising in certain skills that may soon be less needed or even obsolete. Initiatives like the Microsoft Cloud Society, till date, has over 256,000 members across the Middle East and Africa, and platforms such as the AI Business School are empowering individuals to remotely upskill in areas around AI, Cloud, Data and Security. -- Tradearabia News Service The University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, has recorded a new COVID-19 case within its surgical services unit. The hospitals Chief Medical Director (CMD), Jesse Otegbayo, disclosed this via his official Twitter handle @UchCmd. One case of COVID-19 has been confirmed among the staff of the hospitals surgical services. The member of staff in question is in good health and is receiving necessary support, while the routine contact tracing and relevant infection control protocols have been instituted. Consequently, as at 4 pm. Friday, 8th May 2020, we had one new confirmed case of COVID-19, he wrote. According to him, the new case brings the total number of patients treated for COVID-19 in the hospital to 11. The total number of COVID-19 patients that the hospital has attended to is now 11. Out of these, 6 (six) patients were managed as in-patients in the isolation ward and other locations in the hospital, 2 (two) of whom were discharged after testing negative. One patient was, however, transferred to Lagos for further treatment. Regrettably, 2 (two) deaths occurred. Presently, there are 3 (three) active confirmed cases of COVID-19 being managed by staff of the hospital. 1 (one) of these is currently on admission, while the other two are being managed at home, he tweeted. The CMD said that as part of efforts to ensure that all its workers were properly protected, it would commence the distribution of customised face masks. He said that the face masks, made by the hospitals tailoring unit, had an advance preliminary testing. We shall commence the distribution of UCH-customised face masks to staff next week. More protective equipment will also be distributed to key officials in critical areas of our operations. I urge everyone to abide by the required infection prevention and control (IPC) measures, such as social distancing, regular hand washing, use of hand sanitiser and face masks, as stipulated by health authorities #StaySafe, Mr Otegbayo said. (NAN) As for claims that the outbreak might have stemmed from an accident at the Wuhan lab (which studied bat viruses), the administration has presented no evidence. U.S. intelligence agencies, along with those of its closest allies, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand the so-called Five Eyes reportedly think this highly unlikely. Yet, if the goal is truly to force China to cough up more information about the viruss origin, the best way would be to present its leaders with a united front of concerned nations led by Washington demanding answers. Despite its attempts at face mask largesse, and its impressive revival from COVID-19, the Chinese regime has angered many countries with its lack of transparency. They are looking in vain for U.S. leadership to confront Beijing. Instead, Trump has chosen to go it alone on COVID-19, encouraging his officials and GOP legislators to ramp up financial proposals for punishing China. Some of the initial ideas are amazingly stupid. For example, some GOP legislators are proposing laws lifting Chinas sovereign immunity so Americans can sue Beijing over COVID-19 deaths, or canceling principal or interest payments on Treasury bills purchased by China. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 10) Filipinos on Sunday marked a special day to pay tribute to all mothers and other mother figures who have embraced their roles of becoming nurturers and inspirations for the younger generation. The country's biggest stars are no exception, as celebrities took to social media to greet their moms a happy Mother's Day. Here's a look at some of the local celebrities' heartfelt Mother's Day tributes: In her social media page, actress Kathryn Bernardo shared a collage of photos with her mom which included snippets of their family travels. She accompanied the post with a caption that listed five characteristics of a mother. Maymay Entrata also shared a candid moment with her mother on her Instagram feed. "Hindi ko ikahihiyang sabihin na sainyo ko nakuha ang pagiging palaban ko sa buhay. Habang buhay na pasasalamat sa mga mahal kong ina," Entrata wrote. [Translation: I'm not ashamed to say that I got my aggressiveness from you. I will forever be thankful for you.] Actress-host Anne Curtis also penned a letter of gratitude for her mother, who has been constantly on her side during her own tale of motherhood. Curtis, in a separate post, likewise shared a personal anecdote of her journey as a first-time mom. Solenn Heussaff, who recently became a first-time parent herself, also thanked her mom, whom she described as "the glue to their family." Actor-host Alden Richards also gave a video greeting shoutout for all moms, including for his late loved one. Veteran actress Judy Ann Santos also took time to celebrate her "wonderwomen" during this special day. Scarlet Snow Belo, daughter of celebrity doctors Vicki Belo and Hayden Kho, also shared a clip of her Mother's Day message, sharing the "top three reasons" why she loves her mom Vicki. Zia Dantes, daughter of celebrity couple Marian Rivera and Dingdong Dantes, also paid tribute to her mom by dressing up as a young "Darna" and "Dyesebel" characters Rivera had portrayed as a television lead. Islamabad: A case of abduction of a 14-year-old girl has been reported in Pakistan. After this, she was forcibly converted, and kidnapped along with the kidnapper. The incident came to light from Madina Town in Faisalabad, Punjab province. The victim comes from a minority Christian community in Pakistan. She was abducted on 26 April while going to work in a house. Pakistan's condition worsens, death toll crosses 1800 Forbes wrote to the International Christian Concern (ICC) that, "Maria Shahbaz was kidnapped by a group led by Mohammad Nakash. She was going to work at the time of the incident. Eyewitnesses Parvez Christ, Yunus Christ and Naeem Christ told that criminals forcibly put her in a car. " Eyewitnesses say they could not help Maria, because the kidnappers were armed. Criminals also conducted aerial firing. Talking to the International Christian Concern, Maria's mother, expressed fears of daughter's rape, forcible confession to Islam or her murder. Now the news is coming that the apprehension of Nigat was not baseless. Maria is forced to confess to Islam and be kidnapped by the kidnapper. Hizbul terrorist Salahuddin warned Pakistan, says "India is in a strong position" This is not the first case of forced kidnapping of minority girls in Pakistan. Reports of such nefarious antics continue to emerge from Pakistan. Hindu, Sikh and Christian girls are forcibly converted to Islam. World Laparoscopy Hospital - Laparoscopic Training Institute With Brilliant Global Presence Bay Area medical centers have spent millions to prepare for a huge COVID-19 surge that hasnt materialized, delayed thousands of nonemergency surgeries, and put off countless other in-person appointments. Now, health care providers of every kind are struggling to balance the books. San Francisco General Hospital, a city-subsidized nonprofit operation that usually earns too little to cover expenses, has lost $20 million since the shelter-in-place order took hold in mid-March, spokesman Brent Andrew said. Publicly subsidized Alameda Health System, which runs five hospitals and four clinics in the East Bay, lost $22 million in six weeks, spokesman Terry Lightfoot said. Even wealthy Stanford Health Care, which runs seven hospitals and clinics across the Bay Area and had expected to bring in $300 million this year, now expects to merely break even, President and CEO David Entwistle said. We have taken organizations, some of whom have had financial strength, and run them to the brink, said Carmela Coyle, president of the California Hospital Association, referring to the pandemic. Were likely to see more bankruptcies and more financial challenges. Since the shutdown, hospital revenue has dried up, with procedures from allergy shots to $68,000 knee-replacement surgeries halted. And hospitals throughout the Bay Area have found themselves in the unprecedented position of having few customers not even many with COVID-19. MarinHealth, Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health, UCSF and St. Joseph Health in the North Bay are among many hospital operators that have spent considerably more this spring, while earning considerably less. Only now, as the number of new coronavirus cases seems to have roughly plateaued across the Bay Area even with expanded testing, are hospitals slowly reintroducing regular surgeries and medical care, and beginning to assess the damage. Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle Stanfords Entwistle said he expects the hospital system to break even by the end of its fiscal year in September. But to achieve that, he said, 14,000 employees, including executives, have been required to take paid time off or accept a 20% pay cut. The hospital may also put construction projects on hold. Stanford Health Care also received help from the federal government. Records show that the hospital system is receiving $102.4 million in federal stimulus grants, part of $100 billion in grants that the government committed to hospitals across the country last month. More than 35,000 health care providers in California are getting a total of $2.9 billion in that initial disbursement. Those that received the most reimbursements for Medicare which covers older people last year got the biggest payouts, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. San Francisco General is getting $12 million, which will offset more than half of its $20 million loss, Andrew said. Taxpayers and the city, already floundering under a projected shortfall of at least $1.7 billion, may be left to cover much of the rest. Alameda Health System got about $10 million in federal stimulus funds in early April, less than half of its $22 million loss. The system, which is subsidized by public insurance programs and local sales tax revenue, is seeking more government support, Lightfoot said. The California Hospital Association asked Gov. Gavin Newsom in a letter Wednesday to direct $1 billion from the states general fund to health care providers before the end of June. The association also asked the state to allocate $3.1 billion in next years budget and apply for a disaster waiver from the federal government that if approved would provide the same amount in federal funds. But a day later, Newsom released a new projection for the 2020-21 state budget: California will be $54 billion in the hole, he said, with tax revenue tanking and social services requests like the Hospital Associations soaring. Yet Coyle held firm. If hospitals cant remain strong and solvent, we will all be in jeopardy when COVID begins to arrive again, she said in a media call Thursday. Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle Some insurance companies have also set aside cash to help struggling hospitals. Blue Shield of California, for example, will provide millions in advance payments to health care providers, Chief Financial Officer Sandra Clarke said. After six months, the company will begin taking money out of those providers insurance claim payments to recoup the advances, Clarke said. The insurance company is also setting aside millions to give providers a monthly payment instead of a fee for each medical service, an increasingly popular model to ensure a steady flow of cash. So far, 36 providers in the Bay Area have expressed interest, Clarke said. Despite the resumption of normal health services, and the attendant revenue, some hospitals will experience lasting effects on their finances, depending on how the hospital is funded and what kind of insurance patients have, said Christopher Whaley, a policy researcher with the Rand Corp. Publicly funded hospitals, which accept uninsured patients and have a large number of low-income patients on Medi-Cal, have it worse because they already operate at a loss, health experts said. Medi-Cal, the states version of Medicaid, reimburses only a fraction of the costs that are covered by commercial insurance. 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 worst-case scenario is some of these community providers not being able to make it through and essentially going out of business, Whaley said. At Alameda Health System, administrators are concerned about financial stability and how they will support their primary-care clinics, said Lightfoot, the spokesman. More than half of the systems patients, 55%, are poor enough to qualify for Medi-Cal, and the clinics help keep low-income and vulnerable patients out of emergency rooms. We dont turn people away, Lightfoot said. At the same time, we also have to recognize if we dont have resources to do everything, we cant do all things for all people. Were always going to have to take a look at what are the essential services that we can provide well and that oftentimes leads to difficult choices. Bay Area hospitals that made expensive preparations for a coronavirus surge may never have expected to be left with a lot of empty beds. In Seton Medical Center, a Daly City hospital that serves many low-income and elderly patients, just 15 of 177 beds in the state-funded COVID-19 unit were filled on Wednesday. The lack of patients put the hospital in the tricky position of running the unit with little revenue and a limited state budget mostly eaten up by staffing costs, hospital President Anthony Armada said. Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle If theres no patients, that means theres no revenue. If theres no revenue, then you know what? This is a break-even at best, Armada said. Meanwhile, union organizers say they are skeptical that hospitals getting federal funds will fail because of the crisis, and argue that frontline workers are taking the hardest hit. On Thursday, some Stanford employees protested the hospitals recent policy of forcing them to take time off or to accept a pay cut to help balance the hospitals books. They are not meeting their obligation to their workers, said Steve Trossman, spokesman for Service Employees International Union United Healthcare Workers West, which represents the protesting employees. Amanda Arrambide, a labor and delivery technician at Stanford, said she was recently asked to leave a scheduled 12-hour shift eight hours early, and lost hourly pay. She said she wished that the hospital had warned workers about cuts when it started to lose money weeks ago. People are pretty stressed, she said. Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mallorymoench Nigerians have taken to social media to call out Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike for demolishing Prodest Hotel and Etemeteh Hotel in the state. The governor had made the move to pull down the hotels after they allegedly violated the lockdown directives. The governor had imposed a lockdown in the state and directed all hotels in the state to shutdown as parts of measures to check the spread of COVID-19. According to reports, the demolition of one of the hotels was personally supervised by the governor while the other hotel was supervised by other government officials. Advertisement This has sparked the reactions from many Nigerians on Twitter, as they have taken to the platform to condemn the act. Read Also: BREAKING: Wike Demolishes Two Hotels For Flouting Lockdown Directive See reactions below Wike was showing necessary action and ensuring security agencies do their job well. He was conmended for that by many & rightly so. But going on to demolish an hotel is definitely way out of order. That sort of action is really condemnable. A fine should have been appropriate. Dr. Dipo Awojide (@OgbeniDipo) May 10, 2020 Imagine Buhari giving executive order for Nyesom Wike's properties to be confiscated because he's being accused of corruption. You'll see him running to America & Australia calling for respect for rule of law. Just small Rivers state in his hands, he's acting like an old emperor. Ediong (@Ediong) May 10, 2020 If you really think Wike is doing all these because he deeply cares for the people of Rivers State, you are joking. All I see a man who is power drunk. Babanla (@biolakazeem) May 10, 2020 https://twitter.com/DaminaboEric/status/1259484626420215813?s=19 Governor Wike has taken this clowning for camera too far. Theres no justification for demolishing a hotel for violating lockdown order. That hotel owner in PHC needs strong legal representation to sue the state government, because hes a legitimate case against the local tyrant. pic.twitter.com/XaTcwfly9Q Gimba Kakanda (@gimbakakanda) May 10, 2020 Nyesom Wike is at this point, in a huge competition with Corona Virus to see who can ruin the lives of the people of Rivers State faster. This is not leadership. This is irrational brutality and dictatorship hiding under the cover of #COVID19 enforcement. pic.twitter.com/4DPoxJW0Fa Ndi Kato (@YarKafanchan) May 10, 2020 A curfew that was created in Trenton last month after a spate of shootings left two people dead and five others injured in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic will begin to ease up on Monday. The curfew will be raised from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on May 11. Most businesses within the city must still remain closed from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., including gas stations, but some food services will be allowed to operate until 10 p.m. "Im pleased that our city police have been addressing violations of the Governors Stay-At-Home Order as well as recent spikes in violence in the Capital City, said Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora. We have been assessing any such activity on our streets as well as managing our ability to respond to calls. The original curfew was issued by the mayor on April 6, a day after the shooting spree. Vehicular traffic is still banned from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. by the mayors order, except for those who have to go to work or for necessary purposes, like caring for a family member or romantic partner. Drive-thru businesses and food delivery services, however, will be permitted to operate until 10 p.m. The mayors order said the violence that broke out in the city involved all-terrain vehicles, or ATVs. Those vehicles will continue to be banned from all roads and parks throughout the duration of the citys public health emergency declaration. Gas stations are banned from selling gas to ATVs, as well. Were going to ease back into normal, Gusciora continued. "This is not something which can be rushed, and this does NOT mean that the fight is over. There should be no confusion: we are still in the middle of a pandemic. Anything we can do to protect the health and welfare of Trentonians will be a priority. The city said its re-opening process will be planned with the consultation of the police department, the Health and Human Services Department and the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com. Domestic violence hearings which relate to incidents that ocurred during the Covid-19 emergency lockdown will be able to be brought before judges from May 18 in District Courts. The resumption of such hearings is among measures to be implemented at District Courts around Ireland on the day when the lockdown restrictions begin to be eased. However, non-urgent matters will not resume and there will be restrictions on how courts operate and who can attend. Non-urgent motoring offences will have to be rescheduled. Apart from domestic violence criminal matters, some Family Law and Child care mattters have been added to the list of cases that are now regarded as urgent issues for local courts to begin dealing with from May 18. The President of the District Court, Judge Colin Daly, in consultation with the Chief Justice and other Court Presidents has decided on the additional measures concerning the business of the Court will be implemented on May 18. A statement said these measures are a necessary response to the developing COVID-19 situation and the continued need to focus on prevention of community spread of COVID-19 while ensuring access to justice in a manner fully respecting public safety and considering Government public health advice. The following is an outline of the amended measures. 1. Parties with non-urgent cases are not required to attend court at this time. 2. The District Court will continue to hear urgent matters in all District Court Districts throughout the country and will resume hearings of certain urgent matters. 3. Urgent matters are now extended to include: (i) Criminal Law Attendance for Service of Books of Evidence and sending forward for trial on indictment; matters for sentencing where a guilty plea is indicated; the hearing of cases where an accused person is in custody on the charges before the court; resuming and concluding part-heard cases; prosecutions for alleged breaches of Domestic Violence Orders which have occurred during the emergency period; and hearing cases where there are garda witnesses only. The statement says remands where the accused is in custody should be dealt with by video-link wherever possible. (ii)Family Law. New applications for protection orders or interim barring orders and return hearings of interim barring order cases. If safety order hearings are being adjourned interim protection orders will be extended to the new date. Applications and hearings for breach of maintenance or access that have occurred during the emergency period or applications and hearings for temporary guardianship orders. Remote call-overs and hearings may be conducted in some courts. Consent orders that do not require the hearing of evidence may be applied for by email by the applicants solicitor exhibiting consent in writing from the respondents solicitor. Following consideration by an assigned Judge orders will issue from the Court Office as appropriate without the need for the parties or their legal representatives to attend court. (iii) Child Care Law. Extension of care orders and interim care orders and emergency care orders and interim care orders. Applications to regulate access, After-Care Reviews, part-heard Care Order Hearings and certain Care Order Hearings. Remote call-overs and hearings may be conducted in some courts. Consent orders that do not require the hearing of evidence may be applied for by email by the applicants solicitor exhibiting consent in writing from the respondents solicitors and the support of other participants on notice. Following consideration by an assigned Judge orders will issue from the Court Office as appropriate without the need for the parties or their legal representatives to attend court. The statement says that if your case is not included in the description of urgent matters above, then it is a non-urgent matter and parties do not need to attend court. The statement says solicitors are to inform clients that they do not need to attend where their case is a non-urgent matter. It adds that non-urgent cases will be adjourned, and parties will be informed of their new court dates by the Court Service by ordinary post or by their solicitor. Civil Matters are also addressed in the measures. All District Court Civil matters are at present considered to be non-urgent and will be adjourned generally with liberty to re-enter either on consent or on notice to the other party. Exceptions include a case which does not come within the defined urgent category can be treated as urgent if a good case can be made. A party can email the relevant court office setting out the reasons why the case should be considered urgent. This should be on notice to the other side who must be given an opportunity to set out their position. An assigned Judge will assess if the matter may be treated as urgent. Public Safety Measures The statement says matters will be scheduled where the presiding judge is satisfied that there are proper measures in place in court rooms and at courthouses to ensure that social distances can be maintained and that the court environment is safe for witnesses and all court users to attend. It says the Health Act Temporary Restrictions COVID-19 Regulations at Regulation 4 (l) permits members of the public to leave their homes to fulfil a legal obligation such as attending a court office or court. Schedule 2 of the Regulations at parts 10 and 14 recognises legal services and courts as essential services. The statement says scheduling may be conducted by call-over of lists requiring legal representatives and prosecutors only to attend, and may in some courts include remote call-over of lists,. Indications of pleas/consent at call-over and the avoidance of requiring witnessed to attend will be given the appropriate credit. The statement adds thay cases will be managed to ensure that numbers coming to courts will be minimised wherever possible. This may include staggered lists, where smaller numbers of cases are required to be in courts at allocated times, or scheduled lists/hearings, where cases are scheduled according to time slots. Practioners and Court users are expected to exercise social distancing and other public health guidelines. The statement says these measures will be constantly reviewed to ensure that the business of the District Court is being conducted safely. It is hoped that we will be able to incrementally increase the amount of work that can be safely carried out in the District Court in accordance with Government guidelines and the roadmap for reopening society and business. The statement replaces in full the updated statement published on 16th March 2020. The Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan TD, welcomed statements by the Chief Justice, the Court Presidents and the Courts Service outlining the next steps being taken "I appreciate the difficulties that the public health emergency is causing for the many people who both rely on and work in providing critical court services. "The business of the courts is of fundamental importance and therefore I welcome the announcement of these important measures to ensure continuity of access to justice during the current public health emergency. I welcome the statements by the Presidents, which show that the right balance has been struck in providing essential frontline services and access to justice, while ensuring the safety of service users and essential staff. "The continued expansion of remote hearings and physical distancing measure is welcome. It is particularly important that maintenance, domestic abuse and insolvency matters can now be dealt with as a matter of urgency for those experiencing these difficult matters. "I know that for many people, issues in respect of Court Orders for access and custody have been of particular concern and I believe that the new measures in respect of family law and child care cases will provide greater clarity and reassurance to many people. "I believe that the measures announced today will ensure that the courts continue to respond to the current health emergency in an agile, innovative and sustained manner for the people who both use and deliver their services," concluded the Laois Offaly TD. The full statements are available at https://beta.courts.ie/latest_news It was Jan. 22, a day after the first case of covid-19 was detected in the United States, and orders were pouring into Michael Bowen's company outside Fort Worth, some from as far away as Hong Kong. Bowen's medical supply company, Prestige Ameritech, could ramp up production to make an additional 1.7 million N95 masks a week. He viewed the shrinking domestic production of medical masks as a national security issue, though, and he wanted to give the federal government first dibs. "We still have four like-new N95 manufacturing lines," Bowen wrote that day in an email to top administrators in the Department of Health and Human Services. "Reactivating these machines would be very difficult and very expensive but could be achieved in a dire situation." But communications over several days with senior agency officials - including Robert Kadlec, the assistant secretary for preparedness and emergency response - left Bowen with the clear impression that there was little immediate interest in his offer. "I don't believe we as an government are anywhere near answering those questions for you yet," Laura Wolf, director of the agency's Division of Critical Infrastructure Protection, responded that same day. Bowen persisted. "We are the last major domestic mask company," he wrote on Jan. 23. "My phones are ringing now, so I don't 'need' government business. I'm just letting you know that I can help you preserve our infrastructure if things ever get really bad. I'm a patriot first, businessman second." In the end, the government did not take Bowen up on his offer. Even today, production lines that could be making more than 7 million masks a month sit dormant. Bowen's overture was described briefly in an 89-page whistleblower complaint filed this week by Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Bright alleges he was retaliated against by Kadlec and other officials - including being reassigned to a lesser post - because he tried to "prioritize science and safety over political expediency." HHS has disputed his allegations. Emails show Bright pressed Kadlec and other agency leaders on the issue of mask shortages - and Bowen's proposal specifically - to no avail. On Jan. 26, Bright wrote to a deputy that Bowen's warnings "seem to be falling on deaf ears." That day, Bowen sent Bright a more direct warning. "U.S. mask supply is at imminent risk," he wrote. "Rick, I think we're in deep s---," he wrote a day later. The story of Bowen's offer illustrates a missed opportunity in the early days of the pandemic, one laid out in Bright's whistleblower complaint, interviews with Bowen and emails provided by both men. Within weeks, a shortage of masks was endangering health-care workers in hard-hit areas across the country, and the Trump administration was scrambling to buy more masks - sometimes placing bulk orders with third-party distributors for many times the standard price. President Donald Trump came under pressure to use extraordinary government powers to force private industry to ramp up production. In a statement, White House economic adviser and coronavirus task force member Peter Navarro said: "The company was just extremely difficult to work and communicate with. This was in sharp contrast to groups like the National Council of Textile Organizations and companies like Honeywell and Parkdale Mills, which have helped America very rapidly build up cost effective domestic mask capacity measuring in the hundreds of millions." Carol Danko, an HHS spokeswoman, declined to comment on the offer by Bowen and other allegations raised in the whistleblower complaint. Wolf also declined to comment on the whistleblower complaint. A senior U.S. government official with knowledge of the offer said Bowen, 62, has a "legitimate beef." "He was prescient, really," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations. "But the reality is [HHS] didn't have the money to do it at that time." Another HHS official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said: "There is a process for putting out contracts. It wasn't as fast as anyone wanted it to be." - - - Two decades ago, the low-slung factory in Texas was part of a supply conglomerate that produced almost 9 in 10 medical and surgical masks used in the United States. Bowen was a new product specialist at the plant back then, and he watched as industry consolidations and outsourcing shifted control of the plant from Tecnol Medical Products to Kimberly-Clark and then shuttered it altogether. In less than a decade, almost 90 percent of all U.S. mask production had moved out of the country, according to government reports at the time. Bowen and Dan Reese, a former executive at Tecnol, went into business together in 2005 and eventually bought the plant, believing a market remained for a dedicated domestic manufacturer of protective gear. In wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Congress appropriated $6 billion to buy antidotes to bioweapons and the medical supplies the country would need in public health disasters. An obscure new government organization called the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, was among the agencies purchasing material for what would become the Strategic National Stockpile. Bowen began studying BARDA, attending its industry conferences and searching for a way in to press his case. In the parlance of BARDA, Bowen was seeking a "warm base" contract. The government would pay a premium to have masks manufactured domestically, but his company would keep its extra factory lines in working order, meaning production could be ramped up in an emergency. Bowen said he soon concluded that BARDA's focus was trained elsewhere, on billion-dollar deals to induce manufacturing of vaccines for the most exotic disasters, such as weaponized attacks with anthrax or smallpox. Still, as Bowen moved down the supply chain, appealing directly to hospitals to buy his domestic-made masks, his sales pitch often ended with a plea to call BARDA. Bowen often carried PowerPoint slides from a 2007 presentation by BARDA and its parent division at HHS, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. One had a table showing that, in the event of a pandemic, the country would need 5.3 billion N95 respirator masks, 50 times more than the number in the stockpile. The presentation concluded: "Industrial surge capacity of [respiratory protection devices] will not be able to meet need and supplies will be short during a pandemic." Bowen said he felt like a voice in the wilderness. "The world just looked at me as a mask salesman who was saying the sky was falling," he said, "and they would say, 'Your competitors aren't saying that in China.' " After Trump's election, Bowen hoped the new president's America-first mentality might trickle down to operations like his. He wrote a letter to Trump and addressed it to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: "90% of the United States protective mask supply is currently FOREIGN MADE!" it began. "I didn't think Trump would read it, but I thought someone would and take note," Bowen said. He also called Bright, who had been appointed to lead BARDA just before Trump took office. "In 14 years of doing this, there have been maybe four people in government who I felt like really understood this issue," Bowen said. "Rick was one of them." In Trump's first year, however, Bowen grew newly disillusioned. During a week that the White House touted its "Buy American, Hire American" initiative, Bowen lost a military contract worth up to $1 million, to a supplier that would make many of the masks in Mexico, he said. "Shame on the Department of Defense! One of these days the US military will need America's manufacturers to help win another war or fight another pandemic - and they will not exist," Bowen wrote on Aug. 17, 2017, to Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Clark, a senior official with the Pentagon's Defense Health Agency. Clark, who retired last year, did not respond to a message seeking comment. - - - For Bowen, the first signs of trouble came in mid-January. Online orders through his company's website, typically totaling maybe $2,000 a year and accounting for only a fraction of his business, suddenly skyrocketed to almost $700,000 in a few days. On Jan. 20, Bowen also fielded a call from the Department of Homeland Security, urgently seeking masks for airport screeners. Bowen said he did not have masks in stock to fill the order, but the call led him to contact Bright to tell him about the surge in demand for masks. "Is this virus going to be problematic?" Bowen wrote. Inside HHS, Bright quickly passed Bowen's on-the-ground observations to a group that included Wolf, the director of the agency's Division of Critical Infrastructure Protection. "Can you please reach out to Mike Bowen below? He is a great partner and a really good source for helpful information," Bright wrote on Jan. 21. "Thanks Rick," she replied. "We are tracking and have begun to coordinate with fda, niosh, and manufacturers today. More to follow tomorrow. Thinking about masks, gowns (inc those in shortage), gloves, and eye protection." Within a day, Bowen sent an email to Wolf laying out what Prestige could do. The company's four mothballed manufacturing lines could be restarted with large noncancelable orders, he wrote. "This is NOT something we would ever wish to do and have NO plans to do it on our own," he wrote. "I'm simply letting you know that in a dire situation, it could be done." Over the next three days, Bowen kept HHS officials informed as orders for a million masks came in from intermediaries for buyers in China and Hong Kong. On Jan. 26, he sent the email warning that the U.S. mask supply was at "imminent risk." Bright forwarded it that day to Kadlec and others, urging action: "We have been watching and receiving warnings on this for over a week," he wrote. The next day, Bright wrote to his deputy asking him to explore whether BARDA could divert money earmarked for vaccines and other biodefense measures to instead buy masks. From his end, Bowen said his proposal seemed to be going nowhere. "No one at HHS ever did get back to me in a substantive way," Bowen said. The senior U.S. official said Bowen's idea was considered, but funding could not easily be obtained without diverting it from other projects. Bowen started talking to reporters about the mask shortage in general terms. He was soon invited to appear on former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon's podcast: "War Room: Pandemic." On the Feb. 12 podcast, the two commiserated over the beleaguered state of U.S. manufacturing. "What I've been saying since 2007 is, 'Guys, I'm warning you, here's what is going to happen, let's prepare,' " Bowen said on the program. "Because if you call me after it starts, I can't help everybody." Bowen said Bannon put him in touch with Navarro, the White House economic adviser. Navarro was quick to see the problem, Bowen said. After talking with Navarro, Bowen wrote to Bright that he should soon expect a call from the White House, "I'm pretty sure that my mask supply message will be heard by President Trump this week," Bowen wrote. "Trump insider reading yesterday's Wired.com article, the ball is screaming toward your court." According to Bright's complaint, he soon began attending White House meetings and helping Navarro write memos describing the supply of masks as a top issue. Emails and memos attached to the complaint show Bright reporting back to Kadlec and others about his work with Navarro. None of it turned the tide for Bowen. Nearly a month after his emailed offer, Bowen received his first formal communication about possibly helping to bolster the U.S. supply. The five-page form letter from the Food and Drug Administration - one Bowen said he suspected was sent to many manufacturers - asked how his company could help with what was by then a "national emergency response" to the shortage of protective gear. Bowen responded on Feb. 16, by firing off a terse email to FDA and HHS officials. He directed the agencies to a U.S. government website listing approved foreign manufacturers of medical masks. "There you'll find a long list of . . . approved Chinese respirator companies," he wrote. "Please send your long list of questions to them." In March, Bowen submitted a bid to supply masks to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which by then had taken over purchasing. The government soon spent over $600 million on contracts involving masks. Big companies like Honeywell and 3M were each awarded contracts totaling for over $170 million for protective gear. One distributor of tactical gear - a company with no history of procuring medical equipment - was awarded a $55 million deal to provide masks for as much as $5.50 a piece, eight times what the government was paying months earlier. On April 7, FEMA awarded Prestige a $9.5 million contract to provide a million N95 masks a month for one year, an order the company could fulfill without activating its dormant manufacturing lines. For the masks, Prestige charged the government 79 cents a piece. - - - The Washington Post's Jon Swaine, Robert O'Harrow Jr. and Rachel Siegel contributed to this report. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-01 04:39:50|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CAIRO, April 30 (Xinhua) -- The tally of COVID-19 infections in Turkey crossed another threshold as it surpassed 120,000 on Thursday. Meanwhile, visiting Chinese experts praised Kuwait's measures to contain the pandemic. Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca confirmed 2,615 new COVID-19 cases and 93 more deaths, raising the total number of infections to 120,204 and the death toll to 3,174. A total of 48,886 patients have recovered from the disease, while 1,514 are being treated at intensive care units and 803 are intubated, the minister said. In Iran, the death toll from COVID-19 reached 6,028 after 71 more people died from the virus. The total cases of infections rose to 94,640 after 983 cases were added on Thursday. The total number of recovered patients in Iran reached 75,103, which accounts for about 79 percent of the confirmed cases, while 2,976 people are still in critical condition. The COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent restrictions on travels in Iran have inflicted losses of 330 million U.S. dollars on the tourism industry, said Jamshid Hamzezadeh, the president of Iranian Hoteliers Association. Saudi Arabia witnessed an increase of 1,351 coronavirus cases and five new deaths in the past 24 hours, raising the tally of infections to 22,753, with 162 fatalities. Kuwait reported 284 new cases of COVID-19 and two more deaths, bringing the total infections to 4,024 and the death toll to 26. The visiting Chinese medical team on Thursday praised the precautionary measures taken by Kuwait to contain the spread of coronavirus. Ruan Yuesheng, head of the Chinese team, told a press conference at the Kuwait Ministry of Health (MOH) that the Kuwaiti government attaches great importance to the measures for preventing and controlling the pandemic while preparing properly for testing, treatment, quarantine management and medical protection supplies. He noted that his team, which comprises eight medical experts specializing in various fields, will exchange the knowledge, experience and practices in dealing with COVID-19 with the Kuwaiti side to defeat the pandemic. In Israel, the number of COVID-19 cases increased by 112 to 15,946, the state's Ministry of Health said. The death toll increased by seven to 222, while the number of recoveries rose to 8,561 after 328 new recoveries were reported. Earlier Thursday, the Israeli Ministry of Transport announced the resumption of public bus operations on Sundays through Wednesdays, starting May 5. Qatar's Health Ministry announced 845 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 13,409. The United Arab Emirates announced 552 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number to 12,481. The death toll rose to 105, after seven more fatalities were reported. Egypt confirmed 269 new cases and 12 more fatalities from COVID-19, raising the total cases to 5,537, including 392 deaths. Earlier in the day, the Egyptian Health Ministry announced the start of plasma therapy trials for COVID-19 patients by injecting them with plasma donated by the cured. Bahrain reported 119 new COVID-19 cases, leading to 3,040 the total number of confirmed cases, which included eight deaths and 1,500 recoveries. Morocco's Health Ministry announced 102 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number to 4,423. Meanwhile, 170 people have died and 984 have recovered from the virus. In Iraq, the Health Ministry confirmed 82 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 2,085. So far, up to 93 have died from the disease while 1,375 have recovered. The Omani Ministry of Health announced on Thursday 74 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections to 2,348. The death toll rose to 11, after one more victim was confirmed. Enditem There were unanswered questions I had for each of them. With my father, I needed to ask him why he disappeared to India without telling me and never came back. With my mother, I needed to understand why she locked herself in her room for the better part of my eighth-grade year. I wanted to hear their stories before it was too late and perhaps make sense of my own. It occurred to me that I had not tried to understand my parents struggles as immigrants or what they hoped their lives would be. To end our entrenched estrangement, I realized I would have to learn to empathize with my parents as humans and take responsibility for my role in our familys disintegration. I could have and should have reached out to them more. That Mothers Day marked the beginning of an effort to give my mother and me the chance to get to know each other. Journalistic instincts engaged, I inched in slowly and kept my emotional distance when I could, starting with a polite lunch over my favorite mustard fish curry at her apartment. As the months passed and trust started to build, we made our way to my kitchen counter in Manhattan, rehashing the past as my girlfriend made lamb curry. I learned about the books my mother read as a child in Durgapur, the difficulties of assimilating when she first emigrated to Canada as a young adult and her struggles with depression that had gone untreated. I walked her delicately through the way those struggles had affected me. Through the conversations with her and similar conversations with my father during a trip I took to India, I began to see my own history in a new light. I told each of them what I wished I had done better. My parents, like many immigrants in the generation before me, had built their lives from nothing, whereas I had the privilege to contemplate my emotions and aspirations. Said another way: They aspired to survive. I aspired to live. I made a conscious effort to translate between our divergent worldviews. The conversations were challenging and sometimes hit dead ends. Often I needed to look in the mirror as much as I needed them to see me. After growing up in a household in which feelings other than anger were rarely shared, just being heard was cathartic. During one difficult phone conversation with my mother, I told her how remarkable I found the woman I had to come know: an immigrant who started with very little in Durgapur and was repeatedly forced to change her life, often without any say in determining her own path, whether through immigration, marriage or divorce. Thank you, she said. Maybe. I dont know. One thing for sure: I tried my best to build a family. Mumbai, one of Indias top employment generators, has started to worry about the labour shortage, with companies saying workers want to return home. Several on-site labourers in the city want to take special trains being run to transport workers back home. The rising number of Covid-19 cases in the city has caused anxiety among them. While some wish to return to their families, others need to reach to their farms before the sowing season. Labourers go back in summers because it is wedding season and also a helping hand is needed to till the family land in ... Ebrahim K. Kanoo, the sole distributor of Toyota vehicles in Bahrain, has announced the launch of its 2020 Ramadan sales campaign, which offers attractive value deals on a range of Toyota vehicles. The promotion comprises special discounts on select Toyota models, attractive finance schemes and up to 25 per cent discount on Ziebart and LLumar car care products. Exclusive discounts are being offered for various Toyota models including the Yaris sedan & hatchback, Corolla, Avalon, Camry, RAV4 and Supra. Senior Manager of Toyota marketing at Ebrahim K. Kanoo, Ayman Shehadeh, highlighted the brands popularity, stating: Toyota is one of Bahrains favourite vehicle brands because of its high quality, durability and reliability. People in Bahrain appreciate the comfort and safety of the Toyota brand as well as its strong resale value. Every Ramadan, we do our best to create value-driven offers for our customers, and we look forward to welcoming them at the showroom where we have implemented all recommended precautionary measures by the Ministry of Health to ensure the health and wellbeing of our customers and staff, and the protection of public health in the kingdom. During Ramadan, the Toyota showroom in Sitra will be open Saturday to Thursday, from 9.00am to 1:15pm, and after Iftar from 8:00pm to 11:00 pm. Customers may visit the showroom to enjoy traditional hospitality all through Ramadan; or call 17730730 and visit Toyota.com.bh. - TradeArabia News Service By PTI MUMBAI: A 54-year-old inmate of Byculla women's jail here has tested positive for coronavirus, a prison official said on Sunday. She was referred to the government-run J J Hospital a few days back after her oxygen saturation level fell below 90 per cent. READ| Maharashtra govt must tackle COVID-19 spread at Arthur Road Jail: Bombay HC During the treatment, she was tested for coronavirus which came out negative on Friday, he said. However, her second test conducted on Saturday came out positive for COVID-19, the official said. She is undergoing treatment at St George Hospital here, he added. The new case comes two days after a doctor attached to Byculla jail tested positive for coronavirus. Earlier, 77 inmates of Arthur Road Jail here and 26 staffers were found to have contracted the infection. Boris Johnson risks giving people the green light to socialise and jeopardising the gains made by the coronavirus lockdown in dropping the stay home slogan, a scientist advising the British Government has said. Behavioural expert Professor Susan Michie, who is a member of the scientific advisory group for emergencies (Sage), said Mr Johnsons new messaging is a long way from being clear and consistent. The British Prime Minister is dropping his stay home, protect the NHS, save lives slogan in favour of stay alert, control the virus and save lives as he seeks to get people back to work. Everyone has a role to play in helping to control the virus by staying alert and following the rules. This is how we can continue to save lives as we start to recover from coronavirus.#StayAlert pic.twitter.com/2z9yl1Fxs4 Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) May 10, 2020 But leaders in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have said they will not use the new message, which they were not consulted over. Mr Johnson gave more detail on the new advice, saying people should stay at home as much as possible and limit contact with other people. But Prof. Michie was clear about just how important the main slogan is for guiding the publics behaviour. Dropping the stay at home message from the main slogan in favour of generalised alertness may be taken as a green light by many to not stay at home and begin socialising with friends and other activities that increase the risk of transmission, she told the PA news agency. This could potentially undermine the good work over the last few weeks that has seen impressively sustained high levels of adherence by the public in what for many are very challenging situations. The public have been consistently asking for clear and consistent messaging as to what they should and should not be doing this is a long way from that She pointed out that with hundreds still dying every day and the five tests set out by Englands chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty not being met this could be very damaging. What has been dropped from the main message is likely to be what is remembered rather than the new words, especially by those wanting to break the guidance but so far mainly adhering, she added. Prof. Michie, whose research focuses on the uptake of behaviour change interventions, said the slogan does not give the specifics needed to guide people to follow the aims. I do not think this is a helpful message in terms of guiding behaviour. It does not give advice as to what people should do alert about what? she said. The public have been consistently asking for clear and consistent messaging as to what they should and should not be doing this is a long way from that. It is a great shame that the Government does not appear to be taking on board behavioural science evidence and principles of how to enable, support and guide behaviour, when there are behavioural scientists in a position to provide advice. STAY HOME. PROTECT THE NHS. SAVE LIVES. Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) May 10, 2020 Downing Street sought to explain what the control aspect means, saying it refers to the publics efforts to keep the rate of infection (R) down. This is how we can continue to save lives and livelihoods as we start to recover from coronavirus, a No 10 spokesman said. Everyone has a role to play in keeping the rate of infection (R) down by staying alert and following the rules. Scientists belonging to Sage, like the devolved leaders, were not consulted over the message before it was unveiled. Woori Financial Group Chairman Son Tae-seung, right, and Woori Bank CEO Kwon Kwang-seok, left, pose with Park Chil-bok, representative of Namdaemun Market merchants, after purchasing gift certificates at the traditional market in central Seoul, Friday. The financial group said it purchased 10 billion won worth of certificates at the market to support merchants afflicted by the COVID-19 crisis. Courtesy of Woori Financial Group Ramkrishna Badseshi By Express News Service KALABURAGI: "My wife and I who underwent isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, have completed treatment and home quarantine 10 days ago and we enjoy good health," said the 63-year-old retired medical officer, who is the first doctor in the country to get COVID-19. He was also the doctor who treated the first COVID-19 deceased in the country. Speaking with Express on Sunday, the elderly doctor said that P-06 who died on March 10 in Kalaburagi due to coronavirus came to the city from Saudi on February 28 but was diagnosed on March 2. He added that as per the call by the family members of P-06, he attended to the patient on March 6. When he checked the health of the patient, he was suffering from mild flu and cough. "I gave him necessary medicines but as there was no recovery on the next day and fever become high, I advised the family members to take the patient for check-up in a hospital," he said. "I was shocked and worried when I came to know that P-06 has died on March 10 (exactly 2 months from today) as I knew him well and treated him many times. Later on, March 12 it was confirmed that he died due to COVID-19," he added. FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES HERE The COVID-19 survivor said that he was told by the district administration after 3 days that he too has tested positive for COVID-19 and that he would have to live in the isolation ward of ESIC hospital for 14 days. I obliged as it was good for me as well as for the society, he added. "The doctors who attended to me in the designated ESIC hospital gave me oral medicine and I continued some other medicines which I used to take due to hyper tension regularly," he shared. He said that there were no major symptoms of COVID-19 and that he spent his isolation normally in ESIC hospital. "I have to thank doctors and staff of ESIC hospital as they treated me extremely well and provided good quality food," he lauded. When he was about to be discharged from isolation ward, he came to know that his wife also tested positive for the virus. Now, she has also been discharged a fortnight ago and they are both hale and healthy. In his message to people who are afraid of COVID-19, the COVID-19 cured doctor said that there is nothing to worry about coronavirus. Everybody should maintain social distance and wear masks as a precautionary measure and if anybody feels they have symptoms of coronavirus, they should not try to hide it. COVID-19 would not only affect them seriously but could also spread to their friends and family. Such persons should get their throat swab taken and get necessary treatment. Getting the virus is not a sin, it is a disease, and it should be treated, he said. The North West Regional College (NWRC) is offering a range of fully-funded online courses for businesses. The courses can be accessed via mobile phones, computers and tablet devices and are funded by the Department for the Economys Skills Focus Programme. The NWRC is offering courses in areas such as; Leadership & Management, Business & Digital Marketing, Early Years, Health & Social Care and Advanced IT. Sinead Hawkins, Business Skills Manager at NWRC said: Upskilling is key for every business at the minute and we are delighted that the Department for the Economy are fully funding these courses. "It enables businesses to support their staff on furlough and also for owners or directors to develop new skills to move forward positively with a new way of doing business. "We also offer free training needs analysis and tailored training solutions specific to the businesses sector. If you are a business with less than 250 staff and looking to up-skill, you could be eligible for the Department for the Economys Skills Focus Programme. For more information about the Skills Focus programme visit, http://bsc.nwrc.ac.uk/skills-focus/ or call 07830361640. By PTI AHMEDABAD: Of the total 364 Shramik special trains that were run across the country till Saturday midnight, as many as 167 originated from Gujarat, in which over two lakh migrant workers were ferried to their home states, a senior government official said on Sunday. Ashwani Kumar, Secretary to Gujarat chief minister, while sharing the data related to the Shramik trains that were run from different states till Saturday midnight, said that around 46 per cent of these trains started from Gujarat, the highest for a state. He said that the trains that started their journey from Gujarat, carried over two lakh migrants to different states, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. "Till Saturday midnight, 45 Shramik special trains originated from Maharashtra, 36 from Punjab, 25 from Telangana, 24 from Kerala, 20 from Rajasthan, 14 from Karnataka, and 11 from Haryana," he said. In addition to this, 56 more trains will carry around 67,200 migrant workers to their home states from different parts of Gujarat, including Ahmedabad, Sabarkantha, Viramgam, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot. Some of these trains have already started their journey early on Sunday, while some others will leave by Sunday evening, he said. "With this, the number of migrant workers reaching their home states from Gujarat would be 2,68,800," Kumar said. "It is the result of the government's preparation and commitment to ensure the migrants safe return to their home states," he added. Of the 56 trains running on Sunday, 42 are going to Uttar Pradesh, five to Madhya Pradesh, three each to Bihar and Odisha, and one each to Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, and Jharkhand, he said. By Rod Nickel WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned on Saturday that if provinces move too quickly to reopen their economies, a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic could send Canada "back into confinement this summer." Trudeau, who represents a Montreal, Quebec parliamentary district, told reporters in a daily briefing that he is concerned about the virus' spread in that province, the country's epicenter. He said any reopening should be gradual. Although health officials have pointed to a flattening rate of daily cases in many provinces, Trudeau said Canada was "not in the recovery phase yet." "We are still in the emergency phase... The vast majority of Canadians continue to need to be very careful." Canada's death toll rose 3.5% to 4,628 from a day earlier, while cases approached 67,000. Nearly 60% of Canada's deaths have occurred in Quebec, where there are numerous outbreaks in nursing homes. Quebec has unveiled plans to restart its economy gradually, but on Thursday delayed for the second time the date when businesses can reopen in Montreal. Ontario reported an increase of 346 cases, the lowest daily increase in more than a month, and said it would open provincial parks for some uses starting on Monday. More than 80% of Canadian deaths from the virus are residents of nursing homes, a "national tragedy" caused in part by housing up to four per room, said Canada Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Howard Njoo. Some of the country's biggest individual outbreaks are in Cargill Inc [CARG.UL] and JBS SA beef plants in Alberta, which has forced them to reduce production. This has resulted in a glut of live cattle and tight beef supplies. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had urged the U.S. Justice Department to look into allegations that the meatpacking industry broke antitrust law because of a widening gap between low prices for livestock and high prices for meat. Story continues Canada will also take a "very careful look," Trudeau said. "We need to make sure no one is profiting in an exaggerated way from this crisis," he said. Trudeau gave no specifics. The independent Competition Bureau reviews such concerns. Coronavirus infections are also multiplying in Canada's remote, indigenous communities. The pandemic helped cause a record-breaking loss of 2 million jobs in April, Canadian government data showed on Friday. The unemployment rate jumped less than expected, however, because some laid-off people collect federal aid and are waiting to return to their old jobs when the pandemic passes. (Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Franklin Paul and Dan Grebler) In Ukraine, Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May Open source Every year, on the second Sunday of May, many countries of Europe, Africa, the Americas, Australia, China and Japan, celebrate one of the sweetest holidays - Mother's Day. This holiday has more than a century of history and every country celebrates it in its own way. People give their mothers flowers, souvenirs, pleasant little things and prepare surprises on this day. History of the holiday Officially, this holiday is over a hundred years old. Although the origins of Mother's Day celebrations may be found in the spring festivals that the people of ancient Greece dedicated to Reya, the mother of Zeus. Starting from 1600, the tradition of celebrating Mother Sunday appeared in England. On this day, mothers were honored on the fourth Sunday of Lent. On this day people did not work, instead they visited their parents. Mother's Day in Ukraine In Ukraine, Mother's Day was first celebrated in 1928, when the holiday was organized by the Union of Ukrainian Women of Canada. The following year, this holiday was already celebrated in Lviv. In 1929, the Ukrainian Women's Union initiated this holiday in Ternopil region. Prosvita, Ridna Shkola, Plast, Sokil organizations held concerts, conferences, festivals throughout Eastern Galicia. Since then, Mother's Day has been celebrated very widely. In 1939, Soviet Union banned the holiday and for a long time, Mother's Day was not marked in Ukraine. Only in 1990, the holiday returned to Ukraine. On May 10, 1999, former President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma signed a decree establishing that Mother's Day is celebrated annually on the second Sunday of May. Customs and traditions of Mother's Day celebration Different countries have their own customs and traditions. For example, people attach a clove flower to clothes on a Mother's Day in the USA and Australia. Colored cloves indicate that the persons mother is alive, and white - that she is no longer in this world. In Mexicans on Mothers Day perform a special song Las mananitas at Catholic mass in churches, and then they have festive dinners. In Austria, on the second May Sunday in restaurants, there is a special menu for mothers. Some countries organize charity events in nursing homes. On this day, it is customary to pay tribute to maternal work and to express gratitude to mothers for giving life and bringing up. She was previously accused of flouting lockdown rules to attend a dog's birthday party. And Georgia Toffolo appeared to be ignoring official advice again as she went for a stroll with her father and a friend on Sunday. The Made in Chelsea star, 25, had previously suggested she was isolating alone at her home in Chelsea. Breaking the rules? Georgia Toffolo met up with her father and a friend in Chelsea on Sunday despite suggesting she was isolating alone But the I'm A Celebrity winner appeared in close proximity to her friend, who was carrying a dog, and father Gary Bennett as they headed to her home. Government rules state that people living in different households should not meet and that people should should not be in gatherings of more than two in public. For the outing, Georgia looked ready for summer in a frilly white shirt, denim shorts and open toed white sandals. She carried a wicker picnic basket as well as a handbag, and accessorised with sunglasses. Social distancing? The I'm A Celebrity winner appeared in close proximity to her friend and father Gary Bennett near her home The beauty wore her golden tresses in a half ponytail as she enjoyed the outing during lockdown. MailOnline has contacted Georgia's representative for comment. It comes after she was previously criticised for flouting lockdown rules to attend a dog's birthday party. The reality star joined her friend Jess Hydleman at her house in London, where two men were also in attendance, reported The Sun. The party was for Jess' dog, where they took part in a Zoom call to celebrate - despite lockdown rules stating people should only leave their homes for exercise and essential trips for food or medication. Essential travel? Georgia reportedly flouted lockdown rules previously to attend a dog's birthday party [pictured with her own dog, Monty] This comes after Toff revealed that her grandfather has passed away after contracting coronavirus and that her grandmother caught the virus while visiting him in hospital. The incriminating video - which was leaked to The Sun via a source supposedly involved in the Zoom call - featured Toff in a pink dress. She is heard off-camera at one point asking, 'hows Squirrel is he okay?' and saying, 'well done Squirrel!' while everyone toasts the dog. The source told The Sun: 'Toff left her home on Friday to visit Jess in London for her dogs party. Flouting the rules? The reality star joined her friend Jess Hydleman at her house in London, where two men were also in attendance, reports The Sun 'Of all the reasons to breach lockdown rules, your friends poochs first birthday is hardly essential travel. 'It was so surprising to see Toff making such a blunder - especially after she has been so vocal during the pandemic.' While one of the men is unknown, the other is the boyfriend of Toff's friend Jess, who is the ex-fiance of troubled former-Big Brother star Marco Pierre White Junior. Toff is supporting the NHS by having a junior doctor, who works on the frontline battling COVID-19, live at her flat in Chelsea rent-free, for easy access to Westminster Hospital. Tragic: This comes after Toff revealed that her grandfather has passed away after contracting coronavirus and that her grandmother caught the virus while visiting him in hospital She said the frontline healthcare worker had helped her and her family deal with the death of her grandfather Umberto Toffolo, just two weeks ago. Speaking on Kate Thornton's, White Wine Question time podcast she said: 'My grandfather passed away a couple of weeks ago... 'I'm sure my grandfather will be put down as a coronavirus death, and its awful but he did die of coronavirus we knew he did have it for 10 days before he did pass away but my grandfather has been very unwell for the past six months - nearly a year so. 'My grandmother actually caught it off him in hospital and I spoke to her yesterday and thank goodness she has turned a corner and she is good now.' Toff's grandfather flew out to Australia in 2017 to surprise the star after she was crowned the winner of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. MailOnline has contacted Georgia's representatives. The P4 laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China's central Hubei Province on April 17, 2020. (Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images) A Date That Will Live in Infamy Commentary The theory that the CCP virusnow wreaking havoc throughout the worldis a bio-weapon produced in a Level 4 laboratory in Wuhan, China (Wuhan Institute of Virology) is probably the most popular conspiracy theory currently trending on the internet. Millionsmaybe billionsof words have been devoted to discussions about which horseshoe bats were found where, which Chinese scientists have disappeared, and on and on. Quite frankly, we dont yet know where the virus originated. Only the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) knowsand they arent telling. Was it at the wet market in Wuhan as CCP spokespeople originally maintained, or did it come from the nearby Level 4 labperhaps as an experiment gone horribly wrong? Was the virus natural or was it engineered? The Pentagon says the majority of views say it was natural, not engineered. But that doesnt rule out that it came from a lab. U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo says there is enormous evidence the virus outbreak began in a lab. That wet market (really a seafood market) was conveniently bulldozed long ago and CCP officials now arent even admitting the virus originated in Wuhanonly that it was first found there. In fact, some of their officials are telling their own people that the virus originated at a U.S. military facility. So, given the high likelihood that the CCP will continue to prevaricate, obfuscate, and prevent the truth from ever coming out, we may never know the truth. Quite simply, that the CCP spent a crucial six weeks covering up the seriousness of what was going on in Wuhan means that nothing said by the CCP can be taken at face value. But one fact the CCP cant hide is that it stopped all travel from Wuhan to other points in China, but didnt stop tens of thousands of Wuhan residents from continuing to fly all over the worldinfecting millions. On Jan. 23, Wuhan was completely locked down, and no one from the city was allowed to travel to other parts of China. Remember that dateJan. 23, 2020because it will live in infamy. Just like Dec. 7, 1941, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Jan 23, 2020, will be remembered in history as the day the CCPwittingly or unwittinglyunleashed a cataclysm on the entire world. The Chinese Communist Party chose to infect the rest of the planet. While the events of Dec. 7, 1941, left more than 2,400 dead, what happened on Jan. 23 has already resulted in the deaths of a hundred times that many and counting. Despite stopping all traffic from Wuhan to all other parts of China, the CCPastoundinglyfailed to halt flights to Europe, North America, Africa, and all other points. In fact, those flights only ceased when travel bans were imposed by nations that belatedly came to the awful realization that they were admitting tens of thousands of infected travelers from Wuhan. Its no coincidence that Italy, Iran, Britain, and the United States were so badly infected, since they were the destinations for so many of those travelers from Wuhan. But it gets worse. Not only did the CCP fail to voluntarily stop international flights from Wuhan on Jan. 23or on any date, for that matterthey complained bitterly when infected countries started taking action to stop admitting travelers from Wuhan. The CCP used its World Health Organization (WHO) friends to complain that such action was racist and improper. There is no reason for measures that unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade, said WHO chiefand virtual CCP puppetDr. Tedros Ghebreyesus on the CCPs behalf on Feb. 3. Shockingly, he uttered those words at a time when he and the CCP were fully aware that the CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, was transmissible between humans and also very deadlybut before the rest of the world had been fully informed of those facts. The CCP continued to both oppose the flight bans and hide the serious nature of the virus crisis until the WHO finally declared a pandemic on March 11. So thats what the CCPthe party of Maodid to the world. We are now at a point where hundreds of thousands are dead, trillions of dollars of economic damage have been done to the world, and the future looks both uncertain and unstable. This was all because of Jan. 23when the CCP failed to stop traffic from Wuhan to the world, but stopped traffic from Wuhan to the rest of China. Is infamy too strong a word for what the CCP did? I think not. Theres little doubt that if the CCP had stopped traffic from flowing to the rest of the world on Jan. 23, at the same time they stopped traffic flowing from Wuhan to the rest of China, there wouldnt have been a pandemic at all. In fact, the outbreak would probably have been a controllable epidemic limited to Wuhan and parts of Hubei Province. A credible estimate is that the CCP could have limited 95 percent of the damage simply by being honest with the world. If there had been that simple honesty, there can be little doubt that the worlds nations would have promptly shut down all flightseven if the CCP failed to do that decent thing. So, given the unconscionable actionsor lack of actionby the CCP, is bio-weapon too harsh a word to describe their decision to allow tens of thousands of infected Wuhan residents to disperse to all parts of the world? Wasnt every one of those infected people who were allowed to travel the equivalent of a deadly weapon? In fact, Im not sure theres a word thats too harsh for what the CCP has done. What could possibly possess the CCP to act in such an unconscionableand probably racistmanner? What were they thinking? After all, China has one of the worlds oldest and most sophisticated civilizations. Chinese cities, libraries, and high arts were flourishing when Europe was a backwater, and the Americas were without cities or libraries of any kind. The Chinese people have always been among the most decent and hardworking people on the planet. And for those who argue that liberal democracy and freedom are somehow antithetical to the Chinese, they need only look to little Taiwan, off the China coast. There, Chinese people have successfully built a flourishing liberal democracy, where the people enjoy levels of both freedom and prosperity unimaginable on mainland China. Or one can look at Hong Kong, where brave citizens desperately try to hold on to their freedomsand avoid becoming just another CCP state-controlled city. So what happened on the mainland? How could this truly impressive nation have degenerated to the point where it would knowingly export death and destruction to everyone outside its borders? The uncomplicated answer is the CCPs bloody-minded determination to stay in power at any cost. Since coming to power in 1949, that party has alternately starved and brutalized its citizens, crushing all dissent. The Party of Mao was responsible for the death of at least 60 million people over the course of its brutal reign. It was hoped that former President Richard Nixons historic visit to China in 1972 would usher in a more humane, liberal, and cooperative China. And indeedat least after the tyrant Mao Zedong finally expired in 1976the new leaders allowed the natural ability of the people to flourish, and permitted elements of free enterprise to prevail. Through hard work and enterprise, millions of people then lifted themselves out of poverty. But the CCP never did let human freedoms developso that increased prosperity has come at a huge price. The Party maintains absolute control, and wont tolerate dissent. The Party also controls the media and increasingly has exerted control even over organizations such as the WHO, which, in theory, are apolitical. The CCP perverts such organizations. Its that ruthless control, determination to stifle dissent, and racist attitude to anyone not Chinese that has allowed this completely unnecessary pandemic to get out of control. The fact is, CCP totalitarianism has no conscience. The next years will be spent examining how things went so badly wrong. But already its quite clear that the WHO was far too eager to please the CCP leadership. The combination of an arrogant CCP and a lickspittle WHO leadership is responsible for grief and suffering on a colossally tragic scale. If anyone hoped that a more contrite CCP would emerge from this catastrophic pandemic, their hopes were dashed immediately. A China now reportedly recovered from the virus is taking advantage of a weakened West to neuter Hong Kong and bully its neighbors. Instead of offering apologies and compensation, an emboldened CCP instead spreads false information that the virus originated within the American military, and refuses even to admit that the virus originated in Wuhanadmitting only that it was first discovered there. A truly discouraging sign of how the CCP plans to conduct itself in the post-pandemic era is its attempted blackmail of Francenamely, it will help a virus-battered France only in return for the French allowing Huawei 5G into that country. Another discouraging example is that China continues to hold two Canadians hostage in medieval fashion in an effort to blackmail Canada into renouncing the rule of law. The audacity is mind-bogglingafter bringing France to its knees with the virus exported from Wuhan, the CCP uses that vulnerability to get its way. Toward Canada, it acts like a gangster. This is Kafkaesque on a cosmic scale. The lawsuits against China have begun. Its ironic that the state of Missouriwhere Winston Churchills Iron Curtain speech officially announced the Cold War with the USSRwas the first state to sue. The Cold War can be said to have begun when Churchill delivered that speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, on March 5, 1946. He famously said, From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent. Although the USSR is no more, that destructive Cold War continues in modified form to this day. Anyone doubting that the West is now engaged in an equally fraught and equally destructive Cold War with Communist China need only look at what the CCP didor rather didnt doon Jan. 23. What comes next, we dont know. The West looks for some sign that the CCP wants to apologize and at least discuss compensation. At the very least, it wants some sign that the CCP will show more cooperation and less hostility to the West, and that it will offer more freedom to its own people. If those signs are not forthcoming, the next decades will be very difficult ones. So far, we look in vain. Jan. 23, 2020, is a date that will live in infamy. Brian Giesbrecht is a retired judge and a senior fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Early voting has started for the June 2 primary election. People using absentee ballots, to practice social distancing or for other reasons, can return them as soon as they receive them. Today, the Journal makes its first set of endorsements for the primary, beginning with the three contested races for Santa Fe County positions in the Democratic primary. County Commission, District 5: Hank Hughes For the seat being vacated by incumbent Ed Moreno that represents Eldorado and other areas, Hughes is the best choice. Hes executive director of the New Mexico Coalition for the Homeless, and has devoted most of his career to advocating and working on behalf of the homeless, including as executive director of St. Elizabeths Shelter. But hes also an environmental engineer who has served as a water resources specialist and is committed to trying to mitigate the impacts of climate change. This makes Hughes well positioned to take on such major issues as homelessness, affordable housing and water security. Hes shown with his lifes work that he cares about his community, and that hes also got the skills and background to take on the political and leadership roles of a county commissioner. County treasurer: Lucinda Marker Marker is a non-conventional candidate for the treasurers job. She has worked as a high school teacher, business manager for an Off-Broadway theater and managing director of a theater in Taos. But she was also vice president of investor relations for an international real estate investment firm, president of a broker/dealer company, owned a financial advisory office and was director of client service for an investment management firm. All of that experience could prove valuable for an office that oversees the investment of county funds. Marker wants to provide easy public access to detailed investment information to allow for tracking performance and disbursement of funds, and better communicate changes in tax payments to the public. Jennifer Manzaneras, current chief deputy treasurer, is another good choice in this race. County clerk: Sarah Guzman Underdog Sarah Guzman has the background to do a good job of taking over for outgoing County Clerk Geraldine Salazar, who has done a commendable job. She has a degree in government and foreign languages, with an emphasis in Spanish, from New Mexico State and a masters degree in information systems from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. She has worked as a management consultant for nonprofits and as an analyst for key committees in the state Legislature, and she and her husband have a small retail business. Like all the candidates in the race, shes in favor of measures to make it easier to vote and wants more Spanish-language materials at polling places. Her status as a self-described data nerd would come in handy in the most high-profile job in the clerks office, namely running elections. Katharine Clark, another candidate, has key endorsements from the likes of incumbent Salazar and Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver. She certainly has relevant experience and Salazar praises Clarks strong ethical instincts. But it may be just a bit too soon for Clark to move from running high-profile campaigns, such as those of Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard and state Rep. Christine Chandler, to actually running the elections. Jaipur, May 10 : Ayurvedic doctors in Rajasthan are piqued over the neglect shown to them by the state government despite working as frontline corona warriors. As they are being denied the due credit and pay compared with the Allopathic doctors, they have decided to quit en masse. Babulal Barala, state secretary of the Aayush Medical Association and World Ayurveda Council, Rajasthan, told IANS, "Around 90 per cent of doctors in the field, visiting hotspots for sampling, surveying and testing, are Ayurvedic doctors. But the state government has not spoken anything to motivate these Ayurvedic warriors." Alleging bias, he pointed to the recent recruitment of over 2,000 Allopathic doctors, creating new positions overnight. Though Ayurvedic contractual workers had been sweating day and night for the last seven years, they had been ignored despite 1,300 positions lying vacant, he added. He said in the last seven years, not one Ayurveda doctor had been recruited despite vacancies. Hit by the neglect, the Ayurvedic doctors, working on contract and as frontline corona warriors, have threatened to quit. Ayush Chikitsak Sangharsh Samiti convenor Dr Ashish Dikshit said, "Ayurvedic contractual doctors have been waiting for regularisation for the last seven years. They were shocked when the state government appointed 2,000 Allopathic doctors overnight". The Ayurvedic doctors were doing the same task as Allopathetic doctors, but they were paid only Rs 22,000 and the Allopathic doctors over Rs 50,000 a month, said Barala. "The lives of Ayurvedic doctors is at risk as they are making regular field visits," he said. Overall, 5,000 regular and 2,000 contractual doctors were leading the fight against Covid-19 in the state, he said. "We are saving ourselves from infection by having our 'kadha' and other home remedies. We know none of the officials will come to help us," Barala said. He said one Aurvedic doctor Dr Madhusudan died of heart attack in Bharatpur while serving Covid-19 patient, but his family was yet to receive any help from the government. Sharma said the biased attitude had left Ayurvedic doctors demotivated and around 1,300 of them had signed the joint resignation. More would join if the demand for regularisation and gequal pay was not met, said Sharma. Fighting between forces loyal to rival governments over Libya's capital intensified Saturday with heavy artillery shelling hitting the sole functioning airport in Tripoli, setting jet fuel tanks ablaze and damaging passenger planes, authorities in west Libya and the UN said. The Tripoli-based Transportation Ministry said one of the damaged aircraft had been scheduled to leave Tripoli to bring back Libyans stranded in Spain by the coronavirus lockdown. It blamed east-based forces fighting to take the capital for over a year for the attack. 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 and foreign countries. Brega Petroleum Marketing Company said the shelling at Mitiga airport set its jet fuel tanks on fire. The company, which is part of Libya's National Oil Corporation, shared footage of apparent damaged tanks while firefighters try to distinguish the fire. Authorities had halted civilian flights at Mitiga, which is part of a military base in the capital, in March even before announcing the suspension of air travel as part of its measures to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, eastern-based forces under military commander Khalifa Hifter launched an offensive onTripoli, clashing with an array of militias loosely allied with the UN-supported but weak government in the capital. The Tripoli authorities are backed by Turkey and Qatar, while the eastern Libya forces are supported by United Arab Emirates and Egypt. The UN support mission in Libya blamed Hifter's forces for the Mitiga attack. Today's heavy shelling is one in a series of indiscriminate attacks ... killing more than 15 and injuring 50 civilians since May 1, it said. The mission said most of these attacks were attributable to Hifter's self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces. There was no immediate comment from the LAAF, which has repeatedly claimed that Turkey has used the airport to launch drone attacks on its forces. Tripoli authorities have denied the allegations. Elsewhere in the capital, the UN-supported administration, known as the Government of National Accord, said the LAAF fired over 100 rockets and artillery shells on Tripoli's residential neighborhoods. The health authorities said at least three people were killed and a dozen were wounded in the shelling. The claims could not independently be verified. The fighting over Tripoli has threatened to push Libya into a major conflagration on the scale of the 2011 uprising that toppled and later killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New York state governor Andrew Cuomo said three children in New York died of a rare inflammatory syndrome, probably linked to COVID-19, Reuters reported. During a daily briefing, Cuomo noted that he was increasingly worried about a syndrome with signs of toxic shock and Kawasaki disease, which he said included inflammation of the blood vessels and potentially fatal damage to the heart. The governors of New York and New Jersey also noted the growing influence of the pandemic on the mental health of residents, which was another factor for the thoughts of governors weighing the impact of unemployment on the health of residents in the transition to relaxing restrictions. Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday said the Maharashtra government should give permission to private vehicles for ferrying migrant labourers to their native places during the lockdown. Raising concern over migrant workers setting off for their hometowns on foot, Raut said they were falling sick and some have also died. "The labour class is walking back home, this is not a good picture. Their children are with them. Railways is not ready to operate trains for them. The state government should give permission to private vehicles to ply," Raut tweeted. "People are falling ill while walking. Some have died. Even then their walking hasn't stopped, the Rajya Sabha member further said. Sixteen migrant workers sleeping on rail tracks while returning to Madhya Pradesh were crushed to death by a goods train in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra in the early hours of Friday. The labourers, rendered jobless due to the coronavirus-enforced lockdown, had set off for their homes on foot along the rail tracks apparently to escape police attention. On March 28, four migrant labourers were crushed to death when a speeding tempo ran over them on Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway in Maharashtra's Palghar district. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Facing criticism for "under reporting" COVID-19 deaths, the Delhi government on Sunday warned hospitals and other health facilities of strict action in case of any delay in reporting of coronavirus fatalities and also issued an SOP. Delhi Chief Secretary Vijay Dev issued the order along with the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) under which all COVID-19 hospitals and other facilities will e-mail a 'death report' to the district and state surveillance units everyday by 5 pm. In the order, Dev said it has come to the notice of the government that public and private hospitals (both COVID-19 dedicated and non COVID-19 hospitals) are not reporting deaths caused by the virus in a timely and regular manner. It has also been observed that despite repeated reminders, the death summaries of the deceased are not being provided to the death audit committee leading to submission of "incorrect or delayed reports". Officials of the 10 hospitals treating COVID-19 patients have said the number of people dead due to the virus is higher than what the Delhi government's bulletin reflects. "Every COVID-19 hospital and other health facilities will appoint nodal officers who will ensure timely communication of deaths. MS (medical superintendent)/MD (medical director)/Directors of all concerned hospitals will ensure this on a daily basis without fail," Dev said in the order. If there is a delay in reporting of deaths, the MS, MD or nodal officer of the 'defaulter hospital' will have to file a written explanation, the official order said. "Even if no death has happened, even then a NIL report shall be furnished by email to IDSP Cell for the compilation of death data," Dev said. The death audit committee will meet daily at 5.30 pm for examining the death report due to COVID-19, it stated, adding that the committee will examine and see all the relevant documents and after due diligence will declare "death due to COVID-19 or otherwise". Non-compliance will be viewed seriously and strict action as per the relevant provisions of the Disaster Management Act as well as other relevant laws will be taken against the defaulters without any further notice," the chief secretary said. On Saturday, Congress leader Ajay Maken had sought more transparency from the Kejriwal government while Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari urged the chief minister to "tell the truth" about COVID-19 deaths in the city, saying people have a right to know about the severity of the outbreak. Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that said 75 per cent of COVID-19 cases in the city are asymptomatic or showing mild symptoms, and asserted that the number of serious patients and deaths caused by the infection is "less". "The number of serious patients is less. The number of COVID-19 -19 deaths is very less," he said, a day after his government was attacked for "under reporting" the deaths. A confusion has prevailed over the exact number of deaths in the national capital as the data from four hospitals showed that 92 people succumbed to the infection against 68 reported by the Delhi government till Friday. However, Kejriwal said on Sunday that 73 people have died due to the virus in the city. He said Delhi has reported 6,923 coronavirus cases, out of which 2,069 have recovered, while 91 patients are in ICU and 27 are on ventilator support. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In 2009, Barack Obama became the fourth US President to win the Nobel Peace Prize Former President Barack Obama described President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic as "chaotic" in a conference call with former members of his administration, a source said on Saturday. Obama has largely kept out of the fray even as Trump has blamed him and his Democratic administration for a variety of problems related to having sufficient supplies to battle the pandemic that has killed more than 75,000 Americans. But in his call on Friday with 3,000 members of the Obama Alumni Association, people who served in his administration, Obama urged his supporters to get behind Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who is trying to unseat Trump in the Nov. 3 election. The contents of the call were first reported by Yahoo News. A source familiar with the call confirmed them to Reuters. Obama said the election "is so important because what we're going to be battling is not just a particular individual or a political party." 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 "What we're fighting against is these long-term trends in which being selfish, being tribal, being divided, and seeing others as an enemy -- that has become a stronger impulse in American life," he said. He said this is one reason why "the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty." "It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset -- of 'what's in it for me' and 'to heck with everybody else' -- when that mindset is operationalized in our government," Obama said. "That's why, I, by the way, am going to be spending as much time as necessary and campaigning as hard as I can for Joe Biden," he said. Obama's office declined to comment. White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said Trump's response to the coronavirus "has been unprecedented" and has saved American lives. She harked back to the Ukraine inquiry launched by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives last year that led to House passage of articles of impeachment against Trump. The Republican-led Senate acquitted Trump early this year. "While Democrats were pursuing a sham witch hunt against President Trump, President Trump was shutting down travel from China. While Democrats encouraged mass gatherings, President Trump was deploying PPE, ventilators, and testing across the country," she said. National polls show a tight race between Trump and Biden with six months to go until the election. Biden leads in several battleground states. The number of COVID-19 cases in Udgir in Latur reached 27 on Sunday after five more people were detected with the coronavirus infection, health officials said. Of the 33 samples that were sent for testing, 28 reports returned negative and five positive, said Vilasrao Deshmukh Government Medical Science Institute dean Dr Girish Thakur. The 28 negative reports include that of three doctors, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Readers hoping to buy Manulife Financial Corporation (TSE:MFC) for its dividend will need to make their move shortly, as the stock is about to trade ex-dividend. This means that investors who purchase shares on or after the 15th of May will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 19th of June. Manulife Financial's next dividend payment will be CA$0.28 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of CA$1.12 per share. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, Manulife Financial has a trailing yield of approximately 6.6% on its current stock price of CA$17.08. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Manulife Financial's dividend is reliable and sustainable. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing. See our latest analysis for Manulife Financial Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned in profit, then the dividend could be unsustainable. Manulife Financial paid out a comfortable 44% of its profit last year. Generally speaking, the lower a company's payout ratios, the more resilient its dividend usually is. Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends. TSX:MFC Historical Dividend Yield May 10th 2020 Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing? Stocks in companies that generate sustainable earnings growth often make the best dividend prospects, as it is easier to lift the dividend when earnings are rising. If business enters a downturn and the dividend is cut, the company could see its value fall precipitously. With that in mind, we're encouraged by the steady growth at Manulife Financial, with earnings per share up 5.1% on average over the last five years. Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. Since the start of our data, ten years ago, Manulife Financial has lifted its dividend by approximately 8.0% a year on average. We're glad to see dividends rising alongside earnings over a number of years, which may be a sign the company intends to share the growth with shareholders. Story continues To Sum It Up Should investors buy Manulife Financial for the upcoming dividend? Manulife Financial has seen its earnings per share grow slowly in recent years, and the company reinvests more than half of its profits in the business, which generally bodes well for its future prospects. Manulife Financial ticks a lot of boxes for us from a dividend perspective, and we think these characteristics should mark the company as deserving of further attention. With that in mind, a critical part of thorough stock research is being aware of any risks that stock currently faces. To help with this, we've discovered 3 warning signs for Manulife Financial that you should be aware of before investing in their shares. If you're in the market for dividend stocks, we recommend checking our list of top dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend. 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 back-and-forth continues. The Department of Homeland Security said Friday the United States will shorten the visa length for Chinese journalists working for non-American news outlets to 90 days. Previously, journalists with Chinese passports were granted open-ended visas. They can apply for extensions under the new rules, but renewed visas will also last just 90 days. The new limit won't apply to reporters from Hong Kong, Macau, or to mainland Chinese citizens who hold green cards. It's the latest development in a media war between Washington and Beijing that has intensified during the coronavirus pandemic. American officials said the rules were meant to counterbalance the "suppression of independent journalism" in China, whose government expelled journalists from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post in March. Before that, the U.S. reduced the number of Chinese citizens employed by multiple state-controlled Chinese news organizations to work in the country. The New York Times notes the move wasn't unexpected; U.S. intelligence officials have long believed some journalists at Beijing-run outlets are spies, and the Trump administration has designated some Chinese news agencies as foreign government functionaries. The heightened tensions between the world's two biggest powers didn't just show up in the media world Friday. U.S. lawmakers wrote to nearly 60 countries asking them to support Taiwan's participation in the World Health Organization, a move that likely won't sit well with China. And Washington also blocked a United Nations security council resolution calling for a global ceasefire during the pandemic because it indirectly referenced the WHO, which the U.S. has blamed in conjunction with China for failing to suppress the outbreak. More stories from theweek.com The dark decade ahead Trump claims coronavirus numbers 'are going down almost everywhere.' That's not the case. 5 brutally funny cartoons about Trump's coronavirus strategy Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-09 23:32:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (front) delivers a speech during his inspection to the construction site of a COVID-19 hospital in Istanbul, Turkey, May 9, 2020. Erdogan on Saturday inspected the construction zones of two COVID-19 hospitals in Istanbul, local media reported. Turkey has been building the hospitals for COVID-19 patients in the Ataturk Airport area on the European side of the city and the Sancaktepe district on the Asian side. (Xinhua) ISTANBUL, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday inspected the construction zones of two COVID-19 hospitals in Istanbul, local media reported. Turkey has been building the hospitals for COVID-19 patients in the Ataturk Airport area on the European side of the city and the Sancaktepe district on the Asian side. The state-run Anadolu agency said Erdogan first arrived in the construction site of the hospital at the Sancaktepe by a helicopter. He visited the rooms and received information from the Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, Anadolu noted, adding that the president later proceeded to the European part of the city to inspect the latest situation at the other one. The constructions of both hospitals started at the beginning of April and are expected to be completed later in May, according to press reports. Turkey has so far recorded 135,569 coronavirus cases and 3,689 deaths, according to the latest data released by the Health Ministry. Enditem Medical workers and police treat a woman who has overdosed on heroin in Warren, Ohio, on July 14, 2017. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Health Experts Say Pandemic Could Lead to 154,000 Deaths of Despair Due to Substance Abuse, Suicide Well Being Trust study calls it an epidemic within the pandemic. Health experts warn that as pandemic-driven hardship puts added strain on the mental health of Americans, tens of thousands of lives may be lost due to outbreak-fueled drug or alcohol abuse and suicide. Public health group Well Being Trust, in a new study published on May 8 (pdf), states that the COVID-19 outbreak could lead as many as 154,037 Americans to die additional deaths of despair. Deaths of despair have been on the rise for the last decade, and in the context of COVID-19, deaths of despair should be seen as the epidemic within the pandemic, the studys executive summary said. The authors of the report determined nine different scenarios for how the outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, could play out and impact Americans. They estimate that additional deaths of despair amid the pandemic could range from 27,644which assumes a quick recovery and therefore the smallest impact on unemploymentall the way up to 154,037. The worst-case scenario would be driven by a slow economic recovery and have the biggest impact on unemployment. The most likely outcome, according to Well Being Trust, is that an additional 75,000 Americans will die deaths of despair due to the pandemic. Battering the U.S. economy, COVID-19 shutdowns and the destruction of demand erased a staggering 20.5 million jobs in April, the steepest plunge in nonfarm payrolls since the Great Depression. The unemployment rate spiked to 14.7 percent last month, according to the Labor Departments monthly employment report, released on May 8. The previous post-World War II jobless rate record was 10.8 percent in November 1982. Unemployment during the Great Recession (December 2007June 2009) was associated with an increase in suicide deaths and drug overdose deaths, according to the study, whose authors noted that their estimates of additional pandemic-related deaths were based on historical and scientific research. We can only estimate the impact of social isolation based on the impact of social isolation among smaller groups and individuals. The magnitude and scale of social isolation in COVID-19 is unprecedented, so the impact on mental health and illness is a prediction. Well Being Trusts chief strategy officer Dr. Benjamin F. Miller told CNN that the figures presented in the study are estimates and that actions taken could change the number of deaths. Unless we get comprehensive federal, state, and local resources behind improving access to high quality mental health treatments and community supports, I worry were likely to see things get far worse when it comes to substance misuse and suicide, Miller said. Miller emphasized that the data is just a projection, and that actions taken could change the number of deaths. We can change the numbersthe deaths have not happened yet. He said healthy community conditions are preconditions for improved mental health and well-being. These are uncertain times, unprecedented. Unfortunately, for too many, this uncertainty may lead to fear, and fear may give way to dread, said Jack Westfall, director of the Robert Graham Center. We try to provide as much certainty as possible to shed some light on our path, he said. We must also make our relationships certain, regardless of the uncertain facts and figures of the day. By Express News Service KOCHI: The Indian navy ship carrying 698 passengers, including 400 Keralites, from the Maldives arrived at the Kochi port on Sunday morning. The evacuation was a part of the Centre's Operation Samudra Setu to evacuate Indian nationals stranded in the island nation. INS Jalashwa, which set sail from Male port on Friday night, arrived in Kochi at around 9:30 am. The group comprises 595 males and 103 females. Of this, 14 are children below 10 years and 19 pregnant women. Though a majority of the passengers are from Kerala and Tamil Nadu there are repatriates of 18 other states/UTs also in the ship, an official statement by Kochi port said here. Officials said the passengers disembarked at the cruise terminal of Cochin Port Trust and will have to undergo quarantine in Kochi itself, before proceeding to their respective homes. The institutional quarantine is for 14 days, and the district administration has made all the arrangements here in Kochi, they said. INA Jalashwa ship entering Kochi port on Sunday with hundreds of Indian nationals from Male, Maldives. #covid19 @xpresskerala Express Video | @sanesh_TNIE pic.twitter.com/OKMKMM75H0 The New Indian Express (@NewIndianXpress) May 10, 2020 Passengers showing COVID symptoms are being disembarked first followed by others in small groups, district-wise. Thermal screening of passengers on arrival is being carried out by the port health organisation," it said. Ernakulam district collector S Suhas told reporters that no COVID symptoms have been identified in the passengers so far. Customs and Immigration procedures are carried out inside the Terminal, where the arrangement has also been made for the distribution of SIM cards by BSNL and installation of ArogyaSetu in mobile phones of passengers. Disinfection facility for baggage and free wi-fi have been made available by the Port at the Termina, the port said. Arrangements for onward travel to hospitals/institutional quarantine centres/home quarantine are ensured by state government by deploying ambulances, state transport buses, and taxis. These arrangements are coordinated by the District Administration, Police Amidst the global pandemic of COVID-19, Indian Naval ships are deployed to support the ongoing national effort to repatriate Indian nationals across the seas. While INS Jalashwa arrived at the mainland, INS Magar is on her way to enter Male to continue the repatriation effort of the Indian government, an official statement said. Passengers from other parts of the country belonged to Tamil Nadu (187), Telangana (9), Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh (8 each), Lakshadweep (4), and Haryana, Maharashtra and Rajasthan Congress leader Siddaramaiah along with MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan distributes free ration kits to poor people at Chamarajpet during the extended nationwide lockdown imposed to mitigate the spread of coronavirus, in Bengaluru on May 9, 2020. (representational image: IANS) Jacy Lewis/Reporter-Telegram What a world we are living in today. We are witnesses to and participants in an event that will touch every person globally. We are part of a rare opportunity for a shared experience between fellow humans from every race, religion, culture and geography. Here, in our own backyard, were not immune to the effects of the crisis the world is battling. But the Permian Basin is no stranger to challengeswe are a bold and brave community that bonds together. The global pandemic has introduced a new kind of challenge in the Permian Basin. In early March, as we began to feel the health and employment impacts of COVID-19, oil prices began dropping. As a community heavily tied to the oil and gas industry, we rode the rollercoaster and settled into our new normal, making hard adjustments to work and home life. Fast forward just six weeks, and oil prices entered negative territory something that no generation has ever seen. And now as the rest of the nation begins to return to normal, our return will be cautious as we closely watch oil prices. Flash The United States is responsible for an impasse in the Security Council over the adoption of a resolution on COVID-19, a Chinese diplomat said on Saturday. Security Council members had agreed on the text of a draft resolution thanks to the great efforts by France and Tunisia, the co-penholders. China supports the text. The United States also expressed its support. Surprisingly and regrettably, the United States later reneged, making it impossible for the Security Council to adopt a resolution. The United States undermined the unity of the Security Council and should take full responsibility for today's situation, the Chinese diplomat said. China has demonstrated maximum flexibility. China will continue to stick to the current text. China favors a Security Council resolution that supports the UN secretary-general's appeal for a global cease-fire, promotes humanitarian response and ensures the safety and security of UN peacekeepers, the Chinese diplomat said. China favors a resolution that supports the World Health Organization (WHO). This position is favored by all council members except one, said the Chinese diplomat, noting that the WHO plays a central role in the coordination of the global fight against COVID-19, in providing essential public health assistance. The WHO is essential in helping developing countries, including African states, cope with the pandemic, the Chinese diplomat added. The WHO's role was fully reflected in a Security Council resolution on Ebola. The resolution won broad support of the council members. Hundreds of Iraqis have gathered in central Baghdad for fresh anti-government protests demanding better living conditions and an overhaul of the countrys political system, just days after the formation of a new government. The gathering in Tahrir Square on Sunday came after Mustafa al-Kadhimi, the countrys new prime minister, promised to release demonstrators arrested during the mass protests that erupted in October last year. Following his first cabinet meeting, al-Kadhimi on Saturday also pledged justice and compensation to relatives of more than 550 people killed since the start of the popular demonstrations. The prime minister was Iraqs spy chief when the protests the bloodiest in Iraqs recent history broke out, and his pledges came as calls spread on social media for renewed demonstrations on Sunday. Sundays protests stretched to other areas, including Iraqs southern city of al-Nasriya. Al Jazeeras Simona Foltyn, reporting from central Baghdad, said the gathering was the most significant since March 17, when a curfew was imposed in an attempt to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Since then, Tahrir Square has been virtually empty, with a few dozen people remaining in the tents that have been set up here, she said. Foltyn reported that a few hundred people had gathered in Tahrir Square as of 10:00 GMT, with some manning the barricades on top of Republican Bridge. Its pretty small compared to what we saw in the early days of the protests but people are still flocking to Tahrir Square so the numbers may rise throughout the day, she added. The countrys new prime minister promised to release demonstrators arrested during protests that erupted in October last year [Murtadha Al-Sudani/Anadolu Agency] The formation of the new government came some six months after former Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, who has been leading a caretaker administration, resigned in the face of the mass protests calling for the departure of Iraqs ruling elite accused of driving the country into dysfunction and economic ruin. The battle over government portfolios since Abdul Mahdis resignation in November last year prevented two previous nominees for prime minister from forming a cabinet and deepening the countrys political crisis. To earn a vote of confidence in Parliament, al-Kadhimi had to appease the main political parties by letting them pick ministers in his cabinet an informal yet deeply entrenched power-sharing system known as apportionment. Protesters still have demands that go well beyond the appointment of a new prime minister, Foltyn said. They still demand a complete overhaul of the political system and they say that the political parties that are responsible for the failures of the past government are still controlling Parliament. Sinan Antoon, an Iraqi novelist, believes that the protests will continue, mainly because al-Khadhimi is the product of the very same system that the protestors have been rallying against. While releasing the detainees is good, these gestures and any other cosmetic changes are not going to fool the protesters nor quell the protests, Antoon told Al Jazeera. The protests are against decades of corruption and criminality and against a political class beholden to foreign influence and al-Kadhimi is an insider, he said. In his speech, al-Kadhimi also promised that all pensions would be paid out in the coming days, rescinding a decision taken by the previous government just before it stepped down that blocked all state spending, including civil servants salaries and pension payments relied on by one in five Iraqis. The announcements were quite bold for his first cabinet meeting, Foltyn said. It was clear that al-Khadimi was wasting no time to try to mend the rifts between the demonstrators and the government. To date, oil-rich Iraq has reported 2,679 confirmed coronavirus cases and 107 related deaths. An implosion of oil prices amid the coronavirus pandemic has raised concerns that Iraq will have little option but to impose austerity policies that could give rise to renewed demonstrations. Protesters are saying that the will try to mobilise the protest movement again to see actual results, Foltyn said. What remains to be seen is whether the protests will once again gain momentum and reach the same numbers as last year. A few banks have come up with lockdown offers for their customers. HDFC Bank offered discount on purchase of jewellery on Akshaya Tritya, Union Bank of India on purchase of medicine, and SBI on taking key lab tests. New Delhi: Banks have increased their reliance on social media to engage with their customersfor disseminating information, and to engage with customers. HDFC Bank came out with a customer engagement exercise, giving them an incentive to find their hidden artistic talent amid staying locked down. Tired of staying home and having nothing to do? HDFC Bank Fingage presents The Art Project, to give you a #BreakFromBoredom! Unlock your creativity during the lockdown & stand a chance to win exciting prizes!, tweeted the bank, trying to engage its customers during the lockdown. Punjab National Bank (PNB) has come up with a contest on the Mothers Day with a catchy slogan, For her, you will always remain a child. Since the lockdown has made online banking more vulnerable to fraudsters, several banks are regularly warning their customers against possible frauds. Beware of fraudsters who pose as bank officials and scam people by gaining remote access to their mobile phone screens through an app. Inform us when you identify a scamster through e-mail: epg.cms@sbi.co.in & report.phishing@sbi.co.in, tweeted SBI. Similar warnings were issued by a few other lenders. Fraudsters find new ways to target innocent people. And this time, they are targeting through banking and other payments apps to steal your hard-earned money. Be careful and keep following the #PNBKaFunda to learn the ways to avoid them, PNB tweeted. Another public sector major Canara Bank warned its customers in a tweet, Dont get hooked by #Phishing! Always check before you click on any links. Be cautious about opening any attachments or downloading files received via email/sms , if source is unknown. A few banks have also come up with lockdown offers for their customers. HDFC Bank offered discount on purchase of jewellery on Akshaya Tritya with a promise that part of the money would go to PM Cares Fund. This Akshaya Tritya, buy jewellery from the safety of your home, with HDFC Bank Credit Cards! With every purchase above Rs.10,000, we will contribute Rs. 100 to the PM Cares Fund and you earn 5X Reward Points, HDFC Bank tweeted. Union Bank of India has offered discount on purchase of medicine. In this difficult time, its easy to save some cash on your pharmacy bill. Just use #UnionBankofIndia cards at your nearest Apollo Pharmacy Store to get up to 15% off, UBI said in a tweet. SBI gave a similar offer to its customers: Get a health check from the comfort of your home with Apollo 24/7. Earn great discounts on key lab tests via YONO SBI app. Some banks are telling customers how they are tweaking services to suit the times. Union Bank of India informed its customers that for the time being there would be no charge on withdrawal of funds from ATMs of other banks. To ease the lockdown burden, Debit card ATM withdrawals from any other bank ATMs will be free of charge till 30th June 2020, the bank said in a tweet. Banks are also making sure people in rural areas do not crowd the branches for direct benefit transfers. The countrys largest lender SBI informed that the second installment of Rs 500 had been deposited in the accounts of female Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana account holders under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana. It also provided a schedule for withdrawal of funds by them so that social distancing norms are not breached. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Photo Illustration by Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images UK subsidiaries of foreign companies have been struggling for weeks to gain access to coronavirus loans due to a flaw in Lloyds Banking Groups (LLOY.L) systems. The bank is now rushing to fix the error and hopes to have a solution in place next week, The Guardian reported. Some small and medium sized enterprises (SME) in the UK have been caught out by eligibility criteria for the 80% government-guaranteed coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS). This has been made worse by Lloyds bank processes, which automatically block account managers from accessing the right loans for their clients. The CBILS scheme is aimed at SMEs that conduct most of their business in the UK and a companys annual revenue cannot top 45m ($55.8m). But local subsidiaries within the company have to count their entire groups turnover when applying for the scheme. READ MORE: Renters will outnumber mortgage holders by 2029, RBS forecasts Harry Starke, managing director of Austrian-owned steel manufacturer Sikla UK, based in Milton Keynes, told The Guardian how he had been waiting for funding via Lloyds for six weeks. He initially applied for a 250,000 emergency loan in March but found the firm was barred due to the CBILS revenue calculation that counted his 5m turnover firm as a 140m-a-year business. He then waited for the new coronavirus large business interruption loan scheme (CLBIS) only to find his Lloyds SME account manager could not access the larger scheme. Only clients in its commercial division could apply. Lloyds has acknowledged the issue and said only a limited number of businesses had been caught out. A Lloyds spokesman said: For a very limited number of SMEs, who are part of a wider group of companies where the combined turnover is over 45m, they may be eligible for CLBILS rather than CBILS. We are liaising with those customers to ensure we can provide the finance they need as quickly as possible. Kristy at #Reopen USA posted the following: Anyone else feeling like Trump is behaving a bit weak in all this? It's just a question don't attack, I've been a supporter from day one, and continue to be, but I'm surprised at how he is handling the re-opening of the country. Some of these Governors are blowing it big time, and it seems like he doesn't have any tricks up his sleeve, and is kind of supporting the way they are going about it. Just curious what everyone's take is, I wish he was advising with a more diverse group of people. Thoughts? I characterize President Trump's behavior as strategic rather than weak. Many Trump supporters are furious that Trump appears to allow Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx to dictate when we reopen America. At the same time, Democrats and fake news media absurdly claim Trump is responsible for thousands of deaths because he ignores science and health experts. Fake news media is flooding the airwaves with their claim that over 100,000 people will die if crazy Trump irresponsibly reopens America. Trump is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. I am confident that Trump will courageously press forward, doing what is best for We the People. Out-of-control Democrats are using coronavirus to overrule our Second Amendment right to bear arms, release dangerous felons, and fund extreme leftist causes. They have selectively implemented unconstitutional restrictions intended to punish Christians and Trump voters. Insane with their newfound power, Democrats are actually considering going door to door to drag people out of their homes. In a nutshell, coronavirus has liberated Democrats from the restraints of the U.S. Constitution. Folks, we are at war with an evil enemy within, the Democratic Party. God placed Trump in the White House for such a catastrophically crucial time as this. Over the past 3 years, Democrats and fake news media have launched numerous illegal failed attempts to boot Trump out of the Oval Office. During every attack, a majority of Americans remained in Trump's corner. This coronavirus attack against Trump is different. Because fake news media has successfully instilled fear of coronavirus, many Trump loyalists support the wicked and unnecessary lockdown of our country. With members of his base supporting the lock-down, this puts Trump in an extremely difficult position. He must strategically reopen America. I do not pretend to understand Trump's strategy in joining the chorus of those who scolded Georgia governor Brian Kemp for reopening his state. However, I did notice that Trump said he would not do anything to stop Gov. Kemp. What keeps me firmly seated on the Trump Train is knowing that Trump loves America and is chomping at the bit to make America great again. If there is anyone who can pull off such a remarkable task, it is Donald J. Trump. Pundits say the shutdown has caused so much irreversible damage that America as we have known it is gone forever. They say Democrat governors have rendered the Constitution null and void forever. God has a habit of allowing situations to become impossible to fix before He intervenes. As a Christian, I cannot surrender to pundits' fatalistic view of our future. The Bible says, Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. (Proverbs 18:21) In other words, you get what you say and believe. Rather than embracing a defeatist mindset regarding America's future, I believe God would not miraculously give us Trump and then allow his presidency and our country to crash and burn. Therefore, I rally behind Trump's optimistic visionary mission to make America great again! While Trump has persevered and performed like a political Superman, he needs our help. We must push back against Democrats' coronavirus tyranny at all levels. Mary and I exited Walmart with our cart full of groceries. A staffer stopped us from going directly to our car a few yards away. Due to coronavirus, he instructed us to walk around a large roped-off section of the parking lot. My feisty Irish/Cherokee wife began arguing with him. I said, C'mon Hon, he's just doing his job. Mary relented. Driving home, I thought perhaps Mary complaining about the absurd restriction was right and my passive compliance was wrong. I chose not to tell Mary that I saw that Walmart staffer lift the rope to allow a coworker to go directly to her car parked beside ours. In California, a buddy had a full basket of groceries when the store manager repeatedly offered him a mask. My buddy refused. The manager said, Sir, per Riverside County everyone must wear a mask... Do you need a mask? My buddy smiled and said, No. The manager walked away and my buddy was not thrown out of the store or arrested. This is street level pushback, folks. I love and salute Shelly Luther who courageously opened her beauty salon and citizens across America who are organizing protests. You guys rock! We are Americans! Democrat governors are arrogantly bullying us with coronavirus restrictions which do not apply to themselves, their family, and friends. Folks, you need to understand once and for all that Democrats and fake news media are sick with hatred for all things wholesome and good. Without hesitation, they will destroy you and America for power to control every aspect of our lives. The treasonous wacko Democratic party must be defeated at the ballot box in November. In life, You get what you tolerate. I learned as a child living in the Baltimore projects that bullies will abuse you as long as you allow them. We must crush the party of anti-American socialist and communist bullies. Thank God we have a courageous and strong man in the White House leading the charge. Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American Help Lloyd Spread the Truth https://www.trumptrainusa2020.com/ http://LloydMarcus.com San Francisco, May 10 : A hacker group is selling data of 10 companies including online dating app Zoosk, US newspaper Star Tribune and food delivery service Chef that contains over 73 million user records over the Dark Web for $18,000 (nearly Rs 13.6 lakh) . Other companies are printing service Chatbooks, South Korean fashion platform SocialShare, online marketplace Minted, online newspaper Chronicle of Higher Education, South Korean furniture magazine GGuMim, health magazine Mindful and Indonesia online store Bhinneka, reports ZDNet. The listed databases have 73.2 million user records, with each database sold separately. The hacker group is known as ShinyHunters, the same group behind breaching private repositories on Microsoft-owned GitHub (the hacker is believed to have acquired around 1,200 private repositories) and Tokopedia, Indonesia's largest online store where a database of over 90 million user records was sold. A Microsoft spokesperson was quoted as saying that the company is investigating the incident. The same hacker group was also behind selling a database of 22 million user records form online learning platform Unacademy on the Dark Web. Bengaluru-based edtech firm Unacademy said the all the sensitive data of its users was safe and the company was addressing the security issue. "We would like to assure our users that no sensitive information such as financial data or location has been breached," said Hemesh Singh, Co- Founder and CTO, Unacademy. Encouraged by the profits from the Tokopedia sale, the same group has now listed the databases of 10 more companies. "Some believe the ShinyHunters group has ties to Gnosticplayers, a hacker group that was active last year that sold more than one billion user credentials on dark web marketplaces, as it operates on a nearly identical pattern," according to the report. BleepingComputer reported that cyber intelligence firm ZeroFox informed them that Shiny Hunters had begun selling databases for the meal kit delivery service HomeChef, photo print service ChatBooks, and Chronicle.com, a news source for higher education. Refugees from the coronavirus lockdown ordered by Gov. John Bel Edwards have been flocking to beaches from Grand Isle to Gulf Shores, causing much alarm among epidemiologists. That isolation and social distancing were the best response to the pandemic became the consensus both in this country and Europe, but the epidemiologist most often identified as the architect of such a policy is Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College in London. Only when Ferguson raised the specter of more than half a million COVID-19 deaths in Britain did Prime Minister Boris Johnson abandon thoughts of herd immunity and embrace containment. Ferguson's research has also been cited by President Donald Trump's coronavirus coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx. It was not just the quality of his work that made Ferguson the rock star of epidemiology, for he is a notorious publicity hound. Still, nobody doubts the soundness of his advice on COVID-19. He would take a dim view of all those Louisiana families playing volleyball on the sands of the Gulf Coast, right? Actually, he has no room to talk, for he has been caught breaking his own rules and forced to resign from the scientific advisory committee that guides Johnson. Epidemiological modeling is no doubt an inexact science, and no layman is qualified to question Ferguson's expertise, but there is no denying that his predictions can be spectacularly wide of the mark. In 2005, he said 200 million people could die of bird flu; four years later the worldwide total was 282. The British government, on Ferguson's advice, also said the worst-case scenario for swine flu was 65,000 deaths in that country. The actual toll was 457. Earlier, Ferguson's fear that mad cow disease might kill 50,000 people was off by 49,823. Such a record makes weather forecasters look like clairvoyants, but does not seem to have diminished Ferguson's credibility. He remained everyone's go-to guy on matters epidemiological and any hopes that his dire conclusions on COVID-19 would turn out to be the usual alarmist nonsense were soon dashed. Still, epidemiologists at many other universities reached the same conclusion as Ferguson, whose resignation might not therefore deprive the authorities of irreplaceable insights. His continued presence would only have encouraged the public to flout the lockdown order, as he repeatedly did. Ferguson's regular squeeze lives with her husband and two children in an open marriage, but, if there was no objection at home to her liberated sex life, it made the most famous advocate of social distancing look like a hypocrite. Ferguson, having recovered from a bout of COVID-19 himself, evidently figured his trysts were safe but was forced to concede he was setting a very bad example. Not that many people need any encouragement to flee lockdown, as the recent Gulf Coast beach scenes attest. Meanwhile, a state House committee has approved a resolution to limit Edwards' power to enforce emergency restrictions. Our neighboring states, which have made less progress than Louisiana in stemming the virus, are already opening up business, although it seems certain that the infection rate will go up as a result. Whether that is a prudent trade-off is a question that will elicit different responses from the healthy young, who could catch the virus and hardly notice, and the vulnerable old, for whom its potential effects hardly bear thinking about. But an indefinite lockdown in Louisiana, even if the populace were willing to put up with it, would not keep the virus at bay so long as the borders with Texas and Mississippi remained open. Once our neighbors decided that a public health emergency is preferable to economic ruin, the die was to a large extent cast here too. The concentration on COVID-19 has meant a reduced level of care for the victims of other, potentially fatal diseases, while anxiety and privation will exact their own toll in physical and mental health. Maybe, opening the economy back up long before the pandemic has run its course can, therefore, be justified in utilitarian terms. We'll never know what Ferguson thinks, although he may have told his girlfriend. Email James Gill at Gill1407@bellsouth.net. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggars kids have all gotten a ton of attention over the years. But its Jill Duggar and her husband, Derick Dillard, who are making the biggest splash. At the end of 2019, Derick told his Instagram followers that he and Jill dont see the other Duggars very often, as theyre not on good terms. And hes since spoken out even more against Jills family and TLC. Now, Dericks speaking on podcasts, too but its not all about the Duggars. Hes also talking about his parenting tactics and how he and Jill are choosing to raise their sons, Israel and Sam. And he recently told the First Class Fatherhood podcast that he thinks its important to train children. Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard have been slammed for their parenting in the past Jim Bob and Michelle instilled seriously strict rules in their household. From what the Duggars wore to how they entered courtships, everything was monitored. And Jill and Derick appear to be less strict with their kids. Its clear Jill has relaxed her dress code, and shes even enrolled her oldest son, Israel, into kindergarten, which would be a definite no-no in the Duggar family household. Despite Jills strides shes making toward modernity, she still gets serious flack for her parenting. Prior to Sams birth, Jill and Derick took a missionary trip to El Salvador and they took Israel with them. Jill and Derick were reportedly not licensed missionaries at the time. And fans slammed them for ignoring the warning signs for the Zika virus, especially with a child in tow. Not only that, but Derick talked about training his kids before. Hes a good little helper :) training him young lol ;), Derick captioned an Instagram post of Samuel pushing around a mop. This, of course, received tons of backlash. Many Duggar followers suspect the couple blanket trains their kids Theres also been concern amongst fans that the Duggars use blanket training as a method of teaching their kids. The technique was first introduced by Michael and Debi Pearl in their book, To Train Up a Child. And its used to teach children how to obey rules when theyre just infants. Parents who want to try blanket training are advised to place their baby on a blanket. When the child tries to leave the blanket, parents are to reprimand the child, sometimes physically, so they dont leave the blanket again. Theres evidence to suggest Jill and Derick have used blanket training in the past. In 2015, they posted a photo thats now deleted showing one of their children wrapped in a blanket, which is apparently another way of practicing the controversial parenting method. Derick talked on a podcast about training his children Jill Duggar Dillard (L) and husband Derick Dillard visit Extra at their New York studios | D Dipasupil/Getty Images for Extra Derick talked on the First Class Fatherhood podcast about parenting and its here he mentioned the idea of training his kids once again. I think its really important and a big job as a parent to train your child. And that word has a really negative connotation, but all it means is directing your children, helping them understand the way that life is, because otherwise people get into adulthood and get a rude awakening, Dillard said on the podcast. He then mentioned that he thinks its important for children to learn good character, honesty, and treating people the right way from their parents. Youd rather learn that as a kid than in a harsh way when youre older and people dont really care about your feelings as much, he added. Derick then clarified that he parents lovingly and tries never to show anger. And he hopes to instill respect for each other and putting yourself in other peoples shoes in his kids. Were curious to see how Jill and Derick continue to parent their kids as they age! Check out Showbiz Cheat Sheet on Facebook! Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 9) Some inbound international flights will be allowed to land at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) starting Monday, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines announced over the weekend. In a statement on Saturday, the CAAP said it had released a Notice to Airmen saying chartered flights will be allowed to land on Mondays and Thursdays. These flights must have prior clearance from the aviation authority and the Department of Foreign Affairs for slotting purposes. Meanwhile, scheduled commercial flights may land on NAIA on all other days of the week provided they secure approval from the CAAP 48 hours before their scheduled departure from their airport of origin. This is for the "necessary slotting and rescheduling of flights in order to subscribe to the 400 passengers per day capacity of NAIA," said CAAP. CAAP clarified that the 400 cap is applicable for inbound international commercial flights only, and is based on an adjusted seating configuration while observing physical distancing procedure inside the aircraft. Only returning residents, Philippine passport holders, foreign dignitaries and diplomats are allowed to join the inbound commercial flights. Emergency flights, ferry or cargo flights, government or military flights, weather mitigation flights, maintenance flights, and authorized outbound ferry or cargo flights with passengers, are also not covered in the restrictions. Tourists are still not allowed to enter the country, CAAP clarified. The restrictions imposed at NAIA shall last from May 11 to June 10, it added. Other international airports in the country would have their own separate restrictions. Last Sunday, the CAAP announced a one-week suspension of inbound international flights, which covered NAIA and eight other international airports in the Philippines. Among the reasons the moratorium on flights was imposed was for the government to ramp up its capacity to properly process the number of overseas Filipino returning to the country that has been increasing by the day. Scientists have claimed the coronavirus can enter the body through the eyes after finding they contain a protein used by the infection to bind to cells. The coronavirus - scientifically called SARS-CoV-2 - latches onto ACE-2 receptors, known as the 'gateway' into cells inside body. These receptors are found in the respiratory tract and the lungs, which is where the virus first infiltrates cells, as well as other organs. A team led by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have now found the eyes produce ACE-2, making them a target for the virus. It means if droplets from an infected person's sneeze or cough were to land on the surface of the eye, the virus could begin infiltrating cells there. It may explain why some patients have suffered conjunctivitis - an inflammation of the eye which causes it to become red and infected. Not only could the virus enter the body through the eyes, but tears may serve as a spread of infection, scientists said. Scientists have claimed the coronavirus can enter the body through the eyes after finding they contain a protein used by the infection to bind to cells. Pictured: Healthcare worker in Ukraine Scientists found ACE-2 was expressed in the cornea (A and B, magnified in C) and the limbus (E, magnified in F), which is the border between the cornea and the white of the eye The team was led by Lingli Zhou of the Department of Ophthalmology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore. They analysed ten human post-mortem eyes from people who did not die of COVID-19 for the expression of ACE2 (angiotensin-converting enzyme 2). ACE-2 is understood to be the entry point for the virus. Its spiky surface binds to the receptors and, from there, infects the cell and replicates. It's suggested that someone with more ACE-2 receptors may be more susceptible to a large viral load - first infectious dose of a virus - entering their bloodstream. The team also looked for TMPRSS2, an enzyme that helps viral entry following binding of the viral spike protein to ACE2. ACE2 and TMPRSS2 must both be present in the same cell for the virus to effectively replicate. WHAT IS AN ACE-2 RECEPTOR AND WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO DO WITH COVID-19? ACE-2 receptors are structures found on the surface of cells in the lungs and airways which work with an enyzme called ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) to regulate blood pressure. Its exact function in the lungs is not well understood but studies suggest it is protective against lung damage and low levels of it can worsen the impact of viral infections. Scientists say that the coronavirus which causes COVID-19 enters the body through the ACE-2 receptor, which the shape of it allows it to latch on to. This means that someone with more ACE-2 receptors may be more susceptible to a large viral load - first infectious dose of a virus - entering their bloodstream. ACE-2 receptors have a shape which matches the outside of the coronavirus, effectively providing it with a doorway into the bloodstream, scientists say People who have higher than usual numbers of ACE-2 receptors may include those with diabetes or high blood pressure because they have genetic defects which make them produce more. Emerging evidence shows that smokers may also produce more. High levels of ACE-2 receptors may also be protective, however. They are thought to be able to protect the lungs during infection and a study on mice in 2008 found that mice which had ACE-2 blocked in their bodies suffered more damage when they were infected with SARS, which is almost identical to COVID-19. Smoking has in the past been repeatedly linked to lower than normal levels of ACE-2 receptors, potentially increasing the risk of lung damage from COVID-19. Advertisement All eye specimens expressed ACE-2 in the tissue that lines the inside of the eyelids, called conjunctiva, the clear outer layer of the eye, called the cornea, and the limbus, which is the border between the cornea and the white of the eye. TMPRSS2 was also expressed, according to the pre-print paper on MedRxiv yet to be reviewed by other scientists. Dr Zhou and colleagues wrote: 'Together, these results indicate that ocular surface cells including conjunctiva are susceptible to infection by SARS-CoV-2, and could therefore serve as a portal of entry as well as a reservoir for person-to-person transmission of this virus.' The research was triggered by 'extensive speculation' that eye surfaces are a possible site of virus entry. Although the virus primarily spreads through droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose from an infected person lands on the insides of another person's nose or mouth, scientists have said it's entirely possible it could enter through the eye. Reports have suggested that COVID-19 may cause conjunctivitis, which was a symptom in around 30 per cent of patients in one study. The researchers explained this could be as a result of the virus travelling from the respiratory tract to the eyes - a secondary complication often linked with a virus. But it could also be a direct result of the virus attacking the eye cells in the first place by binding to ACE-2 receptors. Dr Zhou noted that viral particles can be found in tears that 'could result in transmission to other individuals'. 'Infection of ocular surface cells could lead to the eye as being an important carrier, with ocular virus shedding constituting a significant mechanism for infection of other individuals,' they wrote. 'This highlights the importance of safety practices including face masks and ocular contact precautions in preventing the spread of COVID-19 disease.' It was not specified if the general population would benefit at all from eye protection, or if the academics meant health workers specifically. Medics on the pandemic frontline are supposed to wear goggles or face visors in order to protect their eyes. Doctors first warned the killer coronavirus could be spread through the eyes in January, when the epicentre was in Wuhan, China, and had reached only a handful of other countries. Just 26 patients have died in the outbreak in China when doctor Wang Guangfa said he thought he had contracted the SARS-like infection because he wasn't wearing protective goggles. Several days before the onset of pneumonia, Dr Wang - a Peking University respiratory specialist - complained of redness of the eyes. Paul Kellam, professor of virus genomics at Imperial College London, told MailOnline at the time it was 'absolutely possible'. 'If you have droplets sneezed at you, they will wash from your eye to your nose,' he told MailOnline. 'Your eye connects to your nose through the lacrimal duct. 'If you suffer from allergies and if your eyes run, so will your nose. Or if you put medication in your eyes, youll taste at the back of your throat. 'It isnt unusual for flu and other viruses to be transmitted this way. You can also get respiratory infections through the eye.' K. Chandrashekar Rao may well be the biggest YouTube star in Telangana although the chief minister has no channel of his own that we know of. Particularly since the coronavirus lockdown was announced in the state on March 22, he has been the most watched person on YouTube in Telangana. KCR, as he is known when not within earshot, has addressed the media more than half a dozen times in the corona era. These pressers have been extended affairs, covering many other subjects as well, such how the media must behave, the role of doctors, the ways of patients, etc. It has fallen to Chandrashekar Rao to be the sole spokesman for his own government: he announces restrictions, removes them, shores up morale, admonishes officials, berates political opponents, etc. Now whenever it is reported that KCR is to address a press conference at his office-cum-residence Pragathi Bhavan, Telugu netizens switch over to YouTube to watch the event live. Some 6.82 lakh people watched the press con live on March 29 and a whopping 15.94 lakh did so on April 5 . This is just YouTube mind you, we're not counting other millions on other social media. Hundreds of viewers gave their instant reaction to him on the live stream, and some of them even turned commentators and and broadcast their views during the live telecast. The only problem is KCR's press conferences often get delayed as they follow Hyderabad Standard Time, which is always five and a half hours later than parsaun. Vijayasai gets a jolt on the high horse On the other hand, YSRC Parliamentary Party leader V. Vijayasai Reddy, who reached the no. 2 position in the party by using the power of social media, is not having the best of time on the said platforms. He was recently trolled for saying he knew of the frauds of BJP MP Y. Sujana Chowdary as his auditor and threatening to expose him. Now, social media is transfixed with what is being described as the 'middle drop' incident. Vijayasai had to get down from Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddys car to make space for health minister Alla Nani as the chief minister was rushing to Vizag after the LG Polymer plant gas leak there. Vijayasai, who is the party in-charge for Vizag, wanted to travel with the CM but was offloaded as the boss changed plan and decided to take the health minister with him. While it is normal practice to reduce the number of passengers on a helicopter due to the limited seating capacity, what is curious is that the video of him getting into the car and disembarking after a few minutes made its way into social media. There is a probe on to find out how the video clip made it to social media and how it went viral. Social media was full of speculation that the video was leaked to send a message that Vijayasai was being cut to size. A few hours after the leak, the PR team posted the video to journalists groups to show that it was shared in a routine manner. But the damage had been done by then. Twitter, which made Vijayasai, popular showed it can pull you down too. After gas leak, Neerab Babu under a cloud There is another VIP from the Vijayasai Reddy club who is hitting a rough patch as well: Senior bureaucrat Neerab Kumar Prasad, special chief secretary in the forest and environment department. Just as he was pitching for the top post after the retirement of chief secretary Nilam Sawhney came the LG Polymers gas leak in Visakhapatnam. As head of the environment department, Neerab Babu came under fire for the lapses of the Pollution Control Board in checking the plant. The PCB along with the Industries Ministry and the Director of Factories and Boilers should have adopted a safety plan for restarting operations after the lockdown. The top brass is apparently of the view that as the senior officer he should have taken the initiative on safety aspects and coordinated with other departments headed by his juniors and oversee a return to activity. On top of it comes the issue of permitting LG Polymers to operate without an environmental clearance. There will be a lot of explaining to do. The COVID-19 lockdown has brought the world to a standstill. Celebrations of almost every kind, be it weddings, birthday parties, get-togethers, house warming parties have been put on hold. But that does not mean you can not celebrate Mothers Day. Sure, you cannot get your mom fancy gifts that you may have thought of, but you can always make her feel special. READ ALSO: Woman donating liver to 28-year-old dying son discovers he's not her biological child Celebrating mothers fighting COVID-19 pandemic from the frontline Source: UGC READ ALSO: Nairobi landlord evicts children of tenant stranded up country due to cessation of movement We celebrate International Mother's Day, remaining confined to our homes, but this gives a better chance to see the hard work mothers have to do every day to make our lives comfortable. As Kenya joins the world in celebrating mothers despite the deadly pandemic that has besieged the globe, TUKO.co.ke highlight some of the mothers who are fighting the pandemic from different spheres. 1: Triza Ireri The National Secretary for Kenya Progressive Nurses Association who works at the Kwale Sub County Hospital has been on the forefront to ensure Kenyans get special attention from nurses. We had not planned for it, there was no budget for the same either. We were caught off guard and needed to prepare facilities to take care of the infected patients and protect ourselves against the virus, she said. Speaking to TUKO.co.ke, she said shifts had changed and as front-line soldiers, they had to work long hours since there was a shortage of human resource. READ ALSO: President Yoweri Museveni hosts national prayers on COVID-19 Celebrating mothers fighting COVID-19 pandemic from the frontline Source: Original I am concerned about my family back at home, having exposed myself to the virus due to the nature of my job, said Triza. Being in the battlefield and having direct contact with patients, I make it a priority to protect my family, she added. Although she talks of the fear of going home and infecting her family, she hopes that things will go back to normal within a twinkle of an eye. READ ALSO: Rats are infecting humans with hepatitis - Researchers 2: Topister Juma A human rights activist working at the Muslim for Human Rights group (MUHURI), she is a champion in fighting for the rights of women and children. Since COVID-19 hit the country, Topister has been using radio talk shows to sensitise the residents on reporting domestic and sexual violence. She told TUKO.co.ke that since the dusk to dawn curfew was enforced, cases of domestic violence and defilement had gone up although people were scared of reporting and going to the hospitals. READ ALSO: Dedan Kimathi University conducts graduation ceremony online Celebrating mothers fighting COVID-19 pandemic from the frontline Source: Original However, Topister has been labelled as an enemy of men since most of the cases she receives are from women undergoing domestic violence from their spouses. Men feel that I do not support them and are always against me calling me a single mother. They dont know that I am a married woman with three kids, she said. Topister has also adopted four other children whom she takes care of. She has complained of being targeted by perpetrators of violence and defilement to the extent of threatening her life. READ ALSO: I started with KSh 1,500 - Man who turned wayside shop into ultramodern factory narrates his story 3:Pili Chimera Chimers, a 31-year-old Journalist working at the Radio Africa Group said she tried as much as she can to work from home. However, sometimes she goes on the field to get the real picture of what is happening. I have a challenge of working at home, having to balance between the job and my child. Still, I have to make sure that I protect her from getting the virus, she said. READ ALSO: Rich Fools: City pastor calls out President Uhuru's family for evicting poor Kenyans amidst pandemic Celebrating mothers fighting COVID-19 pandemic from the frontline Source: Original 4: Salma Mohamed Salma is a journalist working at the Voice of America said the pandemic had made it hard for her to cover the stories that she enjoys covering. "It is also hectic for me since I keep exposing myself to danger having visited the office and meeting other people, she said. As a mother, she is sensitive to her children and whenever they feel any form of discomfort, she gets to realize because of the sensitivity and act accordingly. READ ALSO: Scientists in Kenya discover microbe that could stop Malaria transmission Celebrating mothers fighting COVID-19 pandemic from the frontline Source: Original 5: Elizabeth Khakasa Murumba, The clinical officer at Gatundu Level Five Hospital told TUKO.co.ke that women who are in the frontline fighting coronavirus are at risk of from suffering mental torture. She said women are emotional beings and seeing someone suffer can cause them emotional torture. The medic suggested they be given a special place to live as they fight COVID-19 noting that their families were at risk of contracting the virus should they accidentally get infected. READ ALSO: Coronavirus found in semen of male patients - Chinese researchers Celebrating mothers fighting COVID-19 pandemic from the frontline Source: Original 6: Sara Wangeshi Wangeshi is a Human Resource Manager at PEPSI and has been issuing masks, sanitizers and refreshments to support the community as a way of curbing the spread of COVID-19 in the country. The Human Resource Manager revealed she had to take a lot of precautions while going to do the donations saying that she meets different people whose conditions she does not know. "I ensure that I follow government directives like keeping social distance, using masks and sanitizing. My family, colleagues and friends support me a lot, she said. READ ALSO: Kariobangi chaos: Smoke, tears as residents barricade roads in protest against forceful evictions Celebrating mothers fighting COVID-19 pandemic from the frontline Source: Original My family is on lockdown thus the reason I take extra care. You can imagine them being in the house always and taking all the precautions then I bring the virus to them," she added. She also revealed that home-schooling children when one has to work, especially the ones in Class Eight was very hard. At the same time, she urged women to ensure that restless children stay indoors all the time. READ ALSO: Kilifi woman gifted new house by Governor Amason Kingi after she delivered quadruplets Celebrating mothers fighting COVID-19 pandemic from the frontline Source: Original 7: Emmaculate Shamballa Shamballa is a human activist who contested as Mrs President on KTN and also vied for women representative position in Trans Nzoia county in 2017. READ ALSO: Landslide: West Pokot's 2019 survivors move into new houses 8: Amina Abdalla, The chairperson Mombasa Women Empowerment Network has made it her business to make sure that people living with disability get the best services despite the COVID-19 pandemic. On Friday, May 9, in conjunction with the County government, she opened a facility that will provide medical services to the mentally disorderly people in the County. The facility which can accommodate 120 people will not only be providing medical services for the mentally disorderly but also provide food for them until they get well, she said. READ ALSO: Nurses protest outside White House to honour colleagues who died of COVID-19 Celebrating mothers fighting COVID-19 pandemic from the frontline Source: Original Apart from that, Amina who has an asthmatic child has led the distribution of sanitary towels and soap to the people. I also have my family which always looks upon me and most of the times, they get scared that I might get infected while taking care of other people," said Amina. "My health and self-protection comes first since I also take care of my old mother, she added. READ ALSO: My heart will be at peace knowing my tenants are comfortable, safe - Generous Mombasa landlord 9: Rose Juma Juma who is a single mother of a child living with autism said she will celebrate Mother's Day with a smile on her face for the far she has reached with her 10-year-old boy. Although autistic, I treat my son with a lot of love and make sure that he feels special having me beside him, said Rose. Rose for the last 10 years, has single-handedly taken care of her son said she lets her son grow up knowing he can also take care of himself. My son requires special attention, but I have taught her how to eat on his own and other important things. I don't want him to feel out of place when he grows up, she added. Stories by Caroline Mwawasi, Enock Ndayla, Naomi Akoth and Davis Bwayo - TUKO.co.ke correspondents 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 Indian Youth Congress (IYC) president Srinivas BV has filed a complaint with the Delhi Police against BJP leader Sambit Patra for "defaming the party and two former Prime Ministers". In a complaint to Delhi Police Commissioner S.N. Shrivatsava, the Youth Congress leader accused Patra of spreading false and fake information about two former Prime Ministers -- Late Jawaharlal Nehru and Late Rajiv Gandhi. The IYC leader said in his complaint said that Patra in his tweet specifically uses picture with the defamatory statement in Hindi which is as follows: "Agar Corona Virus Congress ke waqt aaya hota: Rs 5,000 crore Mask Ghotala; Rs 7,000 crore Corona Test Kit Ghotala; Rs 20,000 crore Jawahar Sanitizer Ghotala and Rs 26,000 crore Rajiv Gandhi Virus Research Ghotala." He further alleged that Patra has not only used the name of the Congress or its leaders but has used the photograph of two former Prime Ministers in order to defame the party and its leaders. Srinivas BV in his complaint also said that none of the defamatory content posted by Patra's account is based on facts so as to qualify as a fair comment in the eyes of law. "The accused has chosen to tweet the picture with the sole intention of defaming the party and its leaders and painting a bad picture of them before the public at large," he said in his complaint letter adding that as the complainant is also a CWC (Congress Working Committee) member, his reputation has also been damaged beyond repair, as a result. He further said that the alarming and wide scale attack on the party and its leaders is "intentionally" targeted to defame them before the public at large, thereby intentionally creating an unamiable atmosphere. He said these posts are made without any scruple and thought as to the consequences of such derogatory remarks for the reputation and respect of the leaders amongst the public. He said that the post is meant to humiliate the Congress and its leaders and to render them an object of contempt, ridicule and hostility by the society does not and cannot promote public good in any manner. Similarly, knowingly, deliberately and intentionally fabricating stories, spreading lies are acts of falsehood that cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be considered to be in public good and thus I request your good self to take prompt and necessary action by lodging an FIR against the accused under relevant section of the Indian Penal Code, the letter stated. Beirut (AP) Al-Qaida-linked fighters attacked Syrian government positions Sunday on the edge of the country's last rebel stronghold, triggering intense clashes that killed nearly three dozen combatants across both sides, opposition activists said. The fighting was among the worst since early March, when an agreement between Turkey and Russia halted the Syrian government's three-month air and ground campaign into rebel-held northwestern Idlib province. Sunday's clashes took place in neighboring Hama province, parts of which are still under rebel control. Russia is a main backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad, while Turkey backs opposition fighters trying to remove him from power. Russia and Turkey have become the main power brokers in war-torn Syria in recent years. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said members of the al-Qaida-linked group known as Horas al-Din attacked government forces in the Ghab plain area. It said the fighting left 21 troops and 13 Horas al-Din members dead. The Observatory and an Idlib-based activist, Taher al-Omar, said insurgents also took control of the village of Tanjara, and that Syrian government forces were heavily shelling the area in an apparent preparation for a counteroffensive. There was no word from Syrian state media on the fighting. Horas al-Din are hardcore al-Qaida elements who broke away from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the strongest insurgent group in the Idlib enclave. Horas al-Din, Arabic for Guardians of Religion, reject any cease-fire with the government. Syrian troops now control much of the country, with the help of Assads main backers Russia and Iran. The conflict, which began in March 2011, has killed more than 400,000 people. WUHAN, May 9 (Xinhua) -- A COVID-19 patient who received a double-lung transplant surgery after 73 days of ECMO therapy is now recovering and able to communicate with medics, with stable vital signs and the transplanted lungs functioning well, a local hospital in Wuhan said Saturday. The male patient, 54, was diagnosed with COVID-19 in January after developing symptoms including soreness, fatigue and fever, according to the Union Hospital affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province. He received tracheal intubation and got support from an ECMO machine on Feb. 11 before being transferred two months later to the hospital. The patient's nucleic acid test result turned negative after undergoing multiple treatments including antiviral and anti-infective therapies, immunotherapy and convalescent plasma therapy. Despite this progress, he suffered from extensive pulmonary interstitial fibrosis and lung failure. Experts from the Union Hospital, the lung transplant center of Jiangsu Province, the First Affiliated Hospital of the College of Medicine at Zhejiang University and other medical facilities worked out a customized surgical plan for the patient and undertook a six-hour operation on April 24. Very few COVID-19 patients have irreversible pulmonary fibrosis that endangers their lives, and those that do usually suffer from multiple organ dysfunction, according to Ma Xudong with the National Health Commission. Another 65-year-old final-stage COVID-19 patient had previously received a double-lung transplant surgery at the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University on April 20. The patient is currently capable of self-feeding and talking. A Saskatoon doctor is warning if we are not careful with reopening a second wave of COVID-19 could be just around the corner. Dr. Hassan Masri, an internal medicine and intensive care doctor, publishes videos on Facebook each week. In one of his latest videos Masri said Saskatchewan can take a lesson from the Japanese island of Hokkaido. Hokkaido was the first area of Japan to issue a lockdown in February. They were so successful that they re-opened school in April. But then came a second wave of the virus and the island was back to square one. "As we reopen we need to understand that we are reopening to a new normal," Masri said. "And just like we got here because of the tedious and important effort that you have done we can go back really quickly if you stop doing what you're doing." Facebook Masri said Hokkaido managed to flatten the curve and had only single digit cases for many days. But when they reopened people quickly went back to their old ways in the belief they were safe. "And within less than two weeks they actually had to shut down the entire island all over again and declare a state of emergency," Masri said. "It is really important for us to understand that a new normal means that you wear your mask when you go outside... that you go outside minimally." And, Masri added, if you're going to expand your circle, make sure you're not hanging out with more than 10 people. "Making sure that if you have any doubt that you don't hang out," Masri said, but acknowledged the province is not going back to 'normal' anytime soon. "We're going back to a new normal. We are going to open this province successfully, hopefully, really slowly. But if we don't do our part, and the businesses don't do their part, then we will go back in time for weeks if not for months. "I hope that the people of this province do the right thing and understand that this will pass." LORAIN, Ohio A 40-year-old Lorain man was stabbed to death early Sunday at his home, police said. Police were called about 1 a.m. to a house on the 4600 block of Timberview Drive, just west of Edgewood Drive, a news release from the Lorain Police Department says. Officers found Luis Martinez-Sanchez, 40, lying in his driveway, bleeding heavily. Martinez-Sanchez was taken to Mercy Health-Lorain Hospital by paramedics, where he was pronounced dead, police said. A woman and a child at the scene were questioned by investigators, who learned that Martinez-Sanchez was stabbed during a domestic situation, the news release states. No arrests have been made as of Sunday evening. Anyone with information regarding the fatal stabbing should contact Lorain police Det. Jeremy Gray at 440-204-2105. More Northeast Ohio crime news: Three shot at large house party in Cleveland, police say Lorain police issue warning Saturday after suspected fentanyl overdoses Elyria woman charged in citys second deadly stabbing in two days If many of the job losses do prove only temporary, it would raise the possibility of a relatively swift economic recovery. Its much easier for someone out of work to return to a former job than retrain for a new one or shift to a new industry. After the previous three recessions, the vast majority of people who were laid off lost their jobs permanently. Some were essentially replaced by new software or factory robots. In other cases, their employers folded or entered new lines of business. DP World Dakar has kept trade flowing in the fight against the spread of Covid-19 in Senegal, working to make certain that vital goods such as food and medical supplies can get through, while ensuring strict health and safety measures are in place to protect employees. In a statement released on Saturday, DP World explained some of the working mechanisms being applied in Senegal, one of which notes that terminal staff are working in rotation, with half the team onsite and half working remotely, said a Wam news agency report. "The regional team at DP World Middle East and Africa in Dubai has been collaborating with the management of DP World Dakar, as well as all port stakeholders and key government entities to keep trade flowing. The port serves as the modern and preferred hub for West Africa, generating significant value for the Senegalese economy and for businesses around the region," it added. Since early February, 170 containers filled with pharmaceuticals and personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical professionals were handled through the terminal, the logistics company noted. "The DP World Dakar team has been constantly reinforcing health messages to its own staff, families and stakeholders, in line with the latest guidance from the World Health Organisation and the Senegalese Ministry of Health, and sent out a clear message that Social Distancing is a critical demand and not an option for our community to remain safe," it explained. Clarence Rodrigues, Chief Executive of DP World Dakar, said: "Although we have only a few hundred confirmed cases in Senegal to date, we have seen the devastating effects of Covid-19 in other countries around the world. We have applied strict social distancing measures at DP World, to slow the spread of the disease." In addition to the existing requirements for PPE within the port area, the terminal is providing face masks and hand sanitiser to all employees. The food outlet has been closed and instead, all employees currently receive packed meals. DP World Dakar regularly provides many tonnes of food for over 5,500 vulnerable students, studying at Koranic boarding schools located all over Senegal. This food basket includes rice, milk, oil, sugar, millet, corn, and other local foodstuff items. To help the schools in their own fight against Covid-19, sanitation items have been added to standard deliveries, including liquid soap, detergents and bleach. DP World Dakar has also donated Euro 300,000 to 'Force Covid-19', a response fund financed by both state and voluntary contributions. The fund was setup by President Macky Sall of Senegal, and is designed to support the implementation of a $2 billion 'Economic and Social Resilience Programme', to help mitigate the effects of the virus, the report said. By Bahk Eun-ji Hyundai Pharm has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a phase 2 clinical trial of its new drug treating type 2 diabetes, the company said Sunday. The drug, HDNO-1605 (HD-6277), targets the G-protein-coupled receptor 40 (GPR40), also known as free fatty acid receptor 1, which plays a pivotal role in the regulation of insulin secretion, according to the firm. It is proven to lessen hypoglycemia and other side-effects of diabetes medications, according to Hyundai, which says diabetic patients can effectively regulate their insulin levels by taking only one pill a day. The company has been developing HDNO-1605 (HD-6277), which is taken orally, as a state-sponsored project funded by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The drug has already completed a phase 1 clinical trial in Europe. The niece of one of the residents at the centre of one of the countrys deadliest Covid-19 clusters wants a full inquiry into what happened. Tereza Kieran says no member of her family and none of his friends visited her uncle Aodh Kieran for nearly two months before he contracted Covid-19 at Dundalks Dealgan House. The 72-year-old is believed to have been the first resident to test positive there. He subsequently died on Apr 9 and many more of the 23 residents who died in Apr also succumbed to the virus. Local Sinn Fein TD Ruairi O Murchu, has called in the Dail for a full investigation into how the spread started and why it spread to so many residents so quickly: A number of relatives of those who have tragically died at the home want a full investigation into what happened. We also also have to make sure that there exists the best conditions to maintain best practice. The situation in Dundalk is the latest in a series of shocking death tolls in the countrys nursing homes and other community residential settings. And by the end of April, there were Covid-19 clusters in more than 210 of the countrys 540 private and HSE-run nursing homes. As of Thurs, May 7, more than 840 people had died in nursing homes and other residential settings these deaths account for more than 60% of the total 1,403 number who have died of Covid-19 in Ireland. The worst affected residential care setting is St Marys Hospital in Dublins Phoenix Park where 24 have died from Covid-19. And at least 10 people have also died at Corks Clonakilty Community Hospital since Apr 1. Blame is a wonderfully easy thing to bandy about at times like this. One way or another, we need to find out why this happened on the scale it did and in finding that out, make sure it doesnt happen again," said Ms Kieran. Eoin Farrelly, managing director of Dealgan House Nursing Home, said: Dealgan House Nursing Home offers our sincere sympathies to the families and friends of those who have died due to Covid 19. Those 23 residents who tragically died since April 1 many of which were Covid-related were people whom we got to know and love while caring for them, some over many years. All of us are heartbroken at their death and their familys loss. Nursing Home Ireland (NHI) have released the findings of a survey undertaken by 233 private and voluntary nursing homes. It has found that 306 senior and general nursing staff and 606 healthcare assistants are among 1,152 staff not currently available for work due to Covid-19. It also found that despite this, the deployment of HSE staff to nursing homes continues to amount to small numbers with only around 40 HSE nurses being deployed and 26 healthcare assistants as well as 13 other staff. The survey also found that 40% of nursing homes said they do not have sufficient supply of face masks, despite recently introduced HSE policy that face masks should be worn when in close contact with a resident. Tadhg Daly, NHI CEO said: Nursing homes remain under immense pressure in managing Covid-19. Pressures continue to be applied across staffing, PPE and testing. Seismic challenges persist. With approximately half of private and voluntary nursing homes completing the survey, the indication is 2,000+ staff are unavailable due to Covid-19. Missing such a significant staffing complement places a huge strain upon the sector. Fianna Fail Health spokesman, Stephen Donnelly, who first raised the issue of nursing home clusters in the Dail early last month, said: What has happened at Dealgan House is a tragedy for all concerned. Its important that a short review is done to see what lessons can be learned and applied quickly in our fight against Covid-19. A more thorough review into Dealgan House and other long-term care facilities must also be considered. "It's no way to say goodbye to someone" Aodh Kieran: the first victim of Covid-19 in Dundalk's Dealgan House. If saying goodbye to her beloved uncle wasnt bizarre enough, watching his cremation later flipped the experience into something like a snuff movie for Tereza Kieran. She says the death and the funeral of Aodh Kieran - who died alone in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda - is something she is still struggling to come to terms with. The only way she could say goodbye to him was over a phone held to his ear by a nurse dressed head to toe in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). And she could only watch his cremation on a live video feed. Its no way to say goodbye to someone, she said. Aodh was the first of many residents at Dundalks Dealgan House nursing home to be tested positive and subsequently die. The 72-year-old, who had Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), started to fall ill at the home on March 27. By March 31, he had been rushed to hospital weak with fever and breathing difficulties. The first of two tests for Covid-19 came back as a negative. But doctors were so alarmed about his symptoms, they decided it was a false negative, warned the home about this and then they tested him again. That test came back positive. Aodh, who never regained consciousness after he entered intensive care, was also placed on a ventilator, where he remained until his death on April 9. Before it was switched off, Tereza - who has been in isolation for the past nine or so weeks due to an underlying health condition - was called by a nurse. Dressed in full PPE, they picked up a phone and held it in their gloved hand to his ear. They were lovely, Tereza recalled. They told me they were talking to him, even though he was unconscious and heavily sedated and they kept a diary for us of his progression. They do that for families who cant be there. On the day they were going to turn off his life support, they took a phone into him, called me and put the phone to his ear as he lay there. They also held his hand as I spoke to him. Tereza Kieran: "It didnt seem real and it still doesnt seem real." I just said, Look, you have put up a good fight and its now time to go and be with your mam and dad. You dont need to fight any more, just be happy. And I told him I loved him very much." She added: It was heartbreaking to be in that situation. I grew up with him and I have been very close to him all my life and to not be able to hold him or to say good-bye to him is just surreal. Doctors later told her he went very quickly after life support was turned off. It was very emotional because I couldnt get up to see him. she said. And it was also emotional because it had been so long since I had seen him. But it has also been bizarre. The service for him afterwards was online, via video. It was really weird. It didnt seem real and it still doesnt seem real. In Ireland, we are very big on funerals because of the closure element and I dont feel there has been any closure. I dont feel like hes gone. It was just so surreal watching his service and cremation on TV. Its like how I imagine watching a snuff movie must be like. Or a horror movie. It didnt feel right. She believes there needs to be an inquiry. After all, we have to accept this is a highly infectious virus that we have never had to deal with before. But someone has to be accountable, and I dont know who that is." Pan-democratic legislator Andrew Wan Siu-kin is being taken away by ambulance personnel after scuffling with security and pro-China legislators during a Legislative Council's House Committee meeting, in Hong Kong. (Image: Reuters) An alarming map has revealed which parts of Australia could be hit hardest by coronavirus outbreaks as restrictions are eased across the country. Consulting firm Finity and UNSW researchers found Kempsey on the New South Wales mid-north coast and Capel Sound in Victoria are among the most vulnerable regions. The report ranked every postcode in the nation based on the local demographic's conditions such as cancer, diabetes, obesity and heart and lung disease. Each suburb received a score of between one and 100. The higher the number, the more susceptible locals could be to a virus cluster. The algorithm made the stark discovery of several 'red zones' across Australia, where medically vulnerable people are at higher risk. The report ranked every postcode in the nation based on the local demographic's conditions such as cancer, diabetes, obesity and heart and lung disease Kempsey, on the New South Wales mid-north coast, has a score of 98 out of 100 Finity Principal and lead researcher Aaron Cutter said the findings could be used to prioritise more vulnerable suburbs once a vaccine is found. He told news.com.au the government should ease restrictions sooner in the low-risk areas, while keeping other in lockdown longer. Mr Cutter said COVID-19's impact will be uneven across different communities, and he was shocked to find a 'real divide between rural and metro' areas. 'The vulnerable population segments are generally situated away from capital cities,' he said. 'While the initial wave of COVID-19 cases was concentrated around capital cities due to population density plus proximity to cruise ships and international airports, these areas consist of lower proportions of highly susceptible individuals compared to the rest of Australia.' Other coronavirus red zones in NSW include Blackheath and Mount Victoria in the Blue Mountains, and Woy Woy, Blue Haven and Lake Haven on the Central Coast The alarming predictions come as NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced restrictions will be eased even further from Friday. Pictured: Beachgoers at Bondi Beach on Friday, May 8 Outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people will also be allowed, such as a physical training session or sitting down in a park, Ms Berejiklian said on Sunday This means more rural regions and older and poorer suburbs will be harder hit by a second wave of the virus. Mr Cutter said there is a central 'belt' where the population faces a greater risk. Kempsey, on the New South Wales mid-north coast, has a score of 98 out of 100. This is due in part to cardiovascular disease rates being significantly higher in Kempsey than the general Australian population. Other coronavirus red zones in NSW include Blackheath and Mount Victoria in the Blue Mountains, and Woy Woy, Blue Haven and Lake Haven on the Central Coast. In Greater Melbourne's hot spots were identified as Capel Sound, Rosebud and Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula, Portsea in south-east Melbourne. The alarming predictions come as NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced restrictions will be eased even further from Friday. The most at-risk suburbs Greater Sydney Gorokan/Lake Haven 95 Blackheath 92 Woy Woy, 92 Blue Haven 86 Umina Beach 86 Mount Victoria 85 Katoomba 85 Bateau Bay 76 Menangle 75 Bayview 75 Hamlyn Terrace 75 Wentworth Falls 72 Wyoming 71 Edmondson Park 69 Menangle Park 67 St Marys 66 Kincumber 61 North Richmond 60 Revesby 60 Haberfield 58 Greater Melbourne Capel Sound 98 Sorrento 95 Portsea 95 Rosebud 91 Blairgowrie 89 McCrae 87 Altona North 78 Campbellfield 78 Frankston North 77 Rye 76 Dromana 74 Flinders 72 Somers 71 Balnarring 70 Shoreham 69 Yarra Junction 68 Mornington 68 Avondale Heights 63 Healesville 63 Broadmeadows 63 Advertisement Currently, two adults from the same household, along with their dependent children, can visit another home in NSW under the existing COVID-19 restrictions. The new relaxing of restrictions will allow up to five people visit a home, including children. Outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people will also be allowed, such as a physical training session or sitting down in a park, Ms Berejiklian said on Sunday. 'For the first time since our lockdown what this means is that you can leave the home for recreational purposes,' she told reporters in Sydney. Restaurants and cafes will also be allowed to have up to 10 patrons at a time, while ensuring they maintain social distancing of 1.5 metres between people and four square metres space per person. For some very small venues, this may mean only two or three people are able to be inside, Ms Berejiklian said. A total of 10 guests will be allowed at weddings, and up to 20 people at indoor funerals and up to 30 at outdoor funerals will be allowed. Religious gatherings and places of worship can also welcome up to 10 worshippers. Outdoor equipment including gyms and playgrounds can be used with caution, with people encouraged to wipe down the equipment, and outdoor pools are open with restrictions. Meanwhile, Victorians are waiting for Premier Daniel Andrews to indicate when restrictions will be eased. The Victorian premier is expected to announce some easing of COVID-19 restrictions on Monday - the day the state of emergency lifts. As Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday revealed a plan for a gradual return to normal, Mr Andrews indicated he would not 'throw away all the progress we have made'. Victoria now has a total of 1,487 cases across the state with 76 linked to the meatworks. He underwent intensive sessions with psychologists in San Francisco in 2018 Mr Watchorn has credited MDMA-therapy for ridding him of his crippling PTSD He was on the scene at the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre that killed 25 people A police officer on the scene at the Port Arthur Massacre has revealed taking psychedelic drug MDMA completely cured his decades-long battle with post traumatic stress disorder. Nick Watchorn endured over 20 years of psychological trauma after arriving to the scene of Australia's worst massacre on April 28, 1996 - when 35 innocent adults and children were hunted down and killed by lone gunman Martin Bryant. Bryant's bloody rampage started when he drove to the Seascape Guesthouse in Tasmania, where he murdered owners David and Sally Martin with a military-style semi-automatic rifle. He then headed to the Port Arthur historic site where he had lunch before opening fire on guests in the Broad Arrow cafe, gift shop and carpark. His trail of destruction took the lives of 35 adults and children, injuring another 23, and prompted historic gun control legislation under the John Howard government. Nick Watchorn endured over 20 years of psychological trauma after arriving to the scene of the Port Arthur Massacre in Tasmania in 1996 Mr Watchorn (pictured), who was a 31-year-old 'confident and cocky' rookie cop at the time of the massacre, arrived to the help persevere the crime scene Psychologists Eric Sienknecht, who guided Mr Watchorn (pictured) through three eight-hour therapy sessions, believes the drug will 'change the face of psychiatry' After stopping at nothing to heal his severe PTSD, Mr Watchorn now credits the party drug with helping him completely overcome the mental scars of the past 20 years. Mr Watchorn, who was a 31-year-old 'confident and cocky' rookie cop at the time of the massacre, arrived to the help persevere the crime scene. 'It was eerily quiet. I was wondering across the parking lot scoping out what the situation was,' he told 60 Minutes. 'Then I heard a gunshot, I know it was in the distance. I was racked with fear because I had no idea whether I was in the sights of that gun or not.' Mr Watchorn said he then walked into the Broad Arrow Cafe to shelter from the gunman. 'So I went up the stairs and I opened the door, and all I could see were bodies - at the tables, on the floor, against the door,' he said. 'I could feel myself wanting to shut down.' Mr Watchorn said the harrowing experience not only destroyed his family and career in the police force, but left him with years of mental suffering. 'I fought a long time against PTSD, and I got so tired in the end that I gave up. No matter how hard you try to push it down, it just keeps coming up,' he said. Martin Bryant has never offered an explanation for his actions, but there is speculation his murders were sparked out of retribution for grievances and others were collateral damage Bryant's trail of destruction took the lives of 35 adults and children, injuring another 23, and prompted immediate tightening of gun laws But Bryant finally pleaded guilty to 72 charges including murder, attempted murder, causing grievous bodily harm and arson. Pictured: A bleeding victim being carried into a rescue chopper 'The most significant part of that memory is what I felt, not what I saw. What I felt was absolute fear. 'When I was in the cafe I just wanted something to pick me up and take me out of there.' Mr Watchorn lost his career as a police officer - and his marriage ended - after his PTSD spiraled out of control. He spent two years travelling around Australia, before ending up in San Francisco, in the United States, where he lived on a cocktail of alcohol and antidepressants. 'It got to the point where I wasn't even sure if I really wanted to live anymore, and that was really scary,' he said. Then in 2018, Mr Watchorn's psychiatrist recommended he enrol in a $40million drug trial examining the use of MDMA - commonly known as ecstasy - to treat patients with PTSD. Mr Watchorn was given 120 milligrams of pure, lab-produced MDMA on his first day of treatment. Psychologists Eric Sienknecht, who guided an apprehensive Mr Watchorn through three eight-hour therapy sessions, believes the drug will 'change the face of psychiatry'. Bryant was sentenced to 35 life sentences for the murder charges and 37 sentences of 21 years for all other offences and orders he remain in prison for the term of his natural life 'Under the influence of MDMA, someone is able to have access to traumatic memories and re-experience them,' Mr Sienknecht said. 'But they're able to think clearly and creatively about them and gain new insight and understanding into the memories.' Mr Watchorn described the radical drug trial as 'incredible' and praises it for curing his PTSD and depression. 'I get a little anxious sometimes but it's not something I'd ever consider medicating or thought was intrusive to my life,' he said. Mr Watchorn's therapy sessions involving MDMA allowed his mind to relive the harrowing day of April 28, 1996, and create new memories to alleviate his trauma. 'It was different, everything wasn't grey and scary,' he said, describing what he saw under the influence of the drug. 'I'm looking into the cafe and what I remember of how horrific it was - this time there was translucent images of [the victims] stepping up and out of their bodies. 'They were all very relaxed and calm. They started to walk away through the walls and it kind of looked peaceful. 'There was an older couple walking through the wall towards me, and the elderly gentleman nodded and said "you can go now". 'I just felt the weight of all those years just pour out of me. It was such a wonderful moment. That was the start of the really important healing for me.' Mr Watchorn said his therapy taught him not to ignore his past, but to become at peace with the horrors he saw at Port Arthur. 'There's tough times... but I get through that, and it's nothing like what my old life and my old head used to be like,' he said. The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelically Studies (MAPS) hopes to have MDMA available for prescription medication by 2022. 'What we're developing is MDMA-assisted psychotherapy,' spokesman Brad Burge said. 'When MDMA is combined with psychotherapy it can have this kind of benefit, but not on its own. 'We don't want people to think they can take ecstasy at a rave and expect their PTSD to be healed - that's not what we're seeing in the clinical trials.' Bryant took a hostage and drove back to the guesthouse (pictured) where he held siege throughout the night Mr Watchorn said he walked into the Broad Arrow Cafe (pictured) to shelter from the gunman, before he saw dozens of dead bodies laying on the floor Two-thirds of patients who have received MDMA no longer suffer from PTSD. 'It's hard to be sceptical when you see the dramatic and sometimes seemingly miraculous effects of the medicine in combination with the psychotherapy,' Mr Sienknecht said. Martin Bryant's trail of destruction took the lives of 35 tourists and locals, some children, and injured another 23. Special ops police from Melbourne had called for a bulldozer to lead their planned raid of the bed and breakfast property where Bryant was holed up. But the heavy machinery wasn't needed as he was forced out after 18 hours by a fire. He was screaming with his clothes alight as he was taken into custody and to hospital for treatment. But Bryant finally pleaded guilty to 72 charges including murder, attempted murder, causing grievous bodily harm and arson. On November 22, 1996, more than seven months after the massacre, Tasmanian Supreme Court Chief Justice William Cox ordered Bryant serve 35 life sentences without parole. Bryant has never offered an explanation for his actions, but there is speculation, including from investigators, that his murders were sparked out of retribution for grievances and others were collateral damage. He will die at Hobart's Risdon Prison. Azerbaijans national leader Heydar Aliyev was a unique political figure, a leader in the true sense of the word, US expert, CEO of Caspian Group Holdings Rob Sobhani told local media. Sobhani noted that he had the honor and privilege of meeting with Heydar Aliyev on numerous occasions. During these meetings it was very clear to me that his number one priority was always the hard fought independence of Azerbaijan. Heydar Aliyev was keenly aware of the sacrifices that had been made by the people of Azerbaijan to gain their independence. He in turn made a solemn pact with the people of Azerbaijan never again to let its independence be violated. With this as the foundation of his foreign policy, Heydar Aliyev created relations with global superpowers on friendly and mutually respected terms, noted the US expert. He pointed out that US presidents Bill Clinton and HW Bush had enormous respect for Heydar Aliyev. Leading thinkers of international relations such as Zbigniew Brzezinski admired Heydar Aliyev for his deep insights into global geopolitics. Azerbaijan is situated in a dangerous region but Heydar Aliyev was always able to balance Azerbaijan's foreign policy in such a way as to establish mutually beneficial relations with all countries, said the US expert. Sobhani pointed out that Heydar Aliyev helped lead the people of Azerbaijan from the dark days of the collapse of the Soviet Union to a very bright future by showing wisdom and foresight to sign the Contract of the Century. And it must be noted that President Ilham Aliyev has built upon this legacy by turning the Contract of the Century into an engine for rebuilding Azerbaijan into a modern, tolerant and dynamic nation, he noted. By ensuring the signing of the Contract of the Century Heydar Aliyev showed wisdom, courage and foresight, said Sobhani. This historic moment in the life of Azerbaijan could never have happened without the leadership and vision of Heydar Aliyev. The Contract of the Century put Azerbaijan onto the list of consequential countries of the world. As such Heydar Aliyev laid the foundation for Azerbaijan to become a responsible and reliable member of the international community. Furthermore, by ensuring the signing of the Contract of the Century Heydar Aliyev allowed for the people of Azerbaijan to live in hope and prosperity. The Contract of the Century was a loud and bold message to the people of world: "Azerbaijan is stable and open for business." As a result we witnessed billions of dollars of investments flow into Azerbaijan thus improving the lives of citizens of Azerbaijan. Heydar Aliyev was a unique political figure who was a leader in the true sense of the word, noted the US expert. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz The ruling government has been asked to stop touting the economy as the most buoyant. Former President John Mahama has described the economy as one in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU); however, the ruling government disagrees. According to them, even if the economy is having challenges following the outbreak of COVID-19, it is nothing compared to the previous administration. In a panel discussion on Peace FMs morning show 'Kokrokoo', the Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr said anyone who will claim that the economy is doing well is being deceptive. Giving a few instances, he added that, "the fundamentals of this economy are so weak that all these fights about we have the buoyant economy and so on; we should stop it!!! because the economy is extremely weak. If we dont change the fundamentals, there will be dire consequences". According to him, "were no longer in control of the economy; its controlled from the metropolis of the colonial enterprise; that is the fundamental problem of the economy . . . unless we change the fundamentals". He further expressed shock over a research finding which indicated that 85 percent of goods in Ghanas supermarkets are imported. "How can the economy grow? How can you have a vibrant economy when almost 90 percent of goods in our supermarkets are imported . . . and so if any politician tells you that the economy is vibrant; he is a liar because this economy is not in the best of shapes, he insisted. Listen to his submission in the video below Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video UPDATE: Police reported late Saturday afternoon that they had arrested 27-year-old Joaquin Jones and charged him with murder in the death of Myron King. The original story follows: Mobile Police have begun a homicide investigation in the case of a 50-year-old found dead in his yard of unspecified injuries. According to information released Saturday by the Mobile PD, a resident of the 7200 block of Third Street got a call from a neighbors early Saturday morning telling her that someone was lying in her front yard. The woman arrived home to find her husband in the yard, unconscious and not breathing. Police responded to a call shortly after 2:30 a.m. and found 50-year-old Myron King suffering from injuries but it was unknown what type. He was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to a hospital for an autopsy. Third Street is off Cody Road north of Old Shell Road in west Mobile. The investigation is ongoing. In autumn 1980, I met Ron Marlenee when he traveled through Big Sandy for an informal meeting with local residents. I was then editor of the Big Sandy Mountaineer, my first job after college graduation. After the meeting, Ron, Cindy (his wife) and I had a pleasant chat, and later that week Rons chief of staff called and offered me the job of press secretary. I got to D.C. in early 1981. Seven years later, I departed D.C. as Rons chief of staff to serve as his 1988 campaign manager. Those eight years, 1981 through 1988, Ron Marlenee served as a real-world, real-time, real-life instructor with a kind of candor and swagger no longer in style. Ron passed on April 26. He had a devilish sense of humor, a rock-solid sense of loyalty, and he was true to his vision of Montana. He spoke his mind. He was a hard charger who knew what he stood for, and stood strongly for it. Ron taught me and many others the importance of knowing where you stand, why you stand there, and how to stand your ground. Ron was in no way simple, but in some ways he was simply a straight-shooter, a bluntly candid, old-school farmer from Scobey who told you exactly what he thought. He was fiercely devoted to Montana, and every day in Congress he fought hard for Montana. A truck laden with mangoes, which was also carrying 20 migrants, overturned near Patha village in Narsinghpur, Madhya Pradesh on Sunday. The truck was travelling was Hyderabad to Agra. 5 migrant labourers died, 2 are critical and 11 got injured after a truck overturned near Patha village in Narsinghpur on the wee hours of Sunday. The labourers were set off on a journey from Hyderabad to Agra on a truck laden with mangoes. Narsinghpur District Collection Deepak Saxena said that about 18 people, including 2 drivers and a conductor, were on that truck, which was laden with mangoes and was going from Hyderabad to Agra. Out of the 18 people, 5 have died. Civil Surgeon Dr Anita Agrawal added that 2 people are critical. One of them has had a head injury while another has a mandible fracture. They have been referred to Jabalpur. Tests for coronavirus has also been conducted after one of the migrant labourers had cough, cold and fever since 3 days, which are the common symptoms of the deadly virus. Earlier this week, 16 migrant workers got run over by a goods train in Maharashtras Jalna. The deceased, who were in a group of 20, were set off on a journey to their native place in Madhya Pradesh. After walking on foot for about 36 km, they got exhausted and dozed off on the railway tracks itself. Also Read: Coronavirus update: Recovery rate surpasses fresh cases in Andhra Pradesh Also Read: Vizag gas leak: Residents demand shutting down of LG Polymers plant Madhya Pradesh: 5 labourers died, 11 injured after the truck they were in, overturned near Patha village in Narsinghpur. The labourers were going from Telangana's Hyderabad to Uttar Pradesh in the truck, which was also carrying mangoes. More details awaited. pic.twitter.com/bowYPVMn1P ANI (@ANI) May 9, 2020 Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the death of the migrant workers on Twitter and said that he has asked Railway Minister Piyush Goyal to closely monitor the situation. He also assured that all possible assistance required would be required. The incident has also led to a blame game amongst parties and party leaders. Also Read: Amit Shah dismisses rumours about his health, says not suffering from any disease For all the latest National News, download NewsX App lab - AFP US and British intelligence agencies are reportedly examining mobile phone data suggesting there could have been an emergency shutdown in October at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. According to a report, obtained by NBC News, there was no mobile phone activity in a high-security part of the Chinese laboratory complex from Oct 7 to Oct 24. Previously, there had been consistent use of mobile phones. The report, carried out by private experts, suggested there may have been a "hazardous event," specifically at the institute's National Biosafety Laboratory, between Oct 6 and Oct 11. Analysis of mobile phone data from the area surrounding the institute also suggested roadblocks were in place between Oct 14 and Oct 19. Experts urged caution over the report, suggesting it may be based on only limited commercially available mobile phone data, and that there could be other reasons for varying levels of phone usage. However, the document could be what Donald Trump was referring to when the president recently said he had seen evidence giving him a "high degree of confidence" the pandemic began accidentally at the Wuhan laboratory. The prevailing theory is that the virus originated in bats and crossed over to humans at a market in Wuhan. But US intelligence agencies continue to investigate the Wuhan laboratory and Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, has said there is a "significant amount of evidence". It was unclear which private organisation carried out the leaked analysis of the mobile phone location data. But the 24-page report suggested it "supports the release of Covid-19 at the Wuhan Institute of Virology" and that the pandemic began earlier than previously thought. The first confirmed case so far in China was on Nov 17. The document was obtained by NBC News in London. In addition to intelligence agencies it has been seen by the US Senate intelligence committee. Several days ago Marco Rubio, the Republican senator who sits on the committee, wrote on Twitter: "Would be interesting if someone analyzed commercial telemetry data at & near Wuhan lab from Oct-Dec 2019. Story continues "If it shows dramatic drop off in activity compared to previous 18 months it would be a strong indication of an incident at lab & of when it happened." China has denied that the virus escaped from the Wuhan laboratory. US officials said they had previously looked at other reports, also based on publicly available mobile phone data, suggesting a shutdown at the Wuhan laboratory. They went on to examine their own data, including satellite images, and could not establish that there had been a temporary closure at the Wuhan lab, deciding that the suggestion was "inconclusive". I had a wedding dress fitting Wednesday. Im not gonna lie, it was a pretty great moment to see the gown in the mirror fitting just right even with my clashing cloth facemask. I was supposed to be getting married in five weeks. Now, thanks to coronavirus, that beaded beauty will be hanging in the closet until next year. Like so many couples out there, we postponed our wedding to 2021. Hopefully by then, it will again feel normal and not scary to put 150 of our friends and family in a room together and hug them all multiple times. A girl can dream! When the first cases of the coronavirus started appearing in New Jersey in early March and our newsrooms were still open an editor pitched a story idea about weddings being postponed. I shrugged off the idea that ours would be affected. But in the same way weve gradually grown accustomed to the new normal wearing masks everywhere or running in the park early to avoid the crowds every day for the past two months, we just got more used to the idea that our June 13 wedding was not going to happen this year. We finally made the call in late April. I was replying to the umpteenth text asking us about our plans with my usual were still holding out hope it can happen when I realized that was no longer true. Were really disappointed, but still, I keep telling people, its not the end of the world. And it really isnt. My fiance Adam and I are alike in a thousand ways, and one of them is that weve always seen marriage as a choice that we get to make, not a requirement or expectation. The idea that theres an age for such a thing and the clock is ticking? Thats just not us. We met in our home state of Massachusetts in 2009, when I was the afternoon bartender and he was the adjunct professor who graded papers at the neighborhood bar. We started dating the following year. When it still felt like the honeymoon phase after a year together, I knew it was probably a good sign. (I guess its also a good sign that we still want to get married after 53 days stuck in the house together, right?) He got a teaching job in South Jersey in 2013 and after nearly three years during which time he drove back to Massachusetts almost every weekend I followed him down here. At some point many years ago, we said wed probably get married around our 10-year anniversary in 2020. Now thats not going to happen this year. But honestly, there was a point two years ago when I wasnt sure that wed stick to that goal anyway. Thats because after my mother died in December of 2017, I couldnt even think of getting married without her. It still breaks my heart that she wont be there. But one day last year, I realized the pain had lessened and I was again excited to marry the guy who is already my life partner. I quickly learned I was out of my element in the world of wedding planning. The color palette? Wear whatever you want. A signature cocktail? Beer counts. My niece wants to be the ring-bearer instead of the flower girl? Great. But even if unlike me you did plan every tiny detail of the big day, you definitely cannot plan for a global pandemic. Couples all over the country are coming to terms with the reality that their wedding day will not go according to plan. For some of them, postponing the big day feels catastrophic. Some are losing tens of thousands of dollars on deposits. Others are out of a job and cant afford the wedding they already started planning. And some are choosing instead to tie the knot anyway in small ceremonies with their loved ones watching via video feed, and plans to have a big party later. What was important to us is that our family and friends are there to celebrate the day, whenever that may be. And if you consider the scale of the coronavirus pandemic, the postponement of a wedding just does not register on the disaster scale, at least for us. If anything, our hopes and plans have just been massively simplified. Were hoping now to just be able to see our family and friends, healthy and happy, some time in the not-too-distant future. Getting married isnt a step in our life we needed to do by a certain date. And a wedding is something we want to do and enjoy. Whats another year when youve waited 10? The dress will still be in the closet next year. Hopefully I can leave the face mask behind. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Prince Andrew has faced further controversy after 355,297 paid to his private secretary was branded an 'unauthorised trustee benefit'. Amanda Thirsk, the Duke of York's long-standing private secretary who resigned shortly after the disastrous BBC Newsnight interview last year, was given the money as payment for her work as trustee of the Prince Andrew Charitable Trust (PACT). It comes after Prince Andrew quit public duties over the dramatic fallout from his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Queen's third son is also currently in a legal dispute alongside his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson over a 6m debt for their 18m ski chalet in Verbier, Switzerland. Ms Thirsk was a trustee for PACT and director of its profit-making subsidies including Pitch@Palace - an organisation that matches entrepreneurs with investors. She was paid 355,297 in instalments over a five-year period and there has been no suggestion of wrongdoing on her part, reported the Financial Times. Amanda Thirsk (right), the Duke of York's (left) long-standing private secretary who resigned shortly after the disastrous BBC Newsnight interview last year, was given the money as payment for her work as trustee of the Prince Andrew Charitable Trust (PACT) According to a note on PACT's annual report 'the Charity Commission raised concern about remuneration paid to one of the Trustees (who has since resigned) in their role as a Director of the subsidiaries'. Charity trustees cannot be paid just for being a trustee, but might receive payment for carrying out building work, providing a specialist service, providing premises such as a meeting room or for any administerial and secretarial work, according to Government guidance. The payments to Ms Thirsk were 'considered to be an unauthorised trustee benefit' and had to be paid back by the Duke Of York's household. Pitch@Palace was launched at St Jamess Palace in 2014, at an event at which Andrew shared the first ever royal selfie from the stage. Pictured, Prince Andrew on stage at the final of his Pitch@Palace competition Ms Thirsk, Prince Andrew's aide, pictured, was one of the directors of Pitch@Palace 'Most charities are supersensitive to the need to comply with the strict laws around trustee benefit,' Jolyon Maugham QC, a barrister, told The Sunday Times. 'It is unfathomable to me that a grown-up charity like Prince Andrews Charitable Trust got this so wrong.' A statement from PACT's trustees revealed the payments were made to Ms Thirsk for her role as a director of the PACT subsidiaries. It added: 'In correspondence initiated by the current Trustees, the Charity Commission raised a concern about the remuneration paid to Amanda Thirsk, which the Commission considered to be an unauthorised Trustee benefit. 'Having considered the matter in light of the Commissions concern, the Trustees concluded that the best interests of the Trust would be served by securing full reimbursement, which was agreed to and paid by HRH The Duke of York's office.' As the charity goes into liquidation the trustees promised: 'Net assets from PACT and its subsidiaries will be distributed, in line with the charitys purpose, to worthy UK charitable causes.' Charity Commission spokesperson said: 'We continue to engage with the trustees of the Prince Andrew Charitable Trust about a number of regulatory issues and will report further in due course.' The Duke's Pitch@Palace arranged Dragons Den-style events at which entrepreneurs would attempt to woo successful business people. Entrants for each event (usually 12) would attend reality TV-style boot camps to be mentored by a panel of advisers. Then they would pitch their ideas in a three-minute speech to an audience of experts at a networking bash. In a damning interview with Emily Maitlis last year, Prince Andrew revealed the sole purpose of the trip to New York was to cut ties with Jeffrey Epstein Since the Epstein scandal the Duke has been forced to rely on a small Navy pension, estimated around 20,000 annually, along with a reported 250,000 yearly allowance from the Queen During Andrews disastrous BBC interview in November, he said that he stayed in Epsteins palatial 71st Street home because it was a convenient place to stay and it was honourable to end his friendship with the financier in person (pictured together) Winners chosen by attendees might typically walk away with a 40,000 package, including office space, investment and tech support. Hopefully, success would follow. It was launched at St Jamess Palace in 2014, at an event at which Andrew shared the first ever royal selfie from the stage. It quickly morphed into a well-known brand, trademarked by the Prince and boasting a host of blue-chip sponsors. Soon its 15 full-time employees were organising regular events in at least 17 countries, some of which had questionable records regarding corruption and human rights, including Bahrain, Mexico, Malaysia, China, Qatar and communist Vietnam. As a result of Pitch@Palaces international success, the Prince was once more able to begin living up to his Air Miles Andy nickname, taking at least 30 foreign trips thanks to the organisation. Pitch footed most bills, though taxpayers still coughed up 250,000 for the security that accompanied him. Billionaire Johan Eliasch, left, hosted Prince Andrew on his yacht and has been involved in Pitch@Palace for several years as a director of Pitch@Palace Global Ltd Pitch@Palace's registered office was at Buckingham Palace. Pictured, Prince Andrew after speaking at the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in Bangkok in November 2019 But after Prince Andrew's fall from grace the investors quickly dropped their support and the UK arm of the firm went into liquidation. It was forced to delete the webpage hailing its 35 key backers - and five big businesses: Advertising Week Europe, KPMG, Aon, Standard Chartered and Gravity Road say they will no longer be working with the charity. It is now known how much this costed the charity, but KPMG was paying them 100,000-a-year. The global firm has since distanced itself from the scandal by removing all mention of the Duke from its website in the hope of rebuilding its network of backers. Prince Andrew was dramatically 'sacked' from public duty after being called into a meeting with his mother the Queen last November. Sources close to the Queen had originally denied she had summoned her son from Windsor for crisis talks amid the furore over his interview about convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The Yorks are being sued by the original owner of the 18m holiday home (pictured) in Verbier, Switzerland, that they bought in 2014 Pictured: Prince Andrew, Sarah Ferguson and family outside their chalet in Verbier, Switzerland on his 43rd birthday The couple owe the former female acquaintance 6.7million as they did not pay their whole bill for Chalet Helora and are now being taken to court, five years and four months later They insisted it was 'business as usual' for the beleaguered royal and they angrily hit back at media coverage of the debacle, saying the public 'traducing' of the prince was turning into a 'personality-motivated witch-hunt'. But his visit to the flood-hit towns of Fishlake and Stainforth in South Yorkshire was called off as big businesses abandoned him because of his toxic links to Epstein and allegations he had sex with the paedophile's 'slave' Virginia Roberts when she was 17. Public confidence in him was also on the rocks after a poll found just one in 20 people who watched the Newsnight special were convinced by his bizarre alibis including being in Pizza Express on the night Virginia claims they had sex in London. It has emerged that the Duke's ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, who remains close to Andrew, was the 'driving force' behind the Royal's decision to conduct his disastrous TV interview that blew up in his face. But the Royal couple failed to make good on their debt and as a result their creditor, who is also former friend of the couple, has decided to go to court. Prince Andrew is pictured on a skiing holiday in Verbier in February 2007 After taking out a mortgage on the property, they made a deal with the vendor to defer payment by five years, until the end of 2019. They agreed to then pay 6.7m plus interest The duke issued a statement confirming he was, with his mother's permission, 'stepping down' from public duties for the foreseeable future. He lost his 249,000 annual income from the Sovereign Grant as a result. But he kept his cash handouts from his mother's Duchy of Lancaster estate, which turned a 21.7million profit last year and provides the Queen and her children with a private income. Andrew also kept his grace-and-favour Royal Lodge home, which he has spent 7.5million renovating in recent years and taxpayer-funded police bodyguards. The royal residence in Windsor Great Park was gifted to him by Her Majesty in 2003 when he split from the Duchess of York and the couple sold their Sunninghill Park mansion in Ascot to a billionaire Kazakh oil tycoon who paid 15million - 3million over asking price - and then razed it to the ground. The Yorks believe they have stuck to their side of the bargain, regarding the chalet, and are shocked to find themselves being dragged through the courts The former couple bought a seven-bedroom luxury chalet, which had previously boasted six full-time staff, and was available to rent for more than 22,000 a week, for 18m in 2014 in the hope of passing it down to their daughters Beatrice and Eugenie. But Chalet Helora is suddenly at the centre of a new and ugly chapter in the seemingly never-ending compendium of embarrassing situations to befall the Royal couple, now both 60 years old. It emerged this week that the duo are the subject of aggressive court proceedings pursued by the original owner of Chalet Helora, a former acquaintance to whom they owe the considerable sum of 6.7 million. Court papers filed by this anonymous individual's law firm, Etude du Ritz, say that a chunk of that sum was due to be repaid by December 31. However, more than four months on it remains outstanding, according to sources, 'despite messages from Sarah promising that payment would be made'. The original owner, said to be a female beneficiary of a trust fund, is believed to have sold Chalet Helora to the Yorks in November 2014 for 22 million Swiss francs, roughly 18m. To raise the funds, the Duke and his ex-wife took out a mortgage for 16 million francs (13.25m). The remaining six million francs (5m) was to have been paid in cash, with each stumping up half. But for reasons that are unclear, they never settled that portion of the bill. Instead, the Royal couple struck a deal with the vendor to defer payment by five years, until the end of 2019. They agreed to then pay eight million francs (6.7m), representing the initial sum, plus interest. Since withdrawing from royal duties in November, Prince Andrew has been forced to rely on a small Navy pension, estimated at around 20,000 a year, along with a reported annual allowance from the Queen of around 250,000. The Duke was caught waving goodbye to a female on December 6 at Epstein's home (pictured) Epstein (left) was also photographed leaving the mansion on the same day accompanied by a young woman Sarah Ferguson, meanwhile, has lost a string of commercial contracts. And the Duke now faces expensive legal bills, having hired Gary Bloxsome, a criminal law specialist who represents 'ultra-high net worth individuals in international jurisdictions' to represent him in litigation relating to the Epstein affair, along with one of Britain's leading extradition lawyers, Clare Montgomery, QC. During Andrews disastrous BBC interview in November, he said that he stayed in Epsteins palatial 71st Street home because it was a convenient place to stay and it was honourable to end his friendship with the financier in person. The Queens second son likened the 21,000 sq ft mansion to a railway station due to the fact that there were people coming in and out of that house all the time. Pushed on why he stayed at the home of a convicted sex offender, he said: Now, I went there with the sole purpose of saying to him that because he had been convicted, it was inappropriate for us to be seen together. The insider, however, believes Epstein asked Andrew to New York and then invited a number of young women to meet him. I think that it was Epstein who invited Andrew to NYC, she told the MoS. The girls were going to Epsteins house specifically to meet Andrew, not just Epstein. Rameshwar Nath Kao, the legendary spy master of India, was born on May 10 in 1918. As we pay tribute to the greatest spy that India ever had, here is a look at his life. Kao founded Indias external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) in the 1960s. He and his officers under him played a vital role in merger of Sikkim in India. Ramji Kao straddled the world of secret intelligence during Indias formative years as a nation. He was deputed to the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in 1947 and trained under the watchful eyes of the legendary Bhola Nath Mullick. He handled some of the legendary cases, like the Kashmir Princess probe in the mid-1950s and contributed to the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. He was a close adviser and security chief to three Indian Prime Ministers, and was one of the founding fathers of the Directorate General of Security (DGS) after Indias conflict with China in 1962. He later went on to head the Aviation Research Centre (ARC) and R&AW. Kao was the first chief of the ARC. But being a spymaster was not the only quality that Kao possessed. He was also a sculptor, according to a book. He also mentored two generations of R&AW spies. The team was called Kao-boys. A lesser known fact about Kao is that he had recorded his past events in a tape recorder and wanted them released to the public after his death. The 75th anniversary of Victory in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War was celebrated in Ashgabat with participation of President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. The celebrations started with a flower-laying ceremony at the memorial complex People's Memory. The head of state, war and labor veterans, leaders of the national parliament, government officials, heads of public associations, political parties and foreign diplomats laid wreaths of flowers at the monument in commemoration of defenders of the Motherland and victims of the devastating Ashgabat earthquake of 1948. The Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Colonel General Alexander Fomin and members of the Russian delegation who arrived in Ashgabat to celebrate Victory Day in Turkmenistan also laid flowers at the foot of the monument. The celebrations continued with a military parade. President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov delivered a speech before the start of the parade. As the head of state noted, soldiers from Turkmenistan, who fought in the great war, demonstrated a high standard of valor, heroism and devotion to the Motherland. Over 70 thousand of them were awarded orders and medals, 104 soldiers were awarded the highest title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and 15 became full Cavaliers of the Order of Glory. The Turkmen leader also praised great humanism and invincible spirit of Turkmen women who donated about 7,400 kilograms of gold and silver jewelry to the Defense Fund. Then, the floor was given to the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Colonel General Alexander Fomin. The distinguished guest said that over 300 thousand soldiers of Turkmenistan fought in the battles on all fronts of the war and reached the walls of the Reichstag, while their mothers, wives and even children worked hard on the home front to bring this glorious day closer. In the name of preserving the historical memory, the Battle Banner of the 748th Infantry Regiment of the 206th Infantry Division of the 2nd Ukrainian Front is being handed over to the fraternal Turkmen people for eternal storage. It will become a reminder of the sacrifice made by the Turkmen people to advance Victory. It was under this banner that Berdimuhamed Annaev, the grandfather of honorable President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Myalikgulyevich, went into battle. We salute all veterans, the generation of winners, the Russian Deputy Minister of Defense said in conclusion. The official part was followed by the military parade of units of the Armed Forces of Turkmenistan, some of which were dressed in military uniforms of the Great Patriotic War and armed with PPSh assault rifles and carbines of the time. The procession of soldiers on Akhal-Teke horses was the crown of the festive parade in honor of the 75th anniversary of Victory. During World War II, the 97th and 98th Turkmen Mounted Divisions were formed and went through the war from Stalingrad to Berlin. The audience watched with great excitement the military vehicles of those years driving past the stands, including Gaz-67B passenger car, ZIS-5 and URAL-ZIS trucks with machine guns mounted on them and legendary BM-13 Katyusha. The military parade concluded with the demonstration of World War II best medium tanks - T-34 and anti-tank self-propelled artillery mounts Su-100 carried on KAMAZ trucks that are well-known from the documentaries and feature films about the war. The military parade was followed by the procession of Immortal Regiment with participation of residents of Ashgabat and diplomats of the Russian Embassy in Turkmenistan. A portrait of front-line soldier Berdimuhamed Annaev, grandfather of the President of Turkmenistan, was among the numerous portraits of front-line soldiers. Festive fireworks that lit up the night sky of Ashgabat with thousands of lights became the final chord of the celebrations in honor of the 75th anniversary of Victory. Festivities marking Victory Day were held in all regions of Turkmenistan. TURKMENISTAN.RU, 2022 Mainly Jem's Birding & Ringing Exploits in the Eastern Province & Ringing Trips to Bahrain The first sculptor of Renaissance Spain St. Christopher stares directly at me, and in a heartbeat I feel what he feelseven my mouth mirrors his. This realization, and level of intimate communion, makes me feel more than a little self-conscious as my gaping mouth brings me sharply back to reality. So palpable is St. Christophers conviction as he carries the Christ child on his shoulders across a river that I forget this St. Christopher is a polychromed wooden figure carved by Spanish Renaissance sculptor Alonso Berruguete. Detail of St. Christopher, 15261533, by Alonso Berruguete. Polychromed wood with gilding. National Museum of Sculpture, Valladolid, Spain. (Javier Munoz and Paz Pastor/National Museum of Sculpture, Valladolid, Spain) Many times, Ive looked at similar art and felt sympathy for the subjects predicament; yet here, empathy grabbed hold of me and pulled me into St. Christophers experience. Its an important distinction to make: Put simply, sympathy brings us to the conclusion of I see, whereas empathy offers us a greater depth of understanding as it moves us beyond I see and connects us to I feel, making any experience tangible and convincing. Berruguetes dramatic sculptures effectively communicate their inner meanings because in each he carves emotionfrom the depths of despair to the heights of the sublimenot for the sake of sensationalism, but to convey a specific message. St. Christopher, 15261533, by Alonso Berruguete. Polychromed wood with gilding. National Museum of Sculpture, Valladolid, Spain. (Javier Munoz and Paz Pastor/National Museum of Sculpture, Valladolid, Spain) My close encounter with St. Christopher was artificialviewing a photo through a computer screenyet, it gripped me entirely. I could only imagine the power of seeing it in situ. But a face-to-face encounter with such a work would have been impossible as this St. Christopher by Berruguete (circa 14881561) was originally part of a high altarpiece, or retablo mayor in Spanish: in this case, a three-story-high altarpiece topped with a carving of the Crucifixion, at the monastery of St. Benedict the Royal in Valladolid. Sadly, the retablo has long been dismantled; in the late-19th century, it was taken down and put on display at the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid. Some parts were lost or destroyed as part of the Spanish confiscation, when the government sold off the property of churches and religious orders to pay off public debt. Detail of St. Christopher, 15261533, by Alonso Berruguete. Polychromed wood with gilding. National Museum of Sculpture, Valladolid, Spain. (Javier Munoz and Paz Pastor/National Museum of Sculpture, Valladolid, Spain) Introducing Berruguete St. Benedicts high altarpiece, Berruguetes first major commission, is considered one of his masterpieces. But who was Alonso Berruguete? And why is he considered the first sculptor of the Spanish Renaissance? The exhibition Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain introduces Americans to Berruguete, whose iconic status in Spain hasnt quite reached the rest of the world. Indeed, this is the first exhibition of Berruguetes works to take place outside of Spain. Seeing Berruguetes works beyond Spains borders is problematic, as many are the fixtures and fittings in churches or monasteries, such as vast retablos or his masterpieces: the choir stalls and the archbishops throne in the Toledo Cathedral, and the marble tomb of Cardinal Juan Pardo de Tavera in the Hospital de San Juan Bautista. The exhibition is the culmination of three years of hard work. Curator and head of sculpture and decorative arts at Washingtons National Gallery of Art (NGA), C.D. Dickerson III co-curated the exhibition with Mark McDonald, The Metropolitan Museum of Arts curator of prints and drawings. Berruguete expert Manuel Arias Martinez, head of collections and deputy director of the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid, was instrumental in helping to organize the exhibition. Many of the exhibits are loans from the largest collection of Berruguetes art at the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid. Valladolid and Toledo are the best places to see Berruguetes work in Spain, according to the exhibition catalog Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain. Edited by Dickerson and McDonald, the catalog is the first comprehensive publication on Berruguete in English. Roundel with male head, 15261533. Polychromed wood with gilding. National Museum of Sculpture, Valladolid, Spain. (Javier Munoz and Paz Pastor/National Museum of Sculpture, Valladolid, Spain) In Washington, the NGA ran the exhibition from Oct. 13, 2019, through Feb. 17, 2020. The exhibition was due to open next at the Meadows Museum in Dallas. However, at the time of this printing, it has been postponed due to COVID-19; the curators hope to hold the exhibition later this year. Mellon Curatorial Fellow, Wendy Sepponen curated the Meadows exhibition. I hope our audiences are inspired by the beauty of Berruguetes work in a way that encourages them to reflect on what unites us as a people regardless of time, creed, or country. Art made over 500 years ago can speak profound truths to us today, said Meadows Museum curator Amanda W. Dotseth in an email. The Making of a Master Sculptor Little is known of Berruguetes early life. His father, Pedro, was an accomplished painter, painting in the Hispano-Flemish style popular in the Castile region of Spain, and its assumed that Pedro taught his son all he knew. Pedros paintings had a definite Italian influence, although scholars are divided as to whether he actually traveled to Italy. A few years after his father died, Berruguete traveled to Italy (circa 1506), where he spent around a decade studying and honing his art, first in Rome and then Florence. Italy must have been an artistic idyll for Berruguete. He studied the art of his contemporaries such as Michelangelo and those of the recent past, the early Renaissance masters: Masaccio and Donatello. He also studied the art of ancient Rome, which was continually being excavated. He also learned disegno, the Italian way of drawing by fully envisioning a concept and realizing it on paper. In Florence, like many great artists, Berruguete traveled to the Brancacci Chapel to study Masaccios fresco cycle. It was on those chapel walls that Masaccio moved away from the predominant international Gothic style of elegant, almost two-dimensional figures to paint solid figures that were full of dynamism, movement, and expressive gestures. In the fresco cycle, Masaccio used single-point perspective with mathematical precision and created a depth of field with atmospheric perspective, making the foreground darker than the distance. Michelangelo, known for fiercely protecting his designs, allowed Berruguete to study his highly lauded (but now lost) preparatory drawing for the Battle of Cascina. We know from copies that the drawing depicted a number of Michelangelos characteristically muscular figures bathing in a river and caught in a surprise attack. Some men are grabbing armor, others scramble up the bank, and others are getting ready to attack. Art historian Giorgio Vasari recounts that Berruguete took part in a competition, judged by Raphael, held by the popes architect Donato Bramante around 1510. Sculptors were tasked with using clay or wax to sculpt the missing arms of the ancient Roman marble sculpture Laocoon and His Sons. The marble sculpture, excavated in Rome in 1506, was thought to have been highly praised by the ancient writer Pliny the Elder. The sculpture presents three tortuous figures firmly in the battle of life and death as snakes wrestle with them. Over the decade when Berruguete was in Italy, he made his mark as a painter, receiving commissions. Salome (circa 15141517) is one of those paintings, which is now in Florences Uffizi Galleries. The several paintings that survive from his years in Italy, such as Salome, show thattogether with Andrea del Sarto, Jacopo Pontormo, and other leading paintershe was at the vanguard of the artistic movement called mannerism, Dickerson notes in the exhibition catalog. The mannerist movement is defined from circa 1520 to circa 1610. But for Berruguete, painting was just the beginning of his artistic brilliance. Spanish Homecoming During Berruguetes lifetime, much of Northern Europe and parts of Italy were under the Spanish crown, Meadows Museum curator Amanda W. Dotseth said. Berruguete returned to Spain in 1518just two years after Charles I became king of Spain and a year before he became Holy Roman Emperor Charles Vand was appointed painter to the king. Although Berruguete was known as an accomplished painter and draftsman (he was the first Spanish artist to create a recognizable collection of drawings), it is his sculpture hes most famous for. Before Berruguete, the overriding style of Spanish sculpture was of staid, fixed figures full of spiritual meaning yet lacking any movement or dramatic emotion. Berruguete brought together all hed learned in Italy, imbuing the spirit of the Italian Renaissance into a new style of art. Berruguetes brilliance lay in his understanding that no matter how strongly he admired Michelangelo or the other great masters of the Italian Renaissance, he still had to forge a style of art that accommodated local tastes and local traditions. In other words: to create an art that was distinctly Spanish, said Dickerson on the audio recording of the NGA press preview of the exhibition. Berruguete moved from painting as his main medium to the traditional Spanish retablo, which combined painting, sculpture, and architecture in each piece, often requiring complex draftsmanship. And altarpiece commissions were more lucrative. The Sacrifice of Isaac, 15261533, by Alonso Berruguete. Polychromed wood with gilding. National Museum of Sculpture, Valladolid, Spain. (Javier Munoz and Paz Pastor/National Museum of Sculpture, Valladolid, Spain) In the Workshop Berruguete would have worked on an altarpiece such as the retablo for St. Benedict the Royal in his workshop, with many assistants carrying out the work. It is assumed that he designed and oversaw all the work, but its hard to determine which works were carved or painted by his hand. In Spain, wood was the main material for sculpture. Alabaster, although available, was normally only affordable by the queen. Block carving was traditionally used, where the artist carved from one piece of wood. The woodcarver may have thought of wood as Michelangelo felt about marble: The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material. Yet Berruguetes finished sculptures were not carved from a single block. He would shape whatever form he required and attach it onto the carving using a dowel and gluea popular technique in Florence. Old Testament Prophet (Isaiah?), 15261533, by Alonso Berruguete. Polychromed wood with gilding. National Museum of Sculpture, Valladolid, Spain. (Javier Munoz and Paz Pastor/National Museum of Sculpture, Valladolid, Spain) The Old Testament prophet Isaiah with his fabulous locks of hair that look like the stylized clouds in Chinese paintings is one example. Isaiahs beard that seems to billow in the wind coherently follows the cloud theme but is a completely separate carving. Abrahams robes in The Sacrifice of Isaac is another example of a carving that has been added on. Here, Abrahams drapery is a stunning example of the special technique known as estofado, whereby the carved drapery fabric is gilded and then painted with a thin layer of tempera. When dry, the artist scrapes away areas of tempera to a set design revealing the gold underneath (a technique called sgraffito in Italian.) The overall effect imitates brocade. Detail showing brocade-like fabric in The Sacrifice of Isaac, 15261533, by Alonso Berruguete. Polychromed wood with gilding. National Museum of Sculpture, Valladolid, Spain. (Javier Munoz and Paz Pastor/National Museum of Sculpture, Valladolid, Spain) Sometimes we can clearly see where these add-ons are joined, although Berruguete knew these details wouldnt be closely scrutinized because the altarpiece was hung up so high. Cleverly, he sometimes used fabric saturated with glue to shortcut drapery carving that seamlessly covered the joints of these carving additions. On finishing the high altarpiece, Berruguete wrote to a colleague on Nov. 27, 1532: It is of such perfection that I am enormously content. Berruguete was satisfied with these works, but today we can only imagine seeing them in situ, hung up high in the monastery, gently lit by dim but dancing candlelight. Each polychromed wooden figure wouldve glistened and shimmered from its niche, inviting quiet contemplation of the biblical legends they portrayed to all who visited and looked up to God. Detail of Abrahams face in The Sacrifice of Isaac, 15261533, by Alonso Berruguete. Polychromed wood with gilding. National Museum of Sculpture, Valladolid, Spain. (Javier Munoz and Paz Pastor/National Museum of Sculpture, Valladolid, Spain) To find out more about Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain, at the Meadows Museum, Dallas, visit MeadowsMuseumDallas.org Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Midland Memorial Hospital and the city of Midland confirmed Midland County's 12th COVID-19 related death on Sunday. The patient, a male in his 60s, was being treated and passed away at Midland Memorial Hospital, according to a press release from the city. The patient passed away on Saturday. He was not a resident at Midland Medical Lodge. No other details will be released at the request of the patient's family. President Moon Jae-in, right, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un stroll on a bridge at the border village of Panmunjeom during their first summit on April 27, 2018. Korea Times file By Do Je-hae President Moon has usually made a point of making some kind of gesture to North Korea during his key speeches up until now, but North Korea was glaringly absent in his speech, Sunday, except for one short line about urging health cooperation on fighting COVID-19. "I hope that South and North Korea will move toward a single community of life and peace by cooperating on human security," Moon said. This was the only time in the 25-minute speech that he referred to North Korea. The almost nonexistent mention of North Korea was taken as a huge surprise as Moon has eagerly expressed his intention to improve inter-Korean ties despite the deadlock in U.S.-North Korea denuclearization talks. But Moon said the proposals he has made since the beginning of the year were still valid. "Although today is the third anniversary of my inauguration, please understand that I'm not going to tell you about the whole state of affairs, but I'm focusing on the various economic crises that we're facing and measures to overcome the national crisis," Moon said after the speech during a brief question-and-answer session with reporters. Lucknow: BSP supremo Mayawati on Monday Morning lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for showing sudden sympathy to Dalit community. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi is speaking in favour of Dalits to gain political mileage for upcoming Assembly Polls in Uttar Pradesh," said BSP supremo Mayawati. On Sunday, PM Modi had decried the attempts to politicise the issue and said he is ready to get "shot and attacked" in place of his Dalit "brothers". Read Full Story: Attack me if you want, but stop attacking Dalit brothers, says PM Narendra Modi He also stressed that society should not be allowed to be divided on the basis of caste and community. "If you want to attack, attack me, not my Dalit brothers. If you want to shoot, shoot me, not my Dalit brothers, stop politics over Dalits. This game should stop," Modi said in an aggressive way, while addressing a public meeting of polling booth workers of BJP at a "Maha Sammelan" at Lal Bahadur Stadium in Hyderabad. His comments come at a time when the NDA government is facing flak over incidents of violence against Dalits and Muslims by cow vigilantes in various states including Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The Parliament also witnessed stormy scenes over the issue. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Former Married At First Sight star Cyrell Paule has celebrated her first Mother's Day with her young son, Boston. The 31-year-old reality star took to Instagram on Sunday, sharing a picture of herself alongside her partner Eden Dally. Cyrell said while babies were never in her life plan this soon, the 'best blessings come as a surprise' when it comes to motherhood. Milestone: Married At First Sight star Cyrell Paule, 31, (L) has celebrated her first Mother's Day with baby son Boston and Eden Dally 'Even to this day I don't know if I'm doing it right. But I'm doing my best. My beautiful family cannot thank everyone enough for the kind words,' she wrote. Cyrell then offered a shoutout to single parents, offering her support to them. 'To all the single mamas doing it on their own, I inspire to be you ... to the fathers out there being both a mama and papa for their little ones, you're all MVPs,' she wrote. MVP appears to be an acronym for Most Valuable Player. Shoutout: 'To all the single mamas doing it on their own, I inspire to be you ... to the fathers out there being both a mama and papa for their little ones, you're all MVPs,' Cyrell wrote Cyrell then offered her support to parents who are trying hard. 'There's more to being a parent than the person you see before you. Don't judge each other's parenting instead encourage each other.' Eden publicly offered his support: 'Happy first mother's day beautiful you are an amazing inspirational woman and an amazing milf to Boston love you.' Loving: Eden publicly offered his support: 'Happy first mother's day beautiful you are an amazing inspirational woman and a amazing milf to Boston love you' Cyrell and Eden have have had their ups-and-downs, with an apprehended violence order lodged against Cyrell in late March. Despite the altercation at their home, only days later the couple revealed they were very much together. Speaking to Confidential in April, Cyrell said: 'There is no AVO, he's [Eden] right here feeding the baby while I'm folding clothes. Denial: Speaking to Confidential on April, Cyrell said: 'There is no AVO, he's [Eden] right here feeding the baby while I'm folding clothes. 'I've become very domesticated. There is no domestic violence.' Meanwhile, Eden said: 'Cyrell and I are all good. I am with her now. Unfortunately couples fight and make up.' Officers from Ryde Police Station were called to the couple's Sydney home after neighbours overheard them having a heated argument. Explanation: 'We had a little argument and it was a complete misunderstanding. I'd never get an AVO out against Cyrell. I'm with her right now,' said Eden The duo told Daily Mail Australia last month that the incident was just a 'misunderstanding' and the AVO was unnecessary. Cyrell said: 'We had a fight like most couples do. The next day Eden asked why they're putting an AVO out against me.' Eden added: 'We had a little argument and it was a complete misunderstanding. I'd never get an AVO out against Cyrell. I'm with her right now.' Eden and Cyrell welcomed their first child, Boston, on February 9. The European Commission threatened twice in a weekend to sue Germany over a ruling by the countrys constitutional court challenging the European Central Banks monetary authority, raising the prospect of an institutional showdown on the continent amid the deepest recession in a century. The final word on EU law is always spoken in Luxembourg. Nowhere else, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement on Sunday, referring to the headquarters of the European Court of Justice. She also threatened a lawsuit after Germanys constitutional judges gave the ECB a three-month ultimatum to fix alleged flaws in its quantitative easing policy. The landmark May 5 German court decision risks opening a legal can of worms, as it challenged the supremacy of European Union judges, whose rulings are binding across the 27-nation bloc. The court accused its EU counterpart in Luxembourg of overstepping its powers when it backed the ECBs monetary policy. That poses the risk of other nations starting to doubt the authority of the EU Court of Justice, an issue that may eventually threaten the future of the common currency, according to Wolfgang Schaeuble, Germanys former finance minister. EU law has primacy over national law, von der Leyen said in her Sunday statement. In a letter to EU lawmaker Sven Giegold published on Saturday, the head of the EU executive arm said the German court ruling is being analyzed and an infringement process against Germany is possible, a threat she reiterated on Sunday. The euro-areas central bank was given three months to prove that its asset-purchase program, which has bought 2.7 trillion of debt since 2015 and is adding more each month, is in line with the law. Such court rulings raise both practical and political questions for the ECB. According to the EUs treaties, the ECB is independent in its conduct of monetary policy and doesnt answer to national courts. This means that any response, even if it is one that reassures German judges, would create a precedent of the ECB having to give explanations to national courts about its policies. The Bundesbank is bound by the ruling, so if the ECB doesnt comply, the German central bank could be barred from the asset-purchases program, which is running at 20 billion a month with an additional 120 billion euros as part of measures to combat the current downturn. Germany is the euro zones biggest economy and its central bank accounts for the largest share of the ECBs purchases. To be sure, the German ruling wont stop purchases immediately and it doesnt affect a separate 750 billion support plan launched in March to combat the impact of the coronavirus. It does, however, raise question marks over just how far the ECB can push its monetary stimulus. Crucially for the stability of the EU, the ruling sets a precedent of national courts scolding the European Court of Justice and attempting to overrule its judgments. This could provoke a legal chaos in the bloc, which is already struggling to force illiberal governments in its Eastern flank, such as Poland and Hungary, to abide by commonly agreed decisions and democratic standards. On May 3, the Finance Ministry released its plan for the country to end its coronavirus lockdown and return to normal. The plan includes the opening of malls, hotels and gyms and the gradual reopening of schools in the hope that all restrictions will be ended by mid-June. A state of emergency lasting almost two months and a partial mandatory lockdown were enforced in response to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, and particularly the spread of the virus in Israel. Now that an end to the crisis may be in sight, it is important to ask how it has impacted Arab-Jewish relations in Israel. Did it add fuel to the fire and fan the flames of animosity that have been spreading in the country over the past few years, encouraged by none other than the prime minister himself, Benjamin Netanyahu? Or did it actually strengthen the shaky relationship between the two communities? The truth of the matter is that Israel has long gotten used to the idea that emergency situations (most of them based on politics or security) tend to increase tensions and exacerbate preexisting animosity between the Arab and Jewish communities. The best example of this is the Second Lebanon War. As I wrote in an earlier article in Al-Monitor, while 19 of the 44 Israelis killed in the war were Arab, the preponderant feeling at the time was that Israels Arab citizens were not fully part of the country or its struggles. In contrast, the COVID-19 crisis seems to have helped improve the intercommunity relationship. The fact that the virus did not distinguish between Arabs and Jews played an important role in reconciling them. So did images of Arab doctors and nurses (some 20% of Israeli medical staff are Arab) fighting relentlessly on the front lines in the battle against the virus. By way of comparison, attitudes toward ultra-Orthodox society also experienced a shift as a result of COVID-19. The secular community was outraged at the high incidence of infection among that community, attributing it to lax attitudes toward social distancing and other measures intended to curb the pandemics spread. In the meanwhile, the coronavirus had the opposite effect on attitudes toward Arab citizens, and strengthened the relationship between the Arab and Jewish communities. All it took was a precursory glimpse at how the Arab community adhered to all government instructions, even shutting down its mosques and churches. The improved relationship has extended into the holy month of Ramadan. Given the high rate of infection in the Arab community, and especially in villages in the north such as Deir al-Assad and Baanah (both of which were put under closure), the Home Front Command launched Operation Ramadan Nights. This included videos geared to the community, with verses from the Quran and quotes from the Prophet Muhammad, and even the delivery of holiday sweets directly to residents homes. The command also translated its website into Arabic for the occasion. As the unit's commander for Arab affairs, Col. Shams al-Fares (res.), explained, People understand that this is a war that doesnt distinguish between Jews and Arabs. Nevertheless, the big question remains: What will happen the day after the coronavirus crisis is over? Is this the start of a real romance and a turning point in Arab-Jewish relationship, or is it just a temporary fling that will vanish together with the coronavirus? Is the Jewish sector ready for a long-term shift in this relationship? Ahead of Israels Independence Day on April 28, the Israel Democracy Institute released the surprising result of a survey on Israelis sense of belonging to the state. The survey found, among other things, a shifting trend among the Arab public. According to the study, 77% of Arabs feel that they are a part of the State of Israel and that they share in its problems (31% agree and 46% agree very much). These are by far the highest results seen in the past decade. In similar annual studies from 2014 and until 2019, for example, the percentage of Arabs who identified with the State of Israel and its problems ranged from 35% to 62% at best. Can this sense of belonging be attributed to the coronavirus crisis, and will it continue into the future? The truth of the matter is that this is an especially dramatic shift, when compared with last year. It shows an increase of 35%, the institute's Or Anavi told Al-Monitor. Given the enormous difference between this year and last, I would recommend looking at this trend over time. This dramatic shift should be taken in context. We must not build entire theories on the basis of a single poll. So what can be learned from the results of this survey? Perhaps that there is a willingness among the Arab public to integrate and play a greater role in Israeli society, including Israeli politics. Evidence of this can be seen in the way that the Arab Joint List acted unamimously to support Blue and White leader Benny Gantz in his bid to form a new government. This came in response to the mood on the Arab street, where people wanted to play the political game all the way until the bitter end. Even the Balad party [one of the factions that constitute the Joint List] was forced to support this recommendation. What is especially important to remember is that until the elections in September 2019 and March 2020, Arab parties did not make any recommendations at all, except in their historic recommendation of Yitzhak Rabin in 1992. But this is the precise difference between the Arab community and the majority of the Jewish community, especially among right-wing voters led by Netanyahu. As long as we are talking about civil, and not political, struggles, campaigns that have no impact on who makes up the government, the Jewish community agrees for the Arabs to be part of the game. In contrast, it is important for Netanyahu that politics in Israel remain Jewish politics, and not Israeli politics, as I have written about. It is important for him that Israels Arab citizens continue to be excluded from Israeli society at large and that they do not receive legitimacy. He wants to exclude them from influencing the political arena and be content with involvement in civil issues only. Maybe the difference between the 2019 and 2020 surveys can be explained by the fact that the 2019 study was conducted after the first round of elections in April 2019. The Arab Joint List was split into its separate factions then, while Netanyahu ran a divisive campaign attacking the Arab community. In response, the Arab public expressed its revulsion toward the elections by remaining home instead of going out to vote. No wonder the number of Arabs who voted then stood at only 49%. Riot police clashed with hundreds of protesters in Berlin yesterday during a demonstration against coronavirus lockdown in Germany. Despite the central government easing lockdown on Wednesday, infected cases have begun to rise in Germany again, with some states saying they will not lift measures if the numbers continue to spike. Overall infections rose by 1,251 cases yesterday with 147 new deaths. In Berlin, hundreds of protesters swarmed Alexanderplatz, defying the government's limit of 50 people for outside gatherings, clashing with riot officers and shouting 'Wir sind das Volk!' ['We are the people!'] and 'Freiheit!' ['Freedom!']. A protester of conspiracy theorists is detained during a demonstration in front of the Reichstag, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Berlin, Germany yesterday Police officers pepper spray protesters during a demonstration at Alexanderplatz, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Berlin, Germany yesterday A general view shows a demonstration against the restrictions implemented to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, at the grounds of the Cannstatter Wasen festival in Stuttgart, southern Germany yesterday A protester is detained by police officers during a demonstration at Alexanderplatz, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Berlin, Germany yesterday Across the country, over 3,000 people were reported to have descended on Munich and thousands more flocked to Stuttgart, incensed by the government's management of the pandemic. Unlike Berlin, these demonstrations were largely peaceful. They accused politicians of drawing out the restriction on movement and argued that the actions infringed on their human rights. The central German government, headed by Chancellor Angela Merkel, eased lockdown on Wednesday after consistently reporting decreasing numbers. Data revealed by the Robert Koch Institute today showed an increase of confirmed cases from 1,251 to 168,551 with the death toll spiking by 147. Police officers stand guard with dogs during the demonstration to protest the measures taken against the new type of coronavirus (Covid-19) in Berlin, Germany yesterday A protester is detained during a demonstration in front of the Reichstag, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Berlin, Germany yesterday. The t-shirt reads: 'Don't give anything to them, take it all' A protester is detained by police officers during a demonstration at Alexanderplatz, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Berlin, Germany yesterday A woman is covered in a virus costume to protest against government lockdown measures during the novel coronavirus crisis today in Stuttgart, Germany A woman hands out a white rose to a police officer as she demonstrates at Rosa Luxemburg Platz, amid the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Berlin, Germany yesterday Concerns have also been raised at the country's R number, the rate at which the virus spreads from each person, reached 1.1 by RKI today, Deutsche Welle reported. RKI scientists warned that it would be necessary to monitor developments before they could judge whether the virus would begin to spread again. Protesters in Munich were largely non-violent, according to Deutsche Welle, and police decided not to disperse the group. They blared out social-distancing advice on loudspeakers, which was ignored. A group of 25 right-wing protesters also tagged along to the demonstration and were moved on by authorities. In Stuttgart, protesters largely followed social-distancing guidelines, according to reports. A protester is detained by police officers during a demonstration at Alexanderplatz, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Berlin, Germany yesterday People gesture as they demonstrate at Alexanderplatz, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Berlin, Germany yesterday Riot police arrest a hooded man during a protest rally against coronavirus restrictions on Alexanderplatz during the novel coronavirus crisis on yesterday in Berlin, Germany People shout abuse at riot police during a protest rally against coronavirus restrictions on Alexanderplatz during the novel coronavirus crisis yesterday in Berlin, Germany In Berlin, 30 people were apprehended at a rally at Alexanderplatz, where hundreds of protesters ignored the maximum of 50 people at outdoor events rule. Yesterday, local authorities in Germany said they would reinstate lockdown measures after coronavirus infections spiked days after Angela Merkel started to ease them. Germany has 16 federal states, with the power to relax restrictions, who have all agreed to reimpose lockdown if new cases hit 50 per 100,000 people over seven days. The regional government in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populated state and home to Cologne and Dortmund, recorded a spike in coronavirus cases after 150 of 1,200 employees tested positive at a slaughterhouse in Coesfeld. The regional government has postponed reopening restaurants, tourist spots, fitness studios and larger shops which was supposed to happen on May 11. Reopening schools and daycare centres is set to go ahead as planned. North Rhine-Westphalia's health minister Karl-Josef Laumann said the slaughterhouse infection rate had pushed the region above 50 per 100,000 people to 61 per 100,000 people. Riot police arrest a woman during a protest rally against coronavirus restrictions on Alexanderplatz during the novel coronavirus crisis yesterday in Berlin, Germany Police officers take a demonstrator into custody during a protest against restrictions to stem the spread of novel coronavirus (Covid-19), in Berlin, Germany yesterday Police officers stand guard with dogs during the demonstration to protest the measures taken against the new type of coronavirus (Covid-19) in Berlin, Germany yesterday A different slaughterhouse in the northern state Schleswig-Holstein also saw a rise in employees testing positive for the virus taking the district's infection rate over the 50 per 100,000 people threshold. In the eastern state of Thuringia, the local government recorded more than 80 infections per 100,000 people over the past week. The majority of these infections were among employees and residents in six care homes and one geriatrics hospital. Martina Schweinsburg, the chief administrator of Thuringia's Greiz, said: 'To be clear: We're not going to put the entire district in quarantine just two small towns were particularly affected.' This is a setback to Angela Merkel's efforts to ease Germany's lockdown measures on Wednesday. She said the country had defeated 'the first phase of the pandemic' because it had a slowing infection rate and a low mortality rate. Handwashing or washing ones hands of the coronavirus? The latter is said to derive from biblical canon. For a moment, let us leave the politics aside. The symbolism is pertinent. Pontius Pilate washed his hands of the decision to crucify Jesus Christ. According to the Gospel of Mathew, he washed his hands in front of the crowd before announcing, I am innocent of this mans blood; see to it yourselves. Centuries later, Shakespeare harks back to this symbolism in the play Macbeth and carries it ahead to levels of personality disorder and neurosis. After her husband murders Duncan, the King of Scotland, Lady Macbeth rubs the kings blood on the attendants to frame them. Then she tells Macbeth: A little water clears us of this deed. As the play proceeds, Lady Macbeth is consumed with guilt and becomes paranoid about her bloodstained hands. She orders for light a candle to overcome the darkness of the nights of misdeeds. Her attendant sees her abnormal sleepwalking behaviour. Lady Macbeth constantly rubs her hands in a washing motion for a quarter of an hour, mumbling, Out, damned spot and All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this hand. By the end, the audience learns she has committed suicide. In her neurotic madness, the bloodstain would not go from her mind. It takes another few centuries before the psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud, brings handwashing into the domain of a mental disorder. Specifically, OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, a compulsion to perform certain actions repeatedly. At the base of it all, is an anxiety of being overwhelmed by the exterior world, over which the person has no control. The compulsive action is a way to gain some control over a hostile environment. Later, the psychoanalyst, Wilhelm Reich, was to call this armour control. In recent times, Wray Herbert, author, columnist and psychology blogger, has spoken about the symbolism of the compulsive hand-washer. He elaborates it in context of the human minds connection between morality and cleanliness, immorality and filth. There are other pertinent studies relevant to corona times. Some have shown that after having contemplated or recalled unethical acts, people tend to wash hands more than others. Another study states, only a little over 25 per cent of global bathroom visits with potential faecal contact was followed by handwashing with soap. Even in high-income nations, only 50 per cent of people use water and soap that is abundantly available after toilet visits. As recently as 2015, a Republican Senator in USA is said to have stated that: Requiring restaurant employees to wash hands is a classic example of over-regulation. And now, 2020, the era of handwashing. The world is stuck between a mix of existent handwashing cultures, contemplation and guilt about over-consumption, inequalities in global systems, ravaging of the environment and the looming threat of the coronavirus. Do we need to heed another revealing study by Israeli scientist Reuven Dar and his colleagues? The study examines OCD, the need for control over stressful life events and compulsive rituals. Dar reported that handwashing did help to salve guilt about past misdeeds but reduced willingness to help another person in need. Pertinently, those with OCD were more prone to this effect. How does all this fit in with corona handwashing videos, songs, animations, spoofs, going viral on social media? Of handwashing becoming a global phenomenon? Is it only the coronavirus or is there more behind it? Lockdowns have forced people worldwide to move into various phases and stages of introspection. There is awe about experiencing silence, seeing nature bloom and flourish, smog-free skies and much more. There are the forced moments of being with ones self and the loss of freedom to do anything at will and instantly. And, at the core now, this endless handwashing. We come back to Freud in context of OCD. The anxiety of being overwhelmed by the exterior world. The implied finding that handwashing helps salve guilt for past misdeeds and provides moral relief. Now, the exterior compounded by an external threat, for which the world and each of us is pinning blame on that one other thing, person or country. Is handwashing then set to become a global OCD pandemic as a precursor to better or worse times in collective human behaviour? The world is ravaged and severely compromised. Guilty we all are, like Lady Macbeth. After all the corona handwashing, will we, like Pontius Pilate, just wash our hands of the problem and leave the world and planet to fend for itself? God forbid because that may yet be another Kafkaesque tale. I wear two hats at AUT, says Liz Gosling, who is both chief information officer and director of operations for the emergency management team at Auckland University of Technology. It is a stretch assignment, says Gosling, who welcomes the added remit. Sometimes, technology people get pushed into a box where everybody thinks thats all they can do, she explains. It was encouraging to be recognised as having the capability to be doing something beyond ICT and strategically important for the university. She also points out that emergency management work can be quiet for a long time and then you must deal with several emergencies in a row. They are like buses; there is nothing for ages, then three arrive at once, essentially. This is exactly what happened when COVID-19 spread and impacted all sectors. Gosling was seconded as a lead at AUTs COVID-19 task force. She named one of her direct reports, solutions development director Abby Dowd, as acting CIO. Speaking to CIO New Zealand via videoconference, Gosling details how her team tackled the challenges brought by the pandemic, as AUT had to deliver learning online and staff had to work from home. Lockdown scenario at AUT: Mothball the university AUT courses have gone fully online, covering 900 papers, for the current semester. This was an amazing feat, says Gosling. It took five weeks to get every paper in the university completely online. The feedback is really good from the students on the online experience. Gosling says the staff was prepared for the mass shift to working from home as the university had already invested in Office 365, Teams and other collaboration platforms. She notes that the COVID-19 emergency response has enhanced AUTs rollout plans for digital tools. The uptake on Teams and chats has just been huge. She shares that the data centre at AUT had been moved to Datacom in the North Shore, and the university systems had been set up so everything can be run remotely. We had all of that ground capability in place. If the organisation did not have that fundamental platform and technical capability, it would have been incredibly hard, she states. From an emergency management perspective, of course everything changed very quickly, she says. The first signs in New Zealand of something coming at us was when Wuhan got locked down, she says. AUT started to see the impact on the international students who had to self-isolate if they returned from overseas. Students from certain countries were also not allowed to enter New Zealand. Then, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters asked Kiwis to come home, and New Zealand shut its borders, allowing only citizens and permanent residents to enter. Once it became apparent that COVID-19 was in New Zealand, a concern was AUTs 30,000 people: staff, faculty, and students, she says. We looked at our business continuity plan, and asked, how well set up are we should we have to close our campuses? According to Gosling, AUT has had a pandemic plan since the time of SARS in 2002 and 2003. In early February, they got out their pandemic plan and reviewed it to make sure it was in line with the national pandemic plan. We saw what was happening in other countries, she says of the impending lockdown. We worked through how we would shut down the whole university, which they have never done before. Universities always have some activities going on, she says. What we are being asked to do is almost mothball the whole thing for four-plus weeks, which is a big exercise actually. They had to think about the facilities, security, and the need to lock everybodys access cards. We had to guarantee that all our buildings are shut, clean, and secure. At the same time, the management team was thinking how they would operate at levels 3 and 4, and what it means for AUT when the country goes to level 2. Most of the university already had a practice run of work from home, says Gosling. In February, the university asked every department to test their work from home capability. This allowed them to see what they need in case of a lockdown, such as additional training, monitors, and faster internet. When the Vice-Chancellor asked Gosling for key advice just before the lockdown, she replied: Everybody go home, teach yourself how to use Teams. If you could do that, you will be in a good space. Breaking down technological and socio-economic barriers at AUT As in all universities, AUT particularly, the digital equity question has always been there, states Gosling. We know a number of our students come from more socially deprived areas of Auckland. They do not have broadband in many cases or have a suitable laptop or computer at hand that they can use to study. She says Walter Fraser, head of the Office of Pacific Advancement at AUT, worked with the strategy and planning and student services teams to determine the scope of the problem. During the four-week study break, AUT surveyed the digital needs of students. The survey indicated that 6 per cent of AUT students didnt have a laptop, tablet, or PC at home that they could use. Moreover, 17 per cent of students didnt have broadband at home to connect to online learning. This led the university to buy 1400 laptops from PB Tech and wi-fi broadband modems from Spark. PB Tech and Spark had to courier the devices to students as New Zealand was already on national lockdown. So, what can they take away from the experience? It has shown how agile we were as a big organisation, in responding to the challenges of COVID-19, says Gosling. The resilience shown by people to adapt to new ways of working has been fantastic. That has served us really well as New Zealands university of technology. She says the event also highlighted the resilience of the ICT services team. They have pulled all stops as an organisation. I dont think AUT will be in the place they are in without the IT team working so hard, particularly in the period of lockdown. The ICT people have really been the unsung heroes in our organisation, notes Alison Sykora, head of communications at AUT and a member of AUTs emergency management team. If IT does not work, none of us can. Gosling says the coronavirus pandemic also provided lessons around sustainability. Many people have potentially gotten better work life balance, because they are not spending two hours a day commuting in traffic. In her case, she has been able to help her daughter with her NCEA Level 2 assignments. We are not burning through petrol, these are environmental sustainability aspects, she says. What will we take forward in different ways of working for us as a country and globally? Applying this to her sector, she states: In a university, we have a great number of courses that have practical elements to them like engineering and health degrees. We need that practical face-to-face on campus element but again, the question is, what can we do online and what needs to be on campus? Where does our organisation want to work in the future? She notes how recently the university had 1700 staff listen to a Teams discussion with the vice chancellor and deputy vice chancellor. They were able to answer questions from staff in real-time. It worked well. We have seen the switching of business models. she states. Cafes that never had online ordering are now doing it. All kinds of small New Zealand businesses must flip their business models and think differently. A lot of organisations have to do the same, and having a good, well-reasoned, robust investment in technology actually gives you the platform to do that. Gosling goes back to her insights on CIOs taking on assignments beyond ICT. This is around service to the organisation, she says of her work with the emergency management team. As a senior leader in any organisation, it is really good to think in terms of, what else can I do to contribute especially in times of crisis? What can I bring to the table to help my organisation get through this? The important thing for all CIOs is to give yourself the space to think strategically. It is very easy to get dragged down to the operational stuff the whole time, she says. I am very lucky I have an extraordinarily capable team, who largely deal with all the operational things. This has allowed me the space to think more strategically and contribute to the leadership table. Having the ability to contribute to the broad organisational strategy is important, she states. We talk about what digital means for organisations. COVID-19 is going to speed up that thinking for everyone. Those that are digitally ready are going to fare a lot better than those that are behind. The World Hindu Federation has alleged that the persecution of minorities in Bangladesh, mainly Hindus, has increased during the lockdown in the country. Bangladesh announced a nationwide lockdown after noting a surge in Coronavirus cases in the country on 26 March. The World Hindu Federation has alleged that there have been a series of incidents conducted by religious fanatics against Hindus in the last month including shops being looted, businessmen being killed, land being grabbed, temples being demolished and idols vandalized, families being forced to leave the country and girls and women being abducted and raped. The federation said in a statement, In April, 12 business shops of Hindu owners were looted, 2 Hindu businessmen were killed, 307 acres of Hindu land were occupied by local criminals, 2 temples were demolished and idols vandalized. 21 Hindu families were evicted from their settlements and 14 Hindu families forced to leave the country. The federation also claimed that in the last month four Hindu girls were abducted, six other Hindu girls and women were raped, ten were attempted to being raped and three Hindu girls were forced to convert to Islam. It asserted, The human rights situation is becoming worse day by day in Bangladesh but unfortunately no one has been arrested yet. The Federation demanded punishment to the criminals for the atrocities unleashed on the minorities in the country. The Federation listed out the incidences The federation also listed a series of incidents of the atrocities unleashed against Hindus. Some of them are: On April 4, a land grabber occupied the ancestral property of one Narayan Sarkar in Puran Mahipur Union of Mahipur Police Station in Patuakhali district. Similarly, on April 6 a local land grabber and his two sons grabbed 100 bighas of land belonging to 50 Hindu families in three villages under Chaugachha police station in Jessore district. Minorities are living under constant fear after the Islamic fundamentalists vandalized the idol of a Hindu temple located in Dashmina Upazila of Patuakhali district on April 7. On April 8 Police arrested a school teacher, Indrajith Hazari (35), on the false allegation of posting abusive words about a prophet. Temples and idols vandalized, Lands of Hindu acquired illegally by force In another incident on April 9, the miscreants vandalized the idols of Sri Sri Radha Gobind and Lakshmi of Shiva temple in Kuki Kalidas village of Shibganj Upazila of Bogra district. On April 10 a man grabbed the 6 bighas of ancestral land of Jobon Mridha in Morelganj of Bagerhat district. On April 11, a local goon demanded 5 lakh taka from a Hindu businessman Asit Kumar Sarkar, who is a resident of Titukandi village in Alamdanga Upazila in Faridpur district. Later, the goon and 30 of his associates attacked and seriously injured Sarkar. Similarly, on April 12, a man and his sons looted the house of Sudhanshu Das of Nazirpur village in Nasirnagar Upazila of Brahmanbaria district and cut down valuable trees worth more than three lakh taka. Hindu Women beaten up, abducted and forcibly converted to Islam More brutal incidences emerged when a helpless widow Basna Rani Das and her son and daughter were brutally beaten up and injured by local criminals who also grabbed her house and other properties on April 13. On April 14 a local goon threatened to kill a retired Hindu teacher, Dipak Kumar Raha when he wanted to return to his house after a long time from Narail district. The goon captured Rahas house and property and evicted him out of his house. On April 15, One Dhaneshwar Roys daughter Pratima Rani was forcibly taken away and converted to Islam in Dimla Upazila in the Nilphamari district. On April 16 a man and his two sons carried out an attack on a Hindu family in Paschim Sujankathi (Mallikpur) village under the Agailjhara police station in Barisal district. Four Hindus were admitted to the hospital with serious injuries. A minor Ashtami Sarkar (14), daughter of Nimai Sarkar of Rajshahi district, committed suicide in her room as she was regularly harassed by a man and his associates on April 17. Hindus evicted from their own properties As another atrocity on minority, Police arrested Paritosh Kumar Sarkar, a Hindu college student, on the false allegation of making objectionable comments on Facebook on April 18. On April 19 Police arrested one Madhu Kundu (32) of Fakirhat in Bagerhat for writing about mass gathering during the performance of last rites of a man at Nasirnagar in Brahmanbaria district. On April 21, Thirty Hindu families were attacked in Satkania by a local group of 60 people. 25 Hindus, including children, were seriously injured. On April 22, the religious fanatics vandalized a temple and attacked several Hindu houses at Akkelpur municipal area of Joypurhat district for obstructing gambling at the Parghati temple. On April 23, the miscreants killed a Hindu man Subrata Mandal (30) at Dakop Upazila in Khulna district. And the atrocities going on!! On April 24, the goons attacked a Hindu family at Mongla in Bagerhat district with the intention of evicting them from their homes. Six members of the family, including a pregnant woman, were injured. On April 25, a local group attacked and vandalized the house of Rabidas and grabbed property at Sariyakandi in Bogra district. Again on April 26, the miscreants vandalized idols and set fire to two temples in Laxmipur municipal town. On April 27, a local and his two sons beat up and injured Narendra Moktar to grab his properties at Begumganj Upazila in the Noakhali district. On April 28, the miscreants attacked a Durga temple and its adjoining Bankali temple at Maheshail Bazar under Ishania Union No. 2 of Bochaganj Upazila in Dinajpur and vandalized the Shiva and Kali idols of the two temples. On April 29 Bikash Chandra Ghosh in Satkhira district was attacked by 35-40 people with the intention of grabbing his five bighas of land. As President Donald Trump tries to moves on from the coronavirus, Congress is rushing to fill the void and prepare the country for the long fight ahead. Jolted by the lack of comprehensive federal planning as states begin to reopen, lawmakers of both parties, from the senior-most senators to the newest House member, are jumping in to develop policies and unleash resources to prevent a second wave. In the House and Senate, lawmakers are pushing sweeping proposals for a national virus testing strategy. One seasoned Republican wants a war-like public health fund. A New Jersey freshman launched neighboring colleagues on a regional bipartisan task force to help guide Northeastern states back to work. This is going to be on us, said Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., a former Navy helicopter pilot in her first term in Congress. The legislative branch is stepping up in the absence of a consistent, convincing White House strategy, in much the way governors have been forced to go it alone during the nation's pandemic response. Congress is preparing its fifth coronavirus aid package, a Rooseveltian effort, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York put it. It's a Democratic-heavy plan that wary Republicans are watching, despite support in the party for some provisions. Unlike the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, when President George W Bush called on Congress to create a Department of Homeland Security, or during the Great Depression, when President Franklin D Roosevelt led the nation to the New Deal, Trump is not seeking a legacy-defining accomplishment in the heat of national crisis. Instead, Trump has turned the life-and-death decision-making away from the federal government and onto the states for the next phase of the response. He expects governors to arrange virus testing systems and find their own medical gear, saying the federal government is a supplier of last resort. The White House coronavirus task force has abandoned daily briefings. Encouraging the economic rebound, Trump said Thursday he's looking forward to "getting on with it. When the nation is in the middle of the major, historic crisis, the norm is that both branches focus on the issue, said Julian E Zelizer, a Princeton professor of history and public policy. It's not normal for the president to just move on." The administration issued guidelines for reopening state and local economies, but shelved a more detailed 17-page report from the experts at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. New projections say the death toll could essentially double this summer, from 70,000 as of Friday to 134,000 by early August, as states loosen stay-home restrictions, according to a model from the University of Washington. It is lot for Congress to take on, Andy Slavitt, a former federal health official, told the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Friday. "There's never been a greater time when Americans need the support of Congress and their state and local leaders." As the Senate resumed this past week while the House stayed largely away, lawmakers drilled into pandemic policy. Tom Frieden, a former CDC director, outlined a 10-point strategy in testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee. As bad as this has been, it's just the beginning, Frieden warned of the long wait ahead for improved treatments and an eventual vaccine. Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the committee, was particularly interested in Frieden's proposal for a new public health fund modelled on those Congress uses to pay the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, separate from budget caps. There needs to be a whole big plan, said Cole. On the other side of the Capitol, an exasperated Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., grilled officials about the national testing strategy she has pushd since early March. We can't reopen our country safely, she said, until tests are are fast, free, and everywhere. Health officials say a robust national testing effort, with the ability to trace the contacts of those who have been infected - so those people isolate and prevent spread - should be central to any plan returning Americans to work. Several lawmakers want the federal government to hire out-of-work Americans into an army of the estimated 300,000 public health workers needed for the job. To ensure enough medical supplies, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wants to wrest manufacturing away from China with Buy American rules to kick-start domestic industry. While many of the proposals coming from Congress are bipartisan, pushback is strong from some corners. Conservative Republicans in particular resist a robust federal government intervention, preferring a state-by-state approach. Many share Trump's view that the remedy can't be worse than the disease, as record Americans are out of work. Trump will need to sign any legislation into law. At the House hearing, Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., an anesthesiologist, argued that indefinite stay-home orders make no sense. "We're safer from death if we're not born," he said. Cole, a former history professor, said Trump is constrained by the built-in balance between Washington and the states, which ensures 50 laboratories as states try different options for confronting the virus. We're going to know pretty quick whether or not these guys starting up early are right, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As of now, it is too early to talk about the opening of the entry-exit checkpoint in Donbas, as the deadlines are tied to the lockdown in Ukraine. This was stated by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky during a visit to Luhansk region, RBC-Ukraine reports. According to him, today it is too early to talk about the opening of checkpoints on the demarcation line. "I will tell you frankly, it is hard for me to talk about the terms now because they are related to the quarantine measures that are taking place in our country. Both Stanytsia Luhanska and Zolote are parts of our country. This is all information about entry-exit checkpoints there is," Zelensky remarked. HEFEI, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Medics in eastern China's Anhui Province shared COVID-19 treatment experiences with their peers in its sister state Maryland of the United States through a video conference Friday. At the conference, doctors of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University answered questions on the benefits and side effects of different treatments and medicines of COVID-19. They also exchanged ideas on virus detection and treatment of patients with respiratory distress in the 90-minute video conference. "This year marks the 40th anniversary of the sister relationship between Anhui Province and the state of Maryland. We're pleased to share our experiences on battling COVID-19 with you," said Yong Chenghan, director of the Anhui provincial foreign affairs office. Maryland donated about 20,000 masks, gloves and protective suits to Anhui in February when China was hit hard by COVID-19. In April, Anhui returned the favor by donating 140,000 surgical masks to Maryland. "We are immensely grateful for the cooperation and support we have received from all over the world, particularly from our sister state partners," wrote Larry Hogan, governor of Maryland in a thank-you note to Anhui. "The generous donation on behalf of the people of Anhui Province is a gesture of goodwill that will long be remembered by the state of Maryland." Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Its King versus McQueen. New Mexico political royalty Rebecca Becky King-Spindle, the granddaughter of the late former Gov. Bruce King, is challenging Matthew McQueen in District 50 of the New Mexico House of Representatives, where he is running for his fourth term. Both are Democrats. The winner of the June 2 primary will face off against Republican Jerry Gage and Libertarian Christina Estrada in the November general election. Its unusual for a Dem to challenge an incumbent of the same party, but its happening in the sprawling district that cuts across four counties. House District 50 includes Eldorado, Lamy, Edgewood and Mountainair, and stretches all the way down to Rio communities near Belen. McQueen is an attorney and has been involved in such high-profile cases as trying to keep the Pilot Flying J from building a truck stop outside of Santa Fe. King-Spindle and her husband Tom Spindle are ranchers, carrying on the tradition of the King family in New Mexico. If you need any beef, weve got it, said the Stanley-based candidate in a recent telephone interview. Asked why shes taking on a fellow Democrat who is an incumbent, Spindle-King said, Well, youve got to start some time. The 46-year-old is currently a member of the Moriarty-Edgewood school board, a position she said she will give up if she wins the District 50 seat. Spindle-King, who attended New Mexico State University, said she feels the need to enter public service because New Mexicos children are being shortchanged. The state continually ranks 49th or 50th out of 50 states on child well-being. I feel the spirit of my grandmother, Alice King, calling to me, said Spindle-King. As first lady of New Mexico, Alice King is credited with being a driving force behind the creation of the states Children, Youth and Families Department. She was also chairwoman of the New Mexico Childrens Trust and a supporter of the Carrie Tingley Childrens Hospital. McQueen admitted to being caught off guard by Spindle-Kings candidacy. It came as a surprise being challenged by a political dynasty, he said. Born in Southern California, McQueen said he has been a resident of New Mexico since 1992. He first won his seat in 2014, beating Republican Vickie Perea, who was appointed to the seat after the death of Democratic Rep. Stephen Easley. In a telephone interview, McQueen stressed his interest in conservation and real estate, as well as his experience in navigating the states oil booms and busts. Right now, low oil prices are driving some companies out of the Permian Basin in southeastern New Mexico as Russia and Saudi Arabia engage in an energy price war and consumer demand slackens due to coronavirus travel restrictions in many states. As companies cap wells, its clear that bonding amounts are insufficient, McQueen said. Translation: New Mexico taxpayers could be left holding the bag for cleanups after the oil companies leave. Another pet issue of McQueens is tax fairness. In the past legislative session, he sponsored a bill that would reform a law passed 20 years ago that puts a 3% cap on increases to annual property valuations. Under McQueens bill, which died in committee, the 3% limit on increases in annual net taxable value would continue to apply. But the amount would increase to 10% for properties whose owners are not primary residents. Given the shortfall in revenue that the state is facing due to cratering oil prices, now down to approximately $24 a barrel, legislators might give McQueens idea more attention in the future. He has vowed to introduce a similar bill in the next session. Molly Cooke and Paul Volberding Source: Molly Cooke and Paul Volberding Dr. Paul Volberding and Dr. Molly Cooke were among the hundreds of medical professionals who found themselves unexpectedly on the frontlines of the HIV epidemic back in the 1980s. As young doctors in San Francisco, the couple treated some of the first patients with a mysterious and highly deadly virus. Now, they're sheltering in place in San Francisco, in the midst of another major disease outbreak. It's bringing back a flood of memories. Covid-19 is a very different kind of virus than HIV, which progresses into AIDS. It is far less transmissible than Covid-19, far slower to develop, and also far more deadly at its height. But the lessons learned from the epidemic have stayed with many of San Francisco's longtime residents, including its doctors. Back in the 1980s, the city consistently had the highest per capita rate of HIV cases. Because of that, residents say, it created a line of communication between public health, doctors and the broader community that has never been broken. "Going through this pandemic brings up visceral, emotional memories of HIV," said Barbara Welles Seegal, a longtime San Francisco resident in her sixties. "Many of us lost loved ones and I lost a number of good friends. It never really goes away." For Welles Seegal, the HIV epidemic became personal when a close friend contracted the virus in the early eighties. He died at the age of 30 in 1986, and his partner died a year later. At her friend's memorial service, she talked about bringing his community of friends together the following year. "A few of them looked at me," she recalled. "And they asked, will there be a next year for us?" Welles Seegal and many of her fellow residents watched as the city's doctors worked tirelessly to try to help these patients, knowing that they couldn't do much. The city eventually became internationally recognized for its efforts. Once the epidemic's ground zero, today it has just a few hundred new cases ever year thanks to the creativity of the local health department. Among other breakthroughs, San Francisco pioneered the idea that HIV patients should start antiretroviral drugs as soon as they test positive, rather than waiting for the immune system to be impacted. "I love the San Francisco model," Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the New York Times back in 2015. "If it keeps doing what it is doing, I have a strong feeling that they will be successful at ending the epidemic as we know it. Welles Seegal is well aware of that history, which remains a source of pride. "We have this legacy as a city," she told me. "And it left us with this tremendous respect for our health department." Not overwhelmed at least not yet In 2020, as the country battles the coronavirus, San Francisco is faring better than many other American cities. New York now has approximately 10 times more Covid-19 cases than the entire state of California, even though the two cities were neck and neck in early March. Manhattan is larger and denser, but another factor, some public health experts say, is that San Francisco's policymakers issued very early shelter-in-place orders compared to the rest of the country. And its residents mostly seem to be sticking with them. A man walks his dog past a homeless man sleeping under a message painted on a boarded up shop in San Francisco, California on April 1, 2020, during the novel coronavirus outbreak. Josh Edelson | AFP | Getty Images Now, as other parts of the country rush to reopen, San Francisco is slowly and carefully easing out of the restrictions, guided by the advice of public health experts and epidemiologists. Polls show that citizens largely support the policies: Only 11 percent of the city's residents see an urgent need to end shelter-in-place. There are still new Covid-19 cases everyday in San Francisco, but the numbers are not yet overwhelming hospitals. It's a fact that has not been lost on the generation of doctors that treated HIV patients, including Dr. Volberding, who is now the director of the AIDS Research Institute. "Many of San Francisco's doctors were jumping into help with HIV," he said. "And now, we are getting a good reputation for being promptly responsive when it comes to this current crisis." Taking privacy seriously Another big lesson from the HIV epidemic involved how public health incorporated the perspectives of civil liberties and privacy rights groups. In the U.S., AIDS primarily affected marginalized groups, particularly gay men and intravenous drug users. So it was vitally important that medical professionals preserved anonymity wherever possible. That thinking resulted in "HIV exceptionalism," a term that academics like Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University's Ronald Bayer have used to describe the notion that good privacy policy and good public health policy were one in the same during the HIV epidemic. "In those early years of the HIV epidemic, before there was a highly effective treatment, there was a great fear the surveillance would be counterproductive," said Professor Bayer. "There was a concern that if people felt they might be reported by name to public health, they might be reluctant to go to a doctor and get tested." An image of the HIV virus taken with transmission electron microscopy. BSIP/UIG | Getty Images Many of the doctors treating HIV patients recall that they took steps to preserve patient privacy. Dr. Cooke and Dr. Volberding recall that San Francisco developed a whole system around anonymized testing, which was a breakthrough given that some patients were reluctant to seek medical care - fearing that they would be outed in the process. "Those of us in the epidemic were really sensitive about that," said Dr. Cooke. "It was almost to a fault. Looking back, we could have worked with public health more." "We were really conscious of confidentiality, really for the first time I can recall in my medical career," recalls Dr. David Brown, a professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, who treated HIV patients in San Francisco in the eighties. "In reporting test results before that, we would leave a message on a voicemail. But we learned to take privacy much more seriously during HIV." All of those issues which have emerged once again during the Covid-19 crisis forced public health and civil liberties groups to work together and find a mutually satisfactory solutions. For the city of San Francisco, which famously champions civil liberties, doctors and public health departments learned how to balance the two sides. "I'm not aware of a single case where a patient's name reported to the CDC was used in any malicious way," said Dr. Volberding. "They did a good job." 'The scarring that we still have' Queensland's deputy premier, Jackie Trad, has resigned from cabinet following revelations the Crime and Corruption Commission has launched an investigation into allegations she interfered with the appointment of a new schools principal. On Sunday morning, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced her deputy and treasurers resignation and a reshuffle of her frontbench five months out from the October state election. Health Minister Steven Miles was appointed the new Deputy Premier, with State Development Minister Cameron Dick taking over as Treasurer. Kate Jones is the new State Development Minister and retains oversight of Cross River Rail as well as the tourism and innovation portfolios. New Delhi, May 10 (UNI) Amid the coronavirus pandemic across the globe, Indian Navys INS Magar on Sunday departed Male port in Maldives with 202 Indian nationals embarked. This is the second ship that Indian Navy has deployed to bring Indian nationals stranded in Maldives due to lockdown. Earlier, INS Jalashwa, the first ship carrying 698 evacuees from Maldives under Operation Samudra Setu, reached Kochi harbour this morning, an Indian Navy spokesperson said. INS Magar, designed for landing operations, had made all necessary logistic, medical and administrative preparations at her base port Kochi to comfortably accommodate civilians before setting sail towards Maldives. Even as heavy rains at Male made conditions difficult, the ship made arrangements to ensure safety of people. A total of 202 personnel have embarked the ship, which includes 24 women, two expectant mothers and two children. One of the men, who hails from Tamil Nadu, has a fractured leg, Indian Navy spokesperson Commander Vivek Madhwal said in a statement. In line with the procedure followed on May 8, the evacuees were screened medically, their baggage disinfected and were allotted IDs as per various zones earmarked on board the ship. An entirely separate section of the ship with essential facilities like food and washrooms has been prepared to accommodate the evacuees and a separate mess has been allotted for ladies, infants and senior citizens, an official said. The evacuees have been divided into groups to avoid crowding at common areas like the dining hall and bathrooms. The ship will reach Kochi harbour on May 12. Air India is operating 64 repatriation flights from May 7 to May 14 while the Navy has 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 lockdown. UNI ASH SHK1947 As COVID-19 cases mount, India has readied more than 6.5 lakh beds at 7,740 facilities across 483 districts to meet the challenge posed by the outbreak. With migrant workers returning to their home states in huge numbers and Indians stranded abroad returning, this infrastructure is expected to witness its toughest test in the days to come. At a review meeting called by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Sunday, officials from Bihar flagged concerns over the migrant workers spreading infections in the state and cautioned that all districts in the eastern state, which has largely remained unaffected, could turn into red zones. For latest updates on coronavirus outbreak, click here As on Sunday, health authorities have identified 7,740 facilities across 483 districts to attend to COVID-19 patients. These facilities are part of the Centres three-tier approach in treating patients with the infection. There are 6,56,769 isolation beds 3,05,567 beds for confirmed cases, 3,51,204 beds for suspected cases, 99,492 oxygen supported beds, 1,696 facilities with oxygen manifolds and 34,076 ICU beds, a health ministry statement said. As of Sunday morning, India had 62,939 confirmed cases of COVID-19, an increase of 3,277 in a single day, while the death toll increased sharply by 128, to 2,109. A DH COVID-19 Tracker put the confirmed cases at 64,555 and total deaths at 2,133 at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday. Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths on May 10 On the brighter side, 19,358 persons have recovered from the infection since the first case was reported in the country on January 30. Based on the active COVID-19 confirmed cases being treated as on date, we have noticed that only 2.48% of these cases have required ICU facility, only 1.94%of them have required oxygen support while mere 0.40% have required ventilator support, Health Minister Harshvardhan said. He said 10 smaller states and Union Territories A&N Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Goa, J&K, Ladakh, Manipur, Odisha, Mizoram and Puducherry had not reported a fresh case in the last 24 hours. Moreover, Sikkim, Nagaland, Daman & Diu, and Lakshadweep have not reported a single case till date. Northern Irelands First Minister Arlene Foster has said the British Government should not be distracted by talks of extending the Brexit transition period. The UK Government has insisted the transition period will not be extended beyond 2020, despite officials in London and Brussels admitting there has been little progress in the two rounds of formal talks held so far. December 31 is the deadline for the end of the transition period unless the UK agrees by June to extend it. Speaking to Skys Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Mrs Foster said: At the moment we are talking to the Government about Brexit. We have a very particular issue around the Ireland/Northern Ireland protocol. We have been engaging with the Paymaster and Michael Gove around that issue. It is important that we get clarity for our businesses in Northern Ireland. We should not be distracted by talk of lengthening the transition or anything like that. We need to make sure that we are focused and that we get started for the sake of our businesses in Northern Ireland. Expand Close Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney briefs the media on the latest measures government departments have introduced in response to Covid-19 (Leon Farrell Photocall Ireland/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney briefs the media on the latest measures government departments have introduced in response to Covid-19 (Leon Farrell Photocall Ireland/PA) On Friday, Deputy Irish Premier Simon Coveney said the Covid-19 pandemic has made the timeline for a UK-EU trade deal virtually impossible. Covid-19 has made what is already a very, very difficult timeline to get agreement virtually impossible, he said. Given the added complications of Covid-19, it surely makes sense to seek a bit more time to navigate our way through these very difficult waters in the months ahead so that we can get a good outcome for the UK and EU. A respected author and China expert claims bombshell evidence suggests coronavirus must have leaked from a Wuhan laboratory - not from wildlife wet markets. 'The argument that the coronavirus emerged from the South China Seafood market just no longer stacks up,' Professor Clive Hamilton told Sky News on Sunday night. Professor Hamilton said the earliest cases of COVID-19 were in people who had no contact with the Wuhan wet market, which was first blamed for the outbreak. 'This has been demonstrated by top quality studies,' he said. 'So the idea that it originated in December sometime, usually late December, in this market, simply doesn't stack up. 'The only other plausible explanation was that it was a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.' The hypothesis came from Chinese scientists themselves and was all over the internet before disappearing, Professor Hamilton said. Internet uses all over China had even searched for the woman thought to be patient zero - who worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and 'seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet', he said. Scientists had previously believed the virus jumped from bats to an unidentified intermediary species before infecting humans at the Wuhan wet market where wild animals are kept in cages and slaughtered for meat. Bat soup (pictured) is a delicacy in China. It was first thought the coronavirus jumped from a bat to an unknown intermediary and then to humans at a Wuhan wet market. Scientists now doubt this is true, and the species of bat that carries the virus were not even sold at the market The Wuhan Institute of Virology (pictured) is a biosecurity level four laboratory which researched bat coronaviruses not far from the wet market. Scientists think it increasingly likely the virus leaked from here, possibly by an infected staff member The location of the BSL-4 laboratory as seen from the air The wet market is located not far from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the only level four biosecurity laboratory lab in China. The lab researched a range of bat coronaviruses including by engineering them, Professor Hamilton said. 'The potential is there for this extremely lethal virus to have escaped in some way.' 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 Professor Hamilton, a long-time critic of Beijing, said two Chinese scientists had written a highly regarded paper saying the coronavirus came from a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. 'There's a very plausible hypothesis here that someone became infected in the laboratory, walked out and started infecting other people in Wuhan,' he said. The short paper from February 6 was written by scientists Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao, both from Wuhan universities, and was called 'The possible origins of the 2019-nCoV coronavirus'. The paper noted the bats that carry the suspected virus live in habitat 900km from the seafood market, the bats are not eaten by Wuhan residents, and that 'no bat was traded in the market'. Many scientific and medical professionals are also becoming sceptical of the first Wuhan wet market explanation. UK-based medical teacher Dr John Campbell, who provides daily evidence-based updates on the coronavirus pandemic on YouTube, said there doesn't seem to have been an intermediary species between bats and humans after all. 'People thought it was pangolins at first but that doesn't seem to be bearing out,' he said on May 1. Dr Campbell noted it was a large coincidence that the pandemic originated so close to the Wuhan Virology Institute and said scientists may have been conducting animal research on the coronavirus and one of the lab workers may have sold some animals to the nearby Wuhan wet market. Professor Clive Hamilton said the only plausible explanation is that the virus leaked from a Wuhan lab. The woman he believes to be 'patient zero' worked there - and has disappeared US-based pathologist Chris Martenson said a suspicious sequence of nucleotides in the RNA coding of the Sars-Cov-2 coronavirus appear to have been inserted as they do not occur in any of the close or even distantly related viruses. Even more suspicious, the nucleotide sequence appears right at a point in the RNA sequence called a furin cleavage site, a place where the enzyme furin can precisely cut proteins, he said. 'None of the closest (viral) or even distant relatives have this site,' he said in a YouTube analysis. 'Those that do only have 40 percent of the same genome.' Dr Martenson explained on his Peak Prosperity YouTube channel that the insert is not likely to be the result of a natural mutation as mutations usually change by one random nucleotide at a time, not the sudden appearance of a whole new sequence. An analysis of private cellphone location data has also allegedly shown that the Wuhan Institute of Virology shut down from October 7 to October 24, and this may indicate a 'hazardous event' sometime between October 6 and October 11. US spy agencies are reviewing the document. 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 China has been accused of covering up the severity of the pandemic after it started, costing the world vital weeks of preparation time. China's President Xi Jinping knew about the coronavirus on the 7th of January yet China only shut down the epicentre of the outbreak, Hubei province, on the 23rd of January, after five million people had left to travel through China and the world, spreading the virus. Australia has called for the World Health Organization (WHO) to support an independent review into how the coronavirus started and spread, and has been lobbying world leaders. This has angered China which is conducting its own investigation through the Chinese Communist Party, which it says should be enough. China hit back through its diplomats, with a perceived threat to cut off trade. Professor Hamilton, who wrote a book last year about growing Chinese political control of Australia called Silent Invasion: How China is Turning Australia into a Puppet State, said the truth matters. 'Prevention of a similar catastrophe depends on it,' he wrote in The Age newspaper on May 9. 'Beijing does not want the truth to be known, going so far as to delete from a European Union opinion piece words noting that the outbreak originated in China.' A private analysis of cellphone data is said to show the Wuhan Institute of Virology shut down in October, possibly for a 'hazardous incident'. Spy agencies are now reviewing the document Chinese Ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye was perceived to have threatened to cut off Australian exports to China as the Middle Kingdom voiced its displeasure over Australia's requests for an independent international investigation Worryingly, Professor Hamilton said Chinese scientists with military ties had now infiltrated Australia's largest universities. 'Australian universities have been doing a lot of covering up, they've very embarrassed about this and won't own up to it,' he said. Professor Hamilton said some of the research scientists had military rank in the People's Liberation Army and were welcomed by Australian universities even after their connections to the PLA or PLA-linked universities in China were pointed out. Australia's coronavirus tally rose by 12 to 6,939 cases nationwide on Sunday. Worldwide confirmed cases soared past 4.1 million with 280,564 dead, 2,388,352 sick and 1,445,980 recovered, according to the Worldometers website which tracks coronavirus statistics. The US continued to have the largest number of cases at 1,347,318 with 80,040 dead from the disease which has been recently found to cause a clotting disorder in the blood. Former National Security Adviser Gen Michael Flynn's attorney has accused the FBI of plotting to frame her client and insisted that President Barack Obama was in on the scheme. Flynn was charged with lying to FBI investigators about his contact with a Russian ambassador under special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation in 2017. He initially pleaded guilty but withdrew the plea in January. The Justice Department announced that it was dropping the charges last week as Flynn's legal team called the FBI's tactics into question. 'These agents specifically schemed and planned with each other how to not tip him off, that he was even the person being investigated,' his attorney, Sidney Powell, told Fox News on Sunday. 'They kept him relaxed and unguarded deliberately as part of their effort to set him up and frame him.' Scroll down for video Sidney Powell (left), the lead attorney for former National Security Adviser Gen Michael Flynn (right), accused the FBI of orchestrating a plot to frame her client in a Fox News interview on Sunday Powell pointed to recently released testimony about an Oval Office meeting then-President Obama held with officials weeks before Flynn's interview. During the meeting Obama allegedly revealed that he knew about Flynn's phone call with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak - which apparently came as a surprise to then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. After the meeting, Obama asked to speak with Yates and then-FBI Director James Comey privately. The president 'specified that he did not want any additional information on the matter, but was seeking information on whether the White House should be treating Flynn any differently, given the information', according to the testimony. 'The whole thing was orchestrated and set up within the FBI, [former Director of National Intelligence James] Clapper, [Former CIA Director John] Brennan, and in the Oval Office meeting that day with President Obama,' Powell said during the interview with Sunday Morning Futures. Asked if she believes that Flynn was the victim of a plot that went all the way up to Obama, Powell stated: 'Absolutely.' Asked if she believes that Flynn was the victim of a plot that went all the way up to then-President Barack Obama, Powell stated: 'Absolutely' The attorney's statements came as Vice President Mike Pence said he would welcome Flynn's return to the Trump administration. In an interview with online news site Axios, Pence was asked if he would like Flynn to return to work for President Donald Trump. 'For my part, I'd be happy to see Michael Flynn again,' Pence said, and defended the department's action. Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday said he would welcome Flynn's return to the Trump administration Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators more than two years ago. In 2017, Trump said he had fired Flynn for misleading Pence about his dealings with Russia's US ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the weeks before Trump took office. Pence's statement could help pave the way for Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general and 2016 Trump campaign adviser, to return to the president's orbit if the courts grant the department's request. Flynn initially pleaded guilty and vowed to cooperate with US prosecutors before hiring new lawyers and reversing himself. On Thursday, the Justice Department asked a judge to drop criminal charges against Flynn amid mounting pressure from the Republican president and his political allies, sparking criticism from Democrats and others who accused Attorney General William Barr of improperly protecting Trump's friends and associates. It is unclear how the federal judge handling the case will proceed. Flynn's lawyer Sidney Powell told Fox News she expected US District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington to sign off on the department's request this week. Last month, Trump told reporters he might rehire Flynn and would weigh Pence's comments on the matter, and on Sunday re-aired his grievances with a slew of related retweets. Critics have accused Trump of becoming emboldened after his February acquittal in his Senate impeachment trial to interfere in cases involving people close to him. Democratic lawmakers have also called on the department's internal watchdog to investigate the Flynn matter. Britain's spooks are showing distressing signs of wokeness. At a drinks party, a very senior British security official left a group of reporters speechless with his self-flagellating concern about social, gender and racial injustice. Turning to a female hack, this Establishment securocrat in his regimental tie and shiny shoes declared: Im sorry I am a white man, its all very unfair. The woman was particularly annoyed given he had clearly enjoyed a very privileged career. Obviously, though, the spook had been on a compulsory politically correct re-education course. For last week it emerged that bosses at GCHQ, Britains giant eavesdropping station in Cheltenham, have banned the everyday phrases blacklisting and whitelisting. Bosses in GCHQ have banned everyday phrases such as 'blacklisting' and 'whitelisting' in their Cheltenham headquarters (pictured) In a public blog post, a spy called Emma W explains that in the name of helping to stamp out racism in cyber security, we will avoid this casually pejorative wording. In a self-serving comment, a colleague adds: If youre thinking about getting in touch saying this is political correctness gone mad, dont bother. I asked if this was the same Emma who, in 2018, was loudly heralded as the first British spy to transition from James to Jane Bond. The predictable reply: Thats classified. For sale: the ship of secrets The 'Sea Owl' superyacht has been put up for sale by American billionaire Robert Mercer She launched a thousand conspiracy theories, but now the superyacht Sea Owl has been put up for sale by American tech billionaire Robert Mercer. It was on its teak decks that the now-disgraced election data firm Cambridge Analytica, established by Old Etonian Alexander Nix and backed by the Mercer family, was reportedly thought up. And the eye-catching jade-green and oyster-white vessel was spotted on the Thames in 2013 when Nigel Farage first met shadowy American Right-wing svengali Steve Bannon. This, according to nutty theories, set in motion the Brexiteers love-in with Donald Trump. Sea Owl could be yours for 60 million. Trade minister Conor Burns was forced to resign last week after naively wading into a bitter dispute between his father and a wealthy businessman over a loan. It ended in tears, but will it damage the highfalutin Thatcher favourite in the eyes of his constituents? According to Burnss well-practised after-dinner routine, a voter once rebuked MPs for not even having to pay their own parking fines. When the Bournemouth MP gently pointed out that this was nonsense, the angry citizen hit back: Well, thats lost my vote. If you cant even extricate yourself from problems, youre clearly incapable of helping me! From Professor Lockdown to Professor Trousers Down... now libidinous ex-Government scientist Neil Ferguson has a new nickname after being caught having secret trysts with his married lover. We call them Preachy and Peachy, says one smutty Whitehall wag. Professor Neil Ferguson was resigned from his government scientist role after breaking lockdown rules he enforced on the nation himself Power-thirsty Welsh nationalists have grandly rebranded the principalitys tiny assembly as the Welsh Parliament (and Senedd Cymru in the local lingo). But the overweening fools forgot to register a parliament.wales web address and are using the hybrid senedd.wales as a compromise instead. Another week, another arbitrary coronavirus testing target. Im told Boris Johnsons decree that the capacity for 200,000 tests a day must be achieved by the end of the month was very much off the cuff. Not surprisingly, it left health department officials reeling after they had only just hit their previous target of 100,000 daily swabs. My mole tells me: There was a very loud gasp in Matt Hancocks office at the profanity used by one of his exasperated colleagues. Virus Outbreak Trump President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive for a tree planting ceremony to celebrate Earth Day, on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, April 22, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) WASHINGTON (AP) Melania Trump is sending blankets, caps and other gifts to hospitals in 10 states, including some hit hardest by the new coronavirus outbreak, for use by medical staff and children who are patients. The care packages were shipped Thursday to hospitals in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Florida, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Delaware, Nevada and the District of Columbia, the White House said. The medical community has gone above and beyond to protect the health of the American People, the first lady said in a statement. The packages are just a small token of my appreciation for their courage and leadership in this time of need. The hospitals were not identified. Mrs. Trump met doctors and nurses at some of the hospitals during past visits to promote her youth program, the White House said. The gifts bear the logo of her Be Best youth initiative and include blankets, caps, tote bags, pencils, backpacks, stickers, Dr. Seuss books and games for young patients. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday said 21 Indians from Uzbekistan have arrived in Delhi and the flight will be carrying back Uzbek nationals and Indian medicine assistance to Tashkent. "21 Indians from Uzbekistan have just arrived in Delhi on board UZB 3561. The flight will be carrying back Uzbek nationals and Indian medicine assistance to Tashkent. Good work by Team @amb_tashkentunder Ambassador @santjha #VandeBharatMission," Jaishankar said in a tweet. The Indians have been brought back under the government's Vande Bharat Mission. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Venezuelas Interior Minister said three additional arrests were made on May 10 following a failed incursion by terrorist mercenaries the previous week. Interior Minister Nestor Reverol shared this footage on Sunday, and said three mercenaries who were were part of the group that tried to carry out the failed maritime incursion were captured in Colonia Tovar, a town in Aragua state. He identified the men as Jairo Bethelmy, a former First Lieutenant, and Jonathan Franco and Evan Rincon, former sergeants. Reverol said Venezuela would continue to operate a land, sea and air operation until all members of the terrorist organization who attempted the incursion were captured. Venezuelan officials said two US citizens were among those detained after a group landed early on May 3 on a beach in the port city of La Guaira. Security forces killed eight of the fighters, authorities said. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has alleged the plan was organized by Colombia and the United States, which both countries have denied. Credit: Nestor Reverol via Storyful Kolkata: The Kolkata Police has filed a case against Union Minister Babul Supriyo for sharing fake photos of Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha on microblogging site Twitter. On Sunday the police lodged a case and initiated action against the BJP minister for the photo he shared on May 8 which allegedly shows Rajiva Sinha drinking with some people, it was also alleged that one of them is Mamata Banerjees brother Kartik Banerjee. The South division of the Kolkata Police took to Twitter to announce that the photo shared is fake and that action has been taken against Supriyo for sharing the image. The tweet said: "This post circulating on social media is #Fake.The information shared in the message is false. A case has been started over this and legal action being taken." This post circulating on social media is #Fake.The information shared in the message is false. A case has been started over this and legal action being taken.@KolkataPolice pic.twitter.com/Zh1Ea0W4gR DCP South Kolkata (@KPSouthDiv) May 10, 2020 While on May 8, Supriyo shared the photograph claimimg that if Sinha and Banerjee are together then it "raises many questions". Its Honble WBCM @MamataOfficial s brother Kartik Banerjee with the Current Chief Seccretary of Bengal Rajivs Sinha! The Drinks r fine but this viral photo does raise many questions given who they are!! THIS sure IS NOT A NORMAL PIX @BJP4Bengal @KailashOnline @BJP4India @JPNadda https://t.co/kiUwHre05A Babul Supriyo (@SuPriyoBabul) May 8, 2020 Supriyo's tweet read: "Its Honble WBCM Mamata Banerjee's brother Kartik Banerjee with the Current Chief Seccretary of Bengal Rajivs Sinha! The Drinks r fine but this viral photo does raise many questions given who they are!! THIS sure IS NOT A NORMAL PIX." New Delhi: As part of the Indian govt's outreach amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Indian Naval Ship 'Kesari' on Sunday (May 10, 2020) departed for Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar, and Comoros, to provide food items, COVID-19 related medicines including HCQ tablets and special ayurvedic medicines with medical assistance teams embarked. This deployment as Mission Sagar, is in line with Indias role as the first responder in the region and builds on the excellent relations existing between these countries to battle the COVID-19 pandemic and its resultant difficulties. As part of Mission Sagar, Indian Naval Ship Kesari would enter the Port of Male in the Republic of Maldives, to provide them 600 tons of food provisions. India and Maldives are close maritime neighbours with strong and extremely cordial defence and diplomatic relations. In line with its time-tested role as the first responder in the region, India has already supported the efforts of the Governments of Maldives, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Seychelles by providing them consignments of Covid-19 related essential medicines. A team of select medical personnel was also dispatched to the Maldives to augment the preparedness of the Maldivian Government to fight this crisis. The consignments meant for Madagascar and Comoros also includes Hydroxychloroquine tablets, which have already been sent earlier to Mauritius, Maldives and Seychelles. The deployment is in consonance with the Prime Minister Modi's vision of security and growth for all in the region SAGAR and highlights the importance accorded by India to relations with her neighbouring countries and further strengthens the existing bond. #MissionSAGAR, is in line with Indias role as the first responder in the region.@indiannavy Ship #INSKesari departed today for Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and Comoros (2/2). pic.twitter.com/Y3j8jDIeVF SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) May 10, 2020 The operation is being progressed in close coordination with the Ministries of Defence and External Affairs, and other agencies of the Government of India. A 60-year-old COVID-19 patient died at the Patna Medical College and Hospital on Sunday, taking the total number of persons who died after being diagnosed with coronavirus infection to six, a top health official said. The man was a resident of Belchi area in Barh in Patna district, Principal Secretary, Health, Sanjay Kumar said. He was in quarantine after returning from Delhi, Kumar said. "It was a case of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (end stage lunge disease), died of cardio respiratory arrest," Kumar said in a tweet. Rohtas, Munger, Vaishali, East Champaran and Sitamarhi have reported one death each. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ten people were arrested in dramatic scenes outside Parliament House on Sunday, as more than 100 protesters opposed coronavirus lockdown measures, despite warnings from Victorian police earlier this week to stay home. Australia's Chief Medical Officer, Professor Brendan Murphy, has called for the protesters to be held to account, dismissing claims from some at the rally that 5G mobile phone technology was related to the pandemic as nonsense. The Age witnessed one violent encounter in which a police officer was knocked to the ground while arresting a male protester during the two-hour rally. One officer was taken to hospital for what is believed to be a rib injury, a Victoria Police spokeswoman said. Violence broke out between police and protesters at a rally in Melbourne. Credit:Paul Jeffers One of the key speakers at the gathering had blood on his forehead as he was arrested and led away from the crowd. Irrespective of doing incredible work for the underprivileged and marginalised especially at the time of a crisis like the Coronavirus pandemic, Bangladeshi NGO named Bidyanondo Foundation has now come under the attack of Islamist fundamentalist on social media. They are being targeted for its Hindu name and Hindu owner. The attacks and propaganda against Kishore Kumar Das, founder of Bidyanondo Foundation, became so intense that he was forced to think of stepping down as the chairperson of the foundation. The announcement had come on May 5 through the official, verified Facebook page of the foundation. The executive committee of Bidyanondo had, however, not accepted Kishors resignation which forced Kishor to take back the decision. When Dhaka Tribune got in touch with the NGOs chairperson he said: I decided to resign following personal attacks against me on social media, due to my religious affiliations. But later I realized that it would negatively impact the foundations campaign and activities. For the last two years, activists of the foundation have been subjected to constant attacks on social media for its name and the founders religious affiliations, insiders were quoted as saying by the Bangladesh daily, Dhaka Tribune. HinduPost reported, Bidyanondo has been widely praised in Bangladesh for their work for the betterment of underprivileged children, fighting against hunger and social taboos. It has been feeding the underserved through a project titled Ek takay ahar (Food at Tk 1). Kishore dreams of a world where no child would suffer and no one would go to sleep with an empty stomach. After the coronavirus situation started unfolding, the foundation became even more active and started supplying food for the needy, spraying disinfectant in public vehicles and other areas of Dhaka, feeding street dogs and carrying out a multitude of activities that earned them praise from all quarters of society. According to reports, Kishor Kumar Das faced the ire of Islamists because of the non-Muslim sounding name of the foundation. Few of the allegations levelled at the NGO and the chairperson were: The NGOs cheap meals were laced with sedatives to put children to sleep and traffic them. Of course, this allegation did not stick as it was completely baseless. Last year, it was alleged that the iftar arranged by the NGO was adulterated with cow urine/dung to convert gullible Muslims into Hindus. It was alleged on social media that Bidyanondo is a Hindu missionary (ISKCON) organization funded by India. It has been alleged that Bidyanondo collects funds in the name of charity and smuggles it into India. According to Hindupost, an article titled Bidyanondo should not have to defend itself written by a Bangladeshi Muslim, Tanim Ahmed, Founder and CEO of Omnispace, lists out these ridiculous allegations hurled at Bidyanondo and its founder. The writer had observed: There are strings of comments and remarks on social media questioning the authenticity and true intention of a Hindu organization being charitable, solely because it has a Bengali name and a founder who is said to be a Hindupoints to the growing religious intolerance among Bangladeshis. It is becoming obvious that Bangladesh is increasingly becoming a country of Muslims only, where people of other faiths will become second-class citizens while others like atheists and maybe even Ahmadiyyas will be hounded down. Bangladeshi NGO Bidyanondo Foundation The Bidyanondo foundation was founded in the year 2013 by Kishor Kumar Das. The NGO has been widely praised in Bangladesh for their relentless work for the betterment of the underprivileged children, fighting against hunger and social taboos. It has been feeding the marginalised through a project named: Ek takay ahar. After the coronavirus situation started unfolding, the foundation became even more active and started supplying food to the needy, spraying disinfectant in various areas in Dhaka, feeding stray dogs and carrying out a horde of activities that has earned the NGO praises from all quarters of the society. In this article: Easy A, Fast & Furious 8, Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride. Kiwi-westerns, politically-charged moral quandaries and historical romances are all on telly today as TopFilmTip brings you the best films on TV for Saturday, 2 May. Some films may require a Sky subscription. Helen Mirren stars as the monarch suddenly despised by media and public alike before finding redemption in a metaphorical stag. Majestic drama in The Queen 12:55pm ITV 3 Raised as royal brothers, siblings' close bond breaks as one realises his true origins and must lead his people to freedom in biblical musical The Prince of Egypt 13:00pm Sky 1 Gigantified by wedding day meteor, woman joins BOB and cockroach to battle extraterrestrials in robot fighting fun Monsters vs Aliens 2:15pm BBC One Heart warming tale of an inner city girl who discovers a talent for spelling in moving family drama Akeelah and the Bee 2:35pm Film 4 Nervous groom makes grave error of proposing to maggot-eyed murder victim in gothic, necrotic love triangle Tim Burton's Corpse Bride 3:20pm ITV2 Read more: Top-rated TV on offer Time-slipped boy awakens years after disappearing to inventive engaging alien adventure in mercurial mystery Flight of the Navigator 4:00pm SyFy Universal Battle Of Britain, poster, British poster art, 1969. (Photo by LMPC via Getty Images) Outnumbered and outgunned, 600 brave pilots hold the British skies against the nazi hordes. Magnificent true story Battle of Britain 4:00pm ITV4 Helicopter piloting, face punching, tsunami sailing emergency responder abandons all his duties to rescue wife and daughter from cataclysmic earthquake in San Andreas 6:45pm ITV2 Boer War veteran faces clash between his duty and conscience after capturing accused and innocent Maori man in grizzled Kiw-estern Tracker 6:55pm Sony Movies Action Struggling writer finds focus and desire when gathering emotive material for new book from nazi surviving channel islanders in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society 8:30pm BBC Two French-Scot and Scottish-Spanish-Egyptian immortals battle mangle-headed priest-licker for Queen-scored power of oneness in sword-slaying decap-athlon Highlander 8:00pm Horror Channel Story continues Troublesome boy and his mourning mother face wrath of grievous ghoul in charismatic, chilling, psychological creepfest as emotional allegory The Babadook 9:00pm SyFy Universal Railroaded into cyber criminal crew, criminal betrays his crew of criminals in traffic raining submarine jumper Fast & Furious 8 9:00pm ITV2 Head-blasting, groin-kicking, pram-chasing prohibition perfection as four cops teach Al Capone 'The Chicago Way in The Untouchables 9:00pm ITV4 Humiliated by compulsory waxing, teen toxophilite vents her hormonal frustrations via child murder and insect abuse in The Hunger Games 9:00pm 5 Star John Hughes referencing redheads rumour-riding rebellion doesnt go to plan in Emma Stones high school set Scarlet Letter Easy A 9:30pm Comedy Central Miniature loud-mouthed Black Hammer tries to impress GF's Bro Ice Cube who does not have A Good Day in 126-ing cop comedy Ride Along 10:35pm ITV1 American actors Damon Wayans and Bruce Willis on the set of The Last Boy Scout, directed by Tony Scott. (Photo by Warner Bros. Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images) Quip-lashing PI goes to Hallenback foiling eccentric sportsing conspiracy in Tony Scotts hyperbolic death rampage The Last Boy Scout 11:20pm ITV4 Dogged frontiersmen mount rescue of wife from cave dwelling troglodyte cannibals in gruesome gore splattered western Bone Tomahawk 11:25pm Film 4 Divinely devilish dialogue as lawyer's greedy foray entices unexpected evils in eloquent, car sexing drug drama The Counsellor 11:35pm Channel 4 Reporter's access to FBI's most wanted criminal/political activist precipitates morally murky quandaries and questions in star filled high brow thriller The Company You Keep 11:50pm BBC One Honey-trapped teens face homophobic horror amidst federal gun-raid on rapturous church-cult in Kevin Smith's visceral Red State 00:55am Horror Channel 1975: Actors Tim Curry, Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon in scene from movie "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" directed by Jim Sharman. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) Ordinary couple find Frankensteins place, do time warp and play with gender roles in Singing camp fest The Rocky Horror Picture Show 1:00am Talking Pictures TV Juxtaposed morally flexible cops Nic Cage and Elijah Wood plan heist of crooks treasure trove in angst inducing thriller The Trust 1:45am Sony Movies Nick Cave provides meditative, psychoanalytical insight into his creative process in dreamlike autobiodoc 20,000 Days on Earth 2:00am Film 4 Follow TopFilmTip on Twitter for daily film recommendations. Everything new on streaming in May: Netflix UK: Mays new releases NOW TV: Mays new releases Amazon Prime Video UK: May's new releases Disney+ UK: May's new releases About the American Cancer Society The American Cancer Society supports life-saving programs and initiatives across the country for people with cancer and their families. We rely upon a broad variety of suppliers to support our staff and volunteers, and ensure our programs like Relay For Life , Making Strides Against Breast Cancer , and Determination are successful. Supplier Diversity The American Cancer Society believes diversity, equity, and inclusion are vital to our life-saving mission. When you're in the business of saving lives, it is essential to understand and respect differences, and to leverage the similarities that unite us in the fight against cancer. To advance our Mission and drive economic inclusion, the American Cancer Society is committed to creating an equitable and competitive business environment, which strengthens the diverse business community and those we serve. Relationships with diverse businesses assist the Society in achieving its goals by driving the Society's relevance, impact, and growth in every community touched by cancer. ACS & ACS CAN seek to use qualified, diverse businesses from historically underrepresented groups including companies that are 51%+ owned and operated by minorities, women, military veterans, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. We are committed to providing diverse businesses opportunities to participate in our competitive procurement processes. Are you a diverse-owned business interested in becoming a supplier to the American Cancer Society? Please complete the Supplier Registration form below. The headlines tell two vastly different tales. Scientists say a now-dominant strain of the coronavirus could be more contagious than original, said the paper from the west coast. Researchers hypothesize that a highly contagious strain of the coronavirus is spreading, but other experts remain skeptical, read the headline in the paper from the east coast. Both of those headlines topped stories about the exact same research, a paper posted on a pre-print server April 30 by scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory outlining their research on coronavirus mutations. In it, researchers identified a particular mutation that was appearing with increasing frequency in many countries, relative to the original Wuhan virus. The authors speculated that that increased frequency of appearance was due to a fitness advantage relative to the original Wuhan strain that enables more rapid spread. The paper was posted on a pre-print server, which meant it was not peer-reviewed, the gold standard by which the science community verifies studies by having other scientists look over the research. In a normal, pre-epidemic course of events, that paper would likely not have been released to the general public without having gone through such a review. In this case, however, two different media sources had two different takes on the research: more contagious than original versus experts remain skeptical Too often, this dichotomy exemplifies the plight of the lay public in trying to decipher the bombardment of facts, figures, truths and conspiracy theories that surround the coronavirus. Small wonder that they get frustrated. More information is available on the coronavirus than has ever been available for any public emergency, yet people find themselves drowning in that flood of information. From where they sit, it seems that what we know about the coronavirus and the advice they get from their public health officials are constantly in flux. But what is important to understand is that science typically builds one body of knowledge on the foundation of prior knowledge. So scientists will say they are certain about one thing, and not certain about a second thing. Public health officials acting on that information might say, for example, that people dont need to wear a mask while out in public. Later as more data becomes available, scientists will say they are also pretty certain about that second thing; public health officials, acting on that new information, tell people they should wear masks in public. To the general public, that seems like theyve been told two contrary things; in reality its an adjustment to what we know as more data comes in. One of the main problems is the publics understanding of how science gets done, said virologist Dr. Angela Rasmussen, of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York. This virus is so new we didnt know about it until December of last year that there really has not been very much time at all to try to answer some of even the most fundamental research questions about it, she said. And so we can try to make some educated guesses based on what is known about other coronaviruses, or other respiratory viruses or other pandemic or epidemic emerging viruses. Generally speaking, those educated guesses would form the basis for hypotheses, which would be turned into a study involving data collection and analysis. That data and analysis would be reported in a paper, which would usually be peer-reviewed before being published in a journal for public consumption. In the midst of the current epidemic, however, researchers across the globe have been trying to find ways to share their findings faster. Many science publications have taken to prioritizing coronavirus-related research and fast-tracking the peer-review process, usually by tightening the time frames in which they ask scientists to examine their colleagues research. The release of pre-print papers has become commonplace, too. Papers posted on pre-print servers carry the caveat that they have not been peer-reviewed, but those servers are open to the public and the media, who may not, perhaps, be as skeptical as scientists. Sometimes, research bypasses even this step; in some cases information comes from press conferences, which many will consider with the same weight as a scientific paper. And interwoven through all of this is omnipresent social media, where scientists and the public alike struggle to separate useful information from the white noise. For every useful bit of information, there is a deluge of misinformation occasionally from scientists, yes, but also from laypersons, conspiracy theorists and, most notably, from those holding high political office. I think its been really difficult not just for the lay public, but also for scientists sometimes to keep up with the flow of information and to really discern what is a really good conclusive breakthrough, versus something thats incremental or maybe still needs a lot more study, said Rasmussen. That L.A. Times article (on the frightening-sounding mutation) is actually a great example of this. That study was a pre-print, meaning it hasnt gone through peer review. And I suspect when it goes through peer review, probably some of the language that the authors used in that original study will be softened a bit. While the studys report that a particular mutation of the coronavirus seems to be dominating in places where it had been introduced is an important observation, said Rasmussen, the research did not conclusively show that that particular mutation made the virus more transmissible. That nuance was really lost in the way that the L.A. Times article reported it. It presented that study as though that link between the mutation and transmission was absolutely settled 100 per cent, and this is kind of the danger in trying to present these sorts of complex, nuanced scientific topics to the general public in a way thats accessible to them and where they can understand the significance of it. Unlike previous epidemics, people today are used to getting their information in a torrent. In reality, however, science usually proceeds in a series of drips, one drop building upon another until you have a puddle, the sum of everything you know with certainty on the subject. Even with the fast-tracking of research increasing those drips into a trickle, that leaves people short of the torrent of information to which they are accustomed. So they fill that gap with whatever information is available. What were facing now that we havent faced in the past is basically instantaneous, or nearly instantaneous release of data to the general public, as well as to the broader scientific community without having any sort of peer review or prior analysis to look at things like context, validity, reliability, all these things, said Jason Kindrachuk, assistant professor and Canada Research Chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba. One notorious example is a paper published by researchers from New Delhi as a pre-print in the early days of the epidemic. In it, they talked about there potentially being genetic sequences in the virus similar to HIV. The science community lambasted the paper as horribly flawed research, and it was retracted by its authors. That was prime fuel for the conspiracy theorists. They maintained that not only did the research offer proof that the coronavirus was manufactured in a Wuhan lab, but also, the fact that the science community forced a withdrawal proved a conspiracy to suppress the research. Those theories gained enough traction that not only were they repeated by significant portions of the public, but they were parroted at some of the highest levels of government. This is a perfect example, said Kindrachuk. Even months after that paper was absolutely torn apart by scientific folks from across the globe, Im still getting emails questioning why I think of this as a conspiracy theory and why I dont think that this is an engineered virus. Thats the current state of research, and we were not used to that as scientists. So were definitely learning in real time how to how to counteract some of these things. Governments are learning, too. People are receiving more current, detailed and frequent information from public health officials. But that, like other informational changes in the wake of the epidemic, can be a double-edged sword. In October 2003, in the aftermath of the SARS epidemic, Health Canada put out a report titled Learning from SARS. Chief among the lessons learned, stated the report, was the need for better coordination among the various levels of government and institutions for outbreak containment, improved public communications strategies Following the 2009 H1N1 epidemic, a similar post-mortem was performed. One of the things that was learned was that its best for the public to learn as they go, and to be engaged in the process and engaged in the communication, as opposed to saying, Just believe us, well tell you when we know everything, said Scott Halperin, professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Dalhousie University in Halifax. As a result, in the early stages of the pandemics sweep across Canada, the prime minister and many of the premiers held daily briefings along with their chief public health officers to update citizens. That, said Halperin, reduced the conspiracy theories floating around. I think that Public Health has learned more to engage the public in the conversation and to let them know that its a changing situation, said Halperin. But the flip side is that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing; what the public hears one day might be different from a week down the line as more information becomes available. Thats confusing, but again, thats how science works. Each piece of solid information becomes a foundation block on which other blocks are placed. Suspect or uncertain blocks are omitted until they can be verified for fear of weakening the structure. Many of the questions that scientists would like to have answered whether a patient has immunity to the virus after an infection, and how long that immunity would last, for example can only be answered with sufficient time, and data. And currently, on that particular question, scientists only have about four months of potential data to work from. That said, consensus in the scientific community is that in the limited time that researchers have been studying the coronavirus, progress has been remarkable. I think its unprecedented, how much weve learned about this virus that weve only known has existed for five months, said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at University of Toronto. High on that list, scientists have learned a lot about how the virus is transmitted. Theyve learned about the risk factors for severe disease. Theyve learned about the spectrum of illness, running anywhere from asymptomatic to critically ill individuals. Researchers have a good handle on how and where the virus replicates in the body, and theyve recognized that its mutation rate is relatively low compared to other RNA viruses. There are positive early results from some of the treatment drugs being tested on the virus. And there are scores of groups studying possible vaccines. Groups in China and in the U.K. are already looking at doing large-scale tests on potential vaccines. By all means, we have learned a lot about this infection in a very short amount of time, said Bogoch. Why? Number one, of course, its captured the globe. Everyone on earth recognizes the significance of this infection. Number two: its completely impacting our entire way of life, no matter where you are. When you factor in having the brightest minds and infinite resources, and then sprinkle in a little bit of time, youre going to be able to answer a lot of these pressing questions, and do so in a great in a very reliable way. Its pretty impressive to watch this happen. SM Steve McKinley is a Halifax-based reporter for the Star. Reach him via email: stevemckinley@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @smckinley1 Read more about: Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 23:50:43|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The following are highlights of China's local business news from the past week. SHANGHAI TOURISM During the May Day holiday, Shanghai received a total of 7.07 million tourists, who contributed a total of 9.5 billion yuan (about 1.35 billion U.S. dollars) in consumption, according to the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism. DISNEY Shanghai Disney Resort announced that the Shanghai Disneyland theme park will reopen to the public on May 11. This follows the reopening of Disneytown, Wishing Star Park and Shanghai Disneyland Hotel in early March, after the resort announced temporary closure in late January in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak. VANKE China Vanke Co., Ltd., one of China's largest property developers, said its contracted property sales fell to 47.95 billion yuan last month from 60.17 billion yuan a year earlier. The company added that its contracted property sales for the January-April period fell to 185.83 billion yuan from 209.61 billion yuan a year ago. BMW BMW Group plans to invest 4.4 billion yuan this year in the construction of its new factory in Shenyang, capital city of northeast China's Liaoning Province, according to the provincial development and reform commission. With a total investment of 28.3 billion yuan, the new factory is expected to be completed in 2022, making Shenyang BMW's global manufacturing center. AUTO SALES China's major automakers have finally seen sales rebound after negative growth for 21 consecutive months, an industrial association said. Some 2 million units of vehicles were sold in April, up 39.8 percent month on month and 0.9 percent year on year, according to an estimate from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Enditem President Nana Akufo-Addo has extended the ban on public gatherings to the end of the month; 31st May 2020. In his ninth address to the nation, he said, "like you, I will like to see an end to these restrictions . . . uncomfortable as these restrictions have been we have no option than to stay the course. these restrictions will not be a permanent feature of our lives...". According to him, "Tracing, testing and treating is our surest way of fighting the virus . . . the rapid implementation of all policies have resulted in low infections and death rates; we certainly must be doing something right in Ghana." "I am confident that we will overcome this pandemic. This too shall pass," he said. Ghana's COVID-19 case count has increased to 4,700 with 494 recoveries and 22 deaths according to the latest update by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and announced by President Akufo-Addo on Sunday, May 10, 2020, in his 9th address to the nation on the state of the country's Coronavirus. He said of the 22 deaths, virtually all of them were with an underlying illness such as hypertension, diabetes and chronic liver disease. 5 more persons are said to be critically or moderately ill, and 4,179 responding to treatment. The country has so far conducted 160,501 tests. He said it was important to stress that 533 out of the 921 new cases recorded between last Wednesday and Thursday are factory workers from a fish processing factory located in Tema. He said all 533 persons were infected by one person. He reiterated that the new 921 cases announced last Friday, May 8 was from backlogs dating as far back as 26th April, and not necessarily over a 24 hor window. Ban on Public Gatherings However, the ban on all public gatherings as declared by President Akufo-Addo on March 15, 2020, in a televised broadcast, which included conferences, workshops, funerals, festivals, political rallies, church activities, and other related events as part of measures to stop the spread of coronavirus in the country has been extended till 31st May 2020. However, private burials are permitted, but with limited numbers, not exceeding twenty-five (25) in attendance. Watch President Akufo-Addo's 9th address below The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) had earlier in a press release cautioned the government about the dire consequences the lifting of the ban on social gatherings for religious activities, schools, marriage ceremonies, funerals etc. will have on the country amid the spread of coronavirus in the country and world at large."His excellency the President of the Republic should not lift the ban on social gatherings for religious activities, schools, marriage ceremonies, funerals etc. Our international borders should also remain closed for now," a part of the statement said.The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) taking into consideration the number of new COVID-19 positive cases in the country (mostly community spread) and the seeming disregard for all the preventive measures put in place by large sections of the population, advised the government accordingly.According to the GMA, the Government should strictly enforce all the preventive measures so far put in place to ensure compliance. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video President Donald Trump talks to reporters before boarding Air Force One for a trip to Phoenix to visit a Honeywell plant that manufactures protective equipment, Tuesday, May 5, 2020, in Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Read more The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear what could become the biggest cases involving Donald Trump as president, a pair of constitutional clashes that could insulate chief executives from investigations while in office and add an explosive new element to the 2020 election campaign. Trump is trying to keep House Democrats and a New York prosecutor from seeing his financial records. The high court will hear back-to-back arguments Tuesday - by phone and live-streamed because of the coronavirus outbreak - on Trump's efforts to block his banks and accountants from complying with subpoenas they have received. The court's rulings could determine whether the president's tax returns become public, and whether he faces an accelerated criminal investigation in New York. It will pose one of the toughest tests yet for Chief Justice John Roberts' court, forcing it to navigate politically polarizing and constitutionally weighty issues less than six months before the presidential election. "I do think they will be searching - I hope they will be searching - for a way to resolve the cases that rises above the partisan division that infects so much else in the United States," said David Cole, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union, which is urging the court to reject Trump's challenges. The clashes summon memories of cases involving two other heavily investigated presidents, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. In 1974 the Supreme Court unanimously forced Nixon to turn over the secret White House tape recordings that led to his resignation. The court was unanimous again in 1997 in ruling that a sexual harassment suit against Clinton could go forward while he was in office. The subpoenas seek years of Trump's personal financial records, as well as those of the Trump Organization and his other businesses. They are directed to Trump's accounting firm, Mazars USA, and his banks, Deutsche Bank AG and Capital One Financial Corp. The accountants and banks aren't contesting the subpoenas and have said they will comply with their legal obligations. Though the legal issues are distinct, the two cases share overarching themes. In each, Trump's personal lawyers and his administration's Justice Department say the lower courts that ruled against him were insufficiently sensitive to the intrusive nature of a demand for a sitting president's personal records. In each, Trump's adversaries say the president is effectively trying to put himself above the law. And in each, Democrats are trying to finally see the tax returns Trump refused to release as a candidate and then as president. Until Trump, every president dating back to Jimmy Carter made his returns public. The House subpoena case focuses on the power of Congress to demand presidential documents outside of impeachment investigations. Three House committees - Oversight, Financial Services and Intelligence - say they are pursuing legislative goals, including updating ethics laws and trying to guard against foreign influence in the 2020 election. House lawyers said the Supreme Court "has long recognized that Congress may investigate potential wrongdoing if the investigation relates to a valid legislative purpose." But Trump's team says the committees' real pursuit isn't legislation but law enforcement, a goal the president's team says is beyond Congress' constitutional authority. "The events that led to the subpoenas' issuance, the public statements surrounding these investigations, the nature of these demands themselves, and other evidence confirm that the committees' purpose is to find out if the president broke the law," Trump's private lawyers argued. In the grand jury case, Trump contends the president has complete immunity from criminal investigations while in office. He says that any investigation, even one in which the document demand goes to a third party, risks being a distraction from the chief executive's weighty responsibilities. "The president cannot effectively discharge those duties if any and every prosecutor in this country may target him with criminal process," Trump's lawyers argued. His legal team in the grand jury case is being led by Jay Sekulow, who helped defend Trump during his Senate impeachment trial earlier this year. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. is investigating whether the Trump Organization falsified business records to disguise hush payments to two women who claimed they had sex with Trump before he took office. Vance and his supporters say presidents throughout history, including Nixon and Clinton, have been subject to judicial proceedings. Vance says a complete shield from investigation is especially inappropriate in a probe that doesn't touch on the president's official duties. "Immunity from investigation for private conduct runs counter to precedent, the structure and operation of the Constitution, and the bedrock principle that no person is above the law," Vance argued. The Justice Department is making a narrower argument than Trump's personal lawyers, saying the court doesn't need to decide whether the president is absolutely immune from state criminal investigations. U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco said the court instead could simply say that grand juries must make a "heightened showing of need." Francisco said Vance hasn't met that standard. Trump's position has generated relatively little support, with only two outside briefs filed on his side in the New York case and five in the congressional case, compared with a combined 25 for the other side in the two cases. In a departure from other high-profile Supreme Court cases, no Republican lawmakers filed briefs on his behalf. In contrast, those opposing Trump in the House case include 10 Republicans who are part of a bipartisan group of former members of Congress. In the New York case, 20 former Republican lawmakers are among those urging the court to back Vance. The justices could try to find a way to sidestep the heftiest separation-of-powers issues, or at least avoid the kind of definitive rulings that may cause 5-4 splits. Two weeks before the arguments, the court asked both sides in the House case for new briefs addressing whether courts have power to resolve that dispute. The request invoked the "political question" doctrine, a legal principle courts sometimes apply to stay out of matters that the Constitution entrusts to other branches of the government. A ruling along those lines could leave the subpoenas in force and, assuming Mazars and the banks comply, give lawmakers the documents in a matter of months. But it also could prevent Congress from going to court to enforce subpoenas in other contexts. In court papers filed Friday, all sides - Trump, the Justice Department and the House - urged the court to reach the core issues and not invoke the political question doctrine. One of Trump's supporters in the cases, Washington lawyer Lawrence Joseph, said the court should recognize that the goal behind the subpoenas is a political one. "These are all transparent political attempts to get the president's taxes," said Joseph, who filed briefs backing Trump on behalf of the Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund. "Courts don't have to be naive. They can recognize that." Joseph is urging the court to rule for Trump narrowly, without taking on some of the biggest constitutional questions. Incremental rulings could extend the fights beyond the election - and potentially scuttle one or both of them if either Trump is defeated or Republicans take control of the House. "This might go away if they decide it on narrow grounds," Joseph said. "And that might not be a bad thing." But those opposing the president say they hope the Supreme Court will vindicate important constitutional principles. The cases are both at bottom about checks and balances and the basic proposition that all people are equal before the law, even the president, said Cole, the ACLU lawyer. In both cases the president is basically asking to be treated differently from all other American citizens. Speaking at a conference discussing State management in the first four months of 2020 held by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), Hung asked the information and communications industry to seize this golden opportunity to make break throughs and take the lead in the nations digital transformation. According to the minister, the information and communications sector, utilising technologies, newspapers and communications, have contributed a lot during the previous waves of COVID-19, helping Vietnam to gain initial control of the epidemic. With socio-economic activities to be resumed, the industry must make a major contribution to this successful restart, Hung stressed, adding that the information and communications sector should join in both the epidemic prevention and economic development processes to achieve the Government's double goal. The minister went on to say that the industry has recently developed quite a lot of software applied in preventing and fighting COVID-19, with some open source software having been shared with the international community. In August, the first Vietnam Open Source Congress will be held aimed at building the strategy for national open source development. This is an opportunity for "Made in Vietnam" to master digital transformation platforms for each industry and each field, Minister Hung stated. He asked Vietnamese digital businesses to accelerate the development and mastery of digital platforms as the mastery of Vietnam's digital transformation platform is considered the most important factor in the transformation process. Regarding 5G deployment, it is expected that Vietnam's 5G equipment will be tested on the network in June and the country will commercialise 5G with Vietnamese equipment at a defined scale by October, Hung announced. While the world has been focused on managing the healthcare, economic and social consequences of the novel coronavirus, a war has been quietly raging as cybercriminals leverage the crisis to escalate their activities. According to a new Mimecast report entitled 100 Days of Coronavirus - that tracks cybercrime activity since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, the volume of malicious and opportunistic cybercrime across all types of cybercrime has increased significantly by 33% in the period January to March 2020. The report provides a clear picture of how malicious actors are exploiting opportunities and provides a detailed analysis of all the trends across various regions, seen by the Mimecast Threat Intelligence team. The new report has found that, in the period January to March 2020, monthly volumes of: *Spam and opportunistic cybercrime detections increased by 26.3%; *Impersonation fraud detections increased by 30.3%; *Malware detections increased by 35.16%; and *Blocking of URL clicks increased by 55.8%, meaning people are more likely now to click on unsafe links than before the outbreak. Carl Wearn, head of e-crime at Mimecast, says: Many employees that suddenly find themselves working from home, are not sufficiently equipped or aware of cyber threats and may put their organisations at risk by engaging in unsafe behaviour. Considering the rise in threats and unsafe clicks as shown by the report, there is an urgent need for organisations to step up their cybersecurity awareness training efforts to ensure employees have the tools and knowledge to avoid risky online behaviour. In addition, over 115 000 Covid-19 related spoof domains that are designed to steal personal information have been detected since January. When focusing on detections on Middle East and North Africa, the Threat Intelligence team found notable increases in malware and spam in the region. In February and March, as the coronavirus started spreading in several of these countries, we saw a 22% increase in malware and a 36% increase in spam. Most interestingly was a 751% increase in unsafe clicks by users over the three-month period. This is likely an indication of people letting their guards down and desperate to learn more, as communication channels were flooded with information both legitimate and fake about the virus, says Wearn. Given the continuing uncertainty over our immediate future and the impact of the virus on various communities, threat actors and cybercriminals are likely to continue to exploit the situation and to evolve their methods according to the current news cycle - with potentially disastrous consequences for unwary employees and organisations, concluded Wearn. Left without jobs and desperate to return home amid the lockdown, 10 migrant labourers have set off on foot from Pune in Maharashtra for their native place hundreds of kilometres away in Uttar Pradesh. The Pune administration has asked the officials concerned to make necessary arrangements for such migrants at hotels and halls available on highways in the district and set up camps for them, in the wake of the death of 16 migrant labourers after being run over by a goods train in Aurangabad. The 10 migrant workers, all natives of Allahabad district in Uttar Pradesh, started walking to their homes from Pune on Saturday evening after losing their jobs and finding to difficult to sustain their livelihood here. "We all were working as construction labourers in Pune. Now we don't have food to survive. Therefore, we have started for our native place in Uttar Pradesh," one of the labourers from the group said. Pune District Collector Naval Kishore Ram has ordered tehsildars and block development officers to immediately set up labour camps along the main roads where migrants may be walking towards their destinations, zilla parishad CEO Ayush Prasad said on Sunday. "The camps would be set up at roadside hotels and wedding halls at reasonable distance from each other on three roads leading to Nashik, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. The tehsilar would decide the number and location of camps based on the requirement. We are expecting at least 35 camps in the district," he said. At each camp, there would be facility of water, toilets, safe place to stay, food and basic medical care, including facility of checkup for flu-like symptoms, he said. Migrants can also register online through the state's 'Aaple Sarkar portal' to access transport facilities being provided by the government, the official said. Adequate police security would also be deployed at the camps for the safety of migrants, women and children and an official would also be appointed as the camp manager, he said. The camp expenses would be met through the state disaster relief fund, he said, adding that each taluka has been given Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh as advance to provide relief. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Not only is Tran Phuoc Hung always on standby in case his blood is needed for emergency medical use but he has also coordinated seamlessly activities for more than one thousand regular donors to make sure the much-needed fluid gets to the right person promptly. Hung, 39, from Ngu Hanh Son District in Da Nang, is popular among local residents for his role in connecting recipients with about 1,400 regular donors who are willing to give away their precious blood to save lives. The man readily puts his farm work aside to answer any emergency calls for life-saving blood transfusions. On a typical day, Hung acted promptly as he got a phone call from a person whose relative was in dire need of a blood transfusion while receiving treatment at Quang Nam Regional General Hospital, located in Dien Ban Town in the neighboring province of Quang Nam. He carefully recorded the conversation and contacted the hospital to confirm the information before posting the appeal in search of a suitable blood donor on his Mau Nong Hieu va Thuong (Much-Needed Blood Understand and Love) clubs website. Hung also entered the item in an app called Hieu va Thuong (Understand and Love), which lists up to dozens of O blood type donors scattered across the town. Tran Phuoc Hung, of Da Nang City in central Vietnam, has helped save many lives thanks to timely blood donations from Mau Nong Hieu va Thuong (Much-Needed Blood- Understand and Love) Club, which he founded in 2015. Photo: Truong Trung / Tuoi Tre It typically takes more than 10 phone calls to make sure that at least two donors will go to hospital in the shortest of time, as many are too busy for a hospital visit or need time to recuperate following the latest donation. A frequent blood donor over the past several years, I remember almost all the nurses names, so its easy to confirm the information. Hospital staff sometimes provide our clubs hotline number to those in need, Hung said. Thanks to his help, all three people whose relatives desperately needed blood that morning called him back with good news. Though blood drives have recently resumed in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City following months-long postponement as donation was hampered by the governments social distancing advisory and ban on public gatherings in response to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, Da Nang still faces a shortage of blood for medical transfusion and slightly higher daily demand, with students, the major force, yet to return to city-based universities. His presence at blood donation facilities is an immense source of encouragement to first-time donors, comfort to recipients, and inspiration to potential donors. Hung shared many of his club members visits to the hematology facilities are energetic answers to his appeals to donate blood, with them never hoping for anything in return. They even give away cookies and milk provided by the blood facilities as nourishment following donations to the recipients. Many of the people who benefit from these donations still keep in close touch with our club members. Some even join as donors and ask their entire families to sign up for donations as well, Hung added. Hung founded the club in 2015, and struggled to manually connect donors and monitor donation schedules. Tran Dai Son, a club member then and one of the administrators now, came up with the Hieu Va Thuong app that better keeps a check on club members profiles, donation history, availability of blood at a certain point of time, ratios of blood types and gender, set up schedules based on time needed for donors to replace the given blood volume, and pinpoint potential donors in next to no time. In addition to giving away their precious blood, members of Mau Nong Hieu va Thuong (Much-Needed Blood Understand and Love) Club, based in Da Nang City in central Vietnam, are also actively engaged in charitable activities. Photo: Hoa Quy / Tuoi Tre Heeding Hungs advice, Son came to add the app to his graduation thesis at the Da Nang University of Technology. On my thesis defense day, members of the thesis committee were surprised that my project had been put to good use and gave positive feedback on its outstanding quality and rich humanitarian values, the IT engineer recalled, adding some committee members are now among the clubs most active volunteers. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Nhieu, deputy head of the Quang Nam Regional General Hospitals trauma and orthosis department, is highly appreciative of Hungs pivotal role in sustaining the clubs activities. The thing that counts is to keep members zeal ablaze and blood reserves brimming in different times. I highly appreciate Hungs considerable contributions, unfailing enthusiasm, and timely presence to donate blood without fail to help save lives, Dr. Nhieu noted. The club currently enjoys a membership of more than 1,400 people, with around 1,000 readily answering any emergency calls for life-saving blood transfusions at a single time. Since the launch of the Hieu va Thuong app in 2016 alone, the club has made more than 2,700 donations of blood and platelets which helped jerk critically ill patients and road accident victims back from The Grim Reapers grip. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! At least 18 young Afghans were drowned as they tried to enter Iran The drowning of at least 18 young Afghans allegedly forced at gunpoint into a river by Iranian border guards has caused a diplomatic strain between Kabul and Tehran and international calls for an investigation. Hanif Atmar, Afghan foreign minister, has pledged to use all diplomatic affords to bring justice and investigate this unforgivable crime and said he had held tense meetings with Iranian officials. Accounts of the incident and video of the bodies laid out in desert have provoked outcry across Afghanistan. The US State department said: Iran's cruel treatment and abuse of Afghan migrants alleged in these reports is horrifying. We support calls for a thorough investigation. Those found guilty of such abuse must be held accountable. Tehran has denied its border guards had any involvement in the deaths, but has agreed to cooperate in any investigation. Survivors told the Telegraph that a party of more than 50 young men were caught north of the Western city of Herat as they tried to smuggle themselves into Iran earlier this month. Iranian guards beat them, then forced them into the Harirod river. Afghan protesters outside the Iranian embassy in Kabul on May 7 - JAWAD JALALI/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock At least 18, local officials have said, while others are missing. Hundreds of thousands of desperate Afghans journey to Iran each year in search of temporary work in their more prosperous neighbour. Many end up working on building sites, or in industry, where conditions are hard, but better than back home. The Covid-19 pandemic has not halted movement back and forth across the 570-mile border, which is rife with drug traffickers and people smugglers. The migrants were caught as soon as they had crossed into Iran from the north of Herat province, survivors said. Related: Boat Carrying Afghan Migrants Capsizes off Turkish Coast After being badly beaten, and forced to clean up an Iranian camp, they were put on a bus and driven to a river bank. A survivor called Naeem, 19, from Herat's Robat Sangi district, told the Telegraph he had decided to make the illegal crossing to look for work to support his family. Story continues Smugglers had give the party barrels to cross the river, but they were picked up quickly on the Iranian side. Some of the migrants were only young teens. They did not drown us close to a village, they were telling each other that villagers would take us from water. Among us, we had and 11-year-old boy, some 14, some 15 and up to 45. Most of them died or are missing. We begged them that we cannot swim, we will die, but they pushed us into the water. Some were resisting more and the police fired some shots and I dont know whether it was into air or they shot someone. I was in the water and trying to safe my own life. When I was there, we got nine bodies from the water. Iran has rejected any involvement in the deaths. Abbas Mousavi, spokesman for Iranian foreign ministry, said the incident occurred on Afghan soil. But due to the importance of the issue and to learn about this, we have begun cooperation with the Afghans to investigate the case. France last week added to criticism of Iran, saying it was extremely concerned by reports on brutalities and crimes against migrants at the Afghan-Iranian border. David Martinon, French ambassador to Kabul, said: No human being can be treated this way. Thorough investigations must be conducted. We call Iranian authorities to ensure human rights and dignity are fully protected. Attacks on migrants by border police are commonplace, according to workers who have made the journey. Baidullah, a daily labourer who was deported from Iran back to Herat told the Telegraph he was attacked as he crossed three years ago. When I was crossing, Iranian border police started shooting at our Toyota and I was shot in my arm. We managed to escape and after many difficulties, I managed to get to one of my relatives homes in Saveh city, in Iran, he said. Galway businessman John Flaherty's manufacturing firm C&F Tooling booked a 4.5m profit after tax and exceptional deductions last year. This comes after it absorbed 13.9m of losses in 2018 from the windup of its automotive division and anticipated costs of winding down its manufacturing operation for small wind turbines. Accounts just filed reveal the Athenry-based firm, whose automotive division also employed hundreds of staff in Co Westmeath, employed 573 people last year, down from 944 employees in 2018. In April last year, Flaherty, an engineer and former winner of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award, shut down C&F Green Energy, a wind turbine business division in which he had invested up to 30m over previous years. The business had been affected by regulatory issues at the time in Japan and the lack of feed-in tariff support in certain markets. The company had also hoped to achieve substantial sales in the US, having invested considerable time and effort there. In September 2018, Flaherty sold the car parts division of his business, C&F Automotive, to its managing director, Westmeath businessman Tom Hyland. Customers of the firm had included BMW, Mercedes, VW and Ford. The terms of the sale were not disclosed at the time, but it was understood to have a turnover of about 26m prior to the sale. It's understood that Flaherty's C&F Tooling business has extended a factory and invested in new machinery at its operation in Athenry, with a particular focus on precision sheet and structured metal fabrication, design and tooling. The 2019 accounts for C&F reveal that its revenues took a 28m hit last year, falling to 48.6m from 77.4m. The amount it owed to creditors reduced from 24.9m in 2018 to 16.9m at the end of last year, with net liabilities falling by 8.5m. At the end of last year, it had 16.1m in shareholders' funds, up from 10.9m at the end of 2018. "The outlook for 2020 remains very positive. [Prior to the pandemic] the turnover for 2020 was forecast to grow by 14pc with a forecast ebitda of 15pc for the year," the accounts stated. After G South (Worli) and G North (Dharavi) wards, three other administrative wards in the city have witnessed a sharp rise in the number of Covid-19 cases, with the count in each ward inching closer towards the 1000-case mark. Among the 24 administrative wards in Mumbai, those including areas of Kurla, Byculla, and Andheri (West) account for 20% of the total cases in Mumbai. While the citys count reached 12,689 as on Saturday, the cases in these three wards tallied up to 2,544. The E ward (Byculla-Mumbai Central) has reported a total of 945 cases and 77 deaths; L ward (Kurla-Sakinaka) has 807 cases and 61 deaths so far; K West ward, which covers Andheri West, Versova, Irla, Juhu, Oshiwara and parts of Jogeshwari, has reported 792 cases and 30 deaths in total. These wards, which have dense slum populations, old buildings, and congested chawls, are likely to have witnessed a spike in the number of cases on Sunday as the city recorded 875 new Covid-19 cases, taking the total count to 13,564. The ward-wise break up of cases for Sunday is yet to be released. The city also recorded 19 more deaths, crossing the 500-fatality mark. So far, the city has lost 508 people to the novel coronavirus. E ward, covering areas like Madanpura, Mazagaon, and Nagpada, has a significant number of Mhada-owned cess buildings and several congested chawls. The number of cases in this ward jumped from 466 on April 25 (the last time BMC released ward-wise data) to 945 on May 10. Civic officials said that on average, 30-32 cases are reported in the ward daily. Prashant Gaikwad, assistant municipal commissioner of E ward (additional charge), said, We have intensified lockdown measures, are conducting fever screening in door-to-door surveys and increased the testing capacity because of which more cases are being found. The number of cases in the ward is reaching its peak and shortly, it will stabilise and start decrea. However, local representatives say that the ward is being neglected by the authorities. Rais Shaikh, MLA from Bhiwandi and a corporator from Madanpura in Byculla, said, It is utter chaos due to administrative mismanagement. The civic body is falling short on proper contact tracing and is responding slowly to symptomatic patients found in the ward. There have been cases where positive patients have not been isolated for days. This is a serious lapse and the authorities are not as bothered about the cases here as they are concerned for VIP areas. K West and L wards, which comprise dense slum pockets and congested areas, are also reporting a rise in the number of cases. Ranjeet Dhakane, deputy municipal commissioner of K West ward, said, We are identifying symptomatic and suspected cases in slums and shifting them to quarantine centres as much as possible. We have formed teams of BMC officials, police, local representatives, and NGO workers, and deployed them in containment zones for strict observation of social distancing. Civic officials from these wards say that attempting to maintain social distancing in slum pockets is difficult. In the L ward, for instance, nearly 70% of its cases are from slum areas, an official confirmed. The ward also has a significant number of migrant workers as several small-scale industries are housed here. We are providing food packets in these areas but the workers have no option but to step out to collect food. However, more than 400 health camps have been set up in the areas so far and fever screening is being conducted, the official said. Cases in the neighbouring wards of G south (Worli) and G North (Dharavi) have crossed the 1000-mark already. Dharavi has reported 1,087 cases and over 1,000 have tested positive in G South. Sharad Ughade, assistant municipal commissioner of G South ward, was unavailable for comment. Meanwhile, of the 875 cases reported on Sunday, 197 had tested positive on May 7 and 8 but were added to the tally later. Of 19 deaths (10 men, 9 women) reported on Sunday, 13 patients had co-morbidities. One victim was below 40 years and five others were above 60 years; the remaining 13 victims were aged between 40 and 60 years. BMC quarantines 331 Indians returning from London, Singapore Indian nationals who landed in the city via two special flights on Saturday night and Sunday morning were quarantined at various hotels by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Of the 337 passengers who landed from London, 248 are from Mumbai, along with 53 from the Singapore flight. They will be quarantined for 14 days before they are allowed to go home. Another 33 travellers from the Singapore flight are from out of Maharashtra and have not received onward passes to travel home. They have been quarantined in Mumbai and if any of these passengers develop symptoms, they will be tested on the seventh or eighth day of their quarantine. Passengers are paying between 1,500 and 4,500 per day for accommodation based on their choice of hotel. The immediate past Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside has condemned in strong terms the demolition of two hotels in Rivers State by Governor Nyesom Wike over alleged violation of an Executive Order. Peterside said Wike had so far developed into a full-blown dictator, insisting that the latest action of the governor was wicked, insensitive, irresponsible and unlawful. He said Wike left no one in doubt about his lack of concrete pursuit of how to fight coronavirus with solid policies and programmes, accusing him of resorting to brute force, a show of strength and muscle-flexing with imaginary enemies. He said: Last week, Governor Wike made two broadcasts where Rivers people expected him to lay out well-determined plans of how to ensure mass testing following the inauguration of molecular laboratories in UPTH and RSUTH with achievable timelines, while also strengthening other areas. However, no such thing was heard from the governor but threats upon threats as to how he would dethrone traditional rulers, how he will sack local government chairmen, how he will summarily arrest violators of the executive order and punish them, how he will auction their vehicles, amongst other threats. Governor Wike is not a law unto himself and cannot be the law. For good measure, the governor rounded up by saying he would demolish buildings or hotels found wanting in implementing his orders without recourse to the due process of law and natural justice that confers the right of fair hearing on the accused. Wikes utterances do not suggest that he is fighting the coronavirus pandemic alone. His actions suggest that there is more than what he is telling Rivers people. He has become a dictator whose words must be obeyed or be damned. Peterside explained the fascist attitude of Wike was capable of leading to the breakdown of law and order, as persons, who bore the crude method of the governor and their families could resort to mass protest, capable of exposing the state further. He said: This crude method of governance and law enforcement is obsolete, counterproductive and will put Rivers State and her people in bad light before the right-thinking members of society. While we all support the governor to ensure that the state is free from coronavirus, his transformation into a dictator and a god that must be worshipped will be challenged by all well-meaning Rivers people and Nigerians at the appropriate time. Governor Wike must change from this destructive path and follow that of responsible leadership that has a human face and not one that will turn him to a demi-god that must be offered sacrifices to assuage his anger, vengeance and greed, he summed up. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates Azaan is an integral part of the faith, not the gadget, says veteran writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar, asking that the Islamic call to prayer on loudspeakers should be stopped as it causes "discomfort" to others. In a tweet on Saturday, Akhtar wondered why the practice was 'halaal' (allowed) when it was, for nearly half a century in the country, considered 'haraam' or forbidden. "In India for almost 50 years Azaan on the loud speak was Haraam. Then it became Halaal and so halaal that there is no end to it, but there should be an end to it. Azaan is fine but loud speaker does cause of discomfort for others. I hope that atleast this time they will do it themselves (sic)," Akhtar tweeted. When a user asked his opinion on loudspeakers being used in temples, the 75-year-old writer said everyday use of speakers is a cause of concern. "Whether it's a temple or a mosque, if you're using loudspeakers during a festival, it's fine. But it shouldn't be used everyday in either temples or mosques. "For more than thousand years Azaan was given without the loud speaker. Azaan is the integral part of your faith, not this gadget," he replied. Earlier in March, Akhtar had supported the demand to shut mosques amid the coronavirus outbreak in the country, saying even Kaaba and Medina have been closed due to the pandemic. He had also appealed to the Muslim community to offer prayers from home in the holy month of Ramzan, which began on April 24. "I request all the Muslim brothers that now that Ramzan is coming, please say your prayers but make sure that this doesn't cause problems to anyone else. The prayers that you do in the mosque, you can do that at home. According to you, the house, the ground, this all has been made by Him. Then you can do your prayers anywhere," he had said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Connecticut officials reported 35 more deaths attributed to coronavirus Sunday, bringing the state death toll to 2,967, data released by the office of Gov. Ned Lamont shows. The number of laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 also rose, with 570 new cases bringing the state to 33,554 cases. Initially they were supposed to dock at the Port of Beira but they didnt have permission to do so and they had to go through South Africa. We have people at FITC and these people came from South Africa but I cannot confirm with certainty that they are part of the group who we were on the ship. We will need to devise a system to establish whether the people we are receiving through Beitbridge are coming from abroad or South Africa so that we know the exact situation we are likely to handle, said Dr Gwaradzimba. Herald Refrigerated tractor trailers used to store bodies of deceased people are seen at a temporary morgue, during the pandemic in Brooklyn, New York. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid New York is reporting some of its lowest new coronavirus death and case numbers. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the toll takes New York "right back to where we started this hellish journey" in a briefing Sunday. Some reopening is set to continue on May 15. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. New York reported 207 new deaths due to the novel coronavirus on Sunday, the lowest since early March, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo at his daily press briefing. The state also reached its lowest new daily case count 521 since about March 20, Cuomo said, adding that, "521 takes us right back to where we started this hellish journey." "It has been a painful period of time between March 20 and May 9," he said. The governor ordered non-essential workers to stay home on March 20, when there were roughly 7,000 total cases. Less than two days later, the case count reached 10,000, climbing to more than 340,792 in a matter of weeks, according to data compiled by The New York Times. More than 25,000 New Yorkers have died, which is about 30% of total deaths in the US. The number of new deaths has been dropping for 10 straight days, as Bloomberg News reported; hospitalizations and cases that require intensive care have also declined. Given the declines, reopening of the state is set to begin as planned, the governor said. The lockdown is set to expire on May 15. This week, officials will be evaluating which regions can reopen based on a "uniform set of criteria," Cuomo said. The first set of variables will rest on the rate of the virus' spread, while the second looks at locales' hospital capacity, testing, and ability to monitor compliance of new rules, according to Cuomo. More information on the subject will be released tomorrow. The governor also addressed concerns about the state's high death count in nursing homes, where more than 5,300 have died. New rules will require the homes to report to the state's health department when they can't properly care for those with the coronavirus. Story continues Cuomo has been criticized in recent weeks for a directive on March 25 that said long-term care facilities were not allowed to deny people readmission on the basis of their diagnosis, which may have introduced more outbreaks. The state's health department is looking into 85 cases of what could be a coronavirus-related illness in children, but the governor had few updates to provide on the subject. The illness has killed at least three children in the state. New York's allocated portion of the coronavirus treatment remdesivir was also discussed on Sunday. Cuomo said the state had enough of the drug for 2,900 people. Last week, hospital administrators had no idea how to procure Gilead's treatment, while the federal government declined to release its plans for distribution, according to reporting by Business Insider's Andrew Dunn, Lydia Ramsey, and Kimberly Leonard. On Saturday, the US Department of Health and Human Services finally released guidance saying that remdesivir would be sent to states with the worst outbreaks first. Read the original article on Business Insider Many people have asked me: Are there still going to be regular Political Power Rankings even though theres a pandemic? OK, nobody has actually asked me that, but I am taking Zoom courses in developing my Jedi powers. Hence, I can sense a tremendous interest in this question. Before we plunge back in, let me go over the methodology for newcomers. No registered voters were sampled. All numbers are made up. The margin of error is 100 percent. If a politicians name does not appear on this list, it means that I did not have anything interesting to say about that person. Therefore, Bob Duff does not appear on this list. Sign up to get Colins newsletter delivered to your inbox, for free Ned Lamont, 104.1. Ned Lamont is like Spinal Tap. Im pretty sure the rankings top out at 100, but he can go higher, because governors are magic. Ordinarily, governor and mayor are the worst jobs in politics because people actually expect things from you. Now, its as if the Blue Fairy cast a spell on all of us, and we love governors so much. (The Red Fairy maybe didnt do such a great job.) How much do we love governors? In the expanded PPRs, which are available by mailing me $10, Dan Malloy has been sucked back onto the list, even though he is no longer a governor and lives in Maine, which Im pretty sure is just a territory. Chris Murphy, 98.1. Murphy is sort of like Friday Night Lights. Clear eyes, full heart, cant lose. The national online publication Vox recently ran an adulatory profile accompanied by a picture in which Murphy appeared to be using his political clout to advance the leggings for men movement. People keep asking me if Murphy is going to be Bidens secretary of state or run for governor in 2022 so he can more plausibly run for president. And I keep saying, He has a Senate seat he cannot possibly lose. He can say whatever is on his mind 24/7. I mean, its like asking Mickey Mouse if he wants to run the National Institutes of Health. Hes already Mickey Mouse. I guess at NIH he could green-light more experiments on ducks, but, like Murphy, he has a job where he can do whatever he wants and never has to wait in line. Richard Blumenthal and Themis Klarides, tied at 77.1. We have as complete an idea as is possible to have of the policies and approaches to governance of Richard Blumenthal, but we will never find him particularly exciting. In the case of Themis Klarides, it is exactly the opposite. Susan Bysiewicz, 72.3. The German mathematician Georg Cantor proposed three realms of infinity: the infinity of God, the infinity of nature and the infinity of press releases Bysiewicz can generate about essentially nothing. Here is the heading of a real press release I received Wednesday. I cannot stress enough: this is merely the heading. TOMORROW: LT. GOVERNOR BYSIEWICZ VISITS ROCKY HILL FARM TO PROMOTE AVAILABILITY OF CT-GROWN PRODUCTS FOR MOTHERS DAY CELEBRATIONS; PARTICIPATES IN VIRTUAL TOWN HALL MEETING TO SUPPORT VETERANS; JOINS VIRTUAL TOWN HALL MEETING TO SUPPORT SMALL BUSINESSES. Sigh. The time between now and November 2022 is going to seem like an eternity. Chris Dodd, 2.3. Is it not a bitter political irony that the uxorious Joe Biden, who was famous and unique among senators for boarding Amtrak at the end of every working day to be with his beloved Jill, now stands accused of backing a woman against a wall and interfering with her person? Is it not bizarre that Biden has chosen this moment to appoint to his running mate selection committee, a man who, during the multiple decades of his misspent youth, developed a reputation for that kind of thing? Generic Connecticut Libertarian, minus 13.0. In Tristram Shandy, the title character has an Uncle Toby, who is much devoted to reenacting historic battles with miniature soldiers, but the narrator opines: So long as a man rides his Hobby-Horse peaceably and quietly along the Kings highway, and neither compels you or me to get up behind him, pray, Sir, what have either you or I to do with it? That is how I used to feel about libertarians. I dont want to talk to them at barbecues, and their ideas dont make any sense, and its a little annoying that they are not mollified by already having a president who hates government, doesnt know how to do anything and cant point out countries on a map. I mean, we know what its like when government steps away from the peoples business. Its like the present moment, when people are being tested for antibodies with Ronco Serology Kits. Like Uncle Toby, they were no real trouble. But now Connecticut libertarians find it necessary to demonstrate every Monday against reasonable pandemic measures because they apparently believe the disease would simply go away if people drove around all day honking their horns. Honk honk honk. Stop doing that or I will punish you with my new Jedi powers. Colin McEnroes column appears every Sunday, his newsletter comes out every Thursday and you can hear his radio show every weekday on WNPR 90.5. Email him at colin@ctpublic.org. Sign up for his newsletter at http://bit.ly/colinmcenroe. Were all in this thing together. Or so we are told by celebrities, politicians and every third TV commercial. Its the lullaby with which America soothes itself every time these shores are attacked. Thats why Monday, Dec. 8, 1941, saw long lines at military recruiting offices and millions of dollars pouring in to the American Red Cross. Because Pearl Harbor had been bombed. Because we were all in this thing together. But we werent, a point driven home just two years later when rioting erupted across the country Detroit; New York; L.A.; Beaumont, Texas in defense and expression of, and resistance to, white supremacy. White rioters in Mobile, Ala., even crippled production at a shipyard critical to the war effort, critical to this thing we all were in together. So in this pandemic era, one is disappointed, but hardly surprised, to see noisy protests against stay-at-home and social-distancing orders serve as platforms for our racial hypocrisy. Which brings us to April 30 in Lansing, Michigan, where, for the second time in two weeks, the statehouse was under siege by protesters promoting the anarchistic idea that government has no right to govern, that closing businesses and asking for social distancing in a public-health crisis amounts to tyranny. No, its not the economy, stupid, ruined as it is and as frightened as people are of losing their homes and businesses. If it were just the economy, the protests would not be nearly all white. Who suffers more in a downturn than people of color? If it were just the economy, there would have been no Confederate flag, no sign threatening to lynch lawmakers. If it were just the economy, there would have been no tactical gear and guns. There were plenty of both as a raucous crowd of protesters stood nose to nose with state troopers, screaming into their faces, demanding access to the House floor. The officers wore protective masks in line with medical guidelines. The spittle-spraying demonstrators did not. Yet there were no injuries and only one arrest, for a squabble between two protesters. Imagine if a similarly armed, similarly behaved group of Muslims had descended on the capital. Would they have escaped with such benign results? Thats going to be a No. Donald Trump tweeted afterward that the armed white mob were very good people. Would black protesters have enjoyed presidential praise? This is the same Trump who thought Colin Kaepernick an SOB because he quietly took a knee during the National Anthem in protest of police brutality, so thatll be another No. And were all in this thing together? Tell it to Cpl. Rupert Trimmingham, a black soldier who, a little over two years after Pearl Harbor, could only watch as German POWs dined in a Louisiana restaurant from which he was legally barred. Tell it to Wander Cooper, a black woman who, as that Lansing mob was crying over how oppressed they are, was seeking justice for her 25-year-old son, Ahmaud Arbery. In February, the Glynn County, Ga., man was shot and killed while out jogging after two white men saw him running and chased him down, thinking he looked like a robbery suspect. Yes, by all means, lets wash our hands and wear our masks, keep social distance and look out for one other. But dont be fooled by this latest attack on these shores. The lullaby is still only a lullaby, only the old sweet song of an ideal America has never quite managed to make herself believe. All in this thing together? No. Were all in this thing, but thats about it. Pitts is a columnist for The Miami Herald. As part of a stimulus package for the coronavirus-hit economy, the government is working on a credit guarantee scheme to enable banks to provide additional 10-15 per cent working capital to MSMEs for payment of wages, sources said. Currently, banks are offering an extra line of credit of 10 per cent based on working capital limits, which the government intends to increase further. Since units are closed due to lockdown and there has been no operation for the past two months, most micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) do not have money for paying wages and financial assistance for them is under consideration of the government, the sources said. One of the proposals under consideration is to provide 10-15 per cent additional line of credit by banks over the working capital limit of the MSME sector, which is the largest employer in the country after agriculture. This loan, especially for wage payment, will be backed by a proposed credit guarantee fund so that lenders' money is secured in case of default by any borrower, the sources added. The MSME sector contributes over 28 per cent of the GDP and more than 40 per cent of exports, while creating employment for about 11 crore people. Public sector banks have sanctioned loans worth Rs 42,000 crore to the MSME sector and corporates since the start of the lockdown under the COVID-19 Emergency Credit Facility to provide liquidity for survival. With the lockdown coming into effect from March 25, state-owned banks opened COVID-19 Emergency Credit Facility under which 10 per cent top-up loan is given over their working capital limit, subject to a maximum of Rs 200 crore. Till now, the banks have sanctioned Rs 27,426 crore worth loans to MSMEs, as per data collated by the government. In addition, corporates with deep pockets have availed Rs 14,735 crore loans. In terms of numbers, about 10 lakh MSMEs and 6,428 corporates have availed the benefit so far. At the same time, many MSMEs and corporates have also availed the three-month moratorium offered by banks as per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had last week said as many as 3.2 crore borrowers have taken advantage of the three-month moratorium scheme on repayment of loans announced by the RBI to help people tide over liquidity issues caused by the coronavirus crisis. "PSBs complemented RBI on loan moratorium. Their effective communication & proactive actions ensured that over 3.2 cr. a/c availed 3-month moratorium. Quick query redressals allayed customer concerns. Ensuring responsible banking amid #lockdown," she had tweeted. She also said state-owned banks have sanctioned loans worth Rs 5.66 lakh crore to borrowers during March and April, and disbursement will start soon after the lockdown is lifted. Anti-government protests have resumed in Hong Kong as restrictions in the city began to ease, following a period of enforced calm due to the coronavirus pandemic. Riot police chased protesters through Hong Kong's shopping malls and streets on Sunday as democracy activists launched Mother's Day flash mob rallies calling for independence and for the city's unpopular leader to resign. The semi-autonomous Chinese city was convulsed by seven straight months of often violent pro-democracy protests last year with millions hitting the streets Anti-government protesters wearing protective masks sing songs and make gestures during a demonstration at a shopping mall today. Since the worst of the current coronavirus pandemic has passed, new anti-government protests have recently started to reappear in Hong Kong Riot police wearing protective masks charge on a street during a demonstration in Mongkok district on Sunday A pro-democracy demonstrator (centre) is held on the ground before getting arrested by undercover police during a protest calling for the city's independence in Mong Kok district of Hong Kong Mass arrests and the coronavirus pandemic ushered in a period of calm. But with the finance hub successfully tackling its outbreak small protests have bubbled up once more in the last fortnight. Small flashmob demonstrations broke out in at least eight malls throughout Sunday afternoon prompting riot police to rush in and disperse heckling crowds of activists and shoppers. At least three arrests were made while groups of officers conducted multiple stop and searches. A cleaner wipes an escalator handle as riot police patrol during a demonstration in a shopping mall on May 10 Anti-government protesters wearing protective masks sing songs and make gestures during a demonstration at a shopping mall on May 10 Riot police wearing protective masks stand guard during a demonstration in a shopping mall on May 10 Live broadcasts also showed police issuing $2,000 ($260) on the spot fines to those allegedly breaching emergency anti-virus measures banning more than eight people gathering in public. Hong Kong celebrates the American Mother's Day and protester chat groups had pushed the occasion to focus on chief executive Carrie Lam, a Beijing loyalist appointee. At the start of last year's protests, Lam likened herself to an exasperated mother - and protesting Hong Kongers to demanding children - in comments that only poured oil on the fire of public anger at the time. Riot police detain a group of people during an demonstration in Mongkok district on May 10 Riot police hold back members of media during a demonstration in Mongkok district Riot police detain a group of people in Mongkok. Authorities banned an application for a Mother's Day march so small groups of masked protesters instead played cat and mouse with police in different shopping centres, a tactic used frequently last year Authorities banned an application for a Mother's Day march so small groups of masked protesters instead played cat and mouse with police in different shopping centres, a tactic used frequently last year. 'This is just a warm-up, our protest movement needs to start again,' a university student who gave his name as 'B' told AFP. 'It's a sign that the movement is coming back to life, we all need to wake up now.' In the evening clashes spilled onto the streets, with police using batons and pepper spray in the busy commercial neighbourhood of MongKok, and making more arrests, including of a pro-democracy lawmaker. Riot police wearing protective masks charge on a street during a demonstration in Mongkok district on May 10 Riot police detain protesters on Sunday evening in Mongkok. In the evening clashes spilled onto the streets, with police using batons and pepper spray in the busy commercial neighbourhood of MongKok, and making more arrests, including of a pro-democracy lawmaker Riot police wearing protective masks secure an area during a crowd control operation in Mongkok district on May 10 Lam, who has been staunchly backed by Beijing, has record low approval ratings. She has resisted calls for universal suffrage or an independent inquiry into the police's handling of the protests. In the New Year she vowed to heal the divisions coursing through Hong Kong but her administration has offered little in the way of reconciliation or a political solution. Riot police wearing protective masks stand guard during a demonstration in a shopping mall on May 10 Riot police wearing protective masks patrol during a demonstration in a shopping mall on May 10 Plans to pass a law banning insulting China's national anthem sparked scuffles in the city's legislature on Friday Arrests and prosecutions have continued apace while Beijing's offices in the city sparked a constitutional row last month by announcing a greater say in how Hong Kong is run. Plans to pass a law banning insulting China's national anthem sparked scuffles in the city's legislature on Friday. Top Beijing officials have suggested opposition lawmakers who blocked the bill with filibustering could be prosecuted and have also called for a new anti-sedition law to be passed. Rivers state police has rescued Bilal Nosser, a Lebanese-born Nollywood actor better known as Mr. B, who was abducted by gunmen. Nnamdi Omoni, the spokesman for the command, said the actor was abducted in Imo state and taken to a forest in Ndashi, Rivers State, in the early hours of Friday. READ ALSO Uche Nnanna Calls Out Nollywood Actors For Not Celebrating With Ibiwari Etuk After Her Encounter With Kidnappers He also revealed that Nwagor Faith, a member of the gang asked to keep watch over Nosser, was apprehended while others fled on sighting the police officers. An Iranian warship has accidentally opened fire on one of its own support vessels during a training exercise in the Gulf of Oman, killing 19 and leaving 15 injured. The Jamaran, a frigate, had been attempting to hit a target with one of its Noor cruise missiles when it accidentally struck a support ship named Konarak instead. The Konarak had been placing targets for the Janaran to hit but remained too close to one of them causing the missile to lock on to it by mistake, state-run media said. 19 sailors died and 15 more were injured aboard the Iranian warship Konarak (pictured) was struck by a cruise missile fired by another ship, the Jamaran, during a training exercise Iran said the Konarak (pictured) had been towing a target into place for the Jamaran to fire at, but remained too close afterwards - causing the missile to lock on to it by mistake Nineteen people were 'martyred' in the friendly-fire incident, the ISNA news agency said, while another 15 were admitted to hospital in a 'good condition'. Iranian media denied earlier reports that the Konarak had sunk, saying the vessel was towed away for inspection afterwards. The Konarak had been overhauled in 2018 and was able to launch sea and anti-ship missiles but was not actively participating in the drill, state outlets said. The Dutch-made, 155ft vessel was in service since 1988 and had capacity of 40 tons. The friendly fire incident happened on Sunday near the port of Jask, some 790 miles southeast of Tehran, in the Gulf of Oman, state TV said. It comes after Iran accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane as it was taking off from Tehran airport earlier this year, killing all 176 on board. An image purporting to show the stricken Konarak support vessel after it was struck by a Noor cruise missile on Sunday night The Iranian Jamaran frigate (front, centre) is pictured during a training exercise alongside Chinese and Russian forces in December last year The friendly-fire incident happened on Sunday night near the port of Jask, in the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic choke-point for the world's oil supply The shoot-down came shortly after Iran had fired cruise missiles at US bases in Iraq in retaliation for the killing of General Qassem Soleimani. Fearing retaliation by American forces, Iranian anti-aircraft gunners are believed to have targeted the jet by mistake thinking it was an American warplane. Iran regularly holds naval exercises in the Gulf of Oman, which is close to the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world's oil passes. The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, which monitors the region, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Iranian media rarely report on mishaps during its exercises, signaling the severity of the incident. This incident also comes amid months of heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers in 2018 and imposed crushing sanctions on the country. A Labour shadow minister is renting a taxpayer-funded flat just a few miles from her husbands home to avoid a 46-minute commute. Cat Smith, 34, has submitted claims for 15,000 covering her first seven months in the apartment, across the river from the Houses of Parliament in Lambeth. The bills include rent, council tax, utility bills and letting agents fees. A close ally of ex-leader Jeremy Corbyn, Miss Smith lives there with her husband Ben Soffa, the Labour Partys head of digital organising, and their toddler son. But Mr Soffa owns a flat in a modern apartment block only six miles away in East London. Labour shadow minister for youth affairs and voter engagement Cat Smith is renting a taxpayer-funded flat in Lambeth just a few miles from her husbands home Miss Smith, the MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood and shadow minister for youth affairs and voter engagement, is said to have felt she had no choice but to rent the flat because her previous commute involved a combination of walking, bus and trains. A source close to the couple, who married in 2016, said they had lived in the East London flat when Miss Smith became an MP but its location proved problematic following the birth of their son because it is not on a direct public transport link into central London. The quickest route involves a combination of walking, bus and Tube connections taking at least 46 minutes. Miss Smith and her husband who shared parental leave were said to have felt unsafe on the Tube in the rush-hour with a small baby. A spokesman for the couple said they wanted to live close to Westminster for childcare reasons. Her husband's east London flat lies empty after she and her husband moved into the taxpayer-funded property closer to Westminster Neighbours say the East London address is empty and is not being let out to anyone. Land Registry records show Mr Soffa, 38, is still the owner. Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority rules do not forbid MPs from claiming rent for a property even if they or their spouse already own one nearby. The restrictions are that they can make a rental claim for only one property either in London or their constituency. But a Westminster source said: Even if they are not doing anything wrong, its clearly a loophole in the rules that you can rent a property on the taxpayer when you own one a few miles away. Miss Smith on her wedding day with husband Ben Soffa, the Labour Partys head of digital organising It may be that they want to live close to Parliament but Im sure plenty of other families might want to live in a more convenient location in London and cant afford it. Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said last night: Labour talk about the housing crisis, especially in London, but it would appear Cat Smith and her husband have an empty property which they could be occupying, while living in a taxpayer-funded flat. The hypocrisy of the Left is breathtaking. Tory grandee Lord Tebbit added: Im sure the right thing for them to do as principled members of the Labour Party would be to give their (East London) flat rent-free to one of the homeless about who the Labour Party are so concerned. John OConnell, chief executive of the TaxPayers Alliance, said: Overburdened taxpayers shouldnt have to pay for MPs living in London to shave minutes off their morning commute. Accommodation expenses, like all the rest, should only be claimed when actually needed. A close ally of ex-leader Jeremy Corbyn, Miss Smith lives in the flat with her husband and their toddler son Miss Smith claimed almost 4,000 in 2018/19, including two months rent for her Lambeth flat. In 2019/20, bills totalling 11,200 were submitted. A neighbour in the East London apartment block where Mr Soffa owns his apartment said she had not seen the couple for more than a year. I havent seen them since March 2019, she said. They were nice people and I had no complaints. But I pay a lot of tax, so it p****s me off. A spokesman for Miss Smith and Mr Soffa said: Everything has been done entirely properly and in line with the rules that apply to all MPs. A 30-year-old migrant worker walking back home from Maharashtra to her village in Madhya Pradesh's Satna amid the lockdown necessitated by the coronavirus outbreak, gave birth to a child en route. The woman, Shakuntala, and the infant, her fourth child, were doing fine, Inspector VS Parihar of Sendhwa police station told PTI. An hour after her delivery, the woman recommenced her journey and walked almost 160 km, according to a Times of India report. "The woman, her family and others were part of a group moving from Nashik in Maharashtra to Satna. She delivered the child in a village between Nashik and Dhule in Maharashtra," the official said. He added that they found her when the group reached Bijasan check post and all of them were medically examined on Saturday. The new mother told the police officer that she said her family had walked 210 kilometres and that the women in the group helped in the delivery that took place by the side of a road. "We have arranged for a bus to take the woman, her children, including the newborn, and her husband to their native village," he added. (With inputs from PTI) Mizoram's corona-free status can be attributed to the discipline of its people and the combined efforts of the church, NGOs and administration, says Chief Minister Pu Zoramthanga. While happy that his state has managed to contain the spread of COVID-19, the chief minister told PTI he was worried about the economic slump due to the lockdown and the threat posed by corona carriers from neighbouring Bangladesh and Myanmar. On Saturday, Mizoram became coronavirus-free with its lone COVID-19 patient being discharged from hospital, officials in the state capital Aizawl said. The credit, Zoramthanga said, goes to the discipline of the people who allowed the state to execute all the provisions suggested by a special task force constituted for the sole purpose to curb the spread of the virus. "Mizoram is a very disciplined state With the help of the church, NGOs and administration, we have so far survived this crisis and are determined to continue to do so in the future," he said in a phone interview from Aizawl. However, the threat from "corona carriers" looms large over the northeastern state, which shares a 510-km border with Myanmar and a 318-km border with Bangladesh, he said. "This is a great threat for us as there are high chances of people from Myanmar and Bangladesh infiltrating into Mizoram due to the open borders. We are taking all measures to stop it." he said. The 75-year-old former rebel leader, serving his third term as chief minister of the Christian majority state, said his government is extra careful and has deployed Mizoram Police personnel at all major checkpoints so there is no possibility of any infiltration. While Bangladesh has reported 13,134 cases of coronavirus with 206 deaths, Myanmar has 177 cases. Infiltration from both the countries into India is quite common. Discussing the nationwide lockdown, in place since March 25 to curb the spread of the disease, Zoramthanga said it will adversely impact Mizoram since, like other northeastern states, it too depends on the Central government for funds to run its economy. "Mizoram, like other states in the northeast, is a centrally funded state and gets 90 per cent of its funds from the Centre If the country's economy suffers, which is likely to be the case, the ripple effects will be felt more here and will stay for long," he said. "The real effects would be felt once the COVID-19 crisis is over This cannot be ignored," he added. Fitch Ratings last month slashed India's economic growth projections to 0.8 per cent in the current 2020-21 fiscal, saying an unparalleled global recession is underway due to disruptions caused by the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic and resultant lockdowns. According to Zoramthanga, infrastructure projects in his state will be impacted the most. Mizoram has the highest number of pending road infrastructure projects in the region. Work on more than 50 big-ticket road projects launched by the Central government owned National Highways Infrastructure Development Corporation to improve the state's connectivity with Myanmar to boost India's trade with south-east Asian nations has been suspended due to the lockdown. "Our road projects will get hampered the most. But this seems something where nothing much can be done. We can only wait and watch," Zoramthanga said. The chief minister also said his government is in touch with the ministries of Railways and Civil Aviation to bring back over 5,500 Mizos stranded in several parts of the country due to the lockdown. "We've brought back Mizos stranded in neighbouring states in the northeast. But for the residents of the state who are stranded far away in other states, we are in touch with the Railways and Civil Aviation ministries to get the matter resolved," hesaid. Mizoram shares its zero COVID-19 cases status with four other states in the region -- Manipur, Sikkim, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. India has registered 62,939 cases and 2,109 deaths, according to the Union Health Ministry on Sunday. Mizoram Health Minister R Lalthangliana said on Saturday that the state's lone COVID-19 patient, a pastor, was discharged after 45 days of intense treatment and four consecutive tests showed negative results. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on Iran to halt prosecutions of those who peacefully protested the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' (IRGC) deadly attack on a civilian airliner and the initial denial of responsibility. The rights group said that since late April, Iranian courts had sentenced 13 people, including several students, to prison terms apparently just for taking part in peaceful protest over the January 8 downing of a Ukrainian civilian airliner, which the IRGC said it "mistakenly" shot down, killing 176 passengers and crew. The incident, which led to outrage in the country, came hours after Iran had launched a missile attack on U.S. forces in Iraq in response to the January 3 assassination of the IRGC's Quds Force commander, Major General Qasem Soleimani, by a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad. Tehran initially claimed the plane had crashed, but the IRGC admitted three days after the tragedy that Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 had been shot down "unintentionally" by the country's air defenses. Iranian authorities have said that 30 people were arrested in connection with the protests and that an unspecified number of people had been arrested in connection with the downing of the plane. "Iranian authorities are following their usual playbook of dodging accountability," Michael Page, HRW's deputy Middle East director, said in a May 8 statement. "While refusing to provide details about any investigation of culpability for the deadly mistake, judicial officials are wasting no time in sentencing people who protested the loss of 176 lives." Iran has said that the deadly incident will be investigated, but the authorities have not shared any details of their investigation. Families of some of the victims have expressed concern that the coronavirus pandemic is slowing down any momentum toward justice for their loved ones, HRW said. The right group said Iran should conduct a transparent investigation and cooperate with international bodies. One week after Sally realized she was pregnant, her home state Texas temporarily banned abortions, deeming them unnecessary elective procedures that were suspended because of the coronavirus crisis. So, the 34-year-old, whose name has been changed for this story to protect her privacy, took matters into her own hands -- something she never would have considered in the past. Having split with her boyfriend, she decided to buy pills on the internet, and perform her own abortion at home. It's illegal, and certainly stressful, but more and more women -- faced with difficult decisions during a time of national crisis -- are going that route. "It came in a little Manila envelope. And it was just a five-pack of pills. No instructions -- nothing," Sally told AFP from her home in Dallas. Getting the pills was not easy. The first two sites she consulted were out of stock. After sending $250 to a third site and enduring several long days of waiting, the envelope arrived. By then, it had been 10 weeks since her last period -- the absolute limit in the United States for a medical abortion. "I was so terrified," she said. She returned online to figure out how to use the pills for what is called a "self-managed" abortion. She took the first pill -- mifepristone, commonly known in the US as RU-486, which is used to stop the development of the pregnancy. The four other pills were misoprostol, which triggers the actual abortion. And then Sally took painkillers. After a night of "really bad" cramps, and bleeding that "shocked" her, everything went as expected. Sally went back to work the following day, "relieved" that the pills worked properly. "I would have rather had medical supervision, for sure," she says without hesitation. Beyond the legal ramifications, how does one find websites where the pills are sold? How do you make sure you get them quickly? Dozens of women like Sally are exchanging advice, tips and notes about their experiences in the abortion forum on the popular social network Reddit. - Soaring sales - A woman's right to have an abortion is protected by the landmark US Supreme Court decision in Roe v Wade. Even in normal times, that right has come under threat in some conservative-leaning US states. But several states sought to capitalize on the virus crisis to advance their campaigns. There are also natural impediments to getting an abortion in a time of national crisis: the fear of getting infected at a clinic, the inability to leave home to get the procedure, or even financial distress due to sudden unemployment. To help women buy their own pills online, the Plan C site lists eight online vendors, and ranks them in terms of price and speed of shipment. The pills sold by those vendors have been tested and declared reliable in 2018. One online retailer who asked not to be identified told AFP that sales in the US "increased by 150 percent in April compared to March." Visits to the Plan C website had doubled by late April as compared with a month before. Plan C co-founder Elisa Wells said that while 900,000 abortions are performed each year in the United States, 40 percent of them medically, at least 10,000 are done "outside of the conventional medical establishment" -- either via pills bought online or in Mexico. - What are the risks? - Abortions using mifepristone and misoprostol are safe, experts say. Complications that require medical intervention are rare. "In the year 2020, in the United States, the real concerns about self-managed abortion aren't physical but legal," explains Jill Adams, the executive director of If/When/How, which puts women who want to abort on their own in touch with attorneys. From mid-March through the end of that month, the association's hotline received twice as many calls as usual. Five US states -- Arizona, Delaware, Idaho, Oklahoma and South Carolina -- have laws that specifically ban self-managed abortion. But women in other states are not really better protected: some local prosecutors use other laws to convict them, such as those forbidding the practice of medicine without a license. Some even charge women with child abuse, or drug-related offenses. In late March, 21 states asked for the lifting of federal restrictions on sending mifepristone through the mail, saying it limits a woman's use of telemedicine and forces women to "travel unnecessarily" despite stay-at-home orders. To get around some of the US red tape, the websites offering abortion pills are operated from abroad. Aid Access, which offers the least expensive abortion pills at $90 a dose, is the only one that has a medical supervisor, Dutch physician and activist Rebecca Gomperts. For the past year, Gomperts has been locked in a battle with the US Food and Drug Administration, which demanded that she stop providing abortion services via telemedicine. The pandemic has defeated her for the moment: she cannot get the pills she needs from India, which closed all of its airports. Another online provider, which gets its supplies from Russia, told AFP that it expects to be out of stock for several weeks. The only service that is authorized to send the pills -- in 13 US states -- is TelAbortion, which has been up and running since 2016, working with about 700 women. In March and April, the number of women contacting TelAbortion doubled, as compared with the two previous months. NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Bonnie Bibula and her husband Joel of the South Shore tested positive for antibodies to the coronavirus (COVID-19) two weeks ago. Though Bonnie Bibula never had coronavirus symptoms herself, her 78-year-old husband had the disease, and she had been his primary caretaker when he was sick at home. But even though her husband is fully recovered and she herself feels fine, Bibula said they both do not feel confident they are completely immune to the virus. Bibula said theyve been hearing about confusing test results. The couples grandson, for instance, tested positive for the virus, recovered, but then tested negative for antibodies, she said. They also have another friend who tested positive for coronavirus, recovered, then tested positive for antibodies and positive for the coronavirus at the same time. Were relieved to an extent, we feel like this is good, Bibula said of her and her husband having antibodies to COVID-19. But because were hearing so many different things, we dont know. Part of me feels like this is great, we cant get [coronavirus], but then Im hearing I can and thats its no guarantee, so Im basically treating myself the same way I was [before], she said of the precautions she and her husband are still taking today that they had taken when he was still sick --- from wearing a face mask, to avoiding crowded areas and socially distancing. New York State and New York City have been ramping up their antibody testing capability in recent weeks to understand how the virus has spread and infected New Yorkers. The testing is also a key factor in the governments reopening strategy. The state Health Department recently conducted random antibody testing across 19 counties over two days, which found that about 20% of New York City residents and 19% of Staten Islanders tested positive for antibodies to the virus. But people in the medical community have cautioned that even if the antibody test is effective, it should not be used to make critical public health decisions, as it remains unclear what level of immunity the antibodies offer. New York Citys Deputy Health Commissioner Dr. Demetre Daskalakis recently expressed skepticism around the serological testing, warning medical providers in a recent letter that antibody tests could produce false negatives. Despite the concerns, the city is moving forward with an antibody testing program of its own, with the goal of testing 280,000 New Yorkers for antibodies through June. ANTIBODY TESTS HAVE LIMITATION There are currently seven types of coronaviruses that can infect humans, which include SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. There is also MERS-CoV, better known as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, to SARS-CoV, also known as SARS. Dr. Nischay Mishra, an assistant professor at Columbia Universitys Center for Infection and Immunity, said most people have likely already been exposed to at least seven types of the coronavirus over the years, and that all of those coronaviruses antibodies have been found to live in humans anywhere between one to two years -- except for COVID-19. Because COVID-19 is such a new form of the virus, Dr. Mishra said researchers are still trying to figure out exactly how long its antibodies live in humans, a study that could take years to figure out because this form of the virus is so new. Until further research is complete, Mishra says there are no guarantees people are fully immune to the virus, even if they test positive for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. We dont know if testing is very accurate, second thing, we dont know if having antibodies means we are immune to the virus, and if we are, we do not know how long we have it, Mishra said. Mishra also said that the current COVID-19 tests on the market only test strictly for antibodies to the virus not neutralizing antibodies. Antibodies are proteins that help fight off infections and are a reaction against a virus, whereas neutralizing antibodies, are protective antibodies that protect against future infection to a virus. Mishra cautioned that governments should not base their reopen strategies solely on the number of citizens who test positive for COVID-19 antibodies. Even once New York City does reopen, Mishra said people with and without antibodies will still have to take the same precautions they are taking now. People who have antibodies and people who dont have antibodies they need to take a similar precaution and similar social distancing [measures] -- mask, gloves, hygiene techniques -- everything, because we dont know how many of those 20% have protective neutralizing antibodies and we dont know how long antibodies remain in your body for [COVID-19], he said. STILL TAKING PRECAUTIONS Mohamed Ibrahim of Huguenot tested positive for the virus last month and found out he had antibodies to COVID-19 last weekend. Though he is back at work as a financial advisor, he said he is still taking extra precautions because he doesnt know if hes immune to the virus just yet. I don't want to say Im immune, but I think Im safe for now at least, he said. Erica Caroccia, of Manor Heights, who tested positive for the virus last month and recently tested positive for antibodies to the virus, said she thinks people should be taking their positive antibody test results with a grain of salt. Im definitely still going to take precautions, I know this really doesn't prove I cant get it again, theres no guarantee, Caroccia, a radiologic technologist at a local Urgent Care, said. At the end of the day, Im still taking all the precautions I was before and I am being super careful, I just feel like if I do get it again, it won't be as bad as the first time, she continued. The city will open a free coronavirus antibody test site on Staten Island next week as part of an effort to test 140,000 New Yorkers free of cost at sites across the city by the end of June. Local officials have said the test site will be located at the former St. John Villa Academy campus. Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city will use the information of the antibody testing to decide how to move its coronavirus response forward and could determine when New Yorkers return to work. Even with the imperfections of antibody testing, were going to use that information, de Blasio told reporters at a press conference Wednesday. Its going to contribute to what we do in terms of testing, tracing, isolating, quarantining, making decisions about how individuals can engage their workplace or not. FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER. *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK *** BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 10 By Ilhama Isabalayeva Trend: The rate of infection (COVID-19) penetrated from abroad reaches 9.1 percent in Azerbaijan, Chairman of the Management Union of Medical Territorial Unit (TABIB) Ramin Bayramli said. Bayramli made the remark at a briefing of the Operational Headquarters under the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers, Trend reports. The infection rate in Baku reached 47.5 percent, in the Ganja-Gazakh region - 13.6 percent, in the Aran region - 10.2 percent, in Lankaran - 9.4 percent, the chairman added. "The rate of infection penetrated from abroad gives reason to say that the citizens who arrived from abroad must be placed in the quarantine zones." 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But as the coronavirus crisis settles in, studentsmany of whom take out huge loans to finance their degreesare wondering how to justify spending $70,000 a year on.... Zoom classes. They feel like they're getting the raw end of the deal, and are demanding that their colleges be held to account. "We're paying for other services that the campus offers that aren't digitized," says Dhrumil Shah, who is doing a Master's degree in public health at George Washington University. The 24-year-old relied in part on loans to pay for his two-year program in the US capital. In a few days, he will earn his diploma, but there will be no traditional graduation ceremony. Shah has signed one of several petitions demanding some kind of reimbursement from the school. "I think the quality of service has decreased," Shah, a native of Chicago, told AFP. He complains that the shift to distance learning due to stay-at-home orders in effect in Washington to curb the spread of the deadly virus has resulted in a loss of structure and supervision. George Washington University is one of several top-flight colleges in the US capital "It sets up the person going through that experience for failure," he says, admitting he's become "drastically" unproductive without the accountability of in-person classes. Shah is not alone. Many students have lamented that their quintessential American college experience has been lostno sunny afternoons on college quads playing frisbee, no classes in high-tech labs, no crazy nights out. Molly Riddick also signed a petition demanding that her school, New York University, make some kind of gesture to compensate its students. "No matter how much NYU insists to the contrary, it is simply not possible to provide a full performing arts education via Zoom," she said in a comment on change.org. Some students have taken their grievances to court. In one complaint seen by AFP, Adelaide Dixon accuses the University of Miami of awarding her a diploma with a "diminished" value because of the nature of online and pass/fail courses. She has sued the school for several million dollars, on behalf of about 100 students. At least 50 US colleges and universities have been sued by students on similar grounds. Two people wearing masks walk on the campus of Georgetown University in Washington What happens in the fall? Universities have generally remained mum in public about court action. But those who have spoken out insist they are caught in a difficult and unprecedented situation sparked by the pandemic. While some have partially reimbursed students for room and board, given that many left campuses in mid-March, none have gone so far as to refund any tuition for the spring semester. And the problems could get worse. What happens in the late summer or early fall when classes would usually resume? Will 20 million students return to American campuses? In university circles, debate is raging. "I hope I'll be able to go back," says 19-year-old Ashwath Narayanan, who attends George Washington University. He says school officials promised to give him better guidance in the next 10 days, but admitted: "I'm preparing mentally to not go back." While schools like Georgetown University have sizeable endowments, smaller colleges could face financial ruin if enrollments drop because of the coronavirus crisis It is somewhat hard to imagine how campus life could return to anything resembling normal, as if the virus crisis did not happen. "Dorms and cafeterias would have to be treated like grocery stores right now," with social distancing in effect and plenty of hand sanitizer, says Shah. Pamella Oliver, the provost and vice president of academic affairs at California State University, Fullerton, told a virtual town hall: "We are assuming that in the fall, we will be virtual." But for many schools, offering a virtual future means added pressure from students and their parents, who often are footing the bill, especially given the dire economic situation in the US. "Many students and families will be earning less, and will have less available to spend on postsecondary education," Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education, said in a letter to Congress. Mitchell predicts that enrollment for the next academic year will drop by 15 percentwhich translates into a revenue loss of $23 billion for the schools. The stakes are high. While the nation's top universities like Harvard, Yale and Stanford have huge endowments and the ability to borrow at will, smaller schools could face bankruptcy if enrollment slips. Explore further Unimpressed by online classes, college students seek refunds 2020 AFP Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 10:51:38|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close People wait in line to enter a store in Vienna, Austria, on May 9, 2020. Austria has gradually eased its restrictions after a nearly two-month lockdown to fight the coronavirus. So far, all shop have reopened with the measures that keeping a safe distance, wearing masks and so on while shopping. (Photo by Georges Schneider/Xinhua) A man starved his dog so severely that it was forced to eat rocks in a bid to survive but the pet passed away after desperate bids to save him after he was rescued. Police in Ohio found the two-year-old Doberman pinscher who went by the name Lou - with severe open wounds when they responded to a request for a welfare check after nobody inside the home was contactable in April 2019. It was clear the puppy had been deprived of food and water by owner David Neanover, 36. The dog was taken to the Animal Friends Humane Society Shelter which discovered he had ulcers on his tongue, part of which was missing, making it difficult for him to eat. Lou's owner left him to starve and fend for himself before he eventually died a year ago Police responded to the home of David Neanover, 36, after calls of concern then found his two-year-old Doberman pinscher An X-ray showed that the dog had eaten rocks as last resort as he fought to survive the abuse The dog was at least 20 pounds underweight and his ribcage appeared through its skin. He had a staph infection and the shelter said in a Facebook post that the dog had been 'deprived food for quite some time' and lived on a short chain. Images of the pet showed horrific injuries and X-rays revealed Lou had rocks in his digestive system. 'No normal human being could look at this dog and think this is acceptable,' Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said at the time. 'The pictures are hard to view. It's much worse in person. Animal Friends will do everything they can to save this poor animal but the current condition is very bad. I am thankful that this was reported. I just hope he can be saved and adopted to someone who cares.' The dog was treated for five days at the shelter but died soon a few days later. Protests took place for the Reily Township man to be punished after a grand jury declined to charge him with felony animal cruelty, in favor of first-degree misdemeanors last year. One sign outside the courthouse, captured by WKRC read: 'Send him to jail and withhold his food.' Neanover's attorney argued that a medical condition caused the dog's death not the starvation. Police found the dog chained up and emaciated last April when responding to calls of concern The dog was 20lbs underweight, had a staph infection, part of The puppy was transported to an animal shelter and was treated for five days but he died a few days later People from as far as Florida wrote letters asking for Neanover to receive the maximum punishment. 'I am asking for the full extent of the law,' someone who knew Neanover wrote to a judge, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. 'To let a sweet, innocent soul live in filth, no food or water, no love or kind treatment. '[Neanover] even named him Lucifer when in actuality, this person should be called that.' Neanover pleaded no contest two days before his trial was due to begin in March and he was convicted shortly after. The letter writer whose name was blacked out in court records added: 'If I was a judge, these people who abuse animals would get to experience what they did to animals. Animals are just baby souls in different bodies.' Neanover was sentenced to 180 days in jail on Thursday for one of the cruelty counts. For the other he received 90 days in jail to be served concurrently. Neanover was also charged with one count of domestic violence to which he pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to 180 days to be served at the same time as the other sentences. By Douglas Busvine BERLIN (Reuters) - New coronavirus infections are accelerating again in Germany just days after its leaders loosened social restrictions, raising concerns that the pandemic could once again slip out of control. The Robert Koch Institute for disease control said in a daily bulletin the number of people each sick person now infects - known as the reproduction rate, or R - had risen to 1.1. When it goes above 1, it means the number of infections is growing. Chancellor Angela Merkel, bowing to pressure from leaders of Germany's 16 federal states to restart social life and revive the economy, announced on Wednesday measures that included more shop openings and a gradual return to school. At the same time, she launched an "emergency brake" to allow for the reimposition of restrictions if infections pick up again. Karl Lauterbach, a Social Democrat lawmaker and professor of epidemiology, warned that the new coronavirus could start spreading again quickly after seeing large crowds out and about on Saturday in his home city of Cologne. "It has to be expected that the R rate will go over 1 and we will return to exponential growth," Lauterbach said in a tweet. "The loosening measures were far too poorly prepared." The Robert Koch Institute said on Sunday the confirmed number of new coronavirus cases had increased by a daily 667 to 169,218, while the daily death toll had risen by 26 to 7,395. CLOSE MONITORING "It is too early to infer whether the number of new infections will continue to decrease as in the past weeks or increase again," the institute said in a separate daily bulletin issued on Saturday evening. It cautioned that the R figure was subject to statistical uncertainty, adding: "The increase of the reproduction number R necessitates a close monitoring of the situation." Germany has the sixth-largest COVID-19 caseload in Europe but has managed to contain fatalities from the highly infectious respiratory disease thanks to widespread and early testing and a healthcare system that is well-run and well-funded. Story continues The latest phase of its pandemic management has, say critics, placed too much burden on local authorities to detect and respond to new outbreaks. A threshold set at 50 cases per 100,000 people for reimposing distancing measures is also seen by some epidemiologists as too high. This level has already been triggered in two districts in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig Holstein, where COVID-19 has broken out among workers at meat processing plants. The plant in North Rhine-Westphalia was closed on Friday after more than 150 of its 1,200 workers tested positive. Many are migrants from eastern Europe hired by subcontractors and housed in shared quarters that are a potential infection hotbed. (Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Gareth Jones) Photo: Adrian Lam/Times Colonist Island Health's COVID-19 testing site on the corner of Pembroke and Cook streets. It started on Wednesday evening. I noticed my throat was a little sore, so I popped a Tylenol. Under normal circumstances, I wouldnt have given this sore throat a second thought. But these are not normal circumstances. I was a little worried. On Thursday morning, my throat was worse and my brain went directly to COVID-19. This cant be happening, I thought. I googled causes for a sore throat. I asked Siri to turn on the flashlight so I could see the back of my throat. Definitely red. But other than that, I felt fine. No other symptoms. I didnt know what to do. I worried about passing the virus on to my family. I felt guilty that maybe I hadnt been careful enough. I worried that I might have infected some people I work with or people Id interviewed in person. But I felt a responsibility to my family to try and figure out what was going on. I didnt want anyone to get sick because of me. I called 811, B.C.s provincial health information and advice phone line, operated by HealthLink BC. I told the health navigator on the phone I had a sore throat and wasnt sure if I should get tested. We established that because I am a newspaper reporter, I am an essential service worker. She put me through to a registered nurse. The nurse told me to immediately self-isolate for 10 days, to keep two metres away from my family and to wear a mask when I was in the same room as them. I was to use my own bathroom, towels, utensils and bedding. I was not to leave home, except to get tested. And then I would wear a mask, go directly to the testing centre and drive home, masked. If the test came back negative, I was free to go out again. The nurse gave me the phone number of the testing centre and told me to call for an appointment at the drive-through location. Waiting time on the line to make the appointment was 65 minutes. My appointment was scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Friday. This really was happening. By Friday morning, however, I felt better. The sore throat had disappeared, but just to be on the safe side, I went through with the test. When I drove up to the drive-through COVID-19 testing location on Cook Street, a nurse walked up to the car in full protective gear mask, gloves, gown, protective shield and cap. She checked my name, address and date of birth, and told me she would insert a swab in my nose and count backward from 10. Your eyes will water and it will sting, but you concentrate on relaxing and wiggle your toes, she said. I reclined my seat a little, tilted my head back and lowered my mask. She inserted the long, thin, nasopharyngeal swab in my left nostril. 10-9-8-7 Hey this wasnt so bad. 6- 5 . Ooh, a sudden sting filled my eyes with tears. I wiggled my toes. 4-3-2-1. And it was over. I had survived the test. I pulled up my mask and drove home to wait for the results. When I told people I had been tested, everyone asked if it hurt. I, too, had seen all images on the news of people flinching in their cars as the swab went in. Id read an account by a paramedic, who said getting tested was like having a Q-tip swirled around in her brain. Did it hurt? Just a little. But getting tested was quick and easy. Everyone I dealt with was friendly, professional and calm. Less than 24 hours later, a text came in from the BC Centre for Disease Control. COVID-19 test results for Louise D are negative. As with the vast majority of those tested in B.C. out of 96,517 total tests as of Monday, there have been 2,224 confirmed cases my test had come back negative. Testing negative has given me a break from the stress many of us are feeling about the pandemic. Now, when Im out for a stroll and runners and walkers negotiate social distancing, I feel like shouting out: Hey dont worry. Im negative. I know Im not immune, however. Ill continue to be cautious and, in the words of provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, calm, kind and safe. Louise Dickson is a reporter for the Times Colonist in Victoria, B.C. The test, track and trace programme to tame coronavirus and release the lockdown will be a car crash as currently designed, a leader in disease control has warned in a blistering attack on the government. Ministers are recruiting low-skilled private staff to carry out complex work and ignoring vital local experts, while relying on an unproven smartphone app, insisted a director of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH). Speaking to The Independent, Gary McFarlane revealed the government had shunned an offer from CIEH to help train the planned 18,000 contact tracers, turning instead to Serco and other outsourcing giants. Staff from the private firm will provide the bulk of 15,000 call handlers, while only a small number of local council environmental health workers already skilled in tracing victims after outbreaks of salmonella and Legionnaires disease will be used. Mr McFarlane condemned the centralised command-and-control as being doomed to fail, warning: We must absolutely have local intelligence on the ground. He explained that only local recruits would know whether possible Covid-19 cases were being traced back to buildings with tightly-packed flats, for example, and have the investigative skills to carry out enquiries. There are going to be people involved in these conversations who will have been places where they shouldnt have been, during the lockdown, potentially with people they shouldnt have been with, Mr McFarlane said. Getting the correct accurate information from people will require certain skills. It is not just a matter of a call handler having a script of questions to follow. You have to be able to discern whether someone is telling you the truth and to elicit the information that you need while, at the same time, assuring them that it is confidential and in the national interest, its about saving lives. 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 He added: Im concerned that, if the system is not well designed with a very clear purpose identified at the outset, it could be a car crash. Until we have a properly robust process of closing this infection down when it raises its head again, we run the risk of ending up in the same position as when we imposed the lockdown if not worse. Mr McFarlane also questioned the likely effectiveness of the app, amid warnings it needs a 60 per cent take-up to be effective. There seems to be an over-reliance on it, he said. The app will notify users who may have come into contact with someone who has Covid-19 but there are fears that people will be deterred by privacy fears and their phone batteries draining. Parliaments human rights committee has said it must not be introduced without stronger legal protections, warning it requires unprecedented data gathering. The criticisms come after the head of NHS Providers, the body responsible for hospital and ambulance trusts, warned they too were in the dark about test, track and trace, which is meant to be up and running by the middle of this month. None of them know at this point what theyre meant to be doing in terms of that process, Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, said recently. If we want to mobilise for the NHS to deliver that test, track and trace approach, we need to know really very quickly what our organisations and the NHS are required to do. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has declined to answer The Independents questions about the talks underway with Serco and, it is believed, other contractors such as G4S. Their staff are expected to be given only about one days training in the principles of contact tracing. Mr McFarlane said his organisations members will only form part of just 3,000 higher-skilled staff to contact the first link in the chain while the 15,000 call handlers try to trace everyone else. And, despite long experience and the ability to train 1,000 people at a time, the institute was not being used. The government are giving all of this work to the private sector, he added. Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has already admitted it has not yet been decided whether everyone traced through the programme will be given a test or even required to isolate themselves. In South Korea, which pioneered the tactics, anyone who has had contact with a Covid-19 patient is themselves tested and, if necessary, told to go into quarantine. Critics have questioned why Mr Hancock has described his policy as test, track and trace, rather than test, trace and isolate, as in Scotland. A DHSC spokesperson said: We are working at pace to recruit 18,000 staff to support enhanced contact tracing, and all staff will receive training and support appropriate for the role they are given. The NHS Covid-19 app is a key part of our wider strategy to keep people safe. Testing has shown the NHS app works, and the public can be confident in its use. As the stock market experiences a collective shudder in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, investors are actively seeking out new opportunities for healthy long-term gains and higher upside potential. Start-up investing is not a new phenomenon in the financial world, but one sector, in particular, has seen a veritable boom in investors since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. While many industries plummeted in the first quarter of the year, digital health companies closed the first quarter of 2020 with unprecedented levels of funding. Private equity and venture capital financing of digital health start-ups reached an all-time high of just over $3 billion in Q1 2020. One leading sector of the digital health space, telemedicine companies, generated three times the amount of financing they received in Q1 2019, raising $788 million in venture capital backing, compared to $220 million in the first quarter of 2019. Start-ups in the mental health arena also saw landmark levels of funding in Q1 2020, reaching an astounding total of $576 million. Rock Health is a venture capital fund dedicated to digital health start-ups. The firm recently released a report examining the digital health sector's record Q1 and the anticipated market impact of the COVID-19 pandemic later in 2020: Though a broad pullback in venture investing was likely under way at the start of 2020, US digital health companies nonetheless raised a whopping $3.1B across 107 dealsmore than 1.5X the total funding in Q1 of any previous year...This caps off the largest ever twelve-month funding period (TTM) for digital health, with $9.3B invested across Q2 2019-Q1 2020...The size and speed of the public markets' sell-off has been breathtaking. Private markets will likely not experience as dramatic of a downturn because private equity, of which venture capital is a subset, comes from capital committed by limited partners. On that note, here are three top digital health start-ups to watch in the months to come. 1. Zocdoc Founded in 2007, Zocdoc is a medical appointment booking service that helps millions of patients find healthcare providers each month through a vast online marketplace. Patients can find doctors in their network in a matter of clicks, read provider reviews, schedule appointments, and fill out paperwork in advance through the Zocdoc portal. With the advent of COVID-19, Zocdoc stepped up to the plate with new virtual appointments as an increasing number of patients seek telehealth solutions amid the pandemic. These patients will probably continue to rely on telehealth more than before when the current crisis has subsided. Telehealth has experienced broad political tailwinds that should keep spurring the niche forward by solidifying its place in society and widening adoption. Zocdoc currently has nearly $226 million of total funding and its backers include Goldman Sachs, Bezos Expeditions, and Marc Benioff (founder of salesforce.com and angel investor.) While Zocdoc has not yet announced any formal plans to go public, with the company being in late-stage Series D funding, rumors have been swirling for some time that the company may be one in a long line of health start-ups to go the initial public offering (IPO) route before long. 2. Talkspace Talkspace is a New York-based virtual behavioral health start-up that connects individuals with licensed mental health professionals to create a more comfortable and convenient therapy space. Users start by taking an assessment and picking a payment plan. Talkspace then matches them with the best therapist for their specific needs. Individuals can use webchat to contact their therapist, or set up a video conference. Talkspace also provides couples counseling and prescription fulfillment, among a range of other services. Thus far, Talkspace has received $109 million worth of funding from notable venture capitalists. The company's backers include Norwest Venture Partners, a well-known venture and growth equity firm that manages nearly $10 billion in capital based in Palo Alto, Calif; Compound, a seed-fund based out of New York City; and Qumra Capital, a leading Israeli late-stage venture capital group. There's been chatter of Talkspace considering an IPO for some time. The company's 2018 hire of former UnitedHealth Senior Medical Director Neil Lebowitz as its first chief medical officer further fueled speculation of Talkspace's wider effort to expand its enterprise sector and potentially pursue an IPO. As things stand now, there is no set target date for the company to go public. Bear in mind, across most sectors, the coronavirus pandemic has largely been projected to delay IPOs in 2020. 3. Headspace Headspace is a start-up headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif. that operates a leading mindfulness and meditation app intended to help people enjoy better sleep and reduce anxiety. The mental health start-up has roughly $170 million of funding behind it. Its latest Series C round of funding closed in February, raising $93 million, comprised of $53 million in equity backing, with the remaining $40 million in debt capital. Driving the Series C round of funding were new investors Waverly Capital and Times Bridge (of the Times Group of India), along with longtime investors like Spectrum Equity and Advancit Capital. Headspace is a late-stage venture, and now that the start-up has successfully gone through three rounds of funding, the company may be gearing up for an IPO. Many companies conclude outside funding after Series C. As it stands now, the company could be well-positioned to use its most recent round of funding to increase its valuation in preparation for its public market debut. Digital health start-ups are a bright spot in the storm As the pandemic has had a detrimental effect on the physical and mental health of global populations, start-ups in the digital space have continued to narrow the gap between patients and medical professionals by offering affordable, accessible behavioral and healthcare solutions. These services were relevant before the pandemic, but are needed now more than ever. This creates an opportunity for early investors like never before. Rock Health surveyed an array of investors from various firms for its report. One investor surveyed was the Managing Partner of French venture capital firm Seventure, Isabelle de Cremoux, who noted "Our physical processes have forcibly changed but our activity has not -- we are continuing to pursue investments in digital health, microbiome, biotech, and nutrition. In digital health, we see an urgency for investment as the current upheaval calls for an accelerated adoption, evolution, and creation of digital health solutions." Health start-ups look singularly poised to weather the coronavirus storm. And while there is certainly no quick fix for the public or private financial markets grappling with COVID-19, digital health continues to present an increasingly attractive investment opportunity in these ever-changing times. You could see many of them make their way to public markets over the next few years, so keep an eye on these three stars in the digital health space. Dr Chris Brown has paid a loving tribute to his mother who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease. On Mother's Day, the former Bondi Vet, 41, spoke about her 'selflessness' and 'sacrifice' while raising three boys on Instagram. '[I think that] mixed with a serious scrabble addiction shaped who I am today,' he wrote, clearly cherishing her. 'You shaped who I am': Dr Chris Brown, 41, has shared a loving tribute to his mother as he revealed her heartbreaking battle with Alzheimer's disease on Instagram on Sunday He spoke affectionately of how she dealt with many hair-raising situations while raising three boys, facing the usual difficulties. 'Its fair to say she gave up more than her fair share of time, social life and sleep,' he wrote, adding he was one of the boys making her 'lose sleep'. 'You can guarantee I was always on the lookout for lighter moments where mum's creative solutions to complex problems gave us a laugh.' Cherished memories: Chris also shared a throwback shot alongside his mother, while he was tending to cows during his childhood. Here in the 1980s The handsome TV star then disclosed his beloved mother was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, meaning those memories were now even more important. 'Given her current battle with Alzheimer's [disease], those memories are something we're even more appreciative of...' He finished: 'Thank you to all the mum's out there still making immense sacrifices in these remarkable times.' Special: 'Given her current battle with Alzheimer's [disease], those memories are something we're even more appreciative of...' the handsome vet said. Here: Logie Awards, 2018 Elsewhere, Chris penned his thoughts in Stellar magazine and how he has been impacted with the current social distancing restrictions. It's impossibly hard to be so physically distant from someone for whom touch is one of a few remaining communication tools,' he wrote. 'But like many others, my mother is a remarkable woman still making immense sacrifices.' Close:'It's impossibly hard to be so physically distant from someone for whom touch is one of a few remaining communication tools,' Chris wrote in Stellar magazine this weekend Chris grew up in Merewether Heights, Newcastle, where his father was the local veterinarian. He then studied at the University of Sydney, graduating in 2001. 'There's no doubt I owe an immense amount to Mum,' he finished. 'And maybe I won't truly appreciate how much I'm in her debt until I have kids of my own.' A sheriff's deputy in North Carolina is facing criminal charges after authorities say he led a group of armed people to wrong home in a search for a missing girl. New Hanover County District Attorney Ben David said Friday that Jordan Kita, who worked in the Pender County Sheriff's Office, will be charged with trespassing and breaking and entering. The all-white group tried unsuccessfully to force its way into the home of Shepard, who is black. Kita was looking for Lekayda Kempisty, a 15-year-old girl who was reported missing earlier that day. She was later found safe. Kita's group was actually looking for someone named Josiah who used to live next door in its effort to find Lekayda, according to a lawyer for Shepard's family, who is preparing a civil lawsuit. Shepard told news outlets that he repeatedly tried to point out to the group that they had the wrong house and that a yard sign out front explicitly congratulated Dameon on his high school graduation, to no avail. David said there was believed to be some sort of familial relationship between Kita and the girl. Pender County Sheriff Alan Cutler said Kita has been fired. The second man in Kita's group is also facing a criminal charge for going armed to the terror of the public. (Image Credit Pixabay)(Representative Image) New Delhi: Indian Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane on Sunday (May 10, 2020) informed that his force plans to introduce the Integrated Battle Groups (IBG) along the borders with China and Pakistan for swift strikes in case of a war situation. Speaking to news agency PTI, the General stated that a "test-bedding" for the same had been completed but the rollout has been delayed for the foreseeable future due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. "The roll-out of the IBGs has been delayed due to the outbreak of the pandemic and the need to divert critical resources towards containment efforts," the Army Chief told PTI. "However, I can assure you that we will roll out the IBGs in the requisite time frame as the conceptual groundwork has already been laid out and extensive test-bedding had already been carried out prior to the outbreak," he said. An IBG is a mix of infantry, artillery, air defence, tanks and logistics units, as part of bringing a change in warfighting capability. Each IBG will be modelled on the specific operational requirement in which the topography of the land will be taken into consideration and the threat perceptions as well. There will be at least 5,000 troops in each IBG headed by a Major General. Though, he noted that there could be some disruptions in defence production and procurement due to the COVID-19 pandemic but calls it a temporary phase. The indigenous manufacturing will be impacted, he said, its magnitude will be much lower. In October 2019, ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to India, the Indian Army had carried out the "Him Vijay" exercise in Arunachal Pradesh primarily to test these IBGs and check its effectiveness in combat situations in mountainous terrains. All the IBGs will be theatre-specific which means that a unit deployed in the deserts of Rajasthan will have equipment and forces trained for desert warfare while those deployed in the mountains will be suitably equipped and trained. Poland's top electoral body gave the speaker of parliament 14 days to set a new date for presidential elections that were to have been held Sunday but were suspended amid debate over how voting could be done during the novel coronavirus pandemic. The election must be held within 60 days of this announcement, or by late July, according to the resolution by the State Electoral Commission. The conservative government had proposed an all-postal vote, but criticism of the plan and infighting complicated preparations and led to the postponement announced late Wednesday. It was the first time in almost 31 years of Polish democracy that voting in line with the constitution, scheduled for Sunday, did not take place. The speaker of parliament now has two weeks to announce a new date. In explaining the resolution, the head of the commission, Sylwester Marciniak, expressed hope for a breakthrough that would allow for presidential elections that will be fully democratic, transparent and fair. The term of President Andrzej Duda expires Aug. 6, and Poland cannot afford not to have an elected president after that date, Marciniak said. The electoral process has to be restarted and the candidates need to be registered again, he said. He said the postponement of Sunday's vote could be blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic and on the legislative process. Earlier Sunday, in excerpts from an interview with a weekly newspaper, main ruling Law and Justice party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said Poland was changing for the better under the coalition government led by his party and two smaller parties. At the same time, Kaczynski said it was no secret the coalition was divided. The three-party governing coalition has quite a radical wing and a very moderate one, too. Friction between them is nothing new, I think, said Kaczynski, who is Poland's chief policymaker. Poland's Niezalezna.pl portal on Sunday quoted from the interview set to be published Wednesday by weekly newspaper Gazeta Polska. One of the junior parties in the coalition wanted the election delayed and warned last week that it would vote against the legislation authorizing the postal vote. Under pressure, the ruling coalition said Wednesday the election would be declared void and new date set. Duda is seeking reelection, with the support from Law and Justice. He leads opinion polls ahead of nine other candidates. Leaders of the ruling coalition held at least one emergency meeting over the weekend, but a new date for the election has not been announced. Left-wing leaders have called on all opposition parties to meet Wednesday to discuss options for holding the election. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Shes the type of mother who puts a Roomba on her Christmas wish list. And her York County household was fully stocked with Lysol spray and Clorox bleach long before the coronavirus struck. The mother of five children, ranging in age from 5 to 23, just cant help it. She was raised a clean freak by a neatnick Navy dad and a mother who kept house for the guy upstairs God, himself, cleaning a local church for a living. In other words, cleanliness is next to godliness isnt a mere motto for Kelly Blouse, 40. Shes lived it. Now wonder Blouse has taken her life-long war on germs and ongoing assault on dirt to the frontlines of the battle against COVID-19. She does so as the lead housekeeper at UPMC Hanover, where she oversees some 20 environmental services workers in taking all those hospital-strength cleaners and disinfectants right to the coronavirus. Blouse was born to clean. This Mothers Day will find her, not resting while her fiance and five children fete her with breakfast in bed or whip up dinner with all the trimmings -- but rather waging an ongoing war on the virus by working the weekend at the hospital. When Blouse re-entered the workforce about five years ago after having had her hands full running a bustling household, the hospital was a natural fit. I have always liked cleaning, so what better place to work than a hospital? she said. They are places where cleaning counts and nasty germs are always trying to gain a foothold. For Blouse, its an invigorating challenge. Shes thrived, rising through the ranks to lead her 20-member team of hospital housekeepers. When the coronavirus hit, both UPMC Pinnacle and Blouse took their hospital cleaning protocols up a number of notches. These days, the housekeeping staff make constant rounds wiping down high-touch hospital areas, even as visitors have been sharply curtailed. Theres not a doorknob, elevator button, telephone, handrail, light switch, ATM, table, chair, nurse station, work station or mobile computer in the entire hospital that goes unsprayed or un-wiped for long. We are all going above and beyond, Blouse said. When a COVID-19 patient leaves, it requires an even higher level of cleaning along with a protection-first mindset among those tasked with eradicating every last, lingering coronavirus molecule. Cross-contamination from COVID-19 is the enemy, explained Matt Bothwell, manager of food and housekeeping for all of UPMC Pinnacles seven hospital facilities. To prevent this, his environmental services staff teams up in pairs when entering coronavirus patient rooms to perform what he called a thorough cleaning and inspection. Cleanliness is next to godliness isnt a mere motto for Kelly Blouse, mother of 5 and lead housekeeper at UPMC Hanover. The staff doubles up to sanitize these rooms doubly well. They do so totally protected with PPE and fully armed with hospital-strength cleaning agents and top-to-bottom wipe-down protocols. I see a permanent change in the way we clean and sanitize our health system, said Bothwell, who huddles with staff daily to impart all the latest coronavirus cleaning updates, reminders and protocols. Virtually everything in a coronavirus room is disinfected, with the housekeeping staff waiting a full 90 minutes after the patient leaves before entering and beginning their deep clean. Blouse, whos always felt power over germs and dominance over dirt, admits even shes a little intimidated upon entering a room infected by the highly contagious COVID-19 virus. Shes masked, gloved and dressed in a disposable gown for protection. But just as she was taught as a little girl, the microscopic bugs biggest advantage is their invisibility. She knows COVID-19 could be anywhere and everywhere in those seemingly vacant hospital rooms. We are doing everything possible to stay safe, Blouse said. Im definitely more cautious now. We all are. The precautions dont stop at the hospital for Blouse. To protect her spotless home and her healthy children from the coronavirus, Blouse has adopted a cleaning protocol of her own upon returning from her hospital shifts. I take my shoes off at the door, she recounted. My clothes go immediately in the washing machine. I wipe down anything I touch, then go straight to the shower. Blouse says she accepts her image as a hard-charging cleaner with Clorox in her veins as a badge of honor and with a wealth of pride. She sure isnt kidding around with COVID-19 -- especially with the health of her three children living at home in the balance. When she wipes things down during her back-from-the-hospital cleaning rituals, she does so with bleach straight out of the bottle. No diluted mixtures for this super-sanitizer who loves the smell of Clorox in the morning as well as in the afternoon, evening and night. I like the smell, Blouse said of bleach. To me, the smell means clean. I was raised on it. Now, so are her children. Amid the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown, she has them at home all the time now. But instead of creating a mess, the children are helping out with the household chores, as mom must work keeping the hospital coronavirus-free. While theres a nationwide shortage of Lysol and other disinfectants, the Blouse household is fully stocked. Thus, theres no excuses for the kids failing to measure up to their mothers exacting standards. They know to make sure everything stays sterile, Blouse said of her children. On the other hand, home-schooling has been a little difficult for Blouse, who unofficially majored in home economics in high school. She can be a bit overprotective when it comes to COVID-19, too, limiting the kids time spent outdoors and insisting they don masks everywhere they go. They are constantly hearing me tell them to wash their hands. They think Im overly protective, definitely, Blouse said. I do try to tell them, were not only protecting ourselves by wearing the masks, were trying to protect others. There was never such a thing as too clean for Blouse. Amid COVID-19, shes taken this to new extremes. It does feel different, she said of this new normal where her cleaning skills have become survival instincts. Its a little bit scary. Im trying to keep myself safe, and when I go home to my family, I want to keep them safe, she added. While her kids might complain a bit, they also recognize a mothers love -- and the all-out protection of a Lysol-spraying lioness. So while Blouses weekend shift at the hospital will intrude upon Mothers Day weekend, her fiance, Andy Leese, and her children served up a special seafood dinner on Friday -- a gesture of thanks for their cleaner-in-chief. After all, Blouse isnt just a mom these days. Shes a disinfectant-wielding, super-scrubbing hero of the coronavirus. Dillard University and Xavier University folks are cheering, and with good reason. Dillard alum Jericho Brown is the 2020 winner of the Pulitzer Prize in poetry and Xavier honorary doctorate Nikole Hannah-Jones is the 2020 winner of the Pulitzer Prize in commentary. Those are good reasons for any university to cheer. As if that wasnt enough, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, an investigative journalist, educator and civil rights activist was honored with a special journalism citation by the Pulitzer Prizes. With Brown, Hannah-Jones, Wells and some others, its a #PulitzersSoBlack moment. Five years ago, April Reign coined the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite while watching the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominations, without a person of color included in any lead or supporting actor categories. Thats whats special about this years Pulitzer winners. There are a host of black winners. There wasnt just one. Shreveport native Brown, Emory Universitys Winship Distinguished Research Professor in Creative Writing, won for The Tradition, a collection of poems the Pulitzer board called a collection of masterful lyrics that combine delicacy with historical urgency in their loving evocation of bodies vulnerable to hostility and violence. Dillards Mona Lisa Saloy, an English professor and folklorist, was quoted as saying Brown was focused on pre-law but she saw something different. Indeed, he had that something, and I urged him to consider that perhaps he was sent here for something more than the law, that there was a fine writer buried inside of him, just waiting to be released. Hannah-Jones won for her opening salvo with The New York Times Magazines 1619 project, a significantly researched report challenging the centuries-old notion that America was strictly founded in 1776 on the basis of pursuing freedom when, in reality, our nation started enslaving Africans in Virginia based on white supremacy. Xavierites know her as Dr. Hannah-Jones. In 2018, she was awarded an honorary degree, the same day Xavier awarded one to President Emeritus Dr. Norman C. Francis. David W. Robinson-Morris, founding director of The Center for Equity, Justice, and the Human Spirit at Xavier, said the Xavier community is immensely proud of Hannah-Jones, who visits the campus regularly. This black Pulitzer thing may not seem like a big deal to some. For black journalists like me, this is huge. Having the Pulitzer Prizes recognize Wells any year would be a big deal. Recognizing Wells as several African Americans are being recognized makes a powerful statement. Dana Canedy, the administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, told me the Wells honor had a unanimous board vote. Though the board met virtually for the first time because of social distancing during these novel coronavirus times, you could feel the warmth and the pride among the board members when that happened, and everybody started clapping. She would announce the special citation: I stand on Ida B. Wells shoulders. In addition to Pulitzer honors for Wells, Brown, who also a creative writing masters at the University of New Orleans, and Hannah-Jones, several other black folks won. Colson Whitehead won his second Pulitzer Prize for fiction, for "The Nickel Boys." Michael R. Jackson won a Pulitzer for drama for A Strange Loop, a musical about a black, gay theater musical writer writing about a black gay theater musical writer. Baltimore Sun Managing Editor Sam Davis led his staff to a Pulitzer for local reporting about a mayor that led to a fraud conviction. Darryl Fears, whom I met during a 1980s job fair at Howard University, was a part of a Washington Post team that won a Pulitzer for explanatory reporting about climate change. They even got a shout-out tweet from Barbra Streisand. Yes, that Barbra Streisand. How did this happen? Its no accident. Its no secret. A diverse board. A woman of color as the administrator. A diverse jury pool. Canedy, a Pulitzer Prize winner who was a senior editor at The Times, is proud, but resolute. Its progress, not success. As proud as I am of the diversity among the winners this year, I will not consider our work to be a success until this isnt a story. Cheers to progress. Lets aim for, and work toward, more. The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported there were 56,611 confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus in all 67 counties as of 12 p.m., May 10, 2020. There are at least 3,707 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 159 positive cases and 1,845 negative results with 5 deaths. Allegheny County 1,503 positive cases and 19,559 negative results with 122 deaths. Armstrong County 55 positive cases and 836 negative results with 4 deaths. Beaver County 491 positive cases and 2,495 negative results with 78 deaths. Bedford County 29 positive cases and 335 negative results with 1 death. Berks County 3,371 positive cases and 7,335 negative results with 170 deaths. Blair County 28 positive cases and 1,447 negative results. Bradford County 38 positive cases and 896 negative results with 2 deaths. Bucks County 3,966 positive cases and 11,216 negative results with 341 deaths. Butler County 195 positive cases and 2,737 negative results with 6 deaths. Cambria County 44 positive cases and 1,925 negative results with 1 death. Cameron County 2 positive cases and 79 negative results. Carbon County 198 positive cases and 1,354 negative results with 17 deaths. Centre County 119 positive cases and 1,248 negative results with 2 deaths. Chester County 1,865 positive cases and 6,920 negative results with 184 deaths. Clarion County 23 positive cases and 554 negative results with 1 death. Clearfield County 25 positive cases and 591 negative results. Clinton County 41 positive cases and 342 negative results. Columbia County 324 positive cases and 838 negative results with 28 deaths. Crawford County 20 positive cases and 751 negative results. Cumberland County 434 positive cases and 2,208 negative results with 33 deaths. Dauphin County 823 positive cases and 4,778 negative results with 36 deaths. Delaware County 4,976 positive cases and 11,950 negative results with 395 deaths. Elk County 5 positive cases and 214 negative results with 1 death. Erie County 124 positive cases and 2,609 negative results with 2 deaths. Fayette County 85 positive cases and 2,181 negative results with 4 deaths. Forest County 7 positive cases and 36 negative results. Franklin County 493 positive cases and 3,609 negative results with 12 deaths. Fulton County 8 positive cases and 133 negative results. Greene County 27 positive cases and 520 negative results with 1 death. Huntingdon County 181 positive cases and 463 negative results. Indiana County 76 positive cases and 885 negative results with 5 deaths. Jefferson County 7 positive cases and 377 negative results. Juniata County 93 positive cases and 208 negative results with 1 death. Lackawanna County 1,172 positive cases and 3,417 negative results with 117 deaths. Lancaster County 2,223 positive cases and 9,710 negative results with 166 deaths. The county is reporting 233 deaths as of 1 p.m. May 10. Those deaths are in the following municipalities Christiana: 12 deaths Columbia: 3 deaths East Cocalico Township: 3 deaths East Hempfield Township: 15 deaths East Lampeter Township: 1 death Ephrata Township: 1 death City of Lancaster: 5 deaths Lancaster Township: 101 deaths Lititz: 25 deaths Manheim Township: 44 deaths New Holland: 2 deaths Paradise Township: 1 death Penn Township: 4 deaths Providence Township: 1 death Rapho Township: 7 deaths Salisbury Township: 1 death Warwick Township: 2 deaths West Donegal Township: 2 deaths Three non-residents also passed away in Lancaster County. Lawrence County 70 positive cases and 903 negative results with 7 deaths. Lebanon County 811 positive cases and 3,183 negative results with 16 deaths. Lehigh County 3,241 positive cases and 8,950 negative results with 121 deaths. Luzerne County 2,416 positive cases and 6,444 negative results with 111 deaths. Lycoming County 131 positive cases and 1,411 negative results with 4 deaths. McKean County 6 positive cases and 233 negative results with 1 death. Mercer County 73 positive cases and 937 negative results with 2 deaths. Mifflin County 52 positive cases and 846 negative results. Monroe County 1,218 positive cases and 3,429 negative results with 64 deaths. Montgomery County 5,260 positive cases and 21,168 negative results with 525 deaths. Montour County 49 positive cases and 2,991 negative results. Northampton County 2,453 positive cases and 7,980 negative results with 158 deaths. Northumberland County 124 positive cases and 841 negative results. Perry County 35 positive cases and 361 negative results with 1 death. Philadelphia County 14,883 positive cases and 36,137 negative results with 857 deaths. Pike County 432 positive cases and 1,479 negative results with 21 deaths. Potter County 4 positive cases and 98 negative results. Schuylkill County 117 positive cases and 638 negative results with 5 deaths. Snyder County 33 positive cases and 266 negative results with 1 death. Somerset County 32 positive cases and 889 negative results with 1 death. Sullivan County 1 positive cases and 51 negative results. Susquehanna County 81 positive cases and 398 negative results with 13 deaths. Tioga County 16 positive cases and 342 negative results with 1 death. Union County 40 positive cases and 661 negative results with 1 death. Venango County 7 positive cases and 301 negative results. Warren County 1 positive cases and 211 negative results. Washington County 124 positive cases and 2,688 negative results with 4 deaths. Wayne County 117 positive cases and 638 negative results with 5 deaths. Westmoreland County 417 positive cases and 5,840 negative results with 30 deaths. Wyoming County 30 positive cases and 242 negative results with 2 deaths. York County 773 positive cases and 8,621 negative results with 13 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. Covid-19 is moving with speed in Liberia where the government has imposed restrictions to stop the further spread of the virus. The state of emergency led to closure of schools as well as limitations on movement. Like Ebola in 2014, there is no medicinal way to fight Covid-19 and the government has opted to use measures similar to the ones imposed to combat the Ebola outbreak in the country four years ago. However, social distancing is largely ignored even though health experts have stressed its effectiveness in arresting the spread of the the coronavirus. Wilhelmina Jallah, Liberia's health minister, has warned of serious consequences if the population does not heed the medical advice. Rules need to be enforced She says the rules on social distancing must be vigorously enforced to ensure the chain of transmission is reduced. Jallah's stark vision is shared by mother-of-six Beatrice Kollie. The 42-year-old, who lives in the slum community of West Point, supports her family by selling charcoal. She says an altogether different way of life will operate once Covid-19 has passed. People are now addicted to washing their hands regularly and wearing a face mask," she said. "It tells you that even after Covid-19 we will be compelled to continue wearing masks for a longer period." Kollie said fear of infection might lead to less sympathy towards those who have contracted the illness. Prior to Covid-19, we usually identified with our sick relatives by touching them. But now things have changed, we can no longer touch our sick relatives." John Gayflorzee, 32, said the hustle and bustle of street life would also be altered. Street life change The majority of the markets that were crowded have been demolished and redesigned to ensure decongestion," he said. "We will have to adjust ourselves to the changes." Internal affairs minister, Varney Sirleaf, has the task of co-ordinating those alterations for the plethora of markets in the country. But his role and that of his colleagues should be easier if the lessons learned from the Ebola outbreak are implemented. As that epidemic claimed thousands of lives throughout west Africa, officials in Liberia found that explaining the realities of the disease to local communities led to swifter acceptance of the necessary health measures. Tolbert Nyenswah, who as incident manager led Liberia's national Ebola response between 2014-2016, said: We also had a clearly defined chain of command and there was organisational structure." Speaking from the United States, he added: "What has to happen is: increase the number of tests in communities, locate sick people, isolate them and trace their contacts to stop secondary transmission of the disease." Nyenswah said he expected a change in lifestyles as people tried to prevent a future coronavirus outbreak. Education on guard The country's schools and colleges will be a testing ground for those new attitudes Mary W. Mulbah-Nyumah, who is the head of the National Teacher's Association of Liberia, says nurses should be deployed at various school's campuses. They would be the first person to treat an individual who might get sick during school hours. Hand washing, for instance, is now a part of our life," she said. "Parents are being urged to keep their sick children away from schools." However, Mulbah-Nyumah concedes there is a snag due to the limited number of teachers across the country. We may not be able to quarantine for 14 days but the nurse at the school will do a transfer to the hospital and based on recommendation from the hospital, we can decide what to do, she added. Overcrowded classes, she says, are likely to be at an end in the post Covid-19 era. Secret society suspended Traditional leaders have also adapted. They are working with officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and have suspended all traditional secret society or 'Bush School' activities for one year including the practice of FGM. Other customs and rituals involving groups of young people will also be curtailed in the drive to stop spread of Covid-19. Another effect of that cooperation will be more of an idea for the government as to the exact number of 'bush schools' in the country. That possibility might never have happened before the coronavirus swept through the world. In Liberia, even the traditional leaders are adapting to conform with the post Covid-19 era. New York reported the lowest number of new deaths from Covid-19 -- 207 -- since the end of March. Other indicators also began to show the virus outbreak nearing where it was at the start of what Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday called this hellish journey. He said he would release on Monday more details on how New York would begin to reopen -- and confirmed that some areas upstate would be ready to slowly open after the official lockdown ends on May 15. Cuomo gave no indication that New York City or the surrounding areas are anywhere near being able to reopen. He also reported another 12 cases, for a total of 85, of a newly-recognized, Covid-related illness that afflicts children and has killed three in New York. The condition is called pediatric multi-system inflammatory disease, and it can cause dangerous inflammation, including to the heart. This is every mothers nightmare, he told reporters in Albany on Mothers Day. Every parents nightmare. Nobody knew about it. Nobody was watching for it. Earlier on Sunday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also issued a warning about the illness, saying that 38 cases have been detected in the city and another nine are being investigated. One child has died, he said. He also said parents should be alert to symptoms including persistent fever, rash, abdominal pain and vomiting. Every parent out there, if you see these symptoms, take them seriously, de Blasio told reporters. If you see these symptoms, report them to their doctors immediately. I want to make sure everyone takes this seriously. Both the governor and the mayor talked about the use the drug remdesivir in New York. Cuomo said the drug will be used on 2,900 people at 15 hospitals and has shown some positive effect. De Blasio said the drug had cut hospital stays for patients taking it from 15 days to 11 days. The total number of new coronavirus cases in New York rose on Sunday 2,273, for a total of 335,395. The number of new deaths dropped from 226 the day before, the lowest since March 27, and marked the 10th straight day of new deaths at a plateau in the 200s. New and total hospitalizations, as well as intensive care cases, continued to drop. . SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Yantoultra Ngui (Bloomberg) Sun, May 10, 2020 15:10 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd70c954 2 SE Asia Malaysia,coronavirus,COVID-19,lockdown Free Malaysia will extend its relaxed lockdown by four weeks, allowing nearly all economic activities to continue while keeping its borders shut and schools closed. The government will allow limited interstate travel for families who are separated ahead of the Eid al-Fitr celebration, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in a televised address on Sunday. So, the next few weeks are quite critical for us, as they will show the result of the relaxed lockdown, he said. If theres a significant rise in cases during this time, the government will be forced to implement Enhanced Movement Control Order for the affected areas. Read also: AirAsia to resume flights from Surabaya to two major Malaysian cities Malaysia allowed almost all sectors to reopen starting May 4 in a bid to revive the economy following the two months-long lockdown that was previously set to end May 12. The move was met with some backlash as states delayed easing their restrictions due to lack of preparation while companies struggled to get all their workers tested before resuming work. While the spread of the new coronavirus infections has slowed overall, the country saw a spike in early May due to imported cases. There were 105 and 122 confirmed cases on May 2 and 3 respectively, many of whom are people who had returned from overseas. Malaysia added just 54 new cases on Saturday to bring the total to 6,589. --With assistance from Anisah Shukry. S Viswanath By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: Taking a serious view of the gas leakage at LG Polymers in Visakhapatnam that claimed 12 lives, the state government is learnt to have summoned the management of the plant from South Korea along with a team of experts, and told them to cooperate with the inquiry into the mishap. Sources said the government also directed LG Polymers to take back styrene monomer and other raw materials the company stocked at the Visakhapatnam port and the factory. With the Group of Ministers and officials led by the Chief Secretary conducting an inquiry from Visakhapatnam, we felt it is unfair for the (LG Polymers) management to appear on video-conference while sitting in Seoul, and have summoned them to Visakhapatnam, a source associated with the inquiry into the issue told TNIE. Stating that the management was told to come to Visakhapatnam with its team of experts, sources said pressure is being mounted on the company as the government is taking the issue seriously. Apart from the four tanks at the factory, we learnt that the company has two tanks of material at the Vizag port, and told them to ship all the material back to where it was brought from, the source added. As the inquiry into the gas leak is ongoing and there are no chances of operating the factory, we cannot let them keep the material, as we have no trust in them following the incident, the source said. Stating that the temperature of the five remaining tankers is being maintained in the safety zone (20 to 25 degree Celsius), sources said the temperature of the tank from where the gas leaked was brought down to 80 degree Celsius by Saturday evening. Though the temperature should be 20 degree Celsius as per the norms, anything below 100 degree Celsius is considered safe as the boiling point of styrene monomer is between 135 and 145 degree Celsius, he added. Corona tests for victims As physical distancing norms were violated after the gas leak, victims and others in the region will be tested for coronavirus within the next two weeks, said Andhra Medical College principal Dr PV Sudhakar Vietnam is preparing to ship the first batches of chicken to Russia after the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance allowed imported chicken from Vietnam. Nguyen Van Long, deputy director of the Department of Animal Health, confirmed that the products of CP Vietnam have been certified by the Russian agency as meeting the requirements set by OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health) and Russian standards. Vietnams processed chicken exports continue to increase in 2020 with Koyu & Unitek in Dong Nai province being the major exporter. The company plans to export 3,625 tons of processed chicken, worth $20 million this year. CP Vietnam plans to export its first batch of chicken to Japan in June. The company believes that it can export 3,000 tons of chicken each month to the market and try to penetrate other markets. Vietnam has made considerable improvements in animal husbandry skills, epidemic risk management and food safety. Fowl breeding nationwide has obtained a annual growth rate of 6.5 percent per annum. MARD reported that Vietnam exported $11 million worth of chicken in 2019. However, it is not easy to meet international standards, especially in a global economic slowdown because of Covid-19. Vietnam has been behind Thailand in accessing the Japanese market, though many livestock companies affirm that the quality of their products is equal to Thailands. Vietnam has been behind Thailand in accessing the Japanese market, though many livestock companies affirm that the quality of their products is equal to Thailands. Japan every year imports 1 million tons of poultry meat each year, but it mostly imports products from Brazil, Thailand and China. In 2017, when Vietnam was preparing to export its first consignment of chicken to Japan, Thailand had just finished a prosperous year with 700,000 tons of exports to Japan and other markets. Only some large companies in Vietnam are capable of exporting processed chicken. Vu Manh Hung, general director of Hung Nhon JSC in Binh Phuoc province, which began exporting chicken to Japan in 2017, said to be eligible for exporting products to Japan, the company has to make high investments. It has developed a clean faming model using modern farming technology of Big Dutchman from Germany, cooperated with the Dutch De Heus Group to ensure animal feed supply, and uses breeders from CP Bel Ga. The continued increase in processed chicken exports in recent years has encouraged enterprises to make big investments to develop herds of fowls. Phu Gia Farm Produce sent its workers to Hungary to learn experiences from Master Good with 100-year experience in fowl breeding as part of its plan to set up a breeding and processing facility in Thanh Hoa. Le Ha Finance ministry proposes cutting import taxes on chicken, pork The Ministry of Finance has recently sent Dispatch No.14813/BTC-CST to competent ministries and sectors, suggesting cutting import on chicken and pork products. A major fire broke out at a cardboard factory at DSIDC Bawana in Delhi. Sources told Zee News that 14 fire tenders have been rushed to the scene to control the raging inferno. It is learnt that the fire department had received a call for help at around 7:55 AM. (This is a breaking news. More deatils will be added) US seeks to solace Saudis after Patriot pullout announcement Iran Press TV Saturday, 09 May 2020 10:17 AM The Trump administration has sought to solace Riyadh after announcing the withdrawal of a number of its Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries and troops from Saudi Arabia. The White announced that US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman spoke by phone on Friday, reaffirming "the strong United States-Saudi defense partnership". White House spokesman Judd Deere said that the two also discussed "other critical regional and bilateral issues" and "agreed on the importance of stability in global energy markets". The statement did not mention the Patriot missiles and the White House declined further comment, according to Reuters. The telephone call between Trump and Salman came after US media announced the Patriot withdrawal alongside the pullback of two US fighter jet squadrons - on Thursday. The abrupt announcement led to much speculation regarding the status of US-Saudi ties. Speaking to CNBC on Friday, US Special Representative for Iran, Brian Hook sought to reject claims that the measure signaled an abandonment of Riyadh. "Our mission is not at all changed. We're standing with our partners and our allies in the region. We're doing everything we can to protect American interests," he said. Hook stressed that Washington still views Iran as "a threat" and will continue its regional measures against Tehran. "Our troop levels go up and down depending on the circumstances, but the mission set is the same. Our mission is not at all changed," he said. The Trump administration sent up to 14,000 troops to the region last year, dramatically heightening tensions against Iran, and per request of certain Persian Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia. The deployments took place after Washington blamed Iran for a string of mysterious attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and for the Yemeni attack on Saudi Aramco oil facilities last September. Iran has repeatedly rejected the accusations and has condemned the foreign military deployments. Many US observers have consequently suggested that the recently announced Patriot withdrawal marks a reversal of Washington's large military buildup against Iran. Speaking on Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tried to downplay the measure as a "normal rotation of forces". "Those Patriot batteries had been in place for some time. Those troops needed to get back," Pompeo said. Why is US removing missile systems from Saudi Arabia? The withdrawal has prompted much speculation among observers regarding the reasons behind the sudden withdrawal announcement. In an article published on Thursday, Responsible Statecraft, a US-based think tank, highlighted the confusing nature of the decision given the Trump Administration's hawkish policies towards Iran. "While the military characterized the move as part of a planned withdrawal that reflects the view that Iran now poses less of a threat, the news has prompted debate over the timing of the decision," it wrote. "To suddenly acknowledge that the Islamic Republic is less of a threat than it was previously portrayed to be appears to undermine the case that hawks like Pompeo and Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook have made," it added. Many sources have, however, suggested that the measure is a result of Washington acting on an earlier threat seeking to force Riyadh to reduce oil production as falling oil prices hurt US companies. Washington's growing rift with Riyadh over oil production has also been voiced by Trump's Republican allies in Senate, which had previously sought to pass the Strained Partnership Act. The proposal was designed to punish the Saudis by withdrawing US troops in order to force Riyadh to reduce its oil output. The rift between Saudi Arabia and the US over oil production comes as Washington has also warned its Persian Gulf allies against shoring up political and economic ties with China. Washington has long seen its Persian Gulf allies as valuable venues for capital, using their vast oil revenues to invest extensively in US companies, notably in arms purchases. Trump has also pushed Riyadh, along with other regional allies, to pay for Washington's "protection" in a number of demeaning statements. "We protect Saudi Arabia. Would you say they're rich. And I love the King, King Salman. But I said 'King we're protecting you you might not be there for two weeks without us you have to pay for your military,'" Trump said in a speech in 2018. The derogatory remarks about Saudi Arabia's military capabilities were later echoed by US senator Lindsey Graham, saying the Saudi military "can't fight [its way] out of a paper bag." "Let me put it this way I want to be very blunt with you: If it weren't for the United States, they'd be speaking Farsi in about a week in Saudi Arabia," Graham said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address WASHINGTON - The White House on Saturday scrambled to deal with the fallout from two aides testing positive for the coronavirus, as officials who were potentially exposed responded differently, with some senior members of the pandemic task force self-quarantining while others planned to continue to go to work. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, both task force members, said they are self-quarantining or teleworking for two weeks after exposure to a coronavirus case at the White House. On Saturday night, a spokeswoman for Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious diseases official, acknowledged that working from home sometimes will be among the precautions he is taking. But several administration officials said White House staffers were encouraged to come into the office by their supervisors, and that aides who travel with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence would not stay out for 14 days, the recommended time frame to quarantine once exposed to the virus. The conflicting ways in which officials and aides are responding after two staff members were diagnosed with the coronavirus this past week - Pence spokeswoman Katie Miller and a military valet to the president - continued to raise questions about how the White House is responding to the challenge of maintaining a safe work environment for Trump, Pence and their staff. The White House press office declined to comment Saturday on whether employees beyond Miller and the military aide have been told to self-quarantine. "The president's physician and White House operations continue to work closely to ensure every precaution is taken to keep the president, first family and the entire White House complex safe and healthy at all times," White House spokesman Judd Deere said. "In addition to social distancing, daily temperature checks and symptom histories, hand sanitizer, and regular deep cleaning of all work spaces, every staff member in proximity to the president and vice president is being tested daily for covid-19 as well as any guests." But the nervousness and concern among White House staffers became more palpable on Saturday, according to people familiar with the matter who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the tensions. Now that Redfield and Hahn are staying away, some officials said they don't know if they should keep going to work at the White House. Staffers who had potentially been in contact with Miller were still getting calls on Saturday from officials trying to gauge their exposure to the virus, according to one person who received a call. All White House staffers received a memo from the White House management office on Friday, which encouraged employees to "practice maximum telework" and to "work remotely if at all possible." The White House will receive "heightened levels of daily cleaning," according to the memo. It also told employees they must quarantine for 14 days if they leave the Washington region and must report all of their travel. The memo did not suggest that employees wear masks, as the CDC has suggested for all Americans in public spaces. Masks generally protect other people from the person wearing the face covering, rather than preventing the individual from contracting the virus. "We are exercising daily caution by testing [Executive Office of the President] staff who have high proximity to the president and Vice President for covid-19," the memo says. "For any presumptive positive covid-19 results, the White House medical Unit conducts immediate contact tracing and notifies any affected individuals." On Thursday, aides began to close the door to the outer Oval Office, and Secret Service and White House officials began to limit who was in the Oval Office, even as Trump continued not to wear a mask and evoked no concern. Elsewhere in the administration, senior officials were taking varied levels of precaution in response to the positive cases at the White House. The FDA said late Friday that Hahn began to self-quarantine for two weeks after being exposed to an individual who tested positive. A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the matter, said the individual in question was Miller, who was present at task force meetings attended by Hahn and other health officials. Redfield "will be teleworking for the next two weeks," according to a CDC spokesman, who said Redfield "has been determined to have had a low-risk exposure" on Wednesday to "a person at the White House who has covid-19." The spokesman, Benjamin Haynes, did not identify the infected person. Haynes said Redfield was last tested on April 27 and had a negative result. "He is feeling fine and has no symptoms," said Haynes, who added that, if Redfield needs to go to the White House during his teleworking time, he will have his temperature taken, be screened for symptoms and keep at a distance from others. Both Redfield and Hahn had been scheduled to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Tuesday, but will now do so by videoconference, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the panel's chairman, said Saturday night. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has been tested "multiple times," most recently on Friday, according to a department spokeswoman. He has tested negative each time and is following the advice of his physicians at the White House Medical Unit, the spokeswoman said. Asked about a potential quarantine, the spokeswoman said Azar, a member of the task force, is continuing to consult with his doctors about whether that could be necessary. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and another task force member, "has tested negative for covid-19 as recently as yesterday," an institute spokeswoman said Saturday. "He will continue to be tested regularly and is actively monitoring his temperature and other health indicators." At first on Saturday afternoon, the spokeswoman said Fauci, one of the administration's most recognizable figures in the pandemic response, "is considered to be at relatively low risk based on the degree of his exposure. Nevertheless, he is taking appropriate precautions to mitigate risk to any of his personal contacts while still allowing him to carry out his responsibilities in this public health crisis." Then, hours later, the spokeswoman said Saturday night that the precautions include "a mix of teleworking and wearing a mask during in-person meetings." Brett Giroir, the HHS assistant secretary for health who is in charge of coronavirus testing, has not been at the White House since Tuesday, participating in meetings since then remotely, according to a spokeswoman. He previously tested negative for the virus, the spokeswoman said. It remains unclear whether some White House officials and other members of the coronavirus task force have been in closer proximity to the infected aides than others and therefore would be at greater risk of contracting the virus. But concerns were evident at the White House, where there is worry that if Miller and the unidentified personal valet to Trump are infected, then multiple officials may be at risk. After news of Miller's diagnosis, aides were going through seating charts, looking at her schedule to discern where she had been and trying to question anyone who may have been close to her in a room. Emails were sent about possible exposure, and staffers were called. "Any place she spent extensive time was immediately sanitized," one official said. Miller was regularly in the Oval Office and around Trump when the daily coronavirus task force news briefings were ongoing, but has not been since the briefings ended a couple of weeks ago. She was in the task force meeting in the Situation Room on Thursday, sitting in the back row facing Pence on the far right side, closer to the door, according to a person familiar with the situation. Miller, who had told other colleagues that she did not have symptoms, attended a senior staff meeting on the coronavirus at 8 a.m. on Friday and was near other aides, rattling some of her White House colleagues. Neither Trump nor Pence was in the meeting. A number of aides from Pence's office were sent home on Friday after the contact tracing was complete. Miller is married to top White House aide Stephen Miller, who is expected to quarantine at home for the time being. Friday was "totally nuts," a senior administration official said. A White House official said all visitors and employees now will be questioned by doctors about a list of symptoms before they enter the complex. The East Wing staff is wearing masks. Agents on the president's detail - who work in three rotating shifts - typically huddle in a small "down room" a floor below the Oval Office when Trump is there. Those agents have been wearing face masks for several days, according to one administration official, due to concerns they cannot appropriately distance in this confined space. But other Secret Service agents are not wearing masks on campus, according to two senior administration officials who interact with Trump. The concerns are spreading to the Trump campaign, where a senior official said there was no plan to hold a large-scale campaign event with the president until at least August. "It's just not practical right now," the official said, "to even try." - - - The Washington Post's Laurie McGinley and Carol D. Leonnig contributed to this report. While it is true we in North Carolina havent been hit as hard by the novel coronavirus as other states, the threat to our families and neighbors is the same. Ive spent long shifts in the hospital as patients come in with shortness of breath and other telltale signs of the virus. Ive treated them as best as I can alongside my medical staff and allied health care workers. Ive talked with family members, easing their concerns and making them aware of the risks. And Ive seen my colleagues from all corners of the world do the same right here in the High Point and Greensboro area. In this very real way, North Carolinas tradition of welcome is keeping us healthy today. Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Media City has appointed Elliot McKenzie as its new food and beverage (F&B) Manager. Before moving to Dubai and Radisson Blu one year ago (as Front of House Manager), McKenzie spent two years at InterContinental London The O2 having previously spent five years at the Celtic Manor Resort in a variety of roles from Chef de Rang to Assistant Reception Manager. In his new role, McKenzie will be responsible for a team of 90 and will oversee the hotels F&B outlets (Certo, Icon Bar & Lounge, Rooftop Tamanya Terrace & Chefs House) M&E operations and outdoor catering as well as drive new projects & overall guest satisfaction. "I am so thankful that working at Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Media City and Radisson Hotel Group, one of the worlds largest and most dynamic hotel groups in the world, provides me with the tools to one day full fill my dream. The company is undeniably living up to its brand promise; We grow talent, talent grows us, McKenzie said. Being part of the F&B team is helping Elliot to take one step closer to his dream; to one day run a disable friendly hotel in his hometown in Wales. With a little brother diagnosed with autism, a lifelong developmental disability which makes it increasingly difficult to access mainstream activities and public places, my dream is to one day build a hotel accessible to families who would generally struggle to visit hotels. Simultaneously, that would provide employment opportunities for those with disabilities both physical and hidden," he said. - TradeArabia News Service Air Indias first evacuation flight with 326 Indians from London landed at Mumbai Airport on Sunday. According to Indian high commission in the UK, the flight took off from London on Saturday on board 326 people. It landed at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. On Monday, India announced had that it will begin phased repatriation of its citizens stranded abroad from May 7. The government said that Air India will operate 64 flights in the first week from May 7 to May 13 to bring back around 15,000 Indian nationals. On day three of the Vande Bharat Mission, flights carrying Indians from the Gulf countries, the United Kingdom, Bangladesh and Malaysia arrived in India. Hospitals in Mexico City are reportedly nearing saturation point after they received over 100 coronavirus patients with respiratory distress that required intubation within just two days, a local gazette reported, citing Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum. As both public and private medical facilities were overwhelmed due to surge in cases, patients have been turned away from the hospitals with several older in search of a bed for over 10 hours, as per local media reports. With severe respiratory distress caused by the COVID-19 and influx of the patients in need of emergency ventilation, at least 26 out of the 64 public hospitals had drained capacity, according to city government data, as per reports. In the capitals sprawling metro area, designated to admit the coronavirus patients, hospitals hung the vinyl banner on the fence that stated, No more beds. We thank you for your understanding. Among many such hospitals was Ignacio Zaragosa public hospital in the citys poor Iztapalapa district that ran out of capacity, reports confirmed. In Mexico, the public health authorities projected that there could be more than 104,000 COVID-19 cases while speaking at the daily COVID-19 briefings. Further, it said, the capital had up to 38 per cent availability of beds with ventilators, while in the surrounding state of Mexico, 55 per cent remained available. Nationwide, three-quarters of beds with ventilators were still available for new patients, the ministry reportedly said. Read: Australia: New South Wales To Ease Coronavirus Restrictions From May 15 Read: Sweden Admits Failure To Protect Elderly Amid Coronavirus Pandemic 468 patients intubated However, according to figures from the National Association of Private Hospitals, beds and intensive care units equipped with ventilators in at least five states and Mexico City were overburdened. And, Of the citys 16 municipalities, the most affected were reported to be Iztapalapa. Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, while speaking at the press conference said, general hospitals at capacity were turning away patients who were now being redirected to medical facilities in the neighbourhood, which is also nearly full. Of the 8.8 million people population, over 33,460 have been infected, and 3,353 fatalities have been registered by the health officials. In all of Latin America, Mexicos death toll and the confirmed cases remain the highest, as per state media reports. Over 468 patients have been intubated, while National Institute for Respiratory Diseases, the main center for COVID-19 treatment, has put at least 70 on the ventilator, a record, a local daily reported. Read: Three More Coronavirus Cases In Himachal Pradesh Read: US Records 1,568 More Coronavirus Deaths In 24 Hours, Total Soars To 80,037 (Image Credit: AP) The entire country is grappling with the rapid spread of coronavirus disease, which has infected more than 62,000 people and killed more than 2,000. But there are five states in the North-East which do not have a single Covid-19 patient. These are Manipur, Sikkim, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. Mizorams Covid-19-free status can be attributed to the discipline of its people, Chief Minister Pu Zoramthanga said on Sunday. Mizoram is a very disciplined state. With the help of the church, NGOs and administration, we have so far survived this crisis and are determined to continue to do so in the future, he told news agency PTI. He, however, said acknowledged the threat from corona carriers looms large over the state, which shares a 510-kilometre border with Myanmar and a 318-kilometre border with Bangladesh. This is a great threat for us as there are high chances of people from Myanmar and Bangladesh infiltrating into Mizoram due to the open borders. We are taking all measures to stop it. he said. While Bangladesh has reported 13,134 cases of coronavirus with 206 deaths, Myanmar has 177 cases. Union minister Jitendra Singh had said on Saturday that the entire northeastern region has emerged as the model of coronavirus management and the rest of the country should emulate it. He said that people in the northeast of India - Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Assam - have been following the lockdown-related guidelines in letter and spirit. By tradition and by lifestyle, people of northeastern region are civilised and disciplined. That is why they could very easily follow the lockdown guidelines. There has been no problem in ensuring implementation of the lockdown-related guidelines there, Singh said. Five out of eight northeastern states are free from the deadly virus now and Sikkim never had a single case throughout. The number of Covid-19 cases in India, meanwhile, reached 62,939 on Sunday, according to the Union Health Ministry. Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller will soar over San Antonio on Monday in a 1940s-era aircraft to bless the city and pray for protection from the coronavirus pandemic. The head of the Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio will be in the cockpit with the pilot of the 1942 SNJ-4 Ole Yeller for the two-hour flight, which is expected to begin with a 2 p.m. departure from historic Stinson Field on the South Side. The Tex Hill Wing of the Commemorative Air Force collaborated with the archdiocese on the flight, called Mission Hope, which is meant to inspire unity and healing during the COVID-19 crisis, organizers said. On ExpressNews.com: Get the latest update on coronavirus and a tracking map of U.S. cases The aircraft is very visible, and I believe the sight of the archbishop flying overhead will be truly inspirational, Col. Darren Bond, executive officer of the Tex Hill Wing, said in a statement. We have had so much bad news lately. Its time to give people a positive sign. Prior to the event, Garcia-Siller is expected to announce the reopening date of archdiocese parishes and public weekend liturgies at a ceremony to be conducted at Hangar 3, the headquarters of the Tex Hill Wing of CAF. The plane, flying 1,000 feet above ground, will be visible from 30 scheduled locations. At the same time, church bells will ring at parishes across the city. Garcia-Siller has prayed for good intentions during the coronavirus crisis but has never issued blessings from a plane before, Jordan McMorrough, director of communications for the Archdiocese of San Antonio, said Sunday in an email. On Holy Thursday, Archbishop Gustavo did process into Main Plaza with the Blessed Sacrament after Mass and recite a prayer of protection over the city from the coronavirus, McMorrough said. On April 10, Archbishop Gregory Aymond of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, took a 30-minute flight over that city to offer a blessing from COVID-19, he added. In another local show of unity during the coronavirus crisis, the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds aerial demonstration team will fly over San Antonio and Austin on Wednesday. The event was rescheduled from Tuesday because of weather. On ExpressNews.com: Thunderbirds flyover event has been postponed The flyover of six F-16C/D Fighting Falcons is part of a nationwide salute to front-line responders and essential workers during the pandemic. The Thunderbirds flyover is expected to begin at 1:20 p.m. Wednesday in San Antonio and last 30 minutes. The Austin stop will be at 2:40 p.m. Information on the archbishops event and the 30 flyover locations can be found on the Facebook page of Tex Hill Wing of CAF, as well as the social media pages of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, Todays Catholic newspaper and CTSA Catholic Television of San Antonio. Hashtags are #TexHillWing #CAF #CommemorativeAirForce, according to information provided by the organizers. The event will be livestreamed, and CTSA, Spectrum Channel 15, will air portions of the flight live. Elizabeth Zavala covers county and state courts in San Antonio. To read more from Elizabeth, become a subscriber. ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863 Putin Leads Scaled-Back Russian Events To Mark 75th Anniversary Of Victory Day By RFE/RL May 09, 2020 MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin marked Victory Day calling for unity and a dignified honoring of those killed during World War II, even as the coronavirus pandemic curtailed the pomp the Kremlin had planned for Russia's most important secular holiday. With this year marking 75 years since the Nazi defeat, the Kremlin had hoped to turn already elaborate May 9 celebrations into a platform for Putin to host world leaders and promote what he sees as Russia's rightful place on the world stage. But the coronavirus has upended political life, and society in general, with millions under lockdown orders, the economy contracting, and Putin forced to limit his appearances to teleconferences with cabinet members and governors. At a speech that marked his first public appearance in nearly a month, Putin did not mention the virus or its spread in Russia, focusing solely on the memory of the millions of Soviet citizens who died in what is known as the Great Patriotic War. "We will, as usual, widely and solemnly mark the anniversary date, do it with dignity, as our duty to those who have suffered, achieved, and accomplished the victory tells us," he said. "There will be our main parade on Red Square, and the national march of the Immortal Regiment -- the march of our grateful memory and inextricable, vital, living communication between generations." He also vowed that Russia would always remember the victims of the conflict, which killed an estimated 25 million Soviet citizens -- most of them civilians. "We know and firmly believe that we are invincible when we stand together," he said. Russia has nearly 200,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and a death toll that stood at more than 1,800 as of May 9 -- a figure that many observers believe is an undercount. Earlier, Putin laid flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier memorial, next to the Kremlin's walls. Later on, 75 Russian jets and other warplanes roared over Red Square and the Moscow skyline. While Victory Day has always been a major event, under Putin it has taken on even grander ceremonial importance, a reflection in part of how the Kremlin has sought to extol aspects of Soviet history and promote nationalist sentiment. Russian authorities on May 9 reported the seventh straight daily increase in infections over 10,000, a further sign that the virus is tightening its grip on the country despite some early, strict moves by the government aimed at curtailing the disease's spread. The streets in the Russian capital's central district were mostly empty of people, a contrast to past years when parks and boulevards were typically filled with people celebrating and handing flowers to veterans. A heavy police presence was seen in many parts of the city, helping to enforce the strict lockdown measures that have been in place since late March. Still, some Muscovites took to the streets in small groups to witness the flyover, gathering on street corners. A group of Communist Party activists protested on Tverskaya Street, less than a kilometer from the Kremlin, against coronavirus-related prohibitions that kept them from publicly marching. Two members of the group were detained by police. The group included two members of Russia's lower house of parliament. Some people defied the restrictions to take to the streets displaying photos of grandparents who died in the war. Irina Popova, 60, who owns a cosmetics business, told RFE/RL near Red Square that her grandmother always used to take her for walks through Moscow on Victory Day. "You can't not celebrate this day. It's sacred," she said. "It's good to self-isolate, this thing is dangerous. But I got an [electronic] pass, so I'm allowed to go on the street." One day earlier, as most of Europe and the United States marked VE Day, Putin sent messages to U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, with reminders of cooperation among the war-time allies. Putin and Trump spoke by phone on May 7, and the Kremlin said on May 8 that Putin and Johnson also spoke by phone, congratulating each other on the 75th anniversary. "Both sides expressed readiness to establish dialogue and cooperation on issues on the agenda of Russian-British relations, as well as in solving pressing international problems," the Kremlin said. In his message to Trump, Putin said Russia and the United States stood at the forefront of confronting global challenges and "could do a lot to ensure international security and stability." While Russia's celebrations were curtailed, Belarus went ahead with parade watched by thousands of spectators in the capital Minsk, Elsewhere across Europe, VE Day events had to be postponed, canceled, or reduced to online commemorations. In Washington, D.C., Trump joined seven World War II veterans, ages 96 to 100, at a wreath-laying ceremony to commemorate the anniversary. With reporting by RFE/RL correspondent Matthew Luxmoore in Moscow, Reuters, AFP, and TASS Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-world- war-ii-victory-putin-ceremony -anniversary/30602355.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pakistan said on Sunday that it has "fully complied" with the ICJ's judgement in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case, days after India's lead counsel asserted that New Delhi had hoped it might be able to persuade Islamabad through "back channel" to release the Indian death-row convict. Jadhav, the 49-year-old 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 International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Pakistan for denial of consular access to Jadhav and challenging the death sentence. Senior advocate Harish Salve was the lead counsel for India in the Jadhav case at the Hague-based ICJ which ruled in July last year that Pakistan must undertake an "effective review and reconsideration" of the conviction and sentence of Jadhav and also to grant consular access to India without further delay. "We were hoping that through back channel, we may be able to persuade Pakistan to let him go. If they want to say on humanitarian ground or whatever, we want him back. We said let him go. Because it has become a big ego problem in Pakistan. So, we were hoping that they will let him go. They haven't," Salve said on May 3 while speaking online from London. "We have written four-five letters. They just keep on denying. I think we have reached a point where we have to now decide whether we want to go back to ICJ for consequential directions because Pakistan has not moved ahead," he said. Responding to Salve's remarks, Pakistan's Foreign Office Spokesperson Aisha Farooqui said Islamabad had noted the statements made by India's legal counsel in the Jadhav case. While suggesting that India may have to go back to ICJ, Salve has made certain statements which are contrary to the facts of the case, she said. "We firmly reject the Indian Counsel's baseless and inaccurate assertion that Pakistan has not complied with the ICJ's judgment in the case. Pakistan has fully complied with the judgment and remains committed to continue doing so as the case proceeds further," Farooqui said. She said Pakistan granted India consular access to Jadhav and was processing measures for effective review and reconsideration as per the guidelines provided by the ICJ in its judgment. Being a responsible state, Pakistan abides by all its international obligations, the Spokesperson said. "It is regrettable that Mr Salve has chosen to make statements which are inaccurate and misrepresent facts," she said. In its 42-page order, the world court, while rejecting Pakistan's objection to admissibility of the Indian application in the case, had held that "a continued stay of execution constitutes an indispensable condition for the effective review" of the sentence of Jadhav. The bench, however, rejected some remedies sought by India, including annulment of the military court's decision convicting Jadhav, his release and safe passage to India. The ICJ upheld India's stand that Pakistan had "breached" the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations, which gives countries the right to consular access when their nationals are arrested abroad. Pakistan claims that its security forces arrested Jadhav from the restive Balochistan province on March 3, 2016 after he reportedly entered from Iran. However, India maintains that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Navy. How to vote during COVID-19 Early voting runs from May 5 through May 30, when voters may cast their ballots at official polling locations ahead of the June 2 primary. May 5 was the voter registration deadline. May 28 is the deadline to request an absentee ballot, which may be returned by mail, at a Secretary of State location or at a polling location through 7 p.m. on June 2. Ballots postmarked but not received by June 2 will not be accepted, so it's advised to mail your ballot at least a week in advance. Voters can request an absentee ballot by mail or online by clicking on or entering this link in an internet search bar: https://portal.sos.state.nm.us/OVR/WebPages/AbsenteeApplication.aspx Traditional polling locations will remain open on June 2. THE Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) expressed on Sunday, May 10, alarm over reports that some beneficiaries of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) were being arrested and detained after lodging complaints against local officials involved in irregularities in the SAP distribution. DILG undersecretary for Barangay Affairs Martin Dino said they have received reports that several local officials were going to the house of the complainants and bring them to barangay halls, while some were even being detained. Meron pa diyan nag-post sa Facebook na, Ako ay hindi nakatanggap. Ako ay hinatian (ng ayuda). Ako ay tinakot, he said. Pinuntahan yung nag-Facebook at kinaladkad papuntang barangay. Meron pa, ipinakulong, he added. Dino added that those officials involved in such incident will be sanctioned. He also reminded precinct personnel not to immediately follow orders from LGU officials to detain someone without proper disposition. Kayo naman nasa presinto, hindi porket binitbit ni kapitan, ng tanod ay tatanggapin niyo na, Dino said. Lahat po ng mga natatanggap naming reklamo ay may mga case buildup na kami. Sasampahan na po sila ng kaso, he added. He said the DILG has received about 3,000 complaints against LGU officials on the irregularities in SAP distribution. Such reports were being forwarded to the Philippine National Police (PNP) which were ordered to conduct case build-up and filing of charges against erring local officials. President Rodrigo Duterte has offered P30,000 reward for every person who could give information about corrupt officials committing irregularities in the distribution of the cash assistance. He made the statement following the arrest of Barangay Kagawad Danilo Flores of Barangay San Agustin in Hagonoy, Bulacan on Saturday for allegedly pocketing more than half of the SAP funds intended for his constituents. Flores was caught on video telling SAP recipients that they would only get P3,000 of the cash aid and that the remaining P3,500 would be given to the town mayor for distribution to non-SAP beneficiaries, which prompted personnel of the local Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to coordinate with the police for his arrest. Story continues Hagonoy Mayor Raulito Manlapaz, however denied Flores claims and denied any involvement on the illegal activity. A barangay captain and a Municipal Social Welfare and Development Officer in Negros Occidental were also arrested last week for conniving for the manipulation of the official list of SAP recipients in their municipality. As of Saturday, the DSWD said about 15 million of the 18 million families who were targeted to receive SAP cash aid have received their cash subsidies. DSWD spokesperson Director Irene Dumlao said over 85 percent of the P100 billion allocated for the first tranche of emergency cash subsidy have been sent out to beneficiaries. The DILG has set the deadline for the distribution of SAP on Sunday, May 10 for Metro Manila LGUs. Dumlao said undistributed funds beyond May 10 should be liquidated and returned to the DSWD. The DILG said LGUs which failed to complete the SAP distribution will have to explain and may also be filed with administrative charges. "Kinakailangang magsumite tayo ng reports para mai-account natin kung saan napunta 'yung pondo. Ito ay ibabalik din natin. Nakaka-review tayo ng report na isusumite sa ating mga economic managers para naman ang pondong ito ay magamit din sa iba pang distribution. It can be used as funds for other activities," said Dumlao. DILG spokesperson and Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said there will be no more extension for the distribution of SAP. (SunStar Philippines) A former Himachal Pradesh High Court judge has sought a probe into the cremation of a 21-year-old man who died of coronavirus in Himachal Pradesh's Shimla recently. In a letter to Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, the ex-HC judge said the man was allegedly cremated in violation of the Union government guidelines around midnight on May 5. Demanding an inquiry, the former HC judge said performing cremation at odd hours around midnight itself is a clear violation of the guidelines issued by Union ministry of health and family welfare on March 15. The Shimla district administration had allegedly cremated the man from Mandi's Sarkaghat at the Kanglog crematorium in the presence of SDM (Urban) Neeraj Chandla around 11.30 pm, within hours of his death at Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC). Thakur said the guidelines specifically specify that the body will either be handed over to relatives or be kept in a mortuary. When the body is handed over to relatives, then the cremation is to be done according to religious rituals with standard precautions, he added. Meanwhile, alleging that the administration ignored religious rites and used 'kerosene' to cremate the man, NGO Umang Foundation president Ajai Srivastava shot a letter to the chief minister, demanding a high-level probe into the incident. He alleged that religious rites were fully ignored while cremating the Hindu man by using kerosene around midnight. The Umang Foundation president has also sought the transfer of SDM Neeraj Chandla for a free and fair inquiry. The SDM could not be contacted for comments despite repeated attempts. Shimla Deputy Commissioner Amit Kashyap said he had got a report from the SDM in this regard and he will forward it to the state government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mumbai reported 17.93 per cent lesser deaths in April 2020, Chandigarh 15.5 per cent, Jaipur 73 per cent and Indore 78 per cent as compared to April last year, according to the registrars of deaths and births in these cities. April 2020 also recorded lesser deaths in comparison to the first three months of this year in these cities. The municipal officials of these cities gave two explanations for the dip. First, in Mumbai and Chandigarh, the officials said that the lesser deaths recorded was because of fall in the number of fatal accidents and lesser natural deaths reported from major hospitals, which receive a large number of patients from adjoining districts and states. In April 2020, Mumbai recorded 5,536 deaths, as compared 6,752 deaths in April 2019 and 6,740 in the same month in 2018. Officials said that some pending entries for April will be updated in May, which could reduce the difference between number of fatalities in April this year and previous years. In March 2020, there was dip of 22.28 per cent in deaths reported as compared to March 2019. Chandigarh recorded 236 deaths in April this year as compared to 205 in April 2019. The number of deaths reported this year was slightly less than those reported in March, 2020, official data showed. Director health services, Dr G Dewan, said because of the Covid-19 the department was keeping a close watch on birth and death figures. Second, in Jaipur and Indore, the officials admitted that their database may not represent complete records of deaths in the respective cities as records have not been maintained properly due to lockdown. Jaipur, which has 56 Covid-19 deaths so far, has reported 858 total deaths in April, 2020 as compared to 3,088 in April, 2019. A Jaipur municipal corporation official said there is a delay in sending the death and birth records by different agencies as most offices were closed during lockdown. In Indore, having 86 Covid-19-related deaths, recorded 399 deaths in entire city of 1.9 million this April as compared to 2,629 for the same months last year. The figures reflect the online death certificates issued. Personnel engaged to record deaths have been deployed for Covid duties. We are in the process of updating the data, said Indore chief medical officer Dr Praveen Jadia. Municipal officials in many other cities Hindustan Times reporters got in touch with did not provide any data on the deaths citing lockdown restrictions. In places such as Lucknow and Kolkata, the municipal officials said no data for April was available as all offices were closed due to the lockdown. We will update the data for April when the offices open fully after the lockdown, a Lucknow municipal corporation official, who was not willing to be quoted, said. Lucknow is a Covid hotspot. Atin Ghosh, deputy mayor and member-mayor-in-council (health) of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, said, No monthly data is available in public domain. We compile this data once a year and data for April (2020) will be available next year. Kolkata, a Covid-19 hotspot district, was among the districts in West Bengal, which the central team said was bad in maintaining data and enforcing the lockdown. The chief registrar of births and deaths in Delhi said, Forget 2020 data, we have not even been able to compile the annual births and deaths for the year 2019. This is because one of the five local bodies has not yet submitted their data. And the data provided by others has been returned to the concerned bodies because of inaccuracies in the cause of death. In Patna, 5,222 deaths have been recorded from January 1 till April 30, 2020, an increase of 294 deaths from the same period in 2019. One cannot say which reported higher deaths as the Patna municipal corporation failed to provide monthly death for 2020 data citing staff shortage. Most of the employees are involved in the house to house Covid-19 survey and they are not available to compile the data, said a PMC official, who was not willing to be named. Patna has reported 47 Covid-19 positive cases. An official of Madhya Pradesh statistical department said due to lockdown many zonal offices were not working with full strength as the civic bodies employees are engaged in fight against coronavirus. A person at one of the graveyards in Indore said they have been instructed not to share any death related data with media. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has not compiled the exact data with regard to number of deaths in the last two months due to lack of adequate staff on account of lockdown. GHMC statistical officer, S Srinivas Reddy, said that the number of deaths registered every month is around 3,000-3,500 and expected the deaths in month of April to be less. Generally, people from neighbouring districts come to hospitals in Hyderabad for treatment. So, the number of deaths in Hyderabad hospitals was higher in the past. During the lockdown period, since inter-district transport was banned, patients are being referred to the local hospitals in their respective districts. Naturally, the deaths registered in Hyderabad would have come down, he said. In Kolkata, the huge garbage dumping ground at Dhapa, located beside the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, is one of the designated spots for the last rites of Hindu Covid-19 patients. The other cremation ground is at Topsia in south-east Kolkata. For Muslims, the burial ground is at Bagmari in east Kolkata. The government decided to earmark separate locations for the last rites of Covid-19 victims soon after public resistance stalled the cremation of Bengals first victim at the Nimtala Ghat crematorium on March 23. Since then, the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has alleged secret cremations by police although the government denied the claims. There have also been some incidents of people resisting cremation of Covid-19 patients. On April 24, a central team in a letter to chief secretary Rajiva Sinha raised the issue of large number of dead bodies lying on beds in Bangar hospital in Kolkata. After that, Sinha issued instructions that bodies should be removed from wards without any delay. Officials in several states said that the drop in number of fatalities was due to reduced travelling and most people staying indoors, leading to greater attention to health and to co-morbidity. In Mumbai, health officials said there was 36 per cent decrease in the number of deaths due to co-morbidity in March and April 2020 such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and pneumonia, as compared to March and April in the previous three years. However, Chandigarh reported 32 per cent increase in deaths of the senior citizens during the lockdown period. 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. The number of COVID-19 patients in Ladakh rose to eight on Wednesday, after two more patients tested positive for the dreaded virus. Image Source: IANS News 11 major hospitals in J&K declared as sanatoria for suspects. Image Source: IANS News Chennai, May 10 : Three Covid-19 patients died and 669 persons tested positive for coronavirus in Tamil Nadu over the past 24 hours, the state Health Department said on Sunday. The government also allowed several shops to start operating from Monday. In a statement issued here, the Health Department said three persons died due to Covid-19 taking the total death toll to 47 while the total number of new infections for coronavirus was 669 taking the total tally to 7,204. Meanwhile, 135A Covid-19 patients were cured and were discharged from various hospitals taking the total number to 1,959. A total of 13,367 samples were tested over the past 24 hours taking the total number of samples tested to over 2.43 lakh. Testing of 676 samples are under process. Chennai continued to see highest number of infections - at 509 - followed by Thiruvannamalai (47) and Chengalpattu (43). The number of infected children in the age group 0-12 went up to 364. The total number of active cases in Tamil Nadu stands at 5,195. However, Principal Secretary/Commissioner, Revenue Administration, Disaster Management and Mitigation, and Special Nodal Officer for Greater Chennai Corporation for Covid-19 matters, J. Radhakrishnan said that for some more days, the infection rate here will be high but it is not a cause for concern. Meanwhile Chief Minister K.Palaniswami is expected to hold a meeting with District Collectors to decide on extension or lifting of the lockdown. On Sunday, the government announced relaxations for various shops and establishments located in non-containment zones barring barber shops, beauty salons and spas. The government allowed small jewellery and textile shops to open without air conditioners. The government also allowed opening of mechanic shops, home appliances, furniture shops, courier and parcel services, lorry booking, laundry, photocopying, mixie/grinder repair shops and others. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) In wake of fund-crisis due to complete shutdown of the aviation sector, Airports Authority of India (AAI) has suspended overdraft limits of airports and all other field stations with immediate effect. The statutory body, working under the Ministry of Civil Aviation, has also put on hold all vendor payments, including project payments, with immediate effect. "During the ongoing nationwide lock down due to COVID-19 pandemic and total shut down of the aviation sector, the generation of revenue and revenue realisations of AAI from traffic and non-traffic services have been severely impacted and stalled," according to a circular issued by the airports authority on Sunday. Considerable cash reserves in the form of term deposits have been utilised till date to maintain flow of funds to meet salaries, utility payments, statutory payments, vendor payments and project payments, AAI said. "As on date, the fund position is very critical. Till alternate arrangements are made for making funds available, all regional and corporate headquarters of AAI are directed to immediately suspend overdraft limits of airports and all other field stations under the respective regional headquarter (RHQ) linked with State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Vijaya Bank," it said. Also Read: Coronavirus lockdown: Aviation industry stares at Rs 25,000 crore revenue loss, says CRISIL "All vendor payments including project payments are put on hold with immediate effect," AAI said, adding that the payments will be released only after fresh communication from its corporate headquarters in this regard. Only payments under clean Letter of Credit (LC) are to be processed on priority as AAI is legally bound to release such payments as per the RBI and International Guidelines in this regard, it said. Also Read: India can expect V-shaped recovery post coronavirus crisis, says former RBI governor Subbarao The payment, however, will be released after getting approval from General Manager (Finance)-Pre-check-corporate headquarter (CHQ) in the event of purchase of USD/EURO due to non-availability of sufficient dollar funds in AAI EEFC (Exchange Earners' Foreign Currency) Account. The GM (Finance) at RHQ will be the nodal fund managing authority for monitoring, prioritising and approving release of payments by the field stations of their region under their control, it said. No unit will incur any expenditure without the approval of GM (F) at respective RHQs, it added. According to a CRISIL report, domestic aviation industry will crash-land this fiscal (FY21) with revenue loss of Rs 24,000-25,000 crore due to the extension of lockdown. Airlines will be the worst-affected, contributing more than 70% of the losses, or nearly Rs 17,000 crore, followed by airport operators with Rs 5,000-5,500 crore, and airport retailers (including retail, food and beverages and duty-free) with Rs 1,700-1,800 crore, the report said. CRISIL warned that the losses will climb if travel restrictions last longer in hubs such as Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has appealed to all states to permit the operation of migrant special trains so that the stranded can reach home in the next three to four days. The appeal comes a day after Home Minister Amit Shah wrote to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to allow such trains to run. "As per the directions of Hon'ble PM @NarendraModi ji, Railways is fully geared up to run 300 Shramik Special trains everyday at short notice since the last six days. "I appeal to all the states to give permission to evacuate and bring back their stranded migrants so that we can get all of them back to their homes in the next 3-4 days itself," Goyal tweeted on Sunday. On Saturday the WB government claimed it had given clearance to eight trains to be run carrying its migrant home. Four of these trains, it said, were to depart on Saturday, which did not. Senior railway officials say the national transporter has a capacity to run around 300 trains per day ferrying around 20 lakh migrants in a maximum of five days. However, they said, clearances from states are not forthcoming, especially from states like West Bengal and Rajasthan, which till now have accepted the least number of such trains despite being a significant source of migrant population. As on May 10, a total of 366 Shramik Special trains have been operationalised across the country, of which 287 had reached their destinations and 79 trains are in transit. These 287 trains were terminated in various states like Andhra Pradesh (1 train), Bihar (87), Himachal Pradesh (1), Jharkhand (16), Madhya Pradesh (24), Maharashtra (3), Odisha (20), Rajasthan (4), Telangana (2), Uttar Pradesh (127), West Bengal (2). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Express News Service KOCHI/ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As many as 237 people from other states stuck at Walayar checkpost, many of them since Saturday morning, were finally given passes and allowed entry into the state on Sunday night after the High Court intervened and issued a one-off order to the Kerala Government after seeing their plight. The state, meanwhile, sought the help of the Tamil Nadu Police to stop people without valid passes from travelling to the borders as cases go up in the neighbouring state. Immediate attention and preference shall be given to pregnant women, elderly and children. Others shall also be issued passes at the earliest avoiding unnecessary delay since they are stranded (on the border) from May 5, observed the division bench comprising Justice Shaji P Chaly and Justice M R Anitha while issuing the order at a special sitting held on Sunday. The court said the directions were issued taking the special circumstances into consideration and the order cannot be treated as a precedent for any future purposes. Later in the night, DySP Manoj Kumar confirmed to The New Indian Express that 137 people who had been stranded at the border since Saturday morning and another 100 who arrived on Sunday, all without passes, were allowed to enter the state following the High Court order. When the case came up for hearing, Additional Advocate-General Ranjit Thampan submitted before the court that no person could be permitted to enter the state from other states without obtaining passes as per the government order. While nearly 2,007 persons who came from other states with passes crossed Walayar checkpost on Sunday, many were seen waiting on the other side of the border. As many as 120 of them were sent to Covid care centres in Palakkad district as they had arrived from red zone areas. We have set up 24 round-the-clock counters to process the passes of inbound passengers. We havent let in anyone without passes, K O Varghese, tahsildar who is also the Executive Magistrate of the Walayar checkpost, said earlier in the day. Keralites stranded on the TN side were taken in buses provided by the Coimbatore administration at 10.30pm on Saturday to a camp in Kaliyaparambu in the TN city, he said. People coming in from red zone a threat to state The government, meanwhile, informed the High Court that a large number of persons coming from the red zone areas in other states is a possible threat for community spread of coronavirus in the state. Crowding of them at the checkposts too is a threat. Of the total 59,675 passes issued so far, 26,583 were for the persons arriving from red zone districts, the government told the court. Keeping this in mind, the Kerala Police have requested their Tamil Nadu counterparts to fairly evaluate the geographical locations provided by Keralites residing in that state while they apply for travel passes. The decision was taken after it was noted that a large number of people, who had already applied for passes, concealed the fact that they were from red zone districts. Of the 38 districts in Tamil Nadu, 12 fall under red zone which means they have Covid cases. As per the state government policy, the people from red zone districts need to undergo 14 days mandatory institutional quarantine, while those arriving from other districts without any symptoms can go in for home isolation. To avoid being quarantined in government facilities, several people have been giving wrong addresses as point of origin. The matter was taken up by state police chief Loknath Behera with his TN counterpart JK Tripathy on Sunday. Unless and until the people have passes of both the states, we wont allow them to enter the state. Now, the Tamil Nadu government has also agreed to act tough. We have also asked them to verify the details provided by people while applying for passes. They have agreed to do that. There are many people who hide their real place of residence and we want to put an end to it, Behera said. The petitioner argued that even though the persons travelling have secured passes from the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu authorities, they could not secure passes from Kerala, since the platform offered by the state government is not properly functional. The court asked the Kerala Government to ensure basic facilities at the entry points. The court also ordered the state government to adequately attend to the plea of the 13 students stuck in at Malahalla a forest area where wild animals are present near Muthanga for allowing entry into the state. NRKs surveillance to be strengthened TPuram: With three more NRKs testing positive for Covid-19, the Health Department has decided to strengthen surveillance of expats who arrived in the state from Thursday. Considering the new scenario, a section of the officers has raised an alarm against the quarantine protocol for foreign returnees. Traders offer help to expats The traders fraternity of Penta Menaka complex in Kochi has an emotional connect with expatriates as the building has many shops run by Gulf returnees. It prompted the Penta Menaka Owners Welfare Association to raise D25 lakh for a chartered flight from Dubai to Kerala for bringing back those who are stuck in the UAE and cannot afford tickets to India. The association has already placed a request before the Union Home Ministry. As many as 698 Indians were evacuated from the Maldives as part of Operation Samudra Setu While 440 of them were Keralites, 187 were natives of Tamil Nadu Jalashwa, which set sail from Male port on Friday night, reached Kochi at 9.30 am. The ships carrying Keralites stranded in Lakshadweep reached Kochi on Sunday. As many as 129 people aboard the ships disembarked at Mattancherry wharf. Six entry points Inchivila (TPuram) Aryankavu (Kollam) Kumily (Idukki) Walayar (Palakkad) Muthanga (Wayanad) Manjeswar (Kasaragod) No of persons who crossed the checkposts Walayar: 13,504 Manjeswar: 4,306 Muthanga: 589 Kumily: 1,435 Aryankavu: 1,101 Inchivila: 801 Interior Ministry: Lifting Precautionary Measures in Number of Madinah's Districts Starting from Today Saudi Press Agency Saturday 1441/9/16 - 2020/05/09 Riyadh, May 9, 2020, SPA -- An official source at the Ministry of Interior stated that, in light of the health authorities' recommendations, it was decided to lift the precautionary measures previously announced on 27/03/2020 in the districts of (Al-Shuraibat, Bani Dhafar, Qurban, Al-Jumuah, part of Al-Iskan and Bani Khadrah) in Madinah, as of today, Saturday 9 May 2020 and allowing their residents to move freely, to meet their needs, from 09:00 am until 05:00 pm, with the continuation of the work of the excluded activities and the implementation of health precautionary measures, which have been previously announced. The Ministry of Interior confirms that these measures have been taken as part of the efforts being exerted by the Kingdom to preserve public health by preventing the spread of the coronavirus, and are subject to continuous evaluation with health authorities. The Ministry also calls upon everyone to assume their responsibilities and adhere to the precautionary measures for the sake of the public interest. --SPA 14:30 LOCAL TIME 11:30 GMT 0008 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday lauded the Indian Navy for successfully evacuating stranded Indians from Maldives under the 'Operation Samudra Setu', as INS Jalashwa arrived Kochi harbour. Singh praised the Indian Armed forces for being present on occasions when Indian citizens need them the most. He also complimented the Indian Navy for doing a great job in serving the nation. Taking to Twitter the Defence Minister wrote: "Whenever and wherever the Indian citizens have needed help, the Armed Forces have always risen to the occasion. Indian Navy is doing a great job and serving the nation with pride. #SamudraSetuMission" READ | First 'Vande Bharat Mission' Evacuation flight from US to takeoff; Day 4 schedule here Whenever and wherever the Indian citizens have needed help, the Armed Forces have always risen to the occasion. Indian Navy is doing a great job and serving the nation with pride.#SamudraSetuMission @indiannavy https://t.co/AMCiJnVayu Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) May 10, 2020 READ | 'Vande Bharat' adds 2 new cases to Kerala's 'flattened COVID-19 curve'; Vijayan says 'warning' sign for all states INS Jalashwa arrives at Kochi The Indian Navy Ship (INS) Jalashwa arrived at the Kochi Harbour on Sunday morning with 698 Indians nationals who were stranded in the Maldives amid the Coronavirus lockdown. According to the Indian Navy, among the total evacuees, 595 are males and 103 are females, including 19 pregnant women. The ship had departed from Male, Maldives. This repatriation 'Operation Samudra Setu' is part of the 'Vande Bharat Mission' that began on Thursday to bring stranded Indians back home from various countries like the UK, the UAE, the US, Maldives, Bahrain, and Singapore. The INS Jalashwa is the country's second-largest warship of 16,900-tonnes after aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya. The ship can carry a crew of around 800 to 1000 people. READ | AI crew on Vande Bharat Mission can return to Gautam Budh Nagar from Delhi after COVID-19 test 'Operation Samudra Setu' 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. READ | COVID-19: Nationwide confirmed cases cross 62k, death toll tops 2k; Positive cases among 'Vande Bharat' returnees raise concerns Most of the wealthiest universities in the country have accepted money from the CARES Act, meant to help university students weather the economic consequences of COVID-19 and state shut-downs. The money is part of the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund.Education reformer Micah Merrick has been tracking CARES Act money that was allocated to universities directly (excluding money for student scholarships). Of the 100 wealthiest universities in the country, 98 were originally allocated federal bailout money. Only the Rockefeller University and the Kansas University endowments were left out of the original CARES Act largesse.The largest allocation is more than $86 million, which will go to the University of Texas system. UNC-Chapel Hill will receive more than $8.6 million.But public pressure persuaded some universities to either refund the money to the government or give it directly to students. Harvard, with an endowment worth more than $39 million in 2019, was allocated more than $4 million from the CARES Act. But on April 22, Harvard announced that it would not accept federal funds. Harvard also stated that it did not "apply for, request, receive, or access" the funding at any point.Several other universities also refused federal funding. Princeton and Stanford were the first to do so. No universities in North Carolina have refused federal funding, although Duke University, UNC-Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University are all among the top 100 wealthiest universities in the nation. Britain's richest men who are worth 22billion are using taxpayers' cash to furlough staff at their bus firm. The transport company Optare is using the Government scheme despite owners - the Hinduja family - building a huge fortune. The North Yorkshire-based firm makes electric buses and some of the 360 employees have been furloughed, despite the family topping The Sunday Times Rich List last year. Hinduja Group employs 150,000 people worldwide and had sales of nearly 40billion in 2018. It is chaired by Srichand Hinduja who lives in London along with brother Gopi. Hinduja Group employs 150,000 people worldwide and had sales of nearly 40billion in 2018. It is chaired by Srichand Hinduja who lives in London along with brother Gopi (the brothers are pictured) Tory MP Peter Bone said last night he hoped the Hindujas would 'reflect' on the decision. He told The Sun: 'The scheme is a brilliant innovation by the Government to help firms who can't afford to get through this difficult period. 'It is not intended to help megarich individuals get taxpayers' money. 'They should not be furloughing staff, they should be paying for it.' Gopi has a 250million home on Carlton House Terrace in central London, where the family occupies four connected homes bought from the Queen. They bought the old War Office building in Whitehall in 2014 and are turning it into a hotel. The family's business portfolio was started by their Mumbai-based father Parmanand in 1914 and Optare's parent company is Ashok Leyland, a flagship brand of Indian conglomerate, Hinduja Group. The North Yorkshire-based firm makes electric buses and some of the 360 employees have been furloughed, despite the the family topping The Sunday Times Rich List last year In 2001 Labour minister Peter Mandelson resigned amid claims he used his position to influence a British passport application for Srichand. An independent inquiry later found no wrongdoing by Mr Mandelson or the Hinduja brothers. A statement from Ashok Leyland said on Saturday night that the company has been in trouble for some time anyway. It said: 'Even if the pandemic had not happened, Optare might have had to lose 360 direct jobs and 1,000 indirect jobs in UK. The company chose to carry on under Ashok Leyland's stewardship instead. 'Globally automotive manufacturers are seeking and securing Government support during this unprecedented time to ensure short-term survival. 'Rather than resorting to plant closure resulting in the loss of jobs, Optare is using the JRS to ensure business continuity while in lockdown.' Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to make a final decision on the future of the furlough scheme this weekend Chancellor Rishi Sunak will make a final decision this weekend on when and how to phase out the government's coronavirus furlough scheme, it was claimed yesterday. There are growing concerns within Whitehall that the nation is becoming 'addicted' to state help and Mr Sunak is looking at how the wage support initiative can be wound down. The latest government statistics showed that some 800,000 firms have made applications for furlough, covering more than six million workers. The current version of the scheme is due to expire at the end of June. At the moment firms can claim 80 per cent of a furloughed worker's wages up to a monthly cap of 2,500. Last week Victoria Beckham 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. Please Turn to Chapter 11 First J. Crew filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Then, it was Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman. Whos next? The troubled companies say that they still plan to reopen stores once its safe to do so and that theyll operate normally throughout their debt restructuring. But it is a strange new world for retailers, many of whom were struggling to maintain their brick-and-mortar businesses even before people were ordered to stay home. Image Credit... Giacomo Bagnara Whats Next? (May 10-16) Creaking Back to Life Certain businesses were allowed to reopen in 21 states this past week. But are government orders enough to make people feel safe going out to shop, eat, work out and get their hair done especially as the virus is still spreading and lines for tests are long? In Georgia, the first state to do widespread openings of high-contact businesses like restaurants, gyms, salons and tattoo parlors, data shows that many business owners and consumers have been slow to poke out their heads. They may have good reason, as public health officials have warned that restarting the economy will lead to a wave of new infections. Breaking Ranks Amazon took another public relations hit when one of its vice presidents, Tim Bray, announced that he had quit in dismay over the recent firings of employees who protested gaps in the companys response to the coronavirus, which he called evidence of a vein of toxicity running through the company culture. He specifically criticized the firing of a Staten Island warehouse worker who led a protest in March calling for more safety equipment and protections against infection. Nine Democratic senators, led by Elizabeth Warren, are now questioning whether those firings were actually retaliation against whistle-blowers a violation of labor laws and have asked Amazon to provide more information. Hello, Justices Calling The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a dispute involving subpoenas for President Trumps tax and financial documents, and it will be broadcast live this coming Tuesday as part of the courts first ever round of oral arguments by teleconference. House Democrats have long sought access to Mr. Trumps records as part of an investigation into his connection to hush-money payments made during his 2016 presidential campaign. But the president has blocked their efforts at every turn, and his lawyers have argued that he is immune from all criminal proceedings and investigations while he remains in office. The 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War is approaching. This year, the pandemic made adjustments to the celebration of May 9, in particular, the parade on the occasion of Victory Day was postponed. Nevertheless, the current conditions do not prevent us from talking about the Victory, remembering the feat of grandfathers and great-grandfathers. Visiting the Bulletin of the Caucasus, a member of the board of the Russian Historical Society, president of the Russian State Humanitarian University, chairman of the board of the Russian Society of Historian Archivists, member of the board of the Russian Union of Rectors Efim Pivovar and lead researcher at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, author of Fuel of Victory: Azerbaijan during the Great World War II "Mikhail Mukhin. - Yefim Iosifovich, the question is for you as an expert on the post-Soviet space. What is the role of the Caspian region in the Victory? Has the scientific approach to the analysis of this problem changed? Yefim Pivovar: The Caspian region played an important role in the strategy of World War II. The Tehran Conference was the first meeting of the leaders of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, which recorded their allied commitments. Since that time, Northern Iran was controlled by Soviet troops, so the Caspian was completely anti-Hitler. But it could have been different, for example, if Turkey had entered the war. Hitler was not in vain eager for the Caucasus. This was one of his strategic goals. The battle of Stalingrad was caused precisely by the fact that the Nazi forces decided to cut off the Caspian from the central regions of the Soviet Union and in this way decide the outcome of the war. Strategically, the Caspian is a very important region, and the battle for the Caucasus is one of the most important pages in the history of that war. In this territory, the front and rear used to change places: here there was a front line, then a strip of active hostilities. Mikhail Mukhin: Let me give you an illustrative example of the fact that the concepts of front and rear were blurred. In 1942, the Germans broke through to Stalingrad, and although the Soviet troops held a few spots there, by and large, the Volga in this place was shot by the Germans even with machine guns. Therefore, Absheron oil could not be transported in tankers along the Volga. The Germans sank a lot of Soviet tankers. In the winter of 1942-1943, Baku oil became virtually impossible to export. Under these conditions, Baku seafarers began to fill railroad tanks with oil, which were then removed from the platforms and immersed in water. Due to the fact that oil is lighter than water, the tank kept afloat, several dozen such tanks connected, clung to a tug, and this tug dragged such a garland of tanks across the entire Caspian Sea to Krasnovodsk. There, these tanks were caught, installed back on railway platforms and transported by rail through Dagestan to the central regions of the USSR. The Germans bombed these tanks, and the tug continued to drag them to Krasnovodsk. In such circumstances, where was it worse - at the front or in the rear? It must be understood that in those years the concept of labor feat is not a rhetorical form, but a dry, clear, objective statement of facts. It was a feat. But the feat is not with a machine gun in hand, but in the mine, at the oil rig, at the helm of a tugboat. - Mikhail Yurievich, in the introduction to the book you give a short excursion on the bilateral relations between Russia and Azerbaijan, in particular, you say that the Azerbaijani elite was incorporated into the Russian Empire. Explain why? Mikhail Mukhin: The question is very complex, polyphonic. At first, I was not going to consider it. But reeling back where it all came from, he suddenly ran into this problem. With a careful analysis, it turned out that Russia in the Caucasus did not have such forces to force the Azerbaijanis to join the empire. In the 1804-1850s, at first there was a Georgian, then a Caucasian corps less than 9 thousand people: from the Black Sea to the Caspian, this is from Yekaterinodar to Baku. The Azerbaijani elite at that time resolved the issue of civilizational choice. Three projects were simultaneously considered - to focus on Iran, on Turkey (at that time the sultan was officially the patron saint of all the faithful) or on Russia. I am firmly convinced that if a significant part of the Azerbaijani establishment would not have made an absolutely conscious choice in favor of Russia, then Russia would not have achieved anything there. In 1805, the reserve command of the Georgian corps was a detachment of Colonel Karyagin numbering 490 people with, scary to say, two guns. Of course, if a significant part of the Azerbaijani elite had not come out in favor of an alliance with Russia, with all its merits, Colonel Karyagin would not have done anything there. I want to note that this choice was very tight and prepared ahead of time. Empress Catherine the Great was in personal correspondence with the Karabakh khan, considering him one of the most intelligent correspondents. Already in the 1830s, not only in Baku, but in Shusha and Shamakhi, balls and theatrical performances were held in a European manner. In 1837, the Azerbaijani poet Akhundov wrote a poem in Persian on the death of Pushkin, the next year this poem is translated into Russian and published. This is to the question of whether the Azerbaijanis felt themselves to be a colonized country. Could an Indian poet in the XIX century write a poem in Hindi on the death of Byron. Who is Byron for an Indian !? But who Pushkin was, Akhundov knew and had his own opinion. Therefore, during the years of World War II, Azerbaijanis perceived the attack of the USSR as an attack on themselves. This is rooted in from those times when the Azerbaijanis made a well-informed choice, united with Russia, feeling a spiritual relationship with Russia. Yefim Pivovar: This is generally a feature of the colonial policy of the Russian Empire: it has always incorporated part of the elite into its composition. This applied to the Caucasus and Central Asia. - Yefim Iosifovich, awareness of the significance of the Great Victory is a question not only of science, but also of education. How do you assess the level of presentation of this issue in Azerbaijani schools? Yefim Pivovar: The result that we are seeing now is ensured to some extent thanks to the tradition laid down by the founder of present-day Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyevich Aliyev. The Russian sector has remained intact in the educational system of Azerbaijan. Regardless of the number and proportion of the Russian-speaking population, Russian-language kindergartens and schools of all levels operate in Azerbaijan. There is a Russian sector in higher education, it is possible to defend a dissertation in Russian, candidate and doctoral. Azerbaijanis are mostly employed in this system, since the Russian-speaking diaspora in the country is small. It actively uses educational materials in Russian, including those created in the Russian Federation. I personally read Russian-language textbooks for higher education and for secondary schools of Azerbaijani authors. All this facilitates the task of exchanging information, obtaining an adequate idea of what is written with us about certain events. Of course, there are differences, however, we still have more general trends, traits and approaches. This is undeniably a positive moment. Azerbaijan relies quite effectively on the achievements of the Soviet period. There is no nihilism, complete rejection. There is a critical assessment, but reliance is on achievements. Over the past years, many documents have been discovered, especially related to events that were hushed up in the Soviet era. For example, the whole history of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR). In the Soviet era, we actually did not have materials about ADR, that its leaders participated in the Versailles Conference. Now the process of exchanging information is just beginning. It needs to be intensified. We already have successful attempts to create joint work, but further efforts are needed. Jose K Joseph By Express News Service TIRUCHY: Air Indian Express flight with crew took off from Tiruchy International Airport at 1 pm on Saturday to bring back Indian nationals stranded in Malaysia under the Vande Bharat Mission. As many as 177 passengers arrived in the city in the night. District Collector S Sivarasu, City Health Officer A Jagannathan, and other senior officials were monitoring arrangements. The flight returned home with passengers at 11.20 pm. We are expecting about 196 passengers. They will be placed under in quarantine at the Government Engineering College in Sethurapatti for 14 days, said the Collector S Sivarasu before the arrival on Saturday evening. We are already following a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) suggested by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Our workers will conduct the necessary sanitisation works at the airport to ensure safety, an officer said. Meanwhile, the national carriers rescue operation was led by women pilots Captain Kavitha Rajkumar as the commanding officer of the Tiruchy-Malaysia-Tiruchy mission and Captain Bindu Sebastian for the Kochi-Muscut-Kochi operation. Lebanon's churches have welcomed worshippers for the first time in nearly two months. Most churches were closed to the public to limit the spread of coronavirus, but Lebanese authorities have started easing restrictions that were imposed in March. Churches and mosques are now permitted to welcome worshippers for congregational prayers on Sundays and Fridays as long as capacities are limited and other safety guidelines including social distancing measures are respected. Many worshippers entering churches around Lebanon on Sunday were sprayed with disinfectant and had their temperatures checked before they were allowed in to sit at a distance from others. Masses including the Easter prayers were held in empty churches for the first time in Lebanon's recent history last month. Even during the country's civil war from 1975-90 did not stop its people from going to places of worship. Lebanon has the largest percentage of Christians in the Middle East, about a third of the country's five million people. The country has registered 809 cases of the coronavirus with 26 deaths attributed to COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Your tax-deductible gift today powers our reporters and keeps us independent. We rely on you, our reader, not paywalls to stay funded because we believe important news and information should be freely accessible to all. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe The election this Tuesday in California's 25th Congressional District is taking place not only in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, but also the scandal that led to Democrat Katie Hill's resignation. In a sign of the race's rhetorical importance to both parties, President Trump has endorsed Republican candidate Mike Garcia on Twitter and taken a swipe at the opening of voting centers in Lancaster. (More on that later.) Christy Smith, the Democratic candidate, has scooped up nods from 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama. The stakes are high. Democrats are suddenly concerned about losing a seat their party had just gained in the 2018 midterms in an area of Southern California -- north Los Angeles and eastern Ventura counties -- that long had been a Republican stronghold. Pastor Jacob Johnson of Growing Valley Baptist Church in Lancaster has watched the Democratic Party's ups and downs in his neck of the woods over the past eighteen months. Things peaked when Hill flipped the longtime GOP seat in 2018, one of seven California Republicans swept out of Congress during that election's blue wave. "But amidst that celebration, let's just say, life occurred," Johnson said. "And it put them in a situation that I'm sure they never expected to be." "Life" was Hill's sudden resignation, less than a year later, in the wake of intimate photos published online without her consent, and a House ethics probe launched to look into accusations of an improper relationship with a staff member. "After every mountaintop experience, there is a valley," Johnson added. "Now [Democrats] find themselves in the valley." The hangover from Hill's resignation has weighed on local Democratic activists. "It's tough to get people to keep up their energy and enthusiasm and stay in this and keep going," said Hilary Schardein, chair of CA25 United for Progress, a liberal group backing issues supported by the Democratic candidate, Assembly member Christy Smith. Tuesday's election will fill out the remainder of Hill's term until January, 2021. Both candidates are poised to face each other in the November general election for a full two-year term. Smith announced her candidacy the day after Hill said she would step down. The Republican candidate, Garcia, is a Raytheon executive and former Navy fighter pilot. L.A. County vote center lead Steven Toro sanitizes pens to keep voters safe in Palmdale, CA on May 3, 2020. (Libby Denkmann / LAist) CORONAVIRUS TAKES CENTER STAGE How to respond to the coronavirus pandemic has become the central issue of the race. Garcia supports the Trump administration's approach to reopen the economy as soon as possible. Smith backs Gov. Gavin Newsom's plan for opening the economy, which includes a requirement for local communities to have a plan to track and trace infections. "The most important thing we can do is to remind people to continue to stay safe at home until their respective county or community orders expire," she said. Garcia's supporters and volunteers have courted people such as Linda Enos, who worries about the impact of stay-at-home orders on the economy and personal liberties. "People are losing their jobs, their incomes," Enos said at a recent protest against stay-at-home orders. She and her husband, Robert, run a coffee shop that had to close because of local and state health orders to prevent the spread of the virus. "They're destroying our economy. I think it's waking up a sleeping giant." Robert Enos says banning in-person church service, along with other big gatherings, is an example of overreach by the state. He's confident there's enough simmering outrage in this suburban and rural district to help propel Garcia to victory. "We're watching this with all this shutdown and the freedoms being taken from us," he said. "We're watching. Who are the politicians that are standing for us, wanting our freedoms back? And it'll show up on election day." But polling shows the majority of Californians are more concerned about shelter-in-place orders ending prematurely. Schardein says the recent "open up" demonstrations are one way for Republicans to energize their conservative base ahead of the special election. "It was a whole bunch of people wearing Make America Great Again hats," she said. "From all appearances, it was just a political rally." PANDEMIC RESHAPES CAMPAIGNING The world has changed profoundly since California's primary on March 3. Garcia's and Smith's campaigns are suddenly playing out on Zoom instead of neighbors' doorsteps. Instead of an in-person debate, they took part in an online candidate forum. Republican Mike Garcia and Democrat Christy Smith met in an online forum held by the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce in April. (Santa Clarita Valley Chamber Of Commerce) The candidates have had to shift policy gears as well. Issues such as health care and the economy have taken on new importance. On paper, Smith should be the odds-on favorite to keep the seat in Democratic hands. In recent years, the district's demographics have shifted to favor Democrats as the area's population grows younger and more diverse. Clinton won the district by seven percentage points in 2016, while first-time candidate Hill defeated Knight by nearly double digits. But Republican voters tend to show up more consistently in non-presidential elections, said California State University Northridge political scientist Larry Becker, who added that nothing about a special election during a global pandemic is normal. "We have no idea what turnout is going to be," Becker said. As a safety measure, Los Angeles and Ventura counties mailed all registered voters an absentee ballot so that they won't have to vote in person. But candidates still have an uphill climb to motivate people with plenty of other worries on their minds. "People are sitting at home helping their kid with their third-grade math work. They're trying to figure out how to help a loved one who might be sick," Becker said. "The special election is really, I think, not high on a lot of people's radar." A BITTER BATTLE IN THE HIGH DESERT Both political parties have been making moves suggesting they're expecting a razor-thin margin of victory. Last week, Democrats asked for more places to vote in-person in part of the district with a large African American population, saying these voters may be disenfranchised by an all-mail election. On Friday, the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder announced a new vote center would be available in Lancaster, after a request by Republican Mayor R. Rex Parris. President Trump, Garcia and other Republicans criticized the move as a political "scam" by Democrats. 1/@ChristyforCA25 and her liberal Dem allies didnt say anything for weeks even though the polling places were in full view of the public. Even after every voter received a ballot, they are desperate and trying to change the rules to steal an election. We cant let them succeed!! Mike Garcia (@ElectMikeGarcia) May 9, 2020 Meanwhile, the California GOP announced last week it is filing a lawsuit to stop "ballot harvesting," a practice that's legal in California, where campaign volunteers or community groups collect mail-in ballots to turn in to election officials. Republicans argue ballot harvesting is too vulnerable to fraud and unsafe during the COVID-19 crisis. At the same time, a leaked email from the Garcia campaign appears to enlist churches to participate in a ballot collection effort. 10.05.2020 LISTEN The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) says it has arrested over 200 illegal immigrants since the closure of the country's international borders. The arrests were made in about 26 separate incidents. Ghana's borders have been closed since the 22nd of March, 2020 as part of the government's measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus in the country. The immigration service has had to arrest a number of illegal immigrants who entered the country through unapproved routes with the latest being seven Burkinabes at the Ghana-Burkina Faso border. The Public Affairs officer of the Upper West Regional Immigration Service, Ibn Yussif Duranah, in a Citi News interview described the situation as a cause for concern. So far as I am concerned, weve recorded as many as 26 arrests from March that the borders were closed comprising as many persons as 196 and its a cause for concern. Some of the technicalities involved here are that Ghana we have our lockdown but have we received any repatriated Ghanaians from Burkina Faso, and thats not the case because we have ensured that this directive by the president which is already our mandate is adhered to its fullest, he expressed. We'll deal with illegal immigrants, Ghanaian accomplices Nana Addo President Nana Akufo Addo has already promised to deal with foreigners who enter Ghana and nationals who aid them illegally. He warned that not only will persons who enter our country illegally be strictly dealt with, but so will Ghanaians who facilitate their entry. These are unpatriotic acts and must stop. We cannot continue to allow a few persons, who are motivated by their own selfish, money-making interests, to endanger the lives of the rest of the population. The President had earlier closed the country's borders indefinitely as part of measures to fight the Coronavirus. citinewsroom Residential areas are likely to continue receiving uninterrupted power during the extended lockdown period despite the recent partial re-opening of industries, a senior Government official has said. President Mnangagwa on May 1, extended the national lockdown by two more weeks and downgraded it to Level Two, where industries that usually consume much electricity were permitted to operate between 8am to 3pm. Most suburbs across the country have been experiencing constant electricity supplies since the beginning of the Covid-19-induced national lockdown, when industries were shut. The Herald established that since the industries were re-opened on Monday, most residential areas still continued to have steady electricity supplies. In an interview on Wednesday, Energy and Power Development Deputy Minister Magna Mudyiwa assured people that supplies to residential areas will continue uninterrupted until industry returned to full throttle. The availability of excess supply in the region, the potential to increase power from Kariba and the return of other units from Hwange will determine the ability of electricity to meet the increase in demand, she said. The steady supply comes after Zesa Holdings recently approved an automatic hike of 19,02 percent for all tariffs calculated from a formula that ensures continuation of imports and operation of its stations. Deputy Minister Mudyiwa said even post-Covid-19, the situation may still remain steady, depending on the suppliers. Zesa relies largely on thermal power from Hwange and imports from South Africa and Mozambique as Kariba South has been generating well below capacity because of low water flows into Lake Kariba. In Zesas energy mix, Kariba South power is normally the cheapest. Pickering deputy mayor Kevin Ashe says he has tested positive for COVID-19, despite his best efforts. In a statement Saturday, Ashe said he believes he likely contracted it from his daughter, who works as a personal support worker at Orchard Villa long-term care home. More than 190 residents at the 233-bed home in Pickering have tested positive for the virus. The home has the highest death toll at a long-term-care home in the province, with 66 residents dead. He said his symptoms have been fairly mild and that he will continue working for the city remotely. The rest of his family will be self-isolating with him at their home for the next 14 days. My diagnosis embodies the strange and unprecedented times we find ourselves in. However, I dont want the community to be discouraged, he said We are winning. We are flattening the curve. There is light at the end of this long and scary tunnel. I will recover. Our city will re-open. Together, we will overcome this terrible crisis, and as a result, we will be even stronger and more resilient. In this Friday, April 24, 2020 photo provide by the Alfred Wegener Insitute shows the German Arctic research vessel Polarstern in the ice next to a research camp in the Arctic region. Dozens of scientists are waiting in quarantine for the all-clear to join a year-long Arctic research mission aimed at improving the models used for forecasting climate change, just as the expedition reaches a crucial phase. For a while, the international mission looked like it might have to be called off, as country after country went into lockdown because of the virus, scuppering plans to bring fresh supplies and crew to the German research vessel Polarstern that's been moored in the high Arctic since last year. (Manuel Ernst/Alfred-Wegner-Institut via AP) They prepared for icy cold and trained to be on the watch for polar bears, but a pandemic just wasn't part of the program. Now dozens of scientists are waiting in quarantine for the all-clear to join a year-long Arctic research mission aimed at improving the models used for forecasting climate change, just as the expedition reaches a crucial phase. For a while, the international mission looked like it might have to be called off, as country after country went into lockdown because of the virus, scuppering plans to bring fresh supplies and crew to the German research vessel Polarstern that's been moored in the high Arctic since last year. News of the pandemic caused jitters among those already on board, said Matthew Shupe, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Colorado and co-leader of the MOSAiC expedition. "Some people just wanted to be home with their families," he told The Associated Press in a video interview from the German port of Bremerhaven, where he and about 90 other scientists and crew have been kept in isolation to ensure they're virus-free. Organizers at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Ocean Research managed to fly out a handful of people via Canada last month. The rest of the crew will be exchanged with the help of two other German research ships that will meet the Polarstern on the sea ice edge. In this photo provided by the Alfred-Wegener-Institut and taken on May 6, 2020, Nina Machner, right, holds a COVID-19 test swab as colleague Tim Heitland puts on gloves, before testing a MOSAiC scientist, in Bremerhaven, Germany. They prepared for icy cold and trained to watch for polar bears, but a pandemic just wasn't part of the program. Now dozens of scientists are sitting in quarantine, waiting for permission to sail forth and capture a crucial moment in the polar calendar that's essential to their year-long Arctic research mission. (Alfred-Wegener-Institut via AP) That upcoming rendezvous will force the Polarstern to abandon its current position for three weeks at a critical time in the Arctic cycle. "We are on the cusp right now of the onset of the sea ice melt season and that's a really important transition," said Shupe. "That could happen when the ship is gone," he said. "It's a distinct risk we face." To avoid missing out on key data, researchers will leave some instruments behind, including an 11-meter (36-foot) tower used for atmospheric measurements, and hope that it's still there when they return. "The ice could just come together and destroy everything," said Shupe. "Hopefully that doesn't happen." Adding to the problem is the fact that the sea ice is cracking up and moving about earlier than anticipated, a sign of possible future changes to the Arctic if global warming continues. In this photo provided by the Alfred-Wegener-Institut and taken on May 6, 2020, MOSAiC participants stand at the window of their rooms in the hotel, where they are in quarantined before returning to the MOSAiC expedition, in Bremerhaven, Germany. They prepared for icy cold and trained to watch for polar bears, but a pandemic just wasn't part of the program. Now dozens of scientists are sitting in quarantine, waiting for permission to sail forth and capture a crucial moment in the polar calendar that's essential to their year-long Arctic research mission. (Esther Horvath, Alfred-Wegener-Institut via AP) "It's challenging," said Shupe. "But we need to face that challenge in order to get these kind of measurements." Scientists on the 140-million-euro ($158 million) expedition have already gathered valuable data since setting out last September with 100 researchers and crew from 17 nations including the United States, France, China and Britain. Shupe said the measurements that scientists were able to perform during the long Arctic winter will improve the models they use to calculate how snow insulates sea ice and affects the movement of energy. "Conceptually we know that, of course, but we actually have observations now that will tell us how that's working," he said. Measurements of tiny airborne particles can also help shed light on the role they play in trapping heat or reflecting sunlight, especially if there's less ice and more open ocean as temperatures in the Arctic continue to rise. In this photo provided by the Alfred-Wegener-Institut and taken on May 6, 2020, Anna-Lena Bohlen, right and Eberhard Kolhberg enter the room of a MOSAiC scientist to take a coronavirus test, in Bremerhaven, Germany. They prepared for icy cold and trained to watch for polar bears, but a pandemic just wasn't part of the program. Now dozens of scientists are sitting in quarantine, waiting for permission to sail forth and capture a crucial moment in the polar calendar that's essential to their year-long Arctic research mission. (Alfred-Wegener-Institut via AP) The intense interest into research about the coronavirus could have a positive knock-on effect for fields such as climate science, said Shupe. "Everybody is now looking at the new for models of how this (virus) spreads," he said. "Perhaps this actually opens the door to more people to understand the climate problem." Still, the researchers on MOSAiC are hoping to deal with one problem at a time, hence the strict quarantine to avoid any chance of carrying the coronavirus into the Arctic. "We definitely don't want anybody getting sick and we don't want to take that out to the ship," said Shupe. "Realistically, it's actually one of the safest places on Earth right now." Explore further Pandemic forces Arctic expedition to take 3-week break 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Travel blogger Shelley Tonkin captured extraordinary drone video of Western Australias Hutt Lagoon in August, showcasing the vivid, bubblegum-pink waters of the salt lake. (Screenshot/wheresshelly/Storyful) Melbourne Creek Turns Bright Pink; Environmental Officials Investigate Australian environmental officials are investigating what turned a creek in Melbournes north to bright pink over the weekend. Authorities are still unsure why Edgars Creek, in Coburg North, turned a shade of fluorescent pink on May 9, and warned the public to avoid the bizarre phenomenon until further notice. EPA officers are investigating the cause of the strange discoloration which happened near Adnette Court, Victorias Environmental Protection Authority wrote on Facebook on May 9. In an updated post, the authority said the creek has since started returning to normal as it is naturally flushed from recent rainfall. In another post on May 10, the EPA said heavy rains have now flushed the pink pollutant from the creek, which is returning to normal, and thanked the Coburg North community for reporting the incident. Tara DeGraft-Hayford, a Melbourne resident, told The Age that she had seen the pollution on May 9 while she was out walking her dog. I thought it was a plastic sheet, and as I got closer, I noticed it was coming from the drain and the water was actually pink, she said, noting that the bizarre sight almost looked like soap. It looked quite thick and so bright, almost like some kind of soapbut not. It was weird, she said, adding that the pollution had no smell, but it looked not right and definitely not safe, whatever it was. According to The Age, Edgars Creek runs 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) from Wollert through Epping, Thomastown, and Reservoir before joining the Merri Creek at Coburg North and is populated with native bird species. Edgars Creek isnt the only body of water in Victoria to turn pink, as the citys Westgate Park also turns a bright cotton candy shade most summers due to a natural process, when salt levels are higher than usual. Westgate Parks salt lake has turned pink again this season: a natural phenomenon in response to very high salt levels, high temperatures, sunlight and lack of rainfall, Parks Victoria explained in a 2017 Facebook post. Algae growing in the salt crust at the bottom of the lake produces the red pigment (beta carotene) as part of its photosynthesis process and in response to extremely high salt levels. The organization said that while the algae isnt harmful to local wildlife, people should avoid coming into contact with the water and instead just enjoy the views. People wait for COVID-19 testing at a screening center in a public health center in Yongsan, Sunday, amid growing fears of a cluster infection after a man in his 20s who went to clubs in Itaewon was confirmed to be infected last week. /Yonhap By Bahk Eun-ji Many parents are expressing concerns over the government's move to reopen schools starting this week, as a hike in the number of COVID-19 patients linked to an Itaewon club-goer has put health authorities on edge again. Education authorities announced plans to reopen schools this week as the spread of the highly contagious virus had been showing signs of abating. More than two months after schools were physically closed, high school seniors will return to school on May 13 under the plan, while younger students will resume school in stages between May 20 and June 1. However, many parents became concerned about the government's plan and wonder if the education ministry is sufficiently prepared for possible mass infections in classrooms. A 33-year-old homemaker living in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, surnamed Kang, said her priority is her seven-year-old son's health among any other things. "My son has already missed opportunities to see his teacher and friends in person, but staying healthy is more important than making friends," Kang said. She also said the government should think twice about reopening the schools because young children like Kang's son can be more vulnerable to the virus. Yeo Chul-hyung, 38, an office worker and father of a nine-year-old daughter and six-year-old son, said he can't just send his children to school and kindergarten, considering the increasing number of cases linked to nightclubs in Seoul. "There are 28 children in my daughter's classroom. Imagine if just one student tested positive for the virus, then all 27 children and their 54 parents should be quarantined. If they have brothers and sisters in middle or high schools, the number of people under quarantine measures will skyrocket. Can the government handle that scenario? Well, I seriously doubt it," Yeo said. Health authorities however, said it is premature to decide whether to postpone the school reopenings at this stage. "It is too early to discuss the rescheduling of schools reopening as the epidemiological investigation about the latest cluster infections is in an early stage. We have been closely monitoring the spread of the virus at this moment," Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip said in a regular press briefing at the government complex in Sejong. Along with revealing the results of the investigation, Kim said quarantine authorities, the Ministry of Education and local authorities will discuss the school reopening plan. SHENZHEN, CHINA, May 9, 2020 - (ACN Newswire) - Shenzhen's Nanshan District has launched "2020 Global Cloud Shopping Festival, Trip to Nanshan", from April 25 to June 30, to revitalize consumption and boost the district's economy. The festival is issuing benefits to consumers in the form of discounts, coupons and raffles, delivered via online platforms. This event is organized by Shenzhen Nanshan District Industrial and Commercial Bureau (Bureau of Commerce) along with domestic internet giant Tencent and Chinese online lender Lexin.Hotels, restaurants, travel agents and other businesses in Nanshan are boosting their sales with collected coupons and discounts available via a WeChat mini-program named 'Yungou Nanshan', or 'Cloud Purchase Nanshan', while high-tech companies are on a special raffle page at 'Fenqile', by Lexin. Raffle entrants have the chance to win various brand items including drones and intelligent robots provided by local companies DJI and UBTECH, among others.The district not only gathers retail, accommodation, catering, tourism and technology companies to propose deals and discounts to the festivals shoppers, but it helps participating businesses with preferred displays and media communications during the event.As a strong economic and technological district, Nanshan is committed to innovation and strives to provide an international first-class business environment for local enterprise. Nanshan has successfully nurtured world-renowned technology companies such as Tencent, Huawei, DJI, and many others.As a win-win event which brings benefits to enterprises and the public, the 2020 Global Cloud Shopping Festival, Trip to Nanshan, is warmly welcomed by the citizens of the district. Nanshan looks forward to people from around the world learning about it and coming online to join in!Media Contact:Shenzhen Nanshan District Industrial and Commercial Bureau (Bureau of Commerce)Phone: +86 755 26667554Source: Shenzhen Nanshan District Industrial and Commercial Branch BureauCopyright 2020 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. 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. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Both candidates running for the First Judicial District Attorney can agree on one thing the office is in need of some leadership, having seen several cases thrown out on technicalities. Attorneys were sanctioned and deadlines were not met. The trains havent been running on time, said Scott Fuqua, one of two Democrats running to replace Marco Serna, who is campaigning for the seat in the 3rd Congressional District being vacated by Ben Ray Lujan. Fuqua has been involved with Santa Fes legal community for over a decade. The Portales natives first job in the state came in 2007 under then-attorney general Gary King, where he rose from staff attorney to Kings director of litigation. During that time, he also made several arguments in front of the New Mexico Supreme Court. Fuqua now manages his own private practice in Santa Fe, but said hes running for district attorney to provide a steady hand for the office. Theres been a little bit of a leadership vacuum at the office, he said. There have been some mistakes made in the office that may not have been as severe had there been a little direction. Asked what he would like to change, Fuqua said treatment options for low-level offenders struggling with addiction need to be increased to prevent non-violent criminals from reentering the criminal justice system. The criminalization of addiction has been, I think, the single biggest policy failure in the United States in my lifetime, he said. It does nothing to address the problem. He said his managerial experience, both in private practice and the Attorney Generals Office, has prepared him to effectively oversee cases and retain attorneys for longer periods of time. Fuqua does not have prior experience as a prosecutor, something his opponent, Assistant District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, says gives her an advantage. Born in Oklahoma, Carmack-Altwies studied law at the University of New Mexico and has practiced in the state ever since. She worked as a public defender and then managed her own criminal law firm in Albuquerque before joining Sernas administration a little over a year ago. She now oversees the special victims and violent crime unit. Like Fuqua, she also wants to help low-level offenders stay out of New Mexicos prisons. She said she would divide the District Attorneys Office into two separate units: violent and low-level crimes. She said those in low-level crimes would be offered wrap-around services to help treat any addictions or trauma they may be facing. Carmack-Altwies said Serna hired her for her managerial experience, which she said will help her make the office more efficient and successful in handling cases. Thats one of the things the office is lacking right now; theres no effective and ongoing management, she said. She also wants to better retain staff attorneys by asking the Legislature for funds to make salaries more competitive, a strategy already implemented by the district attorneys office in Albuquerque. As far as mistakes made by the office, Carmack-Altwies touted the fact that her unit has not had any cases dismissed on technicalities since she joined. She also said she plans on taking a handful of cases herself each year, something she said district attorneys rarely do. Ive always thought that was a mistake, she said. You need to see if your policies are effective. When it comes to raising funds, Carmack-Altwies has outpaced Fugua. She has raised $94,420, while Fuqua has $23,071 in the kitty. The First Judicial District Attorney oversees Santa Fe, Rio Arriba and Los Alamos counties. No-one from another party is seeking the job, so the winner of the June 2 Democratic primary election will be the judicial districts next district attorney. The number of Covid-19 positive cases crossed the 20,000-mark in Maharashtra on Sunday, according to Union Health Ministry data. The state reported 1,165 cases on Saturday, taking the total number of cases to 20,228. It took Maharashtra only nine days to go from 10,000 cases to 20,000 cases, whereas it had taken 53 days to reach 10,000 cases after the first case was reported on March 9. Maharashtra also recorded 48 deaths on Saturday, the highest the highest in a single day so far. The total number of fatalities linked to the coronavirus disease stands at 779 in Maharashtra. The mortality rate has, however, come down in the state. From 7.21 per cent on April 12, the mortality rate has improved to 3.83 per cent now, state health authorities said. While 86.48 per cent or 16,482 of the total Covid-19 cases till Friday are from Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR), 85.77 per cent or 627 of the total 731 deaths are also from these regions. These are the most populated areas in the state, accommodating around 30 per cent (or 35 million) of the states total population on over 11,600 square km, which is less than five per cent of the states total area. On Saturday morning, a special flight carrying Indian nationals from London landed at Mumbais Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj airport, with 326 passengers. Another flight with 243 Indians from Singapore is expected to land in Mumbai on Sunday afternoon and another from Manila at 11 pm. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday approved free travel by state transport buses for migrants, workers, locals and tourists to travel within the state, or who are at state borders and want to travel elsewhere in the state. So far, Maharashtra has conducted 2,27,804 tests for Covid-19, of which of 20,228 have tested positive in the state. Between Friday night and Saturday night, Maharashtra conducted 15,454 tests and 1,165 people tested positive, which is 7.53 per cent of the total people tested. 2,41,290 people are currently under home quarantine, while 13,976 are under institutional quarantine. Three thousand eight hundred patients have fully recovered from various hospitals, after testing positive in the past nine weeks. Maharashtra Police have registered a total of 1,00,245 cases for lockdown violations, most of these are against people who gathered at one place. A total of 19,297 people were arrested since the state was put under lockdown on March 22. Although all incumbent state senators are almost certain to make it through Tuesday's primary election, the path ahead could be treacherous for a number of them leading up to a general election in November that conceivably could alter a key lever of power in the Legislature. Let's unpack what lies ahead: * Only two senators Julie Slama of Peru and Mike Hilgers of Lincoln have more than one challenger in the primary election, and all 19 incumbent candidates appear likely to make the final field of two that will be listed on the general election ballot. * Several senators appear to face tough challenges ahead. * Not on the ballot, but perhaps at stake later when the May primary election nominees show up on the general election ballot in November, is the power to halt filibusters that are mostly although not exclusively employed by the minority to block legislation. It was the majority that turned to the filibuster repeatedly to trap Medicaid expansion legislation, driving supporters to finally send the issue to a successful vote of the people in 2018. Let's deal with that first: It takes 33 votes in the 49-member Legislature to invoke cloture, ending debate on a proposal and triggering a vote on the issue. The nonpartisan Legislature currently is composed of 30 Republicans, 18 Democrats and one registered nonpartisan. Informed speculation among lobbyists in the Rotunda suggests that the Republican number is likely to rise after the 2020 election year is concluded, and the guesses generally range from one to three Republican gains. Three would reach the magic figure, and that could be a potential game-changer. However, Republicans do not vote as a unanimous bloc. So the shift in the balance of power would be tenuous. Votes in the Legislature often tend to divide senators on a rural versus urban basis more than on party lines, but that division also often reflects party affiliation. The two state senators who aren't automatically headed to slots on the general election ballot are Slama and Hilgers. Both have two primary opponents, but each is expected to move on to November. Slama and Sen. Andrew La Grone of Gretna are appointees of Gov. Pete Ricketts and both will be facing voters for the first time. The primary election spotlight will also shine on three senators who are Democrats seeking reelection in districts with Republican registration majorities, but it might be Sen. Tom Brewer's bid for reelection in his Sandhills legislative district that commands the most attention. Brewer, the first and only Native member of the Legislature, is being challenged by fellow Republican Tanya Storer, who enters the race with the endorsement of former Gov. Kay Orr. Storer already is making issues out of Brewer's efforts to control wind energy development in the Sandhills, his active role in helping achieve closure of beer outlets in Whiteclay that sold millions of cans of beer a year to Natives living across the border on the Pine Ridge Reservation and his effort to win approval for display of Nebraska's Native flags in the legislative chamber. Brewer hails from Gordon, Storer from Whitman. While both will move on to November, the primary results may be a good measurement of built-in support. Among the senators who conceivably could become Republican Party targets are Lynne Walz of Fremont, Dan Quick of Grand Island and Carol Blood of Bellevue. Walz was the 2018 Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor and all three senators live in districts that are moderately-to-heavily Republican in terms of voter registration. Another high-profile contest is the challenge to Sen. Bruce Bostelman of Brainard, a Republican, being mounted by Helen Raikes of Ashland, a registered independent whose late husband Ron Raikes served in the Legislature from 1997 to 2009. On his way back to the Legislature is Mike Flood of Norfolk, who served as speaker from 2006 to 2012. He is unopposed in the primary. Voter's Guide for legislative races Reach the writer at 402-473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSdon Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty GAZIANTEP, TurkeyAfter five years fighting to preserve Bashar al-Assads regime in Syria, Russia now appears inclined to dispose of its infamous client. Assads persistent brutality and corruption, and his inability to establish even the semblance of a functioning state, has grown to be a burden Moscow would prefer not to bear. And then theres the problem of Iran. Assad, members of his family, and his Alawite clansmen enjoy close, perhaps unbreakable, bonds to the regime in Tehran and to Iranian-backed militias in Syria. All of which undermines Moscows primary mission there: to rehabilitate the Assad regime as a symbol of stability capable of attracting hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign investment for reconstruction, which Russian firms would then be poised to receive. As long as Assads relatives continue to function as a mafia and give free rein to Iranian troops using Syria as base of operations to threaten Israel and plan attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq, those countries likely to foot the bill for Syrian reconstructionthe nations of Europe and the Gulfare unlikely to come up with the cash. Amid Escalating Syrian Carnage, Turkey Shoots Down Assads Planes This has not gone unnoticed by the United States. Assad has done nothing to help the Russians sell this regime,James Jeffrey, the U.S. special envoy for the Coalition to Defeat ISIS, told reporters in a State Department briefing on Thursday. You find Assad has nothing but thugs around him, and they don't sell well either in the Arab world or in Europe. We have heard repeatedly from Russians we take as credible that they understand how bad Assad is. The Syrian presidents refusal to make any compromises in order to secure diplomatic recognition and acceptance for his regime has jeopardized hundreds of billions of dollars in reconstruction assistance for Syria, according to Jeffrey. Yet the Trump administration is unlikely to exploit this growing rift. Getting Russia out of Syria, Jeffrey said, has never been our goal. Russia has been there for 30 years. It has a long-term relationship with Syria. We dont think it has been healthy for the region. We dont think it really is even healthy for Russia. But thats not our policy. Story continues MEDIA FRENZY Jeffreys statements come just one week after Russian state media unleashed a slew of reports and editorials targeting Assad, portraying the beleaguered president as hopelessly corrupt and unfit to govern, and suggesting the time had come to replace him with a new leader. The first batch of articles was published by the Russias Federal News Agency (FNA), an outlet owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch and chairman of several companies implicated in the 2016 U.S. elections scandal. Appearing over the course of a mere three hours on April 17, they would shake Syria to its core. The first of the three articles in question highlighted a corruption scheme carried out by the regime in summer 2019 in which the Syrian prime minister purportedly lied to citizens about oil and gas scarcities in order to justify the occurrence of long power outages while selling Syrian electricity to businessmen in Lebanon. The second piece cited an opinion poll claiming only 32 percent of Syrians would vote for Assad in the countrys upcoming 2021 presidential election. The third and final article, entitled, Corruption is Worse than Terrorism, chastized President Assad for personally failing to combat corruption, prevalent at all levels of the state. That these were published by Prigozhins news agency was the kind of signal it would be hard for Assad to miss. Prigozhin, who first built his fortune as a caterer, is sometimes known as Putins chef. But of particular relevance to Syria is his role as chairman of the Wagner Group, whose mercenaries have fought alongside Assad regime forces since October 2015 and helped the latter take back control of key revenue generating infrastructure such as the al-Shair gas field in Homs province. Deputy Assistant Secretary Christopher Robin told the same State Department briefing Thursday, Wagner is often misleadingly referred to as a Russian private military company, but in fact its an instrument of the Russian government which the Kremlin uses as a low-cost and low-risk instrument to advance its goals. The article on corruption would also point out, suggestively, that the Assads are not the only powerful family in Syria, there are also the Makhloufs. Rami Makhlouf, who is in fact Bashar al-Assads first cousin, is Syrias wealthiest man, and also, it would seem, Russias man. Certainly he has strong ties to the Kremlin and for years has been one of the most vocal critics of Irans presence in Syria. In July 2018, the al-Watan newspaper, one Syrias most prominent pro-regime mouthpieces and owned by Rami Makhlouf since 2006, published a then unprecedented public rebuke to Iran, accusing it of sponsoring Islamist fanaticism throughout the Middle East alongside Turkey and Qatar, the main backers of Syrias opposition. (Rami Makhloufs father Muhammad and brother Hafiz meanwhile are alleged by some to be living in Russia.) The April 17 articles published by Prigozhins FNA preceded the release of a wave of other articles and items in the media over the next 12 days that would further drive home the point that Moscow was considering options other than Assad to rule Syria. TASS, Russias largest state-run news agency, wrote in one editorial that, Russia suspects that Assad is not only unable to lead the country anymore, but also that the head of the Syrian regime is dragging Moscow towards the Afghani scenario. This is like evoking the Vietnam War for an American audience, a reference to the Kremlins botched campaign through the 1980s that helped bankrupt the Soviet Union and finally break it apart. Amid this coverage, TASS would also take swipes at Iran, claiming that the Islamic Republic has no interest in achieving stability in the region, because it considers it a battlefield with Washington. On April 30, the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), a think tank established by Moscows Ministry of Foreign Affairs, released a scathing report saying Russia was in talks with other parties to the Syrian conflict to draw up plans for a political resolution that did not include Bashar al-Assad as president. The report highlighted purported Russian efforts to compel the Syrian regime to commit to ceasefires with both American-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) opposition, while beginning steps to form a new unity government that would include representatives from both. That day, Rami Makhlouf, whose assets were frozen five months earlier as part of a tax dispute, uploaded a video onto his personal Facebook page accusing the Assad regime of corruption. In a state known for carrying out the full-scale slaughter of those who test its authority, Makhloufs videos, coming on the heels of the unprecedented Russian attacks in the media, sent shockwaves throughout the country. THE ROYAL FAMILY While the Makhlouf clan clearly has thrown its lot in with Russia, key members of Bashar al-Assads immediate family and others with ties to Qardaha in Syrias largely Alawite Latakia province, are among the most prominent Iranian-backed militia leaders in Syria. Its an alliance that traces back to his father Hafez al-Assad, who was born in Qardaha, and who forged ties with the Iranian revolution almost from its beginning more than 40 years ago. The Iranians responded by offering religious legitimacy to the Alawite sect, which is regarded as heretical by Sunnis and indeed by many Shia. These Qardaha militia leaders have regularly engaged in armed clashes against Russian backed units. They are among the most egregious violators and abusers of power, overseeing wide networks of corruption similar to those lamented in the Russian media. And foremost among them is Bashars younger brother, Maher al-Assad. Since April 2018, Maher al-Assad has commanded the Syrian Armys 4th Armored Division, one of countrys oldest, best equipped and overwhelmingly Alawite brigades. After the 2011 outbreak of the Syrian revolution, when the loyalty of much of the army was in doubt, it became a refuge for numerous Alawite-Shia dominated pro-regime militias. Currently, the 4th Armored Divisions members control many smuggling operations throughout the country, in cities from Albu Kamel on Syrias eastern border with Iraq to Latakia on the Syrian coast, where the port was leased to Iran on October 1 last year. It has since become one of the biggest export hubs for drugs headed to markets in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Examples abound: On July 5, 2019, Greek coast guard and drug enforcement officials announced the biggest drug bust in history, seizing 5.25 tons (33 million pills) of Captagon amphetamines worth $660m hidden in shipping containers loaded at the Latakia port in Syria. That followed a long string of such seizures made by Greek authorities. More recently, in late April, customs officials in both Saudi Arabia and Egypt also announced the seizure of similar quantities of drugs in containers traced back to Latakia. Local reports have accused a range of actors including Maher al-Assads 4th Division, Hizbollah, Rami Makhlouf, and others of profiting from the massive drug exports emanating from the port. In January 2019 the 4th Armored Division launched attacks on the Russian-backed Tiger Forces unit in an attempt to wrest control of smuggling routes between regime- and opposition-held territory in Idlib province. The clashes led to the death of 70 fighters. These and other skirmishes prompted Russia to back a major campaign to arrest 4th Division and other Iranian-backed units throughout the country beginning in April 2019, which succeeded in rounding up numerous mid-ranking Iranian-backed officers. Among those targeted in the campaign was Bashar Talal al-Assad, a cousin to the president (similar name, different people) who was wanted on drug and weapons trafficking charges. Unlike others who were detained in the roundup, Bashar Talal al-Assad and his Areen Brigade managed to fight off Russian-backed forces that sought to arrest him in Qardaha. He then pledged to attack Russias Hmeimim military base, located 17 miles east of Latakia city, in the event the regime sought to arrest him again. For Russia, the threat of such attacks on its military infrastructure is a real concern. The Hmeimim basefrom which Moscow has directed its entire military campaign in Syriahad already been subject to a series of attacks from January to October 2018 by other Iranian-backed militias in the area. The threat posed by both Irans acquisition of the Latakia port and its support for local Assad family proxies in Syrias coastal region is exacerbated by the fact that Tehran has also begun making progress toward completing construction of its Shalamcha railroad, which, via stops in Basra, Baghdad, Albu Kamel and Damascus, will give Tehran direct access to the Syrian and Lebanese coasts. If Iran succeeds in integrating the Latakia port with the Shalamcha rail line, this will cut off Hmeimim from Russian forces in central and southern Syria and enable Tehran to quickly deliver weapons to proxy forces in Latakia that are already engaged in clashes against Russian-backed groups. WORLDWIDE CONSENSUS Moscows inability to control Iranian backed Syrian militiamen engaged in widespread crime, corruption, and assaults on Russian forces has infuriated the Kremlin. But Russia is not the only major player on the ground with scores to settle against Iran, and the Russian military leadership in Syria has ignored if not largely encouraged Israeli strikes on Iranian troops throughout the country. It may not be coincidental that the Israeli attacks have increased in pace and scope since April, following the flurry of Russian media articles attacking Assad and his regime. We have moved from blocking Irans entrenchment in Syria to forcing it out of there, and we will not stop, Israels new defense minister, Naftali Bennett, declared on April 28. Without Russia, Iran has found itself the odd man out in Syria, the single party still seeking to push for war at a time when most other international players have been struck with fatigue and simply seek to put Syrias pieces back together. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, the last patron of Syrias battered FSA opposition, has himself made peace with Moscow, effectively agreeing last March to cede control of wide swaths of rebel held territory after a particularly bloody Russian led campaign against the last FSA holdout in Idlib province that ended in victory for regime forces. Ironically, Erdogans long-held desire to overthrow Syrias president may still come to fruition, albeit not as he expected, as Assads ouster may come at the hands of Russia itself, and not the revolution. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. KYODO NEWS - May 10, 2020 - 19:30 | All, Japan, Coronavirus The government is considering lifting the state of emergency declaration in most Japanese prefectures this month over the coronavirus pandemic, officials said Sunday, although it will keep urging caution in Tokyo and some other areas. Out of the nation's 47 prefectures, the government is looking to end the declaration in 34 as early as Thursday if they meet certain conditions such as seeing fewer infections every week and having sufficient medical and monitoring systems, the officials said. A government panel of experts on communicable diseases is expected to meet Thursday and assess the current situation. "We're eyeing lifting the state of emergency declaration in many (prefectures)," economic revitalization minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said at a press conference. Many of the 34 prefectures reported no coronavirus cases over the past week or two, Nishimura said. The remaining 13 prefectures have been designated by the central government as requiring "special caution" because of their relatively high number of new infections. They are Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Osaka, Hyogo, Fukuoka, Hokkaido, Ibaraki, Ishikawa, Gifu, Aichi and Kyoto. In Tokyo, 22 more infections were reported Sunday following an increase of 36 on Saturday and 39 on Friday. It was the eighth consecutive day that the capital has marked a number below 100. The emergency declaration, issued by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in April, has prompted local governments to request that residents avoid nonessential outings and some businesses temporarily shut in order to prevent further spread of the virus. Watertown, NY (13601) Today Snow showers in the morning will give way to a mixture of rain and snow for the afternoon. Some sleet may mix in. High 36F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of precip 80%. Snow accumulations less than one inch.. Tonight Cloudy skies. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low 4F. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph. WASHINGTON - Vice-President Mike Pence was self-isolating Sunday after an aide tested positive for the coronavirus last week, but he planned to return to the White House on Monday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/5/2020 (619 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. President Donald Trump watches as Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Wednesday, April 22, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) WASHINGTON - Vice-President Mike Pence was self-isolating Sunday after an aide tested positive for the coronavirus last week, but he planned to return to the White House on Monday. An administration official said Pence was voluntarily keeping his distance from other people in line with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has repeatedly tested negative for COVID-19 since his exposure but was following the advice of medical officials. His action came after three of the nations top scientists took their own protective steps following possible exposure to a White House staffer infected by the coronavirus. Vice-President Pence will continue to follow the advice of the White House Medical Unit and is not in quarantine, spokesman Devin OMalley said Sunday. Additionally, Vice-President Pence has tested negative every single day and plans to be at the White House tomorrow. Pence has been at home since returning to Washington from a day trip to Iowa on Friday and did not appear at President Donald Trump's meeting with military leaders Saturday at the White House. Pence was informed of the aide's positive test shortly before departing for that trip. FILE - In this Friday, April 24, 2020, file photo, Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, speaks about the new coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, in Washington, as Vice President Mike Pence listens. Three members of the White House coronavirus task force, including Hahn, have placed themselves in quarantine after contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, another stark reminder that not even one of the nations most secure buildings is immune from the virus. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File) An official initially said Pence planned to continue working from home, before Pence's office clarified that he planned to work from the White House on Monday. It was not immediately clear how Pence's steps to self-isolate would impact his professional or public engagements. Pence has led the White House coronavirus task force for more than two months. Top officials who have gone into quarantine because of exposure to a person at the White House who tested positive for the virus are Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC; and the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Stephen Hahn. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Pences press secretary, Katie Miller, tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday, making her the second person who works at the White House complex known to test positive for the virus this week. Vice President Mike Pence reacts to audience members after a roundtable with agriculture and food supply leaders about steps being taken to ensure the food supply remains secure in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Friday, May 8, 2020, in West Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) A military service member who acts as a valet to the president tested positive on Thursday, the first known instance where a person in close proximity to the president at the White House had tested positive. After Miller was identified as having tested positive, Trump said he was not worried about the virus spreading in the White House. Nonetheless, officials said they were stepping up safety protocols for the complex. The three other task force members have indicated varying plans for dealing with their exposure. None has announced testing positive for the virus and, taking into account what has been described as limited exposure to the infected person, are considered at relatively low risk for infection. Faucis institute said he was taking appropriate precautions to mitigate the risk to others while still carrying out his duties, teleworking from home but willing to go to the White House if called. Officials said both Redfield and Hahn will be self-quarantining for two weeks. The three officials were expected to testify by videoconference before a Senate health committee on Tuesday. On Sunday night, the office of the chairman of the committee, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., announced that the senator would be self-quarantining in Tennessee for two weeks after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19. Alexander too will participate in the hearing by videoconference. She welcomed her daughter Tullulah with AFL star husband Lance 'Buddy' Franklin in late February. And Jesinta Franklin, 28, has celebrated her first Mother's Day as a parent by sharing an emotional tribute to her newborn on Instagram. Uploading a glamorous photo of herself heavily pregnant, the model wrote: 'Motherhood. The most beautiful gift and my greatest blessing in life.' 'The most beautiful gift and my greatest blessing in life': Jesinta Franklin, 28, celebrated her first Mother's Day as a parent by sharing an emotional tribute to her newborn daughter Tullulah on Instagram 'Tullulah has made me feel a love so profound I cant even find the words to describe,' she cooed. Jesinta went on to add that her life will never be the same after welcoming her bundle of joy. She continued: I have even more respect and immense appreciation for my own amazing mum and grandmothers & mother in law as well as all the beautiful mummas I am surrounded by.' Happy family: Jesinta and her AFL star husband Lance 'Buddy' Franklin welcomed their first child together in late February Jesinta, who has previously spoken about her heartbreaking struggle to conceive, completed her post with a special message to those for whom Mother's Day may not be a joyous experience. 'Today I am also holding space for those whose mums have passed, mums who have lost a child and the women who are wanting, willing, dreaming and wishing to become a mother. Sending love to everyone!' she said. Speaking to WHO magazine in April, Jesinta revealed how she would be spending her first Mother's Day. 'Sending love to everyone': Jesinta, who has previously spoken about her heartbreaking struggle to conceive, completed her post with a special message to those for whom Mother's Day may not be a joyous experience 'I'm looking forward to Buddy, Tullulah and I spending Mother's Day with my mum, who will be celebrating it for the first as a grandmother,' she explained. The Australian model went on to tell the publication that since welcoming Tullulah, she has been keeping a low-key profile while she focused on self-healing. 'I have been enjoying the newborn bubble. I have placed a lot of importance on my healing and taking care of myself since giving birth,' she said. 'With everything going on at the moment in the world, it's made it easy for us to hang out at home'. Paramilitary police officers patrol near Beijing's Tiananmen Square (not pictured) on World Press Freedom Day on May 3, 2020. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images) US Virus Patients and Businesses Sue China Over Outbreak ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.Before the CCP virus outbreak, Saundra Andringa-Meuer was a healthy 61-year-old mother of six who never smoked or drank alcohol. Then she became seriously ill with the disease after traveling from her Wisconsin home to help her son move from college in Connecticut. She was hospitalized in March, ending up in a coma and on a ventilator for 14 days. Doctors told her family she had a slim chance to live. When she emerged, she was told she was the sickest COVID-19 patient they had seen survive. Saundra Andringa-Meuer poses for photo on a trip in Colorado. Andringa-Meuer, who has recovered from the CCP virus, has joined with dozens of other American virus patients and some U.S. businesses to sue China over the spread of the virus, which has killed at least 75,000 people in the United States. (Molly Meuer/Saundra Andringa-Meuer via AP) Now Andringa-Meuer has joined with dozens of other American virus patients and some U.S. businesses in taking a new legal step: They are attempting to sue China over the spread of the virus, which has killed at least 75,000 people in the United States. I do feel that they hid it from the world and from Americans, she said. I dont feel we had to have the loss of life. I dont think we had to have the economy shut down. It disrupted all of American lives. I do believe we need to right some of these wrongs. So far, at least nine lawsuits have been filed in the U.S. against China claiming authorities there did not do enough to corral the virus initially, tried to hide what was happening in the outbreak center of Wuhan, and sought to conceal their actions and what they knew. Eight of the lawsuits are potential class actions that would represent thousands of people and businesses. One was filed by the attorney general of Missouri, which is so far the only state to take legal action against China. The cases face several hurdles under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which states that foreign governments cannot be sued in the United States unless certain exceptions are met. And those are not easy to prove, experts say. We think its going to be an uphill battle for them to ultimately take advantage of those exceptions, said Robert Boone, an attorney in Los Angeles who specializes in class action cases. One exception involves commercial activity that directly affects the United States. Another is misconduct inside the United States under certain circumstances that is traceable to a foreign government. A third exception is whether the foreign entity explicitly waived its immunity, such as through language in a contract. Attorneys who have filed the lawsuits say they can prove those claims, and, if they win, find some method of collecting damages, perhaps by seizing Chinese bank accounts or other assets in the United States if the Chinese refuse to pay. In one case filed in Miami federal court on behalf of Andringa-Meurer and many others, attorneys Matthew Moore and Jeremy Alters are suing the Chinese Communist Party as an entity separate from the Chinese government. They have their own assets. They are recognized as an independent organization. We are going to argue they are not a part of the government, Moore said. There has been personal injury that happened in the United States. Added Alters: Theyre going to have to pay We can say, Were not going to do business with you anymore. When you hit them in the (gross domestic product), it hurts. Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang answers a question during a briefing in Beijing on Nov. 28, 2019. (Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images) Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang defended his countrys record of fighting the virus. He said the lawsuit filed by the Missouri attorney general is very absurd and has no factual and legal basis. Since the outbreak began, the Chinese regime has proceeded in an open, transparent, and responsible manner, and the U.S. government should dismiss such vexatious litigation, he said. Efforts are underway in Congress and in some state legislatures to make it easier to sue China and other countries. One bill was introduced by Republican U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Martha McSally of Arizona, and GOP U.S. Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas in the House. The Chinese government must be held accountable for the pain its inflicted across the United States, McSally said in a statement. The proposed legislation will give the U.S. a piece of justice. In New Jersey, three Republican state lawmakers introduced a resolution urging President Donald Trump and Congress to pass a bill letting citizens sue China for mishandling the pandemic. State Sen. Jim Holzapfel and Assemblymen Greg McGuckin and John Catalano said in a statement that they believe Chinese leaders did little to stop the spread of the virus and that residents and local governments should be legally allowed to recover some of what they lost financially. Its not clear if any of the legislation will pass. If the bills were enacted, legal experts say they could open the floodgates for hundreds more lawsuits against China. If that immunity were stripped, its going to produce a gigantic burden on the court system, said Boone, the class action lawyer. Thats a factor that will need to be weighed in deciding whether to pass it. As for Andringa-Meurer, she said shes still somewhat frail but getting better all the time. Im weak, but Im fabulous. Im alive, she said. I want to give back, not only to the doctors and nurses who gave me the opportunity to live. They are the heroes. But also to all of the Americans who were affected by this. By Court Anderson Epoch Time staff contributed to this report Mumbai, May 10 : In a significant move, the Maharashtra government will foot the train travel tickets of all migrant labourers who will return to their home states, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Sunday. The bills will be cleared from the CM's Relief Fund and the necessary administrative orders were issued today, and further details will be available later, said an official. All district collectors have been instructed in the matter since many migrants do not have money to buy tickets to their home states as most have lost jobs during the lockdown. On May 8, in another humanitarian gesture, Thackeray had announced a compensation of Rs 500,000 to each of the kin of 16 migrant labourers from Madhya Pradesh who were run over by a goods train as they slept on railway tracks, near Aurangabad, shocking the country. Baghdad, May 10 : The Islamic State (IS) terror group has increased activities in Iraq amid the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramzan and also the deployment of military to implement measures against the coronavirus pandmic. Iraqi security forces have recorded seven attacks during Ramzan, which began on April 23, according to the official Security Media Cell, although other sources raised the tally to over 30, reports Efe news. The Joint Operations Command spokesperson, Tahsin al-Khafaji, told Efe news on Saturday that the IS has attacked security forces and infrastructure, although he denied any "invasion". It is a "guerrilla war" rather than a "Ramzan invasion" or a regroup attempt, he added. On April 23, Iraqi Defense Minister Najeh al-Shamri said there was "an increase in the terror operations recently". The spike came amid as the focus of military and security forces shifted to the coronavirus lockdown. It also coincides with the withdrawal of the US-led International Coalition amid increasing tension with pro-Iranian militias after the killing of the Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in an airstrike in Baghdad on January 3. "The organization is very weak and it is trying to take advantage of any situation in order to affect and confuse the security situation," he added. Furthermore, he added that Abdullah Qardash, who is thought to be the IS leader in Iraq, "raised the morale of the terrorist organization". "Qardash is trying to establish his presence by launching many operations, raising the morale of the organization and proving his loyalty to terrorist organization and this is another reason that we mentioned for the return of terrorist operations," he said. The security forces have attacked the organization's hideout in "the desert, valleys, mountains or islands in the Tigris River", he added. One of the most recent operations was launched by the security forces in the wake of two separate attacks on the majority-Shia militia of the Popular Mobilization Forces in the Saladin province on May 2. A total of 11 militiamen were killed, according to Major Amar Gasem from the Saladin operation command. For Myles B. Caggins III, the spokesman for the US-led coalition, the spike in IS action is a reaction to the operations security forces have been carried out. "IS claims a higher number of attacks in recent weeks; some of this is due to the Iraqi Security Forces direct action against IS hideouts in the mountainous regions and rural areas in north central Iraq and Anbar Province," he told Efe news. "A whole host of Iraqi Security Forces including, Federal Police, Counter-Terrorism Service, Iraqi Army and Peshmerga, supported by Iraqi aviation and the international Coalition are thumping IS wherever they pop up," he added. IWGB general secretary Jason Moyer-Lee. (Jack Saville via IWGB) Two Uber drivers and a union are taking legal action against the UK government, claiming its income support schemes discriminate against gig economy workers. The Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) announced it had filed a legal challenge with Britains high court this week, warning government policies risked leaving precarious workers in unnecessary destitution. Millions of UK workers are able to claim for 80% of their usual earnings from the government through two unprecedented income protection schemes designed to tide workers through the crisis. The union, which has previously taken legal action against Deliveroo and Uber, claims the scheme for the self-employed is significantly worse than the scheme for workers with staff jobs. It says eligible freelance workers face an unacceptable wait until June for support, with applications not yet open. Under the employee scheme, staff wages have typically been paid as normal and refunds are already being processed for hundreds of thousands of firms. READ MORE: How coronavirus crisis could scar a generation of young people The claimants argue the self-employed income support scheme (SEISS) also discriminates by excluding anyone newly self-employed in the past year and those who earn less than half their income from self-employment. The governments statutory sick pay arrangements also form part of the claim, with the union arguing they discriminate against gig economy workers as firms only have to offer sick pay to regular employees. The IWGB argues sick pay rules indirectly discriminate against women and ethnic minority workers too, since they are less likely to earn enough to be eligible. Ahmad Adiatu, an Uber driver making the claim alongside his union, said in a statement via the IWGB that the pandemic had made getting by impossible. He said car maintenance, insurance and the congestion charge could cost more than 1,000 a month in costs borne by the driver rather than the company. Now I have no money, so can't even renew my private hire license. With virtually no income coming in, we've been struggling to get by and we are behind on our rent. Story continues READ MORE: UK vacancies vanish and starting salaries drop at fastest rate since 2009 Another Uber driver, Sarja Richards, said in a statement she was behind on her rent and was not earning enough to pay her bills. The governments promised assistance is not enough, doesnt cover the huge expenses we have as Uber drivers and will come too late. How are we expected to survive until June? The unions general secretary Jason Moyer-Lee argued it was crucial that the shortcomings of the SEISS are fixed so as to avoid further unnecessary destitution. Statutory sick pay has never been more important for both workers themselves and wider society to ensure no-one works while sick, he added. The UK government came under fire when the crisis began over sick pay arrangements, with millions of low earners and the self-employed missing out on support while self-isolating. It has funded several extra days sick pay for workers, however. READ MORE: Brits overtake migrants looking for fruit-picking jobs A Treasury spokesperson told Yahoo Finance UK the governments support package was one of the most comprehensive and generous in the world. The government has already begun to contact the self-employed who qualify. After applying they will start to receive cash by 25 May, well ahead of our original schedule, he said. Those who do not qualify for the SEISS will be able to access a range of other support including income tax deferrals, 1bn more support for renters and access to three-month mortgage holidays, he added. He also said funds had to be targeted to use public funds responsibly, helping those most in need and minimising the risk of fraud. The IWGB had initially planned to take legal action over the lack of a scheme altogether for the self-employed when the employer-based support was first announced. But the support for freelancers was unveiled shortly afterwards. Leigh Day and Old Square Chambers will represent the claimants. Uber has been approached for comment. The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on May 4, 2020. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) Supreme Court Rebuffs Activists, Reinstates Ban on Encouraging Illegal Aliens to Stay in US The Supreme Court unanimously resurrected a federal law struck down by an appeals court that made it a felony to encourage people to come to or stay illegally in the United States. The May 7 ruling was a dramatic victory for the Trump administration, which had urged the high court to reverse a 2018 ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. President Donald Trump, who has made immigration his signature issue, also favors reducing both illegal and legal immigration, along with cracking down on illegal aliens. The problem, according to the Supreme Court, was that the lower court selected activist groups to dominate arguments against the law and then accepted their reasons for why it should be invalidated, even though the defendant herself did not raise those same concerns in her defense. San Jose, California-based immigration consultant Evelyn Sineneng-Smith was accused in 2010 of duping illegal aliens into paying her fees to file frivolous applications for visas and encouraging them to stay in the country unlawfully. Her business catered to Filipinos unlawfully present in the United States who worked in the home health care field. Prosecutors said Sineneng-Smith cheated her clients out of more than $3 million by knowingly filing futile applications after the legal deadline of April 30, 2001, for a now-defunct program run by immigration authorities that was supposed to lead to permanent resident status. She was sentenced to 18 months of imprisonment. Section 1324 of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act makes it a felony punishable by up to five years imprisonment for anyone who encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law. The period behind bars doubles if he or she acted for the purpose of commercial advantage or private financial gain. A 9th Circuit panel found the law was unconstitutionally overbroad because it criminalizes a substantial amount of protected expression in relation to the statutes narrow legitimate sweep. The law potentially criminalizes the simple wordsspoken to a son, a wife, a parent, a friend, a neighbor, a coworker, a student, a clientI encourage you to stay here, Senior U.S. Circuit Judge A. Wallace Tashima, a Clinton appointee, wrote for the panel. In a decision written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the case, cited as U.S. v. Sineneng-Smith, the high court noted that Sineneng-Smith didnt raise the overbreadth argument at her trial or before the appeals court. (Justice Clarence Thomas filed his own concurring opinion.) With the appeal poised for decision based upon the parties presentations, the appeals panel intervened, Ginsburg wrote. It ordered further briefing, but not from the parties, and committed a serious error when it moved the case onto a different track. Instead of adjudicating the case presented by the parties, the appeals court named three amici and invited them to brief and argue issues framed by the panel, including a question Sineneng-Smith herself never raised earlier: Whether the statute of conviction is overbroad under the First Amendment. The three amici, or groups that participated in the appeal as so-called friends-of-the-court, were the Federal Defender Organizations of the Ninth Circuit, along with two left-wing activist groupsthe Immigrant Defense Project, and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG). The NLG has longstanding ties to the Communist Party USA. In the ensuing do over of the appeal, counsel for the parties were assigned a secondary role, Ginsburg wrote. The Ninth Circuit ultimately concluded, in accord with the invited amicis arguments, that [the legal provision] is unconstitutionally overbroad. The appeals panel departed so drastically from the principle of party presentation as to constitute an abuse of discretion. The appeals courts judgement was vacated and the case was remanded for an adjudication of the appeal attuned to the case shaped by the parties rather than the case designed by the appeals panel. Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), told The Epoch Times he was satisfied with the Supreme Courts decision. The court was concerned here with the institutional integrity of the judiciary and its proper role in our tripartite system of government, he said. There is a point beyond which politicized judges, many appointed by President Obama, may not go in spontaneously raising policy issues on appeal that were not presented by the parties in the lower courts, Stein said. Courts are not super legislatures that have the right to substitute their own political and policy judgments for those of elected representatives based on a whim, and no effort to recruit politically allied organizations to provide friend-of-the-court briefs can empower an expansive authority that does not lie properly within the judiciary. Not only is this a win for the Trump administration, its a win for the American people, and conveys the concern that the Supreme Court itself has with the radicalized nature of many lower Court judges in abusing their powersespecially as it pertains to controversial political issues like immigration policy. Matthias J. Schnell, professor and chair of Microbiology and Immunology at Thomas Jefferson University, is working on a coronavirus vaccine. Read more In 1846, the measles descended on a rocky cluster of islands in the North Atlantic for the first time in decades, and its path was relentless. The virus infected more than 6,000 of the Faroe Islands 7,782 inhabitants, killing dozens of the old and the very young. Yet one hardy group of elder islanders was entirely spared: 98 people who were infected the last time the virus had hit the islands, 65 years before. The human immune system remembers measles like a bitter family feud, remaining quick to strike back for a lifetime after the initial insult. On the other end of the spectrum is norovirus, that diarrhea-inducing bane of day-care centers and cruise ships. After recovering, people can be reinfected within a few months. No one can say for sure yet what will happen with the coronavirus. Those scattered reports of people becoming reinfected thus far have generally proven to be false alarms. But if evidence from other types of coronaviruses is any guide, the amount of time that people remain immune will be on the shorter end of the scale. And those immunity passports youve heard about? More on that concept below but for a variety of reasons, putting it in practice wont be as simple as it sounds. The immune systems response to the coronavirus will provide clues for another closely watched front: how it will react to a vaccine. More than 100 efforts are underway to produce such drugs designed to stimulate the type of protective response that would result from an infection without making the person sick and the makers of several forecast they can distribute doses to high-risk populations by years end. READ MORE: Coronavirus antibody testing is now easy to get. But its hard to be sure what youre getting. That accelerated timetable, unheard-of in the field of drug development, has some scientists cautioning against too much optimism. Small batches of vaccines can be made in short order with todays technologies, but scaling up production to treat millions, and testing such drugs for safety and efficacy, normally takes years. When youre doing it at warp speed, there is concern about missing things, said John P. Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. Some, perhaps many, of the vaccine candidates will turn out to provide a measure of protection. Its a tried-and-true concept, responsible for saving untold millions of lives in the last century. And with billions of people to be inoculated against the coronavirus, at least several such vaccines will be needed. Yet predicting the strength and duration of the immune systems response, whether to a live infection or a vaccine, is anything but straightforward. READ MORE: Do saltwater and sunshine kill the coronavirus? Heres what science says. Fading memory In the fall of 2016, Columbia University researchers began periodically swabbing the nasal passages of 191 volunteers, analyzing the genetic material within for a variety of respiratory viruses. During the next year and a half, 86 people became infected with coronaviruses milder cousins of the one now causing so much havoc. Twelve tested positive for the same one at least twice, including three people who each were infected three times with a coronavirus nicknamed OC43. In one case, the second positive test occurred within a month of the first, so it might have been the same infection, said Jeffrey Shaman, a professor of environmental health sciences at Columbias Mailman School of Public Health. But generally, it seemed the immune system couldnt recognize, and fight off, coronaviruses it had encountered just a few months before. Why does our memory of measles, on the other hand, last a lifetime? A key factor is the immune systems ability to make antibodies customized, Y-shaped proteins that block viruses from penetrating human cells. READ MORE: Why some people get really sick from the coronavirus, yet most do not The numbers matter. For measles, the levels are high, and they do not decline much with time. Evidence suggests they would remain high enough to protect us for 200 years, if we could live that long, said E. John Wherry, director of the University of Pennsylvanias Institute for Immunology. With the coronavirus, the durability of the response is not yet clear. But when a person is infected with SARS or MERS, the two other coronaviruses that cause severe symptoms, antibody levels wane significantly within a year or two. Eventually, the protective proteins can no longer be detected. Thats one reason those commercial antibody tests for the new coronavirus might not be ideal for determining who can go back to life as usual. Aside from the fact that some are not very accurate, the tests deliver a yes-no answer were you infected? but do not indicate the level of antibodies or, in many cases, the type. (Some antibodies are neutralizing, meaning they are directly involved in clearing an infection, while others play more of a bystander role.) And we dont know yet what level is sufficient for protection, or how people might respond differently. Those whove had the coronavirus are likely immune for some period of time otherwise, there would be clear evidence of repeat infection but the science is still young. Immune passports are premature," said Yonatan Grad, an assistant professor of immunology at Harvards T.H. Chan School of Public Health. READ MORE: Whats a pulse oximeter and do you need one to monitor for coronavirus? Antibodies might not even be the most important thing to measure, said Wistar Institute researcher David B. Weiner, whose research formed the backbone for one coronavirus vaccine now being tested. In addition to fighting infections with antibodies, the immune system responds with a second set of weapons called killer T-cells, which can destroy infected cells before the virus inside them spreads further. Weiner is betting that the vaccine he helped design, made by Inovio Pharmaceuticals in Plymouth Meeting, of which he is a board member, will stimulate the production of antibodies and T-cells. Even more important than durability of the immune response is safety, and that, too, is not a given. One vaccine for SARS, when tested in monkeys, in some cases not only failed to prevent infections, but seemed to make them worse. Yet last month, animal studies of two vaccines against MERS showed promise. Before any such drugs for the new coronavirus can move forward, data from humans will be essential. Shifty characters Viruses mutate, especially ones like the coronavirus that store their genetic information in single-stranded RNA, said Wherry, a professor at Penns Perelman School of Medicine. Every time they copy themselves, there is a chance of a mistake and unlike with double-stranded DNA, there is no second set of instructions as a backup. They dont have proofreading capability, he said. Some mistakes make a virus less of a threat, while the effect of others is neutral. Still others may allow a virus to evade our defenses. This is a key reason we need a different flu shot every winter that, and the fact that so many strains are in circulation worldwide, waxing and waning from year to year. READ MORE: Do you still think coronavirus is just like the flu? Heres why COVID-19 is more dangerous. For the coronavirus, many vaccines in development contain all or part of its spike protein those little knobs on the surface of each virus that it uses to grab onto, and infect, cells in the lungs. The idea is that the immune system sees the protein and learns to block it in the event of a real infection. That makes sense, so long as the spike does not mutate much. But what if it does? That is why some researchers, such as the Mayo Clinics Gregory A. Poland, are designing vaccines that contain several kinds of proteins from the coronavirus, not just the spike. The virus might shift enough to evade antibodies that are tailored to one type of protein, but odds are against it shifting enough to avoid four or five. Were going to isolate pieces of all the proteins that the human immune cells see," he said. "Well include all of them in our vaccine. The design Traditional vaccines consist of weakened or inactivated forms of the virus in question, allowing the immune system to get a safe peek at the entire microbe. Several of the coronavirus vaccines, on the other hand, consist of DNA instructions for the body to make just a fragment of the virus. The goal was speed, given the rapid spread of disease. READ MORE: Why the coronavirus and most other viruses have no cure At Inovio, scientists printed a preliminary version of a DNA vaccine in a few hours, and human tests began in April, with 40 volunteers split between Penn and Kansas City. The DNA is inserted into skin cells with a device that a series of mild electric shocks, briefly opening micropores on the membranes of skin cells. While not painful, the sensation is a bit startling, said Anthony Campisi, one of 20 volunteers getting the vaccine at Penn. It caused my muscles to involuntarily tense, he said. Will that stimulate the same kind of response as a whole virus? In theory, yes, though no such vaccine has yet made it to market. READ MORE: Inside the extraordinary race to invent a coronavirus vaccine A different approach is underway at Thomas Jefferson University, where Matthias J. Schnell is fusing the coronavirus spike protein onto an existing vaccine with a long track record: the one that protects against rabies. Something about that whole virus may stimulate a more lasting immune response, both to rabies and to the coronavirus protein that is attached, said Schnell, director of the Jefferson Vaccine Center. Among other advantages, this rabies vector can be dehydrated and stored without refrigeration, making it ideal for use in developing countries. Poland, the Mayo Clinic researcher, called the use of rabies a very plausible approach. But without testing, we cant predict the response to any of these approaches with certainty. There are some immunologic secrets," he said, "that have yet to be discovered. Barcelona's Samuel Umtiti suffered an injury on only the second day since the club resumed training sessions at the Ciutat Esportiva. Umtiti has sustained injury to right calf, Barcelona say The centre-back sustained a problem to his right calf, the LaLiga leaders confirmed in a short statement. Barca were back training on Friday after players and staff were given coronavirus tests to ensure it was safe for them to return. On Saturday, players were separated across three pitches in order to undergo sessions while maintaining social distancing. LaLiga slated for June return from coronavirus suspension LaLiga teams have been granted permission to use training facilities again as part of gradual steps towards the planned resumption of the competition in June. Barca were two points clear of Real Madrid at the top of the table when the season was suspended indefinitely in March. April Harris has probably helped three generations of Hoboken families in her nearly 40 years providing food for the poor. As a Third Order Franciscan -- laypeople who follow the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi to live simply and lift up the poor -- she not only gives away food, she develops a sense of community among the hundreds of people she helps in normal times. Her mission was named In Jesus Name from the beginning and she added the word "Charities'' at the end a decade ago. She knows her clients by name, their needs, their desires and when they want and need more than food. These are not normal times, though, and she recounted for me some recent conversations and text messages that are quite emotional. Are you still there? they ask. Yes, what do you need? she answers. My father was just taken away in an ambulance. Please pray. I need batteries for my thermometer. I have asthma. I cant go out. My mother isnt eating. Shes diabetic. Do you have Glucerna? Miss April, Im hungry. I need protein. Since people cannot come to Harris during the pandemic, she has decided to bring items to her clients curbside. But her normal volunteers and the small groups from Catholic Confirmation candidates to United Synagogue members are also unable to help so she has taken on much more work. She does a lot of the work alone with an occasional helper -- her son, David, who was laid off; Ines Necos, one of her three regulars; or Daniel Cleary, a Hoboken young adult. They help her pack the bags that weigh about 45 pounds each and would feed a household of four a weeks worth of meals breakfast, lunch and dinner -- for a total of 84 meals. From the beginning of the pandemic in our area through the end of April, In Jesus Name Charities has distributed 6,300 pounds of food and 11,760 meals. Some donors have had food shipped. And with monetary donations from "anonymous angel donors,'' as Harris calls them, she goes to a wholesaler to buy items like eggs, potatoes, onions and sacks of rice along with other foodstuffs. Harris estimates that requests have doubled during the pandemic, which explains why she is often weary. The physical exertion is arduous,'' she told me. "I fall asleep in my recliner at night not even aware I am sleeping.'' Its no wonder. Without a helper all the time, she treks the shopping bags for the families from her ground floor space up one flight of stairs to a cart she can wheel them to her SUV. Then she traverses all over Hoboken making curbside deliveries whenever possible. And she goes even further into the building if the person is unable to come out. Harris is adaptable. And thats how her charity came into being. Growing up in Hoboken public housing, Harris has never forgotten her roots. She converted to Catholicism, not unlike the legendary Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker Movement. I think Harris resembles Day, though she smiles more. After the tragic Hoboken fires in the early 1980s, Harris founded In Jesus Name to provide help for the families who lost everything. Her charity has moved several times and now has space that can provide some clothes, household items, toys and occasional large furniture items. For her work, Harris was named a 2005 Jersey Journal Everyday Hero. When clients visit in normal times, Harris and her team of three who together volunteer a total of 100 hours weekly -- spend time talking with the clients while the children can play in their play area. (And they will probably leave with a toy or memento.) Lately, she set up a prayer station in her entrance and lights several candles as the requests come in. Mary, a client, said she was scared in her senior building, according to April. We cant go down to the main room. They shut it down. We have to stay in our apartment. We pray for angels as company and the comfort of God, she told her, and she cries. Thank you for calling me, April. Mary knows April Harris is a real angel. The Rev. Alexander Santora is the pastor of Our Lady of Grace and St. Joseph, 400 Willow Ave., Hoboken, NJ 07030. Email: padrealex@yahoo.com; Twitter: @padrehoboken. Details ... In Jesus Name Charities is located at 411 Clinton St., Hoboken. To donate or shop for food on their behalf, go to injesusnamecharities.org and click on the How to Volunteer or Donate tab. For information, call 201-792-2112 or email Harris at injesusnamecharities@gmail.com. Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is set to enter the Legislative Council unopposed after the Congress announced that it would withdraw one of its two nominees for the May 21 elections to nine seats. The announcement from Congress came on Sunday (May 10). State Congress president Balasaheb Thorat said, "We have decided to field only one out of two nominees for the MLC elections, which means the MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress) will have five nominees for as many seats (out of the total nine), a PTI report said. Uddhav, who is not a member of either Houses of the state legislature, is one of the nominees for the elections, which became necessary after terms of the sitting MLCs ended on April 24. Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena senior leader Sanjay Raut has stated that Uddhav was not willing to contest the election unless elected unopposed. He added that the party had sent a message to Balasaheb Thorat to withdraw the party's second candidate. In spite of not having enough numbers, the Congress had decided to field two candidates for Legislative Council elections. The elections are due for May 21 for 9 seats in the Council. In order to win a seat, the candidate must bag 29 'first preference' votes. At present, BJP has 105 seats in Legislative Assembly. 10 independent MLAs support BJP. Shiv Sena has 56, NCP has 54 and Congress has 44 seats. 19 MLAs are from other parties. The Maha Vikas Aghadi has the support of 16 Independent candidates. Based on these numbers, the BJP can win 3 Legislative Council seats and Maha Vikas Aghadi 5 seats on their own. The Election Commission of India (ECI) on 1 May had granted permission for holding elections to the Legislative Council (MLCs) in Maharashtra on 21 May, which will pave way for CM Uddhav Thackeray to become a member of the Legislative Council. The development came days after Uddhav spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and told him that attempts were being made to create political instability in the state. A 38-year-old sanitation worker was killed, while another sustained severe injuries, as a tractor trolley hit their bike near Bahlolpur village in Karnal district. The deceased has been identified as Jaina Ram of Chochra village of Assandh sub-division. Rajesh Kumar of the same village, who was injured in the incident, has been hospitalised. Both were contractual sanitation workers with the Karnal municipal corporation. According to the police, the incident took place late on Saturday evening when they were returning to their village from work. As they reached near Bahlolpur village, a tractor trolley allegedly hit their bike, following which they were rushed to Karnal civil hospital. However, Jaina was declared brought dead. The driver of the tractor fled the spot, police said. Investigation officer Karambir Singh said a case has been registered under Section 304-A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC against the unknown tractor driver. The probe is on to nab the accused, said Singh. Ashu Prisley Ojong Facebook Armed separatist fighters have shot and killed Ashu Prisley Ojong, Mayor of Mamfe in Cameroons South West Region, reports say. The youthful municipal administrator, who only turned 35 in March, was killed Sunday, May 10, 2020 in his native Eshobi village in what appears to be an ambush. Open sources suggest that he was traveling with limited security to his village when his convoy was ambushed by separatists. It is said that he was leading a team to sensitise the population on measures aimed at containing the spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. Other reports however add that he had planned a meeting with youths of Eshobi and its environs. Cameroon-Info.Net cannot independently verify these claims. Ashu Prisley Ojong was elected Mayor of Mamfe last February 25, 2020 on the ticket of the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement, CPDM. Cameroons defence and security forces have been fighting armed separatist militias in the North West and South West Regions of the country who seek to create a breakaway state christened Ambazonia. The Mayor of the CPDM-run council of Mamfe, Prisley Ojong is dead. Mamfe is the capital city of Manyu, one of the restive divisions in Cameroons South West Region. He was shot and killed by Ambazonian fighters, Sunday May 10, 2020, National Telegraph can confirm, U.S.-based Cameroonian activist Eric Tataw said on Twitter. Tataw is known to have asked armed men in the restive regions to target municipal officials and council staff among other civil and political leaders in the area. In a live Facebook outing Sunday, April 12, 2020, Tataw asked members of the armed militias to take out mayors, councillors and staff of councils in Cameroons North West and South West Regions. All elected Mayors should know that they are not representing Ambazonia. I will start at the community level. All the mayors should know that they will no longer stay in Ambazonia. If we do not take you out from the council building, we will take you out of your house. We will also target your wives and children, Tataw said inter alia. He furthered that: We will work on the softest targets and then we get to the toughest. We will start with mayors and council workers. We will also target divisional delegates, parliamentarians and their families and property. At press time, Cameroonian authorities were yet to make a statement on the attack that claimed the life of Mayor Ashu Prisley Ojong. Bay of Plenty You will be driving the Roller and also required to help out the team hands on. You will be working around Tauranga, for... View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz Thomas Reppetto, a former Chicago police officer who became a respected historian of policing and the leader of a nonpartisan watchdog group that researches ways to reduce crime in New York City, died on Tuesday at his home in Mount Vernon, N.Y. He was 88. His wife, Christa Carnegie, said the cause was congestive heart failure. Dr. Reppetto brought a street cops experience and a scholarly perspective to the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City, a small, business-funded organization, which he joined as president at its inception in 1979. He became a prominent advocate for solutions to criminal justice problems like shorthanded, overwhelmed police forces and the sale of illegal firearms. And he was a reliable expert to call on when the news media needed a Harvard-educated former officer to discuss crime and policing. Tom was an extraordinarily strong advocate for the importance of policing but appropriate policing, William J. Bratton, a former New York City police commissioner, said in a phone interview. He loved being a cop, he loved being the head of the commission, and he was cleareyed about the excitement as well as the flaws of the profession. Indianapolis police fired pepper balls on Saturday to disperse a crowd as they arrested a man during a protest near the location where an officer fatally shot a 21-year-old black man days earlier. About 50 people converged near the site where Dreasjon 'Sean' Reed was fatally shot on Wednesday, The Indianapolis Star reported. Video from the scene shows an angry crowd gathered at the site. While yelling at officers as they are making an arrest, one policeman can be seen firing a paintball-like rifle. The officer was using a specialized air rifle that fires pepper balls, or non-lethal rounds that contain PAVA and CS irritant powder. Several dozen protesters gathered at the intersection of 62nd Street and Michigan Road in Indianapolis on Saturday. A police officer fatally shot a 21-year-old African American man who livestreamed a high-speed chase just moments before At the protest, one officer was seen firing a paintball-like rifle that contained pepper balls, or non-lethal rounds of pepper irritant used to disperse protests As the officer aimed his pepper ball gun, other officers (right) were arresting a 41-year-old man for obstruction of traffic and disorderly conduct A group of protesters is seen above getting on their knees and lifting their arms in the air on Saturday Pepper balls are used by law enforcement and military for crowd dispersal and riot control. 'Look y'all,' Jalen Sanders, an Indianapolis resident who was at the protest, said in a livestream video on Facebook. 'They out here shooting us.' Reed's killing on Wednesday during a foot chase with an officer, and the fatal police shooting hours later of another black man, have strained relations between the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and black residents, spurring a series of demonstrations. As police were arresting a man during Saturday's protest, officers fired pepper balls 'to deter a crowd as they closed in on officers creating an unsafe environment for officers and protesters,' police spokesman Michael Hewitt said in a statement. Video from the scene shows several protesters angrily shout at officers as tempers flared090 Hewitt said officers arrested a 41-year-old man on suspicion of obstruction of traffic and disorderly conduct. 'No officers or protesters were injured during this arrest. IMPD supports our citizens rights to peaceful and lawful protest,' Hewitt added. Reed's shooting death was followed by protests both Wednesday and Thursday. It came within hours of Indianapolis police fatally shooting 19-year-old McHale Rose, and an officer fatally striking a pregnant woman with his car. The woman, 23-year-old Ashlynn Lisby, was white. It's unclear what discipline, if any, that officer might face. Police said preliminary findings don't indicate driver impairment was a factor in the incident. Dreasjon 'Sean' Reed, 21, was shot dead while running from police as he streamed a video of the chase on Facebook Live on Wednesday afternoon Jamie Reed, Sean's father (pictured left and right), insisted that his son did not shoot at police. He said he was 'crushed' after seeing the Facebook Live video The man in the video was identified by family members as 21-year-old Sean Reed (pictured) McHale Rose, 19, was shot and killed in the early morning hours on Thursday after police alleged he shot at officers while in the middle of a burglary Pictured: Ashlynn Lisby, 23, a single mother of three with a fourth baby on the way, was struck and killed by an Indianapolis police officer just hours after Reed's death Police have said both Reed and Rose exchanged gunfire with officers before they were fatally shot. Local activist groups have demanded transparency and accountability as the shootings are investigated. Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said Friday that he asked the US attorney's office and the FBI to 'actively monitor' the investigations into the shootings. Also, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said he was asking a court to appoint an independent prosecutor to handle the investigation into Reed's shooting because Indianapolis police Chief Randal Taylor is a witness in the case. Police chief condemns cop caught saying 'I think it's going to be a closed casket, homie' after officers shot and killed a man, 21 - the third death at the hands of Indianapolis police in 24 hours which included a pregnant mother-of-three The Indianapolis chief of police denounced a detective's comment about a 'closed casket' after a 21-year-old man was shot and killed by officers on Wednesday during a high-speed chase that was streamed on Facebook Live. Dreasjon 'Sean' Reed was gunned down just hours before police fatally shot another man and ran over a pregnant pedestrian, sparking massive protests in Indianapolis. Events surrounding Reed's death were broadcast in real time on Facebook, including comments by a responding detective who is heard saying: 'I think it's going to be a closed casket, homie,' an apparent reference to a closed-casket funeral. 'Let me be clear, these comments are unacceptable and unbecoming of our police department,' Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Chief Randal Taylor told reporters during a news conference Thursday. In this Thursday photo, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Chief Randal Taylor, center, listens to family of Dreasjon Reed during a protest on Michigan Road in Indianapolis 'We'll be pursing immediate disciplinary action against that officer,' Taylor added, going to great lengths to assure the investigations into all of the deaths will be thorough and transparent. 'I hope you understand that I'm one that is willing to acknowledge that if we made mistakes here, we will address them,' he said. 'But let the investigation run its course before we jump to conclusions - either on our side or on the community's side.' Meanwhile, on Friday, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears requested that an independent prosecutor take over the Reed case, citing Taylor's personal involvement in the high-speed chase, reported WISH-TV. Chief Taylor and Deputy Chief Kendale Adams began pursuing Reed in their unmarked vehicles along Interstate 65 after noticing him speeding and driving recklessly. Taylor and Adams quit the chase once marked patrol cars responded to the scene. 'He will undoubtedly be a material witness in this case,' Mears said of the chief. Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett this afternoon tweeted out a statement, asking the the United States Attorneys Office and the FBI to 'actively monitor' the investigation into the officer-involved shooting. 'While I continue to have confidence in Chief Randal Taylor and IMPDs ability to carry out fair and thorough investigations, it is clear to me that more must be done to provide community confidence in the outcome of those processes,' Hogsett stated. 'Through this monitoring, in conjunction with an ongoing investigation by the Marion County Prosecutors Office, we reaffirm our commitment to a transparent criminal and civil review of these incidents and the conduct of those officers involved. 'Importantly, it is my hope that our city may also reaffirm its dedication to channeling the sadness and anger felt by so many into displays of peaceful protest.' On Thursday, protesters crowded the streets of Indianapolis decrying the shootings of Reed and McHale Rose, 19, and the death of a pregnant woman, 23-year-old Ashlynn Lisby, who was struck by a police vehicle. Lisby's baby could not be saved. Officials said both Reed and Rose exchanged gunfire with officers, adding that the second shooting early Thursday morning could have been an ambush on police. Police did not have body camera or dash camera footage of either shooting. Both of the men were black, as were most of the protesters. Protesters listen during a rally outside of the City County Building in Indianapolis on Thursday People march on Michigan Road before the vigil for Sean Reed in Indianapolis on Thursday Community members gather for a vigil and protest over Reed's fatal shooting on Thursday Lisby, who was white, was walking along an expressway ramp when an officer driving to work struck her with his vehicle. According to her Facebook posts, Lisby was a single mother of three who worked for FedEx. She is survived by her young son and two daughters. Protesters converged on the first shooting scene Wednesday night, and dozens more gathered Thursday at the City County Building in downtown Indianapolis. Many wore face masks aimed at reducing the spread of the coronavirus and at times shouted, 'No justice, no peace.' Several carried Black Lives Matter flags and signs. Protests began after video of the events leading up to Reed's shooting appeared on Facebook. The video, which appears to have been recorded by Reed, shows him being pursued by police both in his car and on foot before incoherent shouting and popping sounds are heard. Later came the detective's comment, which also was broadcast live on social media. Taylor, the police chief, said Thursday that the detective was not present when the shooting happened. Reggie Jones marches on Thursday while protesting the fatal shooting of Reed by Indianapolis police on Wednesday following a pursuit People bow their heads for a moment of silence during the vigil for Reed in Indianapolis on Thursday Reed's father, Jamie Reed, said he had seen the video and was 'crushed' by its contents. 'It just shows me that were not really being protected and served. We're being hunted,' he told reporters at Thursday's protest. 'My son was a great son. I love him to death. He was just a typical young adult like anybody else. He didn't deserve to die like that.' In an interview with TMZ, Jamie Reed insisted that his son did not fire a gun at the police, claiming that the video showed Sean running with his T-shirt in one hand and his cellphone in the other. The father also pointed out that police tasered his son first before using deadly force, arguing that if Sean was armed and pointing a gun at them, they would have shot him without deploying the Taser. 'I want justice,' the elder Reed demanded. 'I don't want my son to be no statistic.' Relatives said Reed had recently left the United States Air Force. Military records show he served less than a year, in 2017. Details of separations cannot be released under privacy rules. Protesters crowded the streets of Indianapolis on Thursday to voice concerns about police treatment after officers shot and killed two men, including Reed, and fatally struck a pregnant pedestrian in three separate incidents just hours apart Deja Morse sits on the roof of a car during a community vigil and protest in Indianapolis on Thursday As a car does a burnout, a man yells to police from the top of a car during the vigil and protest Reed's shooting happened around 6pm on Wednesday after a pursuit that began when officers, including Taylor, observed someone driving recklessly on Interstate 65, police said. Video shows that at one point after police stop pursuing him, Reed laughs and cheers. 'I'm not going to jail today!' he shouts. Moments later, he appears unsure where he has driven and says in the recording, 'Please come get me. Please come get me!' Supervisors ordered an end to that pursuit because the vehicle was going nearly 90 mph, police said. An officer later spotted the car on a city street before being parked, then chased Reed on foot, Assistant Chief Chris Bailey said. According to police, the officer first tried to use a stun gun, then shot Reed as they exchanged gunfire. Bailey said it appears that a gun found near Reed had been fired at least twice. Reed was fatally shot by Indianapolis police on Wednesday following a pursuit. The incident was livestreamed on Facebook A protester holds a sign outside of the City County Building in Indianapolis on Thursday Taylor called the gun 'distinct-looking with an orange slide and elongated grip' and said photos on social media show Reed holding a similar weapon. The officer who shot Reed is black, The Indianapolis Star reported, and he has been placed on administrative leave. The second shooting happened about eight hours later, as police investigated a burglary at an apartment complex. Police said a man armed with a rifle shot at four officers as they approached the apartment about 1.30am on Thursday. Taylor said the initial investigation suggests that Rose 'may have made the call with the intention of initiating an ambush-style attack on the officers when they arrived.' Between the shootings, Officer Jonathon Henderson, a 22-year veteran, struck Lisby with his vehicle. Police said Henderson requested help and rendered first aid to the woman. Lisby was pronounced dead at a hospital. The Greater Indianapolis NAACP said in a statement Thursday that it was monitoring information about the shootings. 'All of us are trying to make a new normal in an un-normal time. Incidents like these do not help restore normalcy to our community,' said Chrystal Ratcliffe, president of the NAACP branch. This is a follow-up to my article that appeared in the April 26 issue of the Midland Reporter-Telegram entitled Oil Economics 101. Thanks to the MRT for the opportunity to publish both the original and this next installment. First, lets look at the final values for each of the pricing components for May. The roll and the Midland/Cushing basis, as they will apply to the physical sale of May barrels, were finalized at the conclusion of trading on April 24. The Midland/Cushing basis is -$2.39 per barrel for May. The calculated roll (based on actual closing NYMEX prices each day) is -$8.37 per barrel, but the roll as published by Argus Media, a recognized industry partner which publishes a wide range of commodity prices, is -$6.22 per barrel. Many crude oil sales agreements reference not the calculated roll, but the roll published by Argus. Argus surveys buyers and sellers and averages those transactions, and assesses the roll, which for May is -$6.22 per barrel (the wide variance this month is due in large part to the wide trading range on April 20). Using $3.00 per barrel truck transport from the example in the previous article, and the Argus roll, your lease price in May will be: May price = NYMEX CMA (for May) -$6.22 - $2.39 - $3.00 = NYMEX CMA - $11.61 per barrel As you might recall, the NYMEX CMA for May will be the arithmetic average of the closing price for each trading day during the calendar month of May. The CMA for the first five trading days of May (through May 7) is $22.45 per barrel; if the remaining 15 trading days all trade at this same price, the full month NYMEX CMA will be $22.45 per barrel and your price at the lease would be $22.45 minus $11.61, or $10.84 per barrel. No doubt you are wondering about June pricing. Through May 7, with nine of the 20 trading days (April 27 through May 7) in the books, the calculated June roll is -$3.82 and the Midland/Cushing basis is +$2.63, so, assuming these values stay constant for the remaining 11 trading days, your price would be: June price = NYMEX CMA (for June) -$3.82 + $2.63 - $3.00 = NYMEX CMA - $4.19 per barrel -- So why are we seeing so much improvement in the roll and the Midland/Cushing basis? First, the short answer: due to widespread curtailment and complete shut in over the last two weeks, (a) the purchasers of barrels are now short, and bidding up the price in Midland to acquire barrels (hence the positive Midland/Cushing basis), and (b) the NYMEX price difference between June and July, and between June and August, has shrunk, which makes the roll less negative. Now, the longer more interesting answer, a classic study in how free market forces are alive and well, starting with a quick overview of key events: March 24- one of the largest Permian Basin crude purchasers warned producers via email blast that producers should voluntarily curtail, implying that this could avoid potential forcible curtailments by the purchaser. April 15- pipeline nominations (a promise to deliver) for May physical deliveries were due, as made by crude purchasers on pipelines leaving the Permian Basin. In making these nominations, crude purchasers generally assumed they would receive about the same volume in May as they were receiving from producers in April. April 20- in a day of extremely volatile trading on NYMEX, fueled almost solely by paper traders covering their positions before options and futures contracts expired, the May futures price closed at -$37.63 per barrel. April 20 through April 30- producers began shutting in wells even before May began or announced they would begin shutting in wells on May 1. Permian crude purchasers now suddenly found themselves in exactly the opposite position they had been in only four weeks prior -- instead of warning producers that they might curtail producers, the purchasers now did not have nearly enough barrels to cover pipeline nominations (and the purchasers commitments further downstream) and were put in the unenviable position of buying higher priced barrels to fill their downstream commitments, potentially incurring significant losses. -- Naturally, you should wonder about the contracts that govern the transaction between producer and purchaser and how those contracts address this situation. Historically, these one to two-page contracts have been little more than handshake deals, stating the pricing formula but containing almost nothing regarding volumetric obligations. These contracts almost never required the producer to nominate barrels trucked from the lease, instead saying that the purchase quantity was an amount equal to actual lease receipts (so when a producer shuts in there are no lease receipts). A large Permian crude purchaser candidly assessed its own contract as giving a free option to the producer whether or not to produce. During the last week of April, the market rapidly moved into damage control mode, establishing an after-market of sorts. Purchasers posed the question to producers At what price would you continue to produce? Some producers agreed to share the pain with purchasers, by either keeping wells on at negotiated wellhead prices ranging from $8-$12 per barrel or agreeing to produce at 50 percent (for example) of their normal rate. Other producers made no concessions. People relax at the Cheonggye Stream as daily life is slowly returning to normal amid a lifting of restrictions in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, May 7, 2020. AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon Bars and nightclubs in Seoul, South Korea, the nation's capital city were ordered closed indefinitely Saturday after a COVID-19 outbreak was linked to them, The New York Times reported. Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said as many as 40 new cases could be traced to nightclubs in the city, though another official cited 27 cases. On Wednesday a man diagnosed with COVID-19 said he had visited three nightclubs in the Itaewon area of the city. Residents earlier this week had been encouraged to begin returning to their daily lives as schools, concert venues, and libraries prepare to open within the coming weeks. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The city of Seoul, South Korea, on Saturday ordered all bars and nightclubs in the city shut down indefinitely just three days after people in the city were told to begin "a new daily life with Covid-19." According to a report from The New York Times, the closure comes after a 29-year-old man tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday after he visited three nightclubs in the Itaewon area in the city last weekend. As of Saturday, officials said they were tracking down more than 7,000 people who had visited five nightclubs in the region, according to the report. "Just because of a few people's carelessness, all our efforts so far can go to waste," Seoul Mayor Park Won Soon said at a press conference Saturday. According to The Times, the mayor said at least 40 infections had been linked to nightclubs, though Kwon Jun Wok, a senior disease-control official, said Saturday that just 27 reported cases had been linked to the venues. Park said 40 cases included the 27 in Seoul, 12 in Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, and one in Busan, according to The Korea Herald. South Korea has so far achieved a great deal of success in mitigating the virus without completely shutting down its economy, due in part to its rigorous testing and contact tracing strategies. But as The Times noted Saturday, the question now is whether South Korea can make a further shift toward normalcy without negating its success in flattening the curve. Story continues Under a policy that went into place on Wednesday, South Korean citizens were encouraged to get back to their lives as much as possible ahead of a planned re-opening of schools, museums, libraries, stadiums, and concert venues within the coming weeks, according to the report. But as the Associated Press reported Friday, the nightclub outbreak could force a delay in the re-opening of in-person instruction in schools, officials said, which was slated to begin next week. According to the report, nightclubs and similar venues nationwide were advised but not ordered to close. As Business Insider reported earlier Saturday, reports of the new infections have left South Korea's LGBTQ population worried about discrimination after local media had reportedly sensationalized details about the outbreak having occurred in Itaewon, which is known as the gay district of Seoul. Read the original article on Business Insider By the middle of 1942 there was no way for us to exist as a family outside of the ghetto. At that time to give refuge to a Jew was very dangerous. There were not many people willing to risk their lives to save us. I can understand it; those that did it were really heroes. But unfortunately there were a lot of people who freely co-operated with the Germans. The Germans would never have succeeded to do what they did without the help of millions of helpers behind them and there were helpers everywhere, Sarah says. Her parents arranged for her to escape alone with false papers that said she was a Polish Christian so she could join other young Poles who had been forced to leave their homeland to work in Germany. Sarah (front) in 1934 with mother Estera, brother Julek, sister Zosia and father Aron. Credit:Jewish Holocaust Centre Archival Collection "When I heard the plans my parents had for me I was horrified. I had just turned 16 and I couldnt imagine even one day on my own in a faraway place, in a different country, surrounded by hostile people who want to kill me. It was the first time I stood up to my mother, and I said, 'I wont be going anywhere. Whatever will happen to you all, will happen to me.' "My mother started to cry and told me that nothing will happen to them, they dont need all the people, that I was the one in danger and I would be the one taken away and every time she heard footsteps outside her heart will stop, but if she knows I am safe it will be easier for them and they will be able to look after themselves better, that we will survive and we will meet again." Not wanting to burden her parents, Sarah agreed to go. I was so angry with my mother for forcing me to make the decision and when we parted I didnt say a proper goodbye. That was the last time I saw them. Sarah worked with 47 other girls in a Heinz and Hasse sauce factory in Hamburg, where she was forced to lead a life of lies. Sarah's parents, Aron and Estera Fiszman, at their clothing store in Lublin, Poland, circa 1938. Credit:Jewish Holocaust Archival Collection "But by telling one lie I had to cover it up with so many other lies. There were times that I was completely confused. I was scared every minute of the day and night of being recognised. If someone just glanced at me my heart would stop. At the same time I couldnt show that I was scared. I had to look everyone straight in the face I had to dance, I had to sing, I had to laugh, while I was crying inside. I couldnt be different from the others and I could not trust anyone. For the first two months, Sarah would receive smuggled postcards from her father, but one day they stopped coming. So in Easter 1943, desperate to learn of her familys wellbeing, Sarah posted three postcards to Polish friends wishing them a happy Easter. On the envelope I put my address, hoping that if they know anything about anyone from my family they will get in touch with me. One of the so-called friends went to the Gestapo and betrayed me. I dont know if it was for the belongings that we left with them or just for the pure satisfaction of having another one of us eliminated. Meanwhile, Hamburg was bombed and Sarah left the city to find work on a farm 50 kilometres away. While Hamburg was burning the Gestapo still had time to look for me, because I had committed such a tremendous crime of being born Jewish. And they found me, she says. Sarah was taken into Gestapo headquarters and interrogated. They eventually let her go, but retained her identification documents. Knowing she was no longer safe, she fled. She was once again caught and taken to Gestapo headquarters and held for two days. I was standing all day long with my hands in handcuffs. At night I was taken down to the cellar. I was not given any food or anything to drink. I was simply ignored. I was like a piece of furniture. By the end I just gave up. I couldnt take it any more and I wanted to end it. I knew deep down there was no one left from my family, Sarah says. So I turned around and I said to the Gestapo man, 'I will tell you the truth, I am Jewish and you can shoot me.' Sarah was condemned to Majdanek concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin. But the train trip to the camp included a transfer in Leipzig, where she managed to escape. "People say you must have been very clever and very, very brave, but that is not the truth. I wasnt brave I was petrified. I wasnt clever. Having the time to plan, I would never have had the courage to do it. I was like an animal. I did everything instinctively, on impulse," she says. "As much as I wanted to die at that time, something inside of me was fighting to stay alive. And I succeeded. She made her way to a town outside of Dresden where she established a new false identity and found work. And on May 8, 1945, 75 years ago, Europe was liberated when Nazi Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allies. Sarah was freed by the Russian army and eventually returned to Poland. There were no family members left there, although her brothers were still alive. A montage of photos Sarah donated to the Jewish Holocaust Centre of her family before the war. Rear from left: Brother Gidal, mother Estera, Sarah and father Aron. Front: Brother Julek, sister Zosia, Zosia's son Misza and husband Ziamka Buszmac. Credit:Jewish Holocaust Centre Archival Collection All the family I left behind in Poland perished, I dont know how or where, she says, I didnt belong there; it wasnt my home any more. Displaced, Sarah joined a group of young Jewish refugees pretending to be Greek bound for Greece and illegally crossed war-torn Europes borders. From Italy on a fishing boat the group tried to get to Palestine. All the borders were closed for us. No one wanted us and Palestine was the only place we felt we had roots. Unfortunately, we were caught by the British, but as we were in an Italian port they did not have the power to take us by force. We sat on the boat [the Dov Hoz] for six weeks; there were 1014 of us. Then we had a hunger strike; it was huge news all over the world. By the end the British were forced to give us free entry. And in the beginning of May 1946 we arrived in Palestine. We were the only group that arrived legally, Sarah says. A crowd had gathered to meet the boat when it reached Palestine. Among the faces she spotted a familiar one her brother Gidal, whom she had not seen since he had left for Palestine in 1937. In Palestine, Sarah joined the underground defence movement, the Haganah, and was involved in the defence of Tel Aviv. She took part in the war of independence that resulted in the formation of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948. We won the war but we were sitting on top of a volcano that's erupting all the time, she says. Sarah (front) in 1945 with surviving relatives (clockwise from left) sister-in-law Ester, niece Dahlia, nephew Aaron, brother Gidal and brother Julek. Credit:Jewish Holocaust Centre Archival Collection Sarah was married and had two children. In 1953 she made a voyage with her young family to meet her second brother, Julek, who had survived by escaping to Russia and eventually travelled to Melbourne. Julek had arranged papers for the young family to come to Australia. I came to Australia, not to settle, just to live a couple of years without wars. I was sorry I came. I was so disillusioned not being able to communicate, not a penny to our name, with two small children. But we couldnt turn back, we burnt our bridges and it took me 15 years to realise how lucky we are to be living here it is the best country in the world. For 42 years Sarah never talked about her past. It was not until 1983 that she found catharsis in sculpture, an outlet for her pain. This led her to write the first of two books, Life Goes On Regardless It was only after I wrote my life story did I become free. I looked out the window and it was so beautiful, there was colour I didnt see it before. I felt so light, like something heavy was lifted from my arms, and that was the first time I realised I can talk without breaking down. Sarah has been volunteering at the Jewish Holocaust Centre for decades, telling her story to students and other visitors. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: For weeks, Kelly Stanton wasn't sleeping. She lay in bed gripped with the anxiety of having to go to work at a Washington, D.C.-area hospital not knowing whether she might bring home the coronavirus to her husband and their three children. It was inevitable, she thought. She wasn't protected. Stanton, a nurse for 28 years, had seen federal safety protocols for health care workers begin to crumble amid the pandemic by early March. Guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding personal protective equipment, or PPE, changed consistently. At Stanton's hospital, nurses were told that they would have limited access to an already low stockpile of protective equipment and were being asked to reuse single-use masks multiple times, she said. "Never in my time as a nurse have I seen this," she said. "It was a position I could never have imagined I'd be in, even in my wildest dreams." Each time a safety regulation changed, she said, she began to feel more like "a sheep sent to slaughter" than a front-line nurse, and she started agonizing between her job and her family. By late March, the risks weighed too heavily, and Stanton submitted her resignation. "It was an extremely difficult decision, but as a mother and wife, the health of my family will always come first," she said. "In the end, I could not accept that I could be responsible for causing one of my family members to become severely ill or possibly die." As COVID-19 has infected more than 1 million Americans, nurses working on the front lines with little protective support have made the gut-wrenching decision to step away from their jobs, saying that they were ill-equipped and unable to fight the disease and that they feared for not only their own safety but also that of their families. Many of these nurses, who have faced backlash for quitting, said new CDC protocols have made them feel expendable and have not kept their safety in mind, leaving them no choice but to walk away from a job they loved. Story continues 'We're not cannon fodder. We're human beings.' As the nation took stock of its dwindling medical supplies in the early days of the pandemic, CDC guidance regarding personal protective equipment quickly took a back seat. Supplies of N95 masks, which had previously been the acceptable standard of protective care for both patients and medical personnel, were depleting, so commercial grade masks, surgical masks and, in the most extreme cases, homemade masks, such as scarves and bandannas, were all sanctioned by the CDC which didn't return a request for comment to counter the lack of resources. Nurses, among other health care workers, were expected to pivot and adapt with no evidence to the view that new guidelines would provide any significant protection from a novel and contagious disease. "Things they were telling us we had to now do, you would've been fired if we did that three weeks before," Stanton said. "How is this suddenly OK?" There had been warning that a pandemic was coming, she said. "Hospital administrators, states and the federal government should have stockpiled PPEs. All three failed." COVID-19 patients had only slowly started trickling in, but Stanton could see where things would head. It was almost guaranteed that nurses would be at risk under those conditions, she said. "We're not cannon fodder. We're human beings," she said. In many respects, nurses who have had to treat COVID-19 patients with little or no protection, especially in the early days of the pandemic, have become collateral damage. Nearly 10,000 health care workers on the front lines, including nurses, have tested positive, according to a preliminary survey the CDC conducted from February to April. Because data collection has been slow and not comprehensive and many people with COVID-19 have been asymptomatic, actual numbers are likely much higher. At least 79 nurses have died from the coronavirus, the American Nurses Association, which has been independently tracking reports, said Thursday. "There are huge ethical dilemmas that nurses are now facing," said Liz Stokes, director of the American Nurses Association Center for Ethics and Human Rights. "Just imagine having to make decisions every day on whether you're going to fulfill your professional obligation to care for patients versus sacrificing your personal safety or even that of your family because you're in a situation where you don't have adequate resources." Nurses have a duty to their patients, but they also have a duty to themselves under the nursing code of ethics, Stokes said. Those are equal obligations, and if you feel morally torn, you have to make the decision that's right for you, she said. Stokes added that it's also important to be thankful for the nurses who have decided to step away because they recognized that they weren't in the best situation physically or mentally to provide care. 'No, we didn't sign up for this' For Rebecca, a nurse in the Albuquerque, New Mexico, area who didn't want her full name used for fear that she won't be rehired, the writing was on the wall when she saw a member of her hospital management collect all N95 masks from her floor and lock them in a cabinet in early March, before the country went into full-blown crisis. "It's really demoralizing to see someone lock them up in front of you knowing that you might need one of those," she said. "The whole scene was very symbolic of how all this was going to go down. And it was a bad sign for what's to come." Rebecca, who has been a nurse for four years, said that communication and infrastructure began to break down fairly quickly and that nurses were expected to make terrible compromises. Masks were rationed to one per week and sometimes shared. Only nurses who dealt with patients who tested positive for COVID-19 were given an extra N95 mask, even if the patient showed symptoms. During one 16-hour shift, Rebecca was repeatedly in close contact with a patient who later tested positive and she wasn't wearing a mask. "I knew it was something I could no longer handle," she said. "I know my limitations." Rebecca quit in mid-April, one week after she tested negative for COVID-19 after exposure to the patient. Since quitting, she has been sensitive to the criticism many nurses like her have faced for stepping away during a pandemic. That's why many of them have kept their decisions private, she said. It's especially hurtful when she reads comments on social media that nurses shouldn't raise complaints because they "signed up for this." "We didn't sign up to be sacrificial lambs. We didn't sign up to fight a deadly disease without adequate resources," she said. "We're told we're soldiers. Well, you don't send soldiers to war without a gun and expect them to do their job, but you are doing that to us." The sentiments have been shared by thousands of other nurses who feel they are also being put in dangerous environments. Last month, the New York State Nurses Association, representing more than 3,000 nurses, filed three lawsuits against the New York State Health Department and two hospitals over the health and safety of nurses treating COVID-19 patients. Among other things, the lawsuits call out the state for not providing appropriate protective equipment for nurses, not properly training nurses deployed from hospital units and not providing safe enough working conditions for high-risk employees. While the Health Department declined to comment directly on the lawsuit, it did say it was "deeply grateful for the ongoing efforts of New York's health care workers to reduce the spread of COVID-19 by testing people who may be infected and treating those who are most in need." Quitting has been on the minds of many nurses, said Cara Lunsford, a nurse who founded Holliblu, an online community for nurses. According to a survey conducted by Holliblu, 62 percent of over 1,000 respondents said they are planning to quit either their jobs or the profession altogether. "They didn't sign up to go into work and be unprotected from an invisible enemy, and the pressure is really starting to mount for a lot of nurses," Lunsford said. This is an unprecedented time, and nurses weren't trained to be soldiers or handle biological threats with little protection and resources, she said. And if they leave for their sanity or safety, they shouldn't be treated as defectors. Constantly being anointed a "hero" by the public also hasn't helped the added pressure, Rebecca said. While it's a nice gesture, it gives the connotation that you should be risking yourself without help and that if you don't you're a "coward." She added that several colleagues reached out to her about wanting to quit after she left but that many just don't have the option. "I've realized that I'm very fortunate that I had a choice," she said. "A lot of nurses have student loans, car loans, and they are single parents. They can't quit, and that bothers me, because they are being taken advantage of right now." 'It was one of the most difficult decisions of my life' Kate, who didn't want her full name used for privacy, quit her job at a Virginia hospital in April after she was pulled from her floor as a post-anesthesia care unit nurse and reassigned to critical care after only four hours of training. Throughout her hospital, protective equipment was siphoned for COVID-19-positive patients, but with testing not fully widespread, she never knew whether someone was infected, and worse she, didn't know whether she was bringing it home. Kate would go directly to the attic and quarantine away from her husband and children after getting home from work. But the emotional toll was high, and she could no longer be away from her 1- and 3-year-old children. She knew she had to walk away from her job. While putting her family first has got her through the painful decision, she still feels tremendous guilt for leaving. "It's not just a job, it's a calling, and to walk away from it is extremely difficult and painful." she said. "I wish I could have stayed with my patients. It's not like I didn't want to be there." Had masks been available and pre-pandemic precautions preserved, "without a doubt I'd still be working," Kate said. Stokes, of the American Nurses Association, said: "One of the issues that we are trying to emphasize is that nurses must be supported in whatever decision they make, whether they take the risk or choose not to take the risk to protect families. "It's a heart-wrenching decision, and many nurses have expressed that they feel sadness and sorrow that they are leaving their colleagues and patients. It's a difficult decision, and that in itself can be emotionally traumatic." Stokes believes the psychological consequences of putting nurses in these dilemmas will be profound and long-lasting. She predicts high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder and secondary trauma syndrome trailing the pandemic. "Nurses were already burned out before, and this pandemic might push many of them completely out," she said. The mental health toll on medical workers was put into sobering perspective after New York City emergency room doctor Lorna Breen died by suicide. A hotline created by physicians to help doctors deal with the anxiety of combating the crisis said it averages up to 20 calls a day. Another hotline, For The Frontlines, has also been set up as a 24-hour resource for other health care and essential workers. "I would anticipate increased apprehension possibly extending into anxiety or mood problems," said Dr. Sheetal Marri, a psychiatrist, referring not only to nurses who continued to work but also to those who stepped back. "These effects will impact the way nurses and other health care professionals will deal with workplace health hazards even after this pandemic is over." Stanton said she would like to return to nursing but only once guidelines are restored and she can feel safe going to work again. While she is taking this time to focus on her family, she still misses her job. "I loved being a nurse. You do it because you care, you want to help people," she said. " But right now, nurses don't feel like heroes. We feel expendable." If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 05/10/2020 ADVERTISEMENT [ Spoilers Warning: This report contains spoilers revealing if David and Lana are still together and if Lana is even real, as well as spoilers about : Before the 90 Days Season 4's reunion.] ADVERTISEMENT So did David find out the truth about Lana? Is she real? And is the : Before the 90 Days couple still together and possibly engaged? ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT David also reveals he is now "engaged" to Lana! ADVERTISEMENT Steven Rogers is a senior entertainment reporter for Reality TV World and been covering the reality TV genre for two decades. star David Murphey won't accept the belief Lana is scamming and using him on Season 4 of : Before the 90 Days, so what happened to their relationship? Is Lana a real person, and if so, are she and David still together now?David, a 60-year-old from Las Vegas, NV, and Lana, a 27-year-old blonde beauty from Ukraine, are one of the couples starring on : Before the 90 Days' fourth season, which premiered in February on TLC.David apparently fell for Lana when they met on a foreign dating website seven years prior to filming : Before the 90 Days' fourth season, and he shared that Lana was "aggressively interested" in him when they first exchanged messages.However, since Lana doesn't speak any English, she forced David to communicate through a very expensive website chatroom, which cost David over $100,000 over the course of their relationship.David was warned by his friends that Lana was a gold-digging scammer since she had stood him up on three prior occasions when David thought they were finally going to meet in person, but he believed their love was real and, in his mind, nothing was going to stop them from being together.David said he and Lana had talked about marriage and living together in the United States, and so he picked out an engagement ring to propose with and flew about 8,000 miles and over 22 hours to Ukraine.David waited at the train station in Odessa the next day because Lana said she had a 10-hour train ride from her hometown, but she never showed up."I can't believe this is happening again. This is the fourth time that I've come to Ukraine to meet Lana, and this is the fourth time it hasn't happened," David said in a confessional."This one is different. There is no excuse for this one. The others had excuses, and logical excuses -- she had a medical operation and one time her brother died."David couldn't get in contact with Lana afterward, so he decided to take a dangerous drive to her alleged home address in Pavlohrad, which was on the outskirts of a war zone. Lana had given David this address when he wanted to book them a cruise the previous year.Once David arrived at what he believed were Lana's stomping grounds, he went into various locations looking for the blonde beauty. David even showed Lana's photo to people working at a candy shop and flower shop.David was finally able to communicate with Lana on the website around this time, and she agreed to meet up with him at a restaurant so they could continue on with their relationship and trying to obtain a K-1 visa.However, David sat at the restaurant alone for what seemed like hours, and so he left disappointed again.As a result, David headed straight to Lana's supposed apartment building and knocked on the door that matched her addressed. When a man answered the door, David quickly discovered Lana did not live in that unit or anywhere else in that complex."I want to say Lana has stood me up for the last time," David told the cameras."But I know if she just writes to me and suddenly invites me into a chat, that's it! That's all it takes and I'm hooked again. Everything inside me says I'm done with her, but I still love her, so I don't know what's going to happen. I have a lot of thinking to do."Once David returned to the United States, he hired a private investigator to hopefully track Lana down and give him some information about the mysterious girl's whereabouts.After doing some research, the private investigator warned David it seemed like he was being scammed because Lana was on several dating websites, sharing the same pictures of herself under different names.David didn't like the private investigator's findings and insisted someone could have stolen Lana's pictures and used them, and so David accused the PI of making stuff up. David grew very irritated, angry and defensive."He doesn't know her, as I do... I'm not giving up until I actually get to meet her... I have to find out from her the real truth," David said in a confessional during the latest episode.: Before the 90 Days' Season 4 cast Tell-All reunion had reportedly been set to film at a studio in New York City in March similar to past seasons, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, those plans ended up being postponed.Instead, the show ended up filming a reunion remotely, with everyone participating via Skype, during the first weekend of May.The @FraudedByTLC Instagram account, which is run by a woman named Katrina, also has a podcast called The Fraudcast, which she co-hosts with Hanekawa Dravon, the ex-wife of : Before the 90 Days Season 3 star Benjamin Taylor During a recent episode of The Fraudcast, details emerged about what went down on the reunion -- including the latest on David and Lana's relationship."Lana is real," Katrina insisted, after Hanekawa mentioned David had allegedly videochatted with Lana before."People are saying Lana is not real. You guys, Lana is real. She's a real person. What may not be real is her feelings for David, as far as wanting a relationship and all of this."Katrina said it was already known, before the private investigator was hired, that Lana had been talking to different men on several dating websites under different names."We know that she's done this. We know that her 'agent' puts her pictures on all of these various sites to find an American husband. We know that happened," Katrina said.Katrina noted while Lana is getting to know other men, David believes they have been in a romantic relationship during the last seven years.Katrina therefore said David's belief he and Lana are going to get married and have a future together in the United States "might not be real."Katrina believes David has constructed a narrative in his head that Lana is into him and wants to be with him, which builds his ego and self-confidence and makes him feel youthful and desirable.What's unusual, however, is that Lana doesn't make any money off the dating website David uses to communicate with her, prompting questions of why she even bothers talking to David. One might say she's looking to come to America, but at the same time, Lana never met up with David to get the ball rolling on that."What is her gain in stringing him along?" Hanekawa questioned.Hanekawa pointed out, however, David recently admitted on social media he and Lana were off and on throughout their seven years together, and sometimes they were just friends."You can see he gets messages from other women," Katrina agreed."He's not putting all of his eggs in one basket," Hanekawa said.Katrina suggested maybe Lana is enjoying her friendship with David and "that's the payoff she's getting," unlike how her conversations with be with other American men, who could be aggressive or focused on the physical."Maybe [David] is providing more of an intellectual conversation, or a more actual conversation," Katrina noted, later adding. "She doesn't have to pay to chat, so it's no loss for her... She also lives in a very remote area of Ukraine."Later in the podcast, Katrina revealed the same show producer that filmed David's trip to Ukraine also filmed Season 7 star Mike Youngquist 's trip to visit Natalie Mordovtseva in Ukraine -- and hinted the producer may also have filmed footage with Lana after David left the country and returned to America."And there's some other filming that happens after David leaves [Ukraine]. I'm just going to leave that," Katrina said, hinting the producer stuck around and filmed Lana after David left Ukraine."I feel like [if viewers see and meet Lana] it won't have the same 'wow' impact like the day the world stopped turning when we saw [ Caesar Mack 's Maria]."Katrina also appeared on Katie Joy's "Without A Crystal Ball" YouTube channel on Thursday and revealed additional details about David and Lana.Katie asked Katrina whether David actually appeared on the Tell-All when it taped."David is there. Lana is not at the Tell-All, but we do get to see a package of David and Lana that I am not at liberty to reveal yet. We'll just say that," Katrina teased.Katie recalled David insisting Lana is a real person and he's had video conversations with her. David has therefore blamed TLC's editing of the show for making him look foolish and making Lana seem like a scammer."We believe [David] and that's because our independent investigations have shown that to be true," Katrina said."What we know, like when David went to the candy store looking for Lana, we know that candy store is an hour-and-a-half from where she lives, and she doesn't have a car. So if she pops in regularly to a candy shop, that's not going to be it. And then there are no other candy shops near where she lives. So we know that is fake. We believe the producer [made that] a storyline... and same thing with the restaurant."Katie pointed out there seems to be a scam happening regardless, and Katrina agreed, "There is something going on, but I don't know what it is."Katrina reiterated how the women do not make any cash from communicating with guys on the particular website David has been using."Does he send her money?" Katie asked."Not that I'm aware of, no," Katrina noted. "But what we know is that Lana is a real person. I can tell you that. That she is a real person. And what TLC filmed this season for him is, I believe, we believe, much of it to be fake."She continued, "We've been able to prove some of it is fake, and so we have been led to believe some of the other stuff is fake as well or embellished... There is going to be some more coming out on them that I am not at liberty to discuss yet."The day after Katrina's appearance on Katie's YouTube channel, nearly an hour of raw footage from : Before the 90 Days' Season 4 reunion show leaked online via @mommy_says_bad_words, an Instagram account for Memes.The grainy, low-quality footage -- which was posted as a series of thirteen videos on May 8, but later deleted -- includes a five-minute video package that features Lana introducing herself to viewers and being interviewed by the show's producers.In addition, another leaked reunion video revealed David now considers himself to be engaged to Lana!"But she doesn't want to leave the website yet," David says in a reunion show videochat with host Shaun Robinson and his : Before the 90 Days Season 4 co-stars Ed and Yolanda."Those are her friends.""David, you're not engaged," Ed says. "You're not engaged!""That doesn't raise a red flag?" Yolanda asks. "That doesn't bother you, that she doesn't want to leave the website?""An engagement is a proposal and an acceptance," David replies."She's not engaged, David. She's not engaged to you," Ed insists. "FYI... she's not engaged to you. She's not! I'm sorry. And you're a fool if you think she is!"The threesome then appear to argue about the fact that Lana is continuing to use the dating website despite her "engagement" to David."If she agreed to leave the website -- you're the one... all the money that you're invested in her, what has she invested in you? Nothing," Ed continues. "Nothing.""And then she's still on the website," Yolanda interjects."Ed... it's very rare for a girl -- it's very rare for any of these girls, and I know hundreds of girls that have gotten married here that are here in this country right now, people that I know that got married this way," David replies. ""They do not leave the websites instantly," David continues. "They leave the websites usually when they leave the country.""Okay, you're not engaged," Ed reiterates. "You're not engaged."Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage! Fiid, an Irish plant-based food startup, has set its sights on raising 500,000 from angel investors by September as it plots further expansion next year. The company, launched in December 2018 by food entrepreneur Shane Ryan (30), has grown rapidly since formation. Its products, focused toward the vegan market, are stocked in 300 stores across Ireland, including national listings with SuperValu and Tesco, with the company also announcing its first UK listing with Sainsbury's in January this year. Ryan said the company had revenue of around 500,000, making a profit of 48,000. He added that Fiid had done half of last year's revenue over the first three months of this year, with growth in retail sales and online sales over March up 100pc and around 450pc, respectively. The Limerick native said he hopes to secure angel investment in September, but felt there was no great rush as some growth plans may be pushed out to next year due to Covid-19. He said the company had been speaking with potential investors. Ryan said Fiid is working on distribution agreements in the Middle East as well as in Iceland. He has also been talking with other potential sellers in the UK. While now is not the end for the China virus, it may well be beyond the beginning of the end. Ironically, of all people, President Trump may have been the most accurate in calling for a peak around Easter or mid-April. I've been following "Ethical Skeptic" on Twitter. And while I can't vouch for his methods his daily graphs that compare the China virus with SARS tell an interesting tale; pandemics end. The arrival curve for US cases continues its steady decline. Both the US and UK are posting falsely inflated case arrivals due to hyper-testing. This is irresponsible to our world friends. World in 2nd peak with Peru, Brazil, Russia, India in escalations. pic.twitter.com/ywDAupjsKD Ethical Skeptic (@EthicalSkeptic) May 8, 2020 As to how and why they end, the scientists, in my opinion, are somewhat baffled. The parallels to SARS, though, are interesting not only visually, but experientially as well. Karl Taro Greenfeld tells a chilling tale in "When SARS Ended" in the April 17, 2020 New Yorker. Taro was an editor of Time Asia in the spring of 2003 when SARS struck. It was terrible. "We were trying to make light of a reality that had become terrifying. Hong Kong's hospital system had crashed. Hundreds of front-line health workers had been infected[.]" He then relates to reasons for optimism spring and mutations. "Seasonality is a universal driver of almost all of our infectious diseases," Micaela Martinez, an infectious-disease ecologist at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health, told me. Martinez's research focusses on identifying the causal mechanisms behind seasonality. It's possible, for instance, that, for certain diseases, circadian rhythms matter: because the location of some immune-system cells in the body varies depending on the time of day, longer days could change how the immune system responds to an infection. (Many of covid-19's worst symptomsfever, inflammation, fluid in the lungsare the result of inappropriate immune-system responses.) Martinez stressed how much is unknown about the biology of seasonality. "I hope for seasonal decline," she said. But, in the case of sars-CoV-2, seasonal factors could be outweighed by the scale of the outbreak and the ease with which the virus spreads. Farr's Law of Epidemics is the basic bell-shaped curve we've all seen. For instance, in 1990, researchers went back and found it to have been a good predictor of AIDS cases. Farr's Law of Epidemics, first promulgated in 1840 and resurrected by Brownlee in the early 1900s, states that epidemics tend to rise and fall in a roughly symmetrical pattern that can be approximated by a normal bell-shaped curve. We applied this simple law to the reported annual incidence of cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in the United States from 1982 through 1987. The 6 years of incidence data closely fit a normal distribution that crests in late 1988 and then declines to a low point by the mid-1990s. The projected size of the epidemic falls in the range of 200 000 cases. A continuing incidence of endemic cases can be expected to emerge, but we believe it will occur at a low level. Greenfeld suggests that the bell shape of the curve may be have something do with viruses mutating, since mutations tend to not be favorable. Both sars-CoV and sars CoV-2 are RNA coronaviruses. "Fields Virology," the standard medical-school text on the subject, notes that "coronaviruses mutate at a high frequency because of the high error frequencies of RNA polymerases." (RNA is a single long strand; unlike double-helixed DNA, it has no second strand to check its errors.) "When you have a mutation, there tends to be a survival disadvantage for the virus," Charles Prober, a pediatric epidemiologist at Stanford University, told me. It's possible, therefore, to imagine that sars-CoV-2 could mutate its way into a seasonal decline. And like clockwork, the spring of 2003 in Hong Kong ushered in warmer weather and a slow return to normalcy and masklessness. I can't remember when I first saw someone without one, or when I myself decided to leave mine at home. I suppose that, one day, I must have woken up, got dressed, reached for the N95 as usual, and then thought, Is this really necessary? The government didn't tell us to go outand, in any case, it couldn't have legislated away our fear. Instead, some internal calculation seemed to show that the benefits of living our lives newly outweighed the risks of catching sars. I know as I write this that it sounds ridiculous, but it felt as though the virus itself had grown weakeras though it had been wounded. It seemed like a miasma had lifted from the city. My family members came back from their exile. Restaurants reopened. The viral spell broke; Hong Kong seemed to wake from a fever dream. There were magical spring days when the sun flooded Victoria Harbor. We talked, in person. The virus had reduced everyone's life to a binaryyou either had it or you didn't. Now, there seemed to be seven million different stories. One day, I found myself sitting in a steamy chicken-and-rice place full of other customers. Oh, I thought. This is what life is. I'll join the president (and perhaps investors) in seeing the peak in mid-April and the worst behind us by the end of the May. It was, Gerry Mullins recalls, "a little like getting a ticket aboard the Titanic". As an advisor to the Green Party he had helped them, for the first time in their 40-year history, to get into government. The only problem was that the economic crash was imminent, and the Greens, along with their coalition partners Fianna Fail, would be left holding the baby. By the time the coalition was turfed out at the next election Mullins had already moved on to a PR firm. When he lost this job, with his wife expecting a baby, it was devastating. "I felt like everything came down on me. I'd a kid on the way and a mortgage to pay. All the ways of getting back into the workplace seemed to be shut off because everyone was suffering." Mullins bounced back - he headed up the Press Office at the Central Bank of Ireland and worked as a lobbyist for several private travel companies but his passion was always for writing. Now the Skerries man has written a novel, about a man who is drawn into into a criminal underworld. Its central character is a TV producer who starts taking anabolic steroids to restore the 'manliness' he has lost in a high-pressure career and unhappy marriage. His plan works - a little too well. Soon he is a cocaine dealer, carving out a market in Dublin's more affluent suburbs. This draws him into conflict with two established drugs gangs. Inspiration came from Gerry's own journey toward what he calls 'a kind of male HRT' - hormone replacement therapy. "I wasn't feeling great, I was at a bit of a low ebb", he recalls. "I had a lack of ambition and drive and a low mood. There had also been a falloff in my libido though I wasn't especially worried about that. But I knew I had to do something." A consultant he saw wanted to send him to a psychiatrist but his GP went a different route and prescribed him testosterone; his was found to be low. "A man doesn't want to be told he has low testosterone - that goes to the very core of his being. At the same time, I could never remember anyone talking about this. I brought it up with friends to flush out if anyone had the same problem, but nobody had heard of it. "I started researching the hormone and found it a very interesting area. Testosterone governs far more than muscular development: it gives us focus, ambition, competitiveness, drive, courage and spatial awareness. But there is another side to many of its positive attributes: it can cause ruthlessness, arrogance, anger, recklessness and of course aggression." Video of the Day Mullins illustrates the two sides of testosterone with a graphic analogy: "If you see a person reverse a 12-wheel articulated truck around a corner and into a space barely wide enough for a family car, you can be sure the driver is a high-testosterone male. But if you are in the countryside and you come across a car that has smashed through a wall and landed in a field, killing the occupants, you can also be sure the driver is a high-testosterone male." A lot of the problems Mullins was having might have also been solved in other ways. "Feeling that drive and ambition are worn out - those are also symptoms of depression and, partly, of anxiety. But taking the testosterone made sense to me. I was afraid that if I went on depression medication it would have an even more detrimental effect." He began to notice an improvement in his mental health and an extra spring in his step - but cautions against putting this all down to testosterone. "A short time after, I was in a triathlon and after a while I thought 'this is far easier than it would have been before', I was flying along but I felt there was an extra 10pc in the tank. If you do a hard session in the gym it helps to rebound better after. I think it's helped with motivation in terms of my work. I think it's 20pc testosterone and 80pc the wake-up call taking the testosterone gave me." His wife, he says, was ambivalent: "She felt it was all a bit strange. She was neither in favour of it nor against it; it was just there." The drug served as a powerful inspiration for his just-published novel, Testosterone, Dublin 8, which has a Breaking Bad-like arc of a man who is feeling unmanly after a difficult period in his career and his marriage. After taking testosterone the protagonist starts dealing in cocaine, setting off a feud between two Dublin gangs. The novel, Mullins's fourth book, is also a brilliant portrait of a changing Dublin. The central character, "a Blackrock-educated blow-in", feels superior to his Dublin 8 surroundings. "In the book I say that he had expected to end up in one of the three Rs of the southside: Ranelagh, Rathmines or Rathgar. He hadn't contemplated the fourth R, Rialto," Mullins explains. It's a beautifully written novel that deserves to do well, but Mullins acknowledges that the title, and the theme, makes it a hard sell for some. "The majority of readers of crime novels are women. And by having a male name on the cover as well calling it after the male hormone, well that might be off-putting to someone. But testosterone is not all about men. It is something that gives men and women focus and drive. The baby girl born today in Holles Street will have testosterone in her body; it's in all of us." Testosterone, Dublin 8 by Gerry Mullins is published by Liberties Press, priced 14.99 The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorised the use of antigen test for the first time to detect and treat Covid-19 infection. "The US Food and Drug Administration has issued the first emergency use authorization (EUA) for a Covid-19 antigen test, a new category of tests for use in the ongoing pandemic," the FDA said in a statement issued on Saturday. The new type of test manufactured by Quidel Corp. It was given emergency authorisation by the US Food and Drug Administration on Friday night, Sputnik reported. "One of the main advantages of an antigen ... The Centre has deployed Indian Naval Ship Kesari with medical assistance teams and essential medicines in the southern Indian Ocean Region to help nations deal with the novel coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. "Responding to their requests for assistance in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, Government of India has sent Indian Naval Ship Kesari to Maldives, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Seychelles, carrying on board two medical assistance teams, consignments of COVID-19 related essential medicines and essential food items," the MEA said in a press release. The medical assistance teams will be deployed in Mauritius and Comoros, helping their governments deal with coronavirus-related emergencies and dengue fever in case of Comoros. A team of select medical personnel was also dispatched to the Maldives to assist Maldivian government. "The ship will deliver consignments of coronavirus-related essential medicines to Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Seychelles and about 600 tonnes of food items to the Maldives," the release said, adding that a special consignment of Ayurvedic medicines has been sent for Mauritius. Additionally, the government has sent Hydroxychloroquine tablets to Madagascar and Comoros. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show Follow our LIVE blog for the latest updates of the novel coronavirus pandemic Meanwhile, INS Jalashwa, carrying 698 repatriated Indian citizens from the Maldives, arrived at the Kochi harbour on May 10 morning, completing the Indian Navy's first massive evacuation exercise from foreign soil during the COVID-19 lockdown. Inspector General of Police Vijay Sakhare said all arrangements are in place to facilitate the safe stay of those repatriated, comprising 440 Keralites and people from other parts of the country. Four passengers are from Lakshadweep. Besides these, other passengers are from Tamil Nadu (187), Telangana (9), Andhra Pradesh (8), Karnataka (8), three each from Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and one each from Goa and Assam. There are seven passengers each from Uttarakhand and West Bengal, Delhi (4), Puducherry (3), while there are two passengers each from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. (With inputs from PTI) Sun, sea, sand and sangria seem further away than ever and a seismic shift paralleled only by the aftermath of 9/11 will change our foreign holidays long after Covid-19 restrictions are eased. Yet the industry is preparing for a bonanza fire-sale this autumn to win back consumer confidence. It is predicted we will see flight prices tumble as airlines fight for survival. Some operators will eventually drop off the grid, falling victim to financial woes brought on by the crisis. After this, industry experts predict the cost of a foreign holiday will increase again after a coronavirus vaccine is found and airlines look to recoup losses. Until that vaccine comes on-stream, foreign holidays are likely to be a very different experience. How we board, disembark and travel on aircraft will have to be adjusted to protect passengers. Since the Covid-19 crisis erupted, holiday bookings have slowed to a trickle. Sunway Holidays said it is seeing just "one or two" new bookings every day - mostly for winter holidays or Christmas trips to Lapland. Bookings with Click & Go are 98pc down on where they were expected to be before Covid-19 halted travel. But tour operators, airlines and airports are getting ready for when restrictions are eased. "People will travel, there will just be a new way of doing it," Sunway Holidays chairman Tanya Airey said. "We do not know how different it will be for consumers but airports will be very different." Aviation journalist Eoghan Corry predicts Spain, despite being badly hit by the virus, will be among the first holiday destinations Irish people can return to for an Indian summer. Spain was the destination of choice for 2.1 million Irish holidaymakers last year. "Many of the popular destinations for Irish people, the Balearic Islands or the Canary Islands have not been too badly hit by outbreaks," Corry said. As countries emerge from the shadow of Covid-19 restrictions, attempts are under way to get tourist industries up and running again. Much of the focus will be on winning consumer confidence back, assuring holidaymakers it is safe to travel. In Portugal, the local tourist board has introduced a "clean and safe" stamp for hotels. The certificate is awarded when hotels demonstrate they comply with hygiene requirements. Meanwhile in Spain, a roadmap for lifting restrictions is in place. It mirrors the plan unveiled in Ireland at the start of May with multiple phases allowing for the gradual easing of constraints. Regions with few Covid-19 cases are seeking to pass through these phases at a faster rate. Lanzarote has 11 active Covid-19 cases this weekend. In total, there were 84 cases on the island during the crisis. It expects to be Covid-19-free later this week as there have been no confirmed cases for 10 days. Last year it was visited by 310,000 Irish travellers. Fuerteventura has five active cases and 40 people there have made a recovery. As a result, the first flights to the Canary Islands are now set to resume in July. The islands will essentially become a holiday laboratory after being chosen by the World Tourism Organisation as the destination for the first flight carrying passengers with a digital health passport. Details of where the flight will originate have not yet been announced. The development is positive. "The most important thing will be countries opening their borders and agreeing to allow people travel in and out. Without that there are no holidays for people," Airey said. Corry says this will require a joined-up approach and leadership at an EU level, something we have not seen to date in response to the Covid-19 outbreak. "What we are going to see in the absence of a coordinated response is what New Zealand and Australia call a travel bubble, where countries have a travel zone of their own to allow people go to and from their countries," he said. "It'll be like the pre-European Union arrangements many countries had." To date, airlines operating Irish routes have been coy about plans to get flights off the ground again. The main Irish carriers, Aer Lingus and Ryanair, were approached by the Sunday Independent last week to outline what will be in store for passengers when travel resumes. Neither was in a position to comment but announcements of plans for future travel are said to be imminent at several airlines. How they cope will also depend on the airports serving them. "Bottlenecks and queues will have to be avoided where possible," Irish Travel Agents Association board member and Click & Go chief executive Paul Hackett explained. "Do we need to do queues at check-in? Why do we do queues there and how can we avoid doing them? What can be done, technically, to avoid a blockage at any point in the airport. These are the solutions airports and airlines will have to focus on because what they do not want to do is come up with a solution that does not get them to full capacity at some point in the future." The Bauchi State Government on Saturday confirmed the death of one Coronavirus patient and dispelled the rumours of multiple deaths in Azare Katagum Local Government Area of the state. The state Chairman of the Task Force on COVID-19 and Lassa fever, Alhaji Baba Tela, dispelled the rumour of multiple deaths of people that tested positive for Coronavirus. He told journalists while giving an update on coronavirus pandemic in the state that only one dead had been recorded from Coronavirus at the Federal Medical Centre in Azare. Following investigation of the report making the rounds in the state that there were multiple deaths of Coronavirus patients in Azare, we only confirmed that only one death of COVID-19 patient was recorded at the FMC, Azare. The death occurred last night (Friday) being the first death while 26 patients that tested positive for coronavirus are currently receiving treatment at the isolation centre. A large number of suspected cases of COVID-19 in the state came in from Kano and Jigawa axis, he said. Tela, who is also the state Deputy Governor said that there was a gap between the health personnel and the patients. The medical personnel attend to patients that tested positive for COVID-19, and also treat patients for other ailments. But the state government and the stakeholders will come out with a robust system to fill the gap and retrain the health personnel that will only concentrate on patients that tested positive for Coronavirus , he said. The Taskforce Chairman complained about how some drivers found their ways from Kano State and Jigawa into Bauchi State. He alleged that the conducts of the drivers transporting passengers from the neighbouring states were endangering the lives of the citizens residing in Bauchi state. I went to the cemetery to investigate the report of multiple deaths in Azare , but I confirmed that it was normal and seasonal deaths. Yes, they buried nothing less than six bodies a day, contrary to what was reported, so it was false reports. We agree that most of the deaths occurred within the same age brackets with those deaths recorded in Kano. The reason is that Kano, Jigawa and Azare have the same peculiarities, he said. The deputy governor, however, directed the Commissioner for Health to investigate the root cause of the ailment that was causing the deaths of some people in Azare. The ruling TMC in West Bengal and opposition BJP on Saturday traded barbs over ferrying migrant labourers, after Union Home Minister Amit Shah flagged the issue of "non-cooperation" by the state government, leaving the Mamata Banerjee-led party fuming, which accused him of spreading lies. In what is certain to escalate tension between the state government and the Centre, Shah, in a letter alleged that West Bengal was not allowing trains with migrant workers to reach and termed it as an "injustice" to these labourers. The state BJP unit claimed the West Bengal government is only interested in bringing back people from a "particular community". TMC leader and nephew of the chief minister, Abhishek Banerjee, earlier in the day tweeted: "A HM failing to discharge his duties during this crisis speaks after weeks of silence, only to mislead people with a bundle of lies! Ironically he's talking about the very ppl who've been literally left to fate by his own Govt. Mr @AmitShah, prove your fake allegations or apologise (sic)," Party MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar accused the Centre of targeting the chief minister as it can't "tolerate her". "The Centre is lying, eight trains ready to ferry passengers to Bengal from different states. It has no right to say CM Mamata Banerjee is not allowing migrants to come back. 16 migrants died on your watch, will rail minister take responsibility? "The Centre wants to embarrass our CM and gain politically in the state. They cannot tolerate her and that is why they are targeting us singularly," she said. The TMC IT cell also released three letters written by the chief secretary and additional chief secretary to Rajasthan, Karnataka and Kerala, regarding bringing back migrant labourers from those places. The state government said 6,000 migrant workers have already returned and another 10 trains carrying more from Punjab, Karnataka and Kerala will arrive soon. The BJP shot back, alleging that most of the funds meant for COVID-19 are being spent on publicity. "The state government has spent Rs 1,300 crore for local clubs, but only Rs 200 crore for coronavirus crisis, out of which most have been used for publicity. "Two special trains for one particular community have only arrived in Bengal from Ajmer Sharif and Kerala. The state government is only bothered about the suffering of the people from a particular community," BJP national secretary Rahul Sinh said. Echoing similar sentiments, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said "lies" of the TMC have been exposed. Referring to the Shramik Special trains being run to facilitate transportation of held up workers from different parts of the country, Shah had earlier in the day said migrant workers from West Bengal are also eager to reach home, but the Centre was not getting expected support from the state government. "... We are not getting expected support from West Bengal. The state government is not allowing trains to reach West Bengal. This is injustice to migrant labourers. This will create further hardship for them," the home minister said. The Centre has repeatedly criticised the West Bengal government over its handling of the COVID-19 crisis. Slain Melbourne woman Ellie Price has been honoured by her family and friends in Tasmania under clouds of pink smoke and balloons. The family, which has appealed for public help to raise money for a hometown burial, gathered in a street in the Hobart suburb of Rokeby on Saturday to pay tribute to the 26-year-old mother. The ceremony held in honour of Ellie Price. Credit:Facebook A silver Holden Commodore performed burnouts that created plumes of pink smoke before balloons were released into the overcast sky almost a week after the dancer's body was found in a South Melbourne home. "This is for you, El," one person said in a video of the ceremony. "Love you Ellie," said another. In this Jan. 2019 file photo, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem gives her first State of the State address in Pierre, S.D. Associated Press South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem sent letters to two Sioux tribes May 8 demanding they remove all COVID-19 checkpoints within 48 hours or face legal action. The governor said the checkpoints interfere with traffic and were erected without consulting with the state, something she said was required by a US Department of Interior memorandum. Both tribes have also strict stay-at-home orders and curfews for their communities, even though Noem has not issued such orders for the state. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is demanding two Sioux tribes remove COVID-19 checkpoints "immediately" because they interfere with traffic and were erected without consulting her office, the governor said in letters to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Oglala Sioux Tribe on May 8. "We are strongest when we work together; this includes our battle against COVID-19," she said in a statement posted on her office's website. "I request that the tribes immediately cease interfering with or regulating traffic on US and State Highways and remove all travel checkpoints." In the letters, also posted online, she said the checkpoints are out of compliance with an April 8 memorandum from the US Department of the Interior, which required tribes to consult and enter into an agreement with the state before restricting travel on state or US highways. "The State of South Dakota objects to tribal checkpoints on US and State Highways regardless of whether those checkpoints take into consideration the safety measures recommended by the SD DOT," Noem wrote in the letters. "Safety recommendations do not constitute consultation and certainly do not equal agreement." If the tribes don't remove the checkpoints within 48 hours, the state "will take necessary legal action," Noem wrote. Noem has a contentious history with the Native American community in her state. In early 2019, she led efforts to pass a state law targeting demonstrations by anti-oil pipeline activities. The Oglala Sioux tribe later told her she was unwelcome in the Pine Ridge Reservation, one of the largest reservations in the country, until she rescinded her support for such laws. Story continues This Sept. 9, 2012, photo shows the entrance to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, land of the Oglaga Sioux Tribe. Associated Press/Kristi Eaton The checkpoints require residents to fill out health questionnaires before leaving or entering the reservation Both tribes have issued strict stay-at-home orders and curfews for their communities, although Noem has not issued such orders for the state, according to CNN. Residents of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, for one, are allowed to leave for essential activities like going to doctor's appointments in areas not deemed COVID-19 hotspots, but first must fill out a health questionnaire and pass through a checkpoint, according to policies posted on its social media. They have to complete another form before returning. The checkpoints also filter non-residents, requiring them to fill out questionnaires before entering, which they can only do for essential activities. If they're coming from out of state or from a COVID-19 hotspot, they have to obtain a travel permit from the tribe's website. It's unclear how the Oglala Sioux tribe's checkpoints operate. A spokesperson for the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe told The Rapid City Journal the tribe has seen Noem's letter and given it to council members, but did not yet have a comment in response. As of May 8, South Dakota had 3,145 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 31 deaths, with 169 cases of Covid-19 among Native Americans, according to the state health department. Read the original article on Business Insider BIG RAPIDS Cranker's Restaurant and Brewery recently partnered with Nestle Waters North America to donate thousands of dollars worth of hand sanitizer to those in need. "(Nestle) reached out to us a couple weeks ago," Cranker's Brewmaster James Crank said. "They are looking out for Michigan and the local community and organizations on the frontlines." While Cranker's began producing and donating their own hand sanitizer several weeks ago, the new partnership will allow them to donate at least 1,200 more bottles to those who need them. Through the partnership, Nestle has been creating bottles specifically designed for hand sanitizer and distributing them to Cranker's, where they are later filled with sanitizer and then donated to local organizations. So far, they have been able to donate 40 bottles of hand sanitizer each to Manna Pantry and Angels of Action. Several health departments including Central Michigan District Health Department and the Muskegon County Health Department will be receiving the hand sanitizer as well. While partnering locally with Cranker's, Anderson-Vincent said Nestle also has been partnering with other breweries and distilleries across Michigan as well as some in other states. This nationwide effort is part of Nestle's Blue Bottle Project. "I'm personally very excited about this," Nestle Natural Resources Manager Arlene Anderson-Vincent said. "We just wanted to find a way we could help during this difficult time." Contact Us Please call us or use our Live Chat feature for assistance with the following or any other inquiries you may have: Cancer Information At our National Cancer Information Center trained Cancer Information Specialists can answer questions 24 hours a day, every day of the year to empower you with accurate, up to date information to help you make educated health decisions. We connect patients, caregivers, and family members with valuable services and resources. Or ask us how you can get involved and support the fight against cancer. In addition to the support we are providing to cancer patients who contact us via phone and chat, well be helping offset feelings of isolation for families facing cancer and seeking information by offering video chat. Schedule a video chat today. For medical questions, we encourage you to review our information with your doctor. Several NGOs working in the disability sector are facing severe financial crunch as most of the funds and donations they would earlier get has been diverted towards tackling the COVID-19 crisis. Prashant Verma, general secretary, National Association for the Blind, says he could just pay 65 per cent salary to his employees in the last two months due to financial crunch and if no fresh donations are made he does not have any money to pay his 120 staff members this month. "We feel as if we are at the end of the line," he told PTI. Verma said his organisation used to get grants from many companies under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and even from individuals, especially during March as it was the end of the financial year. "But this year we didn't get any money. Some of the companies, which even committed to us, are saying that this time they have to think about their own survival. Many individuals (who earlier donated) don't have money to support us. A lot of the money is diverted to COVID-19," he said. As per the Census 2011, in India, 2.68 crore people were 'disabled', which was 2.21 per cent of the total population of the country. Madhu Singhal, social activist and founder of organisation serving people with disabilities Mitra Jyothi, shares similar concerns. "This is a very new situation for us and it has just been one month but we will face difficulty in the coming months because we know the coronavirus crisis will not get over soon. We are dependent upon CSR funds and general donations but there has been no donation at all in the past one month," Singhal said. "Maybe we can manage for the next few months but after that we are not sure what we will do. We are a 30-year-old organisation and we have some funds but fully running the organisation is a very big problem," she said. Anil Mudgal, founding member of Arushi, which is an organisation working with people with disability, said whatever funds his organisation used to get has completely stopped. "We don't know what will happen from next month. We are tense. We are looking for different ways (to sustain)," he said. Chetan Sharma, managing trustee of Udbhav Foundation, said another issue is that the profits of companies have been affected due to the coronavirus crisis and many have stopped making CSR contributions to NGOs working in the social sector. "We are not able to understand how to sustain ourselves. Everyone's priority is coronavirus. We are not getting any funds and on humanitarian grounds we cannot ask our employees to go. it is a very big issue for us," Sharma said. "Earlier, every sector used to get its contribution accordingly but now all the focus is on coronavirus. We fully understand it is the priority of the hour but it should not be at the cost of others," he noted. Bhushan Punani, executive secretary, Blind People's Association, however, believes that there is a need for these NGOs to diversify themselves and modify their approach as per requirement of the time. "In my organisation, we are known for relief work. Whenever there is a disaster we work towards providing relief and (in view of COVID-19 crisis) we have been involved in distributing masks and anaj kits and we have been getting funds so it is up to NGOs to change their area of work according to time," he said. Punani said that if NGOs do not get into anything related to COVID-19 relief work then their funding will be very adversely affected. "My understanding is that NGOs also need to modify their approach as per requirement of time. Nobody can dispute the fact that COVID-19 is the biggest tragedy humanity has ever seen," he said. The money requirement for COVID-19 is huge so any corporate or individual will be tempted to contribute towards it, Punani noted. COVID-19 has claimed 2,72,578 lives worldwide and infected 39,07,055 people. In India, 2,109 people have died of the deadly virus lives and 62,939 people infected. Corporates from various sectors and individuals have made contributions to different funds established for COVID-19 relief operations. The government has also set up a public charitable trust under the name 'PM CARES Fund' in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In continuing efforts to bring home Indian nationals stuck in various countries, 171 people arrived here from Kuwait on Sunday in an Air India flight and were accommodated in three separate premises, officials said. The passengers, including four children, on their arrival at the airport were screened by health authorities in protective gear for coronavirus. Their nasal and throat swab samples were takenfor test when they arrived tonight, they added. Following immigration and health checks, they were sent in special buses to two hotels and the premises of an educational institution at a suburban locality. They are expected to stay put in their respective places of stay for at least 14 days, officials said. The 150 plus people arrived here as part of the government's Vande Bharat Mission to bring home Indian nationals stranded in various countries. On Saturday, as many as 359 people arrived here from Dubai in two Air India flights. On the night of May 8, a flight from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia arrived at Tiruchirappalli airport with about 200 passengers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In aviation these days you can go from hero to zero in just one tweet. Aer Lingus crew were feted by the nation on The Late Late Show for quickly establishing a route to China to collect badly-needed personal protective equipment. Then, last week, one photo tweeted by a passenger on a packed Aer Lingus flight landed the airline in a storm of criticism over social distancing. The controversy underscored the massive problem Aer Lingus - and all of its competitors - face in getting back to something that resembles normal. "Many of us would love to have a 95pc load factor," one aviation executive commented wryly when asked about the criticism Aer Lingus had faced. "At least it showed there is still an appetite to fly." Debate has raged about what social distancing might look like on an airplane. In reality, with social distancing strictly enforced, an Aer Lingus Airbus A320 - or a Ryanair Boeing 737 - could carry no more than 30 passengers and, potentially, even fewer than that. IAG boss Willie Walsh has made his feelings clear on the topic. "Social distancing - I don't believe it's possible to do that on an aircraft," he said. Expand Close DAA boss Dalton Philips. Photo: Julien Behal / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp DAA boss Dalton Philips. Photo: Julien Behal Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary branded as "idiotic" the much-touted idea of leaving the middle seat empty: "We can't make money on 66pc load factors," he told the 'Financial Times'. Senior aviation executives told the Sunday Independent that the only economically feasible solution is for airport authorities to take on the burden of ensuring passengers are not carrying Covid-19 onto planes. This, they said, could include pre-flight mandatory temperature checks or even blood tests. Such tests and procedures would need to be somehow facilitated by airport authorities in the passenger journey, although the actual testing would likely need to be carried out by a national health authority or agency, not dissimilar to passport control. Airport authorities would no doubt argue that any such new procedures will need to be paid for by someone and this could add a whole new front to the never-ending debate between them and the airlines over airport charges. CityJet chief executive Pat Byrne told the Sunday Independent that "contrary to popular belief, one of the safer environments actually is an aircraft cabin" because the air on a modern passenger jet is refreshed up to 30 times an hour. Byrne has found himself at the sharp end of aviation's Covid nightmare with CityJet now in court-appointed examinership. He is precluded from discussing CityJet's situation, but Byrne does not underestimate the challenges ahead for the entire industry: "The aircraft cabin is relatively safe. The danger will be in security queues and the airport terminal itself. A lot of logistics need to be worked out." But if Walsh, O'Leary and Byrne are correct and social distancing is not possible on aircraft, neither is it going to be easy at a busy airport like Dublin. The operational challenges are enormous. For example, a passenger trying to negotiate Dublin's Terminal 1 might face a sea of greatly elongated queues taking up huge amounts of extra floor space should the type of social distancing now standard in supermarkets be put in place. Based on applying social distancing to the Aviation Regulator's 2017 Helios Report on airport capacity, a passenger flying on a Boeing 737 might firstly have to join one of three 112-metre-long queues to reach a check-in desk. Online check-in might avoid such a scenario but the passenger would face a 475-metre-long queue for security, based on T1's ability to handle 240 passengers per hour through each of 15 security lanes. In the boarding area the logistical nightmare of social distancing at an international airport would become even more challenging. The three piers in Dublin's T1 can handle 6,150 per hour. At full capacity, with passengers two metres apart, that could mean the total length of queues combined over an hour in that area could be 7.6 miles. Byrne believes there are ways to lessen the logistical nightmare at airports such as Dublin. "Maybe it's time to actually rethink the whole security thing," he said. Many in the business already question how effective - and how cumbersome - security infrastructure that has built up over 20 years has become, he says. "Should there be more profiling of passengers and random testing instead? One thing at this point that certainly needs to be reviewed is the amount of stuff people try to bring into the cabin. It slows everything up and causes the queues. So if it is a case of having to do blood tests or take temperature or the segregation of people into manageable units all of that is going to take time and something has to give. But, once and for all, the unacceptable delays caused by the current security regime need to be addressed. If that means people can't bring bags in the cabin well maybe that's a price people will accept," he said. Airlines are free to set their own baggage rules, but there would be a hidden price too. The healthy profits from airport shopping are used by many airport authorities, not least DAA, to subsidise passenger charges, meaning a new strict no-cabin-baggage policy could greatly disrupt this revenue line and ultimately drive up air fares. But there is potential for even more drastic and invasive measures. In the absence of a vaccine, airports may have to carry out blood tests on each passenger to negate the need for either social distancing on aircraft or quarantines for arriving passengers, according to Enda Corneille, who heads the Irish operation of Emirates. He also believes social distancing is economically unsustainable on airplanes. The return of Emirates' cargo service to Dublin in recent weeks will have been most welcome for airport bosses but the return of its double daily passenger services for now seems a long way off. "There is going to be a new normal," said Corneille. "I remember when the rule on liquids came out in the aftermath of 9/11. It's still there 20 years later. There will be new rules coming out of this. It's simply not feasible for Emirates to operate an A380, which holds almost 600 passengers, for 100 people observing social distancing. It just won't work. The same goes for a Ryanair 737. It needs an 85pc seat factor. The economics don't work if seat factor is capped at 20pc." Dubai Airport has trialled 10-minute blood tests for Covid-19 on passengers on certain flights. "If that technology was extended to Heathrow, Paris, Frankfurt, Dublin, New York, then you begin to get a sense that all 300 people on a plane are all clear," he said. "The airline, for its part, will have to fulfil all sorts of potentially new obligations on cleaning the aircraft, on food - and crew may wear masks, for example," said Corneille. "But by the time a customer gets on the aircraft they will have been cleared for the virus, meaning airlines can operate to full capacity. But the onus is on the airport, on the ground experience, to fulfil those obligations. And for me, that's the only real way it will come back because it simply can't come back if the restrictions extend onto the aircraft itself," he said, adding that blood tests are being discussed at the highest levels of the industry. "In the end, airports may not get a choice in the matter. ICAO [the International Civil Aviation Organisation] sets the rules and can say 'You're not going to fly unless this, this and this happens'. Airports may be told 'This is how it's going to be'. It's a bit like when a new security system has to go in. No one gets to discuss it. It just goes in. So it may not even be in DAA's hands, for example." Asked to comment on potential post-pandemic changes at airports, a Dublin Airport spokesman said the safety and security of passengers and staff was always the airport's key priority and has been throughout the pandemic. "The Irish Government sets the State's travel and health policies in relation to Covid-19 and makes decisions in relation to the operation of Ireland's airports and ports. Dublin Airport has complied fully with these policies at all times and continues to do so," he said. "Ireland's health and travel policies during this crisis continue to be set by the State, and the Government is likely to make decisions about the more general resumption of passenger flights. Dublin Airport will also work closely with European regulators and agencies, our airline customers and other European airports, through ACI Europe, in relation to a more general resumption of services and how that may operate." So what does this mean for Dublin airport, not to mention for the economy? Until the pandemic struck, more than 19,000 people were employed at the airport by DAA, airlines and the many cafes, shops and other facilities that helped it handle 32.9m passengers in 2019. It is estimated the airport accounts - directly or indirectly - for 117,000 jobs and, should it not return to its operational capacity in the coming months, the wider economic impact could be devastating. Ryanair expects thousands of redundancies across Europe and its Irish operation is unlikely to escape. Aer Lingus could lay off 900 staff on top of 250 jobs affected by the outsourcing of its catering department. Swissport has laid off up to 60pc of staff, it is understood. Daily rosters are down to a third of normal staffing levels, at best. Providing employment and unemployment supports alone to unemployed or underemployed aviation staff at Dublin, Cork and Shannon is already a big drain on Government coffers. Many Ryanair and Aer Lingus staff are on 50pc pay with help from the wage subsidy scheme, while DAA staff are on 80pc. Other airport-based workers rely on the Covid unemployment payment or the dole. One employment expert with knowledge of the situation believes that, based on the average industrial wage and the number of aviation employees likely receiving some type of support, the social welfare cost of keeping the sector on life support for the three months to the end of June alone could be as much as 80m. Few expect the problems to be overcome by then. A senior equity analyst at Davy, Stephen Furlong, believes the industry will take three years to recover: "If 2019 is the base level then it will be 2023 onwards to recover. There will be a lot of acceleration, particularly in Europe, of consolidation. Some airlines will disappear, a lot of airlines will be permanently smaller and some may be temporarily smaller." But, said Furlong, airlines that were strong coming into the crisis can remain strong if they take "corrective measures". "We're very lucky in Ireland to have two of the strongest airlines in the world - Ryanair and Aer Lingus through its parent IAG. They both had a lot of cash going into this." Of course, that provides no guarantees for Dublin. Ryanair will put its airplanes wherever they make the most money. Likewise, IAG and Aer Lingus helped turn Dublin into a rapidly expanding transatlantic hub but with lots of spare capacity now at London Heathrow, it is hard to say where IAG's priorities will lie in six months' time without the retiring Willie Walsh at the helm. In recent days DAA CEO Dalton Philips sent a video update to some staff from a balcony overlooking the almost silent Dublin Airport apron. It began with a stark illustration of where Irish aviation is at right now: "You may hear that squawking noise in the background," he said. "That's the Airport Police trying to scare away the birds. Clearly with such a massive reduction in traffic all the birds are trying to nest." The "unprecedented drop in traffic" would see passenger numbers in Dublin and Cork fall to just 9m this year (over 5m of those have already flown in the first three months) and fall 35pc in 2021. He said that meant the company was "too large" but he'd not yet calculated how many job losses were required. "As we look into 2021 traffic looks like it is going to be in the 20 to 23 or 24 million mark - very hard to land on a specific number," adding that it didn't help that Minister for Health Simon Harris had suggested that foreign travel looked 'highly unlikely' for the rest of the year. Aviation, since the Wright Brothers' first 12-second flight, has been built on optimism and an ability to solve problems. Corneille believes when the pandemic passes people will still want to fly. "You can't put the travel genie back in the bottle," he said, but added that for passenger confidence to return, airlines must first get aircraft back in the sky and then promote services through special offers. "In my experience," he said, "low fares are always a great antidote to fear." Days after the tragedy in Maharashtra in which 16 labourers were run over by a goods train, one of the survivors said that they decided to walk towards their home as they didnt want to remain stranded due to lockdown till the rainy season. We were 20 in one of the groups of labourers walking. Four of us including my nephew and myself could survive as we were asleep a little away from the railway tracks, said Sajjan Singh Dhruve, a resident of Mandla in Madhya Pradesh. Dhruve and his nephew Indal Singh sustained minor injuries in the mishap. They and two other labourers were part of a group of 20 labourers which left Jalna in Maharashtra for Shahdol, Umaria and Mandla districts in Madhya Pradesh. We had some money with us but not any conveyance to reach home. Due to lockdown and no work we were running short of money. Lockdown is getting extended time and again. Our concern was if we would remain stranded till rainy season begins we would not be able to even walk home. Hence, we wanted to reach home early while walking, he added. Shahdol is 858 kilometres, Umaria 862 kilometres and Mandla is 667 kilometres from Jalna. All the labourers in the iron rod factory at Jalna where we worked requested the management to make an arrangement for our travel to reach home. The authorities of the factory sent an e-mail too to the administration in this regard but there was no response. I had talks with my village sarpanch at least thrice. He assured me that he would do something but there was no result, said Dhruve. The bodies of the 16 labourers killed in the mishap near Aurangabad division reached Jabalpur in a Shramik Special train. Our apprehension was that there might not be any relief from the lockdown for a long time. Then we decided to walk and reach home anyhow. Had the factory management or the government made arrangements for our travel the tragedy would have not struck us, said Dhruve. It was on Thursday evening when we started walking. We later got along the railway tracks and had walked for about 40 kilometres up to Karmad when we got tired and hungry. It was about 4 in the morning. We all had food on the tracks itself. While 16 of the group later got into sleep on the tracks itself, four of us including my nephew and myself slept a little away from the railway tracks, he added. He said that the labourers slept wherever they could find place. There was nothing in our mind as to who would sleep on the railway tracks and who would not. We wanted to take rest for a while and then walk again on way to Aurangabad. We were fast asleep. Four of us sleeping some distance away from the railway tracks woke up as we got hit by stones. We saw a goods train standing on the track where 16 of us were sleeping. We couldnt understand for a while as to what had happened. When the train started running then we realised about the tragedy, said Dhruve. Dhruve lost consciousness after seeing the bodies of his fellow labourers and was taken to a hospital. A woman, mother of a two-year-old child from Keana Local Government, Nasarawa State, was nabbed after she stabbed her husband to death. The woman who is in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), was said to have accepted responsibility for the death of her husband but pleaded for mercy. It was narrated that the woman confronted her husband over a strange woman who often call him on the telephone. The woman jealously stabbed her husband during quarrel over the matter and the man died on the way to the hospital. The NSCDC Commandant in Nasarawa State, Mahmoud Fari, paraded the woman; explaining that she committed the crime at Obene Ward in Keana last week Tuesday. The Commandant said that the Command has commenced investigation on the incident, adding that the suspect would be charged to court after the investigation. China has postponed the national self-taught higher education examination for the first half of the year to August over coronavirus concerns, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced Saturday. The examination, originally scheduled for April 11 and 12, will be held in August, with the national unified tests to be held on Aug. 1 and 2 and the dates for provincial-level tests to be decided by provincial authorities, the MOE said. Beijing can make its own arrangements for the exam contingent on its local epidemic control situation and make the plan public upon the approval of the MOE. Tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, with government-mandated business closures and stay-at-home orders sending unemployment rates to unprecedented levels. So far, much of the federal government's response to try to shore up the U.S. economy has centered on getting money to Americans quickly, most visibly through the $1,200 stimulus checks that have already started going out. As the coronavirus crisis goes on, though, legislators are looking seriously at a fourth round of efforts to stimulate the economy. Some are calling for additional recurring stimulus checks in the neighborhood of $2,000 per month to go out to Americans in need. However, one proposal is looking to take a different tack by attacking unemployment directly and trying to get more Americans back to work. Paying employers to hire their workers back Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) proposed a phase 4 relief plan last month designed to cut closer to the root cause of the economic crisis America faces right now. Rather than simply paying money out to people directly, Hawley believes that the better course is to keep as many people employed as possible. That way, it'll be easier for businesses to get back to work as coronavirus control measures slowly phase out over time. The basic idea in Hawley's proposal is pretty simple. Employers are laying off their workers because they can't afford to pay them when their businesses are closed and not bringing in any revenue. Government programs to try to encourage employee retention, such as the Payroll Protection Program, have been fraught with issues that have limited their effectiveness. Hawley would cut out intermediaries like lending institutions and instead get money directly to employers on the condition that they use it to rehire their employees. What's a negative payroll tax? Where Hawley's plan has run into some controversy is in the mechanism it uses to get money to employers. The Missouri senator would use a refundable payroll tax rebate to reward employers for helping their workers, essentially covering 80% of a worker's pay up to the median U.S. wage level. To get the money flowing, the government would provide for real-time advances for immediate support. Instead of employers paying payroll taxes to the government, the government would instead reverse the money flow and put money into employers' bank accounts. In addition, Hawley would provide for additional tax credits for businesses that need to invest in order to get back up to speed once the crisis lets up. That would provide an incentive for ailing business owners to stay the course in the hopes of prospering once the economy reopens. Other provisions would address some of the criticisms of past stimulus packages. Measures to promote U.S. manufacturing would help avoid the supply chain disruptions that resulted from dependence on foreign sources for vital items like personal protective equipment and medicines. At the same time, Hawley would beef up antitrust regulation and investigate potential securities law violations to counter Wall Street opportunism. Can the idea succeed? Some legislators have sought to go even further than Hawley's proposal. For instance, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) suggested a similar plan that would cover salaries and benefits in full up to $100,000. That's considerably greater pay than the roughly $30,000 to $50,000 in pay that the Hawley plan would cover, but it shows that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are thinking about the problem in similar ways. The proposal has also gotten support from prominent leaders like Arthur Laffer, former economic advisor for the Reagan administration and a member of the White House Economic Recovery Task Force. Yet at this point, Hawley hasn't gotten much support from lawmakers in his own party. Right now, there are a lot of ideas on the table for a potential phase 4 stimulus bill, although not everyone believes that the federal government should spend more money on further economic support. If the coronavirus crisis lasts a lot longer, though, ideas like Hawley's might end up being the foundation of a compromise on Capitol Hill that members of both major political parties can get behind. By Trend As many as 1,529 people have been infected with the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the past 24 hours in Iran, said Kiyanush Jahanpur, spokesman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Trend reports citing the ministry. According to Jahanpur, 48 people have been died from the coronavirus over the past day. Jahanpur added that the condition of 2,696 people is critical. According to recent reports from the Iranian officials, over 106,200 people have been infected 6,589 people have already died. Meanwhile, over 85,000 have reportedly recovered from the disease. The country continues to apply strict measures to contain the further spread. Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease. The Islamic Republic only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 15:39:25|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A participant extends gratitude to frontline health workers during a parade near Surrey Memorial Hospital in Surrey, Canada, May 9, 2020. More than 100 Canadian car enthusiasts participated in parade, also a fundraiser, by driving their cars around the communities and hospitals in Surrey to show support for frontline health workers in the fight against COVID-19. (Photo by Liang Sen/Xinhua) Bank Holiday road trippers have been stopped and fined after one family embarked on an 800-mile journey and others ventured out to buy puppies amid the coronavirus lockdown. Officers from Cumbria's road policing unit have issued several fines to motorists making non-essential journeys into the county since the Covid-19 measures were imposed on March 23. The force shared several examples of would-be day-trippers flouting restrictions over the long weekend, including a driver who attempted to travel from Manchester to Dundee to buy a puppy on Saturday. On the same day, Cumbria Police stopped a motorist who was travelling from London to Manchester to purchase an Audi, before continuing his journey into Carlisle to 'purchase some speakers he had seen on eBay.' Cumbria Police yesterday stopped a motorist who was travelling from London to Manchester to purchase an Audi, before continuing his journey into Carlisle to 'purchase some speakers he had seen on eBay' (pictured) A family from Wigan were issued a ticket and escorted out of the area after being caught 'just out for a drive' in Windermere. Officers also fined a family who were enjoying a 'lovely, sunny day out' in Ambleside. 'Unfortunately London is not a reasonable distance to have travelled from so they were given a fine and sent back home,' Cumbria Roads Police said on Twitter. Minutes later, a motorist from Southend on Sea was issued a fine 'alongside succinct words of advice' after being spotted enjoying 'a day out to the Lakes'. And this morning, officers reported issuing fines to a group in Silloth who 'decided to go for a drive'. On Friday, Cumbria Police stopped a family-of-four who were heading from London to Motherwell for a three-day break, despite coronavirus restrictions urging people to only make essential journeys. On Friday, Cumbria Police stopped a family-of-four who were heading from London to Motherwell for a three-day break (pictured) The SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford took to Twitter to thank Cumbria Roads Police after they stepped in to fine those in the car Lockdown rules ask Britons to only travel by car for essential shopping, or to get to and from work if they are a keyworker who cannot work from home. The family was stopped on the M6 North at J43 during the 800-mile round trip and advised to return to the capital. The SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford took to Twitter to thank Cumbria Roads Police after they stepped in to fine those in the car. He said: 'Thank you @CumbriaRoadsPol for your actions. Non-essential travel cannot be allowed. There can be no exceptions #StayHomeSaveLifes. 'Nobody should think of travelling on holiday. There has to be zero tolerance of this kind of behaviour.' Motorists have been caught breaching lockdown restrictions outside of Cumbria, with officers in Gloucestershire stopping a motorist who was delivering a puppy from Liverpool to Newport. In Gloucestershire, a motorist who was delivering a puppy from Liverpool to Newport was stopped by police A group travelling through the county in a camper van for a holiday were also sent home on Saturday The driver was issued a warning letter and told to return home. Chief Inspector Steve Lindsay said: 'Delivering a puppy to Newport, brought online from a place in Liverpool. Driver given a warning letter and instructed to return back to Liverpool.' Also in Gloucestershire, a group travelling through the county in a camper van for a holiday was sent home on Saturday. In Hackney, police said they are 'fighting a losing battle' as they shared a photograph of dozens of people 'sitting having pizzas, beers and wine' in a park. 'Sadly were fighting a losing battle in the parks today,' the force said yesterday. 'Literally hundreds of people sitting having pizza, beers, wines. As always a big thank you to those that are observing the guidelines #StayHomeSaveLives.' In Hackney, police said they are 'fighting a losing battle' as they shared a photograph of dozens of people 'sitting having pizzas, beers and wine' in a park Pictured: A woman in a protective mask walks across Westminster Bridge, London on May 7 It comes as the UK coronavirus death toll rose by 346 to 31,587 yesterday, with the total including more than 200 healthcare workers. Boris Johnson is facing a moment of truth in the crisis today as he prepares to tweak draconian lockdown rules - amid warnings 100,000 Britons could die by the end of the year if he gets it wrong. The PM is set to unveil very tentative first steps towards easing the restrictions in a televised address to the nation at 7pm, after he was warned that 18,000 new infections are still being recorded every day - far above the target of 4,000 for a wide-scale loosening. The PM will drop the blanket 'stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives' slogan, instead urging people to 'stay alert, control the virus, and save lives'. A mum has been arrested in front of NSW Parliament House in Sydneys CBD for protesting the coronavirus restrictions in front of her screaming son. Video circulating on social media shows the woman speaking with police during a tense confrontation. The woman is wearing a sign which reads: If you dont know your rights you dont have any. A police officer reads the woman her rights and she asks; am I being detained? I go to sleep with honour at the end of the night with honour knowing that Ive defended my rights, she tells the officer. Im here fighting for not just myself and my kids but for your children too. So, thanks guy, have a good day. This mum was arrested while protesting the COVID-19 lockdown measures at NSW Parliament House on Saturday. Source: Facebook The video cuts and its not clear what happened next but the situation later escalated. I am not under arrest, she says as an officer holds her arm. A woman watching the incident can be heard asking the police; why is she under arrest? A little boy, believed to be her son, begins screaming and crying as officers take the woman into custody. Leave mummy alone, the boy screams at police. At one point, the woman is being pulled in opposite directions by a police officer and her son. NSW officers begin to lead the protesting woman away to a squad car but she resists and walks back in front of parliament house. A male onlooker then gets involved and police have to hold him back. Thats my f****** baby, he yells. The woman tells a police officer to get away from her and her son. The child then kicks and screams as his mum is arrested. Source: Facebook Another woman cries out, let her go while others protest to police yelling; shes done nothing wrong. Ive not committed an offence, the woman yells at a NSW police officer. Youre scaring my son. Move away from me and my son. The pair are separated and the child kicks and screams as police hold him. His mother, meanwhile, is put in the back of a police car. NSW Police told Yahoo News Australia the woman was among a group of people who were part of an unauthorised protest. They were first seen at 2:00pm Saturday but the group swelled to about 40 people by 3:00pm and they were not exercising adequate social distancing. Story continues Multiple police restrained the woman as her son screamed at officers. Source: Facebook So officers soon began speaking with members of the group explaining they were not authorised to protest and were also not complying with current Ministerial Directions under the Public Health Act, with many being issued warnings and move-on directions, police said. About 3.50pm, police again spoke with a woman, in the company of a child, who told officers she was exercising. Police alleged she refused to give officer details, would not comply with a move-on direction and she was arrested but she resisted leading to a struggle. During the struggle, the 36-year-old woman picked up her young son and continued to argue and resist, police said. The child was removed from the womans hold and she was taken to Surry Hills Police Station, where her identity was established, and she was issued an infringement notice for fail to comply with noticed direction. The child was placed in the care of a relative and the Department of Family and Community Services were notified. A 34-year-old man was also arrested and charged with refusing to comply with a police direction. Hell face court in July. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian will begin to ease lockdown restrictions from Friday. "The changes will allow NSW to fire up the economy, while allowing more personal freedoms," Ms Berejiklian said Sunday. The new relaxing of restrictions will allow 10 guests at weddings, 20 people at indoor funerals, and 30 at outdoor funerals and will come into effect on Friday. Religious gatherings and places of worship can also welcome up to 10 people. Outdoor equipment including gyms and playgrounds can be used with caution, with people encouraged to sanitise the equipment, and swimming in outdoor pools will be allowed. However, travel to regional NSW is still off the table. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play. Voters in Australia are far less partisan in their support of lockdown measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 than their American counterparts. Research led by the United States Study Centre at the University of Sydney has found that Republican Party voters in the US are more likely to oppose lockdowns than their Democrat counterparts. In Australia, the measures have received far greater bipartisan support. Researchers attributed the united support in Australia to the bipartisan backing and trust in advice from medical experts. Support for coronavirus pandemic lockdowns are more polarised along party political lines in the US than in Australia. Credit:Alex Elinghausen, Getty Images, AP La Trobe University and the University of Melbourne collaborated in the project which commissioned a YouGov survey of 1000 voters in Australia and 1000 in America. Sixty-five per cent of Australians, regardless of political lines, said the COVID-19 measures "are about right" compared to 36 per cent of Americans. The tourist industry in Athens, as in many other European capitals, has ground to a halt, with planes grounded and restaurants, museums and archaeological monuments all closed At the foot of the Acropolis hill, in the touristic Koukaki district, the coronavirus lockdown has silenced the sound of Airbnb customers' wheeled luggage. The tourist industry in Athens, as in many other European capitals, has ground to a halt, with planes grounded and restaurants, museums and archaeological monuments all closed. This has left a huge hole in the Greek economy which had been recovering from a decade of crisis. Owners of small apartments in Koukaki, who had been renting them on the Airbnb platform in order to provide income during the financial crisis, are once again struggling. "The reservations stopped abruptly," laments Romina Tsitou, an Airbnb host since 2014. "I hope I won't have to put them for longterm rental, but I may have to if this situation drags on," she adds. For the time being her two Airbnb apartments accommodate medical staff. Stefania Dimitroula has already put her apartment up for long-term rental. "Since the beginning of the summer of 2018, it was fully booked via Airbnb, almost exclusively by foreign tourists," the 32-year-old woman said, but "100 percent of the reservations for April, May and June have been cancelled". Being unemployed, she had no other choice. Owners of small apartments in the tourist Koukaki district of Athens, who had been renting them on Airbnb to provide income during the financial crisis, are once again struggling "I was counting on the earnings of this apartment, around 1,000 euros per month, to compensate for the loss of my job," she explained, expressing pessimism about the summer season, which the Greek government is hoping to jumpstart on July 1. Long-term rentals are becoming "a major trend", according to Patrick Tkatschenko, a real estate agent in Athens. "Airbnb is suffering a huge blow," he told AFP. Airbnb slashes staff but will adapt The "hard hit" American home-sharing platform announced on Tuesday that it will slash a quarter of its work force - some 1,900 people all around the world. "We are collectively living through the most harrowing crisis of our lifetime," Airbnb co-founder and chief executive Brian Chesky said in a blog post. This year the San Francisco-based company's revenue will be "less than the half" of the 2019 figure, and Chesky admits he doesn't know when the tourists will return. Athens Airbnb host Romina Tsitou says she may have to put her two apartments in Koukaki district up for long-term rental if the pandemic drags on Still there are many who believe that holiday apartments, rather than hotels, have a future, as safe havens away from the crowds. Enrique Alcantara, president of Apartur, the holiday apartment owners' federation in Barcelona, foresees a 85 percent drop in sales revenue for 2020. He predicts though that holiday apartments "are going to adapt more easily to the new times that lie ahead, to the new needs of the tourists, mainly as far as security is concerned". In Athens too, despite the staggering drop in holiday reservations, there remains a glimmer of hope. "Tourists will benefit from private apartments in order to feel more secure in comparison with hotels where they will have to interact with more people," Stratos Paradias, president of the Greek Federation of Property Owners and of the International Union of Property Owners, told AFP. He also thinks apartments that manage to stay in the short-term rental market will bounce back "faster than elsewhere" because "Greece is considered one of the safe countries thanks to the way it has handled the COVID-19 pandemic". The tourism collapse due to the coronavirus pandemic has left a huge hole in the Greek economy which had been recovering from a decade of crisis Holding fast to short-term rentals In Barcelona, Sybille Campagne's holiday letting calendar is empty. "For July-August, all reservations were cancelled," the 43-year-old French woman explains. Nevertheless she isn't considering taking her apartment off the Airbnb platform because it accounts for 80 percent of all her reservations. Juan Quilis, a 35-year-old telecom technician who owns an apartment in Seville, is also sticking with short-term rentals for the time being. "I'm not too worried for now, because I have a savings cushion but if I see that things don't come around, I will put my apartment in long term rental. As a last resort." In France, Airbnb expects to see its reservations come back swiftly thanks to its local clientele, with the French particularly fond of staycations. Aurelien Perol, Airbnb director of communication in France, expects last-minute reservations to rise as lockdowns are lifted. Meanwhile in Amsterdam, holiday rentals spiked in mid- April and have plummeted since, according to the local newspaper Het Parool. Cafes and taverns are closed in the popular Plaka tourist district of Athens during a lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic An anti-airbnb sign reads: 'Airbnb everywhereNeighbours nowhere' in the Koukaki district in Athens. The short-term rentals practice had got out of control in recent years, says Stratos Paradias of the Greek Federation of Property Owners 'Purge is necessary' A study conducted by Spitogatos, the most popular online property ads network in Greece, found a clear rise in apartments listed for long-term rentals in mid-April, accounting for 30 percent of the market in central Athens. Spitogatos CEO Dimitris Melachroinos thinks the long-term rental sector will keep rising as it will be seen as "a safer option". This new turn in the real estate market will also lead to much-needed regulation of the sector. "The short-term rentals practice grew out of control in Athens in recent years. The purge provoked by the COVID-19 crisis is necessary," Paradias says. In Koukaki, the number of short-time rentals skyrocketed between 2017-2019, from 360 to 1,150, according to AIRDNA, which analyses rental platforms like Airbnb. As a result, property prices have nearly doubled causing problems for local apartment seekers. Explore further Airbnb laying off 1,900 employees due to travel decline 2020 AFP By Associated Press ISLAMABAD: Taliban leaders searched their ranks, including the much-feared Haqqani network, and on Sunday said they are not holding Mark R Frerichs, a Navy veteran turned contractor who was disappeared in Afghanistan in late January. "We don't have any information about the missing American," Sohail Shaheen, Taliban's political spokesman, told the AP in a message on Sunday. A second Taliban official familiar with the talks with the United States said "formally and informally" the Taliban have notified US officials they are not holding Frerichs. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. Washington's peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who negotiated a peace deal with the Taliban signed in February to allow America and NATO countries to withdraw their troops and end decades of war, asked for Frierchs' release during his meetings this week in the Middle Eastern State of Qatar where the Taliban maintain a political office. In a statement late Saturday by the US Embassy in Kabul, Khalilzad also sought Pakistan's help in locating Frierchs. He arrived in Islamabad on Friday from Doha before heading next door to India in his pursuit of a lasting peace in Afghanistan. Pakistan, where Taliban leaders have found a safe haven since their overthrow in 2001 by the US-led coalition, has worked with the US to get a peace deal with the Taliban. While it still has influence with the insurgents, a deep mistrust between the militant movement and Taliban exists. Pakistan kept the Taliban's chief negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in jail for eight years after his arrest in a joint Pakistan-CIA operation in 2010, apparently because he had opened peace talks with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai but without Pakistan or Washington's involvement. Since his release in late 2018 to push the US-Taliban peace process forward, he has returned only once to Pakistan and has quietly been relocating his family to the Middle East. Earlier this week, the FBI took the unusual step of putting out a poster with Frerichs' picture on it seeking information into his disappearance and whereabouts, something they have not done in previous incidents where the Taliban have taken hostages. Previous talks have been held quietly, intelligence gathered and often many months later hostages' fate is known, having either found their freedom or died. Khalilzad's latest trip to the region, according to a US State Department announcement, includes Doha, Islamabad and New Delhi but not Kabul, where political turmoil has stymied progress on the deal's next and critical phase of intra-Afghan talks. Afghanistan's political leaders are still disputing last year's presidential polls. A frustrated US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in March cut USD 1 billion in aid to Afghanistan after a surprise visit to the Afghan capital failed to bring about an agreement between the two leaders Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah. Khalilzad however has been pressing forward pushing the Taliban to agree to a reduction in violence in an effort to move Afghanistan toward a lasting peace. The US and NATO however have started their troop withdrawal, which will be completed by next year if the Taliban keep to their promise in the deal to fight terrorist groups, particularly the Islamic State and guarantee Afghan territory is not used again to attack the United States or its allies. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 17:47:57|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KHARTOUM, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Sudan on Sunday announced 53 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 1,164. "Five new death cases have also been recorded, taking the death toll from the novel coronavirus to 64," the health ministry said in a statement. It added that 17 more patients have recovered, bringing the total recoveries nationwide to 119. On Friday the Sudanese government extended the full curfew, imposed on Khartoum State since April 18, for 10 more days from May 9 in a bid to stem the coronavirus spread. Enditem A senior police officer who spent almost a fortnight in intensive care with coronavirus has criticised some peoples increasingly blase attitude to lockdown. Chief Superintendent Phil Dolby, of West Midlands police, tweeted updates about his condition during the first stages of his treatment for Covid-19, describing frightening episodes of breathlessness. The 45-year-old officer was admitted to hospital on March 29 and spent 13 days on a ventilator before being discharged almost four weeks later. Now, in a post on Twitter, Mr Dolby has urged people to respect the lockdown rules as he vowed to "remain shielding". He said: A month ago today, on a ventilator & in a coma, I started to breath for myself! I am v disturbed by the increasingly blase way ppl are treating the lockdown. With lack of answers around immunity, my family & I are going to remain shielding." He added: I cant go thru that again. Mr Dolbys post has been retweeted more than 2,000 times and prompted hundreds of replies, including one from a nurse who said they were increasingly baffled, frustrated and saddened by some peoples lax attitudes to the virus. Another added: "Your message should be the first item on every news bulletin. Im so angry with the behaviour of some of the public." Mr Dolby's Twitter post comes as The Metropolitan Police Federation (MPF) criticised the government's pandemic response as "wishy-washy" amid concerns that public were ignoring lockdown restrictions. Ken Marsh, of the Metropolitan Police Federation, told BBC Radio 4 that authorities needed to be firmer right from the beginning. Meanwhile, police were said to be "fighting a losing battle" as hundreds gathered in London's parks yesterday to enjoy the warm weather, and Twitter users were enraged by footage of a "socially distanced conga" undertaken to commemorate VE Day. The residents were lambasted as an "infuriating", "stupid" group for apparently defying rules to keep two metres apart. Later today, Boris Johnson will address the nation in a pre-recorded speech outlining the "road map" to ease the UK out of lockdown. The government's newly altered advice to "Stay alert, control the virus, save lives" has already been heavily criticised. Ch Supt Dolby has returned to his family after battling coronavirus / West Midlands Police After Mr Dolby's recovery last month, a video of him giving an emotional thank-you speech to staff at the Royal Worcestershire Hospital attracted more than 6,000 likes after being posted on the West Midlands Police Facebook page. As he made his way out of the hospital in a wheelchair, he became tearful as he said: Youve saved my life and Im going back to my family. Thats a gift Ill never stop thanking you for. Nearly 572 Indians who were stranded abroad due to the coronavirus-enforced lockdown landed at the Mumbai international airport early Sunday morning, a Maharashtra government official said. Of these, passengers belonging to Mumbai were kept under mandatory institutional quarantine in hotels near the airport, while those hailing from other cities were taken to their respective places where they will be kept in isolation in hotels taken over there for the purpose, the official said. Two flights, one from London and another from Singapore, landed here in the morning, he said. "Some 572 passengers have arrived. They were first screened and then kept in isolation as per the Union government's guidelines. They will have to undergo the mandatory health checkup and remain quarantined at the accommodation provided by the state," he said. A flight from Manila (Philippines) carrying 241 passengers is expected to land here on Sunday night, he added. The official said among the passengers who arrived on Sunday, maximum were from Mumbai while some belonged to other Maharashtra cities like Pune, Dhule, Kolhapur, among others. Passengers from other cities were sent there in transport facilities provided by the state, the official said. "They will also be kept in local hotels taken over temporarily for the isolation purpose. Their health will be monitored. If anyone tests positive for COVID-19, he/she will be shifted to a local hospital dedicated for such treatment, he said. The Maharashtra government has already converted all civil hospitals in the districts into facilities for treatment of COVID-19. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A senior resident doctor of AIIMS has been advised 14-day quarantine after he took off his protective gear and put himself at grave risk to save a critical coronavirus patient while shifting him to the Intensive Care Unit, a senior official said. Zahid Abdul Majeed, a native from Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, was not even able to break his (Ramzan) fast when he was called for shifting a COVID-19 intubated patient to the ICU in the AIIMS Trauma Centre, which has been converted as a dedicated COVID-19 hospital, Srinivas Rajkumar T, General Secretary, AIIMS Resident Doctors' Association, New Delhi said. The incident took place inside an ambulance around 2 am on May 8. When Majeed reached the ambulance, he noted difficulty in ventilating the patient and suspected accidental extubation'. "I immediately decided to re-intubate. Owing to poor visibility through the PPE inside the ambulance, I decided to remove the goggles and face shield, and then re-intubated the patient as any delay would have led to imminent death of the patient," he said. Majeed did not think twice before taking full-blown aerosol exposure from the patient and got exposed to the highest possible viral load just to deliver his duty, Rajkumar said. It is important that the people of this country understand that we have a common enemy in COVID-19 and we have to be united against the enemy and not fight among ourselves. Have empathy for patients, fellow workers, health care providers and every living being around you, the official said. "Zahid Abdul Majeed has been a compassionate doctor dedicated to his work. The RDA AIIMS appreciates the dedication of all residents who have stood in solidarity in the fight against the virus in spite of shortcomings and less than ideal work conditions all over the country. Senior doctors should appreciate their work and keep their morale high, take their feedback seriously and improve the working conditions," Rajkumar added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Heated debate about fisheries politics in Norway by HILDE-GUNN BYE May 09,2020 | Source: High North News There has recently been a heated debate about fisheries politics in Norway. Despite strong reactions from both coastal Norway and opposition parties, a whitepaper about the fisheries quota system was adopted by parliament this week. That happened one week after the Office of the Auditor General pointed out that many of the changes within the quota system in the 2004-2018 period have led to negative consequences for coastal communities. The fish industry is one of the most important industries in Norway. To many coastal communities in Northern Norway, the fisheries are the most important industry and it contributes to jobs and to populating the entire coastline. The regulations regarding who gets to fish, how much one may take out, and how, is all part of a complex quota system. A quota is a license to fish, and the quota system provides a foundation for regulations of how to allocate these. The system applies to various groups of vessels, from small fishing boats operating near the coastline to large ocean-going trawlers operating on the big seas. However, the quota system has been changed significantly over time. That has a.o. led to a fight over the allocation of quotas between various vessel groups as well over the consequences of this allocation for areas along the coast. According to the Ocean Resources Act, Norwegian authorities management of fish resources is to secure three main goals: - Sustainable fish stocks - Socioeconomic profitability - Jobs and population in coastal communities There are, however, conflicts between these targets; in particular the latter two. From the 1990s until today, the quota system has developed from vessel-regulated fisheries in which the quota would follow the vessel, into one in which the two are disconnected, and the quotas are freed. In other words, it has become easier to buy and sell quotas, and it happens more frequently. In the 2000s, various structure regulations were introduced and it became possible to sell and transfer quotas between vessels and size-groups of vessels without selling the vessels themselves, Paul Jensen, board member of the Norwegian Fishermens Sales Organisation, said to High North News earlier this winter. At the same time, quota prices have soared. My quota for a vessel of 11-12 meters could today be sold for some NOK 10 million (appr. 1 million), Jensen said to HNN. This, in turn, leads to the threshold being high for many young people who want to establish a career as fishermen- or women. The quota system as well as the changes introduced have been thoroughly assessed by the Office of the Auditor General in the past 18 months. There may be decades between each time the OAG investigates fisheries policies in this way. The OAGs investigation showed that the changes in the quota system introduced in the 2004-2018 period have contributed to increased profitability in the fisheries fleet. However, established fishery policy principles have been challenged, for instance, by the facts that: - Ownership over vessels with quotas has been concentrated into fewer hands - Fewer vessels with quotas are owned by registered fishermen - The fisheries fleet structure is less diverse and the vessels are both fewer and larger The OAG also found that. - Increased quota prices has made it more difficult to recruit new fishermen - Changes to the groups of smaller vessels has had negative consequences for coastal communities - Several municipalities dependent on fisheries have seen reduced activity in this sector - Several changes to the quota system have not been sufficiently assessed by the relevant ministries with regard to consequences prior to introduction They conclude that the sum of changes in the system has had unintended, negative consequences for the fishery activities in many coastal communities. This applies in particular to changes introduced to the group consisting of the smallest vessels, i.e. boats smaller than 11 meters, which share a mutual dependency with land-based fish industry. The smallest vessels are less mobile and land fresh fish in their home communities more often than the larger vessels do. Access to supply of raw materials is moreover important for the land-based fish industry. Buying and selling of quotas has a.o. led to changes in where fish is landed. The OAG report shows that there are fewer small, local fish landing facilities than before. Fish landing is now concentrated to fewer landing facilities. Arne Pedersen, Chairperson of the Norwegian Coastal Fishers Association, points out the effects of quotas being transferred upwards in the system and ending up in the ocean-going fleet. This development affects the land-based fish industry negatively, as many quotas have been transferred to ocean-going fishing vessels. More and more of what they catch is frozen on board the larger vessels and is sold abroad for production, via freezer terminals and centralized frozen storages. That undermines the Norwegian fish industry, which struggles to get hold of raw materials, Pedersen argues. The ocean-going trawlers share of cod, haddock and grayfish is approaching 50 percent. Nearly 95 percent of this share goes to freezer terminals and production abroad. The Norwegian fish industry cannot compete with this at all, he adds. 2018 High North News. All Rights Reserved. Theme(s): Fisheries Development and Aquaculture. Tony Ferguson has been taken to hospital following his shock defeat against Justin Gaethje at UFC 249, confirmed Dana White. Ferguson, who was scheduled to face Khabib Nurmagomedov at the event before the Russian pulled out due to the coronavirus pandemic, had not lost since 2012. But in front of an empty arena in Jacksonville, Florida, Gaethje delivered the performance of his career and dominated from start to finish, before the referee stepped in to stop the fight in the fifth round. Tony Ferguson's face was covered in blood during the latter stages of his shock defeat Ferguson was on the receiving end of a brutal beating from Justin Gaethje at UFC 249 UFC president White confirmed the 36-year-old had been sent for medical treatment and added that he didn't look like his usual self, saying: 'I thought Tony Ferguson looked off tonight. He looked slow.' As a result, it looks like Gaethje has set up a bout with Khabib, who congratulated the victor on Twitter afterwards, saying: 'It was so impressive, congratulations. Very smart fight.' Ferguson himself was full of praise for Gaethje, though admitted the uncertainty surrounding his opponent at the behind closed doors event made preparation difficult. Ferguson's bloodied face told the story after he suffered nasty cuts from huge punches Gaethje claimed the interim lightweight title and will now face Khabib for the real thing There was an eerie atmosphere inside the arena in Jacksonville without any fans watching 'It was a long camp. The weight cut had nothing to do with it. Justin's a tough son of a b***h, I'll be real. 'I prepared for Khabib; not too much of a striker. But s**t happens, man. What can you do? I would've much rather got finished instead of having somebody step in. 'Let's go back and get it on, you now what I mean? The consolation round you have to win back. 'Props to Justin, like I said, and his team; tough son of a b***h. Thank you for taking the fight.' The Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLS) is advising the Akufo-Addo government against lifting the ban on public gatherings given the increasing number of Coronavirus infections in the country. It says considering the non-compliance to the prescribed precautionary measures such as social distancing and wearing of face masks, the ban must be maintained and strictly be enforced. The association is also among other things, asking the government to as a matter of urgency, begin mass testing as well as expand its current test capacity in order to stop the spread of COVID-19 in Ghana. GAMLS having assessed the increasing number of infections being reported by the GHS and the lack of adherence to the preventive measures prescribed by the Ministry of Health, states that there should not be the total lifting of the ban on social gathering as already in place. The measures in place should be enforced strictly, the association said in a statement. Portions of the release also noted that testing will immediately be expanded to at least each region, if not to all district capitals, to enable prompt testing of patients for treatment and management. Specifically, the procurement of cartridges to use the GeneXpert (TB analyzer for COVID-19 testing) should be facilitated. That mass testing is initiated across the country to be able to ascertain the true burden of the disease in Ghana. This is the surest way to be sure of winning the battle against the pandemic. Additionally, the laboratory scientists are advocating for the continued closure of the countrys borders until such a time when the rate of infection has been brought under its utmost control. The borders of Ghana should remain closed until the daily infectivity rate of the virus begins to fall and all alternative measures are put in place. More of its demands include the provision of the required Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for routine use and COVID-19 patient testing for medical laboratory professionals and all health workers. Meanwhile, the group has encouraged the citizenry to respect the directives put forward by the President and strictly maintain good personal hygiene practices. Despite assurances that the country's COVID-19 cases had peaked and ready to decline, on Friday, May 8, 2020, the cases jumped from 3,091 to 4,012. On Saturday, May 9, 2020, the Ghana Health Service also announced that the cases had gone up further by 251 pushing the current total figure to 4,263. The death count has shot up to 22. The recoveries have also gone up and now at 378. The government has already placed a ban on all public gatherings including conferences, workshops, funerals, festivals, political rallies, church and Islamic activities, and other related events in a bid to curb the spread of the novel Coronavirus in the country. The ban, which is in its eighth week, was initially set for one month by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo but was subsequently extended by another two weeks which will expire on Monday, May 11, 2020. citinewsroom Jackie 'O' Henderson has denied reports her ex-husband Lee is 'secretly engaged' to his new girlfriend, Gabriella Motta. The radio host, 45, spoke to Daily Mail Australia about the rumours while walking her dog in Sydney's Bondi Beach on Monday morning. When asked if Lee had proposed to tattooed jujitsu instructor Gabriella, Jackie said: 'No, don't believe the magazines, honestly.' Rumours: Jackie 'O' Henderson has denied reports her ex-husband Lee is engaged to his new girlfriend, Gabriella Motta. Pictured: Lee and Gabriella with his daughter, Kitty, in January 2019 Earlier that day, New Idea had published a story claiming Lee had 'popped the question to Gabi a few weeks ago.' Jackie, according to the magazine, was said to be 'really happy' for her ex. It comes after the former couple listed their marital home in Vaucluse, Sydney, for sale with a $6.5million price guide. They had purchased the five-bedroom mansion for $2.7million in 2012. Catching up: The KIIS FM radio host, 45, spoke to Daily Mail Australia about the rumours while walking her dog in Sydney's Bondi Beach on Monday morning Fake news: When asked if Lee had proposed to tattooed jujitsu instructor Gabriella, Jackie (right) said: 'No, don't believe the magazines, honestly' Lee and Gabriella are known to keep their relationship private and have only been pictured together once, in January 2019. According to New Idea, they have been 'quietly dating for two years'. Meanwhile, Lee and Jackie remain on friendly terms as they co-parent their nine-year-old daughter, Kitty. Claims: Earlier that day, New Idea had published a story claiming Lee had 'popped the question to Gabi a few weeks ago.' Jackie, according to the magazine, was said to be 'happy' for her ex The pair had announced their split in October 2018, after 18 years together. 'Lee and I decided to separate,' she said on The Kyle and Jackie O Show at the time. 'It's not a decision we took lightly at all,' she added. 'We have been so lucky that our separation has been extremely amicable. And I know everyone says that, but we actually have remained really good friends throughout all this.' The break-up 'didn't happen overnight', she said, and they had been separated 'for quite some time' before making it public. Kitty previously lived with her father during the week to accommodate Jackie's early starts as a breakfast radio host, but she is now living with her mother, who is broadcasting from a home studio during the coronavirus pandemic. Afghan Government Releases 1,000 Taliban Members - Security Council Sputnik News 12:58 GMT 09.05.2020 KABUL (Sputnik) - The Afghan government has released 1,000 members of the Taliban movement and expects the group to respond by setting free government security forces personnel and speeding up the preparation of direct talks, the Afghan National Security Council said on Saturday. The prisoner exchange and launch of the intra-Afghan talks became possible after the Taliban and Washington reached a peace deal in Qatar in February. Under the agreement, the US and NATO troops are to be pulled out from the country within 14 months, and the intra-Afghan talks between the militant group and the government have been set to start on March 10. However, the talks have been delayed due to Afghanistan's electoral crisis and mutual disagreements over the release of prisoners. The Taliban group is demanding that the Afghan authorities release 5,000 prisoners on the basis of the US-Taliban peace deal. The Afghan government, in its turn, agreed to gradually release 1,500 of the movement's members. Under the deal, militants have agreed to release 1,000 government prisoners, but reportedly set free only 110. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Jammu: More than 70 people and some BSF troops were rescued by security personnel from flash flood-affected Niki Tawi area with many rivers overflowing due to incessant heavy rain. Security personnel along with Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) RS Pura, Abishek Abrol and Station House officer (SHO) Bushan Manhas rushed and rescued 70 people from Gujjar Basti Katyal area, officials said, adding that some BSF troops were also evacuated from their posts caught in the floods and relocated back after water receded. Continuous heavy rain has caused flash floods in Jammu. Catchment areas of the Tawi river received heavy rainfall, causing its water to flow above danger at some areas. Jammu Police has participated in evacuation process from the river banks at RS Pura, Nikki Tawi, Phallan Mandal, Akhnoor, Gujjar nagar among others. Police officials along with civil administration and SDRF team reached homes in their respective jurisdiction. The locals also participated in the evacuation process. Minister for Public Health Engineering, Irrigation and Flood Control Sham Lal Choudhary today toured areas along the river Tawi to get first-hand information about the losses to life and property due to the rise in water level in view of incessant rain in the region. He asked officers to assess the situation and come out with solutions for restoring the affected areas and preventing further damage. He also asked for keeping a close vigil and taking appropriate measures to deal with any emergency. The Tawi rivers water level was recorded today at 19 feet, two feet above the danger mark (17 feet), Chenab was flowing at 34 feet, below the danger mark (34 feet), Basantar at seven feet against the danger mark of 5.5 feet, Devak was flowing at four feet, 0.25 feet above the danger mark (4.25 feet) and the maximum discharge level of Ujh was recorded at 1,19,000 cusecs against a danger level of 85,000 cusecs. Choudhary was informed that the department was regularly monitoring the situation and State Disaster Response Force and Defense forces are kept on high alert. The Minister asked for taking short and long-term steps to prevent floods including developing concrete embankments to prevent any loss to life and property. He directed to identify vulnerable areas prone to floods for plugging gaps. Choudhary appealed to the general public not to venture close to the rivers and refrain from taking their livestock along the rivers for grazing in view of the rise in water. Earlier in the day, the Minister called an emergency meeting of engineers of the Irrigation and Flood Control Department to assess the levels of various rivers. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Ganjam district in Odisha reported its first COVID-19 death after a man succumbed to the infection on Sunday, taking the death toll in the state to three, a health department official said. The total number of coronavirus cases in Odisha has climbed to 362, with 68 more testing positive for the disease, the official said. Ganjam District Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange said the state government will soon release the details of the patient who died. Despite a spurt in COVID-19 cases in the district, the situation is under control as the fresh infections are being detected among those in quarantine centres, he said. Kulange warned people against loitering near the centres and said the violators would be sent to isolation centres set up in faraway places. The Ganjam district administration has already banned the movement of people within a 100-metre radius of temporary medical camps. The sarpanchs of Madhupalli and Mandara gram panchayats in Polasara block in the district have declared a complete shutdown in the areas. Odisha Assembly Speaker S N Patro discussed the situation in the district with the collector and other elected representatives through video conference. He is the MLA from Digapahandi seat in the district. Around 40,000 people are lodged in 2,983 quarantine centres in Ganjam district. Of the fresh cases reported from the state during the day, at least 41 are those who returned from Surat in Gujarat recently, the health department official said. Last month, Odisha reported two COVID-19 deaths - both in state capital Bhubaneswar. Of the 68 new cases, 29 were detected in Ganjam district, 15 in Balasore, six in Bhadrak, four in Jajpur and one in Mayurbhanj. Angul district registered coronavirus cases for the first time, with 13 people there contracting the virus. Following the detection of COVID-19 cases in Angul, District Collector Manoj Mohanty said all restrictions applicable to the Red Zone category areas have been imposed. Twenty of the 30 districts in the state have reported COVID-19 cases. The number of active cases in the state has climbed to 291. At least 68 people have recovered from the disease. Ganjam tops the list of COVID-19 cases with 118 persons found positive, followed by 59 in Jajpur, 50 in Bhubaneswar in Khurda district, 42 in Balasore, 31 in Bhadrak, 13 each in Angul and Sundergarh, eight each in Kendrapara and Mayurbhanj, and five in Jagatsinghpur. Two cases each have been detected in Bolangir, Cuttack, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi and Keonjhar, while one each in Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Kouraput, Nayagarh and Puri. The COVID-19 mortality rate in Odisha stands at 0.6 per cent, said Jayant Panda, the health department spokesperson. On Saturday, 3,458 samples were examined in the state. A total of 59,780 samples have been tested so far. The state government issued directions for segregating symptomatic cases from the rest in quarantine centres. In a letter, Additional Chief Secretary P K Mohapatra directed district collectors, municipal commissioners and executive officers of urban local bodies to shift symptomatic cases identified after screening to the designated COVID care centres. The officials have also been told to test vulnerable groups, including pregnant women, children under the age of five, physically and mentally challenged persons, people above 60 years and those with co-morbid conditions on priority. Besides, they have been directed to strictly follow the government guidelines at these centres, including repeated hand washing, wearing face mask and social distancing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 10, 2020 / Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Elanco Animal Health Incorporated ("Elanco" or the "Company") (ELAN). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980. The investigation concerns whether Elanco and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices. [Click here for information about joining the class action] On May 7, 2020, Elanco reported its financial and operating results for the first quarter of 2020. For the quarter, Elanco reported GAAP earnings per share of -$0.12, missing consensus estimates by $0.18, and revenue of $657.7 million, missing consensus estimates by $62.49 million. Explaining the Company's disappointing results, Elanco's President and Chief Executive Officer cited, among other factors, "distributor performance" and stated that Elanco intended "to tighten our approach across many facets of our distributor relationships." On this news, Elanco's stock price fell $3.05 per share, or 13.3%, to close at $19.88 per share on May 7, 2020. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com. SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/589235/SHAREHOLDER-ALERT-Pomerantz-Law-Firm-Investigates-Claims-On-Behalf-of-Investors-of-Elanco-Animal-Health-Incorporated--ELAN Ewww, 'Globsters' of Oregon / Washington Coast and Their Paranormal Past Published 05/10/2020 at 4:44 AM PDT By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff (Seaside, Oregon) Warning, dont be eating anything as you read this article. (Photo above: a near-globster in 2017, courtesy Seaside Aquarium) Perhaps the grossest thing you can find on the Oregon coast or Washington coast (or any beach in the world) is what is sometimes referred to as the globster. Its a particularly disgusting form of stranded whale corpse that has actually spawned paranormal legends in the past, and its smell will make you want to run away as from an actual monster. Globsters may be nasty in a uniquely terrible way but they have a fascinating if not somewhat comical role in history. A globster is really a strange slang (and psuedo-science) term only occasionally used these days, referring to the corpse of a whale that is often barely recognizable because of its advanced decayed state. Everything dies, and in the ocean that means sometimes these dead things wash ashore (really its rather amazing you dont see more dead stuff on the Oregon or Washington coasts considering the sheer immensity of lifeforms out there.) Occasionally, particularly with whales or larger things like seals and sea lions, they wind up floating around out there and rotting the whole time, and then abruptly they come onshore instead of sinking to the bottom. In rarer cases, theyve been decomposing for weeks and suddenly make landfall. These, under some circumstances, can be so decayed you cant tell what it is. Its a mysterious glob of foul-smelling something. In some of these rare cases, not even the entire animal makes it onshore: just a chunk. This deepens the mystery as the corpse is so indefinable in the first place, yet its half or a third of the size of what it used to be. For centuries, people have often misunderstood what these mysterious things were and sometimes believed they had come across new, perhaps even mythical creatures, such as sea serpents, a giant octopus or giant squid, a la Jules Verne. Even the possibility these were aquatic dinosaurs was presented on occasion (those often turned out to be long-dead sharks). Even aliens have been postulated. All that often happened through much of the 20th century, something that acquired new vigor when the whole paranormal investigation idea was invented and popularized, even in that day and age ignoring what science and common sense told them. Yet that wasnt always the publics fault. Later on, DNA testing started proving what these were, and other more responsible science folk have always been able to discern the true species of these globsters (or sometimes called blobs). Above: a true-blue globster in 2007, taken by Seaside Aquarium's Tiffany Boothe Among the more reasonable globster-finders are the crew at Seaside Aquarium, who have discovered a few stranded creatures and blobs along the north Oregon coast over the last decade and a half that were downright puzzling. One case in 2007 saw aquarium staff reporting a true-blue globster to Oregon Coast Beach Connection, finding a nasty mass of gooey corpse that didnt look like anything. It was only part of a sperm whale, they quickly found. How they withstood the rank odor to check its anatomy is still a mystery, and frankly better left not dwelled upon. Part of the thing that throws people is that these yucky specimens look hairy. Thats not hair thats simply heavily rotted flesh. A zombie apocalypse doesnt sound so fun anymore, does it? In 1962, it was a somewhat kooky biologist named Ivan T. Sanderson who coined the term globster. He was referring to a carcass in Tasmania two years before that had "no visible eyes, no defined head, and no apparent bone structure." According to author Sue L. Hamilton in her 2010 book Monsters, scientists soon figured out it was merely a disgustingly gooey remnant of a whale. Sanderson was originally a biologist and then soon moved into the suspect territory of cryptozoology, even becoming a science fiction writer for a time. Globster is now used with a bit of humor, especially in the internet age. But its origins are actually even more amusing. What happens to globsters when they wash up on the Washington coast or Oregon coast? If theyre in a fairly populated area, they get buried. Hopefully, that is, and policy differs on locale. The problem with globsters isnt just the fact they smell 20 times worse than any regular stranded whale corpse, but like any such beached deceased marine creature laying around they carry the possibility of disease. Touch one and you could get something nasty. Dogs are especially at risk. One incident in Seaside in 2014 had residents complaining about the smell two blocks away. That and the density of beachgoers was cause for burial. However, another incident the Seaside Aquarium responded to happened at Warrenton where the beach narrowed too much to be buried. State officials simply let that one get eaten by birds. Back then, the aquariums Tiffany Boothe told Oregon Coast Beach Connection: By not burying the carcass shorebirds and raptors will be able to feast on this fatty-rich food. Leaving the carcass on the beach is really good for the beach ecosystem. More "globster" photos below (warning: not for the squeamish). Oregon Coast Hotels in this area - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours Photo: Tiffany Boothe of Seaside Aquarium More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging..... More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining..... Coastal Spotlight LATEST Related Oregon Coast Articles Back to Oregon Coast Contact Advertise on BeachConnection.net All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright BeachConnection.net Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted BETHLEHEM - Voters in the Bethlehem school district will vote on budget and Board of Education seats by absentee ballot. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be no in-person voting, although voters will be allowed to drop off their completed ballots in a secure box outside the high school. Ballots will be sent out based on a list of names and addresses of voters from the last six years of school district voting. The lack of a clear legal framework to deal with epidemics leads to confusion between the centre and the states. The swift, global spread of Covid-19 has exposed the failings of societies around the worldeven supposedly developed ones. India is no exception. As on date, 50,000 cases have been detected in less than two months, and though the mortality rate (less than 4%) compares favourably to Italy or the United Kingdom, the peak is nowhere in sight. Even this picture hides much. One glaring failure was the lack of preparedness in the Indian state machinery to handle this outbreak. This is despite a two month advance warning as the world media covered the disaster unfolding in Wuhan in China. When the SARS-CoV2 virus arrived on Indias shores, there were not, and probably still are not, enough test kits, personal protective equipment or ventilators to handle the large volume of cases. For a country with an abysmal doctorpatient ratio and number of hospital beds per million population, this was a disaster waiting to happen. Even these initial failures could have been overcome had SARS-CoV2 virus not exposed Indias greatest weakness: the lack of state capacity. A 26-year-old surfer in California was killed in a shark attack Saturday, California State Parks announced. The victim, who was identified as surfboard maker Ben Kelly, is the first shark attack death in Northern California in 15 years, according to CBS San Francisco. He was surfing at Manresa State Beach in Santa Cruz County when he was attacked by an unknown species of shark around 1:30 p.m. Saturday, the parks department said in a release. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The water one mile north and south of the incident site will be closed for five days as part of protocol, and warning signs are now posted at beach entrances. The beach is fully closed from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily as part of restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it is open to water sports, including surfing. According to CBS San Francisco, the Santa Cruz County Sheriffs Office said there was a narrow escape from a shark attack in March where a shark bit a paddle boarders board. Shark attacks in Northern California are rare, according to the state, with only two other fatal shark attacks since 1984. Both of those attacks involved divers. 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. NobleWorks is helping to promote social closeness while America is social distancing with the introduction of humorous new greeting cards. The Ultimate Bathroom Humor NobleWorks' timely new cards include 10 hilarious birthday cards featuring jokes about toilet paper (or the lack of it!). These hysterical t.p. cards are also available as a "Toilet Papers" boxed set of 10 birthday cards, as well as a boxed set of 10 blank cards with no message inside. Additionally, the company has introduced birthday and friendship cards that focus on social distancing, hand washing, and other signs of our current times to provide a laugh and comic relief. Cards for Healthcare Workers NobleWorks' new timely card offering also includes several designs specifically for thanking doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers who are on the front line and deserve messages of appreciation and support. 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Joe McHugh told RTEs The Week In Politics programme he has set up an advisory group to examine the issue and the group will work towards opening schools. He said: NPHET (National Public Health Emergency Team) advice is that schools will reopen in September, so the question is now how can we do that in a safe way and I think it is too early to say how that will look. But that is the job we have started and we will continue to work our way through it. On #TWIP to discuss #LeavingCert2020 - a decision taken for the right reason & with students best interests in mind. pic.twitter.com/BUtoXjudWE Joe McHugh (@McHughJoeTD) May 10, 2020 Asked if schools reopening would mean smaller classes or start times being staggered, he said: We are trying to give as much clarity as possible and the last thing I want to be doing in the month of May is to say exactly what this will look like. That is why I want to have a proper consultation about it. I am going to work with the advisory group that I have set up and that work is going to continue. We are going to work with all the stakeholders and I have already started the conversation a number of weeks ago. With a lot of the stakeholders, whether it is post-primary or primary, we are going to work towards opening the schools. It was announced on Friday that the Leaving Certificate examinations will not go ahead this summer as a result of the pandemic. Instead, students will have the option of receiving grades calculated by their teachers based on their school work. I want to categorically say that any student, just because they go to a certain school, that they will be marked any differently to anyone else is just not the case Joe McHugh Students have the option to sit the exam at a later date but it will not be in time for when colleges open in September. Mr McHugh rejected accusations of unfairness about the new system and said students from all types of schools will be treated fairly. He said: I want to categorically say that any student, just because they go to a certain school, that they will be marked any differently to anyone else is just not the case. You could have a situation where once a principal sends off the results of any school, whether it is a community school, a Deis school, a private school, where the system will look at some students maybe marked too harshly, some students could be marked leniently, there will be different evaluations. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 00:03:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close The Marta Soto Beauty Salon opens with the sanitary security measures taken in Molins de Rei, Spain, May 8, 2020. (Photo by Joan Gosa/Xinhua) According to official data on Saturday, out of the 223,578 confirmed coronavirus cases in Spain, 26,487 people have lost their lives. MADRID, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday called on citizens to maintain vigilance and precaution as approximately half of the country prepares to move into the second stage of the four-phase plan to ease lockdown restrictions which were put in place on March 15 to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Around half of Spain will benefit from the lifting of restrictions, but Sanchez warned in a televised speech "the virus has not disappeared. The fight will continue, and will not end until there is a vaccine." Many areas, including the Basque Region, Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia in the north of Spain, will move into Phase 1 (the second stage) on Monday after meeting the criteria set by Spanish health authorities to ease lockdown restrictions. These areas will be able to open outside terraces, while shops under 400 square meters can also trade and meetings of up to 10 people within provinces can also be held. A saleswoman delivers a product to a customer at a fruit and vegetable stall in the market of La Llibertat in Barcelona, Spain, May 8, 2020. (Barcelona City Hall/Handout via Xinhua) Sanchez said Spain has "demonstrated many things, its huge strengths ... What has set it apart has been the magnificent response of the people, thanks to exceptional responsibility and social discipline," adding that Spain had shown itself to be "humane," with "all of society joined together by bonds of affection and care." "We have saved lives, but we have lost many more," he continued, "each fatality hurts us. These lives that we have lost weigh heavily." "In the meantime, we will have to live alongside the virus, which is why the healthcare system must be reinforced and its capacities strengthened and this will count for little without the responsible efforts of the people," he explained. Madrid and Catalonia are among the regions unable to ease lockdown measures for the moment and the prime minister repeated that not all Spain would move out of lockdown at the same speed. "The virus does not end at the provincial borders. The de-escalation will be guided by the principles of scientific advice and prudence," he informed. A COVID-19 patient shakes hands with a nurse as he is moved out of an ICU ward of a hospital in Barcelona, Spain, on May 7, 2020. (Photo by Francisco Avia/Xinhua) Sanchez also discussed the social and economic problems caused by the virus with almost 600,000 jobs destroyed in two months: "rebuilding means driving the creation of employment as soon as possible. We can achieve this together," he commented. Spanish health authorities on Saturday confirmed drops in both the daily numbers of new COVID-19 deaths and cases of the coronavirus. The total number of deaths in Spain rose to 26,478 after 179 more people lost their lives in the 24-hour period until 21:00 hours local time on Friday. This was 50 less than the 229 deaths registered in the previous 24-hour span. There was also a drop in the number of new coronavirus cases. Fresh figures showed Spain reported 604 new infections, drastically down from the 1,095 cases reported in the previous 24-hour span, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 223,578. Saturday saw 10 of Spain's autonomous regions register fewer than 20 new cases. Dani, a worker at "Be Real Barber Shop", cleans and disinfects tools every time a client enters to prevent the coronavirus from spreading in Molins de Rei, Spain, May 7, 2020. (Photo by Joan Gosa/Xinhua) Kolkata Police have registered a case against union minister Babul Supriyo for sharing a photo of Bengal chief secretary Rajiva Sinha with a person, who Supriyo claimed to be chief minister Mamata Banerjees brother. Supriyo on Friday shared a photo on his Facebook and Twitter accounts showing Sinha having a drink with some people. The junior minister for environment, forests and climate change, alleged that one of the individuals in the photo was chief minister Mamata Banerjees brother, Kartik Banerjee. Supriyo added that he didnt have a problem with people drinking in the picture, but was pointing out the nexus between the states ruling party and its top bureaucrats. Its Honble WBCM @MamataOfficials brother Kartik Banerjee with the Current Chief Seccretary of Bengal Rajiva Sinha! The Drinks r fine but this viral photo does raise many questions given who they are!! THIS sure IS NOT A NORMALPIX @BJP4Bengal @KailashOnline @BJP4India @JPNadda, Supriyo Twitted on Friday. While Supriyo said that everyone has the right to have a drink or get drunk but questions about this photo would be raised because of their identities. Why would this question not be raised, why the chief ministers brother was drinking with the chief secretary? The whiskey in the photo is not the issue; the question is if the chief secretary has an unholy nexus with TMC, he wrote. Also Read: Mamata is scared: BJPs social media campaign after no press meet by Bengal CM in 9 days According to a senior officer of Kolkata Police, Kartik Banerjee on Sunday lodged a complaint against Supriyo at Kalighat police station before it was transferred to the cyber crime cell of Kolkata police. Kartik Banerjee is also the state unit president of Jai Hind Bahini, a social work unit of Mamata Banerjees Trinamool Congress (TMC). In a statement issued on Sunday, Kartik Banerjee said, I am not at all present in the photo. He added, I strongly oppose this act and condemn such a blatant lie by a responsible person who holds an important position in the Central Ministry. This again proves the failure and insecurity of Mr. Supriyo, both as a politician and as a minister. During this unprecedented exigency when we are struggling to meet the basic requirements of people, you and your party are busy throwing mud and propagating lies, Banerjee said. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 He added he will file a legal suit against this attempt at public vilification. On social media, the south division of Kolkata police on Sunday shared a screenshot of Supriyos tweet and called it fake. This post circulating on social media is a #Fake. The information shared in the message is false. A case has been started over this and legal action is being taken. Following the tweet by Kolkata Police and the statement issued by Kartik Banerjee, Supriyo again took to social media to defend himself. Fine, I will surely ask a question that is being asked by millions. I didnt release the photo - It was already Viral. Everyone knows that #WestBengalPolice is an extension of @AITCofficial, he wrote on Twitter. Setting in motion the process for redrawing parliamentary and assembly constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, the Delimitation Commission has written to the speakers of Lok Sabha and assemblies of the four northeastern states to name associate members of the panel. Jammu and Kashmir at present has no legislative assembly. It is a union territory with a provision of a legislature. Members of Parliament and legislative assemblies of states, for which the Delimitation Commission is set up, are drawn in as associate members to assist the panel in its task. Election Commission functionaries aware of the development said the delimitation panel met recently where the decision was taken to write to the Lok Sabha Speaker and presiding officers of state assemblies to name associate members. The Delimitation Commission also asked the Election Commission Secretariat to obtain latest census data from the Registrar General of India of "up to the lowest administrative unit", a senior functionary said. Asked whether the coronavirus-induced lockdown has delayed the work of the Delimitation Commission, a functionary said the panel remains "undeterred" and continues with its task. The government had on March 6 constituted the Delimitation Commission, to be headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, to redraw Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland. Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and state election commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir and the four states will be its ex-officio members. The commission will delimit the constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir in accordance with the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, and of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland in accordance with the provisions of the Delimitation Act, 2002, a Law Ministry notification earlier said. Delimitation is the process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province with a legislative body. According to section 60 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, "...the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall be increased from 107 to 114...." Out of these, 24 seats are in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. So effectively, the seats will go up from 83 to 90, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora had explained recently when reporters had asked him about the delimitation process in Jammu and Kashmir. The union territory of Jammu and Kashmir came into being on October 31, 2019 after the state was reorganised and bifurcated into two union territories, Ladakh being the other. On February 28 this year, the government had cancelled its earlier notifications which deferred delimitation in Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh due to security issues, saying the exercise could be carried out "now" as the previous circumstances cease to exist. The cancellation of the notifications had paved the way for delimitation in the four northeastern states. The "order" issued by the Legislative Department of the Law Ministry had said "it appears that the circumstances that led to the deferring of the delimitation exercise" in Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland "have ceased to exist and that the delimitation of the constituencies as envisaged under the Delimitation Act, 2002 could be carried out now". It said now the President, satisfied that the circumstances that led to the deferring of the delimitation exercise have ceased to exist, "is pleased to rescind the notification...dated February 8, 2008." A Delimitation Commission was set up under the Delimitation Act, 2002 to readjust the division of each state and union territory into territorial constituencies for the purpose of Lok Sabha and state assembly elections on the basis of census figures of 2001. The commission completed the delimitation exercise and the Delimitation Order, 2008 in respect of all the states, except in these four northeastern states. The job of delimitation is assigned to a high power body. Such a body is known as Delimitation Commission or a Boundary Commission. "In India, such Delimitation Commissions have been constituted four times -- in 1952 under the Delimitation Commission Act, 1952, in 1963 under Delimitation Commission Act, 1962, in 1973 under Delimitation Act, 1972 and in 2002 under Delimitation Act, 2002," according to the EC website. The Delimitation Commission in India is a high power body whose orders have the force of law and cannot be called in question before any court. These orders come into force on a date to be specified by the President. The copies of its orders are laid before Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies concerned, "but no modifications are permissible therein by them", the EC website said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a significant development in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, India and the United States are working in close cooperation on the development of at least three vaccines. Speaking on the development, Indian envoy to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu said, "There is close cooperation, exchange of information, collaboration. There are at least three vaccines on which, Indian companies and the US companies are working together. Besides, we are an important part of the supply chain. And this crisis has certainly shown to the United States and if not the world over that India is a reliable partner. This has not only been acknowledged at the highest level in the government but also among the people." READ | On COVID-19, China Either Made A Terrible Mistake Or Probably It Was Incompetence: Trump READ | Air India Issues Advisory For US-bound Indian Students With F/M Visa Under Vande Bharat Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the US agencies Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) have been collaborating for a number of years and working on vaccines for various other viruses, asserted Sandhu. "About two or three years back, we together developed a vaccine for another virus called Rotavirus. It has not only helped India and the United States but many other countries," said Sandhu while speaking about the technical knowhow India and the US have been sharing with each other over a number of years. READ | Americans Split Over COVID-19 Vaccine; Only 55% Sure To Accept It READ | Aviation Minister Hints At Resumption Of Domestic Air Travel, Says 'awaiting Green Signal' While the pandemic had struck the entire world in a catastrophic manner, India had risen to the occasion and supplied the pharmaceutical drugs to various countries in the continued battle against the deadly virus. India had supplied the then 'critical' Hydrochloroxiquine (HCQ) to about 55 countries. Besides HCQ, India had also exported paracetamol to various nations who were grappling with the pandemic. The US, Israel, Argentina and a number of other nations expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for India's continued support in combating the virus. Libyan Rival Forces Clash; Tripoli Airport Sustains Damage By Edward Yeranian May 09, 2020 Mitiga Airbase, Tripoli's main civilian and military airport, came under rocket attack by forces loyal to eastern military commander Gen. Khalifa Haftar Saturday, with some of its infrastructure and several passenger jets sustaining heavy damage. The attack came as fighting between forces loyal to Haftar and the rival Tripoli-based government, each side targeting the other's military bases, has intensified in recent days. Amateur video showed thick plumes of black smoke rising over Mitiga Airbase Saturday after Haftar's forces targeted it with dozens of Grad rockets. The rival Tripoli-based government claimed that the base suffered heavy damage. A military spokesman for the government claimed that fuel storage tanks, fire trucks, several passenger jets and the civilian passenger terminal were damaged by the shelling. Haftar's forces claimed that military sections of the airport also suffered heavy damage. Supporters of Tripoli's internationally-recognized prime minister, Fayez al Saraj, claimed that civilian areas near Mitiga Airport were also hit by the shelling, causing a number of civilian casualties. VOA could not independently confirm the claim. Both sides have been attacking each other's strategic military bases in recent days, causing heavy damage and casualties. Forces loyal to Saraj have attacked Haftar's al Wuthia Airbase near Libya's border with Tunisia, while his forces have bombed bases controlled by Saraj's forces in Misrata and Tripoli. Khattar Abou Diab, who teaches political science at the University of Paris, told VOA that both parties in Libya have "ignored calls by the U.N. secretary-general to observe a coronavirus cease-fire," and each side has stepped up attacks alongside their supporters. He said that as Turkey steps up its support for the government in Tripoli, the Russian Wagner group, along with the United Arab Emirates, have increased their support for Haftar. He said Haftar controls much of the country and its resources, but it is unlikely that he can win a military victory. Libya analyst Mohammed Fathi told Arab media that France and Italy are supporting opposing sides in Libya "due to their own national interests," while neighboring Arab states are also divided, with some opposing the Islamist-based government in Tripoli and others supporting it. Qatar and Turkey support the Tripoli-based National Unity Government, while Egypt, the UAE, France, Saudi Arabia and Russia oppose it. The U.S. Embassy in Tripoli has called on all parties to "stop fighting and return to the negotiating table." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address (Photo : Thomas Angus/Imperial College London) Prof Neil Ferguson has been described as one of the top epidemiologists in the world. A group of leading United Kingdom scientists has insisted that the clinical basis for the coronavirus lockdown is the work of a large organization of experts. Epidemiologist Professor Neil Ferguson is just one voice among many. More than 25 outstanding scientists sent a letter through Dr. Thibaut Jombart, an associate professor of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The debate after Ferguson's "error" - where he ridiculed lockdown rules by hosting visits at home from his lover amplified a misconception that he only persuaded the government to exchange policy. ALSO READ: Coronavirus Lockdown: Weather Prediction Becomes More Difficult; Here's Why Professor Lockdown should NOT have resigned Professor Ferguson's "secret" should not be used to discredit his scientific evidence behind the decision to enforce lockdown, experts have said. Jombart told BBC Radio 4's Today program that he did not believe that Ferguson ought to have resigned. He even praised his colleague's influence during the radio program, DailyMail reported. "In a time of crisis like this, I think [his actions] confuse the message of the government," said Jombart, who is also a senior lecturer at Imperial College. Jombart defended Ferguson, saying the latter is among the top epidemiologists in the world. "We need all the assets we can use," he added. Jombart said he and a massive quantity of peers had advised the government from the start and had encouraged a lockdown from early March. At first, the government followed a less stringent set of measures like those in Sweden, best implementing a complete lockdown on 23 March. According to The Guardian, he said Ferguson is a very experienced modeler. "I'd rather have [Ferguson] on Sage [the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies], as part of informing the decision-making process," Jombart continued. ALSO READ: [VIDEO] COVID-19: Japan Opens Hot Springs For People Lockdown at Home; Here's the Catch Though Ferguson's idea had a strong effect on COVID-19 transmission Jombart stated there was scientific consensus that the lockdown had had a strong effect in reducing the charge of coronavirus transmission. Modeling by Imperial College noted that 510,000 people in the UK could die during a worst-case scenario without the implementation of wide-ranging measures to lessen transmission. This unpublished study led to the government's volte-face but has come under growing scrutiny. In the letter, the scientists said that even though Ferguson was certainly an influential scientist, the collaborative medical effort to tell the authorities' decision-making was very distinct to that being suggested. "At the time of writing, Sage lists 56 participants, and receives inputs from a much larger number of advisors through dedicated sub-committees," it reads. The subcommittee focusing on modeling included 44 contributors. Most of whom are independent academic researchers who represent a large number of groups throughout the country and their ongoing work. The letter said any scientific advice to the UK government, including statistics that preceded the lockdown, is the end result of the work of many researchers in the country. In early March 2020, the emerging consensus among scientists concerned on the country-wide consultation was that Sars-Cov-2 circulated widely in the UK. The agreement caused giant hospitalizations and fatalities. In the absence of drastic social distancing measures, the healthcare devices would rapidly turn out to be overwhelmed in the same way that it was in northern Italy at the time. Although new research and facts have in view that emerged, this consensus has not changed, 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. WASHINGTON, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. President Barack Obama in a recent private conversation blasted the response to the coronavirus pandemic by the current administration of President Donald Trump as "absolute chaotic disaster," vowing to tirelessly help unseat the incumbent president in the upcoming general election. A tape recording of Obama's remarks, rendered during a chat with members of the Obama Alumni Association on Friday and obtained and first reported by Yahoo News, showed that the former president said the current occupant of the White House has made selfishness, tribalism, division and animosity "a stronger impulse in American life," which has impeded the containment of the coronavirus pandemic globally. "What we're fighting against is these long-term trends in which being tribal, being divided, and seeing others as an enemy - that has become a stronger impulse in American life," Obama said. "And by the way, we're seeing that internationally as well. It's part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty." Obama continued: "It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset - of 'what's in it for me' and 'to heck with everybody else' - when that mindset is operationalized in our government." "That's why, I, by the way, am going to be spending as much time as necessary and campaigning as hard as I can for Joe Biden," he added, referring to the former Vice President serving during his presidency who now is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Obama has criticized his successor over the COVID-19 outbreak in the past, but seemed to have shown more restraint, saying the current administration lacked a "coherent national plan" to address the crisis. "While we continue to wait for a coherent national plan to navigate this pandemic, states like Massachusetts are beginning to adopt their own public health plans to combat this virus -- before it's too late," the former president tweeted last month. The much more combative criticism of the Trump administration's handling of the public health crisis came only during the latter part of the conversation, in which Obama first slammed the Justice Department's decision Thursday to drop the criminal charges against Michael Flynn, Trump's first national security adviser who was fired after the revelation of his lies to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about his contacts with Russia during Trump's presidential transition period. "The news over the last 24 hours I think has been somewhat downplayed - about the Justice Department dropping charges against Michael Flynn," Obama said, adding that "the fact that there is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free." The former president misstated Flynn's charge, though. The former national security adviser, whom Obama had warned Trump not to hire, was not charged with perjury, but with lying to the FBI. The charges against Flynn led to his ouster by Trump in February 2017 and became part of the U.S. investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Moscow's alleged meddling to help Trump win the presidency in 2016. Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to his lying to the FBI about his conversations with then Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak, but the 61-year-old retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General withdrew his guilty plea earlier this year, alleging prosecutorial misconduct. "That's the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic - not just institutional norms - but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk. And when you start moving in those directions, it can accelerate pretty quickly as we've seen in other places," said Obama, who made the dismissal of the Flynn case the principal reason Democrats should make sure Biden will defeat Trump in the election. "So I am hoping that all of you feel the same sense of urgency that I do," Obama said. "Whenever I campaign, I've always said, 'Ah, this is the most important election.' Especially obviously when I was on the ballot, that always feels like it's the most important election. This one - I'm not on the ballot - but I am pretty darn invested. We got to make this happen." The World Health Organisation has dismissed as false allegations a media report that it withheld information about the new coronavirus following pressure from China. The UN agency said in a statement late Saturday that a German magazine's report about a telephone conversation between WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Chinese President Xi Jinping on January 21 was unfounded and untrue. Weekly Der Spiegel reported that Xi asked Tedros during the call to hold back information about human-to-human transmission of the virus and delay declaring a pandemic. The magazine quoted Germany's foreign intelligence agency, BND, which declined to comment on Sunday. Der Spiegel also claimed that the BND concluded up to six weeks of time to fight the outbreak had been lost due to China's information policy. The UN agency said Tedros and Xi have never spoken by phone and added that such inaccurate reports distract and detract from WHO's and the world's efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic. It said that China confirmed human-to-human transmission of the new coronavirus on January 20. WHO officials issued a statement two days later saying there was evidence of human-to-human transmission in Wuhan, but more investigation was necessary. The global body declared COVID-19 a pandemic on February 11. US President Donald Trump has been among the strongest critics of WHO's handling of the pandemic, accusing it of deference to China and ceasing payments to the agency. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Security forces in Jammu and Kashmir have been placed on red alert over the plans of Pakistan-backed terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed to carry out attacks targeting army and paramilitary forces on Monday. Security forces expect the terrorists to carry out the attack using a car bomb or a suicide bomber. The heightened security in Kashmir coincides with the terror group Hizbul Mujahideen naming Ghazi Haider aka Saifullah Mir as the next chief chief of the terror group in Kashmir to replace Riyaz Naikoo who was killed in an encounter this week. Ghazi Haider is a nom de guerre. Ghazi means Islamic warrior, Haider is brave, a security official in Kashmir said, adding that operations to locate the new Hizbul chief would begin soon. The terror outfit has also readied its second line of leadership. Ghazi Haider would have a deputy, Zafar ul Islam, and a chief military adviser Abu Tariq Bhai. For now, the immediate priority of the security forces is to neutralise the Jaish-e-Mohammed threat to convoys of security forces on May 11. The terrorist group has been planning the possible attacks on Monday for days. Last week, according to intelligence reports, Mufti Abdul Rauf Asghar, the de facto chief of Jaish, had met his handlers at Pakistan militarys Inter Services Intelligence. Also Read: At NSA Ajit Dovals big Kashmir meet, a stinker for Pak and a piece of advice Security officials said the choice of May 11 for an attack coincides with the 17th day of Ramadan when the Battle of Badr was fought and won by a few hundred soldiers in Saudi Arabia. In Islamic history, it is seen as a huge victory in the early days of Islam and a turning point. It is also the 22nd anniversary of Indias second round of Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998 when India became a nuclear weapons state with a capability to deliver airborne and land-based nuclear devices. The Jaish-e-Mohammed, which has a large proportion of foreign terrorists in its ranks, is expected to use local Kashmiris for the bombing as it had done in the Pulwama car bombing last year that targeted a convoy of CRPF troopers. This lowers the cost of a terrorist attack for Pakistan-based terror groups, a Kashmir police officer said. It is also convenient because it helps its backers in Pakistan claim that the attack was carried out by local Kashmiris and is part of, as Prime Minister Imran Khan calls it, an indigenous resistance movement. Counter-terror officials in North Block said the Northern Army commander and chiefs of Central Reserve Police Force and Jammu and Kashmir polices special operations groups had already been sensitised about the possible attack. As a precaution, all movement of convoys has been placed under strong monitoring and will move out under strong protection with road opening parties in accordance with procedures. This will keep everyone safe, an official said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 22:18:08|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MUSCAT, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Oman on Sunday welcomed the formation of the new government of Iraq led by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. According to the official Twitter account of the Omani Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the sultanate expressed its wishes for the new prime minister to fulfill Iraqi people's aspirations regarding sovereignty, security and stability. Al-Kadhimi on May 6 was sworn in as Iraq's new prime minister after weeks of political negotiations. Enditem (Newser) South Dakota is threatening legal action if two Sioux tribes don't remove their highway checkpointsand one tribal leader doesn't seem too impressed. "We are strongest when we work together; this includes our battle against Covid-19," Gov. Kristi Noem said in letters to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and Oglala Sioux Tribe, per CNN. "I request that the tribes immediately cease interfering with or regulating traffic on US and State Highways and remove all travel checkpoints." The tribes have indeed posted checkpoints in an effort to curb the coronavirus; among the Cheyenne rules, reservation residents can travel to non-hotspot areas for essential activities, and South Dakota residents can enter reservations if they're not coming from a hotspot or have a tribe-issued travel permit. story continues below India has despatched a warship with two medical teams and medical supplies to help authorities in the Maldives, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Seychelles combat Covid-19, symbolising the importance attached by New Delhi to its maritime neighbourhood. The Indian Navys INS Kesari, a 5,600-tonne landing ship, was deployed following requests for assistance from the Indian Ocean countries, the external affairs ministry said on Sunday. The warship is carrying consignments of essential medicines and food supplies. The two medical assistance teams on board will be deployed in Mauritius and Comoros to help their governments deal with the Covid-19 crisis and a dengue fever outbreak in Comoros. A person familiar with developments said the operation, named Mission Sagar, implicitly conveys the inclusion of Madagascar and Comoros as part of Indias Indian Ocean vision and the growing importance of the Indian Ocean region in foreign policy. This is the first time a single assistance mission is covering all island countries of the western Indian Ocean, the person said on condition of anonymity. It also reflects the contiguity of the governments Indian Ocean policy. INS Kesari will also deliver consignments of Covid-19-related medicines to Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Seychelles and 600 tonnes of food supplies to the Maldives. It is also carrying a special consignment of ayurvedic medicines for Mauritius in response to a request made by foreign minister Nandcoomar Bodha to his Indian counterpart. The consignments for Madagascar and Comoros include hydroxychloroquine tablets. India supplied 50,000 hydroxychloroquine tablets to the Maldives last month and more supplies were also sent to Mauritius and Seychelles. The Indian Ocean region is now getting the same importance as Indias immediate neighbours, the person cited above said. The Maldives, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Seychelles were among the first countries to receive Covid-19-related aid from India and a team of select medical personnel was sent to Male to augment the preparedness of authorities there to tackle the pandemic. Special flights have carried two consignments of medicines to Sri Lanka. This is also the only region where three medical teams have been sent to the Maldives earlier and now to Mauritius and Comoros. This conveys Indias readiness to deploy manpower and also the confidence in Indian expertise in these countries, the person said. Though all the assistance is request-based, these operations display our readiness and capability to step up even as we have challenges at home, and also cement our status as first responder in any crisis, the person added. The Indian Navy has also played a key role in repatriating some 1,000 Indian nationals from the Maldives since last week. The navy deployed two warships to Male to bring them back. The name of Mission Sagar was inspired by the prime ministers vision of Sagar Security and Growth for All in the Region. It is also in line with Indias time-tested role as the first responder in the region, the external affairs ministry said. Last month, India activated a currency swap arrangement with the Maldives and said it would provide $150 million to help the country mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic. The facility is part of the $400 million currency swap agreement signed in July 2019. India has also deployed a medical rapid response team to Kuwait and provided hydroxychloroquine tablets to many countries in the neighbourhood as grants. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Prasanta Mazumdar By Express News Service GUWAHATI: In the wake of the spike in COVID-19 cases, the Assam government has decided to conduct surveillance at all villages in the state. Through the "Community Surveillance Programme", the government will try to detect unreported cases of SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Infections) and ILI (Influenza-like Illness) and treat symptomatic minor flu cases at the houses of patients. "We will also strengthen the surveillance for other diseases associated with fever-like Japanese Encephalitis, malaria, dengue etc. "The programme targets to cover more than 25,000 villages. In the last three days, 6,809 villages have been covered, which is around 27% of the states total number of census villages," Pomi Baruah, who is the Deputy Secretary in the Health Department and Officer on Special Duty, National Health Mission, told this newspaper. As part of the surveillance, the government wants to reach each and every individual in the state, she added. FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES HERE Altogether 1,800 doctors, 9,000 auxiliary nurse midwives, 3,000 multipurpose health workers, 650 community health officers, 1,100 lab technicians and 30,000 accredited social health activists (ASHAs) are involved in the mission. The activity starts with ASHAs who are mandated to visit door to door for checking SARI/ILI and fever-related cases. They will prepare line listing of such cases which will be shared with the Community Surveillance Teams (CSTs). The members of CSTs will visit the houses identified to interact with the suspected cases, confirm the findings, counsel patients including family members and nearby community members. Based on the advice of CSTs, lab technicians will collect swab or blood samples and send them for testing. The district magistrates will monitor, supervise and coordinate the activities through the district task force mechanism. The government appealed to people to cooperate with health workers and provide them with specific health details while they visit their homes. Till Sunday, Assam recorded 62 COVID-19 cases including one death. The South Korean military's cyber command said Sunday another senior officer has tested positive for the coronavirus after contacting a patient serving at the unit in a case presumed to be linked with a new cluster of infections in the bustling Seoul district of Itaewon. The military is conducting coronavirus tests, based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR), on all the members of the Cyber Operations Command under the direct wing of the Ministry of Defense. The move reflected growing alarm over the gradual penetration of COVID-19 into the country's 600,000-strong armed forces. A total of 43 soldiers have been confirmed to be infected with the virus as of 10 a.m. Sunday, with 39 of them declared fully cured, according to the ministry. Earlier, a staff sergeant working at the command was diagnosed as having COVID-19 following a visit to an Itaewon club last weekend, where a cluster infection has been reported, in breach of the military's quarantine guidelines. The officer reported for duty Monday and then a service member with the command was confirmed to have contracted the disease. The defense ministry said 969 troops remain isolated in the military's own "preemptive" quarantine step and 114 others have been in quarantine at the call of heath authorities. (Yonhap) A cosmetic nurse whose screaming son was pulled from her arms as police arrested her for protesting about the coronavirus lockdown claims 'he wanted to be there'. Renee Altakrity had her four-year-old son pulled from her arms by police during the 'Exercise My Rights' protest outside New South Wales parliament house on Saturday. Video of the mother-of-three's arrest soon went viral, while as she sat in the back of a police wagon she posted updates for her fellow protestors on social media. Mrs Altakrity, 36, was issued a $1000 fine for breaching the strict COVID-19 rules. The day after the incident she told Daily Mail Australia that despite criticism over her decision to take her son along with her, he had asked to join because he wants skate parks to reopen. Scroll down for video Renee Altakrity (pictured) was pulled away from her screaming son by police officers during an 'Exercise My Rights' protest outside New South Wales parliament house on Saturday 'The point for me exercising our rights is to stick up for ourselves and have freedom of speech,' Mrs Altakrity said. 'My son wanted to come with me. He said: "Mum can I come? I'd love to put a sign up about the fact that I want to go back to the skate parks and not feel scared". 'I don't keep my kids in the shadows... my children are very aware of what is going on and I think it is very important our children know how to handle themselves and have a freedom of speech, even at four. 'My children are very opinionated, they probably get that from me, but he had every right to be there.' When asked exactly what she was protesting over, the beautician said she believed Prime Minister Scott Morrison had taken a 'Gestapo' approach to running Australia. Despite admitting she is 'not a scientist or doctor', Mrs Altakrity said she believed a more targeted quarantine would have been a better option. 'I would've talked about possibly quarantining the sick, not the healthy,' she said. 'There is no reason healthy people shouldn't be allowed to go about their lives. That's all I've got to say about it. 'I don't think its been handled with common sense.' Dozens of people gathered outside parliament house on Macquarie Street in Sydney from midday on Saturday as part of the 'Exercise My Rights' protest. In addition to the COVID-19 restrictions, among their other grievances was the need for NRL players and those visiting aged care homes to have had the flu vaccination. Mrs Altakrity admitted she was against vaccinations, but said that was not the main reason she was protesting. Police attempted to arrest the woman, while her son screamed and cried. 'Mummy is not going,' he said At Saturday's protest she had a yellow sign hung around her neck that read: 'If you don't know your rights, you don't have any. Magna Carta.' When police officers approached her about 3.50pm she insisted she was not doing anything wrong, despite the government's social distancing regulations. Australians can leave their homes for exercise or essential reasons but must keep a 1.5 metre distance from others. While these restrictions are expected to be eased in the coming weeks, they remain in place across most states and territories. 'I don't know how you guys are going home in honour tonight and trying to infringe me with a notice which I don't consent to because we're doing nothing wrong,' Mrs Altakrity told the group of officers. 'You guys should be here holding the signs with us, defending us. I don't consent to what you're doing.' She said she was not 'acting in aggression' and that she did not consent to sharing her name. Pictured: A police officer holds on to the woman's child as she is arrested A NSW Police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia to woman refused to give officers her details and would not comply with their direction to move on Mrs Altakrity appeared to fight off attempts to put her in the back of a paddy wagon and continued to claim she was not doing anything wrong She asked if police she was 'under arrest' and a female officer explained they were 'asking for her name' as they believed she was committing an offence. Mrs Altakrity then appeared to walk on. The dangers of not being vaccinated Immunisation is an effective way of protecting people from harmful, contagious diseases. Before vaccination campaigns in the 1960s and 70s, diseases like tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough killed thousands of children. Immunisation also protects the whole community, preventing the spread of the disease - known as 'herd immunity'. Vaccination can cause a disease to die out altogether - as was the case when smallpox was eradicated in 1980 after a vaccination campaign led by the World Health Organisation. Vaccination rates are at over 93 per cent for five-year-olds in Australia. Source: Australian Department of Health Advertisement But additional video footage showed the altercation taking a turn for the worst, with police attempting to arrest the woman as her son screamed and cried nearby. 'Mummy is not going... leave mummy alone,' he said. Mrs Altakrity appeared to fight off attempts to put her in the back of a paddy wagon and continued to claim she was not doing anything wrong. The distressing footage concluded with police pulling the child away from his mum, with one officer seen holding on to the boy as he kicked and screamed. Inside the police van, Mrs Altakrity posted a video to Instagram calling for help from her fellow protestors. 'Im in the back of a paddy wagon. They singled me out,' she claimed. 'If someone can please send legal representation. I cannot believe this is happening. 'This system is absolutely bulls**t. They singled me out. They singled me out... Why? I was just exercising my rights like everybody else.' The alarming confrontation left viewers divided, with many slamming the mother for bringing her child along with her. 'Foolish, selfish attention seeking woman. A mother should protect their child far far away from aggravating situations like that during a global pandemic,' one wrote. 'She should not expose a vulnerable child to such unnecessary trauma. Her poor innocent boy,' another wrote. NSW Police confirmed late on Saturday night that she had been issued with a public infringement notice (PIN) and a subsequent $1000 fine A NSW Police spokesperson said officers spoke to 'unauthorised protesters' about 3.50pm on Saturday. 'Officers moved the group on after explaining they were not authorised to protest and were also not complying with social distancing regulations,' the spokesperson said. 'One woman refused to give officers her details and would not comply with their direction to move on. 'She was placed under arrest; however, resisted and struggled with officers. 'The woman was taken to Surry Hills Police Station.' NSW Police confirmed late on Saturday night that she had been issued with a public infringement notice (PIN) and a subsequent $1000 fine. Anuja Susan Varghese By Express News Service KOCHI: With expatriate Malayalis starting to return to the state, major private hospitals in the district are gearing up to assist the government in testing samples and treating suspected Covid-19 cases if there is a crisis. Besides private laboratories DDRC and EI Lab Metropolis, Aster Medcity and Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) have also received the approval from the Indian Council of Medical Research for conducting Covid-19 tests in Kochi. We are waiting for the test kits. The health department has told us that they would brief us about conducting tests, if and when the need arises. If the number of non-resident Keralites arriving from abroad goes up, there is high likelihood of suspected cases going up and we may need to pitch in. We are prepared for the worst, said Dr Anup R Warrier, Department of Infectious Disease and Infection Control at Aster Medcity. A separate tower has been arranged for treating suspected Covid-19 patients, without affecting non-Covid patient care and treatment. Around 22 ICU beds and 30 non-ICU beds are at the ready, he said. The state government has mandated seven-day institutional quarantine for all foreign returnees. If they test negative after that, they will be allowed to leave and asked to be under home quarantine. If anyone shows any symptoms during home quarantine, treatment facilities in major private hospitals can be utilised with the governments approval. As the Health Department has clarified, swab samples of arriving expatriates will be tested by government agencies at the airport itself before they are placed in institutional quarantine. If someone tests negative after that but requires treatment later, or if an asymptomatic persons develops any symptoms and seeks medical help at our hospital, we need to be ready for it. We cannot take any risk, said Dr Joseph K, Consultant, Internal Medicine and Diabetology, VPS Lakeshore. We have the required number of personal protection equipment (PPE) and N95 masks in stock. We expect to receive suspected cases any time now, he said. Sources said AIMS has also readied an entire block with over 200 beds in the hospital for the purpose. After a tough 2019, the real estate market has continued experiencing many hardships because of Covid-19. BIDV has announced the selection of the institution to organize an auction of debts incurred by Tai Nguyen Construction, Production and Trade Co Ltd. The total value of principal and interest by auctioning time will be VND4 trillion. The assets mortgaged for the loan include the property rights for the quarry in Quoc Oai district in Hanoi, valued at VND855 billion, and the right to use land and properties on the land in the future at Kenton Node project, located in Phuoc Kien commune, Nha Be district in HCM City. Kenton Note was mortgaged by the borrower at many banks, including BIDV, MSB and PVcomBank (58 percent of the asset value was mortgaged at BIDV). The value of the collateral was VND7.836 trillion, of which VND4.545 trillion belongs to BIDV. Kenton Note has had a poor fate. This is a complex with total area of 9.1 hectares, comprising more than 1,600 high-end apartments, a shopping center, 5-star hotel, marina and water stage. Because of the investors limited capability and market upheavals in the last 10 years, the complex has unfinished buildings. I n 2018, Kenton Node was rescued by TNR. The name of the project changed to TNR Kenton Node and banks pumped trillions of dong into the project. However, the project has not been revived as expected. In 2018, Kenton Node was rescued by TNR. The name of the project changed to TNR Kenton Node and banks pumped trillions of dong into the project. However, the project has not been revived as expected. BIDV has also foreclosed on the mortgaged assets of Thuan Thao Group. Its 2019 finance report showed that the group still had an unpaid debt worth trillions of dong. BIDV has been joining forces with the Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) to sell the collateral but still cannot find buyers. These projects are just the tip of the iceberg. Many other smaller projects, valued at between tens and hundreds of billion of dong, are being distrained by banks to ensure the systems liquidity. Analysts believe that as revenue of many resorts, hotels and condotels has been affected by Covid-19, the rest of the year will continue to see bargaining away of properties to stop losses. A report from Jones Lang LaSalle Vietnam (JLL) found a downward trend in real estate prices in the primary market (prices quoted by real estate developers) in the first three months of the year. The average price dropped by 15 percent compared with Q4 2019 to $2,452 per square meter. JLL commented that investors were still trying to maintain prices they set before the epidemic outbreak. However, if the situation becomes worse, investors may consider lowering prices. Chi Mai Measures fit for real estate recovery The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has upended economies worldwide, and Vietnam must take urgent measures to handle this period of instability. Flash Iran is ready for prisoners swap with the United States "without preconditions," Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiee announced here on Sunday. "We are ready to exchange Iranian and American prisoners, and we are ready to discuss it with the Americans," Rabiee was quoted as saying by official IRNA news agency. The Iranian spokesman urged the United States to respond to Iran's call as, he said, "we are worried about the health condition of Iranians in the U.S. jails." The remarks by the Iranian official followed a December exchange of two prisoners between Tehran and Washington, a detained American on spying charges for an imprisoned Iranian researcher for violating sanctions on Iran. Pune crossed an important milestone in its fight against Covid-19 (coronavirus) caused due to Sars-Cov-2 virus on Sunday as more number of persons recovered and were discharged in the city against the number of fresh positive cases reported in 24 hours. The city witnessed 194 recoveries in a day as compared to 102 fresh cases and five deaths. Among those who died included a 13-month-old girl, who was suffering from pre-existing ailments and a 82-year-old inmate at the Yerawada Central prison. With 102 fresh positive cases, the citys tally of active positive cases has gone up to 2,482 while the total number of persons discharged so far stands at 1,020. Rubal Agarwal, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) additional commissioner, tweeted, Delighted to share that today 194 Covid-19 patients cured and discharged. Crossed the important milestone of curing and discharging 1000 patients in PMC. Total 1020 cured. (sic) She clarified that the recoveries were as per old protocol, which required patients to undergo the second test before going home after 14 days as against no testing before the discharge of patients who have a mild and moderate infection. 194 discharged as per old guidelines. New guidelines we will start from tomorrow. As we have to set all protocol as per new norms, said Agarwal in another tweet. (sic) According to the information shared by the PMC health department, the 13-month-old baby girl is from Warje area and was admitted to Sassoon Hospital on May 4. She had pulmonary haemorrhage secondary with Covid-19 positive with severe acute malnutrition. She breathed her last on Sunday at 7:30am. The 82-year-old Yerawada jail inmate was admitted to Sassoon Hospital on May 7 and had an acute respiratory failure due to Covid-19. Other three deceased persons include a 70-year-old female patient from Tadiwala road admitted to Aund Civil Hospital on April 26, a 37-year-old male patient from Ganj peth admitted to Sassoon Hospital on May 7 and a 53-year-old male patient from Kondhwa Budruk admitted to Kashibai Navale Hospital on May 8. All of them had pneumonia and died in the last 24 hours, according to information shared by PMCs health department. Virus tracker (figures till 7.30 pm on May 10) PMC New case: 102, total cases 2,482 New deaths: 5, total deaths: 145 New discharged: 194, total discharged: 1,020 Critical patients: 92 Admit but stable: 1,226 The first batch of 160 Nigerians stranded in the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic has arrived in Abuja and had been moved into quarantine. The returnees, including eight infants, were part of the 700 Nigerians who registered for the emergency evacuation flights in the US. They arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, around 11.05 am on Sunday, aboard an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 aircraft. The plane departed the Newark International Airport, New Jersey, on Saturday around 8:20 p.m. local time (1:20 a.m. on Sunday Nigerian time). Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, had said the evacuees would be quarantined for 14 days before leaving for their respective destinations. One of the returnees explained that they were checked into a hotel at the Garki area of Abuja, noting that the evacuation process went well. He stated that the condition of the hotel where he was being quarantined was fair enough. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates The word egregious actually began as a term of praise, meaning exceptional, distinguished, eminent, or excellent, since it descended from the Latin word egregius or extraordinary, from the phrase ex grege rising above the flock. But from around the late 16th century, it has come to acquire a completely negative and disapproving connotation, meaning not just exceptional but exceptionally, flagrantly bad, indeed excruciatingly so. This is because you can stand out from the flock in a bad way too: the sense of egregious over time changed from standing out in a good sense to standing out in a bad sense. There could be no better example of egregiousness than the WhatsApp video going around these days compiling five and a half minutes worth of President Trump saying nobody understands this better than me about several different subjects which most experts understand far better than he does. Egregious (adj.), flagrantly bad, outrageously offensive Usage: In threatening India with retaliation if we didnt sell him our stocks of hydroxychloroquine, President Trump behaved egregiously, in a manner unworthy of a Head of State. Egregious is also the most apposite word for actions that exceed all boundaries of propriety, boundaries of good taste or limits of common sense. Hillary Clinton, reacting to the impeachment of her husband for a minor sexual peccadillo, pointed out that impeachment is included in the Constitution to protect against a leader whose behaviour would be so egregious, so threatening to the republic, that there had to be a remedy. Of course, some would consider extra-curricular sex in the Oval Office egregious, but hardly threatening to the republic. Another aide confessed to a minor transgression that still merited the word: Calling the President bro was such an egregious error of judgment, I cant believe it slipped out like that! Egregious is the only word that will do for behaviour that goes even beyond outrageous: When the party President informed X that a trusted aide, in a shocking development, had defected to the other side, instead of sympathising, Xs egregious response was to ask if she could then have his office at the party headquarters. The license of a bar in Kerala was suspended for the egregious violation of selling alcohol to minors. It was an egregious mistake on the ministers part to quote misleading statistics in a press conference which could easily be refuted by a fact-check. Or, He is such an egregious liar that if he told me the sun was shining, I would be tempted to look out of the window to check. Of course, some centuries ago, the old positive meaning of the word persisted, so that the English political philosopher Thomas Hobbes could use it in complementing a colleague when he remarked, I am not so egregious a mathematician as you are. Indeed, in some other Indo-European languages that is still the way the word is used: for instance, in Italian, the word egregio means most excellent and figures in the formal salutation Egregio Signore, meaning Your Excellency or Distinguished Sir. For some 200 years, linguistics experts tell us, both the positive and negative meanings ran in parallel, so that Christopher Marlowe, in his Tamburlaine in 1590, used it in the sense of distinguished (Egregious viceroys of these eastern parts), while in 1611 Shakespeare has Posthumus describe himself in Cymbeline in the disparaging sense, as an Egregious murderer. This would certainly have been pretty confusing for everyone, so it was inevitable that one meaning would win out in the usage battles, and for the last couple of centuries, at least, the strongly negative meaning of egregious as something shockingly bad has prevailed. And finally, for trivia lovers: egregious is an unusually vowelled word, containing all the vowels of the alphabet (except a, but doubling up one to make up for it!). One more reason its worth adding to your vocabulary! Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Jacquelyn Temple, 72, outside her home in Leimert Park. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) The invitation to participate in a COVID-19 antibody study arrived in Jacquelyn Temples in-box early last month. Initially, the 72-year-old Leimert Park resident felt hope. She wondered whether the study and accompanying blood test could answer why she had been experiencing months of respiratory problems, even through her coronavirus test had come back negative. Maybe, she thought, the test would reveal that she had been exposed and recovered. Then she was hit with what she calls "a Tuskegee moment. Every time I think about experimental' or we want to study you or theres no cure, but we can treat you ... Tuskegee is in the back of my mind," Temple said after deciding to go forward with the antibody study anyway. Such seeds of mistrust were sowed almost a century ago in a rural corner of Alabama where, for four decades, medical researchers used hundreds of black men as guinea pigs in a government study now known as the Tuskegee experiment. In the study, which began in 1932, researchers told the men they were being treated for bad blood. They were not. Instead, the researchers watched as syphilis ravaged the men's bodies. Even when a cure for the debilitating disease became widely available, the researchers went to great lengths to ensure the men were denied treatment. Men included in the syphilis study posed for a photo in the 1950s in Tuskegee, Ala. (National Archives ) Exposed by a whistleblower in the early 1970s, the Tuskegee experiment is the most infamous in a litany of abuses and questionable studies conducted on black Americans in past decades. For many across the country, it is a metaphor for discrimination and racism within the medical system. You cannot think of a more damning betrayal of a doctor-patient relationship than that, said Dr. David M. Carlisle, president and chief executive of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. Now that the nation is in the grips of a pandemic, public health officials must confront a legacy of distrust handed down from generation to generation of medical research, healthcare workers and government mandates. Story continues Some are pushing back on the common refrain that black people are dying of COVID-19 at disproportionate rates because they suffer more from preexisting conditions, such as hypertension and heart disease. Instead, they are examining the lasting effects of the Tuskegee experiment, and how the often unfair and unequal treatment of black patients has factored into prevention and care during the pandemic. There are reasons for concern. In late April, Los Angeles become the first urban area in the nation to offer widespread testing for the novel coronavirus, regardless of symptoms. But preliminary racial data show that black people are underrepresented among the ranks of those tested. From 1932 to 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service used black men in Macon County, Ala., as test subjects, deliberately withholding treatment for syphilis long after penicillin had been found to cure it. (National Archives ) We cant talk about the disparity of COVID without talking about the recognition of how those disparities arose and what they reflect, said Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, Californias surgeon general. Because its not that black people are inherently sicker than others. A lot of it boils down to trust, some experts and researchers say. Decades of discrimination, reinforced by segregated hospitals and an overall lack of access to adequate medical care, have often worked against establishing even a fragile bond between black patients and often nonblack doctors. Research shows that this lack of confidence in physicians and hospitals makes black people less likely to seek medical care or to adhere to recommended treatment plans. That is particularly problematic when it comes to combating the coronavirus, Burke Harris said. The most vital tool health officials have in a pandemic is trust that policies and decisions are being made in the public's best interest. This belief impacts behavior, including whether people obey stay-at-home orders, practice social distancing and follow guidance to wear masks, she said. There were reasons to worry in the early days of the pandemic. A rumor that black people were immune from the coronavirus was running rampant on social media, likely giving some a false sense of security as they continued with their daily routines against the advice of health officials and elected leaders. A man included in the syphilis study received an injection in the 1950s in Tuskegee. (National Archives ) It wasn't until cities across the country began releasing statistics showing black people contracting and dying of the coronavirus at high rates that the rumor was debunked. Its clear that some of our young people didnt take this seriously, which included passing on the myth initially that blacks couldnt catch the coronavirus, said South L.A. activist Najee Ali. That myth spread like wildfire on social media, but there was never a concentrated effort from leaders to dispel that myth. In the past, elected leaders have leaned on trusted messengers, particularly in communities of color. Pastors, respected elders and activists are frequently enlisted to distribute critical information in town hall meetings, church sermons and other group gatherings. But with the coronavirus, those normal channels of communication have been shut down. L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and California Gov. Gavin Newsom have banned large gatherings to slow the virus' spread. Dr. Bill Releford, an Inglewood podiatric surgeon, first noticed the disconnect between black patients and the preventative recommendations of their doctors back in 2007. He was treating a large number of people who needed to have toes, a foot or a leg amputated because of complications from diabetes. Thomas Uwal, left, Human Services Superintendent for the city of Inglewood, shows his appreciation after Dr. Bill Releford, right, founder of the Black Barbershop Health Outreach Program, donated 650 surgical masks and 100 bottles of hand sanitizer to the Inglewood Senior Center. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) He also noticed that his patients and other black Angelenos lacked access to healthcare to properly diagnose and treat such chronic illnesses. So Releford founded the Black Barbershop Health Outreach Program, an Inglewood-based organization that offers checkups at barbershops. More recently, he expanded the program nationwide, organizing volunteers to screen 30,000 men. Some arrive in such dire conditions, with their blood pressure at dangerously high levels, that they have to be taken straight from barbershops to the emergency room, he said. "The same pattern we see for diabetes and high blood pressure, were seeing with COVID-19, where theres a lack of testing and treatment," Releford said. Over the years that the podiatrist and his team have treated patients, the legacy of the Tuskegee experiment has come up often. Formally known as the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male," it lasted from 1932 to 1972, when a former federal investigator leaked the details of the experiment to a journalist. The whistleblower revealed that doctors with the U.S. Public Health Service were using black men in Macon County, Ala., as test subjects, deliberately withholding treatment for the highly infectious disease syphilis long after penicillin had been found to cure it. In total, roughly 600 black men 399 with syphilis and 201 without were recruited and duped to participate in the study. In 1974, the men sued and reached a $9 million legal settlement. The federal government agreed to provide medical benefits and burial services to all living participants. Years later, the wives, widows and children of those who were part of the experiment also were added. But the damage was done. Some died from complications of syphilis. Others became blind or paralyzed. Several of their wives contracted the disease and passed it on to their children during birth. To this day, 11 offspring of the men who participated in the study still receive government medical and health benefits. Herman Shaw, 94, a victim of the Tuskegee experiment, after receiving an official apology from President Clinton on May 16, 1997, in the White House. (Greg Gibson / Associated Press) In 1997, President Bill Clinton issued a formal apology on behalf of the federal government. "We can stop turning our heads away," the president said during a White House ceremony that was attended by five survivors. "We can look at you in the eye and finally say on behalf of the American people: What the United States government did was shameful, and I am sorry." The Tuskegee experiment continues to echo in various ways. Researchers, for example, cite it to explain why black people are less likely to participate in experimental cancer treatments, clinical trials and even to get an annual flu shot. It's unclear what this will mean if a vaccine is developed for the coronavirus. Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, unofficially polled his social media followers and listeners on his weekly radio show and found that the group was overwhelming against taking any such vaccine. To Releford, who now passes out free face masks and bottles of hand sanitizer to passersby outside closed South L.A. barbershops, it's clear to him that the wounds of the Tuskegee experiment have not fully healed. The messages of the past do not go away, Releford said. "We have not as a country reconciled how these misdeeds have affected our people, particularly African Americans, for generations. So until we have a real conversation, I dont think this issue is going to go away. As discussions of timelines and motivations for Canadians to return to work post COVID-19 erupt in the political sphere, it has become clear that a fundamental shift in economic inclusion for women is in order. Canadian workplaces and political institutions have adapted swiftly in ways naysayers said could not be done. Kludge solutions as they may be, flexible work is here to stay. There is an opportunity to return differently, with a deeper understanding of the care imbalance and flexibility necessary to empower women to thrive. Julia Robarts, engagement manager and mother of two, has been working flexibly for seven years now in Odgers Berndtsons Toronto office. Robarts is optimistic about this turning point in the future of work, An impact out of the quarantine will absolutely be a greater acceptance that people can manage their own schedule without being visible. This isnt a discussion about getting Canadas economy back on track, but rather laying a new track that is better suited for the unique challenges faced by women. Robarts notes that organizations have an opportunity to reflect on their current practices and be proactive in offering creative and flexible work arrangements. If we are rebuilding, we might as well build it better. There are many reasons a person might seek work flexibility. Disability and mental health advocates have long spoken out about the need for workplaces to study and standardize flexible work options. More widespread flexible work, coupled with safe, affordable and accessible child care, will go a long way in changing the course of Canadas economic history toward inclusion. If we are ever going to actually address the gender pay gap, rather than expecting women to shape-shift in order to fit themselves in to work environments that were never built for their success in the first place, we need to rethink our models. This is important for the Black mother balancing her work with her school board advocacy, the Indigenous mother managing the safety of her family through spring flood warnings, and the newcomer mother painstakingly facilitating culturally sensitive care for her aging parents. Today, Canadians are feeling a refreshed appreciation for the value of care work and are recalibrating the ways in which we protect and compensate care workers. The COVID-19 crisis has widened the already disproportionate gap in care responsibilities held by women. In a 2017 interview describing her motivation for co-founding the U.K.-based flexible work agency Timewise, Karen Mattison nailed the issue at hand: There are hundreds of thousands of women at all levels of the job market who are skilled, experienced and ambitions, but who are given this impossible choice between their career progression and their families. [ ...] Not only are we women staring at a glass ceiling, but theres the sticky floor of the lack of flexibility in our careers as we progress. Where the federal government is likely to promote stimulus packages with a heavy emphasis on infrastructure investments, it is important that we address the barriers to access acknowledging the importance of care work, most often done by women within the industries we center in the economic reboot. According to a recent labour force survey conducted by Statistics Canada, the group most negatively impacted during this unemployment wave is women aged 18 to 24, who saw employment fall by 38 per cent. This same group, if empowered proactively, holds the key to unlocking Canadas long-term economic growth. In this economic reconstruction, I subscribe to Mattisons vision of utopia: It would be absolutely transformative if we could change the way we design jobs to allow people the space to nurture their children or older relatives, or to find fulfilment in other aspects of their lives in order to keep healthy mentally and physically. And I think its possible, if employers can focus on output and how best to facilitate that, rather than how many hours their employees are at their desks. This country only comes back stronger if we do this part right, with an acceptance and willingness to move women through the ranks flexibly, at all levels. Weve come too far to see a backsliding on any progress won for women on any front. Nearly a month after recovering from the coronavirus, actor Zoa Morani says she has donated her blood plasma to do her bit in helping the patients currently suffering from the novel virus. The actor, who was quarantined and kept under medication in April, also urged those who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate their plasma. "Donated my blood today for the Plasma therapy trials at Nair hospital. It was fascinating! Always a silver lining I suppose. The team there was so enthusiastic and careful. There was a general physician on standby just incase of emergency and the equipment brand new and safe (sic)," Zoa wrote on Instagram on Saturday. She thanked the doctors for taking care of her and hoped patients benefit from the donation. "All #Covid19 recovered people can be a part of this trial, to help others covid patients recover! I hope this works #IndiaFightsCorona. They even gave me a certificate and Rs 500. Wont lie, I felt super cool today (sic)," she added. Zoa, along with her sister Shaza and father, producer Karim Morani had tested positive for coronavirus in April. All three were discharged from the hospital after testing negative last month. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Irish Small and Medium Enterprise Association's welcoming the Government's guidelines for reopening businesses. Its return to work protocol announced yesterday, sets out what firms must do to re-open after being closed during the coronavirus crisis. The plans include bringing in regular temperature checks, one-way systems, and handshake bans in the workplace. ISME spokesperson James Coughlan thinks companies have enough time to bring in the measures. "People will have already been looking at the sort of things they'll need to do, but certainly it's good and helpful to get those guidelines," he said. "Obviously not every business will be opening up in Phase One, there'll be a lot of businesses opening up later so there is plenty of time in terms of getting themselves organised." Meanwhile, the Irish Hairdressers Federation says it is confident its specific guidelines for the industry will align very well with the Government's protocols. It is welcoming the announcement by the state on its return to work plan for businesses. [readmore[998564[/readmore] Irish Hairdressers Federation spokesperson Lisa Eccles said they need the wage subsidy scheme extended. "We would really encourage the Government perhaps to consider the continuation of the wage subsidy," she said. "There is going to be a substantial cost on employers looking after their workforce, making sure that they are able to implement these procedures, that they can provide the training for their staff and that it can all be done in line with this." Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 18:07:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SHENZHEN, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The southern Chinese city of Shenzhen will ban outdoor barbecue across the city, in a bid to prevent and control air pollution, according to the municipal ecology and environment bureau. According to an action plan issued recently, activities of outdoor barbecue will be investigated and punished by law. The government of Shenzhen plans to curb the average concentration of PM2.5 within 25 micrograms per cubic meter and ensure the air quality index maintains at least 96 percent in 2020. Other pollution control measures to achieve the goals will also be implemented in the city, including containing exhaust emissions from automobiles and ships. The city plans to phase out 60,000 old and obsolete vehicles and improve the public transportation network in the downtown areas by the end of 2020, as part of the emissions reduction efforts. Enditem The Ministry of Finance has denied allegations that it shared different figures with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Parliament in contracting the $1 billion rapid loan facility. The minister in a statement said reports to the contrary are false and misleading. There have been concerns that the government shared different sets of macroeconomic data with Ghanaians and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). According to some fact-checking organizations, the disparities, were in the figures of GDP Deficit, Primary Balance, Current Account Balance, and Gross International Reserves figures. The fact-checking organizations concluded that different sets of data were presented because of information coming from the IMF following the disbursement of a $1 billion credit facility upon a request for financial support to the government amid the coronavirus pandemic. This led to many well-meaning Ghanaians and some Civil Society Organisations called on the Ministry to speak on the allegations leveled against it. But the Ministry to responding to the issue in a press release via its website on Sunday, May 10, 2020, said the allegations are false and misleading. Our attention has been drawn to a publication by fact-checkghana.com of the Media Foundation for West Africa suggesting that the government has shared different macroeconomic data with Ghanaians and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). We wish to state that this assertion is false and misleading, the Ministry said. The first inaccuracy in the said publication was taking the January to September figures, that is the third quarter figures reported in our budget statements and comparing them with the full-year figures reported by the IMF, it further added. Meanwhile, the Ministry also gave reasons why there are differences between its figures and that of the International Monetary Fund. Whether the reported fiscal deficit includes or excludes extraordinary items such as financial sector bailout and energy sector contingent liabilities; Whether the reported fiscal deficit includes or excludes Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) retentions; and Whether the fiscal deficit to GDP ratio is based on provisional or actual nominal GDP. Whether the assumptions underpinning reported projected GDP are the same or differs. It is worthy of note that, just as Ghana did in our full-year reports, the IMF in their Ghana Country Report (No.20/110), from which the Media Foundation quoted, both the Overall balance and Overall balance excluding financial and energy sector related costs have been reported. It is disingenuous for anybody to pick different variables for comparison. The Media Foundation should not do that., the Ministry advised. citinewsroom People Before Profit's Brid Smith says the state's actions in dealing with covid-19 outbreaks in the direct provision system is "an abuse of human rights". More than 160 residents of direct provision across the country are known to have tested positive, while around 75 people living at one centre in Co Kerry are being treated as close contacts. amit_purohit20 BHPian Join Date: May 2006 Location: mumbai Posts: 645 Thanked: 809 Times Re: On starting a car yourself when the starter / battery fails Quote: blackwasp Originally Posted by You can also try to jump start a car in R as less effort is needed. Consider this lets take the classic example of leverage of a spanner and nut which has to be tightened. You require less effort to tighten a nut due to the leverage the spanner length provides. In case of first gear there are two gears in mesh, one is the smaller one called the "pinion" and the bigger gear is called simply the "gear". In case of 1st gear of a vehicle the pinion is the input gear which is attached to the engine side and the bigger gear is attached to the wheel side. That's how the reduction in speed takes place and also the torque multiplication takes place. In this the torque is applied to the bigger gear ie. at a tooth which is at a larger distance from the rotational axis of the gear. This distance acts like a lever and thus you get the torque multiplication. When you use the string technique you are doing the reverse that is trying to drive the engine through the car wheel and hence instead of a torque multiplication you get a torque decrease at the flywheel end. This means that you will have to apply more effort to start the vehicle. Hence its advisable to use a higher gear to start the vehicle. 1st gear and reverse gear ratios are nearly the same (More often the reverse gear ratio is more shallow ie higher than the 1st gear) so that means if you try to start the vehicle in 1st gear or reverse you will have to apply more efforts to start the vehicle. With that logic someone would want to start the car in fifth or sixth gear. This is also not recommended because there is a minimum rotational speed of the engine required to start itself. Higher the engine rotation speed better for starting, so we want engine rpms to be higher. One will get higher engine rpms in 1st, Reverse gears but that requires more torque to be applied at wheel. So the right balance would be reached in either 3rd or 4th gear using this string technique. In case of push start technique for starting a car: Its obvious that the car will be easier to start in higher gears but still you will observe that the general practice is not to put the car in 4th or 5th gear. The reason is quite simple that as soon as the engine will start the engine is going to drive the car wheels that means there would be too much load applied on the engine if the car is in higher gears and there is a high chance that the car will stall again! Also the speed at which the car is pushed has to be higher if you use higher gears. No its not the case less efforts are required to rotate the car wheels in as high gear as possible.Consider this lets take the classic example of leverage of a spanner and nut which has to be tightened. You require less effort to tighten a nut due to the leverage the spanner length provides.In case of first gear there are two gears in mesh, one is the smaller one called the "pinion" and the bigger gear is called simply the "gear". In case of 1st gear of a vehicle the pinion is the input gear which is attached to the engine side and the bigger gear is attached to the wheel side. That's how the reduction in speed takes place and also the torque multiplication takes place.In this the torque is applied to the bigger gear ie. at a tooth which is at a larger distance from the rotational axis of the gear. This distance acts like a lever and thus you get the torque multiplication.When you use the string technique you are doing the reverse that is trying to drive the engine through the car wheel and hence instead of a torque multiplication you get a torque decrease at the flywheel end. This means that you will have to apply more effort to start the vehicle.Hence its advisable to use a higher gear to start the vehicle. 1st gear and reverse gear ratios are nearly the same (More often the reverse gear ratio is more shallow ie higher than the 1st gear) so that means if you try to start the vehicle in 1st gear or reverse you will have to apply more efforts to start the vehicle.With that logic someone would want to start the car in fifth or sixth gear. This is also not recommended because there is a minimum rotational speed of the engine required to start itself. Higher the engine rotation speed better for starting, so we want engine rpms to be higher. One will get higher engine rpms in 1st, Reverse gears but that requires more torque to be applied at wheel.So the right balance would be reached in either 3rd or 4th gear using this string technique.Its obvious that the car will be easier to start in higher gears but still you will observe that the general practice is not to put the car in 4th or 5th gear.The reason is quite simple that as soon as the engine will start the engine is going to drive the car wheels that means there would be too much load applied on the engine if the car is in higher gears and there is a high chance that the car will stall again!Also the speed at which the car is pushed has to be higher if you use higher gears. The Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine Practitioners' Associations (GHAFTRAM) has blamed the Ministry of Health for Ghana not having a herbal 'cure' for COVID-19. General Secretary of GHAFTRAM, Nana Kwadwo Obiri said the Ministry refused to give the necessary attention to numerous samples of herbal medicines presented to them; a situation he described as 'very sad'. Nana Kwadwo Obiri who was speaking in an interview on Neat FM's 'Me Man Nti' program bemoaned the fact that Ghana is collaborating with Madagascar to bring in a herbal 'cure' for coronavirus. According to him, when it comes to herbal drugs used in treating malaria or similar illness, the 'cure' manufactured by Madagascar is ranked 51 in Ghana. "Then we heard the country was considering going for Madagascar herbal medicine and that was very unfortunate. Ghana Health Service has never engaged us and to top it up, we heard they were going for Madagascar's 'cure'; we are really sad because when it comes to herbal medicines, Madagascar is nowhere close to us. We are the leaders in Africa and the medicine they are using is ranked 51 in our list of medicines..." he said. Listen to him in the video below Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video While Meredith Grey openly talks about her male suitors and casual flings on Greys Anatomy, the same cant really be said for the actress who plays her. For the past several years, Ellen Pompeo has been happily married to her husband, Chris Ivery. Though the actress keeps many details surrounding her and her real-life McDreamys relationship under wraps, there are a few things weve learned so far about their adorable romance including the sweet way they met and how long theyve been living in marital bliss. Ellen Pompeo and Chris Ivery | Presley Ann/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images) Pompeo and Ivery met in an unexpected way Nowadays, it feels like everyone has adorable queries of how they met their significant other. But unlike most people, Pompeo doesnt have an epic backstory of how she and her husband first crossed paths. Rather than bumping into each other at a Hollywood event or onset of her hit medical drama, Pompeo met Ivery while she was doing her grocery shopping. Yep, you read that right! The pair crossed paths for the first time inside a Los Angeles food market back in 2003. After discovering they both hailed from Boston, the two became friends and six months later, they started dating. We were six degrees our whole lives, so I feel like we were sort of meant to be, Pompeo explained to People in 2006. Well get married eventually, secretly. The pair married secretly in 2007 After dating for four years, Pompeo and Ivery decided to make their love official by getting married but kept with their preference of having a small, quiet affair. In 2007, the pair jetted off to New York City and tied the knot inside of City Hall. After their courthouse wedding, the couple enjoyed a brief vacation before flying back out to California to start their lives as husband and wife. We flew out on a red-eye Thursday night. Friday morning, we woke up, went to City Hall, had the wedding really quick, and then we went to Lupa for lunch after, the actress explained on Live with Kelly and Ryan in 2017. Following their secret wedding, Pompeo and Ivery continued to lead a private lifestyle, only making rare appearances out on the town together and very seldomly giving glimpses into their life as a married couple. Pompeo gushed about her husband every now and again Since she is a private person, hearing Pompeo speak openly about her husband and their family doesnt happen all of the time. But there have been instances when shes opened up about married life with Ivery. Chris Ivery and Ellen Pompeo | Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images Back in 2016, Pompeo shared what her and Iverys romance is like on a daily basis, telling People that they like to hang out a lot at home together. We go out to dinner sometimes, but date nights really kind of happen inside at home, she said. And actually, we both go to bed pretty early, so we do a lot of lunch dates, too. Three years before that, the Greys Anatomy star gushed over how Ivery never feels threatened, even though her jobs consists of her filming some pretty steamy scenes with male co-stars. My husband is a fantastic guy, and very, very secure, she told Queen Latifah in 2013. I think thats probably why Im so into him because hes got so much swag. Hes just so secure that nothing shakes him. While it feels like celebrity romances are ending every day, Pompeo and Ivery have been able to keep the spark alive in their relationship. The actress even shared the secret behind her long-lasting marriage with Us Weekly in 2018. Just dont try to change people, she advised. They are who they are, and they were fine when you married them, so dont expect them to change. The News Broadcasters Federation, Indias largest industry association representing the combined interests of TV news channels, is highly concerned over the increasing incidents of attacks on media and journalists while performing their duty during these hard times. In the last few weeks, there has been an increasing number of physical attacks and filing of police cases against TV News channels, and prominent journalists across the country, creating an obstacle against performing their public service, despite the hardships during the lockdown of the country since March 24, 2020. The latest incident involves an attack by unidentified men on the Hyderabad office of TV5, by damaging equipment and property. READ | Coronavirus Live Updates: MHA Issues Guidelines For Manufacturing Units; Cases At 62939 READ | Lockdown: 366 Cases In Maha For Social Media Posts "The attack on TV5 is yet another attempt at using physical violence and threats to try and muzzle the media. NBF strongly condemns this and expects the state government to ensure TV5 is able to continue broadcasting in an environment free of such strongarm tactics which are anyway bound to fail," said Arnab Goswami, President, News Broadcasters Federation. TV5 has been at the forefront of reporting the high costs of procurement of Rapid Test Kits (RTE) for testing COVID-19 infection, by the State Government of Andhra Pradesh, which forced the officials to cancel the contract and save crore of rupees to the public exchequer. More recently, TV5 had been highlighting and raising questions on the negligence that led to the gas leakage at a private chemical factory in Vijayawada. Across India, broadcasters in all languages are doing non-stop programming with almost 100% focus on battling the Coronavirus and ensuring the success of the nationwide lockdown. "Since the nationwide lockdown, there are at least 24 journalists booked under serious charges by the police department in various states. Some journalists have also been physically attacked. Such incidents are highly condemnable and demoralizing for the journalists and the news broadcasting media," said R. Jai Krishna, Secretary-General, News Broadcasters Federation. NBF counts Dighvijay, DY365 News, First India Rajasthan, Gulistan News, IBC24, India News, JK 24X7, Living India News, News Live, News Nation, NewsX, MHOne News, North East Live, Odisha TV, Prag News, PuthiyaThalaimurai TV, Republic Bharat, Republic TV, S Newz, TV5, and Twenty Four News among its founding members. READ | Lockdown: Delhi Police Receives 781 Calls In 24 Hrs Seeking Help READ | 7,740 Dedicated COVID-19 Health Facilities In 483 Districts Identified: Health Ministry Boris Johnson, in his address to the nation, said primary schools may reopen on 1 June. (No 10 Downing Street via Getty Images) Boris Johnsons plan to reopen primary schools next month have been described by a teaching union as nothing short of reckless. As the prime minister announced a partial lifting of the coronavirus lockdown on Sunday night, he also laid out plans for a phased return of schools. Reception, year 1 and year 6 pupils may be able to return on 1 June at the earliest, Johnson said. The PM also expressed his desire for secondary school pupils with exams next year to get at least some time with their teachers before the holidays, though he didnt state a target date for this. 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 He added: We will shortly be setting out detailed guidance on how to make it work in schools. However, the plans were criticised by teaching unions on Sunday night. Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU) said: We think that the announcement by the government that schools may reopen from 1 June with reception and years 1 and 6 is nothing short of reckless. Coronavirus continues to ravage communities in the UK and the rate of COVID-19 infection is still far too great for the wider opening of our schools. She added: If schools are re-opened to blatant breaches of health and safety, we will strongly support our members who take steps to protect their pupils, their colleagues and their families. The worst outcome of any wider re-opening of schools is a second spike of COVID-19 infection. Patrick Roach, general secretary of the teachers union NASUWT, said the governments announcement risks thousands of schools rushing to make decisions about how best to safeguard the health and safety of children and staff in the absence of any clear national guidance. He added: It is baffling that following the governments decision to close all schools on public health grounds, that the government now expects individual schools to work out for themselves whether or not it will be safe to reopen on June 1 and potentially put at risk the health of children, staff and the public. Story continues It comes as a petition calling on parents to be given the option of not sending their children back to school gathered thousands of signatures in the wake of the PMs speech. The petition, on change.org, had gathered more than 166,000 signatures as of 9.45pm on Sunday. It read: So far there has been little assurance of what measures will be made to protect people and manage these risks. Even drop-off and collection could increase risk of transmission among parents. We need the government to be transparent with us and put things in place before we can consider placing our trust in this decision. Coronavirus: what happened today Coronavirus: Is working from home affecting our mental health? Champagne region in France. - Seyesphotography A French policeman tasked with protecting VIPs is among five charged with swindling a Champagne heir out of his bubbly and fortune by convincing him he had been recruited as a secret agent. The five, including an interior ministry staffer, are accused of luring the gullible producer of 450,000 bottles per year into handing over tens of thousands in fizz and cash. The money was supposed to pay for a raft of increasingly outlandish missions they claimed involved the Moroccan royal family, ex-US president Barack Obama, the United Nations and a part in a film with Alain Delon. The men face charges of "abuse of weakness and extortion of Hugues B (whose full name has not been disclosed) - a psychologically frail individual with megalomaniac delusions who they mockingly referred to as VIM (Very Important Madman), according to the indictment seen by Le Parisien. Prosecuting judges say the plaintiff squandered his fortune on being fooled into buying fast cars and a plane the gang said was a gift from Mr Obama, as well as handing over crates of his best champagne to secure massive deals with top international figures that never materialised. He only broke the "spell" when facing bankruptcy, they say. In all, the group are accused of bamboozling the Champagne heir into handing over 135,000 (120,000) over five years. They deny wrongdoing and claim the whole thing was a vast joke. Champagne pouring into stacked glasses - Andy Roberts/ OJO Images RF The alleged mastermind was an officer known only as Ahmed Z who had worked for Frances protection service of high-profile personalities, SPHP, before being dismissed after an internal inquiry. Fascinated by espionage, his socially isolated and credulous alleged victim fell under the charm of the policeman in 2007. A local domestic intelligence agent, Ahmed Z was tasked with protecting the entourage of the Moroccan royal family when in France as well as the countrys chief rabbi. Story continues Given his high-level contacts, the officer convinced his new friend to hand over almost 50,000 bottles of his finest champagne and 40,000 in marketing fees to try and secure contracts with such figures, say investigators. He only wanted the best, the producer is cited as telling them. He was taken on a high-speed spin around Paris and introduced to one of Frances police chiefs - in fact, a lowly interior minister secretary allegedly in on the scam. They discreetly proposed he become a secret contact of the Moroccan royals on condition of learning Arabic at punitive hourly rates and flew him to Marrakesh where the royals mysteriously failed to show up. The people he did meet called him VIM. Everyone laughed, but Ahmed told me it meant beauty, wisdom and intelligence, he recalled. Green-skinned Chardonnay grapes are pictured in the vineyard of the Champagne house Pommery-Vranken during the grape harvest on August 30, 2017 in Reims. - AFP He failed to smell a rat despite increasingly spurious requests, including bottles for the emperor of China and an Audi 5. In return, they pledged a role in the next Delon film and a job as scriptwriter for the UN. Ahmed promised me to keep it a secret as these were very coveted political positions, he is cited as saying. The piece de resistance came when they claimed Mr Obama had awarded him the honorific title of intergalactic president of the world and a plane. All he had to do was pay 20,000 to get it to France, which he duly wired. Hughes B pressed for charges in 2012 when his champagne house went into liquidation. I only realised Id been swindled when I lost my company, he told investigators. Psychologists told investigators he was suffering from very active delusions and were surprised he hadnt been placed under judicial guardianship due to his frail state. Usually, in this type of case you get the weak exploiting the even weaker, the plaintiffs lawyer Marie Dose told Le Parisien. In this case, they methodically fleeced him like true professionals and refined psychologists. Its despicable. RTHK: Global virus cases pass four million People in France and Spain, two of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, were preparing on Sunday for an easing of lockdown rules as the global number of infections surpassed four million. In the US, the country with the world's highest death toll, President Donald Trump faced sharp criticism from his predecessor Barack Obama who said on a leaked tape that Trump's handling of the crisis was an "absolute chaotic disaster". The virus has claimed more than 78,000 lives in the United States, which has recorded more than 1.3 million infections, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, the death toll has surged past 277,000 and the number of coronavirus cases surpassed four million on Saturday. Lockdowns and economic disruption, meanwhile, have pushed millions into unemployment in a historic global downturn. Amid the barrage of deaths, some European countries cited signs of progress they said justified taking slow steps back toward some version of normality. French officials on Saturday said the day's death toll of 80 was the lowest since early April. Nursing home fatalities also fell sharply as France prepared to relax curbs on public movement imposed eight weeks ago. The easing, to begin on Monday, has brought mixed reactions. "I've been scared to death" about the reopening, said Maya Flandin, a bookshop manager from Lyon. "It's a big responsibility to have to protect my staff and my customers." French health officials warned that "the epidemic remains active and is evolving", and a state of emergency was extended to July 10. In Spain, about half the population will be allowed out on Monday for limited socialisation, and restaurants will be able to offer some outdoor service as the country begins a phased transition set to last through June. Fears lingered, however, of a viral resurgence if restrictions are lifted too quickly, and authorities excluded Madrid and Barcelona, two Covid-19 hotspots, from the first-phase easing. "The virus has not gone away," Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned. Belgium is easing some restrictions on Monday, and in some parts of Germany bars and restaurants reopened on Saturday with further easing set for Monday. One district in Germany's western North Rhine-Westphalia state remained locked down, however, after an outbreak at a slaughterhouse. Overall, the situation in Europe was still far from normal. Britain is reportedly planning to announce on Sunday that all overseas visitors will face a mandatory two-week quarantine, and the European Union warned against opening borders to travellers from outside the bloc. Across Europe, commemorations marking 75 years since Nazi Germany's surrender were cancelled or scaled down. In Russia, a soaring number of coronavirus infections forced Moscow on Saturday to pare back traditionally rousing World War II victory celebrations. President Vladimir Putin instead gave a solemn speech at a memorial outside the Kremlin walls, without mentioning the coronavirus. Russia is now the fifth hardest-hit country, with nearly 200,000 confirmed infections and a rapidly rising caseload. Global economic figures are pointing to the most acute downturn in nearly a century as the pandemic forced businesses to shutter and badly disrupted supply lines. Trump, facing re-election in November, has insisted next year would be "phenomenal" for the US economy, urging reopening in a country where the coronavirus continues to claim well over 1,000 lives daily. The United States alone lost an unprecedented 20.5 million jobs in April, driving the unemployment rate to 14.7 percent - the highest level since the Great Depression of the last century. The numbers came as a leaked audio emerged in which former president Obama launched a scathing attack on Trump's handling of the crisis. In the recording, first obtained by Yahoo News, Obama urges former staffers to rally behind his former vice president, Joe Biden, who is preparing to take on Trump at the polls. The US response to the crisis, Obama said, "would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster" under the current administration. In Pakistan, the world's fifth most-populous country, the government ended the lockdown on Saturday and locals streamed into markets and shops, despite still-high infection rates. "We are happy with this decision, but at the same time I have a fear in my heart that if this disease spreads it could be devastating," said Tehmina Sattar, shopping with her sister and sons in Rawalpindi. Meanwhile Brazil, the country hardest-hit by coronavirus in Latin America, passed the milestone of 10,000 deaths on Saturday. It has now recorded 10,627 deaths and 155,939 infections, the Ministry of Health said. With its auto manufacturing industry idle and other economic indicators in the red, a government minister warned this week the country faced "economic collapse" if lockdowns continue. Dire data from many countries has further dampened the already grim global outlook, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) saying it had been too optimistic when it predicted the world economy would contract by three percent this year. "Incoming economic data for many countries is below our already pessimistic assessment for 2020," said IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva, whose organisation is fielding dozens of requests for emergency loans. The virus has prompted widespread soul-searching. China, facing intense criticism over its handling of the crisis, was the latest to admit to an inadequate response. "The novel coronavirus outbreak was a big test that revealed China still has shortcomings in its major epidemic prevention and control system (and) public health systems," Li Bin, deputy director of the National Health Commission, said on Saturday. The Trump administration has repeatedly criticised China for being secretive when the virus first emerged in the city of Wuhan late last year. The feud spread to the UN Security Council on Friday, where the US - reportedly out of frustration with China and the World Health Organisation - prevented a vote on a resolution calling for a ceasefire in various conflicts to allow officials to focus on the pandemic. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2020-05-10. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. As San Antonio starts taking on a post-COVID-19 attitude even before the virus is truly vanquished, the cadre of working groups organized to help the community ride out the crisis is winding down. Theyve done a great job identifying needs and gaps in the community of the essentials that are required to get by, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said. Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff assembled the five groups made up of local elected officials, philanthropists, business executives and labor leaders in late March and put local philanthropist and developer Gordon Hartman in charge. The task was to figure out how to handle food shortages, economic losses and other fallout from the virus as well as restrictions placed on businesses and individuals to slow the spread of the disease quickly and with less red tape than the usual government channels. Bureaucracy is the enemy of crisis response, Nirenberg said. Were trying to create a way where the most urgent needs can be addressed in the most efficient and effective way possible. Now, as Gov. Greg Abbott pre-empts the city and county by setting his own timetable for easing restrictions and phasing in the resumption of everyday business operations, officials here expect the working groups to wrap up by June. Much of the groups work, several officials noted, was simply about pinpointing priorities for elected leaders as well as nonprofits, businesses and other organizations to tackle as the region emerges from the crisis. We know that we have to provide short-term assistance, District 1 Councilman Roberto Trevino said. But theres a recovery coming. While we can assist in the short term, we need to be thinking about what that long-term recovery looks like. On ExpressNews.com: A thicket of committees and task forces is tackling the COVID-19 crisis in San Antonio. Heres a guide Another goal of the groups was to make sure that the city and the county were on the same page in their response efforts, officials said. Coordination helped minimize waste and duplication of efforts. Leaders pointed to a number of recent accomplishments they say wouldnt have happened without the working groups in place. Facing a depleted warehouse in early April, the San Antonio Food Bank asked the state for $12 million in aid to replenish its stores. The state initially agreed to put up only $2.9 million. A two-day phone drive spearheaded by local philanthropist Harvey Najim, co-chair of the philanthropy working group, brought in $5.4 million to help bridge some of the gap. That wouldnt have happened without the working group, Hartman said. Possibly, the Food Bank wouldve gone without some funding that they really needed at that time, Hartman said. He noted that the philanthropy group will likely continue to operate even as the remaining four shut down. Another notable achievement was born in the food security and shelter working group, which proposed and pushed for increasing an existing pot of city dollars intended for mortgage and rental assistance to $26 million and expanding it to be used also for household costs such as utilities, food and internet access. The working group tackling business and workforce issues discovered that some small businesses needed help applying for federal loans through the Paycheck Protection Program because they didnt have banking relationships, said District 7 Councilwoman Ana Sandoval, who co-chairs the group. The San Antonio Economic Development Foundation had already put together a few bankers and business leaders to provide that assistance, but more was needed, Sandoval said. This group also has discussed ways to help residents who have been laid off or furloughed seek unemployment assistance, she said. Another working group, tasked with tracking state and federal dollars for COVID-19 relief, was key in carving stimulus dollars out of the federal CARES Act the $2.2 trillion federal stimulus bill intended to ease economic and financial woes from the coronavirus and routing it to San Antonio and Bexar County, which respectively received $270 million and $80 million. Federal rules bar local governments from using those dollars to cover budget shortfalls caused by the crisis. In San Antonio, the crisis has blown a $200 million hole in the citys budget, the result of falling tax revenue from retail sales and hotel bookings. The federal and state working group is lobbying Congress now deliberating a possible second round of stimulus dollars to allow municipalities to use that money to make up for lost revenue. Its not exciting and its not sexy, acknowledged District 8 Councilman Manny Pelaez, co-chair of that working group, but funding is vital to long-term recovery efforts. On ExpressNews.com: Coronavirus has upended local government, moving democracy online and putting it on hold in some cases The working groups are separate from the health and economic transition panels named by Nirenberg and Wolff to figure out when and how businesses and activities could safely resume amid the pandemic. Those panels each turned in their work to the City Council and the Commissioners Court within the last two weeks. Before Nirenberg and Wolff named the working groups, some council members publicly groused about not having enough say in decisions during the crisis. Nirenberg had suspended the usual council committees because he saw them as administrative-heavy and too staff-consuming at a time when speed was essential. Instead, he and Wolff opted for the public-private working groups. Each of the groups except for philanthropy included at least one council member and one county commissioner. Then Nirenberg and Wolff added a number of high-powered business and nonprofit leaders, philanthropists and labor advocates to the mix. In addition to Hartman and Najim, they named USAA CEO Wayne Peacock; Joseph Gorder, Valero Energy Corp. CEO and chairman; Eric Cooper, San Antonio Food Bank president and CEO; Haven for Hope CEO Kenny Wilson; Michelle Tremillo, Texas Organizing Project executive director; and restaurateur Lisa Wong, among others. Some of the working group members are campaign donors. Of the 60 people on the working groups and the city-county health and economic transition teams, 13 have given to either Wolffs or Nirenbergs campaigns. Wolff has received $34,600 in donations since 2015 from the appointees and Nirenberg has received $24,725 in the past two years, the only city campaign finance records available. Hartman has spent $26,500 on the two mens campaigns in recent years. The working groups have met weekly for the past four weeks, per a website set up to track the progress of the groups. But those meetings werent open to the public, sparking transparency concerns. Nirenberg shot down an early proposal to livestream the events. Some readouts from the groups deliberations have been made available. And Hartman has briefed council members during a weekly public video conference work session each week. The working groups have no power to pass laws or spend city and county dollars. That authority is in the hands of the City Council and the Commissioners Court. Several council members, including Sandoval, expressed an eagerness last week to restart the regular council committees. Its going to be hard to take lots of policies up to the council level if the committees arent in place, Sandoval said. Nirenberg said Thursday that he plans to restart council committees with some tweaks from the previous committee structure, but he didnt give a timeline or details. Joshua Fechter is a staff writer covering San Antonio government and politics. To read more from Joshua, become a subscriber. jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFreports Chief minister Yogi Adityanath ordered on Sunday high-level medical teams and senior bureaucrats to camp in Agra, Meerut and Kanpur for Covid-19 containment as these three districts have recorded a spike in coronavirus cases. Yogi Adityanath issued this directive at a review meeting with chairpersons of 11 committees set up for Covid-19 management. Send high-level medical teams to Agra, Meerut and Kanpur to contain the spread of Covid-19 and monitor pandemic containment and treatment, the chief minister said at the meeting. He also asked senior bureaucrats to go to the three districts. The chief minister directed infrastructure and industrial development commissioner (IIDC) Alok Kumar, and principal secretary, medical education, Rajneesh Dubey to camp in Agra. He also said he wanted a senior doctor of SGPGIMS (Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow) and senior police officers to go to Agra. Besides, he asked principal secretary, irrigation, T Venkatesh to camp in Meerut with senior health, medical education and police officers. The details of the officials who would be sent to Kanpur were not mentioned. The chief minister asked officials to make all ventilators functional, prepare a list of anaesthetists and train them to operate ventilators. Emphasising on boosting the immunity of the general public, he asked the officers concerned and the respective district administrations to encourage the use of Ayush Kavach Covid app created by the states ayush department. This would help and guide people towards immunity enhancement because it has a lot of Ayurveda and yoga-related tips, Adityanath said. He said a list of migrants returning to UP should be arranged so that the government could manage their safe homecoming. The state government is committed to the safety of the returning migrants, he said, adding that it must be ensured that no migrant would have to take a long walk home. Laying stress on strict adherence to the lockdown, he asked officials to ensure enhanced alertness on both inter-state and international borders of UP. All Covid-19 hospitals must have sufficient PPE (personal protective equipment), N-95 masks, sanitisers and other related paraphernalia, he said. All the community kitchens must maintain the highest level of cleanliness and they should be sanitised frequently, he said. These kitchens must supply good and sufficient food to the needy, he added. While all migrants must be screened, those with symptoms must be tested, he said. Those who test positive should be provided with the best of treatment, he said, adding that healthy migrants should be sent home with ration kits. Along with the Team-11 officers, medical education minister Suresh Khanna; health minister Jai Pratap Singh and minister of state for health Atul Garg were present at the meeting. This scanning electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 (yellow)also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19isolated from a patient, emerging from the surface of cells (blue/pink) cultured in the lab. Credit: NIAID-RML New York's Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday voiced "tremendous concern" over an uptick in cases of a pediatric syndrome that scientists suspect could be linked to COVID-19, which has left at least three people dead statewide. The mayor said 38 cases of pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome detected in New York City, with an additional nine suspected cases awaiting confirmation. Shortly afterward Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state health department was probing 85 potential cases statewide of the syndrome, which exhibits similarities to Kawasaki disease and toxic shock syndrome. One of the deaths was a five-year-old boy. Howard Zucker, the state's health commissioner, said the others included an elementary school-age child and an adolescent. The children were not known to have pre-existing conditions and lived in three different counties, Zucker said. Cuomo said two additional deaths were under investigation, which if confirmed would bring the total statewide death toll linked to the syndrome to five. Symptoms of the illness include persistent fever, rash, abdominal pain and vomiting, as well as possible inflammation of blood vessels and the heart. "What it does is, basically, in a child's body triggers an intensive, almost overwhelming immune system response. And that actually causes harm to the body," de Blasio said. The mayor said all children with associated symptoms would now be tested for COVID-19 as well as antibodies. So far, of the confirmed cases in the city, 47 percent had tested positive for coronavirus and 81 percent had antibodies, the mayor said, indicating most had exposure to the fast-spreading virus at some point. Cuomo said it was possible cases had already cropped up previously but had not been linked to the coronavirus because of the absence of respiratory symptoms. Kawasaki disease is a mysterious illness that primarily affects children up to the age of five and causes the walls of arteries to become inflamed, resulting in fever, skin peeling and joint pain. Britain's National Health Service first sounded the alarm last month, warning about a small rise in children infected with the coronavirus that have "overlapping features of toxic shock syndrome and atypical Kawasaki disease." France has also reported several cases. Though frightening, most recover without serious issues. Manadatory nursing home testing On Sunday both the mayor and the governor also emphasized research into remdesivir drug therapy, an anti-viral shown to reduce recovery times in COVID-19 patients. US regulators authorized emergency use of the drug against severe infections, with Japan also approving it last week. De Blasio said initial trials had shown decreased hospital stays from 15 days to 11 for those treated with the drug. He called on the Donald Trump administration to release more doses to New York, saying the city had received 4,000 but sought 39,000 for the month of May. Cuomo, meanwhile, introduced new regulations for nursing homes, which have been particularly hard-hit by coronavirus, saying all staff must now be tested twice a week for infectionor facilities will face losing their licenses. And as May 15 approaches, the date to which the governor extended statewide confinement measures, Cuomo said some regions in New York would likely be ready to begin a soft loosening of regulations. But relaxing such measures in New York City appeared distant: the city of 8.6 million is still by far the epicenter of the virus in the United States with approximately a quarter of the country's more than 79,000 deaths. The city has reported more than 14,000 coronavirus-linked deaths and over 5,000 more considered likely caused by the infection. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2020 AFP A World Health Organization food and animal disease expert said Friday that he believes a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan selling live animals likely played a significant role in the emergence of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, but more research is needed to determine precisely how. Chinese authorities shut down the market in January as part of efforts to halt the spread of the virus and ordered a temporary ban on trade and consumption of wildlife. Speaking to reporters in Geneva, WHO's Peter Ben Embarek suggested such markets often were critical to providing food and livelihoods for millions of people globally and that authorities should focus on improving them rather than outlawing them. He said it was not clear whether live animals or infected vendors or shoppers may have brought the virus into the market. He suggested reducing the risk of disease transmission from animals to humans in these often-overcrowded markets could be addressed in many cases by improving hygiene and food safety standards, including separating live animals from humans. Ben Embarek said extensive studies at the scene would be needed to determine the original animal source of COVID-19. China has not yet invited WHO or other external experts to be part of their investigation. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said there is "enormous evidence" that the virus originated in a lab in Wuhan, though he has not disclosed details. Numerous scientists have said the virus appears to have originated in nature. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Nursing home staff in New York must be tested diagnostically twice each week for coronavirus (COVID-19), Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Sunday. Cuomo explained during his press conference on Sunday that the state has taken many steps to protect nursing home residents and senior citizens, such as restricting visitations and requiring personal protective equipment (PPE). New York ranks 34th in the United States in the percentage of deaths in nursing homes due to the coronavirus. Due to the national crisis among nursing homes affected by the virus, Cuomo announced additional steps to protect nursing homes. If you look at the states and the percentages of people who died in nursing home as a percentage of that death, New York is number 34, said Cuomo on Sunday. None of this is good news, but just to give a context of what people are looking at. This virus uses nursing homes. They are ground zero. They are the most vulnerable population in the vulnerable location. Its a congregation of vulnerable people. While all nursing home staff are checked for COVID-19 symptoms, including temperature checks, every 12 hours, Cuomo said nursing home staff must also be tested diagnostically twice every week. All nursing home staff must be now be tested twice a week, said Cuomo. Thats not just a temperature check. That is a diagnostic test. They have to test their staff twice a week. that is a rule, its not a I appreciate if you did.'" *** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK *** If a nursing home cant provide care or the appropriate level of care for any reason, they must transfer the person out of the facility. If they cannot find another facility, they can call the state Department of Health, which will transfer the person. So what does this mean? Cuomo asked. If they dont have enough staff, if they dont have enough PPE, if their facility doesnt allow for isolation or quarantine. Whatever it is. If they cannot provide the proper care, they must, they must transfer the resident, period. Cuomo announced that hospitals cant discharge a patient to a nursing home unless the patient tests negative for COVID-19. Nursing home patients can be discharged to alternative facilities, Cuomo said, which include both COVID and non-COVID facilities, such as the South Beach Psychiatric Center. Nursing home operators must follow these new procedures or risk losing their license. If a nursing home operator does not follow these procedures, they will lose their license," he said. "Well, thats harsh. No, harsh is having a nursing home resident who doesnt get the appropriate care. Thats whats harsh. The new rules co-exists with a previous directive issued on March 25 from the state Department of Health, which stated that No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the NH (nursing home) solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19. That is because hospitals are not the only avenue that admits people to nursing homes, according to Cuomos administration. Hospitals cannot discharge a person who is COVID-positive to a nursing home, Cuomo told reporters during his Sunday press conference. The hospital can either hold the COVID-positive person or discharge them to one of our other facilities, like our COVID-positive facilities, etc. This will reduce the burden on nursing homes all across the board because theyre not going to get any COVID people from a hospital. According to a report that analyzed data from the state Department of Health by the Advance/SILive.com on May 5, about 30% of all coronavirus-related fatalities on Staten Island have occurred in nursing homes. Ten Staten Island nursing homes had at least 10 coronavirus deaths, according to the data. ILLNESSES IN CHILDREN New York State is investigating 85 cases of possible coronavirus-related illnesses in children, mostly toddler and elementary school-aged children. The symptoms are similar to Kawasaki disease and toxic shock-like syndrome. Symptoms could include fever, rash, upset stomach, red lips and pink tongue, city health officials said Sunday. Cuomo said it has taken the lives of three young New Yorkers, and two additional deaths are under investigation. The New York State Department of Health is issuing a notice to the 49 other state health departments to notify them of the situation. As of Sunday, a 5-year-old child had died and 38 had confirmed cases in New York City, while nine cases were pending, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday at a press conference. NEW TREATMENT The New York State Department of Health is also actively pursuing a new drug therapy, Remdesivir has been shown to have some positive effect and were desperately looking for a treatment for this virus, Cuomo said Sunday. He explained the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has begun tests on the drug. New York State is working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to administer the drug to 2,900 people at 15 hospitals. Additional doses will be sent to New York in the coming week to treat another 500 patients, including children, at additional New York hospitals. De Blasio said during a press conference earlier Sunday he plans to request 39,000 doses be delivered this month to hospitals in what remains the epicenter of the pandemic. CASES IN NEW YORK Cuomo said the number of hospitalizations are down, and the number of new coronavirus cases is 521 on Saturday. The number of deaths related to COVID-19 reported on Saturday was 207 -- down from 226 on Friday. People newly admitted to New York City hospitals with suspected COVID-19 held steady at 69, as of Sunday, which is the same figure reported to officials Thursday. 45 Photos of the pandemic in NYC: Our lives changed forever FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Suherdjoko (The Jakarta Post) Tegal Sun, May 10, 2020 09:41 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd6fd76f 1 National PSBB,Tegal,large-scale-social-restrictions,COVID-19,Central-Java,Ganjar-Pranowo,coronavirus,virus-corona,virus-korona-indonesia,pembatasan-sosial-berskala-besar Free Large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) in Tegal city, Central Java, which have been implemented for more than two weeks, are being hailed for successfully breaking the COVID-19 transmission chain as the city has not reported any new cases. The only COVID-19 patient in Tegal has recovered. Therefore, Tegal is now reporting zero cases of COVID-19, Tegal Mayor M. Jumaidi said on Thursday. He also claimed that the number of people under general monitoring (ODP) and patients under surveillance (PDP) for COVID-19 in the city shows had shown a declining trend since the city implemented the PSBB on April 23. Residents protested [the restriction] at first. Many still violated the rule by not wearing a mask and gathering outside. But in the second week, they started to show more discipline, Jumaidi said. However, he said that his administration was still optimizing the PSBB measures as people from several COVID-19 red zones continued arriving in the city and some mass religious events still took place at several locations. Read also: COVID-19: Central Java tracking down 1,500 residents who attended Gowa gathering The city administration has also decided to extend its PSBB period to May 22 to ensure it had successfully ended COVID-19 transmissions. Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo commended the achievement but urged residents of Tegal to remain vigilant until the pandemic has truly ended and the economy restored. He also demanded that the Tegal administration heavily sanction violators. Its hard to maintain discipline, Ganjar said, adding that community awareness played an important factor in determining the success of the PSBB. He further pointed out that Tegal city was located next to Tegal, Brebes and Pemalang regencies, which are considered COVID-19 red zones. Please, Im asking Tegal residents to stay at home unless they have a very urgent matter. And when going outside, dont forget to wear a mask and maintain a physical distance, the governor said. (aly) 'Those who have answered Ireland's call felt they had no choice but to emigrate in the first place, and did so with no little resentment towards the people and circumstances which forced them to do so.' Stock photo: PA One of the more heartening aspects of the coronavirus crisis has been the willingness of around 70,000 mostly young health care professionals to travel from the four corners of the world to answer Ireland's call. In large part, these were the young people, now in their late 20s and 30s, who left Ireland in the years after the most recent economic crash to find their way in the world. Such a pattern of emigration has become a time-honoured but an always unacceptable tradition, described as a pressure release valve in a country which, through the generations, seems to be routinely unable to meet the requirements of its younger people. A few always leave through a commendable spirit of adventure, of course, but they are a minority. Indeed, many of the grandparents of those who answered Ireland's call, and who now populate our nursing homes, also departed these shores in the 1950s as did another generation in the 1980s and to a lesser extent, at all points in between. Those who have answered Ireland's call felt they had no choice but to emigrate in the first place, and did so with no little resentment towards the people and circumstances which forced them to do so. They went on to carve out promising lives and careers in the US, Australia and elsewhere, and showed remarkable enthusiasm to return to the country of their birth which had let them down so grievously throughout the first half of the last decade. Others stayed and contributed to the rebuilding of the country. Many must have their regrets, in terms of the housing shortage and cost crisis, and in relation to insecurity of employment. They remain the victims of bad economic management and poor political leadership. In this crisis, as we rightly focus by necessity on our older generations, the 'cocooners', and those sitting prey in nursing homes, it is easy to forget the generation who most recently left and have now returned, hopefully for good - as they did intermittently and to great effect through the 'Home to Vote' movement in recent ground-breaking referenda. Nor should we forget the generation currently coming of age and facing in to a fresh economic crisis which is bound to limit their prospects and opportunity in the short term. Such is the global nature of the current crisis that this generation will be unable to avail of that pressure valve release to emigrate. Then there are the school children one step behind again, in secondary schools, who have had to contend with enormous pressure in the considerations around the Leaving Certificate. At least a decision has been made on that issue, whether for the better remains to be seen. And as we credit our children, we should not forget the primary school children and toddlers who bring such joy to us all, whose little lives have been marked forever by the Covid-19 pandemic. There is opportunity here too. Ireland has one of the youngest populations in Europe, and this will be one of our great advantages as we head into the task of rebuilding the country again. These young people are no longer just home to vote, or home to answer a call, or home and about to leave. They are the future of the country. The political and institutional authorities should take note. This generation will make its presence felt. Ireland is about to change, but more than that, and for this we should be grateful, Ireland's future is in good hands. With their senior year dramatically cut short by the coronavirus outbreak, the Class of 2020 is receiving a lot of attention these days to try to compensate: glowing tributes on social media, personalized yard signs from their schools, parades past their houses. What they are unlikely to get, at least not soon, is a traditional commencement ceremony, that rite of passage that marks the start of adulthood for so many. Almost 10,000 seniors at public and private high schools in the greater Baton Rouge area are on track to graduate this year. There is little agreement, though, on how best to celebrate that achievement, given the required social distancing prompted by the pandemic. Some local high schools are planning drive-thru ceremonies. Others have scheduled in-person graduations, but with strict limits on how many people can attend. And even more are holding out in hopes of holding more traditional, less restricted ceremonies later in the summer. West Feliciana announces graduation plans Graduation ceremonies for West Feliciana High will be at 9 a.m., July 10. School system officials announced the plan April 26 after polling se A few schools are considering having more than one ceremony. A couple of schools are trying virtual ceremonies, but East Baton Rouge Parish high schools wont. Seniors surveyed on the subject overwhelmingly asked for in-person graduation. Its nothing like a real graduation ceremony, explained Ghufran Al-Shammari, a senior at McKinley High in Baton Rouge. You worked all these four years, and then you have a virtual ceremony? Id rather just get my diploma in the mail. The local high schools opting for drive-thru ceremonies are all having their ceremonies over the next two weeks. They include high schools in Iberville, Pointe Coupee and West Baton Rouge parishes, as well as high schools in Zachary and Slaughter. Port Allen and Brusly high schools have both scheduled drive-through ceremonies on May 23 at their respective schools, with Port Allen at 1 p.m. and Brusly at 4:30 p.m. We didnt want to wait and do something that everyone couldnt participate in, said West Baton Rouge Parish Superintendent Wes Watts. Destiny Winfield remembers attending her sister Charitys graduation, which was held in the gym at Port Allen High. Then a ninth-grader, Destiny recalls thinking that one day she would be walking across that stage as well. Now in her senior year, Winfield said she was having a great year. She has a close set of friends, some shes known since daycare. Her fellow students recently selected her and a classmate as students with the Most School Spirit. People say high school is what you make of it, so we made it fun, Winfield said. Then COVID-19 brought everything to a halt. She cant help but think at times about whats been taken from her. Im just trying to get it in my mind that Im not going to have a traditional graduation, Im not going to have a prom and a senior dinner, Winfield said. I cant change the things around me, but I can move forward. The high school is trying hard not to let the 75 members of its Class of 2020 down. On May 23, the graduates will drive up one by one under the canopy at the front of the school, step out of their vehicles in their caps and gowns, walk onto a stage that will be erected there and collect their diplomas. Vaccine news in your inbox Once a week we'll update you on the progress of COVID-19 vaccinations. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The main things that kids want, Principal James Jackson explained, is the experience of walking across the stage, taking a picture with their principal that they can cherish for a lifetime and having their family and friends witness it. The ceremonies for both Brusly and Port Allen high schools will be livestreamed on social media and rebroadcast later on Pelican Sports TV. The radio station, 104.5 ESPN Baton Rouge, has also agreed to air the ceremony live so everyone can listen from their cars. After students leave Port Allen High, well-wishers are encouraged to park the length of Commercial Drive in Port Allen to cheer on the new graduates. When asked whether he was going to shake hands or hug the graduates as he gave them their diplomas, Principal Jackson paused in thought. It will suck not to be able to touch and hug our kids, Jackson said. Well see whatever people are comfortable with at the time. +2 Drive-thru graduation planned for Zachary High; traditional ceremony not ruled out In a sign of the socially distanced times, Zachary High Schools Class of 2020 will be presented their diplomas and get to take photos in thei The drive-thru ceremony at Zachary High School on May 20 will be a longer affair and wont be livestreamed its senior class is five times larger than Port Allens. This is probably an eight-hour day of bringing students through, human resources director Yolanda Williams told the Zachary School Board last week. Some districts are holding off announcements until Gov. John Bel Edwards relaxes his stay-at-home order, which would allow larger in-person gatherings, before announcing their plans. Edwards has said that on Monday he plans to give an update on what kind of restrictions will remain in place after Friday, May 15, when his current order is set to expire. We really dont want to issue a date today and then have to move things around, said Taylor Gast, a spokeswoman for the East Baton Rouge Parish school system. We really dont want to inconvenience people. Gast said the tentative plan is to hold smaller, in-person ceremonies with people spread out across open, outdoor spaces as the districts 14 high schools, most likely in early June. John Bel Edwards to announce possible reopening today: Here's what you need to know Two weeks ago, Gov. John Bel Edwards made the surprise announcement that he was extending his stay-at-home order until mid-May, siding with pu Livingston Parish, home to nine high schools, is planning in-person ceremonies but holding off until at least June. Wed really like to bring back our seniors onto our campuses, or in a modified setting, and make sure we honor those seniors, said Superintendent Joe Murphy. It is vitally, vitally important. Ascension Parish has already announced that it will hold limited, in-person graduation ceremonies at its four high schools between May 27 and 29. But Superintendent David Alexander warned residents Friday to follow the news. We remind you that these plans are contingent and could change if any restrictions emerge in the coming weeks that prohibit this type of gathering outdoors in our stadiums, Alexander said. Ascension Parish schools plan graduation ceremonies in late May, social distancing to be in effect Ascension Parish's four public high schools plan to hold graduations in late May with strict social distancing rules due to the coronavirus, S Tareil George, a senior at McKinley High, said the coronavirus has taken from her not only her graduation ceremony, but the after-party as well. The weekend after we were going to have a graduation block party, George said wistfully. The whole nine yards, cooking and dancing. MONTREAL - A Cargill meat-processing plant south of Montreal announced it is closing its doors after at least 64 workers tested positive for COVID-19, even as schools across much of Quebec prepared to open theirs to students on Monday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/5/2020 (619 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The Canadian Snowbirds circle the CN Tower as part of Operation Inspiration during the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto on Sunday, May 10, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette MONTREAL - A Cargill meat-processing plant south of Montreal announced it is closing its doors after at least 64 workers tested positive for COVID-19, even as schools across much of Quebec prepared to open theirs to students on Monday. The outbreak in Chambly, Que. marks the second time the company has experienced a COVID-19 closure at one of its facilities in Canada. A spokeswoman for the union representing the workers said the Cargill plant will close temporarily as of Wednesday so all its workers can be tested. Roxane Larouche said 171 workers were sent home last week as a preventative measure, and 30 of them have tested negative. The testing is expected to last until Friday, and the plant will reopen once there are enough uninfected employees to run it safely. Cargill said the 64 workers represent 13 per cent of the workforce at the plant. The company said three employees have recovered. "Because the health and safety of Cargill employees remains our priority, we've decided to close our protein production factory in Chambly," the company said, adding that it would continue to pay workers during the stoppage. "Cargill is working in close collaboration with local health authorities and the union to test our employees as quickly as possible." The workplace had implemented safety measures for employees, including installing plexiglass between workers where possible, staggering arrival and departure times and providing masks, visors and safety glasses, Larouche confirmed. A Cargill beef-packing plant in High River, Alta., reopened last Monday after a two-week shutdown. A Cargill meat processing plant is shown in Chambly, Que., south of Montreal, Sunday, May 10, 2020. The plant is closing temporarily after at least 64 workers tested positive for COVID-19. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes More than 900 of 2,000 workers at that plant have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. In a statement, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada said public health authorities and food inspectors were working with plant owners to ensure the safety of both workers and the food supply. It noted the federal government had committed $77.5 million in funding to help processors carry out safety retrofits and purchase protective equipment, as well as $20 million for food safety inspectors. "We fully recognize the health concerns of workers in certain meat plants," the statement read. "As with all essential workers, proper measures must be in place, if workers can continue to provide essential services to Canadians during these critical times." Meanwhile, some of Quebec's children are preparing to return to class on Monday as the province moves ahead with a plan to reopen elementary schools and daycares outside the Montreal area. Students will be subject to physical distancing, frequent handwashing and carefully co-ordinated school days spent in large part at their desks while school officials keep up with cleaning, disinfection and following public health guidelines. Attendance isn't mandatory, and two school boards told The Canadian Press that most of their students were staying home for now. The province allowed most retail stores outside Montreal to open May 11, but pushed back the opening date for schools and other businesses in the hard-hit metropolis to May 25 as case numbers remained high. As of Sunday morning, there were 67,996 COVID-19 cases, including 4,728 deaths, according to Canada's top public health doctor, Dr. Theresa Tam. Some 47 per cent of cases have recovered, she said in a statement. Over half of the country's cases are in Quebec, which registered 142 new deaths on Sunday for a total of 2,928, as well as a caseload of over 37,700. Other provinces are also taking small steps to reopen, albeit at a slower pace than the hardest-hit province. Ontario allowed hardware stores and safety supply stores to reopen this weekend, while non-essential retail stores will be allowed to offer curbside pickup this week. The province reported 35 more deaths related to the novel coronavirus and 294 more cases, which represents the lowest rate of growth since March, even as the province was dealing with another COVID-19 outbreak at Toronto Western Hospital. The University Health Network said the new outbreak is on the hospital's 9A Fell unit, which had previously been declared one of its "COVID negative units." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The organization didn't reveal how many cases are part of the new outbreak, but said that across its network, 83 staff members have tested positive for the virus from January to May 4. Alberta is also planning to allow some retail stores to open this week, while New Brunswick's stores, offices, restaurants, libraries, museums and campgrounds started reopening Friday but only if they could show they had a plan to meet guidelines for physical distancing, hand hygiene and allowing staff to remain home when ill. Saskatchewan and Manitoba began to gradually reopen last week, while British Columbia is phasing in the reopening of its economy with certain health services, retail outlets, restaurants, salons and museums resuming some operations in mid-May. In Prince Edward Island, there was some good news as the province's chief health officer announced Friday that some physical distancing restrictions would be lifted, including an allowance for Mother's Day hugs. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2020. -- With files from Helen Moka in Montreal In late March, the actor Daniel Dae Kim posted a video on Instagram revealing that he had tested positive for Covid-19. Back then Kim, best known for memorable roles on Lost and Hawaii Five-0, was one of the early well-known carriers of the coronavirus, having potentially contracted it while filming his NBC medical drama New Amsterdam in New York City. He documented his recovery process online while most Americans were just beginning to comprehend the impact of the pandemic. Since then, Kim has felt close to normal, despite some lingering effects the occasional disappearance of his senses of smell and taste, some issues with focus. He has continued to be active in the fight against the virus and its fallout, donating his plasma, raising money for health care professionals and condemning the anti-Asian xenophobia and attacks that have been on the rise in the age of the coronavirus. I dont necessarily see my activity as a responsibility, Kim said in an interview. My only goal was to be informative and helpful for those who were fearful or had no reference point. Kim, though, was largely uninterested in talking about himself during a recent Zoom call. Instead, he wanted to discuss Asian-Americans, the new documentary series he narrates with the actress Tamlyn Tomita. Premiering Monday on PBS, the five-part special is the most ambitious documentary project ever to chronicle the history of the Asian-American community. It is arriving with an unanticipated relevance, amid the surge of racism toward Asian-Americans during the pandemic. The country was really shocked by the news of the death of 16 migrant labourers on Friday when a goods train ran over them between Jalna and Aurangabad districts in Maharashtra. The entire episode had happened solely due to the sudden announcement of a lockdown and the denial of transport to them for weeks. This amounts to criminal neglect. The state and central governments have practically left them to fend for themselves. It is shocking that they seem to be playing with the lives of the innocent labourers. Both the central and the state governments appear to be oblivious of the fact that ... Robert Kneschke / EyeEm The coronavirus has devastated economies around the world and disrupted life in ways that were unimaginable just a few months ago. The world will never be the same. But at some point, industries will start coming back online and people will start going out again. We asked travel industry experts for their thoughts on what will restore confidence for people to begin traveling once the Covid-19 pandemic finally recedes. In the latest installment of our series "The Next Normal," we look at where and how we'll actually travel once we're willing to hit the road again. *** A road trip to a national park or other attraction in a neighboring state. A week-long stay at a sanitized vacation rental property nearby. How does that sound? Your next outing might be booked through a travel advisor and insured, too. That's what a typical family vacation might look like in the U.S. once travel and tourism starts to pick up again post-pandemic, say industry experts. Just when that might happen is up in the air, yet it could be as soon as early fall or as late as next spring or beyond. The hypothetical trip incorporates several trends coming to the travel business going forward. These include traveler preferences for domestic destinations reachable by car and stays at private rental properties instead of crowded hotels and resorts. What seems sure is that any rebound in travel and tourism, brought to a screeching halt by the coronavirus pandemic, will start slowly and stay closer to home. A recent study from Longwoods International found that 82% of travelers polled had changed their travel plans for the next six months. More from Personal Finance: Cooking more under quarantine? How to trim your grocery bills Here are the world's best attractions and worst tourist traps How Americans plan to spend their stimulus checks "Tourism recovery typically begins locally," said Elizabeth Monahan, spokesperson for Tripadvisor.com. "Travelers tend to first venture out closer to home, and visit their local eateries, stay local for a weekend getaway or travel domestically before a robust demand for international travel returns." Omer Rabin, managing director, Americas, for Guesty, agreed. Guesty is an Israeli-founded property management software that enables users with properties across Airbnb, Booking.com and other travel sites to automate and streamline operations. "There will be a lot of demand for domestic travel," he said. "I think that's clear to everybody in the industry right now. "We see a much better recovery and occupancy for drive-to destinations," he added. "People say 'we don't know what's going to happen with flights, but we do know that we're going to be able to get in the car and drive for three hours and have our own place and stay there for two weeks.'" In fact, the Longwoods survey found that of those that had changed their travel plans for this year, nearly a quarter, or 22%, had switched to driving from flying . Aviation industry group Airlines for America says U.S. airlines have idled 3,000 aircraft, or half the nation's fleet, due to the downturn, while the number of passengers passing through TSA checkpoints at airports is down 93% over last year. "Our clients are a little hesitant to get on an airplane right now," said Jessica Griscavage, director of marketing at McCabe World Travel in McLean, Virginia. "We're already preparing for the drive market for the remainder of the year, and probably into 2021." For its part, online travel insurance comparison site InsureMyTrip is finding that the continental U.S. is indeed the top draw for future client travel but it's also tracking some interest in domestic destinations like Hawaii, as well as the Bahamas and Caribbean destinations like Jamaica. "When people get more comfortable, they'll continue to go farther and farther away from home, starting with domestic and then moving to international, long-term," said Cheryl Golden, director of e-commerce at the Warwick, Rhode Island-based firm. (To wit, Sandals Resorts reportedly will open most of its Sandals and Beaches properties across the Caribbean June 4, and those in the Bahamas July 1.) There is a small degree of interest in flying from die-hard bargain seekers. "We've heard from a number of travelers that the low airfares available along many routes are tempting," said Tripadvisor's Monahan, although she cautions those willing to book flights that "airlines continue to adjust their cancellation and change policies for travelers across the globe in response to Covid-19." Until the virus is under control and efficient systems are in place to restore confidence in travel, it's simply too soon to tell when people can expect to start booking again. Erika Richter senior communications director, American Society of Travel Advisors "Every day and every week, it just seems like things are changing and it's really dynamic," said Golden. "It's hard for us to say right now when we think people will be ready to travel but travel will come back." Erika Richter, senior director of communications at the American Society of Travel Advisors, said a new normal is probably necessary before bookings will pick up again. "We're still in that wait-and-see mode, because until the virus is under control and efficient systems are in place to restore confidence in travel, it's simply too soon to tell when people can expect to start booking again." And when they do, things will be different, thinks Anne Scully, a certified travel counselor and president of McCabe World Travel. "Travel's going to come back [but] we'd need a crystal ball to say when," she said. "It will be changed, I think, at least for the next 12 months." In the meantime, Scully's colleague Griscavage said she seeing a "standstill" in the agency's bookings through the holiday season meaning little in new business but not many cancellations, either. "Those [trips] are still bought, they are not cancelled yet, though it's just too soon to tell," she said. "I'm personally not seeing a surge in [holiday] travel bookings just yet though I think that can change very quickly as states are starting to open up." There's been good news at Guesty, however, said Rabin. In the last two weeks of April, more reservations than cancellations came in. Noel Hendrickson/Getty Images "The most interesting thing is that there are more future reservations for the holidays right now than we have seen in that point of time in April 2019 for the holiday season last year," said Rabin. "Which means there's a lot of optimism and people are planning ahead." Reservations for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's stays are up 38%, 40% and 23%, respectively, compared to the same time in 2019, Guesty found. "This also means that a lot of people are unable to take summer vacations or don't feel comfortable making bookings and travel plans for June, July, August," said Rabin, so are planning for later in the year. New flexibility in vacation-rental cancellation policies is helping, too, he added. "Travel has changed," said Scully at McCabe World Travel. "It changed after 9/11, and it changed after the economy blew up in 2008-09." Yet travel advisors then showed clients it was still possible to travel despite any economic or geopolitical changes, and perhaps "better than ever," she said. Griscavage said she foresees a big surge in family and multi-generational travel once people are willing to book trips again. "They didn't get their spring breaks, they're unsure of their summer trips," she said. "Maybe you didn't get to go to Mom and Dad's 50th anniversary or Grandma's 80th birthday. "All of these families haven't been able to be together," she added. "I think we're going to see a lot of family and multi-gen travel but in a different way, a safer way." How so? Accommodations perceived as cleaner and more isolated will find greater favor. "The question on every traveler's mind will be 'what are resorts doing to make us feel safe?'" Griscavage said. "I think we're going to see a big increase [in bookings of] villas and private homes and less crowded experiences moving forward." Scully suggested that traditional hotel properties may pivot to operate more like private villas, selling entire floors staffed "not so much with a butler but a handler who could go down to pool, for example, and make sure the lounge chairs are separated." Hotel rooms may also sit empty for several days and be completely disinfected before a new guest can check in. "These are going be not only game-changers but maybe a healthier way for us moving forward," Scully mused. "You've probably seen ridiculous shows on TV where they ask 'Is that hotel bedspread really clean?' Well, I bet now that it's really going to be spotless." Rabin agreed that sanitization will be "a very big thing." Many of Guesty's vacation home hosts are installing automatic locks that can be opened via cellphone app, are arranging for contactless food deliveries to guest units and space out rental periods, "sometimes for days," to ensure complete unit disinfecting, he said. There's a definite move toward vacation homes over hotels, Rabin said. "People feel much more comfortable staying short-term rentals like vacation homes," he said. "Hotels have a lot of turnover of guests, a lot of volume, a lot of people at check-in and check-out and in the dining room." The trend is even influencing how hosts market their rental units. "If you search today for apartments on Airbnb, you will see that a lot of the hosts will put in the name of the property 'Sanitized, highly clean, Covid-friendly' a lot of things like that to basically signal to their customers, 'We are a safe location.'" It works: Those hosts are seeing more reservations, according to Guesty data. The firm is working to ensure all hosts can offer such contactless, cleaner stays to prospective guests, said Rabin. InsureMyTrip, for its part, is seeing a 6% increase in vacation-unit rentals over 2019, along with a decrease in hotel bookings, said Golden. "It's a trend that's just starting to happen, but I do expect we'll start to see more of this as people look to travel closer to home for vacation." If anyone booked without a travel advisor during this period, they learned they should have. Anne Scully president, McCabe World Travel Other areas of travel and tourism from pricing and flexibility to insurance and booking methods are also evolving: Flexibility: Once you've paid, you are now, in many cases, free to cancel flights, accommodations and other travel components almost up to the last minute. "All the vendors really need the revenue stream, and so they offer this kind of flexibility at the moment," said Rabin. "The biggest chance that they have to recoup a lot of the losses for a weak summer is in a strong winter," so they're doing what they can to encourage bookings. Scully at McCabe World Travel would like to see another change when it comes to prepayment. "When we give a hotel, a tour operator or a cruise line money, those funds for that client should be held in a kind of escrow," she said. "They don't get to use it for marketing or for something else, so when something happens, they have to give clients back money that they paid in good faith." Pricing: Costs for travel autumn-onward have not dropped much. "Most of the vendors really understand that their path to profitability and recovery in 2020 is trying to protect their prices into winter season," said Rabin. "And so we see that most of them, for very obvious reasons, want to actually sacrifice the flexibility and not sacrifice the margin." Duration: Rabin said short-term accommodations rentals, once typically between 3.5 and 5 days, are trending longer in duration, with an average 8.5- to 9-day stay. The trend stared a few weeks back when urbanites were booking month-long escapes from city centers that pushed the length of the average stay up "but now we see it as something that's really a sustainable trend, for the last month or so." Road trips ... and safaris Types of trip: Apart from close to home road trips, people seem willing to consider booking vacations that normally require a year or more of advanced planning, said ASTA's Richter. "While some travelers are booking for 2021, it really is going to depend on the traveler and where they're going," she said. African safaris, for example, require a year or more in advance of booking, especially for popular times of the year. "Those are the types of planning discussions that travel advisors are having with some of their clients," she said. "You also have to think about all of the destination weddings and honeymoons that were put on hold and need to be readjusted, and then maybe readjusted again, and again." Travel insurance: Travel insurance, once an afterthought shunned by travelers looking for a bargain, may seen an uptick. "Now more people than ever are aware of travel insurance and how it could possibly help them," said Golden at InsureMyTrip.com. "Every time we've had an event like this in the past, there's been an uptick in travel insurance that sticks." Before 9/11, about 7% of people bought travel insurance; after a surge in post-attack sales, the figure reached around 15%, she said. "We expect there will be a similar rise after coronavirus," Golden said. "It's now spiked pretty dramatically." Twenty-five percent to 30% of travelers will buy travel insurance going forward, the firm estimates. Advisor Scully has sold a lot of travel insurance of late, especially the comprehensive kind. "We upgraded our clients on insurance to 'cancel for any reason,'" she said, noting she also offers clients medical evacuation services. "Whenever we're taking a client's money and they say, 'I'm not going to insure this,' the first thing I'll say is 'Are you comfortable losing $25,000 should you not be able to travel?'" Comstock/Getty Images The West Bengal government has formed five teams to support the surveillance and for monitoring the Covid-19 treatment protocol at five hospitals across the city. The teams will start working from May 11 onwards. READ: West Bengal Governor Slams Mamata Banerjee; Urges The CM To Be On A 'sane Path' Five teams to monitor operations The officers are from the Office of Health and Family Welfare Department and will be covering MR Bangur hospital, ID and BG hospital, CNCI 2nd campus, AMRI Salt Lake and Desun hospital, and Medical college in Kolkata. On Thursday, MHA Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla wrote to the Mamata-led government directing it to not block the movement of trucks across Bangladesh border after reports came on May 2 that trucks carrying essential goods were not allowed to move to Benapole, located on the other side of the border at Petrapol. Responding to it, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) denied charges levelled by Union Home Secretary and accused him of "trying to please his political bosses in Delhi". READ: MHA Vs Mamata: Letters From Bengal CS To 4 Southern States On Shramik Trains Accessed On Saturday, the Health Ministry announced that it will be sending Central teams to 10 COVID-19 hit States, which are witnessing high case-load and surge in numbers. The Central teams will be sent to states including Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. READ: Adhir Ranjan Slams West Bengal Govt For Lacking Prompt Assistance To Migrant Workers "The teams will assist the state health departments in facilitating the management of the COVID-19 outbreak," said a ministry statement. As per the statement, the teams will comprise a senior Health Ministry official, a Joint Secretary level nodal officer, and a public health expert. The teams will support the state health departments in the implementation of containment measures in the affected areas, districts and cities. The 10 teams which will be sent will be in addition to 20 central teams that had already been sent to the high caseload districts. READ: Health Ministry To Deploy Teams To 10 Covid Hit States Witnessing High Case-load A group of anti-lockdown protesters were mocked on social media after carrying what appeared to be fake and decommissioned weapons made out of plastic and wood. About a dozen people were pictured walking through the streets of Raleigh, North Carolina, on Saturday brandishing flags and weapons while imploring the state to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic. The state has an open-carry law that allows residents to brandish guns. North Carolina was already on Phase One of its reopening strategy, which modified the stay-at-home order to allow more businesses to run and people to take some nonessential trips. But protesters still took to the streets to state their support for all functions of society to reopen, and the props they chose to carry, and their stops around town, caught the attention of social media users. Pictures taken by photojournalist Travis Long of The News & Observer showed protesters stopping in Subway for lunch on Saturday while carrying their weapons. One man was pictured in the Subway with what looked to be a fake AT4 rocket launcher strapped across his back. The words "safe" and "inert" were stickered across the weapon to reportedly signal to police the weapon was not real. The man was also wearing two pistols strapped to his hips, the newspaper reported. Another man was pictured carrying a machine gun that looked as though it was made of wood. Social media took off around the viral images, expressing how shocking it was that protesters would feel the need to carry prop weapons to argue their perspective of stay-at-home measures. "In case you were wondering, this is tough guy cosplay in the most ~literal~ sense of the word. He's carrying a big prop weapon around because he's an idiot poser trying to look intimidating to the guy who has to make his sandwich, I guess," one Twitter user named Kelly wrote about the man carrying a rocket launcher. Another woman named Nina took it one step further by photoshopping four pictures of protesters in the Subway carrying large sandwiches instead of their weapons. The North Carolina protest mirrors that of other protests being held across the country after states locked down to protect residents against the spreading virus, which has taken the lives of nearly 79,000 people in the US. In Michigan, protesters caught backlash for being armed while storming the Capitol in Lansing. Critics, including Fox News' Sean Hannity, condemned the protestors for using their weapons as a form of intimidation when coming face-to-face with police and lawmakers. The rally in North Carolina also looked like an attempt to intimidate state officials to reopen. Day after Tamil Nadu moved the Supreme Court, seeking a stay against a Madras High Court order directing closure of liquor shops in the state, Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) chief Kamal Haasan slammed the ruling AIADMK and said the state government was knocking on the doors of the Supreme Court to "gamble with the lives of the people and the mangalsutras of Tamil women." The actor-turned-politician, in a tweet, added that his party would move the Supreme Court to thwart the government's attempts to re-open the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) liquor shops. "People justice shall triumph," Haasan said. Earlier in the day, superstar Rajinikanth had also warned the ruling AIADMK against reopening state-run liquor outlets in Tamil Nadu, saying if it was done, it should not harbour "dreams" of coming to power again, apparently in next year's Assembly elections. In a tweet, he also asked the government to work out alternate modes of revenue generation. The Tamil Nadu government had on Saturday moved the Supreme Court challenging a Madras High Court order for closure of state-run liquor outlets on the ground that there was total violation of guidelines meant to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. In its petition, the government said that if the shops are kept closed, people would rather go to neighbouring states to buy liquor and also assured that police is ensuring social distancing norms aren't flouted. The Madras High Court had on Friday ordered closure of liquor outlets noting that there were huge crowds and no social distancing was being maintained. It, however, allowed doorstep delivery of booze through online mode. The top court, too, had taken note of crowding at liquor shops and asked states on Friday to consider non-direct contact or online sales and home delivery of liquor during the lockdown period to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. The high court order restraining counter-sale of liquor was passed on a petition filed by advocate G Rajesh, besides a complaint from the Kamal Haasan-led Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM). Chinese health authority said Sunday that it received report of 14 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland Saturday, of which two were imported cases reported in Shanghai, Trend reports citing Xinhua. Twelve cases were domestically transmitted, with 11 reported in Jilin Province and the other one in Hubei Province, the National Health Commission said in a daily report. One new suspected case imported from abroad was reported in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. No deaths were reported Saturday on the mainland, according to the commission. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 20:14:06|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TIANJIN, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Many Chinese female medics have a shared identity, "mother," which grants them great strength in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic. This year's Mother's Day falls on Sunday, a chance for people to show affection to their mothers. Since tens of thousands of female medical staff fought fearlessly on the front line against the deadly virus across the country, the annual celebration may take on special significance for these brave mothers. SUPERWOMAN IN DAUGHTER'S EYES Wearing a white coat and a mask as usual, Chen Guijun, 55, still works a 12-hour a day at a fever clinic and is busy doing physical examinations for patients with fever, asking their medical history and travel paths, and discussing treatment regimens with specialists online almost every day. Chen is a doctor of the infectious disease department in a hospital located in Jizhou District in north China's Tianjin Municipality. Since Jan. 21, she has bravely battled the virus. "I fought with the SARS virus 17 years ago. Though my physical strength is no longer what it once was, my sense of responsibility never faded," Chen said. Chen rarely went home due to her heavy workload in the first two months after the epidemic outbreak. She also barely had time to check her phone at work. Making a phone call or chatting on video with her daughter would be luxuries for Chen. Shi Huihua, 19, Chen's daughter, once saw her mother on the WeChat account of the hospital. "Her face was slightly deformed under the mask, and she was so exhausted she fell asleep just leaning on the desk," Shi said. In Shi's eyes, her mother was a superwoman to protect people's lives. As a medical student at Tianjin Medical University, she understood why her mother devoted herself to her beloved career. Shi became an "invisible assistant" of her mother. She shared the latest news to Chen, and told her by phone calls or messages about the number of patients waiting for a diagnosis as shown on the hospital's website. "I bought my mom a lipstick for Mother's Day. I hope she will put on red lips to show her beautiful smile after taking off her mask," Shi said, adding, "I will be like my mother to protect my patients in the future, which is the glory of angels in white." SON'S NAME ON HAZMAT SUIT GIVES STRENGTH Recalling her days in the city of Wuhan, the former epicenter of the COVID-19 epidemic in central China, 31-year-old nurse Liu Xiaomeng still felt full of energy to fight against the deadly virus when seeing her son's name on her heavy hazmat suit. Liu was among the first batch of medical staff from Tianjin who were dispatched to Wuhan on Jan. 26. In the early days in Wuhan, Liu's husband told her that their son would bring her pajamas with him whenever he was eating, playing or sleeping. "I couldn't talk with my son by video because I worried he would cry when he saw me. So I secretly saw what he was doing through video calls," Liu said. When many other medics wrote their favorite stars' names on their hazmat suits, Liu wrote down her 3-year-old son's name instead, as if the little boy accompanied her in the anti-virus fight in his own special way. Liu's medical team came back to Tianjin on March 17. After 14 days of quarantine, her son gave Liu a warm hug. "It was the happiest moment for a mother," said Liu. "Mothers are models for their kids. I hope my experience in Wuhan can inspire my son when he grows up and he will be proud of me," said Liu. "WARRIOR IN WHITE" ON PAINTING A painting with the words "Happy Women's Day, my goddess" became 39-year-old Wang Yifeng's special gift on March 8. It was drawn by her 11-year-old daughter. "My child told me that she wanted to celebrate the International Women's Day for me and congratulated me on the completion of my work in a makeshift hospital in Wuhan," Wang said. Wang is a head nurse of a hospital in Tianjin, who was also dispatched to aid local colleagues in Wuhan in February. In the ward, her body was drenched in sweat by wearing thick protective gear and her throat went hoarse after hours of work without eating or drinking. However, her daughter's face and voice were the best medicine to cure her tiredness. "I shared video clips of our work in Wuhan with my daughter. She was proud of me after seeing these videos," Wang said. Her daughter also wrote a poem to Wang. "Mom, you are my eternal angel. When I grow up, I hope to be like you in the future, who dares to sacrifice for our motherland." During the epidemic, a large number of mothers gained energy from their kids, who also learned the spirit of dedication through their mother's actions. For them, this year's Mother's Day takes on special significance. Enditem Police in Germany say dozens of people were detained at protests against the pandemic restrictions after some rallies turned violent on Saturday. Berlin police said 86 people were detained after bottles were thrown at officers during a demonstration on Alexanderplatz, a large central square in former East Berlin. One officer was injured, and another was injured in a separate incident in front of the Reichstag building where 45 people were detained. In the western city of Dortmund, police said a man attacked a TV crew during a protest the third such attack in Germany in the past two weeks. The 23-year-old assailant was arrested. Police in nearby Cologne expressed outrage that some protesters in the city urged shoppers to remove their masks when entering stores. "It seems like these people still haven't understood that it's not just about their health but also the lives of others, Cologne's police chief said. Despite the gradual easing of Germany's pandemic restrictions in recent weeks, protests against them have swelled, bringing together far-right groups, C-list celebrities and people who believe the virus is harmless or part of a global conspiracy. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chronic rejection of transplanted organs is the leading cause of transplant failure, and one that the field of organ transplantation has not overcome in almost six decades since the advent of immunosuppressive drugs enabled the field to flourish. Now, a new discovery led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Houston Methodist Hospital suggesting the innate immune system can specifically remember foreign cells could pave the way to drugs that lengthen long-term survival of transplanted organs. The findings, based on results in a mouse model, are published this week in the journal Science. The rate of acute rejection within one year after a transplant has decreased significantly, but many people who get an organ transplant are likely to need a second one in their lifetime due to chronic rejection. The missing link in the field of organ transplantation is a specific way to prevent rejection, and this finding moves us one step closer to that goal." Fadi Lakkis, M.D., Frank & Athena Sarris Chair in Transplantation Biology and scientific director of Pitt's Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute The immune system is composed of innate and adaptive branches. The innate immune cells are the first to detect foreign organisms in the body and are required to activate the adaptive immune system. Immunological "memory" -- which allows our bodies to remember foreign invaders so they can fight them off quicker in the future -- was thought to be unique to the adaptive immune system. Vaccines, for example, take advantage of this feature to provide long-term protection against bacteria or viruses. Unfortunately, this very critical function of the immune system is also why transplanted organs are eventually rejected, even in the presence of immune-suppressing drugs. In the new study, Lakkis, along with co-senior authors Martin Oberbarnscheidt, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of surgery at Pitt, and Xian Li, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Immunobiology & Transplant Science Center at Houston Methodist Hospital, used a genetically modified mouse organ transplant model to show that the innate immune cells, once exposed to a foreign tissue, could remember and initiate an immune response if exposed to that foreign tissue in the future. "Innate immune cells, such as monocytes and macrophages, have never been thought to have memory," said Oberbarnscheidt. "We found that their capacity to remember foreign tissues is as specific as adaptive immune cells, such as T- cells, which is incredible." The researchers then used molecular and genetic analyses to show that a molecule called paired Ig-like receptor-A (PIR-A) was required for this recognition and memory feature of the innate immune cells in the hosts. When PIR-A was either blocked with a synthetically engineered protein or genetically removed from the host animal, the memory response was eliminated, allowing transplanted tissues to survive for much longer. "Knowing exactly how the innate immune system plays a role opens the door to developing very specific drugs, which allows us to move away from broadly immunosuppressive drugs that have significant side effects," said Lakkis. The finding has implications beyond transplantation, according to Oberbarnscheidt. "A broad range of diseases, including cancer and autoimmune conditions, could benefit from this insight. It changes the way we think about the innate immune system." Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks in Downing Street as he returns to work following his recovery from Covid-19 on April 27, 2020 in London, England. The U.K. government has taken its first tentative steps to ease some strict coronavirus lockdown measures and slowly begin to reopen society and the economy. From Monday, citizens who cannot work from home are being "actively encouraged" to go back to work, but avoid using public transport if possible. People will also be allowed to take unlimited amounts of exercise from Wednesday. In a televised addressed Sunday evening, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that very young children could be back at school by June 1 at the earliest, with older children having some time back with their teachers before the summer break. Johnson added that "some hospitality places" could be open in July, also stating it will "soon be time" to impose quarantine on people traveling to the country by air. More details are set to be unveiled on Monday and the prime minister stressed the plans were conditional on key tests being met, such as the rate of infection remaining low. Johnson also announced a new threat level warning system for the virus with five different stages (England is now trying to transition to stage 3 from being at stage 4). "This is not the time simply to end the lockdown this week," Johnson told the British public. "Instead we are taking the first careful steps to modify our measures." Earlier on Sunday, Johnson tweeted confirmation that the government guidance had changed from "stay at home" to "stay alert." The instructions are now for people to stay at home as much as possible, work from home if you can, limit contact with other people and keep your distance if you do go out (2 meters apart where possible). The U.K.'s devolved nations have rejected the new slogan, however, deciding instead to keep the "stay at home" message. Johnson Tweet On Tuesday, it was confirmed that U.K. has the highest official death toll as a result of the coronavirus in Europe. It meant that the country surpassed Italy as the worst-hit country in the region and is now second only to the U.S. for Covid-19-related deaths worldwide. On Sunday, that death toll hit 31,855 with a rise of 269 in the past 24 hours. 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. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Emily C. Dooley (Bloomberg) Sun, May 10, 2020 08:02 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd6f8473 2 Health cooking,health,Gas,california,pollution,asthma Free California air regulators are taking a new look at indoor air quality, including studying emission differences between cooking with natural gas or electric stoves. The work comes as environmental groups and cities have increasingly sounded the alarm over natural gas use in homes. Despite objections from industry, 30 California citiesincluding Berkeley and San Josehave passed rules over the past year banning natural gas outright or promoting electricity as a better option for cooking, heating, cooling, and powering buildings. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) last did a comprehensive indoor air pollution study in 2005. But two new research projects are in process or starting soon looking at pollutants in multifamily housing and disadvantaged communities. They include examining how cooking pollution moves between apartments and exposures depending on type of stove. Were very interested in the indoor air quality and the issue of gas appliances, Bonnie Holmes-Gen, Health and Exposure Assessment branch chief at the Air Board, said May 6. Researchers have been studying risks associated with gas cooking emissions for about 40 years. The coronavirus pandemic and associated stay-at-home orders has added new urgency to an old problem, said Brady Anne Seals, a senior associate at the Rocky Mountain Institute, a Colorado-based research and analysis group that advocates for sustainable policies. Nitrogen dioxide concentrations can be 50 percent to 400 percent higher in homes using gas stoves rather than electric, according to a report published May 5 that Seals co-authored about gas stove pollution that looked at studies from the past 20 years. Read also: Save money with these zero-waste cooking tips Increased asthma risk A gas stove also can increase asthma risks by 42 percent, according to the study published by the Institute, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Sierra Club, and the climate group Mothers Out Front. Its so challenging with invisible gasses, which become invisible issues, said Seals, whose report recommended federal and state officials look more closely at indoor air pollution. The 2005 CARB study listed cooking and unvented or improperly maintained appliances as contributing to carbon monoxide, particulate mater and other emissions in indoor spaces. Increasing energy efficiency measures also mean homes and buildings are more tightly sealed, CARB spokeswoman Melanie Turner said in an email. The CARB study that kicked off in March is looking at air quality, energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reductions in multifamily units. That would will include modeling of emissions from electric versus gas stoves and movements between housing units. Another one beginning this fall will look at air and noise pollution in disadvantaged communities, with an eye on the types of appliances used in homes and potential differences in exposures. We might see a bump up in some of the pollutants when people are cooking, said Pat Wong, manager of the Air Boards indoor exposure assessment section. Industry reluctant The natural gas industry says it is working to reduce cooking gas emissions and opposes ordering people to switch out their appliances. The cost to consumers is also high for slight emissions reductions, said Richard Meyer, managing director for American Gas Association, which represents 200 natural gas companies. A 2018 report by the association concluded that mandating electric use would be costly to consumers and the economy, as well as possibly burden the electric grid. Broadly, we are against any policy that is trying to force homes and businesses to switch out their appliances, said Jake Rubin, the associations spokesman. We are in favor of consumer choice. Global thresholds Nitrogen dioxide in indoor air quality isnt regulated federally, but thresholds have been set elsewhere in the world. Canada has set an indoor one-hour, or short-term, exposure limit for nitrogen dioxide levels at 90 parts per billion, and the World Health Organizations set its limit at 106 parts per billion for the same duration. For context, frying bacon on a gas stove can emit up to 104 parts per billion, Bradys study reported. Unlike outdoor air pollution, people can play a big part in their indoor environment and reducing contaminants. That includes using cooking ranges that vent properly, having certified indoor air cleaners, and buying cleaners that have low concentrations of volatile organic compounds, Wong said. The C40 Cities also released a guide on indoor air pollution at the end of April, saying the reduction in outdoor pollution was good but people need to be mindful of what theyre breathing indoors, especially with more time being spent inside because of coronovirus concerns. Tips from the group, which represents 96 cities committed to fighting climate change and working for cleaner air, included cutting back on candle and incense use, reducing use of harsh cleaners or artificial air fresheners, and having a no-smoking policy or allowing only in well-ventilated areas. The Sierra Club has received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization founded by Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg Law is operated by entities controlled by Michael Bloomberg. Topics : cooking health Gas california pollution asthma Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Sunday said that he was proud of the policeman, who performed the last rites of a man who died while being alone at home during the lockdown. "Virar resident Pramod Khare, who was living alone, passed away at his residence. At such a tragic time, our sensitive Police Naik Subhash Shinde carried out all the responsibilities of his funeral," the minister said in a tweet. "I am proud of the #MaharashtraPolice for playing numerous roles in the time of crisis," Deshmukh added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NAIROBI, Kenya A plane carrying humanitarian supplies that crashed in Somalia on Monday may have been shot down by Ethiopian troops, according to a new report from the office of the African Union Force Commander in Somalia. The report, which was leaked on Twitter, said Ethiopian troops not affiliated with the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia brought down the Kenyan-registered private plane out of fear that it was about to carry out a suicide attack. The Somali authorities and officials within the African Union verified the authenticity of the report, but did not confirm its findings. An investigation of the crash is still underway. The incident adds to long-running tensions in the region, where a history of distrust and unresolved disputes between Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia as well as the stubborn presence of the Shabab terrorist group threatens security and stability. "That's a whole lot of weight to carry," she said. For some of the boys, Folds said it can take years before they understand their worth. Regardless, she said she works hard every day to show the love she has for them and to challenge them to be the best that they can possibly be. "It's definitely not easy," she said, "but it is necessary." Folds said she primarily cares for teens because she was a young teenager when she was first placed in the foster care system, and she understands the unique struggles that teenage foster children go through. She said it can be particularly hard for teens to get placed, as few foster parents are looking to care for teenage children. When she first began working as a foster parent, Folds said she had nine teenage girls in her care. "I quickly learned that was not my calling," Folds said. She now cares for boys only. As the only journey we can realistically go on right now is a trip to the local supermarket, the only possible way we can get at least a tiny sense of those care-free days of happily travelling around the globe is to go on a gastronomic journey with the food we cook at home and experiment with a few new flavours from around the world. I spend most of my time cooking Spanish or Mediterranean food, but occasionally I feel the need to cook something totally different and it invariably ends up being something hot & spicy. Ive been dreaming and reminiscing a lot about my trips to Thailand lately so Ive been cooking some of my favourite Thai dishes while being locked down at home. I love Thai food, its one of my favourite cuisines and the rich flavours of lemongrass, lime leaves, galangal, chillies and coriander never fail to amaze me with their fantastic tastes and aromas. Venturing into Thai cooking for the first time may seem a little daunting with lots of unusual ingredients and spicy flavour combinations, but if you do it right youll be rewarded with all the subtle fragrances of Thailand without the getting your mouth burnt off by raw chillies. Founded on simple ingredients, Thai cuisine relies on five primary flavours, sweet, salty, sour, bitter and hot, and these are used in differing proportions to produce a wonderful range of dishes. Thai food often has a subtle sweetness; ingredients such as palm sugar and coconut milk are often added to savoury dishes to enhance the flavours of spices and herbs. The salty flavour enhances and brings out the tastes of the other ingredients. It is not usually added in the form of table salt, soy sauce and fish sauce Nam Pla, which is a sauce made from fermented fish are the preferred options. The sour flavours are normally found in the shape of lime juice, rice vinegars and fresh tamarind, while the bitterness is often from dark green vegetables and herbs. The hot element obviously comes from chillies but despite its fiery reputation, not all dishes are overpoweringly hot as a subtle heat is sometimes added trough the use of ginger and galangal. Dishes like a wonderfully aromatic Tom Yum Soup, Thai curry, spicy beef salad or a delicious whole baked fish in banana leaves are among my personal favourites but a simple chicken satay takes a lot beating. Making your own satay paste is very rewarding and makes all the difference so give it a go. Happy travelling! CHICKEN SATAY WITH SESAME-CUCUMBER SALAD Ingredients: serves 6 4 Chicken breasts, diced Satay paste 150g smooth peanut butter 50g salted roasted peanuts, finely chopped 200ml tinned coconut milk 3 kaffir lime leaves 1 stalk lemon grass, roughly chopped 1 medium red chilli, deseeded 1tsp turmeric 1 clove garlic, peeled 1tbsp chopped fresh ginger Juice 2 limes and the grated zest of one 1tbsp thai fish sauce 20g fresh coriander, finely chopped 25g light brown soft sugar Method Place the lime leaves in a food processor with the lemon grass. Add the deseeded chilli, garlic, peanut butter, turmeric, coconut milk and light brown soft sugar, ginger, the limejuice and zest and the fish sauce. Blend to form a paste. Pour half the sauce into a large bowl; add the salted roasted peanuts, chopped coriander leaves and the diced chicken breast. Mix well and leave to marinate for at least one hour. Thread 4 or 5 pieces of chicken onto wooden skewers, keeping them slightly spaced apart. Brush liberally with any remaining marinade and place under a hot grill, turning occasionally, for about 10-12 minutes until golden and just cooked. Serve with lime wedges and sesame-cumber salad Sesame & cucumber salad 1 cucumber 1tspn chopped ginger 2tspn sesame oil 2 tbsp sweet rice vinegar (Mirin) 2 tbsp rice vinegar 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds Seasoning Method Finely slice the cucumbers. Place them in a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients. Leave to marinate for 5-10 minutes & serve. THAI BAKED SALMON WITH PAPAYA-GLASS NOODLE SALAD Prep time: 30 mins Cooking time: 25 mins Ingredients Serves 4 4 x 175g salmon fillets, skinned 1 bunch coriander, washed 20 mint leaves 1tbsp chopped fresh ginger 3 cloves garlic, crushed 1 tsp salt 1 large red chili, finely chopped Juice of 2 limes 1 tbsp nam pla (fish sauce) 4 bok choi (Chinese cabbage), cut in half lengthways Method In a food processor blend together the coriander leaves and stalks, the mint leaves, ginger, garlic, salt, chili, lime juice and fish sauce. Blend until smooth. Place the salmon fillets in a shallow dish and pour over half of the sauce. Leave to marinate for at least 20 minutes.Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Place the cabbage leaves on a baking tray and place the marinated salmon fillets in the top half. Cook in the oven for 6- 8 minutes until the fish is just cooked and the bok choi is tender. Remove the salmon and bok choi from oven and arrange on 4 plates. Pour the reserved sauce over the salmon and serve immediately with papaya & glass noodle salad and lime wedges. Papaya & Glass noodle salad 100g Glass noodles 1/2 medium papaya, peeled and sliced 2tbsp olive oil 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped medium Green pepper, cut into strips 100g bean sprouts 1 red chili, sliced 2tbsp fish sauce Juice of one lime Salt to taste 2tbsp roasted peanuts, crushed A few sprigs fresh coriander leaves, chopped Method Soak the noodles in the hot water for a few minutes. Drain, refresh and add the olive oil. Add the papaya slices, garlic, green pepper, bean sprouts and red chili. Season with the fish sauce, lime juice and seasoning. Mix well and garnish with crushed roasted peanuts coriander leaves. Pakistan continued to breach the bilateral ceasefire on the Line of Control (LOC) on Saturday as it resorted to unprovoked firing and shelling at Indian positions in Jammu and Kashmirs Poonch district. Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Devender Anand told IANS, "At around 6.30 p.m. today, Pakistan initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with small arms and shelling with mortars along the LoC in Degwar sector of Poonch district. Indian army is retaliating befittingly." Pakistan has so far this year violated ceasefire around 1,560 times on the LoC. Senior army officers say that this is done to provide fire cover to the terrorists so that they can sneak into the Indian side of the LoC. India and Pakistan signed a bilateral ceasefire agreement in November 2003 fire on the borders between the two nations in J&K. The agreement held well for nearly six years, which brought a modicum of normalcy in the lives of thousands of people living close to the LoC in J&K. Experts believe the agreement was breached by Pakistan after six years to address the internal instability within the country. 'Critical Shortcomings': French Foreign Spy Agency Angry at Poor Job Applicants, Report Claims Sputnik News 15:03 GMT 09.05.2020(updated 15:04 GMT 09.05.2020) DGSE, France's equivalent to the US Central Intelligence Agency or UK's MI6, is tasked with procuring secret political, military and economic information from foreign targets, and over the past decade has almost doubled in size. France's primary foreign intelligence agency, Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure, has expressed frustration with the poor quality of applicants to its vacancies, as it struggles to expand its staff by 20 percent, the Times reported. In 2008, it employed fewer than 4,500 people - by 2019 that figure had swelled to over 7,000, with many thousands of operations officers serving secretly abroad. According to the report, last year, DGSE announced it planned to grow its personnel further, to 8,500 by 2022, and launched an unprecedented recruitment campaign, with recruiters dispatched to University job fairs across the country for the first time, and major ad campaigns launched on and began advertising its job vacancies online, on YouTube, LinkedIn and elsewhere. In response, the agency received a deluge of applications - 400, for just 14 advertised positions. Of those vacancies, 10 required advanced knowledge and understanding of foreign affairs and geopolitical developments, while two sought candidates with logistical and administrative expertise, and the remaining two fluency in Arabic. However, as of May only 12 of the vacancies have been filled - for as DGSE has now revealed, the quality of hopeful spies was abysmal, the report noted. Candidates' grasp of geopolitics and espionage alike was said to be "markedly limited", spelling and grammatical errors rampant, and "critical shortcomings" identified in a vast number of areas - some candidates even appeared for interviews severely under-prepared, their level of knowledge "unacceptable for someone wishing to join the ranks of the DGSE". It's unknown why DGSE was unable to attract the appropriate calibre of candidate - the agency has avoided becoming embroiled in damaging scandals, but nonetheless its reputation is far from stellar. For instance, DGSE was rocked by the July 1985 sinking of the Rainbow Warrior. Codenanmed Operation Satanique, the operation was led by DGSE's "action" branch - two operatives sank the flagship of the Greenpeace fleet, at the Port of Auckland in New Zealand on its way to a protest against a planned French nuclear test in Moruroa. Fernando Pereira, a photographer, drowned on the sinking ship. France initially denied responsibility, but two DGSE agents were eventually captured by New Zealand Police and charged with arson, conspiracy to commit arson, willful damage, and murder. The scandal resulted in the resignation of then-Defence Minister Charles Hernu. The duo pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to ten years in prison, spending little over two years confined to the French island of Hao before being freed by Paris. Several political figures, including then-New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange, referred to the bombing as an act of terrorism. The operation was ordered by then-President, Francois Mitterrand. New Zealand was outraged its sovereignty had been violated by an ally, as was the Netherlands since the killed Greenpeace activist was a Dutch citizen and the ship had Amsterdam as its port of origin. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Wyoming Medical Center achieved the prestigious A grade from the Leapfrog Group, an association of business executives who seek the best in healthcare for their employees. Only about one-third of hospitals achieve Leapfrogs highest rating nationally, and we are the only hospital in Wyoming to have done so. The Leapfrog Group surveys hospitals based on their outcomes as well as the processes they set up to deliver high quality care. High quality care doesnt just happen even with excellent staff and physicians. Without planning for the possibility of human error and designing systems to mitigate the impact of error to patient outcome, human fallibility can lead to adverse outcomes. The Leapfrog Group studies six overall areas of care: preventing infection, quality of inpatient care, medication administration, surgical care, maternity care and pediatric care. Here are just some of the steps weve taken to deliver great outcomes. WMC has physicians in house 24/7 who specialize in critical care to attend patients in the ICU. WMC has implemented an electronic health record that uses bar code scanning to ensure that six potential errors in medication administration are prevented. The electronic health record also checks for duplication, incorrect dosing and interactions with other drugs or with the patients other medical condition and warns the prescriber when medications are ordered. WMC surgeons that perform certain high-risk procedures not only meet criteria for training and experience but also have to perform enough procedures every year to maintain their skills. Hospital-acquired infections rarely occur at WMC. We scored 94 percent out of 100 in preventing infections. WMC identifies potentially dangerous situations and implements mitigating strategies proactively. This happens because of diligent review of events that dont cause harm but could have done so. (so called near misses) WMC has a dedicated Board of Directors that reviews the quality of care provided each month. Each department at WMC has active projects to improve performance and must track and report how well key steps are performed that lead to better outcomes. This accountability for high quality care is reflected in how leaders are evaluated. It takes not only nurses and physicians, but pharmacists, IT specialists, quality and patient safety specialists and hospital leaders to create and sustain a system that delivers A rated care. As we continue to monitor the spread of COVID-19 in our community and state, we have begun a thoughtful, deliberate process to reopen elective procedures and surgeries. Our commitment, as always, remains on the safety of our visitors, patients and staff, and Leapfrogs recognition is a testament to the caliber of care we provide. Please, do not delay necessary surgeries nor ignore symptoms of stroke, heart attacks or other medical emergencies. Doing so can lead to negative long-term consequences for your health. Rest assured, we are taking every precaution to prevent the spread of coronavirus in our hospital and clinics including isolating patients with respiratory symptoms, screening all visitors and care teams, and requiring face masks inside our facilities. Wyoming Medical Center is open, safe and here to help. You can trust Wyoming Medical Center to put the patient first every time. Carol M. Solie, MD is Vice President of Quality and Medical Safety at Wyoming Medical Center. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 For the last two months, the world as we knew has stopped to exist and if what the scientific community is saying is true, this is going to be the new normal. At least for the foreseeable future. The COVID-19 has changed the way we work, travel and socialise among other things that were considered to be normal. While most of us have adjusted to it, a large section of our society is struggling to cope up with the new reality: Senior citizens. SHUTTERSTOCK While the COVID-19 is not particularly deadly as compared to many other infections, the elderly and those with underlying health conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure are among the high-risk category. This along with the fact that the lockdown has taken away their support system, which in most of the cases are peer groups in the neighbourhoods have made their lives difficult, both mentally and physically. "On senior citizens, the impact of the virus is in two ways, one is the risk of the infection itself and the second is mental health. Due to repeatedly being told how the virus is dangerous for them, there is a lot of stress among the elderly. The other is, not being able to go out. Keeping an active social life is important to keep them healthy. Due to the lockdown, they are forced to stay indoors 24x7. That also has a negative impact on their health," Ayush Agrawal, the co-founder of Seniority, an online platform that deals with the needs of senior citizens said. INDIATIMES Another challenge, Agrawal said the senior citizens are facing is in getting essentials including their medicine and groceries as they are not able to get out. Seniority, which is the largest of its kind platform in India said they are offering various products ranging from medicines and other supports essentials and lifestyle needs for the senior citizens during the COVID-19. SHUTTERSTOCK Seniority and RPG Life Sciences have also launched 'SafeSeniors,' a tool which helps in early identification of COVID-19 amongst the elderly. Agrawal said that the early detection of symptoms and the two-three days window could be the difference between life and death. They have also made tie-ups with several platforms to provide free medical and other consultations. SHUTTERSTOCK According to him here is a list of things that the senior citizens and families can do. Codehesion is South Africas top Android and iOS developer and has helped many companies to build and launch world-class mobile apps. With a rapidly changing world due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies are looking for new ways to improve client relations, increase sales, and increase staff productivity. Regulations which restrict the movement of people are also putting pressure on businesses to interact with clients and staff online. Unless a business has its own app on their clients smartphone, they stand to lose out to their competitors. This is why many businesses are now investing in new smartphone apps, or improving on their current apps, to stay relevant. It is not only consumer-facing apps which are changing the way people do business, however. Many businesses have launched internal company apps to improve their operational efficiency and increase staff productivity. This is particularly important in the current environment where remote working has become the norm. Internal company apps also offer secure communications, company alerts, location-based task tracking, and task automation. Getting a smartphone app for your business Codehesion takes care of everything when providing a business with a new smartphone app, including the planning, design, build, and launch. Their app developers do everything for a business the strategy around the app, advice on which features to include, building the app, and listing it on app stores. Codehesion CEO Hector Beyers said their experience also helps them guide clients on which type of app will work best for their business. Codehesion also offers South African businesses a free and easy consultation process. Beyers encouraged companies who are looking for a new Android or iOS app to contact them via their website. For a risk-free consultation Contact Codehesion here. An Australian bride has shared how she managed to save hundreds of dollars on her wedding day by purchasing her bridesmaids dresses from Kmart for only $25 each. Danielle Young, from Brisbane, said she initially considered purchasing the Shona Joy Bias Cowl Midi Dress which retails for $240 each, but wanted to keep costs down as much as possible. 'It just wasn't feasible for us to spend this much for the bridesmaid dresses,' she told FEMAIL. But while shopping for Christmas gifts last December, she noticed a range of dresses at the end of the Kmart checkout aisle that were too good to pass up. An Australian bride has shared how she managed to save money on her wedding by purchasing her bridesmaids dresses from Kmart for only $25 each (pictured) 'I saw them and they were exactly what I wanted,' she said. 'I did initially wanted another colour, but I couldn't get over the price so I settled for the black - which I didn't mind at all. 'As soon as I got home, I made my sister try it on and it was exactly the dress I had in mind.' Danielle said the idea sparked last year when she was shopping for Christmas gifts and saw the dresses at the end of the Kmart checkout isle 'I saw them and they were exactly what I wanted. I did initially want another colour, but I couldn't get over the price so I settled for the black - which I didn't mind at all!' she said Danielle explained the excellent quality of the dresses determined her decision to purchase the gowns to use for her wedding day. 'The girls were [comfortable] wearing them and are so happy to be able to wear them again,' she said. After telling her bridesmaids she purchased the dresses from the budget store, she said they were 'excited and surprised' the gowns were 'of such great quality, style and fit'. Danielle was happy with her purchase and said those who knew where the dresses were from never considered buying formal dresses from Kmart. 'The girls were [comfortable] wearing them and are so happy to be able to wear them again,' she said She tied the knot to her now-husband on March 7 just weeks before the Australian government announced only five people were allowed to attend weddings under strict regulations to curb the spread of coronavirus. Danielle said she initially considered purchasing the Shona Joy Bias Cowl Midi Dress which retails for $240 (pictured) Danielle said she hopes the idea will inspire other brides-to-be to not rule out big retailers like Kmart when it comes to searching for occasional dresses. After sharing images of the bridesmaids wearing the dresses to the Kmart Hacks and Decor Facebook page, the idea was praised by thousands of others around Australia and received more than 12,000 likes. 'You wouldn't even be able to guess they're Kmart, especially dressed up with the shoes! Sooo pretty,' one said. Another woman added: 'That is amazing, you can not even tell! The bridesmaids pulled it off so well too!' Back in February, Germanys political establishment was in crisis. In the east German state of Thuringia, the far-right AfD and Angela Merkels CDU worked together to elect a state premier, breaking an unwritten rule against collaborating with the far right. The outcry led to the resignation of CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, previously considered to be Merkels successor. But just three months on, things look very different. The AfD is polling at just 10 per cent, its lowest result since 2017, and its usually opportunistic politicians have failed to work the coronavirus outbreak to their advantage. An analysis of the partys social media accounts showed its reach from mid-March to early April was almost down by half. Meanwhile, the CDU has jumped from 27 per cent in February up to 38 per cent, and a huge 67 per cent of Germans say they are either satisfied or very satisfied with the governments handling of the pandemic. Haiti - News : Zapping... Relaunch of the agricultural production To relaunch the agricultural production in the Department of Nippes during the spring season, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Haiti, with its own funds, supports the Ministry of Agriculture in the distribution of seeds to 2,000 families in the communes of Anse-a-Vaux and Petite Riviere des Nippes. FAO with its own funds and funding from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund UNCERF, supports the Ministry of Agriculture in the distribution of inputs to 2,800 farmers in Grand'Anse and 2,100 in the North Where is. With funding from the Belgian Government, FAO is working with the Ministry of Agriculture by providing seeds to 3,000 farming households in the Northeast for the preparation of the spring agricultural campaign while raising their awareness against the spread of Covid-19. The Michaelle Jean family devastated by the Covid-19 "My family devastated by Coronavirus, in the space of a few days: after my aunt Edith died alone in a Long Term Care Home in Montreal, her sister, aunt Micheline and our cousin Maritza also died, stigmatized and frightened in New York. A nightmare and lot of anxiety," declared ex-Governor of Canada Michaelle Jean France and Europe in solidarity with Haiti French Ambassador to Haiti Jose Gomez said in a video message "This year we are celebrating Europe Week while the Covid-19 pandemic is raging, I want to express the solidarity of France and Europe with Haiti in its fight against this disease. We are working to put aid in place as quickly as possible with two objectives : efficiency and transparency. With regard to the sick, I appeal to compassion. They need our help, they need a hospital center to be treated." Resumption of normal activities at the Prime Minister's Office Hugues Joseph the Secretary General of the Prime Minister's Office announces that from Monday, May 11, all activities will resume normally for all staff at the Prime Minister's office (Primature), at 33 boulevard Harry Truman, Bicentenary, and says that he counts on the presence of all employees, absent for more than 4 months... Arrest of 4 bandits Agents of the Artibonite Departmental Maintenance Unit (UDMO) intercepted this weekend at Terre Noire, a vehicle in which 4 individuals were found (Louis Berthony, Macsen Derilus aka "Macsen Latortue", Phene Norzile and Cenoble Herold) who had an illegal weapon in their possession. HL/ HaitiLibre With most of the city staying home, Torontos arts and culture institutions are using their creativity to resurrect cancelled events and reimagine their roles. And in some ways, things can be better than before, including changes that could outlast the pandemic and its aftermath. Hot Docs is showcasing most of its films online while keeping elements of the festival experience. The Toronto Comic Arts Festival is banding with events across the country, bringing new experiences and possibilities. And other institutions like the ROM are offering more direct connections to families in their living rooms. The playbook is being rewritten, said Shane Smith, director of programming at Hot Docs, one of the worlds premier documentary film festivals. Keeping the event alive means working with networks such as CBC to showcase its co-productions, and the switch to online means about 140 of the roughly 200 films in the 2020 lineup can be shown because of rights restrictions, said Smith. While he relishes the chance to open up shop online this time around, Smith said the cinema experience is nowhere near going away, and the success of the festival will dictate how much of this model sticks. A lot of festivals, possibly including Hot Docs, will have some type of digital component to them in the future, he said. Nothing can replace the cinema and festival (communal) experience. It remains to be seen in what way were going to manifest that. Hot Docs did a 360, rebranding this years showcase as the Hot Docs Festival Online, showcasing 135 titles, including 91 feature and mid-length films and 45 short films. After cancelling the annual festival scheduled for April 30 to May 10, Hot Docs organizers bounced back with Hot Docs at Home on CBC starting on April 16. The CBC launch will dovetail into the sales of tickets, starting May 21, for the slate of films that will start streaming online on May 28. Films will be geo-blocked and can only be streamed in Ontario. A big draw of the festival which normally attracts over 200,000 people to venues across Toronto is filmmakers ability to network, pitch projects to prospective buyers and attend industry workshops. We made a decision to pivot and put that programming (master classes, pitching forum and online sessions) online, Smith said. We can still sell industry passes. Hot Docs is spicing things up by adding Q&As with the filmmakers. Were providing a taste of that festival experience, he said. Smith said the virtual experience has opened up some limited-entry forums to a larger group who want to see how those closed-door meetings work. Interest in the festival has not waned, he said. The industry rallied around the changes that weve made. Christopher Butcher, co-founder and artistic director of this weekends Toronto Comic Arts Festival, said the logistical nightmare caused by the pandemic has also spurred innovations and partnerships within the comic circuit. Weve never streamed anything before, so it was a major learning curve, he said. Were going from hiring a production co-ordinator for our theatre performances, to offering the same programs on a Zoom call. Butcher is embracing the possibility of this being a part of the future for festivals. If this works out, then its absolutely something that we want to see continue. The Toronto festival typically attracts about 400 exhibitors and 25,000 attendees to venues teeming with professionals from across the graphic novel and comic books industry. A string of festivals across the country including Festival BD de Montreal (MCAF), Vancouver Comic Arts Festival (VanCAF) and Dartmouth Comic Arts Festival (DCAF) joined forces to offer the largest collection of resources ever pooled together for thousands of graphic and comic book enthusiasts, publishers and artists. The tandem effort gave birth to #CanCAF: a month-long digital initiative, starting this weekend, programming events from workshops to live drawings. Schedules are already rolling out with a daily list of the programs available online. Using #TCAF2020, the festival will be promoting the work of authors and sharing the stories of enthusiasts. Were going to put together a free digital book that you can download, that has comics from our exhibitors who want to contribute, Butcher said of the showcase that will available to download on Gumroad, for free. At the citys biggest cultural institutions, including the Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Ripleys Aquarium and the Ontario Science Centre, staff are providing family-friendly guides on how to keep the kids learning at home (without it feeling like school) with crafts, hands-on experiments and weekly Facebook live events to talk to scientists and experts. The ROM has shifted gears to make things accessible online under its new ROM at Home initiative. It features virtual gallery tours, educational resources and activities, magazine articles, and live video interactions with ROM curators and educators. ROM Storytime, a live YouTube series with educator Sarah Elliot, is among the new and existing programming being offered online. And then there is the approach taken by some non-traditional institutions, which were able to quickly pivot online and come up with programming that addresses what people are feeling now. Myseum of Toronto doesnt have a physical space, but rather is an organization that hosts exhibitions and talks throughout the city and online, focusing on the forgotten places and events as well as marginalized people that shaped Toronto. With its annual Intersections Festival postponed till next year, a Quarantine Edition has taken shape online as a way for some organizers and artists to present their work digitally. Were a team of nine and we dont have a physical space, so I think that allows us to be nimble, says Myseum of Toronto CEO Jeremy Diamond. We can react and respond to changes in the community, and this is the perfect time to do it. In late April, Myseum hosted an online storytelling event that speculated what Torontos Chinatowns would look like in a post-COVID world. On May 13 and May 20 it will host a two-part series called Stories of Collective Care in the Time of COVID-19. The first will have Parkdale community organizers talk about helping vulnerable residents with housing and literacy, while the second will have a panel on the precariousness of being an essential worker, with speakers who are union organizers as well as migrant and grocery workers. We see this programming as an ongoing conversation of our Intersections Festival, and weve tackled these subjects on a regular basis, said Diamond, adding that the digital events brought in audiences from other countries, in addition to people who have never been to a Myseum event before. During the pandemic, people outside our borders are also experiencing these things, so were able to have these conversations with a wider audience. The Communities Creative Initiative, meanwhile, aims to turns the participants into creators themselves. Its an online community that was launched in April by the Creative Innovation Studio at Ryerson Universitys Faculty of Communications and Design. Academic institutions such as Humber College, Sheridan Collage and OCAD University partnered with cultural institutions to give free weekly workshops, open to anyone in an effort to help people express their feelings while staying at home. Scheduled online workshops include improv from Second City, digital storytelling from the National Film Board and screenwriting from TIFF. Mental health is going to be a huge collateral whether its grief, anxiety, loneliness, says Ramona Pringle, Creative Innovation Studio director. This is a way to unite people with shared emotional support. The workshops arent just a YouTube tutorial, says Pringle, as participants are expected to do the exercises, ask questions in real time and share their work afterwards with #CommunitiesCreate. For her, its an evolution on how art will be experienced and created that will continue once people can go outside again. Were going to be so happy to re-emerge in a public space like a gallery, but I think theres something really remarkable about the accessibility of creativity were seeing now, Pringle said. Participants can be from Ryerson or Toronto, but also Dawson City or Halifax. A 14-year-old can be taking a session sponsored by TIFF, she says. Weve seen this already with YouTube in that the world has become a school, but I think theres something about the real-time collaborations that were discovering now. Jason Miller is a breaking news reporter for the Star and is based in Toronto. Reach him on email: jasonmiller@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @millermotionpic Read more about: Guest columnist Michael Fuduric is a police supervisor for a Northeast Ohio department. He graduated from John Carroll University and Case Western Reserve University School of Law. He is a licensed attorney and U.S. Army veteran. In Ohio, a key issue in criminal justice reform has focused on bail. Most agree that some level of bail reform is needed, but viewpoints from all sides of the criminal justice system need to be considered before making a final determination. In January, the Ohio Supreme Court submitted recommendations to the state legislature on this issue. The recommendations include not requiring judges to do a risk assessment of a suspects threat to the public before setting bail. If this recommendation is left unchallenged by the legislature, it will automatically pass into law this July. Although this will greatly aid those on the criminal defense side of the issue, it should be just as crucial to get input on the matter from prosecutors, law enforcement and crime victims. A look at New York State illustrates the unintended consequences of one-sided bail reform. New Yorks bail reform law took effect on Jan. 1. It mandates cashless bail for all misdemeanors and non-violent felonies -- no matter what. Even assaults qualify if the injury caused is not severe -- meaning pretty much anything short of hospitalization. Also, it prohibits judges from considering the risk posed to the public if the suspect is freed before going to court. This has created a revolving door that releases suspects shortly after arrest, who in many cases go out and commit more crimes, some of them violent. One example from New York City represents dozens of incidents there so far: Gerod Woodberry was arrested six times in 17 days for committing six separate bank holdups. Each time, he was set free because judges were now prohibited from requiring cash bail and from considering the public danger he posed if released. This was because each holdup was considered non-violent; a note was passed to the teller and no weapon was seen. One of the holdups was committed within four hours of Woodberry being released from the previous one. When Woodberry was released after his fourth arrest, even he exclaimed to reporters, I cant believe they let me out. Gov. Cuomo, and others who were initially staunch supporters of the law, conceded that revision was needed after learning of the problems it created. Ohio is considering using similar bail reform measures. The Ohio Supreme Courts recommendations do not compel the use of risk assessments to determine if a suspect should be held for trial out of concern for public safety. This can endanger the public. Fortunately for Ohio, the courts proposed language does not prohibit risk assessments during the bail process. But it does not specifically require them, either. Risk assessments should be required, and conducted using information from the specific set of circumstances related to the suspect and the crime committed. This will protect the public from further harm. Bail reform is needed, but the pendulum cannot swing so far in favor of automatic release that we sacrifice public safety as a result. This can be accomplished by requiring judges to use risk assessments. The state legislature needs to refine the courts recommendation, because more balance is needed -- a balance that will not keep people jailed simply because they are impoverished, but at the same time will protect the public from unnecessary risk. Readers are invited to submit Opinion page essays on topics of regional or general interest. Send your 500-word essay for consideration to Ann Norman at anorman@cleveland.com. Essays must include a brief bio and headshot of the writer. Essays rebutting todays topics are also welcome. Karen Starr, veteran and owner of Karens Kafe and Stephanies Bar and Grill in Calhan, opened her two restaurants to socially distanced dine-in services despite Colorado Gov. Jared Polis order for restaurants to remain closed to dine-in service until further notice. Local elections originally scheduled for March and April were moved by one of Gov. Phil Murphys executive orders to May 12 and will be conducted almost entirely through vote by mail ballots due to the coronavirus. There are 33 municipalities with elections in 10 counties throughout New Jersey either for school board, council or mayor. Residents in one town will cast ballots in a fire district election, an event thats usually supposed to be held on a Saturday. Traditional polling stations will not be open on May 12, so voters in these elections did not need to request to vote by mail. Murphy ordered that paper ballots be sent through the mail automatically to registered voters. Ballots began to be mailed out on April 24, multiple county election officials said. It has been an all hands on deck effort, said New Jersey Department of State spokeswoman Alicia DAlessandro. We couldnt do it alone and theres been a lot of hard work, but we care deeply about democracy. Its work that needs to get done. Each ballot will come with pre-paid postage and only ballots that are postmarked with a date no later than May 12 will be counted, DAlessandro said. Four election officials in different counties said ballots received through the mail will be accepted until May 14. Unofficial results will begin to be posted on county clerks websites beginning May 12 and will be updated in the days after as more ballots are received and counted. Election officials in four counties gave different dates throughout the week of May 12 for when unofficial results would be posted online. Vote by mail ballots need to be signed and the signatures will be verified by election officials much like they are at polling stations, one county clerk explained. You must sign your ballot for it to be accepted. The New Jersey Department of State allows voters to track the status of their mail-in ballot online. You must sign up to see when the ballot was mailed to you, when it was received by the county board of elections and whether it was accepted or rejected. There are exceptions to the ban on in-person voting for people who have a disability. Blind voters, for example, may need to have their ballot read to them. Voters who have a disability will be allowed to cast a ballot either in-person at county buildings on May 12 or online through a service known as Democracy Live. For voters with disabilities that cannot vote on paper or use the available electronic ballot, there will be a voting location accessible in each county to assist those voters, said New Jersey Secretary of State Tahesha Way in a YouTube question and answer session. Those who have a disability should call their respective county clerks for more information about polling locations, but most are generally at the county administrative building. Voters who have not received a ballot or damaged theirs can request another one from the county clerk. For example, Essex County Clerk Christopher Durkin said at least 320 ballots were mailed again to voters for the six local elections there. The post office is supposed to deliver each piece of mail to each delivery mailbox, said Durkin. So that is the duty of the post office to deliver the mail to each individual mailbox. The May 12 elections are different from primaries that were originally scheduled for June and have now been moved to July 7. The following elections will be held on May 12: ATLANTIC COUNTY Atlantic City Special Election Ventnor Municipal Election BERGEN COUNTY Cliffside Park School Board Election Fairview School Board Election Garfield School Board Election Hackensack School Board Election Oakland School Board Election Ridgewood School Board Election and Municipal Election Ridgefield Park Municipal Election Teaneck Municipal Election BURLINGTON COUNTY Bass River Municipal Election Medford Lakes Municipal Election CAPE MAY COUNTY Ocean City Municipal Election ESSEX COUNTY Irvington School Board Election Newark School Board Election Belleville Municipal Election Orange Municipal Election Irvington Municipal Election Montclair Municipal Election Nutley Municipal Election HUDSON COUNTY North Bergen School Board Election Weehawken School Board Election West New York School Board Election HUNTERDON COUNTY West Amwell Special Election MIDDLESEX COUNTY Old Bridge Fire District Election New Brunswick School Board Election MONMOUTH COUNTY Allenhurst Municipal Election Deal Municipal Election Keansburg Municipal Election Loch Arbor Municipal Election PASSAIC COUNTY Passaic School Board Election Totowa School Board Election Paterson Municipal Election Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 21:17:14|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MACAO, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The total number of personal credit cards issued by banks in Macao continued to rise in the first quarter of 2020, but both the credit card turnover and total repayments witnessed year-on-year declines, the special administrative region's monetary watchdog said here on Sunday. The latest report from the Monetary Authority of Macao showed that the total number of personal credit cards issued by banks in Macao stood at 1,447,166 at the end of March, equivalent to an increase of 1.4 percent from a quarter ago or 8.3 percent from a year ago. The numbers of pataca cards, Hong Kong dollar cards and renminbi cards increased year-on-year by 7.4 percent, 3.2 percent and 12.8 percent respectively. The credit card credit limit granted by banks in Macao reached 40.9 billion patacas (about 5.1 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of March, up by 3.1 percent from the end of December 2019 or 9.8 percent from the end of March 2019. The credit card receivables at the end of March amounted to 2.2 billion patacas (about 276.1 million dollars), of which the rollover represented 39.4 percent of credit card receivables. The delinquency ratio, i.e. the ratio of delinquent amount overdue for more than three months to credit card receivables, rose by 0.9 percentage points to 2.5 percent when compared with the end of December 2019. For the first quarter of 2020, the credit card turnover totaled 4.6 billion patacas (about 577.3 million dollars), equivalent to a drop of 27.2 percent quarter-to-quarter or 19.0 percent year-on-year. Credit card repayments, including payments for interest and fees, decreased by 11.2 percent from the previous quarter or 9.6 percent from the same period last year to 5.5 billion patacas (about 690.3 million dollars). Enditem (CNN) The United States has scaled back its role on the world stage, taken actions that are undermining efforts to battle the coronavirus pandemic and left the international community without a traditional global leader, according to experts, diplomats and analysts. The US -- usually at the head of the table helping to coordinate in global crises -- has declined to take a seat at virtual international meetings convened by the World Health Organization and the European Union to coordinate work on potentially lifesaving vaccines. Former world leaders warn that the Trump administration risks alienating allies by politicizing the deadly pandemic with its push to punish China and have other nations choose sides. The administration's decision to halt funding for the WHO, the world body best positioned to coordinate the global response to the raging pandemic, has appalled global health officials. On Friday the US blocked a vote on a UN Security Council resolution that called for a global ceasefire aimed at collectively assisting a planet devastated by the outbreak. The US did not want any reference to the WHO in the text and rejected a compromise version that didn't directly mention the organization -- and instead cited the UN's "specialized health agencies," according to two diplomats familiar with the process. The US has similarly blocked expressions of global unity at G7 and G20 meetings due to anger about China and the WHO. Incredulity and sadness And where US presidents have in the past offered a steadying voice, observers from the Asia Pacific to Europe expressed incredulity, amusement and sadness at President Donald Trump's briefings on the virus, saying they are deeply damaging to the US image abroad. US officials push back, touting both funding to fight Covid-19 as well as work Trump is doing through the Group of Seven and bilaterally -- leading more than 50 calls with world leaders. But experts say funding without full global coordination can slow overall progress. At a time when nearly 4 million people worldwide have been infected with the virus, diplomats say many countries are yearning for the firm US leadership they've seen at historic moments and in prior epidemics, citing President Barack Obama's response to Ebola and President George W. Bush's work on HIV/AIDS. "They want the US to lean in more," said one European diplomat. "We know they're doing a great deal with countries, including developing countries, bilaterally ... but a lot of countries hanker after the decisive US effort that we saw when the Berlin Wall came down. A lot of countries believe this is one of those pivotal moments in history and the US has always led at those times." Critics say the Trump administration's approach to the coronavirus hasn't just hampered the fight against the pandemic, it has increased uncertainty, eroded respect for the US and deepened concern that the international system no longer functions effectively. "The world is looking for global leadership. It's a global problem -- it affects literally everyone on the planet. This is a time when you expect the leaders of superpowers in a very constructive way to help coordinate and structure the response," said Robert Yates, director of the Global Health Program at Chatham House, a British think tank. "One would expect the US to have a leading role in trying to coordinate global efforts. That's been completely lacking." Global health officials found Trump's move to cut funding for the WHO in the middle of a pandemic "absolutely breathtaking," Yates added. "It's worse than a lack of coordination, it almost seems destructive." A senior State Department official told reporters Tuesday that the President "has concerns" about the WHO, which Trump has accused of being biased in China's favor. The official repeatedly stressed that the US "is the single largest health and humanitarian donor in the world" and said the US "and President Trump are leading the global effort to combat this pandemic," in part through the US presidency of the G7. But the machinery of a US-led international response isn't kicking into gear this time, said Gayle Smith, president and CEO of the nonprofit ONE Campaign. By and large, she noted, "we've not seen the kind of summitry, urgency of meetings at the UN Security Council, heads of state coming together to organize, to figure out how we manage, for example, global supply chains." Skipped meetings "Everybody in the world is looking for the same goods. How do we make sure that the global economy stays where it needs to be?" asked Smith, a former administrator of the US Agency for International Development. And while she notes the G7 and G20 have held virtual meetings, "I would very much like to see the United States taking the kind of extra effort to mobilize the world at multiple levels." US officials say Trump has convened regular virtual meetings with G7 ministers to coordinate assistance to other countries, but the White House has skipped international meetings to coordinate on the hunt for a vaccine, leaving experts disconcerted. One meeting was organized by WHO, while another meeting Monday of more than 40 countries and several organizations raised $8 billion in pledges and yielded a commitment that whoever produces an effective vaccine first will share it with the rest of the world. The US absence was "really, really unfortunate" said Smith, not just "because the US has historically been a leader," but because the US has a national interest in being part of the group "that is trying to accelerate the development of vaccines and therapeutics, because obviously we're going to need a vaccine here. ... I think it would be wise, and in our interest, to be involved on the ground floor." Stephen Morrison, director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, "It's a very crazy and disturbing thing that [the US] would be going its own way and sitting this out. It's the country with the greatest financing capacity, biggest foundational interest, greatest R&D capacity." He noted that the Trump administration has started its own "warp speed" effort toward developing a vaccine, pointing to the complicated web of interests that's required to develop one, including manufacturing and testing issues. "I don't know that it's conceivable to have a go-it-alone effort," he said. Questioned repeatedly on Tuesday about the US absence from the vaccine meetings, the State Department official stressed how much funding the US is giving to the Covid fight. A day later, the State Department issued a statement stressing the US funding and its work with organizations such as the Global Alliance on Vaccines and said the US saw the vaccine conferences as "complementary to our ongoing efforts." It added that "as we make progress in this global fight against Covid-19, we count on our Allies and partners joining the United States to ask the hard questions that are needed of China, as well as the WHO." The US push to punish China has unsettled allies, who see it as a White House political move to insulate Trump from blame for the uneven US response to the pandemic in an election year -- and as a stressful demand for countries to choose sides. "I am afraid everything is political," said a German diplomat discussing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's insistence that intelligence indicates the virus originated in a Chinese lab, though he has not provided evidence. "It is just pretty obvious that it is part of the campaign." 'Stranger than fiction' A French diplomat said bluntly that "we cannot turn our back on China. It is a big partner. Nobody can. We need to keep partnership." Former British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke more directly to allied concerns about the US campaign against China, warning in a Times op-ed that "it would be a mistake to allow this to become a fault line in international relations." The European diplomat said that a number of countries feel that "at the moment, the priority has to be getting on top of the pandemic globally that requires a lot of cooperation. ... China needs to be a part of that and the WHO has to be involved. ... Anything that might detract from that effort at the moment makes people a little nervous." The US President's behavior has also made many international observers a little nervous. They and other experts say that the sense of the US as a steadying force in troubled times is fading, in large part because of Trump's televised coronavirus briefings, which Yates called a "tremendous embarrassment." Some observers pointed to Trump's apparent suggestion to look into whether people might be able to inject disinfectant to counter Covid -- a dangerous idea that left health officials worldwide scrambling to counter and had some, like Australia's chief medical officer, laughing incredulously on camera. Thomas Gomart, director of the Paris-based French Institute of International Relations, said that Europe was watching Trump's response to the pandemic in amazement, calling his behavior "stranger than fiction." "He provides for us a very mixed balance of amusement and a sadness, which is just not what is expected from a US president," Gomart said, an assessment that Spain's Javier del Pino, a leading journalist, shared. "The way we look at Trump, it was a lot of fun at first," del Pino said. "It's not funny anymore." This story was first published on CNN.com, "Allies despair as Trump abandons America's leadership role at a time of global crisis." Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on "Fox News Sunday" that the White House may wait "a few weeks" before considering another relief bill to stem the economic devastation of the coronavirus. The big picture: President Trump said last week that he's "in no rush" to negotiate a deal for another stimulus package, just as the U.S. reported its worst unemployment rates since the Great Depression. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on ABC's "This Week " Sunday that "many people would like to just pause for a moment" and "take a look at the economic impact of this massive assistance program." Sunday that "many people would like to just pause for a moment" and "take a look at the economic impact of this massive assistance program." He added that there are no "formal negotiations" yet on a new stimulus bill, but that there has been outreach between the two sides. Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has said that Democrats may introduce a "phase four" coronavirus stimulus bill as soon as this week. What they're saying: "What the president and I are now saying is we spent a lot of money, a lot of this money is not even into the economy yet," Mnuchin said. "Let's take the next few weeks I'm having discussions with both the Republicans and the Democrats to understand these issues. The president and I are having conversations with outside people." "We just want to make sure that before we jump back in and spend another few trillion of taxpayers' money, that we do it carefully. We had an emergency process, it worked quickly, we're there to help the American people. ... We're willing to spend whatever it takes. But whatever it takes needs to be done carefully." Mnuchin claimed there is "no considerable risk" to public health from rolling back lockdown orders in certain cities, arguing that there's more risk in keeping the lockdown in place due to the potential long-term economic damage. Between the lines: Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Pelosi have each set out their red lines for the next phase of relief. Trump has called for a payroll tax cut to incentivize employers to bring back workers, but the idea has been met with resistance from Democrats and some Republicans. McConnell is demanding liability protection for businesses that reopen. Pelosi and Democrats are calling for more funding for states that are suffering from massive revenue losses and budget deficits due to stay-at-home orders. Go deeper: The geographic inequity of small business coronavirus aid When Gov. Phil Murphy shared his plans to reopen the state, New Jersey workers wondered what it would mean for their jobs. While essential workers have been on the job throughout the coronavirus crisis, non-essential businesses have been closed. Some have had employees working at home, while others used furloughs and layoffs. So if your boss calls and says its time to come back to work, what happens if you dont want to go? There are many reasons some workers may not be ready to return to their workplaces. The most obvious is safety. Even if an employer offers personal protective gear and social distancing at the office, no amount of hand sanitizer can guarantee COVID-19 wont make its way in. Whatever an employee is exposed to at work could come home with them to potentially infect their family members. Imagine a worker with an at-risk spouse. An elderly parent. Then theres the child care issue. School is out for the rest of the year and theres no timeframe for reopening day care facilities. The fate of summer camps is unknown. Who will watch the kids if parents go back to the office? Many employers are going to re-open slowly and are likely to be very understanding for employees. But for businesses to get back on their feet, theyre going to need their workforce. And those who received loans from the Paycheck Protection Program must use 75% of the funds to pay employees for the loans to be forgivable. CAN I GET UNEMPLOYMENT? Pre-coronavirus, workers who quit jobs were not eligible for unemployment benefits. But the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program opens up the scenarios under which typically ineligible workers can get benefits. According to the Department of Labors website, the way you answer questions when you certify benefits and you must answer honestly will determine your eligibility. The first question asks: Were you able and available for work? The website says you should answer yes if you were able to work but you lost your job/hours due to your own coronavirus illness, your need to care for a family/household member with coronavirus, or your employment situation changed because of coronavirus public health emergency. The second question asks if you are actively seeking work. You should answer yes if you are waiting to be recalled to your present job or you are delaying your job search until the coronavirus pandemic subsides. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage The third question asks if you refused any work. The website says: If you refused an offer of work due to concerns related to the travel/stay-at-home restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic, or because you were ill with coronavirus, or because you wouldnt be able to care for a coronavirus-affected family member, or care for a dependent whose place of care or school is closed because of coronavirus, you should answer NO. These items would make it seem that unemployment benefits would be available to you if you refused to return to work. But its not a sure thing. These certification instructions do appear to indicate that the N.J. Department of Labor will consider certain cases where a worker who refused work as eligible for unemployment, said Alex Lee, an attorney with Einhorn, Barbarito, Frost & Botwinick in Denville. However, as these certification instructions are for already approved benefits that have passed the scrutiny of an examiner, it should not be relied on as a conclusive basis that voluntary quits will broadly be accepted as eligible. WORKPLACE SAFETY CONCERNS Lee said there are no clear cut answers as to whether workers will be able to rely on unemployment benefits if they voluntarily resign or refuse to return to work because of their fears about the virus. While the CARES Act includes language stating that workers can get benefits if they quit their job as a direct result of COVID-19, this language is ambiguous and the discretion to interpret it has largely been left to individual states, Lee said. The U.S. Department of Labor has issued limited guidance stating that a general fear of exposure to COVID-19 is not a valid basis for eligibility, but has also noted that such circumstances are not always clear cut, particularly when factors including the existence of specific and credible health concerns relating to COVID-19 are at issue and could provide a basis for eligibility, Lee said, noting the N.J. Department of Labor has not issued detailed guidance on the issue. As a result, he said, these types of cases will probably be handled on a case-by-case basis to determine if there are specific individual factors that show some form of greater-than-average health risks beyond a general fear of exposure. However, once a determination is made to approve benefits, future claw back concerns should not be a major concern as long as the information provided is accurate, and provided in good faith, he said. WHAT IF MY EMPLOYER FIGHTS MY APPLICATION? In cases where there is a dispute between a worker and an employer, the claims examiner will probably make a determination based on the facts of each specific case. The first thing a worker should do is try to talk to their bosses and see what they can resolve in terms of PPE, social distancing and alternative scheduling. If this is unsuccessful and the worker still feels that they have no choice but to resign, they should document their attempts to resolve their concerns before they make any decision to resign and file for unemployment benefits, Lee said. Workers must make all efforts to demonstrate that their concerns were serious, legitimate, and not simply for the purpose of obtaining benefits. WHAT PROOF DO I NEED? As the economy comes back and non-essential businesses begin to open their doors, workers who refuse to go back to their jobs may need to prove that they needed to stay home. Lee said to continue receiving benefits, workers will need to certify that they are still eligible, including showing that they did not refuse any offer of work. If the workers have received and refused an offer of work, in order to continue benefits, they will need to demonstrate some specific and substantiated reason for refusing work other than just a general fear of exposure, Lee said. This will likely require some proof or documentation, which will likely need to be medical documentation, including possibly a self-quarantine recommendation by a physician. To make the issue more confusing, the Labor Departments guidance tells workers to answer no to the question about whether they refused an offer to work because of the virus. CLAWBACKS AND FRAUD Even if you do receive unemployment benefits, if the Labor Department later determines a mistake was made, you will be responsible for repaying the money even if the error was not yours. And the agency takes fraud very seriously. If you commit fraud, the agency said, you may face criminal prosecution and imprisonment; incur severe fines and penalties; your state or federal income tax refunds may be garnished to satisfy any money owed; you can be denied unemployment benefits in the future, and; you must repay the benefits you received plus interest and penalties. Also keep in mind that the expanded $600 benefit, while retroactive, runs out at the end of July. Unless the federal government expands benefits further, those who are still collecting unemployment by then will take in a much smaller benefit for the months that follow. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. Karin Price Mueller may be reached at bamboozled@njadvancemedia.com. Click here to read the full article. Art fairsthose movable feasts of dealers, collectors and thousands of artworks shipped around the worldhave proliferated like crazy. Dozens were on the docket for this spring alone. Everybody complains, but everybody goes. Or they did, before Covid-19 cut down or postponed just about every festival and event slated for spring, from Asia Week New York to Art Paris to the Venice Biennale. I was at Frieze London last fall when it struck me with force: I had flown from New York and was seeing art dealers whose gallery spaces are only a block or two from my apartment. What was the environmental cost of transporting all of us and the works themselves? Ecologically speaking, its hard to imagine a worse concept. More from Robb Report And there was rich irony in that some works had nature-celebrating themes, like Andy Goldsworthys Red river rock, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. To recap: I had flown 3,400 miles on a gas-guzzling airplane so I could think green. And I did it more than once. As it turns out, Im not the only one hearing the record scratch. Its a therapy issue. And its existential, says the painter Alexis Rockman, who has devoted his career to environmental themes. Whats the right thing to do? Though Rockman admits he travels a lot, for both business and pleasure, he says he doesnt go to fairs often. Its a problem, and its on everyones mind, says art consultant Lisa Schiff of SFA Advisory. Schiff estimates she gets on a plane three or four times a year for fairs but now questions every trip. She flies less frequently to her offices in LA and London. Its the first step to not going [to fairs] at all, she says. Its biennials and triennials, too. The art world is in nonstop transit. Story continues The people who run these events are certainly aware of the issues. Its been on our mind for years, says Victoria Siddall, global director of Frieze Fairs. Ten years ago we had a carbon audit as a company, and the single biggest change we could make would be switching to biodiesel for power generation at the events. But it took until last year for a fuel to be developed that we could use. The London fair I attended was, in fact, powered by recycled vegetable oil, though it wasnt loudly touted. Thats progress, but of course its the air travel and the freight that really add up. I think of the series of 10 Robert Indiana works that were on view at Frieze Sculpture, all eight feet tall and made of steel. Siddall tells me that shipping works by land and sea has become increasingly popular. Some artists wont allow their work to be shipped by air, she says. A lot of the burden falls on globe-trotting galleries themselves. Perhaps artists need to step up and demand more is how the artist and passionate eco-activist Justin Brice Guariglia puts it (he has a series aptly called We Are the Asteroid). He initiated a discussion on the topic with his Belgian gallery, Maruani Mercier, which tackled the problem with carbon offsets. We offset all our CO2 emissions, Laurent Mercier tells me. This strikes me as at least a legitimate start. That includes our plane tickets, art transports, heating of the galleries, cars and trucks. Our money is used to buy stoves in Malawi to help prevent deforestation and reduce fire fumes. In 2019, the gallery offset its total estimated yearly footprint of 134 metric tons of CO2. The artist Jordan Wolfson didnt want a holiday present from his dealer, David Zwirner, and instead requested that the gallery purchase enough carbon offsets to mitigate Zwirners personal international travel in 2019. It did so. The Zwirner gallery also pointed to its online viewing room as a positive step. It has seen a dramatic uptick in both views and sales. Of course, an online exhibition is not the same thing as the visceral experience of being in the same room as a great work of art. Or viewing it with like-minded people who can be part of a dialogue about it. People will continue to agonize and possibly brainstorm. How about billionaire biodiesel jets that scoop up artworks on the way to fairshigh-end carpooling! The only way to truly solve the problem might be to follow the lead of Art Basel: In February, it canceled its Hong Kong fair, slated for March. But that was because of the coronavirus. When a public health crisis turns out to be appealingly eco-friendly, you know were living in strange days. Best of Robb Report Sign up for Robb Report's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 381 Shares Share Everyone is in the same situation across the country in these unprecedented times. What a statement. A statement that every medical student has undoubtedly heard in utter multitude during these times of virtual medical curricula in place of clinical curricula of canceled steps, levels, CKs, PE, and CS. It has no doubt been challenging on everyone, with some feeling stripped of their opportunity to help and serve their mentors and future colleagues, and others thankful to be safe from the dangers of fighting this pandemic with limited personal protective equipment (PPE). While I am fortunate enough to be involved in student leadership and response projects, which help address my own passions and reluctance to be helpless, I have been hearing concerns and feelings of administrators and students alike regarding the use of blanket statements similar to the one above. Although designed to be helpful, they are not fulfilling their purpose. Therefore, I wanted to address the issue with blanket statements from the perspective of a student. Everyone else in the country is working with this too. While students wait at home, our clinical skills growing cold, my own stethoscope gathering dust, I think about the futures that will be irrevocably damaged by these times. I think about the sweeping statements like the first of this micro-soapbox of an essay, and I cannot help but feel angered by that statement. I have received confusion as to why this statement, which should inevitably put us at ease, seems to perform just the opposite, and upset students. It is offered as a solution when a student voices their concerns and anxieties to faculty, mentors, administrators, etc., but in my perspective of an upcoming fourth-year student, it is very clear why this statement causes anger. Everyone is in the same boat. Something has to give. I should not need to point out the obvious, but everyone is NOT in the same situation whether due to socioeconomic, racial, gender, intersectional identity, financial, medical, academic, prior clinical experience, or networking influences that can affect the standing and situation a student is in while applying for residency or moving forward in their career we are not all in the same situation. While there is a sincere and genuine attempt to calm students with this statement, what I have observed is the invalidation of the very real vulnerabilities, anxieties, and concerns students are now having over the potential effect this could have on our careers in medicine. This is happening across the country. Every school is dealing with this. I emphasize careers because this is our lifes work. We have poured literal blood, sweat, and tears into our education to build our future careers. We have delayed other life goals such as making a living wage, marriage, children, buying a home, etc. We know that this is affecting the country; we are aware that the future is unknown. We are aware that we are neurotic planners being asked not to plan, but to study for a moving target test date, and somehow pretend as if nothing will change and siege forward. We know that this next year will be filled with unknowns. We know that people will be unavoidably impacted by these changes, some less severe than others, but some severely affected, nonetheless. These are unprecedented times for everyone; program directors will have to take that into account. What we ask is not to sweep these concerns under the rug with a blanket statement. Please do not discredit and invalidate the trepidation and fear of the quality of our training we receive right now, or of the opportunities we have lost. We know that there are not exact solutions immediately available, and we know that everyone is doing their best to help us for that we are grateful. However, do not forget that we are experiencing this too. We cannot continue hoping for the best and the equal playing field being promised to us (which never truly existed anyway) without trying to prepare for the worst. All we ask is for some understanding and truth, even if it burns a little. If you are still reading this and may be in a position where a student expresses their concerns to you, I wanted to offer my opinion and suggestion: I hear what you are saying, and I am sorry, this really sucks. I say that not in sarcasm, but in empathy. Let us call this situation what it is a sucky situation. I said it. I named it. I validated it in all its sucky glory. We do not need an answer to all our problems we are adults, and we know not all answers exist right now. However, for those students who reach out we need some empathy, some note that our fears are not invalid, and that we will all continue forward together, acknowledging the unknown as it comes, and calling this situation what it is by name. A sucky situation. Kali Chiriboga is a medical student. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Military personnel are prohibited to disseminate information that determines their affiliation or mission in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, other troops, military units and bodies Open source Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree prohibiting soldiers of the Russian army from using the Internet, social networks, gadgets, or talking to the media. The text of the document was published on the website of the State System of Legal Information of the Russian Federation. Decree of May 6, 2020 No. 308 "On Amending Certain Acts of the President of the Russian Federation" introduces amendments to the disciplinary Charter of the RF Armed Forces and the charter of the garrison and guard services of the country, according to which a number of bans are introduced for soldiers of the Russian army. In particular, Russian military personnel cannot be "provided to the media or via the Internet to disseminate information that allows them to determine their affiliation or mission with the Russian Armed Forces, other troops, military units and bodies." In addition, soldiers are prohibited from using gadgets in such cases: when carrying out combat duty, military service; being in dresses; being in the territory of a military unit; when passing military training; if a soldier takes part in hostilities, armed conflicts or "in the maintenance or restoration of international peace and security"; if a soldier "performs tasks to suppress international terrorist activities outside the territory of the Russian Federation"; if a soldier takes part in the aftermath of natural disasters, accidents and disasters. The media believe that such restrictions for the Russian army are associated with fears of the likelihood of leakage of secret military data that may fall into the possession of foreign states. As we reported, level of support for President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has slipped to its lowest level in more than two decades while he stays in power. A U.S. Navy veteran turned 100 Sunday, and his neighbors in White Township didnt want the milestone to go unnoticed. John Palys watched from the front door as dozens of emergency vehicles, firetrucks, and private cars of residents Sunday afternoon formed a parade and drove through the Brookfield Estates development. The procession was led by the American Legion Carl D. Archer Post No. 528 of White Township and two U.S. Army vehicles. An honor guard stopped and turned toward John as they presented flags they were carrying. White Township Mayor Jeff Herb said some words from the sidewalk. The Goodwill Fire Co. of Belvidere, the Belvidere Ambulance Corps. and a Belvidere patrol car, as well as two New Jersey State Police cruisers followed. Behind them, were roughly 20-30 private vehicles. Palys waved as vehicles honked and people called out, Happy birthday! as well as held out signs from rolled down windows. Several later stood outside Palys home and sang Happy Birthday. The birthday celebration was a total surprise for Palys, who is very modest but appreciated the outpouring of kindness shown to him, said his daughter, Audrey Palys. He thinks this is all too much, Audrey said with a laugh when reached by phone Sunday. Extended family -- including two other daughters and two granddaughters -- couldnt visit John due to Gov. Phil Murphys March 21, stay-at-home order. Audrey initially didnt think anything was happening when longtime neighbor, Alice Kurnath, called and began asking her questions about Johns service. John served in the U.S. Navy from November 1943 to December 1945, and was stationed in Hawaii after Pearl Harbor. Born in Manhattan, he was raised in Staten Island before moving to New Jersey. He worked as a welder before enlisting in the Navy and later, became a carpenter following his service in the mid-1940s. John was married for 58 years to his wife, Francis Palys, a homemaker who predeceased him in 2001. Hes lived with Audrey in Warren County for the past 16 years. Audrey said she gave Kurnaths grandson, Kevin Matlock, a picnic table as a goodwill gesture a few years ago. Ever since, Matlock has been trying to repay her and John for their generosity. Audrey has refused many of the things he has come up with, she said. I kept asking what this was about; I thought she was knitting a pillow, Audrey said of Kurnath. She kept saying Kevin was doing something, it was a surprise and Im not telling you. " Eventually, the neighbors spilled some of the beans so Audrey could help prepare John for the festivities. John is the longest living family member and is the youngest of four children. John was asked what the secret to longevity is, and Audrey had an answer. It must have been my moms cooking," she said. Freelance photographer Tim Wynkoop contributed to this report. 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. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. But the number of infections continued to increase. Tyson said it began winding down operations April 20. But the plant did not fully shut down until April 22, after the company had processed the remaining hog carcasses in its cooler. After the plant closed, the company invited workers back for coronavirus testing. But that process may have infected more workers, said Christine Kemp, chief executive of a local health clinic. Employees bunched together outside the plant and crowded the stairwells. Some left without being tested, afraid they would catch the virus in line. A host of medical and science experts have suggested well be operating in a COVID-19 world for the next 18-24 months or until a vaccine, broad testing or herd immunity kicks in. We have no choice but to adapt lifestyles and bank accounts. For those wanting to remain in Connecticut, the virus exacerbated an already struggling economy. If we are all in this together, then city and state officials must demonstrate with actions and not just words that we truly are. Extreme rhetoric from the right or left is not helpful and cant be allowed to overshadow common sense practices regarding public health, safety and finance. Compromise, balance and pragmatism are not partisan words. Somewhat uniquely, Ive experienced the socially distanced mask and glove world, following a 2006 bone marrow transplant. Less exceptionally, coming from the private sector, Im used to adjusting my household spending due to employment or economic conditions. Thats why in addition to safeguarding our public health, its equally important for elected leaders to take proactive steps to mitigate the financial struggle that lays ahead for residents and small businesses. In addition to consistent enforcement of social distancing, city and state officials must demonstrate fiscal restraint, taking steps to revisit, prioritize and cut across the board nonessential financial burdens. Why? Because more than 22 million Americans have lost their jobs since federal and state governments mandated shelter in place and nonessential businesses shut down. Last month, Connecticuts unemployment claims climbed to 400,000 representing nearly 23 percent of the private sector workforce. We dont know the exact fall-out in Norwalk yet, but its hard to imagine us escaping it. The National League of Cities forecasts 300,000 to 1 million public sector workers impacted nationwide because of the private sectors rise in unemployment. Thats why, with over 85 percent of Norwalk funded by local residents and small business, its imperative city hall consider the following measures: City & BOE Personnel Wage Freezes: Timelines for public employee salary increases must be reexamined, as already done in the private sector. Scheduled collective bargaining must not occur until after the COVID-19 crisis has passed and economy has returned to normal. Real City Hall Cuts: Relying on the Rainy Day fund, without genuinely sharing the burden is not fair. Labor concessions must be made, in addition to examining jobs that should be furloughed, reduced or eliminated due to the viruss two-year window. Senior staff should take salary cuts. Lead from the top down. Education: Legislative energies must be directed toward state funding for increased English Language Learner (ELL) students versus pursuing a new high school and adding more local debt. All school initiatives must be re-evaluated. Automobiles & Parking: Lost revenue resulting from residents not giving up their New York license plates must be addressed. A moratorium on parking fees for the Washington and Wall Street areas encourages local business patronage. Development: Suspend any new taxpayer-funded incentive programs in the pipeline by whatever name city hall wants to call them. This includes property tax incentives previously known as the Innovation District, Real Estate Tax Credit, Enterprise Zone, Low Income Tax Credits, etc. A byproduct of single party rule is that the peoples business is often conducted in caucus, behind closed doors and outside public view. COVID-19 has exacerbated the not so imaginary line between government and the people, flying in the face of democracy, critical discussion and fairness. This fall, I encourage both partys candidates in the General Assembly to advocate for: Improved fiscal management and belt tightening in Hartford, rather than shifting state burdens to municipalities Better policies supporting businesses and jobs in the private sector, as much as state and local government Balanced state education and housing policies as to not disproportionately and negatively impact Norwalk Balance, fairness and equity should be the mantra of any elected official representing our great city. Were sixth largest in population and eighth largest in state tax contributions, yet see virtually no return on our tax dollars, despite rising school poverty. This lack of equity disproportionately impacts our budget and ability to service other city obligations. We need responsible management and belt-tightening, because if we truly are all in this together, then officials must do more than extend thoughts and prayers like enduring the same sacrifices those longing to remain in our city and state are making. Lisa Brinton was Norwalks unaffiliated mayoral candidate cross-endorsed by the Republican Party in 2019. Around 150 migrants from Punjab, who were sheltered at a Delhi government facility in Nehru Vihar amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown, were on Sunday sent to their home state by bus. In a tweet, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's office said the Punjab migrants staying at Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Nehru Vihar, shelter were medically screened before they left for their homes. "Migrants from Punjab living in Delhi govt's temporary shelter at Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Nehru Vihar left for their home towns today morning. They were screened by our medical team and provided with food, masks and sanitiser. God bless them all," the CMO office said. The Delhi government has begun the process of sending migrant workers kept at its shelters in the city to their home states. Over 1000 migrant workers from Madhya Pradesh and 1200 from Bihar were sent home through trains earlier this week. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Just days after the Trump administration set out careful benchmarks for states to meet before reopening their economies, four governors announced plans that basically ignore them. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp will allow many businesses to reopen on Friday. In South Carolina, some retailers and its beaches are already open. The governors of Tennessee and Ohio will begin phased restarts on May 1. Yet all of these states have seen Covid-19 case counts, day over day, jump within the past few days. The White House guidelines call for two weeks of sustained decline. South Carolina, Georgia and Ohio are in the bottom 10 states in terms of tests run per 100,000 residents arguably violating a second White House benchmark that says, before reopening, states should be fully ready to test front-line health workers. States are also supposed to have broad coronavirus surveillance systems and track-and-trace programs in place. None of the four states has fully met this mark. Georgia plans to allow gyms, bowling alleys and other businesses to open this Friday, April 24. Theaters and restaurants can follow three days later. (All will be required to institute distancing measures.) This shift will probably lead to a substantial increase in activity. On Monday, Kemp said his decision comes as new diagnoses in the state appear to be flattening. But Georgia looks as if it may be at a plateau only if you ignore the biggest-ever daily jump in new cases statewide, reported on April 17. The state will be relaxing restrictions within a week of what still isnt confirmed to be a peak of new infections. There are good reasons that the White House benchmarks call for a sustained case decline: Covid-19 spreads rapidly and sometimes via carriers who have no symptoms. And because the coronavirus has a long incubation period, it can take time for even significant outbreaks to become large enough to discern, unless there is widespread testing. Georgia seems determined to ignore this reality. Story continues South Carolinas already commenced reopening looks no better. The state is a few weeks removed from its highest reported increase in Covid-19 cases. However, the steepest jump in its daily count came just the other day, on Saturday. And the state hasnt reported more than 2,600 tests in a day since April 9. Governor Henry McMaster says he hopes his plan will help South Carolina recover more quickly than any other state in the country. What he risks is a second outbreak or a worsening, uncontained epidemic. Tennessee, in contrast, can claim to have reached something that looks like a plateau, based on its positive test data. Yet even with a per-capita testing rate that is the 16th highest in the U.S., Tennessee has not seen a sustained decline. And Governor Bill Lees plan to allow the opening of the vast majority of businesses in all but five of the states 95 counties by May 1 will test any emerging stability. Among the four state leaders, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine stands out for his early action and pragmatism in dealing with Covid-19 for which he has earned much praise. And the phased approach to reopening he now has in mind may prove to be appropriately cautious and flexible. Unfortunately, though, it comes just as the states case count is rising due to an outbreak in a prison. While this may be an isolated incident, it demonstrates how fast, in this pandemic, a seemingly stable situation can deteriorate. All 50 states are bound to find reopening difficult no matter how carefully they follow public health guidelines. Four states are deliberately choosing to lower their odds of success. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Max Nisen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering biotech, pharma and health care. He previously wrote about management and corporate strategy for Quartz and Business Insider. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. Kyrgyzstan reported on Sunday 71 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number in the country to 1002, Trend reports citing Kabar. Kyrgyzstans Deputy Health Minister Nurbolot Usenbaev said that among the newly infected 55 are Kyrgyz citizens, who arrived from Sol-Iletzk of Russia. In total 542 Kyrgyz residents arrived from Sol-Iletsk. He added that citizens who arrived from Sol-Iletsk were infected with the virus because they had been in a closed room for a long time. In addition, Usenbaev said that among the newly infected cases one is a medical worker. Thus, the total number of contracted medical workers is 232, with 176 recoveries, he said. the deputy minister also noted that currently, there have been 260 patients with coronavirus infection in hospitals in the country. In addition, 1205 people who have had contact with infected patients are still under medical observation, while 17 others have recovered in the past day, raising the total number of recoveries in the country to 675. 12 COVID-19 patients have passed away since the outbreak in the country. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 10 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Azerbaijans national leader Heydar Aliyev was a unique political figure, a leader in the true sense of the word, US expert, CEO of Caspian Group Holdings Rob Sobhani told Trend. Sobhani noted that he had the honor and privilege of meeting with Heydar Aliyev on numerous occasions. During these meetings it was very clear to me that his number one priority was always the hard fought independence of Azerbaijan. Heydar Aliyev was keenly aware of the sacrifices that had been made by the people of Azerbaijan to gain their independence. He in turn made a solemn pact with the people of Azerbaijan never again to let its independence be violated. With this as the foundation of his foreign policy, Heydar Aliyev created relations with global superpowers on friendly and mutually respected terms, noted the US expert. He pointed out that US presidents Bill Clinton and HW Bush had enormous respect for Heydar Aliyev. Leading thinkers of international relations such as Zbigniew Brzezinski admired Heydar Aliyev for his deep insights into global geopolitics. Azerbaijan is situated in a dangerous region but Heydar Aliyev was always able to balance Azerbaijan's foreign policy in such a way as to establish mutually beneficial relations with all countries, said the US expert. Sobhani pointed out that Heydar Aliyev helped lead the people of Azerbaijan from the dark days of the collapse of the Soviet Union to a very bright future by showing wisdom and foresight to sign the Contract of the Century. And it must be noted that President Ilham Aliyev has built upon this legacy by turning the Contract of the Century into an engine for rebuilding Azerbaijan into a modern, tolerant and dynamic nation, he noted. By ensuring the signing of the Contract of the Century Heydar Aliyev showed wisdom, courage and foresight, said Sobhani. This historic moment in the life of Azerbaijan could never have happened without the leadership and vision of Heydar Aliyev. The Contract of the Century put Azerbaijan onto the list of consequential countries of the world. As such Heydar Aliyev laid the foundation for Azerbaijan to become a responsible and reliable member of the international community. Furthermore, by ensuring the signing of the Contract of the Century Heydar Aliyev allowed for the people of Azerbaijan to live in hope and prosperity. The Contract of the Century was a loud and bold message to the people of world: "Azerbaijan is stable and open for business." As a result we witnessed billions of dollars of investments flow into Azerbaijan thus improving the lives of citizens of Azerbaijan. Heydar Aliyev was a unique political figure who was a leader in the true sense of the word, noted the US expert. Australian writer Mem Fox knows what its like to worry about being well enough, surviving long enough, to finish a book. She feels the terror in her body something like cold sweats and slight panic attacks. She wonders sometimes whether she will survive the coming winter. But within that terror and boredom, as she lay in her hospital bed unable even to queue up podcasts she began to write a story in her head. The Guardian (UK) 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. Imagine if you held China Outfitters Holdings Limited (HKG:1146) for half a decade as the share price tanked 83%. We also note that the stock has performed poorly over the last year, with the share price down 25%. Furthermore, it's down 12% in about a quarter. That's not much fun for holders. But this could be related to the weak market, which is down 7.2% in the same period. 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. See our latest analysis for China Outfitters Holdings To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price. During the five years over which the share price declined, China Outfitters Holdings's earnings per share (EPS) dropped by 37% each year. This fall in the EPS is worse than the 30% compound annual share price fall. The relatively muted share price reaction might be because the market expects the business to turn around. The company's earnings per share (over time) is depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers). SEHK:1146 Past and Future Earnings May 10th 2020 Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here. A Different Perspective While the broader market lost about 8.7% in the twelve months, China Outfitters Holdings shareholders did even worse, losing 25%. 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, longer term shareholders are suffering worse, given the loss of 30% doled out over the last five years. We would want clear information suggesting the company will grow, before taking the view that the share price will stabilize. 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. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for China Outfitters Holdings (of which 1 is potentially serious!) you should know about. Story continues 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. 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: Much is uncertain about New York Citys future amid coronavirus the timeline for reopening, the timeline for development of treatments and a vaccine. But one thing has remained clear: In order to safely reopen, cities like New York must develop the capacity to regularly test portions of the population, trace the spread of the virus and isolate those who have been exposed. And as the count of those struggling both in health and finances continues to mount, time is of the essence. New York needs contact tracing quickly. By now, multiple localities have proved the importance of contact tracing in an effective Covid-19 response. South Korea and Hong Kong have used it to contain their outbreaks, and Massachusetts last month became the first American state to invest in a contact-tracing program, budgeting $44 million to hire 1,000 people who can identify pockets of infection and prevent infected people from transmitting the virus to others in their community. New York City is well positioned to undertake an ambitious program of this nature: The citys health department has led contact-tracing efforts for decades for diseases such as tuberculosis, H.I.V. and Ebola. It regularly oversees similar efforts to contain outbreaks of sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis and other communicable diseases. But instead of turning the authority over to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, to retrace its well-trod territory, Mayor Bill de Blasio determined a pivot was in order. He decided to entrust the program to the public hospital system, Health and Hospitals, which oversees the citys 11 public hospitals. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: An 80-year-old man was detained by Banjara Hills police on Saturday for sexually assaulting a woman. The police questioned the suspect and his family in connection with the incident. While the police remained tight-lipped about the issue, sources said that the woman was provided accommodation by the suspect at Road No 12 during the lockdown. When she was alone, the man forced himself on her. The woman, who managed to escape from him, immediately filed a plaint with the Banjara Hills police. Sources said that the police may ask the victim to undergo medical examination. MasterChef Australia star Brendan Pang has shared his secret recipe to make the perfect steamed bao buns at home. The Perth owner of Bumplings dumpling kitchen said all you'll need to make the traditional Chinese dough are five ingredients - dried yeast, milk, sugar, flour and oil. He said the secret to steaming the buns to fluffy perfection comes down to the flour you use and how much heat is distributed evenly during the process. 'It's essential bun flour is used and that when it comes to steaming the bao, the heat and steam is distributed evenly, which keeps the dough fluffy and light but still structured - you don't want them to collapse,' Brendan explained. Scroll down for recipe MasterChef Australia star Brendan Pang (pictured) has shared his secret recipe to make the perfect steamed bao buns at home The Perth owner of Bumplings dumpling kitchen said all you'll need to make the traditional Chinese dough are dried yeast, milk, sugar, flour and oil The MasterChef Australia: Back To Win contestant has teamed up with kitchen appliance brand AEG to share his modern take on the traditional yum cha dish. 'The bao bun is a great example of a food that has evolved from its very traditional origins, to a contemporary crowd pleaser that has so many options when it comes to flavour combinations,' he said. 'Originally known as baozi and originating from Northern China thousands of years ago, bao buns have been a firm family favourite long as I can remember. 'I like my bao the traditional way, with roast pork, and the recipe I've developed will impress the even the most devoted bao enthusiasts.' To create the bao buns, Brendan said you need to dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warmed milk before adding the flour and oil, and mix until dough forms. The MasterChef contestant said the secret to steaming the buns to fluffy perfection comes down to the flour you use and how much heat is distributed evenly during the process Knead on a lightly floured surface for 10-15 minutes until smooth, soft and elastic. Alternatively use the dough hook attachment of an electric mixer. Next, shape dough into a ball and place into a lightly greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a clean, damp tea towel and leave to rest for 30-45 mins or until doubled in size. Remove dough from the bowl and turn out onto a clean work surface. Knead lightly for one minute. Shape into a 3cm thick log and cut into 3cm long pieces - approximately 16 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and allow to rest for three minutes. Next, roll out each ball until 3-4mm thick and use a 10cm cutter to trim into circles. Lightly brush the surface of the rolled-out dough with oil and gently fold in half. Heat a large steamer or bamboo basket over a large saucepan of simmering water on a medium-high heat. Steam the buns for eight minutes or until puffed and cooked through. Serve the bao buns with char sui pork, perilla and sawtooth coriander leaves, cucumber, carrot, chilli and Korean BBQ sauce. (Natural News) Most people who smoke, vape, dip or chew have no clue that long term use of nicotine impairs their bodys ability to produce dopamine properly, leaving them to rely solely on the worlds third most addictive drug to artificially stimulate that feel good hormone. Currently, there are over a billion tobacco users worldwide, and that number is creeping upward ominously, expecting to double over the next 3 decades. Then you have millions of people who use nicotine all day, every day. It gets worse. Nicotine kills over 6 million people a year, about that same number is representative of Jews who died in the Holocaust at the hands of the Nazis. Thats also the population of the whole state of Maryland or Wisconsin. Picture that in your minds eye. Its also a scientific fact that nicotine use lowers immunity, setting users up for infections from bacteria and viruses. So whats it take to quit nicotine? The physical addiction of nicotine only lasts 4 days, but the behavioral habits and lack of dopamine boosts are what make it so seemingly impossible to quit Dependence on nicotine is actually rated higher than that for cocaine or heroin. Thats because it catapults your dopamine production, but the price you pay for the artificial crutch is very steep. Nicotine has mood-altering capabilities, for starters. This creates a hormonal imbalance, and over time, the body builds up a tolerance to nicotine, requiring higher amounts to get the same rush or high. Then come the addiction triggers; think stress, alcohol, fidgeting, hand-to-mouth habits and breathing rituals. So how do you quit for real? Sure, millions of ex-smokers brag about quitting cold turkey, but how many of them really did? Maybe someone close to them died from cancer or they themselves just had a tumor removed recently. Maybe their own doctor told them if they keep smoking theyll die soon. Whatever the motive to quit, the hardest part isnt kicking the nicotine addiction, its actually the problem of what to do about your low dopamine production. In the short run, nicotine is a stimulant, but in the long run, its a depressant, just like alcohol and cocaine. Nicotine screws up your normal functioning of autonomic nerves too. You simply dont behave the same way. Little things will stress you out, make you nervous, anxious, edgy, moody and later depressed. Even things that used to excite you dont. Whats wrong? Low dopamine levels. You think, at that point, a nicotine jolt is the only solution, but youre wrong. Theres a natural remedy that nary a nicotine addict alive knows about. Its called mucuna. What if you could raise your dopamine levels safely and naturally, with no hangover or drop off later? Would you check it out? Would you? When? If you could drop the cigarettes, the vape, the dip, or the chew and instead substitute a supplement that actually has a laundry list of health benefits, would you start right away, or wait? Theres a beautiful, exotic, potent, velvety bean that grows in tropical climates and is ground up and sold in supplements. Its called mucuna pruriens. Its proven by doctors and scientists in clinical studies and peer-reviewed, double-blind research to raise dopamine levels safely, effectively and naturally. Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas worked with nicotine users and found out the main reason they relapse after they quit is low dopamine levels. Adaptogen superfood Mucuna kicks nicotine cravings naturally Do you know about superfoods like mucuna? Theres an amazing supplement beverage invention that hit the market this spring, and many nicotine users (and sugar addicts) are jumping aboard the mucuna train to drop the nicotine fix and help raise their immune levels, especially during this COVID crisis. That invention is called Krave Kicker, the worlds first supplement beverage that kicks nicotine cravings naturally. Whether youre smoking, vaping, dipping or chewing, if you need a break (like permanently), Krave Kicker is the perfect solution. Stay safe and healthy during this coronavirus pandemic. You do have a choice with natural remedies. Sources for this article include: StopSmoking.news NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com KraveKicker.com Encyclopedia.ushmm.org VapingDaily.com American Hostage Mark Frerichs, a contractor from Illinois, poses in Iraq in this undated photo obtained from Twitter that he would include with his resume when job hunting. Frerichs was abducted in Afghanistan in January 2020. Early efforts to locate him have been shrouded in mystery and his disappearance has been the subject of minimal public discussion by the U.S. government. The Associated Press has learned that in the days following Frerichs capture, Navy commandos raided a village and detained suspected members of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network while the U.S. intelligence community tried to track the cellphones of Frerich and his captors. (Twitter via AP) ISLAMABAD (AP) Taliban leaders searched their ranks, including in the much-feared Haqqani network, and on Sunday told The Associated Press they are not holding Mark R. Frerichs, a Navy veteran turned contractor who disappeared in Afghanistan in late January. We don't have any information about the missing American, Sohail Shaheen, the Taliban's political spokesman, told the AP. A second Taliban official familiar with the talks with the United States said formally and informally the Taliban have notified U.S. officials they are not holding Frerichs. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Washington's peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who negotiated a peace deal with the Taliban signed in February to allow America and NATO countries to withdraw their troops and end decades of war, asked for Frierchs' release during his meetings this week in Qatar, where the Taliban maintain a political office. In a statement late Saturday by the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Khalilzad also sought Pakistans help in locating Frierchs. He arrived in Islamabad on Friday from Doha before heading to neighboring India in his pursuit of a lasting peace in Afghanistan. He met with Pakistan's Army Chief of Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa to also press Pakistan's assistance getting the Taliban to agree to reduce violence in Afghanistan, where they have stepped up attacks on Afghan Security Forces but not U.S. or NATO forces, in line with the peace deal. Pakistan, where Taliban leaders have found a safe haven since their overthrow in 2001 by the U.S.-led coalition, has worked with the U.S. to get a peace deal with the Taliban. While it still has influence with the insurgents, a deep mistrust between the militant movement and Pakistan exists. Pakistan kept the Taliban's chief negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in jail for eight years after his arrest in a joint Pakistan-CIA operation in 2010, apparently because he had opened peace talks with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai but without Pakistan or Washington's involvement. Since his release in late 2018 to push the U.S.-Taliban peace process forward, he has returned only once to Pakistan and has quietly been relocating his family to the Middle East. Story continues Earlier this week, the FBI took the unusual step of putting out a poster with Frerichs' picture on it seeking information into his disappearance and whereabouts, something they have not done in previous incidents where the Taliban have taken hostages. In previous talks, negotiations have been held quietly, intelligence has been gathered and only many months later the hostages' fate became known having either found their freedom or died. Khalilzad's latest trip to the region, according to a U.S. State Department announcement, includes Doha, Islamabad and New Delhi but not Kabul, where political turmoil has stymied progress on the deal's next and critical phase of intra-Afghan talks. Afghanistan's political leaders are still disputing last year's presidential polls. A frustrated U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in March cut $1 billion in aid to Afghanistan after a surprise visit to the Afghan capital failed to bring about an agreement between the two leaders President Ashraf Ghani and his rival, Abdullah Abdullah. Khalilzad however has been pressing forward, pushing the Taliban to agree to a reduction in violence in an effort to move Afghanistan toward a lasting peace. The U.S. and NATO however have started their troop withdrawal, which will be completed by next year if the Taliban keeps to their promise in the deal to fight terrorist groups, particularly the Islamic State, and guarantee Afghan territory is not used again to attack the United States or its allies. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Sebastian Partogi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, May 10, 2020 13:52 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd7091a7 1 Books #literature,#novel,#book,#author,#people,#profile,#singapore,#COVID19,#MichelleTanmizi Free The coronavirus outbreak, which has partly been driven by habitat destruction and trade, feels so dystopian. Take a look at the lockdown measures that have forced people across the world to stay confined in their homes. In Singapore the policy is called the circuit-breaker, in Indonesia it is referred to as large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), which brings to mind George Orwells notion of newspeak in his 1949 novel 1984. The pandemic has also made many individuals turn to virtual platforms to have social interactions, where instead of gathering in the same place, we have our faces popping up in small boxes on our computer screen. Arent we afraid of Big Brother watching and listening? And what about the possibility of totalitarian regimes emerging out of the pandemic? Such issues were among those raised during a Jakarta-based virtual book club called Baca Rasa Dengar (Read Sense and Listen) on April 18 in Jakarta, joined by about 18 participants from Indonesia and Japan to discuss the concept of dystopia. In dystopian novels, the government tells you exactly what to do and you have to obey it. For instance, if you dare to get out during the lockdown period in certain areas, you can get fined or worse, go to jail. Then, there is chaos due to a lack of basic needs. Think of the toilet paper fights [in Sydney, Australia], or the lootings that have already happened in the United States, said Indonesian-born Singaporean author Michelle Tanmizi, the book discussions guest speaker. Michelle Tanmizi (Courtesy of Michelle Tanmizi/-) The current situation eerily replicates aspects of her 2019 dystopian novel Late Dawn (Hasmark Publishing) Her novel is set in 4848, when habitats have become scarce due to human intrusion and to survive, the animals evolve into giants and take their revenge on humans by attacking them. Trying to wipe these giants off the Earth, these humans create a virus that has ultimately mutated to infect humans, inducing Ebola-like symptoms, where people bleed out of their eyeballs. I was inspired to write the novel in about 2003 or 2004, upon watching lots of documentaries of the declining wildlife habitat and resultant animal attacks, Tanmizi told the The Jakarta Post in a video call interview. However, she was too busy taking care of the Zama International wellness center, of which she was the managing director, cofounder and owner in Hong Kong. The center offers different kinds of wellness services, even psychic readings and mediums who can reportedly see things that are unseen by average people. Many people who came to have readings there are youngsters eager to know whether their love is reciprocated or whether they will get that particular dream job. There are also people in bereavement who come. Basically, they just needed the mediums to tell them that their loved ones are happy in the afterlife, the 54-year-old said. She picked her pen back up in 2018, when she was already semiretired and already had time on her side. She did her research for the book by Googling as many articles as she could on the topic of climate change, virus mutations, pandemics and wildlife animals. She said her love affair with dystopian novels first begin when she picked up Canadian author Margaret Atwoods 1985 novel The Handmaids Tale, which, upon reading, turned her into a lifelong Atwood fan. Atwood is able to weave story-driven dystopian, science fiction novels without conveying too many technical details, therefore, leaving so many things up to readers imaginations. But it is obvious she understands the back story and bigger picture contexts inside and out, Tanmizi said. She enjoyed reading literature to marvel at the beauty of their prose, with books by Afghanistan-born American author Khaled Hosseinis The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns among her favorites. I also love Indian author Arundhati Roys The God of Small Things; I love it so much Ive read it three times, she said. As for speculative science fiction, she recommended Australian author Claire G. Colemans Terra Nullius and another one by yet another female Australian author, Krissy Kneens An Uncertain Grace. Im not sure whether they will sell Kneens book in Indonesia because it is almost pornography, Tanmizi joked. Tanmizi was born in Indonesia before she left home at the age of 8 to attend school in Singapore and later went to university in the United States. Afterward, her various work assignments took her to France and Hong Kong before eventually landing her back in Singapore, where she now lives with her 88-year-old mother. I find that there are some aspects of the Indonesian life that I cant assimilate to anymore, for instance, I dont understand certain jokes and local lingos, said Tanmizi, who was also invited to take part in Ubud Writers and Readers Festival last year. Also, people who have been living for a long time in Indonesia have been used to a certain degree of discomfort, she added, referring to Jakartas notorious traffic and bad road conditions. Nonetheless, she was happy to connect with her fellow Indonesians, such as through the virtual book club. I hope the lockdown will soon be over. I dont miss socializing as Im not a social person, but I miss walking and exercising outside, writing in cafes and having my salsa classes. In the meantime, stay happy and stay healthy. That way, your immune system will remain strong, thus preventing the virus from taking you down. (ste) At a time when the spread of COVID-19 has made social distancing a buzzword, banks have increased their reliance on social media to engage with their customers -- may it be for disseminating information or for dispelling their boredom. The government imposed a 21-day countrywide lockdown beginning March 25 to check the spread of coronavirus, and extended it twice, prompting business entities including banks to get innovative on social media. Among the noteworthy initiatives by banks during the lockdown, HDFC Bank came out with a scheme to help its customers find their hidden artistic talent. "Tired of staying home and having nothing to do? HDFC Bank Fingage presents The Art Project, to give you a #BreakFromBoredom! Unlock your creativity during the lockdown & stand a chance to win exciting prizes!," tweeted the bank, trying to engage its customers during the lockdown. Punjab National Bank (PNB) has come up with a contest on the Mother's Day with a catchy slogan, "For her, you will always remain a child." Since the lockdown has made online banking more vulnerable to fraudsters, several banks are regularly warning their customers against possible frauds. "Beware of fraudsters who pose as bank officials and scam people by gaining remote access to their mobile phone screens through an app. Inform us when you identify a scamster through e-mail: epg.cms@sbi.co.in & report.phishing@sbi.co.in," tweeted SBI. Similar warnings were issued by a few other lenders. "Fraudsters find new ways to target innocent people. And this time, they are targeting through banking and other payments apps to steal your hard-earned money. Be careful and keep following the #PNBKaFunda to learn the ways to avoid them," PNB tweeted. Another public sector major Canara Bank warned its customers in a tweet, "Don't get hooked by #Phishing! Always check before you click on any links. Be cautious about opening any attachments or downloading files received via email/sms , if source is unknown. A few banks have also come up with 'lockdown offers' for their customers. HDFC Bank offered discount on purchase of jewellery on Akshaya Tritya with a promise that part of the money would go to PM Cares Fund. "This Akshaya Tritya, buy jewellery from the safety of your home, with HDFC Bank Credit Cards! With every purchase above Rs.10,000, we will contribute Rs. 100 to the PM Cares Fund and you earn 5X Reward Points," HDFC Bank tweeted. Union Bank of India has offered discount on purchase of medicine. "In this difficult time, it's easy to save some cash on your pharmacy bill. Just use #UnionBankofIndia cards at your nearest Apollo Pharmacy Store to get up to 15% off," UBI said in a tweet. SBI gave a similar offer to its customers: "Get a health check from the comfort of your home with Apollo 24/7. Earn great discounts on key lab tests via YONO SBI app." Some banks are telling customers how they are tweaking services to suit the times. Union Bank of India informed its customers that for the time being there would be no charge on withdrawal of funds from ATMs of other banks. "To ease the lockdown burden, Debit card ATM withdrawals from any other bank ATMs will be free of charge till 30th June 2020," the bank said in a tweet. Banks are also making sure people in rural areas do not crowd the branches for direct benefit transfers. The country's largest lender SBI informed that the second installment of Rs 500 had been deposited in the accounts of female Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana account holders under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana. It also provided a schedule for withdrawal of funds by them so that social distancing norms are not breached. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Under quarantine in Uttar Pradesh's Deoband for more than 40 days, a group of 9 Tablighi Jamaat members from Delhi have urged Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to facilitate their return home following the Saharanpur administration's nod to release them upon completion of requisite quarantine period. The group members have claimed that they did not participate in the religious congregation at Nizammuddin Markaz in the national capital in March and their coronavirus tests conducted by the Uttar Pradesh government last month have come out negative. Residents of Darya Ganj, Karol Bagh, and Okhla in the national capital, the nine had arrived in Deoband in the last week of February and were sent to different quarantine centres after a number of Tablighi Jamaat members tested positive for COVID-19 at the Delhi Markaz in March. "For more than 40 days now we have been in different quarantine centres here (Deoband). The district administration here is ready to release us but Delhi's borders with Uttar Pradesh have been sealed," a group member who did not wish to be named told PTI over phone from Deoband. We are anxious to go back home but are afraid that we will get stuck at the border, he added. In a letter to Kejriwal, the group said that they possess all certificates and documents from the authorities in Saharanpur for their travel to Delhi and have even arranged their own transport. "We have filled a form provided by camp authority for permission to go to Delhi by our own conveyance. We request you to allow us to enter Delhi," the group said in the letter. A senior officer of the Saharanpur district administration said that if a person has completed his/her qurantine period, he or she can go home on their own. "There are many people who are stuck here (UP) a state-to-state level agreement is necessary for the movement of such people. However, those willing to go home on their own after completion of required quarantine period can do so, the official said. On Saturday, the Delhi government had asked district magistrates to release over 2,000 Tablighi Jamaat members from quarantine centres and ensure that they do not stay in any other places except their homes. The Delhi government had said that it would also facilitate ferrying of Markaz attendees from other states to their native places. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) House concerts, where fans host an artists performance in their homes, have been fairly common in recent years. The shows just usually dont take place in the performers home until now. These are abnormal times, so musicians have had to adapt. And Jim Olsen, founder of Signature Sounds label and owner of The Parlor Room in Northampton, is helping musicians do just that. He and his team have been producing live-streaming shows under the Signature Sounds Presents imprimatur, where artists perform from home. The shutdown happened so suddenly that it really took us by surprise. We had to cancel or postpone about 30 shows at The Parlor Room, Gateway City Arts and Shea Theater with little notice, Olsen said. Almost immediately we started to see artists performing live stream shows and we had the idea to start the series. Winterpills and Chris Smither volunteered to be guinea pigs and do the first shows for the series, which now numbers into the teens. Acts such as Kris Delmhorst and Philip B. Price have already played, with others including Peter Mulvey, Mary Gauthier and Chris Smither set perform in the days ahead. Olsen said that while most of the artists have welcomed the chance to do it, some have declined. And the artists who have played arent all just Signature Sounds acts. We've had some nice surprises including Al Anderson from NRBQ and Texas songwriter Slaid Cleaves, Olsen said. The goal, Olsen said, is twofold: to keep artists and fans connected and to help performers sustain themselves while they are unable to tour. All of the artists we've presented make their living by touring. These shows allow the artists to stay connected to their fans and to make some money. Our streams have a comment section where the fans can send comments to the artists in real time, he said. Most of the artists have interacted with the audience this way during the shows. We have a virtual tip jar for the audience to give money via Paypal or Venmo. Our audiences have been amazingly generous and we've paid the artists over $45,000 to date. Producing shows this way is also different for artists, Olsen said. It's really quite different from a club show, which is a controlled environment, he said. These artists are bringing you into their homes, and that creates a certain intimacy and vulnerability. There's no barrier between the artist and the audience. Olsen said the main technological component to ensuring a good sure is the artists internet connection If they live rurally with less than optimal wifi, you can end up with a glitchy stream, he said. The technology is new for most of these artists, but our engineer Jared Libby does a great job getting them prepared for the show. And while the headcount is done differently than at a live show, Olsen said they can tell how many people are tuning in.m One of the amazing things about these shows is that we get a pretty exact count of how many screens are watching the video. Our shows are aired on multiple platforms including YouTube Live, Facebook and Vimeo. Each platform tells you how many screens are live, he said. What has surprised us the most is the worldwide reach. Every show has had an international audience including viewers in Europe, Australia and the far east as well as from all over the U.S. and Canada. Olsen said he also thinks that music can make it easier for people to deal with the shutdown. I think everyone has had their lives upended, and music provides a grounding influence, Your favorite songs take you back to another place in your life and add a perspective that makes coping with the current situation a little easier, he said. It will be a while before well be comfortable being in a room with a lot of people. No one can predict when that will happen, and its unsettling. I have faith in the power of music and community. Well have some great parties when this is all over. By Michel Rose PARIS (Reuters) - France and the Netherlands have joined forces to urge the European Union to enforce environmental and labour standards more forcefully with countries the bloc signs trade deals with, according to a document seen by Reuters. The initiative comes as the EU tries to negotiate a new trade deal with Britain, which formally left the bloc on Jan. 31, amid concerns that it might seek to undercut EU labour and environmental standards to boost its competitiveness. The involvement of the traditionally strongly pro-free trade Dutch underscores a shift in European thinking on the need to protect domestic industry and jobs, a French diplomat said, as the coronavirus pandemic batters the global economy. A more assertive China and U.S. President Donald Trump's more protectionist 'America-First' agenda have also helped to reshape European attitudes towards free trade. In their joint proposal sent to the other 25 EU member states, the French and Dutch trade ministers urge the European Commission to be ready to raise tariffs against trade partners that fail to meet their commitments on sustainable development. "Trade policy instruments can provide additional leverage to the implementation of international environmental and labour standards," the document said. The EU should link tariff reductions "where relevant" to the effective implementation of trade and sustainable development provisions and be willing to take action when those provisions are breached, it added. "WAKE-UP CALL" An official at the European Commission, which handles trade policy on behalf of EU member states, told Reuters the proposals were "timely" and would be taken into account in a policy review announced by Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan and planned for later this year. The French and Dutch, who want the proposals applied both to deals under negotiation and to updates of existing trade pacts, urged the Commission to inform member states more regularly on the impact that trade deals have on European jobs and domestic industries. Story continues The document also says a commitment to the Paris Agreement on climate change must be a pre-requisite for any trade pact. Trump has decided to ditch the climate pact. France has long favoured a more protectionist stance on trade. As early as his first EU summit in 2017, President Emmanuel Macron said attracting foreign investment should not mean exposing Europe to "the disorder of globalisation", and he cautioned the EU against being too "naive" in global trade. French officials say the coronavirus pandemic has further exposed the dangers of relying too much on competitors such as China for critical supplies and contributed to an increased wariness among EU nations such as the Netherlands and the Nordics that have long supported unrestricted free trade. "Countries for which this agenda was seen as very French a few months ago are now shifting," a French diplomatic source told Reuters. "There's a sort of wake-up call in Europe." The Franco-Dutch document was first reported by the Financial Times. (Reporting by Michel Rose; additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels; Editing by Gareth Jones) Flash Somali militant group al-Shabab has freed an Italian aid worker who was abducted in Kenya's coastal town of Malindi in November 2018, police confirmed on Saturday. James Mugera, Kilifi county police commander, confirmed that Sylvia Romano, an Italian volunteer, who was seized from her hotel room on the evening of Nov. 20, 2018, has been rescued following intelligence leads. "It's true that a multi-agency team working with the Italian government has managed to rescue her. They are waiting for further directions on whether to fly her to Nairobi or Mombasa and then back home to Italy," Mugera said. Mugera said Romano was rescued in Somalia following heightened surveillance and negotiations to secure her release between the government of Italy and suspected al-Shabab militants. He said Romano is expected to be flown back to Italy to receive specialized treatment since her health had deteriorated for the past two years. According to Kenyan police, Romano is believed to have been sold to al-Shabab militants in Somalia after Italy failed to hand over ransom to facilitate her release. Five people were shot and wounded when the militants abducted the 23-year-old volunteer with the humanitarian group, Africa Milele Onlus. Three suspects, who were arrested in connection to her kidnapping, are still in police custody waiting to undergo trial after they pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act within Kenya. Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati and Singapores Duke-NUS Medical School have come up with an alternative model to analyse and predict the number of COVID-19 infected people in 30 days in different states of India. The data-science model, developed by the team, is a combination of all three different models being used in the country at present. The model predicts the cases as per logistics method and exponential method (prediction if the situation turns severe). The states are divided into three categories--moderate, severe and controlled. The model follows a different categorisation than the currently adopted Green Zone, Orange Zone and Red Zone classification. According to the team, India will have 1.5 lakh COVID-19 cases in next 30 days as per logistic method and 5.5 lakh cases as per exponential method. A report solely based on any one model can potentially mislead us. In an attempt to guard against this possibility, we have considered the exponential, the logistic, and the Susceptible Infectious Susceptible (SIS) models, along with the model-free daily infection-rate (DIR) using open-source data. We have interpreted the results jointly from all models rather than individually, Palash Ghosh, Assistant Professor, IIT Guwahati told PTI. The report is based on the growth of active cases in recent times, along with the daily infection-rate (DIR) values for each state. We have labelled a state as severe if a non-decreasing trend in DIR values is observed over the last two weeks along with a near exponential growth in active infected cases, as moderate if an almost decreasing trend in DIR values is observed over the last two weeks along with neither increasing nor decreasing growth in active infected cases, and as controlled if a decreasing trend in the last two weeks DIR values is observed along with a decreasing growth in active infected cases, Ghosh said. While analyzing the novel coronavirus infection data, considering our entire country to be on the same page may not reveal the right picture. This is so because the first infection, new infection-rate, progression over time, and preventive measures taken by various state governments and the common public for each state are different. We need to address each state separately. It will enable the government to utilize the limited available resources optimally, he added. The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 2,109 and the number of cases climbed to 62,939 in the country on Sunday, registering an increase of 128 deaths and 3,277 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry. Sunday, May 10, 2020 at 6:09PM Microsoft will make it easier to use Office for iPad by adding iPadOS trackpad and mouse support. This feature will be coming to the unified Office for iPad in the fall. But it might make its way sooner than that. Or at least we're hoping it does. Microsoft is quick to introduce new features to its iOS apps, so we wouldn't be surprised to get this sooner instead of later. And the touchpad support is expected to come to individual Word, Excel, PowerPoint apps, too. Source: The Verge Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Natalia Drozdiak, Richard Weiss and Helene Fouquet (Bloomberg) Sun, May 10, 2020 17:00 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd71286c 2 News travelers,travel,business-travelers,tourism,coronavirus,COVID-19 Free Mobile phone applications that trace the new coronavirus could help decide whether business travelers and vacation-goers get to meet clients or visit their favorite beaches this summer. But politics and disagreement over what system to use threatens to thwart that solution. Governments in Europe and elsewhere are turning to voluntary mobile apps to help trace possible infections of the coronavirus, a tool that will help track and contain what they expect to be resurgent outbreaks of the virus once lockdown measures lift and people start to fly internationally. But officials, airlines and experts say theyre worried that some countries -- such as the UK and France -- are working on systems that are fundamentally incompatible with others -- such as Germany and Austria. European Union tech czar Margrethe Vestager made the issue clear to members of the European Parliament this week: Without interoperability, we will not be able to travel, she said. In Europe, where travel has been curbed between the blocs 27 nations in recent weeks, officials at least agree that apps are an important way to facilitate the return of free movement. Without technology it will be very difficult to open to the degree that we want to, Vestager said in an online briefing with the MEPs on Monday. Read also: Apple, Google ban use of location tracking in contact tracing apps Contact tracing At issue are diverging approaches over how to handle the apps, which trace who may have been exposed to COVID-19, despite a push by the European Union to make them interoperable. The way countries are rolling out the apps now, a persons exposure traced on an app in France wouldnt carry over into Germany if they traveled there, nor would authorities easily be able to exchange that information. While some countries like Belgium are considering eschewing mobile tracing apps altogether, most other European nations are designing voluntary systems based on Bluetooth technology. Authorities are hoping a majority of the population will download them, allowing them to more easily alert individuals of possible infections. With their apps, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and other countries are opting for a decentralized system, which mostly stores information on a persons phone and will be supported by a tool jointly developed by Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.s Google. By contrast, the centralized method, pursued by France and the UK, would allow information about someones contacts to be uploaded to government servers. Officials and experts say those two systems are incompatible. Youre fundamentally sharing different kinds of data, said Marcel Salathe, an associate professor at the Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne. France, meanwhile, is in a standoff with Apple because the company rebuffed the governments request to modify privacy and security settings for apps that use the iPhone makers Bluetooth technology. French authorities say they need a workaround for their centralized app. Because Frances app wont be interoperable with most other countries, it means any travel could be paired with orders to quarantine both upon arrival and return, said a senior French official with knowledge of the governments plans. Other officials say the government would seek to avoid such an extreme measure for travel within Europe. Restarting airlines Representatives for the airline industry -- battered by grounded fleets and plummeting passenger numbers -- urged for a cohesive approach to the technology. Airlines for Europe, an association that represents Air France-KLM, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and EasyJet Plc, said contact-tracing apps could, among other measures, play an important role in reviving operations by potentially preventing travelers from coming into contact with coronavirus carriers on-board a plane and at airports. But coordination at the European level is key regarding the use of apps, said A4E spokeswoman Jennifer Janzen. We need to avoid any risk that passengers would have to download multiple apps for a single trip, for example. Montserrat Barriga, director general at the European Regions Airlines Association, which represents TAP Air Portugal, Croatia Airlines among others said there is a clear need for co-ordination and harmonization on contact tracing processes. This is a global industry that requires a global approach, avoiding the adoption of local variations where possible, she said. A representative for Frankfurt airport, one of Europes busiest, says they are in favor of any measure that will enable safe flying in times of the pandemic but that discussions about such apps must take place at a political level internationally. EU officials are pressuring governments to align on the issue, stressing that citizens need to be able to be alerted of possible contagion wherever they are in the EU. In the discussion with the MEPs, Vestager said: We all hope that this summer is not lost, that we will be able to have vacations and travel. --With assistance from William Wilkes and Siddharth Philip. Surfer, 26, Killed in Shark Attack on Northern California Beach A 26-year-old man was killed in a shark attack while surfing at a beach in Northern California on Saturday, state park officials said. The victim, whos name has not been released, was surfing off Manresa State Beach on the northern end of Monterey Bay around 1:30 p.m. when he was attacked by an unknown shark species, the California State Parks said in a statement. He was pronounced dead on scene and his family have been notified by the Santa Cruz County Sheriffs Department. Following State Parks protocol, the water one mile south and north of the incident location will be closed for five days and will not be reopened until May 14. Signs warning beachgoers about the shark attack are now posted on access points and beach entrances within a one-mile radius of the incident. State Parks expresses its deepest sympathy to the family of the victim, the statement said. Photos captured by KTVU showed rescue crews on the beach shortly after the incident occured, while ambulances could also be seen in a parking lot close to the beach. With the exception of water sports, Manresa State Beach is fully closed from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, in an effort to prevent a surge of visitors to the beach amid the CCP virus pandemic, commonly referred to as novel coronavirus. During the other times, the beach is open to local residents who are able to walk or bike into the beach, provided they maintain social distancing guidelines. According to Californias KRON4 network, Great White sharks are commonly seen swimming near the beaches of Santa Cruz County during this time of year, but attacks on people rarely occur. Monterey Bay drone photographer Eric Mailander told the outlet that he had counted 15 great white sharks while out on his boat on Saturday morning but noted that none were showing signs of aggressive predatory behavior. There have been at least two other fatal shark attacks along the Northern California coast since 1984, both involving divers. In 2004, 50-year-old Randy Fry was killed by a 17-foot great white shark while diving for abalone near Kibeseliah Rock in Mendocino County. He was diving with a friend at the time. His body was recovered three days later. On September. 15, 1985, 28-year-old Omar Conger was attacked by a 16-foot great white shark at Pigeon Point while Conger was diving with a friend. Authorities said Conger was bitten from behind and pulled underwater. His friend was able to pull him to shore but he died at short time later. It has later determined the shark involved was a 15-16 foot great white shark. In 2019, there were 64 confirmed unprovoked shark attacks on humans and 41 confirmed provoked attacks worldwide, according to the University of Floridas International Shark Attack File, which it said was down from the average of 82 incidents annually. Probably for the first time in Rajasthan, a Covid-19 patient who was discharged from infectious disease institute (IDI) in Jodhpur after testing negative, has again tested positive. The 61-year-old from Shastri Nagar, who had travelled to Turkey recently, tested positive for Covid-19 on March 22 along with his wife and nephew. He was discharged from the IDI on April 28 after he tested negative for the third time. But the elderly tested positive for Covid-19 in a repeat sample on Saturday-- nearly 10 days after his dischargeand after more than a month of hospitalization during which he thrice tested negativeon April 4, 6 and 27. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 According to the medical department, the man has been tested 11 times and has twice turned positive soon after testing negative. He was discharged on April 28 only after his last test result on April 27 was found to be negative. Having already spent more than a month in the hospital, the elderly patient has now been quarantined at home till May 24. A senior professor in the department of medicine in the Dr S.N. Medical College said on condition of anonymity that it is possible for a recovered patients inactive viral RNA to test positive again. He added that a few similar cases were reported in China. He added that the old man was healthy despite having tested positive again. The formation of an annexation government in Israel is no surprise. It has been a long time coming. Establishing direct Israeli control over most or all of what it calls Judea and Samaria, ie, the illegally occupied Palestinian West Bank, has long been the wet dream of the Zionist right. Everything the Zionist movement has ever done and everything the Palestinian national movement has failed to do, has led up to this moment. After a century of unabated settlement expansion, half a century of military occupation and a quarter of a century of a dubious peace process, annexation marks a new stage in the evolution of Zionism. The question is when, not if, Israel will formalise the reality of its expansion and what may be the implications for the Palestinians and peace in the region. Short drama: From rivals to partners Benjamin (Benny) Gantzs u-turn from being Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahus chief political nemesis to his main governing partner was quite shocking to his partners in the Blue and White alliance. After all, Gantz, the military chief cum opposition leader, ran three elections campaigns focused primarily on Netanyahus unfitness to govern, calling on him to resign after his indictment on three charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, claiming that no prime minister who is on trial should be allowed to govern. Interestingly, Netanyahu made the same claim back in 2008, when he called on Ehud Olmert to resign after his indictment on corruption. Olmert did resign and ended up in prison, and Netanyahu became prime minister for a second time. Gantz, on the other hand, did not stand by his word. He succumbed to his opponents political machinations, shifting from anyone but Netanyahu to no one but Netanyahu in a matter of weeks and ultimately serving the cunning incumbent a fifth term on a silver platter. Why? The answer lies in what happened between January and April this year. The Benjamins go to Washington It all started with the invitation to go to Washington delivered personally by US Vice President Mike Pence which both Bibi and Benny wholeheartedly accepted. Bibi, with the full support of the Trump family and administration, used the occasion to upstage his rival. By announcing their deal of the century at a White House ceremony with much fanfare, he and Trump boxed in Benny, politically and strategically. Not only was the former general in no position to rebuff Trumps overtures, but he also had no reason to do so. He faced the leader of the most powerful country in the world, Israels own patron saint and guardian angel, enthusiastically supporting a Greater Israel with full control over all of historic Palestine. Remember, while on average two-thirds of the people surveyed in 32 countries disapproved of Trump in a Pew poll published in January, a head-turning 71 percent of Israelis have confidence in him. Who was Benny to oppose him? The March elections confirmed the new US Jewish state consensus. Despite his indictment, Netanyahu renewed his majority among Israeli Jewish voters, leaving Gantz dependent on the support of Arab parliamentarians to form a government. So Gantz baulked. Unlike Yitzhak Rabin, also a former general cum political leader, who depended on Palestinian support in the Knesset to pursue the Oslo Accords in 1993, Gantz demonstrated a lack of both conviction and courage to engage the Arab-majority Joint List. The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic sealed the deal. Netanyahu swiftly imposed a national emergency and called on Gantz, the loyal soldier, to form an emergency government to lead the country through the crisis. Gantz acquiesced, but his partners rejected the deal, accusing him of deceit. This led to the break-up of his Blue and White coalition, leaving the general relatively exposed. Netanyahu, the consummate politician outmanoeuvred Gantz, the political rookie, and struck a deal to lead the government in its first 18 months. Considering the many ambiguities in their agreement, Netanyahu is sure to outstay his term. He did not even wait for the new government to be formed before declaring on May 4 victory against COVID-19 with a particularly low death toll of 235. This is despite the fact that, just a few weeks earlier, the prime minister made claims that tens of thousands of Israelis would die, to scare the public and rally support for a unity government. In a country where quite a few generals have become politicians, Gantz may prove the most gullible of them all. He is now seen as Netanyahus bodyguard, a useful idiot, lending military credibility to the indicted prime ministers cynical political calculus. He helped Netanyahu amend Israels basic law in parliament and ensure his premiership is not contested in the future. And the rest, as they say, is history. But history is paramount to understanding the ideological and strategic logic behind the annexation. The looming annexation Contrary to conventional wisdom and diplomatic newspeak, there has long been an Israeli consensus on permanently holding onto Jerusalem, parts of the West Bank and the Jordan River, come what may. It is a consensus that dates back to at least the late 1960s and deepened with the rise of the right in the late 1970s. Everything Israel has done since then, especially its strategic settlement expansion, enforced this consensus, and nothing it proposed or signed ever compromised it. It is a consensus that encompasses the ideological, security and theological beliefs of most Israelis. The fact that the ever-shrinking centre-left Labour party is eager to join Netanyahus annexation government is a testimony to the depth of this consensus. Indeed, even the two major secular opposition parties Yesh Atid and Yisrael Beiteinu, would have joined the annexation government, if it were not for Netanyahu and his partnership with the religious parties. Israeli politicians may have differed on how to maintain Israels control of Palestinian lands, de facto or through formal annexation, but not on the principle. Most preferred the earlier option until the circumstances are ripe. Even Netanyahu has avoided formal annexation until it became a useful slogan to garner the support of the radical right to win a fifth term. However, Trumps support may have now settled the issue for Netanyahu and the Israeli establishment, turning the slogan into actionable policy. Well, unless the US president changes his mind again. Meanwhile, the new Trump boost may help Netanyahu secure his other objectives. Personally, such a move, coupled with the US recognition of Israels annexation of Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights, will further cement his own legacy as the founder of a Greater Israel. After 14 years in power, he has already surpassed Israels founder, David Ben Gurion, in terms of years served as prime minister. Politically, the looming annexation may help him downplay the looming trial and strengthen his position on the right. Strategically, Netanyahu and his backers in the Trump administration reckon the geopolitical environment is ripe to make the move towards annexation. The Palestinian and Arab leaders are weak, divided and ever more dependent on Washington. And the rest of the world, especially the Europeans, who made their opposition heard, are too preoccupied with the pandemic to resist, let alone prevent such an Israeli move. So now the question becomes, when exactly? The coalition agreement stipulates that Netanyahu could present the annexation plan to the Knesset from July onwards. It may be timed before or after the Republican convention that will nominate Trump for a second term. This confirms the claim made by Trumps ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, that the US is ready to recognise the annexation in a few weeks time. A long-time Trump lawyer and confidant, Friedman is one of the main architects of the plan and is presently overseeing the mapping of prospective annexation of up to 30 percent of the West Bank. Meanwhile, Trumps Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who claimed the annexation is an Israeli decision, is expected in Israel this week, and may suggest first reaching out to the Palestinians on the basis of the Trump plan, which the administration claims, rather falsely, is a fair, win-win plan for both sides. Although the Palestinians have already rejected the plan categorically, deeming it an assault on Palestinians national rights, the annexation will still happen, sooner or later. The Palestinians moment of truth Needless to say, the annexation of the occupied Palestinian territories is illegal and illegitimate. The UN Security Council minus the US, which has veto power, and the UN General Assembly are also unanimously opposed to it. Even many of Israels own friends on the left and more than a few on the right oppose it. But since might is right in the Trump-Netanyahu era, powerful Israel will do whatever it wants and the international community can puff all it wants. This is especially true for the huffing-n-puffing Palestinian leaders, who may feel aggrieved, but seem increasingly delusional, especially in Israels eyes. Their tired warnings against the end of the peace process and the end of security coordination are met with utter scorn and ridicule in Israel. Likewise, their tepid warning of abandoning the two-state in favour of a one-state solution, as if these are off the shelf options, is indeed ridiculous. It is high time for them to say and do something else, something serious and more effective. And to mean what they say. But what might that be? Perhaps I could attempt the beginning of an answer in the coming days. It is not uncommon to see companies perform well in the years after insiders buy shares. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of examples of share prices declining precipitously after insiders have sold shares. So before you buy or sell Bank of Ireland Group plc (ISE:BIRG), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling. Do Insider Transactions Matter? It's quite normal to see company insiders, such as board members, trading in company stock, from time to time. However, such insiders must disclose their trading activities, and not trade on inside information. Insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing. But logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares. For example, a Columbia University study found that 'insiders are more likely to engage in open market purchases of their own companys stock when the firm is about to reveal new agreements with customers and suppliers'. View our latest analysis for Bank of Ireland Group The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Bank of Ireland Group Independent Chairman of the Board Patrick Kennedy made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for 206k worth of shares at a price of 2.74 each. That means that even when the share price was higher than 1.64 (the recent price), an insider wanted to purchase shares. While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. In our view, the price an insider pays for shares is very important. It is generally more encouraging if they paid above the current price, as it suggests they saw value, even at higher levels. In the last twelve months Bank of Ireland Group insiders were buying shares, but not selling. The chart below shows insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date! Story continues ISE:BIRG Recent Insider Trading May 10th 2020 There are always plenty of stocks that insiders are buying. So if that suits your style you could check each stock one by one or you could take a look at this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them). Bank of Ireland Group Insiders Bought Stock Recently Over the last quarter, Bank of Ireland Group insiders have spent a meaningful amount on shares. Overall, two insiders shelled out 209k for shares in the company -- and none sold. This is a positive in our book as it implies some confidence. Insider Ownership For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Our information indicates that Bank of Ireland Group insiders own about 401k worth of shares. This level of insider ownership is notably low, and not very encouraging. So What Does This Data Suggest About Bank of Ireland Group Insiders? It is good to see recent purchasing. And the longer term insider transactions also give us confidence. While the overall levels of insider ownership are below what we'd like to see, the history of transactions imply that Bank of Ireland Group insiders are reasonably well aligned, and optimistic for the future. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing Bank of Ireland Group. At Simply Wall St, we found 2 warning signs for Bank of Ireland Group that deserve your attention before buying any shares. Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies. For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading. This is the way its working in Germany and (soon) Belgium: How are art museums to reopen without endangering staff and visitors? Cimam, the international committee for museums and collections, has already laid out some unarguably rational rules. Timed entry, limited viewing slots, one-way systems. Online booking, plexiglass barriers, face masks and hand gel. No paper, no maps, no headphones; obviously no group tours. The Guardian (UK) The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE:BK) investors will be delighted, with the company turning in some strong numbers with its latest results. It was overall a positive result, with revenues beating expectations by 6.2% to hit US$4.1b. Bank of New York Mellon reported statutory earnings per share (EPS) US$1.05, which was a notable 17% above what the analysts had forecast. The analysts typically update their forecasts at each earnings report, and we can judge from their estimates whether their view of the company has changed or if there are any new concerns to be aware of. With this in mind, we've gathered the latest statutory forecasts to see what the analysts are expecting for next year. See our latest analysis for Bank of New York Mellon NYSE:BK Past and Future Earnings May 10th 2020 Taking into account the latest results, the 13 analysts covering Bank of New York Mellon provided consensus estimates of US$15.5b revenue in 2020, which would reflect a measurable 6.1% decline on its sales over the past 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are forecast to nosedive 22% to US$3.62 in the same period. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of US$15.5b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$3.61 in 2020. The consensus analysts don't seem to have seen anything in these results that would have changed their view on the business, given there's been no major change to their estimates. There were no changes to revenue or earnings estimates or the price target of US$42.36, suggesting that the company has met expectations in its recent result. It could also be instructive to look at the range of analyst estimates, to evaluate how different the outlier opinions are from the mean. There are some variant perceptions on Bank of New York Mellon, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$54.00 and the most bearish at US$36.00 per share. These price targets show that analysts do have some differing views on the business, but the estimates do not vary enough to suggest to us that some are betting on wild success or utter failure. Story continues These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the Bank of New York Mellon's past performance and to peers in the same industry. We would highlight that sales are expected to reverse, with the forecast 6.1% revenue decline a notable change from historical growth of 1.5% over the last five years. Compare this with our data, which suggests that other companies in the same industry are, in aggregate, expected to see their revenue grow 3.8% next year. So although its revenues are forecast to shrink, this cloud does not come with a silver lining - Bank of New York Mellon is expected to lag the wider industry. The Bottom Line The most important thing to take away is that there's been no major change in sentiment, with the analysts reconfirming that the business is performing in line with their previous earnings per share estimates. On the plus side, there were no major changes to revenue estimates; although forecasts imply revenues will perform worse than the wider industry. The consensus price target held steady at US$42.36, with the latest estimates not enough to have an impact on their price targets. With that said, the long-term trajectory of the company's earnings is a lot more important than next year. We have forecasts for Bank of New York Mellon going out to 2022, and you can see them free on our platform here. Plus, you should also learn about the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Bank of New York Mellon (including 1 which is concerning) . 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. (CNN) Tesla filed suit Saturday night against Alameda County, California, after local officials there refused to let the company reopen its Fremont factory. In a series of tweets earlier Saturday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk also threatened to move the company's headquarters to Texas or Nevada, where shelter-in-place rules are less restrictive. "Frankly, this is the final straw. Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately," Musk tweeted. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday. The automaker had planned to allow a fraction of its factory workers to return to work by Friday, but was warned by the Alameda County Health Department in a livestreamed town hall on Friday that such a move would be violating the county's rules. "This has been a collaborative, good faith effort to develop and implement a safety plan that allows for reopening while protecting the health and well-being of the thousands of employees who travel to and from work at Tesla's factory," the Alameda Health Department responded on Saturday in a statement to CNN Business. "The team at Tesla has been responsive to our guidance and recommendations, and we look forward to coming to an agreement on an appropriate safety plan very soon." California Gov. Gavin Newsom had issued new guidance Thursday allowing manufacturing companies to reopen, which allowed individual counties to enforce stricter rules. Alameda County's shelter-in-place rule ends on May 31. Texas set a May 18 date for manufacturers to resume limited operations, while Nevada allowed many retailers and nonessential businesses to reopen Saturday. "We've been working with [Tesla], but we have not given the green light," Alameda County Health Officer Erica Pan said during Friday's town hall. "We have not said it is appropriate to move forward." Tesla's lawsuit, filed Saturday evening in federal court in California's Northern District, asks for a permanent injunction barring the county from enforcing its shelter-in-pace order. The company said it believed it is exempt because its operations fall within the definition of critical infrastructure. Tesla has a battery factory, called Gigafactory 1, in Sparks, Nevada, but it has no footprint in Texas. In February, Musk took a Twitter poll asking his followers if there should be a Gigafactory in Texas. The results were 80% positive. On Saturday, Musk also encouraged Tesla shareholders to file a class action lawsuit against the county for any money lost given that Tesla competitors in other states could resume their operations earlier. He said that Tesla should be allowed to reopen because it learned how to deal with Covid-19 through its factory in Shanghai, China, which is currently the company's only operating plant. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas tweeted Saturday, "Come to Texas! We would welcome Tesla HQ in Texas. We love jobs & Texans very much want to open up & get back to work (while still staying safe & following sound science). We make lots of cars & trucks in Texas, and we'd love more!!" This story was first published on CNN.com, "Elon Musk threatens to move Tesla headquarters out of California following extended shelter-in-place rules." Saudi Arabia will host a donor conference to support Yemen on June 2, state media reported on Sunday, as the conflict-torn country faces the threat of coronavirus. The conference will be held virtually in partnership with the United Nations, the official Saudi Press Agency reported, as the Arab world's poorest country also battles widespread hunger and disease. The kingdom, which counts itself as a top donor to Yemen since it led a 2015 military intervention against Iran-aligned Huthi rebels, did not say how much money was expected to be raised from the event. The SPA did not say what purpose the conference was raising funds for but the announcement comes as aid organisations warn that a coronavirus outbreak could have dire consequences after six years of civil war in Yemen. On Tuesday, Huthi rebels announced the first coronavirus death in the capital Sanaa, which they control, stoking new fears of a major outbreak in the country. The death brings the number of people who have died from the virus in Yemen to four and the total number of confirmed cases to 22. Yemen's healthcare system has been blighted by years of conflict that has driven millions from their homes and plunged the country into what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The conflict between government forces and the Iran-backed Huthis escalated in March 2015, when a Saudi-led military coalition intervened against the rebels after they overran much of the country. The war has left tens of thousands of people dead, most of them civilians, and the UN says around 24 million Yemenis -- more than two thirds of the population -- rely on some form of aid. Search Keywords: Short link: Pakistan on Saturday began easing the month-long lockdown despite a steady rise in the number of coronavirus cases which has now crossed the 28,000-mark with 618 deaths. Doctors have warned against easing restrictions. The Representative of Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) have demanded that the government observe World Health Organisation protocols and implement strict lockdown. "We think the number will definitely spike. According to our information, there are five hospitals in Karachi that have a total of 63 beds reserved for coronavirus patients. If this is the condition in a city like Karachi, then you can imagine what it is like in other cities of Pakistan," said Dr Ikram Tunio of the PMA in a press conference in Karachi. According to Sindh government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab, 289 of 350 people in Pir jo Goth slum in the province has been tested positive for COVID-19. A three-year-old child died in Karachi on Saturday after contracting the coronavirus, said Dr Jamal Raza, head of the National Medical Institute for Children. Officials said that the total number of coronavirus cases jumped to 28,562 with Punjab reporting 10,471 patients, Sindh 10,771, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 4,327, Balochistan 1,876, Islamabad 609, Gilgit-Baltistan 421 and Kashmir 87. Earlier, the Ministry of National Health Services said 24 new COVID-19 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 618. So far 7,756 patients have recovered. The authorities said 2,70,025 COVID-19 tests have been conducted till now, including 12,982 in the last 24 hours. Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah told the media that for the first time more than 1,000 patients were diagnosed with coronavirus in the province in a single day. Ali tweeted 1,080 new virus cases were recorded, taking the number of infections in the province to 10,771. Similarly, the most of number of infections recorded in a day were reported in Islamabad on Friday with 51 cases. Despite the increasing cases, the first phase of easing lockdown began. The government announced removing restrictions by allowing more businesses to open and operate from dawn to 5 pm. The largest province of Punjab extended the lockdown until May 31. However, it allowed more businesses to open and operate for four days in a week. The provincial government issued a notification that increased the lockdown until May 31 with additional exemptions. Businesses related to construction sector, all retail shops except large shopping malls and all hair salons, barbershops and gyms would be allowed to open for four days a week from 8 am to 5pm, the notification said. It said general and medical stores, fruit and vegetable shops, bakeries and meet shops would remain open throughout the week. However, public transport, educational institutions, marriage halls and restaurants (except take away and home delivery) will continue to remain closed. Punjab's Information Minister Fayyaz Chohan told the media that businesses were allowed to operate from Monday to Thursday from dawn until 5pm. "On the remaining three days, there will be complete lockdown," he said, adding big shopping malls will not be opened. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Ajmal Wazir told the media that the provincial government will allow businesses for four days like in Punjab. Balochistan information minister Liaquat Shahwani announced that all businesses will be allowed for four days. The Sindh government will only allow construction businesses and related sectors to operate. Apart from doctors, Opposition leaders have expressed reservations about the easing of lockdown. Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said, "This government has no policy on lockdown or coronavirus". Meannwhile, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez has said Pakistani students from Wuhan, China, will be brought back on a special flight on May 18. "Some 250 students will be brought back in the first flight which will land in Islamabad," he said. The schedule for three more flights will be announced next week. Prime Minister Imran Khan has appreciated the 'Made in Pakistan' initiative of the Ministry of Science and Technology, focusing on boosting indigenous productivity in the face of coronavirus pandemic. Khan expressed concern over reports of coronavirus patients being treated in a hostile manner in the country. It is unacceptable and will create fear in the society, he said, addressing a video conference of health officials. As the citys traditional public school system enters its final weeks of the academic year, educators are taking stock of what has worked and what hasnt this spring. The lessons they learn will inform remote learning this summer and fall. In an interview, D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee described what he expects to be a gradual ramp-up to full, in-person learning. City leaders envision summer school that may be a mixture of remote and in-person learning. They want to bring at least some students to start the next academic year earlier, though not everyone. For more coverage, visit our complete coronavirus section here. Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter Saturday morning to announce his company will file a lawsuit against Alameda County over its shelter-in-place order that does not allow for the return of manufacturing along with the rest of the state. "Tesla is filing a lawsuit against Alameda County immediately," he tweeted. "The unelected & ignorant 'Interim Health Officer' of Alameda is acting contrary to the Governor, the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!" Musk is referring to county health officer Dr. Erica Pan, who signed on to the order spearheaded by Santa Clara County's Dr. Sara Cody that is in effect in six Bay Area counties. The local order is stricter than Governor Gavin Newsom's state order, which allowed for the return of retail and manufacturing on Friday. Local officials have declined to soften the order to be in line with the rest of the state. "Frankly, this is the final straw," Musk tweeted. "Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately. If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependen (sic) on how Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is the last carmaker left in CA." Musk then responded to a Twitter follower from San Joaquin County, a locality following the state order. "San Joaquin County, right next door to Alameda, has been sensible & reasonable, whereas Alameda has been irrational & detached from reality," Musk tweeted. "Our castings foundry and other faculties in San Joaquin have been working 24/7 this entire time with no ill effects." On Thursday night, Musk sent an email to employees announcing he intended to follow the state's move to Stage 2 of its reopening plan and defy the local order. "In light of Gov. Gavin Newsoms statement earlier today approving manufacturing in California, we will aim to restart production in Fremont tomorrow afternoon," he wrote. He added that if employees did not feel comfortable coming to work, they could stay at home. A number of Bay Area businesses have expressed frustration in recent days that Bay Area counties are continuing to enforce a stricter order when the rest of the state including Los Angeles County, the part of the state hardest hit by the virus is moving into Stage 2. Eric Ting is an SFGATE digital reporter. Email: eric.ting@sfgate.com | Twitter:@_ericting The Washington Post is providing this news free to all readers as a public service. Follow this story and more by signing up for national breaking news email alerts. - Senator Ledama Ole Kina was recently ejected from leadership of the Senate watchdog committee following misunderstanding with the ODM party - The senator came out saying his party leader Raila Odinga was behind his woes and that he is the one who gave orders to have him ejected - Ledama said he is one of the people who stood and fought for Raila and it was inappropriate of him to repay his support with dismissal from the committee leadership Senator Ledama Ole Kina has come out guns blazing at Opposition leader Raila Odinga after his election as chair of Senate's County Public Accounts and Investment Committee (CPAIC) was revoked. Ledama's election was revoked on Thursday, May 7, after Senate minority leader and Siaya Senator James Orengo wrote to the speaker asking him to eject the Narok senator from the position. READ ALSO: Bungoma: Mzee wa miaka 84 afumaniwa kitandani na mkaza mwanawe Narok Senator Ledama Ole Kina said Raila Odinga was behind his woes. Photo: Ledama Ole Kina Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Woman donating liver to 28-year-old dying son discovers he's not her biological child According to the vocal Maasai leader, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader was behind his woes and that Raila had given instructions to have him ousted from the post. "I have a lot of respect for Raila Odinga but it's now time I say that he is the one fighting me because James Orengo told me he was following strict instructions from the party leader that I should not be party to that committee," he said. He said it was disappointing not only to him but also to other ODM supporters who stood with the party during the resist demonstrations in 2017. Raila Odinga (left) and Senator Ledama Ole Kina during a past event in Narok county. Photo: ODM Party Source: UGC READ ALSO: Matatu driver calls police on passengers who sneaked out of restricted Kilifi county "I was nearly killed in the car during the resistance movement with Hon James Nyikal (Seme MP), I missed bullets because I was fighting for Raila, is this how you say thank you?," he posed. The ODM politician said going forward he will be fighting his own wars and that his ouster from the committee had nothing to do with procedures but was political fights. As earlier reported by TUKO.co.ke, Ledama is said to have worked with Jubilee members in the committee to win the election against ODM's endorsed candidate Senator Sam Ongeri. Senate minority leader James Orengo wrote to Speaker Ken Lusaka asking Ledama to be ejected from the committee leadership. Photo: ODM party Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Coronavirus: Kenyans who were stranded in China arrive in Nairobi Following Ledma's revocation, Senate majority leader Kipchumba Murkomen wrote to Speaker Ken Lusaka proposing amendments of Standing Order 220 to have committee leadership be open to all parties. Standing Order 220 limits leadership of CPAIC to the second largest party or coalition in the Senate. 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 Cecile Rol-Tanguy, a grande dame of the French Resistance, has died. She was 101. One of the last surviving members of the movement, she played a significant role in fighting the Nazi occupation alongside her late husband Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy. Rol-Tanguy died in Monteaux, in the Loire region of western France, shortly after the official VE day commemorations on 8 May to mark 75 years since the end of the second world war. "Until her last breath, Cecile Rol-Tanguy was loyal to the Communist dream of a generous utopia," her family said. "She continued to campaign alongside young people for more social justice and women's rights." That combative mettle shone brightly throughout the 1940s. On 18 August 1944, after four years working underground, it fell to Cecile Rol-Tanguy to type out the call for Paris to rise up in insurrection against Hitler's occupying forces. "France calls you! Citizens, take up arms!". The words were dictated by her husband, Henri Rol-Tanguy. The couple met just before war broke out when she was working as a typist at the Communist CGT Metal Workers' Union. As part of the Resistance, Henri Rol-Tanguy had become commander of the Paris region of the Forces Francaises de l'Interieur d'Ile-de-France (FFI), an umbrella network for the military resistance. A week later, when Paris was liberated, General Charles De Gaulle drove triumphantly down the Champs-Elysees and Cecile Rol-Tanguy followed him. A lifelong Communist Cecile Rol-Tanguy grew up in a radical household. Her father helped found the PCF (French Communist party) and she became an active member early on. When Henri Rol-Tanguy served as a volunteer with the French section of the International Brigades fighting in the Spanish Civil War, she became his "marraine" or a kind of protectress. He returned, wounded, in 1938 and they married the following year. At the outbreak of war in France, they both joined the Resistance and embarked on a dangerous existence in Paris with Henri Rol-Tanguy, as commander of the Paris region FFI organising sabotage units and armed groups. Guns hidden in prams Using aliases like Yvette, Jeanne or Lucie, Cecile Rol-Tanguy began working as her husband's personal liaison officer. She lived with her parents while he went from one hideout to the next. She was not afraid to take risks: carrying orders around the city, delivering sensitive documents and political tracts for the communist network (FTP Francs tireurs et partisans) they belonged to. She would pick up revolvers, grenades and ammunition from depots and get them through to fighters. That sometimes involved hiding them in sacks of potatoes in her daughter's pram, with the child on top. As the situation became increasingly perilous, her husband asked her to work in a different group rather than with him personally. But she refused. I never had fear in my stomach," she said in an interview in 2014. "If you do, you can't do anything. If you arrive at a metro station with the Germans in front of you there's no point in turning around as there are probably Germans behind you. I did nothing exceptional. An emblem of women's role in fight against Fascism She was awarded some of France' highest distinctions for her role in the Resistance: Grand Officier de la Legion d'honneur, Grand Croix dans l'Ordre national du Merite, Medaille de la Resistance, Croix du Combattant Volontaire de la Resistance. Initially reluctant to accept the Grand Officer of the Legion d'Honneur in 2008, she relented in the name of all of the women Resistance fighters, too often forgotten by history. With my last nomination for the Legion d'Honneur, I considered that I represented all the women who had nothing," she said in an interview. "Cecile Rol-Tanguy was emblematic of the role women played in the fight against Vichy and the Nazi occupation," her family said. Boris Johnson will unveil a new virus alert system, similar to how the government currently communicates terror threat levels, in Sundays address to Britain that will set out some of the conditions for removing restrictions on the economy. The five-level alerts range from one (green), which would enable life to return to normal, to five (red). England is on the verge of improving from level four to three, which indicates that the COVID-19 infection rate isnt increasing significantly, Johnson is expected to say. A new mantra is also set to make its debut: Stay alert, control the virus and save lives. We will take the decisions that continue to save lives and protect the NHS, proceeding with maximum caution and maximum conditionality, Johnson will say, according to a government official. Johnson will urge workers and businesses to stay alert by following social-distancing rules, potentially angering some backbenchers in his Conservative Party who want a swift end to the lockdown that has scarred the economy. A person familiar with the matter earlier suggested that rules may not change significantly until June, when small shops may be allowed to reopen. The government will also announce long-awaited measures to deal with people flying or sailing into the country. Travellers, including Britons returning from abroad, will be told to self-isolate for 14 days as part of the governments plans to try to avoid a second peak of the coronavirus. The new rules, set to kick in next month, will force travellers to declare where they plan to stay while theyre in isolation. Anyone found breaking the rules faces a fine of as much as 1,000 pounds ($1,740) or possible deportation. The measures are likely to heighten criticism that the government was slow to react to contain the pandemic, which has now killed more than 31,000 people in the U.K. the highest toll in Europe. Even in late March, an influential group of cross-party lawmakers asked the government why it hadnt set out plans to better monitor people arriving at the countrys airports and ports. For the worlds beleaguered airline industry, the measures give travellers yet another reason to think twice before taking to the skies and will probably end Britons plans of holidaying abroad this summer. British Airways, which has Londons Heathrow Airport Europes busiest with some 80.9 million passengers a year as its home, is cutting 12,000 jobs, and Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. is seeking to stave off collapse. Francy Sandoval poses for a portrait at her home in Melrose Park, Ill., Thursday, April 23, 2020. She works as a receptionist at a community health clinic which treats multiple COVID-19 cases. She has to isolate herself in the attic as soon as she comes home from work each day and is terrified of infecting her family. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) At the age of 24, Francy Sandoval has unwittingly become the sole breadwinner for her family, after her mom, dad and brothera nanny, a painter and a serverall lost their jobs in the coronavirus pandemic. Her family needs the money, so the aspiring nurse feels she has no choice but to keep her high-risk job at the front desk of a suburban Chicago community health clinic treating many COVID-19 patients. But her home hardly feels like a haven either. "Working during this time is not as stressful as coming home," she said. "You were surrounded with patients who could have been or are positive and you might get your parents sick by just opening the door." Sandoval, an immigrant from Colombia, is among tens of millions of Americans living in multigenerational homes where one of the main strategies for avoiding infectionfollowing social distancing protocolscan be near impossible. The problem reverberates deepest in communities of color, where families from different generations live together at much higher rates, in some cases nearly double that of white families. Joint living also often intersects with factors like poverty, health issues and jobs that can't be done from home, offering another glimpse of what fuels the troubling racial disparities of COVID-19. Francy Sandoval looks outside from her home in Melrose Park, Ill., Thursday, April 23, 2020. At the age of 24, Sandoval has unwittingly become the sole breadwinner for her family, after her mom, dad and brothera nanny, a painter and a serverall lost their jobs in the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) "When you have generations in a household, some of them have to work, especially if they are in the service jobs or the retail or the grocery. They have to come in and out of that household," said the Rev. Willie Briscoe, who leads a black church on Milwaukee's north side, where the pandemic has hit hard. "You cannot safely quarantine." Families live together for many reasonssaving money, pooling resources, child care, elderly care or just culture. It's a practice that's been on the rise since the 1980s, particularly after the recession, experts say. In the U.S., roughly 64 million people live in multigenerational family households, or 1 in 5 households, according to Richard Fry, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center. But it's far more common among people of color: 29% of those households are Asian, 27% are Hispanic, 26% are African American and 16% are white. Francy Sandoval poses for a portrait at her home in Melrose Park, Ill., Thursday, April 23, 2020. She works as a receptionist at a community health clinic which treats multiple COVID-19 cases. She has to isolate herself in the attic as soon as she comes home from work each day and is terrified of infecting her family. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) Fry said two major factors accounting for multigenerational living are location, with higher rates in densely populated urban centers where the cost of living is high, and culture, especially for immigrants in the U.S. Living with family into adulthood, common in many parts of the world, was blamed for contributing to the spread of the coronavirus in Spain and Italy. For families of color in the U.S., there's also more chance that household members can't work from home as federal guidelines suggest. Fewer than 20% of black workers can telework, according to a March study by the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute. Anthony Travis, a 65-year-old retired black man who's diabetic, has high blood pressure and is a cancer survivor, shares a home with his adult daughter and his elderly sister. The daughter works as a technician for a cable and internet companya job deemed essential during the pandemic. Francy Sandoval looks outside from her home in Melrose Park, Ill., Thursday, April 23, 2020. She works as a receptionist at a community health clinic which treats multiple COVID-19 cases. She has to isolate herself in the attic as soon as she comes home from work each day and is terrified of infecting her family. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) For them, living together in suburban Chicago was a matter of taking care of one another. Then Travis got diagnosed with COVID-19. For weeks, he suffered alone in his room, with sweats and chills, struggling to breathe. He would think twice about venturing to the microwave, where his sister, who has a heart condition, would leave his food. The worst part was when his daughter got pneumonia: He could hear her through the walls. "I have to, as a parent, sit up and listen to my child go through pain and agony and suffering because of not being able to breathe," he said. "I couldn't give her comfort, other than with my words." Dr. Garth Walker, an emergency room physician at a Chicago veterans' hospital, said he has trouble counseling families living in cramped quarters about what they should do. His best advice is to choose one person to grocery shop and consider sending the most at-risk person to live elsewhere if possible. Anthony Travis, who has recovered from COVID-19 and lives with his sister and adult daughter, poses for a portrait outside his Riverdale, Ill., home on Thursday, April 23, 2020. Travis, who's diabetic, has high blood pressure and is a cancer survivor, must self isolate within the home as a matter of taking care of one another. When his daughter got pneumonia: He could hear her through the walls. "I have to, as a parent, sit up and listen to my child go through pain and agony and suffering because of not being able to breathe," he said. "I couldn't give her comfort, other than with my words." (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) "They just have a difficulty adapting to a pandemic because they can't adhere to the recommendations that we suggest to everybody, like physical distancing, because it is a privilege," he said of multigenerational families. That's echoed by Dr. Lisa Green, who runs the Family Christian Health Center south of Chicago, a low-income clinic where most of the nearly 20,000 patients each year are black or Latino and multigenerational living is common. "Those options that we are telling everyone else over the phone to do are not options for them," Green said. "When you have a fixed income, your options are fixed." Sandoval follows strict procedures at home, removing her work clothes immediately and wiping every surface she touches before retreating alone to the attic. That's where she spends her time, including her most recent birthday. Anthony Travis, who has recovered from COVID-19 and lives with his sister and an adult daughter, gathers a surprise anonymous delivery of groceries on the porch of his Riverdale, Ill., home on Thursday, April 23, 2020. Travis, who's diabetic, has high blood pressure and is a cancer survivor, must self isolate within the home as a matter of taking care of one another. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) Anthony Travis, who has recovered from COVID-19 and lives with his sister, Jacqueline K. Johnson, background, and an adult daughter, poses for a portrait outside his Riverdale, Ill., home on Thursday, April 23, 2020. Travis, who's diabetic, has high blood pressure and is a cancer survivor, must self isolate within the home as a matter of taking care of one another. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) Anthony Travis, who has recovered from COVID-19 and lives with his sister and an adult daughter, looks at a surprise anonymous delivery of groceries on the porch of his Riverdale, Ill., home on Thursday, April 23, 2020. Travis, who's diabetic, has high blood pressure and is a cancer survivor, must self isolate within the home as a matter of taking care of one another. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) She hopes to start nursing school online soon and dreams of stress-free family time again. "My mom said, 'I can't wait until you are able to come home, and I can hug you,'" Sandoval said. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. The Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland is joining the Teachers Union of Ireland in backing the predictive grades system, which will replace this year's Leaving Cert, but says it has huge concerns. The union's recommending its members engage with calculated grades for students but it still has concerns about possible legal issues. It is after the ASTI held lengthy talks on the issue late last night. But General Secretary, Kieran Christie, says predictive grades are not an ideal replacement. He said: "This is a less than perfect system. "We have huge anxiety and trepidation about participating in it, but for good or ill, we've decided to do so. "What we're saying is now that it's there and we're going to engage with it, we'll be insisting it is operated to the highest standard possible." The ASTI said it wants students to progress to the next stage of their lives, so it is advising its members to engage with the Calculated Grades for the Leaving Certificate process. It is after the Government decided to call off this year's written exams and replace them with calculated grades. The ASTI said it has a long-standing policy of teachers not assessing their students for the purpose of State Certification. However, it says in the context of the current global pandemic it recognises that this year it is necessary to engage with this new process. The union said it has a number of major concerns with the process, which it is calling on the Minister for Education and Skills to address as a matter of urgency. These include the Minister's rescinding of his previous decision to award students 100% for orals and certain practical examinations which were to have taken place earlier this year. Samantha Armytage has hit out at 'scammers' using her name in bogus advertisements on social media. The Sunrise host raged on Saturday that several companies have stolen her image to promote products on Facebook, urging fans not to part with their cash. 'For God's sake, don't give these people your money. It's scammers! I'm not flogging 'keto pills' on Facebook, whatever they are,' insisted the 43-year-old star. Not Armytage approved! Sunrise host Samantha (pictured) has hit out at 'scammers' using her name on bogus Facebook adverts selling weight loss products Samantha first informed fans of the situation by sharing a screenshot of one of the ads, which had used a picture of her to promote a weight loss product. It was shared by company 'Fluffy And Bright Smiles' - linking to an external website. 'Lots of fake ads using my name and photo on Facebook tonight,' wrote Samantha. 'Fake ads': The Sunrise host raged on Saturday that several companies have stolen her image, urging fans not to fall for the adverts while sharing screenshots of them to Instagram Unhappy! 'For God's sake, don't give these people your money. It's scammers! I'm not flogging 'keto pills' on Facebook, whatever they are,' insisted Samantha as she shared more of the ads A second advert - shared by a company titled 'Your Everyday Charms' - even used a fake quote from Samantha to promote their weight loss 'keto pills'. 'I've melted away over 20[kg] with this. I love it and my fans will too,' the fake quote read, with Samantha insisting: 'Don't give these people your money.' After a third bogus advert also used a fake quote alongside her image, Samantha urged Facebook to 'sort this cr*p' out by tagging the social giants in her post. The only weight loss company Samantha is affiliated with, and whose adverts are therefore legitimate, is Weight Watchers. Her only brand deal! The only weight loss company Samantha is affiliated with is Weight Watchers. Signing a lucrative deal with them to become an ambassador in May 2019 She became a WW ambassador in May 2019, signing a deal worth a rumoured $500,000, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Since then, the Sunrise star has spoken about her fluctuating weight on her own social media platforms, being praised for her honesty by followers. After initially losing 10kg, she recently admitted to 'putting on a few kilos' while self-isolating from coronavirus, hoping to inspire any fans who had done the same. 'It is not an easy time but don't beat yourself up too much if you too, like me, have eaten a little bit too much cheese lately or whatever your vice is,' she said. The coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2, which was isolated from a COVID-19 patient in the U.S. Scientists say there's no evidence to support the idea that the virus escaped from a Chinese laboratory. (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Like the virus whose origin it purports to explain, the following conjecture refuses to die: The novel coronavirus was cooked up in a Chinese lab and either escaped or was intentionally released. It's a claim without the support of any publicly available evidence. It implies that tight-lipped members of a large and malign network colluded to engineer the COVID-19 pandemic or to cover up an accident that caused it. The story has all the earmarks of a conspiracy theory. And it has drawn support from the highest levels of the U.S. government. By contrast, strong and widely available evidence supports a very different hypothesis about the virus' origins: It evolved naturally. Laboratory releases of dangerous viruses are not unheard of. In 2003, for instance, the virus responsible for SARS sickened a graduate student who worked in a Singapore lab a few months after the outbreak had ended there. But there is nothing to indicate a similar breach touched off the current pandemic. Scientists believe the direct ancestor of the coronavirus now known as SARS-CoV-2 has lived for so long in bats and other animals that it is no longer capable of making them sick. At some point near the end of 2019, the virus' genetic code mutated in a way that allowed it to jump from its animal reservoir to its first human host. At the time that leap was made, the virus had recently developed or soon would develop the ability to spread easily from human to human. The result is a global pandemic that has sickened at least 3.9 million people and caused more than 274,000 deaths. Scientists cite several layers of evidence to support their surmises. Though they acknowledge gaps where further research would strengthen their position or shift their reading of the exact path the virus has taken, they are firm on where the evidence ultimately leads. Here's how a team of biologists, infectious disease researchers and biosecurity experts put it in a report published in the journal Nature Medicine: We do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible. Story continues To reach that conclusion, the authors drew on research that compared the genetic signatures of three sets of viral samples. The first were drawn from Chinese patients who became sick late last year with unexplained pneumonia; the second came from bats living near Wuhan, China, and which were sometimes brought to an open-air market for sale; and the third was from pangolins, mongoose-like animals from Malaysia that were known to have been illegally imported into China. The analysis revealed a direct family relationship among the three. Bats were the likely origin of the coronavirus that appeared in Wuhan patients, but the virus neededed to undergo some key genetic shifts to infect humans. Mysteriously, many of the required changes were found in the more distantly related viruses from pangolins. With an improbable amount of luck, a coronavirus might take on the mutations needed to infect humans while being cultured in a lab, the researchers conceded. More likely, nature simply made that jump once in the pangolin, and somewhere in the vast diversity of unsampled bat species, it appears to have done so again. Meanwhile, other researchers who sifted through the genetic sequences of dozens of preserved viral samples found that the new coronavirus is a distant cousin of the coronavirus that caused the SARS outbreak of 2002 and 2003, and the coronavirus that gave rise to MERS in 2009. The virus responsible for COVID-19 has distinctive features that separate it from its predecessors by many, many generations, according to their report in the Journal of Virology. But none of the genetic mutations looked like ones a scientific genius would engineer in a lab to tweak a virus for better performance, the researchers wrote. Instead, they have all the hallmarks of the gradual accretion of changes that occur over time as a virus encounters new environments and the immune systems of new organisms. In other words, SARS-CoV-2 looks like a virus that has evolved, the team wrote. Still other researchers examined the nearly 30,000 pairs of RNA letters in the virus' genome and located the juncture where a mutation most probably changed its anatomical features. The authors of the analysis in Nature Microbiology offered plausible natural circumstances to explain how it would have happened. For instance, they cited research showing that when chickens were repeatedly exposed to a harmless virus from swans, the virus developed mutations that made it capable of killing every chicken it infected. They cited lab experiments to show how the virus changing shape would have allowed the organism to latch onto, infect and hijack human cells. They detected biological strategies the virus had adopted that enabled it to spread from host to host but just barely. The mechanism looked a lot more like the kind of hack that would evolve naturally in a coronavirus, not like the optimal solution a genetic engineer would choose. And finally, they looked for the telltale signs of genetic tampering that would have been left behind by purposeful manipulation in a lab. These so-called reverse genetic systems are used in the making of coronavirus vaccines and treatments, and they have been described in detail in scientific reports. None are present in SARS-CoV-2, the investigators found. All of this scientific work has been in the public domain since mid-March. In recent days, however, President Trump and Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo have breathed new life into the assertion that the novel coronavirus is the product of a state-run virology lab in Wuhan. At the White House last week, a reporter asked Trump whether he had seen anything that gave him a high degree of confidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the origin of this virus." "Yes, I have. Yes, I have," said the president, without offering further details. He then added, and I think the World Health Organization should be ashamed of themselves because theyre like the public relations agency for China. Asked later that day to clarify what he had learned about the virus' origins, he said: "I can't tell you that. I'm not allowed to tell you that." Pompeo went further, telling ABC News on Sunday that "there is significant evidence this came from the laboratory" in Wuhan. He did not give any specifics, but added that he could not say whether the release had been intentional because "the Chinese Communist Party has refused to cooperate with world health experts." Those claims ran into scientific turbulence almost immediately. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called the assertion that the coronavirus originated in a lab a circular argument. If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what's out there now," there's a strong scientific case that "this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated, Fauci said in an interview with National Geographic. Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence had previously issued a statement to the same effect: The intelligence community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified." The WHO's representative to China weighed in as well. All available evidence to date suggests that the virus has a natural animal origin and is not a manipulated or constructed virus, Dr. Gauden Galea said in an interview released by the WHO. Many researchers have been able to look at the genomic features of the virus and have found that evidence does not support that it is a laboratory construct. However, Galea also said the global health agency has not been allowed access to laboratory logs from the Wuhan Institute of Virology or from China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention. China is an authoritarian state that competes with the United States in military, trade and diplomatic spheres, and relations between the two countries have become particularly testy since Trump took office. As early as January, after China reported an outbreak of an unknown virus in Wuhan, the U.S. offered to send a team of epidemiologists to assist in investigating and containing the outbreak. China declined the offer, and has continued to hold the United States at bay. In mid-February, China hosted a WHO-organized Joint Mission of experts on COVID-19. Dr. Clifford Lane, a key lieutenant to Fauci, traveled with the mission. It was very clear that the focus of Chinese scientists was on trying to find the reservoir where the novel coronavirus originated, Lane said this week. They've also been looking for the pandemic's patient zero, since they know that the closer they come to finding the first human to have been infected, the closer they'll come to identifying the source. They dont want this to happen again any more than we do, he said. Harvard microbiologist William Hanage said the facts do not support the idea that either a sloppy scientist or a mad genius tried to turn an existing coronavirus into a bioweapon. There is no way a person studying this in a lab would be able to identify the properties that have made it a pandemic, he said. No scientist can peer into a virus genes and locate the features that have made it so diabolically successful at crisscrossing the globe, he said. With a pandemic beating at our door, there's nothing to be gained by talking about the virus' origins right now, Hanage added. Whatever is said either inadvertently fuels conspiracy theories or gets twisted into a political point, and that is unhelpful, he said. His advice: Focus on the raging pandemic and leave this for later. US Prevents Voting on UNSC Resolution on COVID-19 Pandemic - Diplomatic Source Sputnik News 02:44 GMT 09.05.2020 UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - The United States prevented voting on a UN Security Council resolution focusing on the global fight against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a diplomatic source at the United Nations said on Friday. "The United States has broken the silence without explaining the reasoning behind this move," the source said. The draft resolution, prepared by France and Tunisia, was put under silence - a procedure under which the document was circulated among the members of the UN Security Council with a deadline for raising objections and proposing amendments. In the absence of any objections, the draft would have become final and submitted for a vote. Negotiations on the resolution have been stalled since April because two countries at the UN Security Council could not agree on it, the current UN Security Council President Sven Jurgenson told reporters last week. The draft calls for increased international coordination and an immediate halt to hostilities in all countries amid the COVID-19 crisis. It also mentions the World Health Organization, which had been accused by US President Donald Trump of being "China-centric" and botching the COVID-19 outbreak response. In April, Trump announced that the United States would suspend funding to the WHO. Earlier in the day, the President said a further announcement on the issue would be made soon. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Britain's Got Talent's stars were unanimously moved to tears during Saturday's show, after an emotional audition featuring a 'miracle' rescue dog. Host Ant McPartlin was forced to wipe away a tear after watching the audition featuring Amanda Leask and her dog Miracle, who was rescued from the illegal meat trade. The moving audition left Alesha Dixon in tears as she said the audition was one of the moments she felt 'proud' to be a part of the show. Scroll down for video Emotional: Britain's Got Talent host Ant McPartlin was moved to tears during Saturday's following an emotional audition featuring a 'miracle' rescue dog During the audition, Amanda brought on her dog Miracle who she explained had been rescued, before launching into a magic trick. Using photographs of different dogs, she asked each of the judges to pick one, while hosts Ant and Declan Donnelly held onto Miracle's lead on the stage. The entire audience were then directed to watch a video, which explained: 'Miracle has been at the heart of our family for six years, but he wasn't always as happy and healthy as he is today. Sad: Alesha also couldn't hide her emotion following the moving audition, and praised the act for making her 'proud' to be a judge on the show Sad: The audition featured Amanda Leask and her dog Miracle, who was rescued from the illegal meat trade 'He spent the early part of his life in unimaginable conditions as a victim of the dog meat trade. 'He was discovered crushed in a cage with over 1,000 other dogs. Believe it or not this was him.' The audience and the judges gasped in horror as an image flashed on the screen of a frail Miracle trapped in the cage, leading Ant to wipe away a tear. Heart-wrenching: In a video during her audition, Amanda explained that Miracle was rescued from the illegal meat trade, after being found in a cage crushed together with 1000 other dogs Tragic: Ant wiped away a tear while watching the video, as he held onto Miracle's lead during the audition The video then continued: 'When the rescuer first saw him she thought he was dead, but when her camera flashed, he opened an eye. It was a miracle he was still alive. 'We brought him back to Scotland and slowly nurtured him back to health.' The video showed a now happy and healthy Miracle living with Amanda and her family, and she then directed the judges to reveal which dogs' photographs they'd chosen. Uplifting: Luckily Miracle's story had a happy ending, and she left the judges spellbound with an incredible magic trick featuring some of the other dogs Amanda had rescued Praise: Amanda Holden said: 'I thought that was such a great act, we're all dog lovers on this panel and I just applaud you for this act and also for taking care of all those lost souls' Amanda explained that Miracle had already chosen four dogs to bring along for the audition, and after releasing them from a dog house revealed they were the exact same pooches the judges had chosen. The entire theatre, the panel and Ant and Dec were stunned by the act, with Amanda Holden saying: 'I thought that was such a great act, we're all dog lovers on this panel and I just applaud you for this act and also for taking care of all those lost souls.' David Walliams added: 'You're an incredible special lady to devoting your life to these special dogs, and I don't how you did that with the cards.' Heart-warming: Simon Cowell admitted he struggled to watch the video showing the brutal treatments dogs receive in the meat trade, but praised Amanda for raising awareness Alesha Dixon - who had been most moved by the audition - added: 'This is a moment where I fell so proud to be on this show, where we can use this to raise awareness of something which is so important, so Amanda thank you so much.' Simon Cowell admitted he struggled to watch the video showing the brutal treatments dogs receive in the meat trade, but praised Amanda for raising awareness. He added: 'The actual performance itself was fantastic, I have no idea how you did it, you made your point very very clearly. 'There are times actually I couldn't watch it to be honest with you, what happens in the dog meat trade should be stopped. It takes someone like you to get the message across.' Inevitably Amanda and Miracle were awarded with four yeses and a spot in the next round. Britain's Got Talent continues on Saturday at 8pm on ITV. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 23:44:37|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States have exceeded 1.3 million with death toll surpassing 78,000. Instead of concentrating on fighting against the pandemic domestically, some U.S. politicians recently have been fabricating preposterous allegations and pinning the blame on China, to hide their irresponsibility at home. "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time," said Abraham Lincoln. Lies evaporate in the light of truth, and let's see how facts speak for themselves. WUHAN ORIGINATED? Not necessarily. The place that first reported a virus was often not its origin. Increasing evidence proves that the Spanish Flu did not originate from Spain. On Feb. 11 this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially named the pneumonia caused by novel coronavirus the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the basis of the 2015 Best Practices for the Naming of New Human Infectious Diseases, in which it is clearly stipulated that the naming of a disease should not be associated with a particular country or place. The origin of COVID-19 is still not identified. Source tracing is a serious scientific matter, which should be based on science and should be studied by scientists and medical experts. Being the first to report the virus does not mean that Wuhan is its origin. Therefore, calling the virus "Wuhan virus" or "Chinese virus" is nothing but stigmatization. Abundant evidence also shows cases outside China were earlier than deemed. USA Today reported on May 6 that 171 people in Florida showed symptoms of COVID-19 as early as in January, and none reported traveling to China. Michael Melham, mayor of Belleville of New Jersey, said he has tested positive for coronavirus antibodies, and thinks he may have been sick with the virus back in November last year, over two months before the first reported case in the country on Jan. 20. Mainstream western media including the New York Times, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) all reported that the wrongful connection of Asian communities with COVID-19 stoked serious xenophobia, and frequent occurrences of racist discrimination and harassment against these communities in the United States. Viruses are the common enemy of mankind, which may appear at any time and in any place. WHO and scientists worldwide have fiercely rebutted the allegation made by some U.S. politicians that the virus was constructed and leaked by the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Saying on April 21 that all available evidence suggests the virus has an animal origin and is "not manipulated or constructed in a lab or somewhere else," WHO spokesperson Fadela Chaib stressed it most likely has its ecological reservoir in bats but how the virus came from bats to humans is still to be seen and discovered. A joint statement published on Feb. 19 by the Lancet, a prestigious UK medical journal, overwhelmingly concluded that COVID-19 originated in wildlife, as have so many other emerging pathogens. "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..." Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told National Geographic in an interview published on May 4. COVER UP? It takes time to study and understand an unexpected attack by an unknown virus against human beings. China has provided timely information to the world in an open, transparent and responsible manner. On Dec. 27, 2019, three cases of pneumonia of unknown cause were immediately reported by Zhang Jixian, a doctor in Wuhan, after she received the patients, the first reporting of suspected cases of a new disease by local authorities of China. On the same day, epidemiological investigation and testing on the patients concerned was conducted by the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The next few days witnessed two emergency notices and a situation report released by the Wuhan authorities. On Dec. 31, China informed the WHO China Country Office of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan. On Jan. 3, 2020, China began sending regular, timely updates about the novel coronavirus to the WHO, and other countries including the United States. Following the first public reporting of the pneumonia by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission on Dec. 31, China completed the identification and sequencing of the virus as early as on Jan. 7, and shared the genome sequence information with WHO and other countries on Jan. 11. On Jan. 20, the high-level expert group of the National Health Commission informed the media that the novel coronavirus could be transmitted from person to person. On Jan. 22, the WHO issued a warning about the potential risk of human-to-human transmission on its website, and eight days later, it declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). "The WHO has been in constant technical communication with China since Jan. 3 on the severity, transmission dynamics and the possibility of sustained human-to-human transmission, the clinical course, and effectiveness of treatments, and the WHO has provided detailed information to the international community under the framework of the International Health Regulations (IHR)," said Dr. Gauden Galea, WHO representative in China. China's transparency in data releasing has been consistent. On April 17, Wuhan issued a notification revising up confirmed cases by 325 to a total of 50,333, and fatal cases by 1,290 to a total of 3,869. Revision is by no means equal to covering-up. On the contrary, it was out of a high sense of responsibility to the people and to the lives lost to the coronavirus that Wuhan took the initiative to revise the numbers. When the city was first hit by the virus, hospitals were running overloaded and some patients passed away at home, and there were missed, delayed, inadequate or inaccurate reporting of cases. On April 28, Christoffer Koch and Ken Okamura, two economists from the United States and the United Kingdom, jointly published a paper based on studies of the data from China, Italy and the United States. They found that the confirmed infections in China match the distribution expected in Benford's Law and are similar to those in the other two countries, concluding that there is no possibility of manipulation of figures. EXPORT CASES? With the most comprehensive, rigorous and thorough measures taken by the Chinese government within the shortest possible time, the number of infections in China was reduced by more than 700,000. Having effectively broken the chain of transmission domestically, it is no surprise that very few cases were exported from China, the country with the largest populations and where COVID-19 cases were earliest found. Wuhan, the earliest epicenter of COVID-19, was put under lockdown between Jan. 23 and April 8. So it was impossible for Wuhan residents to travel overseas during this period of time. Two days after Wuhan was put under lockdown, 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities of China activated the highest-level disease response. Starting from Jan. 24, 42,000 medical workers from across the country rallying in over 330 medical teams set out to the front line in Hubei Province. With massive human and material resources being polled in, two makeshift hospitals, accommodating 1,000 and 1,600 beds respectively, were constructed in 10 and 15 days. Meanwhile, a total of 16 mobile hospitals were put in place to accommodate over 13,000 patients. In Wuhan, over 44,500 primary-level Party officials were sent to 13,800 residential communities, building up a strong line of defense against the virus. Social distancing measures have been supported and strictly observed nationwide, effectively curbing the spread of the virus. Regarding the suspected cases and close contacts, they have been placed under quarantine at designated places to stem further spread of the virus. The high speed and massive scale of China's response have been rarely seen in the world, demonstrating China's speed, scale and efficiency, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding that China's experience is worth learning for other countries, This explains why China's nationwide infection rate has stayed relatively low and refutes the claim that "China spreads the virus to the rest of the world." -- In the United States, the New York Times cited U.S. research that most New York coronavirus cases did not come from Asia. -- In Canada, data from its major provinces show that the virus was brought into the country by U.S. visitors. -- In France, research found that the virus strain circulating locally is of unknown origin. -- In Singapore, cases imported from China were less than one-tenth of those from other countries. -- In Japan, researchers believed that the strain confirmed in the country since early March was not from China. -- In Russia, none of the imported cases was from China. CONTROL THE WHO? Amid increasing severe pandemic situations around the globe, the U.S. decision to halt its funding to the WHO has drawn sharp criticism. Saying the WHO "failed to adequately obtain, vet and share information in a timely and transparent fashion," some U.S. politicians alleged China is "manipulating" and "bribing" the organization. This accusation is absurd. As a firm supporter to multilateralism, China has all along been in good communication and cooperation with the WHO, a specialized UN agency responsible for public health security composed of 194 member states. Among the 21-strong headquarters leadership team of the WHO, 11 are from the United States, the European Union, Canada and Australia, and only one is from China. They are all trained or practicing doctors, epidemiologists, rescue workers and public health experts. In 2018 and 2019, China was the third biggest donor to WHO's assessed contributions, after the United States and Japan. According to the WHO, assessed contributions only account for less than a quarter of its total funding, with the rest being voluntary contributions. With both sources of funding counted, China is the ninth biggest contributor. Isn't it too easy for the WHO to be "manipulated" by a single country? Accusations that China has "blocked Taiwan's bid to join the WHO and put the health of the people there at risk" is also groundless. Taiwan, being part of China, has no right to join the WHO, whose membership requires sovereign statehood. Since the start of COVID-19, China's National Health Commission has provided timely information to the Taiwan region. As of May 6, China's mainland had updated Taiwan on the situation 148 times. In mid-January, the mainland arranged a field visit to Wuhan for experts from Taiwan to help them learn more about the diagnosis and treatment of confirmed cases and COVID-19 response measures. SELF-SERVING HELP? A friend in need is a friend indeed. China has been doing its utmost to help countries in need. However, China's sincere efforts were distorted by some U.S. politicians as to serve "political and propaganda purposes." As of mid-May, China has set up 2-billion-yuan fund for COVID-19 cooperation. China has provided anti-epidemic supplies to more than 150 countries and international organizations, shared experience on prevention, control, diagnosis and treatment with the rest of the international community, established online knowledge center on epidemic prevention and control that is open to all countries, held over 120 video conferences with more than 160 countries and international organizations, and sent 21 teams of medical experts to 19 countries. According to the Ministry of Commerce of China, between March 1 and May 6, China has met export orders for anti-epidemic supplies from 194 countries and regions. Among them, 77 countries and regions as well as six international organizations have signed commercial procurement agreements with China through official channels for 216 shipments of medical supplies. Besides donating 50 million U.S. dollars in cash to the WHO, China has agreed to suspend principal and interest repayment for 77 developing countries' debts due between May 1 and the end of 2020, in response to the debt service suspension initiative for the poorest countries adopted at a recent G20 meeting. China's assistance to other countries is a return of their kindness in helping China with COVID-19 response. The actions of support and assistance have been widely recognized by the international community. It is also a concrete step to put into action the vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity. Enditem Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Rome Sun, May 10, 2020 12:05 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd7018d8 2 World kidnapping,Italy,Kenya,Silvia-Romano Free A young Italian woman who was kidnapped in late 2018 from an orphanage in Kenya, has been freed, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced on Saturday. Silvia Romano was 23 and working as a volunteer in the orphanage in Chakama village in southeast Kenya when she was seized by gunmen in November 2018. "Silvia Romano has been freed!" Conte said in a tweet. "I'd like to thank the women and men of the external intelligence services. Silvia, we look forward to seeing you in Italy!" he added. Chakama is about 60 kilometres inland from the coastal town of Malindi, which is popular with Italian tourists and expatriates. Read also: US tourist, guide, kidnapped in Uganda freed after ransom paid: Safari firm During the attack on November 20, 2018, the armed assailants shot and injured five people in the orphanage, including three children. No details were released about Romano's release, or about the identity or motivation of her captors. "The state abandons no one," Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio tweeted. The kidnapping of foreigners is relatively rare in Kenya, but have had a damaging effect on the country's crucial tourist economy. A spate of abductions on the coast in 2011 saw a British man shot dead and his wife kidnapped from a resort island, while weeks later a French woman was taken from her home on the Lamu archipelago. Soon afterwards Al-Shabaab gunmen abducted two Spanish aid workers from the Dadaab refugee camp close to the Somali border in the only confirmed case of kidnapping inside Kenya by the jihadists. In April 2019, two Cuban doctors were kidnapped in northeastern Kenya and whisked to Somalia before $1.5 million (1.35 million euros) was demanded for their release. Kenyan police sources said the kidnapping bore the hallmarks of Al-Shabaab, a militant outfit that has been waging an insurgency against Somalia's foreign-backed government for over a decade. Maharashtra on Sunday recorded a single-day jump of 1,943 coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases, including highest number of new cases 1,278 in a day and 665 patients from the past few days as per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) list, taking the state tally up to 22,171. Maharashtra also registered its highest one-day toll of 53 Covid-19 deaths on Sunday, which took the toll to 832. Mumbai crossed the 500-mark for Covid-19 fatalities as it recorded 19 deaths, taking its toll to 508. Of the days cases, Mumbai accounted for 875, which is also the highest the city has recorded in a day. Total cases in Mumbai now stand at 13,739. Pune recorded 402 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, taking its count to 2,377. Besides Mumbai, Pune and Jalgaon recorded five deaths each; three deaths were recorded in Dhule; and one each in Vasai-Virar, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Nandurbar, Solapur. In addition, 14 deaths were registered in Malegaon between Apr 27 and May 10. One person from Madhya Pradesh also died in Mumbai, the state health department said. As Pune city crossed 2,000 Covid-19 cases, the city municipal commissioner issued orders to close all shops, except medical stores and hospitals, in the 69 containment zones from May 11 to May 17. The order further stated that the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will deliver milk and vegetables home in case there is a shortage in containment zones. Maharashtra has recorded over 50% of its toll in the past 12 days. According to the data of the Medical Education and Drug Department (MEDD), out of the 832 Covid-19 victims in the state, 432 or 51.92% of deaths were recorded between April 29 and May 10. Even as the mortality rate has reduced drastically from 7.12% on April 12 to 3.85% on May 9, the toll continued to rise. The Union health ministry, too, has expressed concern over the deaths in Maharashtra. State health minister Rajesh Tope said that besides comorbidities, late admission in the hospitals is one of the major reasons for the rise in death count. Tope said that aggressive behavioural changes and communication exercises need to be taken for removing the stigma against reporting Covid-19, which shall contribute towards timely reporting, clinical management, and reduction in fatality rates. The minister said that around 30% of the deaths reportedly occurred between 24 to 48 hours of admission to the hospital. Comorbidity, as we know, is the major factor, but besides that, people today are scared of social boycott if their community gets to know that they have tested positive for coronavirus. Therefore, they do not report despite showing symptoms. Addressing this stigma would lead to people reporting early for diagnosis and treatment, he said. According to MEDD data, around 72% of the people who died had an underlying illness, while 28% of the people did not have comorbidities. The data also said that around 250 people are currently critical at various locations. The health minister accepted that the situation is complicated in Mumbai, which alone has recorded over 13,000 Covid-19 cases. He said that slum pockets in Mumbai are the problem areas where the virus is spreading fast. The situation is complicated in the slums. If we leave Mumbai, cases are not much in other places. I accept there are issues in Mumbai. There is a shortage of beds and institutional quarantine facilities. We are trying to double the institutional quarantine facilities by adding facilities with additional 15,000 beds. The sheer volume is huge, Tope said. Maharashtra health department will start implementing the new discharge protocol after a revised guideline was issued by state health secretary Pradeep Vyas. With the new guidelines, mild, very mild and pre-symptomatic cases admitted to a COVID care facility will undergo regular temperature and pulse oximeter monitoring and the patient can be discharged after 10 days of symptoms onset and no fever for three days in such cases. There will be no need for testing prior to discharge. At the time of discharge, the patient will be advised to follow the home isolation for further 7 days. According to the guidelines, the government said that the cases that are clinically classified as moderate cases will undergo monitoring of body temperature and oxygen saturation. If the fever resolves within three days in moderate cases and the patient maintains saturation above 95% for the next four days without oxygen support, such patient will be discharged after 10 days of symptom onset in case of absence of fever without antipyretics, resolution of breathlessness and no oxygen requirement, said an official from the health department. For severe patients, clinical recovery and one coronavirus test by RT-PCR after the resolution of symptoms is required as against two RT-PCR tests mandatory earlier. Tope said that the new discharge protocol would reduce the stress on laboratories in the state. The new protocol says patients with certain symptoms can be discharged in 10 days. I had followed up with the Centre over the number of days before asymptomatic patients can be discharged. The labs are also burdened, he said. Maharashtra has so far tested 2,38,766 samples. A health department official added that the revised protocol will reduce the burden on institutional quarantine facilities and other healthcare infrastructure. Dr Lancelot Pinto, an epidemiologist from Hinduja Hospital welcomed the move by the Centre. He said, Basically the thought process behind it is that the swab can remain positive for a long time, but a positive swab does not necessarily mean that it is live virus. In cases of Tuberculosis too, PCR-based tests sometimes remain positive even two years after a person had TB. These tests are extremely sensitive. The RNA from a dead virus will be detected by the test and therefore, giving so much importance to the swab becoming negative may not be important. All of this in the context of the shortage of beds is also important. The guideline is just not for a negative swab. Once the patient is stable, just waiting for the swab to turn negative is not very scientific. It is an excellent move. He added that if there is a necessity to remain in the hospital, nobody would remove the patient. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has convened a meeting with all chief ministers of the state via video conference on Monday afternoon to discuss the response to the relaxation in lockdown as per zones and further course of action. The state government on Sunday issued an order stating that Chief Minister Relief Fund would sponsor the train ticket fare of the migrant labourers that are stuck in Maharashtra and also for train tickets of the states migrants that are stuck in other states. As per the government resolution issued by the state, those migrants who are unable to bear the ticket fare for the Shramik Express trains, the Chief Minister Relief Fund would pay for it through the district collectors. The facility will only be applicable for the special trains that depart till May 17, the order stated. According to the Pune district collector office, 1,172 labourers from Madhya Pradesh who were stuck in Daundh and Purandar talukas of the district were sent back to their state via the Shramik Express train on Sunday evening. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A decline in the professional services sector will produce one of the biggest hits to the Treasury's tax take, analysis for The Mail on Sunday reveals. The slump in work for lawyers, accountants and consultants will cost the Government 14.4billion, according to the New Economics Foundation. The sector's income tax, VAT and corporation tax payments will fall by 9billion, 3.9billion and 1.5billion respectively in the three months to June. The professional services sector's income tax, VAT and corporation tax payments will fall Lawyers have seen a sharp drop in key areas such as home sales. Consultants have also suffered as firms limit spending and put deal-making on ice. Last week, financial services giant EY told consultants to go on holiday for the final week of May if their work had dried up. EY said it might have to do this again in coming months if the economy does not pick up. City law firms Freshfields and Linklaters have both suspended lucrative payouts to partners. The only sectors showing a greater tax hit are retail and manufacturing, set to account for 27billion and 20.6billion in lost tax income respectively. NEF said the Treasury would lose 97.5billion in tax against figures in the March Budget, assuming three months of lockdown, followed by three months of social distancing. Alfie Stirling, economics chief at NEF, said: 'The Government must invest to repair its tax base in key sectors. The question is, how much will come back automatically? If you know that you can intervene to repair the places you need.' The White House will try to push two main themes this week: "preparedness and confidence," per a senior official. The big picture: President Trump's aides plan to hold several events to try to persuade the public that they're ready for a likely second wave of the virus this fall. In particular, they'll focus on testing capacity and access to personal protective equipment. "Testing messaging will reflect how much we've ramped up our testing to meet states' needs and feel confident about our testing capacity going into the fall," said one senior White House official. "The secondary message will be the American people can have confidence as they begin to go back out into the public square," the official added. "We will have governors in to highlight their safe reopen plans. We'll also highlight private-sector efforts to get the country to reopen safely." Governors expected to visit Trump at the White House this week include North Dakota's Republican Gov. Doug Burgum and Colorado's Democratic Gov. Jared Polis. (Politico's Playbook was first to report these coming visits.) Between the lines: The Trump administration was slow to get testing up and running, and many parts of the country still lack the testing capacity that public health experts say is needed to safely reopen. But they've scaled up capacity substantially in recent weeks. The bottom line: Trump and some of his top advisers have grown impatient with the shutdown. Americans are overwhelmingly reluctant about going back to ordinary life, and the Trump administration will try to persuade them it can be done safely. God sent them to earth with a purpose. In 2009, South Korean pastor Lee Jong Rak and his wife Chun-ja created a drop box where anonymous mothers could leave their babies to be cared for by others. Many of these women were teenagers, victims of domestic violence, and sufferers of social and cultural stigma. Many of the drop box babies had disabilities, but escaped death to find loving families and lives worth living. In 2019, it was reported that over 1500 babies had been saved through the drop box. A change in perspective Brian Ivies documentary, The Drop Box, tells Pastor Lees story and touches on controversies surrounding the issue of child abandonment. While there were so many inspiring, and emotional aspects in the film, I was particularly struck by the change in perspective shared by one of pastor Lees adopted sons, Ruri. Though only in 4th grade at the time of the documentary, Ruri displayed a wisdom beyond his years. He was bullied in school but went on to be voted class president multiple times. Asked whether he thought there was a purpose for the life of his severely disabled brother, Ruri confidently replied, Of course there is. I believe God made the baby box through Eun-man, so that my dad could save more lives. It all started because of Eun-man and the babies that had come to my dad before he created the box. They basically made the baby box. So God purposely blessed, not cursed, Eun-man to build the baby box. Ruri provided a kingdom view that embodied Gods kingdom of the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. He spoke with the conviction and love, declaring the victory and purpose with which God makes every person. Ruri saw the disabled as his brothers and sisters, and he saw their richness through the eyes of God. How do we see others today? Do we see as God sees, or has the worlds opinion clouded our vision? From suffering comes growth As a mother, I want to protect my daughter. I dont want to see her suffering or distressed, yet I know that some victories are best won through roads of challenge. The Drop Box documentary featured stories of many people who found themselves in unexpected situations of suffering. It was incredible to see how some of these people overcame their adversity. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James chapter 2, verse 4) Through hardship, we learn perseverance and trust. We have our character sharpened and can learn empathy for others. It is tempting to desire an easy life, but I am so thankful for Gods faithfulness and moulding through tough seasons. If it wasnt for these harder life experiences, my faith and my character would not be what they are today. Testimony and strength can be gained in times of suffering, and we have the comfort of knowing that God understands and cares. Fear God As my husband and I watched the documentary, I remarked on how Pastor Lee, humbly doing what seemed to be such a worthy cause, still found himself subject to opposition and criticism. My husband pointed out that Pastor Lee had a greater fear of the children dying than of the criticism. He so greatly feared babies dying that he could not sit back and do nothing. He feared God who loves life above the approval of man. Ill need to put my life on the line to save these babies lives. Many times, I have found myself afraid of consequences. Perhaps I am now more aware of what people think and how the world might react. Understanding and knowledge are part of maturing in our faith. As we face various fears and step out in faith, we can continue to declare Gods victory. In the fear of the LORD there is strong confidence, And his children will have refuge. (Proverbs chapter 14, verse 26) What a wonderful promise to hold on to! God is our protector, our confidence and our refuge. In His presence, fear is diminished. A greater purpose We are created with purpose. No situation or opinion can change that because our purpose is given by God. Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand. (Proverbs chapter 19, verse 21) God who created each one of us, made us all with purpose. He gives two great commandments; to love Him and to love others. If we truly know the Creator God and experience His love, we will love Him. If we have eyes enlightened with His spirit to see others in their God-given purpose, we will love them. If we give up our plans to God and let Him lead, we will find ourselves reaping the abundant blessings He has prepared for us. No matter what circumstances may challenge us on earth, let us never forget that Christ and His victory on the cross have given us all purpose and life worth living. When will the COVID-19 pandemic end? And how? According to historians, pandemics typically have two types of endings: the medical, which occurs when the incidence and death rates plummet, and the social, when the epidemic of fear about the disease wanes. When people ask, When will this end?, they are asking about the social ending, said Dr. Jeremy Greene, a historian of medicine at Johns Hopkins. In other words, an end can occur not because a disease has been vanquished but because people grow tired of panic mode and learn to live with a disease. Allan Brandt, a Harvard historian, said something similar was happening with COVID-19: As we have seen in the debate about opening the economy, many questions about the so-called end are determined not by medical and public health data but by sociopolitical processes. Endings are very, very messy, said Dora Vargha, a historian at the University of Exeter. Looking back, we have a weak narrative. For whom does the epidemic end, and who gets to say? More for you Cases flare up around the U.S. and abroad as social distancing rules relax In the Path of Fear An epidemic of fear can occur even without an epidemic of illness. Dr. Susan Murray, of the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, saw that firsthand in 2014 when she was a fellow at a rural hospital in Ireland. In the preceding months, more than 11,000 people in West Africa had died from Ebola, a terrifying viral disease that was highly infectious and often fatal. The epidemic seemed to be waning, and no cases had occurred in Ireland, but the public fear was palpable. On the street and on the wards, people are anxious, Murray recalled recently in an article in The New England Journal of Medicine. Having the wrong color skin is enough to earn you the side-eye from your fellow passengers on the bus or train. Cough once, and you will find them shuffling away from you. The Dublin hospital workers were warned to prepare for the worst. They were terrified and worried that they lacked protective equipment. When a young man arrived in the emergency room from a country with Ebola patients, no one wanted to go near him; nurses hid, and doctors threatened to leave the hospital. Murray alone dared treat him, she wrote, but his cancer was so advanced that all she could offer was comfort care. A few days later, tests confirmed that the man did not have Ebola; he died an hour later. Three days afterward, the World Health Organization declared the Ebola epidemic over. Murray wrote, If we are not prepared to fight fear and ignorance as actively and as thoughtfully as we fight any other virus, it is possible that fear can do terrible harm to vulnerable people, even in places that never see a single case of infection during an outbreak. And a fear epidemic can have far worse consequences when complicated by issues of race, privilege and language. Black Death and Dark Memories Bubonic plague has struck several times in the past 2,000 years, killing millions of people and altering the course of history. Each epidemic amplified the fear that came with the next outbreak. The disease is caused by a strain of bacteria, Yersinia pestis, that lives on fleas that live on rats. But bubonic plague, which became known as the Black Death, also can be passed from infected person to infected person through respiratory droplets, so it cannot be eradicated simply by killing rats. Historians describe three great waves of plague, said Mary Fissell, a historian at Johns Hopkins: the Plague of Justinian, in the sixth century; the medieval epidemic, in the 14th century; and a pandemic that struck in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The medieval pandemic began in 1331 in China. The illness, along with a civil war that was raging at the time, killed half the population of China. From there, the plague moved along trade routes to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. In the years between 1347 and 1351, it killed at least one-third of the European population. Half the population of Siena, Italy, died. It is impossible for the human tongue to recount the awful truth, wrote 14th-century chronicler Agnolo di Tura. Indeed, one who did not see such horribleness can be called blessed. The infected, he wrote, swell beneath the armpits and in their groins and fall over while talking. The dead were buried in pits, in piles. In Florence, Italy, wrote Giovanni Boccaccio, No more respect was accorded to dead people than would nowadays be accorded to dead goats. Some hid in their homes. Others refused to accept the threat. Their way of coping, Boccaccio wrote, was to drink heavily, enjoy life to the full, go round singing and merrymaking, and gratify all of ones cravings when the opportunity emerged, and shrug the whole thing off as one enormous joke. That pandemic ended, but the plague recurred. One of the worst outbreaks began in China in 1855 and spread worldwide, killing more than 12 million in India alone. Health authorities in Mumbai, India, burned whole neighborhoods trying to rid them of the plague. Nobody knew if it made a difference, Yale historian Frank Snowden said. It is not clear what made the bubonic plague die down. Some scholars have argued that cold weather killed the disease-carrying fleas, but that would not have interrupted the spread by the respiratory route, Snowden noted. Or perhaps it was a change in the rats. By the 19th century, the plague was being carried not by black rats but by brown rats, which are stronger, more vicious and more likely to live apart from humans. You certainly wouldnt want one for a pet, Snowden said. Another hypothesis is that the bacterium evolved to be less deadly. Or maybe actions by humans, such as the burning of villages, helped quell the epidemic. The plague never really went away. In the United States, infections are endemic among prairie dogs in the Southwest and can be transmitted to people. Snowden said that one of his friends became infected after a stay at a hotel in New Mexico. The previous occupant of his room had a dog, which had fleas that carried the microbe. Such cases are rare and can now be successfully treated with antibiotics, but any report of a case of the plague stirs up fear. One Disease That Actually Ended Among the diseases to have achieved a medical end is smallpox. But it is exceptional for several reasons: There is an effective vaccine, which gives lifelong protection; the virus, Variola minor, has no animal host, so eliminating the disease in humans meant total elimination; and its symptoms are so unusual that infection is obvious, allowing for effective quarantines and contact tracing. But while it still raged, smallpox was horrific. Epidemic after epidemic swept the world for at least 3,000 years. Individuals infected with the virus developed a fever, then a rash that turned into pus-filled spots, which became encrusted and fell off, leaving scars. The disease killed 3 out of 10 of its victims, often after immense suffering. In 1633, an epidemic among Native Americans disrupted all the native communities in the northeast and certainly facilitated English settlement in Massachusetts, said Harvard historian David Jones. William Bradford, leader of the Plymouth colony, wrote an account of the disease in Native Americans, saying the broken pustules would effectively glue a patients skin to the mat he lay on, only to be torn off. Bradford wrote, When they turn them, a whole side will flay off at once as it were, and they will be all of a gore blood, most fearful to behold. The last person to contract smallpox naturally was Ali Maow Maalin, a hospital cook in Somalia, in 1977. He recovered, only to die of malaria in 2013. Forgotten Influenzas The 1918 flu is held up today as the example of the ravages of a pandemic and the value of quarantines and social distancing. Before it ended, the flu killed 50 million to 100 million people worldwide. It preyed on young to middle-aged adults orphaning children, depriving families of breadwinners, killing troops in the midst of World War I. In the autumn of 1918, William Vaughan, a prominent doctor, was dispatched to Camp Devens near Boston to report on a flu that was raging there. He saw hundreds of stalwart young men in the uniform of their country, coming into the wards of the hospital in groups of 10 or more, he wrote. They are placed on the cots until every bed is full, yet others crowd in. Their faces soon wear a bluish cast; a distressing cough brings up bloodstained sputum. In the morning the dead bodies are stacked up in the morgue like cord wood. The virus, he wrote, demonstrated the inferiority of human inventions in the destruction of human life. After sweeping through the world, that flu faded away, evolving into a variant of the more benign flu that comes around every year. Maybe it was like a fire that, having burned the available and easily accessible wood, burns down, Snowden said. It ended socially, too. World War I was over; people were ready for a fresh start, a new era, and eager to put the nightmare of disease and war behind them. Until recently, the 1918 flu was largely forgotten. Other flu pandemics followed none so bad, but all nonetheless sobering. In the Hong Kong flu of 1968, 1 million people died worldwide, including 100,000 in the United States, mostly people older than 65. That virus still circulates as a seasonal flu, and its initial path of destruction and the fear that went with it is rarely recalled. How Will COVID-19 End? Will that happen with COVID-19? One possibility, historians say, is that the coronavirus pandemic could end socially before it ends medically. People may grow so tired of the restrictions that they declare the pandemic over, even as the virus continues to smolder in the population and before a vaccine or effective treatment is found. I think there is this sort of social psychological issue of exhaustion and frustration, Yale historian Naomi Rogers said. We may be in a moment when people are just saying, Thats enough. I deserve to be able to return to my regular life. It is happening already; in some states, governors have lifted restrictions, allowing hair salons, nail salons and gyms to reopen, in defiance of warnings by public health officials that such steps are premature. As the economic catastrophe wreaked by the lockdowns grows, more and more people may be ready to say enough. There is this sort of conflict now, Rogers said. Public health officials have a medical end in sight, but some members of the public see a social end. Who gets to claim the end? Rogers said. If you push back against the notion of its ending, what are you pushing back against? What are you claiming when you say, No, it is not ending. The challenge, Brandt said, is that there will be no sudden victory. Trying to define the end of the pandemic will be a long and difficult process. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. A White House official said no decision has been made on providing the PPE for conventions but that the political gatherings have been viewed in the past as national security events. The official confirmed that McDaniel has raised the issue with the White House. Some Republican and Democratic governors have complained that the federal government has not stockpiled enough personal protective gear and their states have to pay outlandish prices on the black market for the equipment. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 16:27:09|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LOS ANGELES, May 9 (Xinhua) -- To express gratitude for frontline workers fighting the novel coronavirus, local officials, health institutions and charities on Friday partnered in providing hot meals to hospital workers and firefighters. The LAC+USC Medical Center, a 600-bed public and academic teaching hospital in Los Angeles and BAPS Charities served up to 8,000 hot meals to doctors, nurses and hospital support staff workers. LAC+USC Medical Center, a level-one trauma center run by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS), is one of the largest public hospitals in the United States and a leading hospital for training health professionals in the state of California. The nutritious, vegetarian meals were prepared by BAPS Shayona, the catering affiliate of the non-religious BAPS Charities, and served by volunteers. "These kind of heartwarming gestures mean the world to healthcare workers like us," Sarah Hamil, a nurse trainee at Huntington, told Xinhua. "It's really tough right now and it's so important to know people care." In Los Angeles, among such support to healthcare workers is also the weeks-long "Help Feed the Frontlines Fighting COVID-19 - LA" campaign, which is jointly organized by local residents. The grouping currently serves 14,000 hot meals per week to 16 hospitals and fire station locations, including sites like UCLA, Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital, Cedars-Sinai medical center, and Kaiser Permanente, at a daily cost of 12,500 U.S. dollars for lunch and dinner for 1,000 healthcare staff. Its efforts are funded through donations and partnered with the non-profit World Central Kitchen organization. It is also reported that currently, many local restaurants from high-end eateries to fast food chains are working as part of meal donations online to Los Angeles' frontline workers. Enditem Drug major Dr Reddy's Laboratories is recalling 1,752 bottles of generic heartburn medicine in the US after the American health regulator found quality issues with the product. As per the latest Enforcement Report by the the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), the Hyderabad-based drug firm is voluntarily recalling 1,752 bottles (1,000 count) of 40 mg Esomeprazole Magnesium delayed release capsules in the US. The ongoing Class III recall is on account of "Discolouration" and because the product contains brown pellets, USFDA said. As per the US health regulator, a class III recall is initiated in a situation "in which use of or exposure to a violative product is not likely to cause adverse health consequences". The recalled product lot has been manufactured at Dr Reddy's Bachupally manufacturing facility in Telangana and is being recalled by the company's US-based arm. Esomeprazole Magnesium delayed release capsules are indicated to reduce the amount of acid in the stomach and other symptoms associated with GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease). In February last year, the company had announced recall of 20,78,490 bottles of Esomeprazole Magnesium delayed-release capsules in the US market. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. It used to be taken for granted that old people would get confused and disoriented in the hospital. It is not a minor problem. Delirium, as the condition is called, can keep people in the hospital longer, inhibit treatment and even increase the likelihood of death. Then researchers began to understand that this state, in which patients do not know where they are, do not recognize their loved ones and sometimes even hallucinate, was often caused by what happened in hospitals overmedication, a lack of sleep and a lack of food, fluids or mobility. (Its easy to overlook someone too dazed to ring a buzzer.) Delirium can also accelerate lasting declines in brain function in those with normal brains or with dementia. For the past 30 years we have made great strides in reducing delirium by focusing on humanistic care and minimizing sedating drugs. One of the most effective preventive measures is keeping patients from feeling isolated. Just the presence of a family member or volunteer provides comfort and orientation. But Covid-19 is reversing those gains. Scores of colleagues from around the world have contacted me, reporting a rise in delirium of up to 70 percent because of Covid-19. It is occurring in both younger and older patients. Because of the restrictions on visitation and care to limit infection, Arjen Slooter, president of the European Delirium Association, told me, its difficult to provide the humanistic care necessary to prevent delirium. Dr. Slooter practices in the Netherlands, a world leader in geriatric care, but even there, he said, All our patients are delirious, just like 20 years ago. Kathmandu, May 10 The Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation has assured that it is ready to publish a new political map of the country that incorporates the region of Kalapani including Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura once there is a favourable environment in the country. Since India published its new political map in November last year incorporating the disputed region, there are demands galore for giving an encounter to India by publishing its new map incorporating the region that belongs to Nepal as per the Sugauli Treaty. Speaking in a meeting of the International Relations and Labour Committee in Parliament on Sunday, the ministrys secretary Neupane said the ministry was waiting for an appropriate environment to issue the new map. He, however, did not explain what that environment meant. During the meeting, the lawmakers had vented their ire at the officials for their failure to publish a new map despite the widespread pressure. Washington: The outbreak of Corona that is getting increased suddenly takes the form of epidemic for the whole world. This virus is caught, more than 2 lakh 80 thousand deaths have taken place. But still this death game has not stopped. This virus has rocked the whole world today. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House's Coronavirus Task Force, will begin his quarantine from Sunday. He told that he has come in contact with a White House employee whose test report has come positive. World Laparoscopy Hospital - Laparoscopic Training Institute With Brilliant Global Presence Doctor Fauci says that he has come in contact with a low risk of positive employee. A low-risk contact means that he does not come into contact with the person when his test report came positive or when he is suspected to be infected with the virus. Fauci will not live the entire duration of Quarantine like Doctor Stephen Han. Dr. Han is the Commissioner of Food and Drug Administration. He came in contact with a person found corona positive. In addition, Doctor Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will isolate himself for two weeks after coming into contact with a Covid-19 positive man at the White House. According to the report, the authorities have not revealed the identities of the people whom Han and Redfield have come in contact with. However, Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary Katie Miller was found infected with Corona on Friday. She has often been involved in meetings of the Coronavirus Task Force of the White House. Pakistan's condition worsens, death toll crosses 1800 Fauci says that he will live in a precautionally modified quarantine. Meaning that he will stay home and work and keep masks for 14 days. He said that he can also go to his office located in the National Institute of Health, where he will be the only person. They will conduct corona examination daily. He told that his investigation report came negative yesterday. Fauci said that if he is called to the White House or Capitol Hill, he will go there with utmost care. Fauci is expected to testify at a Senate hearing next week on the coronavirus. Redfield and Han will now give their testimony through video conferencing. Minor kidnapped and forced convert to Islam in Pakistan With many celebrities and even former president Barack Obama taking part in virtual graduation ceremonies in times of social distancing, actor Alec Baldwin's President Donald Trump turned keynote speaker for this year's class of seniors in the remotely filmed season finale of "Saturday Night Live". Kate McKinnon, who portrayed the principal of a fictitious school, mentioned that he was the class' eighth choice, behind such favourites as Obama, murder hornets and the "Elon Musk-Grimes baby". "Hello, everyone, I'm Principal O'Grady. Welcome to the St Mary Magdalene By The Expressway class of 2020 virtual graduation," she said in a video shared on "SNL" Twitter page. "I know this isn't how you expected your high school career to come to an end, but we're all making sacrifices. I have had to share my child's Adderall with him," McKinnon said to a zoom conference of the entire class playing students. Baldwin's Trump appeared wearing a red "Make America Great Again" cap in a call from home. "Congratulations to the class of COVID-19," he said in his opening monologue, adding that he was honoured to be their "valedictator". "But today's not about me, it's about you. Although I should spend a little time on me first because I've been treated very poorly, even worse than they treated Lincoln," the faux president said. One of the students, played by Chris Redd, pointed out that Lincoln was assassinated. "Lincoln would agree. He's probably smiling up at me from Hell right now," Baldwin's Trump added. He then went on to explain how the class was lucky to be graduating at a time when there are many exciting new jobs out there like "grocery store bouncer," "porch pirate" and "amateur nurse". "I'm going to make sure colleges are open in the fall. Online college is a scam, and I should know. My online college was ranked No 1 craziest scam by US every year it was open," he said in an apparent reference to college admissions scandal involving actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. Towards the end, Baldwin as Trump said, "Surround yourself with the worst people you can find so that way you'll always shine. If you don't understand something, just call it stupid ... and live everyday like it's your last because we're going to let this virus run wild." Sharing his favourite inspirational quote, he said, "Reach for the stars because if you're a star, they'll let you do it." Baldwin, 62, returned as himself and said, "Taped from my home, one last time, it's Saturday night."Other celebrity guests in the "SNL At Home" finale included Kristen Wiig, Josh Gad, Danny Trejo, Tina Fey and Martin Short. Boyz II Men and Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds were the musical guests in the episode, performing "A Song for Mama," which was dedicated to all of the mothers on Mother's Day. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Iran Persian Gulf Tensions In this photo released Wednesday, April 22, 2020, by Sepahnews, an Iranian rocket carrying a satellite is launched from an undisclosed site believed to be in Iran's Semnan province. Iran's Revolutionary Guard said Wednesday it put the Islamic Republic's first military satellite into orbit, dramatically unveiling what experts described as a secret space program with a surprise launch that came amid wider tensions with the United States. (Sepahnews via AP) Pandemic or not, are there some global currents whose flows are too strong to stop? This week would suggest yes. Most countries in the world have been consumed with how to contain the coronavirus, including hard-hit Iran and its enemy, Israel. North Korea has closed the country to foreign travel while it claims no infections something that defectors and experts have strong reason to doubt. The three nations have been recurring geopolitical pressure points for decades, be it because of conflict erupting or unexpected diplomacy flowering. Recent days have been no exception. When Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump gripped and grinned for the first time in Singapore two years ago, the world stopped and watched the jaw-dropping moment. Three summits later, progress on nuclear issues and lifting sanctions has stagnated. Now, the most pressing questions this week have become: Where is Kim, and what's the status of his health? When the United States killed Irans most senior military man, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, as the year dawned, some wondered if global conflict was just around the corner. It was averted, but not without a death toll also claiming civilians on an accidentally downed airliner. But tensions between Tehran (suffering the outbreak acutely atop an economy already broken by sanctions) and Washington (itself dealing with the most virus infections and deaths in the world), have become febrile again this week. The rhetoric of threat and counter-threat is back. And when Trump backed Benjamin Netanyahu over annexation of the West Bank earlier this year, delighting the Israeli leader's pro-settler base, many considered it to be the final death knell for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. Israel had been beset by political paralysis for 16 months until a unity government was agreed this week by once sparring rivals, bringing the push for annexation back to the fore as calls for political unity to fight the pandemic promptly faded. Story continues That these long-running tensions still exist is not a surprise amid the pandemic, said Ariane Tabatabai, a Middle East fellow who studies Iran at the Washington-based German Marshall Fund. Once a crisis begins," Tabatabai said, its not going to stop unless the different parties have the political will to put an end to it. And something with deep national- and international-level implications will inevitably further exacerbate existing issues. Some of what's percolating: WHERE IS KIM JONG UN? After a frenzy of unsubstantiated news reports earlier this week that painted a grave picture, South Korea said the North Korean leader appeared to be handling state affairs as usual after rumored surgery. Where? At an unspecified location outside of Pyongyang, with some close confidants, Seoul said. Washington said it was closely monitoring the situation but professed to have no hard intelligence. North Korea watchers saw red flags when Kim missed the celebration of his late grandfather Kim Il Sung on April 15, the countrys most important holiday. His last public appearance was April 11 at a political meeting where his sister Kim Yo Jong was named as an alternate member of the body. Bloodline is a central fact of ruling North Korea, and Kim's seeming absence has fueled talk of succession. The Kim dynasty has ruled for seven decades. VIRUS-HIT IRAN FLEXES ITS MILITARY MUSCLE The Revolutionary Guard caught world powers by surprise this week when they launched a military satellite as part of a secret space program as Trump threatened to sink any Iranian vessel harassing U.S. forces. Iran has suffered one of the worlds worst outbreaks of the virus. Experts both inside and outside of Iran believe Tehran also is underreporting the scale of the crisis. Iran, of course, has seized the opportunity presented by COVID-19, which is whats preoccupying Americans at the moment, Tabatabai said. In part, its trying to distract from its own botched response to the pandemic and partly, it sees the United States at its weakest in a while and so its using this to raise the cost of the maximum pressure campaign to force the U.S. to end it. ISRAEL EYES ANNEXATION OF OCCUPIED WEST BANK Bribery suspect Netanyahu and vote thief Gantz form an alliance of scoundrels,'' one headline in the Israeli daily Haaretz offered this week, referring to the prime minister and his onetime chief rival's power-sharing agreement . A critical litmus test for the alliance will be the annexation of large parts of the West Bank. Such a move would destroy hopes of creating an independent Palestinian state and draw widespread international condemnation. Although their government is to focus on coronavirus issues for its first six months, Netanyahu persuaded Benny Gantz to allow him to raise annexation plans in the Cabinet from July 1. ___ Tamer Fakahany is APs deputy director for global news coordination and has helped direct international coverage for the AP for 17 years. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/tamerfakahany. Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai contributed to this report. OTTAWA - The Canadian Armed Forces is postponing the deployment of a warship and surveillance aircraft to help enforce United Nations' sanctions against North Korea because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/5/2020 (618 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Canadian Forces CH-47 Chinook helicopters participate in a flyover of Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Friday, May 9, 2014. The Canadian Armed Forces is postponing the deployment of a warship and surveillance aircraft to help enforce United Nations' sanctions against North Korea because of the COVID-19 pandemic. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang OTTAWA - The Canadian Armed Forces is postponing the deployment of a warship and surveillance aircraft to help enforce United Nations' sanctions against North Korea because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The delay is one of numerous changes the Armed Forces is making to its overseas missions following a detailed analysis of the roughly 20 operations that the military is either already conducting or which were due to begin in the coming months. "We conducted a detailed analysis of our operations to determine whether further adjustments were required to protect our personnel while ensuring continuity for critical tasks," Forces' spokeswoman Capt. Leah Campbell said in an email. "Following this review, we adjusted some of our operations. These adjustments range from delaying the deployment of some capabilities, to amending the number of CAF personnel deployed, to modifying the length of deployments while the risks of COVID-19 remain present." The new changes follow an earlier decision to withdraw Armed Forces members from Iraq, scale back Canada's military training mission in Ukraine and bring back several warships from different parts of the world. They also come as the federal government is deploying the majority of the military's medical personnel to help with long-term care facilities in Quebec and Ontario that have been hit hard by COVID-19. The Halifax-class frigate HMCS Calgary and a CP-140 Aurora patrol plane were scheduled to head across the Pacific this month, the latest iteration in Canada's ongoing contribution to the international effort to prevent North Korea from expanding its nuclear arsenal. Yet Campbell said the deployment has been "deferred" for an unspecified amount of time. The same is true for Canada's contribution of a C-130 Hercules transport plane to UN operations in Africa. The aircraft has been based out of Uganda for five days per month since late last year, carrying supplies, peacekeepers and equipment to different missions in the region. The Armed Forces has also suspended military training efforts in the West Bank, where it is helping the Palestinian Authority build its security forces, and relocated some troops from one area in South Sudan to another. It has also curbed its support to a French counter-terrorism mission in West Africa, where Canada has been providing a heavy aircraft on an occasional basis to help transport troops and equipment, and cancelled plans to send military trainers to Niger this spring. The military is also keeping troops on some missions in place longer, rather than replacing them with fresh Forces members as planned. Those include nine Canadian peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 10 in South Sudan, and 55 in the Sinai Peninsula. "The decision to delay or adjust the number of personnel deployed on select missions was a balance between weighing the acceptable risk factors for our personnel, our ability to sustain the mission, and the impact any changes would have on the mission itself," Campbell said. "For some operations, this decision is the result of a pause in operational activities by the host or partner nations. In others, it is preferable to delay the movement of forces in and out of missions at this time." The changes to overseas missions come as hundreds of Armed Forces members are preparing to work or already working in long-term care facilities in Ontario and Quebec that have been hit hard by COVID-19. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan last week said the military would have 1,350 service members in 25 long-term care facilities in Quebec by mid-May and another 265 in five institutions in Ontario. Many other troops are currently remaining in their homes in case to stay healthy in case they are required to assist with spring flooding or wildfires across different parts of the country. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2020. Former Central regional minister, Ama Benyiwa-Doe has lauded former president Mahamas leadership as the NDC prepares for the 2020 elections. According to the one time National women organizer of the party, the former president has demonstrated a strong unifying character after winning the partys flagbearership slot. Madam Ama Benyiwa-Doe recounted this in the wake of accusations by some New Patriotic Party (NPP) elements that the NDC and John Dramani Mahama as its leader have neglected the one time fire brand women organizer of the party. Speaking on Pampaso a political talk show on Radiogold905.com, Ama Benyiwa-Doe said, Mr Mahama was always in touch with her throughout her predicament contrary to claims that the former president neglected her on her sick bed. She said John Mahama personally visited her at home. I was an ordinary member in the party but John Mahama never took me for granted. Occasionally he was sending something to me. She reposed confidence in the former president stating he has what it takes to annex the presidency again considering the lackluster performance of the Nana Akuffo Addo led administration. She noted the former presidents footprints are dotted across the breath and length of the country in terms of socio-economic development. This she stressed will translate into the needed votes for John Dramani Mahama to secure the presidency. Commenting on what specifically she will do to ensure victory for the NDC come the next elections, she said with good health, she will be in the trenches to canvass the needed votes for the party. Source: radiogoldlive.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 SYDNEY, N.S.One person is dead following a house fire early Sunday in Cape Breton. Police say a body was found inside the home shortly after 11 a.m. The adult male was declared dead at the scene on Westmount Road in Sydney. The identity of the victim was not released. Cape Breton Regional Police are asking for the publics help as they continue their investigation. The fire marshal and a forensic identification unit have been called in. Read more about: On Friday, Obama arranged to have leaked a phone call in which he criticized the Justice Departments decision to dismiss its case against Flynn. He also crudely criticized President Trumps response to the Wuhan Virus. Several writers, most notably Jonathan Turley (a Democrat whos getting red-pilled fast), caught Obamas factual and legal errors. Thats not the worst thing about Obamas leaked call, though. The worst thing is that hes deliberately stirring up factionalism, something no previous president has ever done. To a history major, its the papacys Schism all over again. In 1305, the French King, Philip IV, succeeded in getting a Frenchman, Clement V, elected as pope. Clement, who was unpopular in Rome, moved the papacy to Avignon in 1309. For the next 67 years, a series of French popes held court at Avignon. In 1376, Pope Gregory XI returned to Rome. Unhappy Italian cities waged war against the new pope, who responded with ferocity. Eventually, there were two popes, one in Rome and one in Avignon, creating a period known as the Schism or Babylonian Exile, which lasted from 1378 to 1417. It was a nightmare for Catholic Europe because, in an era when the well-being of one's soul was of utmost importance, people did not know to which authority they should look. Fast forward several hundred years, and we have Obama, a president who now stands exposed as having tried to take down his duly elected successor. His walled Kalorama house is the new Avignon. To strengthen his position, Obama, who has kept a low(ish) profile for the past three years, is aggressively reinserting himself into presidential politics. Hes not just touting Joe as a viable candidate; hes tackling policy. On Friday, Yahoo reported that it had gained access to a recording of Obamas conversation with past-administration officials. (Gained access to means deliberately leaked to a friendly media outlet.) In it, Obama staked out a couple of highly political positions: The news over the last 24 hours I think has been somewhat downplayed about the Justice Department dropping charges against Michael Flynn, Obama said in a web talk with members of the Obama Alumni Association. And the fact that there is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free. Thats the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic not just institutional norms but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk. And when you start moving in those directions, it can accelerate pretty quickly as weve seen in other places. [snip] This election thats coming up on every level is so important because what were going to be battling is not just a particular individual or a political party. What were fighting against is these long-term trends in which being selfish, being tribal, being divided, and seeing others as an enemy that has become a stronger impulse in American life. And by the way, were seeing that internationally as well. Its part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty. It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset of whats in it for me and to heck with everybody else when that mindset is operationalized in our government. Thats why, I, by the way, am going to be spending as much time as necessary and campaigning as hard as I can for Joe Biden, he added. Those statements werent for the Obama Alumni Association. They were for the American people. Jonathan Turley, an honest Democrat who must be increasingly disillusioned with his party, tweeted that Obamas statement was rife with errors: President Obama is being quoted on Flynn, saying "There is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free." It is a curious statement. First and foremost, Flynn was not charged with perjury... https://t.co/fWlSFWkp8S Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 9, 2020 Second, we now know Obama discussed charging Flynn under the Logan Act which has never been used successfully to convict anyone and is flagrantly unconstitutional. Third, this reaffirms reports that Obama was personally invested in this effort. Finally, there is precedent... Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 9, 2020 There is a specific rule allowing for this motion under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48(a). There are specific Supreme Court cases like Rinaldi v. United States addressing the standard for such dismissals.... Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 9, 2020 The Justice Department has dismissed cases in the past including the Stevens case.That was requested by President Obama's own Attorney General Eric Holder for the same reason: misconduct by prosecutors. It was done before the same judge, Judge Sullivan. How is that for precedent? Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 9, 2020 While its true that both Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton broke with two hundred years of precedent by refusing to go away quietly after their presidencies ended, neither crudely and openly attacked subsequent Republican administrations. They advanced their own policies and enjoyed the medias continuing adulation, but they werent trying to set up a separate, shadow presidency. Obama, however, has quietly been running the Democrat party from his home and now, with his sins being aired in public, hes decided that he too must go public, knowing that his friends in the media will help him every step of the way. Obamas actions are a dangerous precedent in America, creating a whole new level of factionalism in an already divided nation. A resounding Trump victory in November will be an excellent way to nip this shadow president in the bud. Who is Iraq's new Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi? Al Arabiya Leen Alfaisal, Al Arabiya English Saturday 09 May 2020 After five months, and two failed attempts to form a government in Iraq, the country has a new Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Khadhimi a former intelligence chief and journalist. The country is dealing with multiple crises, including an economy hit hard by the low price of oil Iraq's principal source of revenue and the coronavirus pandemic, which has wrecked economies across the globe, and there is optimism al-Khadimi will be able to set Iraq on a path to recovery. Described as having a "unique personality," Iraq's new prime minister has promised to fight corruption, limit access to weapons to those within the government, and return the displaced to their homes. He has also said a priority will be to hold accountable those who had killed protesters during previous months of unrest. He also promised early elections and to pass a budget law that will have to address the acute economic crisis, that has deepened due to falling oil prices. The absence of leadership has left Iraq without an approved budget. For five months, Iraq had no government following the resignation of former Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, who stepped down as anti-government protesters took to the streets in their thousands, demanding jobs and the departure of Iraq's ruling elite. Al-Khadhimi was nominated by Iraqi President Barham Salih after two previous nominees failed to form a government. Fifteen of the cabinet posts have been filled, but some remain vacant including foreign affairs, justice, oil, agriculture, and trade as major political parties failed to form a consensus on how they should be allocated. The new leader was welcomed by the US and Saudi Arabia, among other countries. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo extended on April 26 a sanctions waiver, allowing Iraq to import Iranian energy for a further 30 days. Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called the new Iraqi leader and reiterated the Kingdom's support for Iraq in achieving stability and security. David Schenker, the State Department's top diplomat for the Middle East, said of al-Kadhimi: "If Kadhimi is an Iraqi nationalist, dedicated to pursuing a sovereign Iraq, if he is committed to fighting corruption, this would be great for Iraq, and we think it would be great for our bilateral relationship." A source close to al-Kadhimi told AFP that the new leader "has a unique personality and a pragmatic ideology, in addition to having good relations with all the players involved in Iraq. He has good relations with the Americans and a recently recovered relation with the Iranians." But Iraq risks being further caught in the middle of tensions between Washington and Tehran, as militia groups vow revenge for the killing of Iran's top commander Qassem Soleimani and his associate in Iraq Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who were killed on Iraqi soil. The right man for the job? Iraq's new leader faces myriad challenges, but before his rise to political prominence, he had a career in journalism and later served as the country's spy chief. Mustafa al-Kadhimi was born in Baghdad in 1967, and studied law before becoming a journalist, where he was known for his opposition of the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. He lived abroad in Iran, Sweden, and the UK where he worked in several positions, including serving as the Iraq Pulse editor for Al-Monitor and the director of the Humanitarian Dialogue Foundation in London. After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, al-Kadhimi returned home and helped establish the Iraqi Media Network along with being the executive director of the "Iraq Memory Foundation" that worked on documenting crimes committed by Saddam Hussein's regime. In June 2016, al-Kadhimi was named the head of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service amid the country's escalating battle against ISIS. Beyond a bad economy, and the ever-present potential for regional flare-ups, al-Kadhimi will have to contend with a growing ISIS insurgency in northern Iraq, as the extremist group has stepped up attacks on government troops. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address WASHINGTONThree members of the White House coronavirus task force, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have placed themselves in quarantine after contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, another stark reminder not even one of the most secure buildings in the United States is immune from the virus. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a leading member of the task force, has become nationally known for his simple and direct explanations to the public about the coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease it causes. Also quarantining are Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration Faucis institute said he has tested negative for COVID-19 and will continue to be tested regularly. It added he is considered at relatively low risk based on the degree of his exposure, and he would be taking appropriate precautions to mitigate the risk to personal contacts while still carrying out his duties. While he will stay at home and telework, Fauci will go to the White House if called and take every precaution, the institute said. Redfield will be teleworking for the next two weeks after it was determined he had a low-risk exposure to a person at the White House, the CDC said in a statement Saturday evening. The statement said he felt fine and has no symptoms. Just a few hours earlier, the Food and Drug Administration confirmed Hahn had come in contact with someone who tested positive and was in self-quarantine for the next two weeks. He tested negative for the virus. All three men are scheduled to testify before a Senate committee on Tuesday. Sen. Lamar Alexander, chairman of the panel, said the White House will allow Redfield and Hahn to testify by video conference, a one-time exception to the administrations policies on hearing testimony. The statement was issued before Faucis quarantine was announced. U.S. Vice-President Mike Pences press secretary tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday, making her the second person who works at the White House complex known to test positive for the virus this week. White House officials had confirmed Thursday that a member of the military serving as one of U.S. President Donald Trumps valets had tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. Trump, who publicly identified the affected Pence aide as spokeswoman Katie Miller, said he was not worried about the virus spreading in the White House. Nonetheless, officials said they were stepping up safety protocols for the complex. Miller had been in recent contact with Pence, but not with the president, and had tested negative a day earlier. She is married to Stephen Miller, a top Trump adviser. The White House had no immediate comment on whether Stephen Miller had been tested or if he was still working in the White House. The CDC and FDA would not disclose the identity of the person who had tested positive and with whom the agency leaders had come in contact. Redfield sought to use the exposure as a teachable moment. The CDC statement said if he must go to the White House to fulfil any responsibilities as part of the coronavirus task force, he will follow CDC practices for critical infrastructure workers. Those guidelines call for Redfield and anyone working on the task force to have their temperature taken and screened for symptoms each day, wear a face covering and distance themselves from others. Trump has resisted wearing a mask, and in a meeting with the nations top military leaders Saturday evening, he did not wear a mask during the brief portion that reporters were allowed to view. The generals around Trump also did not wear a mask, but participants did sit away from each other. FDA spokeswoman Stephanie Caccomo said Hahn tested negative for the virus after he learned of the contact. He wrote a note to staff on Friday to alert them. Six people who had been in contact with Miller were scheduled to fly with Pence on Friday to Des Moines, Iowa, on Air Force Two. They were removed from the flight just before it took off, according to a senior administration official. None of those people was exhibiting symptoms, but all were asked to deplane so they could be tested out of an abundance of caution, a senior administration official told reporters travelling with Pence. All six later tested negative, the White House said. The official said staff in the West Wing are tested regularly, but much of Pences staff which works next door in the Executive Office Building are tested less frequently. Katie Miller was not on the plane and had not been scheduled to be on the trip. Pence, who is tested on a regular basis, was tested Friday. Miller tweeted she was doing well and looked forward to getting back to work. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said the administration was stepping up mitigation efforts already recommended by public-health experts and taking other unspecified precautions to ensure the safety of the president. He said the White House was probably the safest place that you can come, but that he was reviewing further steps to keep Trump and Pence safe. The White House requires daily temperature checks of anyone who enters the White House complex and has encouraged social distancing among those working in the building. The administration has also directed regular deep cleaning of all work spaces. Anyone who comes in close proximity to the president and vice-president is tested daily for COVID-19. Trumps valets case marked the first known instance where a person who has come in close proximity to the president has tested positive since several people present at his private Florida club were diagnosed with COVID-19 in early March. Read more about: Republicans and Democrats alike are looking to Tuesdays runoff election for an open Southern California congressional seat to provide an early glimpse of Novembers dogfight for control of the House. They might be disappointed. Republican Mike Garcia and Democratic Assemblywoman Christy Smith, D-Santa Clarita (Los Angeles County), are scrapping over many of the same issues that will play out across the country in the fall. But a mid-May election with only the one race to attract voters is very different from a November presidential election chock-full of ballot measures and high-profile partisan contests. This is a stand-alone special election, (and) even in normal times they arent indicative of anything when it comes to the general election, said Paul Mitchell, vice president of Political Data Inc., which tracks ballot returns for political campaigns. It would be like comparing crowd attendance at a preseason game and the national finals. In many ways, the contest in the 25th Congressional District, which includes parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, looks a lot like the battles in other California swing districts. While Garcia, 44, has spent more than a decade as an executive for Raytheon Technologies, a major defense contractor, thats not the part of his resume he focuses on. Hes Fighter Pilot Mike Garcia in his campaign literature, which features his name and title over stylized aviators wings. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Garcia spent nearly 20 years in the Navy, flying jet fighters. In a congressional district where Latinos make up more than a third of the residents, hes the son of immigrant parents and grew up in the district. Smith, 50, who was raised in Santa Clarita, worked as an analyst for the U.S. Department of Education before starting an educational foundation. She spent nine years on the local school board and was elected to the Assembly in 2018, flipping a seat that had been held by Republicans for decades. The partisan lines between the two are the ones seen across the state. Garcia, who is making his first run for public office, bills himself as a proud conservative, saying on his campaign website that he believes in the Constitution, Capitalism and Competition. A supporter of congressional term limits, he has promised to fight against Democrats dangerous socialist agenda. Garcia is backed by business groups, veterans organizations and antiabortion activists, among others. Smith touts her experience as an elected official, pointing to her work on education issues and gun safety and her support for immigration reform. Supporters include labor, women and pro-choice groups and conservation organizations. But theres plenty in the runoff election thats very different from the regular partisan contests. Its a really interesting race, said Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego. And its the atypical things that are the most interesting. While the district is one of seven in California that Democrats flipped in 2018, this isnt a rematch. Two years ago, Democrat Katie Hill beat GOP Rep. Steve Knight in an election that highlighted the changing political landscape in what was once a Republican stronghold. But Hill resigned her seat late last year after nude photos of her were circulated and her estranged husband accused her of affairs with a campaign aide, which she admitted, and a congressional staffer, which she denied. Knight attempted a political comeback, but finished a well-beaten third in the March primary. The race is also taking place in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, which has left both candidates and voters confined to their homes and forced a very different style of campaigning. The virus means the election will be conducted almost entirely by mail, with only a handful of centers open for in-person voting. Election officials warn that only preliminary results are likely to be released Tuesday night, with counting likely to continue for days. The race also is a test run for themes that the two parties will spread nationwide in November. In recent weeks, Smith has slammed Garcia for his support for President Trump, while the Republican has hit back against Smiths record in office and her willingness to back House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco. The stay-at-home orders havent hurt either candidates fundraising. As of April 22, Garcia and Smith had each raised about $2.2 million, with more than $300,000 apiece on hand. Outside groups and party organizations have spent more than $700,000 to support Garcia and $500,000 for Smith. Going into the final days of the campaign, Garcia looked to be the front-runner. This election is not in our favor right now, Smiths campaign said in a fundraising appeal last week. Were behind in the vote-by-mail count, Mike Garcia is outspending us with a nearly $300,000 TV ad-buy and Donald Trump is attacking us on Twitter, relentlessly. But contests across California in the past few years have shown that Democratic voters tend to turn in their mail ballots late, which led to come-from-behind victories for their candidates in 2018. What that means right now is a question mark, Mitchell said. Because of the coronavirus, this is an extraordinarily unique election, he said. We have zero understanding of what this data means for late ballots, or how these returns might change by election day. Whoever loses on Tuesday is sure to argue that the election for the few months left in Hills term really didnt mean much and that the only vote that really counts is in November. And in November, Smith and Garcia will face each other again, this time for a full, two-year term. With the far higher turnout predicted for the presidential contest, said Kousser of UC San Diego, the playing field will dramatically shift in November. John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth Kolkata: A fire broke out in a high-rise building in Sector V area of Salt Lake on Sunday morning, officials said. There was no report of any casualty in the fire, they said. Fire brigade sources said four fire tenders worked for about one hour to put off the flames at the server room on the 10th floor of the 12-storied building. Flames were first spotted in the server room at around 10 am and the maintenance staff and security personnel informed the fire brigade. The fire was extinguished by the fire brigade personnel. The building houses BPOs and consultancy offices on different floors but due to lockdown there was none in the offices except security and maintenance/electrical staff, the sources said. Its a real variable weather pattern for our Mothers Day here in Michigan. Some periods wont be too bad, and some time will be rather ugly. Snow on Mother's Day, May 10, 2020 in Frederic, MI. (photo courtesy Brenda Wiegand) Northern Lower Michigan is waking up to a scene like the one above, sent to us by Brenda Wiegand in Frederic, north of Grayling. A weather system center is going to move right across Michigan today. The chance of precipitation will increase through the day from northwest to southeast across Michigan. Heres a look at the always updated radar. As of 9 a.m. this morning, the circulation center of the weather system was in Wisconsin. So there is still much time before the center of the weather-maker will move out of Michigan. Heres the radar forecast, meaning what to expect in the future. The radar animation goes out to midnight tonight. Radar forecast from 8 a.m. Sunday, May 10, 2020 to midnight Monday, May 11, 2020 The general weather story has two parts. This morning will have snow at times across northern Lower and central Lower Michigan. Then a larger area of rain and thundershowers will develop across southern Lower late this morning and afternoon. As the center of the storm moves east of Michigan this evening, colder air will settle into southern Lower. The colder air will come from northerly winds, and the loss of sunshine. So the Grand Rapids area, the Saginaw Bay area and even southeast Lower could have some wet snow mix in with the rain this evening. Total snow forecast Sunday, May 10, 2020 The total snow accumulation from a model I like in this situation shows an inch or two of snow likely across northern and central Lower Michigan this morning and early afternoon. As temperatures turn colder late this afternoon around the Saginaw Bay and the Thumb, there could be a brief light coating of snow. Other areas of southeast Lower would just see a few flakes in the air, just enough to make you roll your eyes back in your head. Remember, the ground temperatures are in the 40s at most places. As soon as the snow stops, it will melt. Temperatures wont be really too cold in southeast Lower this morning and early afternoon. Here is a forecast animation of the temperatures through today. Temperature forecast through midnight May 11, 2020. You can see how the temperatures warm in southeast Lower Michigan this morning, including Ann Arbor and Detroit. Temperatures could warm to near 60 degrees. Meanwhile northern Lower and the Upper Peninsula will only be in the 30s! But as the late afternoon and evening comes on, temperatures will get cold everywhere. In southeast Lower, doing something with mom outside this morning or early afternoon may not be too uncomfortable. Youll have to watch the radar so you dont get wet. The rest of the state will have a pretty chilly, wet or white time outside today. India's third Covid wave likely to peak on Jan 23, daily cases to stay below 4 lakh: IIT Kanpur scientist India needs 'whole-of-govt approach' to confront strategic uncertainties: Army Chief India pti-PTI New Delhi, May 10: The time has come for India to adopt a "whole-of-government approach" in decisively confronting the "strategic uncertainties" looming on its horizon as well as non-traditional threats like pandemics, Army Chief Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane has said, strongly pitching for broadening the country's national security doctrine. Talking about complex geo-political power play in India's neighbourhood, Gen Naravane said the Indian armed forces are determined to "cement" the country's reputation as a net security provider in the region. Army, paramilitary staff to be quarantined on return to Chhattisgarh "There is an entire spectrum of strategic uncertainties that looms on the horizon and a whole-of-government approach is the need of the hour to deal with them," the Army Chief told PTI. Though Gen Naravane did not elaborate, his comments came in the backdrop of Pakistan-supported Taliban's aim for a role in power structure in Afghanistan and China's persistent efforts to expand military ties with countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar and the Maldives. "In dealing with issues of global nature, the armed forces with their inherent capabilities and capacities will cement India's reputation as a net security provider in the region, taking security as a holistic concept," Gen Naravane said. India is learnt to have been worried over the extremely fragile and dynamic situation in Afghanistan after the US sealed a historic deal with the Taliban providing for withdrawal of American troops from the war-ravaged country. The Army Chief further said that India needs to broaden its understanding of national security and must examine non-traditional threats like pandemics "de-novo" as they have the potential to inflict severe damage on the country. "We need to act and prepare ourselves accordingly." He said the "traditional threats" facing India remained "unabated" and the armed forces are fully geared up to deal with them. Gen Naravane said that there has been no let up in Indian Army's "posture" while guarding the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China because of the coronavirus pandemic. The LAC is the de-facto border between the two countries. "Along the LAC, patrolling continues as before though we have put the ceremonial border personnel meetings on hold. There is also greater reliance on hotlines," he said. The Chief of Army Staff said the effort has been to adhere to the directives issued by both the governments following two informal summits between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. "As far as our deployment along the border with China is concerned, the focus is on mutual understanding and respect for the sanctity of LAC and ensuring that no untoward incident takes place due to our differing perceptions of the LAC," he said. "Our focus has been to ensure all misunderstandings are mitigated amicably through discussions and existing mechanisms," Gen Naravane said. The India-China border dispute covers 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it. Both sides have been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas. Gen Naravane said troops deployed along borders in remote and high altitude areas are at minimum risk of getting infected by the coronavirus as the areas are inaccessible to ordinary people. He said only troops who are medically validated as being coronavirus-free are being allowed to replace the personnel deployed in key formations and frontiers. "You have to keep in mind that in most of these places, due to the nature of deployment and living arrangements, social distancing is not feasible. However, wherever possible, social distancing and hygiene measures are being strictly enforced," he said. Gen Naravane said ensuring safety of his force from the pandemic is his foremost priority as the Army will be able to assist the country in dealing with the challenge if the troops are fighting fit. "The need for maintaining social distancing and hygiene norms assumes significant importance in the forces because of the higher density of personnel living inside barracks and the increased attendant possibility of the virus spreading within the forces," he said. He said all the units and formations have been issued comprehensive instructions to maintain social distancing wherever feasible and adhere to highest hygiene standards. Massive erosion likely due to hydropower dam causes oil spill on Ecuadors Coca River by Antonio Jose Paz Cardona. Translated by Romina Castagnino May 08,2020 | Source: Mongabay Ecuador is in a deep economic and health crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has spread seriously in the city of Guayaquil, in the province of Guayas. Amid that crisis, at 7:15 p.m. on Tuesday, April 7, part of the riverbed of the Coca River, located on the San Rafael sector and on the border between the provinces of Napo and Sucumbios, sank. The resulting sinkhole caused the collapse of upstream infrastructure belonging to the Trans-Ecuadorian Oil Pipeline System (known by its Spanish acronym SOTE) and the heavy crude pipeline (operated by private company OCP), which then caused an oil spill on the Coca. As the incident occurred in an area with abundant water, the oil quickly reached the Napo River. If containment operations there fail, the oil could reach the Amazon River in Peru. Kichwa indigenous communities living downstream of the spill have already denounced the contamination of the tributary and have expressed concerns about the possible death of fish and the impact on fishing, one of their only available subsistence activities during the pandemic. This disaster is not an isolated event, but is related to the collapse of the San Rafael waterfall on Feb. 2. This was caused by an erosion phenomenon that happened upstream of the waterfall; hydrologists and geologists are extremely concerned and almost two months ago warned authorities of the dangers this event posed, but their claims were not acted upon. They said it would happen, but nothing was done about it. The country should start talking about the future of the oil pipeline bases, the highway, and the catchment dam of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant, said Emilio Cobo, coordinator of the IUCNs South America water program. In the report published by Mongabay, Cobo said very serious impacts may be registered on infrastructure in the Coca River channel between the waterfall and the dam that could compromise the future of the hydroelectric plant. The SOTE and OCP pipelines are just two pieces of infrastructure found along this channel. The magnitude of the regressive erosion is much stronger than I imagined, Cobo said. I thought it was going to be 4 or 5 meters [13 or 16 feet] deep, but the pictures show at least 15 meters [49 feet]. Also, the rainy season that just began further accelerates the erosive process in the river. Carolina Bernal, a geologist with a Ph.D. in hydrosedimentology, knows in depth the dynamics of sediments in water bodies. For years, she has studied the mechanisms of the Coca River, especially the area where the San Rafael waterfall and the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant are located. When the waterfall collapsed, people were not sure if the natural phenomenon was related to the presence of the hydroelectric plant. I had doubts that the Coca Codo Sinclair plant influenced what happened with the San Rafael waterfall [on Feb. 2], but now, after seeing the aggressiveness of the phenomenon, it can be linked with the sediment management of the project. Hydroelectric plants must be planned very carefully, Bernal said. Mongabay contacted the dam operator in February to ask about the erosion of the San Rafael waterfall but received no response. After the collapse that broke the OCP and SOTE pipelines on April 7, the company used its social media platform only to repeat messages sent by Petroecuador and the Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Resources. Bernal said the regressive erosion occurring upstream of the waterfall is also very aggressive and fast-paced. In my opinion, this phenomenon will not stop until the river recovers the dynamic equilibrium altered by the project. If this is the case, I think that hydrosedimentological studies are necessary, and a long-term sediment management plan should be created. Things like this happen when project [developers] dont conduct good studies before starting construction, she says. Alfredo Carrasco, a geologist, natural resources management consultant and former secretary of natural capital at the Ministry of Environment (MAE), said he believes the collapse of the San Rafael waterfall to be a natural phenomenon. However, on Feb. 18 he shared with Mongabay his concerns regarding the inaction of the authorities following the severity of the regressive erosion process. As I told you a month and a half ago, the speed of the regressive erosion was too serious for it to not have been analyzed. The OCP and SOTE should have done it. I hope that Coca Codo Sinclair is now analyzing it, Carrasco said. 2020 Copyright Conservation news Theme(s): Others. NRL anti-vaxxer WAGS have come out in support of a mother who was arrested with her four-year-old son in Sydney while protesting coronavirus lockdown restrictions. Renee Altakrity, herself an anti-vaxxer, was dragged away by police outside New South Wales Parliament House on Saturday, with footage showing her son screaming as she was forced into the back of a police van. According to police, the 36-year-old cosmetic nurse was part of 'a group of people who were conducting an unauthorised protest' and was arrested after 'refusing to provide her details'. Police said Mrs Altakrity was unable to provide a reasonable excuse for being at the scene and was later issued a $1000 fine. The mother-of-three has copped a barrage of criticism online for her scientifically unfounded anti-vaxxer beliefs. Anti-vaxxers spread false and dangerous theories, such as vaccines cause autism, based on a completely discredited 1998 medical report that saw the author struck from the medical register. Scroll down for video. NRL WAG and anti-vaxxer influencer Taylor Winterstein (pictured) went on a three-minute Instagram rant calling on her followers to 'take action' over the arrest of a Sydney mother protesting coronavirus lockdown restricitons Before vaccination campaigns in the 1960s and 1970s, diseases such as tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough killed thousands of children, whereas today in Australia, dying from one of these is extremely rare. While Mrs Altakrity was ridiculed for her stance on vaccinations following her dramatic arrest, she found support from some NRL WAGS. Taylor Winterstein, the wife of former NRL centre Frank, who is now applying his trade in France for Toulouse Olympique, told her 50,000 Instagram followers to 'take action'. 'I am aware of the situation with the mother and her child today,' she said. 'Use this energy, this ragey f*****g energy powerfully and wisely to actually take action. 'Now is not the time to play nice or play small, it hasn't gotten us to where we need to get to, so far. 'It's enough of that. I'm so done with playing small and being quiet and playing the nice guy.' Mrs Winterstein has become a prominent voice for the anti-vaxxer community in Australia and around the world and even advertised a $200 per person speaking tour, where she plans to explain how to make 'informed choices'. Winterstein preaches her anti-vaccination message to around 50,000 followers on Instagram A NSW Police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia to woman refused to give officers her details and would not comply with their direction to move on In her three-minute social media rant, Mrs Winterstein said: 'This is where straight up civil disobedience needs to come through in a peaceful and respectful way. 'We need to use this experience to fuel the fire to take action and and shut this s**t down once and for all.' Shanelle Cartwright, the wife of Gold Coast Titan's second-rower Bryce who was stood down by the NRL this week after refusing to get a flu shot, also shared her thoughts on the incident. She posted a picture of Mrs Altakrity with the caption: 'This is them peacefully walking, exercising their rights. Not harassing anyone and not in a big crowd. Abiding by all the COVID restrictions.' Police said she was there with around 40 other demonstrators. The issue of vaccinations has become a major sticking-point surrounding rugby league's May 28 return. Gold Coast Titans Star Bryce Cartwright is pictured with his eldest child and wife Shanelle at his 2018 wedding As part of the state government conditions which have allowed the NRL to recommence after the COVID-19 shutdown, all players must be vaccinated against the flu. But a small group of players including - the Gold Coast's Bryce Cartwright and Brian Kelly, Manly's Dylan Walker and Addin Fonua-Blake, Canberra's Josh Papalii, Joseph Tapine and Sia Soliola, and Canterbury' squad player Sione Katoa - have refused to get the shot. So far there has been little sympathy from medical experts and government authorities. New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard (pictured) is 'extremely frustrated with anti-vaxxers and their 'stupid' message 'I am extremely frustrated generally at anti-vaxxers and the message they send out. It's just plain stupid and dangerous,' New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard told reporters on Saturday. 'If we listen to their messages, we'd still have polio rife in our community. If they've got a short-term memory all they need to do is look to one of our Pacific neighbours (Samoa), who had a massive breakout of measles and a very high death rate just literally a few months ago. 'I have no tolerance or time for those views, but I'd also say this, in regard to NRL, whilst I do want to see Manly win whatever competition starts up, my advice to the NRL would be you gave certain undertakings to the community and to the government about the basis for recommencement and you have to make sure through your contractual arrangements or other arrangements with the players that you stick to the deal.' Prime Minister and well-known Cronulla Sharks fan Scott Morrison, has also chimed in on the divisive issue rocking the code's return. 'When I was social services minister I started the 'no jab, no play' rule into the childcare facilities,' he told 2GB radio on Wednesday. 'And I think the same rule applies there - no jab, no play.' Egypts spending on fuel subsidies dropped by about 65% to 21 billion Egyptian pounds ($1.34 billion) in July-March, a petroleum ministry official told Reuters on Sunday. Egypt spent 60.1 billion Egyptian pounds on fuel subsidies in the same period a year earlier. Over the past three years, Egypt has phased out subsidies on most fuel products as part of an IMF-backed economic reform programme. Search Keywords: Short link: Nepalese Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali said on Sunday that efforts are on to resolve the border issue with India through diplomatic initiatives, a day after Nepal raised objection over a crucial link road connecting the Lipulekh pass with Dharchula in Uttarakhand. Gyawali made the remarks in the Parliament after the ruling Nepal Communist Party lawmakers tabled a special resolution in the House demanding return of Nepal's territory in Kalapani, Limpiyadhura and Lipulekh. In the resolution, the lawmakers asked the Nepal government to take necessary steps to get back around 400 sq km land east of Mahakali river, a border river, which they claimed was being encroached. Gyawali claimed that the territories belonged to Nepal as it was mentioned in the Sugauli Treaty of 1816 and three supplementary documents subsequently exchanged between the Nepal government and then British India government, and no other agreement was signed to change the status. He assured the Parliament that the issue would be resolved through diplomatic initiatives and efforts are on towards that direction. Speaking on the occasion, lawmakers advised the government to hold consultation with the Chinese side too, as the matter was trilateral issue. They also advised the government to start highest level dialogue between Nepal and India to resolve the matter. Gyawali said that Nepal has raised objection to the construction of the strategic link road by the Indian government connecting Darchula in Uttarkhanda with the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China via the Lipulekh Pass. On Saturday, Nepal's Foreign Affairs Ministry in a statement said the government "has learnt with regret" about the inauguration of the link road connecting to Lipulekh pass, which Nepal claims to be part of its territory. The 80-km-long strategically crucial road at a height of 17,000 feet along the border with China in Uttarakhand was thrown open by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh last week. Lipulekh pass is a far western point near Kalapani, a disputed border area between Nepal and India. Both India and Nepal claim Kalapani as an integral part of their territory - India as part of Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district and Nepal as part of Darchula district. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) South Korea's president says his proposal to North Korea on jointly tackling infectious diseases such as the COVID-19 illness remains valid, though the North hasn't responded. President Moon Jae-in told reporters Sunday that he believes the North is suffering various difficulties over the coronavirus pandemic. Moon didn't elaborate. His spy agency recently told lawmakers the virus pandemic resulted in sharply shrinking the North's external trade and causing panic buying in Pyongyang, the North's capital. Moon says he'll try to persuade North Korea to accept his offers for reconciliation projects after the pandemic is stabilized. Moon has proposed reconnecting severed railways, resuming reunions of families split by war and sending South Korean tourists to North Korea. North Korea has been taking intense anti-virus quarantine steps but it has steadfastly claimed there hasn't been a single case of the coronavirus on its territory. Many foreign experts are skeptical of the North's claim. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Vietnam rejects China's fishing ban in disputed waters May 10,2020 | Source: The Straits Times Vietnam rejects China's "unilateral decision" to ban fishing in the South China Sea from May 1 to Aug 16, Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Thi Thu Hang said in a statement posted on the government's website yesterday. Vietnam has sovereignty over its waters as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Ms Hang said. "Vietnam asks China not to further complicate the situation in the South China Sea," she said. Answering reporters' queries on the issue yesterday, she also reiterated that Vietnam has sufficient historical and legal evidence affirming its sovereignty over Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos in accordance with international law. The Vietnam Fisheries Society had earlier this week asked the government to take "strong action" against China's fishing ban. Last month, Vietnam charged a Chinese marine surveillance ship with sinking a Vietnamese fishing boat near the contested Paracel Islands. China claims about 80 per cent of the South China Sea, which is believed to have valuable oil and gas deposits. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have competing claims. The South China Sea branch of China Coast Guard had announced that the annual summer fishing moratorium started at noon on May 1 in the waters north to latitude 12 deg north of the South China Sea, with the coast guard and fishery authorities launching law enforcement work. More than 50,000 fishing boats will suspend operations during the 3-month moratorium. The ban is part of China's efforts to promote sustainable marine fishery development and improve marine ecology, the coast guard authority added. 2020 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Theme(s): Others. 2020 was a year marked by hardships and challenges, but the Fauquier community has proven resilient. The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you for your continued support, wed like to offer all our subscribers -- new or returning -- 4 WEEKS FREE DIGITAL AND PRINT ACCESS. We understand the importance of working to keep our community strong and connected. As we move forward together into 2021, it will take commitment, communication, creativity, and a strong connection with those who are most affected by the stories we cover. We are dedicated to providing the reliable, local journalism you have come to expect. We are committed to serving you with renewed energy and growing resources. Let the Fauquier Times be your community companion throughout 2021, and for many years to come. Palm Sunday was a beautiful day in New Yorks Hudson Valley, a little more than two hours north of New York City where the countrys largest coronavirus pandemic was then raging. Amy Barr, observing the states stay-at-home order with her husband, two sons, and a daughter-in-law, joined in a family game of pickle ball in the afternoon. I ran backwards to hit the Wiffle ball and I slipped, fell and broke my fall with my left wrist, she told me. She was in enough pain to know an X-ray was in order, but did she dare go to the emergency room, where she could be exposed to the novel coronavirus? Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (26) As India enters the last week of the 54-day lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a video conference with chief ministers on Monday with the focus expected to be on reviving economy and scaling up all efforts to bring more 'red' zones with high COVID-19 case load into 'orange' or 'green' zones. The chief ministers of the states and union territories are expected to push for stepping up economic activities in a calibrated manner, as the Centre weighed the pros and cons of further easing of restrictions for a graded exit from the twice extended 54-day coronavirus lockdown due to end on May 17. Sources said the restrictions still in place are unlikely to be withdrawn in one go. The Prime Minister's Office(PMO) on Sunday said the video conference will begin at 3 PM on Monday. This will be Modi's fifth interaction with the chief ministers since the coronavirus outbreak in the country. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, meanwhile, said no COVID-19 case has been reported in 10 states and union territories in the last 24 hours and the recovery rate has increased to over 30 per cent, asserting India was moving fast on the path of success in the fight against the pandemic. According to health ministry data, 1,511 COVID-19 patients recovered in the last 24 hours -- the highest number of recoveries recorded in one day. Sources in the union government said the focus of the prime minister's meeting would be on boosting economic activities and pushing efforts to convert 'red' zones with high COVID-19 case load into 'orange' or 'green' zones. The Union Health ministry on May 1 classified 733 districts as 130 in the red zone, 284 in the orange zone and 319 in the green zone, taking into consideration incidence of cases, doubling rate, extent of testing and surveillance feedback. In some good in efforts to ramp up testing, Vardhan said the National Institute of Virology(NIV) in Pune has successfully developed the first indigenous test kit that will play a critical role in surveillance of proportion of population exposed to coronavirus infection. The test kit has the advantage of testing 90 samples together in a single run of 2.5 hours, so that healthcare professionals can proceed quickly with necessary next steps on their patients' triage paths, Vardhan said. "National Institute of Virology, Pune has successfully developed the 1st indigenous anti-SARS-CoV-2 human IgG ELISA test kit for antibody detection of COVID-19," the minister said in a series of tweets. Vardhan said India carried out 86,000 tests for COVID-19 on Saturday and its testing capacity now stands at 95,000 samples per day. India had started from one laboratory and now there are 472 laboratories testing for COVID-19, he said after inspecting a COVID-19 care centre in the Mandoli area in the national capital. There are 4,362 coronavirus care centres across the country where 3,46,856 patients with mild or very mild symptoms can be kept, he added. "We are moving fast on path of success in the fight against COVID-19. The doubling rate for the last three days is 12 (days). The recovery rate has crossed 30 per cent. Out of around 60,000 COVID-19 patients, about 20,000 have recovered and gone home. "Our mortality rate is still at 3.3 per cent.... In the last 24 hours, there has been no case in 10 states and Union territories. There are four states or Union territories where there has not been a single case till now," Vardhan noted. India has 36 states and Union territories. At a meeting on Sunday, state chief secretaries told Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba that while protection is required from COVID-19, economic activities also need to be stepped up in a calibrated manner. Former chief economist of World Bank Kaushik Basu said it is not easy exiting from the lockdown but if India is determined the country can do it. "We must not make the mistake of locking ourselves down in a fear psychosis. This can cause an economic setback for many years to come," he told PTI. The coronavirus death toll in the country rose to 2,109 on Sunday and the number of cases climbed to 62,939, registering an increase of 128 deaths and 3,277 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry. The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 41,472, while 19,357 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the ministry said. According to a PTI tally based on data from inputs from states, the cases jumped to 64,244 while 19,342 patients had recovered and the death toll rose to 2043. The health ministry data updated in the morning showed that the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases are from Maharashtra at 20,228, followed by Gujarat at 7,796, Delhi at 6,542, Tamil Nadu at 6,535, Rajasthan at 3,708, Madhya Pradesh at 3,614 and Uttar Pradesh at 3,373. As many as 334 coronavirus 'super-spreaders' have been found in Ahmedabad so far, and it is the main reason for the order to keep shops of groceries and vegetables closed till May 15, an official said. 'Super-spreaders' are the infectious disease carriers who could transmit the pathogen to a large number of people. They could be vegetable vendors, grocery and milk shop owners, petrol pump attendants or garbage collectors, who by the nature of their job carry the risk of getting infected and infecting others. The official said they believe there are around 14,000 high-risk potential super-spreaders in the city, and they have decided to screen all of them in next three days. A similar exercise has also been undertaken in the suburbs and rural areas of Ahmedabad district, he said. Karnataka witnessed the biggest spike in COVID-19 cases in a single day with 53 people testing positive on Sunday, taking the tally to 847 and reported one more death, increasing the number of fatalities to 31. This was the biggest spike in a single day in the state, a senior government officer told PTI in Bengaluru. A total of 7,740 dedicated COVID-19 facilities in 483 districts have been identified, the health ministry said in a statement, noting that adequate health infrastructure is in place to fight the pandemic. The public health facilities dedicated to COVID-19 management are categorised into three categories -- Dedicated COVID Hospital (DCH), Dedicated COVID Health Centre (DCHC) and Dedicated COVID Care Centre (DCCC). There are 6,56,769 isolation beds, 3,05,567 beds for confirmed cases, 3,51,204 for suspected cases, 99,492 oxygen-supported beds, 1,696 facilities with oxygen manifold and 34,076 ICU beds, it said. In view of the need for further increasing the testing capacity for COVID-19 at National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the procurement of a high-throughput machine as per the recommendations of an Empowered Group was approved. The Cobas 6800 testing machine has been successfully installed at NCDC in Delhi, the statement said. Presently the testing capacity at NCDC is about 300-350 tests per day and with Cobas 6800, which has a capacity to test around 1,200 samples in 24 hours, the capacity at NCDC will be significantly enhanced. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) PRAGUE, May 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Rossotrudnichestvo and The Russian Military Historical Society (RMHS), as part of the "Roads to Victory" project, prepared a series of virtual tours of Soviet military burials and memorials of Prague, offering details of the successful conclusion of the Prague operation, the final stage of the advance of the Red Army during the Second World War. As a result of this advance, the last large detachment of the Nazi forces was destroyed and Czechoslovakia was liberated. To commemorate, on May 6, the start date of the offensive operation, Rossotrudnichestvo and its representative office in the Czech Repubic, conducted an online press conference for journalists from Russia and the Czech Republic, entitled "Moscow - Prague: 75 years of victory, 75 years of memory." Participants discussed the importance of preserving historical memory and the history preservation mission of Rossotrudnichestvo, touched upon topics of history and culture that unite Russia and the Czech Republic. Especially for the "Roads to Victory" project, Russian house of science and culture in Prague prepared a video tour "Vitezne jaro: memory of the Victory," covering locations of key battles, burials and memorials in Prague. Format of the video tour is an alternative to the pedestrian tours that were organized as part of the "Roads to Victory" project between October 2019 and February 2020 in several European countries, with hundreds of participants of all ages. On May 9, as part of the "Roads to Victory" historical lecture project, Rossotrudnichestvo, across its social networks, featured a live discussion with Mihail Yurievich Myagkov, professor of history at the MGIMO University, scientific director of RMHS. The historian discussed the Prague offensive and the liberation of Prague. N icola Sturgeon insisted Scotland would not be adopting Number's 10 "stay alert" slogan as Boris Johnson's new lockdown advice came under fire. The First Minister, who said she had first heard of the slogan in the Sunday newspapers, said that the "clear message" to Scotland is still to stay home" due to "the critical point we are at". Her comments exposed a rift in the UK-wide response ahead of Mr Johnson's address to the nation, when he will set out the "road map" for easing the country's lockdown. Mr Johnson's new message of "stay alert, control the virus, save lives" is expected to replace the "stay home, stay lives" slogan. Ms Sturgeon tweeted: The Sunday papers is the first Ive seen of the PMs new slogan. It is of course for him to decide whats most appropriate for England, but given the critical point we are at in tackling the virus, #StayHomeSaveLives remains my clear message to Scotland at this stage. With official figures suggesting that the UK death toll has passed 36,500, Mr Johnson acknowledged this is the dangerous bit ahead of his 7pm pre-recorded announcement. But the PM hopes to restart the economy by encouraging people back to work while maintaining social-distancing rules. However, the change in tact drew widespread criticism, with the Liberal Democrats acting co-leader, Sir Ed Davey, saying the change makes the polices job near impossible and may cause considerable alarm. Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman also added to Ms Sturgeon's criticism, saying she had no idea what "stay alert" meant and that the Scottish Government was not consulted on the change. Speaking on the BBCs Politics Scotland on Sunday: That is not a change that we would agree with. I think the First Minister was really clear last week that the stay at home message was the right message and if Im perfectly frank, I have no idea what stay alert actually means. Shortly before the comments, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said he hoped all four nations would agree to take the same approach when the PM speaks to them in a Cobra meeting before the address. Loading.... We hope that they will agree to a consistent approach across the country, thats our strong preference, he told Skys Sophy Ridge On Sunday. But Wales First Minister Mark Drakeford also appeared to distance himself from Mr Johnson's new slogan, telling the show that the stay-home message had not gone away. The message I will be giving to people in Wales is while they must be alert to the continuing danger of coronavirus, if youre not out of your house for an essential purpose and that does include exercise, it can include shopping and it must include going to work for people who can safely do so staying at home remains the best way that you can protect yourself and others, Mr Drakeford said. Wales Health Minister Vaughan Gething also said the Welsh Government's message "had not changed", adding: "There has not been a 4 nations agreement or discussion on this." It comes amid an apparent difference in approach to easing the lockdown across the UK. Ms Sturgeon previously urged Number 10 to employ "extreme caution" in any relaxation of measures and said she would not be "pressured" into lifting the lockdown earlier than she wanted. Boris Johnson is set to address the nation at 7pm / REUTERS And Mr Drakeford told Ridge that the Welsh Governments relationship with the UK Government was one of fits and starts. When there is engagement it is good, and it is helpful, and I wish there could be more of it, he said. He said he did not wish to see fundamentally different lockdown restrictions in England and Wales as it would be confusing and make the basic message hard to convey. Other politicians also spoke out against the new slogan, with Andy Burnham, the Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester, saying that it feels to me like a mistake to me to drop the clear stay at home message. Robert Jenrick Explains The New "Stay Alert" Slogan Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said it risks ambiguity, adding: We need absolute clarity from Boris Johnson. Theres no room for nuance in this. This virus exploits ambivalence, it thrives on ambiguity and I think the problem with the slogan that has been briefed to the newspapers is people will be looking slightly puzzled, questioning What does it mean to stay alert? What are the Government saying with that? So I hope that Boris Johnson will offer us that crystal-clear clarity tonight that is desperately needed. Ian Blackford, the SNP leader in Westminster, said: What kind of buffoon thinks of this kind of nonsense? It is an invisible threat. Staying alert is not the answer. Mr Jenrick hit back at the criticism, saying a broader slogan is needed as the Government tries to restart the economy. He told Ridge it was right now to update and broaden the message to the public and that he "hopes" it is not too woolly. I think thats what the public want and that they will be able to understand this message, which is that we should be staying home as much as possible but when we do go to work and go about our business we need to remain vigilant, we need to stay alert, he continued. And that means things like respecting others, remaining two meters apart, washing your hands, following the social distancing guidelines because the virus continues to be prevalent, too many people are still dying of this and were going to have to live with it for a long time. Nicola Sturgeon: Coronavirus lockdown to continue in Scotland Pressed if there is a danger the message is too woolly, Mr Jenrick said: Well I hope not." He later sought to explain what the Governments new stay alert message means. Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show on the BBC, he added: Stay alert will mean stay alert by staying home as much as possible. But stay alert when you do go out by maintaining social distancing, washing your hands, respecting others in the workplace and the other settings that you will go to. - John Mahama has bemoaned the continuous rise in COVID-19 cases in Ghana - Ghana's COVID-19 cases shot up to 4,012 on Friday, May 8 - The former president also urged Ghanaians to protect themselves and observe the necessary protocols to ensure their safety - Our manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in Former president John Dramani Mahama has expressed worry over the increasing number of COVID-19 cases Ghana continues to record. According to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flag bearer, the NPP government is failing Ghanaians in the fight to curb the spread of the deadly virus. In a social media post, Mr. Mahama said, fear gripped many homes last night when the latest confirmed cases were released. READ ALSO: Photo of 27-year-old wife who plotted to kill husband revealed He also encouraged Ghanaians to protect themselves and abide by the WHO and health experts' protocols. Ghanas case count of the novel Coronavirus has shot up to 4,012. This was captured by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) website on Friday, May 8, 2020. According to GHS, Over 50% of these cases were as a result of an outbreak in an industrial facility with 1,300 workers of which 533 have been confirmed positive. The website, however, did not give the name of the industrial facility. READ ALSO: Most MPs dont understand legislative work of parliament - Majority Leader laments The COVID-19 death count in Ghana according to the GHS remains at 18. The recoveries have also increased to 323. YEN.com.gh earlier reported that the European Union (EU) has blacklisted Ghana among several other countries for money laundering. Three other African countries have been blacklisted Botswana, Mauritius, and Zimbabwe. Ghanaians share their thoughts on the mandatory wearing of face mask | #Yencomgh READ ALSO: Brilliant Ghanaian student wins Outstanding Graduate Student Award at top US university Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: YEN.com.gh Hyderabad: As the novel coronavirus continues to spread rapidly, the central government is mulling a mapping initiative to identify hotspots across the country and understand the pattern of its spread community-wise. Community mapping appears to be aimed at getting a clearer picture of the approximate number of people belonging to different communities who have contracted the virus; have more chances of getting infected due to their living in clusters; and the likelihood of them spreading the virus to adjoining localities. The central government feels that a data bank of community-wise Covid-19 numbers will help in the containment of the present and future pandemics in the country. Highly placed sources in New Delhi told Deccan Chronicle that the idea of community-based mapping came up in a recent closed-door meetings at the highest level. Though officially no decision has been taken so far on whether or not to go ahead with the proposal, it is unclear if the exercise has already begun unofficially. In the near future, if coronavirus cases explode, like it happened in the US or other parts of the world, community-based mapping will tell us which community has more chances of spreading the virus further and, accordingly, strict containment measures can be taken in localities or clusters across the country, a source privy to this discussion said. This move comes at a time when some BJP leaders have openly blamed Muslims for the rising number of coronavirus cases in the country after the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi emerged as a super-spreader. Though there have been cases of other religious heads and congregations emerging as super-spreaders too, including in the Punjab, prejudice has been fanned against Muslims and they have been targeted. There have been several instances of Muslims being attacked, even denied medical care. If undertaken, the mapping, sources said, will take into account the geography of the area or cluster, the lifestyle of the people and their earnings, their social activities, their daily routines and the approximate number of members in the families. For all this to happen, state governments will have to cooperate. There is also some amount of scepticism as to how people will receive this idea, if and when approved, as there are chances of this backfiring on the government, sources said, adding that the government is aware of the criticism that could come its way. There is a perception in some quarters that state governments are not giving out the correct figures of Covid-19 cases. The proposal to have community-based mapping of the coronavirus was mooted after citing the examples of Agra in Uttar Pradesh, some pockets in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Delhi which are witnessing an increasing number of Covid-19 cases. There are several reports before the central government which suggest that the virus is active among scores of people residing in colonies or clusters and they are sitting on a time bomb. It is here that, along with other inputs, community-based mapping will come in handy for taking adequate containment measures. But that is only in a scenario when the number of cases shoots up, another official said. Sources said this data bank will also come in handy for tackling pandemics in the future. The coronavirus has taught us a lesson and now is the time to prepare ourselves with enough data on the origin and pattern of the spread of the virus, they added. Japan Protests After Chinese Ships Enter Territorial Waters Near Disputed Islands, Reports Say Sputnik News 15:45 GMT 09.05.2020 TOKYO (Sputnik) - Japan has filed a diplomatic protest against China over violations of its maritime border by Chinese patrol vessels near the disputed Senkaku islands, known in China as the Diaoyudao islands, Kyodo news agency reported on Saturday. According to the agency, citing multiple sources, the protest was issued by the Japanese Foreign Ministry to the Chinese Embassy by phone as well as via the Japanese Embassy in China. On 8 May, four Chinese patrol ships one by one entered the Japanese territorial waters, with two of them trying to pursue a fishing vessel there. A similar incident took place earlier in the day when four patrol ships emerged near the border, with two of them crossing into the Japanese territory. The islands in question have been an object of territorial disputes between Tokyo and Beijing for a long time. Japan maintains it has them since 1895. China, on its part, has been claiming that the islands are marked as a Chinese territory on Japanese maps circa 1783 and 1785. Following World War II, the islands were controlled by the United States and handed over to Japan in 1972. Both Taiwan and mainland China claim that Japan has been illegally seizing them while Tokyo rebuts that they have begun claiming the islands for themselves after in the 1970s the surrounding water area was found to be full of valuable minerals. The tensions have exacerbated after the Japanese government bought three of the islands from a private owner in 2012. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address New Delhi: A police jeep and fire tender outside the Delhi High court after an anonymous caller warned of a bomb explosion in the premises which turned out to be a hoax, in New Delhi on Aug 17, 2017. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News New Delhi, May 10 : The Delhi High Court has asked the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) and the Delhi government to "explore the possibility of accommodating" outstation patients who had come to the AIIMS for treatment. A Division Bench, comprising Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar, asked them to apprise the availability of facilities to the court by the next hearing (May 14). The court was hearing a petition, filed by Karan Seth, seeking urgent relief for around 350 severely ill people and their kin/care givers staying at night shelters and tents in and around the AIIMS. Senior advocate Darpan Wadhva, appearing for the petitioner, said the people at the night shelter be shifted to Gargi School. "The two lists, prepared by the petitioner, show 76 people have been shifted to Gargi School, and 74 are still staying there," the court noted. "Social distancing norms are not being maintained at the night shelter," Wadhva told the court. Advocate Parvinder Chauhan, appearing for DUSIB, said two kinds of accommodation were being provided -- tents, set up on the footpath opposite the AIIMS, and the night shelters, semi pucca structure with toilets. "The occupants of tents have been shifted to Gargi School," he said. Agreeing to the petitioner's submission, Chauhan said, "The social distancing norms are not being kept at the rain basera on account of the large number of occupants. It may be necessary to shift around 100 occupants, either to Vishram Sadan of the AIIMS -- if additional capacity is available -- or to Gargi School or to Radha Swami Satsang at Bhati, wherever they could be accommodated." Rahul Mehra, Delhi government standing counsel, said the facility at Satsang was well managed. But it had to be consulted if the occupants of the night shelter, or some of them, had to be shifted there, he added. Mehra said he would instruct the District Magistrate (South) to take up the issue with the Satsang. The court asked advocate Anand Varma to take instructions from the AIIMS whether those inmates, or some of them, could be accommodated at the Vishram Sadan, given that they were receiving treatment at the AIIMS. It would be more convenient if they were accommodated there, it added. It also asked the DUSIB to explore the possibility of accommodating some of them at Gargi School. The other aspect raised during the hearing was about transport for those persons. "They are not able to arrange private transport in these times. Also, on account of their financial position they find it difficult to travel to the AIIMS for treatment," the petitioner said. On this, the court asked the District Magistrate (South) to arrange transport for the persons shifted to Gargi School. "We direct the DM (South) to make transport facility available to the inmates at Gargi School for travelling to AIIMS as required for treatment," the Bench said. The court has also asked the DM to arrange for food as per the requirement of patients at Gargi School. Reacting to the order, District Magistrate (South) B.M. Mishra told IANS over the phone: "The orders of the high court would be complied with in full letter and spirit." Mobile police say an altercation among three homeless people left one of them injured and another dead on Saturday. According to information released late Saturday afternoon by the Mobile PD, officers responded at about 12:30 p.m. to the 3400 block of U.S. 90, an area where the highway is crossed by an I-65 overpass. According to a police department release, the incident involved two men and a woman, all homeless. During the altercation, one male produced a knife and cut the female," says the release, which describes her injuries as not life-threatening. In defense of the female, one male struck the other male multiple times causing his death. The man believed to have struck the deceased man was detained by police. The investigation is ongoing. The identities of those involved were not immediately released. Former President Barack Obama reacted to the Justice Department dropping its criminal case against Trumps first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, saying he worried that the basic understanding of rule of law is at risk. Former President Barack Obama called the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic an "absolute chaotic disaster" and promised to campaign "as hard as I can" for former Vice President Joe Biden in a call Friday with 3,000 people who served in his administration. A recording of the call was obtained by Yahoo News. Katie Hill, Obama's communication director, confirmed the call to CBS News. In addressing the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic, Obama cited concerns about division and tribalism in the country and internationally. That has contributed to an "anemic and spotty" response to the health crisis, Obama said. Though the challenge would be difficult for any government to address, it has been an "absolute chaotic disaster" in the USA, he said. Obama blamed a "mindset of 'what's in it for me, and to heck with everyone else' " in President Donald Trump's administration. Social distancing regulations have largely been determined by local authorities rather than the federal government. States have rolled out constantly changing rules that vary down to the county or city level at times. As of Sunday, U.S. coronavirus cases had reached about 1.3 million, and deaths topped 79,000. During the call, Obama reacted to the Justice Department dropping its criminal case against Trumps first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, saying he worried that the basic understanding of rule of law is at risk. Obama has infrequently criticized Trump. In late March, he apparently took a swipe at Trump's initial skepticism of the coronavirus pandemic. "We've seen all too terribly the consequences of those who denied warnings of a pandemic," Obama tweeted March 31, without directly naming the president. Obama weighed in on the federal response to the coronavirus outbreak in the context of warning about the effect of Trump's decision to ease fuel-efficiency standards the Democratic president put in place to combat climate change. Story continues Trump claimed his administration's response to the pandemic saved "millions of lives," often citing moves to restrict travel from China and Europe as successes. In the White House's response to Obama's latest remarks, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany did not mention Obama directly. President Trumps coronavirus response has been unprecedented and saved American lives, she said. While Democrats were pursuing a sham witch hunt against President Trump, President Trump was shutting down travel from China. While Democrats encouraged mass gatherings, President Trump was deploying PPE, ventilators and testing across the country, she said. Last weekend, former President George W. Bush released a video encouraging Americans to stand up to the coronavirus pandemic that did not mention Trump, an omission that led to criticism from Trump. Contributing: David Jackson and Courtney Subramanian, USA TODAY; The Associated Press This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: Obama lashes out at Trump in call with supporters INS Jalashwa,carrying 698 repatriated Indian citizens from the Maldives, arrived at Cochin Port on Sunday morning, completing the Indian Navy's first massive evacuation exercise from foreign soil during the COVID-19 lockdown. "The first group of 698 persons evacuated from the Maldives arrived at Cochin Port today (Sunday) at 9:30 AM by 'INS Jalashwa' of the Indian Navy", a Port Trust statement said. The group comprises 595 males and 103 females. Of this, 14 are children below 10 years and 19 pregnant women. Also read: Coronavirus Live Updates: 786 cops have tested positive in Maharashtra so far; India tally 62,939 Though most passengers are from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, there were repatriates of 18 other states and Union Territories also in the ship, which began its journey from Male to Kochi on Friday night. The ship has berthed at BTP Jetty and the disembarkation procedures are being carried out at Samudrika Cruise Terminal, the statement said. Inspector General of Police Vijay Sakhare said all arrangements are in place to facilitate the safe stay of those repatriated, comprising 440 Keralites and people from other parts of the country. Four passengers are from Lakshwadeep. Other passengers are from Tamil Nadu (187), Telganana (9), Andhra Pradesh (8), Karnataka (8), Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan (3 each) and Goa (1), Assam (1). There are seven passengers each from Uttarakhand and West Bengal, Delhi (4), Puducherry (3), while there are two passengers each from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand, the sources said. Passengers showing COVID-19 symptoms are being disembarked first, followed by others in small groups, district-wise, a Port Trust official said. Thermal screening of passengers on arrival is being carried out by the Port Health Organisation. Customs and Immigration procedures are carried out inside the Terminal, where arrangements have also been made for distribution of SIM cards by BSNL and installation of ArogyaSetu in mobile phones of passengers, the official said. Disinfection facilities for baggage and free wi-fi have been made available by the Port at the Terminal. Arrangements for onward travel to hospitals or institutional quarantine centres and home quarantine have been ensured by the state government by deploying ambulances, state transport buses and taxis, the official said. These arrangements are coordinated by the District Administration, Police and Health Departments. Also read: Coronavirus update: US FDA okays new antigen tests with fast results Also read: Coronavirus in Delhi: School teacher involved in distributing ration tests COVID-19 positive WASHINGTON - Courts have long acknowledged an exception in the law that keeps "ministers" of a faith from bringing employment discrimination claims against their religious employers, capped by a unanimous Supreme Court decision eight years ago. The idea is that the Constitution forbids the government from becoming entangled in the internal workings and personnel decisions of a religious institution. But on Monday, the justices will return to the subject with a poignant test: a teacher who lost her job at a Catholic school in California after revealing she had breast cancer. Kristen Biel won a preliminary battle in her lawsuit alleging the school violated the Americans With Disabilities Act. But last year she lost her battle with the disease. The school has appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, and her husband, Darryl Biel, has taken her place in the lawsuit. "I promised her I would see this to the end," Biel said in a telephone interview from Redondo Beach, California. "I wasn't a big fan at first - I just wanted her to concentrate on getting better. But she was passionate about righting a wrong. I promised her at the end that I would see this through, all the way to the Supreme Court." Despite winning at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, the Biels, and another teacher who is alleging age discrimination against a different school in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, face formidable odds. The Trump administration opposes them, as does a long list of religious organizations and scholars. And most importantly, there is the unanimous 2012 Supreme Court decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where the court found a teacher was covered by the "ministerial exception," and could not sue her school. "The interest of society in the enforcement of employment discrimination statutes is undoubtedly important," wrote Chief Justice John Roberts. "But so too is the interest of religious groups in choosing who will preach their beliefs, teach their faith, and carry out their mission." He added: "The First Amendment has struck the balance for us. The church must be free to choose those who will guide it on its way." The cases to be argued Monday call on the court for further guidance about what kinds of employees should be regarded as ministers and what role courts should play, if any, in looking behind the religious organizations' decisions on which employees are covered by the exception. "Holding the ministerial exception can be triggered simply by showing that an employee performs 'important religious functions' would turn the exception inside out," Jennifer Lipski and Jeffrey Fisher wrote in a brief for Biel and the other teacher, Agnes Morrissey-Berru. "Countless employees of religious institutions - not just lay teachers, but also nurses in hospitals, counselors in summer camps, cooks and administrators in social services centers, and other categories of workers - perform duties that their employers sincerely consider important to their religious missions." Eric Rassbach, senior counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the schools, said the 9th Circuit ruling that allowed the teachers to proceed with their suits is out of line with the Supreme Court's decision and those of other appeals courts around the country. The teachers and their allies made the same arguments before the 2012 Supreme Court decision, he said. "This [exception] has been around for a very long time, and the sky hasn't fallen in the lower courts. I don't see why it would fall now." The justices in 2012 said there was no rigid test for deciding which employees fell into the ministerial category. Courts should look at the employee's title, whether the organization considered the employee a minister, whether the employee considered herself a minister and whether the employee's duties included "important religious functions." And Justices Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan added a broadening concurrence, pointing out that some faiths don't even use the term minister. If Hosanna-Tabor was a major decision in the world of religious organizations and employment discrimination lawyers, it was not elsewhere. "My wife was hired as a fifth-grade teacher. She wasn't hired as a minister," Biel said. "The first time we heard the word 'minister' was after the lawsuit was filed. There's no one I've ever told this to who wasn't shocked." Kristen Biel was a dancer and aspiring actress when the couple met, and she became a stay-at-home mom after they married and had two children. When the children grew older, she wondered what she should do outside the home. "Everyone told her she'd be a wonderful elementary school teacher," Darryl Biel said, so Kristen went back to college and got a teaching certificate. Their children had attended parochial schools for most of their education, Biel said, and Kristen converted to Catholicism with the hope it would improve her chances of getting a job in a Catholic school. Both sides acknowledged that her work as a fifth-grade teacher included teaching religion, joining students in prayer and taking her class to Mass once a month. The Biels contend her training consisted mainly of following a workbook; the school says religion is an important component in everything its teachers convey to students. Kristen Biel was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer during Easter break in 2014. She told the head of school when she returned that she would need time off for treatment. Later, she was informed her annual contract would not be renewed. Darryl Biel said the principal told his wife that it would be unfair for students to have a different teacher during the times she would miss, and that her treatment of chemotherapy and a double mastectomy might be "a little traumatizing to the kids to see what kind of transformation might take place to Kristin." "I remember this like it was yesterday, my wife coming in the house after having that discussion with Sister Mary Margaret," Darryl Biel said. "She was devastated. Crying inconsolably. And when I finally got her to calm down, that's when she told me everything Sister Mary Margaret said." The school has a different version of events: Kristen Biel had been warned before the diagnosis that she was not performing well, Rassbach said. Her classroom was chaotic and the children were not thriving. Parents had complained, he said. The competing versions would be weighed in the legal process, if the Biels's lawsuit is allowed to proceed. A district judge dismissed the claim, agreeing with the school that Biel was covered by the ministerial exception. A divided panel of the 9th Circuit decision revived it, saying only one of the considerations the Supreme Court set out in Hosanna-Tabor favored the school. Civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, urged the Supreme Court to be cautious in the case. "The ministerial exception serves important purposes in safeguarding religious institutions' autonomy with respect to governance and leadership. But it comes at significant cost," the groups told the court in a brief. "It confers on religious institutions the extraordinary power to discriminate against ministerial employees on any basis whatsoever, including race, disability, sex, and age." A court's examination requires nuance, they said, and the two cases before the Supreme Court demonstrated that. In the view of the groups, Biel should not be considered a minister. But they say Morrissey-Berru should, because her position required her to be Catholic and certified in religious education. A coalition of leading scholars who study religion and the law told the Supreme Court that the 9th Circuit got it wrong. Unless the rulings are overturned, "they will invite judicial intrusion into religious affairs and create confusion regarding the autonomy of religious bodies to choose those who perform significant religious functions." And the Trump administration said the court should make it clear that it is the religious organization that has the final word on who is a minister, and who is not. "In close cases, facts that demonstrate a religious organization sincerely regards its employee as performing such important religious functions should be dispositive," Solicitor General Noel Francisco told the court in a brief. The cases are Our Lady of Guadalupe v. Morrissey-Berru and St. James School v. Biel. A big part of getting economic life back to normal involves restoring peoples faith that the future will be full of opportunity for advancement. But that aint easy because the gloom of recession kills our belief that things could ever get better. And the longer we think like that, the truer it becomes. So Scott Morrison needs to accept the paradox that returning the economy to normal demands that we dont return to squabbling politics as usual, nor to governing primarily in the interests of the Liberal Party base and its corporate donors. Scott Morrison has previously come under pressure at the UN over Australia's climate change record . Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Why not? Because it wasnt working well even before the virus arrived. The economys growth was weak and, that being so, business was reluctant to invest. Morrison is right to say we must grow our way out of debt and deficit, and that ultimately, at least we need a private sector-led recovery. A Brooklyn man has been arrested and charged with molesting eight women, including six who were attacked in just over an hour, the NYPD says. Alleged groper Kevin Jenkins, 26, of Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant section was arrested Saturday. Police, who released surveillance video of the suspect, say the first assault was believed to have happened on April 28 and was followed by another on May 1. Six more alleged attacks took place on Friday, between 9:55 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. Scroll down for video Kevin Jenkins, a 26-year-old serial groper, was arrested and charged this weekend with molesting eight women. The suspect was caught in video footage (pictured) released by cops Footage released by the NYPD shows a man cops say is Kevin Jenkins walking behind one of the alleged victims In the footage, the suspect is seen closing in on the victim, whose image is blurred The victims ranged in age from 16 to 40, police say. None of the victims were injured, although two were alleged to have been thrown to the ground, the New York Post reports. Jenkins faces multiple charges for sexual abuse and forcible touching. The Friday assaults began with Jenkins allegedly trying to lift the skirt of a 23-year-old woman on Flushing Avenue near Nostrand Avenue in South Williamsburg, the Daily News reports. Then near Myrtle and Bedford Avenues, the suspect is alleged to have grabbed a 21-year-old woman by the private parts before fleeing. Another assault seven minutes later involved a 16-year-old girl near Spencer Street and Willoughby Avenue. Jenkins is alleged to have come up to the victim from behind, throwing the girl to the ground and pressing her face against his private areas before leaving. Another video released by the NYPD shows a man in a hoodie cops say is the suspected groper In the footage, the suspect whom cops identified as Jenkins is seen walking off The assaults then continued through the morning. Jenkins is alleged to have groped a 34-year-old woman from behind on Myrtle Avenue near Sanford Street, and pressing his body against a 30-year-old victim on Vernon Avenue near Marcy Avenue. One last victim was alleged to have been assaulted on Pulsaki Street near Nostrand Avenue, where he is alleged to have grabbed a 32-year-old woman around the neck and shoulders from behind. Police said he allegedly pressed himself against her, then threw her to the ground and ran off as she began to scream. Police say the attacks began April 28, when Jenkins allegedly grabbed a 28-year-old woman's buttocks on Lafayette Avenue in Clinton Hill just before 4 p.m. A second alleged assault came on May 1, police say. That's when Jenkins is alleged to have groped a 40-year-old victim on Fort Greene Place in Brooklyn's Fort Greene section. The Daily News reports that was found and detained in Coram, Suffolk County, Friday night, and that he was brought to Brooklyn to face charges the next day. New Delhi: As India continues its battle against the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, Delhi has emerged as one of the top hotspots in the country with more than 6,542 cases and 73 deaths. Though BJP leader Kapil Mishra has alleged that the death toll is more than 300 and that the Arvind Kejriwal-led government is falsifying the death toll data. Since April 3, the number of dead bodies burnt in Nigambodh Ghat is more than 155, in Punjabi Bagh the number is 72, in ITO cemetery 95 bodies have been buried but the state government data as on May 10 says 73 people dead. Mishra said, "The funeral of the COVID-19 victims are being held at Nigambodh Ghat, Punjabi Bagh and ITO. There are 3 CNG systems in Nigam Bodh Ghat, it takes 2 hours for the entire funeral process for one body. While the dead bodies are brought at the cremation ground continuously. In such a scenario family members have to wait for 2-3 hours to complete the funeral services of the deceased." However, the Delhi government has blamed the hospital for the discrepancy in the death toll data. Also, the problem is with PPE as persons arriving from the hospital don't have the kit and at the creamation ground people are not ready to touch the COVID-19 victim's dead body. In as such, first a PPE suit is arranged and then wait for people who are voluntarily ready to lend their shoulder to the dead body. So, from getting medical treatment to funeral services there is chaos everywhere in Delhi. (With inputs from Piyusha Sharma) You are here: China More than 1,300 firefighters were battling a fire that started Saturday in southwest China's Yunnan Province, local authorities said Sunday. The fire broke out at around 3:33 p.m. Saturday in the city of Anning. As of 5:40 a.m. Sunday, part of the fire had been put out, and firefighters were still battling the fire. SAD starts first of its kind social media initiative to reach out virtually to people in each and every constituency The Australian share market is expected to open only slightly higher on Monday despite a surge on Friday and a rally on Wall Street. Futures rose just three points, or 0.1 of a per cent, following last week's close. The ASX is expected to be led this week by labour force figures. Credit:AFR The spotlight this week will predominantly be on the retail sector, following strong gains last week after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a staged easing of coronavirus restrictions. Myer soared 45 per cent, while Harvey Norman jumped 6.7 per cent and JB Hi-Fi climbed 3.7 per cent. Mike Knox got behind the wheel of his sons restored police cruisers for the first time Wednesday to drive them home. His son, Houston police officer Jason Knox, would not let just anyone drive the 1996 and 1988 Chevrolet Caprices that he outfitted to resemble Houston Police patrol cars from those decades. The engine on the 88 had a shaky start and needed a new battery. The elder Knox got on the highway with his sons best friend, Senior Police Officer Michael Bruner, trailing him in the other car. He missed his exit. I was zoned out thinking about Jason and how much he enjoyed driving these, said Knox, a retired police officer and Houston City Council member. Knoxs only child was killed May 2 in an on-duty helicopter crash. During a funeral service Saturday, the fallen officer was remembered as an eagle-eyed flight tactical officer, loving husband and father, and as the fixer-upper of police cars. His first car, the 96 Caprice, was finished in 2018 after he scoured junk yards, Ebay and car auctions for parts. The car hailed from the Pasadena, California, police department. The councilman was unsure where his son found the latest car. Jason would know, he said. On the outside, the vehicle appears finished and rides smoothly, but Knox knows it was incomplete. He never finished, he said. Theres still some missing knobs that he was hunting down. The low-sitting car is decked out as a sergeants ride, Knox explained. In place of a back seat cage to contain an arrested suspect, theres a light blue uniform fitting for an officer of that rank hanging from the grab handle. Knox opened the trunk for the first time and found car parts he assumes would have been for the next project. He wondered who would pick up where his son left off on trying to build a fleet of HPD vehicles from every decade. It wouldnt be him because Knox is by no means a mechanic. Im not the car guy but I did enjoy him enjoy his cars, Knox said. The mourning father said he was not surprised his son had followed in his foot steps to be a police officer or that he had his heart set on working toward becoming a helicopter pilot. As a child, when baby sitters could not be found, Knox said he would bring the boy to work, where he would cause mischief. He started flying lessons for his son at age 10 and, by 16, he could pilot a plane solo, before he knew how to drive. Next, he wanted to fly helicopters, but Knox said they could not afford lessons. The younger Knox eventually learned that the Houston Police Department trains its pilots at no charge. During a Fourth of July celebration last year, Knox recalled his sons disturbing phone call that he had been involved in a helicopter mishap. He was not the pilot but the aircraft tipped on its side during landing. Knox believes that incident is unrelated to the fatal crash the first in the departments history that claimed his son. He suspects his son had passed away by the time he and his wife made it to the hospital the morning of the crash. The retired officer is now waiting on what the results of the National Transportation and Safety Board investigation and knows HPD will correct whatever issue led to his sons death be it training or equipment failings. Whatever the outcome is, its irrelevant to us, he said. Weve lost a son and were not going to get him back. nicole.hensley@chron.com President and First Lady At White House Event For Military Mothers and Spouses Event Remarks by the First Lady at the Celebration of Military Mothers and Spouses Event White House May 9, 2020; MRS. TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you all for being here today. Im honored to host everyone at the White House to celebrate you, mothers. Please sit down. Mothers Day, which is this Sunday, is celebrated just one time per year. I dont know about all of you, but I think mothers should be celebrated each and every day. (Applause.) As a mother myself, I know what goes into raising a child. It takes an incredible amount of strength, a lot of time, a generous amount of patience, and all of your love. As moms, we are so incredibly privileged to be able to bring children into this world and be part of helping them grow into adults. Children bring us endless amount of both joy and fear, they fill us with pride through their triumphs, and they love us in a manner that only other mothers can understand. Because of the powerful bond between a mother and her child, when they feel emotions, so do we. Whether they are happy or nervous, sad or excited, we feel those things with them. I think it is one of the most powerful and beautiful parts of motherhood. Today, I want to take this opportunity to let you all know that as mothers who are members of the military community, you deserve recognition for not only your love for your children, but for the dedication and sacrifice you make on behalf of our country each and every day. I know I speak on behalf of my husband, the Vice President, and Mrs. Pence when I tell you how much this administration supports all those who serve, which includes not only those who are enlisted, but their families too. In closing, I want to thank you all for your unique roles as a military mother. Whether you are enlisted, actively serving, or if you have a child in our military, you are such a special part of this country for all that you give. I hope you enjoy todays performance by the United States Army Chorus, and we are so honored to have you here today. Before I turn this over to my husband, I want to thank our Second Lady, Karen Pence, as well as Kellyanne and Ivanka, for all of the hard work they have done on the executive order he will be signing. Because of your commitment to the military, there will be more opportunities for military spouses who are looking for jobs within federal government. Thank you, ladies, for your hard work on this important topic. (Applause.) Thank you all again for being here today. And now its my pleasure to introduce my husband, the President of the United States. (Applause.) Issued on: May 10, 2019 East Room 4:30 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Great job. Thank you very much. And thank you for being here. And, Melania, you did a beautiful job in organizing this incredible celebration of Americas military mothers. Thats good. I had a great mother Mary. I loved my mother. I miss my mother. Military moms are the backbone of America. I know it is still two days away, but I wish everybody right now a very Happy Mothers Day. Happy Mothers Day, everybody. (Applause.) Happy Mothers Day. Thank you. Were especially pleased to be joined by our great Vice President, Mike Pence. Mike? Stand up, Mike. (Applause.) Stand up, Mike. Doing a great job. And our wonderful Second Lady, Karen Pence. Karen, thank you. (Applause.) And, by the way, theyre a proud military family and tremendous advocates for our warriors and their loved ones. Thank you both very much for being here. This afternoon, I want to express our incredible appreciation to all of you: the moms serving our nation in uniform, the mothers of our great heroes, and the moms with spouses who serve in the armed forces. Your unwavering dedication and support strengthens our entire nation. Today, we honor you. We celebrate you. We salute you and everything that you do so many things, so many great things for our country. To the active-duty moms here today: We thank you for your courage, and we applaud your noble service. You have two of the most important jobs in the world: bravely defending America from our enemies and helping to raise the next generation of American patriots. You have spent Mothers Days (applause) and, you know come on, lets go. (Applause.) Lets go. You have spent Mothers Days on ships out at sea, on bases in faraway lands, and staring down foreign threats in very, very dangerous areas. And youve done it all out of love for family, for country, and for duty. Our nation is forever in your debt. Thank you very much. Great job. Incredible job. (Applause.) Were also honored to be joined today by the moms whose spouses are serving in the military. We know that you also make that tremendous sacrifice for your country so much so. They would never be as successful without you, I have to tell you. (Laughter and applause.) And most of them know that. Most of them. Im not sure all of them know that, but most of them know that, right? (Laughter.) When you married an American warrior which is exactly what they are you became part of an elite group of heroes. As military spouses, you help carry your families through frequent moves and long deployments. You uplift your communities, care for your fellow military families, and sustain our service members through their most difficult battles. You know that one of the great challenges of military spouses is to find a meaningful job as you move in support of your active-duty spouse. Thats why, one year ago, I took action to increase employment opportunities, as you probably know I hope youre all taking advantage of it; Im sure you are for military spouses all across our nation. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you! (Laughter.) THE PRESIDENT: Incredible people. Thank you. (Laughs.) Who said that? Stand up. I want to see. Who said that? (Applause.) Thank you. We want military spouses to be able to pursue their careers and help their families thrive. Finally, to the moms in this room who raised children that grew up to join the United States Armed Forces, you have given our country a gift beyond measure. You raised your children to live by the sacred values of loyalty, bravery, patriotism and service. The greatest honor of my life is serving as your Commander-in-Chief. This extraordinary group of men and women and theres nobody like you on the face of the Earth the heroes of the American Armed Forces are more courageous, selfless, and fearless than any fighting force in all of human history. So true. And Mike and I have worked very, very long and hard. Our military is now regaining strength like its never had before. We had budgets of $700 billion far, far more than ever before. And this year, $716 billion. And I know were going for $750 billion. And we had a very depleted military. You know it better than I did. And now its raring. Its just something special. Hopefully, we dont have to use it. Theyre going to look at it, and theyre going to say, We dont want to mess with them. Right? (Laughter.) We dont want to mess with them. So, our military is in great shape and I think its something you know, but I want you to know it just in case you had any questions. Anybody have any questions? (Applause.) It really is. Thank you. And I just have to say that our nation is eternally grateful to our military mothers. Your love and devotion and sacrifice keeps America safe, strong, proud, and free. Today, and every day, we thank God for our military moms. You have always been there for us, and my administration will always be there for you. And you know that. You know that. (Applause.) So I just want to finish by saying to let me, once again, wish everyone in this room a very, very Happy Mothers Day. You are very special people. I dont even know if you know how special you are. You work so hard. Sometimes you dont realize it. But you are very, very special people. And I want to just say, God bless you and God bless our great country. God bless America. Thank you very much. Thank you everybody. (Applause.) Thank you. END 4:36 P.M. EDT In its investigation into the 'Bois Locker Room' case, the Delhi police has stumbled upon a conversation on Snapchat where a girl, posing as a male, suggested a "sexual assault plan" to a boy just to test his "values and character". The last month's conversation was not in any way related to the 'Bois Locker Room' Instagram group in which obscene messages and morphed pictures of underage girls were shared, the Delhi police said on Sunday. However, devices of the two juveniles involved in the Snapchat conversation have been seized and sent for forensic analysis, they said. When the 'Bois Locker Room' case became known, screenshots of multiple chats were shared on social media. Among those was a one-to-one Snapchat conversation, with one 'Siddharth' suggesting an "aggravated sexual assault plan" of a girl, said Anyesh Roy, deputy commissioner of police (cyber crime unit). Investigation revealed that the Snapchat conversation was actually between a girl and a boy. The girl created a fake profile in the name 'Siddharth' and suggested the sexual assault plan to check the boy's reaction and test his character, he said. The boy declined to participate in any such plan and stopped further communication. He, however, took a screenshot of the chat and reported it to his friends, including the girl about whom the conversation took place, Roy said. One of the other recipients of the screenshot posted it as an Instagram story, from where it started circulating in various social media accounts along with screenshots from 'Bois Locker Room' Instagram group, he said. Police said that no case will be registered against either the girl or the boy. "Although, creating a fake id is wrong, her intent was not malicious so we are not filing any complaint," an official said. Information about the group came to light after a girl shared screenshots of its activities. Following this, the group started being called out on social media. The police said during social media monitoring, it was noticed that the group was being used by the participants to share obscene messages and morphed pictures. So far, 24 members of the Instagram group have been identified and police are still waiting for details sought by them from the social media platform and the Forensic Science Laboratory where they have sent the devices for examination. The group admin was arrested and a juvenile have been apprehended, police said, adding a case under relevant sections of the IT Act and the IPC have been registered. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Mumbai Police on Sunday paid tribute to assistant sub-inspector (ASI) attached to Vinoba Bhave Nagar police station who died of the coronavirus disease Covid-19 on Friday. Mumbai Police regrets to inform about the unfortunate demise of ASI Sunil Dattatray Kalgutkar from Vinoba Bhave Nagar Police Station. ASI Kalgutkar had been battling Coronavirus. We pray for his soul to rest in peace. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Kalgutkar family, the Mumbai Police said on Twitter. Mumbai Police regrets to inform about the unfortunate demise of ASI Sunil Dattatray Kalgutkar from Vinoba Bhave Nagar Police Station. ASI Kalgutkar had been battling Coronavirus. We pray for his soul to rest in peace. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Kalgutkar family. Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) May 9, 2020 Kalgutkar died in the early hours of Friday after being admitted in a civic hospital on Wednesday with Covid-19-like symptoms, an official said. His samples returned positive on Friday evening. This is the fourth Covid-19 death in Mumbai Police. So far, 350 personnel in the Mumbai Police have tested positive for the disease. Maharashtra has been the worst affected by the rapidly spreading disease. And its capital Mumbai has seen the highest number of Covid-19 positive cases in the state. In fact, Mumbai is among the worst hit across the country. While Maharashtra has reported 20,228 Covid-19 positive cases reported so far, the number in Mumbai has reached 12,864. The city has reported 489 deaths due to the disease. Maharashtra on Saturday recorded 1,165 new Covid-19 cases and 48 deaths, with Mumbai alone accounting for 27. So far, 2,27,804 people have been tested. While 2,41,290 people are placed under home quarantine, 13,976 are under institutional quarantine, a state health department bulletin said. Pune, another coronavirus hotspot, has so far reported 1,975 cases and 141 deaths, it said. (CNN) A combination of three antiviral drugs plus an immune system booster seemed to help patients recover more quickly from coronavirus infections, doctors in Hong Kong reported Friday. They said the approach needs more testing but it could offer another treatment possibility for Covid-19 patients. Currently the only authorized treatment is the experimental antiviral drug remdesivir, which also shortens the duration of illness but is limited in supply. Dr. Kwok-Yung Yuen at Hong Kong University and colleagues tested the HIV drug combination of ritonavir and lopanivir along with the general antiviral drug ribavirin and a multiple sclerosis drug called beta interferon. Patients in the study all had mild to moderate symptoms and were treated within seven days of testing positive. Some doctors think treating patients earlier in the course of the infection might be better. Yuen's team gave some patients only the HIV drug combination, often sold under the brand name Kaletra. Other were randomly assigned to get the lopinavir-ritonavir combination plus the antiviral drug ribavirin and injections of beta interferon. The patients who got the cocktail tested negative for coronavirus after seven days on average. Those who just got the HIV drugs were positive on average for 12 days, the team reported in the Lancet medical journal. Few side effects, study says The patients given the cocktail also felt better quicker within four days. "Early triple antiviral therapy was safe and superior to lopinavir-ritonavir alone in alleviating symptoms and shortening the duration of viral shedding and hospital stay in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19," the researchers wrote. There were few side effects, they added. Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, who is treating coronavirus patients at the University of California San Francisco, said the study offers new hope in the pandemic. "This study is really refreshing because it tells us remdesivir isn't the only game in town and maybe there are other options around," he told CNN. "These drugs have a track record of safety," he said, adding they are also easily available. Doctors and pharmacists have complained that they don't know which hospitals and clinics will get remdesivir, which was given US Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization after it was shown to reduce the duration of illness in Covid-19 patients. Chin-Hong said the Lancet study showed the possibility of other treatments. "Maybe we can get this when we can't get the alleged magic bullet," he said. Many groups are testing various combinations of drugs against coronavirus. Nothing is likely to be a cure, doctors agree. "In Covid-19 we don't have the luxury of time," Chin-Hong said. "This is one of the treatment options where we are teaching old drugs new tricks. We don't have the time to take a drug rationally from beginning to end because we have a crisis right now. We have to make do with what we have." This story was first published on CNN.com, "Triple drug therapy helps coronavirus patients recover more quickly, study finds." Dozens of American COVID-19 patients and a handful of businesses are attempting to sue China over the spread of the virus At least nine lawsuits have been filed in the U.S. against China claiming authorities there did not do enough to corral the virus initially, tried to hide what was happening in the outbreak center of Wuhan and sought to conceal their actions and what they knew. The United States is leading the world in coronavirus infections. As of Sunday afternoon there are 1,356,650 confirmed cases and 80,308 deaths. Eight of the lawsuits are potential class actions that would represent thousands of people and businesses. One was filed by the attorney general of Missouri, which is so far the only state to take legal action against China. Dozens of American coronavirus patients and some businesses are suing China over alleged negligence in the coronavirus outbreak The cases face several hurdles under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which states that foreign governments cannot be sued in the U.S. unless certain exceptions are met. And those are not easy to prove, experts say. 'We think it's going to be an uphill battle for them to ultimately take advantage of those exceptions,' said Robert Boone, an attorney in Los Angeles who specializes in class action cases. One exception involves commercial activity that directly affects the U.S. Another is misconduct inside the U.S. under certain circumstances that is traceable to a foreign government. A third exception is whether the foreign entity explicitly waived its immunity, such as through language in a contract. Pictured: A nurse cleans a patient with COVID-19 on a ventilator at a Stamford Hospital Intensive Care Unit on in Stamford, Connecticut Attorneys who have filed the lawsuits say they can prove those claims, and, if they win, find some method of collecting damages, perhaps by seizing Chinese bank accounts or other assets in the U.S. if the Chinese refuse to pay. Saundra Andringa-Meuer, 61, is one of the claimants whose taken action against China. Before the coronavirus outbreak, Andringa-Meuer was a healthy 61-year-old mother of six who never smoked or drank alcohol. Then she became seriously ill with the disease after traveling from her Wisconsin home to help her son move from college in Connecticut. She was hospitalized in March, ending up in a coma and on a ventilator for 14 days. Doctors told her family she had a slim chance to live. Saundra Andringa-Meuer (pictured) has joined other Americans in filing lawsuits against China after she suffered from COVID-19 in March When she emerged, she was told she was the sickest COVID-19 patient they had seen survive. 'I do feel that they hid it from the world and from Americans,' she said. 'I don't feel we had to have the loss of life. I don't think we had to have the economy shut down. It disrupted all of American lives. I do believe we need to right some of these wrongs.' In one case filed in Miami federal court on behalf of Andringa-Meurer and many others, attorneys Matthew Moore and Jeremy Alters of Berman Law Group are suing the Chinese Communist Party as an entity separate from the Chinese government. 'They have their own assets. They are recognized as an independent organization. We are going to argue they are not a part of the government,' Moore said. 'There has been personal injury that happened in the United States.' Added Alters: 'They're going to have to pay... We can say, "We're not going to do business with you anymore." When you hit them in the (gross domestic product), it hurts.' Three years ago, the firm won a $1.2 billion (960 million) case against China over the manufacture of defective building materials. 'Ultimately, the Berman Law Group is seeking to have China compensate American citizens and businesses for the trillions of dollars in damages the have and will suffer because of China's failures to act responsibly,' the firm said in a media release. Lawyers argued that although nations have legal immunity, there are exceptions under US law for personal or property damages and for actions abroad that impact on businesses in their own borders. In Missouri, Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt's filed a lawsuit against China on behalf of the state. The lawsuit alleges Chinese officials are 'responsible for the enormous death, suffering, and economic losses they inflicted on the world, including Missourians.' The state of Missouri has filed a lawsuit against the Chinese government over the coronavirus pandemic, claiming China's officials are to blame for the devastating outbreak that's sweeping the globe Schmitt announced the lawsuit on Tuesday saying: 'The bottom line: they lied to the world & should be held accountable' 'The Chinese government lied to the world about the danger and contagious nature of COVID-19, silenced whistleblowers, and did little to stop the spread of the disease,' Schmitt's office said in a written statement. 'They must be held accountable for their actions.' World leaders including President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Australias Foreign Minister Marise Payne have expressed concerns over Beijings transparency amid the virus. So far, 22 Republican lawmakers requested that the Trump administration bring a case against China to the International Court of Justice for the countrys actions in the coronavirus pandemic. Schmitt's office is seeking unspecified damages for deaths in Missouri and the hit the virus has taken on the state's economy. 'In Missouri, the impact of the virus is very real - thousands have been infected and many have died, families have been separated from dying loved ones, small businesses are shuttering their doors, and those living paycheck to paycheck are struggling to put food on their table,' he said in his statement. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang defended his country's record of fighting the virus. He said the lawsuit filed by the Missouri attorney general is 'very absurd and has no factual and legal basis.' Since the outbreak began, China has proceeded in an 'open, transparent, and responsible manner,' and the U.S. government should 'dismiss such vexatious litigation,' he said. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang (pictured) called Missouri's lawsuit 'absurd' and defended China Efforts are underway in Congress and in some state legislatures to make it easier to sue China and other countries. One bill was introduced by Republican U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Martha McSally of Arizona, and GOP U.S. Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas in the House. 'The Chinese government must be held accountable for the pain it's inflicted across the United States,' McSally said in a statement. The proposed legislation 'will give the U.S. a piece of justice.' In New Jersey, three Republican state lawmakers introduced a resolution urging President Donald Trump and Congress to pass a bill letting citizens sue China for 'mishandling' the pandemic. State Sen. Jim Holzapfel and Assemblymen Greg McGuckin and John Catalano said in a statement that they believe Chinese leaders did little to stop the spread of the virus and that residents and local governments should be legally allowed to recover some of what they lost financially. It's not clear if any of the legislation will pass. If the bills were enacted, legal experts say they could open the floodgates for hundreds more lawsuits against China. 'If that immunity were stripped, it's going to produce a gigantic burden on the court system,' said Boone, the class action lawyer. 'That's a factor that will need to be weighed in deciding whether to pass it.' China's president Xi Jinping 'personally asked WHO to hold back information about human-to-human transmission and delayed the global response by four to six WEEKS' at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, bombshell report claims A bombshell report claims Chinese President Xi Jinping personally asked World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom to 'delay a global warning' about the threat of COVID-19 during a conversation back in January. Germany's Der Spiegel published the allegations this weekend, citing intelligence from the country's Federal Intelligence Service, known as the 'Bundesnachrichtendienst' (BND). According to the BND: 'On January 21, China's leader Xi Jinping asked WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to hold back information about a human-to-human transmission and to delay a pandemic warning. 'The BND estimates that China's information policy lost four to six weeks to fight the virus worldwide'. The WHO released a statement shortly after the publication of the shock claims, calling them 'unfounded and untrue'. Scroll down for video A bombshell report in Der Spiegel claims Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) personally asked World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom (left) to 'delay a global warning' about the threat of COVID-19 in January. The pair are pictured together in Beijing on January 28 of this year. The WHO has denied the allegation 'Dr Tedros and President Xi did not speak on January 21 and they have never spoken by phone. Such inaccurate reports distract and detract from WHO's and the world's efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic,' the statement read. It continued: 'China confirmed human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus on January 20 [prior to the alleged phone conversation]. 'The WHO publicly declared on January 22 that "data collected suggests that human-to-human transmission is taking place in Wuhan."' If the claims were true, they would bolster President Trump's assertion that the WHO is 'China-centric'. Back in April, the Trump Administration alleged the WHO was becoming a tool of 'Chinese propaganda', and the president moved to halt funding of the organization. Last week, the President launched a fresh attack on the organization during a Fox News virtual town hall meeting. Relations between Washington and the WHO has soured throughout the crisis after Trump consistently accused the body of siding with China, saying it has been hand-in-glove with Xi Jinping in covering up the outbreak. Pictured is a lab in Wuhan that is certified to handle dangerous pathogens 'The World Health organisation has been a disaster everything they said was wrong and they're China-centric,' he stated at the event, held last Monday. 'All they do is agree with China, whatever China wants to do. So our country, perhaps foolishly in retrospect has been paying $450million a year to the World Health Organisation and China's been paying $38million a year but they were more political than all of our leaders previously. 'What they did, what World Health did, was they missed every single call and we're not going to put up with it.' Relations between Washington and the WHO has soured throughout the crisis after Trump consistently accused the body of siding with China, saying it has been hand-in-glove with Xi Jinping in covering up the outbreak. Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has hailed China as an exemplar of how to handle an emergency despite widespread skepticism of the country's official coronavirus death toll. Earlier this week, Trump also said there was enough evidence to prove President Xi Jinping's regime misled the global community. Donald Trump doubled down his attacks on the World Health Organisation last Monday. 'The World Health organisation has been a disaster everything they said was wrong and they're China-centric,' he stated at the event, held last Monday 'Well, I don't think there's any question about it. We wanted to go in, they didn't want us to go in. Things are coming out that are pretty compelling. I don't think there's any question,' the president said Sunday. 'Personally, I think they made a horrible mistake, and they didn't want to admit it,' he added. His comments came as a Department of Homeland Security report shared on Sunday revealed US officials believe China 'intentionally concealed the severity' of the pandemic in early January and hoarded medical supplies. The four-page report dated May 1 that was obtained by the Associated Press notes that China downplayed the virus publicly but increased imports and decreased exports of medical supplies. Why did China build a virus lab in Wuhan? Chinese officials decided to build the Wuhan Institute of Virology after the country was ravaged by an outbreak of SARS in 2002 and 2003. SARS, another kind of coronavirus, killed 775 people and infected more than 8,000 globally in an epidemic that lasted about eight months. It took the Chinese 15 years to fully complete the project, which cost a total of 300million yuan (34million). The French helped design the building. Its crown jewel is a four-storey lab with the highest biosafety level of P4. It's the most advanced laboratory of its type in China. Construction of the lab was finished in 2015 and it officially opened on January 5, 2018, after passing various safety inspections. Describing the significance of the P4 lab, China Youth Online billed it as the 'aircraft carrier of China's virology'. The state-run newspaper said it 'is capable of researching the deadliest pathogens'. One researcher, Zhou Peng, told state news agency Xinhua in 2018: 'We are proud to say that we are already at the forefront in the field of studying the immunity mechanism of bats, which carry viruses for a long time. 'Bats carry viruses but are not infected [by them]. [They] provide hope for mankind to study how to fight viruses.' Advertisement The document accuses China of covering their tracks by 'denying there were export restrictions and obfuscating and delaying provision of its trade data.' It lends weight to a leaked dossier drawn up by the Five Eyes intelligence alliance which describes how Beijing made whistleblowers 'disappear', destroyed early virus samples and scrubbed the internet of any mention of the disease in the early stages. The 15-page document brands Beijing's secrecy over the pandemic an 'assault on international transparency' and points to cover-up tactics deployed by the regime. It claims that the Chinese government silenced its most vocal critics and scrubbed any online scepticism about its handling of the health emergency from the internet. China has roundly come under fire for suppressing the scale of its early outbreak which did not afford other nations time to react before the disease hit their shores. Five Eyes - the pooling of intelligence by the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - laid bare its scathing assessment of the Xi Jinping administration in a memo obtained by the Australian Saturday Telegraph. It describes how Beijing was outwardly downplaying the outbreak on the world stage while secretly scrambling to bury all traces of the disease. More than four million people around the world have contracted the highly contagious virus, and at least 279,000 have died. There are currently at least 1.3 million cases of coronavirus in the U.S. and more than 79,000 deaths. Last month, British MPs warned China had cost lives by spreading disinformation about the coronavirus outbreak. The Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said that as the country where the outbreak originated, China should have played a central role in collecting data on its spread. But it accused Beijing of seeking to 'obfuscate' over what was really happening form the outset. The committee called on the UK Government, working with international allies, to actively 'confront and rebut' disinformation coming from foreign powers. In its report, the cross-party group also named Iran and Russia as being responsible for disseminating false information about the Covid-19 virus and suggested other countries were also involved. Its main criticism, however, was reserved for China. It highlighted the way Li Wenliang, the doctor in Wuhan who first raised the alarm about the new disease, was forced to confess to 'making false comments' before his death from the virus in February. 'Such deliberate misleading of the WHO (World Health Organisation) and scientists in other countries obscured analysis in the critical early stages of the pandemic,' the committee said. 'Disinformation about Covid-19 has already cost lives. It is essential that the Government issues clear and transparent messages at home to confront and rebut disinformation spread by foreign powers. 'It must also work closely with allies to present a united front where possible, and to help ensure that vital international research efforts are not compromised by propaganda and bad data.' Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat said Beijing had initially 'allowed disinformation to spread as quickly as the virus'. He added: 'Rather than helping other countries prepare a swift and strong response, it is increasingly apparent that they manipulated vital information about the virus in order to protect the regime's image. 'The Government needs to tackle these lies with a clear and quick response, working with our allies to show a united front in the face of false facts and deadly disinformation.' By PTI NEW DELHI: With uncertainty looming over the 2020-2021 academic session of schools in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, former Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Sunday said either all students barring those in Class 12 be promoted or an internal assessment mechanism be put in place to save children in class 10 and other levels from examination stress. With uncertainty looming over the 2020-2021 academic session of schools in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, former Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Sunday said either all students barring those in Class 12 be promoted or an internal assessment mechanism be put in place to save them from examination stress next year. The senior Congress leader also suggested that courses can be reduced both in schools and universities and the teaching time lost in the 2020-21 session due to the pandemic could be made up in the next year with extra effort from both the teacher and student communities. FOLLOW COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES HERE Various universities will also have to take a decision on whether or not to delay the academic session and they have the autonomy to take a call and a decision cannot be forced on them, Sibal told PTI in an interview. The University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued guidelines to universities that the new academic session for freshers will begin from September while for the existing students from August. However, it has said the guidelines are advisory in nature and varsities may chalk out their own plans according to the COVID-19 pandemic prevailing in their areas. Asked about the uncertainty looming large over the 2020-21 academic session in schools which are shut and holding online classes, Sibal said going forward there could be two options that can be considered for school students barring those in Class 12. One way is to promote everybody and take some extra classes when the pandemic is over as well as ensure students complete their course in the next class, Sibal said. "The other way is that if you are confident that your teachers will make an objective assessment of the student community which a majority of them might, then you leave it to them and the school to make the internal assessment and promote those to Class 11 who have done well (or to the next class for students of other classes)," he said, asserting that it would save the students from the examination stress. He, however, cautioned that internal assessment may throw up problems of subjectivity and objectivity has to be ensured. It is finally up to the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry to decide on such issues, he added. Innovative ways should be found so that students are not punished for what they are not in control of, said Sibal, who was the HRD Minister from May 2009-October 2012 in the UPA-II government. As the HRD minister, Sibal had spearheaded a reforms process in the education sector under which it was decided to abolish compulsory CBSE Board exams for Class X. However, in 2018 the CBSE reverted to the mandatory examination for Class 10. Asked about pending classes 10 and 12 CBSE as well as other board exams, the Rajya Sabha member said, "I think as far as Class 10 board exams are concerned there should be a re-think. For Class 12 board exams, I think that in the light of the pandemic, the university calendar for the year should change and in that context let's hope for the lockdown to be over and then the exams can be conducted. " On competitive examinations like the JEE and NEET, Sibal said the current situation of the pandemic has put the students from the poor and marginalised sections of the society at a disadvantage. "Remember that there is a divide in this country and it always works against the poor and the marginalised. When you have these competitive exams and there is already this divide, it hurts the poor and the marginalised even more," he said. Engineering entrance JEE-Mains is scheduled from July 18-23, while medical entrance exam NEET is scheduled on July 26. The JEE Advanced will be held on August 23. "Whether they should be held in July I can't say, it is for the HRD Ministry to decide.But I believe you will further reduce the chances of those whose chances are already minimal in these exams," he said. Sibal also asserted that difficulties would be aplenty going forward as social distancing in packed schools is almost impossible and the lack of digital connectivity across the country would result in online teaching putting the poor and rural populace at a disadvantage. "We are in a big bind.If this pandemic were to last for a year and a year-and-half, the student community is going to be distressed further. I don't think the kind of social distancing that we are talking about is possible in our school environment," the senior Congress leader said. There is lack of digital connectivity and, therefore, it is not possible for students to be educated through the digital mode, Sibal said. Digitisation will give advantage to those privileged schools that have connectivity, he said. In this context, Sibal said he had suggested as the then HRD Minister, the introduction of the Aakash tablet, which was to be made available to students in educational institutes across the country, with the idea of making students digitally savvy and provide schools with fiber-optic connectivity to allow access to new sources of knowledge. "If this concept had been accepted and this government in the last six years had invested in connectivity as far as education is concerned, we would not have been faced with this problem today," said Sibal. A 25-year-old man died Sunday after police say someone shot him with a rifle in Algiers. The shooting happened around 9:45 a.m. in the 5200 block of Timber Haven Lane (map), the New Orleans Police Department said. Residents told police they heard gunfire and saw someone with a rifle firing at the man. The shooter fled in a dark-colored vehicle. Officers found the man lying in the street. He had been shot more than once and was taken via EMS to a hospital, where he later died. His name has not been released. No other details were immediately available, including a possible motive or a description of the shooter. Anyone with information about the shooting should call NOPD Homicide Detective Raynell Johnson at (504) 658-5300 or Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111. Editor's note: This story has been updated with new information from police. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said 75 per cent of COVID-19 cases in the city are asymptomatic or showing mild symptoms, and asserted the number of serious patients and deaths caused by the infection is "less". "The number of serious patients is less. The number of COVID-19 -19 deaths is very less," he said, a day after his government was attacked for "under-reporting" the deaths. On Saturday, Congress leader Ajay Maken sought more transparency from the Kejriwal government and Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari urged the chief minister to "tell the truth", saying people have a right to know about the severity of the outbreak. Officials of the 10 hospitals treating COVID-19 patients in Delhi said the number of people dead due to the virus is higher than what the Delhi government's bulletin reflects. A confusion has prevailed over the exact number of deaths as the data from four hospitals showed 92 people succumbed to the infection against 68 reported by the government till Friday. However, Kejriwal said on Sunday that 73 people have died due to the virus. He said Delhi has reported 6,923 coronavirus cases, out of which 2,069 have recovered, while 91 patients are in ICU and 27 are on ventilator support. It has been observed 82 per cent of people dead were above the age of 50, Kejriwal said, requesting senior citizens to take precautionary measures against the infection. "Out of 6,923 COVID-19 patients, only 1,476 are admitted to hospitals," he said, adding that the rest are getting treatment at their homes and COVID-19 care centres. Addressing an online briefing, Kejriwal said those asymptomatic or showing mild symptoms need to be admitted to hospitals and can be provided treatment at home. "Our team makes inspection of their home to ascertain whether social isolation can be observed or not. Our teams are in regular touch with such people and if needed, family members of affected person can contact officials," he said. If there is no sufficient space at home to ensure social isolation, the government sends the patient to a COVID-19 care centre where he/she can stay for 14 days, he said. He said the government has attached the Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital with two-three five-star hotels where frontline warriors, infected by COVID-19, are being treated. "It pained me when I heard that the Opposition was criticising our move. I want to ask you whether corona warriors should not be given better facility," he said. This is not the time to do politics but time to work together against the virus, the AAP chief said. He said his government is requisitioning ambulances of private hospitals to meet the shortage. "It doesn't mean that these private ambulances can not provide service to their attached hospitals. They will have to be pressed into government services when we require the same. I hope with this move, there would be no shortage," he said. Kejriwal also appealed to migrant workers to not leave Delhi. "If anyone wants to leave, the government will make arrangements, but don't leave on your own. We have sent two trains to Madhya Pradesh and Bihar recently," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Virus Outbreak France Amazon Amazon and union lawyers gather prior to the start of at the Appel Court in Versailles, west of Paris, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. Last week, a French court ruled in a case brought by unions that Amazon warehouses selling nonessential items must shut down or face a fine of a million euros a day. Amazon is appealing. Amazon is appealing. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) PARIS (AP) Amazon is keeping all of its French warehouses closed for the time being, after an appeals court upheld a ruling saying the company hadnt done enough to protect workers from the coronavirus. Unions in France and beyond welcomed Fridays ruling by the appeals court in Versailles as a comeuppance for the online behemoth, and expressed hope that negotiations with Amazon management on new safety measures can start next week. The standoff has drawn global attention, as worldwide demand for Amazons services soars because confined consumers can no longer shop in stores. Amazon temporarily shut all its French distribution centers last week, after a lower court ordered it to stop selling non-essential goods while it works out new safety measures with staff. Amazon argued that it was too complicated to separate out its activities, and appealed. The appeals court upheld the overall requirement for Amazon to work out new safety measures. But it also expanded the products Amazon is allowed to sell, adding electronics, office and pet supplies. The original ruling only permitted sales of food and medical and cleaning supplies. The appeals court also reduced the potential fines Amazon faces for future violations, from 1 million euros per infraction to 100,000 euros. Amazon said in a statement Friday that it will keep its distribution centers closed at least through April 28. The company insisted that its facilities are safe, and said it had involved worker representatives in discussions about security measures. We don't think this decision is in the best interest of the French, of our partners and thousands of small French businesses that count on Amazon to develop their activities, it said, But some workers say the company placed profits over staff safety as virus outbreaks erupted around France. The courts found Amazon didnt do enough to enforce social distancing, to ensure that turnstiles and locker rooms were virus-free, or to increase cleaning of its warehouses. Story continues Unions say one worker infected with the virus is in intensive care. The court rulings will require (Amazon) to work differently, which is not such a bad thing, said Jean-Francois Berot, a member of the SUD-Solidaires union who packages and picks up goods in an Amazon warehouse in Saran south of Paris. The judge reminded them that there are laws, and they have to adhere to them, he said. He hopes negotiations with unions can start as soon as Monday. Labor unions elsewhere are also watching. The courts decision ... means that its time for Amazon to start behaving like a responsible employer and establish a productive relationship with labor unions, in France and elsewhere, said Christy Hoffman, general secretary of UNI Global Union. Amazon dominates the online delivery market in France, with 431 million euros in sales in 2018 and more than 10,000 employees. ___ Follow AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Wahlburger, run by Mark, Donnie, and Paul Wahlberg, is working with Del Friscos to feed essential workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic throughout the citys five boroughs, Page Six reported. The Boston-based burger joint has been donating food to Del Friscos in Manhattan, where it is being cooked, and then delivered to first responders and healthcare workers. They wanted to honor the hospital and first responders, Gerard Fitzgerald, president of the Uniformed Firefighters, told Page Six. In a statement, Mark Wahlberg said it has been heartbreaking to not have Walburger restaurants fully open, but that hasnt stopped [our] commitment to supporting the communities we serve however we can. Page Six reported that the meal deliveries started in Manhattan and will end on Monday in Staten Island. (Bloomberg) -- Italy and France reported the fewest coronavirus deaths in weeks and Germanys sick beds continued to empty, providing welcome signs for European leaders ahead of wider steps to restart the economy. Spain, which has the most cases in Europe and remains on an almost-total lockdown, reported 367 new deaths on Friday, the least since March 21, though confirmed cases rose by the most in almost three weeks. Italys daily death toll was the lowest since March 17 and Frances declined to the lowest in almost four weeks. With European governments eager to ease confinement measures that have crushed the economy, the latest data also hinted at the volatility that makes relaxing restrictions difficult. Italys new cases reported on Friday outstripped the number of recovered patients, reversing a trend begun the day before. We have to maintain our vigilance, Jerome Salomon, Frances director general for health, said at a briefing. The epidemic is not over. In Germany, about 103,000 of some 148,000 people reported to have contracted the virus have recovered. Europes largest economy kept its so-called reproduction number below 1, according to official data, meaning the number of new Covid-19 infections is declining. Testing is one of the keys to why we have been able to come through this crisis in relatively good shape until now, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said Friday on broadcaster ZDF. We tested very widely from the start and therefore had a very early picture of the development in Germany. German Slump Europes more than 110,000 deaths in the pandemic account for almost 60% of the worldwide total but as new infections decline, regional leaders are starting to loosen social-distancing curbs to try to revive business activity. Vice President Mike Pence said he thinks the U.S. will have this coronavirus epidemic behind us by the Memorial Day holiday on May 25. European economic woes were on display at a European Union summit this week where EU leaders failed to agree on a longer-term recovery plan. Afterward, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced plans to expand the budget deficit by 55 billion euros ($59 billion) in emergency spending. Germanys economy is expected to shrink by 6.3% in 2020, the worst contraction since at least 1950, Handelsblatt reported, citing draft government projections. Story continues Italian civil defense authorities reported 420 deaths linked to the virus for the latest 24-hour period, compared with 464 the day before, bringing the total to 25,969. Confirmed cases now total 192,994. While 2,922 patients in Italy were listed as recovered, there were 3,021 new cases. Italys shutdown since early March has closed factories, confined people to their homes and brought daily life for 60 million people in the euro areas third-biggest economy to a near standstill. An initial reopening of businesses is planned for May 4, provided Italians observe protective and social-distancing guidelines. France is working on plans to gradually reopen the economy starting May 11. Austrian Reopening Austrias first round of easing, which started April 14, hasnt spurred new infections, which have been below 100 for six days in a row. Hospitalizations, including intensive care, have been on a downward trajectory for two weeks. Spain has yet to publish detailed plans on lifting restrictions that have brought the nation to an almost complete standstill for more than a month. Prime Minster Pedro Sanchez has said a cautious easing may begin next month. Germanys new cases and deaths rose the most in nearly a week. There were 2,481 new infections in the 24 hours through Friday morning, bringing the total to 153,129, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Fatalities rose to 5,575 and the death rate one of the worlds lowest rose to 3.6%. After Germany allowed small shops and hardware stores to reopen on Monday, Chancellor Angela Merkel repeated her warning of the risks of second-wave infections. Germany is far from being out of the woods, she said in a speech to parliament on Thursday. 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 number of people who have so far recovered after contracting the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the country crossed 20,000 on Sunday, with a recuperating rate of 31.2%, or about one in every three patients, even as the number of infections of Sars-CoV-2 crossed 67,000. Studies have shown that after recovery globally, 35% of the total patients have so far recovered nearly all people develop antibodies, which could give them protection against the infection. Public health experts have warned against the stigmatisation of Covid-19 patients, even as research shows that about 80% of all patients across the world develop mild or no symptoms. Of the 67,085 Covid-19 cases, at least 44,000 patients are undergoing treatment at various hospitals across the country. In the last 24 hours, 1,736 people were confirmed as recovered the biggest jump so far even as 4,370 fresh infections were added to the national tally, the highest single-day spike. The recovery rate on April 10 was 10.3%, improving to 31.2% in a month. The recovery rate shows that almost one-third of the infected persons have recovered in India. It is a positive sign as it is increasing by the day, Lav Agarwal, joint secretary, Union health ministry, said recently. The rate of increase of Covid-19 cases in the country has, however, increased over the past week, with the doubling rate, which stood at 11.5 on May 3, reducing to 10.6 on Sunday. The last 10,000 cases of the infection, which has halted life across continents, came in just three days in India. The ratio of the number of Covid-19 cases recovering in relation to the number of people dying of the viral infection has shown improvement. Data collected from official bulletins from states shows the ratio to be 9:1 for every 10 deaths, 90 people have recovered from the disease. In mid-April, the ratio was 8:2. The increase in the recovery rate will go hand in glove with the increase in the number of cases for a while. That is because Covid-19 is a novel infection and it will spread till the population gets immunity against the virus. Now, as for how many people will get infected before there is herd immunity, the estimates vary from anywhere between 30% of the population to 70%. The reason for a high recovery rate is that 90% to 95% of the infections are either mild to moderately symptomatic or asymptomatic, said Dr Jugal Kishore, head of the department of community medicine at the Safdarjung Hospital. What the high recovery rate shows is that the infection is not highly fatal in the Indian population; we are capable of managing the infection, and the treatment protocols are working, he added. Experts say implementing a complete national lockdown has yielded results in the form of significant improvement in Indias case doubling rate. While the number stood at 3.4 days before the restrictions kicked in, it went up to 11.5 on May 3. It, however, has come down to 10.6, indicating a quickening of infections. On average, India has reported about 3,500 new cases every day over the last week. Of the states that have reported more than 1,000 cases, the highest recovery rate is in Telangana, where 62.8% of the patients are now Covid-19-free. This is followed by Rajasthan, where over 58% of those who were infected have recovered, and Andhra Pradesh, where almost 46.7% have recovered. Keralas battle against the respiratory illness has shown promise. Only 20 people of the total 512 cases so far are currently designated as active infections. The state has reported only three deaths so far. Maharashtra, which has the highest number of cases, 22,171, has one of the lowest recovery rates of 18.9% in the country. Tamil Nadu and Delhi have managed to keep the number of deaths low despite a surge in cases initially linked to the Nizamuddin gathering of the Tablighi Jamaat. Delhis recovery rate of 29.9% is similar to the national figure. On Sunday, Delhi recorded 381 new cases, taking the total tally to 6,923. A third of Rajasthans 33 districts now have either no or up to two active cases. According to the state health departments data, two districts have zero active cases, five have one each, and two have two active cases each. Two districts Bundi and Sriganganagar have not reported any case since the outbreak in Rajasthan in the last week of March. Urban hot spots across the country remain the biggest challenge in Indias battle against the disease, which had overwhelmed health care infrastructure across countries, including many metropolises even across the developed world. Maharashtra, Delhi and Gujarat are the three worst affected states by the disease. On Sunday, Maharashtra reported 1,943 cases, while the national capital added 381 cases. In Gujarat, which has requested All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director Dr Randeep Guleria to fly to the state to assist in disease management, 398 people were infected by the pathogen on Sunday. The number of tests performed to detect patients of the new disease was 1.6 million on Sunday, as the government indicated that it intended to scale up its testing capacity to 100,000 diagnoses per day. The development came after experts expressed concern over low testing numbers and limited scope, which they said could lead to the disease spreading undetected. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON 128 countries turned to Turkey for help during a pandemic Turkey sent a plane to Ukraine with a cargo of medical aid Open source Turkey sent a plane to Ukraine with a cargo of medical aid to combat the ovid-19 coronavirus pandemic. This was reported by Anadolu. It is reported that the assistance was prepared on behalf of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Earlier, Turkey sent medical supplies to the USA, South Africa, Palestine, Italy, Spain, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Great Britain, Somalia, Tunisia and many other countries. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that during the pandemic, 128 countries turned to Turkey for help. As previously reported, the EU Council will provide Ukraine 1.2 billion euros to overcome the effects of coronavirus. Related: German laboratories study effect of Ukrainian medicines against coronavirus, - ambassador In Turkey, the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus has increased to 86,306 people, which is the highest among all countries outside Europe or the United States. Turkish Minister of Health Fahrettin Koja asid this, Reuters reports. Over the past 24 hours, the number of cases among Turkish citizens has increased by 3 thousand 977 people. This is more than recorded per day in China, when the Covid-19 epidemic was gaining momentum there. According to Koja, over the past 24 hours in the country, another 127 people have died from coronavirus. Thus, the death rate from a dangerous infection in Turkey amounted to 2 thousand 17 people. To date, 11 thousand 976 Turks have recovered from coronavirus. Over the past day, 35 thousand 344 tests for coronavirus have been conducted in the country. In general, from the beginning of the pandemic, Turkish doctors tested 634 thousand citizens. Nearly 1,000 workers from Tamil Nadu, stranded in Maharashtra, reached Tiruchirappalli on Sunday by a special train, a senior Southern Railway official said. As workers belonging to other states and stuck in Tamil Nadu have been leaving for their respective states, 969 men arrived at Tiruchirappalli from Pandharpur in Maharashtra. "Shramik Special from Pandharpur (Maharashtra) arrived at Trichy at 11:50 am with 969 passengers belonging to Tamilnadu. District and Railway authorities received them after letting them go through health formalities. They proceeded to their native districts by buses arranged by the district officials," Southern Railway General Manager said on his twitter handle. On Saturday, special trains were operated from a couple of cities in Tamil Nadu to various destinations. A train left for Jagannathpur in Odisha from here with 1,038 passengers, and another ferrying 1,126 people to Danapur in Bihar departed from Katpadi (Vellore). Also, 2,280 people (1,140 passengers in each train) began their journey to Jaunpur and Akbarpur, both in Uttar Pradesh, by two separate trains from Coimbatore. On May 8, a train was operated to Saharsa in Bihar from Coimbatore with 1,140 guest workers. "Wish all of them have a safe journey. I am glad they will be with their family soon," Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami had said. Thermal screening of passengers was done at the railway stations and people were requested to maintain individual distancing throughout their journey. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Screenshots of a video shared with The Punch of the protesting returnees in their hotel in Lagos. According to The PUCNH, some Nigerians recently evacuated from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, have lamented that they are being treated like prisoners. They told The PUNCH that the hotel, where they are being quarantined in Lagos, is surrounded by soldiers who do not allow them to even get fresh air or receive some sunlight within the compound. One of them, who prefers anonymity for fear of being victimised, said, Sincerely, we have not had it good since we returned from Dubai. We all tested negative for COVID-19 but we are being treated as if we have the disease. We have been here for three days now but we have not been allowed to even breathe fresh air or even feel sunlight on our skin. It is as if we are in prison. Even the food we are being given is not good at all. We are just managing it. Another evacuee told The PUNCH that no government official had called or visited to check their welfare except some officials of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control who visited them on Saturday morning. We have been complaining about this but everything has fallen on deaf ears. No one from the government has called to ask about our living conditions. It was this morning (Saturday) that some NCDC officials came to check our health status. We are not allowed to even stroll within the compound. We are just inside our rooms. If things continue this way, some of us may even fall sick from being idle, he said. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, neither responded to calls nor a text message on Saturday. The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, however, said inquiries should be sent to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyema. She said, All COVID-19 issues are handled by the Minister of Foreign Affairs in consultation with the PTF (Presidential Task Force). NIDCOMs role was to help co-ordinate the names of those who wanted to return, working with the mission. And we got about 4,000 from about 75 countries. We are not involved in the logistics of their return. So please direct your questions to Hon. Minister of Foreign Affairs who is in total control. No fewer than 256 evacuated Nigerians arrived in Lagos State from the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday. They arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, via an Emirates Airline about 07.40pm. The PUNCH reports that upon their arrival, the evacuees were placed on 14-day quarantine in line with the governments COVID-19 protocol. The surge in Covid-19 positive cases in Odisha since last week continued unabated with 83 more people testing positive on Sunday the largest single-day spike as the migrant workers from Gujarat and other States pushed the state towards becoming a coronavirus hotspot. With 83 testing positive, all of whom were migrant workers barring one, the total number of positive cases in Odisha touched 377, more than double from 163 cases just a week ago. The steepest rise came on the day the state reported its third Covid-19 death, after officials said a 40-year-old man of Ganjam district who had returned from Surat on May 6 and was quarantined in Dhunkapada grampanchayat and later died on May 8 had tested positive after his death. The situation in Ganjam district, the epicentre of Covid-19, seems to be spiralling with 125 cases reported in less than a week. All the 125 people who tested positive had returned from Surat. A seven-member team including director of health services and representatives from WHO, Indian Council of Medical Research and Regional Medical Research Centre is currently visiting Ganjam to assist the district administration in containment, surveillance and medical response. Click here for full Covid-19 coverage. The other Covid-19 hotspots that have become headache for the State government are Jajpur district (60 cases), Balasore (42) and Bhadrak (31). Among the 377 who tested positive, 290 had come from Surat and Bengal, the two biggest sources of Covid-19 cases in Odisha followed by 41 with Nizamuddin links. So far infections have been reported in 21 of the 30 districts. With the migrants inflating the Covid-19 positive cases in the state, officials were worried by the prospect of cases ballooning in the next couple of weeks as 4-5 lakh more migrants are likely to arrive in Odisha. So far, 57,000-odd migrants have returned to Odisha from other States of which Ganjam alone accounted for over 32,000 returnees. What has added to the worries of the district administration is people jumping quarantine. Odisha Assembly Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro on Sunday alleged that migrants are slipping out of quarantine centres at night to be with their family members even as the officials said those violating quarantine norms would be arrested. Principal Bec Spink hopes people will treat her high-pressure profession with more respect after the coronavirus pandemic. After taking over the top role at Spensley Street Primary School in Clifton Hill just six months ago, Ms Spink says society needs to rethink its attitudes towards principals and school staff. Bec Spink says she hopes people will value educators more after coronavirus. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui "I'd really like society to understand now more than ever that we are not babysitters. We know education, we know teaching and learning and we need to be valued like other professions that have that degree of knowledge and skill," she said. "I wish everyone could see what I see with my staff behind the scenes, I think that would change their minds about how we're treated and how we treat educators." India coronavirus news and highlights: The Prime Minister's Office has confirmed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with chief ministers of various states via video conference at 3 PM on Monday. This will be his fifth meeting with the CMs since the first lockdown in India. PM Modi is expected to take a call on whether the government should extend the lockdown further or allow the gradual opening of the economy. Meanwhile, the total cases in the country now stand at 62,939, including 41,472 active patients and 19,358 cured/discharged/migrated and 2,109 deaths. Follow BusinessToday.in for live updates on coronavirus in India and world: 9:00 PM: Railways to restart passenger trains from May 12, says Piyush Goyal Indian Railways plans to gradually restart passenger train operations from May 12, says Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday. This will initially begin with 15 pairs of trains (30 return journeys). Also Read: BREAKING: Railways to restart passenger trains from May 12 8:30 PM: Coronavirus in Haryana: 28 new positive cases of COVID19 reported today As many as 28 new positive cases of COVID-19 reported in Haryana today. Total number of positive cases stands at 703 including 10 deaths and 393 active cases: Haryana Health Department. 8:10 PM: 15 new coronavirus positive cases reported in Odisha 15 fresh coronavirus positive cases have been reported in Odisha, taking the total number of cases in the state to 377. This includes 306 active cases, 68 cured/discharged and 3 deceased, says State Health Department. 8:00 PM: Coronavirus in Mumbai: 81 more prisoners of Arthur Road jail test positive for COVID-19 As many as 81 more prisoners from Arthur Road jail in Mumbai have tested positive for coronavirus, taking the total number of positive cases in the prison to 184. This includes 26 staff members. The jail houses 2,800 undertrials, however, with a capacity of only 800, social distancing becomes difficult in the prison. Currently, Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor is also lodged in the Arthur Road jail. 7:50 PM: Coronavirus in Jammu & Kashmir: 25 new positive cases reported today As many as 25 new positive cases reported in Jammu & Kashmir today (2 from Jammu division and 23 from Kashmir division), taking the total number of cases to 861. The total death toll stands at 9. 7:40 PM: 153 new COVID-19 cases, 14 deaths reported in West Bengal in last 24 hours West Bengal has reported 153 new COVID-19 cases today, taking the total number of positive cases in the state to 1,939. With 14 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the death toll rose to 113 in West Bengal. 7:35 PM: Irdai again extends grace period for life insurance policies amid coronavirus Irdai has further extended the grace period for renewal of life insurance policies whose premium was due in March till May 31 in wake of the extension of lockdown to fight spread of coronavirus. 7:30 PM: Monsoon session of Parliament to be held as per schedule, says LS Speaker Om Birla Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said that the upcoming Monsoon session of the Parliament will be held as per schedule. Till now, there are no plans to postpone the session. The decision will be taken as per the situation at that time, Om Birla told news agency ANI. 7:25 PM: Coronavirus: Air India bars its crew from sharing pictures on social media State-owned carrier Air India has passed a gag order refraining its cabin crew from sharing pictures and videos of the COVID-19 related relief work on social media. The crew has been directed to not share any content on social media while they are in their uniforms. 7:20 PM: 61 test coronavirus positive in Punjab The total number of COVID-19 cases in Punjab reaches 1,823, with 61 more people testing positive today. Number of active cases and fatalities due to the infection stands at 1,626 and 31 respectively, says State Health Department. 7:15 PM: South Goa hospital to resume OPDs from Monday The Goa government has decided to restart the OPDs in the hospitals in a phased manner as the state has been declared a 'green zone' for Covid-19. "Conducted a surprise inspection today morning at the South Goa District Hospital to monitor the status as we start OPD operations from tomorrow," Rane tweeted. 7:10 PM: National Institute of Virology, Pune develops 1st indigenous kit for COVID-19 National Institute of Virology, Pune has successfully developed the 1st indigenous anti-SARS-CoV-2 human IgG ELISA test kit for antibody detection of #COVID19 . This robust test will play a critical role in surveillance of proportion of population exposed to #SARSCoV2 infection pic.twitter.com/pEJdM6MOX6 - Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) May 10, 2020 7:06 PM: 334 coronavirus 'super-spreaders' found in Ahmedabad 334 coronavirus 'super-spreaders' have been found in Ahmedabad so far, and it is the main reason for the order to keep shops of groceries and vegetables closed till May 15, says officials on Sunday. 'Super-spreaders' are the infectious disease carrier who could transmit the pathogen to a large number of people. 7:00 PM: 56 ITBP jawans tested COVID-19 positive in last 24 hours As many as 56 jawans of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) have tested coronavirus positive in the last 24 hours, all new cases are in Delhi. Total number of COVID-19 cases in ITBP reaches 156. 6:50 PM: Delhi government on Sunday warned COVID-19 hospitals and health facilities of strict action in case of more delay in reporting of death cases. "It has been observed that Govt and private hospitals are not sending the #COVID19 updates regularly. The daily summary about COVID-19 deaths is not being sent to the death audit committee because of which daily reports get delayed or are submitted with wrong details," says Delhi Govt. 6:40 PM: PMC orders closure of all shops in containment zones from May 11-17 Pune Municipal Commissioner has issued an order to close all shops in containment zones of Pune from 11th to 17th May. In all 69 containment zones of the city, only hospitals and medical stores will be allowed to remain open, says PMC. 5:40 PM: Coronavirus in Hyderabad: 45 people get infected with COVID-19 in birthday party As many as 45 people have been infected with COVID-19 due to a birthday party thrown by a shop owner in Hyderabad. As a result, the city's LB Nagar has now become a hotspot for novel coronavirus with 15 new containment zones. 5.12 PM: 401 big projects hit due to lockdown As many as 401 infrastructure projects, each worth Rs 150 crore or more, have been hit by cost overruns of over Rs 4.06 lakh crore owing to delays and other reasons, according to a report. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation monitors infrastructure projects worth Rs 150 crore and above. Of the 1,701 such projects, 401 projects reported cost overruns and 583 projects time escalation. Also read: 401 infra projects hit by cost overruns of Rs 4.06 lakh crore: Report 5.05 PM: Allow entry to migrants: Goyal to states Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on migrant movement: "As per the directions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Railways is fully geared up to run 300 Shramik Special trains everyday at short notice since the last six days. I appeal to all the states to give permission to evacuate and bring back their stranded migrants so that we can get all of them back to their homes in the next 3-4 days itself." Arrangements inside INS Magar that will bring 2nd batch of Indian nationals from the Maldives under operation Samudra Setu. (CNN) Former President Barack Obama delivered a blistering critique of the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus crisis, describing it as "an absolute chaotic disaster" during a private call Friday night with people who worked for him in the White House and across his administration. The searing comments, confirmed to CNN by three former Obama administration officials on the call, offered the starkest assessment yet from the former president about how President Donald Trump and his team have handled the deadly pandemic and why he believes Democrats must rally behind former Vice President Joe Biden to defeat Trump in November. In a 30-minute conversation with members of the Obama Alumni Association, the former president said the response to the coronavirus outbreak served as a critical reminder for why strong government leadership is needed during a global crisis. The call was intended to encourage former Obama staffers to become more engaged in Biden's presidential campaign. "This election that's coming up on every level is so important because what we're going to be battling is not just a particular individual or a political party," Obama said. "What we're fighting against is these long-term trends in which being selfish, being tribal, being divided, and seeing others as an enemy -- that has become a stronger impulse in American life." The comments were first reported by Yahoo News, which obtained an audio recording of the call. A spokesman for Obama declined to comment or elaborate on the former president's remarks. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Saturday dismissed the criticism from Obama, saying in a statement to CNN: "President Trump's coronavirus response has been unprecedented and saved American lives." The White House did not respond to Obama's comments on the Department of Justice's decision to drop charges against Michael Flynn. Weighing in on the case during the call, Obama said Attorney General William Barr's decision to drop the criminal case against Flynn suggested "the rule of law was at risk" in the United States. Before taking office, Obama warned Trump about Flynn and raised questions about his conduct with Russia. But Obama saved his strongest words for the Trump administration's handling of the coronavirus crisis and its worldview. "It's part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty," Obama said. "It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset of 'what's in it for me' and 'to heck with everybody else' when that mindset is operationalized in our government." He added: "That's why, I, by the way, am going to be spending as much time as necessary and campaigning as hard as I can for Joe Biden." After formally endorsing Biden last month, Obama said he would be deeply involved in the campaign to help Biden win the White House. His remarks on Friday night were the latest example of that effort, telling the Obama Alumni group: "I am hoping that all of you feel the same sense of urgency that I do." This story was first published on CNN.com 'Obama says White House response to coronavirus has been 'absolute chaotic disaster'' China underpinned the lies of the U.S. in blaming their complicity in the spread of the COVID-19 but backed the WHO in tracing the bonafide source of COVID-19. This what transpired last Thursday as China attacked the accusations of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and supporting WHO in accusations aired by the US that it has become a Chinese puppet. Currently, Beijing is pointing the blame to other countries, insinuating than an Italian doctor has proof COVID-19 did not come from them. Part of the official communist line is that the US Army made the virus, with no impact from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Its toll on the world population is 255,00 dead, the hardest hit now is the US with 70,000 dead, and it was alleged from the city of Wuhan. Dr Li Wenliang and Dr Ai Fen were the first to sound the alarm, but now one is dead and the other disappeared without comment from Beijing. One of his allegations is that China hindered the search for a cure by not giving virus samples for other institutes instead, they worked on their own research to beat others to a cure. Pompeo said that from the start China has lied and kept vital information from the west. COVID-19 came from endangered species, Chinese ate bats and similar wildlife that made the virus evolve. Another bombshell is the evidence that it came from a Wuhan lab that was stressed by Pompeo and US President Donald trump as to exist. Also read: Shocking Evidence from Western Intelligence Claims to Prove China's Lies, Misdirection of Coronavirus Soon after, Pompeo launched relevant accusations that the WHO was lackadaisical in dealing with the spread pf COVID-19. At one point, they did not call it a pandemic until the whole world got sick as an aftermath of their inefficiency. He also pointed an accusing finger to China and demanded that COVID-19 be investigated without screens or blinders. As a support to the WHO, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters in a Beijing news brief that the Communist Party of China fully supports the World Health organization in finding the source of the virus from Wuhan. She said,"We are always open to cooperate with the WHO on matters, including on the question of origin." She then mentioned that other countries might be the source as defensive deflection and reiteration of official party narratives. She added that if China did cause the virus, then why is there no proof yet from the US? The spokeswoman implied that the US is the one lying and changing the narrative in reports worldwide. This shows the evidence she implied in the statement. Later, the WHO followed a statement after China's backing and told countries to look for earlier cases than Wuhan, and proof that the lab source is valid as per the Pompeo speculation. Hua said that Pompeo is presenting contradictions about China as the creator of the virus. He called Pomeo's allegations as lies and are unfounded. President Trump said the virus is worse than Pearl Harbor and China is the cause, from their lies. He added that China knowingly did not stop it, and let it propagate from then on. Another is the WHO is China's personal PR agency,who were slow to react while thousands died. The US warned it will cut funds to an organization tending to China's agenda. China will expend effort to deflect US charges and keep an eye on WHO's efforts to trace COVID-19. Related article: Proof of China's Lies? COVID-19 'Patient Zero' Reportedly Discovered in a French Hospital @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Dark clouds are looming over the energy industry, but the equity research team at Morningstar is forecasting an inevitable recovery and strong catch-up in oil demand. Preston Caldwell and Dave Meats recently released a report detailing how they see the industry recovering from historic demand destruction and plunging oil prices. We expect a relatively V-shaped recovery for oil demand, in line with our views for economic growth, the two wrote in their report. We expect some lingering impact in 2021 as a vaccine probably wont be available until midway through the year, but nevertheless the bulk of the lost demand should be recovered by 2021. Thats in line with the rapid demand recovery we project for the second half of 2020. Producers, Caldwell told the Reporter-Telegram in an email, are making the right call by aggressively cutting rigs. This is an aggressive response to maximize balance sheet health. Likewise, it maximizes the net present value of their assets. Why would you deplete your reserves and sell at low oil prices if you expect prices to rebound? He went on to note its logical for producers and service companies to respond to lower near-term prices by sashing activity. This isnt an overreaction, as it doesnt diminish these companies ability to respond to the eventual recovery in oil prices. By contrast, investors are very much overreacting in our view given the selloff in energy stocks - which should reflect the long-term recovery in oil prices more than the markets myopic focus on near-term distress for oil markets, Caldwell said in his email. Morningstar analysts forecast a historic decline in oil demand for 2020, issuing a new decline forecast of almost 9 million barrels a day for the year. The impact of COVID-19 in global gross domestic product will be modest in the long run, analysts say, of about 0.9 percent long-term. Once a COVID-19 vaccine is developed, Caldwell and Meats write in their report, We see little reason for demand or most oil-related items, even air travel, not to fully return to normal. If the intensity of consumption is not severely affected, we will eventually see strong catch-up demand, which cannot be satisfied without a contribution from U.S. shale -- and that business model simply does not work at strip prices. The marginal cost for shale producers is $55/barrel for West Texas Intermediate, and without a recovery to that level, shale investment will fall far short of whats necessary. The two predict that oil markets should considerably tighten after 2021, thanks to the robust demand recovery coupled with slowing supply from U.S. shale and other areas. Upstream companies are aggressively cutting capital spending this year, which will eventually damp their output, they write in their report. Unless producers are willing to start investing in growth again, we think the current glut could transition fairly quickly into a shortage. But the required increase in activity wont happen without higher oil prices. The U.S. shale industry is still the marginal producer in our global framework, and that business model doesnt work if prices dip sustainably below our $55 per barrel midcycle forecast. The men said that after 2020 they expect the U.S. to contribute more in rebalancing global oil supply with demand, which should placate both OPEC and Russia. Caldwell told the Reporter-Telegram in the email that he doesnt have strong concerns that the downturn has permanently impacted shale producers ability once again step up production to meet demand. I was correctly skeptical about similar concerns coming out of the 2016 downturn. In 2017, shale activity rebounded strongly and moreover efficiency continued to trend up despite the extreme volatility in activity, he said. One possible factor that could reduce oil demand is that the crisis could create a permanent boost to working from home, Caldwell and Meats said in their report. They cited a recent Gartner survey that found 74 percent of chief financial officers responding to the survey thought at least 5 percent of workers would transition from company offices to full-time work-at home employees. The analysts have a bullish view of electric vehicle adoption, which could be a factor in reducing oil demand and harm the oil sector but not in the next 10 years. A six-year-old boy in Odishas Ganjam district choked to death after accidentally locking himself in a car parked near his maternal grandparents house on Sunday, police said. Police officials said the boy had been to Halandakhola village in Jagannathprasad block of Ganjam district with his mother Sunita to attend the 11th day rituals of his maternal grandmother. As everyone was occupied with their works, the six-year-old hopped into a car parked outside. As soon as he stepped in, the door closed he was trapped inside the vehicle. With all doors and windows of the car closed, the minor probably suffocated inside and collapsed on the seat. When the boys mother could not find the child for a long time, she finally looked into the car and found him motionless inside, said a police official of Tarasingh police station. He was rushed to Bhanjanagar Sub-Divisional Hospital where the doctors declared him dead. The boys father Bikram Pradhan works in Surat and is currently stranded there due to the lockdown. An intensive care doctor says he feels it is still too risky to reduce coronavirus restrictions, adding he fears moving too soon could create a second wave of infections thats even bigger than the first. Dr Ron Daniels, a consultant at Birmingham Hospital, told the PA news agency he had seen a chink of light, with some capacity and bed space returning at his unit after weeks of battling the virus. But he added: The reality is that the effect of a second wave is just so unknown that it is too risky in most health professionals view to relax lockdown right now. We would like to see our capacity in NHS hospitals back down to below usual levels before we can safely do that. Do we have enough beds to cope with a second wave if lockdown is relaxed too much? Absolutely not. Were still over our usual capacity, said Dr Daniels, 49, who is also executive director of Sepsis Trust UK. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced plans to allow members of the public to spend time outside as often as they like, as long as they maintain social distancing. However, the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all indicated that they would continue to encourage people to stay at home. Expand Close Sunbathers in Greenwich Park, London (Yui Mok/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sunbathers in Greenwich Park, London (Yui Mok/PA) Dr Daniels added that the size and impact of any second wave was dependent on how many Britons had been infected something that remains far from clear. He said: It may be, as some optimistic estimates suggest, as high as 60 to 80% of the public who have been exposed. That would mean that a lot of people had had exposure to (the virus) and not developed symptoms and just gone about their lives as normal. But the more pessimistic, the more wary estimates, suggest that somewhere under 10% of our population have been exposed. If thats true, then we expect the second wave if lockdown is relaxed too quickly and too aggressively could even be bigger than the first. The UK Government also came in for criticism for its new stay alert messaging, described as potentially catastrophic by Scotlands First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Expand Close First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has urged Scots to stay at home despite the guidance (Jeff J Mitchell/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has urged Scots to stay at home despite the guidance (Jeff J Mitchell/PA) Dr Daniels agreed that the messaging was vague, asking: How do people stay alert? How on earth do they control the virus? We assume it means control the virus spreading. My concern is that with these new guidelines being so vague theyre very open to interpretation, theyre open to almost gaming by members of the public who are frustrated at having to stay at home all the time that theyre going to be worth little more than the paper theyre written on. Thats the concern were massively reliant now on the way the public behave. People are desperate to see their family, theyre desperate to see their friends. And if we allow that, and if people are allowed to flout the rules were going to find ourselves in a situation where the R value starts increasing significantly. To honour the police force working round the clock during the coronavirus pandemic, Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Ajay Devgn, Katrina Kaif and Riteish Deshmukh have changed their social media display pictures to Maharashtra police logo. State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had earlier urged people to join him in this noble drive to honour the frontline workers, in this case policemen, by changing their social media DPs to Maharashtra police logo. Making his appeal public, Anil wrote on Twitter, "Maharashtra Police has stood by citizens thro' calamities, attacks & disasters. Today as they lead the war on Corona on the streets, I've decided to celebrate them by changing my DP on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc to the Maharashtra Police logo. Join me in this endeavour (sic)." Maharashtra Police has stood by citizens thro' calamities, attacks & disasters. Today as they lead the war on Corona on the streets, I've decided to celebrate them by changing my DP on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc to the Maharashtra Police logo. Join me in this endeavour ANIL DESHMUKH (@AnilDeshmukhNCP) May 9, 2020 In response Salman, Ajay and Riteish changed their Twitter and Instagram profile pics to the Maharashtra police logo. Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif, Vaani Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor and many others also expressed solidarity with the police force. I stand in solidarity with Maharashtra police @DGPMaharashtra. Thank u to @AnilDeshmukhNCP @MumbaiPolice for relentless efforts in the face of this adversity. Very grateful to doctors, medical staff, health workers who are leading the fight against the virus on the frontlines. pic.twitter.com/u8Rq7RWjr5 Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) May 10, 2020 Follow @News18Movies for more Nurses work at a drive-thru testing site for the CCP virus at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., on May 6, 2020. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters) May 10: Latest on the Global Spread of the CCP Virus Here are the latest updates on the global spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus. Europe British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday the lockdown will not end yet, urging people to stay alert to the risks as he outlined plans to begin slowly easing measures that have closed down much of the economy for nearly seven weeks. New virus infections are accelerating again in Germany just days after its leaders loosened social restrictions, raising concerns that the pandemic could once again slip out of control. The Russian authorities said they had recorded 11,012 new cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the nationwide tally to 209,688. One person was killed after a fire broke out on Saturday at a Moscow hospital treating virus patients, the authorities said. Asia-Pacific South Korea warned of a second wave of the CCP virus as infections rebounded to a one-month high, just as the authorities were starting to ease some restrictions. Australias most populous state, home to Sydney, will allow restaurants, playgrounds and outdoor pools to reopen on Friday as extensive testing has shown the spread of the CCP virus has slowed sharply, New South Wales states premier said. Japanese Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said the government is looking to lift the state of emergency in many of 34 prefectures that are not among the hardest hit by the CCP virus pandemic before the nationwide deadline of May 31. Americas Three senior officials guiding the U.S. response to the pandemic were in self-quarantine on Saturday after coming into contact with someone who had tested positive for the virus, their agencies and spokesmen said. Tesla sued local authorities in California on Saturday as the electric carmaker pushed to re-open its factory there and Chief Executive Elon Musk threatened to move Teslas headquarters and future programs from the state to Texas or Nevada. CCP virus patients were being turned away from hospitals in the Mexican capital on Saturday, as both public and private medical facilities quickly fill up and the number of new infections continues to rise. Middle East and Africa The CCP virus could kill between 83,000 and 190,000 people in Africa in the first year and infect between 29 million and 44 million in the first year if it is not contained, the World Health Organization said. Kuwait will enact a total curfew from 4 p.m. on Sunday through to May 30, the Information Ministry said on Twitter on Friday. Economic Fallout Large Italian companies have requested 18.5 billion euros ($20 billion) in state-guaranteed loans to weather the CCP virus crisis, state-backed export credit agency SACE said. Indias fuel demand dipped 45.8 percent in April from a year earlier, as a nationwide lockdown and travel curbs eroded economic activity. Epoch Times staff contributed to this report Three members of the White House coronavirus task force, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, placed themselves in quarantine after contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, another stark reminder that not even one of the nation's most secure buildings is immune from the virus. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a leading member of the task force, has become nationally known for his simple and direct explanations to the public about the coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease it causes. Also quarantining are Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Stephen Hahn. Fauci's institute said that he has tested negative for COVID-19 and will continue to be tested regularly. It added that he is considered at relatively low risk based on the degree of his exposure, and that he would be taking appropriate precautions" to mitigate the risk to personal contacts while still carrying out his duties. While he will stay at home and telework, Fauci will go to the White House if called and take every precaution, the institute said. Redfield will be teleworking for the next two weeks" after it was determined he had a low risk exposure" to a person at the White House, the CDC said in a statement Saturday evening. The statement said he felt fine and has no symptoms. Just a few hours earlier, the Food and Drug Administration confirmed that Hahn had come in contact with someone who tested positive and was in self-quarantine for the next two weeks. He tested negative for the virus. All three men are scheduled to testify before a Senate committee on Tuesday. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the panel, said the White House will allow Redfield and Hahn to testify by videoconference, a one-time exception to the administration's policies on hearing testimony. The statement was issued before Fauci's quarantine was announced. Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday, making her the second person who works at the White House complex known to test positive for the virus this week. White House officials had confirmed Thursday that a member of the military serving as one of Trump's valets had tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. President Donald Trump, who publicly identified the affected Pence aide as spokeswoman Katie Miller, said he was not worried about the virus spreading in the White House. Nonetheless, officials said they were stepping up safety protocols for the complex. Miller had been in recent contact with Pence but not with the president and had tested negative a day earlier. She is married to Stephen Miller, a top Trump adviser. The White House had no immediate comment on whether Stephen Miller had been tested or if he was still working in the White House. The CDC and FDA would not disclose the identity of the person who had tested positive and with whom the agency leaders had come in contact. Redfield sought to use the exposure as a teachable moment. The CDC statement said if he must go to the White House to fulfill any responsibilities as part of the coronavirus task force, he will follow CDC practices for critical infrastructure workers. Those guidelines call for Redfield and anyone working on the task force to have their temperature taken and screened for symptoms each day, wear a face covering, and distance themselves from others. Trump has resisted wearing a mask, and in a meeting with the nation's top military leaders Saturday evening, he did not wear a mask during the brief portion that reporters were allowed to view. The generals around Trump also did not wear a mask, but participants did sit a few feet away from each other. FDA spokeswoman Stephanie Caccomo said Hahn tested negative for the virus after he learned of the contact. He wrote a note to staff on Friday to alert them. Six people who had been in contact with Miller were scheduled to fly with Pence on Friday to Des Moines, Iowa, on Air Force Two. They were removed from the flight just before it took off, according to a senior administration official. None of those people was exhibiting symptoms, but all were asked to deplane so they could be tested out of an abundance of caution, a senior administration official told reporters traveling with Pence. All six later tested negative, the White House said. The official said staff in the West Wing are tested regularly but much of Pence's staff which works next door in the Executive Office Building are tested less frequently. Katie Miller was not on the plane and had not been scheduled to be on the trip. Pence, who is tested on a regular basis, was tested Friday. Miller tweeted she was doing well and looked forward to getting back to work. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said the administration was stepping up mitigation efforts already recommended by public health experts and taking other unspecified precautions to ensure the safety of the president. He said the White House was probably the safest place that you can come, but the he was reviewing further steps to keep Trump and Pence safe. The White House requires daily temperature checks of anyone who enters the White House complex and has encouraged social distancing among those working in the building. Protesters converge on Huntington Beach on May 1 to express opposition to Gov. Gavin Newsom's order closing all Orange County beaches. (Los Angeles Times) To the editor: Pandemics require leadership informed by medical expertise, not nostalgia, personal preference, speculative legal arguments and pseudo-medical claims, such as Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner's belief that keeping beaches open somehow more than compensates for the risk of dying from respiratory failure. ("After so many sacrifices, some Californians draw the line at closing beaches," May 1) Gov. Gavin Newsom's temporary closure of Orange County beaches is a medically based judgment designed to protect residents from a potentially fatal illness. It is not baseless speculation that the lack of physical distancing associated with a day at the beach (including the nearby crowded sidewalks and bathrooms) puts people at risk. It follows from a century of experience with influenza, SARS, MERS, Ebola and more. Protestors, in contrast, elevate personal preference to public policy and dismiss medical science in favor of magical thinking. This is antigovernment bias and the misguided opinions of a minority dangerously masquerading as a civil rights movement. Gary Stewart, M.D., Laguna Beach .. To the editor: As a regular beach-goer in Ventura County, I can attest to the success of our recent weekend on the sand. People were on their best behavior, walking on the water's edge, swimming and surfing. Police were enforcing social distancing rules. Our leaders reduced the amount of parking available, which thinned out the crowds on the sand. I do not support Newsom's closure of all beaches in Orange County. The public needs a healthy outlet from being in their homes day and night. The beach can provide a wonderful, low-cost experience for families. I suggest Newsom open all the beaches, but instruct local officials to limit parking. This approach could fairly accommodate the public's wishes while minimizing the chance that infections will increase. Beach-goers would be more evenly spread among all local beaches instead of concentrated at a few. Story continues I hope Newsom rethinks his position. Jack McGrath, Port Hueneme .. To the editor: The first rule for good parents is to keep their children safe even if the children yell and scream. I live at the beach. Standing on a bluff, I literally could see the mass of folks. Far too many were not practicing social distancing. Beer cans and litter abounded. The selfish actions of a few who ignore the health of others result in harm to us all. Newsom is right, even if the kids don't like it. Eileen Elvins, Dana Point https://www.aish.com/sp/so/If-You-Were-Told-Youre-Not-Jewish-What-Would-You-Do.html This theoretical question was posed to me when I was a teen. Weeks later, it became my reality. With a booming voice, the NCSY counselor stood on a table on a Friday night and asked the entire room of 200 students, What would you do if, right now, I told you that you were not really a Jew? As a smug teenager, I stood up in front of the entire room and shouted, Id go eat a cheeseburger! Probably not the answer he was looking for. At the time, Judaism felt like a burden. Most of my friends werent observant. A few years before, my family had decided to become Orthodox, and initially I happily went along with it. In the beginning, I only saw the perkswe had two houses, one in our W.A.S.P.-y area of town and a second home in the Orthodox community that we went to for Shabbat. I had double the amount of friendsa set of school friends and a group of synagogue friends. I got more undivided time with my parentswe would spend Shabbat playing board games and relaxing as a family. What wasnt there to like? But as my teenage years crept up on me, the stark difference between me and my school friends became more apparent. While all my friends sat in a hamburger joint enjoying non-kosher food, I'd slowly drink a lame Sprite. When all my friends went out Friday night, I was stuck home singing Shalom Aleichem before dinner. The joys of observing Judaism were dissipating while the burden seem to be increasing. The joys of observing Judaism were dissipating while the burden seem to be increasing. At that point, if someone were to tell me I wasnt Jewish, that would have been just fine with me! Two weeks after that NCSY spectacle, it actually happened to me; I found out I wasnt born Jewish. Talk about bad karma. I was sixteen years old. A friend was over at my house working on an English project. We were mostly wasting time, but finally cranked it out and printed what we wrote. We got distracted and eventually realized that we had lost the paper. Looking all over the house I finally found the papers turned over in the corner of the room. Here it is! I told my friend and started reading. Oh wait, this isnt it. I began to read what seemed like a term paper my sister had written for college. It had corrections all over it in red ink. As I started reading her essay, I realized it was a fictional piece she had written pretending to be a convert. My mother is a convert so I assumed that she used that as inspiration to create her own storyline. As I continued reading, it became apparent that it wasnt fictional at all. She shared specific dates, names of rabbis, the name of the congregation we belong to, and the mikvah. My eyes were popping as I realized my sister was a convert. The logical conclusion was that if my sister had to convert, and I never did, then I must not be Jewish! MOM! DAD! I called out, running towards their room. I shoved my sister's essay into their hands and said, What is this?! Why didnt you tell me Im not Jewish?! The night was long. My friend went home and there were tears and a myriad of explanations, and I was left alone in my room to reflect. Instead of running out to eat a cheeseburger, I felt like everything was pulled away from me. I couldn't believe this was happening to me. Instead of being overjoyed and running out to eat a cheeseburger, I felt like everything was pulled away from me my identity, my Judaism. The sacrifices I made for keeping kosher and observing Shabbat felt worthless now. I didnt say Shema that night thinking that God didnt want my prayers. I felt completely alone in my struggle. I felt betrayed by my parents, by my siblings, and by God. In the already fragile experience as a teen, my very core was shaken. Who am I? Where do I fit in? The questions poured in and I had no satisfying answers. That sudden discovery sparked a long journey, one that continues to this day. My parents explained that when they became observant there were questions surrounding my mothers initial conversion. As a matter of pure precaution and to avoid any doubt, my entire family, including me, underwent an Orthodox conversion. This was a grueling process for them, but relatively simple for me. I was a baby at the time of the re-conversion and was only required to go to the mikvah, but would need to reaffirm my devotion to Judaism as an adult. Although I did not need to officially convert according to Jewish law, I did need to undergo a transformation with respect to my relationship to Judaism. I had to make a choice: either I was going to go for the secular lifestyle I thought I was missing out on or I was going to start understanding the depth behind being Jewish. Every day I am reaffirming my dedication to Judaism, a process I hope will last a lifetime. When I felt my Judaism was being taken away from me, I found myself fighting for it. I no longer wanted to take being Jewish for granted. And I certainly didnt want to continue observing mitzvot mechanically. Surprisingly, this experience was a gift, a wake up call inviting me to deepen my relationship with God. After high school, I travelled to Israel to immerse myself in Torah learning. I learned that every letter of the Torah has significance and depth. I began to glimpse how the Torah is an infinite, perfect puzzle, where every piece and topic connects to another. Far from being a burden, I embraced the responsibility and privilege to strengthen and deepen my relationship with God through the Torah's commandments. The more I learned, the more passionate I became. My experience was the catalyst for my personal conversion and renewal of my relationship to Judaism. I wish I could turn back the hands in time and answer that NCSY counselor differently. Today I would reply: If someone told me I wasnt actually Jewish, I would choose to convert. I now understand what a privilege it is to be Jewish and to be part of an eternal chain connecting all the way back to Mount Sinai. I relish in the meaning and purpose Judaism brings to my life and am forever grateful and proud to be part of this magnificent nation that has brought timeless values and wisdom to the world. I wouldn't give that up for anything. You may be close to retirement or still have 10, 20, or 30 years to go. It doesnt matter which stage you are in your life. You can retire early from this market crash. In other words, the 2020 market crash is your ticket to move your retirement date much earlier! How much do you need to retire? You can retire when you have accumulated enough assets from which to draw. Itd be even better if you can generate income streams from those assets. This way, you dont have to worry about running out of money from drawing down assets. Getting to $1 million used to be the goal. However, you might not need that much to retire comfortably. Its different for everyone. A breadwinner for a family of four needs much more than someone thats single and only has himself or herself to feed and please. Folks who love to go on vacations will need more to retire on than others for which vacations are not necessities. After youve calculated how much income you need to spend on your needs and wants every month, you can figure out how much you need to retire on. For example, if you need $3,000 a month, then, you need to come up with $36,000 a year. Choose your form(s) of income generation There are different ways to generate income. You can generate hefty income from rental properties, but that requires a lot of capital upfront. You can use a smaller amount of capital, without having to borrow any money, by investing in dividend stocks. Moreover, a dividend stock portfolio can be as diversified as you need it to be. You can consider banks, telecoms, utilities for income. When in doubt, consider the leaders in the industries first. Thatd be Royal Bank, BCE, and Fortis. Retire early with dividend stocks The market crash has put many dividend stocks much cheaper than what they were before. The yields of these dividend stocks have been pushed up. So, investors can now get more income with less money invested! Heres a quick example. Before the 2020 market crash, Bank of Nova Scotia stock yielded roughly 5%. Now, it offers a yield of close to 7%! Thats a 38% boost in income. Story continues BNS Dividend Yield data by YCharts Indeed, the economic outlook doesnt look so good right now, which is why the bank is cheap. However, its dividend has good coverage with a payout ratio of about 56% this years estimated earnings. Other depressed dividend stocks offer yields of 7% or 14%, including Enbridge stock that yields north of 7% at writing. In this market crash, you can get a safe average yield of 5-7% on your new dividend investments. If you have lots of cash sitting on the sidelines, you can push your retirement date much earlier by putting some of that money to work in quality dividend stocks immediately. The Foolish takeaway Stop thinking about an early retirement. Start planning and act now so you can truly retire earlier. This market crash is your ticket to retire earlier, as many dividend stocks are trading at much lower levels and their yields lifted much higher. This is your retirement portfolio! Always focus on business quality and dividend safety. Stay hungry. Stay Foolish. The post Retire Early From the 2020 Market Crash appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada. More reading Fool contributor Kay Ng owns shares of Enbridge, Royal Bank of Canada, and The Bank of Nova Scotia. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Enbridge. The Motley Fool recommends BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA. 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 TV actor Mahika Sharma has revealed that her mother had not spoken to her for two years, and they connected only recently when she called the actor to check on her health amid Covid-19 pandemic. Speaking with Hindustan Times in an interview, Mahika said, It was back in 2018 that this happened. There was a rumour suggesting that I was in a relationship with my friend Danny D. However, he is happily married and we are just friends. He is a nice person and we respect each other most. Mahika was supposed to work with adult star Danny D in 2018 and a few media reports even claimed that she was dating him. Mahika was expected to make her Bollywood debut with the film titled The Modern Culture. Also read: Kamya Panjabi responds after being criticised for wasting water: Save the country sitting at home, please Elaborating on how things escalated to such a level that she stopped talking to her mother, Mahika added, It was family and friends who, out of jealousy, created differences between us. I was in Mumbai. The news was out and before I could justify myself to her, my mother was taken away by society and family. It was a difficult situation for us as my dad was also not here... he passed away in 2015. Adding that her mother also learnt about Mahika being stuck in the UK amid coronavirus outbreak from their relatives, the TV actor said, She feared about my health, she was concerned about my well being. Covid everywhere. Mahika also opened up about the first call she received from her mother in the past two years. She called a few days back. I received and said sorry. We cried on call. I felt it was by mistake but she spoke to me. I was blessed. I asked her to let me justify myself but it was not required.. She trusted me from inside. We swapped to video call. It was very emotional but as they say, time is the medicine and cure to every hurt. Im feeling recovered and healthy. Asked if they celebrated Mothers day on Sunday, Mahika said, Our day is yet to be celebrated once Im back (in India). Mahikas mother stays alone and manages the family business in Assam. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON WASHINGTON The 2020 election is less than six months away, and in recent weeks the battle for the Senate seems to have tilted in the Democrats' favor, according to polls and campaign analysts. The numbers suggest that, as Washington and the states weigh various responses to the coronavirus, Republican candidates are facing a tough campaign-year balancing act. They are left to figure out how closely to tie themselves to a less-than-popular president who is seeking re-election while getting low marks for his handling of the pandemic. The movement has been fairly clear, and it could be significant in the fight for control of the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-to-47 edge. Back on Feb. 5, when there wasn't yet a single reported case of COVID-19 in the United States, the Cook Political Report listed three Republican Senate seats as "tossups" and three more as "lean Republican." By the end of April, that had shifted to four Republicans in "tossup" races and four more in "lean Republican" races. (The Democratic seat ratings didn't move in that time.) In February, the seats of Martha McSally of Arizona, Cory Gardner of Colorado and Susan Collins of Maine were rated tossups. The seats of Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Kelly Loeffler of Georgia and the open seat in Kansas left by the departing Pat Roberts were all rated as leaners. At April's end, Tillis' race had moved into the tossup category, and two new seat had moved into the GOP- leaning group, those of Joni Ernst of Iowa and Steve Daines of Montana. Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak That's pushed the number of endangered Senate Republicans from six to eight in a body where a three-seat swing could mean the loss of a majority, depending on what happens with the White House. Of course, the entire campaign will be unfolding during or in the wake of the pandemic, but some of the races, in particular, may present special challenges Story continues In Arizona, McSally has faced a tough race from the beginning against Democrat Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and the husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, but the numbers don't look good for her right now. The latest RealClearPolitics polling average shows McSally down by 8 points to Kelly in head-to-head polling. Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics And the pandemic has created political waves in Arizona recently. Last week, the state's health department was roundly criticized when it asked a local group of academics who were modeling the virus in the state to stop their work. (The state later changed its mind and put the team back to work.) Meanwhile, McSally herself was captured on tape at an event saying she wouldn't commit to supporting additional financial support for state and local governments during the pandemic. In North Carolina, Tillis won his Senate seat in 2014 by a narrow 1.5 points, but the RealClearPolitics polling average shows him trailing Democratic nominee Cal Cunningham by less than a point now. Tillis has faced some political challenges during the pandemic, as well. After backing Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's shelter-in-place and phased-in reopening plans, Tillis was attacked from conservatives on the right, never a good thing in an election year when partisan tensions are high. And with summer tourism season coming to the state, the reopening debate is likely to linger as a major issue he'll have to navigate. In Montana, Daines faces a new reality because Gov. Steve Bullock entered the race in March. In 2014, Daines walked to an 18-point win, but the latest poll from Montana State University and the University of Denver shows Bullock with a 7-point lead. Furthermore, the coronavirus gives Bullock a nice perch from which to campaign. He gets plenty of airtime as the state's chief executive during an emergency. And, so far anyway, the story out of Montana has been a good one. As of Friday, there had been a total of 462 COVID-19 cases in the state and 16 deaths related to the virus. To be clear, the coronavirus is going to play an important role in every campaign this fall. The scope of the impacts extends well beyond health to the economy and a broad range of other topics, from education to voting systems. It touches every part of the country. But the early data suggest that Republicans have more to fear politically. A range of polls consistently show that most Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump's handling of the crisis. And thus far, Washington's struggles to craft a consistent plan and message seem to be weighing most heavily on the party that is in control. The total number of coronavirus cases in Delhi has neared 7000 mark, out of which 1,476 are in hospital and 27 are on ventilator. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said that the majority of the cases in Delhi are either mild or asymptomatic. After the Union Health Ministry, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has asserted that we have to learn to live with coronavirus. Sharing the briefing on COVID-19 situation in Delhi on his Twitter profile on Sunday, Kejriwal said that the overall figure of coronavirus cases might be increasing but people are also getting cured and going back to their homes. It is important that we learn to live with coronavirus. In his briefing, Arvind Kejriwal said that of the 6,923 coronavirus positive cases in Delhi, 1,476 people are in hospital and only 27 people are on ventilator. Majority of the cases that are coming to light are either mild or asymptomatic. It has also been observed that there are more deaths among the elderly people. Arrangements have been made to treat asymptomatic people and people with mild symptoms within the confines of their homes. It has also been ensured that the health officials remain in constant touch with the patients so that they do not face any discomfort. An order has also been issued for the requisition of private ambulances. While they will continue to offer their services to private hospitals, they would have to lend their services to government hospitals too, if need be. Also Read: Maharashtra Police says 7 deaths, 786 personnel test positive for COVID-19 Also Read: After Vizag gas leak, MHA issues guidelines on restarting manufacturing industries Overall corona figures rising in Delhi but at the same time people are getting cured and going back home safe. Now weve to learn to live with corona. https://t.co/4WmYayfVzE Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) May 10, 2020 Addressing the criticism against the decision to offer 5-star services to COVID positive coronawarriors, Arvind Kejriwal said that instead of petty politics, it is time to help each other and fight together against COVID-19. He also assured migrant workers that he is in touch with Centre and state governments to arrange special trains for them. Urging them to stay where they are, Kejriwal said that lockdown will be lifted soon and they will get jobs so they do not need to worry. He added that the state government is taking their responsibility. Also Read: Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu says around 25,000 Indians to be repatriated from US For all the latest National News, download NewsX App The latest to join the call is the Bureau of Public Saftey (BPS) which says the ongoing ban on public gatherings should be extended indefinitely. Governments recent extension of the ban on all public gatherings including conferences, workshops, funerals, festivals, political rallies, church and Islamic activities, and other related events in a bid to curb the spread of the virus in the country is due to expire on Monday, May 11, 2020, with a lot of debate on whether the ban should be extended or lifted. But, BPS in a statement issued on Sunday, May 19, 2020, expressed worry over the high infection rate, arguing that the lack of adherence for the recommended preventive measures calls for stricter measures such as the indefinite suspension of social gatherings. Considering the dynamics of adhering to preventive safety protocols (decision-to-err factors) within the public, the Bureau of Public Safety strongly recommends to His Excellency, the President of the Republic to indefinitely extend the ban on all social gatherings until further notice, the statement advised. Ghana's case count of the novel Coronavirus shot up to 4,263 on Saturday, May 9, 2020. While the number of recoveries has increased to 378, the death toll remains at 22. The fast-growing number of cases is occurring despite claims by the government that the country's COVID-19 cases had reached its peaked and ready to decline, BPS has therefore entreated all Ghanaians to adhere to the various preventive safety protocols announced by the Ghana Health Service until further notice. The Bureau of Public Safety thus encouraged the Ghanaian public to apply themselves to all preventive measures announced by the government: stay home, avoid large group gatherings, practice diligent physical distancing, ensure good hygiene practices by frequently washing hands and sanitizing same and wear a face mask as a barrier to protect oneself and others at all times, it said. Other considerations Having duly reviewed the response of the National Response Team, including the Ghana Health Service which is responsible for providing periodic updates on the state of the nCov-19; the BPS also advised the following: 1. Revise existing response strategy to include nationwide random testing for nCov-19, results of which should be used to inform non-prior-notice lockdowns cum mass testing of communities where disease is most prevalent and subsequently isolate and treat infected persons. 2. Commission an immediate dedicated study of the management regime being applied to nCov-19 patients in Ghana to ensure speedy recoveries. The BPS fears the slow rate of recovery may tip the balance against the health system and push it into distress and further endanger public health. 3. To fully and timely disclose key data related to nCov-19 to the Ghanaian public to enable independent analysis of same. The BPS posits that the fight against the nCov-19 pandemic is a collective one and thus must not confine to officialdom alone 4. Institute a policy to further probe/subject Brought-in-Dead (BIDs) cases to nCov-19 test at selected health facilities across the country, especially the Greater Accra Region which is the epicenter. This should enable the country ensure that fewer deaths escape the surveillance system and thus capture the true extent of the impact Coronavirus of nCov-19 on the population. citinewsroom NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian insists it is "entirely appropriate" for the state to further ease restrictions from Friday, even as thousands of students return to classrooms this week. Ms Berejiklian acknowledged there would be "increased activity" across the state as students began returning to schools on Monday, but health authorities had determined it was safe to also relax restrictions on indoor and outdoor gatherings, and cafes and restaurants. "[Schools returning] also signals certain things to the community about how we are feeling about addressing the pandemic at this stage, so we feel it's entirely appropriate to move to this next level of raising restrictions," Ms Berejiklian said on Sunday. "I can assure you the government would not be moving forward at this stage unless it was absolutely safe to do so." Pakistan on Sunday said it will use technology to identify coronavirus hotspots to enforce a "smart lockdown" as the country reported a record number of 2,870 coronavirus cases in a single day, taking the total number of infections to over 30,330 amid easing of the month-long lockdown. Addressing a media briefing here, Planning Minister Asad Umar said the restrictions were relaxed as the ongoing lockdown was having a devastating effect on the low-income class, but warned that it "does not mean that all preventive measures will be lifted". He said technology will be used to collect data to identify COVID-19 hotspots and impose "smart lockdown". Umar said data collection is on and all hospitals across the country would be asked to provide data to create a web portal so that real time information of the coronavirus could be consolidated in one place. The minister said the Punjab government has developed an application that can help people locate a nearby hospital that has beds and ventilators available. Urging people to continue taking preventive measures as it was "more important now than ever", Umar said it was the responsibility of every citizen to follow precautions to help contain the virus spread. Despite a surge in the number of COVID-19 infections, the first phase of the easing of the lockdown in Pakistan began on Saturday. The government announced removing restrictions by allowing more businesses to open and operate from dawn to 5pm. However, doctors have warned against easing the restrictions. The Representative of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) have demanded that the government observe the World Health Organization protocols and implement a strict lockdown. The Ministry of National Health Services said of the total 30,334 COVID-19 cases, Punjab registered the maximum number of 11,093 patients, followed by Sindh at 11,480, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 4,669, Balochistan 1,935, Islamabad 641, Gilgit-Baltistan 430 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 86. Twenty-one new deaths due to coronavirus have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of fatalities to 639. As many as 8,023 people have recovered so far. At least 151 police officials in Sindh have tested COVID-19 positive, a Sindh Police spokesperson said. While 29 have recovered, two policemen died, he said. Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla has called for delaying the sessions of the National Assembly and the Senate, scheduled from Monday and Tuesday, respectively, after several lawmakers and their staff have been tested positive for the virus. "Reports of MNAs (members of National Assembly) and their staff testing positive for the virus are worrisome. There is a possibility that more people may test positive for the virus," Mandviwalla said. A flight carrying sixth consignment of medical supplies and equipment from China landed in Pakistan. According to a spokesperson of the National Disaster Management Authority, the equipment includes 24 X-Ray machines and their parts, 371,000 VTMs for testing and over one million different types of masks. Meanwhile, people flocked to the markets on Saturday even before guidelines were issued by the provincial governments on the easing of the lockdown. While allowing more businesses to open, the Pakistan government asked people to strictly observe social distancing and avoid going out unless there is an urgent need. The Sindh government has allowed reopening of nine administrative departments, including Religious Affairs, Human Rights and Industries and Commerce, from Monday. Pakistan opened its border with Afghanistan at Chaman in Balochistan province from 8am to 5pm on Saturday to allow 2,977 Afghan nationals to cross over to their country. The border had opened for crossing Afghans and Pakistanis into their respective countries, a senior official of the Chaman administration, Zakaullah Durrani, told the Dawn newspaper. He said that so far 488 Pakistanis stranded in Afghanistan have also returned. Last month, Pakistan sent back over 37,000 Afghan families after it opened the Pak-Afghan friendship gate at Chaman on the special request of the Afghanistan government, the report said. Thousands of Afghan nationals enter Pakistan on a daily basis for business needs and meeting family members living here as refugees since the 1980s. But the movement was stopped due the COVID-19 restrictions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Western Australia's social gathering, dining and regional travel restrictions are to be relaxed from May 18, the state's Premier Mark McGowan announced on Sunday. Following Friday's release of a national framework to guide Australia into economic recovery, the Premier and Health Minister Roger Cook addressed media on Sunday to explain how this would be implemented in WA: via a four-phase plan whose progress will be contingent on its success. Premier Mark McGowan and Health Minister Roger Cook addressed the media on Sunday morning. Credit:9 News Perth Mr Cook announced no new cases had been found overnight, leaving the state total at 552, with only seven active. Four of these were in hospital, with one in intensive care. COVID-19 testing clinics were quiet, with just 256 people swabbed on Saturday, but the health system stood "prepared and ready" for new cases. "We can expect cases to pop up ... this is our new reality," Mr Cook said. [May 10, 2020] Nokia fails to secure 5G contracts in China due to technical issues BEIJING, May 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report by China.org.cn on Nokia fails to secure 5G contracts in China due to technical issues. Finland-based telecommunications equipment company Nokia has come away almost empty-handed in terms of huge 5G contracts awarded by China's big three telecom carriers. Deals reportedly worth nearly $10 billion have been awarded by China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom over the last few weeks, with Nokia being noticeably absent from the list of vendors selected for the next phase of China's 5G radio business. Nokia was unable or unwilling to meet Chinese technical requirements, according to new analysis published on Light Reading, a website for professionals in the communications industry. Kristian Pullola, the chief financial officer of Nokia, said during a conversation with the website, "We have steered our 5G R&D work in a way where we have optimized for global features, and features for more profitable markets, and maybe because of that we did not do some local customization needed for Chia." The new analysis noted, "Those remarks may feed into concern that Nokia is struggling to compete against rivals even as it works on a turnaround at its 5G business." While Nokia did not make a mark in the country, its fellow Nordic competitor Ericsson gained a market share in China during the recent 5G contract awards. After landing a contract with China Mobile worth around $593 million, the Swedish company reportedly also picked up a double-digit share of a massive 5G tender issued by China Telecom and China Unicom. The differing outcome for the two vendors also highlights Nokia's challenges in making its 5G products more competitive, as the company has been struggling to tackle costs and delivery delays. Last year, Nokia alerted its investors to difficulties with 5G products that disrupted its margins and upset cost-saving targets, which were partly blamed on the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent in 2016. However, Nokia also made the mistake of choosing expensive programmable 5G components that have made its products less profitable than its rivals', according to the report on Light Reading. During the earnings call for the third quarter of 2019, Nokia acknowledged that its 5G profit margins were dampened by the high cost of its "ReefShark" chipset. In addition, there have been reports that Nokia's equipment was to blame for some 5G rollout delays, especially in the United States, where the company is particularly setting its sights for growth. For example, Nokia was mentioned in connection with Sprint's delay of 5G in four cities during August 2019. Another major reason for Nokia's failure to procure a piece of the 5G tender is because the Finnish company has chosen to prioritize European and American markets over the Chinese one. This was revealed by its financial report for the first quarter of 2020. According to the report released on April 30, Nokia's sales revenue in Greater China stood at 308 million euros between January and March, accounting for only around 6 percent of its global total, and a drop of 29 percent compared with the previous year. In the report, Nokia said that the networks had been hit by "an increase in competitive intensity, combined with our prudent approach toward deal-making" in China. In contrast, the company generated more than 29 billion euros in Europe and North America, which was approximately 60 percent of its overall sales. In an interview with Reuters, Nokia's Chief Executive Rajeev Suri stated that in terms of 5G radio equipment markets, China was a large part of the global market but not so much from a revenue standpoint. "So, people only speak about the volume share being 50, 60 percent. But when it comes to the revenue share, the value share of that market, it's about half that," he added. "And then the profit share in the medium term is actually negligible as part of the global market." Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1166070/China_Dot_Org_Dot_CN_Nokia_FCIIE_2018.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Many Nigerians are seeing their dream of owning a home disappear. The World Bank says Nigeria needs hundreds of billions of dollars to bridge its housing deficit. Home ownership is at a mere 25 percent, and Nigerians are finding it harder to buy as incomes fall along with the price of oil, the countrys main earner. Al Jazeeras Ahmed Idris reports from Abuja, Nigeria. Chandigarh, May 10 : The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), here on Sunday, said a constitutional crisis had erupted in Punjab with Cabinet Ministers expressing loss of faith in the government and also alleged a multi-crore liquor scam in the state. It demanded a CBI inquiry into the scam, involving sale of illicit liquor during curfew by distilleries owned by Congress leaders and their friends. It was unfortunate when every state was doing utmost to combat Covid-19, the Punjab Cabinet was fighting with bureaucrats, as witnessed in Saturday's pre-Cabinet meeting, said SAD spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema. "With the Cabinet not trusting bureaucrats and vice versa, there is a leadership crisis due to which Punjab and Punjabis are suffering. The Punjab government would do well and stop questioning the Centre everyday to divert attention from its failures and tell the people why its leaders and their friends were allowed to loot the state exchequer," he said. Cheema said certain Congress leaders and their friends who owned distilleries in Punjab were openly selling liquor from their units. This sale, happening in truck loads without paying excise duty and under the police protection, had caused huge losses to the state, he added. Simultaneously, there was large-scale smuggling of liquor from Haryana, he said. "This is the reason that when liquor vends opened there were no takers as liquor had been provided to consumers through the black market. Even the proposal of home delivery of liquor is aimed at encouraging distilleries as well as Congress leaders engaged in this business." Holding Chief Minister Amarinder Singh responsible for this state of affairs as he also holds the excise portfolio, the SAD leader said the Chief Minister had not only failed to check the illegal liquor sale during the Covid-19 pandemic but had also failed to order an inquiry into it. "This has also compromised the state's fight against Covid-19 and caused funds shortage for health infrastructure, safety of health workers besides leading to the highest mortality rates," Cheema said. On Saturday's pre-Cabinet meeting incident, Cheema said it seemed the Chief Minister and his coterie were running the government without taking the Cabinet into confidence. "That Cabinet Ministers walked out of the meeting indicates the Chief Minister doesn't have their support. Simultaneously, the same Cabinet Ministers, who are acting holier than thou and talking about loss to the state exchequer are accused of patronising illegal liquor sale. "Many have also been open votaries of home delivery of liquor. It proves the fight yesterday (Saturday) was not one aimed at protecting the state revenue but filling personal coffers," the SAD leader said. Saying only a CBI inquiry could get to the bottom of the multi-thousand crore scam, Cheema said besides inquiring into the illegal release of liquor stock from distilleries owned by Congressmen, the inquiry should also investigate illegal liquor sale by the Congress-led liquor mafia and fix accountability for the losses incurred to the state. This is a slower week, but even now its hard to keep up, Mr. Akhtar said. These days it can take one or two hours to pick up a body because there are so many people dying and all the paperwork takes time. On the far side of the mortuary, six green plastic chairs and two prayer mats were laid out for the small-scale funeral services that are performed daily for the families of the deceased. Under Islamic funeral rites, burials must take place as swiftly as possible, usually within 24 hours of a death. But as bodies have piled up in recent weeks, many Muslim funerals have been delayed, sometimes up to seven days. The families are suffering the most, they have no one around them while they grieve, Mohammed Zahid, a committee member at the mosque, said after returning from the burial of a 37-year-old man who died within days of testing positive for the virus despite his youth and lack of underlying health conditions. Only six people were allowed at the funeral. What do you do if you have five brothers and two sisters? he asked. Who do you take and who do you leave at home? Mr. Zahid lost two aunts to the virus in April and could not attend their funerals because of capacity restrictions. When asked how he had grieved, he said, I didnt. How can I when we have five to six bodies coming in here every day? There is no time. Migrant workers returning from Indias industrial states are battling stigma and bias in their home villages in some parts of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha because local residents suspect that the labourers are potential carriers of the coronavirus disease, or Covid-19 . The workers say they and their families have been singled out, sneered at, and harassed by villagers. In some villages, they face ostracisation even after completing the mandatory 14-day quarantine period. Last week, a group of villagers armed with sticks in Uttar Pradeshs Basti district allegedly surrounded Shekhar, a migrant worker who returned from Maharashtra, which is the state worst hit by the pandemic. The villagers were angry because I had ventured out of the primary school, where I was quarantined, to relieve myself, Shekhar said. Okani ke corona ke dar rahal na ta mariye det sa (The villagers were scared of contacting the coronavirus, so they didnt touch me. Otherwise, I would have been killed that day), he said, claiming that he had no symptoms of Covid. In some districts, workers alleged caste slurs were hurled at them because they hailed from lower castes. Ravi Maurya, a migrant worker from Prayagraj, who returned by a Shramik Special train, said, Most of the villagers who have returned home belong to the lower castes and therefore, upper caste villagers harass us more, he said, adding that one day he was abused by the upper caste men when he was standing on roof of the house. They said that I can spread coronavirus even my standing on the roof of my house. Dinesh Verma, a migrant worker from Pratapgarh district, said a local grocery shop owner asked his wife not to visit his shop. I have to request my relatives to help me in procuring things of daily need, he said. Migrants in Barabanki and Ayodhya complained of similar harassment. Pankaj Yadav, husband of the village head of Mahadewa village in Basti, said, The fear of coronavirus has become bigger than the virus itself. This is the biggest problem we are facing right now. There were reports of similar discrimination from Odisha and Jharkhand. On May 7, residents of Sana Aryapalli village in Ganjam district pelted stones at the police in protest against 40 labourers from Surat who were being kept at government school in the village. The police lathi-charged the villagers to disperse them. On May 9, 12 people from Kandhamal district who returned from pilgrimage in Uttarakhand had to be given police protection to enter a local quarantine centre because villagers were protesting against the centre. Local village head Ranjan Kanhar said the villagers agreed to keep the 12 in the quarantine centre for the time being. We will request the local block development officer to shift them to some other quarantine centre as villagers are apprehensive regarding infection they may be carrying, he said. Rakhi Singh, an ayurvedic doctor, was not allowed to stay in home quarantine after she returned from Telangana with her three children . Her husband Sudhir Kumar, lodged a complaint with the police after the local village chief refused to allow his wife to quarantine herself at home, saying he had not received any official communication in this regard. The doctor had to spend an entire night in a car. In Jharkhands West Singbhum district, migrants alleged they were not allowed to enter the villages. When was taken to a quarantine centre in my village, the locals opposed it saying that I am carrying the virus. They even prevented my family members to meet me. I had no symptoms and I even offered to get myself tested. They did not listen. The police then took me to another quarantine centre, said 22-year-old Shamu Munda, who was among the first to return from Telangana. Another tribal in Dumka district, who came back from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Surin Soren, said that his family has been socially ostracised since his return. They (villagers) claim that all of us are carriers of the virus and will infect them all. They have put barricades outside her house with a poster saying our house is infected with corona, he said over phone . Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says she hopes Queenslanders will be travelling around their own state by June or July, but she expects people in the southern states will have to wait a bit longer before they can visit. It all depends on how community transmission goes as NSW and Victoria open up, Ms Palaszczuk said on the ABC's Q&A program tonight. "I've said very clearly we're going to review our borders at the end of each month and we'll take it from there and see how it goes. Hopefully by June and July we'll be able to have people travelling around Queensland. But it might be a little bit longer before we see our southerners come back to Queensland. "We love you dearly. We want you to come to Queensland but not at the moment," Ms Palaszczuk said. Her comments prompted NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian later in the program to quip that "I'll probably get to Auckland before I get to Cairns." Responding to a question about the proposed trans-Tasman bubble between Australia and New Zealand, Ms Berejiklian said she welcomed Jacinda Ardern's moves today to ease some of the country's restrictions. But she said "we do have to address the issue of our internal borders and what that means." After completing two weeks quarantine and testing twice negative for coronavirus, 210 Almajiris out of the 680 returned to Kaduna from other Northern States have been discharged and sent home by Kaduna State Government. Commissioner for Human Services and Social Development, Hajia Hafsat Baba, who disclosed this on Sunday, said all the 210 Almajiris tested negative for COVID-19. She however said they will not be allowed to beg anymore in the state because the government has already banned Almajiri system. According to her, the children who were among those repatriated from Kano, Plateau, Bauchi, Gombe and Niger states, would be handed over to their local government chairmen to hand them over to their parents. The Commissioner said: These children were from Kudan, Makarfi, Ikara, Giwa and Zaria local Government Areas of the state and were brought back from states like Kano, Bauchi, Gombe, Niger and Plateau States. We are happy to say that two 210 of them would be discharged today (Sunday) having completed their quarantine period of 14 days. Those that tested positive have been isolated but those discharged are free to go home and reunite with their family. She also said the government will not abandoned them as they return home because the state government will ensure that all the children get western education as they continue with their Islamic education. It could be recalled over 60 of the returned Almajiris had tested positive in Kaduna State, jacking up the active cases in the State to close to hundred within two weeks. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates Nigerias Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) on Saturday revealed his whereabouts in the past few weeks Naija News recalls that Nigerians had taken to Twitter about two weeks ago to demand where its leaders, including Vice President Osinbajo, have been since the coronavirus outbreak in the country. Nigerians overtime have questioned the absence of the President and his Vice in the fight against Coronavirus which has led to the death of some people in the country. Reacting in a post on Instagram, Osinbajos spokesperson, Laolu Akande, revealed that the VP has been attending to official matters on how to improve Nigerias economy. Laolu recalled that Osinbajo had on Thursday meet with the Governor of Central Bank (CBN), Kaduna State Governor, and some Ministers via video conferencing. With my boss the Vice President last night in his office, reviewing some of the events of the week, he wrote. By the way continue to ignore professional fake news conduits who share fictions about the whereabouts of the president and his Vice. The critical mass of our people see both the president and the VP regularly on TV, hear about them regularly on radio, read from them in the press and observe their activities regularly on the social media. For instance, on Thursday the VP held a videoconferencing meeting that included the governor of Kaduna, Power and Finance Ministers, the CBN governor and other government officials on how to expand electricity in the country. The work goes on, and Nigeria will surely prevail. We will do it together. Share this post with your Friends on Gov. Andrew Cuomo today issued more rules about how to handle the coronavirus in nursing homes throughout New York. Starting this week, all nursing home staff must be tested twice a week, Cuomo said during his daily briefing in Albany. That is a rule, he said. Cuomo also said the state is also testing residents. We are mass testing as many as we can, he said. A Syracuse.com story Saturday found New Yorks response has been plagued by weak direction, inaccurate data and poor communication. The investigation found the state lacked a clear and consistent policy for testing nursing home residents and staffers. Some were testing aggressively while others did it sparingly or not at all. Cuomo today said hospitals cant release a COVID-19 patient to a nursing home unless that person tests negative for the virus. Todays nursing home policy changes come two months into the pandemic and as more than 5,000 people have died in nursing homes. In Onondaga County, the state has confirmed 19 people have died in nursing homes from coronavirus. Another five deaths are presumed to be from the virus, according to state data updated today. Cuomo said today that earlier in the crisis, officials were worried about running out of hospital beds. Currently, thats not the case and those nursing home residents admitted to hospitals for COVID-19 can recuperate there, he said. This virus uses nursing homes, he said. They are ground zero. Theyre the vulnerable population in the vulnerable location. Already, nursing homes are supposed to house people with coronavirus only when the facility can provide the appropriate care. That includes providing a separate area for care, adequate protective gear and other equipment needed to treat a person with coronavirus. If the nursing home cant meet those standards, those people can go to COVID-19-only spots throughout the state, including at SUNY Upstate Medical University, Cuomo said. If nursing homes dont comply, they can lose their license. Todays new order addresses a controversial policy that continues to tell nursing homes they cant deny readmission of nursing home residents who had tested positive. That policy remains, Cuomos top aide, Melissa DeRosa, said. Instead, this new rule puts the burden on the hospital who is treating the COVID-19 patient, Cuomo said. It essentially stops the flow of positive cases from a hospital to a nursing home, the governor said. Stopping those discharged patients from entering nursing homes should lessen the overall amount of coronavirus cases in those facilities, he said. New York has 101,518 people in nursing homes, the most of any state, Cuomo said. Yet New Yorks percentage of deaths in nursing homes is No. 34 when compared with other states, Cuomo said. Thats despite New York having the most deaths -- 21,478 as of today -- in the nation. Cuomo said 207 people have died in the past day. Thats the same level as the number of daily deaths in late March. Takes us right back to where we started this hellish journey, he said. It has been a painful period. There was some relatively good news: the number of new patients with coronavirus seeking hospitalization dropped to 521 on Saturday. Thats also level with numbers of new hospitalizations in late March, he said. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources NY clears the way for shutdown to extend into June; Pause order remains at May 15 for now In CNY village largely untouched by coronavirus, business owners share thoughts about reopening Coronavirus in NY: 3 children have died from mysterious complication Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com Got a story idea or news tip youd like to share? Please contact me through email, Twitter, Facebook or at 315-470-2274. Paul Reid,speaking at a media briefing on Covid-19 in the Pillar Room in the Mater Hospital, Dublin (leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland/PA) Non Covid-19 health services are set to resume in hospitals as the numbers of people in ICU beds has decreased, the Health Service Executive boss has said. Chief executive Paul Reid said the situation with Covid-19 is starting to improve as the numbers in ICU continue to trend downwards and are now 55% lower than the peak of 160. Speaking at the HSE weekly Covid-19 briefing on Sunday, he said: We can now commence non-Covid services in hospitals but it wont be easy. He warned however that the health service cannot return to the way it was before the pandemic, saying: What we cannot do in the next phase is max out the capacity of the Irish health service. He said there are now three main priorities in non-Covid healthcare; cancer treatments, time-dependent surgery including transplants and maximising the use of private hospitals. Expand Close Dublins Mater hospital (Brian Lawless/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Dublins Mater hospital (Brian Lawless/PA) He said while the HSE is starting to recommence regular hospital services we cannot go back to overcrowded hospitals as was the case before the pandemic. We need to keep capacity under 80% and protect the public and staff from Covid-19. Regarding the return to non-Covid services Mr Reid said cancer would be a priority as well as cardiovascular surgery and other treatments. He said it was important that mental health, respite primary health care services also presume. He said capacity in both the public and private healthcare services will be need to be used in future. Private hospitals became part of the public health system in March for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic. Some 2,000 beds, nine laboratories and thousands of staff have been drafted into the public system, On Saturday, Irelands coronavirus death toll rose to 1,429 after a further 27 deaths were announced by the National Public Health Emergency Team. There have 156 been new confirmed cases of the virus, taking the total in Ireland since the outbreak began to 22,541. This weeks HSE brieifing is taking place in the Pillar Room at The Mater Hospital - what a venue.#Covid19Ireland pic.twitter.com/d7uPFY7rvI Aine McMahon (@AineMcMahon) May 10, 2020 With lockdown measures due to ease slightly next week, he said testing had ramped up significantly as Ireland is on track to have the capacity to do 100,000 tests per week from May 18 onwards. He said all 30,000 staff and the 28,000 residents in nursing homes have now been tested and labs now have a capacity to do in the region of 15,000 tests per day. The time it takes for a test from swab to result is 2.4 days which is in line with many of the other countries overall and contact tracing was done within 1.5 days of that. Meanwhile, Health Minister Simon Harris urged people not to bend or stretch the public health rules. Good Sunday morning everyone! #Stayhome #Staysafe #Holdfirm. We got this - lets finish the job. Wed all never forgive ourselves if we let things slip backwards now #Covid19 #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/dUFKPgRczC Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) May 10, 2020 He tweeted on Sunday: If youre thinking of bending or stretching the public health rules please dont. And to anyone who is, remember this number: 72. The number of people in ICU with Covid-19 fighting for their life and health. He said, while people are looking forward to some restrictions being eased from May 18, people must stay the course. People cant just think its OK to start that from now. Bottom line is: its not. Its dangerous. Every day counts. The reason these restrictions are in place until then: to save your life and keep your loved ones well. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 10:34:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SAO PAULO, May 9 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian Congress declared on Saturday a three-day period of mourning for the victims of the novel coronavirus disease. The decree, promoted by Rodrigo Maia, president of the Chamber of Deputies, and Davi Alcolumbre, president of the Senate, was published in an extra edition of the "Official Gazette of the National Congress." "Ten thousand people, loved and important to other people, full of dreams, had their lives interrupted. In solidarity with this pain, regarding the death of these 10,000 Brazilians, the National Congress decrees a three-day mourning," said the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate in a joint statement. The Brazilian Congress added that its members are "not indifferent to loss, sadness, and regret" and called the current moment "lamentably unique," with "stopped cities, children without classes, and frightened people." Legislators urged the population to continue following the recommendations of health authorities. Enditem Mr. Griffin said the white leaders would sneak black activists into the back of a bank in St. Simons at night, where they would negotiate with local business owners over integrating their establishments. The result was that by the early 1970s, the region had become integrated without bloodshed, unlike some surrounding cities. Back then, nearly half of Brunswicks residents were black, giving them economic power that could not be ignored. And tourism, which helped drive the local economy, would have been undercut by open conflict. A lot of them had dollars and cents in their minds instead of resistance, said Mr. Griffin, 82, who lives in Brunswick, where he settled in 1961 to become the band director at the black high school. There was still intense resistance. In an effort to force the integration of a bowling alley on St. Simons Island, about a dozen black men decided to show up one night to bowl. Apparently, white opponents got wind of the plan, and when the black men arrived at the alley, nearly twice as many Ku Klux Klan members from Jacksonville were waiting there, Mr. Griffin said. The men went ahead and bowled as K.K.K. members stood around their lanes, arms folded, Mr. Griffin said. The black men called the police, who escorted them home after they were finished bowling. The same thing happened the following night, Mr. Griffin recalled, but this time the police told the K.K.K. that if they returned, they would be thrown in jail. From that point on, the alley was integrated, Mr. Griffin said. Once they fought past segregation, residents of the region lived a relatively harmonious racial existence, in Mr. Griffins view. Thats why it was so surprising, he said, to see the racially explosive killing of Mr. Arbery. Nobody would expect something like this to happen in this community, Mr. Griffin said, adding that the shooting had angered him. It shocked everybody, including the majority of whites. JULIAN CURWIN Streaming, Johnston St Jazz, May 7 In a brief interview at this concert's conclusion, the bewilderingly versatile percussionist Jess Ciampa said that in the year prior to the lockdown he suspected he'd only had one day off. In the seven weeks since, by contrast, this was his first interaction with other musicians an almost universally shared experience. Even the flow of new albums has slowed, many being delayed until performing to support their release is possible. That Julian Curwin decided to proceed with launching his Midnight Lullaby opus seemed fitting, given the music's mood is elegiac and introspective, and his compositions are more like miniatures than panoramas. The guitarist assembled some of Australia's most creative musicians to realise his sparse but highly detailed scores on the recording: Ciampa, Stu Hunter (piano, keyboards) and Lloyd Swanton (of The Necks on bass). With Swanton unavailable for the launch, Abel Cross stepped in, and pedal steel guitarist Ollie Thorpe joined to approximate some of the album's many colours. Julian Curwin's compositions are more miniatures than panoramas. Credit:Peter Woodbury Several of the new compositions, including At Dusk exemplified Curwin's ability to evoke a disquiet akin to that of de Chirico's paintings, leavened by a sly wink of humour or a glimmer of warmth. On Big House the pedal steel most effectively substituted for the recording's theremin, while Curwin's acoustic guitar was made to sound somewhat like a harpsichord. Pranab Mondal By KOLKATA: Setting an example of victory after a prolonged battle, a man in his early 50s, who tested positive for coronavirus and was on ventilation support for 38 days, has returned home. Referring to the prolonged battle against COVID-19, critical care specialists said being on life support is not the end of the road. The man was admitted to a private hospital at south Kolkatas Dhakuriaon on March 29 and next day, he was tested positive for COVID-19 and put on a ventilator. "He had fever and cough two days before he was admitted. He never travelled to abroad or came in touch anyone who returned from overseas countries. When he tested positive for COVID-19, we were shattered," said one of the relatives of the man. An official of hospital said the man was tested negative on April 17 and again on April 18. The discharge protocol of a COVID-19 patient says he or she could be discharged if test reports come negative twice within 24 hours. "The condition of the mans lungs did not allow doctors to discharge him immediately even after he tested negative. He had severe pneumonia and developed acute respiratory distress syndrome and lungs were not able to absorb oxygen. His lungs needed time to heal," said the official. The man was taken out of round-the-clock ventilation support on May 2 and put on a partial ventilator for 12 hours. Since May 5, he did not need ventilator support and was released on Friday, the hospital official said. The man in his 50s runs an NGO and helps disaster management teams and survivors with his first-aid providing team. "I did not tell my mother-in-law that he had tested positive. After he started to recover, I told her," said the mans wife. The Table. The Indian restaurant industry is abuzz with news that increasingly seems bad. Le15, Mumbais foremost cafe and patisserie, has shuttered its Colaba outpost for all operations. The rent rates in the citys premium real estate stretch proved to be too immense for the glass-fronted cafe with a reputation of attracting SoBos influential names. In a heartfelt note, owner and patissier Pooja Dhingra wrote, I just couldnt sustain the costs and overheads in a lockdown. The business wouldnt survive. I knew what had to be done. Eleven Madison Park. The other news comes from New York, Mecca of urban food and restaurant culture. Eleven Madison Park rated the worlds best restaurants several-times-over, may just not reopen after the lockdown is lifted. Chef-owner Daniel Humm has said, It will take millions of dollars to reopen. You have to bring back staff. I work with fancy equipment in a big space. I want to continue to cook with the most beautiful and precious ingredients in a creative way, but at the same time, it needs to make sense. Daniel Humm, Eleven Madison Park. 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 second bit of news has been received with a lot more trepidation across the world, including India, where the best chefs are struggling to fathom ways to reopen their restaurants, keeping in mind rigid but much-needed norms on hygiene, sanitisation and social distancing, while reinventing the dining experience. Riyaaz Amlani. National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) estimates that the industry employs roughly 7.3 million people; in 2018-19, it contributed Rs 18,000 crore in taxes. Roughly, the association estimates that almost 40 percent of the restaurants may never open after the lockdown. We have a high failure rate. Yet, we are perceived as a glamorous industry with huge profit margins. In reality, there are just huge debts and very thin margins, says Zorawar Kalra, founder of Massive Restaurants (Farzi Cafe and Masala Library by Jiggs Kalra). Ankit Mehrotra, Dineout. Chef Manu Chandra, the man credited with super-successful F&B brands such as Monkey Cafe and Olive Bar & Restaurant, estimates that the $50 billion industry is compromised by at least 15-20 percent and has high debts. Given that we work on deferred payment, there is no liquidity. Is contactless dining the answer? Stepping into this grim arena are food aggregators such as Zomato and Dineout, promoting what they call contactless dining. Dineout has presented a white paper on guidelines for restaurants post-COVID, released by Additional Director General of the Ministry of Tourism, Rupinder Brar this week. Contactless Dining removes nonessential human interaction and replaces it with seamless technology. In the post-COVID world, diners will be sceptical about stepping out and wary about touching unsanitised surfaces. There is a multitude of touchpoints that a restaurant can modify and facilitate with the introduction of technology. These can be simple actions like booking a table, pre-ordering meals, takeaway, digital ordering, digital payment, etc, says co-founder and CEO Ankit Mehrotra. Among their recommendation to make dining contactless: digital menus; steam sterilisers on tables to sanitise cutlery, which should not be left laid out on tables; digital wallet payments; pre-booking tables by customers, who will receive the menu on their phone and can pre-order before they arrive; and a live stream of behind-the-scenes from the kitchen to the diners phone through a link, so that they can ensure their food is being cooked in hospital-like hygienic conditions. The cost of installing this technology is about Rs 50,000 annually, says Mehrotra. There is no investment in hardware and a restaurateur spends only on the gateway cost and a digital camera to live-stream from the kitchen. Kapil Chopra. Gaurav Gupta, Founder and COO, Zomato, pitches contactless dining as a means to eliminate the use of high-touch elements. Imagine a full-stack tech-enabled dining experience, but with the least risk to health and safety. The new ways of working will make some tasks redundant, and yet pave the way for more value-added tasks. Restaurants and the wait staff will be able to focus on what they do best preparing great food and catering to the personalised needs of users. Restaurateurs are sceptical I hate that word, bursts out Zorawar Kalra. While Dineouts whitepaper offers a macro-view of the issues restaurants are likely to face, Rachel Goenka, CEO and Founder, The Chocolate Spoon Company, contends that it does not grasp ground realities or the nuances of how the industry works. It falls short when it comes to the substance behind their thought process. They have no clue what safe and approved sanitisation chemicals are required to ensure kitchen hygiene, utensil hygiene or cutlery hygiene, or the frequency of cleaning required. We have already put SOPs that are likely to be more stringent than what the regulators propose, in place. Biometrics is being discouraged and we are reverting to manual attendance. The staff will not be allowed to wear uniforms outside the restaurants. Chef Rahul Akerkar. Besides, as Chef Rahul Akerkar, the man behind restaurants such as Indigo and now Qualia contends, why would they pay a huge amount to buy QR codes or digital payment gateways and software from aggregators, when they can find solutions in-house in a fraction of the cost? Why would I share details of my guests, which are private, with an aggregator? I dont need a third-party platform to enhance my dining experience. Besides, I have to protect my brand value. Restaurateurs contend that contactless dining would be an experience so impersonal that it will resemble the QSR format. People might as well drive into a fast food joint, place the order and leave with it, says the gobsmacked Akerkar, who is still trying to make sense of the situation. Kalra believes that some amount of rigid disciplining will be crucial. People will continue to be plagued by an intense fear psychosis for six to eight months. And we have to instil confidence in them. We plan to sanitise each table with UV sanitisers, use disposable crockery, maybe even use frozen chicken to decrease contamination, though I hate that idea. Gauri Devidayal. While some restaurateurs like Devidayal flirt with the idea of using their staff for home deliveries (a parallel stream that is helping restaurateurs mitigate costs), others like Akerkar believe that aggregators will continue to be important, given that they have the delivery infrastructure already established. Chopra, in sharp contrast, predicts the growth of takeaway as a segment. In Delhi, a delivery boy who had COVID forced 72 people into quarantine, so people are unlikely to trust them. Restaurants will have to come up with their fleets to control the experience and ensure better monitoring unless delivery aggregators can monitor their delivery boys and provide them with proper accommodation. Is contactless dining even possible? That restaurants will have to reinvent the way they function is a given. Arja Shridhar, partner at Indianapoli Hospitality (Gustoso and Rue Du Liban) contends that reservations will have to be taken in advance, besides restricting seating to four guests per table. These are just temporary measure, till a cure is found or a vaccine is invented. Most restaurateurs believe what aggregators are pushing is misleading as it implies that all human contact points are removed. There are touchpoints in the workplace, in the grocery store, etc. The white paper ignores the fact that hospitality is based not just on great food, but also great service. Servers interact with guests, make recommendations, chefs prepare food, bartenders mix drinks... You cannot remove the human element completely from a dining out experience, Goenka points out the obvious. Restaurateurs like Gauri Devidayal, NRAI Managing Committee Member and Partner, Food Matters India (The Table, Magazine St Kitchen) assert that the dining-in experience is made vibrant by close interaction between the staff and guests (from recommending dishes to which wine or spirit pairs well with which dish). It isnt like we did not have digital menus, but we didnt use it because people like the touch-and-feel, they like interacting with chefs and asking for personal recommendations, she says. While technology will have to be adopted, we are not a McDonald. The relationship between the staff and the guest is one of trust and warmth and cannot be overlooked. Zorawar Kalra. What is being floated as contactless dining is just 10 percent of the entire restaurant experience. Kapil Chopra, chairman on the board of aggregator EazyDiner and founder of The Postcard Hotels & Resorts contends, The experience comprises of many parts. While hot food may be safe, a lot of vegetables are used in condiments and salads and its important to see how they are processed. We have just seen that eight people have tested COVID positive in the Gurgaon wholesale market. We also know that in the US, one of the largest sources of COVID was in the meatpacking district of New York. A safe dining experience is also dependent on how chefs are cooking. Are the vegetables being cut and cooked in different areas, using a different pair of gloves? Are they sanitising the chopping boards for raw vegetables differently? Are they washing their hands every 30 minutes? These are nice guidelines to have on paper but the strict implementation of all this is very important. Arja Shridhar. In the confusion that prevails, few are focusing on is the residential address of the restaurant staff and the chefs, and thats because restaurateurs can do very little about it. Normally, the employees stay together in clusters. For example, in Mahipalpur, Delhi, where almost 3,000 hospitality professionals are staying in close vicinity. The chances of the virus spreading amongst this community are high even if one of them tests positive. Besides, most can't avoid contact with the several touchpoints between the kitchen and the table. The server is going to come into contact with the kitchen as well as the diners. What if the food got contaminated with a sneeze or something before it got picked up by the server? asked Chopra. Pertinent arguments to which the industry, grappling with an existential crisis, is still looking for answers. Chefs like Akerkar are not quite sure about the shape that the post-COVID restaurant will take. There are a lot of questions and very few answers. What kind of experience would it be if the server is completely swaddled in layers to avoid infection? The big churn In the huge restaurant churn, many are expected to fall by the wayside. Many just wont open up, says Chef Vikas Seth, Culinary Director, Embassy Leisure (Sanchez and Sriracha restaurants in Bangalore). We are grappling with high rentals and huge costs for the ingredients and other material. We are talking to vendors and landlords to manage their expectations according to market reality. Chef Vikas Seth. Even when they do open, restaurants will have to deal with manpower shortages due to reverse migration. But that could prove to be a blessing in disguise since we will all be working with slim staff, says Chef Seth. In a bid to save some, NRAI has launched the Rise for Restaurants initiative. Diners can support restaurants by buying virtual cash worth Rs 1000 at a flat 25 percent discount from an expansive list of restaurants across India and redeem it in the future against dining bills at the respective restaurants. At the time of purchase, customers only pay Rs 250. This amount will contribute to paying the wages and salaries of restaurant employees. The remaining is to be paid only when they dine at the restaurant, says Devidayal. The future looks interesting as restaurants try and clean up their processes and efficiency, even while they attempt to salvage as many jobs as possible. Deepali Nandwani is a journalist who keeps a close watch on the world of luxury. On Andrew Yangs campaign, that took the form of embracing a new style of politics for a new generation of voters exclusive behind-the-scenes content, regular contests, direct lines of communication with both the candidate and the campaign, and a decentralized structure that empowered the Yang Gang to innovate on their own. Similarly, the Buttigieg campaign shared its design tool kit, allowing thousands of supporters to create their own content, such as parade banners and pamphlets, that tremendously increased its reach and capacity. Both of our campaigns embraced a multiplatform strategy that put our candidates in front of audiences normally ignored by the political classes. The goal was not to be everywhere, but to be in the right places with the right message. Whether that meant Mr. Yang appearing on an Instagram Live stream of The Daily Show or Mr. Buttigieg appearing on the Snapchat show Good Luck America, expanding beyond our existing online bases was one of our top priorities. But no candidate can be everywhere. Its why the Buttigieg campaign created a first-of-its-kind Digital Captains program where users were supplied with resources and direction from the campaign and then encouraged to use that material to create their own content and organize and raise money among friends and contacts. By the end of the campaign, being a member of #TeamPete or #YangGang was about more than supporting one candidate; it was a signal of a different type of politics and a different type of political engagement. In Thailand, allegedly hundreds of captive elephants who have largely been dependent on tourists for work and meals, have been left 'unemployed' owing to coronavirus lockdown. AP With scant numbers of foreign visitors, commercial elephant camps and sanctuaries lack funds for their care, the animals have been made to walk nearly 150 kilometres back home. According to an AP report, Save Elephant Foundation in the northern province of Chiang Mai has been promoting the elephants return to the greener pastures of home. The foundation supports fundraising appeals to feed animals still housed at tourist parks, but also believes it is good for them to return to their natural habitat where they can be more self-sufficient. Since last month, more than 100 of the animals have marched from all over Chiang Mai to their homeland of Mae Chaem. In these villages, the Karen ethnic minority is known for the upkeep of elephants. Sadudee Serichevee owns four elephants and set up his own small Karen Elephant Experience park with elephants brought from Mae Chaem's Ban Huay Bong, his wife's village. "At first I thought the situation would be back to normal within a month or two. At the end of April, I lost all hope," Mr Serichevee told AP. They convinced some other owners to make the 150-kilometre (95-mile) trek on foot with them. Trucking the animals is prohibitively expensive for owners of small parks, and elephants can maintain a walking speed of 7.25 kph (4.5 mph). He and his wife agreed to bring their elephants back to her village because they could no longer bear the monthly expenses of close to 200,000 baht or Rs 4,71,798 for rental of land and facilities, salaries for handlers known as mahouts and food. Elephants eat as much as 300 kilograms a day of grass and vegetables. "These elephants have not had a chance to return home for 20 years. They seem to be very happy when arriving home, they make their happy noises, they run to the creek near the village and have fun along with our children," Mr Serichevee said. The provinces Tha Tum district, home to hundreds of elephants, welcomed about 40 of them back last month. All Inputs AP Mohanlal's Post Mohanlal wished his dear mother Santha Kumari by posting this adorable picture on his official social media pages. The actor wrote the lines of his popular song, 'Kainiraye Venna Tharam Kavililorumma Tharam' for the caption, expressing his deep attachment with his mother. The actor's post is currently going viral on social media. Prithviraj Sukumaran's Post Prithviraj Sukumaran, who is currently in Wadi Rum, Jordan for the shooting of Aadujeevitham is totally missing his dear mother Mallika Sukumaran. The actor took to his social media pages and posted this adorable picture with his mother, and wife Supriya Menon with the caption 'Happy Mother's Day Amma'. Indrajith Sukumaran Indrajith Sukumaran, who is currently on Kochi, is also missing his mother Mallika. The actor took to his official Facebook page and posted this lovely picture with his mother, along with the caption 'Happy Mother's Day! Sukumaran Mallika'. On his Instagram page, the actor posted a group picture with his mother, wife Poornima, and kids. Kunchacko Boban's Post Kunchako Boban, who is thoroughly enjoying the fatherhood wished his dear wife Priya on her first Mothers Day with this adorable picture and a lovely note. 'The most Strongest and Kindest word in the Universe........AMMA...... For all the Mothers in the world and the newly inducted Mother in my family. Making everyday Mother's Day', wrote Kunchacko. Tovino Thomas's Post Tovino Thomas took to his official Instagram page to post this lovely family picture and wished all mothers of his family including his mother, wife, and sisters-in-law a Happy Mothers Day. ' !!! #happymothersday', wrote the actor. Anjali Menon's Post Anjali Menon posted this unseen picture with her mother, along with a touching note on her official Instagram page. 'Happy Mother's Day to every mother in the world! I never post family pictures but today I am breaking away from that to share a favourite picture of mine. This is the lady who inspires me every single day. Every day she points out to me the sunshine in any gloomy situation. Like her hand holds me in this pic, she is still the one who holds me straight through all that life brings. She gives me my roots. My Amma. #mothersday', wrote Anjali. New Delhi: In a fresh development in the "Bois Locker Room" case, the police revealed that the alleged 'sexual assault' conversation on Snapchat between two people was made by one juvenile, a girl, via fake profile to another juvenile, a boy. The Delhi Police's Cyber Crime Unit said in a statement on Sunday (May 10, 2020) A fictitious name 'Siddharth' was used by the girl to make the profile and the conversation was to test the 'values and character' of the other juvenile, the police stated. The girl using the fake identity of a male person, suggested a plan to sexually assault herself, to which the receiver declined to participate. The boy who received the message took a screenshot of the chat and reported it to his friends, including the girl about whom the supposed conversation had happened. The girl, being aware of the fact that the account of 'Siddharth' was the same fake/fictional one that she had created. She did not report it to anyone. However, one of the other recipients of the screenshot, posted it as an Instagram story for sometime, and from there it started circulating in social media accounts of their friends, schoolmates, etc. But the investigation of the cyber cell police has now revealed that there was no such plan of any sexual assault on the girl and the conversation began from the fake account started by the same girl. The police in the statement has claimed that neither of the two were in any way related to the Bois Locker Room Instagram Group, either through their real or fake usernames. While efforts are also being made to identify and interview the remaining of the group members of the 'Bois Locker Room' as soon as possible. Meanwhile, one accused has been held while another juvenile has been apprehended and devices of persons concerned have been seized and sent for forensic analysis, further investigations are on. New York state health officials are investigating 85 cases of a new COVID-19-related illness in children, an inflammatory syndrome with symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease and toxic shock, thats recently taken the lives of two young children and a teenager. The State Department of Health on Saturday announced that hospitals reported 73 cases of predominantly school-aged children coming down with an illness possibly due to COVID-19 with symptoms that included prolonged fever, severe abdominal pain, change in skin color, trouble breathing, racing heart or chest pain, lethargy and confusion. Health officials say the illness, dubbed Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome Associated with COVID-19, resembles toxic shock syndrome and Kawasaki disease, an autoimmune disease caused by a viral infection, which, if not treated properly, can cause life-threatening damage to the arteries and heart. The illness took the lives of a 5-year-old in New York City, a 7-year-old in Westchester County and a teenager in Suffolk County, state officials said Saturday. On Sunday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said state health officials were now investigating up to 85 cases. Though the illness is rare, we ask parents to be vigilant, Cuomo tweeted. .@HealthNYGov is now investigating up to 85 cases of what may be a COVID-related illness in children. Symptoms are similar to Kawasaki disease and toxic shock syndrome. Though the illness is rare, we ask parents to be vigilant. Learn more: https://t.co/aja8NKNqAV Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) May 10, 2020 At the request of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, New York is helping develop the national criteria for identifying and responding to the COVID-19-related illness. The State Department of Health is partnering with NY Genome Center and Rockefeller University to conduct a genome and RNA sequencing study to better understand COVID-related illnesses in children and the possible genetic basis of this syndrome. We now have a new issue that has come up in the fight against COVID-19 that is truly disturbing and it impacts our youngest New Yorkers," Cuomo said in a statement Saturday. This is a frightening new development, but rest assured we are doing everything we can to learn more and keep parents informed." The state this weekend issued an advisory to inform health care providers on the condition and to provide guidance for testing and reporting. Hospitals and health care providers must report to state officials all cases of pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome potentially associated with COVID-19 in those under 21. Most children who contract COVID-19 experience only mild symptoms. The disease, which has killed nearly 80,000 Americans and infected more than 1.3 million, has far more often impacted older people and those with pre-existing conditions. But health officials in New York state and the United Kingdom reported a potential link between COVID-19 in children and the serious inflammatory syndrome. In addition to fever and abdominal issues, symptoms include rash and cardiovascular problems that require intensive care. The syndrome may occur days to weeks after acute COVID-19 illness, health officials said. Last week, New York hospitals including Mount Sinai Hospital, Cohen Childrens Hospital on Long Island and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx reported cases of the syndrome. Whether the underlying condition is COVID-19 or the bodys response to COVID-19 is not known at this time," Dr. George Ofori, pediatric critical care director for Mount Sinai Kravis Childrens Hospital, told NBC. While it is too early to definitively say what is causing this we believe it is important to alert the public as to what we are seeing. Related Content: The first batch of Nigerians stranded in the United States due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is on their way back home. It is the third batch of Nigerians to have been evacuated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The second batch of 253 Nigerians evacuated from the United Kingdom arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos on May 8. It came 48 hours after the first batch from Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) were brought into the country by Emirates Airlines. Also, around to bid the evacuees farewell was Amb. Tijani Muhammad-Bande, President of the United Nations General Assembly and Nigerias Permanent Representative to the UN. He was joined by Amb. Samson Itegboje, the Deputy Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the UN, among others. Speaking to newsmen, Okoyen lauded the evacuees for their cooperation and orderly conduct throughout the process. It was successful and we are happy that everything was orderly. As you must have observed, the boarding was also orderly, he said. Some of the passengers, who spoke to NAN, expressed gratitude to the Federal Government for the special flight arrangement. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates Tina Anganis admits it's a little easier now to balance her work and home life. Her three boys are now men, all in their 20s. And, she's able to spend time with her sons while at work. Anganis along with her husband, Chris, have owned and operated YaYa's Chicken in Midland since 1997. "The great thing about our business is all three of our sons work or have worked with us," she said. "So we get a lot of time with them! Our sons and employees have been very helpful during this crisis. We have one son in Portland, Oregon, who we miss having around but thankful he is healthy." Before she started working with her husband at the restaurant seven years ago, Anganis was a substitute teacher for Midland Public Schools for several years when her boys were young. The Midland mom logs about seven to eight hours a day mostly at the restaurant. The drive-through is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. She doesn't cook but works along with the staff to help things run smoothly, and mostly does the bookkeeping. "I enjoy going to the work probably because I don't like house work," she quipped. "My husband helps a lot on that part." Anganis said it has been "a little bit crazier" during the mandatory shutdown, keeping up with the executive orders from the state as well as employees with their situations and covering shifts. "My faith and determination during this challenging time has helped me help my family and our employees who are just as important to me to get through all this week by week," she said. Anganis said inspiring her sons George 26, Gus 24, and Alex, 21 and others to achieve their goals as well as show love the way God asked people to are her favorite parts of being a mom. She also mentors the young moms she works with as well as teen moms. Anganis has rather simple plans for her special day on Sunday. "My plans for Mother's Day is to be thinking about all the great moms out there, especially the three others I work with every day." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, May 10, 2020 16:55 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd7121f2 1 World #fisheries,fisheries,sailor,fishermen,migrant-workers,workers-protection,#migrant-workers,China,#China Free A viral video showing the burial at sea of an Indonesian crew member who allegedly endured poor working conditions aboard a Chinese fishing vessel has exposed the lack of regulations that could have protected him and other migrant workers on the ship. The video, which went viral last week, was confirmed by Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi who said that the fisherman in the video was one of four Indonesian crew members registered to Chinese longliner Long Xin 629 who had died between December 2019 and April of this year. Indonesian sailors who had worked aboard the vessel spoke anonymously to South Koreas Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC). They said the migrant workers aboard the ship had endured poor living conditions, such as having to work for 30-hour stretches. They said they were also made to drink filtered sea water aboard the ship, which eventually took a toll on their health. Migrant Care executive director Wahyu Susilo said the incidents exposed the grim conditions of Indonesian migrant workers, especially those who worked in the maritime sector. The Foreign Ministry is obviously facing difficulties in handling such cases, mainly because of jurisdictional problems. A case can occur on a fishing vessel with a flag different from its companys country of origin, and it may be sailing in the territory of yet another country or in international waters," he said. "But whatever the situation is, the government should provide universal protection for Indonesian fishermen." The vulnerability of Indonesian migrant workers in the maritime and fisheries sector is exacerbated by the lack of adequate protections. Even though the government enacted the Migrant Worker Protection Law in 2017, it has yet to issue the implementing regulations mandated by the law. Some agencies are fighting over the powers to potentially be introduced by these regulations. In this case, [the contention is] among the Transportation Ministry, the Manpower Ministry and the Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection Agency [BP2MI], Wahyu said. The 2017 law has been hailed by activists as an improvement from the 2004 law, marking a shift in the governments focus from a probusiness perspective to a protection-first perspective. The law requires a set of implementing government regulations to be issued by November 2019 or two years after the laws enactment. However, to date, the Manpower Ministry, as the leading institution, has yet to issue any regulations that could have protected the sailors. The Foreign Ministry is now pushing for the deliberation of a government regulation on the protection of the crews of fishing and commercial vessels. The government, Retno said, should supervise more strictly the recruitment of Indonesian sailors by foreign shipowners and should fully examine their employment contracts. We call for the business processes including the placement of crew members on longline fishing vessels to be improved through better protection of their rights, Retno said. According to the 2014-2016 Global Slavery Index by Australia-based human rights group Walk Free, migrant workers in the maritime and fisheries sector, especially fishing crews, were among the most exploited groups experiencing modern slavery. There are hundreds of thousands of Indonesian crew members on fishing vessels trapped in this modern slavery, Wahyu said. Retno lamented that the regulations governing fishing vessel crews, particularly those working on longliners, were very limited, unlike commercial vessels whose operations were regulated in detail in the International Labor Organization's (ILO) 2006 Maritime Labor Convention. For the crews of longline fishing vessels, they are protected by no or very limited international rules, she said. This will also be a priority for [Indonesian] diplomacy: encouraging the establishment of international legal norms to regulate the protection of crews on these fishing vessels. Mas Achmad Santosa of the Indonesian Ocean Justice Initiative (IOJI) pointed out that Indonesia could instead start by ratifying ILO's 2007 Work in Fishing Convention, which specifically regulates the protection of fisheries crews. The convention establishes a minimum working age, standard work agreements and crew protections. It also requires governments to adopt national regulations to ensure vessel owners provide for the health and safety of crew members. Even though, in 2016, Indonesia ratified the 2006 Maritime Labor Convention, which regulates social security, workers' rights and fair employment opportunities for seafarers, the convention excludes protection for the crews of fishing vessels, Mas Achmad said. LONDON, May 9 (Reuters) - Britain is to introduce a 14-day quarantine period for almost everyone arriving into the country to avoid a second peak of the coronavirus pandemic, The Times newspaper reported on Saturday. It said Prime Minister Boris Johnson will say in an address to the nation on Sunday that passengers arriving at airports and ports, including Britons returning from abroad, will have to self-isolate for a fortnight. According to the report, under measures that are likely to come into force in early June, travellers will have to provide the address at which they will self-isolate on arrival. "These measures will help protect the British public and reduce the transmission of the virus as we move into the next phase of our response," The Times quoted a government source as saying. Britain's COVID-19 death toll rose to 31,241 on Friday. Downing Street declined to comment on the report and a spokeswoman for Britain's interior ministry said: "We don't comment on leaks." Johnson is due to announce on Sunday the next steps in Britain's battle to tackle the novel coronavirus following a review by ministers of the current measures that have all but shut the economy and kept millions at home for over six weeks. His environment minister George Eustice said on Saturday Johnson would not announce any dramatic changes to Britain's lockdown, adopting a cautious approach. UK airport operators said they feared a quarantine would compound the acute damage the pandemic has wrought to the aviation industry as it would put people off travelling when lockdown restrictions are lifted. "Quarantine would not only have a devastating impact on the UK aviation industry, but also on the wider economy," said Karen Dee, Chief Executive of the Airport Operators Association. "If the government believes quarantine is medically necessary, then it should be applied on a selective basis following the science, there should be a clear exit strategy and the economic impact on key sectors should be mitigated," she said. Story continues Airlines UK, the representative body for airlines, said it needed to see the detail of what the government is proposing. "We will be asking for assurances that this decision has been led by the science and that government has a credible exit plan, with weekly reviews to ensure the restrictions are working and still required." The Times report said travellers from Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man would be exempt from the quarantine, as would lorry drivers bringing crucial supplies. It said the authorities would carry out spot checks and those found to be breaking the rules would face fines of up to 1,000 pounds ($1,240) or even deportation. ($1 = 0.8060 pounds) (Reporting by James Davey in London and Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru, Editing by Ros Russell) A McDonald's restaurant has been forced to close after a second staff member tested positive for coronavirus. The staff member at the Fawkner McDonald's north of Melbourne was one of ten new cases of COVID-19 recorded in Victoria on Saturday, which has caused the restaurant to close for at least three days. The new infection comes after a staff member from the same store was diagnosed with the deadly disease during the week. The restaurant was allowed to stay open as the infected staff member last worked in the store on April 30 and wasn't working while infected. A McDonald's Australia spokesperson confirmed to Daily Mail Australia the infected employee is self-isolating at home. Fawkner McDonald's north of Melbourne (pictured) has been forced to close for three days after two staff members were diagnosed with coronavirus 'Out of an abundance of caution we have closed the Fawkner restaurant to conduct a deep clean, following confirmation a second employee has tested positive for COVID-19,' the spokesperson said. 'The employee last worked at the restaurant on Tuesday 5 May. We have spoken with the employee and confirm they are self-isolating at home with little to no symptoms. 'We have communicated with all employees and continue to work collaboratively with the Department of Health. 'The decision to deep clean the restaurant is a precautionary measure only and is over and above the Department's requirements.' A Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson told 7News the chances of contracting the disease through food or packaging in the store was minimal. 'There is no evidence COVID-19 can be transmitted to people through food or packaging, and the risk of anyone visiting the McDonald's contracting the virus is very low,' the spokesperson said. A nurse performs a coronavirus test on a patient at a mobile testing site at Highpoint shopping centre on Monday The department recommended staff and those in close contact with the infected person should get themselves tested. Seven workers and one manager from Fawkner McDonald's were told to self-isolate for 14 days as a precaution after the first staff member tested positive for the disease. 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 McDonald's Australia confirmed in a statement the first infected employee is self-isolating at home. 'There is no suggestion the employee was exposed to COVID-19 in the restaurant,' the statement reads. The Victorian government's COVID-19 testing blitz has seen more than 150,000 people undergo testing as the state waits for restrictions to ease. Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said on Sunday there had been an increase of 10 coronavirus cases since Saturday, one of which is from the Cedar Meats outbreak and another a person currently quarantining in a hotel. The 10 new cases brings Victoria's total to 1487. Ms Mikakos congratulated Victorians for getting tested in such large numbers, but gave no indication as to when restrictions would lift. 'This pandemic is not over,' she told reporters. Ms Mikakos said through the testing blitz there were 20 cases that would potentially have gone unidentified given the lack of symptoms, and the tests would inform the easing of the lockdown. Victoria Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said increased COVID-19 test numbers would allow for coronavirus restrictions to be lifted sooner 'That will enable us to consider some options and to make some important decisions about potentially lifting restrictions,' she said. The minister said the government would be making announcements on schools and other restriction measures on Monday and throughout the week. The Sunday Herald Sun reported schools could be reopening by the end of the month, with years 11 and 12, and prep and grade one students the first to return, but Ms Mikakos did not confirm this was the case. A protest was held on Sunday against the lockdown rules in Victoria, with dozens of people marching at Parliament House in Melbourne. Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday revealed a plan for a gradual return to normal for the nation, but it is up to the states to implement the measures. There are still only four reasons for Victorians to leave their home: food and supplies, medical care and care giving, exercise, and work or education. A small group of masked family members gathers under a graveside canopy while their pastor gives a sermon. Other mourners stand at a distance by their cars. Its a new funeral tradition in the time of coronavirus for the New Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church. Theres never a time that losing people is easier than another time, said Rev. Dr. Clinton Johnson of the viruss mark on his predominantly African American congregation in Mobile. The church guitarist, a deacon and a congregant of 38 years are among those killed by the disease. Other members were infected but recovered. Its hard to understand why some survive and others do not, he said. In Mobile County, like across Alabama and the nation, a disproportionate number of coronavirus deaths are African Americans. Of the countys 79 recorded deaths as of Friday, 53 percent of the deceased were black. While whites make up the majority of the population, they represent only 39 percent of COVID-19 deaths. Since the coronavirus hit his congregation, Rev. Clinton is speaking out via his weekly online sermons and on his radio show, asking residents to stay home or wear masks if they go out. Mobile County is the hardest hit in the state, with infection numbers still rising at 1,432 confirmed cases as of Saturday. Still, Clinton watches Mobile residents take fewer precautions than hed like: pumping gas without gloves on, running up to hug him or shake his hand. He explains why they cant touch. Were in a situation now where your life is tied to mine, and mine to yours, like never before, he said. A racial factor A couple of hours drive north, in Selma, the pastor of Brown Chapel AME Church, Rev. Leodis Strong, is worried for his mostly elderly congregation. Many have gone much of their lives without health insurance. That (health risk) tends to be greater among some of my congregants because of economic situations, and all of that has a tinge of a racial factor, he said. In Alabama, as across the nation, systemic inequalities in healthcare access, nutrition, and exercise influence the dire disparities in outcomes playing out during the pandemic. Such barriers to health tend to result in chronic health conditions, like diabetes and hypertension, that are connected to worse outcomes with coronavirus, says UAB professor Dr. Raegan Durant. Those conditions often make patients more prone, not only to being infected, in some cases, but also to suffer more severe symptoms and more severe cases once infected, he said. African Americans make up about 38 percent of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases and 47 percent of deaths as of April 21, despite representing 27 percent of the states population, according to statistics compiled by UAB. CDC data show blacks make up 27 percent of recorded coronavirus deaths nationwide, despite representing just 13 percent of the population. Theres a collective instability socially thats associated with being poor. That chronic stress is probably magnified during the pandemic, Durant said. Blacks disproportionately live near the poverty line in the United States. They are more likely to be laid off due to coronavirus. Some of Durants colleagues at UAB observed that transportation, cell phone access, and mandatory physician referrals were obstacles to coronavirus testing and recently launched a mobile initiative to test people in lower-income Birmingham neighborhoods. We are so sensitive to all the challenges people have in the community, said UABs Dr. Mona Fouad who helped launch the mobile testing initiative about two weeks ago. When clients are distrustful of the tests, she says they are willing to talk it through. We explain, this is just the swab, youre not going to get the virus, she said. Members of UAB staff provide mobile coronavirus testing in low-income Birmingham neighborhoods But the level of healthcare resources in Alabama cities presents a stark contrast to the lack of infrastructure in the states rural Black Belt region where many hospitals have closed. To Rev. Strong, the responsibility lies with Gov. Kay Ivey, for not expanding Medicaid. Ivey recently said it would be irresponsible to expand Medicaid without a funding source. Its so tragic almost that Kay Ivey would praise her health screening, provided by her health care, that gave her an early diagnosis of breast cancer and at the same time refuse to sign a Medicaid (expansion) that would allow thousands upon thousands of other Alabamians to have access the same healthcare to get early detection, early diagnosis, so they too could have a better chance to live, he said. Concerned about all people. Norma Pettway comes from a family of quilters best known as part of the Gees Bend Quilting Collective. Its a tradition that started in slavery, when family members would sew together clothes to remember loved ones sold away, she says. Back then, that was how they kept clothes that was worn by loved ones they didnt want to forget, said Pettway. They would make pieces and use that to keep warm during the winter. Pettway is a substitute teacher who lives in Boykin, but hasnt been able to get work or unemployment during the pandemic. She is living off her stimulus check this month and may seek help from one of her sons if she cant pay the bills in the future. She feels the coronavirus situation is overblown, and the panic button has been pressed. Its like mind over matter. Keep moving forward, dont think on that so much, she said. Norma Pettway is a substitute teacher from Boykin Pettway says she was brought up to love people, regardless of race. But it bothers her when she sees President Donald Trump on television without a mask on. What is it thats making him more immune to this than anyone else? He must have the antidote, he must know what it is, or how it got started or what made it. Geraldine Collins is a retired high school counselor who lives in nearby Uniontown. She describes the Black Belt as an economically depressed area deprived of healthcare resources. Yet she believes coronavirus transcends race, adding that some black people are also pushing for society to reopen. Everybody is vulnerable for this. No matter what the race is, we should be concerned about all people. They stacked the decks Mobile City Councilman Fred Richardson is hoping he can help slow the spread of the virus through his community. I just left Walmart, and most of the people I saw didnt have a mask on, he said on Thursday, adding that he saw no one there sanitizing shopping carts. He wants businesses to step up and take responsibility by presenting plans to keep staff and customers safe. Born in poverty in Conecuh County, three generations removed from slavery, Richardson says he was in the first generation of blacks to have a school to go to, a public education he considers subpar. This nation declared war on African Americans when we first got here and they have not let up, he said of the underlying health disparities that continue to play out with coronavirus. They stacked the decks to make sure wed be in the basement of this great society, and thats where we find our citizens, he said of the higher death rates for blacks. Richardson has tried unsuccessfully to pass a council resolution requiring residents to wear masks in public. Instead the council passed a resolution recommending residents wear masks but not requiring them. You have government leaders not really willing to step up to the plate, he said. Mobile City Councilman Fred Richardson Richardson draws a comparison between Mobile, whose mayor is white, and Birmingham, where the mayor is black. Randall Woodfin, mayor of Birmingham, shut down the city early and required masks to be worn in public. Mobiles mayor, Sandy Stimpson, pushed to keep businesses open. Birmingham has tested nearly twice the numbers as Mobile, and is levying $500 fines for violating the mask law compared to Mobiles $100 penalty for its curfew, Richardson points out. Stimpson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This is a very aggressive enemy, said Mobile County Health Officer Burt Eichold of the death toll of the coronavirus. He says that Mobile started testing slower than Birmingham because of a lack of supplies, but it has now improved capacity. The Mobile County Health Department is strongly recommending, rather than mandating, social distancing and the use of masks. To sit down and tell you that you have to do something that is by law or by regulation is more challenging, he said. "(Its best) if we can educate people and they see the value in it." Rev. Johnson, the Mobile pastor, agrees about the need to educate people to take precautions. But he says when its safe again, his congregation will rejoin in person to memorialize the members theyve lost. And those who survived the disease are ready to celebrate life like never before. It makes him think about a traditional song about going to heaven. When I was growing up, we used to (sing), When we all get together, what a time, what a time" he said. Lately he thinks about the traditional hymn in terms of life on earth, remarking that the song has more relevance now than ever before. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Journal Arts Editor Asian American history in the United States is often overlooked in history books. This is the exact reason there has been an effort to tell their story. The five-hour documentary, Asian Americans premieres at 7 p.m. Monday, May 11, and continues at 7 and 9 p.m. Tuesday, May 12, on New Mexico PBS. The series is narrated by Daniel Dae Kim and Tamlyn Tomita. This five-part series examines what the 2010 U.S. Census identified as the fastest-growing racial/ethnic group in the United States. Told through individual lives and personal histories, Asian Americans explores the impact of this group on the countrys past, present and future. Accompanied by robust educational, engagement, and digital components, this groundbreaking initiative brings a new perspective to the American experience. The series tracks the first new immigrants to the United States and their efforts for equality in an era of exclusion and empire. It also provides insight into a generation whose loyalties are tested during World War II; and takes a more prominent look at a new generations role in political and cultural issues in both the recent past and present. It follows the stories of trailblazers, both prominent and forgotten, who had an impact on representation and what it means to be Asian American today. Interviews in the film include Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen, activist Helen Zia, actor Randall Park, comedian Hari Kondabolu and academic expert Erika Lee. Filmmaker Leo Chiang directed the first episode, which begins with the story of Chinese working on the railroad system. Chiang says helming the first episode was a little more difficult because he had the least amount of footage, yet had to find a way to make the history exciting. This was also the reason he became a filmmaker for the storytelling. I was really fascinated by the salvation story in Episode 1, he says in an interview from Taiwan. Depending on the year a Chinese person came to the United States, they were seen as white or non-white. Basically, race is a social construct and was kind of regulatory. Having grown up in Asia and moving to the U.S. later in life, it gives me a whole different outlook. Chiang says the timing of the series premiere is great. He says that with COVID-19 around the world, Asians are being treated badly. In the documentary, we learn about the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, he says. Those things seem to be happening in some version today. The Chinese Exclusion Act was an immigration law passed in 1882 that prevented Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States. It was the first immigration law that excluded an entire ethnic group. It also excluded Chinese nationals from eligibility for U.S. citizenship. Chiang also learned how Chinese workers worked with Native Americans on building the railroad system. To be able to see how Asian immigrants are such a defining part of the American experience, he said. Some of the Asians in the U.S. have been here longer than most. I really hope the story will promote a deeper understanding and educate people on our history. Filmmaker Grace Lee was at the helm of the second and fourth parts of the series. When you are talking about the Asian American movement, I wanted to show how the past connected to the present, Lee says. By the time I got to Episode 4, getting information became a lot easier, because many were still alive. Lee also got to learn about the Japanese internment camps in the United States. From March 1942 to April 1946, the U.S. government incarcerated 4,555 men of Japanese ancestry in a camp near Santa Fe. The Army operated a prisoner-of war camp in Lordsburg. The challenges were relying in first-person narratives, Lee says. Lee delved into farmworker union strikes, which were led by Filipinos. I wasnt aware of the story, Lee says. It was eye opening to me to learn how this group was helping leading the charge with Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. Asians, Latino and Native Americans, the were all part of the Third World strike. Lee hopes the series will shed light on the Asian American history. These stories can easily get buried, Lee says. Its important to continue the narrative and bring to light what has happened along the way. Hopefully, we can learn from these moments and not repeat them. With governments and pharma companies across the world racing against time to develop a vaccine for Covid-19, the Union Ministry of Science and Technology's Department of Biotechnology (DBT) aims to make rapid and molecular diagnostics tests available by the end of next month. In an interview with News18, DBT Secretary, Dr Renu Swarup talks about a range of issues, including the prospects of Indias vaccine development endeavours and the accuracy of the virus being a lab release theory. Serum Institute will be manufacturing the vaccine being developed by Oxford University, but no Indian company seems to be in the first curve of vaccine development. Despite having a host of biotech companies, why are we lagging in the race for vaccine research and development? The current Covid-19 pandemic is a public health crisis of the deepest international concern. Vaccine development is a global effort, which means that it needs to be accessible worldwide. We should be happy that an Indian company is doing that. We are not lagging, as a large number of industries and research institute are working on vaccine candidate. India is among the largest manufacturer of generic drugs and vaccines in the world. It is home to half a dozen major vaccine makers, making doses against polio, meningitis, pneumonia, rotavirus, BCG, measles, mumps and rubella, among other diseases. Now, half a dozen Indian firms are developing vaccines against Covid-19. Serum, in collaboration with Codagenix, an American biotech company, is also developing a "live attenuated" vaccine. Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech is working on two vaccine candidates. Zydus Cadilla is working on two vaccines, while Biological E, Indian Immunologicals, and Mynvax are developing a vaccine each. Another four or five home-grown vaccines are in early stages of development. DBT is funding the vaccine development efforts under its National Biopharma Mission to fast track these efforts. In the post-coronavirus world, it appears that India can emerge as a viable alternative to China for G-7 countries. Has your department drawn up plans to boost Make in India and increase exports? There is a significant push to bring in indigenous products in India. Covid-19 has given us enough reasons to strengthen our indigenous product development and boost Make in India not only for domestic markets but also for the world. The Make in India cell at BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, a PSU of Department of Biotechnology) has been central to assisting startups and connecting them to investors and investments. Now, with the economic crisis, startups are facing more challenges and have made our role more critical. A new Fast Track Review mechanism has been evolved to support startups for COVID solutions. The review body aims to find co-funding partners and help to mobilise CSR funds for the research consortium. What have Indias sequencing efforts revealed about the Sars-Cov-2 virus? India has shared genome sequence to the global body. Various institutes like National Institute of Virology (ICMR), Gujrat Biotechnology Research Centre, IGIB (CSIR), National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (DBT-NIBG) are working to support a global genome database. It aims to enhance understanding of the virus and to develop a vaccine. Continuous monitoring and analysis of the sequences are vital to understanding the genetic evolution and rates of substitution of the SARS-CoV-2. It also immensely helps epidemiological investigations. Recently, the Department of Biotechnology has undertaken a project to sequence 1,000 SARS-CoV-2 genomes from samples across India to understand the evolving behaviour of the virus that causes Covid-19. The study would help understand emerging mutations in the virus and how they affect the symptoms of the disease. There are several theories about the outbreak doing the rounds. Is there any scientific evidence backing the lab release theory? The WHO has maintained that identification of the animal source of the virus through international scientific and collaborative missions, in collaboration with the World Organization for Animal Health and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization is one of its priorities. However, there is scientific consensus that available data suggested that the virus was not genetically engineered. DBT has recently said that India seeks to become self-reliant in the production of RT-PCR and Antibody test kits by the end of next month. How will this target be met? Yes, we are working towards meeting the country's demand during the national crisis by making rapid and molecular diagnostics available for Covid-19. Department of Biotechnology (DBT) under its National Biopharma Mission is supporting the Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone which is Asia's first medical equipment manufacturing ecosystem, uniquely dedicated for Medtech. This DBT-AMTZ COMManD strategy would ensure that rapid infrastructure capabilities are used for progressively improving the domestic manufacturing capabilities in the medical technology sector in a quick and quality assured manner. We have also supported some ICMR-approved startups to scale up their production. Indigenous development and production of resources and components for kits manufacturing are also being supported. 3 1 of 3 Photo provided Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Photo provided Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Jacksonville High School seniors were invited to share their graduation caps with readers. More are available on a slideshow at myjournalcourier.com. Mother- the word itself stirs up a whirlpool of emotions within us. Loving, nurturing, caring, protecting, guiding, our mothers mean the world us! And so it does to the adorable animal babies that share our planet as they too have moms just as doting as ours. It is not only Homo sapiens, but the rest of the Animal Kingdom is also replete with examples of moms who would go to any extent, make humongous sacrifices, and even fight to death to protect their babies. Here are some examples of the Supermoms of the Animal Kingdom: The Fiercely Protective Tigress Moms A tigress cuddling her cub. Image credit: Baranov E When it comes to being a super-protective mom, the tigress is renowned for this quality. History is teeming with many examples where the tigress engages in extreme fights with powerful predators to protect her cubs, sometimes even losing the battle and her life in the process. Survival is a constant challenge for tigers, and being a tiger mom is even tougher. Hunting is not as easy for this apex predator as we think because the prey species of these animals are also equipped with enough defense mechanisms to make a tiger pant. And for the tigress, she has to hunt not only to feed her own stomach but also that of her cubs. A research study published in the journal Mammal Research revealed the sacrifices made by a tigress to be a successful mom. Researchers found that Vavarra, a female Amur tiger, changed her behavior after becoming a mother to safeguard and nurture her cubs. She gave up defending her territory, wandered less, made larger and fewer kills, and rested very little. By changing herself and making sacrifices, she ensured her cubs remained protected and nurtured well. The Super-caring Crocodile Moms A mother crocodile with a hatched offspring. Image credit: Catchlight Lens No one knows better about a crocodile mom's love for her babies than Nicolas Mathevon, an animal behavior specialist, who decided to test a croc mother's love. In 2007 in Guyana, he rode a boat playing a previously recorded distress call of an infant croc. Hearing it, an enraged mama crocodile suddenly tried to lunge at his boat. However, just in time, he switched off the record, stopping the mama croc mid-air. Further research into the crocodile mother-offsrping bond revealed that these much-feared water predators are actually one of the most loving moms in the animal world. Researchers discovered how croc infants make peculiar sounds inside their shell before hatching so as to alert the mother croc to welcome her new offsprings in a safe environment. In fact, infant crocodiles have also been recorded making sounds to attract their mothers when needed. The Nurturing Hyena Moms A spotted hyena mother and infant in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Image credit: Simon Eeman Spotted hyena moms definitely deserve a mention on this list. Prior to giving birth, these supermoms hunt for a den that is away from the communal den of their clans and has only a single entry-exit point. After giving birth, these moms remain with their offsprings for around two weeks when they develop a strong bond with their children. After the two weeks are over, they gradually introduce them to the members of the communal den. The milk produced by these hyena moms is one of the richest in nutrients among the terrestrial carnivores. The cubs are nursed for almost two years which demands a huge energy investment on the part of hyena females, especially when the hyena males do not participate in the child-rearing process. The Super-attached Orca Moms A mother and calf orca breach in synchrony. Image credit: Monica Wieland Shields In 2018, media was flooded with reports of a female orca named Tahlequah mourning for her dead calf for 17 long days! Ken Balcomb from the Center for Whale Research was quoted saying I have never seen that kind of grief." The calf died only half an hour after birth and Tahlequah carried her baby's body on her with help from relatives who also joined her in the mourning. The orca relatives also occasionally carried the calf on them and fed Tahlequah during the mourning period. Not just Tahlequah, orcas have displayed such affection towards their calves many times in the past. So, while we tag orcas as "killer whales" for their exceptional hunting strategies, as mothers they are the softest of all beings. And Of Course, The Gentle Giant Moms Baby elephants are highly pampered and protected by the female members of the herd. Image credit: MartaSer The towering elephants, the largest terrestrial mammals, can be the gentlest of mothers. Elephant mothers carry their babies for almost two years before giving birth. The baby elephants are the most pampered of all. Elephants herds are matriarchal in nature where adult female elephants participate in child-rearing. They are extremely protective of their young ones and have often been captured rescuing the baby elephants as one united group when needed. These ladies also teach useful skills to their babies and ensure they get top quality food. So, elephant babies are the luckiest in that they have not just their biological mom but several supermoms dedicated to their care! Students from Kolhapur stranded in Pune were sent home by two private buses on Sunday from the Swargate bus depot. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Chandrakant Patil and Kothrud legislator arranged for the travel of these students who were stranded in the city due to lockdown. We received registration forms from students who were stranded in Pune and belonged to Kolhapur district. So after completing all the necessary procedure to get the legal passes and permissions, all these students have now been sent back to their homes today, Patil said. Rishikesh Joshi, a student who travelled in the bus to Kolhapur, said, It had become very difficult for us to survive in Pune and my parents were worried about me. I had applied to go back to Kolhapur and today we are being sent by a bus back home, it is a great relief to us. Similarly, for long distance travel of stranded migrant labourers in the city, two shramik trains departed from Pune railway division carrying registered workers back home. The Pune district administration coordinated with the workers and sent the list to the railways after which trains have been running from different railway stations in the district. We have started running special trains for stranded people for which we get all the necessary data of passengers and permissions from the Pune district administration. All our railway staff from different departments with utmost precautions have carried out running of these special trains, keeping in mind all the social distancing norms during the operations, said Manoj Jhavar, spokesperson, Pune railway division. In another instance, a special state transport bus of the Maharashtra State Transport Corporation (MSRTC) carrying 44 students who were preparing for competitive exams were sent to Jalgaon. A medical check-up was conducted for all students, they were also given a meal packet, a water bottle and a hand sanitiser before departing the city. A goods train departed Wuhan loaded with 294.42 tonnes of anti-epidemic supplies such as masks, protective suits, goggles, and medical devices. The train will reach its destination Belgrade in 18 days. READ: Sham! Nations Bulk-return Faulty Coronavirus Gear & Tests Imported From Covid Source China China supplies medical aid A China-Europe freight train loaded with 294.42 tonnes of anti-epidemic supplies such as masks, protective suits, goggles, and medical devices, on Saturday left Wuhan heading for Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. The cargo will arrive in Belgrade in 18 days. pic.twitter.com/KhiKknImEn People's Daily, China (@PDChina) May 9, 2020 Wuhan is the origin of the coronvirus and reported the first case in December 2019. Since then, the virus has spread across the world, bringing it to a standstill. The health crisis quickly turned into an economic crisis and later, a humanitarian crisis since millions of businesses have stopped, leading to unemployment. Multiple businesses, big and small have filed for bankruptcy. People have been left homeless and stranded because transportation facilities have ceased as well. China has been under increasing global pressure for not informing the global community about the threat of the virus and various leaders have also accused China of allowing the spread of the virus while hoarding anti-Covid materials, also alleging that the virus really originated in a lab in Wuhan. READ: China Will Look Into Reports Of Unfit Mask Exports USA has been at forefront of these allegations, with President Donald Trump also heavily and repeatedly criticising the World Health Organisation (WHO) of complicity. President Trump, last month, announced a withdrawal of US' funding of WHO. Tensions between USA and China have only increased in recent months as their leaders continue to trade barbs over handling of the pandemic that has crippled economies worldwide. Chinas state-owned Global Times newspaper has said leaders were making groundless accusations against Beijing by suggesting the coronavirus was released from a Chinese laboratory. The populist tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party mouthpiece Peoples Daily said the claims were a politically motivated attempt to preserve Trumps presidency and divert attention from the U.S. administrations own failures in dealing with the outbreak. READ: China Continues To Hide & Obfuscate COVID 19 Data From World: Mike Pompeo On Friday, WHO scientist, Dr. Peter Ben Embarek stated that the Wuhan market had role in virus outbreak, but more research is needed. Dr. Embarek - who is a WHO expert on food safety and zoonotic viruses, has stated that while the role was clear, its exact role is not yet known. This is the first statement in which WHO has openly admitted the role of China's Wuhan market in the spread of the pandemic. The market played a role in the event, thats clear. But what role we dont know. Whether it was the source or amplifying setting or just a coincidence that some cases were detected in and around that market, said Dr Peter Ben Embarek in a press briefing. He added, "Food safety in these environments is rather difficult and therefore it's not surprising that sometimes we also have these events happening within markets". According to Ben Embarek, it might take considerable time to identify the original animal source for the new coronavirus. Embarek said while China likely has the necessary expertise to conduct such studies and has not noted any problems in China's willingness to collaborate with others. READ: Trump Administration Tightens Visas For Chinese Reporters (Image credit: twitter.com/PDChina) After reports of skirmish between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Sikkim, there have been reports of confrontation between the troops of the two countries at the northern border as well. As per fresh inputs from sources, on the intervening night of May 5 and 6, a scuffle and stone-pelting incident took place between Indian and Chinese soldiers at the Finger 5 area on the banks of Lake Pangang in Ladakh. There has been reports of minor injuries received by armymen from both sides of the border. The area in Ladakh is a disputed one and in 1962 a fierce battle had taken place in this area. Two years ago, a clash was reported between the soldiers of the two countries. Sources added that such issues are resolved mutually by troops at the local command level as per established protocols, and the latest skirmish has occurred after a long time. The matter has been resolved after talks with the commanders but tensions between the armies prevail. Earlier in the day, reports claimed that clashes erupted between Indian and Chinese forces in Naku La sector of north Sikkim. The area has no road connectivity and is maintained by helicopeter. It is learnt that a total of 150 soldiers were involved in the face-off that reportedly took place a few days back. Sources told Zee Media that the clashes took place during regular patrolling by the forces from the two countries. The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control, the de-facto border between the two countries. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it. Ellie Price's body of was found in her townhouse in South Melbourne on Monday afternoon, but police believe she was killed several days earlier Heartbroken friends and family have gathered to pay tribute to a 'beautiful and loving' mother who was brutally killed inside her Melbourne home. Ellie Price's body of was found in her townhouse in South Melbourne on Monday afternoon, but police believe she was killed several days earlier. Mourners came together in her hometown of Hobart on Sunday where they released hundreds of pink to honour the 26-year-old dancer. Plumes of pink smoke - Ms Price's favourite colour - travelled into the air as a V8 Commodore circled the cul de sac while mourners watched on. 'This is for you, El,' one person wrote in a post online. 'Love you Ellie,' wrote another. Drivers risk a $2,800 fine or three months' imprisonment if they are caught doing burnouts as it is an offence in Tasmania. A nationwide manhunt for her mafia-linked boyfriend Ricardo 'Rick' Barbaro continues after the grisly discovery of his on again-off again partner. Daily Mail Australia does not suggest Barbaro killed Ms Price, only that he is wanted by police for questioning. More than 40 of Ms Price's family and friends gathered on Mother's Day for a final send off in Hobart Plumes of pink smoke - Ms Price's favourite colour - travelled into the air as a V8 Commodore circled the cul de sac while mourners watched on Ms Price's devastated four-year-old son Mostafa spent Mother's Day 'wondering where mummy is,' her cousin Rebecca Lehner said. 'No kid should have to grow up without a parent. That poor little boy. How do you explain to a four-year-old that his mum isn't coming home?,' Ms Lehner told the Herald Sun. Ms Lehner said her cousin tried to give Mostafa the best possible life she could while studying for a beauty diploma. She said that over Christmas, the family overheard Ms Price speaking lovingly on the phone to Barbaro, with whom she'd planned to settle down and buy a house. 'Ellie sounded happy, she was just her normal self. There were no red flags at the time I knew of,' Ms Lehner said. Ms Price's mother Tracey Gangell said spending Mother's Day without her beloved daughter was heartbreaking. 'The pain... you don't think it happens to you, you think it happens to everybody else but not you,' she told 7News. 'She thought [Barbaro] loved her,' Ms Price's grandmother Sherry Bradford added. The four-year-old son of Melbourne woman Ellie Price (left) asked where his mum is during his first Mother's Day without her. Pictured: Ms Price, 26, with her son Mostafa, four The body of Ellie Price, 26, was found in her townhouse in South Melbourne on Monday afternoon, but police believe she was killed several days earlier Ms Price grew up in Tasmania and had planned to move back with her four-year-old son Mostafa. Ms Gangell said not being able to protect her daughter will haunt her for the rest of her life. 'I feel so bad because a mother is supposed to protect their kids and I didn't protect her. I couldn't be there to help her,' she said through tears. 'She lived for her son... My heart's just broken into a million pieces for her little boy.' Ms Bradford said they can now see Ms Price when they look in Mostafa's eyes. Mostafa has been living with Ms Gangell in Hobart after starting school this year. Ms Price would frequently fly down to see her son, even if it was just for the day. Dozens of bouquets of flowers were left outside Ms Price's South Melbourne apartment, with her family taking to Facebook to share their grief. 'Rest in paradise our beautiful Ellie. Love you then, loved you now, always loved you. Until we meet again,' one post read. Ms Price's luxury Mercedes-Benz was was found on Thursday night at Diggers Rest, northwest of Melbourne, and it will undergo forensic testing. Police said Ms Price likely suffered a 'violent' assault on April 28 or 29 and may have been dead for up to five days before her body was found. The hunt for 33-year-old Barbaro continues, with detectives from the homicide squad, fugitive taskforce and other police units searching for him. Anyone who sees Barbaro should not approach him but call triple zero or Crime Stoppers. A nationwide manhunt for mafia figure Ricardo 'Rick' Barbaro continues after the grisly discovery of his on again-off again partner Police believe Barbaro could be travelling in his white 2009 Toyota Hiace van, with registration 1OZ 8PC. Barbaro's stepmother Anita, who is married to Barbaro's father Joe, said the situation was devastating and passed on her condolences to Ms Price's family. 'Firstly to Ellie and her family, words cannot describe the heartache we have for you all, especially for her little boy, we can't possibly imagine how he must now face life and continue living without his Mummy,' she said in a statement to 9News. 'Ricky, we're extremely worried about you, we're in complete disbelief as we know you to be the man who is gentle and loving, you're a great father and brother to all. 'Ricky Son, if you've done anything wrong please come forward and do the right thing for the sake of this poor young woman and family, and the incomprehensible pain they must be suffering, you need make contact with somebody.' Barbaro is described as 185cm tall with a solid build, black hair and olive complexion. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday urged migrant workers in the city to stay back, assuring them that there would be jobs soon, as lockdown curbs are gradually eased a process that kicked off last week. I am concerned with reports of migrant workers headed home on foot with minimum food and water with them walking for days. Some of them have left with children and elderly relatives. It is absolutely unsafe. I assure migrant workers in Delhi that, so far, we have taken care of food and shelter, and we are now doing our best to arrange for transport to send them home, Kejriwal said. But my first appeal for them will be to stay back. This lockdown is not going to be indefinite. It will be scaled down soon and the process has already begun. There will be jobs again. But still, if someone has no other option than to return home, I urge them to show some more patience. We have come across report of accidents on roads and rail tracks. This is concerning. Delhi on Sunday recorded 381 new cases of Covid-19, taking the total number of cases in the city to 6,923. The Capital also recorded five deaths, increasing the citys toll to 73. The government had, on Saturday, revised the time cycle for which it reports cases of the coronavirus disease. Cases are now recorded between 12am and 12am, instead of 4pm to 4pm earlier. In a video briefing, Kejriwal said a majority of Covid-19 patients in the city over 75% were either asymptomatic, or displayed mild symptoms and were either in home isolation or lodged in Covid care centres. The rest, as many as 1,476, were being treated in the Covid-designated hospitals across the city. Kejriwal said that of the admitted patients, 91 were in intensive care units (ICU), and among the 73 dead, more than 82% were above 50 years and had other health issues. He also said the Delhi government has roped in ambulances from private hospitals to make up for a shortage of the ones run by the state government. These ambulances will now cater to calls from both government and private hospitals, he said. Kejriwal on Sunday asserted that Delhi has contained the number of Covid related deaths and criticised the opposition for politicising a recent order providing hotel facilities for front line workers such as health care staff, sanitation workers, police, etc and announcements of financial aid in the event of their deaths. The Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit back, saying none of the partys leaders had criticised any such government orders. Delhi BJP Manoj Tiwari on Sunday said, Arvind Kejriwal should disclose the actual number of Covid-19 deaths in Delhi instead of talking about insignificant things to divert attention. To ensure timely reporting of Covid-19 deaths in the city, the Delhi government on Sunday released standard operating procedures according to which all the designated centres for treatment of Covid-19 patients will have to send details of the deaths by 5pm each day. The SOPs released by the Delhi government on Sunday states that even if there have been no deaths, centres have to send a Nil report by 5pm. Each hospital will have a nodal officer to ensure that the deaths are reported in a timely manner. On Saturday, Delhis health minister Satyendar Jain had assured that a single case would not go unaccounted for. President Trump has repeatedly castigated a new ad by a group of Republican critics who are trying to prevent his reelection. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) Reed Galen was about to go to sleep one night last week when his phone pinged. President Trump was tweeting about him and his group of longtime Republican allies who are working to make sure Trump is not reelected. The group, a political action committee called the Lincoln Project, had created an ad called Mourning in America, a play on a famed 1984 Ronald Reagan campaign ad. The minute-long video blasts Trumps handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the economic freefall, arguing that he has made the country weaker and sicker and poorer. It was mostly a digital effort, but they spent a few thousand dollars to air the ad on Fox News during Tucker Carlsons nightly show on Monday. The purchase aimed at an audience of one clearly hit its mark. 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, Trump wrote in a firestorm of tweets after midnight last Monday. I didnt use any of them because they dont know to win, and their so-called Lincoln Project is a disgrace to Honest Abe. 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.... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2020 Galen, a former Orange County-based GOP strategist who now lives in Park City, Utah, described the moment as surreal. Its one of these things where you work hard, and you have an idea, and sometimes it all comes to fruition, he said. I would be lying if I said it does not seem surreal to be sitting in bed and watching the president of the United States trash you and your friends and spell your name wrong. Story continues It was the most attention the Lincoln Project had received. The political action committee was formed by a small group of Republican strategists with ties to politicians such as former President George W. Bush, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the late Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Several have ties to California. They have endorsed Democrat Joe Biden for president. They had a relatively small budget and are largely unknown by the general public, though their anti-Trump efforts have garnered some headlines. Trumps tweets launched them into a new stratosphere. Their videos typically receive several hundred thousand views; Mourning in America has been watched by more than 16 million people. Between Nov. 5 and March 31, the group raised under $2.6 million; in less than a week since the ads debut, they raised more than $2 million. The group plans to use the money to air the ad in Wisconsin, Florida and Ohio this week. Mourning In America pic.twitter.com/djkH0ySCqo The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) May 4, 2020 "From our perspective, half a million views was pretty good for a bunch of guys on a pirate ship, doing all the work themselves," Galen said. But now, "it's taken on a life of its own. That's the thing he did, frankly. He gets you from the Twitterverse to the real world. People who otherwise may not have heard of us for days, weeks, or ever now know we exist. And it benefits us." Trump appears unlikely to stop. Why is it that all of the political pundits & consultants that I beat so easily & badly, people that charged their clients far more than their services were worth, have become so totally 'unhinged' when it come to your favorite President, me," Trump tweeted on Saturday. "These people are stone cold crazy! The Department of Justices motion to dismiss its case against Gen. Flynn doesnt end the matter. Flynn pleaded guilty and the case is at the sentencing stage. In theory, Judge Sullivan could deny the DOJs motion and sentence Flynn. I say in theory because I understand that motions like the DOJs are routinely granted. As the DOJ states in its motion to dismiss, When the Government so moves, the role for courts. . .is narrow and circumscribed. Thats because decisions to dismiss pending charges. . .lie squarely within the ken of prosecutorial discretion and at the core of the Executives duty to see to the faithful execution of the laws. (Citation omitted) Thus, it would be extraordinary for Judge Sullivan to deny the governments motion to dismiss its case against Gen. Flynn. But then, this is not your average case and Sullivan has shown hes not your average judge. The Washington Posts editors argue that Sullivan should not dismiss the case against Flynn. Their editorial does not address or acknowledge the legal standard for denying the DOJs motion. Instead, it argues the merits of the case against Flynn. The Post does so in a one-sided and less than fully honest way. The title of the editorial (paper edition) is A blow to impartial justice. Yet, the Post doesnt mention the evidence of prosecutorial misconduct, described in detail in the DOJs motion, that underlies the Departments decision. That evidence shows that Flynn did not receive impartial justice from the FBI. In my view, the FBIs misconduct was so egregious and so plainly motivated by political considerations as to justify dismissing this case in the interest of justice. The Post also presents a misleading characterization of Flynns conversation with the Russian ambassador the one Flynn was accused of lying to the FBI about. The Post says that Flynn advised the ambassador that Russia should resist responding to U.S. sanctions on Russia, which the Obama administration had imposed in response to the Kremlins 2016 election interference. It characterizes the conversation as an attempt by Flynn to coordinat[e] a response to the Obama sanctions. . . The word responding is vague and the word coordinate is misleading. Flynn urged Russia not to retaliate against the U.S. in response to the sanctions. There was nothing wrong with that. Americas interests would be served if Russia did not retaliate. Nonetheless, if Flynn lied to the FBI about this conversation, and if the alleged lie was material under the applicable legal standard, then Flynn committed a crime. The DOJs brief focuses mainly on materiality. Thats a complex issue, not well suited for either an editorial or a less than lengthy blog post. I dont find the DOJs argument on materiality entirely persuasive. I think the DOJ takes too narrow a view of this requirement. But then, Im not a criminal lawyer. And even if I were, the call on whether to continue this prosecution would not be mine to make. Nor, absent truly extraordinary circumstances, should it be Judge Sullivans. Disagreement about a point of law is not an extraordinary circumstance. Judge Sullivan should grant the Department of Justices motion to dismiss the case against Michael Flynn. The state health department distributed iPads to Connecticut nursing homes Saturday with an order to help residents who have been unable to have visitors since March stay in touch with friends and relatives. The iPads, paid for with civil fines, were being delivered in time for Mothers Day Sunday. Each of the states 215 nursing homes was to receive a number of the devices based on the facilitys size. State officials banned visitors to nursing homes March 13 as part of efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Department of Public Health Commissioner Renee Coleman-Mitchell on Saturday ordered each facility to schedule weekly alternatives to in-person visits for residents. They can include outdoor visits while social distancing, video chats, telephone calls or visits through the window. Nursing home residents have accounted for more than half of all COVID-19-related deaths in the state, according to data released by Gov. Ned Lamonts office. As of Saturday, more than 32,980 state residents had tested positive for the virus and 2,932 residents had died. There were 1,301 people hospitalized because of the virus, 35 fewer than the previous day, continuing a two-week decline. A man, who recently returned from Lagos after suffering a stroke, has died from COVID-19 complications in Kwara state. The incident, which is said to be the first COVID-19-related death in the state, occurred on Saturday morning. Rafiu Ajakaye, chief press secretary to the governor and spokesman of the Kwara state technical committee on COVID-19, disclosed this in a statement. The man was said to have returned from Lagos with his wife and child, and they were treated as suspected COVID-19 cases, and their samples were taken for testing. However, the man died before the test result was received on Saturday. Kwara State Government hereby announces the death of a COVID-19 case. The fellow had recently arrived Kwara from Lagos with his wife and a child shortly after he suffered stroke at his Lagos base, Ajakaye said. Before his death, the government had treated him, his wife and their child as suspected cases and samples were taken from them. The results of their samples came back positive. Unfortunately, he died early Saturday morning even before the family got to know about their COVID status. He has been buried accordingly. Everyone involved in the burial has now had their samples taken. Because of the peculiarity of this development, the Rapid Response Team has moved in to bring all those involved into the isolation centre, including the wife and the child. The government prayed for the repose of the soul of the late patient, and urged citizens to see COVID-19 for what it is, as a deadly and highly contagious virus that requires adherence to all safety protocols, including obeying the lockdown order. We repeat that there is no shame or blame in contracting the virus as this is a global pandemic from which no one is immune, the statement added. The government also announced four new positive cases of COVID-19, from amongst those who sneaked into the state from the northwestern axis of the country. According to Ajakaye, Kwara has now recorded 28 COVID-19 cases, of which 19 are active cases, even though asymptomatic. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates The Bombay high court (HC) has allowed a visually-impaired lawyer an extension up to June 30, to pay for a flat he had been allotted by the City and Industry Development Corporation (CIDCO) in 2014 , though the payment deadline was May 8 of this year. The lawyer claimed that due to the Covid-19 pandemic he was unable to arrange for the funds. CIDCO opposed the plea stating that the May 8 deadline was already an indulgence. The court, however, allowed the extension as a last chance on humanitarian grounds. A single bench of justice S C Gupte, while hearing the interim application of the lawyer, was informed that in 2014 he had been allotted a flat in the Divyang quota under CIDCOs housing scheme in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai. He was asked to pay nearly Rs 49. 7 lakh in instalments for the 600 square feet flat. However, in February 2018, the allotment was cancelled on the grounds of delay in payment and hence he approached HC. In December last year, HC quashed CIDCOs allotment cancellation letter and allowed the lawyer to make delayed payments of nearly Rs 15.29 lakh in two equal instalments on humanitarian grounds. The first instalment was payable by February 7 and the second on or before May 8, 2020, after which the authority would handover possession to him. However, on May 5, advocate Nitesh Bhutekar filed an urgent application on behalf of the lawyer and informed the court that as Mumbai and Navi Mumbai were declared red zones and under lockdown, the applicant was finding it difficult to arrange funds and requested the court to grant him some time to make payment. Advocate Rohit Sakhdeo for CIDCO opposed the plea and said that the December order of the HC was already an indulgence, hence further extension should not be granted. After hearing the submissions, justice Gupte noted, Considering unusual circumstances obtaining as of date, this court is of the view that a reasonable extension of time deserves to be granted to the applicant. The court ordered that the applicant can pay balance instalment of Rs 7, 64, 974 by June 30 and stated, This extension is granted only as an indulgence and by way of a last chance, and no application shall be made hereafter for further extension of time. The bench added that in case of default, CIDCO would be entitled to cancel the allotment. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is doubling down on a letter she sent to the Michigan State Capitol Commission on Friday, May 8, in which she said the group has authority to ban firearms inside the Capitol building. Nessel plans to send the commission a formal opinion Monday morning reiterating her letter, she told Fox 2 Detroit on Sunday morning. "The response that I got back (from the commission) was, that it was not a formal AG opinion," Nessel said. "So I said to the commission, 'Challenge accepted, I will be issuing a formal AG opinion that reiterates my prior opinion.'" The commission meets virtually at 11 a.m. on Monday, and plans to discuss the issue of firearms at the Capitol and in the Capitol Square, per its agenda. The debate was spurred by recent protests against Michigan's stay-at-home order, where armed protesters filled the Capitol putting some legislators on edge. Directly above me, men with rifles yelling at us. Some of my colleagues who own bullet proof vests are wearing them. I have never appreciated our Sergeants-at-Arms more than today. #mileg pic.twitter.com/voOZpPYWOs Senator Dayna Polehanki (@SenPolehanki) April 30, 2020 "In my opinion, 100% the commission does have the legal authority to ban firearms in the Capitol as, by the way, the vast majority of state capitols do in the United States," Nessel said. While Michigan does not ban guns in its Capitol, a handful of other states do. Firearms are banned in the U.S. Capitol as well as capitol buildings in California, Connecticut, Idaho, Louisiana, South Carolina, West Virginia, among others, per the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The capitol commission can and should ban guns in the Capitol, Nessel said in a pair of tweets on Sunday morning, saying its a matter of safety and security. Its time to implement sound safety measures at the Michigan Capitol, just as we do at courthouses all around the state, Nessel said on Twitter. With more protests on the horizon, its not a matter of if a serious incident will occur, its when. This is a matter of safety and security-for our legislators, the staff working at the Capitol, and for the public at large. It's time to implement sound safety measures at the Michigan Capitol, just as we do at courthouses all around the state. https://t.co/lsf4ZuhXed Dana Nessel (@dananessel) May 10, 2020 Democrats from the House and Senate have also issued statements and sent letters, calling for a firearms ban at the Capitol. The Michigan State Capitol Commission has six members: the Secretary of the Senate, the Clerk of the House, two members appointed by the governor and two members jointly appointed by the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House. Theyre responsible for managing the Capitol grounds and building, which includes approving what is and isnt approved on the property. Nessel cited Michigan Supreme Court rulings in her Friday letter to the commission, on why it has authority to ban firearms at the Capitol. Commission Vice Chairman John Truscott told MLive on Friday he believes such a decision has to come from the Legislature. The commissions lawyer advised the group it doesnt have jurisdiction to ban guns in the building, Truscott said. 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. Use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and carry hand sanitizer with you when you go into places like stores. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has also issued an executive order requiring people to wear face coverings over their mouth and nose while inside enclosed, public spaces. Read all of MLives coverage on the coronavirus at mlive.com/coronavirus. Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus. Related stories: Sunday, May 10: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Guns can be banned at Michigan Capitol, says AG Dana Nessel Michigans new coronavirus cases continue daily downward trend, recoveries exceed 22,000 Gov. Whitmer extends order allowing recently expired drivers licenses, plate tabs State orders Owosso barber to shut shop or face court if he continues to defy governors coronavirus order Zoa Morani, who recovered from COVID-19 in April, on Saturday visited Nair Hospital in Mumbai to donate blood for plasma therapy trails. Zoa Morani, who recovered from COVID-19 in April, on Saturday visited Nair Hospital in Mumbai to donate blood for plasma therapy trails. The actor, who has recently recovered from coronavirus along with her father producer Karim Morani and sister Shaza Morani, took to Instagram to thank the doctors and inform everyone about her donation. She also informed in her post that her blood donation has been acknowledged with a certificate and a Rs.500 remittance by the hospital and she feels "super cool" about it. Check out the post here Zoa in an interview to Indian Express spoke about the cause and said, It was a fascinating experience. The entire team at Nair hospital were very enthusiastic and so concerned about my safety. The equipment was brand new with disposable kits for each donor. The research is ongoing, and they said if need be, they would call me back for round 2 of donation if it works. Fingers crossed. Dr Shastri, Dr Ramesh Waghmare and team were on point with answers to all the queries I had regarding the procedure and made the entire experience very comfortable for me." In late April, Hollywood couple Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson had also volunteered to donate blood and plasma for COVID-19 research post their recovery from coronavirus. Hamas slams US envoy to Israel for recognizing Israeli 'right' to annex West Bank Iran Press TV Saturday, 09 May 2020 2:21 AM The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has lambasted recent pro-occupation statements by the US ambassador to Israel, who reaffirmed Washington's full support for the annexation of the West Bank and said the Tel Aviv regime had a "right" to do so. Earlier this week, David Friedman said Washington was ready to recognize Israel's so-called "sovereignty" in parts of the occupied West Bank, including the Jordan Valley, as enshrined in the much-condemned US President Donald Trump's proposed scheme for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On Friday, Hamas spokesman Hazen Qasem strongly slammed Freidman's remarks, describing them as a "violation of the Palestinian people's legitimate rights", stressing that they were in line with the White House's policy of falsifying facts to further serve Tel Aviv's agenda. The Hamas spokesman, whose remarks were carried by the Palestinian Information Center, also stressed that Palestinians are the real owners of the Palestinian territories and they will continue their legitimate struggle until the end of the occupation and will establish their independent state with Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital. In an open defiance of the international outcry, Trump officially unveiled his proposal for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in January at the White House with Netanyahu on his side, while Palestinian representatives were not invited. The American president's 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. The proposal, which further denies the right of return for Palestinian refugees to their homeland, is also in total disregard of UN Security Council resolutions and is opposed by the vast majority of the international community. Palestinian leaders who cut all ties with Washington in late 2017 after Trump's recognition of Jerusalem al-Quds as the "capital" of Israel immediately rejected the Trump 'deal,' with President Mahmoud Abbas saying it "belongs to the dustbin of history." They regard the so-called peace proposal as Washington's seal of approval for Israel's long-desired annexation of territories it has been illegally occupying for decades. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing a number of criminal indictments, has repeatedly stressed that he would start plans for annexing more areas in the West Bank on July 1, in accordance with Trump's scheme. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address According to a recent report from the Roswell Police Department, Juan Dedios Martinez-Camacho has been arrested for the possession and distribution of child pornography. Martinez-Camacho, a 46-year-old illegal immigrant, was reportedly being investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force since early March of this year. The investigation was the result of a tip coming from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. After nearly two months, the GBI attained a search warrant for Martinez-Camacho's residence in Roswell, Georgia. Upon searching the residence, agents said they recovered "several devices which were determined to contain sexually explicit images of children," Martinez-Camacho was subsequently charged with possession and distribution of child pornography. Martinez-Camacho is currently being housed at the Fulton County Jail without bail. In the case that he should be released from jail, Immigration and Customs Enforcement have placed a detainer on the man. Thus, upon his release, he will immediately become a detainee under ICE's jurisdiction and will then be processed for deportation. If Martinez-Camacho is found guilty, he could be sentenced to 15-30 years in prison. This is standard for first time offenders according to federal and state child pornography laws. Other Illegal Alien Sex Offenders Within the Last Month Kristian Jonas Gamez Trejo, a 25-year-old illegal alien from Honduras, was arrested and released six times by San Franciso police without ever being turned over to ICE agents. In August of 2016, he was arrested for sex with a minor, he was later released from jail on five years probation. Gamez was arrested four times in 2017 and was later released. In 2019 he was arrested again and was sentenced to 187 days in jail. In 2020, he was released again. Gamez was finally recaptured by ICE on April 28, he spent years as one of ICE's Most Wanted. Benito Gomez-Lopez, a 32-year-old illegal alien, was arrested by the Burleigh County Sheriff's Office on May 1 and charged with having child pornography and promoting a sexual performance by a minor. Nabor Molina, a 45-year-old illegal alien, was apprehended in April by the Polk County Sheriff's Office on 125 counts of child pornography, including samples of rape and battery against children. Federal laws regarding child pornography are: While there is a slight difference between violating state child pornography laws and federal child pornography laws, on this day in age, they are usually the same. They could likely fall under international law as well. According to FindLaw.com, the violation transitions from state to federal when the crime is carried across state lines, this could be done via the internet or the postal service. Anyone who is convicted of sexually laden crimes must register as a sex offender, and this includes a recent photo, the criminals' address, as well as other essential information, will be uploaded to a database. This information is of public record, and some areas require those convicted to introduce themselves as sex offenders when relocating to a new neighborhood or town. However, when these crimes are committed by individuals who are not in the country lawfully and legally, it really casts a negative shadow on those who wish to make an honest and respectable living in this great land. NEW YORK (AP) Ulises Garcia went from being a waiter to working at a laundromat. Yelitza Esteva used to do manicures and now delivers groceries. Maribel Torres swapped cleaning homes for sewing masks. The coronavirus pandemic has devastated sectors of the economy dominated by immigrant labor: Restaurants, hotels, office cleaning services, in-home childcare and hair and nail salons, among others, have seen businesses shuttered as nonessential. The Migration Policy Institute found that 20% of the U.S. workers in vulnerable industries facing layoffs are immigrants, even though they only make up 17% of the civilian workforce. And some of those immigrants, those without social security numbers, are unable to access any of the $2.2 trillion package that Congress approved to offer financial help during the pandemic. The economic meltdown has forced many immigrants to branch out to new jobs or adapt skills to meet new demands generated by the virus. Those immigrants who are able to find new jobs say the possibility of catching the virus makes them nervous. I wonder sometimes if I should quit because I dont feel comfortable working, when the virus is everywhere, said Garcia, a former waiter who now works at the laundromat in Brooklyn selling detergent, bleach or fabric softener. The problem is that no one knows for how long this will last, he added. For Venezuelan immigrant Yelitza Esteva there was no option other than to work after she lost the $2,100-per-month salary she earned at a Miami hair salon. Her husband also lost his job at a house remodeling company. Besides rent and bills, they send money to at least seven family members in Venezuela. I was terrified. I was left with nothing, said the 51-year-old immigrant, who left Venezuela in 2015 to seek asylum. Now, Esteva and her husband work for the grocery delivery service Instacart and make an average of $150 per day, working more than 12 hours daily. I am very, very fearful, said Esteva, who applies anti-bacterial lotion constantly while shopping at the supermarkets. I trust God, who is protecting us. Story continues Most green-card holders can benefit from unemployment insurance and from the economic stimulus package. Some immigrants on a temporary work permit, like those applying for asylum, can also get unemployment insurance and the new relief checks. Immigrants in the country illegally cant access the stimulus help or unemployment benefits even if they pay taxes. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, however, announced that his state will give cash to immigrants living in the country illegally who are hurt by the coronavirus, offering $500 apiece to 150,000 adults. Some cities in the country are pushing similar efforts: Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, have both set up bridge funds that are open regardless of immigration status. Austin, Texas, has a fund that will be used in part to help people left out of federal relief. Diana Mejia, health and safety coordinator for an interfaith organization that helps immigrants, Wind of the Spirit, says day laborers have shown up near the train station in Morristown, New Jersey, for years to wait to be picked up by construction and landscaping companies. Now, Mejia says she sees new faces. Many used to work at restaurants. Also, for construction companies that closed, she said. In New York, Maribel Torres, a 47-year-old Mexican immigrant used to clean apartments, but tenants stopped calling her when the pandemic started. Her husband, a cook, lost his job when the restaurant he worked at closed. Now, with support from MakerSpace, a collaborative work space full of tools and materials that people can learn to use, and La Colmena, a non-profit that helps day laborers, she is sewing masks from home. Torres, along with three other immigrant women who do this work with her, will donate some masks and sell others. So far, they have sold about 300 online. A young day laborer who also lost his job has been making the deliveries. I feel that we are helping, and we plan to make a little money too, said Torres. Leymar Navas, a former attorney in Venezuela, was working as a restaurant cashier in Miami before the virus outbreak. But the sushi shop closed its doors in March, almost at the same time that her husband and her two adult sons also lost their jobs. After a desperate search, she found a part-time job for a disinfecting company that cleans bank ATMs. Nobody expected this, said the 47-year-old asylum seeker. But any job is decent as long as you bring food to the table. According to a Pew Research Center study conducted in March, around half (49%) of Hispanics surveyed say they or someone in their household has taken a pay cut or lost a job or both because of the COVID-19 outbreak, compared with 29% of white people and 36% of black people. A recent analysis from Pew based on Census statistics found that about 8 million Hispanic workers were employed in service-sector positions that are at higher risk of job loss. Many of the immigrants with new jobs now say they feel grateful to have a job amid the pandemic, even if it means putting their own health at risk. A specialist tax-return service are reporting calls from their education and visa partners, querying payments which have been mistakenly made to former international students and J1 working holiday makers from Ireland as part of the US CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act. Taxback.com says the scheme is a stimulus package which aims to support workers in the US (earning less than $75,000 per year) with a one-time payment of $1,200. The Irish tax experts say that, with approximately 14,000 J1 visas issued to Irish people in 2018/2019 and approximately 1,000 visas issued to Irish students to study in the US in the same period, this issue is relatively widespread and could have further ramifications for those looking to travel to the US in the future. Laura McHugh of Taxback.com explained the situation, Our US nonresident tax service helps over 100,000 nonresidents a year with their tax returns, and is now fielding lots of questions from concerned J1-visa partners and schools regarding non-residents receiving President Trumps recent stimulus package for COVID-19. In the last week people are finding funds in their US bank accounts and are questioning why they are there. 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. Taxback.com say the crux of the matter is twofold - the first of which relates to previous J1 visa holders who spent time in the US in 2018 or 2019. It is not uncommon for Irish J1-visa holders who spent a summer in the US to mistakenly file their end of year return as a resident. Most of these people will have submitted the return themselves through a US tax preparation software such as TurboTax and may not have been fully informed of their nonresident status. The result now is that these people will have automatically received the CARES payment although they really shouldnt have. 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 nonresident return in order to avoid any future repercussions. Taxback.com say the second tranche of people affected are the international students who had been studying in the US in 2018/2019 but who have since left the country. According to Ms. McHugh, This ones a little bit trickier to resolve as its unclear as of yet what the position is and it might be some time before we will receive clarification from the IRS. While you may be entitled to this money, as per the stated eligibility requirements of the payment, the IRS has yet to confirm whether they intended to send money to tax filers who are no longer US residents or earning US sourced income. Whether the IRS will look to recoup this money in the coming months remains to be seen, though there is precedence for this a similar situation arose in 2010 when the IRS clawed back funds two years after the stimulus was received in 2008. Its likely now that the IRS could stipulate that it must be accounted for on a 2020 tax return. Alternatively, accepting the money could also likely affect any future US visa application you submit. Who is entitled to receive the CARES payment? It can be claimed by US citizens, permanent residents, and residents for tax purposes (individuals who can pass the Substantial Presence Test) who have a valid Social Security Number (SSN) and who have filed their 2018 tax return (in 2019), or their 2019 return (in 2020) Nonresident aliens are not eligible to receive this stimulus Taxback.com say anyone impacted by this need not worry if they take corrective action now there wont be any long-term ramifications. 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, advised Ms McHugh. Supply of essential commodities getting normalised in Mizoram as trucks entering from Assam Mizoram is now COVID-19 free India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Aizawl, May 10: Mizoram became coronavirus-free with the discharge of the lone COVID-19 patient from a hospital on Saturday, officials said. It now shares a similar status with four other northeastern states -- Manipur, Sikkim, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. Coronavirus positive cases in India nears 63,000-mark, 127 deaths in 24 hours Mizoram Health Minister Dr R Lalthangliana said the state's lone COVID-19 patient, a pastor, was discharged from Zoram Medical College (ZMC) on Saturday afternoon after 45 days of intense treatment. He was discharged from the hospital after four consecutive tests turned negative, the minister said. The pastor, who is in his early 50s and working under the Baptist Church of Mizoram, returned to the state from Amsterdam on March 16. He was pursuing higher study in theology in the Netherlands capital. He tested positive for novel coronavirus on March 24 and was admitted at ZMC along with his wife and two children. The pastor's wife and children were discharged from the medical college on March 28 after they tested negative for COVID-19. The state health minister thanked doctors, nurses and staffs of ZMC for successfully treating the patient. He said Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has congratulated Mizoram for becoming free of COVID-19. The Union Heath minister has also congratulated the state for the 10 point drop in infant mortality rate (IMR), Lalthangliana said. Pune records 160 new coronavirus cases According to officials of the health department, following his discharge from the hospital, the pastor has been advised to be in home quarantine for 14 days and then undergo medical check-up again. The patient was accorded a warm welcome by the people of his locality in Aizawl as he was discharged from the medical college 100 Years Ago 1920: One hundred and fifty thousand persons, covering the broad green slopes of Drexel Hill, Lansdowne, yesterday afternoon to witness the solemn blessing of St. Vincents Home, have Gov. William C. Sproul, of this city, a wonderful reception and cheered the Chief Executive as the next President of the United States. In all mu like I never seen a multitude like this gathered together anywhere, said Gov. Sproul who with Mrs. Sproul were the guests of honor. Most Rev. D.J. Dougherty, archbishop of Philadelphia, officiated at the impressive ceremonies. 75 Years Ago 1945: The ten-week period of War Manpower Commission-required Cinderella closing hour for Delaware County night spots ended last night with the lifting of the ban by Fred Vinson, director of War Mobilization and Reconversion. The end of the curfew also brought the final curtain for the brownout which for 71 days has turned the lights down low in Chester and other communities over the county. Diminished liquor stocks, one of the factors in a voluntary midnight closing hour before the government curfew, were fortified this week when all taprooms remained closed for an entire day on V-E Day. 50 Years Ago 1970: St. Anthonys Parent Association will presents its annual fashion show at 8 p.m. Tuesday in St. James High School Auditorium, 21st and Potter streets, Chester. Tickets from Mrs. Benjamin Georgini, provide for refreshments and door prizes. Mrs. Jean Peters, Ridley Township pianist, will provide music for the promenade of 18 models; A joint installation ceremony was conducted for the Jewish War Veterans, Chester Post 134 and its auxiliary, at the Timbers Inn, Newtown. Joseph Greenberg was installed as post commander and Rose samuelson, as president of the auxiliary. 25 Years Ago 1995: Brookhaven Borough Council reported that Brookhaven Police Officer Charles Cunningham Sr. received the most nominations to sit in the dunk tank at the boroughs Family Day this summer. Cunningham was nominated by 29 people, said council President Dick Denza. Must be his co-workers, quipped Councilmember Janice Sawicki. The nominations all came through the mail on different days, said Denza, who added that Cunningham is being a good sport about his popularity. 10 Years Ago 2010: Two Marcus Hook police officers have been honored for their help in apprehending four burglary suspects in Lower Chichester. Marcus Hook officers David Ford and Andrew Austin were presented with certificates of appreciation at the boroughs regular business meeting last week in recognition of their quick response and professional actions during the attempted burglary of Millers Sporting Goods store last month. COLIN AINSWORTH IT company Tech Mahindra expects 5G rollout, demand for home connectivity and digitisation will drive business growth in the coming days, senior officials of the company said. The company expects short term setbacks for businesses due to coronavirus pandemic, however, telecom clients will support the business growth. "There will be some headwinds, and those headwinds will be common to everybody, but company continues to innovate, continues to leverage every of my acquisition and certain businesses where the expansion is likely to happen faster, for example, digital, for example, healthcare, we are doing a double click or a double drilling," Tech Mahindra MD and CEO CP Gurnani said in an investors call. According to the details uploaded on the company's website, 93 per cent employees in the company's IT team and around 85 per cent in the business process services were working from home after the lockdown was announced. Tech Mahindra CEO for Network Services Manish Vyas said that major service providers continue to remain focused on investment in network expansion and 5G services. "The new workspace is clearly shifting more towards the home and that is something telcos, particularly the large ones who have been incumbents, they are all going to be looking at that product mix and all looking at digitisation and strengthening the product mix with home as the new access of growth," Vyas said. He said that a lot of discussions are going on telecom players towards digitisation of homes. During the lockdown, most of the employees across businesses are working from home. IT major TCS has already announced plans to allow 75 per cent of employees to work from home by 2025. Tech Mahindra in the quarter ended March 31, 2020 reported 29 per cent dip in the March quarter consolidated net profit at Rs 803.9 crore owing to narrowing of margins due to factors including a surge in COVID-19 related costs. For the 2019-20 financial year, the Mahindra group company reported 6.15 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 4,033 crore. In December quarter, the profit stood at Rs 1,145.9 crore. Gurnani said that the company continued to book businesses in March and teams both in the US and India were very active and they booked some good businesses. "We are confident that the company is in a war mode, our teams are warriors and we will fight and we will fight back," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Christine Flowers I have been trying to do my civic duty. I stay more than 6 feet away from most people. I live alone, so my trips to the store are surgical strikes. I have social distanced from vulnerable friends and relatives, mastered the art of zoom and facetime, and learned to make my own damn coffee. But I draw the line at the masks. At least, I used to. Slowly, though, I am beginning to capitulate like a Frenchman during the Nazi occupation. It's not like I didn't initially try and cooperate with the "suggestion" that we wear masks. That was when health experts said that wearing a face covering would protect us from contracting the coronavirus, which we've always known is highly communicable. I started seeing some folks with those Darth Vadar style face coverings, and purchased one. I tried it on, gasped for air, and that was the end of that thing. Afterwards, when the health experts told us to leave the professional grade masks to the health care workers, I felt vindicated. Virtuous is the better word. I said to myself, "Don't wear that mask, Christine, you need to leave it for the courageous first responders in hospitals." I could feel the halo forming over my head. But then, I saw other sorts of masks emerging on my neighbors' faces, bandanas and handkerchiefs attached by rubber bands and homemade quilted pieces of folk art and things that looked like turtlenecks on steroids. Stories about reading groups that had turned into sewing circles made the rounds. Social media ran ads for stylish masks made out of "breathable" fabric (which led me to believe that being able to actually breathe cost a bit more, but that you could get a non-permeable mask made out of lead for cut-rate prices). And then I started hearing that it was my obligation to wear one of these monstrosities because I could be Patient Zero, Typhoid Christine, and that I owed it to my neighbor with whom I've shared less than five words in our entire relationship to keep her safe from my hypothetical germs. That's when I rebelled. The idea that I was a Petri dish waiting to infect the world grated on my nerves, and I started walking around in public with my naked face (of course it wasn't entirely naked because I will not go out without makeup). I made sure to stay away from other people, walked to the other side of the street if I saw another person approaching on the sidewalk, kept a mask in my hand as a prop as if to say, "I just took this off to breathe for a moment but I usually shower with the damn thing," and always wore a mask in closed environments. I even wore a mask on public transportation, which actually made the experience more enjoyable since it filtered out the usual sweat-and-controlled substance aroma that usually permeates the cars. But I pushed back against wearing the mask as a default position. Until, that is, I started getting "the look" from little children. Apparently, paranoid adults have been indoctrinating their tiny tots into believing that people who don't wear masks outside, everywhere and at every moment, are dangerous. They are up there with child molesters and anti-vaxxers (and in the Philadelphia area, Trump supporters). The look in those little kids' eyes was an epiphany for me. I do not like being hated, even though I could solve that problem by just pretending I'm a liberal columnist and be done with it. But I would rather eat a bat from Wuhan before I did that, so I have come to the sad conclusion that for the sake of the children, mind you I will wear a mask whenever I am not in my house. Unless I decide to join that small, hardy band of French-speaking resistance fighters in the Delaware Valley and we manage to overthrow the Vichy regime in Harrisburg. Christine Flowers (cflowers1961@gmail.com) is an attorney and a columnist for the Delaware County Daily Times. Her commentary was distributed by Cagle Cartoons Inc. The novel coronavirus, COVID-19, knows no boundaries. It impacts communities large and small, including rural areas throughout our states and the nation, which are feeling the devastating effects of this crisis in a unique way. Even before the pandemic, many rural communities already had strained health care systems, higher rates of chronic health conditions, and limited access to reliable broadband. Now, the COVID-19 public health and economic emergency is exacerbating these challenges. For example, access to broadband is now more essential than ever for work, school, and health care, not to mention for staying connected to family and friends. Unfortunately, in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and all across our country, the urban-rural digital divide persists, adding to the burden of families struggling to comply with stay-at-home orders. In many rural communities, far too many students cannot access the high-speed internet that they need to keep up with their classes. Farmers and other rural businesses, who already had trouble with spotty internet access before this pandemic, continue to face even greater challenges in selling their goods and running their businesses in times of social distancing. And people who would normally commute to offices are now working from home, but unable to easily sign into virtual meetings. The lack of rural broadband is not just a problem for accessing school and work, it can also be a major health issue. Telehealth services can help expand access to health care by connecting individuals with doctors and specialists many miles away. During this pandemic, telehealth has been particularly important protecting the health and well-being of both patients and health care workers alike. No one should be prevented from getting the care that they need because there is no affordable high-speed internet in their area. Despite President Trumps promises to help rural communities, these challenges are now worse because the president has not kept his word. We need to get through this current crisis to be sure, but we also need to strengthen our communities for challenges to come. To do that, we need a president who knows how to find common ground and get things done. We need Joe Biden. Joe has a proven track record of both sticking to his promises and achieving substantial, positive legislative change. From writing and passing the Violence Against Women Act to helping President Obama pass the Affordable Care Act Joe knows how to get results. So when Joe says hes going to expand access to rural broadband, bolster our rural health centers, and look out for our farmers, we can trust him to make it happen. Joe has put forward a plan to expand economic opportunity for rural America (which you can read in full at joebiden.com/rural) that includes investing $20 billion in rural broadband infrastructure, tripling grant funding through the Community Connect program, and partnering with municipal utilities to expand broadband access in rural areas. These are the types of commonsense proposals Joe will fight for once he is in office. Joes strong commitment to our rural communities stands in stark contrast to President Trumps record. After repeatedly committing to expanding access to rural broadband, President Trump proposed cutting more than $2 billion from USDAs Rural Utilities Service, which helps to keep the internet working in rural communities. He has tried to gut Medicaid and end Medicaid expansion, which would rip health care coverage away from hard-working people in rural communities, and cause even more rural hospitals to close. As we continue to address the impacts of COVID-19, we have an enormous task before us. But we also have the opportunity this November to elect a president who can actually lead us through the work ahead and help us come out stronger. We know that with Joe Biden, we will have a president who understands the scale of rural Americas challenges and has the experience and expertise to deliver on his promise to get results for rural communities. A leader who cares, learns, and leads. Maggie Hassan is a U.S. Senator from New Hampshire. She also was the states 81st governor. Robert Casey was first elected to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate in 2006. Nicola Sturgeon has said the once-a-day-limit on exercise will be removed from the coronavirus lockdown measures in Scotland from Monday, but warned the vast majority of restrictions remain in place. The announcement comes after the devolved nations of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales all rejected the UK governments strategy to switch to a stay alert message, rather than stay at home. After dialling into a meeting of Cobra with Boris Johnson, the Scottish first minister warned we mustnt squander progress made in combating the virus by easing up too soon or by sending mixed messages that confuse the public. Let me be very blunt about the consequences if we were to do that, she said. People will die unnecessarily. And instead of being able to loosen restrictions, hopefully, in the near future, we will be faced instead with having to tighten them. She added: You may hear the prime minister announce other immediate changes tonight for England as is his right. I dont expect these immediate changes to be significant and I predict that any differences with the position here in Scotland will be relatively minor. 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 However, for the avoidance of doubt, let me be clear except for the one change I have confirmed today, the rules here havent changed. We remain in lockdown for now and my ask of you remains to stay at home. In a swipe at Mr Johnson, she said the devolved nations should not be reading of each others plans for the first time in newspapers, after The Sunday Telegraph published the first details of No 10s switch from stay at home to stay alert messaging. She added: And decisions that are being taken for one nation only for good, evidence-based reasons should not be presented as if they apply UK-wide. Clarity of message is paramount if we expect all of you to know exactly what it is we are asking of you. As leaders, we have a duty to deliver that clarity to those we are accountable to, not confuse it. To that end I have asked the UK government not to deploy their Stay Alert ad campaign in Scotland. Because the message in Scotland at this stage is not stay at home if you can. The message is, except for the essential reasons you know about, stay at home, full stop. Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish cabinet had met on Sunday afternoon and agreed to remove the once-a-day-limit on exercise, but reiterated it would not apply to those who have received a letter telling them they are at a high risk from the virus or are showing Covid-19 symptoms. She said the relaxation in rules on outside activities do not extend to picnics, barbecues or sunbathing, warning it was also not a licence to start meeting up in groups in parks or at beaches. Doing that really does risk spreading the virus and could force us to reintroduce stricter guidelines and toughen the regulations and penalties in the future, Ms Sturgeon added. The Scottish first minister insisted all other lockdown restrictions remain in place and urged people to continue with social distancing measures. Sunita Haldar lives in a village in Fulia district of West Bengal. Her husband migrated to Kerala and she supports herself and her three small children by working in a weaving shed. Now, there are no orders and she and the children are getting by on one meal a day. Sayidabano stitches garments for a contractor in Ahmedabad and gets paid on a piece-rate basis. Her husband died of tuberculosis five years ago. Her eldest son is 15 years old and she wants to give him an education so that he can earn well and support the family. But now, she has no work and her savings are over. She depends on her neighbours for rations. Multiply these pen portraits of struggle and deprivation a million times, and one gets to see the invisible face of hunger. And that is the face of a woman. The coronavirus disease (Covid-19) lockdown has revealed the precarious lives of a large number of people. Migrants, mostly men in cities, are the visible face of hunger and despair we see every day in the media. The women left behind in the villages, while their menfolk migrate, are equally deprived of food and cash. In normal times, these women continue to work, while the men are away. They look after their own small farms, manage their cattle and other livestock; they are agricultural labourers or small manufacturers doing weaving, garment-making or embroidery; they are domestic servants or provide other services like child care. Then suddenly, abruptly, came the lockdown. And women found themselves without any means of support. The remittances stopped as the migrants grappled with their difficult situations in cities. At the same time, womens own incomes collapsed. Women who grow vegetables found that they have no way to take them to market; all manufacturing came to a halt, labour was no more in demand; and although the government has mandated the starting of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, this has hardly happened yet anywhere. The slums and mohallas of urban India hide equally hungry women and children. Perhaps the most affected are the women who are the sole earners in their families. These are widows or those whose husbands or fathers cannot earn due to illness, or sometimes due to addictions. They work as domestic help, street vendors, construction labour, ragpickers or engage in small manufacturing in their homes and bring in money to support their children and the elderly in the family. Even in normal times, they are on the edge of survival. Now with their work gone, hunger stalks their homes. Governments have instituted systems by which grains are widely available for families with ration cards. For those without cards, many state governments have systems for filling up documents using the Aadhaar card or other local documents of proof, through which families can access grains. However, a certain percentage, usually the most vulnerable, are outside the zone of this security net. Sometimes, it is due to not having a ration card or even an Aadhaar card; often it is due to the problems in distribution. The central government had announced various cash transfers including ~500 into womens Jan Dhan accounts. But here too, many fall through the net. In a study done by Dalberg, a global consulting firm, in mid-April among the 18,000 of the poorest, the Indian below poverty line families, it was found that 45% had not received free rations. And over 70% had not received cash payments into their Jan Dhan accounts. This is not all. Other stresses crowd in. Since money is tight, and the period of lockdown uncertain, there are often quarrels in the house about how to budget and on which items. Women usually bear the brunt of these arguments, and face both mental and physical violence. There is, however, a group of invisible people who are ready to reach out to these hungry families. Within every community, there are those who do their best to ensure that others receive food. Many of the volunteers are women like Sarabjit Kaur, a widow who lives in a village in Patiala district with her son. She is primarily a domestic worker, but also cooks for weddings and events and works as agricultural labour to make ends meet. As soon as she heard about the impending lockdown, she identified all vulnerable families in her community immediately and conveyed this information to the local non-governmental organisations and political leaders. These families received ration kits on a priority basis. There are countless such Sarabjit Kaurs throughout the country, and they should be recognised and asked to become part of the governments distribution system, so that food can reach the last woman. Renana Jhabvala has worked with SEWA (Self Employed Womens Association) for over 40 years and is president of SEWA Bharat, the national federation of SEWA The views expressed are personal SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON By Gurbir S. Grewal Even in the best of times, May is a difficult month for law enforcement. Each year, we gather in town squares and church halls, standing shoulder to shoulder during National Police Week as we remember our fallen colleagues. We grieve collectively for those who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect their communities. This May is even more challenging, and unlike any we have experienced before. As this terrible virus tears through New Jersey, we must forego the annual Police Week rituals: the solemn memorial in the Great Auditorium of Ocean Grove; the heartbreaking Survivors Day ceremony at State Police headquarters; the poignant send-off for the Police Unity Bike Tour. This year, the commemorations are limited to conference calls and virtual ceremonies. But the challenges are greater than that. We have not simply lost the opportunity to mourn those who died years ago; we have also lost the chance to properly mourn those dying now. As I write this, nine New Jersey officers have succumbed to COVID-19. None of their burials received the attention they deserved, with the bagpipes, casket flags, and long processions of law enforcement officers that typically mark such ceremonies. The rest of us were forced to defer the shared grieving that these traditions enable. Coronavirus has taken a toll on all of us our officers, our families, our state, and our country. In time, we will be able to gather in person and honor those taken from us too soon. But in the present, we are doing everything we can to protect the men and women of law enforcement. Over the past two months, my office has issued four guidance documents to law enforcement on March 16, March 20, April 6, and April 11 to address the most pressing challenges for agencies and departments responding to the pandemic. In partnership with Gov. Phil Murphy and State Police Superintendent Patrick Callahan, we have worked around the clock to ensure that New Jerseys officers are prepared to confront this silent enemy. For example: We established dedicated COVID-19 testing locations for law enforcement officers and first responders; We cut through red tape to make it easier for law enforcement agencies to address staffing issues, including by helping police departments re-hire retired officers without pension penalties; We issued best practices for police officers to avoid exposure to COVID-19, based on the most recent guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; We ensured that patrol officers received notice if they were responding to the home of an individual who had previously tested positive for COVID-19; We helped procure personal protective equipment through State Polices Office of Emergency Management, and worked to get PPE to the places that needed it most; and We cracked down on anyone who assaulted a police officer during the State of Emergency, including those who spat or coughed on officers, by bringing the most serious criminal charges possible. The challenges to law enforcement arent just physical; theyre also psychological. Last year, my office partnered with law enforcement organizations across New Jersey to launch a first-in-the-nation statewide officer resiliency program. The goal was to help law enforcement officers develop the mental and psychological stamina to withstand the stresses of modern policing. Even before the pandemic, we received positive feedback about the initiative. But the outbreak has demonstrated just how vital this program is. Across the State, our resiliency program officers are providing support to police officers and other first responders. Theyre demonstrating that its okay to struggle with trauma and that theres nothing wrong with asking for help. By building connections between officers at a time of crisis, this program is making all of us stronger. While there is still much more to do, New Jerseys 36,000 law enforcement officers can rest assured that the governor, the attorney general, and the State Police superintendent have their back. In a normal year, we would celebrate Police Week with speeches and ceremonies. This year, well honor our fallen officers with simpler tributes: by doing our jobs well, by staying safe, by supporting one another, and by protecting the values we have sworn to uphold. Far more than the observances of Police Week, these are the traditions that truly bind us. These are the traditions that make law enforcement such a special profession. To all of our officers: I look forward to the day when we can assemble in person and I can express my gratitude for your strength during this pandemic. You have made all of New Jersey proud, and you have the thanks of all New Jerseyans for your work during this extraordinary time. Gurbir S. Grewal is the New Jersey attorney general and a former Bergen County prosecutor. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. The Star-Ledger/NJ.com encourages submissions of opinion. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. With the coronavirus lockdown in place in most parts of the world, people are confined inside their homes and are not allowed to go out for non-essential purposes. Elderly people living in retirement homes have not met their family members for weeks now due to strict social distancing rules amid pandemic. However, a care home in Portugal took a unique approach to let relatives of its residents meet their loved ones by hiring a crane service. Read: Portugal Parliament Celebrates 46th Anniversary Of The Revolution According to reports, the incident took place in the coastal town of Figueira da Foz, midway between Lisbon and Porto, where residents of the Santo Antonio retirement home were allowed to meet with their family members from a crane parked at the first-floor level. The town has over 60,000 inhabitants and it has reportedly recorded just 30 confirmed coronavirus cases so far. Read: Portugal's Government Approves Extension Of State Of Emergency Coronavirus in Portugal Portugal went into a state of alert on March 12, when there were just 78 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and zero deaths. The state of emergency in Portugal was announced on March 18 when it had 642 confirmed cases and two deaths. Cut to May 10, Portugal has recorded over 27,000 coronavirus cases and 1,126 deaths and has more than 23,700 active infections. However, the mortality rate in the European country is much lower than some of its fellow nations in the bloc, such as Spain, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Read: China Sends Medical Supplies To Portugal To Fight COVID-19 The lockdown in Portugal was not as strict as in other European countries and nations across the globe. Portuguese could still go out for brief periods and were allowed to pick up takeaway foods, buy groceries, and go to bakery and farmers' markets. Only non-essential businesses, shops, beaches were closed and outdoor dining was prohibited. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has announced the gradual reopening of the economy on May 3 with a warning that the pandemic is still not over and urged people to stay at home if they can. Read: Coronavirus Crisis: Portugal Gives Full Citizenship Rights To Migrants After featuring nearly a dozen tiny brand ambassadors as the face of its baby food and other early childhood products, Gerber announced Friday it had selected the first adopted spokesbaby in its 92-year history. The baby, Magnolia Earl of Ross, Calif., was selected from among more than 327,000 entries submitted to the Gerber website, where families uploaded photos and videos and shared stories for the companys annual Photo Search contest. Magnolia, who turned one year old on Saturday, captured the hearts of the judging panel with her joyful expression, playful smile and warm, engaging gaze, the company said in a statement. She will be featured in social media and marketing campaigns throughout the year. The Earl family was awarded $25,000 (U.S.) and other prizes, including baby clothes and phones with one year of unlimited service. Magnolia has brought so much joy to everyone she meets, Courtney Earl, Magnolias mother, said in the statement. Her personality is beyond happy and joyful. Earl recalled the moment last year when the family received a call about a mother in labour who wanted to talk. We pulled off the highway, got a chance to connect with her amazing birth parents and a few hours later, this sweet baby girl was born, she said. Adoption is incredibly special to our familys story. Winning Photo Search is an opportunity to tell Magnolias story and shed light on all the beautiful and different ways families are made. Magnolia has two older sisters, Whitney, 12, and eight-year-old Charlotte, who is also adopted. Started in 2010, the contest is inspired by the photos Gerber has received over the years from people who say they see their babies in the brands famous original logo. The contest celebrates babies from all backgrounds, the company said, proving that every baby is a Gerber baby. In 2018, Lucas Warren of Georgia became the first Gerber baby with Down syndrome. Last year, Kairi Yang of North Carolina became the first Gerber baby of Hmong descent. Kimberly A. Taylor, an associate professor of marketing and logistics at Florida International University, said the photo contest had helped the brand grow and stay relevant. This has allowed them not only to enhance consumer involvement and build closer ties within the Gerber brand community, but has also allowed them to showcase greater diversity within this iconic brand, Taylor said Saturday. The Gerber baby is one of the most recognizable and long-lasting brand images, she added. Baby faces almost universally produce warm, loving feelings in anyone who sees them; seeing a baby makes people smile and brings out a feeling of caring. In 1928, shortly after Gerber was founded in Fremont, Mich., the company put out a call looking for a baby to feature in its ads. A Connecticut artist named Dorothy Hope Smith submitted a charcoal sketch of her neighbours four-month-old baby, according to the company. The sketch of the cherubic baby with big, round eyes and an open mouth endeared judges, who picked the infant as the winner. In 1978, Ann Turner Cook, now a retired English teacher, was revealed to be the subject of the sketch. The image, which became the companys official trademark in 1931, continues to be associated with the brand. In November, the company celebrated Cooks 93rd birthday on social media. Happy Birthday to the original Gerber baby! the company said. A combined team of police and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps operatives, allegedly beat up a soldier, for not wearing face mask in Benin city, Edo state. On Saturday, May 9, 2020, there was pandemonium in Lagos street, Benin city, barely 24-hours after the state government shut down the street to all business activities over alleged refusal of traders and residents of the street to comply with the directives to participate in the ongoing screening and testing exercise for Coronavirus, as part of efforts to contain the pandemic. Trouble started when the unidentified soldier who was on the street was asked to put on his face mask by the Police and NSCDC officials. According to an eyewitness who spoke with PM News, the soldier who was on military khaki short had an handkerchief on his neck and his wife did not properly put on her face mask. On entering Lagos Street, the soldier and his wife were asked to wear their face mask by the policemen on duty. The soldier brought his ID card to identify himself but the police officer dismissed the ID card as fake. The soldier got infuriated when one of the police officer pushed his wife with a gun in a bid to force her to wear the face mask. Following the argument that ensued, the policemen descended on the soldier and injured him on the head with the butt of their gun, he said. Traders and passers-by were forced to run in different directions, as men of the Nigerian Army who later stormed the area, allegedly shot repeatedly into the air to scare the police and NSCDC officers. Weve been watching the Duggar family for years, as Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar brought their 19 children into the spotlight over a decade ago. And now, many of their kids are attaining fame all on their own via Instagram and YouTube. Joy-Anna Duggar and her husband, Austin Forsyth, both have their own Instagrams, and fans continue to be curious about their marriage. Joy-Anna has a baby on the way, and she already has a son, Gideon, whos just 2 years old. Shes only 22 years old while Austin is 26. And many Duggar family followers dont believe that theyve been friends since childhood, especially factoring in their age gap. Heres what theyre saying. Joy-Anna Duggar and Austin Forsyth claimed to know each other since they were kids Joy-Anna and Austin are one of the most beloved Duggar couples, as their dynamic seems to show how much they love and respect each other. And the couple claims to have known each other since they were kids. Romper reports Austins family, who were featured on Worlds Strictest Parents, moved to Arkansas when Austin was young. And they started attending the same church as the Duggars, which is how Austin met Joy-Anna. Back when the couple first started courting in 2017, they remarked on how long theyve known each other, too. And they stated theyve known one another for 15 years prior to entering the courtship. You know, over the years, I have just been watching and I really admire her heart for the Lord and her character. Shes such a diligent worker. She gets all the younger siblings working, People reports Austin said of Joy-Anna at the beginning of their courtship. Shes a good delegator, and then, of course, her beauty. Some wonder if Joy-Anna and Austins wedding was arranged Joy-Anna and Austin seemed over the moon with excitement when they announced their courtship. And they appear to be thriving in their marriage today. Even so, many wonder how theyre really doing behind closed doors and others thought Joy-Anna and Austins marriage mightve been arranged. According to The Hollywood Gossip, sources claimed Jim Bob struck a deal with Austins father, and it involved a marriage to Joy-Anna. His father governs everything that he does, from cutting cows to doing whatever, the source claimed. And the publication added that the Duggar parents liked to guide their kids to partners whom they thought would be suitable fits. Even if thats the case, Austin and Joy-Anna have found a lot of common ground in their marriage. They frequently flip homes together and are involved in huge house projects. If she doesnt know how to do it, you can just show her real quick and she can figure it out and become better than you at it, Austin complimented Joy-Anna during an episode of Counting On. Duggar family critics dont believe theyve been friends since childhood So, have Joy-Anna and Austin really known each other since childhood and developed a friendship since their younger years? They both have kept to that story, but family critics arent so sure thats the truth. One Reddit user wrote, based on what weve seen of how the duggars socialize & my own experiences in fundieland, i doubt that joy and austin were closely acquainted as kids. i suspect they were friends in a our families get together to play settlers of catan every few months way, not a we have spent lots of one-on-one time together as individuals way. Hes almost 5 years older than she is, so that story that they were best friends as kids is patent BS, another Reddit user wrote. Plus, the Duggars are going to allow their daughter to have any kind of actual friendship with a boy? No way. Others suspect Austin was closer with the Duggar boys growing up and got to know Joy-Anna that way. I think Austin was probably friends with an older brother, maybe Joe, and they saw each other growing up, yet another wrote. I think maybe thats why she got paired with him, they actually have great chemistry. Either way, were glad theyre doing well in their marriage now! Check out Showbiz Cheat Sheet on Facebook! Officials of the North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy said they support a compromise with Pratt Home Buiilders at the Quarry property at Mountain Creek. The group said the most recent agreement with Pratt would keep 22 acres in greenspace. It said in exchange 32 acres would be zoned for high and medium density development, resulting in apartments or condos. In an earlier plan, the group said the concession would add five acres to the planned Walden's Ridge Park. A number of nearby residents are staunchly opposed to development of the site. The Pratt group is involved in a lawsuit with the city over a rezoning denial. Taft Sibley, president, and Tim Laramore, executive director, said, "Since 2015, the North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy has worked to create a unique 200-acre park on the side of Signal Mountain that will offer unique climbing, mountain biking, and hiking opportunities. Since the inception of the park plan, NCCC and its partners have identified the Quarry property, now owned by Pratt Home Builders and slated for development, as an ideal extension of the park that would provide access and recreational opportunities for a wider swath of the community. NCCC partners include the Land Trust for Tennessee, Southeastern Climbers Coalition, SORBA Chattanooga Mountain Biking Association, Hamilton County Parks & Recreation, and many more. "In 2019, NCCC worked with Pratt Home Builders to create a plan that would shift the development from R-1 single family lots throughout to a mixed-use development that would combine higher density with open green spaces. "We have workshopped the alternate plan by discussing the revisions with City and County Officials, our partners in the conservation and recreation community, city planning experts, local neighborhood groups, and Pratt Home Builders. From these discussions, we have identified two paths for the future of the Quarry property. "The first option would be the development of the property under its current zoning as R-1, resulting in single family houses on the entire 54 acres. This would mean the entire property adjacent to the park would become privately owned with no public access. "The second option is to place approximately 22 acres into public greenspace, preserve a famous post oak, increase stream buffers, and create ample wetlands to support wildlife. The second option offers access for neighbors and community groups to the expansive natural space that provides a host of recreational opportunities. Under this option, a small section of the property would be zoned for high and medium density development, resulting in apartments or condos on the remaining 32 acres. "Based on our discussions with a variety of groups in the community, we believe that the best choice for all of Chattanooga is a development that expands the park and public access to greenspace. Now, we want to know what the community thinks so we can share this with our city planning commissions to chart a path forward. "We appreciate you taking a few minutes to take this survey and look forward to enjoying this amazing natural park in the future. For any questions, please send an email to contact@northchick.org. "Thank you for considering this issue," Taft Sibley President, North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy Tim Laramore Executive Director, North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy By Trend Armenian prime ministers irresponsible behavior negates possibility of Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts peaceful settlement, said spokesperson of Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry, Leyla Abdullayeva, Trend reports on May 9. She was commenting on the visit of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to the occupied Shusha city of Azerbaijan to celebrate victory day. Prime minister of the country, which has been violating the norms and principles of international law for almost 30 years, keeping the Azerbaijani lands under military occupation, violating the fundamental rights of more than one million Azerbaijanis, as well as heroizing fascist criminals, is talking about the "victory", "peace" and "security", which is the apotheosis of hypocrisy. Ignoring the demand of the international community to put an end to the occupation of internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan, including resolutions of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Pashinyan, speaking on victory" in the occupied Azerbaijani Shusha city, probably understands that this irresponsible behavior of Armenia justifying groundless territorial claims against Azerbaijan, nullifies the possibility of a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Abdullayeva noted. Such behavior of the Armenian leadership clearly demonstrates its wrong position in the negotiations on resolving the conflict, which is peculiar to the occupying country and the aggressor, whose sole purpose is to strengthen the dangerous status quo based on the forcible retention of foreign territories, the spokesperson said. This intention of Armenia will not be supported by anyone. Azerbaijan, unequivocally supported by international law, justice and the world community, will liberate its lands from the occupation and ensure territorial integrity within internationally recognized borders. There is no other way to resolve the conflict and ensure peace and security in the region, Abdullayeva said. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By PTI NEW DELHI: Mizoram's corona-free status can be attributed to the discipline of its people and the combined efforts of the church, NGOs and administration, says Chief Minister Pu Zoramthanga. While happy that his state has managed to contain the spread of COVID-19, the chief minister told PTI he was worried about the economic slump due to the lockdown and the threat posed by "corona carriers" from neighbouring Bangladesh and Myanmar. On Saturday, Mizoram became coronavirus-free with its lone COVID-19 patient being discharged from hospital, officials in the state capital Aizawl said. ALSO READ | Mizoram records 10 per cent drop in Infant Mortality Rate, J&K witness significant low The credit, Zoramthanga said, goes to the "discipline" of the people who allowed the state to execute all the provisions suggested by a special task force constituted for the sole purpose to curb the spread of the virus. "Mizoram is a very disciplined state. With the help of the church, NGOs and administration, we have so far survived this crisis and are determined to continue to do so in the future," he said in a phone interview from Aizawl. However, the threat from "corona carriers" looms large over the northeastern state, which shares a 510-km border with Myanmar and a 318-km border with Bangladesh, he said. "This is a great threat for us as there are high chances of people from Myanmar and Bangladesh infiltrating into Mizoram due to the open borders. We are taking all measures to stop it." he said. The 75-year-old former rebel leader, serving his third term as chief minister of the Christian majority state, said his government is extra careful and has deployed Mizoram Police personnel at all major checkpoints so there is no possibility of any infiltration. While Bangladesh has reported 13,134 cases of coronavirus with 206 deaths, Myanmar has 177 cases. Infiltration from both the countries into India is quite common. Discussing the nationwide lockdown, in place since March 25 to curb the spread of the disease, Zoramthanga said it will adversely impact Mizoram since, like other northeastern states, it too depends on the Central government for funds to run its economy. "Mizoram, like other states in the northeast, is a centrally funded state and gets 90 per cent of its funds from the Centre. If the country's economy suffers, which is likely to be the case, the ripple effects will be felt more here and will stay for long," he said. "The real effects would be felt once the COVID-19 crisis is over. This cannot be ignored," he added. Fitch Ratings last month slashed India's economic growth projections to 0.8 per cent in the current 2020-21 fiscal, saying an unparalleled global recession is underway due to disruptions caused by the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic and resultant lockdowns. According to Zoramthanga, infrastructure projects in his state will be impacted the most. Mizoram has the highest number of pending road infrastructure projects in the region. Work on more than 50 big-ticket road projects launched by the Central government owned National Highways Infrastructure Development Corporation to improve the state's connectivity with Myanmar to boost India's trade with south-east Asian nations has been suspended due to the lockdown. "Our road projects will get hampered the most. But this seems something where nothing much can be done. We can only wait and watch," Zoramthanga said. The chief minister also said his government is in touch with the ministries of Railways and Civil Aviation to bring back over 5,500 Mizos stranded in several parts of the country due to the lockdown. "We've brought back Mizos stranded in neighbouring states in the northeast. But for the residents of the state who are stranded far away in other states, we are in touch with the Railways and Civil Aviation ministries to get the matter resolved," he said. Mizoram shares its zero COVID-19 cases status with four other states in the region -- Manipur, Sikkim, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. India has registered 62,939 cases and 2,109 deaths, according to the Union Health Ministry on Sunday. Mizoram Health Minister R Lalthangliana said on Saturday that the state's lone COVID-19 patient, a pastor, was discharged after 45 days of intense treatment and four consecutive tests showed negative results. Odisha's Ganjam district on Sunday reported its first Covid-19 death after a man died of the disease, raising the fatalities in the state to three, a health department official said. The total number of coronavirus cases in Odisha jumped to 377 with 83 more people testing positive for the disease in the biggest single-day spike, he said, adding all fresh cases, except one, were detected among those in different quarantine centres. Ganjam District Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange said the state government will soon release the details of the patient who died. Despite a spurt in Covid-19 cases in the district, the situation is under control as fresh infections are being detected among those in quarantine centres, he said. Kulange also warned people against loitering near the Covid-19 isolation centers, saying the violators would be sent to isolation centres set up in faraway places. The Ganjam district administration has already banned the movement of people within a 100-metre radius of temporary medical camps. The sarpanchs of Madhupalli and Mandara gram panchayats in Polasara block in the district have declared a complete shutdown in the areas. Odisha assembly Speaker S N Patro discussed the situation in the district with the collector and other elected representatives through video conference. He is the MLA from Digapahandi seat in the district. Around 40,000 people are lodged in 2,983 quarantine centres in Ganjam district. Of the fresh cases reported from the state during the day, at least 61 are those who returned from Surat in Gujarat recently, the health department official said. Last month, Odisha reported two Covid-19 deaths - both in state capital Bhubaneswar. Of the 83 new cases, 36 were detected in Ganjam district, 15 in Balasore, six in Bhadrak, five in Jajpur, two in Puri and one in Mayurbhanj. Angul and Boudh registered coronavirus cases for the first time, with 15 and three persons testing positive in the two districts respectively. With this, 21 of the 30 districts in the state have reported Covid-19 cases. The number of active cases in the state has climbed to 306. At least 68 people have recovered from the disease. Ganjam tops the list of Covid-19 cases with 125 persons found positive, followed by 60 in Jajpur, 50 in Bhubaneswar in Khurda district, 42 in Balasore, 31 in Bhadrak, 15 in Angul, 13 in Sundergarh, eight each in Kendrapara and Mayurbhanj, five in Jagatsinghpur and 3 each in Puri and Boudh. Two cases each have been detected in Bolangir, Cuttack, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi and Keonjhar, while one each in Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Kouraput and Nayagarh. The Covid-19 mortality rate in Odisha stands at 0.6 per cent, said Jayant Panda, the health department spokesperson. On Saturday, 3,458 samples were examined in the state. A total of 59,780 samples have been tested so far. The state government issued directions for segregating symptomatic cases from the rest in quarantine centres. In a letter, Additional Chief Secretary P K Mohapatra directed district collectors, municipal commissioners and executive officers of urban local bodies to shift symptomatic cases identified after screening to the designated Covid care centres. The officials have also been told to test vulnerable groups, including pregnant women, children under the age of five, physically and mentally challenged persons, people above 60 years and those with co-morbid conditions on priority. Besides, they have been directed to strictly follow the government guidelines at these centres, including repeated hand washing, wearing face mask and social distancing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Advertisement Bartenders at Las Vegas restaurants are back pouring drinks as the city begins to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic. On Saturday, Phase One of Nevada's 'Roadmap to Recovery' officially commenced, with dine-in restaurants, retail stores, hair dressers and nail salons all allowed to open for the first time seven weeks. Nevada's Governor Steve Sisolak announced the news earlier this week, stating: 'Thanks to Nevadans cooperating and doing well with social distancing, we are on track for reopening criteria and will enter Phase One on Saturday, May 9'. Nevada has 6,171 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 313 people across the state have died from the virus as of Saturday evening. However, Gov Sisolak says a downward trajectory of cases and slowing rates of hospitalizations means the state can start getting back on track. While casinos and standalone bars are not allowed to reopen in Phase One, residents ready to head out for a drink are able to do so at dine-in restaurants. Bartenders at Las Vegas restaurants are back pouring drinks as the city begins to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic. Elizabeth Blanke is pictured behind the bar at Hussong's Cantina on Saturday Shake it up! Bartender Sivanna Guyer makes drinks for Vegas residents who are finally able to head out for an alcohol fix There was a steady crowd of customers at Kona Grill in the Boca Park neighborhood of Vegas on Saturday Restaurateurs are taking extra precautions, with Hussong's Cantina greeting diners with a squirt of sanitizer Barbara Boldt looked happy to be back at a restaurant with a glass of wine as she enjoyed a lunch date with husband Bill Hussong's Cantina manager Steven Hanson was busy serving food to locals who are finally allowed out of the house to enjoy a meal On Saturday, Elizabeth Blanke was back behind the bar pouring drinks at Hussong's Cantina in the Las Vegas suburb of Boca Park. However, it wasn't quite business as usual, as restaurants must abide by new public health orders. All employees are required to wear face masks when interacting with members of the public, and restaurants can only operate at 50 percent capacity. Tables must be set up six feet apart and bar seating has to remain closed. A maintenance contractor is pictured setting up outdoor tables at Kona Grill in Las Vegas, which reopened Saturday Under government rules, tables must be spaced at least six feet apart One mask-clad server had his hands full trying to keep up with demand from eager customers Kona Grill had a sizable number of patrons on Saturday, but they were all safely spaced out Meanwhile, barbershops and hair salons also reopened on Saturday. Businesses were booming, with many finally able to have their tresses tamed after nearly two months indoors. Las Vegas barbershop A Cut Above The Rest installed plastic partitions between each seat to help protect customers from potentially spreading any viruses. Las Vegas barbershop A Cut Above The Rest installed plastic partitions between each seat to help protect customers from potentially spreading any viruses One man was happy to finally be able to have his haircut as he sat down at Makeshift Union Cutting & Grooming on Saturday Despite the rush on restaurants and barbershops Saturday, the world-famous Las Vegas strip still remains remarkably quiet, given that casinos are still closed. Meanwhile, a new report from Moody's Analytics paints a gloomy picture for Sin City, predicting it will be slow to recover from the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus crisis. Las Vegas relies heavily on tourism, with people from around the world flocking to casinos and shows - which may be slow to start back up. The Moody Analytics report predicts that 'Las Vegas, in particular, will suffer as the tourist hotspot's economy is almost completely shuttered right now and will be for some time as both leisure travel and business travel dry out'. Despite the rush on restaurants and barbershops Saturday, the world-famous Las Vegas strip still remains remarkably quiet, given that casinos are still closed No substantive answers were given to the justifications presented, Armenian ex-president Robert Kocharyan's attorney Hayk Alumyan said, News.am reported. The grounds for these petitions, he said, were more than sufficient to satisfy the petitions. "We did not receive a worthy response from the other side," said his another attorney Hovhannes Khudoyan. Kocharyan's attorneys submitted motions to replace the arrest of Robert Kocharyan under the personal guarantee of the former PMs of Armenia and Karabakh, as well as declaring the bail admissible in relation to the ex-president. After hearing all the participants in the trial, the court went to the deliberation room to make a decision. The rule will be made public on May 13. In this weeks deep dive into the archives of The Birmingham News, Huntsville Times and Mobiles Press-Register, we celebrate Alabamas mothers and remember when children seeking freedom were attacked by Birmingham police dogs. There is also a band of Apaches held near Mobile, until they were forced on to Oklahoma, in the 1890s. We also see a man playing for piano for a segregated audience of striking steelworkers; a 1930 Tom Thumb Wedding; Miss Black Alabama 1970; and we remember the first time the American flag was raised over Alabama land. This feature regularly includes photographs from the Alabama Department of Archives and History, the Associated Press, Library of Congress and Getty Images. For more historic Alabama photographs, visit our Alabama Vintage Instagram account and the AL.com vintage photos page. Any topics youd like us to explore or an old photo you would like us to find? Drop me a line at jgray@al.com. Gov. Andrew Cuomo must go forward with the Democratic party presidential primary or risk permanently losing young millennials and Gen Z voters like me. That's hard for me even to say as a politically active young person. I spent more than 15 years working in national politics in Washington, D.C. before moving to the Capital Region. But after the attempts to cancel the primary, I wonder if there is still a place for me and my ideals within the Democratic Party. As a progressive, I was devastated when Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign on April 8. However, I expected the Democratic party would at least carry some of those policies forward. I got excited by a recent effort launched by the Once Again PAC to continue to gain votes for Sanders to influence the party platform by getting 25 percent of the delegates. This renewed my hope that I could still have a say in the election. I joined the party in the first place to vote for Sanders in the past two elections. To be clear, it's not Sanders himself that I care about. I care about the policies he represents, like the Green New Deal and Medicare for all. When the party moved forward eagerly without him, they left me, and millions like me, behind. It was like a slap in the face. I feel duped by the Democratic party. Canceling the election shows that the Democratic party doesn't care about my vote or my preferences. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. I sucked it up and voted for Hillary Clinton last time. I am not doing it again. I want change before I can commit my vote. Eight more years of Joe Biden's centrist strategies will not be enough to tackle the urgent crises my generation is facing. If the Democratic party wants to unite young voters like me, it needs to allow us the chance to vote in the primary. We need to have our voices heard. We are about to repeat the 2016 election all over again. Listen to us now or lose us forever. Patricia Brooks lives in Guilderland. On April 3, 2020, 45 students of Class 9 of Anand Nagar campus of City Montessori School (CMS) in Lucknow watched with varying degrees of restlessness and attention as their history teacher Amrita Singh held a 50 minute Zoom lesson to teach them about the Harappan civilization. The students were scattered all over the city but 45 of them managed to attend the class. Elsewhere in the city, Anupama Sondhi of CMS, Gomti Nagar campus taught 33 students of Grade 9 about Indias constitution a hot topic in Indias current milieu over Google Classrooms. At the same time, a large number of the Class 12 students of the same school were busy in precis writing while Anupma Johari held forth armed with several leaves and small plants over video, asking students to identify different parts of the leaves and several voices perking up to answer in unison. As city after city fell silent under the grip of the countrywide in March, the CMS got a golden chance albeit in an unhappy macro scenario to test what it had been working towards for close to 8 years now. The early bird catches the worm and this worm has been firmly caught, if the sheer number of classes, videos and the volume of data being generated by the school during the Covid-19 is anything to go by. As early as 2011-12, education expert and academician Geeta Gandhi Kingdon (chair of education economics and international development at University College, London) was keenly aware of which way the wind was blowing. She could see the potential and benefits of online learning and could also see how it could solve some of the inherent flaws in the traditional way children are taught. Thats why almost eight years ago, Kingdon and the CMS management started to bring her family run chain of schools in Lucknow the City Montessori schools with 57,000 children across 18 branches up to speed with online learning and teaching. The chain is like a mini-empire in Lucknow with 2196 academic staff, 798 clerical staff, 1830 support staff, making it a total of 4824 employees. Why CMS stands out in the current crisis is threefold. One, very few schools of its size and segment are being able to deliver with any facility across India. Barring a handful of elite schools in the six metros with fees bracket of Rs 25,000-30,000 a month and above very few are able to provide serious learning and even at these institutions parents say the experience is scrappy. In CMSs own fee segment Rs 3500-8500 a month, there are hardly any schools in Tier II cities that are in a position to provide comprehensive education through the use of technology. CMSs ability to deliver is primarily due to its head start. In 2011-12, the school started to introduce interactive whiteboards in its 1125 classrooms. By 2014 or so, all the schools classrooms had the whiteboards and were equipped but soon the authorities found that nobody was using them. The whiteboards lay and gathered dust. Thats when they realised that their teachers were unfamiliar with basics many didnt know what a mouse or a keypad was, several couldnt type at all, and so on. Thats when the CMS decided to set up an department to bring its staff up to speed. The schools director of strategy Roshan Gandhi heads the wing. Ms Sonam of CMS Aliganj Campus II holds online class Soon after the department was set up, the school started intensive training curriculums for its teachers. A level one curriculum for teachers was introduced even music, Hindi, librarians and physical education teachers went through it and gradually became more comfortable and adept with it. After this, a second level of training was undertaken a level two curriculum and post that, many teachers were quite conversant with the use of technology. Simultaneously, CMS did two things: teachers were familiarised with the free resources available on the World Wide web like Teacher Tube (like a YouTube for teachers), Bolo, Khan academy, DIKSHA and other such similar resources. The school also started encouraging teachers to create their own content as Kingdon was uncomfortable with the idea of only off-the-shelf content. Some teachers did manage to create content to be vetted by the team but the school soon found that creating new content proved harder than envisaged. In 2013, the school bought the license for the Tata ClassEdge, an interactive content provider, one of the more expensive vendors but one that they felt suited their curriculum, methodology and style best. Teachers started using this and in some campuses, the school also adopted AI driven adaptive learning tools, especially for math learning. What made CMS more vigilant on this account was the fact that students often lost valuable time in Lucknow as the district magistrate often calls for closure of schools due to inclement weather. To overcome hiccups like these, CMS had set up Google classrooms for every grade and every child over Class 6 had a Gmail account and email address even prior to the Covid-19 crisis. Around March 8th, anticipating closure, Kingdon asked the e-learning department to do a refresher training of all the campus IT Assistants. A further two-day training was held for the teachers on March 14 and 16 in the use of Google Classrooms. Emails of students in Class 3, 4 and 5 were created with the staff and teachers working overtime, as senior classes already had them. Parents were brought on board to ensure that a tablet, phone or a laptop was available for the child with some kind of connectivity, which has become far more accessible thanks to Jio. CMS Anand Nagar students As the began, the teachers started using Google Classrooms, Google Meets and Hangouts and Zoom to engage directly with groups of students, making it more interactive. Studies show that learning in two months of summer holidays is set back by one month and since the lockdown period could be protracted, the loss in learning could be quite stark. Further, one of the main objectives is to keep children engaged and cheerful. For cognitive and emotional well being, children need routine, structure and regularity, and they also need social connection with peers. This is what we as teachers are most concerned with, adds Abha Anant, principal of the CMS Gomti Nagar branch. Online learning is novel and many kids giggle in delight as it happens and this too is an important aspect of the learning. Attendance and participation is now varying between 70-75 per cent (in the low attendance campuses) to 90 per cent in the high attendance ones. We have been working with two primary objectives: NTLB No teacher left behind and NCLB no child left behind, explains Kingdon. She says things are far from perfect but this has been a forced learning experience even for the school. Progress is being measured regularly and the 18 principals have Zoom meetings to keep abreast of how everyone is faring. To keep morale high and results good, CMS has always invested in talent and experience. Teachers at CMS are paid better than most government and private schools in the city with primary full-time recruits starting at around Rs 6 lakh per annum while senior level salaries are higher with Rs 12 lakh per annum paid to experienced senior teachers. The per month fee in classes 11 and 12 is Rs 8860, all-inclusive. Almost all schools around the country have jumped in to try and provide their students some kind of routine, structure and learning during the Covid-19 crisis but in most cases the online teaching has been scrappy for a host of reasons including poor connectivity, a lack of appropriate devices, lack of teacher preparedness, inability of parents to assist their wards, lack of familiarity with technology or at times even sheer apathy. Very few institutions mostly in much higher fee brackets - are managing to do a robust job. A head start helped CMS stay a bit ahead of the curve. The Covid-19 crisis may not be premeditated but has been rearing its head for a while now. The surfer killed in a shark attack off a Northern California beach on Saturday afternoon has been named by the coroners office. Ben Kelly died surfing off Manresa State Beach on the northern end of Monterey Bay about 100 yards from the shore just before 1.30pm. The 26-year-old is said to have been well known Santa Cruz surfing community. He ran a local business hand crafting boards and has been described by friends as 'one of a kind'. Pictures on social media show Ben with his wife Katie and out in the water. They also show him making boards for others. Paying tribute, Instagram user chejordan28 wrote: 'Ben you are one of a kind, one of the good ones, and you will be sorely missed. Aloha bro and much love on your journey to surfing the stars. At least I know you will have a good board under your feet.' Posting a picture of Ben with his surf board, friend Johnny Brewer said: 'BK had one of the biggest hearts and youll be missed brother. Till our next surf up on the clouds. RIP BK.' The surfer killed in a shark attack off a Northern California beach on Saturday afternoon has been named by the coroners office as Ben Kelly, pictured with his wife Katie Ben Kelly died surfing off Manresa State Beach on the northern end of Monterey Bay about 100 yards from the shore just before 1.30pm. The 26-year-old is said to have been well known in the Santa Cruz surfing community Kelly was killed in a shark attack off Manresa State Beach in Northern California on Saturday Police and ambulance vehicles were seen in the beach's parking lot following the attack Photos captured by KTVU showed rescue crews on the shoreline shortly after the incident. Police and ambulance vehicles were seen in the beach's parking lot. According to the California State Parks website, Manresa State Beach is fully closed from 11am to 5pm daily amid the coronavirus pandemic. During the other times, the beach is open to local residents, and they must abide by guidelines and keep moving - surfing, jogging and swimming is permitted but sitting and sunbathing is not. The water one mile north and south of the attack will be closed for five days. Signs were posted warning beachgoers about the attack. 'State Parks expresses its deepest sympathy to the family of the victim,' the statement said. While it is unclear what species attacked the surfer, great white sharks are commonly seen swimming in the area in the lead up to summer. Local drone photographer Eric Mailander told KRON4 that he counted 15 great white sharks while out on his boat on Saturday morning. One friend wrote: 'Gonna miss you bro. Thank you for always having that aloha spirit' Pictures on social media show Ben with his wife Katie and out in the water Police created a sign which was put up to alert residents in the area Saturday's incident was the third fatal shark attack off Northern California since 1984 Another drone photographer, Brian Stocks, also captured great whites swimming off the Manresa Beach on Friday. According to local news sites, the number of sharks in the area are increasing. One outlet described the waters as a 'shark park'. Saturday's incident was the third fatal shark attack off Northern California since 1984. In 2004, a diver was killed by a 17-foot great white shark near Kibeseliah Rock in Mendocino County. In 1984, a 28-year-old man was attacked by a shark at Pigeon Point by a 16-foot great white shark. Kendallville, IN (46755) Today Cloudy. Morning high of 41F with temps falling to near 20. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low 13F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. 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. Today is shaping up negative for Cairo Communication S.p.A. (BIT:CAI) shareholders, with the analysts delivering a substantial negative revision to this year's forecasts. Both revenue and earnings per share (EPS) estimates were cut sharply as analysts factored in the latest outlook for the business, concluding that they were too optimistic previously. Following the latest downgrade, the dual analysts covering Cairo Communication provided consensus estimates of 1.0b revenue in 2020, which would reflect an uncomfortable 13% decline on its sales over the past 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are anticipated to nosedive 94% to 0.024 in the same period. Prior to this update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of 1.1b and earnings per share (EPS) of 0.14 in 2020. Indeed, we can see that the analysts are a lot more bearish about Cairo Communication's prospects, administering a measurable cut to revenue estimates and slashing their EPS estimates to boot. Check out our latest analysis for Cairo Communication BIT:CAI Past and Future Earnings May 10th 2020 Despite the cuts to forecast earnings, there was no real change to the 2.90 price target, showing that the analysts don't think the changes have a meaningful impact on its intrinsic value. That's not the only conclusion we can draw from this data however, as some investors also like to consider the spread in estimates when evaluating analyst price targets. Currently, the most bullish analyst values Cairo Communication at 3.30 per share, while the most bearish prices it at 2.60. Still, with such a tight range of estimates, it suggests the analysts have a pretty good idea of what they think the company is worth. Taking a look at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can understand these forecasts is to see how they compare to both past performance and industry growth estimates. These estimates imply that sales are expected to slow, with a forecast revenue decline of 13%, a significant reduction from annual growth of 34% over the last five years. Yet aggregate analyst estimates for other companies in the industry suggest that industry revenues are forecast to decline 0.4% next year. So it's pretty clear that Cairo Communication's revenues are expected to shrink faster than the wider industry. Story continues The Bottom Line The biggest issue in the new estimates is that analysts have reduced their earnings per share estimates, suggesting business headwinds lay ahead for Cairo Communication. Unfortunately they also downgraded their revenue estimates, and our aggregation of analyst estimates suggests that Cairo Communication revenue is expected to perform worse than the wider market. The lack of change in the price target is puzzling in light of the downgrade but, with a serious decline expected this year, we wouldn't be surprised if investors were a bit wary of Cairo Communication. Even so, the longer term trajectory of the business is much more important for the value creation of shareholders. At least one analyst has provided forecasts out to 2021, which can be seen for free on our platform here. Of course, seeing company management invest large sums of money in a stock can be just as useful as knowing whether analysts are downgrading their estimates. So you may also wish to search this free list of stocks that insiders are buying. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading. The Nigerian billionaires fighting coronavirus There is no doubt that the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the frailties of the human race. It has also wrecked the world economy. However, it has also brought out the best in some people as many Nigerians have come to the aid of the underprivileged members of society. TOFARATI IGE takes a look at wealthy Nigerians who have donated huge amounts of money to cushion the effects of the pandemic Aliko Dangote Being the richest black man in the world is no mean feat. And living up to the billing, Aliko Dangote, does not believe in doing small things. Whenever he wants to give, he gives big. Shortly after the first case of coronavirus was reported in the country, Dangote, donated a hefty sum of N2bn to the government to battle the disease. Dangote also partnered with Access Bank to provide treatment, testing, training and isolation centres across the country. Folorunsho Alakija Billionaire businesswoman and philanthropist, Folorunsho Alakija, is one woman who has repeatedly shown that she has the milk of human kindness flowing in her veins. Apparently disturbed by the damaging effect the coronavirus pandemic could have on the country, Alakija, who is the MD of Famfa Oil Limited, gave the Federal Government N1bn as her form of support against the rampaging pandemic. The donation was made on behalf of she and her husband, Modupe. Alakijas non-governmental organisation, Rose of Sharon Foundation, is known for helping widows and orphans through business grants and scholarships. Tony Elumelu That Tony Elumelu is a mentor to many both young and old is incontestable. The economist, entrepreneur and philanthropist is the Chairman of Heirs Holding, United Bank for Africa and Transcorp, as well as being the founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, which empowers African entrepreneurs to create jobs on the continent. Elumelu has often said that he is deeply passionate about Africa and wants to see the continent grow. On a number of occasions, he has donated to worthy causes, especially as regards youths. For the fight against COVID-19, the suave personality donated N1bn. Alumni of TEF such as Juliet Kimuli (produces face masks in Uganda), Dr Adereni Abiodun (donated 10,000 face masks to mitigate the spread of coronavirus in rural areas), Nkem Okocha (gives hope to vulnerable women during the lockdown), Olasupo Abideen (launches media initiative to battle fake news) are also battling pandemic with different innovative approaches. Bola Tinubu A former Governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, is one of the most influential politicians in the country despite not holding any public position since he left as governor after serving two terms in 2007. Considering that the index case of coronavirus in Nigeria was reported in Lagos, it is not surprising that the astute politician fondly called Asiwaju quickly sprang to action. On the occasion of his 68th birthday, the APC chieftain donated N200m to the Federal Government and Lagos State Government. He wrote on Twitter, Today, but for COVID-19, we would, as we have done for the last 12 years, have celebrated this day with the Bola Tinubu Colloquium. This year, we could not but by Gods grace, we will do so again. The circumstances this year prevent us from gathering together to celebrate my birthday but I would still like to mark the occasion. That is why I have chosen today to announce that I will be making a donation of N200m to fight this deadly virus. Pursuant to this pledge, N100m will be made available to the government of Lagos State and another N100m to the NCDC to support their efforts in fighting COVID-19. Theophilus Danjuma A former soldier, politician, businessman, Theophilus Danjuma, through the Victims Support Fund, set up a task force on COVID-19 to distribute food and drugs worth N1bn to internally displaced persons and other vulnerable groups across the country. In a statement that accompanied the donation, Danjuma wrote, This intervention became necessary in view of the global devastation of the coronavirus pandemic and the huge human challenges it poses for the country. As a country, we must all do what we can to ensure that the spread is curtailed. The task force will provide N1bn worth of medical supplies, food, water and non-food items for IDPs and others, who will face special challenges at this difficult time. Femi Otedola Charismatic billionaire, Femi Otedola, is a man who gives like it is going out of fashion. He has donated huge sums of money to different causes in the past and the coronavirus pandemic is not an exception. Otedola, through his company, Amperion Power Distribution Limited, donated N1bn to the Federal Government to fight against the disease. Abdulsamad Rabiu The founder of BUA Group, Abdulsamad Rabiu, is an active and big player on the Nigerian business scene. With his interests cutting across several areas including iron and steel, cement, sugar refining and real estate, Rabiu does know his onion when it comes to entrepreneurship. Having made his fortune in Nigeria, the billionaire doesnt hesitate to come to the countrys aid when his help is needed. He donated N1bn to the fight against COVID-19 pandemic. Jim Ovia Business and founder of Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia, is one man who likes to keep his personal life private. He prefers to concentrate on his business interest. Like others in his ilk have done, Ovia also stepped up to the plate to knock down COVID-19 pandemic. He donated N1bn to the cause. Ovia also engages in other philanthropic activities through the Mankind United to Support Total Education and Youth Empowerment/ICT Foundation, among other non-governmental organisations. Oba Otudeko Businessman, Oba Otudeko, is the founder and chairman of the Honeywell Group. He is also a respected philanthropist and he uses his Oba Otudeko Foundation to silently empower many irrespective of where they come from. He donated N1bn to the Federal Government to wipe out the coronavirus pandemic out of the country. Mike Adenuga The founder of Globacom and Conoil, Mike Adenuga, GCON, is an enigma of sorts. Many admire his business sense and courage but they rarely ever get to see him because he refers to be out of the limelight. Though Adenuga doesnt relish appearing in public, he has been a blessing to several people across different walks of life. Through his non-governmental organisation, Mike Adenuga Foundation, the businessman donated a whooping N1bn to the government towards the eradication of the virus. *** Source: The PUNCH Today, the head of the Chechen Ministry of Sports, Khamzat Kadyrov, presented 20 relatives of the Great Patriotic War veterans new apartments, which the Regional Public Fund named after Akhmat Kadyrov donated to them in honor of the 75th anniversary of the Great Victory. The Chechen Republic is one of the first regions in the country where the issue of improving housing conditions for the participants of the Great Patriotic War, home front workers and widows of veterans is completely solved, he said at the ceremony. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Prisca Ang (The Straits Times/Asia News Network) Singapore Sun, May 10, 2020 14:11 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd70a137 2 News Singapore-Airlines,Airlines,travel,face-mask,inflight-meals,coronavirus,COVID-19 Free All passengers on Singapore Airlines (SIA) and SilkAir flights will be required to bring their own mask and wear it throughout the flight. They must also observe safe distancing measures when embarking and disembarking from a flight and when queueing to use the lavatory. These measures, which are in accordance with a Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore directive, will take effect from 11.59 p.m. on Sunday, SIA said in a statement posted on its website on Saturday evening. Passengers on flights arriving in Singapore will also undergo a basic health assessment, including a verbal health declaration and temperature checks, before boarding the aircraft. Meal services will be suspended on flights within Southeast Asia and those servicing China and a bag containing water and refreshments will be provided upon boarding instead. Meals will be provided on all other flights. Customers who have special meal requirements can choose from a reduced list based on International Air Transport Association guidelines. These measures are in addition to the existing precautionary measures that SIA and SilkAir have in place "to safeguard the well-being of customers and crew", SIA said in its statement. One such existing measure is that every SIA and SilkAir aircraft undergoes a thorough cleaning process that includes the use of an approved strong disinfectant to clean all common areas, said the airline. Read also: Only 10 out of 200 Singapore Airlines planes still fly passengers It added that its aircraft are equipped with high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters, which "effectively filter more than 99.99 percent of airborne microbes and have a similar performance to those used in hospital operating rooms". Adjustments to its in-flight services also include the suspension of hot towel service and the removal of menu cards and magazines from the back pockets of seats on all flights. Cabin crew members and pilots have their temperatures taken before flights and wear masks and goggles, or eye visors, during flights. They do not report for work if they are unwell, SIA said. SIA and SilkAir have grounded most of their fleet following a plunge in global demand for air travel as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Topics : This article appeared on The Straits Times newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post By PTI MUMBAI: Azaan is an integral part of the faith, not the gadget, says veteran writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar, asking that the Islamic call to prayer on loudspeakers should be stopped as it causes "discomfort" to others. In a tweet on Saturday, Akhtar wondered why the practice was 'halaal' (allowed) when it was, for nearly half a century in the country, considered 'haraam' or forbidden. "In India for almost 50 years Azaan on the loud speak was Haraam. Then it became Halaal and so halaal that there is no end to it, but there should be an end to it. Azaan is fine but loud speaker does cause of discomfort for others. I hope that atleast this time they will do it themselves (sic)," Akhtar tweeted. In India for almost 50 yrs Azaan on the loud speak was HARAAM Then it became HaLAAL n so halaal that there is no end to it but there should be an end to it Azaan is fine but loud speaker does cause of discomfort for others I hope that atleast this time they will do it themselves Javed Akhtar (@Javedakhtarjadu) May 9, 2020 When a user asked his opinion on loudspeakers being used in temples, the 75-year-old writer said that everyday use of speakers is a cause of concern. "Whether it's a temple or a mosque, if you're using loudspeakers during a festival, it's fine. But it shouldn't be used everyday in either temples or mosques. "For more than thousand years Azaan was given without the loud speaker. Azaan is the integral part of your faith, not this gadget," he replied. Earlier in March, Akhtar had supported the demand to shut mosques amid the coronavirus outbreak in the country, saying even Kaaba and Medina have been closed due to the pandemic. He had also appealed to the Muslim community to offer prayers from home in the holy month of Ramzan, which began on April 24. "I request all the Muslim brothers that now that Ramzan is coming, please say your prayers but make sure that this doesn't cause problems to anyone else. The prayers that you do in the mosque, you can do that at home. According to you, the house, the ground, this all has been made by Him. Then you can do your prayers anywhere," he had said. The Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) has advised Lagosians not to board commercial buses carrying more than the stipulated number of passengers. The Lagos state government, as part of measures to contain the spread of coronavirus in the state, ordered that only eight passengers should be in a 14-seater commercial bus. Alhaji Mohammed Musa, Lagos State Chairman of RTEAN, made the plea in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos while assessing compliance level of members, a week after the lockdown ease. Musa said, We have urged our members to adhere strictly to the Lagos State Government new transport guidelines of carrying only eight in 14-seater commercial buses to forestall further spread of COVID-19. Advertisement We have set up task force to ensure compliance among our members but we think commuters also have some roles to play to ensure compliance by avoiding erring operators. We advise passengers to stop boarding any 14-seater commercial vehicle that has more than eight passengers already in it. Passengers must also support us, the RTEAN boss said. Read Also: Lagos May Record 120k Cases By July: Health Commissioner He urged commuters not to enter buses once they are loaded up to 60 per cent capacity at parks and bus stops He said that RTEAN members had been duly informed and cautioned on the guidelines, and that the association would not relent in supporting the government in enforcement in the interest of society. Musa said that 14-seater commercial buses should not carry more than eight passengers while tricycle operators should carry only two passengers with face masks. (NAN) An Australian FIFO worker says he feels lucky to be alive after catching coronavirus in West Africa. Perth father Gareth Jones flew to Bokino Farso for work at the Bissa Gold Mine but started showing symptoms of the deadly disease shortly after arriving. Mr Jones told Nine News the fever was the first thing to strike him down followed by uncontrollable coughing. He was rushed to a local hospital where his condition continued to worsen. Scroll down for video Perth father and FIFO worker Gareth Jones (pictured) feared for his live when he caught COVID-19 after flying into Western Africa Mr Jones (pictured) travelled to West Africa to work at a gold mine but immediately got a fever and got an uncontrollable cough, it was COVID-19 and he was rushed to hospital but he feared for his life because of the condition of the hospital combined with having the virus Doctors decided Mr Jones would be transported two hours across rough terrain to a larger hospital in Ouagadougou for treatment. But Mr Jones said the conditions in the hospital left him fearing for his life. 'You could just see the rubbish and there was faeces and people lying everywhere, it was pretty confronting,' Mr Jones said. For six hours he was left alone on his hospital bed struggling to breath after his oxygen ran out. I thought I was going to die, I thought this is it, but I didnt even have the energy, I couldnt talk without coughing,' he said. On a handful of occasions Mr Jones was told a mercy flight had been scheduled for him but it was repeatedly cancelled. In the course of 10 days the FIFO worker lost 16 kilograms. His mother back in Australia was finally able to organise a flight for him to Switzerland and he was flown out of West Africa a short time later. Mr Jones said the moment he was able to hug his daughters again was 'special' and he was happy and relieved to be home and recovered. Three members of President Trump's coronavirus task force, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, said they will self-quarantine on Saturday after coming into contact with someone who had tested positive for COVID-19, according to a spokesman and media reports. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN on Saturday that he will begin a 'modified quarantine' after coming into 'low risk' contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Robert Redfield 'will be teleworking for the next two weeks' after a 'low-risk exposure' on Wednesday to a person at the White House who has the disease, The Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing a spokesman. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the White House's coronavirus task force, told CNN on Saturday that he will begin a 'modified quarantine' Robert Redfield (left), the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Stephen Hahn (right), the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said they will self-quarantine for two weeks after coming into contact with an infected White House staffer Hahn is believed to have come into contact with Katie Miller, press secretary for Vice President Mike Pence. Miller has also tested positive for COVID-19 Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn is in self-quarantine for a couple of weeks after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, an FDA spokesman told Reuters late on Friday. Hahn immediately took a diagnostic test for the coronavirus and the results were negative, FDA spokesman Michael Felberbaum said in an emailed statement. 'As Dr. Hahn wrote in a note to staff today, he recently came into contact with an individual who has tested positive for COVID-19. Per CDC guidelines, he is now in self-quarantine for the next two weeks,' the FDA spokesman said. Politico reported that Hahn had come into contact with Katie Miller, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary. Miller, the wife of one of President Donald Trump's senior advisers, tested positive on Friday, raising alarm about the virus' potential spread within the White House's innermost circle. The diagnosis of Miller, who is married to White House immigration adviser and speech writer Stephen Miller, was revealed by Trump in a meeting with Republican lawmakers on Friday. A valet for Trump has also tested positive. Ivanka's personal assistant and 11 Secret Service employees test positive for COVID-19 Ivanka Trump's personal assistant has tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, adding to the growing number of White House personnel who have come down with the virus. The assistant has not been around Ivanka Trump for weeks and has been working remotely, according to CNN. The network reported that both Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, who also serves as a senior adviser to the president, tested negative for COVID-19. Eleven members of the United States Secret Service have recently tested positive for COVID-19 while 23 others have recovered from the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. A personal assistant to Ivanka Trump (above), the president's daughter who also serves as an adviser in the White House, is also reported to have tested positive for COVID-19 Some 60 employees of the agency charged with protecting President Trump and other senior government officials are currently in quarantine due to the outbreak, according to Department of Homeland Security documents obtained by Yahoo News. The current active cases of COVID-19 were reported as of Thursday. It is not known if any of the infected employees were in close contact with Trump or Vice President Mike Pence. To protect the privacy of our employees health information and for operational security, the Secret Service is not releasing how many of its employees have tested positive for COVID-19, nor how many of its employees were, or currently are, quarantined, Justine Whelan, a Secret Service spokesperson, told Yahoo News. The Secret Service protects the president, the vice president, and visiting world leaders. It also has security details for living former presidents and other dignitaries. Whelan told Yahoo News that the agency has been following prevention guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control. Secret Service agents hold the door for President Trump (center) in May 2018. Eleven members of the Secret Service have tested positive for COVID-19, according to an internet news report She declined to say how many of those who tested positive worked at the White House. 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, Whelan said. The Secret Service continues to follow guidance issued by the CDC to ensure the health and welfare of our employees and those they come in contact with. The rash of positive tests amongst Secret Service employees is likely to raise fresh questions about the extent to which the Trump administration is adhering to its own guidelines about keeping safe during the pandemic. The CDC recommends that Americans stand at least six feet away from each other, avoid large gatherings, and wear face coverings to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. Hours earlier on Friday, it was learned that a staffer who works for Pence tested positive for COVID-19. Earlier on Friday, it was learned that Katie Miller (second from right), the press secretary for Vice President Mike Pence (second from left), tested positive for COVID-19 Katie Miller, Pences press secretary, who tested positive on Friday, had been in recent contact with the vice president. She is married to Stephen Miller, a top Trump adviser. The White House had no immediate comment on whether Stephen Miller had been tested or if he was still working out of the White House. Katie Miller had tested negative Thursday, a day before her positive result. 'This is why the whole concept of tests aren't necessarily great,' Trump said. 'The tests are perfect but something can happen between a test where its good and then something happens.' The positive test for Katie Miller came one day after White House officials confirmed that a member of the military serving as one of Trumps valets had tested positive for COVID-19. Six people who had been in contact with Miller were scheduled to fly with Pence on Friday to Des Moines, Iowa, on Air Force Two. They were removed from the flight just before it took off, according to a senior administration official. Katie Miller (right) is the wife of top Trump adviser Stephen Miller (left). The couple is seen above in September 2019 None of those people were exhibiting symptofms, but were asked to deplane so they could be tested 'out of an abundance of caution,' a senior administration official told reporters traveling with Pence. All six later tested negative, the White House said. The official said staff in the West Wing are tested regularly but much of Pence's staff - which works next door in the Executive Office Building - are tested less frequently. Katie Miller was not on the plane and had not been scheduled to be on the trip. Pence, who is tested on a regular basis, was tested Friday. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said the administration was stepping up mitigation efforts already recommended by public health experts and taking other unspecified precautions to ensure the safety of the president. Meadows said the White House was 'probably the safest place that you can come,' but he was reviewing further steps to keep Trump and Pence safe. The White House requires daily temperature checks of anyone who enters the White House complex and has encouraged social distancing among those working in the building. The administration has also directed regular deep cleaning of all work spaces. Anyone who comes in close proximity to the president and vice president is tested daily for COVID-19. 'We've already put in a few protocols that we're looking at, obviously, to make sure that the president and his immediate staff stay safe. 'But it's not just the president, it's all the workers that are here ... on a daily basis,' Meadows said. Trump's valet's case marked the first known instance where a person who has come in close proximity to the president has tested positive since several people present at his private Florida club were diagnosed with COVID-19 in early March. The valet tested positive Wednesday. The White House was moving to shore up its protection protocols to protect the nation's political leaders. Trump said some staffers who interact with him closely would now be tested daily. Pence told reporters Thursday that both he and Trump would now be tested daily as well. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- President Trump, Attorney General William Barr and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn approached this Mothers Day by saluting Mother Russia and insulting Mother Justice. At the urging of President Trump, Barr had the Department of Justice drop charges against Flynn for lying about his contacts with the Russian Ambassador, charges Flynn had already pled guilty to twice. Thursday, the DOJ filed documents stating: After a considered review of all the facts and circumstances in this case, including newly discovered and disclosed information... the government has concluded that [Flynns interview by the FBI in January 2017] was untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBIs counterintelligence investigation into Mr Flynn and conducted without any legitimate investigative basis. While officially the DOJ filed the request, make no mistake, the request is really by William Barr. The lead prosecutor in the Flynn case withdrew from it upon the filing being made in what clearly appears to be protest. The review of the case was done by political appointees under the direction of Barr and Trump, not veteran career DOJ officials. Barr does not dispute that Flynn committed perjury, hes claiming it doesnt mater because it wasnt material. In fact, Flynn committed perjury about his contact with Russia while being interviewed by the FBI under their investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Can we expect Barr and Trump to call for charges be dropped against all those convicted in Watergate for the same reason? Tapes and coverups arent material to a third rate burglary? The request must still be approved by Judge Emmet Sullivan who is unlikely to give it the typical rubber stamp approval after what he told Flynn at a 2018 hearing: I am not hiding my disgust, my disdain for this criminal offense. Arguably, you sold your country out. While Judge Sullivan 72, was appointed by President Clinton in 94, hes known for being independent and delivering strong rebukes even against government conduct he views as unjust. Judge Sullivan can inquire why the lead prosecutor suddenly withdrew. He can open an inquiry into the DOJs reasoning for its sudden reversal especially when Flynn had not only pled guilty twice, was apologetic in court and was awaiting sentencing. I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and through my faith in God, I am working to set things right," said Flynn at the time of his guilty pleas. The Judge can reject the request to drop the charges either with prejudice or without prejudice, which would give a future Department of Justice not run by an Attorney General tool of Trump to revive the case. Flynn can also still be sentenced by Judge Sullivan and wait for Trump to pardon him, as was expected before Barr moved to drop the case the DOJ already won. Former President Barack Obama blasted Barrs request in a conference call with the Obama Alumni Association of his former staff. There is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free. Thats the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic -- not just institutional norms -- but our basic rule of law is at risk. And when you start moving in those directions, it can accelerate pretty quickly as weve seen in other places. Trump has already hinted that more miscarriages of justices from Barr and him are to come, and it likely wont just be the expected pardons. Dont be surprised if Barr also moves to drop all the indictments Robert Mueller brought against Russians involved with meddling in the 2016 presidential election. In dropping the case, Barr continued to do serious damage to the rule of law, the FBI, the entire Department of Justice he misleads. - Heart Evangelista and her stepchildren, Joaquin and Cecilia Escudero have buzzed the online community - The actress recently took to social media to share the gifts she received from her stepchildren on Mother's Day - According to the Kapuso artist, her stepchildren cooked for her during the special occasion - Aside from this, Heart also shared the handwritten letter Joaquin gave to her on her social media account PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed For Mother's Day, actress and creative director Heart Evangelista received some of the sweetest gifts from her stepchildren, Joaquin and Cecilia Escudero. In her social media post, KAMI learned that the actress's stepchildren cooked for her and even gave her a handwritten letter and card. The actress then shared a photo of the two with Heart showing the food they made for her. "Kiddos made lunch for me," she wrote. Aside from this, Heart posted a photo of a lengthy handwritten letter she received from Joaquin on Mother's Day. Source: Instagram @iamhearte Source: Instagram In his letter addressed to their 'Tita Heart', Joaquin expressed how thankful they are for having a mother figure around "Thank you for always being here for us and being basically our mother figure while in quarantine and we don't see Daddy and our mom everyday. "Us spending time here at home together has really shown me and Ate your love for Daddy, for us, for our dogs, for all we are with in the house and your fellow Filipinos," he wrote. He also mentioned that they will always be there for their stepmother as well, especially after Heart lost her foster puppy Casper, "We saw how strong you are and how you can take care of a household without having experience as a parent. "But, we also see that you still need support from others whenever a situation like Casper's passing and your anxiety and other things we see so we will also promise to be there for you as you have been there for us especially these past few weeks." Source: Instagram @iamhearte Source: Instagram It can be worth noting that Joaquin and Cecilia are Chiz Escudero's children with Christine Elizabeth Flores who has been the former's wife for 10 years. PAY ATTENTION: Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news! As reported earlier by KAMI, Kapuso artist Heart Evangelista has been donating to those in need ever since the pandemic hit the Philippines. However, her latest online post about her donations caught the attention of a netizen who questioned her post. Heart Evangelista, or Love Marie Ongpauco in real life, is one of the well-known actresses in the Philippines. Aside from being a fashion icon, Heart is also the wife of Gov. Chiz Escudero. POPULAR: Read more news about Heart Evangelista Please like and share our Facebook posts to support KAMI team! Dont hesitate to comment and share your opinion about our stories either. We love reading about your thoughts! An OFW in Dubai narrates how he ended up bedridden in a critical condition due to COVID-19. At some point, Ruffy Niedo felt he wouldn't make it. Now he shares his story with us. Check out all of the exciting videos and celebrity interviews on our KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel ! Source: KAMI.com.gh Ravi Zacharias' cancer has spread and he has been told by doctors that there is nothing more they can do medically for him. The Christian apologist was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer in March 2020, and he has undergone rounds of chemotherapy. However, the condition of the area where the cancer metastasized has deteriorated. Sarah Davis, daughter of Ravi and CEO of Zacharias International Ministries broke the news to the ministry's staff on Friday. She told them, "We have just learned that while the tumor in my dad's sacrum has been responding to the chemotherapy, the area where the cancer metastasized has actually worsened." She added, "His oncologist informed us that this cancer is very rare in its aggression and that no options for further treatment remain. Medically speaking, they have done all they are able." Zacharias' family will now be returning home to Atlanta, Davis has said, so that "our family can be together for whatever time the Lord gives us." The apologist publicly revealed that he had been diagnosed with bone cancer in March through his Facebook page. He told followers that doctors had discovered a tumor on the sacrum, which was identified as a type of cancer called sarcoma. Making that announcement in March, Zacharias said, "We are trusting the Lord in this, and we believe we have already seen evidence of His hand. We received literally thousands of messages from people all over the world saying you were praying." He added, "I have every belief God directed and prompted my surgeon to his discovery of this tumor. "Margie and I and our family are so grateful for your continued prayers for the journey that lies ahead. We are trusting the Lord for His purpose. Please do also pray that God will take away this horrific night pain, which is the most difficult part of waiting." Zacharias recently shared a picture of himself and his wife on his Instagram page as they celebrated their 48th wedding anniversary. With the picture he wrote, "In sickness and in health." He also added, "Our 48th wedding anniversary looked different than the others, but three things remain the same: our love for each other, the gift of family and friends who shower us with kindness, and the abiding faithfulness of our great God." The post concluded, "Thanks to everyone who sent greetings and words of encouragement to Margie and me on this occasion. "Please keep us in your prayers as I battle cancer, and accept our heartfelt gratitude for your love and friendship." remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. "He pointed his finger at me, and he said, 'You're nothing to me. You're nothing,'" Reade said, estimating that the alleged incident lasted about three minutes. Loading The interview came as Biden's allies have started pointing more directly to inconsistencies in Reade's accounts and asking how some of her assertions have changed over time. Biden has said he will not question her motives - saying that the assault did not occur but that all women should be allowed to publicly detail their allegations. Yet Kate Bedingfield, Biden's deputy campaign manager, on Thursday night challenged several of Reade's statements by saying that "more and more inconsistencies keep emerging." "The truth is that these allegations are false and that the material that has been presented to back them up, under scrutiny, keeps proving their falsity," she said in a statement. President Donald Trump - who has been accused by more than a dozen women of groping, kissing or sexual assault and has been recorded on audio boasting about grabbing women between the legs - commented on the allegations Friday. "I don't know if it's false or not," he said on Fox and Friends. "Joe is going to have to prove whatever he has to prove or she has to prove it, but that's a battle he has to fight." Joe Biden is the presumptive Democratic nominee for the president of the United States. Credit:AP Reade first came forward publicly last year, offering details about what she described as harassment from Biden during her tenure in his Senate office. She said he would touch her hair and neck, and that she was told by others that he wanted her to serve drinks at a fundraiser because he thought she was pretty and had nice legs. She said in the Friday interview that she was reprimanded by Marianne Baker, who was an executive assistant in the office and one of Reade's direct bosses. "She just said, 'You know, if you want to get along here, you need to keep your head down and do what you're told,'" Reade said. "She said, 'You need to button up your blouses, you need to have longer skirts, you need to not look so sexy and noticeable.'" Tara Reade gave her latest interview to US journalist Megyn Kelly. Credit:AP Reade said she went to Baker with complaints about harassment in the office. Baker has adamantly denied that assertion in a statement released by Biden's campaign. In interviews last year about her harassment allegations, Reade described her interactions with Biden as not being intimidating. "I wasn't scared of him, that he was going to take me in a room or anything," she told the Associated Press in a recently published interview that was conducted in April 2019. "It wasn't that kind of vibe." A friend who last year spoke to a Vox reporter at Reade's encouragement said that Biden "never tried to kiss her directly. He never went for one of those touches. It was one of those, 'Sorry you took it that way.'" But those descriptions changed this year after Reade for the first time accused Biden of assault. She said that she was not comfortable coming forward at the time, and her friend told Vox that she was following Reade's wishes to not disclose the assault. In the interview with Kelly, Reade also addressed her repeated praise of Biden, made as recently as 2017. "I've always been conflicted about Joe Biden," she said. A man was killed in a shark attack as he was surfing at a state beach in Northern California on Saturday, the authorities said. The man, Ben Kelly, 26, was about 100 yards from shore at Manresa State Beach near Santa Cruz when he was attacked around 1:30 p.m., the California Department of Parks and Recreation said on Sunday. The beach, at the northern end of Monterey Bay, had been closed to the public between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. as part of an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus. While the beach was closed, people were allowed in the water for active aquatic recreation, the parks department said. Because of the attack, the beach has been closed to the public until May 14, and signs warning beachgoers about the attack have been posted at access points. (Natural News) The African nation of Tanzania recently sent samples to the WHO for coronavirus testing. Among those items that tested positive for the coronavirus were samples from a goat, a papaya and a pheasant, all at once exposing the total science fraud behind coronavirus testing. As weve warned for over a month, most coronavirus tests produce huge numbers of false positives. The testing kits are largely made in China, and either through gross incompetence or malicious intent, China-made lab tests are notorious for being so inaccurate that theyre practically useless. Notably, the infamous Stanford Study which was seized upon by the conservative media to claim that the coronavirus had already infected a large percentage of the population and therefore wasnt very deadly also relied in China-made antibody tests that produced huge numbers of false positives. Those who touted the findings of the Stanford Study were actually getting hoodwinked by China, it turns out. And similar antibody tests have been run in New York, allowing Cuomo to spread total disinformation to the public, claiming somewhere around 14% of all New Yorkers have already been infected with the virus. We now have enough knowledge of the false positives testing fiasco to be able to say, with confidence, that the official coronavirus infection numbers are wildly over-stated. Nowhere near that number of people have actually been infected. And that means the coronavirus is far more deadly than what people are being led to believe. Why the coronavirus actually kills about 10% of those who become symptomatic In the United States, the official numbers currently show that 1.35 million people are confirmed as infected, while 80,351 people have so far died from the virus. If you take these numbers at face value, that would put the current Case Fatality Rate (CFR) for the coronavirus at 5.9%. The infection numbers, though, are wildly over-inflated due to faulty testing kits that produce false positives. If we adjust the infection numbers down to a more realistic level, the CFR jumps significantly higher. And yes, there are likely some people dying from other things who have been incorrectly counted as COVID-19 deaths, but the Financial Times analysis of excess mortalities from all causes ends that argument by documenting a huge surge in recent deaths from any cause, regardless of whats stated on death certificates. If anything, the number of coronavirus deaths is being under-stated by perhaps 50% or so, while the number of coronavirus infections is being over-stated by a wide margin. And we actually have a way to take a good guess at the degree by which those infection numbers are over-inflated. We already know that many of these kits produce somewhere around 10 false positives per 100 people tested, or a 10% false positive rate (many kits are far worse). We can also intelligently estimate that right now somewhere around 2% of the US population has actually been infected. This is a rough estimate, but as youll see below, whether this is 1% or 4% doesnt change the conclusions by much. Now, if you test 100 people for the coronavirus, and 2 out of those 100 actually have the coronavirus, but the test kits youre using have a false positive rate of 10 out of 100, then you will get, essentially 12 positives out of 100. Notably, 10 of those positives are false, and 2 are real. This means the false positives are 500% higher than the real positives. And if you rely on those findings, you would incorrectly think that 500% more people have been infected than actually have. This is precisely what the Stanford Study did. They ran tests that produced false positives, then they extrapolated that false finding to the entire population of California. From that, they incorrectly concluded that a huge percentage of California had already been infected, and therefore the Infection Fatality Rate (IFR) of the coronavirus was very, very small. As we show in this Natural News article, Stanford researchers likely produced 13 false positives for every 1 real positive. That entire conclusion falls apart when you realize the testing kits they used were made in China. In fact, those particular kits were so unreliable that Stanford researchers tried to hide the origins of the kits in their paper, but internet sleuths found out the kits were actually made by Hangzhou Biotest Biotech, a company that ranked last place in testing kit accuracy. As ExtremeTech.com explained: At the time Stanford did the study, there werent any FDA-approved COVID-19 antibody tests for clinical use. But for research purposes, the team purchased tests from Premier Biotech in Minnesota. Premier has started marketing a COVID-19 antibody test, but it doesnt create it. The test listed on the companys website, and that it appears Stanford used, is from Hangzhou Biotest Biotech, an established Chinese lab test vendor. It also turned out that the Wall Street Journal writer who touted the stunning findings of the paper was one of the paper co-authors who failed to identify his obvious conflict of interest. So the entire study and the subsequent WSJ editorial coverage of it was a rigged scam, 100% science fraud parading around as breaking news to try to deceive America into thinking the coronavirus was no real danger at all. It was a propaganda con job, and sadly, most of the pro-Trump independent media fell for it and repeated the bad conclusions, misinforming their own audiences and causing many people to believe the virus was no more dangerous than the flu. Peak Prosperity also explained this in a detailed video, which I covered in this important podcast: If you really crunch the numbers on this, it turns out the coronavirus is 56 to 100 times more deadly than the regular flu. But to realize that, you have to weed through the deliberate disinformation being pushed by those who are trying to downplay the severity of the virus for political reasons. (A foolish ploy that will catastrophically backfire when the second wave of infections becomes impossible to deny.) Bad tests and false positives: The upshot of what it really means So what does all this really mean in a practical sense? Here are the bullet points of the rational conclusions: The infection numbers are wildly over-stated due to false positives from bogus testing kits. This means the infection fatality rates are under-stated, since far fewer people have been infected than we were led to believe. It also means that herd immunity is far off, since the actual percentage of people who have been infected is much smaller than what researchers have been reporting. In truth, the real number of infections may be just 1/10th what researchers have estimated (or even lower). Any attempt to leap across the chasm and try to rapidly achieve herd immunity in the USA will result in disaster (and mass death). This also means that reopening economies without taking proper precautions such as wearing masks, which can end the pandemic if just 80% of the people participate will lead to a catastrophic second round of infections and deaths. Finally, and perhaps most worryingly, this means that people are being told theyve already been infected and are therefore immune and can go back to work. When, in reality, most of those people have never been infected at all. This will result in many people having a false sense of security, which would likely lead many of these people to avoid taking adequate precautions such as wearing masks. In effect, the result of bad tests producing false positives is mass confusion and the gross mis-allocation of resources to fight the pandemic. If that sounds like the precise scenario that communist China would be trying to unleash across America as part of a biological warfare playbook, youre exactly right. Thats why we believe the false positive test kits are deliberately manufactured to be faulty as a way for China to magnify the spread of the coronavirus pandemic outside of China as part of its multiple waves of biological warfare against the West. Almost certainly, China reserved the accurate kits for itself while exporting known bad kits to nations like the United States, all while pressuring the WHO to claim there was no pandemic at all. If you want to learn even more about Chinas plans to attack and destroy America, listen to this bombshell interview with JR Nyquist: Stay informed by reading Pandemic.news and checking new video news at Brighteon.com. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday said 139 Indians from Riyadh and 21 from Uzbekistan have arrived in Delhi. He said the flight which landed from Uzbekistan will be carrying back Uzbek nationals and medicines from India to Tashkent. "21 Indians from Uzbekistan have just arrived in Delhi on board UZB 3561. The flight will be carrying back Uzbek nationals and Indian medicine assistance to Tashkent. Good work by Team @amb_tashkent under Ambassador @santjha #VandeBharatMission," Jaishankar said in a tweet. "AI flight 926 from Riyadh carrying 139 Indians has just landed in Delhi. Thank @airindiain, @MoCA_GoI, Bureau of Immigration and Delhi Government for support and cooperation. Kudos to @drausaf & Team @IndianEmbRiyadh #VandeBharatMission," he said in another tweet. The Indians have been brought back under the government's Vande Bharat Mission. New Delhi, May 10 : Sir Gangaram Hospital on Sunday said it will resume its Outpatient Department (OPD) services from May 11. The hospital said it will resume OPD services in a graded manner from Monday from 10 am to 4pm . "Each doctor will see maximum four patients in one hour," said the hospital. The hospital has been identified as a non-Covid and Covid-safe facility. The hospital management said the hospital has created proper infrastructure facilities to minimize the spread of Covid-19, keeping in mind that nearly 70% Covid positive persons are asymptomatic. "Patients are advised to show their risk status on Aarogya Setu app and appointment details on their mobiles on demand," said the hospital. The Delhi government on April 30 declared Sir Ganga Ram City Hospital, Pusa Road (affiliated to Main Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Rajinder Nagar) in Delhi as a Covid-19 hospital for admitting confirmed and suspected cases of Covid-19 on payment basis. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) The rhetoric between the worlds two largest political powers the United States (US) and China has heated up. The trend began several years ago, during Barack Obamas presidency. But it grew under Donald Trumps tenure, and intensified following in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Chinese diplomats have adopted a more strident tone, described as wolf warrior diplomacy after a popular Chinese action film. US officials like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Deputy National Security Adviser Matt Pottinger have shot back. The blame game caters to the domestic constituencies of both countries, but also complements the intensifying geopolitical competition between Washington and Beijing. The hardening language and policies by the US and China have worried observers elsewhere, including in Southeast Asia, Europe, and indeed in India. For more than two decades, many had grown accustomed to a comfortable arrangement that involved bolstering economic relations with China, preserving a stable defence partnership with the US, and enjoying cordial political and diplomatic relations with both. For some countries, defence cooperation with Washington facilitated a beneficial economic partnership with Beijing by mitigating the perceived risks and justifying lower defence expenditures. Now, many are openly worried about the prospect of having to make starker choices. The appeals to Washington and Beijing to not force others to choose are unlikely to be received sympathetically. Beyond a point, the US and China will do what they want, and other countries concerns will be but an afterthought. It is also a self-serving narrative, perpetuating the notion that it is possible to benefit economically from China and security-wise from the US to have ones cake and eat it too. Consider Malaysias lukewarm response recently when the US navy opted to defend Malaysias use of it exclusive economic zone from Chinese intimidation. Furthermore, it creates a false equivalence between the US and China. China has compelled countries to overlook its island building and militarisation in the South China Sea, and asked them to sign on to a unilateral Chinese political project in the Belt and Road Initiative. Beijing also promoted trade groupings such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and multilateral lending agencies such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) that deliberately excluded the US. By contrast, the US has argued that it has promoted a more open international order, one that is less exclusionary. After all, it was Washington that advocated for Chinas entry into the UN Security Council, World Bank, and World Trade Organization between 1971 and 2001. More recently, even projects like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) from which the US eventually withdrew opted to compete with China by raising standards, leaving open the possibility of expanded membership. But while the US did not generally compel others into adopting exclusionary practices directed at China, there have been some notable exceptions. For example, in 2004 and 2005, the European Union (EU) led by certain member-states and lobbied by defence companies considered lifting its arms embargo on China. This resulted in a sharp disagreement with the US, which shared both technology and defence supply chains with Europe, at a time when transatlantic ties were already under strain following the 2003 Iraq invasion. Under considerable pressure, and internally divided, the EU eventually opted not to lift its embargo. In hindsight, it is interesting to imagine the counterfactual scenario in which Brussels had stayed the course. A less successful attempt by Washington to get countries to pick sides occurred in 2015, when public pressure was mounted on European allies and especially the United Kingdom to not join the China-led AIIB. The decision by the White House to turn the AIIB into a Rubicon was confounding, given that it was an instance of China largely abiding by international standards and that its creation was compelled by US intransigence over institutional reform. This attempt proved an embarrassment for Washington. Many US allies ignored American warnings and joined AIIB anyway. A third, and ongoing, attempt by the US to draw a red line in its competition with China involves allowing Chinese companies to compete for 5G telecommunications contracts. The US is somewhat hamstrung by not being able to provide 5G infrastructure itself, with the beneficiaries of a Chinese boycott likely to be South Korean or European firms. So far, US allies such as Japan and Australia have been at the vanguard of disqualifying Chinese companies, while the UK has openly considered breaking with Washington on the issue. Unlike the previous episodes, which appeared to be aberrations in an otherwise more cooperative international environment, the tussle over 5G may signal the beginning of a new trend. While China drew lines in the sand both literally, as in the South China Sea, and metaphorically at international institutions the US has felt compelled to selectively but increasingly do so as well. The world may never revert to the kinds of blocs that characterised the Cold War. But in a more interdependent era, some tough choices are on the horizon. Dhruva Jaishankar is director of the US Initiative at the Observer Research Foundation The views expressed are personal SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The WHO said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had never had a phone conversation with Xi Jinping - Denis Balibouse/REUTERS The World Health Organization on Sunday denied allegations that the president of China asked it to delay issuing a global warning about the Covid-19 virus amid an intensifying war of words between Beijing and Washington over the handling of the pandemic. Der Speigel on Friday cited sources in Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND) saying that Xi Jinping, China's head of state, had asked Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organisation, to withhold information about human-to-human transmission and delay sounding a global alarm. The WHO said in a statement that the report was "unfounded and untrue." "Dr Tedros and President Xi did not speak on 21 January and they have never spoken by telephone. Such inaccurate reports distract and detract from WHOs and the worlds efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic," it said in a statement. China publicly confirmed human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus on 20 January. Der Speigel did not explain why president Xi would ask Dr Tedros to suppress information China had already released. The WHO declared the outbreak had become a pandemic on March 12. The same report said the BND believed Donald Trump had fabricated a claim that the virus escaped from a Wuhan research laboratory as a "diversion." Mr Trump and Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State, have claimed to have seen intelligence and "enormous evidence" that the Wuhan lab was responsible for the pandemic. They have not made the alleged evidence public. Most scientists believe the virus jumped from bats to humans via an animal host at a food market in Wuhan. No Western intelligence agency has said there is evidence that the virus escaped from a lab, although they have expressed concern over a lack of transparency in China's response. China on Sunday issued a lengthy rebuttal of what it said were 24 "preposterous allegations" by some leading U.S. politicians over its handling of the new coronavirus outbreak. The document included references to media reports that there were infections in America before the outbreak in Wuhan, a claim for which there is no evidence. China has also been accused of pressuring the European Union to delay and change a report that accused China or spreading disinformation about the virus. Donald Trump suspended US funding for the WHO on April 15 over what he called its "mismanagement" of the epidemic and alleged influence by China. He's the proud father of a newborn baby girl, and his gratitude to his wife this Mother's Day knows no bounds. Actor Joshua Jackson posted a sweet photo of his wife Jodie Turner-Smith in mommy-mode on Sunday, an appropriate selection as it was Mother's Day. In the lovely closeup image, Jodie, 33, is seen cradling the head of their newborn baby girl, who came into the world late last month and is the first baby for them both. In awe of her: Actor Joshua Jackson posted a sweet photo of his wife Jodie Turner-Smith in mommy-mode on Sunday, an appropriate selection as it was Mother's Day Jodie has a perfectly contented look on her face in repose, while on her head she wears a beautifully colorful patterned headwrap. Her days-old daughter also wears a head covering, in pale green. Jackson, 40, wrote incredibly glowing things to his wife in the lengthy and heartfelt caption. 'Dear Jodie,' he began. 'On this most special of mothers days I want to thank you for the being the light that you are. For the the passion with which you threw yourself into nurturing and protecting our child when she was in your womb. For the dedication and will you showed bringing her into the world. Dad debut: The Fringe star became the proud father of a newborn baby girl last month; seen here last October New 'rents: Jackson and Turner-Smith's new baby girl came into the world on April 21st and is the first baby for them both; seen here in London in February 'I have never witnessed a more powerful being than you through those moments,' the Dawson's Creek alum continued. 'Thank you for making me a father. For trusting me enough to embark on this journey together', he added later. 'I am humbled more and more every day by that. I love you. 'I love seeing you enter the pantheon of mothers. And I look forward to walking this path by your side as we nurture this little engine of joy you have blessed the world with,' Jackson concluded. 'Thank you for making me a father': Jackson wrote incredibly glowing things to his wife in the lengthy and heartfelt caption on Mother's Day In the image, Turner-Smith's eyes are downcast and she has a hint of a smile on her lips. The Queen & Slim actress wears a lovely golden septum ring in the photo. On April 21st, Jodie and Joshua who secretly wed in December revealed the happy news of their child's birth via their representatives, as told to People Magazine. 'Both mother and baby are happy and healthy,' a rep confirmed. They say, being a police officer is not a job but way of life. It is satisfying, rewarding, saddening, lonely, and fulfillingall in one day. Every day presents a new challenge. When you wear the uniform, you lose your you and become an officer. As the Covid-19 warning bells were ringing in other parts of the world, the medical man in me became curious about the virus. My better half, a journalist, kept telling this virus is getting bigger and would worry even if I coughed. By March, we were clear about the situation in India. The government alerted all of us to get ready. The initial days were spent in planning, mobilising resources, training and building systems. The world had not witnessed such a pandemic in recent times. It was like starting from the scratch. For me, as the superintendent of police of newly carved out district, its like handling a newborn. The Tirupathur district in Tamil Nadu with 13 lakh population spread around 1,800 square kilometres was formed in November 2019. The challenges started to build up from the day of self-imposed makkal curfew on March 22. The looming pandemic compelled us to plan for long spells of lockdown, increasing the capacity of health facilities at least 10 times in terms of the number of beds. Our most important task was educating the public about the virus, seeking their cooperation and advising about precautions to be adopted. This district comprises mostly of villages and people were not much aware of the pandemic. We first wanted to educate the team. We formed 26 delta teams and two wheelers modified with fitting public address system were sent to remote villages to educate the public about the importance of staying home, wearing mask and washing hands. We also decided to reorient the focus of policing. It was different from handling a law and order situation or even a disaster. We are fighting against an invisible virus which has changed the entire world now. In a small but diverse district, our first focus was to map the travel history of citizens. In the initial days, I instructed my team to start the tracing manually in coordination with other concerned departments and then quarantine them. This obviously was new for our people who resisted the idea of confinement. There was also a stigma attached. There were people trying to move. We came up with an idea of monitoring via Google maps. This scheme was already in place in the district police monitoring the movement of patrol vehicles so as to attend an emergency the nearest vehicle is diverted from police control room. Open source web application Google map and its location sharing tool is used to monitor the real time location of the quarantined individuals against the GPS coordinates of their residences through control room. It was simple and effective. This was a quick process to monitor the people who have been quarantined. As the pandemic started showing its face, our personal and professional lives also changed. We first had to build a good team of officers and then gain the confidence of people. I personally didnt want my district people to fear police during the lockdown. But I wanted them to be aware of the seriousness. Our policemen were briefed about showing kindness while attending to the basic needs of people during lockdown. The district collector Mr Sivanarul is an experienced officer and a true leader. He coordinated with various departments like health, revenue, rural development and others. We started working on a war foot basis. We wanted to infuse energy in the team which has just begun setting up the new district. We ensured to design the day and purpose. As a policeman, I am used to long hours of working. But now its about squeezing in time in between work to eat and sleep. My day starts at around 5.30 am when I get a call from my team or even public. I have shared my mobile number with the district people for immediate help. My 19-month-old daughter sleeping next to me gives me enough boost to work through the day. I start my day by giving her a kiss. I then do my workout and have a healthy meal. My intelligence inspector gives a briefing at around 6.30 am at the camp office and I get updates from the DSP. Review of the previous days work and plan for the day is decided over phone or via mic with my junior colleagues. The supervisory officers are updated over phone about the situation. I have had to ensure that my office and camp office staff also follow safety protocol. We put up videos for the police personnel on hand wash routine and hygiene. This pandemic meant more travelling. I had to ensure that safety protocols and hygiene measures were implemented at home. All police stations were fitted with washbasins at the entrance. I sometimes yearn to spend more time with my daughter who comes running to me when I start for work. But I know its not possible during these tough times. She seems to have understood because as I start, Nila gives a warm smile. But the hard part is, if Nila is awake when I return home, she is used to hugging me. Now I just cant allow that before taking a shower. That has indeed disappointed my daughter. I head to either office or to the field depending on the situation in the morning. I meet visitors and ensure systems and processes are in place, and law and order and public peace is maintained. After the proclamation of prohibitory orders under 144 CrPC from March 24, everything changed. Nomenclature of social distance, personal and respiratory hygiene grabbed attention. The district police swung into action, 24x7 control and response centre in SP office was strengthened and citizens were informed to contact the CRC to clarify their doubts about the Covid-19. As a doctor, I was able to coordinate with medical teams as well. As an SP, I wanted to ensure the needs of every vulnerable person in the district was taken care of. I hail from a modest family and being a first-generation graduate, I have seen it all. The Tamil Nadu government under the leadership of chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has directed that no one should go to bed with empty stomach. So community kitchens were opened at block levels by the district administration. Police coordinated with other departments and ensured that food reached the last man in the district. Tirupathur has a sizeable number of migrant labourers. While we reached out to them, we didnt want to miss orphanages and senior citizens homes as well. As much as we need social distancing, we also need volunteers who are ready to work at the frontline. In a short span of time, we could manage 1500 volunteers. It was overwhelming to see many come forward to help the society. This is Resilience and compassion is something that our country is capable of reflecting during crisis. Apart from students and ex-servicemen, we wanted to bring in transgenders. They are marginalised in the society, but every crisis unfolds an opportunity. We included them as volunteers. During the lockdown, we provided them food and other facilities. At the same time, we tapped into their potential to help us. They were briefed, provided with protective gears and deployed to assist police in maintaining social distance, traffic regulation at check posts and for packing of essential goods to be delivered at doorsteps. As we were gearing up with manpower, we did have the challenge of violations of lockdown. My officers and I were on rounds to check this. We used drones to check on violations. I also believe that reaching out to people helped prevent violations. We built local teams to form WhatsApp groups with every resident. They could share their problems and if they required something at home. Village vigilance committees were formed in 770 villages/wards which were made into individual units. Police person is attached to each unit. There is a committee of local residents who assist the police in establishing a two-way communication. This helped in neutralising rumours, educating the public, and getting feedback from the citizens. We used WhatsApp and personal phone calls. Thanks to Covid-19, the district police became active on Twitter. What other way is better to share and receive information? We also did some interesting videos with interviews of people, officers and volunteers. The videos also contained information on Covid-19. Thanks to social media, these videos have become a hit among people as we update everything in real time. While coronavirus is deadly, it also has taught every one of us to invent and rethink about our functioning. This pandemic can be mentally depressing. To ease out and also give awareness, we conduct online drawing and quiz competitions for children. The participation has been overwhelming as enthusiastic parents and children have been sending their creative ideas. Covid-19 is a challenge for the entire humanity and not just a challenge between humans. Thats why we in police service believe in having a humane approach to it. Our DGP, ADGP, IGP and DIGP were particular that we maintain law and order, ensure safety and follow the instructions. They also wanted us be humane and understanding to the needs of the people. At the same time, for the violation of law the district police registered around 7,000 cases as on May 8 and seized as many numbers of two wheelers. As we all know, elderly persons are most vulnerable to Covid-19. One day when I was on a field visit to Vaniyambadi, a major town in Tirupattur district, I came across an epileptic elderly man who had fainted. Medical help was yet to reach. Since I am a paediatrician turned IPS officer, I was able to provide first aid to the gentleman and ensured he was properly positioned so as to not injure himself or aspirate in case of vomiting. I kept him safe till the ambulance reached. Later, he was discharged from the hospital and is now fine. Incidents Like these give a sense of satisfaction after hectic hours of work. Of course, we all should help during emergencies and not fear the Covid-19 spread. We have to take precautions but not stigmatise. We have started a senior citizen security cell a call centre that was opened in district police office to reach out to the senior citizens. We started calling up the vulnerable, the senior citizens who are in need of food or medical help. We have around 46,000 senior citizens under the OAP scheme itself. It is never me but the work done by team that makes me a satisfied man. A lady officer in our team had left her children behind for her Covid-19 duty. The brave officer later tested positive for the virus. As I sent her in the ambulance, she left with a smile, saying, I will soon be fine, sir. Now, she is back home and that makes me relieved. I know that our personnel are working day and night. As the district police chief, it is my duty to keep them in good spirits. We usually give spot rewards for officers who do a good job. It is announced via mic for everyone to know. Many have been missing out on their home-cooked food but we manage to arrange home food for them on Sundays. I keep telling myself and my officers that soon we will be having a smooth sail. Yes, this pandemic has changed our lives forever. Masks, sanitisers and personal hygiene will become our way of life henceforth. The biggest take away is handling the society with a new lens. When there is large scale crisis, police is the only department on the ground which is liaising with all government and private sectors to ensure that the essential supply chain is intact. We have to keep the system is place so that crisis can be handled. We as government officers have to give special attention to the poor, vulnerable, children, tribal, migrants, elderly and women. My day usually ends at around 11.30 pm and sometimes as late as 1am (not to mention emergency calls in between). By the time I get back, on most days my daughter is fast asleep. I play with her if I get back a little early. I hope my family and society remain safe during this pandemic. But its important to be fearless like my child who doesnt know about the virus. At the same time, we should also be aware like adults. This balance will ensure peace during these trying times. The number of coronavirus cases in the country breached the 60,000-mark on Sunday. According to the latest figures updated by the Ministry of Health, the Covid-19 national tally stands at 62,939. There are 41,472 active coronavirus cases in the country, 19,357 patients have been cured or discharged while 2,109 people have died from the deadly contagion. Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra have breached the 20,228-mark while Gujarat, the second worst-affected state has over 7,500 Covid-19 cases. Heres the statewise breakup of the number of coronavirus cases, deaths, and recoveries. Also read: Covid-19 pandemic sets back Delhis infra projects by six months Maharashtra With 20228 Covid-19 active cases, Maharashtra continues to lead the state tally. The state has recorded 779 deaths so far while 3800 patients have recovered. Gujarat The state is second in terms of number of Covid-19 cases. The tally in the state, as per the Ministry of Health, stands at 7796. While 472 people have died due to the coronavirus disease, Gujarat has seen 2091 recoveries so far. Delhi As many as 6542 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the national capital. 73 people have died from the infection while 2020 have made a recovery, as per the health ministrys data. Tamil Nadu The southern state has 6535 coronavirus cases. Tamil Nadu has seen 1824 recoveries and 44 Covid-19 deaths. Rajasthan Coronavirus cases in Rajasthan touched 3708 on Sunday. The state has reported 106 fatalities, and 2026 patients have recovered from the infection. Madhya Pradesh The state has reported 3614 positive cases of coronavirus. 215 people have died from Covid-19 here while 1676 have recovered. Uttar Pradesh The number of Covid-19 positive cases reaches 3373 in Uttar Pradesh. While 1499 people have recovered from coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh, 74 have died from the infection here. Andhra Pradesh The state has witnessed 1930 positive Covid-19 patients and 887 cases of recovery. 44 people have died. West Bengal The number of infected cases in West Bengal reached 1786 on Sunday. There have been 171 deaths and 372 recoveries in the state. Telangana The number of Covid-19 positive cases reaches 1163 in state so far. 750 people have made a recovery from the virus while 30 people have died from Covid-19. Jammu and Kashmir The union territory of Jammu and Kashmir has seen the number of Covid-19 patients rising to 836. 9 people have died from the infection while 368 were cured. Karnataka The state has recorded 794 Covid-19 cases and 30 deaths. 386 people have been cured and discharged. Haryana and Punjab The neighbouring states have 675 and 1762 Covid-19 cases respectively. While 31 people have died in Punjab, Haryana has seen 9 deaths. 290 people have recovered from Covid-19 in Haryana, 157 in Punjab. Kerala As per the health ministry, Kerala reported 505 coronavirus cases on Sunday. Kerala has witnessed four deaths due to Covid-19 while 485 people have successfully recovered. In Bihar, 591 people have tested positive for coronavirus, 5 people have died while 322 patients have recovered. Odisha has 294 Covid-19 positive patients, 63 have recovered while two people have died. Jharkhand has 156 Covid-19 cases, three patients have died and 78 have recovered. Uttarakhand has 67 coronavirus patients, 46 patients have recovered from the infection, one patient has died. Himachal Pradesh has 50 cases, 2 patients have died and 38 have recovered. Assam has reported 63 Covid-19 cases, two people have died while 34 people have recovered. Chhattisgarh has recorded 59 cases of coronavirus and 43 people have recovered. In Chandigarh, 169 people have contracted the Covid-19 disease and 24 have recovered, two people have died. Andaman has recorded 33 coronavirus cases, all patients have recovered. Ladakh has 42 patients, 17 people have recovered. Goa reported seven cases of Covid-19 disease, all patients have recovered. Puducherry has reported 9 cases, 6 have recovered. Meghalaya has reported 13 cases and one death, 10 patients have recovered. One patient has died. Manipur had two coronavirus cases, and those have recovered. Tripura, meanwhile, has 134 cases, two patients have recovered. States and Union territories with just one positive Covid-19 case include Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram, all patients have recovered. Sikkim has not reported any Covid-19 case yet. Note: Figures are from official data released by the Ministry of Health, and may differ from realtime numbers released by various state governments subject to confirmation from the Centre. LYNPARZA (olaparib) Approved by FDA as First-Line Maintenance Treatment with Bevacizumab for HRD-Positive Advanced Ovarian Cancer Details Category: Small Molecules Published on Sunday, 10 May 2020 13:30 Hits: 2039 Improved the Median Time to Disease Progression (37.2 months) vs. Bevacizumab Alone (17.7 months) Following Response to Platinum-Based Chemotherapy with Bevacizumab Approximately One in Two Women with Advanced Ovarian Cancer Has an HRD-Positive Tumor KENILWORTH, NJ, USA I May 08, 2020 I AstraZeneca and Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved LYNPARZA in combination with bevacizumab as a first-line maintenance treatment of adult patients with advanced epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer who are in complete or partial response to first-line platinum-based chemotherapy and whose cancer is associated with homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) positive status defined by either a deleterious or suspected deleterious BRCA mutation, and/or genomic instability. Patients will be selected for therapy based on an FDA-approved companion diagnostic for LYNPARZA. The approval was based on a biomarker subgroup analysis of 387 patients with HRD-positive tumors from the Phase 3 PAOLA-1 trial, which showed that LYNPARZA in combination with bevacizumab reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 67% (HR 0.33 [95% CI, 0.25-0.45]). It improved progression-free survival (PFS) to a median of 37.2 months vs. 17.7 months with bevacizumab alone in patients with HRD-positive advanced ovarian cancer. The most common adverse reactions (ARs) 10% in the overall trial population for PAOLA-1 when treated with LYNPARZA in combination with bevacizumab (N=535) and at a 5% frequency compared to bevacizumab alone (N=267) were fatigue (53% vs. 32%), nausea (53% vs. 22%), anemia (41% vs. 10%), lymphopenia (24% vs. 9%), vomiting (22% vs. 11%) and leukopenia (18% vs. 10%). Grade 3 or above ARs were anemia (17% vs. <1%), lymphopenia (7% vs. 1%), fatigue (5% vs. 2%), nausea (2% vs. 1%), leukopenia (2% vs. 2%) and vomiting (2% vs. 2%). Additional adverse reactions that occurred in 10% of patients receiving LYNPARZA in combination with bevacizumab irrespective of the frequency compared to bevacizumab alone were diarrhea (18%), neutropenia (18%), urinary tract infection (15%) and headache (14%). Fatal adverse reactions occurred in one patient due to concurrent pneumonia and aplastic anemia. Serious adverse reactions occurred in 31% of patients who received LYNPARZA in combination with bevacizumab. Serious adverse reactions in >5% of patients included hypertension (19%) and anemia (17%). In addition, venous thromboembolic events occurred more commonly in patients receiving LYNPARZA in combination with bevacizumab (5%) than in those receiving bevacizumab alone (1.9%). ARs led to dose interruption in 54% of patients on LYNPARZA in combination with bevacizumab, while 41% of patients on LYNPARZA in combination with bevacizumab had a dose reduction. Discontinuation of treatment due to ARs occurred in 20% of patients on LYNPARZA in combination with bevacizumab. Approximately one in two women with advanced ovarian cancer has an HRD-positive tumor. For patients with advanced ovarian cancer, the primary aim of first-line maintenance treatment is to delay disease progression for as long as possible. Isabelle Ray-Coquard, principal investigator of the PAOLA-1 trial and medical oncologist, Centre Leon Berard and President of the GINECO group, said, Ovarian cancer is a devastating disease. The magnitude of benefit in HRD-positive patients in the PAOLA-1 trial is impactful. I look forward to seeing this translate into clinical practice. Dave Frederickson, executive vice president, head of the oncology business unit, AstraZeneca, said, This approval represents another milestone for LYNPARZA in patients with ovarian cancer. The median progression-free survival of more than three years offers new hope for women to delay relapse in this difficult-to-treat disease. These results further establish that HRD-positive is a distinct subset of ovarian cancer and HRD testing is now a critical component of diagnosis and tailoring of treatment for women with advanced ovarian cancer. Dr. Roy Baynes, senior vice president and head of global clinical development, chief medical officer, Merck Research Laboratories, said, Advances in understanding the role of biomarkers and PARP inhibition have fundamentally changed how physicians treat this aggressive type of cancer. Todays approval based on the PAOLA-1 trial highlights the importance of HRD testing at diagnosis to identify those who may benefit from LYNPARZA in combination with bevacizumab as a first-line maintenance treatment. The full results from the Phase 3 PAOLA-1 trial were published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Regulatory reviews are currently underway in the European Union, Japan and other countries for LYNPARZA in combination with bevacizumab as a first-line maintenance treatment for patients with advanced ovarian cancer. As part of a broad development program, LYNPARZA is being assessed as a monotherapy and in combination across multiple tumor types. INDICATIONS LYNPARZA is a poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor indicated: First-Line Maintenance BRCAm Advanced Ovarian Cancer For the maintenance treatment of adult patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline or somatic BRCA-mutated (gBRCAm or sBRCAm) advanced epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer who are in complete or partial response to first-line platinum-based chemotherapy. Select patients for therapy based on an FDA-approved companion diagnostic for LYNPARZA. First-Line Maintenance HRD Positive Advanced Ovarian Cancer in Combination with Bevacizumab In combination with bevacizumab for the maintenance treatment of adult patients with advanced epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer who are in complete or partial response to first-line platinum-based chemotherapy and whose cancer is associated with homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) positive status defined by either: a deleterious or suspected deleterious BRCA mutation and/or genomic instability Select patients for therapy based on an FDA-approved companion diagnostic for LYNPARZA. Maintenance Recurrent Ovarian Cancer For the maintenance treatment of adult patients with recurrent epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer, who are in complete or partial response to platinum-based chemotherapy. Advanced gBRCAm Ovarian Cancer For the treatment of adult patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline BRCA-mutated (gBRCAm) advanced ovarian cancer who have been treated with 3 or more prior lines of chemotherapy. Select patients for therapy based on an FDA-approved companion diagnostic for LYNPARZA. gBRCAm HER2-Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer For the treatment of adult patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious gBRCAm, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative metastatic breast cancer who have been treated with chemotherapy in the neoadjuvant, adjuvant, or metastatic setting. Patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer should have been treated with a prior endocrine therapy or be considered inappropriate for endocrine therapy. Select patients for therapy based on an FDA-approved companion diagnostic for LYNPARZA. First-Line Maintenance gBRCAm Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer For the maintenance treatment of adult patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious gBRCAm metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma whose disease has not progressed on at least 16 weeks of a first-line platinum-based chemotherapy regimen. Select patients for therapy based on an FDA-approved companion diagnostic for LYNPARZA. Please click here for complete Prescribing Information, including Patient Information (Medication Guide). About PAOLA-1 PAOLA-1 is a double-blind Phase 3 trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of LYNPARZA in combination with standard-of-care bevacizumab vs. bevacizumab alone, as a first-line maintenance treatment for advanced FIGO Stage III-IV high grade serous or endometroid ovarian, fallopian tube, or peritoneal cancer patients who had a complete or partial response to first-line treatment with platinum-based chemotherapy and bevacizumab. PAOLA-1 is an ENGOT (European Network of Gynaecological Oncological Trial groups) trial, sponsored by ARCAGY Research (Association de Recherche sur les CAncers dont GYnecologiques) on behalf of GINECO (Groupe dInvestigateurs National des Etudes des Cancers Ovariens et du sein). ARCAGY-GINECO is an academic group specializing in clinical and translational research in patients cancers and a member of the GCIG (Gynecologic Cancer InterGroup). In the U.S., eligible advanced ovarian cancer patients will be selected for therapy based on the FDA-approved myChoice HRD Plus, an HRD test designed to detect when a tumor has lost the ability to repair double-stranded DNA breaks. Myriad Genetics, Inc. owns and commercializes myChoice HRD Plus. About LYNPARZA (olaparib) LYNPARZA is a first-in-class PARP inhibitor and the first targeted treatment to potentially exploit DNA damage response (DDR) pathway deficiencies, such as BRCA mutations, to preferentially kill cancer cells. Inhibition of PARP with LYNPARZA leads to the trapping of PARP bound to DNA single-strand breaks, stalling of replication forks, their collapse and the generation of DNA double-strand breaks and cancer cell death. LYNPARZA is being tested in a range of tumor types with defects and dependencies in the DDR. LYNPARZA, which is being jointly developed and commercialized by AstraZeneca and Merck, has a broad and advanced clinical trial development program, and AstraZeneca and Merck are working together to understand how it may affect multiple PARP-dependent tumors as a monotherapy and in combination across multiple cancer types. About Ovarian Cancer Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cause of death from cancer in women in the United States. This year, it is estimated that more than 21,000 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer and nearly 14,000 women will die of this disease. Women with ovarian cancer are often diagnosed with advanced disease, which has a five-year survival rate of about 48%. For newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer, the primary aim of treatment is to delay progression of the disease for as long as possible. BRCA1/2 mutations are found in approximately 22% of all ovarian cancers and approximately 50% of ovarian cancers are HRD-positive. About Homologous Recombination Deficiency HRD encompass a wide range of genetic abnormalities, including BRCA mutations, that can be detected using tests. As the BRCA gene drives DNA repair via homologous recombination, mutation of this gene leads to homologous recombination deficiency thereby interfering with normal cell DNA repair mechanisms. BRCA mutations are just one of many HRDs which confer sensitivity to PARP inhibitors including LYNPARZA. About the AstraZeneca and Merck Strategic Oncology Collaboration In July 2017, AstraZeneca and Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, US, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced a global strategic oncology collaboration to co-develop and co-commercialize certain oncology products, including LYNPARZA, the worlds first PARP inhibitor, for multiple cancer types. Working together, the companies will develop these products in combination with other potential new medicines and as monotherapies. Independently, the companies will develop these oncology products in combination with their respective PD-L1 and PD-1 medicines. Mercks Focus on Cancer Our goal is to translate breakthrough science into innovative oncology medicines to help people with cancer worldwide. At Merck, the potential to bring new hope to people with cancer drives our purpose and supporting accessibility to our cancer medicines is our commitment. As part of our focus on cancer, Merck is committed to exploring the potential of immuno-oncology with one of the largest development programs in the industry across more than 30 tumor types. We also continue to strengthen our portfolio through strategic acquisitions and are prioritizing the development of several promising oncology candidates with the potential to improve the treatment of advanced cancers. For more information about our oncology clinical trials, visit www.merck.com/clinicaltrials. About Merck For more than 125 years, Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, has been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the worlds most challenging diseases in pursuit of our mission to save and improve lives. We demonstrate our commitment to patients and population health by increasing access to health care through far-reaching policies, programs and partnerships. Today, Merck continues to be at the forefront of research to prevent and treat diseases that threaten people and animals including cancer, infectious diseases such as HIV and Ebola, and emerging animal diseases as we aspire to be the premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company in the world. For more information, visit www.merck.com and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. SOURCE: Merck Boris Johnson has announced primary schools pupils in England in reception, year one and year six, will begin returning to school by 1 June at the earliest, if the rate of infection continues to fall. As he stuck with the vast majority of restrictions on public life for the time being, the prime minister said step two of the governments potential relaxation of the lockdown involved the partial reopening of schools. It comes after the government reluctantly ordered the closure of schools, colleges and nurseries on 18 March just days before the full lockdown was imposed to combat the spread of coronavirus. Vulnerable children and those of key workers, such as NHS staff, supermarket workers and delivery workers, were exempt from the measures, with some schools remaining open for this group. Speaking on Sunday evening, Mr Johnson said: In step two - at the earliest by 1 June - after half term - we believe we may be in a position to begin the phased reopening of shops and to get primary pupils back into schools, in stages, beginning with reception, year one and year six. Our ambition is that secondary pupils facing exams next year will get at least some time with their teachers before the holidays. And we will shortly be setting out detailed guidance on how to make it work in schools and shops and on transport. 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 The approach, however, only applies to schools in England, as both the Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford and the Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon, have said there will not be a return to normal for schools at the beginning of June. In an address to the nation from No 10, the prime minister added the third phase of the governments approach will involve some parts of the hospitality industry reopening. He said: Step three at the earliest by July and subject to all these conditions and further scientific advice, if and only if the numbers support it, we will hope to re-open at least some of the hospitality industry and other public places, provided they are safe and enforce social distancing. Throughout this period of the next two months we will be driven not by mere hope or economic necessity, Mr Johnson added. We are going to be driven by the science, the data and public health. And I must stress again that all of this is conditional, it all depends on a series of big Ifs. CONTACT: Pamela D. Wilson 303-810-1816 Email: Inquiry_For_Pamela@pameladwilson.com Golden, Colorado May 10, 2020 The Caring Generation The Best Podcasts for Caregivers Golden CO- Caregiving expert Pamela D. Wilson hosts The Caring Generation radio program for caregivers and aging adults this coming Wednesday, May 13, on the Bold Brave Media Network. The program airs live at 9 p.m. EST. The Caring Generation aired initially from 2009 to 2011 on 630 KHOW-AM in Denver, Colorado. The Best Podcasts for Caregivers On this radio program for caregivers, Wilson talks about the most common questions posed by family caregivers. Shared are some of Wilson's favorites from The Caring Generation live radio shows that become The Caring Generation Best Podcasts for Caregivers. The best podcasts for caregivers offer practical tips and step-by-step recommendations for caregivers and aging adults about health, well-being, caregiving, and family relationships. The special guest for this live radio program answers questions from caregivers about strokes. Strokes used to be considered an event that happened only to people over age 65. Today people under the age of 40 are having strokes, which are also called brain attacks. Wonder why? Dr. Mary George, Senior Medical Officer and Associate Director for Science in the Division for Heart Disease & Stroke Prevention at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention joins the program. Dr. George has an extensive background in healthcare with over one hundred published articles and abstracts. She has a Master's in Public Health from Emory, is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and a Fellow of the American Heart Association. Dr. George shares research on why strokes are happening to persons at younger ages. She talks about the warning signs of strokes, stroke recovery, and managing life after a stroke. The Caring Generation podcasts and transcripts of all of the live radio programs are available at PamelaDWilson.com about one week after the show. The podcasts are also available on major podcast sites, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker, Stitcher, Pandora, Castbox, Sound Cloud, I Heart Radio, Amazon Alexa, and other sites. Listeners can like and follow The Caring Generation. Favorite shows discussed include Why Is Caregiving So Exhausting, Managing Work-Life Balance and Health, Dealing with Negative Elderly Parents, How to Manage When Families Don't Get Along, Tired of Caring for Elderly Parents, and Caring for My Elderly Mother is Killing Me. In addition to the day-to-day caregiving tasks, the emotional aspects of being a caregiver can be challenging to manage. Family relationships are stressed when differences in opinion about how care should be provided exist between the primary caregiver, elderly parents, and siblings. Money to pay for care is often a concern if elderly parents did not plan for financial costs of care. Becoming a caregiver is a life transition that almost everyone will face. The Caring Generation radio program and the best podcasts for caregivers offer support from a caregiving expert with personal and professional experience caring for elderly parents. In addition to The Caring Generation radio program and podcasts, Wilson offers caregiving programs to support corporate employee wellness programs. Join Pamela on The Caring Generation to learn the answers to these and other questions about living with elderly parents. The Caring Generation radio program airs live at 6 p.m. Pacific, 7 p.m. Mountain, 8 p.m. Central, and 9 p.m. Eastern every Wednesday night. Replays of the weekly programs are available in podcast format with transcripts on Pamela's website and all major podcast sites. Contact Pamela at 303-810-1816 for more information and visit her website at www.PamelaDWilson.com # A woman in Iowa is using her gift of sewing to help others protect themselves amid the coronavirus pandemic. In late March, Deb Siggins jumped into action and started sewing masks for health care workers after a local hospital, UnityPoint St. Lukes, disclosed that they were experiencing a mask shortage, Good Morning America reported. Around that time, Siggins, 55, said other people started to express interest in her designs, so she decided to make them available to her community at no cost through a tree outside her home. It was hard to reach everybody so I just put on Facebook that I had a mask tree, the Lisbon resident, who works at a doctors office, explained to the outlet. Im a giver, not a taker, so I feel really good. Siggins mask-making journey began after she received an inspirational message from her pastor. One of the messages from our pastors was Use your gifts in a way that will help others during all of this,' she recalled in a recent video interview. So my gift is sewing, [and] Im using that gift. RELATED: Cant Find a Cloth Face Mask? These 10 Retailers Still Have Them in Stock Siggins initially set out to create 100 masks for the hospital staff at St. Lukes, according to GMA. She quickly reached that goal and then started to realize that others were asking for them, which prompted her to keep going. She has since made close to 600 masks, but was forced to get creative in order to distribute them to her community, she explained in the video interview. I hang them on a tree on my front lawn, she said. This year, we couldnt have Easter, so instead of an Easter egg hunt, I put masks up there for people to come and pick them up. Not only did the masks serve as a fun Easter decoration, but hanging them on a tree also turned out to be rather practical for everyone involved. With social distancing, they would come and pick up the masks and leave, she explained in the video interview. They can help themselves. Youre keeping your distance and its fun watching the people and guess whos pulling in the driveway. Story continues The tree holds about 30 masks each of which has a unique pattern or design and has been covered entirely by Siggins, according to GMA. Since they are on a first-come, first-serve basis, the Lisbon resident consistently replenishes the trees supply, the outlet reported. RELATED VIDEO: 13-Year-Old Boy Who Made Bow Ties to Help Animals Get Adopted Is Now Making Masks for Coronavirus Besides putting her masks on the tree, she has also donated many of them to her co-workers, as well as the local fire department and grocery store employees, according to GMA. It makes me feel really good, Siggins said in the video interview of her generosity. But she hasnt stopped there. Her latest efforts have been focused on making masks for elderly patients who come into the doctors office where she works, according to GMA. The Iowa resident also said she expects to keep doing it until the need isnt needed anymore. Theres a big demand out there, she explained to GMA.I just felt like [my sewing] is a gift that I could put it towards other people because its a gift that God has given me. Its been a hit. As of Friday, there have been at least 885,249 cases and 45,409 deaths attributed to coronavirus in the United States, according to the New York Times. In Iowa, there have been at least 4,459 cases and 107 deaths reported, according to the Times. As information about the coronavirus pandemic rapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from CDC, WHO, and local public health departments. PEOPLE has partnered with GoFundMe to raise money for the COVID-19 Relief Fund, a GoFundMe.org fundraiser to support everything from frontline responders to families in need, as well as organizations helping communities. For more information or to donate, click here. Pakistan reported a record number of 1,991 coronavirus cases in a single day, taking the total number of infections to over 29,000, the health ministry said on Sunday as the country began easing the month-long lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the deadly disease. Despite a surge in the number of COVID-19 infections, the first phase of the easing of the lockdown began on Saturday. The government announced removing restrictions by allowing more businesses to open and operate from dawn to 5pm. However, doctors have warned against easing the restrictions. The Representative of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) have demanded that the government observe the World Health Organization protocols and implement a strict lockdown. The Ministry of National Health Services said that 21 new deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of fatalities to 639. A total of 8,023 people have recovered so far. Punjab registered 11,093 cases, Sindh 10,771, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 4,509, Balochistan 1,935, Islamabad 641, Gilgit-Baltistan 430 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 86. The total number of infections in the country has reached 29,465, it said. So far, the authorities have conducted 283,517 tests, including 13,341 in the last 24 hours. People flocked to the markets on Saturday even before guidelines were issued by the provincial governments on the easing of the lockdown. While allowing more businesses to open, the Pakistan government asked people to strictly observe social distancing and avoid going out unless there is an urgent need. Meanwhile, Pakistan opened its border with Afghanistan at Chaman in Balochistan province from 8am to 5pm on Saturday to allow 2,977 Afghan nationals to cross over to their country. The border had opened for crossing Afghans and Pakistanis into their respective countries, a senior official of the Chaman administration, Zakaullah Durrani, told the Dawn newspaper. He said that so far 488 Pakistanis stranded in Afghanistan have also returned. Last month, Pakistan sent back over 37,000 Afghan families after it opened the Pak-Afghan friendship gate at Chaman on the special request of the Afghanistan government, the report said. Thousands of Afghan nationals enter Pakistan on a daily basis for business needs and meeting family members living here as refugees since the 1980s. But the movement was stopped due the COVID-19 restrictions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With Congress deciding to withdraw one of its candidates from the upcoming legislative Council polls on Sunday evening, the elections to the nine seats will be unopposed. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will be elected to the Upper House of the state legislature without an election being held. The Congress which seemed adamant on contesting two seats took a decision to contest only on one seat in a meeting held by senior leaders of all the three parties of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress. Rajesh Rathod will be the Congress candidate from the party for the polls. On Saturday, it had declared Rathod as well as Rajkishore alias Papa Modi as its second candidate. It is learnt that Congress took a step back after Thackeray irritated with the politicking sent a message through his party leaders that he will not contest elections unless it is unopposed during a pandemic. Monday was the last day for filing nominations. Congress leaders said that they took the decision following a request made by the chief minister. We wanted the MVA to contest on six seats but for that, all the MLAs have to be brought to Mumbai for the polls. During Covid-19 pandemic, it would have created difficulties. The chief minister is also contesting the polls and he has requested us to make the elections unopposed. Considering all the aspects, we have now decided that the MVA will contest on five seats that would help in making the elections unopposed, said state Congress chief and revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat at Sahyadri guest house where the meeting was held on Sunday evening. BJP is contesting four seats while NCP and Sena are contesting two seats each leaving one seat for the Congress. It is learnt that NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut called state Congress chief to ask him to reconsider the decision. Late Saturday night, Shiv Sena leader Milind Narvekar, a close aide of the chief minister, is also learnt to have met Thorat and requested him to withdraw a candidate. But, in a meeting held by senior Congress leaders, the party decided that they dont want to withdraw their claim. Thorat, PWD minister Ashok Chavan, energy minister Nitin Raut and minister of state Satej Patil were present in the meeting held on Sunday morning at an undisclosed location. This irked the chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, who expressed his unhappiness in no uncertain terms. If Thackeray would not have contested the polls, he would have to resign by May 27 followed by his entire cabinet. Sena MP Sanjay Raut also told media persons on Sunday afternoon that the Chief Minister would not contest polls unless it was unopposed. Do we tell people that while they are locked up in their homes; when there is a question mark over their livelihoods and health, political parties in Maharashtra cannot unanimously decide on an election? This would be a blot on Maharashtras tradition. Uddhav Thackeray never was and will never be interested in such politics. He is upset over this development. He wanted to contest only if it was unopposed. We are not scared of contesting, but this is not the time to contest elections. It is time to tackle the situation. We have taken this election out of no choice as the state was heading towards instability, Raut told reporters on Sunday. He added that if there is voting on May 21, all 288 MLAs would have to come to Mumbai and it would not send a good message to the people of Maharashtra at a time when it is battling Covid-19. BJP used the opportunity to taunt the MVA over differences after Shiv Sena suggested the saffron party to reconsider its decision of contesting on four seats. The BJP too does not have enough numbers to get their fourth candidate elected. It is their responsibility as well that election is held unopposed. They [BJP] do not have enough votes for their candidate; they would have to engage in horse-trading. They should also think if an election should be forced upon Maharashtra at such a time, Raut said. Former BJP minister Ashish Shelar, in his reply, asked Shiv Sena not to drag them if their own ally (Congress) is not listening to them. Respecting the chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and considering the current situation of the state, the elections should be held unopposed. This is the responsibility of the ruling parties. We have fielded candidates on the basis of our strength. Do not drag us if Congress is not listening to you, Shelar said in his statement. Meanwhile, NCP has declared Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari both seen as close to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar as its candidates for the polls. BJP will field Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil, Pravin Datke, Dr Ajit Gopachade and Gopichand Padalkar for the four seats while Thackeray and senior party leader Neelam Gorhe will be Shiv Senas candidates. They will all now be elected unopposed. Health workers at a COVID-19 testing station in Manila (Source: xinhua/VNA) Of the total infections, 1,842 have given the all-clear, the Department of Health said. The department added that it is seeing signs that the coronavirus curve in the country is flattening, adding the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases have started to slow down and that hospitals are not overwhelmed. But the war is not over yet, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said, adding that the need for people to continue to be vigilant especially when the lockdown is relaxed or lifted. She urged them to continue observing the health protocols such as social distancing, frequent hand washing, cough etiquette and the like to break the infection chain. The Philippine Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said on May 9th that the lockdown restrictions in some cities such as Manila, where most of the country's coronavirus cases have been detected, will likely be relaxed on May 15th. Roque said Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has yet to decide on whether or not to ease the lockdown in Manila and in other parts of the country that are under strict lockdown. Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has decided to allow inbound international flights to land in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila from May 11th on assigned days. Also on May 9th, Singapore reported additional 753 infection cases, bringing the total to 22,640./. Older people have been left behind during the pandemic, argues Suzanne Breen Forget all the fine words that those in high places have spouted over the years about how much we respect the older generation in Northern Ireland. Residents in care homes here have been treated like second-class citizens during the coronavirus pandemic. Literally left to die behind closed doors because we did so little to protect them. It was clear from China in January that the elderly were most at risk from Covid-19. And that was reinforced as this horrible disease ravaged Italy in early March. And yet the elderly appear to have been merely an afterthought for our health authorities. Visits by family and friends to care homes were rightly stopped mid-March, but precious little else was done to safeguard those living there. The response was sluggishly reactive when, more than ever, we needed it to be positively proactive. It took far too long to provide basic PPE to care workers. Training on adequate infection prevention was not provided. The mantra of 'mistakes will be made, this is a new situation in which we are all learning' won't wash So, the fate of residents sometimes hinged on the savviness of its staff. Women - and they are almost all women - who do a tremendous job for the minimum wage. Inexplicably, some patients were admitted from hospitals into care homes without prior testing for coronavirus. Anyone with even an iota of intelligence could have foreseen that wouldn't end well. The mantra of 'mistakes will be made, this is a new situation in which we are all learning' won't wash. Of course, no health department will get every detail right from the start. But this was basic stuff. Did they bizarrely believe that somehow what happened in Italy wouldn't happen here? The British Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has been meeting twice a week since it held its first coronavirus discussion on January 22. The Government's Chief Scientific Advisor who chairs it, Sir Patrick Vallance, has said it flagged up the risk of care homes. So, why did this not lead to the necessary steps being taken to shield them? Almost half of Covid-19 deaths here have occurred in care homes. The virus is in over 100 care homes here. Experts from the London School of Economics have pointed out that there was nothing inevitable about UK care home deaths. Our elderly were placed in the line of fire with next to no protection. Those responsible for this chain of action - or rather, inaction - must be held to account Hong Kong has had no infections or deaths in care homes because they introduced temperature checks and very strict additional measures early on. But our elderly were placed in the line of fire with next to no protection. Those responsible for this chain of action - or rather, inaction - must be held to account. Even now, our health authorities are failing our old folk. There is no regular testing of all care home staff and residents. If ministers around the Executive table or officials are against such a programme, then we need to know who they are and to hear their reasons for opposition. Absolute transparency is essential on such a vital issue. Two months ago, I sat in Parliament Buildings as the RHI Inquiry report was published. The cash-for-ash scandal laid bare Stormont's many failings. But if the image of farmers heating empty sheds caused public ire, then that of elderly people gasping for their last breath should fill us with fury. Nobody died in RHI. The spiralling coronavirus care home fatalities constitute a far more shameful scandal. Gurugram, May 10 : While millions of migrant labourers are moving from urban centres to rural areas across the country, the situation in Haryana is much different. As a pleasant surprise for industries, a trend of "reverse migration" of labourers, from villages to cities (during lockdown) has rekindled hopes for manufacturing units in the state. By Sunday evening (May 10), around 1.67 lakh labourers, mostly from eastern UP and Bihar, had registered on the state government portal, showing interest in returning to various industrial sites. Haryana, being one of the biggest automobile and IT hubs in the country, is seen as a giant power house of manufacturing industry in India. "For the last few weeks, Chief Minister Manohar Lal ji (Khattar), has been interacting with all top industry leaders and stakeholders. Our government has assured all help to industries to restart operations. We are going out of the way to bring back labourers... and so far we have been quite successful in our efforts, " Amit Arya, media advisor to CM, told IANS. According to him, details of 167,953 labourers, keen to return to Haryana, have been processed and in the next few days, this figure will be over 2 lakhs. During the ongoing lockdown, thousands of migrant labourers left for their homes from key industrial hubs like Faridabad, Gurugram, Sonepat, Ambala and other places. The labourers marched to their villages to find some warmth and empathy at their homes. Sources said the Chief Minister was quick to react, and instructed his officers to make an all-out effort to convince the labourers to stay back. "Several lakh labourers wanted to go home. However 47,000 were identified to be sent home on priority basis. Among them, 25,000 labourers have been sent to their respective home states. Efforts are on to send the rest," a senior official added. Meanwhile, the government also set up a portal for those labourers who have either reached their villages or have been at home, and wanted to return to Haryana to resume work. Amongst the 1.67 lakh labourers who have shown interest in returning to industrial sites, around 60 to 70 per cent are from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Sources said that the state government has asked the Railways to run 100 special trains to bring these labourers from their hometowns. The registration portal reveals that 79 per cent of labourers who want to return to Haryana will be joining the work in industrial areas of Faridabad, Gurgram, Panipat, Sonepat, Jhajjar, Yamunagar and Rewari. In what seems a breakthrough for the state during lockdown, the Chief Minister, also succeeded in inviting 60 foreign companies to Haryana. After a 3-day-long business webinar, which concluded on Saturday, he suggested that prominent MNCs based in Japan, South Korea and Australia want to shift to Haryana and this opportunity can result in an investment of around Rs 2,000 crore. Khattar also pledged that all manufacturing units in the state would be given relief to run through in a difficult time. Top sources said that to make the wheel of industries move, the CM is personally monitoring labourers' registration portal in bid to bring the workforce back from far off villages to Haryana's manufacturing centres. Besides a major IT hub in Gurugram, Haryana boasts of industrial giants like Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, Escorts, Sony, JCB, Yamaha Motors, Whirlpool, Goodyear, ABB and several others. In addition it has more than 80,000 medium and small scale industrial units. Black and Asian coronavirus patients admitted to intensive care are up to 17 per cent more likely to die, an analysis has revealed. Asian people had the highest chance of death, at 53.5 per cent, followed by Black people, at 52 per cent, according to the figures published by the Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre (ICNARC). Conversely, white people admitted to intensive care had a 45 per cent chance of death. The data was compiled from 289 critical care units in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It showed 6,143 patients have left intensive care in the units since the outbreak began. Death rates are adjusted to take into account age, which shows that black people face four times the risk of dying compared to white people Far higher numbers of people from black and Asian backgrounds have died from COVID-19 per 100,000 people than white Britons, despite making up much less of the overall population. 'Other whites' include Gypsy and Irish Travellers, and 'other ethnic group' includes Arabs For current Covid-19 patients, Asian people also formed the largest ethnic minority group in intensive care at 1,138 patients. They were followed by Black patients, at 752, Other groups, at 485, and Mixed, at 120. However, white coronavirus patients made up the majority of all patients in intensive care at 4,925. It has previously been reported that Black people are up to four times more likely to die from the virus than white people, according to government figures for fatalities in England and Wales between March 2 and April 10. The data was adjusted to account for health conditions and differences in factors such as income to give the result. The Office for National Statistics said on May 7 the results remain 'unexplained'. Being overweight or obese increased the risk of ending up in hospital with the killer infection by 1.6-fold and 2.3-fold, respectively, according to a major study by Glasgow University The data from the Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre is pictured above Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said people from ethnic minority backgrounds are 'disproportionately' dying from the virus. He has ordered an urgent probe into the findings by Public Health England. Speaking at the Downing Street daily press conference on May 5 he said: 'We recognise that there has been a disproportionately high number of people from black and ethnic minority backgrounds who have passed away especially among care workers and those in the NHS.' Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said the government was 'very concerned' over deaths among ethnic minorities. 'At the moment we are unclear whether that is just the proximity,' he said, 'in other words that more people from minority backgrounds happen to work in health and social care or whether there is something else going on.' Figures that take into account age and location reveal that black people and Brits of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage face are 2.3-fold risk of coronavirus death than white people There were 3,378 minority deaths from coronavirus in England up to May 5. When this is compared to the 2011 census it shows 59 Other and 56 Black people per 100,000 of the UK population have been hospitalised, compared to 36 white people. People of Bangladeshi and Pakistani, Indian, and mixed ethnicities also had an increased risk of death involving Covid-19 compared with those of white ethnicity, the ONS found. Similar breakdowns for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not available at present. Campaigners have called for more action to investigate the causes of higher death rates in BAME communities. A letter signed by more than 50 people including broadcasters Konnie Huq, Afua Hirsch, and the mayors of Newham and Bristol, said: 'Only an independent public inquiry will provide the answers we need. 'Such an inquiry is essential for all, especially for those who have lost loved ones as a result of the pandemic. 'By instigating such an inquiry, the government will provide an opportunity for a range of stakeholders to submit evidence through a transparent process.' A total of 140 NHS staff (pictured, frontline staff) have died during the coronavirus pandemic ICNARC's data also revealed that those who are overweight, are also at greater risk from coronavirus. It found 35 per cent of intensive care victims were obese, Comparatively, those with a normal BMI made up only 26 per cent of those receiving intensive care. Deputy chief medical officer for England, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, said: 'There is an enormous determination across the medical advisory function for the government to get to the bottom of this, and get to the bottom of it with real clarity. 'There is an obesity signal beginning to emerge as well, and on top of that, and I'm absolutely clear, there is a signal around Black and minority ethnic groups.' The government is preparing to announce changes to coronavirus restrictions at 7pm today. There are not expected to be major adjustments in the works, although it is thought those arriving in the country may face two weeks quarantine upon arrival in the UK. Once a day outdoor exercise restrictions are also expected to be dropped, while the focus shifts to getting businesses open again where possible. Harsher fines will also be brought in to combat breaches of tougher rules, amid complaints from police that it has been impossible to police the public. Scientists are warning that the UK is at a 'critical turning-point' in the pandemic. In 1680, the settlers from Albemarle Point moved their Charles Town to the peninsula, where our modern city would thrive. This image depicts what grew after nearly a century. It is an image from a 1777 map, "The Harbour of Charles Town in South Carolina from the Surveys of Sr. Jas. Wallace Captn. in his Majestys Navy & others with a view of the Town from the South Shore of the Ashley River." It shows the peninsula fortified by palmetto logs. Provided Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marilyn J. Roossinck (The Jakarta Post) - Sun, May 10, 2020 12:56 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd70563b 3 Health SARS,SARS-CoV-2,COVID-19,coronavirus,virus Free 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. 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. --- Marilyn J. Roossinck, Professor of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology, Pennsylvania State University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. APTOPIX Canada Shooting In this Wednesday, April 22, 2020, photo, a couple place a flag at a memorial in Portapique, Nova Scotia, following Saturday's shooting rampage. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press via AP) TORONTO (AP) Canadas worst mass shooting started as a domestic dispute between the gunman and his girlfriend, who survived the attack, a police official said late Thursday. The official confirmed to The Associated Press that the weekend rampage in Nova Scotia erupted after an argument between the pair. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said more details would be provided at a news conference Friday. Police have said 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman acted alone in waging a shooting spree that killed at least 22 people across northern and central Nova Scotia. There are 16 crime scenes in five different rural communities throughout northern and central Nova Scotia. The suspect was shot to death Sunday morning, about 13 hours after the attacks began. Several bodies were found inside and outside one house in the rural town of Portapique, police have said. Bodies were also found in four other communities, and authorities believe the shooter targeted his first victims but then began attacking randomly as he drove around. Police have said Wortman carried out much of the attack disguised as a police officer in a vehicle marked to seem like a patrol car. They say he shot people in and around their homes and set fires to homes in Portapique. Wortman, who owned a denture practice in the city of Dartmouth, near Halifax, lived part time in Portapique, according to residents. Atlantic Denture Clinic, his practice, had been closed the past month because of the coronavirus pandemic. 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 counselling 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 Montreals Ecole Polytechnique college in 1989. Before the weekend rampage, that had been Canadas worst mass shooting. Two years ago Thursday, a man drove a van along a busy Toronto sidewalk and killed 10 people and injured 16. The suspect, who is awaiting trial, said he carried out the attack in retribution for years of sexual rejection and ridicule by women. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-11 06:38:05|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, May 10 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday strongly condemned an attack against a convoy of UN peacekeepers in Mali, which killed three peacekeepers from Chad and injured four others. Guterres recalled that attacks targeting UN peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law. He called on the Malian authorities to spare no effort in identifying the perpetrators of these attacks so that they can be brought to justice swiftly, said Stephane Dujarric, the UN chief's spokesman, in a statement. The secretary-general reaffirmed that such cowardly acts will not deter the United Nations from its resolve to continue supporting the people and government of Mali in their pursuit of peace and stability, said the statement. Guterres expressed his deep condolences to the families of the victims, as well as the government and people of Chad. He wished a speedy recovery to the injured, it said. The three Chadian peacekeepers were killed on Sunday during a routine patrol near Aguelhok in northern Mali when their convoy hit a roadside bomb. Four others were severely injured. Enditem A growing number of university staff are rebelling against their union leadership's willingness to consider steep cuts in pay. Australia's university sector, besieged by COVID-19 and its impact on overseas student numbers, has proposed big cuts in pay and hours to save jobs. The leadership of the National Tertiary Education Union has agreed to consider a range of cost-saving proposals from vice-chancellors, including a 10 per cent cut in pay and hours, triggering a backlash from members. Dr Alison Barnes, national president of the National Tertiary Education Union. Credit:Attila Csaszar The University of NSW which faces a $600 million budget hole has asked staff to volunteer for a range of cost reducing options that include working fewer hours for less pay. Hemant Kumar Rout By Express News Service Renowned virologist and former Professor of Virology, Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, Dr T Jacob John urges Centre and state governments to acknowledge community transmission and implement strict measures. He speaks to Hemant Kumar Rout on the virus behaviour and challenges posed by the return of migrants Several persons in Odisha have tested positive more than a month after their return from virus-hit states. Surprisingly, they all are asymptomatic. Does the novel coronavirus still have an incubation period of 14 days or it needs a relook? We cannot assume that they were infected in the states, they travelled from. They could have, each one of them, got infected anywhere after they started their journeys. Community transmission it is. As for the incubation period, it means interval in days from the time of infection to the time of start of symptoms. Yes, 3 to 14 days in most cases. Rarely longer - three weeks or a bit longer even. The Centre and ICMR continue to evade the issue of community transmission. What is your view? When did the community transmission start in India? Dr T Jacob John Former Professor of Virology, CMC, Vellore In my view, the Tamil Nadu case, detected on March 18, points out the community transmission. A 20-year-old man travelled by train from Delhi and had no contact with any known infected person. He developed symptoms in Chennai and tested positive. On March 19, a 52-year-old man died in Kolkata with lab confirmed Covid-19. His family denied any travel history or contact history. Another example of proven community transmission. There are several other cases too. As an independent observer I know community transmission was inevitable, but evidence was documented by mid-March. The Government should acknowledge community transmission and implement appropriate personal protective measures strictly. ALSO WATCH | COVID-19: AP's Chittoor grapples with Koyambedu headache India crossed 50,000 cases mark in three months. Do you have any projection? Any estimation in terms of cases and death? The detected number is a part of the whole. We cannot know the whole or the actual burden of infection unless special studies are done. We have detected a small proportion the way we were testing - perhaps only 10 per cent (pc). Had we gone after clinically diagnosed Covid cases for lab testing, we would have detected far more infections. If 10 pc, then the whole is five lakh. If five pc, then the whole is 10 lakh. If 20 pc, then it is 2.5 lakh. The likelihood is between five and 30 pc - just on guess. Have the lockdown and the containment measures initiated by the Centre and states been effective in containing the spread? What more needs to be done? Social mobilisation was the most crucial part of the exercises. But, even now it is the major missing part of overall strategy. It means full transparency and effective information dissemination to evoke spontaneous peoples participation. Provide authentic information, details of epidemic, responses, what is mask for and what is lockdown for, etc. Then ask citizens to be partners of interventions along with Government. Learn from Kerala model. People still continue to flout norms with impunity. If universal mask is rule, then Government could ask citizens to police each other. The prevailing situation is quite alarming to watch. Over 85 per cent of Covid positive people are asymptomatic in Odisha. Why so? Has the virulence weakened or virus mutated into a less potent strain in the State? Are people having better immunity to ward off the viral impact? Nothing of that sort. That is the true nature of this infection. Globally 80 pc of all infected are asymptomatic. The extra five pc may be pre-symptomatic meaning in incubation period and may develop fever and cough in the next one week or two. There is no evidence of discernible mutations in Indian conditions to affect virus behaviour. So far, all are one clade or one genotype. Mutations so far have not affected virulence. SARS-CoV-2 infection is not as bad as people think. Death rate is less than 5 pc. Death is mostly in old people and those with chronic heart, lung or kidney diseases - called co-morbidity. Since Indian population is predominantly young, most people are safe. However, since pandemic flu death rate was only 0.1 pc, Covid is 10-50 times more killer. Migrants are set to pose a huge challenge for Odisha, which had reported less than 100 cases until returnees from West Bengal and Gujarat swelled the numbers. What would be your suggestions for dealing with it? The Central Government promoted the growth of infections and the epidemic, by not realising the problems of migrant labour. A simple solution was to give four days of warning and arrange home return in orderly and planned manner before lockdown was enforced. If that was not done, the unfortunate fact remains that someone at the top was not competent enough to advise the Government or was afraid to tell the facts fearlessly or advice was rejected. Under these circumstances, I think only all persons with fever and cough need be tested and if positive strict home quarantine and compassionate financial and food support. Daily phone contact for immediate hospitalisation if breathing difficulty develops and becomes severe. Whoever is infected must be under strict home quarantine with daily once telephone reporting to the relevant doctor, Government or private. With theatres locked down, streaming platforms like BroadwayHD, Digital Theatre or Marquee.TV have come into their own offering audiences a chance to witness old productions with high quality streams and excellent back catalogues. And if you want to do a hardcore theatre binge, there're are also free trials BroadwayHD offers a week (tip: a calendar notification can mean you don't forget to cancel after seven days) while Marquee TV has a 30-day option. There are oodles more than just simply musicals on BroadwayHD (we've rounded up some of our favourite Shakespeare productions here) but below are some of our favourite showtune-laden productions. Thankfully, all of the shows are also captioned. While it's great to watch shows, also think about ways to help the community during the pandemic. Les Miserables The 2010 concert show, staged at the O2 arena, was truly a historic moment for musical theatre. Relive the glory days back when you could fill a stadium safely. 42nd Street Clare Halse in 42nd Street Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage The iconic show was the last to be staged at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane before its refurbishment and it is a magnificent watch a huge cast serenading audiences with exquisite number after exquisite number. Clare Halse and Bonnie Langford star in this dance masterclass of a meta-musical. Miss Saigon The award-winning revival (which at the time broke WhatsOnStage Award records when it was on at the Prince Edward Theatre, is now available on BroadwayHD. Love Never Dies The epic Australian production with Ben Lewis and Anna O'Byrne picks up where the original left off to describe what happens to the Phantom after Phantom. Some rather lush tunes. Fame The current UK tour production of Fame Tristram Kenton They were on stage at the Peacock Theatre in 2019, but they're gonna live forever online the hit production (which wrapped up its run recently) was captured for streaming during its London run. A chance to revel in some pumping tunes and energetic choreography. Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill The legend that is Audra McDonald brings Billie Holiday to life in this special production that wowed West End audiences when it first ran. Kinky Boots Matt Henry (Lola) and Killian Donnelly (Charlie) Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage What else can we say about Kinky Boots the beloved cult classic won our hearts when it was at the Adelphi, and seeing two leads Matt Henry and Killian Donnelly back for the recorded production is a nice touch. Shoe manufacture has never been the same since this show landed. From Here To Eternity Tim Rice's wartime musical ran in the West End for half a year and amassed a large following during that time you can catch it here on BroadwayHD. The King and I Ken Watanabe and Kelli O'Hara in The King and I Matthew Murphy Bartlett Sher's enormous, vibrant production was a sell-out hit at The London Palladium, with leads Ken Watanabe, Kelli O'Hara and Ruthie Ann Miles receiving heaps of praise for their performances. The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall The epic spectacular with Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess is now available to watch online Phantom as you've never seen it before! An American in Paris The cast of An American in Paris Johan Persson Another dance-tacular show that lived on one of London's biggest stages, An American in Paris had a brilliant run at the Dominion Theatre, wowing with its 20-minute ballet sequence. Now that it's been recorded, they can't take that away from us! Cats The stage production of the show, with Elaine Paige, John Partridge and more, has made its way online. Hetty Feather Matt Costain as Jem and Phoebe Thomas as Hetty in Hetty Feather Donald Cooper Jacqueline Wilson's novel was adapted for the stage by Emma Reeves and Sally Cookson, and went on a massive tour after its original run at the Rose Theatre Kingston. One to keep the whole family entertained, the show features acrobatics, aerial skills and whimsical tales. Oklahoma! Hugh Jackman David Gordon We're going to rewind back to 1999 for this one the Hugh Jackman, Josefina Gabrielle-led Oklahoma! is presented in all its glory on BroadwayHD. A chance to see Jackman just before he shot to stardom as Wolverine. Ruthless the Musical Tracie Bennett and Kim Maresca in Ruthless Alastair Muir The new musical was a rip-roaring fun fest at the Arts Theatre, with a cast including the award-winning great Tracie Bennett, Harriet Thorpe and Jason Gardiner. Bennett and Thorpe would go on to repeat the same trick in Mame on tour last year. The Toxic Avenger The Toxic Avenger Claire Bilyard The B-movie bonanza is borderline batty but also oodles of fun it ran at the Arts Theatre after a UK premiere at Southwark Playhouse. A great show for kicking back and wallowing in stupendous fun, featuring a great big slime hero monster. Into the Woods The award-winning Open Air Theatre revival was recently added to the platform for anyone who's missed it, with Jenna Russell, Hannah Waddingham and more bringing Sondheim's extravagant show to life. Funny Girl Sheridan Smith leads the rollicking revival of the iconic musical in what is a side-splitting ride for all involved. You'll rarely find a show this fun! (Not available in the UK) Billy Elliot Live The Ruthie-Henshall-starring stage production has been immortalised in digital format you only need a bit of Electricity (and a Wi-Fi connection) to watch it. The Wind in the WIllows Rufus Hound in The Wind in the Willows Helen Maybanks The London Palladium production was being streamed for free earlier in the lockdown and while it's now pay-to-play, you can still catch the wonderful version of Kenneth Grahame's whimsical tales on BroadwayHD. Jesus Christ Superstar The epic 2012 stadium production, which veritably launched the career of Ben Forster, is now available to stream online. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Maria Friedman guides us through the glorious panoply of colours in Andrew Lloyd Webber's first real hit, which is still a firm family favourite. Xin Gongyi avoids infection and cures a cruel local custom at the same time When Xin Gongyi took up his new post as governor of Minzhou, he was deeply troubled by a cruel local custom. The residents had such a fear of disease that during an outbreak, family members had no qualms about abandoning their stricken loved ones to save their own lives. This was during the Sui Dynasty (581618) in ancient China, when filial duty had already been established for hundreds of years as a central tenet of traditional Chinese society. Xin Gongyi made his best effort to rectify the situation, setting an example by caring for the infected people himself on the front line. Still, it was not until after a major plague in the area that he made a breakthrough. Not only did he remain unharmed, but his compassion and generosity throughout the epidemic genuinely moved the residents such that they changed their ways. A famous doctor later cited Governor Xin as an example for government officials everywhere to follow. A Talented, Caring Official Xin Gongyi was a diligent student from a young age, having been taught history and the classics personally by his widowed mother. He came from a family of status; both his grandfather and father had held respected positions as governors in different provinces. Xin Gongyi himself was much admired for his knowledge and opinions. His discussions with other Confucian scholars while at college especially earned him esteem. Xin Gongyi was also honest and upright and had a strong sense of responsibility. He served as a talented government official during the Sui Dynasty and held high-level positions in different parts of China before being appointed governor of Minzhou. Minzhou is located in what is now Gansu Province in northwestern China. Its custom of forsaking disease-stricken relatives began in the dynastic period preceding the Sui Dynasty. When Xin Gongyi arrived in Minzhou, he was distressed to learn about this custom, where conscience and feelings of affection and loyalty seemed to vanish, and principles of human relationships and filial piety gave way to peoples desire for self-preservation. Many disease-stricken people died due to lack of care. Xin Gongyi decided to send subordinates to inspect the various districts of Minzhou and identify cases of ill people being abandoned. He ordered that they be transported to his own office, where he had a space arranged for them to stay and be cared for. Life and Death Are Arranged by Fate When summer arrived, an epidemic broke out, and several hundred people were infected. Xin Gongyi accommodated them by filling up the main hall and corridors of his office with sickbeds. He set up a couch there for himself, which he also used as his own bed, and handled official affairs from there, among his plague-stricken guests. Xin Gongyi used his own salary to buy medicine and hire doctors to treat the patients, and he also helped to care for the patients himself. Gradually, they all recovered, and Xin Gongyi summoned the families to take their relatives home. He also sincerely spoke to them about their custom. Life and death are arranged by fate, and having contact with the sick will not necessarily put you in danger, he said. In the past, family members abandoned their ill loved ones, and many died under those circumstances. This time, as you can see, I brought all the afflicted people here with me, and I was with them day and night. Yet I have not succumbed to disease and remain healthy and safe, not to mention that the patients all recovered, Xin Gongyi told everyone. You mustnt abandon those who are ill anymore. Let go of that custom from the past. A Doctors Note to All Officials in Government The family members all felt ashamed upon hearing Xin Gongyis words. They thanked him and took his words to heart. Following the plague, the residents of Minzhou abolished their custom and began to take care of each other with faithful kindness and filial devotion. Xin Gongyis story is summarized in the medical text Songfeng Shuoyi, or Songfeng on Epidemic Diseases, written by Liu Kui, a famous Qing Dynasty doctor who used Songfeng as an alias. Liu Kui also paid tribute to Xin Gongyi in his book, stating: The reason Xin Gongyi was not infected in the epidemic was that he was an upright, honorable, charitable, and benevolent official. It was his karmic reward. All government officials in the world need to be aware of this example, Liu Kui said. Karnataka recorded its single biggest day spike in the number of Covid-19 cases on Sunday with 54 more people testing positive to take the cumulative tally to 848 including 31 deaths and 422 discharges, the state health department said. Shivamogga district which was in the green zone reported eight new cases. State health department officials said that the majority 31 of the 54 new cases had travel history to a dargah (shrine) in Ajmer, Rajasthan. Eight of the people who came from Gujarat and tested positive had also visited the Ajmer dargah. Click here for full Covid-19 coverage. Meanwhile, the government has sealed two hospitals in Bengaluru after their alleged negligence led to death of a 56-year-old patient identified as P-846. The patient is to have been taken to a private hospital with respiratory difficulties on May 4 but despite standing instructions from the government that any SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Infection) case be tested for Covid-19, it wasnt done. As the patients condition deteriorated, she was directed to another private hospital on May 6 and there too no swab sample for Covid-19 was taken and she passed away on May 7. A swab sample taken after her death tested positive for Covid-19. Health officials said action would be taken against both the private hospitals for negligence. Five different Shramik Special trains left Bangalore on Sunday for West Bengal, UP, MP, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir carrying migrants stranded in Karnataka. The state government has also geared up to receive its first set of 240 Kannadigas who are returning from London and whose flight is expected to land in the early hours of Monday. Health department officials said that all precautions have been taken and preparations have been done to quarantine incoming passengers for the next two weeks. They are finally living with their children. Normally, or for the lack of it, they reside in separate buildings where men come by the dozen throughout day and night. They are commercial sex workers in New Delhi's biggest red light area, Garstin Bastion Road, popularly known as GB Road. But they are mothers first. Due to social distancing rules and a strict curfew, COVID-19 lockdown has united them with their sons and daughters for the first time in years. Tucked away in a place otherwise thronged by the lust for flesh, there is a small, happy home for children aged 14 years and less. Completely unaware of what their mothers do and who their real fathers are, these children stay in an NGO-run shelter home, attend school and learn basic life skills, away from, what they could have called, family. The shelter home, adjacent to 78 brothels where 2,225 women stay, is run by 54-year-old Lalitha Nayak who has spent half her life going from one brothel to another, convincing mothers involved in sex trade to educate their children. It was in 1991, with some support from the government, that she was able to start the day-care centre with five children in a room for which she had to fight hard with the municipal authorities. Before the lockdown, Durga, 13, did not remember her mother's name. She only saw her twice a month for a few minutes. She has grown up in the shelter home, SPID SMS Centre, with 70 other children. She moved in with her mother more than a month ago after 10 years. Thirteen children have shifted with their mothers ever since the nationwide shutdown. However, the unison has come at a cost. There have been no clients ever since the imposition of lockdown on 24 March. "We have lost our only source of income. It is such a weird dilemma. I have my daughter but I have no money," said Durga's mother. On April 8, the Global Network of Sex Work Projects and UNAIDS released a statement highlighting the hardship and discrimination faced by sex workers in this time, urging countries to ensure that their human rights be respected and fulfilled. "Whenever and wherever possible, sex workers are responsibly self-isolating in response to governments' calls. However, when they are excluded from COVID-19 social protection responses, sex workers are faced with putting their safety, their health and their lives at increased risk just to survive," the statement read. Women here have mostly been surviving on donations by local NGOs. Most of them have no Aadhaar and ration cards and are not enlisted in any government-funded schemes. Last month, the Centre announced a package worth Rs 1.17 lakh crore for the poor, which is of no use to them. Sex work in India is governed by the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956. It is currently illegal to solicit sex sale in public and to organise commercial sex. According to local activists, the women here are daily-wage labourers and make anywhere between Rs 50 to Rs 1,000 per person. The clientele consists of mostly construction workers, rickshaw-pullers, truck and auto drivers among others who themselves have found no work ever since the lockdown was imposed. Activists said sex workers have negligible savings and mostly no bank accounts. After no food, their next fear is being driven out of their accommodations. Most of them pay a cut per customer as rent and have nowhere to go in the city. Most women are from rural and lower caste backgrounds, living in inhumane conditions crammed in dingy rooms of dilapidated buildings. They are usually brought to the city by traffickers on the pretext of good jobs and are sold to local middlemen. A public interest litigation has been moved in Delhi High Court seeking direction to Centre and Delhi government, to take effective steps for social security and welfare measures, including food, accommodation, and medicine for sex workers and the LGBT community. The petition also seeks constitution of a committee for the sex workers. The petition stated that sex workers and the LBGT community do not have access to financial aid during lockdown. Petitioner and lawyer Anurag Chauhan said the Delhi government and Centre are deviating from their aims and objects of providing basic financial aid. However, these women are not bogged down by the crisis. A small group of workers collect groceries from all the local NGOs and distribute it among themselves. They share to ensure nobody stays hungry. "We provide milk and other essentials. On some days, if we don't have volunteers, women come themselves to collect the necessary items. They are helping each other to get past this crisis because nobody has been visiting this area," said Awdesh Yadav, convener of SPID SMS Centre. Meanwhile, back in the leaky room where Durga is living with her mother, there is hardly any evidence of the gloomy pandemic. She is well-fed and away from the battles her mother fights every day. "I collect food in the morning and evening while Durga waits in the room," she said. In the evenings, the mother-daughter duo watch TV, play ludo and talk to their hearts content. Durga is getting to know her mother for the first time in 13 years. She has stories of the shelter home to tell her -- about who her friends are, how she spends her day and what she learns in school. However, she has limited time. Durga will be back in the centre after the lockdown is lifted and economic activity resumes. Her mother will have to tend to her clients. Actor Kim Dong-hee poses for a photo after an interview with The Korea Times at a studio in Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of Netflix By Kwak Yeon-soo Actor Kim Dong-hee landed a breakout role in "SKY Castle" in 2019, leading to parts in dramas such as JTBC "Itaewon Class" and Netflix Original "Extracurricular." For Kim, playing Oh Ji-soo in teen crime drama "Extracurricular" was not the kind of role he was used to playing. The 21-year-old actor's character Ji-soo is a smart high school student who has never caused any trouble at school. However, there is a secret he is hiding from everyone else. His "extracurricular" activity is coordinating a few young sex workers, communicating via texts and a phone app to disguise his voice. Abandoned by his parents, this is the only way Ji-soo makes a living. His simple goal is to earn enough money to go to college. It is initially easy for Ji-soo to hide his crime in after-school hours because he's a loner. However, his anonymity does not last because his classmate Bae Gyu-ri (Park Joo-hyun) finds out about his criminal endeavors. She insists on joining the illegal scheme and the two become crime partners. If the story sounds a little troubling, Kim agrees. "Teen crime and prostitution are dealt with in the series, but the plot goes down a different road," he said during an interview with The Korea Times. "It not only sheds light on the dark side of youth, but raises question on responsibility and shows how horrible the consequences are for teen criminals." The 21-year-old actor revealed that sympathizing with his character Ji-soo was much more difficult than he expected. While Ji-soo is involved in a serious crime, he could be seen as a victim trying to survive by breaking the law. "It would be a lie to say I understood him perfectly well. I felt like there was a big wall between me and Ji-soo that I wouldn't be able to break through," he said. "Toward the end of the series, Ji-soo is caught up in a whirlwind of emotions fear, guilt and anxiety. He's on the brink of suicide. He wants to escape but there is nowhere to go and no one he can rely on." Kim recalled that the most difficult scene was apologizing to Min-hee, a popular girl who leads a dual life by engaging in prostitution. "I cried for a few dozen times, trying to pull out the feeling of standing on the edge of a cliff. It was very sad," he said. On the "Nth Room" case that triggered public outrage at the involvement of teenagers as perpetrators, Kim said he was shocked to learn about a similar case in real life. "I was deeply shocked and upset that such a story happened in real life. I think those who committed these crimes should receive harsh punishment," he said. When asked whether he is concerned about being typecast as a uniform-wearing student (Kim has appeared as a student in web drama "A-Teen," hit series "SKY Castle," "Itaewon Class" and "Extracurricular"), Kim said he thinks of it as a privilege because he won't be able to wear it 10 years from now. "My goal is to continue acting steadily. I'm in no rush, so I don't mind playing the role of a student," he said. "In the future, I want to become an actor who can fit into any role and have a positive influence on the public." Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has announced that South Africa has recorded 10,015 confirmed COVID-19 cases a daily increase of 595. Mkhize added that there were 8 more deaths linked to COVID-19, bringing the total number of people who have died from the virus in South Africa to 194. The Western Capes total number of COVID-19 cases currently stands at 5,168, followed by Gauteng on 1,952, and KwaZulu-Natal on 1,353. The Western Cape and Eastern Cape combined contributed 84% of reported new cases in South Africa. The total number of coronavirus tests in South Africa has increased to 341,336, a daily increase of 17,257. The table below provides an overview of the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths per province. Province Case Numbers Deaths Western Cape 5,168 98 Gauteng 1,952 22 KwaZulu-Natal 1,353 43 Eastern Cape 1,218 22 Free State 135 6 Limpopo 54 3 North West 45 0 Mpumalanga 61 0 Northern Cape 29 0 Western Capes high number of cases The Western Cape contributes over half of the total number of COVID-19 cases in South Africa. The severity of the outbreak in the province is clearly illustrated by the number of infections per 100,000 people. Media Hack reported that the Western Cape has 70 infections per 100,000 people. This is much higher than the Eastern Cape (16), Gauteng (13), and KwaZulu-Natal (12). The reason for the rapid increase in cases, Mkhize explained, is caused by cluster outbreaks in certain areas. The cluster outbreaks and the early onset of local transmissions is what led to the higher COVID-19 numbers in the province. Cluster outbreaks are happening in commercial settings like factories and retail shops, said Mkhize. He said these cluster outbreaks can happen anywhere, adding there is nothing the Western Cape is doing differently which is causing the higher numbers. Professor Alex van den Heever, chair of social security at the Wits School of Governance, added that good screening and testing in the province is another contributing factor. He said there is insufficient screening and testing for COVID-19 in other provinces. Van den Heever said the low increases reported in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, and the Free State are unlikely. Instead, he suggested it is in all likelihood attributable to poorly implemented screening, testing, and tracing strategies. A 30-year-old asylum seeker has died in a hotel he was moved into as part of the Home Offices response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Syrian man, who cannot be named at this stage, was moved from his asylum housing in Glasgow to a hotel in the city, along with dozens of other asylum seekers last month. Police confirmed that emergency services were called to the hotel just after 1pm on Tuesday following the sudden death of a 30-year-old man, and that the death was currently being treated as unexplained. A friend of his living in the same hotel, who did not wish to be named, told The Independent the man had been suffering from mental health problems that had rapidly deteriorated since they were moved to the facility, and that he had been unable to get the help he needed. Hundreds of asylum seekers in Scotland have been transferred from their shared houses into hotels since the pandemic started by Mears, a company contracted by the government to manage asylum housing, under the direction of the Home Office, in a move condemned by campaigners. They have also had their financial support withdrawn, apparently because the hotels provide three meals a day, basic toiletries and a laundry service. The friend, 31, also a Syrian national, said the man, whom he met five months ago while they were both sleeping in a night shelter, had confided in him about his difficulties dealing with the torture and sexual abuse he experienced while imprisoned in Libya as he tried to reach Europe. He said the restrictive conditions in the hotel and the difficulty accessing support during the lockdown, despite requesting help from both Mears and the Home office, had pushed his friend over the edge. I saw it coming. He was failed too many times. I saw that no one did anything to help him. It got worse and worse. He told Mears and the Home Office, but nothing happened, he said. They left 90 people in one hotel without support. You have to eat whatever they give you. They stopped our money. Since we came here, his condition got much, much worse. Its been very tough. He was waiting for a final decision on his claim, but the Home Office is pausing everything and no one will explain what will happen. I feel so sad that this happened to him. He was 30 years old, he had dreams. We were talking, saying after this we will have work, he will speak English, life will be easier. I think he still had the ability to heal himself, but being in this situation put extra pressure on him. Recommended Home Office facing legal challenge over asylum support during pandemic Campaign group No Evictions Glasgow, which organised an online vigil for the man on Sunday evening, said in a statement: We are deeply saddened and utterly outraged by the lack of humanity, dignity, or consideration shown to asylum seekers by Mears, the Home Office, and the UK government. They have failed to comply with basic duties and to treat human life with respect. A Mears spokesperson said: We are deeply sad to confirm the death of an asylum-seeker who had been in Mears supported accommodation. Mears are working with the Home Office to contact the asylum-seekers family before disclosing more information. The cause of death has not been determined. A Home Office spokesperson said: We are aware of an incident resulting in an individual sadly losing his life. It would be inappropriate to comment before all of the facts have been established and his family have been notified. The spokesperson said the Home Office had put in a range of measures to support asylum seekers who were affected by the coronavirus outbreak and were continuing to monitor the situation closely. By Abankula Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar said the current situation whereby the NNPC uses scarce foreign exchange to import fuel at subsidised rates is not sustainable. Instead, he asked the Buhari administration to liberalise the nations downstream oil sector, immediately. He said Nigeria is not just the most inefficient OPEC country, in terms of refining capacity, but also the largest importer of petrol in the world. Atikus criticism of Nigerias oil sector is a direct kick on the face for President Buhari as he is the substantive oil minister. The former vice- president made the fresh criticism in a statement issued by his Media Office in Abuja on Sunday. He said the focus of the Federal Government should be to aggressively drive the enhancement of our local capacity to process larger quantities of our crude for domestic consumption. He also urged government not to be fixated over price fixing. He emphasized that closely related to this, is the need to build the enabling infrastructure to add value to the economy via the development of petrochemical facilities. These will allow the country to impact upon so many sectors including agriculture, pharmaceuticals, textiles and construction as well as food processing, he said. According to him, UNIDO estimates that up to 1 million new jobs can be created in Nigeria within 10 years through investments in petrochemicals and petrochemicals-based activities. On the propriety of fixing of the pump price of petrol, he noted that the price of petrol is not determined by only the price of crude. The price of crude and fuel can fall even further or go back up without notice. Nigeria as it stands today does not even have the money to continue to be involved in backstopping fuel price at any level. And the way to go is to liberalise the downstream sub-sector and not fix prices as long as the marketers can import on their own and sell. He lamented that Nigeria is by far the most inefficient OPEC member country in terms of both the percentage of installed refining capacity that works and the percentage of crude rened, trailing behind countries like Iraq and Libya that have recently been at war or are experiencing civil strife. Atiku Abubakar said the way out of this embarrassing situation, is to prioritise investments to ramp up our domestic refining capacity and ensure that Nigeria starts to process domestically at least 50 percent of its current crude oil output of 2 million barrels per day. This, he said, can be achieved within a very short time if government encourages private sector participation under a liberalised downstream. Atiku Abubakars position follows report of another planned adjustment in the pump price of premium motor spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol. The planned reduction is coming against the backdrop of an earlier one from N145 to N125 per litre in March. He lamented that Nigeria is by far the most inefficient OPEC member country in terms of both the percentage of installed refining capacity that works and the percentage of crude rened, trailing behind countries like Iraq and Libya that have recently been at war or are experiencing civil strife. He regretted that Nigeria is currently the largest importer of PMS in the world, noting that not only is this counterproductive for the economy, it equally has signicant balance-of-trade implications (especially in this season of Covid-19 instigated economic meltdown) due to rened oil products being by far the single largest import item on which Nigeria spends its diminishing hard-earned foreign currency. He regretted that Nigeria is currently the largest importer of PMS in the world, noting that not only is this counterproductive for the economy, it equally has signicant balance-of-trade implications (especially in this season of Covid-19 instigated economic meltdown) due to rened oil products being by far the single largest import item on which Nigeria spends its diminishing hard-earned foreign currency. And given the extensive capital outlay that this may command, our goal should be to privatise existing refineries and create opportunity for new ones in our effort to diversify the economy, generate additional revenues and create jobs. The reports that our refineries did not produce petrol in eight months even makes the case for the privatization of the four refineries compelling to pave way for private investment that will spur efficiency, productivity and profitability, he said. He, however, welcomed the recent announcement that the refineries would be privatized and urged that the process be accelerated. Vons worker Ping Moyer, right, and Michael Mason of Orowheat restock items at a Vons in Torrance. Most of the team arrives at 5 a.m. to stock shelves. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) They spotted the man's naked face in the frozen food aisle. And in the age of COVID-19, it seemed positively indecent. The way he perused the freezers, nose and mouth uncovered, as if a virus weren't floating around, raring to kill. Shoppers stared. A worker who was guiding customers to each checkout lane rushed to tell the store director, who quickly found the outlier. "Excuse me, sir, but you need to have a mask to shop in this store," Dan Graves said. The man explained he had one in his backpack, which he'd placed inside a shopping cart. He pulled out his black mask, as if seeking absolution. "You need to put it on," Graves said firmly. Dan Graves, store director of a Vons in Torrance, places signage describing new criteria for entry and requiring masks for shoppers. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) "You know what, just forget it," the man snapped. As he headed for the door, he tried to get in the final word: "You must be a Democrat!" "Have a nice day," Graves responded. For the last few months, grocery stores, deemed essential businesses, have served as public theaters for the traumatized American consumer. Thrust into the role of front-line soldiers amid a war against the coronavirus, employees have had to manage panic attacks, cursing, near-fights and counseling sessions at the checkout stand. They've been threatened by customers who are angry about having to wear masks. Some workers have received an hourly bump in appreciation pay. A growing number across the U.S. have become ill. Dozens have died. At the Vons grocery store on Crenshaw Boulevard in Torrance, cashiers have watched the installation of Plexiglas shields and the formation of lines that snake around the aisles. They've seen people shove fellow customers' purchases back on the conveyor belt and then demand all new food because someone touched theirs. Unlike the customers they serve at this 76,000-square-foot store, the 165 employees who are dealing with some of the same feelings of uncertainty and anxiety cannot shelter at home. Jay Renteria, right, a vendor working for Snyder's Pretzels, signs in with Sonia Burgos, who works in receiving at a Vons in Torrance. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) On a recent Monday, under a muddy night sky, a cashier rang a doorbell at the front of the store, signaling her arrival. A Naked juice truck pulled around back to drop off its supplies. It was 5 a.m., and the store was already busy. Story continues Anthony Capone wiped dozens of black shopping carts with disinfectant. In the produce department, a worker picked out Gala apples, onions, Roma tomatoes and oranges and then piled them on a cart to fill half a dozen online delivery orders. The store has hired 30 extra employees as demand for these deliveries has increased. Albertsons truck driver Kenneth Patterson moves produce in the receiving area at the Torrance Vons. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) Sonia Burgos, the store's inventory control clerk who'd started her day at 4 a.m., waited for vendors and truck drivers in the receiving zone. She had every vendor review the same questions Do you have any symptoms? Coughing, shortness of breath? Sore throat, chills or body aches? before they signed in on a "Vendor COVID-19 log." At checkout Lane 3, Miyoshi Lampkin gripped a bottle of orange-colored disinfectant and coated the black conveyor belt, registers and separators. Sanitizing her station has become as routine as brushing her teeth. Lampkin, who has worked at the store for 21 years, prepared for the start of her shift with a tall coffee from the Starbucks inside the store. That's all the caffeine she'd need for the day. Vons checker cashier Miyoshi Lampkin, who has worked at Vons for 40 years, cleans and sanitizes her checkout lane. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) My adrenaline is off the people. I love people," she said. "It keeps me going." Shortly before 6 a.m., Capone, a front-end supervisor, positioned himself at the sliding front doors to welcome at-risk shoppers and seniors 60 and older. "Morning folks, how are we doing today?" Capone asked, speaking through a brown mask. He recognized one of his regulars, 75-year-old Diane DeWeese. "Two minutes, countdown," said DeWeese, who has been coming to this store for nearly two decades. She was one of only two people waiting out front. Just a few weeks ago, she recalled, the line stretched down the street. When it was time, Capone welcomed the two customers inside and directed them to the sanitized carts. "One toilet paper, one paper towel," he reminded them. "You guys have an awesome day." It was Capone's responsibility to check identification for that first hour, to make sure it was seniors entering. Within 20 minutes, he had turned away two people. He listened as customers echoed the same frustration the employees were experiencing. "Ugh, I'm so sick of this," Kathi Wilson groaned behind her floral mask, in response to Capone's question about her day. Wilson has asthma and has spent nearly every day at home since the beginning of the outbreak. It's hard, she said, to live through something with no end in sight. "I know," Capone responded. "Hang in there." One of the first shoppers made a beeline to Aisle 11, where at least 20 plastic-wrapped 12-packs of Charmin Ultra Soft and Cottonelle Ultra CleanCare toilet paper and dozens of rolls of Bounty and Viva paper towels graced the shelves, courtesy of a shipment the night before. Diane DeWeese, 75, walks the paper products aisle at Vons. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) A 93-year-old World War II veteran shops for produce at a Vons in Torrance. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) At checkout Lane 5, soap opera digests gave no indication of a pandemic. But the magazine rack to the left of the conveyor belt was filled with reminders. Time announced that we are not alone, People offered COVID-19-inspired acts of kindness, and Los Angeles magazine featured a woman in a blue medical mask with the words, "Now what?" "Hi, how are you?" Debbie Alexander asked, her voice bright, as she scanned a customer's Scott toilet paper and paper towels. After 40 years, Alexander knows exactly where every bar code is placed. "Good," her customer responded. "Better yet, I found paper towels." "You found gold today," Alexander said, as she laughed through her mask, decorated with Disney's Belle and her prince after he'd transformed back into a human, after the nightmare ended. Doors open at 6 a..m. for seniors and at-risk shoppers at a Vons in Torrance. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) Despite Alexander's cheerful exterior, she says at times she uses breathing exercises to help keep herself calm. Her husband has a heart condition, diabetes and high blood pressure. She was terrified she might bring the virus home. "But it's my job," Alexander said. "There's nothing I can do." Work was already tough enough before the outbreak. Many of the store's nearly 200 employees are part time. The union pay scale goes from state minimum wage to $21.42 an hour. Cashiers who are constantly swiping bar-coded items sometimes suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome. They rely on Dr. Scholl's shoes and foam mats at their check stands to ease the aching in their knees. But in March, when the orders to shelter at home were announced, cashiers started to suffer from panic attacks as customers flooded the store. Alexander's anxiety still flares up when she thinks back to March 13 a day she calls "apocalypse Friday." Every register was open; lines stretched back to the meat department and branched off into produce and the bakery. It took 30 to 45 minutes for customers to reach the checkout lane. One customer in the express lane placed $850 in groceries on the conveyor belt. "We had no idea this was going to happen," Alexander said. "People were just buying groceries like they were never going to see them again." She likened the aftermath of her 10-hour day to the scene in the movie "A Bug's Life," when the grasshoppers came "and ravaged the place and there was nothing left." Alexander worked 19 days straight in March. Albertsons Cos., which owns Vons, announced a temporary $2-per-hour increase in pay, which started March 15. The Plexiglas didn't go up until the end of the month. "People's nerves were so on edge the first couple weeks," Alexander said. But it wasn't all bad. There was the customer who paid for a woman in front of her after she struggled to find her money. The one who offered Alexander $20 as a thank you which the cashier gently declined. Local businesses bought lunches for employees or donated Starbucks gift cards. Thank yous were not something cashiers heard all that often before the outbreak. Now, Alexander said, she gets thanked every day. Real thank yous that mean something at a time when she can't hug her grandchildren or visit her 82-year-old father, who recently had a heart attack. Still. Every day is filled with stress and uncertainty. Vons employees have slept apart from loved ones, stripped down before entering their homes and sprayed shoes with Lysol after their shifts. They worry about elderly family members and children at home. "Being in here all day, you just don't know who's sick and who isn't," Alexander said. "You do worry about what you're bringing home and who you're going to infect." Delivery driver James Hang prepares his orders. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) In the middle of the morning, Lampkin walked into the break room, the space where workers can remove their masks to eat and heave deep sighs of relief. It was time for her lunch, a temporary reprieve from the constant beep of the bar-code reader. She washed her hands and popped two White Castle jalapeno cheese sliders into the microwave. As she waited, Lampkin wiped down the table and seat. "Sonia, what do you got, Lampkin called out to Burgos, who sat across the room, alone. Turkey sandwich with sourdough. And fruit, Burgos said. Before the outbreak, they would have been sitting together. But the seat across from Lampkin was blocked with a strip of caution tape, and a yellow sign on the wall read, "One person per table social distancing." Nearby, Kelley Talleda, a courtesy clerk, waited in a booth for her shift to start. Vons courtesy clerk Kelley Talleda waits before her shift in the break room, which has been altered to maintain social distancing. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) When everything began, Talleda said, they worked longer shifts and had to guide the customers through all the new rules. "One of my customers said it best: 'Not a pandemic a panic,'" Lampkin said. "If you have an earthquake, you get a crowd of people for three days. But this has gone on and on and on." By 10:05 a.m., Lampkin's phone timer went off her 30-minute lunch break was over. She threw out her trash, washed her hands and went back to her register. Burgos lingered a little longer and chatted with a co-worker at a neighboring table. They wondered if Mother's Day weekend would be busy. Nobodys going to be celebrating anyway, Burgos said. In the middle of the afternoon, customers continued to wait in line, standing on red markers that thanked them for practicing social distancing and reminded them to stay two carts apart. They were directed one way down the aisles to prevent crowding. Customers included nurses, doctors and ambulance service workers. Some of them wore plastic face shields and gloves; others, just flimsy paper masks. Antoinette Villegas directed a couple to checkout Lane 5. They glared at her when she asked if one of them could wait at the front of the store while the other made their purchase. She's been cussed out a few times when she's made the same request. "We sleep in the same bed," one man said. "Yeah, but we don't sleep in the same bed," Villegas said. Coldplay's "Clocks" played on the store's sound system, with lyrics that seemed especially relevant: "Am I part of the cure or am I part of the disease?" Later in the day, as the crowds diminished, all but two of the checkout stands were closed. A customer who arrived with a coupon for a free four-pack of toilet paper was told the store had run out for the day. The cheeses were gone too, as well as the pasta. Frank Morisaki, who has worked at the store for 16 years, scanned items for one of the last customers. Closing time was at 9 p.m.; the following week, it extended another two hours. You guys take care, be careful, the customer said to Morisaki, before she stopped on the way out to grab a sanitizing wipe. Morisaki tapped elbows with longtime customers and joked with them when he could. He listened to shoppers who had lost jobs and offered sympathy. And he was grateful for the customers who thanked him for his work, despite dealing with their own hardships. "That's what keeps me thriving to keep coming and putting in overtime," he said. "I feel like a superhero." Theres GoFundMe account to help raise money for the Navajo and Hopi families right now, and its going viral for a very interesting reason. A lot of Irish people have stepped up to help raise over $3 million dollars for these Native Americans in need, because of something they kindly did for them way back in 1845. Its been 173 years since the Native Americans did this, and the Irish have surely not forgotten their big act of kindness. Heres exactly what happened back in 1845, and why it led to so many Irish people feeling compelled to help out today. GoFundMe; supplies are delivered to those in need with money raised from the GoFundMe, above Sign up for Chip Chicks newsletter and get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Reporters have their temperatures taken before entering Chunchugwan, Cheong Wa Dae's press center, Sunday, for President Moon Jae-in's special address marking the third year of his presidency. Yonhap Diplomacy takes back seat in address to mark third year By Do Je-hae There are some noticeable changes in President Moon's third-year anniversary speech in comparison to an exclusive interview with KBS a year ago to mark his second year in office. Last year, the presidential office opted for a one-on-one interview at Cheong Wa Dae with the national broadcaster for sharing the President's in-depth views about various items of his core agenda. The interview touched on a wide range of topics, including the reform of the judiciary, which had been one of his priorities since day one in office. There was also almost no mention of policy goals such as the balanced regional development, which is also something that has been cherished by liberal administrations. About 80 percent of his third anniversary speech at Cheong Wa Dae's press center of Chunchugwan was related to the economy and there was very little mention of anything else. The limited choice of topics in Moon's third-anniversary speech is seen to reflect Moon's strong determination to direct all of his energy and attention to the economy and jobs, issues that have become even more urgent in the COVID-19 era. Topics such as judiciary reform were left out completely. His push for judiciary reform by appointing his controversial former aide Cho Kuk as justice minister backfired last year, resulting in a huge public division over his administration. 'DNA for overcoming national crisis' Entering the waning phase of his presidency, Moon's speech seemed somewhat more subdued than on previous occasions. But nonetheless, he tried to remind the Korean public that they have what it takes to overcome the difficulties from COVID-19, saying they have the "DNA" for tackling national hardships. "I believe in our people who have in their DNA the ability to overcome a crisis. The government, along with the people, will also set an example for the world with how we overcome this economic crisis." President Moon's key aides listen to the presidential address on Sunday at Cheong Wa Dae. From right, policy chief Kim Sang-jo, National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong, center, and Presidential Chief of Staff Noh Young-min. Yonhap Indian authorities used drones and fire engines to disinfect the pandemic-hit city of Ahmedabad on Saturday, as virus cases surged and police clashed with migrant workers protesting against a reinforced lockdown. The western city of 5.5 million people in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state has become a major concern for authorities as they battle an uptick in coronavirus deaths and cases across India. Ahmedabad accounts for 343 of the almost 2,000 deaths reported nationwide and almost 10 percent of India's cases. Other cities in Gujarat have also been badly hit. Locals watched from their balconies as drones sprayed disinfectant from the air while fire engines and other vehicles toured the empty streets sending out clouds of cleaning agent. "All zones" of the city would be disinfected, according to acting chief administrator Rajiv Gupta. India has been in the grip of the world's biggest lockdown since March 25, which was tightened in Ahmedabad on Friday because of the accelerated spread of the virus. Hundreds of paramilitaries kept people off the streets and virtually all stores have been closed for at least a week. On Friday night, security forces fired tear gas at stone-throwing residents who ventured out. At least 15 people were arrested and the police presence was stepped up Saturday. Fresh clashes erupted Saturday between about 500 migrant workers and police in Gujarat's industrial hub of Surat. Police fired tear gas while the protesters hurled stones and chanted slogans demanding to be allowed to return to their home towns. Around 50 were arrested for rioting, police said. Surat, known for its diamond and textile industries, is home to over 800,000 migrant workers, many of whom have been left jobless after factories closed following the lockdown. Some 900 coronavirus cases have been detected in the city, the second hardest-hit in the state. Authorities have insisted the pandemic crisis is under control and have started to ease restrictions in many parts of the country to let agriculture and some companies get back to work. Experts however have warned the toll is increasing despite the lockdown. The virus is spreading particularly quickly in other major cities, including the capital New Delhi and the finance hub of Mumbai. And experts say the actual toll numbers are higher than reported because of the lack of testing and poor accounting for deaths. While the number of fatalities is low compared to the United States and the worst-hit European nations, health specialists say India's pandemic curve may only peak in June and July. Shamika Ravi, an economic advisor to the government, said Saturday that the "infection is way ahead of our knowledge" in Gujarat and Maharashtra, which includes Mumbai, because authorities were not carrying out enough tests. Even as the global death toll from COVID-19 continues to rise, the impact of the virus may actually be understated, according to a new study from the University of Glasgow. Using a statistical measure called "years of life lost," researchers found that COVID-19 strips more than a decade away from a person's life, on average. For men, the viral infection takes away about 13 years of potential life lived. For women, it's more like 11 years. Both numbers account for underlying long-term conditions. The concept of "years of life lost," or YLL, is a mathematical equation that estimates the average time a person would have lived if they had not died because of some unforeseen health event, like COVID-19 infection. MORE: Triple combination therapy shows promise for COVID-19 patients with less severe illnesses The study, which is still awaiting peer review to ensure accuracy and validity, confirms what should seem obvious, but is nevertheless sobering: COVID-19 is not killing people who are already near death, rather it's claiming the lives of many people more than a decade before their time. "YLL is a common, widely adopted public health statistic to assess the number of years lost due to premature mortality. It's used to assess resource allocation for research and health care delivery," said Dr. John Brownstein, chief innovation officer at Boston Children's Hospital and an ABC News contributor. PHOTO: A medical specialist wearing protective gear pulls a stretcher toward an ambulance while relocating a bag, which presumably contains a human body, outside a hospital for patients infected with coronavirus on the outskirts of Moscow, April 20, 2020. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters) According to Dr. David McAllister, senior clinical lecturer and honorary consultant at the University of Glasgow Institute of Health and Wellbeing, he and his colleagues embarked on the study to test the assumption that the impact of COVID-19 may have been overstated, perhaps because the people who are dying would have died soon regardless of their infection. "This paper is compelling in that it aims to provide a better understanding of the mortality impact of COVID-19," according to Brownstein. "Clearly, there has been a school of thought that individuals that succumbed to COVID-19 are already seriously ill with minimal years of life left to live. This quantitative assessment clears up that misconception showing that years of life lost is over a decade. Story continues "This finding holds even after adjusting for underlying chronic conditions," he added. Using a report on Italy's death count published on March 26, McAllister and his team compared deaths from COVID-19 to information about mortality from the World Health Organization and Secure Anonymised Record Linkage data, a health care database from the United Kingdom. Their results account for the typical number of chronic conditions normally found for men and women aged 50 years or older who died of COVID-19. "Among people dying of COVID-19, the number of years of life lost per person appear similar to diseases such as coronary heart disease," McAllister said, according to prepared remarks. The YLL ranges per person for other diseases in the U.K. are "8.2 for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 11.6 for coronary heart disease, 13.1 for pneumonia, and 21.6 for asthma," according to the study. MORE: You may want to ditch that valve face mask: The pros and cons "These findings parallel the impact of other well-known conditions, such as coronary heart disease and pneumonia," said Brownstein. "When compared to these benchmarks, these findings do suggest the substantial burden of COVID-19 and should help policy makers as they weigh their public health response decisions." Metrics like YLL can provide a useful glimpse into the destructive nature of this virus. As governments around the globe consider reopening, research can help inform decision-making and reveal exactly what's at risk. Priya Amin is a masters degree candidate at Columbia University in narrative medicine and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit. People with coronavirus are dying 10 years earlier than they would have naturally: Study originally appeared on abcnews.go.com The Oregon Medical Examiners office determined that a man who was found stabbed to death Friday in North Portlands St. Johns neighborhood died by suicide. Portland police at first asked the publics help for information about the stabbing, but on Saturday released that the wounds were self-inflicted. Police have not said whether the man was in a home or in public when the stabbing occurred. Just before midnight Friday, police responded to reports of a stabbing at the 9500 block of North Lombard Street. The man was dead by the time officers arrived, according to the police bureau. RESOURCES: Multnomah County Mental Health Call Center : 503-988-4888; toll-free, 1-800-716-9769; Hearing-impaired dial 711 Lines for Life crisis line call center : 1-800-273-8255, or Text 273TALK to 839863 National Alliance for Mental Illness Oregon chapters helpline: 1-800-343-6264 A 60-year-old COVID-19 patient died at the Patna Medical College and Hospital on Sunday, taking the total number of persons who died after being diagnosed with coronavirus infection to six, a top health official said. The state also reported 67 fresh cases, the highest single-day spike, raising the total to 696, Principal Secretary, Health, Sanjay Kumar said. The man, who died at the PMCH, was a resident of Belchi area in Barh in Patna district, Kumar said, adding he was in quarantine after returning from Delhi. He was admitted to the state-run hospital on May 8, the official said. "It was a case of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (end stage lung disease), died of cardio respiratory arrest," Kumar said in a tweet. Earlier, Rohtas, Munger, Vaishali, East Champaran and Sitamarhi have reported one death each. Of the 67 fresh cases, 11 each were reported from Nalanda and Munger, nine each from Bhagalpur and Patna, eight from Kishanganj, four from East Champaran, three each from Muzaffarpur and Arwal, two each from Gaya and Nawada, and one each from Araria, Aurangabad, Bhojpur, Samastipur and Khagaria. We are ascertaining their infection trail, Kumar said. So far, 37 of the state's 38 districts have reported COVID-19 cases, leaving only Jamui. A 70-year-old COVID-19 patient died in Rohtas district on May 7. The man, a resident of the Sasaram town, was admitted to the Narayan Medical College and Hospital with acute breathing trouble. A 45-year-old COVID-19 patient, who hailed from Sitamarhi district, breathed his last at Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) in Patna on May 2. He was suffering from "terminal stage" lung cancer and died of cardiac arrest. A 54-year-old person from East Champaran who was also suffering from cancer in mouth and throat died at NMCH on May 1, while a 38-year-old person from Munger was the first COVID-19 patient in the state to die. He died on March 21 at the AIIMS-Patna where he was admitted with renal failure and respiratory distress. Another COVID-19 patient from Vaishali, the second casualty in the state, also died at AIIMS-Patna. There are 336 active cases in the state at present, while 354 people have recovered from the infection. Munger has accounted for the most number of cases at 104, while Buxar has reported 56 cases, Rohtas (59) and Patna (58), Siwan (33), Nalanda (39) and Kaimur (33). These are among those districts worst hit by the outbreak. The number of samples tested so far at the seven facilities in Patna, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga was 34,150. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Washington: US intelligence agencies are reportedly examining mobile phone data suggesting there could have been an emergency shutdown in October at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. According to a report, obtained by NBC News, there was no mobile phone activity in a high-security part of the Chinese laboratory complex from October 7 to 24. Previously, there had been consistent use of mobile phones. The Wuhan Institute of Virology: Australian intelligence officials have no evidence suggesting it is the likely source of the virus. Loading The report, carried out by private experts, suggested there may have been a "hazardous event", specifically at the institute's National Biosafety Laboratory, between October 6 and 11. Analysis of mobile phone data from around the institute also suggested roadblocks were in place between October 14 and 19. President Moon Jae-in delivers a special address to mark his third year in office at Cheong Wa Dae, Seoul, Sunday. Yonhap President Moon Jae-in presented an ambitious vision Sunday for South Korea to take the initiative in the post-coronavirus global economy on the basis of its prowess in the sectors of information and communication technology, and bio-health. "We will use our relatively rapid stabilization of the COVID-19 outbreak and the transition to a new normal as a turning point for enhancing economic vitality," Moon said in a special address to mark the third anniversary of his inauguration and unveil his top priority policy tasks for his remaining two years in power. "We will blaze a trail in the post-COVID-19 era with a pace-setting economy," he said. Moon said the government will strive to turn South Korea into a globally leading "digital powerhouse" with innovative business ventures and startups serving as the main driving force. On the envisioned Korean version of the New Deal, Moon said South Korea will focus on a "preemptive investment" for the future, designed to establish digital infrastructure and create many jobs. Yonhap People involved in the preparation of food in community kitchens in the state should be tested on a daily basis, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asked officials on Sunday. Chairing a meeting of senior UP officials, Adityanath said the community kitchens must be regularly sanitised. "People cooking food in various community kitchens should be medically tested on a daily basis. Cleanliness must be ensured at these community kitchens. These should be regularly sanitised. It should also be ensured that the community kitchens prepare adequate food for the needy, the CM said. The CM further said to contain the spread of coronavirus and monitor the prevailing situation, a high-level medical team should be sent to Agra, Meerut and Kanpur. Adityanath reiterated that the state government is committed for the safe and successful homecoming of migrants. "The medical check-up of all migrants workers must be done," he directed. The UP chief minister told the officials that the coronavirus lockdown must be strictly implemented, a statement issued by the UP government said on Sunday. He urged officials to encourage the use of 'Aayush Kavach COVID' app and said the coronavirus testing capacity in the state should be increased. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The University of Montanas College of Humanities and Sciences, which houses 23 departments that include the flagships environmental studies and creative writing programs, may face changes at the start of the fall 2020 semester. In an email Friday to College of Humanities and Sciences faculty and staff, UM Provost Jon Harbor wrote that he and UM President Seth Bodnar have directed the colleges incoming dean to examine the possibility of restructuring H&S into a series of divisions and schools over the course of the coming academic year. Larry Hufford, a former interim dean at Washington State University, was chosen for the position April 10, and will begin his role as a dean at UM July 1. Interim Dean Jenny McNulty was among the three other finalists for the position. In his email to staff and faculty, Harbor wrote that McNulty had accepted an invitation from University of Montana-Western in Dillon to serve as its interim provost and vice chancellor for academic and student affairs. We have directed Dean Hufford to leverage previous H&S planning along these lines to develop and implement a strategy that will result in the most effective administrative structure for the college, Harbor wrote. The email prompted Mehrdad Kia, a professor at UM for 30 years and director of the Central and Southwest Asian Studies Center within the College of Humanities and Sciences, to respond Saturday with a message to Montana Commissioner of Higher Education Clayton Christian. Kia wrote that cutting departments and reorganizing them into divisions was akin to cutting off the trunk of a tree to save its branches. This is a time to be innovative and creative, not slash and burn. As you know better than anyone else, UM has not been just a college in a small town it has been a well-respected institution of higher education with a unique reputation globally, wrote Kia, who has been a critic of multiple higher education administrators. In his email, he asked Christian to propose and support alternative ideas to what the current UM administration has in mind for the college. The first step, he wrote, should be President Bodnar showing a willingness to listen to these alternatives. Kia wrote that this first step should not be a tactic to silence and neutralize critics of the administration but a way to recognize that listening to a handful of individuals, who just arrived in town constitutes a catastrophic approach to saving UM. In order to address a $10 million budget deficit, UM implemented a plan to cut $5 million in spending across campus in the fall of 2018. Based on a fall 2019 projection, the College of Humanities and Sciences will have lost 20% of its budget by 2021 as a result. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 3 Sad 3 Angry 5 San Francisco, May 10 : At least 792 inmates at a jail in Central California have tested positive for COVID-19, making it the worst-hit in the US federal prison system. Nearly 70 per cent of the inmates at Federal Correctional Institution Lompoc have tested positive, exploding by more than 300 in recent days, Xinhua news agency quoted the Los Angeles Times as saying in a report on Saturday citing prison officials. Eleven staff members were also infected at the Lompoc facility, which houses 1,162 low-security inmates. A military mobile hospital has been built on the grounds to cope with the growing number of stricken patients, according to the Los Angeles Times report. The increasing totals come days after the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced earlier this week that it would substantially expand testing starting at detention and quarantine sites throughout the federal prison system. Nearly half of the inmates at another federal prison in California, the Terminal Island Correctional Institution in San Pedro, had tested positive for COVID-19, the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed last week. A total of 644 inmates at the Terminal Island Correctional Institution have contracted COVID-19. Federal Correctional Institution Lompoc along with Terminal Island Correctional Institution now account for nearly half of all the federal inmates who have tested positive nationwide, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Federal Bureau of Prisons reported that a total of 3,330 inmates nationwide have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Saturday throughout the system that holds about 151,000 inmates. A total of 46 federal inmates have died so far due to COVID-19, according to the Bureau. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Several Fires Break Out as Jet Fuel Storage Facility Attacked at Mitiga Airport in Libya Sputnik News 09:51 GMT 09.05.2020(updated 10:23 GMT 09.05.2020) Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli, Libya has been forced to suspend its activities several times over the past several months due to shelling amid a confrontation between warring factions in the conflict-torn nation. Several fires erupted at Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli, Libya after its jet fuel tank farm was "attacked", Libya's National Oil Corporation said on Facebook. The company provided no further details on the attack. According to the corporation, a firefighter crew has arrived at the scene to contain the blazes. Al Jazeera earlier reported that the airport had come under a rocket attack that hit a civilian plane. The incident comes following a spate of attacks in the Libyan capital on Thursday, which was blamed on the Libyan National Army, led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. The LNA has denied any involvement in the attacks. In late April, the Haftar-led force announced it would cease hostilities during the holy month of Ramadan. Libya has been torn apart between two rival governments, an elected parliament in the country's east, supported by the LNA, and the GNA in the country's west, for years since the assassination of the country's long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 10 By Elnur Baghishov - Trend Iran has repeatedly stated its readiness to exchange Iranian and American prisoners, said the Iranian Government Spokesman Ali Rabiee, Trend reports citing Khabaronline news agency. According to Rabiee, Iran has stated that no preconditions have been set in this regard. Rabiee added that so far, the United States has not responded to this offer. The official said that however, it seems that the US also intends to end the exchange of prisoners. "Because the US is aware of Iran's position on the exchange of prisoners, Iran does not think there is a need for a mediator in this matter. However, if the US side agrees, the party representing Iran's interests can announce Iran's opinion to the US on the details of the exchange of prisoners," he said. Sikkim Chief Secretary S C Gupta on Sunday called for maintaining utmost vigilance and ensuring compliance of all the guidelines to keep COVID-19 at bay in the state. The tiny border state of Sikkim with a population of more than six lakhs is one of the few COVID-19-free states of the country. Presiding over a state task force meeting, Gupta said that the need of the hour was to be vigilant and adhere to all the guidelines of the central and state governments to keep the state free from the clutches of the deadly novel coronavirus. The chief secretary reviewed the evacuation process and expressed satisfaction at the process of screening and quarantine of returnees over the last few days. He said that the Centre was likely to make provision for special trains for northeastern states to evacuate the people stranded across the country. The chief secretary said that after the authorities relaxed some lockdown regulations, Sikkim has fared much better than other states in terms of resumption of economic activities. It was evident from the data provided by the district collectors that most of the labourers are preferring to stay back in Sikkim, he said. Gupta emphasized on strict implementation of social distancing norms and said that resumption of normalcy does not mean that people start taking things for granted. He said that the implementation of 'The Sikkim Public Health and Safety (COVID-19) Regulations, 2020' as a regulatory measure for containment of COVID-19 in Sikkim, makes violation of social distancing norms and not wearing masks in public places a punishable offence. The chief secretary issued strict directives to all the district collectors and superintendents of police to strictly implement the rules and ensure that social distancing norms are not violated. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China's Heilongjiang reports no new COVID-19 cases People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 15:12, May 09, 2020 HARBIN, May 9 (Xinhua) -- No new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Friday, the provincial health commission said Saturday. By Friday, the province had reported a total of 558 locally-transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases and 386 imported cases. Also by Friday, 526 locally-transmitted COVID-19 patients and 309 imported cases had been discharged from hospitals after recovery. The province still had 19 domestically-transmitted confirmed cases and another 12 asymptomatic cases. The number of imported confirmed cases was 77 by Friday, with another two imported asymptomatic cases, according to the commission. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address A total of 7,740 dedicated COVID-19 facilities in 483 districts have been identified, the Union health ministry said on Sunday, asserting that adequate health infrastructure is in place to fight the pandemic. The public health facilities dedicated to COVID-19 management are categorised into three categories -- Dedicated COVID Hospital (DCH), Dedicated COVID Health Centre (DCHC) and Dedicated COVID Care Centre (DCCC). As on Sunday, 7,740 facilities in 483 districts have been identified in all States/Union Territories that include hospitals and facilities of the State/UT governments as well as the central government, a health ministry statement said. There are 6,56,769 isolation beds, 3,05,567 beds for confirmed cases, 3,51,204 for suspected cases, 99,492 oxygen-supported beds, 1,696 facilities with oxygen manifold and 34,076 ICU beds, it said. All the States/UTs have been requested by the central government to notify and upload the assigned three types of COVID dedicated facilities on their websites for public information and 32 States/UTs have already uploaded the information while the rest are in the process of doing it. In view of the need for further increasing the testing capacity for COVID-19 at National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the procurement of a high-throughput machine as per the recommendations of an Empowered Group was approved. The Cobas 6800 testing machine has been successfully installed at NCDC here, the statement said. NCDC is providing support for testing of samples from Delhi, NCR, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir and various other states, as per need. Presently the testing capacity at NCDC is about 300-350 tests per day and with Cobas 6800, which has a capacity to test around 1,200 samples in 24 hours, the capacity at NCDC will be significantly enhanced. So far, a total of 19,357 people have been cured, including 1,511 patients who recovered in the last 24 hours, the health ministry said. This takes the total recovery rate to 30.76 per cent. The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 2,109 and the number of cases climbed to 62,939 in the country on Sunday, registering an increase of 128 deaths and 3,277 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the ministry. The health ministry has also explained the basis of classification of COVID-19 dedicated facilities into the three categories. The Dedicated COVID Hospitals are hospitals that offer comprehensive care primarily for those who have been clinically assigned as severe. These hospitals shall have fully equipped ICUs, ventilators and beds with assured oxygen support. These hospitals shall have separate areas for suspect and confirmed cases. The Dedicated COVID Hospitals shall serve as referral centres for the Dedicated COVID Health Centres and the COVID Care Centres. The Dedicated COVID Health Centres are hospitals that offer care for all cases that have been clinically assigned as moderate. The DCHCs shall have separate areas for suspect and confirmed cases. These hospitals shall have beds with assured oxygen support and every DCHC is mapped to one or more Dedicated COVID Hospitals. The COVID Care Centres shall offer care only for cases that have been clinically assigned as mild or very mild cases or COVID suspect cases. These are makeshift facilities which may be set up by the States/UTs in hostels, hotels, schools, stadiums, lodges, etc., both public and private. These facilities shall have separate areas for suspected and confirmed cases. Every DCCC is mapped to one or more DCHC and at least one DCH for referral purposes, the ministry said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Not even coronavirus can get in the way of politics. President Donald Trump has been brawling with New York leaders, after saying in a New York Post interview that poorly managed Democratic states shouldnt expect a federal bailout to cure their fiscal woes. Mayor Bill de Blasio jumped on Trump with both feet, saying that the president was stabbing his hometown in the back. The mayor warned that city workers could be laid off or furloughed unless federal aid was forthcoming. But getting less attention was the fact that Trump in that same interview said that a bailout was different than, you know, reimbursing for the plague. So the door sounds open for some kind of federal coronavirus aid for states like New York and California. Just not blank checks to fill budget deficits that existed before COVID-19 struck, including the $6 billion hole that New York State was already staring at. That being said, the last thing Trump should do during a deadly global pandemic is differentiate states from each another based on whom the states voted for in the last presidential election, or which political party those states governors belong to. He shouldnt talk about helping or not helping Democratic states, or say that aiding Dem states might be unfair to Republican states. Keep the politics out of it. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, meanwhile, has repeatedly blasted GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for suggesting that mismanaged blue states should just be allowed to go bankrupt. Hitting back at McConnells hare-brained suggestion, Cuomo has pointed out that New York sends more money to the federal treasury than any other state, and said that since 2015, the state has gotten back 91 cents in federal spending for every dollar that it sends. True enough, but coronavirus is going to change everything about society. At least thats what Cuomo and de Blasio have told us in recent weeks, saying that the pandemic is an opportunity to transform New York. Maybe it should also transform how New York taxes its own people and spends the money. After all, if society is going to be transformed, and New Yorkers cant expect to return to how things were before the virus hit, then Cuomo and de Blasio cant expect their budgets to return to normal either. Can they? New York has long been one of the highest-taxing states, with steep income and property taxes. And things got worse for state residents when the feds capped the deductibility of state and local taxes. In New York City, real estate assessments drive up property tax costs for ordinary homeowners, and water bills and other charges always seem to be going up. Residents for years have been fleeing to lower-tax states, including places like Florida that dont have an income tax. So never mind how much money we sent to Washington. How about all the tax money I send to Albany and City Hall? Can the governor and the mayor say that all their budget money is well spent? Can they honestly say that theres no fat to cut? That the only solution is a bailout from the feds? They should both look in the mirror. In pushback against his threat to lay off workers, de Blasio is already hearing calls to shutter the ThriveNYC mental-health program overseen by his wife, First Lady Chirlane McCray. That could be a good place to save a little budget money, totaling $1 billion over the next few years. The best way to end the political fight is to open up states as quickly as possible. And to return to the norms that we knew before the quarantine, not the transformed societies that Cuomo and de Blasio have talked about. Unless, of course, they want to transform their own budgets too. >>> Vietnam presents medical supplies to Russia, Japan, and US The gift, the new batch of medical supplies, was made in accordance with an agreement between Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Japanese counterpart Abe Shinzo during their May 4 phone talks. Before the hand-over ceremony, Deputy FM Trung received new Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Yamada Takio. Trung emphasised that as strategic partners of each other, Vietnam and Japan have actively shared information and cooperated closely in fighting COVID-19 within both bilateral and multilateral frameworks, including ASEAN 3. He spoke highly of measures taken by the Japanese government to cope with the disease, while sharing his sympathy over losses caused by COVID-19 in Japan. He thanked the Japanese government for supporting Vietnam in combating the disease as well as its assistance for the Vietnamese community in Japan, while expressing his belief that Japan will soon defeat the epidemic. Deputy FM Trung called for the ambassadors close coordination to promote the extensive strategic partnership in all fields between Vietnam and Japan. For his part, Ambassador Yamada conveyed deep thanks to the Government and people of Vietnam for their valuable assistance, saying that the Japanese side will effectively use the gift. He expressed his admiration for Vietnam's response to the pandemic, saying that Vietnam is a model in preventing and controlling the disease. Japan will continue to closely work with Vietnam in the fight, support Vietnam in promoting socioeconomic development, as well as strengthen cooperation at international and regional forums, especially in the context that Vietnam serves as ASEAN Chair in 2020 and a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2020-2021 tenure, he said. He promised to do his best to contribute to promoting friendship and cooperation between the two nations. Although our financial report is always sent free to anyone requesting a copy, certain States require us to advise you that a copy of our financial report is available from them. The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a New York not-for-profit corporation that is the nationwide community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy and patient service programs. Our Global Headquarters is located at 250 Williams Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30303. The information enclosed describes one or more of ACSs activities. Your gift is very much appreciated and tax deductible as a charitable contribution to the fullest extent allowed by law. A copy of ACSs latest financial report may be obtained by writing to ACS, 250 Williams Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30303 or by calling 1-800-227-2345. If you are a resident of the following states, you may obtain information directly by contacting: Colorado: Colorado residents may obtain copies of registration and financial documents from the office of the Secretary of State, (303) 894-2680, http://www.sos.state.co.us/, re: Reg. No. 20053004121. FLORIDA: A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION OF THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING 1-800-435-7352, TOLL-FREE WITHIN THE STATE. OUR REGISTRATION NUMBER IN FLORIDA IS CH7486. Georgia: The following information will be sent upon request: (A) A full and fair description of the programs and activities of the American Cancer Society; and (B) A financial statement or summary which shall be consistent with the financial statement required to be filed with the Secretary of State pursuant to Code Section 43-17-5. Kansas: In Kansas our license number is 242-782-1. Maryland: Copies of documents and information submitted by the American Cancer Society under the Maryland Solicitations Act are available for the cost of copies and postage from the Secretary of State, Statehouse, Annapolis, MD 21401, 1-410-974-5534. Michigan: Charities Reg. No. 13135. Mississippi: The official registration and financial information of the American Cancer Society may be obtained from the Mississippi Secretary of States office by calling 1-888-236-6167. New Jersey: INFORMATION FILED WITH THE ATTORNEY GENERAL CONCERNING THIS CHARITABLE SOLICITATION AND THE PERCENTAGE OF CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED BY THE CHARITY DURING THE LAST REPORTING PERIOD THAT WERE DEDICATED TO THE CHARITABLE PURPOSE MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY BY CALLING (973) 504-6215 AND IS AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET AT www.njconsumeraffairs.gov/ocp.htm#charity. REGISTRATION WITH THE ATTORNEY GENERAL DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT. New York: You may obtain information on charitable organizations and obtain a copy of our latest financial report from the New York Attorney Generals Charities Registry at www.charitiesnys.com or, upon request, by contacting the Office of the Attorney General, Charities Bureau, 28 Liberty Street, New York, NY 10005, or calling (212) 416-8401 or writing to American Cancer Society, 250 Williams Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30303 or by calling 1-800-227-2345. North Carolina: Financial information about the American Cancer Society and a copy of its licenses are available from the State Solicitation Licensing Branch at 888-830-4989 within North Carolina or (919) 807-2214 outside North Carolina. This is not an endorsement by the state. Pennsylvania: The official registration and financial information of the American Cancer Society may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling toll-free, within Pennsylvania, 1-800-732-0999. Registration does not imply endorsement. Virginia: A financial statement for the most recent fiscal year is available upon request from the State Division of Consumer Affairs, P.O. Box 1163, Richmond, VA 23209; 1-804-786-1343. Washington: You may obtain additional financial disclosure information by contacting the Secretary of State at 1-800-332-GIVE. West Virginia: West Virginia residents may obtain a summary of the registration and financial documents from the Secretary of State, State Capitol, Charleston, WV 25305. Wisconsin: A financial statement of the American Cancer Society, disclosing assets, liabilities, fund balances, revenue, and expenses for the preceding fiscal year, will be provided upon request. REGISTRATION WITH A STATE AGENCY DOES NOT CONSTITUTE OR IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL OR RECOMMENDATION BY THAT STATE. Charitable Gift Annuity Disclosure Charitable gift annuities are offered to U.S. residents by the American Cancer Society, Inc., in all states. The act of establishing a gift annuity with the ACS is not, and should not be viewed as, an investment. Payments made under charitable gift annuities are not insured or otherwise guaranteed by any government entity. The annuity payments are a general obligation of the ACS and they are backed solely by the full faith and credit of the ACS. Charitable gift annuity rates vary according to age and are subject to change. Would you like to know more about the American Cancer Society? A copy of the latest financial report and Form 990 for the American Cancer Society, Inc. may be obtained by writing to the American Cancer Society, 250 Williams Street, NW, Suite 400, Atlanta, GA 30303, by calling 1-800-227-2345, or by visiting our financial and governance section. This is not legal advice. Any prospective donor should seek the advice of a qualified estate and/or tax professional to determine the consequence of his or her gift. In South Dakota: Charitable gift annuities are not regulated by and are not under the jurisdiction of the South Dakota Division of Insurance. In Oklahoma: A charitable gift annuity is not regulated by the Oklahoma Insurance Department and is not protected by a guaranty association affiliated with the Oklahoma Insurance Department. Pakistan-based terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin has said that Indian security forces position in the Kashmir valley is strong, according to a video of him which surfaced earlier this week. In the video, Salahuddin is seen addressing a gathering in Rawalpindi to mourn the killing of top Hizbul commander Riyaz Naikoo in Jammu and Kashmir earlier this week, saying that even after the killing of five security personnel in the Valley, Indian security forces continued to be in a position of strength. Naikoo was Hizbul Mujahideen's Jammu and Kashmir chief and was killed by the Indian armed forces a few days ago in an encounter in Pulwama district. Salahuddin has been termed as a global terrorist by the US State Department. He was speaking in Urdu with a Kashmiri accent, and could be heard saying, "It's a shock for all of us (killing of Riyaz Naikoo)." He is heard saying that since January this year, 80 Mujahideens (terrorists) were eliminated by the security forces, all of whom were highly educated and trained. The Central intelligence agencies stumbled upon the video where Salahuddin is seen ranting about the Indian forces and singing praises for Naikoo. Salahuddin also said that the Handwara attack, in which five security personnel and two terrorists were killed on May 2, was planned by them. "Despite the setback in Handwara, Indian forces continued to be in a strong position," he is heard as saying in his address. An anti-terror unit head said, "This clearly shows Pakistan's involvement in continuing to harbour terrorists." Rattled by the recent killings of terrorists, Salahuddin's reference to the failures refers to the current situation where terror groups are in disarray. "Our policies have led to the failures," he is heard as saying in the video clip. The anti-terror officer said that despite losing eight men in two encounters in Handwara, security forces have maintained constant pressure on the militants across the Kashmir valley. "We are into a hot pursuit mode," he added. According to a press release issued by the Texas A&M University Police Department, shortly before 6:30 a.m., a jogger reported he was running along the intersection of University Drive and Polo Road when a man with a gun jumped on the victim from behind. The man tried to pry the victims wedding ring from his finger and dropped his gun, police said. He ran from the area. Authorities later determined the weapon was an airsoft gun. The victim was taken to an area hospital for minor injuries. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 08, 2020 | MURRAY By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 08, 2020 | 04:16 PM | MURRAY Two Murray State University students in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts have won prestigious Fulbright Scholarships. Eriko Whittaker, a senior art major from Zama, Japan, is the recipient of a Fulbright fellowship to complete research and create art in Berlin, Germany. "To be frank, it doesn't feel real yet," said Whittaker, who was born and raised in Japan while her father was stationed in the military there, before moving back to the United States her sophomore year of high school. "This research grant is something that I've been pursuing and worked very hard on since last fall, and it feels surreal to actually be accepted. I am very, very happy." Whittaker said she is excited to live and teach in another country as part of the program. "I couldn't have done this without the amazing help of my professors and other Murray State faculty," Whittaker said. "I am also very proud to be part of the art department, because my education there gave me all the skills and tools necessary for me to be prepared for the Fulbright program and future adventures." "Eriko has been a dedicated researcher and artist throughout her career at Murray State," said Dr. Antje Gamble, assistant professor of art history and one of Whittaker's faculty mentors. "After her study abroad experience in Berlin, Germany, Eriko's paintings and scholarship made exciting developments. I was very happy to work with her on preparing her Fulbright application last summer. It's been an absolute pleasure working with Eriko, and her place as a Fulbright Scholar is well deserved." Lauran Young, a senior TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages) major, is the recipient of a teaching fellowship to Spain. Young, who grew up in Catlettsburg, Kentucky, says she was drawn to the Fulbright program because it combines two of her passions - education and multiculturalism. The scholarship is built on the foundation of fostering deep cultural awareness and mutual respect through learning to create a more understanding and stronger community. "It feels incredible to have been granted this once in a lifetime opportunity," Young said. "Being selected for the Fulbright is a huge affirmation for me and everything that I have studied and worked towards in the past four years. I wouldn't have made it this far without the support and encouragement from my professors at Murray State. The English department and the TESOL program developed my passion for the English language and education deeper than I ever thought possible. The Department of Global Languages and Theatre Arts has been phenomenal too, furthering my appreciation and love for the Spanish language as well as interest in other cultures." "Lauran Young is an exceptionally bright and caring young woman," said Dr. Latricia Trites, professor of TESOL in the Department of English and Philosophy. "Her dedication to teaching and always striving to be her best are just two reasons that she is deserving of this award. She will make an excellent teacher in Spain, and this experience will shape her teaching for the rest of her life. I am so proud to have had the opportunity to watch Lauran grow as a teacher and wish her all the best in the future." The Fulbright Program was established in 1946 under legislation introduced by then-Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas. It awards approximately 8,000 grants annually. Roughly 1,600 U.S. students, 4,000 foreign students, 1,200 U.S. scholars, and 900 visiting scholars receive awards, in addition to several hundred teachers and professionals. Approximately 370,000 "Fulbrighters" have participated in the program since it began in 1946. Larry Stover, 63, owns Stover Imaging, which primarily offers large volume document scanning services for businesses. Stover Imaging is the DBA (Doing Business As) name for the company which was incorporated as the CR Microfilm Center. The business is located at the corner of Austin & Plumer Streets, on the southeast side of Midland. Larry and his wife, Lois, are the only two employees. Stover has been shut down during the COVID-19 crisis. They also lease space in their building to Smith & Company Financial Services. Larry is a native of Indiana, born in Muncie. He was mostly raised in Dunkirk, but graduated from high school in Hartford City. He earned a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from Purdue University. He and Lois have been married for 35 years. They have an adult son and daughter. 1. How long have you owned your business? In 1994, we purchased all of the stock. I joined the company in 1984. It was my father-in-laws company (Cecil Rogers). 2. What inspired you to own this business? The nuclear power plant. I was here with Bechtel, but then the plant project shut down. I had met my future wife on the job site and wanted to stay in Midland. It was an opportunity. I didnt know I wanted to own my own business at the time. 3. What makes Midland great place to own a business? At one time, it was nice because of Dow and Dow Corning but that works been reduced over time. Ive had to go find more from other places. I like Midland because of the area. I dont have all the traffic. Its centrally located. I dont have any walk-in business. I go out to pick up business. For example, Im going to Battle Creek for a new project. The biggest thing I have to offer is I can make a stand-alone electronic file cabinet. Customers dont have to buy or install software to search for their documents. Its a menu driven system that can be customized for the customers needs. 4. What are some ways your business is active in the local community? Im a member of the Midland Business Alliance. I meet monthly with a group of business people for lunch, the Executive Roundtable, originally part of the Chamber. 5. What are some of your interests and hobbies? Im a peer mentor with the University of Michigan Medical Center for the kidney donor program. I donated a kidney to my son back in 2007. Ive always been a director of the Purdue Club, will serve as president again starting in June. Also serve on our condo association board. 6.What are some local businesses you work with that help make your business a success? Dow, I have departments there that I work with. Clarke Historical Library in Mount Pleasant, we do all of their processing and microfilm duplication. Also work with the Arenac County Treasurer, converting PDF images to microfilm. 7. Other thoughts? Have to thank my wife for working with me hand-in-hand. She puts up with me at home and she puts up with me at work. Sowmya Mani By Express News Service TIRUCHY: One of the reasons for people stepping out during the lockdown is to buy vegetables, fruits, groceries, medicines and other essential items. A gated community in Tiruchy's Karumandapam has found the perfect solution to this, by bringing all vendors selling essentials to their doorstep. The move has been orchestrated by the welfare association of the gated community. "We all panicked during the first two days of the lockdown. We did not know what to do and certainly did not want to step out. Our society has 103 houses and over 70 senior citizens, who would not be able to go out. Luckily, two vegetable vendors came and enquired if they could provide supplies," said Rajesh, treasurer, Rohini Gateway Owners Welfare Association. After 'appointing' the two vegetable vendors, the association started searching for others. They zeroed in on three vendors who supply fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. Local farmers also get their daily produce and supply them. "We are able to provide a livelihood to farmers, too. We have cucumber, spinach and banana farmers delivering directly to us. We hope to continue this post-lockdown," said a resident. Coordination is done through a WhatsApp group. Every evening, the association informs residents about vendors who would be coming the next day. Based on the orders, the vendors are informed about the quantity. After vegetables and fruits, groceries were ordered from Reliance and FSM. Even vendors selling fish, mutton and chicken started coming as the lockdown extended. People's sweet tooth was also catered to, with sweet shops coming and delivering at the gate. "We ensure safety. Any vendor who comes in must wear a mask and use a sanitiser at the gate. Residents who want to buy form a line maintaining social distancing and get it from the vendor. We even ordered medicines and masks," said Rajesh. There are four to five doctor residents who suggest medicines. The senior citizens are very happy with the service and want it to be continued till June, even beyond the lockdown. While this may be a common occurrence in metros, in Tiruchy, this is one of the very few societies to do this. She's been enjoying some downtime at her Essex pad amid the UK's coronavirus lockdown. And Lauren Goodger appeared to pine for happier times as she shared a sizzling throwback snap to promote her new tanning range on Sunday. Taking to Instagram, the former TOWIE star, 33, was the picture of confidence as she sported clingy swimwear while posing by a pool in a sunny location. Working it: Lauren Goodger appeared to pine for happier times as she shared a sizzling throwback snap to promote her new tanning range on Sunday The media personality accentuated her killer curves in a white one-piece, which flashed major sideboob. With her tresses worn in a straight fashion, the columnist complemented her radiant complexion with matte make-up and her very own LG Beauty product. The TV star ensured focus remained on her striking appearance by keeping accessories to a minimum as she rocked circular-framed shades. Turning heads: Taking to Instagram, the former TOWIE star, 33, was the picture of confidence as she sported clingy swimwear while posing by a pool in a sunny location Sending temperatures soaring: The media personality accentuated her killer curves in a white one-piece, which flashed major sideboob Plugging her new project, the Celebs Go Dating star captioned her posts: 'Life is so much better with a tan ! I feel like I can face the world its brand new and its better and my tan is back. 'and Im so happy with the results it makes my skin tanned smoothe and sunkissed! Its vegan and comes in 4 shades! We also supply the best mitts that are double lined so no streaks! Visit the website www.lgbeauty.com and check for yourself.' [sic] Since being propelled to the spotlight on the ITVBe show in 2010, Lauren has openly admitted to undergoing a nose job, boob job, liposuction to rid her of 'lumps and bumps' and fillers in the past. Wow! In another busty snap Lauren beamed while posing at the side of the pool Last March, she vowed never to get facials fillers again after claiming jaw fillers left her looking like Jim Carrey's 1994 character The Mask, and insisted she was off the fillers having had her face drained. During an appearance on This Morning, the brunette said: 'I don't have surgery on my face - I have had done, I've had things removed, I enhance my face with make-up and lip liner and things like that'. It's been a tough time for the beautician, who was forced to shut her salon Lauren's Way as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. On that day, Feb. 16, he said, he followed the routine he has used on previous flights. He told the security guards in Toronto that he had already notified the airline about his equipment. He showed them documentation, some of it signed by his doctor, that described the wires and glasses, which he wears every waking minute as part of his internationally renowned research on wearable computers. He also asked for permission not to put his computer through the X-ray machine because the device is more sensitive than a laptop. He said that the guards examined his equipment and allowed him to board the flight. But when he tried to board his return flight on Feb. 18, his experience was entirely different. This time, he said, he was told to turn his computer on and off and put it on the X-ray machine. He took his case to Neil Campbell, Air Canada's customer service manager at the St. John's airport, and spent the next two days arranging conversations between his university colleagues and the airline. The security guards continued to require that he turn his machine on and off and put it through the X-ray machine while also tugging on his wires and electrodes, he said. Still not satisfied, the guards took him to a private room for a strip-search in which, he said, the electrodes were torn from his skin, causing bleeding, and several pieces of equipment were strewn about the room. Once his system was turned off, turned on again, X-rayed and dismantled, Dr. Mann passed the security check. When he was finally allowed to go home, some pieces of equipment were not returned to him, he said, and his glasses were put in the plane's baggage compartment although he warned that cold temperatures there could ruin them. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Words are key in Judaism. In its narrative, God gave rise to creation through words. God effects His Will through words; and the main means of the master entity in the creation, the human being, to come to the Creator is through words. Coming to the Creator through words has different meanings in Judaism. Some are anchored in theology; others emerged in the ways the Jews lived, created communities in different parts of the world, and wrote and rewrote about their experiences. For many, the ways they lived were expressions of their relationship to the Creator. Simon Schama, curator and narrator of this version of the story, is not so much concerned with the words of God as much as with the words of humans. What he is driving at is not any of the myriad of theological understandings that different Jewish schools of thought developed. What animates his book are human words. There is a delight here. By focusing on the people, their lives, and talk in the various areas of these lives, Schama has created a rich canvas of experiences of Jewishness across a long arc of history in different parts of the world. A long and important part of the two volumes that form the story zooms in on a period that is arguably among the most formative of the experiences of Jews: their lives in medieval Europe. Here, Schama takes readers on sojourns in different towns and villages scattered in Central and Eastern Europe. The secular and religious interact; and so the stories of the communities, the people, the synagogues and genizahs, and what went on inside them, give us (the readers) glimpses of the social, political, artistic and cultural experiences that shaped Jewishness in each of these places. The intricacy of these facets of life fill the canvas that Schama draws for us. They also pull us in; through Schamas narrative, we come to see, smell, and hear life in these times and places. Along with the delight, there is education. This part of the story, in Central and Eastern Europe, is valuable to anyone interested in the modern socio-political history of Europe as a whole. This part will enrich many readers understandings of how identities in different parts of Europe evolved from the sense of belonging to local communities that were tiny components in colossal empires, to the birth of the idea of belonging to a nation state. This evolution was often painful, especially for minorities. Still, getting to understand how it happened is crucial to grasping key elements of the wider and bigger story of Europe post-Enlightenment, and before the dominance of modernity. The book shows the shift of the centre of gravity in the story of the Jews from East to West. The East here includes Muslim Spain and Ottoman Turkey where Jews lived for centuries and often were at the heart of the cultural, economic and artistic lives of these societies. But as the story progresses and community after community moves to different parts of Europe, not only do the locations of the story change, but also we get a sense of some of the changes taking place in these locations. But the book, despite its two lengthy volumes, misses a key aspect of the story of the Jews. That is the thread that has connected some of their most creative ideas. For example, we do not hear in any serious way about how Jewish theology and identity were influenced by exposure to advanced ancient Egyptian civilisation. There is a lot about human interaction, but not much about the interaction of ideas. We also barely get anything substantial on some of the most creative work in the Kabbala, arguably the richest school of philosophy, and of course theology, in Judaism. This is particularly strange because many thinkers of and within the Kabbala were among the most daring in reaching out to other philosophies for common understandings, cross-cultural fertilisations, and challenging ideas. These interactions led to some of the most marvellous intellectual expositions in the history of monotheistic religions. Simon Schama told us his book recounts the story of the Jews. And so, it is not really about major ideas in their history. It is a worthy book that meets the expectations raised by its title. As for the subtitle (of the first volume), finding the words, it has found some; it has shown us how many Jews expressed their Jewishness and in so doing enriched the intricate tapestry that is their collective story. But Schama has missed other words, some of which, I think, are among the most valuable intellectual contributions in Jewish history. Search Keywords: Short link: Actress Lee El, right, poses with Lee Hae-jun, chairman of the organization committee of the 39th International Modern Dance Festival (MODAFE), pose after he appointed her as goodwill ambassador for the festival in Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of MODAFE by Hanfilm By Park Ji-won Actress Lee El was appointed as goodwill ambassador for the 39th International Modern Dance Festival (MODAFE) to be held at ARKO Arts Theater in Seoul between May 14 and 29. Lee, who became famous thanks to her roles in the films and dramas like "The Yellow Sea," "Inside Men" and "Guardian: The Lonely and Great God," stressed that contemporary dance has been her sources of motivation for her acting since the early 2000s when she was a student aspiring to be an actress. "As a long-time fan of the festival, it has been an honor for me to become the ambassador to promote the event I have been mindful of body movements in acting for nearly 10 years of my career as an actress. I was a student paying attention to body training to express feelings naturally while acting. That's why I have been keen to watch dance performances of MODAFE to learn how to well breath and convey feelings," Lee said during a press conference held to promote the festival in Seoul, Thursday. The oldest contemporary dance festival in Korea has been playing an important role in introducing leading contemporary dances here and from overseas. However, due to the concerns that the festival can become a medium to spread the infectious disease, the organization committee of the event has decided to stream the event online for free while holding the actual festival performances with a limited number of audience members who will be obliged to sit apart from each other. Also, performances of international artists slated to participate in the festival have been cancelled or postponed due to logistical difficulties amid the pandemic. Stressing the online streaming can be a good way to attract more viewers amid the spread of the coronavirus, Lee said "Even though artists from other countries will not participate in the festival, I assumed that it will be a better chance for various Korean artists to perform on the stage." Lee Hae-jun, chairman of the organization committee of MODAFE and professor of Hanyang University, said "We faced a lot of changes and difficulties in the COVID-19 era. Overseas performers will not come while large-sized performances had to change their choreography as performers were not able to gather to practice...Ironically, domestic artists were eager to participate in the festival thanks to the coronavirus as it had resulted in cancellation of most shows they had. Those artists are like superheroes. I hope the public, the little heroes of our times, will enjoy our festival." MODAFE is Korea's longest-running contemporary dance festival held since 1982. Under the slogan of "Little Heroes Come Together!," this year's festival features dance performances by only Korean artists due to the coronavirus spread. Performers are planning to express through the medium of dance the life of ordinary individuals facing hardships in society. Renowned choreographers including Kim Seol-jin and Ahn Ae-soon will present their dance works. As liquor stores opened across several parts of India with the easing of lockdown restrictions in the third phase, tipplers flocked in joy and conveniently forgot about social distancing rules it seems. The excitement was palpable as shops were greeted with long queues. Amidst all this, a liquor shop owner in Mirzapur was seen showering flower petals on the customers, as a gesture of warm welcome! By Express News Service COIMBATORE: The district health department has placed 52 people, all Tamil Nadu natives who were working in the Maldives, under quarantine after they arrived in Coimbatore via Kochi, on Sunday. Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine officials said 52 workers belonging to different districts of Tamil Nadu came to Kochi from the Republic of Maldives on a ship. Later, they were brought to Coimbatore in special buses arranged by the State government. All 52 of them were quarantined and their swab samples were collected. Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup has confirmed its purchase of the Triton DeepView 24 submarine and is expected to add it to the list of tourist activities at its resort in the south-central beach city of Nha Trang by the end of this year. The Triton DeepView 24 can take 24 passengers to depths of up to 100 meters and offer them magnificent views thanks to its vast panoramic windows. Passengers will be seated inside a 15.4-meter-long cabin equipped with modern air-conditioners. The submarine can carry up to 24 passengers inside a 15.4 meter long cabin. Photo: Vingroup The underwater vessel is manufactured by U.S.-based Triton Submarines Company, which is famous for its Limiting Factor submersible that last year made a record-breaking dive to the deepest point in the planets oceans, the Mariana Trench 10,927 meters beneath the surface. DeepView 24 is the most significant commercial tourism submarine to have been brought to the market in the past two decades, the company stated. The submarine was developed in response to a rise in demand from travelers and tourists alike for adventure and experience-based holidays, it added. The command center of the Triton DeepView 24. Photo: Vingroup According to Bruce Jones, co-founder and CEO of Triton Submarines, the Triton DeepView 24 with its panoramic view represents a quantum leap forward in submarine technology, providing a vastly improved, fully-immersive guest experience. The vessel has been commissioned by hospitality firm Vinpearl, which is managed by Vingroup, to provide guest experiences on Hon Tre Island in Nha Trang City, located in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa. The vessel was assembled at Tritons manufacturing facility in Barcelona, where it successfully passed trials in March. Visitors to Vinpearl Nha Trang will be able to buy tickets for DeepView 24 tours in December. The Triton DeepView 24 purchased by Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup. Photo: Vingroup The Triton DeepView 24. Photo: Vingroup Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Rite Aid is expanding availability of self-administered coronavirus tests to 14 stores in New Jersey, even for those adults not experiencing symptoms, the company announced. Opening testing to asymptomatic individuals, as well as providing more locations using our drive-through window, represent important milestones in our response to the pandemic, said Jim Peters, chief operating officer, Rite Aid. We remain grateful for the daily efforts and sacrifices of our front-line associates who make the continued expansion of our testing possible. In New Jersey, that expansion will increase the total stores with tests available from 3 to 14. Nationwide, Rite Aid is adding 46 new sites nationwide for a total of 71 in 12 states. The new stores began accepting appointments Sunday for tests starting Monday. All Rite Aid COVID-19 testing sites use self-swab nasal tests overseen by Rite Aid pharmacists. Patients are required to provide government-issued identification, be at least 18 years old, and need to pre-register online at www.riteaid.com to schedule a time slot for testing. Rite Aids self-testing parking lot sites are open from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. seven days a week. Rite Aid testing drive-through windows are open Monday through Friday 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Rite Aid has the capacity to do up to 10,000 tests daily at its combined locations in the U.S. The three Rite Aid locations previously providing tests include: Barrington - 501 Clements Bridge Road Toms River - 31 Mule Road Waldwick - 60 Franklin Turnpike The 11 new locations include that started accepting appointments on Sunday include: Bayonne - 1097 Broadway Clifton - 1366 Clifton Ave. Edison - 10 Lincoln Highway Edgewater Park - 1147 Cooper Street Hackensack - 219 Essex Street Lake Hiawatha 480 North Beverwyck Road Neptune - 75 South Main Street Newark - 104 12th Avenue Robbinsville - 2370 Route 33 Somerset - 773 Hamilton Street Sewell - 500 Woodbury-Glassboro Road The testing program is through of a partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Once a person administers the test, they return the specimen to the pharmacists, who will send in the swabs to BioReference Laboratories. Results are provided within seven days. Results will be delivered by email, text, phone call or through an app or web portal, according to the Rite Aid website. The death toll from the coronavirus in New Jersey climbed to 9,255 on Sunday with 138,532 total cases more than seven weeks after Gov. Phil Murphy issued unprecedented orders closing nonessential businesses and requiring residents to stay home, with some exceptions. The latest numbers include 140 new deaths and 1,503 new cases. Murphy and state health officials say the rate of increase in daily cases has continued to slow. That latest update on the outbreak was provided on the state Department of Health website. The governor is not holding an in-person briefing Sunday The number of patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases at New Jersey hospitals dropped to 4,308 as of 10 p.m. Saturday night. Thats the 13th consecutive day of declines and down 48% from the peak of 8,293 patients on April 14. EDITORS NOTE: This post has been updated to correct the number of tests that can be done daily. Staff writers Matt Arco and Allison Pries contributed to this report. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com. Christi Casey, 23, was roughly nine months into her new job in Los Angeles when she got furloughed. She worked as an event manager for Marriott International, a position that relies on gatherings of more than 10 people. It was a job that she had her sights set on for a while, yet it was one that stood no chance against the coronavirus outbreak. After less than a year living as a young adult in Southern California, Casey trekked back across the country, where she like so many other recent grads is back in the house she grew up in. Christi Casey (middle), a 2019 graduate of the University of Maryland, was furloughed from job with Marriott as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Layoffs and furloughs have overwhelmed U.S. unemployment offices for several weeks now, uprooting the lives of millions as companies scale back costs or close down completely. Of the 33 million Americans who have filed for unemployment benefits in the past seven weeks, many are recent college graduates. For the class of 2019, this is the first full year of post-grad life a time to launch a career path, move to a new city or even meet a future spouse. After spending the better part of two decades preparing to be working adults in the real world, 2020 was supposed to be the big introduction to it. But for many, what started as a year of optimism and excitement was quickly derailed. I was definitely shocked when I found out I was furloughed completely, said Casey, who graduated from the University of Maryland in May 2019. In early March, she said she had been mentally preparing for a reduction in hours once the virus began to spread more rapidly, but a complete suspension of work and pay caught her off guard. And what started as shock has since turned into feelings of failure. Its kind of a defeating feeling of going from being independent, going across the country, having a full-time job that I worked really hard to get, and now being back in my childhood home, said Casey, a resident of Ellicott City, Maryland. More family time, but with an added layer of stress Kingsley Bowen, a 2019 graduate of Tufts University, had plans to move out of his parents' house before the pandemic hit. Instead, he was laid off from his job as an associate software engineer with a blockchain tech startup in Cleveland, Ohio. Story continues "To be 23 without a job, living in your parents house... thats kind of the image of failure in a lot of media," Bowen said. "You know, to be an adult who cant survive independently." Bowen, Casey and countless other young adults are getting extra family time that otherwise might not have happened, but for many it comes with an underlying sense of worry about whats next. Being a young adult who returns home can be challenging in the best of times ... Young adults might feel a loss of freedom and independence, or disagree about current familial roles, clinical psychologist Dr. Rebecca Harmon told USA TODAY. A young adults return home often reignites old dynamics between parent and child, which can bring back distant feelings of distress that a young adult hasnt experienced in a while, Harmon said. The more awareness people can have of those old dynamics, the better, she explained. That being said do not use this time to try to address or solve deep and longstanding family issues now is not the time and given the baseline levels of stress everyone is experiencing, it is more likely that it wont be effective right now. Instead, its best to identify and avoid the patterns and behaviors that get families into trouble, she said. Dear college grads: Quarantine sending you back home again? Here's what I learned Staying Apart, Together: A newsletter about how to cope with the coronavirus pandemic The rug got pulled out from under me Recent grads could also be vulnerable to the anxiety that stems from a sudden job loss. With career paths, relationships and future living situations often lingering in the minds of young adults, not knowing where their next paycheck is coming from can seem like an unraveling of bigger life plans, Harmon said. And as layoffs affect Americans of all ages, recent graduates are competing against people with years sometimes decades more work experience than them. Anthony Sciuto graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in August 2019. Anthony Sciuto, an August graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, took time to travel before getting on the job hunt in December, and said things were just starting to look up for him by the time the pandemic hit. I was feeling confident about some potential jobs, and then all of a sudden, the rug got pulled out from under me, said Sciuto, a resident of Santa Monica, California. Im worried about more qualified people with more experience being put back into employment and being on the job market and kind of saturating it. Meanwhile, hiring freezes continue to complicate the job search. Opportunities have only gotten harder to find, he said. 'Normalize' your reactions If theres a sign of emotional relief for young adults, it can be found in the fallout from past periods of economic distress. A study suggests that those who graduate college in a recession are more likely to be satisfied with their careers later in life. Theres more gratitude for having a job, explained Dr. Lata McGinn, a professor of psychology at Yeshiva University. The perception of choice creates a lot of stress. So, if you get a job and you just think oh, I couldve gotten an even better job, no matter how successful you are, that makes you feel dissatisfied. In the meantime, its important to remember that many layoffs, furloughs and unsuccessful job searches arent necessarily the fault of an individual, but a global pandemic. Keeping this in mind, McGinn says, is essential for coping with career worries. In the face of all this uncertainty and danger, the first thing to do is to sort of normalize whatever reaction youre having, McGinn said. A lot of suffering comes from questioning your own emotions It wouldnt be human if I wasnt worried about my job prospects. For Casey, shes holding out hope that shell be able to return to her position with Marriott, but acknowledged she might have to look for opportunities elsewhere if things dont improve. Even when business levels come back to a somewhat normal level, I dont know that theres going to be enough revenue coming in to justify bringing back someone like me, whos only been with the company for a year, she said. She said the furlough will prevent her from returning to work until at least May 23, but she expects to be waiting longer than that. Follow Jay Cannon of USA TODAY on Twitter: @JayTCannon. Mother's Day: The pandemic offers mothers something they will never have again Opinion: As Americans' social distancing fatigue grows, authorities must loosen their control This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Graduates hit with unemployment amid COVID-19 feel 'failure' back home Khoda area in the district was on Sunday declared a coronavirus hotspot after 14 people tested positive for the disease in the last few days, officials said. People of the locality working in the national capital region have been advised to work from home and not step out, Deputy Superintendent of Police of Indira puram Anshu Jain said. Only media persons and ration suppliers and vegetable vendors would be allowed to enter the periphery of Khoda, he said. He said only Veer Vijay singh Pathik gate and Indira Vihar colony road would be opened for the supply of essential commodities in the area. All the 14 COVID-19 patients are undergoing treatment and their family members and contacts have been quarantined, the DSP added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A water tanker and a private bus collided at Tamil Nadu's Karur-Salem national highway on Sunday (May 10, 2020) injuring 25 people. Police arrived at the spot and are investigating the cause of the accident. There were IT employees, students hailing from Kerala's Kottayam on board the bus when it crashed. The passengers had apparently been stuck in Bengaluru since the beginning of the lockdown. A special bus was with an e-pass was provided for them to return to their home state of Kerala. At the highway crossing, near Ram Nagar on Karur-Salem highway the bus collided with a water tanker that was crossing from the other direction. Passers-by at the scene took the injured passengers and the driver to a nearby hospital. This is the first road accident in Karur district since the nationwide lockdown on the midnight of March 24. The lockdown was necessitated to stop the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 pathogen. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has given its approval for King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospitals convalescent plasma therapy clinical trials. Doctors are hopeful that the therapy might be effective in saving more lives as the Parel-based tertiary-care hospital receives the highest number of critically-ill patients. The therapy involved injecting the plasma with antibodies of a recovered patient into an infected person to boost the latters immunity response to the virus. We received the permission to conduct plasma clinical trials on Saturday itself but are yet to start the procedure, confirmed Dr Hemant Deshmukh, dean of KEM Hospital. According to ICMR, 450 patients across India will be enrolled for the Phase-II trial of plasma therapy to see its efficiency. Four other medical institutes in Maharashtra Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital (Mumbai), BJ Medical College and Poona Hospital (Pune), RCSM Government Medical College (Kolhapur) and Government Medical College (Nagpur) have also received ICMRs consent to conduct the clinical trials. To be able to conduct convalescent plasma therapy clinical trials, a medical institute has to receive the consent of four bodies the hospitals authority concerned, the ethics committee, the Drug Controller General of India, and finally the ICMR. Fourteen hospitals are also awaiting the ICMR approval to start the clinical trials. These include Bombay Hospital, Sir JJ Hospital and Kasturba Gandhi Hospital from the city as well as Apollo Hospital in Navi Mumbai. In the absence of a vaccine or a specific drug, plasma therapies have been tested globally, albeit in limited numbers, as a treatment for coronavirus patients suffering from severe complications. Dr Sanjay Mukherjee, secretary of Medical Education and Drugs Department (MEDD), said, There is a belief among the medical fraternity that the antibodies developed among recovered patients may help in neutralising the Sars-Cov-2 virus, which causes Covid-19. Through clinical trials, in which plasma therapy is tested on patients after the requisite approvals, we can establish if the theory can be proved true or not. In Mumbai, the first plasma transfusion was conducted on a 53-year-old patient from Lilavati Hospital. However, the patient died 10 days after the treatment, despite his condition improving initially. Earlier, KEM Hospital was the first civic-run hospital to run a clinical trial of Itolizumab a drug used for the treatment of psoriasis on critically-ill coronavirus patients. Within five days of administering the drug, a patients oxygen intake improved and he was kept off the ventilator. For more ideas on what to read, watch and listen to, may we suggest these 10 new books our editors like, a glance at the latest small-screen recommendations from Watching, and our music critics latest playlist. Happy Mothers Day to all who are celebrating, and if youre not, we hope you find a way to treat yourself this week. Your Weekend Briefing is published Sundays at 6 a.m. Eastern. Did a friend forward you the briefing? You can sign up here. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes.com. Browse our full range of Times newsletters here. New Delhi: The Indian Army sources on Sunday (May 10) confirmed that a heated confrontation took place between Indian and Chinese soldiers in North Sikkim a few days ago and troops on both sides received injuries. A number of personnel on both sides sustained injuries as they exchanged punches, PTI quoted official sources as saying, adding the troops disengaged after a dialogue at the local level. "Troops resolve such issues mutually as per established protocols. Such an incident occurred after a long time," said a source. It is learnt that a total of 150 soldiers were involved in the face-off that reportedly took place a few days back. The sources said temporary and short duration face-offs occur due to different perception of the border by both sides. Earlier in the day, reports claimed that clashes erupted between Indian and Chinese forces in Naku La sector of north Sikkim. The area has no road connectivity and is maintained by helicopeter. Sources told Zee Media that the clashes took place during regular patrolling by the forces from the two countries and the matter has been resolved at local level as of now. Some reports claimed that the face-off was so intense that soldiers from both sides got injured. Naku La sector is located ahead of Muguthang and the area in the region was traditionally not prone to clashes between the soldiers from the two countries. Indian Army sources said that temporary and short duration face-offs occur between the troops of both the countries as the boundary is not resolved. Sources added that such issues are resolved mutually by troops as per established protocols and the latest skirmish has occurred after a long time. It was the first case of troops from both sides exchanging blows after a similar incident had taken place in Pangong Lake in Ladakh in August 2017. The troops of India and China were engaged in a 73-day stand-off in Doklam tri-junction in 2017, which even triggered fears of a war between the two neighbours. The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control, the de-facto border between the two countries. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it. Both sides have been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas. New pandemic support funding for Welsh dairy farmers announced This article is old - Published: Sunday, May 10th, 2020 The Welsh Government has announced funding to support dairy farmers hardest hit by the recent exceptional market conditions as a result of Covid-19. The dairy sector has felt the immediate impact of the global pandemic with the closure of the food service and hospitality sectors. To support the industry during these challenging times, the Minister has confirmed eligible dairy farmers who have lost more than 25 per cent of their income in April and subsequently May will be entitled to up to 10,000, to cover 70 per cent of their lost income. This will help ensure they can continue to operate without impacting animal welfare and the environment. Further details on the scheme will be announced shortly. It follows a series of announcements aimed at supporting the sector during these challenging times, including: A new consumer campaign, led by AHDB, to increase consumer demand for milk by three per cent; The temporary relaxation of competition laws to enable greater collaboration so the sector, including dairy farmers and processors, can work closer to solve the differences between supply and demand; and Opening of the EU Public intervention and private storage aid for skimmed milk, butter and cheese. Announcing the funding, Rural Affairs Minister, Lesley Griffiths, said: The closure of the foodservice sector has had an immediate and significant impact on our dairy sector and market prices. The measures introduced so far will help provide some stability for the dairy sector, but I recognise there is a need to support those farms hardest hit by a situation which is primarily outside of their control. I am therefore pleased to confirm dairy farmers in Wales will be eligible for support helping them adapt to the exceptional market conditions and ensuring they can continue to operate without impacting animal welfare and the environment. Further details of the scheme will be announced shortly but I wanted to commit today to support this core group of dairy farmers with a payment to offset some of the financial impacts they have experienced. We will continue to work closely with the sector to help them address the issues they face at this difficult time. By working together we can ensure an optimistic future for the dairy sector and its supply chain in Wales. Australia's souring relations with China have grown more bitter with the Morrison government given 10 days to stop the nation's barley producers being slapped with tariffs of up to 80 per cent. Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said he was deeply concerned that "unjustified duties" may be imposed on Australia's barley exports which last year reached a drought-affected $600 million. The nation's barley producers have been given 10 days to respond to a determination by China's Ministry of Commerce which has been conducting an anti-dumping investigation into Australian grain imports since 2010. The ministry is considering two separate tariffs of 73.6 per cent and 6.9 per cent on Australian barley shipped to China. An unseasonable snowfall in southwestern Manitoba brought 10 centimetres of snow to Brandon by Saturday morning. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 9/5/2020 (619 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. An unseasonable snowfall in southwestern Manitoba brought 10 centimetres of snow to Brandon by Saturday morning. Environment Canada meteorologist Chris Stammers told CBC News a May snowfall is not unheard of in Manitoba, but its not expected to stick around for long. To read more of this story first reported by CBC News, click here. The Winnipeg Free Press and CBC Manitoba recognize each other as trusted news sources. This content is made available to our readers as part of an agreement to collaborate to better serve our community. Any questions about CBC content should be directed to: talkback@cbc.ca Troops of India and China were involved in two fierce face-offs in Eastern Ladakh and near Naku La Pass in the Sikkim sector along the contentious border between the two countries, official sources said on Sunday. In the first incident, scores of Indian and Chinese army personnel clashed along northern bank of the Pangong Lake in Eastern Ladakh on the late evening of May 5 and the face-off ended next morning following a dialogue between the two sides, they said. A number of soldiers on both the sides sustained minor injuries, the sources said, adding around 200 personnel were involved in the face-off. Both sides brought in additional troops following the fracas. It was the first case of troops from both sides exchanging blows after a similar incident had taken place around the Pangong Lake in August 2017. There was no official reaction or details about the number of injuries on the Indian side. In a separate incident, nearly 150 Indian and Chinese military personnel were engaged in a face-off near Naku La Pass in the Sikkim sector of the Sino-India border in which at least 10 sustained injuries, the sources said. The personnel exchanged punches, they said. "Temporary and short duration face-offs between border guarding troops do occur as boundaries are not resolved...Aggressive behaviour by the two sides resulted in minor injuries to troops," said an Army official. "The two sides disengaged after dialogue and interaction at local level. Troops resolve such issues mutually as per established protocols," he said. The troops of India and China were engaged in a 73-day stand-off in Doklam tri-junction in 2017 which even triggered fears of a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control, the de-facto border between the two countries. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it. Both sides have been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held their first informal summit in April 2018 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, months after the Doklam standoff. In the summit, the two leaders decided to issue "strategic guidance" to their militaries to strengthen communications so that they can build trust and understanding. Modi and Xi held their second informal summit in Mamallapuram near Chennai in October last year with a focus on further broadening bilateral ties. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As the federal Government of Nigeria has eased the lockdown enforced in Lagos and some other states, the pressure on the several banks in the state has been quite overwhelming and that has caused a heavy influx of customers in banks branches all over the state. A middle aged lady, reportedly collapsed at the Zenith Bank Aguda, Ogba branch on Saturday 9th of May, 2020. The lady reportedly collapsed in front of one of the several ATM machines at the banks branch. The lady who collapsed right in front of an ATM machine was recorded as she lay bare on the floor while a customer stood above her as he used the cash machine. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic flying across the Country and Lagos stays recording the highest casualties all over the Country, it seemed surprising that the people werent scared and the bank didnt take any immediate measures to assist the lady or take her away from the premises. It can also be recalled that a customer recently collapsed at an overcrowded FCMB branch in Lagos as well. Below is a short clip of the lady as she was spotted by the ATM machine. The post Zenith Bank Customers Look On As Lady Collapses At Banks ATM appeared first on . Share this post with your Friends on Hostess clubs, ballrooms to remain shut amid COVID-19: city officials ROC Central News Agency 05/09/2020 07:50 PM Taipei, May 9 (CNA) The six special municipalities in Taiwan on Saturday decided not to allow hostess clubs and ballrooms to reopen, although the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) has lifted the order conditionally as Taiwan's COVID-19 coronavirus cases continue to slow. Considering that social distancing can be difficult in such venues, they will remain temporarily closed, New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih () said, adding that the city will adopt a step-by-step approach to reopening certain public venues and facilities, including hostess clubs, depending on the COVID-19 pandemic situation. Also on Saturday, Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan () said hostess clubs and ballrooms in his city will remain closed for the time being, but public facilities such as activity centers, community colleges and senior educational learning centers will reopen June 1. Starting July 1, Taoyuan will also evaluate whether cultural events and other activities can be held, Cheng added. In similar vein, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung also announced that their hostess clubs and ballrooms will not be reopened at this time, citing the difficulty of social distancing in such facilities. Meanwhile, Taipei deputy spokesperson Tai Yu-wen () said the city government is still reviewing the matter, and hostess clubs and ballrooms will remain closed until further notice. In other municipalities, Chen Kuan-hsin (), head of the Chiayi City government's Economic Affairs Department, said no decision has yet been made on the resumption of those businesses. On April 9, the CECC issued an order to shut down hostess clubs and ballrooms in Taiwan, saying they were high-risk venues for the spread of COVID-19, and advising social distancing to prevent cluster infections. On Friday, however, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (), who heads the CECC, said that in light of the improvement of Taiwan's COVID-19 situation, local governments could decide whether to reopen their areas' hostess clubs and ballrooms, once they implement the CECC's guidelines against the disease. The CECC guidelines include proper social distancing, which means maintaining a space between their customers of 1.5 meters indoors and 1m outdoors; implementing personal hygiene measures, such as requiring patrons to wear masks, checking their temperature and providing hand sanitizers; controlling the flow of people by keeping a register of those entering the premises; regularly disinfecting the environment; and ensuring that fire prevention and security systems are functional. (By Wu Jui-chi, Huang Kuo-fan and Ko Lin) Enditem/pc NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address By Nathan Layne (Reuters) - Three children in New York have died from a rare inflammatory syndrome believed to be linked to the novel coronavirus, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday, a development that may augur a pandemic risk for the very young. Both Cuomo and his counterpart in the neighboring state of New Jersey also spoke on Saturday about the pandemic's growing toll on mental health, another factor on the minds of governors as they weigh the impact of mounting job losses against health risks in moving to loosen restrictions on daily life. Nearly all of the 50 U.S. states will have taken steps to relax lockdown measures by this weekend, including states like Arizona and Mississippi, which are reporting increasing infections of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, highlighting the risk of a new wave of outbreaks. Cuomo told a daily briefing that he was increasingly worried about a syndrome that shares symptoms with toxic shock and Kawasaki disease, which he said included inflammation of the blood vessels and potentially fatal damage to the heart. He said three children - including a five-year old disclosed on Friday - have died from such symptoms while also testing positive for COVID-19 or related antibodies, suggesting a link that was still not fully understood. Cuomo, who has emerged as a leading national voice on states' response to the coronavirus crisis, said state health officials were reviewing 73 similar cases, which have rattled a prior assumption that children were largely not susceptible to the novel coronavirus. "We are not so sure that is the fact anymore. Toddler, elementary school children are presenting symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease or toxic shock-like syndrome," Cuomo said. "It's very possible that this has been going on for several weeks and it hasn't been diagnosed as related to COVID." Cuomo said state health officials had partnered with the New York Genome Center and the Rockefeller University to look at whether there is a genetic basis for the syndrome and have been asked by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop national criteria for identifying and treating cases. Story continues The syndrome shares symptoms with toxic shock and Kawasaki disease, which is associated with fever, skin rashes, swelling of the glands, and in severe cases, inflammation of arteries of the heart. Scientists are still trying to determine whether the syndrome is linked with the new coronavirus because not all children with it have tested positive for the virus. At a separate briefing, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said the death of a four-year old disclosed on Friday was not related to the syndrome. "This is a very specific situation with this blessed little kid and we are going to leave it at that." 'TOXIC MIX' New York and New Jersey are at the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, accounting for nearly half of the 77,737 American deaths from COVID-19, according to a Reuters tally, and the two states have among the strictest lockdown rules still in place. They are also at the center of a devastating economic toll underscored in government data released on Friday showing the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 14.7% last month, up from 3.5% in February and shattering the post-World War Two record of 10.8% set in November 1982. Cuomo said his state has seen increasing reports of mental health issues, substance abuse and domestic violence, all tied to the economic stress and isolation of the lockdowns. On Friday a study released by the Well Being Trust and the American Academy of Family Physicians estimated an additional 75,000 people could lose their lives to suicide, drugs and other contributors to "deaths of despair" stemming from the crisis. Murphy echoed those concerns. "The cure for the health crisis is keeping people isolated," Murphy told his briefing. "You add to that job loss, small businesses that have been crushed. It's a toxic mix." Cuomo said 226 New Yorkers died from COVID-19 on Friday, up from 216 a day earlier, but less than half the levels recorded two weeks ago. He said hospitalizations and intubations continued their downward trend, further evidence the state has gained a measure of control over the virus. Murphy said an additional 166 residents of his state had died over the past 24 hours from COVID-19, bringing its total fatalities to 9,116, while total cases rose by 1,759 to 137,085. On a positive note, Murphy said the number of people hospitalized for the disease continued to fall, with the 422 patients discharged over the past 24 hours outpacing the 364 newly admitted for treatment. Yet Murphy warned against complacency and said his constituents should continue to practice social distancing. "We are not out of the woods, folks. Let's not forget that," he said. For graphic on Tracking the novel coronavirus in the U.S.: https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-USA/0100B5K8423/index.html For Reuters online site for coronavirus: https://www.reuters.com/live-events/coronavirus-6-id2921484 (Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Dan Grebler) As many as 45 people have been infected with COVID-19 due to a birthday party thrown by a shop owner in Hyderabad. As a result, the city's LB Nagar has now become a hotspot for novel coronavirus with 15 new containment zones. Media reports suggested that the shop owner, who lives in Saruranagar, along with his family and friends got infected with COVID-19. He attended a friend's birthday party in Vanasthalipuram. The source of the outbreak was the shop owner, who himself got infected from a worker in Malakpet Gunj where he has the shop. At the party, 45 people who came in contact with the shop owner were exposed to the coronavirus. All the people are being treated in a hospital. Due to the incident, the number of containment zones in LB Nagar increased to 15 from just two earlier. Also Read: Coronavirus Live Updates: Fully geared up to run 300 Shramik trains every day, says Goyal; India tally 62,939 According to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), the civic body that oversees Hyderabad, 25 of these 45 infected patients belonged to the families of two shop owners. On Saturday, GHMC Commissioner DS Lokesh Kumar went to LB Nagar to take stock of the situation. Also Read: Coronavirus crisis: PM Modi-CMs video meet on Monday; lockdown 4.0 or phased exit? Telangana reported 31 new COVID-19 positive cases and a death on Saturday, taking the total number of infected people to 1,163 and the death toll to 30. Of 31 cases, which includes a migrant, 30 have been reported from Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. With agencies inputs It is one thing to argue that a lawyer royally botched jury selection, but quite another to convince the state's highest court that it proves "ineffective assistance of counsel." On Thursday, the Court of Appeals rejected an appeal in a Brooklyn murder case that hinged on a single act of allegedly ineffective lawyering an attorney's refusal to object to a juror who could not promise to be objective. The juror admitted he had read about the case and had kind of made up my mind then. He told the judge he was not sure if he could be impartial. But the attorney for Robert Maffei did not ask the judge to remove the juror for those specific disclosures. Nor did the lawyer use any of his 20 peremptory challenges, which allow attorneys to boot potential jurors without explanation, to get the juror off the case. Several challenges were left unused when the trial started. Instead, a potentially biased juror sat on the trial. Maffei was convicted. And following a 6-1 ruling by the Court of Appeals, he will remain convicted of the murder of 18-year-old Francesco Santillo in 2003. In a decision authored by Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, the Court of Appeals upheld an Appellate Division ruling. The court said the appropriate procedure to litigate Maffei's appeal was for him to file a motion with the trial judge to vacate the conviction. The background: Prosecutors said Maffei, while in a moving car on Brooklyns Belt Parkway, fired shot into a car of strangers whom he believed had flirted with women in his car, including a girlfriend. Santillo was struck and killed. Police arrested Maffei in 2006. Jurors found him guilty; now 37, he is serving 25 years to life in prison. At the outset of jury selection, Justice Robert K. Holdman gave an example of jury service to would-be jurors: Suppose that you have been flying in an airplane. You are getting close and the pilot gets up and says, ladies and gentlemen, we are five minutes to landing. Please fasten your seatbelts. I think I can do this. We dont want to hear that on the plane [F]or legal reasons I need to hear from a juror I can be fair and impartial. I can do this. Its very normal for someone to say, do you think you can do this? Yes, I can do this. Thats a normal answer. But because things change when you walk into a courtroom, they have to be a little more definitive. Moments later, a prosecutor asked jurors if they could be objective. That's when the juror in question said "I think I read about this in the papers and that he "kind of made up my mind then. Kind of made up your mind then? the prosecutor asked. Didnt like the circumstances. I remember reading about it, making a decision kind of in my own head at that time, the juror said. The juror said he understood the prosecutor still needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Maffei was the shooter. The judge interrupted and said that in most circumstances, no one is in favor of people being shot to death. What was important, the judge said, was prosecutors needed to prove Maffei was the shooter. OK? You can remain fair and impartial? the judge asked the juror. I hope so, the juror responded. Back on that plane now, the judge pressed. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Im not sure, the juror said. Okay. Thank you, sir, the judge responded. Im not sure, the juror said again. The juror later said he could go by the law if he believed it was a good case. DiFiore said a single error by a lawyer can constitute ineffective assistance of counsel, but only when it is "sufficiently egregious and prejudicial as to compromise a defendants right to a fair trial." She rejected the argument that the juror's statements showed he had an "actual bias" against Maffei, calling it general discomfort with the case based on what he read in the media. "In this case, where the trial record does not reveal that the juror was actually partial to one side, defendant cannot use the absence of a challenge to the juror in question to now argue that counsel was ineffective on an incomplete record," she stated. On Thursday, Associate Judge Jenny Rivera voted to overturn the verdict and order a new trial. Voting with the majority were DiFiore and Associate Judges Leslie Stein, Michael Garcia, Rowan Wilson, Paul Feinman and Eugene Fahey. "Who would want their liberty in the hands of a person who says they heard about the case, kind of made up their mind based on what they had read because they did not like the circumstances, and then admits they are not sure they can be impartial and fair?" Rivera stated. "Who wants a juror who, at most, can only say they 'hope' they can meet this essential requirement for jury service?" AFP via Getty Images Dr Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has entered a modified quarantine after coming into contact with a White House staffer who tested positive for the coronavirus, according to CNN. Dr Fauci, a key member of the White House coronavirus task force, told the news organisation he would work from home and wear a mask for 14 days after making "low risk" contact with the staffer. A low-risk contact means he "was not in close proximity to the person who tested positive during the time when that person was known to be positive for the virus," CNN's Jake Tapper reported. The top doctor said he had been tested for the coronavirus already and received a negative result. Dr Fauci has played a key role in the US government's response to the deadly pandemic, regularly appearing at White House press briefings alongside president Donald Trump to give advice to the nation. His decision to enter quarantine comes amid a spate of confirmed cases of the coronavirus among people who work at the White House. Katie Miller, a spokesperson for vice president Mike Pence, has also tested positive, as did a military valet to president Trump. Dr Fauci joins two other members of the coronavirus task force who are already self-quarantining: Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, and Director Robert Redfield, head of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Read more Meet the man leading Americas fight against coronavirus Richard Wayne Penniman, better known as Little Richard, has passed away on Saturday, May 9th. Nicknamed "The Innovator, The Originator, and The Architect of Rock and Roll", Penniman's most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when his charismatic showmanship and dynamic music, characterized by frenetic piano playing, pounding back beat and raspy shouted vocals, laid the foundation for rock and roll. He died after battling bone cancer. He was 87. Pastor Bill Minson, a close friend of Little Richard's, told The Associated Press that Little Richard died Saturday morning. His son, Danny Jones Penniman, also confirmed his father's death, which was first reported by Rolling Stone. Little Richard landed a record deal with RCA in 1951, but his career advanced slowly until 1956, when he hit the charts with a groundbreaking single called "Tutti Frutti," which he wrote in his head while working a job washing dishes. That song introduced his unique style and flamboyant persona to audiences everywhere, and he quickly followed up with a string of hits that would become classics, including "Rip It Up," "Lucille" and "Good Golly Miss Molly." The entertainer struggled with his sexual identity throughout much of his life, and he abandoned his rock music career in 1957. In 1957, Richard - literally - saw the light. During a concert in Sydney, he saw a fireball in the sky above him. He took it as an instruction from God to repent. It was actually the Sputnik satellite returning to Earth. But Richard threw his diamond rings into the water, gave up sin and popular music, and pledged himself to the Almighty. A few days later, his original return flight to America crashed into the sea. It was a sign, he said, that God was watching and had taken him under his wing. Richard began recording gospel records - some produced by a young Quincy Jones - and signed up at Bible college in Alabama. He was soon asked to leave after allegations he had exposed himself to a fellow student. Tags : little richard little richard death little richard dies little richard faith An estimated 190,000 people in Africa could die of COVID-19 in the first year of the pandemic and the disease could smolder across the continent for years, the World Health Organisation has warned. As many as 44 million of the continent's 1.3 billion people could be infected during the same period, the UN health agency estimated, based on its prediction model of 47 African countries. But the projected number of infections and deaths is based on the assumption that no containment measures are taken. In fact, 43 African countries have implemented measures to reduce the spread of the virus, ranging from nationwide lockdowns to restrictions in major cities to curfews, closed schools and banned public gatherings. More than 52,000 confirmed infections and 2,074 virus-related deaths have been reported by African countries, according to figures released Friday by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The total number of cases has risen by more than 42% in the past week. The disease appears to be spreading more slowly across Africa than in Europe, according to the WHO report. Officials say that could be due to poor surveillance or less developed transport links. "While COVID-19 likely won't spread as exponentially in Africa as it has elsewhere in the world, it likely will smolder in transmission hotspots," said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO's regional director for Africa who is based in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. She said outbreaks would likely peak in about one month after the virus starts spreading widely in communities. "COVID-19 could become a fixture in our lives for the next several years unless a proactive approach is taken by many governments in the region. We need to test, trace, isolate and treat," Moeti said in a video call. Africa, which has most of its population under 20 years old, may be experiencing a slower rate of transmission, less severe cases and less deaths from a virus known to affect the elderly at a much deadlier rate. Story continues But Africa could see a more prolonged outbreak that lasts a few years, according to the study. Algeria, South Africa and Cameroon as well as several smaller African countries are at high risk if containment measures are not prioritized, it said. As many as 5.5 million Africans could require hospitalisation for COVID-19, which would severely strain the health resources of many countries. Africa has an average of nine intensive care unit beds per 1 million people, according to a recent WHO survey. These would be "woefully inadequate," the new report said. "The importance of promoting effective containment measures is crucial, as sustained and widespread transmission of the virus could severely overwhelm our health systems," said Dr Moeti. "Curbing a large-scale outbreak is far costlier than the ongoing preventive measures that governments are undertaking to contain the spread of the virus." Social distancing and frequent hand washing are the key virus containment measures in Africa. By Express News Service BHUBANESWAR: A migrant worker allegedly committed suicide at an under construction building on the campus of Indian Institute of Technology's (IIT) campus Jatni police limits late on Saturday night. Police confirmed that a migrant worker hanged himself. However, they are yet to ascertain all the other details, including the name and address of the deceased. Sources said the deceased, who was working as a mason, was a native of Malda district in West Bengal. He was reportedly upset as there was no work in the institute after the nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 25 leaving him with very little money. The deceased is survived by his wife, two daughters and a son. The deceased mason and other members of his group reportedly had an argument with their employer a few days back over making arrangements for their return to their native villages. The police had to step in to resolve the matter. "There are about one thousand migrant workers staying in three different colonies on IIT campus and they are natives of different States," said an electrician, Salman Khan of Uttar Pradesh's Maharajganj district. Their employer was paying them Rs 400 to Rs 500 per week and they were purchasing ration using that money. The labourers who were living with their families soon fell short of money. A bus from Bihar reportedly carried the workers stuck here on Saturday. "In our group, there are seven persons and the employer turned a deaf ear towards our request of arranging a bus saying that a passenger vehicle cannot be arranged for such a small batch," said Khan, adding that there are also many workers from Uttar Pradesh, who are staying in other colonies on the campus. Khan and his group are not arranging a private vehicle as it would cost a lot to each one of them and they alleged that they were also not able to take the help of the State Government due to the restrictions on not leaving the campus. A tiles mason, Anikul Hassan of West Bengal's Murshidabad district, said their employer assured that the work will commence few days after the first phase of the lockdown was imposed in March but so far the construction has not started. "Our employer is telling us that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is not allowing migrant worker's entry into the State. We are running out of money from the last three months and now we are desperate to return and meet our families for Eid," he added. Meanwhile, the police said they have registered a case of unnatural death and further probe into the matter is on. America Ferrera has welcomed a baby girl with husband Ryan Piers. The actress shared the happy news on Mother's Day, along with a sweet snap of America and Ryan holding their precious girl's tiny hand. 'Lucia Marisol Williams arrived on May 4th to give me my Mothers Day hugs and kisses herself. Mama, Dada & Big Brother are over the moon to welcome her bright light to our family.' the 36-year-old revealed in the caption. Happy news: America Ferrera announced the arrival of her baby girl Lucia on May 4th on Sunday It is the couple's second child. Their son Sebastian will be two at the end of this month. The happy news comes after the How to Train Your Dragon star was thrown a surprise 36th birthday bash via Zoom due to the COVID-19 quarantine last month. 'I was completely overwhelmed with joy and love! I had no idea how much I wanted to be with my community and to see the faces I love so much!' the Golden Globe winner gushed on Instagram. '@ryanpierswilliams you turned my quarantine birthday into one of the most joyous and memorable! You filled me with love and cake and ended it with a virtual dance party! You are the best. So grateful for community and friendship and love.' Second child: America and husband Ryan Piers (pictured on January 19) are already parents to son Sebastian who will be two at the end of this month Generous duo: America revealed she's been helping delivering supplies to those in need and also asked for donations to specific charities instead of gifts for Lucia Among the Zoom party guests was the Honduran-American beauty's Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants castmate Amber Tamblyn, who shared a video of herself 'breaking a t** and a hip' while dancing to Beyonce. 'I love you, Ms. Ferrera,' the 36-year-old Era of Ignition author wrote on Instagram. In her ninth month of pregnancy America confessed to feeling anxiety about the upcoming birth and sent a message of support to fellow pregnant women who are currently isolating at home due to the coronavirus pandemic. She wrote: 'As this baby grows inside and I attempt to breathe through the fears and unknowns of this time, I am thinking of all you other mamas bringing new life into this world right now. Tricky task: Last month, the How to Train Your Dragon star was surprised with a 36th birthday bash via Zoom in the age of COVID-19 quarantine The pregnant Golden Globe winner gushed on Instagram: 'I was completely overwhelmed with joy and love! I had no idea how much I wanted to be with my community and to see the faces I love so much!' 'And also of all the women across generations and centuries and borders who have and are currently birthing new life in the midst of so many extraordinary and daunting circumstances. 'Life is a miracle, and mamas make it possible through their strength and power. Hang in there pregnant mamas!' The Ugly Betty alum and the 38-year-old Sundance Grand Jury Prize nominee - who directed her in his 2010 indie The Dry Land - will celebrate their ninth wedding anniversary on June 27. But first, the proud parents-to-be will celebrate their son Sebastian Pier's second birthday on May 29. America currently executive produces and stars as Cloud 9 manager Amelia 'Amy' Sosa in the 21-episode fifth season of sitcom Superstore, which resumes this Thursday on NBC. 'So happy and grateful for all the love and friendship and well wishes!' The Honduran-American beauty posed with the cakes as well as a box of cupcakes and two bouquets of flowers Sunset stroll: America and the 38-year-old Sundance Grand Jury Prize nominee (R) - who directed her in his 2010 indie The Dry Land - celebrate nine years of marriage on June 27 There has been no positive Covid-19 test among prisoners at jails in Portlaoise or in any other custodial facilities in Ireland, according to the Irish Prison Service (IPS). However, the service did confirm that staff have tested positive. The service issued a statement on Sunday afternoon, May 10 after the management of the virus in jails was discussed at a HSE press briefing on Sunday. "The Irish Prison Service can confirm that, with regard to figures released in relation to positive Covid-19 cases in Irish Prisons, there have been no confirmed cases of Covid-19 amongst the prisoner population in an Irish prison and that the cases referred to relate only to staff who have been confirmed positive for the disease," said the statement. It did not say how many staff contracted the virus or where they were based. However a spokesperson added that there are "a number of staff" who have either tested positive or are isolating awaiting a test. HSE management praised the management of the virus in jails as did the Irish Red Cross last week which said staff and prisoners have worked together to control its spread. Staff at the Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise have also worked with the prison service to plan the management of an outbreak. "There has been ongoing communications between the Irish Prison Service management at Portlaoise hospital," said the service in a statement to the Leinster Express. "It is recognised that there will be occasions during the COVID-19 outbreak where the IPS must transfer a patient from the IPS primary healthcare setting to a hospital setting for care. Both the IPS and Portlaoise hospital are taking the necessary steps to improve the communication between the prison setting and hospital setting to minimise risk to all staff and patients in these circumstances," said the statement. A chilling photo shows the moment a large shark breached the water after attacking a French backpacker surfer at a popular Australian beach. Dylan Nacass, 23, managed to escape with minor lacerations after a shark latched onto his leg while surfing at Bell's Beach in Torquay, Victoria on Friday afternoon. The backpacker got away by punching the shark in the face twice. A photo taken moments after the attack shows Mr Nacass frantically paddling to get away from the shark as it lurks eerily close to the surfers. Local surfer Matthew Sedunary rushed to help the backpacker after hearing his shouts and can also be seen swimming away from the shark in fear. Scroll down for video A photo taken of the attack shows Mr Nacass ferociously paddling to get away from the monster shark as it lurks eerily close to the surfers Dylan Nacass, 23, (pictured) managed to escape with only minor lacerations after a shark latched onto his leg while he was surfing at Bell's Beach in regional Victoria on Friday afternoon The panicked screams of the French surfer can be heard in horrifying footage of the encounter captured by onlooker Graham Blade. Mr Blade was filming another friend surfing when he overheard the shouts and focused his camera on the commotion. He managed to capture the shark on film following the two into the shore for about 30 seconds. In the footage Mr Sedunary has a big smile plastered on his face as he paddles to shore oblivious to the shark lurking only metres away. The local told Nine News even though he didn't think the situation was serious he went to find out what was going on. 'At first I just thought he was having a laugh with his mates, then I saw the fin,' Mr Sedunary said. The backpacker got away by punching the shark in the face twice after it had already bitten into his leg Australian surfer Matthew Sedunary rushed to help Mr Nacass after hearing the backpacker's shouts. The two paddled back to shore together as the shark continued circling in the water. Mr Nacass told the Geelong Advertiser despite the close call he's already looking to return to the water. 'In one week, when my leg is OK I will go surfing at the same spot,' Mr Nacass said. 'I fight with him and it's OK, I'm alive. Everything is good. 'I have my legs most importantly.' The panicked screams of the french surfer can be heard in horrifying footage of the encounter captured by Graham Blade Bells Beach is a popular surf beach at Torquay in Victoria Mr Sedunary said he really wasn't aware of how close of an encounter he experienced until he looked back on the footage later. 'When we're paddling in and you can see the shark behind I didn't know it was still there,' he said. He also revealed he's looking forward to returning to the water, revealing the shark continued to pester other surfers in the moments following the first attack. 'Was tempting to go straight back out because it was pretty decent, but glad I didn't because it hung around and bumped another guy,' he said. Broken relationships and constant sexual harassment are just two of the many travails nude women models in Vietnam face because of their profession. Even in our modern times of gender equality, women can only assert their sexuality to a certain extent and eventually have to choose between it and more traditional values. For Trang Le, one of around 30 professional nude models in HCMC and who has been modeling for six years, the greatest pain was when her boyfriend, a photographer who took nude shots of her himself, decided to break up when he could no longer stand the idea of sharing the sight of her body with others. "Considering peoples lack of understanding, I might remain single and never get married," Le, a graduate of Van Hien University, recently said on TV. Like her, other nude models too over the years have talked about a fear and plight of having to end their relationships because of what they do. "Tinh khiet" (Purity) by photographer Duong Quoc Dinh. Photo courtesy of Dinh. The social stigma associated with nudity was so great that another model, Thai Nha Van, had to end her career in Vietnam and leave for Norway to avoid public anger after shooting for the controversial "Thoat" (Soaring) photo collection in 2013. In what was commonly known as "nude for meditation" and decried for being too coarse and vulgar, Van attempts to seduce a Buddhist monk character. Though there is also demand for male and older female nude models, especially in art schools, nude models tend to be younger good-looking women. For these women, a broken love life might be a lesser risk than sexual harassment and even rape in what is a serious, physically demanding profession. Thuy Linh, a nude model from the central province of Quang Binh, said at work some young men have tried to touch and kiss her, asked for sex and threatened to post her nude photos on the Internet or send them to her parents if she did not acquiesce to their wishes. Early in her career Trang too faced but managed to evade a sexual predator. The advice from her and other nude models is to avoid going to a hotel for a one-on-one session with an artist, because, as she says, "Decent nude photographers are few, indecent ones are many." This is not to say women are always the victim. In 2018 nude model Nguyen Thi Kim Phuong complained to the HCMC police that she had been raped by Ngo Luc, an architect and the countrys first bodypainter. The police investigated but did not find enough evidence, and dismissed the case. Luc later said Phuongs action had cost him so much time and effort. Many artists agree that art and sexual inspiration are inseparable, but there is a line that can be drawn between work and life. Painter Le Thiet Cuong says for instance that professional artists must have strict ethical standards and working etiquette such as not touching their models unnecessarily. Professional artists also tend to choose their models carefully. Photographer Dzung Art prefers single moms and married women who pose with their husbands knowledge to avoid harming their relationships. Hard to handle But for the frequent sexual threats, professional nude models say their job is just like any other. As the female body is typically linked with nature and nude shooting often involves the outdoors, many nude models have to learn to brave the elements. Thai Phien, a nude photographer for 28 years, recalls an incident at a rugged stone beach in a remote forest. As he was about to take photos of his model, rain started belting down. The two called it off and found their way back over the slippery rocks. Phien grabbed his equipment and quickly walked on. The nude-art photo "Tu Do" (Freedom) by Thai Phien printed on stone. Photo courtesy of Thai Phien. The model felt abandoned, and made her way through the rain with tears in her eyes. Later he had to explain to her he had to move quickly to avoid lightning and endangering her since his camera tripod contained metal. When posing at art schools for students, a nude model may be required to maintain a difficult posture for 45 minutes straight. Nude models for art schools earn around VND6 million ($259) a month. Those who work for photographers can earn up to VND20 million ($862), depending on photo types and photographers incomes. Experienced ones such as Xuan Thuy might be offered as much as $1,000 for a single shooting session. However, some nude models say these days demand for nude photos and paintings is decreasing, and they barely make enough for rent and food. Contrary to common stereotypes of nude models as beautiful girls who can get rich by dating rich men, many are ordinary working women from rural areas who come to cities to work, have to rent a place to live and often dont even own motorbikes. Though they often share their modest incomes with their family, many dont dare tell their parents about their profession. Even Trang had not told her parents about what she does before her appearance on television in April. Staying anonymous by posing nude without showing their faces is a common practice in the profession. Trang is a brave exception who shows her face because of her conviction that her job is honest, legitimate and meaningful, and provides positive images of the female body. Beauty for eternity Many nude models actively seek out particular artists they admire and offer to work for free hoping to be immortalized in art. Well-known artists such as Duong Quoc Dinh and Thai Phien often work with models whom they have known for years and who are willing to pose for free. Phien says he always offers his models a contract and modest compensation, pays for their expenses during the work, and sends them exclusive shots as a token of gratitude, which they treasure. In the last three years culture authorities have become less strait-laced about nude art. In fact, a few nude photo and painting exhibitions have been held in Hanoi and HCMC, attracting record numbers of visitors. They include "Cam Hung Bat Tan" (Endless Inspiration) featuring paintings from 30 artists, "Anh Nude Nghe Thuat" (Nude Photography) with photos by 10 artists, Phiens "Mien Co Tich" (Fairytale Land) photo exhibition, and photographer Hao Nhiens "Tao Tac" (Artifacts). Since most of these artists are male and much of their works involve beautiful young women striking extraordinary poses in breathtaking natural scenery, two questions come to mind: why isnt there more male nudity and will women artists portray the female body differently? Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 10) The Department of Education sets guidelines for those planning to have summer classes amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In a memorandum released on Sunday, the department said remedial, enrichment and advancement classes for summer 2020 shall start on May 11, and shall end after the completion of the six-week period that may include Saturdays. The Department of Education (DepEd) said that distance learning modality shall be utilized, in line with the enhanced community quarantine being implemented in Metro Manila and other high-risk areas, until there is a decision by the proper authorities permitting learners and teachers to leave their home for school purposes. Distance learning is a way of learning remotely without being in regular face-to-face contact with a teacher in the classroom. Schools may opt to shorten the conduct of remedial and advancement classes when the essential learning competencies have already been attained, while the conduct of enrichment classes may be extended until the start of school year 20202021, the memorandum said. Schools that wish to offer remedial or advancement classes during summer are required to submit a letter of request to their Schools Division Office. According to the DepEd memorandum, a learner who receives a grade lower than 75 in any subject must be given intervention through remediation and must pass the said remedial classes to be promoted to the next grade level. Meanwhile, enrichment classes may be offered to students who had a hard time focusing on their lessons in the previous school year, needed more time to understand concepts, and received low grades. Learners who would like to take advancement classes prior to the start of the school year may also do so but only for three subjects within the six-week period and they should do so on a voluntary basis. Education Secretary Leonor Briones earlier announced that the next school year will officially open on August 24 and end on April 30, 2021. Meanwhile, private schools planning to open in June are advised to conduct online classes and homeschooling. READ: IATF adopts DepEd resolution to open classes in August Briones also clarified that 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. For thousands of his ilk stranded in Gujarat, Maharashtra, and other industrialised states, the homecoming was made possible only after the Centre decided to ply non-stop interstate special trains. Almost broke and brokenhearted at the sudden turn of events, as the host state purportedly failed to provide succour to migrants, Lal is facing the prospects of permanent loss of livelihood, even as he is ready to work locally even for a lower ... 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More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor A contractual woman teacher of a North Delhi Municipal Corporation-run school and her husband have died after contracting coronavirus, the civic body said on Sunday. She died on the night of May 4 in a hospital where she was admitted since May 2. Her COVID-19 test report came positive on May 5, according to a statement by the civic body. The 45-year-old woman teacher's husband also died of COVID-19 on May 3. The couple is survived by two young sons. Their home has been sanitised twice, it said. The Delhi BJP and Nagar Nigam Shikshak Sangh have demanded that the AAP government pay Rs 1 crore ex gratia to the family members of the teacher. The North Delhi Municipal Corporation said the "file for compensation to the family is being moved" by it. The teacher, who was deputed for distribution of ration under a Delhi government scheme, had last come to work on April 18. She was supposed to come to work again on April 25 but didn't, an NDMC official said. Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari expressed grief over the death of the teacher. "She died while on duty of distributing ration in Burari. The Delhi government should give compensation of Rs one crore and job to one of her family member," he said. Ram NiwasSolanki, general secretary of Nagar Nigam Shikshak Sangh, also demanded a compensation of Rs one crore for the kin of the deceased teacher. Meanwhile, a malaria Inspector of Karol Bagh zone has tested positive for COVID-19. He was taken to LNJP hospital and after preliminary check-up he was discharged with advice of home-isolation, an official said. Nineteen of his contacts have been traced and all have been advised home quarantine since they all are asymptomatic as of now, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Mei Mei Chu and Rajendra Jadhav KUALA LUMPUR/MUMBAI (Reuters) - For more than a decade Kuala Lumpur street vendor Abu Zahrim Ismail has seen brisk sales of daging dendeng, a spicy buffalo meat jerky, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. But this year, the spread of coronavirus pandemic has slashed shipments of Indian buffalo meat, driving prices higher and hitting sales. Most meat processing plants in India, the world's second largest beef exporter and Malaysia's top supplier, have been shut as the South Asian nation fights to contain the pandemic. The virus has really turned everything upside down, Abu said. India typically sells more than 100,000 tonnes of buffalo meat every month, but in March exports dropped to around 40,000 tonnes, according to two exporters. Sales are likely to have been even lower in April as widespread lockdowns took effect, and even in May are expected to remain well below normal despite some parts of the Indian economy re-opening, they added. (Graphic: Beef exports by country https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/xegvbkaejpq/BeefexportsbyCountry.png) "Right now things are not going in favour of our industry. Even though it is food, it is not considered essential as it is for exports," said one of the exporters who is based in Uttar Pradesh. "As of now all the exporters are trying to move their current stocks that they are holding." Wholesale prices of frozen buffalo meat in Malaysia have climbed 15%-20% from a year ago this month during the Ramadan festival, which usually accounts for up to 20% of the country's annual consumption as families gather to break fast. "Typically, Malaysians would consume about 350 containers of buffalo meat a month from India, now it has fallen to half," said one importer based in Kuala Lumpur. Diminished retail demand during Malaysia's own lockdown has also hit overall meat import demand. We are only open for takeaway during the movement control order. Sales have dropped about 80%, said Indian Muslim Restaurant Operators Association (Presma) president Ayub Khan. Story continues GLOBAL MEAT MESS In 2019, India shipped close to 1.5 million tonnes of beef, which is sourced largely from dairy buffalos, compared with 2.3 million tonnes sold by top supplier Brazil, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The absence of those supplies is being acutely felt in Malaysia, which relies on India for 70% of beef imports, as well as in Indonesia where a quarter of imports come from India and buffalo is popular among lower income groups due to its low cost. Indonesian buyers - which were expected to buy 170,000 tonnes of Indian beef this year before virus-led delays kicked in - are trying to switch to other origins like Brazil and Argentina, industry sources in Jakarta said. But the global Covid 19 pandemic has made replacing those lost supplies difficult, especially after the world's biggest meat companies, including Smithfield Foods Inc, Cargill Inc, JBS USA and Tyson, halted operations at about 20 slaughterhouses and processing plants in North America after workers fell ill. Number one beef exporter Brazil has also been hit, with meat processor BRF registering 18 COVID-19 cases in late April at an industrial hub that employs about 3,100 people. RESTRAINED REBOOT Indian meat processors are keen to restart plants once restrictions are eased, but enduring social distancing measures mean it will not be easy to source animals in the usual way. Dairy cattle in India are sent for slaughter after they have passed their productive prime, with agents from meat plants typically going house-to-house to buy up animals that are then trucked to abattoirs. Animal markets - banned or greatly restricted in scale under lockdown - are also a key source. "Questions remain over how quickly raw material can be procured and processed following all rules of social distancing," an official at All India Meat & Livestock Exporters Association, told Reuters. Exporters, importers and association officials were not willing to be named because of the sensitivity over food supplies. The net effect of disrupted supplies from India will mean lower overall meat imports into cost-sensitive markets around Asia, said J.Y. Chow, food and agriculture expert at Mizuho Bank in Singapore. "The supply is getting disrupted, so any substitute will need to be sourced from an upgrade, and it will thus erode volume demand. No other country sells buffalo meat in the volumes that India does." (Writing and additional reporting by Naveen Thukral; additional reporting by Fransiska Nangoy in Jakarta; Editing by Michael Perry) For real time monitoring of forest fires, the Rudraprayag division on Saturday launched a mobile application. Called Forest Fire Rudraprayag, the application will help officials monitor such incidents better with real time location of active fires on Google Map. Using the application, people can report forest fires through geo-tagged images. The application also enables people to track the location of fire fighting vehicles and crew on a real-time basis. Our main aim with this application is to reduce the response time. We have mapped our fire crew stations, plantations, van panchayats along with type of forests. As soon as a new fire is detected by Forest Survey of India, we can put the input received from FSI on our system and know the exact location of the fire, whether it is in a pine forest or a plantation or civil forest, said Vaibhav Singh, divisional forest officer of Rudraprayag division. He said that officials will be able to inform a crew station and concerned person about the fire incident using the application. By the time we send the secondary team, someone will already be there to deal with the situation. Anyone using the application will be able to find out how far the fire is from their current location and plan to use resources accordingly. The same will be monitored from the master control room, said Singh. The mobile application also has information on fire awareness along with a provision for people to volunteer and help the forest department in controlling fires. The application has features like mapping of all fire crew stations so as to ascertain the first respondent, elaborate list of actions based on colour code circulated to the public, mapping of forest types along with density in master control room to determine the threat and ease of spreading of fire. It also has details of a person in-charge for plantations, nurseries, van panchayats to help in the fight against forest fire. This week, to spread awareness amongst locals about preventing forest fires, Rudraprayag division had also put up posters using famous dialogues from films like Sholay, Dabang, Dirty Picture and so on. Around 1,500 such posters were made, and 200 of them being put up in every forest range. The posters also give information on punishment for setting forests on fire, that is, a fine of 5,000 and imprisonment up to two years. It also has the fire control room numbers mentioned so that people can call and alert the department about any fire incident. So far, no case of forest fire has been reported from the Rudraprayag division this year, but total 18 incidents of forest fire have been reported from Uttarakhand with a loss of 11.03 hectares of forest area. In Uttarakhand, 0.17% of total forest cover is extremely fire prone, 1.60% comes under very highly fire prone, 9.32% under highly fire prone, 21.66% under moderately fire prone and 67.25% under less fire prone category. Since the formation of the state in the year 2000, over 44,554 hectares of the forest area has been damaged in forest fires accruing a loss of over 185 lakh, revealed an RTI reply by the Uttarakhand government last year. Uttarakhand forest department has around 174 watchtowers and 1,437 station crews across the state to keep a tab on the forest fires and take measures to check them. The supply disruption from China due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent decline in domestic solar capacity addition offer a golden opportunity to ramp up local manufacturing of solar modules and cells, according to industry experts. However, the industry feels there is an urgent need for a national vision policy for local solar modules manufacturing as well as ancillary products, in line of solar power generation target of 100 gw by 2022 under National Solar Mission. Till 2011, India controlled 70-80 per cent of global supplies of solar modules, but today the opposite is the case, as 80-90 per cent of modules are imported, as domestic modules are not cost-effective. "The COVID pandemic is a wake-up call for us. We must focus on domestic manufacturing but for that to happen we need a long-term business proposition. "We've world-class technology, but we don't have scale like China. For manufacturing to succeed, we need a policy framework that ensures long term off-takes at sustainable prices," Tata Power Solar managing director and chief executive Ashish Khanna told PTI. Vikram Solar chief executive Saibaba Vutukuri also underlines the need to focus on local manufacturing. "The vision of 100 gw solar capacity by 2022 is fantastic and can be achieved. But to meet the target, there is a need to push local manufacturing so that our dependence on imports comes down," Vutukuri said. Noting that till 2011 India was one of the largest exporters of the best-in-class modules, he said with a strong policy push we can reclaim that position again and we need to learn a lesson or two from China in building scale. "Realising the huge potential, China changed its focus from generation to manufacturing of solar modules and set up large plants that offered them economies of scale, helping it lower the cost and capture global market," he said. Chinese government also helped companies with heavy subsidies, which helped them kill competition without much efforts and capture markets that were dominated by India till then, Vutukuri added. Currently, India has an installed solar generation capacity of 34 gw, while the installed module capacity is only 10-11 gw. Domestic manufacturers, including Bhel, Tata Solar, Moser Baer, Indosolar and Lanco, were the pioneers of the industry. However, over the years, due to stiff competition from China some of them could not sustain and some of them are fighting bankruptcy now. New & Renewable Energy secretary Anand Kumar recently called for increased domestic manufacturing capacity to ensure energy security. "Till now we've been manufacturing cells, modules, ingots and wafers. But now, we need to go beyond and start manufacturing other ancillary equipment like back-sheets, glass, inverters, transformers, cables etc so that we have an entire manufacturing ecosystem for renewable energy," Kumar had said. To offer a level-playing field to domestic manufacturers, the government had slapped safeguard duty on imports in 2018 and the Directorate General of Foreign Trade is now looking at whether to continue with the duty or not after July, when the high duty regime is supposed to end. The Budget 2021 has imposed a 20 per cent basic customs duty on imported solar cells and modules. But, industry leaders say there is no clarity new customs duty as of now. According to the data from industry tracker Mercom, as of December 2019, Chinese firm Trina Solar was the leading module supplier in India in terms of volume. Chinese firm GCL System Integration Technology is reportedly planning a 60-gw module factory at Hefei in the Anhui province, adding 15 gw each year to 2023. "If such plants actually comes up then that will be the biggest challenge for us. If they start dumping this capacity into our market, domestic module manufacturing will become unsustainable," Vutukuri said. Many domestic manufacturers are willing to increase their capacities, but all they need is strong support from the government, concludes the Tata Solar chief. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The year 2020 will have a special imprint on the students who are graduating from high school and college. This is a class that had its senior years interrupted by a historic event. After starting this semester on campus as usual, these students found themselves thrust into a home or online-only learning environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They werent able to spend their final months on campus trying to make every lasting memory they could before moving on to the working world. Even in an era where a lot of communication between students is on social media, there is still an element of social interaction on campus that cant be replicated. At colleges around the nation, there is an aspect of hanging out at the Student Union, studying outside when the weather is nice and attending sporting events that bring the student body together. Events put on by the university, Greek events and pretty much everything else happening on campus was canceled for this semester. Its something the 2020 class will never forget, for better or worse, and something that will make this years class unique. For this years graduating high school seniors, they were also thrust into a distance learning environment, causing them to be at home instead of being able to finish high school with their friends while taking part in school-related activities. It made their last few months of high school a completely different experience than the rest of their schooling careers. It is a unique class to be a member of, and one that will always be remembered. We will find ways to celebrate your achievements and you should know that your work has not been in vain. You have learned some hard lessons that could help you build a better world for all of us. Congratulations to the graduating class of 2020. Stillwater NewsPress, Oklahoma Prime Minister Narendra Modi is meeting chief ministers of states for the fifth time in 51 days on Monday. Theres exactly a week to May 17, a date that can be called either the end of the first phase of Indias graded exit from the lockdown, or the extension of the second phase of the lockdown but with the easing of some restrictions. Its important to understand the context in which the meeting is happening. The number of cases in India rose to 67,085 on Sunday night, the number of deaths to 2,140, and the number of recoveries to 20,901. Recoveries crossed 20,000 on Sunday, the kind of number that needs celebration. The world over, according to worldometers.info, 98% of the currently active 2.4 million cases are mild, and only 47,565 are serious or critical. Anecdotal evidence from India suggests that the situation here is no different. States with a science-based approach to dealing with Covid-19, and with reasonably good public health systems, seem to be getting the better of the disease Kerala, with three deaths out of 505 cases may be an outlier, but even Tamil Nadu, where administrative bungling (the chief minister announced an unnecessary hard lockdown, with everything being shut, forcing thousands of people out on to the streets, trying to stock up on essentials) resulted in a spike in cases, has done well. The state saw 6,535 cases till Saturday 526 of these were discovered on Saturday alone but has recorded only 44 deaths thus far. Maharashtra (22,171 cases; 832 deaths, till Sunday), Gujarat (8,195 and 493) and Madhya Pradesh (3,614 and 215) are the outliers on the other extreme. Together, the three states account for 50.6% of all cases and nearly 72% of all deaths. And Madhya Pradesh, for a state that has been hit hard by the virus, is definitely not testing enough (both Gujarat and Maharashtra are testing twice the number of people per million as Madhya Pradesh is). In the week between May 3 and May 10, the number of Covid-19 cases in India has increased from 42,527 to 67,085, and the number of deaths from 1,393 to 2,140. The number of daily cases was more than 3,000 for four consecutive days since May 6 and exceeded 4,000 for the first time on Sunday. In the last five days (including Sunday), the number of daily deaths have exceeded 100 on all but two days. Yet, as this column has pointed out, most of cases are from a few states. On Saturday, for instance, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat accounted for two-thirds of all new cases. On Sunday, this proportion was 69%. Vast parts of the country continue to have only a few cases of Covid-19; many are completely free of the disease (or havent recorded any cases). It is evident that the lockdown has not helped India flatten the curve, although there is no doubt that the number of deaths and infections would have been higher without one. At least quantitatively, if not qualitatively, India has used this period to strengthen its health care system, and specifically prepare to deal with all aspects of Covid-19 from testing to treatment. For instance, India is now well on its way to producing locally many RT-PCR tests, the best way of testing for the coronavirus disease. Going by the current trend of daily cases, it is also evident that the number of cases and deaths in India will continue to rise. And collateral damage of the lockdown on the economy, on industrial activity, on businesses, big and small, and on workers of all hues, is significant. The Prime Minister and the chief ministers must discuss ways to restart more economic and other activities even as they work towards finalising restrictions and protocols for disease hot spots that have a high concentration of cases and the most vulnerable population (people over the age of 70). India needs to learn to live with Covid-19 for now but it needs to find a way that protects both lives and livelihoods. Haiti - FLASH : 49.5% increase of cases in a few days The Ministry of Public Health informs that 5 new cases have been confirmed (+ 3.42%) or a total of 151 cases (38.40% of women and 61.60% of 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 l. This is an increase of 50 cases (+ 49.5%) since the report of May 6 (101 cases https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30707-haiti-covid-19-daily-bulletin-may-6-2020.html ) The number of active cases in Haiti (excluding death and recovery) now stands at 122 cases (+ 4.27%) or +5 since the last report from the Ministry https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30731-haiti-covid-19-daily-report-may-9-2020.html 136 people are in hospital quarantine and 681 in home quarantine. Number of suspected cases followed : 1,160 (+ 1.31%) or +15 cases since the last Ministry report https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30731-haiti-covid-19-daily-report-may-9-2020.html All the details in the 11h00am daily report See also : + 17 cases : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30731-haiti-covid-19-daily-report-may-9-2020.html + 21 cases : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30723-haiti-covid-19-daily-report-may-8-2020.html + 7 cases : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30715-haiti-covid-19-daily-bulletin-may-7-2020.html Assessment on May 6 (101 cases) : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30707-haiti-covid-19-daily-bulletin-may-6-2020.html HL/ HaitiLibre - Sheila Nyaboke travelled from Nakuru to Kisii with her 7-months old baby and sat next to Naomi Bosibori and the two were strangers to each other - Bosibori was so nice to Nyaboke that she often helped her carry her baby along the way - On reaching Kisii bus terminus, the two went to a nearby public toilet and took turns carrying the baby as they went in for short calls - After returning, Bosibori offered to go with Nyaboke's son and buy him juice at a nearby shop never to be seen again. - After a day of searching, the suspect was arrested at her home village in Nyamira county and is now in police custody Police officers in Nyamira county have arrested a middle-aged woman who was captured on CCTV stealing a seven-months-old baby in Kisii county. Naomi Bosibori was arrested at her home in Nyaigesa village, Nyamira county, after village elders reported her to police. READ ALSO: Dear mom, you are special: William Ruto celebrates mother in moving message Sheilah Nyaboke gave her son to a stranger in Kisii bus stage and she went missing with the baby. Photo: Screenshot from Citizen Source: UGC READ ALSO: Homa Bay fisherman jumps to his death in Lake Victoria while escaping arrest during curfew The baby's mother, Sheila Nyaboke, said she had travelled together with the suspect from Nakuru to Kisii in the same matatu when she decided to change the baby's diapers in a public toilet at Kisii bus terminus on Sartuday, May 9. In a CCTV footage, the mother and Bosibori were seen getting into the toilet and the two took turns holding the baby as they went in for short calls. They then left and got into the matatu ready for their journey to their home village but before the matatu would leave the stage, the suspect asked Nyaboke to help her hold the baby. "I told her I am better off holding him because he was crying, I asked her to give me space so that I sit next to the window," said Nyaboke. The woman holding the baby in a public toilet is the one who went missing with the child. Photo: Screenshot from Citizen TV Source: UGC READ ALSO: Ledama amlaumu Raila kwa masaibu yaliyompata Realising her first attempt had failed, Bosibori is reported to have asked a hawker who sells bottled juice that she wanted to buy it for the baby to stop her from crying but then again changed her mind. "She then told those juice sold in bottles by the hawkers are not safe for children, she asked me to give her the baby to go with him to nearest shop and buy it from there," said the mother. Nyaboke complied with her request and gave her the baby and when she turned to see where she had gone to with the baby, she was left in shock as she did not see her, it was the last time for her to see her son. READ ALSO: Coronavirus: 160 Kenyans who were stranded in China arrive in Nairobi She rushed to the nearby Kisii Central Police Station where she reported the matter and police visited the scene but would not find the suspect. The matter was aired on Citizen TV and villagers who saw the story were able to identify the suspect and raised alarm with the police officers who arrested her. The suspect is now in custody awaiting to be arraigned on Monday, May 11. 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 Hello everyone, my name is Mordecai. You can call me M. You can find my story in the book of Esther but I wanted to take the opportunity to share it with you. My life is proof that God is amazing and cares deeply about his people. I was born in Hamedan, Iran, many years after the Israelites were exiled from Babylonia. The exciting part of my life took place in a place called Susa. This is an ancient city which was part of the Persian empire. The background This story involves Esther, the King of Persia who is somewhat of a drunken pushover, and a Persian official Haman. He is the cunning villain in this story. LSo this story starts with the king throwing two massive banquets that lasted a total of 187 days. His aim was to show off his greatness and splendor. Long story short, on the last day of the banquet the King summoned for his wife to show off her beauty but she was all Nah no way, I dont want to do that! So what does the king do? He decides to run a season of the Bachelor. He gives the final rose to Esther. Good to note at this point that Esther is my niece and she is Jewish. She didnt put this information on her Bachelor application form though so no one knows, including the king. Where was I? Oh that's right. So the king was so infatuated with Esther that he elevated her to become the new Queen of Persia. My story So back to me. One day when I was going about my day, I overheard two guards planning to kill the king. My mother always said I had good hearing. What a dilemma I was in. This was a king that wasnt Jewish and didnt serve the God I did. We were in his kingdom because we were displaced about 100 years ago. I decided to tell Esther because she was close to the King. Then the coolest thing happened. I got the credit for saving the king's life!! Many years past and I faithfully served the king. Then that day happened! Have you ever had a situation at work when a decision is made that you really cant agree with? Well, a decree was announced that everyone should bow to Haman. You see, he was the official in the kingdom under the king. I could not do that. I refused to bow to Haman. This, as you can imagine, enraged Haman. To make things worse Haman then found out I am Jewish. So what does Haman do? He convinces the king to enact this crazy decree to kill all the Jewish people. I think the king must have been drunk. The plan So Esther and myself came up with a plan which we hoped would save our people. Spoiler alert - it worked. So Esther threw a party. That's what you do when you find out you people are all going to be killed right? Anyway she invited the king and Haman. At this dinner she told the king and Haman that she wanted to provide them another dinner tomorrow night just for them. After that first party, I was on my way home and Haman walked past me. He was totally drunk, like really smashed. I did not bow to him as he passed. This made him furious so he ordered a tall stake to be built so that I could be impaled upon it in the morning. What a way to die. Unfortunately that's all that I have time for today. Tune in next time to hear how the tides turn, how I am paraded around the city on a horse, how God saves my fellow Jews and how I am appointed to a high position in the kingdom. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC) was set up after the financial crisis to advise the Government on how to avoid the sort of policy decisions that led to the collapse of the State's banking system in 2008 and the bailout two years later. As the economy roared back from recession and took off like a rocket, as Michael Noonan once predicted it would, in the 2010s the Fine Gael-led government politely ignored the IFAC's warnings to avoid expansionary budgets and ramped up spending on things like pensions and cutting taxes. Only in the last budget was a more cautionary approach taken, with tax cuts shelved in the face of a hard Brexit. The Covid-19 pandemic is now dealing a serious blow to the economy (which may yet be compounded by a no-trade deal Brexit). Yet Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Greens are promising major investment in health, housing, transport and climate action while not increasing taxes or cutting welfare. The IFAC is once more sounding the alarm bells. Its chairman, Sebastian Barnes, who was appointed earlier this year, told the Sunday Independent: "I think it is risky to make these commitments without knowing what the whole picture is going to look like and it may complicate the hard fiscal choices that need to be made in the coming years." He said the State is now facing the "most dramatic" recession in its history and, although reluctant to engage in the language of condemnation, he did criticise the three parties ruling out so many revenue-raising measures as "premature". "They're going to be faced with a higher rate of unemployment, a higher level of public debt," Mr Barnes said. "In that context, making commitments to taking large sections of tax or spending off the table is going to make it very hard to reach a good balance between the ambition on the spending side and what people want to do on tax." He is not the only one. As the crisis has unfolded it has become apparent that the economy will not recover as quickly as had been hoped. Businesses will struggle to reopen while adhering to public health and strict new workplace guidelines. The tourism and hospitality sector has been crushed, and tax revenues are collapsing at an alarming rate. Department of Finance officials are "increasingly frustrated", according to one source, that this economic reality does not align with promises being made by the parties trying to form a government. "Two completely different worlds," the source said. "The big job of the next government will be economic recovery and everything else will come secondary to that." The main concern is how to wean people off the 350-a-week pandemic unemployment payment (PUP) and the temporary wage subsidy scheme (TWSS). The Parliamentary Budget Office warned last week that 4bn on these measures alone has yet to be spent. With the two schemes due to expire next month, officials are examining alternatives. Both will likely be extended until August at least but with some modifications as the country starts to reopen. One of the options being looked at is transitioning as many people as possible onto the TWSS as they return to work. "It's a more flexible scheme because it can be varied up and down according to salary. It's much less of a blunt instrument than the pandemic payment," a source said. But for other sectors, like tourism and hospitality, it will be more difficult which is why an employee activation scheme will likely be rolled out where people keep their PUP subject to reskilling or retraining. "There won't be a cliff edge. There will have to be an unwinding of these things with a more flexible and targeted scheme with the policy of getting people back into work. But all of that's going to be really expensive," the source added. The Government has already committed to spending over 13bn more than anticipated this year to fund emergency measures for workers, businesses and the HSE. But that is only up to June, so the cost will rise by billions more. Paying for this will be funded by borrowing in the first instance but will eventually require hard fiscal choices. Mr Barnes said Ireland had seen the cost of operating unsustainable fiscal policy in the past and also raised specific warnings about "the State's over-reliance on corporation tax, which can't be sustained forever". He is concerned by the commitment from Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin (and supported by the Greens) to scrap the planned increase in the pension age to 67 next year, saying it is "very risky and may well complicate life down the road". "Not increasing the pension age by a year costs 600m a year, and that cost will increase as more people reach retirement age," he said. Some figures in Fine Gael and Fianna Fail privately believe the pledge in their joint framework not to increase income tax may not be sustainable over the next five years. Mr Barnes concurs but highlighted the scope to increase property and inheritance taxes, rather than levies on labour. "Those kinds of taxes on wealth are areas that many countries are looking at. I think there's renewed interest partly as wealth inequality has gone up, partly as governments need to raise more revenue." While he cautioned that the IFAC does not make policy recommendations, he said major spending commitments on policies like Slaintecare will require revenue-raising measures. "There is a risk that they won't do quite enough to have enough of a budget balance, that they'll prefer to increase spending or cut taxes but not balance the two and then eventually that will mean the debt will stay higher. For a country like Ireland, that's a very risky position to be in." Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal For years, District 45 state Rep. Jim Trujillo did not face a challenger in the primary election. But now that the 81-year-old is stepping down after 18 years in the Legislature, citing health issues, five Democrats have qualified to fill the position representing a district that slices across the southern half of the city of Santa Fe from St. Francis Drive all the way down to the old Santa Fe Downs racetrack, with Interstate 25 as its southern border. Some of the names on the primary ballot will be familiar to local voters. Pat Varela has been county treasurer for the past eight years and is the nephew of the late longtime legislator Luciano Lucky Varela. Carmichael Dominguez was a Santa Fe city councilor for 12 years and served previously on the Santa Fe Public Schools school board. And while shes never run for office before, Lisa Martinez has worked in state and city government in Santa Fe for more than 25 years. Other names, such as Linda Serrato, a relative newcomer to the district, but by far the leading fundraiser in the race through the early going, and Yolanda Louise Sena, are lesser-known candidates in the June 2 primary election. Heres a look at the Democratic field in the order their names appear on the ballot: Patrick Pat Varela says hes had his eye on serving in the state legislature for a long time. Im not going to lie about it, ever since I was young, he said. His uncle had a lot to do with that. An influential presence at the Roundhouse for nearly 30 years before his death in 2017, Lucky Varela was a role model to Pat in more ways than one. I lost my father when I was in my 20s, so he was there to step in, Varela, 50, said. He once told me, Im not your father and youre already a man, but if you ever need a father . He was that kind of man. He was a big influence on my life, and still is. Varela, a lifelong resident of District 45, is now caretaker for his 84-year-old mother. Pat recalled Lucky offering him what was more than fatherly advice when Pat was elected county treasurer in 2012. When I got elected, he told me, You know, this is a serious job. You have to be there for the people. You cant just occupy a seat, Varela said. Lucky Varela is supporting his nephews campaign, even now. According to the most recent campaign finance report filed in mid-April, the Luciano Lucky Varela for New Mexico PAC contributed $5,000 to his campaign more than half of the fundraising total thus far. Varela says he took his uncles advice to heart, and is proud of what hes been able to accomplish as county treasurer and during his two terms as president of the Treasurers affiliate of New Mexico Association of Counties. As county treasurer, Varela takes credit for restructuring the countys investment policy, making it more favorable to taxpayers, he says, and for being the first county treasurer in the state to set up an outreach program for the convenience of residents in rural areas. As president of the Treasurers affiliate, he worked on getting several bills passed through the state legislature. It involved lobbying people in the Legislature. Its almost the same as being a regular legislator because you cant just get things passed on your own. You need to work with people to get things through, he said. Varela said it was a surprise to him when the Journal reported when he ran for treasurer in 2010 that there was a tax lien against him. He explained that he was going through a divorce at the time and was unaware of the lien. The matter was resolved within two weeks, he said. He also points to his community involvement, serving on several boards, including the Boys & Girls Club. Hes also a member of Los Caballeros de Vargas, which plays a prominent role during Fiesta de Santa Fe. Carmichael A. Dominguez is also a caballero and was honored to portray Don Diego de Vargas during the 2000 Fiesta. But hes better known as a three-term member of the City Council, representing Santa Fes south side, the most impoverished part of town, as well as the fastest growing and the one with the highest concentration of Hispanics. He served on the citys Finance Committee the budget-building panel within city government all 12 of his years on the council, the past six as chairman. It was during those years that the committee was tasked with navigating the city through the Great Recession, then a $15 million budget deficit during the 2016-17 fiscal year. Prior to his service on the council, Dominguez was a member of the school board in Santa Fe. On his campaign website, he lists education as his top priority. Dominguez attended Kearney Elementary, De Vargas Middle School and Santa Fe High, though he points out he represented Capital High while on the school board and Jaguar territory as a city councilor. All of this, he says, adds up to him being the most logical choice to represent District 45. I think my experience is second to none in the field, he said. I have to say I respect all the people for running, but when it comes to understanding the district and doing things for the district, Ive actually done things. Dominguez cited access to Early Childhood Education and health care services on the south side, and development within the Airport Overlay District he helped create among his accomplishments. Dominguez, who will turn 50 before Election Day, is entering a period in his life where hes shifting gears. Within the span of a year, he went through a divorce, the youngest of his two boys reached adulthood, he finished out his final term on the City Council and retired after a 25-year career as a cartographer with the state Department of Transportation. On ending his tenure with the city in March 2018, Dominguez told the Journal he planned to step back, take a deep breath and gauge the future. Now that he has had time to do that, Dominguez says hes ready to go back to work. As my campaign slogan says, Im committed to all, he said. I want people to know that, through my work ethic, experiences and the relationships Ive built, the discussions we had while on the Finance Committee, Im best prepared to make sure the people of District 45 are well represented. Dominguezs campaign finance report from a month ago showed that he had collected just two $100 contributions for his campaign, one from former City Attorney Kelley Brennan and the other from his former colleague on City Council, Signe Lindell. Lisa Dawn Martinez cant claim shes lived in District 45 all her life, like the others above her on the ballot. She grew up in Chimayo and didnt move to Santa Fe until the early 90s. But she can boast that she has the endorsement of Rep. Trujillo, the man she hopes to replace. Shes known him for a long time. Ive been interested in politics in Santa Fe and Ive worked with the legislators from around here over a number of years, and the legislators in (this area) are all highly respected. Rep. Trujillo is one of those highly respected legislators and when the opportunity presented itself to run for his position with him retiring, I decided to run, Martinez said. Its her first time running for office, though the 54-year-old said it had been a lifelong goal. In addition to the endorsement, Trujillo chipped in $1,000 for her campaign, about a third of the $3,200 her campaign had raised, according to the report she filed April 13. Martinez also put up $1,000 of her own money. The rest came from $500 contributions from attorney Daniel Najjar and lobbyist Scott Scanland, and a $200 donation from Stephen Arias, who was chief clerk of the New Mexico House of Representatives for more than 30 years. Martinez headed up the states Construction Industry Division for seven years and estimated that she worked on 400 bills that passed through the Legislature. I understand the process, she said. I bring business experience, government experience, experience working in the private sector and leadership. Ive had the opportunity to lead just about every agency I worked for. Martinez was heading up the citys Land Use Department until soon after Alan Webber was elected mayor in 2018. He asked all department heads to reapply for their position if they wanted to stay. She applied, but was not selected. Soon thereafter, she landed a job as chief building official with city of Rio Rancho. Now retired, Martinez is married to Wayne Dotson, who is also now retired after a 28-year career in state government. She has two step-children now in their 30s. She also owns two businesses: Lisa D. Martinez Design and B Construction. With a background in architecture and as a licensed general contractor, Martinez considers herself a visionary who can play a role in helping the state recover from the economic crisis its facing as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. And I can hit the ground running on day one. I wont need an orientation, she said. Yolanda Louise Sena did not respond to interview requests. Linda Michelle Serrato is a California native who, along with her husband, Matt, is putting down roots in New Mexico. Also a first-time candidate, she said her 2-year-old daughter, Alma, was the inspiration for her to run for state representative. Im raising my daughter through a pandemic right now, she said. And I see the issues that will have long-term impacts on her life, and I want to set up my daughters generation and beyond to help get them what they need to succeed. She went on to speak about New Mexicos high rate of working poor, the fact that the state has no law addressing paid family leave or a statewide living wage. These are issues that impact working families and impact if workers decide to stay or leave our state, she said. Serrato first came to New Mexico soon after she graduated from Stanford in 2008 with a degree in public policy to work on Barack Obamas presidential campaign, working the eastern part of the state. She later went to work for Congressman Ben Ray Lujans office, becoming his political director and relocating to Washington, D.C. She spent about five years on Capitol Hill before returning to New Mexico five years ago. While Varela and Dominguez may have better name recognition, and Martinez has Rep. Trujillos endorsement, Serrato has won the support of several special interest groups coveted by Democratic candidates, among them Planned Parenthood, the American Federation of Teachers New Mexico, Animal Protection Voters, Conservation Voters New Mexico and the Sierra Club. She also boasts having collected more money and received more contributions to her campaign than all the other candidates combined. As a person, I dont leave any stone unturned, whether its fundraising or collecting signatures. Theres essentially no point where Im going to stop working hard, she said. Her campaign report from mid-April shows she collected more than 120 individual contributions from around the country totalling $22,215. A Journal analysis of her finance report shows that more than half of the contributions came from donors in California, some of them family members who contributed multiple times. She collected more than $16,000 from the Golden State 72% of her fundraising total. Another $4,345 came from other states. A total of $1,830 8.2% of her fundraising total was from New Mexicans. Serrato says the money and endorsements shes received are a result of her work ethic, organizational skills and because people like what they hear when they hear her message. I do think that my message has resonated and the campaign weve built is pretty strong, she said. The winner of the June 2 Democratic Party primary will face Libertarian Helen Milenski in Novembers general election. Oil well shut-ins are the new black. Everyone, especially in the U.S. shale patch, seems to be shutting in wells in response to what is shaping up to be the Great Glut of 2020. Now, many are asking how all these wells will be restarted once prices improve. The answer? Nobody knows. Shutting in oil wells is markedly different from flipping a switch. It is a job that has to be done with extreme care based on the characteristics of the formation into which the well is drilled, its rate of production, and the specificities of the oil that flows from it. But even with careful planning, there is a risk of permanent damage if the well remains shut-in for more than a couple of weeks. Here are some of the problems shutting-in could cause in oil wells. Under pressure There is a kind of routine well shut-in that aims to increase the output of oil and/or gas by letting the pressure in the rock that contains the hydrocarbons build up. These shut-ins never last months, however. They are a short affair, and they are only suitable for wells drilled in rocks that have the proper pressure--that is, pressure that has the potential to build up. This is not the case with low-pressure wells. In low-pressure wells, experts from the Journal of Petroleum Technology write, a shut-in could negatively affect the permeability of the oil-bearing rock. What is permeability? The tiny little pores in the rock where the oil and gas hide. High reservoir pressure pushes them out relatively easily. Low reservoir pressure keeps them in. The problem is solvable with chemicals, the experts note, but lets not forget that chemicals cost money, which would increase the cost of reviving the shut-in wells. Crossflow Crossflow refers to the flow of oil and gas from high-pressure areas in the rock formation to low-pressure areas. (Yes, rock formations are not as homogenous as one might hope) On the one hand, this is a problem because the recovery of oil and gas from a low-pressure area in the formation is more difficult. On the other, crossflow is problematic because it results in the undesirable mixing of different kinds of hydrocarbons from different areas in the formation. Separating the different hydrocarbons after the fact may not be possible. The undulating wellbore Undulations of the wellbore are common in horizontal wells. One of the great advantages of horizontal wells is the increased contact between the well and the reservoir. The purpose of wellbore undulations is to further increase the contact between the well and the reservoir and improve output. However, things get tricky with shut-ins. Related: A Major Bull Run Is Forming In Oil Markets Water buildup in the well is one problem that experts warn could render the well unusable eventually. If enough water collects in the well, pumping it all out to get back to the oil may become uneconomical, the JPT authors note. Other experts note that water is not the only substance that would build up in a horizontal well if it is shut-in for a lengthy period. Heavier hydrocarbon fractions such as paraffin and tar could also accumulate in the wellbore and affect the future performance of the well negatively. Not all wells are created equal Undulations are not the only problem for shale well shut-ins. The bigger problem is that shale wells shut-ins are terra incognita for the industry, while in conventional oil drilling, there is a lot of information on how to properly shut in wells. Because of the specific nature of shale wells, there is a host of problems that could be caused by a lengthy shut-in, one expert in that particular field told the JPT, from problems with the on-ground equipment to unexpected chemical reactions in the reservoir rock. In any case, water will build up as tends to happen with all shut-in wells. Wild cards Picking the best well to shut in seems to be a very tricky business, and even if you are careful with the picking, you could still get a nasty surprise when you try to resume pumping from that well. And this is where the most unpleasant difference between conventional and shale oil wells seems to lie: conventional wells dont necessarily need to be shut in. As the chief of Russias Zarubezhneft recently told local media, with a conventional well, all you need is to adjust the flow rate by 2-3 percent lower, and you could get a total output reduction of 200,000 to 300,000 bpd. This does not seem to be an option in the shale patch where all reports are either about well shut-ins or the suspension of new well drilling and fracking. The United States is on track to reduce its crude oil production by 1.7 million bpd. Most of this would come from well shut-ins in the shale patch. Because of the lack of evidence about the most likely effects of these shut-ins on production, the next few months will be interesting. Perhaps there wont be much damage and producers would be quick to ramp up once prices improve. Or maybe many of those wells will need to be plugged and abandoned, and new wells would need to be drilled. Uncertainty still reigns. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Amidst increasing cases of COVID-19 in the state, the Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, on Sunday, declared a 24 hours curfew in three local government areas bordering Kano State. The total curfew is expected to last for the next ten days. Mr Mohammed declared the total lockdown after Bauchi recorded 66 new cases of COVID-19 in less than 24 hours. A total of 44 of the cases were announced Saturday night by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) while the state government confirmed 22 new cases Sunday afternoon. Bauchi now has 183 cases, the fourth highest coronavirus cases in Nigeria. The governor said a large number of the new cases come from Katagum, a local government that shares boundaries with communities in Kano State. The governor said it has become worrisome that 69 of the 183 cases in Bauchi were recorded in Azare and environs, in Katagum local government. He blamed the situation in the area on the influx of people from Kano State. Speaking at an emergency press conference Sunday, Governor Mohammed informed journalists that the state government had, based on advice from the COVID-19 committee, decided to shut down Katagum local government and two other council areas that share common boundaries with Kano and Jigawa state. The total lockdown on the three local government areas is necessary because we just got results from the NCDC of 66 confirmed cases of which 42 of them are from Azare alone, the governor said. Mr Mohammed said Katagum, Giade and Zaki local government areas would be shut down completely for the 10 days to allow health officials carry out contact tracing while security officials will seal off all identified routes linking the state with its neighbours. PREMIUM TIMES gathered that of the 44 confirmed cases reported by NCDC on Saturday, 27 are from Azare, seven from Giade while the remaining ten are from the Bauchi axis. Our reporter also gathered that of the 22 confirmed cases, on Sunday, 15 are from Azare, five from Bauchi, and two from Giade. Governor Mohammed said stringent disciplinary measures would be meted on persons who flout the 24 hours curfew in the next ten days. Before now, reports have gone viral on social media that hundreds of residents in Azare town have been dying of a disease suspected to be COVID-19. The state deputy governor, Baba Tela, who chairs the COVID-19 committee, said earlier that the rumored mass death had nothing to do with the new coronavirus. He said the deaths in Azare were akin to the mysterious deaths that have been reported in Kano state lately. He, however, confirmed that local undertakers in Azare had personally informed him that they have been burying at least six corpses per day in the past week. Also corroborating the claims of his deputy, Governor Mohammed said he has received a report that about 150 persons have died from the strange disease. Bauchi State has been under partial lockdown for the past two weeks, as the state government ordered the closure of markets, religious centres and government offices. Only outfits running essential services are allowed to open shops. Other non-food markets and shops are only allowed to open on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays to help residents restock. Labor leader Anthony Albanese will call for a new focus on fairness in the recovery from the coronavirus crisis, naming housing construction and local manufacturing as two priorities in his economic agenda. Mr Albanese will dismiss Prime Minister Scott Morrisons talk of a snap back in the economy by declaring the concept must not mean a return to old problems, including insecure work for thousands of Australians. Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese works on his vision speech in his office at Parliament House on Saturday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen In a major speech in Parliament House on Monday, the Labor leader will instead describe the crisis as a once in a political lifetime chance to reshape the economy to create better jobs. The draft speech includes calls for sweeping investments in social housing to boost construction jobs, more heavy manufacturing to be kept within the country and a plan for high-speed rail to help ease pressure on the big cities. An Air India flight landed here from London at 1.30 am on Sunday carrying 239 Indians from the UK who were stranded there due to suspension of commercial passenger air services and the subsequent lockdown, an official statement said. In addition to this, two more repatriation flights -- one each from Singapore and Manila ( Philippines) -- are expected to arrive in Mumbai on Sunday, it said. While the flight from Singapore (AI 343) will be carrying 243 passengers, the Manila-Mumbai flight (AI 387) would bring back 241 Indian nationals from the South East Asian country, as per the statement. "1st flight 2 #Mumbai landed- crew interaction less with the passengers. Protective kit was given 2 all-along with snack n meal kept on the seat beforehand. Next #quarantine. Watch the space," tweeted a passenger on the flight. "Reached Mumbai safely from UK. Thank you so much to @airindiain @HCI_London, @NISAU_UK, @MEAIndia," another passenger tweeted. The Mumbai airport authorities, in a statement on Saturday, said the arriving passengers with symptoms will be moved to isolation centres. Asymptomatic passengers residing in Mumbai will be moved to quarantine facilities like hotels, while those from outside the city will be transported by the state to their respective district headquarters, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The series finale of Schitts Creek aired on April 7, 2020. For fans in the U.K. who have not been able to watch the final season of Schitts Creek, have no fear. Season 6 of Schitts Creek arrives on Netflix in the U.K. on May 14. Eugene Levy, Annie Murphy, Daniel Levy and Catherine OHara | Amanda Edwards/Getty Images Schitts Creek will be on Netflix in the U.K. soon Schitts Creek aired on CBC and Pop TV during its run. In the past, seasons of the show typically appeared on Netflix in the U.K. around a month after a season aired in North America. Back in March 2020, the Twitter account for Netflix UK and Ireland alerted fans that the sixth and final season of Schitts Creek will be available on May 14. The sixth and ~final~ season of Schitts Creek comes to Netflix on 14 May, tweeted the account. The sixth and ~final~ season of Schitt's Creek comes to Netflix on 14 May. pic.twitter.com/vXEeqcW28C Netflix UK & Ireland (@NetflixUK) March 16, 2020 Fans in the U.S. will have to wait a bit longer While Season 6 of Schitts Creek will be on Netflix in the U.K. in just a few days, fans in the U.S. will have to wait for the final season. As of right now, Netflix has not even announced a release date for the U.S. However, based on past seasons fans can guess when it will arrive. According to Newsweek, Apart from the first two seasons, which came to Netflix in January 2017, all seasons of the series have come to the streaming service in October. Season 5, for example, came on October 10just over six months after that seasons finale aired on Pop. Knowing this, fans of Schitts Creek can assume it will be available on Netflix in the U.S. sometime in October 2020. Why Schitts Creek ended after six seasons Schitts Creek was created by father and son duo Eugene Levy and Dan Levy. The show premiered in March 2015 and had a total of 80 episodes. Dan Levy first started planning the shows ending after the show was picked up for two more seasons after the fourth season. I at no point wanted to compromise on quality or storytelling, Dan Levy told Variety. It just didnt feel like it was worth the risk to take it any further. Schitts Creek began streaming on Netflix in 2017, resulting in the fan base of the show growing momentously. Despite the shows massive increase in popularity, Dan Levy always knew how he wanted to end the show. The goal was at the end of this show, this family will realize the value of love, Dan Levy said during his interview with Variety. Money can temporarily bandage a lot of things. But they would never be able to buy the kind of closeness that they have by the end of the series. Since the show went off the air, the cast of Schitts Creek briefly reunited virtually during the Stronger Together, Tous Ensemble broadcast to raise money for Food Banks Canada. Dan Levy also told Variety that he hasnt ruled out a Schitts Creek reunion down the line. I wish that this show could have gone on 100 seasons. But its quality over quantity, he said. If an idea crosses my path that I feel is deserving of our casts time, then lets do it. I dont know what it could possibly be at this point but I would love to revisit these characters, and I would love to get to play with this cast again. I feel very proud of the work that weve done, and I wouldnt want to do anything that compromises that. BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Utah After closing amid the coronavirus pandemic, the National Park Service is testing public access at several parks across the nation, including two in Utah, with limited offerings and services. Visitor centers and campgrounds remain largely shuttered at Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef national parks, but visitors are welcome at some of the sites. I felt like they did it right here because if they opened all the services, I think it would have been too much. Too many people would hit it, Donna Sullivan, of Sedona, Arizona, told The Salt Lake Tribune Wednesday at Bryce Canyon. Sullivan was on a day visit to hike the parks Rim Trail and Bryce Amphitheater, two of the few hiking destinations currently open at Bryce. She found plenty of room to social distance, but Bryce will likely see larger crowds as word gets out that the park is open and will not collect entry fees. Visitors should steel themselves for a new normal that will not likely square with their last trip, said Acting Park Service Director David Vela. You may have facilities that arent going to be available, but the (parks) footprint will be. So it will be a different visitor experience, and it will be a different normal that were going to need to own and, frankly, mitigate, Vela said Friday. This gets to the value and importance of making sure that visitors know what to expect when they get to the park, making sure that visitors go to the parks website (and) social media ... as to what is accessible, how to plan your trip, and, most importantly, what are the expectations when you get there. Recent crowding at southern Utahs state parks could offer a hint of whats headed Bryces way later this season, said Bryce Park Ranger Peter Densmore. This experiment, this limited reopening is really a cooperative effort between us and the public. Its not possible to reap the full benefits of the mitigations we put in place if people arent aware of them and helping us to enforce them, Densmore said at the shuttered visitor center. While the park reopened its core attraction, Bryce Amphitheater, Capitol Reef took an opposite approach, keeping its historic center at Fruita and the Scenic Road closed for now. You will see more and more parks provide recreation access. We are doing it very thoughtfully, said park service spokeswoman Vanessa Lacayo. Parks are staffing up and will increase access as workers are in place to patrol trails and roads, host campgrounds and operate visitor centers and museums. At the Utah parks, seasonal employees from out of state must quarantine for 14 days before they can report for duty, which will slow the process. Major parks throughout the country that have begun limited openings include Badlands and Wind Cave national parks and Jewel Cave National Monument in South Dakota; Everglades National Park in Florida; Indiana Dunes National Park; Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada; Mount Rainier National Park in Washington; Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky; Pinnacles National Park in California. In Oregon, Crater Lake National Park remains closed to the public, as well as the John Day Fossil Beds, Lewis and Clark National Historical Park. Tours at the Oregon Caves National Monument are closed, but hiking trails remain open. Advocacy groups fear the park service is moving too fast and urge extreme caution. We are also eager to get Americans back into our national parks. But it is too soon, warned Phil Francis, a retired superintendent who heads The Coalition to Protect Americas National Parks. Parks absolutely should not open until the safety of National Park Service employees, concession employees, volunteers and other partners, including those who work and live in gateway communities, can be ensured. Most park staffers will be in contact with visitors and many live on-site, in close quarters, in government-owned housing, he said. According to a park service document, parks should estimate that up to 40% of the total staff at the park may require isolation and 4% may require hospitalization. This is not only impossible under the current setup, Francis said, it is unacceptable. You are here: China Infrared cameras have captured footage of wild Chinese pangolins in a nature reserve in the Xianju National Park in east China's Zhejiang province. The spotted pangolins indicated the existence of several small breeding populations of the species in the wild in Zhejiang, according to Zhu Hanbo, deputy director of the national park's management committee. The mammal species was classified as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List in 2014. Located in the Xianju National Park, the nature reserve covers an area of 3,000 hectares. The park started to carry out biodiversity conservation and studies together with universities and scientific research institutions in March 2014. Elliot's pheasants, silver pheasants, black muntjacs, Naemorhedus gorals and other wild species under first- and second-class state-level protection have also been found in the park over the years, Zhu said. Megxit might be the best thing that has happened to Prince Harry. Julie Montagu, Viscountess Hinchingbrooke, who was born in America, believes that leaving the royal family has finally given Harry an opportunity to just become Harry. With Harry and Meghan Markles exit from the royal family finally official, here is a look at why he is enjoying more freedom than ever. Prince Harry | Samir Hussein/Samir Hussein/WireImage Julie Montagu knows exactly what Prince Harry is experiencing Leaving the royal family was a huge step for Harry, who has never really known life outside of the royal spotlight. While few people can relate to the Duke of Sussexes plight, Julie understands the differences between British people and Americans like few people do. Julie was born in Illinois and went to college at Indiana University. After finishing her degree in computer science, she re-located to London where she met her future husband, Luke Montagu. After they dated for a few months, Julie discovered that Luke was actually Viscount Hinchingbrooke and that his father was also known as the Earl of Sandwich. The pair went on to tie the knot in 2005, a year after their first meeting. At the beginning of her career, Julie ran a successful blog titled Flexi Foodie. She went on to write several cookbooks and agreed to star in a reality show called Ladies of London. Julies career has drawn many comparisons to Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, an American who also married into the British aristocracy. Not only has Julie given multiple interviews about the Sussexes, but she also commentated on their wedding for the BBC. Julie will next be seen sharing her expertise as the host of An American Aristocrats Guide to Great Estates on the Smithsonian Channel. What does Viscountess Hinchingbrooke think of Megxit? Harry and Meghans decision to leave the ranks of the royal family shocked fans around the world. It was no secret that the couple found adjusting to life under the royal spotlight difficult, but few expected they would outright leave the monarchy. Although the couples decision has been met with mixed responses, Julie believes Megxit might be the best thing to happen to Harry in a long time. In a recent interview, Julie revealed that leaving the royal family has given him the opportunity to just become Harry. She also emphasized that Harry has not closed the door on his family. But after witnessing what happened to his mother, Princess Diana, Prince Harry believed the only way to protect his family was to get out. Imagine what he has seen behind closed doors, Julie added. He had to think Do I really want my son to go through this too? Julie noted that she believes Harrys relationship with Prince William will also benefit from Megxit and noted time is a great healer, which suggests some time apart will help mend the rift. Julie Montagu believes Harrys life will be drastically different Having lived in America and the United Kingdom, Julie has a keen understanding of the differences between the two countries. While British people tend to be more reserved with their emotions, Americans have a reputation for being very open about how they feel. In another interview with Harpers Bazaar, Julie revealed this will be one of the biggest adjustments Prince Harry will have to make but that does not make it a bad thing. I feel like he has found somebody that he can be emotionally open with and I think thats a really good thing Family becomes the most important thing, she explained. I always say whenever you meet an American, you know their life story within 24 hours Were very emotionally open, which I think for Harry is actually a really good thing. Harry has done a lot of great work in the field of mental health. In recent years, Harry has also opened up about the struggles he faced in the wake of his Princess Dianas tragic death. Julie argued that royal watchers will see a change in Harrys demeanor now that he is living in Los Angeles. Harry will be allowed to open up about his emotions like never before, including discussing topics that are normally off-limits for members of the royal family. Will Prince Harry and Prince William make amends? With Harry undergoing some big changes, it is possible that time will heal his longstanding feud with William. And the road to making amends may have started with Archie Harrisons birthday. According to Express, Harry and Meghan initiated a video call with members of the royal family to celebrate Archie turning one year old. Royal insider Katie Nicholl revealed that Queen Elizabeth took part in the virtual chat, as did William and Kate Middleton. The Queen will wish him happy birthday this week via Zoom as will the Cambridge children, Nicholl shared. They havent seen their little cousin in months so theyve been looking forward to seeing how much hes grown. Prince Harry and Meghan moved to LA back in March and are reportedly looking to settle down in the area. In celebration of Archies birthday, the couple released a rare video of Archie enjoying some story time with Meghan. Catch Julie Montagu, Viscountess Hinchingbrooke, on An American Aristocrats Guide to Great Estates when it premieres May 17 at9pm EST on the Smithsonian Channel. By Devika Krishna Kumar and Marcelo Rochabrun NEW YORK/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Avianca Holdings SA, Latin America's second-largest airline, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sunday, as a bond payment deadline loomed and after unsuccessfully pursuing emergency aid from Colombia's government to survive the coronavirus crisis. Avianca estimated liabilities between $1 billion to $10 billion in a filing with the U.S. By Devika Krishna Kumar and Marcelo Rochabrun NEW YORK/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Avianca Holdings SA, Latin America's second-largest airline, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sunday, as a bond payment deadline loomed and after unsuccessfully pursuing emergency aid from Colombia's government to survive the coronavirus crisis. Avianca estimated liabilities between $1 billion to $10 billion in a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. "Avianca is facing the most challenging crisis in our 100-year history," CEO Anko van der Werff said in a press release. If it fails to come out of bankruptcy, Avianca would be one of the first major carriers worldwide to fail as a result of the coronavirus crisis, which has resulted in a 90% decline in global air travel. Avianca has not flown a regularly scheduled passenger flight since late March. Avianca is also one of the oldest airlines in the world, as well as a source of pride for Colombians. It already went through bankruptcy in the early 2000s, from which it was rescued by a Bolivian-born oil entrepreneur, German Efromovich. Efromovich grew the airline aggressively but also saddled the carrier with significant debt. Efromovich was ousted from the airline last year in a board-room coup orchestrated by United Airlines Holdings Inc, but he still formally owns the carrier. United stands to lose up to $700 million in loans related to Avianca. Efromovich told Reuters on Sunday that he disagreed with the decision to file for bankruptcy and that he was not involved in making it. The airline had been in weak shape even before the crisis hit. Roberto Kriete, president of Avianca's board, said last year in a meeting with employees that the airline was "broke." Most pressingly, Avianca faced a $65 million bond payment on Sunday that analysts did not think the airline was in a condition to meet. S&P downgraded the airline to CCC- status in the days leading up to the payment. Van der Werff had in recent weeks gone on a public relations campaign to secure emergency aid from Colombia's government, but as of Sunday none had materialized. The majority of Avianca's 20,000 employees had taken unpaid leave as a result of the crisis and the carrier had no certain date to resume operations. In parallel to its Chapter 11 filing in the United States, Avianca said it intends to begin winding down operations in Peru pursuant to local laws. Avianca is the third of Efromovich's airlines to go through bankruptcy or out of business in recent years. Airlines Avianca Brasil and Avianca Argentina ceased to exist last year due to economic troubles in their markets. (Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar in New York; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Lisa Shumaker) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Two of the most notable destinations to make the list are Vietnam and the Philippines, with both nations receivinga detailed overview by writer Karen I. Chen. With Vietnam continued suspension of international flights and halting of entry for all foreigners as a measure to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, the leading U.S. travel site urges its readers to make travel plans to visit the country soon after the pandemic passes. Vietnam has eased its social distancing restrictions since April 23 and its popular tourist destinations have reopened. The government has also allowed "non-essential" services except karaoke parlours and discos to resume operation. Recognition of the nation as a leading travel destination came after the US magazine voted the ancient town of Hoi An in the central province of Quang Nam as the best city for tourists to visit in the world last year due to its long history of culture, beautiful beaches, unique architecture, and alluring cuisine. Michael Flynn, President Trump's first national security advisor, arrives at federal court in Washington for a sentencing hearing in 2018. (Samuel Corum / New York Times) To the editor: What President Trump did after the Justice Department dropped charges against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was utterly unbelievable. He said he called Russian President Vladimir Putin to celebrate the reversal of the conviction and talk about "the Russia hoax, this absolute dishonest hoax." The U.S. intelligence apparatus has conclusively determined that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election campaign. It believes Russia continues with such meddling. However, our own president would rather believe Putin's lies. Trump's actions and his words say the same thing: He has no faith in the American political system with the three co-equal branches of government and the balance of power. He wants to be a despot, like Putin. He does not deserve one single vote. Michael Kranther, Los Angeles .. To the editor: This was not a "stunning legal victory for Flynn." This was an obvious political move by an attorney general who forgot that he serves the people, not the president. On two separate occasions, in open court and on the record, Flynn admitted his guilt about lying to the FBI. At the time he admitted his crime, Flynn's lawyers were standing next to him. Given his status, one can believe that his lawyers were top notch. As a lawyer who has handled cases in which my clients have entered a guilty plea, I know that Flynn was questioned by the U.S. attorney or the judge about the underlying facts before the judge would accept the guilty plea. This alone negates the rationale for dropping the case. Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, has disgraced the uniform he once wore. Andrew C. Sigal, Valley Village .. To the editor: Nowhere in your front-page article are the exculpatory facts of this mishandled investigation. This is what the Justice Department wrote in its motion to dismiss: "The Government has concluded that the interview of Mr. Flynn was untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn a no longer justifiably predicated investigation that the FBI had, in the Bureau's own words, prepared to close because it had yielded an 'absence of any derogatory information.'" Jim Gordon, San Diego Workers manufacture garment products at a factory in the southern province of Long An. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran. Vietnam's garment and textile exports in April fell 20 percent year-on-year to $2.3 billion and could fall further as buyers cancel orders over Covid-19 pandemic impacts. Data from the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) showed that garment and textile exports in the first four months fell 6.6 percent year-on-year to $10.6 billion. Material imports in the period fell 3 percent to $5.2 billion. Truong Van Cam, deputy chairman of VITAS, said more dampening figures were expected as most of the canceled and delayed contracts were for May and June. Never have export figures of many garment and textile items seen reduced growth as has happened this year, he said. "Exports of clothes, fiber and garment in the first four months fell by between 6 to 22 percent year-on-year." Vietnams garment and textile industry, the country's third largest in terms of export value behind smartphones and computers, struggled to source materials from China in February due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Starting March, producers also had difficulties selling to major markets such as E.U. and the U.S, which account for over 60 percent of total textile exports, as buyers canceled or delayed orders due to lower demand. VITAS has forecast that in the worst case scenario, Vietnams garment and textile exports could fall by 23 percent to $30 billion this year. The novel coronavirus has destroyed lives and livelihoods in both the United States and China. But instead of bonding the two nations together to fight the pandemic, it has sent their already strained relations on a rapid downward spiral -- and fanned the flames of a potentially dangerous strain of nationalism. China has been criticised at home and abroad over its handling of the virus, especially during the initial outbreak. Pushing back such criticism with increasingly fierce rhetoric, Beijing says it is merely "responding" to false accusations, particularly from the US. In March, as the pandemic raged across the globe, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian publicly promoted an unfounded conspiracy theory that the virus might have been brought to China by the US military. A few days later, US President Donald Trump called the coronavirus the "Chinese virus," pinning the blame on China as the outbreak began to take hold in major American cities. Trump dropped the term a week later -- but the finger pointing did not stop there. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has repeatedly lashed out at China over its handling of the outbreak, questioning its death toll and criticizing its early response to the virus. Last week, Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed -- without providing evidence -- that the virus originated from a Chinese lab. Beijing pushed back in response, dubbing the claim a reelection tactic aimed at boosting Trump's standing among Republican voters -- while China's government-controlled media attacked Pompeo with unusually vicious language, calling him "evil," "insane" and an "enemy of mankind." But the acrimony goes deeper than a mere war of words. The Trump administration is reportedly drawing up plans to punish China for the pandemic -- retaliation options include sanctions, canceling US debt obligations and drawing up new trade policies. Trump and several administration officials are also enlisting foreign allies to join the pressure campaign against China. 'Lowest point' in decades The dramatic deterioration of relations comes on the heels of a two-year trade war between the world's two largest economies -- a trade war that had already pushed tensions to new heights and spurred talk of decoupling. Yet while Trump's approach to China is not necessarily new, the situation he now faces is "much more dramatic and dangerous," said David Zweig, professor emeritus at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and director of Transnational China Consulting Limited. "The stakes are much higher," Zweig said. "In 2016, it was people's jobs. In 2020, it's people's lives." First detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan last December, the coronavirus has since spread far beyond the country's borders, infecting 3.9 million people and killing at least 276,000 across the globe. The US reported its first coronavirus case in January -- a man who had returned to Washington state from Wuhan days prior. Initially, the situation seemed under control, with one death and 22 cases reported throughout the country by the end of February. But the number of new infections exploded in March, and the US now accounts for more than a quarter of reported deaths worldwide. The Chinese government has been casting doubt on the origins of the pandemic, claiming the earliest cases may not have occurred in Wuhan. Shi Yinhong, an adviser to the Chinese government and international relations professor at China's Renmin University, said US-China relations have now "reached the lowest point since 1972," when former US President Richard Nixon made his historic visit to Beijing to normalize bilateral relations with China, which for years had been diplomatically isolated from the West. Shi's assessment is especially grim when taking into consideration the number of major crises the two countries have faced in the intervening decades: China's deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, the American bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999, the mid-air collision of a US spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet near Hainan Island in 2001, and the 2008 financial crisis. "Since the start of 2018, China-US relations have already entered a state of comprehensive competition and rivalry. Since the pandemic, however, the relations have suffered a major blow," Shi said. The rivalry and antagonism between the two countries has now extended to trade, technology, geopolitics and political ideology, and signs of decoupling are also expanding under the pandemic as lockdown measures disrupt flights, international travel and global supply chains, Shi said. Rising nationalism As bilateral ties plummet during the pandemic, US public opinion on China has also hit a new low. A recent Pew poll found that 66% of Americans held an unfavorable view of China, the highest percentage recorded since the annual survey began in 2005. Only about a quarter in the US report a favorable attitude towards China. Similarly, in China, nationalism and anti-foreign sentiment is running high. Backed by state media and officials, there is also a growing sense of bitterness that Chinese people, especially the people of Wuhan, have made huge sacrifices to contain the virus and suffered great loss, yet their country is still being criticized for not doing enough -- and taking the blame for other governments' inadequate response in handling the pandemic. "It's very clear when there's external hostility towards China, the people do tend to become more nationalistic. And the (Chinese Communist) Party plays on that," Zweig said. "People feel the Chinese ethnicity is under attack. They get very defensive. And it makes it very hard for more rational voices to speak out." Economic growth and nationalism have for decades been the two wellsprings of the Chinese Communist Party's political legitimacy. The country's economy has taken a huge hit from the coronavirus outbreak, contracting 6.8% in the first quarter this year -- the worst plunge since quarterly records began in 1992. And with economic growth more difficult to sustain than ever, the party is likely to turn even more to nationalism to cement its hold on power. As the number of new infections dropped in China and surged abroad, state media has touted China's success in defeating the virus while highlighting the failures of other governments to contain its spread -- particularly the United States. On April 30, China's state-run news agency Xinhua posted an animated video featuring Lego-like figures that mocked the US response to the pandemic. It has been viewed 2 million times on Twitter. "Despite some mistakes in the early days in Wuhan, the Chinese people are highly satisfied with the overall actions. The incompetence of US (government) is like a mirror, reflecting the reliability of Chinese (government)," said Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the nationalist state-run Global Times tabloid, in a Tweet on Thursday. In a commentary late last month, state broadcaster CCTV hailed China's political system as its "biggest advantage" in overcoming the outbreak. "The firm leadership of the Chinese Communist Party is the most important reason for China to defeat the epidemic," it said. Last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a speech to the country's youth marking the 101st anniversary of the May Four Movement, a student-led political movement sparked by angry protests towards the government's failure to stop foreign aggression and defend China's interests. It later grew into broader calls for modernity, democracy and science. In his speech, Xi praised young people for their part in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak, and urged them to "work hard for the realization of the Chinese dream for national rejuvenation," state broadcaster CCTV reported. Under Xi's vision of the "Chinese dream" and push for "national rejuvenation," Beijing has grown increasingly more assertive in its foreign policy, eager to project its influence in the world and staunchly defend its "core" national interests, including disputed territorial claims. That approach has already drawn criticism at home and abroad for alienating the US and other members of the international community. International backlash Under the pandemic, Beijing is finding itself in the midst of a growing global backlash that extends well beyond the US. Outside China, criticism is growing over its handling of the outbreak and pressure is mounting for an independent international inquiry to look into its origins. There are also calls for economic compensation from China for the damage caused. In Europe, China has been accused of spreading misinformation. And in Africa, Beijing faced a diplomatic crisis after reports of alleged coronavirus-related discrimination against African nationals in China sparked anger across the continent. Shi, the Chinese government adviser, said some Western powers have aligned with the US in blaming China for allegedly mishandling the outbreak -- and that is a serious foreign relations issue for Beijing. "From China's point of view, this is closely related to the prestige of the Chinese regime and potential stability," he said. As well as via state media, China has tried to defend its image through diplomatic envoys. Known as "wolf warrior" diplomacy, it references a popular Chinese action movie series in which the country's military enacts daring operations around the world. However the increasingly combative tone of some Chinese diplomats has itself fueled tensions and sparked criticism. China has also sent masks, test kits and other supplies and medical experts to countries hit hard by the pandemic -- and even then, critics have questioned the motives of Beijing's so-called "mask diplomacy." "Even if after the pandemic has passed, these problems will remain. They might be less emotionally charged by then, but they'll be there all the same," said Shi. "The memory (of the pandemic and its devastation) is so deep that I'm afraid (the scars) will remain in the hearts of a whole generation." Author Erlinda Gonzales-Berry A love story for the ages is the glue to Rosebud: Population 7. In 1917, Quique del Valle knew as a child at St. George Elementary School that Caridad was the love of his life. Even announcing it to her after he came to her rescue when she fell and scraped her knees. The two would not marry until they were almost 30 years old and Caridads siblings were able to support themselves. The two married and began their family. They had several girls who referred to themselves as the Wild Bunch. And that they were. Their stories and that of their ancestors are captured in Rosebud: Population 7, a fictionalized autobiography of growing up in little towns of northern New Mexico. The characters, inspired by author Erlinda Gonzales-Berrys own family, tell tales that bring the past to life and demonstrate what life was like in desolate Rosebud and living in the llanos. Its really based on my family, a period of time in my familys trajectory, Gonzales-Berry said. The mother, the father, the sisters, so thats basically my family. The area, same thing. A lot of the incidents that I build stories out of actually happened but theyre just the kernel for the story, and then it takes off and I take the liberty of expanding and fictionalizing. As Gonzales-Berry, now in her late 70s, became older the importance of capturing stories of her heritage grew stronger. I feel very strongly about that, she said. As I age, I was born in 42. I was an academic. I have about 50 books and articles on my curriculum and all that now doesnt seem important. What is important to me in my life now is memory, is recalling the past and remembering my parents and grandparents and I feel very strongly that theyre gone but when Im gone they will really be gone if I dont share their story. Gonzales-Berry said it was always a given that she and her sisters would attend college. The girls grew up with a college-educated mother who became a teacher which gave them some prominence growing up in Rosebud. My mom went to the university. She got her degree when she was 47 years old. Gonzales-Berry said. I was 14 when I went to her graduation so it was a given that we would get an education and I think they felt that they taught us very deep values that we would hold onto no matter what. And those values would save us as we explored the other cultures and widened our horizons and our dad was very liberal with us. Memories of Gonzales-Berrys childhood are saturated throughout Rosebud: Population 7. She incorporates the memories as well as the sites, sounds and dialects throughout, including the specific kind of Spanish spoken in the area. I think Im the last generation to be very naturally bilingual in our dialect, she said. I know its very different from border Spanish and all of that but its an old, old, old variant of Spanish and it stuck, but the viejitos didnt speak English. Our grandparents. And they were, mind you, about fourth generation American. I mean they became Americans in 1848 when the border crossed them. And still, they were monolingual by and large, especially the women, if they didnt work out of the home. It was important for Gonzales-Berry to capture the essence of the tiny towns she grew up in. Thats the area that has pretty much been ignored, she said. So much has been written about the north and Taos and that whole area, but out there out in the plains there is very little. And yes there was a pretty vibrant society there. It was a little different. Very cowboy oriented. Gonzales-Berry had several book signings and readings scheduled to promote her book. But all were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, snippets of the book are available online. The book can be purchased on Amazon and directly through the publisher Floricanto Press website. Champaign, IL (61820) Today Cloudy. Morning high of 37F with temps falling to near 20. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph.. Tonight Considerable clouds this evening. Some decrease in clouds late. Low 8F. Winds NNW at 15 to 25 mph. Three months ago this weekend, counting had just begun after the general election. Sinn Fein was soon declaring victory. The experts were agreed. The political landscape had been radically reshaped and nothing would ever be the same again. They were right, though not for the reasons they thought. On February 10, the global death toll from the coronavirus, then still without a name, passed 1,000, but there was no report about it on Morning Ireland the next day. Nor was there the day after that. Covid-19, as it was now officially known, didn't reach Ireland until the end of the month. Since then, normal life has been turned upside down. That's why the pronouncements of those who confidently predict what this coronavirus crisis will mean for the world should probably be taken with a generous pinch of salt. Back then, not one of them had the slightest inkling that, within weeks, the world would have shut down, and Ireland would be looking at a 23bn deficit in the coming financial year as a result of the damage wreaked by Covid-19, rendering all quarrels about politics, society and economics entirely superfluous. Suddenly they're experts in futurology? The Department of Finance budgeted that a disorderly no-deal departure from the EU by Britain would have shrunk the Irish economy this year by 2.4pc. Thanks to Covid-19, GDP is now expected to fall by more than 10pc, while new analysis by the EU expects unemployment in Ireland to hit 1.1m by the summer. Even with anticipated rapid growth in the post-Covid years, the cracks will be hard to repair, yet many headlines fizz right now with a spirit of revolutionary optimism. "How the world might change for the better after coronavirus." "Why coronavirus might just create a more equal society." Largely, this idealistic chitter- chatter comes from a good place. The crisis has been a timely reminder of who the real essential workers are, from nurses to transport workers to supermarket shelf-stackers. Society functions because of a critical mass of ordinary people getting on with what needs to be done without complaint. They need to be better appreciated, and rewarded. There are myriad other ways in which the social changes which have come about as a result of this crisis could become more permanent. Remote learning and working from home will undoubtedly become more normalised. Other shifts in behaviour may prove short-lived. International air travel won't stop being an astonishing liberation just because planes were temporarily grounded. Likewise, people will be less concerned about the cleanness of the air when they don't have jobs, and will want to see industry crank into gear as quickly as possible. The grand talk of a post-coronavirus economic package, similar to the Marshall Plan which helped rebuild Europe after World War II, may well come to fruition. We're all state interventionists now, to varying degrees. Public spending has shot up; government has gone back to having an overarching role in people's lives, after decades on the ideological wane; central banks are going to be turning the financial taps on and off for years to come. If there was ever a moment to gamble on a new economic model, this is it. One change which might happen, almost by chance, is the move toward a universal basic income (UBI). There will be fewer jobs in future, so no validity to the argument UBI is a deterrent to work. It is hard to escape the conclusion that any changes which do come about, though, will be because they ultimately benefit the great and the good, rather than the multitude. More people working from home will cut down the overheads of large companies. They can save money on office space, while reducing staff levels further. Even the contact-tracing app which is being developed could provide a template for greater surveillance. Such cynicism might be uncalled for. It would be lovely if a fairer, more equal and greener world did emerge from the crisis. But it won't, will it? There may be some minor changes for a while, but ultimately the people who run the world will carry on running it; the people who have lots of money will continue to have lots of it - possibly more than before - while those who have little will continue to have little, possibly even less as the economy contracts. The same suits and technocrats will continue to run the world in their own interests. The rich man will be in his castle and the poor man at the gate. It is possible to imagine a whole new approach to ordering the world, which frees up human ingenuity, innovation and enterprise. But it would require politicians of enormous courage and imagination to get behind it, and the tragic truth is that they don't exist right now. This generation of politicians is solid, dependable, decent enough, but they're not pioneers. To forge a new world, they would have to become outliers, and it's not in their nature to take risks. They seek safety in numbers, like wildebeest in a herd. The only way they would do anything remotely radical is in concert with dozens of other countries and a multitude of different agencies with their own agendas, as with the Paris Agreement on climate change, and any such negotiations would rapidly get bogged down in a technocratic, bureaucratic morass. In Ireland, the civil service and public sector unions have always been stubbornly resistant to reform. That historic stalemate could be broken if the pandemic, far from being brought under control, breaks free of its restraints and runs rampage through the world, killing millions. When that happened during the Black Death, it raised the price of labour for those left behind, and freed up land. Prosperity followed. In the same way, the Great Depression and World War II are credited with paving the way for the modern welfare state. But how could one possibly wish that violent fate on the world, even if the ultimate outcomes brought some benefits to those who survived? Even then, it could just as easily lead instead to a virulent form of disaster capitalism, which profiteered from misery. One of the weird things about this crisis is how some political seers have seemingly reconciled themselves to Covid-19's terrible toll in the hope or expectation it might just bring about political outcomes they have always favoured, whether that is cleaner air, in the case of Green activists, or more state intervention, in the case of thinkers on the left, which is curious when it was the commercial supply chains which have been shown during this crisis to work most efficiently in keeping us fed and comfortable while at home. Idealists do acknowledge the possibility that the world may stay the same, or even get worse, with warnings about a potential rise in authoritarianism and racism, even war. But mostly they start from the assumption that the world is more easily amenable to well-meaning interference than experience suggests it really is. It speaks of a heady combination of wishful thinking and confirmation bias. In recent days, Sky News editor- at-large Adam Boulton was actually invited to predict what the world might look like in the next few years, and confidently declared "the era of the corporate masters of the universe and the CEO as superhero will end this decade". He added: "If asset values are down and wealth is taxed there will be less point in being super rich... it will not be acceptable to profit at the present rate." It's a stretch to believe anyone could, with a straight face, think there was "less point in being super rich" now than there was six weeks ago. The super rich will certainly continue to see a point in it, and they will always find ways to protect their profits against any high-minded crusade towards greater egalitarianism. That an era which will see mass unemployment back again, reduced property values, lower share prices affecting pension funds and worsening mental and bodily health outcomes for millions will somehow provide the path to a mythical world of greater equality and social cohesion seems fanciful. Taxes will rise, and not just on the wealthier. Like those who dreamed of a world without planes, left-wing visionaries who thought the world would be better off without capitalism may be about to get a lesson in bewaring what they wished for. The world still hasn't fully recovered yet from the last recession. There were shafts of light certainly, but plenty of people were still suffering, and there were dark clouds suggestive of another recession even before Covid-19. It's hard to see how a better world can be built on that shaky ground. The same sages probably thought the financial crash would shake everything up, but it didn't, at least not in the way they dreamed. It led not to reform but to austerity and massive bailouts for corporate interests. Sadly, French author Michel Houellebecq was surely right when, describing what the world would be like after Covid, said: "It will be the same, just a bit worse." ZAGREB, Croatia - Croatias defence minister resigned Thursday after an air force training plane crashed in the southwest of the country, killing both crew members. Damir Krsticevic said he is stepping down after another Croatian military aircraft, a helicopter, also crashed three months ago, killing two pilots. We have to be transparent and take responsibility for the crashes, Krsticevic said. The Defence Ministry ministry said the Zlin single-engine aircraft crashed at around 4 p.m. local time Thursday during a routine training flight. Officials did not say what might have caused the plane to go down in a thinly-populated near the central Adriatic town of Zadar. Photos from the scene show the small planes wreckage in flames, partly wedged under a large bush near the walls of what appears to be a private house. The plane had taken off from an air base at Zadar. In India, Mother's Day is being celebrated on May 10 this year. The occasion is observed as an opportunity to express love and gratitude towards mothers for everything they do for their children and families selflessly. This day is a chance to tell our mothers that their support and importance in our lives cannot be fathomed. Mothers are our true confidants, reliable advisors, and constants from the time we come to this till they live to see us. Also read: Coronavirus India Live Updates: INS Jalashwa brings back 698 Indians from Male, Maldives; total cases 62,939 History behind Mother's Day Mother's Day was first celebrated by the Greeks and the Romans in ancient times by worshipping Goddess Rhea and Cybelle. However, It is widely believed that celebrations is believed to have started first in the United States back in 1908, when a woman named Anna Jarvis wanted to mark the day in honour of her mother. Anna took it upon her and held a memorial for her mother at St Andrew's Methodist Church in West Virginia, three years after her death. Anna's mother was a peace activist who tended to the wounded soldiers during the American Civil War. Her mother was a founder of the Mother's Day Work Clubs as well that worked in the area of public health. It was her contribution towards the society and Anna's utmost respect and love for her mother, that led to the Mother's Day being declared as a national holiday by the American statesman and lawyer Woodrow Wilson. Also Read: Mother's Day 2020 Date: When is Mother's day, importance, how and why to celebrate Why we celebrate Mother's Day? Mother's Day aims to celebrate and honour the countless sacrifices of our moms for us and our families. No words are enough to express our gratitude towards them. Even though one day is not enough to tell our mothers how important they are for us, you can make this day special for them by pampering them, acknowledge their contributions to your lives and tell your mothers how much you love and care about them. When is Mother's Day celebrated? Even though Mother's Day is being celebrated on May 10, the occasion is observed on different dates in several nations. In the UK, this day is observed on the fourth of Sunday in the memory of Mother Church on Christian Mothering Sunday. In Arab nations, the day is celebrated on March 21, whereas some catholic countries commemorate this occasion on the Virgin Mary Day. In Greece, this day is observed on February 2. However, many nations, including India celebrate Mother's Day on May 21. How we celebrate Mother's Day People thank their mothers by making cards, buying gifts, cooking for them, baking a cake, or taking them for an outing. However, due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown this year, you can either make a lovely card for your mother with messages and quotes and post it on social media as a status note or send her a personal text or on Whatsapp. Max Baucus is the former U.S. Senator from Montana. For some reason, the people of that great state repeatedly elected him to the Senate. Less surprisingly, President Obama selected Baucus to be his ambassador to China. He served in this position for almost three clueless years. This week, Baucus told CNN that President Trumps over the top rhetoric and red baiting of China reminds him of Joe McCarthy. Baucus also threw in Hitler, for good measure. The Joe McCarthy reference is inane at two levels, at least. McCarthy was known for accusing people of being communists without a sufficient basis for the charges. China avowedly is a communist state. It wouldnt be red baiting in the McCarthy sense to criticize China for being communist. But Trump hasnt criticized China on this ground. I wish Trump would, but he studiously avoids doing so. Until the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, Trumps consistent line on China was that the Chinese have outsmarted the U.S. e.g. in the realm of trade and intellectual policy. He hasnt blamed China for doing so, much less blamed the fact that the regime is communist. Instead, Trump blames American politicians and official (like Baucus, at least implicitly) for being outsmarted. However, Trump doesnt attribute the failings of these politicians and officials to sympathy for communism. There is no red baiting. Lately, Trump has criticized China for its handling of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. I dont think its possible to defend Chinas response, and Baucus certainly didnt attempt to during the CNN interview. In any case, to my knowledge Trump hasnt tied his criticism of Chinas handling of the pandemic to the fact that its a communist dictatorship, though Id like him to. So again, there is no red baiting. Baucuss reference to Hitler is so astonishingly stupid that it stunned Hala Goroni, the CNN interviewer. She asked Baucus if he really believed what he was saying. The former Senator didnt back down. Maybe he was channeling Norman Ornstein, or vice versa. Addled minds think alike. Baucuss claim was that people are afraid to say anything reasonable about China for fear of [their] head [being] chopped off, a little bit like Hitler in the 30s. It may be true that few Americans want to defend Chinas handling of the coronavirus because the defense is too difficult to make on the merits. But Trump has received plenty of criticism for blaming China to divert attention from his own alleged mishandling of the virus. Who has been punished for saying this or, more generally, for disagreeing with Trump about China? No one. Max Baucus is just making it up. If theres any effort to stifle open discourse about China these days, it comes from the left. The president and others have been accused of racism for calling the coronavirus the China virus. In San Antonio, Texas, the city council unanimously passed a resolution declaring it a hate crime to say Chinese virus. As usual in contemporary America, the authoritarian impulse more frequently manifests itself on the left than on the right. Baseless allegations of authoritarianism are more frequent on the left, too. Max Baucuss rendition deserves an award for stupidity. They should stick to the mandate which the police have in terms of the constitution of the country, in terms of the deployment which would have been done by their commanders. So, anyone who goes outside the deployment order and does their own things will face the full the wrath of the law, said Asst Comm Nyathi. Chronicle New York (UN), 10 April 2020 (SPS) - Representative of the Frente POLISARIO to the United Nations, Dr. Sidi Mohamed Omar, has warned that the continuation of the peace process in its current form and the absence of real will on the part of the Security Council, to push for a peaceful solution to the process of decolonization, causes the Saharawi people to lose their trust in the UN-led process to end the decolonization of Western Sahara. The Saharawi diplomat pointed out in an interview with the German newspaper https://www.jungewelt.de/, that the absence of impetus by the International Community plays in favour of Morocco and its attempt to maintain the status quo and prolong the suffering of the Saharawi people to impose its illegal occupation of parts of Western Sahara. Relating to the peace plan agreed between the parties in 1988, Morocco and the Frente POLISARIO, the member of the Frente POLISARIO National Secretariat recalled that the Security Council reaffirmed its request to reach a political solution acceptable to both parties to ensure that the Saharan people exercise their right to self-determination. With regard to the negotiations between the parties, the Representative of the Frente POLISARIO stressed their importance as a way to reach a peaceful solution. However, he underlined that the exclusive owner of the right to self-determination is the Saharawi people, who must exercise its right in a free, direct and democratic manner in accordance with international norms and practices. In the face of international inaction and the prolongation of the occupation to Western Sahara, he insisted that the Sahrawi people will never accept this unfair situation under any justification and warned that the status quo is dangerous and unsustainable for the region. (SPS) 062/SPS/T Many Americans today go far beyond simply rejecting the ideas of the American founders, the claims of the Declaration, and the Constitution. They reject the very idea of truth. These Americans were taught in American universities that there is no such thing as truth, that truth is an outmoded concept, that we now live in a post-truth reality. The belief that the concept of truth is outmoded is no longer confined to academia. It has invaded the world outside academia and won a great victory there; the Oxford Dictionaries selected "post-truth" as the Word of the Year for 2016. And a great victory it is. Convincing Americans that there is no such thing as truth defeats the very foundation of the American idea. The Founders, famously, founded America on certain truths, truths they declared to the world were not only true, but self-evidently true: "We hold these truths to be self-evident" Self-evident truth occupies the first place and also the highest position among the declarations of the Declaration of Independence. "Created equal" and "unalienable rights" and all the rest follow along after that bold opening claim. The Founders certainly believed they built on the rock of self-evident truth. But if there is no such thing as truth, then there can be no such thing as a self-evident truth, and everything the Founders declared and established can simply be dismissed. There is no need to try to understand the thinking of the Founders not even by professors of constitutional law. A few years ago, I watched a broadcast of an academic conference on the Constitution. The participants were all professors of constitutional law from major American universities. The keynote speaker declared for himself and for his colleagues their indifference to the ideas of the Founders. He developed his theme at some length to repeated enthusiastic applause from his fellow professors in the audience. However, if you as an American citizen decide to take an interest in the ideas of the Founders, you quickly run into their idea of self-evident truth; it is everywhere in their writings. Sometimes you may not realize it, though. For example, consider a passage written by Alexander Hamilton. Please read Hamilton's words carefully before you move on to reading what I have to say about them. The passage is from Federalist 31: In disquisitions [discourses] of every kind, there are certain primary truths, or first principles, upon which all subsequent reasonings must depend. These contain an internal evidence which, antecedent to all reflection or combination, commands the assent of the mind. The passage may be easier to understand with the explanation that "primary truths" and "first principles" are alternative ways in which the Founders referred to self-evident truths. Consequently, we can restate Hamilton's words in a way that gives them a more familiar feeling: "there are certain self-evident truths upon which all subsequent reasonings must depend." Restated in this way, it becomes clear that Hamilton's statement parallels Jefferson's iconic one in the Declaration. Hamilton and Jefferson are relying on a shared understanding of self-evident truth and Hamilton's passage, like the Declaration, gives self-evident truth the highest position. What is that shared understanding of self-evident truth that Jefferson and Hamilton and the other Founders relied on? It is this: to know that a statement is self-evidently true, all that is required is that we understand the statement; to understand a self-evident truth is to know that it is true. Does this idea of statements that are self-evidently true seem a bit high-flown, something for special occasions such as a speech celebrating the Fourth of July? Actually, it shouldn't seem unusual because we make use of the same understanding of self-evident truth all the time. The idea of self-evident truth has been carefully excised from our political discourse, yet we constantly rely on the self-evidence of truth in our day-to-day lives, though we may not always notice it when we do. Here is an example of the kind of thing we do all the time, selected from a book on economics entitled Cents and Sensibility: Without Columbus someone else would have discovered America, but it defies common sense to assert that without Milton someone else would have written Paradise Lost. Both the claim about Columbus and the claim about Milton are self-evidently true; to understand them is to know they are true. We could re-state them in this way: "it is a self-evident truth that without Columbus someone would have discovered America, and it is a self-evident truth that without Milton Paradise Lost would never have been written." Such statements, as Hamilton puts it, "command the assent of the mind." A self-evident truth does not need a proof; it only needs to be understood. If a university assembled a committee of scholars and spent years and millions of dollars examining those statements about Columbus and Milton, absolutely nothing would be gained. When the scholars issued their report, people would be right to say it was a waste of time and money. However, most of us would probably not make reference to self-evident truths to make that point. Instead of saying there was no need for the all the expenditure of time and money because the statements are self-evidently true, we would be more likely to say it was a waste of time and money because "it's just common sense." The Founders would agree with us, though they might want to help our understanding along by pointing out the difference between a self-evident truth and our capacity to recognize a self-evident truth. Common sense gives us the capacity to recognize what is self-evidently true, and using common sense to recognize what is self-evidently true is something we do all the time. And every time we do, we disprove the claims of those who defy common sense by claiming that there is no such thing as truth. Robert Curry serves on the Board of Directors of the Claremont Institute. He is the author of Reclaiming Common Sense: Finding Truth in a Post-Truth World and Common Sense Nation: Unlocking the Forgotten Power of the American Idea. Both are published by Encounter Books. As President Donald Trump tries to moves on from the coronavirus, Congress is rushing to fill the void and prepare the country for the long fight ahead. Jolted by the lack of comprehensive federal planning as states begin to reopen, lawmakers of both parties, from the senior-most senators to the newest House member, are jumping in to develop policies and unleash resources to prevent a second wave. In the House and Senate, lawmakers are pushing sweeping proposals for a national virus testing strategy. One seasoned Republican wants a war-like public health fund. A New Jersey freshman launched neighboring colleagues on a regional bipartisan task force to help guide Northeastern states back to work. This is going to be on us, said Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., a former Navy helicopter pilot in her first term in Congress. The legislative branch is stepping up in the absence of a consistent, convincing White House strategy, in much the way governors have been forced to go it alone during the nation's pandemic response. Congress is preparing its fifth coronavirus aid package, a Rooseveltian effort, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York put it. It's a Democratic-heavy plan that wary Republicans are watching, despite support in the party for some provisions. Unlike the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, when President George W Bush called on Congress to create a Department of Homeland Security, or during the Great Depression, when President Franklin D Roosevelt led the nation to the New Deal, Trump is not seeking a legacy-defining accomplishment in the heat of national crisis. Instead, Trump has turned the life-and-death decision-making away from the federal government and onto the states for the next phase of the response. He expects governors to arrange virus testing systems and find their own medical gear, saying the federal government is a supplier of last resort. The White House coronavirus task force has abandoned daily briefings. Encouraging the economic rebound, Trump said Thursday he's looking forward to "getting on with it. When the nation is in the middle of the major, historic crisis, the norm is that both branches focus on the issue, said Julian E Zelizer, a Princeton professor of history and public policy. It's not normal for the president to just move on." The administration issued guidelines for reopening state and local economies, but shelved a more detailed 17-page report from the experts at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. New projections say the death toll could essentially double this summer, from 70,000 as of Friday to 134,000 by early August, as states loosen stay-home restrictions, according to a model from the University of Washington. It is lot for Congress to take on, Andy Slavitt, a former federal health official, told the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Friday. "There's never been a greater time when Americans need the support of Congress and their state and local leaders." As the Senate resumed this past week while the House stayed largely away, lawmakers drilled into pandemic policy. Tom Frieden, a former CDC director, outlined a 10-point strategy in testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee. As bad as this has been, it's just the beginning, Frieden warned of the long wait ahead for improved treatments and an eventual vaccine. Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the committee, was particularly interested in Frieden's proposal for a new public health fund modelled on those Congress uses to pay the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, separate from budget caps. There needs to be a whole big plan, said Cole. On the other side of the Capitol, an exasperated Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., grilled officials about the national testing strategy she has pushd since early March. We can't reopen our country safely, she said, until tests are are fast, free, and everywhere. Health officials say a robust national testing effort, with the ability to trace the contacts of those who have been infected - so those people isolate and prevent spread - should be central to any plan returning Americans to work. Several lawmakers want the federal government to hire out-of-work Americans into an army of the estimated 300,000 public health workers needed for the job. To ensure enough medical supplies, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wants to wrest manufacturing away from China with Buy American rules to kick-start domestic industry. While many of the proposals coming from Congress are bipartisan, pushback is strong from some corners. Conservative Republicans in particular resist a robust federal government intervention, preferring a state-by-state approach. Many share Trump's view that the remedy can't be worse than the disease, as record Americans are out of work. Trump will need to sign any legislation into law. At the House hearing, Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., an anesthesiologist, argued that indefinite stay-home orders make no sense. "We're safer from death if we're not born," he said. Cole, a former history professor, said Trump is constrained by the built-in balance between Washington and the states, which ensures 50 laboratories as states try different options for confronting the virus. We're going to know pretty quick whether or not these guys starting up early are right, he said. Robotics arms install the front seats to the Tesla Model 3 at the Tesla factory in Fremont, California, on Thursday, July 26, 2018. Tesla says it has started the process to resume operations and released a plan to bring its employees and contractors back to work, amid an escalating dispute with local health authorities in California over a shelter-in-place order that has kept the automaker's Fremont factory idle during the coronavirus pandemic. "Our restart plan is the result of months of careful planning and preparation," Tesla's leadership said in a blog post titled "Getting Back to Work." "It was modeled after the comprehensive return to work plan we established at our Shanghai Gigafactory, which has seen smooth and healthy operations for the last three months." Tesla workers are currently scheduled for shifts this week in Fremont to manufacture Model 3, S and X vehicles, according to company correspondence reviewed by CNBC. Those shifts were scheduled before CEO Elon Musk threatened Saturday to pull Tesla out of California in a dispute over the Fremont factory shutdown. Tesla has filed a lawsuit against California's Alameda County, asking a federal court to invalidate orders by local authorities that have prevented the automaker from resuming production. Tesla argues in the company blog post that the Fremont factory falls under Gov. Gavin Newsom's essential workforce guidelines and should resume production because it is critical national infrastructure. "Contrary to the Governor's recent guidance and support from the City of Fremont, Alameda County is insisting we should not resume operations," Tesla's leadership said in the blog post. "This is not for lack of trying or transparency since we have met with and collaborated on our restart plans with the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency." Alameda County authorities could not be immediately reached for comment. Each Tesla facility has a back-to-work plan and a response team, which includes a physician, is establishing health and safety guidelines based on location and job-specific risk assessments, according to the company. In some cases, partitions and barriers have been added to minimize employee interactions. Tesla's re-opening plan outlines several safety guidelines and protocols for Tesla workers, including increasing cleaning and disinfection in work areas; enforcing social distancing; controlling access to facilities and imposing temperature checks at some locations. "We are taking the time we need to get our personnel properly trained before they begin work and all employees must complete an online video training before returning to work at any Tesla facility," the company said. The company will also adjust work shifts to control the number of people in one work space and cut shuttle occupancy in half. The company says it will provide personal protective equipment to workers and implement touchless services for people who have direct contact with customers. Tesla workers who can work from home will continue to do so but those needed for essential operations in the production facilities will come back to work gradually. Employees returning to work will complete a self-health checklist each day. Workers that show symptoms are directed to stay home, according to the plan. Laurie Shelby, Tesla's vice president for environment, health and safety, sent the following email to all of Tesla's U.S. employees on Friday, including factory, showroom and sales workers, laying out health and safety guidelines: Hi everyone - We have been working hard to ensure your health and safety as we resume and ramp-up operations. Additional safety measures like health checks prior to entry, required face coverings while onsite at all U.S. locations (and some other sites globally), social distancing practices, the use of protective barriers and PPE are in place. All of this is covered in the Coming to Work safety training video you can watch now or upon return to work if you are furloughed. The attached Safety Guidelines summarize this training and outline how we're helping to keep you safe and how you can help too. It is important to remember: Before coming to work each day, conduct the attached self-health check. It is three questions and if you cannot answer yes, please do not come to work. Contact your supervisor or Human Resources partner. We all must take these requirements seriously. They are an expectation for everyone working. As always, please reach out to me or [Ed: Redacted] with questions and suggestions. Thank you for doing your part to ensure everyone's health and safety, Laurie Here is Tesla's back-to-work guide: 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. A Florida man has been arrested for shooting a flare gun at two people attempting to serve him legal papers, according to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office. A woman found at the premises was also arrested for battery and resisting arrest. On Friday, deputies were dispatched to the 200 block of Colson Drive after receiving a report that shots were fired near a home in Cudjoe. But before deputies arrived, 79-year-old William Nash and 75-year-old Carole Harwood became upset at two process servers who were trying to deliver legal documents to their residence. Harwood met a male process server and his female colleague at the front door and became combative, the police report said. William Nash (left) and Carole Harwood (right) were arrested by Monroe County deputies on Friday after he shot at two process servers with a flare gun The male process server turned to go back to his vehicle when Nash suddenly appeared on his balcony and shot a flare gun at the man and the woman. That's when the male process server pulled out his own gun and pointed it at Nash. 'The male process server then drew his legally concealed firearm and pointed it at Nash while telling him to cease firing,' the police report said. Nash fired off more flares and narrowly missed the male process server each time. One flare bounced off the hood of the victim's car. The male process server then held Nash at gunpoint while waiting for deputies to arrive. He did not use his weapon during the incident. Meanwhile, Harwood was still engaged in a verbal argument with the process servers downstairs. When deputies arrived at 8.20pm, they found an irate Hardwood yelling at the process servers. When deputies arrived, they found an upset Harwood (left) arguing with the process servers. Pictured: Harwood and Nash (right) Harwood and Nash (left and right) were taken into police custody ahead of their scheduled arraignment later in May 'The male victim stated she charged him and fell down prior to Deputies' arrival,' the police report said. Harwood allegedly refused to follow deputies' order and pulled away when they tried to detain her. Nash came downstairs with his hands up and admitted to shooting at the process servers with his flare gun. He added that he had been drinking earlier that night. The male process server showed deputies footage of the incident that corroborated the victims' version of events. Deputies said the residence smelled like gunpowder. The flare gun and several empty flare casings were recovered as well. Nash was charged with aggravated assault with a firearm and use of a firearm while under the influence of alcohol. Harwood was charged with battery and resisting arrest. Both were taken into police custody and no injuries were reported. They will be arraigned later this month. Olivia Wilde penned a powerful message about fighting against injustice on her Instagram Story, on what should have been Ahmaud Arbery's 26th birthday. '#IRanWithMaud and it was steep and hard. Are we ready for the hard work it will take to fight for justice? I hope so. I'm ready,' the House star, 36, wrote on Saturday. Arbery, a 25-year-old unarmed black jogger, was caught on video being shot and killed by a white father and son on February 23. Warrior: Olivia Wilde penned a powerful message about fighting against injustice on her Instagram Story, on what should have been Ahmaud Arbery's 26th birthday For her intense solo workout, she donned a cloth blue mask, black Nike tank and a pair of form-fitting black leggings, which had the word 'warrior' down the side. The Booksmart director also documented a light-hearted moment on her hike, which included a series of signs dubbing the Eleventh Commandment: 'Thou shalt wear a mask and washeth thy hand.' The mother-of-two, who shares her son Otis, six, and three-year-old daughter Daisy with longtime partner Jason Sudeikis, accessorized her sporty look with a high ponytail, Apple Watch and a massive pair of black shades. '#IRanWithMaud and it was steep and hard. Are we ready for the hard work it will take to fight for justice? I hope so. I'm ready,' the House star, 36, wrote on Saturday Fighting for justice: Arbery, a 25-year-old unarmed black jogger, was shot and killed allegedly by a white father and son 'vigilante' team in broad daylight on February 23 During her active outing, she listened to music with a pair of wireless headphones and enjoyed a La Croix sparkling water. She is one of many celebrities that added their voice to demand justice for Ahmaud Arbery. LeBron James, Amy Schumer, Kerry Washington, Zoe Kravitz, Gabrielle Union and Justin Bieber all called for justice for Arbery's family just two days ago across social media. Fit: The mother-of-two, who shares her son Otis, six, and three-year-old daughter Daisy with longtime partner Jason Sudeikis, accessorized her sporty look with a high ponytail, Apple Watch and a massive pair of black shades Active with a cause: For her intense solo workout, she donned a cloth blue mask, black Nike tank and a pair of form-fitting black leggings, which had the word 'warrior' down the side On Thursday, officials in Georgia arrested and charged Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis McMichael, 34, with murder and aggravated assault in the runner's death. The arrest came days after leaked cellphone video of the McMichaels' fatal confrontation with Arbery made headlines nationwide and sparked fevered outrage in what the victim's family called a 'lynching'. The shocking footage showed the two men 'ambushing' Arbery as he tried to run past their pickup truck, the younger McMichael getting into a physical fight with Arbery before shooting him with a shotgun. The Booksmart director also documented a light-hearted moment on her hike, which included a series of signs dubbing the Eleventh Commandment: 'Thou shalt wear a mask and washeth thy hand' The father and son were initially not arrested after they claimed they thought Arbery was a burglar after a spate of thefts in their area, and that he attacked them when they tried to make a citizen's arrest. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the investigation on Tuesday after the video emerged. Around a dozen GBI officers equipped with bulletproof vests and assault rifles descended on the McMichaels' two-bedroom $280,000 property in suburban Brunswick to execute arrest warrants Thursday. Attorney S. Lee Merritt, who is representing Arbery's parents, told DailyMail.com: 'It's a huge, huge step but it's only a first step on a very long road to justice.' Mumbai, May 10 : Actor Rajesh Tailang, who plays the lead in the new short film "Zoya", which addresses the importance of protecting wildlife and the mother nature, says that it is high time we take the conversation on nature conservation seriously. Directed, produced and written by Sahirr Sethhi, the film was shot in 2015 and it premiered at 2016 Palm Springs International ShortFest. The film also travelled to several international short film festivals. Asked about what interested him to be part of the film, Rajesh told IANS: "Acting is my first love and wildlife is second. I go to forest tours, watch a lot of documentary on wildlife and read a lot about nature conservation et cetera. It is one of the subjects that constantly fascinate me, apart from acting. So when Sahhir came with the story, and told me they were planning to shoot at Kanha Tiger Reserve in MP, I was excited than ever to be part of the story. Besides, it is an important story that can potentially create awareness about nature conservation." The actor added: "When we were making the film in 2015, we never thought that in our lifetime the world will go through the phase that it is right now. We can clearly see how the earth is healing, how the trees, rivers, animals are living happily. We can see how the pollution level has gone down and the sky looks blue than ever. This is the time when we understand and change our lifestyle keeping nature in mind. I think having a discussion on nature conservation is more relevant now than ever." The short film also features Manjot Singh and Geeta Agrawal Sharma. The story revolves around a missing tiger from a forest and how a Zoologist set his journey to find the missing tiger named Zoya. Although he is a fan of wildlife, Rajesh mentioned how the life of a conservationist is filled with risk in every single day on the field. The "Delhi Crime"-famed actor said: "It is not as fascinating as it looks in a documentary we watch on TV. We romanticise the whole thing of staying in the forest, watching tigers et cetera, but when we went for the shoot of the film, we realised how risky it was. Once Jim Corbett said that the tiger is always watching you. When we saw a fresh pug mark at the riverside, and the guide told us that the tiger had just crossed the area 20 minutes ago -- and that is why the deer and the monkeys were behaving in a certain manner -- I was scared. We were told that the tiger must be nearby because he came to drink water here!" "Zoya" is available for viewing on MUBI India app. Heading into Friday when he unveiled the first phase of his administrations plan for many Connecticut businesses to resume commerce, Gov. Ned Lamont noted the target reopening date of May 20 was just that a target and that if businesses need more time to get ready, they should set a later date. Proprietors and managers statewide are eager to get going and some want to know why the governors advisers could not get them the rules for opening sooner so they could ramp up preparation. With the exception of salons, which are subject to intensified safeguards beyond most other businesses, Lamonts Reopening Connecticut committee for the most part is adopting procedures for businesses that already have been suggested by the Centers for Disease Control and other agencies. Malls will be allowed to reopen, with gyms, hotels and resorts to remain shuttered until a later phase. For businesses that can resume May 20, a Wednesday, managers and proprietors are being given less than 12 days to crank their workplaces back into gear in compliance with the rules announced Friday and Saturday. Many are desperate to do so to rebuild revenues on which their survival depends. Organizations are faced with any number of challenges, including rehiring and training employees in new operating procedures for premises and interactions. Human resources policies must be re-calibrated, reliable sources established for protective gear, perishable inventories restocked, and a coherent set of rules relayed to customers and vendors. Even as Lamont introduced the plan Friday afternoon, the commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development said that the written rules would not go online until later that night or Saturday morning. On a Friday conference call sponsored by Hearst Connecticut Media, Lamont said his administration expects to get additional feedback from businesses after letting the initial guidance simmer for a few days before issuing a final set of protocols. May 20 is just a date that you can open up, not a day that you should open up until youre ready, Lamont said the day before. Its an art as well as a science. ... I think weve got it right. Establishments werent waiting With 48,000 Connecticut businesses having tapped Paycheck Protection Program loans covering eight weeks of payroll forgiven only if they do not lay off employees getting cash flowing is critical. The first set of 18,000-plus PPP recipients have only until mid-June to decide on any staffing decisions going forward. In early April, Lamont issued a Safe Stores executive order for retail outlets deemed essential. The order set expectations that will be duplicated in many workplaces. Lamont reiterated on Friday that the Reopen Connecticut committee has been consulting closely with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in drawing up its guidelines. Still, questions among the business community are numerous. During a Thursday news conference, Lamont let slip a few details of the final plan for instance, the likelihood of salons being asked to create clear barriers between stations raising the question of why details were not put out sooner to allow businesses more time to prepare. Thousands of businesses want to open, said David Lewis, CEO of the Norwalk-based human resources training and consultancy firm OperationsInc and a board member of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association. None have have a clear idea of what we will be receiving from the state. Lamont is leaving some decisions up to municipalities, including how to handle outdoor seating for restaurants. Some places have indicated they might extend permits to restaurants that havent previously had them and/or allow for expanded seating areas for those that do, whether on sidewalks or in designated parking areas. Lamont said from the states perspective, restaurants will have the green light but that he would not interfere with local decisions. We are certainly hearing from restaurants in particular that they need clarity so that they can prepare, David Kooris, president of the Stamford Downtown Special Services District, said in advance of Lamonts Friday afternoon review. I expect that well see that detail, ... and while that only leaves about 10 days until the 20th, the good news is that establishments and organizations like ours werent waiting to think about it until today. Theyve telegraphed the broad outlines of the rules and have demonstrated an openness to evolve as new information becomes available, Kooris added. Thats a great start. Indra Nooyi, the former CEO of PepsiCo, and co-chair of the Reopen Connecticut committee, said she expects overall restaurant patronage to rebound slowly, based on observations of other states such as Georgia that have allowed a resumption of dining with suburban venues trailing those in downtown areas. Its a new way of life, but our hope is that over two, three, four weeks after May 20th, people will start to get a little more comfortable, Nooyi said Thursday. Were taking baby steps to start getting businesses ready and consumers comfortable with frequenting these businesses, whether its retail or restaurants, so this is going to be a slow process. Includes prior reporting by Joe Amarante and Ken Dixon. Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman The Delhi Police on Saturday arrested AAP MLA Prakash Jarwal and Kapil Nagar, the two accused in a doctor's suicide case New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Saturday arrested AAP MLA Prakash Jarwal and Kapil Nagar, the two accused in a doctor's suicide case. The two accused were earlier in the day questioned by a police team. "After questioning, AAP MLA Prakash Jarwal and Kapil Nagar were arrested in a doctor's alleged suicide case registered at Police Station Neb Sarai," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), South, Atul Thakur. The AAP MLA on Friday moved an anticipatory bail in a Delhi court in connection with an FIR on the abetment charges in a doctor's suicide case. The court has fixed the hearing on 11 May on the MLA's plea. Jarwal, who was booked by the Delhi Police on the charges of extortion and abetment to suicide after a doctor allegedly committed suicide in Durga Vihar in south Delhi, had moved Rouse Avenue Court seeking anticipatory bail. He has submitted that he shall be co-operating with the police authorities in the investigation. The FIR was lodged by the Delhi Police on the complaint filed by Hemant, son of the deceased, where he alleged that the deceased was threatened and intimidated for extortion by Jarwal and Nagar. The deceased had also been running the business of the water tanker in collaboration with the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) since 2005. It is further alleged that since the accused became the MLA in 2015, he used to extort money from the deceased on a monthly basis through Nagar and other people. When the deceased refused to give the money, the accused allegedly threatened him to get the tankers removed from the DJB and stop the payments of pending bills. Nearly 1,100 containers of waste at Cat Lai Port, HCM City, which failed to meet Vietnams import requirements will be re-exported in the second quarter of this year. Photo for illustration. Nearly 1,100 containers of waste at Cat Lai Port, HCM City, which failed to meet Vietnams import requirements will be re-exported in the second quarter of this year. Photo chinhphu.vn Customs officers have completed inventory and classified 1,528 scrap containers left at Cat Lai Port for over 90 days, said Nguyen Thanh Long, deputy head of Customs Department of the Sai Gon Port - Area 1. Of which, 1,100 containers (about 72 per cent) are not eligible for import, Long said. The department has requested 10 shipping lines which transported such scrap to re-export them in the second quarter of this year, he said. The amount of this scrap was imported to Cat Lai Port in the first half of 2018. Many shipments have not been able to carry out import procedures because they were not granted certificates of eligibility for environmental protection in importing scrap as materials for production. According to HCM City Customs Department, by the end of April, more than 2,100 scrap containers stuck for more than 90 days remain at the city's seaports. Most of them were imported through Cat Lai Port, with about 2,029 scrap containers. HCM City Customs Department has co-ordinated with Sai Gon Newport Corporation to quickly handle stored goods at Cat Lai Port, especially scrap. Sai Gon Newport Corporation has also reduced the storage fee for imported scrap containers by 80 per cent in order to support customers to quickly release goods from the port, reducing thousands of containers stuck at the port. VNS More than 500 scrap containers sent back in first six months As of June, more than 500 containers of waste which failed to meet Vietnams import requirements had been re-exported this year, said the Vietnam Maritime Administration on August 11. Vicky Pattison has candidly discussed her relationship with boyfriend Ercan Ramadan during lockdown and cheekily revealed that he 'always wants sex'. The former Geordie Shore star, 32, also revealed that she's developed a crush on Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan. Vicky went on to speak about how her mother Caroll, 62, has fought off coronavirus but is still suffering from fatigue and breathlessness. Lockdown perks: Vicky Pattison has candidly discussed her relationship with boyfriend Ercan Ramadan during lockdown and cheekily revealed that he 'always wants sex' Vicky has been isolating with her boyfriend of just over a year, former TOWIE star Ercan, 26, and revealed that she is happy to be in lockdown with him rather than any of her exes. She told The Sun: 'I'm with a man who's so lovely to me that I worry about getting out the door when I leave isolation not because of the size of my a**e but the size of my head because he makes me feel so good about myself. 'He wants kisses when I've got no make-up on, he's always touching my bum. He always wants to have sex. I think he's fallen in love with who I am as a person and so when he looks at me he doesn't see this little boy face and Mrs Trunchbull bun and squidgy mid-section. He sees a person he loves, and I've never had that before.' Smitten: Vicky has been isolating with her boyfriend of just over a year, former TOWIE star Ercan, 26, and revealed that she is happy to be in lockdown with him rather than any of her exes She went on to reveal that they have been using TV to buffer silences from being cooped up together all day. She admitted that there had been some tough times but said: 'It's difficult whether you've been together 20 years or 20 weeks and if you're trying to tell me it's all rainbows and kittens then you're full of s**t.' The coronavirus crisis and ensuing lockdown inspired the first episode of Vicky's new podcast series, Vicky Pattison: The Secret To, which discusses how to help your relationship survive quarantine. Crush: The former Geordie Shore star, 32, also revealed that she's developed a crush on Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan (pictured in March) The episode will feature Made In Chelsea's Jamie Laing and his girlfriend Sophie Habboo. Vicky had been due to marry businessman John Noble, 31, last year but she called it off after he was caught in a compromising position with a girl in a nightclub. She said that even if she had gone through with the wedding she would have been divorced by now. Vicky opened up about some of her struggles in lockdown and said that not being able to see her family and friends, especially her three-month-old niece Mavie, is hard as she misses them. Sweet: She told The Sun: 'He wants kisses when I've got no make-up on, he's always touching my bum. He always wants to have sex. I think he's fallen in love with who I am as a person.' (pictured in January) The TV personality touched on her anxiety and said hers has got worse because she has more free time to overthink things. She revealed she thrives on logic and routine so has been struggling with the seemingly endless abyss of lockdown. Vicky has been getting back into cooking food from scratch and is focusing on healthy Masterchef recipes. Lockdown anxiety: The TV personality touched on her anxiety and said hers has got worse because she has more free time to overthink things However she did reveal that her go-to method for coping with isolation involves chocolate and wine. She said she's been really enjoying seeing other celebrities posting no makeup selfies on social media now that no one can get to their cosmetic appointments. The selfless TV personality is staying busy by working with Age UK to deliver food parcels to vulnerable people who are self-isolating across the country. She loves watching HouseFlix, working at Giztoob, and hanging out with her best friend, Titus Andromedon. Fans first met Kimmy Schmidt after she lived in a bunker for 15 years, held captive there by Reverend Dick Wayne. Although Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a lighthearted show, it does touch upon some pretty dark topics. Is this Netflix original series based on a true story? Heres what we know about Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The Cast of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt | Eric Liebowitz/Netflix/Universal Television/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt tells the story of the Indiana Mole Women This Netflix original series debuted on the streaming platform during 2015. Since then, Kimmy Schmidt has been stealing hearts just like Lillian steals, well, everything. She was one of the Indiana Mole Women, a group of women kept underground by a Reverend for 15 years. Kimmy Schmidt doesnt let that define her, though. She went to Columbia University! She lives in a tugboat- I mean apartment in New York City! Still, it wasnt her choice to believe that the world was ending. There was a supposed belief of Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne aka DJ Slizzard aka Dick Wayne that led him to kidnap Kimmy Schmidt, Donna Maria, Gretchen Chalker, and Cyndee Pokorny. Whether or not he actually believed that the world was ended is questionable. (During the trial of the Reverend, Kimmy proved that he knew the world didnt end when he thought it did. In fact, he kept them there a few extra years.) Jon Hamm as Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne, Sara Chase as Cyndee, Sol Miranda as Donna Maria Nunez, Ellie Kemper as Kimmy Schmidt, Lauren Adams as Gretchen | Eric Liebowitz/Netflix/Universal Television/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images Is Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt based on a true story? Bustle reports that Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is not based on a real story. Well, technically, there are plenty of bunker-related-misinterpretations of the last day on earth. This Netflix original series takes place in 2015, only a few years after the Mayan Calendar-predicted the end of the world in 2012. Theres also the supposed doomsday prediction of 2000, when some believed that because computers would crash due to the changing decade. Both resulted in anticipation from believers worldwide. The Reverend kidnapped Kimmy during 2000 and after Y2K, they believed they were the only surviving humans in their bunker. Theres a new episode of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt featuring the Reverend After that, the mole women had their fair share of adventures in the bunker. Kimmy learned to drive, she made everyone friendship bracelets out of her hair, and they even celebrated holidays together. Thats to say nothing of the mystery crank. Thankfully, they were rescued and Kimmy went on to bigger and better things in New York City with her roommate, Titus. Now, however, the Reverend is back in Kimmys life, with the upcoming interactive episode Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. The Reverend. In a choose-your-own-adventure inspired special, fans will help Kimmy along on her new journey to stop Dick Wayne once and for all. The interactive episode of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, titled Kimmy vs. The Reverend premieres on May 12. Until then, the first four seasons of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt are available for streaming on Netflix. To learn more about this subscription service, visit their website. SPRINGFIELD A fire that displaced six adults, destroyed a home, damaged two others and burned seven cars was caused by improper disposal of smoking materials. The fire at 53 Terrence St. was reported at about 1 p.m. on Saturday. When the first crew arrived the home was already engulfed and the high winds were spreading flames to the two adjacent homes and the cars parked in driveways on either side of the building, Fire Capt. Drew Piemonte said. One firefighter received a burn injury and was treated at the scene. All six adults who lived in the single-family home escaped from the house before firefighters arrived and are being assisted by the American Red Cross of Western Massachusetts, he said. Once the fire was extinguished, investigators from the departments Arson and Bomb Squad determined the fire had started when smoking materials were thrown into an outside rubbish bin, he said. The first responding crews realized the exposure danger and immediately called for extra help. That really made a difference, Piemonte said. After realizing the occupants had all escaped safely, the first crew on scene focused on keeping the fire from spreading to the two adjacent homes. Additional crews arrived quickly and the extra manpower allowed the department to protect the buildings as much as possible while extinguishing the home, he said. With the northwest wind exposure it could have been really bad, he said. It was a great save. The home at 53 Terrence St. was destroyed and siding on homes on either side of it, at 46 and 59 Terrence St., was badly damaged. Residents were able to return to the neighboring homes once the fire was extinguished, Piemonte said. The blaze was the second firefighters responded to on Saturday that was caused by improper disposal of smoking materials. At about 7:45 a.m. firefighters quickly extinguished a porch fire at 165 Marsden St. which caused minimal damage, he said. Fire officials again warn people to make sure all cigarettes and other smoking materials are completely extinguished before throwing them away and advise people to deposit them in a metal container. Ownership rights and risk-sharing mechanisms must be clarified in public-private partnership (PPP) law to encourage the participation of private investors and ensure efficiency as well as transparency of PPP projects. A toll booth station on Phap Van - Cau Gie Highway which was built under build-operate-transfer practice. (Photo thanhnien.vn) The draft PPP law is expected to be passed at the 14th National Assemblys ninth meeting later this month. According to Tran Chung, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Road Traffic Investors, the nature of PPP was a fixed-term contract between the Government and a private investor to get the private sector involved in providing public services and products. Under the latest draft, regulations about ownership rights, obligations of the contracts entities and how to handle disputes and violations remained vague and needed more consideration, said Chung. Duong Dang Hue from the Vietnam International Arbitration Centre (VIAC) said the law should clarify the ownership rights of investors in PPP projects, which was important to attract the private investment and ensure accountability. The latest draft ignored this issue, Hue said. Pham Van Thuong, deputy general director of Construction Investment 194 Joint Stock Company, said in PPP, risk-sharing was the core to attract investors. Thuong added that investors expected the Government would protect their rights even when there were changes in policies and planning which might cause drops in revenue. To attract private investors to PPP projects, the Government needs preferential policies in areas like banking credit and lending rates, Thuong said. Regarding the risk-sharing mechanism in the latest draft, lawyer Le Dinh Vinh from the VIAC said the investor was still at a disadvantage compared to the Government. Under the draft, when the project earns higher revenue than planned, the excess will be shared between the Government and the investor. However, when the projects revenue is lower than planned, the Government would share the loss with the investor only when there were changes in policies and planning which affected revenue collection. Vinh said the mechanism should be given more consideration to ensure balance. Another important matter in PPP was regulations about handling disputes, VIAC lawyer Nguyen Tien Lap said. Lap said that in many countries, about 60 percent of PPP projects did not reach the expected targets in terms of financial efficiency, quality and technology. PPP was a way to raise private investment but in fact, the investment was mainly lent by banks and the risks would be on the Government if the investors went insolvent. Lap said PPP projects should be focused more on the communitys benefits rather than the Government, investors or lenders. In addition, transparency must be ensured when implementing PPP projects, from selecting investors, raising capital, fee levels, payback period and revenue. Vietnam, to date, has 336 projects implemented following PPP practice, mainly transport infrastructure projects./.VNS (Natural News) On Friday, local authorities in Germany said that they would reimpose lockdown measures after seeing new clusters of coronavirus (COVID-19) infections around the country. The new lockdowns come just days after Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a gradual reopening of the country. The reimposition of lockdown restrictions marks the countrys first setback since Merkel announced on Wednesday that Germanys slowing infection rate and relatively low mortality rate meant that the country could cautiously return to normal. Germanys reopening plan Germany has reported more than 170,000 cases, according to data gathered by Johns Hopkins University, as of press time. However, its death rate has been lower than that of similarly hit countries, with around 7,000 deaths reported. This led the countrys leaders to believe that they could slowly begin to lift restrictions. We have a very, very good development of the figures for new infections, and that makes it possible for us to take further steps, said Merkel when she announced the countrys gradual reopening. Germanys leadership had been faced with mounting pressure from businesses demanding a return to normality. However, Merkel made it clear that there would be conditions attached to the latest decision, and that both officials and citizens alike will need to act responsibly. We must take care that things dont slip out of our hands, and I have a good feeling because we agreed on this emergency mechanism today, she said. We are not just saying what we are opening, but also that if something happens locally we wont wait until it has spread through the whole republic. State authorities have the final say Under Germanys federal system, state authorities are responsible for loosening or reimposing lockdown measures. This has led to significant variations in how restrictions have been implemented, with some states being stricter than others. With the new reopening plan, regional authorities agreed to reimpose measures for any county that reports 50 new cases for every 100,000 people within a week. Those restrictions can be applied either to a facility such as a nursing home or factory if the outbreak is concentrated there, or to a whole area. The aim, according to Merkel, is to avoid having to reimpose a nationwide shutdown. Clusters of cases in German states In North Rhine-Westphalia, Germanys most populous state, the regional government said that there had been an increase in cases at a slaughterhouse in the district of Coesfeld. A total of 150 among the facilitys 1,200 employees tested positive for the virus. According to local officials, the outbreak meant that the district would have to delay the states planned May 11 reopening of restaurants, tourist spots, fitness clubs and larger shops by one week. Citizens would also have to continue social distancing. (Related: Almost 900 workers test positive for coronavirus at Tysons meatpacking plant in Indiana.) Karl-Josef Laumann, North Rhine-Westphalias health minister, confirmed that the threshold for reimposing restrictions had been breached in Coesfeld. He stated that the slaughterhouse cluster pushed the infection rate up to 61 infections per 100,000 residents. Laumann has since ordered the temporary closure of the slaughterhouse and said that employees at all of the states meat processing plants would now undergo testing for COVID-19. The northern state of Schleswig-Holstein also saw a similar slaughterhouse outbreak of the coronavirus. This outbreak pushed the district of Steinburg over the threshold. However, it was not immediately clear what action local authorities would take. Meanwhile, the eastern state of Thuringia recorded more than 80 infections per 100,000 people in the district of Griez over the past week. The cases centered mainly around residents and employees of six care homes and a geriatrics hospital. The Thuringian government will be holding crisis talks early next week to figure out how to proceed with the planned loosening of stay-at-home measures in the hotspot. To be clear: Were not going to put the entire district in quarantine, said Martina Schweinsburg, Greizs chief administrator. She further stressed that just two small towns were particularly affected. Sources include: Barrons.com Coronavirus.JHU.edu Mainichi.jp Italy will give 600,000 illegal migrants the right to stay in the country after the government said they proved essential by caring for the elderly and picking crops during the coronavirus crisis. Unregistered migrants have worked in fields across the country to protect food supplies, all whilst risking being arrested if caught by police. The food on our table comes from these fields. Now we must hand over those rights which have been denied to those who work in them, Peppe Provenzano, minister for the south of Italy, said. The permits which wont give migrants the right to vote will be valid for six months and will be renewable. They were proposed by the agricultural minister Teresa Bellanova. The measure could be inserted into a temporary government decree with immediate effect but will be voted on in parliament after 60 days, according to The Times. Ms Bellanova said that forcing migrants to hide could mean outbreaks of the disease go unchecked. For example one shanty town near Foggia is home to 3,000 farm pickers but theres no social distancing, hand sanitiser or masks. The Pope also seemed to back the message when he condemned the harsh exploitation of migrant farm workers in Italy. He said: May the crisis give us the opportunity to make the dignity of the person and of work the centre of our concern. There are also practical advantages to the new measure as 100,000 Romanian pickers who usually travel to Italy every year cannot fly over due to coronavirus travel bans. Italy needs the Indians, Pakistanis and Africans who are here now to fill that gap, and making them legal helps that, a government source told The Times. The measure would also legalise around 100,000 illegal migrants who work as home carers. Many lost their jobs during lockdown and their permits are dependent on employment. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates Idlib Terrorists Shell Outskirts of Syria's Latakia - Reports Sputnik News 14:18 GMT 09.05.2020(updated 14:25 GMT 09.05.2020) Earlier this month, militants of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham* terrorist organisation shelled the Kafr Nabl town in the Syrian province of Idlib, according to the Russian Defence Ministry's centre for the Syrian reconciliation. Terrorists operating in the Syrian province of Idlib have attacked the outskirts of the city of Latakia with rocket shells, state-run SANA news agency reported on Saturday. According to the agency, the projectiles landed in farmlands. There are no additional details about the incident at the moment. On 5 March, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, agreed on a ceasefire in Idlib, which started at midnight. The sides also agreed to create a security corridor six kilometres (3.7 miles) north and south of the M4 highway in Syria, which connects the provinces of Latakia and Aleppo. Under the ceasefire agreement, Moscow and Ankara conduct joint patrols along the M4 highway, which is currently controlled by militants. Militants remain in control of a small pocket of the Idlib province in northwest Syria. *Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra) is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia and many other countries. A Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Tillamook County Tourism Businesses Continue Helping N. Oregon Coast Locals Published 05/04/2020 at 5:54 AM PDT By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff (Pacific City, Oregon) With the coronavirus pandemic grinding the Oregon coast tourism industry to a halt, in Tillamook County alone its estimated that 2,350 employees have lost their jobs. Hotels have shuttered, most restaurants sit idle (except for those doing takeout), and charter boat companies have empty boats and coffers. Even retail businesses are closed unless theyve found some online aspect for revenue. In spite of it all, tourism businesses on this part of the north Oregon coast continue to serve their communities in generous ways. The areas travel promotions entity Tillamook Coast took note of their sacrifices and hardships recently, saying there has been an outpouring of support coming from many in the county that includes some of the state's favorite destinations such as Pacific City, Oceanside, Tillamook, Garibaldi, Rockaway Beach and Manzanita. Tillamook Coast executive director Nan Devlin provided a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the varied ways local businesses are helping. Devlin said in north county, Manzanita grocery stores Little Apple and Fresh Foods, both reliant on visitor spending, have a donation fund for those having difficulty buying groceries for their families. Cloud & Leaf bookstore started a gift certificate program to distribute books to local families. In central county, Fishpeople Seafood in Garibaldi donated 1,200 cases of seafood products, such as salmon jerky to school districts wherever they have stores, including Tillamook. Pacific Restaurant in Tillamook has given away $200 worth of gift cards every week since closing in mid-March. All they ask is you share a photo of their takeout food on Facebook or Instagram using the hashtag #isupportedsmallbusiness. Devlin noted down in south county, the Grateful Bread in Pacific City is doing a "Grateful Grub" program. Meals are served through drive up and are free to those we need it, or a donation can be made from those who can purchase a meal. In addition to serving up to 75 meals a day, Grateful Bread is also making donations to the Beaver Food Pantry. The Pelican Pub and Kiwanda Hospitality businesses in Pacific City received funds from the Pacific City Nestucca Valley Chamber, plus a refund from advertising placed in the 2020 Tillamook Coast visitor guide. They paid it all forward to the local food bank, a donation of more than $5,000. And thats not all. With the vast majority of their 400 employees furloughed, Kiwanda Hospitality keeps them, and their families, fed with a hot meal seven days a week. Generosity and kindness have always been a hallmark of the hospitality and tourism industry, Devlin said. In good times and bad, that remains true here in Tillamook County. Hotels in Manzanita, Wheeler - Where to eat - Manzanita, Wheeler Maps and Virtual Tours More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging..... More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining..... Coastal Spotlight LATEST Related Oregon Coast Articles Back to Oregon Coast Contact Advertise on BeachConnection.net All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright BeachConnection.net Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted A doctor on the coronavirus front line has refocused his passion for photography to document his hospitals battle with the virus. Tuck Goh, who always carries a small camera in his pocket, has been capturing candid shots of his colleagues in the emergency department of the Ulster Hospital near Belfast as they respond to the Covid-19 crisis. Dr Goh, a 59-year-old associate specialist who has worked in the hospitals ED for 23 years, has travelled extensively pursuing his lifetime love of street photography. At the outset of the pandemic, as the hospital undertook a major reconfiguration in preparation for the viruss surge, he decided to keep a visual record of the events for generations to come. The doctor, who is originally from Malaysia but has lived in Northern Ireland for most of his life, continued his endeavours as the hospital started treating coronavirus patients, taking out his camera when circumstances permitted. Dr Tuck Goh works in the Emergency Department of the Ulster Hospital on the outskirts of Belfast (Niall Carson/PA) He uses a compact handheld camera, which he wraps in cling film and continually cleans with antibacterial wipes to comply with hygiene requirements. I felt a sense that I needed to document this very interesting and surreal period of our department, he told the PA news agency. It fitted the genre and niche of my kind of photography. So I started off by taking photographs of just basically how we got ready for whats to come and just documenting my fellow colleagues doctors, nurses, porters, domiciliary staff just to get a sense of what was involved, the scale of this thing. It was just to document this very special, interesting period of the department. And so thats what I thought I should do. And thats what Ive been doing and still Im doing even today. One of Dr Gohs ED colleagues treats a patient (Tuck Goh/PA) Dr Goh said his colleagues are comfortable with him depicting them at work. They know that I have a great passion for photography and Ive been taking photographs for all my life, he said. Story continues And they know that I normally have a camera in my hand. So they accept that thats him taking pictures. So its not an issue. Plus, as well, almost all the doctors and all the patients are basically wearing face masks, so I think theres less of a problem with confidentiality with these sort of photographs I think. Dr Gohs pocket-sized camera wrapped in cling film (Niall Carson/PA) The enthusiastic amateur photographer said he is careful to frame shots to protect the confidentiality of patients and, on the occasions when he does take images of them, he always asks permission first. I tend to do a fair bit of travelling, he added. So I would travel to take street photography. But because obviously at the moment we cant really do much travelling Im very lucky in the sense that Im still able to continue to indulge in my passion of street photography by doing photographs in the hospital. So its been very, very rewarding from my point of view. Dr Goh is hoping to exhibit his photos in the hospital when the crisis is over (Tuck Goh/PA) The medic added: I think this is a once in a lifetime event. And I think that the hospital itself would like to document this looking back on a pictorial form. So I think its important that we have this as proof of whats happened for future generations to come. Dr Goh, who hopes to ultimately exhibit some of his photographs in the hospital, said he has never witnessed anything like the coronavirus outbreak. Its very difficult for a lot of families and obviously very difficult for a lot of patients and theres lot of suffering but hopefully we all pull through it, he said. New Delhi : Major tax reform the GST bill will be taken up by Lok Sabha on Monday, with virtually all political parties backing this legislation. GST, the biggest economic reform since 1991, is likely to sail through smoothly in the Lower House. It will replace a raft of different state and local taxes with a single unified value added tax system to turn the country into worlds biggest single market. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to intervene during the debate on the Bill in Lok Sabha. The Bill was passed by Lok Sabha last year and now it has to go back to the Lower House for incorporating the amendments approved by Rajya Sabha. Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia said the party will support GST Constitutional Amendment Bill and has issued whip to all its MPs to be present in the House on Monday where it is scheduled to be taken up for passage. Aiming for early implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), senior Union ministers have spoken to chief ministers of NDA-ruled states to ensure that the constitutional amendment is ratified by state assemblies at the earliest. The chief ministers have assured that, if required, they will call a special session for the passage of the Bill in their state assemblies. The GST Bill has to be ratified by at least 16 states in 30 days after it is passed by Parliament. After facing fierce opposition over the Bill for almost a year, the government succeeded in bringing all major opposition parties, including Congress, on board and it was passed in the Upper House with an overwhelming majority on August 3. The Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2014, that would lay the ground for roll out of GST regime, was passed by the opposition-dominated Upper House after the government moved four amendments. Once implemented, GST will subsume various taxes, including excise, services tax, octroi and other levies, and the proceeds will be shared between the Centre and the states. Under the new GST regime goods would be taxed at the point of consumption, instead of the goods being taxed multiple times at different rates. The GST, which was first proposed a decade back, is seen as potentially transformative for Indias economy, adding as much as 2 percentage points to the GDP while also improving the ease of doing business and encourage investment in manufacturing. It is also expected to result in greater tax compliance, boosting government revenues. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Egypts Ministry of Health has adopted a number of awareness initiatives in cooperation with the private sector to contain COVID-19s health impacts and uplift citizens awareness about the contagion and the prevention measures. In this regard, the health ministry signed on Sunday a partnership agreement with healthcare app Vezeeta and pharmaceuticals company AstraZeneca under the theme Your Health Your Power, which aims to launch an awareness campaign on social media platforms amid the COVID-19 crisis in order to support Egypts government efforts regarding the containment of the outbreak. According a statement issued by Vezeeta on Sunday, sent to Ahram Online, the two companies are committed to cooperating together through providing scientific materials on how to prevent and counter the disease, in addition to launching an online platform for providing e-learning services, organising virtual lectures touching upon the global experiences in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. They also will launch an awareness campaign that involves professors from Egyptian universities and the health ministry to raise awareness among the high-risk segments of the populations on precautionary measures, sanitising, and social distancing, as well as debunking rumours regarding the pandemic. The initiative also aims at equipping the health ministrys hospitals with devices and supplies that are required for prevention while treating patients, in addition to providing sustainable medical learning for doctors about the COVID-19 pandemic. Founder of Vezeeta Ameer Barsoum said that Egypts health ministry has taken unprecedented actions to contain the outbreak, adding that Vezeeta has launched the remotely calling doctors service to provide medical consultations for individuals across the country amid the COVID-19 crisis. Executive manager of AstraZeneca Hatem El-Wardani announced that the company will provide therapies for a month for free to patients who are subscribers to the Partners for Health service to support them amid the crisis. Search Keywords: Short link: We Hindus are entering a difficult phase .... it is time for us to teach our children about inspiring men and women who fought against all odds to save the nation. Story of these men have been subdued and etched out of history... It is time for us to remind our children about these unsung heroes.... Who Is Rashi Behari Bose? A True patriot, real freedom fighter and the father of the Indian National Army. On December 23, 1912, an explosion rocked Delhi just as Lord Hardinge, the British viceroy of India, entered the new capital on the back of an elephant. The mastermind of the attack was Rash Behari Bose, a 26-year-old Bengali revolutionary. The attack did not kill Lord Hardinge but it send out a strong message to the British that there are Indians who are not weaklings and was ready to overthrow the British colonial rule. Bose was born in a village in northeastern Bengal in 1886 and grew up amid the severe famines that struck India during British rule. He nurtured hatred for the foreign rule which plundered the wealth of his nation through divide and rule policy. With a bounty on his head, Bose managed to flee India in 1915 to Japan, where he became a significant activist, reportedly introduced one of the country's most popular curries and laid the foundations for the Indian National Army. CNN Writes Today, the names of prominent Indian freedom fighters such as Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru have found their place in world history, but few have heard of Rash Behari Bose. Read the complete article on Rash Behari Bose here on CNN International . Share it. Discuss with your friends tell it to your children discuss it on the dinner table. ........................................................................ Rash Behari Bose Timeline (taken from CNN article titled The Indian revolutionary who fought to overthrow British rule while living in Japan) Bose was born in a village in northeastern Bengal in 1886. Saw thousands die due to famine at the same period British were plundering the wealth of the nation. After leaving school, he made unsuccessful attempts to join the Indian Army before landing a clerk's job with the Forest Research Institute at Dehradun. With the Forest Research Institute he was able to travel around India and used the opportunity to secretly forge anti-colonial revolutionary networks without any suspicion. Bose was still in his teens in 1905 when the British partitioned Bengal into two new provinces, supposedly for administrative reasons, though it appeared to be split along religious lines. Like other Bengali Hindu nationalists, Bose was incensed. Bengal had been a key location for India's anti-British opposition and Bengali Hindus saw the partition as a way for the British to weaken their power base. The move was largely supported by Muslims. December 23, 1912 he masterminds the attack on Lord Hardinge. Failed Lahore plot of February 21, 1915. Bose along with other patriots had planned to start a rebellion on the lines of the uprising of 1857. With the authorities on his heels and a bounty on his head, Bose decided he was no longer safe in India. Disguising himself as a relative of the poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, Bose set sail for Japan from the Port of Kolkata on May 12, 1915. Bose discreetly met with Sun Yat-sen, the head of the revolutionary army of China in Japan. In Japan Bose stayed at Nakamuraya Salon owned by Aizo and Kokko Soma. He later married their elder daughter Toshiko. He married Toshiko in 1918. The couple had two children. Toshiko died from pneumonia in 1925. She was 27 years old. Bose threw himself into the independence movement to overcome his grief. He established and ran numerous associations such as the Indo-Japanese Friends Society and a hostel called "Villa Asians" for Asian students studying in Tokyo, which he managed until 1941. He published widely on India's past, promoted ties between India and Japan. Fearful of his influence on a younger generation of Indians, the colonial British government made it difficult for Indian students to travel to Japan in the 1930s. In 1931, Bose organized the first Indian Independence League in Japan, which aimed to attain the "independence of India by all possible means. The league became bigger, and Bose became leader of the movement throughout East Asia. In 1933, Bose received funding to publish a journal called "The New Asia," which was distributed in English and Japanese. In 1938, after Bose published "Indo no sakebi" (India's cry) - which strongly denounced British rule in India. In June 1942, Bose chaired the Indian Independence Conference in Bangkok, sponsored by Japan. There, he was appointed to lead the Indian National Army (INA) and the tens of thousands of Indian prisoners to fight alongside the Japanese. They planned to conquer the British in India. Rash Behari Bose laid the foundations of the Indian Independence League and the Indian National Army. His health did not permit him to lead the army. It was taken over by Subhash Chandra Bose. Rash Behari Bose died in 1945. In Japan, his legacy is immortalized in a well-loved curry dish at Nakamuraya, which Behari Bose is said to have popularized during his decades-long struggle for Indian independence. The sole aim of this unknown warrior was freedom of India. He remains one of India's unsung freedom fighters. Your children might know about lot of Indian freedom fighters, some genuine and many fake, from school text books. You should inform your children about Rash Behari Bose. Many Indians especially Hindus might not be even aware about Rash Behari Bose.Books to read - "Rash Behari Bose: The father of the Indian National Army." by Elizabeth Eston and Lexi Kawabe A total of 81 inmates of Arthur Road prison tested positive for Sars-CoV-2 on Sunday, bringing the Covid-19 case count on the premises to 184. While the first case a 45-year-old inmate was reported on May 5, 77 inmates and 26 staff members tested positive on May 7. Deepak Pandey, inspector general (prisons), south region, who opted for home quarantine after visiting Arthur Road prison, said, At least 81 more inmates tested positive on Sunday. After the first case was reported, a team of JJ hospital staff took swabs of 150 inmates and staff, of which 103 tested positive. On May 8, 200 more inmates and staff were tested. The plan was to shift 77 inmates to Mahul SRA building. Due to law and order, and other civic/medical/logistical issues related to quarantine facility at Mahul, a Covid quarantine ward has been set up at circle no. 3 and circle no. 10 at Arthur Road jail. A team of seven doctors and paramedics from JJ hospital visited the ward on Sunday, and will conduct daily visits, said Pandey. Dedicated teams of nurses and allied health professionals across the state have been treating coronavirus patients without those patients having to set foot in hospital. While seriously ill COVID-19 patients are treated in hospital intensive care units, about 80 of the patients being looked after by NSW Health are being treated by "hospital in the home" teams. Clinical nurse Rebecca Lyon with hospital in the home patient Karen Troy-Smith. Credit:Danielle Smith In northern NSW, Lismore Base Hospitals hospital in the home (HITH) team is made up of six staff who work around the clock seven days a week to deliver care to patients in their own homes. Clinical nurse specialist Rebecca Lyon, who organises the team, says they have looked after 13 patients who were either COVID-19 positive or deemed at high risk of getting it in the past four weeks. Air India's second repatriation flight to bring back Indians stranded in the UK due to the coronavirus lockdown took off from the Heathrow Airport here for Bengaluru on Sunday with 323 passengers. Besides the 323 students, tourists and other Indian passport holders, the flight is flying back the body of a 37-year-old Indian-origin man who committed suicide at his home in south-east England. This was the the second of the first set of seven Air India repatriation flights as part of the Indian government's Vande Bharat Mission to bring home stranded Indians. Gadigeppagouda Onkaragouda Patil died at Slough in Berkshire on March 13, days before the pandemic-related lockdown grounded international flights to India. This was a complicated case but with the help of the Indian government, his family will be able to conduct his last rites," said the President of the Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP) diaspora group, who is involved with the coordination of the repatriation process. Patil's case was complicated as a result of strict new rules for the repatriation of human remains and was made possible only after a new visa was issued. His coffin has now been transported back to his home-town of Bengaluru after the clearance from the coroner in England. Air India's evacuation flight for Bengaluru takes off with 323 stranded Indians on board. Shubh Yatra, the Indian High Commission in London said in a statement on Sunday. The Indian mission has urged all passengers to follow the norm of Do Gaj Doori, Bahut Hair Zaroori as far as possible, with Air India providing passengers with a kit containing meals, snacks, sanitizer, mask and gloves. On landing, they will be directed to the relevant state government organised quarantine venues for their 14-day self-isolation. The aircraft, which will land in Bengaluru later on Sunday, comes a day after the first repatriation flight landed in Mumbai in the early hours of Sunday. The next set of flights over the next week in phase one of the Vande Bharat Mission for the UK will cover Hyderabad (Monday), Mumbai (Tuesday), Ahmedabad (Wednesday), Chennai (Thursday) and New Delhi (Friday). Organisers have said that further flights are planned from the UK to other cities of India as well in phase two of the repatriation mission. The schedule is being coordinated by the Indian High Commission in London, with payments made directly to Air India by confirmed passengers. The first set of flights to India will prioritise Indian passport holders on vulnerability and health grounds. On their way from India to the UK, these flights will also be bringing back some expatriates and UK visa holders wanting to fly back to London's Heathrow Airport. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As military jets streaked overhead in salute to covid-19 first-responders, the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia reported 103 additional coronavirus deaths Saturday, bringing the regional death toll to 2,107. The increases in fatalities and cases have been on par with daily rises over the past week. Maryland disclosed 59 more deaths and 1,001 newly confirmed cases. In all, Maryland has reported 1,251 confirmed and probable deaths from covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and 24,473 confirmed cases. Virginia added 35 deaths and 830 more cases. Virginia has 616 confirmed and probable fatalities and nearly 18,000 cases. The District disclosed nine additional deaths and 139 newly positive test results. The nation's capital has nearly 4,800 cases and has lost 240 residents to the virus. Meanwhile, across sunny skies, the Navy's Blue Angels and the Air Force's Thunderbirds jet demonstration teams crisscrossed the area in tributeto all of those on the front lines of the pandemic. On the National Mall and along the Georgetown waterfront, among other places, people gathered in the pleasant spring weather to watch, as the 12 jets left twisting white contrails against the blue sky. Elsewhere, "Reopen Maryland" protesters assembled in Frederick for the start of a cross-state demonstration to increase pressure on Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, to lift restrictions imposed to contain the pandemic, according to the Frederick News-Post. The protest and car caravan began at Francis Scott Key Mall and was set to travel across the state for a rally in Salisbury, on the Eastern Shore. The group wants to reverse the economic standstill caused by efforts to slow the virus, and the protesters are calling for the reopening of schools and houses of worship, saying the measures are overly broad and socially destructive. Others believe the state is not ready to reopen. "Everybody wants to get back to normal," said Amy Liebman, director of environmental and occupational health for the Migrant Clinicians Network office in Salisbury. "Everyone would love to see a reopened Maryland." "But we're not ready," she said Saturday. Covid-19 cases have risen sharply in the past two weeks in the Salisbury area, which is home to the Eastern Shore's large chicken industry. "We need to see it going in the other direction before we start taking measures to reopen," she said. "That really includes someone standing up for the workers who are fueling our local economy." "How do we reopen at the same time that all of our essential workers are fully protected?" she said. The workforce in the area's chicken processing plants is made up of many Hispanic, Haitian and African-American employees, she said. "I am very concerned about the workers who are on our front lines here, those who are scared, those who desperately need to earn a paycheck," she said. "If you skim the racial breakdown of our [covid-19] cases, it's disproportionately impacting Latino and Hispanic workers." "What we need to be looking at is, how can these workers work safely?" she said. "What changes need to take place? And what do they need to be provided?" Safe distancing in the chicken plants needs to be enforced, she said. Ventilation should be checked, reliable protective gear should be provided and testing should be extensive. "What we need to ensure is that we reopen safely, and that we don't cause more people to get sick, and some people to die," she said. - - - The Washington Post's Teddy Amenabar and Sam Mallon contributed to this report. Vietnam sees no new COVID-19 cases on May 10 morning Plans to welcome students back to school are well prepared Vietnam recorded no new COVID-19 cases on May 10 morning, marking the 24th consecutive day without infections in the community, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control. Among the total 288 patients, 148 were imported and the remaining were infected with the coronavirus in the community. So far, the country has reported no deaths from the disease. As many as 241 patients or 84 percent were declared fully recovered. The remaining 47 cases are being treated at health facilities, of whom four tested negative for the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 once and 13 negative at least twice. In particular, patient No.91, the 43-year-old British pilot, is under treatment at the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases in a very critical condition. A lung transplant has been considered for him as a final effort. As many as 11,130 people who had close contact with confirmed patients or entered Vietnam from pandemic-hit regions are being quarantined, including 180 at hospitals, 6,146 at other establishments and 4,804 at home./. Hospitals in ong Nai expand healthcare services amid COVID-19 Health staff at a hospital in ong Nai Province check body temperatures and provide counselling about COVID-19 to patients and their parents. Photo syt.dongnai.gov.vn Hospitals in the southern province of ong Nai are providing more healthcare services such as tests and treatment for people at their home amid the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Phan Van Huyen, director of Long Khanh Regional General Hospital in the provinces Long Khanh city, people can call the hospital hotline and the hospital will send health staff to provide counselling at their homes. If they need tests, the health staff will take samples for testing at the hospital. The hospital will send the test results to patients emails and then connect them to doctors for counselling. The cost for the healthcare service is VN100,000 (US$4.2) more than a hospital visit. The service is especially designed for seniors who have severe diseases and cannot go to the hospital, or for those who have illnesses but would prefer to not go to the hospital to avoid infections. The hospital has received up to nearly 100 calls each day to book these services. ong Nai Childrens Hospital has a customer service division that calls parents to remind them of their children's follow-up exams and to ask about patients health and provide counselling. Nguyen Thi Ly Ly, head of the cardiovascular diseases department at the hospital, said that Wednesdays and Thursdays are scheduled for patients who have follow-up exams. However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many parents have not brought their children for follow-up exams. Truong Thi Tinh of the provinces Long Thanh District said she was reluctant to take her child to the hospital, so the hospitals health staff called and scheduled another appointment for his follow-up exam. Doctors at ong Nai General Hospital and Long Thanh Regional General Hospital are giving two months' worth of medicine instead of one week. The provincial Department of Health has instructed private hospitals and health clinics to have plans to store medicine and medical materials. Laos issues temporary guideline on entry-exit The Lao Foreign Ministry has recently issued the guideline No.1342 on entry-exit during the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, border gates via roads and airways will continue to be closed. Those wishing to enter Laos must submit applications to the country's National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control. If allowed, they must file visa applications at Lao diplomatic agencies in the host countries. They are also required to present medical certificates issued no later than 72 hours. Following arrivals, they will be tested for COVID-19 and subject to a 14-day quarantine at designated facilities. Diplomatic agencies in Laos are suggested to send a list of those wishing to leave the country and necessary information to the Lao Foreign Ministry for consideration. The guideline, valid till May 17, said those wishing to leave Laos must follow laws and regulations of destination countries. The Lao Health Ministry announced at a press conference on May 8 that the country still recorded 19 COVID-19 cases, marking 27 consecutive days without new infections. Among the patients, 14 have fully recovered./. Forest fires complicate COVID-19 fight in Indonesia A forest fire in Indonesia (Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/) Smog from forest fires in Indonesia could complicate the country's efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, as its government has no contingency plan for additional respiratory diseases, local health experts warned on May 8. Wiendra Waworuntu, director for communicable disease prevention and control at the Indonesian Ministry of Health, said that the symptoms of acute respiratory infection caused by smoke from the fires are similar to coronavirus symptoms. A simultaneous surge in respiratory illness from the two causes can become a major headache for Indonesian health authorities, Waworuntu said, adding that research shows that there is a correlation between high mortality rate and high level of pollution in an area impacted by COVID-19. Some experts fear the haze will hamper efforts to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic that has infected 13,112 people and killed 943 in Indonesia as of May 8. The situation may get worse due to a possible shortage of N95 face masks. Currently, the high-grade masks can only be used by medical workers, while members of the public have been instructed to wear normal surgical masks. But Waworuntu said N95 masks are also needed for people affected by smoke from forest fires, because ordinary masks will not be effective to filter the smoke. "There may be scarcity of N95 masks in June, July and August when dry season reaches its peak, while we have to compete with other countries to get them," she said. Moreover, the Indonesian Government has not designed any contingency plan to deal with both acute respiratory infection caused by forest fires and COVID-19, while most human resources in health have been focused to deal with COVID-19, she added, noting the need for strategies to prevent a catastrophe. Haze from forest and land fires caused by illegal slash-and-burn farming practices, mostly for palm oil plantations, occurs annually in Indonesia. As of May 7, at least 765 hotspots have been detected in the country, although the number was lower than 1,222 a year earlier, according to local authorities. In 2019, fires devastated more than 1.6 million hectares of land across the country, mostly on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, up from about 630,000 hectares in the previous year./. COVID-19 situation improves in Philippines, remains bad in Singapore Health workers at a COVID-19 testing station in Manila The Philippines confirmed 147 COVID-19 infections and eight more fatalities on May 9, raising the total to 10,610 and 704, respectively. Of the total infections, 1,842 have given the all-clear, the Department of Health said. The department added that it is seeing signs that the coronavirus curve in the country is flattening, adding the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases have started to slow down and that hospitals are not overwhelmed. But the war is not over yet, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said, adding that the need for people to continue to be vigilant especially when the lockdown is relaxed or lifted. She urged them to continue observing the health protocols such as social distancing, frequent hand washing, cough etiquette and the like to break the infection chain. The Philippine Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said on May 9 that the lockdown restrictions in some cities such as Manila, where most of the country's coronavirus cases have been detected, will likely be relaxed on May 15. Roque said Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has yet to decide on whether or not to ease the lockdown in Manila and in other parts of the country that are under strict lockdown. Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has decided to allow inbound international flights to land in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila from May 11 on assigned days. Also on May 9, Singapore reported additional 753 infection cases, bringing the total to 22,640./. Vietnam brings home 276 citizens from Canada As many as 276 Vietnamese citizens were flown home from Vancouver, Canada, on May 8 and 9. As many as 276 Vietnamese citizens were flown home from Vancouver, Canada, on May 8 and 9. The passengers included those under 18 years old, elderly and sick people, stranded tourists and students who did not have accommodations due to dormitory closures. This was a joint effort of Vietnamese competent agencies at home and representative agencies in Canada, national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines, and competent agencies of the host country. The Vietnamese Consulate General in Vancouver sent officials to the airport to help the citizens with necessary procedures. Upon their arrival at Van Don airport in the northern province of Quang Ninh, the passengers were kept under quarantine and had medical checks-up in line with regulations. Earlier, Vietnamese competent agencies had coordinated with the Canadian Embassy in Vietnam to bring home a number of Canadian citizens. In the coming days, more flights will be arranged to bring back Vietnamese citizens home from other countries depending on the pandemic's developments, quarantine capacity of Vietnamese localities, and demand of Vietnamese citizens living overseas./. Vietnamese nationals in Cambodia receive gifts amidst COVID-19 Vietnamese nationals in Cambodia receive gifts amidst COVID-19. Some 430 gift packages were handed over on May 9 to households of Vietnamese nationals in Cambodia and Khmer people in the Cambodian capital city of Phnom Penh. The activity formed part of a programme jointly launched by the Vietnamese Embassy and the Khmer-Vietnamese Association (KVA) in Cambodia that aims to help Vietnamese nationals in the country in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The KVA, the Vietnamese Embassy and Consulates General in Battambang and Preah Sihanouk presented gifts to about 3,000 families of Vietnamese nationals across Cambodia. KVA President Sim Chy said no COVID-19 cases have been reported among Vietnamese nationals in Cambodia so far. As of May 9, the number of COVID-19 cases in the country had stood still at 122, of whom 120 have recovered, according to the Cambodian Ministry of Health./. Vietnamese supports Myanmar region in COVID-19 battle Vietnamese Embassy in Myanmar, Vietnamese entrepreneurs and people living in the country present 7.5 million Kyat and medical supplies to Yangon region The Vietnamese Embassy in Myanmar, Vietnamese entrepreneurs and people living in the country have presented 7.5 million Kyat (5,380 USD) and medical supplies to Yangon region to support its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking at the handover ceremony on May 8, Vietnamese Ambassador to Myanmar Ly Quoc Tuan said that Vietnam is always willing to share difficulties with Myanmar in general and Yangon region in particular amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Appreciating the local authorities efforts in the fight, Tuan said that the gifts showed the solidarity between the Vietnamese and Myanmar people, thus helping to develop the two countries friendship and cooperation. Governor of Yangon region Phyo Min Thein thanked the Vietnamese Embassy, the Vietnam Business Club in Myanmar, and the Vietnamese community for their donations, adding that the gifts are practical when the region is striving to finish the construction of a 1,000-bed hospital in Yangon city. The donation campaign was organised by the embassy and the club from April 23-30. Talking to the Vietnam News Agency's reporter on May 8, Vietnamese Ambassador to New Zealand Ta Van Thong said that the embassy has popularised disease prevention measures as well as Vietnams policies to the Vietnamese community in New Zealand. The Vietnamese Embassy had held online meetings with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on citizen protection measures and with the host countrys Education Ministry on issues related to the learning and lives of Vietnamese students./. COVID-19: Indonesia loosens ban on air travel Quick COVID-19 testing in Jakarta, Indonesia The Indonesian Ministry of Transport on May 8 announced its decision to resume air services, but at a limited level, after two weeks the country banned air and sea travel to curb the further spread of the COVID-19. According to the ministrys spokesperson Adita Irawati, those who are working in the fields of security, defense and health service, or having urgent health reasons will be allowed to travel by air if they have a health certificate confirming negative for the novel corona virus SARS-CoV-2. The day earlier, Garuda Indonesia Airlines resumed domestic flights, while other airlines such as Lion Air, Wings Air and Batik Air, planed to resume domestic flights from May 10. Indonesia has so far recorded more than 13,000 COVID-19 cases./. More Australians are set to download the government's contact tracing application following privacy assurances due to be passed in Parliament this week despite key crossbenchers turning their back on the cornerstone technology. Centre Alliance Senator Rex Patrick is among those holding off using the app until the privacy amendments relating to the COVIDSafe app are debated on Tuesday, but has said he supported the rationale behind the plan. More than 5 million Australian phones have downloaded the COVIDsafe app. Credit:Dave Hunt/AAP More than 5 million Australians have downloaded the app, which helps trace those who have come into contact with someone who tests positive for coronavirus, and the government has an informal goal to sign up 40 per cent of the population to help stop the spread. "When privacy is protected by legislation, then a lot more people will be comfortable downloading it, but until that happens ... Im not convinced," Senator Patrick said. The privacy legislation includes tough penalties like prison time for those who attempt to mis-use data collected by the app. India's curve, yet to flatten vis-a-vis countries with similar or more conservative plans to ease restrictions, still points to 'exponential growth', despite India having tested much fewer people, points out Abhishek Waghmare. IMAGE: Medics check a COVID-19 patient before his discharge at a hospital in New Delhi, May 9, 2020. Photograph: PTI Photo The government extended the nationwide lockdown -- enforced to prevent the spread of coronavirus on March 24, and subsequently extended till May 3 -- by another two weeks, until May 17, with curbs targeted at cities and 'hotspots'. It gave a go-ahead to re-opening of businesses in areas designated as Green zones and Orange zones, mostly rural areas. Technically, this makes lifting of restrictions even in the Red zones possible after May 17. However, a comparison with some countries that have experienced a far worse coronavirus (COVID-19) spread than India, gives two insights. First, India's curve is yet to flatten vis-a-vis countries that have similar or more conservative plans to ease restrictions. There have been marked flattening of the curve in Turkey, Singapore, the US, and France. Asian peers are experiencing a similar fate, with the curve refusing to get horizontal. India is showing only a slight indication of flattening. And second, the curve has remained at 45 degrees to the X axis -- meaning exponential growth -- despite the fact that India among the group has tested much fewer people. France's number of tests has been nearly 15 times India's number per capita. Simple ways to read the graphs: For each country, new cases are plotted against existing stock of cases till a particular date, and the line traces time. New cases are usually quite small compared to the latter, which keeps growing. However, both the variables are plotted on a logarithmic scale, which makes their growth comparable. To cut the jargon, this method gives a straight line at 45 degrees to the X axis for a perfect exponential growth. Please note that the number of days for doubling could be different for different countries, and this graph does not show that rate. It simply shows whether exponential growth is still going on, or has subsided. India, along with other Asian countries, is still behind other developed countries in this respect. Yet, France is lifting restrictions after May 11, which is not far from India's current date of easing curbs, May 17. Singapore, on the other hand, is revoking its 'circuit breaker' (curbs) on June 5, despite having flattened the curve and controlled deaths. At the same time, if testing is ramped up in India in coming weeks, there is a strong likelihood that cases will multiply fast. This will put more pressure on the curve to remain linear at 45 degrees to the X axis -- that is, exponential. At 700 tests per million -- less than 0.1 per cent -- India is nowhere near the advanced economies that have tested more than 1 per cent of their population. Notice that the curve is either getting horizontal or bending downwards for the US, Singapore or Turkey, but not for India yet. These three countries have done 15 times more tests per million people than India. Low cases per million people in India could be masking the real spread of COVID-19 in the country, and that would take longer for us to flatten this curve. The known fact that South Korea has been able to stop new cases is visible from the curve hitting the X axis. Similarly, following a high death incidence in France, its curve has started looking down, which is way better than having a horizontal turn to the curve which the US shows. Saudi Arabia and Indonesia have not been able to flatten the curve yet, and their trajectory is similar to India's. However, the oil kingdom leads in the number of tests conducted per million people, while Indonesia lags even India in that respect. Sources: Coronavirus Resource Centre, Johns Hokpins University Note: Tests/million data for Saubi Arabia sourced from AA News turkey Data as of April 29, 2020 What's the outlook on lockdown relaxation in these countries? COUNTRY LOCKDOWN RELAXATION OUTLOOK STATEMENT BY GOVERNMENT Indonesia In process of formulating reopening of the economy, talks about continuing restrictions till July. 'We know how to bring the economy back to life, but what we don't know is how to bring our deceased patients back to life': Task force leader Wiku Adisasmito (Arab News) India Lockdown extended till May 17, partial relaxation in rural areas or those with no cases for three weeks, most cities under Red Zone with total stoppage of business 'State governments are mandated to strictly enforce the lockdown guidelines and they shall not dilute these guidelines': Official press release= Saudi Arabia Restrictions for movement during daytime lifted on April 26, but cases continue to rise fast, and members of the royal family fall ill. 'The royal order to the concerned authorities seeks to urge citizens, expatriates and employers to assume responsibility and adhere to the precautionary and preventive measures': Saudi Press Agency (Newsweek) France Zoning (Red, Green) similar to that in India, restrictions to be eased from May 11, but north eastern regions including Paris to be Red zones beyond that date. 'The virus's spread continues to slow down in the country with the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care decreasing for the third straight week': National Health Agency director Jerome Salomon (France24) South Korea One of the few countries which arrested the spread of the virus without lockdowns, but used extensive rapid testing 'If we had delayed developing test kits by a month, without prior and proactive consultation and cooperation with the private sector, our current system based around quick, mass testing couldn't have been established': Health minister Park Neung-hoo (TIME magazine) Turkey Weekend curfew in place until May 3, but business restrictions to continue till the end of Ramadan month. The vice president would evaluate recommendations from the country's COVID-19 advisory council to decide 'which steps will be taken in which fields and on which date': President Erdogan (Associated Press) Singapore 'Circuit breaker' or the restrictions exist till June 5, government is formulating rules for the post-circuit breaker period 'I think it is important for us to remind ourselves, even though we are seeing the number of community cases coming down, we are not out of the woods yet': Singapore health minister (South China Morning Post) USA Restrictions are lifting, three-phased approach with stringent criteria in place: 23 states still have shelter-in-place, 18 have re-poened partially, seven are about to lift restrictions gradually 'The governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire. These are very good people, but they are angry': President Trump on protestors who want restrictions lifted. ProductioN: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com A report claims the rest of the UEFA Champions League will be self-contained in August in a remarkably congested schedule. Two-legged ties would be played inside of the same week, and four sides face the prospect of six matches in 17 or 18 days. The report came after combustible Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas said his side would meet Juventus on Aug. 7. Aulas cautioned that French clubs were likely to get run over due to their league being canceled and no home matches allowed in France until September (Shades of MLS in the CONCACAF Champions League). PSG has said it will play home UCL games abroad if necessary. [ VIDEO: Premier League highlights ] Marca released draft calendars for the remainder of the UCL and UEL as well. Heres where Premier League clubs would fit into the fray. The UCL Final in Istanbul would come Aug. 29, two days after the UEL Final in Gdansk. Manchester City would host its second leg against Real Madrid on August 7, holding a 2-1 lead from Spain. Chelsea would attempt to overcome a 3-0 first leg loss the next day when it visits Bayern Munich. THE UEL would start sooner, with a pair of Round of 16 first legs on Aug. 2 and 3 and the second legs on Aug. 6. Wolves will host Olympiacos after a 1-1 first leg in Greece and Manchester United with host LASK after a 5-0 blowout in Austria. The quarterfinals and semifinals will remain two-legged in both tournaments and ties will be played within five days. Will this all happen? What a loaded question, but any domestic path that isnt walked by early August is going to ask an absurd amount of a club. Champions League, UEL draft calendars leaked as Lyon groans of fate originally appeared on NBCSports.com Amid the coronavirus pandemic, many celebrities have been digging into their archives and sharing nostalgic pictures. Kashmera Shah is no different and has been sharing pictures from her earlier bold photoshoots to heat up the lockdown. In an interview with The Times of India, Kashmera said that her husband Krushna Abhishek has no objection to her sultry snaps. One of the reasons Krushna fell for me was my sexiness and for any relationship to be alive, I believe physical attraction is a must. I fell for his wit and humour. Krushna never has a problem with me posting sexy pictures on social media or doing bold photo shoots, she said. Kashmera opened up about doing bold photoshoots back in the day and said that she never posed nude. During such bold shoots, I was always surrounded by women designers and photographers. I never did a nude shoot, I always kept myself limited to bikini shoots. This, however, does not mean that I look down on individuals, who pose nude for shoots, she said. She also said that there are a lot of morphed pictures of her doing the rounds online. Also read | Mothers Day: Amitabh Bachchan pens tribute to worlds most beautiful mother, says each day is hers Krushna and Kashmera fell in love while shooting for their film Aur Pappu Pass Ho Gaya (2007). After being in a steady relationship for a few years, they secretly got married in a church in Las Vegas in 2013. In 2017, Krushna and Kashmera welcomed twin boys through surrogacy. Talking about the new additions to the family, she had told Hindustan Times in an interview in 2018, We dont really spoil the kids but theyre very young right now so we cant really put rules on them, as theyll not understand. But, we both are strict parents. And yes, Krushna has completely changed and I knew he would. He was always like a kid. Now, he has become even more like a kid. So, I literally have three kids on my hands and all three boys and all three Geminians. Im in major trouble right now (laughs). Follow @htshowbiz for more Will you download Ireland's contact-tracing app when it launches? Are you afraid it might sap your battery life? Are you disqualified by your age? Do you fear it's being used as a trojan horse for State surveillance? Or are you just not really bothered? Here are the main problems for Ireland's contact-tracing app. 1. It may not work with old smartphones. The technology that Ireland's app is based on is being devised to work with newer phones. In Android's case, that means Android 6 or above. According to Statcounter, 10pc of Ireland's Android phones are using older systems than that. Similarly, if you have an iPhone 6, iPhone 5 (or 5C or 5S) or anything else older than an iPhone 7, it may not work. You can't really afford to disregard 10pc of the phone-owning population at a stroke, especially if that 10pc might disproportionately include older people who change their smartphones less frequently. 2. It can't initially be downloaded by under-16s. The HSE says that you have to be 16 to download this app, because of 'digital consent'. Leave aside that privacy experts say this is a misreading of current law; it knocks out a big chunk of the smartphone-using market. It means we have no idea if the tens of thousands of teens visiting their grandparents, going into shops or attending school are passing the virus on. 3. Bluetooth sometimes just doesn't work for this kind of thing. Trinity College Dublin researchers Professor Douglas Leith and Dr Stephen Farrell recently tested phones' Bluetooth capability for contact-tracing apps. They took measurements in several locations in Dublin - in a supermarket, on a train carriage, sitting at a meeting table and walking outdoors on a city street. They found problems with accurately measuring social distancing using Bluetooth. "When sitting around a meeting table with phones in their pockets we measured the signal strength to be very low even for people sitting next to one another," said Leith, who added that people would need to place their phones on the table instead. 4. There are still some privacy fears. It is still possible that the combination of this app, together with CCTV cameras or other security tools, might yet identify people. The problem is that this kind of technology is just too useful to too many agencies and companies. It doesn't take a big leap of the imagination to see pundits calling for 'society to be kept safe' by an adoption of similar technology in future. To be fair, as with any issue, privacy fears can be overstated just as easily as they can be underrated. Will this app know more about us than we already give up on Google, Facebook, Instagram and thousands of 'cookies'? Will it know where you live, what you buy, who your friends are and what political affiliations you have, like many of our everyday digital services? Almost certainly not. Compared to the social media most of us (and it really is most of us) use, this is a low threat in its current guise. 5. It might become 'mandatory but not compulsory'. While this is being introduced as a voluntary download, it may become effectively compulsory in workplaces and schools. There is a big interpretive space between something being legally required and 'unofficially' mandatory. Unlimited has its limits Can an "unlimited" mobile service be unlimited when its legal terms and conditions say it may, in fact, be limited or stopped for "excessive" use? I've never thought so. For years, I pointed this out about Three's 'All You Can Eat' service (60GB with a 'fair use' cutoff clause). Last year, I highlighted that Eir's 'No Limits' mobile data package actually has an 80GB-plus-fair-use-cutoff condition, too. And Virgin Mobile 'Unlimited' (80GB with a similar 'fair use' cutoff condition). Now it's Vodafone that is introducing an "unlimited" mobile data service that is limited in its legal terms and conditions by a warning if you use too much data, you'll go over your unlimited allowance. This time, instead of 'fair use', it uses the word "excessive". To be fair, Vodafone's overall move is hugely positive. It will be a fantastic step up for many thousands of people. It also lifts the whole Irish telecoms market - all three main operators now have very high-data packages for the ordinary business user and consumer. And yet, it would be dishonest of those of us who represent the interests of readers not to point out the underside. Vodafone, like other operators, cannot resist the term "unlimited" in its advertising, even when its legal terms and conditions tell a different story. Like the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI), it argues that "for most people", it will be unlimited. This might seem like a ludicrous abuse of the English language, but apparently the ASAI allows operators to do it. It is not possible for Vodafone, or any mobile operator, to not include terms and conditions giving them the right to take action if a customer is simply using way too much data for the local area to handle. This is basic network management. But is there any need to mislabel it as "unlimited"? By PTI NEW DELHI: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday suggested retailers to learn the "art of living" with the coronavirus pandemic while assuring them to look into their demands for MSME status. The minister also assured the retailers to look into their demands of financial aid from the government, which he would put forward to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. He also said that some proposals are under "serious consideration" by the government and asked the retail industry to have a positive outlook. "We would have to develop a way forward to live with coronavirus," said Gadkari in a virtual meeting with the Retailers Association of India (RAI). He also assured RAI and Practicing Engineers, Architects and Town Planners Association (India) that their request for registering as MSMEs will be examined expeditiously. "These people (retailers) also provide employment to some people and if they get recognition as MSME, then people working under them would get benefits as Atal Pension Yojana, health insurance and others. They would also have a Jan Dhan Yojana account. They would benefit from schemes for the social sector. Moreover, several women work with them," the minister said. According to him, several small retailers have already got permission to open their shops and soon large retailers would also get permission from the state governments. "As this is a matter of survival for your industry, the government has asked for refund of Income Tax and GST within eight days," he said. According to the minister, the present situation is also a "blessing in disguise" and an opportunity to upgrade the expertise of the retail industry and suggested them to optimise their cost. He also suggested the retailers to learn "art of living" with coronavirus and said that retailers' patience in the sector is getting exhausted. "This is also an economic war. In the international market, our quality and cost matters," he said. Gadkari also stressed that the retailer would have to develop a procedure against coronavirus to sanitise the hands of customers and employees and maintain social distance by marking steps in the retail shops. "Fight against corona would take time but decisions regarding stores are expected,' he said adding "gradually we would have to start daily needs, (otherwise) survival of the poor would be difficult". The minister has also asked RAI to send their memorandum which he would forward to the finance minister, who has the authority to decide over the issue. "We are standing with you. We would try to maximise the help," he said, adding that he is constantly in touch with the Prime Minister and Finance Minister. However, he also said that state governments and the Centre is also facing problems as there is severe drop in the revenue. "Banks are also facing pressure. Our work is to take all stakeholders along with us. Our effort would be that no one slips from this pandemic," Gadkari added. The Santa Cruz County Sheriffs Office on Sunday identified the man killed Saturday in a shark attack at Sand Dollar Beach as 26-year-old Ben Kelly, an avid surfer and small-business owner well-known in his community. Kelly was surfing at the beach, south of Santa Cruz, at about 1:30 p.m. Saturday when he was attacked by an unknown shark species, according to the California State Parks department. The Sheriffs Office said the attack took place within 100 yards of the shore. Kelly, who handcrafted custom surfboards, was a fixture in Santa Cruzs surfing community known for his passion and dedication to the sport. He began shaping boards as a kid as a way to escape to a simpler more creative space. What started as a way to fuel my own surfing passion has now become a way to stoke out my fellow surfers, and that is truly fulfilling to me, Kelly said on his website. Its the way I have found to give back to others. His boards were used by surfers around the world, including in Bali, South Africa, Mexico, Central America, Peru and Hawaii, his website said. Friends posted tributes to Kellys Instagram page after learning of the news. Your life was a blessing to all, said one. Ben you were one of a kind, one of the good ones, and you will be sorely missed, said another. Peter Mel, a professional surfer and the co-owner of the Freeline Surf Shop in Santa Cruz, called the attack a shock that quickly reverberated through the regions large surf community. The attack happened at 1:30 and by 2 most of the community knew, said Mel. Mel said that the time of day of the attack surprised him. Generally, surfers are most concerned about sharks in the mornings and early evenings. 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. Ive been surfing my whole life. Theres more sharks around now than weve ever seen, said Mel. Its a little scary. I grew up at that beach. ... Youre always aware. Mel last surfed on the beach Friday. He compared Kellys death to the 1981 fatal shark attack of Lewis Boren in Pacific Grove, an event Mel said impacted his generation of surfers. Although Mel didnt know Kelly personally, he saw him around the community. We know the passion he had, said Mel. I feel sorry for his family, especially on Mothers Day. Under state parks protocol, the water 1 mile south and north of the incident location will be closed for five days and not be reopened until Thursday. Tatiana Sanchez and Tony Bravo are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: tatiana.sanchez@sfchronicle.com, tbravo@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TatianaYSanchez, @tonybravosf China is boosting its purchases of U.S. soybeans to fulfill commitments under a trade deal signed by the worlds two largest economies in January. Between April 22 and May 5, American private exporters reported sales of 1.25 million tons of soybeans to China, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). By comparison, China imported a total of 1.75 million tons of U.S. soybeans in the whole month of April 2019, according to Chinas General Administration of Customs. In the first three months this year, Chinas soybean imports from the U.S. more than doubled from the same period last year to 7.8 million tons, customs data showed (link in Chinese). Expecting larger orders from China, American farmers are planting more soybeans as the soybean planting season begins. The USDAs latest crop progress report showed that farmers in 18 major soybean-planting states had planted 23% of total soybean acreage as of Sunday, well above the 11% five-year average. The impact of the coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soybean cultivation is limited, as the sector is highly mechanized, Zhang Zhen, an industry researcher with the Research Center for Rural Economy, which sits under Chinas Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, told Caixin. The humble soybean is one of the biggest agricultural bargaining chips in China-U.S. trade talks. As part of the phase-one trade deal signed in January, China promised to buy at least $40 billion of food, agricultural and seafood products on average annually over the next two years, including soybeans, from the U.S., the worlds biggest grower of soybeans. China is home to about 20% of the world population but only has 7% of the worlds arable land, leaving it dependent on imports for many agricultural products. It is also the worlds biggest consumer of soybeans, using some 110 million tons every year, 90% of which is imported. Read more In Depth: Why China Is Still Hooked on U.S. Soybeans In July 2018, Beijing slapped a 25% tariff on U.S. soybeans as the trade war began, and some Chinese buyers have reduced or even suspended purchases, leading to a collapse in American sales and a decline in Chinas overall soybean imports. The situation has improved since the two countries sealed the phase one trade deal. U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will give an update on Chinas progress in fulfilling promises made in the trade deal in about a week or two. Contact reporters Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and Tang Ziyi (ziyitang@caixin.com), and editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com) Caixin Global has launched Caixin CEIC Mobile, the mobile-only version of its world-class macroeconomic data platform. If youre using the Caixin app, please click here. If you havent downloaded the app, please click here. Editors note: This is story 1 of 14 in Laredo Morning Times Laredo Heroes Unmasked, where we will highlight members around the community that have been nominated by other locals for their efforts to help battle the COVID-19 national pandemic. This Sunday edition is sponsored by Kansas City Southern. As the world struggles to get back to normal, many first responders are faced with the responsibility of taking care of a community stricken by the COVID-19 pandemic and still taking care of their other duties. Whether they are firefighters, EMTs, police officers, etc. they must all coordinate to properly care for Laredo. Karla Kristal Rodriguez is a 911 dispatcher who works every day to receive emergency calls and dispatch the proper personnel to their needed location. I feel we play an important role because we are the first person anyone needing police, fire or EMS attention speak to, she said. Dispatchers work hard to monitor routes, update call logs and record call information that help first responders react accordingly to all emergencies. These men and women coordinate with multiple agencies, and during the COVID-19 national crisis, it helps knowing that first responders can focus on the pandemics effect as strongly as possible. We never know what to expect, Rodriguez said. We have days where citizens need our help in guiding them in anything they might need. Other days, emergency calls are coming to our center nonstop, but whatever might be the case, we are always a call away 24/7. According to her, the pandemic has created a more stressful situation compared to two years ago when she started. She is currently working up to 16-hour shifts and enjoys the days when she gets back home to her family. Despite this, she wakes up to help her community and the emergency personnel of Laredo. I want to thank them for their support, she added. My family and friends are helping me out during a bad day, and they are there to cheer me up. Rodriguez also thanked the community for the nomination and for helping the first responders with their calls. With the help of Rodriguez and the community, the first responders can get to wherever they are needed quickly and efficiently. It feels like such a great honor knowing that I am able to help everyone in the community to the best of my ability, she said. Even if its only a phone call, I feel great knowing that by speaking to that person, I am an asset to getting them the help they need. As the lockdown got lifted, she and her colleagues received a higher rate of calls, which has been stressful. She looks forward to the day that she can spend time with her friends and family that she has not seen since the start of the quarantine. Until then, she prefers to stay inside and just go to work. In New York City, 38 children have become ill from a new virus-linked syndrome. Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday that 38 New York City children have been inflicted with a serious new inflammatory syndrome that city health officials say appears to be linked to an immune response to Covid-19. That is more than double the 15 cases the city health department warned of in an alert to city health providers on Monday. The illness, known as pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome, introduces a troubling new aspect to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has largely spared children from serious disease. Statewide, three children have died of the inflammatory condition, including one in New York City, and state officials were investigating 85 potential cases, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Sunday. Of the three children who have died, two were of elementary school age and one was an adolescent, said Dr. Howard Zucker, the state health commissioner. They lived in three different counties, and were not known to have pre-existing conditions. WATERFORD Major rebuilding of a collapsed hillside would be needed before a Waterford couple could return to their house which hangs on the edge of a cliff, a town leader said Sunday. "It's still a very dangerous situation," Town Supervisor John Lawler said. "Significant repairs to the hillside will have to be made by the homeowners before it would be safe to enter and advocate to live in that house." At issue is the home Mary and Terry Murphy own at the end of Weaver Avenue. It is close to the end of the collapsing hillside and sits against the edge. CLICK HERE: As Waterford home teeters on failing cliff, owner slams town response Since the landslide occurred on May 3, two decks on the back of the home have collapsed, Lawler said. That portion of the cliff has lost at least six more feet of soil since the original landslide, he said. The Murphys told the Times Union last week that they were frustrated with how town officials have handled the situation. The family was in Lake Placid to shelter from the coronavirus when the hillside gave way and they said the town made no effort to notify them. Two families have moved back into their homes after it was determined that there was no further erosion near those structures. "Given the fact that their side of the cliff has not seen additional crumbling since last Sunday, and they're already significantly back from the cliff, the engineers and emergency service people and myself felt those homes were not in any imminent danger," he said. PREVIOUSLY: Waterford landslide still moving - House on edge of ridge in danger of falling over Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. The fourth affected home sits at the bottom of the collapsed hill. While the structure has not been damaged, Lawler said, the private driveway to the home has been covered in debris, rendering the house inaccessible. The driveway stretches over a quarter of a mile. Lawler said the landslide buried about a 100-foot stretch with debris, including large trees that were thrown down the hill. "It's not as simple as moving a few piles of dirt," Lawler said. "The other issue we have to give more consideration to is will moving that make the hill unstable again. It's basically at the bottom of the new hill." Army Chief Gen MM Naravane has said that a comprehensive "test-bedding" of the Integrated Battle Groups (IBGs) was concluded but its roll out has been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Army planned to introduce the IBGs, comprising a mix of infantry, artillery, air defence, tanks and logistics units, as part of a far reaching revamp of its war fighting capability, particularly along the borders with China and Pakistan. "The roll out of the IBGs has been delayed due to the outbreak of the pandemic and the need to divert critical resources towards containment efforts," the Army Chief told PTI. "However, I can assure you that we will roll out the IBGs in the requisite time frame as the conceptual groundwork has already been laid out and extensive test-bedding had already been carried out prior to the outbreak," he said. The Army Chief also said that there could be some disruptions in defence production and procurement in the wake of the pandemic, but it will be a "temporary phase". After years of deliberations, the Army decided to raise the IBGs along the borders with China and Pakistan that will help it carry out swift strikes in case of a war. Each IBG will be headed by a Major General and comprise around 5,000 troops. Ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to India in October, the Indian Army carried out the "Him Vijay" exercise in Arunachal Pradesh primarily to test the effectiveness of the IBGs in mountain combat exercise. Each IBG would be modelled on specific operational requirement considering the topography as well as threat perceptions. Asked whether the financial burden triggered by the pandemic will have a bearing on the Army's long pending military procurement programme, he said it may have some impact in the short term. "Defence production and procurement are elaborate and long drawn processes involving integration of various systems and subsystems and dependent on global supply chains. Due to the pandemic, there could be some disruptions, but I see this as a temporary phase," he said. At the same time, Gen Naravane said there have been "numerous buffers" which will be leveraged to fast track production once the situation normalises "as it is a matter of when and not if". Though indigenous manufacturing will be impacted, he said, its magnitude will be much lower. "We are therefore reviewing our contracts and procurement plans in detail to ensure that delays are minimised and local vendors are not affected greatly and are in continuous dialogue with all stakeholders," the Army Chief said. He said the Indian Army has invested heavily in indigenisation of supply chains and inventory over the last few years. "So this crisis will not affect us as adversely as other countries. Most of our ongoing procurement are under 'buy Indian' categories from Indian industries which retain adequate reserves of assemblies/sub-assemblies from foreign suppliers to cater for contingencies," Gen Naravane said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The presidential elections in Poland scheduled for May 10 are postponed indefinitely amid the COVID-19 epidemic, RIA Novosti reported. Poland residents will choose the new head of state in absentia - by mail. On Friday, March 20, PM of Poland, Mr. Mateusz Morawiecki introduced an 'epidemic state.' Despite this, representatives of the government and the ruling party insist that elections can be held in the usual format. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 18:43:25|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WUHAN, May 10 (Xinhua) -- A new air freight route was launched on Sunday linking Wuhan, the capital city of central China's Hubei Province, and Japan's Osaka Prefecture. The flight, loaded with more than 9.6 tonnes of epidemic prevention and control supplies and exported clothes, took off at 2:36 p.m. on Sunday from Wuhan Tianhe International Airport. Its the first international regular air freight route to be opened since the airport resumed operation on April 8. The all-cargo air route is operated by a Boeing 737-900 aircraft of a private airline of OKAIR, and the aircraft is scheduled to fly seven times per week, with a maximum load of 15 tonnes, according to Tang Mingbo, from the Hubei Airports Group. Another regular air freight route will open in late May to link Wuhan and Tokyo. Enditem Rome: Silvia Romano, an Italian aid worker kidnapped 18 months ago in East Africa, landed in Rome on Sunday a day after being freed. Silvia Romano, covered in protective gear against the risk of COVID-19, walks on the tarmac after landing at Rome's Ciampino airport. Credit:AP Gunmen seized Romano, who was working for an Italian charity called Africa Milele, in southeastern Kenya in November 2018. She was found in Somalia, some 30 km outside the capital of Mogadishu, and was released thanks to efforts by the external intelligence agency, Italy's Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said. Romano touched down at Rome's Ciampino airport aboard a special flight at about 2pm local time. It has been 75 years since Queen Elizabeth experienced what she has called "one of the most memorable nights of my life." The 94-year-old monarch reflected on celebrating the end of World War II in Europe on May 8, 1945 now known as VE Day in a BBC recording from 1985. After waving to the crowds gathered in front of Buckingham Palace "nearly every hour, six times" with her family, the then-19-year-old royal and her younger sister Princess Margaret went incognito to mix in with the crowds and experience firsthand the joy of the people who were celebrating all over London. "When the excitement of the flood lights being switched on got through to us, my sister and I realized we couldn't see what the crowds were enjoying," Queen Elizabeth recalled. "My mother had put her tiara on for the occasion, so we asked my parents if we could go out and see for ourselves." RELATED: The Poignant Way Queen Elizabeth Will Mark the 75th Anniversary of the End of WWII in Europe I remember lines of unknown people linking arms and walking down Whitehall, all of us just swept along on a tide of happiness and relief. The Queen was 19 years old on VE Day. More than thirty years later, she recorded her memories for a unique BBC Broadcast. #VEDay75 pic.twitter.com/jWf4bebj2e The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) May 8, 2020 Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, Winston Churchill, King George VI and Princess Margaret During WWII, the then-princess had served in a reserve unit in the war and was also named Colonel of the Grenadier Guards. She said that she and her sister were "terrified" of being recognized, so she pulled her uniform cap down over her eyes. However, a Grenadier Guards officer that was part of her 16-person party made her wear her push her hat back up as he "refused to be seen in the company of another officer improperly dressed." Story continues The Queen continued, "We cheered the king and queen on the balcony and then walked miles through the street. I remember lines of unknown people linking arms and walking down Whitehall, all of us just swept along on a tide of happiness and relief." NCJ Archive/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Queen Elizabeth RELATED: All the Times the Royal Family Has Kept Calm and Carried On She admits how she and Margaret "cheated slightly" in joining the crowds in shouting, "We want the King," as they had sent a message into the house saying they were waiting outside. Following the request, King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth then came out to wave to the crowds. "I think it was one of the most memorable nights of my life," the Queen concluded. Queen Elizabeth Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more! Queen Elizabeth will lead Britain in its remembrance of the end of World War II in Europe by conjuring memories of her own fathers speech to the nation. The monarch, 94, will make an address on May 8 at 9 p.m. the same time her father King George VI gave a radio message at the end of the war in 1945. On Friday, the Queen was praised for a televised VE Day speech to honour those who died during World War Two. However, Her Majesty, 94, is likely to withdraw from public life for months due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to The Sunday Times. Her Majesty is likely to stay at Windsor Castle for the foreseeable future. Photo: Getty Images The paper has reported that the break in official royal duties is almost certain to be the longest absence of her 68-year reign, as grandson Prince William and Kate Middleton step up. She is also expected to remain at Windsor Castle - where she is currently in lockdown with Prince Philip who turns 99 next month - for the foreseeable future. The Queens schedule of autumn engagements, including a state visit from South Africa in October, are on hold. They have also reported that Buckingham Palace will be closed this summer to the public for the first time in 27 years, with events like Trooping the Colour next month already called off. A royal source told them: The Queen wont do anything which goes against the advice of people in her [age] category and shes going to take all the appropriate advice. There are discussions about what we could and couldnt do come October. We havent cancelled a load of engagements, but nothing is going into Her Majestys diary at the moment. If there is advice in the coming months that its fine for her to come back to London, she may do that, but until that time, shed want to be seen to be being responsible in her actions for the nation. Royal biographer Andrew Morton, told The Sun he fears the monarch may never return to royal public life. Its terribly sad but I cant see how the Queen can resume her usual job, he said. The COVID-19 virus isnt going away soon and will be with us for months, if not years. It would be far too risky for the Queen to start meeting people on a regular basis. The break in official royal duties is almost certain to be the longest absence of her 68-year reign, as grandson Prince William and Kate Middleton step up. Photo: Getty Images The Queens last public engagement was the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey on March 9th, and her speech to the nation after lockdown garnered 24 million viewers. Story continues Normally, the monarch would return from Windsor Castle - where she spends Easter - to Buckingham Palace in May, before travelling on to Balmoral Castle in July for the summer. In her VE Day anniversary speech earlier this week, she told the nation: Today it may seem hard that we cannot mark this special anniversary as we would wish. Instead we remember from our homes and our doorsteps. But our streets are not empty. They are filled with the love and the care that we have for each other. "When I look at our country today and see what we are willing to do to protect and support one another, I say with pride, that we are still a nation those brave soldiers, sailors and airmen would recognise and admire." It comes as her grandson Prince Harry acknowledged in a new speech that life has changed dramatically for all of us. The Duke of Sussex, 35, made the comment in a video shared on Twitter to mark what would have been the opening ceremony of the Invictus Games at The Hague in the Netherlands, which has been postponed until 2021 due to the pandemic. Words by Lauren Clark Got a story tip or just want to get in touch? Email us at lifestyle.tips@verizonmedia.com. Clashes in northwest Syria killed 22 regime fighters and jihadists Sunday in the highest such death toll since the start of a two-month-old ceasefire there, a monitor said. A truce since March 6 had largely stemmed fighting in Syria's last major rebel bastion of Idlib after a months-long regime assault that killed hundreds of civilians and forced almost a million to flee. But before dawn on Sunday rebels attacked the positions of pro-regime fighters on the western flank of the jihadist-dominated region, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The clashes in the Sahl al-Ghab area killed 15 regime fighters as well as seven jihadists including from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Hurras al-Deen group, the Britain-based monitor said. "It's the highest death toll for fighters since the truce came into force," said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman, who relies on sources inside Syria. "There had been intermittent clashes and mutual bombardment between both sides before, but this is the most violent attack yet." The Idlib region of some three million people is dominated by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group led by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, but other jihadists such as Hurras al-Deen and rebel groups are also present. The truce brokered by regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey has kept Syrian and Russian warplanes out of the region's skies, and largely held despite sporadic clashes or rocket fire. Tens of thousands have returned to their hometowns. Hundreds of thousands of others remain in crowded displacement camps or in temporary shelters near the Turkish border. Aid groups have warned that any outbreak of the novel coronavirus there would be devastating. Syria's war has killed more than 380,000 people and displaced millions since starting in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests. Search Keywords: Short link: Elle Macpherson has penned a moving tribute to her son Flynn after he graduated university in the United States this week. The 56-year-old model shared a number of photos of the 22-year-old Boston University student along with a lengthy caption. She wrote: 'My beloved Flynn. Last day of university. Congratulations on your brilliant academic life. Sweet! Elle Macpherson has penned a moving tribute to her son Flynn as he graduates university. The 56-year-old model shared a number of photos of the 22-year-old Boston University student along with a lengthy caption. Both pictured 'It seems only yesterday you were this young boy or the teenager graduating high school. 'We are so proud of the man you've become and how you've evolved and adjusted to life's twists and turns and flourished with humor, grace and elegance. 'You are a credit to yourself. I wish we were celebrating in more traditional ways, but we will in time. Today is just the beginning'. She wrote: 'My beloved Flynn. Last day of university. Congratulations on your brilliant academic life. 'We are so proud of the man you've become and how you've evolved and adjusted to life's twists and turns and flourished with humor, grace and elegance' She added: 'You are a credit to yourself. I wish we were celebrating in more traditional ways, but we will in time. Today is just the beginning'. Pictured: A throwback shot of Flynn Elle shares her two sons, Arpad Flynn Alexander Busson (who goes by Flynn) and 17-year-old Aurelius Cy Andrea Busson (known as Cy), with her ex-fiance, French financier Arpad Busson. Flynn told Vogue Australia last year: 'I know everyone says that about their mum, but it really is true. My mother has always been so incredibly devoted to me and my brother.' 'I always knew we were her number-one priority,' Flynn said. 'It has shone through everything from the way she chooses her jobs to the way she cooks dinner.' Ex: Elle shares her two sons, Arpad Flynn Alexander Busson (know as Flynn) and Aurelius Cy Andrea Busson (known as Cy), 17, with her ex-fiance, French financier Arpad Busson (right) Flynn told Vogue Australia last year: 'I know everyone says that about their mum, but it really is true. My mother has always been so incredibly devoted to me and my brother' The student added that he feels grateful for how his mother was always there for him growing up, despite her extremely busy schedule. 'Just from the conversations I've had with friends [about their parents], I know that she's special, in the way she prioritises us,' he said. According to Flynn, his mother would regularly pick him up from school regardless of her work commitments and was a constant source of support and guidance. As Ghana marks Mothers Day on Sunday, many citizens have expressed their appreciation to women offering essential services, especially in the health facilities at the core of the COVID-19 fight. On both traditional and online media, citizens lauded them for their selflessness and dedication to duty in view of the risk they faced to being exposed to the novel Coronavirus and also exposing their families should they become infected. Mr Kwesi Quainoo, a father of four, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that he appreciated women a lot for their diverse services to family, community and nation, therefore, he cherished the celebration of Mothers Day. However, he said, this years celebration must focus more on women in frontline healthcare because of the dual burden they were shouldering both at home and in their workplaces to help Ghana to beat the disease. As you know, we have more females in our healthcare sector and they face a lot of pressure both physically and psychologically in these times and we have to encourage, commend and pray for them, he said. Some of the frontline workers shared their experiences when the GNA visited their facilities and interacted with them. Mrs Gloria Obeng-Benefo, the Public Relations Officer of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), in wishing frontline health workers, especially staff of the premier Institute, a blissful day, encouraged them to keep doing their best to save lives and effectively manage their homes. The COVID-19 pandemic, she said, had disrupted the lives of all, but it was more challenging to health workers. So on this special day, I say Ayekoo, because you have dedicated your lives to save the lives of all Ghanaians, God bless you, she said. Dr Elizabeth Bankah, a Family Physician and Head of the Adolescent Care Clinic, Greater Accra Regional Hospital (Ridge), recounted her challenges, saying combining work and her domestic chores had become a cumbersome task. Most importantly, the children are home and we need to be more cautious about how we enter our homes on our return from work in order not to infect the family, she explained. Mothers are going through a lot in the face of this pandemic. However, it has also provided an opportunity to bond with our children, teach them and interact more with them at home. Dr Bankah, nonetheless, pointed out that a lot of safety measures had been put in place at the Hospital to ensure effective social distancing and contain the spread of the disease. She congratulated all mothers for the good job they continued to do and urged them to see the situation in a positive light, keep the family together and do the best they could to safeguard the health of the family. Mrs Bertha Akpabeh, a Matron at the Accident and Emergency Unit, Ridge Hospital, said it had not been easy enduring the long hours of works and coping with the threats. We used to run an eight-hour shift but now were doing 12 hours to reduce our contact hours, she explained. This makes it difficult for mothers, especially with the threats and stress from both ends. Indeed, in these times, mothers need additional help to cater for their children and we are grateful to our supportive husbands who have been there for us, Mrs Akpabeh said. Mrs Angelina Appiah Kubi, a Senior Administrative Assistant at NMIMR said as an essential worker it was not possible for her to spend time with her children at home. Sometimes, you may not even be able to check on the kids, as you should, when you return home because of social distancing, she said. I manage the situation by assigning them roles, such as Minister of Information etc, to make them adhere to the precautionary protocols. She expressed appreciation to the Institute for providing the needed Personal Protective Equipment to keep them safe. The mother of four wished all frontline health workers a Happy Mothers Day and encouraged them be tougher in undertaking their challenging tasks the pandemic had brought. Mrs Yvonne Ashong, a Principal Technologist, Parasitology Department of Noguchi, told mothers that the best they could do these days was to have their kids adhere strictly to the safety measures to win the fight against the disease. She advised the public to celebrate the Mothers Day without visiting public places saying, Let us take the time to bond with our immediate family and allow them to celebrate us to enjoy the Day. Mothers Day is a celebration in Ghana and other parts of the world annually, on the second Sunday in May to appreciate women for their mothering roles which sustain humanity. 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 Ethiopian Military Admits Downing Aid Plane in Somalia Over Suicide Attack Fears Sputnik News 11:01 GMT 09.05.2020 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A plane carrying relief aid was downed in Somalia by Ethiopian troops who confused it with a militant aircraft on a suicide mission, media said Saturday. Ethiopia's Sector III Force Commander of the African Union mission, battling al-Shabaab militants, said in a letter to the regional bloc that the plane flew suspiciously and did not respond to radio calls, according to The Standard, a Kenyan daily. "The troops concluded that the aircraft... was trying to find a target to make suicide in the base camp due to movement now and then over the FOB", the letter read. The commander defended the troops' actions, saying planes were to approach the base from the east, while the Kenyan plane flew in from the west. It flew over the airstrip close to the ground and even "tried to land on ZU 23 crew". The Kenyan plane with a crew of five crashed on Monday after it was hit by a missile near the Ethiopian Forward Operating Base in the town of Berdale in the southern Bay region. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a press briefing about coronavirus testing in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 11, 2020 in Washington, DC. Drew Angerer | Getty Images A landmark clash over presidential power and the rule of law is coming to a streaming device near you. Attorneys for President Donald Trump will finally face off against Democrats in the House of Representatives and Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr., before the nation's highest court on Tuesday in a set of cases that raise questions at the heart of America's system of justice. The cases, over whether Trump can keep his tax records secret, mimic battles waged and lost by Presidents Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon. This time, there's a twist: The fight comes in the middle of a global pandemic. As a result of the spreading coronavirus, the court has closed its building to the public. Arguments, conducted over the phone, will be streamed live. Here's what you need to know before you tune in. How can you listen? The arguments will begin promptly at 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday and will be available for streaming on CNBC.com and the CNBC app. They will last at least two hours. The day will be divided into two argument sessions, each lasting about an hour. The first argument involves two cases in which Democratic-led congressional committees issued subpoenas seeking the president's financial records from his banks and accounting firm. The second argument relates to similar subpoenas issued by the Manhattan district attorney, who is a Democrat, to the president's business and accounting firm. What are the cases about? The basic question underlying both arguments is "whether governmental agencies can investigate potential wrongdoing by a sitting president," according to Sarah Harrington, one of the most experienced Supreme Court lawyers in the country and a partner at the law firm Goldstein & Russell. David Cole, the national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that what is at stake in the cases are "two of the most fundamental principles of the American constitutional system. Checks and balances on the one hand, and the rule of law and the notion that no one is above the law on the other." First argument: A clash with Congress The two congressional cases involve investigations being carried out by Democratic-led committees in the House of Representatives into the president's personal financial dealings. In one case, the House Oversight Committee is looking into claims made by the president's former fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen, who testified before the committee last year that Trump inflated and deflated his assets "when it served his purposes." The committee is also investigating why Trump didn't include on his 2017 financial disclosure form a $130,000 hush money payment he owed to the adult film star Stormy Daniels. Cohen facilitated the payment in the run up to the 2016 election, and the Office of Government Ethics has said that Trump should have listed the debt as a liability. As part of its investigation, the committee issued a subpoena in April 2019 to the president's longtime accounting firm, Mazars USA, seeking all "statements of financial condition, annual statements, periodic financial reports, and independent auditors' reports prepared, compiled, reviewed, or audited" by the company related to Trump and his businesses. The second case from Congress involves subpoenas issued by the the intelligence and financial services committees to the president's primary lenders, Capital One and Deutsche Bank, for financial records related to Trump and his family members. The leaders of those committees have said that they are looking into "questionable financing" that Trump and his businesses received before he became president. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff has said the investigation entails uncovering whether "any foreign actor has sought to compromise or holds leverage, financial or otherwise, over Donald Trump, his family, his business, or his associates." Second argument: Can Trump be investigated? The second argument the justices will hear on Tuesday involves subpoenas sent to the Trump Organization and Mazars by Vance, the Manhattan district attorney. Like the House Oversight Committee, Vance is also pursuing an investigation into the hush money payments Trump allegedly facilitated to two women ahead of the 2016 election. In August 2019, his office asked the Trump Organization for documents related to the hush money payments produced between 2015 and 2018. Later that month, Vance asked Mazars for a wide variety of Trump's personal and business records, including tax returns, dating back to 2011. Vance has said he is investigating whether there was a violation of New York state law though he hasn't said whether Trump himself is a suspect, or indicated any potential charges. What will the Supreme Court do? So far, every court that has heard these cases has sided against the president. But that does not mean the Supreme Court will do so. One element at play is politics. The nine-member Supreme Court has five justices who were appointed by Republicans and four who were appointed by Democrats. Two of the justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, were appointed by Trump. While the justices often present their work as above the fray, the Supreme Court is a political institution. The court has often sided with Republicans in cases that divided along partisan lines, including in cases over Trump's travel ban and a recent dispute over absentee ballots in Wisconsin. It has also ruled against the administration, including in a blockbuster last term over the addition of a citizenship question on the 2020 census. "We are in such a politically polarized time, and so the question is: Will the court overcome this?" asked Erwin Chemerinsky, a leading scholar of constitutional law and the dean of Berkeley Law. 'This is a case of firsts' Another element is precedent, or the Supreme Court's prior rulings. Two unanimous decisions stand out. In 1974, the Supreme Court ruled that President Richard Nixon could not withhold Oval Office tapes related to conversations he had about the Watergate scandal. Two decades later, the Supreme Court ruled, again unanimously, that President Bill Clinton was not immune from civil litigation after he was sued by a woman who alleged Clinton harassed her while he was governor of Arkansas. In the face of those losses, Trump's attorneys have attempted to present these cases as raising entirely new questions. "This is a case of firsts," wrote William Consovoy, one of the president's attorneys, in a brief asking the court to take up one of the congressional cases. He wrote the case was the "first time a court has upheld any congressional subpoena for any sitting President's records of any kind." Jay Sekulow, another Trump attorney, acknowledged in a brief asking the court to take up the Vance dispute that the Supreme Court had opened up the president to judicial proceedings in the Clinton case. But, Sekulow said, it had "never decided whether subjecting the President to judicial process is appropriate in this kind of case." What clues should you look out for? English Finnish Valmet Oyjs press release on April 24, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. EET Valmet will deliver a biomass-fired boiler plant to Tampereen Sahkolaitos Oys Naistenlahti power plant in Tampere, Finland. The new Naistenlahti 3 boiler will replace the Naistenlahti 2 boiler that has reached the end of its technical lifetime. The order is included in Valmets orders received of the second quarter 2020. The value of the order is approximately EUR 70 million. The boiler plant will be handed over to the customer at the end of the year 2022. Tampereen Sahkolaitos took a turn towards sustainable energy production in 2010 and started to systematically use more and more renewable energy sources and lower its CO 2 emissions. Our goal is a 95 percent decrease in emissions by the end of 2030. Thanks to the Naistenlahti 3 boiler plant, our CO 2 emissions will reduce significantly, and the share of renewable energy sources will increase, says Antti-Jussi Halminen, Director at Tampereen Sahkolaitos. Sustainability is one of the cornerstones in Valmets operations, too, so we are delighted to be involved in the massive energy turnaround that Tampereen Sahkolaitos is carrying out. This delivery is a continuation of our long-standing cooperation. Earlier, Valmet has supplied equipment to the companys plants in Naistenlahti, Lielahti, Hervanta and Sarankulma. We have also delivered a flue gas cleaning system to the Tammervoima plant, which is a subsidiary of Tampereen Sahkolaitos, says Kai Janhunen, Vice President, Pulp and Energy business line, Energy business unit, Valmet. The Naistenlahti 3 plant will be fueled mainly by renewable biomasses, while milled peat will remain as a secondary fuel. With a steam capacity of 191 megawatts, it will run as a base load plant for district heat production from September to June. The plant concept is based on combined heat and power (CHP) production, and it uses the existing old steam turbine and its auxiliary systems, such as the flue gas heat recovery system delivered by Valmet to the Naistenlahti 2 plant earlier. Thanks to the condensation of the water vapor in the flue gas, the total efficiency ratio of the new plant is about 112 percent based on the fuels effective heating value. The new boiler plant will be built between the Naistenlahti 2 boiler and Lake Nasijarvi. Special attention has been paid to its architecture. The facade facing the lake, for example, will feature aluminum profiles in diverse shapes. Illustration of the Tampereen Sahkolaitos Oys Naistenlahti power plant in Tampere, Finland Information about Valmets delivery Valmets turnkey delivery includes a Valmet CFB boiler plant utilizing circulating fluidized bed (CFB) technology . The delivery extends from the boiler silos to the existing flue gas heat recovery system. Additionally, Valmet will construct a separate building for electrical appliances and deliver a bag house filter that will be installed on top of it. Information about the customer Tampereen Sahkolaitos Oy Tampereen Sahkolaitos is a modern energy group that produces renewable energy and actively develops future energy solutions in Finland. Through its systematic development work, the company lowers CO 2 emissions from its energy production and creates jobs for the surrounding area. In 2019, the groups net sales amounted to EUR 288 million, and it employed nearly 400 professionals. VALMET Corporate Communications For further information, please contact: Jari Niemela, Director, Boiler and gasification plants, Pulp and Energy business line, Valmet, tel. +358 50 317 8050 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 Processing of personal data Attachment A second Jersey City man, who was released from prison six months earlier, has been charged with a fatal shooting on a Jersey City street last month, authorities said, Tyree Witherspoon, 28, was arrested Friday night by the Jersey City Police Department Street Crimes Unit in connection with the shooting death of 21-year-old Akim Ward on April 4, 2020, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said. Witherspoon has been charged with murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon. Witherspoon was transported to the Hudson County jail in Kearny pending his first appearance. On May 4, 23-year-old Devon Tutten was arrested on similar charges. The 28-year-old was in prison from February 2018 until October 2019 on multiple drug convictions. Prior to that, Witherspoon served nearly three and a half years in prison for weapons and drug offenses. On April 4, shortly after 3:15 p.m., members of the Jersey City Police Department responded to a report of shots fired in the area of Ocean Avenue between Bidwell and Bayview avenues. Responding officers found Akim Ward, age 21, of Jersey City with gunshot wounds to the upper body. Ward was transported to Jersey City Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at approximately 3:30 p.m. Three New York children, including a Westchester County boy, have died from a toxic shock-like syndrome health experts fear is linked to new coronavirus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday. "We were laboring under the impression that young people were not affected by COVID-19," Cuomo said during his daily press briefing. "We're not so sure that's the fact anymore." A teen from Suffolk County according to Newsday a 5-year-old boy from New York City and a 7-year-old Westchester County boy have succumbed to the disease that has infected at least 73 kids since COVID-19 first hit the state, Cuomo said. To keep up to date with coronavirus developments in the Hudson Valley, sign up for Patch's news alerts and newsletter. Sick children show symptoms not traditionally linked with COVID-19, which is why the New York Health Department only launched an investigation into the mysterious syndrome last week, the governor said. "It is very possible this has been going on for several weeks," Cuomo said. Symptoms of the disease similar to toxic shock syndrome and Kawasaki disease include prolonged fever, abdominal pain, skin color change and decreased amount or frequency in urine, according to New York Health officials. "Though rare, we urge parents to be vigilant," Cuomo said in a tweet. The state is requiring that hospitals report any possible cases of this new syndrome that they find. Most children with this syndrome either had an active COVID-19 infection, state officials said, or tested positive for antibodies of the virus. There have been 11 cases in Westchester, County Health Commissioner Dr. Sherlita Amler said Friday. "While we have seen a cluster of cases ... this remains an infrequent possibility," said Michael Gewitz, the William Russell McCurdy physician-in-chief of Maria Fareri Children's Hospital in Valhalla. Gewitz said the Westchester boy who died suffered serious neurological complications from the syndrome. Story continues Reporting by Kathleen Culliton and Lanning Taliaferro [RECIRC] This article originally appeared on the Peekskill-Cortlandt Patch Women are no longer forced to take one path in life over another. They can marry or stay single. They can have careers or stay home and raise a family. They can travel the world, own a business, purchase property, serve in the military, hold public office and do just about anything they choose. Gone are many of the legal and social roadblocks women encountered just a few decades ago. In honor of Mothers Day, these are the stories of three remarkable women who have affected their communities and triumphed over personal obstacles to become successful. They also happen to be mothers. Antonia Roybal-Mack Antonia Roybal-Mack, 38, always knew her future included two things: helping others and having a family of her own. Shes accomplished both. The Mora native and University of New Mexico Law School graduate now owns her own law firm, Roybal-Mack & Cordova P.C., and is a mother to three children with her husband, Terry Mack. She started her firm with a $20,000 loan from her parents and has turned it into a million dollar-plus company. The New Mexico Womens Bar Association named Roybal-Mack the 2016 recipient of the Henrietta Pettijohn Award. Pettijohn born in Columbia, Missouri, in the late 19th century was the first woman to be admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court in the Territory of New Mexico. The award recognizes attorneys who have advanced the causes of women in the legal profession. Roybal-Mack has gone out of her way to help both New Mexicans and impoverished people in other parts of the world. COVID-19 has presented more opportunities for her generosity. Her law firm offers free forms that would allow quarantined nurses and other front-line health workers a way to give power of attorney to family members who were caring for their children during the pandemic. They also set up a free online resource for those seeking a divorce. Its like TurboTax for divorce, she said. Its a free website for people to use. Roybal-Mack, whose daughter suffers from hearing loss related to Down syndrome, serves on the board of the Presbyterian Ear Institute. Several years ago, Roybal-Mack bonded with a group of nurses in Belize who are running a day school for children with disabilities. When COVID-19 began to hit communities around the globe, Roybal-Mack immediately sent the nurses a large shipment of personal protective equipment, but the borders were closed and the items got stuck in Mexico. She called the nurses and asked how she could help. They told her they needed food, that hunger was a larger concern than the virus for most people. The majority of people in the town where the school is rely on tourism for an income. Roybal-Mack was able to raise money on Facebook with donations from her friends. She also sold masks locally and raised $6,000 that she sent to the women so they could buy food for the families of their students. They have zero ability to earn money, she said. Because of the pandemic, the children are at home, but their families do not have food. Her twins turned 8 on Thursday. She said having children has brought a lot of joy to her life. They are so fun, she said. I love my kids to death, and the amusement of tiny children. Shayai Lucero Shayai Lucero had a plan for her life, but many know what becomes of best-laid plans they rarely go as planned. Lucero, 45, was born in Albuquerque but raised on the Acoma and Laguna pueblos, from which her parents hailed. She lives on Laguna Pueblo with her husband and two children. Lucero, who was named Miss Indian World in 1997, said that before she had children, she had what she thought was a clear path forward in her life. She was a self-professed science nerd growing up and even earned admission to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, her dream school, but she opted to stay closer to home, partly because her mother was having health problems. Initially, I planned and wanted to go to medical school, she said. But I had found out I was pregnant. Although it could be done, Lucero said she knew the grueling demands of medical school were not ideal for raising a child. I did not want to be raising a child while I was going to medical school, she said. You only have so much time with them (children) when they are young, and I didnt want to miss out. She earned a bachelors degree in biology and minor in chemistry from the University of New Mexico in 2008. She also is an expert on traditional Pueblo medicinal plants, having started learning about them when she was 13. While at UNM, she earned a certificate in curanderismo medicine as well. After graduating, she thought she would go into research or get a job working on environmental issues. What she ended up doing was buying a flower shop. My cousin told me about a flower shop that was for sale on the Laguna Pueblo, she said. I said, naively, How hard can it be? Very hard, it turns out. She faced her first obstacle when trying to raise capital for her business. I could not use my house as collateral for a loan, she said. Even though I own my house, the land is in trust with the tribe. I almost gave up. The Loan Fund, a nonprofit organization in Albuquerque, took a chance and allowed her to use her vehicle, jewelry and furniture as collateral. She opened Earth & Sky Floral Designs in 2008. Lucero knew nothing about floral design or owning a business, but luckily, a certified floral designer hired by the previous owner agreed to stay on after Lucero purchased the shop. Lucero also discovered she has a knack for marketing. Lucero has received several honors and recognition for her work. The National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development included her in its 40 Under 40 list of successful Native Americans. In 2019, the FBI commissioned her to create a wreath that was laid at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in honor of National Indian Heritage Month. Amanda OBrien Amanda OBrien was a 16-year-old high school dropout living in Los Angeles when she decided to move in with her boyfriend. It was a decision that almost ended her life. OBriens mother was an alcoholic, and by the time OBrien became a teen, her mom was rarely around. She and her boyfriend were part of a group of teenagers with little to no parental supervision. He already had a 1-year-old daughter, Jessica, when they began what OBrien calls a totally co-dependent relationship that included verbal and physical abuse. The couple had their own child when OBrien was 18. A year later, shed had enough. Me and my teenage brain thought I could deal with a drug addict but not an alcoholic, she said. I tried to save him from himself, and when I was done, when I wanted to leave, he attempted to kill me. OBriens boyfriend went to prison. Nobody expected OBriens next move. She started a legal battle to adopt her ex-boyfriends first daughter. I was the only mother she had ever known, she said. I had promised I would never leave her and I would keep her safe. The legal battle would drag on for years. OBrien had to represent herself because she had no money. She said the courts and other officials didnt want to give her a chance because she had no education, no money and no family support. She refused to give up the fight. I told the courts if they had something better for her, I would walk away, she said. I knew I was her best shot. Her tenacity paid off. The adoption was final Nov. 18, 2001. Faith has played a big role in OBriens life. She married her current husband, David, a year after the adoption. The two met while on a mission trip building houses in Mexico. David had two children from a previous marriage. The couple now live in Corrales and between them have six kids, ages 13 to 28. OBrien said she moved past her rough start in life and along the way forgave her ex-boyfriend. The two reconciled as friends last year after their daughter, now 28, gave birth to her first child. OBriens ex-boyfriend relapsed three months later and died last July. Her anger toward him had shifted to gratitude. It was actually a blessing and opened so many doors for me, she said. He broke that dysfunctional relationship we had. It made me fearless. Former president Barack Obama shared deep worries Friday about the Justice Department's decision to drop its prosecution of ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn, telling old aides on a call that "our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk," according to a recording obtained by Yahoo News and confirmed by an Obama spokesperson. Obama also appeared to slam the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic as an "absolute chaotic disaster," offering the sort of blistering criticisms he has rarely aired in public. Obama said shortly before Donald Trump took office that he would only weigh in on his successor's actions when he believes "our core values may be at stake." With his comments on Flynn, Obama joined a wave of criticism from Democrats and law enforcement officials, as legal analysts see a pattern by Attorney General William Barr to intervene in cases that involve the president's allies. The Justice Department moved this week to drop its case against Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with a Russian ambassador amid Robert Mueller III's special counsel inquiry. He is now seeking to withdraw that plea. "There is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free," Obama said in the Friday night call to about 3,000 members of the Obama Alumni Association, according to his spokeswoman. "That's the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic - not just institutional norms - but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk. And when you start moving in those directions, it can accelerate pretty quickly as we've seen in other places." The news that the government would not pursue its case against Flynn "has been somewhat downplayed," Obama said. The move to abandon Flynn's case was cheered by Trump supporters who have long derided the special counsel and believe the former Trump adviser was unfairly targeted - bolstered by a Justice Department finding that lower-level prosecutors and agents made key errors while investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. Flynn was one of the first and highest-ranking Trump aides to plead guilty and cooperate with Mueller's investigation, as the FBI tried to determine whether anyone in Trump's campaign had coordinated with Russia. After Mueller's probe ended in March 2019, Flynn changed course, hired new lawyers and began fighting to undo his plea deal. In court documents filed Thursday, the Justice Department said that Flynn's FBI interview was "untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn" and that it was "conducted without any legitimate investigative basis." While Obama has spoken out critically of the Trump administration before - including the month he left office, when he encouraged Americans to protest a travel ban on citizens from seven majority-Muslim countries - his comments Friday night stood out. Obama had previously said the country lacked "a coherent national plan to navigate this pandemic," but he offered aides a harsher apparent assessment of Trump's performance during the crisis. Yahoo News's report said Obama "lashed out at the Trump administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic as 'an absolute chaotic disaster,' " and Obama spokeswoman Katie Hill confirmed that the call occurred and said that "nothing in the [Yahoo] story is inaccurate." Obama was touching base with and seeking to rally his former staff to help elect presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and other Democrats on the ballot this fall, Hill said. Obama has endorsed his former vice president. On the call, Obama said that in the upcoming election "what we're going to be battling is not just a particular individual or a political party." "What we're fighting against is these long-term trends in which being selfish, being tribal, being divided and seeing others as an enemy - that has become a stronger impulse in American life," he said on the call, according to the Yahoo report. Obama went on to say that "the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty" and seemed to allude to a White House whose rhetoric has drawn rebukes across the political spectrum. "It would have been bad even with the best of governments," he said. "It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mind-set - of 'what's in it for me' and 'to heck with everybody else' - when that mind-set is operationalized in our government." Obama is expected to campaign heavily for his former vice president, which he confirmed on the call. "That's why I, by the way, am going to be spending as much time as necessary and campaigning as hard as I can for Joe Biden," he said. - - - The Washington Post's Spencer S. Hsu, Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky contributed to this report. BOSTON Americans are starting to move about more freely despite the continuing spread of the new coronavirus, even in states like Massachusetts where stay-at-home orders and advisories are still in place. Cellphone tracking data compiled by Google in its community mobility reports shows that people are traveling more, especially to grocery stores and pharmacies but above all to parks, now that spring is well advanced. But as the chart below shows, Americans have increased their travel to all sorts of locations, including retail and recreation locations, transit stations and workplaces. The trend is also visible in Massachusetts, where a stay-at-home advisory issued March 24 was recently extended to May 18, although other states including neighboring Rhode Island have begun to loosen their restrictions. The tracking data show that Massachusetts residents have been flocking to parks no surprise now that spring is half over and have also started visiting retail and recreation outlets and transit centers. But there has been little change in travel to workplaces since the end of March a sign that the economy is still on lockdown. Google arrived at these figures by aggregating location data from cellphones to track the movements of large numbers of people. The data comes with several important caveats: Tracking location does not show how often or how closely people come into contact with each other, and is not necessarily a predictor of infection. Rural residents often must travel farther to get groceries or other necessities, while city dwellers don't have to move far to infect others. Higher-income residents often are able to comply more easily than low-income residents, whose jobs do not always allow them to work from home. The methodology of the Google report can be found at the end of this document. This article originally appeared on the Boston Patch Albuquerque police say a person was killed when his or her vehicle drove off Wyoming near Interstate 40 late Friday. Police spokesman Simon Drobik said the driver did not have any visible injuries but died at the scene. The investigation is on going, he said. Drobik said officers responded to the crash around 10 p.m. Witnesses told police a black Nissan was going north in the southbound lanes of Wyoming when it went off the road. The vehicle then struck a light pole and went down the embankment between eastbound I-40 and the Wyoming exit. Drobik did not identify the person by age or gender or give any other details. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Jason Scott (Bloomberg) Sun, May 10, 2020 12:50 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd704ddb 2 World Australia,coronavirus,COVID-19,lockdown,New-South-Wales,Victoria Free Australias two most populous states, responsible for 65 percent of the nations coronavirus cases, are edging toward easing social-distancing restrictions after Prime Minister Scott Morrison urged them to start reopening the crippled economy. New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney on Sunday that the state would ease its lockdown from May 15. This would include permitting indoor gatherings of 10 people, which will enable retailers, small cafes and restaurants to allow access to some customers, albeit with strict social-distancing rules. We need to fire up our economy, we need to get people back into jobs, we need to see some semblance of normality come back, she said. While the state reported just two new virus cases in the past 24 hours, down from highs of about 200 a day about a month ago, Berejiklian said we have to keep our vigilance and holidays within the region would remain banned. In Victoria, Premier Daniel Andrews is expected to announce some easing of restrictions on Monday, News Corp. reported Sunday. Australias three-stage plan for reopening, announced by Morrison on Friday, is designed to be implemented by the eight states and territories at their own pace. Western Australia state on Sunday said that from May 18 it will allow indoor gatherings, including in restaurants, of up to 20 people. Morrison is aiming for completion of the three steps by the end of July, putting the nation at the vanguard of developed economies emerging from the crisis. Australia has avoided the scale of sickness and death thats ravaged countries including the UK, US and Italy. New South Wales and Victoria, the engine rooms of the countrys economy, have been more hesitant to announce relaxations of lockdown measures than smaller states and territories, some of which have gone for days without recording new cases. The two most populous states have been more cautious amid recent outbreaks in a Sydney aged-care home and a Melbourne meat plant, which have been responsible for most of the nations new infections this month. Australia recorded 16 new cases of the virus on Saturday, a daily rise of 0.2 percent, bringing the total to 6,929. The lockdown has taken a heavy economic toll: unemployment is poised to double by July to about 10% and the nation is veering toward its first recession in almost three decades. Morrison is seeking a balance of containing the virus and lifting restrictions that are costing the economy A$4 billion (US$2.6 billion) a week. Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Sunday the Australias strict social-distancing measures, border closures and strong testing-and-tracing regime had put the nation in a good position to combat expected clusters of new virus cases as the lockdown eases. As we move back to work, to normality, some things cannot change, he said in a Sky News interview. We shouldnt be near people and we have to get the advice and encourage people to have the testing. Last week, a video titled The Plandemic popped up in a furious, urgent flood of posts in my Facebook feed. People urged each other to watch the video before censors banned it from YouTube. Wake up! wrote one friend. Please watch this before they ban it! pleaded another. So I watched it. Although small sections of the film piqued my curiosity, it was simply another run-of-the-mill conspiracy theory -- rich in frightening charges yet poor in verifiable evidence. And then I waited. Sure enough, mere hours later, skeptics began posting comments and links to articles challenging the credibility of the videos subject -- Dr. Judy Mikovitz. But just as sure enough, rather than letting viewers watch the video and debate its merits for themselves, YouTube removed it, stating that it violated the communitys guidelines. I had to shake my head. Surely the social media giants know the psychology behind banned material? Take something away and it doesnt go away. It pops up elsewhere, this time having earned tantalizing new cache. How many headlines scream: This was banned because they dont want you to know the truth! Click. Though now mainly observed on social media, this effect isnt anything new. When a library in Concord, Mass., banned The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from its shelves, Mark Twain wrote with delight, They have expelled Huck from their library as trash and suitable only for the slums. That will sell 25,000 copies for us sure. Whats that line about those who refuse to learn from history? Facebook, YouTube and the big tech powers-that-be shouldnt censor material that doesnt break the law. Even when someone thinks its questionable. Even when someone thinks its dead wrong. Even, I hate to say, when someone thinks its fake news. Because the problem here and forever-after will be in determining just who the censor should be. To whom do you award the right to decide which speech is harmful, or who is the harmful speaker? asked the late Christopher Hitchens during a lecture on free speech, Or to determine in advance what are the harmful consequences going to be, that we know enough about in advance to prevent? To whom would you give this job? To whom are you going to award the job of being the censor? Is the answer a bunch of software engineers huddled together in a Silicon Valley conference room, or equally as bad, a committee of experts they hire to do the job for them? They simply dont have to do anything of the sort platform users and social media communities already monitor information themselves in a much more transparent, democratic, free and American exchange of ideas. This is America. We dont ban speech here. Or at least we shouldnt. Still, if YouTube and Facebook dont ban controversial posts, will that mean that misleading, incomplete or inaccurate information will sometimes go viral? Yes. Of course. Thats a problem. Taking material down wont stop it from spreading and wont stop some people from believing it. But it will remove our opportunity to openly debunk it. Leaving it up gives others the opportunity to comment, challenge, educate and even apply peer pressure when appropriate since most of us want to avoid the stigma of sharing bad info. We dont want to be associated with being duped. There is a lot of community pressure to do your research, check your facts and be skeptical. Censorship is troubling for another reason: It can silence small, minority, dissenting opinions that are true, that do point out corruption, that should be spread because they unearth information wed never know otherwise. The fantastic Netflix documentary The Pharmacist is a perfect example. No doubt Dan Schneider seemed like a quack conspiracy theorist for calling out Purdue Pharma, OxyContin and corrupt pill-mill doctors in Louisiana. That is, until millions of ruined lives later it turned out he was right. Sunshine is the best disinfectant. Let people speak their minds. Bring ideas into the light where they can be discussed, debated, proved or disproved in the open. If people are worried that the videos, articles and posts they want to share will be banned, they may be more likely to urgently and quickly fire them off with less pause. And we really should pause. Rachel Blackmon Bryars is a Huntsville-based columnist for Al.com, co-host of Belle Curve Podcast and managing partner of Bryars Communications, LLC. Keep up with her work on her Facebook page. More articles about the pandemic by Rachel Blackmon Bryars: Beijings state-run CGTNs tweet featuring Mount Everest located in Chinas Tibet Autonomous Region sparked a row among the netizens of India and Nepal who trolled the Communist country for spreading fake news regarding its claims in the region with a #BackOffChina trend on Twitter. #backoffchina Stop Spreading false new Mt.Everst is located in nepal not in china, said a Twitter user from Nepal. This is our Mount Everest (8848 ht) we dont want this to used and marked as yours. nepal government should act upon this. This is unprecedented words that has beem used here. this is unacceptable. #backoffchina, tweeted another. CCTN had on May 2 posted a tweet of an extraordinary halo over Mount Everest. However, the words claiming Mount Qomolangma was the worlds highest peak located in Chinas Tibet Autonomous Region have drawn aggression from people with some of them also urging the Government of Nepal to take strict action over the social media post. Twitter users asserted that Mount Everest was in Nepal and not in China and that it will always be the pride of Nepalese. Some even shared memes of Chinas President Xi Jinping and tagged Nepals government to bring a spotlight on the claim. Dear @CGTNOfficial Mount Everest is in the Nepal. Not in chinas Tibet. So Please stop spreading Fake News, said a user from Kathmandu. Mount Everest lies in Nepal, not China. Discard such false notions Xi. #FreeTibet, said another. #backoffchina Stop Spreading false new Mt.Everst is located in Nepal not in China, tweeted the third. As per experts, Nepal and China had signed a border dispute resolution agreement in 1960 according to which it was decided that Mount Everest will be divided, and southern part of it will belong to Nepal and Northern part to Tibet Autonomous Region which China claims as its own. Speaking to ANI about the CGTN tweet, Professor of Chinese studies at Jawahar Lal Nehru University, Srikant Kondapali, said, It is a not a new thing, China is trying to consolidate its claims on Tibet and Everest. The Everest on the Tibet side is treacherous and very less used by the Chinese side, there is no trace of tourism from that side, as it is very steep and also visa is an issue, Srikant added. The majority of tourism and expeditions on Mount Everest take place from Nepal, now with help of technology, China is also developing Tibet side of Everest and recent projection by the official website clearly reflects the ambitious plans of China and this move may become a bone of contention between Nepal and China. The Indonesian embassy is coordinating with the officials for the release of their nationals who are currently under judicial custody in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh. Embassy first secretary Annie Yuliyanti said the government had verified that those detained were Indonesian nationals of good standing who had never violated the laws of Indonesia and had not come to India to violate it's laws and regulations. In accordance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, and India's laws and regulations, the embassy is ensuring consular access for Indonesian nationals, including legal representation, Yuliyanti said. However, she added, the appointment of legal counsel was solely the discretion and decision of the Indonesian nationals concerned. The embassy is facilitating and communicating with relevant authorities to ensure due process and respect for the fundamental rights of the Indonesian nationals, Yuliyanti said. The embassy is coordinating with relevant authorities to ensure that the Indonesian nationals are able to fast during Ramzan with proper arrangements, including meals during 'sehri' and 'iftar', she added. District Magistrate Rakesh Singh said all Indonesian nationals who violated the visa rules were sent to judicial custody and were kept in a separate jail last week. Moradabad Senior Superintendent of Police Amit Pathak said detained Indonesians were being treated well. "We are fully aware about their rights and providing all facilities to conduct their fasting with proper manners during Ramzan," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Advertisement Pubs, cinemas and hairdressers could be the 'first in and last out of lockdown' after Boris Johnson said parts of Britain's hospitality sector would reopen from July 'subject to scientific advice'. In a televised address on Sunday, the PM said that his government would reopen 'at least some of the hospitality industry and other public places, provided they are safe and enforce social distancing'. Cafes and restaurants are expected to reopen in two months because they can enforce a 2m (6ft 6in) distance. But it is not known when hairdressers, cinemas and gyms will open their doors. Government officials have ruled out pubs reopening in July on grounds of enforcing social distancing guidance, meaning that British drinkers will not be served until at least August. The British Beer & Pub Association has slammed the government's tentative 'exit plan' out of lockdown, warning that the sector remains in 'limbo' and faces 'severe uncertainty and financial devastation'. Pubs, cinemas and hairdressers could be the 'first in and last out of lockdown' after Boris Johnson said parts of Britain's hospitality sector would reopen in July in keeping with social distancing rules In a televised address on Sunday, the PM said that his government would reopen 'at least some of the hospitality industry and other public places, provided they are safe and enforce social distancing' (pictured, a closed pub in Belfast) Hairdressers are also not expected to reopen in July; it remains unclear if they will open in phase three (pictured, a young man cuts another young man's hair on top of a closed hairdresser in Oxford) Key points of Boris Johnson's lockdown exit strategy From Monday, people who cannot work from home are being actively encouraged to go to work instead of being told to only go if they must. But they should avoid public transport if at all possible. From Wednesday, people can take unlimited amounts of outdoor exercise and even play sports, but only with members of their household. Visiting and sunbathing in local parks will also be allowed. But tough social distancing will still have to be obeyed with bigger fines for 'the small minority' who flout them. Primary schools may reopen by June 1 along with the phased reopening of shops. But secondary schools will not reopen before the summer holidays. Parts of the hospitality and leisure sectors will reopen in July. A new Covid Alert System is being set up determined mainly by the reinfection rate and the number of cases. The alert levels will be one to five and the higher the level, the tougher measures will have to be. The PM said the UK had been in Level Four but 'we are now in a position to begin to move in steps to Level Three'. Level One means coronavirus is no longer around while Level Five would be the NHS being overwhelmed. Advertisement Chief Executive Emma McClarkin said 'if government plans to keep pubs closed until the final phase... this would make pubs first in and last out of lockdown'. The intervention comes after industry leaders warned last week that 40 per cent of pubs (19,000 out of 47,000) would not survive beyond September without more financial support from the government. Ms McClarkin said: 'The industry was looking for a glimmer of hope today, a date to plan to and further financial support reassured. But it looks like we have more weeks of uncertainty ahead of us. 'With insufficient clarity as to when pubs will reopen, our sector remains in limbo and facing severe uncertainty and financial devastation. 'If government plans to keep pubs closed until the final phase of release, as rumoured, this would make pubs first in and last out of lockdown. Despite this, the government hasn't outlined any specific additional financial support for pubs to assure and help them through the extended lockdown hardship they face. 'We understand that pubs should only open when safe to do so, but extending the lockdown without offering additional support will be devastating.' James Calder, chief executive of the Society of Independent Brewers (Siba) said: 'This is a marathon, not a sprint and we continue to be at the core of discussions with government about how our heritage, our culture and our right to have a good pint in a good pub is maintained for the long term. We will of course not put any pressure on government to open pubs and taprooms ahead of when it is safe to do so. 'But we will put pressure where it is needed to ensure our sector has a fighting chance of survival.' Frank Maguire of Truman's brewery in London told The Sun: 'At this rate it seems unlikely that pubs will be open again before Christmas. Christmas is about as big as business gets for the pub industry. It will be a huge loss.' Mr Johnson set out a tentative three-step 'exit plan' from lockdown 'subject to scientific advice', which made huge swathes of the leisure and hospitality sectors last to open their doors (pictured, The Grand Central in Brighton) But the PM's national broadcast has raised questions about the very survival of Britain's pubs, cinemas, hairdressers and gyms which haven't had business in months (pictured, a closed pub in London, the UK's Covid-19 epicentre) The British Beer & Pub Association has slammed the government's exit strategy, warning that the sector remains in 'limbo' and faces 'severe uncertainty and financial devastation' (pictured, a closed pub in Belfast) Officials stressed that pubs were unlikely to be allowed to serve drinkers in July, with pavement cafes and other outdoor venues the first parts of the sector to reopen (pictured, the PM during his televised address) The PM has dropped the 'stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives' slogan in favour of a 'stay alert' version - from red to green Mandy McNeil, co-chair of the St Albans Hospitality and Retail Association, said: 'The government's murmurings to date suggest later rather than sooner'. Jonathan Downey, Hospitality Union founder, told The Telegraph he believes a nine-month red holiday is vital to keeping restaurants, pubs, cafes and bars open. 'More than half are thinking "we won't be able to open if we don't get nine months rent free"', Mr Downey said. Last week, the British Beer & Pub Association warned that 19,000 of 47,000 pubs might never reopen their doors if lockdown is prolonged. This would leave 320,000 people without a job. Hospitality, retail, food and manufacturing have all been hit hardest by an unprecedented period of economic inactivity caused by the outbreak of coronavirus, and exacerbated by lockdown. A Bank of England report last week forecast that gross domestic product (GDP) could fall by nearly 30 per cent this year. Though Bank staff currently believe the economy would grow by 15 per cent in 2021, the contraction would be the most severe on record, and possibly since the 1709 'great frost'. Mr Johnson warned tonight 'this is not the time simply to end the lockdown', and that his government was taking 'the first careful steps to modify our measures'. The PM said that anyone who can work from home should do so unless it is impossible. He also said primary schoolchildren should go back to class in June. Mr Johnson stressed: 'Throughout this period of the next two months we will be driven not by mere hope or economic necessity. We are going to be driven by the science, the data and public health. 'And I must stress again that all of this is conditional, it all depends on a series of big Ifs. It depends on all of us - the entire country - to follow the advice, to observe social distancing, and to keep that R down.' Mary E. Stibal said she fondly remembers the Osage Public Library of the 1950s and 60s and the warm smell of its rooms full of books. Oh, I was in love with that building, she said. And I can still remember the librarians Mrs. Nagy and Mrs. Leonard. Stibal checked out countless books from the library stacks; so consuming was her love of the printed word that her mom, the late Marian Stibal, told me that I could not read more than one book a day, she recalled with a laugh. Stibal, 70, still loves to read books but she is also doing her best to stock the library shelves these days. Her first novel, A Widow in Pearls, a mystery set in the world of old Boston money and dark family secrets, was released last month by Level Best Books, and is available on Amazon. And she has two more in the works. Stibal, who lives in Boston, is no stranger to writing fiction. She found time during her long career as a marketing partnership specialist to write short stories for Yankee Magazine and mystery anthologies, with two of them nominated for national awards. Stibal recalls that her love of the mystery genre began early. I can distinctly remember being so proud of reading my first book that didnt have pictures, she said with a chuckle. The book? A Nancy Drew mystery. The series featuring the young detective the first of several ghost-written by Iowa native Mildred Wirt Benson, and others, beginning in 1930 spanned over 50 novels. Oh, how I admired her, she said of the young detective. One of the things about Nancy Drew I loved was that she was a woman who acted on her decisions. Bravely. She later had the same passion for mystery novels written by Agatha Christie, who Stibal called masterful the queen of the mystery genre. The early seeds of hard work and focus were planted by her mother who, despite the death of her husband at an early age, was resolute in her intention to raise her 11 children by herself. Thanks to Marian who earned her teaching license so she could get a job as a teacher -- the family unit remained strong and all the children earned college degrees. The family today remains close and Stibal visits Osage regularly. Ill be back in July, she said. The first thing Ill do is visit my mom and dads graves; the second thing Ill do is visit the farm near New Haven where she and her siblings were raised. Her mother, she said, was one of her best early influences even when she or her siblings were misbehaving. My mom never raised her voice, Stibal. All she had to do was give us The Look, and we knew she meant business. Stibal attended North Iowa Area Community College with the initial goal of earning a journalism degree. But her classes subsequently sparked an interest in history, a love she pursued when she later began classes at the University of Iowa as a history major. Stibal attended college against the backdrop of the late 1960s and early 1970s, but quit her classes and decided to travel. She became a "hippie and traveled all over the world, she said. She eventually settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She completed a degree at Harvard Extension School and then began work with a start-up company, building a career as a marketing partnership specialist. She continues to be a consultant in the field. That first attempt at writing a novel did not attract a publisher. Although she loved writing the book, she also came to see its flaws with the help of online courses by writer and teacher Mary Buckham. She credits Buckham with helping her recognize the weaker areas of her plot structure. It is like building a house, she said. You have to build it room by room or it doesnt work, she said. And I learned that writing a book is like having a diamond in the rough; you polish, polish, polish. Her next effort was The Widow in Pearls, which was immediately accepted by Level Best, who wanted not only her submission, but two more books as well. All three will feature a recurring character, Madeline Lane. I was elated, she said, and not at all intimidated by the challenge of writing two more novels. I couldnt wait to get started. Although successful at writing short stories, she dismisses the notion held by some that short stories are more difficult to write than novels. Short stories are like a date; writing an entire book is like a marriage, she said. With short stories, you are just capturing a short period of time, while sustaining all elements throughout a book is far more challenging. And if those books are mysteries, the challenge may be even greater. The genre has changed over the years, she said. The action today has to be fast; there has to be a compelling reason for readers to continue reading past the first few pages, she added. You need to draw them in quickly or readers today wont read on. You cant take two chapters to give readers a reason to stay with the story. Much of her time today is taken up with her writing. She has begun to write her second book and will follow that with a rewriting of her first novel that did not sell A Duchess in Rubies. Obviously, Ill be doing some things differently, she said, but is looking forward to that challenge, too. This time, you could say, the Rubies will have more polish. A lot more. This time, she said, I know what Im doing. Love 7 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 A few days back, the Bois Locker Room created a stir on the internet, when screenshots of lewd conversations of boys from prominent Delhi schools were leaked online. Bollywood celebrities like Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Richa Chadha and others took to social media to express their views on the same soon after. Recently, Shahid Kapoors wife Mira Rajput took to Instagram to express her feelings about the ongoing Bois Locker Room controversy. An essay was posted on social media by a journalist after the incident. The excerpt from the essay that was shared by Mira on social media, talks about the importance of parenting and what boys should be taught at a young age, so that they do not objectify women. Some concepts, which the article mentioned should be taught to boys are that of consent, respect, gender equality and that they arent entitled to a womans body, attention or time. Also, the article talks about the fact that while women are taught what not to do at a young age, boys should also be taught in the same manner. As per reports, the administrator of the group, in which the boys talked about raping girls, has been arrested by the cyber crime cell of the Delhi Police. Washington The coronavirus crisis and the administration's halting response to it have cost President Donald Trump support from one of his most crucial constituencies: America's seniors. For years, Republicans and Trump have relied on older Americans, the country's largest voting bloc, to offset a huge advantage Democrats enjoy with younger voters. In critical states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Florida, all of which have large older populations, Trump's advantage with older voters has been essential to his political success. In 2016, he won voters older than 65 by seven percentage points, according to national exit poll data. But seniors are also the most vulnerable to the global pandemic, and the campaign's internal polls, people familiar with the numbers said, show Trump's support among voters older than 65 softening to a concerning degree, as he pushes to reopen the country's economy at the expense of stopping a virus that puts them at the greatest risk. A recent Morning Consult poll found that Trump's approval rating on the handling of the coronavirus was lower with seniors than with any other group other than young voters. And former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in recent polls held a 10-point advantage over Trump among voters who are 65 and older. A poll commissioned by the campaign showed a similar double-digit gap. The falloff in support comes as Trump has grown increasingly anxious about his re-election prospects, with a series of national surveys, as well as internal polling, showing him trailing in key states. The president has all but moved on from a focus on controlling the pandemic and is now pushing his agenda to restore the country, and the economy, to a place that will lift his campaign. "Trump has suffered a double whammy with seniors from the coronavirus crisis, both in terms of a dislike for his personal demeanor and disapproval of his policy priorities," said Geoff Garin, a Democratic strategist. "If there's a durable change with older voters, it could well cost Trump the election." The demographic shift is fairly new, and officials said they attributed it at least in part to Trump's coronavirus briefings, at which he often dispensed conflicting, misleading and sometimes dangerous information that caused alarm among a vulnerable population. At the same point in the race four years ago, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, trailed Trump by five points with the same group. Among the aides who have warned the president of a softening with older voters is Kellyanne Conway, his 2016 campaign manager and a senior adviser, people familiar with the discussions said. White House officials aware of the problem have started to stage events and initiatives designed to highlight work the administration has done that will appeal to seniors. Standing in the ornate East Room at the White House earlier this month, for instance, Trump surrounded himself with health officials as he signed a proclamation declaring May to be "Older Americans Month." "The virus poses the greatest risk to older Americans," Trump said, while crediting his administration for protecting seniors by halting unnecessary visits to nursing homes nationwide and expanding access to telehealth for Medicare beneficiaries. In recent weeks, aides have also discussed investigations into nursing homes where there have been large numbers of coronavirus-related deaths, and Vice President Mike Pence has taken cameras along as he personally delivered protective equipment to a nursing home. But the administration has also hampered some of its own efforts to appeal to older voters. Trump recently rejected an expanded enrollment period for the newly uninsured, for instance. Conway declined to discuss her conversations with Trump about seniors, but she noted that he had promised not to touch safety-net programs that affect them. "In five years since he announced his candidacy, President Trump has been unwavering in his commitment to not touch Social Security," Conway said. Trump, however, at various times has said he would be open to cutting safety-net programs, only to have aides walk back those comments after the fact. "At the right time, we will take a look at that," Trump said in January of cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security a stance that Biden campaign officials said they planned to highlight in the coming months. The Biden team also noted that a second Morning Consult poll released last week showed that 46 percent of voters said they trusted Biden to protect Medicare and Social Security, compared with 41 percent for Trump. Trump campaign officials downplayed any long-term electoral concerns. Older voters, they said, have long bristled at Trump's acerbic personal demeanor, which was on display for hours every day during briefings that the president believed were beneficial to him, but that aides and Republican allies eventually persuaded him to phase out. In the past, however, support from older voters would return when they were reminded of Trump's hard-line stance on immigration and his vow to protect Social Security and other safety-net programs, policy positions they often agreed with, officials said. Their hope, they said, is that support from older voters will return now that Trump has phased out his self-congratulatory version of a fireside chat, where he excoriated reporters and Democrats and at one point suggested that disinfectants could potentially be used to treat coronavirus patients. In Biden, however, Trump is also competing against a candidate whom many older voters view as an appealing alternative to Trump in a way that they never viewed Clinton in 2016, strategists in both parties said. Biden's campaign officials credit his appeal with older voters to their view of him as a moderate, politically, and as a compassionate person who has suffered his own string of personal tragedies. Biden officials said that positive sense among seniors is combined with a real fear that there will be a second wave of COVID-19 outbreak and that the coronavirus pandemic threatened their lives. Keeping Biden and Trump polling even among older voters in other words, simply cutting into Trump's margin could potentially be enough to make a critical difference in what is expected to be a tight race, Biden officials said. "It's up to the Trump campaign whether this is a temporary trend line with these voters, or not," said Kevin Madden, who was an adviser to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. "They have to go out there and restore confidence with these voters." Brad Parscale, Trump's campaign manager, dismissed any problem with older voters as a "false narrative being pushed by the left." F ormer US president Barack Obama has criticised Donald Trumps handling of the coronavirus pandemic, calling it an absolute chaotic disaster. According to CNN, the remarks were made during a private conference call while he was urging previous staff members to work for Joe Biden's presidential election team. Mr Biden is campaigning to unseat President Trump in the November election. More than 77,000 people have now died during the pandemic and the US has 1.27 million confirmed cases, with both figures being the highest in the world. In response, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany did not mention Mr Obama directly but said: "President Trumps coronavirus response has been unprecedented and saved American lives." Donald Trump Reacts To Vice President Mike Pence's Aide Tests Positive For Coronavirus Mr Obama's comments came during a call on Friday with 3,000 members of the Obama Alumni Association, who served in his administration, according to a recording obtained by Yahoo News. He was quoted as saying: What were fighting against is these long-term trends in which being selfish, being tribal, being divided, and seeing others as an enemy that has become a stronger impulse in American life. "And by the way, were seeing that internationally as well. Its part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anaemic and spotty. It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset of whats in it for me and to heck with everybody else when that mindset is operationalised in our government." New York's Coronavirus outbreak - In pictures 1 /34 New York's Coronavirus outbreak - In pictures The Supermoon rises behind the Empire State Building while it glows red in solidarity with those infected with coronavirus as the outbreak of the disease (COVID-19) continues in the Manhattan borough of New York City Reuters A nearly empty Times Square AFP via Getty Images Riders, some wearing masks and gloves as a protective measure over coronavirus concerns, enter a New York City subway train AP People try to keep a social distance while they enjoy a sunny day at Central Park Reuters Nadia, a 4-year-old female Malayan tiger at the Bronx Zoo, that the zoo said on April 5, 2020 has tested positive for coronavirus disease WCS/Handout via Reuters People wear face masks AFP via Getty Images A man crosses a nearly empty 5th Avenue in midtown Manhattan Reuters US President Donald Trump looks on during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House on March 31, 2020, in Washington, DC AFP via Getty Images Felix Hassebroek waves to his classmates, who he has not seen in 2 weeks through a livestream video meet up during the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Brooklyn, New York Reuters Friends and neighbors, Sarah and Elizabeth, talk about their weekends from opposite sides of the road as they maintain social distance in a neighborhood in Syracuse, New York Reuters Light morning traffic seen on the FDR drive on March 24, 2020 in New York City AFP via Getty Images A subway customer uses a tissue to protect her hand while holding onto a pole AP Workers construct what is believed to be a makeshift morgue behind a hospital during the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the Manhattan borough of New York City Reuters Beds separated by black fabric are set up as a temporary field hospital for Covid-19 patients in Queens, New York AFP via Getty Images New York's Hart Island where the department of corrections is dealing with more burials Reuters Medical workers wait for patients at a special coronavirus intake area in New York Getty Images Patients wear personal protective equipment while maintaining social distancing as they wait in line for a COVID-19 test at Elmhurst Hospital Center AP The One World Trade Center tower in Manhattan is seen illuminated in blue light Reuters Pictures drawn by children as part of the Quarantine Rainbow Project in Brooklyn, New York Reuters U.S. Army National Guard personnel load boxes of free food provided by multiple New York City agencies into a taxi for distribution to local residents in the Harlem neighbourhood of Manhattan during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID19) in New York Reuters Traders work during the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on March 17, 2020 at Wall Street in New York City AFP via Getty Images A man in a wheelchair crosses a nearly empty 7th Avenue in Times Square in Manhattan Reuters Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images REUTERS Mr Obama also strongly criticised the decision to drop criminal charges against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, saying he worried that the basic understanding of rule of law is at risk. President Trump has consistently defended and boasted of his response to the virus, saying that travel restrictions from China and Europe as well as social distancing guidelines have prevented far greater damage. I think we saved millions of lives, he said earlier this week. Lockdown measures were introduced in most US states during March, but restrictions have now been lifted so people can return to work - although health officials believe this may cause the virus to spread further. Donald Trump says coronavirus 'worse attack' than Pearl Harbour In February Mr Trump dismissed the threat posed by coronavirus, believing it would disappear, but by mid-March acknowledged it's prevalence. He told a coronavirus press conference in April that the idea of injecting Covid-19 patients with disinfectant "sounds interesting to me" - but doctors were quick to speak out against the suggestion. In a move to shift management of the US's response to the pandemic, last week he announced he would shut down the government's coronavirus task force, before later amending that it would continue, but with a focus on reopening the economy. On behalf of the White House, Ms McEnamy added: While Democrats were pursuing a sham witch hunt against President Trump, President Trump was shutting down travel from China. While Democrats encouraged mass gatherings, President Trump was deploying PPE, ventilators, and testing across the country." The mother of a black Georgia man who was fatally shot in February after two white men chased him down in their pickup truck said she was about to give up hope when she learned that the suspects had been arrested. "I was in a numb state because I had waited for ... two months and two weeks," Wanda Cooper-Jones told "NBC Nightly News." Cooper-Jones' son, Ahmaud Arbery, was shot to death on Feb. 23 in Brunswick, a coastal city about midway between Savannah and Jacksonville, Florida, after being chased by Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, a Glynn County police report said. The father and son were arrested on Thursday and face charges of felony murder and aggravated assault. Ahmaud Arbery with his mother Wanda Cooper. (Courtesy Family) Cooper-Jones recalled waiting for more than two months to get an update on her son's case. When the arrests did happen less than two days after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation began an inquiry into Arbery's death Cooper Jones said she was shocked but relieved. The arrests of the McMichaels are the first step, Cooper-Jones said. She wants to see them convicted of their crimes and sentenced to prison. Arbery's family said he was out jogging when he was shot, while the McMichaels said they thought he was a burglary suspect, according to a Glynn County police report. The McMichaels armed themselves because they believed Arbery might have a gun, the police report said. The McMichaels said Travis shot Arbery in self-defense after Arbery attacked him and grabbed his gun. The report did not specifically say whether Arbery was armed, but an attorney for Arbery's family has said he did not have a weapon. Cooper-Jones said she wishes the world would have gotten a chance to know her son, who would have turned 26 on Friday. "I wish the world would have gotten the chance to know Ahmaud, to really truly love Ahmaud," she said. After trading in bullets for bagels, Queensland man Michael Lorrigan hasnt forgotten the lessons he learned in the military. He now works as Managing Director of cafe-chain The Two 14 Group named after his former regiment and is using his new career to help others in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Through his cafes, Mr Lorrigan is helping locals provide meals for frontline healthcare workers and those struggling financially due to the COVID-19 pandemic through his aptly-named 'No One Left Behind' initiative. Michael Lorrigan, his partner and co-founder of Cafe Two 14 with their staff. Photo Credit: Michael Lorrigan/Cafe Two 14 The former Army Officer and Afghanistan veteran started the initiative after seeing a Facebook post written by somebody who was having trouble buying food after paying the rent. It was at that moment I realised we weren't doing it as tough as other people, so we thought to ourselves what can we do to try and help those doing it tougher than us? Mr Lorrigan told Yahoo News Australia. The initiative is based on the old military saying, no man left behind, but Mr Lorrigan says it's all about being inclusive of everybody. It's like a pay it forward program. Essentially, people can very simply get on to our website, purchase a meal, that gets a basic food item and drink. We hand it over to anyone who would like to claim it, he said. While the social distancing rules that have been in place for months have significantly impacted the business, Mr Lorrigan and the Cafe Two 14 team are still paying it forward regardless of the downturn. It was just so out of our hands. For us as business owners, you have a plan and that doesnt include a pandemic, he said. Cafe Two 14 is named after Mr Lorrigans former unit, the 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment where he served as an Australian Armoured Corps Officer for almost a decade. Michael Lorrigan while on deployment in the Middle East as an Australian Army Officer. Photo Credit: Michael Lorrigan/ADF In honour of Cafe Two 14s namesake and its link to Mr Lorrigans former military career, he has ensured that his small business also has ongoing initiatives in place that gives back to help Australian military veterans and their families. Story continues Cafe Two 14 is named after the 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment, and their motto was forward, so weve adopted that. Weve pushed that out to be, helping veterans move forward, he said. We have had the opportunity to work with veteran charity organisations, mainly focused on veteran mental health and we use our ability as a commercial business to donate as much money as possible. After the COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant downturn in business for Cafe Two 14, Mr Lorrigans old mates in the Australian Defence Force community didnt think twice about supporting their favourite coffee joint. Especially in the last couple of months, with the pandemic that has come through, the Defence guys have really rallied around the business, Mr Lorrigan said. All the way through to [some of the guys] calling me up and saying... Hey, look if you need a hand, give me a call and I'll pop in there to wash dishes, you don't have to pay me. For more details about how you can help those in need in the Brisbane area, visit the Cafe Two 14 website, their Facebook page, or Instagram page. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play. NEW YORK CITY -- Brandy Westman has been a nurse for 15 years, initially earning an Associates degree in nursing from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and then later Bachelor and Masters degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi. A Gautier native and 12-year resident of Ocean Springs, Westman is also a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve nursing corps and one of two females to have been inducted into the Mississippi Black Belt Karate Hall of Fame -- so she is well-educated, highly-trained and tough. None of that, however, prepared the 36-year-old Westman for what she has seen in nearly a month working in a COVID-19 unit in a New York City hospital. I never thought Id see anything like this in my lifetime, she said in a phone interview this week with The Mississippi Press. "Its surreal going to work every day. Youre throwing out everything you thought you knew about medicine and applying a whole new approach, pushing the limits to try and combat this virus. My first day on the job, during shift change and getting a report, I step into a room and my patient is in respiratory distress. A 54-year-old with no past medical history. We had to call in rapid response to intubate him. That was my first patient, first day on the job, two hours in. Westman doesnt know whether that first patient survived, but once they are intubated, doctors there have estimated about 80 percent dont survive. As a nurse practitioner, Westman knew she had the skills to help out on the COVID front lines, so she contacted an agency which was placing travel nurses in hospitals with the greatest need. She was sent to New York City -- to a hospital on Long Island which has been designated a COVID hospital, meaning every patient admitted has tested positive for the coronavirus. Anyone testing negative is sent to a clean hospital elsewhere in the city. Shes been there since April 12. Westman has witnessed first-hand the ravages of COVID-19, which has claimed nearly 20,000 New York City residents as of Friday afternoon, according to the Citys health department. That first case, she said, was eye-opening. It definitely changed my view, she said. "Being in Ocean Springs, we only see what we see or read in the news. Were somewhat isolated from it. A lot of people think the news was exaggerating this. I went in prepared for the worst, but hoping for the best. I quickly realized this is a vicious, terrible virus. Westman said she couldnt begin to estimate the number of COVID patients who have come through her unit since she arrived, other than to say well into the thousands. Much has been made about the effect COVID has on the elderly or those with underlying conditions. Westman acknowledges those people are at greater risk, but is quick to add that the young and healthy are not immune. The biggest misconception is that these people who are dying are homeless, or have multiple cormorbidities, or elderly, she said. Yes, those people are more at risk, for any virus or bacterial disease, but what were seeing with COVID is no one is exempt. Westman is one of an estimated 1,000 travel nurses who have come to NYC to assist and she is not the only one from Mississippi. There were two other Mississippi nurses -- one from Meridian, one from Hattiesburg -- in her orientation. Westman and the other nurses typically work two days, then have a day off. A typical day for Westman and her colleagues begins with the donning of massive amounts of PPE (personal protective equipment), because all of our patients are COVID positive. Its very hot, very uncomfortable, difficult to breathe and we cant take it off, she said. Nearly all of the patients Westman sees are respirator patients on high amounts of oxygen and are in their hospital beds on their stomachs, which she said allows them to breath better. They are typically one step away from being intubated. The nature of COVID is such that doctors and nurses are pushing the limits, Westman said. Under normal circumstances, many of the patients she and her co-workers see would be immediately intubated, but with the coronavirus they take every measure possible before resorting to intubation. We apply other measures if we can (before intubating), she said. Changing their position, increasing their oxygen if it can be increased or calling a rapid response team to have an anesthesiologist come and determine if the patient needs to be intubated. Thats a 12-hour day -- just keeping these patients alive. A lot of them have no appetite, so they dont want to eat, so our job, 12 hours a day, is making sure they can breathe. As noted, there are limited positive outcomes for COVID patients once they go on a ventilator. Westman is unsure why. I dont know. Theres still so much were learning about this virus, she said. Nearly every COVID patient presents with bilateral pneumonia. Its not necessarily a bacterial pneumonia that we would typically treat with antibiotics and steroids. This is very different. It responds differently. Were giving them antivirals and antibiotics. People who have recovered from COVID are donating plasma and Westman said her hospital, as a top research facility, is using that plasma to treat hospitalized patients. We are putting some patients on those antibodies and so far were having good results with that, she said. "But to answer the original question I think once the ventilator starts doing the work for them, they stop fighting and then, in my opinion, the virus just takes over. I cant say medically thats exactly why, we just dont see good success once they go on a ventilator. On those occasions when someone intubated comes off the ventilator successfully, the hospitals celebrate by playing music. In Westmans hospital, its a snippet of the Beatles Here Comes the Sun. And the good news is things are slowly improving in New York. Theres actually been a large decrease in the amount of COVID patients just in the last week, Westman said. Were starting to see a lot fewer admissions. The patients who are in the hospital now are mostly previous admissions who have been there a long time, very very sick and were having a hard time weaning them off of oxygen. When not working, Westman is residing in a lower Manhattan apartment. She describes New York City during this crisis as eerily slow. Times Square, normally a flurry of activity day and night, is virtually deserted. There are not many people on the streets, she said. Im happy to report those you do see are utilizing masks and practicing social distancing. Almost everything is closed, except for a few grocery markets and takeout restaurants. Those people Westman does encounter have taken time to express their appreciation. Everyone has been so overwhelmingly thankful and grateful for the nurses who are here helping, she said. Ive had nothing but a pleasant experience with everyone Ive encountered in the city so far. Westman said NYC parks have reopened, so she takes walks through Battery Park near her apartment, Central Park and across the Brooklyn Bridge. She also rode the Staten Island Ferry once -- noting there was no one else on the ferry at the time. But make no mistake, this is no sightseeing trip. Westman said she is not set to return home to Ocean Springs and her husband, Mike Westman, until June 6 and she quickly acknowledged the experience has already been life-altering. Without a doubt, she said. Ive never seen this amount of critically-ill patients in such a short time frame. Its unprecedented. The ones that are hospitalized dont have a good chance of recovery and thats a lot. It has really pushed our nursing and medical skills to our limits both spiritually, emotionally and physically." "Theres so much death surrounding us and, unfortunately, so little progress. Nigerians are angry with Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State for demolishing two hotels for violating his lockdown order. They described Wikes action as brazen display of lawlessness and dictatorship. The governor had on Sunday supervised the demolition of two hotels. The hotels are: Prodest Hotel, Alode, Eleme, and Etemeteh Hotel in Onne both in Eleme Government local area. However, Nigerians on twitter expressed outrage over Wikes action, saying that the governor was simply power-drunk. A twitter user by the name, Ochi Damian Ike, said Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Wike is a tyrant. I hope he will be brought to book. No where in the western world did we see such extreme penalty for flouting lockdown order. Even in African countries. In this time of hunger. Another user, Chinda Peculiar, said I condemn in strong terms the demolition of the hotels by Wike. Where does he derive such powers from? Impose a fine or confiscate the hotel but not demolish it. Nyesom Wike please listen to the voice of reason now before it plays out of hand. According to Theresa Tekenah, The decision to demolish hotels in Rivers state over violation of the COVID-19 lockdown order is extreme and illegal. Gov Wike, this isnt leadership. Read other reactions below: This is how you peep before going to buy something outside in Rivers Port Harcourt. Because Governor Wike is outside ?? pic.twitter.com/ItoF3fHlhx Ogochukwu (@TheEmmalez) May 10, 2020 Gov. Wike walking through the streets, searching for his next targets. ??#COVIDIOTS pic.twitter.com/IbFbRG2DR7 CHOCOLATE VODKA ?? (@oswvldo_oniel) May 10, 2020 Those clapping for Wike, the day he will destroy your relatives businesses & cripple them financially is coming but I expect you to hail him with this same energy. Remember E dey sweet if e nor affect us. Bad governance will touch everybody one way or the other. Opeyemi Babalola (@CACCOT1) May 10, 2020 Someone said if Rivers COVID-19 case should increase to like 30, Wike will order all of them to do frog ? jump in the middle of Aba road ?????#COVIDIOTS Nigeria Agba pic.twitter.com/3SfmgGhbxo Kelgrin Otoide (@kelgrin99) May 10, 2020 Wike ordered for the demolition of a hotel which was neglecting the lockdown orders. I have always commended the actions of Governor Wike towards curbing the spread of the deadly Corona Virus in his state but this action here was out of order and inappropriate. #wike #Covidiots pic.twitter.com/mJfU2tDOLk Your Fav. Boss (@Bruno_Wilson01) May 10, 2020 Governor Wike need to be taken to isolation center he is acting abnormal #wike pic.twitter.com/4w2Nw2lH6n March31st (@aleesyvicky) May 10, 2020 Extinction Rebellion, the environmental movement known for disruptive and theatrical protests, is going digital to accommodate the pandemic lockdown. The campaigners are launching a national "digital rebellion" on Monday to target governments and "climate-complicit industries" while obeying public health laws banning group gatherings and enforcing physical distancing. An Extinction Rebellion protest in Melbourne last year. Credit:Chris Hopkins Planned events include a "koala rebellion" where people dress up as koalas and film themselves to contribute footage to a protest video highlighting NSW and Victorian logging of unburnt native forests. The activists will also be tweeting during the ABCs Q&A on Monday night when the Premiers of NSW, Victoria and Queensland are scheduled to appear, and organising "social media swarms" to encourage divestment from the big four banks. Some plans are secret to keep the element of surprise. The Prime Minister suggested the phased reopening of schools could start on June 1, beginning with some of the youngest pupils in reception classes, year one and year six. But even this staggered approach sparked alarm, with the leader of the largest teaching union calling it reckless. Mr Johnson said that by June 1 we believe we may be in a position to begin the phased reopening of shops and to get primary pupils back into schools, in stages, beginning with reception, Year One and Year Six. Officials made clear that nurseries would also be covered in the initial phase, and the hope was that all primary school children would return to class by the summer. For secondary school pupils, Mr Johnson said our ambition is that secondary pupils facing exams next year will get at least some time with their teachers before the holidays. That would allow pupils in years 10 and 12 to sit down with their teacher and assess their progress or discuss their concerns. But a senior official said that realistically there was no prospect of other secondary pupils returning to class before September. Teaching unions have criticised the plans with one raising concerns about how social distancing can be managed with younger children. Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU, said: We think that the announcement by the Government that schools may reopen from June 1 with reception and years one and six is nothing short of reckless. Coronavirus continues to ravage communities in the UK and the rate of Covid-19 infection is still far too great for the wider opening of our schools. Dr Bousted urged the Government to meet five tests set out by teaching unions, which includes extra money for deep cleaning and personal protective equipment (PPE) and local powers to close schools if clusters of Covid-19 infections break out in a particular area. If schools are re-opened to blatant breaches of health and safety, we will strongly support our members taking steps to protect their pupils, their colleagues and their families, she added. The worst outcome of any wider re-opening of schools is a second spike of Covid-19 infection. Taking a similar stance, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that social distancing is extremely difficult with children in reception and year one. We are not trying to impede the reopening of schools, he said. Throughout the crisis we have highlighted the importance of bringing in more pupils when the time is right to do so and there is a clear plan in place to manage it safely. Unfortunately, we are not persuaded that either of these two simple tests has yet been met. Schools and colleges closed their doors to the majority of pupils, apart from the children of key workers and vulnerable youngsters, from March 23. Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Layla Moran said: The Prime Ministers announcement today raises more questions than it answers on reopening schools, like how will social distancing be maintained with the youngest pupils? Its nonsensical. For our free coronavirus pandemic coverage, learn more here. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size It was three weeks before Dr Steve Burnell could talk about the 10 million coronavirus tests he had secured for Australia. Recruited by Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest last October from pharma multinational Roche's diagnostics team to work for the mining magnate's philanthropic arm, the Minderoo Foundation, Burnell was now running bidding wars against other countries worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the murky pandemic medical supplies market. His 30-strong team, charged with acquiring high-quality COVID-19 tests for Australia, was spooked by the aggressive international competition. France had secured tonnes of medical supplies in April, but the country was outbid by the US while the plane was on the tarmac. Dr Steve Burnell. Credit:Tony McDonough Burnell knew there was to be no public announcements, no fanfare, no celebration until the tests, the chemicals and the lab equipment had landed in Australia. Those tests and supply lines were under attack, says Dr Burnell. There were several countries that tried to interrupt Australia's supply line for these reagents and testing capacity. Not only did they want a piece of it, but would pay a whole lot more to put themselves at the top of the queue and break that order. Advertisement The arrival of 10 million tests in Australia was overshadowed when Twiggy blindsided federal health minister Greg Hunt at what was meant to be a happy announcement by inviting the Victorian Chinese consul-general, Zhou Long, to share the stage. After weeks of growing tension between Australia and China over Beijing's lack of transparency on the coronavirus outbreak, one of its senior diplomats was suddenly on a podium with a cabinet minister talking about how transparent China had been. Hunt initially thought Zhou was a Fortescue employee. Forrest maintains Hunt knew the envoy was coming. The enormity of the 10 million test haul and its health and economic implications forced the government to accept a dual press conference and to allow the former Chinese cyber affairs coordinator to speak at an Australian government podium. Chinas consul-general for Victoria Zhou Long (right) and Health Minister Greg Hunt. Credit:AAP But behind Forrest's hijack of the press conference was a remarkable piece of business diplomacy. Australias Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy had warned the government in March that Australia faced a shortage of COVID-19 tests and lab supplies as countries put export controls on the suddenly rare commodity. State premiers and the Australian Medical Association said a shortage of reagents - the substance used in laboratories to trigger chemical reactions and diagnose COVID-19 - was felt nation-wide. Advertisement The Australian government had only secured 500,000 tests by April, a fraction of what was needed to diagnose the spread of coronavirus throughout the population. That was when the federal government sought the assistance of Forrest, who has substantial business interests in China. Loading We were really tasked with a pretty large challenge in that period of very early April, Burnell says. We had weeks, not months or years. Flooded with demand from Asia, Europe and the United States, those supply chains were under intense pressure. Australia was finding it hard actually to secure supply of those critical reagents, he says. You needed agility, decisiveness, and a willingness to deploy resources and capital quickly to secure reagents, face masks or thermometers. Burnell was dialling into a meeting from his home in Perth in mid-April when he got the call that they'd found what they needed. Advertisement Minderoo paid $320 million upfront to the Beijing Genomics Institute, a Chinese multinational, to expand Australias coronavirus testing capacity. Approximately $200 million, the cost of the tests, will be refunded by the Australian government, who will distribute them to state health services. The tests isolate the viruss genetic material, or RNA, and are on a list of legally supplied kits approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. A coronavirus testing lab, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, Sydney. Credit:Kate Geraghty The cost of the lab equipment and hospital-grade protective clothing in the crates has been underwritten so far by the foundation, although some of the equipment is expected to be bought by the federal government. Three weeks after that phone call, two days before the infamous press conference, Dr Burnell could finally speak about the 10 million tests he had secured - a 20 fold increase in Australias testing capacity. The last of 10 supply flights had finally landed. It was a remarkable coalition of the willing, he says. That included Qantas airlines, the Australian government, state governments, our two biggest clinical diagnostics labs, Sonic Healthcare and Helius, who very quickly stood up and made space for these tests to be installed. Advertisement Today's aggressive philanthropic positioning once again puts Forrest right in the middle of evolving diplomatic and business interests. He is pitching himself as a middle man between an increasingly assertive China and a defensive Australia. Charismatic, driven and contentious, Forrest built a dedicated Fortescue railway in Western Australia when most told him it could not be done. Much of the hundreds of millions of dollars of iron ore that rolls along it now is heading for his largest market, China. Forrest is not usually shy of publicity, but he has been laying low since last week's press conference after significant blowback from government ministers. To observers, the conference stunt was vintage Twiggy. In 2014, he stunned the Pope and the Vatican by smuggling four Iranians to an anti-slavery event he threatened to cancel unless they were included - the episode threatened to spill over into a major diplomatic incident. It ended with a former close ally, Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, accusing Mr Forrest of using the Vatican. "A businessman has the right to make money but not by using the Pope," he said. Forrest denied there was any financial incentive to the anti-slavery campaign at the time. Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest at the Minderoo Foundation press conference with Health Minister Greg Hunt. Credit:AAP Advertisement New Delhi, May 10 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said that the entire India is praying for former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's health, as he was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) here after complaining of chest pain. "Deeply concerned about Dr Manmohan Singhji's health. Hope he makes a full recovery soon. All of India is praying for our former PM," Kejriwal tweeted. Singh was brought to AIIMS at 8.45 p.m on Sunday. He is under the supervision of Dr Nitish Nayak and is kept under observation at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). In 2009, Singh underwent a successful coronary by-pass surgery at AIIMS, a complex beating-heart operation that took nearly 14 hours. Illustrative image (Photo: Ashton Hawks) The University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC) reported on May 8th that the consumer confidence index (CCI) fell to 47.2 last month from 50.3 in March. This was the 14th straight monthly decline and the lowest level since October 1999. Thanavath Phonvichai, President of the UTCC, said economic conditions are at a critical level and consumer spending is unlikely to recover for at least 3-6 months until the pandemic is under control, all business sectors are allowed to reopen and the government's stimulus measures produce concrete results for the economy. He said the lower confidence stems from consumers' expectation that the economy will fall into a depression with weakened domestic purchasing power, tourism, exports and employment. The farm sector remains stunted by drought, while farm prices are still relatively low, Thanavath said. The university estimates that the pandemic will cause damage of up to 1.5 trillion THB (46.8 billion USD) in the first half of the year, including 700 billion THB in lost tourism revenue, 300 billion THB from lower private consumption and the rest from lower exports and border trade. The recent easing of measures for certain businesses by the government is estimated to result in up to 3 billion THB in added spending per day, Thanavath said. Starting on May 3rd, the government allowed outdoor markets, barbershops and pet groomers to start reopening after new daily coronavirus cases dropped into the single digits. The curfew and a ban on alcohol sales will remain until the end of May. Thanavath said that if the government goes through with further easing on May 17th, an additional 6-8 billion THB in daily spending is expected./. Mayor Eric Garcetti, shown at City Hall last year, is subject of protests around stay-at-home orders stemming from the coronavirus outbreak. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times) At least 100 protesters gathered Saturday outside the Hancock Park residence of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, with marchers calling for the economy to reopen and condemning the health orders enacted in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Los Angeles police Sgt. Zachary Wechsler said the crowd numbered between 100 to 200 people at Getty House, the city-owned mansion in Windsor Square that serves as the residence for L.A.'s mayors. No arrests were made, and the protest lasted about two hours, Wechsler said. Officer Mike Chan, a spokesman for the L.A. Police Department, said demonstrators had dispersed by about 4:30 p.m. Images of the protest published online showed crowds waving American flags and carrying signs demanding an end to the shutdown. Signs visible in the crowd said, "Back to work," and "facts not fear" and "fear is the virus." At least one protester carried a cardboard sheet with "Q" spray-painted in black, which appeared to reference QAnon, a far-right conspiracy theory that centers on a supposed secret plot by an alleged deep state against President Trump and his supporters. The protests came one day after California took its first modest step toward reopening its economy, allowing stores selling books, music, toys, flowers, sporting goods and clothing to reopen for curbside pickup only, unless barred by tougher local restrictions. Manufacturers and suppliers that provide goods for those businesses also were allowed to resume operations. L.A. County beaches remain closed, but many trails were allowed to reopen Saturday. Leaders in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area have said they plan to take a cautious approach to reopening because the coronavirus remains a significant public health threat. Los Angeles County remains the primary COVID-19 hot spot in California, with health officials on Saturday reporting at least 31,230 cases overall and a total of 1,515 deaths. Story continues The mayoral residence in Windsor Square, a tony neighborhood in central L.A., has become a popular backdrop for political groups to stage protests during the pandemic. Housing activists held a rally as well as drive-by protests last month honking their horns and shouting from windows in their effort to secure a blanket moratorium on residential evictions. A South Los Angeles pastor was also arrested last month outside the residence on suspicion of felony stalking after appearing several days on the home's block, where he said he was calling on Garcetti to help homeless people. Garcetti, his wife Amy Wakeland and their daughter also obtained a temporary restraining order against Sherman Manning that requires the pastor to stay at least 100 yards away from them and their home. Wakeland said in a legal declaration that because of Manning's behavior and criminal history, she was afraid of her daughter's safety. Manning, whose convictions include forcible sodomy and oral copulation, has denied that he was trying to harass the family. My fixation is on the homeless, he told The Times last month. The pastor said that for several days he had been walking up and down the block outside the Windsor Square residence, calling for urgent action to house homeless people on skid row during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, in Orange County, where beaches were reopened this week, protesters gathered in Huntington Beach on Saturday to demonstrate against the stay-at-home orders that remain in effect there. Video footage posted to social media showed many waving American flags and holding signs calling on officials to fully reopen the economy. Police estimated there were about 1,500 people. No issues were reported, and no arrests were made, said Angela Bennett, public information officer for the Huntington Beach Police Department. At least 20 migrant workers returning to Odisha on a Shramik Special train from Ahmedabad got down from the train by pulling the chain in Angul district hours before they were to be quarantined. The incident took place this evening near Majhika in Angul district. Many managed to flee, but locals apprehended some of the violators. Later, they were handed over to the police, said police officials in Angul. Though about a dozen migrants escaped taking advantage of the darkness, locals apprehended 7 persons roaming suspiciously near the track. They admitted having escaped from the Sharmik Special train, said Angul SP Jagmohan Meena. For Coronavirus Live Updates The state government has now made it mandatory for the arriving migrant workers to stay in 28 days of quarantine including 21 days of institutional quarantine to prevent the community spread of Covid-19. Migrants returning from states like Gujarat, Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have led to a rapid surge of Covid-19 cases in Odisha since last fortnight, with close to 300 of the 377 cases coming from them. Since last week, there have been quite a few incidences of migrants jumping quarantine in Odisha. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 Last week, 150 migrants in Beguniapada block of Ganjam district fled the quarantine centres after complaining of lack of water and quality of food. Later, 128 of them were caught. Similarly, some of the migrants in Bhadrak district coming in a bus from Surat had got down several kilometres ahead of the quarantine centre and gone straight to their homes. The Ganjam district administration threatened to arrest people jumping quarantine. Lancaster County has joined the growing list of counties resisting the coronavirus restrictions put in place by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf. In a letter to the governor dated Saturday and signed by numerous Lancaster County lawmakers and commissioners, they asked Wolf to formally move Lancaster County out of the red designation and into yellow under the plan to reopen the state. They note the county is prepared to do so on Friday, adding, We prefer to act with your cooperation, but we intend to move forward with a plan to restore Lancaster County. You can see the entire letter here: Republican commissioner majorities in Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Lebanon and Schuylkill counties have all made public moves in that direction in recent days. They argue residents have responded, sometimes at tremendous personal cost, to Wolfs initial emergency lockdown and its stated goals of buying time against the virus so that the states hospitals arent overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases. And, as of mid-May, the commissioners say, they feel theyve won. The letter points out that as of May 9, Lancaster General Hospital had 43 coronavirus patients with six of them requiring ventilators, and Ephrata Hospital had two coronavirus patients. All hospital systems are reporting ample supplies of beds and ventilators and are resuming normal operations, according to the letter. The letter states Lancaster County and many others have been patient and followed the governors orders and guidelines despite a lack of clear benchmarks or consistent application of your own actions. The letter states due to a lack of answers and transparency, it is time for the county to transition to yellow, following a set of guidelines outlined in the letter. Additionally, the Lancaster County District Attorneys Office put out a notice Sunday that it will not prosecute citations for violations of the stay-at-home orders or closure orders for non-essential businesses. We decided this after careful examination of the law and the Governors orders/business waivers. We discussed with our neighbor @yorkcounty_da Dave Sunday and agree with his stance: a citizen must be clearly aware of the difference between criminal and non-criminal conduct. Lancaster DA (@Lancaster_DA) May 10, 2020 We find that the governors continuously changing orders - and business waivers have presented circumstances where criminal enforcement of the orders is difficult, District Attorney Heather Adams said in a press release. Rapid changes in the definition of what constitutes criminal conduct renders the application of criminal sanctions insupportable. The Dauphin and York County District Attorneys Offices made similar announcements. Adams said her office encourages police departments to prioritize education and instruction on CDC safety guidelines and encourages voluntary compliance. Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. A day after 16 labourers heading to Madhya Pradesh were crushed to death by a goods train in Aurangabad, five labourers were killed in a road accident in MPs Narsinghpur village on Saturday. The accident took place near Patha village on Saturday night when nearly 20 migrant labourers were going in the truck to Jhansi and Etah in Uttar Pradesh from Hyderabad, Additional Superintendent of Police Rajesh Tiwari told PTI. As many as 11 labourers were injured in the accident, district collector Deepak Saxena said. One of the injured showed Covid-19 symptoms and was tested for the viral infection. The samples of others were also collected. As a precautionary measure, the mangoes in the truck were destroyed by the administration. Jigawa State, on Sunday, announced 33 new cases of coronavirus. The states COVID-19 taskforce chairman, Abba Zakari, said of the 33 new cases, 16 are almajiris repatriated from Kano while the remaining 17 patients are contacts of infected persons in the state. Mr Zakari said the total COVID-19 cases in the state increased to 116 with 60 of them being almajiris who returned from Kano. PREMIUM TIMES has reported on the return of almajiris to their states of origin by governors of northern states. Almajiris are children sent to live with their Islamic teachers while learning about the religion. Majority of them end up as street children where they beg for survival. Jigawa State had earlier sent 607 samples of the returned almajiris for testing. A total of 279 results are out, including 60 positive ones, Mr Zakari said while addressing journalists. Mr Zakari announced a total lockdown of Ringim Local Government Area from Monday midnight to ensure adequate contact tracing as a high number of the infections were from the council. Staff are spraying disinfectant at a market in Suifenhe, Heilongjiang, China on May 6, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images) More Virus Cases Reported in Northern China, Hubei Province Chinese authorities reported new CCP virus cases in northern China and the viruss initial hot spot of Hubei Province over the weekend. Officially, Chinas National Health Commission announced on May 10 that there were 12 new cases in the entire country. But local governments reported more infections than that. Days earlier, a senior high school student in Hubei tested positive after returning to school, raising concerns about Chinas easing of lockdown measures. Leaked Document The Epoch Times recently obtained an internal document belonging to the Heilongjiang health commission, in which a medical staff at the Qitaihe Peoples Hospital (located in Qitaihe city) reported bad behavior by city authorities. The medical worker claimed that authorities purposely covered up the local outbreak. The document, dated April 7, contained details of the medical staffs accusations: Now, more than 30 people diagnosed with COVID-19 are being treated at our hospital. But the government has only announced 16 infections. Because of the falsified and delayed reporting of data, close contacts of infected people could not be promptly identified and isolated, causing the outbreak to spread, the staff said. The medical staff also claimed that the wife of the hospitals deputy director was infected with the virus. The deputy director and wife did not tell the truth, and did not receive testing after visiting the hospital, which caused a large number of medical staff to be infected. The staffer also alleged corruption. The leaders at the Qitaihe city health commission were bribed [by manufacturers], and purchased poor-quality protective suits [for local hospitals]. The suits ripped easily, but we have to use them because we dont have qualified ones. In the document, the provincial health commission confirmed that the wife was diagnosed, but denied that there was a cluster outbreak at the hospital. Underreporting Chinas National Health Commission announced that there were 12 virus patients newly diagnosed on May 9: 11 of them are from Shulan city in northern Jilin Province, and the other case is from Wuhan city in Hubei Province. The Wuhan case was an 89-year-old man. After he tested positive, his wife and five other residents in the same residential compound also tested positive and were counted as asymptomatic carriers. The national figure did not capture all the diagnosed patients in China. Shenyang, the capital city of Liaoning Province, announced on May 10 that a 23-year-old man was diagnosed with the virus on May 9. He is related to the outbreak in Shulan, according to authorities. He traveled to Shenyang from Jilin on May 5, and began to develop symptoms on May 8. That same day, the Heilongjiang health commission also announced one new diagnosed patient, which also wasnt counted into the national figure. The commission said the patient was a 70-year-old man. He was infected at the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, where he was being treated for colon cancer, high blood pressure, and occupational lead poisoning. Workers in protective suits are seen at a registration point for passengers at an airport in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province bordering Russia, following the spread of the CCP virus in the country, China, on April 11, 2020. (Huizhong Wu/Reuters) According to leaked government documents The Epoch Times previously obtained, local authorities also routinely underreport virus data. Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning are three neighboring provinces in northeastern China. The second wave outbreak in the region first erupted in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang, in early April, and has since spread further. Shulan The latest impacted area is Shulan in Jilin Province. On May 9, the province upgraded Shulan from low risk region to medium risk region for virus spread. On May 10, Jilin provincial government again upgraded the city to a high risk region, after the 11 new cases were reported in one day, who were close contacts of a person diagnosed on May 8. The government did not explain how the outbreak occurred. According to state-run website China News Net, the patient zero of the Shulan outbreak was a 45-year-old cleaning lady who works at the citys police bureau. She had not contacted anyone from overseas or other provinces. Since April 23, she had only gone to work; a supermarket and pharmacy for shopping; and her mothers home in another residential compound. On May 6, the woman developed symptoms and visited a hospital. On May 7, she was diagnosed. Then, her husband, three sisters, brother-in-law, a woman who lives at the same residential compound as her mother, and four men who are close contacts with her or her family were diagnosed with the virus on May 9, according to state-run newspaper Beijing Daily. However, Chinese web portal Sina quoted Shulan local residents on May 9 and reported that the woman was not the patient zero either. She was infected by her close friend, a woman who works at a public bath house, and she in turn was infected by a person who recently came back from Russia, according to the news report. The Shulan city government denied this information and said they were investigating. On May 10, the city locked down all residential compounds and closed all schools again. Owing to the pandemic, all schools in China did not open for the new semester after the Chinese New Year holiday. But in April, locales began easing lockdown measures and reopened school for some grades. On April 7 and 20, classes resumed for seniors in high school and middle school respectively, to allow them to prepare for entrance exams. But such students will now attend classes online again. Students On May 8, Ezhou city in Hubei Province announced that a high school senior tested positive during a nucleic acid test and was confirmed to be an asymptomatic carrier. Students are studying in their classroom at a High School in Shanghai, China on May 7, 2020. (HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images) The student had not traveled to another city, nor taken any public transportation, in recent months. Authorities said it was unclear how the student contracted the virus. Meanwhile, Chinese web portal Sohu reported on May 5 that at least three students died suddenly after returning to school in the past 15 days. Authorities did not cite a cause of death. On April 30, a 14-year-old student died at the Xiangjun Future Experiment School in Changsha city, Hunan Province. On April 24, a 15-year-old student died in Dancheng city, Henan Province. And on April 14, a 16-year-old student died at the No. 2 Experiment Middle School in Wenzhou city, Zhejiang Province. Senior Congress leader and former Defence Minister A K Antony on Sunday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene immediately to prevent starvation deaths in the country in the wake of the nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. IMAGE: Migrants with their belongings walk along a road to reach their native place Madhya Pradesh, during the nationwide lockdown imposed to contain the coronavirus pandemic, near ISBT in New Delhi. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI Photo Noting that the situation on the ground was "very difficult", the Congress leader said it was high time the prime minister announced a relief package for the poor and a financial stimulus for the economy. "The situation is very difficult. The prime minister must intervene immediately. Otherwise, there would be deaths due to hunger and starvation," said Antony. He also urged the prime minister to take care of the problems of the migrant labourers, the poor and vulnerable sections of society and provide them with a relief package that includes food and cash. He also demanded an economic stimulus package for reviving the country's economy and putting it back on rails. "It is high time the prime minister should intervene and come out with a relief package for the poor people and an economic stimulus package for the industry," he said. Seeking early action on this front, the former defence minister felt the economic activity in the country was totally shut due to the lockdown and if timely steps are not taken it could be too late. "Otherwise, there will be a total economic crisis in the country," he felt. IMAGE: Migrants travel on a truck towards their native places, during the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus, in Mumbai. Photograph: PTI Photo Antony also wrote to the prime minister expressing concern over the serious situation in the country and saying that unless there is immediate government intervention, there would be many deaths because of hunger and starvation. "These deaths would outnumber the casualties because of COVID-19. This is a tragedy that should be avoided at all costs," he told the prime minister. He also said that as seen across the world, if unchecked, this virus could bring the entire healthcare system to its knees, and cause innumerable loss of lives. The Congress veteran said though he supported the lockdown earlier, the restrictions are creating economic woes that are being compounded on a daily basis. "Therefore, this difficult period requires the government to provide a steady financial helping hand to our citizens," he said. He said Indians, most of them young are already in extreme financial as well as mental duress because of the deteriorating economic situation and the resultant closure of any fresh employment opportunities. Income and wages of crores of our citizens including our farmers, daily wage workers and those in other informal sectors who together make up over 80 pc of India's workforce, as well as our enterprises starting from the SMEs are seeing significant fall during these distress times, he said. Antony also felt that crores of migrant workers who are moving back from their workplace to their native villages will struggle for employment opportunities in their home localities with limited economic activities. "The first financial package that was announced by the finance minister did provide partial relief, but the current circumstances demand a far more comprehensive and substantial economic relief and stimulus package at both an individual as well as institutional level at the earliest," the former defence minister told the prime minister in his letter. The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has in a press release cautioned the government about the dire consequences the lifting of the ban on social gatherings for religious activities, schools, marriage ceremonies, funerals etc. will have on the country amid the spread of coronavirus in the country and world at large. "His excellency the President of the Republic should not lift the ban on social gatherings for religious activities, schools, marriage ceremonies, funerals etc. Our international borders should also remain closed for now," a part of the statement said. The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) taking into consideration the number of new COVID-19 positive cases in the country (mostly community spread) and the seeming disregard for all the preventive measures put in place by large sections of the population, has advised the government accordingly. According to the GMA, the Government should strictly enforce all the preventive measures so far put in place to ensure compliance. Ban On Social & Public Gatherings President Nana Akufo-Addo extended the suspension of public and social gatherings by two (2) more weeks. "I have accordingly by Executive Instrument, extended for another two (2) weeks, the suspension of all social and public gatherings as set out in E.I 64 of 15th March 2020, effective tomorrow 1 am, Monday, 27th April," he said in his 8th Address to Ghanaians on Measures Taken Against Spread of Coronavirus on Sunday, April 26. According to the President, the existing measures must be maintained for now, until we have a firm grip on the movement of the virus. This consensus is supported by data and science, and I am also very much of this view". However, Private burials are permitted, but with limited numbers, not exceeding twenty-five (25) in attendance, The ban on all public gatherings was declared by President Akufo-Addo on March 15, 2020, in a televised broadcast, which included conferences, workshops, funerals, festivals, political rallies, church activities, and other related events as part of measures to stop the spread of coronavirus in the country. Ghana's case count Ghana's COVID-19 case count has increased to 4,263, according to the latest update by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) on Saturday, May 9. Recoveries are now 378, and with four more fatalities having been recorded, the death toll has shot up to 22. 5 more persons are said to be "critically or moderately ill." Per the statement on the GHS website, "while the number of active cases is now at 3,907, the total number of persons tested is 155,201. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Pregnant Mom of Toddler Girl Who Died After Being Tossed From a Cliff Says She Was Left for Dead A woman who said she is the mother of a toddler girl who died after being tossed from a cliff said there was also a domestic violence incident involving the suspect that left her hospitalized. Adam Slater of Palm Desert, California, was arrested last May 6 after he allegedly stabbed a pregnant woman and tossed their daughter, who is one year old, over a cliff after their car crashed. Ashley Grome, the girls mother, has said on social media that the girls name is Madalyn Payton Slater before she launched a GoFundMe page to raise money for the girls funeral. I am the mother of Madalyn Payton Slater, the one-year-old baby girl who was killed on May 6, 2020 by her father when he drove off of Highway 74 after beating and stabbing me, then leaving me to die in the Southwest Community Church parking lot, she wrote. My daughter was the absolute love of my life and she meant everything and more to me. Everything I did and everything I will do for the rest of my life is for her. She was beautiful and her smile was contagious, even after a bad day, she always cheered me up. She was taken from this world way too soon. Authorities said Adam Slater, 49, is facing second-degree murder and other charges in connection to the girls death, according to the Desert Sun. They described the attack as a domestic violence incident. Adam Slater in a booking photo. (Riverside County Sheriffs Department) Slater is a registered sex offender and had a 1995 conviction for assault, serving two years in a state penitentiary before he was released in 1997, the report said. They said Slater stabbed a woman, later identified as Grome, in a church parking lot before taking their daughter and speeding off in a car. He was tracked down by deputies on Highway 74 after he apparently crashed. Witnesses then told officials that he stabbed a bystander who had freed his daughter from the crashed vehicle. Then he threw the child, according to witnesses in the Desert Sun report. Slater was later captured by deputies after a chase. The toddler was discovered dead by authorities. Family members were quoted by the Desert Sun as saying that Grome is six months pregnant. Grome was reportedly released from the hospital last week. Authorities have asked that anyone with information contact the Central Homicide Unit at (951) 955-2777. If you or anyone you know is a victim of domestic violence, please call The National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). He said Belarus would likely face economic tightening not only as a result of the coronavirus pandemic but also a Russian trade oil crisis that worsened this past winter. Belarus, a country of about 9.5 million people where most live in urban centres, has been run by the same president, Alexander Lukashenko, since 1994, and is now grappling with one of Europe's highest per capita coronavirus infection rates, see Al Jazeera. According to Johns Hopkins University data, there are at least 19,255 cases of the new coronavirus. COVID-19 has led to the deaths of at least 112 people in the country, but some experts say that many coronavirus-related fatalities are registered as cases of pneumonia. Lukashenko, who is campaigning for the presidential election to be held by the end of August, has repeatedly played down the danger of the coronavirus, saying a lockdown would be ineffective, unjustified and bad for business and society. He still wants to go ahead with a military parade on Saturday, celebrating the 75th anniversary of World War II. The World Health Organization recently singled Belarus out for a lack of adequate social distancing measures and called for the country to shutter nonessential businesses and enforce distance learning. But the country's approach remains relaxed it has so far advised self-isolation for those who have tested positive or returned from a foreign country and said people should maintain a 1.5-metre distance. The president's office declined Al Jazeera's interview request. Andrei Yahorau, an analyst at the Centre for European Transformation, a Minsk-based think tank specialised in Central and Eastern Europe, said: Lukashenko is irresponsible. You need to explain to the people what's really going on. While the Ministry of Health has taken measures to encourage social distancing, it cannot overrule Lukashenko, he said. Schools, which were closed for three weeks around Easter, have now reopened. However, parents have the option to keep their children at home. Universities were allowed to switch to e-learning but many did not. Andrei Yahorau has withdrawn his two children from nursery and lives with his family in self-isolation. But while critical of Lukashenko's approach, Andrei Yahorau is also sceptical about a full lockdown. Belarus doesn't have the resources to implement that, he said. Companies should decide which industrial processes could be stopped and which ones cannot. He said Belarus would likely face economic tightening not only as a result of the coronavirus pandemic but also a Russian trade oil crisis that worsened this past winter. Former Bangladesh prime minister and main opposition leader Khaleda Zia, who was freed from prison in March after serving 25 months in two corruption cases, is undergoing treatment for multiple ailments at her home here amid the coronavirus pandemic, her family has said. The 74-year-old Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief is serving a 17-year prison term in two graft cases since February 8, 2018. Following her release on March 25 for six months on humanitarian grounds after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's approval, Zia was taken to her home 'Feroza' despite demands from the BNP leaders to shift her to the United Hospital for better treatment. "It [transfer to hospital] is not possible right now due to the current state of the country. She is undergoing treatment at home. All the members of the medical board that was formed for her treatment are expert physicians," Zia's sister Selima Islam told bdnews24.com on Friday. Zia is still in "home quarantine", Selima said, adding that her sister has not recovered from illness. "She is suffering from arm and leg pain. Her fingers are still bent while she is suffering from diabetes as well," Selima said. The physicians visit the veteran politician at her home once a week. "She needs long-term treatment. She has to undergo physiotherapy, follow-up and monitoring for a long time," one of the doctors was quoted as saying in the report. Entry to 'Feroza' is strictly restricted. Only physicians and some close relatives of Zia are allowed to enter the house, it said. Zia has served three times as the premier of Bangladesh since 1991. Her party suffered a miserable defeat in the 2018 elections, bagging only six seats in the 300-seat parliament. Her conviction on "moral turpitude" charges debarred her from contesting the polls. She was sent to jail in February 2018 by a local court on charges of embezzling foreign donations meant for an orphanage, named after her slain husband and president Ziaur Rehman, during her premiership between 2001 and 2006. Rehman, a military ruler-turned-politician, was the founder of the BNP. She was convicted in another corruption case later the same year, though her party claims both cases are politically motivated. Amid a spike in new coronavirus cases, the Bangladesh government has extended the lockdown until May 16. The government has also decided to keep shut all the educational institutions in Bangladesh until May 30. Over 200 people have died and more than 13,700 people have been infected by the coronavirus in the country. The virus which originated from China's Wuhan city in December has infected over 4 million people and claimed 279,311 lives, according to Johns Hopkins University data. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A McDonalds in Melbournes north has closed its doors temporarily after two staff members were diagnosed with coronavirus. A staff member at Maccas in Fawkner was sent home to self-isolate on April 30 after contracting coronavirus, a McDonalds spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia. The spokesperson added there was no evidence this staff member contracted the virus while working at the restaurant. At the time, the restaurant kept its doors open. However on Saturday, Victorias Health Department said a second worker at the same restaurant had fallen ill with COVID-19. They tested positive on Friday after working one shift. McDonald's at Fawkner will shutdown temporarily after two staff members fell ill with coronavirus. Source: Google Maps We are working closely with McDonalds to ensure appropriate public health actions have been taken. McDonalds closed the store yesterday (Friday), for at least three days, to undertake a deep clean, the health department said. All close contacts have been contacted by the department and will remain in quarantine for 14 days. It added the department is working with McDonalds to ensure, as a precaution, all staff members receive testing. Staff are being provided with further information on potential exposure to coronavirus in the workplace, including on symptoms and other actions to take, the health department said. There is no evidence COVID-19 can be transmitted to people through food or packaging, and the risk of anyone visiting the McDonalds contracting the virus is very low. A McDonalds spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia in a statement the store was closed for a deep clean out of an abundance of caution. The employee last worked at the restaurant on Tuesday, the spokesperson said. We have spoken with the employee and confirm they are self-isolating at home with little to no symptoms. We have communicated with all employees and continue to work collaboratively with the Department of Health. The decision to deep clean the restaurant is a precautionary measure only and is over and above the Departments requirements. Story continues Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play. Thousands of migrant workers from Telangana stranded in Persian Gulf countries and desperate to return to home, have backed out from travelling in Vande Bharat special flights being operated by Air India to evacuate Indians from abroad. They say they are simply not in a position to bear expenses for their travel and also pay for their 14-day quarantine on their return to India. The first Vande Bharat flight landed at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad late Saturday with 163 people, including two infants from Kuwait. Most of them hail from Hyderabad while some were from Nizamabad and Karimnagar districts. Only those who could afford to bear their travel expenses and also for their stay in paid quarantine centres in Hyderabad were brought from Kuwait. Those who cannot have to stay back, E Chitti Babu, a senior official in-charge of Telangana NRI cell in state secretariat, said. He said the charges for paid quarantine facilities range from 5,000 to 30,000 for the 14-day period, depending on the facilities for the NRIs. For an ordinary accommodation, it is 5,000, for a two-star hotel facility, it is 15,000 and for three-star accommodation, it is 30,000, he said. Chitti Babu said a couple of more flights, one from the US and another from the UK, would be bringing stranded Telugus to Hyderabad. Similarly, some more flights from Abu Dhabi and Dubai would also be operated for the Telangana people, he said. But thousands of people, who had gone to the Gulf countries in search of livelihood, are not in a position to return because they are not in a position to bear the expenses. According to P Basanth Reddy, president of the Hyderabad-based Telangana Gulf Migrants Welfare Association president, many people from Telangana stranded in Kuwait had registered their names with the local authorities for returning to India, but backed out after coming to know that they will have to pay quarantine charges as well. Thousands of poor migrant labourers from Telangana, who have been languishing in the Gulf countries like Dubai, Kuwait, Bahrain and UAE, have not been getting their wages for months. How can they be expected to bear their own expenses for their return in these present conditions? Reddy asked. A migrant worker Ganga Reddy stranded in Dammam in Saudi Arabia told Hindustan Times that the situation in his place was horrible and many people are desperate to return home. We are afraid that we might contract Covid-19 and we are desperately looking up to the Telangana government to help us come back, Reddy, who is from Nizamabad district, said. Basanth Reddy said his association was trying for sponsors to bring as many as people as possible from the Gulf countries. We are also helping the families of these migrants back home, as they are in utter poverty, he said. All India Congress Committee spokesman Dasoju Sravan demanded that the Telangana government bring back stranded labourers in the Gulf countries free of cost. He said there more than 12-15 lakh workers from Telangana, including both men and women in the Gulf countries. Many of the labourers are being laid off from their employment due to Covid-19 pandemic. Most of them do not have access to proper livelihood and medical care and are compelled to live in most hazardous conditions and are worried about the spread of Covid-19. In these circumstances, the government of Telangana should coordinate and collaborate with central government and bring back whosoever is desirous to return to India at free of cost. It is improper on the part of the government to charge airfares to return to India as the labour is already in most vulnerable situation without income, Sravan said. The Telangana NRI cell in-charge, however, ruled out the possibility of the government bearing the travel expenses of the Gulf migrants. We have no such plans as of now, Chitti Babu said. Meanwhile, the returnees from Kuwait were screened thoroughly at every stage in the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport before they were shifted to the quarantine centres of their choice in the early hours of Sunday. ATLANTA, May 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Chef Rebecca gives tips for celebrating mom during these challenging times. Celebrating Mother's Day during these challenging times. FAVORITE MEAL The best recipes, like Bacon Gouda Crustless Quiche, use high-quality Wisconsin cheese. Wisconsin is the State of Cheese. Wisconsin Wins more awards for cheese than any other state, region or country, and mom deserves the best! Some favorites from Wisconsin are the Raleigh Red Rock and the Edelweiss Swiss Cheese. Look for the Proudly Wisconsin Cheese badge on packaging nationwide. Many may not be able to be with their moms this year, so make mom feel special and order specialty cheeses from WisconsinCheese.com. KEY TO A GREAT MEAL Start with quality ingredients, choose Fairtrade certified goods like coffee, tea, chocolate, vanilla and granola, make mom a meaningful breakfast in bed. Purchasing products labeled with the Fairtrade America logo is an easy way to make a difference in the lives of the people who grow our food, enabling them to earn a living wage to support their families, and also help protect our environment. Mom can enjoy a delicious breakfast and feel good knowing the family has shown support for small-scale farmers in developing countries. Visit Fairtrade America on Instagram @FairtradeMarkUS through Mother's Day to win mom a collection of Fairtrade certified goods from Lily's Sweets, Looma Home, Nature's Path Love Crunch, Ethical Bean, Nielssen-Massey and Organic India. CREATE MEANINGFUL MOMENTS Create meaningful moments with the magic of a shared cup of coffee, brewed by a Keurig coffee maker this Mother's Day. Gift mom with the sleek, compact K-Mini or K-Slim brewer providing the ease of brewing a quality cup of coffee while giving mom, more of a reason to sit back, relax and enjoy her day. Both coffee makers provide space-saving solutions and the convenience of a single-serve brewer giving the perfect cup on Mother's Day morning and beyond. The K-Mini brewer is under $80, and the K-Slim brewer is under $110, www.keurig.com AN EASY MEAL For almost 70 years, KFC has been bringing families together for Mother's Day with a bucket of fried chicken. KFC has launched a virtual Mother's Day experience on Messenger from Facebook so families can celebrate virtually since many can't be together in person. This simple, one-stop experience, allows you to create a personalized invitation, coordinate a meal time, and receive fun reminders to connect with mom through Messenger video chat on Mother's Day. It's a great way to make this virtual connection more special than the average chat with mom. From there, let the Colonel cook! For a limited time, KFC is offering free delivery on orders over $20 through Grubhub or kfc.com. Send mom a classic KFC $20 Fill Up to enjoy during a virtual date, send her food for today and tomorrow, with a $30 Fill Up. Big plus, there will be no pots and pans to clean up! [email protected] Related Images chef-rebecca-lang-on-mothers-day.png Chef Rebecca Lang on Mother's Day Ideas Celebrating Mother's Day during these challenging times. Related Links Website SOURCE Tips on TV DARIEN The alarm froze everyone in their tracks. Code blues were far more frequent, but this screeching sound suddenly had a far greater sense of urgency as it came over the public address system at Lenox Hill Hospital as the coronavirus crisis gripped New York. It was the peak of patients being treated who couldnt breathe and the alarm meant the hospital itself was running critically low on oxygen. It was the scariest moment for everyone, said Darien native Emily Fawcett, a floating nurse at the hospital. All of a sudden, all of those alarms meant those who were on oxygen had their oxygen not working, she said. The hospital staff frantically switched these critically ill patients to manual oxygen tanks and operated the machines until the supply was replenished it was about 30 minutes of pure panic, Fawcett said. That was the worst, she said. There were so many patients on oxygen, it overloaded the whole system. This was wartime nursing. It was a war zone. But we made it through. Like most others on Sunday, Fawcett, 30, and her mother Sharon will use FaceTime to celebrate Mothers Day, unable to be together due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Fawcetts share a unique bond: Theyre both registered nurses on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis. Sharon Fawcett, 62, has been a nurse for 40 years, and when shes not treating coronavirus patients at Norwalk Hospital, shes providing a support system for her daughter. Being able to call her she knows whats going on, she knows how hot our gear is, the masks we have to wear, the gowns we have to wear, Emily said. She knows what its like to have to intubate or put patients on ventilators. She knows what its like to constantly have to hear the code blues overhead. Its been really nice to decompress with her. Of course, she was very worried about me in the beginning, she said. Sharon said it would be an understatement to say shes proud of her daughter. Shes given me so much strength, Sharon said. Emily, a 2007 Darien High grad and former EMT with Post 53, has drawn national attention with her idea of hope huddles, as a way to keep hospital morale up during the pandemic. Shes been featured in the New York media and was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey for her magazine. I was on a text thread late at night with some of my ER nurse friends and they were telling me how they were literally having mental breakdowns. That it was the first time they had ever cried at work. They just werent doing well, Emily said. They just kept getting sick patient after sick patient we were getting 20- and 30-year-olds on ventilators. It was just heartbreaking for them. The idea for hope huddles is for the nurses to gather with their team every morning and hear the positive news around the hospital like the amount of discharges and how many patients have come off ventilators. Just some good, positive stories to boost the morale a little bit, Emily said. An absolute nightmare With New York City as the hotbed of the coronavirus outbreak, Emily said it was an absolute nightmare when the crisis began two months ago. The amount of patients coming in, and the amount of sick patients coming in, was insane, she said. They would need to get in rooms right away and on a breathing tube. With about 400 coronavirus patients at the height of the pandemic, Lenox Hill converted about five units literally overnight to COVID wards, Emily said. We were only COVID for about a month and a half, she said. My whole nursing expertise became only how to treat these patients, which took a while to learn. In her four decades as a nurse, a career that began in the early days of HIV, Sharon says shes never seen anything like the COVID pandemic. All of us are totally new to this, the Darien resident said. Everything is changing and most of us hate change. It has been really, really tough and stressful. Im more physically and emotionally exhausted than I ever have been. This is absolutely the most challenging thing for everyone. When has it ever been that a family member cant visit a family member in the hospital? Sharon said patients are dying and cant have a family member hold their hand. Theyre watching them taking their last breaths over Zoom, she said. One couple stood out to Emily. During the early stages of the crisis, a woman brought in her husband who was very sick. He was incredibly sick and had to be immediately put on a ventilator, Emily said. The next week, the wife shows up and she is my patient. Knowing how sick her husband was, the woman prayed and cried with Emily each night. The couple had no children, so Emily facilitated a call with the womans nephew to arrange for him to become their health care proxy. One day, I came in and he had gotten better. He was off the ventilator and in the same room with her. I got to meet the man I had been praying for. And they ended up going home together, Emily said. Sharon, who is typically a joint replacement center nurse, said her patients are usually healthy, optimistic and well prepared for their surgeries. But her days in Norwalk are much different now, including one difficult moment caring for a patient in her 80s. She wasnt doing well. We had put her on comfort measures and a morphine drip, Sharon said. We called her daughter, so her daughters voice was the last thing shed hear. That was hard, she said. Emily said Lenox Hill is now down to about 150 coronavirus patients and has started treating other patients again. However, that slowdown has its own challenges. It creates a whole new slew of emotions, she said. As the adrenaline winds down, it feels weird to be coming out of it. You really start to process things. We have anxiety about if theres a second surge, will it be as bad as the first one? I equate it to a soldier who comes home from war. My colleagues are having the same emotions. Sharon said the patient influx in Norwalk is also easing up. However, she added that we cannot let our guard down. We still need to be extremely cautious, she said. There is still so much we dont know. We need to continue to self quarantine and be really vigilant about social distancing. Im still really worried if we have a peak in the fall. I dont know if we will ever return to normal, she said. Call to service Emily said her family has been very supportive of her career, which got its start as a member of the Post 53 EMS squad while she was in high school. One could tell immediately that she had leadership qualities as she rose through the ranks and ultimately became an excellent EMT and crew chief, said Susan Warren, the former head of Post 53. Warren said Emily enjoyed being a mentor for younger squad members and always set a good example for them. All these characteristics, I feel sure, have helped her stay strong and again be a compassionate leader on the front lines during these incredibly challenging times, Warren said. Janice Marzano, program director of The Depot Youth Center, said shed known Emily all her life, and she was always defined by compassion. Marzano said as a child on the playground, Emily would often respond to help a classmate who might have gotten hurt. It has been a privilege to know her, Marzano said. Sharon, who is widowed, has found strength through her daughter. Shes my rock. She puts things in perspective. When I start to talk about something, she says, Mom, that doesnt matter right now. Were in a pandemic, Sharon said. People ask me if Im worried about her being down there. Im not. She has so much support down there. Im so proud of her. Shes inspirational. Sharons other daughter, Jessica, remains nearby just a few houses away with her husband and three children, ages 5, 3 and 1. Sharon said her grandchildren are learning a lot right now. Emilys world is a bit different, surrounded by medical professionals and other nurses as roommates. I was a lucky one going home to two other nurses in an apartment in Manhattan. I had no husband or kids to worry about, she said. I didnt think about getting sick at all. I never had any time to worry about it. I had to take care of patients. Sharon said shes never been in this situation where work threatens her own health. We have nurses out with it, and one nurse who just left who had been really sick. He was intubated, Sharon said. It is scary. It is a huge threat. But youve just got to take care of yourself, get rest, exercise and eat properly. She said the pandemic has made her better at her job. I feel like this has made me a stronger and more compassionate nurse, she said. Ive dug deep and found courage and resilience that I never thought I would have. As she nears retirement age, Sharon says friends ask if shed consider walking away to avoid further risks. Do it now? I couldnt retire now, she said. Morally, I just couldnt do it. Readers hoping to buy Bank of Tianjin Co., Ltd. (HKG:1578) for its dividend will need to make their move shortly, as the stock is about to trade ex-dividend. If you purchase the stock on or after the 14th of May, you won't be eligible to receive this dividend, when it is paid on the 30th of June. Bank of Tianjin's next dividend payment will be HK$0.18 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of HK$0.18 to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Bank of Tianjin stock has a trailing yield of around 5.9% on the current share price of HK$3.36. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Bank of Tianjin's dividend is reliable and sustainable. That's why we should always check whether the dividend payments appear sustainable, and if the company is growing. Check out our latest analysis for Bank of Tianjin If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Bank of Tianjin paid out just 24% of its profit last year, which we think is conservatively low and leaves plenty of margin for unexpected circumstances. Companies that pay out less in dividends than they earn in profits generally have more sustainable dividends. The lower the payout ratio, the more wiggle room the business has before it could be forced to cut the dividend. Click here to see how much of its profit Bank of Tianjin paid out over the last 12 months. SEHK:1578 Historical Dividend Yield May 10th 2020 Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing? Businesses with shrinking earnings are tricky from a dividend perspective. If earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. That's why it's not ideal to see Bank of Tianjin's earnings per share have been shrinking at 3.2% a year over the previous five years. The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. It looks like the Bank of Tianjin dividends are largely the same as they were four years ago. When earnings are declining yet the dividends are flat, typically the company is either paying out a higher portion of its earnings, or paying out of cash or debt on the balance sheet, neither of which is ideal. Story continues The Bottom Line Should investors buy Bank of Tianjin for the upcoming dividend? Earnings per share have shrunk noticeably in recent years, although we like that the company has a low payout ratio. This could suggest a cut to the dividend may not be a major risk in the near future. It might be worth researching if the company is reinvesting in growth projects that could grow earnings and dividends in the future, but for now we're on the fence about its dividend prospects. So if you want to do more digging on Bank of Tianjin, you'll find it worthwhile knowing the risks that this stock faces. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Bank of Tianjin (1 is significant) you should be aware of. If you're in the market for dividend stocks, we recommend checking our list of top dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend. 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. We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message. By Sonali Paul MELBOURNE, May 10 (Reuters) - Australia's biggest state, home to Sydney, will allow cafes and restaurants, playgrounds and outdoor pools to reopen on Friday as extensive testing has shown the spread of the coronavirus has slowed sharply, New South Wales state's premier said on Sunday. The state has been worst hit by the coronavirus in Australia, with about 45% of the country's confirmed cases and deaths. However it recorded just two new cases on Saturday out of nearly 10,000 people tested, clearing the way for a cautious loosening of lockdown measures. "Just because we're easing restrictions doesn't mean the virus is less deadly or less of a threat. All it means is we have done well to date," Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters on Sunday. From May 15, New South Wales will allow cafes and restaurants to seat 10 patrons at a time, permit outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people, and visits of up to five people to a household. Playgrounds and outdoor pools will also be allowed to reopen with strict limits. The moves are in line with a three-step plan to relax lockdown measures outlined by the Australian government on Friday, which would see nearly 1 million people return to work by July. Places of worship in New South Wales (NSW) will be permitted to open to up to 10 people from Friday. Weddings, which had been restricted to two guests, will be able to host up to 10 guests, and indoor funerals will be allowed to have 20 mourners. The state earlier announced schools would reopen from Monday, but only allowing students to attend one day a week on a staggered basis. Berejiklian gave no time frame for any further reopening of the economy, saying that would depend on further data on infection rates, including closely watching the impact of school reopenings. "We continue to take a cautious approach in New South Wales, but also one which has a focus on jobs and the economy, because we can't continue to live like this for the next year or until there is a vaccine," Berejiklian said. Story continues NSW and Victoria, which has had the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the country, have maintained their tight restrictions longer than other states in the country. Victoria's premier said he would announce plans for easing lockdown measures in the state on Monday. Western Australia, which shut its borders to combat the spread of the virus and has had only 1 new COVID-19 case in the past 11 days, has moved faster than other states in easing restrictions. It has allowed indoor and outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people at homes, weddings and funerals, since late April. On Sunday, Premier Mark McGowan said from May 18 the state would allow indoor and outdoor gatherings of up to 20 people, including at cafes and restaurants. In South Australia, shops reopened on Saturday, drawing huge crowds to malls. From Monday, the state will allow holiday travel within in its borders, in a push to revive tourism that has been devastated this year by bush fires and the coronavirus. In Queensland state, up to five people were allowed to visit households for Mother's Day on Sunday, and the state earlier allowed people to travel up to 50 kilometres (31 miles) to visit national parks. (Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Christopher Cushing) Former prime minister Manmohan Singh was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in the nation's capital on Sunday evening after he complained of uneasiness, sources said. Singh, 87, is under observation at the cardio-thoracic ward of the premier hospital, they said. "All his parameters are fine. He is under observation at the AIIMS," a source close to him said, adding that he was taken to the hospital after he complained of "uneasiness". He was admitted under Dr Nitish Naik, a professor of cardiology at AIIMS, around 8.45 pm. Singh, a senior leader of the Congress, is currently a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan. He was the prime minister between 2004 and 2014. In 2009, Singh underwent a successful coronary bypass surgery at the AIIMS. As the news came out, a number of leaders expressed concern over his health and wished him a speedy recovery. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said, "Much worried to know former PM Manmohan Singh ji has been admitted to AIIMS. I wish him speedy recovery and pray for his good health and long life." Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel tweeted, "Praying for good health of Doctor saheb. We are sure he will be fit and fine at the earliest." Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav also tweeted, "Saw the news of Dr Manmohan Singh ji being admitted to hospital. My sincere prayers for the speedy recovery of Manmohan Singh ji, the humble, intelligent, scholar, true gentleman and one of the best PM." His son and RJD chief Tejashvi Yadav said, "Wishing for the speedy recovery of respected Dr Manmohan Singh ji." Chinese Ambassador to Korea Xing Haiming bumps elbow with one of the Korean businesspeople leaving for China as a new COVID-19 greeting at Incheon International Airport, Sunday. Yonhap By Yi Whan-woo Korean businesspeople have begun to enter China under streamlined quarantine regulations from Sunday, after the two countries jointly sought to restore economic exchanges hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. China has been requiring travelers from Korea to undergo a 14-day quarantine upon their arrival. The fast-track procedure jointly introduced by the two neighbors allows businesspeople to enter China if they are tested negative for the coronavirus up to two days after their arrival. Korea is the first country for which China implements the streamlined arrival system after the COVID-19 outbreak in January, hinting at the significance of their economic partnership. The construction of an additional fence along South Africas border with Zimbabwe to help curb the spread of COVID-19 is facing serious scrutiny. The 40km barrier was announced by Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Patricia de Lille in March as a measure to prevent undocumented or infected persons from illegally crossing the border. The fence would cover 20km on either side of the Beitbridge border post and cost R37.2 million, De Lille explained. It consists of rolls of razor wire and a razor fence grid, at a height of 1.8m. Less than a month after the announcement, however, additional security and soldiers had to be deployed to secure the fence, following several reports of breaches in it. With regard to the Beitbridge border fence which DPWI is erecting and criminal elements damaging the fence: I am investigating this matter, De Lille said in a tweet responding to the issue. The contractor has increased security personnel. The Defence Force has also deployed soldiers to patrol the border, she said. She accompanied her tweets with the pictures below. COVID-19 fence just an expression Rapport has now detailed the events of a virtual meeting where the parliamentary portfolio committee for Public Works asked De Lille about the impact of the new fence. DA MP Tim Brauteseth asked why the department referred to it as a COVID-19 fence when it effectively was just a normal border fence. The departments top officials submitted the name did not actually mean anything, but that it was merely an expression. No questions were asked on the possible legal ramifications of using R37 million of disaster funding for a standard fence. ACDP MP Wilfred Thring subsequently asked the question: Did the fence work? De Lille then submitted that a particular section of the fence would cease to exist within a day of its construction. She stated that she therefore requested the Minister of Defence Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to have the fence patrolled. The minister explained that particular sections of the fence would disappear once soldiers moved away from it. Auditor-General to investigate A recent Sunday Times report revealed that border-hoppers had no problems cutting through the new fence This is not a fence, one illegal crosser told the newspaper, moments after crossing the Limpopo River into South Africa. This thing doesnt even take me five minutes to cut through. We make big holes so we can get suitcases with cigarettes through and small ones so we can get people and groceries through, he said. Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu has said the contract for the fence is under investigation for alleged procurement irregularities. Raipur: Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, who was admitted at Raipur's Shree Narayana Hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest, has slipped into a coma, a senior doctor attending him said on Sunday (May 3). Jogi's neurological activity is almost nil and he is on ventilator support at the hospital, where he was admitted on Saturday afternoon after he fell unconscious at his residence here, the doctors said. 74-year-old Jogi, who is the Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) head was at his home when his health worsened and he collapsed, following which he was rushed to a hospital. "His heart functioning is normal at the moment. The blood pressure has been controlled by drugs. But there was a disruption in oxygen supply to his brain after the respiratory arrest yesterday, that possibly led to damage to his brain. In medical parlance it is called hypoxia," the hospital's medical director Dr Sunil Khemka said in a bulletin. "As of now, Jogi's neurological activity is almost nil. In simple words, we can say he has slipped into coma. He is on ventilator. We are making all efforts to improve his health, but the situation is worrisome at present," he said. In the next 48 hours, it will be assessed how Jogi's body is responding to medicines, the official said, adding that the leader is being treated by a team of eight specialist doctors. A bureaucrat-turned-politician, Jogi, currently an MLA from Marwahi seat, served as the first chief minister of Chhattisgarh from November 2000 to November 2003 in the then Congress government, after the formation of the state. He parted ways with the Congress in 2016 after he and his Amit Jogi got embroiled in a controversy over the alleged fixing of bypoll to Antagarh seat in Kanker district in 2014. Later, he quit the Congress and formed Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J). Opposition SAD, BJP and AAP targeted the Congress-led dispensation in Punjab on Sunday, saying a "constitutional crisis" has erupted and Cabinet ministers have "lost faith" in the government, a day after a showdown between the ministers and the chief secretary. The leaders of the opposition parties said the state ministers seemed to be "helpless" in the hands of the bureaucracy and asked them to "part ways" with Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. On Saturday, Punjab ministers had walked out of a pre-Cabinet meeting on excise policy over Chief Secretary (CS) Karan Avtar Singh's alleged "unacceptable behaviour" with cabinet minister Charanjit Singh Channi. At the meeting, Channi is learnt to have opposed a relief proposal for liquor contractors, expressing concerns over the declining excise revenue. This followed some "curt remarks" from the CS. Upset with the issue, state Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Channi left the meeting. Later, all ministers walked out. The incident led to the postponement of a Cabinet meeting scheduled later in the day. After the incident, Congress MLA Amarinder Singh Raja Warring even sought removal of the CS. "Respected @capt_amarinder ji, This type of contumacious behaviour by the Chief Secretary time & again is unacceptable. He has regularly disregarded our cabinet ministers & their decisions I request you to kindly remove him from his post immediately," Warring tweeted. Meanwhile, Shiromani Akali Dal spokesperson Daljit Singh Cheema on Sunday said a "constitutional crisis" had erupted in Punjab, with Cabinet ministers expressing "loss of faith" in the government. "It is unfortunate when every state is doing its utmost to combat COVID-19, the Punjab Cabinet is fighting with bureaucrats as witnessed in yesterday's pre-cabinet meeting," he said in a statement. With the Cabinet not "trusting" the bureaucrats and vice versa, there is a leadership crisis due to which Punjab and Punjabis are suffering, he claimed. "It seemed the chief minister and his coterie are running the government without taking the Cabinet into confidence. The very fact that Cabinet ministers walked out of the meeting indicates that the chief minister does not have their support," Cheema further said. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Harpal Singh Cheema said the time was ripe for Cabinet ministers to "part ways" with the CM, who has "totally failed" to keep the flock together. Reacting sharply to the showdown between the ministers and administrative brass, the AAP leader said it had been proved yet again that there was "no government" worth the name in Punjab. BJP national secretary Tarun Chugh issued a statement describing the incident as "unfortunate". Chugh claimed that the ministers seemed to be "helpless puppets" in the hands of the bureaucracy. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Around 300 Egyptians arrived in Egypts Red Sea resort city of Marsa Alam from Washington on Sunday, as part of the country's plan to bring back home nationals stranded abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic. The EgyptAir flight arrived in the Marsa Alam International Airport at around 8 am. Several sterilised tour buses transported the returnees from the airport to designated hotels in the coastal city where they will be put into 14-day quarantine. Egypt's flagship carrier EgyptAir will operate two planes on Sunday to repatriate 420 Egyptians stranded in the UK and Kuwait, according to local media reports. Marsa Alam will receive the first flight from London with 120 passengers onboard while Cairo international airport will receive the other with 300 passengers onboard from Kuwait. Egypt is working to repatriate thousands of Egyptians without valid residencies in Kuwait, which Immigration Minister Nabila Makram estimated at 5,300. Egypt has closed all its airports to international flights since mid-March as part of drastic measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The country has since operated exceptional flights to bring Egyptians stranded abroad back home and allow foreign tourists to return to their country. Egypt has since kept its airspace open to inbound charter and to cargo and domestic flights. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has vowed to repatriate an estimated 3,500 Egyptians stranded overseas at the earliest opportunity. "I assure all Egyptians [stranded abroad] who are listening to me, even if our circumstances are difficult, we will not leave you," he said in televised remarks last month. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said last week that authorities are hoping to repatriate all nationals stuck abroad before the religious Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Fitr, which is set to begin on 23 May. Search Keywords: Short link: Asserting that India and the United States are engaged in close cooperation on exchange of information regarding Covid-19, Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu has highlighted that there are at least three possible vaccines for coronavirus on which Indian and American companies are working together. Speaking to ANI on Saturday (local time), Sandhu said that India is a reliable partner to the US and has been able to fulfil whatever assistance Washington has required. Both International Centre for Medical Education and Research (ICMER) and here the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have been collaborating for a number of years. There is close cooperation exchange of information. Plus, as I said, collaboration, the at least three vaccines, on which Indian companies, and the United States companies are working together, Sandhu said. We are an important part of the supply chain, and this particular crisis has certainly shown to the United States, if not the world over that India is a reliable partner, whatever assistance they required in terms of the supply chain. India has been able to fulfil that, and this has been acknowledged by the highest level in the US government, but also at the people level, he added. The US and India have been cooperating during Covid-19 crisis and are providing all possible assistance to each other. The leaders of the two countries are in regular touch since the outbreak of the virus. The US has provided almost $5.9 million towards health assistance to India to curb the spread of Covid-19. Meanwhile, Indian has exported Hydroxychloroquine tablets after President Donald Trump requested. Trump had then thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allowing the export of HCQ, deemed a possible cure against the disease. Sandhu stated that the United States government has been cooperative with India during one of the biggest evacuations of its citizens. The United States government has been cooperative with us so we are in close touch with them, whatever permissions etc. And whatever facilities required, they have provided, he said. The evacuation process under Vande Bharat mission begins today. The first flight will be from San Francisco to Mumbai and Hyderabad on May 09 (local time) with 200 passengers on board. On May 10, an Air India flight from New York with 300 passengers on board will come to Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Later on May 11, passengers from Chicago will land in Mumbai and Chennai. Lastly, on May 12, there may be a flight from Washington DC to Delhi and Hyderabad. The following editorial appeared in Sunday's Japan News-Yomiuri: - - - While the world is shaken by the crisis caused by the new coronavirus, North Korea has continued to act on its own, threatening regional stability. The international community must keep up pressure on that nation through continual surveillance. Conflicting information on the movements of Kim Jong Un, the chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea, was reported at one point. Citing a U.S. official, CNN reported last month that Kim was in grave condition after undergoing surgery, which raised questions about his safety. North Korea's state-run television on May 2 broadcast a video of Kim attending a ceremony to mark the completion of a fertilizer plant the previous day, denying rumors that he might be seriously ill. It was the first time in 20 days that his public appearance was reported. It is difficult to confirm the whereabouts of the country's supreme leader, and it is also impossible to communicate through official diplomatic channels. Given North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, the magnitude of the risks it poses must be recognized. North Korea's response to the new coronavirus lacks transparency. Pyongyang claims that it has taken "extremely special quarantine measures" such as closing the border with China and putting many residents under medical surveillance. Although it repeatedly says that there are no cases of infection, the reality of the situation remains unknown. President Donald Trump reportedly sent a letter to Kim, offering cooperation on efforts against the virus. However, Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, the first deputy director of the party, only expressed dissatisfaction with U.S. policy toward North Korea in a statement. Pyongyang aims to get Washington to lift economic sanctions against it in exchange for partial denuclearization measures, but with its nuclear program kept intact. There is a wide gap with the United States, which has called for complete denuclearization. Kim is probably waiting for an opportunity in which Trump will compromise, with an eye on the presidential election in November. North Korea's repeated missile launches to build up its military in the midst of the coronavirus crisis cannot be overlooked. Based on satellite images, a U.S. research institute pointed out the possibility that North Korea is constructing new facilities for ballistic missiles. A panel of experts at the U.N. Security Council's Sanctions Committee released a report last month that once again revealed North Korea's violation of sanctions, including the smuggling of refined oil products and coal. It has also been sending workers abroad to earn foreign currency. If the border closure with China is put in place for a long time and its trade decreases drastically, North Korea will try to survive by violating sanctions in this way. The United States, China and Japan should not shelve the North Korean nuclear issue. By strictly executing sanctions, it is necessary to make North Korea realize that denuclearization is the only way to reconstruct its economy. By Express News Service TIRUCHY: Contradicting the stand of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, Congress MP from Sivaganga Karti Chidambaram charged that the government decision of closing the TASMAC during the lockdown was a completely wrong decision. He argued that the TASMAC should have been open during the lockdown period. Speaking to reporters after distributing relief materials to the public at Samayapuram near Tiruchy, the Congress MP said, "It is a completely wrong decision to close the TASMAC for 45 days. The government should have opened the TASMAC stores for at least 2 hours everyday and promoted online sales. Failing to do so only led to huge crowds in the TASMAC stores after reopening and resulted in High court ordering its closure." He also opined that the total prohibition of alcohol is never possible and would only bring mafia back to fore, if that happens. FOLLOW CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES HERE "The idea of total prohibition of alcohol is a failure one. No country including the USA, Iran or Saudi Arabia has been able to implement it. Making such a decision would only lead to illicit production of alcohol and mafia gangs," added Karti. He also emphasized that these were his own opinions. It is to be noted that, TNCC recently participated in the protest called by the DMK coalition protesting against the opening of TASMAC stores. With the TNCC taking that stand, the Congress MP statement has come as a contrasting one. Meanwhile, the Congress leader also criticised the central, state governments for failing to provide assistance to the public. He said, "We can only diminish the spread, the virus cannot be contained totally. Public and business have faced losses and both the government have failed to provide assistance yet." IT Services firm Tech Mahindra has been issued a notice by the office of the Labour Commissioner, Pune, in Maharashtra on a complaint that the company had reduced salaries of its employees to maintain "profitability' in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. A similar notice was issued earlier this month to another IT firm, Wipro Technologies Ltd, on a complaint alleging that the firm was benching its employees. National Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES), an organisation working for the welfare and benefits of employees in IT industry, had approached the Labour Commissioner's Office, claiming that they have received complaints from employees of Tech Mahindra, Pune, regarding the reduction in salaries to maintain the "profitability of the business" under the COVID-19 pandemic. "The company had also notified its employees through an email on May 6 that the shift allowance, which is between Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 per employee, will be stopped from May 1," the complaint letter from NITES reads. The application further claimed that because of this decision, payment of over 13,000 employees of Tech Mahindra is reduced. The NITES sought appropriate legal action against Tech Mahindra stating that the firm has violated the Maharashtra government's directions, rules and regulations. In a notice issued on the same date, officials in the Labour Commissioner's Office directed the firm to go through the state government's resolution dated March 31, 2020, and take appropriate steps and release the salaries for March and April and to inform the labour commissioner's office. The notice, signed by Nikhil Walke, Assistant Labour Commissioner, asked the firm not to terminate employees or reduce the salaries, and further stated that otherwise legal action will be taken. Tech Mahindra Spokesperson said, "The shift allowance paid for hardship due to travel to work at odd hours and other out of pocket expenses, continues to be paid to all Tech Mahindra associates, who are coming to the office or are at client locations as per policy. "Our focus remains to ensure the well-being of our associates, customers and partner eco-system while maintaining business continuity". Meanwhile, in its notice dated May 1 to Wipro Technologies Ltd on an NITES complaint that the company was benching its employees, the Pune Labour Commissioner Office asked the IT firm to respond and not terminate any employees. Harpreet Saluja, general secretary, NITES, said they had approached the labour commissioner's office after they received complaints from employees of WIPRO BPO, located in Hinjewadi regarding employees being put on the bench to maintain profitability. "The company also notified the employees on April 23 that they are on the bench with immediate effect. Because of this (the decision of the company) the pay and jobs of more than 300 employees are at risk," the complaint reads. A statement from Wipro Limited stated that the speculation related to the workforce is unfounded and has no basis. "Wipro categorically denies these rumours. There are no salary cuts for employees who are in between projects and are awaiting new assignments. Also, the company wants to reiterate that there are no retrenchment plans. Wipro has well-defined policies and people practices in place to take care of its employees," the statement reads. It further stated that Wipro is yet to receive any communication from the Labour Department. The company will present the facts before the department, as and when required. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) More than 1,000 people queued up to get free food parcels in Geneva yesterday, highlighting the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on the working poor and undocumented immigrants even in wealthy Switzerland. The line of people stretched for more than 1 km (half a mile) outside an ice rink where volunteers were handing out around 1,500 parcels to people who started queuing as early as 5am. Currently Switzerland has 30,305 confirmed cases of coronavirus and has recorded 1,830 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Patrick Wieland, from the Doctors Without Borders group, said: 'In Geneva, one of the richest cities in the world, there have always been people living precariously, especially all the people who work as housekeepers, in agriculture, on construction sites or in hotels, and they found themselves overnight without a job because of COVID-19.' People queue to get bags with food and essential products received from donations at Vernets ice rink in Geneva, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease The line of people stretched for more than 1 km (half a mile) outside the ice rink in Geneva yesterday Volunteers were handing out around 1,500 parcels to people who started queuing as early as 5am One illegal immigrant who called himself Fernando said he lost his restaurant job during the crisis and had no pay. 'I'm very grateful to receive this help and if the situation changes for me, I am committing to do the same thing that they are doing for me,' he said. 'At the end of the month, my pockets are empty. We have to pay the bills, the insurance, everything,' said Ingrid Berala, a Geneva resident from Nicaragua who works part-time. 'This is great, because there is food for a week, a week of relief...I don't know for next week.' In a nation of nearly 8.6 million, 660,000 people in Switzerland were poor in 2018, the charity Caritas says, particularly single parents and those with a low level of education unable to find work after losing a job. More than 1.1 million people were at risk of poverty, which means they have less than 60% of the median income, which was 6,538 Swiss francs ($6,736) for a full-time job in 2018. People in need queue at a free food distribution yesterday in Geneva as the COVID-19 pandemic casts a spotlight on the usually invisible poorer people living in Geneva Patrick Wieland, chief of mission for the Doctors Without Borders group, said a survey last week showed just over half the food recipients interviewed were undocumented Volunteers prepare bags of food for collection at the Vernets ice ring during the coronavirus pandemic Swiss bank UBS has calculated that Geneva is the second-most expensive global city for a family of three to live in, behind only Zurich. While average incomes are also high, that helps little for people struggling to make ends meet. 'I think a lot people are aware of this, but it is different to see this with your own eyes,' said Silvana Matromatteo, head of the aid group Geneva Solidarity Caravan. 'We had people in tears who said 'It is not possible that it is happening in my country'. But it is here and maybe the COVID-19 brought everything out and this is good, because we will be able to take measures to support all these workers, because they are workers above all.' People queue to get bags with food and essential products received from donations at Vernets ice rink in Geneva People arrived very early in the morning to make sure they could get the supplies that were on offer The coronavirus pandemic has shone a light on the usually invisible issue of poverty in Geneva, Switzerland Swiss bank UBS has calculated that Geneva is the second-most expensive global city for a family of three to live in, behind only Zurich. While average incomes are also high, that helps little for people struggling to make ends meet. Pictured: people in the queue yesterday Bags with food and essential products received from donations are seen ready to be distributed to people in need at Vernets ice rink in Geneva Patrick Wieland, chief of mission for the Doctors Without Borders group, said a survey last week showed just over half the food recipients interviewed were undocumented, while others had attained legal status, were Swiss or were seeking asylum. Just over three per cent had tested positive for COVID-19, three times the overall rate in Geneva, which he attributed to poor and overcrowded housing. Since the novel coronavirus pandemic spread around the world, theres been a new level of discrimination toward Asian Americans. A few incidents have been reported in New Mexico, but Robert Blanquera Nelson, co-president of Asian American Association of New Mexico, says the community is being brought together by the pandemic. On March 17, Mimy Singvileys restaurant, Asian Noodle Bar in Downtown Albuquerque, was the target of racist vandalism. On the back of her restaurant were words Trucha with the coronavirus, or loosely translated, watch out for the coronavirus. The family has since met with community leaders to discuss the vandalism. When it comes to Chinese Americans, our president is continuing to say its from Wuhan and calls it an intentional virus, Nelson said. It stokes that historical yellow peril. We still see it happening today. We saw this before with SARS. All of this is a symptom of the larger racism problem in the United States. Its easiest to blame foreigners. Nelson said over the past seven weeks, hes heard stories from community members. Some are scared to go to grocery stores because theyve been spit at, he said. We have to meet this moment and look at racial justice. Asian Americans have a long history in New Mexico with some bright spots and some very low ones. Nelson said Asians make up 2% of the population in New Mexico, and their story isnt covered much within history books. Weve always been treated as an outsider in a lot of ways, Nelson said. Whether it was immigration bans or laws that prohibited Asian Americans to own land. Theres always been a level of determination. It was difficult for people to settle here. But there was a loophole in the immigration law where if you didnt have a visa, you could still own a business. A lot of them started businesses, and thats where the community started to come to New Mexico. New Mexico is featured in the upcoming five-part series Asian Americans on PBS. It begins airing at 7 p.m. Monday, May 11, and Tuesday, May 12, on New Mexico PBS. Nelson said in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, New Mexican communities are experiencing rapidly plummeting sales and losses in wages, especially those in the service industry. The situation is compounded by racist harassment toward Asians; issues around citizenship status; and difficulties navigating the system to seek and apply for assistance with minimal to no cultural and language access. This is why the Asian American Association of New Mexico and the National Asian Pacific American Womens Forum-ABQ joined forces to offer aid to the community throughout New Mexico in the form of grocery cards to help supplement their groceries. Nelson said the cards are purchased from Walmart and Smiths. This pandemic is shedding a lot of light on the social inequality in society, Nelson said. Health care has been a challenge and its shedding light on how families come together. We have to make sure our families get by and our community has been stepping up. The coronavirus pandemic has left millions of Venezuelan migrants in a dire situation in their host countries. As work dries up, many are starting to go hungry. Some are being evicted from overcrowded rentals and on the streets. Misael Cocho had been working odd jobs in his adopted home of far-away Peru, sending a little money left over each month back to his mother and 5-year-old son in Venezuela for food and school clothes. Then coronavirus cases began to skyrocket in Peru. The 24-year-old was fired from his job, forced to sell an old TV so he could buy food, and left with nothing to send his family living in a poor Caracas neighborhood called The Cemetery. For Cocho, the decision of whether to stay in Peru or go home is one he wrestles with every day as he watches time slip by. So far, he's determined to remain in Lima. Nearly 5 million Venezuelans are scattered across Latin America in one of the world's largest migrations today, driven by Venezuela's deepening economic and humanitarian crisis. At least half make a living in the informal sector as day laborers, street performers, vendors and waiters. Roughly 15% of Venezuelans have left in the last several years. The largest number traveled by foot or in buses for neighboring Colombia, where over 1.8 million now live. Others went to Brazil, Ecuador and Peru, where they embarked on building new lives as migrants far from family. Coronavirus has brought many of those dreams to an abrupt halt. Under a strict quarantine, many migrants in Colombia's capital have been forced to either break the law and go out to make money and buy food or stay behind closed doors and go hungry. An estimated one million Venezuelans - half of the migrant population in Colombia - have no legal migratory status. Faced with such adverse conditions, at least 14,000 have decided to journey home, even if it means walking countless miles, according to Colombia's migration office. The government has provided 326 bus trips to usher migrants to border points. Provash Budden, Mercy Corps' regional director for the Americas, said it's become all too common for migrants to make this cold calculation. "It is a double whammy for them to be able to survive in one country and still try and support their families back in Venezuela," Budde said. Cocho worked as a motorcycle taxi driver in Venezuela but decided to seek better opportunities in Peru a year ago. He made the long journey by bus deciding he could be more helpful to his family abroad, despite having to say goodbye. He hopes soon to resume working once the health crisis lifts so he can again start to send money home. His last contribution before the pandemic amounted to little more than $10. His mother made it stretch, buying food and the basics for herself and his 5-year-old son, who lives in Caracas rather than with his mother, struggling to support her two other children. His mother, Mailyin Perez, 48, lives up several twisting and narrow flights of stairs to a spartan, three-room apartment painted bright pink outside. She barters small items she knits. These days face masks are in big demand, like one she tightly knitted from azure blue yarn that hugged her face. The highlight of her day is getting text messages from her son, who calls every few days so that her grandson can hear his father's voice, even if from far away. Perez tells her son not to worry about sending money. She's more worried about the coronavirus. Israel said on May 7 that a street in the city of Tel Aviv, home to several foreign embassies, is named after Indias first Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore to honour his contribution. On Tagores 159th birth anniversary, the Israeli embassy in New Delhi tweeted a picture of the street with a signboard that read Rehov Tagore. We honor #RabindranathTagore today and every day, as we named a street in Tel Aviv in memory of his valuable contribution to mankind. pic.twitter.com/ZH826Ot0aP Israel in India (@IsraelinIndia) May 7, 2020 Rabindranath Tagore Jayanti is celebrated annually in May, on the 25th day of the Bengali month of Boishakh, to mark the birthday of the legendary writer, poet, and thinker. The Nobel laureate is known for his philosophy of internationalism that left a huge impact on several leaders including Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Tagore won the Nobel in 1913 for his work titled Gitanjali that was originally written in Bengali and then translated to English. Israels tribute to Tagore shows the close cultural ties between the two nations and India has also frequently reciprocated in different ways to strengthen the bilateral relationship. In 2018, the iconic Teen Murti Chowk was renamed after the Israeli city of Haifa, in the centenary year of the Battle for Haifa as a symbol of friendship between the two nations. Read: Amitabh Bachchan Commemorates Rabindranath Tagore On His Birth Anniversary 'Humble gratitude' Indians expressed gratitude towards Israel for honouring the great poet and thinker and said that both countries will together achieve newer heights in the future. Check out some of the reactions: Humble gratitude to #Israel for honoring a great thinker, educationist & humanist #RabindranathTagore https://t.co/tsaBbJuu8z Sagnik Choudhury (@SChoudhury3) May 8, 2020 Tagore is honored And respected across the globe! Remembering Rabindranath Tagore! https://t.co/XmhQ9avOqi CA Ranjeet K Agarwal (@CaRANJEET) May 7, 2020 My heart with Israel & Rabindranath Tagore today. Heartfelt regards to @IsraelinIndia. #RabindranathTagore one of the greatest teachers mankind had ever had. #rabindrajayanti https://t.co/dmu4DHUzko Debjani Bhattacharyya (@DebjaniBhatta20) May 8, 2020 Read: Sonam Kapoor Shares Rabindranath Tagore's Poem With A Monochrome Pic Of Herself Read: Is Taimur Ali Khan Related To Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore? Heres How Im not here to say how great it is having to stay in the house all day, but we need to stay home now to have a future, Alexa Boden said. I think its really important to understand that the whole world is struggling right now, so we have a global affinity to one another, and need to stay strong. We wish people would realize that even though most people dont have both parents in the hospital like we did, they need to understand that this virus does not discriminate who it infects. (Newser) Taking a different tack than most nations, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to extend the bulk of the countrys coronavirus lockdown restrictions for three weeks or so Sunday evening. Following a week of mixed messages that started with Johnson indicating that there will be changes to the lockdown beginning Monday, the AP reports that the government has sought to douse speculation that they will amount to much. That's because the UK, which has recorded the most coronavirus-related deaths in Europe at 31,662, is still seeing a relatively high number of infections. "Extreme caution is actually the watchword on this, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said Saturday. His comments came as British police warned they are fighting a losing battle as Londoners headed out to parks, families descended on the pebble beaches of Brighton, and drivers set out on unessential journeys. story continues below "Its vital that we dont throw away essentially the great work of seven weeks of people respecting very impressively the rules ... because it happens to be sunny outside this weekend," Shapps said. "That would be absolutely tragic. The worry is that the UK lockdown, which began March 23 and has clearly reduced transmissions, will need to be extended for longer than envisioned. Johnson has voiced worries of a second spikesomething health experts have said is absolutely going to happen as nations ease their lockdowns. Theres also widespread speculation that Johnson will announce a 14-day quarantine for all travelers coming to the UK except those from Ireland. Industry group Airlines UK said it had been told by the government that the plan will be in place by the end of the month or early June. We will be asking for assurances that this decision has been led by the science and that government has a credible exit plan, the organization said. (Read more coronavirus stories.) Scores of nature lovers from two dozen states descended on the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee on Saturday as it reopened following coronavirus restrictions. But officials blasted visitors for ignoring social distancing guidelines on crowded trails, trekking into blocked-off areas, and not wearing masks. Even with some of the most popular trails closed, parking lots were packed and lines of cars snaked down tree-lined streets, in one case for about a mile leading up to a waterfall path, according to park spokeswoman Dana Soehn. 'It seemed like people were not respecting our suggestion that they avoid crowded areas,' said Soehn, adding that she counted license plates from 24 different states in one visitor center parking lot. Even with some of the most popular trails closed, parking lots were packed and lines of cars snaked down tree-lined streets, in one case for about a mile leading up to a waterfall path. Lines of cars are seen in Sevier County after the park's reopening Friday The reopening of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee this weekend drew scores of nature lovers from dozens of states who crowded trails and trekked into blocked-off areas, and many without wearing masks. A crowded parking lot at the park is shown on Friday Visitors (pictured) also walked past heavy barricades on one of the parks most trafficked trails, Laurel Falls, which was closed off to heed federal social distancing guidelines Pictured are visitors who came to the park and were not wearing masks Visitors also walked past heavy barricades on one of the parks most trafficked trails, Laurel Falls, which was closed off to heed federal social distancing guidelines, she said. The exact numbers of visitors who returned to the park were not immediately available, when DailyMail.com reached out to the parks service. On the Tennessee-North Carolina border, the Great Smoky Mountains is the county's most visited national park, with 4.67 million visitors in 2019. It was closed March 24 after officials said it was becoming too congested during the coronavirus pandemic. So far, there have been 1,348,761 confirmed cases in the US of the coronavirus, which was blamed for 79,892 deaths. The reopening was announced after park officials said they made sure the park was aligned with federal, state and local authorities and that employees had enough personal protective gear. Authorities have stressed that visitors must also practice social distancing. At the Smokies, officials have said rangers will monitor roads and emergency situations, but won't be specifically policing people. Instead, Soehn has said she hopes people will visit the park in a way that keeps staffers safe. On the Tennessee-North Carolina border, the Great Smoky Mountains is the county's most visited national park. It was closed March 24 after officials said it was becoming too congested during the coronavirus pandemic. A visitor (pictured) enters the reopened park this weekend Interior Secretary David Bernhardt (right) talks with Cassius Cash, the park superintendent, as he visits National Parks Service employees at Great Smoky Mountains National Park prior to the park's reopening 'Well continue to push out our messaging that we want them to be responsible,' Soehn said. 'We would encourage them to make choices to keep themselves safe.' President Donald Trump has prioritized reopening national parks as a sign of 'significant progress against the invisible enemy' of the pandemic, even as cases rise in an outbreak that has devastated the U.S. economy. Park officials said the first phase of restrictions will last at least two weeks. Management will then decide whether to reopen secondary roads and campgrounds, and later, lift all restrictions. Many national parks remain fully or partially closed, though Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park in Utah and the Everglades National Park in Florida have also announced phased reopenings. Federal authorities have yet to publicly announce timelines for other closed parks to reopen. NOIDA: As the Covid-19 lockdown has severely affected the micro, small and medium enterprises in Uttar Pradesh, the state government has planned to amend its MSME Act, 2006, which will give the required push to the sector, officials said on Sunday. The proposed policy will help create more employment in the sector and attract foreign investment, the officials said, adding that the new amendment is about easing the norms for entrepreneurs. Navneet Sehgal, UP secretary of MSME and export promotion department, said since this sector plays a pivotal role in the economic development of the state, the government is paying considerable attention to the growth of industries by creating necessary infrastructure to ensure sustained industrialization in the state. In order to attract foreign investment on the lines of small countries like Taiwan and Thailand, we are planning to create more competitive environment for our entrepreneurs here. To generate more employment along with ensuring rights for workers, setting up more MSME units is the need of the hour. We are planning changes in the MSME Act, under which the new units will not need to take any permission or no objection certificates at the time of their establishment. These new enterprises will get all their essential papers automatically in the last 100 days of their 1,000 days of establishment, he said. Sehgal further said that the proposed rule will put a big positive impact on the MSME sector. It will not only give MSME units the required push to recover the huge economic loss caused due to the Covid-19 lockdown, but will also ensure the growth rate of 12% per annum for the sector. It will also double the export from the state in the next five years. It is also going to benefit the one district one product (ODOP) programme, he said. The entrepreneurs associated with the sector of apparel, Gautam Budh Nagars ODOP, are very optimistic about the governments vision to bring back the industry on track. Lalit Thukral, president of Noida Apparel Export Cluster (NAEC), said that since the garment industry is the second highest employment provider after the agriculture in the state, it will create millions of jobs. With apparel as ODOP, Noida alone provides employment to approximately 20 lakh people. Majority of our workers, who are weavers and have returned home in other districts due to Covid-19 crisis, will certainly be reconnected to the textile industry to make UP a hub of weaving and textile mills. Also, by setting up industries nearer to villages, the government will boost confidence of the entrepreneurs, he said. Thukral also said that the provision of single window system in the proposed Act will ensure qualitative development of the MSME sector in the state. It is like reviving the old glory of the state, by providing jobs to each pair of hands, he said. Islamabad: Pakistan's state-run media on Sunday (May 10) started providing detailed weather update of Jammu and Kashmir, days after India started the coverage of weather of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. State-run Radio Pakistan on Sunday reported that in most parts of Jammu and Kashmir "partly cloudy weather is expected with chances of rain. It reported the maximum and minimum temperatures of Srinagar, Pulwama, Jammu and Ladakh. Radio Pakistan has special Kashmir coverage and a part of its webpage is dedicated to news from Jammu and Kashmir. The state-run Pakistan Television also gives coverage to news from Kashmir and runs special bulletin on the Valley. The coverage is expected to increase after the Indian media started showing weather of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Pakistan on Friday rejected India's move to begin broadcasting weather reports on Mirpur, Muzaffarabad and Gilgit in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), terming it as a "legally void" action to change the status of the region. Pakistan Foreign Office said in a statement that like the so-called political maps issued last year by India, this move is also legally void, contrary to reality, and in violation of the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions. India in November last released fresh maps showing PoK as part of the newly created Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, while Gilgit-Baltistan is in the Union Territory of Ladakh following the bifurcation. Political prediction market trading increases, and so does the support ecosystem Washington, D.C., May 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Washington, D.C. John Phillips, Co-Founder of PredictIt and CEO of Aristotle, sat down with The Political Trade in April to discuss the growth of prediction markets and to announce new features on PredictIts political futures exchange that will allow traders to use cryptocurrency to fund their investments. We're completing the testing of Coinbase integration and that's going to allow traders to use USD coin and that is a dollar-denominated stable coin, announced Phillips. We've wanted to do that for a while, the testing has been underway but we're testing this with and allowing some of our team and traders to test it and we expect that to be more readily available beginning next month. It should add a new dimension. The Political Trade is a new podcast launched by the award-winning Luckbox magazine and the first show to focus solely on the art and skill of trading in the political prediction markets of PredictIt from an investment perspective. Host Jeff Joseph joins elite prediction market traders and political insiders offering actionable insights on the weeks best trading opportunities. Recently, Democratic strategist James Carville joined TPT to talk 2020 odds and outlined a tiered trading strategy for the competitive Senate races. Amongst his top-tier states were North Carolina, Maine, Arizona, and Colorado, with Montana, Iowa, and Kansas following in the second tier. While hes the Chairman of the Ditch Mitch SuperPAC, Carville hesitated to fully embrace purchasing shares against McConnell at the price quoted: $0.16 to $0.18. Thats going to be tough, but thats a pretty good price, said Carville. You know I'd take it because you might be able to trade it down the line. But I'd have to have good value in it. Believe me, Im Chairman of the thing, I'm raising money to beat Mitch McConnellbut I think theres some value there for a while. Story continues Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci also offered TPT his best bets for 2020. Speaking to The Political Trade in March, Scaramucci went over a variety of markets, including his forecast for Bidens vice-presidential pick. The biggest risk to the Democrats is the progressive wing of the party defecting from Joe Biden and he's not going to take Bernie Sanders. And so the person who can pick closest to gravitating that wing dam is Elizabeth Warren, said Scaramucci. He then broke down the election state-by-state, predicting Biden will take Pennsylvania, Michigan (but would buy Republican in Michigan for the price differential) and Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, he said, If Democrats are under 60 [cents], Im a buyer. While a specialized ecosystem of websites, blogs, chat rooms and podcasts has emerged recently to cover the growing prediction market community on the PredictIt exchange, The Political Trade is a must-listen for any political forecaster, and a prominent voice in the emerging specialized community of websites, blogs, chat rooms, and market commentary that has developed around the PredictIt exchange. About PredictIt is a real-money political prediction exchange, a stock market for politics. It was established to research the way markets can forecast future political events and the impact of cognitive biases and misinformation on civic affairs. PredictIt's headquarters is in Washington, D.C. PredictIt is a research project of the Victoria University of Wellington, with support provided by Aristotle, a U.S. provider of processing and verification services. PredictIt shares its market data with more than 200 university partners, including professors from West Point, Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, Oxford, Princeton, and Duke, among others. The data offers researchers a wealth of information that helps further our understanding of fields of study as diverse as microeconomics, political psychology, computer science, and game theory. The Political Trade podcast and the award-winning print and digital Luckbox magazine (life, money & probability) are platforms of the tastytrade financial network, which engages investors and traders across 165 countries with 8 hours of daily, live, cost-free and commercial-free online programming with over 100 million hours viewed. tastytrades data-driven research-based content teaches a logical, mechanical approach to investing and identifying opportunities based on probability and volatility. tastytrade and its companies focus on empowering the individual investor through content, technology, and know-how. thepoliticaltrade.com ### Will Jennings PredictIt 501-454-1897 will.jennings@predictit.org Around 25,000 Indians have registered with the country's mission in the US for repatriation flights that will begin operating from Saturday (local time), Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu said, adding that in the first week, seven flights will take-off and a "continuous work" will be in progress to evacuate Indian nationals from here. In an exclusive interview to ANI, Sandhu said: "So, we have a total of 25,000 people who have registered in the first week, we are going to take seven flights, and this will be a continuous work in progress, depending upon how the ... A 29-year-old Texas man was arrested and accused of making online threats that included a photo of a weapon and a reference to Walmart, the FBI said Saturday. Alex R. Barron, 29, of Horizon City, Texas, was arrested Friday evening. The FBI said it received a tip on Thursday evening about a social media post with a picture of a weapon and some of the text reading '#watchoutwalmartimcoming #droplikeflys.' Barron was identified as the owner of the account, the FBI said. The FBI said that it arrested a Texas man, who lives near El Paso, after being tipped off that he made online threats involving a picture of a gun and mentioning Walmart Horizon City is located about 20miles (32 kilometers) southeast of El Paso, Texas, where a shooter opened fire at a Walmart on August 3, 2019. Twenty-three people were killed in the attack targeting Latinos, including a man who died last month from his injuries. The last hospitalized victim, Guillermo 'Memo' Garcia, 36, died on April 26, nearly nine months after he was shot during the mass shooting. He had shielded his wife and child, receiving multiple gunshot wounds during the effort. The suspect in that shooting, Patrick Crusius, 21, is awaiting trial. As part of the alleged threat, the man wrote '#watchoutwalmartimcoming #droplikeflys.' A Walmart in El Paso was the site of an August 2019 mass shooting that left 23 dead. An employee is seen crossing the crime scene following the shooting on August 3 A woman is seen praying at a makeshift memorial outside the Walmart following the shooting Suspected Walmart shooter Patrick Crusius, 21, is awaiting trial on the mass shooting charges. The last hospitalized victim from the incident died on April 26 after nine months in the hospital Barron is expected to have an initial court appearance in El Paso before a US magistrate judge on Monday. 'Anyone who makes a social media post threatening be a potential active shooter should expect to be identified and prosecuted,' said Special Agent in Charge Luis M. Quesada. Barron was being held in El Paso County jail on Saturday. Online jail records indicate that the FBI was the arresting agency and his charge involved firearm possession. Jail records did not list an attorney for him. Kean-to-Roma links persist | Sunday, 10 May 2020 According to Nicolo Schira, "super agent" Mino Raiola is brokering talks between Roma and Everton about a transfer that would see Kean return to Italy where he hopes he will be more visible and can bolster his hopes of being a prominent part of his country's Under-21s European Champiionships campaign next year. Schira had reported last month that Roma were looking at the possibility of taking Kean on loan for a season but it could be that Raiola is going for a permanent deal. Kean joined Everton in a 24m deal last summer amid much fanfare given his reputation as one of Europe's most promising young strikers but he found the going tough in the Premier League, particularly during a time of much upheaval at Goodison Park. With his compatriot, Carlo Ancelotti, now at the helm, the hope is that the 20-year-old has the guidance and mentorship to see him thrive at Everton but he made headlines for the wrong reasons recently when he was fined two weeks' wages by the club for hosting a party in violation of the coronavirus lockdown orders. Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer About these ads ToffeeWeb TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Iran says it is ready for unconditional prisoner swap talks with the United States because of fears that the coronavirus could put the lives of the prisoners at risk, Iranian media reported Sunday. An Iranian news website, Khabaronline.ir, quoted Cabinet spokesman Ali Rabiei as saying there is a readiness for all prisoners to be discussed without condition. But the U.S. has refused to answer, so far, said Rabiei. We hope that as the outbreak of the COVID-19 disease threatens the lives of Iranian citizens in the U.S. prisons, the U.S. government eventually will prefer lives to politics. A senior U.S. official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said, There has been no offer and no offer of direct talks. Rabiei said Iran considers the U.S. government responsible for the health of the Iranian prisoners, adding that it seems that the U.S. has more readiness to bring the situation to an end. Rabiei did not elaborate, but Iranian media in recent months said there are several Iranians in U.S. custody, including Sirous Asgari, a 60-year-old university professor. Last week, U.S. officials said they were making progress in efforts to secure the release of a detained Navy veteran in Iran. But they were also pushing back on Iranian suggestions that a swap was in the works for the imprisoned Iranian professor. U.S. officials have been trying to deport Asgari since last year. Ken Cuccinelli, the acting deputy Homeland Security secretary, said Wednesday that the cases of American detainee Michael White in Iran and Asgari have never been connected. He expressed frustration with recent comments from Iranian officials that there may be a link between the two and complained that Iran had been slow to accept Asgaris return. White, of Imperial Beach, California, was detained in July 2018 while visiting a girlfriend in Iran. He was convicted of insulting Irans supreme leader and posting private information online. Story continues He was released from prison in March on a medical furlough that required him to remain in the country. White is among tens of thousands of prisoners granted medical furloughs by Iran, which was one of the first countries to be hit hard by the spreading coronavirus. Trump administration officials have repeatedly said they consider the release of American hostages and detainees to be a high priority. In December, Iran released a Princeton University scholar held for three years on widely disputed espionage charges in exchange for the release of a detained Iranian scientist. In March, the family of former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran 13 years ago, said they had been informed by U.S. officials that they had determined that Levinson was probably dead. Officials have not said how they reached that conclusion. ___ Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report. By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said Malayalis stranded at border check-posts should ensure that they have two passes first one from the state from where they come (origin point) and the second one issued by Kerala government. He warned that those without passes would be sent back. With thousands stranded in other states, there is a general feeling among the Opposition that the state government has been lax in evacuating them. The Opposition leaders have been highly critical of the LDF governments attitude, alleging that there has been confusion in issuing the pass. However, this allegation has since been resolved. The KPCC has also decided to bear the cost of the rail service from Mumbai and Bengaluru. The chief minister sought the support of the stranded people at the border to avoid chaos. Oppositions criticism Over the last few days, the Opposition has intensified its attack against the LDF Government citing its failure in bringing back stranded Malayalis from across the country. KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran said that Karnataka and Maharashtra PCCs have offered to meet the expenses of one train each. Mullappally has sought Kerala Governments intervention to initiate official procedures to get clearance for trains to run from Bengaluru and Mumbai. Kindly let me know the cost involved so that I can ask Karnataka and Maharashtra PCCs to do the needful urgently. KSRTC should do the needful to bring in stranded people from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, said Mullappally in a letter addressed to the CM. Chennithala has also shot off a letter to Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal demanding that special trains should be operated from New Delhi. Residents of a house in Powai area here could not believe their eyes after a spotted deer crashed through the cement sheet roof into their house. Forest officials said on Sunday the deer, possibly chased by a leopard, may have crashed into the house in the Hanuman Tekdi area in the process. Forest officials got a call at 1.30 am on Sunday that a deer had crashed through the roof and landed inside a house in the Powai slum. The house is among the many similar ones located on a small hillock. The deer fell on the roof, crashed the roof and fell inside. A viral video shows the bewildered deer sitting next to an LPG stove, a steel cupboard and an empty bed, while the blue light from a TV, apparently left switched on by the residents before going to sleep, flickers. A member of an NGO working on rescuing urban wildlife said many in the locality was shocked and was woken up by the sudden loud noise the deer crashed through the roof. Range Forest Officer Santosh Kank said the deer fell through the cement sheet roof after another animal chased him. "We rescued the deer after being informed by locals," he said. The deer was taken to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park where it is being treated, he said. Nobody was injured, he said, adding that four to five people were sleeping in the house when the deer came crashing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Anu Kuruvilla By Express News Service On March 10, E-Unnathi founder-member Bindu Sathyajith received a video of 680 students stuck at airports in Milan and Rome. She immediately forwarded it to the Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan, besides other E-Unnathi members. Thus started their evacuation efforts. "We helped the Consulate General of Indias office, Indian Embassy in Rome and Ministries of External Affairs, Health and Family Welfare and Civil Aviation, Government of India, evacuate 218 Indian citizens from Milan and 263 from FCO Rome in two Air India flights," she says. The group made a chart about the origin and final destination of all the people who were going to arrive at different airports. "Once all the people, who had managed to board planes, landed and had been quarantined, our next task was to send a medical team to Italy where more students were stranded. We managed to get all the batches out by March 22," she says, adding, "Our mission doesnt stop here. We are still working to bring the remaining students and their families stranded in Italy, UK, Haiti, Malta and Genoa." A networking platform for women, Kochi-based E-Unnathi started its journey in 2017. Spearheaded by a small group of successful female entrepreneurs, it has metamorphosed into a helping hand for those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides helping with evacuation efforts, one of the many initiatives undertaken by E-Unnathi is Sahaayi, which extends aid to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). With lockdown, MSME businesses have been affected the most. Bindu says, COVID-19 has had a huge effect on the corporate world due to the sudden lockdown. We have connected the MSMEs, small scale industries, industrialists, employers and employees (those who have lost their jobs as an aftermath of COVID-19) towards a common cause." For the same, E-Unnathi has charted out an elaborate implementation plan. The group has created a database of each vertical on their portal with the information acquired during registration and this will be used to connect with the other businesses. "Once registration is done and the issues faced by a particular industry is assessed, our panel will help the entrepreneur to overcome it through various means," says Bindu. The data being shared on the portal is completely safe, she assures. With the consortium of people in place, we can even request the government to make exceptions in GST or give them emergency funds. If a bigger company wants to use their CSR funds to uplift common interest groups that can also happen through this project, she says. The homes of Chelsea boss Frank Lampard and late Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha have been raided by thieves for the fourth time. Lampard who has a 12million home in Chelsea has been targeted by burglars, report The Sun. Around 60,000 of jewellery and watches belonging to the Blues legend and wife Christine were allegedly taken. More than 1million of valuables from Vichais home were reportedly taken, leaving his Thai family who still own Leicester devastated. His home in Knightsbridge, West London had remained untouched following his passing in a tragic helicopter crash in October 2018. Detectives are studying CCTV footage of both heists, with a source telling The Sun they could have been carried out by the same group of thieves. The family of Vichai are understandably very upset. His house was totally ransacked and a lot of precious and sentimental items were taken. The thieves have effectively desecrated his spirit. None of the items stolen during either of the burglaries have been recovered. Police are apparently working on the assumption that Vichais house and the Lampards were both deliberately targeted. Lampards home was previously targeted in 2018 and the details of neither that or the most recent burglary in December have been made public by police. It follows incidents in 2005 and 2008 at his previous home where cars including an Aston Martin and a Mercedes were taken. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates The number of deaths caused by the coronavirus in New Jersey topped 9,000 for the first time, state officials announced Saturday afternoon. The outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, continued its destruction in New Jersey as state officials announced on Friday a death toll of 9,116 along with 137,085 total cases. At his daily briefing, Gov. Phil Murphy announced 166 new deaths and 1,759 new confirmed cases. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage We are not out of the woods folks, Murphy said Saturday. Saturdays figures also came with an announcement from Murphy that the state is partnering with the American Red Cross to open up two sites in North Jersey where residents can donate plasma. Plasma from patients who have healed from COVID-19 can be used as a way to treat those who are still sick. The state is still working to ramp up its efforts to expand testing in the state. Is the above map not displaying? Click here. Murphy in recent days has been touting the general decline in new cases, deaths and the number of people hospitalized. Social distancing is working, he said Saturday. Despite a slight uptick Saturday, the number of people being treated at New Jerseys hospitals has been generally declining in recent days and weeks. As of Friday night, 4,628 people were hospitalized, with all hospitals reporting data. That figure was 4,605 as of Thursday night. Still, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients represents a 44% drop since the peak of hospitalizations on April 14 (8,270). Data from hospitals continues to move in the right direction, which is down, Murphy said during his Friday press briefing. Only we have the power to push these numbers down further. Is the above map not displaying? Click here. More than 273,000 N.J. residents have been tested for the coronavirus with a 38.7% positive rate, nearly a percent lower than it was two days ago. Is the above chart not displaying? Click here. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. J. Dale Shoemaker is a reporter on the data & investigations team. He can be reached at jshoemaker@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JDale_Shoemaker. Washington The coronavirus crisis and the administration's halting response to it have cost President Donald Trump support from one of his most crucial constituencies: America's seniors. For years, Republicans and Trump have relied on older Americans, the country's largest voting bloc, to offset a huge advantage Democrats enjoy with younger voters. In critical states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Florida, all of which have large older populations, Trump's advantage with older voters has been essential to his political success. In 2016, he won voters older than 65 by seven percentage points, according to national exit poll data. But seniors are also the most vulnerable to the global pandemic, and the campaign's internal polls, people familiar with the numbers said, show Trump's support among voters older than 65 softening to a concerning degree, as he pushes to reopen the country's economy at the expense of stopping a virus that puts them at the greatest risk. A recent Morning Consult poll found that Trump's approval rating on the handling of the coronavirus was lower with seniors than with any other group other than young voters. And former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in recent polls held a 10-point advantage over Trump among voters who are 65 and older. A poll commissioned by the campaign showed a similar double-digit gap. The falloff in support comes as Trump has grown increasingly anxious about his re-election prospects, with a series of national surveys, as well as internal polling, showing him trailing in key states. The president has all but moved on from a focus on controlling the pandemic and is now pushing his agenda to restore the country, and the economy, to a place that will lift his campaign. "Trump has suffered a double whammy with seniors from the coronavirus crisis, both in terms of a dislike for his personal demeanor and disapproval of his policy priorities," said Geoff Garin, a Democratic strategist. "If there's a durable change with older voters, it could well cost Trump the election." The demographic shift is fairly new, and officials said they attributed it at least in part to Trump's coronavirus briefings, at which he often dispensed conflicting, misleading and sometimes dangerous information that caused alarm among a vulnerable population. At the same point in the race four years ago, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, trailed Trump by five points with the same group. Among the aides who have warned the president of a softening with older voters is Kellyanne Conway, his 2016 campaign manager and a senior adviser, people familiar with the discussions said. White House officials aware of the problem have started to stage events and initiatives designed to highlight work the administration has done that will appeal to seniors. Standing in the ornate East Room at the White House earlier this month, for instance, Trump surrounded himself with health officials as he signed a proclamation declaring May to be "Older Americans Month." "The virus poses the greatest risk to older Americans," Trump said, while crediting his administration for protecting seniors by halting unnecessary visits to nursing homes nationwide and expanding access to telehealth for Medicare beneficiaries. In recent weeks, aides have also discussed investigations into nursing homes where there have been large numbers of coronavirus-related deaths, and Vice President Mike Pence has taken cameras along as he personally delivered protective equipment to a nursing home. But the administration has also hampered some of its own efforts to appeal to older voters. Trump recently rejected an expanded enrollment period for the newly uninsured, for instance. Conway declined to discuss her conversations with Trump about seniors, but she noted that he had promised not to touch safety-net programs that affect them. "In five years since he announced his candidacy, President Trump has been unwavering in his commitment to not touch Social Security," Conway said. Trump, however, at various times has said he would be open to cutting safety-net programs, only to have aides walk back those comments after the fact. "At the right time, we will take a look at that," Trump said in January of cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security a stance that Biden campaign officials said they planned to highlight in the coming months. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. The Biden team also noted that a second Morning Consult poll released last week showed that 46 percent of voters said they trusted Biden to protect Medicare and Social Security, compared with 41 percent for Trump. Trump campaign officials downplayed any long-term electoral concerns. Older voters, they said, have long bristled at Trump's acerbic personal demeanor, which was on display for hours every day during briefings that the president believed were beneficial to him, but that aides and Republican allies eventually persuaded him to phase out. In the past, however, support from older voters would return when they were reminded of Trump's hard-line stance on immigration and his vow to protect Social Security and other safety-net programs, policy positions they often agreed with, officials said. Their hope, they said, is that support from older voters will return now that Trump has phased out his self-congratulatory version of a fireside chat, where he excoriated reporters and Democrats and at one point suggested that disinfectants could potentially be used to treat coronavirus patients. In Biden, however, Trump is also competing against a candidate whom many older voters view as an appealing alternative to Trump in a way that they never viewed Clinton in 2016, strategists in both parties said. Biden's campaign officials credit his appeal with older voters to their view of him as a moderate, politically, and as a compassionate person who has suffered his own string of personal tragedies. Biden officials said that positive sense among seniors is combined with a real fear that there will be a second wave of COVID-19 outbreak and that the coronavirus pandemic threatened their lives. Keeping Biden and Trump polling even among older voters in other words, simply cutting into Trump's margin could potentially be enough to make a critical difference in what is expected to be a tight race, Biden officials said. "It's up to the Trump campaign whether this is a temporary trend line with these voters, or not," said Kevin Madden, who was an adviser to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. "They have to go out there and restore confidence with these voters." Brad Parscale, Trump's campaign manager, dismissed any problem with older voters as a "false narrative being pushed by the left." After weeks of efforts to evacuate their students, authorities of Mahindra United World College of India in Paud near Pune, are still taking care of five students on campus who have not managed to head back home because their countries are currently conflict zones. Even before the government of India implemented a nationwide lockdown owing to rising Covid-19 cases, this residential junior college near Pune was chalking out a plan to stop daily classes and find a way to send their 240 high school students, who come from 80 countries around the world, back home. These are students from conflict zones or countries with very severe lockdown, so theres no way home at present, said a spokesperson for the institute. While many teachers from the institute too had to be evacuated from the country, a handful decided to stay back on campus. We cant let them stay alone. So, while they are on campus, we are ensuring they are kept busy with school work and several online courses, said Aparna Ramchandran, teacher and head of student life at the institute. Till Saturday, six students were staying on campus for more than a month. The sixth student is from the Maldives, and the embassy finally arranged a flight to evacuate its citizens. He travelled by road to Delhi, and the flight leaves Delhi on Monday morning, added Ramchandran. What started as an evacuation plan on paper in case of an emergency, turned into a two-week-long project for students, parents, as well as the authorities of the institute, as they ensured the students made it back to their respective countries before travel restrictions were put in place. It all started in January when some kids from our campus had to cancel their trips back home to China due to the virus. Within a couple of weeks, we realised the virus was not affecting just China but many other countries around the world, and we immediately started to chalk out a plan, said Ramchandran. Within a week of the school announcing its evacuation plan, the first year (Class 11) batch was on their way home. Most of these students had already booked their return tickets for May [end of the school year] so we worked with respective airlines to ensure the dates were changed and at the same time, students parents were working on ensuring that their kids would be allowed to enter their country despite the lockdown, said the spokesperson. She added that within the next week, second-year students were taking flights back home. While the board of International Baccalaureate (IB) decided to scrap exams for this academic year, the institute has managed to conduct all classes online, despite its students being different parts of the world. We took a while to find a common and convenient time in the day and finally managed to conduct classes daily from 5.30pm to 8.30pm IST. We also managed to put together a last-minute graduation ceremony for our second-year students before they left the campus, said Ramchandran, adding that the institute is still looking for ways to send the five remaining students back home. Most residential schools in Mumbai focused on sending outstation students back home even before the lockdown was first implemented. We completed all examinations and the last batch of outstation students were sent off on March 21, a day before the Janta Curfew, said Uday Nare, a teacher at Hansraj Morarji School in Andheri (West). Most of the students came from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and different parts of Maharashtra. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shreya Bhandary Shreya Bhandary is a Special Correspondent covering higher education for Hindustan Times, Mumbai. Her work revolves around finding loopholes in the current education system and highlighting the good and the bad in higher education institutes in and around Mumbai. ...view detail The Daily Mails pledge to give away 3million of free advertising to struggling firms has been hailed by the Governments small business minister. The Mail and its sister newspapers are offering 1,000 small companies advertising space worth 3,000 in Britains favourite and most widely read newspapers. It comes as the virus lockdown threatens to kill off thousands of the countrys businesses, with many now surviving on emergency Government loans and millions of employees left fearing for their jobs. It comes as the virus lockdown threatens to kill off thousands of the countrys businesses, with many now surviving on emergency Government loans and millions of employees left fearing for their jobs [File photo] Small business minister Paul Scully last night welcomed the move by the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), which this week launched the scheme to give small businesses a helping hand in the crisis. He said: Small business owners across the country are facing challenges on a scale not seen before in most of our lifetimes, which is why the Government has put together a far-reaching package of financial support. We all have a crucial role to play in helping businesses through this difficult time to get the economy back on its feet, which is why its brilliant to see initiatives like this from the Mail Group that will make a real difference. Staff are pictured above at Lawnfield Residential Home in Brondesbury Park, North London with face masks delivered to them by the Mail's new charity, Mail Force The initiative, in partnership with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), comes hot on the heels of the creation of Mail Force a new charity created by the Daily Mail and its partners which has so far raised more than 6.5million to fly in vital protective equipment for NHS and care workers. Mike Cherry, national chairman of the FSB, said: This is a fantastic scheme and were delighted to see the Mail getting behind the UKs 5.8million small businesses in the wake of the pandemic. He added: Its going to be a challenge for businesses to attract new customers when the lockdown is eased and they have a tough road ahead of them. They will need to think outside the box when it comes to marketing their business and products slightly differently, but many will struggle to find the funds to do this.Thats why were grateful the Mail is doing its bit to offer support during these challenging, unprecedented times. Small business minister Paul Scully last night welcomed the move by the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), which this week launched the scheme to give small businesses a helping hand in the crisis The scheme is open to businesses that have been established for more than six months, employ fewer than 150 employees, and have a turnover of less than 6million a year. It comes after research published in the Mail on Sunday yesterday revealed one in three small businesses fear sales will be slashed by at least 50 per cent even after the lockdown is lifted. Applications can be made via the FSB from Wednesday May 13. Applicants will have to explain how the fund would help their business. Winners will be awarded 3,000 of advertising credit to use in the newspaper groups print and online titles including the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, MailOnline, The i newspaper and Metro. Our staff will also even help you design an advert if you do not have one. The first advertisements will start to appear from Wednesday, May 20. To apply, visit grants.fsb.org.uk A fire broke out at a cardboard factory in Delhis Bawana industrial area on Sunday morning. At least 14 fire tenders have been rushed to the spot to douse the fire. Director of Delhi Fire Services, Atul Garg, said no casualties have been reported so far. The cause of the fire is being ascertained. No one was reported to be trapped or injured in the incident, officials said. A call about the blaze was received around 7.55 am, following which fire tenders were rushed to the spot. The fire fighting operations are currently underway. Bawana is among Delhis 29 notified industrial areas. Others include Naraina, Kirti Nagar, Okhla, Narela, among others. This comes just a couple of days after a fire broke out in a garment godown near Daryaganj in the wee hours of Thursday. The fire broke out at around 3 am. Seven fire tenders were rushed to spot to put out the fire. The blaze was brought under control within one and a half hours, news agency ANI reported. Seven fire tenders reached here. No casualties or injuries have been reported, Fire officer Satyendra Pal told ANI. On Wednesday, there were reports of a massive fire at a gowdown located at Delhis Tikri border area. Over 30 fire tenders were rushed to the spot. No casualties or injuries were reported from the incident. Vanessa Hudgens has served plenty of sizzling looks in photo shoots and at star-studded events. And the former Disney star won't let quarantine stop her from having a glam moment from home. She put on a busty display Saturday as she channeled Jessica Rabbit in a plunging red dress for some sizzling isolation dress-up, for which she did her own hair and makeup. She served duckface in a Boomerang, as she wrote: 'Having a Jessica rabbit moment cause why not.' Jessica Rabbit vibes: Vanessa Hudgens put on a busty display Saturday as she channeled Jessica Rabbit in a plunging red dress for some sizzling isolation dress-up The 31-year-old showed off her old Hollywood waves and red pout, writing: 'Did my hair n makeup today. Who dis.' Hudgens then cut a '60s look, sporting a sleeveless white turtleneck, a black headband and gold jewelry. She posted the ensemble to her story, writing: 'Then moved to a Brigitte Bardot vibe lol.' Glam team: The 31-year-old showed off her old Hollywood waves and red pout, writing: 'Did my hair n makeup today. Who dis' Dress-up time: She served duckface in a Boomerang, as she wrote: 'Having a Jessica rabbit moment cause why not' The Spring Breakers actress posted another selfie, captioned: 'Happy Saturdayyyy. Did myself up today with no place to go lol.' She sported the stunning look as she binged her favorite show Outlander with her mom Gina. Hudgens sang along to the theme song on her story, writing: 'Mama g and I sing the whole theme song to outlander. We're that obsessed lol.' Retro chic: Hudgens then cut a '60s look, sporting a sleeveless white turtleneck, a black headband and gold jewelry Bardot beauty: She posted the ensemble to her story, writing: 'Then moved to a Brigitte Bardot vibe lol' Binge watch: She sported the stunning look as she binged her favorite show Outlander with her mom Gina She previously posted a selfie, including her taut midriff in some colorful activewear as she did her daily workout. The High School Musical star took to her story the day before as she rocked some tie-dye sweats. Hudgens wrapped her leg around a column in the silly photo, writing: 'Not sure what's happening here lol.' Serving body: She previously posted a selfie, including her taut midriff in some colorful activewear as she did her daily workout A violent clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers broke out at a strategic mountain pass in the Himalayas on Saturday. According to the Press Trust of India, 150 soldiers were involved in the face-off which took place near the 15,000 feet Nathu La crossing which connects India's Sikkim state with Tibet. Several troops were injured with soldiers from both sides throwing both fists and stones at one another. 150 soldiers from China (left) and India (right) were seen fighting against each other in the strategic mountain pass of Nathu La (pictured) on Saturday Violent clashes between the two countries have occurred regularly on the border, which is situated near Bhutan, Tibet and India, since the Arunachal Pradesh war in 1962 Indian Army Eastern Command spokesman Mandeep Hooda told AFP: 'Aggressive behaviour by the two sides resulted in minor injuries to troops. It was stone-throwing and arguments that ended in a fistfight. 'Temporary and short duration face-offs between border-guarding troops do occur as boundaries are not resolved.' This is not the first time India and China have been forced into a tense stand-off in the Himalayas, as the boundaries on the demarcation lines, including the Line of Actual Control in the Jammu and Kashmir state, have not be clearly outlined since the 1962 war in India's Arunachal Pradesh state. Indian soldiers (left) have been forced into mobilisation in this area in recent years to stop Chinese troops making incursions on the demarcation lines In 2017, Chinese troops (pictured) made several attempts to build roads on the Line of Actual Control with India seeing this as a threat to their security In 2017, Indian troops mobilised in the Doklam region near Bhutan after Chinese soldiers threatened to build a road there, which India's external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj described as a threat to India's security. Later that year, soldiers of the two countries were seen fighting against each other near the Ladakh region in north west India, after 8,000 Indian troops were sent to counter-act Chinese officers carrying out incursions on the Line of Actual Control. Relations were believed to have eased following two meetings between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in recent year. Relations between the two countries were thought to have calmed down following regular meetings between President Xi Jinping (left) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) The pair met in the Chinese city of Wuhan in 2018 while they also had talks in Chennai, southern India last October. However, the most recent conflict, which had to be stopped after 'dialogue and interaction' according to Mr Hooda, suggest otherwise. Nigeria last week recorded a 74 per cent increase in the number of coronavirus infected persons compared to the previous nine weeks, a PREMIUM TIMES review of official data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) showed. The country recorded 1763 new cases last week, about 74 per cent of the total 2,388 cases recorded in the previous nine weeks. Also, Nigeria last week recorded a 50 per cent increase in deaths from COVID-19. The data showed that while Nigeria recorded 85 deaths from the disease in its previous nine weeks since it experienced its index coronavirus case in February, the country recorded 43 deaths last week. On a positive note, however, Nigeria witnessed a 93 per cent increase in the number of people who recovered from the virus after treatment. A total of 360 people recovered and were discharged in the past week compared to 385 reported in the previous nine weeks since Nigeria recorded its index coronavirus case in February. Last week also saw Nigeria record, twice, its highest daily figure of coronavirus infections. Before last week, the previous highest daily figure was 220. However, the country recorded 381 and 386 cases on Thursday and Friday respectively. Lagos State remains the epicentre of the pandemic in Nigeria with 696 new cases reported between Sunday and Saturday. Lagos, alongside Ogun and Abuja, are the three states where the federal government, last Monday, relaxed a five weeks lockdown. The government instead imposed a dusk to dawn curfew (8 p.m. to 6 a.m.) across the country as well as other safety policies including a ban on interstate travels. However, since the lockdown in Lagos was relaxed, the state has witnessed violations of the public safety guidelines. Frustrated by the development, the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, announced Saturday that he was considering imposing a fresh lockdown on the state. We will be forced to take a painful decision of bringing the entire system under lockdown if we continue to see evidence that Lagosians are determined to flout the rules, he said. Nigerias COVID-19 Cases As of Sunday morning, Nigeria has a total of 4151 confirmed coronavirus cases, out of which 745 have recovered and 128 lives have been lost to the pandemic. READ ALSO: According to the breakdown, Lagos State has so far reported 1,764 cases, followed by Kano 576, FCT 343, Bauchi 161, Borno 159, Katsina 156, Ogun 115, Gombe 110, Kaduna 98, Sokoto 96, Jigawa 83, Edo 67, Zamfara 65.Oyo 64, Osun 38, Kwara 30, Nasarawa 25, Rivers 21, Kebbi 18, Delta 17, Plateau 17, Adamawa 17, Akwa Ibom 17, Taraba 15, Ondo 15, Yobe 13, Ekiti 13, Enugu 10,Ebonyi 7, Niger 6, Bayelsa 5, Benue 2, Imo 3, Abia 2, and Anambra 1. Last week, however, witnessed the highest number of infections compared to the previous weeks. Last Weeks Timeline On Sunday, 170 new cases of the pandemic were recorded. As of 11:55 p.m. on May 3, therefore, 2558 confirmed cases of COVID-19 had been recorded with 400 patients discharged and 87 deaths recorded. On Monday, 245 new cases of COVID-19 were reported. As of 11:55 p.m. on May 4, a total of 2802 confirmed cases of the pandemic have been recorded with 417 patients discharged and 93 deaths recorded. On Tuesday, 148 new cases of COVID-19 were reported. A total of 2,950 confirmed cases of the virus were, therefore, recorded as of 11:55 p.m. on May 5. Of these, 481 people had recovered and had been discharged, while the infection had killed 98 persons. On Wednesday, 195 new cases were reported. Advertisements Nigeria as of 11:55 p.m. on May 6 had a total of 3,145 confirmed cases, 534 discharged while 103 people had died from the virus. On Thursday, 381 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded. A total of 3,526 cases of the pandemic had been recorded in Nigeria as of 11:55 p.m. on May 7. These include 601 recoveries and 107 deaths. On Friday, 386 new cases of the virus were reported. The countrys total cases increased to 3,912 including 679 discharged and 117 deaths. On Saturday, 239 new cases of the pandemic were reported. Therefore, a total of 4,151 cases including 745 discharged and 128 deaths have been recorded so far. Last states standing In the last two weeks, no new state has recorded a COVID-19 case. Of all the thirty-six states and the FCT, only Cross River and Kogi states are yet to record at least a case of the infection. Nonetheless, the zero-case record of the two states has generated controversies amongst experts and stakeholders, many of whom believe that the lack of appropriate testing is the cause. PREMIUM TIMES reported how the two states are discouraging tests for people with symptoms of COVID-19. On Thursday, a delegation comprising officials of NCDC and the Department of Hospital Services of the Federal Ministry of Health had to flee Kogi State for fear of being quarantined by the state government. The actions of the state governor, Yahaya Bello, to the pandemic have been criticised by many Nigerians who accuse Mr Bello of playing politics with the health of Kogi residents. The federal government also noted that its effort to support Kogi State in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic has failed as the team sent to the state returned to Abuja without accomplishing its mission. The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, however, said new efforts will be made to engage Kogi authorities for a resolution of differences. (Newser) The self-employed salesman in Brussels needed to rethink the way he did business during the coronavirus pandemic. Uncertain supply chains, stricter oversight, and customers with financial worries of their own are some of the problems solo entrepreneurs like him encountered as Europe hunkered down. There's not much a small-time drug dealer can do except seek a new line of workor adjust. Jerry, who uses the alias to protect his identity, has sold cocaine, marijuana, and MDMAknown as ecstasy or Molly on the streetsince moving from Albania in 2016, the AP reports. Even more than the closure of bars and other venues where people like to score and use what Jerry sells, his decision to close up shop at 9pm reflected another change in his work environment: officers checking largely deserted city streets to make sure the public complied with stay-home orders, he said. story continues below "The lockdown is the most annoying thing, Jerry said. Its stressful. Because of the police patrols, you can't deal drugs at night anymore. It's too dangerous. You can get spotted too easily." Across the border in France, law enforcement agencies noticed the trade visibly changing after the lockdown on March 17. Vehicles that speed through the country delivering caches of imported drugs no longer moved on usual routes, and mules who transport cocaine from French Guiana had completely faded from sight. At a public housing project in the Venissieux area near Lyon, the chair that marijuana runners used to greet customers and take orders is empty. Instead, prices are handwritten on the walls of an apartment building like a chalkboard listing a restaurant's daily specials. The young sellers complete transactions in building lobbies or staircases now instead of out in the open. (Read more coronavirus stories.) Two more people, including an octogenarian woman, have tested positive for coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar, taking the number of cases in the district to 218, officials said on Sunday. So far, two people have succumbed to the infection in the district. The new patients are a 40-year-old man and an 80-year-old woman, both from Noida's Sector 22, District Surveillance Officer Sunil Dohare said in a statement. "Total 33 reports have been received in the past 24 hours, of which two tested positive for the virus," Dohare said. The surveillance officer said the total positive cases in the district were 218 now while the numbers shown by the state government were higher due to a duplication of entry and wrongful ID generation. There was a discrepancy in some coronavirus-related data about Gautam Buddh Nagar on Saturday, with the figures given by the district officials here and the state officials in Lucknow not matching. On a brighter note, 14 more patients were discharged from a hospital after treatment on Sunday. Dohare said the 14 patients--six women and eight men--were discharged from Sharda Hospital. With this, the number of people cured of the disease in the district has reached 135, the officials said. The number of active cases has now come down to 81, they added. The recovery rate of patients is 61.92 per cent, as per official statistics of the district administration. According to officials, so far 4,034 samples have been collected for COVID-19 test in Gautam Buddh Nagar, while 452 people are currently under institutional quarantine. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Zurich Insurance made two executive appointments. Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance said it has expanded its Global Property Underwriting Officer team. *** Zurich Insurance Group made two new executive appointments: Ralph Brand as global head of Casualty, Financial Lines and Cyber, and Chris Waterman as global head of Property, Marine and Technical Lines. Both Brand and Waterman are highly experienced insurance executives with more than 30 years of experience in regional and local roles, Zurich said. With these newly created roles, Zurich further simplifies its Underwriting function by aligning the shorter-tail first party coverages and the longer-tail third party liability coverages. Brand joined Zurich in March 2012 as CEO of Zurich Germany. He left in 2016 to start his own business and rejoined Zurich in 2019 as global head of Casualty. Previously, he held various leadership roles at AIG and Allianz across Europe and in the United States. Brand is based in Zurich. Waterman joined Zurich in July 2016 in Singapore, where he most recently was Head of Commercial Lines Underwriting APAC. Before joining the company, he held various leadership roles at AIG, including head of Property & Energy in Japan. Waterman will relocate from Singapore to Zurich. Accident & Health and Credit and Surety will continue to be led by Drazen Jaksic and Piergiorgio DIgnazio, respectively. *** Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance said it has expanded its Global Property Underwriting Officer team. Alessandro Cerase has joined and will focus on General Property, Energy and Construction. At the same time, he will continue as Senior Executive Officer for BHSIs Middle East region. Cerase joined BHSI as SEO for the Middle East in 2018. A chemical engineer by background, he has more than 20 years of experience with energy and technical risks. As he assumes his additional responsibilities, Cerase will remain based in Dubai. Sources: Zurich and BHSI Ruling BJP MLA in Tripura and former state health minister Sudip Roy Barman has demanded blacklisting of companies that had allegedly supplied "substandard" PPE kits and hand sanitiser to the state government. Roy Burman, in a letter to Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Saturday, said, "Out of different categories of PPE kits totaling 9,000 as received by the State, only 914 PPE kits supplied by HIL were found to be appropriate & the rest were found to be permeable to liquid & such permeability is hazardous in COVID-19 treatment intervention." "The procured 'goggles' were found to be unable to provide the much-needed protective seal essential for the protection of the eyes. The 500 ml bottles of hand sanitiser 'Ventiz Clear All' were found to contain only 57.68% alcohol, much less than the required percentage," Roy Burman said. He said the frontline workers are bound to be vulnerable to COVID-19 if they use the kits and requested Deb to "blacklist those companies/traders who have provided such substandard materials". The legislator further alleged that he also found that "the process and disbursement of the allocation of funds for the persons stranded in other states" is in a mess. "...there are a large number of stranded persons in actual who have not received single farthing assistance to date despite fulfilling all formalities. It is a matter of concern that it is not clear as to what mechanism has been adopted by the State Government to ascertain the genuineness of the claims made & reimbursement made to that effect. "My observation in this aspect is that some vested persons are trying to tarnish the image of the Government & intentionally malign your noble & constructive efforts. May I, therefore, request you to refer this matter to Lokayukta, Tripura in reaching out to the root of the corrupt practice," the letter stated. Roy Barman, in the letter, also alleged that he had tried to speak to the chief minister and the chief secretary over the phone but did not get any response from either of them. "I firmly believe you will give serious thought to all the issues being raised and issue directives to your chief secretary and other officials to respond to the call made by state legislators," he said. Roy Burman, a former Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee president, joined the BJP before the 2018 Assembly elections in the state and was sworn-in as the health minister in the BJP-IPFT government. He was, however, removed from the post just after the Lok Sabha elections last year on the charge of "anti-party activity". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress party and its youth affiliates have called for a slew of protests over the next two days against the apathy shown towards workers in traditional sectors and stranded Malayalis. While the KPCCs protest is scheduled for Tuesday, the Youth Congress district leadership and the KSU state leadership are slated to protest on Monday. The KPCC has called for a sit-in protest against the treatment being meted out to farmers, fisherfolk and other traditional workers during these tough times. KPCC president Mullapally Ramachandran said Congress Mandalam Committees will stage sit-ins in front of village offices at 10 am on Tuesday. Mullappally, Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala, former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and AICC organising general secretary KC Venugopal will protest at Kowdiar, Peroorkada, Thirumala and Thycaud village offices respectively. CLICK HERE FOR COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES The remaining KPCC and DCC office-bearers will join the protest across the state. Though farmers and fisherfolk were exempted from the lockdown, their work was affected seriously, the KPCC president said. He said the moratorium announced by the state government has not helped workers from traditional industries. Rather than the moratorium, farmers are keen to have interest-free loans for a year. he said. The KSU, the student wing of the Congress, will hold Nilppu Samaram (standing protest) across 1,000 state and central government offices taking up the cause of the Malayalis stranded abroad and within the country. KSU president K M Abhijith said the one-hour protest from 11 am to 12 pm on Monday will urge the state bring back stranded Malayalis providing free train tickets. He said it is high time the government made KSRTC buses operational for those stranded. A man and his four-year-old daughter were killed and two others of the family injured in an accident on the Agra-Lucknow expressway on Sunday, police said. Police said the motorcycle on which they were travelling was hit by an unknown vehicle. "Shiv Prakash (30), along with his wife Reeta, daughter Gungun (4) and son Ayush, was going to his in-laws' place in Etawah, when they were hit by an unknown vehicle. Shiv Prakash and Gungun died on the spot, while Reet and Ayush sustained serious injuries. Both have been hospitalised," Matsena SHO Brijesh Kumar Singh said. He said the bodies have been sent for a post-mortem examination. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A candle is lighted on a balcony on May 9, 2020 in Brussels, Belgium. Darkness Into Light Brussels, a virtual #MomentofTogetherness in memory of those who have left us too soon by suicide, and in support of those of us who are living with mental health issues. Thierry Monasse/Getty Images A new report estimates that somewhere between 27,644 to 154,037 people could die from deaths of despair. The Well Being Trust's new report says it's very likely that 75,000 additional deaths, alcohol and drug misuse, and suicide in the next decade as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Economic failure, isolation, and uncertainty are seen as key contributors to the deaths. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. As many as 75,000 additional people could die "deaths of despair" over the next decade because of the coronavirus, a new study found. A report from the Well Being Trust said if interventions aren't put in place, 75,000 people could die from alcohol and drug misuse, and suicide over the next 10 years. "I hope in 10 years people look back and say, 'Wow, they way overestimated it,'" John Westfall, director of the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care, who co-wrote the report told Bloomberg. If the economy recovers, the report estimates 27,644 deaths but if recovery is slow as many as 154,037 could die. They anticipate it's likely to be 75,000. The study also noted that three factors from the current coronavirus pandemic are "exacerbating deaths of despair," including "unprecedented economic failure paired with massive unemployment, mandated social isolation for months and possible residual isolation for years, and uncertainty caused by the sudden emergence of a novel, previously unknown microbe." Eric Caine, a psychiatry professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center previously told Insider that suicide goes up with economic recessions, and that's been the case for a while. However, Caine stressed that suicide can't be generalized. "I think it's always important to think about suicide as individual vulnerabilities and context," he said. Story continues Caine explained that a combination of factors, from economic difficulties to isolation, could make a person feel despair and commit suicide. "Vulnerabilities are relative to the situations people face," Caine said. According to an article published in the JAMA Psychiatry, suicide rates in the US were on the rise for 20 years. Bloomberg reported that despite previous growth in the economy, mental health experts are worried that the coronavirus pandemic could create the perfect storm for a rise in suicides. Caine said that the issues that contribute to "deaths of despair" have been going on for a long time. "When you have an emergency or crisis come along, it just amplifies it that much," Caine said. The Well Being Trust reported that 2017 saw the most deaths of despair than ever before, according to CBS. Caine told Insider, that while the US may have recovered from the last recession, not everyone saw economic growth, which could be contributing to the increased suicide rate. "Clearly, that economic growth has not moved people from under the weight," Caine said. In the past seven weeks, more than 33 million Americans filed for unemployment, Business Insider previously reported. "Unemployment is going to have a very important impact on deaths of despair," Ken Duckworth, chief medical officer at the National Alliance on Mental Illness told Bloomberg. Additionally, Bloomberg reported that the number of adults who were satisfied with their lives or optimistic about the future dropped to a rate lower than the Great Recession, according to a Gallup poll of 4,000 people. Jeffrey Reynolds, president of a Long Island-based nonprofit social services agency, the Family and Children's Association told Bloomberg he sees a "paradox" with the lockdown. "Social isolation protects us from a contagious, life-threatening virus, but at the same time it puts people at risk for things that are the biggest killers in the United States: suicide, overdose and diseases related to alcohol abuse," Reynolds told Bloomberg. Caine said one of the concerns of mental health experts is that other inequalities could be stemming from the lockdowns that could contribute to these deaths of despair, including intimate partner violence. Caine suggested people reach out to their loved ones and stay connected despite being physically apart to help mitigate the effects of isolation. Read the original article on Insider Three top US public health officials at the forefront of the Trump administrations battle against the Covid-19 outbreak went into self-quarantine Saturday for the next two weeks after low-risk exposure to the deadly virus through contacts with someone who has tested positive. Heads of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention Robert Redfield and the Food and Drug Administration will be teleworking from home as a result, their spokespersons have told news publications. And Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergies and Infections Diseases told CNN he will be going in modified quarantine. All three are members of the White task force on the coronavirus outbreak. Fauci has said he will be working from home, will wear a mask and will go to office only when he will be sure to be the only one around at the time. Fauci, Hahn and Redfield are scheduled to testify before a committee of the US senate on Tuesday, but they will now not appear in person but through a video link. The source of their exposure was not identified. Katie Miller, press secretary of Vice-President Mike Pence, who tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday, used to frequently attend the meeting of the task force, which is headed by her boss. She is the second White House staffer to test positive, after a US navy personnel serving as a personal valet to the president. The White House has stepped up screening since and both the president and the vice-president are now tested every day. At least 11 members of the US Secret Service, which protects present and past presidents, have also tested positive and 60 are in self-quarantine for possible exposure, according to news reports. It was not clear if any of them had been posted at the White House at the time of their exposure. President Donald Trump has personally faced criticism for not following his administrations Covid-19 protocols to wear a mask in situations were social distancing may be difficult. He met US military leaders at the White House on Saturday and did not wear a face covering, neither did any of the others. Arlene Foster has said Northern Ireland will sticking with the Stay at home, save lives message (Kelvin Boyes/Press Eye/PA) Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster has said the region will not adopt the UK Governments new coronavirus slogan, instead sticking with the Stay at home, save lives message. The Stormont Executive will meet on Monday to consider its plan for a phased, strategic approach to recovery at its meeting ahead of outlining its own road map this week. It comes as UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a conditional plan to reopen society as the coronavirus lockdown continues. Leaders of the UKs devolved nations have rejected Mr Johnsons new stay alert advice in favour of keeping the stay at home message. Deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill said the decisions the Executive will take in the days and weeks ahead are some of the biggest we will ever have to make. She said: We know that six weeks into the restrictions, people need some light at the end of the tunnel. We also know that recovery will only happen one step at a time, to do otherwise risks undermining the sacrifices people have already made and increases the risk of a second spike in the future. Speaking to BBC Northern Ireland radio on Sunday, Mrs Foster said: On the whole, the message is to stay at home. We will say we are not deviating from the message at this time. It is important for people to know we are not doing this in a nanny state way. Once we can move, we will move. SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has told Mr Johnson the new slogan is a nonsense. He tweeted: Just spoke to @BorisJohnson about the address he will make tonight. I made it clear that his new Stay Alert message is a nonsense. I also stressed the need for a cautious plan to move beyond full lockdown. That plan has to include a proper all Ireland testing and tracing system. Just spoke to @BorisJohnson about the address he will make tonight. I made it clear that his new 'Stay Alert' message is a nonsense. I also stressed the need for a cautious plan to move beyond full lockdown. That plan has to include a proper all Ireland testing and tracing system Colum Eastwood (@columeastwood) May 10, 2020 Deputy Alliance Party leader Stephen Farry also criticised the new slogan. He tweeted: Just off a cross-party call with PM. Expressed our concerns with Stay Alert message, both in terms of substance and mixing the message across UK. Also asked that future of economic measures reflects different circumstances across UK. Plus reinforced need for Brexit extension. Mrs Foster said there may be slight differences to how the lockdown measures are eased across the UK, but warned that Northern Irelands would be nuanced. Northern Irelands reproductive rate (R0) the number of people an infected person infects is currently at 0.8. Mrs Foster said that is higher than some areas in England and it needs to be driven down before the region can move to relax measures. Getting ready for @SophyRidgeSky to speak about the road to recovery in Northern Ireland. Important we take one step at a time towards the new normal. Were not out of the woods. Its about steady progress rather than making a dash for the exit. pic.twitter.com/WXeVsGlF5M Arlene Foster #ProudofNI. (@ArleneFosterUK) May 10, 2020 Speaking on Skys Sophy Ridge on Sunday, she said: We will be looking at some nuanced changes throughout that time and we will await to hear what the Prime Minister has to say today. But I think, in terms of the Northern Ireland public, it is important that we continue to protect them and make sure this virus does not start transmitting again in the community in a way that would cause damage to the community. Mrs Foster said the lockdown could be eased in different regions as Northern Irelands rate of transmission is higher than other regions in the UK. Sage, and indeed our own chief medical officer, do indeed recognise that there are different rates of transmission across the United Kingdom, she said. There are differences across the UK, regional differences; I think the Prime Minister recognises those regional differences and, as a result, you may see slight differences across the UK. Asked if it is a good idea that the lockdown could be re-applied to different regions if required, she said it is important that Northern Ireland moves in cohesion with the rest of the UK. It is important that we do what is right in our region of the United Kingdom moving forward. That is why we are coming with our road plan early next week. It will set out how we can take graduated steps back to what will be a different normality. On Sunday, another five Covid-19 deaths were reported in Northern Ireland, the Department of Health said, taking total fatalities to 435. A further 41 positive cases were also diagnosed, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 4,119. Lucknow, May 10 : Almost two months after taking over the probe into alleged irregularities in investment of over Rs 4,300 crore Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd in the scam-hit Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has questioned two senior IAS officers in connection with case, source said on Sunday. A CBI source related to the development told IANS that the agency has questioned senior IAS officers Alok Kumar and Aparna in connection with the case. Kumar is a 1988 batch IAS officer and was then Chairman of the UP Power Corporation Ltd while Aparna was the then Managing Director. The source said that both the senior officials were questioned on Saturday in Lucknow. As between May 2017 to July 2019, Kumar invested over Rs 4,321 crore in several financial companies including DHFL, while Aparna invested over Rs 3,245 crore, the officials were asked about how the decision of investing EPF money in financial companies were taken and who approved it. The CBI on March 9 this year registered an FIR involving a scam over "illegal investment" of employees' provident fund. The PF money was allegedly invested in a private firm DHFL, currently facing money laundering charges by Enforcement Directorate. The FIR was registered almost five months after the Yogi Adityanath government had sought a CBI probe into the Rs 2,268 crore Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) investment scam in the UPPCL. The FIR was lodged against Pravin Kumar Gupta, former Secretary of the UP State Power Sector Employees' Trust and Sudhanshu Dwivedi, former Director, Finance of UPPCL. The CBI has booked the two officials under charges of breach of trust, cheating, forgery for cheating, and using forged document as genuine. Following its investigation, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) had also indicted UPPPCL's former Managing Director A.P. Mishra along with Gupta and Dwivedi for fraudulently dealing with a private firm. The EOW, in its charge sheet, had stated that Mishra had forged signatures on dealings with private firms from 2016-17, which were against the norms, while Gupta and Dwivedi jointly took a decision to invest in DHFL against the norms. The role of Dwivedi and Gupta was traced during a probe into seven shell companies. The EOW, in its charge sheet, had also stated that Lalit Goyal, a chartered accountant, had arranged for the three arrested senior officials of UPPCL - Gupta, Dwivedi and Mishra - to withdraw Rs 12 crore from these accounts, revealing a plot hatched together by SMC and UPCCL to route money back to the officials. Iraqs judiciary ordered courts on Sunday to release anti-government protesters, carrying out one of the first decisions of the recently inaugurated prime minister just as dozens of demonstrators burned tyres in renewed protests against the new leadership. Premier Mustafa al-Kadhimi also promoted a well-respected Iraqi general, who played a key role in the military campaign against the Islamic State, to lead counter-terrorism operations. Lieutenant General Abdul Wahab al-Saadi was mysteriously demoted last year by former prime minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, prompting outrage and sparking popular protests in northern Iraq and Baghdad. The Supreme Judiciary Council said in a statement that it had ordered the release of protesters detained since those demonstrations erupted, in line with the new prime ministers call. The council released detainees based on Article 38 of the constitution which guarantees the right to protest, provided that it is not accompanied by an act contrary to the law, the statement said. Expand Close Anti-government protesters gather in front of barriers (Khalid Mohammed/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Anti-government protesters gather in front of barriers (Khalid Mohammed/AP) In a press briefing on Saturday night following his first Cabinet meeting as premier, Mr al-Kadhimi said demonstrators should be protected and that all protesters should be released, except those involved in violence. Protests erupted in Baghdad and across the countrys south on October 1, when frustrated Iraqis took to the streets to decry rampant government corruption, unemployment and poor services. Human rights groups say at least 600 people died in the following three months at the hands of Iraqi security forces who used live fire and tear gas to disperse the crowds. The demonstrations petered out with the rise of the coronavirus pandemic, though dozens of protesters are still camped out in Baghdads Tahrir Square determined not to let the movement die. Mr al-Kadhimi also said he was promoting Mr al-Saadi to become head of Iraqs elite counter-terrorism service, just as the country was experiencing an upsurge in attacks by the Islamic State group in the north. Previously, the general was a force commander in the the service before Mr Abdul-Mahdi demoted him in September to a post in the defence ministry. The Iraqi public considered his sudden demotion a sign of corrupt government practices and took to the streets in outrage. Mr al-Saadi, 56, was one of the leading commanders in the fight against IS and the battle to retake Mosul, taking the lead in many operations. Expand Close An injured anti-government protester is rushed to a hospital (Hadi Mizban/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp An injured anti-government protester is rushed to a hospital (Hadi Mizban/AP) In a recent briefing with reporters, American Lieutenant General Pat White, head of the Combined Joint Task Force responsible for fighting IS, said the group was failing miserably in a renewed campaign to launch more attacks. IS leadership has stated what their intent is, and they do this every year. They put out what is generally described as a military campaign, he said. To date, they have failed miserably at achieving those goals. Still, plumes of acrid smoke choked the air Sunday as protesters, unpersuaded by Mr al-Kadhimis decisions, returned to the streets and burned tyres on a key bridge leading to the heavily fortified Green Zone, the seat of Iraqs government. Protesters said they rejected Mr al-Kadhimi and any candidate chosen by the political establishment and gathered by the dozens near Jumhuriya Bridge, closed off since late last year in a standoff with riot police. Grab our rova app and stay tuned to More! We love our family of listeners, and we want to make sure you've got the easiest way to listen to us when you are on the go, wherever you are! Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 19:32:39|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HANGZHOU, May 10 (Xinhua) -- To promote the local economy in a tourism township in east China's Zhejiang Province, a group of young officials have racked their brains. Amid the novel coronavirus epidemic, livestreaming offers them a glimmer of hope. Before the Labor Day holiday, Moganshan Town in Deqing County provided a batch of special offers for local homestays through online livestreaming to attract tourists, which were snapped up in seconds. It was a successful attempt for Shen Chanying and her companions, who have recently turned into livestreamers on Taobao Live, the livestreaming unit of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba, to showcase the cozy homestays and local specialties in Moganshan, a town known for the eponymous mountain tourist site. Shen and her fellow livestreamers are a group of young cadres who were invited by the county government to help accelerate the resumption of business and production in the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic. "This is all for my hometown," said Shen in her 30s, who was born and bred in Moganshan. Shen had little knowledge about livestreaming before. Born into a family of local yellow tea producers, Shen said one of her aspirations is to introduce Moganshan's quality agricultural produce to consumers nationwide. Impacted by the outbreak, the tourism industry, a pillar of Moganshan's economic structure, had suffered hefty losses, while local agricultural products, such as tea, aquatic products and fruit, were hard to sell. "On one occasion we sold about 100 packs of tea leaves within only 15 minutes (during a live show)," Shen said, noting that livestreaming has succeeded in boosting online sales. Apart from promoting farm produce, Shen said they also expected to introduce Moganshan's green and slow-pace lifestyle to urban people via livestreaming. To help their hometown overcome the adversity, more homestay owners and young town cadres in Moganshan participate in online livestreaming to rejuvenate local tourism and help farmers sell agricultural produce. "The live shows display Moganshan's homestays, scenic spots and delicacies, and also increase the influence of the town," said Qian Jiliang, president of Moganshan's homestay association, deeming livestreaming as a friendly medium for business people and farmers to discuss difficulties and solutions. The epidemic outbreak has created both challenges and opportunities, Qian said, adding that local homestay operators have expanded online sales channels by using livestream platforms and cooperating with online travel agencies. Thanks to these efforts, Moganshan's tourism industry is recovering steadily. During the Labor Day holiday, around 60 percent of the homestays in the town were occupied. Enditem A civic group, Socio-Economic Rights And Accountability Project (SERAP), has condemned the demolition of hotels in Rivers by the state government. The two hotels Prodest Hotel, Eleme, and Edemete Hotel, Onne were pulled down on Sunday on the orders of Governor Nyesom Wike for allegedly flouting COVID-19 order in the state. The governor personally monitored the demolition. The Rivers government in its effort to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus had barred hotels in the state from opening their doors for business. Mr Wike said some of the confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the state were traceable to a hotel. SERAP in its reaction said the demolition and forced evictions is a violation of article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other human rights treaties to which Nigeria is a state party. SERAP in a message posted on Twitter said Mr Wike is using COVID-19 to perpetuate human rights violations. The group, which said the demolition was illegal, condemned it and vowed to take legal action against the governor and his administration. Mr Wike has threatened to demolish any other hotel caught operating in the state in violation of the lockdown order. It appears one of the destroyed hotels is owned by a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which is the ruling party in Rivers state. If we can do this to a PDP person, then you know we are not discriminatory, Mr Wike told reporters. Whether you are in PDP, SDP or no party, you must obey the law. If any other person does the same thing, the same rule will apply. Mr Wikes administration has taken some other controversial decisions in the past in its fight against the coronavirus, including the arrest of oil workers who were accused of entering Rivers State in violation of the lockdown. The governor has repeatedly said that the lives of the people in Rivers must be put above business and has vowed to take on businesses, including oil and gas companies, if they do not cooperate with his government as far as the coronavirus is concerned. There are 21 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Rivers State as of April 9. UPDATE: The shooting death has been ruled to have been accidental. The child was not shot, as originally reported, but instead received an injury to his hand from the slide of the gun when it discharged. A man was shot to death and his young son injured in a Saturday-night shooting in Wylam. The shooting happened shortly before 10 p.m. in the 1200 block of Gulfport Street. Birmingham police spokesman Sgt. Rod Mauldin said when officers arrived on the scene, they found a 7-year-old boy who appeared to have been shot. He was transported to Childrens of Alabama with non-life-threatening injuries. Officers then found the man inside the house. He was unresponsive and pronounced dead on the scene. Family members said he was a hospital security guard. A neighbor said three young children - two girls and the wounded boy- ran to her home for help after the shooting. The boy appeared t have been shot in the hand. He told his neighbor his father was inside the house on the floor. The neighbor said the two girls werent injured. Neighbors called 911 and wrapped up the boys hand. He was taken to the hospital. Neighbors and family members on the scene said someone came into the home, possibly to rob the adult victim. Police said they do not yet know a motive in the slaying, nor have they identified a possible suspect. "Right now with this case, we have very limited details so were asking for additional assistance from the public,'' Mauldin said. If anybody heard or saw anything, please come forward. Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. " New Delhi: As we celebrate Mothers Day today, the internet is flooded with social media posts of netizens as well as the celebs dedicated to their moms. Bollywood has expressed love for their mothers mostly with throwback photos and one such post was shared by actress Sara Ali Khan, whose Instagram profile is filled with pictures of her with family. Sara wished her actress mother Amrita Singh with a rare picture of herself as a baby cradled in her nani Rukhsana Sultanas arms. The million-dollar picture appears to be taken right after Sara was born in 1995. "Maa ki Maa. Thank you for creating mommy. Happy Mother's Day," she wrote. Sara is Amrita Singhs daughter with ex-husband Saif Ali Khan. They were married from 19912004. Sara also has a brother named Ibrahim. Amrita and Ibrahim quite often make appearances on Saras posts. Here are some of the recent ones: On the work front, Sara Ali Khans next release is Coolie No 1, along with Varun Dhawan. She also has Atrangi Re with Akshay Kumar and Dhanush in the pipeline. To the Editor: It is striking how right-wing groups and politicians are using the pandemic to promote their own narrower interests. The Texas governor uses the health crisis to try to ban abortions, while the Trump administration pushes its anti-immigrant, anti-China agenda. Groups demanding that states reopen tout their right to carry assault rifles openly, a few members of Congress use the information they need to legislate wisely to cash out in the stock market, and the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, aims to punish Democratic-leaning states by withholding funds for treating patients. For these people, there is no bigger picture, no were-all-in-this-together, no shame. Daniel Grant Amherst, Mass. To the Editor: If theres anything more despicable than war profiteering, its profiteering from a pandemic while thousands are dying horrible deaths. We need the government to coordinate a response to Covid-19 based on medical science, focused on concern for the welfare of the people. On Wednesday, however, The Times reported two stories of shameless profiteering by Trump administration cronies. Governments should use tax breaks to motivate the private sector to help alleviate the coronavirus crisis. Dr Youssef El Azouzi is a medical doctor based in Tangier, Morocco. He is founder and CEO of AortoMedical LLC. At Africas balcony looking over to Europe from Tangier in Morocco, the mountains of Spain in the near-distance retain their allure for sub-Saharan migrants who wait for the slightest possible chance to cross the Strait of Gibraltar. However, they have also started to trigger a spine-chilling fear among Tangier residents worried about an invasion coming the other way from coronavirus-struck Spain. The enemy of humanity has become a catchy tagline for many pundits not only in the medical field but also in financial sectors as fears grow about the toll the virus will take on economies. Rather than viewing the current chaos in stock markets as an unstoppable Armageddon, however, this health crisis could open a new chapter in the way we approach collaborative frameworks in the healthcare sector and how we incentivise partnerships between the public and private sectors. Primarily resorting to open-ended bailouts of non-medical entities such as banks that are too big to fail as the Trump administration is doing through its stimulus package is an inefficient way of addressing the current health crisis because it does not incentivise treatment of patients and, by extension, does not help with getting the pandemic under control. It might be more sensible for health officials around the world to consider motivating private hospitals and healthcare providers to accept the transfer of coronavirus patients from overwhelmed public hospitals. This does not just mean paying private hospitals to take in coronavirus patients, a move which would make countries poorer and in more debt. Perhaps a promise of future tax reductions for private hospitals that take on care for COVID-19 patients would help to provide the assistance needed for public healthcare in its time of desperate need. Such a strategy of present pain, future gain may actually be a way to cope with this crisis, although it should be noted that such a system could only work during acute health crises such as an epidemic. It would not be sustainable on a long-term, protracted basis. Here is how they could do it: First, private hospitals would reach a consensus among themselves regarding the average cost of care for each COVID-19 patient according to age group. Let us say (purely hypothetically) it was $100. Next, each group representative would approach its respective government health ministry and submit a proposal for a future tax reduction let us say in this case, $120 that would see the private healthcare sector rewarded with a baseline profit per COVID-19 patient accepted during this time of need. An additional bonus tax reduction could also be awarded depending on the clinical outcome of each patient, according to his or her respective age group. Such an arrangement could alleviate the intolerable strain on public hospitals right now and also dilute a governments financial losses caused by this crisis over a more prolonged period. It could also benefit the private healthcare sector. Private hospitals all over the world are incurring heavy losses in the same way as other businesses because of lack of movement and activity. Much of the revenue stream generated by private healthcare providers comes from non-urgent surgical procedures that are relatively time-tolerant such as lumbar hernia and varicose vein operations. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that it would be in the interests of both the government and private healthcare providers to enter such a credit-based arrangement. If profitable enough, this could also prompt investors from other economic sectors to divert investment into private healthcare institutions and, therefore, expand operations in order to treat as many COVID-19 patients as possible to profit from future tax breaks. Private hospitals would benefit from the capital injected by investors, and be able to acquire the medical supplies ventilators and sterilisation equipment, for example that would be needed to treat transferred patients. By incentivising the treatment and care of coronavirus victims, we might be able to climb our way out of this mess. And private hospitals may not be the only entities that could take part in this strategy. Hotels, which have suffered a major setback with the drop in domestic and international travel, may also be able to assist in providing extra beds for high numbers of patients needing hospitalisation under a similar future tax-reduction arrangement. Transforming hotels into temporary places of care and quarantine, where private hospital teams can expand operations, may form the basis of a symbiotic, trilateral relationship between governments, private hospitals and hotels. National healthcare systems that incorporate such a form of business-driven partnership between the public and private sectors during acute health crises may be better positioned to mobilise funds and secure much-needed medical equipment. Focused private investment would lead to higher efficiency and a more robust purchasing power compared to national systems that rely solely on more bureaucratic government initiatives to procure medical supplies. Could pandemic economics pandenomics be our answer to the COVID-19 crisis? The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. Eminent historian Hari Shankar Vasudevan died at a private hospital here on Sundy. He was 68. Vasudevan had tested positive for novel coronavirus on May 6 after being admitted with high fever and breathing difficulty symptoms on May 4 but had other chronic ailments also, his family said. He died at 1 am on Sunday, they said. Vasudevan is survived by his wife Tapati Guha Thakurta and a daughter. He was considered one the foremost names in Russian and Central Asian history. Condoling his demise, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar recalled "Prof Hari Vasudevan, an eminent scholor, UGC Emeritus Professor, Department of History and China Centre of Calcutta University as well as Ex Director of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies - MAKSIAS, an autonomous body under Ministry of Culture Govt of India." The governor in the statement said Vasudevan died of coronavirus. It said "Professor Hari Vasudevan was prominent specialist in Russian and European history and Indo-Russian Relations. He was also Visiting Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation and President, Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata and these positions he made commendable contributions." "He was involved in projects on Indo-Russian relations and the Radiating Globalities project initiated by Gayatri Spivak of Columbia University (New York). At ORF, he was evaluating the overlap between 'Look East' and 'Look Far East' policies of India and the relationship between Greater Eurasia ideas of the Russian establishment and Chinese establishment," the statement added. Describing Vasudevan as a multifaceted person, Dhankhar said he made his mark while being involved in a formal consultative capacity with projects/institutions of the Ministry of Culture, MHRD, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India and was Chairman of the Textbook Development Committee for the Social Sciences of the NCERT from 2005. "I know him for four decades. It is personal loss for me," eminent historian and Vice-Chancellor of Jadavpur University Prof Suranjan Das said. A spokesman of Asiatic Society said Vasudevan did a seminal work on Indo-Russian relations from 1930-1947 which was published by the Asiatic Society. Former CEO of Prasar Bharati Jawahar Sircar said, Vasudevan was considered an authority of Russian, Central Asian and East Asian history among Indian historians and was also widely recognised in the world. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) When he was finally released and brought to trial last July, one charge announced by Saudi prosecutors was all too telling: obtaining U.S. citizenship without permission. In effect, Fitaihi was targeted precisely because he had succeeded in becoming an influential voice in the kingdom with strong U.S. connections. They kept asking me, Why do you have so many followers? Fitaihi told me in an interview last week. For them, the fact that I was an American only made it worse. From Nargis' revolutionary 'Mother India', the 'Mother of Bollywood' in Nirupa Roy, to Kajol's 'helicopter' mom and Priyanka Chopra's mama tiger act in "The Sky is Pink", Bollywood is coming of age when it comes to portraying mothers on screen. This Mother's Day, writers Mrunmayee Lagoo Waikul, Juhi Chaturvedi, actor Seema Pahwa, writer-director Nupur Asthana and filmmaker Pradeep Sarkar weigh in on how Hindi cinema has been receptive to the off-screen evolution of mothers. Even after 45 years, Salim-Javed's iconic "Mere paas maa hai" dialogue in "Deewar" evokes Roy's image as a hapless impoverished mother torn between her warring sons, played by Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor. Waikul, co-writer of "Thappad", believes mothers have often been used to bring out the emotional appeal in a story. "The portrayal of a mother depends on what one is trying to communicate in the film. As writers we have to portray what is going on in the society and then try to make it inspirational, aspirational or maybe show the stark reality," she told PTI. Pahwa, who has become the go-to actor to play an educated mother from the middle class, said the Bollywood mother has become progressive. One would remember Pahwa in "Bareilly Ki Barfi" as a harrowed mother vetting grooms for her daughter and, in "Shubh Mangal Saavdhan", a well-read woman who struggles with symbolism while delivering a sex talk to her soon-to-be-married daughter. "Mothers as characters may have the same problems as they had years ago. But what's refreshing is how they are becoming more accepting towards the changes in society. "Lately, they show that mothers are not stubborn. They are not the quintessential mother anymore who is always crying and ailing," the actor had told PTI in an earlier interview. In Dolly Ahluwalia's salon owner who enjoys a tipple with her mother-in-law in "Vicky Donor", Chaturvedi gave a new-age mother to Hindi cinema. The writer said it is time mothers were treated like humans and not put on a pedestal. "You don't have to write a 'Mother India' all the time or a Nirupa Roy or Leela Chitnis or recreate a temple image of a Devi. She is as human as anybody. It is up to each writer what is it that they are writing to watch and want people to see in the film," she said. The writer added that one can create a bizarre or a villainous mother onscreen but there should be an awareness while writing such parts. "You write a whacked out character as long as you are coming from the space of knowing. When you know, you will make that whacked out mother even more believable and beautiful," Chaturvedi said. The father has often been the absentee parent or the one who gets killed off, like in Salman-Shah Rukh Khan-starrer "Karan Arjun", with Raakhee as the waiting mother, but single mothers have started getting their due on screen. Waikul, whose mother, late actor Reema Lagoo played a single mother in 1990's "Aashiqui", said the portrayal has witnessed a sea of change. "Very rarely we saw single mothers working on screen, usually it used to be some activity, sending food or stitching clothes in earlier times. We have seen struggling mothers onscreen for years now," she said. Citing the example of Dia Mirza's character in "Thappad", the screenwriter said, "The character is a single mother and has a good job. She is educated and unapologetic. This is the kind of graph we are seeing over the years." Asthana, co-director of web series "Four More Shots Please!", said society reflects art and art reflects society. In the Amazon Prime Video show, which has been renewed for a third season, actor Kirti Kulhari plays a successful lawyer who is a single mother. "I have so many friends who are single mothers, they are devoted to their children. Having a career and yet going out to work is not easy. I see their struggle every day and their desire to live a full life. "Society has evolved, there are new-age parents and that is reflected in art as well," Asthana said. Sarkar too believes it is all about growing with time. His last directorial venture "Helicopter Eela" saw an overprotective and possessive mother (Kajol) rediscovers herself and finds a life outside of her son (Riddhi Sen). "The relationship of a mother and child cannot be old or new. It is always of love and care and that's what mothers are like. The treatment can be different in cinema, but with basic emotions in place," he added. Chaturvedi said though her films "Piku" and "October" didn't have a direct "mother" connect to the story, the central characters Deepika Padukone's title role as the working woman daughter and a doting friend in Dan, played by Varun Dhawan were quite maternal. "Mother is a genderless entity. The human quality of a mother is nurturer, a spiritual and selfless person. What stops a man from being that? "Piku is the mother of the family, she is sensible and sensitive. It is not about having a child, it is about being that person. In 'October', Vidya Iyer (Gitanjali Rao), Dan's mother or Dan himself, he elevated himself to doing what a mother does," she said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) T he Government has failed to hit its 100,000 daily coronavirus test target for the eighth day in a row. The Department of Health said 92,837 tests were conducted in the 24 hours to 9am on Sunday, down from 96,878 the day before. This is despite Boris Johnson setting a 200,000 tests-a-day goal by the end of the month. The latest figures also suggest the overall death toll for the UK has now passed 36,800 and the total number of confirmed cases has reached 219,183. The update reveals that a total of 31,855 people have died in UK hospitals, care homes and in the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus, as of 5pm on Saturday. This is an increase by 269 from 31,586 the day before. The figure for total deaths issued on Saturday was reduced by one (from 31,587) after Northern Ireland removed a previously reported death from its statistics, the Department of Health said. But the number of deaths involving Covid-19 that have been registered across the UK currently stands at 33,021. This includes 29,710 deaths that occurred in England and Wales up to April 24 (and which had been registered up to May 2), according to the Office for National Statistics. Todays figures from NHS England show that a further 3,782 hospital patients who had tested positive for Covid-19 died between April 25 and May 9 which, together with the total figure of 33,021 registered deaths, sets the UK's total death toll past 36,800. The Government's eighth-day stint of failing to meet its testing target comes after it emerged that 50,000 coronavirus test samples had to be sent from the UK to the US after operational issues in the lab network led to delays in the system.. Following a report in the Sunday Telegraph, the Department of Health said sending swabs abroad is one of the contingencies to deal with so-called teething problems in a rapidly-expanded testing system. It is understood the test results will be validated back in the UK and communicated to patients as quickly as possible. The department said work has been undertaken to resolve the issues and capacity is quickly being restored. A spokeswoman said: The expansion of the UKs coronavirus testing network has involved setting up an entirely new Lighthouse lab network to process test swabs. When problems arise, we have contingencies in place which include creating extra temporary capacity for our labs or sending swabs abroad to partner labs for completion. Of course, our partner labs must match our high standards. Health leaders have insisted that fluctuations in figures are to be expected, and that testing has seen a sharp increase since the start of the outbreak. Deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam told Saturday's Downing Street press briefing not much could be read into day-to-day variations. He said: We are now really at a high plateau, in the region of 100,000 tests per day. There is some fluctuation, and quite frankly I expect there to be some fluctuation on a day-to-day basis. I dont think we can read too much into day-to-day variations, but the macro-picture is this is now at a much, much higher level than it ever was at the beginning of this crisis. If you are Muslim and you hide your face for religious reasons, you are liable to a fine and a citizenship course where you will be taught what it is to be a good citizen, said Fatima Khemilat, a fellow at the Political Science Institute of Aix-en-Provence. But if you are a non-Muslim citizen in the pandemic, you are encouraged and forced as a good citizen to adopt barrier gestures to protect the national community. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin speaks during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House on April 2, 2020, in Washington, DC. WASHINGTON Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin acknowledged Sunday that the U.S. unemployment rate may have already reached 25% as the administration works to reopen the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. "This is no fault of American business, this is no fault of American workers, this is a result of a virus," Mnuchin told Chris Wallace during an interview on "Fox News Sunday." "The reported numbers are probably going to get worse before they get better," he said, adding that "next year is going to be a great year." The real unemployment rate, which includes people who are not looking for work or are underemployed, already stands at 22.8%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Mnuchin acknowledged that the jobless rate may be even higher and stand at 25%, comparable to the Great Depression, when pressed on the issue by Wallace who pointed out that April's unemployment report stopped in the middle of the month. In just over a month, the coronavirus has erased all job gains since the Great Recession, bringing the nation's decade-long economic growth streak to a grinding halt. The U.S. economy lost an unprecedented 20.5 million jobs in April as the unemployment rate jumped to 14.7%, up from 4.4% in March, according to the monthly employment report, released Friday by the Department of Labor. (Bloomberg) -- When the history of the coronavirus is written, it will be a litany of what ifs. What if China hadnt silenced early reports of the outbreak in Wuhan; what if Europe had responded faster to the first cases; what if countries had heeded scientific warnings that such a widespread epidemic was even possible. Politics was the Achilles heel that cut across the ideological divide. Chinese president Xi Jinpings Communist Party saw emergence of the virus as a risk to its image. Western leaders such as U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who initially dismissed the pandemic as something that could be controlled without stringent containment measures, feared what a u-turn would do to their economies and their credibility with the public. U.S. President Donald Trumps pronouncements, with a constant eye on the November election, have been a dizzying roller coaster ride from denial of the Covid-19 threat to recognizing it could claim tens of thousands of lives. His latest suggestion, as Kristen V. Brown and Justin Sink report, is the possibility of hitting the body with ultraviolet light or injecting peoples lungs with bleach, which is a toxic chemical. Recent months have been story of missed opportunities: delays in isolating patients and testing, acquiring protective equipment for health workers, taking economically painful but needed action to stem the spread. With more than 2.7 million confirmed infections, 190,000 dead and much of the global economy in free-fall, the world isnt close to seeing the end of this. As governments face pressure to restore some semblance of normal life, the threat of a second wave is looming. Its unclear if we are any better prepared for that. Global Headlines Last chance | Congress has pumped out almost $3 trillion to limit the economic fallout of the pandemic. But theres a bruising confrontation ahead over the next, and perhaps final, round of aid before the 2020 elections, with control of the Senate, House and White House at stake. Story continues Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is weighing a plan to steer aid to oil drillers that could set up a clash with Democrats. Click here for more from our interview with Mnuchin, who has won bipartisan praise for quickly pump-priming the economy. Trillion euro question | European leaders are inching toward a plan for rebuilding their economies after coronavirus, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel endorsing a huge spending program. But the bloc is divided over whether the funds should come as loans piling more liabilities onto ailing sovereigns like Italy or grants. The EU Commission was given till May 6 to come up with an answer. Staying power | Whatever the state of Kim Jong Uns health may be, he has already put North Korea in its strongest position to resist U.S. pressure in decades by building a credible nuclear threat and finding ways to dodge sanctions. Trump has cast doubt on the reports of a health scare, calling one by CNN fake. Wave of anger | The newspaper advertisement by a cancer hospital in Indias most populous state didnt mince words: any Muslim patients seeking treatment must prove they didnt have Covid-19. The privately owned hospital apologized a day later but as Muneeza Naqvi and Upmanyu Trivedi report, the message shows the hostility against the Muslim minority as virus infections surge. Hashtags like corona jihad have been trending on social media, prompting a backlash from Gulf states where millions of Indians work. Standing alone | As governments around the world pour money into their economies to cushion the blow from the coronavirus, Mexicos president is going the other way. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador insists that past bailouts worsened problems and is refusing to implement significant stimulus measures even if it means suffering for small businesses and millions of Mexican workers who are at risk of losing their jobs.What to Watch After two days of delays in finalizing spending plans, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Contes cabinet meets today to approve the 2020 budget. Hong Kongs protesters staged a small demonstration today, challenging rules that ban gatherings of more than four people and vowing to resume their pro-democracy movement. The fate of Sergio Moro, the former star judge behind Brazils biggest corruption investigation and a key member of President Jair Bolsonaros cabinet, is unclear hours after local media reported he had resigned as justice minister. South Africa will begin next week easing a nationwide lockdown thats devastated the economy, while retaining restrictions to curb the coronavirus. Pop quiz, readers (no cheating!). In which African nation have gangs declared a cease-fire because of the virus? Send us your answers and tell us how were doing or what were missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net. And finally ... The Philippines is known for training nurses and sending them around the world, but now the nation finds itself shorthanded as its coronavirus infections and deaths rise. With more Filipinos becoming sick, the consequences of this medical brain drain are weighing heavily, with most dying without seeing a medical professional, one lawmaker says. Meanwhile, about 150,000 Filipino nurses work in the U.S. alone. 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. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 23:32:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ISTANBUL, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Elderlies aged 65 and older across Turkey were allowed outside on Sunday for the first time in seven weeks in an easing of the coronavirus restrictions of the country. Their four hours of permit started at 11 a.m. local time (0800GMT) when 24 out of a total of 81 provinces were under a two-day weekend curfew against the COVID-19 pandemic. "The long-awaited day has arrived. Do not forget to wear your masks on this beautiful day," Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said at a tweet, addressing the senior citizens. "You have provided great support to our fight against coronavirus by staying at home," the minister added. Wearing their surgical masks and protective gloves, many elderly couples were seen taking walks in their neighborhoods in Istanbul hand in hand. Some couples were seen taking selfies on the shores of the Bosphorus Strait, while some elderlies took food in plastic bags to feed stray animals. Police officers have warned those who wanted to have a walk on the shores in the Uskudar district on the Asian side of the city, saying that the seaside road is closed to pedestrians. But some managed to skip the controls and had some fresh sea air on the coastal line along the Bosphorus Strait separating Europe and Asia. Via loudspeakers, the police constantly asked elderlies to return to their neighborhoods. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, meanwhile, asked Turkish people living in the provinces with no curfews to stay at home during the hours at which the elderlies would be out to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier said that people of and over 65 and those who are under 20 would be allowed outside for four hours one day a week, starting from this weekend. The two age groups, being the most vulnerable facing COVID-19, have been under lockdown since March 21 as part of the government's measures against the pandemic. Turkey reported 1,546 new COVID-19 cases and 50 more deaths on Saturday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 137,115 and the death toll to 3,739. Enditem By Emma Farge and John Miller LAUSANNE/ZURICH (Reuters) - Getting children back into classrooms may seem like a reassuring step toward normalcy after weeks of coronavirus lockdown but for some parents in Switzerland like Audrey Razama, it's a source of anxiety. Swiss schools start reopening on Monday and Razama's 5-year-old daughter is due to join classmates. Razama, from the western town of Vevey, is instead opting for home schooling, worried that her daughter could bring home the virus and infect her younger sister, who has a heart murmur. Last month, parents in Denmark experienced similar angst: schools re-opened to many empty desks. France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States are also planning education reboots. Switzerland, which has recorded more than 30,000 cases of the coronavirus, with 1,500 deaths, is loosening its lockdown as the outbreak eases, like other countries in Europe. Swiss health officials say young children rarely experience severe COVID-19 symptoms and seldom infect others. But Razama's fears highlight parents' concerns as governments inch toward normalcy: What is really the best way to protect their children? "Precaution needs to take priority amid all this uncertainty," Razama, 32, told Reuters. While it is not known how many parents share her worries, an online petition to officials in Bern including Swiss Health Minister Alain Berset and Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga to halt school openings has some 21,200 signatures so far. The government cites scientific papers supporting its view that youngsters are unlikely to pass coronavirus infections between one another or bring them home from school. Daniel Koch, Switzerland's coronavirus czar, has given grandparents the green light to hug children up to 10 years old, sparking controversy. "Most children with the disease got it through infected parents," Koch said last month. "There is no danger from children, not even for high-risk patients or grandparents." Story continues Didier Pittet, an expert on reducing infection at the Geneva University Hospital, also believes the timing is right. "Children are carriers of the virus, sometimes even in a big quantity, but there is very little, even no evidence, that shows that they are really efficient transmitters," Pittet told Reuters. "The epidemic curve has really decreased. We can't stay in confinement for eternity." Still, this is fertile territory for doubt. Even studies cited by the health ministry -- and a review released by Switzerland's own national COVID-19 task force -- acknowledge children's role in transmission remains "highly uncertain". Marco Ajelli, a mathematical epidemiologist from Italy's Bruno Kessler Foundation, said children's ability to infect others merits more scrutiny, calling it "one of the biggest unknowns of COVID-19 epidemiology". Adding to worries about risks, three children in New York have died from a rare, mysterious inflammatory syndrome while also testing positive for the virus. SPLIT CLASSES Even as Swiss classes re-start, they will hardly be normal. Awarding of grades has been scrapped. Many schools are splitting classes in half, with attendance trimmed to just two days a week per group, to accommodate that change. There will be ubiquitous hand-sanitizing stations. Desks are being moved further apart, with markings being taped to floors, to help children observe new space limits. And older children from their 10th year, as well as university students, must wait until at least June 8 for classes to begin. It is not clear yet how many parents will be like Razama and keep their children at home. The central government in Bern delegates education largely to the 26 cantons, which have crafted their own approaches to re-opening guided by principles set out by the federal health ministry. Zurich, like many cantons, decided that children not under quarantine have virtually no reason to skip classes, while teachers in risk groups can be excused. Still, administrators around the country have also told parents whose children may have a risky health condition that individualized solutions may be possible, in consultation with doctors. "We only have fewer than 10 families who said they will not send their children back to school," said Veronique Restrepo, a primary school director in Geneva. "But we will see on Monday, because maybe some were not comfortable to say this to us and will not send their children." 'TRYING TO REASSURE' PARENTS Some parents said they still feel cornered. "Our children are being sent out like scouts to see what happens to them," said Laeticia Dupraz, 27, with a 6-year-old daughter in school and a 4-year-old son at home. Even those resigned to school resuming worry education in the era of coronavirus will be jarring, especially for the youngest students. "This is very complicated, especially with my little girl who is 5 years old, to explain to her that she cannot hug her teacher," Marion Moussadek, a mother of two children in Geneva, told Reuters on Sunday. Switzerland requires school attendance for 11 years, and under normal circumstances parents face fines up to 5,000 Swiss francs ($5,150) for keeping their children away. Most officials, however, favour a softer approach amidst the crisis. "It is not our role to threaten parents," said Julien Schekter, of Vaud canton's learning office. "We are trying to reassure them." (Additional reporting by Cecile Mantovani in Geneva; Editing by Frances Kerry) The second tranche of the government-run Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB) scheme will open for subscription from Monday, May 11. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said the issue price for the next tranche of Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGB), part of the central governments market-borrowing programme, has been fixed at Rs 4,590 per gram of gold. Heres all you need to know about the Sovereign Gold Bonds 2020-21 scheme: 1. What is Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB)? Who is the issuer? SGBs are government securities denominated in grams of gold and are substitutes for holding physical gold. Investors have to pay the issue price in cash and the bonds will be redeemed in cash on maturity. The bond is issued by RBI on behalf of the government. 2. Why should I buy SGB rather than physical gold? What are the benefits? The quantity of gold for which the investor pays is protected since they receive the ongoing market price at the time of redemption or premature redemption. SGB offers a superior alternative to holding gold in physical form. The risks and costs of storage are eliminated and investors are assured of the market value of gold at the time of maturity and periodical interest. SGB is free from issues like making charges and purity in the case of gold in jewellery form. The bonds are held in the books of RBI or in Demat form eliminating the risk of loss of scrip etc. 3. Are there any risks in investing in SGBs? There may be a risk of capital loss if the market price of gold declines. However, the investor does not lose in terms of the units of gold which they have paid for. 4. Who is eligible to invest in SGBs? Residents in India as defined under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, are eligible to invest in SGB. Individuals, Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs), trusts, universities and charitable institutions are also eligible. Individual investors with subsequent change in residential status from resident to non-resident may continue to hold SGB till early redemption or maturity. 5. Is joint holding allowed? Yes, joint holding is allowed. 6. Can a minor invest in SGB? Yes. The application on behalf of the minor has to be made by their guardian. 7. Where can investors get the application form? The application form will be provided by the issuing banks, Stock Holding Corporation of India (SHCIL) offices, designated post offices and agents. It can also be downloaded from RBIs website. Banks may also provide online application facility. 8. Can an investor hold more than one investor ID for subscribing to the Sovereign Gold Bond? No. An investor can have only one unique investor ID linked to any of the prescribed identification documents. The unique investor ID is to be used for all the subsequent investments in the scheme. For holding securities in dematerialised form, quoting of PAN in the application form is mandatory. 9. What are the minimum and maximum limit for investment? The bonds are issued in denominations of one gram of gold and in multiples thereof. The minimum investment in the bond shall be one gram with a maximum limit of subscription of 4kg for individuals, 4kg for HUF and 20 kg for trusts and similar entities notified by the government from time to time per fiscal year (April-March). In case of joint holding, the limit applies to the first applicant. The annual ceiling will include bonds subscribed under different tranches during initial issuance by the government and those purchased from the secondary market. The ceiling on investment will not include the holdings as collateral by banks and other financial institutions. 10. Can each member of my family buy 4Kg in their own name? Yes, each family member can buy the bonds in their own name if they satisfy the eligibility criteria as defined at question No 4. 11. Can an investor/trust buy 4kg/20kg worth of SGB every year? Yes. An investor/trust can buy 4kg/20kg worth of gold every year as the ceiling has been fixed on a fiscal year (April-March) basis. 12. Is the maximum limit of 4kg applicable in case of joint holding? The maximum limit will be applicable to the first applicant in case of a joint holding for that specific application. 13. What is the rate of interest and how will it be paid? The bonds bear interest at the rate of 2.50% (fixed rate) per annum on the amount of initial investment. Interest will be credited semi-annually to the bank account of the investor and the last interest will be payable on maturity along with the principal. 14. Who are the authorised agencies selling SGBs? Bonds are sold through offices or branches of nationalised banks, scheduled private banks, scheduled foreign banks, designated post offices, SHCILs and the authorised stock exchanges either directly or through their agents. 15. If I apply, am I assured of allotment? If the customer meets the eligibility criteria, produces a valid identification document and remits the application money on time, they will receive the allotment. 16. When will the customers be issued holding certificate? They will be issued a certificate of holding on the date of issuance of SGB. Certificate of holding can be collected from the issuing banks/SHCIL offices/post offices/designated stock exchanges/agents or obtained directly from RBI on email if an email address is provided in the application form. 17. Can I apply online? Yes. A customer can apply online through the website of the listed scheduled commercial banks. The issue price of the gold bonds will be Rs 50 per gram less than the nominal value to those investors applying online and the payment against the application is made through digital mode. 18. At what price are the bonds sold? The nominal value of gold bonds shall be in Indian rupees fixed on the basis of simple average of the closing price of gold of 999 purity, published by the India Bullion and Jewelers Association Limited for the last three business days of the week preceding the subscription period. 19. Will RBI publish the rate of gold applicable every day? The price of gold for the relevant tranche will be published on RBI website two days before the issue opens. 20. What will I get on redemption? On maturity, the gold bonds shall be redeemed in Indian rupees and the redemption price shall be based on a simple average of the closing price of gold of 999 purity of previous three business days from the date of repayment, published by the India Bullion and Jewelers Association Limited. 21. How will I get the redemption amount? Both interest and redemption proceeds will be credited to the bank account furnished by the customer at the time of buying the bond. 22. What are the procedures involved during redemption? The investor will be advised one month before maturity regarding the ensuing maturity of the bond. On the date of maturity, the maturity proceeds will be credited to the bank account as per the details on record. In case there are changes in any details, such as account number, email ids, then the investor must intimate the bank, SHCIL or PO promptly. 23. Can I encash the bond anytime I want? Is premature redemption allowed? Though the tenor of the bond is 8 years, early encashment or redemption of the bond is allowed after the fifth year from the date of issue on coupon payment dates. The bond will be tradable on exchanges, if held in Demat form. It can also be transferred to any other eligible investor. 24. What do I have to do if I want to exit my investment? In case of premature redemption, investors can approach the concerned bank, SHCIL offices, post office or agent 30 days before the coupon payment date. Request for premature redemption can only be entertained if the investor approaches the concerned bank/post office at least one day before the coupon payment date. The proceeds will be credited to the customers bank account provided at the time of applying for the bond. 25. Can I gift the bonds to a relative or friend on some occasion? The bond can be gifted or are transferable to a relative/friend/anybody who fulfils the eligibility criteria. The bonds shall be transferable in accordance with the provisions of the Government Securities Act 2006 and the Government Securities Regulations 2007 before maturity by the execution of an instrument of transfer which is available with the issuing agents. 26. Can I use these securities as collateral for loans? Yes, these securities are eligible to be used as collateral for loans from banks, financial institutions and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFC). The Loan to Value ratio will be the same as applicable to ordinary gold loan prescribed by RBI from time to time. Granting loan against SGBs would be subject to the decision of the bank/financing agency, and cannot be inferred as a matter of right. 27. What are the tax implications on interest and capital gain? Interest on the bonds will be taxable as per the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961). The capital gains tax arising on redemption of SGB to an individual has been exempted. The indexation benefits will be provided to long terms capital gains arising to any person on transfer of bond. 28. Is tax deducted at source (TDS) applicable on the bond? TDS is not applicable on the bond. However, it is the responsibility of the bond holder to comply with the tax laws. 29. Who will provide other customer services to the investors after issuance of the bonds? The issuing banks, SHCIL offices, post offices, designated stock exchanges or agents through which these securities have been purchased will provide other customer services such as change of address, early redemption, nomination, grievance redressal, transfer applications etc. 30. What are the payment options for investing in the Sovereign Gold Bonds? Payment can be made through cash (upto Rs 20,000)/cheques/demand draft/electronic fund transfer. 31. Is a nomination facility available for these investments? Yes, nomination facility is available as per the provisions of the Government Securities Act 2006 and Government Securities Regulations, 2007. A nomination form is available along with application form. An individual non-resident Indian may get the security transferred in his name on account of his being a nominee of a deceased investor provided that: i. the non-resident investor shall need to hold the security till early redemption or till maturity; and ii. the interest and maturity proceeds of the investment shall not be repatriable. 32. Can I get the bonds in Demat form? Yes. The bonds can be held in Demat account. A specific request for the same must be made in the application form itself. Till the process of dematerialization is completed, the bonds will be held in RBIs books. The facility for conversion to Demat will also be available subsequent to allotment of the bond. 33. Can I trade these bonds? The bonds are tradable from a date to be notified by RBI. (It may be noted that only bonds held in Demat form with depositories can be traded in stock exchanges) The bonds can also be sold and transferred as per provisions of Government Securities Act, 2006. Partial transfer of bonds is also possible. 34. What is the procedure to be followed in the eventuality of death of an investor? The nominee/nominees to the bond may approach the respective Receiving Office with their claim. The claim of the nominee/nominees will be recognised in terms of the provision of the Government Securities Act, 2006, read with Chapter III of Government Securities Regulation, 2007. In the absence of nomination, claim of the executors or administrators of the deceased holder or claim of the holder of the succession certificate (issued under Part X of Indian Succession Act) may be submitted to the Receiving Offices/Depository. It may be noted that the above provisions are applicable in the case of a deceased minor investor also. The title of the bond in such cases too will pass to the person fulfilling the criteria laid down in Government Securities Act, 2006, and not necessarily to the natural guardian. 35. Can I get part repayment of these bonds at the time of exercising put option? Yes, part holdings can be redeemed in multiples of one gram. 36. How do I contact RBI to address my queries regarding Sovereign Gold Bond? A dedicated e-mail has been created by RBI to receive queries from members of public on Sovereign Gold Bonds. Investors can mail their queries to this email id. * Important Dates: The second tranche of the scheme will remain open from May 11 to 15, and the next instalment will open on June 8. The gold bond scheme opens six times a year. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh on Saturday stood by the proposal of using federal CARES Act money for a new State House, although he stressed that expansion of broadband access in Alabama would be a higher priority. The Republican leader of the Alabama Senate answered questions about the CARES Act proposals that Gov. Kay Ivey disparaged as a wish list in a statement the governor released on Wednesday. Marsh said he helped develop the list at the request of Ivey. He said it was a starting point for discussions about how the state can spend the $1.8 billion Congress sent to the state for help with the COVID-19 pandemic. I put together an initial list and called leadership into Montgomery, Marsh said. "We sat in a room. I believe there were 10, maybe 11 of us. I said, OK folks, heres a list of possible uses based on what we can understand from the federal guidelines. Please, give me more input. This is not the list. This is a starting point. From that list it grew from maybe five items to 10 or 11 for consideration. And the State House was one of those items that was on the list. Marsh told reporters on April 28 the state should investigate the possibility of spending up to $800 million in CARES Act funding on broadband access. Marsh said that would be justified because the pandemic has drawn new attention to the value of broadband for virtual education and telemedicine. Lawmakers have worked on broadband expansion legislation for several years. My biggest issue is broadband statewide, Marsh said. I think had we had it in place, our kids would be educated today in spite of the school situation, telemedicine could exist in every corner of the state, including rural Alabama. And I will stand by that going forward." The rural broadband proposal is one of 16 items on the list of proposed uses that would be dependent on meeting federal guidelines for use of the money. Last on the list is $200 million for a new State House. The Alabama State House was built in 1963 for what was then the State Highway Department and was retrofitted to function as the State House. It has many issues, as you know, including mold issues, Marsh said. "It also has issues with access as weve seen during this pandemic. We have no public access. We couldnt let the House function normally because they had to be divided. So, are there reasons to build a new State House? Yes there are. Should it be at the top of the list. I cannot say that. But I will tell you, it should be part of the discussion. And I would leave it on there to be discussed." Among other proposals on the list are $75 million to reimburse the General Fund for COVID-19 expenses, $100 million for state agency expenses necessary to maintain operations during the pandemic, $25 million for supplies, equipment, and resources needed to prepare for another outbreak of the virus, and $100 million for the state prison system to reduce inmate crowding and the risk of exposure to inmates and correctional officers. In her statement on Wednesday, Ivey said the Trump administration did not intend for the CARES Act to fund projects such as a new State House. Today, asked about Marshs point that it was the governor who asked for the list, Ivey Press Secretary Gina Maiola said: Governor Ivey has many discussions with the legislative leadership about the ongoing health crisis, but she certainly never asked for a list of pet projects. Lawmakers say they are still awaiting clear guidelines on how the CARES Act money can be spent. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the money must be used for expenditures cause by the pandemic. The requirement that expenditures be incurred due to the public health emergency means that expenditures must be used for actions taken to respond to the public health emergency, the guidelines say. These may include expenditures incurred to allow the State, territorial, local, or Tribal government to respond directly to the emergency, such as by addressing medical or public health needs, as well as expenditures incurred to respond to second-order effects of the emergency, such as by providing economic support to those suffering from employment or business interruptions due to COVID-19-related business closures. Funds may not be used to fill shortfalls in government revenue to cover expenditures that would not otherwise qualify under the statute. Although a broad range of uses is allowed, revenue replacement is not a permissible use of Fund payments. The issue of who will make CARES Act spending decisions in Alabama surfaced on Thursday when Ivey sent out her statement, saying she would yield control of the $1.8 billion to lawmakers but saying she would demand a full accounting. Legislators expect those decisions to be hashed out in a special session later this year. This week, they passed a bill allocating $200 million of the $1.8 billion for the governor to pay for more immediate expenses caused by COVID-19. Ivey has not said whether she would sign that bill into law. Legislators return on May 18 to complete the regular legislative session, which was put on hold for almost two months by the pandemic. House Speaker Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, said he saw and discussed the list at a meeting with Marsh and other lawmakers but did not help develop it. The speaker said he expected lawmakers to be able to work with Ivey to develop a plan for spending the CARES Act money that would be hashed out in a special session, similar to how lawmakers pass the state budgets that are initially proposed by the governor. I would like for the governor and her staff, who has done a great job in trying to handle this pandemic and doing what we can to keep the state moving, Id like to see her get together with her experts and lets get a clear definition of how we can spend those dollars and then for her to present to the Legislature a cost and how we need to spend it, McCutcheon said. And then, lets go through the normal budgeting process with House and Senate, and lets share it with members and lets have input from the people, if you will, and lets spend the money the way it needs to be spent. Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensoro, said he wasnt at the meeting when the list was discussed and didnt know anything about it. He said he would not rule out spending CARES Act money on certain projects but said the first priorities should be to ramp up testing and supplies of personal protective equipment and other resources needed to control the outbreak now and a possible resurgence of the virus later. We need to stockpile PPEs and masks for the general population and for first responders in hospitals, Singleton said. Weve got to make sure we do all of those things that are necessary to protect the public. And if money then is left to do that, then I dont have a problem if were adequately funding what we need to do for COVID-19, not just for right now, but moving forward. Because I think were looking at 18 months or so for a vaccine. And then it may be another year before everybody can get the vaccine. Throughout their range leopards are in rapid decline , having disappeared from North Africa, much of the Middle East and Asia. Declines have been so severe that the species is now considered vulnerable to extinction. No comprehensive estimates of the number of leopards remaining in the wild exist. In southern Africa, 62% of leopard distribution falls outside of formally protected areas. This unprotected landscape is highly fragmented by both agriculture and urban development. Threats to leopards include habitat fragmentation , killing for fear of livestock loss and poorly managed trophy hunting . Leopards are poached through deliberate or opportunistic poisoning and wire-snaring . Their body parts are also illegally traded for traditional medicine and cultural attire . Conservationists are concerned that these threats contribute to the overall decline in leopard numbers. Conserving leopards successfully requires us to track population numbers and trends. However, leopards are notoriously elusive and occur at low densities, which makes monitoring difficult. Threats to many wild cat populations across southern Africa are often age and sex -biased. How these threats influence leopard behaviour is poorly understood. The research Our study explored the long-term genetic costs of exploitation-driven changes in the behaviour of leopards. To do this we compared the social and genetic structure of two well-studied populations in South Africa; a protected population and one recovering from over-exploitation since 2005, where 50% of leopard deaths were human-related. Using GPS collars, guide sightings and genetic samples, we gathered over 15 years of data to reconstruct home ranges and family pedigrees for 150 leopards across both reserves. This allowed us to examine the behaviour of related individuals over multiple generations, with and without exploitation. Typically, female leopards establish territories close to their mothers, while males settle away from their natal range. At sexual maturity (~3 years), sons compete with surrounding males for access to territory and mates. Often overcome by these large established males, sons are forced to disperse out of the area, creating a genetic out-breeding effect. By moving out to establish a territory away from home, sons avoid breeding with closely related females. Inbreeding at the level of sisters, mothers and aunts can have severe consequences in big cats. These range from physical defects like tail kinks , to severe reproductive costs and even sterility. In both populations, we found that daughters established home ranges near their mothers. Here they benefit from the resource knowledge of their mother's territory. In the fully protected population, sons dispersed out of their maternal home ranges, moving away from closely related females. But in the historically over-exploited population, many young males did not disperse. Instead, their newly established home ranges overlapped with those of their sisters, mothers and aunts. Here, territory gaps , created by the killing of large males, allowed sons to escape competition and establish territories alongside their mothers. The problem? Males in the exploited population stopped dispersing and, as a result, destabilised the out-breeding mechanism for this population. This increased the likelihood of young males fathering cubs with closely related females. We found evidence of this with a father-daughter and two half-sibling mating events. Known breeding pairs in this population were also highly related, the equivalent of at least half-siblings. While the overall population was growing, it retained signatures of inbreeding despite over 10 years of recovery. What does this mean for leopard conservation? The risk of inbreeding in small, over-exploited populations is well known. However, few studies have the necessary long-term data to demonstrate this direct link. We show clear evidence of how exploitation can disrupt the dispersal behaviour of leopards, ultimately leading to inbreeding. Our study is among the first to demonstrate these risks in a large solitary wild cat species. We emphasise that even recovering populations still carry the inbreeding scars of historical exploitation. While reduced genetic diversity exposes populations to the challenges of future disturbances, including disease outbreak, habitat loss and climate change. Increasing evidence suggests most leopard populations across southern Africa are threatened by exploitation. Long-term genetic costs should stimulate discussion among scientists, reserve managers and policymakers who aim to effectively conserve this species. The recovery of leopard numbers in historically exploited protected areas is crucial to safeguarding the 62% of unprotected leopard range from loss. Promoting movement between reserves to encourage gene flow requires suitable wildlife corridors for leopards, even through already transformed land. Left unregulated, the unsustainable exploitation of leopards will have severe ecological and evolutionary costs. We have demonstrated that removing too many individuals, especially of a particular age or sex, can destabilise a population. By changing the social dynamics of individual behaviour and this increases the chance of inbreeding. Population monitoring of leopards indicates that habitat loss and population declines are similar to lion and rhino . Yet their silent disappearance goes largely unnoticed due to their broad distribution and elusive nature. We have only just begun to understand and effectively conserve these magnificent cats. Vincent Naude receives funding from Panthera, the Peace Parks Foundation, the Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa, the University of Cape Town and private donors. Guy Balme is currently employed by and receives funding from Panthera, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the conservation of wild cats globally. Jacqueline Bishop receives funding from the University of Cape Town, the National Research Foundation, WWF-Table Mountain Fund, the Cape Leopard Trust, Panthera and private donors. By Vincent Naude, PhD student, University of Cape Town And Guy Balme, Honorary Research Associate, University of Cape Town And Jacqueline Bishop, Senior Lecturer in Conservation Biology, University of Cape Town Big screen TV sets, large volume refrigerators, home theatres and dishwashers are now gaining traction, thanks to CODID-19 induced lockdown, according to home appliances and consumer electronics manufacturers. Many companies, including Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, Whirlpool of India and BSH Home appliances, in the country are getting enquiries from people confined in their homes about such products. The manufacturers also expect increase in sales of vacuum cleaners and grooming products like electric shavers and trimmers as salons are closed and people may tend to avoid such places even post lockdown. "Indians are gradually adapting to the new lifestyle. Restricted within the confines of their homes, people are making the best use of their electronic companions (appliances) to support themselves in their daily chores. Therefore, appliances catering to cooking, self-grooming and cleaning will be in huge demand," Panasonic India & South Asia President & CEO Manish Sharma told PTI. According to Sony India Managing Director Sunil Nayyar, during the Lockdown, TV viewing has almost doubled and suddenly people are realising to upgrade their TV viewing experience along with a better sound system. Also as movie halls would be closed for another six to eight months, consumption of OTT contents is expected to rise on large screen TV sets along with home-theatre systems and people would certainly need good equipment. "Urge to upgrade has been considerably strengthened in the last 46 days (Lockdown). This is the time for realisation, when you need better visual experience through TV both in terms of picture and sound. Sales of Home theater would also increase," Nayyar said. Products such as dishwashers, limited only to key metro markets, is one of the most enquired categories, as people have realised its importance in the absence of their household help under the lockdown. "We expect to see a surge in demand for dishwashers among consumers once the lockdown is lifted. We have already started receiving a lot of enquiries and booking for dishwashers. These orders will be fulfilled as and when the lockdown is lifted in respective regions," said BSH Home appliances MD & CEO Neeraj Bahl. Consumer electronic maker Samsung, which has already started pre-booking of its products, has received queries from consumers across the country for upgradation of TV and digital appliances. "Many, including those in tier-II and tier-III cities as well as rural areas are wanting to buy bigger Smart TVs, 5in1 Smart Convertible Refrigerators and Hygiene Steam washing machines, as their needs are changing. These consumers want to upsize once the lockdown restrictions are relaxed," Samsung India Senior Vice President, Consumer Electronics Business, Raju Pullan said. Moreover, 300-litre and above refrigerators are also in demand as people are preferring to store foods in large quantities in the eventualities of any such future lockdown kind of situation. "The ongoing pandemic has also changed the way we store essentials/ food items for long-term usage. Stocking up on essentials, frozen and ready-to-eat food items in large quantities has been the new norm amongst Indian households. Owing to this, we expect the demand for refrigerators to rise across India with frost free/ multi-door or, high capacity refrigerator range driving sales in the metros/ tier 1 cities and single-door range gaining traction in the tier II & III regions," said Sharma. In addition, the appliances companies have also witnessed queries regarding several kitchen appliances and food processors as restaurants are closed and people would continue to avoid them for initial months after lockdown is lifted. "Absolutely, we already see lot of request for kitchen appliances like mixer grinder, cold press juicer, food processor and hand blenders," said Bahl. "We have seen a big rise in searches for home made recipes, healthy grilling recipes, indulgence recipes, easy cook recipes and of course small domestic appliances that can help make it all. Combined with this are larger perception shifts that the lockdown has bought amongst all of us as we all have started valuing these appliances way more now. Therefore, we believe there will be a step change in penetration for these categories," Whirlpool of India Vice President Marketing KG Singh said. Consumers will also be mindful of managing households in preparation of future lockdowns and building self sufficiency. This is going to lead to higher penetration of consumer durables categories, he added. Nayyar said that work-from-home is now a new culture and everybody needs a good headphone, so that they could have a seamless communication, hence this segment is also expected to rise. According to a joint report by CEAMA and Frost & Sullivan, the industry had a total market size of Rs 76,400 crore in 2018-19, in which Rs 32,200 crore was contributed from domestic manufacturing. India is presently going through an unprecedented complete lockdown from March 25, to prevent the spread of the virus. The government had extended it for two weeks from May 4 with certain relaxation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) More than 90 percent of hospital beds secured for COVID-19 patients in Tokyo have already been occupied, the Japanese Health Ministry said on Sunday, underscoring the pressing need to curb the further spread of the new coronavirus. The ministry said 1,832 COVID-19 patients were hospitalised in the capital as of April 28, or 91.6 percent of the 2,000 beds made available for such patients. The Tokyo Metropolitan government aims to boost the number of beds for COVID-19 patients to 4,000 eventually. "There is a possibility that the virus will spread further. It is necessary to bring closer the number of beds from 2,000 to such target quickly," a Health Ministry official told Reuters. About 5,000 people in Tokyo were confirmed to have been infected with the virus, representing nearly one-third of Japan's total infections of around 16,000, according to public broadcaster NHK. Nationwide, the number of hospitalised COVID-19 patients came to 5,558 as of April 28, versus 14,486 beds set aside for those with the lung disease caused by the virus, bringing down the occupancy rate to 38 percent, data from the ministry showed. He returned to Instagram last month after a four-year absence. And Jamie Dornan continued to delight fans with a light-hearted snapshot uploaded to social media on Sunday. The actor, 38, squeezed into a red patterned midi dress, which he wore over the top of his jeans and coupled with glitzy platform heels. Glamorous: Jamie Dornan, 38, delighted fans with a light-hearted snapshot uploaded to social media on Sunday The Fifty Shades star finished the outfit with a unkempt black wig styled into two low ponytails. Jamie looked bemused as he posed in his daughters' playroom and gazed toward the camera. The father-of-two uploaded that photo alongside a caption that read: Dressing up with my daughters took a turn. Meet Jenny (with the blue hair). She's sweet.' It comes after the Northern Irish actor was forced to defend Gal Gadot's 'cringeworthy' Imagine video that featured several celebrities singing the John Lennon hit. Sorry: It comes after the Northern Irish actor was forced to defend Gal Gadot's 'cringeworthy' Imagine video that featured several celebrities singing the John Lennon hit The Wonder Woman actress, 34, recruited A-list stars including Jamie, Will Ferrell, Mark Ruffalo, Kristen Wiig and Amy Adams to take part in the video which was deemed out of touch by social media users. Speaking on the Tea With Me podcast, Jamie admitted he was roped into the video by his friend and Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar co-star Kristen Wiig but insisted Gal was 'trying to do a good thing'. He said: 'Kristen and I did a movie together last summer that's meant to be coming out on July 31 but who knows what will happen. 'We got on brilliantly. I would do anything for her - that's how highly I think of her. I was the biggest fan of her before anyway. Blackout: The Fifty Shades star took a four-year break from Instagram but returned to the photo-sharing app in the early weeks of lockdown 'Not being on social media, I wasn't aware of the reaction but was made aware by mates,' he added. 'Kristen texted, 'Gal and I are trying to organise this thing to lift spirits.' Jamie agreed to do the video and admitted he received a text message from Kristen several days after its release apologising for getting him involved. He said: 'So I was like: 'Of course I'll do it'. Then she texted days later saying, 'Sorry'.' Jamie filmed his segment from his toilet 'to make it normal' and insisted Gal was 'trying to do a good thing', adding: 'I just got dragged along with it'. Speaking out: Jamie admitted he was roped into the video by his friend and Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar co-star Kristen Wiig but insisted Gal was 'trying to do a good thing' The video was an attempt to lift people's spirits during the coronavirus lockdowns taking place in several countries around the world. However, social media users quickly condemned the video after its release, saying the stars were all isolating in luxury. Although he has not seen any of the online criticism himself, Jamie said he could understand why some people were unimpressed with the video. He said: 'I'll tell you what the problem was. I literally did mine in the toilet of my house. Quite clearly, some people had escaped to their second home. 'There's too much acreage in the background, too many beautiful trees swaying in the background, clearly in front of an ocean, that sort of craic. I was quite aware of that whenever I was doing it, to make it normal.' 'The most controversial finding in the report was that as much as 15pc of programmatic digital ad spend disappears into a black hole.' (stock image) Six years ago, a parody video called The Wolf of Silicon Valley went viral in the global advertising industry. Depicting a group of obnoxious sales guys working for a fictitious firm called Silicon Valley Banners, the video shows the firm's morally bankrupt boss reeling in a gullible advertising client with the promise of substantial click-through rates, high conversion rates and access to transparent monthly reports. As the firm's staff look on, straining hard not to laugh, the senior snake-oil salesman finally bags the client's money and a 50pc margin in the process. Little does the client know, however, that most of his advertising inventory will be frittered away on low-quality websites in Nigeria or Kazakhstan. It's entirely conceivable that many people working in the digital advertising industry at the time probably experienced varying degrees of impostor syndrome - or the fear of being rumbled by clients or peers - because The Wolf of Silicon Valley was so dangerously close to the bone. Fast forward six years and it seems like Groundhog Day all over again. Not only is the entire digital ecosystem as opaque as it ever was but bad, and sometimes corrupt, actors like our fictional villains of Silicon Valley Banners still inhabit huge swathes of an often-murky ecosystem while clients' money is dubiously dissipated, sometimes fraudulently, in all directions at an alarming rate. Evidence of this is to be found in a report published earlier this week by the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) which, together with the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) and PwC, published a damning indictment of the digital programmatic advertising market. The most controversial finding in the report was that as much as 15pc of programmatic digital ad spend disappears into a black hole. Nobody knows how, nobody knows who gets this chunk and nobody is held accountable. So for every 1m (1.15m) in advertising spend, 150,000 simply vanishes. One thing is clear: it's certainly not going to publishers who are ultimately supposed to be the beneficiaries of this ad spend. According to the report, publishers could, at best, expect to see only 51p out of every 1 invested. If they are lucky, non-premium websites - which did not form part of this report - might only get around 30p per 1 spent. The ISBA report also noted an average of 18pc of client spend went on demand and supply-side platforms and technology while 7pc went on commission to agencies. In other words, as much as 49pc of a client's advertising spend goes on a myriad of fees and commissions while a sizeable chunk just simply disappears into a black hole. PwC noted it was incredibly difficult to provide a transparent audit trail given the complex nature of the adtech ecosystem. This in itself is a staggering admission that something is clearly wrong in a market that is increasingly accounting for the lion's share of all advertising budgets. It also shatters the many promises of programmatic that have been touted by agencies and the thousands of adtech companies over the past few years. The report comes on the back of a year-long investigation by PwC for the ISBA and AOP that tracked digital campaigns for some leading brands across a wide number of premium websites. It also follows on from previous reports in recent years by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) in the USA, both of which painted a similar grim picture of a market that had been allowed to run amok without transparency and accountability. "I get a definite sense of deja vu with this stark assessment of the programmatic ecosystem. It's like a game of whack-a-mole when it comes to keeping track of how media is bought and sold," says John Dunne, managing director of the Dublin-based agency Ignite Digital. "We have a burgeoning programmatic marketplace that needs to be disentangled from opaque trading practices and made more transparent and simplified," he adds. That may well be the understatement of the year. Why it has taken this long to finally twig what has been really going on in the programmatic advertising space - when the dogs on the street could have told us - beggars belief. But at least it's a start. Why does any of this matter? For starters, advertisers need to wake up and take greater responsibility for what is happening to their hard-earned cash. As they control the purse-strings, they need to ensure that greater transparency and accountability exists at all levels in the supply chain. Clearly this is not happening. This will also require much greater co-operation between all the stakeholders who have a moral and legal obligation to ensure that clients' money is not being wasted or disappearing into a black hole and nobody wants to accept culpability. For publishers trying to grow much needed digital advertising revenues while competing on an uneven playing pitch against the likes of Google and Facebook, there may even be an opportunity to collaborate and take greater ownership of the digital space with their own exchange and platforms. This could provide an attractive and more accountable alternative to the existing hegemony which, as the ISBA report clearly indicates, leaves a lot to be desired. What does the video of Ahmauds murder show and was it wrong to post it? One of the first things one notices when looking at the photographs of lynchings in America in the first half of the 20th century is the faces in the crowd. They are smiling. Although the more popular descriptors used when referring to anti-Black terrorism are sad, tragic, horrific, the word that should most readily come to mind is pleasure. Lynchers smiled. They enjoyed the killing. They divided up the body, kept parts as souvenirs and used photos of the lynching as postcards. White supremacist society takes pleasure in the display of prostrate, vulnerable, tortured and murdered Black people. In such a culture, it is easy to think of the circulation of the Ahmaud Arbery video as continuing that tradition. And it is. Most viewers watch the video with sadistic curiosity in their private spaces even if they later declare their outrage and let people know that they are upset in public. Despite what some activists will argue, a white supremacist public will not be moved to action after viewing videos of anti-Black murders. It is their cinematic tradition. They are the directors, the producers, the stars and the consumers. Images of Black people dead and dying is the raw meat that sustains a Negrophobic world. Kenyan social media was livid when photographs of the dead bodies of African people during the Dusit Hotel attacks in Nairobi last year were published before the friends and family of the dead were notified. Black people are not seen to be property owners of their own deaths. Their deaths are meaningless but their dying is clickbait and newsworthy. The Black corpse is a spectacle not private, not wept over. Of course, Black people are humans and there are many who share the racist erotophonophilic curiosity of the wider society, even if they represent their circulation of the video as an effort to demand social change. But appealing to white supremacist society betrays a faith in white supremacist society. It is faith in a society that has demonstrated a profound disinterest in the value of Black life every hour of the past four centuries. It is faith that this society is now on the cusp of being anti-racist. That faith is misplaced. It was misplaced when groups of enslaved people argued that if they smiled wide enough they would be let go. It was misplaced when new Black political representatives in the post-Civil War Reconstruction era believed that a non-racist America was on the horizon. It was misplaced when Civil Rights marchers believed that their singing sounded the death knell of racial discrimination. It was misplaced when people shouted never again! after Trayvon was killed. And it is misplaced now. Racism does not grow old and die. It metastasises. This public will not be moved to action by Ahmaud any more than it was moved by Trayvon, by Sandra, by Eric, by Aiyana, or by the name we will hear two weeks from now, or the name we will hear two weeks after that. This public can pull the plug on the economy, it can take the planes from the sky, but it will not willingly disband its lynch-mobs uniformed or non-uniformed. Do not offer up the bodies of the killed to win the sympathy of an unfeeling public. Decommission your hope. It polices you. Many Black people have demanded and pleaded that the video of Ahmauds murder not be shared due to its re-traumatising effects. They are hoping not to discover what they already know is the reality that Black pleading is about as action-spurring as Black killings. Black trauma is, however, real, intergenerational, and should be taken seriously. Our ancestors were gathered and forced to witness lynchings and floggings as well, be they in Basra, in Nairobi, in Cape Town, in Bahia, in Port-au-Prince or in Alabama. This is to say nothing of the millions of Black people who at this moment are being groped by police, separated from their families in prisons, or condemned to suffer the indignities of American totalitarianism in housing projects and ghettos. Racist murder was the knife-point of racial oppression that drove waves of Black people from the American South during the Great Migration. Black people fled both the murderers in pick-up trucks and the local courts and governments that harboured them. They fled because the men who owned the white gun stores refused to sell them the arms they needed to defend themselves after Black-owned gun stores were broken into and the guns confiscated. Black people fled Ahmauds killers tens of thousands of times. Conservative media, like the white supremacist rags of the centuries before them, will instinctively search for a way to protect the murderers and to dehumanise and criminalise the victim. It does not matter how the Black person was killed. The right-wing intelligentsia will try to frame them for their own murder. They will demonise and tar and feather the body, and problematise the dead persons choices in order to feed white supremacist talking points to their yapping audiences. This while the mainstream liberal press will try to pass white supremacist bothsidesism off as objective journalism. But these efforts work less effectively on most Black people. We can still see that a person is being killed. Killed arbitrarily, in broad daylight, and in the open. We see a family being killed. We see us being killed. Still, Emmett Tills mother said leave the casket open. Parallel to the radical desire for the protection of Black mental health and wellbeing runs the demand for the interruption in the regular procedure of sweeping Black corpses under the rug. To show their faces, #saytheirname, stay the broom. The discourse of white innocence and the notion of Americas fundamental goodness are accomplices in white supremacist murder. They work in tandem to quickly paint every incident of anti-Black violence as an exception to the rule. When this is persuasive, the anger is defused, and the incident no longer threatens to become a catalyst. Mamie Till flung open the casket. In pain, she interrupted their arguments and forced a stop to the slow-walking of change. It should not be assumed that all Black people who ask for the video not to be circulated are acting out of concern for Black mental wellbeing. Some of the loudest voices asking not to circulate the videos have made a career out of preaching the possible rehabilitation of the settler-colony. They too, do not want to be interrupted. Every open casket drops into their HOPE mugs and they recoil like an English lady finding a Hottentots skull in her soup tureen. These people know very well that Ahmaud was killed in February to absolute silence. They know that it was this very same video that led to the arrest of the killers, led some Black people to become genuinely fed up, led to #justiceforahmauds trending, and led some to speak openly of revolution. These people are whom Frantz Fanon, the pre-eminent theorist of the white supremacist settler-colony, called the colonised intellectuals. These are the Black academic influencers who are always nearer in proximity to white power than they let on. It is their task to compose the dull prose and type out the hot takes with which they intend to barricade the doors of the state against an incensed people. It falls to them to convince the outraged natives that the abattoir in which they have been living and which has not for one hour in the last 400 years churned out anything other than their misery will one day spew out roses. I have not made any determination about whether, in the end, it is good for this video to be out there or not but I dont have to. It is not my decision to make. The decision about whether or not the video should be circulated (or whether it should have been published in the first place) rests with Ahmauds loved ones. Only Ahmauds loved ones. But it is folly to think that bringing about the end to the circulation of videos depicting racist murder is an achievement. Whipping people in the privacy of the slave quarters rather than publicly against a plantation tree in front of the enslaved is not the victory we might think it is. Enslavement in prisons and on prison farms is allowed to grow in size and atrocity because they are imagined to exist in some hidden away place, somewhere else. They are thought to be outside of society even if they are located in the centre of Chicago. Hiding anti-Black atrocity from Black people is a poor substitute for ending anti-Black atrocity. Worse, it dulls our ability to see its full magnitude. If prisons were in the town square, their walls knocked down and their conditions and demographics were laid bare, there would be a Watts uprising every day. It is also true that we must make a world where the photos of Mike Brown Jrs body left on the street for four hours inspires at least as great a bodily shudder as the mental image of a white person, say Shirley Temple, dangling from a lynching rope an image many would find more disturbing. But that world is not made through silence. It is made through trauma. The video, and the debate surrounding it has also, for me, revealed something about how I have been trained to see (and not see). It has taken me a while to recognise what is so clearly there in plain sight. The video is not a video of a Black person being killed. The video is a record of a Black person fighting back despite being outnumbered and out-gunned. A Black person who fought back against the white supremacist culture that attacked him from nowhere and for no reason. It is a record of Ahmaud standing up, like Trayvon Martin, like Mike Brown, like Sandra Bland, like Eric Garner, like countless others who defended themselves against a murderous culture that has never in its existence been able to conceive of the noble, nor a fair fight. It is disingenuous to pretend to know Ahmaud outside of the few seconds of tape that is circulating. We did not know him as he lived and so we cannot claim to know him in death. It is for this reason that it is crucial that we not reduce his life to his death. He lived and fought in that video. He lived and fought against overwhelming, unfair odds. In this, he embodied another tradition that has always run counter to white supremacist culture resistance. Ahmaud is not reducible to his death and the video is not merely or even primarily a record of his murder. It is a record of him outgunned, outnumbered, and valiant. 100 years ago, Ahmaud might have been the inspiration for Jamaican Harlemite Claude McKays poem If We Must Die, written during the Red Summer of 1919: If we must die, let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot Like men well face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back! The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. Hundreds of people in cars arrive on the first day of a free COVID-19 antibody testing event at a site in Florida. Americans with disabilities, including blindness, are struggling to access testing and other health-care services during the coronavirus crisis. Paul Hennessy | Echoes WIre | Barcroft Media via Getty Images Dr. Bonnielin Swenor, associate professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and director of the Johns Hopkins Center on Aging and Health, was recently exposed to someone who was diagnosed with the coronavirus. Swenor wanted to get tested after displaying mild symptoms of Covid-19. Her children, a 3- and a 6-year-old, both have asthma. But there was another health problem that made testing difficult. In 2005 Swenor was medically diagnosed with myopic macular degeneration from a degenerative retinal disease. Because of her low vision, she struggled with navigating information related to the coronavirus and getting to a testing site. With a severe shortage of tests nationwide, at-home testing has not been a realistic option. Swenor's condition prevents her from driving herself to a testing site and her children are not old enough to stay home alone. She had three options: Invite someone into her home to watch her children, confine everyone into a car together to go to a testing site or do not get tested. The first two options were not risks that Swenor was willing to take, so she decided to avoid testing and hope her symptoms did not get worse. Swenor is among many members of the disabled community facing unique obstacles in accessing health care, testing sites and critical information during the pandemic. Many have decided to avoid testing and hope their symptoms do not get worse. Swenor knows more than most about the magnitude of these challenges. She authored a 2013 study that estimated a population of more than 5 million Americans 20 years and older with vision loss, over 30 million with hearing loss, and approximately 1.5 million with both vision and hearing loss. Access to health care and public health information play a crucial role in how Americans react and mitigate the stress of the coronavirus, but many people with varying levels of hearing and vision loss say they are being left without good options. "Disability has far been not considered in public health emergency response planning or preparedness. It's not coming from preparation; it's coming from reactions," Swenor said. Deafblind community health-care barriers More health-care providers are expanding virtual services to protect themselves and patients from possible exposure to the virus, but people with sight and hearing impairments are frustrated with significant barriers to access the new technology. Many individuals in the deafblind community, specifically, say they cannot use these services without assistance. The World Federation of the DeafBlind defines deafblindness as a "dual sensory (sight and hearing) impairment, with a consequential loss of the ability to communicate with the surroundings without assistance, and the mobility to move freely around without assistance." A Seattle resident who is deafblind scheduled an appointment using telehealth services through Virginia Mason Medical Center. She says that her appointment would not have been possible without her daughter's help. Her daughter had to log into the virtual waiting room, adjust the camera angle, and figure out how to enable captions on Zoom. Later they found out that captions were not available. When the doctor appeared in the virtual waiting room, the deafblind patient asked how to enable captions, but the doctor said he did not know because she was the first patient using the service who needed it. "I honestly don't know how other deafblind people are doing this. It just does not seem possible without help. Nothing is compatible with captions or a Braille display, and there are no words to even get on a display, since it's all in voice," she said. Washington Governor Jay Inslee, left, gives a elbow touch to American Sign Language interpreter Terry Dockter after a news conference about the coronavirus outbreak. AP Photo | Elaine Thompson via Getty Images Many deafblind individuals who are part of a Facebook resource group for the community say they have not gotten tested because they do not have transportation and they are afraid hospitals may not have the proper resources to help them. As a result of the pandemic, most hospitals do not allow anyone to accompany a patient during appointments, which creates even more challenges for those who are deafblind and need assistance. Some hospitals have video-remote interpreters when no interpreters are available, but many patients who are deafblind cannot see the screen, so they need someone to communicate using pro-tactile American Sign Language, a form of ASL that is specifically needed for deafblind people. The deafblind community is a "gray area the gap between two different disability types that do not work together," according to Kerry Thompson, executive director for Silent Rhythms, a nonprofit to promote inclusion of people with disabilities in the arts and society. Thompson is also deafblind. Our health-care system, while doing the best in a truly unprecedented time, is not prepared to ensure inclusion of the most vulnerable population. Kerry Thompson executive director for nonprofit Silent Rhythms Deafblindness includes a range of sensory impairments that requires a unique form of communication. Some people who are deafblind use a screen reader, the same tool used by those who are only visually impaired. Sometimes they pair it with a Braille display or an electronic keyboard, which allows Braille to pop up on the keyboard. "Seventy-five percent of the time I would go to see a doctor, I was denied access to a sign language interpreter," Thompson said. "If that was my reality during calm times, the chances of getting an interpreter (on site) are even less likely during these chaotic times." She added, "Our health-care system, while doing the best in a truly unprecedented time, is not prepared to ensure inclusion of the most vulnerable population." Thompson is a patient at Tufts Medical Center in Massachusetts. The hospital settled a lawsuit earlier this year after a federal Americans with Disabilities Act compliance review found significant barriers to services and medical treatment for patients with disabilities. "Our data, available for the last 10 months, shows that for ASL we have met the need 93% of the time. We know this falls short. We are using every available resource we are aware of to meet the needs of our patients," Rhonda Mann, Tufts Medical Center spokeswoman, said in a statement to CNBC. Mann says there is a national and statewide shortage of ASL interpreters and about half of them are tactile interpreters. Thompson says the deafblind community need the following accommodations to have full access to information and health-care services: ASL videos created with a dark background, dark clothing, good lighting, no windows or distractions; social media posts that summarize what is being shared in two to three sentences; transcripts of all videos uploaded to sites and social media; and emergency preparedness before, during and after disasters that includes those with disabilities in the planning. Swenor said telehealth services offer an "opportunity for a huge change in the access to health care for people with many types of disabilities," but the barriers to accessibility aren't being addressed. "As we increase utilization of these platforms in the wake of Covid-19, the accessibility of telehealth must be prioritized," Swenor said. "If we can achieve accessible telehealth solutions, this format is a game-changing opportunity to improve access to health care for many patients, including people with disabilities." She says one reason why health-care systems are not prepared to treat this population is because of insufficient data. "It's that old saying, 'You treasure what you measure.' We don't collect data that is linked to health care, and since we don't have that data, we don't pay attention. We don't recognize that there's a disparity." Swenor says data needs to be collected on the Covid-19 infection and mortality rate for people with disabilities. While there is some data from centers that care for people with developmental disabilities, that only covers a fraction of people with disabilities in the United States. Like most Americans during this time, those who are deaf and blind follow coronavirus updates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. The CDC and WHO provide information to the public so they are informed about how to lessen the spread and impact of the virus, but many individuals in the deafblind community say this information does not fully accommodate or include those with disabilities. Teams of local interpreters, Facebook groups and national organizations, such as DEAF Inc. and the Deaf-Blind Community Access Network, provide transcripts of recent briefings or send out new updates related to the coronavirus so it is easier for those with disabilities to read and listen. Franziska Paschek, sign language interpreter, translates what was said during an internet-streamed coronavirus press conference of a German state government official. Sebastian Gollnow | Picture Alliance via Getty Images Hong Kong: Delivery of CuMask to begin Hongkong Post announced today that it will start the delivery of CuMasks tomorrow and emphasised its goal is to complete the scheduled deliveries each day. From today onwards, the Government explained that it will issue a short messaging service (SMS) with an item number to successful main registrants prior to door delivery. Door delivery by postmen in uniform will be arranged around two working days subsequent to the issue of the SMS message. If the door delivery attempt fails, Hongkong Post will issue a collection notification card to the addressee. From the second working day following the issue date of the notification card, the addressee or their agents may bring the notification card, together with the required identity document, to collect the item from a designated post office. The addressee will not be asked to collect the item from any location other than the post office. Items not collected within 14 working days will be returned to the Government Hongkong Post would neither notify addressees of delivery or collection arrangements through phone calls, emails, other instant messaging programmes or social platforms, nor ask for any personal information of them or their family members. Addressees should stay vigilant against counterfeit notification and report suspected fraudulent notifications to Police. Click here for delivery arrangement details. This story has been published on: 2020-05-10. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the government created the Prime Ministers Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-Cares) Fund. While questions have been asked about its need when the PMs National Relief Fund already exists, the government is entitled to come up with institutional innovations for special situations. The PM-Cares fund has received substantial contributions. There has, however, been a lack of transparency. The government has not made public the amount of donation received by the fund. It has also not yet outlined the composition of the board of trustees, which, besides the PM and three top ministers (defence, home and finance), is meant to include three eminent persons. The government has also not clarified if the fund is already being used, and if so, for what purpose. This is surprising because it is clear that India is under great fiscal stress, and the objectives of the fund include creation and upgradation of health care or pharmaceutical facilities, other necessary infrastructure, funding relevant research and other types of support. They also include rendering financial assistance, providing grants of payments of money and taking any such steps as may be deemed necessary by the Board of Trustees for the affected population. India responded to the PMs call for support to the fund. It is now the governments turn to tell citizens what is being done with it. Marissa Rancan is the latest confirmed housemate for the Big Brother reboot. The 61-year-old makeup artist from Sydney found fame in the 1980s as one third of aerobics icons The Rancan Sisters with her twin siblings, Adele and Lisa. 'We were the first three to bring aerobics to Australia. It started back in 1983 and we were known for our morning TV appearances,' said Marissa on Sunday. Recognise her? Sydney makeup artist Marissa Rancan (pictured) is the latest confirmed housemate for Channel Seven's upcoming Big Brother reboot In her Big Brother promotional video, Marissa said of her showbiz career: 'We were like a household name. We had a cult following and would train celebrities.' The Rancan Sisters opened their first aerobics studio in Cremorne, Sydney in 1981. As the business grew, they appeared daily on Channel 10's Good Morning Australia, with stars such as Nicole Kidman heading to their gym for a workout. 'We had a cult following and would train celebrities': The 61-year-old found fame in the 1980s as one third of aerobics icons The Rancan Sisters with her twin siblings, Adele and Lisa 'We were the first three to bring aerobics to Australia. It started back in 1983 and we were known for our morning TV appearances,' said Marissa on Sunday in her Big Brother teaser These days, Marissa works as a makeup artist in Sydney and enjoys a quieter life. At 61, Marissa looks set to be one of the oldest housemates on Big Brother. 'Life doesn't stop at 60. I've had so many different obstacles and challenges my whole life. I've got nothing to prove,' she said. 'Underestimating me is a big mistake, I'm a dark horse. I'm going to play this game hard. I go 150% and I aim to win.' 'Underestimating me is a big mistake, I'm a dark horse': At 61, Marissa looks set to be one of the oldest housemates on Big Brother, but will not let that hold her back In it to win it! 'Life doesn't stop at 60. I've had so many different obstacles and challenges my whole life. I've got nothing to prove,' she said on Sunday Marissa will be joined in the Big Brother house by other well-known faces. Former AFL star Daniel Gorringe, ABC Think Tank panelist Mat Garrick and 'mummy blogger' Zoe George are among the revealed housemates so far. The reboot will air on Channel Seven from early June. Coming soon! Marissa will be joined by former AFL star Daniel Gorringe (left) and Melbourne 'mummy blogger' Zoe George (right) in the Big Brother house in June JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia reported 387 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, taking the total number to 14,032, said health ministry official Achmad Yurianto. The Southeast Asian country also reported 14 more people have died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, bringing total to 973, Yurianto said. Meanwhile, 2,698 people have recovered. More than 113,452 people have been tested, he said, adding that many areas across the country are still showing fluctuating number of new infections. (Reporting by Nilufar Rizki; Writing by Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by William Mallard) CLEVELAND, Ohio - We cant get out to bars, but were still trying an assortment of craft beers from all over. Toilet-paper aisles might be a bit barren in stores, but beer shelves remain crammed. Each month, we try various out-of-region beers and offer up flavor profiles you can expect. Well also list our favorite and show you photos of what the beers, as well as labels, look like. Our selections this month range from 4 to 9.5% alcohol. Email us and let us know what you like or dont care for, or suggest a beer in local distribution we should try. Cheers! East Coast Crush: BrewDog, Columbus, New England-style India Pale Ale, 4.8% alcohol East Coast Crush BrewDog, Columbus, New England-style India Pale Ale, 4.8% alcohol Citrus and grapefruit hit you in this very hazy, low-alcohol ale that has a lingering finish. A very good session ale. We're seeing more and more session ales with more flavor and body from craft brewers these days. Arrogant Bastard Ale: Arrogant Consortia from Stone Brewing Co., Escondido, California; Ale, 7.2% alcohol Arrogant Bastard Ale Arrogant Consortia from Stone Brewing Co., Escondido, California; Ale, 7.2% alcohol Very big and intriguing ale. A ton of bitterness across the palate and the finish, though a hint of sweetness from malts makes its way in. You know youre drinking a hoppy ale but you know its not an IPA. Tough to classify this one, which has been made since 1997. Hookiebobb: Crazy Mountain Brewing Co., Colorado; India Pale Ale; 6.7% alcohol Hookiebobb Crazy Mountain Brewing Co., Colorado; India Pale Ale; 6.7% alcohol The ale is billed as a "bright, citrusy and floral IPA," and lemon is big here. Hops come out, and there is a slight Belgian-yeast taste on the finish. It's made with three American hops and weighs in with 87 International Bittering Units. Caramel malts keeps the IBUs in check. Song of the Open Road: Bell's Brewery, Comstock, Michigan; Winter Warmer Ale, 8.5% alcohol Song of the Open Road Bell's Brewery, Comstock, Michigan; Winter Warmer Ale, 8.5% alcohol Song is the fifth of seven beers in the brewery's literary suds series based on Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. This is a hoppier version of an amber ale with definite caramel notes. It belies its healthy alcohol. Brewer's comments suggest notes of baked bread, brown sugar and dark fruit - a fair assessment. Another smooth one from a great brewery. Neverending Haze: Stone Brewing Co., Escondido, California; India Pale Ale, 4% alcohol Neverending Haze Stone Brewing Co., Escondido, California; India Pale Ale, 4% alcohol Huge tropical aroma with fresh citrus. Grapefruit is very clear on every sip in this juicy ale. Great body. This is a session ale that we'd never guess is a session ale. Bavik: De Brabanderie, Belgium, Pilsner, 5.2% alcohol: Bavik De Brabanderie, Belgium, Pilsner, 5.2% alcohol I love that this is called a "Super Pils." There's a sweetness, similar to what a Hefeweizen would yield. But hops punch through more than a typical pilsner and linger. With its moderate alcohol and clean flavor, this would be a great beer to have while watching a ballgame when there were ballgames. Sigh (Here's the site for the Pilsner.) Uncle: Rhinegeist, Cincinnati, Mild Ale, 4.2% Uncle Rhinegeist, Cincinnati, Mild Ale, 4.2% Chocolate aroma, and malts are definitely are up front in this ale, with caramel notes and hops kicking up. You don't see this low-alcohol, malt-forward style too often, but it is similar in body and flavor to Brown Ale and Porters. The plaid background is a nice touch. (We recently featured this beer in our Friday Night Sips series.) Batsquatch: Rogue Ales, Newport, Oregon; Hazy India Pale Ale; 6.7% Batsquatch Rogue Ales, Newport, Oregon; Hazy India Pale Ale; 6.7% Orange comes out with some pine. A nice one, hearty IPA, with its blend of strong citrus flavors on every sip. Long finish lingers. Pulp Patriot: BrewDog, Columbus, Milkshake India Pale Ale, 9.5% Pulp Patriot BrewDog, Columbus, Milkshake India Pale Ale, 9.5% Orange and a bit creamy, though it's not pithy-tasting at all, as the name "pulp" might suggest. Very alcoholic tasting. Hops are fairly restrained. Vinepair says the sub-style has "inspired brewers to experiment with lactose, fruit, spices, and hop additions in a variety of ways." The subset of New England hazy IPAs dates to 2015, the site says. MadTree Lift: MadTree Brewing, Cincinnati, Kolsch-style ale, 4.7% MadTree Lift MadTree Brewing, Cincinnati, Kolsch-style ale, 4.7% Kolsch is one of my favorite styles. This Kolsch-style ale has a slight sweetness with a dryness on the finish. Hops are very restrained, and very little citrus comes through. It's slightly bready. Kolsch, German in origin, is a bit of a hybrid between an ale and lager, and this one is delicious. Our favorite this month: Good ones this month, but well give our hat tip to Arrogant Bastard Ale. Within a span of 24 hours, three BJP-ruled states have announced major changes in their labour laws. On Thursday, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh cleared an ordinance to dilute their archaic laws, while Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani took the ordinance route the next day. These announcements assume importance as many companies are planning to move their manufacturing facilities out of China after the outbreak of coronavirus. These states are trying to woo companies to their region in a bid to attract investment. As several countries have blamed China for the Covid-19 pandemic, companies are now looking forward to relocate from the country. Sensing an advantage here, India is looking for opportunities to attract foreign investors. And New Delhi, here, has an advantage as labour in our country is cheaper as compared to China. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is of the opinion that the negative image of China in the international community may help in getting investment worth Rs 25 lakh crore, if the cards are played well. According to the plan, the Centre, through its various departments and officers, have contacted around one thousand companies in the past two weeks. Presently, these companies have manufacturing units in China and now they are planning to relocate from there. India is trying to lure them. This may also help boost the Make in India campaign of the Centre. Most of the nations have started realising that China cannot be trusted. According to them, after becoming a global manufacturing hub, China started dictating terms to the world. But the most serious charges being levelled against China these days are that it hid the information related to coronavirus from the world for several weeks. This belief has lowered the prestige of China in the world. For them, China is a villain who has thrown the world in the mouth of pandemic. Also, the countries have now realised that they should not keep all the eggs in one basket. This means, they should not depend on just one country for all their needs. The truth is that China has developed itself as the largest manufacturing hub of the world. In this case, if something happens to China, the whole world will come to a grinding halt as for everything essential in life, they are dependent on just one country. As a consequence of this, countries like US, Japan and Australia have advised their companies to stay away from China. Japan has even proposed a fund of $2.2 billion to encourage its companies to leave China so that they do not suffer economically if they decide to relocate back to Japan and even some other countries. The diplomatic stubbornness of China has made it a villain in the eyes of the world. Its relationship with US and Japan has gone from bad to worse, and its expansionist attitude in South China Sea, has angered its neighbours and they are not very happy with China. Chinas high-headedness could be gauged from the fact that when the Australian prime minister blamed China for the virus outbreak and said that China should pay them compensation, Beijing rebuked Australia saying its worth is not more than a chewing-gum stuck to the sole of its shoes. Now all these things are going against it and this is provoking global community to end its dependence on China. India sees, an opportunity for itself when the whole world has turned against China. Even all the states of India are trying to lure these companies. Apart from a state like Gujarat, which is developed, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are also trying their luck who were not so lucky earlier and were left behind in the race. Shivraj Singh Chauhan, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh has been eagerly waiting to take advantage of this situation and was the first state to announce many reforms in its labour laws. Shivraj is playing his fourth innings as Chief Minister of the state. During his last stint, he was successful in bringing industrial investments in many areas through investment summits. But now, at the time of the pandemic, Shivraj thinks, there is an opportunity for Madhya Pradesh and wants to go for a long jump on the basis of the ground works he had done previously. Shivraj knows that labour law reforms have been one big obstacle that keeps coming in the way of foreign investments in India. That is why on Thursday, he announced changes in the states labour laws. While announcing this, he did not mince his words and invited companies to his state from China. Announcing reform in the labour laws, is considered a step towards giving impetus to industrial activities in the state along with creating conducive conditions for foreign investments as well so that employment opportunities are created in the times of Covid-19 pandemic by making good use of the opportunities available. But as is obvious, this is possible only when the labour laws of the state comply with the international standards and are made competitive. They need to be so transparent that it is easier to take decisions. As per the changes introduced in the labour laws by the ordinance, companies will require to spend less than 24 hours in obtaining labour-related registration which took months earlier. Not only this, now licences for factories will not be renewed every year, it will be renewed for ten years now. Companies will not be made to run around offices for getting renewal licence and all these things will be done online now. In case of start-Ups, renewal will not be required after the registration. To make the adherence of labour laws in factories smooth, a new slogan of one register, one return has been given. Earlier, factories had to maintain 61 registers related to labour laws and and had to file many types of returns. But now this has been done away with and only one register will be required to maintain. Self-attestation will be sufficient for the return. Factory inspector will not be allowed to inspect factories time and again and system of third party inspection has been made easy. Industrialists will not be required to visit labour courts at the drop of the hat and the management will be allowed free hand to recruit workers and labours as per their needs. The governments interference has been completely done away with. Women will be allowed to work in the night shifts in IT companies. The aim of all these reforms in labour laws is to attract maximum foreign investments in next thousand days by giving concessions to industries. Shivraj knows that red tape is the biggest hurdle in the ways of foreign investment. The previous labour laws were considered a huge drawback, that is why big reforms were announced. Madhya Pradesh is looking for investments in an area that is labour intensive. The state boasts of having a large number of skilled labour force and millions of jobs are expected to be available in labour-intensive industries here. Textiles, garments, food processing and IT sector companies are already in Madhya Pradesh. All these companies are labour intensive. For example, in textile and garment industries, the share of labour is around 50% in the total cost while in IT sector, it goes up to 70-80%. So, these industries are good for MP. The availability of cheap and skilled labour in MP will reduce the operation cost of the companies if they decide to come here, especially now when labour laws have been changed. Apart from taking policy decisions like reforming the labour laws, MP has also organised webinars in the midst of coronavirus pandemic to talk to a large number of companies who may be interested to come to the state. Officers of Madhya Pradesh have used US-India Forum to establish contacts with companies like Walmart, Amazon, Pepsi and Coca Cola and told them how investing in MP will help them. The Principal Secretary of MP, Rajesh Rajora, is set to contact Japanese companies. For this, Japans industrial forum JETRO will come in use. Germany and UK are also on MPs radar. The companies in these countries are being contacted through Embassies and High Commissions. They are taking the help of all the units of the government of India, who are aggressively advancing the campaign of Make in India for last many years. Apart from those investing with new machineries, plan is afoot to provide incentives to those companies who wish to relocate to the state from China with their old machineries. All the preparations are aimed to not allow the opportunity slip from their hands. Madhya Pradesh has no dearth of water, electricity and minerals. The state is also trying to ensure availability of land which is very crucial component for establishing factories. The state government has already identified 1.20 lakh acre of land and more than 150 industrial parks have been developed. State administration is fast tracking works of companies, including production by plug and play. Even Gujarat is doing the same thing. The Rupani government has been preparing for this for last several months. Anger against China due to Covid-19 pandemic has made this opportunity available to them. And the state does not want to be left behind. Keeping this in mind, the state has announced reform in labour laws and has directly invited companies who wish to relocate to India from China. As per the announcement made by Rupani, if a company brings a project of 1,200 days, they will be given relaxations in adhering to most of the labour laws. They will only have to ensure safety to labourers, minimum wages and compensations to the dependents of his family members in the event of death of a labourer. Rupani has announced that companies from Japan, Korea and US, who are planning to exit China, may be relocated to the special economic zones in Sanand and Dahej and in the industrial parks of Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation where they are ready to provide them 33,000 hectare land. Dholera, which is being developed keeping in mind the foreign investment, is being upgraded with infrastructural facilities at a fast pace so that companies from abroad can be attracted. The Gujarat government is going to appoint a nodal officer for those companies planning to relocate from China. MK Das, the Principal Secretary in Chief Ministers Office and also Principal Secretary, Department of Industry, says that for the past few years, Gujarat has been able to maintain top position as far as FDI is concerned. He says that during the pandemic also, Gujarat is ready to convert the crisis into opportunity to advance the efforts of industrial development and investments to create huge employment in the state. The state government is in touch with all the agencies of the Centre such as embassies and foreign trade organisations. The Rupani government has been trying to follow the roadmap developed by Narendra Modi the chief minister of the state for 13 years to attract FDI. Even UP government is also not far behind. PM Modi is representing Varanasi in Parliament for last six years. Yogi Adityanath, who was made Chief Minister in 2017, is treading on the path shown by Modi. Following this, even Yogi Adityanath announced major reforms in the labour laws of the state, the same day when another BJP-ruled state Madhya Pradesh did so and issued ordinance. The UP government has said that the new labour law will provide incentives for the next three years to the companies establishing industries in the state. These laws include industrial disputes, issues related to trade unions and contract workers. Only laws related to timely payment of wages and compensation laws remain. The state government has already issued the ordinance in this regard. It is clear that Yogi Adityanath is very much eager to attract FDI in the state. The state had already missed an opportunity to reap benefits from foreign investments in 1990 during liberalisation. But CM Yogi does not want the state to be left behind this time as well. Due to bad law and order situations in the state, no companies were ready to come to the state with the proposal of big investments. But Yogi has changed the situation and has implemented the rule of zero tolerance for crimes and criminals successfully. UP is full of potentials. Noida and Greater Noida are already established IT hubs. In this situation, if companies from China wish to relocate in UP, they can be accommodated in Noida, Greater Noida and Meerut as well. UP has the major share in the National Capital Region. This region is fast emerging as economic capital of the country like Mumbai. A new airport is coming up in Jewar. All these could go in favour of UP and companies exiting China may opt to come to this state. There was a time when a lot of industries were in UP. Kanpur was an industrial hub but law and order problems, redtape and corruption compelled industries to leave UP and go to other states. But now the Yogi government has the opportunity to improve the industrial scenario of the state once again. He has the blessings of PM Modi, who is a member of Parliament from Varanasi. By announcing reforms in labour laws, CM Yogi has given the impression that he is willing to take the challenge and he has taken steps in the direction of attracting FDI. By improving the law and order situation in the state, Yogi has already created an image for himself. In the times of pandemic, he has given the impression of being an able administrator also. UP has the advantage of having a huge number of cheap and skilled labour available in the state, which may help in establishing labour-intensive industries. The only challenge that Yogi now faces is to ensure things required for proper functioning of the firms are in place. These are cheap electricity and water, better environment, better infrastructure including road, better transportation facilities and system to treat effluents coming out of factories, easy availability of land on cheaper rates, fast tracking of investment proposals, and contacting the potential investors and not allowing them to get disappointed. Sunil Parikh, an industry watcher, who was formerly associated with CII and is strategic advisers of many companies, says that today several Indian states are competing with each other by providing better facilities and if UP is left behind, then it will not be able to reap the dividends of this opportunity by attracting FDI. The biggest challenge for Yogi is to tame the bureaucracy so that they keep the state on course. Its not just the population that makes UP biggest state of India, but it also has the largest number of officials and bureaucrats. These officers still have a feudal mindset and have not been able to consider themselves as servants of people. PM Modi has to remind them about this time and again. It is not possible for a potential investor or a company to bear this feudal attitude of officers. Yogi will have to learn this from PM Modi, especially the path he has shown as Chief Minister of Gujarat. In 2003, when Modi started Vibrant Gujarat investor summit to attract investments in the state, he projected himself as CEO of the state and not the Chief Minister. He acted as a global CEO of a company who could take decision without wasting much time. Modi also taught his colleagues and officials to be a Karmyogi. He made them attend a short term course in IIM Ahmedabad and kept running the special training programme throughout the year to change the attitude of the officials. He paid attention to each project, approved their investment proposals and monitored and tracked each of them from beginning to end. This was visible when Ratan Tata decided to take away his Nano factory from Singur in West Bengal as Mamata Banerjee opposed it. Without losing even a minute, Modi sent him a personal message of 'Welcome to Gujarat'. After reaching Gujarat, when Ratan Tata was signing the agreement with Modi in Gandhinagar, officials of the state government were busy repairing the road which led to the site where the Nano factory was to be located. This was not less than a wonder even for Ratan Tata about which he spoke in Vibrant Gujarat summit. Yogi too, will have to fine-tune his bureaucracy to achieve this goal. Merely conducting meetings will take him nowhere. He will have to strengthen the communication and make it more effective. If you have to understand the attitude of the bureaucracy of the three states which have announced big ticket reforms in labour laws, then my experience will be a glimpse into it. The Information and Industrial departments of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat took just five to 15 minutes to tell me about the possibilities of companies relocating out of China and FDI that these states may attract and what preparation these states have made. But the officials of these two departments in UP have not been able to provide details even after 36 hours despite reading the message. This difference is that of attitude. One needs to remember that any CEO of a company will not wait even for five minutes for your response when other states are better prepared and waiting with garlands in their hands. PM Modis slogan of Cooperative Federalism has assumed the shape of Competitive Federalism in respect of attracting FDI during the times of virus pandemic. States ruled by BJP and non-BJP governments, all have busied themselves in preparing for this. Any state who is going to be slack on this score, will not be able to forget this nightmare of missed opportunity in next 30 years for a chance that has come to them after three decades. And history is witness to it. The largest state of the country is making big noise under the leadership of Yogi Adityanath to remain ahead in the race. But he will have to act constantly to change the ground reality and he, of course, is famous for that. One should learn from history as well. TSR Subramaniyan, who was Chief Secretary of UP and retired as Cabinet Secretary of India, has mentioned why UP has slipped on the front of industrialisation in his book Journeys through Babudom and Netaland. He has written that after leaders, officers have contributed greatly to this. It is hoped that this story is not repeated and at least Yogi would wish so, but then nothing can be said about his babus. A plan to release the names of long-term care facilities with positive COVID-19 cases should be treated with care, officials with an association that represents nursing homes and residential facilities said Saturday. Representatives of LeadingAge Wisconsin said the list should not be viewed as a measure of quality of care offered by specific facilities. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services said it will begin releasing the names on Monday. To be clear, the mere presence of COVID-19 does not indicate a poorly run facility, but more likely represents a facility that is actively aiding in the fight within this public health crisis, John Sauer, president and CEO of LeadingAge Wisconsin, said in a release. John Vander Meer, president and CEO of Wisconsin Health Care Association and the Wisconsin Center for Assisted Living , added that the report should not diminish the work of frontline caregivers who deserve our respect and support for their efforts. State health officials on Saturday announced 349 new cases of COVID-19, increasing the total number to 9,939. The state confirmed 14 more deaths, for a total of 398. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. Katherine, Duchess of Cambridge ad Meghan, Duchess of Sussex are two of the most high-profile women in the British royal family. Even though, technically, Meghan is no longer considered to be a senior royal. Both women have regularly made headlines for their fashion choices, and both are married to men who have been beloved by the British public since childhood. Kings Cup Regatta | Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images Meghan and Kate are both mothers, with Kate taking charge of three little ones and Meghan figuring out the ropes with her one-year-old son, Archie Harrison. With Mothers Day varying from nation to nation, many royal fans wonder how and when Kate and Meghan celebrate Mothers Day. How did Meghan Markle celebrate her first Mothers Day? Meghan gave birth to Archie Harrison in May 2019, while she and Prince Harry were still senior members of the British royal family. Archie Harrisons birth was a cause for celebration in England, with thousands of eager fans waiting for the first glimpse of the baby. Since Archie Harrison was born in early May, Meghan was able to celebrate her first U.S. Mothers Day in 2019 as a brand-new mom. According to reports, Meghans mother, Doria Ragland, stayed with the couple when Archie was born, which probably made the occasion even more special. American Mothers Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May each year, and since Markle was born and raised in California, it is likely that she celebrates both the American Mothers Day as well as the United Kingdoms Mothering Sunday, which is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent. The couple actually gave a sweet shout-out to moms everywhere on March 22nd, when they shared a special Mothering Sunday post to their Instagram account. Kate Middleton had a low-key celebration Kate has been celebrating U.K. Mothers Day since 2014, having given birth to her first child, Prince George, in July 2013. Since then, she has had two more children, Princess Charlotte in 2015, and Prince Louis in 2018. As a hardworking mom of three, the Duchess of Cambridge keeps a very busy schedule. Therefore, it is likely that Prince William makes sure to do something special for Mothering Day. This year, Mothering Day looked slightly different for Kate. With the royal family in quarantine, reports claim that Prince William, Kate, and their children, likely spent the bulk of their time at their country home in Norfolk. The family did post to their Instagram page in honor of the special day and included a snapshot of the sweet card that Prince George made for his mother. Even if Kate didnt get to treat herself to a lavish vacation or weekend away, she probably enjoyed Mothering Day, all the same, surrounded by her loving family. And since Kate doesnt have many national ties to the U.S., the duchess likely doesnt celebrate American Mothers Day. Will Meghan Markle celebrate Mothers Day in the United States? American Mothers Day will also look quite different for Meghan. Earlier this spring, Meghan and Prince Harry moved to Los Angeles, to be closer to her mother and to pursue their own business interests. With California still under heavy lockdown, Meghan and Prince Harry will likely not be able to leave the house for a fancy dinner or a family day out. Still, with this years holiday being so close to Archie Harrisons first birthday, the family will definitely find some way to celebrate in the comfort of their own brand-new home. Fans shouldnt look out for Meghan and Prince Harry to post anything for Mothers Day this year, however they recently announced that they would no longer be keeping up with their Sussex Royal Instagram account. As the world celebrates mothers day, I just cast mind upon of all those single parents within our communities; their struggles and challenges. Statistically, men die earlier than women, which translates that all things being held constant, there would a huge number of single mothers than there would be single parenting fathers. Also, given the fact that in most cases of teenage pregnancy, the girl is unable to pinpoint the person responsible for the pregnancy or the men shirks of their responsibilities, it exacerbates the prevalence of single mothers. Additionally, the surge in divorce and separation rates can be attributed to the increasing prevalence of single parenting in general. Parenting is not an easy task and for that matter, not having a full complement of support can be really overwhelming. Particularly, when children get to their adolescence, it becomes a huge challenge for single mothers. You are forced to maintain a balance between daily hustle and the socialization and upbringing of your child. Being a single parent implies playing a dual role as a father and mother simultaneously. This can be very tedious and if patients and tenacity is not applied, the child can go wayward and become a liability. This situation puts such parents at risks of some mental health conditions including depression, anxiety and chronic stress. As this is not enough, such persons are met with stigmatization from their families and the general society, particularly, when the birth of the child was as a result of wedlock or unplanned pregnancies. Hence, in the Ghanaian community, you may hear terms like born one which is used to describe single mothers who cannot identify the father of their child. Such stigmatization can even result in repeat pregnancy (a situation where the woman will have another unplanned pregnancy). As we celebrate mothers day, I want to dedicate this day to all the single parents out there who are playing the role of mothers in all spheres of their childs life. It is not an easy job. However, accepting the situation of being a single parent combined with proper planning and support from the family and society will go a long way to provide some social cushion to their challenges. Various religious bodies must use their media to encourage single parents and teach their congregations from refraining from stigmatizing and discriminatory remarks. Happy mothers day to all mothers. Your special work is highly recognized. A Delhi court on Sunday sent AAP MLA Prakash Jarwal to four days' police custody in connection with a case of alleged suicide of a doctor in south Delhi last month. Metropolitan Magistrate Neetika Kapoor allowed the police plea for custodial interrogation of Jarwal and co-accused Kapil Nagar. The court said that the custodial interrogation of the accused was necessary. The investigation is at an initial stage and the recovery of the documents of the extortion is yet to be effected from the accused persons and the rule of the tanker mafia was yet to be ascertained in the case, the judge said. In its plea, police said ten days' custody was required of the accused. The application was opposed by advocate Irshad, appearing for the AAP leader, who said that the politician had been falsely implicated in the case and was willing to cooperate with the police in the investigation as and when he will be called by them. The court had on May 8 issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against Jarwal and Nagar in connection with the case. Both the accused were arrested on Saturday. The 52-year-old doctor, Rajendra Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in Durga Vihar in south Delhi on April 18. In his suicide note, he had held Jarwal responsible for taking the extreme step, following which police registered a case against the legislator on charges of extortion and abetment to suicide. Jarwal represents Deoli assembly constituency. In the FIR, it is alleged that Singh, who was also in the business of water supply with the Delhi Jal Board since 2007, had been threatened and intimidated for extortion by Jarwal and Nagar. The Delhi Police had on Thursday questioned Jarwal's father and brothers in connection with the case. A case of extortion and abetment to suicide had been registered against Jarwal, Nagar and others at the Neb Sarai Police Station based on a complaint by the doctor's son -- Hemant. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Boris Johnson has said people who cannot work from home, such as those in construction or manufacturing, should be actively encouraged to return to work from Monday. In his address to the nation, the prime minister said the government was changing its coronavirus guidance to say people should work from home if they can, but they should return to work if they cannot do their job from home. However, workers have been asked to avoid public transport where possible to help maintain social distancing and keep people safe from Covid-19. We said that you should work from home if you can, and only go to work if you must, Mr Johnson said. We now need to stress that anyone who cant work from home, for instance those in construction or manufacturing, should be actively encouraged to go to work. He added: We want it to be safe for you to get to work so you should avoid public transport if at all possible because we must and will maintain social distancing, and capacity will therefore be limited. Although Mr Johnson said the UK government had been working on new guidance for employers to make workplaces Covid-secure, he did not provide details on what that guidance would be. Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party, criticised the prime ministers address for not providing detail on how people could return to work safely. This statement raises more questions than it answers, and we see the prospect of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland pulling in different directions, Mr Starmer said. The prime minister appears to be effectively telling millions of people to go back to work without a clear plan for safety or clear guidance as to how to get there without using public transport. Meanwhile, Paddy Lillis, general secretary of the trade union Usdaw, said employees needed a guarantee that workplaces are safe before they return to work. We have emphasised safety first in all the discussions weve had with the government, Mr Lillis said. Non-food retail should only start trading again when expert public health advice agrees, but even then we must have a guarantee that the right policies and practices are in place to make workplaces safe." On Sunday, Mr Johnson announced tweaks to the UKs lockdown, such as allowing people to spend more time outdoors for exercise so long as they remain 2 metres away from others. From Wednesday, people will be encouraged to take unlimited amounts of outdoor exercise and even play sports, but only with members of their household. Visiting and sunbathing in local parks will also be allowed so long as people remain apart from others. The prime minister said social distancing rules must be obeyed, with increased fines in place for those who break them. Additional reporting by PA Ghost tracks, fallen-soldier spirits and UFOs are just some of Texas' ghoulish legends. Some stories stem from historic sites, like the Alamo or Hotel Galvez, which have seen devastation in decades past. Others are folklore derived from strange images taken in this state. Let us know which Texas-based urban legends we should add to this roundup in the comments. Piers Morgan attends the 2019 British Academy Britannia Awards presented by American Airlines and Jaguar Land Rover at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on October 25, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Morgan Lieberman/WireImage) Piers Morgan has been a staunch critic of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in recent years - but it appears he may have had a dramatic change of heart. The couple have split opinion since being married and subsequently relinquished their Royal responsibility - and the Good Morning Britain has certainly not been one to sit on the fence. However, in a recent interview he appears to admit he may have let things get too personal with his criticism of the pair. Read more: Ofcom warns ITV over Piers Morgan's 'combative' presenting style He told The Times: Have I taken things a bit too far? Probably. Do I think that will govern and temper how I talk about them going forward? Absolutely. He added: It's probably not wise, if you're a columnist, to make things too personal. Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attend the Commonwealth Day Service 2020 at Westminster Abbey on March 9, 2020 in London, England. (Photo by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images) The 55-year-olds direct questioning on GMB have been winning him fans with his crusade to hold government officials to account with the handling of the coronavirus crisis - but his views on the situation have also lost him some powerful friends. The same interview saw Morgan discussed his falling out with former pal Lord Sugar. Sugar has recently said Morgan had been exploiting the pandemic for his own benefit, comments which did not go down well with the former Britains Got Talent star. Morgan said: Its gone way beyond a joke, and for me its ruined our friendship. I think were done as friends. I cant see through the behaviour. Read more: Amanda Holden praises 'brave' Piers Morgan for sharing his opinions He also took aim at Donald Trump, who he has been a vocal critic of in recent weeks - so much so the US president has unfollowed him on Twitter. Morgan said in the interview he does not think Trump deserves to be re-elected. The star will make a return to this week after testing negative for COVID-19 after revealing he had symptoms linked to the virus. Expats disappointed as repatriation flight from Doha to Kerala capital is cancelled India pti-PTI Thiruvananthapuram, May 10: For 180 odd Keralites who reached Doha airport on Sunday morning eager to return home it turned out to be a disappointing day with the Air India Express repatriation flight being cancelled and rescheduled as permission for landing in the Qatar capital was not given. The flight, which was to have left from the Karipur Airport in Kozhikode to airlift the passengers from Doha and bring them here,had not been given landing permission from the Interior Ministry of Qatar following which it has been cancelled, Thiruvananthapuram District Collector K Gopalakrishnan said. Five Air India pilots test positive for coronavirus "It has been re-scheduled for Tuesday. We are in regular contact with the Indian embassy," he told reporters here. All the 181 passengers, including 15 pregnant women and children,had already reached the Doha airport by 11 am to take the flight as they were directed. According to Revathy, a passenger booked on the cancelled flight, it was disappointing they could not take the flight after the long wait. Only after relatives of some passengers from Kerala called them and enquired, Doha airport officials told them that the flight had been cancelled, she told a television channel. India has started the repatriation of its citizens stranded in various countries, especially expatriates from Kerala in Gulf nations, since Friday and around 1,500 people have already arrived in the state by air and sea route. In anticipation of the arrival of the flight, the airport and district authoritieshere conducted thirdmock drill on Sunday morningand completed all preparations to receive the passengers from Qatar, returning home after being stranded there due to the coronavirus lockdown. The collector said they had not received details, as of now, on why the landing permissionhad not been received. The flight was to have left from Kozhikode airport around 1.30 pm to Doha and reach the state capital at 10.45 pm. Coronavirus positive cases in India nears 63,000-mark, 127 deaths in 24 hours Meanwhile, Congress MP Adoor Prakash shot off a letter to Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri stating that the last minute cancellation of the flight was "disappointing". "The reason for last minute moment cancellation of this flight is not clear. It is very disappointing for our citizens including, pregnant women and those who require immediate treatment" stranded in Qatar," Prakash said in the letter. He also wanted immediate steps for operation of the flight from Doha without further delay. Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, who are the most admired people in America? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has fixed May 14 as the record date for determining shareholders eligible to apply for India's biggest rights issue of Rs 53,125 crore. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's firm had on April 30 announced fund raising of Rs 53,125 crore by way of a 1:15 rights issue, the first such issue by RIL in nearly three decades. One share will be offered for every 15 shares held at Rs 1,257, a 14 per cent discount to the closing price for April 30. RIL's share price has since risen to Rs 1,561.80 (Friday's closing price), but rights issue price remains the same. "We inform you that the Rights Issue Committee constituted by the Board of Directors of the company has, at its meeting fixed Thursday, May 14, 2020 as the 'Record Date' for the purpose of determining the equity shareholders entitled to receive the rights entitlement in the rights issue," the firm said in a regulatory filing. The rights issue opening and closing dates will be informed separately, it added. Typically, cash-strapped companies use rights issues to raise money when they really need it. In rights offerings, companies grant shareholders the right, but not the obligation, to buy new shares at a discount to the current trading price. The last time RIL tapped the public for funds was in 1991 when it had issued convertible debentures. The debentures were subsequently converted into equity shares at Rs 55 apiece. This we already know: The president has contempt for expertise. During a national emergency, President Trumps top economic adviser is a former television host; his supply-chain coordinator is his son-in-law, who majored in nepotism and prioritizes the leads and needs of cronies; the chief of staff at his Department of Health and Human Services is a former breeder of Australian labradoodles, an insolently unqualified choice if there ever was one, though at least the man is well versed in the behaviors of lapdogs. But here we must pause for a moment to consider why the president has assembled this gallery of boobs. Much of the answer comes down to this: Trump never took staffing the federal workforce seriously. The executive branch is riddled with vacancies, especially at the top. Vice President Mike Pence may speak about a whole-of-government approach to the pandemic, but what we truly have is a government of holes. We have an acting secretary of homeland security. We have an acting director of the Office of Management and Budget. We have an acting director of national intelligence. In February, The Washington Post reported that acting officials had already served more days in the Trump administration than they ever did in all eight years of Barack Obama. Acting officials are like substitute teachers, basically, Max Stier, the founding C.E.O. of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, told me on Friday. They can be amazing educators, but theyre substantially hampered because they dont see themselves as the real authority, nor are they perceived as the real authority. Filmmaker Karan Johar, actors Tiger Shroff and Ananya Panday on Sunday celebrated the first anniversary of their film "Student of the Year 2" and thanked fans for their love. Backed by Johar, the film was directed by Punit Malhotra and marked the debut of Ananya and Tara Sutaria. The producer took to Twitter and wrote, "Been a year since these wonderful & gorgeous students graduated with style, sass & love!" Shroff posted an Instagram Story, thanking Johar and Malhotra for the "amazing journey". "One year already!? Thank you @karanjohar and @punitdmalhotra for making me a small part of your amazing journey! Until next time," he wrote. In a long Instagram post, Ananya wrote how "Student of the Year 2" marks many "firsts" for her and uploaded several pictures from the making of the film - from script reading sessions, song shoots to the day of the trailer launch. "This also marks my first year in the industry. Here are a few of my firsts: my first screen test, my first reading, my first director, my first co stars, my first shot, my first dialogue, my first song shoot, my first stunt (and stunt double) and my first trailer launch. "All leading up to my first film ever. Forever grateful and blessed to have received so much love from all of you, thank you," Ananya said. The film was a sequel to Johar's 2012 directorial "Student of the Year", which marked the debut of Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prasanta Mazumdar By MIZORAM: In one of India's remotest districts, Siaha along the Myanmar border in Mizoram, a red hot initiative by the local administration has added spiced to the mundane work of local farmers. The farmers of Siaha grow the Bird's Eye Chilli, one of the hottest varieties, which has been accorded the geographical indication (GI) tag. They used to sell their chilli crops to traders from Silchar in Assam and got meager prices. Now, they are earning 14 times more. The turnaround in their lives came when they took to selling powdered chilli thanks to infrastructure put in place under a convergence of government schemes last year. The person who made this possible was district magistrate Bhupesh Chaudhary. "Earlier, the farmers faced a problem in marketing their produce. They used to sell a kg of green chilli at just Rs 50 and dry chilli at Rs 150. The DM devised the project and got the infrastructure set up. Now, the farmers get Rs 700 for a kg of powdered chilli," said C Galilee, Additional Programme Officer, District Rural Development Agency. Processing and packaging machines, solar tunnels to dry the chillies, water tanks, store house etc. were installed under the convergence of schemes such as RKVY-Raaftar, MGNREGA and Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture. The machines were provided by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited under its CSR programme. The project was started at Zyhno village in a phase-wise manner from February 2019. Soon, the farmers of neighbouring Siatlai, Chheihlu, Ahyhmpi, Khopai and Laki villages joined in. The first batch of powdered chilli was up for sale in December last year. They sell packaged powdered chilli under the brand name of Maraland Ahiah Paohpa. And such is the response that farmers of other villages also now want to grow only chillies. "This processing-cum-packaging unit was set up with the aim to provide sustainable source of livelihood to all the chilli farmers in Siaha district. Earlier, they were mere labourers working in their own land and cultivated chilli once a year. There was no market linkage for their produce. Traders and middlemen used to offer them a very low price," DM Chaudhary said. He said after the district administration gauged the potential of the product in domestic markets, it took the initiative to help the farmers move up the value chain. They were organised under 25 self help groups and a cooperative society comprising 283 members. Subsequently, training in technical and basic business concepts was provided. The farmers were also handed FSSAI certification and India Organic certification. Now, one kg of powdered chilli earns the farmers Rs 700. "We were exploited by the traders. Now, we are getting a handsome price. We are thankful to the administration," said LC Lawkhei. 'This has increased our income manifold. I have resolved to do only chilli farming from now on," said KT Masa, another farmer. A person using the NHS coronavirus contact tracing app. (PA) The government has been warned that people could abuse the new coronavirus app by playing pranks on one another. Dr Michael Veale, a digital rights lecturer from University College London, said the fact that the app relies on users to self-report accurately is a worry. The smartphone download, known as NHSX, is currently being trialled on the Isle of Wight ahead of a proposed nationwide rollout. But Dr Veale, who is part of a team working on a rival app, said users may play pranks on one another by falesely reporting symptoms and forcing them to self-isolate. A telling people in the Isle of Wight to download the NHS coronavirus contact tracing app. (PA) He told Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme that a critical lack of testing had compromised the apps potential effectiveness and meant that the UK is effectively the only country to use self-reporting, rather than verified tests. "That appears to stem from, not a lack of number of tests potentially, but really something that hasn't been focused on enough - the tests aren't fast enough in the UK compared to other countries, Dr Veale said. Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice "And so the UK seems to claim it's stuck using self-reporting because it can't get a test turned around within a few hours. "And this is really a worry. In other countries we're working with, they are very clear that self-reporting will not be allowed on their app because it can be misused or used to prank or used to target people deliberately and put them into quarantine without them knowing." Professor Tim Spector, of King's College London, has also accused the government of putting politics above science by not working with him on his version of the app - which takes into account multiple symptoms. "We should be using a combination of symptoms to diagnose this. It would save lives. We are falling behind other countries." Story continues Dr Veale said there are real signs the government would be forced to develop a second app in order to avoid a second peak in coronavirus deaths. He argued that the UKs use of self-reporting meant that it is currently an outlier in the international community and argued the current iteration of the app won't work well across borders. "The Republic of Ireland have already said they're using a decentralised approach, and that will potentially create problems there if the devolved administration chooses to effectively put in this kind of app," Dr Veale added. Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick denied the Government was already working on a second coronavirus app, but said ministers would move to a different app if necessary. "As far as I'm aware we're not developing a second app but we are paying attention to the other apps that exist elsewhere in the world," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show. "And if we need to adapt our app or move to a different model, obviously we will do." Coronavirus: what happened today? Click here to sign up to the latest news, advice and information with our daily Catch-up newsletter Boris Johnson's address to the nation raised "more questions than answers", Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has told Sky News. Reacting to the prime minister's speech, Sir Keir said: "I think what the country wanted tonight was real clarity and a sense of consensus - and I'm afraid we haven't got that." Mr Johnson set out "the first careful steps" in easing the coronavirus lockdown - with people in England allowed to spend more leisure time outside from Wednesday. And in a bid to kickstart the economy, the PM said anyone who cannot work from home - such as those in construction and manufacturing - should be "actively encouraged" to go to work from Monday. People are now being told to "stay alert, control the virus, save lives" - staying home as much as possible, continuing to keep two metres apart when outside, and limiting contact with other people. But Sir Keir said this new message "just isn't clear enough". He continued: "There are more questions than answers in the prime minister's statement. "We now have the prospect of England, Scotland and Wales with different messages and pulling in different directions. "That clarity isn't there, that consensus isn't there. "I appreciate there will be more detail tomorrow and there'll be further questions to be asked. "But at the moment there's a gap between what we really needed tonight and what we got." The Labour leader said elements of the PM's speech "causes real concern" - particularly people who cannot work from home being told to return to work. "Millions of people are being told, particularly in construction and manufacturing, to effectively go back to work tomorrow," he said. "That's in about 12 hours' time but they're being told at the same time to go back to work if possible not using public transport. That's a real logistical problem for tomorrow morning for millions of people." Story continues While the government at Westminster has updated its messaging to the public as it begins easing the lockdown in England, the leaders of the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have said they will be sticking with the original "stay at home" message. SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford told Sky News the PM had "broken" the four-nation consensus around the lockdown. "There's a divergence in the messages that are being delivered and my party and my government in Edinburgh regret that," he said. "What we got tonight is confusion." Mr Blackford said plans for a potential phase reopening of schools, shops and the hospitality industry from the start of next month "fills me with horror". "Now is not the time for us to be putting in place a reversal of lockdown. It's far too early for that," he added. "There's a very real concern that people will get the message from what the prime minister said tonight that it's back to business as usual. "That poses real questions for the growth of this virus." Sir Ed Davey, acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, said he did not see the rationale behind easing the lockdown "at this critical stage". "It risks what people have fought so hard for," he said. "The prime minister has not provided the country with any evidence or justification for this change. Instead, he risks creating more confusion than clarity by badly communicating his government's plans." Union leaders criticised the PM's speech, accusing Mr Johnson of sending mixed messages which could have "lethal" consequences. TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said the speech "will cause working people a lot of confusion and anxiety". She added: "The government still hasn't published guidance on how workers will be kept safe. So how can the prime minister - with 12 hours' notice - tell people they should be going back to sites and factories? "It's a recipe for chaos." Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison said: "The return to work must be safe. There must be no cutting corners, no playing fast and loose with employees' safety. The economy is important, but lives are too." The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) has advised its members not to work if they felt unsafe. It added that the government's change in messaging would unleash a surge in passengers on the railways and Tube carriages from Monday, breaching social distancing measures with "potentially lethal consequences" for staff and the public. Teaching unions, meanwhile, have expressed concerns about a phased reopening of schools potentially starting within weeks. Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU, called it "reckless", adding: "Coronavirus continues to ravage communities in the UK and the rate of COVID-19 infection is still far too great for the wider opening of our schools." Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said "social distancing is extremely difficult" to maintain with children in reception and year one. The NAHT union, which represents leaders in the majority of schools, said the plan was likely to lead to questions from "anxious parents". A policing group has also raised concerns in the wake of the PM's speech. The Police Federation of England and Wales said the relaxed lockdown guidance still risks being a set of "loose rules that are left open to interpretation" and is difficult to implement. National chair John Apter said: "What we need from the prime minister and the government now is clear and unambiguous messaging and guidance, explaining what exactly is expected of the public, so that my colleagues can do their level best to police it." New York: China and the United States both supported a draft United Nations Security Council resolution confronting the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday and it was "shocking and regretful" that Washington changed its mind on Friday, a Chinese diplomat said. A US diplomat rejected the Chinese comment, saying there was no US agreement on the text. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for the global ceasefire. Credit:AP For more than six weeks the 15-member council has been trying to agree on a text that ultimately aims to back a March 23 call by UN chief Antonio Guterres for a ceasefire in global conflicts so the world can focus on the pandemic. But talks have been stymied by a stand-off between China and the United States over whether to mention the World Health Organisation. The United States does not want a reference, China has insisted it be included, while some other members see the mention - or not - of WHO as a marginal issue, diplomats said. State Rep. Marty Flynn (D-Lackawanna) apologized Saturday night for a Facebook post that drew the ire of some on social media. In the since-deleted original post that has been preserved in screenshots, Flynn wrote: Keep talking about how bad we Democrats are and WE will STOP supporting YOUR businesses! You want to make it PERSONAL and we WILL! The post has been heavily circulated on social media, including by some Republican organizations in the state. People have also circulated screenshots of comments Flynn made within the post itself, including one that threatened to kick the commenter down the street until you shut your fat mouth. Later, Flynn shared an apology from his personal Facebook profile on his official account. By Sunday evening, Flynn had deleted the apology from the official account, but it was still available on his personal one: Earlier tonight I posted on my personal page a reaction to three business owners that basically shared the same meme... Posted by Marty Flynn on Saturday, May 9, 2020 In his apology, Flynn wrote: Earlier tonight I posted on my personal page a reaction to three business owners that basically shared the same meme about how Democrats are evil to which I responded negatively, implying that we shouldnt support (patronize) them. This was juvenile taking anyones political criticism, no matter how low, personal. Even though I was venting about three people and my result of offending more people is well deserved. Im SORRY and I should have been more thoughtful...... On Sunday morning, Flynns apology on his official page had nearly 700 comments. Flynn represents District 113, which is in Lackawanna County and includes Scranton. Flynn has held office since 2013. Flynn is up for reelection but is unchallenged in the primary race. A number of Republican-led counties are testing Gov. Tom Wolfs emergency powers in regards to the coronavirus shut down. Six counties have made public moves toward re-opening ahead of the governors recommendation in recent days, and local businesses have been cited as a reason for re-opening. Lackawanna County is not one of those counties, and it currently remains in the red stage. As of Saturday, the county had 1,134 positive cases and 115 deaths because of the coronavirus. Read more: 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. WASHINGTON As requests for ventilators from the national stockpile reached a crescendo in late March, President Donald Trump made what seemed like a bold claim: His administration would have 100,000 within 100 days. At the time, the Department of Health and Human Services had not ordered any new ventilators since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in January. But records show that over the following three weeks, the agency scrambled to turn Trumps pledge into a reality, spending nearly $3 billion to spur U.S. manufacturers to crank out the breathing machines at an unprecedented pace. An analysis of federal contracting data by The Associated Press shows the agency is now on track to exceed 100,000 new ventilators by around July 13, about a week later than the 100-day deadline Trump first gave on March 27. By the end of 2020, the administration is expected to take delivery of nearly 200,000 new ventilators, based on the APs review of current federal purchasing contracts. That would more than double the estimated 160,000 ventilators hospitals across the U.S. had before the pandemic. We became the king of ventilators, thousands and thousands of ventilators, Trump boasted in an April 29 speech. But over the past month, demand for ventilators has decreased even as the U.S. death toll from the novel coronavirus has surged past 80,000. After observing unusually high death rates for coronavirus victims who were put on ventilators, many doctors are using them only as a last resort. Thats raising the unexpected prospect that the United States could soon be awash in surplus ventilators, so much so the White House is now planning to ship thousands overseas to help boost the virus response of other nations. In a speech to Republican members of Congress on Friday, the president credited his son-in-law, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, with heading up the effort to purchase the ventilators. We built, and we built, and we built, Trump said. Now we have nine factories that are throwing out ventilators at numbers that nobody can believe. It was really theres not been anything like that, since the Second World War, where we did the same thing with other types of product. Daniel Adelman, a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business who teaches health care analytics, said the U.S. government is now buying more than twice the number of ventilators it needs, even under a worst-case scenario forecasting the spread of COVID-19. But Adelman said mathematical models cannot predict with certainty how many ventilators will be needed if there is a resurgence of the coronavirus later in the year or if there is another pandemic in the future. It seems incongruent with the forecasts that youre seeing, Adelman said of the government purchases. Id probably rather they order too many rather than ordering too few. ___ In patients with severe cases of COVID-19, the virus attacks the lungs, causing fluid to collect in tiny air sacs called alveoli. That makes it difficult for the lungs to transfer oxygen from the air to the blood, which can be deadly. To treat these low oxygen levels, doctors have historically relied on ventilators. The Strategic National Stockpile, the federal governments emergency reserve of medical supplies, had about 16,660 ventilators ready to deploy at the start of March, with an additional 2,400 out for maintenance. By the middle of the month, health officials and governors in states with the worst virus outbreaks began expressing concerns that the supply of breathing machines could run out, potentially leaving thousands of critically ill patients gasping for air. Among those calling for additional ventilators was Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.), who predicted on March 24 that all of the ventilators in his state would be in use, and patients in need would be left without proper treatment. Cuomo said projections showed New York would need at least 30,000 additional ventilators to get through the mid-April peak of the outbreak. At that point, FEMA had sent New York 400. Trump expressed skepticism at Cuomos figures even as his administration rushed to send New York 4,000 additional ventilators about one-quarter of the nations entire emergency stockpile. Still, Cuomo pleaded for more. You pick the 26,000 people who are going to die, Cuomo said at a news conference, It wasnt just New York, however. Similarly dire projections of a ventilator shortfall were also then circulating within the White House. The scariest day of my life was about a month ago when, after a long day of meetings, my team told me that we were going to be needing 130,000 ventilators; that we were short hundreds of thousands of ventilators, Trump recounted in an April 14 briefing. I had governors requesting unreasonable sums that the federal government just didnt have. By late March, a bipartisan chorus of state governors and members of Congress were calling on the president to exercise his emergency authority under the Defense Production Act to force U.S. companies to produce ventilators. Trump had resisted invoking the Korean War-era law, which grants the president sole authority to direct U.S. industrial production of critical supplies in times of national emergency, saying the private sector was stepping up production of ventilators and other medical supplies on its own. But on March 27, Trump changed course, announcing that he would invoke the Defense Production Act to produce ventilators, which meant companies would have to give priority to federal orders over other customers. In the next 100 days well, first of all, weve already delivered thousands of them but within the next 100 days, we will either make or get, in some form, over 100,000 additional units, Trump said. ___ By the start of April, FEMA officials confirmed to the House Oversight and Reform Committee that demand for ventilators would soon outpace the available supply. To ration what was left, FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor directed that the remaining ventilators in the national stockpile be designated as a strategic national asset to be provided to states only on a case-by-case basis where hospitals could demonstrate an exigent need to sustain life within 72 hours. Federal purchasing records show that three months into the pandemic, HHS, which includes the Strategic National Stockpile, had not yet placed any orders for new ventilators in 2020. That changed within three days of Trumps March 27 edict, with HSS signing a $350 million deal with Zoll Medical Corp. Records show a flurry of about a dozen big orders with other ventilator makers over the next two weeks, most of them no-bid contracts exempted from the typical federal purchasing rules due to the national emergency. In a typical year, U.S. companies produce about 29,000 ventilators, according to data cited by the White House. Though several domestic manufacturers had already announced they were adding extra shifts and hiring additional workers to ramp up production, APs analysis of HHS contracts show that even with the emergency no-bid orders the traditional medical device makers would deliver about 73,990 new ventilators by July 6 the 100-day mark since Trumps March 27 pledge. It was clear additional industrial capacity would be needed to get 100,000 units by the presidents deadline. General Motors, which had shut down auto production, had already entered into a partnership on March 20 with Ventec Life Systems, a small ventilator company, to simplify an off-the-shelf design for rapid production at GMs Kokomo, Indiana, plant. Though GM had announced it was working night and day to launch production, Trump accused CEO Mary Barra via Twitter of dragging her feet, and revived his long-running feud with the company over its 2019 closure of an Ohio factory that Trump had pledged to save. As usual with this General Motors, things just never seem to work out, Trump tweeted on March 27. General Motors MUST immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in Ohio, or some other plant, and START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!!!!!! GM had sold the Lordstown factory in 2019. The president also took aim at Ford Motor Co., tweeting that the rival automaker should also GET GOING ON VENTILATORS, FAST!!!!!! On April 8, HHS announced it had reached a $489.4 million deal with GM to produce 30,000 ventilators by the end of August, with the first 6,132 delivered by June 1. The following week, HHS announced a $336 million contract with Ford and General Electric, which teamed up to make 50,000 of GE Healthcares ventilators by July 13. Assuming all the companies meet their deadlines, APs analysis shows the national stockpile should surpass 100,000 new ventilators by mid-July. ___ HHS declined to release to AP its contracts with ventilator producers without a Freedom of Information Act request, a legal process that can often take months or even years. But APs analysis of the limited contract data available online and figures taken from HHS media releases shows the agency will spend more than $2.9 billion for 198,890 ventilators by the end of 2020, an average per-unit cost of $14,618. Whether thats a good deal for U.S. taxpayers is difficult to determine because medical device makers generally dont publish their prices. HHS is buying at least 13 different models of ventilators from 10 different companies, all with different capabilities, features and accessories. When AP sought details from HHS about the per-unit cost of four models from manufacturer Hamilton Medical, the agencys press office provided figures that did not add up to the totals announced in earlier media releases. An HHS spokesperson said the previously provided figures were wrong and would be corrected on the agencys website. AP found several instances where the U.S. government had purchased the same models of ventilators before the pandemic. For example, contracting data does show that in December the Department of Defense bought a single, portable ventilator from Zoll Medical for $12,260. Under its current contract with Zoll, HHS is purchasing 18,900 of the same model for slightly more than $350 million. That works out to about $18,500 each, which would be a more than 50 percent increase from what the Pentagon paid less than five months ago. A HHS spokeswoman said Friday the government was paying about $12,100 for each ventilator, and that the additional money was for hoses, face masks and other related supplies needed to treat COVID-19 patients. The ventilators also came with a wheeled plastic case with power port, which cost an additional $722 each, according to HHS. The Defense Department did not respond to questions Friday about whether its 2019 ventilator deliveries also included accessories. Zolls top executive said his companys pricing had remained consistent. Zoll is supplying the U.S. government with its requested products at our usual and customary government pricing, absorbing the additional costs associated with Zolls rapid increase in production capacity, Zoll CEO Jonathan Rennert said Friday. We are focused on fulfilling the governments order on time and meeting this urgent public need. Erik Gordon, a business professor at the University of Michigan who studies the medical device industry, said ventilator companies are probably incurring increased costs as they ramp up production to meet high demand. Manufacturers havent had time to bulk buy additional parts and probably had to add workers to make more of the machines, he said. U.S. ventilator makers have raised production from a rate of about 700 per week in February to about 5,000 per week by early April, according to the Advanced Medical Technology Association, an industry trade group. If you dont have time to change your manufacturing processes to get those economies of scale, you get there by brute force, extra labor, said Gordon, who teaches a course in monetizing medical device ideas. Your costs actually go up, not down. With the federal government buying most of the new ventilators being made in the U.S., state governments and hospital systems urgently seeking the machines have often been forced to go through middlemen or foreign suppliers. Cuomo has compared the free-for-all bidding to going on eBay, and said during a March 31 briefing that New York had ordered 17,000 ventilators from China for $25,000 each. We are paying $25,000 per ventilator, and we are broke, Cuomo said. The last thing I want to do is buy a single ventilator I dont need. More than a month later, only 2,500 of the Chinese machines have been delivered, according to Cuomos office. In a separate case, New York officials are trying to recover another $69.1 million paid to a Silicon Valley electrical engineer who promised 1,450 ventilators that never materialized. ___ With nearly 200,000 new ventilators set for delivery to the federal stockpile by the end of the year, Trump is declaring victory. But it is now unclear whether the stockpile of new ventilators will be needed. In the little more than a month since Trump announced the buying spree, a series of medical studies has spurred questions about whether ventilators are effective at saving the lives of critically ill COVID-19 patients. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on March 30 found that only 1 of 7 patients older than 70 who were put on a ventilator survived. For patients younger than 70, just 36% lived. In New York City, state officials say 80% or more of coronavirus patients placed on the machines died. The studies have caused doctors to reevaluate the use of ventilators in favor of less intensive forms of respiratory support. Trump administration officials say the new ventilators could still prove valuable if the virus outbreak were to intensify into a second wave after the warm summer months. Its very important that we have a completely refreshed and a comprehensive stockpile going into the fall, Dr. Deborah Birx, a medical adviser on the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said at a briefing on April 21. I think thats why weve continued to bring in those shipments and work on the ventilators so that those would be available not only for the United States but certainly if other partner countries have this level of tragedy. Trump said he intends to ship thousands of the breathing machines overseas, where the needs are greater. On Tuesday, Mexico said it received a shipment of ventilators from the United States. Trump said last week Russia is also set to receive U.S. ventilators, along with other countries. People dying because they dont have ventilators, and theyre not equipped to do what we did, Trump said Friday. So were giving thousands and thousands of these ventilators away to many countries that have suffered greatly: Italy, France, Spain, so many countries. And Nigeria called. Tremendous problems in Nigeria. Tremendous problems all over. And so theyre very happy. ___ Krisher reported from Detroit. Associated Press writer Marina Villeneuve in Albany, New York, contributed to this report. ___ Follow AP Investigative Reporter Michael Biesecker at http://twitter.com/mbieseck and Krisher at http://twitter.com/tkrisher ___ Contact APs global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (21) Some of the countrys 82 marts may close over the impact of Covid-19, it has been warned. The Mart Managers Association of Ireland has warned that marts are operating at a loss for around seven months of the year and the closure of the marts over the past two months to normal trade, at one of their busiest times. According to the Associations Director Eimear McGuinness smaller marts around the country were unable to conduct more than a handful of sales in under the new Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) over the past two months. In a letter to the Ministers for Agriculture and Business, the Association, which represents 24 of the countrys 82 livestock marts, said figures for the last two weeks of April show that cattle numbers through the marts are down 60pc on the same time last year. These potential commissions can never be recouped and these losses will be reflected inaccounts towards the year end, she said and Covid-19 may potentially close some marts. She also said mart mangers are now faced with the prospect of returning to sale yards with a lot less customers to purchase stock. We will also be asked to keep sale numbers smaller and hold extra sales in order to keep numbers of people attending to a minimum creating more additional costs. And while some larger marts have moved to online selling platforms which allows them to continue to trade, however online options require considerable financial investment and not all marts can afford this, she said. The effect of our businesses closing under Covid19 has compounded the difficulties our industry has experienced over the past number of years; decline in suckler farmers throughout the country, insurance premiums hikes, commercial rates upward revaluations, according to McGuinness. Whether a mart is large or small in size there is one common denominator; buyers and sellers both miss the auction ring. For the most part, farmers have had to work without the livestock auction over the past two months. The live-trade within marts, something we can look back and say was taken for granted because of its absence during Covid19, is missed. Confidence amongst farmers has certainly suffered with the numbers of livestock presenting to marts dramatically reduced during Covid19. She also said that regarding marts who paid for insurance cover for business interruption, these marts have had no clear or concise statement from the insurance companies, with regards to whether they will pay or won't pay on business interruption for the time when marts have not been able to perform and maximise their full cash flows, thus leaving them in a very vulnerable position. The loss that marts have been to the farming community and the vital role they play in facilitating a safe haven for farmers to trade their livestock while securing the maximum price achievable is huge. The Association has called on the Ministers for a meeting to discuss financial supports for marts to get them through the lean summer months and to continue to offer the vital service to the farming communities. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-11 00:34:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LONDON, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Another 269 COVID-19 patients have died in Britain as of Saturday afternoon, marking the lowest increase in a 24-hour period since March 29, the Department of Health and Social Care said Sunday. The total novel coronavirus-related death toll in the country has hit 31,855, as 219,183 people tested positive for the disease, said the department. The figures include deaths in all settings, including hospitals, care homes and the wider community. Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled an updated slogan in the government's official coronavirus guidance for the public. The previous message of "stay at home, save lives, protect the NHS (National Health Service)" has been revised and the updated version is "stay alert, control the virus, save lives", said Johnson via his official Twitter account. The latest government guidance include "stay at home as much as possible, work at home if you can, limit contact with other people, keep your distance if you go out (two meters apart where possible), wash your hands regularly." "Everyone has a role to play in helping to control the virus by staying alert and following the rules. This is how we can continue to save lives as we start to recover from coronavirus," said Johnson on Twitter. A "broader" slogan was needed as the government looked to restart the economy, Sky News quoted the British Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Robert Jenrick as saying. More details on the matter are expected to be revealed later on Sunday by the prime minister in a televised speech. Enditem R esidents of the Lake District have been left fearing an influx of visitors after Boris Johnson gave Britons the go ahead to drive to beauty spots for exercise. Addressing the nation in a pre-recorded message on Sunday evening, the Prime Minister sketched out his road map for easing the UK lockdown. Among these, Mr Johnson said the Government would be encouraging people to take unlimited amounts of outdoor exercise and, from Wednesday, the public would be allowed to drive to other destinations. Communities nestled into areas of natural beauty shared their shock at the news, fearing a surge in tourists would leave them at risk of a spike in infections. The tourism board of Cumbria, home of the Lake District, tweeted: We are shocked by the timing and short notice of tonights announcement. We are awaiting further details but the safety of residents must come first. For now, tourism businesses in Cumbria remain closed and we urge everyone to continue to #StayHome. In a separate Twitter post, the national park's chief executive Richard Leafe, wrote: "This could be very difficult for the communities of the Lake District and Cumbria. "Please dont rush to visit us." Meanwhile, former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, also responded to the announcement tweeting: The Prime Minister said we could now drive for exercise but not how far. "He said that hospitality businesses would remain closed until July but didnt mention anything about travelling to second homes. Local communities here in the Lake District will be rightly concerned about this lack of clarity and the impact it could have on local residents especially with Snowdonia so clearly off limits to people in Manchester and Liverpool. We will welcome you all back to the Lakes with open arms when this is over but sadly people are still dying so please dont rush back to the Lake District yet. Cumbria is one of the worst hit regions in the UK for coronavirus, with one of the highests infection rates in the country, according to Department of Health data. Loading.... The National Trust also acknowledged the announcement from Number 10 by reviewing plans to reopen sites. An NT spokesworman said: Following the Prime Ministers broadcast outlining the Governments gradual road map out of lockdown, we will begin to review its effect on our reopening plans." Last week, the trust said it was working on plans to reopen sites, which have been shut to the public since March 24. The coronavirus has preyed on residents of nursing homes in New Jersey with lethal force, claiming 4,953 lives. Deaths at long-term care facilities now account for more than half of the states Covid-19 fatalities, well over the national rate. But nowhere has the devastation been starker than at the New Jersey Veterans Home at Paramus, a state-run home for former members of the U.S. military, where on Tuesday 74 deaths had been linked to virus. The home is built on the idea that those who served in the military are entitled to dignified care in their twilight years. Instead, in what some people have called a betrayal of this fundamental pact, the Paramus home is the site of one of the biggest coronavirus outbreaks in the country. The virus has swept through the facility, which in late March had 314 residents, infecting 60 percent of its patients. Your browser does not support the video tag. Sree Chandana M By Express News Service VISAKHAPATNAM: The gas leak in LG Polymers led to violation of the coronavirus protocol as it was the need of the hour to save lives of people. However, Andhra Medical College principal Dr PV Sudhakar stated that Covid-19 tests will be conducted on the victims and others related to the gas leak in the next two weeks. He dismissed reports that there would be damage to the vital organs of the gas leak victims. Speaking to TNIE, Dr Sudhakar said, We could not follow the novel coronavirus protocol soon after the gas leak as peoples lives were at stake. People were rushed to the hospital in a critical condition on Thursday morning. However, given the coronavirus situation, we will do whatever the protocol directs us to do." Explaining the effects of styrene gas, he said, It will affect the nervous system only in instances of prolonged exposure. Studies show acute exposure has no effect if victims are treated immediately. Asked if RR Venkatapuram is safe for people with lung infection or any other chronic disease, Dr Sudhakar said once the victim is treated and sent home, he or she can go back to normal life. As the gas was flushed out of their system, it will not have any effect if they follow all the precautions prescribed to them, he added. Meanwhile, no new person from RR Venkatapuram and its surroundings was admitted to the hospital Saturday with breathlessness and other respiratory problems. No one has been discharged from KGH though the condition of many victims is stable. All the victims are under observation. They will be sent home only after their complete recovery, the KGH authorities said. However, the victims are still worried about developing health complications. I am scared if I may be affected with any chronic disease or other major health problem in future. However, the doctors assured that nothing will happen and hopefully, there will not be any health problem in future, said Raja of RR Venkatapuram, who is under observation in KGH. Manideep shifted to eye hospital Manideep, who is suffering from severe eye irritation, was shifted to LV Prasad Eye Hospital for further treatment. According to the KGH doctors, though the condition of the 6-year-old boy is stable, he was shifted to the eye hospital to ensure that he does not have any issues with visibility in future. After getting permission from the hospital, Manideep was taken to participate in his fathers last rites as he died in the gas leak. An increase in the number of industrial zones has been polluting Vietnams environment, and there are no appropriate solutions in place, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) warned in its draft 2019 report. The Vinh Tan Power Centre has been criticised for causing air pollution in Binh Thuan province Major sources of environmental pollution come from socio-economic development activities, the ministry stated, reflected in 372 industrial zones being established last year, including 280 coming beginning operation, 29 more than in 2018. In addition, with nine industrial clusters added in 2019, Vietnam now has 698 clusters. Along with factories and manufacturing areas, high polluting industries including metallurgy, mining, ship demolition and thermal power are placing Vietnams environment under pressure. MONREs data shows more than 5,000 mines and natural resource exploiting areas, 300 paper production factories, 25 thermal power plants under commercial operation and 65 iron and steel production projects have a capacity of 100,000 tonnes per year each nationwide. The ministry also pointed out companies generating large amounts of toxic waste such as Nghi Son Refinery in Thanh Hoa province, Hung Nghiep Formosa Steel Plant in Ha Tinh province which caused the marine life disaster in four central provinces in 2016 and Lam Dong Aluminum-Bauxite Complex which has been blamed for damaging the Central Highlands environment. As of December 2019, there were 171 facilities causing serious environmental pollution which had not implemented complete measures to tackle pollution. On more than 31,600 farms nationwide, up to 1,000kg of fertiliser and 2kg of pesticide are used for each hectare of agricultural land annually. The ministry estimates about 240 tonnes of toxic solid waste is discharged into the environment from agricultural activities annually. According to MONRE, the number of handicraft villages and cities also increased over the past two years. There are some 4,500 villages focusing on making traditional products nationwide. The countrys urbanisation rate in 2019 reached 39.2 percent, up 0.8 percent compared to 2018. Transportation, the ministry says, is one of the main causes of air pollution, especially in highly populated urban areas. The number of cars in 2019 rose by 12.2 percent compared to the previous year, standing at 3.6 million. Climate change is also threatening Vietnams security of water, food and ecosystem and worsening existing pollution. While coastal localities struggle to deal with ocean plastic and oil spills, Mekong Delta provinces are sinking under the impact of sea-level rise and dam-building on the Mekong River. The country is expected to suffer its highest temperatures ever recorded in 2020, according to Meteorological and Hydrological Administration. Due to the impact of global warming and the melting of glaciers, 2020 will be the year of escalating and complicated natural disasters. The annual flood peak at the headwaters of the Mekong river on Tien river in Tay Ninh provinces Tan Chau Town and Hau river in An Giang provinces Chau Doc district is predicted to be 0.2 to 0.4 m lower than the annual flood peak and will appear by the end of September./.VNS MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI An eighth-grader in Montague placed among the top five winners of a statewide contest with her essay on her personal hero: Her uncle, who is fighting on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis as a nurse. Morgan Crawford, a student at Nellie B. Chisholm Middle School in Montague, was announced as the fourth place-winner in the annual statewide Farm Bureau Insurances America and Me Essay Contest, according to a news release issued by the contest. The theme of this years essay contest was My Personal Michigan Hero. Crawford won fourth place out of about 3,500 submissions with an essay about her uncle, who is a registered nurse at Mercy Health in Muskegon and donated a kidney to Crawfords mother. My Uncle Matt is selfless and brave, Crawford wrote in the essay. His heart is overflowing with selfless acts, and I hope he realizes that I am beyond blessed that he is not only my uncle, but my hero. He inspires me to go above and beyond and to help when I am able to, even when its difficult to do. Crawford wrote that in 2011, her mother was diagnosed with Type I diabetes and needed a kidney transplant. Her uncle tested himself to determine if he was a candidate to donate a kidney, and when he found out that he was, Crawford wrote that she was stoked. There are not enough words to express how appreciative I am of what my uncle did, she wrote in the essay. Created in 1968, the Farm Bureau Insurance essay competition is open to any eighth-grade student in Michigan and is meant to encourage students to explore their roles in Americas future, according to the release. Farm Bureau is proud to support Michigan students and schools around the state through the America & Me Essay Contest, said Farm Bureau Insurance CEO Don Simon in a released statement. Each year, we are impressed and moved as these student authors share personal stories of their local Michigan heroes. About 3,500 essays were submitted this year by students from over 350 schools in Michigan, the release said. The top 10 contest winners will receive a cash award of $1,000, as well as a matched $1,000 donation to their school. Nellie B. Chisholm Middle School will receive an additional $500 because it is sponsored by a Farm Bureau Insurance agent, the release said. Crawford will also receive a personalized plaque and medallion, and a copy of her winning essay printed in metal. The Powering Positivity campaign by MLive Media Group highlights how Michiganders are supporting one another during the coronavirus pandemic. It is sponsored by The MediLodge Group. More on MLive: With no surge in coronavirus expected, Muskegon health facilities eye reopening Unity Christian Music Festival canceled this year due to coronavirus Pound Buddies launches $2.5M fundraiser for new shelter Published on 2020/05/10 | Source A staffer cleans a cafeteria at a school in Seoul on Monday. /Newsis High school seniors will go back to school on May 13 amid fears of a fresh spike in coronavirus cases. Advertisement The Education on Monday said 12th graders will go back to school first, followed by students in first and second grade of elementary school, and kindergartners on May 20 and the rest in the following weeks. But Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae called for caution in relaxed social distancing rules so that classes can be taught without a hitch. "School opening doesn't mean the end of the coronavirus epidemic", she warned. Schoolkids will have to wear face masks except at lunchtime and will have their temperature checked before and after school. Once the weather gets hotter, air conditioners will pose another headache as they are thought to circulate viruses and germs. "It may be inevitable to use air conditioners in classrooms because schools won't have a summer break", said Kwon Joon-wook, the deputy chief of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We'll work with experts to find best and safest ways". If any student or teacher tests positive for the virus, their school will have to run classes online, Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip warned. Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on CBS News' "Face the Nation" Sunday that the Trump administration needs a "better system" for distributing coronavirus therapeutics, following the chaotic rollout of the drug remdesivir. Why it matters: As Axios' Jonathan Swan first reported, a breakdown in communication and coordination by the administration resulted in a failure last week to distribute remdesivir to some of the high-priority hospitals where it's most needed. Preliminary data indicates that the drug can help patients recover from the coronavirus more quickly than patients who receive no treatment, but it does not significantly reduce the risk of death from the virus. The backdrop: Gilead Sciences, which produces remdesivir, donated hundreds of thousands of doses to the federal government after the FDA authorized it as an emergency treatment for coronavirus patients. Gilead CEO Daniel O'Day said last week that the federal government would determine which U.S. cities will receive the drug based on "urgent" need and deliver the medicine. More than 32,000 doses were shipped and delivered last week to Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Virginia. Some doses went to less-impacted counties around the U.S., and many other doses remain unshipped. What he's saying: "If the government is going to take control of the supply of these kinds of therapeutics and they don't necessarily have to do that, they chose to do that they need to have a good system in place," Gottlieb said. "I think they should have been trying to push out as many doses as fast as possible because more supply is coming into the market. There's no reason to hoard it or hold on to it." "So hopefully when they start to contemplate the next therapeutic, and there will be more therapeutics in the fall or a vaccine, on how they allocate that, they're going to have a better system in place based on clinical need." Go deeper: Why Gilead's coronavirus drug is not a "silver bullet" He said 400,000 people in 97,000 unsewered homes were pouring effluent and sullage into the Yarra, the Maribyrnong and two major creeks, Darebin and Kananook. Every river and creek in Melbourne is pouring sewage into Port Phillip Bay, the chief engineer of the Board of Works (Mr. A. G. Robertson) said last night. First published in The Age on May 11, 1973 But nothing can be done about this until the south-eastern sewerage system and the Carrum treatment plant are completed, he said. It is the high degree of pollution which we are concerned about, he said. Mr. Robertson said the Carrum treatment plant was already nearly 12 months behind schedule because of wild-cat stoppages, union demarcation disputes and off-site strikes. He said the first properties were due to be connected to the new system this June. Now we do not expect to be open until at least April next year, he said. Each week of delay is costing the community $200,000. INS Jalashwa reached Kochi on Sunday with 698 stranded Indians, who were evacuated from Male, Maldives under Operation Samudra Setu. Indian Navy has assured that all the necessary precautions were undertaken to ensure adequate social distancing and minimal discomfort to old aged people, pregnant ladies and children in arms. INS Jalashwa, which sailed from Maldives on May 8 with 698 stranded Indian nationals, entered Kochi harbor on Sunday. The INS Jalashwa, deployed for Operation Samudra Setu, entered Kochi harbour at around 10:00 am on 10 May with a total of 698 Indian nationals stranded at Maldives, which included women, elderly people and children, Indian Navy release said in a release. The ship had sailed from Maldives, May 8 post completion of all embarkation formalities. The Indian Navy said all necessary measures were taken by the respective teams to ensure safe embarkation with minimal social contact. Adequate care was also taken to cater for the old aged people, pregnant ladies and children in arms during the trip. All the passengers were handled by trained Indian Navy personnel donning Personal Protective Equipment. The evacuation operation was conducted in accordance with all Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and guidelines issued by the Government of India. Of the 698 persons 440 were from Kerala; 187 from Tamil Nadu; 8 from Karnataka, nine from Telangana; eight from Andhra Pradesh; one from Goa; two from UP; four from Lakshadweep; one from Assam; three from Haryana; seven each from Uttarakhand and West Bengal; three each from Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh; two each from Jharkhand, Odisha, Puducherry and Madhya Pradesh and four from Delhi. Also Read: Coronavirus India: PM Modi to interact with Chief Ministers tomorrow on post May 17 lockdown plan Also Read: 3.5 magnitude earthquake shakes Delhi, adjoining areas The passengers were received, by the naval and civil administration authorities present at the Cruise Terminal of Cochin Port Trust, where the ship has berthed. Extensive arrangements have been put in place by the State Government for speedy completion of CoViD screening and immigration formalities at the Cruise Terminal, the release said while adding that glassed counters have been set up at the terminal in accordance with medical protocol for Customs, Immigration, Police, Health department, BSNL and District Administration. INS Jalashwa, based at Visakhapatnam has been at the forefront of similar evacuation efforts of Indian nationals and major Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) efforts of the Indian Navy. The ship is designed to carry troops and the facilities onboard were modified for the ongoing evacuation. It is manned by trained medical teams of the Indian Navy, specifically embarked for the ongoing Operation. The repatriation process by the warship is a part Operation Samudra Setu to evacuate Indian nationals stranded in the island nation during the COVID-19 lockdown. The entire exercise is part of Vande Bharat Mission of the Government of India for repatriation of Indian nationals from the Middle East and Maldives in the backdrop of CoViD 19 pandemic. Also Read: Clash between Indian, Chinese troops in North Sikkim, both sides suffer minor injuries For all the latest National News, download NewsX App The coronavirus pandemic is straining social safety nets across the globe and underlining sharp differences in approach between wealthy societies such as the United States and Europe. In Europe, the collapse in business activity is triggering wage support programmes that are keeping millions on the job, for now. In contrast, in the United States more than 33.5 million people have applied for jobless benefits and the unemployment rate has soared to 14.7 per cent. Congress has passed USD 2 trillion in emergency support, boosting jobless benefits and writing stimulus checks of up to USD 1,200 per taxpayer. That is a pattern seen in earlier economic downturns, particularly the global financial crisis and the Great Recession. Europe depends on existing programmes kicking in that pump money into people's pockets. The US, on the other hand, relies on Congress taking action by passing emergency stimulus programmes, as it did in 2009 under President Barack Obama, and the recent rescue package under President Donald Trump. Economist Andre Sapir, a senior fellow at the Bruegel research institute in Brussels, said budget policy in the US plays partly the role that Europe's welfare system plays because the American welfare system is less generous and a recession can be much harsher on workers. In downturns, US employees can lose their health insurance if they lose their job and there's also a greater risk of losing one's home through foreclosure. On the other hand, Europeans typically pay higher taxes, meaning they earn less in the good times. In the US you need to keep pumping money into the economy so that people continue to be employed, because it is through being employed that they are protected," said Sapir. "Which is the better system? I'm not going into that discussion because that is really a huge issue. The US tends to rank below average on measures of social support among the 37 countries of the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation, whose members are mostly developed democracies. The US came last in people living in relative poverty, meaning living on half the median income or less, with 17.8 per cent. Countries like Iceland, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Finland have less than 6 per cent. Here's a look at how the social safety nets of the U.S. and Europe compare: UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS Americans on unemployment were collecting an average of about USD 372 weekly before the coronavirus struck. But that average could range from USD 215 in Mississippi to USD 543 in Hawaii. The rescue package gave jobless workers an additional USD 600 a week through July. It also extended benefits to those who lost work as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, which could include parents who needed to leave their jobs because schools were closed. Most states offer six months of unemployment but the emergency legislation adds 13 weeks. By comparison, Germany's jobless benefit pays 60 per cent of previous salary for a year. France provides up to 75 per cent of the previous average daily wage for up to two years. Unemployment benefits in France are on average 1,200 euros (USD 1,320) per month. And there's Europe's short-hours programs, which pay most of worker salaries if companies put them on shorter hours through a temporary disruption. More than 10 million workers are being paid that way in Germany and about 12 million in France, helping hold eurozone unemployment to only a 0.1 percentage point increase in March over February, to 7.4 per cent The US emergency package included money for cheap loans to businesses that can be forgiven if the money is used mostly for payroll. HEALTH INSURANCE Nearly half of Americans receive health insurance through their employers, while another 34 per cent get benefits through the government programs Medicare and Medicaid. Separately, 6 per cent are insured individually and 9 per cent in 2018 had no insurance at all. In Europe, universal health coverage is the rule, generally funded by payroll or other taxes. One example is Britain's National Health Service, which is funded by taxes and offers free care that costs the government 7 per cent of GDP per year. MATERNITY BENEFITS US workers are entitled to unpaid family leave, but no federal law requires private employers to provide paid family leave. In the private sector, 16 per cent of workers had access to paid family leave as of March 2018. Some states offer paid family leave insurance for 4 to 10 weeks. The United States is the only country in the OECD to not offer paid leave to new mothers. In France, by contrast, mothers are entitled to at least 16 weeks of leave for their first child and must take at least 8 weeks. From the third child onward, they are allowed 26 weeks. Workers get a daily maternity leave allowance of up to 89 euros (USD 94.50). But some professions have their own more favorable deals, up to the complete payment of salaries. Denmark gives 52 weeks of parental leave after a birth or adoption, to be shared by the parents; whether at full salary or not depends on workplace agreements. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Across the state of Texas, multiple businesses-including hair salons, barbershops, and other non-essential establishments-are openings for the first time since the lockdown measures started mid-March. In Austin and Travis County, however, local officials are planning to extend their shelter-in-place policies. The Austin Extension Austin city officials announced an extension to the city's lockdown orders on Friday. They said their approach would help emphasize the importance of social distancing and wearing masks. They also plan to increase testing and contact tracing. Travis County has also decided to extend its self-quarantine policies to encourage residents not to engage in a non-essential activity, which may spur a second wave of the deadly virus. Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Travis County Judge Sarak Eckhardt urged residents only to leave their homes when it is essential. They said refusing to wear face coverings would result in a spike in cases that could potentially overwhelm the local health system. "The virus is just as infectious today as it was a month ago," Adler said. Austin and Travis County are working on an emergency plan for a second surge of coronavirus cases and a possible second lockdown of local commerce. COVID-19 Plans Eckhardt and Adler are putting triggers in place for hospitalizations. The triggers would alert officials of a probable surge and help them implement a second lockdown. According to research from the University of Texas at Austin, reducing social interactions and protecting vulnerable residents could prevent the virus from cocooning. The models showed a 95 percent chance for a deadlier surge between mid-June and mid-September. The stay-at-home order for both Austin and Travis County was set to expire on May 8. Local leaders extended it through the middle of June. Mixed Messages Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently eased up on the state's COVID-19 stay-at-home requirements. Businesses began to resume operations, and people began to spill to the streets. Despite federal health agency's advice on wearing face masks and coverings, Abbott emphasized his refusal to enforce mandatory masks. He also said his orders supersede the decision of county judges and mayors. He also removed jail as a punishment for people violating the state's coronavirus restrictions after a Dallas salon owner was jailed for refusing to keep her business closed despite receiving a cease-and-desist letter. Businesses for hair and nail salons reopened on Friday. Gyms and manufacturing plants are set to resume operations on May 18. All non-essential businesses are required to operate on a limited capacity. As of Saturday, a day after the governor launched allowed the reopening of economy, Texas' COVID-19 fatalities passed the 1,040 marks. State health officials also reported over 37,860 confirmed cases of the virus on Saturday afternoon. Texas has had nearly 38,000 coronavirus cases and has almost 490,000 tests. Since the outbreak began, more than 20,000 Texas patients have fully recovered from the disease. According to health records, there are currently more than 1,700 patients in state hospitals. Catch up on the latest news in the U.S.: In letter to Guterres, Iran FM calls for UN's 'swift' action against US sanctions, withdrawal from JCPOA Iran Press TV Saturday, 09 May 2020 2:10 PM Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has called on the United Nations to take a swift action and hold the United States liable for any consequences of its "unlawful withdrawal" from the landmark 2015 nuclear deal and its "unlawful" re-imposition of unilateral sanctions against the country. In a letter to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Saturday, Zarif explained about several matters related to the unlawful withdrawal of the US from the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and the unlawful imposition of its unilateral sanctions against the Iranian people and government in blatant violation of its obligations under international law. He also brought to the UN chief's attention matters related to "multiple, continuous and grave" cases of violation of the United Nations Charter, in particular Article 25 thereof, that are jeopardizing the UN credibility and integrity, and threatening international peace and security. He added that US President Donald Trump on May 8, 2018 officially announced his country's unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA "in material breach of Security Council Resolution 2231 (2015) to which the JCPOA is annexed." "The unlawful US act of unwarranted withdrawal from the JCPOA and the re-imposition of its sanctions entail the US responsibility under the UN Charter and international law," the Iranian foreign minister said. He emphasized that the US has violated Resolution 2231 which was in fact submitted by the United States itself and was adopted unanimously by the Security Council on July 20, 2015 to endorse the JCPOA. "The United Nations needs to address swiftly the US responsibility and hold it accountable for the consequences of its wrongful act that flies in the face of the United Nations Charter and international law. Impunity of the United States in this case and other instances would greatly impair the credibility of the United Nations," Zarif pointed out. Following is the full text of the top Iranian diplomat's second letter to the UN chief further to another one dated back to May 10, 2018: His Excellency Mr. Antonio Guterres Secretary-General United Nations Excellency, Further to my letter of 10 May 2018 (A/72/869-S/2018/453), I would like to bring to your attention several matters related to the unlawful withdrawal of the United States of America from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and the unlawful imposition of its unilateral sanctions against the people and government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in clear violation of its obligations under international law. Most notably, I would like to bring to the attention of the Security Council through you in your capacity as the Secretary-General matters related to the multiple, continuous and grave cases of violation of the United Nations Charter, in particular Article 25 thereof, thereby jeopardizing the credibility and the integrity of the United Nations and threatening the maintenance of international peace and security. US Unilateral and Unlawful Withdrawal from the JCPOA As you are well aware, on 8 May 2018, the President of the United States officially announced the unilateral withdrawal of the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in material breach of Security Council Resolution 2231 (2015) to which the JCPOA is annexed. Accordingly, the United States administration terminated the participation of the United States in the JCPOA and re-imposed all United States sanctions lifted in connection with the JCPOA, thus committing multiple cases of "significant non-performance" under the JCPOA, and in flagrant contravention of UNSCR 2231 (2015). The unlawful US act of unwarranted withdrawal from the JCPOA and the re-imposition of its sanctions entail the US responsibility under the UN Charter and international law. The US has violated UNSCR 2231 (2015) which was in fact submitted by the United States itself and was adopted unanimously by the Security Council on 20 July 2015. The United Nations needs to address swiftly the US responsibility and hold it accountable for the consequences of its wrongful act that flies in the face of the United Nations Charter and international law. Impunity of the United States in this case and other instances would greatly impair the credibility of the United Nations. It is now clear to everyone, that the unlawful conducts of the United States constitute a complete disregard for international law and the Charter of the United Nations, undermine the principle of peaceful settlement of disputes, endanger multilateralism and its institutions, indicate a regress to the failed and disastrous era of unilateralism, and encourage intransigence and illegality; representing a clear threat to international peace and security. US' Malpractices to Undermine the Provisions of UNSCR 2231 (2015) Resolution 2231 (2015) emphasizes that "the JCPOA is conducive to promoting and facilitating the development of normal economic and trade contacts and cooperation with Iran" and urges "its full implementation on the timetable established in the JCPOA" and calls upon all Member States "to take such actions as may be appropriate to support the implementation of the JCPOA, including by taking actions commensurate with the implementation plan set out in the JCPOA and this resolution and by refraining from actions that undermine implementation of commitments under the JCPOA". Not only has the United States failed to honor its own commitments under the JCPOA, but also it has substantively obstructed the discharge of commitments by the remaining JCPOA participants and other Member States. Since assumption of office by Trump, the US once again resorted to the practice of Unilateral Coercive Measures and has imposed 129 sanctions against Iran inflicting irreparable harm to Iran's economy and its international business relations. These actions bear a direct effect on Iran's private sector, cut the revenues of ordinary Iranians and reduced the private sector's capacity for production and employment. Today, the situation is far worse as compared to the JCPOA status quo ante. The full list of these sanctions is enclosed with this letter for further clarification. The US withdrawal from the JCPOA and the subsequent re-imposition of a drastic, comprehensive and unilateral sanctions regime on Iran must raise the alarm for International Peace and Security. It is the first time in the UN history that a permanent member of the Security Council punishes UN members for complying with a Security Council Resolution. It is time for Security Council and its members to ensure and guarantee the full implementation of the JCPOA by all sides. Rather than allowing the US to repeat such abusive pattern, the Council should strongly condemn the US for (re)imposing its illegal sanctions against Iranians in violation of the UN Charter, UNSCR 2231 (2015) and international law. The United States should be held responsible for these damages, and the Iranian nation must be compensated adequately. The international community must ensure the implementation of and compliance with the JCPOA. Iran's Efforts in Good Faith to Preserve the JCPOA Following the unlawful withdrawal of the United States and the (re)imposition of its sanctions that had been lifted in accordance with the JCPOA, while reserving its immediate right under paragraph 26[1], my Government initiated the Dispute Resolution Mechanism under paragraph 36 of the JCPOA on 10 May 2018. Acting in good faith, we refrained from applying the 'remedy' and did not immediately resort to "cease performing its commitments under the JCPOA", in order to enable the remaining JCPOA participants to make good on their promises. As you asserted in your statement following the US withdrawal from the JCPOA "It is essential that all concerns regarding the implementation of the Plan be addressed through the mechanisms established in the JCPOA"[2] and upon the request of JCPOA participants, and the international community, while Iran was entitled to exercise its rights immediately after US unlawful withdrawal on May 8th 2018, my Government decided to pursue its right within the framework of the JCPOA Joint Commission and continued the full implementation of the JCPOA. I trust you are aware of 15 consecutive IAEA reports all verifying Iran's full compliance with its JCPOA commitments.[3] As the official Statement of the Islamic Republic of Iran (S/2015/550) following the adoption of UNSCR 2231 (2015) on July 2015 clearly states, "Removal of nuclear-related sanctions and restrictive measures by the European Union and the United States would mean that transactions and activities referred to under the JCPOA could be carried out with Iran and its entities anywhere in the world without fear of retribution from extraterritorial harassment, and all persons would be able to freely choose to engage in commercial and financial transactions with Iran. It is clearly spelled out in the JCPOA that both the European Union and the United States will refrain from reintroducing or re-imposing the sanctions and restrictive measures lifted under the JCPOA".[4] Regrettably since May 2018, as the result of the US sanctions, Iran has been deprived of the benefits of sanction-lifting under JCPOA. From the beginning it was clear that "reintroduction or re-imposition, including through extension, of the sanctions and restrictive measures will constitute significant non-performance which would relieve Iran from its commitments in part or in whole"[5] which is also stipulated in paragraph 26 of the JCPOA. Iran exercised restrained in good faith and exhausted all recourses under paragraph 36 for one full year after the US withdrawal. However, in the post 8 May destructive atmosphere, the E3/EU failed to honor their commitments and Iran was left with no choice but to decide to exercise its rights under paragraphs 26 and 36 of the JCPOA to cease performing its commitments in part on 8 May 2019. As a matter of fact, Iran did officially, and in a clear fashion, trigger and exhaust the mechanism under paragraph 36. In order to manifest our good faith and serious desire to protect the JCPOA, I wish to underline once again that the Islamic Republic of Iran remains prepared to continue dialogue at all levels to ensure the full implementation of the JCPOA by all participants and will continue its full and effective cooperation with the IAEA. It is of substantive importance to note that Iran's nuclear program is continuously scrutinized by IAEA's "most robust" monitoring and verification, thereby making perceived non-proliferation risks materially irrelevant. Even the very recent report by the Director General of the IAEA on 3 March 2020, states that "The Agency continues to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material at the nuclear facilities and locations outside facilities where nuclear material is customarily used (LOFs) declared by Iran under its Safeguards Agreement".[6] I would like to reaffirm that if our people's rights and benefits are not fully compensated, it is Iran's unquestionable right recognized under the JCPOA and UNSCR 2231 (2015) -- to take appropriate action in response to persistent unlawful acts by the US. US ill-defined Interpretations of UNSCR 2231 UN Member States are obliged to comply with Security Council decisions adopted under Article 25. To hold otherwise, would be to deprive this principal organ of its essential functions and powers under the Charter. For this reason, the Security Council referred in the fourteenth preambular Paragraph of UNSCR 2231 (2015) to Article 25 of the Charter and underscored that "Member States are obligated under Article 25 of the Charter of the United Nations to accept and carry out the Security Council's decisions". Drafting, adoption, interpretation and fulfillment of the Security Council Resolutions have a particular framework and should be subjected to the principles and rules of international law. No State could place itself above the law (legibus solaus) by blocking all paths of implementation of UNSCR 2231 (2015) and by violating it through unacceptable illegal acts and arbitrary interpretations. The interpretation of Security Council resolutions also requires that other factors be taken into consideration. UNSCR 2231 (2015) is the product of a voting process as provided for in Article 27 of the Charter, and the final text of that resolution, inter alia Annex A (JCPOA), represents the view of the Security Council in its totality. Moreover, UNSCR 2231 (2015) is binding on all Member States, irrespective of their active or passive association with its formulation and adoption, or whether they have undermined or gravely violated its provisions by taking unilateral steps. It is ironic that the State that was involved in drafting and negotiating the resolution has now turned into its main antagonist by gravely violating it. Statements by the representatives of the Security Council Members on the occasion of adopting resolutions set the substantive context for their interpretation. The US' representative in the Security Council meeting of 20 July 2015 stated that "our work is far from finished. The international community must apply the same rigour to ensuring compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action as we did to drafting and negotiating it. Implementation is everything".[7] France's representative also specified that "It is now up to the Security Council to endorse the Vienna agreement and act as guarantor of its implementation".[8] The essence of such guarantee is not to enhance the powers of the Security Council, but to uphold the dignity and integrity of the Council and to preserve the objectives enshrined in UNSCR 2231 (2015) and its annex A, i.e. JCPOA. It is worth noting that, UNSCR 2231 (2015) must be read within the context of the provisions set out in JCPOA too (Annex A to resolution 2231); in a sense, the resolution is tied to the JCPOA as if by an umbilical cord. In the resolution the Council: "Endorse[d] the JCPOA, and urge[d] its full implementation on the timetable established in the JCPOA." Those provisions in the JCPOA sought to provide a "comprehensive" plan of action, and concluded a final solution to the entirely manufactured crisis over Iran's peaceful nuclear program. Further, it bears recalling that the second operative paragraph of UNSCR 2231 (2015) in which Security Council "Calls upon all Members States, regional organizations and international organizations to take such actions as may be appropriate to support the implementation of the JCPOA, including by taking actions commensurate with the implementation plan set out in the JCPOA and this resolution and by refraining from actions that undermine implementation of commitments under the JCPOA" obviously obliges the States to refrain from applying the sanctions lifted under the JCPOA. Having outlined the principal characteristics of Security Council Resolution 2231 above, two distinct features of that resolution relevant to discerning its object and purpose must be observed: Firstly, UNSCR 2231 (2015) marks a "fundamental shift" in Security Council's consideration of this issue and will contribute to building confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program. Secondly, the solution embodied in UNSCR 2231 (2015) is conducive to promoting and facilitating the development of normal economic and trade contacts and cooperation with Iran, and having regard to States' rights and obligations relating to international trade. Thirdly, with respect to the twelfth preambular paragraph of resolution 2231 (2015), the termination of provisions of previous resolutions and other measures are foreseen in this resolution, and Member States are invited to give due regard to these changes. Statements by US officials indicating an intention to take action against UNSCR 2231 (2015) are of grave concern and may lead the situation to uncontrollable circumstances. It is an acknowledged and well-documented fact that the ongoing efforts by the United States to bring about substantial changes to the UNSCR 2231 (2015) is not the first of its kind; their failed scheme in November 2019 to update the 2231 List was the last overt example. UNSCR 2231 (2015) was adopted to terminate the sanctions not to extend the ones that had been imposed by previous resolutions; in this sense, it is not a sanctions resolution. Any initiation against this background will have serious consequences for the durability and sustainability of the agreed conditions. Not only is the United States in grave violation of UNSCR 2231 (2015), but it is blatantly attempting illegal paths to reverse the resolution in absolute contempt for well-established principles of international law. In fact, one of the fundamental principles governing the international relations thus established is that a State which does not fulfill its own obligations cannot be recognized as retaining the rights which it claims to derive from the relationship. In this case, solely by withdrawing from the JCPOA, the US has lost any right therein. Therefore, I call upon the international community, and in particular the Security Council and the Secretary-General to take all appropriate measures in order to counter these malicious endeavors by the US government which greatly undermine the provisions of UNSCR 2231 (2015). The United Nations should uphold its responsibility against the recent provocative actions of the United States. As specified in the letter of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran to his 4+1 counterparts on 8 May 2019, any new sanction or restriction by the Security Council is against the fundamental commitments made to Iran. In such a scenario, Iran's options, as already notified to the remaining participants of the JCPOA would be firm and the United States and any entity which may assist the United Statesor acquiesce in its illegal behaviorwould bear the responsibility. As I stated almost 14 years ago in the UN Security Council, "the people and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran are not seeking confrontation and have always shown their readiness to engage in serious and result oriented negotiations based on mutual respect and on an equal footing. They have also shown, time and again, their resilience in the face of pressure, threat, injustice and imposition".[9] My nation has already shown its good faith and full responsibility. Now this is the turn for the international community to reciprocate the Iranian people. Accordingly, I urge the United Nations to hold the United States accountable for its unilateral and irresponsible conduct which will detrimentally challenge the credibility of UN Security Council and undermine the integrity of UN Charter. I should be grateful if you would have this letter circulated as a document of the General Assembly and of the Security Council. Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration On the anniversary of the US' unilateral departure from the historic nuclear agreement, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that Washington has through its withdrawal forfeited all rights to address the issues concerning the JCPOA. "The US despises the JCPOA, has quit it, violates it, and punishes all those who commit to the deal," the Ministry tweeted. In a post on his official twitter account later in the day, Zarif said he has urged the UN chief to the US liable for failing to observe its duties and also forcing others to do so. "On 2nd anniversary of US 'ceasing participation' in the #JCPOA, I urged @antonioguterres to hold US accountable for violating its duties & forcing others to do so, too," the Iranian foreign minister tweeted. He warned that "lawless bullying jeopardizes" the United Nations' credibility and pose a threat to international peace and security. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Update: Eleventh-hour guidance was issued by the SBA extending the safe-harbor deadline for returning loans in excess of $2 million to May 18, while granting good faith to borrowers whose loans totaled less than $2 million. As we reported earlier this week, you now have until Thursday, May 14 to return your SBA Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan if you feel like the forgiveness guidance is too stringent or as has been the case primarily with mid-size and large companies you've unwittingly opened yourself up to possible audit or, worse, criminal inquiry. To answer the pressing question of whether you should remand whatever stimulus the federal program bequeathed or use it as a launching pad to reopen your business, we spoke with Rachel Scava, COO of Ohio-based accounting and finance firm Fully Accountable, which works primarily with small-to-mid-sized businesses. Her advice? Well, it depends on host of factors, but the bottom line is: Don't rely on your lender or the government to light the path. The time to soul search about the future of your business is now. Here are edited excerpts from our conversation. Was this extension a consequence of larger companies lobbying for time? Definitely. My opinion on why they set the deadline is a couple of reasons. Number one is, with the way this process has worked in general, you have a group of people that probably applied before the May 7 deadline that still haven't received their loan and now is wondering: Am I actually a candidate? What do I do if I get my funds? There's a pretty arbitrary standard for this term "necessary" that the CARES Act is using. [Treasury Secretary Steve] Mnuchin has repeatedly alluded to the fact that they are trying to dissuade people from taking the money if they don't actually need it, and by continuing to extend that, it's making people less wanting to jump in and go for the funds, because it is a bit of a fear tactic. The other piece of it is, we don't even have all the businesses open yet. For those people who got their money on May 8 or 9, and their clock of the eight weeks [to use the money to be eligible for forgiveness] has started ticking, maybe it's not in their best interest to have that money right now because they may not meet the requirements for forgiveness. Even as more money gets returned, does applying for or accepting available funds become a catch-22? So many businesses we work with made decisions based on claims that all this money was going to be available for everybody. The original $349 billion was based on a mathematical equation that said this would cover all small businesses, and then it ran out in 13 days. Then it took another week before it got back up and running, and this second wave is going considerably slower. We had a lot of people who wouldn't have done what they did business-wise had they not believed this money was going to be available to them keeping staff members employed when the businesses were shut down to go in and clean and renovate and set up the social distancing. They spent that money, and now they don't have the cash and they're not getting the PPP fund. A lot of decisions were made based on the belief that it was a benefit, and it's just not turning out to be that. Related: Self-Employed With No Employees? You Can Still Get a PPP Loan So should the mom-and-pop shop that received a $50,000 loan worry about whether they could be in legal trouble? I think the evaluation that businesses needs to do is: Can I afford to have a $50,000 loan on my books if this isn't forgiven? Let's go with the mom-and-pop restaurant. They're only going to be up and running at 25 percent capacity. They're not going to hit the payroll totals they need to for forgiveness, and they already operate on slim margins. So can they afford to have a $50,000 loan that has to be paid back in two years? Has this helped keep them open for two years and put a big debt on their books, or has this helped them stay in business and keep their people paid? Those are two very different questions. Was this ultimately a failure of imagination or never really intended to serve its stated purpose? The optimist in me wants to say, when you look at the original CARES Act and the four corners of that document, it was a benefit. And it feels like every week, there's another shoe that drops. And somewhere between interim rules and the departments all doing their own analysis and implementing what they believe are the standards, it's definitely gone from what was a real benefit to the businesses to more of a burden. When this came out, I don't think they could have anticipated that come mid-May, we would still be looking at a lot of the [public-health] precautions still out there. When is the uptick of people going to restaurants? So I don't know that all this eight-week, keep people employed it's just not enough. If there were a little leeway and [it was] not so rigid on, "The day that you fund starts your clock" ... It really should be the day you can go back into business operating at a capacity that can cover is when your clock starts ticking. If you read the act, that interpretation is there. The way that it read, it really looked like a good benefit, but I don't feel like it's panning out to be one. If you personally owned a small business and received a modest loan, would you feel like it's more trouble than its worth or that it's the least the government can do and you'll find a way to maximize it? There's a couple of things I'm looking at. One, if you're a mom-and-pop shop and don't have access to capital or liquidity and you're able to bring people back and open up your business, I'm not looking at it as the government owes me. I'm looking at it in this light: Am I keeping my business open for eight more weeks, and then I'm shutting it down? Or is this going to help me keep my business around for the next three, four, five years? If I'm answering this is a Band-Aid and I might have to pay some money back, I'm taking the loan for sure. The ability to get people back to working and keep good businesses that should be around open I think the answer is it's worth taking. If you're only going to make it through those eight weeks and be out of money, I'm not sure it's the right decision for you. Is there any reason to assume the government might expand forgiveness? They've already been stepping around this idea that we're going to see more guidance on forgiveness before this May 14 give-back, so after that comes out, if the money is still available, I wouldn't be shocked if we see another extension of that give-back period. It's primarily larger companies returning loans, but do some of them have a legitimate claim to these funds? If you look at the number of large businesses already anticipating bankruptcy, that tells you they're already needing money too, like J. Crew. The hard part was, when this came out, they said you don't need to prove you don't have other capital or that you can try to go to other resources. But now what they're saying is, if you have that, it's not necessary. So what's the difference between this and getting an [SBA] 7(a) loan, other than the forgiveness piece? But if a business is resourceful enough to file for Chapter 11, perhaps that indicates they don't have the same need as a much smaller operation simply trying to keep doors open for a few more weeks. I agree with that. Those big businesses have teams of people that know how to go in and properly manage through a bankruptcy, and that's not available to a small business. They're just winging it and hoping for the best. Let's think about Ruth's Chris. They got annihilated, but you have to think that their counsel and CFO sat there and said, "We qualify, and we did this properly. We didn't make this CARES Act. Why are we being told we aren't eligible?" Just to play a little devil's advocate, they didn't really do anything wrong. Morally, perhaps they did, and they sleep with that burden at night. But when you go down the checkbox, they met the criteria. It's a tough environment, no matter what size business you are. Related: Which Public Companies Have Returned Their SBA PP Loans? Should lenders bear any responsibility to guide small-business borrowers through this process of determining whether to keep their loan? The lender is not going to. Lenders have basically taken the stance of, "This is your company, this is your loan. Other than walking you through the process, we're taking no liability." I, on a personal stance, think if a lender is going to push through a loan, and if they've done their due diligence, they have a responsibility to make sure the loan is correct and accurate and the amount is an amount the company needs and is within the qualifications. That's their job. But it seems like that's been completely removed. Now, there's no personal guarantees, so maybe this is the way of holding the person getting the loan more responsible, but I do find it odd that there's no liability for the lenders at all. They're the middlemen. Bottom line: How does a loan recipient make the calculation of whether their business has been proportionately impacted? I think you say to yourself: What's been the impact to me? For some people, that's going to be a loss of customers. For some people, that's going to be completely shutting down. For some people, that's going to be my employees aren't coming back because of unemployment. I don't think there's a one-shoe-fits-everybody. You have to look at: Where was my business headed prior to February 15, 2020, and am I on track with where I saw myself going and what the numbers told me? And if your answer is yes, then you have to ask yourself why. If you think about health supplements, any company that sells any kind of immunity vitamin is probably doing very well right now. I don't think you're going to qualify to say, "I was really negatively impacted by this." But I think doctors were negatively impacted, because people haven't been going to the doctor like they should. As it keeps playing out, I don't think we're done seeing guidance, and I don't think the fight on forgiveness has stopped. There are some really good changes they can make that would turn this back in the right direction, so I keep my fingers crossed. Related: News Organizations Sue SBA for Refusing to Reveal Which Companies Received PPP Another 2.91 Million Americans Filed for Unemployment Last Week House Democrats Share Details of $3 Trillion Heroes Act Copyright 2020 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Celebrities seemingly have everything they want at their disposal, from unlimited access to funds, and spacious living arrangements. However, social distancing, and quarantining amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is starting to wear down on everyone. Kim Kardashian West has been candid about trying to keep her sanity while homeschooling her children, providing them with fun activities, and keeping up with her own projects. The Keeping Up with the Kardashians starlet has tried to remain positive amid the pandemic, encouraging fans to stay home and remaining patient despite numerous interruptions from her children. Unfortunately, the pandemic might be having adverse effects on the KKW Beauty moguls marriage to her husband, Kanye West. Rumors have swirled that the pair have not been seeing eye to eye on parenting responsibilities, and now it appears that things have gotten so dire that they are staying at opposite ends of their Calabasas home. Kanye West has not been helping Kim Kardashian West with their children With four adorable kiddos, North, Saint, Chicago, and Psalm, the Wests are used to having nannies and housekeepers to keep their household running smoothly. However, because of quarantining and social distancing, the rapper and reality starlet have had to take on all of their household duties themselves. Unfortunately, it does not appears that the Chicago-born rapper is pulling his weight. Kim and Kanye have been arguing a lot during the quarantine, a source told US Weekly. Kanye is really getting on Kims nerves. Hes been focused on creating lately, which is making Kim feel like all the parenting duties are falling on her. Kim finds it frustrating that [Kanye] doesnt ask her how he can help with the kids. Obviously, this would set any overworked parent on the edge, especially when another adult is present and could be shouldering some of the responsibility. Kim Kardashian West has spoken out about how challenging this time has been for mothers Though the Jesus Walks rapper reportedly two of the children to Wyoming for a brief weekend away, when he returned to California, things did not get much better. In fact, the Skims founder has spoken out about some of the trials and tribulations she is facing. Being at home with four kids if I ever thought for a minute that I wanted another one that is out the door, she told The View host Whoopi Goldberg via video chat. Its really tough. Really tough. Ive been doing laundry and cooking, she said. And being their teacher too. I have newfound respect for teachers. They deserve so much. Its been tough juggling it all you really have to put yourself on the back burner and just focus on the kids. Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are staying at opposite sides of the house Unfortunately, it appears like the rapper still hasnt gotten the memo, and he continues to skirt responsibility off to Kardashian West when it comes to raising their children. Kim and Kanye are arguing and at each others throats during this pandemic, an insider told The Sun. Kim is getting stir crazy, as shes used to being on the go. Its also a lot of time alone with the kids for her. Kim is also frustrated with Kanye and thinks hes not pulling his weight in family responsibilities, Theyve been staying at opposite ends of the house to keep things civil. At least their little ones look happy and cared for. The number of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra's Aurangabad mounted to 557 on Sunday, which the officials said is more than a ten-fold rise in the last 14 days since April 26. Before April 26, the number of coronavirus positive cases stood at 53, they said. "At 557 on Sunday, the number of COVID-19 cases has spiked by more than ten times in the last 14 days," an official said. The infected patients also include 72 personnel of the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF). Aurangabad Municipal Corporation Commissioner Astik Kumar Pandey said that the number of coronavirus positive cases has been controlled in containment zones. "The rise in the cases has been controlled. A 'testing-tracking-isolation' strategy has helped us in bringing down the number of cases. The scenario post the lockdown will be the real task for us. Till that time, our manpower and facilities are being kept ready," he said. He said the civic body will launch 'My ward, COVID free ward' campaign for spreading awareness among people. Of the 557 COVID-19 cases, 83 patients recovered and discharged from hospitals. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Five Air India pilots have tested positive for Covid-19 after undergoing testing. They had recently operated one of the cargo flights to Guangzhou, China, reports TOI. Air India has conducted cargo flights to international destinations since the coronavirus lockdown. Among them were Boeing 787 flights to Guangzhou from Delhi on April 18 to get medical supplies. The airline also sent medical cargo flights to Shanghai and Hong Kong. PTI A statement from Air India is awaited. "The news has made quite a few pilots, currently rostered to operate repatriation flights anxious. Under the Vande Bharat mission schedule pilots have layovers in places like New York where the number of Covid cases are high," said a source. Under the government guidelines formulated for the repatriation flights, the airline crew undergoes a swab test for Covid-19 before and after they operate the flight. Post flight, the crew proceed to a hotel where they wait for the test results, which takes 24-48 hours. If they test negative, the airline car drops them to their residence. Five days after arrival, the crew take another Covid test. If this test too return negative and the crew concerned doesnt suffer from any symptoms of this virus only then could they be rostered for further flying duties. The pre-flight Covid test requirement is that the sample for the swab test should have been collected within five days of date of departure and it should test negative. PTI Air India crew operating the repatriation flights don the full PPE gear, including the hazmat suits, gloves, mask and goggles. However, unlike the earlier Covid repatriation flights carried out by Air India, whats different now is that night halts for crew have been planned in cities like NewYork, San Francisco, Washington, Chicago, London and Singapore. PTI Air India had laid down SOPs to ensure that the crew remain safe during their stay abroad. Arrangements for transportation and hotel accommodation at the contracted hotels, on a full board basis, which includes breakfast, lunch and dinner were made so that the crew neednt step out for food. A note in this regard sent last week by AI executive director Capt R S Sandhu said: "Due to the major Covid problem in Manhattan New York, all crew should be accommodated at the contracted Newark hotel. The note added that crew transport, movement control staff, availability of company doctor for pre and post flight medical exam should be ensured at all these foreign stations. China's largest hard coal producer Yangquan Coal Industry (Group) Co., Ltd. in Shanxi province has finished building a 5G network in one of its mines, heralding the coming of 5G era of the country's cold industry and paving way for intelligent mining based on 5G technologies. The 5G network in Yangquan's subsidiary, Xinyuan, is the country's first commercial 5G service under a coal mine shaft. It is built in partnership with China Mobile and Huawei. Wang Haigang, deputy manager of Xinyuan, said the 5G network had been in stable operation for a week after its inauguration and optimization. With the integrated 5G coverage, the data upload rate is above 800Mbps and the transmission latency is less than 20 milliseconds in the mine, enabling a variety of applications such as high-definition audio and video communications and remote intelligent control of equipment to free workers from the dangerous working environment, according to Yu Beijian, deputy general manager of Yangquan Coal Industry Group. Yu said coal mines are usually hundreds of meters deep without telecom signals underground, and technicians have tackled technical problems to build the 5G network in the mine shaft which has complicated underground conditions. With the 5G network in operation, the mine is expected to reduce its labor force in one underground working team from more than 170 to about 90 while maintaining the coal output, Wang said, adding that Xinyuan hopes to increase the annual output from 3 million tonnes to 5 million tonnes. Yu said the company has planned to further enrich the 5G application scenarios with an aim to build a "smart mine" in the future. Yangquan Coal Industry Group is not alone in embracing the new technology. China's traditional coal mine companies are increasingly merging onto the 5G "expressway." Yankuang Group, a mining conglomerate in eastern China's Shandong province, has set up a joint lab with China Unicom and Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE to develop 5G and intelligent mining in areas including intelligent transportation and drone patrol. Kailuan Group in northern China's Hebei province has clinched a deal with China Telecom on 5G technology application development, while Shanxi Coking Coal Group has signed with the Shanxi branch of China Unicom on leasing 5G facilities. Liu Feng, vice-chairman of the China National Coal Association, said that China now has more than 5,000 coal mines, which have built more than 200 intelligent mining platforms facilitated with automatic equipment. The "new infrastructure" of the 5G network building in coal mines will lead to elevation in quality, efficiency and energy reform and greatly transform the traditional development mode in the coal industry, Liu said. For almost five decades, the people of Bekwai in the Ashanti Region have had to complain about the delay in the completion of work on the municipal hospital. Although the project has been captured in annual budgets of successive governments, little had been done to continue work on it, bringing difficulties on the people in accessing quality health care. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel as the 120-bed capacity hospital is on the verge of completion. The facility which started in the early 1970s now has two contractors Consar Ghana Ltd and Ellipse Company winding up their works for the planned inauguration in November this year. A visit to the facility last Saturday by the Daily Graphic saw the contractors eagerly fixing equipment and completing remaining civil works to meet the November deadline for handing over to the government and subsequently to the Bekwai health authorities for use. Lifeline The completion of the multi-million-dollar project was given a boost when Parliament, in August 2019, approved a 2 million facility towards its completion. A completion and inauguration of the municipal hospital would be a dream come true for the chiefs and people of the Bekwai Municipality and its surrounding communities who have waited for decades to see the completion of the project. When finished, the hospital would decongest the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH). This is due to its size, departments and strategic location in the Ashanti Region, which makes it easy to reach from the Eastern and Central regions. Some of the key facilities that the hospital would have are an Accident and Emergency unit, Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) unit, Surgical theatres and wards, X-Ray unit, general consulting rooms, mother and baby unit, laboratory, antenatal unit and staff accommodation. Unique feature One unique feature of the hospital is a guest lodge where relations who need to be close to patients on admission at the facility would be housed while waiting for their relatives to recover. This is the first of its kind in any government hospital in the country. The guest lodge will remove the challenges of transportation and accommodation faced by relatives of patients on admission at the hospital. Apart from ensuring that the guests are able to attend to the social needs of their relatives while on admission at the right time, it will also save the relations the drudgery of hovering around health facilities as they wait for their relations to recover from their ailments at the hospital. The new hospital, which is disability friendly, has a linkage of walkways from various locations of the facility. Records The Bekwai Municipality has a total of 18 health facilities comprising six hospitals (Government, Christian Health Association of Ghana, and private), four Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds, three health centres and five clinics (CHAG and private). All the facilities dotted in various locations in the municipality have been very instrumental in the delivery of quality health care to the people. In 2018, a total of 226,859 out patients department (OPD) cases were recorded in all health facilities in the municipality out of which 54,779 representing 24 per cent were recorded at the old Bekwai Government Hospital alone. The story was however different in 2019 where the cases stood at 221,450 for the entire municipality out of which 55,204, representing 25 per cent of the total OPD cases came from the Bekwai Hospital alone. Old hospital The old Bekwai Government Hospital which the Municipal Director of Health, Mr Clement Nti-Boateng, described as A glorified health centre does not have enough space for clients and staff. It also lacks key departments and staff. Apart from the inadequacies that the old hospital has, it is not able to provide the needed standard health care. These and many other reasons necessitated the construction of a new district hospital that would bring with it the needed space, equipment, staff and all others so it would be able to serve all its patients with the standard of health care needed. The Municipal Director of Health told the Daily Graphic that he had started moves to get adequate staff to manage the new departments which have been brought on board in the new hospital. This, he said, was being done through a collaboration with the Ashanti Regional Directorate of Health to ensure that by the time of handing over, the right personnel would have been posted to the new facility to begin its operation. MCE, MP impressed The Municipal Chief Executive for Bekwai, Mr Kwaku Kyei-Baffour, said the completion and the subsequent usage of the new district hospital would be a dream come true since it would bring the much needed health care for the people some of whom have to travel far distances to seek health care due to the lack of certain services at the old hospital. Again, he appealed to the people in the municipality to continue to exercise patience as everything possible was being done to ensure that the project was completed on schedule for use. The Member of Parliament (MP) for Bekwai, Mr Joseph Osei Owusu, at a recent tour of the facility with the media, appealed to the contractors to ensure that they maintained the quality standard of the work by following due process in all their activities. He commended the contractors for the swift way they were working on the project many other governments had failed to complete for use. The Project Manager for Ellipse Company, the construction entity, Mr Maxwell Opoku Amoah, said the project would be completed before the handing over date of November 2020. He said about 85 per cent of works was completed with the remaining works being the installation of equipment, completion of few civil works and tarring of the roads. ---graphic.com.gh There's been a notable change in appetite for International Consolidated Airlines Group, S.A. (LON:IAG) shares in the week since its quarterly report, with the stock down 12% to UK1.89. It was not a great result overall. While revenues of 4.6b were in line with analyst predictions, earnings were less than expected, missing statutory estimates by 20% to hit 0.86 per share. Following the result, the analysts have updated their earnings model, and it would be good to know whether they think there's been a strong change in the company's prospects, or if it's business as usual. We thought readers would find it interesting to see the analysts latest (statutory) post-earnings forecasts for next year. See our latest analysis for International Consolidated Airlines Group LSE:IAG Past and Future Earnings May 10th 2020 Taking into account the latest results, the 24 analysts covering International Consolidated Airlines Group provided consensus estimates of 13.6b revenue in 2020, which would reflect a stressful 45% decline on its sales over the past 12 months. Per-share losses are expected to explode, reaching 1.00 per share. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of 16.0b and losses of 0.31 per share in 2020. There's been a definite change in sentiment in this update, with the analysts administering a notable cut to next year's revenue estimates, while at the same time increasing their loss per share forecasts. The average price target was broadly unchanged at 4.87, perhaps implicitly signalling that the weaker earnings outlook is not expected to have a long-term impact on the valuation. That's not the only conclusion we can draw from this data however, as some investors also like to consider the spread in estimates when evaluating analyst price targets. Currently, the most bullish analyst values International Consolidated Airlines Group at 7.48 per share, while the most bearish prices it at 2.28. So we wouldn't be assigning too much credibility to analyst price targets in this case, because there are clearly some widely different views on what kind of performance this business can generate. With this in mind, we wouldn't rely too heavily the consensus price target, as it is just an average and analysts clearly have some deeply divergent views on the business. Story continues Of course, another way to look at these forecasts is to place them into context against the industry itself. These estimates imply that sales are expected to slow, with a forecast revenue decline of 45%, a significant reduction from annual growth of 3.2% over the last five years. Compare this with our data, which suggests that other companies in the same industry are, in aggregate, expected to see their revenue grow 11% next year. It's pretty clear that International Consolidated Airlines Group's revenues are expected to perform substantially worse than the wider industry. The Bottom Line The most important thing to take away is that the analysts increased their loss per share estimates for next year. Unfortunately, they also downgraded their revenue estimates, and our data indicates revenues are expected to perform worse than the wider industry. Even so, earnings per share are more important to the intrinsic value of the business. There was no real change to the consensus price target, suggesting that the intrinsic value of the business has not undergone any major changes with the latest estimates. With that in mind, we wouldn't be too quick to come to a conclusion on International Consolidated Airlines Group. Long-term earnings power is much more important than next year's profits. We have estimates - from multiple International Consolidated Airlines Group analysts - going out to 2024, and you can see them free on our platform here. However, before you get too enthused, we've discovered 2 warning signs for International Consolidated Airlines Group (1 can't be ignored!) that you should be aware of. 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. Sushmitha Ramakrishnan By Express News Service CHENNAI: In times of great crises like this, the education sector in the country should encourage the youth to emancipate themselves by experiencing and questioning the challenges in the society, says Jawahar Nesan, Vice-Chancellor of the JSS Science and Technology, Mysuru. By pushing for online education that helps only to meet the curriculum deadlines dictated by the market, we are alienating students from social reality, he says. Excerpts... There have been several transformations to the education sector in the past few years. Is the current lockdown a crucial period for the sector? Education is the first sector to have been paralysed since the start of the pandemic as social distancing is not at all a possibility in the campus. Now, society is facing a great threat in the form of a mounting death toll due to the coronavirus. The consequences are unimaginable. Living conditions and lifestyles are facing redefinition, demands and supplies have come to a standstill and productions are lost. The higher education campuses are not only the places for delivering predetermined curriculum but also for grooming the youths in response to contemporary developments, challenges and requirements posed by the society. Is the education system not engaging with the current situation? Is the sudden growth of Ed-Tech companies is a direct result of the lockdown? In the contrary, what the country has been doing since the onset of this pandemic is that what the neoliberal forces have been wanting to capitalise out of this turbulent stride. Policymakers, lawmakers, educational service providers and people at the helm of affairs have been voicing for continued teaching and learning online. The children and youths need to learn how to overcome this crisis, how to stabilize the mind and streamline their thoughts so that they could logically apply their mind in taking decisions. They are disconnected from the society they live in. Are you saying that online education is bad for students? There is no doubt that online programmes and resources might certainly attribute to subject matters of instruction and improve the learning experience of students. But, will this offer a foolproof all-round learning opportunity to the learners and enable the educational programmes to attain curricular objectives? The outcome of these programmes are aimed at preventing any disturbance to the creation of an employable person for the market. It has no relevance to the experience a student is having right now. It treats students and education as a commodity. When the country is amid a crisis, the education system should aid the emancipation of that society. Most institutions have not introduced new programmes presented by the market. They are rather using the time to complete the existing curriculum. These arguments are nothing but empty thoughts of the neoliberal economic forces, which see everything through the market-driven value system that preaches principles like 'time is money', 'value for money', 'cost to corporation', 'smart services' and so on. Certainly, this kind of a 'life of conformity' - as a form of education - can surely be achieved through the so-called new and suddenly inspired online teaching and learning platforms. But this would dehumanise the youths and prevent creating a citizen. It will lead the higher education sector towards brain-drain in the long run by making it dependent on online materials created by liberal markets and societies abroad. They plan to make money from India, by creating employable students, without investing anything in the country. Education should be built upon the functions of the society. Are you suggesting that the higher education system needs a revamp as a whole by redefining the learning outcomes? Science, technology and market should exist to solve society's problems. Right now the society is solving the market's problem. Corporates have partnered with the State to redefine learning outcomes as a narrow set of skills that would create employees that fit the narrow roles the market expects. Education should provoke people to think, question,learn, and innovate and challenge. Human kind has been aspiring to create endeavours against hardships. A successful experience is what is called knowledge. Education should work toward knowledge creation that is socially driven. Noted historian Hari Sankar Vasudevan died of Covid-19 at a private hospital near his residence at Salt Lake on the eastern outskirts of Kolkata around 12.40am on Sunday. He was 68 and is survived by his wife, historian Tapati Guha Thakurta. Vasudevan was an expert on European and Russian history and India-Russia relationship. He was a professor at Calcutta University. He graduated from Cambridge University, where he also completed his post-graduation and PhD. He authored many books. An official of the private hospital said he was admitted on May 4 and tested positive the next day. He had been on ventilator since May 6. On Saturday night, he suffered two cardiac attacks. Vasudevan was the director of China Centre of the Calcutta University. Earlier, he served as the director of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata, of the ministry of culture. Between 2003 and 2005, Vasudevan was a professor at Central Asian Studies and acting director at the Academy of Third World Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi. Between 2011 and 2014, he was member the Indian Council of Historical Research. Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankar offered his condolence to Vasudevans family on Sunday. Unlike other actresses who have a bevy of movies coming up, Sonakshi Sinha was taking it slow to make a fresh announcement for her films. The actress had been shooting for Bhuj: The Pride of India and had also filmed a web series called Fallen for Reema Kagti. While she is not at liberty to speak about the project or confirm it, she has reportedly been cast with Gulshan Devaiah and Vijay Varma in the web series. Unfortunately, the lockdown was announced before Sonakshi could make any announcement. Sonakshi is also kicked about her first biopic role. She did play Noor in the cinematic version of Saba Imtiazs book Karachi, You are Killing Me but has never played a real person in her career. And she will be doing it in Bhuj, where she plays Sunderben Jetha Madharparya. She did act in Mission Mangal as well, but then her character was not a real one and actually an inspired character. Here, it is about Sunderben who gathered 300 women from her village to build a runway overnight so that the Indian plane could land in Bhuj during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971. Ajay Devgn plays IAF Squadron Leader Vijay Karnik, the then in-charge of the Bhuj airport, who with his team reconstructed the IAF airbase with the help of Sunderben and 300 local women, an industry source reveals. Meanwhile, the actress recently collaborated with producers Manish Mundra and Atul Kasbekar to help provide PPE kits to healthcare workers. Evidence from a large study of several thousand patients shows that men have higher concentrations of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in their blood than women. Since ACE2 enables the coronavirus to infect healthy cells, this may help to explain why men are more vulnerable to COVID-19 than women. The study, published in the European Heart Journal [1] today (Monday), also found that heart failure patients taking drugs targeting the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), such as angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), did not have higher concentrations of ACE2 in their blood. Dr Adriaan Voors (MD-PhD), Professor of Cardiology at the University Medical Center Groningen (The Netherlands), who led the study, said: "Our findings do not support the discontinuation of these drugs in COVID-19 patients as has been suggested by earlier reports." Some recent research suggested that RAAS inhibitors might increase concentrations of ACE2 in plasma - the liquid part of blood - thereby increasing the risk of COVID-19 for cardiovascular patients taking these drugs. The current study indicates that this is not the case, although it looked only at ACE2 concentrations in plasma, not in tissues such as lung tissue. In addition, the study cannot provide definitive evidence on the effects of RAAS inhibitors in patients with COVID-19. Its conclusions are mainly restricted to heart failure patients, and the patients did not have COVID-19, so the researchers cannot provide a direct link between the course of the disease and ACE2 plasma concentrations. Prof Voors said: "ACE2 is a receptor on the surface of cells. It binds to the coronavirus and allows it to enter and infect healthy cells after it is has been modified by another protein on the surface of the cell, called TMPRSS2. High levels of ACE2 are present in the lungs and, therefore, it is thought to play a crucial role in the progression of lung disorders related to COVID-19." Prof Voors and his colleagues were already studying differences in markers of disease in the blood between men and women before the coronavirus outbreak. The results became available soon after the pandemic began. The first author of the study, Dr Iziah Sama from UMC Groningen, said: "When we found that one of the strongest biomarkers, ACE2, was much higher in men than in women, I realised that this had the potential to explain why men were more likely to die from COVID-19 than women." The researchers measured ACE2 concentrations in blood samples taken from two groups of heart failure patients from 11 European countries [2]. There were 1485 men and 537 women in the first group, the index cohort, which was designed to test the researchers' hypotheses and research questions. Then the researchers validated their findings in a second group of 1123 men and 575 women, the validation cohort. The median (average) age of the participants in the index cohort was 69 years for men and 75 years for women, and in the validation cohort it was 74 and 76 years, respectively. When the researchers looked at a number of clinical factors that could play a role in ACE2 concentrations, including the use of ACE inhibitors, ARBs and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs), as well as a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary artery by-pass graft and atrial fibrillation, they found that male sex was the strongest predictor of elevated ACE2 concentrations. In the index cohort, ACE inhibitors, ARBS and MRAs were not associated with greater ACE2 plasma concentrations, and in the validation cohort, ACE inhibitors and ARBs were associated with lower ACE2 concentrations, while MRAs were only weakly associated with higher concentrations. "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first substantial study to examine the association between plasma ACE2 concentrations and the use of blockers of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system in patients with cardiovascular disease. We found no evidence that ACE inhibitors and ARBs were linked to increased ACE2 concentrations in plasma. In fact, they predicted lower concentrations of ACE2 in the validation cohort, although we did not see this in the index cohort," said Prof Voors. "The effect of MRAs on ACE2 concentrations is not clear, as the weak increase in concentrations in the validation cohort was not seen in the index cohort. Our findings do not suggest that MRAs should be discontinued in heart failure patients who develop COVID-19. They are a very effective treatment for heart failure and the hypothetical effects on viral infection should be weighed carefully against their proven benefits," he said. ACE2 is found not only in the lungs, but also the heart, kidneys and the tissues lining blood vessels, and there are particularly high levels in the testes. The researchers speculate that its regulation in the testes might partially explain higher ACE2 concentrations in men, and why men are more vulnerable to COVID-19. Other limitations of the study include the fact that the researchers only measured concentrations of ACE2 in plasma, not in tissues, so they cannot be sure that concentrations in the blood are similar to those seen in tissues; it is the ACE2 in the lung tissues that are thought to be important for viral infection of the lungs, not ACE2 concentrations in the blood. In an accompanying editorial [3], Professor Gavin Oudit, from the University of Alberta, Canada, and Professor Marc Pfeffer, from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA, write: "When faced with the rapidly expanding COVID-19 pandemic and in the absence of definitive data, the results of Sama et al obtained in heart failure patients in the pre-COVID-19 period offer supporting evidence to continue ACE inhibitors or ARBs in patients at risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, this field is moving so rapidly that we now have two observational studies of ARB/ACE inhibitor use in hospitalized COVID-19 patients showing no augmented risk to COVID-19 patients and even suggesting possible benefit." The study is one of several research papers, clinical reviews, editorials and discussion papers on COVID-19 and cardiovascular disease to be published in a special issue of the European Heart Journal on Thursday 14 May. [4] ### Notes: [1] "Circulating plasma concentrations of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 in men and women with heart failure and effects of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone inhibitors", by Iziah E. Sama et al. European Heart Journal. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehaa373 [2] The 11 European countries are: The Netherlands, UK, Germany, France, Greece, Slovenia, Serbia, Italy, Norway, Poland, Sweden. [3] Plasma angiotensin-converting enzyme 2: novel biomarker in heart failure with implications for COVID-19", by Gavin Y. Oudit and Marc A. Pfeffer. European Heart Journal. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehaa414 [4] ""Focus issue on COVID-19 and CVD," European Heart Journal, Issue 19. https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/issue/41/19 In the midst of the worst health crisis America has suffered in 102 years, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell decided it was still a good time to play politics. The Kentucky Republican, in a April 22 radio interview, said it was time to push the pause button before moving forward with this whole business of additional assistance for state and local governments. Thats reasonable ... depending on how long the pause button will stay pressed amid, among other troubling signs, record increases in unemployment filings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But then his office put out a news release in support of his views: Stopping Blue State Bailouts, an apparent allusion to some of the states having financial difficulty being run by Democrats. Leader McConnell is among the last legislators who should be talking about dependence on the federal government: Kentucky is the fourth-most dependent on federal money for its budget, with nearly 40 percent of its funding coming from federal taxpayers in blue states like California, red states like Texas and purple states like Wisconsin. Kentucky is quite different from New York state, but the Bluegrass State is facing a revenue shortfall just the same. The number of Kentuckians that have enrolled in unemployment, the shutting down of sales tax collections across the state, extending the filing deadline on income taxes it will have major impacts on state government, state Rep. Steven Rudy, a Republican, told the Louisville Courier-Journal. Heres where Kentucky and New York state differ: Kentucky receives more federal dollars than it sends to Washington, while the opposite is true in New York. This is not the time or the place or the situation to start your divisive politics, a visibly agitated New York Gov. Mario Cuomo said in response to McConnell. Its not red and blue. Its red, white and blue. Or to put it another way, COVID-19 doesnt care which way your state leans politically. We think its entirely reasonable to mandate that new federal assistance not be used to clean up state messes unrelated to the pandemic. Illinois money pit of a state pension system is the result of decades of bad decisions and no decisions; legislators in the Land of Lincoln are going to have to fix that themselves. We also want members of Congress and President Donald Trump to be conscious of the long-term risk of throwing billions of dollars here and billions of dollars there. But the fact is, every states budget and every states economy is being dealt a severe blow by the pandemic, and every state will need some degree of financial assistance from the federal government. We can, and should, debate the amounts of money to be allocated. But all of the states in question red, blue or purple are American states with American citizens. Were confident that, despite his divisive rhetoric, Leader McConnell knows that. This editorial was reprinted with permission from the Racine Journal Times. London, May 10 : UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to launch a COVID-19 alert system to track the virus, the media reported on Sunday. The system will rank the threat level from coronavirus on a scale of one to five and be adjusted according to data, reports the BBC. The warning tool - to be administered by a new "joint biosecurity centre" - will also reflect the virus threat in different parts of the country, meaning the threat level in one city could differ quite widely from another. This could inform the local alteration of restrictions. Johnson is expected to give further details of the system when he addressed the nation on Sunday night on the progress of the ongoing lockdown measures. He is also likely to unveil a new slogan, telling the public to "stay alert, control the virus, save lives". A meeting of the government's Cobra emergency committee involving the cabinet, devolved nations and the Mayor of London will be held before Johnson's televised address, with the plans to be put before Parliament on Monday. As of Sunday, the overall COVID-19 cases in the UK stood at 216,525, with 31,662 deaths, which is currently the highest number of fatalities in Europe. Commenting on the US reversal on its stance on the United Nations Security Council resolution, a Chinese diplomat reportedly said that it was shocking and regretful". The 15 member council has been trying to agree on a draft that ultimately aims to back a March 23 UN chief's call for a global ceasefire so as to focus on the pandemic. However, the text has been a constant subject of a tiff between China and US on whether to mention the World Health Organisation or not. Include WHO? The Chinese diplomat stressed that the US does not want WHO to be included in the draft while China does. He added that, however, many other members of the UNSC considered it a marginal issue. He added that it was evident that the UN body reached some kind of compromise, on May 7, after the US signed the text. However, an American diplomat denied it saying that there wasnt any US agreement on the text. Read: China Blocks COVID-19 Discussion In UNSC Stating Pandemic Not Linked With Global Security Read: China No Longer Chairing UNSC, United Nations To Finally Discuss Coronavirus Pandemic According to reports, instead of the naming WHO, the Tunisian and French initiated draft mentioned, specialized health agencies to which America had allegedly agreed. On May 8, the American diplomat rejected the draft owing to its language and obvious reference to WHO. On May 9, the Chinese diplomat asserted that China supported the draft and that the US had agreed on the compromised text. He added that it was shocking and regretful that the US changed its position. On the other hand, US diplomat reportedly said that there was never an agreement on the text which was sent to Washington for review. He also added that during negotiations, both US and China had raised the prospect to Veto. A resolution needs nine votes in favour and no vetoes permanent members by France, Russia, Britain, the United States, or China to pass. China's support of the draft is in contrast to its stance in March. According to reports, the draft was blocked in March by China, the then president of the body. However, in April the Dominican Republic took over the rotating presidency and has since then made efforts for a meeting. Read: UNSC almost Ready To Talk About COVID-19; Chief Guterres Invited As Roadblock China Moves Read: China's Successor As UNSC Chair Takes Immediate Remedial Steps; Plans Coronavirus Meeting (Image credits: AP) India has despatched a warship with two medical teams and medical supplies to assist authorities in the Maldives, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Seychelles to prevent and control Covid-19 and dengue fever. The Indian Navys INS Kesari, a 5,600-tonne landing ship, was deployed in response to requests for assistance from the Indian Ocean countries in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, the external affairs ministry said on Sunday. The warship is carrying consignments of Covid-19-related essential medicines and food supplies. The two medical assistance teams on board the warship will be deployed in Mauritius and Comoros to help their governments deal with the Covid-19 crisis and dengue fever (in Comoros). The vessel will also deliver consignments of Covid-19-related medicines to Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Seychelles and 600 tonnes of food supplies to the Maldives. It is also carrying a special consignment of Ayurvedic medicines for Mauritius, the ministry said. The consignments for Madagascar and Comoros include hydroxychloroquine tablets. India supplied 50,000 hydroxychloroquine tablets to the Maldives last month and more supplies were also sent to Mauritius and Seychelles. India had also deployed a team of select medical personnel to the Maldives to augment the preparedness of authorities there to fight Covid-19. The Indian Ocean archipelago had so far reported 766 Covid-19 cases and three deaths. The Indian Navy has also played a key role in the repatriation of some 1,000 Indian nationals from the Maldives since last week. The navy deployed two massive warships to Male to bring back the Indians. The operation to help the Indian Ocean countries, named Mission Sagar, was inspired by the prime ministers vision of Sagar Security and Growth for All in the Region. It is also in line with Indias time-tested role as the first responder in the region, the external affairs ministry said. India has already supported the efforts of the governments of the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Seychelles to control and prevent Covid-19 by providing them consignments of essential medicines. Last month, India activated a currency swap arrangement with the Maldives and said it would provide $150 million to help the country mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic. The facility is part of the $400 million currency swap agreement signed in July 2019 between the two countries. India has also deployed a medical rapid response team to Kuwait and provided hydroxychloroquine tablets to many countries in the neighbourhood as grants. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 10 By Eldar Janashvili - Trend: The compensation on the deposits in Azerbaijans Amrahbank OJSC and AtaBank OJSC will be paid in a non-cash form through the debit cards of Kapital Bank OJSC and Khazri money transfer system, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijan Deposit Insurance Fund. The compensation on the deposits will be returned in two stages to avoid queues in the branches of Kapital Bank to systematically pay the compensations and please the citizens. The compensations on deposits in Amrahbank and AtaBank up to 30,000 manat ($17,647) in manat equivalent will be given from June 1, 2020, while compensations on deposits worth more than 30,000 manat ($17,647) in manat equivalent from July 1, 2020. In accordance with article 28.3 of the Azerbaijani law on deposit insurance, the Deposit Insurance Fund accepts the applications from depositors within one year from the date of the first publication of the notification about compensation. In accordance with the law, the date of the insured event at AtaBank and Amrahbank is April 28, 2020. The deposits will also be refunded in accordance with the law. The further information on the process of returning deposits to the citizens will be given. The licenses issued by Amrahbank and AtaBank for banking activity were cancelled upon the decision of the Board of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan dated April 28, 2020. In accordance with the decision of the Trustee Board of the Deposit Insurance Fund, Kapital Bank OJSC was chosen as an agent bank for reimbursing the deposits in AtaBank and Amrahbank. (1 USD = 1.7 AZN on May 10) --- Follow the author on Twitter: @eldarjanashvili We have a saying in Holland: God created the world, but the Dutch made Holland. This is because Holland is below sea level, guarded by giant dikes and the Delta Works that make humans look like ants surrounded by a puddle. Born in 1935 in Rotterdam, I was one of those ants, the sixth of what would eventually be seven children. My father operated a store-front tobacco shop selling everything that was legal, and perhaps a few things that were not, to provide for his large family. What I remember most about the time before (as we referred to the time before WWII) was that we had to be quiet in the house when dad waited on customers not a small challenge for four young boys and three girls. May 10, 1940 marked the end of the time before. German troops invaded Holland. The Dutch army was ill-prepared and no match for the Germans, who in two days overran Holland, reaching the river Maas which runs through the center of Rotterdam. We lived two blocks from the river. The morning of May 12, we were woken by the sounds of machine guns and low-flying planes. Peeking through shuttered windows, we saw German soldiers crouched in doorways with machine guns. Dutch marines held the two bridges over the Maas and made a gallant stand for two days. It was impossible to leave the house. But then the gunfire abruptly stopped and the Germans withdrew. We were afraid, being on the half of the city that was considered occupied. As it turned out, that was a blessing in disguise. We woke one morning to the sound of planes. Hundreds of Luftwaffe planes appeared in the sky, bombing unoccupied Rotterdam. They blasted it off the map. Following that was an ultimatum: Surrender or Amsterdam and The Hague will be similarly destroyed. The Dutch surrendered, and Queen Wilhelmina and the royal family escaped to Canada to rule in exile. After the surrender, life returned to what seemed to be normal. We counted our blessings for having been spared the destruction we saw across the river. The falsa pace lasted until 1942, when the United States became involved in the war. The Allies began to bomb Germany factories and supply lines, hoping to hamper the German war effort. The two bridges over the Mass were on those supply lines and marked for destruction. Each night, thousands of planes flew over the English Chanel and across Holland on their way to Germany, triggering air raid sirens. My dad had us well-trained. At the first wail, everyone got up and put on our clothes (over our pajamas), which had been laid out the night before at the foot of our beds. Each of us took an assigned position against the wall of the living room, which had been cleared of all furniture and pictures. Sometimes, against protocol, I would turn my head and peer through the shutters and see German anti-aircraft bullets tracing the sky. Clear nights were the worst, as sleep was inevitably interrupted by bombs coming frighteningly close to our house, which was two blocks from the bridges the allies were attempting to hit. Their aim was faulty and the bridges both stand to this day. It was winter of 1942 when the air raid sirens warned us of approaching aircraft. All nine of us dressed quickly and had only just gotten into position when the three bombs hit. One in backyard. One on the shop. Then one on the bedroom. It was over with, literally, in a flash. Sheet rock, timber, all tumbling around us, followed by an eerie silence. We looked up, not to the ceiling but to stars. My fathered yelled roll call and we listened, anxiously counting as nine names were shouted. But there was no time to count blessings. As in all Dutch houses, the coal-burning water heater was in the living room and my dad desperately removed burning debris to prevent conflagration, seriously burning both hands while we stood against the wall as ordered. Thats how the search party found us at day break, in disbelief that nine people survived unharmed. We were nine now homeless people in occupied Holland. Through the good efforts of our pastor, my two youngest sisters were placed with a family in Doetichem, in the Province of Gelderland on the German border. My two older brothers and I were taken in by a farmer and his family in Rosendaal, near the Belgian border. My oldest sister and youngest brother remained in Rotterdam with my parents. And so my father set about rebuilding our life. We were fortunate and our hosts generous. Food was plentiful on the farms, allowing my parents to keep all nine of the meager ration coupons. Dad managed to salvage some of the stock from the shop, a flotsam of cigarettes, cigars and loose-leaf tobacco. He was able to rent a one-bedroom apartment for the four of them far from the two bridges. In June of 1944, the Allies landed in Normandy. Fearing heavy fighting on the Belgian border, my father brought us all back to Rotterdam. For the first time in two years, the family was reunited and hopeful the war would end soon. Dad somehow kept abreast of news from the war front. It was only afterwards that we learned he secretly listened to radio broadcasts from London, a dangerous act known only by our mother as the Germans had confiscated and banned all radios. The Allies were determined to end the war by winter. The Canadian Second Airborne was dropped in Arnheim with the task of securing the two bridges over the Waal. But Gen. Patton and the American tanks got bogged down in the mud and snow around Ardennen, and without reinforcements the Canadians were wiped out. Hope began to fade. Food, which had become scarce, was unavailable at any price. We survived on sugar beets and tulip bulbs, which my mother learned to prepare in seven different ways. If you had managed to hide gold or silver or jewelry from the Germans, you might be able to buy food from the farmers on the black market. There was no coal for heat. To survive, two neighbors would move into one house and break down the other for firewood. Children, my sisters included, would scour the railroad tracks for coal spilled from the steam locomotives. Dutch money, now without value, became toilet paper. But thanks to my father, who had given up smoking before the war, our family had something of value: cigarettes, cigars and loose-leaf tobacco. One cigarette was worth a gallon of milk. A pack was a bag of potatoes. A carton? That would buy half a pig. People were dying of starvation, but thanks to my fathers foresight, our family and the families of others that my father was able to help, survived. The Germans began to lose the war and became desperate. One day, soldiers began to round up men between 18 and 45, and took them to work in the German factories to free up German workers to become soldiers. Men over 45 were forced to dig trenches. In response, the Dutch underground increased its efforts: sabotaging railroads and bridges and assassinating known leaders of the German Secret Service and Dutch traitors. There are two days during that last year of the war which I shall never forget. The first, I was walking to school (yes, we still went to school) when I saw a man run up to another man and shoot him in the head. Dead. He fled past me and shouted: Run like hell! Get away before the Germans arrive! I did what he ordered. The second, I was walking down the street when German soldiers began to randomly shoot and kill men standing near the Catholic church. Though he would not provide details, my father explained it was in retaliation for something the Dutch Underground had done the day before. Today, there is a small monument on that spot, and other places in Rotterdam, commemorating where those executions took place. On May 9 of 1945, the war ended as suddenly as it had begun. The main thing I remember from that day was, after hearing the news, my father went to the back yard and unceremoniously dug up a large bush, unearthing two small metal boxes. We watched as he opened them, revealing gold and silver coins and my mothers jewelry. The radio wasnt the only thing he had hidden from the Germans. I remember asking him how he knew? How he knew the Germans were going to confiscate gold and jewelry and radios, and to hide and bury them away when the rest of the public was caught unawares. He smiled and said, I had my sources. The war was over for him. He never wanted to speak of it again. But I will always wonder what secrets of the Dutch resistance he took with him to his grave. Bert Berghout lives in Napa. India coronavirus news and highlights: The Prime Minister's Office has confirmed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with chief ministers of various states via video conference at 3 PM on Monday. This will be his fifth meeting with the CMs since the first lockdown in India. PM Modi is expected to take a call on whether the government should extend the lockdown further or allow the gradual opening of the economy. Meanwhile, the total cases in the country now stand at 62,939, including 41,472 active patients and 19,358 cured/discharged/migrated and 2,109 deaths. Follow BusinessToday.in for live updates on coronavirus in India and world: 9:00 PM: Railways to restart passenger trains from May 12, says Piyush Goyal Indian Railways plans to gradually restart passenger train operations from May 12, says Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday. This will initially begin with 15 pairs of trains (30 return journeys). Also Read: BREAKING: Railways to restart passenger trains from May 12 8:30 PM: Coronavirus in Haryana: 28 new positive cases of COVID19 reported today As many as 28 new positive cases of COVID-19 reported in Haryana today. Total number of positive cases stands at 703 including 10 deaths and 393 active cases: Haryana Health Department. 8:10 PM: 15 new coronavirus positive cases reported in Odisha 15 fresh coronavirus positive cases have been reported in Odisha, taking the total number of cases in the state to 377. This includes 306 active cases, 68 cured/discharged and 3 deceased, says State Health Department. 8:00 PM: Coronavirus in Mumbai: 81 more prisoners of Arthur Road jail test positive for COVID-19 As many as 81 more prisoners from Arthur Road jail in Mumbai have tested positive for coronavirus, taking the total number of positive cases in the prison to 184. This includes 26 staff members. The jail houses 2,800 undertrials, however, with a capacity of only 800, social distancing becomes difficult in the prison. Currently, Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor is also lodged in the Arthur Road jail. 7:50 PM: Coronavirus in Jammu & Kashmir: 25 new positive cases reported today As many as 25 new positive cases reported in Jammu & Kashmir today (2 from Jammu division and 23 from Kashmir division), taking the total number of cases to 861. The total death toll stands at 9. 7:40 PM: 153 new COVID-19 cases, 14 deaths reported in West Bengal in last 24 hours West Bengal has reported 153 new COVID-19 cases today, taking the total number of positive cases in the state to 1,939. With 14 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the death toll rose to 113 in West Bengal. 7:35 PM: Irdai again extends grace period for life insurance policies amid coronavirus Irdai has further extended the grace period for renewal of life insurance policies whose premium was due in March till May 31 in wake of the extension of lockdown to fight spread of coronavirus. 7:30 PM: Monsoon session of Parliament to be held as per schedule, says LS Speaker Om Birla Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said that the upcoming Monsoon session of the Parliament will be held as per schedule. Till now, there are no plans to postpone the session. The decision will be taken as per the situation at that time, Om Birla told news agency ANI. 7:25 PM: Coronavirus: Air India bars its crew from sharing pictures on social media State-owned carrier Air India has passed a gag order refraining its cabin crew from sharing pictures and videos of the COVID-19 related relief work on social media. The crew has been directed to not share any content on social media while they are in their uniforms. 7:20 PM: 61 test coronavirus positive in Punjab The total number of COVID-19 cases in Punjab reaches 1,823, with 61 more people testing positive today. Number of active cases and fatalities due to the infection stands at 1,626 and 31 respectively, says State Health Department. 7:15 PM: South Goa hospital to resume OPDs from Monday The Goa government has decided to restart the OPDs in the hospitals in a phased manner as the state has been declared a 'green zone' for Covid-19. "Conducted a surprise inspection today morning at the South Goa District Hospital to monitor the status as we start OPD operations from tomorrow," Rane tweeted. 7:10 PM: National Institute of Virology, Pune develops 1st indigenous kit for COVID-19 National Institute of Virology, Pune has successfully developed the 1st indigenous anti-SARS-CoV-2 human IgG ELISA test kit for antibody detection of #COVID19 . This robust test will play a critical role in surveillance of proportion of population exposed to #SARSCoV2 infection pic.twitter.com/pEJdM6MOX6 - Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) May 10, 2020 7:06 PM: 334 coronavirus 'super-spreaders' found in Ahmedabad 334 coronavirus 'super-spreaders' have been found in Ahmedabad so far, and it is the main reason for the order to keep shops of groceries and vegetables closed till May 15, says officials on Sunday. 'Super-spreaders' are the infectious disease carrier who could transmit the pathogen to a large number of people. 7:00 PM: 56 ITBP jawans tested COVID-19 positive in last 24 hours As many as 56 jawans of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) have tested coronavirus positive in the last 24 hours, all new cases are in Delhi. Total number of COVID-19 cases in ITBP reaches 156. 6:50 PM: Delhi government on Sunday warned COVID-19 hospitals and health facilities of strict action in case of more delay in reporting of death cases. "It has been observed that Govt and private hospitals are not sending the #COVID19 updates regularly. The daily summary about COVID-19 deaths is not being sent to the death audit committee because of which daily reports get delayed or are submitted with wrong details," says Delhi Govt. 6:40 PM: PMC orders closure of all shops in containment zones from May 11-17 Pune Municipal Commissioner has issued an order to close all shops in containment zones of Pune from 11th to 17th May. In all 69 containment zones of the city, only hospitals and medical stores will be allowed to remain open, says PMC. 5:40 PM: Coronavirus in Hyderabad: 45 people get infected with COVID-19 in birthday party As many as 45 people have been infected with COVID-19 due to a birthday party thrown by a shop owner in Hyderabad. As a result, the city's LB Nagar has now become a hotspot for novel coronavirus with 15 new containment zones. 5.12 PM: 401 big projects hit due to lockdown As many as 401 infrastructure projects, each worth Rs 150 crore or more, have been hit by cost overruns of over Rs 4.06 lakh crore owing to delays and other reasons, according to a report. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation monitors infrastructure projects worth Rs 150 crore and above. Of the 1,701 such projects, 401 projects reported cost overruns and 583 projects time escalation. Also read: 401 infra projects hit by cost overruns of Rs 4.06 lakh crore: Report 5.05 PM: Allow entry to migrants: Goyal to states Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on migrant movement: "As per the directions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Railways is fully geared up to run 300 Shramik Special trains everyday at short notice since the last six days. I appeal to all the states to give permission to evacuate and bring back their stranded migrants so that we can get all of them back to their homes in the next 3-4 days itself." Arrangements inside INS Magar that will bring 2nd batch of Indian nationals from the Maldives under operation Samudra Setu. Arrangements inside INS Magar that will bring 2nd batch of Indian nationals from the Maldives under #OperationSamudraSetu. https://t.co/Gr1iT7dimmpic.twitter.com/cBiXaP1Quv ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2020 4.15 PM: Fadnavis slams Mamata Banerjee Maharashtra Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis says permission for 7 trains to carry migrant labourers from Mumbai to West Bengal had been sought from the West Bengal government, but not even one permission has been granted. Indian passengers arrive at London Airport for the evacuation flight to Bengaluru (Karnataka) on Sunday. United Kingdom: Indian passengers arrive at London Airport for the evacuation flight to Bengaluru (Karnataka) today. #VandeBharatMissionpic.twitter.com/WVpVj4AJeu ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2020 3.59 PM: Coronavirus cases in Odisha: 362 Total 10 new coronavirus positive cases reported in Odisha, taking the total number of cases in the state to 362, including 291 active cases, 68 cured or discharged and three deceased, says the Odisha Health Department. 3.49 pm: Gujarat coronavirus latest updates: 387 patients discharged According to Indian Council of Medical Research's (ICMR) revised discharge policy, 387 patients will be discharged for home isolation in Gujarat, 250 from Ahmedabad,35 from Surat,34 from Vadnagar,20 from Vadodara,17 from Anand,15 from Rajkot,10 from Bhavnagar,5 from Mahisagar and 1 from Aravalli, said Ahmedabad's Info Department. (ANI reports) 3.39 pm: Odisha coronavirus cases: 10 more people infected Odisha recorded 10 fresh COVID-19 cases on Sunday taking the total count of coronavirus cases in the state to 362 including 291 active cases, 68 cured/discharged and 3 deceased, said Odisha Health Department. (Inputs from ANI) 3.29 pm: Coronavirus lockdown extension PM Modi to hold 5th meeting via video-conferencing with state chief ministers on Sunday, tweets PMO Office. PM @narendramodi to hold the 5th meeting via video-conference with state Chief Ministers tomorrow afternoon at 3 PM. - PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 10, 2020 3.15 pm: Haryana coronavirus cases 20 new positive cases of COVID-19 reported in Haryana today. Total number of positive cases stands at 695 including 10 deaths and 394 active cases, said the state health department.(ANI reports) 3.00 PM: A total of 20 new positive cases of COVID-19 reported in Haryana today. Total number of positive cases stands at 695, including 10 deaths and 394 active cases, says the Haryana Health Department. 10 new #Coronavirus positive cases reported in Odisha taking the total number of cases in the state to 362 including 291 active cases, 68 cured/discharged and 3 deceased: Odisha Health Department pic.twitter.com/OZ5Xaow6Og ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2020 2.58 PM: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold video conferencing with all the Chief Ministers tomorrow at 3 pm. 2.47 PM: No case in 10 states/UTs No case of COVID-19 has been reported in 10 states/union territories in the last 24 hours. "Four states/union territories never reported any case of COVID-19. The Central government has sent 72 lakh N-95 face masks and 36 lakh PPE kits to the states so far," says Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan. 2.44 PM: 4,362 COVID care centres across India: Harsh Vardhan Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan inspects a COVID-19 care centre in Mandoli area. He says, "There are 4362 Covid care centres across the country where 346856 patients with mild or very mild symptoms can be kept". -ANI 20 new positive cases of #COVID19 reported in Haryana today. Total number of positive cases stands at 695 including 10 deaths and 394 active cases: Haryana Health Department pic.twitter.com/1g2deqWfRn ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2020 2.39 PM: Karnataka sees biggest spike Karnataka witnessed the biggest spike in COVID-19 cases in a single day with 53 people testing positive on Sunday, taking the tally to 847 and reported one more death, increasing the number of fatalities to 31. Belagavi, with 22 cases, Bagalkote and Shivamogga with eight cases each and Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada with seven, were the biggest contributors to the tally, the health department said. This was the biggest spike in a single day in the state, a senior government officer told PTI. Shivamogga is the home district of Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, which had earlier been in the green zone. Of the eight cases from Shivamogga, seven are from Yediyurappa's assembly constituency Shikaripura. The other cases were reported from Kalaburugi (3) Bengaluru (3) and one each in Chintamani in Chikkaballapura district and Davangere. - PTI 2.30 PM: Aarogya Setu completely safe: Govt Aarogya Setu is completely safe and your data is fully secure, assures government. "With Aarogya Setu app, you can protect yourself, your family and friends and also help in the country's efforts as India fights coronavirus," says the government. Delhi: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan inspects a Covid care centre in Mandoli area. He says, "There are 4362 Covid care centres across the country where 346856 patients with mild or very mild symptoms can be kept". pic.twitter.com/EueLxbEYfl ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2020 1.48 PM: Govt's guidelines for home isolation The Health Ministry has issued guidelines for home isolation for very mild/pre-symptomatic patients. This can be availed by those who have requisite facility for self-isolation at their residence. #AarogyaSetu is completely safe and your data is fully secure. With @SetuAarogya app, you can protect yourself, your family & friends and also help in country's efforts as #IndiaFightsCorona Download at Play Store: https://t.co/hPfMCedank iOS: https://t.co/MTr1W3XqkOpic.twitter.com/dNh12l1QSY PIB India #StayHome #StaySafe (@PIB_India) May 10, 2020 1.45 PM: Kejriwal's appeal to the people of Delhi .@MoHFW_INDIA has issued guidelines for home isolation for very mild / pre symptomatic patients; this can be availed by those who have requisite facility for self-isolation at their residence Watchfor guidelines for Home Isolationhttps://t.co/fwQFQLYm3r #IndiaFightsCorona PIB India #StayHome #StaySafe (@PIB_India) May 10, 2020 1.40 PM: Coronavirus cases in Delhi Delhi govt arranged some hotels for the treatment of corona warriors. The opposition opposed this order: Kejriwal. 1.34 PM: Centre planning to start 25% of domestic flights The government may start with 25 per cent domestic flights post third phase of the nationwide lockdown. "We have prepared SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) for resuming flight operations in the country," Airport Authority of India (AAI) Chairman Arvind Singh tells The Times of India. 1.29 PM: Job losses reach Great Depression level in US The coronavirus crisis has sent U.S. unemployment surging to 14.7%, a level last seen when the country was in the throes of the Depression and President Franklin D. Roosevelt was assuring Americans that the only thing to fear was fear itself. Also read: US job losses reach Great Depression levels; unemployment rate soars to 14.7% 1.20 PM: Liquor sale in Delhi People queue outside a liquor shop in Mayur Vihar Phase-3 area amid lockdown. The Delhi government has imposed a 'special corona fee' of 70 per cent tax on Maximum Retail Price (MRP) of the liquor. The proposal was approved at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday last week. The 'Special Corona Fee' is meant to bolster government revenues, which have taken a severe hit due to coronavirus lockdown. pic.twitter.com/7OXxY0P0hY Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) May 10, 2020 1.10 PM: Govt all set to come up with another stimulus The central government is all set to announce the next round of "financial relief package" to tackle the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. The announcement could come next week, according to sources. Also read: Economic stimulus package this week; relief for MSMEs & workers; reforms on cards 1.00 PM: Govt issues new workplace safety guidelines Following the Vizag gas leak tragedy, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) early Sunday issued detailed guidelines for COVID-19 containment and safety at workplace for factories. The government body came out with new guidelines to be observed while restarting manufacturing and chemical factories after the lockdown ends. Also read: Coronavirus post-lockdown: NDMA issues workplace safety guidelines for industries 12.50 PM: Most COVID-19 casualties above the age of 50: Kejriwal "We have analysed that 82 per cent of the people who lost their lives were above the age of 50. We are seeing that there are more deaths among elderly people," says the Delhi CM. 12.48 PM: 155 Indian nationals to be evacuated from the US India is evacuating 155 Indian nationals from the United States today. The Air India San Francisco-Mumbai flight has taken off from the San Francisco International Airport with 155 Indians under the Vande Bharat Mission. 12.40 PM: Kejriwal press conference Overall corona figures rising in Delhi but at the same time people are getting cured and going back home safe. "Now we've to learn to live with corona," says Kejriwal. Delhi: People queue outside a liquor shop in Mayur Vihar Phase-3 area amid #CoronaLockdown. Delhi Government has imposed a "special corona fee" of 70% tax on Maximum Retail Price (MRP) of the liquor. pic.twitter.com/RO9ELnB5VE ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2020 12.30 PM: Coronavirus cases in Delhi On discrepancies in COVID-19 deaths in the national capital, Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain says the government has directed all hospitals to send detailed summaries in 24 hours of the occurrence of deaths. Total coronavirus cases in Delhi stand at 6,542, including 2,020 cured or discharged and 73 deaths. Overall corona figures rising in Delhi but at the same time people are getting cured and going back home safe. Now weve to learn to live with corona. https://t.co/tg0y1ZwQds AAP (@AamAadmiParty) May 10, 2020 12.20 PM: Five pilots of Air India found COVID-19 positive in a pre-flight COVID test before they were about to be rostered for flight duties. -ANI 11.26 AM: Andhra Pradesh coronavirus cases 50 new COVID-19 infections reported in the state in 24 hours. Active cases stand at 1,010, total cases at 1,980, 925 discharged, and 45 deaths. 11.14 AM: West Bengal coronavirus update West Bengal government has formed 5 teams for support surveillance and monitoring of treatment protocol at five hospitals treating COVID-19 patients in Kolkata. West Bengal government has formed 5 teams for support surveillance and monitoring of treatment protocol at five hospitals treating COVID-19 patients in Kolkata. pic.twitter.com/TGhDsaUT2N - ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2020 11.05 AM: 572 Indians land in Mumbai from UK As many as 572 Indian nationals arrived from the UK at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai on Sunday. All of them have been quarantined in 88 hotels across the city. India plans to repatriate 15,000 Indians from several countries as part of its week-long operation. 10.53 AM: 786 COVID-19 positive cops in Maharahstra As many as 786 police personnel have tested positive for COVID-19 in the state, of which 703 are active cases, 76 recovered and 7 deaths. Maharashtra's coronavirus cases breached 20,000-mark on Sunday. The central state of the country has registered 20,228 confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to the latest data by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. In the last 24 hours, Maharashtra's COVID-19 positive cases jumped 1,165. Coronavirus has killed as many as 779 people in Maharashtra so far. #WATCH Many hospitals report deaths but don't send summaries. We have directed all hospitals to send detailed summaries within 24 hours of the occurrence of deaths. This issue is due to summaries: Delhi Health Minister on discrepancies in COVID19 deaths in the national capital pic.twitter.com/rLsZRGlBxZ ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2020 10.40 AM: 34 more test positive for COVID-19 in Bihar At least 34 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Bihar, raising the total count in the state to 629, a top health department official said on Sunday. Of the 34, 11 hail from Begusarai, seven each from Saharsa and Madhepura, five, including a woman, from Rohtas, two from Darbhanga and one each from Khagaria and Araria districts, Sanjay Kumar, the principal secretary of the state health department, said. "We are ascertaining the infection trail. These are yesterday's results received late in the night," Kumar said, adding that seven out of 34 patients were minors. - PTI 10.32 AM: Migrant exodus continues Migrant continues to move to different parts of the country, with no clarity on the lifting of lockdown restrictions. In this picture, migrant workers from Delhi can be seen walking along NH9 towards different districts of UP and Bihar. They have been stopped by police in Ghaziabad. "We don't have money left with us now for food or house rent. We need to get to home somehow. No train or bus service has been started for us," a migrant told ANI. 786 police personnel have tested positive for #COVID19 in the state, of which 703 are active cases, 76 recovered & 7 deaths. There have been 200 incidents of assault on police personnel during the lockdown period & 732 accused have been arrested for the same: Maharashtra Police pic.twitter.com/BXT7FkqfHd ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2020 10.25 AM: Canadian nationals evacuated from India A total of 25 flights from Amritsar, Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru have taken Canadians home from different parts of India. Many migrant workers from Delhi walking along NH9 towards different Dists.of UP & Bihar have been stopped by police in Ghaziabad. They say,"We don't have money left with us now for food or house rent.We need to get to home somehow. No train or bus service has been started for us" pic.twitter.com/5DJxF9h8Cl ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) May 10, 2020 10.20 AM: Migrant movement continues Migrants from Bihar register themselves for a 'Shramik Special Train' at the Yelahanka police station. 25 flights from #Amritsar, #Delhi, #Kolkata, #Ahmedabad, #Mumbai, #Bengaluru, have taken Canadians home from different parts of India. Thanks to local authorities for their support. This week, flights will depart from Ahmedabad/Delhi/Amritsar. pic.twitter.com/aK209mssuG Canada in India (@CanadainIndia) May 10, 2020 10.14 AM: New coronavirus cases in China China's National Health Commission reported 14 new confirmed coronavirus cases on May 9, the highest number since April 28 and up from only one case a day earlier, according to data published on Sunday. Of the new cases, two were imported infections. The remaining 12 confirmed cases were locally transmitted, including 11 cases in the northeastern province of Jilin. Newly discovered asymptomatic cases were at 20, the highest since May 1 and up from 15 a day earlier, according to the health commission. - Reuters 10.00 AM: Coronavirus cases in Himachal Total cases in Himachal have risen to 54. The state reported two more cases today. 9.57 AM: Watch INS Jalashwa arrive at Kotchi Harbour INS Jalashwa has arrived at the Kochi Harbour bringing back 698 Indian nationals from Male and Maldives. According to the Indian Navy, there are 19 pregnant women among the 698 Indians. - ANI Bengaluru: Migrants from Bihar register themselves for a 'Shramik Special Train' at Yelahanka police station#Karnatakapic.twitter.com/yqXQfztp6x ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2020 9.53 AM: State-wise tally India has recorded a jump in its COVID-19 tally to 62,939, including 41,472 active cases and 2,109 deaths, according to the latest update by the Union Health Ministry. The country reported 1,638 new active cases and 128 deaths in the last 24 hours. Also read: Check out the state-wise tally, deaths, list of testing facilities 9.38 AM: 698 Indians arrive in India INS Jalashwa arrived at Kochi Harbour today bringing back 698 Indian nationals from Male, Maldives. According to the Indian Navy, there are 19 pregnant women among the 698 Indian nationals. - ANI 9.30 AM: Rajasthan reports 33 new cases The Rajasthan Health Department says 33 new COVID-19 positive cases were reported in the state on Sunday, taking the total number of positive cases to 3741, death toll 107. #WATCH Kerala: INS Jalashwa arrives at Kochi Harbour bringing back 698 Indian nationals from Male, Maldives. According to the Indian Navy, there are 19 pregnant women among the 698 Indian nationals. #OperationSamudraSetupic.twitter.com/ZTUjQ0hKDJ ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2020 9.25 AM: Ministry of Health & Family Welfare update: Spike of 3,277 COVID-19 cases and 127 deaths in the last 24 hours. Total cases in the country now at 62,939, including 41,472 active cases, 19,358 cured/discharged/migrated and 2,109 deaths. 9.20 AM: 18 more cases in Bihar 18 more COVID-19 positive cases reported in Bihar takes the total number of positive cases to 629, informs Bihar Principal Secretary-Health. 9.14 am: Kerala coronavirus update: State govt to impose strict lockdown curbs every week on Sunday The Kerala government has decided to enforce strict lockdown curbs every week on Sunday. All non-essential services will remain closed during the lockdown. 9.00 am: Coronavirus live updates: Centre to announce second economic stimulus package next week The Centre is likely to announce a financial stimulus package next week to tackle the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and the triple-phased lockdown. A source in the government said that "discussions and deliberations at the top level on the package were almost over a week ago" and an announcement in this regard is expected to come as soon as next week. The final round of discussion on the economic stimulus package took place on May 2 between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman along with the ministry officials. 8.45 am: Coronavirus in India: Health Ministry revises discharge policy for COVID-19 patients Meanwhile, the ministry has also issued fresh guidelines for the RT-PCR test of recovered patients. As per the new norms, coronavirus patients with moderate, pre-symptomatic, mild and very mild viral load are required to be tested before being discharged from a COVID-19 hospital. Simultaneously, it is also mandatory for a patient who developed serious illness to test negative for the coronavirus infection before getting discharged from the hospital. 8.30 am: Coronavirus India tracker: Check state-wise COVID-19 numbers 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 race is between Democratic state assemblywoman Christy Smith and Republican businessman and ex-Navy pilot Mike Garcia. They are seeking to fill a seat left vacant by former congresswoman Katie Hill (D), who resigned in the fall. Whoever wins on Tuesday will hold the California seat through the end of the year. Regardless of the outcome, the two will face each other again in November for a full two-year term. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 05/10/2020 ADVERTISEMENT [ Spoilers Warning: This report features spoilers which reveal if Lisa and Usman are still together and spoilers revealing whether the : Before the 90 Days couple got married]. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT So are Usman and Lisa still together? Did the : Before the 90 Days couple actually end up getting married? ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. star Lisa Hamme has been shown losing hope she can marry Usman Umar on Season 4 of : Before the 90 Days, so did the couple wed or break up -- and is the couple still together?Lisa, a 52-year-old hospice caregiver from York, PA, and Usman "SojaBoy," a 30-year-old rapper from Nigeria, are currently starring on : Before the 90 Days' fourth season, which premiered in February on TLC.Lisa, a divorced mother of a 15-year-old daughter, met Usman, an entertainer in Nigeria who has over 20,000 followers on Instagram, on Facebook two years before filming .Lisa didn't understand why a Nigerian celebrity would be interested in her, but a love song Usman had allegedly written for her sealed the deal in Lisa's mind that their love was real.Lisa therefore flew to Nigeria -- her first trip out of the United States -- to meet Usman for the first time face to face.Although their relationship was supposedly built on trust, Lisa had an issue with the "thirsty" women who followed him on social media. She therefore asked him to tighten up his profiles after seeing some flirty comments had been left by fans, such as heart emojis."I just have to try to tolerate her," Usman said in a confessional.Lisa and Usman were already engaged, so they planned to wed during her stay in Nigeria and then apply for a spousal visa so Usman could move to the United States.Lisa was warned by friends and family that Usman would tell her anything she wanted to hear in order to come to America and receive a Green Card. After all, Usman admitted to cameras his dream was to become the king of hip-hop and R&B in America.But Lisa believed otherwise and thought this was her opportunity to experience a love like never before."If my life is one week [or] one month with this man, I've lived a full life," Lisa told her friends before she left America.Lisa gushed, "If I die in Nigeria, I'll die a happy woman because I'll be with the man I love... He's absolutely the man of my dreams. If this is a scam, it's going to break my heart and I will not recover from it."Once Lisa arrived in Nigeria, Usman told the cameras he was "in heaven" and in "paradise" holding his love, and Lisa expressed how Usman was "so damn hot."But Usman admitted Lisa had "a bit more belly" than he was expecting. He said he would've liked her to have a bigger chest with a little waist and big hips, but he said Lisa had a big heart and that's what mattered most.Once Lisa and Usman made it to the hotel, a producer asked Usman if he was looking forward to having sex with Lisa for the first time.Usman admitted Lisa is not the kind of woman he's typically attracted to, and after the pair made love for the first time -- unprotected -- Usman said the encounter was "70 percent good," which was apparently good enough for him.The pair later drove over to Kaduna, a big city in Nigeria where Usman actually lived and worked in the music industry, and Lisa didn't appreciate people blowing up Usman's phone all the time.Usman pointed out Lisa was "very jealous" and "even more controlling in person."Usman spoke to his friends about how he needed to address Lisa's attitude because he didn't want her to do anything that might jeopardize his career or relationship with co-workers and fans.For instance, Lisa hated that Usman used a young female model in the music video for the song he had written for her, and she didn't like the video director as a result.Lisa therefore asked Usman to edit the model out of the video, which frustrated people who worked with Usman."Changing my video could be bad for my career. I wish Lisa could understand what I sacrifice for her," Usman said in a confessional.And it turned out his music video was not well-received at the world-premiere party, and Usman began fearing his career was slipping through his fingers.A couple of Usman's friends also thought Lisa was too controlling, too jealous, and essentially not obedient enough for a Muslim man -- but Usman still carried on with their relationship.Usman said he really wanted to marry Lisa, have children with her, and then "maintain that status [of] superstar" in the United States. He was willing to do whatever it took to make her happy as a result.Lisa and Usman then flew to Sokoto to visit with his mother, whom Lisa needed approval from in order to marry her son, and the pair got into another fight about Usman leaving Lisa alone too long."You are not a god," Usman said. "You are not up to 10 days in Nigeria and how many times have I said, 'I'm sorry?' I can't even count."Lisa told Usman not to be a "drama queen," but he wasn't about to let Lisa control his life.Usman thought it was ridiculous Lisa got mad at him for just escorting his friend out of the hotel, and he told Lisa they had a serious problem and he didn't want to live that kind of life."It's better to live in prison... I can't put myself in prison just to make you happy all the time," Usman complained. "If this is how you want me to be, then I think it's better for you to just go your way and let me go my way."Usman said in a confessional he finally had enough: "If this is how it's going to continue, we don't need to get married."After their big fight, Usman took off for a while and wouldn't speak to Lisa. He said Lisa was bossier than he had ever expected. He dreamed of being a famous musician in the United States, but he didn't want to sacrifice too much just to make his dream come true.Lisa felt everything she did for Usman wasn't enough, and she insisted no one is perfect and Usman had to make up his mind about her quickly.Lisa claimed her behavior was a result of not sleeping well and being in a foreign country, so she asked Usman for another chance and to move on with the next chapter of their life together."I love Lisa and I want to make her happy, but if we get married, we need a plan to fix our problems," Usman said in a confessional.After Lisa dressed in traditional Nigerian attire called Hausa and bought a goat as a gift, she finally met Usman's mother Fatimatu, hoping to receive her support and blessing to marry Usman.When Lisa finally met Fatimatu and his elders, they were shocked to see how old Lisa was. Usman told his mother that Lisa was a doctor in America although she's a hospice caregiver.Fatimatu ideally wanted him to marry a local Muslim woman, but Usman assured his mother that Lisa loved him and they wanted to get married. Usman revealed his intentions to move to America, and his mother shook her head, "No."Fatimatu excused herself from the conversation, and Usman said her walking away was one of the worst signs that she didn't approve of his relationship."I disagree with his choice to marry Lisa. That's why I left the gathering earlier. It scares me because Lisa is obviously much older and also that she will take him abroad," Fatimatu told the cameras."I'm afraid of how they will treat him since the whites don't like the blacks over there."At this point, Lisa and Usman couldn't get married, and Lisa wished Usman had better prepared himself for this conversation with his mother.The couple therefore resorted to Plan B and asked Usman's brother's Muhammed to try to convince Fatimatu to let them get married because they loved each other -- but that plan also failed.Since Lisa and Usman were running out of time, Muhammad later suggested they should pray at a mosque since Fatimatu is a devout Muslim, and Fatimatu did eventually show up and join them. Fatimatu told the camera she was worried Lisa would turn Usman into a servant in America.The religious experience was quite different for Lisa, who did everything in her power to blend in and follow the rules, including dressing the part.But Usman's mother continued to insist Lisa was too old for him after the service, and Lisa admitted that was "heartbreaking.""It's looking grim, and at this point, our relationship could be over," Lisa told the cameras.Lisa and Usman eventually had only one day left to receive Fatimatu's blessing because Lisa had to leave Nigeria. Lisa felt she had expired all options.Lisa and Usman then headed to see Fatimatu one last time, and Usman griped about how they probably only had a one percent chance of receiving his mother's blessing to have a wedding.Usman promised his mother that Lisa was going to help him find work in America after getting married and he'd still visit her in Nigeria often."I will have more chances of success there," Usman assured his mother, adding that he'd be safe in the United States with Lisa and loved her."I will think about it," Fatimatu replied."Mommy, you should have accepted it by now," Usman noted.Lisa could tell by the look on Usman's face he was not receiving good news, but then suddenly, Fatimatu -- after a long moment of silence -- said, "I have accepted it now.""She said, 'Yes!'" Usman told Lisa, who celebrated with joy and couldn't believe it.Fatimatu told the cameras, "It had become clear to me she and Usman will love together in love and peace. I'm thinking he will come with Lisa here to Nigeria, and I'm happy about it."Usman said he felt totally relieved but he and Lisa still had problems they needed to discuss and work out before getting married. Usman, for example, wanted Lisa to work on her jealousy and controlling ways.Later on, Usman picked out a wedding ring for Lisa, who wanted something simple. Usman said rings in Nigeria tend to be large and flashy, so he anticipated Lisa was going to complain about his pick.Usman purchased the simplest ring he could find and seemed happy with it, but she said he didn't want to spend his marriage fighting.Usman therefore told Lisa that a Hausa man controls the house and he wanted to be in control of their relationship. Usman was tired of Lisa commanding him to do things, saying that's the husband's role in a marriage.Lisa said a man telling her what to do would be "disrespectful," but Usman wanted to be in charge. Lisa told the cameras an American woman is not going to be obedient."If there are two kings in a kingdom, there will definitely be war," Usman said in a confessional.Usman said Lisa could advise him or suggest ways to act -- but not tell him what to do, and with that being said, Lisa walked away from him and flipped him the middle finger.: Before the 90 Days' latest episode just showed Lisa and Usman getting over their fight and heading to a courthouse in Abuja to get married."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," Lisa said in a confessional.Once Lisa and Usman met with a magistrate, they learned 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 and was furious at Usman for not doing his research on the required documents ahead of time.Lisa feared a courthouse wedding might not even be possible, venting to the cameras, "I bent over backwards to make sure this wedding happens, and now it might not happen. I feel like I am in a nightmare."Based on posts Lisa has made on Facebook, she and Usman reportedly began dating in June 2018.And the couple did reportedly get married during Lisa's stay in Nigeria!Photos of what appeared to be Lisa and Usman's wedding ceremony leaked online last year by Starcasm, and it appears they tied the knot on August 30, 2019.One picture appeared to show the couple holding their Nigerian marriage certificate.Lisa reportedly chose not to wear any makeup on her wedding day at Usman's request, and Lisa changed her name to Usman's mother's name when she got married.Lisa also reportedly converted to a different religion.Lisa confirmed she and Usman are married and "still together" in an early May interview with In Touch Weekly in which Lisa also said she'd be okay if Usman chose to have multiple 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."[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."Lisa was responding to comments Usman had made during the April 21 episode of Angela Lee's Lip Service podcast.Usman revealed at the time 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.""She cannot give [me a] child. Even if we are going to stay together, I must get [a] child," Usman disclosed, according to In Touch."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!"Lisa insisted to In Touch in late April that Usman was just really mad at her and the world on the day he appeared on the podcast.Not much later, Lisa posted a video on Instagram of Usman dancing with her and captioned it with a kissing emoticon, showing that everything was fine between them.Going back to April 16, Lisa hinted she and Usman were still going strong through an Instagram post.Lisa shared an image that read, "If another woman steals your man, there's no better revenge than letting her keep him. Real men can't be stolen."She captioned the image, "Since all the negative Nelly's have put me in a snarky ass mood if you think you can take my baby love @officialsojaboy just remember it will turn around and the exact same thing will happen to you but I don't think he's gonna do that to me so hate on hate on and hell yes I'm turning off the comments.""Karma's a bad ass bitch my sisters remember that BGL," she added.Not only did Lisa call Usman her "baby love," but she also insisted Usman would never leave or hurt her, which suggests they are still an item.She also posted a message to fans about staying strong during difficult times on April 1 amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and her location was tagged as Kaduna, Nigeria, implying she's either visiting Usman or living with him in Nigeria.While rumors have recently circulated that Lisa and Usman split and got divorced some time after their wedding, Lisa also posted a collage of photos of Usman and herself on March 20 on Facebook.In terms of speculation Lisa has changed her religion, Usman shared a post on Facebook in December 2019 that showed a screenshot of a text message Lisa had sent him in which she talked about converting to Islam, Starcasm reported."Wasn't for your mom or anyone in our lives, not even you," Lisa allegedly wrote, "this was a decision that I made for myself."Lisa reportedly received her fair share of backlash on social media after revealing she's married to Usman, and some people are claiming Usman has cheated on her. But it doesn't seem to phase the feisty Lisa!When one fan reportedly wrote to Lisa, "I wish you were faithful tho," she reportedly replied, "What do you mean my husband is faithful to me. Keep moving."Lisa then went off at the online troll and, according to Starcasm, wrote, "She is a typical Nigerian b*tch an ppl from my husband area wonder why he married a WHITE AMERICAN WOMAN. FACT STANDS I AM A GOOD WOMAN SO LET MY HATERS COME @USMAN SERIOUSLY ILL F**KING MAKE HER CRY."The commenter continued to allege Usman had been "f-cking around" on her, advising Lisa to get checked for sexual transmitted diseases."Jealous much b*tch? Get in line to kiss my white a**," Lisa reportedly responded."You mad bc I married Usman Sojaboy no wonder Nigerian men are choosing to marry anyone but a Nigerian woman like you."Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage! Worcester police detectives continue to investigate the Sunday shooting of a 39-year-old man. An officer in the area of Main Street near King Street heard gunshots Sunday just before 10 a.m. and then located the victim nearby, according to police. The victim had a gunshot wound. The officer called for an ambulance and the victim was rushed to a nearby hospital. The mans condition, as of noon on Sunday, was still unclear. Detectives continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the shooting and had limited suspect information. Anyone with information send an anonymous text to 274637 TIPWPD + your message or send an anonymous web-based message at worcesterma.gov/police. Calls can also be made to the Worcester Police Detective Bureau at 508-799-8651. Every day, sworn law enforcement officers, deputies, agents and troopers across Montana put their lives at risk, often while the rest of us are sleeping. They dont do it for recognition or money, they do it to protect us and our way of life. Along the way, some sacrifice their bodies . . . and some give up their lives. Last year, 128 federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement officers died in the line of duty across America. In Montana, we lost Gallatin County Deputy Jake Allmendinger in a tragic accident while trying to save a stranded motorist near Fairy Lake. Our prayers go out to his family, his colleagues and the community for their loss. In addition to those officers who make the ultimate sacrifice, every year about 60,000 officers are assaulted nationwide and 18,000 officers are injured. Thats a rate of more than one assault for every 10 officers. And officers arent just exposed to risk from assaults and vehicle-related injuries while keeping us safe. They are also on the front line (along with jail and prison guards), exposed to deadly diseases like coronavirus. While most of us stayed in our homes as the pandemic moved into Montana, our law enforcement officers were out on the streets. Unfortunately, criminals dont social distance and the risky behaviors they engage in put our officers in danger. For example, on March 18, when uncertainty about the spread and lethality of coronavirus was at its peak, officers from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies caught a suspected drug dealer carrying two pounds of meth. In spite of the personal risk to themselves, these officers made the arrest and kept an estimated 7,250 doses of meth away from our communities. In the last eight weeks there have been many, many more examples of our law enforcement officers exposing themselves to coronavirus to keep us safe. Nationwide, at least 21 officers have already died from coronavirus. Ronald Reagan said, The future does not belong to the fainthearted, it belongs to the brave. Our law enforcement officers bravely put themselves in harms way every day, some of them and their families paying the ultimate sacrifice. Please go out of your way this week to thank them. Kurt Alme is the U.S. Attorney for the United States District Court for the District of Montana. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi, who was admitted to a private hospital after he suffered a cardiac arrest at his home, has slipped into a coma, a doctor treating him said on Sunday. Jogi's neurological activity is almost nil and he is on ventilator support, a senior doctor who is attending to Jogi told PTI. The 74-year-old Janata Congress Chhattisgarh chief was rushed to the Shree Narayana Hospital on Saturday after he fell unconscious at his residence. "His heart functioning is normal at the moment. The blood pressure has been controlled by drugs, the hospital's medical director Dr Sunil Khemka said in a bulletin released by the hospital. He, however, added that there is a disruption in oxygen supply to his brain after the respiratory arrest he suffered yesterday, which has possibly caused damage to his brain. In simple words, we can say he has slipped into a coma. He is on ventilator. We are making all efforts to improve his health, but the situation is worrisome at present," the doctor told PTI. In the next 48 hours, it will be evaluated how Jogi's body is responding to the treatment, the official added. The former chief minister is being attended to by a team of eight specialist doctors. Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and other senior politicians of the state called up Jogi's family and enquired about the 74-year-old leader's health. A bureaucrat-turned-politician, Jogi, is presently an MLA from Marwahi seat and has served as the chief minister of Chhattisgarh from November 2000 to November 2003 after the state was carved out of Madhya Pradesh. (With inputs from PTI) At the onslaught of the global Covid-19 pandemic, Best Western Hotels & Resorts (BWHR) immediately rolled out enhanced cleaning protocols and breakfast standards. Recognising that travellers are now more concerned than ever about cleanliness, BWHR is launching the We Care Clean programme, which ensures an even higher level of cleaning standards and operational best practices at its properties. Based upon guidance provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Health Canada, We Care Clean addresses everything from guest room and common area cleanliness, to streamlined processes that minimise contact between guests and associates while maintaining industry-leading customer service. The programme will be updated regularly based upon the latest standards and recommendations by governmental agencies and industry groups. The We Care Clean programme is the latest example of our commitment to our guests and associates, said David Kong, president and chief executive officer for BWHR. We have always been an industry leader in our reputation for providing clean, well-maintained accommodations for travellers and we recognise that hygiene and cleanliness have never been more important. With the We Care Clean programme, we are proud to provide a safe and clean home away from home for our guests when the time comes to travel again. The We Care Clean programme expands upon the I Care Clean standards and the enhanced cleaning protocol already in place, and includes the implementation of measures to improve safety such as the installation of social distancing floor decals and front desk partitions as well as the enforcement of heightened and comprehensive cleanliness standards on an ongoing basis across five key areas: 1. Front Desk and Lobby: a. New protocols will minimise guest contact with personnel through a streamlined check-in and check-out process such as the use of Best Westerns Mobile Concierge platform. b. Social distancing measures will be implemented, wellness best practices signs will be prominently posted, and all lobby brochures, magazines and papers will be removed. c. Enhanced sanitisation procedures will be in place at the front desk, in the lobby and across guest touch points throughout the hotel with disinfecting taking place regularly. d. Sanitising stations or wipes will be available throughout hotels. 2. Guest Room and Housekeeping: a. Unnecessary items will be removed from guest rooms, such as decorative pillows, bed scarves, paper notepads and pens. b. Housekeeping offerings will be modified for stay-over guests, including the elimination of a full cleaning service unless specifically requested by guests. c. Enhanced and thorough cleaning protocols will be implemented in guest rooms. Guest rooms will not be entered for 24 to 72 hours after check-out, at which time the room, linens and all touch points, for example, faucets, door handles, light switches, thermostats, clocks and hangers will be cleaned with chemicals aimed at killing Covid-19. 3. Temporary breakfast offerings: While recognising the importance of a quality breakfast, offerings have been adapted to prioritize the health and safety of guests, including: a. Breakfast offerings that comply with local regulations, with breakfast rooms closed where required to avoid unnecessary guest congregation. b. Enhanced Grab & Go offerings will be implemented in most hotels providing guests with pre-packaged food and beverage options. c. Hotels may opt to provide a served or pre-plated breakfast to minimise guest contact with food, beverages and surfaces, and cross contamination. 4. Public Amenities: a. When allowed to open, public amenities such as fitness centres, swimming pools and meeting rooms will be cleaned on closely monitored schedules with disinfecting chemicals. Each evening, these areas may also be sanitised with the use of electrostatic fogging, ozone generators or ultraviolet devices. b. Hand sanitiser or wipes will be provided for guests and employees in all public areas. 5. Hotel Employees and Staff Requirements: a. Hotel employees will follow strict guidelines, including utilising Personal Protective Equipment, frequent and stringent hand-washing protocols, and housekeepers/laundry staff will wear both gloves and a mask. b. Employee workstations will be cleaned and disinfected after every shift. c. Employees will be empowered to stay home if unwell, communicate their potential exposure to Covid-19 with management, and will be fully educated on how to maintain a safe and clean home. We Care Clean elevates our existing cleaning practices and protocols to a new level, added Ron Pohl, senior vice president and chief operations officer for BWHR. Protecting guests and employees is our highest priority and today that is most often achieved through a tremendous focus on cleaning practices. Travellers can rest easy knowing that We Care Clean is the new standard for hotel cleanliness. We are putting the safety and wellbeing of guests and employees first. This announcement is the latest example of BWHRs commitment to supporting its hoteliers, guests and communities during the Covid-19 health crisis. BWHR was the first hotel company to offer a relief package to its hoteliers to help ease the financial burden during this challenging time. BWHR was also the first in the industry to extend loyalty status to its BWR members whose travel plans have been greatly impacted by travel restrictions and cancellations resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. Just this month, BWHR also launched a support package to lend a helping hand to front line workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. - TradeArabia News Service Dr Mansoor Al Awar, Chancellor, Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU), has highlighted the need for continuous efforts to tap innovation, quality and excellence as the key foundations to re-engineer the future of higher education and create a new generation of graduates who are qualified to lead in the 21st century. The call was raised during Dr. Al Awars participation in a webinar session of the Electronic Ramadan Quality Council held with leading quality and excellence experts from the Arab region in line with virtual meetings being organised by the Saudi Quality Council using the videoconferencing platform Zoom. The HBMSU's presence at the meeting reflected its support to the initiatives of the Saudi Quality Council, as well as its constant efforts to share and disseminate its leading experiences as the first hub for smart learning in the Arab region and pioneering provider of quality education based on the smart learning model. HBMSUs endeavours support international efforts to deliver equitable and comprehensive quality education and the enhancement of lifelong learning opportunities for everyone. During the session, Dr. Al Awar gave a presentation themed, 'Innovation in Higher Education,' and talked about the importance of making a fundamental shift in planning, methodologies, and educational environments, and moving away from traditional models of education, to support societies in gaining competitive advantage and keep pace with global development. The Chancellor also threw the spotlight on HBMSU's experience in using innovation, creativity, technology, and scientific research to change the face of higher education. Al Awar shared that the success of these endeavours has played a significant role in HBMSU's objective of creating a new generation of knowledge ambassadors, entrepreneurs, innovators, and future leaders, and not simply become graduates or job seekers. He added that these efforts are inspired by the UAEs leadership which is currently taking advanced steps to become one of the most innovative countries in the world. Al Awar discussed the concept of innovation and its main elements, explaining methods to polarise innovation on higher education institutions via the development of strategic plans, scientific content, educational environment, including faculty members and learners. He revealed that the university, which is under the guidance of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Universitys President, has successfully transformed itself into becoming a unique model for higher education, a move that can be attributed to its strategic adoption of methodologies in creative research, development, critical thinking, innovation incubation and adoption of the latest learning methods in all academic courses. The HBMSU has also presented many innovative projects of its learners and other universities' learners which were presented to the international community during Innovation Arabia Conferences. The smart university has made major efforts to attract leading partners from the private sector to establish creative learner laboratories that produce creative graduates capable of becoming technology designers and producers rather than mere consumers. The HBMSU Chancellor highlighted the importance of innovation in the move to enhance competitiveness among higher educational institutions, which represents a major change towards enhancing learning ratios and university ecosystem, as well as improving learners ability to imagine and adapt. He also shared that innovation serves as a great transformation tool in promoting integrated education, which is based on the participation of learners in the educational process as knowledge makers and not only usual recipients. In addition, it also helps enable academics to become facilitators for learning rather than teachers. Al Awar noted that HBMSU's leading position is the result of its successful adoption of a comprehensive methodology that puts learners at the top of its strategic priorities, as well as relying on fundamental pillars such as being game changer, passionate for results, and fuelling innovation and entrepreneurship. He also spoke about some of HBMSU's recent achievements, including the success of its online courses, 'Be an online tutor in 24 hours' and 'How to design an online course in 24 hours', which received overwhelming response from the global community after being launched and made available in five languages. The courses attracted the participation of around 111,000 individuals from 84 countries. Al Awar also discussed the success of HBMSU initiatives such as the 'Cloud Campus,' 'Smart Campus,' and 'Gamification' which represents the cornerstone of the universitys commitment to provide unique opportunities for lifelong learning and building unique experiences in creating future generations equipped with the applicable tools. - TradeArabia News Service Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese president, holds talks with Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), in Pyongyang, DPRK, June 20, 2019. (Xinhua/Ju Peng) BEIJING, May 9 (Xinhua) -- General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday sent a verbal message of thanks to Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), in reply to an earlier verbal message from the latter. Saying he was very glad to receive Kim's warm and friendly message, Xi recalled that in February this year, Kim sent him a letter of sympathy over the COVID-19 outbreak and provided support for China's prevention and control efforts. That has fully reflected the profound bond of amity Kim as well as the WPK and the DPRK government and people share with their Chinese counterparts, and vividly illustrated the solid foundation and strong vitality of the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK, said Xi, who also conveyed his deep gratitude and high appreciation. Xi pointed out that after the coronavirus disease broke out, China, under the firm leadership of the CPC Central Committee and with strong support from various sides, has achieved significant strategic results in COVID-19 prevention and control through arduous efforts. Senior students walk into Wuhan No. 6 High School in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, May 6, 2020. Senior students in 121 high and vocational schools returned to campus on Wednesday in Wuhan City. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) He added that he pays great attention to the epidemic prevention and control situation in the DPRK and the health of its people, and noted that Kim has guided the WPK and the DPRK people to carry out a series of epidemic prevention and control measures, which are leading to positive progress. The Chinese president said he is gratified and pleased with that. China, Xi added, is willing to enhance anti-epidemic cooperation with the DPRK and provide as much support as its capacity allows for the DPRK in line with the latter's needs. He also expressed his confidence that with the joint efforts of China and the DPRK as well as the international community, a final victory will be won in the fight against COVID-19. Meanwhile, Xi said he highly values the development of China-DPRK relations and stands ready to work with Kim to guide relevant departments of the two parties and countries to effectively implement the important consensuses between the two sides, strengthen strategic communication, and deepen exchanges and cooperation. In so doing, the two neighbors can promote the continuous development of China-DPRK relations in the new era, bring more benefits to both countries and their people, and make positive contributions to regional peace, stability, development and prosperity, added the Chinese president. In his verbal message sent to Xi on Thursday, Kim congratulated Xi on leading the CPC and the Chinese people to splendid achievements and great victories in the battle against the unprecedented epidemic, saying he highly appreciates that. Kim expressed his firm belief that under Xi's leadership, the CPC and the Chinese people will surely further consolidate and expand the successes made so far and win a final victory. He also wished Xi good health, sent greetings to all CPC members, and expressed his hope that the relationship between the WPK and the CPC will grow closer and enjoy sound development. MACKINAC ISLAND, MI -- The Grand Hotel in Mackinac Island has been sold but the hotels interior designer is suing the owners over what was left inside. Legendary designer Carleton Varney has filed a lawsuit against the hotel owners claiming his personal belongings were sold off with the property, according to reports from ABC 12. Varney is President of Dorothy Draper and Co. in New York, one of the oldest established interior design firms in the United States. He is credited with the restoration and decoration of Grand Hotel. In 2019, he outfited the hotels new Cupola Suites with custom carpets, Dorothy Draper drapery and hand-painted wall papers, according to the Grand Hotel website. In September, the Grand Hotel announced that the property is being sold to an international investment firm. Varney claims the Grand Hotel was sold with some of his presidential and Hollywood memorabilia inside. The resort announced the investment company, KSL Capital Partners, entered into a definitive agreement," making Grand Hotel an an affiliate of the investment firm, according to a news release issued by the resort. Dan Musser III will remain chairman, providing leadership and guidance to the team, ensuring a seamless transition, the September release said. The Musser family has controlled the 133-year-old resort for nearly nine decades, according to the Grand Hotel website. The lawsuit from Varney was filed Wednesday, April 29 in Washtenaw County Circuit Court. Musser III is also named in the lawsuit against the Grand Hotel Holding Company. Saginaw attorney Victor J. Mastromarco, Jr. is representing Varney. Mastromarco told ABC 12 that Varney was very disappointed with the Mussers after learning the new owners wanted a younger interior designer to take over. In response, Varnery is suing for age discrimination and the conversion of his property. Mastromarco could not be reached for comment. Varney was appointed to the National Council for the Arts by President Donald Trump in 2018. Varney has also worked with The Waldorf Towers and Plaza Hotel in New York City. More on MLive: What does Grand Hotels sale mean to Mackinac Island, and Michigan? Mackinac Islands Grand Hotel sold to international investment group 15 things to do at Mackinac Islands Grand Hotel even if youre not a guest At least 100 elephants at Thailand's commercial camps and sanctuaries are fresh from "unemployment" due to the COVID-19 global outbreak. While the total of foreign visitors diminishing during the novel coronavirus crisis, the facilities which depend on tourists to feed the elephants' voracious appetites sent groups of them plowing up to 95 miles to return to their native stomping grounds. A northern Thailand foundation in Chiang Mai called Save Elephant Foundation is currently raising funds to feed animals remaining at tourist parks, but are also promoting returning them to their origin in natural habitats in order for them to be more self-sufficient. According to London-based World Animal Protection, around 2,000 tame elephants are at risk of starvation because their owners lack funds to feed them. Since April, the elephants have trudged from all over Chiang Mai to their natural habitat in Mae Chaem, which is scattered with villages wherein residents of the Karen ethnic minority live and traditionally keep these animals. According to Save Elephant's founder, Saengduean Chailert, the project to transport out of work elephants home was initiated in response to an urgent request from their owners. Sadudee Serichevee owns 4 elephants from Chiang Mai's Mae Wang district. He submitted to the foundation's method in setting up a small Karen Elephant Experience park with elephants transferred from Mae Chaem's Ban Huay Bong, which is his wife's village. But Serichevee's good intentions were weak against the coronavirus. "At first I thought the situation would be back to normal within a month or two. At the end of April, I lost all hope," Serichevee uttered. Also Read: Thai Elephant Keeper Killed: Berserk Elephant Escapes With Chinese Tourists After Killing Mahout Serichevee and his wife made an agreement to transfer their elephants back to her village due to the fact that the couple could no longer shoulder the monthly expenses of nearly 200,000 baht ($9,610) for these needs: food, rental of land and facilities, and salaries for handlers known as mahouts. Elephants consume approximately 300 kilograms of grass and vegetables daily. He and his wife coaxed other elephant owners to trek almost 100 miles across the region with both of them, as transporting the animals on a truck is expensive for park owners. Elephants can also sustain a walking rate of 7.25 kph (4.5 mph). The caravan of 11 elephants, the elephants' owners, and their mahouts, launched their journey on April 30, traveling over hills and on paved and dirt roads. Serichevee narrated, "These elephants have not had a chance to return home for 20 years. They seem to be very happy when arriving home, they make their happy noises, they run to the creek near the village and have fun along with our children." The project is also implemented in the northeastern province of Surin, in Thailand, well-known for its annual elephant festival. Approximately 40 elephants returned in April to the province's Tha Tum district, which is a natural habitat for hundreds of animals. According to Save Elephant founder Chailert, we are not certain when will the coronavirus go away. He affirmed, "So this is our task, to help feed the elephants that were laid off because of the outbreak." Related Article: Elephants March Through Hotel Lobby To Harvest Ripe Mangoes (VIDEO) @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. He is the new face of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Mohammad Shtayyeh, the 62-year-old incumbent prime minister, has been managing a plan to contain Covid-19 with an iron fist since the first case in the West Bank was reported on March 5 in Bethlehem. His daily televised appearances have become emblematic of his energetic and transparent approach, which has won him the hearts of the Palestinians and a growing space within the local political scene. A popular figure and media darling, some believe that Shtayyeh is increasingly eclipsing a weak-ened and sick octogenarian president. He has become the main favorite candidate to succeed Mahmoud Abbas as president. But are these projections more than rumors in political circles? The debate over presidential succession is nothing new: It emerged in 2018 in the wake of Abbas health problems, and has since remained controversial. But Shtayyehs appointment as prime minister in March 2019, growing commitment and rocketing popularity have fueled the rumors and revived the debate. The prime ministers personality is the key argument justifying the legitimacy for his possible ascension to the presidency."Shtayyeh is known for his talent as a speaker, a powerful communicator and someone who has risen within the hierar-chy of Fatah (Abbas party) thanks to these skills and his hard work. This distin-guishes him from his predecessors," said Asem Khalil, a public law specialist and professor at the Birzeit University. His pro-reactive and effective management of the (coronavirus) crisis, allowed the government to gain the confidence of 96% of the population, according to a re-cent poll. "The prime minister gained new visibility over the president, even more so during the coronavirus crisis, where it became clear that he initiated coordina-tion work on the ground," said Hanan Ashrawi, a former Palestinian spokeswom-an. "His success is neither transient nor theatrical but the result of effective action and public appreciation," said Dr. Khalil Shikaki, professor of political science and director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) in Ramallah. Nothing Confirmed or Guaranteed But given the magnitude of the economic and political challenges ahead, it is still too early to judge whether this popular success will last. "During an epidemic, people rally behind their governments. We have to wait and see whether this po-litical advantage will be translated in the future, especially that we already see looming criticism concerning the economic management of the crisis," said Ali Jarbawi, a professor at the Birzeit University who served as minister under former Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Beyond these preliminary observations, scenarios of possible changes at the pres-idency are hence still mere assumptions. There is no guarantee or confirmation: Other candidates are to be considered in a paralyzed legislative and political sys-tem that prevents the democratic process from being decisive as it should. "There is a legal issue: The Palestinian Legislative Council has been suspended since the 2007 split (between Gaza and the West Bank).Therefore, if the presidents post becomes vacant, we neither have a parliament nor a parliament speaker to hold the elections," Jarbawi said. This amounts to saying that the appointment of the new president will be at the discretion of the main force on the ground, Fatah, a movement founded by Yasser Arafat in 1959 and a major political force within the Palestine Liberation Organi-zation (PLO). "It is the movements central committee that ultimately will decide. Mohammad Shtayyeh is a member (of the committee), but only one member among others," Jarbawi said. "Being prime minister, he hence holds the second topmost post after the president, and this increases his chances of succeeding the president, but does not make the process automatic or guarantee the post." Others, like Khalil Shikaki, are far more skeptical about the prospect of an immi-nent succession. We have to put aside these rumors, which are almost totally unfounded. The race for succession is still dormant. Mr. Shtayyeh is not the num-ber two in the hierarchy within Fatah, his original party. So he is not a serious candidate at this stage," said the PCPSR head, for whom the prime minister will have to confront other strong candidates, such as Marwan Barghouti, Jibril Ra-joub, Nasser al-Qudwa and Mahmoud al-Aloul, or even Saeb Erakat, the PLOs secretary-general. The Specter of Collapse But beyond the partys internal power games and dynamics, the deepening eco-nomic crisis and the possibility of Israels forthcoming annexation of part of the West Bank may jeopardize not only the popularity of the prime minister and the ruling elite, but also the very existence of the PA. "The consequences of the eco-nomic crisis are staggering, not least because external assistance is lacking: Those who usually support us are currently busy managing their crises. The PA is there-fore no longer in a position to fulfill its financial commitments," Jarbawi said. The specter of economic collapse underscores the intrinsic limitations of the Pales-tinian leadership, which was created on promises of a peace that never hap-pened. On the eve of a possible annexation of part of the West Bank, the PA seems to have lost the bet on a two-state peaceful solution, and with it the very reasons for its existence."What will be the fate of the West Bank if the PAs living conditions are no longer secured? The future of the PA as a whole is uncertain, not just from the point of view of Israel or the international community, but also from the point of view of the Palestinians themselves: What is the purpose of hav-ing an authority that is unable to become a state, gain independence or end the occupation?" Jarbawi said. (This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour on the 8th of May) Britons stood in silence on Friday (May 8) to mark the 75th anniversary of "Victory in Europe" Day - commemorating the end of World War Two on the continent. Although lockdown measures did prevent some remembrance events taking place, millions around the nation observed a two-minute silence. Royal Prince Charles' was held outside his family's Balmoral estate, while military jets flew over the United Kingdom's four capitals. Queen Elizabeth was also set to address the nation later that day, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson commended - quote - the "heroism of countless ordinary people" in his online tribute to the millions who fought and lived through the war. The original plans for extensive events to herald VE Day, when allied forces accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany, were scaled back after the government banned social gatherings from March. A veterans' procession and other events involving crowds were scrapped. But flags and banners still fluttered - and some hosted 1940s-style tea parties and singalongs at their homes. Elsewhere in Europe, Chancellor Angela Merkel led a wreath laying ceremony at Germany's central war memorial, which honors the victims of war and dictatorship. French President Emmanuel Macron also led a simple ceremony - at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Phan Thanh Nam has become the first Vietnamese professor to win the European Mathematical Society (EMS) prize. Nam, 35, is a former student of the National University of HCMC. He is currently a math professor at the Ludwig Maximillian University in Munich, Germany. Nam's research interests include mathematical physics analysis, especially multi-particle quantum mechanics, spectral theory, variational calculation, derivative equations and calculus. Before becoming a professor in Germany, Nam was an assistant professor in Masaryk, Czech Republic and a member of Austrias Science and Technology Society. He has been invited twice to address the International Convention of Mathematical Physics. In 2018, he was awarded a prize by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) for his work in mathematical physics research. The EMS prizes are considered the second most prestigious mathematics award after the Field Medal of the International Mathematical Union (IMU). Since established in 1992, the EMS prizes are awarded every four years at the European Congress of Mathematics (ECM). At each ECM up to ten EMS prizes are awarded to young researchers not older than 35 years, who are European citizens or working in Europe, in recognition of excellent contributions in mathematics. This year, the prize-giving ceremony will not be held as usual at the European Congress of Mathematics (ECM) because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It has been postponed until June 2021. In this grab taken from video issued by Downing Street on Sunday, May 10, 2020, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivers an address on lifting the country's lockdown amid the CCP virus pandemic. (Downing Street via AP) UKs Johnson Lays out Road Map for Easing Virus Lockdown LONDONBritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a modest easing of the countrys CCP virus lockdown on May 10 and laid out the outlines of a road map of how further restrictions can be lifted in the coming months. In a televised address to the nation, Johnson said that while people with jobs that cannot be done from home are being encouraged to return to work, this is not the time, simply, to end the lockdown this week. He said it would be madness to loosen restrictions so much that a second spike in cases emerges. We must continue to control the virus and save lives, the prime minister said from an office at 10 Downing Street. And yet we must also recognize that this campaign against the virus has come at colossal cost to our way of life. The government-ordered lockdown, which began March 23, has reduced the transmission of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, but the daily death toll remains uncomfortably high. The U.K. recorded nearly 32,000 deaths as of Sunday, the most in Europe. This image issued by Downing Street on Sunday, May 10, 2020, shows Britains Prime Minister Boris Johnsons new stay alert slogan to tackle coronavirus. The British government has replaced its stay at home coronavirus slogan with a new stay alert message that met criticism ahead of a speech by the Prime Minister laying out stages for lifting the countrys lockdown. (Downing Street via AP) Johnson, who returned to work only two weeks ago following his hospitalization for COVID-19, said the government would proceed cautiously in the weeks and months ahead but said he was able to announce a few changes to the terms of the lockdown. He said people who can work from home should continue to do so but the ones who cant, such as those in construction or manufacturing jobs, should be actively encouraged to go to work starting this week. However, they should not commute by public transportation and should adhere to social distancing guidelines at work, Johnson said. Starting Wednesday, the government will allow people to take unlimited amounts of exercise outdoors instead of being limited to once a day, Johnson said. Members of the public also will be able to sunbathe, drive to other destinations, and play sports, but only with members of the same household. Johnson stressed that everyone must carry on maintaining the recommended social distance away from home and said fines for violations would be increased. He also laid out a conditional plan for relaxing other lockdown restrictions in the coming months,such as reopening stores and shops and the possible return to school for some younger children on June 1. The prime minister expressed hope that segments of the hospitality industry and more public places could reopen a month later, provided they are safe and enforce social distancing. Johnson said he wanted to provide a sense of the way ahead, and when and how and on what basis we will take the decisions to proceed. Throughout this period of the next two months, we will be driven not by mere hope or economic necessity, he said. We are going to be driven by the science, the data and public health, and I must stress again that all of this is conditional, it all depends on a series of big ifs. He said the British government was introducing a scale for measuring the threat from the virus. Johnson explained the COVID Alert Level will guide policythe lower the level, the fewer the measures. Johnson also said it will soon be the time to require a quarantine period for airplane passengers coming into the U.K. Theres been speculation that the quarantine would be 14 days unless travelers are coming from Ireland. By Pan Pylas, Epoch Times staff contributed to this report Former President Barack Obama harshly criticized President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic as an absolute chaotic disaster during a conversation with ex-members of his administration. Obama also reacted to the Justice Department dropping its criminal case against Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, saying he worried that the basic understanding of rule of law is at risk. More than 78,400 people with COVID-19 have died in the United States and more than 1.3 million people have tested positive, according to the latest estimates from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Obama's comments came during a Friday call with 3,000 members of the Obama Alumni Association, people who served in his administration. Obama urged his supporters to back his former vice president, Joe Biden, who is trying to unseat Trump in the Nov. 3 election. Also read: Coronavirus India Live Updates: Lockdown 3.0! Total cases near 60,000; govt's stimulus likely next week What we're fighting against is these long-term trends in which being selfish, being tribal, being divided, and seeing others as an enemy that has become a stronger impulse in American life. And by the way, we're seeing that internationally as well. It's part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty, Obama said, according to Yahoo News. It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset of 'what's in it for me' and 'to heck with everybody else' when that mindset is operationalized in our government," he said. Trump has consistently defended and boasted of his response to the virus, saying that travel restrictions from China and Europe as well as social distancing guidelines have prevented far greater damage. I think we saved millions of lives, he said earlier this week. Trump has criticised the Obama administration in relation to his own administration's response to the outbreak. Yet Trump's contention that his administration inherited a broken system and a broken test from Obama's is false; the novel coronavirus did not exist until late last year. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention struggled to develop its own test in January and then discovered problems in its kits in February. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany did not mention Obama directly in her response to his remarks. President Trump's coronavirus response has been unprecedented and saved American lives," she said. While Democrats were pursuing a sham witch hunt against President Trump, President Trump was shutting down travel from China." She added: While Democrats encouraged mass gatherings, President Trump was deploying PPE, ventilators, and testing across the country." Obama has generally kept a low profile on current political events, even when Trump would disparage him or his administration on Twitter. But Friday's call indicates that he'll be playing an active role in the coming election. He told supporters that he would be spending as much time as necessary and campaigning as hard as I can for Joe Biden." Also read: Coronavirus vaccine: ICMR, Bharat Biotech join hands to develop vaccine for Covid-19 Also read: Liquor in Lockdown: Delhi govt issues 4.75 lakh e-tokens to buy alcohol On Tuesday, health bureaucrats Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIAID, will testify at a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Republican Senators should ask them four questions about their failures to expedite deployment of vaccines and test the successful HCQ-zinc treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic. 1. Vaccine question for Redfield: Why havent you invoked the Accelerated Approval Process to get Modernas Vaccine out right away? During the H1N1 (Swine Flu) epidemic in 2009 when a Democrat was President, the CDC approved four vaccines just 7 weeks after clinical trials began by invoking the Accelerated Approval Process. Here are excerpts from the timeline on their website: April 15. First human infection. May 5. School closings affect 607,778 students. July 22. Clinical trials testing the vaccines begin. September 15. Four H1N1 vaccines approved for use by the FDA. In this accelerated process, designed for epidemics, a single clinical trial phase determines whether a vaccine is safe and whether it creates the required antibodies. In vaccine terminology, the pathogen-specific antibodies developed by a vaccine are considered to be a surrogate endpoint permitting the vaccine to be deployed immediately, without Phase 2 or Phase 3 studies. A Phase 4 process begins after deployment to track the effectiveness and the side-effects of the vaccine. On May 7, the FDA announced that the Modernas coronavirus vaccine had been approved to begin its Phase 2 trial. Since its Phase 1 clinical trial concluded successfully, it is safe for healthy people and able to produce a surrogate endpoint. As a result, it could be immediately deployed to healthy people in order to create the 60% herd immunity condition that prevents spread of an epidemic. Modernas Phase 2 clinical trial is scheduled to end mid-summer which will determine whether the vaccine is safe for older people and other groups that would have high mortality rate should they contract COVID-19. If this trial is successful, use of Modernas vaccine could immediately be extended to those less-healthy groups. There are several additional Covid-19 vaccines waiting in the wings, all of which could be tested quickly if the CDC would simply put the Accelerated Approval Process into place today, just as they did in 2009. 2. Vaccine Question for Fauci: Why did you tie up Inovios vaccine in a year-long Phase 1 clinical trial? Inovio Pharmaceuticals was the first company to create a COVID-19 vaccine. Then they made the mistake of agreeing to Faucis offer to test their vaccine for free, perhaps not realizing that NIAID planned to tie it up in a year-long Phase 1 clinical trial. Fortunately for the world, Moderna saw what happened to Inovio and avoided making that mistake. 3. Treatment Question for Redfield: Why havent you tested hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) HCQ with a zinc supplement for early treatment of COVID-19? When the H1N1 epidemic hit. The CDC quickly tested every promising drug for use in treating the COVID-19 virus. In contrast, when COVID-19 hit, Redfields CDC didnt even bother to conduct clinical trials on those drugs that had worked abroad. Fortunately, Internet research is available to all doctors, and HCQ is a well-known safe drug that is already prescribed for daily use by lupus patients, so many physicians have been prescribing HCQ for COVID-19. In April, Dr. Robin Amstrong, whose medical group serves the Resort at Texas City nursing home, successfully treated 56 residents and 31 staff members who had tested positive for COVID-19. He administered HCQ with zinc supplements and an antibiotic for five days. As a result, only one of his patients and not a single staff member died. This compares favorably with the usual Case Fatality Rate of about 15% for patients who are 80 and up. Armstrong used the same 5-day course of treatment that had been successfully used by primary care physician Dr. Vladimir Zelenko when COVID-19 raged through the New York Hasidic community that he served. If this treatment proves to be as effective as Armstrong and Zelenko report, then tens of thousands of lives could be saved. But the CDC has not yet conducted a randomized clinical study to determine if it works. 4. Treatment Question for Fauci: Why did you leave out zinc when testing HCQ with hospitalized zinc-deficient patients? Faucis NIAID has publicized two studies in which HCQ was given to seriously ill hospitalized patients without administering zinc at the same time. The patients involved were probably zinc deficient, since almost all those who die from COVID-19 are drawn from zinc deficient groups. HCQ is a zinc-ionophore (meaning that it helps transport available zinc from the blood stream through cell walls into cells where it slows virus replication). Medical researchers from around the world are currently calling for the combo of HCQ and zinc supplements to be tested, based upon their extensive reviews of the research evidence. These researchers include: Two Michigan researchers, Mujeeb Olushola Shittu and Olufemi Ifeoluwa Afolami Two German researchers: Martin Scholz and Roland Derwand. Two Belgian Researchers: Amir Noeparast and Gil Verschelden. The Belgian researchers conclusion is especially relevant. They found that when HCQ is administered without zinc to zinc-deficient patients, it could actually reduce the zinc in the part of the cell (the lysosome) where it can do the most good. Dr. Jackson in this video (see 40:16 mark) reports that not one of his elderly (and thus zinc-deficient) patients experienced the worsened arrythmias from HCQ in Faucis studies of hospitalized patients. In view of the 2007 finding that zinc supplementation combined with a zinc ionophore can prevent heart arrythmias, the explanation could be simple! Jackson gave zinc supplements to his elderly patients along with the HCQ. The studies that Fauci touts did not! Instead, of taking the time to keep up with the research regarding zinc and HCQ, Fauci talks daily on the telephone with Andrew Cuomo of anti-Trump CNN, supposedly to ask him about his health. Meanwhile, at the CDC, instead of expediting vaccines and testing treatments, Redfield calls for mail-in voting in the next election, a measure that would benefit Democrats. Fauci and Redfield are playing political games while Americans die. Republican Senators need to ask them why they are failing to invoke the Accelerated Approval Process to get out a vaccine right away and why they are failing to test the HCQ-zinc treatment. Photo credit: Needpix A notorious serial killer once described as evil as Ivan Milat is set to free to walk the streets later this month, sparking anger from the family of one of his victims. Reginald Kenneth Arthurell is behind bars for the manslaughter of his fiancee Venet Mulhall at her Coonabarabran home in central west New South Wales in 1995. He pleaded guilty to her manslaughter in 1997 and was sentenced to 24 years jail, which is due to end May next year. The State Parole Authority has written to inform Ms Mulhall's family that Arthurell is set to be released on May 24. Reginald Kenneth Arthurell (right) is set to walk from jail within weeks, 25 years after he killed his fiancee Venet Mulhall (left) Two previous applications by Arthurell to be released were denied by the parole board. Ms Mulhall's brother Paul Quinn, who discovered her rotting body, is now fighting for Arthurell to remain behind bars. The devout Christian had met her killer while visiting prisoners in jail and had taken Arthurell into her home so he could be released on parole. 'This man must stay in jail,' Mr Quinn told the Daily Telegraph. 'When he killed my sister he was on parole for killing another person and is still suspected of killing many others right across Australia over the past few decades. 'He must never get out.' The parole board told the publication Arthurell would face strict conditions including electronic monitoring, which wouldn't be available if he'd served his full term. Venet Mulhall's family is fighting for her killer Reginald Kenneth Arthurell (pictured) to remain behind bars, even after his sentence expires nest year Mr Quinn will get a chance to plead with the parole board to reverse its decision on May 21. He has also written to Attorney-General Mark Speakman asking for a Continued Detention Order to keep Arthurell behind bars after his sentence expires on May 20 next year. 'If the circumstances require, consideration of an extended supervision order will occur within the time frames required by law,' Mr Speakman said. Arthurell was on trial for the death of two men and was a suspect in four other murders when he killed Ms Mulhall. He remains the prime suspect of the brutal killing of Catherine Page, 80, who was bludgeoned to death in her death in her Coonamble home in north-west NSW in 1971. He remains the prime suspect of the brutal killing of Catherine Page, 80 (pictured) in 1971 He later admitted to killing his ex-stepfather Thomas Thornton in 1974 and pleaded guilty to the 1981 manslaughter of Ross Browning, 19, in the Northern Territory. After serving six years of his 12-year sentence for the manslaughter of Browning, Arthurell was extradited to Sydney 1988, where he pleaded guilty to Thornton's manslaughter, claiming his stepfather provoked him, and was jailed for a minimum of four and a half years. Arthurell was released in 1991 and moved in with Ms Mulhall, who he was later engaged to. Senior police believe a suspect in other murders across the country, including the triple murder of two men and a woman in Mt Isa in 1978, which remains unsolved. Former constable Ray Webber believes Arthurell was as bad as serial backpacker murderer Ivan Milat, who died in jail earlier this year. 'I don't believe he should get out of jail, ever. No way,' Mr Webber told the Daily Telegraph in 2017. A Chinese city bordering North Korea on Sunday imposed the martial law after 11 people tested coronavirus positive, sparking fears of rebound of the deadly virus, official media here reported. They were infected after coming in contact with a laundrywoman, state-run Global Times reported. Shulan city should impose martial law in line with the requirements of highest-risk level prevention and control, Bayin Chaolu, the secretary of the Jilin Provincial Committee of the ruling Communist Party of China, said as he presided over an anti-epidemic meeting on Sunday, the paper reported. Bayin said the clustered infections in Shulan pose great danger to the lives of the public and the situation is heart-breaking, exposing the shortfalls and loopholes in anti-epidemic work. Those who failed to take action over the epidemic will be held responsible, the report said Shulan raised its epidemic-response on Sunday to the highest level, making it the only city in China to do so currently, after it reported 11 domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases, the report said. Shulan imposed lockdown in local communities and villages from Saturday. Exits and entrances are being guarded by designated people, leaving only one door for local residents to enter. Only one family member is allowed to purchase daily necessities each day. The local railway company halted nearly a dozen train services from Sunday to May 31 in and out of Shulan. All public transportation, including buses, suspended services from Sunday, and no taxi is allowed to leave the city, which has a population of 630,000, the paper said. China had downgraded COVID-19 risk levels in all regions signalling its containment and the country has almost returned to normal with business and factories resuming their operations. On Sunday, China reported 14 new coronavirus cases including one from the first COVID-19 epicentre of Hubei province, taking the number of infections in the country to 82,901, while over 4,630 people have succumbed to the disease, health officials said. According to China's National Health Commission (NHC), 12 cases were domestically transmitted, with 11 reported from Jilin province where Shulan is located and one in Hubei province, the first COVID-19 epicentre which has remained free from coronavirus infections for the last 35 days. Jilin province also shares a border with North Korea, which claims it has no virus cases. A total of 14 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in the country on Saturday. Also on Saturday, 20 new asymptomatic cases were reported. As of Saturday, 794 asymptomatic cases, including 48 from overseas, were still under medical observation, the NHC said. Hubei province has 628 asymptomatic cases, the highest in the country. Asymptomatic cases refer to people who are tested COVID-19 positive but develop no symptoms such as fever, cough or sore throat. However, they pose a risk of spreading the disease to others. Globally, a total of 279,311 people have died and more than 4 million people have been infected by the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University data. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In times of a public health crisis, the true test of leadership is not exemplified through solitary actions or isolated mechanics but instead through the collective actions of health care systems, businesses, non-profits, government and communities coming together to confront the threat and work toward its defeat. As leaders of three of Iowa's largest health systems, and members of the Iowa Business Council (IBC), we have the unique opportunity to demonstrate cohesive leadership as we address the COVID-19 pandemic. By serving on the IBC, we work with our peers, representing some of the largest companies and industries in Iowa, to elevate Iowa's economy and serve as a catalyst for economic vitality. This connection to the largest employers in the state will assist our efforts to defeat the virus and restart our economy. COVID-19 is unlike any other health crisis we have seen. While we are leading in challenging times, each of our health systems has adapted swiftly to implement regulatory and policy modifications in our statewide response. In many ways, we see ourselves as an extension of our public health system, finding ways to rally together behind the communities we serve to provide health care to Iowans. We are proud to serve in this capacity and want to thank our thousands of team members and providers who work on the frontlines by caring for the sick, sustaining vital operations, and showing kindness and bravery during a time of uncertainty. Collaboration has been critical in our successful strategy to address the coronavirus and keep Iowans healthy. At the start of the health crisis, our systems came together to advise elected leaders with on-the-ground intelligence and response plans. This work includes sharing of predictive modeling, consistent regional surge planning to increase our capacity, working regionally to resume elective procedures, and sharing needed supplies like ventilators. In addition to collaborating regularly to determine supply chain constraints, we are innovating and joining forces on projects to defeat the virus. Our health systems collaborated with the Iowa Department of Public Health as well as local emergency management teams to create regional plans to meet the need of an anticipated increase of COVID-19 patients and are continuing to work together to monitor and implement strategies to meet the needs of the communities. UnityPoint Health partnered with the University of Iowa's Protostudios engineers to mass produce face shields. In Central Iowa, MercyOne, UnityPoint Health and Polk County Public Health collaborate on a regular basis to help ensure their communities are informed. University of Iowa Health Care serves as a triage location for high-risk patients from our hospitals and is working on potential COVID-19 treatments. We've held a joint state legislative town hall to address Iowans' questions, and we are in frequent, unified communication with local, state and federal officials. We have been amazed by the outpouring of support from businesses and individuals in the communities we serve. The sharing of hearts for our health care heroes, donations of handmade masks and many other ways have strengthened our mission and helped our teams feel supported in this unprecedented time. We are grateful to serve you. While the total impact of COVID-19 is not clear yet, we know one thing for certain: Iowans are stronger together than we are alone. We know that without each other, we would not be where we are today in addressing the pandemic and journeying toward recovery. MercyOne, UnityPoint and University of Iowa Health Care will continue to stand together in fighting for Iowans' health. And as we work with our business peers as members of the IBC, we know collaboration amongst industries throughout Iowa will be just as important to re-establish Iowa's economic prosperity. The IBC was born out of one of the most difficult economic times in Iowas history - the Farm Crisis of the 1980s. As leaders did then, we will continue to come together to address Iowa's economic vitality and develop solutions toward recovery. For more information on broader IBC efforts, visit www.iowabusinesscouncil.org. J. Brooks Jackson is vice president for medical affairs, University of Iowa Health Care; Bob Ritz is chief executive officer of MercyOne; Sue Thompson is interim president and chief executive officer of UnityPoint Health. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 While Montanas hospitals have been spared the overwhelming surge of COVID-19 patients seen in other more populous states, one Missoula doctor felt a call to get down in the trenches. Dr. Tim Caramore, a clinical professor at the University of Montana's Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana, returned to Missoula early last week from a 10-day stint at a New York City hospital designated for COVID-19 patients. Now following Gov. Steve Bullocks quarantine orders for travelers, Caramore, who also works at Partnership Health Center and St. Patrick Hospital, is holed up for two weeks at the Holiday Inn. Between watching New York Gov. Andrew Cuomos daily briefings, hearing from a former clinical student headed to the city to pitch in, and a slowdown at Missoula hospitals, Caramore said he felt the time was right for him to help out in the worlds worst-hit COVID-19 hotspot. Thinking back to when we were dealing with the H1N1 pandemic, we had a couple patients at a time coming in, and we had to wear personal protective equipment, but the stakes didnt feel nearly as high as they do now, he said. It was stressful for me as a visiting physician in the coronavirus ward for a few days. I cant imagine what its been like for the people in and out of there all day long everyday for months. Caramore described sobering scenes of healthcare workers forced to reuse gowns for days, making it nearly impossible for them to avoid contaminating themselves with the virus as they took the coveralls on and off. He recalled having to keep all the doors open in each of the COVID-19 wards so that oxygen-deprived and delirious patients could be monitored, as they often attempted to remove their oxygen supply out of confusion. But despite the harrowing scenes of death and desperation, he said he and his wife, Elizabeth Paddock, who is also a family doctor in Missoula, never hesitated in fear at his decision to travel to New York. Paddock said considering her husband is healthy and relatively young, she felt there was little risk of him becoming gravely ill even if he did catch the virus. And with both of their families living on the East Coast, and without kids of their own in Missoula, there was also minimal risk of him putting others in danger. The hospital he was stationed at, University Hospital of Brooklyn, was beginning to see a decline in patients by the time he arrived there, Caramore said, but even then the hospital still had almost all of its double rooms filled, each with two coronavirus patients. With supplies of protective equipment improving and the number of cases dropping, he said it almost felt more ominous to just be in New York City in the midst of the crisis. It feels like the virus is coating everything. Of course, its not, but theres that pressure to be on guard at all times, he said. The most terrifying thing to me was actually being on the return flight. That was a pretty full one from Detroit to Salt Lake City. Delta isnt filling middle seats, but this was probably still 60% full. They had just rolled out mask requirements, but looking around throughout the flight I could see they were coming off, people had them on their chins or nose uncovered. Those are absolutely potential vectors. Caramore, who serves as the Ethics Committee chairperson at St. Pat's, helped write the state's Crisis Standards of Care, his wife said, and after putting in all the work to prepare Montana for a surge in cases, she said he was in the mindset to get to work on saving lives. "Montana did such a good job that we didn't have that surge, but mentally he was ready for it," Paddock said. "He put a lot of work into the planning, so between that and talking to a physician working in Washington state who was headed there, I think he knew he needed to go do this." 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. Gov. Gavin Newsom endorsed Joe Biden for president on Friday during a virtual fundraiser. (Associated Press) California Gov. Gavin Newsom endorsed Joe Biden for president on Friday, saying he was enlivened by his candidacy as he headlined a virtual fundraiser for the presumptive Democratic nominee. This is a unique moment in time and unique moment in our history, and we're uniquely grateful to you," Newsom said, praising Bidens record on issues such as poverty and character traits such as his empathy. "I just couldn't be more proud of you, and the prospect of your presidency." The move was entirely unsurprising given that Newsom is a Democrat. Yet as recently as mid-April, Newsom, who backed Sen. Kamala Harris until she ended her presidential bid, demurred when asked about his support of the former vice president. That came as his national profile grew because of his handling of the coronavirus crisis and he was trying to cajole President Trump and his administration into providing aid for California. Newsoms words about the Republican president were so fawning they were featured in a digital ad put out by Trumps reelection campaign. Fridays Zoom fundraiser, moderated by former Barack Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, was the first high-dollar fundraiser of Bidens campaign. Tickets went for up to $100,000, and more than 700 people took part. (Until recently, Biden was raising money at the federal maximum of $5,600 per donor. But now that he is the presumptive nominee and has formed a joint fundraising committee with the Democratic National Committee, the former vice president can accept six-figure checks. The president has been able to raise money at these higher limits since he took office, affording him an enormous fundraising advantage over Biden.) Biden responded to Newsom by saying, "Gov, if I get elected, I'm going to need you badly. Biden also praised Newsom for signing an executive order on Friday to send every California voter a mail-in ballot for the November election because of the coronavirus crisis. Story continues Gavin, youve done one helluva job, and thank you for your support and your leadership, Biden said. You havent just shown extraordinary leadership youre also protecting the cornerstone of our democracy, the right to vote. Im so glad Im on your team, man. Trumps campaign said Newsoms decision could lead to vote fraud. This is a thinly veiled political tactic by Gov. Newsom to undermine election security," said spokesman Tim Murtaugh. "Theres a vast difference between people voting absentee by mail because they cant be at the polls on election day versus mailing everyone a ballot. Sending everyone a ballot even those who didnt request one is a wide-open opportunity for fraud." Maharashtra's coronavirus cases breached 20,000-mark on Sunday. The central state of the country has registered 20,228 confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to the latest data by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. In the last 24 hours, Maharashtra's COVID-19 positive cases jumped 1,165. Coronavirus has killed as many as 779 people in Maharashtra. The state reported 48 deaths in last one day. Of the 48 deaths, 27 were reported from Mumbai, nine from Pune city, eight from Malegaon in Nashik district, and one each from Pune district, Akola, Nanded, and Amravati. A total of 330 patients were discharged after recovery from hospitals, taking their total number to 3,800. Also read: Coronavirus India Live Updates: INS Jalashwa brings back 698 Indians from Male, Maldives; total cases 62,939 Maharashtra's recovery rate is quite low (18.78 per cent) compared to states like Delhi, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Of the total deaths and active cases in the whole Maharashtra, Mumbai accounts for 12,864 cases and 489 fatalities. Mumbai is one of the biggest coronavirus hotspots in the state. So far, 2,27,804 people have been tested. While 2,41,290 people are placed under home quarantine, 13,976 are under institutional quarantine. Pune is another coronavirus hotspot. The city has reported 1,975 cases and 141 deaths, so far. The positive case count in Thane stands at 800 and Navi Mumbai at 789. Malegaon has reported 472 cases and 20 deaths so far. Elyse Knowles has bought a $2.3million beach house in Byron Bay. The 27-year-old moved to the New South Wales coastal town early last year with boyfriend Josh Barker, renting until they recently found their forever home. Their new 1960s built property is located in the old part of Byron Bay town, just a short walk from the main beach and surrounded by tranquil greenery. Settling down! Elyse Knowles (pictured) has bought a $2.3million beach house in Byron Bay, after moving to the coastal town in January 2019 and renting until she found her forever home The house boasts four bedrooms, two bathrooms, two levels and spacious veranda. According to The Sunday Telegraph, former The Block winners Elyse and Josh will be renovating the property, likely with their own company, J & E Projects. They've been renting a nearby property for the last year, which they decorated with rustic and bohemian-style furniture. Stunning! The 1960s built property (pictured) boasts four bedrooms, two bathrooms, two levels and spacious veranda. It is just a short walk from the main beach Reno! According to The Sunday Telegraph, former The Block winners Elyse and boyfriend Josh Barker will be renovating the property, likely with their own company, J & E Projects Last year, Elyse told Daily Mail Australia that the couple moved to Byron Bay from Melbourne while chasing a more sustainable lifestyle for themselves. Speaking at an event in September, the model explained she'd physically confront strangers that she would see littering in Victoria, before eventually leaving. 'I just can't see it being left on the ground. And when they're dropping rubbish, I think they need to be told off,' explained the activist. Rustic! Elyse and Josh have been renting a nearby property for the last year, which they decorated with bohemian-style furniture Activist: Last year, Elyse told Daily Mail Australia she moved to Byron Bay with boyfriend Josh (pictured) from Melbourne while chasing a more sustainable lifestyle for themselves Elyse first felt compelled to speak about environmental issues while living in Melbourne, where she saw the devastating effects of plastic pollution daily. 'I was walking on the beaches and, dependent on the weather, it really circulated the rubbish each day to come onto the beach. It was just too much for me to pick up. It made me sad and also really annoyed that people were just dropping it,' she said. After relocating to Byron Bay in January 2019 with Josh, the star went on to claim the contrast to living in Melbourne was overwhelming: 'Everyone always smiles and always say hello. That was one of the first things I noticed living [in Byron].' 'The community is more environmentally conscious. It is conversations that people have every single day talking about the ocean and the marine life. Republican Senator Ted Cruz visited a Dallas salon on Friday to get his hair cut. The salon is owned by Shelley Luther who defied coronavirus lockdowns orders and was sent to jail the previous week. Cruz flew up from Houston to get his first haircut after he previously spent fourteen days in self-isolation after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. In a post on one of his official social media pages, Cruz thanked Luther and her team for "standing up for liberty and common sense." He claimed her action helped other Texas business owners to reopen, allowing for more residents to get back to work. The Salon a la Mode became a rallying cry for conservative protests in Texas after Luther was jailed for refusing to keep her business closed despite a cease-and-desist letter from local authorities. She walked out of jail on Thursday to the cheers of supporters. Walking Free Luther spent less than 2 days in jail after Dallas Judge Eric Moye sentenced her to seven days behind bars. She wore a mask while leaving prison. In a recent interview, she said she was overwhelmed by the number of people who chanted her name. In April, she joined a rally in the suburbs where demonstrators were calling for Texas' reopening. During the protest, she ripped a cease-and-desist letter in front of the TV cameras. Support from Republicans Texas Governor and Republican Greg Abbott previously warned residents who did not follow his coronavirus orders could face up to half a year in jail. He, however, rushed to the salon owner's defense and removed jail time as a possible punishment for disobeying stay-at-home policies. Senator Ted Cruz said the punishment was "ridiculous." He refused to answer questions on what might have been the appropriate response to the violation. Judge Moye sent her to jail after she declared she would continue to defy the order. Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick also paid for a fine Luther owed. U.S. President Donald Trump also came to Luther's defense, calling her "an incredible representative" of a group of people who may want to reopen their businesses as well. A GoFundMe page was set up for Luther where her supporters have already raised more than $500,000. They labeled her a "hero" for "resisting tyranny." Hypocritical Abbott's decision to eliminate jail time for violating coronavirus lockdown orders drew backlash from the Texas District and County Attorneys Association. In a released statement, they said the ever-changing punishments and laws would make it more difficult to enforce orders that could very well be invalidated the following day. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo also slammed Abbott for being "hypocritical." He cited the governor criticizing the local governments' steps to enforce the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. On his Twitter account, the police chief said issuing orders to jail violaters and then turning it around and blaming the local law enforcement officials to avoid a political backlash is hypocritical. Abbott's turnabout on the penalties came after Luther's punishment sparked massive publicity. His actions frustrated law enforcement officials while earning praise from fellow Republicans and civil rights groups. At least, 160 stranded Nigerians in the United States of America due to the coronavirus pandemic, on Sunday arrived in Abuja. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the evacuated Nigerians were conveyed by an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787. They are were said to have been made up of 92 males, 60 females and eight infants. Read Also: Just In: Nigerians Evacuated From UK Arrive In Lagos Advertisement The plane departed the Newark International Airport, New Jersey, on Saturday around 8:20 p.m. local time (1:20 a.m. in Nigeria on Sunday). Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, had revealed earlier that FG had made arrangements for hotel accommodation in Lagos and Abuja where the evacuees will undergo a mandatory 14-days supervised quarantine and that the hotels have been inspected by the Port Health Services, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, Office of the National Security Adviser, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and IPC. Sandoval County has asked among employees for volunteers to be furloughed, according to a county press release. Spokesman Stephen Montoya said some non-essential employees are unable to perform their job duties due to the pandemic. As it is right now, we looked at our finances and we thought the most financially responsible thing we could do is to try and offer furlough for some of those employees because it would be more responsible with the taxpayers money and they would be getting paid more in doing that than they would be if they stay on with us at a part-time rate, Montoya said. It wont be clear how many employees volunteer until paperwork is processed, which could take a couple of weeks, he said. As of May 1, non-essential county employees were being paid in full through the County Emergency Administrative Leave fund, according to the press release. The voluntary furloughs allow employees to keep their county benefits, like health insurance, while making an additional $600 a week on top of unemployment benefits, according to the release. This stimulus of $600 per week is being awarded up to July 31. Supervisors have been alternating employees to perform projects to ensure they are working at least 20 hours a week. One of the issues, though, is if we cant find work for every single one of the employees, they are still getting paid, Montoya said. Only costs associated with essential services and personnel are eligible for reimbursement under the federal CARES Act, so the county wont be able to sustain paid emergency administrative leave long-term for employees who cant work their full schedule or at all, according to the release. Employees who meet the requirements of the federal Families First Coronavirus Act qualify for Emergency Paid Sick Leave and/or Emergency Family and Medical Leave as provided in the act, stated the release. The county has no plans to institute mandatory furloughs, Montoya said. We are going to put our faith in our employees to make the right decision during this time, he said. According to a draft of the budget, the county predicts a reduction in the general fund by almost $5 million in the 2021 fiscal year, which begins in July, said Sandoval County Chairman Dave Heil in the release. This multi-million-dollar reduction would be caused by a loss of taxable income and an increase of expenses to the county, Heil said. Considering this and all the unknowns related to the COVID situation, we may need every penny of our reserves to weather this situation, he said. The county commission is avoiding drastic budget cuts next fiscal year and looking at options to sustain compensation for non-essential employees while managing the current budget, according to the release. Montoya said non-essential employees can expect to be paid during this pay period and have two weeks to assess their situations and volunteer to be furloughed. Were trying to offer them the opportunity to get more payment than what they would normally get instead of having to go into unemployment alone or having to burn through their vacation and/or sick leave, he said. County Manager Dianne Maes said in the release that the county is in good financial standing. PRIESTS will have many happy occasions to celebrate but also terribly sad ones to mark come July 20 when religious places of worship can reopen. Due to the amount of weddings postponed some couples are considering Sundays as the traditionally popular days of Fridays and Saturdays are often booked up for years. Bishop of Limerick, Brendan Leahy said Sunday weddings are not permitted in this diocese and virtually all dioceses because its such a busy day for priests and parishes anyway. Some priests are doing one or two Masses on a given Sunday and possibly Baptisms as well and possibly a funeral removal in the evening. But we are in extraordinary circumstances and where it is possible for a Sunday wedding to happen, we will look at facilitating it. But these will be exceptional situations and there will need to be an exceptional case for a Sunday wedding for those weddings which have been previously arranged for a Catholic Church that have to be re-scheduled due to the coronavirus. We will look at each request individually, said Bishop Leahy. He stresses that, We dont want people to think that this is now a new norm; in fact, the contrary. It may well be that when this all lifts, and we pray for that to happen as soon as possible, we will have a huge back-log of services on Sundays, between memoriam Masses for people who have lost loved ones at this very difficult time to baptisms, anniversary Masses, etc. So, it is not going to be possible in many cases. We will be as generous as we can as we do, of course, treasure the sacrament of marriage and the celebration of Gods love and family that it is. But we are certain to have an unprecedented schedule ahead of us, Bishop Leahy told the Limerick Leader. Separately, in his weekly address after midday Sunday Mass at St. Johns Cathedral, which is streamed live, Bishop Leahy said that as we tip-toe forward on the coronavirus journey, we are getting plenty of time to reflect and plenty of lessons about how to live. Perhaps one of the lessons weve learned through the Coronavirus is that time is something to be valued. We so often complain that time has disappeared in our modern world when everything has got so frantic and frenetic. Suddenly, with the virus, it was as if someone dramatically slammed on the brakes. And yet, in these past weeks many have said they discovered the beauty of more time with their family, time for personal reflection and thinking about things, and time to send a greeting to others, time to be creative, time for exercise, time for learning how to work better with social media. And from all this, time to think about how we really should live our lives. Weve also learned how time is something we cant control. Time is a gift. Sadly, for some hit by the virus, their time on earth came to an end. So, it is time to remember and pray for them. But it is good for us all to value time. It offers the chance to hope, to love, to begin again. Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said an ambulance driver who tested positive for COVID-19 was allowed to leave for Mumbai as he was asymptomatic, drawing flak from netizens on his social media accounts. On Saturday night, Sarma said on Facebook and Twitter that three persons, including the ambulance driver who drove them to Jorhat district from Mumbai, tested positive and the driver was sent back to Mumbai. "Alert ~ 3 people, incl an Ambulance Driver from Mumbai who drove the 2, test #COVID19 + in Jorhat. Driver sent back to Mumbai. 2 are at JMCH since their arrival in Jorhat," he tweeted. Alert ~ 3 people, incl an Ambulance Driver from Mumbai who drove the 2, test #COVID19 + in Jorhat. Driver sent back to Mumbai. 2 are at JMCH since their arrival in Jorhat.#COVID19 patients in Assam 62 Active cases 27Discharged 34Update10.20 pm/May 9#AssamCovidCount Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) May 9, 2020 This created a long stream of reactions by his followers on both the platforms, who said the step was "totally not justified" and asked why the driver was allowed to leave Assam as there is maximum possibility of him spreading the infection on his way back. "Actually the driver left for Mumbai and we allowed him to go as he was asymptotic. Now on our request he has been stopped in Bihar for hospitalisation," Sarma said, defending the decision. Julin Boruah, one of his followers on Facebook, said, "I am worried about the respected driver of the ambulance... He became the pride warrior of #Covid19... If he really send back then it's totally not justified on our state Government. Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma Dangoria please look into the matter with immediate effect. Our state should try to cure the pride warrior." A user, named Urmee_D, on Twitter expressed surprise and asked whether the ambulance carrying two women had valid documents and whether these were properly checked at Sagalia and Srirampur -- the entry points into Assam. "The ambulance entered Assam with proper permission to bring back one blood cancer patient from Jorhat who happens to be son of one of the +patient. We do not have Covid-19 testing facilities on our border," Sarma replied. Jojneswar Sharma tweeted to the minister, "This incident cautions us to check health status of driver if he is hired in red zone such as Mumbai before they are allowed to undertake such journey; even ambulance could carry virus; in this case driver should not have been allowed to leave Jorhat till report was available." Sarma said, "Then we will end up detaining thousands of truck drivers coming from different states to Assam." Identifying himself as an orthopaedic surgeon, Ananta Saikia said, "Why was the driver sent back? He should have been treated here as he took all the risks to drive our brothers back home, please look into the matter sir, one or two cases don't make any difference, we're all prepared to face it." "Sir, Why the driver sent back to Mumbai?? We could have given utmost care, treatment at Jorhat. We request you to provide him all support, assistance. Tcr of urself too," Madhurjya Protim Borah said to Sarma on Facebook. One Twitter user said: "Please treat and take the best care of the driver here in Assam itself. He took all the risk and brought the ppl back to Assam. It is our moral responsibility to ensure best treatment are being provided to him." Another said, "It was so inhumane to send the driver back, he is mentally and physically unfit to travel all the way back to Mumbai in this state of health. Please take necessary measures for the driver." The total number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 62 in the state, of which 34 have been discharged. The state Health and Family Welfare Department said in its daily bulletin that two persons have died due to the COVID-19. A survey of 502 leaders of businesses eligible for the policy showed a split: 44% thought it was helpful, and 37% thought it was harmful. A large share, 70%, said the need to provide paid leave contributed to their decision to lay off or furlough workers. Forty percent said no employees had taken the leave, and 20% said only a few had, according to the survey, which was conducted by Morning Consult for the Bipartisan Policy Center. Companies that provide the leave receive a credit against taxes they pay quarterly to the federal government. By Trend A video conference with the participation of consuls of embassies of member states of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council) was held in the US on May 8, Trend reports citing the Azerbaijani Embassy in the US. The issues voiced at the extraordinary Summit of the Turkic Council, held by the initiative of the Azerbaijani President, Chairman of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States Ilham Aliyev were discussed at the event. In connection with the 28th anniversary of the occupation of the ancient Azerbaijani Shusha city, which is considered the art center of Turkic culture in the region, the participants of the event honored the memory of those who died during the occupation with a minute of silence. Opening the event as a chair country, the consul of the Azerbaijani Embassy in the US Emil Muradzade spoke about the preventive measures taken to combat the spread of coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in Azerbaijan. During the meeting, issues of providing consular assistance to citizens facing difficulties in the US in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, registration of citizens and their evacuation from the US were discussed. Representative of the Secretariat of the Turkic Council, Jeyhun Shahverdiyev, spoke in detail about the meeting held on May 7, 2020 by the heads of the migration authorities of the Council member countries and observer countries, as well as other structures. The participants of the meeting exchanged information on measures taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus in their countries, visa policies for foreigners wishing to visit these countries, quarantine, the rules for allowing citizens to cross borders, the resumption of commercial flights, and evacuation plans. The parties also discussed the possibilities of cooperation in this situation. At a time when the coronavirus pandemic is spreading worldwide, the Turkic Council shows itself as a successful and useful regional organization, truly capable of responding to global challenges. Along with representatives of the council, consuls of the embassies of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in the US also participated in a videoconference initiated by the Azerbaijani Embassy in the US. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador arrives for his daily news conference with health officials at the presidential palace in Mexico City on March 24, when Mexico suspended work to help stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. (Marco Ugarte / Associated Press) A narcissist leader who thinks the global coronavirus pandemic is a conspiracy against him. A head of state stubbornly refusing to accept any criticism or take actions other world leaders have embraced to protect their populations. A president slow to recognize the gravity of the situation and quick to downplay it so things can go back to being all about his transformation of his country. Americans should be very worried about whats happening as the coronavirus spreads in Mexico, where President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador AMLO behaves at times like his counterpart in the White House. In the best of circumstances, COVID-19 would amount to a significant tragedy for our southern neighbor, with its fragile healthcare system and a vulnerable economy. Now AMLOs mismanagement is threatening to turn a public health crisis into a far greater calamity. And a cataclysm in Mexico, Americas largest trading partner, with deep ties to California, will have serious knock-on effects in the U.S. Much like Trump, Lopez Obrador is contemptuous of technocratic expertise, and he would prefer to keep politicking for his vanity project, the souffle of nostalgic nationalism and populism known as the Fourth Transformation, rather than respond to a public health crisis. As late as March 29, AMLO was still traveling the country, caught on video walking up to a pickup truck carrying the mother of Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, the notorious drug cartel leader now in a U.S. prison, and shaking her hand through an open window. Then in April he defied calls to embrace aggressive fiscal support for the economy, citing an aversion to debt and the impropriety of past government bailouts to ailing industries. COVID-19, he said on a Sunday prime time address that supplemented his endless weekday press conferences, was just a transitory crisis in a nation whose strengths outweigh its weaknesses. Its hard to share his optimism. There is growing distrust (including on the part of Mexico Citys overwhelmed government) in official federal statistics about the disease that show some 31,000 confirmed cases and more than 3,000 deaths. Mexico has the lowest testing rate among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, and is slowly reevaluating the cause of death of people whove recently died from atypical pneumonia. Story continues Meanwhile, Mexicos economy (already in a slight recession since 2019) relies heavily on remittances from workers on this side of the border, as well as tourism earnings and oil revenues. Remittances were surprisingly high in March, as Mexicans rushed to repatriate savings at a stronger exchange rate, but you can imagine in which direction COVID-19 will point all these arrows over time. The peso has lost roughly 20% of its value, and some analysts are expecting the Mexican economy to contract as much as 12% this year, a more severe crisis than expected in the United States or worldwide. Pemex, the state-owned oil company central to AMLOs agenda, recorded an astonishing $23 billion loss in the first quarter. International rating agencies are downgrading Mexican sovereign debt. Criticizing AMLOs anemic response to the crisis is not an ideological attack. Governments all over the world on both the right and left have embraced massive stimulus programs, understanding that efforts to preserve the economy through the storm will minimize permanent damage. Thats why Republicans and Democrats in this country rushed to authorize trillions of dollars in emergency spending, with yet a fourth package under consideration. AMLOs 2018 landslide electoral triumph gave him and his leftist MORENA movement nearly unchecked power. Whats unclear now is whether his embrace of austerity (admittedly selective; he has lavished resources on pet projects that include an oil refinery in his home state and his beloved Maya Train across the Yucatan peninsula ) is a matter of personal principle or a Machiavellian plot to allow vast swaths of the private sector to be destroyed in service of the transformation he champions: turning back the clock on Mexicos embrace of free markets. AMLO did say this crisis is like a ring to the finger, a Spanish idiom that might be better translated as fits like a glove. The gravest danger amid AMLOs mismanagement is that Mexicos democracy might join the countrys economy on the list of COVID-19 victims. The rule of law has been under siege in Mexico since well before the pandemic. AMLO has a penchant for invoking the people via informal and highly partisan referendums known as consultas populares. In Mexico, these "consultations" have resulted in scratching a desperately needed new airport for Mexico City and threatening a U.S.-owned beer brewery project in Baja California. Both developments were in compliance with all legal requirements and had been contracted, but AMLO was able to put a halt to them by stirring up opposition among supporters in rigged plebiscites that are not part of any formal legal or electoral process. Its not much of a leap to imagine AMLO, in need of scapegoats as the coronavirus crisis deepens, relying on more consultas to justify the nationalization of certain industries, or reprisals against political opponents. Or even to contrive a popular demand to extend his constitutionally mandated single term in office. And a Mexico consumed by political instability, much like a global pandemic, is a horrific problem the U.S. hasnt faced in a century. Andres Martinez is a professor of practice at the Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and a fellow at the New America think tank. Chennai has posted its biggest daily increase in Covid-19 cases so far as 509 new infections were reported on Sunday, reflecting the continuation of the recent trend of high number of new infections every day. The case tally from the city accounted for 76 per cent of the 669 new cases in Tamil Nadu as the states total case count crossed the 7,000 mark, becoming the third state to breach the figure after Maharashtra and Gujarat. Of the 669 who have been infected, 412 were men and 257 were women, officials said. Totally, 7,204 people have been infected in the state till date, the health bulletin said. A 55-year-old and a 59-year old man, both admitted to government medical colleges in Chennai, and a 74-year old man, who was treated at nearby Chengelpet government hospital, succumbed to Covid-19, taking the states overall death toll to 47. While 135 people were discharged following recovery from various hospitals in the State, the aggregate number of those who have overcome the illness caused by the virus stood at 1,959, the health department said. The total number of cases in Chennai, which has emerged as one of the biggest hotspots in the country, touched 3,839. The capital accounts for more than half of the state's cases. While many other districts across Tamil Nadu, even ones which saw an initial spike, have managed to reduce cases, Chennai firmly remains in the red zone. The rapid spike in cases in the city has largely been pushed by the Koyambedu market cluster. The first signs of the market turning into a coronavirus cluster emerged in the last week of April, but it was only on May 4 that the market was shut. Until then, plenty of small shops in the cramped area continued to operate, with little adherence to social distancing. Contact tracing has proved difficult too, with workers also beginning to move to other districts in the state. The cluster has contributed not just to cases in Chennai; the government revealed on Friday that 1589 cases in the entire state were linked to Koyambedu cluster. The large number of cases has also been attributed to Tamil Nadu testing more samples than any other state, including Maharashtra. The southern state has tested 2,16,416 samples as of Saturday, a majority of them from Chennai. While district-wise numbers haven't been made public, the Chennai Corporation on May 1 said they're testing 5225 people per million population. ~ De-escalation process begins with stiff social distancing measures and facial masks must be used.~ PHILIPSBURG:--- The EOC and the Multi-Disciplinary Task Force have decided to allow a number of businesses to reopen as of Monday, May 11th which is phase 1 of the de-escalation process. Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs said that phase 1 ends on May 18th and by then other businesses will be allowed to open for business. Those businesses that are allowed to open as of Monday, May 11th are: CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES RESTAURANTS (only for DELIVERY DRIVE THRU AND PICK UP) FINANCIAL SERVICES MONEYGRAM SERVICES TEXTILES, SEAMTRESSES, AND TAILORS LANDSCAPING HORTICULTURE HARDWARE STORES " curbside sales ( for hurricane season preparation.) SALE OF AUTO AND MARINE parts (PICK UP OR DELIVERY) DAYCARE CENTERS AND EARLY STIMULATION EDUCATION (Optional) INSURANCE COMPANIES CAN NOW OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. The businesses that are allowed to reopen for the five-day workweek will be opened from 8 am to 6 pm. Jacobs said that persons wishing to cross the border must request waivers at least 24 to 48 hours in advance. The Prime Minister said while the de-escalation has started the nightly curfews will remain in effect in order to maintain proper safety and security for the residents and businesses. Prime Minister Jacobs said that the multi-disciplinary task force has recommended that the State of Emergency remain in effect while the de-escalation takes place while the border controls will also remain in effect. Jacobs said that the Dutch and French meet weekly to discuss the de-escalation (deconfinement) period as the two sides are synchronizing and have shared plans. Jacobs explained that a National Decree has been prepared and sent to the Governor for his perusal. She said that when this LB is signed off then it will be published so that all businesses can prepare themselves for the new norm on social distancing. The Prime Minister said that it is expected that all businesses will reopen by July if there is no flare-up of COVID-19 cases. Jacobs said that persons outside of St. Maarten for medical purposes will be returning to the island and these persons will be placed in mandatory confinement. Students studying abroad and have to return home should contact the Study Financing Department in order for arrangements to return home. Jacobs said that these students would also have to make a mandatory agreement with CPS regarding mandatory isolation. Head of Public Health Fenna Arnell said that the COVID-19 pandemic with regards to positive cases has now stabilized. Arnell said that there have not been any positive cases for the past 11 days. At the moment there is an increase of cases in isolation, while 4 persons are hospitalized with two ready to be discharged, while one person passed away bringing the total of deaths to 15. 46 persons have recovered with 15 active cases on St. Maarten. Arnell said that CPS continues with its community outreach and as of May 7th they visited 5 districts and have had contact with 5,132 persons. Some 36 persons had self-reported symptoms. Arnell who is part of the Multi-Disciplinary Task Force said that while a decision was taken to allow more businesses to reopen it is highly recommended that every one that is returning to work should wear face masks, and practice a 2-meter social distancing. Arnell said that the only way to avoid a resurgence of COVID-19 the social distancing and hygienic measures must be implemented and respected. Secretary-General of the Ministry of VSA Joy Arnell said that the food distribution continues, she said a number of organizations join the government in handing out food boxes to those that are in need. She said so far over 4000 boxes were delivered. Arnell said the government is still looking forward to the promised donations from the Netherlands and the United Nations to continue assisting the vulnerable and those in need. Secretary-General of the Ministry of TEATT Miguel de Weever called on businesses to ensure they adhere to the social distancing and hygiene measures such as sanitizing their establishments which are mandatory. De Weever said controls will be done and those businesses that violate the measures will be shut down. While schools are on the second phase to reopen, this will be decided by the school boards, Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs said that focus will be placed on examination students. She said that parents whose children are able to follow online classes should not rush to send their children to school, however, students who could not follow online classes for whatever reason will be given some preference and or attention. Click here for LB signed off by Governor Holiday for the reopening of Additional Businesses in phases. Some thought that hearing about coronavirus deaths of so many fellow citizens would have had us feeling more neighborly to our fellow human beings. Apparently not if the fellow human being is a young black man out jogging down the middle of the street in his Georgia neighborhood apparently being shot by armed men in a pick=up truck. Georgia authorities have, two months after the shooting, said they will investigate Ahmaud Arberys death. The shocking YouTube video that show much of the incident is helpfully prefaced by a label saying, WARNING! Contains video some may find distressing. Some? and others find...? Editorial cartoons from this week include: The stupidest scandal in history ended this week when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the two convictions in the Bridgegate case, ruling unanimously that no one committed a federal crime after all. It gives me a sense of vindication, says former Gov. Chris Christie. Christie is 57 years old, a spring chick in todays politics. He has the ear of the president. He has a perch on national TV every Sunday morning. And he has lost none of his spit and vinegar. You may have thought you were done with him, but he could be in the mix of presidential politics for the next decade or two, now that Bridgegate is headed for the history books. It was devastating to my campaign, Christie says. If anyone had any evidence I was behind this, youd think theyd come forward. So it begins, the rehabilitation of Chris Christie, an innocent man unjustly hounded by corrupt prosecutors who were determined to derail his presidential campaign. It changed history, Christie said in a written statement. My guess is that this will work for him, that people will forget the mortal sin at the root of this scandal -- that it was dangerous to create four days of gridlock in Fort Lee, that it could have gotten people killed. Christies team ignored frantic calls from the mayor saying an ambulance had trouble reaching a woman who suffered a heart attack, that cops had trouble checking out a report of a lost child. Radio silence, they texted each other. Hee-hee. Vindication? Hardly. This case involves an abuse of power, Justice Elena Kagan wrote. The evidence the jury heard no doubt shows wrongdoing deception, corruption, abuse of power. So why did the court dismiss the charges? Why allow such bad behavior to go unpunished? Because the federal fraud statute that prosecutors applied requires that money or property change hands. In Bridgegate, the payoff was political. The point of this misadventure in Fort Lee was to punish a small-town mayor because he refused to endorse Christie for re-election. That may be insane, but the court found that it is not illegal. Not every corrupt act by state or local officials is a federal crime, Kagan wrote, adding, The upshot is that federal fraud law leaves much public corruption for the states or their electorates to rectify. Thats not subtle. What Kagan suggests is that these charges belonged in state court, not federal court. The states main statute on corruption, the Official Misconduct Act, does not require that money or property change hands, only that the motive is to gain a benefit or to injure or deprive another of a benefit. Vindication? Please. The Supreme Court called this a corrupt abuse of power and suggested that Christies own prosecutors should have pursued the case. * * * The decision, of course, is a blow to Paul Fishman, the former U.S. Attorney. He was expected to lose this appeal because the Supreme Court has repeatedly restricted the reach of federal corruption laws in recent years. But this was unanimous, and it was drafted by an appointee of President Obama, who worked in the Justice Department before moving to the court. As Christie put it Thursday: I would hope that after what happened today people will examine much more closely what really happened and what the motive of this prosecutor was because he was completely repudiated today by nine of nine, and that very rarely happens. And it was written by a former colleague. Thats tough stuff. The right strategy, according to several senior attorneys I spoke with, would have been for the state attorney general to investigate, or for federal and state prosecutors to join forces, as was done in the case against Newark Mayor Sharpe James. Either way, the case could have gone to state court where the official misconduct law would apply. Even Christie, who knows a thing or two about corruption law, concedes that the end result might have been different in state court. Who knows what would have happened under official misconduct? he asks. But he blames Fishman for that, too. The state was never given the opportunity (to prosecute). In fact, we were told to back off. Thats why he (Fishman) announced it first and said, Get out of my way. Now, Christie is just making stuff up. Fishman, a federal prosecutor, had no authority over state and county prosecutors, so could not have forced them to back down. Christie could have asked his own attorney general to investigate this any time. He chose not to. In the end, it was not Christie who paid the steepest price for this scandal, Bill Baroni, once a rising Republican star, went to prison for three months in 2019, convinced that the appeal to the Supreme Court was hopeless. He says he wants to work with prisoners now, to turn his life around. Hes already overpaid for his sins, and my bet is he winds up doing a lot of good. Bridget Kelley, a divorced mom of four, is the character I sympathized with most during the trial. It was obvious she was just following orders, trying to be one of the frat boys. When she described being scared of Christie after he threw a bottle of water at her in a rage, the tears were real. Save your scorn for David Wildstein, who came up with this idea. He emerges mostly unscathed, legally, after pleading guilty and agreeing to testify against his close friends, Baroni and Kelly. Today he runs an unreliable political website that specializes in gossip and vendettas. Wildstein didnt have to turn on Baroni and Kelly to avoid prison, we now know. He could have locked arms with them. He could be sipping champagne with them today to celebrate their big win at the Supreme Court. It is bad enough to betray your friends. Its downright foolish to do it for no good reason. More: Tom Moran columns Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. Virgin Atlantic is being circled by private equity (Getty) Private equity giants Greybull Capital and Apollo Global Management are understood to be circling Sir Richard Bransons Virgin Atlantic. The funds are scheduled to open negotiations with the airlines advisers Houlihan Lokey this week, according to a report in the Sunday Telegraph. Richard Branson's airline, has faced financial troubles since the coronavirus outbreak and there are increasing fears the company could go bust. Yesterday it was reported Virgin Atlantic had put administration adviser Alvarez & Marsal on standby in case it is unable to secure funding. READ MORE: Google working with UK government on app as 2bn travel package unveiled At the start of the outbreak Branson had requested a government bailout but shelved these plans after a public backlash. Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary said Branson worth an estimated 3.8bn (3.1bn) should "bail himself out" while a petition was set-up calling him to be stripped of his knighthood. He later posted a letter on Twitter saying he was prepared to put his private Caribbean island, Necker, up for collateral to save Virgin Atlantic. But people were quick to point out that 49% of Necker island worth around 80m is owned by US airline Delta. The tycoon is now on the hunt for private investment. READ MORE: New setback for airlines as UK proposes fresh quarantine plan The Telegraph reported that presentations to potential investors by Virgin Atlantic management, due to start last week, were delayed as Shai Weiss, its chief executive, focused on last Tuesdays announcement to sack staff. Greybull and Apollo join the likes of US fund Centerbridge Partners, Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek and Cerberus Capital Management on a list that has been whittled down to what insiders called a dozen or so interested parties. Rivals IAG (IAG) and Ryanair (RYA) have also been struggling. IAG-owned British Airways has cut 12,000 jobs, while Ryanair also said it was ditching 3,000 roles. Virgin Atlantic declined to comment. Source: Internet Mr. Asakawa commended the governments actions to implement timely public health measures for effective outbreak containment, particularly its USD400 million Economic Contingency Plan to counteract the adverse impact of the pandemic on the people and the economy. Bhutans response aims at mitigating the immediate adverse effects of the pandemic on the population and businesses through livelihood support and relief measures for vulnerable groups, including displaced employees, unemployed people actively seeking employment, and self-employed individuals in the informal sector, many of whom are women. ADB is committed to supporting the governments needs in these most challenging times, said Mr. Asakawa. On May 4th, ADB approved a USD20 million quick-disbursing budget support loan with concessional terms to help finance the governments efforts to mitigate the economic and social impact of the pandemic. It will provide the fiscal space to address critical public health needs, while managing the economic downturn. Mr. Tshering thanked ADB for its support and reiterated his governments strong commitment to carry out immediate containment measures, while protecting the livelihood of the most vulnerable groups and rendering support to affected sectors of the economy. He said the pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented decline in economic activity, including a complete standstill in industries such as tourism and its allied sectors. The construction and manufacturing sectors have also suffered from supply chain disruptions, while other precautionary measures such as social distancing have dampened retail sector demand. On March 27th, ADB provided a USD100,000 grant to Bhutan to procure medical supplies in collaboration with UNICEF. This grant has financed urgently needed personal protective equipment for medical personnel. ADB approved an additional USD1.07 million grant on April 25th to expand the supply of essential medical goods. ADB is working closely with the government and development partners to provide policy advice and measures to respond effectively to the health, social, and economic impacts of the pandemic./. By PTI ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's state-run media on Sunday started providing detailed weather updates of Jammu and Kashmir, days after India started the coverage of weather of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. State-run Radio Pakistan on Sunday reported that in most parts of Jammu and Kashmir "partly cloudy weather is expected with chances of rain. It reported the maximum and minimum temperatures of Srinagar, Pulwama, Jammu and Ladakh. Radio Pakistan has special Kashmir coverage and a part of its webpage is dedicated to news from Jammu and Kashmir. 'RIP common sense': Twitter schools Pakistan on Ladakh weather update gaffe Read @ANI story | https://t.co/P0LBHwJd4T pic.twitter.com/Z1T15pZCjo ANI Digital (@ani_digital) May 10, 2020 The state-run Pakistan Television also gives coverage to news from Kashmir and runs special bulletin on the Valley. The coverage is expected to increase after the Indian media started showing weather of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Pakistan on Friday rejected India's move to begin broadcasting weather reports on Mirpur, Muzaffarabad and Gilgit in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), terming it as a "legally void" action to change the status of the region. Pakistan Foreign Office said in a statement that like the so-called political maps issued last year by India, this move is also legally void, contrary to reality, and in violation of the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions. India in November last released fresh maps showing PoK as part of the newly created Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, while Gilgit-Baltistan is in the Union Territory of Ladakh following the bifurcation. Tesla founder Elon Musk could produce ventilators needed to meet expected demands: AFP via Getty Images Elon Musk has threatened to close Teslas factory and headquarters in California and move to Nevada or Texas in a row with local authorities over when the company can reopen its facilities. Mr Musk has been a vocal opponent of stay-at-home orders introduced across the country to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the deadly virus has killed more than 78,000 Americans. Frankly, this is the final straw, the CEO wrote on Twitter, seemingly in response to the news that the Tesla factory in Alameda County would not be allowed to reopen yet. Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately. Authorities in California said Friday that Teslas main US plant, which employs some 10,000 people, would not be allowed to open for now. Alameda County, where the factory is based, has issued its own criteria for when businesses can reopen. "Tesla has been informed that they do not meet those criteria and must not reopen," Alameda County said in a statement. "We welcome Tesla's proactive work on a reopening plan, so that once they fit the criteria to reopen, they can do so in a way that protects their employees and the community at large." Mr Musk said Tesla would sue Alameda County, where the factory is based, and added that whether the company keeps any manufacturing there depends on how Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is filing a lawsuit against Alameda County immediately. The unelected & ignorant Interim Health Officer of Alameda is acting contrary to the Governor, the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense! Public health experts argue stay-at-home measures slow the spread of the coronavirus and prevent medical facilities from becoming overwhelmed. But Mr Musk has described the orders as fascist. The billionaire tweeted FREE AMERICA NOW! last month, in another apparent reference to the lockdown. Health officials in Alameda County said this week that the total number of Covid-19 cases reached 1,863, and at least 66 people have died from the virus. Story continues With agencies Read more Tracking the coronavirus outbreak around the world in maps and charts When can we really expect coronavirus to end? Everything you need to know on supermarket delivery slots The dirty truth about washing your hands Listen to the latest episode of The Independent Coronavirus Podcast The closure of university campuses in response to the coronavirus has not stopped a number of big corporate providers of student accommodation and private landlords from demanding full rent from tenants for their final term. This is despite the vast majority of students having followed university advice, gone back to their parents, and not returned for the summer term. The hard-nosed financial approach of these companies has been condemned by MPs, university officials, student representatives and parents. Unfair: Some students at Bournemouth University (pictured), are still having to pay rent for their third term Two weeks ago, The Mail on Sunday highlighted the plight of students who rent rooms through The Student Housing Company, a provider of accommodation countrywide from Edinburgh in Scotland to Plymouth in the South West. Initially, students were told they would be liable for their full third-term rent. But the company has since waived 50 per cent of the fees and given students and their parents more time to pay up. At selected universities, presumably under pressure from university officials, the company owned by GSA has waived all fees. Yet, according to readers with children or grandchildren taking university degrees, GSA's The Student Housing Company is not the only offender. Although some others such as Unite Students, iQ and Gravis (manager of investment trust GCP Student Living that owns a portfolio of student blocks, primarily in London) have done the right thing and waived all third-term rental fees, some have played hardball. In several instances, companies have refused to offer any waiver, arguing that they are merely enforcing the contracts students signed up to at the beginning of the academic year and that students have received money from their maintenance loans to meet the bills. They include Host and Mansion Student, both nationwide providers of student accommodation. Others, such as Fresh Student Living, part of Fresh Property Group, have offered ten per cent discounts and given students and parents more time to pay the fees. Some parents have been left frustrated trying to get rents waived. Cathy Clough (name changed) has had no joy in getting Mansion Student 'specialists in student accommodation' to waive the third-term rent that is payable on her 19-year-old daughter's vacant accommodation at Durham University. Although some such as Unite Students, iQ and Gravis have done the right thing and waived all third-term rental fees, some have played hardball. It has refused to release her daughter from the contract she signed last year, stating the coronavirus outbreak is no excuse for rent to go unpaid. Cathy has paid, but is disappointed by Mansion Student's 'lack of compassion'. Last week, The Mail on Sunday asked Mansion Student whose marketing message is 'we listen, we care, we deliver' to comment. It failed to come back with a response. Andrew Sturmey has a daughter at Liverpool John Moores University. Until forced to go home to complete her studies she is in the final year of her chemistry degree Rosie was staying in accommodation provided by Fresh Student Living. Despite her handing back the keys, the company has only been willing to offer a ten per cent discount and payment made in three instalments rather than in one lump sum. Her dad has advised his daughter to make the payments so she does not end up with a black mark on her credit record. But he is disappointed that Fresh Student Living has not been more generous. A tale of two tenants... with very different rent charges Aimee Woolford and Thomas Doogan are first-year students at Bournemouth University. They are both studying biological sciences, have returned home to their parents in Hertfordshire to complete their third term but have been treated differently by their accommodation providers. While 19-year-old Thomas, who lived in accommodation provided by iQ, has paid 50 per cent of fees due for this term, iQ has said it will return this money in February next year. GSA boss Nicholas Porter In contrast, Aimee, 18, and fellow students who until recently lived in accommodation provided by The Student Housing Company (owned by GSA) have had to fight to get a 50 per cent reduction. Thomas says: 'It was a massive relief to hear I only have to pay 50 per cent now, and get that money back next year. 'Students like myself are having to deal with a completely different third-semester dynamic and knowing accommodation money is no longer an issue is a great help. I'm glad I no longer have to worry.' Aimee, however, has until the end of the month to pay 50 per cent of the third-term rent due on her accommodation. She says The Student Housing Company's halving of the rent is 'better than nothing'. But she does not believe the company would have been so generous if students had not set up an online petition urging it to play fair and using social media to highlight its initial intransigence. She is also angry that students at other universities Portsmouth, for example who rent through The Student Housing Company, have had all their third-term rent waived. Aimee's mother Sarah, who helps her daughter with the rental costs, says she was startled by the company's initial 'lack of compassion and care,' but believes common sense has prevailed. She adds: 'Of course, it would have been nice if The Student Housing Company had waived all fees like it has done at other universities. But a 50 per cent reduction is significant.' On Friday, Nicholas Porter, founder and chairman of GAS, told The Mail on Sunday: 'We have strived to provide the most fair and balanced range of financial solutions that we can for our students during this unprecedented time.' He also confirmed that where commercial obligations permitted, additional financial support had been provided to students at specific locations. On Friday, Fresh Property Group said it was not the landlord of the accommodation in question Calico, situated off campus but just the manager responsible for collecting rent. It said Calico's landlord had also been 'financially distressed' as a result of Covid-19 and had 'gone above and beyond its capabilities to support students at this time'. Another parent to contact The Mail on Sunday has two daughters at university one at Cambridge and the other at Warwick. While the former has seen her university-provided accommodation fees for the summer term waived, her sister has not been so lucky. Although she arranged her year's digs through Warwick Accommodation, an arm of the university, she was told that because her tenancy is with a third-party landlord, she is liable for the term's rent of 1,500. Fellow students living on campus have had their fees waived. Warwick Accommodation will not provide the family with details of the landlord so that they can press them to play fair. The only action available so far has been to 'open' a complaint with Warwick Accommodation. On Friday, the girls' father told The Mail on Sunday: 'There must be some common sense applied here. It is morally unfair to expect our students (or their parents) to pay an entire term's rent without being able to use the house or attend the university'. Tiana Holgate, welfare and campaigns officer at Warwick Students' Union, describes the required payment of third-term rent as a 'national crisis for student renters'. Although accepting that, legally, students must adhere to the rental agreement they signed up to, she says it 'simply isn't fair for students to have to pay for accommodation which will be vacant through no fault of their own and effectively as mandated by the UK Government as no one could have predicted the current situation when signing their housing contracts'. Local Labour MPs Matt Western (who represents Warwick and Leamington) and Zarah Sultana (who represents Coventry South) have written to all local letting agencies and landlords, urging them to do the right thing. They want them to offer no-penalty releases from contracts for the rest of the current academic year and the next academic year if necessary. Have your student children been forced to pay rent this term? Email jeff.prestridge@mailonsunday.co.uk Obama also appeared to slam the Trump administrations response to the coronavirus pandemic as an absolute chaotic disaster, offering the sort of blistering criticisms he has rarely aired in public. Obama said shortly before President Trump took office that he would only weigh in on his successors actions when he believes our core values may be at stake. Obama was speaking to something called the "Obama Alumni Association," a real nod to the faculty lounge, but in reality, a likely flying monkey corps waiting for activation, the leaked phone call just the first step. The New York Times, citing leaks, called Obama "deeply angered." And if so, that's not surprising. A huge Obama White House effort to spy on a political opponent and prevent him from serving in public office is slowly being exposed. So the ridiculous carp about President Trump's coronavirus crisis leadership being 'absolute chaos' is nonsense, a naked bid to knock down President Trump. And his Flynn complaint is complete nonsense. The Flynn prosecution was dropped because of naked prosecutorial misconduct. Prosecutors do that because they know their cases aren't going to win. Rule of law? Since when does prosecutorial misconduct of the worst kind merit not dropping a tainted case? Bad cases based on this reason are thrown out all the time, (just ask former California prosecutor Kamala Harris, whose cases stand to be thrown out wholesale based on prosecutorial misconduct). Anybody who's going to prosecute others has got to be damn clean or the system loses credibility. For Obama to 'warn' about rule of law, as if that were something he ever cared about before this, is disingenuous. It's also projecting, a typical passive-aggressive Obama maneuver to say the least. That Obama arranged for this leak, under cover of 'private conversation' is simply a joke. Obama, actually, is panicking. The release of congressional interview transcripts, the declassification of some elements of the DoJ Inspector General investigation, and the news of the FISA warrant abuses on Carter Page, as well as the railroading of Gen. Michael Flynn, pretty well tell a story of Obama being the big power behind all of these legal abuses. That would explain Obama's sudden fascination with 'rule of law' as a shield to cover his own lawless acts, and the emerging revelation that he himself was the ringleader of all the bids to take down President Trump, using the power of the government itself. Sundance over at Conservative Treehouse has a very deep dive (it took me an hour to read it, but it never got boring) into the roots of Obama's rage and why he's running scared and starting to fight back. It begins: On March 9, 2016, oversight personnel doing a review of FBI system access were alerted to thousands of unauthorized search queries of specific U.S. persons within the NSA database. NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers was made aware. Subsequently NSA Director Rogers initiated a full compliance review of the system to identify who was doing the searches; & what searches were being conducted. On April 18, 2016, following the preliminary audit results, Director Rogers shut down all FBI contractor access to the database after he learned FISA-702 about(17) and to/from(16) search queries were being done without authorization. Thus begins the first discovery of a much bigger background story. Once that access was taken away, the unmaskings from the inside began, and as soon as those were found to be all using the same identifiers, with 85% noncompliant with existing standards, according to a judicial report, the Obamatons then turned to the Steele dossier, which they all knew was fake, but also knew was useful as as a means of getting the intelligence and law enforcement agencies involved and engaging in real spying on Americans, taking down Trump operatives one by one. Sundance has precise plot point dated meetings that happened after every measure to shut down the Obama use of the government apparat for domestic political purposes went into effect - visits by Fusion GPS to the White House, the contractors who seem to have been involved in the spying on Sharyl Attkisson's computer. After that, the activation of human sources to target Trump officials, and the whole thing is absolutely outrageous. Better still, Mike Rogers, the NSA chief cited above, has been doing a lot of talking to John Durham, the investigator appointed to sort this thing out with real prosecutorial powers. It's a major threat to the Obama edifice, and it's significant that Obama got word out about his rage through the phone meeting with the "Obama alumni," and not some reporter or think tank or political pal. The flying monkeys are the ones most likely to be prosecuted for real rule of law violations, so Obama's phone call was a rallying cry to throw the shade on Trump instead - tossing in a lie-repeated-a-thousand-times about supposed Trumpian chaos on coronavirus. So much for rule of law. Read the whole Sundance thing here, it's long but worth it. The walls are closing in. The whole story leaves little doubt that the Obama cries of fury are about to get louder. Image credit: Obama White House public domain Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and other White House advisers warned of dire economic times ahead as the US continues to struggle to contain coronavirus. Nearly 80,000 Americans have died from Covid-19, with over 1.35 million confirmed cases. Health experts have warned that reopening businesses too early could lead to another spike in cases and put the economy back to square one. But Mr Mnuchin warned on Sunday that if the US does not reopen businesses soon, despite the public health risks, there will be permanent ramifications for the economy. I think theres a considerable risk of not reopening, Mr Mnuchin said in an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. Youre talking about what would be permanent economic damage to the American public. Were going to reopen in a very thoughtful way that gets people back to work safely, that has them social distance. People will be able to go into stores, he said, adding that some of them will have reservations. Mr Mnuchin has been Donald Trumps point man negotiating the federal governments coronavirus response with Congress, as he is one of the few presidential advisers who Speaker Nancy Pelosi gets along with well enough to work out deals. The federal government has already spent roughly $2.7 trillion (2.2 trillion) over the course of four bills to mitigate the health crisis. Meanwhile, the immediate economic prospectus does not look good, another White House official indicated on the Sunday talk show circuit, highlighting the soaring unemployment rate since March. Just looking at the flow of initial claims, it looks like were probably going to get close to 20 per cent in the next report, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told CNN. The US could reach that 20 per cent mark in May or June, Mr Hassett suggested. In April, the unemployment rate shot to nearly 15 per cent from its steady March rate of 4.4 per cent, the Bureau of Labour Statistics reported last week. Nearly 21 million jobs disappeared in April, by which time most states had adopted social distancing measures. But Mr Mnuchin suggested on Sunday that the economic numbers are down not due to a systemic issue, but because the economy had been shut down. I see the glass as half full and not half empty, he said. Yes, there are issues, but were working through those issues. The [White House Coronavirus Task Force] is working through those issues when we see them. News that New York's famed Pegu Club was closing for good upset bar lovers nationwide when the announcement came at the end of April. The 14-year old bar founded by Audrey Saunders had helped pioneer the craft cocktail scene; dozens of top mixologists trained there. While restaurants have gotten a lot of well-deserved attention since coronavirus-related closings took effect in mid-March, bars have, for the most part, been left out of the conversation. The situation looks especially grim in New York, where many of the best places to drink are set in small, low-ceilinged spaces that are not conducive to social distancing. Greg Boehm owns five bars across downtown Manhattan, including Katana Kitten, Existing Conditions, and Mace. He is also the owner of barware shop Cocktail Kingdom and founder of the Miracle Christmas pop-up empire, a kitschy seasonal franchise that last year had 107 locations around the U.S. and in countries as disparate as Mexico, Switzerland, and Romania. As such, Boehm has had plenty of dealings with government licensing boards, particularly the New York's State Liquor Authority (SLA), which issues permits and controls the distribution of alcohol. The SLA and Gov. Andrew Cuomo moved fast at the start of the pandemic. "The SLA has generally been great through the pandemic and relaxed rules that have kept people in business," observes Joseph Levey, founding partner of Levey Braun, a hospitality-focused law firm, who works with Boehm. "But the whole system is nuanced and ridiculous and ancient and sometimes counterintuitive, and there's room for updates." Particular to New York, for instance, most bars are overseen by local Community Boards that negotiate with owners regarding approvals of liquor licenses. "They might say, 'If you want to stay open until 2 a.m, you will have to keep your windows closed,'" says Levey. Although the SLA has final say on most of the bars' operating rules, it generally accepts Community Board recommendations. Such quirks aren't limited to New York. Since Prohibition ended, drinking in the U.S. has been in a patchwork of local and state laws that owners must dance to navigate through-and it's only going to get harder in a post-pandemic world. If we consider Manhattan as a case study, here are seven suggestions Boehm has for government agencies on how bars such as his might better survive, if not thrive, in the future. 1. Let bars sell pre-mixed drinks. Believe it or not, it is illegal to sell pre-mixed alcoholic drinks in New York. It's an antiquated directive and challenging for cocktail bars that often use them to save time. That punch that was ladled out of a bowl at a speakeasy, the pitcher of sangria that wasn't made just when you ordered it, or that bottled martini? Unless it came from a tap, it was against the law. Though there's little enforcement of this rule, bar owners such as Boehm live in fear. In a future of even-slimmer margins, it's a cost savings that can't be ignored. 2. Keep the to-go drinks going. One bright spot for New York's bars and lounges during the pandemic has been the ability to sell to-go drinks; it's keeping such spots as Dante, the current World's Best Bar, in business. The city has to allow places to continue to do this, says Boehm, to make up for reduced capacity in spaces, as well as for people who are not going to be comfortable sitting in bars. That's not to say New York should turn into New Orleans. "I'm not advocating for open containers," he says. Within proximity of the bar, people should be allowed to consume drinks, and also to buy to-go cocktails. But don't stray too far off premise while you're drinking; the New York Police Department still has the power to write a ticket for this. 3. Offer more flexibility on operating hours. Several bars have stipulations that force them to close at a certain time, by midnight or earlier. (The city may never sleep, but local residents often want to.) New York is a 4 a.m. state; the four hours when booze can't be served run from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. Boehm says more leniency would help spread the flow of customers and reduce crowding in the event that capacity restrictions get more severe. 4. Let bars deliver spirits. It's legal for places with a liquor license to sell beer-in cans, growlers, and so forth-for delivery, but it's been illegal to deliver spirits or pre-batched cocktails. As with the loosening of rules that have turned restaurants into liquor stores, says Boehm, don't limit bars to takeaway drinks, but give them the opportunities that restaurants have to deliver bottles of booze, as well as kits and actual cocktails. 5. Allow more sidewalk cafes. Several city streets are zoned for sidewalk cafes. West 8th Street, for one, is home to Boehm's modernist bar Existing Conditions. Still, he never applied to the the city's Department of Consumer Affairs for a cafe permit. Why? It was made clear to him by the Block Association and Community Board that no sidewalk permits would ever be approved on the block. And even if Boehm did manage to get one, he'd have to go through the process of applying for a liquor license for outdoor seating, even though the interior of his bar has one. Easing up the process, particularly on uncrowded streets-of which there will soon be 40 miles more-would give New York's bars some desperately needed room to fit more paying customers. (A bonus customer benefit: Drinking outdoors is likely safer than it is inside when it comes to virus transmission.) 6. Open the windows. Community Boards often force bars and restaurants to close their windows at a certain time, say 9 p.m., if they are allowed to open their windows at all. Without mandating that residential streets be subject to DJ sets at 3 a.m., Boehm urges that those policies be reconsidered to let some fresh air in, even if some of the gaieties of life get out. 7. Relax bill-paying rules. The SLA has a "posted" rule, also known as the "Bad Boy List," which maintains that if you are late paying one liquor distributor, it can effect all your liquor accounts. Relax those rules, says Boehm. Allow more time for places that are currently doing only about 15% of their business, if any at all, to make payments. This is an unprecedented time for the businesses, he says, and they need a little understanding and flexibility. By PTI NEW DELHI: No coronavirus case has been reported in 10 states and Union territories in the last 24 hours and the recovery rate has increased to over 30 per cent, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday, even as the COVID-19 death toll rose to 2,109 and the number of cases to 62,939. Vardhan asserted that India was moving fast on the path of success in the fight against the pandemic. According to the health ministry data, 1,511 COVID-19 patients were cured of the respiratory infection in the last 24 hours -- the highest number of recoveries in a day. The country registered 128 fatalities and 3,277 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the ministry. The total number of cases include 111 foreign nationals. The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 41,472, while 19,357 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said. India carried out 86,000 coronavirus tests on Saturday and the country's daily testing capacity now stands at 95,000, Vardhan told reporters after inspecting a COVID-19 care centre in the Mandoli area of Delhi. He also said that central teams are being sent to Delhi and nine states to assist the governments in managing the outbreak of the disease. Apart from Delhi, central teams are being to Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and West Bengal. "It is also heartening to note that in 10 states and Union Territories, no new case has emerged in the last 24 hours. These are the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Manipur, Odisha, Mizoram and Puducherry," the minister said. He also said that four states and UTs -- Daman and Diu, Sikkim, Nagaland and Lakshadweep have not reported a single case of the virus till date. Later in a series of tweets, Vardhan said the National Institute of Virology in Pune has successfully developed the first indigenous antibody detection kit for COVID-19 that will play a critical role in surveillance for the infection. The kits can test 90 samples together in a single run of 2.5 hours, so that healthcare professionals can proceed quickly with necessary next steps, the health minister Vardhan said. After development at the ICMR-NIV, Pune, the technology has been transferred for mass-scale production to Zydus Cadila, which is an innovation-driven global healthcare company. The drug controller general has granted Zydus the permission for commercial production and marketing of the kits, Vardhan said. Earlier in the day, he said the government is making all efforts to ensure that no stone is left unturned in the fight against COVID-19 and the states are given all help they need. About the status of containment of the virus, Vardhan said, "Before lockdown, the doubling rate was 3.2 days when measured over a period of 3 days, three when measured over a period of seven days and 4.1 over a period of 14 days. Today it stands at 12 over a three-day window, 10.1 over a seven-day window and 11 over a 14-day window." Similarly, the fatality rate stands at 3.3 per cent while the recovery rate has improved to 30.7 per cent, he said, asserting that the situation has improved due to the lockdown. This also reflects on the quality of healthcare being provided to the COVID-19 patients, Vardhan added. India has a total 36 states and Union territories. A total 128 deaths were reported in the country since Saturday morning -- 48 in Maharashtra, 23 in Gujarat, 15 in Madhya Pradesh, 11 in West Bengal, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Rajasthan and Delhi, four in Tamil Nadu, three in Andhra Pradesh, two in Punjab and one each in Telangana, Haryana, Chandigarh and Assam. Of the 2,109 fatalities, Maharashtra tops the tally with 779 deaths. Gujarat comes second with 472 deaths, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 215, West Bengal at 171, Rajasthan at 106, Uttar Pradesh at 74, Delhi at 73, and Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu at 44. The death toll is 31 in Punjab, 30 each in Karnataka and Telangana. Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana each have registered nine COVID-19 deaths, Bihar five and Kerala four. Jharkhand has recorded three COVID-19 fatalities. Odisha, Chandigarh, Assam and Himachal Pradesh have reported two deaths each. Meghalaya and Uttarakhand have reported one fatality each. According to a PTI tally based on data from inputs from states, the cases jumped to 64,244 while 19,342 patients had recovered and the death toll rose to 2043. A total of 7,740 dedicated COVID-19 facilities in 483 districts have been identified, the Union health ministry said, asserting that adequate health infrastructure is in place to fight the pandemic. The public health facilities dedicated to COVID-19 management are categorised into three categories -- Dedicated COVID Hospital (DCH), Dedicated COVID Health Centre (DCHC) and Dedicated COVID Care Centre (DCCC). Fourteen people were rescued after the wall of a house collapsed in suburban Kandivali on Sunday morning, an official said. Two of those rescued received minor injuries and were admitted to a hospital, he said. The wall of the ground-plus-two-floor structure, known as Dipjyoti chawl, located in Lalji Pada area collapsed early morning, an official at the disaster control room said. Some locals said the incident took place when residents were asleep and they were unable to come out. Seven persons stranded on the upper floors were rescued after firefighters cut the grill and brought them down with the help of a ladder, the official said, adding that total 14 people brought out to safety from the structure. Four fire engines, a rescue van and an ambulance were pressed into service. Two persons, aged 45 and 48, received minor injuries and were admitted to Oscar Hospital, he said. Rescue operation was still underway at the site, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Russia's Foreign Ministry has expressed "extreme indignation" at a U.S. statement on May 8 that seemed to ascribe the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 to the United States and Britain. "On the eve of a sacred holiday, American officials did not have the courage and the desire to at least hint at the indubitable role and colossal losses that the Red Army and the Soviet people brought in the name of all humanity," the Russian statement said. On its Instagram account, the White House posted a video and the words: "On May 8, 1945, America and Great Britain had victory over the Nazis! 'America's spirit will always win. In the end, that's what happens.'" Asked by the Russian Interfax news agency to comment, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was quoted as saying, "We would like to refer you to many latest statements which underline our joint efforts and casualties." U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a joint statement in April on the 75th anniversary of the meeting of U.S. and Soviet soldiers on the Elbe River in Germany. "We intend to have a serious conversation with U.S. public officials on this issue," the Russian Foreign Ministry's statement concluded. With reporting by Interfax Kourtney Kardashian is venting on social media. The Poosh founder, 41, posted a cryptic message to her Instagram Story on Saturday night, which consisted of a text image that read, 'kinda tired of being OK with things im not okay with'. The share comes days after her ex Scott Disick who is father to the pair's three young children entered and then promptly exited a rehab facility in Colorado. Sending a message: Kourtney Kardashian is using social media as a place to vent amid rumors of tension with ex Scott Disick While the eldest Kardashian sister ended her nine-year on/off relationship with the Talentless CEO, 36, back in 2015, she's likely concerned about him doing his fifth rehab stint. The Calabasas socialite's babydaddy checked himself into the All Points North Lodge in Colorado last Tuesday for emotional trauma and substance issues. '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,' a source told Dailymail.com. Is this about Scott? The Poosh founder posted a cryptic message to her Instagram Story on Saturday night Troubled: The share comes days after her ex Scott Disick who is father to the pair's three young children entered and then promptly exited a rehab facility in Colorado Seeking help: The Calabasas socialite's babydaddy checked himself into the All Points North Lodge in Colorado last Tuesday for emotional trauma; seen here days before in Malibu The Flip It Like Disick star - who was once hospitalized for alcohol poisoning - was previously treated at Cliffside Malibu as well as rehabs in Florida and Costa Rica. It's understood Scott has struggled with isolation during lockdown and is still having a hard time coping with the loss of both his parents in quick succession a few years ago. Kourtney, meanwhile, has been quarantining with their three children son Mason, 10; daughter Penelope, seven, and son Reign, five while confined to her $8.5M six-bedroom mansion inside the gated community, Estates at the Oaks in Calabasas. Over the week that Disick checked into and out of the treatment facility, Kardashian posted several old pictures from her Christmas party at her mansion as well as lavish vacations to Costa Rica and Italy including one in which she's seen holding a cocktail glass next to an inspirational message for her daughter. Romantically, Scott has since moved on from his relationship with Kourtney, as he's been dating girlfriend Sofia Richie, 21, since 2017. Meanwhile: Kourtney has been quarantining with their three children, and over the week that Disick checked into and out of rehab, she posted several old pictures from lavish vacations to Costa Rica and Italy including one in which she's seen holding a cocktail glass Responding to a domestic disturbance report in Northwest Portland Saturday afternoon, police officers say they came across a man with a knife protruding from his shoulder. Portland Police Bureau officers found the victim near Northwest 20th Avenue and Northwest Everett Street just after noon. They took a woman into custody. They arrested Michelle Mancera, 47, and charged her with second-degree assault, menacing and unlawful use of a weapon. Michelle Mancera is accused by police of domestic violence. The victim was taken by ambulance to an area hospital. His injuries did not appear to be life-threatening, according to the Police Bureau. Law enforcement officials and victims advocates all over the Metro area report a surge in domestic violence reports, restraining order violations and related cases since the coronavirus arrived in Oregon. The Clackamas County district attorneys office, for example, saw a 47% increase in domestic violence cases last month over its April average. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-11 01:14:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A medical worker checks the temperature of a man returning from Kuwait in Giza, Egypt, on May 10, 2020. Egypt reported on Sunday 436 new cases and 11 deaths of COVID-19, bringing the total infections registered in the country so far to 9,400, including 525 deaths. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa) CAIRO, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Egypt reported on Sunday 436 new cases and 11 deaths of COVID-19, bringing the total infections registered in the country so far to 9,400, including 525 deaths. Meanwhile, 73 COVID-19 patients were completely cured and discharged from hospitals on Sunday, raising the total recoveries to 2,075, said Egyptian health ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed in a statement. Megahed emphasized that all the patients infected with the novel coronavirus in Egypt receive medical care "in accordance with the guidelines of the World Health Organization." Egypt announced its first confirmed case of COVID-19 on Feb. 14 and the first death on March 8, both of whom were foreigners. The Egyptian government has recently started to ease restrictions and reopen services and offices that have been closed for nearly two months, within a coexistence plan to carry out anti-coronavirus precautionary measures while resuming services and economic activities. The North African country is currently implementing a nationwide nine-hour nighttime curfew that will continue throughout the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramadan. For years, Tracey Bregman and Christian LeBlanc are the kind of soap opera relationships others can learn from. Since their 2005 marriage on The Young and the Restless, theyve remained one of the industrys major [fictional] power couples. Which of the two stars who play them Tracey Bregman and Christian LeBlanc is worth more? Tracey Bregman credits adding an e to her name for landing The Young and the Restless Tracey E. Bregman and Christian LeBlanc | Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic The Young and the Restless star, Tracey Bregman, had humble beginnings while growing upon Munich, Germany with her parents, composer, Buddy Bregman, and actress, Suzanne Lloyd. Bregmans family moved to the sun and sand of California when she was 10 years old and she began acting a year later. Her first official IMDb credit is listed as uncredited in the TV movie, Three On a Date. 11 years and many projects later including a recurring role on Days Of Our Lives Bregman landed the 1984 role of Lauren Fenmore on The Young and the Restless, though her IMDb bio says she auditioned for the role of Patty Williams. Lauren was created specifically for Bregman and shes maintained the role for close to 40 years now something she credits to an astrologists recommendation, as stated by IMDb, to help with her career. In the early 1980s, Bregman added an e to Tracy and a month later, The Young and the Restless came along. Christian LeBlanc previously crossed over into other daytime dramas Bregmans on-screen husband is played by [Jules] Christian LeBlanc. He stems from the Fort Bragg, North Carolina area and his first credit is the 1986 TV series, Riptide where he played wedding guest, Johnny Farnell. LeBlancs soap opera days began around the time of Bregman. In 1983, he joined the ranks of As the World Turns where he first played the role of Y&Rs Michael Baldwin. Once a firm member of Y&R, he would later cross back over to ATWT, helping characters in a custody suit. Since 1991, LeBlanc has played Michael on Y&R, off-and-on with breaks throughout. Hes accumulated multiple Daytime Emmy Award nominations and multiple wins for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (like Bregman who also snagged nominations and wins). Both Bregman and LeBlanc appeared in Reba McEntires 2010 video, I Keep On Loving You, which perfectly sums up their characters journey on The Young and the Restless as they are one of the only couples whove remained faithful to one another through their daytime drama run. Which Y&R star is worth more? According to Celebrity Net Worth, Bregman is worth an estimated $7 million. This is mostly due to her acting gigs and other promotional endeavors. LeBlancs net worth, however, isnt as easily found. Estimates range from $1.7 million to upwards of $5 million. For this round, Bregman, who owns a clothing boutique on Y&R, is likely worth more. Though, LeBlanc, who plays a lawyer on Y&R, may have more income not yet listed that could push his net worth to even playing ground. The Young and the Restless airs weekdays on CBS. A station house officer (SHO) organised an event on the premises of the Kot Khalsa police station in Amritsar, defying the social-distancing norms imposed in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak prohibiting gathering of more than 10 persons at religious or ceremonial functions. The religious function organised on Saturday morning was attended by nearly 100 people, including women and elderly people. A bhajan party was also called to sing religious hymns. In a video clip of the event, SHO Sanjeev Sharma is seen dancing to the tune of a bhajan with his fellow policemen some of who were not wearing masks. Social distancing norms were not followed either. Assistant commissioner of police (ACP licencing) Narinder Singh was also present in the event that continued for around two-and-a-half hours, it is learnt. Some workers of the Bharatiya Janta Party, Shiromani Akali Dal and Congress were also present on the occasion. Additional deputy commissioner (ADC-general) Himanshu Aggarwal said religious functions are banned in Amritsar. I cant verify the video clip at this time but it shows social distancing was not followed. We will bring the matter to the notice of senior police officials, he added. SHO Sharma said the function was organised to distribute free ration to the needy. Whether he took permission for organising the event from the administration, he said, I had informed my senior officials about it. Social distancing norms were followed. ACP Narinder Singh claimed, I repeatedly appealed to people for maintaining social distancing, he said. Amritsar police commissioner Sukhchain Singh said he was not aware of the matter. I will look into it, he said. Patna, May 10 (UNI ) With one more death reported due to Coronavirus on Sunday in Bihar, the total number of six people so far died due to COVID 19 in the state where 653 people were so far found to be infected coronavirus.Principal Health secretary Sanjay Kumar said here today that a 60-year old male found to be Covid 19 positive died due to Coronavirus infection at Patna Medical College Hospital. Mr Kumar said that the person belonged to Belchi in Patna was admitted at the hospital on May 8 and died the very next day. He said that this person had come from Delhi and was quarantined thereafter. He was also a case of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.Prior to this five deaths were reported due to coronavirus till date in Bihar. On May 7, a 70-year old person of Dhaurar village of Sasaram block in Rohtas district died due to the infection. His test reports for coronavirus infection came after his death. On May 2, a 45-years old person of Sitamarhi died due to this infection at Nalanda Medical College Hospital .The person had returned to Sitamarhi from Tata Memorial Hospital Mumbai on April 28 and was a serious case of lung malignancy. On May 01, a-54 years old male of Banjaria in East Champaran died due to Coronavirus at Nalanda Medical College Hospital. He was admitted at the hospital on April 27 after coming back from Tata Memorial Hospital Mumbai on April 20 . He was a serious case of terminal oropharyngeal malignancy (mouth and throat cancer).A 35-year old youth of Raghopur in Vaishali district died due to coronavirus infection on April 17 at All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna. He was admitted at the hospital on April 14 and tested positive for the the virus on April 15.The first death was reported on March 21 at All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna. Saif Ali who had returned from Qatar to Munger died on March 21. New Delhi, May 10 : INS Magar, the second ship of the Indian Navy, arrived at Male port on Sunday to evacuate stranded Indian nationals from the Maldives. In addition to it as part of the Indian government's outreach amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, INS Kesari has departed for the Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and Comoros, to provide food items, and COVID related medicines. INS Magar, a Landing Ship Tank, designed for landing operations, had made all necessary logistic, medical and administrative preparations at her base port Kochi to comfortably accommodate civilians before setting sail towards Maldives. The ship will evacuate about 200 citizens while ensuring all precautions related to COVID-19 including social distancing norms are followed. An entirely separate section of the ship with essential facilities like food and washrooms has been prepared to accommodate the evacuees and a separate mess has been allotted for women, infants and senior citizens. "Additional precautions have been taken by dividing the evacuees into groups to avoid crowding at common areas like dining hall, and bathrooms," Indian Navy said. Concurrently, the first ship carrying evacuees from Maldives, INS Jalashwa reached Kochi harbour this morning with 698 Indian citizens. Out of 698 citizens, 595 are male and 103 are female. The ship also brought 19 pregnant women. Moreover, as per Indian government outreach programme, INS Kesari has departed for Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and Comoros, to provide food items, COVID related medicines, including Hydroxychloroquine tablets and special ayurvedic medicines with medical assistance teams. This deployment as 'Mission Sagar', is in line with India's role as the first responder in the region and builds on the excellent relations existing between these countries to battle the COVID-19 pandemic and its resultant difficulties. "The deployment is in consonance with the Prime Minister's vision of Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) and highlights the importance accorded by India to relations with her neighbouring countries and further strengthens the existing bond," Navy spokesperson Commander Vivek Madhwal said. H said that the operation is being conducted in close coordination with the Ministries of Defence and External Affairs, and other agencies of the government of India. As part of Mission Sagar, INS Kesari would enter the Port of Male in Republic of Maldives, to provide them 600 tonnes of food provisions. India and Maldives are close maritime neighbours with strong and extremely cordial defence and diplomatic relations. The discovery of the two infected employees has prompted the White House to ramp up its procedures to combat the virus, asking more staff members to work from home, increasing usage of masks and more rigorously screening people who enter the complex. It is not clear how many other White House officials Ms. Miller or the valet might have come into contact with in recent days, but many members of the West Wing staff who were most likely in meetings with Ms. Miller before she tested positive are still coming to work, according to senior administration officials. Late Sunday, the White House put out a statement saying that Mr. Pence would not alter his routine or self-quarantine. The vice president has tested negative every single day and plans to be at the White House tomorrow, said Devin OMalley, a spokesman for Mr. Pence. The concern about an outbreak of the virus at the White House and the swift testing and contact tracing being done to contain it underscores the broader challenge for Americans as Mr. Trump urges them to begin returning to their workplaces despite warnings from public health officials that the virus continues to ravage communities across the country. Most restaurants, offices and retail stores do not have the ability to regularly test all their employees and quickly track down and quarantine the contacts of anyone who gets infected. At the White House, all employees are being tested at least weekly, officials said, and a handful of top aides who regularly interact with the president are being tested daily. Iran is ready for a full prisoner exchange with the United States, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei says, adding that Washington has yet to respond to Iran's call for a prisoner swap. "We have announced that we are ready without any preconditions to exchange all prisoners and we are prepared to discuss this issue but the Americans have not responded yet," Rabiei told the news site Khabaronline on May 10. "We are worried about the safety and health of Iranians in jail.... We hold America responsible for Iranians' safety amid the new coronavirus outbreak," Rabiei added. "Washington is aware of our readiness and we think there is no need for a third country to mediate between Tehran and Washington for the prisoner exchange," Rabiei was quoted as saying. The United States is set to deport Iranian professor Sirous Asgari, who was acquitted of stealing trade secrets, U.S. and Iranian officials told Reuters last week. Asgari was reported to have tested positive for the coronavirus while in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Iran is believed to be holding at least four Americans, including Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi, his father, Baqer Namazi, and environmentalist and businessman Morad Tahbaz. Western media reported last week that Tehran and Washington were negotiating a deal that would release U.S. Navy veteran Michael White for an Iranian held in the United States. White, detained in Iran for allegedly insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and posting private information online, was released on medical furlough in March amid the coronavirus pandemic. Iran says the U.S. authorities are holding some 20 Iranian nationals in jail. In a rare act of cooperation, the United States and Iran swapped prisoners in 2019: American graduate student Xiyue Wang, detained on alleged spying charges, and imprisoned Iranian stem-cell researcher Massud Soleimani, accused of sanctions violations. Tensions between Tehran and Washington have heightened since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, especially after he pulled the United States out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed crippling sanctions on the Islamic republic. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Iran in March to release on humanitarian grounds all wrongfully detained Americans held in the country. With reporting by Reuters and AP Lucy Sandler, owner. House of Blooms, Raritan, standing outside Morrristown medical Center. (Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) A few weeks ago, Lucy Sandler's grandmother passed away from COVID-19. Its been tough she says. "I feel like everybodys got some story related to this. Its sad. The whole world is going through something. Sandler does boutique floral design and is the owner of House of Blooms in Raritan and when she got a call for help from Terry Lyons, managing partner/attorney at Lyons & Associates, Sommerville, she responded. Don't Edit (Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Lyons decided that her firm would donate 200 individually-wrapped roses to frontline medical workers on Mothers Day weekend, 100 each at RWJ University Hospital Somerset in Somerville and Morristown Medical Center. The roses werent reserved just for mothers, but were shared with others who needed a ray of sunshine, as well. And Lyons found a quote to attach to each rose, fittingly enough from Hippocrates: Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there also is a love of humanity." Don't Edit (Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) In spite of how busy Mothers Day is for a place named House of Blooms, Sandler knew she couldnt refuse "I'm really excited to be giving back to the health care workers", Sandler said, because my grandmother passed away from COVID-19 a few weeks ago and it feels great to be doing something for these people who are working so hard." Don't Edit Lucy Sandler, left, owner, House of Blooms, hands a box of roses to a health care worker. (Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Don't Edit Terry Lyons, managing partner/attorney at Lyons & Associates, Somerville, carries a box of roses for health care professionals at Morristown Medical Center. (Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Lyons said the roses were distributed to nurses and other staff in the hospitals Intensive Care Units, COVID units and other departments to thank them for their efforts during the holiday weekend. Flowers represent life and hope," she said. "And we thought it was the least we could do to deliver these individual roses for front line moms this Mother's Day weekend because they're bringing life and hope for all of us. Don't Edit Don't Edit (Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Don't Edit Morristown Medical Center. (Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Michael Mancuso may be reached at mmancuso@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @michaelmancuso. Find NJ.com on Facebook. TDT | Manama Bahrain Clear yesterday announced signing a Depository Agent (Custodian) Agreement with First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) to offer custody services at Bahrain Bourse to regional and international investors. There are now six securities custodians registered by Bahrain Clear to act in the market, four of which are global custodians. First Abu Dhabi Bank is the UAEs largest bank and strongest financial institution in the Middle East. On this occasion, Abdulla Jaffar Abdin, Senior Director of Operations at Bahrain Clear commented stating: We look forward to working closely with First Abu Dhabi Banks Securities Services in terms of post-trade services to deliver creative custody solutions to their respective international clients. We are delighted to add the Kingdom of Bahrain in our proprietary custody network and we look forward to contributing to the success of Bahrain Clear, commented Francis Dassou, Managing Director - Securities Services at First Abu Dhabi Bank. It is worth noting that Bahrain Clear is a fully owned subsidiary of Bahrain Bourse with a disclosed capital of 5 million Bahraini Dinars and a paid-up capital of 1 million Bahraini Dinars. Bahrain Clear is licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain as a Clearing House and Central Depository offering post-trade services to investors. Bahrain Clears service offering includes related services of securities transactions depository, clearing, settlement, central registry and registration. Tuesday is International Nurses Day and 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth People are being encouraged to shine a light from their windows in recognition of the role of nurses in the coronavirus fight, which has been described as the 'greatest health emergency in NHS history'. The symbolic gesture this week will be a nod to the lamp which Florence Nightingale - a founder of modern nursing - was known to carry. Tuesday marks both International Nurses Day and the 200th anniversary of Nightingale's birth. The famous nurse's image and a message of thanks will be projected from Parliament on to her place of work, St Thomas's Hospital, while similar projections will happen at the British Embassy in Rome and the Italian Federation of Nurses. Thousands of former nurses have come out of retirement to help the health service deal with the coronavirus outbreak and thousands of students are also helping by working in extended clinical placements. The symbolic gesture this week will be a nod to the lamp which Florence Nightingale (played by Laura Fraser in 2008)- a founder of modern nursing - was known to carry England's chief nursing officer Ruth May said public support shown so far has 'buoyed' colleagues during what she said is a testing time, and she urged people to once again show their gratitude by shining a light from their homes at 8.30pm on Tuesday. She said: 'International Day of the Nurse is particularly special this year not just because we mark the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth, but because of the extraordinary work all those who have followed in her footsteps are doing in the fight against coronavirus. 'I want to thank each and every one of our incredible nurses who are on the frontline in the battle against the greatest health emergency in NHS history. Heroic nurses on today's frontline: Three nurses from Northwick Park hospital in London who posed last month while wearing protective equipment made from bin bags before being diagnosed with Covid-19 Nurses prepare to take a sample at a COVID 19 testing centre in the car park of the Bowhouse Community Centre in Grangemouth, Scotland 'Their professionalism and skills are helping to save and rebuild countless lives.' Professor Greta Westwood, CEO of the Florence Nightingale Foundation, said: 'Florence Nightingale, herself a trailblazer during her career, would have been proud at the way nurses have followed in her footsteps as pioneers and leaders in the fight against the pandemic. 'They are truly her legacy today.' The year 2020 has been made International Year of the Nurse to mark the bicentenary of Nightingale's birth. Two constables with the city police were on Sunday suspended after a video purportedly showing them "taking bribe" from a person here, went viral. Hyderabad Commissioner of Police Anjani Kumar suspended the constables and also issued a charge memo to the Station House Officer of the Afzalgunj police station over the matter. The Hyderabad police chief in a tweet said, "Placed under suspension with immediate effect : PC Pancha Mukesh & PC Suresh of Blue Colt2 of PS Afzalgunj who were found indulging in act of Grave Misconduct. Insp Afzalganj has been given a CHARGE MEMO for poor supervision and control. We are committed to public service." In the video, a man, apparently a fruit vendor, is seen "handing over cash" to a policeman while the other was waiting on a bike. The constables intercept the man's vehicle and allegedly demand money from him. The video was apparently shot using a mobile phone from atop a building. However, it was not clear when the incident took place. After the video started doing rounds on social media, the Hyderabad Police conducted an inquiry into the matter and ordered suspension of the two constables. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) There was no Champagne, no handing over of keys, and definitely no celebratory hug with their real estate agent, but Josh and Trish Poupore bought a new house last week. Home sales have plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing many individuals involved with real estate - agents, lawyers, photographers, appraisers, inspectors and title searchers - to do things differently than ever before. But deals are still getting done. Josh Poupore, senior vice-president of Corning Place Communications, and his wife, Trish, a high school counselor, found a house they wanted to buy in Niskayuna on March 8 and quickly put in an offer. The inspection was March 14, and with the process moving smoothly, the Poupores prepared to put their Scotia home on the market. Then came the shutdowns. "We expected everything to stop moving, we expected to be stuck and it would be that way a while," Josh Poupore said. But the Poupores' real estate agent, Joe Mulone from the Property Shop, kept things in motion. He coordinated virtual showings and the Poupores let the prospective buyers' real estate agents in the house, each one carrying hand sanitizer and wearing masks. The agents gave their clients tours with their phones. During one showing, Josh and Trish sat in their car in the driveway so they could access WiFi and continue working. The next time, they stopped at a Panera drive-through and drove around eating lunch. After three virtual showings the couple accepted an offer of $210,000 on April 10. The closing, easily the weirdest part of the whole thing, was in a parking lot near the 1st National Bank in Scotia. The Poupores stayed in their car wearing matching masks while they signed paperwork and wrote checks. Their real estate attorney, Gary O'Connor, stood outside the car, passing paperwork over to Bill Bates, the lawyer for the bank. When it was done, the Poupores drove over to their new house, where they used a code to enter and found the keys on the kitchen counter. Neither the sellers or their attorney were required to be at the closing. O'Connor has been a real estate attorney for 45 years. He's lived through a lot of ups, downs and changes in the business, but nothing as weird as this, he said. Lawyers are considered essential employees, he's continued to come to the office, less than a mile from his house in Scotia. His partner, Lydia Marola, works on the other side of the office. He's done four closings since Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo order non-essential workers to stay home. "One was in a car, the other was the back of a truck, one was on the patio of a tavern owned by the other attorney," O'Connor said. Mulone, the Poupores' Realtor, has moved onto helping a client in Ohio buy a house in the Capital Region and jumped through hoops in that instance as well. At the buyer's request, Mulone sent a virtual tour to his client, but it wasn't enough to give the prospective buyer a sense of the floor plan and layout. When Mulone asked the seller for permission to film the house, the seller said no, but agreed to a Zoom conference with Mulone's client. But because the conference was conducted over laptop, the quality of the images wasn't good enough. Afterward, the homeowner allowed Mulone, a professional photographer as well as a real estate agent, to film the house himself for his client. "The buyer felt comfortable enough to put in an offer," Mulone said. Now, he's waiting to see if it will be accepted. "Staying in compliance is a challenge," Mulone said. "Josh and Trish did the final walk through by themselves, without either me or the seller's agent. That's unheard of." Mulone is also worried about his colleagues. Real estate agents are independent contractors, and all the expenses of marketing a house come out of their pocket before a commission check comes in. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. "Yes, there's business, but not enough to go around. Not everyone is going to survive this," he said. Kristi Benson, a real estate photographer, has been offering her photo editing skills while she was out of work. Wednesday, after two tries and weeks of waiting, she received approval from the state to go back to work because she can do it by herself. Pauline Cusick, a real estate salesperson with Howard Hanna who has eight years of experience, has been using this time to learn new skills. "I did an open house by myself last weekend over Zoom. I never thought I'd be doing something like that," Cusick said. She advertised the conference on social media and five people came. "I figure if people are taking the time to log in, they're interested - it's different from popping into an open house." Cusick doesn't have an offer on the house yet, but she says the quiet time has been nice in a lot of ways. She's checking in with past clients, attending webinars hosted by Howard Hanna and spending time with her children, both college age. "We're all adapting, learning new technology, and now we know it, we'll use it in the future in powerful ways." Britain may be prevented from deporting dangerous foreign criminals if the healthcare system in their homeland is not as good as the NHS. A bombshell ruling from the Supreme Court means killers, rapists and drug dealers may be able to exploit controversial human rights laws to stay in the UK if they can argue they would be denied top-quality care if they were sent home. The landmark judgment which risks throwing the Governments deportation policy into chaos has already delayed the case of gang rapist Yaqub Ahmed, whose deportation to Somalia in October 2018 was blocked by a mutiny among plane passengers at Heathrow. Yaqub Ahmed (pictured) was supposed to be deported to Somalia in October 2018 after he was convicted of conspiracy to rape Since a 2005 House of Lords ruling, the Home Office has been able to deport foreign criminals who are receiving medical care in Britain as long as they are not at imminent risk of dying from their illness. However Supreme Court judges, including the controversial Baroness Hale, have now adopted a lower threshold as laid down by the European Court of Human Rights in 2016. Criminals now have only to prove they would experience intense suffering or a significant reduction in life expectancy if sent home. The ruling came in the case of a 33-year-old Zimbabwean father of one who arrived in the UK in 2000 and was later granted indefinite leave to remain. But he went on to be convicted of a string of offences in a two-year period, including battery, assault, receiving stolen goods and possession of sharp blades in public. His deportation was ordered in November 2006 but he was not removed and in May 2009 was convicted of possession of a firearm and heroin with intent to supply. He was sentenced to seven years in jail. Eleven years on, he is still trying to block his deportation under the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees that no one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. He claimed that, as a HIV sufferer, deportation would deny him access to life-saving treatment as the anti-retroviral medication Eviplera is not available in Zimbabwe. The five Supreme Court justices ruled in his favour. Last night, critics called for the ruling to be overturned. Conservative MP Peter Bone said: If this isnt reversed by legislation then it will be used to keep more foreign criminals in this country and thats not right. The ruling has caused alarm at the Home Office, which deported more than 5,200 foreign criminals last year, but is grappling with soaring numbers successfully avoiding being returned on human rights grounds up from 60 in 2011 to 172 last year. Ahmed is awaiting the result of a legal challenge against his removal, but the judge in his case has asked for new legal submissions in light of the latest ruling. The 30-year-old, who was jailed for nine years in 2008 for his part in the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl in London, claims his mental health has worsened as a result of being in detention. Another case in Strasbourg may make it even harder for the Home Office to kick out foreign criminals. Lawyers for a paranoid schizophrenic fighting deportation from Denmark to Turkey argue that, although his drugs would still be available for free, he may not get other elements of his treatment package. The UK Government is so worried about any precedent that it has made a submission to the court. Last night a Home Office spokesman said: We are considering the ruling carefully before taking the next steps. John Ibrahim claims a book about lesbian sex that Paris Hilton sent him after he missed out on an anticipated threesome with the model was seized by police and never returned. The former nightclub boss reckons his copy of Lesbian Sex Secrets For Men, signed 'Love, Paris' by the socialite, was taken during an Australian Federal Police raid on his Sydney mansion three years ago. Ibrahim says Hilton posted him the book - subtitled 'What Every Man Wants to Know About Making Love to a Woman and Never Asks' - weeks after he thought she was going to join him for group sex. He declined to comment when contacted by Daily Mail Australia but has told friends police seized the book then leaked the title to media in a 'cheap shot' to embarrass him. A police source maintained the book was not taken from Ibrahim during the August 2017 raid and did not appear in a log of property seized from his Dover Heights home. Scroll down for video John Ibrahim claims a book about lesbian sex that Paris Hilton sent him after the former nightclub boss missed out on a threesome with the model and another 'hot chick' was seized by police and never returned. Ibrahim and Hilton are pictured Ibrahim reckons his copy of Lesbian Sex Secrets For Men, signed 'Love, Paris' by Paris Hilton, was taken during an Australian Federal Police raid on his home to embarrass him. A copy of Ibrahim's autobiography Last King of the Cross is visible in this picture from that raid But a police source told Daily Mail Australia that Ibrahim's copy of Lesbian Sex Secrets For Men was not seized from Ibrahim during a raid on his Dover Heights home in August 2017 It was revealed this week that Ibrahim had believed he was set for a threesome with Hilton and another young woman he had met at a New Year's Eve party in 2008. Ibrahim had picked up a 'hot chick' at the Piano Room in Kings Cross and gone to a Coogee house owned by businessman John Singleton, where he ran into the celebrity heiress. The 'King of the Cross', who had met Hilton previously, called his radio mate Kyle Sandilands, who was still at the Piano Room party, and gave him a blow by blow account of what happened next. Sandilands revealed the events of December 31, 2008 for the first time on his KIIS FM breakfast program on Wednesday morning, initially leaving out Hilton's name. Ibrahim told Sandilands he had planned to go home with the girl he met at the Piano Room but had 'done a side step' because Hilton was at Singleton's Coogee house. A few weeks after her encounter with John Ibrahim, Hilton mailed Ibrahim a copy of the book Lesbian Sex Secrets for Men Ibrahim already knew Hilton well, Sandilands told his listeners. 'There may have been an encounter or two in the past with [Hilton] a few years before that,' he said. Sandilands declined an invitation from Ibrahim to join him at Coogee but offered to meet him if he went back to his own Dover Heights mansion. While Sandilands continued to party at the Piano Room he received another call from Ibrahim, who was in a bedroom at Coogee with Hilton and his new friend. 'He rings me and goes, "Bro, I think I've somehow hooked myself up a three-way,' Sandilands said. 'He says, "I've just ducked out to get a couple of drinks, I'm going back into the room". 'Ten minutes later a text comes through: "No go, bro. Shut down." And I thought that doesn't sound like my friend John. He hasn't been shut down from a three-way ever, I thought. 'He rings me back half an hour later, bit down-trodden. He's like, "Yeah, went back into the bedroom with the drinks and the whole vibe had changed". 'And he's like, "OK, the girls are getting on very well together, chatting and getting close " John's standing there with the drinks, trying to get in there 'Anyway, he gets back onto the phone to me and says, "Yeah, nah, they were too into each other and talking and getting close". 'They were getting on like a house on fire and it was clear John wasn't going to have a threesome.' A few weeks later Hilton mailed Ibrahim a copy of Lesbian Sex Secrets for Men by Jamie Goddard and Kurt Brungardt. Sandilands told his listeners that 'just to add insult' to an already disappointing episode for Ibrahim, police had later seized and kept the book. 'He's got quite a huge book collection,' Sandilands said. 'Out of all of the books... they took this lesbian's guide book and there's no real reason they took that.' John Ibrahim was single when he had his encounter with Paris Hilton at a New Year's Eve party in Coogee. He is pictured with current longtime girlfriend Sarah Budge Ibrahim already knew Hilton (pictured) well before their New Year's Eve, Kyle Sandilands told his listeners. 'There may have been an encounter or two in the past with [Hilton] a few years before that,' he said The book is described by its publisher as 'a groundbreaking dialogue between straight men and gay women, and an erotic look inside the often hidden world of lesbian sex.' 'For men, the intimate workings of the female body have long remained one of the great mysteries of the universe. What gives her the most pleasure? Where should you be touching her - and how?' 'Fortunately, there are some people who can offer men the empirical knowledge gained from a lifetime of pleasing women - and getting pleased by them. 'This frank, frolicsome, and wonderfully illuminating book draws on the sexual advice and sex secrets of lesbians to help men become better lovers.' A bookmark led Ibrahim to a highlighted passage which said: 'An introduction of a stranger brings added excitement. Do not feel left out if your usual partner naturally gravitates to the third party. It is the unfamiliar that is exciting.' Hilton had then signed it, 'Love, Paris'. Lesbian Sex Secrets sat in Ibrahim's library until police investigating the activities of some of his family members and associates executed a search warrant on his home (pictured). It was the only title in his collection of about 375 books seized by police and has never been returned Sandilands said Ibrahim had never decided exactly what Hilton meant by sending the book but he believed it was 'taunting and teasing' his friend. 'She knew he wanted it,' Sandilands told his listeners. 'She obviously knew that it wasn't going to happen and that the two girls connected and he was left out. 'He still doesn't know if she was laughing at him like, "Ha, ha - I knew what you were trying to do" or if it was an excuse why it didn't happen. 'I told him he should never have gone out for the drinks.' According to Ibrahim the book sat in his library until August 8, 2017, when Australian Federal Police investigating the activities of some of his family members and associates executed a search warrant on his home. It has been reported his library includes true crime books, biographies of historical figures such as Adolph Hitler, as well as a manuscript for the classic Al Pacino movie Scarface. Other books include Ibrahim's own autobiography, Last King of the Cross, and a memoir by his mate Sandilands called Scandalands. Ibrahim says the only title in his collection of about 375 books seized by police from Operation Veyda was Lesbian Sex Secrets For Men and it has never been returned. A spokeswoman for the AFP said the body did not comment on operational matters but a source told Daily Mail Australia there was no record of the book being seized. A spokeswoman for the New South Wales Police Force, which took part in Operation Veyda, referred inquiries to the AFP, as they led the investigation. The race to develop a vaccine against COVID-19 is intensifying globally. Over 100 potential coronavirus vaccines are currently under development, but four vaccines are ahead of the pack. Here are the frontrunners: Oxford University vaccine One of the potential vaccines against COVID-19 is also known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. It was developed by the Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group, at the University of Oxford. The vaccine uses weakened version of chimpanzee adenovirus as vector, infused with the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Adenovirus causes common cold. After vaccination, the SARS-CoV-2 surface spike protein is produced, which alerts the immune system to attack COVID-19. 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 University of Oxford has been working on vaccines on MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), diseases which are caused by coronaviruses. So, it immediately jumped into the fray to develop a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it saw the outbreak. This gave it a lead time over other vaccine makers. It entered phase-1 clinical trials last week to study safety and efficacy in healthy volunteers aged 18 to 55 years, across five trial centres in Southern England. The phase-1 data will be out this month, which will be followed by phase-2 and 3 trials. These will involve larger number of volunteers to determine the vaccines efficacy. The Serum Institute of India has been closely working with University of Oxford. Serum will manufacture the vaccine and if everything goes as per the plan, they may bring out the vaccine by October. Also read: With pressure growing, global race for a coronavirus vaccine intensifies Moderna RNA vaccine The Massachusetts-based biotech company Modernas vaccine candidate is cruising ahead of the original schedule. The Moderna vaccine is based on a novel approach, wherein the company injects the specially designed messenger RNA (genetic material) produces viral protein or antigen. The antigen provokes the immune system, thereby helping the body to defend itself against COVID-19. The company has been doing phase-1 trails and has received the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) nod to begin phase-2. Moderna also plans to begin phase-3 by this summer. The vaccine is easy to manufacture, but could be expensive and supplies will be tightly controlled by US government. Moderna has raised plenty of money, with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) of the US government recently giving it around $483 million. Follow our LIVE blog for the latest updates of the novel coronavirus pandemic Pfizer vaccine Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech are working on four vaccine candidates, each representing a different combination of messenger RNA method and target antigen. The novel design of the trial allows for evaluation of the various mRNA candidates simultaneously in order to identify the safest and potentially most efficacious candidate in a greater number of volunteers. Pfizer started dosing its experimental COVID-19 vaccine on first participants in the US in phase-1 and phase-2 clinical trial for the BNT162 vaccine program. Pfizer will enroll up to 360 healthy subjects into two age cohorts of 18-55 year and 65-85 years. The company has said that has begun delivering doses of their coronavirus vaccine to candidates for initial human testing in the United States. Trials in Germany had already begun. Even though the drug is still under testing, Pfizer is readying plans to manufacture millions of vaccine doses in 2020, increasing it to hundreds of millions in 2021. If successful, Pfizer said it hopes to receive emergency use authorization from the USFDA as early as October. It could distribute up to 20 million doses by the end of 2020 and potentially hundreds of millions next year, it said. The shift to outside production of other medicines will primarily affect vaccines and intravenous drugs. Pfizer currently produces around 1.5 billion doses of intravenously injected vaccines and drugs each year. Also read: In race to get COVID-19 vaccine, are we setting the bar low? Sinovac Biotech vaccine The Chinese biopharmaceutical company is also doing phase-1 and phase-2 trials of its COVID-19 vaccine. The company said it is also in discussion with regulators in other countries, and the World Health Organization (WHO), to launch phase-3 clinical trials in regions where the novel coronavirus is still spreading rapidly. Sinovac is also ahead in the race, as it was previously developing a vaccine against SARS, the 2003 pandemic that also originated in China and is caused by a type of coronavirus. The company had to abandon the development at the phase-1 stage as that outbreak was contained. A lot of moms across Canada will be missing their hugs and kisses this Mothers Day because of physical distancing rules and guidelines. The COVID-19 pandemic will make this years celebration of mothers unlike any other for most people, but especially those in long-term care facilities, barred from any physical contact with family members. Many moms will be receiving the traditional messages of love and gratitude by remote means, or from the other side of glass barriers. Federal officials issued dire warnings Saturday about the dangers to long-term care residents if COVID-19 restrictions are lifted too quickly. Canadas chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam noted that long-term care residents account for more than 80 per cent of deaths caused by the virus across the country, despite making up only one in five cases. And she said stricter measures may have to be reinstated if controls ease up too soon. During his daily briefing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was very worried about residents of Montreal, the epicentre of the pandemic in Canada, as Quebec prepares to loosen confinement measures despite a rash of fatal outbreaks at nursing homes. Quebecs public health institute has warned that deaths could soar to 150 a day in the greater Montreal area if physical distancing measures are lifted. And new cases could balloon to 10,000 by June amid a potential surge in hospitalizations. Canadas coronavirus case count climbed past 67,000 on Saturday, with Quebecers making up more than half of the total cases. On 7 May, the Vizag gas leak raised alarm across the nation. Eleven people were killed and at least 1000 people were directly exposed to a gas leak from LG Polymers plant in Visakhapatnam. So far, the National Green Tribunal has issued notices to the Centre, LG Polymers India Pvt, Central Pollution Control Board and others in addition to directing LG Polymers India Pvt to submit Rs 50 crore an interim amount for damage to life. READ | Vizag Gas leak: Chandrababu Naidu writes to PM Modi, seeks probe by expert committee Here are a few other tragedies in the past, where the owners were not held accountable for the damage to life and were let out on bail. Bhopal gas tragedy 3000 deaths took place in the Bhopal Gas tragedy. In 1992, Warren Anderson was declared an absconder by the Bhopal Court. The government sought extradition in May 2003 which was rejected by the US in 2004. He eventually died unpunished in 2014. Uphaar Tragedy The Ansal brothers got relief in August 2015 by paying a fine of Rs 30 crore for the death of 59 people in Uphaar cinemas. In 20 February this year, Supreme Court dismissed the curative petition filed by an association of the victims of the fire tragedy, sparing the Ansal brothers a further jail term. READ | Vizag Gas Leak: LG Polymers issues statement, shares findings of preliminary investigation The Amri tragedy 11 years ago, a fire at Advanced Medical Research Institute Hospital hospital in Calcutta caused the death of 94 people. The owners of the hospital were let off on bail. Sum hospital owner got away In Odisha, in SUM Hospital and Institute of Medical Sciences, 21 people died in a fire tragedy in 2016. The well connected Manoj Ranjan Nayak who was the owner of the hospital was granted bail in 10 days. Surat fire tragedy In 2019, the Surat fire tragedy cost 22 children their lives in a tuition centre. All the three accused were released on Rs 10,000 bail bond. READ | Vizag Gas Leak: After LG Polymers' statement, nearby chemical factories to face inspected READ | NDMA issues guidelines for restarting industrial activities to avoid Vizag-type tragedy Contact tracing is going to be very important in the future for the spread of the coronavirus to be contained. Realizing the importance of this, Apple and Google have partnered on a contact tracing/Exposure Notification system for iPhones and Android. There are a lot of questions in the mind of people as to how the tracing feature will work and whether their location will be tracked continuously or not. Read our detailed FAQ on Apples contact tracing API to know everything about it. Despite opposition from France and some other EU countries, a number of other government bodies are expected to take advantage of the exposure notification API from Apple. Until the world gets rid of coronavirus or finds a vaccine for it, contact tracing is going to play a very important role. So, it is important that you know everything about its API as well especially since there is a lot of confusion about its privacy aspect. Apples Exposure Notification API for Contact Tracing FAQ What is contact tracing? How does it work using smartphones? Before you read about Apples Exposure Notification system, it is important that you first understand what contact tracing is. Since coronavirus can easily transmit from one human to another, governments and health bodies are focusing on contact tracing to stop its spread. What contact tracing basically means is tracing everyone who comes in contact with a COVID-19 patient so that they can be isolated which in turn will help stop the spread of the virus. Using a contact tracing app, governments and health bodies aim to automatically inform users when they have come in contact with a COVID-19 positive person so that they isolate and put themselves in quarantine to prevent infecting other people with the virus. Below is an image that aptly explains how contact tracing will work using smartphones: How does this contact tracing API from Apple and Google help? How does it work? This is where the exposure notification API from Apple and Google comes in. The tech giants realize the importance of a proper contact tracing API which is why they teamed up to create one. With an official API, contact tracing apps from governments and health bodies will work properly on iPhones as well as on Android. There are a number of restrictions in iOS that would otherwise prevent a contact tracing app from working properly in the background thereby limiting its usefulness. The partnership between Apple and Google is also important here since interoperability between contact tracing apps is a must for the entire process to be successful. This is perhaps the first time that Apple and Google have worked together on an API to ensure that it is interoperable between the two major smartphone platforms out there. Apple and Google are also working on integrating a broader contact-tracing platform by integrating these APIs directly into iOS and Android which should be available in the coming months. This will probably be a part of iOS 14. It is important to note that when Apple and Google made the first announcement, they called it contact tracing tech. However, since the initial announcement, Apple has made a number of improvements to the API and it is now calling it as exposure notification system. The API will use Bluetooth on iPhones to send anonymous identifiers to nearby devices that are within range. Other devices will also broadcast such identifiers and receive them. All such identifiers will be stored on the device itself. Whenever a user manually reports themselves as COVID-19 positive, the data is then sent to everyone who is using a contact tracing app. Their device will then go through the log of the devices that they had been within their range over the last 14 days and then inform them if they had come in contact with that COVID-19 positive person. Apple has taken a decentralized approach here as the log of devices remains stored on a users device. How long does one have to be near a person to be counted as being exposed to them? This will depend on the public health authority making the contact tracing app for your country. The exposure time will be decided based on how long the devices were within Bluetooth range and the signal strength which can be used to deduce an approximate distance. The exposure notification system itself provides a reporting time option in an increment of 5 minutes for up to 30 minutes. Apple is not releasing a contact tracing app? Many people are confused thinking that Apple is going to release a contact tracing app. However, that is not the case. The company is only going to provide an API to developers which they can use to create contact tracing apps. This API will only be available to government bodies and third-party app developers cannot use it. Can your location and other personal data be tracked or collected via a contact tracing app? No. Your personal data or location history will not be tracked via any contact tracing app that uses the exposure notification system from Apple. The contact tracing tech from Apple and Google does not rely on location tracking. It only uses Bluetooth which is more relevant here. The system will generate random Bluetooth identifiers for your device that change periodically so that a device cannot be tracked. This random identifier is also changed every 10-20minutes for security and privacy reasons. The log of identifiers will always remain on your device. Apple is also not storing all the logged data in a centralized server, which is something that many countries in the EU are insisting on. It is only when a person reports themselves as COVID-19 positive, the log of random identifiers is uploaded to a centralized server which is then downloaded by other iPhones which then go through it to find if they had come in contact with that person. The entire matching process happens on the device itself to ensure no ones privacy is at risk. The exposure notification API is also disabled by default and it is only enabled when one installs a contact tracing app from the App Store. Even after that though, users will need to provide the contact tracing app with explicit permission to use the exposure notification system before it can start working. What data is shared? And what other security measures have been implemented by Apple and Google? Apart from using a random Bluetooth identifier, Apple has put a number of other privacy-focused restrictions with its exposure notification system. They are as follows: Any app using the exposure notification system must be made by an official government public health authority. Apple and Google will try to limit to one official contact tracing app per country, though in some countries, it can create an exception. The contact tracing app will need to ask users for explicit permission to use the exposure notification system. The exposure notification API is disabled by default and it gets automatically enabled when one installs an official contact tracing app from the App Store. Whenever a user reports themselves as COVID-19 positive, the app will need their explicit permission before they send this data to a central server. Contact tracing apps should collect only a minimum amount of information that is required for them to work properly. At no point will Apple or Google collect any personally identifiable information of a user. These apps are forbidden from using any collected information for advertising or other purposes. Any contact tracing app that uses the exposure notification API will not be able to access the location data of a device. No data will be shared with Google or Apple. Apple and Google can turn off exposure notification system on a regional basis when it is no longer required. What happens if a contact tracing app is not using the exposure notification system from Apple? A number of countries are not onboard with Apples exposure notification system as they want all logged data to be stored on a central server. Australia has already released a contact tracing app COVIDSafe which does not rely on the exposure notification system. While the app has been downloaded over two million times since its release last week, it is not working properly. This is because iOS does not allow apps to run in the background and log Bluetooth data which is what the app is doing. Due to this, the app stops working from time to time, and users are required to open it periodically to ensure it works properly. France is also set to release a contact tracing app that will not use Apples exposure notification system. How will a contact tracing app know that I have been tested COVID-19 positive? One will have to manually report into the app that they have been tested positive for COVID-19. To prevent false alarms and the system from abuse, Apple and Google will require some sort of verification of the results. The verification procedure will vary depending on the region, but can include scanning a QR code in the test result or entering a unique test code. Once confirmed and reported, other users who had come in contact with the COVID-19 patient will be informed about it. When was the contact tracing API announced? Who came up with the idea? Apple and Google announced the contact tracing API in early April. A small group of engineers at Apple came up with the idea of a contact tracing API while brainstorming on how to stop the spread of COVID-19 in mid-March. Since then, Apple engineers have worked at lightning speed on the project which was codenamed Bubble. A number of Apple employees from the healthcare division and location services team were working on the project, with other employees pitching in with additional time. On the other hand, Google was working on its own contact-tracing technology codenamed Apollo. Googles Dave Burke got in touch with Apple about this project and eventually, the CEOs of both companies decided to work on an interoperable API. Can contact tracing and the exposure notification system be turned off? Yes. The user can turn off contact tracing by simply uninstalling the app from their iPhone. They can also turn off exposure notification by going to Settings -> Privacy -> Health and turning off the exposure notifications option under COVID-19 Exposure Notifications. When will this contact tracing API be released? In their initial announcement, Apple and Google noted that they would release the API by mid-May. However, Apple released iOS 13.5 beta 3 along with Xcode 11.5 beta 1 towards the end of April with the new contact tracing API. The final version of the API should be available to developers with the final release of iOS 13.5 which should happen towards mid-May. When will we see the first contact tracing app using this API become available? Once the official API from Apple and Google is released in mid-May, we should see the first set of contact tracing apps from the public health body of a major country become available within a few weeks after that. Have any other questions about the Exposure Notification system from Apple? Drop a comment and we will clear all your doubts! Whole Foods Market in Lynnfield has been temporarily closed after multiple employees tested positive for coronavirus over the last month. The company said in a statement that the store will probably be closed for two days, but it could reopen as early as Tuesday. Nearby locations have not been affected and will remain open. We have been performing daily enhanced sanitation measures, have had multiple professional deep cleanings and disinfections throughout the facility, and are following the guidance of health and food safety authorities, read a statement from the store. However, out of an abundance of caution, and to prioritize the safety of our team members, we have decided to temporarily close the store to further evaluate. The company has not released how many employees have been diagnosed but said employees will continue to support the employees who tested positive. The company confirmed it will continue paying employees that are missing shifts due to the stores closure. We have installed plexiglass barriers to protect customers and team members, and appointed dedicated team members to sanitization measures, including disinfecting every shopping cart and credit card reader between customers, reads a statement from the store. Whole Food Market stores have implemented enhanced daily cleanliness and sanitation protocols across all stores and facilities as a response to the pandemic. The Town of Lynnfields Health Department and Office of Emergency Management are fully aware of a recent increase in COVID-19 cases among employees at Whole Foods Lynnfield, said a statement from the town of Lynnfield. Whole Foods management has reported cases involving employees and is working with town officials in a proactive manner to ensure that all protocols and guidance are being followed. It is not unusual for essential businesses that have remained open and continue to serve the public directly during this pandemic to experience positive COVID-19 test results for employees. Working with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the Lynnfield Health Department said it will monitor and investigate positive cases at Whole Foods and throughout the town. Related Content: Whoopi Goldberg of The View is quite vocal about her love of living alone. After three marriages that ended in divorce, the talk show moderator discovered that she enjoyed life much more as a single person. Goldberg previously shared her reasons for getting married and admitted that none of them had to do with love. Whoopi Goldberg of The View | Lou Rocco/Walt Disney Television via Getty Images Whoopi Goldbergs stance on marriage Last year, Goldberg spoke with The New York Times Magazine about her initial reasons for tying the knot. Look, people expect you to have a boyfriend. They expect you to get married, The View co-host explained. So I kept trying to do that, but I didnt want to share information with somebody else. I didnt want anybody asking me why I was doing what I was doing, or to have to make the other person feel better. But if youre in a relationship, you have to do those things, and it took me a while to figure out that I didnt want to. Goldberg eventually discovered that she didnt have to take the traditional route others did. Id be thinking, why dont I feel the thing that Im supposed to? she commented. Then one day I thought: I dont have to do this. I dont have to conform. I tried marriage, and it wasnt for me. Yet there is one condition under which Goldberg could picture herself walking down the aisle again. The only way I could be married to anybody ever again is if they lived in another country, Goldberg joked in a 2018 interview on Loose Women. They could come and visit, it would be like Oh, my goodness, I havent seen you in so long. Come here! The View star talks relationships with Piers Morgan When Goldberg was interviewed by Piers Morgan on CNN in 2011, he broached the subject of her three marriages. When she told the journalist that she hadnt been in love with any of her husbands, Morgan was stunned. Why did you do it if you werent in love with them? he asked. The EGOT winner revealed that her desire for normalcy is what prompted her to say I do several times. I wanted to feel normal and it seemed to me that if I was married Id have a much more normal life, Goldberg shared. Clearly thats not the case. Thats not a good reason to get married. You have to actually want a life with someone through ups and downs. I just discovered that wasnt for me. Morgan went on to ask Goldberg if she had every been in love. Once, she admitted, also divulging that the man she fell for many years ago wasnt someone famous and she had no regrets for not marrying him. What I know now is I dont want to live with anyone, Goldberg said. It wasnt them [her ex-husbands]. It was me. I actually like living on my own. I like my privacy. The View moderators mom tried to talk her out of one wedding When Goldberg was promoting her relationship book If Someone Says You Complete Me, RUN! in 2015, she told Good Morning America co-host Robin Roberts that her mother attempted to stop her from walking down the aisle at one of her weddings. She said, You know you dont want to do this. I have the keys to the car. Lets go, Goldberg recalled of her mother. My excuse was I dont want to embarrass this person because we sent all these invitations out and you dont want to leave them looking bad. The Ghost actress encouraged viewers to take stock of their mates way ahead of their wedding day. Before you get to that place maybe you want to say, do I actually want to do this? Goldberg recommended. The Oscar winner reiterated what she had told Morgan years before, maintaining that she preferred to be on her own. For me, I came to understand that relationships require a day-to-day, a minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour give and take. Im not interested in that, Goldberg told Roberts with a laugh, adding that she did have one form of company at home. I have a cat. Ill do it with him. Husband and Wife in Their 80s Killed in Veterans Cemetery A married Maryland couple in their 80s were killed at a cemetery in Delaware by a gunman who was later found dead, according to officials. Sheldon C. Francis, 29, shot and killed an 85-year-old woman and her 86-year-old husband Friday on the grounds of the Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Bear, officials said in a news release. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Her husband later died on Saturday at a local hospital, officials said. The identities of the couple were not divulged pending notification of their next of kin. Francis was engaged in a gun battle with police and was later found dead, officials added. No officers were hurt in the shootout, they said. Francis was located deceased at approximately 4:00 p.m., on the date of the incident, in a wooded area located just off of Brennan Blvd., in the development of Brennan Estates, which is adjacent to the grounds of the cemetery, the Delaware State Police wrote in the release. This wooded area was where an exchange of gunfire between Francis and officers on scene had taken place at approximately 12:08 p.m. According to the release, Francis was located and confirmed to have sustained a gunshot wound. It is undetermined at this time if the wound was self-inflicted or as a result of the exchange of gunfire, officials said. The investigation is active and ongoing. Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to contact Det. M. Ryde by calling 302-698-8557. Other details about the case are not clear. The Illusion of Owning Gold Gold-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and similar products account for a significant part of the gold market, with institutional and individual investors using them to implement many of their investment strategies without considering the true risk associated with many aspects of holding non-tangible assets. Gold ETFs are units representing physical gold in paper or dematerialized form, which is very different from owning physical gold. According to the World Gold Council, global gold-backed ETFs added 298 tonnes, or US$23 billion, across all regions in the first quarter of 2020[1]. Total ETF holdings amounted to 3,296 tonnes, representing US$179 billion. The largest ETF is SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) with 1,048 tonnes. Many investors and financial advisors may be surprised to learn that owning shares in a gold ETF is not the same as owning physical gold. As one of the largest ETFs, GLD states in its prospectus: designed to track the price of gold. Is it wise to choose convenience over holding physical gold? Since their introduction in 2003, gold-backed ETFs have transformed the gold investment market into an illusion, diverting attention from ownership of physical gold. This is like a magician that has you focused on a distraction while they perform a trick. When you buy a physical asset, such as real estate, a car or a boat, a great deal of effort is made to ensure that legal title to the asset is transferred to the buyer. This generally involves a specific description of the asset the make, model, colour and serial number, in the case of a car. In addition, the seller typically warrants that they have free and clear title, that there are no encumbrances and that they have the legal right to convey title to the buyer. Surprisingly, when it comes to acquiring gold, investors tend to ignore these basic fundamentals and instead focus on the storage costs and management fees; they dont give a second thought to actual legal ownership. What good is it to save money on the storage costs if you dont have legal title to the gold? Many gold transactions, such as futures contracts, certificates, and ETFs, are nothing more than paper proxies or derivatives of gold. They do not represent legal ownership of gold. These proxies may work as planned during normal market conditions but may fail under stress, when investors need the safe haven of bullion the most. I have always said that if you arent paying reasonable insured storage fees for allocated bullion, then in all likelihood you dont own any gold at all. For example, if we were to place a bet on tomorrows gold price, and we agreed to settle in currency, then we wouldnt need any actual gold as long as each of us had the ability to pay if he/she lost the bet. However, this isnt an investment, and is totally dependent on the credit worthiness of the counterparty. It defeats one of the most important attributes of allocated bullion NO COUNTERPARTY RISK. ETFs have significant counterparty risk on many levels In the marketing materials of the GLD ETF, the first thing to note is that it is referred to as a Tracking Vehicle. There is nothing mentioned about owning gold. On the GLD website, it clearly sets out the objective of the Trust. Unlike physical gold, ETFs have counterparty risk, because theres a possibility that the other parties, such as the Authorized Participant (AP), the trustee or others, may default or fail to uphold their part of the agreement. I have spent many years with lawyers, drafting prospectuses and legal agreements. As everyone can appreciate, lawyers are always careful and precise with the specific language in all legal documents. As a result, it is important for each investor to carefully read all the documents associated with a transaction in order to understand the objectives of the ETF. Pay strict attention to the wording in the Regulatory Documents With the recent increased popularity of ETFs, many investors assume they are like open-end mutual funds, but with much lower management fees. They never question why the fees are lower; they simply assume that Wall Street has become generous and wants to provide cost savings to public investors. In an open-end mutual fund trust, such as the BMG mutual funds, the fund manager receives the investors contributions and then purchases the appropriate bullion according to the mandate of the fund. Similar to a stock transaction, the Custodian (Scotiabank, in BMGs case) issues a Trade Record Sheet, specifying the bar being transferred to the fund by refiner, serial number, exact weight and purity to three decimal places. Every month, the Custodian provides a list of bars held in custody for each fund by refiner, serial number, exact weight and purity. This monthly document is signed by an officer of the bank and is posted on the BMG Group Inc. website. The holdings are audited annually by the BMG Funds independent auditors (RSM Canada LLP). While open-end funds have to incur a number of expenses, as mandated by regulatory authorities, the investors will benefit from the economies of scale in both purchasing the bullion and storing the bullion on a fully insured basis, as well as the reduced legal and accounting costs. The process for ETFs is entirely different. The first important distinction is that ETFs are not subject to conventional securities laws. They use a Registration Statement instead of a Prospectus and, as a result, are not subject to the same regulations as open-end mutual fund trusts. According to a Solari Special Report by Catherine Austin Fitts, president of Solari, Inc., the publisher of The Solari Report and managing member of Solari Investment Advisory Services, LLC, on the GLD and SLV[2], the term exchange-traded fund is not a precise legal term defined by statute, as is an Investment Company, of which mutual funds are a subcategory. Both hedge funds and ETFs, at least under current law, are investment vehicles created for the express purpose of avoiding some or all of the regulation under securities laws that apply to investment companies and traditional stocks. ETF investors have limited voting power, including the ability to remove management. The Trustees and Custodians limited responsibilities are set out at the creation of the trust and execution of the custodial agreement, with no mechanism to change those responsibilities in the event of change, and no direct accountability to investors. CUSTODIANS OF THE GOLD AND SILVER IN AN ETF Concerns have been raised by numerous analysts over the Custodians in the GLD and SLV ETFs HSBC Bank (HSBC) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM). Both HSBC and JPM, while holding 1,080 tonnes in gold and almost 9,500 tonnes in silver (December 2009), held significant over-the-counter derivatives in both gold and silver, and significant short positions in both gold and silver, on the COMEX. According to the Commitment of Traders Report (CFTC), between them, HSBC and JPM are short more than 30% of the entire COMEX silver market on a net basis, with JPM holding the vast majority of these short positions. Moreover, both banks have been fined by regulators and have class action lawsuits pending against them for manipulating the gold and silver markets, bond rigging, LIBOR rigging, rigging commodity markets and mortgage securities fraud[3]. Both banks have been fined various times by multiple institutions such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for manipulating these markets, for fraud, for money laundering, and for helping Americans evade taxes. (HSBC s Rising Legal Liability and JPMorgan Faces Potential Class Action Lawsuit) In addition to the ethical concerns about the Custodians for the GLD and SLV ETFs, neither the Trustee, Manager or Custodian assumes any responsibility for the quality of gold and silver delivered to the ETF in question. There is no requirement for the sub-custodians to be London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) members. There is no assurance that the bullion is legally mined and meets Responsible Investment Association (RIA) standards. The importance of this is that gold normally held by LBMA members in LBMA member- vaults will maintain its Chain of Integrity. This means that every Good Delivery bar is tracked from the mine, the transportation company, the refiner and the vault. If gold is removed from this chain of integrity, there can be no assurance that it is pure gold or that it meets Good Delivery Standards. In the past, investors have been swindled into buying gold-plated tungsten bars when no chain of integrity was in place. Elemental Gold was initially rated as an LBMA-qualified refiner but lost that status when a money-laundering investigation was launched by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Elemental Gold was accused of selling illegally mined gold that did not meet LBMA standards[4]. Instead of Buying or Acquiring assets, ETFs use Authorized Participants to contribute baskets of securities, as defined in the Registration Statement. Authorized Participants are typically the largest brokerage houses and must be members of the Depository Trust Corporation (DTC). As a result, even institutions or pension funds cannot redeem in physical if they are ETF shareholders unless they are also members of the DTC and have entered into an Authorized Participant Agreement. According to the prospectus, APs assemble the securities to form the baskets. Why do they use the word assemble instead of purchase or acquire? How do they assemble the baskets? According to Catherine Austin Fitts, Underlying documents may permit Authorized Participants to contribute (or at least not expressly prohibit them from contributing) to the ETFs gold and silver leased from central banks instead of precious metals to which Authorized Participants hold absolute legal title. In addition, a report written by Deloitte & Touche LLP entitled Exchange Traded Funds Challenging the Dominance of Mutual Funds described how baskets are created and redeemed. The creation of units is the daily operational process that is utilized by APs to create ETF units. A portfolio composition file, created by the sponsor, lists the composition and weights of the underlying securities or commodities that mirror the target index. APs then buy or borrow relatively large amounts of the underlying stocks from the capital markets that would mirror the index. If the proposed ETF tracks a commodity, it buys or borrows certificates of ownership of that commodity. The basket of securities is delivered to the custodian who verifies that it is an approximate mirror of the index. The AP (if they are the sponsor) then subsequently receives a creation unit delivered to their account at the Depository Trust Corporation. The creation unit is broken up into ETF shares, which represent a fraction of the creation unit. The number of ETF shares depends on the NAV of the creation unit a function of the weights assigned to the underlying securities. In the case of commodities, the sponsor will usually have a formula to calculate the NAV. Because this is in-kind barter and no cash changes hands, there are no tax implications. But what is in it for the Authorized Participants? Investors who think that a major brokerage firm actually buys gold at the prevailing spot price, contributes it to an ETF at Net Asset Value (NAV), is issued Creation Units at NAV and then sells those units to the public at NAV are incredibly naive in their understanding of how Wall Street works. The APs borrow the assets, contribute them to the ETF, and are issued Creation Units, which they sell to the public. They keep 100% of the money. In order to understand the inner workings of an ETF, you must consider history and analyze how the first ETFs were established to track an index such as the DOW or the S&P 500. Authorized Participants could always borrow the assets from their clients margin accounts, and also from hedge fund accounts, where they acted as prime broker. They would then contribute the borrowed assets to the ETF. Then the APs would be issued Origination Units of the ETF in exchange for the basket of securities. The APs would then sell the ETF units to other clients and KEEP ALL OF THE MONEY. They would have an equivalent liability but it would never be called, and most clients wouldnt know that they held broker IOUs in their margin accounts instead of the securities itemized on their statement. In addition to keeping all of the money from the issuance of new ETF shares, the APs make money every day acting as market makers. They make the arbitrage spread between the NAV and the market price of the ETF units. Only APs have access to both the market data and the NAV, allowing them to make an arbitrage spread during normal market conditions. Authorized Participants have no specific obligation to purchase and redeem ETF shares in order to minimize the fluctuations in market prices. Under normal conditions, it is profitable to make the arbitrage spread between the market price and the NAV of the ETF shares; however, in a major market decline, bearing in mind that APs are essentially short the asset, it is in their best interest to let it decline as much as possible before redeeming, so that covering their short position is the least expensive. That is when ETFs will underperform the market for the underlying assets. If a client wanted to sell a security that was lent to an ETF, the broker would simply deposit the cash proceeds of the theoretical sale into the clients account. In the meantime, they would have had an interest-free loan of the securities from their client. The client wouldnt be aware that this had happened in his or her brokerage margin account. What happens if the AP becomes insolvent? The lawyers get rich arguing about who is the true owner of the assets. It is obviously much more lucrative to get 100% of the investment proceeds than to earn 1.5% in management fees. Apart from the leased gold and the resulting suppressed gold price, most of the information is disclosed in the GLD documents. In addition to the Registration Statement, the Authorized Participant Agreement must be reviewed to fully understand the operation of the GLD. However, the Authorized Participant Agreement can no longer be found with the GLD documents on EDGAR or the streetTRACKS website. Most surprisingly, the original Registration Statements filed in August 2005 were 108 pages long; the current Registration Statement is only 34 pages long[5]. If BMG filed a prospectus that was over 70% shorter than the last version filed with the regulators, the chances of approval would be very slim. Moreover, prospectus offerings have strict regulatory guidelines that do not apply to ETFs. Both the original Registration Statement and the Authorized Participant Agreement[6] can be reviewed in the footnotes. A section of the Registration Statement that is particularly important to review is Risk Factors (page seven of the 2005 Original Registration Statement). There are a total of 24 itemized Risk Factors that every prospective investor should study carefully. The noteworthy risk factors are set out below: Shareholders do not have the protection associated with ownership in an investment company registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, or the protections afforded by the Commodity Exchange Act of 1936. Page 9, paragraph 5 Shareholders do not have the rights enjoyed by investors in certain other vehicles (including, for example, the right to bring oppression or derivative actions). In addition, the shares have limited voting and distribution rights; for example, shareholders do not have the right to elect directors and will not receive dividends. Page 10, paragraphs 6 and 7 The Trusts gold may be subject to loss, damage, theft or restriction on access. The Trust may not have adequate sources of recovery if its gold is lost, damaged, stolen or destroyed and recovery may be limited, even in the event of fraud, to the market value of the gold at the time the fraud is discovered. The Trust will not insure its gold. In addition, the Custodian and Trustee will not require any direct or indirect subcustodians to be insured or bonded with respect to their custodial activities or in respect of the gold held by them on behalf of the Trust. The Custodian is only liable for losses that are the direct result of its own negligence, fraud or willful default in the performance of its duties. Page 11, paragraphs 4, 6, 7, 8 The Custodian is not liable for acts or omissions of its subcustodians unless the selection of such subcustodians was made negligently or in bad faith. There are expected to be no written contractual arrangements between subcustodians that hold the Trusts gold and the Trustee or the Custodian. Gold Bullion allocated to the Trust in connection with the creation of a basket may not meet London Good Delivery Standards and if a basket is issued against such gold the Trust may suffer a loss. If the Trusts gold is lost, damaged, stolen or destroyed under circumstances rendering a party liable to the Trust, the responsible party may not have sufficient resources sufficient to satisfy the Trusts claim. Page 12, paragraphs 2, 3, 4, 12 Because neither the Trustee nor the Custodian oversees or monitors the activities of subcustodians who may hold the Trusts gold, failure by the subcustodians to exercise due care in the safekeeping of the Trusts gold could result in a loss to the trust. The Trustee may have no right to visit the premises of any subcustodian for the purposes of examining the Trusts gold or any records maintained by the subcustodian, and no subcustodian will be obliged to cooperate in any review the trustee may wish to conduct of the facilities, procedures, records or creditworthiness of such subcustodian. The ability of the Trustee to take legal action against subcustodians may be limited, which increases the possibility that the Trust may suffer a loss if a subcustodian does not use due care in the safekeeping of the Trusts gold. Page 13, paragraphs 2, 3, 4 The Custodian may not have the right to, and does not have the obligation to, seek recovery of the gold from any subcustodian appointed by a subcustodian. Page 44, paragraph 6 In the current 2020 Registration Statement for the GLD, some additional Risk Factors were added: The liquidity of the Shares may be affected by the withdrawal of Authorized Participants. In the event that one or more Authorized Participants which has substantial interests in the Shares withdraws from participation, the liquidity of the Shares will likely decrease, which could adversely affect the market price of the Shares.Page 9 How does the withdrawal of an Authorized Participant affect the value of the shares if ownership of the gold was transferred to the ETF? In contrast, the BMG Funds require that: the Custodian, Scotiabank, maintains insurance for all risks except for war, nuclear incident or governmental confiscation; Scotiabank cannot appoint subcustodians without prior written approval for the appointment of any subcustodians; subcustodians have to comply with National Instrument 81-102 for Canadian Mutual Fund custodians that essentially limits custodians to major chartered banks; Scotiabank must exercise a high standard of care in the custody of the Funds bullion at least the same degree as it exercises with respect to its own property of a similar kind; Scotiabank delivers to BMG Management Services Inc. (the Fund Manager) a list of bars held in custody for the BMG Funds listing the name of the refiner, the exact weight and the serial number; and The Funds auditors and the Fund Manager are allowed to inspect the holdings upon reasonable notice and verify the physical bars to the bar lists delivered by Scotiabank at the time of purchase. Under General Investment Risks, the BMG Prospectus sets out the following: BMG BullionFund invests only in the purchase of unencumbered physical gold, silver and platinum bullion that is held on an allocated basis. BMG Silver BullionFund invests only in the purchase of unencumbered physical silver bullion that is held on an allocated basis. Each of the BMG Funds has the objective of providing a secure, convenient alternative for investors seeking to hold the physical bullion for capital preservation and long-term appreciation. As a result, the following risk factors are applicable for each BMG Fund. In addition, the BMG website states: BMG Mutual Funds are all open-end mutual fund trusts that provide a cost-effective and convenient method of owning precious metals bullion without compromising any of the fundamental attributes of bullion, which are: absolute liquidity, no counterparty risk and no reliance on management skills. No derivatives, futures contracts, options or certificates are used in BMG Mutual Funds. BMG Mutual Funds are an ideal way to balance your portfolio with physical gold, silver and platinum bullion. In contrast, the important sections of the GLDs Authorized Participant Agreement that one has to pay close attention to have to do with redeeming of ETF units and contributing gold bullion. When redeeming ETF units, the Authorized Participant Agreement states that it: owns outright or has full legal authority and legal and beneficial right to tender for redemption the Baskets to be redeemed and to receive the entire proceeds of the redemption, and (ii) such Baskets have not been loaned or pledged to another party and are not the subject of a repurchase agreement, securities lending agreement or any other arrangement which would preclude the delivery of such Baskets to the Trustee the third Business Day following the Redemption Order Date. The warranties above are what one expects for the transfer of hard assets. However, when APs contribute bullion, the expected warranties are missing. The Authorized Participant Agreement states that: The Authorized Participant represents and warrants on behalf of itself and any party for which it acts that upon delivery of a Creation Basket Deposit to the Trustee in accordance with the terms of the Trust Indenture and this Agreement, the Trust will acquire good and unencumbered title to the Gold which is the subject of such Creation Basket Deposit, free and clear of all pledges, security interests, liens, charges, taxes, assessments, encumbrances, equities, claims, options or limitations of any kind or nature, fixed or contingent, and not subject to any adverse claims, including any restriction upon the sale or transfer of all or any part of such Gold which is imposed by any agreement or arrangement entered into by the Authorized Participant or any party for which it is acting in connection with a Purchase Order. How can the purchaser warrant to the seller that it will have good title? I can assure you that lawyers charging $1,000 an hour did not simply make a drafting error. But what are the risks to the investors? Just as in my earlier example of the bet, ETF investors dont own any bullion. As long as the APs are solvent, the system works. However, if an AP became insolvent, the lawyers would get rich arguing whether the ETF or the actual beneficial owners would be deemed to be the rightful owners. Although we came close to the ETF market blowing up in 2008 when Lehman Brothers, an AP, defaulted, the system and Lehman was bailed out. While this poses as a serious problem with traditional securities ETFs, it is a much bigger problem when it comes to bullion. In the case of precious metals, as would be the case with the GLD and SLV ETFs, the bullion is leased from central banks by bullion banks acting as APs. The potential problem here is much larger, as with any lease transaction. Title to the asset remains the property of the lessor. The lessee only has a limited right to use the asset and must re-convey it to the lessor[7]. As a result, when a central bank leases gold, it still shows the asset on its balance sheet, even though it has been leased to a bullion bank, and it no longer has physical possession of the bullion. Again, everything works relatively smoothly during normal market conditions. However, if a bullion bank becomes insolvent, the central bank lessor would demand the return of its bullion from the ETF. The result could be a total loss for the ETF investors at a time when they would need the wealth preservation attributes of bullion the most. For the sake of saving about 1% on annual management fees, they risk a 100% loss of their capital. A similar situation occurred in 2011 with MF Global. Investors were interested in acquiring bullion through commodities futures due to the attractive leverage. Instead of making leveraged profits, most of the investors lost all of their money when MF Global declared bankruptcy in 2011[8]. The conclusion is clear. The public has been misled about the merits and risks of investing in gold and silver using ETFs. GLD has 1,048 tonnes of gold bullion but as a result of its structure, the supply/demand of gold is not affected since the GLD gold is borrowed. In the supply/demand statistics of both GFMS and CPM (reputable precious metals publications), there is no line item that corresponds to the amount of gold that is supposedly held by the GLD. This is because the gold is leased instead of purchased. This structure has been detrimental to retail investors, institutions and pension funds, as well as to the mining industry. It has only been a lucrative cash flow opportunity for the large brokerage firms who act as Authorized Participants. If an open-end mutual fund held that much gold, or if the gold was held directly, then the price today would be many multiples of the current number. The supply/demand statistics compiled by both GFMS and CPM were questioned as far back as 1998, when I started the first open-end BMG BullionFund. Frank Veneroso wrote an extensive analytical report called The 1998 Gold Book Annual. In it, he meticulously compiled statistics to demonstrate that the amount of leased gold was grossly understated. Accordingly, Veneroso and the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) identified that central banks could report owning over 30,000 tonnes of gold without having to store it in their vaults. The IMF requests that central banks do not exclude leased gold from their reserve assets, which results in no party knowing how much gold in the vaults is leased[9]. As a result, Veneroso concluded that central bank gold leasing had artificially suppressed the full extent of gold demand to the tune of approximately 1,600 tonnes per year, when annual supply was 4,000 tonnes. Central banks were officially on record as owning over 30,000 tonnes, and it is estimated that at least 5,000 of the 30,000 tonnes of central bank gold was most likely leased out. His 2003 updates and projections stated that total leased gold was most likely in the range of 10,000 16,000 tonnes[10]. The controversy over the amount of total leased gold continues today. Many observers question whether the US has any gold left in Fort Knox. In addition, many question whether China has only 1,600 tonnes when many analysts believe they have in excess of 6,000 tonnes, and their stated objective is to have more than the 8,000 tonnes purportedly held by the US. When China is satisfied that they have enough gold to move away from the US dollar as the reserve currency and announce their true gold holdings, many analysts will wonder where they got the gold, since it has not been accounted for by GFMS or CPM. The only place it could have come from is central banks, including the Federal Reserve, that have leased their gold. The speculation is that APs sold gold to China: They redeemed 400-ounce bars from the ETFs and re-assayed them into kilo bars in Switzerland before selling the kilo bars to China. Despite my criticism, there is a good use for ETFs in investment portfolios. Unlike open-end mutual funds, ETFs offer put and call options. The best use of ETFs is to hedge a portfolio of assets that you have legal title to and own outright by using ETF options. When it comes to bullion, you could acquire ETF puts to hedge your physical precious metal holdings. In addition, you could buy calls to enhance the performance of your bullion holdings. Finally, let me reiterate: Do not assume that you actually own any bullion or have any legal claim to any bullion when you invest in bullion ETFs. Do not invest in something that you do not understand. If you cannot explain the investment opportunity in a few words and in an understandable way, you may need to reconsider the potential investment. SEC investor bulletin August 2012. Download a PDF version [1] https://www.gold.org/goldhub/data/global-gold-backed-etf-holdings-and-flows [2]https://home.solari.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/Disclosure_in_the_Precious_Metals_Puzzle_Palace.pdf [3] https://www.forbes.com/sites/francescoppola/2016/02/28/hsbcs-catalog-of-lawsuits/#1151570657fc [4] https://www.silverdoctors.com/gold/gold-news/what-does-the-elemetal-gold-scandal-say-about-gold-prices/ [5] https://www.spdrgoldshares.com/media/GLD/file/SPDRGoldTrustProspectus2012.pdf [6] https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/review/?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A1323b588-c911-4005-9170-662847735576&pageNum=1 [7] https://www.bis.org/bcbs/cp3/leaseuro.pdf [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MF_Global [9] https://www.gold-eagle.com/article/gold-gata [10] http://bmg-group.com/doc_bin/manipuation-in-gold-market-and-related-opportunity.pdf By Nick Barisheff www.bmgbullion.com Nick Barisheff is the founder, president and CEO of Bullion Management Group Inc., a company dedicated to providing investors with a secure, cost-effective, transparent way to purchase and hold physical bullion. BMG is an Associate Member of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA). Widely recognized as international bullion expert, Nick has written numerous articles on bullion and current market trends, which have been published on various news and business websites. Nick has appeared on BNN, CBC, CNBC and Sun Media, and has been interviewed for countless articles by leading business publications across North America, Europe and Asia. His first book $10,000 Gold: Why Golds Inevitable Rise is the Investors Safe Haven, was published in the spring of 2013. Every investor who seeks the safety of sound money will benefit from Nicks insights into the portfolio-preserving power of gold. www.bmgbullion.com 2020 Copyright Nick Barisheff - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors. 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. Because of stay-at-home orders, the police department had to forgo a public rollout. D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said in a video posted on Twitter that despite the shutdown, the initiative would proceed like we always have to ensure we build trust and reduce violent crime in our city. Sunday, May 10, 2020 at 1:52PM The special interactive Google Doodle for Mother's Day wants you to get a bit creative by letting you create a virtual card for your mom or any mother figure in your life. Google says they got the idea for this Doodle after a surge for searches on "homemade Mother's Day card" as well as searches for other virtual gift ideas. It gives you a bunch of design ideas you and your kids can play around with, and then you can send this off to your mom, who can access a link to the animated card. So, if you want to give your mom something else this Mother's Day, it's time to Google Doodle away. Source: Google On the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Pope Francis offers Mass for the unity of Europe and reflects on the most important task of every Bishops: prayer By Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp Pope Francis began Sunday morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta recalling two anniversaries that have fallen in the past two days. The first, the 70th anniversary of Robert Shumans Declaration out of which the European Union was born", and the second, "the commemoration of the end of the war. He invited us to pray to the Lord for Europe that it might grow united, in this fraternal unity that allows all peoples to grow in unity in diversity. During his homily, he reflected on Jesuss intercessory role before His Father described in the Gospel (John 14:1-12). Then he focused on Peter's description of the role of the Apostles (Acts 6:1-7). This also applies to the role of the Successors of the Apostles, the Bishops. Their first task, Pope Francis emphasized, is prayer, then the proclamation of the Word. Jesuss intercessory role The Pope said that the first part of John chapter 14 describes Jesuss intercessory role before the Father on our behalf. So many times Jesus spoke about the Fathers care for us, Pope Francis said. He spoke of the Father as the One who takes care of us just as He takes care of the birds of heaven and the lilies of the field, he said. Jesus is very strong in this passage. It is as if He is opening the doors of the omnipotence of prayer: Whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it (John 13-14)." Pope Francis then recalled that prayer requires courage and the same boldness needed in preaching the Gospel. Abraham and Moses provide examples to us. Both negotiated with the Lord, Pope Francis said: Abraham, when the Lord told him about what was to happen to Sodom and Gomorrah (see Genesis 18:16-33), and Moses, when God wanted to destroy His people and make Moses the head of another nation (see Exodus 32:7-14). Deacons and Bishops The Pope then turned to the First Reading in which Peter is inspired to create a new service in the Church after the Greek-speaking converts complained that their widows were being neglected. The apostles didn't have time for all of these things and Peter, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, invents (we can say it this way) the deacons, Pope Francis said. This resolved the situation, the Pope went on. The people in need could be well taken care of and the Apostles, as Peter said, could devote themselves "to prayer and to the proclamation of the Word. Bishops primary duty Pope Francis then went on to develop the thought that the primary task of a bishop is to pray. The bishop, he said, is the first to go to the Father, with the confidence, the boldness, with which Jesus went in order to fight on behalf of his people. Something is not right, Pope Francis continued, if other things take away space for prayer. He reminded us that it is God who does things, we do very little. God does things in His Church. It is, therefore, prayer that makes the Church progress. This reality is so because Jesus stands before the Father and has promised that whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified. The Pope concluded his homily saying that the Church progresses in this courageous prayer because she knows that without this ascension to the Father, she cannot survive. Riddhima Kapoor Sahni and Neetu Kapoor have become each others pillars of support as they mourn the death of Rishi Kapoor. On Mothers Day, Riddhima shared a love-filled Instagram post for her mother and wrote, Love & only love - Happy Mothers Day Ma. She also shared their photos as Instagram stories. My mom - my everything, said the description on one of the photos. Last week, Riddhima shared a happy picture with her brother Ranbir Kapoor and Neetu on her Instagram stories, and said that they will stand by her during this difficult time. Got your back Ma #yourpillars, she wrote. Riddhima Kapoor Sahnis Instagram stories. Riddhima and her daughter Samara drove down to Mumbai from Delhi after Rishi passed away on April 30. She was unable to take a flight owing to the nationwide lockdown and could not reach in time for the funeral. Papa I love you I will always love you - RIP my strongest warrior I will miss you everyday I will miss your FaceTime calls everyday! I wish I could be there to say goodbye to you ! Until we meet again papa I love you - your Mushk forever, she wrote in a heartbreaking Instagram post. Also see | Inside Kareena Kapoor, Taimurs Mothers Day celebrations: This goofy face pic pretty much sums it up Riddhima shares a close relationship with Neetu and showered praise on her in an earlier interview with Indusparent. Mum was always at home, its sort of also normal for a mother to be home. Had my mum been working, it would have probably been different. But my mother gave up everything to be with us, she said. It takes a lot to give up a flourishing career. At that time, she was very young and she had me when she was 23 years. And today, actresses start their career at that age and she gave up her career for us, she added. Neetu took a break from films in the 1980s to raise Ranbir and Riddhima. She made her comeback on the big screen with a special appearance in Imtiaz Alis Love Aaj Kal, in which she played Rishis wife. Follow @htshowbiz for more Simon Cowell himself was moved into tears after watching a specific rescue dog astonish the audience on Britain's Got Talent. Except, this is no normal rescue dog. The "miracle" dog's name is Amanda Leask and they both appeared on the talent show to perform magic tricks. The dog and her trainer apparently did more than just astonish the audience, they left Simon Cowell in tears. The 60-year-old Simon is commonly known for being the hardest person to crack on the show but what fans began to notice is that he actually had a soft spot for dogs. Simon was part of those moved by this incredible pooch's story. Why did the dog stand out? The crossbred dog was rescued from a cage that was packed with more than 1000 dogs in the dreaded illegal meat trade in Thailand. The dog was adopted by Amanda Leask, who is already known for her work with rescue dogs. The dog owner even won awards for her work with these rescue dogs. The line that touched the hearts of Simon and the other judges was when Amanda said that the dog Miracle has been together with the family for six years already but "he wasn't always as happy and healthy as he is today." The shocking news sent feels down the judges' and audiences' spine when she said revealed that the dog spent his earlier life living through imaginable conditions as a victim of the illegal dog meat trade. Miracle's story The narration by Amanda stated that when the rescuers first saw this dog, they thought that she was dead but when she flashed her camera, the dog opened its eyes, and "It was a miracle he was still alive." The owner then proceeded to bring Miracle to Scotland and slowly nourish the dog back to health. The rehabilitation of Miracle was no easy journey for both of them as the malnourishment the dog had been through was severe. Miracle and his tricks During their performance, Miracle does a bunch of magic tricks that flamboyantly reveal some of his other four-legged friends that the owner brought along. Inside information has revealed to Mirror that all of the judges have a sweet spot for dogs and that it was a "very special audition" since the dog completely won over all the judges. Amanda originally learned about the dogs and the harsh lives they live from learning about Thailand's meat trade online but it was the graphic photos of one hound that really touched her. Read Also: New Film by Pete Davidson's Trailer is Out! Catch "The King of Staten Island" as it Marks His Non-"Saturday Night Live" Journey Along With Bill Burr and More! After spending eight long weeks searching online, she was able to track the dog down to a certain Thai rescue center. The owner then made arrangements for the dog to be flown to the UK. Amanda then took the dog home with her to Edinburgh. Miracle currently has a strong bond with her son named Kyle who has a certain condition called cerebral palsy and autism. The owner also noted that her son Kyle becomes upset sometimes when there are too many people invading his personal space. According to her, when Miracle senses this, the dog then goes over to her son and allows him to grab on the back fur of his neck in order to comfort him. Read Also: [Trailer] Fast and Furious 9 Update: Could They be Going to Space? Cast, Release Date, and Anticipated Plot GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- One man is injured after a shooting took place early Sunday morning, according to Grand Rapids Police. Police responded to a call around 4 a.m. on Lane Avenue near Bridge Street. The mans gunshot wound was not life-threatening and he was transported to a local hospital, according to police. Police do not have a suspect at this time. There is no immediate threat to the public, according to police. More from MLive: Police ID victims in fatal shooting at Kentwood mobile home Argument among roommates leads to shots fired inside Kalamazoo area home, then standoff Sound of gunshots lead police to man hiding under porch, officers recover handgun Himachal Pradesh reported six fresh cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, taking the count to 59 in the state, officials said on Sunday. Three persons in Chamba district, two in Bilaspur and one in Kangra district have tested positive for the infection, the officials said. All three fresh cases in Chamba are the contacts of a driver from Khad Jota panchayat in Chamba's Salooni subdivision, who had tested positive for novel coronavirus on Wednesday, they said. Bilaspur Deputy Commissioner Rajeswar Goel said two taxi drivers quarantined at Swarghat in Bilaspur district along the Himachal Pradesh-Punjab border tested positive for the infection. They had recently ferried two families from Ahmedabad in Gujarat and Gurgaon in Haryana to their native places in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi and Kangra districts respectively, he added. As the two showed symptoms during screening at the border, they were quarantined and their samples were taken, he said, adding one of them is from Gujarat. They are being shifted to Nerchowk's Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Government Medical College and Hospital (SLBSGMC) in Mandi, Goel said. The Bilaspur deputy commissioner said that samples of their contacts will also be taken for testing. A person from Kangra district tested positive at Tanda's Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College (RPGMC) in Kangra on Sunday, Kangra SP Vimukt Ranjan said. Immediate details about the Kangra patient were not available. The number of active cases in Himachal Pradesh now stands at 17 - six in Chamba, four in Kangra, two in Hamirpur, Bilaspur each and one each in Mandi, Una and Shimla districts. While 35 patients have recovered from the infection in the state, three have died. Four people were shifted to other states for treatment. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Elon Musk has been frustrated that Teslas Fremont factory has remained shut down due to Alameda Countys lockdown order, and that anger has apparently reached the boiling point. Musk has claimed that hell move Teslas headquarters to Nevada or Texas immediately as a result of Alameda Countys decision to keep the Fremont factory shut through May. He also threatened to pull all manufacturing from Fremont depending on how Tesla is treated in the future. On top of this, Musk said Tesla would sue the county for allegedly defying the Governor, the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense. The entrepreneur has made his displeasure with the Fremont shutdown clear on more than one occasion, including on Twitter and in a profanity-laced outburst in an earning call where he called lockdown safety measures an attack on freedom. Weve asked the company if it can elaborate on Musks statements. If he follows through, however, it could significantly affect the automotive and technology industries. Itd leave California without a major car maker, as Musk suggested, while boosting Teslas presence in Nevada. It could hurt Teslas ability to hire new staff in the process, mind you. The company has poached staff from tech companies in the San Francisco Bay Area that might not have needed to relocate at all. While a move to another state would reduce the chances of companies stealing Tesla employees, the EV maker could have a harder time recruiting workers without immediate access to Silicon Valley talent. Update 5/10 9:30AM ET: Tesla followed up Musks declarations with a blog post making its case for restarting production in Fremont, including safety measures and the Governors reopening strategy. While the company didnt touch on Musks threat to move the headquarters, it confirmed that a lawsuit had been filed to invalidate Alameda Countys restrictions and hinted that 20,000 Tesla jobs (including over 10,000 at the factory) were at stake. "Jump!" "Back flip!" "Dooooo iiiiit!" The pressure's on. Ryan stands on the brow of a sheer rock cliff, 40 vertiginous feet above the rippling green water of the Sandy River. Far below, the beach at Dabney Park is ripe with babes of every descriptionhotties in bikinis and denim skirts, with glowing tans and luscious curves, bopping to the tunes blasting from a boom box. The guys sport crew cuts and tattoos and torsos ripped from an Abercrombie & Fitch commercial. Every eye is fixed on him. "Juuuump!" they shout. "Come on, brother!" Ryan brushes his dark hair out of his eyes and hesitates. He's 15, a couple years younger than the crowd staring up at him. As he pauses at the precipice, Yody Lillie, a 20-year-old contractor, clambers up the face of the rock, elbows Ryan away from the prime spot and promptly launches himself over the edge. With a mighty splash and a crown of spray, Lillie plunges deep into the water and does a lazy crawl back to his cheering friends. He hauls himself onto the beach, beads of water winking from the hair on his chest, and takes a swig of beer. Ryan steps up to the edge and brushes the hair from his eyes again. A week before, a man drowned diving off this cliffdid a belly flop and died of blunt trauma to the chest. A few days later, another man drowned swimming in the same spot. Bad omens. Down on the beach, a honey babe with big brown eyes and a tiny black bikini is watching Ryan intently. "Do it!" shouts a voice. "He's just trying to impress people," mutters another. Ryan gazes down at the river. From up here, the water is hardly inviting. It looks like a slab of concrete. But he can't back downnot now, not with all these people watching. So he steps forward and jumps into the empty air, his hands fluttering in front of him like tiny, broken wings as he hurtles towards the river's face.... Every summer, a fascinating transformation takes place along the banks of Portland's rivers. When the mercury creeps past 90 degrees and the asphalt burns and the sun feels like a furnace, city-dwellers by the thousand descend on rivers like the Sandy, turning them from backcountry brooks into the outdoor equivalent of municipal swimming pools. On a blistering weekend, popular spots like Dabney, a few miles upstream from Troutdale, throng with urban refugees in all their sunburned glory, fleeing the heat and hassle of the concrete jungle in the swift, cool water. Roughly 180,000 people visit Dabney every year, according to the Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department. About a half-million more visit the other parks along the Sandy (Dodge, Oxbow, Lewis & Clark, and Glenn Otto) or just hike down the bank wherever they see an inviting stretch of sand. And that's just one river. Throw in other local waterways like the Clackamas and the Washougal and you're talking about a major sociological phenomenonespecially (if our experience is typical) among young people, blue-collar folks, immigrants and eastsiders. They don't have a cottage on the coast or a yacht at the marina. Hell, they don't have air conditioning. When it gets hot, they can sweat in their houses with the fan cranked on high and the windows open and listen to the neighbors yell at their kids. Or they can head to the river. Beach culture? That's for California. Oregon has river culturea scene you cruise by inner tube, where social status is measured in the height of the rocks you jump off; where Hispanic evangelicals perform baptisms; where steelheaders cast their lines alongside naked sun-worshippers; and where the chirp of birdsong mixes with the hoot of numbskulls chanting, "Show us yer tits!" The rivers have drawn a lot of attention over the past few weeks, thanks to a tragic surge in drownings (see map, above) and reports of "wild parties," underage drinking, litter, drug use and public sex. There have been 29 drownings in Oregon since May, an increase from previous summers. Local authorities have turned up the heat, sending officers to patrol the river on jetboats. Ultimately, however, the conflicts on the water are likely to get worse before they get better. There is something irredeemably wild about the river, wild and lawless and dangerous. Beneath its glittering surface lurk the turbulent currents and opposing forceslaw and anarchy, age and youth, civilization and naturethat have characterized America from its earliest days as a republic. They are not going to go away because a few deputies are handing out tickets at a boat launch. Standing on the rustic, double-decker back porch of his house, Michael Drais gazes out at a postcard view of the Sandy River, which sweeps cool and green through stands of cottonwood, alder and maple, forming a quiet beach known as Big Bend. High above, an osprey patrols the sky while a great blue heron stands on a boulder liked a taciturn, feathery Minuteman. Drais, a 61-year-old retired lawyer, and his wife, Deborah, a nurse, bought this waterfront property a few hundred yards below Dabney Park for its languorous beauty. But when the temperature hits 85 degrees, this tranquil spot becomes the staging ground for a parade of numbskulls. On rafts and drift boats, inner tubes and air mattresses, the great blue-collar tide washes up onto the beach (or hikes in from the Columbia River Highway). They come equipped with boom boxes, cell phones, coolers, deck chairs, beer, chips, dogs and barbecuesand leave behind a swath of broken bottles, plastic bags, cigarette butts and human waste. Last month, when temperatures spiked above 100 degrees, hundreds of people converged onto this beach. "The place was an absolute madhouse," says state trooper Ken Poggi, who was called in to deal with the crowd. "Wall-to-wall people. More people than gravel and sandthe worst I've ever seen." He even busted a teenager for selling pot out of a cooler. "Since 2003, this nice seductive area has been the party place for all the kids," says Drais. "They can drink, they can smoke dope, they can have sex. The word's out." From his back porch, Drais and his wife have ringside seats to a show whose cast is always changing but whose script is pretty much the same. "It's become an insoluble and frightening problem," he says. There is no small irony in Drais' situation. For many years, he fought for the public's right to enjoy this river and its beaches, a battle he waged on behalf of local anglers. In Oregon, the bed and banks of navigable waterways are considered public property up to the ordinary high waterline. But the definition of "navigable" turns out to be both contentious and extraordinarily complicated. Steelheaders, alarmed that property owners along the Sandy might try to prevent them from fishing, pressed the Oregon State Land Board to officially declare the river navigablewhich in turn would ensure that anglers, boaters, rafters and everyone else would have the right to enjoy it. Drais, a lifelong angler, drafted their legal briefs. The board voted to declare the lower 37.5 miles of the Sandy River navigable on Feb. 7, 2002the same day, as it happened, that Drais and his wife bought their property at Big Bend. That ruling, Drais says, "became a door to anybody who wanted to use the river." Now Drais has to live with the practical consequences of his own philosophya situation he finds extremely unpleasant. "The problem is not to keep people out, but to keep the rowdies out," Drais sighs. "The rowdy kids and drunks have chased out the families. Now families don't come here." As he speaks to a reporter, a couple of teenagers amble along the shore and set up camp on the beach. "That's a case of trespassing right there," mutters Deborah, peering over her glasses at a dude carrying a cooler. "Come on, the beach is open to everyone," Drais replies. "But he's walking above the vegetation line." she says. "Is he underage? Is that thing filled with beer?" Drais shrugs and shakes his head. When they first moved here, they used to go down to the beach every night and pick up the trash. Now they don't bother, unless Deborah happens to spot a broken bottle. The thought of shards of glass slicing up bare feet is more than she can bear. "There's no 911 out here," she says. "You take the heat, the water, the alcohol.... This river is like an accident waiting to happen." The atmosphere along the Sandy is vaguely reminiscent of a rock show. To float it is to feel like a co-conspirator in some cosmic, subversive enterprise. People wave and shout hello, trade beer for cigarettes or a dry book of matches. Alongside the echo of Harleys blatting down the gorge and the splash of jumping salmon is the unmistakable pulse of sexual energy. Kicked back on the beach at Dabney, Jesse and Alec relax in a pair of camping chairs. They're both 23, live in Gresham, and work in the construction trades. This afternoon, they have brought a backpack of Bud and a couple of guitarsJesse plays classical, Alec plays steel string. "We just need the girls now," Jesse grins. As they debate the merits of various spots along the river, their attention is diverted by a group of teenagers slowly floating past them in inner tubes. "Don't you do that, Matthew Fucking Anderson, I'm not kidding you!" shrieks a girl in a bikini as a young man, presumably Matthew Fucking Anderson himself, attempts to overturn her inner tube. Now another girl from her group swims over and grabs hold of the tube, and the two girls wrestle for possession, squeaking and squirming, a riot of wet hair, tanned legs and pert bottoms. Sitting on the shore, the two guitarists admire the show. Jesse busts out a minor scale and Alec takes a deep slug off his Bud. "Oregon is the best part of the country," he sighs, as the spectacle floats downstream. "We got the forests, we got the ocean, we got the desert, and we got the river." A few miles downstream, at the "Cool Pool," a group of eight young people wade into the river with bottles of beer in hand and try to explain the river's allure. "It's close and convenient," says 19-year-old Grant Ottoway of Gresham. "If you don't have air conditioning, and it gets hotthat's when people come out to the river. We come down to cool off, find some cute girls, smoke a little weed, and chill." He puts his arm around a girl standing next to him, and gives her a grin and a squeeze. The group talks about how the media have blown the dangers out of proportion. "I can float down any rapid on this river and not drown," Ottoway continues, brandishing a bottle of Blue Boar in one hand and a can of Bud in the other. "This river isn't dangerous." "I'll go different on that," says Amanda, 19. "The currents can be strong." "For girls, sure," says Grant. "For girls!?" she exclaims. "For anyone. A lot of people panic in the water. The current is extremely strong." "You gotta know what you're doing," he replies. "If you're jumping off a bridge into 8-foot water..." The debate veers into other subjects, as riverside debates are wont to do, such as the practicality of tubing and smoking, and whether most drowning victims are Mexican (in fact, the high proportion of blue-collar and immigrant families on the Sandy means that a lot of drowning victims don't have Anglo surnames.) Just upstream, a guy with long dreadlocks and cool shades caresses a blond girl in a stripey string bikini who is obviously stoned (she compares a passing cloud to a plate of breadsticks.) His hands wander down her back, tickling her spine, and come to rest on her bikini bottom. It doesn't take a Dr. Kinsey to predict what's going to happen later. It would be unfair to portray the river as a carnival of sin. Many of the folks on the water seek nothing more depraved than a swim and a chance to do the crossword puzzle. You are almost as likely to encounter Vietnamese Americans catching squawfish as knots of teenagers getting stoned. If you float down the Sandy on a Sunday, you might even see pastor Obdulia Chavarria of the Iglesia Cristiana Camino de Santidad performing a full-immersion baptism. Standing waist-deep in the water, he holds the repentant sinner's hands above his head and intones a fervent prayer. "En el nombre de Jesus, Aleluia!" he cries, plunging the worshipper into the river. Nonetheless, there is an air of lawlessness, a whiff of the Wild West, hovering over the Sandy River that comes from many factors. First, there is a tangle of different agencies responsible for establishing and enforcing regulations, including the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, the Troutdale City Police, Oregon State Parks, Metro, Oregon State Police, the Division of State Lands, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Forest Service. In Dabney Park, for example, park rangers until recently did not have jurisdiction over a sandy island that was a favorite hangout for teenage parties, because technically it belonged to the Division of State Lands. "The kids used to stand on the island and thumb their noses at us," says Kevin Price, the assistant area manager for the Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department. (This spring, an interagency agreement finally gave rangers the authority to enforce park rules on the island and other public lands adjacent to Dabney.) Second, long stretches of the river are difficult or impossible to access from the road, unless deputies want to clamber down a steep bank, which is both time-consuming and difficult to accomplish silently. Multnomah County does have a river patrol on a jetboat, but you can hear it coming a long way away. Worse, by August stretches of the river are just too shallow for a patrol boat. Third, the rules themselves are often arbitrary. Rafts, for example, are supposed to carry whistles and life vests for each passenger. But nothing is required if you float the river in a flimsy pool toy or air mattressunless you strap it to another pool toy, in which case you can be fined $247 for not carrying a life vest. The biggest obstacle in policing the river, however, is the fact that it's 50 miles long. Every time authorities crack down on one trouble spot, people simply find another a few miles upstream. "It reminds me of when I was a kid," says Lt. Jason Gates of the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office. "We used to cruise 82nd Avenue. Then the police cracked down, so we went to 122nd Avenue. Then they cracked down there, so people started cruising on Broadway." The same process is going on along the Sandy. Several years ago, the most notorious trouble spot was Gordon Creek. Years before that, it was Buck Creek Flats. A few weeks ago, it was Big Bend. By the time this article is published, it will probably be somewhere else. "If they think they've got it under control, they're sticking their heads in the sand," says fishing guide Bob Plympton. "I've lived here since 1962, and I've watched it go from never seeing anyone but your neighbors to complete chaos." Some riverside owners, frustrated with what they see as official bungling, are taking matters into their own hands. Plympton's favorite technique is simple but effectivea 130-pound Rottweiler. Even if, in some Orwellian alternate reality, you could police the Sandy, you could never make it safe. The river is swift, cold and unpredictable. Currents form. Rocks lurk beneath the surface. "This is not a city park," says Lt. Gates. "This is a not a swimming pool. This is a wild river." That wildness, in fact, is what we really crave when we float the riverotherwise we could just as well go to Dishman Pool or take a beach towel to Jamison Square. We want to get away from the noise and madness of the city, to escape from our bills and our chores and our appointments and disappointments. We want to slip away for a few hours and go where no one can bother us. We know there's a riskthere's always a riskbut we trust our common sense. We want to plunge into our destiny. And if you'll lend us your pump, we'll give you a light. Intern Jacques Von Lunen contributed to this story. Oregon Drownings since May 1: Download chart at www.wweek.com/media/7792.pdf WWeek 2015 Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marlowe Hood (Agence France-Presse) Paris Sun, May 10, 2020 10:01 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd6ff2a5 2 Environment ocean,climate-change,environment,global-warming Free Oceans are likely to rise as much as 1.3 meters by 2100 if Earth's surface warms another 3.5 degrees Celsius, scientists warned Friday. By 2300, when ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland will have shed trillions of tonnes in mass, sea levels could go up by more than five metres under that temperature scenario, redrawing the planet's coastlines, they reported in a peer-reviewed survey of more than 100 leading experts. About ten percent of the world's population, or 770 million people, today live on land less than five meters above the high tide line. Even if the Paris climate treaty goal of capping global warming below 2C is met -- a very big "if" -- the ocean watermark could go up two metres by 2300, according to a study in the journal Climate Atmospheric Science. Earth's average surface temperature has risen just over one degree Celsius since the pre-industrial era, a widely used benchmark for measuring global warming. "It is clear now that previous sea-level rise estimates have been too low," co-author Stefan Rahmstorf, head of Earth system analysis at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), told AFP. The new projections for both the 2100 and 2300 horizons are significantly higher than those from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), including a special report on oceans it released in September. "The IPCC tends to be very cautious and conservative, which is why it had to correct itself upwards already several times," Rahmstorf said. Read also: 8 simple steps you can take right now to save the oceans Ice sheets the main driver Sea-level projections in the IPCC's landmark 2014 Assessment Report were 60 percent above those in the previous edition, he noted. A new Assessment will be finalized by the end of next year. While less visible than climate-enhanced hurricanes or persistent drought, sea level rise may ultimately prove the most devastating of global warming impacts. Indeed, it is the extra centimetres of ocean water that make storm surges from ever-stronger tropical cyclones so much more deadly and destructive, experts say. Benjamin Horton, acting chair of the Nanyang Technical University's Asian School of the Environment in Singapore, led the survey to give "policymakers an overview of the state of the science", a statement said. Across the 20th century, sea level rise was caused mainly by melting glaciers and the expansion of ocean water as it warms. But over the last two decades the main driver has become the melting and disintegrating of Earth's two ice sheets. Greenland and West Antarctica are shedding at least six times more ice today than during the 1990s. From 1992 through 2017 they lost some 6.4 trillion tons in mass. Over the last decade, the sea level has gone up about four millimetres per year. Moving into the 22nd century, however, the waterline could rise ten times faster, even under an optimistic greenhouse gas emissions scenario, the IPCC has said. The Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets hold enough frozen water to lift oceans about 13 metres. East Antarctica, which is more stable, holds another 50 metres' worth. The gurdwaras' in the national capital are facing shortage of ration and cash following a steep rise in the number of homeless people being fed amid the ongoing lockdown, says the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee. Since the imposition of the countrywide lockdown on March 25 to stave off the spread of coronavirus, the DSGMC-managed gurdwaras across the city have provided free meals to around 50 lakh homeless people, migrant workers and elderly. Some of the gurdwaras have also provided shelter to around 200 health staff, including doctors and nurses, besides taking care of coronavirus positive patients in various hospitals. The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) has deployed 500 people, including cooks, drivers, and sanitation workers, to carry out relief services during the lockdown. Manjinder Singh Sirsa, the president of the Sikh body said, Earlier, the gurdwaras in Delhi would receive around Rs 40 lakh in donations which kept the langar' (community kitchen) service going. As a large number of people are unable to visit the gurdwaras during the lockdown, the donations have reduced drastically to just 20 per cent, he said. The langar service is going on thanks to some kind people who have been donating ration, including ghee, oil, sugar, flour, rice, pulses, spices, salt etc. But the number of people who need to be fed is increasing every day and our resources are under tremendous strain, Sirsa said. He said the DSGMC has been receiving calls from various gurdwara across the national capital, informing it of the depleting resources. The Sikh body is completely dependent on donations. It is because of the help of a few large-hearted people across the globe that the DSGMC is able to continue with the services, Sirsa said. A few people have come out and donated cash anonymously. A couple donated Rs 2.5 lakh on their 50th anniversary to the DSGMC, he said. At least 20 trucks of ration have been donated to the gurdwara anonymously, the official added. Families based in various parts of the world and belonging to different faiths have been donating ration and cash, he said. Recently, the World Punjabi Organisation, a body representing Sikhs across the globe, donated Rs 51 lakh to the DSGMC. Similarly, some businessmen and companies based in India donated cash to help the DSGMC feed the needy. But, considering the number of people who need food, we require more people to come out and donate in cash and kind. If you cannot go to a gurdwara to do sewa' (service) during the lockdown, please donate ration to a nearby gurdwara or make monetary contributions to DSGMC through its website, Sirsa added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) UPDATE: Klym has been located and is safe, police reported Sunday afternoon. Police are asking for the publics help in locating a 77-year-old Burlington County man who hasnt been seen in three days. William Klym, of Shamong Township, was last seen around 8 p.m. Thursday in the area of Oakview Court in Shamong, according to the New Jersey State Police. He was last seen driving a 2013 black Toyota Tacoma pickup truck with New Jersey plates. Anyone with information is asked to contact state police at 609-859-2282. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Emily Ratajkowski has been documenting her entire quarantine on social media, which began in New York City. But the Inamorata founder has since jumped coasts to Los Angeles, where she's enjoying quality time with her husband and dog. She put on a leggy display in a floral dress Saturday as she enjoyed a drive with husband Sebastian Bear-McClard and dog Colombo during a break from quarantine. Saturday drive: Emily Ratajkowski put on a leggy display in a floral dress Saturday as she enjoyed a drive with husband Sebastian Bear-McClard and dog Colombo The 28-year-old sat in the passenger seat as Sebastian, 39, petted Colombo, who sat on the floor next to her feet. She also posted a detail photo of her outfit, showing off her gold necklaces, including a diamond-encrusted medallion with a photo of her and Sebastian. The couple previously enjoyed some relaxing time in bed at their Los Angeles home during isolation. They shared a video of themselves petting the husky/German shepherd mix, who licked their fingers. Stay gold: She also posted a detail photo of her outfit, showing off her gold necklaces, including a diamond-encrusted medallion with a photo of her and Sebastian Late morning: The couple previously enjoyed some relaxing time in bed with Colombo at their Los Angeles home during isolation Relationship goals: Emily recently told British GQ of quarantine with Sebastian: 'But my husband and I are in a good partnership. And I think that Ive learned a lot about myself being married, for sure' Emily recently told British GQ: 'Its been interesting being in quarantine and married. I feel like a lot of people will end up divorced. 'But my husband and I are in a good partnership. And I think that Ive learned a lot about myself being married, for sure.' She and Sebastian seem to be playing it loose with stay-at-home orders and social distancing. They recently threw a dog wedding with friend Josh 'Fat Jewish' Ostrovsky and wife Katie Sturino. It came after the couple flew cross-country to Los Angeles from New York City, where the CDC had released a travel advisory. A California democrat recently voiced her disappointment Tesla CEO Elon Musk's threat to pull his company out of California if the state government doesn't let him resume operations. The Tesla CEO filed a lawsuit against Alameda County over the "interim health officer's" alleged ignorant actions. According to court documents, Tesla accused the county's health department of overstepping federal restrictions when it refused to allow his company from restarting production. He said the county's action was a "power grab" and defied California Governor Gavin Newsom's mandate that manufacturers would be allowed to reopen. Erica Pan, Alameda's health official, said Tesla had to wait at least one more week, according to recommendations, to monitor infection rates before starting production. County officials said the Public Health Department has been working with the automaker in a collaborative effort to develop a safety plan that would allow the company to operate while protecting its employees from the coronavirus threat. Stark Contrast Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez slammed the automotive giant in a tweet where she delivered a brief response to his threats: "F- Elon Musk." The scathing reaction came after the CEO threatened to pull much of Tesla out of California due to the COVID-19 stay-at-home rules that have temporarily stalled production. Should the automaker move out of the state, an unspecified number of employees would lose their jobs. The company's San Francisco Bay area facility would remain open. Still, activities would largely depend on how Tesla is treated in the coming weeks. Gonzalez's reaction was very different from the reactions of lawmakers and candidates in Texas and Nevada. The officials from both states were pleased about Elon Musk's plans to relocate his company there. "This is the final straw," Musk tweeted. He claimed the Tesla headquarters and all future programs would be moved to Texas and Nevada immediately. U.S. Representative Dan Crenshaw said Musk's announcement was attracted by the "good conservative principles" and "great governance" of the officials in Texas. In Nevada, Republican candidate Dan Rodimer welcomed Tesla's move, saying his state needed the jobs the company will bring. Impact Tesla's move would have a large economic impact for Fremont, California. The automobile manufacturing company builds more than 415,000 cars annually. Moving the entire company could take anywhere between 12 to 18 months. Moving away could also heavily impact the auto giant's manufacturing and logistics process. The lack of production in their closed Fremont facility caused a financial strain. The automaker plans to ramp up production of its Model Y sport utility vehicle, which is their most profitable vehicle to date. Tesla has already reopened its factory in China after it was forced to close during the height of the pandemic. Musk believes the Chinese branch could set an example of how the company could reopen its other locations. In a tweet, he said Tesla knows what needs to be done to keep their employees safe following their China factory experience. Check out this video of the Tesla Model Y below: Want to read more? Check these out: Prasanta Mazumdar By Express News Service GUWAHATI: Alarmed by the high rate of COVID-19 infection among personnel of the Border Security Force (BSF) in Tripura, the Centre has decided to send a team of experts from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to the state. Official sources in Tripura confirmed the team would visit the state soon. The state government had earlier sent requests to the Centre to get the cases studied. The matter was apparently discussed through video conferencing with Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan on Saturday. The BSF, however, expressed ignorance on the teams visit. Nothing has been conveyed to us as yet, BSF spokesman CL Belwa told this newspaper. Over a period of last eight days, as many as 121 personnel, their 10 family members, including five children, and a BSF civilian mess worker, were the 132 people from two BSF battalions in Dhalai district who tested positive. A woman and a jawan of Tripura State Rifles were the states first two cases. Following their recovery last month, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb had declared the state as COVID-19 free. The two BSF battalion headquarters are located at the same complex that has since been declared a containment zone. There is a vacuum there as the offices are not functioning. The two battalions have around 1,200-1,300 personnel. Some 800 of them are deployed on the India-Bangladesh border. Belwa said the troops guarding the border in the district were in touch with senior officers. He said necessary directions were being passed on to them through telephone and radio communications. Everything is fine on the border. The neighbouring district of Dhalai in Bangladesh is Khagrachari. The area is forested, falling under the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Theres no population of Bangladeshis on the border there. There are no trans-border crimes either as theres a similar lockdown clamped in Bangladesh and Army personnel are moving around, the BSF spokesman added. India's third Covid wave likely to peak on Jan 23, daily cases to stay below 4 lakh: IIT Kanpur scientist India oi-Oneindia Staff By Oneindia Staff New Delhi, Jan 19: India has registered 2,82,970 new cases in the last 24 hours, 18.9 per cent higher than yesterday. It brings the total caseload to 3,79,01,241. The top five states which have registered maximum cases are Karnataka with 41,457 cases, followed by Maharashtra with 39,207 cases, Kerala with 28,481 cases, Tamil Nadu with 23,888 cases and Gujarat with 17,119 cases. Covid-19: India records biggest 1-day jump in cases in 6 months | Oneindia News Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 21:12:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Tourists admire the skyline view of Lujiazui area at the Bund in Shanghai, east China, Jan. 6, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Xiang) BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Sunday urged that more famous brands be created to better meet the demands of China's consumption upgrade and national development. Boosting the growth of brands and constantly raising the quality and influence of Chinese products and services is an important aspect of implementing the strategy of expanding domestic demand and promoting high-quality development, Li said in a message to the online event 2020 China Brand Day. He called for the implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy, continually promoting mass entrepreneurship and innovation, adhering to putting quality first, deepening brand awareness among the whole society, and guiding companies to uphold the spirit of professionalism and craftsmanship, so that more brands that are famous and of high quality will be created. Organized by the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, and ministries including commerce, agriculture and rural affairs, as well as the Shanghai municipal government, the event featured an online Chinese brands expo and an online international forum with more than 1,300 companies taking part. Saudi Arabia (KSA) ranks fourth in the world in terms of 5G technology and ranks 10th in Internet speed, a Saudi Press Agency report quoting a senior official said. The kingdom is only preceded by the US, South Korea and China in using 5G, said Undersecretary for Technology and Digital Capacity Development at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology Dr Ahmed Al-Thinayyan. He pointed out that the kingdom has achieved a quantum leap, in terms of Internet speed, in particular, as it jumped from 150th to 10th position. In digital transformation, in general, the expansion of fibre optic networks benefited over 3 million households, he said. After witnessing the Buick speeding at 114 mph through a 55 mph zone, Madry stopped the vehicle as it exited onto Grant Street in Gary. The trooper performed a field sobriety test and a certified breath test was later given to the driver at the Lake County Jail, according to an ISP news release. The driver's blood alcohol content registered at .13%, police said, above Indiana's legal limit of .08%. The driver was arrested for operating while intoxicated, a Class A misdemeanor, police said. An hour later, ISP Trooper William Carlson witnessed a silver Chevrolet Cruze driving at 112 mph on I-80/94 near Kennedy Ave. At 12:30 a.m. Sunday, Carlson initiated a short pursuit following the silver sedan as it exited onto Cline Ave. The driver lost control of the car, slamming into a light pole, police said. Carlson chased after the driver as he fled from the car. The trooper caught up to the suspect, who then turned and approached Carlson. The trooper deployed his Taser into the suspect after he ignored Carlson's "loud verbal commands to stop," according to the ISP release. Six months pregnant Connie Yates yesterday told of her delight and showed the Mail the uncanny likeness of the unborn child to Charlie It is nearly three years since they lost their beloved son in a tragic case which gripped the world. Now Charlie Gards parents are celebrating after a 20-week scan showed they are expecting a healthy baby boy. Six months pregnant Connie Yates yesterday told of her delight and showed the Mail the uncanny likeness of the unborn child to Charlie. Miss Yates, 34, who is engaged to postman Chris Gard, 35, said: We are so happy to be expecting another baby it has put a smile back on our faces. We feel so incredibly lucky that we get the opportunity to welcome another baby boy into our family. She added of the scan: I was completely overwhelmed to find that everything showed our little boy was doing well and was completely healthy. The 3D scan shows all the features of his little face and its so gorgeous to see. I fell in love with him even more. Mr Gard said: Looking back at a scan of Charlie, the new baby is uncannily similar. Its amazing how alike they look. Obviously as Charlies dad, I thought Charlie was the most beautiful baby in the world, so I am delighted if his little brother has a likeness to some of Charlies features, but ultimately the priority is simply that hes healthy. Charlie died in July 2017 aged 11 months after his parents lost an extraordinary court battle against the medical system to keep him alive. So similar: The 20-week scans of Charlie in the womb and the baby Miss Yates is now expecting. Charlie is pictured left, while the new baby is seen right Charlie died in July 2017 aged 11 months after his parents lost an extraordinary court battle against the medical system to keep him alive There were interventions by the Pope and US President Donald Trump, but eventually Charlies life support was switched off and he succumbed to mitochondrial depletion syndrome a rare genetic condition which saps energy from the organs. Agonisingly, Baby Gard No2 so far unnamed stood a one in four chance of being born with the same devastating illness. But he was tested inside the womb and, to the enormous relief of his parents, has been declared free of the syndrome. The baby is due in August the same month Charlie was born in 2016. Care worker Miss Yates, of Bedfont, south-west London, said Mr Gard was not allowed to attend the 20-week scan process in hospital because of the coronavirus. She added: When you have lost a child, its hard not to let fear take over you know the harsh reality of having a child is a hope, not a promise. I wasnt sure I could cope with finding out about any problems or complications without Chris by my side holding my hand like he always has. But like most expectant mums during this lockdown, I had to go on my own, which was very unnerving. She spoke of her hopes for the future, saying: We long to do all the ordinary little things most people take for granted, We never had a chance with Charlie to do simple things like go to the park or take him on holiday. We want to have what all parents want to be a healthy, happy family. By IANS MUMBAI: With the Congress deciding to withdraw its second candidate late on Sunday, the stage is set for all nine candidates - including Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray - in the Maharashtra Legislative Council elections to be elected unopposed in the May 21 elections, official sources said here. The ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance of the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress will get five seats, while the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party will get four, without a contest. Late on Saturday evening, the Congress had unexpectedly fielded a second nominee - Rajkishor Modi alias Papa Modi - as the 10th candidate in the fray, besides senior Jalna leader, Rajesh Rathod, which would have necessitated an unwanted election. But none of the parties including the Sena-NCP and the BJP were keen on a contest and efforts started late on Saturday to convince the Congress to take back the name of Papa Modi, a highly respected leader from Beed. Late this evening, after a long meeting among the MVA partners, state Congress President and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat announced that the party has decided to withdraw the candidature of Papa Modi. Now, the 9 candidates left in the fray are Sena's Thackeray and Deputy Chairperson of Legislative Council (Dr.) Neelam Gorhe, NCP's Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari plus Congress' Rathod. From the BJP, the four nominees are: Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil, Praveen Datke, Gopichand Padalkar and Ajit Gopchhede. With the MLC elections, Thackeray - who was unanimously elected the MVA Chief Minister on November 28 - will make his debut as a legislator. He will also become the second member of the state's numero uno political clan to enter the legislature as an elected member after his son and Tourism Minister Aditya Thackeray. "The election to 9 MLC seats will be unopposed. Taking into view the nomination of Chief Minister and the COVID-19 situation, the Congress has decided not to field its second candidate," Sena MP Sanjay Raut said, expressing his gratitude to the ruling ally for its decision. The state's upper house has a total of 9 vacancies which will be filled up in the biennial poll through the electoral college comprising 288 legislators of the Legislative Assembly. MADRID When the coronavirus pandemic stuck and her family begged her to return home to Ohio, Stacye Toups was offered an offramp. She didn't even consider taking it. Not only did she decide to stay in Spain, where she is studying medicine; she remained and volunteered to work in a hard-hit nursing home to help those most vulnerable to the respiratory illness. "My thoughts were never to go home," Toups, 30, said in an interview near her home in the capital, Madrid, despite her parents' begging her to do so. "They're constantly writing me," she said. "It's a never-ending battle with them. I don't think I'll ever have their full approval of me being here." Toups, a fluent Spanish speaker, moved abroad to teach English, and even in the midst of a global pandemic she has not regretted her decision to become a doctor. "This is my future job. This is my passion. This is my career. I wouldn't run from it ever. I would encounter it head on." Spain has had more cases of infection than anywhere else in Europe and more than 26,000 deaths. The vast majority of those deaths more than 17,000, according to a tally of local government figures occurred inside Spain's 5,400 nursing homes. Image: Stacye Toups (Courtesy Stacye Toups) Toups, the only American in a class of 270 students, was more than halfway through her fourth year at the Autonomous University of Madrid's faculty of medicine when the effects of the coronavirus first started to be felt in Spain. In late February, as the numbers of cases spiked, her parents, Bill and Mary, got in touch, sounding very worried. "How much danger are you in with this virus?" her father, Bill Toups, 57, a safety consultant for industrial companies, asked in a text message. "If they start quarantining, what are you going to do? I don't want you there if this is a possibility." Still, she stayed. Then, in mid-March, the government imposed a lockdown. While classes continued online, all her practical training inside Madrid's hospitals ended. Story continues Toups was one of the very few American students, roughly 500, who decided to stay in Spain, according to estimates provided by the U.S. Embassy in Madrid. On March 21, a roommate directed Toups to a Facebook group for foreign language teachers where someone had posted on behalf of a doctor friend requesting help at the nursing home where she worked. The post said that none of the home's residents had contracted the virus but that there were still not enough workers. "When I saw this, I was like, Sign me up,'" she said. "I'd rather be doing that than studying." On March 23, when she arrived for her first day, she found residents spilling out of the regular medical rooms to fill a makeshift quarantine unit housing 50 patients. "They were laying in these beds ... I don't want to say half-dead but it's definitely scary," Toups said. "I expected these patients, these residents, to maybe have a cough or maybe just have a cold. They were just semi-unconscious." Her medical training and desire to help quickly overcame her initial worries, she said. "It was just one moment of fear but the next moment of let's figure this out, let's do this, let's work." Image: Stacye Toups (Courtesy Stacye Toups) In the weeks since Toups started her job, a third of the residents at the care home, 60 out of 180, have died of COVID-19. And when one of two doctors at the facility fell ill, too, it was Toups who covered her shifts, spending harrowing overnight hours as the most senior medical person onsite. She begins her day around 2 p.m., often working past midnight, six or seven days a week in the nursing home's "red zone" under layers of protective equipment, a mask and goggles. The vast majority of the remaining residents have also tested positive, but most have recovered, and in the coming days the final patients in the facility's remaining two quarantined areas will be discharged. Madrid's vast 6,000-bed COVID-19-focused field hospital closed at the start of this month, and the daily death toll in Spain has gradually fallen from its peak of almost 1,000 a day in early April to roughly a fifth of that, the same level it was when Toups began her job more than six weeks ago. But the work continues to be draining, especially because she still must spend most of her morning before each shift studying for school. She said she has found the juggling "nearly impossible" and fears that she may have to repeat many of her subjects next year. "If I had the chance to go back and choose working or studying," she said, "I would still choose working." Her father said he was worried about the physical protection afforded her at the nursing home but also about the bonds she has formed with patients. "She's passionate about the medical field, and then she's also compassionate towards the people that she's treating," he said. "We had to keep reminding her: We don't want you to get too emotionally attached to this. How are you going to be able to handle this?'" Still, while her decision to stay on and work in grueling and dangerous conditions may have frightened her family, it did not surprise them, according to her father. "We expected it," Bill Toups said by phone from his home in Loveland, Ohio. "We're concerned, but we have to trust her judgment, as well." He added: "She doesn't run away from anything." Germany Islamic State At the opening of the trial, the defendant covers his face with a folder as he arrives in the courtroom at the Higher Regional Court (OLG) in Frankfurt, Germany, Friday, April 24, 2020. The 37-year-old Iraqi defendant on suspicion of the murder of a five-year-old girl in Syria . The Federal Prosecutor's Office also charges him with genocide, membership of a terrorist organisation and human trafficking. (Arne Dedert/Pool via AP) BERLIN (AP) An Iraqi man went on trial in Frankfurt on Friday for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, on allegations that as an Islamic State member he was part of an effort to exterminate the Yazidi religious minority, and killed a five-year-old girl he purchased as a slave by chaining her in the hot sun to die of thirst. Taha Al-J., 27, whose full last name wasnt given in line with German privacy laws, faces a possible life in prison if convicted of the charges, and others including murder for the death of the Yazidi girl and membership in a terrorist organization. No pleas are entered in the German system and Al-J. declined to give any opening comment to the panel of judges hearing the case other than to confirm his identity as the trial opened, according to the court. Al-J.s wife, a German convert to Islam identified only as 28-year-old Jennifer W., has been on trial separately in Munich since last April on charges of murder, war crimes and membership in a terrorist organization. Al-J. was still at large when his wife went on trial, but was arrested a month later in Greece and extradited to Germany in October. According to the indictment, he was an active member of the Islamic State group from 2013 to 2019 in Syria, Iraq and Turkey. In 2015, Al-J. bought a Yazidi woman and her 5-year-old daughter as slaves at an IS base in Syria, prosecutors allege. The two had been taken as prisoners by the militants in northern Iraq at the beginning of August, 2014, and had been sold and resold several times as slaves by the group already. Taha Al-J. intended, according to the charges, to exterminate the religious minority of the Yazidis by his acquisition of the two Yazidi females, and to have personal benefits from their services in his household, the Frankfurt state court said as the trial opened. The United Nations has called the IS assault on the Yazidis ancestral homeland in northern Iraq in 2014 a genocide, saying the Yazidis 400,000-strong community "had all been displaced, captured or killed. Of the thousands captured by IS, boys were forced to fight for the extremists, men were executed if they didnt convert to Islam - and often executed in any case - and women and girls were sold into slavery. Story continues After purchasing the woman and her daughter, Al-J. took the two to his household in the Iraqi city of Fallujah and forced them to keep house and to live according to strict Islamic rules, while giving them insufficient food and beating them regularly to punish them, according to the indictment. Near the end of 2015, Al-J. chained the girl to the bars of a window in the open sun on a day where it reached 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) and she died from the punishment, according to the indictment. Prosecutors in the case against Al-J.s wife said the punishment was carried out because the 5-year-old had wet the bed. The charges against Jennifer W. are based partially on the allegation that she did nothing to help the girl. The Yazidi girls mother, who survived captivity, testified at W.s trial and is also expected to appear as a witness at the trial of Al-J., according to the court. W. , who quit school after completing eighth grade, grew up in Lower Saxony as a Protestant but converted to Islam in 2013. Shes alleged to have made her way to Iraq through Turkey and Syria in 2014 to join the IS. In 2015, as a member of the extremist groups morality police, she patrolled parks in Fallujah and Mosul, armed with an assault rifle and a pistol as well as an explosive vest and looking for women who did not conform with its strict codes of behavior and dress, prosecutors said. She taken into custody when trying to renew her identity papers at the German embassy in Ankara in 2016, and deported back to Germany. The trial against her husband is scheduled to resume April 27. - The new coronavirus can persist in men's semen even after they have begun to recover, Chinese researchers have said - The new finding raised the possibility the virus could be sexually transmitted - This was after a team at Shangqiu Municipal Hospital tested 38 male patients treated there at the height of the pandemic in China - The researchers detected the virus in the semen in six of the 38 patients roughly - Of the six, four were at the acute stage of active infection and two had recovered - The six who tested positive ranged in age from their 20s to their 50s Chinese research has indicated the virus that causes COVID-19 can be found in human semen but did not address whether a sexual transmission is possible. Doctors detected the virus in semen from six of 38 men hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19. Four were still very sick with the disease while two were recovering. READ ALSO: 87-year-old grandfather sells houses he gave his children after they refused to attend his wedding Doctors detected the virus in semen from six of 38 men hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19. Photo: CDC Source: UGC READ ALSO: Kariobangi chaos: Smoke, tears as residents barricade roads in protest against forceful evictions A report by CNN showed the report from Shangqiu Municipal Hospital in China was published Thursday, May 8, in Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). There was no long-term follow-up so it is not known how long the virus may remain in semen or if men can spread it to their partners during sex. Dr John Hotaling of the University of Utah, co-author of that report, said the new study involved much sicker men, most with active disease. READ ALSO: Nurses protest outside White House to honour colleagues who died of COVID-19 The researchers said that the findings were preliminary, and based on only a small number of infected men. Hotaling said it is an important public health concern but that more research is needed to provide a definitive answer. Further studies are required with respect to the detailed information about virus shedding, survival time and concentration in semen, the team wrote in the study. READ ALSO: Generous driver surprises little girl with ice-cream cupcakes on her birthday Independent experts said the findings were interesting but should be viewed with caution and in the context of other small studies that have not found the new coronavirus in sperm. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine said the new study should not be cause for alarm. "To be safe, though, it may be wise to avoid sexual contact with men until they are 14 days without symptoms, Peter Schlegel, the group's immediate past president, said in a statement. READ ALSO: My heart will be at peace knowing my tenants are comfortable, safe - Generous Mombasa landlord Sheena Lewis, a professor of reproductive medicine at Queens University Belfast, stressed that this was a very small study. The results contrast with a study of 34 Chinese men with COVID-19 published in April 2020, in the journal Fertility and Sterility. Researchers in the United States and Chinese had found no evidence of the virus in semen tested between eight days and almost three months after diagnosis. READ ALSO: Landslide: West Pokot's 2019 survivors move into new houses Authorities believed the coronavirus mainly spreads from droplets produced when infected people cough, which are inhaled by people nearby. Some studies have, however, reported finding the virus in blood, faeces and tears or other fluid from COVID-19 patients with inflammation in their eyes. Evidence suggesting that other infectious viruses including Zika and Ebola may be sexually transmitted had prompted questions about the coronavirus. 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 File image: Indian Army soldiers guarding the border Troops of India and China were involved in a fierce face-off near Naku La Pass in the Sikkim sector of the Sino-India border, official sources said on Sunday. A number of personnel on both sides sustained injuries as they exchanged punches, they said, adding the troops disengaged after a dialogue at the local level. It was the first case of troops from both sides exchanging blows after a similar incident had taken place in Pangong Lake in Ladakh in August 2017. "Troops resolve such issues mutually as per established protocols. Such an incident occurred after a long time," said a source. It is learnt that a total of 150 soldiers were involved in the face-off on Saturday. The sources said temporary and short duration face-offs occur due to differing perception of the border by both sides. The troops of India and China were engaged in a 73-day stand-off in Doklam tri-junction in 2017, which even triggered fears of a war between the two neighbours. The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control, the de-facto border between the two countries. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it. Both sides have been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held their first informal summit in April 2018 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, months after the Doklam standoff. In the summit, the two leaders decided to issue "strategic guidance" to their militaries to strengthen communications so that they can build trust and understanding. Modi and Xi held their second informal summit in Mamallapuram near Chennai in October last year with a focus on further broadening bilateral ties. Mother's Day is perhaps, that one day in a year when you appreciate your mother a little more than usual. And while we all know that mothers are loving and caring, too often, they are also fierce and brave. In the middle of a global pandemic, this rings particularly true. They are mothers at home, they are warriors outside. Over the last few days since the outbreak of the pandemic, we saw many such stories of mothers. Here's a look at the supermoms who turned into Coronavirus warriors. Telangana Woman Rode 1,400 KM to Bring Her Stranded Son Home Even amid the national lockdown, a mother travelled 1,400 kilometres to bring back her son stranded at Rahmatabad in Nellore district. Rejiya Begum, a 50-year-old teacher and mother of two, travelled from Bodha town in Telangana's Nizamabad district to Rahmatabad to bring back her younger child, Nizamuddin, who had gone to Nellore with his friend on March 12 to look after the latter's ailing father. However, he had to remain there after the lockdown was imposed. Begum then met local police officials and got a travel permit for her journey starting April 6. She returned home with her son two days later. Read more here. Overnight, she became the Internet's favourite mother. Corona-Warrior Couple Locks Daughter at Home to Fight Covid-19 Another mother who put her child first, even if that meant leaving her home for several hours to ensure she isn't infected. Saroj Kumar, a constable with Rajasthan police said, "It's quite tough to leave my 7-year-old daughter Dakshita for 8 hours but then nation comes first." "My husband has been working in Mahatma Gandhi Hospital's isolation centre and hence has not come home for the past 15 days, fearing infection. In such situations, there is only one option -- leaving my daughter at home, she says. Bhilwara emerged as a major hotspot in the country after a well-known hospital became the epicentre of the virus spread. Measures by the administration and people's cooperation since helped in breaking the corona chain here. Bhilwara, in fact, was the first town where 'maha curfew' was clamped in the state to make the town corona-free. Curfew was clamped here right from March 20. Doctor Mom Battles Spread in Rajkot, Toddler Punches 'Corona' For another mother, her son is 'punching away' Coronavirus for her, while she stays away and can only see him on videocall. In their video conversation which has become a daily routine for the mother and son, no sooner she utters, Corona, the toddler throws punches in the air to kill the hidden enemy. Between such jovial engagements, its been close to a month that Dr Neha Ambalia, a coronavirus warrior who has been serving at Babra health centre in Amreli district for the past 25 days hasnt met her son. My duty comes first before my family, says the medical practitioner, who adds that she has sensitized her son Neev to the evils of the dreaded virus. I have put the fear in him so much that he now knows corona is an enemy that needs to be punched at the very utterance of the word! He understands the gravity of this pandemic and also knows that his mother has to stay away from him to perform her duty as a doctor, says Dr Ambalia. IAS Officer Joins Fight Against Covid-19 With Her Month Old Baby In another example, an IAS officer and new mother returned to work with her 1-month old infant. Putting duty before herself, IAS officer and Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation Commissioner (GVMC) G Srijana is one of the frontline warriors in this coronavirus pandemic situation as she returned to work just 22 days after giving birth, cutting short her maternity break. She also brought her nearly 1-month-old baby to work. When asked about how she was able to care for her newborn along with her official duties, Srijana said that she had ample support from her lawyer-husband and her mother. As a responsible and key official, she said she was aware of the importance of being at work during these difficult times and how much her services were required during these emergency services. Srijana said that the district administration was working in a combined effort to curb the virus menace. Mother Throws Online Birthday Party for Girl with Leukemia And while birthdays in lockdown suck, to make her daughters eighth birthday in isolation special and memorable, 44-year-old Tania hosted an online party for her. The eight-year-old Maia Blue was diagnosed with leukaemia in January 2019 and has been in isolation with her mother and 13-year-old sister since March. As her birthday was on April 2, coinciding with the lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus, Maias mother planned to make it memorable even in isolation. Owing to her weak immunity and prevailing health condition, Maias doctor had directed her stay indoors for at least three months. There was a magician who performed a special show and friends and family who joined to wish her. The mother made sure that the lockdown did not dampen the girls birthday celebration. These mothers deserve a huge round of applause. Bodies of terrorists buried off quietly: Cops cite social distancing norms India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, May 10: The police chief of Jammu and Kashmir, Dilbag Singh said that a decision not to hand over bodies of terrorists to the families and also to bury them quietly was taken to ensure social distancing norms during the coronavirus outbreak. The police are however allowing burials by the families subject to the condition that no crowds gather at the site. Riyaz Naikoos killing a shock: Syed Salahuddin The body of top Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Riyaz Naikoo was buried quietly. The body was not handed over to the family in a bid to avoid glorifying him and also to prevent large crowds from gathering. The body was buried off in an undisclosed location. This has been a norm for sometime in the Valley as funerals of terrorists had started gathering huge crowds. Moreover the funerals had started becoming glorification events. Naikoo was killed in an encounter with security forces on Wednesday. He had been on the run for the past 8 years and on several occasions given the forces the slip. The problem that the security agencies have faced in the past is the crowding at terrorist funerals. During those times, it caused a security problem and today there is an added problem of coronavirus, which requires social distancing. Jammu and Kashmir too has been hit by the pandemic and the administration has been advising social distancing. It was only recently following the killing of a terrorist in Sopore that large crowds turned up at his funeral. However, the security forces have now shifted their strategy and have successfully ensured quiet funerals for these terrorists. Last month, the authorities managed to bury four terrorists quietly at Ganderbal. They were killed in a gunfight in Shopian in South Kashmir. On April 17, two terrorists were killed in an encounter at Shopian. The two who were killed were quietly buried at Baramulla in north Kashmir the same day after all formalities were completed. In both these cases, the police said that the terrorists were not identified. However, in the Shopian case, the families claimed that the two terrorists were their sons. They have now approached the District Magistrate demanding that the bodies are handed over. Eliminating Naikoo: How the math went wrong for this dreaded terrorist This is a clear message that the forces and the authorities are sending out to ensure that these terrorists are not buried in the presence of large crowds. Large crowds gathering especially in a situation like this is nothing but a nightmare. First and foremost it is a security issue and secondly, all efforts being made by the administration to curb the spread of the pandemic will be lost, an official informed OneIndia. In the previous funerals, crowds had gathered in Kulgam. The police had a tough time in controlling the crowds. Following this, an FIR was filed and 100 persons were arrested. In recent times bodies of only five terrorists have been handed over to the families. The families have to undertake that the funerals will be held quietly and if found violating the same, stringent action would follow. (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Governments around the world say theyre engaged in a war against the coronavirus. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi invoked the legend of the Mahabharata, fought over 18 days, as he declared, with little warning, a devastating national lockdown. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who always seems to be mentally screening a film of Winston Churchill in World War II, said that we must act like any wartime government. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who has long deployed bellicose language, most notoriously in his violent war on drugs, went further, advising the military and police that if quarantine violators become unruly and they fight you and your lives are endangered, shoot them dead! This kill-or-die idiom is more than casual rhetorical overkill. Many governments are symbolically but very deliberately calling, in this time of fear and uncertainty, for general conscription along military lines. This is so they can, while pointing to an insidious foreign enemy, aim their firepower against some of the most valuable institutions of domestic public life. They have been very successful so far. Last week, Dutertes government shut down ABS-CBN television and radio, his countrys largest broadcasting service. Things are not much better in countries with sturdier democratic institutions. Johnsons Conservative government accused the British Broadcasting Corporation of bias after its flagship investigative program, Panorama, exposed shortages of personal protective equipment among healthcare workers. The public broadcasters critique of the government was stinging in part because Johnson enjoys a high degree of support among Britains privately owned, overwhelmingly pro-Tory press. Nor does Modi, assured of craven public broadcasters, expect much criticism from the Indian media, which has been described, only semi-humorously, as veritably North Korean in its devotion to the supreme leader. Story continues Modi held a virtual meeting with media editors and owners just before imposing his lockdown. According to his website, the attendees committed to work on the suggestions of the prime minister to publish inspiring and positive stories about Covid-19. In addition to economic and military mobilization, wartime measures typically encourage a high degree of political, social and intellectual conformity. The general idea is that, in the face of an existential challenge from a vicious enemy, criticism of the government ought to cease. The media tends to become more patriotic, as do former political partisans. Such was the case in the United States during the early stages of its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, when most journalists and even Democratic politicians rallied around the Republican George W. Bush administration. The trouble is that the war against Covid-19 is actually not a war at all. And no one should feel obliged to sign up for it. The loss of, and separation from, loved ones, and the fear and anxiety that is devastating many lives is not an opportunity to fantasize about heroism in battle. The pandemic is, primarily, a global public health emergency; it is made potentially lethal as much by long neglected and underfunded social welfare systems as by a highly contagious virus. A plain description like this is not as stirring as a call to arms and doesnt justify the more extreme actions governments have taken against critics during the crisis. It does, however, open up a line of inquiry that journalists ought to pursue, now as well as in the future. According to the Indian governments own statistics, its public spending on health before the pandemic measured just 1.17% of GDP, lower than Nepal and nowhere near comparable to South Koreas 8.1%. Duterte no doubt wants his citizens to forget that as late as March 11, he told an audience: Ive been told, You folks are too scared of this coronavirus epidemic and Fools, dont believe it. Johnson, whose Conservative party presided over harsh cuts to health services, boasted, on the same day in early March that the U.K. governments Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies warned against shaking hands, I shook hands with everybody, you will be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands. Awakening late to the pandemic, authoritarian or authoritarian-minded leaders have turned it into an opportunity both to shore up their power and to conceal their stunning ineptitude. To fail to see through their manufactured fog of war, as many in the media are doing, can only further endanger the long-term moral and political health of their societies. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Pankaj Mishra is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. His books include Age of Anger: A History of the Present, From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia, and Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet and Beyond. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. Chronicle reporter Jason Fagones brilliant feature article Chasing a killer (Front Page, May 3), describing the work of UCSF virus expert Nevan Krogan and his teams efforts to decode and ultimately destroy coronavirus, is wonderful and uplifting. Fagones writing is comprehensible and portrays these dedicated scientists both working tirelessly but also eschewing copyrights so the world medical community can build off their findings. The dedication and selflessness of UCSF scientists is well-known and Krogans leadership is a shining example of the value of both medical research during pandemics and the types of men and women who answer the call in such emergencies. Leon Campbell, Woodside Nurse story is offensive Regarding A nurses fear: Is today the day? (Front Page, April 29): As a nurse in the Emergency Department at San Francisco General Hospital, I found this article to be disturbing, if not embarrassing. In a time where many throughout our community are struggling and sacrificing, this depiction of a nurses workday at San Francisco General Hospital seems sensationalized and pandering. Our work in the Emergency Department is, by nature, challenging. However, during the COVID-19 crisis, we are seeing an overall lower workload than normal, due to decreased activity within the city and due to peoples avoidance of health care. When so many peoples live are being disrupted, we have the reassuring routine of going to work, seeing our friends there and serving our community. To use the term war zone to describe the experience of going to work is particularly offensive considering the tragedies of inundation that our health care colleagues have faced in places like Queens and Italy. Thank you for trying to share our perspective, and in that spirit, I would like to express our gratitude to so many who have sacrificed parts of their lifestyles and livelihoods to make this crisis more manageable for us. Jamison Litten, San Francisco Everyone will pay I find myself sympathetic with the writer of Reckless spending (Letters, May 6), as I too have been apologizing to younger generations for mortgaging their future and for the direction this country is taking. I was doing this before any pandemic arrived. So, $2.99 trillion is probably just another installment to try to extricate this economy from looming disaster. It also provides a sweet chunk of change to those unscrupulous entities seeking to loot the Treasury during a national/global catastrophe. For some, no situation is too dire to turn a profit. Unfortunately, this is what happens when you elect a con man with aspirations to lead an organized crime syndicate. The writer apparently is experiencing guilt as our generation tries to maintain our comfortable retirement so I will offer him solace. We will all be paying for this reckless behavior, sooner than later. Means testing Social Security, increased Medicare contributions, postponed retirement dates and lower benefits are just around the corner. I hope everybody feels better now. Cory David, South San Francisco Follow the science Thank you to Nevan Krogan and his colleagues at UCSF for their hard work and determination to decode COVID-19. The collaboration of your brilliant team and scientists around the world with one common goal was impressive. It gives me hope that we will one day learn more effective treatments in treating this virus. I look forward to when we can gather all the science experts around the world to work together and determine the cause. Maybe if we, the citizens of the world, would listen to our experts in the field, we will be able to learn how to prevent this from happening again. Check out the work of disease ecologist, Peter Daszak. It is up to us to listen to science-based facts and act on their recommendations. We cant afford to ignore their warnings. Kathleen Wood, San Francisco Envision a good leader Imagine we had a leader who cared about his citizens more than himself. Imagine we had a leader who used these unprecedented times to unite a frightened country that is so divided. Imagine we had a leader who reached out to other world leaders as we begin to slowly return to a new normal, finding a common path together to address climate change, poverty and displacement. Imagine all the people living life in peace. To paraphrase John Lennons song Imagine: You may say Im a dreamer, but maybe, just maybe, Im not the only one. Lennons vision should be all of ours. One can only imagine. The nurse manager at White Memorial hospital in Los Angeles got quite the surprise for Mothers Day. April Buencamino appeared on a Mothers Day edition of Facebook Watchs Red Table Talk on Friday in which Jada Pinkett Smith, along with her mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris and her daughter Willow Smith, paid tribute to frontline workers during the coronavirus pandemic. Sandra Bullock and her 8-year-old daughter, Laila, surprised Buencamino during the episode: According to USA Today, Bullock donated 6,000 N95 masks to Los Angeles area hospitals last month, including Buencaminos. Buencamino and Bullock did not meet when Bullock visited the hospital, but their missed connection was fixed on Red Table Talk. "And you, as a mom, I know youre scared, I know youre scared on so many levels," Bullock said. "The fact that you were born with that extra gift, to go out and do the good work, I bow down to you. To your family, I say thank you." Buencamino got another surprise, too: Pinkett Smith told her the Will & Jada Smith Family Foundation is donating $50,000 to her hospital and that the nurse and her family would get the vacation of your choice when the timing is right. 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. More than four million confirmed cases of coronavirus have been reported around the world, according to data collated by Johns Hopkins University. The global death toll has also risen to above 277,000. The US remains the worst-hit country, accounting for over a quarter of confirmed cases and a third of deaths. Experts warn the true number of infections is likely to be far higher, with low testing rates in many countries skewing the data. Daily death tolls are continuing to drop in some nations, including Spain, but there is concern that easing lockdown restrictions could lead to a "second wave" of infections. In addition, governments are bracing for economic fallout as the pandemic hits global markets and supply chains. A senior Chinese official has told local media that the pandemic was a "big test" that had exposed weaknesses in the country's public health system. The rare admission, from the director of China's National Health Commission, Li Bin, comes after sustained criticism abroad of China's early response. In other recent developments: The UK government will proceed with "extreme caution" while exiting lockdown restrictions, according to the country's transport secretary. China's president has expressed concern about the threat of the coronavirus to North Korea and offered help. Former US President Barack Obama has strongly criticised Donald Trump over his response to the coronavirus crisis, calling it "an absolute chaotic disaster". Billionaire Tesla boss Elon Musk has said he will move the electric carmaker's headquarters out of California because of local coronavirus restrictions. Two cabinet-level officials in the US are self-isolating after coming into contact with White House staff who tested positive for coronavirus - Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Stephen Hahn, head of the Food and Drug Administration. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been criticised for riding a jet ski on a lake as the national Congress announced three days of official mourning for victims of the pandemic. Health officials in Ghana say more than 500 workers at an industrial facility have tested positive for coronavirus, while the total number of daily cases in the country has jumped by nearly 30% - just a day after authorities said infections had reached its peak. This week, some lockdown measures have begun easing in Italy, once the global epicentre of the pandemic. Italians have been able to exercise outdoors and visit family members in their region. France has recorded its lowest daily number of coronavirus deaths for more than a month, with 80 deaths over the past 24 hours. Authorities are preparing to ease restrictions from Monday, as is the government in neighbouring Spain. Meanwhile, lockdowns are continuing in countries like South Africa, despite calls from opposition parties for it to end. In South Korea, renewed restrictions are being imposed on bars and clubs after a series of transmissions linked to Seoul's leisure district. Russia also cancelled a military parade in Moscow, planned as part of the country's Victory Day celebrations. Instead, President Vladimir Putin hosted a subdued event on Saturday, laying roses at the Eternal Flame war memorial. But despite scientific evidence, leaders of several countries have continued to express scepticism about the virus and the need for lockdowns. In Belarus, thousands of soldiers marched to celebrate Victory Day, as President Alexander Lukashenko rejected calls for tougher measures. British medical journal The Lancet has written a scathing editorial about Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, calling him the biggest threat to his country's ability to contain the spread of coronavirus. Brazil is currently reporting the highest number of cases in Latin America - over 10,000 more on Saturday, bringing the national total to nearly 156,000. But despite the outbreak, President Bolsonaro continues to dismiss the virus' severity and has clashed with governors over lockdown measures. Frustrations about the outbreak turned violent in Afghanistan, and at least six people died during clashes between protesters and security forces. The violence started after demonstrators gathered in Firozkoh, the capital of Ghor province, to complain about the government's perceived failure to help the poor during the pandemic. Source: BBC 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 Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a video conference with chief ministers of states and Union Territories on Monday afternoon to review Indias progress in containing coronavirus disease while gradually restarting economic activities in a phased manner. The meeting will also be attended by home minister Amit Shah, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan along with senior officials from the centre including the home and health secretary. Hindustan Times had today reported that this meeting will likely discuss the next stage in the exit from the nationwide lockdown and will focus on a further increase in economic activities and also on ways to tackle the pandemic in containment zones. For Coronavirus Live Updates Cabinet secretary Rajeev Gauba held a meeting with the chief secretaries and the health secretaries of all states on Sunday to review the status of Covid-19 management. According to the Centre, the states were in favour of a two-pronged strategy to increase economic activities while containing the disease. Gauba had also held two meetings with state officials on Saturday to identify areas for reopening after May 17- when the third phase of lockdown ends. The meetings also discussed the situation arising out of a sharp rise in positive cases in a few pockets of the country. Some officials familiar with the context of the prime ministers meeting said more concessions were likely to be introduced after May 17, but the number of Covid-19 hotspots and containment zones is unlikely to change. The government had classified all 773 districts in the country into three zones- Red, Orange and Green, to indicate the level of economic activity and restrictions in place in each of these districts. 130 districts were identified as part of the Red Zone, 284 as Orange Zone and 319 as Green Zone. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 On Sunday, the total number of coronavirus cases in India climbed to 62,939, while total number of fatalities rose to 2,109. The prime ministers meeting with chief ministers will also happen in the backdrop of two tragedies- the Vizag Styrene gas leak case that killed 13 people and led to injuries to several others and the Aurangabad train accident in which 16 migrant workers were killed. The National Disaster Management Authority issued guidelines after the Vishakapatnam incident for restarting industries after the lockdown to prevent a repeat of such industrial accidents. The meeting with the chief ministers is likely to also focus on the flight of migrant workers, which presents a difficulty for a full-scale resumption of manufacturing, industrial and construction activities. The first batch of 88 nurses from India arrived in the UAE to help the country's stretched healthcare professionals amid a surge in the number of COVID-19 infections in the Gulf nation that has crossed 17,000, according to media reports. The Ministry of Health and Prevention said the UAE reported 624 new cases on Saturday, taking the total number of infections to 17,417. The number of fatalities reached 185 after 11 deaths were reported on the day. The nurses, who are from Aster DM Healthcare hospitals in the states of Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra, will be put under quarantine for 14 days after which they will be assigned to various field hospitals as per requirement, the Khaleej Times reported. They arrived on a special flight at the Dubai airport on Saturday. India's Ambassador to UAE Pavan Kapoor said that this would further strengthen the long-standing friendship between the two countries. "India and the UAE are showing how a strategic partnership translates into concrete cooperation on the ground in dealing with this pandemic. Helping a friend in need is the motto of cooperation between our two countries," he said. According to a report in the Gulf News, the arrival of the nurses was facilitated in a tie-up with Aster DM Healthcare group, with the support from the Indian Consulate and the UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. India's Consul General Vipul said, It is yet another example of strong India-UAE bilateral ties and reflects deep understanding of problems faced by expatriates as well as UAE nationals in the UAE. "We feel extremely proud to be a part of this joint initiative in providing relief for COVID-19 patients in different facilities," he said. Azad Moopen, Founder Chairman and Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare, said, the group felt duty bound to assist UAE by bringing their medical professionals from India for best possible healthcare delivery to citizens, residents and visitors during the COVID-19 situation. Humaid Al Qutami, Director-General of the Dubai Health Authority said, This initiative is testimony to the relationship shared by the two nations and it highlights the close collaboration between the government and the private health sector. The Indian nurses, who specialise in working in the intensive care unit, said that they are happy to be part of the initiative, the report in Khaleej Times said. Royin Mathew Thomas, one of the nurses in the delegation, said it is his duty to serve people, and so is happy to help the UAE battle the pandemic as part of this special delegation from India. Dipika Suraj Khavale had to leave his 2-year-old child back in India to be part of the team. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sia Shankar Rai (56), a migrant worker, has been trying register on the Delhi governments website to go home to Chapra in Bihar for four days now. But he hasnt even been able to access the portal. It just isnt working, he said. Sia Shankar came to Delhi two days before the Janata Curfew on March 22 and now lives in Najafgarhs Dhansa village. He has been coming to the Capital to work in the fields during the harvest season every year for nearly a decade now. But I couldnt earn much here this time and have run out of money. My family back home is also finding it difficult to make ends meet, Sia Shankar said. He got his hopes up when the Delhi government decided to send migrant workers back to their home states last week, and more so when a train with 1,200 migrants left for Muzaffarpur in Bihar on Friday. Migrant workers are supposed to fill an online form on the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Boards (DUSIB) website. Registrations began on May 4. Bipin Rai, member DUSIB, said, They are supposed to enter basic details such as the number of family members, name of their home town, and others, along with their identity card. But when people try to open the link, they said they are met with a server error. Pradeep Dagar, a resident of Dhansa village has been taking care of Sia Shakar Rai and 10 other migrant workers since the lockdown began. We have been trying register their names in the list of people who want to go back to Bihar. But the link on the DUSIB website has not working for the past few days, and we cant get through the nodal officer, Dagar said. He added, We have been giving them everyday essentials because they dont have much money left. The government should do something for people stranded in various parts of the city. A senior DUSIB official, however, said the registration process is on. There are a lot of people trying to register at the same time on the weblink, which has caused some problems. Ever since we started the registration process, we have got 17,000 applications from families who want to go back to Bihar, which adds up to around 45,000 people, the official said. When contacted, Delhi labour minister Gopal Rais office said the priority is to send those living in government-run shelter homes back to their native states. Migrant workers who are living in various parts of the city and want to go home will be considered in the second phase. Currently, our priority is to send back those living in our shelter homes, and want to return, an official at Gopal Rais office said. Those who are not living in shelter homes will be informed by their areas district magistrate about travel arrangements. Currently, we are sending people who are in our shelter homes on priority basis, Bipin Rai said. While Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday urged migrant workers to stay back in the city, assuring them that there will be jobs very soon, people have been getting restless. A senior official with the chief ministers office said that lots of people are applying to go back to their homes, thats why theres load on the server. Bhola Rai (42), who has a family of six to feed in Bihars Sonepur, said, Our family needs us. We couldnt earn much here. We dont know what the situation will be in the next few months. We want to be with our families right now. The small parcel of land beneath the Tobin Bridge just north of Boston is, to commuters, a blur of industrial sprawl. Mountains of road salt along Marginal Street wait to be hauled to nearby towns. Waterfront tanks of fuel go on to heat the region and refill planes at neighboring Logan International Airport. Tractor trailers trek in and out relentlessly. Amid that commotion is Chelsea, Massachusetts, a dense, 1.8-square mile community of immigrants that powers Boston and its well-to-do suburbs. In normal times, tens of thousands of service industry workers span out across the metro area from their homes in Chelsea to clock shifts as grocery cashiers,landscapers and restaurant back-of-housers. While the physical weight of the economy has long fallen on the shoulders of communities like Chelsea, they are especially vulnerable during the coronavirus pandemic. Now, Chelsea has the highest infection rate in Massachusetts, a state where more than 75,000 people have tested positive for coronavirus, behind only New York and New Jersey for number of confirmed cases. More than 2,200 people in Chelsea, a city of 40,000, have tested positive for coronavirus, and 124 have died. Many more have lost the minimum-wage jobs that sustained them. The community was primed for an uneven assault as the coronavirus spread, said Damali Vidot, a city council member. In addition to high rates of asthma in the community, many service-sector employees in Chelsea live in crowded or multigenerational homes, conditions in which the virus flourishes.Because the city has a high number of "essential" workers,many families have continued to be exposed to the coronavirus even as members of the same household faced layoffs. "One essential worker in a household poses a threat to everyone in that household," Vidot said. "When a virus comes through that affects people that are breath-burdened, we're going to be number one on the list." Local nonprofits mobilized rapidly to address the one-two punch of hunger and illness that suddenly took hold of the city. But the extent to which Chelsea, where 67 percent of residents are Hispanic, was shouldering a disproportionate brunt of infections was not apparent until early April. At the time, the state was not publishing city-by-city data.Then,Tom Ambrosino, Chelsea's city manager, received a spreadsheet of statewide case numbers from Brian Kyes, the city's police chief. Kyes, who is also president of the Massachusetts Major City Chiefs of Police, had compiled city-by-city data and sent it around to city managers "just as an F.Y.I.," Ambrosino said. The spreadsheet contained a revelation: Chelsea, despite its small population, had the third most cases of coronavirus in the state. "We were the epicenter," Ambrosino said. By mid-March, layoffs caused by the pandemic had exacerbated deep-seated economic insecurity among Chelsea's residents, 20 percent of which live in poverty, according to the U.S. Census. Those who suddenly could not work - because they were sick or had been laid off - facedhunger and destitution. Those who could fill essential roles worried about catching the virus and infecting their family members. "My husband has been taking food to students, leaving it on the doorstep where they live. He can't work from home. His work is physical, it's essential," said Mayra, 42, in Spanish. "These are jobs that only people like us, immigrants, are daring to do right now." Mayra, who did not want her last name used because she is undocumented, lost her job making pupusas at a Salvadoran restaurant in March. She and her husband, Luis, have seen their limited savings quickly evaporate as his hours were cut. When the restaurant where she worked recently reopened for takeout orders, Mayra did not think twice about returning despite being worried about contracting the coronavirus. On reduced hours, Mayra and Luis will still not be able to pay all of their bills, but they hope they can at least mitigate some of the financial damage. Next will come decisions about which bills can wait. "The people who live here are people who can't afford to take a month off work. People who need that check because they don't have savings; people who either go to work or they don't eat," said Roy Avellaneda, the president of the Chelsea City Council and a local business owner, noting that the thousands of undocumented in the city do not receive unemployment compensation. "All of the assistance that was being offered on the federal level for stimulus checks was not going to happen here, was not going to our crowd," he said. The pandemic has also exacerbated the trade-offs between health and wealth that have long plagued Chelsea and other working-class communities like it that have shouldered the burden of illnesses caused by air-quality issues and poverty, said Maria Belen Power, an activist and organizer in Chelsea. "This community powers the entire region," said Power, who helped found GreenRoots, an environmental justice nonprofit."But when you look at the composition of our people, by race and class, and you look at the impact on the air quality and on public health, you also see the burdens that we carry." She added: "It's funny that the governors are using the term 'essential workers.' I think about the essential role that Chelsea has always played, and yet it is never recognized, even by our neighbors who just don't realize the impact and the significant role that Chelsea plays in their everyday lives." For more than a century, Chelsea has been a crucial repository for successive waves of immigrants arriving in the United States from across the globe. The city of 40,000 is a living storehouse of global history and migration; its decennial census can be read like a rock-layer in demographic time, showing influxes of Jews, eastern Europeans, Puerto Ricans and Central Americans across the 20th century. In the 1990s, Chelsea became much more heavily Latino as waves of Central Americans arrived in the United States amid intense violence and economic turmoil in their countries of origin. Today, about 70 percent of families in Chelsea do not speak English at home, and about 60 percent of them speak Spanish instead. "If there was any sort of strife somewhere in the world, civil unrest, war, I swear to God within a week or two you'd see that group of refugees coming here and living in Chelsea. Central Americans. Croatians. Somailis. Everyone," Avellaneda said. "The running joke was that everyone landed at Logan Airport and with only five dollars in their pockets and they could only get as far as Chelsea." That history has informed a dramatic community mobilization that sprang up as the illness was spreading in March alongside a second pandemic of unemployment. Avellaneda and others in the community want people to know that what is happening in Chelsea is not just a tragedy. It is also a testament to the community's strength and resilience. Gladys Vega, a longtime activist and the executive director of the Chelsea Collaborative, a local nonprofit, began to see in March how even minor disruptions in the economy would dramatically destabilize the community, especially among day laborers whose hours were suddenly being cut. Food scarcity was already a problem in Chelsea, but coronavirus sparked a wave of hunger, too. Vega began to distribute food on her porch - which she called a "pop-up food pantry" - that today has grown into an operation that pulls donations from local businesses and distributes 750 boxes of food twice a week. An informal pandemic response force has been meeting by phone to coordinate efforts across official city channels, nonprofits and community volunteers. Vega said she knows "I have to play nice" even though she has a reputation for being headstrong. Avellaneda offered the cafe he owns to Vega so she could have more space to run the pop-up. "There were lines all the way down the block full of people who were desperate," he said. One of those people was Mirna Rivera, 39, who planned to return to work at a frozen fish distribution center after an unpaid maternity leave but has been told that job no longer exists. When her husband, Jose, lost his job at a restaurant, they were suddenly left with no income. Some days she stands in line for nearly four hours to receive a box of food to take back to her family of four. "If we don't go to the line, we don't have food to eat. Thank God that they've been helping us. Thank God," she said. The spreadsheet Ambrosino received in April allowed him and nonprofit community groupsto make the case that Massachusetts should mount an aggressive response effort in Chelsea.It opened up a floodgate of resources from the government and bolstered the philanthropic efforts that kept thousands of families afloat. Ambrosino estimates that the city is now delivering about 800 30-pound boxes of food a day, which should last two people about a week. The goal is ultimately to distribute 1,500 boxes each day of the week, with the intention of feeding about 40 percent of the city's total population. The city has also set up temporary housing for recovering coronavirus patients who have nowhere to recover safely, including people whose roommates or family members have asked them to move out after becoming infected, which Vega said she has encountered several times. About half of the 50 rooms secured by the city at a local hotel are currently occupied. The city council has allocated $2.1 million to finance the food and housing efforts. That money is supplemented by donations from the Salvation Army and the Greater Boston Food Bank. About 40 members of the National Guard have been dispatched by the governor to assist with distribution and transportation since April 16. The state has also promised to deliver three meals a day to the sick staying at the hotel. On a recent afternoon, Rep. Joe Kennedy, D-Mass., visited the office of the Chelsea Collaborative during one of its food distribution days, the latest in a long line of political visitors that recently included Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass. But for all the emergency resources being distributed in the community by nonprofits, organizers and the government, people in the city stressed that the structural inequities that made Chelsea vulnerable will persist long after the pandemic is over. They are clear even now. "Many of the people that are deemed essential workers aren't even getting paid wages that allow them to live well. They're getting paid $12 an hour to work in service jobs," Vidot said. "We put people in the predicament where they're forced to pick between their livelihoods or their lives. Fine, let them be essential workers but let them get essential pay." In the meantime, the community's efforts remain trained on responding to its most immediate crises: sickness and hunger. On a recent night, Vega had just finished delivering about 300 boxes of food to families quarantined at home with active cases of covid-19. She followed a strict ritual before interacting with anyone in her family. She took off her shoes on the porch. She sprayed herself all over with Lysol, which she called "my new Chanel." She discreetly undressed and went upstairs to take a shower. "No disrespect to people who are at home, but they should have a taste of the pain these community members are going through," she said. "We cry, we laugh, we cry again." Lucknow, May 10 : UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed sending of high-level teams of medical experts and officials to Kanpur, Agra and Meerut that have emerged as coronavirus hotspots. Addressing a meeting of Team 11 officials, here on Sunday, the Chief Minister said enough PPE kits should be sent to the affected districts. Covid-19 cases are on the rise in these districts despite efforts to contain it. The Chief Minister asked senior IAS officials -- Alok Kumar and Rajnish Dubey -- to camp in Agra along with a senior doctor from the Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences and a senior police official. Similarly, senior IAS officer T Venkatesh will camp in Meerut with medical experts and police officials. The Chief Minister said the lockdown should be enforced strictly and all inter-state and the UP-Nepal border should remain sealed. "Migrant workers should not be allowed to move on foot. We are arranging trains and buses for them. All community kitchens should be properly sanitized and the quality of food should be regularly checked," he said. The medical screening of those working in the community kitchens should be done everyday, he added. The Delhi government on Sunday asked all designated Covid-19 treatment centres in the city to send details of deaths caused by the pathogen by 5pm every day to facilitate the timely auditing of fatalities, and said action would be taken against centres under the Disaster Management Act if there are violations in the reporting protocol and deadline. The government also released a standard operating procedure (SOP) detailing when and how the death reports are to be submitted, and asked for a detailed written explanation in the case of delays. The SOP comes days after reports surfaced of confusion over coronavirus disease death numbers in the Capital, with doctors from at least two designated Covid-19 centres suggesting that more people had succumbed to the disease than was being reflected in the daily bulletins put out by the state government. It was not immediately clear if such a discrepancy existed, and if it did, what was behind it. The Delhi government denied any underreporting, and some state officials said that there may be a lag in the auditing and reporting process. It has come to notice that both public and private hospitals are not reporting the deaths of positive cases of Covid-19 occurring in their hospitals in a timely and regular manner. It has further been observed that despite repeated reminders, the death summaries of the deceased patients are not being provided to death audit committee, resulting in incorrect or delayed reports being submitted, said Sundays order, issued by Delhi chief secretary Vijay Dev. The government stressed in the SOP that its death audit committee for Covid-19 -- it was set up last month -- needs to audit each and every Covid-19 death daily to ensure proper reporting. Speaking to HT last week, a member of the three-member committee said on condition of anonymity: The death audit committee goes through the patient case sheets, investigations, and death summary to include the death in the Covid-19 toll. The committee can report the cases as soon as all the relevant documents are received and this may take a while. Like, for example, the one death reported yesterday was of a patient from May 1. Yes, there is a lag but it is not deliberate underreporting. Death numbers are critical in analysing the spread of the disease and its impact. With 73 deaths out of 6,923 infections in the Capital until Sunday, the fatality rate in Delhi is 1.05%, which is among the lowest in the country. Any anomaly in the numbers, however, could severely hamper the citys fight against Covid-19 because all projections on infrastructure required to fight the disease going forward are based on these calculations. The new SOP says that even if there have been no deaths, centres have to send a nil report by 5pm. It adds that each hospital will appoint a nodal officer to ensure that the deaths are reported in a timely manner. The matter will be escalated to the level of state surveillance officer and then the director general of health services if the report is not received by the state Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) at 5pm. The three-member death audit committee will meet at 5.30pm each day to review the deaths that day. For centres that fail to send a report by 6pm, the nodal officer will have to report the numbers to the state health secretary the next morning, along with details of the deceased, and an explanation of the delay in sharing the information. These protocols will be applicable for both government and private hospitals. There is, however, no mention of how hospitals other than the Covid-19 designated facilities have to report any deaths at their centres. Action can be initiated under the Disaster Management Act if the protocols are not followed, according to the SOP. In exercise of powers conferred under Section 22 of the Disaster Management Act 2005, the undersigned, in his capacity as the chairperson, state executive committee, DDMA (Delhi Disaster Management Authority) hereby directs that the reporting of death cases of Covid-19 positive persons from health facilities (government and private) in Delhi, shall be strictly as per the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) annexed in this order, the order read. The Distaster Management Act, 2005, gives various emergency powers to Union and state governments in the face of natural disasters. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Donald Mad Scientist Trumps promise of an imminent COVID-19 vaccine may be as flawed as his hope that ingesting bleach is a viable antidote. But thousands of real scientists around the world are chasing cures, treatments, vaccines, testing regimens and everything to do with detecting, predicting, mapping and containing coronavirus. A recent Star story on scientists pushing to get a vaccine by the end of the year suggests there are at least 90 such projects speeding ahead around the world in desperate efforts to slow the pandemic. Now, add 31 project teams at the University of Toronto to this coterie of global lab coats each armed with university and private funds that are to fuel research aimed at exposing bit by bit, how the virus works, spreads, can be contained and why it affects some populations more than others. The U of T scientists are recipients of a Toronto COVID-19 Action Fund grant a total of $8.4 million awarded and announced a mere 30 days after the fund was created and 338 applicants submitted ideas. The consequences of COVID-19 is severe for society, so the faster we can find our way out of this the better it is for everybody, said Vivek Goel, U of Ts vice-president of research and innovation. The world is faced with a new virus, there is no immunity in the population, no vaccine or drugs to treat it and the only viable defence are public health measures like social distancing that have huge economic and social consequences. Meanwhile, young people seem impervious to its harm, then not. The aged are definitely at risk but then a centenarian survives its grip. Animals are safe, but maybe not. And all the time, the poor and marginalized frequently, predictably people of colour die at rates twice as high as white folks. The conditions are a call to arms that didnt have to be sounded in the scientific community, really. Most other scientific projects are now stalled behind the giant global lockdown, so everyone might as well jump on the coronavirus research train. COVID-19 presents an array of unprecedented global problems that require urgent attention and expertise from experts in a wide variety of disciplines from medical specialists and public health researchers to economists, social scientists and mathematicians, Goel said. The breadth of projects approved by the University of Toronto reflects the massive task ahead for a world forced to examine a phenomenon that requires a telescope as well as a microscope. Social conditions left far in the distance like why people of colour and marginalized groups are dying at rates twice that of white neighbours must be pulled into the social scientists lab, along with the tracking of the virus genome. Dr. Upton Allen and his team is a good example. Using data from SARS as a base comparison, Allens team will measure the differing types of immune responses at different stages of the illness, from early infection to post recovery, and across different age groups. What we do believe is the immune system responds in different ways, perhaps for young children and the elderly. By better understanding how it behaves, this provides insights into why some people respond with mild symptoms while others are hit hard. This helps determine what treatment will be beneficial, Allen said. While our immune system builds a wall of defence during the illness, the symptoms of feeling unwell suggest that there are holes in the immune defence, Allen explained. Perhaps one should target a specific treatment to try and fix those defects, to fix weak spots in the immune system. We call them immune modulators. They help to dial down the damage, said Allen, head of infectious diseases at Sick Kids and professor of pediatrics at U of T. Doctors currently have two ways to treat coronavirus patients either with anti-viral agents or immunal modulators. The question is, can we apply them to COVID-19? In studying the immune system, we will get a better understanding of how ready the immune systems of patients to receive vaccines, and receive them safely and mount an effective protection response. This is important information, he said. But Allen is not stopping there, at the pure science. His team will ensure his research includes some social science, including a sufficient number of African Canadians to provide representative results that allows them to draw conclusions about the COVID impact on that demographic. We are very passionate about getting this info. The hospital and university are extremely supportive of this pursuit. We will partner with Carl James from York University and Adoma Patterson of the Jamaican Canadian Association to set up opportunity to ID as many Blacks who have had COVID to get an appropriate number for the study. The projects are supposed to have the potential to deliver positive impacts within a year. For example: Prof. Janet Smylie, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, will examine the rapid implementation of a shared COVID-19 tracking and response platform for First Nations, Inuit and Metis populations. U of T Mississauga anthropologist and lecturer Madeleine Mant is looking at COVID-19 risk in young adults. Prof. Scott Schieman, chair of the department of sociology, leads a project to explore the impacts of COVID-19 on the quality of work and economic life in Canada. Then, there is this project from Jordan Feld from the faculty of medicine and the University Health Network: Interferon lambda for immediate antiviral therapy at diagnosis: a phase II randomized, open-label, multicentre trial to evaluate the effect of peginterferon lambda for the treatment of COVID-19. Yeah. If that doesnt get corona, nothing will. KYODO NEWS - May 10, 2020 - 16:55 | World, All, Coronavirus South Korean President Moon Jae In on Sunday praised his country's efforts in battling the novel coronavirus and outlined plans for South Korea to emerge as a leader in the post-COVID-19 era. "We will turn crises into opportunities," Moon said in a special address delivered on the third anniversary of his inauguration. "We will take the current crisis as a driving force for new opportunities and development." "We have already become a country leading the world in epidemic prevention and control," he said, adding that South Korea's response to the crisis "has become a global standard." Moon also voiced confidence that the country's transition back to normal daily life "will also become a model for the world to emulate." Referring to an infection cluster that was recently detected in Seoul's nightlife district, he called on people to maintain their vigilance regarding epidemic prevention. "Even during the stabilization phase, similar situations can arise again anytime, anywhere in an enclosed, crowded space. It's not over until it's over," he said. Health authorities on Sunday reported 34 new coronavirus cases, the biggest daily rise in a month, following the small outbreak centered around a group of nightclubs in Itaewon. As part of the government's determination to tackle the COVID-19 situation, he said the country's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has led the anti-virus efforts, will be upgraded to the Disease Control and Prevention Administration. For his remaining two years in office, he vowed to "turn crises into opportunities" while fully devoting himself to meeting the challenges brought by the coronavirus. "I will strive to pave the way for the Republic of Korea to take the lead globally." By Arthur I. Cyr The foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey held a successful video conference on April 22. The purpose was to rein in the seemingly endless violence in Syria. This is the latest instance of continuing cooperation among traditional opponents. Earlier, on March 5 Russia and Turkey agreed to a ceasefire. This followed a dangerous escalation in violence. Retaliation for the deaths of 60 Turkish troops led to increased support by Ankara for surviving rebel groups in Syria, and a devastating series of drone attacks against Syrian government forces. The decision by Vladimir Putin in 2015 to intervene with military forces in the brutal combat in Syria has led to the sustained expansion of Russia's influence in the region. Along with other benefits, Moscow has greatly increased the staying power of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Historically, Moscow has been preoccupied with secure national borders, especially in Eastern Europe, and generally abstained from sending military forces long distances. This traditional approach has now been abandoned by Putin, who has become a daring military gambler in the Mideast. Russia has a long history of involvement in the volatile region, especially Syria. The profoundly serious Suez Crisis of 1956 resulted in a sharp rupture among Western allies, as the Eisenhower administration refused to support a combined military assault by Britain, France and Israel to retake the Suez Canal and seize the Sinai Peninsula from nationalist Egypt. From that time until the end of the Cold War, Moscow had significant influence. Hafez al-Assad, father of the current Syrian president, helped instigate a successful 1963 coup. By 1970, he consolidated his position and ruled until 2000. Ironically given developments today, he was regarded as relatively moderate and an economic modernizer, though in the context of a dictatorship. Syria developed a close military partnership with Egypt, and the two nations went to war together against Israel in October 1973. The Yom Kippur War also witnessed American-Soviet nuclear confrontation. This crisis arguably was as serious as the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, though conducted almost entirely outside public view, in great contrast to the confrontation over missiles in Cuba. The Watergate domestic political crisis colors recollections among some Nixon administration officials. Nevertheless, reasonable conclusions can be drawn. First, Nixon aggressively pursued the essential need to get aid to Israel. At the same time, Israel was pressured successfully to show restraint regarding encircled Egyptian forces. In short, vital U.S. interests in the region were recognized clearly and protected. Second, visible actions were taken to demonstrate U.S. military resolve: B-52 bombers were moved from Guam to the U.S. mainland, the Army's 82nd Airborne Division was placed on alert. Third, the U.S. ultimately did not pursue a proposed joint "condominium" advocated by the Soviets. Interests were too divergent on both sides. This bears directly on diplomatic efforts by Putin for international collaboration regarding Syria. Moscow clearly sees no reason to involve the U.S. President Jimmy Carter brokered Egypt-Israel peace. President George H.W. Bush and Secretary of State James Baker initiated complex multilateral negotiations which resulted in partial Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation. Moscow was involved. President Barack Obama and his administration pursued a largely rhetorical approach to the ongoing brutal Syria civil war. A declaration that use of poison gas by Syria would lead to military retaliation proved hollow. Putin immediately seized the opportunity and secured a Damascus declaration abandoning chemical weapons. That event marked the end of serious U.S. influence. Arthur I. Cyr (acyr@carthage.edu) is Clausen distinguished professor at Carthage College and author of "After the Cold War." Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday deflected criticism over his governments decision to allow healthcare workers, including government officials, on Covid-19 duty to be treated in hotels converted into medical facilities. The criticism came after the health department issued an order allotting three hotels in east Delhi, out of which two in the five-star category, for the treatment of officials of government offices, autonomous bodies, corporation and local body officers and their family members if they contract Covid-19. The hospital is directed to provide healthcare facility at these hotels to the Covid positive officer/officials treating as if they are admitted in the hospital. Serious patients could be shifted to the main hospital area, the order said about the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital. On Sunday, Arvind Kejriwal said the government is responsible for those who are working on the frontline to fight Covid-19. Frontline workers are risking their lives and fighting the coronavirus disease day in and day out. And it is our responsibility to take care of them if they fall sick, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader said. I want to ask you shouldnt these Covid warriors be given special facilities. They must. Whats the harm if some moneyRs 1, 2, 3, 5, 20 croreis spent. Whats wrong with it? he asked. The AAP leader cited the example of Delhi Police constable Amit Rana, who died after contracting Covid-19, and said his family was given Rs 1 crore to honour him. Why is the opposition so troubled? This is my request to everyone that this is no time for doing politics but for all of us to think about what we can do to fight against corona. We need to think about that, he said. Dont indulge in issuing political statements and help each other, he said. The Delhi chief minister also said there are 6,923 coronavirus cases so far in the national capital, 2,069 patients have recovered and 73 have died. He added that out of the 6,923 Covid-19 patients, only 1,476 are admitted at hospitals. The rest or about 75% are getting treatment at their homes and Covid-19 centres. A massive bedbug and insect disinfestation exercise is currently ongoing in all senior high, vocational and special schools in the Western and Western North Regions. The Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Education engaged Zoomlion Ghana Limited to provide specialised disinfestation and disinfection exercise for all second circle (public and private) schools across Ghana. On the first day, schools in the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolis including the Ahantaman Girls' Senior High, Arch Bishop Porter's Girls Senior High, Diabene Secondary Technical, Adeamra Senior High, St. John's, Fijai and Bompe Senior High Schools among others had their compounds, dormitories, classrooms, dining halls, administration blocks, staff common rooms, assembly halls, security gates and many more fumigated and disinfected successfully. At the Ahantaman Girl's Senior High School, the Headmistress, Miss Ernestina Kankam, expressed gratitude to the Director General and all authorities of the Ghana Education Service and, the Minister of Education for consdering the challenges the students and the school administrations faced and, subsequently the commitment of coming in to augment their individual efforts to ameliorate their situation. She underscored the need for the authorities to consistently ensure that bedbugs, rodents and insects are expelled if not destroyed for the schools to experience a conducive environment good enough for academic work. She was impressed by the work Zoomlion Ghana did in Ahantaman and told the workers to continue to open their hearts and work for mother Ghana in the wake of the novel Coronavirus pandemic. Miss Kankam said her school in their inadequate source of funding still manages sometimes to disinfect the school to give the students incident free terms for academic activity. In a similar development, Headmistress of Arch Bishop Porters Girls' Senior High School, Mrs. Charllote Asiedu Musah was full of praises to the GES and education ministry and for the innovation and concern shown to the staff and students of all second circle schools. She appealed for the authorities to make it permanent for the schools to be periodically fumigated for the safety of staff and students of the schools. Mrs. Musah also appreciated the zealous commitment that Zoomlion workers have put into the work and prayed the company grows into a multinational recounting on the corporate social responsibility services it has recently done for the university communities in Ghana. The General Manager of Zoomlion/Western Waste Limited, Alhaji Abdallah Abdulai, explained that the use of the chemical call inesfly was targeting insects and rodents while the chlorine solution was to destroy all viruses and bacteria including the Coronavirus on the school campuses. He was optimistic that given the fact that schools were off and that the chemical will be allowed to function properly by the time students will return the schools will then be safe for them to occupy. On the second day, schools such as Sekondi College, Takoradi Vocational, Twin City Special, Catholic Special, Catholic Vocational, Methodist and Sekondi Senior High Schools were disinfected and fumigated among others. The team is scheduled to attend to other schools in the Western and Western North Regions on Sunday and Monday through to the next weekend. Tim Wirtz Junior looked at two large rainbow trout swimming near land. He cast his fishing line into the water. No luck. The fish swam right past, not even stopping for a look. Wirtz did not seem to mind his failure at fishing. At a time when millions of Americans are following stay-at-home orders, he was out enjoying the weather all while obeying guidelines for social distancing. He made sure not to get within two meters of other people. Wirtzs father Tim approved of his sons activity. Its a good way to get out in the fresh air and he can still distance pretty easily, he said. The coronavirus health crisis has pressed many Americans into their homes. For some, the only escapes are trips to buy food, visits to the doctors office and trips to open spaces for physical exercise. A visit to the neighborhood lake with a fishing pole in hand has become a popular get-out-of-the-house activity. Across the United States, many bodies of water are closed to the general public. But many community lakes are open and have fish. Steve Gurtin is community fishing program manager for Arizona Game and Fish. Gurtin says that although he did not have exact information, weve definitely seen a lot of anglers out...were seeing a lot more people trying to get outdoors. Anglers are a kind of fisherman. They use a fishing line and rod to catch fish, not a net. The appeal of fishing is clear. Fishing is mostly an activity for one person or a small number of people. And what about those social-distancing guidelines? They are already in place. Stephanie Vatalaro is with the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation. You dont want to be close, she said. Youre going to tangle your lines, get your equipment mixed up. Fishing is a sport that lends itself to social distancing for sure. The Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation was created to increase Americans interest in boating and fishing. The groups website, takemefishing.org, has seen a 15% increase in traffic over the past month. Online searches for fishing and how-to fish information have increased by over 300%, notes The Associated Press. Searches for fishing licenses are at the highest point in four years. A recent Harris Poll showed 24% of people with children under 18 were thinking about fishing more during the coronavirus pandemic. Vatalaro said that fishing helps people in many ways. Its great for mental health, stress relief, connecting with your family, creating memories, but health and safety is No. 1. Im John Russell. John Marshall reported on this story for The Associated Press. John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. ___________________________________________ Words in This Story cast v. to throw (a fishing line or hook) into the water by using a fishing pole manager n. a supervisor or director tangle v. to become or cause (something) to become tied together license n. an official document, card, etc., that gives you permission to do, use, or have something poll n. short for opinion poll, a public opinion study relief n. an easing of pressure; calmness Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms characterized the killing of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery as a lynching while she also blasted President Donald Trump for his rhetoric that gives racists a green light to act on their worst impulses. It is heartbreaking. Its 2020, and this was a lynching of an African American man, Bottoms said on CNNs State of the Union. Bottoms, who is seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party and has been mentioned as a possible running mate for Joe Biden, went on to say that the killing was part of this bigger issue in the country that can be traced back to Washington. With the rhetoric that we hear coming out of the White House, in so many ways, I think many who are prone to being racist are given permission to do it in an overt way that we otherwise would not see in 2020, she said. Bottoms agrees with those who say that Gregory McMichael and his son Travis McMichael were only arrested and charged with murder because the video of the killing was made public. I think had we not seen that video, I dont believe that they would be charged, Bottoms said. The pair were arrested last week, more than two months after Arbery was killed in Brunswick, Georgia, on Feb. 23. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its heartbreaking that its 2020 and this was a lynching of an African American man, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms says about the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery. https://t.co/GGX09XO2Ra #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/GiEUoqozF0 CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 10, 2020 Arberys mother agrees with that assessment and said that even though her son was hunted down and killed like an animal, if it werent for the video being made public, the investigation into her sons death would have been very different. I honestly think that if we didnt get national attention to it, my sons death would have actually been a cover-up, Wanda Cooper Jones said in an interview that aired Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Without national attention, my sons death would have been a coverup, Ahmaud Arberys mother tells @yamiche pic.twitter.com/mxBSLKs6CI PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) May 8, 2020 Advertisement Bottoms said that when local law enforcement fails, the Justice Department is supposed to be a backstop to make sure people are appropriately prosecuted. But that isnt happening right now because we dont have that leadership at the top. Bottoms went on to say her immediate family is not feeling safe these days. I have four kids, three of whom are African American boys, she said. They are afraid, they are angry. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Sunday that it was investigating a threat made on Facebook against future protests related to Ahmaud Arbery. That came a day after it was revealed that investigators are reviewing additional video from the neighborhood where the shooting took place. The attorney of the man who recorded the video of Arberys killing said Saturday that his client is receiving threats that coincide with authorities announcing that he is also under investigation. William Roddie Bryan shared the 36-second video with police that was later described as a key piece of evidence. Mr. Bryan videotaped what was going on and because he did that, there is a prosecution, Kevin Gough said. If he had not videotaped that incident, the only person who really could speak to what happened is dead and well never have that opportunity. That video is the prosecution. Gough said Bryan was not aware he was being investigated until officials announced it Friday. As a part of the 'Vande Bharat' Mission, Indian nationals at the San Fransisco airport will board the first repatriation flight from the United States. India's Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu informed that the first flight will take off from San Francisco, followed by 7 more flights from 4 different hubs of Air India. All these flights will be going to different cities in India, he added. READ | AI crew on Vande Bharat Mission can return to Gautam Budh Nagar from Delhi after COVID-19 test USA: Indian nationals at the San Fransisco airport to board the repatriation flight under #VandeBharatMission. It is the first repatriation flight for Indians, from the US. pic.twitter.com/VXU5hGvFN5 ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2020 The first flight will take off from San Francisco in a little while& then we are going to have 7 flights from 4 different hubs. These are all Air India hubs,& these flights are going to different cities of India: Taranjit Singh Sandhu, India's Ambassador to US #VandeBharatMission pic.twitter.com/Nyhk04LwEq ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2020 READ | Vande Bharat mission: Second Air India flight with 129 Indian citizens departs from Dhaka 8 evacuation flights scheduled to land in India Apart from the repatriation flights from the United States, 8 more evacuation flights will land in India on Sunday, the day 4 of Vande Bharat mission. Below mentioned is the list of flights that will be carrying Indians stranded across the globe back to their country as a part of Coronavirus evacuation operation. Vande Bharat, 10th May----Day 4 1) London to Mumbai Arrival at Mumbai: 0130 hrs 2) Doha to Cochin Arrival at Cochin: 0140 hrs 3) Singapore to Mumbai. Arrival at Mumbai: 1230 hrs 4) Riyadh to Delhi Arrival at Delhi: 2000 hrs 5) Kuwait to Chennai Arrival at Chennai: 2135 hrs 6) Kaula Lampur to Cochin Arrival at Cochin: 2215 hrs 7) Doha to Trivandrum Arrival at Trivandrum: 2245 hrs 8) London to Delhi Arrival at Delhi: 2250 hrs READ | Vande Bharat Mission: 1st evacuation flight from Bahrain lands in Cochin with 177 people 'Vande Bharat' Mission In a major relief for Indians stranded abroad, the Centre had announced that their travel will be arranged via aircraft and naval ships in a phased manner. The Ministry of Home Affairs also issued the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the movement of the returnees. The mission will go on for 7 days and will rescue stranded Indians from over 11 countries in 64 Air India flights carrying over 14,800 people. The flights will take off for 12 countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Maldives, Singapore and the US. READ | PMO supervises Vande Bharat Mission to bring back Indians stranded abroad (With inputs from agency) By Express News Service KOCHI: Kerala is facing unforeseen challenges and we have to adopt futuristic strategies to overcome the situation, said Kerala public sector Restructuring and Internal Audit Board (RIAB) former chairman M P Sukumaran Nair. Around 1 lakh Keralites are expected to return from the West Asian countries due to job loss and reintegrating them into our job market is a tough job. Most of them are semi-skilled workers. The government should promote the small and medium industries sector and help the Gulf returnees start innovative ventures at an investment of Rs 25 to 50 lakh. We are importing many daily-use consumer products from China which can be manufactured here with minimum investment, he said. According to him, the government should provide collateral security for small entrepreneurs which will be beneficial in the long run. The food processing sector has huge potential for employment generation. The government should take up fallow land and provide incentives to improve farm output. The state can start manufacturing pre-fabricated houses which will have huge demand, he said. The state should learn from countries like Thailand and Vietnam as the way they have implemented diversification is amazing. Products like natural extracts and dyes have a huge market and given the biodiversity of Western Ghats, the state has a huge potential in employment generation and improving revenue. The expertise of workers returning from West Asia can be utilised for the development of petrochemical park, he said. Photo: BC Hydro Aerial view of diversion tunnel outlets at Site C, February 2020. WorkSafeBC has fined Peace River Hydro Partners $662,102.48 for what it calls repeated violations at Site C. The fine was issued March 9, after "several health and safety deficiencies were observed related to the use of wheel chocks and curbs for rock trucks, training and documentation, and emergency facilities, chemical labelling, and ventilation in a lab, WorkSafeBC said. The firm failed to install adequate curbs where there was a danger of a vehicle running off the edge of an elevated area, and failed to ensure that each piece of equipment was capable of safely performing its functions," WorkSafe reported. "The firm also failed to provide its workers with the training necessary to ensure their health and safety, and to keep adequate training records. In addition, the firm failed to take action to correct reported unsafe conditions without delay, and failed overall to ensure the health and safety of all workers at its worksite. These were all repeated violations. Peace River Hydro Partners has now been fined $1.63 million for health and safety workplace violations. PRHP was fined $662,102.48 in August 2019 after a worker received an electrical shock. It was fined $310,339.36 in May 2018 for for failing to control silica exposure. There were 4,896 workers reported on the project in March. There is currently one Site C worker in self-isolation, and 861 workers reported at the camp. Uttarakhand police said they have arrested three persons including two yoga teachers for allegedly molesting and stalking a Japanese woman for sexual favours on Sunday in Rishikesh. Police said the woman had lodged a complaint against four people out of which three were as Harikishan Singh (43), Chandrakant Dahal (32) - both yoga teachers and Somraj (22) a kitchen staffer at a yoga training centre - were arrested. The fourth accused is yet to be arrested. Arun Mohan Joshi, deputy inspector general, Dehradun said, the foreign national had lodged the complaint on Saturday following which police initiated the action. In her complaint, she had stated that she came to Rishikesh a few months ago to learn yoga at a yoga training centre in the popular tourist town. At the centre, all four accused who were employed there, started harassing her with obscene talks for sexual favours, said Joshi. Disturbed by the advances and harassment, the woman lodged a complaint with the Rishikesh police. Based on the complaint, we immediately registered a case against the accused for molestation and stalking under sections 354(a) and 354(d) of IPC followed by a probe. Of the four, the three accused mentioned above were arrested from their residences in Rishikesh, said Joshi. He said, They will soon be produced before the local court. A probe is on to nab the fourth accused. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Even as hospitalizations decline and Connecticut officials lay out plans to gradually reopen businesses, Gov. Ned Lamont has renewed calls for volunteers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In a press release Sunday, the Democratic governor said the more than 5,000 medical and more than 1,600 nonmedical volunteers have been incredibly generous during the pandemic. The volunteers who have come forward have been a tremendous help to our hospitals, and to critically important services at our food banks, meal delivery services, and shelters, Lamont said in a statement. Im grateful to everyone who is stepping forward and I ask that you keep pitching in, and invite others to join you so that we can meet the needs of our neighbors and communities over the coming weeks and months. Work by volunteers has included distributing food to food banks, worked with homeless populations in shelters, and provided meal deliveries to homebound senior citizens, the governors office said. A number of other public officials and nonprofit heads, including Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, also expressed their appreciation for volunteers who have stepped up during the pandemic. I thank every resident of Connecticut who has come forward to meet the needs of our most vulnerable residents during this time, Bysiewicz said in a statement. Volunteers are an absolutely essential part of effective response to this crisis. Those interested in volunteering can go to the states coronavirus webpage and follow the link for volunteers. Volunteers must be over the age of 18, and should not sign up if they are in an at-risk population, including those over the age of 60, or if they live with someone who is at risk. The net number of people hospitalized for the disease in Connecticut has continued to fall. On Saturday, the governors office laid out a set of criteria for how business can begin to reopen, starting in the coming weeks. As of Sunday, the governors office reported 33,554 have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The data shows 2,967 people in the state have lost their lives after falling ill. Sameer Chaturvedi woke up on April 1 to a raft of WhatsApp messages. His college friends were discussing the paucity of ventilators to treat Covid-19. On his extended family group, relatives were blaming people who attended a religious congregation in New Delhi for the outbreak. And, a close friend was holding forth on how beauty and brains could come together in his dream woman. The common thread: A woman named Nisha Jindal, supposedly a resident of Chhattisgarhs capital city Raipur, who had posted in her widely popular Facebook account that representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO) had flown down to Raipur to meet her, and that 10,000 ventilators were being dispatched to the state as a result of the meeting. Screenshots of the post were doing the round of WhatsApp groups. I first thought someone was pulling an April Fools prank on me, so I quickly logged onto Facebook and found her profile. Not only did she have some mutual friends with me but I saw many big people were on her list. I thought she must be someone important, said Chaturvedi, a small-time businessman in Raigarh town. She seemed very pretty so I also thought of sending her a request and starting a chat, he added. Unknown to Sameer, the Facebook post, made on March 26, had stoked suspicion at the police headquarters in Raipur, especially because officials had received several previous complaints that the profile was putting out communal content. A month later, they arrested a 31-year-old man from a small two-room flat in Raipurs Kabir Nagar locality. In their investigation and questioning, they found that the man, an engineering college drop-out, had put together an elaborate hoax on Facebook with eight fake profiles to churn out misinformation to tens of thousands of people and gained tremendous traction on Facebook and WhatsApp when Covid-19 hit India. At the centre of the fake news machinery was Nisha Jindal, a supposedly 35-year-old mother of one who managed to add top industrialists, journalists, photographers, politicians, activists, bureaucrats and police officers in her social media circle. The bait: Illegally borrowed photographs of Pakistani actor Miraha Pasha, rabid communal commentary and hints of bonhomie with important politicians and bureaucrats. When we arrested him, he told us he had studied from Harvard. He was laughing at having made a fool out of thousands. He didnt want money, it seemed he did it for popularity, said Arif Sheikh, the Raipur superintendent of police. When asked why he impersonated an actor and used a fake name, his answer to the police interrogators was straightforward. Look at my face, do you think any of those thousands would have followed me if they knew how I really look? What Ravi could never, Nisha Jindal was able to, become famous. Modest beginnings Pujar was born in a lower-middle class household in Raipur to a state government employee. He studied in the Adarsh Vidyalaya, where students and teachers described him as an unusually quiet boy who kept mostly to himself. We would joke that we would never see him talking to girls, said one of his friends, Rahul Kamakar. A second friend, who didnt want to be named said he was always interested in news. In school, Pujar did poorly in other subjects but was surprisingly good at maths, pursuing a degree in information technology at a local private engineering college after his board examinations in 2009. In 2012, after falling behind on his assignments and failing year-end examinations, his college informed Pujar that he would not be allowed to graduate and he dropped out. It was then that Jindal was born. He lived with his parents in government quarters and spent most of his time on the phone. We lived in the same house and yet I never knew what he was up to. I dont know what happened to him but one thing I am sure, he was not anti-Muslim, said his father, Jagdish Pujar. He has never fought with anyone or has been violent. My son was very simple, I dont know what happened to him, added Jagdish. For the next four years, his friends unsuccessfully asked Pujar many times to take up a job, but they couldnt even get him to admit that he had failed college. He would always say, I dont want to do a small job, said Rahul. Pujar told his parents that he was preparing for the civil services examination. I met him a day before the lockdown, he said he was preparing for a competitive exam, said a third friend who refused to be named. In his spare time, he would share an evening drink of cheap beer with two or three friends. He would never get drunk. In fact he would take care of us if one of us got out of hand, said Kamakar. His other passion was cooking chicken that was a favourite snack with friends. I wonder why he did it, whether he was lonely, or simply ambitious. After all, remember that every important person in our state followed the profile and no one in our circle could ever dream of knowing these people, said the third friend. Creating a fictitious life Nisha Jindal first appeared on Facebook in the summer of 2012. Within the span of a couple of months, Pujar created eight supporting profiles of friends, sister, family members of the Jindal family, all of whom were connected on Facebook and amplified Jindals photos, posts and comments. All the photos were taken from Pashas account. In the first few years, Jindal gained some traction but never made it beyond a small group of friends and people a common phenomenon on a website that pulled down three billion fake accounts last year according to data put out by Facebook in 2019 -- with India among the top three markets with such profiles. Apart from biological details, her profile listed professional skills that included archaeology, biology, computer science, fashion designer, weapons expert, microbiologist and classical dancer. In these early years when most updates were personal photos, anecdotes and flirty texts, Jindal mirrored one of the most common fake profiles on Facebook, Angel Priya, of which hundreds of iterations are made by young men every year and which inspired director Raaj Shandilya to make 2019 Ayushmann Khurrana-starrer film, Dream Girl, where the lead actor pretends to be a woman over a telephone service. The nationwide protests that broke out last year after the government amended the citizenship law propelled Jindals reach and gave a distinctive communal colour to its content. We found that the anti-Muslim rhetoric became shriller and she started writing fake things about politicians. Many influential people started sharing her content, said Abhishek Maheswari, the city superintendent of police. This is also the time Chaturvedi received the first screenshot of Jindals post on his WhatsApp group it was about how the anti Citizenship (Amendment) Act protesters were destroying the country. The likes and shares on her posts went up dramatically. Pujar would spend 12-14 hours every day on his phone, finding news and then making something up to post on his profile. In our interrogation, we found that he had tremendous knowledge of random trivia; almost everything was copied from the internet, said Sheikh. Growing bolder with the profile, Pujar started sending out friend requests to important people including one to Sheikh. I saw that the profile said she was California-based and there were many prominent business people on the profile... I didnt accept, the police officer said. From January, Jindal started posting more about Covid-19 and her supposed meetings with officials of international organisations, including the International Monetary Fund. At the same time, Pujar kept up a steady stream of reposted TikTok videos and personal updates including one where Jindal declared she is 35 and unmarried. Her posts came at a time fear of the virus was gripping the hinterlands and news about mystery illnesses and miracle cures were flying about not just on social media but also on local newspapers and television channels. Jindals misinformation fit neatly into this matrix. We saw that thousands of people started following her and her posts were getting shared much more on WhatsApp. Everyone thought she knew big people, said a top police officer on condition of anonymity. The Tablighi Jamaat congregation in New Delhi that the government held responsible for 4,000 cases fuelled her reach and fit neatly into her anti-Muslim tirade. Her reach was tremendous and her Covid updates were very popular. If someone accused her of being fake, hundreds would crash the comments section defending her. They would say they know her, have met her in real life just to win her trust and favour, said Maheswari. The penny drops On April 12, Maheswari sent a friend request to Jindal. By then, police had already searched thousands of houses in Shankar Nagar, the address listed in the profile, but come up short. Another effort to get Facebook to cough up details had also come up short. Jindal immediately accepted the request. She was fond of adding government officers, I saw many other top officials in her list, about 100 senior officers and 200 journalists, he said. To track the IP address, Maheswari adopted a very Indian routine: Sending good morning messages every day with photos of a bouquet of flowers. But for a week, Jindal responded with just emoticons, which were not enough to track down her connection. He finally sent Jindal her profile photo on her messenger inbox and said, You are very beautiful. Within minutes, there was a response and the two had started chatting. By the next day, on April 20, the police had traced the mobile phone and found the Pujar house in Kabir Nagar but were still taken aback when they walked into the house. We were expecting someone very sophisticated. But it was a very modest house and when I looked at Pujar, I started laughing. We realised it was a fake profile, said Maheswari. Multiple police accounts say when Pujar was arrested, he was amused by how popular the profile had become. The investigation initially focused on possible financial transactions but officers quickly realised that Pujars motive was not monetary. He was proud of the popularity and how many people proposed to him over messenger. But he also seemed biased against Muslims and that may have been another motive, said the unnamed police official quoted above. Pujar has been arrested under sections 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups) and 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under relevant Sections of Information Technology (IT) Act. Shortly after his arrest, police made Pujar post his real photo on Jindals profile and tell thousands of her followers that the account was fake, and that he was fake. He was still confident, he told us that he was Nisha Jindal and that there was no difference between the two, said Maheswari. The final post on Jindals profile went viral within hour and was screen grabs are still doing the rounds of WhatsApp, Reddit and meme factories. When it landed in Chaturvedis inbox a day later, it shocked his circle of friends in Raigarh. The profile was still up it was taken down a day later and later that evening, five or six friends gathered. We drank and laughed at how we had been fooled. One of us even had a crush on her. Actually, in our small town, it was a big deal for someone to know so many big people, to have prominent people, industrialists and politicians follow you, he said. While scrolling, they saw that a fight had broken out in the comments section between a small group of Jindal faithful and others. One of the profiles, named Avichal Sharma, still defended Jindal, or Pujar. Whats in the body, the mind, the brain is everything, was his comment. As if we shared her content because of its intellect, Chaturvedi said with a laugh. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, May 10, 2020 13:50 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd708948 1 National COVID-19,COVID-19-Indonesian-patients,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,Papua,Mimika,Tembagapura,Freeport-Indonesia,miners Free The regent of Mimika in Papua has urged President Joko Jokowi Widodo to temporarily close a mine in the regency owned by gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia as the number of COVID-19 cases in the area continues to rise. Human lives are at stake here, so we hope the President will close Freeport for a while because COVID-19 cases keep increasing there, Mimika Regent Eltinus Omaleng said on Friday, as quoted by kompas.com. He said he would send a letter to the President regarding his appeal. Eltinus said that closing down the mine, located in Tembagapura district, was necessary to contain the spread of the disease because the work environment led to unavoidable crowding, even though Freeport Indonesia had enacted a social distancing policy. In Freeport, [the employees] sit together; they go into the mess halls together; they take the bus together; they take the trams together, he said. Read also: Limited health facilities leave Papua facing tough COVID-19 fight The company reported on Tuesday that 52 of its employees had tested positive for COVID-19, one of whom had died. The Mimika regency had recorded 97 COVID-19 cases and three deaths as of Thursday the highest in Papua with 56 of the cases coming from the Tembagapura district alone. Papua as a whole had recorded 277 confirmed cases as of Saturday, according to the government count. Papua COVID-19 Task Force spokesperson Silwanus Sumule told Antara News Agency on Tuesday that Freeport Indonesia had prepared isolation chambers for its employees. The facility consisted of 600 beds. In 2018, Freeport Indonesia said it employed about 30,000 workers, with tens of thousands more working as contractors in the mines. (mfp) Chennai, May 10 : Nearly a week after Tamil Nadu government decided to open liquor shops, actor-turned-politician Rajinikanth on Sunday warned the ruling AIADMK government not to dream of coming back to power if it opens liquor outlets. In a tweet Rajinikanth said if the liquor shops are opened at this juncture the government should forget the dream of coming back to power. He urged the government to look at other good ways to fill up its coffers. The state government on May 4 announced its decision to open the liquor outlets from May 7. The Madras High Court also initially permitted opening the liquor outlets subject to conditions. However, when the outlets were opened, the conditions laid down by the state government and by the High Court were openly flouted. Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan-floated party Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) and an advocate approached the High Court citing the breach of conditions. The court on May 8 ordered closure of outlets while permitting online sales and home delivery of liquor bottles. Meanwhile the state government has approached the apex court against the Madras High Court's order. National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini has hit hard at Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, following the latters comparison of Ghana's power crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Suhuyini said Dr. Bawumia in his response to former President John Dramani Mahama did the usual thing of comparing two incidents that had different effects on the economy and Ghanaians. 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. The Vice President also said the NDC government during the power crisis could not effectively manage the economy. The Tamale North legislator on Citi TV/FMs Big Issue said the Vice President flopped in his presentation. Dr. Bawumia in his response only spoke about data he never shares or shared and even when he does, we all know what he is good at. Comparing apples to oranges. Embarrassing himself academically and politically. In the past, he got away with it but now people are beginning to see it. He thinks he can still compare a pandemic affecting the world to something like dumsor even though we have Ebola to compare with. When he decides to share data, he avoids Ebola and does the academically ridiculous thing. Bawumia wants us to believe our economy is robust, but ask yourself where is the money government is using to deal with COVID-19 coming from. The first major tranche of money came from the stabilization fund. Since the NPP came into power since 2017, they have contributed nothing to it. Mahamas presentation factual Comparing the two presentations, Suhuyini described Mr. Mahamas presentation as factual. He talked about the expenditure still rising. The elephant-sized government not showing any signs of pruning down. He spoke to facts. Revenue is down, expenditure is down. What did Mahama say? John Mahama in a Facebook interaction session last week said the much-hyped economy by the governing New Patriotic Party has failed the test of time as it is currently in shambles a few weeks after the Coronavirus outbreak. According to him, the economy is currently in Intensive Care following the ravaging impact of COVID-19. The former President in answering a question from a viewer about how he intends to revive the economy should he be elected as President in the 2020 general elections said the economy is struggling because it was built on propaganda. In reflecting on this question, this is one of the issues that we have continuously talked about that it is always necessary that when you are building an economy to have enough buffers and create fiscal space so that when you are faced with a shock or adversity, you are easily able to overcome it. Unfortunately, this government has used a lot of propaganda saying the economy has been the best that we have ever had since independence. Unfortunately, just one month of coronavirus the economy is in ICU. If we didn't run to the IMF for the one billion rapid credit facility, it is possible that in the next month probably salaries would not have been paid and so our economy is on ventilators, and it needs thinking to rescue it from the ICU, Mahama said. Mahama's comment has already triggered a response from the Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah who stressed that the economy is resilient and can afford the many interventions and programmes the government is rolling out amidst the COVID-19 outbreak in Ghana. ---citinewsroom China has issued a lengthy rebuttal of what it said were 24 "preposterous allegations" by some leading US politicians over its handling of the new coronavirus outbreak. The Chinese foreign ministry has dedicated most of its press briefings over the past week to rejecting accusations by US politicians, especially Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, that China had withheld information about the new coronavirus and that it had originated in a laboratory in the city of Wuhan. A 30-page, 11,000-word article posted on the ministry website on Saturday night repeated and expanded on the refutations made during the press briefings, and began by invoking Abraham Lincoln, the 19th century US president. "As Lincoln said, you can fool some of the people all the time and fool all the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time," it said in the prologue. The article also cited media reports that said Americans had been infected with the virus before the first case was confirmed in Wuhan. There is no evidence to suggest that is the case. Keen to quash US suggestions that the virus was deliberately created or somehow leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the article said that all evidence shows the virus is not man-made and that the institute is not capable of synthesising a new coronavirus. 'Timely' Warnings The article also provided a timeline of how China had provided information to the international community in a "timely", "open and transparent" manner to rebuke US suggestions that it had been slow to sound the alarm. Despite China's repeated assurances, concerns about the timeliness of its information have persisted in some quarters. A report by Der Spiegel magazine last Friday cited Germany's BND spy agency as saying that China's initial attempt to hold back information had cost the world four to six weeks that could have been used to fight the virus. The article rejected Western criticism of Beijing's handling of the case of Li Wenliang, a 34-year-old doctor who had tried to raise the alarm over the outbreak of the new virus in Wuhan. His death from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, prompted an outpouring of rage and grief across China. The ministry article said Li was not a "whistle-blower" and he was never arrested, contrary to many Western reports. However, the article did not mention that Li was reprimanded by the police for "spreading rumours". Though Li was later named among "martyrs" mourned by China, an investigation into his case also drew criticism online after it merely suggested the reprimand against him be withdrawn. Rejecting suggestions by US President Donald Trump and Pompeo that the new coronavirus should be called the "Chinese virus" or "Wuhan virus", the article cited documents from the World Health Organization to say the name of a virus should not be country-specific. Tara Reade, the woman whos accused Joe Biden of s.e.xual assault, sat down with Megyn Kelly for her first major on-camera interview and included new details about the alleged incident and said she wants to see Biden drop out of the presidential race. For the first time in the telling of her story to news organizations, Reade told Kelly that Biden said something vulgar to her during the alleged assault, which Reade said occurred when she was working for Biden in the U.S. Senate in 1993. He said I want to f*** you, Reade told the former Fox News and NBC News anchor. Since March, Reade has told reporters that Biden pushed her up against a wall in a Capitol Hill hallway, told her that he heard that she liked him, and proceeded to stick his hand down her skirt and digitally penetrate her. When she froze up and indicated that she wasnt interested, she consistently quoted him saying to her that she meant nothing to him. In the telling with Kelly, she added the four-letter expletive. And he said it low. And I was pushing away and I remember my knee hurting because our knees, because he had opened my legs with his knee and our kneecaps clashed, so I felt this sharp pain, Reade said. His fingers were inside of my private area, my vagina, the ex-staffer added. In every telling of the story, Reade said Biden told her she was nothing before walking away. I think thats the hardest thing, she told Kelly. Those words stayed with me my whole life. I remember small things, the accuser continued. I remember trying to put my shoe back on because I came out of my shoe and I remember my knee hurting and I remember the smell. She told Kelly that she wanted to say stop. I thought it, I dont know if I said it, she said. She also said she wanted Biden to end his presidential run and face the music. I want to say you and I were there, Joe Biden, please step forward and be held accountable, you should not be running on character for president of the United States, Reade told Kelly, who had asked what her message was for Biden. Kelly followed up by asking Reade if she wanted Biden to withdraw from the presidential contest. I wish he would, Reade answered. But he wont, but I wish he would, thats how I feel emotionally, Reade said. She previously wrote on social media that Americans should support Bernie Sanders, Bidens former Democratic primary rival. She then told Kelly that an apology now wouldnt be sufficient. I think its a little late, Reade said. Reade revealed to Kelly that she had taken her complaint to both Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris presidential campaigns when they were still active. I tried to reach out to them, Reade said. I didnt get a response. She said she chose Harris because as a Californian, the ex-2020 candidate is her senator. Reade also told Kelly that she would testify under oath and be cross examined, but shed only take a polygraph test if the former vice president took one first. Im not a criminal, Reade said. Joe Biden should take the polygraph. What kind of precedent does that set for survivors of violence? Does that mean were presumed guilty? And we all have to take polygraphs. So I will take one if Joe Biden takes one, but I am not a criminal, Reade added. Kelly, formerly of Fox News Channel and NBC News, had announced earlier Thursday on Twitter that she had nabbed the first major sit-down with Reade, who previously complained about the big networks not giving her TV time. Her story & some tough Qs in a riveting exchange, Kelly wrote. A ton of news coming , she said and included a photo of both she and Reade. Since leaving NBC News in January 2019, Kelly has worked for herself, posting interviews to her YouTube channel, and then promoting them on social media platforms. The first clip of the interview, which Kelly posted on Twitter late Thursday afternoon, began with Reade telling the former Fox anchor about harassment shes endured at the hands of so-called Biden surrogates. Its been stunning, actually, how the some of his surrogates, with the blue checks, that are his surrogates, have been saying really horrible things about me and to me on social media, Reade said. He hasnt himself, but, theres a measure of hypocrisy with the campaign saying its safe, she continued. Its not been safe, Reade said. All my social media has been hacked. All my personal information has been dragged through. Every person that maybe has, you know, a gripe against me, an ex-boyfriend or an ex-landlord, whatever it is, has been able to have a platform rather than me. Late last month, Reade told The New York Times media critic Ben Smith that no major networks had offered to put her on TV. Theyre just doing stories. No anchors, no nothing like that, she said. At the time, Smith reported, Reade was in talks with Fox News Channel about doing an on-camera interview, with Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace looking to be the venue. Reade told The Times that she backed out due to getting death threats. A Fox News source told DailyMail.com that the network was en route to the interview and Reade canceled for security concerns. She brought the death threats up again Thursday in her sit-down with Kelly. I got a death threat from that because they thought I was being a traitor to America, Reade said, pointing to some postings that branded her a Russian agent. And his campaign is taking this position that they want all women to be able to speak safely, I have not experienced that, she added. Reade previously did an on-camera interview with Hill.TV, but when discussing media coverage with The Times, she was referencing major network television, saying she had hoped for a sit-down with someone like Gayle King, the host of CBS This Morning. Reade has accused Biden of sticking his hand down her skirt and digitally penatrating her in a Congressional hallway when she worked for him as an aide in 1993. The allegations evolved from what Reade had told reporters in 2019 when a number of women came out and said Biden had touched them inappropriately, though not in a sexual way. Reade had previously claimed that Biden liked her legs and wanted her to waittress at a Capitol Hill cocktail party while she was on staff. Reade also complained that he was touchy-feely, putting his hands on her shoulders, neck and hair. This is not a story about sexual misconduct; it is a story about abuse of power, she had told Vox reporter Laura McGann, who wrote about Reades changing story in an essay Thursday. Reade first told her sex assault story to journalist Katie Halper for her Katie Halper Show podcast on March 25. None of that means Reade is lying, but it leaves us in the limbo of Me Too: a story that may be true but that we cant prove, McGann wrote. While a neighbor of Reades recalls the ex-Senate staffer talking about an incident with Biden in the mid-90s, according to reporting from Business Insider, so far no official documentation has been produced. Reade has also said that the sex assault charges werent included in any Senate complaint she said she made. Biden denied the allegations on-camera last Friday on Morning Joe, which was his first television appearance pushing back on Reades story. Im saying unequivocally, it never, never happened, Biden said. Kelly was among the women at Fox News Channel who accused the late Fox News Channel CEO Roger Ailes of sexual harassment. Since leaving NBC News, Kellys video report on how real life Fox News employees responded to the movie Bombshell, a film where shes portrayed by Charlize Theron, was her most widely viewed piece of content, receiving 1.5 million hits on YouTube. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates Photo credit: Daily Sun A total of 160 Nigerians evacuated by the Nigerian Missions in the United States have arrived at Abujas Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Daily Sun reports. Kimiebi Ebienfa of the Crises Monitoring and Public Communications Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, disclosed the details of the arrival in a terse message in Abuja. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while confirming the arrivals, said the evacuees consist of 92 males and 60 females, including eight infants. Present at the Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey, United States, to witness their departure, were the Nigerian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Tijjani Muhammad-Bande; the Deputy Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the United Nations, Ambassador Samson Itegboje, the Consul General, Consulate General of Nigeria, New York, Mr Benaoyagha Okoyen, amongst others. The Ethiopian flight ET8509 Boeing 787 aircraft departed New Jersey on May 9th at 7:15 pm and was expected to arrive Abuja Sunday, May 10th at 11:15 am. Update of Evacuation of Nigerians from New York, United States of America. The breakdown is as follows: 92 male, 60 female, 8 infants. Total: 160. The flight is expected to arrive the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport at 11.00 am today Sunday, Ebienfa disclosed. Earlier in a statement dated May 9th, the Consulate General of Nigeria in New York said, on arrival, all returnees shall be transported by the Federal Government from the airport to the designated quarantine centres for the compulsory fourteen days period. During this period, all returnees will be tested for COVID-19 and will also be re-tested at the end of the quarantine period. Only those that test negative will be allowed to retrieve their passports from the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), while positive cases will be transferred to designated Isolation Centers for treatment, the Consulate General of Nigeria in New York said. The Consulate General further said returnees would be responsible for planning their own travel arrangements from Abuja to their respective destinations within Nigeria after the compulsory quarantine period. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 19:39:45|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DAMASCUS, May 10 (Xinhua) -- As many as 22 Syrian soldiers and rebel militants were killed on Sunday during intense battles in the countryside of Hama province in central Syria, a war monitor reported. The rebels launched a wide-scale offensive on the Syrian forces in the village of Tanjara in the al-Ghab Plains in the northern countryside of Hama after midnight, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Britain-based watchdog group said 15 government soldiers were killed in addition to seven rebels of the Ansar al-Deen group. The Syrian forces are trying to regain what it lost by heavily shelling the area and other rebel-held areas in the nearby southern countryside of the northwestern province of Idlib. The Observatory said the death toll could likely rise due to the number of critically wounded people. It added that the death toll is the largest since a Russian, Turkish-backed cease-fire was established in Idlib on March 5. Enditem By Jethro Ibileke There was pandemonium in Benin City, Edo State on Saturday, when a combined team of police and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps operatives, allegedly beat up a soldier, for not wearing face mask. The incident occurred Saturday afternoon, at Lagos street, barely 24-hours after the state government shut down the street to all business activities over alleged refusal of traders and residents of the street to comply with the directives to participate in the ongoing screening and testing exercise for Coronavirus, as part of efforts to contain the pandemic. It was gathered that trouble started when an unidentified military operative who was on the street was asked to put on his face mask. An eyewitness who declined to mention his name said the soldier who was on military khaki short had an handkerchief on his neck and that his wife did not properly put on her face mask. On entering Lagos Street, the soldier and his wife were asked to wear their face mask by the policemen on duty. The soldier brought his ID card to identify himself but the police officer dismissed the ID card as fake. The soldier got infuriated when one of the police officer pushed his wife with a gun in a bid to force her to wear the face mask. Following the argument that ensued, the policemen descended on the soldier and injured him on the head with the butt of their gun, he said. Traders and passers-by were forced to run in different directions, as men of the Nigerian Army who later stormed the area, allegedly shot repeatedly into the air to scare the police and NSCDC officers. Quick intervention by officers of the Nigerian Army and the State police command, quelled the situation. The feuding parties were later driven to the nearby Oba Market Police division to resolve the issue. The State Police Commands spokesman, DSP Chidi Nwabuzor, could not be reached on his mobile for for comment. The Kaduna State Government on Sunday said it has discharged 210 out of the 680 almajiris under quarantine in the state. On the same day, the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, said some of the almajiris repatriated to the state have tested positive but warned against politicising the issue. Kaduna State Commissioner for Human Services and Social Development, Hafsat Baba, said the children were discharged after spending two weeks in isolation. She said none of the children had tested positive for COVID-19. Mrs Baba said the children were among those repatriated to the state from Kano and other northern states. Northern state governors recently announced the prohibition of the almajiri system in the region. Under the religious education system, children are pooled from various locations into Quranic schools and survive by begging on the streets for food and alms. Following the prohibition, northern state governors have been dispersing the almajiris and repatriating those whose parents are from other states. The Kaduna official said the discharged children would be taken to their local government chairpersons who would in turn seek out their parents and hand the children over to them. These children were from Kudan, Makarfi, Ikara, Giwa and Zaria local government areas of the state and were brought back from states like Kano, Bauchi, Gombe, Niger and Plateau states, she said. We are happy to say that 210 of them would be discharged today (Sunday) having completed their quarantine period of 14 days. Those that tested positive have been isolated but those discharged are free to go home and reunite with their family, she said. Mrs Baba added that the ministry was waiting to receive another set of over 200 almajiris from Plateau State. Meanwhile, the Governor of Kano State, Mr Ganduje, said some of those repatriated to his state have tested positive for coronavirus. Abdullahi Ganduje, Governor of Kano State The governor spoke in Kano on Sunday while briefing reporters. He said the repatriation of the children should not be politicised. PREMIUM TIMES reported how 40 out of the 148 almajiriai received by Kano have tested positive for the new coronavirus. The results for about 500 others in the group are being awaited. We agreed at the Northern Governors Forum that all almajiris should be moved to their states of origin. All almajiris that are not from Kano State (are going) to their respective states of origin. Some of the almajiris brought to Kano during the exercise are also COVID-19 positive but we are not making politics out of it because we all believe that what they need most now is not noise making or publicity. What they need at this critical point in time is care-giving, Mr Ganduje said. The way we are sending back almajiris to their states of origin, we are also receiving almajiris from other states who are Kano indigenes. But the fact that we are not making noise about it does not mean they are all healthy without COVID-19 infections, the governor added. People should also understand that, these children were not infected in the process of transporting them to their respective states. So noise making is not a way forward. All we are doing is simply to comply with the Northern Governors Forum decision that all almajiris in our states should be taken back to their respective states; simple, the governor said. Jigawa State, which received 607 almajiris from Kano, is yet to repatriate any back to their states of origin. The state government said it feared transporting them across state boundaries at this time may increase the rate of infections in the country. The federal government has also criticised the transfer of the almajiris despite nationwide ban on interstate travels. WAYNE COUNTY, MI A Detroit area woman is facing multiple charges after her son was found stabbed to death, the Associated Press reports. Atiya Nina Muhammed, 26, was charged with first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder, first-degree child abuse and torture Wednesday, according to Wayne County District Court records. Muhammed, of Inkster, is the mother of 3-year-old Zion Reid, who was found stabbed to death Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. Wayne County prosecutors said Zion was found by police in the bedroom of his home in a state of decomposition, the Associated Press reported. Relatives had gone to the home for a welfare check after being unable to reach Muhammed for days. RELATED: Mom in custody after 3-year-old son found stabbed to death The Wayne County Medical Examiners Office determined that Zion died from multiple stab wounds and blunt force trauma. The childs mother was missing at the time but was later taken into custody by the Detroit Fugitive Apprehension Task Force. Muhammed is expected to be arraigned Sunday, the Associated Press reported. The Inkster Police Department and Michigan State Police responded to the scene on Lehigh Avenue in Inkster. More on MLive: Detroit man seeks another $27k after murder convictions thrown out Detroit man charged with 2017 killing of pregnant woman Detroit rapper donates Big Gretch Buffs funds after Whitmer says she cant accept them The Good Morning Britain host spoke about his treatment of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in a new interview (Getty Images) He has been a vocal critic of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle since their royal wedding in 2018. However, Piers Morgan has suggested he may have taken things a bit too far with his comments about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. In an interview in todays The Sunday Times, the Good Morning Britain host, 55, was asked whether he should have toned down his criticism of the couple both before and after they quit royal life. The former newspaper editor admitted: Yeah, probably. I think thats a perfectly fair criticism. Its probably not wise, if youre a columnist, to make things too personal. The former newspaper editor said he will "temper" his comments about the royal couple in the future (Getty Images) Read more: Piers Morgan criticises Meghan Markle's Vogue collaboration Have I taken things a bit too far? Probably. Do I think that will govern and temper how I talk about them going forward? Absolutely. In January, the journalist accused the duchess, 38, of having ditched her own relatives, and split the duke, 35, from the rest of his family after they announced they were stepping back from their royal duties. In a post on Twitter, he wrote: People say I'm too critical of Meghan Markle - but she ditched her family, ditched her Dad, ditched most of her old friends, split Harry from William and has now split him from the Royal Family. I rest my case. Read more: Piers Morgan calls Meghan Markle 'absurd' for no photos at Wimbledon request The star, who is married to journalist Celia Walden, and has four children, claimed in 2016 - around the time it was first revealed the couple were dating - that he was friends with the then-actress. Piers said that in June of that year she had sent him a message revealing herself to be a fan. The pair went for a drink at a Kensington pub, before she took a taxi on the same night to a dinner in Mayfair and was later in the evening seen at Soho House with her future royal husband. Speaking about their social media exchange on his breakfast show, he said: She sent me a direct message [on Twitter] and said 'thanks for the follow, hey I'm a big fan of yours.' We exchanged some fun stuff. Story continues Read more: Piers Morgan calls Meghan's absence during Trump state visit 'shameful' "My take on her was she's very beautiful, she's very intelligent, she's 35, she's been divorced, her dad's black her mum's white and she had some problems with that growing up." Piers recently banned talk of the duke and duchess on his show after the couple announced thered be no further corroboration and zero engagement between them and four UK tabloids. Last month, the presenter branded them repulsive, deluded narcissistic tools on Twitter for making the comments during the coronavirus pandemic. He said: Lets not talk about Meghan and Harry today I cant be arsed. Lets just forget about them. When co-host Susanna Reid pointed out that by continually digging at the couple he wasnt forgetting about them at all. She suggested they not discuss them for the rest of the week, an idea which her fellow star seemed keen on. He said: Seriously, [thats] a great idea. They banned a number of newspapers, today were banning Meghan and Harry from Good Morning Britain for the foreseeable future. Youre done, toast, its over. Comcasts offer of free Xfinity WiFi during the COVID-19 pandemic doesnt go far enough for some in Congress. Senators Cory Booker, Kamala Harris and Ron Wyden have sent a letter (via Gizmodo) to Comcast urging it to open all its WiFi hotspots to students who dont have internet access at home. While the company made 1.5 million hotspots free to use, many of these are in public spaces and unlikely to be near students homes. Xfinity customers routers can double as hotspots for guests, but neighbors still have to buy passes to access them. Senator Wyden said the company balked when initially asked to open up its residential hotspots, claiming that it would clog WiFi networks and hurt speeds for paying customers. That reasoning simply does not add up, the senators said. Comcast previously said the hotspots shouldnt affect its customers speed either its safe to let students hop online, or the company wasnt being truthful. The politicians gave Comcast until May 22nd to answer questions, including the number of people with enabled public hotspots, how those wireless access points are managed and the kind of performance problems customers might experience if residential spots were free to use. In a response to Engadget, a Comcast spokesperson reiterated the companys existing efforts to get people online, including both the public hotspots as well as 60 days of free wired broadband for new Internet Essentials customers. Thats the companys main strategy for the crisis, the representative said. The spokesperson added that residential hotspots were never really intended for public use, and were instead meant for a small number of users that is, Xfinity customers and their guests. You can read the official statement below. Its far from certain that Comcast will be required to open up its residential WiFi, but the letter puts pressure on the company to widen access at a time when students from low-income families may be unable to continue their studies without some form of internet service. Yobe State government has refuted that the strange deaths recorded in the state recently are not caused by coronavirus pandemic. Strange deaths have caused fears to residents of Potiskum, Nguru and Gashua since the beginning of May. The occurrence of strange death has been spread across some states in northern Nigeria from Kano to Yobe, Jigawa and Sokoto states. People die in numbers daily in those states, killed by unknown ailment. Records show that from May 1 to May 8, many people who died of strange ailment were deposited in graveyards daily in Potiskum, Nguru and Gashua, Yobe State. The cause of the mystery deaths is yet unknown. There were, however, attempts to link the strange deaths to coronavirus which the Yobe State government disputed. It was disclosed that at the Mamman Ali graveyard in Potiskum, over 12 corpses were being buried daily. The Commissioner for Health in Yobe State was said to have admitted the frequency of strange deaths recently in the state but maintained that they are not caused by coronavirus. A senator at the weekend said that hunger is what is killing people in Jigawa State not coronavirus. It was just over 2 weeks ago that Georgias Governor Brian Kemp was a monster with blood about to be on his hands for greatly loosening the restrictions on residents of the Peach State? Even President Trump joined in, criticizing this move as risky. Since then, we havent seen much about the disaster that was supposed to automatically result from ignoring the gospel of Dr.Fauci. Governor Kemp Caricature by Donkey Hotey Which tells you what has happened in this era of corrupt and dishonest propaganda media. Amanda Prestigiacomo of the Daily Wire fills in the details that any reasonable person would infer from the media blackout: Republican Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia celebrated the states lowest number of hospitalized novel coronavirus patients and the fewest number of COVID-19 patients on ventilators on Saturday, 15 days since the Republican loosened lockdown restrictions in the face of persistent attacks from the mainstream media and the public disapproval of President Donald Trump. Respiratory symptoms of COVID-19 typically appear an average of 5-6 days after exposure, but may appear in as few as 2 days or as long as 14 days after exposure, per the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), UC San Diego Health notes. Today marks the lowest number of COVID-19 positive patients currently hospitalized statewide (1,203) since hospitals began reporting this data on April 8th, Kemp posted to Twitter on Saturday. Today also marks the lowest total of ventilators in use (897 with 1,945 available). We will win this fight together! Iowahawk's classic tweet remains the definitive observation on the meida'sroleinour society: With labourers coming back to Madhya Pradesh in droves after the coronavirus lockdown dried up jobs, the Shivraj Chouhan government has decided to fall back on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), an ambitious yet controversial employment guarantee programme of the UPA era riddled with corruption and anomalies, to take care of its workers. According to the states publicity department, over 1.55 lakh labourers have returned to MP from other states by May 9, which in itself describes the shoddy implementation of MGNREGS in the central Indian state, believe many volunteers, alleging that labourers had slowly but steadily lost faith in this vital scheme due to low wages which, at times, took almost a year to arrive. However, the labourers who usually migrate to states like Maharashtra, Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP and Goa in search of good wages have been hit hard due to the lockdown as the closure of commercial activities forced them to return mostly empty-handed and by the time they reached home, agricultural work also concluded, leaving them in the lurch. Aware of the gravity of the situation, the MP government offered three-month ration and Rs 1,000 per labourer as interim relief and started MGNREGS works in districts, mostly in the first week of May. However, in most of the districts, except for a few gram panchayat, others are yet to see commencement of work, mostly in water conservation. Although the state government has ensured safety measures, including masks and sanitisers at workplaces, labourers are apprehensive as many of them are also engaged in pre-monsoon preparations at home and farms. This is also affecting strength at workplaces and the government officials are trying to complete works with lesser numbers of labourers, an officer of state government said. On May 7, a state government communique said that the MGNREGS has offered work to 14.64 lakh labourers across the state. Interacting with labourers on video conference on the same day, Shivraj Chouhan claimed, Every needy will be offered work and job cards will be prepared on the basis of requirement. Over 1.31 lakh works are underway, Chouhan said. At times fewer labourers complete the task, so the figure cant be directly converted into man-days, said an officer from Panchayat and Rural Development department. This department had on paper had initiated these works since April 20 in over 22,000 gram panchayat. Chouhan has issued instructions to initiate these works in all the districts except for red zone areas. MP Rural Livelihood Mission is also offering employment to rural women by letting them make masks, sanitisers, hand soaps and PPE kits at home through self-help groups. During a conversation with Chouhan, Hanuman Kumar of Chhindwara had said that a pond construction in Tamia block has given jobs to 484 local men. Govind from Burhanpur, who got the job of pond digging, urged the chief minister to ensure that wages are paid weekly instead of fortnightly. However, volunteers in many districts claim the scheme is notorious for having delayed wage payments in the past, at times by over a year, which was the prime reason why labourers started migrating to other states. Low wages (Rs190 per day) has also been driving labourers away from the scheme, Sachin Jain, senior activist from Vikas Samvad said. He, however, underlined the fact that Centre could enhance MGNREGS budget which can be helpful in driving the rural economy out of gloom as labourers cant save and will be putting back wages into the economy. He affirmed that labourers are shying away from the scheme at places due to coronavirus fears. Ajay Dubey, secretary of volunteer organisation Prayatn, who was member of state monitoring committee of the scheme in 2009-10, claims that the scheme had always been marred by corruption in Dubey underlined another vital fact that if state government figures of close to 1.5 lakh labourers coming back from other states are true, its quite clear that the scheme has failed miserably in offering jobs and assets creation locally in the state, which are key points of the scheme mandate. In districts such as Panna, while close to 17,000 migrant labourers have returned, most are not eager to work in MGNREGS. The administration has offered them ration for three months in advance and they made money in mahua collection as well, said Yousuf Baig, a volunteer and activist. Delayed wage payments had driven locals to look for work in other states in the last few years, affirmed Baig. The MGNREGS works are also sluggish in Umaria district, a tribal-dominated region. Busy putting in all their resources to curb the spread of coronavirus, the government staff here is yet to take to field. Locals are busy in mahua-tendu patta collection and preparing for the monsoon season, said Birendra Gautam from Zenith Youth Foundation. The labourers are also getting low wages, as being a hilly area more hands are required within a fixed budget, said Gautam, adding that some gram panchayat at Mali are yet to see commencement of work. Yet, locals have no option but to work in these projects to keep their daily needs fulfilled. As MGNREGS offers low and delayed wages, labourers from Niwadi, Panna and Chhatarpur prefer working in states like Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi where unskilled workers earn upto Rs 400 a day and skilled ones get anything between Rs 600 to Rs 700, Mastram Singh from Niwadi said. Till recently, close to 12,000 labourers returned while only 2,500 got jobs in MGNREGS, Singh said, quoting the district administration. At Niwadi, where harvesters were never used until this year, these machines arrived for harvesting as labourers were stuck elsewhere and harvesting ended by the time they returned. In bordering districts like Jhabua which shares border with Rajasthan and Gujarat thousands of migrant labourers are approaching border each day amid lockdown and the administrations entire focus is on MGNREGS work. The administration is busy controlling the migrant labourers, sending to suspects into quarantine and sending back those from other states. As a result, very little work related to MGNREGS has started in Jhabua, said Harish Shankar Pawar of Lok Jagrti Manch which works in Dhar, Jhabua and Ratlam. He affirmed that delayed and low wages in the scheme disenchanted the labourers who, as a result, migrated to other districts in huge numbers. He recounted an instance from 2010 when the tribals had resorted to foot march amid drought for the commencement of MGNREGS work. The then collector Neeraj Mandloi had approached us in the middle of the march and promised that work would start soon, added Pawar. To restoring labourers faith, the administration should be transparent about the financial aspects of the scheme, farmer Laxman Singh Munia from Petlavad in Jhabua demanded, alleging that MGNREGS payments in the past got delayed up to six months. There are labourers who also dont have job cards, added Munia. Most volunteers claimed that work has started just now and there is clarity about wage payments as of now. Meanwhile, a request to MGNREGS state spokesperson about the financial details of the scheme remained unanswered. The News18 also tried reaching out to MGNREGS Chief Executive Officer Shipa Gupta and administrative officer Prabhat Uikey but the queries remained unanswered. By May 6, Dhar district was at the top with maximum 5,233 works under the scheme, while Neemcuh was at the bottom with 490 undergoing works among 51 districts, according to a state government report. A soldier wearing a face mask stands guard next to barbed wire in the coronavirus locked down area at old the town of Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, May 10, 2020. Updated at 11:25 a.m. ET on 2020-05-10 Malaysia on Sunday extended its COVID-19 curbs on peoples movements by four weeks until June 9, as the prime minister also announced a ban on interstate travel for Muslims going home to celebrate the end of Ramadan with their families. The so-called Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) was to expire Tuesday, but Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said his government needed to prolong it by another month, although Malaysian health authorities had recorded relatively smaller numbers of new cases and deaths from the coronavirus in recent days. Even though we have achieved many positive developments in our efforts in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, our attempts have not been fully successful. We still need to take necessary steps to combat the pandemic, the prime minister said Sunday in a televised address to the nation. From the publics perspective, I see that the overall public wants the government to continue taking necessary measures to fight the pandemic, he said. So with the advice from the Health Ministry and the National Security Council, I would like to announce that the CMCO, which was supposed to end on May 12, will be extended for another four weeks, until June 9. Muhyiddins announcement marked the sixth time he has extended the partial lockdown, which first began on March 18. Last week, the government allowed most businesses to reopen under strict conditions for guarding against the spread of the virus, but schools, worship spaces, and cinema houses will remain closed under the new extension, according to the prime minister. Mass public gatherings outdoors are also still banned. The movement restrictions had already included a ban on the mass movement of people across state lines. But the new extension prohibits Malaysians from interstate travel during the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday, which is two weeks away and marks the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan for the countrys religious majority. This year, Eid in Malaysia falls on May 24. In addition, Muhyiddin said, interstate travel would be banned for two other festivals scheduled during the extended period: the Kaamatan Feast and Hari Gawai, harvest festivals that take place every year, respectively, in the Malaysian Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak. [I] profusely apologize, but for the sake of our collective safety and health, balik kampung across state borders will not be allowed, he said, referring to the traditional mass homeward migration for Eid. However, friends, neighbors and relatives living within the same state could visit each others homes for Eid festivities as long as they limited such gatherings to around 20 people at a time, he said. The prime minister also reminded Malaysians to keep observing social distancing, wearing masks and washing their hands frequently to keep the virus at bay. Reacting to the prime ministers announcement, Afiq Ahmad, a 34-year-old trader in Selangor state, said it was necessary to keep the partial lockdown in place as long as COVID-19 cases and deaths were still occurring in the country. I dont agree with allowing up to 20 people to go visiting at a time, even among neighbors or within the state, he told BenarNews. We wouldnt know if there are people who are asymptomatic. On Sunday, Malaysia recorded 67 new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths, bringing the nationwide total of conformed cases to 6,566 with an overall death of 108. Worldwide the number of coronavirus cases has now surpassed 4 million with close to 280,000 deaths recorded, according to the latest data compiled by disease experts at Johns Hopkins University in the United States. In Kuala Lumpur, another Malaysian expressed relief that he could still mark the end of Ramadan with relatives who lived in the same state. This would at least allow me to celebrate the festival at my in-laws house, Ahmad Shahrir Ismail, a 35-year-old resident of the Malaysian capital who had originally planned to travel to Terengganu state for Eid, told BenarNews. However, I pity friends who dont have friends or family living nearby. PM under pressure Muhyiddin leads an unelected government that came to power in early March amid much controversy, which followed the collapse of the ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition led by Mahathir Mohamad. While contending with a national crisis around the coronavirus pandemic, the new prime minister faces a potential leadership challenge on May 18, when parliament is scheduled to hold its first session since he became PM. On Friday, the house speaker announced that he had accepted a motion submitted by Mahathir seeking a no-confidence vote on Muhyiddin. Muhiyiddin served as home minister in Mahathirs government until he quit Pakatan to help form a new government. It includes the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the party that had dominated Malaysian politics for 61 years but was swept out of power in the May 2018 general election. Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim, the newly anointed leader of the opposition, on Saturday marked the second anniversary of Pakatans historic victory in those polls by issuing a joint statement. The two said they had put aside their differences in a renewed effort to bring Pakatan back to power. We are old, and we do not have much time left, Mahathir and Anwar said, according to the Straits Times newspaper. Yet our fighting spirit still burns bright in the souls of the youth who dream of reforms. It is time for us to rise again and return the people's mandate to the rightful owners. Earlier on during the COVID-19 crisis, Muhyiddin acknowledged that his government did not come to power via the ballot box. Muhyiddin was appointed as the countrys eighth prime minister by the king. This government may not be the government you voted for, but I want all of you to know that this government cares for you, Muhyiddin told the nation in an earlier address. I accept the fact that I became your prime minister at a trying moment. I face political, economic and health crises all at the same time, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 19:48:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian (R) and Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin (C) attend a handover ceremony in Manila, the Philippines, on May 10, 2020. China is donating more medical equipment and supplies to help the Philippines contain the spread of COVID-19 and speed up the country's recovery from the highly infectious disease. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali) MANILA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- China is donating more medical equipment and supplies to help the Philippines contain the spread of COVID-19 and speed up the country's recovery from the highly infectious disease. The new batches of emergency medical supplies to the Philippines include 100 ventilators, 150,000 testing kits, 70,000 medical protective suits, 70,000 N95 medical masks, 1.3 million surgical mask and 70,000 medical protective goggles. "Two chartered cargo planes have delivered 150,000 testing kits and 18,000 medical protective suits (over the weekend). Other supplies are expected to arrive in Manila soon," the Chinese Embassy in Manila said in a statement on Sunday. In a ceremony at the Department of Foreign Affairs headquarters, Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian handed over the donations to Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin and Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez, chief implementer of the Philippine government's action plan to combat COVID-19. "We are committed to forging a new type of partnership, which sets a very good example for the international anti-pandemic cooperation," Huang said in a speech at the ceremony. "We will, as always, stand together with the Philippine government and people to jointly overcome the pandemic till the day of a final victory," he added. The ambassador said China appreciates "the valuable support and assistance" of the Philippines during the difficult times when China was grappling with the COVID-19 outbreak itself. "To reciprocate the Philippines' help and demonstrate our unity and partnership, China has been providing support and assistance to the Philippines to the best of its ability ever since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Philippines in early March," Huang said. The embassy has also closely coordinated with relevant Chinese agencies to facilitate the Philippine military aircraft and Navy vessel's trip to China to bring back the purchased supplies. "China will continue to do its best to provide support and assistance to help the Philippines flatten and bring down the COVID-19 curve as soon as possible, so as to pave the way for the early resumption of work and production as well as the normalcy of the livelihood of the people," Huang added. The ambassador emphasized that the COVID-19 pandemic is a global challenge. "Virus respects no borders or races," Huang said, noting that the world is a community with a shared future in the face of the pandemic. "China firmly opposes politicizing public health issue by stigmatizing and sticking the virus label on a specific country or region. Such words and deeds will not only seriously undermine the efforts of international cooperation to fight the pandemic, but also sow the seeds of suspicion and even confrontation," he said. Locsin said all the countries affected by COVID-19 need to get together and stop pointing fingers. Instead, he added countries should continue to work hard together to find effective ways to defeat the virus and overcome the pandemic as soon as possible. The Philippines on Saturday launched a COVID-19 testing lab that China's biotech company BGI helped set up in San Fernando City, north of Manila, to ramp up the governments' testing capacity to 10,000 tests a day, up from the country's current daily capacity of around 7,000 tests. The Philippines has so far reported 10,794 coronavirus infections, including 719 deaths. Enditem State health officials said Sunday that no cases have been reported in Connecticut of a mysterious inflammatory illness linked to coronavirus that killed at least three children in New York. On Sunday, New York officials said they are investigating two other deaths possibly linked to the new illness, which presents symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease and toxic shock syndrome. Health officials in that state are also monitoring 85 possible cases, mostly in children between toddler and elementary school ages, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday during his noon press conference. Av Harris, a spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Public Health, said no cases have been reported to the agency. Max Reiss, a spokesman for the office of Gov. Ned Lamont, also said the state has not recorded any cases of the new illness. The new illnesses in New York come as the number of patients hospitalized for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, continued to decline in Connecticut, according to the latest figures Lamont released Sunday. The net number of people hospitalized dropped by 59 cases to 1,242, the data shows. The state reported 570 new cases of the disease, bringing the total to 33,554. Thirty-five new deaths brought the state death toll to 2,967. Amid that grim toll, two towns in Connecticut, Scotland in the eastern side of the state and Canaan in the northwest corner are still reporting zero confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Sunday. In New York, Cuomo said coronavirus has been ahead of public health officials since the beginning. We thought it wasnt affecting children, but now we found out that it may be affecting children, he said. During his press conference, Cuomo also pledged new rules for New York nursing homes, including twice-weekly testing for workers. The three New York children who died were a 5-year-old in New York City, a 7-year-old in Westchester County and a teenage victim in Suffolk County, Cuomos office said. Symptoms of the newly reported illness include prolonged fever for more than five days, change in skin color and severe abdominal pain, diarrhea or vomiting, Cuomos office said in a press release. This does not present as a normal COVID case COVID cases tend to be respiratory this presents as an inflammation of the blood vessels, sometimes inflammation of the heart, Cuomo said. Its possible that these cases were coming in and were not diagnosed as related to COVID. Most children experience a mild set of symptoms from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, because their immune systems are still immature and dont overreact to the virus, according to Dr. Zane Saul, Bridgeport Hospitals infectious disease chief. He said it is possible some childrens immune systems are attacking the virus aggressively if their bodies are developing inflammatory symptoms. As of last Wednesday, health officials at two Connecticut hospitals said they have not heard of any such cases in the state. But one pointed out that if the illness is showing up in New York, it would likely appear in Connecticut. New York state is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the new illness, according to Cuomo. The state has also issued a health advisory over the new illness. The CDC has asked New York to develop a national criteria for this illness, and the state is also working with the NY Genome Center and Rockefeller University to conduct a study to help us better understand it, Cuomo said. This is a frightening new development, but rest assured we are doing everything we can to learn more and keep parents informed. Cuomo outlined new rules designed to protect residents and workers of nursing homes, which have seen large numbers of deaths as the pandemic has unfolded throughout the region. This virus uses nursing homes; theyre ground zero, he said. The new rules include testing for nursing home workers twice a week, and prevents hospitals from discharging patients to nursing homes unless they have tested negative for COVID-19. The new rules come as Connecticut officials said Thursday the state plans to continually test everyone in the states 215 nursing homes. Separately on Sunday, Lamonts office renewed calls for volunteers to help provide medical care and serve those in need during the pandemic. Im grateful to everyone who is stepping forward and I ask that you keep pitching in, and invite others to join you so that we can meet the needs of our neighbors and communities over the coming weeks and months, Lamont said in a statement. Union Minister Babul Supriyo was booked under non-bailable sections of the IPC by the Kolkata Police on Sunday for sharing a "fake" photo on Twitter purportedly showing Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha sharing drinks with a few persons, including Kartik Banerjee, the brother of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, a senior officer said. The case was filed after Supriyo shared the photo on May 8, he said. Supriyo has been booked under IPC sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc.), 505 (statements conducing public mischief) and 120B, among others, the officer said. Some of the sections under which he was booked are non-bailable, he said. "We have filed a case not only against Supriyo but also a few others who shared this fake photo. Sharing fake posts/photos is a punishable crime," the officer said. Earlier, the Deputy Commissioner of Police of South Kolkata tweeted, "This post circulating on social media is fake. The information shared in the message is false. A case has been started over this and legal action being taken." Reacting to the case filed against him, Supriyo said that he shared what was already viral and termed the state's police an "extension of the Trinamool Congress". "Fine, I will surely ask a question that is being asked by millions. I didn't release the photo - It was already Viral. Everyone knws that West Bengal Police is an extension of @AITCofficial (sic)," he tweeted. "As for legal proceeding, please consult with Shri Kartik Banerjee himself and act as per his orders - that is what you do anyways. Hve you heard about Harish Chatterjee street where all properties have been usurped by AITC netas. Locals call it BanerjeePara, sure you know that," Supriyo said in another tweet. Later, Kartik Banerjee issued a statement condemning the social media post by the Union minister and said he would take legal action. "The post shared by Union Minister Babul Supriyo is completely fake. I condemn such irresponsible behaviour by a Union Minister. I consider sharing fake posts to mislead the people at the time of crisis a social crime. I have decided to take legal action against it," he said. The BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress have been involved in a relentless bitter battle, often escalating, over the state's response to the coronavirus outbreak. The BJP has alleged that the state is hiding the actual COVID-19 casualty figures and is not serious enough in enforcing the lockdown, a charge rubbished by the TMC as baseless and politically motivated. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) On April 27, NxtGen, a nonprofit organisation under the Pulchowk Engineering Campus, hosted a webinar on Covid-19 preparedness for students. During the event, the organisers noticed some audience members from fake email addresses violating cybersecurity laws, which left the audience and the speakers tense. The organisers think their purpose of joining the webinar was disturbing In other words, they were spammers. I felt disgusted; I could not listen to the things they were saying to a teacher and guests. So, for a moment I exited the webinar, Shishir Panta, one of the attendees of that webinar narrates his experience of the webinar. With the lockdown imposed to control the coronavirus outbreak in the country extended time and again, many organisations have resorted to webinars and online meetings to discuss various issues. However, many of them have reported attacks from spammers. What do they do? Webinars are in trend nowadays; so are the webinar spamming and spammers. As webinars and online discussions, classes and meetings have been the only possible medium to communicate between the organisations and people amid the lockdown, these webinars have been constantly disturbed by the spammers who anonymously participate in those webinars with the sole motive of disturbing the session. Panta explains his experience of encountering a spammer, Initially, the webinar was going quite well until a few fellows barged in and made a mess of the situation. They started talking dirty things repeatedly, interrupting and humiliating the speakers and organisers. When he re-entered the session, he briefs that the whole scenario was disgusting and pathetic. It was not until the organisers blocked those people, webinar resumed with its flows. NxtGens president Jay Kishan Panjiyar claims, As, our event was the first victim of these spammers in Nepal, we were completely unaware about the webinar spamming and spammers earlier. But, NxtGen is not only the sole victim of such happenings. There are many who fall prey to such incidents. Girls in Tech-Nepal also faced a similar situation, in which the spammers muted the host, libeled and similar spamming activity like muting the host and moderator while they are speaking, slandering and defaming them. Some of them played songs in between, spoke foul words time and again. Similarly, Robotics Association of Nepal (RAN) also faced similar occurrences in a virtual panel discussion hosted on April 27 by its Miss Tech wing. How do spammers get into the webinars? Panjiyar describes, We hosted the webinar using Google Meet as it has the capacity of 250 people. It is designed in such a way that a link has to be shared to invite the attendees to the event. We shared that link on our Facebook page and in our networks. We shared the link publicly thinking it would benefit every student. But, it let the spammers enter the webinar. Likewise, Astha Sharma, Volunteer Managing Director at Girls in Tech-Nepal, narrates her experience of how the intruders get into their webinar session, First of all, we publish the Google forms for registration of the interested participants for our webinar. Then, we mail those who have filled up that form and registered for the session a link of the webinar mentioning all the required details. Though we dont make public that link, anyone having that link can attend the session as well as can share with others. Sharma suspects there are some organised groups of spammers who are looking for some opportunities to disturb. Some of them might appear genuine at first and register duly, completing all the requirements, but change into spammers later. A cybersecurity analyst at THREATNIX, a company providing professional cybersecurity services, Abiral Shrestha explains how the spammers enter the webinars, The organisers are not aware of preventive measures that need to be applied while organising the webinars. The spammers generally get into these improperly configured webinars. The webinars meant to be private to certain groups of people are also sometimes accidentally made public by sharing links publicly. How to identify the spammers? Shrestha suggests the organisers can identify spammers by segregating the emails and usernames that look suspicious, tracking accounts of people trying to impersonate celebrities/politicians and analysing previous spamming activities of the viewers. However, he maintains, During big public webinars, it can be quite hard to track them unless they make some abusive comments or share some malicious links. However, Sharma complains, It is quite difficult to find who the actual spammers are because some of them have used authentic names, some of them have opened four to five tabs altogether. One does not have one particular style of identifying them. Meanwhile, Panjiyar shares his experience of tracking the spammers. Firstly, the webinar was being recorded. So, we had records of their faces, names, and email addresses. Secondly, while entering the webinar, emails are saved for future use. Tracing such emails, we got such breachers. Why do they spam anyway? Cybersecurity analyst Shrestha says the spammers generally spam webinars for monetary benefits. However, in the case of Nepal, they just tend to do it for fun and just to prove the point that they can, he believes. In addition, Sharma and Panjiyar have noticed that most of the spammers were minors; they were either +2 students or undergraduates unaware of the consequences and laws. Panjiyar views, Their motive is just to ruin the events happening digitally. Maybe they are not able to tolerate productive activities going on during the lockdown. Sharma agrees, Their sole intention is to disturb the webinar. Rather than blaming the weakness of any such video conferencing platform, the main problem lies within the mindset of such intruders. Some of them also claimed they did so as they were bored. What does it matter? Though the spammers do not have any serious intention behind their activities, they have a serious impact on the effectiveness of such online events, according to the organisers. Sharma asserts, The entire hard work in hosting webinars goes in vain after such interventions from the spammers. Such incidents let the confidence of the hosts down. She also fears that such incidents might give a negative impression of the entire country to foreign participants. She narrates, On that particular day, we had a foreign facilitator from Sri Lanka, currently living in Australia and working for Microsoft. He was constantly asking, Are such activities normal in Nepal? Despite the constant disturbances, he continued his presentation until the situation went out of control and the webinar got terminated. As all the international speakers may not have any idea about Nepal, we are worried that they might judge our country and the people through these incidents only, opines Sharma. Panjiyar also adds, It is a matter of shame for the organisers as well. He also narrates a similar experience, As one of the speakers we had was the Assistant Dean of the Institute of Engineering (Tribhuvan University), he was disappointed and embarrassed because some spammers tried to politicse the event. Likewise, one of our speakers left the webinar halfway. Also, we had many female participants, and using vulgar words made them leave. One of my team members was with his family, saying we have organised such a great event. Just think, what might have happened to him and his family, asks Panjiyar. With the decision to impose a mandatory 14-day quarantine for almost everyone arriving in the UK by air, travel industry insiders say the government has consigned hundreds of holiday firms to failure. Two months after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared that coronavirus had become a global pandemic, the prime minister has announced mandatory quarantine for new arrivals by air. The WHO advises that quarantine is a useful measure only in the earlier stages of virus transmission. But Boris Johnson said the policy was necessary to prevent a second spike in coronavirus cases. He said: To prevent reinfection from abroad, I am serving notice that it will soon be the time with transmission significantly lower to impose quarantine on people coming into this country by air. Airline passengers arriving from anywhere abroad apart from the Republic of Ireland and possibly France will be treated as though they are carrying coronavirus. They will be required to self-isolate in a private dwelling for two weeks. Under a separate agreement between Mr Johnson and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the UK and France will consult each other before imposing any quarantine measures between the two countries. Because the prime minister made clear that quarantine would not apply to rail or ferry passengers, it will be easy for individual travellers to the UK to circumvent. They need only travel to Paris or one of the Channel ports and board a train or ferry. Neither will cruise passengers whose journeys end at a UK port be affected. No starting date nor duration for the quarantine policy for airline arrivals from other countries has been provided, but leaks from government indicate it is likely to take effect at the end of the month. Even though quarantine has been widely trailed, the announcement and its lack of clarity sent shock waves through businesses already reeling from a near-total shutdown of the travel industry. Airlines and travel firms such as Tui and Jet2 Holidays had been planning for Project Lift-off. They aimed to restart operations from June onwards, with a wide range of flights in July and something close to a full programme in August the peak month for trips, when they can command high prices. The nature of most of their operations means that they cannot easily take advantage of the rail and ferry loophole. The average package holidaymaker will be unable or unwilling to contemplate adding 14 days of stringent self-isolation to their planned trip. But it is not clear whether they will be entitled to cancel without penalty. The rules governing holiday contracts were never designed for these circumstances. It is possible that travel firms may insist on their holidays going ahead, with anyone who chooses to cancel losing some or all of their money. This would place tour operators in the invidious and unpopular position of running holidays with a high number of no-shows, at a time when they are most unlikely to sell the vast amount of capacity still unsold. Therefore they may have little option but to cancel most summer trips, on top of the millions already axed. Tim Jeans, chairman of Cornwall Newquay Airport and former managing director of Monarch, said: To introduce this measure at the very point when lockdown appears to be easing doesnt seem rational. I can see turmoil in the holiday industry. Tour operators will be faced by a torrent of demand for refunds. The governments refusal to say when or how quarantine will end could deter consumers from committing to future bookings, stifling sales that had begun to build. With no cash coming in, and no prospect of a recovery before 2021, many long-established firms may have no alternative but to cease trading. 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 A senior travel industry figure said: Weve endured seven weeks of this, and just as we thought there was some measured way back to normality, were now worse than square one. It will worsen an already difficult situation for hundreds of travel firms, and write off many good businesses that would otherwise have been able to survive the summer. Holidaymakers whose package-holiday company fails will be able to get their money back under the Atol scheme, administered by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Even though the Air Travel Trust fund was almost emptied by the failure of Thomas Cook in September 2019, the government is the ultimate guarantor so the taxpayer is likely to be responsible for some of the refunds. Airlines that are already burning millions of pounds of cash every day now see the prospect of new bookings receding into the autumn. Recommended Shops could reopen in UK from 1 June Tim Alderslade, chief executive of the industry body Airlines UK, said: We all including government need to adapt to the new normal. But closing off air travel in this way is not the way to achieve this. Ministers are effectively telling people they can no longer travel for the foreseeable future and airlines will respond to that by grounding their operations. That is why they require urgent additional government support to get through this growing crisis. Dale Keller, chief executive of BAR UK representing overseas airlines flying to Britain said: The restart and recovery of aviation is an essential component in getting the UK economy moving again. Flying can only recommence in any meaningful way once the 14-day self-isolation requirement is superseded by a carefully coordinated and internationally harmonised approach, incorporating a series of multi-layered and more effective measures that better target and mitigate risk, and provide the confidence that flying is safe. Much inbound tourism will also be written off for the summer by the quarantine requirement. The travel writer and former tour operator, Neil Taylor, said: Who will consider coming to Britain under such circumstances? The ramifications go well beyond tourism: how many potential foreign students at universities here will delay their applications? Central London is bleak enough already with its closed museums, theatres and cafes. Do we want to drive away students as well? Three children in New York have died from a rare inflammatory syndrome believed to be linked to the novel coronavirus. Governor Andrew Cuomo disclosed this on Saturday. The disease, which has also been reported in Chicago, Illinois, may augur a pandemic risk for children. Cuomo had on Friday disclosed the death of a 5-year old linked to the coronavirus. He also disclosed a syndrome that shares symptoms with toxic shock and Kawasaki disease, the first known fatality tied to the rare illness in New York. The governor told a daily briefing on Saturday that the illness had now taken the lives of at least three young people across the state. He did not provide details of their ages or the circumstances of their deaths. But Medpage.com said one of the dead was seven years old, apart from the 5 year-old disclosed by Cuomo. But Cuomo said he was increasingly worried that the syndrome posed a newly emerging risk for children, who had previously been thought to be largely immune to severe illness from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus. He said state health officials were reviewing 73 cases where children exposed to COVID-19 also exhibited symptoms of the syndrome. The symptoms included inflammation of the blood vessels, which in turn could cause heart problems. Cuomo said the children happened to test positive for COVID-19 or the antibodies against it. But those were not the symptoms they showed when they came into the hospital system. He called it a truly disturbing development. The governor said people had been under the impression that young people were not at risk from the coronavirus. We are not so sure that is the fact anymore, he said. Its very possible that this has been going on for several weeks and it hasnt been diagnosed as related to COVID. Cuomo said New Yorks health department had partnered with the New York Genome Center and the Rockefeller University to look at whether there is a genetic basis for the syndrome, cases of which were first reported in Britain, Italy and Spain. And he said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had asked New York to develop national criteria for identifying and responding to the syndrome. The syndrome shares symptoms with toxic shock and Kawasaki disease, which is associated with fever, skin rashes, swelling of the glands, and in severe cases, inflammation of arteries of the heart. Scientists are still trying to determine whether the syndrome is linked with the new coronavirus because not all children with it have tested positive for the virus. New York is the epicentre of the pandemic in the United States, accounting for more than a third of the 77,313 American deaths from COVID-19, according to a Reuters tally. Cuomo said 226 New Yorkers died from COVID-19 on Friday, up from 216 a day earlier, but less than half the levels recorded two weeks ago. He said hospitalisations and intubations continued their downward trend, further evidence the state has gained a measure of control over the virus. Medpage Today sheds some light: The first known published case of classic Kawasaki disease associated with COVID-19 was reported in Hospital Pediatrics in late April. A 6-month-old seen in Stanford, California, screened positive for COVID-19 after presenting with fever, blotchy rash, and minimal respiratory symptoms. She had initially been sent home from urgent care. This week, the New York City Health Department announced finding 15 cases between April 29 and May 3. The full spectrum of disease is not yet known, it noted. Only severe cases may have been recognised at this time. On Wednesday, the New York State Department of Health expanded that to 64 cases statewide and issued an advisory on what is being called Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome Temporally Associated with COVID-19. Two children are now known to have died in New York with the syndrome, a 5-year-old boy and a 7-year-old boy. Italy, Spain, and the U.K. have noted an uptick in Kawasaki-like disease among children coincident with the COVID-19 outbreaks there. British health authorities warned about a small rise in children with severe COVID-19 and features consistent with toxic shock syndrome and atypical Kawasaki disease. Abdominal pain and gastrointestinal symptoms have been a common feature as has cardiac inflammation. Richa Sharma By NEW DELHI: Five distinct strains of coronavirus have been isolated by scientists from 165 genome sequenced so far across 19 states and 40 per cent cases, majority from the state with high COVID-19 burden, are found to have one virus cluster. The analysis The Diversity of SARS-nCoV-2 genomes from India by a team of scientists from the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) shows that the SARS-CoV-2 genomes isolated from Indian fall into five distinct clusters A1a, A2a, A3, B and one unclassified. But experts clarify that there is not enough data to prove anything about pathogenicity/virulence of virus in India. The genetic makeup of virus holds key information in understanding the spread of the COVID-19 across the world and by studying virus mutations, scientists can better understand how efficiently the virus bind and replicated inside human body. A dataset of 165 viral genomes from India submitted at the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) database (May 7, 2020) from Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, Ladakh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Kerala, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Punjab and Rajasthan. According to analysis, the B clade was obtained from early SARS-CoV-2 genomes from Wuhan and one of the first genomes sequenced in Kerala fall in this cluster while the A3 clade mutation has previously been found to be linked to Iran. Seven samples collected from Ladakh fall in this cluster. Genomes belonging A2a cluster saw two mutations. "40 per cent genomes from India fall under this cluster, including samples from Delhi, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, Punjab, Telangana," Vinod Scaria, Genomics Scientist, IGIB, quoted Phlyogenetic analysis. The assessment says that the A1a clad, as of now, samples from Delhi make up the cluster. Besides, Genome sequences from people who had travelled from Wuhan, China to Kerala on January 23, 2020, Though both genomes show 99.98 per cent similarity with original Wuhan seafood Market pneumonia virus but they are positioned in different clusters. Sudanese authorities said tribal clashes killed three people Sunday and wounded at least 79 others in the country's east. The violence in the city of Kassalla first erupted on Thursday between the Bani Amer tribe and the Nuba tribe, according to Maj. Gen. Mahmoud Babaker, the governor of Kassalla province. Babaker said clashes flared up again over the weekend, with many houses set on fire before authorities deployed troops to restore security in the city. At least 59 people from the two sides were arrested. The three deaths occurred Sunday and were all members of the Bani Amer tribe. Tribal clashes across Sudan pose a significant challenge to efforts by the transitional government to end decades-long rebellions in some areas. The country is on a fragile path to democracy after a popular uprising led the military to overthrow longtime autocratic President Omar al-Bashir last year. A military-civilian government is now in power. The city of Kassala is around 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Sudan's capital, Khartoum. Footage circulated online showed dozens of people clashing in the streets and burned houses sending thick clouds of heavy black smoke to the air. The violence came as authorities struggle to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Sudan's health care system has been weakened by decades of war and sanctions. The country of 43 million people has at least 1,164 confirmed cases including 64 deaths. Tensions between the Bani Amer and Nuba tribes mainly over water but also other resources started in May last year the eastern city of al-Qadarif, where seven people were killed. The fighting was renewed again in August in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, killing over three dozen people. Last week, tribal clashes between Arabs and non-Arabs in the province of South Darfur left at least 30 people dead and a dozen wounded, authorities said. A key priority of Sudan's military-civilian government has been ending the insurgencies in Sudan's far-flung provinces in order to slash military spending, which takes up much of the national budget. Rebel groups have for months engaged in talks with the transitional authorities to establish peace. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A rare piece of property in New Mexico is on the market with a price tag that matches it. The ranch-which has one of the darkest histories in the United States-is up for sale at a whopping $96 million. From the ground, the ranch resembles a very modest four-bedroom house. A view from above, however, highlights everything the expansive property has to offer. According to Hall and Hall Real Estate Partner Jeff Buerger, the ranch has generated an "unprecedented" amount of interest. What's for sale? The sprawling 50,000 deeded acres of land doesn't include a mansion. It features eleven long miles of both banks of the Vermejo River as well as a flourishing elk herd population. According to the listing, the ranch also lies nearby the rugged Cimarron Mountains. The purchase of the property would also include a 50 percent interest of more than 35 miles of the York Canyon Branch Spur Rail Line. "Owning half the shares of a private railroad is rare," Buerger said. I've only ever experienced it once in my career." The abandoned railway line was once used to access the coal mines along the York Canyon. The railway was abandoned after the coal mines closed in the 1990s. The tracks running along Colfax are now being used for car storage. The property was previously owned by reclusive tobacco billionaire Brad Kelly. Today, the property serves as a place of leisure and hunting. History The Dawson property was the birthplace of famous American civil rights icon Dolores Huerta. She is known for establishing the United Farm Workers (UFW)m, a labor union for farmworkers. The ranch once played a vital role in setting the rights of mining workers across the nation. The town of Dawson housed many migrants and was a multi-ethnic community composed of Mexican Americans, Italians, and other races who hoped to work in the lucrative coal mining industry. Once a thriving town of 9,000 strong, Dawson featured an opera house, hospital and a department store. It was run by the Phelps Dodge Company from 1906 to the 1950s. However, an accident in 1913 made the site the second-worst coal mining disaster in American history. In October 1913, more than 260 miners and two rescuers died in a mine explosion. A decade later, the mine exploded again, killing over 120 men. Dawson was sold in 1950. Most of the buildings were torn down. Some of the pieces were sent to the state of Kentucky. The once prominent town sat largely forgotten The Hall and Hall real estate company hopes the new owner will also work towards preserving the historic site and allow access to the general public who wish to pay their respects to the victims of the accident. Dolores Huerta, who is now 90, said she is hoping for the new owner to build a museum or memorial commemorating the lives of the workers who died in the accident. "My grandfather and my uncle are buried there," Huerta said. "That place is important to me. It's a beautiful place." Want to read more? Check these out: They began to mean-mug him, giving him intimidating looks, then followed Kawars son as he pulled out of the gas station, Nevin said. As they began to pursue him, Kawars son called Kawar to tell him that he was being chased, according to prosecutors. Hospitals have been accused of trying to 'emotionally blackmail' care homes into taking back coronavirus patients by leaving them by the gates. Paramedics were said to have left pensioners at their homes in the early morning with no staff around. A care home boss in the north of England told the Sunday Mirror: 'The hospitals call and say that the residents are positive but just want to go back to their homes. 'We stand firm but it feels like emotional blackmail.' It comes following revelations that hospitals may have broken the law by sending patients with coronavirus back to care homes without telling their managers they had the virus. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has been told that several hospitals returned people despite suspecting or even knowing they were infected. These patients triggered outbreaks in homes, claiming the lives of other vulnerable residents. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has been told that several hospitals returned people despite suspecting or even knowing they were infected (pictured: Clinical staff care for a patient with coronavirus) Rachel Beckett, of Wellburn Care Homes, said: 'Hospitals have told us we were breaking the law by not taking positive patients, which is not the case.' She said one resident at one of Wellburn's 14 homes in the north went to hospital and tested positive - but was sent back still showing symptoms. Ms Beckett said the home would not admit her until she was negative but paramedics 'put pressure' on staff 'to the point where they were becoming emotional'. She added that relatives of the women were very upset, and the home eventually admitted her but she was still positive one week later. Ms Beckett said that in another incident a resident was sent back at 3am 'because there was nobody to say no'. It comes amid revelations today that Britain has suffered a further 205 coronavirus deaths - the lowest figure in more than six weeks since March 26. A total of 31,792 have now died of COVID-19 across the UK. However, there is always a dip in daily deaths at the weekend and the true toll is likely to be higher in reality due to a delay in gathering death certificates. But there have been warnings from scientists that thousands more lives will be lost to the pandemic. One study estimates 100,000 Britons could be lost to the killer infection by the end of the year if the crisis is not controlled. Care home outbreaks 'leaking' out to public Coronavirus outbreaks in care homes are now leaking back into the community and driving the epidemic, Government advisers have said. Experts say widespread cases in care homes are pushing up the UKs average transmission rate and are providing one of the biggest barriers to lifting the lockdown. The stark warning highlights how the failure to protect Britains care homes from the virus has not only cost the lives of thousands of elderly residents, but has also had devastating consequences for the entire population. Senior officials have warned that levels of coronavirus infection are likely to be at least five times higher among hospital and care home staff than in the wider population. They are particularly worried about healthcare workers picking up the disease and spreading it among the wider community or to other patients. Ministers have been told they need to get on top of this urgently before the lockdown can be lifted. Advertisement And a separate study estimates 700,000 people will die in Britain as a result of the COVID-19 and the lockdown measures used to control it - more than in the Second World War. The CQC is investigating after being informed by care home managers that hospitals discharged patients into their premises without telling them they had the disease. Kate Terroni, the watchdogs chief inspector of adult social care, said: We have heard of a few incidents where this has happened and it has resulted in infections spreading to other residents in the care home. In cases where it looks like the information wasnt disclosed by the hospital, we are looking at whether the hospital breached their regulations and whether we can take action. Its an issue we take really seriously. The CQC enforces a series of regulations, enshrined in law, that health and adult social care services in England must comply with. Breaching some of these rules is a criminal offence and the watchdog can bring prosecutions. The CQC is also investigating whether care home residents have died from noncoronavirus conditions due to a lack of visits from GPs. Chief executive of Care England, Professor Martin Green, said hospitals are discharging people at night because there will not be senior staff there to resist it. New Delhi, May 10 (UNI) Amid the ongoing Novel Coronavirus pandemic across the globe, India has sent Indian Naval Ship Kesari, carrying on board two Medical Assistance Teams, consignments of COVID-related essential medicines and essential food items to countries in Southern Indian Ocean Region, as part of the Indian government's Mission Sagar initiative. The countries, including Maldives, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Seychelles, had requested India for assistance in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The Medical Assistance Teams will be deployed in Mauritius and Comoros, helping their governments deal with the COVID emergency and dengue fever (in case of Comoros). The Ship will deliver consignments of essential medicines to Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Seychelles and about 600 tonnes of food items to Maldives, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement here. In addition, in case of Mauritius, a special consignment of Ayurvedic medicines is also being sent. The consignments meant for Madagascar and Comoros also includes Hydroxychloroquine tablets, which have already been sent earlier to Mauritius, Maldives and Seychelles. In line with it's time-tested role as the first responder in the region, India has already supported the efforts of the Governments of Maldives, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Seychelles, by providing them consignments of COVID-related essential medicines. A team of select medical personnel was also dispatched to Maldives, to augment the preparedness of the Maldivian Government, to fight this crisis. 'Mission Sagar' is inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of Security and Growth for All (SAGAR) in the Region. UNI ASH RJ 1208 Turkeys Defence Ministry blamed the Kurdish YPG militia for the explosion, which the latter deny. The attack took place near government buildings, in a city market crowded with shoppers stocking up for the Iftar, the evening meal that breaks the Ramadan fasting. Damascus (AsiaNews/Agencies) At least 40 civilians, including 11 children, and six Syrian Arab fighters allied to Turkey were killed in an attack on Tuesday in Afrin, north-eastern Syria, an area long disputed between Kurds and Turks, currently under Turkish control. The Turkish Defence Ministry blamed the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Unit (YPG) militia, which it considers affiliated with the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), an organisation it labelled as terrorist. However, there is no conclusive evidence about who the authors of the attack are. In a statement, Turkey said the blast occurred in a crowded area in Afrin. A video shared by the Defence Ministry shows black smoke billowing in the air whilst ambulance and police sirens wail in the background. The governor of the neighbouring Turkish border province of Hatay said that a fuel tanker rigged with a hand grenade exploded at an open-air market in the central Souk Ali area of Afrin, close to local government's offices. At the time, the market was full of shoppers stocking up for the Iftar, the meal with which Muslims break their fast during Ramadan. In March 2018, the Turkish military seized Afrin and much of north-eastern Syria from Kurdish control in order to create a strategic buffer zone on the border. Since then the area has been run by the Turkish army and its Syrian allies. The conflict has triggered violence that has also affected Christians, who have been the victims, like the Kurds, of "soft ethnic cleansing. Yesterdays attack is among the regions bloodiest. As usual, Turkey blamed it on Kurdish separatists. For its part, the YPG said that it never targets civilians. See Full Image Gallery >> Porsches air-cooled flat-six engines are the stuff of legend, and now you can be reminded of their ingenuity each time you reach for your morning cuppa. A South African company called Super Veloce (super fast) that designs and makes automotive-themed espresso machines has unveiled its newest model: the Espresso Veloce RS Black Edition. Its inspired by the air-cooled flat-six Porsche 911 engine that featured in the 993 generation of the car, and its billed as a blacked-out and more aggressive version of the companys Flat Six coffee maker (because who wants timid coffee?). Its made of stainless steel, aluminum alloy, titanium and even carbon fiber, about which the company devotes a lengthy explanatory blog post. It measures roughly 15 inches long, 16.5 inches wide and 13.5 inches tall, and it clocks in at more than 47 pounds. Despite its performance pedigree, were guessing this probably isnt quite the workhorse to power the automotive-themed coffee shop youve been dreaming of opening, but rather is more suited to home use or maybe in a Porsche dealership, C-suite or collectors clubhouse. The company was founded in 2013 by Paolo Mastrogiuseppe, a designer and mechanical engineer who worked with his father and younger brother in a precision machine shop manufacturing equipment for the automotive, mining and earthmoving industries in South Africa. "Italians are known for great coffee, it is part of their rich culture," Sunel van der Linde, a marketing executive at the company, told Autoblog in an email. He added that the machines "are collectors items that can be passed down from one generation to the next." True to form, only 993 units will be built. Its priced at 10,200 about $11,000 and it runs on standard 110- and 120-volt systems as well as 220 and 240 voltage inputs. Parikshit07 wrote: E. Omnimedia???s market research suggests that, while there is some overlap in the audiences for home decorating and arts and crafts magazines, many buyers would only have interest in one of the two publications. Though option E seems correct, a buyer's interest in one of the two doesn't mean that the buyer will certainly buy magazine of Omnimedia publication. Isn't the option a little vague? There are two things that i can tell you right now. One, as er the question stem it is an 'if true' question. Two, in the question stem there is one word that jumps out is 'indication'. Both together do suggest that the right option, might, would just slightly strengthen the conclusion.Here's a question from latest which does the same thing(personal opinion though) but it is more difficult._________________ A 40-year-old German man has been living in the transit area of New Delhis Indira Gandhi International airport for the past 54 days in a story not dissimilar to that of Viktor Navorski, the fictional character played by Tom Hanks in the 2004 Steven Spielberg film The Terminal. The German national, Edgard Ziebat, was on his way from Hanoi to Istanbul on March 18, the day India cancelled all flights to and from Turkey in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Four days later, India stopped all international flights, and then, on March 25, imposed a national lockdown that is now scheduled to continue till May 17. While there were other stranded passengers at the airport at the time, what complicated things for Ziebat is that he has a criminal record in his home country, which has refused to take custody of him because he is at a foreign location, according to two security officers from the airport who asked not to be named. India, too, did not give him a visa because of his criminal record, the officers added. Watch | Will PM-CMs decide on lockdown exit & the man living at airport for 2 months There was no immediate response from the German embassy to calls and text messages regarding the development. On March 18, Ziebat landed in New Delhi from Vietnam in a VietJet Air flight as a transit passenger to Istanbul, only to realise that all flights to his destination were cancelled, one of the officers cited above said. After spending around a week in the transit area, with four other stranded passengers who arrived in Delhi on different dates two from Sri Lanka and one each from the Maldives and the Philippines airport authorities alerted their respective embassies, the officer said. While others were facilitated by their embassies concerned and were taken for quarantine, officials from the German embassy informed the Indian bureau of immigration that Ziebat is a wanted criminal in their country with several cases of assault and other crimes registered against him. Since he was on a foreign land, they did not take his custody. The Delhi Police and airport operator DIAL (Delhi International Airport Limited) were also apprised of the situation, the officer said. He added that because India did not give Ziebat a visa due to his criminal background criminal offences are taken into consideration when assessing individual visa cases in India he remains unauthorised to leave the airports transit area. In India, an international passenger can normally stay in transit for just one day, and requires Indian visa to step out of this designated space for travellers passing through the country. The officer added that Ziebat has also not formally applied for an Indian visa. In the film, The Terminal, Navorski (played by Hanks) arrives at New Yorks John F. Kennedy airport from the fictional Eastern European country Krakozhia, only to discover that the US no longer recognises Krakozhia as an independent country after the outbreak of a civil war, and Viktor is not permitted to either enter the country or return home because he is now stateless. He goes on to stay in the terminal for nine months because he cant enter the US. Ziebat, too, has been staying in the terminal with only his luggage. The airport, in any case, has not opened to regular traffic since March 22, but is operating cargo flights and some special evacuation flights, and is currently involved in the massive repatriation exercise in which about 15,000 Indians stranded in 12 countries are being brought to different airports across India in the first week of the operation. According to the second airport official, Ziebat has mostly spent the last 54 days reading magazines and newspapers, talking to his friends and family over the phone, eating at some of the fast food outlets still in operation within the terminal, interacting with housekeeping and security staff, taking walks within the transit area, and using the airports washrooms and toilets. Authorities also provided him with a recliner, mosquito net, toothpaste, food and other basic essentials. He told officials that he can manage his expenses. He sleeps on the beds, benches, on the floors, wherever he feels like. He is alone in the transit area as it is not being used because the airport is closed for passengers, said the second officer. We confirm that a foreign national is currently in the transit area of the international terminal of Delhi airport due to non-availability of regular flight to transit onwards. Appropriate authorities were informed about this in good time. They are in dialogue with the foreign national, a spokesperson for Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) said. HT could not immediately contact Zeibat for a comment. The second officer cited above said that around mid-April, some officials were worried about Ziebats health. On this, some of the officials were sent to meet Ziebat and they found that he was fine, physically and mentally. He interacted clearly, and was in all his senses. CCTV footage was also checked, and nothing suspicious was found. Since then, some officers visit the German man regularly to interact with him just to get an idea of his well-being, he added. During such interactions, the second officer said, Ziebat had said that he can pay for his tickets if his travel is arranged. It was found that he has visas of multiple countries. The officials concerned have told him that it will only be possible for them to send him away once international flights resume, the officer added. No date has been specified for when regular international transit will resume from India. The officer quoted above said Ziebat was asked to leave and go wherever he wants, but since no flights are operational, he has been stranded. About a week ago, attempts were also made to accommodate him on a relief flight to Ankara (Turkey) but Turkish authorities turned down the proposal stating that the flight was only for Turkish nationals or for their permanent residents, the officer said. The CBI has questioned senior IAS officers Alok Kumar and Aparna U in connection with alleged irregularities in the investment of provident fund money of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) employees in the scam-hit DHFL and other non-banking financial companies, sources said on Sunday. The two officers were questioned by CBI sleuths on Saturday, they said. During investigation of the provident fund scam, the CBI has learnt that over Rs 4,323 crore of hard-earned savings of UPPCL employees was allegedly invested in these companies with the nod of Kumar, a 1988-batch IAS officer who was posted as Chairman of UPPCL in 2017-19, they said. The agency has also found that Rs 3,245 crore was allegedly invested in DHFL and other non-banking financial companies with the clearance of Aparna U, a 2001-batch IAS officer who was posted as Managing Director of UPPCL in 2017-19, they said. The CBI took over the investigation into the scam on March 5 this year after taking over the FIR registered at Hazratganj Police station in Lucknow, they said. Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd. (DHFL) is facing multiple probes after a report suggested that the company, through layers of shell companies, allegedly siphoned off Rs 31,000 crore out of the total bank loan of Rs 97,000 crore. It is also alleged that officials of UPPCL conspired to get the provident funds deposited in schemes of DHFL circumventing the rules which did not encourage such investments. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment As Foster Care Awareness Month begins, the impact coronavirus is having on some of the most vulnerable children and those trying to help them cannot be ignored. Children are more at risk of abuse and hospitals across the country have observed an increase in suspected cases of child abuse in March and April. One Florida hospital typically sees one or two cases a month but has seen eight in just the past few weeks. A Texas hospital that typically sees eight cases a month saw five in just one week in March. Each child was under six years old, and one tragically passed away. He was the third child in less than a month to die from abuse injuries the hospital usually sees an average of six abuse-related deaths per year. At-risk children are quarantined in their dysfunctional homes, with adults who are struggling with heightened stress and anxiety. Additionally, the psychological stress of the pandemic creates a real risk of previously stabilized homes becoming unstable again. This sadly is increasing the need for foster homes, but beyond instances of abuse, homes are needed when children or their parents contract the coronavirus. In Indiana, thousands of foster parents have been contacted about taking children who have coronavirus or have been in contact with someone who has coronavirus. New Jersey has had to find foster placements for children whose parents were hospitalized. Finding these homes can be difficult as foster parents are dealing with the same financial struggles and health concerns as the rest of the world. Some foster parents have been struggling for years and this pandemic only compounds their struggles. Sharonell Fulton has fostered over 40 children in Philadelphia; but in 2018 she was cut off from training, resources, and support provided by Catholic Charities of Philadelphia. The city terminated its contracts with faith-based adoption and foster care agencies because of their religious beliefs. Fulton and other foster parents sued, noting that the citys unconstitutional discrimination resulted in empty foster homes when more were desperately needed. Children had already been languishing in the system because fewer agencies were working on their behalf, and court closures due to coronavirus have made matters worse across the country. This strain is causing concern that some foster parents will drop out of the system. Some states, such as North Carolina, acknowledge that there is already a shortage and that it could get worse. Pennsylvania is facing many of these same problems. According to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, Bryan Bornman, executive director of the Pennsylvania Children and Youth Administrators, fears that long-term interruptions to children and youth services could decimate the industrys workforce, which is already plagued with high turnover. Things are likely to get worse as stay-at-home orders begin to lift. The gravity of the increase in abuse, and thus need for resources, has likely not been seen fully yet. Abuse is less visible during a quarantine. Children are currently not seeing their teachers, doctors, or other mandatory reporters of abuse. Thus, in some parts of the country, calls to state child abuse hotlines have decreased significantly. This decrease is believed to be due to reduced ability to catch and report abuse, not an actual decline in instances of abuse. A flood of calls to child abuse hotlines is expected when the quarantines end. An all hands-on deck approach to the child welfare crisis is crucial, now more than ever. One step toward ensuring that we truly are all in this together would be for the Supreme Court, which recently agreed to take Sharonell and her fellow foster parents case, to rule in their favor. Such a ruling would follow U.S. law and its own precedent allowing faith-based entities to work alongside the government to help alleviate the foster care system crisis free of government discrimination. Allowing faith-based groups back into the foster care system in places like Philadelphia will bring all our communities resources to bear to respond to the tragic increase in child abuse triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. THE family of a boy fighting cancer for a third time say they havent given up hope after being told he is not eligible for a trial in America. Charlie Ilsley, 13, of Buckingham Drive, Emmer Green, has been given just months to live after chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatment failed. His parents Mark and Toni had hoped he would be accepted for a trial at St Jude Childrens Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, which specialises in treatment of cancers. But they have been told it wouldnt be possible for Charlie to take part in the trial as it is for brain cancer rather than disease of the spine, which is what he is suffering from. Mrs Ilsley says she is now exploring other options and has all her sons scans and medical notes from his consultant at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. She is researching and applying for any medical trials she feels may help Charlie, who currently doesnt have any symptoms. She is is contact with several hospitals in America and hopes her son will be suitable for a trial at Seattle Childrens Hospital. The treatment is called CAR T-cell therapy, a type of immunotherapy, where the cells are collected and altered slightly so that they target cancer cells when returned to the body. Mrs Ilsley said: Its really successful on leukaemia and blood cancers and they are now trialling it on solid tumours. Its beneficial because its different, its not chemotherapy-based. Charlies had lots of chemotherapy and obviously it has not worked so I dont really want to give him anymore. I have sent everything over to the hospital. They have sent me lots back on places to stay and transport. I dont really see why Charlie wouldnt be eligible for this and Im hoping that he will be. It might be a lot easier to get to America if we go in three or four weeks. Mrs Ilsley has also emailed her sons scans to the Williams Cancer Institute in Atlanta and to a hospital in Mexico to investigate other forms of immunotherapy. The latter has offered to treat Charlie with two immunotherapy drugs he has not had before at a cost of 57,000 in a matter of weeks. The board at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston is also looking at Charlies scans to see if it can help. Last week Charlie began a course of four drugs designed to deprive cancer cells of the nutrients they need to survive, including metformin, which is used to treat type two diabetes, and the antibiotic doxycycline. Mrs Ilsley said: This is no way near a cure but Im hoping it will hold it for a while and keep him well so I can get to America and get this trial done. I dont want to make a rash decision. I want to go for something thats really beneficial. Mrs Ilsley thanked the community for their support. She has been contacted by many people offering donations and to hold fundraising events. When she appealed for help in getting flights to America she was contacted by a British Airways pilot. Mrs Ilsley said: She said, Im a pilot for BA and Ill do everything I can to get you over there. I messaged her to say we might be going to Seattle and said we might still need your help. Im always grateful for all the help people offer and the support for Charlie definitely helps get you through. You wake up every morning not knowing what to expect. Its another day of sitting on the computer looking for treatments but you just carry on. No way am I going to give up. Charlie was given the all-clear for the second time in August after undergoing specialist radiation treatment in Turkey which his family had to raise the money to pay for. But in November they were told the disease had returned after a lumbar puncture showed cancer cells in his spinal fluid and a scan in March showed the disease prominently in his spine and in new areas. Charlie had been receiving the drug etoposide through a reservoir inserted under his scalp in January and topotecan but these treatments have now ceased. In 2015 he was diagnosed with a brain tumour and another on his spine. He underwent a 10-hour operation and had 31 sessions of radiotherapy followed by chemotherapy before being given the all-clear in March 2016. Then in spring 2018 two tumours were discovered on his spine. He was taken to Turkey for CyberKnife radiotherapy treatment and was given the all-clear for a second time before the disease returned. If you can help, call Mrs Ilsley on 07845 908589. Xu Yan, wife of human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, holds a piece of paper the reads "I want to request a meeting with Judge Liu Mingwei" and a picture of her husband outside the Xuzhou Intermediate Peoples Court in Xuzhou, China, on Oct. 31, 2019. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images) US Calls for Detained Chinese Human Rights Lawyer to Be Freed The U.S. government is calling for the release of Chinese human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, who has been held in detention in China for over a year. One year ago today #YuWensheng was tried for advocating constitutional reforms on @Twitter, a platform banned in #China, stated the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) in a tweet on May 9. Yu drew Chinese authorities ire after he posted an open letter on Twitter in January 2018, addressed to senior officials of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who gathered in Beijing for a major political meeting. One of the constitutional reforms Yu suggested was abolishing Chinas Central Military Commission (CMC), the highest military leading body of the CCP. He urged that CMCs power be transferred to the State Council, the highest administrative organ in the Chinese government, similar to a government cabinet. Yu argued that the Chinese military should belong to the country and not the Party. One day after his post, local police took Yu into custody near his home in Beijing. He was then taken to Xuzhou city in coastal Chinas Jiangsu Province and placed under residential surveillance. Four months later, the prosecutors office in Xuzhou charged him with obstructing the administration of public order and inciting subversion of state powera catch-all charge that the Chinese regime often uses against dissidents. Yus wife, Xu Yan, said that her husband was placed on a secret trial at the Xuzhou Intermediate Peoples Court without her knowledge on May 9, 2019. He has not been sentenced, and is unclear where he is currently being detained. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, a United Nations working group, declared that there was no legal basis for Yus detention and deprivation of Yus liberty was contrary to article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, according to an opinion issued on May 29 last year. Speaking to the Chinese-language Epoch Times earlier this month, Xu said that authorities did not allow her nor her husbands lawyer to meet with Yu since his detention in January 2018. In a video posted on her Twitter account on May 1, a teary-eyed Xu urged foreign ambassadors to press Beijing to release her husband. He is not guilty. He is just performing his duties as his lawyer, and exercising the right to freedom of speech granted by the [Chinese] Constitution, she said. On May 8, Xu posted another video showing her phone calls to Liu Mingwei, the presiding judge in Yus case, and the prosecutors office in Xuzhou. Liu did not answer the phone call, while an unnamed person at the prosecutors office said that no verdict had been reached on Yus case. This is not the first time that the U.S. government expressed concerns about Yus case. On April 20, spokesperson for the U.S. State Department Morgan Ortagus called on the release of all those unjustly detained in China, including Yu, in a press release. We remain concerned by the PRCs [Peoples Republic of China] 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, Ortagus added. Yu defended, unsuccessfully, for the case of fellow human rights lawyer Wang Quangzhang, who was recently released after serving a 4.5-year sentence on charges of subverting state power. Like Wang, Yu also represented activists and adherents of the spiritual group Falun Gong, a meditation practice that has been severely persecuted by the regime since 1999. The German governments human rights commissioner Barbel Kofler, and the French ambassador-at-large for human rights Francois Croquette issued a joint statement on May 9 about Yus case. We take the anniversary of his trial as an opportunity to reiterate our concern that his family has not received any information about Yu Wenshengs trial status, verdict, or personal situation since then, the joint statement said. We appeal to the Chinese institutions to lead the process according to the rule of law. Ireland-based human rights organization Front Line Defenders also expressed concerns about Yu in a statement on May 8. Front Line Defenders calls on the Xuzhou Municipal Intermediate Court to uphold Chinas human rights obligations under the Chinese Constitution and international human rights law and, without delay, exonerate Yu Wensheng and release him unconditionally, it said. The delay in the salaries of Nigerian military personnel was due to the unexpected lockdown in the country over the coronavirus pandemic, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation has explained. The office on Sunday said the lockdown led to late submission of variations by the agencies concerned. In a statement signed by its spokesperson, Henshaw Ogubike, the office, however, said it has made the payment. It said its Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) Department, on Friday, May 8, confirmed the payment. Read the full statement below. APRIL 2020 ARMED FORCES PERSONNEL SALARIES PAID OAGF The Federal Government has completed the payment of the April 2020 salaries of Armed Forces personnel in the country. The Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) Department in the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation confirmed that as at Friday 8th May, 2020, the Armed Forces personnel had been paid. According to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) Office, the delay in the salary payment was due to the unexpected lockdown in the country which led to late submission of variations by the Agencies concerned and the need to accommodate their inputs in the April payroll accordingly. This explanation became necessary in view of a Newspaper report which alleged that the April 2020 salaries of military and paramilitary personnel was delayed as a result of incapability and inexperience of the operators of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS). As mentioned in the newspaper report, officials of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) had given assurance that the salaries would be paid between 4th and 8th May, 2020. This was promptly carried out as noted earlier. The Vanguard Newspaper published that news report without cross checking facts or contacting the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) at all for update on the issue, deliberately misinforming and misleading the public with a view to achieving an unholy objective. Such report has the potency to incite the Armed Forces and the general public against the operations of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS). Suffice it to state that staff of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) and the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) are competent professionals who have demonstrated the will and capacity to get the job done in line with the presidential directives, despite distractions and opposition from some quarters whose objectives is to sabotage the government policy that has saved the nation over N361 billion. Henshaw Ogubike Director (Information, Press and Public Relations) When the Wyoming Legislature convenes Friday for a special session, it will do so at a time of historic challenges for our state. Wyoming is in the midst of a pandemic with no vaccine or cure, leaving us few options for protection beyond distance. That defense has triggered an economic collapse that eclipses any downturn weve ever witnessed, with one out of every 10 Wyoming workers having filed for jobless benefits in the past two months, and more unemployment likely on the horizon. And even as our economy begins to reopen, it will be some time before Wyomings top industries energy and tourism recover. The difficulties brought on by the coronavirus are occurring against an existing backdrop of economic upheaval. Coal production continues to falter. Oil prices are sagging under the weight of too much supply and not enough demand. Even if the pandemic had never happened, our lawmakers would still be faced with profound questions: How do we pay for our schools, our police, our services? And so it is vitally important that when lawmakers meet next week to begin the enormous task of navigating a way through this storm, the public can see into and engage in the process. At first, it appeared the people tasked with keeping the public informed journalists were in danger of being kept on the sidelines. Thankfully, legislative leadership indicated Friday that they were working on a way to get reporters into the Capitol. Lawmakers plan to conduct the session in two ways. While all legislators will participate through online video, some will gather in the Wyoming Capitol and participate from there. Earlier this week, it appeared as if reporters would be shut out of the Wyoming Capitol at this critical time. On the surface, this might seem like an acceptable proposition given the pandemic. But it runs counter to the very idea of a democratic society, in which the responsibility to include the public increases with the stakes. Citizens have a right to know how their government is responding to this crisis. They have a right to ask questions. That is the process. And thats where journalists come in. Journalism is enshrined in the Constitution because it holds government accountable and allows citizens to participate in our democratic society. Most of us have jobs or other responsibilities that make it difficult to watch hours of legislative meetings and nearly impossible to question our leaders. Thats a role journalists perform on the publics behalf. That process cant truly happen from a computer screen. As veterans of the Legislature will tell you, much of the actual lawmaking occurs outside the chambers of the House and Senate. It happens in the hallways and in the alcoves, where lawmakers meet informally to devise plans and hash out compromises. When reporters are there, the public can be part of this process. Without journalists at the Capitol, the story of our states historic response to the pandemic will be lost to history. Yes, there are safety considerations. But weve seen that they can be overcome. The Trump administration, even with its often acrimonious relationship with the press, has found ways to include reporters for in-person briefings with the president. So has Congress and many state governments. This act of newsgathering is protected under the First Amendment. And that protection is there for exactly these moments. We enshrine our rights for times when they would be threatened. Our leaders in Wyoming have recognized this. Consider the protests that have taken place here. They were not halted, even though they may have violated the prohibition against large gatherings. Our politicians knew that the First Amendment right to redress our government was critical. So is the First Amendment freedom of the press. After first suggesting reporters would be left out, lawmakers now appear to be reconsidering. Thats good. Journalists should be in the Wyoming Capitol as legislators decide how to spend $1.25 billion of public money during a crisis. We are living through historic times. Journalists are needed to document them. (CNN) The city of Wuhan, the original epicenter of the coronavirus crisis, on Sunday reported its first new coronavirus case since April 3, according to local health officials. The patient is currently in a critical condition, and his wife has also tested positive and was reported as an asymptomatic case. The patient lives in a neighborhood that has recorded 20 confirmed cases overall. The new case is lined to "past community infection," according to the Wuhan Health Commission, citing medical experts. Five patients from the community showing no symptoms, including the new case's wife, have been sent to hospitals for observation. China's national and local health commissions do not include asymptomatic cases in their confirmed case counts. China reopened Wuhans borders after a 76-day lockdown on April 8. As of Saturday, 50,334 total cases have been confirmed in the city, according to the commission. This story was first published on CNN.com's live updates on COVID-19. Western Australias leading medical association is again calling on the state government to remove restrictions limiting doctors abilities to test patients for COVID-19, as it further relaxes rules from May 18. Australian Medical Association WA president Andrew Miller on Sunday welcomed the state's balanced, well thought-through four-phase plan and the week's delay that would allow a wait to see if more cases emerged. AMA (WA) President Andrew Miller. Credit:Lauren Pilat But, he said, doctors needed more powers to test a wider proportion of the community to ensure those staged changes could remain. WA was still testing at about half the rate of many European countries, around 21,000 tests per million people here. Thiruvananthapuram, May 10 : The Air India Express flight that was scheduled to fly out with 181 passengers from Doha on Sunday has been called off for now, an airport official said. Speaking to IANS, a top airport official here said the flight was to travel to Doha from Kozhikode around 1 p.m. and land here around 10.45 p.m. "There have been some technical issues as Doha has not given the permission for this flight to land. What we are given to understand is that this flight has been called off. Now it will have to operate under a new schedule. We were fully ready to receive the flight later in the night," said the official who did not wish to be identified. According to reports, about 50 passengers booked to travel from Doha had reached the airport there. Kerala will thus see only one flight on Sunday, and that is the one bringing stranded Indians from Malaysia to Kochi in the night. Meanwhile, the Thiruvananthapuram District Collector told the media here that this flight has now been rescheduled for Tuesday. Three Indonesian ship crew abducted off Gabon waters by NUR YASMIN May 10,2020 | Source: Jakarta Globe Three Indonesian crew workers were abducted by pirates raiding two Senegalese-flagged fishing vessels in Libreville, off Gabon waters, on Sunday. The pirates also reportedly kidnapped two Senegalese and a South Korean, as the Foreign Affairs Ministry is looking into the matter and reaching Gabon Government to confirm. Our embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, is communicating with Gabon Government. We have not received official information regarding the situation, Judha Nugraha, director for citizens protection at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, said on Wednesday. Judha said the pirates attacked two Senegalese-flagged fishing vessels. The abduction is the second piracy in Gabon waters this year, as reported by the French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP). The first incident was in December, when pirates attacked several boats off the coast of Libreville, abducted four Chinese sailors, and killed a Gabonese skipper. The Gulf of Guinea, connecting Senegal to Angola, is the latest center for piracy attacks in the world. Pirates are targeting various kinds of ships to loot and abduct for ransom. On April 19, some pirates also attacked a container ship off the coast of Cotonou, Benin, abducting eight sailors. 2020 JAKARTA GLOBE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVERD Theme(s): Others. R inging in the 2020 New Year, its likely you had big travel plans for the year ahead. Perhaps you were counting down the days until youd fly and flop onto a Portuguese beach, or perhaps you wanted to finally tick spotting the Northern Lights in Norway off your bucket list? Yet, in late January a global pandemic came along and subsequently quashed all of our grand travel hopes for this year. So were looking to 2021 instead. Next year, travel is set to make a triumphant return. Think luxury trips, spending longer in each locale and making the most out of every day spent exploring a new country. Travel will no longer be taken for granted. So whether youre looking to tap into the sustainable travel beat, reconnect with your loved ones somewhere exotic or tick off that bucket list item, the travel industrys leading experts predict what to expect in 2021 below. Travel priorities will change in 2021 Travel will bounce back next year and it needs to, with so many jobs and communities dependent on it, but it will be smaller, no doubt. Some of the reduction in travel and flying is very welcome as we have now proved that we can work well and efficiently via video technology so we dont need to fly to do business, Tim Williamson, Director of Marketing and Content at Responsible Travel, says. Williamson hopes that the communities weve fostered during the pandemic will translate into how we perceive travel as well, gearing our priorities towards slower travel with a focus on local communities and the environment. He continues: This may result in us wanting to travel to places for a little bit longer, rush around less and try to get under the skin of a place. I believe and hope that travellers will demand this from their holidays but I also hope that local communities are consulted on the type of tourism they want to see coming back. Expect an uptick in staycations and journeys to lesser-known locales As lockdown laws begin to ease, travellers will be able to explore their own backyard a little more. Luckily, in the UK, we have plenty to see. From the Scottish Highlands to the English moors and the Welsh beaches , theres a wealth of beauty not too far from home. Jean-Francois Ferret, Chief Executive Officer of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, says: Initially, travel will be predominantly domestic and staycations. Travellers are also more likely to venture out to lesser-known and less-populated locales to avoid crowds, hence small boutique properties like ours offering standalone accommodation and private islands will generally be preferred. Spa resorts will be popular too as people focus on improving physical and mental health. We believe that our guests want to continue to be inspired and to feel that they will travel soon again. More importantly, we believe that the major change will come from the fact that people will certainly travel less, but better and with a purpose - a world where people explore the world with intention, experience its intensity and protect its integrity. The best beaches in Europe - in pictures 1 /40 The best beaches in Europe - in pictures Isola Bella in Sicily, Italy A small islet connected to Sicily by a strip of pebble beach, Isola Bella is often referred to as the pearl of the Ionian for its beauty Shutterstock Blue Lagoon in Oludeniz, Turkey Forget Bodrum, Oludeniz is where youll find the most beautiful beach in Turkey Shutterstock Durdle Door in Dorset, England One of the most photographed and iconic areas of Dorset, Durdle Door is also home to one of the best beaches in Europe Shutterstock Plage de Roccapina in Corsica, France White sands, clear water and surrounded by rocky hills, Plage de Roccapina on the French island of Corsica is the perfect quiet antidote to the French Riviera Shutterstock Stiniva beach in Vis, Croatia The white pebble beach is often empty in early summer the best time to visit to experience its crystalline waters first-hand Shutterstock Nugal beach in Makarska, Croatia Located along the Makarska Riviera and with no car parking nearby (youll have to walk from Makarska town), this pebble beach is a true hidden gem Shutterstock Navagio beach in Zakynthos, Greece Also known as shipwreck beach this cove is a favourite among Instagram travel influencers who like to get a shot from sitting on the white marble cliffs above Unsplash Rushy Bay Beach in Isles of Scilly, England A firm local favourite, youd be forgiven for thinking Rushy Bay was a beach in the Mediterranean with its sparkling turquoise waters and white sand Shutterstock Kaputas beach near Kas, Turkey Vivid blue hues contrast with golden sand at Kaputas, one of the shining stars of the Mediterranean Shutterstock Praia Galapinhos in the Parque Natural da Arrabida, Portugal A pristine beach, surrounded by native bush and clear, inviting waters this beach may be close to a road but feels incredibly remote Shutterstock Sveti Stefan beach in Budva, Montenegro A sandbank makes up this stunning beach that looks on to the Sveti Stefan islet home to an Aman resort Shutterstock Porto Timoni beach in Corfu, Greece A double beach divided by a bushy headland, Porto Timoni is postcard-perfect Unsplash Sandwood Bay in Sutherland, Scotland Definitely one of the more remote beaches in Europe but also one of the prettiest, Scotlands Sandwood Bay faces straight out into the North Atlantic and is flanked by cliffs, sand dunes and a loch Shutterstock Praia Dona Ana in Lagos, Portugal A classic Algarve cove, its nestled between two sandstone cliffs with the golden sand disappearing into the vibrant green and blue-hued sea Shutterstock Paloma beach in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France Paloma is the French Riviera at its best Shutterstock Milos Beach in Lefkada, Greece The water at Milos is so blue its almost cyan, especially when contrasted against the cream coloured beach and cliffs that surround it Unsplash Mesecev zaliv (Moon Bay) near Strunjan, Slovenia Located on the shore of a small national park, Moon Bay is one of Slovenias only beaches, but it is also Slovenias prettiest Shutterstock Calanque dEn-Vau near Cassis, France When you arrive you will be rewarded with sparking turquoise waters, a pristine pebble beach lined by impressive cliffs Shutterstock Hovolo beach in Skopelos, Greece Crystalline waters, a rocky landscape and a tranquil vibe all combine here to make it a secluded slice of paradise Shutterstock Erchie beach in the Amalfi Coast, Italy For somewhere quaint on the Amalfi Coast, head to Erchie, a charming fishing village of just 100 permanent residents, filled with olive trees and the famous Amalfi limoncello Shutterstock Aliko Beach in Naxos, Greece Aliko (also spelt Alyko) beach in Naxos is the islands prettiest and most untouched Shutterstock San Fruttuoso near Genoa, Italy Also known as San Fruttuoso di Camogli, this is one of the hidden gems of the northern Italian coastline Shutterstock Drymades beach near Dhermi, Albania Albania probably isnt the first place you think of when you imagine a European beach destination, but the beaches along the Albanian Riviera boast blue hues as vibrant as Greece but without the crowds Shutterstock Plaja Costinesti in Costinesti, Romania With views of the Black Sea, this beach can get crowded in summer months as the local holidaymakers make their way to this resort town Shutterstock Calo des Moro in Mallorca, Spain This picture-perfect cove offers visitors a white sand beach and waters a brilliant shade of blue surrounded by rocky cliffs Shutterstock Albandeira beach in the Algarve, Portugal Portugals Algarve coastline is one of the best beach-hunting spots in the world and Albandeira takes the cake among the lesser-known beaches Shutterstock Cala Mariolu in Sardinia, Italy If your idea of a perfect holiday is lying on small, pink and white pebbles listing to the waves of aquamarine waters then this is your place Shutterstock Cala Macarella in Menorca, Spain The horseshoe bay boasts shallow waters creating an enticing blue hue contrasted against the pine tree cliffs that surround it Shutterstock Bolata beach near Cape Kaliakra, Bulgaria A crescent-shaped beach with translucent blue water, Bolata beach on the Bulgarian coast is a stunning spot slightly off the beaten track Shutterstock Barfundle Bay in Pembrokeshire, Wales Immediately forgetting youre in Wales, youll be in awe of the crescent-shaped golden beach with soft, golden sand and gentle azure waves Unsplash Sustainable travel will be at the forefront of holidaymakers minds According to Booking.coms Sustainable Travel Report for 2020, 82 per cent of global travellers have identified sustainable travel as being important to them while 58 per cent say they are looking to make more sustainable choices once we can travel again - and 68 per cent of travellers would like the money they spend on travel to go back into the local community. People will want to experience the world, all of it, perhaps more than ever before, a spokesperson for Booking.com says. Countries that have been most impacted by the recent crisis will be enticing tourists to visit them, so they can start to recover, and at Booking.com we believe that travellers will actively look for ways to support these communities and cities. In the coming months, we can expect the appetite for sustainable and responsible travel, as well as the need to give back to local communities both far and closer to home, to build even more momentum. Knowledge has become the new currency and being a force for good when travelling has become the new souvenir. Its in using this knowledge that we can become more responsible travellers and continue to experience the world in a considerate way. Nicky Kelvin, Director of Content at The Points Guy agrees, and says that after seeing how less travelling can help the environment, well be more conscious with our travel choices. Kelvin adds: Many of us are patiently waiting for 2021 it feels like a fresh start and has many of us feeling hopeful about travel plans. People are likely to now be far more mindful about where they are travelling to and how this impacts the environment. There may be more thought given to travel for work on the one hand Zoom calls and Skype sessions has shown all of us how unnecessary it is to get on a flight to the other side of the world for an hour meeting, but conversely, the reliance on this new type of meetings has shown its flaws and face to face interaction is likely to continue to reign supreme when the world returns to normal. People will head to far-flung locations to socially distance themselves post-COVID 19 In the short term, were expecting people to look for adventures closer to home, or to go to the other extreme of travelling to far-flung, wilderness destinations which lend themselves to social distancing such as Patagonia and Namibia, Tom Marchant, Co-Founder of Black Tomato says. Marchant adds that hes seen a rise in beach holiday bookings as Brits are keen to flock to milder climates. He continues: It is also encouraging to see clients booking beach destinations such as the Maldives, Mexico and the Seychelles as standalone destinations or as part of a wider itinerary, as the beach locations included within our itineraries are isolated, remote and support social distancing. Travellers will seek out fresh air and pure elements For adventures closer to home, Andre Rickerby, Chief Marketing Officer at Scott Dunn predicts travellers will be looking to our Scandinavian neighbours for a change of scenery. He says: After being isolated for months, travellers will look to embrace the purest elements in 2021 with destinations such as Norway and Iceland proving popular. Scott Dunn is predicting a rise in guests seeking wide open spaces and some of the worlds cleanest air and water. For pure elements and a dose of adventure, guests can head north to the Fjords of Norway and the remote northern peninsula of Iceland. The best Scottish road trips - in pictures 1 /21 The best Scottish road trips - in pictures Eilean Donan Castle Unsplash Scottish Highlands Shutterstock The Quiraing, Isle of Skye Shutterstock Cairngorms National Park Shutterstock Ruins of Urquhart Castle along Loch Ness Shutterstock The Quiraing, Isle of Skye Visit Scotland Trees and fern during autumn in front of Loch Lomond Shutterstock Old Man of Storr, Isle of Skye Shutterstock Cliffs near Kilt rock waterfall, Isle Of Skye Shutterstock Grampian mountains Shutterstock Glenfinnan Unsplash A picture postcard cottage at Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands Shutterstock A young couple pose at the filming location of James Bond's Skyfall, Glen Etive Shutterstock East Neuk Shutterstock Ben Nevis Shutterstock Culloden Moor Shutterstock Expect a revival of traditional British seaside towns While were yet to feel the full economic effects of this pandemic, its likely staycations will be the go-to for many holidaymakers. I predict that in 2021 there will be a huge resurgence in domestic travel as international travel will still be complicated and a lot of people will have less disposable income that they had before, James Jayasundera, Founder & Managing Director of Ampersand Travel, says. People will rediscover the beauty of their own countries and also the joys of being able to cut out international flights and jet lag from their holidays. Any stigma associated with not going abroad will have gone. People will discover that staycations can be as fun as going abroad and much less hassle. This may even lead to long-term revival of UK seaside and Spa towns as the combination of warmer weather due to global warming and a desire for more sustainable and environmentally friendly travel will create demand that will make them desirable and relevant again. Travellers will reconnect with loved ones on multi-generational trips One of the most challenging aspects of the pandemic is not being able to see loved ones in person as much as we like, which is why we wont be taking any time spent with them for granted in 2021. At Mavros Safaris, we have seen an increasing number of requests for multi-generational trips and trips which include large groups of friends who are looking to reconnect with one another following an intense period of isolation, Alexander Mavros, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Mavros Safaris, says. The majority of these requests are seeing guests who would like to get back to basics, immerse themselves in nature and do some soul searching. Our more affluent clients are calling for private villa experiences, such as Ol Jogi in Kenya, or Ants Nest in South Africa which offer total exclusivity and pure immersion in a beautiful and expansive setting. Island destinations will be the first to return to the market With low client volumes and plenty of social-distancing space, islands could be the likely first re-openings post-pandemic, predicts James Bell, Managing Director of Turquoise Holidays. He adds: There is little doubt that the luxury travel landscape will look very different in the days, weeks and months to come, however I remain positive that the luxury sector will come out the other side of this stronger than ever. Travel remains in our hearts and souls, and I believe that Island destinations with low client volumes traditionally, will be the first to return to the market. Many Maldivian Islands already operate in-house or shared doctors, which will once again reassure clients temperature checks may become the new norm for a while. I do forecast price increases of up to 25 per cent as flight capacity will be reduced deliberately, which will be both a benefit and a challenge that we face. Clients will no doubt travel for longer (we are all going to have a lot of annual leave banked up at the end of this!) and sole destination holidays will increase rather than multi-centre trips. I also believe that wellness and spa experiences will see an increase in demand. Lesser-known islands around the world - in pictures 1 /20 Lesser-known islands around the world - in pictures Aitutaki, Cook Islands Shutterstock Yaeyama Islands, Japan Shutterstock Vanuatu, Pacific Islands Shutterstock Kimolos, Greece Shutterstock Con Dao Islands, Vietnam Shutterstock Stewart Island, New Zealand Shutterstock Sao Tome and Principe Unsplash San Cristobal Island, Ecuador Shutterstock Perhentian Islands, Malaysia Shutterstock Wa Ale in the Lampi Marine National Park, Myanmar Scott A. Woodward Dominica, Caribbean Shutterstock Bunaken, Indonesia Shutterstock Ulleungdo, South Korea Shutterstock Lord Howe Island, Australia Georgia Hopkins Riau Archipelago, Indonesia Bawah Reserve Scandinavian countries will be trending Scandinavia has long been a draw for its cooler climate, chance to see the Aurora Borealis and for its chic approach to interiors - which, combined with its smart handling of the COVID-19 crisis, means the area could be even more of a draw in the coming year. Clive Stacey, Managing Director of Discover the World says: I think Northern Europe will have great appeal for travel next year, in particular the Arctic Europe areas - locations like Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland in particular have been treading their own path over COVID-19 with much less severe restrictions and continue to offer some incredible experiences for those looking for that big outdoors trip with much less dense populations. I also think people will be looking to tick off some of their bucket list destinations and New Zealand and Australia will be good contenders for this that big trip that people may have put off in the past to visit far away friend and family as well as combining with that holiday of a lifetime suddenly will have a huge appeal. Wildlife-based trips will also be popular next year, as people vie to see something more exotic than their neighbourhood fox. Stacey adds: Many of these trips follow the trend of conservation and sustainability travelling slower and more thoughtfully. Whale watching in Atlantic Canada or combining Orca spotting with glimpsing the Northern Lights in Iceland are two tempting options. Or even choosing to do that big Antarctic voyage but opting for a small expedition vessel over one of the larger ships. Portugal and Greece will be the go-to for Mediterranean breaks With the Balearics already saying they wont accept travellers from the UK anytime soon, Brits will turn to countries like Greece and Portugal who are opening their doors. With Spain, Italy and France having been so often in the news with challenges around dealing with coronavirus, we expect that Portugal and Greece will be more popular in the short term with British travellers looking for Mediterranean breaks, Michael Cullen, director of hotel partnerships at i-escape, says. Cullen also expects to see an uptick in flexible booking policies as well as new guidelines for hotel hygiene standard post-pandemic. He continues: Flexible booking policies will become normal as unpredictable travel conditions are likely to continue until at least 2021. Looking ahead to travel in a post-Covid world, some hotel associations, such as those in Portugal, are already drawing up new best practice guidelines for hotel staff, daily routines, and deep-cleans of rentals between guests. We expect these to become more formalised in the coming three months, although details of how this will work are as yet unclear. Group trips will become the new norm As we begin to expand our bubbles and see our nearest and dearest again, well want to make new and lasting memories with them. We know that time with family and friends will be even more important to us once this period of separation is over and therefore predict a surge in small, close-knit groups travelling to remote destinations, both overseas and within the British Isles, Jimmy Carroll, Co-Founder of Pelorus, says. Our clients are already starting to plan trips for 2021 and are asking for the privacy and wildness of remote natural landscapes, with the added comfort of either a yacht or a mobile camp to reach them. Mark Allvey, co-founder of Untold Story, agrees: After months of physical and social distancing, we believe people will be seeking experiences which encapsulate the joy of coming together as human beings in the name of celebration: reuniting and reconnecting. This will be in addition to creating private celebratory gatherings of friends and families in exclusive destinations around the world. We are also meeting the new demands of experiential and exclusive travel with stays on remote desert islands with a survival specialist and glacier camps in heated tents in Iceland to storm chasing with a meteorologist in America. More frequently it's these life-enhancing, sometimes life-changing journeys that more people now desire. The best American road trips - in pictures 1 /26 The best American road trips - in pictures Route 12 From: Panguitch, Utah to Torrey, Utah Shutterstock High Road to Taos From: Sante Fe, New Mexico to Taos, New Mexico Unsplash Pacific Coast Highway From: San Juan Capistrano, California to Leggett, California Unsplash North Cascades Highway From: while you can start anywhere on the loop, we recommend starting from Everett, just north of Seattle. Unsplash The Loneliest Road in America From: Ocean City, Maryland to Sacramento, California Shutterstock Going-to-the-Sun Road From: Apgar, Montana to St Mary, Montana Unsplash Blue Ridge Parkway From: Rockfish, Virginia to Cherokee, North Carolina Shutterstock Hana Highway From: Kahului to Hana on the island of Maui, Hawaii Shutterstock Valley of Fire, Nevada From: a round trip from Las Vegas, through the Valley of Fire State Park. Shutterstock Kancamagus Scenic Byway From: Lincoln, New Hampshire to Conway, New Hampshire Unsplash Texas Hill Country From: a loop starting and ending in San Antonio, Texas Shutterstock Hatcher Pass Scenic Drive From: a loop, starting and ending in Anchorage, Alaska Unsplash San Juan Skyway From: a loop starting and ending in Cortez, Colorado Unsplash Beartooth Highway From: Tower Junction, Wyoming to Red Lodge, Montana Unsplash Route 66 From: Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California Unsplash Route 6 From: Bishop, California to Provincetown, Massachusetts Unsplash Overseas Highway From: Homestead, Florida to Key West, Florida Shutterstock Deep South From: Charleston, North Carolina to Memphis, Tennessee (via Atlanta, Georgia and Nashville, Tennessee) Unsplash Great River Road From: Lake Itasca, Minnesota to Venice, Louisiana Unsplash Finger Lakes From: Ithaca, New York to Hammondsport, New York Shutterstock Well all be heading Stateside ASAP According to new research from Skyscanner, five of the top 10 destinations searched by Brits for the first quarter of next year are from the US, including Orlando, New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Miami. Well also be heading back to warmer climates as soon as we can, as Tenerife, Bali and Dubai are named the top 10 as well, while Auckland and Bangkok round off the list as lovely options for a city break. A spokesperson for Skyscanner says: We are seeing strong engagement from our travel community around future planning, as well hearing from many people via social media who are desperate to get back out and explore the world as soon as they can. While we expect domestic travel to recover ahead of international, early search patterns would indicate that when international travel returns there may be increased interest in long haul and bucket list list destinations. While there is a lot of uncertainty right now around the future of travel, one thing is clear: we as humans will still want to connect with one another. Travel patterns and trends will adapt but fundamentally we will still want to explore the world. Imogen Anthony celebrated Mother's Day with her 'children' - her menagerie of rescue animals. The pets live on the $3million farm in the NSW Southern Highlands that the model shares with her ex, radio host Kyle Sandilands. The 29-year-old shared two videos on Sunday, one in which she was cuddling a camel and another in which she was getting close to an emu. Cute! Imogen Anthony (pictured with her camel) celebrated Mother's Day with her 'children' - her menagerie of rescue animals She captioned the first video, which showed a curious camel: 'Well happy Mother's Day to me...' Imogen wrote alongside a clip, which showed her hugging an emu: 'More vids of me being an animal mother to a completely different species. 'Also kinda upset that there isn't an emu emoji, but whatever... #MothersDay,' she added. Sweet: The 29-year-old shared two videos on Sunday, one in which she was cuddling a camel and another in which she was getting close to an emu She captioned the first video, which showed a camel: 'Well happy Mother's Day to me...' Imogen wrote alongside a clip, which showed her hugging an emu: 'More vids of me being an animal mother to a completely different species' Nice: The pets live on the $3million farm in the NSW Southern Highlands that the model shares with her ex, radio host Kyle Sandilands Despite their breakup, Imogen and Kyle will be keeping the sprawling property because their 100 rescue animals still live there, a spokesperson for the former couple said. 'Kyle and Imogen will never sell the property,' the representative said when asked about the 61 hectare estate in Robertson, 90 minutes south of Sydney. 'The farm is home to over 100 rescue animals who'll continue to be cared for,' they added. Not for sale! Despite their breakup, Imogen and Kyle (left) will be keeping the sprawling property because their 100 rescue animals still live there, a spokesperson said Lockdown: Imogen is currently self-isolating at the rural home, which the exes purchased two years ago, during the coronavirus pandemic Imogen is currently self-isolating at the rural home, which the exes purchased two years ago, during the coronavirus pandemic. The pair had named the property 'Crimson Peak' after its red A-line roof structure. Kyle announced the couple's split on air in November last year. He is now dating his former personal assistant Tegan Kynaston. Chandigarh, May 10 : In an embarrassment for Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, a spat between his Cabinet ministers and his 'blue-eyed' officials has come to the fore over amending the liquor policy to mop up revenue to cover losses in view of the lockdown. Also a sitting party's Member of Parliament and a Legislator, both young turks, went vocal over the tug-of-war between the bureaucracy and ministers. The 'undercurrent tussle' between the executive and the legislature became palpably apparent on Saturday at a pre-cabinet informal meeting that led to the entire Council of Ministers walking out of the meeting over alleged disrespect to them. The meeting, ahead of the Cabinet meeting, was called by Chief Secretary-cum-Financial Commissioner (Taxation) Karan Avtar Singh amid the presence of Chief Minster's Chief Principal Secretary Suresh Kumar and Chief Minister's Principal Secretary Tejvir Singh, among others. Punjab annually generates a revenue of Rs 6,500 crore from the sale of liquor. At the meeting, two senior ministers -- Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Technical Education Minister Charanjit Channi -- had a spat with the Chief Secretary, a minister, who didn't wish to be named, told IANS. Even the government officers were accused of favouring the liquor lobby, severely impacting the state's revenue, said the minister. In the war of words, Badal took the lead and staged a walkout. Others followed him despite the Chief Secretary being apologetic. The Cabinet, which was to meet after the pre-Cabinet meeting, is now scheduled for Monday. Indicating 'fissures within the government', Congress two-time Member of Parliament Ravneet Bittu took the lead in saying during the corona pandemic, the "coordination between the ministers and bureaucrats should be strong". "But ministers walking out from a pre-Cabinet meeting might as well resign for their incompetent behaviour as many other capable of handling work pressure are ready to replace them," Bittu informed in a tweet. In another tweet, Bittu said the ministers walking out of a pre-Cabinet meeting after an argument with the Chief Secretary "is like a judge walking out of court after an argument with advocate". "If they found bureaucracy to be incompetent, then they should have replaced the officers and not staged a walk out themselves." Quoting a famous quote by Winston Churchill, Bittu said, "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen." "In the pre-Cabinet meeting, in a time of crisis like corona, ministers should have shown courage to listen and negotiate, not walk out." The simmering dissent brewing between Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and his Legislators is not new, say political experts. The Congress sources suggest the cause of provocation is disconnect or deliberate side-stepping of a certain section of Legislators, who say unbridled powers to handful of bureaucrats is hampering their day-to-day working and deliberately ignoring the party's interests. The workers too are largely feeling disillusioned. Earlier, four ruling party Legislators, all belonging to Amarinder Singh's wife parliamentary constituency Patiala, were airing their anger against the government on several issues, including lack of development funds at the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meetings and at public platforms. Some ministers, it is learnt, believe the bureaucracy is ruling the roost, political feedback is not taken periodically and the Chief Minister's Office works in incognito. Former senior bureaucrat Suresh Kumar was hand-picked by Amarinder Singh when he became the Chief Minister. The officer, known for his impeccable, honest and upright approach, is often referred to as the 'Super CM' in political circles in the past 38 months. Interestingly, wives of two Congress legislators, including a Cabinet Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, urged Amarinder Singh to review his government's decision to allow home delivery of liquor, saying it would spike domestic violence cases. "Respected Captain Amarinder Singh sir, we know the fight against drugs was our election promise, we should rethink our decision of opening liquor vends for home delivery," Mamta Ashu, a Ludhiana councillor, said in a tweet. "It might lead to increase in cases of domestic violence during the ongoing lockdown. Even contractors are not willing to open them," she added. Joining chorus, social activist Amrita Warring, wife of first-time Legislator Raja Warring, told the media that she is not against the opening of liquor vends for revenue, but it should be sold at the vends only, not delivered at homes as it not an essential commodity. Her Legislator husband added: "This type of contumacious behaviour by the Chief Secretary time and again is unacceptable." "He has regularly disregarded our cabinet ministers and their decisions. I request you to kindly remove him from his post immediately," a vocal Warring added. Sunitha Natti By Express News Service HYDERABAD : The healthcare industry, as we have seen, is recession proof. And the same can be said of the pharmaceutical sector too. It may be ironic, but pandemics offer an even meatier opportunity for both the healthcare sector in general and pharma companies in particular. The Covid-19 pandemic was supposed to be no different, but during the Great Lockdown where country after country has shut borders pharma companies are getting a taste of the bitter pill for once. If raw material shortages, supply chain disruptions and lack of packaging material had hit pharma production until now, the movement of migrant labourers to hometowns could pose another challenge in the form of inadequate manpower for producers. Currently, only a few big players like Sun Pharmaceuticals, Cadila Pharmaceuticals, Dr Reddys Laboratories, and Aurobindo are operating at capacities upwards of 60 per cent. With the graded lifting of the lockdown underway, and several restrictions having been eased, companies are hoping for normalcy to return sooner than later. According to P Eshwar Reddy, executive director, Bulk Drug Manufacturers Association (BDMA), companies in Telangana (which is a hub for bulk drugs) are operating units at 50 per cent of capacity due to the limited movement of both employees and materials. Similarly, in Baddi, where 35-40 per cent of the nations pharma output comes from, most units were operating at less than half their capacity until recently. To reduce import dependency on bulk drugs and other raw materials, the BDMA wants the government to develop three mega bulk drug parks in partnership with states and provide `1,000 crore grants-in-aid to states for each park over the next five years. Such a move will reduce the manufacturing cost of bulk drugs and dependency on other countries. Besides, it has also sought financial incentives for eligible manufacturers of 53 critical bulk drugs for six years, based on incremental sales over base year FY20. Usually, Indian pharma exports during February and March are quite brisk. Having seen the good pace of exports in the first three quarters and price stabilisation in the United States, it was estimated that exports would reach $22 billion in FY20, said Udaya Bhaskar, Director General, Pharmexcil. According to the Trade Promotion Council of India, the country imports about 85 per cent of its total requirement of APIs from China. Similarly, 67 per cent of our total imports of bulk drugs in FY19 came from China, followed by the US and Italy, according to the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics. Indias dependency on China for bulk drugs is simply because they are 20-30 per cent cheaper than locally produced versions. But, Edelweiss Securities noted that due to Covid-19-caused supply-side disruptions, the sectors earnings will fall by 10-15 per cent. HDFC Securities, meanwhile, maintained that the Indian pharma segment has been relatively resilient to the Covid disruption and is poised to gain from favourable currency tailwinds and stable business outlook. Meanwhile, the upshot is that Indian companies are receiving bulk orders for anti-malaraia drugs like chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, which are undergoing clinical trials for Covid-19 treatment. With export restrictions being lifted on essential drugs like pencillin, the pie is only growing bigger. As if on cue, according to a Bloomberg report, India has also identified and prioritized production of 53 raw materials and APIs as part of its China-plus-one policy to fill in the gaps in the supply of affordable medicines. The Lower Wisconsin River is home to eagles year round but in winter they gather from around the state to feed on the open water. New Delhi: Banned terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen has appointed Gazi Haider as its new operation chief in Kashmir, replacing Riyaz Naikoo who was killed by Indian security forces in a highly successful operation last week. As per a statement issued by the outfit on Sunday, a copy of which IANS accessed, Hizbul Mujahideen announced the appointment at a meeting of its council under the chairmanship of United Jihad Council (a Pakistan-based conglomeration of several terror groups sponsored by ISI) and Hizb supremo Syed Salahuddin. The meeting had been called to mourn the death of Naikoo and his aides, Mohammad Bin Qasim and Mohammad Adil who were killed Beighpora in Pulwama district of south Kashmir. Besides announcing the appointment of Gazi Haider, the banned group based in Pakistan, during the meet, also announced Zaffar-ul-Islam as "deputy of Haider and Abu Tariq as his "chief military advisor". The UJC chief, as per the statement, called Naikoo and his associates `martyrs` and hoped that their "blood will surely benefit their separatist movement in Kashmir." Hizbul Mujahideen has been seeking Jammu & Kashmir`s secession from India and merger with Pakistan. One of the most wanted terrorists, Salahuddin during the meeting praised the "determination" of the mujahideen (terrorists) towards the separatist movement. The participants at the meet avowed that the separatist movement "will continue till its logical conclusion and nobody will be allowed to exploit the sacred blood of martyrs," statement said. On Saturday, a video of Salahuddin surfaced on the internet where he appeared distraught by the killing of Naikoo and his aides. Speaking in Urdu with a Kashmiri accent, he was heard saying, "It`s a shock for all of us but these `shahadats` (sacrifices) are going on in Kashmir since long. Since January this year, 80 mujahideens have given their `shahadat` and all of them were highly educated and trained." However he acknowledged that it was a lost cause for Hizbul Mujahideen, saying, "Mujahideen also broke the back of enemy (security forces) in Handwara, Rajwar recently but the enemy (India) has the upper edge." BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission is considering creating a new authority to police financial crime and monitor banks more strictly. In an action plan sent to the EUs 27 governments, the Commission, the EU executive, said the Union needed a system to tackle money laundering and financial crime with an EU-level supervisor. Confirming a Reuters report, the EU said, An integrated system should be put in place, said the document made public on Thursday. The Commission said however that it must first conduct an assessment of the possible impact of such a scheme. Any EU-level supervision could be run out of the European Banking Authority or done by a new, dedicated body, the Commission said. One influential EU lawmaker said it should be a new agency not part of the European Banking Authority. To fight money laundering in the financial system effectively, competences must be streamlined in a stand-alone EU anti-money laundering body, said Markus Ferber, a German centre-right lawmaker who leads on financial matters for the largest political grouping in the European Parliament, the European Peoples Party. This is the kind of problem that warrants a dedicated EU agency to tackle it, he said. Transparency International criticised the Commissions proposal as high on generalities but low on specifics, saying it did not advance the idea of creating a supervisory body beyond what had already been proposed a year ago. Urgent and effective action is more important now than ever, with the COVID-19 pandemic leading to a marked increase in criminal activity involving cross-border financial flows, said Laure Brillaud, a senior policy officer at the anti-corruption group. EU officials and agencies have also warned of a spike in crime during the pandemic, from cyber attacks to fraud and counterfeit trade. As reported by Reuters on Tuesday, the Commission also published a new list of countries where it says more needs to be done to curb money-laundering. The revised list is set to take effect from October. Companies in any of the listed states are banned from receiving new EU funding. The Commission added the Bahamas, Barbados, Botswana, Cambodia, Ghana, Jamaica, Mauritius, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Panama and Zimbabwe. Countries already on the list are Afghanistan, Iraq, Vanuatu, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Uganda, Trinidad and Tobago, Iran and North Korea. All except North Korea have committed to changing their rules in order to better tackle money laundering and terrorism financing. The Commission removed six countries from the list, saying they had made progress: Bosnia, Guyana, Laos, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka and Tunisia. (Reporting by Robin Emmott, Francesco Guarascio and Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by Alison Williams and Giles Elgood) BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 10 Trend: Despite the number of cases of coronavirus infection is decreasing in Western Europe per day, this indicator is still at the stage of growth in Eastern Europe and the CIS countries, but Azerbaijan is able to eliminate the epidemic, Head of the Country Office of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Azerbaijan Hande Harmanci said. Harmanci made the remark at the briefing of the Operational Headquarters under the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers, Trend reports. Thanking President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev for the prompt and effective measures to combat coronavirus in Azerbaijan, the head of the country office of WHO in Azerbaijan stressed that while working in collaboration with WHO, Azerbaijan is distinguished in the fight against the pandemic at the international level. Thus, the country twice rendered humanitarian aid in the amount of $5 million while the fight against infectious diseases is an important sphere in the countrys social policy, Harmanci added. The fight against coronavirus will be very useful if everyone cooperates with the state and at the stage of gradual softening of the tough quarantine regime will wear a medical mask and follow the social distance rules at least one meter, the head of the country office of WHO in Azerbaijan said. Presently, it is time to lay the foundation for a sustainable health system in the world, Harmanci added. Capital investments must be made in the health system. I would like to remind that forty years and one day ago, on May 8, WHO announced the eradication of smallpox, which is still the greatest success of the health system in the history, the head of the country office of WHO in Azerbaijan said. Today we can defeat coronavirus, Harmanci said. The cooperation of all participants in the struggle against virus at the national and global levels as a whole must play the biggest role in eradicating coronavirus." April 28, 2020 Charles Frederick May passed away peacefully on Tuesday, April 28, 2020, after a courageous battle with cancer. Charles is survived by his sister, Sue Frink, several nieces and nephews; his lifelong friend, Linda Stultz, and many beloved friends and family. To his friends, Charles was known kindly as "Chuck," but to his family, he was known as "Fred." Born in Roanoke, Virginia, he graduated from Jefferson High School and National Business College. He served in the United States Air Force from 1961 through 1965. He later went on to work for the Roanoke Times and World News. His next adventure took him to Minnesota, where he began his career with the airlines. He retired from Northwest Airlines to Roanoke. He would often tell his story of being one of the first male flight attendants for the airlines; he loved "his planes" and serving "his passengers." In bringing the servicemen home from their tours of duty overseas, he reflected "the veterans were the best passengersalways thankful." He will be remembered for his kind blue eyes, sweet smile, love for travel and adventures, care and appreciation of all animals and nature, and zeal for life. In his frequent travels to Brazil, he discovered a deep appreciation for gemstones and the art of jewelry making. He had an eye for unique artwork and enjoyed sharing the story behind each piece of art. His memory will live on through the retelling of his stories and adventures. Charles was a firm believer that no one should ever go hungry and would often donate to Feeding America Southwest Virginia. In lieu of flowers, we ask that you would consider honoring his memory by donating to that food bank. Donations can be mailed to Feeding America Southwest Virginia, 1025 Electric Rd., Salem, VA 24153. For online condolences, please visit Simpson Funeral Home's website: www.simpsonfuneral.com. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 09:39:50|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese health authority said Sunday that it received report of 14 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland Saturday, of which two were imported cases reported in Shanghai. Twelve cases were domestically transmitted, with 11 reported in Jilin Province and the other one in Hubei Province, the National Health Commission said in a daily report. One new suspected case imported from abroad was reported in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. No deaths were reported Saturday on the mainland, according to the commission. On Saturday, 74 people were discharged from hospitals after recovery, while the number of severe cases decreased by two to 13. As of Saturday, the overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 82,901, including 148 patients who were still being treated, and 78,120 people who had been discharged after recovery. Altogether 4,633 people had died of the disease, the commission said. By Saturday, the mainland had reported a total of 1,683 imported cases. Of the cases, 1,568 had been discharged from hospitals after recovery, and 115 remained hospitalized with three in severe conditions. No deaths from the imported cases had been reported. The commission said four people, all from overseas, were still suspected of being infected with the virus. According to the commission, 5,840 close contacts were still under medical observation after 427 people were discharged from medical observation Saturday. Also on Saturday, 20 new asymptomatic cases were reported on the mainland. One case was re-categorized as a confirmed case, and 61 asymptomatic cases, including 16 from overseas, were discharged from medical observation, according to the commission. The commission said 794 asymptomatic cases, including 48 from overseas, were still under medical observation. By Saturday, 1,044 confirmed cases including four deaths had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 45 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 440 in Taiwan including six deaths. A total of 967 patients in Hong Kong, 40 in Macao, and 361 in Taiwan had been discharged from hospitals after recovery. Enditem UPDATE: In-person real estate business activity to resume across Pennsylvania Ask Jack Gross how hes doing, and his response isnt that positive. In the real estate business for 30-plus years, and president of Greater Lehigh Valley Realtors, Gross is anxious to get back to work. We are desperate, he said. We are hindered completely. Our hands are tied. Were not allowed to provide housing. The same goes for prospective customers he's heard from, people who are between homes and living in hotels or with friends or family. Some are stuck paying both a lease and a mortgage because sales are on hold, he said. In-person real estate business is prohibited under Gov. Tom Wolf's order closing non-life-sustaining businesses effective March 19, as part of efforts to halt the spread of the deadly coronavirus. While other sectors of the economy like construction and auto sales have been allowed to resume statewide, the realty industry remains in limbo without a new order from the governor or state Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine. Thousands of other, individual businesses have been granted waivers to continue operating during the shutdown. Legislation is pending that would permit Realtors to return to work. House Bill 2412 passed 125-77, far from a veto-proof majority. That bill is now before a committee in the state Senate, where Lehigh Valley Sen. Lisa Boscola has a similar proposal, Senate Bill 1135, also in committee. You can build a home but you cant sell one, Boscola, D-Lehigh/Northampton, said during a telephone town hall with constituents last week. Doesnt make sense to me. Under the yellow phase of Wolfs guidelines for restarting the economy, in-person real estate business is permitted as long as social-distancing guidelines are observed. The Lehigh Valley remains in the red phase, with no timeline for beginning to reopen. The issue for the Lehigh Valley is were in the red zone ... and the fear is that we might not get into the yellow zone until mid- to late June, Gross said in an interview Thursday. Theres no way our membership or our clients can go another week. In a letter Friday to Wolf citing local infectious disease doctors' support for transitioning to yellow immediately, Boscola wrote: "It is critical that the public and business owners adhere to responsible social distancing guidelines for the success of any reopening plan. I believe the people of the Lehigh Valley understand the importance of social distancing practices and will adhere to them during this phase of reopening with the goal of getting to green." According to the Pennsylvania Department of State: "For real estate operations for counties in the red phase of the state's reopening plan, in-person activities such as inspections, appraisals, final walk-throughs, and in-person Title Insurance activities are permitted for only those residential real estate transactions which were in process prior to the Disaster Declaration (issued on March 18, 2020) or for transactions where the buyer can show that that they had sold their residence or given notice to their landlord prior to the Disaster Declaration. "Real estate transactions outside of those authorized activities are not permitted." Realtors have been doing virtual showings as a way to at least line up buyers, but say theyre not a long-term solution. We can do virtual showings but its very difficult to sell a house under virtual conditions, Gross said, adding that home inspectors and appraisers cant do their jobs virtually, and that some municipalities have furloughed staff needed to issue a certificate of occupancy. Pennsylvania is unique in its shutdown, advocates for reopening real estate say. "Pennsylvania is the only state to shut down all real estate activities, while issuing some selective waivers on an ad hoc basis," state Rep. F. Todd Polinchok, R-Bucks, wrote in a memo seeking co-sponsors for the House Bill now before the Senate. "There is no consistency. While Governors in New Jersey, California, Illinois and New York have issued shelter in place orders, they have all included exemptions for real estate." During a conference call with reporters Friday, Wolf said the prohibition is designed to keep people from congregating. Gross argues there are ways to conduct real estate business in-person while observing safety guidelines. He points specifically to guidance from the California Association of Realtors offering specific plans for showing properties, cleaning and disinfecting protocols, and physical distancing guidelines. Don Cunningham, president and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp., said during last weeks telephone town hall hosted by Boscola he fully supports the restarting of in-person real estate business for both residential and commercial transactions. It seems like an activity, easier than some, (where) you can find a safe way to keep that moving forward, Cunningham said. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. The Czech government does not plan to extend the state of emergency, said PM Andrej Babis on TV. According to him, a governmental meeting will be held on Monday on this issue, TASS reported. The authorities will promptly introduce social restrictive measures based on a special law, which should soon be adopted by parliament, if the epidemiological situation worsens in the republic, the PM noted. Babis is expected to significantly strengthen the competencies of the national health ministry by the end of this year. Since the beginning of March, 8,095 COVID-19 cases have been recorded in the republic. The death toll has reached 276, while 4,447 people have already recovered. Jammu and Kashmir police recovered many rounds of ammunition and grenades near the international border with Pakistan in Samba district on Saturday, officials said on Sunday. We recovered three grenades and 54 rounds of AK ammunition during a search operation in hilly area of Goran in district Samba, Shakti Pathak, Sambas senior superintendent of police, said. It is a forest area bordering Kathua district and had remained an infiltration route for the terrorists in the past, Pathak said. The senior police official said that investigations have been initiated. Meanwhile, national security adviser Ajit Doval reviewed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir during a high level meeting. Ajit Doval was briefed in detail by the top security and intelligence brass on Pakistans terror moves in Kashmir. Top officials of the Indian Army and J&K Police also participated in it. The high-level meeting came in the backdrop of militant activity in north Kashmirs Handwara, Baramulla and Sopore triangle that cost lives of six soldiers including, a colonel-rank officer. This comes days after top terrorist of the Hizbul Mujahideen, Riyaz Naikoo, 35, was killed in an encounter with security forces at his village in south Kashmirs Pulwama district earlier this week. The successful operation came just four days after the killing of five security men, including the Commanding Officer of a Rashtriya Rifles battalion and a Major, during an encounter in north Kashmirs Handwara. Two terrorists of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, too, were killed in the gunfight. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said individual businesses "are probably going to wind up leading" on work safety Two top US economic advisers on Sunday defended the need for an expeditious reopening of the economy even as the coronavirus reached into the White House despite the extraordinary precautions taken there. The comments by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and economic adviser Larry Kudlow came just two days after the country recorded its steepest job losses in history, with 20.5 million jobs lost in April, and as virus cases continued rising in some states with far more deaths projected. They also came after confirmation that Vice President Mike Pence's spokeswoman and a White House valet to President Donald Trump had tested positive for the virus, and as three members of the White House coronavirus task forceincluding top expert Anthony Faucireportedly self-quarantined after potential exposure. Kudlow was asked on ABC's "This Week" how US businesses could reopen with confidence when the White Housewhere virus protections are far more rigorous than what is available to most Americanshad proven vulnerable. Those cases, Kudlow said, represented a "small fraction" of the 500 or so staff members working in the White House complex. "I don't know the specific numbers," he added, "but we have had relatively very few." The president, vice president and many others at the White House are tested daily. But Trump and Pence often defy the medical experts' guidance about wearing protective masks. Across the broader economy, Kudlow said governmental guidelines coupled with private-sector innovation should allow relatively safe reopening, though he warned of jobless rates that might exceed 20 percent this month or next. But he placed the ultimate onus for safety not on government but on individual businesses, saying they "are probably going to wind up leading this charge." Higher death forecast Most US states have begun at least tentatively reopening for business, but that inevitably will mean more travel and higher risks. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluations, whose virus projections have been closely watched, this week raised its US death forecastto 137,000 deaths by August 4based largely on "explosive increases in mobility in a number of states," said director Christopher Murray. That number, far above the current total of more than 79,000 deaths, reflects both looser restrictions and "quarantine fatigue," he said on CBS, and it came despite positive trends in the hard-hit states of New York, New Jersey and Michigan. In states that have loosened their restrictions recently, Murray predicted "a jump in cases" in about 10 days time. But both Kudlow and Mnuchin stressed that undue delay in reopening would also carry a cost. "I think there's a considerable risk of NOT reopening," the Treasury secretary said on Fox. "You're talking about what would be permanent economic damage to the American public." 'A tremendous snapback' Kudlow, pushing back on reports of growing partisan tensions in Washington over another tranche of emergency relief, said informal talks with Democrats were under way, but he and Mnuchin emphasized the need to move ahead with deliberation. "We just want to make sure that before we jump back in and spend another few trillion of taxpayers' money, that we do it carefully," Mnuchin said. Still, both Mnuchin and Kudlow again expressed optimism that the US economy would register a sharp recovery in the second half of the year, with Kudlow predicting "a tremendous snapback" in 2021. Trump reiterated this week his belief that the virus would simply "go away," even without a vaccine. Asked about that on Sunday, Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health and Security at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, dissented. "No, this virus isn't going to go away," he said on Fox, adding that it would remain as a "background problem" both in the US and around the world until a vaccine is developed. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2020 AFP Deals reportedly worth nearly $10 billion have been awarded by China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom over the last few weeks, with Nokia being noticeably absent from the list of vendors selected for the next phase of China's 5G radio business. Nokia was unable or unwilling to meet Chinese technical requirements, according to new analysis published on Light Reading, a website for professionals in the communications industry. Kristian Pullola, the chief financial officer of Nokia, said during a conversation with the website, "We have steered our 5G R&D work in a way where we have optimized for global features, and features for more profitable markets, and maybe because of that we did not do some local customization needed for China." The new analysis noted, "Those remarks may feed into concern that Nokia is struggling to compete against rivals even as it works on a turnaround at its 5G business." While Nokia did not make a mark in the country, its fellow Nordic competitor Ericsson gained a market share in China during the recent 5G contract awards. After landing a contract with China Mobile worth around $593 million, the Swedish company reportedly also picked up a double-digit share of a massive 5G tender issued by China Telecom and China Unicom. The differing outcome for the two vendors also highlights Nokia's challenges in making its 5G products more competitive, as the company has been struggling to tackle costs and delivery delays. Last year, Nokia alerted its investors to difficulties with 5G products that disrupted its margins and upset cost-saving targets, which were partly blamed on the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent in 2016. However, Nokia also made the mistake of choosing expensive programmable 5G components that have made its products less profitable than its rivals', according to the report on Light Reading. During the earnings call for the third quarter of 2019, Nokia acknowledged that its 5G profit margins were dampened by the high cost of its "ReefShark" chipset. In addition, there have been reports that Nokia's equipment was to blame for some 5G rollout delays, especially in the United States, where the company is particularly setting its sights for growth. For example, Nokia was mentioned in connection with Sprint's delay of 5G in four cities during August 2019. Another major reason for Nokia's failure to procure a piece of the 5G tender is because the Finnish company has chosen to prioritize European and American markets over the Chinese one. This was revealed by its financial report for the first quarter of 2020. According to the report released on April 30, Nokia's sales revenue in Greater China stood at 308 million euros between January and March, accounting for only around 6 percent of its global total, and a drop of 29 percent compared with the previous year. In the report, Nokia said that the networks had been hit by "an increase in competitive intensity, combined with our prudent approach toward deal-making" in China. In contrast, the company generated more than 2.9 billion euros in Europe and North America, which was approximately 60 percent of its overall sales. In an interview with Reuters, Nokia's Chief Executive Rajeev Suri stated that in terms of 5G radio equipment markets, China was a large part of the global market but not so much from a revenue standpoint. "So, people only speak about the volume share being 50, 60 percent. But when it comes to the revenue share, the value share of that market, it's about half that," he added. "And then the profit share in the medium term is actually negligible as part of the global market." Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1166070/China_Dot_Org_Dot_CN_Nokia_FCIIE_2018.jpg Related Links http://www.China.org.cn SOURCE china.org.cn With COVID-19 taking over our lives, we've had to adapt to a few changes over the past couple of months. While there have been several changes to our personal hygiene habits, many are also forced to work from home, or even study from home, and with a change in location, the working routine has also altered for many. Reuters And most companies have been worrying about the productivity of a specific worker while working from home, due to the lack of resources or an increase in the number of distractions. However, many feel that this transition has been positive for them, productivity-wise, according to a recent study conducted by Universite de Montreal (reported first by Phys.org) on how teleworkers are adapting to the pandemic. Researchers asked 1,614 people about how theyve adapted to working from home, and out of the total, one third have confessed that they were more productive than when they were working in the office. The analysis is based on the respondents answering a questionnaire online. Out of the total 1,614, 75 percent were women while 25 percent were men, most of them being from Quebec in Canada. Out of the total lot, 70 percent of people were working in public sectors. 85 percent of people were over 40 years of age, while another 85 percent possessed a university degree. One-third of participants reported better productivity The study reveals one-third of the participants feel their productivity has increased -- despite of the fact that more than half of the participants in the study are teleworking with another person at home. It is also important to note that people who claim to be more productive are over 40 years of age and spend less time doing chores at home. Tania Saba, co-author of the study explains, It's interesting to note that both men and women said they were more productive. It is not true to say that only women prefer to telework as a way of balancing their work and home life. The reasons are more complex and diverse. Reuters Some people also hated working from home There are many who also feel that their workload has increased since bringing office work to home, but theyve also expressed the fact that they were able to better manage time to get work done on time. Researchers also found a chunk of people who were clearly unhappy working from home. This involved people who felt isolated far from the decision-making process -- they found themselves to be less productive. Also, people who relied on other colleagues to handle their work have faced a drop in productivity. Saba further stated, This is as much a question of organizational isolation as it is of social isolation from colleagues. Of course, with time, we expect things to get back to normal and people heading back to their offices to work. The survey revealed that 39 percent people would actually want to work from home, post COVID-19. How has your productivity been, working from home? Tell us, in the comments below. The number of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra's Nanded district, some 250 kilometres from here, touched 51 after six people tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Sunday, health officials said. Of the 51 patients, 32 are being treated in Punjab Bhavan and Yatri Niwas and 11 in Shankarrao Chavan Medical College and Hospital. All six who tested positive on Sunday reside at the NRI Yatri Niwas, an official said. Several people who had gone to Punjab after visiting the Gurdwara Hazur Sahib and Langar Sahib here had tested positive for novel coronavirus after which the two religious places were sealed. "The 51 COVID-19 patients include the Punjab returned drivers as well as stranded pilgrims," Civil Surgeon Neelkanth Bhosikar told PTI on Sunday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Claim: The 1866 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Ex parte Milligan deemed government-mandated emergency measures such as social distancing unconstitutional As states slowly reopen businesses to prevent further economic recession, individuals fatigued by social distancing measures and stay-at-home orders publicly have questioned the legality of such mandates. A Facebook user in April posted a photo of an earlier post that allegedly had been taken down. It claims an 1866 Supreme Court ruling determined that government-mandated emergency orders such as social distancing infringe on constitutional rights. The post, which has been shared more than 10,000 times, reads: This is NOT an opinion. This was the ruling of the United States Supreme Court shortly after the Civil War in Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2 (1866) which yet stands to this day: 'Neither the legislature nor any executive or judicial officer may disregard the provisions of the constitution in case of emergency People jog and ride bicycles in Prospect Park on April 28, 2020 in the Brooklyn borough in New York City. New York City Parks Department has kept the parks open, but require people to practice social distancing and keep 6 feet apart from others. The post then quotes what the user claims to be Section 98 of the court's opinion, which says any enforcement by officials to suspend constitutionally guaranteed rights (to freely travel, peacefully assemble, earn a living, freely worship, etc.) as making war against our constitution. USA TODAY reached out to the author of the post for comment but did not receive a response. More: Are you social distancing correctly? An AR guide to flattening the curve amid coronavirus What the court case determined The Civil War-era 1866 Supreme Court case Ex parte Milligan was sparked by the military arrest, prosecution and death sentence of an Indiana man named Lambdin P. Milligan. A military court formed under the authority of President Abraham Lincoln charged him with aiding the Confederacy. Milligans lawyers sought a writ of habeas corpus, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, and argued it was unconstitutional to be tried by military tribunals while civil courts continued to operate. Story continues Milligan contended that as he was not serving in the U.S. military, was not a prisoner of war, and was not living in a part of the U.S. that was in rebellion against the federal government, the U.S. military had no jurisdiction to arrest, try, and sentence him, Snopes reported. The Supreme Court unanimously decided the military did not have authority to establish military tribunals in secure areas that had functioning civil courts. A majority of the court declared Congress also lacked the power to do so. Ex parte Milligan does not involve the authority of the government in restricting individual liberties during a public health emergency, as claimed in the Facebook post. It instead pertains to the powers of the president and Congress during a theatre of war, when a region is directly involved in war operations. As for the Facebooks posts quote of the court ruling, the excerpt likely is a fabrication. USA TODAY could not find a Section 98 or any of the content quoted in the post, which also erroneously mentions the supposed existence of 50 U.S. states in 1866. In that year, 14 states had yet to be admitted to the union, with Hawaii, the 50th state, gaining statehood in 1959. The right to protect the public The governments right to use police power to protect public health was upheld by the 1905 Supreme Court case Jacobsen v. Massachusetts, which as Snopes reported affirmed the legal right of state legislatures to pass laws mandating use of smallpox vaccine by residents and to enact reasonable regulations in the interest of public health. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website states that authority is likewise sustained by Section 361 of the Public Health Service Act, which grants the federal government power to take measures to prevent the entry and spread of communicable diseases from foreign countries into the United States and between states. Our ruling: False The 1866 Supreme Court case Ex parte Milligan does not pertain to the authority of the state during a public health emergency. Additionally, the information cited in the Facebook post is not found in the Supreme Court opinion. Both the Supreme Court case Jacobsen v. Massachusetts and the Public Health Service Act back up the governments authority to enforce social distancing and similar policies in the interest of public health. Our fact-check sources Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here. Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Social distancing not unlawful under 1866 Supreme Court case Montreal, CA (H4T1V6) Today Snow this morning will give way to lingering snow showers this afternoon. Some sleet may mix in. High around -4C. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 100%. 3 to 5 inches of snow expected.. Tonight Snow showers this evening. Becoming partly cloudy later. Low -16C. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 50%. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android. When will the Covid-19 pandemic end? And how? According to historians, pandemics typically have two types of endings: the medical, which occurs when the incidence and death rates plummet, and the social, when the epidemic of fear about the disease wanes. When people ask, When will this end?, they are asking about the social ending, said Dr. Jeremy Greene, a historian of medicine at Johns Hopkins. In other words, an end can occur not because a disease has been vanquished but because people grow tired of panic mode and learn to live with a disease. Allan Brandt, a Harvard historian, said something similar was happening with Covid-19: As we have seen in the debate about opening the economy, many questions about the so-called end are determined not by medical and public health data but by sociopolitical processes. Endings are very, very messy, said Dora Vargha, a historian at the University of Exeter. Looking back, we have a weak narrative. For whom does the epidemic end, and who gets to say? Your benefits With around 4,000 products, we offer a range of automotive chemicals that is unique worldwide in terms of width and depth: Motor oils and additives, vehicle care and service sprays, greases and pastes as well as adhesives and sealants. Founded in 1957, we develop and produce our oils and additives exclusively in Germany. For decades, we have been experts in the field of highly effective additives and lubricants. Time and time again, we are chosen as the best oil brand. Our products now inspire customers in over 150 countries. Boris Johnson tonight turned the screw on Matt Hancock by vowing the government would increase daily testing to the hundreds of thousands. The embattled Health Secretary will be tasked with delivering the Prime Minister's ambitious goal despite failing to hit his own 100,000 target for eight days in a row. Mr Hancock's cabinet job is reportedly hanging by a thread after a bust-up with Mr Johnson, who was scathing over the handling of the crisis while he was in hospital. In his speech to the nation setting out a three-stage exit plan, the Prime Minister said Britain had made 'fast progress' on testing, even though Number 10 has repeatedly been accused of being too slow to respond to the crisis. Figures released today show fewer than 93,000 tests were carried out on May 9, meaning officials haven't met their ambitious six-figure pledge since May 2. Boris Johnson addressed the nation from Downing Street to sketch out a road map from lockdown Mr Hancock's cabinet job is reportedly hanging by a thread after a bust-up Mr Johnson, who was scathing over the handling of the crisis while he was in hospital But questions have been raised as to whether ministers ever actually met the target, with Mr Hancock accused of fiddling the figures to hit his much-vaunted goal by the start of this month. No more than 25,000 tests were carried out each day in the first three weeks of April. Official data released by the Department of Health each day show the government has never tested more than 100,000 people in a 24-hour period. It comes after it was revealed today that up to 50,000 coronavirus test samples had to be sent from the UK to the US after operational issues in the laboratory network led to delays in the system. In other developments to the UK's testing fiasco, it was revealed this weekend that key workers trying to book a coronavirus test using the government's website were offering slots requiring a 400-mile round trip. Results for some patients are taking up to 10 days to come back from the laboratory - despite ministers aiming to send results within 48 to 72 hours of the test. The World Health Organization (WHO) has previously warned no country should even consider lifting social distancing measures until it has the ability to test every suspected case. Without mass testing, people with symptoms must simply assume they have the virus and self-isolate, which experts fear they will refuse to do if frustration builds after months of lockdown. Ministers are currently clueless as to how big the UK's outbreak truly is because of their controversial decision to abandon a widespread testing regime before the crisis began to take hold and spread throughout Britain. Figures released today show fewer than 93,000 tests were carried out on May 9, meaning officials havent met their ambitious pledge of 100,000 a day since May 2 HAS NUMBER 10 EVER ACTUALLY CARRIED OUT 100,000 TESTS A DAY? Matt Hancock was last week accused of blatantly fiddling the figures to hit his much-vaunted target for 100,000 coronavirus tests in a day. The Health Secretary faced claims he used postal tests yet to be completed and multiple checks on the same people to hit his six-figure milestone. He used an appearance at Downing Street to bullishly claim success after setting the significant target a month ago. Appearing live on television, he told the nation there were 122,347 tests in the 24 hours to 9am, branding it an 'incredible achievement'. But Mr Hancock faced an immediate wave of condemnation as it became clear that the number appeared to only tell half the story. Official figures posted online showed that his questionable calculation included thousands of tests kits that were sent out to homes and hospitals. This meant some of them - in the region of 40,000 - had yet to be used, returned or even processed. Mr Hancock dodged questions about whether the figures had been cooked, saying the allegation was 'not something I recognise'. Labour accused ministers of 'moving the goalposts to hit their own arbitrary target'. Advertisement In his speech to the nation tonight, Mr Johnson said: 'We must reverse rapidly the awful epidemics in care homes and in the NHS, and though the numbers are coming down sharply now, there is plainly much more to be done. 'And if we are to control this virus, then we must have a world-beating system for testing potential victims, and for tracing their contacts. 'So that all told - we are testing literally hundreds of thousands of people every day. 'We have made fast progress on testing but there is so much more to do now, and we can. 'When this began, we hadnt seen this disease before, and we didnt fully understand its effects. 'With every day we are getting more and more data. We are shining the light of science on this invisible killer, and we will pick it up where it strikes.' Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told Sky News that the Labour Party had pushed the Government to 'speed up' its response to the pandemic. He added: 'We pushed the Government on lockdown, we pushed them on testing, we pushed them on PPE. 'Now we pushed and challenged with the purpose, which was to try to get them to speed up. 'And I said that under my leadership we're not out to score party political points. So it was to get them to speed up and to ramp up.' Figures released by the Department of Health this afternoon showed that 92,837 tests were carried out on May 9. It means more than 1.8million swabs have now been carried out since Britain began to test patients at the start of the crisis. 50,000 TEST SAMPLES ARE SENT FROM THE UK TO THE US DUE TO OPERATIONAL ISSUES Up to 50,000 coronavirus test samples had to be sent from the UK to the US after 'operational issues' in the lab network led to delays in the system. The Department of Health said sending swabs abroad was to deal with so-called teething problems in a rapidly-expanded testing system. It is understood the test results will be validated back in the UK and communicated to patients 'as quickly as possible'. The Department of Health said work has been undertaken to resolve the issues and capacity is quickly being restored. A spokeswoman said: 'The expansion of the UK's coronavirus testing network has involved setting up an entirely new 'Lighthouse' lab network to process test swabs. 'When problems arise, we have contingencies in place which include creating extra temporary capacity for our labs or sending swabs abroad to partner labs for completion. 'Of course, our partner labs must match our high standards.' The Sunday Telegraph reported the samples were airlifted to the US in chartered flights from Stansted Airport. Advertisement Figures also show 1.3million Britons have now been tested for COVID-19 - around 2 per cent of the 66million population. It means that roughly 14 tests are carried out on every 10 people, suggesting that a third of suspected patients are tested twice. People may be tested twice if something goes wrong during analysis, to confirm the result, or if a doctor receives a negative result for their patient and doesn't believe it. While in other cases someone may be tested again after developing symptoms for a second time but testing negative in an earlier swab. The government has faced huge backlash over the lack of mass testing since the virus, called SARS-CoV-2, began spreading on British soil in February. The UK effectively abandoned efforts to screen everyone with symptoms last month when the response moved from 'containment' to the 'delay' phase. Instead tests were largely restricted to those in hospital, while those who suspected they were mildly infected were urged to self-isolate. Ministers were stung by comparisons with countries like Germany and South Korea, which done huge scale testing and have had much lower death rates. Several private labs - which have the capacity to conduct thousands of tests a day - said their offers to help the Government had fallen on deaf ears in the early stage of the outbreak. In response to news that the UK had sent test samples to the US, the Department of Health said it was one of the contingencies to deal with so-called teething problems in a rapidly-expanded testing system. It is understood the test results will be validated back in the UK and communicated to patients 'as quickly as possible'. ARE ANTIBODY TESTS FINALLY ON THEIR WAY? Accurate antibody tests that are able to tell millions of Britons if they have had coronavirus are set to be rolled out across the UK within a fortnight, it was revealed last week. Testing giant Roche Diagnostics claimed it has created a kit accurate enough to be used at scale - and the firm said it has enough stock to provide hundreds of thousands to the NHS every week. It comes after weeks of disappointment regarding Britain's mass roll-out of antibody tests, which are designed to tell if someone has contracted the virus in the past and indicate whether they may now be immune. They do not accurately tell if someone is currently infected. Despite promising home antibody tests, the UK has not yet approved any because the Government insists it can't find a DIY finger-prick kit that is accurate enough - despite only evaluating a handful of tests. Switzerland-based Roche claims its lab-based 'Elecsys' test, which isn't designed to give people a result in their own home, can spot 100 per cent of people who have not had the coronavirus and 99.8 per cent of people who have been infected. The blood sample kit, which can be processed by machines already used in NHS labs across the country, has been granted the vital 'CE mark' that shows it is safe. Medics can get results in just 18 minutes. Insiders said it is unlikely the tests will be available to purchase privately, at least initially, because officials wouldn't be able to access the data they desperately need to plot the spread of the virus. It is not clear how much the tests could cost, if and when they can be purchased. Instead, the test is likely to play a role in the Government's 'surveillance' programme, which will see nurses take blood samples from a thousand households and send them to Oxford University laboratories so officials can work out how far the virus has spread in Britain. Antibody tests are considered key to easing the draconian lockdown and getting Britain back on its feet because they give the clearest possible picture of how widespread the coronavirus is in the UK. Advertisement The department said work has been undertaken to resolve the issues and capacity is quickly being restored. A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: 'The expansion of the UK's coronavirus testing network has involved setting up an entirely new 'Lighthouse' lab network to process test swabs. 'When problems arise, we have contingencies in place which include creating extra temporary capacity for our labs or sending swabs abroad to partner labs for completion. 'Of course, our partner labs must match our high standards.' The Sunday Telegraph reported the samples were airlifted to the US in chartered flights from Stansted airport. But health leaders said that they expected 'fluctuations' in the figures, and that testing was still much higher than it was at the start of the outbreak. Deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said not much could be read into day-to-day variations. Speaking at the briefing, he added: 'We are now really at a high plateau, in the region of 100,000 tests per day. 'There is some fluctuation, and quite frankly I expect there to be some fluctuation on a day-to-day basis. 'I don't think we can read too much into day-to-day variations, but the macro-picture is this is now at a much, much higher level than it ever was at the beginning of this crisis.' Prof Van-Tam also said that the test-and-trace strategy of finding people with the virus and tracking people they have been in contact with was part of the measures needed to ease the lockdown. When asked if he agreed that new infections had to be down in the hundreds a day for the strategy to be effective when it is currently in the thousands, he said it was entirely appropriate for it to be part of the 'overall measures' to tackle the virus. Prof Van-Tam told the briefing that how extensive the strategy had to be depended on the level of disease in the population. He said: 'Those two together make a package of test and trace, and we have been very clear that test and trace on its own is part of the solution to how we continue to live with this virus after the lockdown. 'It is not the total solution. 'How extensive the test and tracing needs to be clearly depends on the level of disease in the population but it is entirely appropriate to see it as part of the overall measures that will give us more flexibility and more room as to what we can do in the social distancing space to ease things. 'But on its own it is a contribution, it is not a total solution.' HOW NUMBER 10 HAS RAMPED UP ITS TESTING CAPACITY DATE Apr 1 Apr 2 Apr 3 Apr 4 Apr 5 Apr 6 Apr 7 Apr 8 Apr 9 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 25 Apr 26 Apr 27 Apr 28 Apr 29 Apr 30 May 1 May 2 May 3 May 4 May 5 May 6 May 7 May 8 May 9 May 10 TESTS PER DAY 10,412 10,657 11,764 10,984 11,085 13,069 14,006 14,682 16,095 19,116 18,091 18,000 14,506 14,982 15,994 18,665 21,328 21,389 21,626 19,316 18,206 22,814 23,560 28,532 28,760 29,058 37,024 43,563 54,429 81,611 122,347 105,937 76,496 85,186 84,806 69,463 86,583 97,029 96,878 92,837 Advertisement The news comes after Matt Hancock urged Boris Johnson to give me a break in a furious bust-up over the coronavirus crisis. Pressure intensified on Mr Hancock over his handling of the crisis last night after more than 25 million goggles were found to offer frontline NHS workers inadequate defence against the deadly virus. The latest in a string of embarrassing Government failures over Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) came as senior sources suggested to The Mail on Sunday that Mr Hancock was now living on borrowed time in the Cabinet. It comes after it was claimed last week that accurate antibody tests that are able to tell millions of Britons if they have had coronavirus are set to be rolled out across the UK within a fortnight. Testing giant Roche Diagnostics claimed it has created a kit accurate enough to be used at scale - and the firm said it has enough stock to provide hundreds of thousands to the NHS every week. It comes after weeks of disappointment regarding Britain's mass roll-out of antibody tests, which are designed to tell if someone has contracted the virus in the past and indicate whether they may now be immune. They do not accurately tell if someone is currently infected. Despite promising home antibody tests, the UK has not yet approved any because the Government insists it can't find a DIY finger-prick kit that is accurate enough - despite only evaluating a handful of tests. Switzerland-based Roche claims its lab-based 'Elecsys' test, which isn't designed to give people a result in their own home, can spot 100 per cent of people who have not had the coronavirus and 99.8 per cent of people who have been infected. The blood sample kit, which can be processed by machines already used in NHS labs across the country, has been granted the vital 'CE mark' that shows it is safe. Medics can get results in just 18 minutes. Insiders said it is unlikely the tests will be available to purchase privately, at least initially, because officials wouldn't be able to access the data they desperately need to plot the spread of the virus. It is not clear how much the tests could cost, if and when they can be purchased. Instead, the test is likely to play a role in the Government's 'surveillance' programme, which will see nurses take blood samples from a thousand households and send them to Oxford University laboratories so officials can work out how far the virus has spread in Britain. Antibody tests are considered key to easing the draconian lockdown and getting Britain back on its feet because they give the clearest possible picture of how widespread the coronavirus is in the UK. A China-Europe freight train prepares to depart from Wujiashan railway container center station in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, May 9, 2020. A China-Europe freight train carrying anti-epidemic supplies on Saturday left Wuhan, once hit hard by COVID-19, heading for Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. The train departed Wujiashan railway container center station at 10 a.m., loaded with 294.42 tonnes of anti-epidemic supplies such as masks, protective suits, goggles and medical devices, according to the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) BEIJING, May 9 (Xinhua) -- A China-Europe freight train carrying anti-epidemic supplies on Saturday left Wuhan, once hit hard by COVID-19, heading for Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. The train departed Wujiashan railway container center station at 10 a.m., loaded with 294.42 tonnes of anti-epidemic supplies such as masks, protective suits, goggles and medical devices, according to the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (China Railway). The cargo will arrive in Belgrade in 18 days, leaving China from the Alataw Pass in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, said the China Railway. In March and April, China sent 3,142 tonnes of anti-epidemic supplies via China-Europe freight trains to European countries, where the epidemic situation still remains grim. From January to April, a total of 2,920 China-Europe freight trains transported a cargo of 262,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units). A total of 15 China-Europe freight trains carrying cargo of 1,366 TEUs have set off since their service resumed in Wuhan on March 28. The resumption contributed to smoothing international industrial chains, fueling work resumption of foreign trade enterprises in Hubei Province and the neighboring regions, as well as supporting the global fight against the COVID-19. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-11 06:19:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LAGOS, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria on Sunday assured investors of the safety of their investments in the country despite dwindling revenues from the sale of crude oil globally. Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, who gave the assurance in Abuja, the nation's capital, said the bank had put in place policies to ensure an orderly exit for those that might be interested in doing so. The apex bank governor said investors interested in repatriating their funds from the country are guaranteed to get their money, notwithstanding the drop in the revenue from crude oil. Emefiele urged investors to be patient as such repatriations are being processed, owing to the bank's policy of orderly exit of investments. Recalling a similar situation back in 2015 over declining revenue, the governor said the central bank is able to settle all commitments in an orderly manner. Enditem Tammy Snider, of Parkland, Wash., was one of an estimated 1,500 protesters at a rally in Olympia on Saturday against Washington state's stay-at-home order in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some far-right groups have allied themselves with the movement to advance their agendas. (Amanda Snyder / Seattle Times) Aram Westergreen, a construction worker idled last month in the COVID-19 pandemic, filled out an online Washington state form recently to report a pawn shop open despite a ban on nonessential businesses. Westergreen lives in Tacoma, Wash., less than an hour from the nursing home where the first COVID-19 death in the United States was reported in late February. With more than 900 deaths statewide since, and a stay-at-home order in place since March 23, Westergreen, like many of his neighbors, has suffered from lost income, but regards social distancing as critical to slow the spread of the pathogen. To his alarm on Thursday, he opened his email to find a message entitled Lowlife scumbag whistle-blower snitches. It was sent from a stranger to about 100 people, informing them that their names, reports and identifying information had been released by the government and shared on social media. All you cowards who reported businesses as being open ... guess what ... social media is about to reign fire on you, the message said. How can you live with yourself when the REAL DOCTORS have already come out and stated that social distancing is making matters worse? Every one of you slimeballs must only get your news from CNN. The emailer was correct in one respect. The Washington Military Department, which is coordinating state response to the pandemic, had responded to public records requests by releasing spreadsheets containing more than 7,600 reports of suspected stay-home violations, including email addresses and phone numbers of those lodging complaints. Westergreen and many others did not immediately realize that Washington State Three Percent, regarded by civil rights organizations as a far-right militia organization, had joined another militant group opposed to state coronavirus lockdowns in posting the reports on Facebook and other sites. Some of those listed in the spreadsheets say they are now being harassed, including receiving death threats. Story continues Such public naming and threats are among the latest tactics being employed by far-right, neo-Nazi and white nationalist groups seeking to exploit the pandemic, according to organizations that track their activities. Extremists have been spreading hate and misinformation on social media while encouraging members to attend reopen rallies such as one Saturday at the state Capitol in Olympia, according to Western States Center, a Portland, Ore., organization that tracks white nationalist and alt-right groups. Methods vary depending on ideology, analysts say. White supremacists from accelerationist groups which seek to weaken the political system that they believe has been diluted by multiculturalism have sought to weaponize the deadly virus, calling on members to engage in direct attacks in order to expedite the collapse of society, said Joanna Mendelson, a national expert on extremism at the Anti-Defamation League. Accelerationist groups have also been organizing coronavirus-related discussions online around the word boogaloo. Usage of the word in far-right context emanated from an unlikely source: the 1984 break-dancing film Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo. The word is now being used by extremists as a way to refer to what they believe is a looming civil war. Other shorthand references to the word that extremists use is the boog. There is an enormous indoctrination effort in order to expand their base, and the majority of that recruitment takes place in the virtual space. We have seen them using memes in order to express hatred, targeting Jews, Mendelson said. Lindsay Schubiner, a Western States Center program director, said she first noticed the coronavirus report information posted Thursday on Washington State Three Percents Facebook page. The organization is an armed paramilitary group that promotes anti-government conspiracy theories and seeks to undermine local democratic institutions, she said. Posting this public information incites and encourages harassment and even possible violence, she said. Complainants whose names were exposed, and who were since contacted by The Times, reported receiving hostile messages, emails and phone calls. One voicemail said, You called on March 30th at 9:15 p.m. to report a nonessential business ... massage parlor. When you did that, you triggered a chain of events which made it known that you were the kind of person who would stomp on the rights of people who are trying to run a business, and that you believe yourself to be superior to them. The caller said he hoped that the complainant would do something to prove that she had changed her mind. If not, have fun with the, you know, whats going to happen next, he said. The woman in her 40s who received the call, who works from home in Arlington, Wash., said in an interview Saturday that she had no intention of changing her mind about the importance of nonessential businesses remaining closed. Speaking on condition that her name be withheld, she described her personal experience with COVID-19. My uncle contracted it, she said. He went to the hospital and was intubated almost immediately, and died days later. Matt Marshall, Washington State Three Percent president, said Saturday that his organization posted the reports not to incite threats but to expose those who filed them for having turned in business owners trying to maintain livelihoods. They need to know that their neighbors have the right to face their accusers, he said. Marshall, a Republican running for a seat in the state Legislature, said that he was provided the reports by one of the political partys county officers, whom he declined to identify. That person had obtained the spreadsheets by submitting a public records request one of two dozen people to have done so, according to Chelsea Hodgson, a spokeswoman for the state agency coordinating coronavirus response. Marshall spoke at Saturdays protest in Olympia, along with Joey Gibson, leader of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer, and state Rep. Matt Shea, a far-right lawmaker suspended from the GOP caucus last year after an investigation accused him of planning and participating in domestic terrorism. The rally drew about 1,500 people, roughly 500 fewer than a similar protest last month. In early April, the FBI sent out an intelligence report from the New York field office saying white supremacists and neo-Nazis were encouraging the spread of the coronavirus to law enforcement officers and the Jewish community. The Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council a coalition of 40 nonprofit groups that provide health, job counseling and other social services started an online reporting center tracking hate reports. The organization recorded 670 complaints of hate crimes during the week of March 19, the first week it kept track. By the end of the second week, the group had received 1,100 complaints and were averaging around 100 a day. Some 32% of those incidents occurred in California, the council said, and included incidents in grocery stores, big-box retail shops and pharmacies. What you have is Charlottesville on steroids, said Erroll Southers, a former FBI special agent and currently director of Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies at USC, referring to the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, where violent clashes broke out and a woman was killed. Charlottesville had Klan members, League of the South confederates, neo-Nazis and nationalists, all who typically don't play well together. What you have now is all those groups plus your Boogaloo, anti-vaxxers, your Trump supporters, who have nothing to do with either group, all out there ... and it's made for an incredibly dangerous situation. Far-right groups have long sought to exploit global crises to expand their ranks and drive a wedge between them and those who disagree with them. A May 2020 study conducted by researchers with the Federal Reserve Bank titled, Pandemics Change Cities: Municipal Spending and Voter Extremism in Germany: 1918-1933, found a correlation between deaths in the years after the Spanish flu pandemic a century ago and subsequent support for right-wing extremists blaming minorities and foreigners for the pandemic and economic hardships that followed. Peter Simi, a professor of sociology at Chapman University, said Western nations are likely to experience a similar situation now. This crisis could strain the political system, Simi said. You have people who are experiencing heightened levels of emotion, resources being utilized in different ways and people who are being stretched thin. As a result, it does create more opportunity for extremists to mobilize around. I would expect youll have an exacerbation of certain economic, social pressures," he added, "and youre going to have changes in emotional temperament, heightened levels of depression and anxiety, which are ripe for fascist, far-right movements to take advantage of. In Washington, Gov. Jay Inslee has spoken out against attempts to exploit the pandemic for political gain as he extends his stay-at-home order to May 31, gradually lifting restrictions on some business sectors while maintaining social distancing. The Democrat seeking a third term is being sued over aspects of the order by a Republican gubernatorial candidate and four GOP state legislators. In an interview in Olympia on Friday, Inslee called the posting of the reports by Washington State Three Percent and a group called Reopen Washington State, which could not be reached for comment, "really unfortunate." "That kind of harassment and intimidation just won't stand. I don't think it'll work, either. I think Washingtonians are a little too stalwart for that." Read reported from Seattle and Etehad reported from Los Angeles. Trump's coronavirus response has been an 'absolute chaotic disaster' Iran Press TV Saturday, 09 May 2020 6:22 PM Former US President Barack Obama has described Donald Trump's coronavirus response as an "absolute chaotic disaster. The Hill ran a CNN report citing a call on Friday night between Obama and his former aides. In the report, three former Obama administration officials confirmed that in a private conversation Obama strongly criticized the Trump administration for the "absolute chaotic disaster" response to the coronavirus crisis. In the call, the Democratic ex-president encouraged members of the Obama Alumni Association to support the presidential campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden in 2020 race against the Republican candidate, Trump. "This election ... is so important because what we're going to be battling ... [is] being selfish, being tribal, being divided and seeing others as an enemy". Obama went to say that beating Trump in the upcoming election was winning over the "what's in it for me" mindset that has become the "stronger impulse in American life." He criticized Trump's shortsightedness and poor managerial skills, pointing out that the current president's mindset was "part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty." He noted that the COVID-19 outbreak was a bad situation; however, he insisted that Trump's flawed way of thinking had made it worse for everybody. "It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset of 'what's in it for me' and 'to heck with everybody else' ... is operationalized in our government." He said Trump's abortive response to the coronavirus crisis was the reason behind why he was "going to be spending as much time as necessary and campaigning as hard as I can for Joe Biden." Trump's irresponsible and poor handling of the health crisis has been noted by other critics as a major flaw of his administration. The critics assess Trump's executive incompetence as a major reason for the disaster across the country. Daniel Lazare, a journalist and author from New York, described the administration's response to the crisis as "scandalous". NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address In a tragic incident, five migrant workers were killed and 11 others were injured after a truck carrying them overturned in Patha village in Narsinghpur of Madhya Pradesh. ANI The incident happened on Sunday night when the truck met with the accident some 200 km away from Bhopal. Read more Poachers Strike In Kaziranga National Park, First Rhino Killed In Over 13 Months The carcass of a rhino was reportedly recovered on Saturday near Doramari Beel in the forest under the Agoratoli range in the Kaziranga national park in Assam. Rohit Choudhury The horn of the rhino was missing when the carcass, which is believed to be two to three days old was discovered by a patrol team. Read more Nagaland, Mizoram Have The Lowest Infant Mortality Rate In India, Madhya Pradesh The Highest At just four deaths for every 1000 live births, the northeastern state of Nagaland has the lowest infant mortality rate (IMR) in India. UNSPLASH In contrast, Madhya Pradesh which recorded 48 deaths for every 1000 live births is the worst performer in India, data has shown. Read more As Concerns Grow, ICMR To Monitor 75 Districts For Community Transmission Of COVID-19 The total number of COVID-19 cases in India climbed to 62,939 on Sunday, with 3,277 cases in the last 24 hours. BCCL The total number of deaths from COVID-19 stood at 2,109 out of which 128 were registered in the past 24 hours. Read more After Operating Cargo Flights Out Of China, Air India Pilots Test Positive For COVID-19 Five Air India pilots have tested positive for Covid-19 after undergoing testing. They had recently operated one of the cargo flights to Guangzhou, China. Reuters Air India has conducted cargo flights to international destinations since the coronavirus lockdown. Read more Man Objects To Alcohol Consumption On Burial Ground, Pays With His Life In a shocking incident in West Bengals North 24 Parganas, a man was allegedly murdered by three others for protesting drinking alcohol on a burial ground. Reuters The accused, who were under the influence, attacked the victim by hitting his head with a hammer on at least 3 occasions. Read more Germany's Foreign Minister warns hard Brexit increasingly likely to happen as UK-EU talks stall Iran Press TV Saturday, 09 May 2020 2:22 PM German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has warned that the risk of a hard Brexit is increasingly likely for the United Kingdom as London has so far made almost no progress in talks with the European Union (EU) on the future trade relationship, criticizing Britain for disregarding the agreed political agreement. In an interview with Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper on Saturday, the German top diplomat expressed his concern amid floundering trade talks between London and Brussels, which have not reached an agreement yet on whether to extend the negotiation period beyond the current year. "It's worrying that Britain is moving further away from our jointly agreed political declaration on key issues in the negotiations," Maas said, noting, "It's simply not on, because the negotiations are a complete package as it's laid out in the political declaration." The UK officially exited the EU in January and negotiations with the EU are now concentrated on establishing new trading terms from the beginning of 2021, when the British government status quo transition period ends. The administration of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has already rejected an extension of the end-of-the-year deadline, but the EU appears to have been striving, during the past couple of weeks, for pushing the deadline further into 2021. The EU seems to strive for convincing Jonson to fold again, after he famously said that he would "rather be dead in a ditch" than agree to extend Brexit only two weeks before he indeed requested for an extension. The German foreign minister further said that at the time there was neither common ground on how to structure a comprehensive trade deal or on whether to extend the negotiation period beyond its deadline. "The British government is still refusing to extend the deadline. If it stays that way, we will have to deal with Brexit in addition to the coronavirus at the turn of the year," Maas said. On Friday, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney, for his part, warned that the COVID-19 pandemic had made an already difficult timeline for a UK-EU trade deal "virtually impossible" and that it would make sense to extend the current deadline. It seems that the EU is pursuing a flawed strategy in convincing Johnson to give more time, if this is the case, as incumbent British premier now enjoys a respectable majority in Parliament, and has far more control over his Conservative Party than the fractured one his predecessor, Theresa May, left for him. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Kalu The Fridays judgment of the Supreme Court which nullified the trial and conviction of a former governor of Abia State, Orji Kalu, will cause an automatic reversal of gains already recorded in at least 50 criminal cases pending or concluded at various High Courts, findings by Sunday PUNCH have revealed. The progress recorded in the over 50 cases are attributable to the authorities given to about eight Justices of the Court of Appeal to return to their previous positions as High Court judges to conclude the cases which they were handling before their elevation to the higher bench. But in a major upset, reversing the progress recorded in the cases, the Supreme Court on Friday nullified Section 396(7) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, which made it possible for the Justices to continue handling the cases after their elevation to the Court of Appeal bench. The section 396(7) is one of the innovative provisions, including the prohibition of stay of proceedings in a criminal trial, contained in ACJA which was enacted in 2015 to address delays and other odds often encountered in criminal trials in the country. The apex court had since 2017 validated Section 306 of ACJA which barred stay of proceedings in criminal trial. But a full panel of seven Justices of the Supreme Court, on Friday, made the far-reaching decision nullifying Section 396(7) in the case involving Kalu, who along with others had been convicted and sentenced for N7.1bn fraud on December 5, 2019. The panel led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, unanimously nullified the ex-governors trial. It also ordered that the trial which had lasted 12 years with 19 witnesses called by the prosecution, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, be reassigned to another judge of the Federal High Court and start afresh. The apex courts judgment was on the grounds that a Justice of the Court of Appeal, Justice Mohammed Idris, who handed down the conviction in December 2019, lacked the power to return to the Federal High Court to conclude the case which he had partly heard before his elevation to the higher bench. The apex court also nullified Section 396(7) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 which had enabled the then President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa (retd), to issue fiat to Justice Idris to return to the Federal High Court to conclude the case. Justice Ejembi Eko delivered the apex courts lead judgment and other members of the panel, comprising, Justices Rhodes-Vivour, Mary Odili, Olukayode Ariwoola, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, Inyang Okoro and Amina Augie consented. Few days after the Federal High Court had convicted Kalu, the then President of the Court of Appeal, Bulkachuwa, on December 9, 2019 had lauded the completion of the case. Justice Bulkachuwa attributed the credit to the provision of section 396(7) of ACJA, 2015. She spoke in Abuja at a national workshop organised by the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies in collaboration with Federal Ministry of Justice on setting of minimum standards for the effective implementation of ACJA. Justice Bulkachuwa said at the event that she had issued fiats 50 times to about eight Justices of the Court of Appeal, including Justice Idris, to enable them to conclude such part-heard cases. She said Justice Idris, in addition to Kalus case, had concluded 15 cases through the application of the provision of section 396(7) of ACJA. She added, I have given fiats at least 50 times to about eight Justices of the Court of Appeal to go back and complete their assignments. The most recent is that of Justice Idris when he completed the matter of Orji Kalu. But before then, he had completed about 15 matters. Similarly, Justice Talba, and Justice Umar, Justice Ojo from the FCT High Court; and from the Federal High Court were Justices Idris, Justice Aliyu, I think about five of them from there, who have completed matters. I think this is a big plus for the Administration of Criminal Justice Act because matters get to be completed within the shortest time possible and decisively. I have not seen any of the matters that have come on appeal yet. I have not heard. Maybe that is the end of the matter as it is. The number of such fiats issued after the event in December could not be ascertained. But Mr Femi Falana (SAN), advised on Saturday that, in the light of the judgment of the Supreme Court, all the cases that have been benefitting from the application of the nullified provision of ACJA have to be immediately terminated and reassigned to start afresh. He said even the ones that had been concluded like the Kalus case had to start afresh. He described the apex courts judgment as a reversal of the gains of the Administration of Justice Act. A lawyer and former National President, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Mr Malachy Ugwummadu, noted that the approximately 500 sections of the ACJA 2015 including Section 396 under review were direct legislative responses and reform efforts to cure most of the seemingly intractable challenges in our criminal justice system. He said previous decisions of the Supreme Court in cases of Ogbuanyinya V. Okudo, and Bichi V. Shakarau, the apex court and the Court of Appeal, delivered a judgment similar to Fridays verdict of the apex court predated the enactment of the ACJA. He noted however that the judgment casts serious doubts on the credibility, legal and policy research and consultations that are made and scrutinised before legislations are churned out to achieve certain dynamics and progressive objectives. *** Source: The PUNCH The first naval ship carrying nearly 700 Indian evacuees from Maldives arrived at Cochin Port on Sunday as another vessel reached Male, while about two dozen flights were operated by Air India on the fourth day of Vande Bharat Mission to bring back citizens stranded abroad due to the coronavirus lockdown. IMAGE: Naval ship INS Jalashwa, carrying 698 persons evacuated from Maldives as part of Samudra Setu Programme under Vande Bharat Mission, arrives at Cochin Port. Photograph: PTI Photo A Port Trust statement said that 698 people evacuated from the Maldives arrived at 9:30 am by 'INS Jalashwa' of the Indian Navy. Among the passengers were 14 children below 10 years of age and 19 pregnant women. While 440 people were from Kerala, 187 were from Tamil Nadu and four from Delhi. The rest are from 17 other states and Union Territories. SEE: INS Jalashwa reaches Kochi Concurrently, INS Magar on Sunday reached Male, under the exercise christened Operation Samudra Setu, to bring nearly 200 more stranded Indian nationals from the Maldives, the Indian Navy said. Passengers showing COVID-19 symptoms were disembarked first from INS Jalashwa, followed by others in small groups, district-wise, a Port Trust official said, adding the baggage was also disinfected. Customs and Immigration procedures were carried out inside the terminal, where arrangements were made for distribution of SIM cards by BSNL and installation of Aarogya Setu in mobile phones of passengers, the official said. Arrangements for onward travel to hospitals or institutional quarantine centres and home quarantine were ensured by the state government by deploying ambulances, state transport buses and taxis, the official said. IMAGE: People evacuated from Maldives as part of Samudra Setu Programme under Vande Bharat Mission, undergo temperature tests as they come out of the navy ship INS Jalashwa, at Cochin Port in Kochi. Photograph:PTI Photo As many as 572 Indians reached Mumbai in two Air India flights from London and Singapore on Sunday morning. A total of 329 people who were stranded in the United Kingdom arrived in the first flight from the country. While passengers belonging to Mumbai were kept under mandatory institutional quarantine in hotels near the airport, those hailing from other cities were taken to their respective places where they will be kept in isolation in hotels taken over for the purpose, a Maharashtra government official said. The first Air India flight to evacuate Indians from the US took off from San Francisco on Saturday to Mumbai and Hyderabad and will reach on Monday morning. From May 9, Air India has scheduled seven non-scheduled commercial flights from the US to India facilitating the return of Indian nationals, who could not travel due to COVID-19 restrictions. The Air India flight from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey is flying on Sunday. IMAGE: Indian nationals who were stranded in the UK after suspension of commercial air passenger services amid the COVID-19 outbreak on their arrival at International Airport in Mumbai, early Sunday. Photograph: Shashank Parade/PTI Photo Another flight from Newark will fly on May 14 to Delhi and Hyderabad. All passengers will be required to undergo medical screening before boarding the flight and only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to travel. All passengers on arrival in India will be medically screened and would have to download and register the Aarogya Setu app. Further, all passengers will need to undergo a 14-day mandatory quarantine on arrival in India in institutional facilities on payment basis as per the protocols framed by Government of India. SEE: Pregnant woman onboard INS Jalashwa thanks Indian Navy for evacuating her from Maldives Highly placed sources in the Indian Consulate in New York said that it "has been a relentless and non-stop work" to coordinate the repatriation exercise and authorities "are going out of their way to make sure not even one seat on the flight goes vacant" since a large number of Indians are stranded in the US due to various reasons and they are "desperate" to go home. Priority is being given to stranded passengers, terminally-ill patients, passengers with medical concerns and students. The sources said that while flights from New Jersey were only supposed to take passengers from states that fall under the jurisdiction of the Consulate in New York, special arrangements have been made to ferry four terminally-ill patients from Houston. Apart from the two flights from New Jersey, two flights have been scheduled from Chicago on May 11 (to Mumbai and Chennai) and May 15 (Delhi and Hyderabad). The solo flight from Washington DC on May 12 will fly to Delhi and Hyderabad. IMAGE: An Indian national brought from Singapore by a special Air India flight under Vande Bharat Mission, checks-out from the international airport in Mumbai. Photograph: PTI Photo The first phase of the mission to evacuate stranded Indian started on May 7 and will conclude on May 15. A total of 64 flights carrying approximately 15,000 returnees from 12 countries, including Gulf nations, Malaysia, the UK and the US, are expected to land at 14 airports across India during the period. The Air India flights are simultaneously ferrying stranded foreigners to their countries. In the second phase of the evacuation, Indians stranded in other countries in central Asia and Europe like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Germany, Spain and Thailand will be brought back from May 15. According to the government's policy for evacuation, Indians with "compelling reasons" to return such as pregnant women, elderly people, students and those facing the prospect of deportation are being brought back home. The 67,833 people who have registered by Friday and mapped flights, included 22,470 students, 15,815 migrant workers, 9,250 people facing expiry of visas and 5,531 who are seeking evacuation on the ground of medical emergency, the sources said. SEE: 243 Indians arrive in Mumbai from Singapore via special flight The people registered for evacuation also included 4,147 stranded tourists, 3,041 pregnant women and the elderly and 1,112 Indians who want to return due to death of family members. Kerala top the list of state-wise break-up of repatriation requests with 25,246, followed by 6,617 from Tamil Nadu and 4,341 from Maharashtra. A total of 3,715 people from Uttar Pradesh requested for evacuation, 3,320 from Rajasthan, 2,796 from Telangana and, 2,786 from Karnataka, sources said. The ministry of external affairs has developed an online platform on which requests received by Indian missions from Indian nationals wishing to return are regularly being uploaded. In the first phase of the evacuation, a total number of 27 flights are bringing bring back Indians from the Gulf region. This included 11 flights from the United Arab Emirates, five from Saudi Arab, five from Kuwait, and two each from Bahrain, Qatar and Oman, the sources said. From the neighbourhood, seven flights are scheduled to bring back Indians from Bangladesh carrying passengers bound for Srinagar, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. Similarly, 14 flights will evacuate stranded Indians from South-East Asia. Of these flights, five each are from Singapore and the Philippines and four from Malaysia, they said. Unlike the other Bharatiya Janata Party-led governments, Assam has not proposed doing away with most labour laws for a certain number of years. Instead it has proposed introducing fixed-term employment to help both workers and industries, and seeks to take more firms out of the ambit of laws governing factories and contract workers. IMAGE: Migrant labourers heading back home to their villages following the nationwide shutdown over the coronavirus pandemic. Photograph: Ravi Choudhary/PTI Photo The Assam government has proposed a set of changes to labour laws, becoming the latest entrant in the list of states taking such a step in a bid to boost investment at a time when economic activities have come to a grinding halt due to the novel coronavirus. However, unlike the other Bharatiya Janata Party-led governments, Assam has not proposed doing away with most labour laws for a certain number of years. It has proposed introducing fixed-term employment to help both workers and industries, and seeks to take more firms out of the ambit of laws governing factories and contract workers. The government has further proposed increasing the working hours in factories from a maximum of 8 hours to 12 hours in a day. The decisions were taken in a meeting of the state Cabinet on Friday. By introducing fixed-term employment, firms in the state will be able to hire contract workers directly, without the need to go through the contractor system, thereby saving cost and time. But companies will have to offer equal social security benefits to such workers, who will be hired on a fixed number of years, as is given to permanent workers in the same unit, if the Assam government chooses to follow the model law of the Central government. According to a proposal, the Factories Act, 1948 will implement on those manufacturing units, using power and employing at least 40 workers, instead of 20 workers. For manufacturing units operating with the aid of power, the Factories Act will be applicable only if they employ at least 20 workers, instead of 10 at present. The Act has provisions for the occupational safety, health and welfare of workers in manufacturing units. However, these changes will require the approval of the central government as it will make changes to central law. Labour falls under the concurrent list of the Indian Constitution and states can make their own changes. The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 is proposed to be applicable on firms employing 50 contract workers, up from 20 at present. The Act defines regulations applicable to contractors, who help firms in hiring contract workers. The state government has also proposed increase in shift hours from 8 to 12 hours during COVID-19 period. The states have the power to make this change in the Factories Act through a provision in the law, without seeking the approval of the central government. States such as Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, MP, among others have already made similar changes. The changes made by the Assam government, which is governed by a BJP-led ruling coalition, is unlike the other BJP state governments like UP, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The UP government has proposed abolition almost all labour laws in the state for a period of three years for all firms. The MP government has also proposed abolition many provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act and welfare provisions under the Factories Act for new firms setting up shop for the next 1000 days. Similarly, the Gujarat government has also announced abolishing almost all labour laws for new units which operate for 1,200 days. The UP and Gujarat governments have said that provisions related to women and children, along with minimum wages and payment of wages will continue to apply in the state for all firms. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Kharishar Kahfi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, May 11 2020 The Jakarta Corruption Court has sentenced Emirsyah Satar to eight years in prison after finding the former president director of Garuda Indonesia guilty of accepting Rp 49.3 billion (US$3.4 million) in bribes and laundering Rp 87.5 billion related to aircraft procurement. The court has also fined Emirsyah Rp 1 billion and ordered S$2.11 million ($1.48 million) in restitution, as reported by Antara news agency. The sentence was lighter than what Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors sought. They advocated for 12 years of imprisonment and a fine of Rp 10 billion based on Emirsyah having received bribes from British engineering company Rolls-Royce in connection with the procurement of aircraft parts and from European aviation giant Airbus in connection with aircraft procurement, among other sources. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Investors have already factored in slower Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the economy, and it seems that the market has already discounted this news when hit a 52-week low, Ritesh Asher - Chief Strategic Officer (CSO) at KIFS Trade Capital, said in an interview with Moneycontrols Kshitij Anand. Here are edited excerpts from the interview: Q. It looks like the markets seem to have witnessed profit-taking at higher levels. What led to the sharp sell-off on D-Street and then some recovery towards the close of the week? A. The market witnessed a bounce back from the bottom of 7,500 largely on the back of relief measures introduced by the government. Muted earnings season also weighed on sentiments of traders recently which lead to a sharp selloff. But speculations over various stimulus packages for stressed industries from the government has contributed to this end of the week recovery. Q. Any factors which investors should watch out for in the coming week? A. For the coming week, investors should look out for Q4 FY2020 earnings and growth rate of coronavirus cases in India and across the world, as it plays a crucial role in directing further economic actions. Also read: 10 key factors that will keep traders busy this week Q. Another mega-deal in RILs Jio Platforms. What are your views and estimates on the stock and what should investors do buy, sell or hold? A. Reliance Industries Jio had a back-to-back deal in the span of less than a month from Facebook followed by Silver Lake Partners and this is the third deal in a row for by US-based company Vista Equity Partners making it the fourth largest company in India, in terms of valuation. These deals will help RIL reduced its debt which was acting as a black spot for the reputation of the company. Reliance Industries has great potential and we recommend investors follow a buy on dips strategy and hold it if you already have it in your portfolio. Q. Small & Midcaps outperformed in the week gone by. Looks like investors are slowly accumulating beaten down names? A. Fundamentally, many stocks were available at favourable valuations and investors seem to have taken advantage of this opportunity. It has been observed that after front liners, the pullback was seen in the small and midcap space. Q. Moody's says India's negative rating outlook reflects a rising risk of slower GDP growth. Do you think this is already factored in or will it weigh on markets and investor decision making? A. Investors have already factored in slower GDP growth with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on the economy. It seems that the market had already discounted this news previously when the market made a 52-week low. Now, market sentiments or investors' decision will depend on the future aspect of this ongoing situation based on how government and industries will take measures to overcome this negative impact. Q. Do you think the lockdown could get extended beyond May 17? If yes, what is the kind of impact it could have on markets? A. No, we do not think that the lockdown may get extended further for the whole country, but there might be a few states which could extend the lockdown depending on the spread. We also do not expect things to go back to normal as it was before. The government may lift the lockdown slowly and gradually, which will act as a relief for industries that are out of business since March. This will slowly start generating income and cash flow for drying out the economy resulting in positive impact on the market. Q. Specialty chemicals, pharma best-placed sectors do ride out of COVID-19 storm. But, after a swift rally, are these still a good buy at current levels? What should investors do? A. If we talk on the investment perspective, pharma is good to bet from 2017 till early 2020. The pharma sector has corrected about 45 percent, the recent recovery was around 15 percent lead by good accumulation on institutional front. There is still a lot of space left for the sector so investors are advised to buy on dips and accumulate fundamentally sound pharma stocks for better returns. 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, which owns Jio, is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd. Six Pakistani security personnel, including an officer, were killed in a roadside bomb attack near the South Asian nations border with Iran. Pakistans Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the militarys media wing, said May 8 that the security forces were returning from patrolling duty when an improvised explosive device (IED) hit their reconnaissance vehicle. The ISPR statement said the incident happened 14 kilometers from Pakistans border with Iran in the Kech district within the Balochistan Province. One officer and five soldiers were killed in the attack. No group so far claimed responsibility for the blast. Balochistan is Pakistan's largest and most volatile province, bordering both Afghanistan and Iran. It is home to ethnic Baloch separatists as well as several sectarian groups in the area. Parts of the province are also believed to be the sanctuaries of the Afghan Taliban. Bombings in the region have killed dozens of Pakistani officers and citizens over the past year. It was a very emotional affair when Nana Ama McBrown and other Kumawood stars attended the one-week observance of Bishop Bernard Nyarko in Accra. Following the passing of Bishop Nyarko at the Ridge Hospital on May 2, 2020, the family scheduled a one-week observance in line with Akan customs. The one-week observance was held simultaneously in Accra and Kumasi with many Kumawood stars in attendance. McBrown led a group including Christiana Awuni to go and commiserate with the bereaved family. One notable thing that happened when McBrown and her group arrived was when he had to talk to Bishop Nyarko's mother, Auntie Ceci. Appearing before the bereaved mother, McBrown knelt down before the woman as they talked. Watch video from 45th minute. 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 We knew we wanted to do something special for her, Barbara Nemec said. There was supposed to be a special Mass for her and other mothers on Mothers Day, and that was supposed to be a surprise, but of course that isnt happening so I thought, we got to do something for her. The department concocts its materiality theory by arguing that the F.B.I. should not have been investigating Mr. Flynn at the time they interviewed him. The Justice Department notes that the F.B.I. had opened a counterintelligence investigation of Mr. Flynn in 2016 as part of a larger investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian efforts to interfere with the presidential election. And the department notes that the F.B.I. had intended to close the investigation of Mr. Flynn in early January 2017 until it learned of the conversations between Mr. Flynn and Mr. Kislyak around the same time. Discounting the broader investigation and the possibility of Russian direction or control over Mr. Flynn, the departments motion myopically homes in on the calls alone, and because it views those calls as entirely appropriate, it concludes the investigation should not have been extended and the interview should not have taken place. The account of my interview in 2017 doesnt help the department support this conclusion, and it is disingenuous for the department to twist my words to suggest that it does. What the account of my interview describes is a difference of opinion about what to do with the information that Mr. Flynn apparently had lied to the incoming vice president, Mr. Pence, and others in the incoming administration about whether he had discussed the Obama administrations sanctions against Russia in his calls with Mr. Kislyak. Those apparent lies prompted Mr. Pence and others to convey inaccurate statements about the nature of the conversations in public news conferences and interviews. Physician Moms Group Founder and Emergency Medicine Physician, Dr. Hala Sabry with family This initiative alleviates the stress of finding reliable help, especially because the students understand the risk. Families can rest assured knowing that healthcare students provide a safe and caring option because they are vigilant about COVID-19 safety, hygiene and precautionary measures. COVID-19 has forced implausible complexities into the lives of those working in frontline specialties. Recognizing the fraught effects of the pandemic on households in the medical community, healthcare students hope to support and assist them with childcare, pet sitting, grocery deliveries, online tutoring, and other essential services. Social distancing and lockdown measures have strained the lives of healthcare workers on the frontlines of COVID-19. Schools and day care centers are still closed across the U.S., and the increased workload that this pandemic requires has made the situation much worse. Normally surrounded with the help of extended family and sitters, healthcare providers are left with no one. Meanwhile, most students in medical fields have headed home to continue distance learning. Far from the hospital setting, they feel helpless watching the pandemic unfold and are eager to find ways to help in their respective future fields. A local 'COVIDsitter' initiative to pair student volunteers with frontline professionals was started by medical students at the University of Minnesota and this concept has quickly expanded into many regional initiatives across the U.S. With new groups launching every day, there was a need for an online directory that would consolidate information and streamline the process of connecting volunteer students in medical fields across the country with frontline healthcare workers in need of childcare, pet sitting, or other basic needs. MEDELITA was approached by Physician Moms Group, an online organization that supports and empowers physician mothers, to partner with the Facebook Group, "Law Mamas," and Dr. Ryan Grey from Medical School Headquarters to create a platform that would bring all these healthcare families and volunteers together in one place. In appreciation for the bravery and sacrifices being made by those on the frontlines, MEDELITA has dedicated itself to featuring honest updates and heartfelt stories provided by the healthcare community and its brand ambassadors who are fighting on the frontlines of this crisis. MEDELITA brand ambassadors have been featured recently as medical correspondents on ABC News, CNN, and Fox News. Most evident is the brands deep, personal connection to the medical community, with MEDELITA founder Lara Franciscos firsthand experience in emergency medicine as a certified Physician Assistant. Lara remains highly involved in fostering personal relationships with key healthcare professionals and associations, and is also a mother of three who can sympathize with the challenges clinician parents are facing. Asked about the current crisis and the benefits of COVIDsitters, founder Lara Francisco, said, Our priority has always been to amplify the voices of those who work in medicine. When Dr. Sabry reached out to me, I was eager to do as much as possible to assist this effort. Since MEDELITA launched the online portal, it has added more than 18 regional COVIDsitter networks, and more groups are being added daily. Any healthcare worker in need can request assistance at their local COVIDsitter community using a simple form and they will be matched with a list of students (in any healthcare field) who have used a separate form to register as a volunteer. Each local organization publishes specific requirements, collects each request, coordinates the pairing and handles any of the logistics involved in the pairing process. All services are free of charge, but families may decide on compensation privately. Alternatively, students have also welcomed letters of recommendation which could be of great assistance on their path toward a healthcare field or residency. According to Lara Francisco, PA-C, "This initiative alleviates the stress of finding reliable help, especially because the students understand the risk. Families can rest assured knowing that healthcare students provide a safe and caring option because they are vigilant about COVID-19 safety, hygiene and precautionary measures. Student participants initially chose to study medicine because they have a deep desire to make a difference in the lives of those in their communities. They are looking to help wherever there is capacity. Full details can be found on the MEDELITA website: https://www.medelita.com/covidsitter.html For more than two decades, Zimbabwe has been trying to break ground on a giant coal-power complex by the world's biggest man-made reservoir. China just agreed to get the $4.2 billion project underway. The development near the southern shore of Lake Kariba is good news for Zimbabwe, where a collapsing economy and erratic policies have deterred foreign investment for the past 20 years. But it flies in the face of a growing global consensus that has seen financial institutions from Japan to the U.S. and Europe shun investments in coal projects. That retreat leaves the way open for Chinese companies-many with state backing-even at the risk of undermining the spirit of China's international commitments to fight climate change. "We are very pleased that the project is going ahead, especially as major banks in the world are forced to stop financing coal-fired power stations," Caleb Dengu, chairman of RioZim Energy, the company that owns the project, said in a response to questions. "This is testimony of Chinese commitment to development projects in Africa. The Chinese are interested in joining hands." China is certainly in need of friends: A global backlash is building over Beijing's handling of the coronavirus outbreak first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan-evidence of a deficit of trust that was compounded by incidents of racism toward Africans in the southern city of Guangzhou last month. Yet pumping money into coal just underlines China's creeping isolation in backing plants that generate large quantities of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. For financial institutions, "the ever-increasing reputational risk of funding a project like this, and the high likelihood that it would end up as a stranded asset, should make them very wary of getting involved," said Tracey Davies, director of Cape Town-based shareholder activist organization, Just Share. In fact, the Chinese government promised back in 2017 to green its Belt and Road Initiative overseas construction plan to promote environment-friendly development in line with United Nations goals. President Xi Jinping pledged last year that the program must be green and sustainable. Yet Chinese companies and banks are involved in financing at least 13 coal projects across the continent with another nine in the pipeline, according to data compiled by Greenpeace. Since 2000, the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China alone have supplied $51.8 billion of finance for coal projects globally, according to the Boston University Global Development Policy Center. "Despite promises to shift support to green and low-carbon energy, Chinese banks have continued to bankroll coal power projects," said Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst for the Centre for Energy Research and Clean Air, an independent research body. "China has enormous state-owned thermal-power manufacturing and engineering firms that rely on overseas deals to stay in business." President Xi regularly mentions China's commitment to multilateralism through fighting climate change as a signatory of the Paris Agreement. China, however, is unlikely to divest from coal anytime soon. Despite hefty investment in renewable energy over the past decade, China still mines and burns about half the world's coal. China has undoubtedly made progress. By 2018, China had exceeded its target for reducing CO2 emissions, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the UN climate action summit in New York in September. He touted increases in non-fossil fuel use and in forestation along with sales of some 1.25 million electric cars that year. And yet now, as it claws its way out of the pandemic-induced slump, Beijing has started to roll back restrictions on industrial pollution and slash subsidies for cleaner energy. There shouldn't be a "one-size-fits-all approach" for green development in poorer nations, but rather the decision should be based on a host country's natural resources, according to Yu Zirong, a vice director at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, a think tank affiliated with the Ministry of Commerce. "For countries with rich coal resources, it is impossible to completely forbid them using coal," said Yu, who spoke at a forum on sustainable Belt and Road Initiative in October in Beijing. "The key is how to use them more reasonably." That's a sentiment shared by Lefoko Moagi, Botswana's minister of mineral resources, green technology and energy security. Botswana has Africa's biggest coal resources after South Africa, according to the government. "The world is continually looking at coal as a dirty mineral. Make no mistake: we all subscribe to a greener world. But we believe that we just can't leave an abundance of a god-given natural resource just like that. We need to exploit it more cleanly for the benefit of our communities and the benefit of the nation," he said in an interview in February. "This is an opportunity for countries like China to come into this space." China's agreement to invest is a rare win for Zimbabwe, which is currently subject to power cuts of as long as 18 hours a day as it doesn't produce enough electricity to meet demand and can't afford to pay for adequate imports. The project was initially owned by London-based miner Rio Tinto Group, the one-time parent of RioZim Ltd., which in turn owns Riozim Energy. It was set aside as Zimbabwe's relations with the U.K., its former colonizer, deteriorated. After the project was revived in 2016, General Electric and a unit of Blackstone Group didn't pursue initial inquiries, according to Dengu, the company's chairman. Power Construction Corp. of China, the state-owned company known as PowerChina, has been contracted to build the first phase of the plant known as Sengwa, which includes a 700 megawatt generation unit, as well as a pipeline from Kariba Dam to bring the water needed and power lines at a total cost of $1.2 billion. Funding is likely to come from Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, while China Export and Credit Insurance Corp., or Sinosure, may provide the country risk cover needed, according to Dengu. Both are owned by the Chinese government. Repeated calls to ICBC and Sinosure went unanswered. PowerChina said that its overseas coal-related projects will adopt the most efficient technologies to reduce pollution emissions, and will abide by local environmental regulations and standards while aiming to provide stable and cheap electricity supply for host countries. Last month a deal was signed for the rest of the project, which will add a further 2,100 megawatts at a cost of $3 billion. China Gezhouba Group, which is partly state-owned, will develop the project and lead fund raising, Dengu said. The company didn't respond to calls and an email request for comment. "The Chinese are looking at the business opportunity," said Dengu. "We bring the market knowledge and management capacity, they bring the finance and the technology." Rio Energy had few other options. European banks no longer fund coal projects and over the last year the biggest banks in South Africa have committed to reducing their coal funding under pressure from shareholders. Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc. are also among those to curb or halt project financing for coal-related projects. While the Zimbabwean project is sizable among those being considered by Chinese companies, it is not the biggest. PowerChina has signed a memorandum of agreement with South Africa's Limpopo provincial government to build a power plant of at least 3,000 megawatts at a cost of $4.5 billion. Not all are welcomed by local communities. Sengwa would draw water from Kariba, a reservoir already so depleted by recurrent droughts attributed to climate change that its hydropower turbines operate at a fraction of their capacity. The South African government is facing a lawsuit because coal-fired power plants there cause some of the world's worst air pollution. "It's a fading industry," said Han Chen, who manages the international energy policy program at the New York-based National Resources Defense Council. "So they are going places where the environmental standards are low so they can use more polluting equipment that is cheaper to operate." Of 11 coal projects in Africa she tracks that are likely to get foreign support, 10 involve Chinese state-owned entities. As banks in other countries including Japan and South Korea snub coal, those projects will increasingly rely on China. "Chinese banks will find themselves increasingly alone in funding new coal plants, both at home and around the world," said Christine Shearer, director of the coal program at Global Energy Monitor. New Delhi, May 10 : After the tragic train accident in Aurangabad where 16 labourers were crushed to death while they were sleeping on the railway tracks and scores of migrants walking to their native places, the Congress has alleged that the railways has proved to be inept in handling the crisis and demanded multi-nodal agency to tackle it. Amid political slugfest between the BJP and the Opposition on the issue of migrant workers, the Congress has ceased the opportunity to attack the government. AICC Treasurer and close Sonia Gandhi aide Ahmed Patel demanded, "I request the government to constitute a multi-nodal agency under a senior Cabinet Minister to oversee relief and rescue of migrants." "If need be even support of Armed Forces must be sought to solve this humanitarian crisis. Clearly the Railway Ministry is unable to handle the problem," he added. After Congress President Sonia Gandhi announced that the party will bear the cost of the tickets of the migrants, the politics between the BJP and the Congress has heated up with BJP alleging that the Congress is misleading the country. The Congress state units have also geared up for the relief of the migrants. On Sunday, scores of people were sent to Bihar from Jharkhand. Congress state in-charge R.P.N. Singh said, "Transportation organised for stranded workers in Bokaro to return to their homes in Bihar and Kushinagar, at no cost to them. They're on their way, wish them a safe and comfortable journey home." The politics on migrants took centrestage after the Congress raised the issue and started paying the cost of the tickets with party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asking for the list from the UP government. The politics on migrants also heated up after Union Home Minister Amit Shah wrote to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, alleging that while the Centre plans to help more than two lakh migrants to return home, it is the West Bengal government that is "not supporting their cause and is not allowing trains carrying migrants to reach the state". "This is injustice to the migrant workers. This will create further hardships to them," the letter of Shah had said. Shah's accusation got a blunt reply from Trinamool Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee, who said, "A Home Minister failing to discharge his duties during this crisis speaks after weeks of silence, only to mislead people with a bundle of lies. Ironically, he is talking about the very people who have been literally left to their fate by his own government. Mr Amit Shah, prove your fake allegations or apologise." Congress also tried to fish in the troubled waters when Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said, "Glad, finally Home Minister has decided to break his silence on the issue of migrants after 40+ days and after more than 55 labourers have died. First, he should write similar letter to Gujarat and Karnataka (BJP Govts) who are stopping labourers. Secondly, Bengal Govt must help migrants getting home." At a time when the coronavirus pandemic has blown a giant hole in the state budget, conservative legislators see an opportunity to push through restrictions in government spending that have failed in the past. Four measures approved Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee would try to restrain state spending which would inevitably mean less money for teacher pay, police protection, health care for the poor and housing state inmates. This brings us back in line with responsible budgeting, state Rep. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, said of his measure, which would limit the Legislature to spending 98% of the available money recognized by a state panel known as the Revenue Estimating Conference. The REC holds an all-important meeting Monday to determine how much money the state is expecting to collect this year, with the economic collapse causing tax revenues to plummet. Jay Dardenne, a former Republican lawmaker, is the architect of Gov. John Bel Edwards budgets as the commissioner of administration and is the governors representative on the four-member REC. In an interview Friday, Dardenne said now is not a good time to impose limits on spending. Theres a lot of uncertainty going forward and how quick this pandemic is going to resolve itself, he said. Jan Moller, director of the Louisiana Budget Project, was more blunt in his comments about Edmonds proposal. Its a gimmick thats a bad idea in the best of times and an even worse idea in the worst of times, Moller said. Going back decades, lawmakers and governors in Louisiana have adopted numerous measures that aim to limit spending. Perhaps the most important one created was the REC, by then-Gov. Edwin Edwards during his third term in the late 1980s. Before its introduction, governors, including Edwards, would simply boost the estimated price of oil in the upcoming year or accelerate the projected growth of the economy. That would give them more money to spend. The REC has stopped those practices by effectively imposing a cap on how much lawmakers can appropriate. Now, the amount is based on how much revenue the REC determines will be available based on calculations by the chief economists for the Legislature and the governors office. The REC has not been fail-safe. During Gov. Bobby Jindals second term, then-House Speaker Chuck Kleckley, R-Lake Charles, then-Senate President John Alario, R-Westwego, and Jindals commissioner of administration, repeatedly over-estimated how much money the government would collect. The optimistic projections helped offset Jindals refusal to raise taxes to pay for all the services demanded by the public. Louisiana state Senate committee sides with oil companies in fight over coastal parish lawsuits Oil and gas companies won the first round Thursday night in a legislative effort to kill lawsuits filed against them by parish governments ove By mid-year, when it became clear that spending was exceeding revenue, Jindal had to impose unpopular budget cuts. Near the end of Jindals tenure, a group of legislators known as the fiscal hawks pushed through restrictions on how governors could use one-time money dollars that were available for only one year to pay for annual expenses and paper over a looming budget deficit. Jindals profligate use of one-time money contributed to the $2 billion budget deficit that he bequeathed to John Bel Edwards. In the 1990s, the Legislature and state voters also imposed a constitutional cap on how much the Legislature could appropriate each year based on the growth in state personal income. State Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, won the Appropriations Committees approval Tuesday of three measures that would lower the expenditure limit. It was the first step in winning overall legislative approval. An analysis by Greg Albrecht, the Legislatures chief economist, shows that the Legislature actually appropriated $537 million less than the expenditure limit last year when it approved a budget that contained $13.3 billion in state government revenue. Vaccine news in your inbox Once a week we'll update you on the progress of COVID-19 vaccinations. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up One of Beaullieus bills, House Concurrent Resolution 8, would lower the expenditure limit for the fiscal year that begins in mid-2021 by $1.05 billion, or 7%. Another measure by Beaullieu, House Bill 464, would ask voters in November whether they want to recalculate how the expenditure limit in the Constitution is determined, in ways that would likely constrain spending. Id like to make sure we are constantly reminding ourselves to live within our means, said Beaullieu, who also believes that taxes are too high. Under the recalculated formula, the new expenditure limit would be based on population growth, the regional rise in the consumer price index, the national GDP and the increase in state personal income. Jim Richardson, an LSU economist who served on the REC until last year, said Louisianas flat population alone would restrict the growth in the expenditure limit. The Legislature could bust it with a difficult-to-get two-thirds vote. The Pelican Institute for Public Policy, a New Orleans-based group that favors lower taxes and less spending, helped Beaullieu develop his proposals. Weve been writing about these kinds of budgetary structural reforms for a while, said Daniel Erspamer, the groups CEO. Edmonds proposed his 98% spending limit last year. It passed the House but died after Alario diverted the bill to an unfriendly Senate committee. Alario has now been term-limited out of the Senate, and his successor, state Sen. Page Cortez, R-Lafayette, is more conservative. If adopted this year, Edmonds House Bill 118 would force the state to spend at least $206 million less in 2022 than it planned to spend in 2021. +2 How's Joe Burrow riding out coronavirus? Living with his parents, sleeping in his Star Wars bedroom Joe Burrow is a newly made millionaire, but that doesn't mean his life has changed too drastically since being drafted first overall in the 20 This is not just a response to COVID, Edmonds said. This is a philosophical approach with how we start a budget. He noted that the Legislature can vote to spend all of the money available, not just 98% of it, with at least 53 votes in the 105-member House and 20 in the 39-member Senate. Your hands are not tied, said state Rep. Tony Bacala, R-Prairieville, a supporter of HB118. Dardenne noted that without this type of control, Edwards and the Legislature not only eliminated the Jindal-era deficits principally by increasing the state sales tax and also by cutting government spending but also produced budget surpluses during the past two years. The latest surplus will lessen the size of the upcoming cuts caused by the pandemic. Dardenne and Moller also said that legislators could simply choose to spend less than all of the available money without a law that requires them to do so. But doing that would mean voting to cut programs popular with their constituents. Moller sees the Edmonds legislation as a cop-out that will allow lawmakers to say that the law ties their hands. If the Legislature wants to limit spending below the forecast, they should explain what they want to cut and come up with 53 votes to do that, Moller said, referring to the number of votes needed to pass the budget in the House. : The first flight carrying people of Andhra Pradesh would land in Hyderabad from the USA on Monday as more than 20,000 people were expected to be repatriated from various foreign countries in the next few days, as the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions have been eased. All those landing in Hyderabad would be brought to Vijayawada by buses and quarantined after preliminary screening at the airport, Principal Secretary (Transport) M T Krishna Babu said. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Sunday reviewed the arrangements being made for the returnees. According to Krishna Babu, reception teams from Andhra Pradesh would be positioned in airports at Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai where the state citizens would arrive from various foreign countries. A proper medical check-up will be conducted on these people and if someone is found with symptoms of coronavirus, they will be moved to the nearest COVID-19 Care Centre. Others will be brought to the state by buses, he said. The state government was providing two options - free or paid quarantine - depending on the passengers choice. If the returnees opt for paid quarantine, we have categorised three facilities by tying up with various hotels. There will be luxury, medium and budget categories with prices starting from Rs 1,500," the Principal Secretary said. On inter-state transfers, he said 11 trains have been arranged so far and 11,860 migrant workers have been sent back to their respective states. "Rajasthan and West Bengal governments have not yet given permission to send the migrant workers back to those states. As such we could not run the special Sharmik trains, he said. Jharkhand was permitting only one train per week and the second train would leave on May 12. The state government was footing the complete expenditure of the migrant workers upto the last mile and also providing Rs 500 to each person for out-of-pocket expenses, Krishna Babu added. From other states, 12,273 people had returned. We are giving top priority to migrant workers in distress, pilgrims, tourists and students in groups stuck in other states. Another 30,000 people were still stuck in other states waiting to return, the Principal Secretary said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty As international pressure mounts for an investigation into the origins of the deadly coronavirus, officials in the State Department say they are increasingly wary about Secretary Mike Pompeo continuing to push a theory that scientists and foreign intelligence officials have already shot down, claiming it could have disastrous diplomatic consequences. President Donald Trump and Pompeo have for weeks publicly pushed the story that the coronavirus originated in and escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China, where scientists were conducting experiments. In a press conference last week, Pompeo said there was enormous evidence that the virus originated in the lab. China has denied the claims. And foreign intelligence officials and even members of the White Houses own coronavirus task force have pushed back against that claim, saying the virus most likely originated in the wild and was naturally transmitted from animal to human, possibly in a public market. Those contradictions have senior officials at the State Department, six of whom spoke to The Daily Beast, on edge, worrying that the secretary, in particular, is moving too quickly to publicly conclude what intelligence officials around the world are either still trying to understand or have said is inaccurate. The public declarations by Pompeo have already begun to disrupt diplomatic relationships between the State Department and its allies, multiple officials said. One official told The Daily Beast that their counterparts in Europe and Australia have over the past week voiced frustration at Pompeo, saying his statements not only contradict parts of their intelligence assessments but that they would make it difficult for the countries to get China to allow an independent investigation. Another official said Europes skittishness was a result of needing medical equipment from China. I think most Western countries are getting to where the U.S. wants them to be, one State Department official said, referring to the call for China to allow for an investigation. But the more Pompeo and Trump talk like this, the higher the chances of an Iraq intel repeat happening which will just undermine us in the end. Story continues The growing tensions inside the State Department highlight the extent to which officials fear the repercussions of Pompeos very public statements. On national television and in press conferences at the department, he has repeatedly suggested that the virus originated in the Wuhan lab, but he has yet to produce evidence backing up that assertion. Theres a real concern that as a department weve gone way out on a limb, one senior State Department official said. At the end of the day details matter. We dont want to get into another situation where were coming out claiming all these things and then we have to back track later. Secretary Pompeos statements have been wholly consistent with those of other senior officials, a State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast. The world does not have certainty regarding the origin of the virus, simply because the CCP has not shared information in the manner it is required to, according to international rules to which they agreed. If the secretary has been outspokenand he hasit has been to call for the CCP to be transparent and to share data so that the world can learn with certainty how this calamity befell the world and how we can all avoid a pandemic like this in the future. Pompeo isnt alone in his public comments on China. On May 1, Trump told reporters he had a high degree of confidence that the virus originated in a lab accident in China. But his own intelligence community said in a public statement last week that even though the virus originated in China, it would 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. Pompeos Virus Response Blasted by State Dept Officials That assessment preceded the leak of a 15-page dossier put together through an intelligence-sharing partnership between the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K. known as Five Eyes. That dossier concluded that China covered up vital information on the virus that cost tens of thousands of lives, according to the Daily Telegraph, but it didnt conclude that the lab was responsible for the outbreak. It also said the Australian government believed there was a 5 percent chance that the virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and that it more likely originated in a wet market. Members of the Trump coronavirus task force have also questioned Pompeo and Trumps claims. 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, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during an interview with National Geographic last week. Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species. He went on to call the argument over the virus origins a circular argument. I dont get what theyre talking about if it isnt manipulated in the lab and youre trying to say it escaped from the lab then how did it get in the lab? It got in the lab because somebody isolated it from the environment, Fauci said. No one seemed to better summarize the confusion than General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, when he told reporters last we that the U.S. simply didnt know whether the outbreak began in the lab or in a market. The weight of the evidence is that it was natural and not man-made. Its not just the conflicting intelligence and scientific studies that concern State Department officials. They, too, are agitated that all conversation about China and the virus has moved underground. Diplomats are increasingly being told to rely solely on Pompeos statements when speaking with counterparts about the administrations position on the origins of the virus. Since the beginning of the outbreak the State Department has worked to bring Americans stuck abroad home and to help facilitate the delivery of medical supplies to countries grappling with an increasing number of infections and virus-related deaths. But Trump and senior officials in the White House have predominantly relied on Pompeo and his State Department to lead the way in publicly chastising China for the virus outbreak and for failing to quickly inform the rest of the world about the deadly virus. Democrats Fear Trumps New 2020 Strategy Is Working Over the last two months as the coronavirus wreaked havoc on the U.S., killing tens of thousands of people, the State Department ramped up a messaging campaign, condemning China and highlighting the extent to which the U.S. was providing humanitarian aid to countries seeking assistance during the outbreak. According to cables obtained by and previously reported on by The Daily Beast, the department sent talking points to embassies, telling them to emphasize Beijing orchestrating a cover-up and creating a global pandemic. The [Chinese Communist Party] is waging a propaganda campaign to desperately try to shift responsibility for the global pandemic to the United States. This effort is futile, one of the talking points in the cable reads. Thanks to the cover-up, Chinese and international experts missed a critical window to contain the outbreak within China and stop its global spread. Saving lives is more important than saving face. Those messaging cables have slowed significantly, with few updates from the embassy in China, officials said, leaving diplomats in the dark about what exactly the departments guidance is on China. Pompeo keeps making claims that we have no other talking points to support and so the talking points are as the Secretary said, one State official told The Daily Beast. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. TDT | Manama More than 420 violations related to municipal affairs have been detected in the Kingdom using the Mobile Monitoring System launched earlier this year. The violations, according to a top Municipal affairs official, were recorded in less than three months. The system which keeps a comprehensive database of the offences was inaugurated by Sheikh Khalid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Ministerial Committee for Development and Infrastructure Projects on 19 January 2020. Until end April, the number of violations detected through the system reached 422, said Sheikh Mohammed bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, the Ministrys Undersecretary for Municipal Affairs at the Ministry of Works, Municipal Affairs and Urban Planning. Since its inception, all the municipalities and the secretariates have been instructed to work in this system, said Sheikh Mohammed adding that all of them are now employing this system in violation monitoring. The mobile VCS system designed and programmed by the Systems Department in the Information Ministrys provides an integrated database on violations through its portal. Violations detected include road works done without a license, occupancy of streets, squares, illegal placement of vehicles with for rent or sale tags on streets, squares, public squares and lands space, dumping or leaving waste in undesignated places, buildings etc. Several violations related to public cleanliness have also been detected. The system, the Undersecretary said, improve violation monitoring as it allows quick access to the database to determine the nature of the violations. The new system provides a qualitative shift in dealing with violations, as an inspector involved can retrieve all the required information easily at any time, he added. 10.05.2020 LISTEN Kumawood princess, Clara Amoateng Benson, known in showbiz as Maame Serwaa has made a grand appearance at her Senior Colleague Actor Late Bishop Bernard Nyarkos One Week Celebration. Exactly a week ago, Ghanas favorite actor who mostly plays the role of a pastor passed away following his short illness alleged to be colon cancer. The news came as a surprise to the whole country and it saddens the heart of his colleague actors and actress, many drop their sad videos crying and others their heartfelt messages wishing the Actor Well. Well, it turns out today, 7th May happens to the be the One Celebration to our their Colleague actor. All Loved Celebrities have made their appearance including Nana Ama Mcbrown, Christiana Awuni, and many more. Yet, I chanced on a video of Young Legend and Actress Maame Serwaa, covered with a scarf and waiting for her turn to visit the Family. Watch Video below; Seven types of juice produced in Tasmania and sold throughout Australia are being recalled due to microbial contamination. Juicy Isle is conducting a recall of seven of their Pure Tassie apple juices, which have been available at Coles, Woolworths, IGA and independent stores in NSW, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmnaia, South Australia and Western Australia. Fearing the juice could cause illness if consumed, customers who have purchased one of the seven varieties may receive a refund when returning the product to the place of purchase. Seven Pure Tassie juices are being recalled due to contamination fears. Source: Food Standards Australia and New Zealand The varieties of Tassie Juice being recalled: Apple and Blackcurrant 1.5L, All best before dates up to and including 18/11/20 Apple 1.5L, All best before dates up to and including 26/1/21 Apple and Ginger 1.5L, best before 5/12/20 Apple and Raspberry 1.5L, all dates up to and including 7/10/20 Apple 350ml, all best before dates up to and including 17/11/20 Apple and Blackcurrant 350ml, best before 9/7/20 Apple and Raspberry 350ml, all best before dates up to and including 2/11/20 Food Standards Australia and New Zealand advises consumers to seek medical advice if they are concerned for their health. Juicy Isle previously voluntarily recalled Pure Tassie Apple and Blackcurrant in the 1.5L variety in April. A test had indicated elevated levels of patulin, a mycotoxin common in apple juice and related products, Juicy Isle said in a statement on their Facebook page. The decision to pull the other products from shelves was to ensure customer safety and confidence, with Juicy Isle saying it was a precautionary measure. There is no formal Food Safety Standard or prescribed testing regime for patulin levels in Australia, the post continues. However, there is international practice. Juice with elevated levels of patulin can pose a health risk through repeated consumption. Juicy Isle said the recall was precautionary, their products were sold at multiple supermarkets across Australia. Source: Getty Images Patulin, or mycotoxin, is common fungus found mainly in rotting apples, according to a paper published on Science Direct. We will vastly expand our investigation and testing regime to provide certainty to our customers that Pure Tassie juice does not have elevated levels of patulin, Paul Mealor, Juicy Isle CEO said in a statement. Story continues This news has hit us hard. We see our customers as family, and we will ensure they can drink our organic juice safely and confidently. Mr Mealor added the recall was an opportunity for Juicy Isle to work harder and return with a safer product, promising Pure Tassie organic juice varieties will be the purest and safest available in Australia. The world is going through many never look back moments, and this is another one for us, Mr Mealor said. We have already adopted new and rigorous testing of all apple juice production beyond current Australian industry standards. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play. Around the world, countries are wrestling with how to ease curbs on business and public activity without causing the virus to come surging back. China reported its first double-digit rise in new cases in 10 days on Sunday, saying 14 had been detected, 12 of them domestic infections and two from abroad. Elsewhere, Belarus, which has not locked down despite increasing case numbers, saw tens of thousands of people turn out to mark Victory Day, the anniversary of Nazi Germany's defeat in 1945. That was in contrast to Russia, which skipped the usual grand military parade in Red Square. Worldwide, at least 4 million people have been confirmed infected by the virus, and more than 275,000 have died, including over 78,000 in the US, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. Spain, France, Italy and Britain have reported about 26,000 to 32,000 deaths each. Germany and South Korea have both carried out extensive testing and contact tracing and have been hailed for avoiding the mass deaths that have overwhelmed other countries. But even there, authorities have struggled to find the balance between saving lives and salvaging jobs. Health officials in Germany faced outbreaks at three slaughterhouses in what was seen as a test of the government's strategy for dealing with any resurgence of the virus during the easing of the restrictions. At one slaughterhouse, in Coesfeld, 180 workers tested positive. Italy saw people return to the streets for their traditional aperitivos and revel in fine weather as restrictions there were eased, alarming some public officials. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala warned that "a handful of crazy people" were putting the city's recovery at risk and threatened to shut down the trendy Navigli district after crowds of young people were seen out at aperitivo hour ignoring social-distancing rules. In Rome, the Campo dei Fiori flower and vegetable market was bustling on Saturday morning, the first weekend Italians were allowed outside for more than just work and necessities. But confusion about what is now allowed and what is not created frustration for business owners. Carlo Alberto, owner of the TabaCafe, an Argentine empanada bar that was selling cocktails to a few customers, said that since reopening this week he had been threatened with a fine by the police because of the crowds in front of his bar. "Am I supposed to send them home? They need a guard here to do that," he said. "The laws aren't clear, the decree isn't clear. You don't know what you can do." In New York, the deadliest hot spot in the US, Governor Andrew Cuomo said three children died from a possible complication of the coronavirus involving swollen blood vessels and heart problems. At least 73 children in the state have been diagnosed with symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease - a rare inflammatory condition - and toxic shock syndrome. But there is no proof the mysterious syndrome is caused by the virus. A Cuomo spokesman said Saturday that the governor was extending stay-at-home restrictions to June 7, but another top aide later clarified that that was not so; the May 15 expiration date for the restrictions remains in place "until further notice," Melissa DeRosa said in an evening statement. Businesses in the US continue to struggle as more employers are realising their laid-off employees might not return to work anytime soon. US health officials are watching for a second wave of infections, roughly two weeks after states began gradually reopening with Georgia largely leading the way. Some malls have opened up in Georgia and Texas, while Nevada restaurants, hair salons and other businesses were able to have limited reopenings on Saturday or once again allow customers inside their establishments after nearly two months of restrictions. Meanwhile some national parks have started testing out public access. The head of the US Food and Drug Administration, Stephen Hahn, put himself in quarantine after coming into contact with an infected person. And the government said it is delivering supplies of remdesivr, the first drug shown to speed the recovery of COVID-19 patients, to six more states. Seven states were sent cases of the medicine earlier in the week. Elsewhere, Pakistan allowed shops, factories, construction sites and other businesses to reopen on Saturday, while more than 1600 new cases and 24 deaths were reported. Prime Minister Imran Khan said the government was rolling back curbs because it couldn't support millions of families that depended on daily wages. The government warned that controls would be reimposed if the public failed to follow social-distancing guidelines. In Spain, health authorities will allow certain regions to scale back their lockdowns starting Monday, with limited seating at bars, restaurants and other public places. But Madrid and Barcelona, the country's largest cities, both badly hit by the scourge, will remain shut down. "The pandemic is evolving favourably, but there is a risk of another outbreak that could generate a serious catastrophe," Spanish health official Fernando Simon said. "Personal responsibility is vital." This year's observance of Victory Day in Russia had been expected to be especially large because it is the 75th anniversary. Instead, Vladimir Putin laid flowers at the tomb of the unknown soldier, and a show of military might was limited to a flyover of 75 warplanes and helicopters. Belarus, though, held a military parade in front of big crowds in the capital, Minsk, despite sharply rising coronavirus infections. Belarus has not imposed restrictions to halt the virus' spread, and authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has dismissed concerns about it as a "psychosis." HAIKOU/SHANGHAI, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the University of Edinburgh on Friday signed a cooperation framework agreement online on the establishment of a "One-Health" research center. Representatives from the two universities pledged to jointly develop the One-Health disciplinary system, with focuses on developing a disciplinary system concerning major healthcare governance of humans, animals and the environment. The concept of One Health considers the health of humans, animals and the environment as a whole, stressing multi-disciplinary and global cooperation, according to Chen Guoqiang, vice president of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and dean of its School of Medicine. The center is committed to serving as an inter-disciplinary and cross-regional research platform, setting up practice and training bases in Shanghai and south China's Hainan Province, cultivating talent and strengthening international exchanges and cooperation, Chen said. The two universities and the research center also signed an MOU with the management bureau of the Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone in Hainan's Bo'ao, leveraging the pilot zone's favorable policies and resources to promote a trial run of the One-Health system in Hainan. Washington: Former US president Barack Obama harshly criticised President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic as an "absolute chaotic disaster" during a conversation with ex-members of his administration, according to a recording obtained by Yahoo News. Obama also reacted to the Justice Department dropping its criminal case against Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, saying he worried that the "basic understanding of rule of law is at risk." More than 78,400 people with COVID-19 have died in the United States and more than 1.3 million people have tested positive, according to the latest estimates from the Centre for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Obama's comments came during a Friday call with 3000 members of the Obama Alumni Association, people who served in his administration. Obama urged his supporters to back his former vice-president, Joe Biden, who is trying to unseat Trump in the November 3 election. Midland and Kitab Khana have never run on glitz, but the commitment of their readers. However, in a world where intimacy itself is a risk, Indias vintage bookshops must adapt, as they are, to find ways to remain relevant and alive. Nobody saw this coming. The world has irrevocably changed, its ritualistic familiarity shaken so violently it may never regain an older, recognisable form. The coronavirus epidemic has dealt each facet of our life a hand that will require time, patience and perhaps loss, to understand the full implications of. From travel to the food industry, businesses around the world are facing up to an unprecedented crisis. None more so, than bookshops. Faced with uncertain futures even in the pre-corona world, the epidemic has levelled squarely in the face of Indias bookshops the servile reality of the publics priorities. As bookshops brace for a post-covid world and a certain dip in footfall, they are looking to adapt to ensure survival. While bookshops were allowed to open in India during the lockdown it was based on the satirical caveat that it was unlikely they would be crowded. We opened a week ago. We wanted to open because our readers needed books. Because children are at home this summer due to this unprecedented lockdown the demand for the childrens books has been the highest, Touseef, speaking on behalf of South Delhis beloved Midland Book store, says. Tucked away in a slight, yet well-stacked shop in Aurobindo Market, Midland has been a vital part of the areas heritage. Founded by Octogenarian Mirza Yaseen Baig, Midland runs three other outlets in the capital and is now being led by the third generation of the Baig family. This has also been, and will continue to be a psychological crisis. People need to read to occupy themselves but the infrastructure to do so simply doesnt exist, Touseef says. Asked about the financial exigencies, he confirms that none of their staff has been offloaded, but the future does seem precarious. Over in Mumbai, the citys beloved Kitab Khana near Fort hasnt been able to open. The problem is transport. Even if we wanted to, our staff lives all around the city. They cannot travel without the trains running. Mumbai cant work without a public transport system, Mr Jagat, CEO of the store, says. Every bookshop, Mr Jagat says, has its identity, where even their function requires contextualisation to understand survival. Kitab Khana, for example, is as much a tourist attraction as it is a place for books. The majority of our customers come to us over the weekend. A lot of this fraction is tourists, stepping out to look at the city. They want to experience this place as much as they want to buy from here, Jagat says. Given Mumbais susceptibility to torrential rains, Jagat explains that irrespective of the epidemic business has always dipped in the months between May and August, as people become reluctant to step out. No member of the staff, he confirms, has been furloughed. Touseef points to an interesting predicament. People are home. It should have been ideal for booksellers. They would need to read, and therefore, require books. But there was no way to get these books to them. Its a unique situation. We got so many calls every day, but couldnt service any, he says. Both these bookstores are currently in red zone areas. Before they were allowed to open Midland had already approached Delhis deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia for a possible way out. Kitab Khana, on the other hand, is in talks with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to find a temporary solution. There will, however, be no way to go back to normal. We disinfect the store before we open and before we close every day, Touseef confirms. Over in Mumbai, Jagat says it will be a massive operation, re-opening, but he is positive that eventually people will flock in. Over the past week, publishing house Penguin India has been keeping a rolling list of bookstores across Indian metros that have opened for business or are home-delivering books. From the DC and Matrubhumi bookshops in Trivandrum to Bookworm, Goobes, Blossoms, Book Hive and Higginbothams in Bengaluru, STORY in Kolkata to Universal Book Company in Varanasi, the increasing number of bookstores and locations being added to the Penguin list every day is heartening, and not just for bibliophiles. (You can keep track of Penguin Indias list here.) Vintage bookshops like Midland and Kitab Khana may survive for the simple reason that they are emotional as much as financial investments. Adapting though, has become norm. Touseef has just signed his first documents with home delivery service Dunzo, to start delivering within South Delhi. Kitab Khana has turned to social media, holding literary sessions with authors and readers to re-engage a community they count on for their loyalty. We need to remain in touch with our customers, people who are loyal visitors and buyers. That is what we are about anyway. Personality. We care for them, Jagat says. Considering that Flipkart and Amazon already deliver books, it seems a fair point that places like Midland and Kitab Khana feel unique because they demand something of their visitors as well. Its the distinctiveness of these bookstores that might help them survive in the long run. Compared to them, bigger, flashy chains look like they might struggle to stay afloat. Midland and Kitab Khana have never run on glitz, but the commitment of their readers. However, in a world where intimacy itself is a risk, Indias vintage bookshops must adapt, as they are, to find ways to remain relevant and alive. It may sound cliched but bookstores may have to count on the one emotion that both its sellers and readers share, more than ever a passion for books. At the age of 24, Francy Sandoval has unwittingly become the sole breadwinner for her family, after her mom, dad and brother a nanny, a painter and a server all lost their jobs in the coronavirus pandemic. Her family needs the money, so the aspiring nurse feels she has no choice but to keep her high-risk job at the front desk of a suburban Chicago community health clinic treating many COVID-19 patients. But her home hardly feels like a haven either. Working during this time is not as stressful as coming home, she said. You were surrounded with patients who could have been or are positive and you might get your parents sick by just opening the door. Sandoval, an immigrant from Colombia, is among tens of millions of Americans living in multigenerational homes where one of the main strategies for avoiding infection following social distancing protocols can be near impossible. The problem reverberates deepest in communities of color, where families from different generations live together at much higher rates, in some cases nearly double that of white families. Joint living also often intersects with factors like poverty, health issues and jobs that can't be done from home, offering another glimpse of what fuels the troubling racial disparities of COVID-19. When you have generations in a household, some of them have to work, especially if they are in the service jobs or the retail or the grocery. They have to come in and out of that household, said the Rev Willie Briscoe, who leads a black church on Milwaukee's north side, where the pandemic has hit hard. You cannot safely quarantine. Families live together for many reasons saving money, pooling resources, child care, elderly care or just culture. It's a practice that's been on the rise since the 1980s, particularly after the recession, experts say. In the US, roughly 64 million people live in multigenerational family households, or 1 in 5 households, according to Richard Fry, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center. But it's far more common among people of color: 29 per cent of those households are Asian, 27 cent are Hispanic, 26 per cent are African American and 16 per cent are white. Fry said two major factors accounting for multigenerational living are location, with higher rates in densely populated urban centers where the cost of living is high, and culture, especially for immigrants in the US Living with family into adulthood, common in many parts of the world, was blamed for contributing to the spread of the coronavirus in Spain and Italy. For families of colour in the US, there's also more chance that household members can't work from home as federal guidelines suggest. Fewer than 20 per cent of black workers can telework, according to a March study by the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute. Anthony Travis, a 65-year-old retired black man who's diabetic, has high blood pressure and is a cancer survivor, shares a home with his adult daughter and his elderly sister. The daughter works as a technician for a cable and internet company a job deemed essential during the pandemic. For them, living together in suburban Chicago was a matter of taking care of one another. Then Travis got diagnosed with COVID-19. For weeks, he suffered alone in his room, with sweats and chills, struggling to breathe. He would think twice about venturing to the microwave, where his sister, who has a heart condition, would leave his food. The worst part was when his daughter got pneumonia: He could hear her through the walls. I have to, as a parent, sit up and listen to my child go through pain and agony and suffering because of not being able to breathe, he said. I couldn't give her comfort, other than with my words. Dr Garth Walker, an emergency room physician at a Chicago veterans' hospital, said he has trouble counselling families living in cramped quarters about what they should do. His best advice is to choose one person to grocery shop and consider sending the most at-risk person to live elsewhere if possible. They just have a difficulty adapting to a pandemic because they can't adhere to the recommendations that we suggest to everybody, like physical distancing, because it is a privilege, he said of multigenerational families. That's echoed by Dr Lisa Green, who runs the Family Christian Health Center south of Chicago, a low-income clinic where most of the nearly 20,000 patients each year are black or Latino and multigenerational living is common. Those options that we are telling everyone else over the phone to do are not options for them, Green said. When you have a fixed income, your options are fixed. Sandoval follows strict procedures at home, removing her work clothes immediately and wiping every surface she touches before retreating alone to the attic. That's where she spends her time, including her most recent birthday. She hopes to start nursing school online soon and dreams of stress-free family time again. My mom said, 'I can't wait until you are able to come home, and I can hug you,' Sandoval said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) We may be witnessing a slow erosion of the democratic republic and the emergence of the police State, warns Sunanda K Datta-Ray. IMAGE: Security personnel threaten a commuter in Jammu. Photograph: PTI Photo We live in perilous times. Not only because of the dreadful disease that threatens to overwhelm the world, but also because of the no-less-dreadful things done in its name to save us from coronavirus. As a result, we may be witnessing a slow erosion of the democratic republic and the emergence of the police State that has never been far from the surface in a land that lovingly retains the institutions and instruments of colonial control. Much depends on how 'lockdown"=' is interpreted. Is it advisory or mandatory? Does it mean total 24-hour curfew with strict orders never to set foot outside the house? Who can go out and with what authorisation? None of this has been made sufficiently clear to the general public. The prime minister's rallying sermons give the impression of urging people for their own good not to congregate with others, and to respect social distancing norms. That sounds reasonable. In practice, the police and petty bureaucracy seem determined to impose a far more rigorous regimen on bewildered and suffering people. Take the 27 Odisha and Andhra Pradesh workers who braved the Bay of Bengal in an old tub, sailing from Chennai to land near Ichhapuram. They had to make their arrangements in secret and avoid Navy and Coast Guard vigilance. Why? Fishing has been banned, but surely the high seas are as free for travel as the highways? There can be no objection to the men being taken into custody when they landed if it was only to test them for coronavirus. But arrest would be illegal unless the law has surreptitiously been changed to outlaw freedom of movement. The arrest of 20 people, some accompanied by their dogs, during their evening constitutional in Mumbai's upmarket Bandra and Pali Hill area seems even more incomprehensible. The walkers were later released on bail, but the arrest itself was an outrage. In Kolkata, I hear constantly of harmless lower class citizens being bullied and intimidated in the name of the pandemic. Three road sweepers going to report for duty were roughly ordered to turn back instead to whence they came. Another time, the private chauffeur of an elderly couple who had been to the pharmacy for his employer on foot but alone was ordered to appear in court. The man showed the prescription for medicines he had bought to no avail. TV pictures are horrific -- men forced to do sit-ups holding their ears, press-ups, touch-toes, hop like kangaroos and roll in the dust like pilgrims, all to satisfy egotistic or sadistic policemen who take intimations as literally as the murderous knights who killed Thomas Becket in response to Henry II's 'Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?' Sadly, people have also responded with unaccountable violence. Discipline and obedience are essential in a crisis of this nature, which is undoubtedly why Narendra Damodardas Modi's measures are admired abroad. Donald Trump accuses the World Health Organisation of many sins of omission and commission, but he and the WHO have one thing in common: Both are full of praise for Modi. IMAGE: Policemen punish individuals who ventured out during the lockdown in Jabalpur. Photograph: PTI Photo Whether or not the hydroxychloroquine Modi agreed to export to the US after being threatened with "retaliation" actually helps to combat COVID-19, Trump thinks it was 'terrific' of him to lift the ban. Modi not only spared India the retaliation that crippled Iran, but also threw business in the way of three Gujarat-based companies that will ship the tablets. 'Thank you, Prime Minister for your strong leadership in helping not just India, but humanity, in this fight!' Trump gushed. 'Grateful to see that you're seeking to balance public health imperatives with the need to ensure adequate social protection for all Indians,' was Bill Gates's compliment, commending Modi's 'leadership and the proactive measures'. Gates, Trump and the WHO don't get to know of the little abuses in our back streets, the threats, violence, exploitation and palms greedily extended. Enlisting the army's help would be an antidote. So would a clear enunciation of lockdown dos and don'ts. We need full cooperation between the Centre and states. Also between the ruling and Opposition parties. And between Hindus and Muslims. Money has to be spent regardless of return. There should be far greater sympathy for the travails of migrant and daily wage labour. India faces a human problem of unparalleled magnitude. It cannot be solved without humanity. There's a danger otherwise that the lawless tyranny of 17th century Magh (Mog) pirates sweeping up the Hooghly that still haunts Bengal's collective memory as Moger muluk might become a national reality. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was admitted to Delhis All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Sunday evening after he reportedly complained of uneasiness. A hospital source said he was admitted in a ward at the cardio-neurosciences (CNS) tower at about 8.45 pm. He was brought late in the evening, and has been admitted. He is stable and currently under observation with specialists examining him, the hospital source said.. There was no official statement by AIIMS on Manmohan Singhs admission to the hospital. Singhs office later confirmed that he had been admitted but underlined that he was doing fine. He is okay. He was taken to the hospital as he had fever due to the side-effect of the medication given yesterday. He is under observation, the former PMs office said. Senior politicians from the Congress and other political parties wished the 87-year-old leader a speedy recovery. Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi also enquired about the health of the distinguished economist who joined the Congress and served as prime minister for two terms. With the Congress back in the opposition, he plays a lead role in advising his party on economic issues. Last month, he accepted a request from Congress-ruled Punjab to guide the states economy to recovery after the Covid-19 crisis is over. Among the other prominent politicians who expressed concern at the former PMs health was Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot. Much worried to know former PM Dr Manmohan Singh ji has been admitted to AIIMS. I wish him speedy recovery and pray for his good health and long life, Gehlot tweeted. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted he too was deeply concerned about Dr Singhs health. Hope he makes a full recovery soon. All of India is praying for our former PM, said Kejriwal. Monique Hernandez, a nurse at Riverside Community Hospital, attends a candlelight vigil for nurse Celia Marcos outside Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles on Wednesday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) The decision that Celia Marcos made, the one that would ultimately steal years from her life, had been hard-wired after decades working as a nurse. On the ward that she oversaw at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, a man with COVID-19 had stopped breathing. Marcos' face was covered only with a thin surgical mask, and obtaining a more protective N95 mask before entering his room would have wasted valuable time, her colleagues say. The 61-year-old charge nurse knew the chest compressions and other breathing treatments the patient needed would likely spew dangerous virus particles into the air that could land on her face and clothing. She would be at high risk of catching the coronavirus. Marcos raced into the room. Fourteen days later, she was dead. Marcos died in the same hospital where she had worked for more than 16 years, one of at least 36 healthcare workers in California who have succumbed to COVID-19. In one version of her story, she is a selfless caregiver who chose her patient's life over her own by rushing into his room without an N95. But staff at Hollywood Presbyterian say the reality is much bleaker. As charge nurse, Marcos was required to respond to patients who stopped breathing, but she wasn't provided an N95 mask at the beginning of her shift, her coworkers say. The masks are scarce, and staff who do get them are often asked to reuse them over multiple days, they said. "The hospital wasn't giving us appropriate PPE the N95s were locked," said one nurse, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity after expressing fear of retaliation from hospital administrators. "It's just too painful for everybody, what happened to her." Though all front-line workers are vulnerable to the coronavirus, Marcos' death illustrates the way that risk has been amplified by a national shortage of personal protective equipment. Such exposures have been cataloged at hospitals across California. Story continues "I was the one right in front of his face," Marcos wrote in a text to her niece reviewed by The Times. Concerned she had been infected, Marcos put hand sanitizer in her hair after leaving the patient's room, and showered as soon as she got home, she said in the message. Nurses attend a vigil for Celia Marcos outside Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center on Wednesday. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times) Hollywood Presbyterian officials denied that Marcos treated COVID patients without proper protective gear and said the hospital adheres to all local and federal recommendations. "Despite these efforts, and our commitment to following all guidelines, we still lost one of our own to this terrible virus, and we feel this loss very deeply," administrators said in a statement to The Times. The nurses union SEIU 121RN filed a complaint with the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration that called Marcos' death "the result of inadequate PPE provided to staff. The union also alleged in a separate complaint to the state health department that Marcos received substandard treatment once she became a patient at the hospital. Lying in her hospital bed, surrounded by colleagues who had become her caretakers, one of the last things Marcos said was: "I don't want to die." * Marcos began working at Hollywood Presbyterian in 2004, three years after immigrating to the U.S. with her family. Back home in the Philippines, she had trained to be a nurse, her longtime dream, according to her sons. At the Los Angeles hospital, she was known for her sweet nature and ability to heal rifts and remain cool-headed, no matter the situation. Filipino colleagues called her ate big sister in Tagalog. "She's the type of person who in an emergency you can really count on," said another colleague, who also asked for anonymity for fear of retaliation. "She's the calm that we can look to in order to get through." On the night of April 3, Marcos was asked to put those skills to use. A man admitted on her floor with COVID-19 had been complaining that he wanted to go home because he didn't feel sick. Two hours later, he stopped breathing, Marcos wrote in a text to her niece Andrea Gian Lardizabal, who works as a nurse in the Philippines. Marcos worked on a ward that took coronavirus patients when the COVID units were full. Because her floor wasn't primarily for COVID patients, N95s weren't regularly given to staff, and instead preserved for those treating COVID patients, staff say. Sydnie Boylan, another charge nurse, initially worked on Marcos' floor but worried about the lack of protective gear. She switched to the COVID unit "because thats where the PPE is," she said. "Even if we dont have enough, we have more than everybody else. With only a surgical mask, Marcos stayed in the patient's room for at least 30 minutes while he was resuscitated and eventually placed on a ventilator to help him breathe, before being moved to the ICU, her colleagues say. Marcos strapped an oxygen mask on the patient, who had "almost died," she told her niece in a text message. "Celia was called to a COVID-19 isolation room while wearing only a surgical mask not the required N95 respirator, gown, face shield, and booties that her hospital should have given her for her protection," said SEIU 121RN President Nina Wells said in a statement to the Times. "Now we know she gave her life to try to save a life." Hospital officials dispute that Marcos, or any staff members, were under-equipped. They did not say if Marcos wore an N95 mask that day, but said that nurses responding to code blues are provided with them. A hospital investigation determined Marcos did not have "unprotected exposure to COVID-19 at the hospital," they said. The discrepancy may be due to a recent change in CDC guidelines around the coronavirus. Early in the pandemic, the agency recommended that N95 masks were needed for treating all suspected COVID-19 patients, but amid a severe shortage of gear, switched to recommending the masks only for high-risk procedures. The rules have created a gray area that allows hospitals to instruct staff that in most cases, surgical masks are all that is needed to protect them from the coronavirus, nurses say. "Imagine you get inside the room just wearing those. Do you feel protected?" said one COVID-19 nurse at Hollywood Presbyterian, who added that she had been repeatedly told she didn't need an N95 for most patient visits. "I don't trust the CDC anymore." Hospital staff said they did not blame Hollywood Presbyterian, but viewed the facility as a victim of national shortages. At St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, supervisors did not provide N95s to some nurses treating COVID-19 patients last month and the nurses refused to enter the rooms. "I don't think my hospital is worse than anyone else's hospital," Boylan said. "I don't know who threw out the rule book when it comes to infection control." Marcos' experience on April 3 seemed to rattle her. In a text message to Lardizabal, Marcos described the patient's rapid deterioration and warned the younger woman to stay home and wash her hands. "No wonder a lot of covid patients get intubated and some die in just a few days," she wrote in a text. "Pls be extra careful." * Marcos began feeling sick three days after she treated the man with COVID. She told her niece that she was doing steam inhalation twice a day as a preventive measure. But on April 11, she told her oldest son, Donald Jay Marcos, that she had a headache and difficulty breathing. He urged her to see a doctor. Before the pandemic, Marcos and her two sons had planned a trip to the Philippines for last month. Marcos loved to travel to new places, but spent most of her savings visiting her family. Donald, 41, didnt hear from his mother again until April 15, when she answered his video call from her hospital bed. She told him she had developed pneumonia in both lungs. Her labored breathing made it difficult for her to talk, Donald recalled. Through their screens, the two watched each other cry. Marcos had no health conditions other than high blood pressure, which she controlled with medication. She was healthy, vibrant and lived with her partner, who is also a nurse, her son said. Celia Marcos with her grandson, Drujay. (Donald Jay Marcos) On April 17, Marcos' heart stopped repeatedly, requiring staff to resuscitate her multiple times. News of her rapid deterioration spread through the hospital. A colleague received a call that Marcos was crashing. "I said, 'Don't ever say that to me,'" and I was crying," said the nurse. "I was like, 'Don't ever say that to me.'" Some have suggested there were problems with Marcos' care and that some staff were scared to treat her for fear of catching the virus themselves. In a complaint filed last week with the state health department, representatives from SEIU 121RN said that nurses who took care of Marcos said a doctor refused to provide necessary care, including intubation to help her breathe, "prior to her ultimate demise from COVID19," according to documents reviewed by The Times. Hospital administrators said they could not comment due to patient privacy laws, but added that their "goal is to provide excellent care to all of our patients." The doctor could not be reached for comment. In the waning daylight Wednesday, staff filtered out of Hollywood Presbyterian in scrubs and masks to pay tribute to Marcos at a vigil outside the facility's entrance. Despite social distancing recommendations, nurses packed in to watch the ceremony, saying that inside the hospital, they are always close together. At the beginning of the first shift without Marcos, on April 20, the administration gathered the nurses on her floor to say a prayer for her. The gesture was a painful reminder of her absence, said one nurse. "It's difficult to even fathom that Celia is gone," the nurse said. "I still think of her as being on vacation. It is easier than having to lose someone." The death has made waves at the hospital. Another nurse who treats COVID-19 patients said staff members began demanding better protections after Marcos' death. Some have have refused to work without proper gear, she said. Supervisors are providing more PPE and staffers are no longer reprimanded for bringing their from home, the nurse said. She added that they will continue to fight for more safeguards. "I love my job, but I'm not trying to die a hero," she said. Silvia Romano, who was seized by gunmen in November 2018, freed near Somalias capital, Mogadishu. An Italian aid volunteer who was kidnapped in Kenya some 18 months ago has been freed, according to officials in Italy. Silvia Romano, who was working at an orphanage in Chakama village near Kenyas southeast coast, was kidnapped by unknown gunmen on November 20, 2018, in an attack that left five residents with bullet wounds. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced the 25-year-olds release on Saturday. Silvia, we look forward to seeing you in Italy! he wrote on Twitter, thanking the countrys intelligence services. No details were given about the identity or motivation of the captors of Romano, a volunteer with the Africa Milele organisation. Italian news agency ANSA reported that the volunteer was rescued by the Italian foreign intelligence service, in collaboration with Turkish and Somali officers, at a location some 30km (19 miles) from Somalias capital, Mogadishu. Somalia-based fighters have been blamed in the past for a spate of kidnappings of foreigners along Kenyas coast. Raffaele Volpi, head of the Italian parliaments committee on security, said Romano was in good shape. Obviously shes had a rough time from being imprisoned, but shes OK, Volpi was quoted as saying by ANSA. Chakama, in Kilifi county, is about 60km (40 miles) inland from the coastal town of Malindi, which is popular with Italian tourists and expatriates. During the 2018 assault, attackers armed with rifles fired indiscriminately at residents and wounded five people, including three children. Srinagar: More than 3,300 security personnel have been injured in over 1,000 violent incidents in Kashmir since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen Commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, police said. Since July 2016, 3,329 personnel from Jammu and Kashmir Police and Central Paramilitary Forces have been injured while maintaining law and order in the valley, a police spokesman said here today. He said out of these injured personnel, many have suffered grievous injuries including multiple fractures. Besides two personnel from JKP were killed in the violent protests in the valley, he said. The spokesman said a total of 1,018 incidents of violence were reported during this period for which 1,030 FIRs were registered in different police stations of the valley. As many as 29 installations including police stations, police posts and other government establishments were set ablaze and 51 damaged by the protesters, he said. Referring to efforts of police to end the violent protests, he said more than 1,000 accused have been arrested and bound down in different police stations of the valley. Fifty-two personsmostly young boyswere killed and more than 5,000 others injured in clashes with security forces. More than 200 civilians have been hit by pellets in their eyes with many of them at the risk of losing eyesight, leading to calls for ending the use of pellet guns as a weapon for crowd control. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. By Chang Se-moon Every time there is a major crisis, most, if not all, politicians compete to be more generous than other politicians in handing out money to their constituents. Once they secure allocation of money for their favorite voters, they feel satisfied, thinking they have done what needs to be done to help the victims of the crisis. I believe it is pathetic. First, money alone is not enough to help those who really need help. Second, overzealous allocation of money can be the seed for financial crisis many years later, likely when the current politicians are out of office. While politicians argue over the amount of financial support for victims, many families have nothing to eat without outside help. If you doubt, consider the April 18 story by Fox 5 TV in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of people lined up outside of several MegaMart locations in Maryland for a free food giveaway. The owner of the store, Yoni Lopez, "decided to announce a free food giveaway because his community desperately needs the help." The crowds were just so much larger than anyone expected that "they stopped giving out baskets of food and started giving out $35 coupons instead, that way people could leave and come back later." If this is the reality in supposedly the richest country in the world. I cannot even imagine what is going on in many poor countries of the world. What about the health insurance of millions of people who suddenly lose their jobs? Before leaders of any country do anything when the country faces real crisis, soup kitchens and unlimited supply of food items must be set up so that no one starves. Medical care of anyone without health insurance must be provided by the government with no charge to individuals. While food and health are taken care of, leaders can simultaneously tackle money issues. In money issues, there has to be some guidelines or principles for leaders to consider. One guideline could be that during a real crisis, there is neither rich or poor, nor upper or lower classes. Survival of every human being is at stake. This means that financial assistance to one group should be the same in amount to that of another group. Simply because I had been making $100,000 a year when I lost my job, I should not be paid more than a laborer who had been making $20,000 a year when he lost his job. It is well-known that relief funds for small businesses were given mostly to large chain stores, not struggling sole proprietorships. This is predictable, because large chains can prepare a more sophisticated application document. Another guideline relates to rising government debt during crisis. Most governments of the world are either very poor, or in the habit of borrowing to the limit of their borrowing capacity. Excessively generous stimulus expenditures beyond what is needed will add to the root of future financial crises. When politicians promise to give, say, $1,000 to every person in the country regardless of the income level, many of these payments will go to people who do not need government help. These payments are politically popular but clearly wasteful. In an April 11 article in the Washington Post, Steven Pearlstein cautions us that "Wall Street is demanding that the Federal Reserve step in as the buyer of last resort for all those risky loans and credit securities created by its unregulated 'shadow banking system.'" Even the funds that wealthy investors play (such as private equity funds that are risky with the potential of high returns) are likely to lose a significant amount of money in crises such as the one created by COVID-19. An April 7 article in the Washington Post warns that these funds are also aim for "piece of federal stimulus funds." Let me simplify underlying issues of these illustrations. Suppose that I loan you $1,000 but charge 20 percent monthly interest because you are a risky borrower. When the struggling economy ruins your business and you cannot pay back the loan, I want the government to return my $1,000. Does this make sense to you? Jeff Stein in his April 14 article in the Washington Post explains that the COVID-19 relief package that the U.S. Congress passed in late March temporarily suspends "a limitation on how much owners of businesses formed as 'pass-through' entities can deduct against their nonbusiness income, such as capital gains, to reduce their tax liability." Stein cites an analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation, a nonpartisan congressional body, stating that "About 82 percent of the benefits of the policy go to about 43,000 taxpayers who earn more than $1 million annually." No matter how great the current needs are, excessive borrowing will prevent the needed flexibility of budgetary decisions in future years. Future crises from wasteful spending now will be slow in coming, but can be just as painful as, if not more than, COVID-19 when they arrive. If leaders truly care about their country, they should consider a surtax, such as a 10 percent additional tax on incomes of everyone, as well as a minimum tax on corporate profits. These would, at least partially, pay for the current stimulus packages. Chang Se-moon (changsemoon@yahoo.com) is the director of the Gulf Coast Center for Impact Studies. FLINT, MI The man believed to have fired the shot that killed a security guard at a Flint store has faced a judge on multiple felony counts. Ramonyea Travon Bishop, 23, was arraigned Saturday, May 9 by Genesee District Judge Nathaniel C. Perry on first-degree murder, felony firearm and carrying a concealed weapon charges. He is the third suspect to be arraigned in connection with the May 1 shooting death of 43-year-old Calvin James Munerlyn. Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton previously said Munerlyn got into a verbal altercation with 45-year-old Sharmel Teague. Security guard dies after shooting at Family Dollar in Flint Munerlyn reportedly told the womans daughter, Brya Bishop, she needed to wear a mask while inside. On the day of the shooting, Munerlyn told Sharmel Teague to leave the store and instructed a cashier not to serve her, according to Leyton. Sharmel Teague left in a red GMC Envoy, but Leyton said she returned 20 minutes later with her husband, 44-year-old Larry Teague Jr., who accused Munerlyn of disrespecting his wife. Ramonyea Bishop also traveled to the store, and allegedly shot Munerlyn in the back of the head. Munerlyn was transported to Hurley Medical Center, where he was pronounced deceased a short time later. Slain Family Dollar security guard mourned at candlelight vigil Larry Teague and Ramonyea Bishop managed to make a getaway from the store on foot after the shooting. Larry Teague was arrested May 7 near the Studio Six Hotel in West Houston, Texas, when he was returning to his room. Flint police officers had developed information locally that Larry Teague had fled to Texas with two individuals. Two people who drove Larry Teague to Texas, a 44-year-old woman and 43-year-old man, have been taken into custody on charges of obstruction of justice, lying to police during the investigation of a violent crime, harboring a felon, and accessory after the fact to a felony. The District Attorney in Harris County, Texas, also charged the two with hindering apprehension of a murder suspect. They are believed to have rented a vehicle in Michigan to drive Larry Teague to Texas, Leyton said. Once in Texas, it is believed they bought him clothing at a Houston-area Walmart and rented him a room. Leyton said his office has sent detainer letters and started the extradition process for all three charged in Texas. Ramonyea Bishop was found May 8 in a three-unit house in Bay City. He was taken into custody without incident and is charged with first-degree premeditated murder, felony firearm and carrying a concealed weapon. Sharmel Teague was arraigned May 5 in Genesee District Court on first-degree murder and felony firearm charges. She is being held in the Genesee County Jail without bond and faces life in prison on the murder charge. Woman arraigned in fatal shooting of Flint security guard over face mask Brya Bishop, 24, was arraigned May 8 on three felonies related to her actions following the shooting. According to the police, Brya Bishop engaged in activities that interfered with police efforts to locate and apprehend Larry Teague Jr. and Ramonyea Bishop. She is charged with tampering with evidence, lying to police investigating a violent crime, and accessory after the fact to a felony. Sister of man accused of fatally shooting Flint security guard arraigned on charges Related news: 2 men arrested in slaying of Flint security guard Gov. Whitmer offers condolences to family of Flint security guard killed over mask dispute U.S. Marshals offer $5k reward for tips leading to arrest of suspects in Flint security guard shooting 3 charged in fatal shooting of guard enforcing mask use at Flint store Flint Family Dollar security guard remembered as a gift to life at visitation Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 15:32:11|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LANZHOU, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Gansu Province saw robust growth in the exports of agricultural products in the first quarter this year, with the export volume totaling 600 million yuan (about 84 million U.S. dollars). Lanzhou customs said the province's export volume of agricultural products from January to March increased by 38.3 percent year on year, accounting for nearly 30 percent of the province's total exports. Among the special agricultural products exported by the province, the exported fruit and vegetable juice, edible oilseeds, and traditional Chinese medicine increased significantly in the period. Those products were mainly exported to countries and regions along the Belt and Road. Enditem Press Release 10 May 2020 Reinforcing its globally acknowledged Responsible Luxury ethos that seeks to create a better and secure world, ITC Hotels today announced the launch of its path breaking 'WeAssure' initiative. In a first for the hospitality industry, the discerning guests of ITC Hotels will be reassured by an accreditation by National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH)- the leading standards organisation for sanitation, hygiene, safety and infection control practices. ITC Hotels is also partnering with DNV GL Business Assurance, one of the world's leading certification bodies, to ensure stringent clinical levels of hygiene and safety. These assurance certifications will stand testimony to the rigorous hygiene protocol being put in place to ensure the safety of guests and associates at ITC Hotels, across India. Advertisements "We are committed to delivering world-class luxury experiences that address the most important needs of wellbeing and safety through responsible practices that are immensely relevant in the unprecedented circumstances we face today. 'WeAssure' is a unique programme designed in collaboration with medical professionals and disinfection experts to further enhance the existing hygiene & cleaning protocols. The stringent program specifications reassure guests of visibly stringent cleanliness and disinfection processes which benchmark clinically hygienic standards, offering guests' unparalleled comfort with peace of mind" stated Nakul Anand, Executive Director-ITC Ltd. With many "Industry Firsts" to its credit, 'WeAssure' is set to redefine the cleanliness protocol. The accreditation by National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) will enhance existing procedures and controls in the area of sanitation, hygiene, safety and infection control thereby conforming to hospital level hygiene standards. DNV GL Business Assurance, a body that helps businesses assure the performance of their organization is evaluating a model, built around the three pillars of - Health, Hygiene and Safety. This will help ITC Hotels achieve higher levels of maturity around all facets of operations. 'WeAssure' is a holistic programme that addresses all facets of hotel operations. From revised protocols for back of the house activity at the receiving store, back offices, laundry to the public areas with heightened sanitization measures for guest luggage, elevators to room service. The well-being of guests, associates and partners has always been of paramount importance at ITC Hotels and more so in these testing times. Namaste at ITC Hotels is not only a heartfelt welcome, it is inspired from our ancient scripture 'Atithi Devo Bhava' which prescribes the dynamics of the host and guest relationship. Namaste acknowledges the honour in being a host and to look after guests in the most responsible manner without compromising the high standards the guest has come to expect. It is a call from within that keeps the Indian Values alive, pure and timeless. Mr. Nakul Anand Photo: ITC Hotels ABOUT RESPONSIBLE LUXURY Sustainable business practises which respect the environment and society have always been the DNA of ITC Hotels. Since pioneering the concept of "Responsible Luxury" in 2009, ITC Hotels has commissioned numerous planet positive initiatives, which range from use of renewable energy which today powers more than 57% of ITC Hotels electrical requirement to an over 50% reduction in water consumption over the last five years to name a few and amongst the first hospitality chains to discontinue use of 'Single Use Plastic 'across its operations. With 'Responsible Luxury' as its guiding premise, ITC Hotels is committed to delivering luxury experiences with sustainable practices embedded in the process - an endeavour which has manifested in the coveted LEED* Platinum rating for all its luxury hotels , making ITC Hotels amongst the 'Greenest' luxury hotel chains in the world. (*Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design - by U.S. Green Building Council and the Indian Green Building Council) ITC Hotels has also been focused on initiatives addressing health and wellbeing and over the years introduced many initiatives like heightened focus on Indoor Air Quality , installation of Radiation harmonisers that mitigate the harmful effects of radiation at all ITC Hotels and the Sleeep Program which addresses multiple parameters aimed at enhancing quality of sleep from interventions on controlling decibel levels in room to lighting, fragrance & aromas to introduction of a sleeep menu designed to promote the biological aspect of sleep quality using select food ingredients from across the world. The Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLS) has called for a mass coronavirus testing exercise to be initiated nationwide. The Association says the move will enable the government ascertain the true burden of the disease in Ghana. This is the surest way to be sure of winning the battle against the pandemic, a statement from GAMLS said. This call comes at a time Ghana has recorded a significant jump in its case count from 4,012 to 4,263 with 22 deaths. The document signed by Public Relations Officer of the group, Dr. Dennis Adu-Gyasi, FWAPCMLS (Immunol), called for the directions on the use of Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) to be proffered especially when locally manufactured kits are available for validation and deployment. That testing will immediately be expanded to at least each region, if not to all district capitals, to enable prompt testing of patients for treatment and management, the statement added. The group also advocated for adequate safety requirements for testing at all testing centers adding, the gallant Medical Laboratory Scientists who have been infected in the line of their duty will not be neglected as they fight the infection. GAMLS again urged the government to make the provision of the required testing and Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) availanle for routine use, specifically, the procurement of cartridges to use the GeneXpert (TB analyzer for COVID-19 testing) should be facilitated. They also urged the government to conduct Covid-19 testing for medical laboratory professionals and all health workers as they call for policy direction, especially concerning Medical Laboratory practice in Ghana. The group added its voice to continues closure of the Ghanas borders saying it should remain closed until the daily infectivity rate of the virus begins to fall and all alternative measures are put in place. Daily Guide The office building of music label T-Series has been sealed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) after one caretaker tested positive for COVID-19. According to T-Series spokesperson, there were caretakers who would work and stay at the office premises in Andheri, which is now sealed to contain the spread of Coronavirus. "Some of them are migrants who couldn't go back. There are rooms, kitchen and all facilities for them at the office building. But one of them got tested positive for COVID-19. "There are two-three people who are also getting tested, but their reports are pending. For safety reasons, the BMC has sealed the office. It was anyway shut for employees since March 15," spokesperson told PTI. On Sunday, death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 2,109 in India, with cases climbing to 62,939. Kanpur : , May 10 (IANS) In a shocking incident, a 14-year-old boy has been booked for allegedly raping a 10-year-old girl in the Ghatampur area of the district, police said. The accused and the victim belong to the same village. Circle Officer Ghatampur, Ravi Kumar Singh, said, "The accused will be sent to a juvenile correction home after being produced before a magistrate on Sunday." The officer said that the girl had gone for cattle grazing near the Rindh river on Friday afternoon where the boy caught hold of the girl and raped her. The girl returned home and narrated her ordeal to family members, who informed the local police. The police sent the girl to a hospital for medical examination and after the report confirmed rape, the police took the boy into custody. The boy was also severely thrashed by the family of the victim and the villagers. "A case under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) has been registered," said the circle officer. The Delhi government has asked district magistrates to release 2,446 Tablighi Jamaat members from quarantine centres and ensure that they do not stay in any other place except their homes. The district magistrates will explore the possibility of sending those Tablighi members, who belong to other states, in buses to their designated places in accordance with social distancing norms and other protocols, Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) Special CEO K S Meena said in a letter to deputy commissioners (administration). As man as 567 foreign attendees of the congregation held in Delhi's Nizamuddin area in March, will be handed over to the police, Meena said. "They (foreign Jamaat attendees) will be handed over to police in connection with several violations like visa violation," a government official said on Saturday. Delhi Home Minister Satyendar Jain had recently ordered the release of Tablighi members who have completed their required quarantine period in centres and tested negative for COVID-19. 'Out of such people belonging to Delhi, who could be released as per prescribed guidelines should be issued passes to travel from the quarantine centres. 'Under no circumstances, the aforesaid persons should be allowed to stay in any other places including mosques,' Meena said in the letter. In respect of those Tablighi members belonging to other states, it should be ensured by the nodal officer and the area ACP that such people reach their place of residence, he also said. "The DC should also inform the respective resident commissioner of their states in respect of each and every movement of such persons from Delhi," the DDMA Special CEO said. Thousands of Tablighi Jamaat members had been taken out of its Markaz (centre) in Nizamuddin, where they had gathered for a religious congregation, and quarantined as the area became a major hotspot after a number of members tested positive for coronavirus. On March 31, the Delhi Police's Crime Branch had lodged a first information report against seven people, including Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, on a complaint by Station House Officer, Nizamuddin, for holding the congregation. Like pretty much everyone else over the past two months, Ive been sheltering-in-place-of-living. During this period of forced hibernation, the TV has become my most intimate (very easy to turn on) and constant friend. I used to spend a lot of time watching cable news programs, but then I started having nightmares where Tony Fauci would be telling Sanjay Gupta that all Americans could finally stop wearing masks except that ugly chick in Delco, so I switched to streaming. Hulu is my favorite, probably because I cant remember my Netflix password. Because of this, I happened across the original Hulu/FX series Mrs. America, about the fight to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. I was a kid during the time period depicted in the show, which profiles a different historic figure in each episode. Thats why Im so grateful for a female-centric program that, at least to me, tries to present a more nuanced portrait of women who found themselves to the right of, vilified by or unfavorably compared to, feminists. In particular, I love the depiction of Phyllis Schlafly, the founder of the Eagle Forum and formidable foe of the ERA. While I understand that some conservatives, including members of Schlaflys own family are unhappy with the characterization (and we can discuss that in a future column), my expectations are so low that I always think a non-liberal woman will be Palinized and ridiculed the way Delcos own Mean Girl Tina Fey destroyed the former governor of Alaska. So any attempt to show a woman from the right side of the aisle as strong, independent and excruciatingly effective is already a victory. And when that strong, independent and excruciatingly effective woman is played by Cate Blanchett, you have to pay attention. But this column isnt a review of Mrs. America. I hope you see it, and I hope you appreciate the acting, production value and groovy fashion. This column is less about women, and more about a woman: My mother, Lucy Flowers. Youve read about Lucy before, when I penned her obituary for this paper, almost six years ago. And I wont rehash what I wrote then. To paraphrase Marc Antony, I come not to bury Lucy, but to praise her. And with her, on this Mothers Day, I want to praise women like her, women who lived in the shadow of a movement they neither accepted, supported, or understood but who were as fierce and historically significant as Gloria, Betty, Bella and Shirley. They made the earth shake, but they did it from their kitchens, schoolhouses, or diner counters. They didnt give speeches on television, and they didnt march in the streets, and they didnt scream at their representatives, and they didnt burn their bras (those underwires wouldnt melt anyway) and they didnt Come a Long Way, Baby. What did they do, then? Ill tell you. They raised people like me, who look back and realize that the strongest, fiercest most independent women are the ones who dont tell us they are strong, fierce and independent. They simply live their lives looking outward, not inward. They dont obsess over what they dont have. They create, for themselves and those they love, lives of genuine grace. Think, for example, St. Theresa of Calcutta. My own mother was the first in her family to get a high school diploma, West Catholic Girls 1956. She could have gone to college she had the brain and the passion but she went to work to help her family. In 1960, she married my father and continued working to put him through college and then law school. Along the way, between 1961 and 1971, she had five kids. We all ended up loving her more than any other creature in the world, as it should be. My mother, our mother, was a lioness. When my father died of cancer in 1981, four months after his 43rd birthday, she took a deep breath and moved forward. She was the firewall between five grieving siblings and despair. She kept us from falling off the edge of that precipice, the one so many fatherless children inch towards out of anger, sorrow or selfishness. She kept us together. And she did it alone, never remarrying. She neither needed nor wanted a wing man. This was her life, and she was going to live it the way she wanted and needed: Tethered only by the desire to give her children the life she and my father had intended. Only, she did it while shouldering a burden that should not have been hers alone to bear. Lucy Flowers, beloved as she is to me, is not unique. There are thousands of women like her, those who sublimate their own egos and desires to give form and substance to other peoples dreams. Im certain that every person reading this knows, or has known, someone like that. Ive known many: Grandmothers, teachers, nuns, nurses, counselors. And mothers. That power and willingness to give life, and honor the act of giving life, is infinitely more important than a book written by Betty Friedan or a magazine published by Gloria Steinem or a quixotic presidential campaign run by Shirley Chisholm. It is also important to remember just how desperate the early feminists were to make motherhood into just another option or choice, like hair color and voter registration. I find it ironic that I, a woman who has never had a child, was given the great example of a warrior mother. In some ways, it seems a waste that the lessons I learned from Lucy are destined to remain with me in memory, but not in practice. But then, I watch this show about the early feminists and their angst and wrangling, their competitiveness and their frustration, their semi-victories and partial defeats, and I realize that Lucys lessons dont need me as a conduit. They are universal, and they will continue to be studied and appreciated whenever a woman, feminist or not, angry or content, flamboyant or humble, Gloria or Phyllis, chooses to be about something greater than herself, her needs and her rights. And in the end, they didnt need that stupid amendment anyway. Mothers arent equal to anyone. They reign supreme. Christine Flowers is an attorney and a resident of Delaware County. Her column usually appears on Sunday. Email her at cflowers1961@gmail.com. The Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Ishaq Bello, has ordered all courts in the FCT to resume regular proceedings from Monday, May 11. In a statement on Friday, Justice Bello said all courts in the FCT must resume on Monday. In March, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Muhammad, ordered all courts in the country to suspend all sittings except in urgent matters. The National Judicial Council (NJC) during its first virtual meeting held on April 22 and 23 set up a 10-member committee led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, to develop a practical strategy for how courts would continue to function during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last Monday, Mr Muhammad directed all courts to stop sitting pending the issuance of the NJCs guidelines for the reopening of courts. Following this, the council on Thursday released guidelines for court proceedings to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Chief judges directive A day after the NJC released the guidelines, Mr Bello directed the reopening of all courts in the FCT. Giving new practice directions on how court proceedings should be carried out, the chief judge said safety measures must be strictly adhered to. The honourable judges and learned magistrates shall ensure the strict observance and enforcement of the rules of physical distancing and the wearing of face masks by court staff, counsel, litigants and all persons inside the courtroom and/or within the precincts of the court, he said. Every litigant or group of litigants suing or being sued together in a cause or matter shall be represented by not more than one counsel in the courtroom. Where the rules of the legal profession or other exigency make it imperative for counsel to appear with another counsel, then only one junior counsel shall be led in the cause or matter. Mr Bello further said that criminal matters that require the presence of defendants in prison custody would be suspended until further notice. In order to avoid a situation where traffic in and out of correctional Centres (prisons) may catalyse the spread of COVID-19 to inmates, hearing in criminal matters requiring the production of defendants in custody is hereby suspended until further notice, Mr Bello said. He said the specific time for hearing individual cases should be indicated in order to avoid the convergence of counsel and parties in the courtroom from the beginning of the days proceedings. READ ALSO: The court shall allot time for each party to present his or her case, taking into consideration the peculiarities of each case. The chief judge added that only parties to a case and their counsel shall be allowed into the courtroom. In all cases (whether criminal or civil), only the parties and their counsel shall be allowed into the courtroom, subject to a maximum number of ten (ten) persons (excluding court officials) at any given time. In representative actions or other matters with multiple parties, only one representative shall be allowed. The honourable judges and learned magistrates shall keep to the barest minimum the number of staff/clerks working with them in the courtroom. In addition to observing social distancing and wearing of face masks, all court officials are advised to wash their hands with soap, apply recommended hand sanitizers regularly and comply with all advisories issued by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). The honourable the chief Judge may review this practice direction and/or issue further directives as prevailing circumstances may render expedient or necessary. Many factors will go into deciding how and when schools will resume in the fall. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed gaps in internet connectivity, leaving some families and entire areas unable to connect with public schools online. Administrators, teachers and staff have done a remarkable job finding temporary solutions to those challenges, but it may be time to use emergency federal education aid to shore up this inequity on a permanent solution. Other considerations for local boards to consider will be child care availability, hunger, parent involvement, special education accommodations and the way the virus has spread or been contained. School boards may decide an early start date is a good idea, but only if it can be done safely and with sufficient funding to pay teachers for a longer school year. Even without a pandemic, setting a universal, statewide starting date would be a difficult task. Local school board members have the perspective needed to decide what is in the best interest of students and their communities. According to BBC, Facebook and Google have said they will let employees continue working from home for the rest of the year. The tech giants have announced plans to reopen their offices soon but are allowing more home working flexibility. Google originally said it would keep its work from home policy until 1 June, but is extending it for seven more months. Facebook said it would reopen its offices on 6 July as coronavirus lockdowns are gradually lifted. Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said that employees who need to return to the office will start being able to do so from July with enhanced safety measures in place. But the majority of employees who can carry out their jobs from home will be able to do so until the end of the year, Mr Pichai added. The announcement coincides with Facebooks as more companies start rolling out their back-to-work strategies. Facebook has taken the next step in its return to work philosophy. Today, we announced anyone who can do their work remotely can choose to do so through the end of the year, a spokesman said. As you can imagine this is an evolving situation as employees and their families make important decisions re: return to work. Facebook is still determining which employees will be asked to come in, the spokeswoman added. The social media platform was among the first tech firms to ask its employees to begin working remotely. Facebook gave employees $1,000 (807) bonuses for their work-from-home and childcare costs. The trend for working from home may suit some companies while they redesign their office spaces to cater to new social distancing guidelines. Some employees are nervous about returning to work in the middle of a global pandemic. The prison watchdog has expressed serious concern how a prisoner at the Midlands Prison with a terminal illness died in his cell when a hospice setting had been recommended by medical staff. The Inspector of Prisons, Patricia Gilheaney, said the treatment of terminally-ill prisoners in the custody of the Irish Prison Service and allowing them to be cared in a hospice was a very important issue. A report by the inspector found the Minister of Justice, Charlie Flanagan, had approved hospice care being provided to the prisoner, known as Mr P, but that no bed was available. Following his discharge from Portlaoise General Hospital on November 8, 2018 the 47-year-old prisoner remained in the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise where he died six days later around four months after he was first diagnosed with skin cancer and a year after he was committed to prison. The IPS informed Ms Gilheaney that there was no community hospice bed available at the time a hospital consultant said Mr P no longer required an acute hospital bed. A prison doctor had recommended that Mr P should have been allowed stay in Portlaoise General Hospital until a hospice bed was found due to his complex care needs and the inability of the prison medical staff to meet them. The IPS said the only dignified response it could afford the prisoner in such circumstances was to make the best possible arrangements for him to be nursed in the Midlands Prison. It said a community palliative care team as well as extra nursing and healthcare assistant supports on nights had been put in place. Continued efforts were made to secure a hospice bed but none became available. The inspector said a case conference to discuss Mr Ps condition held on October 10, 2018 following his return from a stay in hospital was a positive planning event at a time when medical opinion considered he had between two and three weeks to live. However, she noted healthcare staff were concerned that Mr P had not signed any document to confirm his wish not to be resuscitated given their role in the preservation of life. The inspector said the end of life treatment which the prisoner received in the Midlands Prison was commendable. Every effort was made to make him comfortable and he was treated with as much compassion and respect as was possible on a busy prison wing, she added. The inspector said a chief prison officer had shown commendable proactivity in issuing an instruction that the prisoners cell was not to be masterlocked at night to enable rapid entry to his cell. Ms Gilheaney said the situation had been challenging for staff as they did not have the necessary equipment or personal care materials to care for a dying man, while palliative carers had to be brought in from outside the prison. She pointed out that the prisoners family, was only able to visit him in his cell when around 50 other prisoners on his wing had been locked in their cells. His brother, who was also a prisoners in the Midlands Prison, was allowed to pay him separate visits. These practical burdens on IPS staff and the family would have been unnecessary if Mr P had been afforded the opportunity to die in a hospice rather than in prison, said Ms Gilheaney. The inspector said the IPS had accepted her recommendation that it should introduce a policy that would require written consent by a prisoner to confirm their wish not to be resuscitated with appropriate safeguards put in place to ensure that such consent was fully informed and provided freely. She said the implementation of the recommendation would be monitored in future investigations into deaths in custody. China has threatened to cripple Australia's barley industry amid rising diplomatic tensions between Beijing and Canberra over calls for a coronavirus inquiry. China's Ministry of Commerce has threatened to slap an 80 per cent import tariff on barley imports as Australia refuses to retract its demand for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus outbreak. The proposal would be a major blow to the drought-stricken industry, which once exported more than $1.5 billion to China, the world's second biggest economy. 'We are deeply concerned by reports that China may impose duties upon our barley producers,' Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said. China has threatened to impose a 80 per cent export tax on Australian barley. Pictured are barley crops at a farm in Parkes in central west NSW Ministry of Commerce said a dumping margin of up to 73.6 per cent and a subsidy margin of up to 6.9 per cent for imported barley is being considered, according to a statement from industry group Grain Producers Australia. Australia was China's biggest supplier of barley in 2017 before exports were halved when Beijing launched its ongoing anti-dumping investigation into the industry. Barley exports to China plummeted from $1.5billion in 2018 to just $600million the following year. 'There is no basis in which to believe that the Australian barley industry operates on anything but a commercial footing,' Senator Birmingham said. 'This issue ought to be firmly decided on the merits of the case.' Trade Minister Simon Birmingham described China's proposal as 'deeply concerning' It's understood China's Ministry of Commerce will reveal its anti-dumping investigation findings into Australian barley exports by May 19. Barley exporters and the federal government will have 10 days to respond. Senator Birmingham vowed to step up and fight for Australian farmers if the hefty tariff is imposed, which would effectively end barley trade with China. 'We reserve all rights in relation to continuing to defend and uphold the integrity of Australian farmers and barley producers,' he told reporters on Sunday. 'We hope that we can, over the coming days, ensure a positive outcome and that is that Australian farmers and barley producers do not receive undue subsidies and do not dump their product on foreign markets. 'But if the case were to go against them, then we absolutely reserve our right to pursue all other avenues, including through the World Trade Organisation.' Australia was once China's biggest barley supplier before Beijing launched an anti-dumping investigation. Pictured is a worker sweeping barley at the Riordan Group grain depot near Geelong in Victoria Tensions between Australia and China are growing as the government continues its calls for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus outbreak. Pictured is Chinese President Xi Jinping Grain Producers Australia released a statement declaring barley exporters will continue to co-operate with the Chinese government and work closely with the Australian government. But Grain Producers Australia chairman Andrew Weidemann admits the proposed tariffs are 'absolutely a massive kick in the guts'. 'It would stop trade between the two countries based on current market values of barley, it would be unjustifiable to trade into China,' Mr Weidemann told the ABC. 'In the last six months we know there's been shipments and there's been indications of further business required, so this decision came unexpectedly given we felt we had answered all of the questions as an industry back to China. 'We also know that China really does want our barley, they've been a substantial buyer of our barley for a long time, so this also will cause damage to their own industry.' BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Utah (AP) After closing amid the coronavirus pandemic, the National Park Service is testing public access at several parks across the nation, including two in Utah, with limited offerings and services. Visitor centers and campgrounds remain largely shuttered at Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef, but visitors are welcome at some of the sites. I felt like they did it right here because if they opened all the services, I think it would have been too much. Too many people would hit it, Donna Sullivan, of Sedona, Arizona, told The Salt Lake Tribune Wednesday at Bryce Canyon. Sullivan was on a day visit to hike the parks Rim Trail and Bryce Amphitheater, two of the few hiking destinations currently open at Bryce. She found plenty of room to social distance, but Bryce will likely see larger crowds as word gets out that the park is open and will not collect entry fees. Visitors should steel themselves for a new normal that will not likely square with their last trip, said Acting Park Service Director David Vela. In this Jan. 28, 2019, file photo, a car drives past the Nisqually entrance to Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)AP You may have facilities that arent going to be available, but the (parks) footprint will be. So it will be a different visitor experience, and it will be a different normal that were going to need to own and, frankly, mitigate, Vela said Friday. This gets to the value and importance of making sure that visitors know what to expect when they get to the park, making sure that visitors go to the parks website (and) social media ... as to what is accessible, how to plan your trip, and, most importantly, what are the expectations when you get there. Recent crowding at southern Utahs state parks could offer a hint of whats headed Bryces way later this season, said Bryce Park Ranger Peter Densmore. This experiment, this limited reopening is really a cooperative effort between us and the public. Its not possible to reap the full benefits of the mitigations we put in place if people arent aware of them and helping us to enforce them, Densmore said at the shuttered visitor center. While the park reopened its core attraction, Bryce Amphitheater, Capitol Reef took an opposite approach, keeping its historic center at Fruita and the Scenic Road closed for now. You will see more and more parks provide recreation access. We are doing it very thoughtfully, said park service spokeswoman Vanessa Lacayo. In this May 4, 2020, file photo, Park ranger Tyler Gagat wears a protective face mask as he monitors activity at the Flamingo boat ramp in Everglades National Park in Florida. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)AP Parks are staffing up and will increase access as workers are in place to patrol trails and roads, host campgrounds and operate visitor centers and museums. At the Utah parks, seasonal employees from out of state must quarantine for 14 days before they can report for duty, which will slow the process. Openings have yet to be announced for Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. Major parks throughout the country that have begun limited openings include Badlands and Wind Cave national parks and Jewel Cave National Monument in South Dakota; Everglades National Park in Florida; Indiana Dunes National Park; Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada; Mount Rainier National Park in Washington; Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky; Pinnacles National Park in California. Advocacy groups fear the park service is moving too fast and urge extreme caution. We are also eager to get Americans back into our national parks. But it is too soon, warned Phil Francis, a retired superintendent who heads The Coalition to Protect Americas National Parks. Parks absolutely should not open until the safety of National Park Service employees, concession employees, volunteers and other partners, including those who work and live in gateway communities, can be ensured. Most park staffers will be in contact with visitors and many live on-site, in close quarters, in government-owned housing, he said. According to a park service document, parks should estimate that up to 40% of the total staff at the park may require isolation and 4% may require hospitalization. This is not only impossible under the current setup, Francis said, it is unacceptable. As is the case for most Americans living today, I grew up on Disney. I loved the classic princess movies, The Wonderful World of Disney, and the live-action movies of the 1960s and 1970s. When a local television channel syndicated The Mouseketeers in the late 1960s, I watched that too. Some (indeed, a lot) of the Disney product was banal, but it never deviated from a certain purity: Be good, be kind, be patriotic (if that was relevant), work hard . . . that kind of stuff. The next generation of Disney movies also promoted that message, whether with classic princess movies (Beauty and the Beast) or a non-romantic adventure with a friend film such as Moana. Moanas earth goddess ending, though, hinted at what was to come with Frozen II, which was a visually beautiful, but tedious effort to introduce kids to anti-colonialism, man-deriding feminism, and Gaia worship. Watching that and thinking of the classic Disney movies, one has to wonder "Where on earth does this stuff come from?" The answer is surprisingly easy: It comes from the current crop of Disney writers and producers, all of whom were marinated in hard-left college liberal arts programs. This post offers two exhibits to prop up this assertion. The first is a cri de cur from Itxu Diaz about the horrible changes wrought on Disneys DuckTales. Diaz is Spanish, so the syntax is a little scrambled, but youll quickly get the gist about the push to take an entertaining character who always has an eye for the girls and turn him into a vehicle for pushing homosexuality on small children: Donald, that charming childrens character, has been kidnapped by a company following a rigorous ideological program of liberal indoctrination, whose latest conquest has been to introduce in the new episodes of DuckTales two gay ducks who have adopted a little duck, whose sexual habits have not been revealed thus far. [snip] But theres nothing idle about this portrayal. Thats not my opinion: Its what Frank Angones, one of the people responsible for the series, says. In a dense article, with prose about as nimble a turtle wading in a pot of glue, Angones apologizes for the existence of a multitude of heteronormative romances whatever that means in the DuckTales story, and blames Scrooge, Donald, and Fenton for liking the gal ducks and not the guy ducks. This co-executive producer says, with certain contempt for his products own history, that legacy characters with values from Disneys past have for some time weighed down the series sexual inclination. It seems he wants more representation for drakes attracted to drakes and hens to hens, albeit running the risk of upsetting environmentalist movements, since this could lead to anatidae becoming endangered species. In any case, I would love to see Donalds face when Angones accuses him of being a retrograde and fascist for wanting to be with Daisy. Fortunately for him, hes absolutely incomprehensible when he speaks, so its difficult to accuse him of being a homophobe. Hes a lucky ducky. The second example is a Prager U video in which Ben Shapiro explains intersectionality, a terrible idea that was born on college campuses and that indoctrinated college graduates are carrying into corporate America. To illustrate the point, the video plays footage of a Disney writer discussing how important intersectionality is to her work and her messaging. Ive transcribed the gist of it, but you have to watch this incoherent cultural Marxist speak to appreciate whos teaching your children: As I started to rise in television, I started to just get more blunt and just start saying, like, I would like a black writer because if I said diverse, you know, youd, youd get, youd get, Well, white is diverse, which is something somebody said to me and I was, like, Wow. Um. Ah. I was, like, Its not. Cool. But, um, but, but to really, you know, I, I reached out to my, you know, um, ah, the women that I respect, who are, who are not white, ah, writers and directors. And I said, What should I say, what, what, what, how, what language should I use? You know, and, and I think it's worth it if you were in, um, a position of hiring power or, or a green-lighting power to, like, reach out to people that are not like you and say, What can I do to be an ally and, and how can I how can I support, um, writers of color and, um, lgd LGBTQ and disabled writers? Like, what can I do? To mangle an expression, leftists fully understand that the message comes through the medium. When your children sit glued to the TV screen, whether because you let them watch as a reward for something or to give yourself a few minutes of downtime, Disneys hard-left creative people are tunneling their messages about intersectionalism, sexual identity, sexual orientation, climate change, feminism, and all the other leftist shibboleths, directly into your childrens brains. And because Disney is always going to be more fun and exciting than you are, you can bet that Disneys messages will resonate more than yours will. Theres a picture on my desk that makes me smile. In it, my brother Tom, now 48, stands proud and handsome with one arm round my shoulder and the other extended to embrace our mum and little brother, William, whos 44. Im two years older than Tom, but big sister in name only. Hes tall and strong. Kate Spicer (far left) next to her brother Tom, who has a learning disability called Fragile X But I worry about Tom. He has Fragile X syndrome, the most common cause of inherited learning disability. He cannot write, cannot read and he doesnt understand money. He refers to Covid-19 as this bloody flu virus. On the phone we talk about hand-washing, Boris and lockdown like a couple of four-year-olds. Boris. He, he, he, he better now in e. His main interests might be the heavy metal band Metallica, Dads Army and beer, but hes full of charm, empathy and natural wit. He tells me he has lost half a stone. Thanks to lockdown, his sneaky trips to the chippy for battered sausages and pies have ended. Its a little upside to his strict confinement because, despite being as strong as an ox, Toms been shielding like the frailest of OAPs since before the Government-enforced lockdown in March. Lynn, the lovely manager of his supported-living community, took the decision herself. She knew she needed to protect her clients. Much has been said about the inadequate protection of frail inhabitants of care homes for the elderly during this health crisis. A lot of focus has been placed upon the health of those in care homes (pictured), but people with learning difficulties are another frail community who need support during the pandemic Very little attention has been paid to the scandalous treatment of some people with learning disabilities who, even if they are young and healthy, have been pronounced by some GPs as unfit for resuscitation should they require it, and, in some cases, the right to even go to hospital. It doesnt surprise me, though it breaks my heart. Even at the best of times, people with learning disabilities take second place to other members of society. These decisions by GPs were based on Covid-19 advice issued on March 21 by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). It used a device known as the Clinical Frailty Scale that meant anyone requiring care beyond a certain level no matter their physical fitness or age were lumped in with frail elderly people. Score too high and, if you got sick, you were screwed. Discussing this subject recently, the paralympian Baroness Grey-Thompson described it as simplistic utilitarianism [that] would erode the moral and social conscience of our country. In other words, adults with a good chance of recovery but who happened to have learning disabilities were being condemned because they required a certain level of support care. They were being told to stay put and ride out the infection, even if that meant they died. Former Paralympic athlete Barroness Tanni Grey-Thompson (above) said that the Clinical Frailty Scale can help 'erode the moral social conscience of our country' surround those with learning difficulties On April 2 this advice was revised, after lobbying from groups such as learning disability charity Mencap, so exceptions were made for, as a NICE spokesman said: People with stable long-term disabilities (for example, cerebral palsy), learning disabilities or autism. This change was an important one. It validated learning disabled peoples lives. But where was the outcry at the earlier, quite outrageous, state of affairs? Sometimes it feels as if no one really gives a damn. People with learning disabilities struggle to find jobs, they face discrimination in the wider world, and that includes, at times, our great sanctuary of hope, the NHS. My brother has a truly fantastic GP and good support in his day-to-day life, though we deal with a frustratingly nebulous and ever-shifting landscape at social worker level. Broadly, hes lucky compared to some other people in his situation. Were he to require hospitalisation, he would leave all that behind and be at the mercy of strangers. There is a real chance he could meet prejudice in the shape of a doctor or nurse who does not think his right to treatment or indeed life is equal to that of a normal person. (Whatever a normal person is.) As we have learned when it comes to the treatment of the old and the higher death rate among the poor, the notion that this virus is a great leveller has been proved a big fat lie. It has shone a light on something that, in better times, was easier to ignore: Some peoples lives simply arent valued as much as others. I first met Edel Harris, the chief executive of Mencap, eight years ago when I was promoting Mission To Lars, a documentary that my brother William and I made about Tom. Her son, Ross, 32, also has Fragile X syndrome. She has not seen him for more than a month as she works in London and he is locked down near her home in Aberdeen. She dreads the thought of Ross facing hospital under current circumstances. Mencap CEO Edel Harris is helping to promote campaigns supporting those with learning difficulties, such as Treat Me Well and Death By Indifference It doesnt bear thinking about, she says. He wouldnt understand. His anxiety and fear would result in challenging behaviour that might be fatally misinterpreted by healthcare professionals. Mencap, with its Treat Me Well campaign, and Dimensions, another learning disability charity, with #MyGPandMe, aim to educate healthcare professionals about these conditions. Tom, as he likes to say while grinning and patting his stomach, loves pies. He is potentially as vulnerable as any other portly middle-aged man who likes pies. Would the person holding Toms life in their hands value it as highly as, say, the life of the portly Prime Minister in the next bed? Believe me, it makes me uncomfortable criticising the NHS. My childhood was defined by the hard, long hours my dad worked in the NHS as a paediatric surgeon. And he never shied away from telling us about the arbitrary nature of life and death in a rationed NHS that doctors had to make decisions based on a lack of resources, and too often those decisions revolve around that simplistic utilitarianism Baroness Grey-Thompson talks about. Learning disability is the last prejudice. Unlike the campaigns based on race, gender and sexuality, learning disability has always struggled to find for want of a more tasteful word sexy advocates. By this I mean people who can make the prejudice come alive to a wider audience who can persuade our politicians and the public to sit up and take notice. Try fundraising for learning disability charities. I have. Its not your beloved mum or aunt who died of cancer, or starving kiddies with flies in their eyes. Its not once-handsome young men dying of AIDS, its not donkeys or dogs being maltreated. Toms biggest disability isnt a genetic mutation in his chromosomes, its societys attitudes, indifference and prejudice. Mencaps Death By Indifference campaign launched in 2007. It highlights the healthcare inequalities that learning disabled people are subject to. Last year its estimates were that 1,200 learning disabled people in this country died unnecessarily due to prejudice in state and private hospitals. People with learning difficulties like Tom (middle) are often deprioritised in the UK's health care systems due to prejudice in hospitals As Ms Harris says: Within the healthcare system, learning disabled people can be deprioritised. The Dimensions charity, which provides social care services for people with learning disabilities and autism, paints a similar dark picture: Despite clear NHS guidance, GPs and hospital doctors continue to add Do Not Attempt Resuscitation (DNAR) notices to peoples medical records in violation of the Mental Capacity Act and, frankly, peoples right to life. In unilaterally selecting certain people as being less worthy of hospital treatment than others, their actions carry shades of eugenics and must be called out. There is a correct procedure when it comes to these things, and it is not being followed. For those that are shocked by this, its a human rights issue. For those who deeply love someone with a learning disability, its terrifying. Kathmandu, May 10 Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai says the government will soon announce the Visit Nepal Decade in its bid to promote the countrys tourism industry. According to him, the governments annual policy and programme that the president will present in the Federal Parliament later this week announce the campaign. The ministers statement comes weeks after the government withdrew the ambitious Visit Nepal Year 2020 campaign owing to the global coronavirus outbreak. Since the Visit Nepal Year 2020 has already been put off, a Visit Nepal Decade will be announced with a plan to revive the tourism industry after the coronavirus outbreak, he says. The minister informs that the countrys tourism industry will focus on survival in 2020 and revival in 2021, thereby taking the industry to its old strength by 2022. He assures that the government will address concerns of tourism industrialists and workers hardly hit by the current crisis. The ministry is consulting other ministries for that, he claims. New Delhi: Fearing a retaliatory strike from Indian forces, Pakistan has increased its aerial exercise over its territory. According to top government sources, Pakistan was already carrying out an aerial exercise about which India also had information. The Pakistani Air Force has increased its patrols involving its mix of fighter aircraft including the F-16s and the JF-17 which are being constantly monitored by the Indian surveillance platform. The sudden increase in the aerial activities in Pakistan can be seen as a precautionary measure against any possible retaliation from Indian side over the recent Handwara terror attack and increased violence levels in the Kashmir valley at the behest of Pakistan. In the last few years, after major terrorist attacks, like after 2016 Uri attack and 2109 Pulwama incident, there has been retaliation by Indian armed forces. The Indian Air Force had launched an aerial attack and destroyed several terror launch pads operated by Jaish-e-Mohammad in Balakot town of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. In the recent hardware firefight between Pakistan-backed terrorists and security forces, at least personnel were martyred while a top Lashkar commander was killed. The Handwara attack is being seen as the biggest loss of security forces in recent years. On May 9, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra shared a video which showed Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahudeen claiming responsibility of the Handwara attack. He is also seen admitting that the Indian Army has the upper hand in the clip. "It's a shock (Riyaz Naikoo's killing) for all of us but these sacrifices have been going on in Kashmir since long," he could be heard speaking in Urdu. He also claimed responsibility of the recent gunbattle between terrorists and security forces in Handwara. "Mujahideens broke the back of enemy (Indian Army) in Handwara Rajwara but the enemy has an upper hand," he stated in the 52-second long clip. Zee News, however, do not vouch for the veracity of the clip. When Alabama legislators approved a stripped-down state budget last week, they included nearly half a million dollars to investigate why Alabama women die from childbirth and pregnancy complications. Ultimately, until we have a thorough review of the maternal death data, we cant answer the all-important question of why when a mother dies, said Dr. John Meigs, president of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, which lobbied for the funding. Then (we can) take the steps necessary to decrease and hopefully eliminate maternal deaths. The state budget now goes to Gov. Kay Iveys desk with a line item for $478,000 to fund Alabamas Maternal Mortality Review Committee, which was launched in early 2019 to investigate why Alabama mothers die from pregnancy and childbirth complications. After reporting last year from AL.com highlighted the states lack of understanding about maternal death, and after lobbying by state medical and nonprofit organizations, Ivey included the $478,000 in her recommended budget. Britta Cedergren, director of maternal child health and government affairs for the March of Dimes in Alabama, said she wanted to thank state leaders for leaving the funding in the budget. Alabama has some of the highest rates of preterm birth and infant mortality in the nation, she said. We know that the health of a baby is directly dependent on the health and well-being of its mother, and in our country, one woman dies every 12 hours from pregnancy related complications. The United States has the highest maternal death rate of any wealthy country and its been rising. And for every death there are as many as 100 cases of life-threatening pregnancy complications, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Maternal Mortality Review Committees are considered the gold standard for understanding maternal deaths and making recommendations on how to prevent them, according to CDC experts. While many other states, including all of Alabamas neighbors, have similar committees, Alabama launched its committee in early 2019 with volunteers, operating on a shoestring budget under the umbrella of the state health department. The new funding will be used to pay for autopsies and medical records where needed, and to pay costs related to convening medical and public health professionals around the state to review medical records of women who died. The group will also make recommendations for improving maternal health in Alabama. Similar committees in other states have produced recommendations that led to concrete, positive results. California was one of the first states to launch a review committee. Since 2006, California cut its rate of women dying in childbirth by 55 percent, due in large part to its review committee identifying preventable complications that were killing mothers. Texas created an early warning system for diagnosis and intervention after its committee found several healthcare provider and facility missteps associated with maternal death. A fully-funded and supported Maternal Mortality Review Committee is vital as we continue the fight to have healthy moms and strong babies here in Alabama, said Cedergren. Earlier this year, the state medical association launched a maternal mortality awareness campaign and made the committee funding one of its legislative priorities. Other organizations also lobbied for the funding, including the March of Dimes, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the firm Johnson & Johnson. Our society would not function without our mothers, said Meigs, and the Alabama Senate sent a message (last week) that the life of a mother must be protected. Bray woman Ines Collins feels fine now, having recovered from Covid-19. 'My symptoms were in the middle of March and went on for about a week or 10 days,' she said. She had a headache, temperature, and stomach problems. 'I couldn't taste things very well and had exhaustion and aches and pains. It was like a flu,' she said. 'I've had many viruses over the years. I've had bronchiectasis, and TB twice.' She said that the headache and temperature 'went on and on'. She thought it was 'just another virus' and didn't think it was Covid-19. As she wasn't getting any better, Ines decided to contact her GP who referred her for testing. 'I was tested on March 26 and didn't hear anything until April 6 so I was better by then,' she said. She was really surprised to learn that her test was positive, and relieved to be well as she would be classed as vulnerable to any lung disease. She had tuberculosis as a young child, and then in 2017 she found herself getting a lot of chest infections. 'Finally I said to the doctor I wanted it investigating, because there must be something. It was discovered that I had TB. I had to have six months of huge amounts of antibiotics.' She was three years old when she first had TB, and doesn't really remember. It was thought that she would have immunity, and while most people got the BCG vaccine, she did not. 'There's a theory that the BCG might be giving some people immunity,' said Ines. She has no idea where or how she contracted Covid-19. 'I work as a psychotherapist so could be in a room with a person or couple for an hour at a time. If anyone had it I could pick it up.' She got a recurrence of symptoms a couple of weeks ago, with the headaches, temperature and exhaustion. That was a bit worrying, she said. 'I called a friend, I call her my "doctor" as she's someone who has had lung conditions and been through a lot. She suggested antibiotics to ward off any other infections. 'I went on a course of antibiotics and since then I've been fine,' said Ines. She remained at home, and used paracetamol, and plenty of fluids, getting plenty of rest. She also used headache medication, and said that the headache was not responding to anything. 'I have good friends and neighbours and people who would drop things to me,' said Ines. 'It's certainly a very unpleasant illness. It seems to have all sorts of twists and turns and affects people in many different ways. I count myself very lucky considering the underlying conditions I had. The worst case scenario would be ending up on a ventilator. That would be my worst fear. But the version I had was mild enough to recover without going to hospital.' Now she is enjoying a daily walk, getting out in the fresh air and enjoying the scenic surroundings in Bray. Ines is able to continue working, with sessions taking place on the phone, Skype or Zoom. The family therapist works in the Clanwilliam Institute in Stillorgan as well as Bray Counselling and Therapy Centre, and she provides supervision for therapists who require that for their continuing professional development. 'Be kind and appreciative of each other,' is her top piece of advice for people who may experience tension in their families or relationships at the moment. 'It can feel very hard to find kind thoughts and words, but it's not too hard, and it can go a long way in relationships,' said Ines. A woman from Kerala gave birth to a baby boy right after she landed from the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh on May 9. According to inputs, the woman was part of the stranded Indian citizens' group that was being evacuated from the middle-eastern country as part of India's massive Vande Bharat mission. The woman, named Reena Thomson, was in an advanced stage of pregnancy when she landed in Kozhikode and within hours of reaching her home town Chittur in Palakkad she gave birth. Read: Vande Bharat Mission: Indian Navy To Evacuate Over 1,800 Stranded Citizens From Maldives The operation is part of the Vande Bharat Mission, which is being termed as the biggest evacuation mission to be carried out by a country in modern history. As per reports, the mission will see the evacuation of over 14,000 Indians by air and sea from 12 different countries. Air India will be operating flights from Riyadh, London, San Fransisco, Washington DC, Singapore between May 8 to 14. The cost of travel by air will have to be borne by passengers, the external affairs ministry had said. Read: Vande Bharat Mission: Second Air India Flight With 129 Indian Citizens Departs From Dhaka The Indian Navy is also involved in the evacuation process under which a total of 698 Indians were evacuated by INS Jalashwa from Male on Friday as part of the operation Samundra Setu. The Indian Navy has deployed two warships - INS Jalashwa and INS Magar, which will make four trips to bring stranded Indians back from the Maldives. Read: Vande Bharat Mission: 1st Evacuation Flight From Bahrain Lands In Cochin With 177 People COVID-19 in India India is currently battling the coronavirus outbreak like the rest of the world. India has recorded 59,662 confirmed COVID-19 cases so far, of which 1981 people have lost their lives and 17,847 have been treated successfully. Meanwhile, globally, the Coronavirus count has crossed 4.1 million, currently at 4,100,796, while a total of 280,432 deaths have bbeen reported, and an estimated 1,441,484 have recovered. Read: Air India Issues Advisory For US-bound Indian Students With F/M Visa Under Vande Bharat The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced they were quitting senior royal duties in January, officially resigning from the Royal Family on April 1. And Watch What Happens Live's Andy Cohen recently told Daily Mail Australia what he would ask Meghan Markle on his American chat show, if the occasion arose. The 51-year-old producer and TV host said he was keen to know whether the 38-year-old Suits actress planned to 'make a break' ahead of her wedding to Prince Harry, 35. Revealed: What Andy Cohen, 51, (pictured) would ask Meghan Markle on his American talk show Watch What Happens Live When asked his line of questioning, Andy responded: 'Did you know going into it, that you were going to make a break?' Harry and Meghan shocked the world with their decision to 'step back as senior members of the royal family' in January. At a charity dinner for Sentebale in Chelsea, London in January, Harry spoke of his 'great sadness' at leaving the Royal Family, saying they had 'no other option' after years of intense media scrutiny. Star wish list: The American TV host told Daily Mail Australia that he would ask Meghan, 38: 'Did you know going into it, that you were going to make a break?' Pictured with Prince Harry and their son Archie, one, in September 2019 'Once Meghan and I were married, we were excited. We were hopeful and we were here to serve. For those reasons it brings me great sadness that it has come to this,' he said. 'The decision that I have made for my wife and I to step back is not one I made lightly. 'It was so many months of talks after so many years of challenges and I know I haven't always gotten it right but as far as this goes there really was no other option.' Worldwide news: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced they were quitting senior royal duties in January, officially resigning from the Royal Family on April 1. Pictured in October 2019 Meanwhile, elsewhere in Andy's interview with Daily Mail Australia, he admitted that he does suffer from 'father guilt'. Andy welcomed son Benjamin Allen Cohen, via a surrogate, in February 2019. 'I do [have father guilt],' he said. I'm a single dad so I just try to juggle my time really well.' 'I'm a single dad': Meanwhile, elsewhere in Andy's interview with Daily Mail Australia, he admitted that he does suffer from 'father guilt'. Pictured with son Benjamin Allen, who he welcomed via a surrogate in February 2019 Andy added that he has 'no interest' in filming his own reality series, preferring to solely interview others on Watch What Happens Live. 'I'd love to get Nicole Kidman on the show,' he remarked. 'She's never done it.' 'She's been on my New Year's Eve special show, that Anderson Cooper and I have done for the last few years, so I would love to get her on.' Season 17 of Watch What Happens Live is available to stream on hayu. The French parliament finally approved a bill to extend the state of emergency in the country until July 10 amid the coronavirus pandemic, CNN reported. According to CNN, some lawmakers in both the Senate and the National Assembly voiced concerns regarding the implications of the law for individual freedoms. As the document approved earlier stated, the government can restrict public freedoms - including imposing travel bans and curfews, closing certain groups of enterprises, and controlling prices - without the approval of the parliament. There's been plenty of head-scratching over at Omega Diagnostics, one of the biotech minnows whose share price has shot up on the back of its efforts to tackle the pandemic. The company has formed a consortium with the University of Oxford and other firms to develop a Covid-19 antibody test for the Government. The shares have risen seven-fold since the start of April, turning the stock into a favourite among AIM punters who enjoy the wild swings the market offers. A certain M K O'Leary owns 620,000 shares in Omega Diagnostics, which are now worth 350,000., but Ryanair said this is not its boss A look down the Omega shareholder register on Bloomberg throws out an interesting name. A certain M K O'Leary owns 620,000 shares in the company, which are now worth 350,000. Asked whether this is Michael Kevin O'Leary, the outspoken boss of Ryanair, the low-cost airline says it is not. In a bizarre coincidence, there is also a different Michael Kevin O'Leary in the business world. This O'Leary chairs AIM-listed dotdigital, but he does not think the shares are his. Even Omega says it doesn't know who Mr O'Leary is as it has no contact with him. Whoever Mr O'Leary is, he has made a small fortune in the space of a few weeks. Vodafone So Philip Jansen, chief executive of BT, decided last week that the time was right to cut the dividend as this column warned that he might. Now attentions turn to Nick Read, the boss of rival Vodafone, who is set to unveil the telecoms giant's annual results on Tuesday. Will Read follow suit? He already cut Vodafone's dividend last year, which was then one of the UK's biggest. Number crunchers at UBS think the dividend is safe this time around and reckon the company will look to cut costs in other ways to see it through the pandemic. But we've learned in recent weeks that nothing's out of the question. Tour operator Tui will reveal how much cash it is burning through every month on Wednesday Tui Tour operator Tui will reveal how much cash it is burning through every month when it announces its second quarter results for the first three months of 2020 on Wednesday. The Anglo-German tour operator has secured a 1.6billion loan from the German government to help it navigate the crisis. But with non-essential travel on hold and concern over whether people will want to jet off at all this summer, the amount of cash it is losing is crucial. Analysts reckon the company is getting through 300million to 400million (260million to 350million) every month without any money coming in. Refunds for trips that didn't happen could cost it as much as 500million, they say. Hargreaves Lansdown Shares in fund supermarket Hargreaves Lansdown have fallen, but far less than most in the corona crisis. On Thursday, investors in the FTSE 100 company will get an idea of how its customers are reacting when it updates on trading for the first four months of the year. Many customers have undoubtedly been furloughed and will be facing a very worrying few months ahead. Perhaps some of them will have used money stashed away on the online investment site to fund their spending needs. Scribblers at Credit Suisse estimate that assets under administration have tumbled 10 per cent to 95billion. Not too bad, all things considered. UK to Quarantine All Arrivals for Two Weeks in Order to Prevent Second Peak of Coronavirus Report Sputnik News 04:48 GMT 09.05.2020 The new measures were said to come as part of Downing Street's plan to lead the United Kingdom out of the lockdown implemented on 23 March to slow the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. All those arriving in the United Kingdom, including Britons returning from abroad, will be forced to self-isolate themselves for at least 14 days, as part of the country's efforts to prevent a second wave of the virus, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to announce on Sunday, according to The Times. Johnson is reportedly expected to address the nation to present his government's roadmap out of the coronavirus lockdown. The new measures will be implemented on all arrivals through all airports, ports, and Eurostar train stations. Travellers will be obliged to fill out a digital form that includes the address where they are planning to spend the quarantine period. According to the outlet, authorities will be checking those addresses regularly and a breach of the quarantine might lead to a 1,000 fine or even deportation in some cases. However, some Downing Street officials reportedly believe that the quarantine measure might not make a difference due to the disease already being widespread in the country. According to The Guardian, citing figures from the Home Office, only 273 travellers to the UK out of 18.1 million, including passengers on three flights from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the infectious virus first appeared, were forced into self-isolation during January, February, and March. Aviation Minister Kelly Tolhurst is expected to discuss the new measures with representatives of airlines and airports on Saturday. The industry body Airlines UK said in a statement to the BBC that they are waiting to see the details of what the government is proposing. The body earlier warned that such measures would "effectively kill international travel to and from the UK" and result in "immeasurable damage to the aviation industry and wider UK economy. Nobody is going to go on holiday if they're not able to resume normal life for 14 days, and business travel would be severely restricted". As of Friday, the UK has registered over 212,600 cases of people infected with COVID-19, of which 31,316 have died. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 10:04:05|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CAPE TOWN, May 9 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party on Saturday condemned the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party's "ill-timed and irrational" call to end the nationwide lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The levels of incitement by DA leader John Steenhuisen and the call for civil disobedience remain reckless and childish, and cannot go unchallenged, the ANC said after a virtual parliamentary caucus meeting. "Politicizing COVID-19 interventions smacks of high levels of political immaturity and should be dismissed with the contempt they deserve," ANC Chief Whip Pemmy Majodina said in a statement emailed to Xinhua. The lockdown measures have been taken in the paramount interest of ensuring the preservation of life, an issue that does not seem to matter to the DA, Majodina said, adding ending such measures would be "suicidal." "As the ANC Caucus, we cannot afford to lower our guard," she said. South Africa has so far recorded over 9,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 186 deaths. The Western Cape, the only province run by the DA, remains the country's epicenter of the pandemic, having reported 4,809 cases and 95 deaths as of Saturday. Although the country eased the nationwide lockdown from level five to level four on May 1, allowing certain businesses to resume operations, the ANC has urged Cape Town and other high-risk areas in the Western Cape to be placed back under level-five restrictions. On Friday, Steenhuisen said the lockdown was unnecessary as "the real tragedy playing out here is no longer the coronavirus, but the lockdown itself." Describing the DA as being bent on undermining the nation's anti-epidemic efforts through a filibustering posture, Majodina said that "over the past five weeks, most South Africans have adhered to the lockdown regulations and as a result, we have managed to slow the spread of the virus." "We are also mindful that dozens of other countries have imposed curfews such as the one that is currently in place in South Africa," she said. "We must continue to stick to the World Health Organization preventative measures," she said, urging "all peace loving and patriotic South Africans to stay focused on the bigger goal of flattening the curve and saving lives." The ANC calls for sanity to prevail within the DA and for its leader to desist from making short-sighted calls when the moment requires calm heads and decisive leadership, she said, adding Steenhuisen must focus on what is happening in the Western Cape and must not mislead the country. Enditem In the ongoing struggle to address health care disparities in rural communities across the U.S., a recent Oregon State University study found that the perfect partner may be hiding in plain sight. The grange, founded in 1867 and officially titled the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, is a community-based organization that is likely familiar to anyone who's spent time in a small town or attended a county fair. In addition to political advocacy on behalf of farmers, the grange's missions around community and family also align closely with the goals of public health. OSU's study, recently published in the Journal of Community Health, reviewed scientific literature that mentioned the grange, in both medical and agricultural publications. Researchers also pored over the grange's own materials to assess the organization's key messages for the past two decades. A significant portion of those publications dealt with the study's domains of health and health care, social cohesion and community context, economic stability -- including food instability -- and the neighborhood and the built environment. It's this overlooked source that's been there this whole time. They've been in the community for more than a hundred years. They have community support, they have physical space, they have similar missions to public health -- it's this natural partner that we've just not met up with." Veronica Irvin, assistant professor in OSU's College of Public Health and Human Sciences and one of the authors of the paper Compared with big cities, rural communities have less access to health care services. The populations are generally older than urban populations; the towns have fewer walking paths and other places dedicated to physical activity; and despite being centered around farms, many rural areas are termed "food deserts" because of limited availability of healthy foods. Those issues are all relevant to grange members, said Susan Noah, master of the Oregon State Grange and co-author of the paper. "Everyone is becoming more and more conscious of what it means to be a healthy society, especially as it relates to food and agriculture," she said. While individual granges have different areas of focus, they all have physical buildings equipped with kitchens and classroom space, which has allowed them to partner on several health initiatives, including blood drives, mental health awareness classes and Alzheimer's caretaker education programs. In Philomath, the Marys River Grange has hosted a low-cost medical clinic for farm workers. Now, researchers and grange leaders hope the new findings will spur greater collaboration with health care providers, including as communities start to reopen from COVID-19 shutdowns. As with most fraternal organizations, the grange's membership is aging. But it's working to adapt and bring in new people, Noah said. There's no longer a requirement that members be actively involved in agriculture, and many granges are now focusing on sustainable practices, growing your own food and eating local. Some are offering yoga and jazzercise classes. Noah sees the grange playing an important role in helping communities recover from the social isolation caused by COVID-19, as well as potentially becoming a source of trusted, evidence-backed information for members with questions about the virus. Lead author Lilly Anderson, a 2019 OSU master's in public health graduate, says more coordination between the grange and public health organizations could help avoid unnecessary duplication of effort and allow them to work in tandem more often. "This very well-established and trusted community resource is in a position to be an excellent partner for public health in rural areas where we desperately need it," she said. "I think if we combined resources and gave them some much needed publicity for their good work, we could really increase our outreach in these areas." Gregory McMichael (L) and his son Travis McMichael on May 7, 2020. (Glynn County Detention Center via AP) Investigators Looking Into Additional Footage, Photos in Ahmaud Arbery Killing Authorities in Georgia say they are reviewing new footage in connection to the death of Ahmad Arbery, who was killed while jogging in a Glynn County neighborhood in February. We are indeed reviewing additional video footage and photographs as part of the active case, said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in a statement Saturday. It is important to note that this footage was reviewed at the beginning of the GBI investigation and before the arrests of [suspects] Gregory and Travis McMichael. Investigators have stated Travis McMichael, 34, and his father, Gregory McMichael, 64, shot and killed Arbery near Brunswick on Feb. 23. They were both denied bond at a May 8 court hearing, according to reports last week. The case, after the video was released, sparked significant outrage on social media. The McMichaels were arrested late last week in connection to Arberys death. The new footage, according to Fox News, shows a man who looks like Arbery walking down the street during the same afternoon he was killed. The man is seen walking into a garage that had been under construction, walking around the back, and then leaving within a few minutes. Hes not seen taking anything. Ahmaud Arbery (L) poses with his mother, Wanda Cooper. (Courtesy of S. Lee Merritt) A lawyer for Arberys family said the new footage shows that he wasnt involved in a crime. Ahmaud Arbery did not take part in any felony, had no illegal substances in his system, was not armedyet was shot three times with a shotgun at close range, a lawyers statement said, reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A witness called 911 around the same time to report a man was in her house that was under construction, the AJC reported. Minutes later, a caller told 911 that theres a black male running down the street, according to the paper. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said he will look into how the case was handled. The family, the community and the state of Georgia deserve answers. We need to know exactly what happened, and we will be working to find those answers, Carr said in a statement obtained by CBS News. Our offices role is to make sure that we assign another district attorney, Carr said, adding that when theres a conflict we appoint a conflict district attorney, which is a local district attorney. Anyone with any new information regarding this case can contact GBI Tip Line at 1-800-597-TIPS (8477). Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/5/2020 (619 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Incident 1001 When: Jan. 5, 2020 Where: 1000 block of St. Marys Road The male pictured entered a convenience store located on St. Marys Rd. and robbed the clerk while armed with a machete. The suspect fled on foot. Incident 1002 Incident 1002 When: March 28, 2020 Where: 1200 block of St. Marys Road The male and female shown were in a shopping centre on St. Marys Road and were captured on video stealing some unattended coats and the hand bag of another shopper. A Bluffton man who tried to assault a Beaufort County sheriffs deputy with a pipe early Sunday was shot and injured, police said. It happened about 3:30 a.m. in the Shady Glen Mobile Home Park, becoming the states 15th officer-involved shooting of the year. Authorities were responding to a disturbance outside a residence when a pipe-wielding man tried to attack a deputy, who drew his service weapon and fired twice, officials said. The man continued to be combative after sustaining a gunshot wound but was restrained and transported to Savannah Memorial Hospital. He is in serious condition, according to the State Law Enforcement Division. The agency didnt publicly identify the officer involved in the case and SLED is investigating. South Carolina saw 45 officer-involved shootings in 2019, one of which involved the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office. No further information was immediately available. Officials from the Chattanooga Housing Authority said COVID-19 testing that was slated to begin Monday at Emma Wheeler Homes and Mary Walker Towers has been cancelled. CHA officials said, "The Tennessee National Guard was slated to provide the testing. However, the Tennessee Black Caucus and pastors from the area expressed concerns about having professionals in uniform conducting the testing." Rep. Yusuf Hakeem said, "First, the tests have not been cancelled. They have been postponed." He said there was concern from the community, black ministers and legislators, including himself, about the testing being handled by Guard members in fatigues. He said it was a statewide concern by members of the Black Caucus. He said, "From their (CHA) statement, there is an inference that the Housing Authority officials are more concerned about the testing than those who are raising the concerns. They did not give the complete picture. I take great issue with that." The legislator also said the local community was not told about the Guard involvement until shortly before the testing was to take place. Rep. Hakeem said he has been in contact with the governor's office on the issue and believes the tests can be reset - possibly as soon as next week. He said all of those raising concerns want the tests to happen soon. He said one option would be to use the Guard, but to have them not dressed in fatigues. However, he said he believes there are and have been other options for carrying out the tests without bringing in the Guard, including the use of the local health department and private agencies that are doing their own testing in the community. Rep. Hakeem also said there are concerns about the release of information about individuals related to the test results. CHA board member and Mary Walker Towers resident Jeff McClendon said, Weve been told by the local, state and federal officials how important testing is, and yet now the message were given is that testing is important to everyone except residents in public housing. The decision to not test puts all of us at an even higher risk. Its not acceptable. CHA Board Vice Chair Edna Varner said the CHA staff has been working for the last two weeks on a plan that would allow individuals to obtain voluntary testing with the results being sent privately only to to those tested. Our focus was to provide testing opportunities to anyone living in our communities who wanted to participate. The National Guard was going to provide healthcare professionals to test up to 3,100 residents at no charge. I understand how important it is to hear many voices when decisions are made, but this one required a sense of urgency with the health of our residents as priority one. I hope we don't end up regretting postponing the testing so that we can discuss it. CHA Board Chairman Jim Levine said, We were just trying to do what we could to protect the health and safety of our residents. CHA Executive Director Betsy McCright said the CHA is open to having partners step up to provide testing to residents. While weve been offered the assistance of community volunteers, its important to have trained healthcare professionals providing the tests to residents. We were grateful and remain grateful for the National Guards willingness to provide this critical service and hope some reasonable resolution can be reached to do just that. As soon as the details of the testing plans are available they will be shared with the media as well as through the CHAs social media platform: @CHAHousingAuthority on Facebook, CHA officials said. An intensive care doctor says he feels it is still too risky to reduce coronavirus restrictions in the UK, adding he fears moving too soon could create a second wave of infections thats even bigger than the first. Dr Ron Daniels, a consultant at Birmingham Hospital, told the PA news agency he had seen a chink of light, with some capacity and bed space returning at his unit after weeks of battling the virus. But he added: The reality is that the effect of a second wave is just so unknown that it is too risky in most health professionals view to relax lockdown right now. We would like to see our capacity in NHS hospitals back down to below usual levels before we can safely do that. Do we have enough beds to cope with a second wave if lockdown is relaxed too much? Absolutely not. Were still over our usual capacity, said Dr Daniels, 49, who is also executive director of Sepsis Trust UK. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced plans to allow members of the public to spend time outside as often as they like, as long as they maintain social distancing. Sunbathers in Greenwich Park, London (Yui Mok/PA) Dr Daniels added that the size and impact of any second wave was dependent on how many Britons had been infected something that remains far from clear. He said: It may be, as some optimistic estimates suggest, as high as 60 to 80% of the public who have been exposed. That would mean that a lot of people had had exposure to (the virus) and not developed symptoms and just gone about their lives as normal. But the more pessimistic, the more wary estimates, suggest that somewhere under 10% of our population have been exposed. If thats true, then we expect the second wave if lockdown is relaxed too quickly and too aggressively could even be bigger than the first. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has urged Scots to stay at home despite the guidance (Jeff J Mitchell/PA) Dr Daniels agreed that the messaging was vague, asking: How do people stay alert? How on earth do they control the virus? We assume it means control the virus spreading. My concern is that with these new guidelines being so vague theyre very open to interpretation, theyre open to almost gaming by members of the public who are frustrated at having to stay at home all the time that theyre going to be worth little more than the paper theyre written on. Thats the concern were massively reliant now on the way the public behave. People are desperate to see their family, theyre desperate to see their friends. And if we allow that, and if people are allowed to flout the rules were going to find ourselves in a situation where the R value starts increasing significantly. RELIGION What do you put on the census under religion? I was raised Catholic; I went to a Catholic school; my kids go to a Catholic school; I married a Catholic. I would say that Im a semi-practising Catholic. What does that entail? Church maybe twice a year during the big events: Easter and Christmas. Growing up, we went to church every week. Our ritual was going to church at 7.30am. Mass would go for 45 minutes unless Carlton won, in which case wed wrap it up in 25 to watch the TV replay. But if you ask me if theres a god, I dont know. Have recent revelations about the Catholic Church changed your relationship with it? My wife has a family member who was molested by a Catholic priest. Thats probably why, to be honest, we only go twice a year to church. It is hard to separate those things. Those [sexual abusers] dont represent a religion, but when you look at the way the Catholic Church has handled these situations, its pretty heavy to take it on and then go to try to celebrate your religion. Lighter question: to which of the seven deadly sins are you most susceptible: envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, sloth or wrath? [Laughs] Maybe sloth? Thats laziness, right? Actually, there was an article written about me many years ago that spoke to unnamed sources, and somebody branded me lazy. It hit a nerve because its like, How many jobs do I have to do to be not considered lazy? Ive been called the hardest-working man in show business. I dont believe that Eddie McGuires got me covered. Loading But you do work hard. I work hard! I think my wife would have slit that persons throat if shed known who it was, because she sees it. So I wont say sloth! And I made an early choice not to be envious of other people in the industry, so I dont think envy. Lust? Actually, I wont go for lust. [Laughs] BODIES Lets talk about your body, Pete. Are you happy with it? Uh, Im not thrilled. [Laughs] Why do you say that? How long have you got? Ive always had weight. When I look back at photos of when I was a kid, I do look like a regular, healthy kid, but Ive never been ripped. I was always the kid wearing T-shirts during swimming. Right now, though, Im lighter than Ive been for years. I made a choice at the end of last year to get into shape and Im not drinking during the week, Im exercising every day. Im under 100 kilograms for the first time in years. Wow, thats huge. Actually, thats the opposite of huge. [Laughs] People who have broken 100 kilograms know the 100-kilo mark becomes such a psychological thing. It does feel good. And I need to keep remembering the relationship between mental health and exercise, too. There are times when Im at the shops and people recognise me, when I feel I would like to be invisible. But in times where I feel a bit fitter, Im more open to that. Ive only made that connection recently. Loading Do you have a cool party trick or superpower you can do with your body? I can bend my thumb back so it touches my forearm. Is that a double-jointed thing? I dont know, but its probably not good to do it. But thats about it. I couldnt even whistle until a few years ago! I cant click my fingers correctly! Im so glad my dreams actually worked out, because the Plan Bs were not vast. Especially if you were going to be a professional whistler or finger-clicker. Well, I used to do a routine where Id admit I couldnt whistle. Id say, I dont need the whistle. But if I were a kettle, it would be different. The Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra government to issue a clear directive to the state police to ensure ambulances or other vehicles ferrying pets and sick animals to and from veterinary clinics are not stopped during the lockdown. Justice S C Gupte in an order on Friday said the police administration must not obstruct or stop such vehicles. He also directed the state to clarify its stand on permitting residents across the state take their dogs out for a walk during the coronavirus-enforced lockdown period. The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a Pune resident seeking permission to take her pet dogs outside for their daily walks. The PIL, filed through advocate Harshwardhan Bhende, claimed several police stations under the jurisdiction of Pune Police had issued "arbitrary directions" to housing societies to stop residents from taking their dogs outside for walks. Advocate Bhende also told the high court that several ambulances and pet taxis ferrying sick animals to vet clinics were being stopped by police. He said the Pune Police were "refusing to issue passes" for such vehicles to ply during the lockdown. The plea claimed the Central Animal Welfare Board had asked the state police to permit taking dogs out for walk as prohibiting it would amount to causing cruelty to animals. Advocate Bhende said animal feeders must also be permitted to feed stray animals without any obstruction from police. The plea alleged that the Pune Police often arbitrarily stopped pet owners from taking dogs for walks and in some cases, pet owners had been taken to police stations and detained there for over three-four hours". However, the Maharashtra government counsels P B Kakde and M M Pable told the high court that citizens were permitted to their pets for walk inside their residential compounds. The state had only prohibited people from taking their pets outside the premises of their housing societies and individual homes. They also said the state had "not asked its police administration to stop or obstruct ambulances or pet taxis". The high court accepted the state's submissions, but said if there existed any directives by the Animal Welfare Board of India to the state DGPs in the matter of taking dogs for walk, the state must take an appropriate decision on it and communicate the same to the court by the next date. "In the meantime, the state is directed to issue a clear directive to the police administration not to stop or obstruct ambulances or pet taxis from ferrying sick animals to and from veterinary clinics," Justice Gupte said. As far as taking dogs for a walk and catering to their needs through animal feeders are concerned, the state should communicate its stand through an affidavit by May 15, the court said. Over 3,100 migrants from north Mumbai were given permission by police to board trains that left from the metropolis for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar on Sunday, officials said. A total of 1,916 migrant labourers stranded in the coronavirus-induced lockdown were given permission by Saki Naka police station to travel on board a Shramik Special train for Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. Later in the afternoon, a total of 1,209 labourers living in the jurisdiction of Meghwadi and Jogeshwari police stations were given permission to board a train leaving from here to Nalanda in Bihar, the official said. This train, too, left from Kurla LTT. Zone X Deputy Commissioner of Police Ankit Goel said multiple buses were used to get these labourers to Central Railway's Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Kurla area. "All details of the people traveling were taken, and documents analysed. The buses were sanitised," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The trade between India and Bangladesh can continue through Gede in south Bengals Nadia district during the coronavirus lockdown, the West Bengal government has proposed to the Centre. The move comes after the Centre came down hard on the Mamata Banerjee government on Wednesday for not allowing movement of goods traffic through border crossings between the two neighbouring countries during the lockdown - a move it said could jeopardise Indias international commitments. One of the proposals that has come up in the letters that were exchanged between the Centre and the state is to continue international trade between India and Bangladesh through Gede via trains. This is safer and acceptable, said Alapan Bandyopadhay, state home secretary. Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla, in his letter to West Bengal chief secretary Rajiva Sinha, had stated on Wednesday that goods traffic through border crossings between India and Bangladesh, falling in the state, didnt resume. Bhalla told that by doing so, West Bengal was not only violating the Ministry of Home Affairs orders under Disaster Management Act but also Articles 253, 256 and 257 of the Constitution of India. To this, Bandyopadhay had earlier stated that there were some local problems which had cropped up at Petrapole in North 24 Parganas. In case of Petrapole there has been some public issue. People at the border are in emotive commotion. The whole thing is being navigated. We will address the issue in due time after careful consideration of all the aspects involved. There are several issues concerning trade between India and Bangladesh. They would be considered after detailed discussion, Bandopadhyay had said on Wednesday soon after the centres letter. Bangladesh is Indias biggest trade partner in South Asia. Indias export to Bangladesh for the financial year 2018-19 was $9.21 billion and imports from Bangladesh for the same period was $1.22 billion. A majority of Covid-19 pneumonia patients that we treated or observed during the surges in New York City and Italy had severe lung injury on first presentation. They were, in other words, arriving at the hospital too late, and many were winding up on ventilators. In all medicine whether in patients who have traumatic injury, cancer, diabetes or an infectious disease earlier identification and treatment leads to better outcomes. Covid-19 is no different. We must continue improving the I.C.U. care of patients with advanced Covid-19 pneumonia. But we will have the greatest public health impact if we prevent it from occurring in the first place. The value of early detection has become apparent in northern Italy, once the epicenter of the pandemic. The surge there has abated, and patients are no longer afraid to come to the emergency department. That means patients with symptoms of Covid-19, such as fever, muscle aches and cough, are coming to the hospital earlier and their illness is less severe. There is some heartening evidence admittedly inconclusive that earlier treatment makes a difference. In a small pilot study of 250 Covid-19 cases conducted by Dr. Cosentini in Italy, half were found to have mild pneumonia but their oxygen saturation was not yet compromised. All of these patients were able to be discharged from the E.R., and they were sent home with pulse oximeters. Only 5 percent returned and were hospitalized when their oxygen saturation levels declined slightly. None of these patients required a ventilator. And none of these 250 patients died. While there is no specific cure for Covid-19 and we have nothing that directly kills the virus, we do have treatments that help patients and prevent the need for a ventilator. These include various noninvasive methods of delivering oxygen, patient positioning maneuvers that open up parts of the lungs, and close monitoring and treatment of inflammation. There is no panacea; some patients will still have the disease worsen, and there are some patients who will still have serious injury from Covid-19 unrelated to the lungs. Until now the manner in which our health care system has addressed this crisis has failed. But doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists want to win. We want to tell families their loved ones are recovering and not dying. Everyone hopes new therapies and ultimately a vaccine will help defeat Covid-19. But until the magic bullets arrive, we must engage this disease differently that is, earlier if we are going to save lives and reduce the immense cost of care. For our country to benefit from this strategy, we need to completely change public health messaging and create a new standard of care and that messaging must come from the federal government. If the C.D.C. leads, health agencies around the world will follow. Dr. Richard Levitan is an emergency doctor at Littleton Regional Health in Littleton, N.H. Dr. Nicholas Caputo is an emergency doctor at Lincoln Hospital in New York. Dr. Roberto Cosentini is an emergency doctor at Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital in Bergamo, Italy. Dr. Jorge Cabrera is a critical care doctor at the University of Miami Hospital. The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. Hospital corpswoman Nguyen Vi Anh was initially recruited into the U.S. Navy after a courageous stint in boot camp. Anh, 30, a staff member at Balboa Naval Medical Center, has been assigned to 272-meter USNS Mercy, one of two hospital ships operated by the United States Navy. Around a month ago, the worlds largest floating hospital docked in Los Angeles amid fears the city would become a Covid-19 hotspot like New York. The USNS Mercy subsequently received and treated patients from other hospitals to make space for new coronavirus patients. Anh provides meals to patients and other staff from 4.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. daily. "I work 14 to 16 hours a day, sleeping during most of my free time," she said. Joining the U.S. Navy over a year ago, Anh could not hide her excitement nor trepidation after learning she would be stationed on USNS Mercy. The vessel recorded its first Covid-19 patient 14 days after she first boarded on March 23. As of mid-April, seven more cases were confirmed, trapping 100 medics in quarantine. Fortunately, the outbreak was contained and though many of Anhs colleagues had returned home, she opted to stay. Nguyen Vi Anh is onboard USNS Mercy, docked in Los Angeles. Photo courtesy of Anh. Years ago, vicenarian Anh, from southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province in Vietnam, decided to study abroad to widen her world view. Graduating from the Ho Chi Minh City University of Architecture, she left Vietnam in 2014 and attended a course in mechanical drafting at Houston Community College. After four years, earning an associates degree, she did not hesitate shifting to a different major. "I once talked to an army recruit, who told me about his career," Anh recalled. Inspired by his positive attitude, she aced a theory exam and entered boot camp alongside 100 other recruits in December 2018. Anh completed eight weeks of training under massive pressure, often amid extreme weather conditions. It was the coldest winter in a decade, with temperatures at minus 30 degrees Celsius, causing her to suffer frequent nose bleeds. The graduating hospital corpswoman Anh receives her certificate. Photo courtesy of Anh. "Crossing the snow, I told myself I would remember this for the rest of my life. Now, the memory helps me overcome most of lifes difficulties." After the first three weeks, Anh gained more confidence in preparation for the final test. "Battle Stations taught me the merits of team work, fully aware you cant survive boot camp alone," Anh stated. Though dozens of recruits failed, 1.53 meter high, 48 kilogram Anh passed. On graduation day, surrounded by sailors from diverse cultural backgrounds, she called her mother and brother in Vietnam, whom she had not talked to in eight weeks. "I am proud of you and support you," Anhs mom told her. Nguyen Vi Anh and her husband in her hometown in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau in 2017. Photo courtesy of Anh. Exiting boot camp, Anh immediately joined a 19-week course in military medicine. "To reach my goals, I leave no room for laziness," she stressed, adding she was assigned academic manager during the course. The industrious Anh studied around the clock and graduated with a GPA of 99/100. Last July, she started working at one of the largest U.S. naval hospitals in San Diego. As a hospital corpswoman, Anh gets to travel to many places, including Japan, Italy, South Korea, Singapore, and Germany, etc. This Fall, she will join another course, taking a further step in her stellar military career. "I may not be rich, but Ive had countless experiences. In future, when I look back, I will surely be satisfied." Piers Morgan and Vicky Pattison have been indulging in some light-hearted flirting after the reality star gave an interview admitting she is 'obsessed' with him. The Good Morning Britain host, 55, took to Instagram and shared a snap of an interview Vicky, 32, did with Fabulous magazine which features a picture of her alongside the quote: 'I'm obsessed with Piers Morgan!' Piers joked Vicky's admission could spark his wife Celia Walden to worry as he wrote: 'Well now.... this should keep Celia on her toes'. Banter: Piers Morgan, 55, and Vicky Pattison, 32, have been indulging in some flirting after the reality star gave an interview admitting she is 'obsessed' with him (pictured in March 2020) Vicky, who admitted that watching Good Morning Britain in lockdown was making her 'fancy' Piers, responded in good humour. She wrote: 'The voice of the people Mr Morgan... what can I say? I like a man with backbone.' Piers responded by thanking Vicky for her enthusiastic support, writing: 'Thank you Ms Pattison, glad youre enjoying the show!' In her interview with the publication, Vicky had said: '[Lockdown] is making me fancy Piers Morgan. Big fan: Vicky did with Fabulous magazine which features a picture of her alongside the quote: 'I'm obsessed with Piers Morgan!' 'Just a bit, mind. But I f**king love him and I want him to be our next Prime Minster. Im obsessed! I cant get enough of him calling everyone out.' Praising the broadcaster for his tough interviews with government officials, Vicky added: 'Hes been the main champion for this from the get-go and I think hes doing the most fantastic job of holding our politicians to account.' It comes after Vicky candidly discussed her relationship with boyfriend Ercan Ramadan during lockdown and cheekily revealed that he 'always wants sex'. Chuffed: Piers joked Vicky's admission could spark his wife Celia Walden to worry as he wrote: 'Well now.... this should keep Celia on her toes' Back and forth: Vicky, who admitted that watching Good Morning Britain in lockdown was making her 'fancy' Piers, responded in good humour Vicky went on to speak about how her mother Caroll, 62, has fought off coronavirus but is still suffering from fatigue and breathlessness. Vicky has been isolating with her boyfriend of just over a year, former TOWIE star Ercan, 26, and revealed that she is happy to be in lockdown with him rather than any of her exes. She told The Sun: 'I'm with a man who's so lovely to me that I worry about getting out the door when I leave isolation not because of the size of my a**e but the size of my head because he makes me feel so good about myself. 'He wants kisses when I've got no make-up on, he's always touching my bum. He always wants to have sex. I think he's fallen in love with who I am as a person and so when he looks at me he doesn't see this little boy face and Mrs Trunchbull bun and squidgy mid-section. He sees a person he loves, and I've never had that before.' Lockdown perks: Vicky candidly discussed her relationship with boyfriend Ercan Ramadan during lockdown and cheekily revealed that he 'always wants sex' Smitten: Vicky has been isolating with her boyfriend of just over a year, former TOWIE star Ercan, 26, and revealed that she is happy to be in lockdown with him rather than any of her exes She went on to reveal that they have been using TV to buffer silences from being cooped up together all day. She admitted that there had been some tough times but said: 'It's difficult whether you've been together 20 years or 20 weeks and if you're trying to tell me it's all rainbows and kittens then you're full of s**t.' The coronavirus crisis and ensuing lockdown inspired the first episode of Vicky's new podcast series, Vicky Pattison: The Secret To, which discusses how to help your relationship survive quarantine. The episode will feature Made In Chelsea's Jamie Laing and his girlfriend Sophie Habboo. Vicky had been due to marry businessman John Noble, 31, last year but she called it off after he was caught in a compromising position with a girl in a nightclub. She said that even if she had gone through with the wedding she would have been divorced by now. Vicky opened up about some of her struggles in lockdown and said that not being able to see her family and friends, especially her three-month-old niece Mavie, is hard as she misses them. Sweet: She told The Sun: 'He wants kisses when I've got no make-up on, he's always touching my bum. He always wants to have sex. I think he's fallen in love with who I am as a person.' (pictured in January) The TV personality touched on her anxiety and said hers has got worse because she has more free time to overthink things. She revealed she thrives on logic and routine so has been struggling with the seemingly endless abyss of lockdown. Vicky has been getting back into cooking food from scratch and is focusing on healthy Masterchef recipes. However she did reveal that her go-to method for coping with isolation involves chocolate and wine. She said she's been really enjoying seeing other celebrities posting no makeup selfies on social media now that no one can get to their cosmetic appointments. The selfless TV personality is staying busy by working with Age UK to deliver food parcels to vulnerable people who are self-isolating across the country. US Says All Countries Should Ban Iran's Mahan Air To Avoid Coronavirus And Sanctions Radio Farda May 09, 2020 The U.S. State Department Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus on Friday called on all countries to keep Iran's Mahan Air out to "avoid coronavirus and sanction risk". "Deeply troubled weapons of mass destruction proliferator Mahan Air, which supports terrorism and the Maduro regime, is also reportedly suppressing air crew concerns and spreading COVID-19, Ortagus wrote in a tweet and added: 'Avoid the coronavirus and sanction risks by keeping Mahan Air out of your country". Iran's Mahan Air which is controlled by the Revolutionary Guard has been under U.S. sanctions since 2011 for allegedly transporting fighters and weapons to Iran's proxies and support of terrorism on behalf of the Revolutionary Guard. Germany and France joined the U.S. in denying landing rights to Mahan Air in 2019. The airline is blamed for bringing coronavirus to Iran in January and February by continuing its flights to Chinese cities including Wuhan, the epicenter of coronavirus epidemic in China. Iran announced its first cases of coronavirus infections and deaths on February 19 and since then the number of fatalities according to official figures has increased to nearly 6,600, with more than 105,000 diagnosed with the disease. Since April 21 Mahan Air has opened an air bridge between Iran and Venezuela. "Our assumption is that those planes that come from Iran are bringing things for the oil industry, and they return full of gold as a form of payment," El Politico on March 30 quoted Elliot Abrams, the U.S. Special manager for Venezuela as saying. However, informed sources told Bloomberg that Venezuela was sending some 9 tons of gold an amount equal to about $500 million to Iran by Mahan Air for help in revival of its crippled gasoline refineries. The United States has urged other countries to deny overflight rights to Mahan Air in addition to the denial of landing rights already in place by some countries. "You've got one terrorist regime helping another terrorist regime," the U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook said in an exclusive interview with Radio Farda on April 30. Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/us-says-all- countries-should-ban-iran-s-mahan-air-to-avoid- coronavirus-and-sanctions/30602978.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Swiss bank UBS aims to create a digital banking platform that could slash costs and spur growth, but its plan hinges on securing a licence in mainland China to kick-start the project. Edmund Koh, who heads UBS in the Asia-Pacific region, sees China's framework digital banking rules in place by June or July. At which point, he hopes that the lender's application for a nationwide, majority-owned digital bank licence will gain traction. If UBS succeeds, it will join the likes of Tencent Holdings' and Alibaba Group Holding's banking affiliates in providing low-cost financial services online across China, where two new billionaires emerge every week. "We need scale, and I'm going to get that scale for UBS, working together with the Chinese authorities," said Koh, who plans to incubate the platform in China, then take it global. Edmund Koh, who heads UBS in the Asia-Pacific region. Photo: Handout alt=Edmund Koh, who heads UBS in the Asia-Pacific region. Photo: Handout Koh estimated it costs roughly US$25,000 to acquire a wealth-management client, which UBS could slash down to as little as US$60 via a digital bank. He has a stretch goal in mind of expanding UBS's 30,000 customer base in Asia to 200,000 within two years, once he has secured the digital banking licence in mainland China. China's regulators are now working on guidelines for a further batch of digital-banking applications from domestic and overseas firms present in China. The country's regulations for its rapidly evolving digitising financial markets are gradually coalescing. New rules are likely to be stricter than previous iterations, requiring higher reporting standards, capital requirements and clarified regulatory reporting lines. The cost of running a digital financial operation is likely to rise as a result, said industry sources. China has granted 18 licences for privately run banks since 2014, including those to Tencent-backed WeBank, Alibaba's affiliate MYbank and aiBank, whose investors include Baidu. These are online-only banks and the new digital banking rules will govern them as well. Story continues WeBank, one of China's internet banks, is backed by Tencent. Photo: SCMP alt=WeBank, one of China's internet banks, is backed by Tencent. Photo: SCMP China has gradually been opening up to foreign financial institutions, which have ranged from asset managers to insurers. Other global wealth managers are expanding in China too, including BlackRock and French asset manager Amundi, but they plan to sell their products through the distribution networks of Chinese commercial banks. If a foreign bank is granted a digital banking licence the potential is huge, but they would be competing against formidable technology-enabled incumbents offering a slick user experience. "Digital banks would need to have a superior experience to win the hearts of China's young customers," said Alan Zhang at consultancy Accenture. Apart from a silky smooth customer journey, any digital bank in China would need to be data-driven with a modern core-banking system, enabling it to respond swiftly to fast-changing consumer behaviour and appetite for financial services in China, he said. However, not all can afford to seize this opportunity, as they grapple with soaring bad loans in their home markets. "A lot of big banks are looking inward to support their core domestic business right now," said Koh, who is Singaporean. He feels exceptionally well placed among his peers to build on the bank's growth in China after a record-breaking first quarter in the Asia-Pacific region. On Koh's watch, Asia-Pacific contributed 31 per cent of group pre-tax earnings in the first quarter, higher than the roughly 18 per cent to 22 per cent split across recent years. Pre-tax profits in the region hit about US$800 million in the first quarter, up 154 per cent year on year, as its rich clients shuffled their portfolios as the coronavirus pandemic knocked global markets, Koh said. China is the right place to develop a digital bank platform, he reckons, as the country's expertise in artificial intelligence (AI) combined with its troves of data are rapidly transforming financial services and risk management. Once UBS has secured a digital banking licence in China and built its platform employing AI specialists, Koh plans to export the model overseas to other markets with widely dispersed mass affluent populations and rational competition. To be sure, UBS already has a universal banking model in place in Switzerland, with an online digital platform. But in Asia, UBS has not pursued a mass affluent client base. It plans to serve China's booming middle class with US$100,000 to US$200,000 to put in the bank, offering them initially a smorgasbord of Chinese securities and mutual funds. The Swiss bank plans to serve China's booming middle class with US$100,000 to US$200,000 to put in the bank. Photo: Bloomberg alt=The Swiss bank plans to serve China's booming middle class with US$100,000 to US$200,000 to put in the bank. Photo: Bloomberg The pilot digital bank will be based in Qianhai, focused initially on the dynamic Greater Bay Area with its population of more than 69 million people and a GDP of about US$1.5 trillion. Its ideal customers will be young entrepreneurs who are reinvesting wealth in their fast-growing businesses, but still want to diversify their savings. In some ways, it would be a digital extension of UBS's bricks-and-mortar branch in Kowloon, Hong Kong, which caters to local entrepreneurs with businesses in mainland China. As the nest eggs of China's mass affluent population grow and they need more tailored advice, Koh sees them transferring to UBS (China) for face-to-face wealth management advice in areas such as succession planning. The Beijing-headquartered business is expanding its suite of product licences. "Today's affluent in China will be tomorrow's high-net-worth individuals and then billionaires," Koh said. Additional reporting by Georgina Lee This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright 2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Poachers have killed a rhino in Assams Kaziranga National Park with an AK-47 assault rifle and taken the animals horn, striking after a gap of more than 13 months, forest department officials said on Sunday. Discovery of eight empty shells of an AK-47 assault rifle at the spot where the rhinos carcass was found have led forest officials to suspect the role of some local insurgent groups, who are in possession of such sophisticated arms. This is the first instance of rhino poaching in Kaziranga this year. There was no instance of poaching the 430 sq km park since April 1, 2019, and it had recorded three poaching deaths last year. The carcass of the adult male rhino was found by our personnel on Saturday evening at the Agaratoli range of the park with its horn missing. It seems the poaching incident took place on Wednesday, P Sivakumar, director of the national park, said. All the five national parks, 18 wildlife sanctuaries and zoos in Assam have been closed for tourists since mid-March due to the nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19. But there have been instances of movement of poachers during this period. There was some information about the movement of eight persons allegedly belonging to some extremist group from Karbi Anglong in the Panbari area with three AK series rifles. Combing operations were carried out based on the information, Sivakumar said. This is the first case of use of AK-47 rifles to kill rhino in the Agaratoli range of the park. Only trained groups who know how to handle such arms can indulge in such kind of poaching. We suspect they had come from the nearby Karbi Anglong district, he added. Last month, villagers on the eastern side of the park had caught a suspected rhino poacher with arms and handed him over to the police and forest officials. Kaziranga did its best to keep poachers away in last 13 months. Unfortunately it was the poachers day (sic), Rohit Choudhury, a wildlife activist, tweeted. With a population of around 2,400, Kaziranga is the largest habitat of the one-horned rhino in the world. It is also a hunting ground for poachers who target the animal for its hornprized as medicine in China and some other Southeast Asian countries. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Gerald and Claudio Chacon continue a tradition their family started in the late-1800s raising herds of cattle in rural Rio Arriba County. Both men had careers outside agriculture, but now spend their retirement maintaining a herd of a little over 200 cows and their calves. Rugged northern New Mexico is not easy on cattle ranchers. Mountainous terrain, harsh winters, cattle thieves and an extended drought make it difficult to squeeze out a profit in an extremely tight market. And that was before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, prices for beef in grocery stores have skyrocketed as many packing plants across the country, almost all of which are managed by such large corporations as Tyson Foods, attempt to manage outbreaks that infect employees and reduce production. But while consumers pay more for beef, corporations are paying ranchers around 30% less for calves, New Mexico ranchers main product. The sudden drop in prices has left many unsure how they will finance the massive costs of running a cattle operation in New Mexico. Most ranchers in New Mexico sell the bulk of their calves in the fall, one paycheck for a years worth of work. Gerald Chacon said his family has seen plenty of years where profits werent as good, but that this year is something different. This one may be one of the worst, because of the prices and the uncertainty of it, he said. Geralds nephew, Matt Reitzel, works for his uncle on the ranch year-round and guides herds across 20,000 acres of the Carson National Forest, just north of Ojo Caliente. Its not yet summer, but the ground is already bone dry and the dirt feels like sand. This is shaping up to be a nasty summer, Reitzel said. Wed still be in the mud, usually. A man then drove up to the cowboys in an all-terrain vehicle and told them a mountain lion had killed one of their calves. A look of tempered frustration swept over their faces. Weve always had something difficult to face, Gerald Chacon said. Thats just the nature of living here and being in this industry. That experience shows in how they maintain their herd. They manage to find their cattle across a vast landscape, guiding them to various wells and pastures, using only memory and tracks. So far, the virus has not impacted their work. But Gerald fears that if prices dont rise by October, he may not be able to pass on the herd to his nephew and their operation wont continue. Nobody really knows where its going to end up, he said. Not the whole story Few essential businesses have been as affected by the coronavirus as the meatpacking industry. Several outbreaks have popped up in larger packing plants across the country. One Tyson Foods plant in Iowa saw 60% of its workers get infected with the virus. Tyson, along with fellow meat corporations Smithfield and JBS, closed some of their packing plants in response, before President Donald Trump ordered them on April 28 to remain open. However, USA Today reported Wednesday that plants continue to close despite the order. As a result, production at meatpacking plants has slowed to a crawl, leading to a backup of cattle waiting to be processed. The price has, therefore, increased for consumers and declined for producers. However, ranchers say prices for their cattle, which have dipped to around 90 cents per pound, dont justify the soaring meat prices at the store. Thats not the whole story, said Tom Spindle, who runs a large ranch near Stanley. When our cattle are selling for 30% less than they were, but then the meat is marked up 30% at the store, somebodys getting really rich there and its not us. Most ranchers make only around a 1% profit on their cattle. Even before the pandemic, many ranchers lived on slim amounts of money or got second jobs. A rancher, Spindle said, can have millions of dollars worth of land and still be broke. Most guys stay poor and keep their ranches, he said. Spindle takes pride in his cattle he wears a belt buckle he won for having the best heifer at the New Mexico State Fair but even his comparatively large operation is facing its share of pandemic-induced challenges. We sold some cattle in January that we made some money on then COVID-19 came in and we lost money on the next 10 loads of calves, he said. While farmers growing fruits and vegetables can negotiate prices, cattle farmers have to sell their stock at certain times of the year, meaning they have to take whatever price corporate-run feed lots offer them. This situation, Spindle said, puts ranchers in the difficult position of accepting prices they cant live on. If somebody came to me and wanted to buy a bunch of cows, Id dang sure sell them, but theres not a market for them, he said. The federal CARES Act, meant to assist economically struggling businesses, reserved $9.5 billion for those raising livestock and specialty crops. But Spindle said most ranchers havent seen that money yet, and many will receive $100,000 when it arrives. In the grand scheme of things, thats not a whole lot of money, he said, adding a new tractor alone costs $160,000. Meanwhile, Tyson Foods secured $1.5 billion in loans from such large banks as Morgan Stanley. Lowering production has resulted in a smaller amount of meat entering supermarkets and restaurants, fueling fears of a nationwide meat shortage and driving up prices. In Springer, a small town in the states northeast corner, Mayor Boe Lopez said the local grocery store is receiving only around one-third of the meat it orders. Himself a cattle rancher, Lopez said many ranchers believe the handful of meatpacking corporations are intentionally lowering payments to producers to make a larger profit and that plants have been taking less beef to drive up prices for years. Thats how theyre trying to justify the price, he said. Lopez said that if beef prices do not increase, it could devastate the local economy in Springer and Colfax County, which relies heavily on property taxes paid by ranchers. For now, most ranchers are continuing operations as normal, hoping production and prices increase before the fall, where the vast majority of money is made. Some health experts have, however, warned of a potential second outbreak in the fall even more deadly than the first, right as cattle producers get ready to sell their calves to feed lots. Ranchers in the state agree that a second outbreak, along with a coinciding tumble in prices, would be almost too much to bear. That could be the demise of ranching in New Mexico, Spindle said. James Dator, a professor and director of the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies / Courtesy of James Dator By the time June rolls around each year, students, teachers and staff are normally wrapping up their lesson plans, itching for summer vacation and the chance to take a break from school for a few months. But not this year. Just as it has done with virtually everything else, the coronavirus has changed schooling in New York into something unrecognizable an all-remote, largely online effort at keeping students engaged, while dealing with immense obstacles like a lack of internet access or internet-connected devices, sick relatives and friends, and families in economic distress. Gov. Andrew Cuomos announcement on May 1 that school buildings would remain closed and remote learning would continue for the rest of the academic year confirmed what many had already assumed. But it shed no light on what teaching would look like when buildings eventually reopen. Now, instead of taking a mental break from school, district leaders, school administrators, and city and state officials will spend the next few months figuring out how to reopen schools safely whether thats in September or not. There may, however, be an upside to all that extra work. When Cuomo originally closed schools across the state in mid-March, many school districts only had days to figure out how to transition to remote learning and continue providing meals and other services to students who relied on them. At least this time around, there is more time to plan for how to educate kids across New York in the middle of a pandemic. We know that the way we closed schools was not good because there was no plan in place, said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, the public school teachers union in New York City. Thats why the educators, as a community, weve just said were going to start putting our own plans in place. There are a number of questions that loom large for school districts making plans to reopen. What kinds of coronavirus testing and tracing systems have to be in place before students and staff feel safe going back to school? How do school districts build modified schedules around social distancing? How could schools improve and expand remote learning? Perhaps most importantly, how do districts prepare for the eventuality that the coronavirus could throw those well laid plans into disarray if students, teachers or their families get sick, or if a second wave of the virus forces schools to close again? What appears clear to experts and advocates is that schools are unlikely to welcome all students back into their buildings all of the time come September. Spokespeople for the state Education Department and the New York City Department of Education did not comment on plans for reopening, but city schools Chancellor Richard Carranza called it only a 50-50 shot that schools will reopen in September. If schools do reopen then and social distancing measures are still recommended, they would likely operate on a rotating schedule. A class could be split into two groups, for example, and group A goes to the physical school building on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and group B goes in on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Groups A and B would then switch their days each week so each student gets the same amount of in-person instruction. Others have suggested a split schedule with half the class attending school in the morning and half in the afternoon. Mulgrew said that in overcrowded New York City schools, a schedule where students attend class every third day may be necessary. Of course, when kids arent scheduled to be physically in class, theyd still have to attend remote classes and work from home. Though some praise the speed with which schools made the transition to remote learning, the transition has illuminated inequalities among students. One of the challenges has been getting every student an internet-connected device. A significant amount of reporting has been done on this issue in New York City. As of late April, 19,000 students who had requested devices mostly from a pool of 300,000 iPads the city Department of Education bought in the past two months still dont have them. Some students in New York City also lack access to Wi-Fi. The speedy transition to remote learning has also highlighted inequalities in rural school districts. High-speed broadband internet remains elusive in rural parts of the state, and many school districts dont have devices to hand out or buy for their students. David Little, the executive director of the Rural Schools Association of New York State, said that when the Smart Schools Bond Act a $2 billion initiative to invest in classroom technology and broadband connectivity was set up in 2014, schools in the New York City area were able to buy these devices while rural schools spent money on hardwiring their facilities for internet. Essentially, rural schools have been forced to play catch up. Annie McDonough Ideally, these next few months will provide some opportunity for districts to make remote learning more accessible by the time school starts again in the fall. Kevin Casey, executive director of the School Administrators Association of New York State, said in parts of the state that dont have internet access, they are deploying school buses as mobile Wi-Fi hot spots to reach students closer to their homes. Other innovative efforts could be piloted over the summer. School districts could use the time to conduct a thorough inventory of which students lack devices or internet access and address those situations individually. Cuomo recently tapped ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help the state reimagine remote learning and post-pandemic education in general. Some advocates and progressive lawmakers criticized Cuomos reliance on tech billionaires to steer state policy. While school districts may be able to make some progress on providing the means for remote learning, its still a challenge to make it work. A variety of limitations a lack of physical space, supervision and individual attention can still stand in the way of effective remote education. Hardware is only a prerequisite to the time and ability of those students to learn online, said David Bloomfield, an education professor at Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center. That has a lot to do with home circumstance as well as their ability to comprehend the material. The challenge of reopening schools doesnt just have to do with learning and what happens in the classroom its every other task and activity in schools orbit, including transportation, walking through the hallways and eating lunch in the cafeteria. If school buses usually transport 60 students and that number is cut in half because of a split schedule, 30 students is still too many on a bus to maintain social distancing, Little said. And what about spacing out lockers or policing the way students travel through the hallways? Some have suggested that instead of students moving from class to class throughout the day, teachers move between classrooms. Its less foot traffic in the hallway. But it could get complicated when a chemistry teacher comes into a English classroom unequipped with beakers or bunsen burners. These are all questions that will have to be addressed, but a perfect solution that addresses them all may not exist. I think that until youve got a vaccine or until youve got this massive testing and tracing system that the governor has described, you have to assume that people arent safe in doing this, Little said. Theyre just trying to keep the rate of transmission below what the hospitals can handle. Littles point gets back to the source of the problem: the coronavirus. While the rate of new cases in New York has been slowing, its unclear what the rate of transmission will look like in September. And as experts continue to warn of a second wave of the virus in the fall, schools will have to prepare for a full school shutdown, even if they do reopen briefly. Theres also the possibility that parents and families wont be comfortable sending their children back to school in September. The same concerns apply for teachers and staff who live with people who are vulnerable to the virus, or who are vulnerable themselves. Practically, a number of new hygienic measures will have to be put in place, with face masks and coverings for everyone in the building. Asking kindergarteners to wash their hands for at least 20 seconds and stay 6 feet away from their classmates, however, is easier said than done. When we implement all these different procedures, theres going to have to be some level of training, of professional development for teaching staff, administrative staff, because they in turn will have to educate not only the students, but parents with pickup and drop-off issues, vendors, anyone that might come to the school, Casey said. Annie McDonough After announcing that schools will close for the rest of this academic year, Cuomo said that schools have to start developing reopening plans, including protocols to safeguard students and staff, and that those plans will have to be approved by the state. The state Education Department also recently announced a task force that will guide the reopening of schools, made up of educators like superintendents, principals, teachers as well as parents, school board members and others. But having to make those plans including provisions for expanding remote learning or running school buses more frequently while Cuomo is discussing 20% cuts in state aid to schools if federal aid doesnt come through, makes the task especially daunting. You cut state aid 20% and Ill tell you what happens to a third of the rural schools, Little said. You dont have to worry about them opening, because they wont. Its now been about two months since Wisconsins Safer at Home order went into effect, shutting down many businesses and putting hundreds of thousands of people out of work. But while the shutdown was able to slow the spread of coronavirus, the state admittedly was not prepared for the number of unemployment claims that were about to inundate the system. Currently the states unemployment insurance program is experiencing unprecedented claim volume with more than 300,000 claims per week. This is 194% higher than the average number of weekly claims received during the first year of the Great Recession, according to most recent figures from the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. If that pace continues, the state estimates the unemployment fund could run dry by October and would need to borrow from the federal government. Instead of being able to help residents in their time of need, the unemployment system has caused endless headaches for people. When many people have applied, they have later received a message saying they were denied without an explanation why. And if people tried to call, they were often put on hold for hours or forced to call back time and time again sometimes hundreds of times. On top of that, some unemployment recipients accidentally received the wrong amounts in their bank accounts last month, resulting in the removal of payments from their accounts, according to the Department of Workforce Development. Ryan Nilsestuen, chief legal counsel to the governor, said its important to realize that, This is an unprecedented number of claims that they had to handle in a short period of time. Its been a significant challenge. With that he said, the Department of Workforce Development has been hiring additional staff to deal with the backlog. Weve been transferring employees from other agencies to fill in DWD, he said. DWD also did a significant technology upgrade to be able to handle significantly larger number of callers and that helped a lot to make sure people werent being dropped and that they were able to answer more calls. And theres going to continue to be those types of technology upgrades and additional employees and streamlining processes. Still its an embarrassment to our state to hear how unprepared Wisconsin was. And its very concerning to think about how those unemployed workers are doing now, without a paycheck. Thousands and thousands of people are out of work for no fault of their own. While a lot of recognition is given to the essential frontline workers, those who are unemployed are also doing their part. Their places of work were closed in the name of public safety. Yet, the only thanks they are given for doing their part to stop the spread of the virus is a busy signal and an email saying their claim is denied. They deserve better and the state must do better. Thousands and thousands of people are out of work for no fault of their own. While a lot of recognition is given to the essential frontline workers, those who are unemployed are also doing their part. BAGHDADIraqs judiciary ordered courts on Sunday to release anti-government protesters, carrying out one of the first decisions of the recently inaugurated prime minister just as dozens of demonstrators burned tires in renewed protests against the new leadership. Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi also promoted a well-respected Iraqi general, who played a key role in the military campaign against the Islamic State militant group, to lead counterterrorism operations. Lt.-Gen. Abdul Wahab al-Saadi was mysteriously demoted last year by former prime minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, prompting outrage and sparking popular protests in northern Iraq and Baghdad. The Supreme Judiciary Council said in a statement that it had ordered the release of protesters detained since those demonstrations erupted, in line with the new prime ministers call. The council released detainees based on Article 38 of the constitution which guarantees the right to protest, provided that it is not accompanied by an act contrary to the law, the statement said. In a press briefing Saturday night following his first cabinet meeting as premier, al-Kadhimi said demonstrators should be protected and that all protesters should be released, except those involved in violence. Protests erupted in Baghdad and across the countrys south on Oct. 1, when frustrated Iraqis took to the streets to decry rampant government corruption, unemployment and poor services. Human rights groups say at least 600 people died in the following three months at the hands of Iraqi security forces who used live fire and tear gas to disperse the crowds. The demonstrations petered out with the rise of the coronavirus pandemic, though dozens of protesters are still camped out in Baghdads Tahrir Square determined not to let the movement die. Al-Kadhimi also said he was promoting al-Saadi to become head of Iraqs elite Counter-Terrorism Service, just as the country was experiencing an uptick in attacks by the Islamic State group in the north. Previously, the general was a force commander in the service before Abdul-Mahdi demoted him in September to a post in the Defence Ministry. The Iraqi public considered his sudden demotion a sign of corrupt government practices and took to the streets in outrage. Al-Saadi, 56, was one of the leading commanders in the fight against IS and the battle to retake Mosul, taking the lead in many operations. In a recent briefing with reporters, American Lt.-Gen. Pat White, head of the Combined Joint Task Force responsible for fighting IS, said the group was failing miserably in a renewed campaign to launch more attacks. IS leadership has stated what their intent is, and they do this every year. They put out what is generally described as a military campaign, he said. To date, they have failed miserably at achieving those goals. Still, plumes of acrid smoke choked the air Sunday as protesters, unpersuaded by al-Kadhimis decisions, returned to the streets and burned tires on a key bridge leading to the heavily fortified Green Zone, the seat of Iraqs government. Protesters said they rejected al-Kadhimi and any candidate chosen by the political establishment and gathered by the dozens near Jumhuriya Bridge, closed off since late last year in a standoff with riot police. The Byculla womens prison reported its first Covid-19 case with a 54-year-old inmate testing positive on Sunday. This is the second jail in the city to get infected after 103 people 77 inmates and 26 staffers at Arthur Road jail tested positive on May 7. A jail official said a doctor attached with the jail had tested positive a few days ago, but added that the doctor was on leave for more than two weeks and was at home when his reports came positive. According to the official, the prisoner was arrested by Kharghar police in a cheating case in 2017 and has not secured bail till now. It is still not certain how the woman contracted the virus. The woman fell sick on May 7 and was referred to JJ Hospital as her oxygen saturation level had fallen below 90%. Her first Covid test came negative on May 8, but as her condition did not improve, a second test was conducted on May 9 and it came positive. The inmate was then shifted to St George Hospital where she is currently undergoing treatment said Deepak Pandey, inspector general of police (prison). The prison houses several high profile inmates including Sheena Bora murder accused Indrani Bora, activists Sudha Bharadwaj and Shoma Sen who were arrested by Pune Police in 2018 for their alleged connection to the Elgar Parishad case. Byculla womens prison is the only jail for women inmates in the city and also has a male barrack. Byculla jail originally had a capacity of 262 inmates, but after construction of new barracks inside the jail, it has increased to 400 inmates. Currently, there are 325 inmates lodged in Byculla jail, said a jail official. Last week, 276 people were tested in Arthur Road jail, of whom 103 people 77 inmates and 26 jail staffers tested positive for Covid-19. A jail official said, All 77 inmates have been shifted to a quarantine facility in Mahul near Chembur under proper police protection. Ballyhea: Church notes. MASS TIMES - Sunday, May 10, at 8.30 a.m. Mass will be streamed live on mcnmedia/tv. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, May 11, to May 13 Mass will be streamed at midday. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, May 14, to May 16 live streaming at 10 a.m. MONTH OF MAY - The month of May is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Feast days for the coming week: Monday the 11th: St Francis di Girolamo. Tuesday the 12th: Ss. Nereus and Achilleus; St Pancra's, martyrs. Wednesday the 13th: Our Lady of Fatima. Thursday the 14th: St Matthia's, Apostle Friday the 15th: St Isidore the Farmer; St Carthage, bishop. Saturday the 16th: St Brendan, abbot. CANDLE SHRINES - If anybody wishes to have candles lit in the Shrines in the church, please contact the Sacristan at 086 3016859. WINDOW SUBSCRIPTIONS - If anyone or any family wishes to sponsor a window, this can be done by a single subscription or by a number of subscriptions over a period of time. One window will be open to public subscription, anyone can contribute any amount to it, if they so wish. Please contact the parish priest. CHURCH GATE COLLECTIONS - No church gate collection taken up at St Mary's Church, Ballyhea is endorsed by the parish. Any group or organisation intending to collect outside the church gates are asked to present copies of their permits in the sacristy, together with copies of letters of authorisation of those collecting on their behalf. This should be done before the collection commences. CATECHISM ONLINE - The Catechism of the Catholic Church can be viewed on this web page vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__p8.htm. GAA NOTES ONLINE SHOP - All the latest club gear can be purchased from the O'Neill's website. Check it out at oneills.com/shop-by-team/GAA/ireland/ballyhea-GAA.html INSTAGRAM - The club can now be followed on Instagram. To see the latest club pictures go to ballyheagaaclub. LOTTO - The club lotto draw is on hold for the moment due to the current Covid 19 situation. Any tickets sold will be entered in the next draw that is held. Thank you for your continued support. MEMBERSHIP - Club Membership for Juveniles is 20, Adults 40 and Family 80. GARDA MESSAGE If any of the older or vulnerable parishioners need prescriptions collected at this time or a check on a neighbour is required, feel free to contact Charleville Gardai at 063 21170. Remember to keep practising social isolation and adhere to the 2km travel rule except for essential work or shopping. Keep safe. BALLYHEA RESPONSE GROUP Ballyhea have set up a support group who will do shopping, collect prescription from Doctor or Pharmacy and offer support to anyone who might be feeling vulnerable, isolated, alone or worried in the midst of this health crisis. Ballyhea Response Group has spoken to some shops and pharmacies already and strict hygiene protocols will be followed (e.g. use of disposable gloves, shopping bag and the pledge to never enter your home). Please have your Doctor's number on stand-by along with your Eircode. If you don't know your Eircode you can let one of the following people know and they will get it for you. The following are Emergency Contact Details: The National Covid-19 Helpline Number is 1850 24 1850. Senior Line can be contacted on 1800 80 45 91. ALONE is also offering Corona Virus advice at 0818 222 024. Emergency Numbers 112/999. Shoppers Contact Numbers - Mike Morrissey 087 205 14 36, Jim Codd 087 922 39 39, Helen O'Sullivan 086 3263359, Ger O'Shea 087 8237697. COMMUNITY ALERT Ballyhea Community Alert has successfully set up a Text Alert Network to immediately alert our community when an incident occurs. Prompt information to and from Gardai deters criminal activity. If you are interested in becoming a member of our Text Alert Network please phone any of the following people for information and sign up details - Phil Ryan 087 2937465, Pat Daly 086 1220114, James Horgan 087 2572271, Willie Meaney 087 1936842, Con Walsh 086 8570355. The fee for this service is 10 annually. MEN ON THE MOVE Men on the Move is currently postponed as are all other events in the club. Freemount 45 DRIVE The weekly 45 Drive in Freemount Community Centre has been cancelled until further notice. AROUND THE FIRESIDE The next programme of Around the Fireside will be broadcast on C103 Local Radio on Monday night next May 11th at 10.06pm.. Next week Jimmy will look back over the past 30 years of Around The Fireside to produce a programme from the archives each week while the present restrictions continue.. Make sure you tune in on Monday night next. ST MICHAEL'S CHURCH All Masses and Devotions in St. Michael's Church have been cancelled until further notice . COMHALTAS All music and singing classes in Freemount Heritage Centre have been cancelled until further notice. All meetings etc.have also been cancelled. The Heritage Centre will remain closed until further notice. OLD PHOTOGRAPHS Just a thought ,while you are confined to your home why don't you look up your supply of old photographs and send them to us with a caption .We can send them to the weekly paper or we can put them on our parish website for posterity . The e-mail address is freemountarchive@gmail.com. Start searching.!!!!! FILL A BUS WITH FOOD Please support Penny Dinners as they try to fill a bus with food suitable to give out in hampers to those in need. The Bus will be parked in Newmarket and Kanturk on 9th of May. There are various collection points in Kanturk and Newmarket shops. if you need further details ,contact Freemount Development Assoc. 083-4589222,022-28662,086-0836042 Cork Penny Dinners Food Hamper Appeal-Penny Dinners are looking for the following items to make up hampers for vulnerable and elderly people,.Pasta Sauce,Pasta,Hotcups,Soups,Beans,Spaghetti,Cereal ,Coffee,Tea, Sugar ,Cream Crackers,Cheese,Biscuits.Anybody wishing to provide any food items for this cause can do so by calling to Casey's Shop where a box is available for all food items.Your generosity will be much appreciated. The box will be collected by The Community Development to take to Kanturk. Community Development Association Freemount Community Development Association wish you and your families well during the next phase in the battle to keep Covid-19 from our doors. The fantastic community spirit is evident and thanks to everyone who continues to help out those older and more vulnerable neighbours during these difficult and challenging times. Thanks too for complying with the social distancing rules when using the community walkway. Now as restrictions begin to unlock and we move through the roadmap for reopening society and business over the coming months remember to contact (083)4589222 if you or if you know of anyone who could use some help with shopping, collecting prescriptions, or support in any way. Covid-19 community Helpline Remember too that Cork County Council COVID-19 Community Support Programme is there to assist vulnerable members of the community or those living alone. The supports provided are collection and delivery of groceries, essential household items, medication and fuel. Freecall 1800805819 or Text 085 8709010 8am to 8pm 7 days a week for advice on Social Isolation issues, delivery of food and meals, assistance with Garda related matters. THURSDAY CLUB The Thursday Club activities have been cancelled until further notice,due to the spread of the coronavirus. HISTORY WEBSITE If you would like to keep up with the progress of our history website, please log on to www.freemountvillage.com. You might see your own photo. We would also like to hear from you. G.A.A.notes DVDs of the GAA concert can be obtained at Barry's bar, also by ringing 02228662 or AT Casey's Shop, John Brennan, or Vincent Fehin . FITTEST G.A.A. CLUB-Freemount GAA are participating in Duhallow Fittest GAA Club-Charity Fundraiser next weekend where all the GAA players in Duhallow will be clocking up the mileage. The fundraiser is for the benefit of Rathcoole ICRR Air Ambulance, Chernobyl Burren Project, and Kanturk and Millstreet Hospitals. If you would like to make a donation, please go to the GoFundMe page for Duhallow's Fittest GAA Club. LOTTO-The Weekly Lotto Draw is postponed until further notice. SMILE AWHILE No 40 euros petrol in my car 'cause i'm not going here nor there.So thanks to Mr Covid i'm helping to preserve the Ozone Layer. Smile Awhile That Dope Donald Trump should be hung drawn and quartered For telling people to drink DETTOL and the virus to be instantly cured Your news Items for these notes should be with the correspondent each Monday night before 8pm E-Mail osullivanpj38@gmail.com The rare Ganges river dolphin is found in the river systems of Nepal, Bangladesh and India The gutted carcass of a freshwater dolphin has been found in a river sanctuary in Bangladesh, officials said Sunday, sparking fears fishermen are taking advantage of the virus lockdown to poach the endangered creatures. Locals in the southeastern town of Raojan found the remains of the 62-inch (157-centimetre) long Ganges river dolphin on the banks of the Halda River, fishery department official Abdullah al Mamun told AFP. It had suffered a sharp and deep incision from its neck to tail and layers of its body fatfrom which oil is extracted for use in traditional medicineswere missing, he said. The dolphin is the second to be found dead in the same sanctuary since Bangladesh imposed its lockdown to tackle the coronavirus, said Manzoorul Kibria, coordinator of the Halda River Research Laboratory (HRRL). Bangladesh prohibits the killing of Ganges dolphins, which are categorised as endangered under the International Union for Conservation of Nature's "Red List" of threatened species. A local official, who asked to remain anonymous, said locals were starting to trawl the Halda river, as understaffed police who usually patrol the region were busy enforcing the lockdown in Raojan. "They are trying to make a living by catching fish illegally," local forestry department head Yasin Nawaz said, adding that the same nets also often caught dolphins. Once the creatures are trapped, they prove easy pickings for poachers who sell their fat and oil, Kibria said. "Many local villagers believe dolphin fat can cure diseases. It fetches a good price." Kibria added he feared the latest death could be the start of a "killing spree" of the rare creature. The Ganges river dolphin is found in the river systems of Nepal, Bangladesh and India and has a population of between 1,200 to 1,800, according to the World Wildlife Fund. They can weigh up to 100 kilograms (220 pounds) and grow to 2.6 meters (eight feet) long, are known for their long beaks which have 28 sharp teeth on both sides of their jaws. The Halda river is home to around 170 dolphins, according to HRRL. Explore further Oil spill threatens rare Bangladesh dolphin breeding zone 2020 AFP Thuocsi.vn of BuyMed, a startup, is expected to change the traditional medicine supply chain. BuyMed successfully called for $2.5 million worth of capital in the pre-series A round from Surge and Genesia venture fund of Sequoia Capital India. The startup also got $500,000 seed capital from Cocoon Capital from Singapore and VietCapital Ventures last September. With the desire to enter the $65 billion drug market which has insufficient safety standards, unofficial distribution channels and chaotic prices, in 2018 thuocsi.vn belonging to BuyMed was established. The startup uses technology to connect pharmaceutical firms and licensed drug stores and clinics to enable operation of the supply chain in a harmonious and reasonable way. The startup uses technology to connect pharmaceutical firms and licensed drug stores and clinics to enable operation of the supply chain in a harmonious and reasonable way. All the information provided, the distribution, goods transport and trade activities are synchronized in real time. This allows drugs to reach consumers at the best price. The company has connected 7,000 drugstores and hospitals throughout the country, and 800 pharmacy manufacturers and distributors. Nguyen Huu Minh Hoang, a co-founder, is one of six young faces honored by Forbes Asia in its 30 Under 30 List released in April. The idea originated when they saw the problems in the industry. Doctors and pharmacists have to spend a lot of time to identify drug origin and distributors. Distributors dont contact drugstores all the time to offer drugs, and many of them have to buy drugs at high prices and from unclear sources. Hoang Nguyen and Peter Nguyen, before establishing thuocsi.vn, spent time to study the underground market of the pharmaceutical industry. They found it was not easy to settle the problems. However, they met Vu Vuong, who became the third co-founder of the company. The two young men with business skills and the third with experience in healthcare sector set up a completely new ecosystem. Using technology to break the traditional medicine supply chain is an important factor that has helped thuocsi.vn become a well known name. Technology allows them to monitor the entire process of drug delivery from manufacturer to customer, ensuring transparency. The startup has introduced a new feature that monitors production costs and predicts price fluctuations. Thanks to information, one can draw up plans to optimize expenses on drugs to provide drugs to patients at reasonable prices. The company creates a technology-driven order fulfillment system, allowing drugstores to access the diverse network of products that they need to bring high-quality healthcare service. The right to access the network is given to all drugstores, including small ones in remote areas. Le Ha Vietnams startup makes delivery drone, gets patent in US Established in April 2019, Drone Pro Vietnam is a company operating in the field of hi-tech air transportation. The company develops flight technology in combination with automation. Brexit is a serious matter. But not too long ago, we were wondering when would it ever leave the news headlines. Little did we think that it would be replaced by something else, far more frightening and life changing. Little did we think that something could come that would stop all the traffic and so much commerce throughout the entire world. Now we are wondering not just when will it leave our news headlines, but how are we going to continue living our lives and protecting ourselves? My areas of responsibility are the parish of Moyross and linking in with members of the Travelling community. In the early days, when the reality of the coronavirus began to set in and the more serious restrictions were put in place, we had two fears. One was the school was closed and the school is a vital part of childrens lives. They are safe there and they are fed there. Very quickly, a scheme was put in place to distribute the food that came to the school for the children, to their homes. Limerick City and County Council were very much involved in getting this to work. Contact is also maintained with the children, as it is in other schools, with social media, phones and the use of the internet. The second area of concern was how people will do distancing, if anyone was to get sick when homes are pretty full. This applied especially to members of the Travelling community. But luckily to date, there are no great illnesses that we know of. A question that we now have, is how are children going to transition to secondary school, when they have been out of school for so long. Children find such a transition a great challenge and usually quite an effort is made in helping them prepare. Our local primary school would make a big effort in helping sixth class transition to Second level. We are not too sure where that is now. Parents have put lots of work into First Communion and Confirmation and the cancellation of those is a real disappointment. Parents enjoy those days perhaps even more than the children, as it is a day for them to be proud of their children. As we know, the Church building is closed, but the Church is much more than a building. When I see the concern and care of school staff, personnel of other organisations, Council staff and the excellence of so many community people, I know that there is no shortage of love, care and concern. At the Church itself, we were lucky to have a webcam system installed, so we made some effort with the Easter ceremonies and broadcast them. We also used Facebook, which is more easily used by the people of Moyross. It was an opportunity to reassure people and remind them of taking care. It is also amazing the people who connect in and make contact. Using such media devices, we were also able to bring groups of people who practice Christian meditation together and offer them some support. We were also able to offer anniversary Masses, which are so important to people. They looked in at home, no matter where they were. This brought them together on their special and poignant days. A large part of the work is staying in touch with people by phone. It is not easy for those in hospital for whatever reason, who cant be visited and it is certainly not easy on family members at home, to be separated in such a way. There is great pain there and I am sure many a sleepless night. The same we can say for people in nursing homes, people are feeling guilty, as they wave at their loved ones through windows. Funerals take time and now there is no time. There is great healing in taking the time, mingling with family and friends. It is important to take the time, to hear the stories that you have never heard, concerning your deceased relative. There is great healing in moving slowly through funeral days, in celebrating the deceased life with thanks, appreciation and giving ourselves a chance to see those things that can only be seen when someone dies. Now there is no time, no people, no stories. It is hurting people. The coronavirus has stolen that from us. I imagine there is going to be a lot of stored up grief and anger, no effort at farewell, no public getting together. This time of coronavirus, reminds me of working in Nigeria in the early 1980s. I was there for four years. One of the Kiltegan Priests said to me, that living and working here was like being under a microscope, as your strengths and weaknesses are exaggerated. He was right. You end up doing things that you never thought possible, and then the loneliness and being away from family and friends for such long periods, gets to you. So it became a massive learning curve from the point of view of facing up to all the new challenges and also dealing with the more difficult personal part. So this time nationally everything is under a microscope; what do we do well and what are the real challenges that it has exposed. It has exposed a great deal of good will and of people willing to do whatever possible to aid family, friends and community. It has also revealed the massive commitment of our health care workers. It also teaches us that what we neglect in the good times, becomes our achilles heel in challenging times like this. But we are also challenged on a personal level; it might be wonderful to have some time off, but who am I when I have no work to go to? What is it like to spend so much time at home? Have my relationships with my wife/partner and my children improved? It is a good time to build self-awareness and not be afraid of no matter what I see in myself. I can only grow personally, when I am prepared to be aware of myself, my life, what challenges me. At that stage, I can make choices to help myself, make life easier for myself and others. There is no point in blaming others, or making them suffer, for problems and frustrations that are genuinely my own. These days also remind me of a statement made to me by a young man in prison some years ago. He was serving a life sentence. He asked to see me and when we met, he said to me that the best thing that ever happened him, was getting a life sentence. It is not the thing that you hear every day. He said that his life sentence introduced him to education and he was really enjoying it and progressing. He began not being able to read and was now studying at Open University. He gave me an image that has stayed with me. It was the image of a saucer. His early life was like living in a saucer, lots of mayhem, violence, drugs and he learned to survive in such a world. And there is only one way to survive in such a world, by being violent yourself. But the life sentence and the introduction to education, was like looking out over the rim of the saucer and being introduced to a very different world. He said that he would guarantee that his young children would all go to college. I would imagine that the experience of the coronavirus is challenging us to see our world in a totally different way. There seems great concern among some world leaders, to get back to what we were used to, the only measure being used is economic activity. Prosperity and economic activity are important. But surely, this is a moment for our world, where we look out over the rim of the saucer and see things differently. Many people realised that they were living lives at a frantic pace, with little time for children and no time for themselves. How can we reduce the speed at which we live life and perhaps achieve more. It is also time to look at our exploitation of the world and its natural resources, much of what we are at is actually killing us slowly. Is it also time for us to see that inequality, injustice at a national and international level is caused and will always be our undoing? Inequality and injustice are only solved by proper investment in education and opening up employment routes for all. But for that to happen, mind sets need to change. The two words that I hear much of over the past weeks, are fragile and vulnerable and indeed we are fragile and vulnerable as individuals and as a world. But we have good systems in place, which help us face the challenge. But many in Limerick are quite familiar with other parts of the world, where people are not as well protected. Many around Limerick have great friendships in Calcutta/Kolkata and in other places, and are greatly afraid of what will happen to those who have no savings, no great access to hospital care and live from day to day. We ask, will life go back to normal? Perhaps it is best to say there is going to be a new normal and our strength in being and working together nationally and internationally. It is best to remember that there is no one really safe, until everyone is safe and the world is not safe, until every country is safe. Will the coronavirus be the catalyst to such change nationally or internationally? Will it push us to see over the rim of the saucer? Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 10) The Department of Health confirmed 184 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, bringing the countrys total to 10,794. The DOH reported 77 of the new infections in the National Capital Region, 75 in Central Visayas, and 32 more in other regions nationwide. Meanwhile, recoveries have reached 1,924 after 82 more patients survived the viral disease. Fifteen more patients have also died, raising the death toll to 719. Earlier, the DOH explained that its reports, including the number of new cases, are not real-time data since all information have to be validated first before they are presented to the public. Hs of Friday, authorities said the country can conduct up to 12,000 COVID-19 tests per day. The government hopes to increase the daily testing capacity to 30,000 by the end of May amid calls for more testing. Despite the rise in the country's tally of confirmed cases, the DOH also noted that there has been an improvement in the doubling time, or the number of days it takes for cases to double. However, the department reminds the public not to be complacent. It said the public should continue to adhere to health protocols and exercise preventive measures, such as proper hygiene, physical distancing, and cough etiquette, as the world transitions into a new normal setting. Globally, over four million people have contracted the virus, with nearly 280,000 deaths and over 1.3 million recoveries. When Mumbai-based maxillofacial surgeon Garima Devrani had her second child in 2019, she had her finances sorted. She had a health insurance policy that covered maternity expenses. She had also created a savings kitty to take care of 6-8 months expenses, despite being part of a double-income family. Her efficient planning helped her sail through smoothly during and after delivery, when she had to take a career break. I knew that my income will not flow in for at least four to six months after delivery. So, my savings served as a cushion, she says. She had also factored in the caretakers expenses. Planning ahead is a must for ensuring contented motherhood as well as the childs well-being. Be prepared for contingencies Chalking out a financial plan that covers your motherhood journey in the initial years is especially critical during the COVID-19 pandemic times. Your contingency fund has to be significantly larger, as pay cuts and job losses are a reality today, says Tejal Gandhi, Founder, Money Matters, a financial planning firm. As a thumb rule, you must have an emergency corpus capable of funding your six months household expenses. In tough times such as these, you can consider enhancing this to 9-12 months expenses. Factor in your income stream (regular or irregular), your current lifestyle, EMIs and so on. If your income is irregular, you will need a bigger corpus, but if you are a working couple with steady income, a kitty equivalent to six months expenses should suffice for your family. This corpus will ensure that financial planning for child-related expenses are insulated from any crisis at home. Garima Devrani Buying an adequate health insurance cover should form the core part of your contingency planning. You will have to deal with various expenses, including delivery, vaccinations for the baby along with any other items that may come with complications. Taking a health policy in advance will help cover some of these costs. Even if you dont have maternity cover, the new-born baby can be covered under a health plan with renewal once the baby turns 90 days, says Vaidyanathan Ramani, Head, Product and Innovations, Policybazaar.com. A health cover with maternity benefits, though useful, comes with much higher premiums and three to four year waiting periods. Tanushree Bhatkar Plan ahead for the break, career resumption For your kid, you need to create a dedicated kitty to fund creche and playgroup expenses as also the caretakers costs. This will help you resume work without anxiety over your kids well-being. Put in place a financial plan for at least the next five years when you plan on having a child, adds Gandhi. While Devrani was fortunate to have been able to resume work in a few months, thats not necessarily the case for all mothers. Take, for instance, the case of IT professional Tanushree Bhatkar, who resumed work recently after a two-year break. My maternity leave was not extended. It was a hard choice to make, but I had to quit, she says. She had been investing through SIPs in mutual funds prior to her pregnancy, which came in handy. I also had savings in liquid instruments and made a part withdrawal from my employees provident fund (EPF) corpus, she says. Sensing the need for investing for her childs future, she and her husband have already started investing through SIPs in an equity mutual fund for his education. Plan well ahead so that your investments are capable of taking care of 4-5 years expenses during your break. If your investment horizon is 3-5 years, you can look at investing in balanced equity-oriented funds. You can start withdrawing regularly from the corpus created to substitute your income during your sabbatical, says financial planner Nisreen Mamaji, CEO, Moneyworks. The instrument will depend on your horizon and risk-taking ability equity and equity-oriented mutual funds for longer term horizons and higher risk appetite and fixed income avenues for the short term. You must diversify your risks. If you are investing Rs 20,000 a month, let Rs 10,000 go into a diversified equity or multi-cap fund and another Rs 10,000 in a hybrid equity-oriented fund, says Gandhi. Ensure that you regularly review your portfolio to make changes when needed. If you are already pregnant, you have to look at highly liquid and secure bank fixed deposits to park your savings. Mamaji also recommends tighter budgets once your plan a family. Do not stretch your budgets focus on needs rather than wants. Depending on your disposable income, luxury cars, jewellery and frequent vacations will have to take a backseat. Dont jump into buying an expensive house only to be burdened with huge EMIs and childcare expenses. At times, the wife is compelled to go back to work sooner than she wants to because of high EMIs. Instead, look for a house where one spouses income is adequate for servicing the loan EMI, she explains. Seize the opportunity in COVID-19 crisis Do not waste a good crisis, the adage goes. COVID-19 has led to a large number of employees working from home, with IT majors TCS and Wipro indicating that WFH could become a permanent feature. If you are keen on spending more time with your child in the initial years, negotiate hard with your employer to get this option. COVID-19 has expanded work from home opportunities. You should negotiate for flexible working hours or limited workplace visits say once a week, says Mamaji. For women, this will mean reduced physical and mental exertion during a delicate period. Four weeks ago, the governors of seven Midwestern states pledged to closely coordinate when and how each state would reopen its economy amid the coronavirus pandemic by following a fact-based, data-driven approach that prioritized the health and safety of its citizens. The governors five Democrats and two Republicans from Michigan, Kentucky, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana and Ohio were clear from the start that not every state will take the same steps at the same time. But, they insisted, close coordination will ensure we get this right. Over time, people will go back to work, restaurants will reopen, and things will go back to normal. We look forward to working together as one region to tackle this challenge together, the governors said in a joint statement. It appears, however, aside from a few phone calls among some of the governors and their aides, there is little actual coordination taking place, as each governor does what he or she believes is best for his or her own state, with minimal consideration of how their decisions affect the people and economy just across the state line. It was never our intent that we would roll out anything in tandem, said Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat. We said basically we were going to be focusing on some really important things, like testing, and contact tracing, as well as protective equipment, and also using some of the same metrics. And so weve been doing that, but the rollout in states is different, obviously. State Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, criticized the collaboration as being in name only. In special coordinated coverage today, reporters of the Midwestern reporting team of Lee Enterprises, which includes The Journal Times, review how various Midwestern states have responded to COVID-19 and how governments in the Midwest have, or have not, coordinated those responses. A philosophical divide The differences between the states may be most stark on the nearly 300-mile border separating Indiana and Illinois, where one governor sees COVID-19 as a problem to be managed, while the other is prioritizing prevention. Last week, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, authorized nonessential retail businesses to reopen at 50% capacity in 89 of the states 92 counties, followed this week by half-capacity dine-in service in restaurants and the reopening of personal services businesses, such as hair salons, barber shops and tattoo parlors, in nearly every county. If all goes according to Holcombs five-stage plan, dubbed Back on Track Indiana, business in the Hoosier State will be restored to normal by the Fourth of July. Holcomb said even though he knows reopening will result in more COVID-19 cases, hes confident Indiana hospitals have the critical care beds and ventilator capacity they need. He also said the state has sufficient testing and contact tracing resources to begin relaxing a stay-at-home order, which limited Hoosiers to their residences except for essential travel and employment. The Hoosier stay-at-home order began March 23. Without a therapeutic or a vaccine, unfortunately, were going to lose people all over the world, Holcomb said. So our effort going forward will be all about managing through this crisis. Im praying for a vaccine. But weve got to do what we can do right now, and were taking the responsible steps and allowing folks to responsibly and safely return to some normal aspects of their life. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, is taking a much more conservative approach. He announced last week business in Illinois will not fully return to normal unless and until there is a coronavirus vaccine or widely available treatment. Pritzkers reopening plan, Restore Illinois, slices the state into four regions and allows those geographic areas to move through reopening phases at different times based on established metrics. The next phase will allow for the reopening of hair salons and barber shops, retailers, manufacturers closed under previous orders and other workplaces, all with limitations. No region will be eligible for these reopenings until at least May 29. Illinois bars and restaurants would not be permitted to reopen to on-site dining in any region until at least the end of June. In this phase, schools and universities also could reconvene on-site classes. But until the coronavirus is conquered, public gatherings would be limited to up to 50 people in the Land of Lincoln. Pritzkers tough stance has drawn him praise in some circles, though critics have questioned key pieces of his plan, especially as neighboring Indiana is taking steps to fully reopen by Independence Day. Virus Outbreak Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announces an extension of the stay-at-home order for Illinois on April 23, as well as a mandatory face covering order at hi Mount Carmel, Illinois, Mayor Joe Judge said the mismatched reopening plans are especially problematic for border cities like his. The southeast Illinois town of about 7,000, which borders downstate Knox and Gibson counties in Indiana, has suffered significant layoffs, not only with the shuttering of restaurants and retail but also with the plummeting of the oil and gas industry that is central to his areas economy. With Indiana phasing in its reopening plan ahead of Illinois schedule, Judge said several hairdressers have applied for their Indiana licenses and plan to cross the border for work. This summer, the aquatic center in Princeton, Indiana, about 10 miles from Mount Carmel, will be open for families, but Judges own city pool which was able to make a profit for the first time last year likely will have to remain closed, he said. Wabash County, of which Mount Carmel is a part, only has recorded one confirmed COVID-19 case, an individual who since has recovered. Holcomb said Indiana wants to be a good neighbor to Illinois, and, to that end, has kept Pritzker informed about the states reopening plans. Youre never going to get us to be 100% in alignment on 100% of all the issues in all the different sectors, Holcomb said. Pritzker, meanwhile, said looser restrictions in border states will challenge Illinois reopening plan because we will see, potentially, infections across the border. I cant speak to the decision making thats been made in those states. What I can say is I know that Gov. Holcomb in Indiana shares the same goals that I do, which is to make sure that were keeping people safe and healthy, Pritzker said. But Im listening to the epidemiologists about what their best recommendations are in terms of timing and how we open these industries up. Im going to do whats best for the people of Illinois. I know the people of Illinois want to do whats best for themselves, which means to me not going into these places that clearly are going to be potential hotbeds of infection and then coming back into your community or into your home. Practical cooperation In Wisconsin, the governors office said Evers and his chief of staff have had regular conversations with other Midwest governors about which COVID-19 mitigation methods work, how to sequence the steps to reopen the states economies and the impact of the COVID-19 response on the agriculture industry. Melissa Baldauff, an Evers spokeswoman, said the governors in the coalition are exchanging ideas, but making their own decisions on how best to reopen their states. Within days of each other, Wisconsin and Michigan, for example, allowed nonessential businesses to open if they could provide services via curbside pickup. Everyone really agreed to follow the science, Baldauff said. That might look different in different states, but everyone agrees its the right approach. At the same time, it appears governors are missing out on other opportunities to share information. Dr. Patrick Remington, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine, said Wisconsin would do well to share what it has learned from having to address outbreaks at meatpacking plants and higher infectious disease rates among its African American community. But it doesnt appear to be doing that, at least not through the channels of the Midwest governors coalition. That could prove detrimental to neighboring Michigan, which is the 10th-most populous state in the country with 9.9 million residents but ranks third for its coronavirus death count, data show. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, routinely has emphasized that statistic in pleading with Michigan residents to stay home and prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The states infection rate is equally alarming about 550 per 100,000 residents, the highest of the Midwest states, even though neighboring Illinois is testing at a higher rate. Michigan also has the highest fatality rate at about 9.3%, data show. Dr. James Conway, a University of Wisconsin-Madison infectious disease expert, said close coordination among states could be helpful in managing the pandemic. The more the communication there is, Ive got to think that theres at least a better opportunity to then collaborate and not create these disparities or these incentives for groups of people to suddenly be moving between places and potentially introducing or re-introducing disease into places where it doesnt exist, Conway said. Conway said one of the most helpful ways to mitigate the spread of the virus would be for economic centers that do a lot of business with one another to be in close collaboration on COVID-19 responses. Pairings could include northern Illinois and Wisconsin, Eau Claire and La Crosse with Minnesota, Milwaukee and Chicago, and Chicago and northwest Indiana. Doing so would prevent influxes of people from more restricted regions having an incentive to travel to less-restricted areas and potentially spreading the virus, he said. Some Wisconsin state agencies reported collaborating with other states on their own, outside of the coalition. Wisconsins Department of Health and Human Services, for example, mirrored Minnesotas strategy of creating an online map of COVID-19 testing sites throughout the state. Maj. Gen. Paul Knapp, who leads Wisconsins National Guard, said hes been fielding questions from other state National Guard units about assisting in elections after Guard members stepped in to assist with the states April 7 election. And following the example of other states, Wisconsins Department of Workforce Development has launched an online chat to answer questions about unemployment insurance, while the states Department of Veterans Affairs has collaborated with other Midwestern states on strategies to reduce the transmission of the virus at state veterans homes. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, agreed there are practical benefits to cooperation among Midwestern governors. A virus does not respect a border, Walz said. It certainly does not respect political differences. What I think is good about this is this is a bipartisan group of seven governors two Republicans and five Democrats whove worked together on other issues in coming together. Shared pain Regardless of whether its governor favors a speedy or slow reopening, each Midwestern state has seen surges in unemployment and permanently closed businesses as a result of the measures taken to minimize the spread of the coronavirus. The governors also have been subject to protests as some business owners and their workers object to the continued use of executive orders to keep their operations shut down for the foreseeable future. Some 500,000 Indiana residents have filed for unemployment in the past seven weeks, more than double the peak unemployment tally the state recorded during the 2008-09 Great Recession. While were seeing an increasing number of claims in this extreme environment, were also seeing a record number of payments that were making, Indiana Department of Workforce Development Commissioner Fred Payne said. Weve made a total of 1,391,774 insurance payments in the month of April. Indiana has paid out $732 million in unemployment insurance benefits, including $230 million in state benefits and $502 million in federal benefits, including the temporary $600 per week add-on. In Illinois, 625 mass layoff events were reported in the first three months of the year, defined as a single business entity with 50 or more unemployment claims filed against it over a five-week period. According to the Illinois Department of Employment Security, there were more mass layoff events in the first quarter of 2020 than in any full year since 2012. The leisure and hospitality industry experienced the most mass layoff events, followed by retail, business services and manufacturing. Out-of-work Illinoisans have filed more than 1 million initial unemployment claims between March 1 and May 2, the latest date available from the Illinois Department of Employment Security. This is 12 times the number of claims filed during the same period last year. Likewise, Wisconsin has faced skyrocketing unemployment claims, with more than 300,000 new and ongoing claims per week. In Minnesota, unemployment in the Twin Cities metropolitan area leads the rest of the state, according to the Department of Employment and Economic Development. Data show the initial wave of applications came from employees in the food and beverage industry. Retail sales workers now lead Minnesota in unemployment claims. Iowa, which is not part of the gubernatorial coalition, nevertheless has suffered as well, particularly in its food processing plants, which have seen more than 1,600 confirmed COVID-19 cases raising concerns about worker safety and potential disruption of the food supply. Protesters push back However, for some residents of these states, the bigger concern is keeping businesses shut down and people locked in their homes. For example, Pritzkers stay-at-home order has faced repeated legal challenges. The first came from state Rep. Darren Bailey, a Republican from the tiny downstate Illinois community of Xenia. Bailey claimed the governor violated Illinoisans civil rights when he extended his stay-at-home order beyond 30 days. The governor declared the lawsuit a cheap political stunt. But in a blow to Pritzker, a judge in Baileys home county issued a temporary injunction allowing Bailey to disregard the order. It applied exclusively to Bailey but opened the door for other lawsuits. The state appealed the decision, asking the Illinois Supreme Court to hear it. A few days later, Bailey asked the appellate court to vacate the order so he can file an amended challenge. Bailey argued he discovered new documentation the state should have provided. In a lawsuit brought by a church, a federal judge sided with Pritzker, saying his amended order that allows up to 10 worshipers to gather does not violate religious freedoms, as the church claimed, in light of the grave concerns presented by COVID-19. Illinois also has seen protests in front of Chicagos James R. Thompson Center, where Pritzker holds his daily news briefings, and in Springfield, the state capital. Even in Indiana, which is moving faster on reopening than other Midwestern states, protesters have signaled their displeasure with Holcomb by gathering outside the Governors Residence and the Statehouse in Indianapolis. People carrying American flags recently stood close together along the street outside Holcombs home with signs reading: If Holcombs job is essential, everyones job is essential! and Open Indiana Now! In Michigan, Whitmer isnt backing down from her stay-at-home order, despite political pressure, court challenges from the state Legislature and racially tinged protests inside Michigans capitol building. The bottom line is we cant move forward and re-engage everything until its safe to do so, and that means having enough tests, being able to do the tracing, having few enough cases and ensuring our hospitals are ready in the event we see cases go back up, Whitmer said. In virtual press briefings and other public appearances, including an interview with NBCs The Today Show, Whitmer repeatedly has said Michigan is uniquely challenged because of its disproportionately high fatality count one that demands tough stay-at-home restrictions. But Republican lawmakers in the states House and Senate disagree. The two chambers resoundingly expressed disagreements with Whitmer in the form of a lawsuit Wednesday, arguing her most recent extension of her state of emergency through May 28 was unlawful. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, likewise has come under fire in recent days and weeks including from his own political party for his aggressive approach to combating the coronavirus crisis. Hes been criticized by his own partys Statehouse leaders and shelter-in-place protesters for sticking to his guns, ordering schools to close before anyone else and businesses to temporarily shutter to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. In politically fraught Wisconsin, the states entire stay-at-home order could be thrown out any day by its conservative dominated Supreme Court; a hearing was held Tuesday, but no decision has been made yet. If thats the case, Republicans would have a far greater say in how the state moves forward. Under Evers reopening plan, which mostly aligns with the White House guidelines, the state would begin reopening businesses after a 14-day downward trajectory of influenza-like illnesses and COVID-19 symptoms and a 14-day downward trend in positive tests as a percent of total tests. If the state Supreme Court strikes down the plan, however, theres a chance the state could open within days, or the governor may need to acquiesce to Republican demands for the state to allow businesses in less-affected regions to open sooner. This past week, Evers showed he was warming to the idea. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, largely avoided such criticism by never issuing a formal shelter-at-home order for Iowa, similar to Republican-led states to the west, including Nebraska and Wyoming. Reynolds consistently encouraged but never required with the force of law Iowans to practice social distancing when in public. She also implored them to only go out in public when necessary and to stay home when feeling sick or after having come in contact with someone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19. The reality is that we cant stop the virus. It will remain in our communities until a vaccine is available, Reynolds said. Instead, we must learn to live with COVID virus activity without letting it govern our lives. This level of mitigation is not sustainable for the long-term, and it has unintended consequences for Iowa families. So we must gradually shift from an aggressive mitigation strategy to focusing on containing and managing virus activity for the long-term in a way that allows us to safely and responsibly balance the health of our people and the health of our economy. Lee Enterprises Midwest reporters Dan Carden and Lauren Cross, The Times of Northwest Indiana; Molly Parker, The Southern Illinoisan; Riley Vetterkind, Wisconsin State Journal; Josh DeLarosa, Winona Daily News; and Erin Murphy, Des Moines bureau chief, all contributed to this article. JERSEY CITY Members of the community said the video of Tuesdays street fight between police and civilians in which police used batons and pepper spray left them enraged and uneasy. Over the weekend, they had their voices heard. Rally organizer Nevin Perkins gathered some dozens of people at Berry Lane Park on Sunday, demanding Peace in the Streets. Attendees congregated at the park before marching up to the citys South District precinct on Bergen Avenue., which is not too far from the scene of the Bostwick Avenue brawl. We do not wish to cause or incite violence, Perkins announced at the rally. Our posters will speak for themselves. The rally was in response to a street fight near 30 Bostwick Ave., which involved dozens of people and ended in five arrests Tuesday evening. Attendees spent the 24-minute walk silently, holding up different signs. such as: I am not a target, Demand Justice" and Filipinos For Black Lives. They held the posters high as they stood across the street from the precinct socially distanced from one another. Perkins asked the protesters to remain quiet so their message could not be misunderstood. The organizer was the only one to speak through a megaphone as he voiced his demands to the Jersey City Police Department. About a dozen police officers stepped outside the precinct and watched quietly. The demands included: release officer body camera footage from the incident; fire or suspend officers who used force; release an apology from the police department; provide compensation to injured individuals and institute racial sensitivity training within the police department. The video shows people fighting on Bostwick Avenue, and after police arrive, a man is chased by a police officer. After the officer grabbed the man, three people attempt to intercede, at least two throwing punches at the officer. Other police officers arrive and start pulling people off the officer, at least one using a baton and another using pepper spray. Council President Joyce Watterman told The Jersey Journal on Sunday it was unfortunate to see what was caught on tape. She acknowledged the peoples right to protest Sunday afternoon, but urged the public to step forward with what they saw or heard Tuesday to help make the investigation fair. Ward A Councilwoman Denise Ridley agreed and said its best to let the process play out and hopes the situation can come to a peaceful solution, applying resolution if needed. But for Andrew Zhang a representative of Solidarity & Mutual Aid Coalition Jersey City he said its crucial to stand up against the incident. We cant just sit quietly, Zhang said. I understand the concerns with social distancing, but standing up for people in our community who have been beaten by the police is a form of solidarity. We cant pick and choose. Comment from the Jersey City Police Department was not immediately available. Jessamyn Bonafe, a member of Anakbayan New Jersey, said it was tough to watch the video because, in Jersey City, its rare to see violence caught on tape. Bonafe, a Jersey City resident, said though people rallied together on Sunday, its not an isolated event. On Friday, Perkins told The Jersey Journal how Tuesdays incident reminded him of July 1, 2019 when police shot two men who were among a group firing Roman candles at each other on Randolph Avenue. A grand jury declined to bring charges against the officers, who said they mistook the Roman candles for guns. Edward Malloy a bystander at Sundays silent protest in front of the precinct said the black community deserves an apology. (Protesting) is the right thing to do, Malloy said. Ward F Councilman Jermaine Robinson said Sunday that he believes black people have been left out and treated badly, but the cause of Tuesdays fight is still an ongoing investigation. Robinson said there are a lot of angles to take into account. Theres three sides to every problem: his, hers and the truth, Robinson said. "I dont know the truth. I dont want to be caught in the middle. Five people, including two juveniles, were arrested following the incident. Perkins said he was enraged after seeing the footage, but didnt know how to voice his feelings in an articulate way. But, after speaking to a few peers, he said he knew it was time to organize the rally. Happy Mothers Day to the mothers who lost their kids to police brutality, Perkins said through a loudspeaker in front of the station. Happy Mothers Day to the mothers who lost their kids to gun violence. The incident remains under investigation. Easing of social distancing guidelines - whether by government edict or individual decision - has led to new coronavirus flare-ups in the United States and abroad, even as pressure builds to loosen restrictions that have kept millions isolated and decimated economies. Officials in Pasadena, California, warned Saturday against Mother's Day gatherings after a cluster of new covid-19 cases was identified there among a large group of extended family and friends attending a recent birthday party, despite a stay-at-home order in effect. Through contact tracing, investigators discovered more than five confirmed cases and "many more ill individuals" linked to the party, the local public health department said. The controversy over when, and how much, to open up has taken on sharp political overtones, with protests and occasional violence against those trying to keep the rules in place. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Robert Redfield said in a statement that a report by the Associated Press alleging the White House had held back restrictive recommendations from experts on how to safely reopen hinged on a premature "draft" that "had not been vetted through the interagency process." Trump administration officials previously said that the recommendations were overly specific and did not take into account regional differences in the threat level. In a series of Saturday tweets, President Donald Trump accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, of opening a public polling place to favor Democrats in a special congressional election to be conducted largely by mail-in ballots next week, while Newsom has refused to open "restaurants, beaches and stores." Voters were encouraged to vote by mail because of the novel coronavirus, with a few in-person polling places. Democrats in the district had raised concerns that a city with a large African-American population didn't have an in-person voting place, leading the new voting center to be added. The race, in the 25th District north of Los Angeles, is between Democratic state Assemblywoman Christy Smith and Republican businessman and ex-Navy pilot Mike Garcia, who are seeking to fill a vacant seat. Whoever wins on Tuesday will hold the California seat through the end of the year. Regardless of the outcome, the two will face each other again in November for a full two-year term. Because of the coronavirus, voters were encouraged to mail-in ballots, with every voter receiving a pre-stamped ballot to fill out and return. But a limited number of in-person polling places were long planned to be open, and one was added recently in Lancaster. Tesla on Saturday filed a lawsuit against the California county that has prohibited the electric car company from producing vehicles during the outbreak. The company alleged in its suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, that Alameda County had violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment and sought an injunction that would allow the company to operate. Its Fremont manufacturing plant is located in that county. The suit followed chief executive Elon Musk threatening in a series of tweets earlier Saturday that the company would sue and move Tesla's headquarters and future programs to Texas and Nevada. He appeared to leave open the possibility of maintaining some operations in Fremont depending "on how Tesla is treated in the future." South Korean officials, who recently began to loosen social distancing requirements, ordered more than 2,100 nightclubs, discos and bars in Seoul to close Saturday after the country recorded dozens of new cases linked to partygoers in the city last weekend. In Germany, where the government has outlined a cautious but steady opening, hundreds of workers in at least three meat-processing plants have tested positive for the coronavirus, medical and local officials said. Word of the new infections came as Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking in her weekly video message to the nation, said that "we are excited to take the first steps toward normal, everyday life." As governments try to balance health and economic priorities, medical experts have said that new flare-ups are inevitable, but that widespread testing and contact tracing are key to preventing breakouts. Both South Korea and Germany have been among the countries adopting the strictest shutdown measures and providing the most testing and contact tracing. Trump, who has pressed to reopen schools and businesses sooner rather than later, said Friday that "testing isn't necessary." On Saturday, two senior members of the administration's coronavirus task force said they would self-quarantine after being exposed at the White House. Redfield and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn will isolate for two weeks, the CDC and FDA said, after coming into contact with White House staffers who have tested positive for the virus. Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary, Katie Miller, and one of President Trump's personal valets tested positive last week, although neither they, nor Redfield or Hahn, have been reported ill. France and Spain, among the hardest-hit countries, but with declining death rates, have scheduled partial reopenings this week. Italy recorded a decline in new infections, but remains the country with the third-highest confirmed death toll, at more than 30,000, behind Britain, with nearly 32,000, and the United States, the highest at more than 78,000. In a telephone call with his former aides Friday night, former president Barack Obama characterized the administration's response to the pandemic as "absolute chaotic disaster," according to a recording of the call obtained by Yahoo News and confirmed to The Washington Post by Obama spokesperson Katie Hill. Obama, who has said he will campaign for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, said that "what we're fighting against" in the upcoming election "is these long-term trends in which being selfish, being tribal, being divided and seeing others as an enemy - that has become a stronger impulse in American life." The response "would have been bad even with the best of governments," Obama said. "It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mind-set - of 'what's in it for me' and 'to heck with everybody else' - when that mind-set is operationalized in our government." Amid the worst U.S. unemployment figures since the Great Depression and ongoing partisan finger-pointing, a stalemate continued between the White House and congressional Democrats on a new relief package. Separately, Trump announced $3 billion worth of dairy, meat and produce will be purchased from American farmers, as part of a larger aid package intended to help the farming industry. In a tweet, Trump said that products from farmers, ranchers and specialty crop growers will be redistributed, in a program he called "FARMERS TO FAMILY FOOD BOX," to food kitchens. Last month, Trump committed $19 million to the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, "to provide critical support to our farmers and ranchers, maintain the integrity of our food supply chain, and ensure every American continues to receive and have access to the food they need," according to a statement on the USDA's website. The remaining $16 million will go to direct payments to farmers and ranchers. According to an April report from the Food & Agriculture Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri, the pandemic will have "broad implications across the agriculture sector." The report projected a net farm income decline of approximately $20 billion. On the medical front, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said that three New York children have died of a mysterious inflammatory syndrome believed to be related to the virus. The state's health department is investigating 73 reported cases among New York children of the syndrome, which has symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease or toxic shock syndrome, Cuomo said during a news conference. The children tested positive for the coronavirus or had antibodies triggered by the virus, but they had not been hospitalized for respiratory symptoms, he said. "We were laboring under the impression that young people were not affected by covid-19," Cuomo said. "We're not so sure that is the fact anymore." He said the CDC has asked New York to develop national criteria for other states and hospitals. The FDA announced that it has issued an emergency authorization for a new coronavirus screening, called an antigen test, that is conducted by a nasal swab and can quickly detect proteins found on or within the virus. The antigen test, manufactured by Quidel Corp., can produce diagnostic results within minutes. The FDA said in a news release that the test is "important in the overall response" against the virus because it can be produced at a lower cost than other tests and can "potentially scale to test millions of Americans per day" once other manufacturers enter the market. The federal government has already authorized two other coronavirus tests. The first, called a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, detects genetic material from the virus. The second is a serological, or blood, screening, which is not meant to diagnose an active case but to detect antibodies that signal a person was previously infected and has developed an immune response to the virus. The serological test is cheaper and faster than the PCR test, but is also less reliable, with positive results being "highly accurate," but negative results not necessarily ruling out the presence of the virus. To backstop a potential false negative, the FDA said that negative tests should be confirmed with a PCR test. In terms of drugs to affect the course of the disease itself, a study published Saturday in the British medical journal Lancet, said that a triple combination of antiviral drugs has shown initial promise in the treatment of patients with mild to moderate cases. Scientists conducting a small trial based in Hong Kong found that patients who were given a cocktail of three drugs - the HIV drug lopinavir-ritonavir; ribavirin, a treatment for hepatitis C; and interferon beta, which is used to treat multiple sclerosis, tested negative after seven days, compared to 12 days for a control group receiving only the HIV drug. Researchers not involved with the trial said that the early results of the study, which involved 127 patients in six hospitals in Hong Kong, were promising but that larger studies were needed. - - - The Washington Post's Tony Romm, Laurie McGinley, Candace Buckner, Samantha Pell and Karla Adam in London contributed to this report. US Moves to Pull Chinese Equipment From Its Power Grid By Adam Xu May 09, 2020 An executive order issued last week proposes to "monitor and replace" any U.S. power grid equipment made by the nation's foreign adversaries. Analysts said it would mainly affect Chinese-made products like electrical transformers. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on May 1 prohibiting bulk power system equipment from foreign companies in the U.S. grid, citing security concerns. The U.S. Department of Energy noted that under the current rules, contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder when it comes to bulk power system procurement, and that creates a "vulnerability that can be exploited by those with malicious intent." U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said that it is imperative that "the bulk-power system be secured against exploitation and attacks by foreign threats." Analysts believe this means that the United States will set up a whitelist for the procurement of such equipment. Although the order did not name any specific country, observers say China and Russia are the two main countries most capable of posing a threat to the U.S. power grid. "It's an important set of issues and similar to the debate that's occurring around (companies like) Huawei, ZTE in 5G. Clearly you want to have visibility and confidence across your entire supply chain," Frank J. Cilluffo, director of Auburn University's McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security, told VOA. He added that the move is a "prudent step" aimed at securing "the most critical of critical infrastructure," because virtually all other infrastructure rely on the power grid to function. "Just because the dependence is so great. When you look at the implications of COVID-19 and everyone working from home, people are becoming more and more aware of some of those vulnerabilities," he said. "I think you're going to see closer scrutiny across all of our critical infrastructures." The term "bulk-power system" refers to facilities and control systems necessary for national power grids. 'Identify, monitor and replace' Under the executive order, the DOE will review control center, large-scale power generation machines, power generation turbine engines, high-voltage circuit breakers, transformers and other electrical power equipment, to "identify, monitor and replace as appropriate." The U.S. Department of Commerce also announced on Monday that it will start a Section 232 investigation to determine if the volume of imported transformers and related parts threatens America's national security. A DOE official said that U.S. electric power companies are buying national electric-grid systems, such as power transformers from foreign adversaries, for their low prices, according to Politico. China has been exporting large power transformers to the U.S. at competitive prices. Its domestic transformer market is showing signs of overcapacity. A DOE report in 2014 said that there are about 30 manufacturers in China that can produce transformers of 220 KV or kilovolts and above, and large international manufacturers such as ABB were setting up factories in China. Charles Durant, deputy director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Counterintelligence Office, noted in 2019 that over the past decade, more than 200 Chinese large power transformers have entered the U.S. energy system. "Before that, this number was zero." Cilluffo told VOA that there were precedents of hackers attacking a country's power grid. On Dec. 23, 2015, the Ukrainian power system suffered a cyberattack that caused a large power outage. Ukraine said that Russian security services were behind the attack. "So if you think about our dependency on electricity, it's not only that immediate structure, it transcends to all of our critical infrastructure," said Cilluffo. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The Justice Department's surprise motion Thursday to dismiss the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn has left some legal experts puzzling over how the federal judge presiding over the years-long, politically fraught legal battle might respond. District Judge Emmet Sullivan has previously excoriated Flynn in court for his actions, including in a December 2018 sentencing proceeding prior to Flynn's later withdrawal of his guilty plea for lying to the FBI. "You lied to the FBI about three different topics, and you made those false statements while you were serving as the National Security Adviser -- the President of the United States' most senior national security aid. I can't minimize that," Sullivan said. "I mean, arguably, that undermines everything this flag over here stands for. Arguably, you sold your country out." MORE: DOJ moves to dismiss case against former Trump adviser Michael Flynn However, Thursday's filing by the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Timothy Shea, handpicked for the position last year by Attorney General William Barr, sought to undercut many of the arguments long accepted by Sullivan in the case as he weighed how to hand down justice. Though Flynn had previously pleaded guilty twice in court to lying to FBI agents in a January 2017 interview at the White House about his conversations with former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Shea said new evidence about the FBI's handling of the investigation at the time rendered its inquiry into Flynn illegitimate. "The evidence shows his statements were not 'material' to any viable counterintelligence investigation -- or any investigation for that matter -- initiated by the FBI," Shea said. "Indeed, the FBI itself had recognized that it lacked sufficient basis to sustain its initial counterintelligence investigation by seeking to close that very investigation without even an interview of Mr. Flynn." Story continues PHOTO: President Donald Trump's former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn leaves the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse on June 24, 2019, in Washington. (Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images, FILE) The language in the filing drew widespread condemnation from many former law enforcement officials, who cast the episode as the latest example of Barr interfering in a criminal case at the benefit of one of President Donald Trump's political allies. Former President Barack Obama, who previously had warned Trump not to hire Flynn, brought up his concerns about the dismissal of charges in a call with past members of his administration on Friday. "That's the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic -- not just institutional norms -- but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk," Obama said, according to leaked audio obtained by Yahoo News. "And when you start moving in those directions, it can accelerate pretty quickly as we've seen in other places." In an interview with CBS on Thursday Barr denied he was doing the president's bidding and demurred when asked whether it remains true that Flynn lied to the FBI. "You know, people sometimes plead to things -- that turn out not to be crimes," he said. Legal experts reached by ABC News said the sequence of events -- which they described as without clear precedent, raises significant questions for Judge Sullivan as he considers whether to accept the Justice Department's motion filed "with prejudice," meaning future prosecutors would be barred from revisiting the charges. "He's not going to act rashly, he's gonna take his time," said Rory Little, a former associate deputy attorney general and current law professor at UC Hastings. "This is as sensitive a situation as he's confronted." Former judges and prosecutors pointed to three separate tracks Sullivan could potentially take, each with variations in how he might carry them out. He could simply accept the Department of Justice's motion for dismissal by taking a "leave of court," which would make way for the charges to be formally tossed out. If Sullivan has more serious concerns about either the conduct of FBI agents outlined in Shea's filing, or suspects potential political influence in the DOJ's decision to dismiss, he could appoint an independent counsel to open an inquiry into the case. Sullivan could also technically decline to accept the Justice Department's motion altogether and move toward sentencing Flynn -- though legal experts suggested this would be unlikely and would face an immediate appeal. MORE: Justice Department reviewing handling of Michael Flynn case: Source "A situation in which someone has pled guilty twice, litigation has been going on for two years, the main prosecutor withdraws from the case, there's a certain amount of examination that the judge should do," former district judge Nancy Gertner said Friday. Gertner and others said a likely next step for Sullivan would be calling a conference of the DOJ and Flynn's defense team to press for more answers on Thursday's motion, especially after the case's former prosecutor who served in special counsel Robert Mueller's office, Brandon Van Grack, withdrew from the case hours before the DOJ's motion. No other career prosecutors from the U.S. attorneys office signed onto Shea's filing. Little pointed to Sullivan's past actions when overseeing the failed corruption case against former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, who was convicted in October 2008 of violating federal ethics laws. Stevens later had his conviction thrown out by Sullivan after it was revealed prosecutors failed to turn over exculpatory evidence. Outraged over the pattern of conduct, Sullivan appointed a cadre of independent lawyers to review whether any involved in the previous case should face criminal charges. Little said while he wouldn't speculate Sullivan would take similar action to probe the Justice Department's conduct in the Flynn case, he said he could see Sullivan appointing some kind of amicus, or 'friend of the court,' to come in as an independent counsel to advise him on a path forward. However, taking such action could raise significant procedural and constitutional concerns, others said. "That sort of situation here with the government and the defense both agreeing that the case should be dismissed, the only way to get an independent view is to have an outside special prosecutor," said retired district judge Shira Scheindlin in a phone interview Friday. "But I don't know if you can do that, because the prosecution is brought in the name of the United States, representing the people of the United States." Gertner, who served 17 years as a district judge in Massachusetts, said while the rules dictating what steps Sullivan could take in an inquiry appear "ambiguous," she believes the law shows he has a "duty" to seek further answers to get a better understanding of the Justice Department's motivations. "The law says a leave of court is required unless dismissal is contrary to manifest public interest," Sullivan said. "The question will be whether an obviously pre-textual motion to dismiss, an obviously inappropriate motion to dismiss that came about as a result of untoward political influence, that it seems to me is the only question he can be asking." Path ahead in Flynn case unclear after surprise DOJ reversal: Legal experts originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Anthony Catapano and his wife, Nancy, in an undated photo. Catapano died April 12 from Covid-19 at Staten Island University Hospital. Nancy Catapano died in 2014. Police say a nurse at a New York City hospital faces charges for stealing a credit card of a former Covid-19 patient while hospitalized, which the patients daughter says was used for gasoline and groceries. Danielle Conti, 43, has been charged with grand larceny, petty larceny and criminal possession of stolen property after ringing up charges on two of Anthony Catapanos credit cards while hospitalized at Staten Island University Hospital with coronavirus, according to the New York Police Department. Catapano, 70, was hospitalized on April 4 after getting sick from coronavirus, his daughter, Tara Catapano, told CNN. He was lucid when the alleged theft occurred and later died on April 12 from complications of the virus. I was in shock and disbelief, Tara Catapano said. Obviously, I knew it had to be a hospital employee because visitors werent really allowed. Tara Catapano, who had been paying her fathers bills since her mother passed away in 2014, said she normally doesnt track her fathers spending closely. However, after he died and she received a credit card statement for gasoline which she said her father always paid for in cash she then saw the charge date occurred on April 9, when her father was in the hospital, literally fighting for his life. Tara Catapano said the police showed her surveillance footage from a ShopRite of what appeared to be Conti paying for groceries using her fathers card. They take an oath to protect, not to harm, Tara Catapano said. Other belongings unaccounted for include her fathers eyeglasses, cell phone, cash in the wallet, phone chargers and pictures. Its not clear what happened to those belongings and it isnt certain they were intentionally stolen. In a statement provided to CNN, Christian Preston, the director of public affairs for Staten Island University Hospital, said Conti, who has worked at the hospital since 2007, has been temporarily suspended and faces termination in response to the felony charges. He also said the hospital is working closely with the law enforcement authorities and the hospital is conducting its own investigation. Efforts to reach Conti were not successful. It was not immediately clear whether she has an attorney. An NYPD spokesperson told CNN that Conti has been issued a desk appearance, or order to appear in Staten Island criminal court, for sometime in September. Tara Catapano told CNN she just wants to know why Conti did what she allegedly did. I would want to know why she took advantage of my father while he was on his deathbed, she said. And I would want to know how she would feel if someone did that to a loved one of hers whether it was a parent or grandparent. I dont think when people do these things they think of it like that. But he is my father, he is a person, Tara Catapano said. I am disgusted [Conti was] supposed to be taking care of him and instead stole from him. *** Source: CNN Germany is losing patience with Iranian espionage and terror operations inside Germany. On May 1st Germany finally banned Hezbollah, the Iran-backed organization that, with considerable Iranian support, has created a private army in Lebanon and an international network of spies, assassins, recruiters and fund-raisers that do the bidding of Iran. This has been going on since the 1980s when Hezbollah was killing hundreds of Americans at the behest of Iran. Hezbollah is but one of many Islamic terrorist groups operating in Germany. Hezbollah has always been loud and proud about its goal of destroying Israel and other nations Iran deemed in need of elimination. The U.S., Israel and most European nations recognize Hezbollah for what it is; a terrorist organization. Many German politicians opposed such bans feeling that it made Germany more vulnerable to terrorist violence and other illegal activities. German intelligence and security agencies disagreed, and have done so for decades. As soon as the Hezbollah ban was declared, police were able to crack down on Islamic groups in Germany suspected of carrying out acts of violence and planning more of it. The Hezbollah ban was accompanied by several raids on four Hezbollah religious organizations long suspected of illegal activities. German security officials pointed out that Iran had been the most active sponsor of espionage and terrorism inside Germany for over a decade. The Hezbollah ban only applies to the military wing of Hezbollah. The political wing is still legal in Germany. The fiction of Islamic terror groups having separate political and militant components has long been used to protect Islamic terror groups from being completely banned from a foreign sanctuary. It is a particularly popular fiction in Europe, which is why so many Islamic terror groups use it. European security and intelligence agencies acknowledge that this scam is just that and makes it more difficult to monitor and limit the damage these groups do in Europe. While the September 11, 2001 attacks were shocking to Europeans, they also felt that they were immune. After all, Europe provided asylum and generous social benefits to Islamic terrorists on the run from prosecution in their home countries. This was a delusion, as Islamic radicals openly mocked the smugness of Europeans, while also calling for the establishment of Islamic rule in Europe. Many European intelligence agencies saw what was coming, but local media and politicians were setting the agenda, an agenda that was more concerned with scoring points against American efforts, than paying attention to what was going on in their midst. The net result was that, while America was at war with Islamic terrorists, Europe was still trying to negotiate. For more than a decade German politicians have been under pressure from their constituents to reduce the flow of Moslem migrants and more carefully screen those that are let in. Most elected (and unelected) officials have taken the position that allowing large numbers of Moslem refugees (from civil wars, rebellions and religious conflicts in Moslem majority nations) is the humanitarian thing to do and will eventually benefit Germany. Their constituents point out that many of the politicians are delusional because these officials do not live near the new arrivals and experience the increasing crime and general hostility expressed by so many of the refugees towards non-Moslems, and often each other. Voters are particularly angry about how their political leaders tend to live in well-protected neighborhoods and have access to taxpayer-supplied personal security. To make matters worse there are a growing number of instances where local (or national) officials deliberately concealed the data on criminal activity by Moslem migrants. Some data cannot be concealed and that is when there are deliberate terrorist attacks that kill or injure people in a public place. For example, in the four years after 2014 (through the end of 2017), there were 32 Islamic terror attacks in Europe. These involved 44 Moslem refugees or recent asylum seekers. These attacks caused 996 casualties (182 dead, 814 wounded). While these attacks occurred in twelve countries, most of them took place in Germany, which had accepted the most (1.4 million) Moslem refugees. In reaction to that, there were some effective counter-terrorism measures. But the flow of Moslem refugees continued. For the average European the most annoying thing about this is that the hostility and violence found among so many of these refugees is nothing new. Opinion polls and government data have detailed the problem for years. For example, in 2006 German counter-intelligence officials were openly dismayed at how passive German Moslems were towards the threat of Islamic terrorism. A tip line for Germans to call in information about suspected terrorist activity received little use by the 3.5 million Moslems living in Germany. The tip line had German, Arabic and Turkish speaking operators available. While there had not been any major al Qaeda terrorist attacks in Germany up to then, the police and intelligence agencies knew they had an Islamic terrorism problem. Even without tips from Moslem residents, the intelligence agencies had detected a growing number of suspected Islamic terrorists and many of these eventually proved those suspicions right, often in another country. That was because Germany was seen as something of a sanctuary for Islamic terrorists; a place where local Moslems would stay silent and local police might suspect your intentions, but unless you broke one of their laws (like displaying a flag with a swastika on it), you would not get arrested. Back then surveys showed that about three percent of German Moslems supported al Qaeda's objectives. as in Islam becoming the only religion on the planet, and using force to make it happen. These Islamic radicals did not just support violence but would give aid to al Qaeda terrorists and later ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant). Al Qaeda and ISIL are Sunni Moslem while rival Iran, being Shia Moslem, has created its own terror organizations, the most prominent being Hezbollah. More worrisome, the German intelligence experts believed that about 3,000 of their Moslem residents would commit terrorist acts to further the al Qaeda cause. The Germans also noted that there were 24 active Islamist groups in the country, with a combined membership of over 31,000. Many of those young al Qaeda enthusiasts lacked the leadership and technical knowledge to pull off a major attack. While these 3,000 men were all for terrorist actions, only a few are willing to kill themselves doing it. This shows the importance of the former al Qaeda bases in Afghanistan. There, al Qaeda could select and train men who could whip a bunch of local enthusiasts into a team capable of carrying out an act of mass murder. The camps also trained people to make bombs and deal with the more mundane problems of avoiding detection and capture by the police. German counter-terrorist forces knew of al Qaeda trained Moslems living in Germany. But German law prohibits preventive detention, so the best the Germans can do is try and identify the most likely al Qaeda terrorists and keep an eye on them. Britain thought they had a similar situation and had it under control. The July 7, 2005 bombing made it clear that some British Moslems were actually very eager to act, and the government surveillance program had not detected, much less caught them. After the 2005 attacks, an opinion survey found that some 18 percent of British Moslems felt little, or no, loyalty towards Britain. Worse yet, about six percent of British Moslems (largely males, and younger ones) were in favor of the attacks. That's over 100,000 people. This percentage was similar to estimates in France and Germany. Tips from British Moslems did pick up after the 2005 attacks, but there was not much reaction in Germany or France. Meanwhile, the Europeans can only envy the American FBI, which has a very active tip line. Despite a large number of American Moslems who were not happy with the war on terror, they did report anything that appeared to be terrorist activity. This program was so successful that the number of terrorist prosecutions was declining. This was due to several factors. First, the pro-al Qaeda crowd, at least the ones not sharp enough to keep their heads down, have been caught. Second, you have to assume that there are pro-al Qaeda American Moslems still out there, and smart enough to avoid being detected, but are proceeding with extreme caution, and taking their time. Europeans tend to leave terrorism suspects under observation for a long time, while the FBI tends to pick up suspects as soon as there seems to be enough evidence to get a conviction. The European method is necessary because the Moslem community is not providing information. So the police have to observe the terrorists, see who they work with, and generate tips that way. In 2014 a poll in some European nations to discover support for the recently created ISIL resulted in some surprising results. In Germany, two percent of the adults supported ISIL, while in Britain it was seven percent and in France 15 percent. While many of these supporters are Moslems, only 4.6 percent of Germans, five percent of Britons and 7.5 percent of the French are Moslems. Thus there was support from non-Moslems and a closer look at the data shows that ISIL support was higher among the young and falls sharply among older people. Many of the ISIL supporters were actually angry at their own government for various reasons. Still, the ISIL support was part of the overall support (or tolerance) for Islamic radicalism in the West and the recent rapid growth of European anti-Semitism. There is more, but not much more, support for ISIL in countries with Moslem majority populations. Most Saudi Arabians oppose ISIL but, among those that do back Islamic terrorism, there are many who are very active in their support. Saudi Arabia is the original source of nearly all current Islamic terrorism and is still the source of most recruits and financial support for these groups. Because of that, and growing foreign criticism over the issue, in early 2014 the Saudis made it illegal for Saudi citizens to join ISIL. In typical Saudi fashion, they waited a while before strictly enforcing the new law. The Saudis have a hard time punishing fellow Saudis for being Islamic radicals, in large part because Arabia was where Islamic radicalism was invented and is still highly respected and practiced despite all the Islamic terrorism. Despite what the United States and the West wants, events in Arabia follow a different pattern. After ISIL became a major threat in mid-2014, widespread local support for ISIL in the Moslem world was just not there. But the Islamic radicalism that created centuries of Islamic terrorism outbreaks survives and will keep providing headlines for the rest of the world. Many Westerners dont appreciate the details of Middle Eastern history that cause Islamic terrorism to return again and again, and simply see the fanatical Islamic terrorists as revolutionaries worthy of admiration or even emulation. In the two centuries, European countries have had to deal with homegrown radicalism (republicanism, anarchism, radical socialism) and despite its alien origins Islamic terrorism now appeals to young Europeans who miss the communists, Nazis, anarchists and radical republicans of the past. By 2016 British media noted that more Moslem men of military age were joining Islamic terrorist organizations than were joining the British military. The vast majority of the three million Moslems in Britain were either hostile or unsympathetic to Islamic terrorism. But a large fraction (at times over 20 percent) had some sympathy for the motives of the terrorists (defending Islam and all that) while as many as six percent believed the Islamic terrorist violence was justified. More troubling was that nearly a fifth of British Moslems felt little loyalty towards Britain and instead believed Islam was where their main loyalty was. Islam stresses this in its scripture. European leaders have been slow to accept the reality of what they are dealing with. But since European nations are democracies the rulers cannot continually ignore the complaints of voters who daily confront this culture clash and often live in constant fear because of it. Actually, so do many of the Moslem refugees. These outbreaks of Islamic terrorism have, for centuries, only hurt other Moslems because the righteous rage of the Islamic purists was directed at fellow Moslems perceived to be heretics. There were often ethnic, nationalistic or political elements as well but the basic motivator was religious and the efforts to impose true Islam on other Moslems that are nearby. In the West, it was difficult to deal with this problem even though it had been well documented in the West for centuries. But it had become fashionable in the West to ignore all that and, to the astonishment of many in the Moslem world (including allies) to deliberately and disastrously misinterpret what was actually going on. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 19:57:41|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Chief Secretary for Administration of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government (HKSAR) Matthew Cheung on Sunday appealed to all members of the public to deter violence, and urged youngsters to stay away from violence and cherish their future. Pointing out that violence was again looming in Hong Kong, Cheung said in his online article that youngsters were easily to be incited to commit crimes which was a worrying sign. "The younger generation is the future and hope of the society as well as the social and economic driving force for the long-term development of Hong Kong," Cheung said, stressing that the HKSAR government is committed to cultivating a responsible and law-abiding younger generation with a positive outlook on life, an international vision and a sense of national identity. The COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest has delivered a double blow to Hong Kong's economy which has already been in deep recession. Cheung said that many young people will face a rather severe employment situation caused by local economic downturn. Cheung said the HKSAR government has introduced a raft of relief measures with the Anti-epidemic Fund to safeguard employment. He added the government will create about 30,000 temporary jobs among public and private sectors in two years, and will also hire 10,000 civil servants this year and increase internships to 5,000. Also on Sunday, Financial Secretary of the HKSAR government Paul Chan warned in an online article that although Hong Kong saw a small window of economic recovery thanks to the signs of improvement in curbing the COVID-19 outbreak, fresh violence could destroy the fragile result. Chan pointed out that assemblies and conflicts appeared again in some districts recently, disturbing the business environment of shopping malls and stores, which is definitely bad news for Hong Kong's weakening economy, the retail sector, small shops and workers. He emphasized that Hong Kong's economy was under an unprecedented downsize pressure as its GDP contracted 8.9 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, the sharpest quarterly decline since 1974. Chan said the economic outlook is still not optimistic in the second quarter, but believed economic activities may resume as long as the COVID-19 outbreak is controlled well and a turning point is expected to come in the third quarter. He again urged members of the public to express their views in a peaceful manner and not at the expense of other people's interests. Enditem Iran says it is ready for unconditional talks with the United States on a prisoner swap because of fears that the coronavirus is endangering inmates, the Iranian news media reported Sunday. An Iranian news website, Khabaronline.ir, quoted the cabinet spokesman Ali Rabiei as saying there is a readiness for all prisoners to be discussed without any conditions. But the U.S. has refused to answer, so far, Mr. Rabiei said. We hope that as the outbreak of the Covid-19 disease threatens the lives of Iranian citizens in the U.S. prisons, the U.S. government eventually will prefer lives to politics. A senior American official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, There has been no offer, and no offer of direct talks. Islamabad: Pakistan said on Sunday that it has "fully complied" with the ICJ's judgement in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case, days after India's lead counsel asserted that New Delhi had hoped it might be able to persuade Islamabad through "back channel" to release the Indian death-row convict. Jadhav, the 49-year-old 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 International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Pakistan for denial of consular access to Jadhav and challenging the death sentence. Senior advocate Harish Salve was the lead counsel for India in the Jadhav case at the Hague-based ICJ which ruled in July last year that Pakistan must undertake an "effective review and reconsideration" of the conviction and sentence of Jadhav and also to grant consular access to India without further delay. "We were hoping that through back channel, we may be able to persuade Pakistan to let him go. If they want to say on humanitarian ground or whatever, we want him back. We said let him go. Because it has become a big ego problem in Pakistan. So, we were hoping that they will let him go. They haven't," Salve said on May 3 while speaking online from London. "We have written four-five letters. They just keep on denying. I think we have reached a point where we have to now decide whether we want to go back to ICJ for consequential directions because Pakistan has not moved ahead," he said. Responding to Salve's remarks, Pakistan's Foreign Office Spokesperson Aisha Farooqui said Islamabad had noted the statements made by India's legal counsel in the Jadhav case. While suggesting that India may have to go back to ICJ, Salve has made certain statements which are contrary to the facts of the case, she said. "We firmly reject the Indian Counsel's baseless and inaccurate assertion that Pakistan has not complied with the ICJ's judgment in the case. Pakistan has fully complied with the judgment and remains committed to continue doing so as the case proceeds further," Farooqui said. She said Pakistan granted India consular access to Jadhav and was processing measures for effective review and reconsideration as per the guidelines provided by the ICJ in its judgment. Being a responsible state, Pakistan abides by all its international obligations, the Spokesperson said. "It is regrettable that Mr Salve has chosen to make statements which are inaccurate and misrepresent facts," she said. In its 42-page order, the world court, while rejecting Pakistan's objection to admissibility of the Indian application in the case, had held that "a continued stay of execution constitutes an indispensable condition for the effective review" of the sentence of Jadhav. The bench, however, rejected some remedies sought by India, including annulment of the military court's decision convicting Jadhav, his release and safe passage to India. The ICJ upheld India's stand that Pakistan had "breached" the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations, which gives countries the right to consular access when their nationals are arrested Pakistan claims that its security forces arrested Jadhav from the restive Balochistan province on March 3, 2016 after he reportedly entered from Iran. However, India maintains that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Navy. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 09, 2020 | FRANKFORT By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 09, 2020 | 06:20 PM | FRANKFORT At the Capitol Saturday, Gov. Andy Beshear provided updates on Kentucky's fight against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). "Every day we need to make sure that we lift each other up," Gov. Beshear said. "We need to encourage our neighbors around us." The Governor offered information regarding in-person worship services and new cases and reminded Kentuckians of this week's updates on expanded testing and industry-specific guidance for staying healthy at work. As of 5 p.m. May 9, Gov. Beshear said there were at least 6,440 coronavirus cases in Kentucky, 158 of which were newly confirmed Saturday. "These new cases, they impact people of all ages," Gov. Beshear said. "Thirty percent of all of our cases are between 20 and 40 years old. When you look at 40 to 70, it's 46 percent of our cases. For those that think this just hits people in their 70s and older, that's just 19 percent of our cases. It's hitting everybody. So, let's not let our guard down. Let's make sure we are doing the right things to protect everybody." Unfortunately, Gov. Beshear also reported six new deaths Saturday, raising the total to 304 Kentuckians lost to the virus. The deaths include a 63-year-old man from Jefferson County, a 92-year-old woman from Meade County, and four from Graves County, to men ages 76 and 81, and two women, ages 90 and 95. At least 2,308 Kentuckians have recovered from the virus. For additional information, including up-to-date lists of positive cases and deaths, as well as breakdowns of coronavirus infections by county, race and ethnicity, click here. On Friday, Gov. Beshear previewed guidance to houses of worship on how to more safely hold in-person worship services starting May 20. In light of recent court rulings, which allow in-person services to resume immediately, the state is issuing that guidance today. "I know some folks are ready to get back to in-person services, but we must remain vigilant against this virus," Gov. Beshear said. "Places of worship should strongly consider continuing to offer alternative services. My family will continue worshiping virtually." If Kentuckians worship in person on Sunday, Gov. Beshear urged them to be careful and to take the steps to protect themselves and their families. The state's complete guidance can be found at healthyatwork.ky.gov. This week, Gov. Beshear announced new partnerships with First Care Clinics and Bluewater Diagnostics Laboratory that will help Kentuckians get tested for COVID-19 at no cost before they go back to work, even if they do not have health insurance. For more information on the new partnerships, click here. Information on how to register at more than 70 sites throughout the commonwealth can be found at kycovid19.ky.gov. "We still have 150 spots in Corbin," the Governor said. "The slots in Corbin are not filling up fast enough. This is an area where we need more tests and there haven't been enough tests. You can sign up now. You can get that slot now. Please do." On Friday, Gov. Beshear outlined the requirements to begin reopening major segments of the economy and society including houses of worship, manufacturing, construction, government offices and agencies, retail and funeral services. The full plans for those entities to reopen is posted online at healthyatwork.ky.gov. "Healthy at home has worked," the Governor said. "And that's not because it was a great plan. It's because of what you the citizens of Kentucky were willing to do. You have saved lives. Each and every one of you who has made good decisions is a hero. Healthy at Work is a pretty intense set of guidelines, too, so if you can take that same commitment as Healthy at Home and put it to Healthy at Work then we can start restarting our economy gradually and in a safe way and not have to pause it. And not cause more spread of the virus." Gov. Beshear also announced that government offices and agencies can open on May 18 and funeral homes can open on May 20. All businesses should follow the 10 rules of staying healthy at work as well as industry-specific guidance, which will be issued as soon as possible. See the full reopening schedule here. This week, Kentucky Department for Public Health (KDPH) Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack also announced Health Care Reopening Phase 2 is beginning with outpatient and ambulatory surgery and invasive procedures. All patients must have COVID-19 pre-procedure testing per professional association guidelines consistent with KDPH guidance. The 10 rules of reopening also apply, which include universal masking and personal protective equipment (PPE), closed common areas, along with requirements to follow specific procedure guidance. This week, Gov. Beshear thanked teachers, nurses and interpreters. Yesterday, he and Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman thanked moms across the commonwealth ahead of Mother's Day. Gov. Beshear also announced there will be no news conference on Sunday in honor of the holiday. "We are very close to Mother's Day, so happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there," Gov. Beshear said. At a time when the Assam government is urging people to remain inside their homes to prevent getting infected with COVID-19, the state forest department has issued eviction notices to 30 families of a village located adjacent to the Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary in Guwahati for allegedly encroaching forest land. Reacting sharply to the development, Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, Debabrata Saikia of the Congress on Sunday shot a letter to and Forest Minister Parimal Suklabaidya terming as "inhuman" the decision to evict poor families from their homes amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The divisional forest officer of the Guwahati Wildlife Division had on May 8 issued eviction notices to 30 families of Garobasti village, asking them to vacate the area within 15 days. Several organisations and leading individuals have criticised the government's decision and requested the administration to review it as the Gauhati High Court had suspended an eviction drive in the area in 2017 and the matter is yet to be resolved. "When the matter is sub-judice in the Gauhati High Court, why has the Forest Department planned to evict the people? Is it not a contempt of court?" Saikia wrote in the letter. "Moreover, it is very inhuman to evict some poor families from their homes when the entire country is under lockdown due to COVID-19. If they are evicted, where will they go and how will they maintain social distancing?" he said. The senior Congress leader urged Suklabaidya to withdraw the eviction notice for the "sake of humanity". A person, who received the notice and did not wish to be named, claimed that his family has been living in the village for more than three decades and the area is not part of the protected area but falls under the revenue village. The Gauhati High Court had in November 2017 allowed the state government's prayer to suspend the eviction drive in residential areas inside the Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary. The authorities were carrying out the eviction drive under an earlier direction from the high court to clear the forest lands of encroachments. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two weeks, Ill be fine. Four weeks, Ill start worrying. Six weeks, Im out of business. Thats what a Southern Illinois restaurant owner told me back in March, when governors across the country began issuing stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of COVID-19. Now, were at eight weeks and still counting. Our first priority has been, and always must be, keeping people safe. Thats why I voted in recent weeks for emergency funding to improve access to testing, accelerate research into treatments, protect our health care workers and first responders, and help those at risk in obtaining protective equipment. What course will the virus take over the coming months? And when will we get back to a degree of normalcy? With every loss of human life a true tragedy, Southern Illinois has still been spared from the large scale outbreaks impacting metropolitan areas like New York and Chicago. We must continue to follow the science to ensure that remains the case. At the same time, many of our small businesses and their employees are teetering on the edge, unsure when they can reopen and whether there will even be jobs to return to. Congress approved the Paycheck Protection Program, a lifeline that provides grants and loans to businesses in need. We also expanded unemployment benefits and provided stimulus payments to citizens who need it most. However, none of these is a permanent fix. We need a roadmap that charts the course to recovery and saves our economy. Thats why I urged Gov. J.B. Pritzker to create a safe, regional and data-driven plan to reopen our states economy in phases, and to get the ball rolling now. This past week, Gov. Pritzker announced his regional plan, but I fear that too much uncertainty remains. Across the country, Republican and Democrat governors are reopening their states as we speak. More than 40 states have started the process of reopening. We need that kind of certainty here in Illinois. Job creators and hardworking families need to get back to work. And, by the way, I believe Congress should be doing the same. As essential workers like doctors, nurses, grocers and truck drivers continue working on the frontlines, the House of Representatives needs to do the same. The business of the American people is, indeed, essential business. I have been conducting daily calls and video conferences with hospital leaders; health care providers; VA medical centers; educators; business owners; state, county and local officials. Ive hosted a COVID-19 telephone town hall meeting. Ive kept in close contact with constituents over social media and email. But nothing replaces a representatives duty to be on the House floor, voting for his or her constituents interests. Once we return to Washington for an extended period of time, there is no doubt that we will need to make adjustments. For example, we already know that votes on the floor will need to be staggered and committee hearings will need to be conducted different to reduce close contact. New technology will be considered to ensure that everyone is made safer while abiding by our constitutional obligations. Where is Speaker Pelosis plan? Congress must get back to work sooner rather than later. Congress must do its job, and we must give as many Illinoisans as possible the chance to do theirs. A dose of certainty goes a long way in uncertain times like these. U.S. Rep. Mike Bost has represented the 12 counties of Illinois 12th District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2015. Prior to Congress, Representative Bost served in U.S. military, as a first responder, a local job creator, and a state representative. 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The Prime Ministers speech on Sunday evening laid out what he called a road map for reopening society, which included people going back to work this week, as well as a phased reopening of schools from June 1 and the potential reopening of part of the hospitality sector in July. But the announcement was widely criticised for being confusing, with experts and members of the public calling for more clarity on what is and isnt allowed. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: What the nation was looking for from the Prime Minister was clarity and consensus. We didn't get either, while union leaders accused Johnson of sending mixed messages which could have lethal consequences. Scientists also hit out at the announcement, accusing the government of being reckless and Johnson of wanting to have his cake and eat it. Do you want to ask me a question tomorrow? If so, you can submit yours here: https://t.co/T3xF9WkOyk pic.twitter.com/0YjII03Y8P Boris Johnson #StayAlert (@BorisJohnson) May 10, 2020 Johnson is due to face MPs in the Commons and will be taking questions from the public on Monday. Ahead of what will undoubtedly be a continuation of calls for clarity, the Prime Minister tweeted advice on how members of the public can ask him a question directly. 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 coronavirus is spreading He wrote: Do you want to ask me a question tomorrow? If so, you can submit yours here. The tweet included a link to the section of the government website that allow people to submit a question for the daily coronavirus press conference. Story continues Questions from the public for the Prime Minister could include: When can we visit family? Should we wear masks? How can people go to work when schools are still closed and there are no childcare facilities? Are workers allowed to refuse to go to their workplace if they believe it is unsafe, and will they be protected from being disciplined or sacked? How will social distancing on public transport be monitored? Coronavirus: what happened today Tropical Smoothie Cafe, a leading national fast-casual concept known for its better-for-you-smoothies and food with a tropical twist, announced today its One Million Smoothie Giveaway for guests nationwide. Coming off the heels of donating over 200,000 smoothies in April to the frontline heroes in the COVID-19 pandemic, Tropical Smoothie Cafes new goal is to spread even more sunshine by giving away 1 million free smoothies to guests across the country. We were humbled by the incredible response to the 200,000 smoothies our franchisees donated to frontline heroes nationwide, said Charles Watson, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, LLC CEO. The smiles we saw and stories we heard inspired us to think bigger and explore how we could do even more to support the communities we serve. Our guests have always told us our smoothies provide a refreshing, momentary escape and we figured everyone could use a little escape right now. So, we decided to extend our smoothie giveaway to everyone in America by offering 1,000,000 free smoothies. In support of National Nurses Appreciation Month in May, Tropical Smoothie Cafe also pledged to donate $100,000 to the American Nurses Foundations COVID-19 Response Fund upon reaching its goal of giving away 1,000,000 smoothies. The support Tropical Smoothie Cafe already gave to nurses and other healthcare professionals is tremendous. We appreciate them doing even more by giving away 1 million smoothies and making a generous donation to the American Nurses Foundation Coronavirus Response Fund for Nurses, said Kate Judge, executive director, American Nurses Foundation. Their donation will help the Foundation support critical areas where frontline nurses need immediate and ongoing support like mental wellness, direct financial assistance and national advocacy. In support of Tropical Smoothie Cafes ongoing efforts to promote social distancing, guests can only participate by visiting www.FreeSmoothies.com, where they can sign up to receive a single-use promo code, redeemable online only, for one free smoothie. Once the online order is placed, smoothies can be picked up at the designated Tropical Smoothie Cafe location. Free smoothies cannot be requested directly at the cafe for the safety of our guests and crews. All offers are subject to applicable terms and conditions. Srinagar: Two BSF personnel and a militant were killed on Monday in an operation in Macchil sector near the Line of Control in Kashmir. Security forces launched an operation in Macchil sector in north Kashmir's Kupwara district following information about presence of militants in the area, an Army official said. He said one militant was killed in the operation that was going on till reports last came in. Two BSF personnel were also killed in the operation, he said, adding further details of the incident are awaited. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. If you haven't already, take a few minutes to read Gov. Steve Bullock's plan for reopening the economy in Montana. Pay attention to this sentence in particular: "Montanas plan to reopen relies on Montanans to adhere to social distancing guidelines whenever possible and to continue to limit gatherings." Now, as you continue your personal attacks on the very people who are working 50-60 hours a week to protect the public health of our city in the face of an unprecedented viral threat, take a moment and consider this: None of us wants to contract COVID-19. Also, we all want everything to be open. Negotiating the space between these two objectives involves professionals relying on science, ever-evolving data and the thoughtful cooperation of Missoula residents. I love this town. I love its people. Trust me when I say no one in the health department is out to get you or your particular lifestyle. They don't have the inclination, and they certainly don't have the time. They are working night and day, seven days a week, to get us to that balancing point between public safety and reengaging Missoula's economy, and deserve your consideration, not threats and baseless accusations. Ednor Therriault, Missoula Ganjam district in Odisha reported its first COVID-19 death after a man succumbed to the virus on Sunday, taking the death toll in the state to three, an official of the health department said. The total number of coronavirus cases in the state has climbed to 352, with 58 more testing positive for the disease, the official said. At least 41 of them are those who returned from Surat in Gujarat recently, he said. Last month, Odisha had reported two COVID-19 deaths - both in state capital Bhubaneswar. Of the 58 new cases, 29 are from Ganjam district, 15 from Balasore, and 1 from Mayurbhanj. Angul district registered coronavirus cases for the first time, with 13 people there contracting the virus. Twenty of the 30 districts in the state have so far reported COVID-19 cases. The number of active cases in the state has climbed to 281. At least 68 people have recovered from the disease. On Saturday, 3,458 samples were examined in the state. A total of 59,780 samples have been tested so far. Jayant Panda, the spokesperson of the health and family welfare department, said COVID-19 mortality rate in Odisha stands at 0.6 per cent. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 10) The Quezon City Police District in Camp Karingal has been placed under a three-day lockdown, after its personnel tested positive for the coronavirus infection, authorities said. A total of 13 police staff members of the QCPD caught the viral disease, Police Brigadier General Bernard Banac, spokesperson of the Philippine National Police, confirmed to CNN Philippines on Sunday. A soldier of the Joint Task Force COVID Shield was also infected, he said. Banac told CNN Philippines that the QCPD conducted a targeted group testing from April 25 until April 29 among cops deployed at the headquarters, police stations, and police community precincts. "219 personnel ang sumailalim sa swab test. Of this number, 14 ang nagpositibo sa COVID-19," he said in a text message to the network. [Translation: 219 personnel underwent swab testing. Of this number, 14 tested positive for COVID-19.] But such is only based on the first 115 results that came out, said Police Brigadier General Debold Sinas, top official of the National Capital Region Police Office. "104 are still awaiting results," he clarified in a press statement on Monday. Among the 13 policemen who contracted the virus, nine are police commissioned officers, while four are non-commissioned, according to the NCRPO. The infected patients are now in the NCRPO Special Care facility, the regional police office said. The NCRPO stressed that it has imposed virus infection prevention and control measures with the implementation of the three-day lockdown. These include intensive contact tracing among those who were exposed to the 13 police staff members; and monitoring and isolation of those who had direct contact with the COVID-19 patients. The NCRPO said it will also evaluate the 104 cops whose results are still pending; and assess other personnel who may have to undergo swab testing. It added that it will decontaminate and disinfect the whole QCPD headquarters, and "implement [other] necessary measures." "Our most important resource against this battle is our human resource," Sinas said. "Hence, we opt to implement all possible measures to ensure their safety, and guarantee that they are in their optimum health condition, as they go to the frontline[s] to face the unseen deadly virus." He also commended the QCPD for "handling [the] crisis well." "We pledge all the necessary support that we can provide to alleviate the impact of this crisis to [the] QCPD," Sinas said. Meanwhile, Police Brigadier General Ronnie Montejo, director of the QCPD who, again, tested negative for the coronavirus is temporarily stationed at the Kamuning Police Station 10 in Quezon City, the NCRPO bared. There are a total of 10,794 confirmed COVID-19 cases nationwide, with 1,924 recoveries and 719 fatalities. In the wake of migrant workers sleeping on railway lines being crushed to death by a goods train in Maharashtra, East Coast Railway (ECoR) has asked people to refrain from walking on the tracks as several special trains are running during the lockdown. Although passenger trains have been suspended due to Covid-19 outbreak, goods trains and parcel express trains are continuously running on all the railway tracks to maintain supply of essential commodities across the country, a railway official said. Recently Shramik Special trains have also been started and many such trains are running in ECoR jurisdiction also, he said. "Therefore, walking on the tracks or on railway lines is extremely dangerous and strictly prohibited," he said, adding that ECoR is doing awareness campaign through every medium to educate people not to walk or pass train tracks, instead they should use limited height subways and manned level crossings only. Trackmen, bridge repair staff, station masters, overhead electric repairs staff, RPF staff and other railwaymen have been alerted to prevent and report if any such trespassing is observed. Despite awareness programmes, it is seen that many a time, people put their lives at risk and cross the lines. This practice is prohibited and also punishable under Section 147 of the Railways Act, an ECoR statement said. As per rule, nobody should cross or walk along the track in unauthorised manner and trespassers will be prosecuted as per the law, it said. However, railways does not want to be seen as prosecuting people in such crisis situations. It is also important that people are properly counselled to avoid coming near the train tracks in the interest of their personal safety, it said. Sixteen migrant workers sleeping on the rail tracks were crushed to death by a goods train in Maharashtra's Aurangabad district on Friday morning. A group of 20 migrant workers walking on railway tracks had a narrow escape on Friday when an inspection van stopped in front of them on a river bridge in West Bengal's Birbhum district. The migrants were returning to Jharkhand from West Bengal's Birbhum district. 'Despite expanded testing, the incidence remains low.' 'Therefore, the focus should be on specific districts where we need to improve the testing.' 'We should have a district-centric strategy.' IMAGE: Tamil Nadu Municipal Administration Minister S P Velumani distributes essential items among the needy in Coimbatore. Photograph: PTI Photo Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar says at 54% , the state's recovery rate from coronavirus was the highest in the country while the mortality rate was at 1.2%. But that doesn't mean the state is out of the woods. Worrying, with state capital Chennai remaining the biggest hotspot, the government moved quickly to bring in senior IAS officer J Radhakrishnan as Special Nodal Officer to coordinate with other wings of the state government to contain the pandemic's spread. Apart from this, the Tamil Nadu government has formed a 25-member expert committee to advise it on how the spread of coronavirus can be contained. Dr Prabhdeep Kaur, scientist E/deputy director, ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology in Chennai, is part of the committee. "It is important to recognise that this is not the first, nor the last, epidemic," Dr Kaur, below, tells A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com. The Tamil Nadu experts committee of which you are part had recommended that only a gradual phasing out of the lockdown is possible. So you must be happy with the Centre's decision to extend the lockdown. The central government's order is a generic one at the national level. There are a lot of relaxations so it seems appropriate. It has to be applied in the local context. Do you see a total lifting of the lockdown or will it be a graded one? It has to be a graded one while looking at all the parameters. We can consider several epidemiological indicators such as doubling time in every district. Decisions can be made at the district level. Even the Government of India recommends a district-centric approach It is such a challenge to balance public health and safety and the state of the economy. Longer that industrial activity remains dormant, the harder it is for the economy to recover. It is a very tough balance to strike for every nation and for every state. We have to collaborate closely between the community and the government. Long term measures will work better with cooperation. Restrictions will be there where the infection is more and where it is spreading. Certain restrictions cannot be lifted. Crowding cannot be permitted. The inter-ministerial group that visiting Tamil Nadu praised the state for its work in preventing the spread of coronavirus. What did Tamil Nadu do different, do better than other states, in your opinion? Tamil Nadu has a strong public health system. It has a large workforce used to tackle a health emergency. People have been working all over the state. We need to mobilise more resources to sustain the efforts over long time Tamil Nadu has increased testing and has second highest number of tests carried out among all states. Our testing numbers are three times the national average. Contact tracing has been very good. The infection can be restricted to a well-defined geographic area with good contact tracing. In an address to the media you had called lifestyle changes with a focus on personal hygiene. What kind of changes do you have in mind, and will they now be a permanent feature? Certain changes can be a permanent feature, such as hand washing. It will protect us from all kinds of infections. Social distancing and masks have to be there till a vaccine is found. These measures will have to be in place for long time. We have to integrate it with our lifestyle. Our other priority should be protecting vulnerable people -- the elderly and those with other health problems. They should have minimal contact with working people. There are practical challenges when it is a joint family. We have to minimise the contact between the elders and the young who go out to work. There are always concerns about the poor and weaker sections living in slums where the luxury of social distancing, or even proper sanitation, may not be available. Instead of putting the burden on citizens, shouldn't the government first ensure that conducive situations are created in these places? Given the magnitude of the pandemic, what the government can do is surveillance and testing. There are stringent measures being implemented at these places. If someone turns positive but has mild symptoms the government can put them in quarantine centres which don't have to be hospitals. By doing this, you can minimise their contact with those that are infected. As an epidemiologist, what is your take on the virus, its spread, mutation? Do you see a second wave of infections happening? India is in the early part of the epidemic. We have to watch the trends carefully. The virus will circulate for a very long time. We have to prepare our health system and the community to deal with the virus. Are you happy with the fewer numbers of testing in India compared to other nations? Isn't this why our reported numbers too are less as compared to other nations? India has been testing adequately as compared to many other countries. India in the past month has increased the testing very fast. Despite expanded testing the incidence (infections per lakh of population) remains low. Therefore, the focus should be on specific districts where we need to improve the testing. There are differences between districts. We should have a district-centric strategy. Could you tell us how your average day has been like since you became a member of the expert committee? I am an epidemiologist. I have been working on COVID-19 since it hit India. It is a 24x7 job. Our team has been providing support at the national and state level. It is a very challenging task. We are learning about a new disease on a daily basis. We have to rapidly translate the knowledge to the implementation at the ground level. Overall, the public health workforce has been stretched. After we come out of this, I hope, there will be better recognition of the need to strengthen the public health system and expansion of the public health workforce, including epidemiologists. All states do not have enough public health workforce, they need scale up for the long term. It is important to recognise that this is not the first, nor the last, epidemic. Finally, when do you see the situation returning to normal, if at all? Honestly, as an epidemiologist I have to say, I don't know. Heres a recap of the global response to the coronavirus pandemic for Monday, May 11, 2020. More than 4.1 million people worldwide have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, and over 282,000 have died. Spain reported its lowest daily death toll in two months. In Germany, however, infections are increasing again. In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the U.K. would begin reopening despite a rising death toll in the country. In the U.S., there have been over 1.3 million confirmed cases and more than 79,000 deaths. For the latest live updates, click here. By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA/VISAKHAPATNAM: Ten of the 306 people affected in the LG Polymers gas leakage incident undergoing treatment in King George Hospital (KGH) in Visakhapatnam were discharged on Sunday after they were pronounced safe and healthy by the doctors. Some of the police personnel and other people who were admitted to private hospitals were also discharged. However, authorities of those hospitals did not disclose the exact number of people discharged. A total of 121 persons were undergoing treatment in private hospitals apart from the 306 in KGH since Thursday when the incident occurred. All the people affected had complained of dizziness, eye irritation, nausea, and breathlessness. A total of 12 people had lost their lives and many survived with minor injuries and other side effects of styrene gas leakage. Giving details on the health condition of the people undergoing treatment, KGH superintendent Dr. Arjuna stated that all the victims in the KGH are now stable and do not have any major health issues. Initially about three children were having visibility issues, and one of them was having severe eye irritation. However, all of them are stable now and are under observation, he explained. Meanwhile, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy directed the officials concerned to pay ex gratia of `1 crore to the families of the victims of LG Polymers gas leak on Sunday itself and take measures to pay compensation to those undergoing treatment in various hospitals on Monday. For the rest, compensation would be paid at the earliest, as announced by the Chief Minister during his visit to Visakhapatnam. During a review meeting on gas leak relief operations with officials at his camp office on Sunday, the Chief Minister sought an update on the measures taken for containing the gas leakage and the medical treatment being extended to the people who suffered due to gas leakage.Officials explained that the air quality around LG Polymers in Visakhapatnam is now safe and said an in-depth inquiry by experts into the entire incident is under progress. Further, steps have been taken for removing the traces of gas from the villages near the industrial unit. The Chief Minister directed the officials to take up an intensive sanitation drive in the affected villages and initiate measures to restore normalcy in the region at the earliest. Manideep sent Home Six-year-old Manideep, who was suffering from severe eye irritation, was sent to LV Prasad Eye Hospital for the second opinion after he recovered at the KGH. After the consultation at the eye hospital, he was sent home. Dr. Arjuna said that the boy does not have any visibility problem. The effect of the gas was different on different people. Especially children have different immunity levels. In his case the gas affected his eyes than other body parts, he added. (Corrects headline and lead to show England (not England and Wales) could reopen primary schools) LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - England could allow primary schools to reopen as soon as June 1 under plans being discussed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Telegraph newspaper reported. Johnson is expected to unveil the government's "roadmap" out of the coronavirus lockdown in an address to the nation next Sunday, the newspaper said. The Sunday Times said that the government will only tweak the lockdown this week, encouraging building sites to reopen, relaxing rules on outdoor activities and urging people to cover their faces on public transport. Johnson is due next week to present a possible way out of the lockdown to get the world's fifth largest economy back to work without triggering a second spike in coronavirus cases. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Daniel Wallis) Stadler, a Swiss manufacturer of railway rolling stock disclosed a data breach, hackers attempted to blackmail the company. International rail vehicle manufacturer, Stadler, disclosed a security breach that might have also allowed the attackers to steal company data. Attackers confirmed that attackers compromised the IT network of the company and deployed some of its machines with malware that was used to exfiltrate data from the infected devices. Stadler internal surveillance services found out that the companys IT network has been attacked by malware which has most likely led to a data leak. The scale of this leak has to be further analyzed. Stadler assumes that this incident was caused by a professional attack from unknown offenders. reads the data breach notification published by the company. The company revealed that intruders asked for a large amount of money and are attempting to blackmail Stadler by threatening to release the stolen data. The offenders try to extort a large amount of money from Stadler and threaten the company with a potential publication of data to harm Stadler and thereby also its employees. continues the notification. Stadler initiated the required security actions immediately, a team of external experts was called in and the responsible authorities were involved. The companys backup data are complete and functioning. All affected systems are being rebooted. The rail vehicle manufacturer is investigating the incident with the help of external security experts. Stadler did not pay the ransom and has resumed operations by restoring its backups. The Swiss website Tagblatt confirmed that that the cyber attack impacted all the locations of the group. The IT network of the rail vehicle manufacturer Stadler has been attacked with malware. reported the Swiss media. There was a high probability of an outflow of data that was not yet known, as the company headquartered in Bussnang announced on Thursday evening. Stadler is assuming a professional attack. The whole group is affected by the cyber attack, including the many other locations in Switzerland and abroad. Now check whether you are also reporting in other countries. In Switzerland, Stadler also has locations in Altenrhein, St.Margrethen, Erlen, Winterthur, Wallisellen and Biel. said company spokeswoman Marina Winder. The rail vehicle manufacturer has filed a complaint with the Thurgau public prosecutor. Despite the corona pandemic and cyber attacks, the continuation of the production of new trains and Stadlers services is guaranteed, the company added. 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 hacking, ransomware) The coronavirus pandemic has put a stop to Rebecca Judd's travel plans. In an Instagram comment on Sunday, the 37-year-old footy WAG revealed Qantas had cancelled her upcoming flight to Broome because WA's borders are still shut. 'Looks like we'll be stuck in Melbourne all winter,' she responded to a fan who had pointed out it was almost time for her annual trip to visit her mother, Kerry Brown. 'WA borders are shut': Rebecca Judd (pictured) revealed on Sunday that Qantas had cancelled her upcoming flight to Broome When another follower suggested that some airlines might still be flying to Broome, Rebecca said she was unable to enter the state due to travel restrictions. 'WA borders are closed. That's why we can't go,' explained the mother-of-four. At present, you cannot enter WA unless an exemption has been granted because you are an essential worker. You can also be admitted on compassionate grounds. Oh, no! 'Looks like we'll be stuck in Melbourne all winter,' Rebecca responded to a fan who had pointed out it was almost time for her annual trip to visit her mother, Kerry Brown No celebrity privileges! At present, you can't enter WA unless an exemption has been granted because you are an essential worker. You can also be admitted on compassionate grounds Rebecca and Chris Judd make annual trips to the west coast to visit her mother, Kerry, alongside their four children, Oscar, Billie, Tom and Darcy. Last July, the mother-daughter duo revealed their svelte figures in stylish swimsuits as they posed on the white sand of Cable Beach in Broome. Born in New Zealand, Kerry and Rebecca's father, Hugh Twigley, followed the trend of Kiwis moving to WA during the mining boom in the '80s. Regular visits: Rebecca and Chris Judd make annual trips to WA to visit her mother, Kerry (left), alongside their four children, Oscar, Billie, Tom and Darcy. Pictured in July last year The Postcards host grew up in the small town of Leeman, four hours north of Perth. Since March, Rebecca has been documenting her experiences in self-isolation during the coronavirus pandemic. In a recent Instagram video, she joked that she was hiding from her children in the bathroom of the family's $7.3million Brighton mansion. If I paint stripes on a horse, will it make the horse a zebra? You probably know where Im going with this. No matter how much the apologists for this administration try to sanitize the dirty image of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (Pogo) by affiliating them with legitimate Business Process Management (BPM) organizations, they will never be one. They will still be the shady and unwanted entities that they really are. Now for some hard facts. As of 2019, the BPM industry directly employed 1.2 million people, virtually all of them Filipinos. (Nikhil Chandwani, Philippines BPM Industry: 2019 and Beyond, entrepreneur.com, Feb. 9, 2019) The author of our excerpted article below says that if you count indirect employment, the number rises to nine million. Chances are you probably know someone who works for a BPM (your sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, etc.) or has a business that is linked to the industry. Think about the enormous impact this industry has on the Philippine economy, benefiting mostly the middle to lower classes through employment and business opportunity generation. In contrast, by Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.s (Pagcor) own admission, in 2020 Pogos employ around 120,000 people, of whom only 30,000 or so are Filipinos. (Pagcor: A Primer on the truth about Pogo, news.mb.com.ph, May 3, 2020) While you may not know a Filipino, who works for a Pogo, for sure you have heard of the many ills that are associated with it. And the impact to the economy? According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the exit of Pogos from the country will not have a material impact on growth. Thats not where the comparison ends. IT-BPM, which flourished under the past administration (former Sen. Mar Roxas is unanimously credited with being the father of BPM in the country), teaches our workforce useful skills like IT, and even advanced knowledge like robotics and artificial intelligence. I have yet to hear anything useful that Pogo can teach Filipinos who are working for it. Story continues So, in financial benefits and social costs, there is no comparison. No matter how Presidential spokesman Harry Roque paints this Pogo horse as a zebra, it will never become one, ever. For those interested in real, honest-to-goodness comparison between BPM and Pogo, here is a useful read from a leading business luminary, who tells it like it is. The tax angle is especially telling. For those of you who are accountants, lawyers, or just plain well-informed, you will know of a tax concept called permanent establishment. Due to the illegal nature of the business in China, and the clever way they set up these entities, Pogos manage to avoid paying full taxes in this country, where their main economic activity is derived. Few excerpts from his work (Note: The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) is the government agency that supervises most BPMs): The upside delivered by Peza is that they account for, and declare, everything because they are bound by governance and compliance. Unlike Pogos where we do not see the light of day on where all the bets and gambling revenues go, Pezas export revenues all come in to the Philippines and are fed into our economy (about US$50 billion annually). Fees declared by service exporters are also verifiable using international transfer pricing rules. Peza customers are known and traceable. The identity of Pogo players are kept in the dark. Unlike Pogos that provide employment but almost exclusively to Chinese nationals, Peza-registered enterprises provide employment to Filipinos and support Filipino families. (As mentioned in my earlier article, there are an estimated total of as much as nine million direct and indirect employees). And you cannot compare the minimal investment put in by Pogo licensees in the Philippines compared to the capital inwardly infused by Peza manufacturers and BPMs (about $4 billion annually per Peza figures). May I add that Peza companies upskill their people and are concerned with corporate culture. They have human capital policies that promote values, such as courtesy. If we have the heart to help the Pogos and their Chinese personnel, can we justify feeling less for our legitimate investors and our own people? (Alexander B. Cabrera, chairman of the Integrity Initiative Inc., a non-profit organization that promotes common ethical and acceptable integrity standards, and chairman and senior partner, Isla Lipana & Co. / PwC Philippines). Campaigners have demanded Prime Minister Boris Johnson launch a public inquiry into deaths in BAME communities after figures found black people are four times more likely than white people to die from coronavirus. In a letter to Mr Johnson on Sunday, campaigners said only an independent inquiry could get the 'critical' answers needed to explain the 'outsized effect' Covid-19 was having on BAME communities. A new analysis by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that black men and women are more than four times more likely to suffer a coronavirus-related death than white people. People of Bangladeshi and Pakistani, Indian, and mixed ethnicities also had an increased risk of death involving Covid-19 compared with those of white ethnicity, the ONS found. Death rates are adjusted to take into account age, which shows that black people face four times the risk of dying compared to white people Figures that take into account age and location reveal that black people and Brits of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage face are 2.3-fold risk of coronavirus death than white people When deprivation is also adjusted for, it shows the odds of dying is still higher for almost every ethnic group In the letter, seen by the PA news agency, the group said a public inquiry will help restore confidence among the country's BAME communities. The group added: 'Only an independent public inquiry will provide the answers we need. 'Such an inquiry is essential for all, especially for those who have lost loved ones as a result of the pandemic. 'By instigating such an inquiry, the Government will provide an opportunity for a range of stakeholders to submit evidence through a transparent process. 'This would help to restore public confidence amongst the UK's BAME communities.' And statistics that take into account underlying health conditions as well as all the factors above show the risk is still between 89 and 93 per cent higher for black people The letter has more than 50 signatories made up of celebrities, medics, and council, union and church leaders including broadcaster Konnie Huq, writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch, the mayors of Newham and Bristol, and the Bishops of Southwark, Barking and Liverpool. The group welcomed the Public Health England-led review of Covid-19 deaths, which is due to publish its findings at the end of the month, but said it was 'doubtful' that its scope was wide enough to get the answers needed. They added: 'We write to you with a solemn petition for an independent public inquiry into the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on the UK's BAME communities. A total of 140 NHS staff (pictured, frontline staff) have died during the coronavirus pandemic 'It would provide a comprehensive exploration of all possible contributing factors that could explain the outsized effect Covid-19 has on BAME communities, killing up to four times as many as white people in some groups.' The group said that any independent public inquiry must look at the 'cultural and systemic treatment' of BAME staff by their employers and their level of exposure to Covid-19 in the NHS, care sector and across all key worker roles. It must also investigate the preparedness and emergency planning of both central and local government in response to how they factored in the needs of BAME communities. An inquiry should also examine the level of funding and investment on public health, physical and social infrastructure in local authority areas where there is a significant BAME population and a disproportionate coronavirus-linked death, they said. The impact of the Government's Covid-19 emergency powers and social-distancing policy on BAME communities should also be probed, they added. The Archives January (16) December (31) November (24) October (33) September (33) August (19) July (18) June (23) May (15) April (14) March (22) February (23) January (17) December (22) November (27) October (20) September (23) August (26) July (21) June (35) May (37) April (44) March (53) February (26) January (25) December (26) November (33) October (29) September (32) August (26) July (22) June (19) May (29) April (21) March (27) February (24) January (29) December (33) November (15) October (25) September (34) August (27) July (24) June (34) May (27) April (28) March (44) February (32) January (22) December (25) November (37) October (26) September (29) August (28) July (33) June (34) May (35) April (22) March (33) February (30) January (43) December (45) November (35) October (31) September (33) August (34) July (40) June (46) May (40) April (22) March (51) February (44) January (50) December (53) November (45) October (39) September (56) August (53) July (65) June (71) May (48) April (54) March (74) February (65) January (70) December (64) November (60) October (73) September (74) August (64) July (71) June (73) May (65) April (71) March (74) February (66) January (71) December (68) November (74) October (69) September (78) August (73) July (69) June (70) May (75) April (66) March (78) February (66) January (73) December (84) November (73) October (74) September (85) August (59) July (60) June (63) May (18) April (23) March (73) February (49) January (51) December (51) November (42) October (54) September (59) August (57) July (46) June (52) May (42) April (47) March (56) February (30) January (44) December (5) November (7) October (12) Uttarakhand has so far evacuated about 26,054 of its residents from other states till Sunday noon amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Cabinet minister and government spokesperson Madan Kaushik said. Kaushik revealed the figures at a press conference at the state secretariat on the measures being taken by the state government to tackle the pandemic and bringing back migrants. So far there are about 1.80 lakh registrations on the government website for returning to the home state. We have so far brought back 26,054 of our stranded residents from other states in state transport corporation buses, he said. He said that most of the people who have returned to Uttarakhand were stranded in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab. The minister also informed that the state government has been in talks with the Centre for running at least five special trains to evacuate stranded residents from far away states. We have demanded trains from Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, Pune, Surat and Ahmedabad from the Centre. The talks are in the final stage and we have got oral approval but are waiting for a written approval which will be the final one. Once it is received then the special trains would start in the next few days, said Kaushik. He also spoke about the measures being taken for the evacuees to ensure that the infection doesnt spread in the state. After bringing the people to the designated centres at Haridwar or US Nagar, they are being screened for possible Covid-19 infection. As we have to do it thoroughly, it is taking some time -- about one or two days before the migrants are allowed to go to their homes. I want to appeal to all those people to have some patience as it is for their own health and safety as well as others in their neighbourhood, said Kaushik. He also said that the government has earmarked adequate budget for village heads to make proper quarantine arrangements if any migrant in their village doesnt have the facility for home quarantine. The village heads will be responsible for making quarantine arrangements for them in nearby schools or any community centre, he said. Apart from the residents who are returning to Uttarakhand, Kaushik said that about 25,730 people of other states stranded in Uttarakhand have also registered to return to their home states. We have already sent 7,207 of them to their states in our state buses. We are making arrangements for the others in coordination with governments of their respective states, he said adding that about 40,714 people stranded in others districts within the state have also been sent to their home districts. The minister said there has been no response from the Bengal government on the evacuation of 600 of its people in Uttarakhand. We have communicated to the West Bengal government several occasions but havent received any proper response from them. Their residents here want to return and are tense. However, we are helping them in every possible manner by providing them food and other help. We are even counselling them to have patience, said Kaushik. Earlier on Saturday evening, chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat in a video message said that he had spoken to the Centre for a special train from Delhi where about 50,000 of Uttarakhand residents are stranded. The ministry of railways has given permission for it and the train may soon start to bring our residents back. We have already made an advance payment of 50 lakh to the Indian Railways for special trains so that they dont charge the residents for a ticket. We are committed to bring all our residents back to their home, said Rawat. SABA:--- After four weeks of being confined to home, Saba is coming out of a lock-down at midnight today, Saturday. The reopening of bars, restaurants, and churches is allowed after Saturday, 12 midnight, while all other businesses and services may open their doors on Monday, May 11. The school will resume on May 18. The introduction of the coronavirus and the first COVID-19 case, a local transmission, early April made it necessary for the Public Entity Saba to take drastic measures, also in light of the vulnerability of the small community and the limited medical facilities on the island. Per midnight April 12, a lock-down went into effect. Before that, schools had already closed as well as the islands borders. After four weeks of staying home, Island Governor Jonathan Johnson on Friday shared the good news to the community that the virus seemed to be contained and that the transition to opening back up would start. So far, all contact tracing, quarantine, and testing have brought forth negative test results, and there is no indication that the virus is spreading, as Saba remains in the two positive cases, with one now recovered. Per Sunday, restaurants will be allowed to open for dine-in, and churches may also have mass while adhering to hygiene measures and physical distancing. All other services and businesses may reopen as of Monday. Businesses The Public Entity Saba has sought contact with businesses to discuss best practices and safety measures that store owners are encouraged to implement once they reopen their doors to the public. Store owners received a letter in which they, and their employees, were greatly thanked for providing the community with groceries during the lock-down. Suggestions offered as a guidance to the store owners when they reopen on Monday include: limiting the number of customers to facilitate adequate physical distancing (one client per 10 square meters), use of hand sanitizer before entering the store, having signage and markers to maintain the physical distancing at the cashier, promote payment by bank card, urge customers not to unnecessarily touch products, and to disinfect shopping baskets/carts. Elderly customers should receive priority in the waiting line. Employees should hand sanitize often, and those who are unwell should be sent home. Churches Island Governor Johnson said in his address on Friday that he also met with church representatives to talk about the safety measures that need to be in place in order to once again have services, starting Sunday, May 10. Churches are urged to limit the number inside and to take different measures to allow for sufficient physical distancing with markers. Other measures stated in the letter that the churches received included having hand sanitizers at the entrance and disinfecting of the benches. Bars, restaurants Owners of bars and restaurants received a letter from the Island Governor as well. Bars and restaurants may only have a maximum of 25 persons in their establishment. As suggestions to have a safe reopening, the owners were urged to thoroughly clean and disinfect the establishment before opening and to continuously disinfect all surfaces that are touched by the public and staff once they reopen. The seating layout should allow for proper physical distancing and physical distancing between parties from various households should be encouraged. Other suggested measures included having customers sanitize their hands at the entrance and requesting people to pay with their bank card. The Government administration building will reopen to the public on Wednesday, May 13. Preparations are being made to facilitate this. Sabas borders remain closed and the 14-day quarantine period is still in effect for persons returning to the island. Schools Following a meeting with principals, teachers, and the representatives of extracurricular activities this week, the decision was made to reopen schools, daycare, and after school care and activities on Monday, May 18. The schools and organizations will communicate next week about the details on the manner in which the reopening will occur and what procedures will be in place. Island Governor Johnson urged everyone to continue to adhere to the measures in place to ensure that all of the efforts of the past weeks do not go in vain. It is the responsibility of all of us to keep ourselves and each other safe. I know that everyone is excited to be able to go swimming, driving, to church services or out to eat. Physical distancing, where possible, is expected of everyone as well as adhering to guidelines that government and business owners will have in place for their safety and the safety of the community. COVID-19 continues to be a threat. Therefore, while we are working towards having a normal activities resume, we must continue to practice physical distancing and strict hygiene measures. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 10) The Chinese Embassy said it has launched the Huo-Yan Molecular and Diagnostic Pathology Laboratory in Pampanga to help the country boost its daily testing capacity and mitigate the spread of the coronavirus disease. Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian, and Chinese Embassy Deputy Chief and Minister Counselor Tan QingSheng, led the May 8 opening ceremony at the Jose B. Lingad Memorial Regional Hospital (JBLMRH) at San Fernando City. The event was attended by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, Asian Development Bank Vice President Ahmed Saeed, and other local government officials and medical center chiefs. With the new facility, the country can now test an additional 3,000 samples daily, "which will pave the way for the resumption of work and normal life at the earliest," the embassy said in a press statement. Tan expressed gratitude to the Philippine government, as well as the ADB, which helped fund the project. "Large-scale detection is crucial to contain the virus," he said. The Huo-Yan laboratory, which was developed by the Chinese BGI company, helped Wuhan in the COVID-19 fight, according to the embassy official. "Viruses do not respect borders," he pointed out. "Unity and cooperation is the only way [we will be able] to meet challenges." The technology has also been exported to more than 20 countries, including Australia, Denmark, France, Italy, Sweden, and the United Arab Emirates, Tan added. Nograles, on the other hand, thanked China on behalf of the local government, emphasizing that countries should work together and support each other during these trying times. "It's very important for us to really take control of what's happening in terms of controlling the pandemic; and we are very thankful to [the] Chinese government for lending aid," he said in the same statement. "Data sharing, information sharing, and technology sharing are very important for all countries, as well as enabling everybody to have access to medical equipment, medicines, vaccines, and cures," Nograles added. Meanwhile, Duque highlighted that the completion of the laboratory is "very significant," as health officials are striving to increase the local testing capability. "The quicker the interventions, the quicker we can isolate [infected patients] and quarantine those who [were] exposed. It's going to really improve our capacity to identify people," he said. On Sunday, the Chinese embassy also donated new sets of emergency medical supplies to the Philippine government. These include 150,000 test kits, 70,000 sets of personal protective equipment (PPE), 70,000 N95 masks, and 70,000 protective goggles. It has also delivered 100 ventilators and some 1.3 million surgical masks. "We hope these urgently needed medical supplies [would] be allotted to the frontliners as soon as possible, so as to provide effective protection for the staff and help the patients get well soon," Huang said in a separate statement. He added that they are expecting more healthcare supplies to arrive in Manila in the next few days. In March, the ADB rolled out its plan to improve the coronavirus testing abilities of its member states, and introduced the BGI-developed Huo-Yan Laboratory to the country to enhance the local virus detection capacity. The Philippines currently has 10,610 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 1,842 recoveries and 704 deaths. Workers are worried about their job security and say business leaders are not doing enough. Photo: Getty UK productivity could be severely damaged as workers feel business leaders are unable to provide them with the support they need through the current crisis. A latest survey by research firm Karian and Box reveals three in 10 workers say they are unable to juggle their work and personal lives at present, and 27% feel their organisation is not supporting their health and wellbeing. The stats also show that half of workers currently lack motivation and 42% feel anxious, which is testing the resilience of workforce morale. Other major areas of concern include worry around job security and domestic issues such as homeschooling. As a result employers are being urged to do more as a third of employees say they have no confidence in business leaders to navigate the COVID-19 crisis. READ MORE: Half of UK employees ready to return to work Economists added that if these problems persist, then long-term productivity in the UK will decrease. James Tarbit, managing director at Karian and Box comments: The crisis has created an unprecedented leadership challenge. Like everyone else, business leaders are adjusting to challenges theyve never faced before. While we should definitely acknowledge the work being done to communicate and conduct business remotely, employers need to ensure they keep the needs of their workforce front of mind. By listening to their employees, leaders can ensure their teams enter this next phase focused, energised and determined to help their businesses through the recovery. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, the UK had some of the worst productivity rates in the world. UK productivity growth has lagged behind other economies since the 1970s and the country has suffered virtually zero growth in labour productivity since 2008. Economists have blamed weak GDP growth, low-skilled zero hour contracts and a lack of innovation and dynamism from UK firms to introduce the latest technologies. Express News Service By Express News Service CHENNAI: As Chennai continued to drive up the number of Covid-19 cases in Tamil Nadu, recording 509 of the total 669 cases on Sunday, nodal officer for Chennai, Dr J Radhakrishnan, said there was no need to worry about the numbers as the clusters were getting stabilised gradually. He also hinted that containment measures could be partially relaxed on a case-by-case basis, especially in places with apartment complexes and gated communities. Addressing reporters here, Dr Radhakrishnan, who is spearheading the containment activities in the city, said the numbers in Chennai would continue to rise in the coming week due to increased and focused testing done by the city corporation. The aim is to test more people and treat them, so they will not transmit the virus to others, he said. Dr Radhakrishnan said, Many people in barricaded streets ask us why they are placed under quarantine for 28 days even when they have not contacted any patient. In these cases, we will see if only the apartment complex, where the infection has been found out, can be sealed, leaving the others on the street to resume daily life. He confirmed that this relaxation may not apply to densely populated areas and hot spots, but only to areas with big apartment complexes. More containment zones Meanwhile, number of containment zones in the city rose to 587 on Sunday from the previous days 513. They include 105 in Royapuram, 95 in Tiruvika Nagar and 71 in Teynampet. More than 170 wards in the city have just 30 or fewer cases while only two wards, one in Royapuram and Tiru-Vika-Nagar each have more than 200 cases. We have appointed 19 doctors for special testing of vulnerable sections with an aim to reduce mortality rate further, said Dr Radhakrishnan, adding that all the repatriates from Dubai have tested negative in the initial tests conducted. The mortality rate in the city has also reduced to 0.68 per cent from the earlier one per cent. 3 deaths, toll now 47 The death toll in the state went up to 47, with three more deaths reported. All of them had co-morbid conditions. According to the official health bulletin, a 74-year-old man from Chengalpattu, who was admitted in Chengalpattu Medical College Hospital on May 8 and died on the same day, had contracted the infection. This came to light when his test result turned positive on Sunday. Dental college has decided to test all girls in hostel However, a senior doctor at the hospital told Express, The result came as positive on Saturday afternoon. The patient had co-morbid conditions and came with breathing difficulty. As per protocol, we took a swab for testing. By the time the result came, the patient had died. We had kept the body in the mortuary until the test result came. The second victim was a 59-year-old man with diabetes and coronary artery disease from Chennai. Admitted to Government Stanley Medical College Hospital on May 7, he died on Sunday. The third victim was a 55-year-old man from Tiruvallur with chronic kidney disease. ALSO READ: Chennai may see more COVID-19 cases this week, says special officer J Radhakrishnan Dental student tests positive A trainee dental student at Government Dental College, Chennai, tested positive on Saturday. A student said, She was attending clinic duty at the dental college hospital. For the last three days, she had a cold and sore throat, and she tested positive. She has been shifted to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital for treatment. The management has decided to test all girls in the hostel. But, we have requested the management to test the boys also as they were attending duty with her. The bulletin further said all cases reported on the day were contacts of already positive patients. The day also saw 13,367 samples being tested. Besides Chennai, Thiruvallur reported 47 cases, Chengalpattu (43), Krishnagiri and Tirunelveli (10) each, Perambalur (9), Kancheepuram (8), Ranipet and Villupuram (6) each, Ariyalur and Mardurai (4) each, Theni and Vellore (3) each, and Cuddalore, Karur, Pudukottai, Ramanathapuram and Thirupathur reported (1) each. CM offers rice to 90 thousand families Chennai: On behalf of CM Edappadi K Palaniswami, AIADMK functionaries on Sunday distributed free rice bags to about 90,000 ration card holders of Edappadi Assembly constituency. In a statement on Sunday, Palniswami said, I had requested AIADMK functionaries to offer free rice to 90,000 economically weak ration card holders in Edappadi constituency, on my behalf. The CM further said three-party functionaries offered the rice by maintaining social distance. Planiswami further said dry rations and monetary relief would be provided to ration cardholders across the State in the months of May and June as well. After the tragic train accident in Aurangabad where 16 labourers were crushed to death while they were sleeping on the railway tracks and scores of migrants walking to their native places, the Congress has alleged that the railways has proved to be inept in handling the crisis and demanded multi-nodal agency to tackle it. AICC Treasurer and close Sonia Gandhi aide Ahmed Patel demanded, "I request the government to constitute a multi-nodal agency under a senior Cabinet Minister to oversee relief and rescue of migrants." "If need be even support of Armed Forces must be sought to solve this humanitarian crisis. Clearly the Railway Ministry is unable to handle the problem," he added. After Congress President Sonia Gandhi announced that the party will bear the cost of the tickets of the migrants, the politics between the BJP and the Congress has heated up with BJP alleging that the Congress is misleading the country. The Congress state units have also geared up for the relief of the migrants. On Sunday, scores of people were sent to Bihar from Jharkhand. Congress state in-charge R.P.N. Singh said, "Transportation organised for stranded workers in Bokaro to return to their homes in Bihar and Kushinagar, at no cost to them. They're on their way, wish them a safe and comfortable journey home." The politics on migrants took centrestage after the Congress raised the issue and started paying the cost of the tickets with party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asking for the list from the UP government. The politics on migrants also heated up after Union Home Minister Amit Shah wrote to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, alleging that while the Centre plans to help more than two lakh migrants to return home, it is the West Bengal government that is "not supporting their cause and is not allowing trains carrying migrants to reach the state". "This is injustice to the migrant workers. This will create further hardships to them," the letter of Shah had said. Shah's accusation got a blunt reply from Trinamool Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee, who said, "A Home Minister failing to discharge his duties during this crisis speaks after weeks of silence, only to mislead people with a bundle of lies. Ironically, he is talking about the very people who have been literally left to their fate by his own government. Mr Amit Shah, prove your fake allegations or apologise." Congress also tried to fish in the troubled waters when Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said, "Glad, finally Home Minister has decided to break his silence on the issue of migrants after 40+ days and after more than 55 labourers have died. First, he should write similar letter to Gujarat and Karnataka (BJP Govts) who are stopping labourers. Secondly, Bengal Govt must help migrants getting home." Bernice Dapaah started Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative as way to create jobs for Ghana's youth. "The company uses Ghana's own grown bamboo to manufacture bicycles instead of steal," Dapaah told Jessica Abo. "The company is already helping reverse CO2 emissions that will come from the transport sector between 2005 and 2030." Daapah is an alumni of Harvard University's Executive Education Program, an ambassador of the World Bamboo Organization and a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Biodiversity and Natural Capital. She is launching a new program that would enable her company to donate more than 10,000 bicycles to students in Ghana, and she is working toward building a childcare facility to help the company employ and support more women. While Dapaah has dedicated the past 10 years to creating her business, she says it has been an uphill journey. But no matter what challenges you face in life, Dapaah says, "With hard work and determination, you can achieve your goals." Related: Jordan-Based Little Thinking Minds Aims To Rekindle A Love For Arabic Among MENA Youth #5 Acts of Financial Wisdom to Learn from Mothers #8 Audiobooks and Shows for Mothers to Elevate Their Personal and Professional Life Copyright 2020 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Most secondary school students will not return to classes until September, raising doubts over whether many will be ready to take GCSEs and A Levels next year. Boris Johnson announced last night that primary pupils in England could start to return to school from as early as June 1. Nurseries will also reopen in a boost for working parents who rely on them for childcare. But most secondary school students will not see the inside of a classroom for another four months at least. Most secondary school students will not return to classes until September, raising doubts over whether many will be ready to take GCSEs and A Levels next year. Pictured: West Bridgford Infants School in Nottingham In a TV address to the nation from Downing Street last night, Boris Johnson paid tribute to the 'sacrifice' of Britons in reining in the killer disease, and insisted the government's top priority is to ensure those efforts are not 'thrown away' Those who are set to take their exams in 2021 will be invited back to see their teachers for a limited amount of time before the summer holidays to discuss coursework. But the huge gap in schooling means that those preparing to take GCSEs and A Levels next year will have missed more than a term of their courses. Students who were due to sit their exams this year have already seen them cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis. Last night, in his broadcast to the nation, the Prime Minister said a phased return to school was part of the second step towards getting the British economy up and running again. He said: In step two at the earliest by June 1, after half-term we believe we may be in a position to begin the phased reopening of shops and to get primary pupils back into schools, in stages, beginning with Reception, Year 1 and Year 6. Our ambition is that secondary pupils facing exams next year will get at least some time with their teachers before the holidays. And we will shortly be setting out detailed guidance on how to make it work in schools, shops and on transport. The extended lockdown of schools comes despite indications that children are at a low risk of catching and spreading the virus. It will spark concerns over educational inequalities, with richer parents able to guarantee better schooling for their children. In many cases private schools are providing better online lessons and teaching materials than those in the state sector. Better-off parents can also afford private tutoring. Mr Johnsons announcement means no children will return to school until after the half-term at the beginning of June. The government issued a series of graphics tonight to illustrate the potential path out of the coronavirus lockdown It is understood that children at private and state nurseries will be among the first to return, making it easier for their parents to go back to work. They will go back along with primary school pupils in Reception classes (ages four to five), Year 1 (five to six) and Year 6 (ten to 11). The effect of these returns will be monitored, with the intention that other years will return in the following weeks. The idea is that all primary children will be back at school for at least a few weeks before the summer holidays. However, the speed of the return will depend on progress in controlling the coronavirus outbreak. Scotland and Wales have taken a different approach. Their devolved governments have both said that no schools will reopen this early.Last night the largest trade union slammed the PMs plans to reopen schools as nothing short of reckless. Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: Coronavirus continues to ravage communities in the UK and the rate of Covid-19 infection is still far too great for the wider opening of our schools. If schools are reopened to blatant breaches of health and safety, we will strongly support our members who take steps to protect their pupils, their colleagues and their families. The worst outcome of any wider reopening of schools is a second spike of Covid-19 infection. Most secondary pupils in England will have to wait until after the summer holidays to return to school. Those due to sit GCSE and A Level exams in June have already had their exams cancelled, with grades awarded based on teacher assessments. Mr Johnson said students in Years 10 and 12, who are approaching the end of the first year of their GCSE and A Level courses, may return briefly to discuss coursework and other issues in face-to face meetings with their teachers. But they will not have lessons in the usual sense. Downing Street said there are no plans for other secondary school children to return before the summer holidays. Boris Johnson is scrambling to defend the decision to ditch the blanket 'stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives' slogan, amid furious opposition from Nicola Sturgeon Yesterday Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, chairman of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge, suggested it should be very low risk to allow children back to school. He said there are ten million children aged under 15 in England and Wales and up to April 24 there had been two deaths in this age group. This is the tiniest risk you could ever think of, so I do think that when people start talking about protecting our children, this is a bit of a delusion, he told BBC1s Andrew Marr Show. In comparison, more than 1 per cent of those aged over 90 have so far died from Covid-19, in a four-week period, said Sir David, adding: That is ten thousand times the risk of the younger people. By PTI MUMBAI: Nearly a month after recovering from the coronavirus, actor Zoa Morani says she has donated her blood plasma to do her bit in helping the patients currently suffering from the novel virus. The actor, who was quarantined and kept under medication in April, also urged those who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate their plasma. "Donated my blood today for the Plasma therapy trials at Nair hospital. It was fascinating! Always a silver lining I suppose. The team there was so enthusiastic and careful. There was a general physician on standby just incase of emergency and the equipment brand new and safe (sic)," Zoa wrote on Instagram on Saturday. Today at Nair Hospital i donated blood for the ongoing Plasma therapy trials ( covid recovered blood can help other serious covid positive patients recover)Dr Shastri ,Dr Ramesh& team took all precautions & made feel very safe. Hope it works #IndiaFightsCorona #plasmatherapy pic.twitter.com/ko9n5sCBPV Zoa Morani (@zoamorani) May 9, 2020 She thanked the doctors for taking care of her and hoped patients benefit from the donation. "All #Covid19 recovered people can be a part of this trial, to help others covid patients recover! I hope this works #IndiaFightsCorona. They even gave me a certificate and Rs 500. Wont lie, I felt super cool today (sic)," she added. Zoa, along with her sister Shaza and father, producer Karim Morani had tested positive for coronavirus in April. All three were discharged from the hospital after testing negative last month. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: The first flight to Hyderabad from overseas, as part of the Centres Vande Bharat Mission to bring back Indians stranded abroad, landed on Saturday night at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. The Air India flight, AI 988, brought back around 163 Indian nationals from Kuwait. Several Telugus, who were part of the flight, expressed happiness over being brought back to the country. One of the passengers was Vijay Shanker, whose video was tweeted by the Indian Embassy in Kuwait. Vijay said that he had gone to Kuwait for work but after he lost his job two months back, he could not come back to India due to the lockdown. An RGIA official told Express, The entire airport has been sanitised. Physical distancing among passengers was enforced at all areas of movement. Passengers and crew were brought out from the aircraft in groups of 20-25. Airport health officials screened passengers using thermal cameras installed near the aerobridge. Glass shields have been provided at each manned immigration counter to avoid any direct contact between passengers and immigration officers. The official further said, The concerned airline, their ground staff and airport personnel were available to guide the passengers and to enforce physical distancing norms. Every piece of baggage was sanitised by the disinfection tunnel integrated to the baggage belt. The airport had also kept fully sanitised baggage trolleys for passengers use. Seating arrangements were made and complimentary boxes of food for passengers were provided.According to Health Officials, these 163 passengers will be quarantined in the resorts and hotels in the suburbs of Hyderabad with all required facilities. Ambulances have been arranged on emergency basis to take them to Gandhi Hospital if they show any kind of symptoms. The passengers will be on 14 day quarantine in hotels, and 14 days quarantine at home. The COVID-19 catastrophe is expected to claim between 100,000 to 250,000 American lives. Within a month the death rate each day is expected to reach 3000. Its a sobering thought that none of the 3000 individuals who will die on one day in a month's time are infected at this moment. Despite efforts to establish enforced social distancing, the rate of new infections in many parts of the US makes it impossible for contact tracing and subsequent isolation to put out the fire, a case of too little too late. In Australia we are so fortunate that the northern hemisphere disaster alerted us of the need to close our country off to the rest of the world and introduce mandatory social distancing. We now have a manageable situation wherein detection, contact tracing and isolation has stopped the previous exponential increase in infections. However, as we ease restrictions with winter approaching, always a factor in the spread of respiratory infections, can we maintain our current control of the epidemic? At the moment, we are testing a self-selecting group. Credit:SMH That will depend on the prevalence of COVID-infected Australians, particularly those infected and infectious but exhibiting no symptoms, the "silent spreaders". Our testing regimen must be scaled up to allow us to quantify the level of infection in our society, which in turn will determine the contact tracing capacity we must provide. The monitoring of virus prevalence will need to continue until we have a cure or vaccine. Numerous studies report that the real number of community infections is 10 to 20 times the number of recognised cases and that between 30 and 50 per cent of infections occur after contact with a silent spreader. Currently, with our increased capacity for performing more tests we are being told, daily, to get a test if we have even the most minor symptoms of a cold. Some 5,000 to 10,000 of us are doing that each day with very few tests being positive, which is good news. However, the population tested is self selecting and while such testing must continue it does not represent "sentinel" testing where selected populations within our community are chosen by epidemiologists to be tested to provide the whole of community data we require to safely reopen our society as we all want. Wearing a surgical mask, disposable gloves and booties to guard against COVID-19, a young Italian woman returned to her homeland Sunday after 18 months as a hostage in eastern Africa. Silvia Romano lowered her mask briefly to display a broad smile after she stepped off an Italian government plane at Rome-Ciampino International Airport. She hugged her mother and other family members, and touched elbows instead of shaking hands with Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio. Romano, 24, was working as a volunteer with an Italian humanitarian group when she was abducted in November 2018 during an attack by gunman in Kenya. Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte has thanked the Italian intelligence agents who worked for her release, which took place Friday in Somalia. Romano was taken to the Italian Embassy in Mogadishu after she was freed. Rome-based prosecutors investigate crimes committed abroad against Italian citizens, and they are expected to question her about the kidnapping. Italian reports said the abductors eventually passed her into the hands of militants linked to Somalia's al-Shabab Islamic extremists. Al-Shabab has been blamed for a series of kidnappings of foreigners along Kenya's coast. Friends and acquaintances in the Milan neighbourhood where Romano's family lives applauded from windows, balconies and on the streets when the plane carrying Romano home landed in Rome. Italian media also have reported that she converted to Islam while in captivity. Neither her family nor Italian officials have commented on the assertion. When she got off the plane, Romano wore a loose-fitting garment over her hair and African outfit. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) When Emily LaCosse gave birth to twins, she knew her world had changed. What she didnt expect was that at the same time, the coronavirus pandemic would alter everyone elses, too. LaCosse, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, had her babies March 9. When she went to the hospital to deliver them, the coronavirus still felt like a vague threat: A nurse downplayed the health risks of it, and her hospital had no restrictions on visitors. But during the five days that LaCosse and her newborns were in the hospital, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency to fight the growing outbreak. Schools shuttered and grocery stores began running low on essentials. Soon, there was a statewide lockdown, too. When Emily LaCosse went into the hospital to deliver her twins, Cecelia and Theo, few people were wearing face masks. When she left five days later, "We went into the hospital while everything was normal. When we got home, everything changed: No toilet paper, no visitors, no help, LaCosse said. All of our plans went out the window. Bringing home a newborn is always an adjustment. But the pandemic has made it unusually complex, and has new parents wondering when they can safely introduce their babies to family, friends and life beyond their own four walls. LaCosse was one of 14 parents who spoke to NBC News about the challenges of welcoming a baby during the coronavirus crisis. For most, it has been bittersweet: Their joy has been tinged with the sadness of not being able to share their excitement with others in person. While there have been some benefits, including unexpected time with both parents home in many households, the pandemic has complicated even the most routine activities which can already feel intimidating for sleep-deprived mothers and fathers. I want to take him to the park. I want him to smell things, I want him to hear the birds and feel the sun, said Jamal Gathers Sr., of Newton, Massachusetts, whose second son, Henry, was born March 14. With social distancing, its just not the same. I stand at the patio door with him and we just peer outside like a sad puppy, waiting for our owner to come home. Story continues "I stand at the patio door with him and we just peer outside like a sad puppy, waiting for our owner to come home. Even errands and appointments, instead of being an excuse to get out of the house, feel risky. I had all these plans to take my child everywhere, and you cant take her anywhere, said Farrah Kokkosis, of Ronkonkoma, New York, whose daughter, Ridley, was born March 4. Now, its like life is on hold everything is on hold. A lot of unknowns and a lot of anxiety While children, including infants, generally appear to have more mild symptoms of the coronavirus, there have been severe or fatal pediatric cases. Researchers do not have a clear answer why. With so many unknowns and no vaccine or cure, some parents of newborns are wrestling with depression and anxiety even if they did not experience that after prior pregnancies. Kristen, a mother of three in the Tacoma, Washington, area who asked that her last name not be used to protect her family's privacy, was diagnosed with the coronavirus in March, three weeks after she had her son, Valentine. She isolated in her bedroom with the baby, wearing a mask whenever she breastfed him, while her husband took care of their two older children. When Kristen's fever spiked, she panicked. Oh man, am I going to be around for my kids? Is Valentine going to catch this? Is he going to have to be hospitalized, are we going to be separated? she recalled thinking. She recovered and no other family members got sick. But the experience, plus other difficulties such as not being able to meet up with close friends during the pandemic, prompted her to start antidepressants. Its been hard to pinpoint: Is it postpartum depression? Or is it just because everything is insane right now? she said. She is far from the only mom asking herself that question. In the first two weeks after Brittany Culbertson of Beaufort, South Carolina, had her daughter, Gwen, she found herself crying often. While filling out a postpartum depression screening from Gwens pediatrician, she said she was stumped by a question that asked whether she had been anxious or worried for no reason. I was like, well, I have been extremely anxious, but I dont know that its for no reason. I think its heightened because of the very real fear of coronavirus, Culbertson, who gave birth on March 27, said. While the pandemic could have mental health ramifications for anyone, experts say exhausted new parents may be particularly vulnerable to depression and anxiety, especially with no one around to give them a break. If you are anxious for a very good reason, you are still in distress. If you are anxious for a very good reason, you are still in distress. Dr. Kimberly Yonkers, a professor of psychiatry, epidemiology and obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the Yale School of Medicine, urged overwhelmed parents to find help through virtual therapy, online support groups or medication. She said overpowering anxiety or depression whether its for seemingly no reason or because of the pandemic is a reason to get support. If you are anxious for a very good reason, you are still in distress, she said. Some second-time parents say life with a newborn now has highlighted how easy they had it the first time around, even if it did not feel that way then. Andrea Foran, of Long Island, New York, has a 2-year-old and an infant, born March 3. Her husband is an officer with the New York City Police Department who has been self-isolating in a hotel since mid-April to avoid bringing home the virus, should he get exposed through work. Her mother is helping out with the kids, but Foran said it is hard not having her husband home. With the first one, I had a lot of anxiety because it was my first time, and now, thinking back, Im like, Wow, you idiot! Everything was fine, you worried about nothing, she said. We had visitors. We had people who could help. I wish I savored the peacefulness of the first time now. Leann Svoboda, of Nashville, Tennessee, has the same mindset. She used to take her first child, now 6, to playdates with other new moms and to baby exercise classes. Now, with her daughter Violet, who was born March 6, even a walk down the street feels frightening. Atticus Svoboda holds his sister, Violet. Were holed up, waiting for it to pass, she said. I just dont trust other people to stay away from me. Its terrifying for me. The doctor is in (via telemedicine in some cases) Sometimes, going out with a newborn is unavoidable. Visits to the pediatrician have been the only outings that Mariel Prince of Sellersburg, Indiana, has made since she came home after giving birth to her son, Declan, on March 20. The appointments are anything but ordinary: Instead of going into the waiting room, she checks in at a drive-through out front, then waits with Declan in her car until the pediatricians office calls her on her cellphone. Newborns are only seen in the morning, and every single persons temperature is taken at the door, she said. Theres so many more steps involved in everything now, and all the steps involved in taking him anywhere its a lot, she said. I joked with my husband, if we do decide to have a second, were kind of prepared for everything at this point. Mariel and Josh Prince with their son, Declan. Josh's father personally delivers roses whenever there is a new baby in the family, a tradition started by his father; because of social distancing, he could not do that to welcome Declan, and had to order some from a local florist instead. (Mariel Prince) Princes husband, Josh, said besides not being able to have his parents meet his son, his biggest issue since Declan arrived has been trying to help his wife cope with cabin fever. She was planning on going to a zoo and all these other things where she could go out, he said. But those places are all closed, or she just doesnt feel safe going. Elsewhere, parents are being told to stay at home, even for some doctor appointments. Lindsay Preseau lives in Cincinnati and gave birth to her son, Ludo, on March 16. Right after Ludo was born, she took him to the pediatrician twice to check if he was gaining enough weight. But his one-month well-visit was canceled to avoid unnecessarily exposing him to any illnesses, and the pediatricians office said the two-month one might be, too. Lindsay Preseau with her husband, Ritwik Banerji, and son, Ludo. When she went into labor, lockdowns and other measures were being implemented. I wasnt upset about the one-month visit because I know not much happens, but Im nervous about the two-month, because I want him to get the vaccinations, she said. In Cleveland, Sierra Heiskell had a virtual pediatrician visit for her daughter, Gianna, who was born April 10. A nurse came to her house to weigh Gianna a few days before and then Heiskell did a telemedicine consultation with the pediatrician for the rest of the appointment. While the doctor watched through the phone, Heiskell did things the pediatrician normally would like pressing on Giannas belly to make sure it felt soft. Sierra Heiskell had hoped to have her partner, her mother and a close friend with her when she gave birth to Gianna. But hospital restrictions put into place due to COVID-19 meant she could only have one person, Gianna's father, there. (Sierra Heiskell) Heiskell was also told by her obstetrician-gynecologist that her own six-week postpartum follow-up appointment will be virtual. Such appointments typically involve a physical exam to see how a woman is healing after birth and a discussion of how she is feeling, physically and mentally. Others who have had their OB-GYN follow-ups via telemedicine said the virtual meetings omitted exams and just consisted of questions. I have no idea how thats going to go, Heiskell said. I dont like it. Great that we all got stuck together Despite the obstacles, new parents say there have been some unexpected silver linings. Gathers wife, Sarah Cohan, was excited to be a part of a new mom support group. The group cant meet face-to-face, so it meets over Zoom. While its not the same as sitting in a room with other new moms, Cohan found another member whom she could relate with, and the two exchanged numbers so they could text one-on-one. Between that and a couple mom groups on Facebook, including one of about 400 women who were all due in March, Cohan has found a community even if its not the one she pictured. "There was all this excitement and now she cant hold the babies, hold her grandchildren. Its been so nice to have a bunch of women from across the world who can commiserate, and post funny things, and who I can ask for recommendations, she said. LaCosse, the Michigan mother of twins, has figured out a way to have relatives see the babies, even though she does not feel comfortable having visitors over. Family comes but only as far as her front porch. Her in-laws have stopped by a few times to say hi to the twins from the safety of outside, gazing at the twins through the living room window. Randy LaCosse normally would be back at work now. Because of the lockdowns, he is working from home and able to see his twins much more -- an unexpected silver lining. (Emily LaCosse) Their reaction is, I think, bittersweet, LaCosse said, adding that because it was hard for her to get pregnant, relatives, especially her mother-in-law, were extra eager to spend time with the twins. There was all this excitement and now she cant hold the babies, hold her grandchildren. On the other hand, LaCosses husband, Randy, is getting much more time with the babies: Had the pandemic not happened, he would have been in his office, working up to 12-hour days as a project manager. With shelter-in-place orders, he is working from home instead. Its kind of great that we all got stuck together, LaCosse said. Were spending time together like we never have before, and he gets to have an insane amount of time with them. Cumberland County Commissioners are researching how they can move the county out of the red, stay-at-home phase, into the yellow phase, where aggressive mitigation is allowed and most businesses can reopen following the states efforts to flatten the coronavirus curve. "We continue to research legal and practical options available to us on all issues regarding re-opening, so we are ready to open more broadly in the right way, at the right time, Cumberland County Commissioner Gary Eichelberger said. Like everyone, we want this to happen as soon as possible, consistent with overall public safety and with the best chance of sustained success. Commissioners have directed the county solicitor to find out if they have any leverage that allows local leaders authority to override the Governors emergency declaration. The urgency stems from a number of counties also publicly declaring they will open without state approval." "We need to do this right, Eichelberger said. "There is a world of difference between action, and effective action; to be effective, it has to be legal. We understand the frustration of our business owners and residents, and we are extremely sympathetic to their plight. Cumberland County Commissioners are sending Wolf a letter early next week. They are urging him to consider allowing more counties to reopen under a faster timeline. According to the commissioners statement, Since the pandemic hit our county, the Governors Office, the Department of Public Safety has been on the front lines working with (Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency), the Department of Health, and the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) to take appropriate steps help mitigate the spread of COVID -19. More Dauphin, York DAs, say they wont take action against businesses that reopen in defiance of state order Carson Wentzs AO1 Foundation raises more than $137K for coronavirus relief in Philadelphia area Corona virus patients are increasing in Uttarakhand. A resident of Mundi village of Jakhanidhar block of Tehri district of Uttarakhand in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka has died of a heart attack. The family has requested the administration to bring the dead body of the deceased home, but due to corona infection and lockdown these days, it is difficult to bring the dead body of the deceased home. For your information, let us tell you that Pawan Singh Gusain (44) son of Mundi village. Sundar Singh was involved in the export-import business of clothes in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka for two years. While his wife Achchandi Devi and two children live in Nangloi, Delhi, two days ago, Pawan's younger brother Kedar Singh received information from Pawan that Pawan died of a heart attack. There was chaos in the family as soon as the information was received. On Saturday, the family informed Regional MLA Vijay Singh Panwar, informing them about the incident and requested to bring the body back home. The family of the deceased will go to Delhi on Sunday to take his wife and children. Also Read: Fadnavis appeals Mamta to allow train for Bengal workers U.S. approves new coronavirus antigen test with fast results Good news for Spain, death toll falls Chinese citizens eager to go to Disneyland Park, 24 thousand tickets sold in few minutes A 22-year-old pregnant woman and two others tested positive for novel coronavirus on Sunday in Jalna in Maharashtra, taking the district's COVID-19 count to 11, health officials said. Ranganath Nagar, where the woman stays, has been sealed and declared a containment zone, said District Civil Surgeon Dr Madhukar Rathod. The other two who tested positive on Sunday are a 29- year-old man and his 52-year-old mother who had returned to their native Ambad from Mumbai recently, Rathod said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) On Saturday, Indians from different parts of the world continued to visit under the Vande Bharat Mission. Under this, Air India aircraft carrying 129 Indians arrived from Dhaka to New Delhi. An Air India aircraft carrying 326 Indians from London's Heathrow Airport has flown to Mumbai. Most of these travelers are students and tourists. It is expected to reach Mumbai by Sunday morning. Corona outbreak in this state, total infection reaches near 20 thousand Two planes reached Chennai with 356 passengers from Dubai. There were 179 passengers in the first flight and 177 passengers in the second flight. The Air Force vessel carrying 698 Indians from Maldives has left on Friday night. It is expected to reach Kochi by Sunday. 177 passengers from Kuwait reached Kochi by Air India Express. Another aircraft with 177 passengers from Muscat is expected to reach Kochi on Saturday night. Another batch of 177 passengers will arrive late in the night. Four arrested for spreading rumors about Amit Shah's health Air India has issued advisory for those Indian students going to America, who have F or M visa. Air India has said that students whose visa validity is less than 6 months and who have recently enrolled and have not attended class at their institute, will not be allowed to fly to the US under the Vanda Bharat Mission. Video: Mig-29 aircraft crashes in Punjab, Sikhs rush to help pilot Medical workers attend to a COVID-19 patient at a hospital in Suifenhe, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, on April 20, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua] A new genetic study suggests COVID-19 started spreading quickly around the world at the end of last year, according to CNN. Genetics researchers of the University College London Genetics Institute analyzed sequences of the virus that causes COVID-19 from more than 7,600 patients around the world. They said viral samples taken from all corners of the globe show similar mutations. "Our results are in line with previous estimates and point to all sequences sharing a common ancestor towards the end of 2019, supporting this as the period when SARS-Cov-2 jumped into its human host," the research team told CNN. The analysis shows the virus must have spread extremely quickly after the first infection was reported in Wuhan last December. Researchers found genetic evidence that supports suspicions the virus was infecting people in Europe, the US and elsewhere weeks or even months before the first official cases were reported in January and February. It will be impossible to find the "first" patient in any country, said researcher Francois Balloux. "All these ideas about trying to find a Patient Zero are pointless because there are so many patient zeros," he said. The U.S. military has revved up its ingenuity engine to create some notably fresh approaches to fight the novel coronavirus pandemic. The military has a storied history of letting necessity be the mother of invention -- a short list of household technologies that began as military tools includes duct tape, digital photography and walkie-talkies. And amid the global pandemic, the services have shifted their inventive energy into overdrive. Over the past couple of months, the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard have found ways to repurpose existing technology and inspire new innovations for preventing the spread of the virus and treating the patients who suffer the most from its brutal effects. Perhaps the most prominent technology put to work for virus response has been 3D printing, used by the military to craft parts needed for personal protection equipment and medical systems. Another theme has been enterprising fashion solutions for protective gear. Here are our top eight military technological developments -- at least so far. 1. Printing Ventilators One of the biggest challenges facing the medical community has been the shortage of ventilators to help patients breathe since COVID-19 attacks the lungs. To help with this, Army Research Laboratory scientists recently teamed up with civilian partners to create 3D-printable, low-cost emergency ventilators. "We got together with the hospital staff here and found one of the key issues people die from is the lack of ventilators," Tonghun Lee, an Illinois-based researcher for ARL's Combat Capabilities Development Command, said in a recent Army news release. Related: Army to Award Cash Prizes to Two Firms for Their Innovative Ventilator Designs Lee and other Army researchers worked with medical professionals and manufacturers, as well as engineers from the University of Illinois, to perfect a handheld gas ventilator, dubbed the Illinois RapidVent. The team created the device in less than a week and has completed two million test breathing cycles, the release states. It can be plugged into an oxygen source found in most hospital rooms attached to a tank of oxygen. It's really designed to be used if a hospital becomes overwhelmed and patients are forced to receive care in hallways, according to Eric Wood, an ARL researcher. "The really sick patients would stay on the full ventilators," Wood said in the release. "Our [3D-printed ventilators] are intended for patients who need a ventilator but are not sick enough to displace those who are really sick, but still need a ventilator to survive." A team of Naval Medical Center Portsmouths (NMCP) Anesthesiology Department staff members built a ventilator in an effort to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The prototype had been tested on three specific models, including two high-fidelity lung simulators and in an animal trial using a swine model. During the command-approved animal trial, the ventilator was compared head-to-head with a conventional veterinary ventilator. It was found to provide non-inferior, if not superior, ventilation. From left: Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Christopher Rector, assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Expeditionary Support Unit Two (EODESUTWO); Lt. Gregory Booth, assistant director of the Anesthesiology Residency; Lt. Cmdr. Scott Hughey, senior anesthesia resident; Cmdr. Jason Longwell, department chair of Anesthesiology; and Lt. Jacob Cole, senior anesthesia resident. (Imani N. Daniels/U.S. Navy) 2. Treating Eight Patients with One Oxygen Tank The Naval Surface Warfare Center Corona Division in Norco, California, designed a portable oxygen manifold that's capable of feeding oxygen to eight COVID-19 patients at a time from a single tank. The device, which features multiple flow-rate valves and eight outputs, was created in one day at the request of Marines with Combat Logistics Regiment 15 working to equip Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton's stabilization ward to be prepared for patient overflow, according to a recent NSWC news release. Equipping a hospital with 20 portable oxygen manifolds could treat 160 COVID-19 patients at a time for a cost of about $375, according to the release. "It's important to have a selection of viable solutions available at all times," said Ryan Olsen, chief scientist for NSWC Corona's expeditionary systems engineering division. "This is a fast, viable and inexpensive solution." 3. Marines Go 3D Marine Corps Systems Command worked on a similar effort with the University of California San Diego Medical Center to make a device that would assist with simultaneous ventilation of multiple patients. In mid-March, Dr. Sidney Merritt, an anesthesiologist at the university's medical center, provided design files for the ventilator splitter, based on a test print by the institution's engineering team. MCSC's Advanced Manufacturing Operations Cell, working with the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific, 3D-printed several prototypes using different materials. The process took less than a day, and the 3D-printed ventilator splitters were scanned to ensure accuracy with the design files and then brought to UCSD Medical Center for fit testing and further design analysis, according to the release. U.S. Air Force airmen assigned to the 352d Special Operations Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, 352d Special Operations Wing, based at RAF Mildenhall, England, operate a 3D printer in order to create plastic masks April 27, 2020, at RAF Mildenhall, England. The masks are designed to protect wearers from COVID-19 and provide a seal and filtration system similar to those found in N95 designated respirators. (Joseph Barron/U.S. Air Force) 4. Filling the Need for Face Masks Preventing the spread of COVID-19 has also been a huge challenge for the services, one that has drastically changed everyday life for service members. In addition to ordering strict social-distancing procedures, the Pentagon recently announced it has delivered more than 2.5 million non-medical face coverings to all the services. But across the military branches, there have been many smaller efforts to design and test face coverings to satisfy the enormous need for this new uniform accessory. The Army will field about 180,000 cloth facing coverings between May 1 and June 19 across the service, Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Crystal Boring told Military.com recently. After testing six prototypes, the Army's CCDC's Soldier Center at Natick, Massachusetts, selected the one most preferred by soldiers for immediate production. The effort, which also involves Project Manager's Soldier Survivability at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, will soon produce about 10,000 face coverings that are scheduled to be fielded to new soldiers in Basic Combat Training at Fort Benning, Georgia, Molly Richards, a research chemical engineer at the Soldier Center, said in a recent Army news release. 5. Creating Face Shields Marines from the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma on Okinawa, Japan, worked with the U.S. Naval Hospital there to design face shield frames. Sgt. Blaine E. Garcia fashioned several 3D-printed prototypes before settling on a final design, which features an arc-shaped piece of plastic with a series of pegs and hooks along the outside edge, according to a recent Marine Corps news release. "We send the frames to the hospital. ... They'll clean them and use a plastic similar to the overhead transparencies they use in schools, with holes punched in them to fit over the knobs on the front," Garcia said in the release. Army Staff Sgt. Johnny Kazmierczak sews a cloth face covering at the riggers facility, MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Fla., April 16, 2020. (U.S. Army/Staff Sgt. Steven M. Colvin) 6. Building a Better 3D-Printed Mask Meanwhile, the Coast Guard Academy's engineering department has embarked on an effort to find the best 3D-printed mask. The goal is to determine whether any of the many existing 3D-printed mask designs can be compared to the N95, which is designed to filter out 95% of the tiny particles the wearer breathes in and out. So far, the engineering department faculty has tested plastic materials used to make Legos and water bottles for the replaceable two-layer insert with the hope of finding a material that can be certified for government use. "There are many designs out there for 3D-printed masks, but none we're aware of at this time that have been approved in a clinical setting," said Master Chief Dale McCurry with the academy's engineering department. "We have access to a lot of equipment, 3D printers, various materials, so we decided to take this challenge on as a department." Cmdr. Michael Plumley, head of the mechanical engineering department at the academy, said ultimately the idea is to share the design so tens of thousands of masks could be printed across the country. 7. Turning a CONEX Box into a Transport Capsule Aside from the mask effort, Air Force personnel recently focused on containment during flight by building and testing a negatively pressurized conex (NPC), a shipping container retrofitted for transporting up to 24 isolated COVID-19 patients on a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft without infecting aircrew or contaminating the aircraft. Members of the 28th Test and Evaluation Squadron, assigned to the 53d Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, worked with other units across the country to deliver the prototype NPC on April 21 to Program Executive Office for Agile Combat Support for testing at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, according to a recent Air Force news release. In-flight testing is conducted to certify a Negatively Pressurized Conex prototype on a C-17 Globemaster III, April 30, 2020. (U.S. Air Force photo/Chris Drzazgowski) Sealed negative pressure spaces are used to contain airborne diseases such as COVID-19 by creating a low-pressure vacuum intended to suck out contagions exhaled by patients and vent them safely into the air. By April 30, the teams had ensured that the NPC was able to contain the virus and was safe for aeromedical teams to use during flight. The device is now headed to its operational use evaluation phase, according to the release. "The team in the 28th TES is no stranger to bio-containment," Capt. Conor Favo, division chief, 28th TES Agile Combat Support, said in the release. "We provided this support when developing the Transportation Isolation System (TIS) for the Ebola crisis, and we're making every effort to ensure our fellow service members have safe transportation during these times." 8. Homemade Hand Sanitizer Some protection efforts are not as complicated. Airmen from Joint Base Charleston made their own hand sanitizer to help ease the demand on the sought-after product. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Austin Barkdoll, an instructor with the 373rd Training Squadron, said the process was "fairly easy" as long the ingredients are measured precisely in a sterile environment, according to a Defense Department news release. "We figured out -- with some research, looking at the World Health Organization and other agencies out there -- there was a more cost-effective and timely way for us to supply more DoD personnel with hand-sanitizing solution if we did it ourselves," Barkdoll said in the release. "Most importantly, by making our own, we are able to do our part to keep commercially produced hand-sanitizer available for our local medical community." -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. Read More: Army's Futuristic Combat Goggles Can Screen Soldiers for Fever Turkey on Sunday warned forces of military commander Khalifa Haftar would become legitimate targets if attacks on Ankaras missions and interests continue. The Turkish government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stepped up its support in recent months for Libyas UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli after Haftar launched an offensive last year to seize the capital. We stress that if our missions and interests are targeted in Libya, Haftars forces will be considered legitimate targets, the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement. The attacks on diplomatic missions including our Tripoli embassy, Mitiga airport, civilian planes preparing to take off and other civilian infrastructure, and those which kill civilians or injure them, constitute a war crime, it added. The ministry said the international community had a collective responsibility to stop putschist Haftar, as it reiterated its support for the GNA. Libya has been mired in chaos since the ouster and killing of long-time dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, with rival administrations in the east and west vying for power. Haftar controls swathes of eastern Libya and is backed by countries with whom Turkeys relations are strained including the United Arab Emirates. After signing a military agreement late last year, Turkey dispatched troops and pro-Turkish Syrian fighters to support the GNA. Erdogan on Monday appeared to indicate that Turkey believed the situation would improve in the GNAs favour with Haftar losing more ground, saying: We will, God willing, get new good news from Libya, soon but he did not give further information. TWO Econet Wireless Zimbabwe (EWZ) employees have been arrested for allegedly fraudulently using agent lines belonging to cotton company ETG Parrogate to conduct illegal foreign currency transactions. Osmond Wachenuka (25) based in Nyanga and Nigel Domboka (22) of Mutare appeared before the Chipinge Magistrate Court last Friday and were remanded in custody to May 22. A third suspect, Nyasha Nyatsungo, who is a former EWZ employee, is reportedly on the run. It is the States case that on April 25 this year, Domboka, who is employed by Econet as an independent contract worker in Nyanga, connived with Nyatsungo to reactivate ETG Parrogates merchant lines (0785 042 957, 0776 942 363, 0785 042 957 and 0776 448 826), which had been dormant from August last year to April 25 this year and were kept at the companys safe at Checheche Growth Point in Chipinge. The co-accused, who reportedly had access to Econets database, subsequently obtained the merchant codes and company profile particulars and sent them to Wachenuka, who was responsible for data capture at Econet Mutare. He reactivated the lines after allegedly misrepresenting to his employers that Parrogate wanted a SIM replacement and PIN reset. The accused (Wachenuka) then sold the merchant lines to different people without Econet Wireless Zimbabwes knowledge or authority since they were on high demand. One of the merchant lines number 0785 042 957, was sold to Kudakwashe Mashangwa, who used it to transfer large volumes of money between April 25 and April 30, 2020. On April 30, 2020, ETG Parrogate Zimbabwe received an e-mail message from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe informing that it was suspected to be involved in illicit foreign currency deals using one of its merchant line numbers, resulting in the RBZ freezing all the companys bank and mobile money accounts, the State alleges. Subsequent investigations, which revealed that more than $2,8 million was deposited in the companys agent line in question and used for questionable transactions, led to the duos arrest. The alleged scam was discovered by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) during its routine monitoring of suspicious financial transactions. The central bank last week closed an unspecified number of mobile money agent line accounts suspected to have been fuelling black market foreign currency activities, which are widely blamed for the volatile exchange rate. The suspensions affected a number of mobile money agent lines accounts across all networks. The majority of financial transactions in Zimbabwe are conducted on mobile platforms, with EcoCash accounting for about 95 percent of the volumes. Preliminary investigations from the FIU show that transactions valued at more than $75 million were being processed through agent lines even though the nature of their businesses did not support such huge amounts. - Mother's Day saw many Kenyans, celebrities included, share interesting stories on what their mothers meant in their lives - Celebrities such as Liliam Muli, Victoria Rubadiri, Willis Raburu, and Vera Sidika shared their joy at having their mothers around - Kenyans on Twitter were not left behind as they started a hilarious hashtag #MamaTaughtMe revealing funny stories about their mother's disciplinarian side If there's a day both men and women will not defend being called a mother's boy or girl, then it has to be on Mother's Day. This was embraced with many Kenyans and even well-known celebrities who took to social media to shine a light on their mothers for the sacrifices they made in their lives. READ ALSO: 21 super-gorgeous Kenyan celebrity mums we can't have enough of this Mother's Day READ ALSO: Stivo Simpleboy distances himself from Twitter account making fun of fellow celebrities Sunday, May 10, was turned into a mother's thanksgiving day by netizens online as they delivered beautiful messages to their mums while sharing amazing photos of them together. Celebrities such as Lilian Muli, Victoria Rubadiri, Willis Raburu, and Vera Sidika celebrated their mothers in their own special ways. READ ALSO: Alex Mwakideu denies charging people KSh 40k to attend his 40th birthday READ ALSO: Mume amuua jirani yake kwa kuonja asali ya mkewe na kujisalimisha kwa polisi Victoria Rubadiri Said: "Three generations right here. The woman who gave me life, shaped it and even to this day guides it. My mini-me is more than holding her own at 15 years old. Im so proud to call them mine. Heres to motherhood, love, and life. Happy Mothers Day." Lilian Muli said: "My mama is goals & Lanes. she has dreds, she is beautiful, smart and super stylish and is my go-to person with my daily stories about this and that. I love you mummy. Happy Mothers Day." Willis Raburu shared a cute video while joking around with his mother. Here are more messages from netizens: Kenyans on Twitter were not left behind as they started a hilarious hashtag, #MamaTaughtMe, sharing interesting stories on what their mothers taught them while taking the disciplinarian role. Here are some of the tweets shared 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. Eastleigh residents' plea to Uhuru | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TX Talk about exquisite timing. Mother's Day came early and right on time for a women reunited with her family after being hospitalized for more than a month for treatement of new coronavirus. The St. David's Georgetown Hospital patient joined family members on Saturday after being in the hospital since March 23 to receive care for COVID-19, officials told Patch in an email. The woman spent 10 days on a ventilator, hospital officials added. Patient privacy provisions inhibit the release of many details per Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) guidelines. Yet hospital officials secured permission to tell Patch the patient is a retired teacher who lives in Sun City, Texas, with her husband of 17 years. She has a daughter and two grandchildren who live in Austin, and a son who resides in California. This Mother's Day miracle gets even better: The son was able to fly out of the Golden State to surprise his mom as she left the hospital, officials told Patch. A woman who had been hospitalized for new coronavirus since March 23 at St. David's Georgetown hospital got the best Mother's Day gift ever as she was able to reunite with her family. Photo courtesy of St. David's Georgetown. The patient was unavailable to be interviewed, but hospital officials assured us she's spending cherished time with her family after her coronavirus ordeal. Patch sends well wishes to her and all the moms being honored today. Happy Mother's Day! This article originally appeared on the Round Rock Patch RESIDENTS of Wargrave showed their appreciation for a family-run village food shop by raising 2,275. The fundraising campaign for the A&I Convenience Store was started on Facebook by Jim Sneddon and originally had a target of 150. The shop in Victoria Road has been run by Thangarajah Sreemurthy, known as Murthy, and his wife Praba for more than 20 years. Mr Sneddon, 52, a locksmith who lives in Hamilton Road with his wife Christie, a professional dog walker, said the coronavirus crisis had proved how important the shop was to the community. He said: My wife and I use the shop regularly and the couple in there are amazing. They work incredibly hard and it is always with a smile. We wanted to give them a bunch of flowers for being so nice, but recent events have shown us how much they are appreciated and we wanted to do more than that. I wanted to set up a fundraiser to show our appreciation. When I closed it we had 1,350 per cent of our original target. A small presentation ceremony was held outside the store and villagers were encouraged to clap from a distance and beep their car horns instead of attending. Mr Sneddon said: We wanted to have a decent presentation and get them out but it would have been irresponsible to get everyone who donated to come. Chris Cordrey, 68, of Victoria Road, who came up with the original idea, said: When the isolation and the virus hit, the shop was in huge demand and they did a great job getting supplies when people couldnt get them at the supermarket. We originally thought about cards and flowers but so many people picked this up around the village. There were so many good wishes and donations coming through. It just kept increasing and we stopped it when we had barely been going for a week. Mr Cordrey, a corporate fundraiser, lives with his wife Lorie, who runs fitness classes. He said it was more important than ever to support local businesses following the closure of other village shops in recent years. He said: It is the only shop we have got left and they have done a great job for us over 20 years. We need to support this lovely Sri Lankan family and show them how much they are valued in our community. We want them to have a good weekend away and have a rest because they have been working many long hours lately. We live in such a great village. These awful situations really bring out the best in people. This situation will pass and we need people to support them in the good times as well as the bad. The Sreemurthys were presented with a cheque and flowers as well as a card with the names of all 120 people who had donated. They said immediately that the money should go to Wargrave charities but were told to spend it on a treat for themselves. Mr Sneddon said: When all this is over they have some money to go on holiday. It is not just now over the years they have always been incredibly nice people and the best way we can show how much we appreciate them is to continue to use them rather than going to the big supermarkets. Since the lockdown has started they have seen a lot of new customers and if they continue to shop there that would be really nice to support them. I think this experience has been a big eye-opener for many people. Mr Sreemurthy said: It was such a nice thing and they managed to keep it as a surprise. It shows they appreciate what we are doing at this difficult time. We have been here nearly 21 years and it is a lovely community I feel like it is my home. Expert Speak Why States dont have enough money for the Covid-19 battle: A running theme so far is that decision-making has been largely centralised while the fact is that it is the states that bear responsibility for the frontline battles against the pandemic. What was the balance like between State and Centre before the pandemic hit? States are short of funds, ... Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor A popular bakery in Chennai has courted controversy after posting an advertisement that said that they hire only Jain workers and that no Muslim staff had been hired. The Times of India reports that the message came through WhatsApp and the poster used by the bakery, named Jain Bakeries and Confectioneries, had "No Muslim Staff" written on it in bold. Ever since this went viral on social media, the bakery has drawn a lot of flak for stigmatizing a particular community. Make Jain bakery in Chennai famous for their BIGOTRY.This is against the Indian Constitution.Anti-National Jain Bakery in Chennai pic.twitter.com/PiflueBlhR Syedda Shahid (@QueenOEuphrates) May 8, 2020 This is my #india where bakers are meantion a #muslims_staff are not allowing .what happing in india .y ??? https://t.co/Zsyz8nCtBq Isaanirfan (@isaanirfan) May 8, 2020 A Jain bakery based in Chennai while advertising itself specifically states that 'it does not have any Muslim staffs'! Let us tag this (attached pic) until it reaches the sections of media and Police; let us not stop until these migrant hate promoting Jain's arent booked! https://t.co/PnaRZ5ymYd Dusky Tamizhachi (@TamizhRatsaschi) May 8, 2020 Speaking to TOI, the bakery clarified that they put out such a message in response to multiple queries by customers about whether they hired Muslim workers or not. To put an end to such questions, the bakery decided to send out a message on WhatsApp. Later, it was reported that the owner of the bakery located in T Nagar in Chennai was arrested and had been booked under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including "provocation to cause a riot." Nollywood actor, Yomi Fabiyi has described Nigeria as one of the few nations fighting the novel coronavirus with the poorest basic infrastructures. Read Also: If You Defend You Childrens Mistake, One Day Youll Hire A Lawyer To Defend Their Crime: Yomi Fabiyi Speaking via his official Twitter handle, he further stated that despite this, Nigeria has the toughest penalties against defaulters. He wrote: Advertisement Nigeria is one of the few NATIONS fighting COVID-19 with the poorest basic infrastructures such as HARMONISED Nat. DATABASE, Nat. Emergency Numb, Credit Card, Housing, PPE etc). Same Nigeria has the toughest penalties against defaulters. Citizens seen supporting torture & abuses! Ghanaian gospel artiste, Jayana has donated some pieces of locally manufactured face masks to women at Dome market to combat COVID-19. The gesture was part of the artistes annual Mothers Day project to honour the contribution of mothers and acknowledge their efforts. According to Jayana, mothers are relentless in their efforts to combine work with caregiving and ensuring safety at home in this Covid-19 era. Sharing the face masks to the market women, the Victory hitmaker educated them to wash their hands often with soap and under running water. Jayana also urged them to put distance between themselves and other people at the market place, wear their face masks and also observe all other approved precautionary measures to protect themselves against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). As we all know that mothers day is an occasion celebrated to express respect, honour, and love towards our dear mothers. Our mothers at the various market places go through a lot even as a way of saying thank you to all mothers for their care and love, I gave out some face masks to mothers at the Dome market to protect them from the coronavirus pandemic. We [Jayana Music team] also educated them to frequently wash their hands, keep our homes and environment clean, wear their face masks, sanitize their hands often, and observe social distancing, Jayana added. The donation was also made possible by the kind support of JoeNick Fashion Design, located at Dome Pillar 2 in Accra. Ghanas Covid-19 case count hits 4,263 with 22 deaths and 378 recoveries. President Akufo-Addo on April 19, lifted restrictions imposed on the movement of persons on Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi and surrounding towns as part of efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus. ABOUT JAYANA JAYANAs singing is exciting and breathtaking. She is noted for her mesmerizing and captivating vocal. She is a musician who uses the voice as her instrument, displaying precision and agility, mixed with heartfelt emotion. Born Jemima Annor-Yeboah, JAYANAs formative years were spent soaking up the contemporary gospel, and praise and worship. She is the second daughter of the Late Bishop Dr. Annor Yeboah, former Chairman of the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC). She participated in the maiden edition of the Stars of the Future talent show, competing with the likes of Irene Logan, Jean now Efya, Ramzy Prince Amui, and others. Jayana announced her comeback into the music space when she was signed on to DAVEJOY Music Records in December 2018 [Record label owned Joyce Blessings Husband] and released a new song titled VICTORY in 2019 featuring Joyce Blessing. The promising gospel minstrel is currently not signed to any music record label. A Shramik Special train carrying 1,200 migrant workers left Jalna in Maharashtra for Unnao in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday evening, an official said. Earlier in the day, labourers, who were put up in camps by the local administration, were brought to an institute where they were screened, he said, adding that they were taken to the railway station to board the train which departed at 6 pm. The labourers purchased tickets for their destinations and completed the necessary formalities, he said. All the lockdown norms like maintaining social distance were followed and the entire railway station premises was also sanitised, he said. A group of 20 labourers from Madhya Pradesh had started their journey from Jalna on foot for Bhusawal in north Maharashtra on Thursday. On early Friday, 16 of them were mowed down by a goods train while they were sleeping on a railway track in neighbouring Aurangabad district. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Afghan President Orders Probe Over Drowning Of Afghan Migrants Blamed On Iran Radio Farda May 09, 2020 Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Friday, May 8, ordered a "thorough" probe into the drowning of several migrants after Iranian border guards allegedly forced them into a river last week. Afghan authorities had already been investigating the incident, but Ghani formed a new ten-member team to look into the deaths after eighteen bodies of migrants were recovered, some of them bearing signs of torture, AFP reported. Officials claim the migrants drowned in the Harirud river while illegally crossing into neighboring Iran from western Herat province. "President Ashraf Ghani, in a decree issued today, appointed a ten-member team to carry out a thorough investigation into reports about the deaths of several countrymen along the Iranian border," Ghani's office said in a statement on Friday. Earlier, the governor of a city in Herat province in Afghanistan had maintained that out of 55 Afghan migrants who were forced into the Harirud River, eighteen bodies had been recovered. "The fate of six is still unknown, while the rest survived," the governor of the city of Gulran in Afghanistan, which borders Iran, Abdul Ghani Noori said. Hours before the governor's briefing, a member of the Afghan parliament had claimed that 45 out of 57 Afghans who had entered Iran were drowned. Habibullah Pidram, a representative of Herat province in the Afghan parliament, told Reuters that of the 57 people who were forced to jump into Harirud River, "only 12 survived." According to Pidram, Iranian border guards detained the 57 Afghan men for 24 hours, and then took them to Harirud banks and forced them at gunpoint to jump into the river. He also said the bodies of five drowned migrants were discovered in Turkmenistan and pulled out of the river. Pidram is a member of the sixteen-strong delegation appointed by President Ghani to investigate the incident. According to Afghan media and several Afghan officials, a group of at least 50 people, mostly residents of Herat province, illegally entered Iran on May 1, through the Zulfiqar border crossing. They were all captured by the Iranian border patrols. A day later, the guards forced the detainees to jump into Harirud at midnight, May 2, they said. Zulfiqar valley, where the migrants entered Iran, is located on the border of Iran and Afghanistan (as well as Turkmenistan), between the provinces of Herat, in Afghanistan, and Khorasan Razavi in Iran. Officials in the Islamic Republic have dismissed torturing and drowning Afghan citizens on Iranian soil while expressing regret over the deaths. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that he was shocked by reports of the incident. Furthermore, U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary for South Asia Alice Wells said on Twitter, "Iran's cruel treatment and abuse of Afghan migrants alleged in these reports are horrifying. Those found guilty of such abuse must be held accountable." Between 1.5 million and three million Afghan refugees live and work in Iran, most of them as wage laborers on construction projects. Tens of thousands returned to Afghanistan after the coronavirus outbreak, but as restrictions ease in badly hit Iran, many are again seeking work there. With reporting by AFP, Reuters Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/ afghan-president-orders-probe- over-drowning-of-afghan- migrants-blamed-on-iran/30602767.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Zarif Sends Letter To UN's Guterres Saying Ready For Talks 'At All Levels' Radio Farda May 09, 2020 Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has sent a letter to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres saying the Islamic Republic "is ready for talks at any level to ensure the full implementation" of the 2015 nuclear agreement. In the letter dated May 8, Zarif attacks "the unilateral" actions of the United States, both in withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions (JCPOA) and pursuing the extension of the current arms embargo, due to expire in October. When the JCPOA was finalized in 2015, the United Nations Security Council put its seal on the deal agreeing to resolution 2231, which among other things approved a five-year embargo on arms trade for Iran. President Donald Trump's administration in recent weeks has launched a campaign to extend the arms embargo, arguing that Iran's destabilizing actions in the region will be bolstered if Tehran was allowed to import and export weapons. But Washington withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 and now it is not clear how it could ask the UN Security Council to extend a clause of resolution 2231. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has argued that the U.S. can still be considered a party to the resolution and will push for the extension of the arms embargo. Zarif in his letter has criticized the American position regarding 2231 and has voiced deep concern. He has also warned that Washington's policies could "bring the situation to an uncontrollable state". Zarif has also argued that the U.S. withdrawal from JCPOA has effectively ended any claims Washington might have in regard with the implementation of the Security Council resolution. China and Russia are expected to veto any proposal to extend the arms embargo, in which case the U.S. would need to argue it is still a party to the implementation of JCPOA and try to use the automatic snap-back mechanism for sanctions, which was part of the original agreement with Iran. Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/zarif-sends-letter-to- un-s-guterres-saying-ready-for-talks-at -all-levels-/30602652.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address LOUDONVILLE It was just before Thanksgiving when William Thorpe, a Siena College senior, received news that he was selected to join the Ford Motor Company's management trainee program this summer. But as the coronavirus pandemic swept across the nation in March, he braced himself for the possibility he may not be able to go. "With everything going on, I kind of mentally prepared myself for the worst," Thorpe said. He was lucky; the program's start date was moved back to September. Thorpe, like thousands of other members of the class of 2020, finds himself in what he describes as a "purgatory period": stuck at home, unable to enter the workforce immediately as he had planned and scrambling to keep occupied for an indeterminate amount of time. A survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 83 percent of employers polled indicated they are making changes to their upcoming internship programs. "I was upset to some degree because when you graduate college, you really want to get going," Thorpe said. "There was definitely some disappointment." But is this summer completely wasted for recent graduates? Thorpe and career counselors at several local colleges say no. They recommend that students fill their time with any activity they would be able to put on their resumes. "There's no question that jobs have been rescinded, that internships that students thought they were going to have did not materialize," said Bob Soules, director of Union College's Becker Career Center. "The question becomes for these students, when things improve and an employer says to you, 'What did you do during the pandemic?' I think students want to answer that question in a way that shows they took this tough time and they did something positive about it." One of the most important tasks a recent graduate can undertake while on lock down, Soules said, is networking. It is always a good time to start building genuine relationships with those in the industry that you want to enter. Plus, there's no better time to do it: the people with whom you want to network are likely stuck at home, just like everybody else. "If you know where to look and you know how to network, you're going to get interviewed," Soules said. Debra DelBelso, the career center director at Siena College, said she recommends graduates take the summer to start or fine-tune tangible skills like learning a new language, learning how to code or program and improving their Microsoft Office proficiency. "This is definitely a tough time," DelBelso said. "We're telling our students to be practical and concentrate their search in organizations that are still hiring. During this time, especially in the summer, there are different things students can do to sharpen their skills for the job hunt and make their resume stronger." DelBlaso also recommends recent graduates consider high-demand jobs in the healthcare industry. Even those with no interest in a healthcare career can work temporarily in fields like human resources or finance. At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, students are required to complete a self-designated summer away from the Troy school. Philip Bruce, the director of RPI's Center for Career and Professional Development, said several students have requested completing an individual learning experience that can assist the pandemic response. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. "One of the hallmarks of the RPI student is they're very altruistic when it comes to how they want to apply their intellect," Bruce said. Still, 60 to 65 percent of the internship experiences at the school have been impacted, from starting date delays to outright cancellations. "If you're an underclassman and you're trying to find a full-time position, you first need to take care of yourself physically and mentally, and part of that is adjusting to the reality that what's you've been planning for the last last four years isn't going to pan out the way you thought it would be," Bruce said. Noah Simon, the head of career and professional development at UAlbany, said this summer provides a wonderful opportunity for recent graduates to tap into the school's alumni network. "Before any of this, you have to have empathy and understanding," Simon said. "Job searches during wonderful times can be overwhelming. Certainly it's not the market they're expecting, but work with your college careers center, stay positive, and continue to be proactive in the search." Thorpe, the Siena College senior, said he's already finding a way to keep busy until his program at Ford starts in September. He's looking forward to familiarizing himself with the new product lines that will be launched by the company before he starts. Michael.Williams@timesunion.com Venezuelan security forces stand guard near a boat off La Guaira, one of three they said carried armed men. (Matias Delacroix / Associated Press) For Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, it's the propaganda gift that keeps on giving, buoying a leader long in Washington's crosshairs. For Juan Guaido, it's just the latest misstep, reviving questions about the competence of the Trump administrations man in Caracas. Last weeks botched amphibious assault on the Venezuelan coast quickly became a Maduro rallying cry, a Bay of Pigs in miniature, complete with a pair of captured U.S. gunmen Iraq war veterans who were soon on state TV admitting their roles in a B-movie plot to kidnap Maduro and fly him to the United States. Venezuelan forces easily foiled the three-boat fleet of sea invaders, most of them Venezuelan defectors, being ferried to a busy port zone and a remote stretch of beach on the countrys Caribbean coast, at the northern tip of South America. Eight intruders were killed and some three dozen captured, the government said, with the two ex-U.S. Army soldiers among the prisoners. Who were they fighting for? For Donald Trump, its that simple, let no one doubt it, declared Maduro, who denounced the Rambo operation as he brandished the U.S. passports of the two captives. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo denied any direct U.S. involvement and declined to provide details on who financed the operation. As for who bankrolled it, were not prepared to share any more information about what we know took place, Pompeo told reporters. Well unpack that at an appropriate time. President Trump sought to dismiss the affair as a freelance amateur hour. I saw the pictures on a beach, Trump told Fox News. It wasnt led by Gen. George Washington, obviously. Meantime, Guaido whose self-declared interim presidency has been rocked by a series of stumbles over the last 16 months was hard-pressed to explain away his signature on a jaw-dropping $210-million contract with Silvercorp USA, the Florida security firm that acknowledged it was behind the raid. Story continues The funds were to be backed by Venezuelan barrels of oil extracted once Maduro was out and replaced by Guaido. Juan Jose Rendon, a key Guaido associate who also signed the contract, depicted it as a tentative accord ditched soon after it was signed last Oct. 16. The contract was part of a preliminary agreement that never became effective, Rendon told CNN Espanol. Rendon, however, did acknowledge paying $50,000 to Silvercorp for expenses. The damage-control spin didnt diminish the unsightly optics for the camp of Guaido, whose leadership is recognized by Washington and more than 50 allied capitals. A mercenary attack is an unfortunate look in a region with profound historic antipathy to outside meddling. Late Friday, Guaido filmed a video message distancing himself from the operation. We dont need foreign mercenaries, Guaido fumed, capping an especially rough week at the office. Guaidos frequent forecasts of imminent revolt against the usurper Maduro whose 2018 reelection he denounces as illegitimate have all proved illusory. The opposition has reached the end of its errors, said Jesus Seguias, an independent political analyst in Caracas. They no longer have the margin of error to keep on exercising policy as they have been doing. Guaido and his U.S. sponsors have consistently failed to flip the Venezuelan military high command, the nations key power brokers, despite repeated assertions from Guaido and the Trump administration that the top brass was poised to turn on Maduro. In the aftermath of the failed attack, military leaders rallied around Maduro, accompanying him at the presidential palace to view scripted taped interviews with the captured U.S. gunmen. News outlets and social media accounts displayed images of Venezuelan troops and allied militiamen hunting down terrorist mercenaries, as patriotic music blared. These events clearly have a negative effect on Guaido and his efforts to portray himself as a competent and legitimate government [leader], David Smilde of Tulane University told VPItv, an online Venezuelan television channel. "It helps Maduro, at least in the short term," added Smilde, who is a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America, a research and advocacy group. The debacle also threatened new rifts in the long-fragmented Venezuelan opposition, which united in January 2019 to endorse Guaido's presidential self-declaration. Primero Justicia, a major opposition group, called for an investigation and demanded that Guaido sack anyone involved. The plot ends up frustrating our people and destroying the confidence among those of us who fight for political change," Primero Justicia said in a statement The opposition group voiced alarm that Guaidos team showered with tens of millions of dollars in U.S. aid had evolved into a bureaucratic caste and was losing sight of the goal of political transformation. The episode was especially troubling, Seguias added, because it demonstrated that Guaido and his handlers still contemplated a military solution to the years-long political and economic turmoil buffeting a country that was once among Latin Americas richest. They keep on believing in the armed path to solve the Venezuelan crisis, Seguias said of the Guaido camp. Yet the United States has said on various occasions that an armed solution is not possible. Washington officially backs a negotiated solution in Venezuela, though Trump has stressed that all options remain open. If I wanted to go into Venezuela, I wouldnt make a secret about it, Trump told Fox News after the failed assault. It would be called an army. It would be called an invasion. How a group of gunmen in three boats planned to take the countrys main international airport, advance into heavily guarded Caracas, force their way into Miraflores palace and snatch Maduro and top aides was unclear. The two U.S. captives said the total force involved about 50 to 60 men, including the maritime crews and anticipated infiltrators on the ground. Apparently, the attackers expected their assault would spark a popular uprising. My hope is that these guys will galvanize thousands of Venezuelans to fight for their freedom, Jordan Goudreau, Silvercorp USA's founder and a former U.S. special forces soldier, told Florida-based Venezuelan journalist Patricia Poleo in a video interview as the invasion unfolded. The point is to get in and show it can be done." Goudreau, 43, was not on the ground for the mission. His current whereabouts are not publicly known. The plan, the captured Americans said on Venezuelan television, was for the U.S. raiders to telephone Goudreau once they had secured Maduro, who has a $15-million U.S. reward on his head for drug-trafficking charges. Goudreau was then to summon aircraft to extract Maduro. It was unclear who was expected to provide air transport. Goudreau, a decorated veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, was probably in over his head in the intrigue-heavy sphere of Venezuelan opposition politics, which he apparently first experienced as a security advisor at a pro-Guaido concert along the Colombian border in February 2019. As his on-the-ground partner in Colombia, Goudreau chose a former Venezuelan general, Cliver Alcala. The ex-general had been under U.S. Treasury Department sanctions since 2011 for having pioneered an arms-for-drugs route with Colombian rebels. Alcala moved to Colombia two years ago after breaking ranks with Maduro's government, which calls him a drug kingpin. The Goudreau-Alcala partnership ended abruptly in late March when U.S. authorities indicted Alcala on drug-trafficking charges, part of the same sweeping "narco-terrorism" prosecution that accused Maduro and top aides of flooding the United States with cocaine charges denied by Maduro. Washington also posted a $10-million reward for information leading to Alcala's capture. From his home in Barranquilla, Colombia, Alcala, formerly a shadowy background figure, gave a radio interview boasting of his role in training Venezuelan insurgents along with unnamed U.S. "associates," and of a "contract" with Guaido. The ex-general declared he was leading "a military operation against the dictatorship of Maduro." Alcala was soon whisked off on a Drug Enforcement Administration jet that had been granted special permission to land in Colombia amid the coronavirus lockdown and take him into U.S. custody. When [Alcala] was arrested, that was mind-blowing to a lot of people, Goudreau said in the video interview. He was the biggest enemy of the Maduro regime. The mission, dubbed Operation Gideon, never really had a chance since Venezuelan intelligence had thoroughly infiltrated the months-long underground training campaign in Colombia that preceded last weeks maritime strike. Weeks earlier, Diosdado Cabello, the No. 2 man in Maduros socialist party, was already featuring on his weekly television program photos of the gringo mercenary Goudreau, along with images from the webpage of Goudreau's company, Silvercorp USA. The Maduro loyalist also displayed photos of safe houses in the Colombian city of Riohacha where Venezuelan defectors and their U.S. advisors were staying. He even described the contract signed by Guaido. Weve been investigating them for six months, Cabello boasted of the plotters. We have recordings, photos. For reasons that remain perplexing, Goudreau nonetheless green-lighted the attack to "liberate" Venezuela. Those captured, including Goudreaus two ex-Army buddies, will face terrorism charges under Venezuelan law, Maduro vowed. Gloating in triumph, the Venezuelan leader was especially thankful to the remote fishing and coconut-palm hamlet of Chuao, where locals intercepted the two haggard Americans and other would-be liberators on the beach as their boat ran out of gas. By Goudreau's account, all were desperately seasick. Captured by the people's power of the fishermen! Maduro proclaimed last Monday. My applause to the patriotic fishermen! Staff writer McDonnell reported from Mexico City and special correspondent Mogollon from Caracas. Staff Writer Tracy Wilkinson in Washington and special correspondent Chris Kraul in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report. A 45-year-old employee of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation who died last week has tested positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), the civic body said on Sunday. Her husband had died of the disease on May 3 a day before her. Both were being treated in Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. Her first Covid-19 test had returned negative, north corporation officials said, without giving out any further details. The woman was a teacher employed with the north corporation. Spokesperson of the civic body, Ira Singhal, said, We have passed the file requesting compensation for the teacher. She was engaged in food distribution at her school in Jahangirpuri and therefore entitled to 1 crore compensation announced by the Delhi government for those working on the front line against Covid-19, municipal officers said. Corporation officials said she had stopped coming to the school due to ill-health at least 18 days before her death and so staff members associated with her didnt need to be quarantined. She had last come to work on April 18. Her next duty was on 25th, which she did not attend, Singhal said. They are survived by two sons. The north corporation also said that one of its malaria inspectors in the Karol Bagh zone has reported Covid-positive. He was taken to Lok Nayak Hospital on Friday and discharged after a preliminary check-up, and advised to isolate at home. At least 19 of his contacts have been traced, and all of them have been advised home quarantine. The Karol Bagh office where he worked has been sanitised, Singhal said. So far, 16 health care workers working in three of the north corporations biggest hospitals Hindu Rao, Kasturba and RBTB have contracted Covid-19 and are under treatment. Teslas chief executive also threatened to move California factory to Texas or Nevada over coronavirus restrictions. Tesla Inc has sued local authorities in the US state of California as the electric car maker pushed to reopen its factory there and Chief Executive Elon Musk threatened to move the companys headquarters and future programmes to Texas or Nevada. In a lawsuit filed in federal court on Saturday, Tesla accused the Alameda County Health Department of overstepping federal and state coronavirus restrictions when it stopped Tesla from restarting production at its factory in Fremont. The lawsuit contends Tesla factory workers are allowed to work during Californias stay-at-home order because the facility is considered critical infrastructure. Frankly, this is the final straw, Musk tweeted. Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately. He wrote that whether the company keeps any manufacturing in Fremont depends on how Tesla is treated in the future. Musk has been ranting about the stay-home order since the companys April 29 first-quarter earnings were released, calling the restrictions fascist and urging governments to stop taking peoples freedom. The shutdown in Alameda County, where the Fremont factory is located, is scheduled to remain until the end of May, with only essential businesses allowed to reopen. In a statement on Saturday, Alameda Countys Health Department said it has been working with Tesla to develop a safety plan that allows for reopening while protecting the health and well-being of the thousands of employees who work at the factory and that it looks forward to coming to an agreement on a safety plan very soon. But the statement also said residents and businesses have made sacrifices to protect the health of people in the region. It is our collective responsibility to move through the phases of reopening and loosening the restrictions of the shelter-in-place order in the safest way possible, guided by data and science, the department said. Fremont Mayor Lily Mei expressed concern about the potential economic implications of continuing the shelter-in-place order without provisions for manufacturers such as Tesla to resume. Mei on Saturday urged the county to work with businesses on acceptable guidelines for reopening. Musk had told employees on Thursday that limited production would restart at Fremont on Friday afternoon. Tesla builds more than 415,000 cars a year at the Fremont plant and moving the entire production facility would be a massive undertaking. Dan Ives, a Wedbush analyst, estimated it could take the company 12 to 18 months to relocate production. In a note to investors, Ives wrote that there was now a high-stakes poker game between Musk and county officials and Musk had shown his cards. Now all eyes move to the courts and the response from Alameda County and potentially California state officials. The threat to relocate the facility comes as Tesla aims to ramp up production at Fremont of its Model Y sport utility vehicle, the carmakers most profitable vehicle to date. Musk, who sparred with California officials in March over whether Tesla had to halt production at Fremont, had criticised the lockdown and stay-at-home orders, calling them a serious risk to US business and unconstitutional. Musks tweets come as competing automakers are starting to reopen factories in the US. Toyota will restart production on Monday, while General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler all plan to restart their plants gradually on May 18. Tesla is the only major automaker with a factory in California. Musks threats came after a series of bizarre tweets earlier this month, including one that said Teslas stock price was too high. Musk also posted parts of the US national anthem and wrote that he would sell his houses and other possessions. The coronavirus, which causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, has killed more than 78,000 people in the United States, and the death toll is still rising. Visionary comic book creator Tom Scioli discusses his new work, Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics, set to be released July 14, 2020 from Ten Speed Press. Tom Scioli won a Xeric Grant in 1999 for his creator-owned comic book series, The Myth of 8-Opus, and gained further prominence as co-creator (with Joe Casey) of the Eisner-award nominated comic book series Gdland (2005-2012) published by Image Comics. More recently, Scioli wrote and drew a five issue Go-Bots mini-series (2018) published by IDW Comics, as well as his (very awesome) "Super Powers" (2017) back-up feature for DC Comics' Young Animal imprint. Scioli also drew and co-scripted (with IDW editor-in-chief John Barber) the critically acclaimed Transformers vs. G.I. JOE maxi-series (2014-2016) published by IDW. In 2020 he wrote and drew Fantastic Four: Grand Design, published by Marvel Comics. Jeffery Klaehn: How might you elevator pitch Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics to audiences, especially new readers who may not yet be familiar with Jack Kirby or your own comics work? Tom Scioli: Everybody's knows Marvel, everybody knows Stan Lee, but there's another guy who is at least as important in the creation of the Marvel Universe. Jack Kirby has been a big part of comics history from the very beginning and is a real life hero in his own right. If you've never heard of Jack Kirby, or just know the name and not much more, prepare to get your mind blown. JK: Please take us behind the scenes on how the project materialized, from the initial idea to the completed work. Tom Scioli: I've always wanted to read the story of Kirby's life in comics form. I always had it in my back pocket as a possible thing to work on. I figured somebody else would do it eventually. Frank Miller, Erik Larsen, Steve Rude, somebody like that, a Kirby superfan from the previous generation of creators. As Jack Kirby's 100th anniversary approached I thought, maybe it's time, and maybe it's on me to do it. That's the formula, what would I like to read, and if it doesn't exist, make that. JK: In what ways has it been a labor of love project for you, personally? Tom Scioli: In every way. I've studied Kirby's life story and his work for most of my life. It's a story I know pretty well backwards and forwards. The ability to really dive in on a whole other level was great. In a way, working on this book, it felt like I was living his life. JK: Can you guesstimate how many hours you've spent working on it, in total? Tom Scioli: A lifetime. All those years of studying Kirby's life are all part of the equation. Having an understanding of the full span of the story was a necessary ingredient. I can't imagine if I just had to go into this cold. The active time of writing and drawing it has been something like 4 years maybe? JK: What aspects of the work were the most fun for you and what did you perhaps find challenging? Tom Scioli: The scenes with Jack and Stan were the most fun. I think those are the parts people will be most curious about. I don't know what it is exactly, but we really want to see them together. We want to see what their relationship was like, and this book goes deep on that. The hardest part was finding new ways to make a guy at a drawing table visually interesting. As the story goes on, more and more of his life is spent at the drawing board. It was a challenge finding ways to vary it. I think I was successful in that regard. It was kind of head spinning, being at a drawing table, drawing an artist at a drawing table. JK: How much research was involved? Tom Scioli: There was the casual research that I'd been engaged in for life. Once I fully committed to this project, I went all in. Just immersing myself in the research. Tons of fact checking. I'd lay out the story to the best of my recollection, but then I'd go back and double check and see where that bit of information originated from. Very different from the escapist fare I usually do in comics. There's some similarity in the kind of research I'd have to do for Transformers vs G.I. JOE or Fantastic Four: Grand Design, but this is real people and their real lives. I can tweak the stories of the G.I. JOE team, but for Jack Kirby, I needed to make sure everything was spot on. JK: Please tell me about Fantastic Four: Grand Design. How did the project come about and what drew you to want to do it? Tom Scioli: The editor, Chris Robinson, approached me about working on it. Ed Piskor's X-Men: Grand Design was out and they were considering following it up with other creators on other books. They were tentatively considering it. Chris asked for a short pitch. After that, I didn't hear anything for a long time, so I committed to Gobots. I thought the project was dead so I posted some of the art I'd done while brainstorming on Twitter. I don't know if it was coincidence or what but shortly after I heard from Chris that the project was a go. As far as what made me want to do it? It was a dream project. This is Kirby's signature comic, the beginning of the Marvel age. And I was being asked to rewrite it, to take all the bits and pieces and tell a big overarching story from it. And to do it with minimal editorial interference. I was asked to be me and do my thing with it. As a fan, it was a chance to create something I always wanted to read. Kirby's Fantastic Four had such a feeling of being this big epic, with a growing cast of thousands that was building toward a smash bang conclusion. The realities of the comics industry and Kirby's own career trajectory didn't allow that. Instead, Stan and Jack's run fizzles toward the end. Then Jack leaves and Stan continues on and it really feels like the dream is over. As a fan I wanted an ending, where all the little subplots come together in a powerful and surprising way. Fantastic Four: Grand Design was my opportunity to give the story of the Fantastic Four and their expanding cast an ending and a sense of completeness. Like Frank Miller did with Batman with his bookends of The Dark Knight Returns and Batman "Year One." That was the big incentive. That was the opportunity. JK: For audiences who have yet to experience it, how would you characterize Fantastic Four: Grand Design, and how do you see this work dovetailing with Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics? Tom Scioli: I was working on the two projects simultaneously so I see them as companion pieces. Both involved close study of Kirby's work and trying to step into his shoes to some degree. It all happened accidentally, but it was a perfect segue. JK: Please tell me about how you approached Fantastic Four: Grand Design and also Transformers vs G.I. JOE. How did your art and art style fit within your approach to design, action, composition and page layouts? Your work with both projects is endlessly bold and creative. Each panel of Transformers vs G.I. JOE has intense energy. There's an almost kinetic creative energy and joy in the work. Fantastic Four: Grand Design is very different in terms of design, yet brings that same degree of relentless creativity and joy, exuding that same passion for content and form. Tom Scioli: Transformers vs G.I. JOE was the beginning of a new phase of my work. I was all in and writing and drawing as if my life depended on it. I wrote and drew and rewrote and redrew in an almost compulsive manner. As a result, every page is its own universe. The panels are packed with characters and struggles and life and death. I was trying to tell as much story in as few panels as possible. Fantastic Four: Grand Design was a few years and a few projects removed from Transformers vs G.I. JOE so I approached it a little differently. I wanted to make something that read very linearly. I was trying for something like a page of newspaper comics. I was doing my thing with it, but it wasn't a purely original story like Transformers vs G.I. JOE. Fantastic Four: Grand Design was first and foremost an adaptation. I was building on a very solid structure. It was almost like an accelerated version of my Transformers vs G.I. JOE process. It's a much shorter work, and I have a lot of ground to cover. I was innovating, but almost in the opposite way from Transformers vs G.I. JOE. Instead of trying to make as few panels as possible, and as many splashes as possible, Fantastic Four: Grand Design has more panels per page than any comic I've ever done. It has no splash pages. But when you get to a panel that takes up half the page, it feels like a double page splash. I was going for a different reading rhythm with it. At first I thought of using a 44 grid, because it's the fantastic FOUR, but that wasn't enough panels for me to cover all the ground I needed to cover. I went with a 55 grid which is almost unheard of in superhero comics. I was able to hit almost every bullet point I wanted to hit. JK: Were there any aspects of Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics that were revelatory for you, Tom? Tom Scioli: Looking at his story in more or less chronological order was really interesting. That's where I realized Blue Beetle was the first superhero Jack worked on. I knew before then he worked on Blue Beetle and that it was pretty early, but I didn't realize it was the VERY first superhero on his drawing board. The big thing is getting a very concrete reckoning of how prolific he was. We know Jack did a lot of pages of comics, and that he created or co-created a lot of characters, but when you're drawing page after page of creation, I was just gobsmacked by the never ending parade of major pop culture characters he created. JK: What about the work are you most proud of? Tom Scioli: I really like the epilogue, where I show Kirby's legacy. I think it puts all of it in perspective. By the time you get to that point, it's been a real journey, this dam-breaking accumulation of a life's work and how it changed the world. JK: Imagine you're giving a talk to an audience unfamiliar with Jack Kirby, and that your aim is to communicate three essential points on how Kirby has influenced both comics and pop culture. You begin, noting that Tom Scioli: Have you heard of Marvel? Jack Kirby's responsible for at least half of it. That's really all you need to say. His Marvel work changed everything. Comics, cinema, gaming. The fingerprints are everywhere. He had bestselling comics in the 1940s with Captain America and The Boy Commandos (one of the bestselling comics during World War II). He fought Nazis in France during World War II. He helped create the Romance comics genre in the 50s. He co-created most of the Marvel characters in the 60s. He broke out on his own, refusing to work with a co-writer for the remainder of his career (with a few exceptions) and in the 70s created the New Gods and Mister Miracle [at DC Comics], then went back to Marvel and created The Eternals (soon to be a major motion picture). He helped pioneer independent comics with Captain Victory. He had a whole other career in animation. This was all one guy. JK: How do you view Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics within the context of your own career? What does the work mean for you and how excited are you to share it with audiences? Tom Scioli: It's a culmination. I'm at a little bit of a loss as to what to do next. This is a comic book about the greatest influence in my life and career. This is the apex. Hopefully I'll find something equally good to follow it up with, but personally it feels like the top of Everest. I can't wait for people to read it. I want the world to know about Jack Kirby and really understand what he did. I think once people know his story, we're going to have a whole new wave of Kirby appreciation. JK: The book will be available in hardcopy and digitally on July 14, 2020? Tom Scioli: That's right! JK: I really like that name, Ten Speed Press, by the way Tom Scioli: It is a pretty great name. It's a great company, great people. I'm really amazed at the job they've done from start to finish. They're really enthusiastic and energetic about this project and getting the word out. JK: Last question. Why create this work as a comic, Tom? And why is the medium important in relation to the story and stories within the overarching narrative that you've set out to tell in this work? Tom Scioli: The comic part is so important. It's Jack Kirby's life in the form he worked in the form he helped pioneer. I did the artwork in pencil, it's not inked. Kirby lived through his pencil. Everything just fits together so nicely. My personal journey and Kirby's really coalesced in this project. If I put it out in monthly installments, that's the only way it could more closely mirror his production process. Author Biographical Summary Jeffery Klaehn resides in Canada and holds a PhD in Communication from the University of Amsterdam and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Strathclyde. His interests include pop culture, music, storytelling, comics and graphic novels, digital games, game design, and interactive fiction. DIFFERENCES have emerged within the family of the late former Vice-President, Dr Joshua Nkomo over the use of his name and legacy. The clash is reportedly pitting Dr Nkomos son, Sibangilizwe on one side and daughter, Mrs Thandi Nkomo-Ebrahim on the other. This was exposed last week when Mr Sibangilizwe Nkomo released a scathing Press statement where he attacked an organisation going by the name Joshua Nkomo National Foundation (JNNF) for using the late Father Zimbabwes name and legacy for what he described as mischievous political and financial gain. Ironically, Mrs Nkomo-Ebrahim is a trustee of the foundation representing the Nkomo family. In the Press release, Mr Nkomo says that Mrs Nkomo-Ebrahim has no standing to represent the family in the foundation as she is not the head of the family. On behalf of the Joshua Nkomo family and the Nyongolo clan, we have been following some disturbing events and developments where we have witnessed the abuse and political exploitation of our father and icon, Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomos name, by some unscrupulous and dubious characters and individuals in the Joshua Nkomo National Foundation who allegedly claim that they have the blessings and approval of one of our family members and sister, Mrs Thandiwe Nkomo-Ebrahim. A case in point is the manner in which a so-called 2020 Joshua Nkomo Memorial Lecture that was clandestinely virtually delivered was organised and handled. The same people in the JNNF deliberately hijacked an on-going programme to use it as a platform to settle their political scores with the Government, said Mr Nkomo. He accused the foundation of bringing Dr Nkomos name into disrepute, and also being bent on destroying and tarnishing the Dr Joshua Nkomo brand and image, for their selfish gains and sinister motives. Mr Nkomos sentiments came after a virtual Joshua Nkomo Memorial Public Lecture was held by the foundation on Independence Day. The public lectures main speaker was Mr Siphosami Malunga, the executive director of South Africa-based Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa Initiative (Osisa). In his statement, Mr Nkomo singled out Mr Mmillili Evans Tapela, who was once part of the Joshua Nkomo Legacy Restoration Project Trust, which he said was recognised by the family. For the uninitiated, the lecture series the JNNF has tried to hijack and purport to have initiated, are a product of the Joshua Nkomo Legacy Restoration Project Trust of which Tapela was once a member but was unanimously dismissed due to transgressions he did which in the end, brought a lot of trouble for the organisation. So, in essence, he has simply stolen ideas that he was exposed to and is now trying to use it for his selfish personal gain, chiefly, in financial terms. The said lecture that Mr Malunga delivered was organised that the Joshua Nkomo Legacy Restoration Project Trust only learnt of the said lecture via social media and otherwise, said Mr Nkomo. Contacted for comment, Mrs Nkomo-Ebrahim said while she was aware of Mr Nkomos Press release she had nothing to say on the matter. I have no comment on that matter, she said. Sunday News managed to get in touch with Mr Tapela who hit back at Mr Nkomo saying the foundation was working with all the blessings of the Nkomo family, who were also part of the board of trustees. I am the director-general of JNNF working under a permanent contract reporting to the Board of Trustees of JNNF of which Mrs Thandiwe Nkomo-Ebrahim is an executive trustee. The mentioned Joshua Nkomo Legacy Restoration Project, was in fact, a project started by joint collaboration between the JNNF and the Joshua Nkomo Cultural Movement which they then hijacked to form a Trust. As far as intellectual capital, the trustees and all stakeholders know my capabilities and my track record mine is to deliver on the mandate and we are working, that is what we do. If you look at past reports on the public lecture, it was my doing, said Mr Tapela. He expressed shock that Mr Nkomo was distancing himself from the 2020 public lecture by Mr Malunga, claiming that he (Mr Nkomo) had actually made a call to Mr Malunga commending him for delivering a powerful lecture. The Director of Operations at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, DCOP Joseph Oklu Gyamera on Saturday, 9th May donated veronica buckets, basins, Bins, tissues, soft soaps, hand sanitizers, reflective jackets, T-Shirts, and some other relief items to the people of Akyem Maase in the Abuakwa South Municipality of the Eastern Region towards the Coronavirus (COVID-19) fight. Hon. Oklu Aikins Okwae, former Assembly Member of Akyem Maase presenting the items to the community on behalf of DCOP Joseph Oklu Gyamera asked the community to go by all the preventive measures to curb the situation. He also donated some items to the Neighborhood Watch Committee for their massive contribution to the people of Akyem Maase and the Ghana Police Service as a whole. He donated these items to bring relief, support, and to enable them to protect themselves as they serve the community in light of the current novel coronavirus pandemic. The Assemblywoman, Unit Committee members, and the executives of the Concern Youth Association (CYA) received the items on behalf of the community. They expressed gratitude for the kind gesture while noting that the items will go a long way to lessen the burden. Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, New Zealanders have been reportedly breaking lockdown in record numbers. According to reports, the police in New Zealand have been busy over this past weekend trying to reign in citizens as they break the lockdown in anticipation of an announcement by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern regarding the easing of coronavirus restrictions. As per reports, PM Ardern is expected to announce the easing of restrictions in New Zealand after 7 weeks of one of the strictest lockdown measures in the world. The severe lockdown measures have effectively confined New Zealanders to their homes in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus. According to reports, the authorities reported that almost 50 people broke a Level 3 lockdown on May 10 in just a span of 24 hours. Among those that breached the lockdown was a family that hosted a childrens birthday party and a church gathering that took place in someones backyard. Wellington City Council spokesman Richard MacLean reportedly told local media that the capital city of Wellington was like rush hour. Read: New Zealand Braces For Alert Level 2, Prepares To Resume Travel And 'reopen' Read: Jacinda Ardern Calls New Zealand 'safe Haven' For Investment As COVID-19 Curve Flattens Prime Minister Jacinda Arden-led island nation New Zealand has emerged as a model for countries grappling with coronavirus pandemic. With its 'eradication strategy', the country took early action and kept restrictions in place till it was assured of end of community transmission. In less than two months, New Zealand is back on its feet, ready to reopen, start travel again and soon people will be able to give each other 'a quick hug'. On May 4, the country recorded zero new cases of coronavirus marking its first day without any infection since it went into lockdown in March. While announcing the same at a press briefing, PM Arden also cautioned the citizens to continue to follow social distancing norms in order to avoid risk. She added that the country's goal to eliminate the virus completely is now 'within the reach' and one wrong step could 'squander the good work'. Read: COVID-19: New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern Says No Open Borders 'for A Long Time' Read: Explainer: How New Zealand's 'elimination Policy' Got COVID Cases Down To Zero In 6 Weeks Coronavirus outbreak After originating from Chinas wet markets, the coronavirus has now claimed over 280,451 lives worldwide as of May 10. According to the tally by international news agency, the pandemic has now spread to 212 countries and has infected at least 4,101,975 people. Out of the total infections, 1,441,873 have been recovered but the easily spread virus is continuing to disrupt many lives. Major cities have been put under lockdown in almost all countries and the economy is struggling. The 22 year-old labourer was unable to book ticket in the Shramik Special train recently from Kerala as he did not have money Kolkata: Failing to return home for want of money, a young migrant worker from West Bengal committed suicide in Kerala on Saturday morning. Asif Iqbal Mondal (22), a resident of Shiropara at Domkol in Murshidabad, hanged himself from a tree at a mango orchard at Kodanad in Ernakulam. His fellows informed his relative, Asarul Biswas, about his suicide at around 9 am. Asif joined a labourers job at a brick kiln in Kerala six months ago, said his father Jamshed Ali, adding that the work was however suspended due to Covid-19 lockdown following which the brick kiln owner did not pay Asif his dues. Asarul said, Asif commited suicide in utter frustration after he could not return home in the Shramik Special train recently from Kerala as he did not have money. He turned depressed after learning that no further train would run from Kerala for West Bengal. Breaking down in tears he repented while talking to us over phone that he would not be able to return home ever. SP (Murshidabad) K. Sabari Rajkumar said that the Ernakulam district police was contacted to bring the labourers body here. Staff may work in a COVID-19 positive house one day, and the next they are made to work in a house with no known COVID-19 cases, the worker, who requested anonymity, said in an email. THIS is how it is spreading so quickly there. PRAGUE, May 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Rossotrudnichestvo and The Russian Military Historical Society (RMHS), as part of the "Roads to Victory" project, prepared a series of virtual tours of Soviet military burials and memorials of Prague, offering details of the successful conclusion of the Prague operation, the final stage of the advance of the Red Army during the Second World War. As a result of this advance, the last large detachment of the Nazi forces was destroyed and Czechoslovakia was liberated. To commemorate, on May 6, the start date of the offensive operation, Rossotrudnichestvo and its representative office in the Czech Repubic, conducted an online press conference for journalists from Russia and the Czech Republic, entitled "Moscow Prague: 75 years of victory, 75 years of memory." Participants discussed the importance of preserving historical memory and the history preservation mission of Rossotrudnichestvo, touched upon topics of history and culture that unite Russia and the Czech Republic. Especially for the "Roads to Victory" project, Russian house of science and culture in Prague prepared a video tour "Vitezne jaro: memory of the Victory," covering locations of key battles, burials and memorials in Prague. Format of the video tour is an alternative to the pedestrian tours that were organized as part of the "Roads to Victory" project between October 2019 and February 2020 in several European countries, with hundreds of participants of all ages. On May 9, as part of the "Roads to Victory" historical lecture project, Rossotrudnichestvo, across its social networks, featured a live discussion with Mihail Yurievich Myagkov, professor of history at the MGIMO University, scientific director of RMHS. The historian discussed the Prague offensive and the liberation of Prague. Related Links http://rs.gov.ru/ SOURCE Rossotrudnichestvo A surfer was killed in a shark attack at a Santa Cruz County beach Saturday afternoon, according to state parks officials. The 26-year-old man was surfing at Sand Dollar Beach, near Manresa State Beach, south of Santa Cruz, at about 1:30 p.m.,when he was attacked by an unknown shark species, the California State Parks said in a statement. The victims name has not been released but Santa Cruz Sheriffs deputies notified the mans family, said Gloria Sandoval, a state parks spokeswoman. The water one mile north and south of the attack will be closed for five days. Signs were posted warning beachgoers about the attack. State Parks expresses its deepest sympathy to the family of the victim, the statement said. The Santa Cruz County Sheriffs Office posted on Facebook a picture of a flyer warning people to avoid going in the water. It said the attack took place within 100 yards of the shore. Following state parks protocol following a shark attack, the water one mile south and north of the incident location will be closed for five days and will not be reopened until Thursday, May 14. Signs warning beachgoers about the shark attack are now posted on access points and beach entrances within a one-mile radius of the incident. Manresa State Beach is already closed as part of the states efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. There is no public access except for swimming, surfing and other water sports. People are allowed to cross the beach to engage in those activities. During other times, the beach is open to local residents whoncan walk or bike into the beach as long as they maintain social distancing of 6 feet or more and follow park visitor guidelines. For more information, visit www.parks.ca.gov/FlattenTheCurve. 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 Associated Press contributed to this report. Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur district on Sunday said all necessary arrangements have been put in place to receive thousands of local residents who are returning from various parts of the country by special trains. The first such train with 1,000 passengers left Chikkabanavara station in Bengaluru for Udhampur Railway Station this afternoon, officials said. They said the train is expected to reach Udhampur railway station on Monday morning. It also marks the first passenger train movement in Jammu and Kashmir during the coronavirus-driven nationwide lockdown which came into force on March 25, leaving a large number of local residents stranded in various parts of the country and abroad. "All necessary arrangements have been put in place to receive the Jammu and Kashmir residents who are being brought back to their homes through special trains from various parts of the country," Udhampur District Development Commissioner Piyush Singla told PTI. Officials said all returnees have to be tested for COVID-19 and undergo institutional quarantine. If test reports come out negative, they they will be sent for home quarantine for 14 days, they said. The railways proposed to run about 50 trains during the next 20 days for Jammu and Kashmir from different states to bring back home the stranded people. All the trains will land at Udhampur Railway Station only from where the people will be sent to their home districts in SRTC buses. Singla said magistrates along with other staff members have been deployed to receive these passengers at the platform and guide them for online registration by the data entry operators deputed there through a specially designed app. Singla said the administration had made arrangements for refreshment, packed meals and water bottles besides sanitization tunnels were also established and adequate number of sanitizers made available for the use of the passengers. On Saturday, the Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam visited Udhampur and reviewed the arrangements for deboarding of passengers at the platform and their subsequent departure to their home districts. The Chief Secretary asked the officers to ensure greater coordination at all levels so that all the arrangements and logistics work smoothly. He also stressed the need to strictly adhere to all the prescribed guidelines, especially maintaining social distance during deboarding to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Another train is likely to leave Goa railway station for Udhampur later this evening,the officials said, adding the registration was underway for students, migrant workers and stranded residents when last reports were received. Meanwhile, the administration also dispatched 97 residents of Srinagar and Ganderbal districts who were stranded in Jammu due to the lockdown. The stranded people were picked up by SRTC buses from Sunjwan, Bathindi and Sidhra and were transported to their districts in central Kashmir, the officials said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi Police relieved 781 calls on its helpline number within a period of 24 hours till Sunday afternoon and 394 of these were regarding movement passes, officials said here. A total of 41,788 calls have been received by the city police so far on its 24x7 helpline number 011-23469526 for assistance in resolving issues being faced by the people due to the lockdown, they said. Police received 781 calls from 2 pm on Saturday till 2 pm on Sunday, the officials said. Of these, 73 calls were related to areas outside the national capital which were referred to the respective state helpline numbers, while two calls were regarding having no food or no money, the police said. According to the police, nearly 2,22,787 people were provided food packets, while 1,710 people were given ration kits at more than 250 locations through the food delivery network of the Delhi Police, in association with nearly 400 NGOs and good samaritans. Besides, Delhi Police personnel deployed at the IGI airport have distributed 4,000 packets containing essentials among workers at a labour camp in the area, they said. Each packet had five kg rice, one kg dal, antiseptic soap and face mask among others. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The flights will take place on Wednesday and Sunday Special flights will take place on Wednesday and Sunday to repatriate Egyptians from Washington DC, according to a statement from the Egyptian embassy to the US. National flagship airliner EgyptAir will be assigned with charging passengers for the obligatory 14-day quarantine, which usually takes place in hotels in the Red Sea town of Marsa Alam. The government requires returnees to sign a written acknowledgement that they agree to be quarantined before boarding the flights. Around 300 Egyptians arrived in Marsa Alam from Washington on Sunday in another such flight. The EgyptAir flight, the sixth such flight from Washington, arrived at Marsa Alam International Airport at around 8am. Egypt began repatriating its nationals in March after many countries, including Egypt itself, started to shut their airspace to commercial flights. The country is keeping its airspace open to inbound charter flights and special flights to transport outbound passengers, and to cargo and domestic flights. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said last week that authorities are hoping to repatriate all nationals stuck abroad before the Islamic holiday of Eid Al-Fitr, which is set to begin on 23 May. Search Keywords: Short link: PUBG Mobile's official India tournament, the PUBG Mobile India Series 2020 by Tencent Gaming, is all set to go underway soon. Registrations for PMIS 2020 have been opened up, and will continue for one week until Sunday, May 17. With the Covid-19 lockdown still largely in place, registration for one of India's largest e-sports tournaments is expected to soar. As a result, in order to have the best teams qualify for the finals of PMIS 2020, Tencent has laid out key rules and procedures that all teams will have to clear in order to proceed in the tournament. The final prize money for PMIS 2020 is Rs 50 lakh, and the ultimate bragging rights of being the best players of PUBG Mobile in India. Registration Any team can register for PMIS 2020 through PUBG Mobile's official channels. To register, all interested players can click on the link here, or head to PUBG Mobile India's official website. The registration form requires all teams to have a formal name, a team logo, a team owner/captain (can be two separate people as well), and a total of four players. Contestants, once added, cannot be substituted or altered post registration. There is no payable fee for registering for the PUBG Mobile India tournament. For further details about the exact rules of the tournament, read the rulebook here. Tournament stages In-game qualifiers : Since thousands of participants are expected to sign up for PMIS 2020, the first round will feature in-game qualifiers. These will be played from inside the classic mode of the PUBG Mobile app, and at least 15 matches will need to be played between May 20 and 24. At the end of the five days, 10 of the team's best matches will be taken into consideration, and for the next stage the online qualifiers. : Since thousands of participants are expected to sign up for PMIS 2020, the first round will feature in-game qualifiers. These will be played from inside the classic mode of the PUBG Mobile app, and at least 15 matches will need to be played between May 20 and 24. At the end of the five days, 10 of the team's best matches will be taken into consideration, and for the next stage the online qualifiers. Online qualifiers : A total of 256 teams will feature in the PMIS 2020 online qualifiers this year. For the sign-in details for this phase, PUBG Mobile India says, "Lobby ID and password will be shared with you on community platforms like Whatsapp or Discord before the match by tournament organisers. You will receive an invite link to the community." Of these 256 teams, 248 will be selected from the in-game qualifiers, and eight, presumably high profile teams will receive a direct invite link to the tournament. These 256 teams will then be divided into 16 groups of 16 teams each. Groups will play two games each, following which the top three teams from each group will directly qualify for the quarter finals. Additionally, eight more teams with the highest number of kills (outside the selected 48) will also be added, bringing the total qualifying teams up to 56. : A total of 256 teams will feature in the PMIS 2020 online qualifiers this year. For the sign-in details for this phase, PUBG Mobile India says, "Lobby ID and password will be shared with you on community platforms like Whatsapp or Discord before the match by tournament organisers. You will receive an invite link to the community." Of these 256 teams, 248 will be selected from the in-game qualifiers, and eight, presumably high profile teams will receive a direct invite link to the tournament. These 256 teams will then be divided into 16 groups of 16 teams each. Groups will play two games each, following which the top three teams from each group will directly qualify for the quarter finals. Additionally, eight more teams with the highest number of kills (outside the selected 48) will also be added, bringing the total qualifying teams up to 56. Quarter finals : Eight more 'pro' teams would be invited to participate at this point, bringing the total number of participant groups up to 64. These would be divided into four groups of 16 each. Every group will play six matches, and the eight best squads from each group will then proceed to the semi finals. Hence, a total of 32 teams will make it to the penultimate stage of the tournament. : Eight more 'pro' teams would be invited to participate at this point, bringing the total number of participant groups up to 64. These would be divided into four groups of 16 each. Every group will play six matches, and the eight best squads from each group will then proceed to the semi finals. Hence, a total of 32 teams will make it to the penultimate stage of the tournament. Semi finals : In this round, teams will be divided into four groups of eight teams each, and the deciders will be played in a 'round robin' format. At the end of this round, the best 16 of all the teams will feature in the grand finals. : In this round, teams will be divided into four groups of eight teams each, and the deciders will be played in a 'round robin' format. At the end of this round, the best 16 of all the teams will feature in the grand finals. Grand finals: These squads will play 18 matches over a span of three days. At the end of these matches, the squad that has the highest cumulative score will be declared the winner of PUBG Mobile India Series 2020. Prize money Encouragingly, all 16 finalist teams at PMIS 2020 will walk away with something in hand, starting with a prize of Rs 50,000 for the 16th placed team. The winner of PMIS 2020 will be awarded Rs 20 lakh, while the second and third placed teams will win Rs 5 lakh and Rs 3 lakh each. Tencent is also offering a number of 'special' awards, such as the player with the most number of MVPs in the tournament (Rs 50,000), the squad with maximum number of kills (Rs 1 lakh), and more. For the full details of the prize money at PMIS 2020, head to page 23 of the PUBG Mobile India Series 2020 rulebook, which you can find here. The total amount of all awards is Rs 50 lakh. Other rules According to the tournament's most important rules, PUBG Mobile players should note that they will need to register four players compulsorily, and will have to produce a team logo upon registration. The tournament matches can only be played on a mobile phone and not on iPads/tablets. Further, no triggers or emulators are allowed to be used during the tournament. Reports on the internet state that participants will also be mandated to download an "anti-cheating app", so as to ensure fair playing grounds for all players. Sanitisation work started on Sunday at RR Venkatapuram near Visakhapatnam, where a gas leak from a chemical plant claimed 12 lives, and four surrounding villages as the situation came under complete control three days after the tragedy, officials said. Meanwhile, the 400-odd people undergoing treatment in various hospitals in the city after being affected by the styrene vapour leakage from the LG Polymers plant at RR Venkatapuram in the early hours of Thursday were fast recovering, they said. The company announced the styrene liquid has solidified, sealing the chance of any vapour coming out further but the district administration said people should return to the villages only after the sanitisation process was completed and other safety measures were put in place. Experts from New Delhi and other places were closely monitoring the situation at the plant, including the styrene levels and temperature. Visakhapatnam district Collector V Vinay Chand, quoting the experts, said there was no safety threat at the plant now as the vapour leakage reached zero level. We will take the experts views into consideration before letting people back into their villages, the Collector told reporters. He, however, asked people not to return to the villages yet as the sanitisation process would take a couple of days. Only after this is complete and safety measures are in place, should people return to their homes, he said. Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, who reviewed the incident at this camp residence in Amaravati, was informed that everything was safe in the villages around the LG plant. The Chief Minister told the officials to let the people return to their homes only after all safety measures were taken. Visakhapatnam District medical and health officer Tirumala Rao said 411 people, affected by the gas leak, were undergoing treatment in various hospitals in the city and were fast recovering. Based on the latest situation in the villages and instructions of the district administration, we will discharge the recovered patients. Till then we will make arrangements for them in the King George Hospital, the DMHO said. LG plant General Manager G Mohan Rao said the styrene liquid has solidified and the situation was fully under control. All steps were being taken to maintain the required temperature in the styrene storage tanks, both at the plant and at the Visakhapatnam Port. Twelve people were killed and hundreds taken ill, many collapsing to the ground as they tried to escape the toxic vapours after the gas leaked from the plant in the early hours of Thursday and quickly spread to villages in a five kilometre radius. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New York health officials are now investigating 85 cases of a rare pediatric inflammatory syndrome believed to be linked to COVID-19, Gov Andrew Cuomo announced at a press briefing on Sunday. At least three young children in the state have died from the illness and another two deaths are under investigation, Cuomo said. 'This is an issue that people need to be aware of,' he said, noting that it is affecting toddlers and elementary school-age children. Cuomo said that the New York Department of Health is notifying other states about the illness because it is 'probable' that its occurring at a similarly alarming rate outside of New York. Symptoms of the illness are similar to those seen in Kawasaki disease and toxic shock-like syndrome - including persistent fever, rash, abdominal pain and vomiting. New York health officials are now investigating 85 cases of a rare pediatric inflammatory syndrome believed to be linked to COVID-19, Gov Andrew Cuomo announced on Sunday 'This does not present as a normal COVID case - COVID cases tend to be respiratory - this presents as an inflammation of the blood vessels, sometimes inflammation of the heart,' Cuomo said. 'It's possible these cases were coming in but were not diagnosed as related to COVID because they don't appear as COVID, but it is a situation that has taken the life of three New Yorkers.' WHAT IS AN INFLAMMATORY SYNDROME? Children are being admitted in what has been described as a 'multi-system inflammatory state.' This refers to the over-production of cytokines, known as a cytokine storm - the overreaction of the body's immune system. In a storm, the proteins start to attack healthy tissue, which can cause blood vessels to leak and lead to low blood pressure Doctors say this also happens with Ebola, causing the body to go into shock. It has also been noted in older COVID-19 patients. WHAT SYMPTOMS DOES IT CAUSE? The cases share overlapping features of toxic shock syndrome and atypical Kawasaki disease. Two of the most common symptoms of Kawasaki disease include a rash and a fever. TSS also causes a rash, dizziness and diarrhea Advertisement New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also voiced 'tremendous concern' over the uptick in cases on Sunday, as he confirmed that 38 had been detected in the Big Apple and an additional nine are awaiting confirmation. 'What it does is, basically, in a child's body triggers an intensive, almost overwhelming immune system response. And that actually causes harm to the body,' de Blasio said Sunday. The mayor said all children with associated symptoms would now be tested for COVID-19 as well as antibodies. So far, of the confirmed cases, 47 percent had tested positive for coronavirus and 81 percent had antibodies, indicating exposure to the fast-spreading virus at some point. De Blasio urged all parents whose children exhibited the symptoms to seek immediate medical attention. Efforts are underway to collect information on the disorder, dubbed 'Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome Potentially Associated with COVID-19'. On Wednesday, the New York State Department of Health issued an alert, calling on hospitals to immediately report any cases to the department. Cases of rare, life-threatening inflammatory illnesses in children associated with exposure to COVID-19 were first reported in Britain, Italy and Spain. However, doctors across the US - such as in California, New York and New Jersey - are starting to report clusters of kids with the disorder, which can attack multiple organs, impair heart function and weaken heart arteries. Doctors say its symptoms bear striking similarity to Kawasaki disease - a mysterious illness that primarily affects children up to the age of five and causes the walls of arteries to become inflamed, resulting in fever, skin peeling and joint pain. New York health authorities are investigating 85 cases of the pediatric illness. Jayden Hardowar, eight, of New York (left), and Juliet Daly, 12, of Louisiana (right), both landed in the hospital after experiencing the syndrome Nine-year-old Josie Paskvan (pictured) was diagnosed with the illness on Thursday in Michigan Cuomo announced the first-known death from the illness a five-year-old had died at an NYC hospital - on Friday. On Saturday he revealed that two other children - a seven-year-old in Westchester County and a teenager in Suffolk County - had also died. Cuomo said children had tested positive for COVID-19 or the antibodies but did not show the common symptoms of the virus when they were hospitalized. 'This is the last thing that we need at this time, with all that is going on, with all the anxiety we have, now for parents to have to worry about whether or not their youngster was infected,' he said at his daily briefing. New York is helping develop national criteria for identifying and responding to the syndrome at the request of the Centers for Disease Control, Cuomo said. There is no proof that the inflammatory syndrome in children is linked to COVID-19. Doctors still believe that most children with COVID-19 develop only mild illness and most will recover. A case has been registered against a man in Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur district after his wife informed the police that he had jumped home quarantine to buy liquor, an official said on Sunday. The junior basic trained (JBT) teacher and his brother had returned from Gujarat to Barsar area last Thursday, and both were kept under home quarantine as a precautionary measure against the novel coronavirus pandemic, the official said. A first information report (FIR) was lodged after the teacher's wife informed the police that he had gone out by jumping home quarantine for purchasing alcohol, according to the official. The case was registered under various sections of the India Penal Code and the Disaster Management Act, the spokesperson said. The man has now been kept under institutional quarantine and the matter referred to the Education Department for departmental action against him, the official added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ivan left the shores of Sri Lanka in the 1960s. Before taking his early retirement due to medical reasons, he served in the multi-national petroleum sector (Shell) as senior financial executive. by Rajasingham Jayadevan We are deeply saddened to hear of the loss of our well-respected, well-liked, highly-valued and a very- principled colleague, Ivan Pedropillai, who passed away on 28 April. When I informed Mr Barry Gardiner MP of this loss, he said: This in indeed a great sadness. He was a lovely man and a good comrade in the struggle. Ivan was an integral part of the politically active expatriate Tamil community and is an inspiration to countless people in the spectrum of discordant politics. He was kind, extremely talented, witty, and set an example for the retiring fellow community members to step out of the four walls of retirement life to be socially and politically mobile. Ivan left the shores of Sri Lanka in the 1960s. Before taking his early retirement due to medical reasons, he served in the multi-national petroleum sector (Shell) as senior financial executive. With the war at its peak in Sri Lanka, he instinctively became an active and passionate advocate to campaign for justice and peace for the war ravaged and yearning Tamil people. It was a challenge for him, as the community he wanted to help was not the well settled stock of the 1960s and was the product of the two decades of consequences of the degenerating war in Sri Lanka. He soon became acclimatised to the full circumstances of the community. I befriended him in the outset of 1996, when I was serving as the Co-ordinator of the Tamil Refugee Action Group (TRAG). The first engagement with him was my involvement in the publication of Hotspring magazine and in that Ivan played an interactive role with the editor Late S Sivanayagam. Our involvement deepened in the political campaign front. In that, I was accompanied by Ivan to meet the Shadow Foreign Minister for South Asia Late Derek Fatchett. The meeting was facilitated and attended by Mr Barry Gardiner when he was campaigning to become an MP in the 1997 General Election. The hour long meeting was so interactive that substantial issues affecting Sri Lanka and the Tamils were discussed. Ivans contribution at the meeting was immense as he commanded the discussion very professionally. Following that meeting, Ivan introduced a wealth of his friends to team work. In addition to my own election campaign work with my local friends for the election of Mr Barry Gardiner, Ivan overwhelmingly threw his hat into the ring that gave the much needed vigour and momentum for the campaign work. Ivans campaign work even occasionally transformed him to a foot soldier despite his medical conditions. He drafted in many of his prominent friends to make Barrys victory an outstanding one. Barry overturned a sizeable majority of the sitting Tory candidate Late Rt. Hon. Dr. Sir. Rhodes Boyson. Change of government in the UK gave the opportunity for furthering our political campaign work and Ivan played a key role in the number of parliamentary campaign meetings I organised. Our interactive work facilitated Barry to help get down the critically ill LTTEs Anton Balasingam to the UK from Sri Lanka and that paved the way for the 22 February 2002 ceasefire agreement between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE. When I spoke to Ivan some six months ago, he expressed his painful feeling that the government of Sri Lanka will not do anything to settle the Tamil issue and that even in post war Sri Lanka, Tamils will be systematically marginalised. He was also saddened by the divisive politics of the Tamils groups in the UK. Being a Catholic, he was so liberal minded that he respected the other religions. His involvement with Fr Jegath Gaspar to produce the Thiruvasagam in Symphony speaks volumes of his liberal way of life. The Hindu temple Eelapatheeswarar Aalayam I founded and represent made significant financial contribution for the project. Ivan has played an important role to raise the funds needed for the project. The recording of the symphony was planned to be released with big glitz in London. Sadly, downright greed of the conductor-arranger and Lyricist Isaignani Ilayarajah fouled the massive launch when he siphoned off under duress the funds sent to India for the production. Ilayarajah disregarded the formidable plans of the UK based funding committee and went on to release the recording privately with his despicable, selfish and cheap money making mind-set. At the meeting of the Thiruvasagam Symphony committee, there was expressions of empathic dejection from Ivan and Fr Gaspar and all were numbed to hear the fate of the glamorous project. Ivan also contributed to the Tamil Guardian I founded and overwhelmingly supported the broadsheet that was reaching all corners of the political spectrum. When I returned from my captivity of the LTTE from Vanni, Ivan was one of those who expressed his profound sadness with a deep sense of feeling. With my change of focus post captivity, my engagement with Ivan was occasional friendly chats. Ivan too faced the hate campaign of the gutter media portraying him as a LTTE front man. The infamous one man news inventing gutter Asian Tribune of K T Rajasingam operating from a hideout in Helsinki published provocative and contemptible news about Ivan that he was a LTTE member. In his response, Ivan assertively objected to the slander. Ivan was tolerant enough to accept the flimsy apology (http://asiantribune.com/node/10603) knowing very well the difficulties of hunting down the editor in the hideouts in a Scandinavian country to face libel charges in the UK courts. Though belated, I also wish to express my profound tribute to Ivans wife Indra who passed away peacefully on 22nd January 2020. The idiom: behind every great and successful man there stands a woman and Ivan was blessed with his warm-hearted wife in his perseverance of his forward march. I would have visited Ivan at least five times at his residence. Indra was always welcoming, would engage very passionately and we would have meaningful discussions. She excelled in the Tamil tradition of hospitality, entertaining guests with the noble Virunthombal. Her gesture was so heartily that we could not simply get away saying no to offer of food. When Indra picks up the phone,I always called her 'aunty' and her husband 'Ivan. She once jovially asked: Jayadevan why are you calling me aunty and him Ivan and do you think Ivan is a young person. I had to justify by saying: Aunty, I consider him my buddy to call him with his first name. A man with dreams needs a woman with vision and aunty Indra fittingly provided it to Ivan. Let: Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, And let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. They will be remembered and their voices will be echoing in my ears forever. The police refused, and then Arrington reentered the storage unit and closed its door on the officers, who tried to hold it open, Nevin said. After a scuffle, they managed to get one handcuff on him, at which point he flailed his body in a violent manner," Nevin said, and multiple officers suffered cuts. FILE This Monday, Jan. 27, 2020 file photo shows Equal Rights Amendment supporter Donna Granski, right, from Midlothian Va., cheering the passage of the House ERA Resolution in the Senate chambers at the Capitol in Richmond, Va. The resolution passed 27-12. In a state once synonymous with the Old South, Democrats are using their newfound legislative control to refashion Virginia as the region's progressive leader on racial, social, and economic issues. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) Read more My all-time favorite Mothers Save the Day story is perfect for 2020, the 100th anniversary of American womens voting rights. I wont say it proves mothers are right but does illustrate how little-known women have influenced the course of history. The year was 1920. Harry Burn was 24 and serving his first term in the Tennessee legislature. A political conservative, he wore a red rose on his lapel to signal opposition to womens voting rights. Harrys mother, Febb Ensminger Burn, sided with those who wore yellow roses, in solidarity with the suffragists. Tennessees legislature was about to vote on ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as the 36th and last state needed for passage. The House seemed deadlocked in a tie. The morning of the crucial vote, Harry received a note from mom. Be a good boy, Febb wrote, and vote for suffrage! Harry was a good boy. And the rest is history. Stories in which mothers and women without children save the day abound in history, and new stories are being written daily during the COVID-19 crisis. Two themes many of these stories have in common speak to the overarching narrative of progress toward womens equality. Theme 1: Times of crisis can be times of opportunity for women. Having our world turned upside down tends to shake out widely held beliefs about what is normal. The most recent prior pandemic the Spanish flu of 1918 came during World War I, when the military drew more than four million American men out of the workforce. In one year, the flu killed 675,000 Americans and 53,402 died in combat. The massive death toll caused a labor shortage in male-dominated industries. Women stepped in as workers and leaders. Their willingness and ability to do mens work ultimately shifted public opinion enough to get the 19th Amendment ratified. A similar economic jolt came during World War II. Rosie the Riveter had more than 19 million sisters in the civilian labor force. Many struggled with both workplace discrimination and sole child care responsibility. Yet the experience emboldened more women and men to believe the fairer sex deserved to be treated fairly in employment, pay, and benefits. Theme 2: Times of crisis can be times of hardship for women. COVID-19 has caused a public health crisis as well as unprecedented disruption of Americas society and economy. In the media every day are stories of mothers saving the day as health-care heroes, as teachers leading remote classrooms, and as working parents coping with children cooped up 24/7. Meanwhile, the economic hardships are hitting women hardest. Women are the primary workers in 18 of the 25 lowest paid jobs jobs with meager benefits, if any. Lower-income workers have suffered the most job losses, and women have filed 60% of the initial unemployment claims. Yes, women have made progress in 100 years. But gender equality is an unfinished business. In 2009, when I launched Vision 2020, the national womens equality coalition headquartered at Drexel University, I believed this year could be a tipping point. It still can be, despite the pandemic having delayed until Aug. 26 National Womens Equality Day the start of Vision 2020s Women 100 programs and events celebrating American women and setting the agenda to achieve full equality. 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. A major goal of Women 100 is to break the record for women voting in the 2020 national election. Anyone can join the nonpartisan effort at Vision2020Votes.org. If we are successful, and more women than ever vote on Nov. 3, that will become my new all-time favorite mothers save the day story. Lynn H. Yeakel is the president of Vision 2020 and director of the Institute for Womens Health and Leadership at Drexel Universitys College of Medicine. She was a U.S. Senate candidate, a founder of Womens Way, and the Mid-Atlantic regional director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A recruiter has listed the three biggest mistakes job candidates make on social media that could cost them a career. Eliza Kirkby, the regional director of Sydney's recruitment company Hays, said many people are very cautious of what they say online but they don't realise 'when' they are posting. She told Seek employers are looking increasingly at the timing of social media postings to see exactly how productive a jobseeker is. Ms Kirkby said she has seen hiring managers reject seemingly good candidates simply because they spend too much time on social media during work hours. 'The employer might have a question mark around their focus,' she said. A recruiter has listed the three biggest mistakes job candidates make on social media that could cost them a career (stock image) The 10 resume mistakes that could cost you a job: 1. Spelling and grammatical errors 2. Incorrect or missing contact information 3. Using an unprofessional email address 4. Including outdated or irrelevant information 5. Failure to demonstrate and quantify results 6. Annoying buzzwords or obvious keyword stuffing 7. Not customising your resume to match the job listing itself 8. Including a headshot 9. Repeating words in multiple job descriptions 10. The design of the resume is too elaborate or decorative Advertisement She said she's seeing an increasing number of candidates being removed from shortlists because of the discrepancies that show up on their social media accounts. Latest examples include jobseekers covering up gaps or short contracts in their resume or their job applications don't add up to what they say on social media. Another red flag job candidates make is posting inappropriate and unprofessional remarks about another organisation on social media. Ms Kirkby said one candidate had a marketing director role offer withdrawn after the employer discovered she had made scathing posts containing offensive words on her social media profile after receiving poor service from an organisation. Along with her rant, she also shared screenshots of the conversation exchange publicly. 'This raised legal and privacy issues and the organisation (that had offered the job) was alarmed about the appropriateness of that candidate's communication,' Ms Kirkby said. She urged jobseekers to go back and delete any postings or photos on their personal timeline or public groups they're concerned about before applying for jobs. It might seem straightforward but Ms Kirkby said you should keep your private profiles private and connect with your colleagues and business associates on a professional social media account. She said another thing to do is Google yourself to see if you've missed anything and always share positive postings that market you as someone who is going places. 'Everything you do can have an impact on that overall brand,' she said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 09:09:07|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland reported two new imported cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Saturday, bringing the total number of imported cases to 1,683, the National Health Commission said Sunday. The new cases were reported in Shanghai, the commission said. Of the total imported cases, 1,568 had been discharged from hospitals after recovery, and 115 remained hospitalized with three in severe conditions, the commission said. No deaths had been reported from the imported cases. Enditem Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, says the Covid-19 crisis is the greatest global test since the Second World War, and we are far from through it yet. It might take another year before it passes, but already we can see that Britain is towards the bottom of the international rankings when it comes to managing fatalities from the first wave of infections. The methods we have used to fight the virus have been ancient, based on shutting ourselves away, even though such medieval practices are ruinous for todays global economy. The past few weeks have seen a strange return deep into the historic past as we experience for ourselves how pandemics were tackled across much of the world, including Britain Weve never bothered to come up with anything better, largely because global pandemics of this severity are so rare in countries such as ours. Now we know that has to change and quickly. The good news is that we already have enough technology and know-how to live near-normal lives alongside Covid-19 without the need for the destructive lockdowns we see in much of Europe. These methods could help secure the world economy in case of future outbreaks of this and other devastating infections. We should embrace them immediately. The past few weeks have seen a strange return deep into the historic past as we experience for ourselves how pandemics were tackled across much of the world, including Britain. Containment isolating those who are ill and infectious is the oldest known response to mass infection, dating back thousands of years. The per capita Covid-19 death rate in Germany is a quarter of that published in the UK. If German procedures had been followed, the UK would have saved thousands of lives. NHS workers are pictured above in Liverpool Then there is quarantine, under which new arrivals are confined for a period to see if they are harbouring infection. In 1448, the Venetian Senate began demanding that all foreign ships wait quaranta giorni, meaning 40 days, before being allowed to land. This enforced delay was based on astute observation. The bubonic plague had a 37-day period from infection to death. Many countries have put all new arrivals into quarantine, and it seems certain that by the end of the month, this will include arrivals to Britain. Then there is the ancient art of social distancing. In January 1630, with the arrival of the plague from Lombardy, the public health agency of Florence ordered citizens to be shut in their homes for 40 days while schools, taverns, gambling dens and barbers shops were closed and ball games forbidden. Florence was more generous than 2020 England. To nourish the poor, each of the 30,000 Florentine households received a daily consignment of two loaves of bread, a pint of wine, meat four days a week, salads, rice and cheese, along with firewood. Those caught breaking the regulations were fined or imprisoned. One in eight Florentines died in the plague, but that was far better than in other northern Italian cities where such social distancing was not practised. Verona lost more than 60 per cent of its population. Finally, there is protective sequestration. Those who are most at risk, or those who have the money, completely isolate themselves. In the 1665 plague, those who could afford it left London for their country estates much as we have seen with Covid-19. Yet technology has completely transformed how we live and work during social distancing and should allow us to move beyond these medieval suspensions of normal life. It might take another year before it passes, but already we can see that Britain is towards the bottom of the international rankings when it comes to managing fatalities from the first wave of infections. Ambulance crew wearing protective gear are pictured above in Portsmouth From Zoom to Netflix, we have capabilities that did not exist even 20 years ago and pandemic risk management, too, is being brought into the 21st Century. In part, we can thank the experience gained from recent epidemics in the Far East, particularly SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which came out of western China at the end of 2002 and spread to neighbouring countries. A coronavirus like Covid-19, it had a terrifying fatality rate of 14 per cent. Fighting SARs taught the countries of Asia some critical lessons, and procedures were further sharpened when South Korea was hit by an even deadlier coronavirus called MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) in 2015. So when Covid-19, a close cousin of SARS, emerged in Wuhan in November 2019, some countries were already well prepared. Taiwan, for example, reinstalled its active surveillance and screening systems including passenger thermal imaging systems at all airports and ports. The national health insurance database was integrated with the immigration and customs database, including records of passengers previous two weeks of travel, and the system was extended to foreign visitors. Those who had been in high-risk areas were quarantined and kept in place through geofencing which is to say their movements were monitored through government-issued mobile phones. The number of new daily cases in Taiwan rose to 27, on March 20, and was then driven right down again. Technology-supported epidemic management was also implemented in South Korea. From the beginning of February, the government signed contracts with leading biotech companies to develop testing capabilities. By the third week in March, 100 labs were carrying out 20,000 tests every day. South Korea also pioneered drive-through and walk-through test centres. In February, new daily cases rose to almost a thousand, but still the public health agencies carried on case tracing and succeeded in bringing the numbers right down to close to zero. South Korea provides a good example of how to manage the virus without destroying the economy, in what is called everyday life quarantine. Most of everyday life is back: from work, to restaurants and even to sporting occasions and theatre, but all with added social distancing. Every business, school and social group has a quarantine manager. Meanwhile the technology-enabled contact tracing and testing continues, chasing down every new case back to quarantine its source. China has also been successful at suppressing infections and is now bringing back the economy, with tough measures such as facial recognition and thermal cameras on the streets to identify people who should be in isolation. We must accept the use of smartphone technology for reporting contacts and thermal imaging cameras in public places, and we must embrace big data. Social distancing has to be embedded into normal life. A thermal imaging camera is pictured above in Chile It seems that none of our Governments scientific advisers had first-hand experience of managing the 2003 SARS outbreak, or of learning from those countries and cities that were in the SARS front line. There was no early investment in ramping up testing capacity. Contact tracing, which initially seemed quite successful, was abandoned in mid-March as the number of daily cases rose into the hundreds. Quarantine was imposed in the UK on some groups, such as those rescued from Wuhan or repatriated from cruise liners, but was never applied where it was most needed, to those returning from the infectious Italian ski resorts or Spanish cities, for example. The European country that did set out to learn from the Asian experience of SARS was Germany, where virologists developed a test for Covid-19 in mid-January. Before the main wave of infections began in Germany, they had spent money ramping up testing capability so that contact tracing, quarantine and containment could be sustained through the peak of infections. In the week of March 16 when the director of the WHO instructed nations to test, test, test, there were 170 labs in Germany performing more than 15,000 tests a day ten times the total in the UK, where we chose to delay testing for three weeks to develop our own tests rather than acquire German kits. Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, says the Covid-19 crisis is the greatest global test since the Second World War, and we are far from through it yet What did that mean for death rates? The per capita Covid-19 death rate in Germany is a quarter of that published in the UK. If German procedures had been followed, the UK would have saved thousands of lives. We came into the pandemic completely unprepared. The Government had planned for a severe new strain of influenza, not a coronavirus. We then unwrapped ancient methods of managing the infection rather than learning from countries with recent experience of SARS. The result has been ruinous. From now on, we must face reality and we must be practical. We must accept the use of smartphone technology for reporting contacts and thermal imaging cameras in public places, and we must embrace big data. Social distancing has to be embedded into normal life. We already have mathematical models showing how opening up different business and social activities will change the rate of infection. We should use them. In all humility, we should learn from those countries that have performed far better. We have a stark choice: to give up some personal freedoms over contact tracing, facial recognition and surveillance, or lay ourselves open to further lockdowns and economic destitution. GRAND RAPIDS, MI Celebrate the mother in your life with a Mothers Day performance from the Grand Rapids Symphony, all from the comfort of your home. The orchestra has created a virtual performance of the 18th variation from Sergei Rachmaninovs Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in time for this Mothers Day. The performance is led by Music Director Marcelo Lehninger and features his mother, pianist Sonia Goulart, as piano soloist along with some 50 musicians of the Grand Rapids Symphony. The virtual performance spans the globe, as Goulart joins the symphony virtually from her home in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is the love song from Somewhere in Time, a movie from 1980 filmed on Michigans Mackinac Island. The movie is a favorite of Lehninger, who has completed four seasons with the Grand Rapids Symphony. Its a movie I love, Lehninger said. I love Rachmaninov, and this piece for the piano is one of my favorites. Its beautiful, its melodic, its romantic, and people recognize it. Its a message of love for all the mothers out there." RELATED: Mothers Day advice from woman who lost mom to coronavirus: You can love from afar The virtual performance is part of a series from the Grand Rapids Symphony called From Our Home to Yours, which includes 39 videos of different performances that have been posted to the orchestras YouTube account. In challenging times, we need music more than ever, Lehninger said. Its our mission to keep delivering music anyway we can, so we need to come up with creative ways to keep delivering music. The Grand Rapids Symphony closed its offices March 16 and canceled all events through May 16. The symphony launched a fundraising campaign in March to maintain operations, which has since raised more than $100,000, according to the release. During this extraordinary time, your Grand Rapids Symphony continues to innovate and create new means of sharing the joy of music while also charting new paths for financial support and sustainability, said President and CEO Mary Tuuk in a released statement. Rather than viewing it as an obstacle, we choose to embrace this bridge period into our new future and fully capture the opportunities that abound to deliver on our mission during this unprecedented time. More on MLive: Grand Rapids teacher gets call from first lady on National Teacher Day West Michigans Teacher of the Year educates students in Kent County Mothers Day advice from woman who lost mom to coronavirus: You can love from afar We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. - Judy Ann Santos recently participated in the online protest about the closure of ABS-CBN - She willingly aired her honest thoughts about the fate of the Kapamilya network - The veteran actress also appealed to the government regarding what happened - Judy Ann said that ABS-CBN and its artists are not the enemies of this administration PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Judy Ann Santos recently aired an important message for the government amid the heavy issue that ABS-CBN is currently facing. KAMI learned that the veteran actress caught the attention of many people because of her appeal after the giant network was ordered to stop its broadcast operations. The celebrity initially stated that she also has an opinion about the issue. She bravely asked what happened to the process and why the franchise was not approved. PAY ATTENTION: Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news! She also cried foul over the timing of the controversial shutdown since the country is facing one of the toughest health crises ever. Judy Ann then appealed to the government to face the real enemy and she also pointed out that everyone must be united in times of a pandemic. Ang bawat isang tao, may kanya-kanyang opinyon sa nangyari... Bilang Pilipino na nagbabayad ng buwis, bilang isang ina, anak, asawa at Kapamilya, katulad po ninyo, may opinyon po ako sa nangyari sa ABS-CBN she quipped. Harapin po natin ang tunay na kalaban, hindi po kami ang kalaban, hindi po ninyo kalaban ang ABS-CBN, sa panahong ito, tayong lahat dapat ay magkakampi, she added. In a previous article by , netizens were stunned after seeing a childhood photo of Judy Ann. Judy Ann Santos is one of the most seasoned and acclaimed actresses in the Philippines. She already starred in many teleseryes including Mara Clara and Bastat Kasama Kita. POPULAR: Read more news about Judy Ann Santos! Please like and share our Facebook posts to support KAMI team! Dont hesitate to comment and share your opinion about our stories either. We love reading about your thoughts! Filipino nurse: "We actually don't want to become heroes Si Kimberly ay isang nurse sa Bacolod, isa siya sa mga frontliners na binubuwis ang buhay araw-araw. Narito ang kanyang masasabi sa nararamdaman ng mga frontliners tulad niya. on HumanMeter! Source: KAMI.com.gh Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 16:05:19|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- China FAW Group Co., a state-owned automaker based in northeast China's Jilin Province, is recalling 45,406 automobiles over spark plug defects. The recall, which will start on July 15 this year, affects the Besturn B30 cars manufactured between Sept. 18, 2015 and Nov. 27, 2016, according to a statement from the State Administration for Market Regulation. Due to a poor match between the spark plug and ignition system, key components of the ignition system may not work normally, which can lead to vehicle vibration, engine misfire, and an inability to start the vehicle, the administration said. In extreme cases, the engine may stall while the vehicle is running, posing safety hazards. The company will replace the defective parts or offer a fix to the problem free of charge. Enditem The cyber wing of the Maharashtra Police has registered 366 cases for allegedly spreading rumours, misinformation and fake social media ever since the lockdown came into force, an official said on Sunday. These cases have been registered till Saturday, the official said. "The cases were recorded after some anti-social elements spread false and rumours through their posts on social media platforms, including TikTok, Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter during the lockdown," an official of the Maharashtra Cyber said. The highest number of such cases were registered in Beed at 35, followed by 29 in Pune Rural, 26 in Jalgaon and 21 in Mumbai, official added. "In Chandrapur district, four cases were registered as the accused tried to disturb the communal harmony through their posts on Facebook," he added. During the probe, the cyber department found that 155 cases were related to WhatsApp posts, 143 Facebook posts, 16 about TikTok videos, six about Twitter posts, four others about Instagram posts, among others. The police have urged the people, especially senior citizens, not to share their bank details with anyone while buying anything online. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The records do not mention Skadden. In his filings, Mr. Vlasenko characterized the money as foreign income. Ms. Tymoshenko described it in a filing this month as compensation for the damage caused by the political repression of 2011-2014, which was received in the United States at the stage of precourt settlement. The payments come after Skadden paid $4.6 million last year to settle an investigation by the Justice Department into whether its work for the Yanukovych government violated foreign lobbying laws. The firm subsequently revealed in filings with the Justice Department that it had been paid a total of more than $5.2 million for its work, with $4.15 million coming from a Ukrainian oligarch and his American lobbyist, and $1.1 million coming from the Ukrainian Justice Ministry. As scrutiny of the work mounted in 2017, Skadden returned $567,000 to the Ukrainian government, The Times revealed. One of the lawyers who assisted with the report, Alex van der Zwaan, admitted to lying to federal investigators that year about his communications related to the firms work for Mr. Yanukovychs government. The lead Skadden lawyer on the Ukraine account, Gregory B. Craig, a former White House counsel for President Barack Obama, was acquitted last year of a felony charge that he lied to federal authorities about the work. And Paul Manafort who served as Mr. Yanukovychs political consultant and recruited Mr. Craig and Skadden to work on the account is serving seven and a half years in prison for financial and lobbying violations related to his work for Mr. Yanukovych. The investigations of Skadden, Mr. Manafort and Mr. Craig were prompted by the special counsels investigation into interference in the 2016 election by Russia, and whether the country colluded with Donald J. Trumps presidential campaign. Mr. Manafort had served as the chairman of the Trump campaign. While Skaddens involvement with Mr. Manafort and the Russia-aligned government of Mr. Yanukovych predated the Trump campaign, the scrutiny made Skadden a poster child for the Justice Departments crackdown on the type of lucrative, but shadowy, foreign work that had become a profit center for politically connected lawyers and consultants across Washington. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 20:31:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TEHRAN, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has plans to launch satellites into a geosynchronous equatorial orbit (GEO) 36,000 km above the earth, IRGC's Aerospace Force Space Division announced on Sunday. Brigadier General Ali Jafarabadi pointed to the IRGC's recent "successful" launch of the homegrown Noor 1 satellite into space, saying that it plans to reach higher orbits in coming years, according to Tasnim news agency. The GEO is very significant and strategic, since the telecommunication and television satellites are placed in this orbit, Jafarabadi was quoted as saying. The launch of satellite into the geosynchronous equatorial orbit has economic benefits for the country and would also protect Iran's space assets, he added. On April 22, the IRGC announced the launch of country's first military satellite Noor 1 into space by the satellite carrier Qased (messenger) from the central desert region of the country. It said that the satellite "successfully" reached the 425 km orbit above the earth. Enditem Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear speaks during a news conference at the state's Emergency Operations Center at the Boone National Guard Center in Frankfort, Ky., about the coronavirus situation, on May 3, 2020. (Ryan C. Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader via AP) Court Halts Ban on Kentucky Church Gatherings FRANKFORT, KentuckyA federal court halted the Kentucky governors temporary ban on mass gatherings from applying to in-person religious services, clearing the way for Sunday church services. U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove on Friday issued a temporary restraining order enjoining Gov. Andy Beshears administration from enforcing the ban on mass gatherings at any in-person religious service which adheres to applicable social distancing and hygiene guidelines. The ruling from the Eastern District of Kentucky sided with the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Nicholasville, but applies to all places of worship around the commonwealth. Two other federal judges, including U.S. District Judge David Hale, had previously ruled the ban was constitutional. But also on Friday, Hale, of Kentuckys western district, granted Maryville Baptist Church an injunction allowing in-person services at that specific church, provided it abide by public health requirements. Exceptions to the Democratic governors shutdown order include trips to the grocery store, bank, pharmacy, and hardware store. Beshear had previously announced that places of worship in Kentucky will be able to once again hold in-person services starting May 20, as part of a broader plan to gradually reopen the states economy. Earlier Friday, he outlined requirements for places of worship to reopen, including limiting attendance at in-person services to 33 percent of building occupancy capacity and maintaining 6 feet of distance between household units. Beshear acknowledged the court order at a Saturday news conference, saying that his safety guidelines for places of worship would now go into effect immediately. He urged churches to follow the requirements if they choose to hold services or postpone gatherings if they cannot. What Id ask is that people take your time, he said. You dont want your house of worship to be a place where the coronavirus is spread. The federal judges order in the Tabernacle Baptist Church case said Beshear had an honest motive in wanting to safeguard Kentuckians health and lives, but didnt provide a compelling reason for using his authority to limit a citizens right to freely exercise something we value greatlythe right of every American to follow their conscience on matters related to religion. Tabernacle had broadcast services on Facebook and held drive-in services, but the substitutes offered cold comfort, according to the opinion. The opinion went on to say that Tabernacle alleged irreparable injury and was likely to succeed on the merits of its federal constitutional claim, as the defendants didnt dispute the challenged orders place a burden on the free exercise of religion in Kentucky. The Constitution will endure. It would be easy to put it on the shelf in times like this, to be pulled down and dusted off when more convenient, Van Tatenhoves opinion read. But that is not our tradition. Its enduring quality requires that it be respected even when it is hard. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear walks to the podium during a media conference at the states Emergency Operations Center at the Boone National Guard Center in Frankfort, Ky., to provide an update on the novel coronavirus on May 3, 2020. (Ryan C. Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader via AP) His opinion says Kentuckys attorney general urged the court to apply the injunction statewide, and since the executive order challenged didnt solely apply to Tabernacle, the injunction granted would also have a similar scope. Both rulings affirm that the law prohibits the government from treating houses of worship differently than secular activities during this pandemic, Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a Republican, said in a statement late Friday. A three-judge federal appeal court panel had last week cleared the way for Maryville Baptist Church to hold drive-in worship services while adhering to public health requirements, an alternative that Beshear has strongly encouraged throughout the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus pandemic. But that panel had stopped short of applying its order to in-person worship services. Maryville had defied Beshears order for houses of worship to not hold in-person services amid the COVID-19 outbreak. At least 50 people attended its Easter service at the church, and the church has held other services since. In response, the governor said Kentucky State Police troopers would record license plates and place notices on vehicles telling Easter service attendees they would have to self-quarantine. Maryville had turned to the appeals court after Hale had initially refused to stop Beshears order from applying to religious services, saying it bans all mass gatherings and thus does not discriminate against religion. In his order Friday, Hale said the governor failed to prove there was no less restrictive alternative to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 and failed to address the appeals courts suggestion to limit the number of people who could attend services. He said that the burden of proof was on the governor and Maryville Baptist Church would likely succeed on the merits of their claim under the Kentucky Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Epoch Times staff contributed to this report. From January 1 to March 31, 2020, the same time that the Newsom Administration approved 1,623 new permits, the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), the largest and most powerful corporate lobby in California, spent $1,089,702 lobbying state officials during the period. Chevron spent even more: $1,638,497 in the fifth quarter of the 2019-20 legislation session to influence legislators, the Governors Office and other state officials. The two oil industry giants combined to spend a total of $2,728,199 lobbying in the sessions fifth quarter. Los Angeles As the price of oil plunged to below zero and dozens of oil tankers carrying over 20 million barrels of oil idled off the California coast, new oil and gas drilling permits actually increased 7.8 percent under Governor Gavin Newsom during the first quarter of 2020 through April 4 as compared to the first quarter of 2019, according to a report issued by two watchdog groups on May 7.Consumer Watchdog and FrackTrackerAlliance reported that the Newsom Administration issued 1,623 permits during the first quarter of the year. The California Department of Conservation on April 3 also approved 24 new fracking permits in Kern County during the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic and after a nearly six-month moratorium on new fracking operations.The number of oil and gas permits issued under Newsom since he took office in January 2019 now comes to a total of 6,168, the groups stated. The permit numbers and locations are posted and updated on an interactive map at the website: NewsomWellWatch.comThis is terrible news during an unprecedented pandemic, said Liza Tucker, Consumer Advocate for Consumer Watchdog. Now that scientists have established a correlation between air pollution caused by the production and combustion of fossil fuels and greater susceptibility to death from Covid-19, issuing zero permits would have been the right thing to do.On top of that, experts tell us that Californians could be liable for $9 billion in cleanup costs for existing oil and gas wells that are or will be eventually abandoned, so we should not be greenlighting even more wells, she stated.Tucker noted that the California Geologic Energy Management Division, a branch of the Department of Conservation, issues two main categories of permits: permits to drill new oil and gas wells and permits to rework existing wells. Permits are issued for different types of well activities, including Enhanced Oil Recovery Wells (EOR) that use cyclic steaming and water flooding to dislodge oil.Permits for drilling new wells rose 27.2%, while permits for reworking existing wells fell 13.4% in a sign that oil companies are literally scraping the barrel, according to Tucker.Approximately 10% of permits issued during the first quarter of 2020 have been issued within 2,500 feet of homes, hospitals, schools, daycares or nursing facilities. This compares to 12.2 percent for all of 2019, according to the organizations.Unlike many other oil and gas producing states including Texas, Colorado and Pennsylvania, California currently has no health and safety zones around oil and gas drilling operations. For example, the state of Texas requires that fracking operations maintain 250 foot setbacks from homes, schools and other facilities while the City of Dallas mandates 1500 foot setbacks around oil and gas wells.Regardless of where oil and gas wells and stimulations are permitted, near or close to Frontline Communities, these wells all degrade the regional air quality of the San Joaquin Valley, said Kyle Ferrar, Western Program Coordinator for FracTracker. The San Joaquin Valley has some of the worst air quality in the country.In addition to Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) being both air toxics and carcinogens that negatively impact frontline communities, these pollutants are precursors to the regional ozone and smog pollution that causes health impacts such as asthma, COPD, cardiovascular disease, and negative birth outcomes, said Ferrar.According to the U.S. EPA, oil and gas production is a main contributor of VOCs and smog-forming nitrogen oxides in the San Joaquin Valley. Beyond the Valley, the American Lung Association in its annual State of the Air report gave 62% of Californias 58 counties Ds" and Fs" for air quality. See: http://www.stateoftheair.org California, while often touted by state and national politicians as the nations green leader, topped the list of the nations most polluted cities in three categories ozone pollution, year-round particle pollution and short-term particle pollution.Los Angeles remains the city with the worst ozone pollution in the nation, as it has for 20 years of the 21-year history of the report. Bakersfield, CA, returned to the most polluted slot for year-round particle pollution, while Fresno-Madera-Hanford, CA, returned to its rank as the city with the worst short-term particle pollution, the report found.The number of permits issued under Newsom in 2019 reached virtually the same level as the number issued in 2018 under Governor Jerry Brown during his last year in officeeven though Newsom fired state Oil & Gas Supervisor Ken Harris last July, according to the report.In July 2019, the two groups revealed that eight oil regulators were invested up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in oil companies they regulated, permits for new production wells had risen by a runaway 77% over the first six months of the year before and fracking permits had doubled, even though Newsom campaigned on a platform of support for banning the practice.Newsom was angered to hear about the increase in fracking permits saying he was not aware of it and then placed a moratorium on fracking permits pending an independent third-party review by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory while the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) investigated the regulators.Then on April 3, the California Geologic Energy Management Division (Cal-GEM), formerly DOGGR, issued 24 fracking permits to Aera Energy, formed in June 1997 and jointly owned by affiliates of Shell and ExxonMobil. The Well Stimulation National Laboratory Scientific Review document is available at http://www.conservation.ca.gov/ The Lawrence Livermore Laboratory is now reviewing another 282 fracking permits, but fracking opponents are not optimistic about the outcome. The lab was hired to confirm that the permits met state regulatory standards, which have a low bar and virtually no thorough environmental review, said Tucker.CalGEM issued the following response to Consumer Watchdog and Fractracker Alliances report, stating that a simple total of permits doesnt reflect actual oil production trends and that most of the well permits issued by CalGEM were for plugging and abandonment:We are not aware of the source or methodology for Consumer Watchdogs numbers. However, a simple total of permits issued doesnt reflect actual oil production trends. That is because not all permits issued are for new drilling. During the timeframe Consumer Watchdog tracked, the majority of well permits issued by CalGEM were for plugging and abandonment (which is to permanently seal a well) nearly a 2:1 ratio. Only in the month of March, 2020 did that ratio not apply. That was due to the court ruling in Kern County that set a March 25 deadline for permit applications under the existing rules."CalGEM also disagrees with the groups contention that the state regulatory standards for issuing fracking permits have a low bar:"The recent 24 well stimulation permits is the lowest number issued in a calendar year since the implementation of SB4. Those permits were issued under the strictest of standards and after an independent scientific assessment by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to ensure they comply with California law, including the states technical standards to protect public health, safety, and environmental protection. LLNL also evaluated the completeness of operators application materials and CalGEMs geotechnical analyses.The independent scientific review is one of Governor Newsoms initiatives to ensure oil and gas regulations protect public health, safety, and the environment. This review, which assesses the completeness of each proposed hydraulic fracturing permit, is taking place as an interim measure while a broader audit is conducted of CalGEMs permitting process for well stimulation. That audit is being conducted by the Department of Finance Office of Audits and Evaluation (OSAE) and will be completed and shared publicly later this year."More details on the findings of LLNLs scientific review to date can be found on CalGEMs website: https://conservation.ca.gov/calgem/Pages/Well-Stim-National-Lab-Scientific-Review.aspx Although Governor Jerry Browns enthusiasm for the expansion of oil and gas drilling is quite understandable, since he received over $9.8 million from oil companies, gas corporations and utilities during his administration, Newsom signed a pledge to not take oil money contributions during his gubernatorial campaign.The rationale for Newsom continuing Browns oil well expansion is somewhat puzzling; some political insiders believe that he may be considering a presidential run and may not want to alienate the oil companies as potential campaign donors at this time.What is even more puzzling is why would oil companies be in a position to drill for oil during the midst of the coronavirus crisis when there is no economic incentive while U.S. prices go into the toilet and dozens of oil tankers, with nowhere to go because of oil price collapse, are idling off the California coast?Oil prices fell in half in 2014 and oil companies couldn't cover the costs of their fracking operations, so they borrowed like crazy and burned through their money. As a result, there are going to be hundreds of oil company bankruptcies and no reason to frack at this time.Oil companies have been financially stressed for years, said Tucker. Fracking is a losing proposition losing money for oil companies. In a financial crunch, the oil companies are burning through cash and have borrowed billions that are coming due. They are in a fix: investors wont necessarily invest if they keep producing oil, but they also wont invest if the oil companies stop producing oil.She said there is no reason for the Newsom Administration to issue new permits including fracking permits when the oil prices have fallen through the floor and health experts have connected the combustion of oil and gas and chronic exposure to air pollution to a greater risk of contracting and dying from COVID 19.Oil industry leaders acknowledge the dire straits the industry is in at this time: http://www.nytimes.com/ ...You cant produce it, you cant refine it and you cant sell it, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum Association, and former Chair of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create marine protected areas in Southern California, told the New York Times on April 28. That aint a good situation to be in.One thing, though, is certain: the oil industry usually gets what what it wants in California. From January 1 to March 31, 2020, the same time that the Newsom Administration approved 1,623 new permits, the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), the largest and most powerful corporate lobby in California, spent $1,089,702 lobbying state officials during the period.Chevron spent even more: $1,638,497 in the fifth quarter of the 2019-20 legislation session to influence legislators, the Governors Office and other state officials. The two oil industry giants combined to spend a total of $2,728,199 lobbying in the sessions fifth quarter.Other big spenders on lobbying in the first quarter of 2020 include Aera Energy, formed in June 1997 and jointly owned by affiliates of Shell and ExxonMobil, with $290,826, and the California Resources Corporation, formerly Occidental Petroleum, with $213,489.WSPA pumped more money into lobbying than any other organization in California last year, spending a total of $8.8 million, while the San Ramon-based Chevron pumped the third most money into lobbying, a total of $5.9 million. The lobbying expenses of the two oil industry giants came to a total of $14.7 million.You can expect the lobbying spending by WSPA, Chevron and the oil industry to amp up now that the California Legislature is back in session.In 2019, California regulators issued 4,545 oil and gas drilling permits, apparently due to the massive lobbying spending by the Western States Petroleum Association, Chevron and other oil industry lobbyists to continue Governor Jerry Browns expansion of oil and gas drilling after Newsom became governor in January 2019.Spending by WSPA, Chevron and other oil companies was also successful last year in preventing the Legislature from approving Assemblymember Al Muratsuchis AB 345, a bill to ensure that new oil and gas wells not on federal land are located 2,500 feet away from homes, schools, hospitals, playgrounds and health clinics. Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez made it into a two-old bill after pulling the bill from the Assembly Appropriations Committee that she chairs last May 16.However, despite the flurry of oil industry spending on AB 345 and other bills last year, the bill made considerable progress this year in the Legislature before they went into recess because of the COVID-19 Pandemic, passing the Assembly Floor by a vote 42 to 30 on January 27.AB 345 is currently in the Senate. The bill has been read for the first time and has gone on to the Committee on Revenue & Taxation (RLS) for assignment. You can bet that the oil industry will do everything they can from stopping this bill from making it to the Governors Desk.WSPA and Big Oil wield their power in 6 major ways: through (1) lobbying; (2) campaign spending; (3) serving on and putting shills on regulatory panels; (4) creating Astroturf groups: (5) working in collaboration with media; and (6) contributing to non profit organizations. For more information, read: http://www.counterpunch.org/ ... Mumbai, May 10 : In an unique initiative, a Canadian and a Spanish student, both of Chinese origin, on Saturday cycled 100 kms in Singapore to raise funds for migrants 4,000 kms away in Mumbai's Govandi suburb, an associate said here on Sunday. The fund-raiser by Canadian Daren Xiao, 30 and Spanish national Ke Xu Zhou, 29 - helped collect nearly (Singaporean) $1,700 at last count at 7 p.m. on Sunday. Both the students at the INSEAD Business School in Singapore hope to achieve their target of $7,000 by May 15. "Daren and Zhou completed the gruelling 100 kms cyclothon in Singapore to mark her (Daren's) birthday yesterday, May 9. They will continue to raise funds online (http://gf.me/u/xz3xva) for seven days," Feeding From Far (FFF) initiative co-founder Paritosh Pant, 28, told IANS in Mumbai. In early April at the height of lockdown, FFF started as a small community kitchen project in Baiganwadi slum area of Govandi. In the past nearly six weeks since launch, it has dished out more than 400,000 meals to hungry and jobless migrants during the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown. "The proposal was broached quite casually along with my friend and Adv. Pooja Reddy and we co-founded the FFF. People started helping us out and in the initial few days we got generous support from the legal fraternity of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, in the form of large individual donations to enable us kick-start the service," said Pant, a graduate of the country's premier catering institute, IHM Mumbai. What was launched informally, has now turned into a serious care-giver for thousands of migrants trapped in the lockdown, as the FFF has collected funds of nearly Rs 1 crore from various quarters and it is comfortably placed to feed the migrants for the entire lockdown, he said. "Presently, we are serving around 14,000 meals daily - 7,000 lunches and 7,000 suppers to daily wage earners who have lost their livelihoods - through a team of volunteers in the area. We are taking full precautions and adhere to all Covid-19 protocols for this," Pant said. The FFF community kitchen has come up in the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)'s Al Mahdi School in Bainganwadi, Govandi. As word of FFF's work spread, several celebs like Vishal Dadlani, Abish Mathew, Monica Dogra, Tanmay Bhat, Saba Azad, Rega Jha, Harish Iyer and others also chipped in for the cause of the migrants. At one point, the Rotary Club of Bombay Powai also decided to associate with the humanitarian project and helped collect around Rs 50 lakh for the initiative, besides offers from others to join the initiative. (Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in) Australia's top doctor has slammed 'nonsense' conspiracy theories linking 5G technology to coronavirus, claiming there's 'absolutely no evidence' to support the outrageous claims. Those who believe ultra-fast mobile technology causes the deadly virus were among hundreds of protesters who rallied and clashed with police outside Parliament House in Melbourne on Sunday. Conspiracy theorists bearing signs with anti-5G messages joined anti-vaxxers and other Victorians furious with the state's strict lockdown measures. Ten people were arrested and one police officer was injured. Australian chief medical doctor Professor Brendan Murphy said the protest was the result of 'a lot of very silly misinformation'. Anti- 5G protesters were out in force in Melbourne on Sunday, despite Australian chief medical doctor Professor Brendan Murphy labelling theories linking 5G to coronavirus as nonsense 'There is absolutely no evidence about 5G doing anything in the coronavirus space,' Prof Murphy said in Canberra on Sunday. 'I have unfortunately received a lot of communication from these conspiracy theorists myself. It is complete nonsense. 5G has got nothing at all to do with coronavirus. 'Similarly, I understand people have the right to protest, but they should not be breaching those social distancing rules and if they are, they should be held to account.' Interest in ridiculous theories that the ultra-fast mobile technology causes coronavirus have swept across the globe during the pandemic, despite experts debunking the claims. Hundreds of protesters rallied in Melbourne on Sunday in a rally Professor Murphy described as described Sunday's protest in Melbourne the result of 'a lot of very silly misinformation'. There was a flood of interest when the 5G network was first rolled out Australia last May before being renewed when the pandemic hit Australia's shores earlier this year. It sparked angry scenes at Mullumbimby near Byron Bay in northern NSW last month when Telstra installed 5G upgrades despite a local council unanimously agreed not to support any upgrades that will facilitate 5G technology. Protester Dean Jeffreys told 7 News he feared electromagnetic radiation from 5G would affect his immunity. The upgrade was part of Telstra's plan to roll out 5G coverage to 35 Australian cities by the end of June. '5G has got nothing at all to do with coronavirus,' Australia's Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy (pictured) told reporters on Sunday Australian professor of medicine, and public health advocate John Dwyer recently described conspiracy claims that 5G causes the deadly virus as 'dangerous nonsense'. He also refuted claims 5G technology is harmful to our health. 'At this time in the fight against the epidemic, this is dangerous nonsense. Even to have a few people think differently that social distancing isn't for them is a silly idea and is putting all of us at risk,' he said. 'For some people, the idea of a conspiracy theory turns them on. Most of the time, it doesn't matter that much but in this particular case, it's dangerous.' Conspiracy theorists bearing signs with anti-5G messages joined hundreds of protesters outside Parliament House in Melbourne on Sunday New Zealand reported two new confirmed cases of COVID-19 overnight as the country is preparing for a possible downgrade of COVID-19 Alert Level, the Ministry of Health said on Sunday, Trend reports citing Xinhua. One case is a household contact of an earlier case linked to an Auckland aged care facility, where there was a cluster outbreak. The second case is a person who travelled back from overseas. "Today's two cases remind us that COVID-19 is a tricky virus and it will keep exploiting any opportunity to infiltrate our communities," said the Ministry of Health in a statement. The combined total of confirmed and probable cases in New Zealand is 1,494, including 1,144 confirmed cases. Currently, there are 1,371 people being recovered from COVID-19, while only two people are in hospital, reported the Ministry of Health. There are 16 significant COVID-19 clusters across New Zealand. However, four of the clusters are considered as closed. Altogether 7,287 tests were completed on Saturday, with a combined total to date of 190,326 tests in the country. New Zealand is now at COVID-19 Alert Level 3. Although the country is preparing for a possible move to Alert Level 2, people are urged to follow the rules for Alert Level 3. "Slackening off now only gives COVID-19 unnecessary opportunities to re-establish itself in New Zealand," said the Ministry of Health. A further review and Alert Level decision will be made by New Zealand government on Monday. I believe, with my experience, if we were to do an audit of Cole County, the best it could do is fair in some of its respects, Otto said. He said he was concerned the commission didnt consider a state law that in many cases requires governmental bodies to make purchases from U.S.-based companies, and was also worried the commission didnt take into account travel and lodging costs associated with working with a foreign company. In addition to Mike Kehoes $500 check, John Kehoe and his wife, Patty, also helped underwrite Mihalevichs campaign with a $1,000 check in August, according to Missouri Ethics Commission records. John Kehoe did not return requests for comment. Mihalevich, currently a member of the Jefferson City Council, said in addition to the ambulance purchases, he disagreed with the countys decision to hire Victory Enterprises and Strategic Capitol Consulting for economic development work over the Jefferson City Chamber of Commerce. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 13:22:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Officials and scholars around the world have recently stressed there is no scientific evidence to support Washington's repeated allegations that the novel coronavirus emanated from a research lab or a wet market in the Chinese city of Wuhan. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday agitated for "significant evidence" on the virus' origin from Wuhan. However, he did not specify what the evidence is nor deliver any concrete proof to validate his claims. The origin of the novel coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic remains unclear, according to Army General Mark Milley, U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Did it come out of the virology lab in Wuhan, did it occur in the wet market there in Wuhan or did it occur somewhere else? And the answer to that is we don't know," Milley told a press conference earlier this week. Top U.S. infectious disease expert and health official Anthony Fauci clarified that the current scientific evidence shows it is highly unlikely that the virus was manmade. "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," he noted in an interview published on Monday by National Geographic. The virus "evolved in nature and then jumped species" as "everything about the stepwise evolution over time" strongly indicated, said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. During a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Republican Representative John Ratcliffe failed to answer questions on the virus' origins purported by U.S. President Donald Trump, who had nominated him as director of national intelligence, the country's top spy agency. According to CNN, when Senator Angus King asked Ratcliffe whether he had seen evidence that the virus originated in a lab, he said he had not. When Senator Tom Cotton asked Ratcliffe if he had seen evidence that the virus originated in a Wuhan market, he said he had not. The U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) has agreed to the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified, according to a statement from the Office of Director of National Intelligence last week. "The IC 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 said. For its part, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the Trump administration's claim on the virus' origin remains "speculative," as the organization had not received any data or specific evidence from the U.S. side. "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," Michael Ryan, director of the WHO's health emergencies program, told a virtual press briefing on Monday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNBC on Tuesday that without proof, the U.S. accusations on China for the virus' origin were serious and wrong, because the U.S. government did not deliver any proof. "We consider it not a proper time, being somewhere in the middle of a severe crisis, an unprecedented crisis, to try to blame everything on the international health organization (the WHO) or, the next day, on China," Peskov said. Britain has also seen little evidence that the coronavirus is man-made, British Health Minister Matt Hancock was quoted by Reuters as saying. The novel coronavirus spread extensively around the world since late 2019 and the single "Patient Zeroes" is absent in most countries, the latest study by the University College London Genetics Institute has shown. "The results add to a growing body of evidence that SARS-CoV-2 (novel coronavirus) viruses share a common ancestor from late 2019, suggesting that this was when the virus jumped from a previous animal host, into people," the university said in a statement on Wednesday. "This means it is most unlikely the virus causing COVID-19 was in human circulation for long before it was first detected," it added. Enditem UN condemns deadly shelling on civilian areas of Libyan capital 9 May 2020 - The UN Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has condemned several recent attacks on civilian areas of the Libyan Capital, Tripoli, which have reportedly caused deaths and injuries. Shelling near the Turkish embassy and the Italian ambassador's residence in the city's Zawiat al-Dahmani neighbourhood on Thursday, described in an UNSMIL statement as "indiscriminate", is thought to have killed at least two civilians and injured three others. In the statement, UNSMIL expressed deep alarm at the intensification of such attacks, particularly at a time when Libyans Muslims are trying to peacefully observe Ramadan, and simultaneously battling the COVID-19 pandemic. "These despicable actions are a direct challenge to calls by some Libyan leaders for an end to the protracted fighting and the resumption of the political dialogue", the Mission declared. The bloody month of May May has already been extremely dangerous for Libyan civilians: over the first eight days of the month, homes and other civilian property have been damaged, and at least 15 people reportedly killed, with some 50 injured. Several Libyan neighbourhoods suffered indiscriminate attacks, said the Mission, mostly attributable to forces affiliated to the opposition Libyan National Army (LNA), including Abu Salim, Tajoura, al-Hadba al-Bari, Zanata and Zawit al-Dahmani. On 5 May, houses were shelled in the al-Hadba neighborhood of Tripoli, killing two civilians and injuring three others, including a child. The following day, 6 May, was particularly deadly: houses were shelled in Tripoli's Abu Salim neighborhood of Tripoli, resulting in at least one death, and 27 individuals were injured. On the same day, rockets hit several homes in Tajoura, reportedly resulting in the killing of three individuals and injuring 10 others, including three children. "Once again, these attacks display a blatant disregard for international humanitarian law and human rights law, and may amount to war crimes", declared UNSMIL. "All parties to the conflict must respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, including complying with the principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attacks, to prevent civilian casualties". UNSMIL reiterated that those guilty of crimes under international law will be held to account, and committed to documenting violations and sharing them, where relevant, with the Panel of Experts and the International Criminal Court. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Karnataka witnessed its highest single day spike of 54 COVID-19 cases on Sunday, taking the tally to 847 as the government announced guidelines for returning stranded people while eight special trains carrying over 9,000 migrant workers and others left the state for different destinations. One more COVID-19 death was reported in the state, as the toll due to the disease rose to 31. Belagavi bordering Maharashtra with 22 cases, Bagalkote and Shivamogga with eight cases each and Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada with seven, were the biggest contributors to the tally on Sunday, the health department said. This was the highest number of cases for a single day in the state so far, a senior government officer told PTI. Shivamogga, home district of Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, lost its green zone tag with eight people, testing positive for the deadly virus. Kalaburugi (4), Bengaluru (3) and Chintamani in Chikkaballapura district and Davangere accounted for one each among the new cases. Eight of the nine people affected in Shivamogga had returned from Ahmedabad and were contacts of infected people belonging to Tablighi Jamaat, district administration sources said. A 56-year-old woman in Bengaluru Urban district became the latest fatality. The woman, also a case of Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI), had been admitted to a private hospital on May 4 and shifted to another two days later. She died on May 7 and the lab reports on Saturday confirmed that she had COVID-19, the health department said. While Karnataka battled to contain the rising number of coronavirus cases, government sources said a special flight carrying 240 people would land here from London in the early hours of Monday. The government took a slew of decisions with regard to the stranded people returning to Karnataka from abroad and other states. At a meeting chaired by Yediyurappa, it was decided they will have to undergo tests and compulsory 14 days quarantine. The government also agreed to foot the train fare of those returning from other states but they will be allowed based on the availability of quarantine facilities. According to an official release, it was decided that if someone from Karnataka dies in other state, the body shall not be brought back and similar would be the rule for those from outside whose death occurs in the state. The last rites shall be performed wherever a person died. Meanwhile, eight special trains -- six from Bengaluru region and two from Mangaluru -- left for various destinations in the country carrying over 9,000 passengers, a large number of them migrant workers and students. The trains that left Bengaluru headed for Udhampur, Bankura, Gwalior, Danapur, Gorakhpur, Dinapur and Agartala while the other two were bound for Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, South Western Railway sources said. All the passengers were provided with meal and drinking water bottles. Each pack contained rice, chapati, biscuits, pickles and buttermilk, they said. "No pantry car is there as a precautionary measure. Throughout the journey food will be provided from IRCTC base kitchens. Number of meals depend on duration of journey," the officials added. A report from Mangaluru said the train to UP left around 2 pm, while the train to Bihar in the evening. Both the trains carried 1,150 passengers each. Earlier on Saturday night, a special train carrying 1,140 migrant workers stranded in Mangaluru due to the lockdown left for Jharkhand. These passengers were selected from among those who had registered for return to home states on the state governments Seva Sindhu portal. The report also said no new cases of coronavirus was reported from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts on Sunday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mainstreaming telemedicine is the most transformative change hospitals have made to provide healthcare in the post-coronavirus disease (Covid-19) world without compromising on quality of care and outcomes. The Board of Governors in supersession of the Medical Council of India (MCI) issued Telemedicine Practice Guidelines on March 25 to strengthen delivery in a post-Covid-19 world, with a focus on Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) that provide preventive and primary healthcare within a 5 km radius at the grassroots level. We had already put in six months of work into the guidelines and when the coronavirus pandemic happened, we expedited it. Technology platforms were something available and being used, but were not regulated, which exposed both patients and providers to challenges. These guidelines provide guidance material for reference, that can be refined before they become an annexure to the MCI Act, enabling regulation, said Dr Nikhil Tandon, professor and head of the department of endocrinology and metabolism, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), who is a member of the Board of Governors in supersession of the MCI that drafted the regulation. Telemedicine is being used by doctors to connect with patients, and by mid-level provider/health workers to connect patients with doctors without patients having to physically visit a hospital or clinic. Telemedicine has already helped decongest AIIMS, which moved its out-patient department services online from April 8 to enable patients access treatment and care during lockdown. Even post lockdown, it will help reduce the burden on the secondary hospitals and improve documentation, data-collection, diagnosis and care without risking the safety of the patients or the health workers. It is already being used with success in some states for reproductive and child health and tuberculosis notification and outreach, said an epidemiologist in the health ministry, requesting anonymity. There is a persistent shortage of doctors, health workers and hospital beds in the country, especially in rural areas and densely populated underserved states. India has 1.1 million allopathic doctors registered with the Board of Governors/State Medical Councils in December 2019, according to the National Health Profile 2019. Indias public health expenditure is just 1.28% of its GDP, with the per capita public health expenditure being 1,657 in 2017-18. The rising cost of treatment has led to inequities in access, with people in underserved rural areas and urban slums among the worst hit. For people living in rural areas completely dependent on government hospitals and clinics, the government allopathic doctor-patient ratio is 1:10,926, shows NHP 2019 data. Assuming 80% availability, it is estimated that around 9.26 lakh doctors may be actually available for active service, said minister of state for health and family welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey in the Lok Sabha last year. The availability is always lower because some retire, some stop working, move to hospital administration, while others go overseas without getting their names struck off the register. For a population of 1.36 billion, this makes the doctor-population ratio 1:1,457, which is lower than the WHO recommended norm of 1:1,000. In addition to doctors, India has a little more than two million registered nurses and midwives, many of whom need infection control training to care for patients with communicable diseases, such as Covid-19 and tuberculosis. Mobile apps, telemedicine, digital health are all great and welcome, but cannot help any country leapfrog fragile and under-resourced health systems, said Prof Madhukar Pai, Canada Research Chair in Translational Epidemiology & Global Health, and Director, McGill Global Health Programs, McGill University, Montreal. I can see that working in a robust healthcare system. How can it work in settings with poor internet access, illiteracy and extreme poverty? We simply cannot code our way out of the healthcare mess we are in. Digital tech simply cannot replace a functional, robust public healthcare system, said Dr Pai. Over the past two years, community health officers (CHO) have emerged as the first point of preventive and primary healthcare for an increasing number of people in rural India at HWCs, where telemedicine is an integral part of outreach and health services. They offer primary health services such as measuring blood pressure and doing simple pinprick tests for malaria, blood glucose levels and haemoglobin, and dispensing over-the-counter medicines for fever and pain. Since CHOs are usually qualified nurses or practitioners of alternative systems of medicine with additional training in community medicine, they cannot prescribe medicines, change prescription treatment or give injections, but can also ask patients to continue prescribed medication such as for diabetes, hypertension, among others -- after a video consultation with the doctor at the nearest primary or community health centre. Before these guidelines, there was no legislation or guidelines on the practice of telemedicine through video, phone, and online platforms, which include the web, apps, chats, etc. The existing provisions under the MCI Act, 1956, MCI Regulations 2002, Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Rules 1945, Clinical Establishment Act, 2010, Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Information Technology Rules 2011 primarily governed only the practice of medicine and information technology. There are challenges, including connectivity, but the reach and support telemedicine provides is tremendous. Since April 8, the endocrinology department reached at least 60% patients who needed follow-up advice, without their needing to visit the hospital or doctor during the lockdown, said Dr Tandon. Telemedicine can increase reach, but it cannot replace a strong primary health system, which is dependent on competent health systems and providers. I hope the biggest issue with public health delivery post-Covid is the recognition that universal health coverage is critical for any country to face a pandemic. Many countries are learning that you cannot build healthcare capacity during a crisis. It takes time and investment to build a good public health system. India has failed to invest in health for decades and this must change post-Covid19. Health spend must at least increase to 2.5% of GDP, at a minimum, said Dr Pai. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON After more than 100 rockets hit Tripolis airport and residential areas, government forces move on key Haftar base. Libyas UN-supported government launched a counterattack on Sunday against a strategic military base used by renegade commander Khalifa Haftar to pound the capital Tripoli with rocket fire. The response came after a missile barrage damaged Tripolis main airport and set fuel tanks and several aircraft ablaze, with at least six civilians killed in surrounding residential areas in the attacks on Saturday. Meanwhile, Turkey the Government of National Accords (GNA) main ally defending Tripoli against Haftars Libyan National Army (LNA) threatened to step up its attacks against the eastern-based LNA, which has attempted to seize the capital for more than a year. The forces of war criminal [Haftar] fired more than a hundred rockets and missiles at residential areas in the centre of the capital, the GNA said in a statement on Facebook. The airport was badly damaged and came under renewed rocket fire on Sunday morning, it said. Al Jazeeras Mahmoud Abdelwahed, reporting from Tripoli, said the GNA launched the counter-offensive in an effort to take a key LNA base using advanced weaponry to strike the city centre. The governments military commanders say they are trying to recapture a military camp in southern Tripoli, which has been under the control of Haftars forces for the past few months. Haftars troops have been using that camp to fire rockets into residential areas and the airport, said Abdelwahed. Military sources say it is also important because it is run and protected by Russian military experts from the Wagner Group, who have been fighting with Haftars forces. More than a dozen people have been killed over the past two days in missile attacks, the Tripoli-based government said. Adding to the misery of Tripoli residents, the main water supplier to northwest Libya said armed men in the south had stormed one of its facilities, reducing supply. Responsible for the suffering Turkey said on Sunday that it would deem the Haftars forces legitimate targets if their attacks on its interests and diplomatic missions in Libya persisted. On Thursday, Turkey and Italy said the area around their embassies in Tripoli had been shelled. Turkey backs Libyas internationally recognised GNA. It has signed a military cooperation deal with the GNA and deployed military trainers and equipment, including armed drones that have helped repel Haftars offensive. Ankara views Haftars forces, which are backed by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia, as putschists. If our missions and our interests in Libya are targeted, we will deem Haftars forces legitimate targets, the foreign ministry said in a statement, in which it also slammed the United Nations for not taking action over the LNAs attacks. It is unacceptable for the United Nations to remain silent against this carnage any longer, it said. Countries providing military, financial and political aid to Haftar are responsible for the suffering that the people of Libya are enduring and the chaos and instability the country is being dragged into. It also said attacks on Tripolis Mitiga airport early on Saturday, part of an intensified barrage of artillery fire on the capital, were war crimes. The attacks on diplomatic missions including our Tripoli embassy, Mitiga airport, civilian planes preparing to take off and other civilian infrastructure, and those which kill civilians or injure them, constitute a war crime, the statement added. Haftars LNA has been fighting for more than a year to capture Tripoli from the GNA, frequently shelling the capital. The United Nations said four-fifths of the 130 civilian casualties recorded in the Libyan conflict in the first quarter of 2020 were caused by LNA ground fighting. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that the LNA was in a period of regression after NATO member Turkey threw its support behind the GNA. Even the efforts of countries that provide him [Haftar] with unlimited financial support and weapons will not be able to save him, Erdogan said. Frightening spectacle Pro-GNA forces have retaken some territory from the LNA around Tripoli during an escalation of fighting in recent weeks with the help of Turkish-supplied drones. The LNA says Turkey has established a military drone base at the Mitiga airport, but the GNA denies this. The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) called the bombardment an all too familiar but frightening spectacle. These horrifying attacks occur on a regular basis in close proximity to civilian neighbourhoods, UNSMIL said on Twitter. It called the shelling one in a series of indiscriminate attacks, most of which are attributable to pro-LNA forces, killing more than 15 and injuring 50 civilians since 1 May. Since Wednesday, 17 civilians and two police officers have been killed and more than 66 other civilians wounded in rocket fire targeting several areas of the capital, according to the GNA. UNSMIL slammed the attacks for hitting civilians and civilian infrastructure, and called for those responsible for crimes under international law to be brought to justice. But the GNA said international condemnation was not enough. We no longer pay any attention to the timid condemnations of the international community The senseless acts are proof of his weakness and desperation after the successive defeats of his militias and mercenaries, it added. Haftars forces have suffered several setbacks in recent weeks, with GNA fighters pushing them from two key coastal cities west of Tripoli in April. GNA troops now surround the LNAs main rear base at Tarhouna, 80km (50 miles) southeast of the capital. The death toll from the coronavirus in New Jersey climbed to 9,255 on Sunday with 138,532 total cases more than seven weeks after Gov. Phil Murphy issued unprecedented orders closing nonessential businesses and requiring residents to stay home, with some exceptions. The latest numbers include 140 new deaths and 1,503 new cases. Murphy and state health officials say the rate of increase in daily cases has continued to slow. That latest update on the outbreak was provided on the state Department of Health website. The governor is not holding an in-person briefing Sunday The number of patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases at New Jersey hospitals dropped to 4,308 as of 10 p.m. Saturday night. Thats the 13th consecutive day of declines and down 48% from the peak of 8,293 patients on April 14. Murphy has said the hospital patient counts provide the best real-time indicator of the outbreak because testing for new cases can reflect a lag of up to seven days. He made both numbers key benchmarks he plans to use to determine when to start lifting additional restrictions from the near-lockdown orders. Of the patients hospitalized as of Saturday night, 1,338 are in critical or intensive care, and 994 are on ventilators. Thats the first time the number of patients needing ventilators in New Jersey fell below 1,000 since the state started reporting that information on April 4. COVID-19 hospitalizations More than 280,000 New Jersey residents have been tested for the coronavirus with a positivity rate of 38.5%. The county-by-county breakdown of cases and deaths includes: Bergen County: 16,804 with 1,348 deaths Hudson County: 16,675 with 954 deaths Essex County: 15,365 with 1,414 deaths Passaic County: 14,428 with 734 deaths Union County: 13,984 with 852 deaths Middlesex County: 13,759 with 759 deaths Ocean County: 7,366 with 522 deaths Monmouth County: 6,815 with 439 deaths Morris County: 5,833 with 511 deaths Mercer County: 5,233 with 330 deaths Camden County: 4,758 with 217 deaths Somerset County: 3,996 with 331 deaths Burlington County: 3,531 with 194 deaths Gloucester County: 1,631 with 79 deaths Atlantic County: 1,494 with 72 deaths Cumberland County: 1,245 with 34 deaths Warren County: 1,040 with 103 deaths Sussex County: 1,023 with 127 deaths Hunterdon County: 706 with 46 deaths Cape May County: 442 with 32 deaths Salem County: 400 with 18 deaths Another 557 cases are under investigation to determine where the person resides. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage While the trends continue to move downward, its difficult to get a complete picture of exactly how many people in New Jersey currently have COVID-19 because officials say testing has been backlogged up to seven days. The state also is not reporting significant increases in daily testing, so it is unclear exactly how quickly the virus continues to spread. The latest figures were announced a day after officials said more than a third of the states deaths officially attributed to the disease have come at long-term care facilities. And that doesnt account for another 1,400 deaths at the facilities that officials say are probably linked to COVID-19. The state has reported 3,440 of its 9,116 lab-confirmed COVID-19-related deaths or about 38% have come at the facilities, which include nursing homes and veterans homes. The governor also announced Saturday the state is closing one of the three pop-up field hospitals constructed to help handle the surge of patients. Patients at the temporary medical station at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus will be transferred to an alternative care site at East Orange General Hospital. As of Sunday morning, more than 4 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 across the globe, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. Of those, nearly 280,000 have died and nearly 1.4 million have recovered. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. The daughter of late Sushma Swaraj, former foreign minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, has posted an emotional message on Mothers Day. The senior BJP leader died in August last year after a cardiac arrest. Happy Mothers Day @SushmaSwaraj. Miss you with every breath Ma (sic), her daughter Bansuri Swaraj tweeted on Sunday. Sushma Swaraj had served as the external affairs minister from May 26, 2014, to May 2019 and Swas Indias first full-time woman foreign minister. Indira Gandhi held additional charge of the ministry when she was prime minister. Swaraj was replaced as external affairs minister in the second term of the Narendra Modi government by former diplomat S Jaishankar. Swaraj entered the Haryana assembly in 1977 and became a minister in the state cabinet at the age of 25. She was a former chief minister of Delhi and had been a part of every BJP government at the Centre except the current one. She served as minister for information and broadcasting as well as health minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led BJP government from 1998 to 2004. She won the 2009 election to the 15th Lok Sabha from the Vidisha Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh and became the leader of opposition. Sushma Swaraj, during her stint as the external affairs minister, was recognised as perhaps the minister most accessible to ordinary people, who actively sought her out for help when they found themselves in a crisis. Keith Neilson has been the CEO of Craneware plc (LON:CRW) since 1999. 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 we will reflect on how common stockholders have fared in the last few years, as a secondary measure of performance. This method should give us information to assess how appropriately the company pays the CEO. Check out our latest analysis for Craneware How Does Keith Neilson's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies? Our data indicates that Craneware plc is worth UK453m, and total annual CEO compensation was reported as US$443k for the year to June 2019. While we always look at total compensation first, we note that the salary component is less, at US$418k. As part of our analysis we looked at companies in the same jurisdiction, with market capitalizations of US$200m to US$800m. The median total CEO compensation was US$919k. Next, let's break down remuneration compositions to understand how the industry and company compare with each other. On an industry level, roughly 77% of total compensation represents salary and 23% is other remuneration. So it seems like there isn't a significant difference between Craneware and the broader market, in terms of salary allocation in the overall compensation package. Most shareholders would consider it a positive that Keith Neilson takes less total compensation than the CEOs of most similar size companies, leaving more for shareholders. Though positive, it's important we delve into the performance of the actual business. You can see a visual representation of the CEO compensation at Craneware, below. AIM:CRW CEO Compensation May 10th 2020 Is Craneware plc Growing? On average over the last three years, Craneware plc has seen earnings per share (EPS) move in a favourable direction by 8.1% each year (using a line of best fit). In the last year, its revenue changed by just 0.5%. Story continues I would prefer it if there was revenue growth, 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. Shareholders might be interested in this free visualization of analyst forecasts. Has Craneware plc Been A Good Investment? Most shareholders would probably be pleased with Craneware plc for providing a total return of 51% over three years. As a result, some may believe the CEO should be paid more than is normal for companies of similar size. In Summary... It appears that Craneware plc remunerates its CEO below most similar sized companies. It's well worth noting that while Keith Neilson is paid below what is normal at companies of similar size, the returns have been very pleasing, over the last three years. Although we could see higher growth, we'd argue the remuneration is modest, based on these observations. Shifting gears from CEO pay for a second, we've picked out 1 warning sign for Craneware that investors should be aware of in a dynamic business environment. Arguably, business quality is much more important than CEO compensation levels. So check out 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. People wait in line to vote in a Democratic presidential primary election outside the Hamilton High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on April 7, 2020. Kamil Krzaczynski | AFP | Getty Images Several states are preparing for the coronavirus to last through the fall, with the expectation that the pandemic will affect voting in the 2020 presidential election. Across the country, the pandemic has changed the way people vote, and it's unclear whether these changes will become the new norm. States like North Carolina, Hawaii, Delaware and Alabama are planning to implement more rigorous cleaning procedures at poll centers. Others are brainstorming how to replace older poll workers and volunteers who may fear working due to potential exposure to the virus. Voting by mail is under expansion in multiple states, while others consider alternate ways to make in-person voting safer. State voting officials told CNBC they are preparing for fall elections with the anticipation that social distancing guidelines will remain in effect. The fear of contracting and spreading the virus among large groups has already forced many states to push back their presidential primaries, the latest hurdle for voting officials. If the pandemic had not happened, most states at this time would likely be through orchestrating their nominating contests. Some officials told CNBC they have not yet planned for the presidential election in the fall because they're still making arrangements for their primaries. Nebraska's primary is Tuesday. "We are currently focused on the primary election and have not yet made any plans for the general election in November," said Cindi Allen, Nebraska assistant secretary of state. Oregon is preparing for its Democratic primary on May 19. Iowa, which has a Senate primary scheduled for June 2, is focusing on that, the secretary of state's office said. But other states already find themselves in the middle of preparations for the Nov. 3 Election Day. Preparing for November Several states told CNBC they're spending more money this year on cleaning supplies to disinfect polling areas. Poll workers in North Carolina will receive personal protective equipment like masks, gloves and hand sanitizer, said Patrick Gannon, the Board of Elections' public information officer. Alabama matched a portion of the money allocated to the state by the CARES Act, the $2 trillion federal stimulus package, and expects some of it to be spent on cleaning materials and protective equipment, according to Grace Newcombe, press secretary to the secretary of state's office. Staff of the Franklin County Board of Elections take measures to sanitize voting stations and provisional ballot envelop stations so that Ohio residents who qualify to vote in person at the Franklin County Board of Elections headquarters can do so on April 28, 2020 in Columbus, Ohio. Matthew Hatcher | Getty Images Missouri and Delaware officials told CNBC they're also planning to provide more cleaning supplies. Hawaii, one of five states that conducts entirely vote-by-mail elections, is "procuring cleaning and hygiene products for the voter service centers and counting centers," said Nedielyn Bueno, the head of voter services in the state's Office of Elections. There's also the concern that there might not be enough poll workers, who tend to skew older, to staff the general election. Older poll workers might not make it out in November due to the fear of catching the virus, which often causes seniors to suffer the most severe symptoms. Already, Delaware has "seen some cancellations by poll workers, due to anxiety around the COVID-19 situation," according to State Election Commissioner Anthony Albence. In anticipation of a potential drop in the number of poll workers, several states are beginning their recruiting months earlier than usual, tapping into high schools and colleges. Missouri is considering using the National Guard as poll workers, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft told CNBC. The state is also weighing "setting up curbside tents or drive-thru tents for voting," he said, calling them "alternative fallback plans that we can focus on" to create opportunities to vote with minimal contact. But even as they're taking steps to prepare for in-person voting, states remain hopeful that more people will opt for mailing in their ballots instead of showing up at the polls. North Carolina's Gannon said no special circumstance is needed to vote by mail, and the state expects "more people to vote by mail this year and for social distancing to be in place at polling places." The challenge of voting by mail Not every state is able to depend on vote-by-mail access, as the restrictions on mail-in voting vary from state to state. The District of Columbia and 34 states, including five that conduct all-mail voting, use no-excuse absentee voting, according to the bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures. The future of vote by mail is uncertain in South Carolina, one of 16 states that require voters to explain why they will not be able to vote in person on Election Day. "Voting in the pandemic is currently the subject of three separate lawsuits here in S.C. and the governor or General Assembly could theoretically still take action, so it is possible that options for voters could change for our June 9 State primaries and beyond," said Chris Whitmire, director of public information at South Carolina's Election Commission. There's talk of changing the requirement in Missouri, another of the 16 states that ask for an excuse in order to obtain an absentee ballot. As of right now, "Covid-19 doesn't meet those excuses," said Secretary of State Ashcroft. "We are working with legislature to see if we need to tweak that a little bit," he said, cautioning that ultimately he has "no authority" to make such decisions. An Ohio voter drops off her ballot at the Board of Elections in Dayton, Ohio on April 28, 2020. Megan Jelinger | AFP | Getty Images In Minnesota, officials hope to increase the number of people participating in no-excuse absentee voting, according to Risikat Adesaogun, the press officer at the secretary of state's office. "About 24% of eligible Minnesota voters voted by absentee last election. We hope to increase that number and thereby reduce the number of people showing up in person on Election Day," Adesaogun said. "Our no-excuses absentee voting period begins 46 days before Election Day, providing eligible Minnesota voters with lots of time to cast their votes from the safety of their home." California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order on Friday allowing all registered voters in the state to receive a mail-in ballot this November. In Connecticut, every registered voter in the state will receive an absentee ballot application in the mail, including postage-paid return for the applications, according to the office of Secretary of State Denise Merrill. "This plan will allow a larger number of voters to vote by absentee ballot than ever before, and do it at no cost to the towns or the voters," the release said. Still anyone's guess Arun M By Express News Service KOCHI: Vineeth U, a native of Kanakkari in Kottayam, heaved a sigh of relief as he finally approached the Kochi Port around 9.00 am on Sunday. He had just completed a two-night long journey in the Indian Navy ship INS Jalashwa, and before that, spent well over a month at Maldives without an income amid the panic of a pandemic. Formerly an employee with a resort firm in the island country, Vineeth lost his job after the resort shut down in March, owing to the COVID-19 outbreak. Vineeth U By a stroke of luck, his name appeared in the list of expatriates for repatriation under the Operation Samudra Setu, after his visa expired last month. We boarded the ship on May 8 from the Maldives Sea Port, after a medical checkup. I was slightly tensed during the journey as the Navy authorities did not allow us to use our phones on the ship, Vineeth recounted. He could communicate with his family only while on board the KSRTC bus, after completing the disembarking process. The bus was plying to Kottayam with 33 others who had also come from Maldives. Of the 33, as many as 15 hail from Pala, while the others are from various parts of Kottayam. Maiden ship journey The repatriation process was a strange experience for him, Vineeth said. This was my first time on a ship. I usually fly to Maldives from Kochi airport. But I am hoping that learning about my experience may help others feel slightly less anxious, he said. By 6.00 pm on Sunday, Vineeth and the others were admitted to an institutional quarantine centre set up at the Pala Assisi Retreat Centre. We have been directed to undergo a medical check-up and remain in quarantine for seven days. After this, we should continue our quarantine at home for another seven days, he said. Though they were generally satisfied with the facilities at the quarantine centre, concerns were raised after they had to spend over three hours without power supply in the night. It was about two years ago, after his wedding, that Vineeth first headed to Maldives. Vineeths brother, who is employed at Salalah in Oman, is also looking for ways to return home. On Monday, The New York Times published an internal document from the Trump administration which offered a grim vision for life in the United States during the next few months. That document (the existence and accuracy of which President Trump has since refuted) claimed that deaths in the United States due to coronavirus would rise steadily in the coming days and weeks, reaching a daily high of 3,000 by June 1. Those numbers are staggering, though not entirely surprising; the United States has enacted no federal protocol regarding a lockdown or stay-at-home mandate, and guidelines have been willy-nilly, at best. Trump has been his own worst enemy, often backtracking on suggestions. And high-level members of the administration have set poor examples when it comes to social distancing; take, for instance, Vice President Pence, who ignited controversy last week by visiting the Mayo Clinic without wearing a protective mask. Still, given the staggering projection, postulated by Trumps own people, one would assume that the administration would exercise extreme caution. Instead, it was announced on Tuesday that they would be winding down the coronavirus task force, in order to shift focus on the American economy. The move would have been tantamount to cutting the strings on a parachute as youre falling from an airplane toward a tarmac. Through his mouthpiece Mike Pence, Trump offered this flaccid untruth: It really is all a reflection of the tremendous progress weve made as a country. What a tremendous lie. If 75,000 deaths and double that yet to come is progress, while we sit in wait with no help for our government, I guess I dont know what progress truly is. As it turns out, the Trump administration will not in any official capacity, at least be winding down the coronavirus task force. In an unexpected pivot (though, these days, what is expected from the president?), it was announced on Wednesday that the task force would remain intact, but would now be charged with an economic prerogative. Is this really a retraction? I would argue that the parachute strings have still been cut. To redirect the course of attention to the economy, when the presidents own projection (deny it or not) has us on a path to a peak that we have not yet reached, with deaths untold, is careless bad judgment. Trump has spent a lot of time trying to account for his poor decision-making that got us into this mess to begin with. What to make of the poor decision-making that will perpetuate it? Trumps new press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who, mysteriously, now actually holds press conferences, tried to spin the devastating new projections as good news. Over two million people, she said yesterday, were originally projected to die; we should consider just under 150,000 American deaths a massive victory. She attributed said victory to the president. Were far lower than that thanks to the great work of the task force and the leadership of President Trump, McEnany said. But I can see no silver lining in any outcome that results in more pain and suffering for the American people, even if that outcome is less severe than the outcome we had originally deemed possible. Not so long ago, a president stood on an aircraft carrier called the USS Abraham Lincoln for a televised address. With troops behind him, he announced that major combat in Iraq had been completed. He proclaimed Mission Accomplished, to great applause, and a banner behind him memorialized him and that moment. The year was 2003, and that president was George W Bush. The vast majority of insurgencies and military and civilian casualties took place after the president uttered those words, for which he will always be known, no matter what other good he does in this world. As for Trump, he will be known for his own pretend version, his cut-and-run, bailing on the American people when we needed him the most. This task force has been reduced to a paper tiger: It has no real bite. Our president is the type who walks into a mask factory without a mask, while Live and Let Die blasts in the background. Mission accomplished, indeed. Without gravity, and, more importantly, without an administration who takes seriously the consequences of a pandemic, were all goners. Look out below. An official said among the passengers who arrived on Sunday, the maximum were from Mumbai while some belonged to other Maharashtra cities like Pune, Dhule, Kolhapur, among others. Mumbai: Nearly 572 Indians who were stranded abroad due to the coronavirus-enforced lockdown landed at the Mumbai international airport early Sunday morning, a Maharashtra government official said. Of these, passengers belonging to Mumbai were kept under mandatory institutional quarantine in hotels near the airport, while those hailing from other cities were taken to their respective places where they will be kept in isolation in hotels taken over there for the purpose, the official said. Two flights, one from London and another from Singapore, landed here in the morning, he said. "Some 572 passengers have arrived. They were first screened and then kept in isolation as per the Union government's guidelines. They will have to undergo the mandatory health checkup and remain quarantined at the accommodation provided by the state," he said. A flight from Manila (Philippines) carrying 241 passengers is expected to land on Sunday night, he added. The official said among the passengers who arrived on Sunday, the maximum were from Mumbai while some belonged to other Maharashtra cities like Pune, Dhule, Kolhapur, among others. Passengers from other cities were sent there in transport facilities provided by the state, the official said. Follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak here "They will also be kept in local hotels taken over temporarily for the isolation purpose. Their health will be monitored. If anyone tests positive for COVID-19, he/she will be shifted to a local hospital dedicated for such treatment, he said. The Maharashtra government has already converted all civil hospitals in the districts into facilities for treatment of COVID-19. New Delhi, May 10 : Union Minister Smriti Irani on Sunday offered assistance to the woman who had trudged 900 km to her home in Amethi from Indore, with her three-year-old child amid the lockdown. Soon after receiving the news, Irani, who is the leader of the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency, asked the district administration to take care of the facilities of the entire family. The officials then screened both the mother and her child for COVID-19 and sent them under home-quarantine. The officials also provided them with all the essential items following the MP's instruction. Amtul Nisha is a resident of Baroli village in Amethi and was living in Indore. During the lockdown, she was facing difficulties staying in Indore, so she left for Amethi on foot with her daughter. Soon, the news spread like wildfire. Amethi MP and Union Minister Smriti Irani ordered the district officials to provide all possible help to the family. Amethi District Magistrate Arun Kumar directed the health department to conduct a health test of the woman and her daughter. The woman and her daughter were examined at Jagdishpur Community Health Center (CHC) in Amethi. After this, the administration provided home-quarantine to the mother and daughter by providing ration kits, fruits, masks and sanitizers. Kumar tweeted on Sunday about the help extended to the woman and her daughter under the direction of Union Minister Smriti Irani. (Navneet Mishra can be reached at navneet.m@ians.in) (To watch the full press briefing with sign language interpretation, click here.) The Centre for Health Protection today announced that it is investigating three new imported COVID-19 cases. The centres Communicable Disease Branch Head Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan explained at a press briefing that two of the new infections involve men, aged 54 and 57, who returned to Hong Kong from Pakistan on Saturday. "The two patients confirmed today, they are not from the chartered flight. The Government had only arranged one chartered flight from Pakistan so far. These patients bought their own tickets through Qatar Airways and then came back. They went on flight QR818. As regards the third infection, Dr Chuang said the case involves a 69-year-old woman who came back to Hong Kong from Britain. She experienced shortness of breath while staying at her home in the UK. The National Health Service of the UK had sent a team of staff to the patient's home to check her health condition, but had not carried out laboratory tests. Her symptoms subsided very quickly, within one day. So she has been asymptomatic for quite a while before she came back to Hong Kong. For information and health advice on COVID-19, visit the Government's dedicated webpage. Shopping centre giant Hammerson may tap investors for up to 500million to cope with the coronavirus crisis. Analysts are predicting that the company, which owns the Bullring in Birmingham, will be forced to raise money in a rights issue after a major deal to offload retail parks fell through. Short-sellers have swooped in expectation of a cash call that could be at a discount to the current share price, which closed on Thursday at just 53.5p. Hammerson, which owns Bullring in Birmingham (pictured) has debts of 2.4billion That values the FTSE 250 company, which has debts of 2.4billion, at just 410million and means any fundraise of hundreds of millions of pounds would mean a drastic restructuring. The company's plan to sell seven retail parks for 400million collapsed last week after private equity buyer Orion pulled out due to the pandemic. Hammerson will get to keep the 21million deposit paid by the bidder, but analysts think it will need far more so that it does not default on bank loans. Liberum's Tom Musson told clients: 'We think Hammerson requires an equity cure potentially in excess of 500million. 'Given the near freeze in investment markets we think opportunities for disposals are limited, which is highlighted by Orion not proceeding with the transaction today. 'Management may need to act sooner rather than later to protect against covenant breaches in the current market.' Hammerson's shopping centres and retail parks have been shut since the lockdown began. The company, which has scrapped its dividend to conserve cash, said at the end of March that it had only received around one third of the rent due by the end of the quarter. Rival Intu Properties, which owns the Trafford Centre in Manchester and Lakeside in Essex, failed in its own attempts to raise money, which has left its future looking very uncertain. Hedge funds are betting large sums that Hammerson will launch a cash call in the coming days, traders said. The company is now the second most-shorted stock in the UK, according to data from the Financial Conduct Authority. It comes after short-sellers doubled down on bets against the firm and now account for at least 10.5 per cent of its shares. Short-sellers, normally hedge funds, make money by borrowing shares, selling them, buying them back at a lower price, and then returning them to the lender, pocketing the difference. Rival Intu Properties, which owns the Trafford Centre in Manchester (pictured), failed in its own attempts to raise money Hedge fund Caxton, which moved headquarters from New York to London last year, has the largest short position in Hammerson with 4.33 per cent of its shares in what is one of the largest single short positions by percentage of a company's shares. Like Caxton, New York hedge fund Woodson Capital Management increased its bet against Hammerson on Wednesday after news of the collapse of the deal for its retail parks. Woodson now has a 2.34 per cent short position. Caxton's short position is worth about 18million, while Woodson's is worth around 10million. Hammerson turned down a 5billion takeover approach from France's Klepierre in 2018 in favour of a bid for rival Intu, which it later dropped. Hammerson declined to comment. DENVER - Last month, Minna Buck revised a document specifying her wishes should she become critically ill. "No intubation," she wrote in large letters on the form, making sure to include the date and her initials. Buck, 91, had been following the news about covid-19. She knew her chances of surviving a serious bout of the illness were slim. And she wanted to make sure she wouldn't be put on a ventilator under any circumstances. "I don't want to put everybody through the anguish," said Buck, who lives in a continuing care retirement community in Denver. For older adults contemplating what might happen to them during this pandemic, ventilators are a fraught symbol, representing a terrifying lack of personal control as well as the fearsome power of technology. Used for people with respiratory failure, a signature consequence of severe covid-19, these machines pump oxygen into patients' bodies while they are in bed, typically sedated, with a breathing tube snaked down the windpipe (known as "intubation"). For some seniors, this is their greatest fear: being hooked to a machine, helpless, with the end of life looming. For others, there is hope that the machine might pull them back from the brink, giving them another shot at life. "I'm a very vital person: I'm very active and busy," said Cecile Cohan, 85, who has no diagnosed medical conditions and lives independently in a house in Denver. If she became critically ill with covid-19 but had the chance of recovering and being active again, she said, "yes, I would try a ventilator." What's known about people's chances? Although several reports have come out of China, Italy and most recently the area around New York City, "the data is really scanty," said Carolyn Calfee, a professor of anesthesia at the University of California at San Francisco. Initial reports suggested that the survival rate for patients on respirators ranged from 14% (Wuhan, China) to 34% (early data from the United Kingdom). A report from the New York City area appeared more discouraging, with survival listed at only 11.9%. But the New York data incorporated only patients who died or were discharged from hospitals - a minority of a larger sample. Most ventilator patients were still in the hospital, receiving treatment, making it impossible to draw reliable conclusions. Calfee said she worries that data from these early studies may not apply to U.S. patients treated in hospitals with considerable resources. "The information we have is largely from settings with tremendous resource gaps and from hospitals that are overwhelmed, where patients may not bedit metadatae treated with optimal ventilator support," she said. "I would be very worried if people used that data to make decisions about whether they wanted mechanical ventilation." Still, a sobering reality emerges from studies published to date: Older adults, especially those with underlying medical conditions such as heart, kidney or lung disease, are least likely to survive critical illness caused by the coronavirus or treatment with a ventilator. "Their prognosis is not great," said Douglas White, a professor of critical care medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. He cautioned, however, that frail older adults should not be lumped together with healthy, robust older adults, whose prospects may be somewhat better. Like other clinicians, White has observed that older covid patients are spending considerably longer on ventilators two weeks or more - than is the case with other critical illnesses. If they survive, they probably will be extremely weak, deconditioned, suffering from delirium and in need of months of ongoing care and physical rehabilitation. "It's a very long, uphill battle to recovery," and many older patients may never regain full functioning, said Negin Hajizadeh, an associate professor of critical care medicine at the School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell on Long Island. "My concern is, who's going to take care of these patients after a prolonged ventilator course - and where?" In St. Paul, Minnesota, Joyce Edwards, 61, who is unmarried and lives on her own, has been wondering the same thing. Last month, Edwards revised her advance directive to specify that "for covid-19, I do not want to be placed on a ventilator." Previously, she had indicated that she was willing to try a ventilator for a few days but wanted it withdrawn if the treatment was needed for a longer period. "I have to think about what the quality of my life is going to be," Edwards said. "Could I live independently and take care of myself - the things I value the most? There's no spouse to take care of me or adult children. Who would step into the breach and look after me while I'm in recovery?" People who've said "give a ventilator a try, but discontinue it if improvement isn't occurring" need to realize that they almost surely won't have time to interact with loved ones if treatment is withdrawn, said Christopher Cox, an associate professor of medicine at Duke University. "You may not be able to live for more than a few minutes," he said. But the choice isn't as black-and-white as go on a ventilator or die. "We can give you high-flow oxygen and antibiotics," Cox said. "You can use BiPAP or CPAP machines [which also deliver oxygen] and see how those work. And if things go poorly, we're excellent at keeping you comfortable and trying to make it possible for you to interact with family and friends instead of being knocked out in a [medically induced] coma." Heather McCrone of Bellevue, Washington, realized she'd had an "all-or-nothing" view of ventilation when her 70-year-old husband developed sepsis - a systemic infection - last year after problems related to foot surgery. Over nine hours, McCrone sat in the intensive care unit as her husband was stabilized on a ventilator by nurses and respiratory therapists. "They were absolutely fantastic," McCrone said. After a four-day stay in the hospital, her husband returned home. "Before that experience, my feeling about ventilators was, 'You're a goner and there's no coming back,' " McCrone said. "Now, I know that's not necessarily the case." She and her husband both have advance directives stating that they want "lifesaving measures taken unless we're in a vegetative state with no possibility of recovery." McCrone said they still need to discuss their wishes with their daughters, including their preference for getting treatment with a ventilator. These discussions are more important than ever - and perhaps easier than in the past, experts said. "People are thinking about what could happen to them and they want to talk about it," said Rebecca Sudore, a professor of medicine at the UCSF. "It's opened up a lot of conversations." Rather than focusing on whether to be treated with a ventilator, she advises older adults to discuss what's most important to them - independence? time with family? walking? living as long as possible? - and what they consider a good quality of life. This will provide essential context for decisions about ventilation. "Some people may say my life is always worth living no matter what type of serious illness or disability I have," she said. "On the other end of the spectrum, some people may feel there are health situations or experiences that would be so hard that life would not be worth living." Sudore helped create Prepare for Your Care, a website and a set of tools to guide people through these kinds of conversations. Recently, it was updated to include a section on covid-19, as have sites sponsored by Compassion & Choices and the Conversation Project. And the Colorado Program for Patient Centered Decisions has published a decision aid for covid patients considering life support, also available in Spanish. Some older adults have another worry: What if there aren't enough ventilators for all the covid patients who need them? In that situation, "I would like to say 'no' because other people need that intervention more than I do and would benefit, in all probability, more than I would," said Larry Churchill, 74, an emeritus professor of medical ethics at Vanderbilt. "In a non-scarcity situation, I'm not sure what I'd do. I'm in pretty good health, but people my age don't survive as well from any major problem," Churchill said. "Most of us don't want a long, lingering death in a custodial facility where the chances of recovery are small and the quality of life may be one we're not willing to tolerate." - - - This report is a product of Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente. Nursing homes are right in the middle of the deadly coronavirus pandemic hitting the U.S, with more than 28%, or nearly 20,000, of the nations COVID-19 deaths happening in these long term care facilities, according to a recent report by The New York Times. As of 2016, there were 15,600 nursing homes in the country. The New York Times reported April 17 that the virus had been found in at least 4,100 American nursing homes and other long term care facilities. As of May 4, the number of facilities with cases of the virus had jumped to 6,800 facilities with more than 118,000 residents and staff members having contracted it and 19,600 deaths, The Times reported. The virus has had a devastating effect on elderly or immunocompromised residents of these facilities in particular. It has been a struggle for the long term care industry, encompassing assisted living facilities, independent living facilities, nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities, as well as continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs), as it faces staffing shortages, a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and inadequate testing. The insurance industry is well aware of the struggles. As Deaths Rise to 20,000, Care Homes Seek Immunity from Lawsuits At least 15 states have enacted laws or governors orders that explicitly or apparently provide nursing homes and long-term care facilities some protection from lawsuits arising from the crisis. One-Third of All U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Are Nursing Home Residents or Workers: NY Times At least 27,700 residents and workers have died from the coronavirus at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities for older adults in the United States, according to a New York Times database. The virus so far has infected more than 150,000 at some 7,700 facilities. In 15 states, the number of residents and workers who have died accounts for more than half of all deaths from the virus. Theyre just overwhelmed, said Michael Spaan, president of Inlight Insurance Services of Oklahoma, which specializes in commercial healthcare risks, writing about $30 million in premium in the space. Theyre already overwhelmed, and theyre already overworked and now, I dont see how theyre doing it Its very problematic for a long term care provider. I think theyve got the toughest situation in healthcare with this particular pandemic. The insurance market for these businesses was already strained before the current crisis. In its 2019 long term care providers study, insurance broker Aon estimated that losses would increase by 5% and claim frequency would go up by 2% annually. Annual claims costs in 2020 would average $2,300 and increase by 5% annually, Aon forecasted. Increasing frequency and severity of professional and general liability claims resulted in substantial rate increases in these lines for 2020. Insurance Journal reported in January that some brokers saw increases of at least 12% to 15% for senior living facilities, even on accounts with no loss histories. Capacity took a hit as well. Agents in the space reported the number of carriers writing the business had started to decrease way before COVID-19 gave insurers another reason to be wary of the market. Unprofitable Market James McNitt is area president for Risk Placement Services (RPS) Healthcare Division in Chicago, a wholesaler writing about $100 million in premium for long term care facilities that places business with the segments major carriers such as CNA, Chubb, MedPro, London markets and others. McNitt said there was significant movement in 2019 towards a hardening marketplace demonstrated by carrier consolidation, a focus on building deductibles and retentions, and excess limit capacity constraints. Extra Care: How Brokers, Carriers Are Trying to Help Nursing home insurance specialists say that they are doing whatever they can to help their insureds during this trying time, either by sending out information from the CDC, answering questions, aiding with documentation, or helping them acquire whatever resources they can. CNA, for example, notified agents, brokers and insureds on March 27 that it would underwrite makeshift childcare operations as needed for healthcare facilities. CNA said insureds could create both offsite and onsite childcare operations to address the pandemic and CNA would underwrite the exposures to accommodate its insureds and help the facilities remain staffed. CNA declined to comment for this story. Metropolitan Risks Stoop said his team has been working to help obtain PPE for clients. One of his nursing home clients that couldnt obtain adequate PPE for its staff instead wanted to purchase plasma tests so employees could be tested for COVID-19 antibodies. The facility planned to use the results to segregate their patient population and staff members based on who had the antibodies. Stoop was able help acquire and purchase 750 plasma tests to be donated to the nursing home. Thats how the community is helping these folks, he said. He believes brokers need to be advocates for their nursing home clients now more than ever and ensure that they are reporting any potential incidents that could eventually be a claim to the carriers. Tell them to document everything, he added. Brokers can really help them manage the information and the files because there is a battle coming, he said. TDCSU has been encouraging its clients and their agents to utilize the risk management services provided with its policies, Spina said, so they can take every precaution to protect staff and residents. They have also been answering questions for insureds worried about how to deal with potential exposures. The job of an insurer right now, Spina noted, isnt to make this situation harder on an industry that is already struggling. He said the insurance industry is supposed to be there for unforeseen events, adding that is why these facilities buy insurance. To find ways to wiggle their way out of a claim or put in some cutesy contractual language to cordon off the liability is just really not part of our DNA. Our response has been that we want to be there for them. This is a very difficult situation that theyre in, Spina said. Its really important that we defend their reputations because theres a lot of good nursing homes out there and a lot of good people doing fantastic work. They are really the angels of mercy. The marketplace has been historically unprofitable, he said, with some carriers operating at combined ratios of over 200% in the past five years. [Carriers] have not been able to write their way out of it, McNitt said. We ended 2019 with a market that was speeding down the highway towards a very hardening spot, and here we are with a whole new reason to have an even more tough time writing in this space. Insurance specialists in the class say the facilities are doing the best they can considering they lack proper resources, such as PPE. The federal response for the elder care community has been really disappointing, said Michael Stoop, president of Metropolitan Risk Advisory in Irvington, N.Y., who noted his clients have had to figure out on their own how to acquire PPE to protect their staff and residents and get testing in place to stem outbreaks in the facilities. Its a lack of resources that is really contributing to and exacerbating the issue in these nursing homes, he said. They have to be fully resourced and they arent, which is why it is spreading like wildfire there and these [residents] just cant take it. Steve Spina, executive vice president of underwriting at TDC Specialty Underwriters, said theyve heard from insureds who are using trash bags and hotel shower caps as PPE, as well as homemade masks for protection. They are MacGyvering their way through this, even though there isnt a lot available to them in terms of the equipment that they need. These people are really putting their lives on the line, said Spina whose firm, TDCSU, is part of The Doctors Company Group, a mutual insurance company that insures about 2,000 nursing homes and has a book of business of about $50 million in that space. Negative media stories about what is happening at long term care facilities has made it harder for the staff, said Shelagh Grubb, producer with Plasteridge Insurance Agency, which insures about 800 facilities in Florida. I think theyre superheroes and theyre not really getting the recognition or support that they should be getting, said Grubb, also a board member of the Florida Assisted Living Association. Carrier Response Not surprisingly given the pandemic, the cracks in the long term care industry insurance market that were already evident have been getting worse. Carriers in the space had pulled back on capacity and coverage due to increasing claims frequency and severity since the beginning of the year. Before March, going into 2020 the market was already distressed for long term care providers. Now I would say its about as difficult of a market that Ive ever seen, Spaan said. McNitt is worried that the potential liability some nursing homes may face will make a difficult insurance situation even more difficult. My concern is that the nursing home space is going to continue to have a deteriorating reputation as a result of this and their occupancy rates are going to be way down therefore making less money and they are already not able to pay their insurance premiums, McNitt said. Their insurance isnt going to go down, in fact, its going to go up and they already cant even afford it. Its going to be a bad time to be a nursing home operator. When we get on the other side of COVID and what does that industry look like it is going to be absolutely decimated, said Stoop. How many families are going to want to put their families in a nursing home after what just happened? And staffing is going to be a huge issue for them, and it was already an issue before. There are so many unanswered questions. Some agents say it is too early to tell what the long term effect on the insurance market will be as the situation is changing daily. This is not only new for the world, its also new for the insurance industry. So right now, it is kind of a waiting game to see what happens, said Grubb. Its really going to depend on how the courts decipher some of this policy language to really speak to what the exposures are going to look like Its going to be very interesting to see how this all plays out. Too soon or not, the liability concerns are on the forefront of the minds of many working with this class, particularly carriers. According to McNitt, some carriers have already implemented COVID-19 specific applications that require the long term care facility to state if theyre aware of positive virus cases among staff or residents. This is a dangerous move for the insured, he said, because if someone tests positive after the application goes through the carrier could say that it was a potential misrepresentation. If a facility does state [they have no cases] theyre putting themselves on the hook to make sure that theyre being honest, and you cant honestly expect any nursing home in the entire country to not have a case today, he said. If they dont know about it yet, they just havent found it. Carriers are reportedly also enacting broad COVID-19 exclusions on new and renewal business, placing moratoriums on writing medical professional liability business until mid-May, or being extremely selective on what types of facilities they will write and where they will do business. States like New York, New Jersey, California and Florida are considered highly litigious and particularly difficult to find coverage for right now. Instead of trying to figure out what the premium needs to be to write it, theyre just electing to not quote it, said Spaan. Because of markets pulling out already before all this started, the ones that are left are being very, very, very, very selective. If its not a completely stellar five-star facility, then carriers are declining to quote in many cases, particularly if its in a state thats litigious. Carriers are afraid right now I used to get a tremendous amount of calls from carriers and they have been silent, said Stoop. They see a really fragile glass vase on the mantle and just the slightest movement is going to send everything crashing. Florida agent Matt Baker, president of Thompson Baker, said he has been unable to renew a policy that expires in May for a single location nonprofit skilled nursing facility with just over 200 beds that has operated in the community for 100 years. His agency began the renewal process back in January and received non-renewals from three different carriers one on the D&O policy, one on the general and professional liability coverage, and one for workers compensation. Now that the country is in a full-fledged pandemic, he has been unable to get quotes from other carriers. The feedback that Im getting is that this isnt just a Florida problem, its certainly not just an issue with my particular account, this is a burgeoning thing nationwide to the extent that facilities could be faced with a financial decision that may lead them to go bare, Baker said. He is still hopeful he will be able to place the business but expects that when he does the terms of any coverage will be dramatically different. I think the market was already changing a little bit, but I think were in the early stages of seeing that the virus is really making things at least in the near term worse from a coverability standpoint, he said. It was already getting more challenging, but this has really made it a lot more challenging, Spina said there are still competitors and capacity in the market, and it is a long way off from an affordability crisis. He acknowledges that nursing homes are financially squeezed and may not be able to take on additional premiums so they may choose to self-insure some layers of coverage to keep costs down, but he doesnt think rates will go up more than they were before the virus hit. The hardening has already happened, and its a matter of how hard it gets. There may be pockets where nursing homes cannot find coverage, because of either where they reside or how bad their loss experience has been, he said. But if what I believe is going to happen happens, in terms of the crisis being limited largely to defense costs, then I dont see an Armageddon insurance environment. Liability Issues The level of liability the segment may face when the crisis subsides is top of mind for the industry and its insurers. Professional liability defense attorney Constance Endelicato, vice-chair of the Medical Device and Health Law Committee of the International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC), described the COVID-19 exposures as endless, and said the facilities vulnerability to exposure has been riddled with various complicating factors. Some of those complicating factors include: how quickly a facility locked down to outside visitors; how strictly the facilities followed proper policies and procedures to contain the virus spread; if exposed and asymptomatic workers spread the virus unknowingly; challenges controlling the spread of the virus; lack of treatment options for patients; staffing shortages because of infection, refusal to come to work or walk-outs; and lack of adequate PPE, to name a few. The lack of testing capability, the delayed symptoms, the ongoing admission of new residents, and the residents fundamental rights to have family and friends as visitors, may also play a role in exposure as these factors are thought to be ways in which the virus can spread, said Endelicato, who is also partner at law firm Wood Smith Henning & Berman in Los Angeles where she defends physicians, hospitals and skilled nursing facilities. In general, policies that may be held by skilled nursing facilities and would respond to claims include professional liability, general liability, commercial general liability, commercial property, workers compensation, disability, errors and omissions, employment and business-interruption insurance. Although individual policy considerations will vary, some policies may have specific exclusions or defined terms which could result in limit or negate coverage for losses associated with COVID-19, she noted. As an example, property policies may have specific virus exclusions, while business-interruption policies may require a demonstration of a direct physical loss.' Attorney Alan Levine of Levine and Associates in Florida, who litigates malpractice claims against nursing homes, said he doesnt think COVID-19 creates a slam dunk for lawsuits by plaintiff attorneys. He personally will look at several key factors before filing suits, such as the timing of someones infection was it in January or March and what actions were taken to counter the virus spread. Once you determine how it got in then the liability is looked at: What did they do once it got in to protect these people? If they didnt do anything, you could go after it from that aspect, he said. Its two different phases and thats where you kind of fall into the general policies versus the professional policies. The unknowns in terms of how the virus is spread and when people show symptoms further complicates any general liability claims against the facilities, he said. When youre looking at it from the liability aspect, its did they violate their policy and procedures? What did they do that allowed that virus into their facility that they knew or should have known about? And thats going to be really, quite frankly, hard to prove. But again, if there were elements of it or they were aware of it, you could pin liability, he said. Levine said there is a financial deterrent to attorneys filing frivolous suits against nursing homes because the cases are very expensive and difficult to litigate. The costs can outweigh the benefits. In any kind of civil case, or even a nursing home case, you need two things from a plaintiffs side to be successful you need liability, you need damages, he said. In todays world, from a plaintiffs perspective, its all about the insurance coverage. If youve got good insurance coverage and the case is decent, you move forward with it. But a lot of times youre just running into very, very low insurance coverage, if any at all. TDCSUs Spina said he thinks the main exposures will likely fall under professional liability and whether the facilities did what they were supposed to do to protect the residents as best that they could against a standard of care. This is a widely held axiom of the professional liability world. Whether its healthcare or its non-healthcare, there is a standard of care that is the measuring stick upon which liability is established. Given the unique set of circumstances that this virus provides, how do you measure or hold accountable an organization against the standard of care that really doesnt exist? he asked. Spina thinks there will likely be a rash of claims but also believes nursing homes are not defenseless. [Theres] just a whole bunch of defenses available to them, not just in terms of a measurement against the standard of care, but theres also causation. Exactly how is it spread? How do you get the virus? In a nursing home, it really comes in four ways from visitors who come into the facilities, appointments that they might have to take outside for, any new admissions, and staff, he added. Still, the long term care industry would like to see more done to limit facilities liability. The American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL), which represents more than 14,000 facilities, told Insurance Journal that it is concerned about the potential liability to long term care facilities who are responding to the pandemic and providing high quality patient care while following updated guidance that has been issued by federal agencies such as CDC and CMS. Mark Parkinson, president and CEO of AHCA/NCAL, said the legislation like the CARES Act and the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act) include language that provides additional federal liability protections for volunteer healthcare professionals or broad immunity protections to healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 emergency response. Additionally, the Secretary of Health and Human Services has urged state governors to take action to protect healthcare professionals from medical liability. While we appreciate these initial steps and support from the federal government, more needs to be done to afford appropriate legal protection to those that are working hard to prevent and contain this virus from spreading, Atkinson said. AHCA/NCAL is encouraging every state to extend sovereign immunity provisions to long term care providers and other healthcare sectors providing care during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of mid-April, six states had passed laws that would provide explicit immunity from coronavirus lawsuits against nursing homes and six more granted some form of immunity to healthcare providers. Massachusetts and New York passed laws that explicitly immunize the facilities and Connecticut, Georgia, Michigan and New Jerseys governors issued executive orders that also do so. Inlight Insurance Services Spaan argues that immunity protection for these facilities should absolutely be passed at the federal level because the losses will be devastating to this class if civil litigation is allowed to go unchecked. Immunity has to happen. I dont think theres any other remedy that will provide the long term care providers with the solutions that they need right now, he said. I think you could have the best nursing home in the country doing everything correctly and they could still have an outbreak in their facility. Immunity would be helpful, said Spina, but there will always be a carve-out for the gross negligence and the sensational headlines of these terrible situations that should never happen. He said TDCSU is taking a slightly contrarian view of others in the industry, when it comes to liability claims, as opposed some of its competitors who are nervous that this going to turn into Armageddon. We believe that there are an incredible amount of defenses available outside of the immunity that they are getting in a number of states, he said. [Immunity] is not something you can rely upon because it can always be challenged, and there are certainly exceptions with respect to gross negligence. But I do think that more immunity is going to happen. Topics Lawsuits Carriers COVID-19 Trends Agencies Florida Claims New York Market Homeowners Medical Professional Liability Leaders across party lines prayed for former prime minister Manmohan Singhs speedy recovery after he was admitted to Delhis All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Sunday night for fever and chest pain. Singhs office on late Sunday night confirmed that he had been admitted but underlined that he was doing fine. He is okay. He was taken to the hospital as he had fever due to the side-effect of the medication given yesterday. He is under observation, the former PMs office said. The 87-year-old veteran Congress leader was brought to AIIMS around 8.45pm . A hospital source said that the former PM was admitted in the cardio neurosciences (CNS) tower. Also read: Manmohan Singh admitted to hospital for fever; his office says he is OK Delhis chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a tweeted, Deeply concerned about Dr Manmohan Singh jis health. Hope he makes a full recovery soon. All of India is praying for our former PM. Deeply concerned about Dr Manmohan Singh ji's health. Hope he makes a full recovery soon. All of India is praying for our former PM. https://t.co/Yz6kch8T8m Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) May 10, 2020 Congresss party chief in Karnataka DK Shivakumar said, Deeply concerned about the health of former PM Dr. Manmohan Singh. I along with more than a billion Indians wish him a speedy recovery and pray for his good health and long life. Deeply concerned about the health of Former PM Dr. Manmohan Singh. I along with more than a billion Indians wish him a speedy recovery and pray for his good health and long life. DK Shivakumar (@DKShivakumar) May 10, 2020 Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor also wished the former PM a complete recovery. Concerned by reports that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was admitted to AIIMS in Delhi, but relieved he is not in the ICU & is in good hands. Wishing him a speedy & complete recovery, Tharoor tweeted. Senior National Congress leader Omar Abdullah said, Sorry to hear about Dr Manmhan Singh being admitted to hospital. I hope he recovers and is back home with his family soon. His wise counsel & guidance are much needed during this time of crisis. Sorry to hear about Dr Manmohan Singh being admitted to hospital. I hope he recovers & is back home with his family soon. His wise counsel & guidance are much needed during this time of crisis. https://t.co/kv5Kr9rGd1 Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) May 10, 2020 Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray also tweeted his wishes for Singh. We all pray for the quick recovery of Dr Manmohan Singh. Lets hope he gets home soon and aides the recovery of economy, as we all together will, as one nation, Thackeray said. We all pray for the quick recovery of Dr Manmohan Singh. Lets hope he gets home soon and aides the recovery of the economy, as we all together will, as one nation Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) May 10, 2020 NCP leader and Baramati MP Supriya Sule tweeted saying, Wishing former PM Hon. Dr. Manmohan Singh ji a speedy recovery. Get Well Soon Sir. Wishing Former Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Manmohan Singh Ji a speedy recovery. Get Well Soon Sir. Supriya Sule (@supriya_sule) May 10, 2020 Representative image Bollywood celebrities are setting fitness goals even during the nationwide lockdown meant to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. From Katrina Kaif to Deepika Padukone, celebrities are sharing their workout videos on social media to encourage fans to stay fit. If you wish to train just like them, why not learn the tips and tricks from experts who help celebrities with their fitness regime? Celebrity fitness trainers like Radhika Karle, who is a pilates master and a celebrity trainer or Yasmin Karachiwala, are now helping people train online through platforms like Fitternity. I continue to train many celebrities virtually, including Jacqueline Fernandez, Hrithik Roshan, Sonam Kapoor and Anil Kapoor. But what is interesting about fitness going online is that it is making me more accessible. Being a celebrity trainer, now anyone and everyone across the country can train with me online through apps like Fit-TV, Karle said. Fit-TV is a video-on-demand service. Neha Motwani, Founder and CEO of Fitternity, said that more celebrity trainers are now using video-on-demand services to train people online. We started Fit-TV two to three weeks back and we have seen more than 6,000 subscribers for this format. What we are doing is that we have made the first three videos free and from fourth video onwards people will have to pay Rs 300 per video. Currently, majority of the subscribers are at the three-video point, Motwani said. She added that along with individuals who are using Fit-TV, a lot of large corporates are also using the service. Celebrity fitness experts attracting more people to train online Motwani suggests that celebrity trainers are increasing their reach as more people are accessing online fitness classes. Each fitness activity has a set of celebrity trainers. These are largely originating from studios. Celebrity trainers do have a positive impact. Industry experts like Namrata Purohit in Pilates or for functional training experts like Prashant Sawant who is Shah Rukh Khans trainer, or Vinod Channa we have trainers across the board. India is Bollywood-crazy so fitness is a great thing to take up from Bollywood and these celebrity trainers are helping us to take fitness to a larger audience, Motwani added. Karle suggests that online fitness is going to be a trend and it will continue for some time because of convenience. Plus, having accessibility to a large number of trainers is one more plus point. Online fitness platforms are giving everyone access to celebrity trainers which may not have been accessible otherwise. Training online is not so easy While online fitness classes are a silver lining during the current pandemic, Karle pointed towards some challenges regarding virtual fitness training. The form of movement that I teach that is Pilates and that requires a lot of hands on personal cueing, putting your hands on the client but that I can no longer do. So, my verbal cueing has heightened. In a fitness centre, you can see peoples facial expression, body language and as a personal trainer it is important for us to read the body language and be able to modify training accordingly. Now you are looking at screens, which is crazy difficult, Karle said. However, she added that one advantage is my clients are super focused because they cannot miss one thing that I say. Now they have to really focus on their form. Sonam Kapoor who used to do 15 exercises is doing 25 in a one-hour session, Karle added. At least five migrant labourers were killed and 13 others injured when a truck in which they were travelling overturned in Madhya Pradesh's Narsinghpur Narsinghpur: At least five migrant labourers were killed and 13 others injured when a truck in which they were travelling overturned in Madhya Pradesh's Narsinghpur district, a police official said on Sunday. The accident took place near Patha village on Saturday night when nearly 20 migrant labourers were going in the truck to Jhansi and Etah in Uttar Pradesh from Hyderabad, Additional Superintendent of Police Rajesh Tiwari said. Five labourers were killed and 13 others were injured after the mangoes-laden vehicle overturned, he said. The injured persons were admitted to the district hospital for treatment, he added. KIGALI The MINUSCA Rwanda Contingent has donated a COVID-19 screening device to the Central African Republic (CAR). The machine will accelerate testing of suspected cases of infection as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country reached 94 over the past few days. The device valued at approximately USD 200,000 is used for molecular diagnosis of COVID-19. The process involves the testing of oral swabs to confirm infection with the coronavirus disease. The equipment was handed over to the National Biology Laboratory of Bangui on 17 April 2020. It will help ramp up the CAR Ministry of Healths efforts to identify infected people in order to stop the spread of the virus and save lives. Our laboratory was not equipped to deal with the proper handling of COVID-19 samples at the onset of the pandemic. The institutions sole machine with the capacity to conduct tests had long been dysfunctional,said Laboratory Director, Dr. Clotaire Donatien Rafai. Thanks to the collaboration with MINUSCA, the diagnostic equipment we have received allows us to detect the genetic material of the coronavirus. We have also been able to construct testing facilities that meet World Health Organization (WHO) safety guidelines within a space of less than two weeks with the assistance provided, he added. Support from the Government of the Republic of Rwanda also included the training of 14 laboratory technicians (twelve men and two women) with a background in molecular biology on the use of the device and the provision of personal protective equipment. Rwanda Contingent Medical Service Chief, Colonel John Paul Bitega, spearheaded efforts to establish how Rwanda could lend a hand to the Central African Republic in addressing the coronavirus crisis:We strongly believe in South-South cooperation in Africa. The screening equipment will give CAR national autonomy to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. The machine has the capacity to analyze 90 tests in a couple of hours. Suspected cases of infection are referred to the CAR Ministry of Health, which sends test samples to the laboratory. The trained laboratory technicians are also sent out to take samples of people with COVID-19 symptoms. Samples are now being brought into the laboratory for testing from across the country. Testing is free of charge. Christelle Bobossi, Chief of the Molecular Biology Unit, is on the frontlines of COVID-19 testing. She describes it aspainstaking work that involves decontamination of test kit samples, verifying the personal information on the samples and deactivation of the virus followed by meticulous testing. Test results are typically shared within 48 hours.She emphasized that testing is key to protecting family, friends and the wider community. Almost 300 tests have been conducted at the laboratory so far six of them were positive. According to Dr. Rafai, the donated equipment is all the more significant as it will enable the laboratory to reinforce its capacity in other key areas.With a few adjustments, the screening device can be used to diagnose other diseases such as yellow fever, rubella, Ebola and meningitis. The equipment will, furthermore, boost the laboratorys capacity to conduct research and train other health personnel. Together with the French-supported Institut Pasteur in Bangui, the National Biology Laboratory now constitutes one of only two diagnostic institutions with the capacity to conduct COVID-19 testing in the Central African Republic, thanks to the donation. Related See Full Image Gallery >> When Honda began making zooted-up Civics with big engines and different bodywork in the late 1980s, selling them as Acura Integras in North America and raking in many dollars, Nissan took note. For the 1990 model year and the launch of the Infiniti brand, the luxed-out version of the Euro-market Nissan Primera sedan got Infiniti G20 badging and went on sale over here. After a two-year hiatus in 1997 and 1998, the all-new G20 made its debut for the 1999 model year, and that's what we've got here: a fully equipped Touring version with 5-speed manual transmission, spotted in a Denver boneyard. The G20 Touring got leather seats, a limited-slip differential, and a racy-looking spoiler. Sure looks speedy, though the G20t was less about performance than it was about comfort. G20t buyers got these hep-looking 16" wheels. With just 140 horses from its SR20DE engine (which also went into the quicker Sentra-based machinery of 1999), the G20t wouldn't be beating many of its competitors in drag races. With the 5-speed manual transmission, though, the stock G20t became tolerably fun. Plenty of G20 owners added more power and threw connecting rods enjoyed sport-compact domination during the early 20th century. This one seems pretty tired, but hints of the original snazziness of its interior remain. The good old packing-tape taillight repair. Born in Japan, went to finishing school in Europe. In the UK, a man who felt compelled to play a driving game (equipped with a disturbingly phallic joystick controller) discovers the Primera. This ad positions the Primera as the car of choice for bungling British bank robbers. In Japan, the TV commercials touted the new Primera's advanced suspension design. New Delhi: Tamil Nadu on Sunday (May 10, 2020) reported over 669 new coronavirus positive cases taking the total count of confirmed cases in the state to 7,204. Chennai, that has been the worst-hit city in the state witnessed over 500 cases in the last 24 hours. Chennai's total number of positive infections has now surged to 3,839, which is more than 50% of the total cases in Tamil Nadu. While 135 people were discharged on Sunday in the State, the aggregate number of those who have overcome the illness increased to 1,959. Earlier on Sunday, actor-turned-politician Rajinikanth warned the ruling AIADMK government not to dream of coming back to power if they open the liquor outlets in the state. Superstar Rajinikanth took to his official Twitter handle and wrote, "If the liquor shops are opened at this juncture, the government should forget the dream of coming back to power." The state government on May 4 announced its decision to open the TASMAC liquor outlets from May 7. Reportedly, TASMAC outlets on May 7 had sold liquor worth Rs 170 crore. The Madras HC had initially permitted the opening of the liquor shops in the state subject to several conditions. However, when the outlets were opened, the conditions laid down by the state government and by the Madras HC were openly flouted that led the HC on May 8 to order the closure of outlets while permitting online sales and home delivery of liquor bottles. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu CM Edapaddi Palaniswami on Sunday constituted a high level committee to assist the govt with the economic revival. He tweeted, "Tamil Nadu's reconstruction and economy shall be our top most priority as we recover from COVID. To this end, we have constituted high level committee to assist us with economic revival. We have already set up a taskforce focused on attracting companies to set base in our state." These are the first of the many steps that we are about to take in the direction of revival and growth. We are resilient people and we shall rebuild our state as we emerge from this crisis. Edappadi K Palaniswami (@CMOTamilNadu) May 10, 2020 "These are the first of the many steps that we are about to take in the direction of revival and growth. We are resilient people and we shall rebuild our state as we emerge from this crisis," added CM Palaniswami. GLOBE Telecoms biggest challenge is to carry on keeping the network running for people to remain connected. Braving the risks of possible exposure to Covid-19, this critical skeletal force composed of installers, repairmen, network engineers and other personnel all make a part of the nations unsung heroes. Globe provided its skeletal workforce with meals, accommodations, transportation, insurance, medical expense assistance and personal protective equipment. For students to learn while in the comfort and safety of their homes, Globe joins forces with digital learning experts to discuss the future of education amid the current global pandemic. Globe myBusiness launched an e-learning webinar for educators to help school owners and educators understand digital learning for it to be remotely implemented to impact on future teaching practices. Globe had raised another huge amount worth of points, which had been turned over to the Lung Center of the Philippines to provide personal protective equipment for both health workers and frontliners. Globe also announced that Reward points can still be donated as the company raises money for other hospitals as well. Air France-KLM announced a first-quarter loss of 1.8 billion euros and warned of more woe to come as the coronavirus pandemic decimates international travel. The group said it did not expect to reach pre-crisis levels of passenger demand "before several years". Chief executive Benjamin Smith was quoted in a statement as saying the company was working on "a renewal plan" that was likely to include staff cuts. The Franco-Dutch airline said it had suffered a net loss of 1.8 billion euros ($1.94 billion) in the first three months of the year, more than five times its 324-million-euro loss in the first quarter of 2019. The group highlighted 455 million euros in "over hedged" fuel purchases that were never used as the pandemic collapsed demand for oil and hence prices which tumbled to more than 20-year lows before recovering slightly. Its first-quarter result underscored the effect of the virus crisis which hit France in full in March, with a nationwide lockdown implemented on March 17. Second-quarter figures risk being even more disastrous with most planes now stuck on the tarmac as international travel grinds to a virtual standstill. Chief financial officer Frederic Gagey told a conference call that the airline had even started the year "very well in January and February". French deputy transport minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari told France 2 television that Smith had hinted at "more voluntary departures than direct job cuts" at the airline. Rival British Airways has announced plans to shed 12,000 jobs and United Airlines is looking to eliminate 3,450. 'Slow capacity resumption' The group noted "strong performance at the start of the year with passenger unit revenue up 0.8 percent" at the end of February. "March 2020, however, was strongly impacted by the expansion of the virus and consequential globally imposed travel restrictions to counter the spread of the COVID-19 virus." The group said that 10.5 percent of its capacity had been suspended in the quarter. But looking ahead, capacity was forecast to be 95 percent lower in the second quarter than in the same period a year earlier, before easing back slightly to a still hefty 80 percent drop in the third. The group predicted "a progressive lifting of border restrictions in 2020, enabling a slow capacity resumption" in the summer, but also "a prolonged negative impact on passenger demand, not expected to recover to pre-crisis levels before several years." Air France is to benefit from seven billion euros in French loans either from or backed by the state along with an expected two to four billion euros in aid from the Dutch government. The European Commission has given its green light to the package. The French government has insisted that the help is "not a blank cheque" and is dependent on the airline notably becoming greener by reducing carbon emissions, using more modern aircraft and cutting domestic routes. Also Watch: An Island woman is looking for people with 3D printers to help her produce straps that make face masks more comfortable to wear. Tara Matheson says she got the idea from a B.C. teen who started making the so-called "ear savers" for health-care workers who said wearing masks for long periods caused them to have sore ears. Matheson said she wanted to offer the same to workers in P.E.I. She has made approximately 240 of the straps with a 3D printer and delivered them to workers at hospitals and long-term care homes. "Everyone's loved them as soon as we give them out, people want more," Matheson said. Aaron Lu The so-called "ear saver" is just a small piece of plastic that is worn behind the head. It attaches to the strings on a face mask and takes pressure off the ears. Matheson said it takes about an hour and a half to print three ear savers. She said they cost pennies apiece to produce. The process is time consuming keeping an eye on the filament and making sure nothing jams but Matheson said it's about helping health-care workers feel supported. "They're really going through a lot and they're feeling the pressure, so if I can do anything to help them feel better I'm glad I can help out just a little," she said. Tara Matheson Some of the straps were sent to workers at Charlottetown's Prince Edward Home. Kerry McKittrick, who works as a rehabilitation assistant there, says staff have been thrilled to try the ear savers. "They really liked them," said McKittrick. "First thing they said was, 'It takes the pressure right off your ears, it feels like you're wearing nothing.'" The straps are sterilized prior to delivery and McKittrick said it helps that the plastic is easily washable. She said it means a lot that someone would take the time to think of the comfort of health-care workers. "It's been trying times for many people, especially health-care workers. Our jobs and lives have changed quite a bit," said McKittrick. "So any help we can get from outsiders who are willing to help us it's very much appreciated." Story continues Jeff Matheson The National Institute of Health promotes the design of several ear saver straps including the one Matheson is using with her 3D printer and has approved them for use by health-care workers. Matheson said it's impossible to keep up with the demand for the straps at the moment. She's hopeful that anyone with a 3D printer and a bit of time on their hands might start printing and delivering them, too. 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 COVID-19 stories from CBC P.E.I. The French boat Energy Observer, dubbed the floating laboratory because of the different technologies it hosts, has successfully completed its first transatlantic journey from Saint Malo in north-western France to Martinique in the Caribbean Sea, thanks to solar energy, wind power and the fuel cell technology adopted from automobiles. Developed by the Japanese automobile giant Toyota for its use in the model Mirai, the fuel cell system on Energy Observer underwent slight modifications compared to the one in the cars. Some components are slightly different from the original Mirai parts, as the Mirai uses air cooling for the fuel cell components while this module has water cooling," Luc Vercauteren, Project Leader Powertrain at Toyota Motor Europe told RFI. A fuel cell uses hydrogen and air to generate electricity that powers a vehicle. While in automobiles hydrogen it is sourced from gas stations, on Energy Observer it is extracted from the sea water by using the process of electrolysis. At the start of this year, the Toyota system replaced the previous fuel cell system prototype that has acted as a power source since the boat's launch in 2017. According to Vercauteren, their fuel cell system has been used in thousands of cars, buses and trucks. That makes it very efficient and because it is industrially produced," he added. "It is affordable and reliable. Louis-Noel Vivies, managing director of Energy Observer, said the boat engineers were surprised by the new fuel cell. It is much lighter and more compact than the prototype we used earlier. And it is completely silent, he told RFI. The fuel cell system is integrated into the boat's sophisticated energy management architecture which optimises the use of different renewable energy sources on the boat. The fuel cell kicks into action automatically when the battery capacity falls below 20 percent. Normally, the batteries are charged by the sun and the wind. The solar panels that cover an area of 202 square meters and the two automated, vertical wings that harness wind energy, are responsible for the boat's direct electric propulsion. During cloudy days and at nights, the fuel system powers the boat which was the case during the Atlantic crossing. Steady journey It performed very well and helped the boat maintain a healthy average speed of six knots, Vivies said. The six-member crew set off on 16 March and it took them just over a month to navigate the boat from Saint Malo to Martinique during which it covered a distance of about 9,000 km. The first Atlantic crossing is an important milestone for the boat that is on a seven-year mission to circumnavigate the earth with zero carbon emissions. Marin Jarry, the boat's second-in-command said that without the hydrogen and the daily use of fuel cells, the Atlantic crossing passage would have been a lot longer. We've had no technical failures, despite what were extreme conditions at times. Energy Observer has certainly proven how reliable her energetic architecture is, he said. HRW: Saudi prince held incommunicado after enforced disappearance Iran Press TV Saturday, 09 May 2020 10:01 AM Human Rights Watch (HRW) says Saudi authorities detained Prince Faisal bin Abdullah Al Saud more than a month ago and have since kept him incommunicado. The New York-based organization quoted a source with ties to the family of Prince Faisal as saying on Saturday that the authorities may have forcibly "disappeared" the son of the late King Abdullah, who formerly served as the president of the Saudi Red Crescent Society, in late March. "Despite waves of criticism, the lawless behavior of Saudi authorities during the de facto rule of [Crown Prince] Mohammed bin Salman continues unabated," said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at HRW. "Now we have to add Prince Faisal to the hundreds detained in Saudi Arabia without a clear legal basis." Prince Faisal was previously arrested in November 2017 and held along with over 300 leading business people, royal family members, and current and former officials at Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. They were pressured to turn over large sums of their wealth as part of an alleged "anti-corruption campaign," which observers said was meant to consolidate bin Salman's grip on power and silence his critics. Prince Faisal was released on December 29, 2017 after he agreed to hand over assets, the source said, adding that since then, the prince had been put under an arbitrary travel ban. On March 27, 2020, security forces arrived at Prince Faisal's family compound northeast of Riyadh, where he was self-isolating due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and detained him without revealing the reasons, according to the source. Faisal's family members, he noted, have not been able to learn anything about his location or status, which may qualify as an enforced disappearance. He further stressed that the detained Saudi prince has not publicly criticized authorities since his December 2017 arrest and that his family members are concerned about his health as he has a heart condition. "Saudi Arabia's recent justice reforms have evidently not curbed rampant arbitrary detentions, including of prominent royal family members," Page said. "The arrest and possible disappearance of Prince Faisal demonstrates again Saudi authorities' blatant disrespect for the rule of law and the need for a full overhaul of the justice system." In April, Saudi Princess Basmah bint Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, an outspoken human rights advocate, took to Twitter to say that she is being detained without charge at Riyadh's high-security al-Ha'ir prison, with one of her daughters. She pleaded for freedom and said that her health status was "very critical". In early March, reports emerged that bin Salman had detained Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, King Salman's full brother, along with Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, a former crown prince and interior minister in a new purge of royal family members over an alleged coup attempt. The arrest campaign in Saudi Arabia is widely viewed as an effort by the crown prince to lock down potential challengers to his own succession before his father dies or abdicates the throne. Bin Salman is said to be the chief culprit behind the brutal killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi hit team inside the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on October 2, 2018. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address India's third Covid wave likely to peak on Jan 23, daily cases to stay below 4 lakh: IIT Kanpur scientist ELISA test that detects COVID-19 antibodies developed in India: Vardhan India pti-PTI New Delhi, May 10: The National Institute of Virology (NIV) at Pune has successfully developed the first indigenous antibody detection kit for COVID-19 that will play a critical role in surveillance for coronavirus infection, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute of Virology (NIV) at Pune has developed and validated the indigenous IgG ELISA test COVID KAVACH ELISA for antibody detection for COVID-19, an official statement said. India prepared for worst: Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan The robust indigenous IgG ELISA test for antibody detection developed by ICMR-NIV, Pune will play a critical role in surveillance of proportion of population exposed to SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus infection," Vardhan was quoted as in the statement. The test kit has the advantage of testing 90 samples together in a single run of 2.5 hours, so that healthcare professionals can proceed quickly with necessary next steps, Vardhan said in a series of tweets. This kit was validated at two sites in Mumbai and has high sensitivity and accuracy, Vardhan said. The ELISA-based testing is easily possible even at district level, he said. Developed in a month's time, the testing kit would help to study the presence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies in the Indian population. It is cost-effective, sensitive, rapid, and a large number of samples can be tested at any level of clinical setting, public health centers and hospitals. The ICMR has partnered with Zydus Cadila for mass production of the ELISA test kits. After the development at the ICMR-NIV, Pune, the technology has been transferred for mass production to Zydus Cadila, which is an innovation driven global healthcare company, the statement said. Zydus has proactively taken up the challenge to expedite the approvals and commercial production of the ELISA test kits so that they can be made available for use at the earliest, it said, describing it as a perfect example of Make in India in record time. The COVID-19 pandemic has spread across 214 countries with a total of 38,55,788 confirmed cases and 2,65,862 deaths, the statement said. Most countries in the world are struggling to contain the pandemic using possible interventions. There is an augmented demand of various types of diagnostic tests by countries all across the globe. Most of the diagnostic material for COVID-19 is imported into India from other countries. Therefore, Indian scientists are tirelessly engaged in developing indigenous diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID19. The ICMR-National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, is the apex laboratory of the country with state-of-art infrastructure and expertise for research in virology. The NIVs competent scientific team successfully isolated the SARS-CoV-2 virus from laboratory confirmed patients in India. UP govt raises fuel prices, imposes 'corona tax' on liquor to boost revenue This in turn has paved the way for development of indigenous diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2. While real time RT-PCR is the frontline test for clinical diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2, robust antibody tests are critical for surveillance to understand the proportion of population exposed to infection. The scientists at ICMR-NIV, Pune, have enthusiastically worked to develop and validate the completely indigenous IgG ELISA test for antibody detection for SARS-CoV-2, the statement said. There are also minimal bio-safety and bio-security requirements for the test as compared to the real-time RT-PCR test. The test also has an advantage of having much higher sensitivity and specificity as compared to the several rapid test kits which have recently flooded the Indian market. The ICMR recently cancelled orders for about half a million COVID-19 rapid antibody test kits from China after they were found to be giving out inaccurate results. The testing technique is used to detect antibodies in the blood of people who may have had coronavirus infection. Sherlock Holmes, John Wick, Hellboy. This Sunday you can enjoy some family fun, cathartic vengeance, and sprawling multi-generational dramas as TopFilmTip brings you the best films on TV for Sunday, 10 May. Some films may require a Sky subscription. Over five decades four generations of American settlers win and lose fortunes, survive bandits, wars and nature to build a motorway in sprawling epic How the West Was Won 10:50am ITV4 On the cusp of womanhood, a girl becomes infatuated with a shadowless boy in the definitive telling of the classic tale Peter Pan (2003) 3:55pm ITV2 Kitten saving, tentacled-deity smashing, horn shaving lovelorn demon leads team of supernatural feds in war on Rasputin in Guillermo Del Toros Hellboy (2004) 4:00pm Channel 5 Petty con artist helps fraudster couple go on run amid luscious locales of Greek antiquities in taut thriller The Two Faces of January 4:55pm Film4 Read more: Top-rated TV on offer Driven to insanity by hunger, once proud New Yorker craves his best friend's striped flesh in brine spitting kids comedy Madagascar 5:50pm Channel 4 Seeking villainous boss for their existentially broken species, begoggled haphazard bumblers find criminal in ban-nana fun Minions 6:10pm ITV2 Bank robbing magicians stay one step ahead of relentless FBI agent in rabbit abusing mystery chasing frenetic thriller Now You See Me 6:45pm Film4 Orphaned by fire, three siblings are shuffled from guardian to guardian trying to keep their family fortune from avaricious uncle in fantastical fun Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events 7:00pm E4 Hyper-observant wing-chun-discombobulater unravels cult leader's nefarious plot in devious Victorian mystery fun Sherlock Holmes (2009) 8:00pm ITV2 Controversial, counter conventional, ultraviolent, semi supernatural amoral/judgemental tale of sin and punishment High Plains Drifter 9:00pm ITV4 Clint Eastwood smoking a cigar in a publicity portrait issued for the film, 'High Plains Drifter', USA, 1973. (Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images) The choices of progenitors spill out over the lives of their children in sprawling, poignant, multi-generational heartfelt drama Life Itself 9:00pm Sky Atlantic Story continues After the murder of his puppy, bereaved hitman Keanu Reeves brings tempest of exquisitely executed gun-fu-ju-jitsu on gangster's foolish son John Wick 9:00pm 5 Star Read more: Film released early to streaming Segregated arithmetical African American women assist astronomically complex NASA space race in feel good true story Hidden Figures 9:00pm Film 4 Socially astute strong willed teen seduces emotionally abused hunk of dancing beefcake amid empowering sexual awakening grind-a-thon Dirty Dancing 10:00pm Channel 5 American actors Patrick Swayze (1952 - 2009) and Jennifer Grey star in the film 'Dirty Dancing', 1987. (Photo by /Getty Images) Moneyed Monet thief meets his match in exquisite insurance investigator in John McTiernans heisty thriller The Thomas Crown Affair (1999) 10:30pm BBC One Gay cop Paddy Considine and hard-boiled Jason Statham track serial cop killer in hammer bludgeoning, crow bar bashing thriller Blitz 11:05pm 5 Star Gravel voiced immortal must join forces with fiery adversary to face his past and prevent plague of malevolent magic in frenetic fantasy horror The Last Witch Hunter 11:35pm Film4 Follow TopFilmTip on Twitter for daily film recommendations. Everything new on streaming in May: Netflix UK: Mays new releases NOW TV: Mays new releases Amazon Prime Video UK: May's new releases Disney+ UK: May's new releases 251 Shares Share If you ask a group of medical students to raise their hands if they are, in fact, racist, Id venture to guess that not a single hand would shoot up. And I dont think they would be lying. I am sure that no student believes that he, she, or they are a bigot. Many of us have committed our lives to care for patients regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic status. Yet, despite that commitment, racism is intrinsically embedded into our culture, pervades our righteous perspective of our calling, and undoubtedly affects the care of our patients. We need a cultural and societal shift of seismic proportion to rid ourselves of institutional and structural racism, which, hopefully, would spawn more tolerant individuals and less discriminatory behavior. This is no easy task and will most likely take generations to accomplish. For now though, medical school staff are charged with the responsibility to teach us the impact of racial bias and, more importantly, how to avoid it. So how does a group of educators strip preformed biases that have been cementing themselves for over twenty-two years from the minds of steadfast, test-driven medical students? Oftentimes, my schools bias in medicine seminars consist of a group of faculty members, usually people of color, discussing the rampant prejudice in hospitals and throughout the medical arena. We hear from our classmates and staff how they have been personally affected by racial biases in the medical field as physicians and physicians-to-be. We are shown statistical figures illustrating astounding rates of fatality amongst black individuals compared to that of their white counterparts. The white patients are mentioned almost as a control. Lectures delve into health disparities based on race, which is absolutely imperative for us to comprehend, but thats usually where it ends. We too often fail to discuss the root of these problems, the racial privilege of white people, and what we can do to create a real and powerful charge toward equity. I am a 24-year-old, white, heterosexual, cisgender female. Throughout my life, I have garnered unearned privilege due to my identity and fair skin color. During our class discussions on racism, it is usually people of color who speak up. They discuss how individuals sometimes assume their acceptance to medical school was the result of affirmative action, how the majority of attendings who serve as mentors are white, while the majority of students are not, and how when their badge is not visible when they walk into the hospital, the security officer immediately questions their intentions. The other white students and I usually remain quiet and just listen during these sessions we want to give our fellow students the space and time to discuss their personal experiences with, and fears of, racism. But as I sit quietly, absorbing the gravity of my classmates anecdotes, I wonder how we can ignore the flagrant unearned racial privilege I and the other white students have tacitly been living with. My acceptance to medical school was accredited to my hard work and intelligence. I have a plethora of available mentors who look just like me, and in lectures, I almost exclusively see pictures of white men and women who have made major advances in medicine. I can walk into the hospital with no identification badge on display, and the security guard smiles at me. I can listen silently during a lecture on racism without feeling as though it is my duty to speak up on behalf of my race. White privilege is always present, but it is rarely discussed. Our medical system favors both the white physician and the white patient. It is due time that we call out an ideation that reinforces a culture of white privilege. As white medical students and physicians, it is time for us to acknowledge the privilege we hold and that the same system that has benefitted us our whole lives, has disabled others. While we alone may not be able to dismantle racism on a societal level, it is our duty to acknowledge our privilege and take an active role in addressing the pervasive racism ingrained in the medical system we are immersed in. To effectively address this racism requires a three-pronged approach that allows us to explore our own biases, our own ability to be unintentionally racist, and the ways that we may be perpetuating systemic inequities. 1) We must collectively identify and acknowledge personal experiences of white privilege as individuals within our institution and society as a whole. Awareness is the first step to battling these intrinsic biases, but it is not enough to stop there. Through this recognition, we must develop a shared language across disciplines and institutions allowing for seamless communication amongst colleagues regarding racism and privilege. 2) With this shared understanding, we must work together to collaborate and strategize personal, institutional, and community-wide actions to refute this discrimination. This may include everything from required trainings, workshops, didactic lectures, to group discussions, all focused on the inequities present as both a healthcare worker and a patient. 3) We must pledge a lifelong dedication to end the pervasive racism in the medical field. The option to remain passive in the fight for racial justice is another privilege granted to white people, but it is our monumental responsibility, our moral imperative, to take action. Jessica Cranston is a medical student. Image credit: Shutterstock.com In the wake of the gas leak at a factory in Visakhapatnam, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has issued detailed guidelines for restarting industries after the lockdown and the precautions to be taken for the safety of the plants as well as the workers. In a communication to all states and union territories, the NDMA said due to several weeks of lockdown and the closure of industrial units, it is possible that some of the operators might not have followed the established standard operating procedures. As a result, some of the manufacturing facilities, pipelines, valves may have residual chemicals, which may pose risk. The same is true for the storage facilities with hazardous chemicals and flammable materials, it said. The NDMA guidelines said while restarting a unit, the first week should be considered as the trial or test run period after ensuring all safety protocols. Companies should not try to achieve high production targets. There should be 24-hour sanitisation of the factory premises, it said. The factories need to maintain a sanitisation routine every two-three hours especially in the common areas that include lunch rooms and common tables which will have to be wiped clean with disinfectants after every single use, it added. For accommodation, the NDMA said, sanitisation needs to be performed regularly to ensure worker safety and reduce the spread of contamination. To minimise the risk, it is important that employees who work on specific equipment are sensitised and made aware of the need to identify abnormalities like strange sounds or smell, exposed wires, vibrations, leaks, smoke, abnormal wobbling, irregular grinding or other potentially hazardous signs which indicate the need for immediate maintenance or if required shutdown, it said. At least 11 people lost their lives and about 1,000 others were exposed to a gas leak at a factory in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam on May 7. The incident took place after it restarted operations when the government allowed industrial activities in certain sectors following several weeks of lockdown. The lockdown was first announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 for 21 days in a bid to combat the coronavirus threat. The lockdown was then extended till May 3 and again till May 17. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) T he UK has recorded another 269 deaths among people diagnosed with coronavirus. The latest figures from the Department of Health show that a total of 31,855 people have died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for Covid-19. The statistics include deaths recorded up until 5pm on Saturday. It is a rise of 269 fatalies from 31,586 the day before. The figure for total deaths issued on Saturday was reduced by one from 31,587 after Northern Ireland removed a previously reported death from its statistics. Separately, the number of deaths involving Covid-19 that have been registered across the UK currently stands at 33,021. This includes 29,710 deaths that occurred in England and Wales up to April 24 and which had been registered up to May 2, according to the Office for National Statistics. Boris Johnson will make an address to the nation this evening / Getty Images The statistics are different to the individuals figures announced each day by each of the UK's health bodies and may vary due to different reporting methods and a lag in recording. The numbers are also often lower at weekends. Loading.... The latest fatalities come as Boris Johnson confirmed the new "stay alert" slogan to take the UK into the next phase of lockdown. The new "stay alert, control the virus, save lives" instruction replaces Downing Street's "stay at home" message throughout the past seven weeks of restrictions. The PM is poised to unveil a five-phase warning system during an address to the nation at 7pm, with the UK currently at level four of a spectrum ranging from level one at green to level five at red. The UK is set to enter the next phase of lockdown after the PM's speech / Getty Images Mr Johnson tweeted on Sunday lunchtime: Everyone has a role to play in helping to control the virus by staying alert and following the rules. This is how we can continue to save lives as we start to recover from coronavirus. He also revealed that Brits must now stay at home "as much as possible", work at home "if you can", and limit contact with others and maintain social distancing. Nicola Sturgeon warned it was not time to lift the restrictions yet / PA But it has prompted a backlash from all three devolved leaders, who have refused to budge from the original stay at home advice, while Labour said it would leave the public "puzzled". Nicola Sturgeon warned on Sunday afternoon that "people will die unnecessarily" if restrictions are lifted too soon, citing the R-number - which measures contagion - as "still too high". Loading.... In a withering attack on Number 10, she told a press briefing: "We should not be reading of each other's plans in newspapers," adding "I don't know what 'stay alert' means". She added: "As leaders we have a duty to deliver that clarity to those we are accountable to, not to confuse it. To that end I have asked UK government not to deploy their ''stay alert' advertising campaign in Scotland." In a further blow for Number 10, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford and Northern Ireland leader Arlene Foster also distanced themselves from the new mantra. Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick earlier defended the move, calling it the right time to "update and broaden the message". A No 10 spokesman said the public can stay alert by staying at home as much as possible, limiting contact with other people and keeping two metres apart where possible. They worked the phone lines from early morning till late night to lend Indians stranded in the United Kingdom a helping hand and emotional support. Be it food, medical help or counselling, a group of Indians settled in the UK came out to help not just students but all Indians stranded in the country due to COVID-19 lockdown. This group, Indian National Student Association (INSA) in the UK, came to aid of many Indians helping them to survive almost two months of unprecedented situation triggered due to COVID-19 outbreak worldwide. While the government of India began the mission of evacuating Indians stranded abroad giving hope to many who are still awaiting their return, INSA ensured that Indians locked down in the UK and other nations won't lose their dignity and mental balance. Air India's first evacuation flight from London would be landing in Mumbai soon. From collecting and disbursing verified information on flights, steps taken by Embassies, helping them fill forms for repatriation to calming their anxieties till they receive an official reply, this group of relatively young professionals handheld many Indians who were stuck abroad. Speaking to ANI from London, Amit Tiwari, a banker by profession and President of INSA-UK said that as the organisation works primarily for students, there are varied challenges being faced by students, mental health being the biggest of them. "Mental health issue is a big challenge. You need qualified people to handle them. There are students who have got stuck on campuses while local students have gone back to their homes. Foreign students are inside these campuses which are no less than small townships. These students are feeling lonely and we are reaching out to them, talking to them and asking them to stay positive," said Tiwari. "There are people who have come here on short term visa or have come to undertake exam or there are tourists from India, they started contacting us. We sent across messages to those who wanted to help. We have been partnering with other organisations like Friends of India International as well. As living here is expensive and stringent rules to get medicines, we helped Indians out. We have a team of doctors and they provide consultancy regularly. We got distress calls from the US, Chile, Australia, Germany and others," Tiwari further added. The organisation has deployed a 14 member team manning the telephones calls 8 am to 10 pm and one in Singapore answering emails. While another team keeps checking social media to provide information from government sources. The core team aims to provide medical and legal advice to people in distress. "There are students who have paid fee and accommodation upfront and need a refund. We have qualified people to point them in the right direction. Food supplies are a challenge simply because they are low on funds. They need money to buy a flight ticket when they get a chance to get back to India. People have been rationing and we need to sometimes provide food. Sometimes we find a person living close to them to deliver food," said Tiwari who has been touch with government authorities to provide credible information to the stranded. The organisation has also put in a request to the Embassy to provide flights to major airports in India. -ANI Also Read: Delhi HC to hear petitions challenging Delhi govt decision allowing opening of liquor shops, levy of special Corona fee TDT | Manama His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa received a cable of thanks last night from Interior Minister General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa. On behalf of the Ministrys personnel, General Shaikh Rashid extended deepest thanks to HM the King for praising the efforts of all sections in maintaining the security and stability of the homeland and protecting national achievements and gains. He said that the police of Bahrain realise the royal directives to encourage all state institutions to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19) as part of nationwide precautionary measures, stressing commitment to Bahrains security, the solidarity of its people and national unity. The Interior Minister hailed HM the Kings praise for the Ministrys sections, which, he said, represents a catalyst for all the affiliates who pursue their duties in protecting social security, reiterating allegiance to HM the King Mere hours after Vice President Mike Pences press secretary tested positive for COVID-19, he was set to meet with a group of food industry executives who had gathered for a roundtable discussion in West Des Moines, Iowa. But before Pence joined them on the stage, someone came in and asked all five guests to remove their masks, which they all did dutifully, reports the Intercept, which posted a segment of the live video stream of the event that showed the sequence of events. The strange request underscored just how committed the White House is to ignoring federal health advice intended to slow the spread of the pandemic coronavirus, notes the Intercepts Robert Mackey. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is, of course, hardly the first time Pences seeming insistence on not wearing a mask has raised eyebrows. Pence refused to wear a mask at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, claiming it wasnt necessary because he was tested regularly. Later he acknowledged he should have worn a mask. I didnt think it was necessary, but I should have worn the mask at the Mayo Clinic, Pence said. Advertisement Advertisement Pence didnt wear a mask during his events in Iowa that were intended to encourage economies to start returning to normal. But throughout the day there were clear signs that everything continued to be far from normal. Before the event in which the executives were asked to remove their masks, staffers wearing gloves and masks took the temperature of people who entered the building. And even though members of the audience did appear to be staying apart from each other, video showed that few were actually wearing masks. The events of Friday illustrate just how the question of whether to wear a mask or not has become a political statement across the United States. Even as health care officials encourage people to wear masks, those who think that the coronavirus threat is overblown are getting clear signals from some of the countrys leaders, including President Donald Trump, that its OK not to wear one. That tension has even led to violence in a few places as people who refuse to wear masks have confronted employees at stores that demand everyone put one on. Ultimately, the president is not just failing to model good behavior, writes Mackey, he is actively discouraging it. As of Sunday afternoon, the coronavirus had killed almost 80,000 people across the United States. For more of Slates news coverage, listen to What Next. The requested page is currently unavailable on this server. Back to [RTHK News Homepage] An Air India flight landed in Mumbai from London at 1.30 am on Sunday carrying 239 Indians from the United Kingdom who were stranded there due to suspension of commercial passenger air services and the subsequent lockdown, an official statement said. In addition to this, two more repatriation flights -- one each from Singapore and Manila ( Philippines) -- are expected to arrive in Mumbai on Sunday, it said. While the flight from Singapore (AI 343) will be carrying 243 passengers, the Manila-Mumbai flight (AI 387) would bring back 241 Indian nationals from the South East Asian country, as per the statement. "1st flight 2 #Mumbai landed- crew interaction less with the passengers. Protective kit was given 2 all-along with snack n meal kept on the seat beforehand. Next #quarantine. Watch the space," tweeted a passenger on the flight. "Reached Mumbai safely from UK. Thank you so much to @airindiain @HCI_London, @NISAU_UK, @MEAIndia," another passenger tweeted. The Mumbai airport authorities, in a statement on Saturday, said the arriving passengers with symptoms will be moved to isolation centres. Asymptomatic passengers residing in Mumbai will be moved to quarantine facilities like hotels, while those from outside the city will be transported by the state to their respective district headquarters, it said. MUSKOKAShould people be coming up to the cottage during the COVID-19 pandemic? Dr. Charles Gardner says no, but Premier Doug Ford says that seasonal residents can go conditionally. Gardner, who is the chief medical officer of health for the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, said during his press briefing on Friday, May 8 that he is continuing to advise against people coming up to their cottages or secondary residences. My advice is to ask people to not go to their secondary residence at this time, their cottages in our territory, to stay in their primary residence. And that is because of the potential to contribute to transmission and our more rural locations that have low rates of COVID-19 relative to the Greater Toronto Area, said Gardner. That area is three times the per capita rate, and when you have large numbers of people coming up, in the thousands to secondary residences in Muskoka, for example, large numbers of people coming up to that area increases the probability of transmission, he explained. I advise people not to come up. I can see that people have property maintenance needs for their properties, if they have other ways that they can meet them remotely, that would be more desirable. But as the premier and Muskokas mayors have pointed out, many seasonal residents have already arrived. We do have a backup message if people decide to come up regardless: that they exercise physical distancing, keeping a distance of two metres from other people, that they bring up their own provisions and they dont have to take the risk or impose the risk to others potentially of going shopping or going to the more urban centres, he said. People need to become aware of the potential that if they become a case in a more rural location, theyll have a harder time having access to timely medical care. If we have a large amount of that happening, that could overwhelm our local health-care provisional, though at this time it is not strained, said Gardner. Although Ford has also asked people not to go to their cottages, during his daily press briefing on Friday, he confirmed rumours that he went to his cottage in Port Sydney on Easter Sunday to check the pipes, since they burst a couple years ago. He said he drove up, checked his property and then returned to his primary residence by noon that same day. In his daily press briefing on Thursday, Ford did not discourage people from coming up, but rather said that if seasonal residents decide to go to their cottages on the long weekend to check on things, they should bring their own supplies and follow the physical-distancing protocols. When you go up north if you want to check on your plumbing at your cottage or see whats going on out there, this isnt going to be the typical May the 24th weekend. Im asking you, please dont bring a whole (group) of people up. its not the party weekend thats been in the past, said Ford. Go up there, check things out, try to bring your own supplies up there. In Norfolk County and in Haldimand County, where cottagers have temporarily been banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ford said he does not blame seasonal residents for feeling frustrated. How do you tell people that are paying taxes and paying the bills for the vast majority of the people there to stay home? People are co-operating, people have been very, very understanding, he said. With files from the Toronto Star. Sarah Law is a reporter with the Gravenhurst Banner. Read more about: The Times Union has lifted the paywall on this developing coverage to provide critical information to our community. To support our journalists work, consider a digital subscription. Total COVID-19 cases: 335,395 in New York state, including 26,612 deaths. 57,180 recovered. 1,153,768 total tested. 1,321,223 in U.S., including 79,058 deaths. 212,534 recovered. 8,709,630 total tested. 4,079,388 worldwide, including 281,313 deaths. 1,394,920 recovered. Note: The figures include presumed COVID-19 deaths. The number of positive confirmed cases is cumulative and includes people who have recovered as well as those who died. Additional resources: Where to get tested for COVID-19. If you were in charge, tell us how you would reopen New York. Here are the latest cancellations and postponements. For a detailed map, check out the Times Unions New York Coronavirus Tracker To get regular updates on our coverage, sign up for our coronavirus newsletter. Share stories about people helping others in our Facebook Group. Sunday's updates: 4:39 p.m.: Schenectady County goes more than a week without a coronavirus death County officials have not reported a coronavirus-related death in the county since May 2. The last COVID-19 patient to die in the county was a 90-year-old woman. Read more ___ 4:15 p.m.: New cases slow in Schenectady County There are 556 positive cases of COVID-19 in Schenectady County, up three from Saturday. The number of hospitalizations in the county has increased by two to a total of 19. However, there are no new deaths in the county, with the total number remaining at 28. ___ 2:27 p.m.: Confirmed cases rise in Rensselaer County Rensselaer County has three new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 424. The new cases include two women, ages 22 and 69, and a 71-year-old man. The spread of coronavirus in nursing homes also continues. The Van Rensselaer Manor nursing home has its fourth case of COVID-19, an employee that is an Albany County resident. Four Rensselaer County residents are hospitalized, two of which are in the intensive care unit. The county has had 25 deaths due to COVID-19. ___ 2:21 p.m.: Cuomo: Hospitals cannot discharge COVID-19 patients to nursing homes New York will no longer allow hospitals to discharge patients to nursing homes unless they test negative for COVID-19, and staffers in those facilities must also be tested for the virus twice a week, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Sunday. The additional protocol comes as the Cuomo administration has faced severe backlash for its handling of the pandemic in nursing homes, where the governor has said the coronavirus spreads "like fire through dry grass." If a nursing home cannot care for someone sick with the coronavirus for any reason including a lack of supplies or an inability to maintain social distancing they must transfer that person to another facility or hospital, or risk losing their license, Cuomo said. Read more ___ 11:20 a.m.: Saratoga County cases nears 400 The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Saratoga County has increased over the weekend to 398. However, the number of hospitalizations has dropped to six. ___ 10:47 a.m.: Albany County could have its reopening plan ready by Wednesday Albany County Executive Dan McCoy says he expects the county will meet all of the state's guidelines to reopen the economy in mid-May by Wednesday and expects to send a draft of the plan to the state by Saturday. "We can try to get back to a norm," McCoy told reporters Sunday morning. "But that is going to work with everyone doing the right stuff." ___ Saturday: 3 employees at Halfmoon assisted living facility test positive There are 397 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Saratoga County and 4 of those individuals are hospitalized as of Saturday, according to The Saratoga County Department of Public Health Services. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. As reported yesterday, 10 of the 12 residents at Cook Adult Home, an assisted living facility in Halfmoon, have tested positive for COVID-19. One of the residents is in the hospital, another is in a rehabilitation center and the remaining eight who have tested positive are in isolation at their residences. One resident tested negative and one resident refused a test. Additionally, all eight of the employees at Cook Adult Home were tested and three have tested positive. ___ Saturday: Shaker Place resident dies at VA Hospital A man in his 80s with multiple underlying health issues has died due to COVID-19, Albany County Executive Dan McCoy said Saturday. The death toll for the county now stands at 59. The man has been a resident at Shaker Place but died at the VA Hospital. McCoy said there are now 1,336 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in the county. Additionally, there are now 966 people under mandatory quarantine and 15 people under precautionary quarantine. To date, 3,083 individuals have completed quarantine, with 799 of them having tested positive and recovered. ___ Saturday: Deaths statewide rise slightly Gov. Andrew Cuomo said 226 deaths were reported since Friday morning's update, of which 53 were in nursing homes and 173 were in hospitals. That's up from 216 the previous day. The governor, during his Saturday briefing, took note of the disturbing number of young people being affected by the illness. The Department of Health will be doing more research and testing on that aspect of the outbreak, he said. "This is the last thing we need at this time," Cuomo said. ___ Saturday: Look to the sky for worker tribute The state Division on Military and Naval Affairs said today an LC-130 "Skibird" assigned to the New York Air National Guard's 109th Airlift Wing will conduct a 12-city regional flyover on Tuesday to salute medical professionals, first responders, and essential workers during the pandemic. Beginning at 11 a.m., "Skier 95" will pass over Amsterdam, Fonda, Johnstown, Gloversville, Utica, Rome, Lake George, Glens Falls, Saratoga, Troy, Albany and Schenectady. The plane, which is equipped with skies to land on ice and snow, will dip down to 500 feet as it passes over area hospitals. The flight is being conducted as part of the U.S. Air Force's nationwide salute to medical professionals, first responders, and essential workers. ___ Read more updates from Saturday WASHINGTON: The U.S. economy lost a staggering 20.5 million jobs in April, the steepest plunge in payrolls since the Great Depression and the starkest sign yet of how the novel coronavirus pandemic is battering the world's biggest economy. The Labor Department's closely watched monthly employment report on Friday also showed the unemployment rate surging to 14.7% last month, shattering the post-World War Two record of 10.8% touched in November 1982. The bleak numbers strengthen analysts' expectations of a slow recovery from the recession caused by the pandemic, adding to a pile of dismal data on consumer spending, business investment, trade, productivity and the housing market. The report underscores the devastation unleashed by lockdowns imposed by states and local governments in mid-March to slow the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus. The economic crisis spells trouble for President Donald Trump's bid for a second term in the White House in November's election. After the Trump administration was criticized for its initial reaction to the pandemic, Trump is eager to reopen the economy, despite a continued rise in COVID-19 infections and dire projections of deaths. "Our economy is on life support now," said Erica Groshen, a former commissioner of the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics. "We will be testing the waters in the next few months to see if it can emerge safely from our policy-induced coma," added Groshen, who is now a senior extension faculty member at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast nonfarm payrolls diving by 22 million. Data for March was revised to show 870,000 jobs lost instead of 701,000 as previously reported. A record streak of job growth dating to October 2010 ended in March. The unemployment was forecast rising to 16% from 4.4% in April. Though millions of Americans continue to file claims for unemployment benefits, April could mark the trough in job losses. More small businesses are accessing their portion of an almost $3 trillion fiscal package, which made provisions for them to get loans that could be partially forgiven if they were used for employee salaries. The Federal Reserve has also thrown businesses credit lifelines and many states are also partially reopening. Companies like Walmart and Amazon are hiring workers to meet huge demand in online shopping. Truck drivers are also in demand, while supermarkets, pharmacies and courier companies need workers. Still, economists do not expected a quick rebound in the labor market. "Given the expected shift in consumer behavior reflecting insecurities regarding health, wealth, income, and employment, many of these firms will not reopen or, if they do reopen, hire fewer people," said Steve Blitz, chief economist at TS Lombard in New York. "This is one reason why we see the underlying recession extending through the third quarter." Economists say the economy entered recession in late March, when nearly the whole country went into COVID-19 lockdowns. The National Bureau of Economic Research, the private research institute regarded as the arbiter of U.S. recessions, does not define a recession as two consecutive quarters of decline in real gross domestic product, as is the rule of thumb in many countries. Instead, it looks for a drop in activity, spread across the economy and lasting more than a few months. The Centre told states on Sunday to ensure strict adherence of containment zone guidelines and clear demarcation of the areas with coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases, adding that they should not let any relaxation of the national lockdown lead to chaos, a development that came a day ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modis meet with chief ministers. The Prime Ministers Office (PMO) announced that Modi will hold the fifth video-conference on tackling the Covid-19 outbreak with the chief ministers at 3pm on Monday. At the previous meets, the Prime Minister has taken suggestions from the CMs on the contours and extension of the national lockdown, put in place to contain the infections. Officials have told HT that at Mondays meet, the PM is likely to discuss further increase in economic activity in the country while also tackling the infections in the containment zones. Also Watch | Will PM-CMs decide on lockdown exit & the man living at airport for 2 months Also read: Number of critical Covid-19 patients has halved across the country, shows data Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba met state chief secretaries on Sunday and advised them to ensure that green zones areas that are largely Covid-19-free remain insulated from the spread of the pathogen, according to an official who was present during the interaction and spoke on condition of anonymity. The states were also asked to allow unhindered movement of health care workers, the official added. An official statement on the meeting also said that many chief secretaries said that while protection is required from Covid-19, the economic activities also need to be stepped up in a calibrated manner. The deliberations came a day after Gauba held two back-to-back meetings to identify possible areas that can be opened up after May 17. The country has been under a complete lockdown since March 25, a move aimed at breaking the chain of infections. The number of infections, which have affected more than four million people across the world, rose to 67,085 in India on Sunday. Experts say that a recent relaxation in the lockdown to boost economic activity may lead to an increase in Covid-19 cases. Also read| Covid-19: What you need to know today While restrictions were considerably relaxed on May 4 to boost a sluggish economy, the government is expected to further ease the curbs after May 17, when the lockdown is scheduled to end. The government has begun internal discussions on possible additional relaxations and unlike the previous meet between the PM and the chief ministers, Mondays video conference will have all CMs speaking on the issue, according to a person aware of the matter. Due to the paucity of time, the previous deliberations had limited numbers of CMs sharing their views. On Sunday, Gauba told the chief secretaries that containment areas have to be well-demarcated to avoid confusion among the public as well as police or health officials and stringent implementation of rules has to be ensured, the official quoted above said. Follow latest updates on coronavirus here The Centre has regularly received reports about loosely earmarked containment zones leading to non-adherence of health safety norms and free movement of people, the official added. While the Centre is worried about a surge in the number of Covid-19 cases, the states have been asked to keep an eye on the green zones to ensure these areas remain unaffected. The cabinet secretary also cited reports about the frequent harassment of medical workers and underlined that their movement should be unhindered and they must not face any difficulty due to the restrictions, another official said. As the Centre seeks states inputs for the next course of action, senior Congress strategist Jairam Ramesh argued that the Union government must give the states complete freedom to design their own action plans. It is ridiculous that the Centre is making all plans and asking states to follow it. It should be the other way round. The battle against Covid needs to be de-centralised. States should be free to make their own plans and decide which areas are vulnerable. This green, red and orange zone concept is not working, Ramesh said. At Sundays meet, state officials shared data to show how they were tackling the Covid-19 outbreak. Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Tripura flagged concerns over a number of positive cases found in Bangladeshs districts adjacent to the state. The Tripura chief secretary pointed out that the international border was porous and the Centre must ensure that Bangladesh citizens cant enter Tripura, the second official said. Click here for complete coronavirus coverage The Assam chief secretary underlined that while a large number of migrant workers were returning to the state in special trains, it needed to be given advance notice and sufficient time to set up quarantine facilities for such a large number of people. He was assured that the state would be informed about in-bound train schedules in advance. West Bengal home secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay said that the state has reconciled its Covid-19 data with the Centres after the administration was accused of under-reporting of cases. He read out a written demand that for the next phase, the government should adopt a more decentralised approach and a zone-specific plan should be allowed, the official said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Namita Bajpai By Express News Service LUCKNOW: The crucial case of Agra witnessing an unprecedented spurt in COVID-19 cases breaching the 700-mark with 36 more people testing positive for the deadly virus on Saturday is a major cause of concern not only for the state authorities but Centre as well. The merciless march of the deadly virus in the City of Taj has made the Centre to get a direct feedback from residents of the worst-hit district of Uttar Pradesh rather than relying on district administration and state machinery. Taking the initiative, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri called up vice president of Tourism Guild of Agra, Rajeev Saxena on Friday evening. As per sources, Puri took a first-hand account from Saxena about the situation of the spread of coronavirus in Agra, which contributes a major chunk of revenue through tourism. Moreover, the Agra model, which had drawn all-round appreciation in the initial days of the first lockdown for containing the number of coronavirus-positive case effectively by sealing the affected areas and enforcing the lockdown, is not yielding desired results now. The district, with 706 cases on Saturday, has so far seen 23 deaths due to COVID-19 and at least 303 people have recovered after getting infected with the deadly disease, said district magistrate PN Singh. he added that sampling in hotspots was continuing at a brisk pace and currently, 380 active cases were convalescing in the hospitals. However, such a huge spurt in the cases is being attributed to non-cooperation by the members of Tablighi Jamat who had returned from Markaz at Nizamuddin in a large number to Agra and hid inside the city mosques. The new cases were mostly from the 44 hotspots and those who had come in contact with some infected persons. The district health department has so far collected 8,835 samples. Agra had reported its first case of the shoe merchant with a foreign travel history on March 2. It was followed by his five family members but after that, the rate of infliction in the Taj city declined and the curve had nearly flattened when the Jamatis started testing positive in large numbers. Moreover, the casual approach of a few private hospitals also contributed to the spike by hiding the information of inflictions among doctors, nurses and other apra medical staff in big number. Now the virus has made its way to district jail as well where an inmate serving a life term had tested positive on Thursday. Owing to the sealing of a number of COIVD hospitals with health staff testing positive in Agra, the district was left with limited options to cater to the COVID-19 patients and the infliction started spreading to 10-11 adjoining districts in the division. In Firozabad, the tally has climbed to 174, while in Mathura two new cases have been admitted to the district hospital. The number of cases has gone up to 38 in the holy city which continues to see a drought of pilgrims as a result of the lockdown. The Agra administration on Saturday announced new quarantine centres for the incoming migrant labourers who will be required to spend 14 days before entering villages. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 19:15:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TASHKENT, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Almost 2 million Uzbeks fought Nazi Germany during World War II, according to newly revealed data, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has said. "Until now it was believed that ... about 1.5 million (Uzbeks) participated in the war. However, according to recent data, about 1.951 million people were mobilized to the front," the president said Saturday during his speech to mark Victory Day, which is commemorated in former republics of the Soviet Union. Mirziyoyev delivered the speech at a ceremony in a newly built Victory Park dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the victory over Fascism with the surrender of Nazi Germany on May 9, 1945, saying new data were revealed thanks to the declassification of archival documents and cooperation with other countries. He said more than 538,000 Uzbeks died in the battles, and more than 158,000 others went missing. Uzbekistan fought during World War II alongside other former republics of the Soviet Union. The Central Asian country became independent in 1991. Mirziyoyev said that according to the latest data, 1.5 million people including over 250,000 children were evacuated to Uzbekistan during the wartime. Enditem Your vote or your life. Sound extreme? It could come down to that. Medical experts warn the coronavirus pandemic could erupt in a second wave this fall with no vaccine yet available to halt it. As a consequence, voting in the November election could pose a risk for many in Connecticut. For all the advances in multiple areas, our state is woefully behind the times with making it easier for people to vote. Connecticut is one of only nine states in the country not to allow widespread mail-in ballots. The state constitution lays out the few reasons acceptable for voting by absentee ballot, such as military service. While the constitution cannot be changed in time for the election, a needlessly restrictive statute can be amended. The constitution allows absentee ballots due to sickness; the related statute (CGS 9-3) dictates his or her illness. When the General Assembly holds a special session this summer on budget matters, members must act to revise the statute. Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recently interpreted the statute to permit voters with underlying risk factors relevant to COVID-19 to obtain an absentee ballot. In other words, they dont have to actually be ill at the time. This makes sense. But a legislative adjusting of the wording would lend permanency and should be done. The coronavirus pandemic poses risk to in-person voting for the voters as well as the poll workers, who often are retired and necessary social distancing would slow the process, which could discourage those waiting in line. But even in non-pandemic times, the state should be working to make it easier for people to participate in democracy and vote. Two-thirds of the states allow no-excuse mail-in voting. Why not Connecticut? Four-fifths of the states allow early voting. Why not Connecticut? One concern is the possibility of fraud, but that is not borne out in the evidence in other states that have had more progressive voting for years, including five states that conduct elections entirely by mail. Also, the technology involved with printing the ballots and envelopes reduces the possibility of fraud. But these must be ordered sufficiently in advance. Merrill is proactively mailing applications for absentee ballots to all registered voters in the state, explaining her interpretation of the statute as it relates to the pandemic and health concerns. Two Democratic state representatives, Matt Blumenthal of Stamford and Christine Palm of Chester, said last week they will push legislators to allow all voters to cast ballots by mail for the primaries and the Nov. 3 election. Fear of the virus could keep voters from the polls, they said. Every election is important, but a presidential one even more so as the future direction of the country is at stake. Connecticut must ensure that citizens wont have to choose between their vote and their health. A day after the ruling Congress announced its second nominee for the May 21 election to nine seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has conveyed the polls should be "unopposed", senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said on Sunday. Thackeray, who is not a member of either Houses of the state legislature, is one of the nominees for the elections, which became necessary after terms of the sitting MLCs ended on April 24. "(Shiv Sena president) Uddhav Thackeray personally feels that the election for the nine seats of the Legislative Council take place unopposed. He expects so because he wants to dedicate most of his time to ongoing fight against coronavirus," Raut told reporters. He, however, parried the questions on whether the Congress, an alliance partner in the Sena-led state government, fielding another candidate could lead to voting by MLAs, who forms the electoral college for the MLC elections. "A similar question needs to be asked to the BJP which has fielded four candidates. Like the Congress, the BJP has also fielded one extra candidate. "Instead of asking the Congress to bring down its nominations from two to one, you should also ask the BJP that why it has fielded a fourth candidate," he said. As the Congress had earlier decided to field only one candidate for the May 21 elections, there were nine candidates in the fray for as many seats. But on Saturday evening, state Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat tweeted that Rajkishore alias Papa Modi will be party's second candidate besides Rajesh Rathod, a Jalna zilla parishad member whose name was announced from Delhi. Thorat said he was confident that both will win. Modi is the party's Beed district unit chief. The 288-member Maharashtra Assembly forms electoral college for the polls, and a candidate needs 29 votes to win. The Congress has 44 MLAs. The last day of filing nomination is May 11, scrutiny of nominations will take place on May 12 and the last date of withdrawal of papers is May 14. The Shiv Sena and NCP, other two ruling alliance partners, have so far announced two candidates each, while the opposition BJP has announced four candidates. Thackeray and incumbent deputy Chairperson of the Legislative Council Neelam Gorhe are the nominees of the Sena while Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari are the candidates of the NCP. Former NCP MP Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil, Gopichand Padalkar, Praveen Datke and Ajit Gopchhade are the nominees of the BJP, which has the highest 105 MLAs. The BJP nominees filed their nominations on Friday. Thackeray will be filing his papers on May 11. Jaquelin Taylor Robertson, an architect who grew up on a grand classical estate in Virginia before becoming one of New Yorks most prominent and impassioned advocates of urban design, died on Saturday at his home in East Hampton, N.Y. He was 87. The cause was Alzheimers disease, his wife, Anya Robertson, said. The scion of an aristocratic Virginia family, Mr. Robertson designed a wide range of buildings in multiple styles, but he never lost his love of classicism, which he called the symbolic hard currency of architecture. Its gold in the bank, he said in a 1996 interview with Town & Country magazine. The other stuff is leveraged buyouts and soybean futures. Mr. Robertson first came to public notice not as an architect of individual buildings, however, but as one of the eager and ambitious young designers who clustered around John V. Lindsay when he was elected mayor of New York in 1965. The Senior Pastor of Awaiting The Second Coming Of Jesus Christ Ministry, Adewale Giwa has asked President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to open churches in Nigeria to enable pastors heal all coronavirus patients in the country. Pastor Giwa, who made this call in a statement on Sunday, challenged the government saying they should re-open the churches if truly they are not hiding anything from Nigerians. The clergyman also noted that there is a spirit at work through the devil that brought the pandemic on Nigerians which needs to be handled appropriately. There is a spirit that came with COVID-19 that has blocked the eyes of majority of Nigerians, he said. The religious leaders must pay serious attention to this spirit of deception. Cant you see how they are making jest of us on the internet? The devil is at work, and all hands must be on deck to win this battle. It shall not be well with the devil and all that brought this staged pandemic to deceive Nigerians. They brought to Jesus all who were sick, afflicted with various diseases and torments, possessed with demons, epileptics, and paralytics; and he healed them, according to Matthew 4:24. If there is nothing that the government is hiding, let them reopen the churches and bring the victims to the house of God. I know the God whom I serve, and I strongly believe that He is able to heal all diseases. I took up this Ministry with pure conscience. The most painful thing is that there is a division in Christianity. However, does that stop God from answering our prayers? No. I can tell you boldly that the true men of God are few, and only God knows His servants. Jesus Christ said in the book of John 10:14 that He knows his sheep and his sheep know him. If you are for God, you will definitely know that you are for God. KanyiDaily recalls that Bishop David Oyedepo of Winners Chapel had said that the doors to Churches are declared open and that anyone against it will die. This was after the cleric kicked against the revised lockdown directives which sidelined religious gatherings due to the Coronavirus pandemic. As the sun rose on the Williams Grove Flea and Farmers Market, vendors were preparing for a day of sales, in spite of unseasonably cold weather - and in spite of the call from Gov. Tom Wolf for them and their customers to stay home. The market is located in Cumberland County, which is still under the red phase of Wolfs plan to gradually loosen the restrictions he put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19. Under those guidelines, only businesses designated as life-sustaining should be operating as the county remains under a stay-at-home order. That didnt stop hundreds from coming to shop during the flea markets first hours Sunday. While the crowds were steady, there were gaps between groups as they walked between stalls - each of which was set further apart than usual, per the market organizers instructions. Nearly every person wore a mask, even if some noses poked out from above them, or they dangled loosely around peoples necks. Many vendors used hand sanitizer following a cash transaction. Although both the vendors and customers at the market were defying the stay-at-home order, the majority of both said they are taking the pandemic seriously. Many vendors said they felt as if they had no other choice but to come and sell. This is my job, said Kent Branford, his voice muffled through a heavy mask as he set out parts and tools for sale. Im self-employed. I havent worked since March 22. Branford said he had spent the time at home, having exhausted himself with home renovation and yard work projects. And he believes that if people are careful, the risks are low. Its my only source of income, he said. I have been at home the whole time [since the shutdown orders began], except to get groceries and medicine. Were outdoors, were not really mingling close to other people, and I could use the money. So I dont think it will be too much of a problem, if people stay apart which they are not doing over there. Branford pointed out other vendors, who he felt were not adhering closely enough to the rules laid out by the Williams Grove Flea and Farmers Market staff: that everyone wear masks, keep a six-foot distance whenever possible, and leave extra space between vendor stalls. Signs adorned the drive into the lot, instructing visitors to follow the CDC guidelines and wear masks. And as the sun grew higher in the morning sky, the dozens of vendors and dozens more visitors appeared to be largely following those instructions. That included even those who said they felt the dangers of COVID-19 were being overblown. Were following the rules so we can come out here every weekend, said Robert Marcoccio, who was selling flowers and records. "If it wasnt for that ... I dont take it as seriously as most people do. I think theyre overreacting." Marcoccio, who is retired and sells items at the market for extra occasional income, said he believes the rising numbers of COVID-19 cases are merely catching up with initial infection rates with more widespread testing. He said shutting down the entire economy has been a step too far especially for small business owners and the self-employed, who are the hardest hit. Theyve had worse things that have come through, he said citing other dangerous respiratory diseases like SARS. This is making things worse. Now its not only the virus, but you also have to worry about putting your bills together. There are people out there with kids, people with businesses, and they cant cover the payroll for four or five months like theyre telling them. Similar recent respiratory illnesses such as SARS and MERS were not nearly as widespread in the United States or globally as COVID-19, with far fewer infections or deaths. Still, Marcoccio said, he was expecting a die-hard crowd. Theres less people [so far today] but they might get out here late, he said. A lot of them might not know its open. Theyre figuring no vendors will show up, and we figure no customers will show up. So a lot of people stayed home. But I think people are ready to get out of the house. One person who wasnt waring a face mask would give only his first name, Mike. He doesnt believe the threat of the virus was as bad as state and federal authorities have claimed. Governor Wolf needs to get everything open, Mike said. The pandemic isnt a pandemic, hes making it a pandemic. Hes already exaggerating the deaths, what else is he exaggerating on. Mike works in delivery for Coca-Cola, and his hours had been cut down to 32 a week due to the pandemic. He said he did not believe the official death toll, which listed over 3,600 Pennsylvanians dying from COVID-19. I believe some people have died from the virus, but they already had outlying conditions, Mike said. They didnt die straight from the virus, so its no different than the flu. Mike allowed for certain safety restrictions requiring masks, such as people with medical conditions, people in the service industry or people working in close proximity and in enclosed spaces. But for everyday life? Dont need it, he said. Others said they take the threat of COVID-19 seriously. But they needed to be at teh flea market. Louis Zeiders operates a stand selling food and snacks, with assistance from Laura Parker. This is his only income, Parker said. His daughter is yelling at him all the time, youve got to be careful out there, because you cant expose yourself to a lot.' But thats his only income. Hes always done the flea markets. Zeiders, a veteran, is about to undergo another round of treatment for cancer that he had previously thought was in remission. And for him, money is too important. We have things that are behind, he said. We have a storage unit thats about to be foreclosed on. We really have to be out here. Parker, meanwhile, is caring for her two grandchildren while her daughter, a nurse at an Orange County, New York hospital, continued to work. Its scary, she said. Ive had them down here since March. And I have not allowed them out of the house, they go nowhere. This is the first time Ive been out, to help him. I dont let anybody near anybody. I take it seriously, a lot more than a lot of other people. Parker was surprised by the crowd, noting that she and Zeiders were selling essentials like food and that she expected the other vendors to be doing the same. I was surprised over there, they werent social distancing, she said, referring to other vendors nearby. I said, look at them, those people are like a flock of geese over there. Youre supposed to stay six feet apart! I was under the understanding it had to only be food and essentials. We do have a building, but were not letting people go in it for anything." Tony Guarno was another vendor taking the health threat seriously. He had a large stop sign in front of his shed, and a larger sign reading NO MASK NO SERVICE NO WAY and below that GET OUT. I think the majority of people have common sense," Guarno said. "With the market being open, Im being here protecting my property, to a point. Of course if someone wants to buy something, but Im also organizing and re-doing it for the summer when things really open up. But if they do things correctly, its not an issue. People are fanned out, the spaces arent close. He broke off to prevent an unmasked customer from entering his area. Sir, you need a mask if youre in this booth. Guarno said he understands the rules put in place by the governor. His parents are in their 80s, he said, and many regular customers of the flea market are older and potentially in high-risk categories for COVID-19. But he disagreed with how the shutdown orders are being carried out. And he was far more concerned with other politicians, who he wouldnt name, and how they are dealing with the pandemic. Or not dealing with it, he said. Or ignoring it. He gave Williams Grove Flea and Farmers Market credit for allowing vendors to make a living - and for putting in place social distancing guidelines. It pays bills for me, and me being here pays for this market and the association, that has huge bills, he said. And theyre taking it very serious, too. They have the sanitation things, theyre not letting people have spaces tight together." A representative of the Williams Grove Flea and Farmers Market refused to comment. But a voice regularly came over the loudspeakers during the markets morning hours, reminding everyone to stick to the precautions laid out by the organization. Were trying to follow the CDC guidelines, the voice said. Keep your distance, keep people from handling things when you can. I want to thank everybody for being out here on a cold Sunday morning. Please follow guidelines, we want to continue this from week to week. Our goal is to keep our distance. Thank you for being here. We just need to get out and walk around a little bit, said Dale Grimes from behind a bandana wrapped around his face, with his wife protected similarly. Weve been sitting around too much. Grimes, a truck driver, responded with a yes sir when asked if his family was trying to take the warnings seriously. And while his own hours havent been affected - as an employee for a meat company, he said business has been steady - he was sympathetic to the plight of the vendors. A lot of these people, thats all they do, he said. They go from one flea market to another selling this stuff. As long as theyre staying apart like theyre supposed to, and theyve got their masks on, it shouldnt be a big deal. But he added, well have to wait and see. A lot of people just dont pay attention to anything. Debbie Zartman, a first-time vendor at the flea market, was one of a few vendors with a table covered in homemade cloth masks. Business, she said, was very good. Weve also been selling them at yard sale sites as well, she said. Its been keeping us very busy. My husband and my daughter have been helping me so I can keep the sewing machine going. While she expected far fewer visitors to the market, Zartman said that nearly everyone was wearing a mask, even the people buying more from her. We didnt want to be out here either, she said. But we know that people need to get back to work, and we want to help support that. And we want them to do it safely. The 127th Wing of the Michigan Air National Guard next week will conduct flyovers over eight Michigan cities to show support for front-line workers. In addition, the well-known Blue Angels are planning a flyover for Detroit next week. The flyovers by the Air National Guard are designed to show solidarity with Michiganders and support for healthcare workers, first responders, military members and other essential personnel amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Those flyovers are tentatively scheduled over two days. While dates for the flyovers were given, specific times and routes were not yet disclosed. All dates and times are subject to change due to weather and operational requirements. The first flyover is scheduled for Tuesday, May 12, over the cities of Marquette, Lansing and Flint. A KC-135 Stratotanker, which is a type of mid-air refueling aircraft, will participate. That same day, May 12, one or more A-10 Thunderbolts, also known as Warthogs, will fly over the cities of Traverse City, Grand Rapids and Battle Creek. On May 12, the U.S. Navys legendary Blue Angels will also fly over Detroit. The route and time are scheduled to be released Monday. That information, when available, can be found on their Facebook page. The last flyover in the series is scheduled for Wednesday, May 13, over Novi and Detroit. Both the A-10 and KC-135 will participate. Read more: Sunday, May 10: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Alleged gunman arraigned in fatal Flint security guard shooting over coronavirus mask rule White House Virus Task Force members face quarantine What is Hope Lodge? Each Hope Lodge offers cancer patients and their caregivers a free place to stay when their best hope for effective treatment may be in another city. Not having to worry about where to stay or how to pay for lodging allows guests to focus on getting better. Hope Lodge provides a nurturing, home-like environment where guests can retreat to private rooms or connect with others. Every Hope Lodge also offers a variety of resources and information about cancer and how best to fight the disease. Currently, there are more than 30 Hope Lodge locations throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. Accommodations and eligibility requirements may vary by location. To find out more about a Hope Lodge, please select one of the locations above. If there is not a Hope Lodge in your area, please call the American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345 for more information about lodging assistance. You may also enter your treatment center's zip code on our Find Local Resources page. Watch our Hope Lodge Guest Orientation video below to learn about our processes and procedures for guests. If you would like to volunteer at an American Cancer Society Hope Lodge, please visit our Volunteer Sign Up form. And then a 36-year-old woman, who said her name is Nina, joined in the Twitter conversation. She tweeted the same four photos but digitally replaced the weapons with huge sub sandwiches that measure several feet long. Reached Saturday night, the woman, who did not provide her last name, said she lives in Youngstown, Ohio, and made the photos to be funny. But also because the absurdity of protesting public orders meant to protect ALL people from a virus is only matched by the absurdity of bringing giant guns into the situation, she told The News & Observer in an email. We cant shoot the virus and make it go away, so giant subs are just as useless as their giant guns. Against stay-at-home restrictions The gathering was organized by a group called Blue Igloo as an opportunity for First and Second Amendment supporters to get together, meet people with commonalities and get some exercise while were all wasting away at home, according to its Facebook page. Tributes to frontline workers during the coronavirus have been spotted in many forms, from car parades to food & protective equipment donations. However, the latest form of tribute to take place in the skies of Laredo as the Texas Air National Guard F-16 unit performs a flyover above Laredo Medical Center Monday afternoon. According to a statement from the Texas Air National Guard, the guard's F-16 until will fly over Laredo Medical at 1:10 to 1:20 p.m. on May 11. The group will fly north to south over the Laredo hospital between Bustamante Street and Highway 59, and between Meadow Avenue and Foster Avenue. Following the Laredo flyover, the team will head to Corpus Christi, where the team will flyover CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital. A different set of F-16 units will also fly over hospitals and medical support facilities in Lubbock area as part of their display in honor of Texas medical professionals on Monday. We wanted to show our appreciation to all the frontline responders who are out there every day combating this virus, Col. Raul Rosario, 149th Fighter Wing commander said in a statement. As Guardsmen, who live and work in many of these local areas, we value the dedication of those who tirelessly serve our communities to help make what we do to defend the nation possible." The flyover follows similar performances by air units such as the Blue Angels in Houston and Air Force Thunderbirds in San Antonio. While the performance is mainly a tribute to local medical workers, it also serves as a morale boosts for locals who have been confined in their homes amid the coronavirus pandemic. We know most people love to watch flyovers, and people could probably use a boost right now,Col. Matt Jensen, commander of the 149th Operations Group said. Fortunately for us, these flyovers also provide important proficiency training to our pilots, so it is a way to do something nice for the community through already-allotted flight hours at no extra cost to the taxpayer. The flyovers are part of Operation American Resolve, which was created as a way to lift morale in cities across America as the cities around the nation are adopting stay-at-home orders to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. While the Air National Guard certainly wants to lift the spirits around the state with the performance, it also wants to remind locals to keep in mind social distancing and personal protective members when watching the flyover. Different welcomes The return of migrant labourers, estimated to be over a million, to Uttar Pradesh over the next few weeks has given an opportunity to both the ruling and opposition parties to ratchet up their political agendas. While the Adityanath government is seeking good press for its measures on labour, opposition outfits are making all-out efforts to punch holes in the governments claim of ensuring the safe and early return of the migrants. With the arrival of UP labourers gaining momentum, the situation is expected to become grimmer in the villages, given ... The New York City school district has reversed its ban on the use of Zoom for remote learning over security concerns after the company took measures to protect students, schools and other users, officials said. But hacking into school-related Zoom events continued in other places. A virtual graduation ceremony at Oklahoma State University held Saturday on the Zoom platform was hacked by saboteurs who displayed racist and anti-Semitic messages, the school said. Another instance of what is known as "Zoombombing" was reported in Ohio, where a Brecksville-Broadview Heights School District Board of Education meeting was interrupted by a hacker who displayed child pornography on the screen for several seconds, the district said. Online security concerns have been growing since schools across the country closed to try to stem the spread of the coronavirus and students were told to work remotely. Schools and districts rushed to create remote lessons and partnered with different online platforms, sometimes without strict security filters. There have been numerous reports of intruders disrupting classes and school meetings, from elementary school to higher education. New York Attorney General Letitia James said late last week that Zoom Video Communications had done "substantial work" to ensure users "don't have to worry while participating in a video call" as they become "more accustomed to our new normal." Zoom said in a statement: "We are pleased to have reached a resolution with the New York Attorney General, which recognizes the substantial work that Zoom has completed as part of our 90-day security and privacy plan, including making a number of our pre-existing security features on by default and also introducing new security enhancements." In a separate statement on Sunday, Zoom reacted to the newest hackings of meetings on its platform, saying, "These incidents are truly devastating and appalling, and our user policies explicitly prohibit any obscene, indecent, illegal or violent activity or content on the platform. We are looking into these incidents to ensure the appropriate action is taken. Zoom strongly condemns such behavior and recently updated several features to help our users more easily protect their meetings." It also said it was working with users on how best to protect their meetings. The hacking incident at the virtual graduation ceremony of private Oklahoma City University on Saturday appalled school leaders, who said they were "heartbroken and outraged." Oklahoma City University President Martha Burger said on Twitter that despite taking security measures, "the virtual celebration of our Class of 2020 graduation was cut short by a horrendous act of racism, bigotry, and anti-Semitism." The FBI issued a warning to the public last month about the "hijacking" of online classrooms and teleconferences after it received reports of disturbances involving people using racist and threatening language and displaying hate messages. Because Zoom had quickly become the most popular teleconferencing choice for K-12 schools and institutions of higher education during the pandemic, the hacking came to be known as "Zoombombing," even though such incidents have occurred on other digital platforms, as well. New York City, the largest school district in the country, and several smaller districts in the country banned the use of Zoom last month after the FBI issued a warning to the public about the "hijacking" of online classrooms and teleconferences, and teachers in many schools individually stopped using it. Meanwhile, Brecksville-Broadview Heights School District Superintendent Joelle Magyar sent home a letter to parents saying that a Board of Education meeting on Thursday was hacked by someone who displayed child pornography, WJW reported. She said all participants at the meeting had to register but someone hacked into the meeting anyway and the district was working with law enforcement authorities to find who did it. Magyar said the district would stop using Zoom and look for other platforms for digital conferencing and learning. The Lumberton Township School District in Burlington County, New Jersey, is suspending its use of Zoom after a class was hacked by someone who displayed pornographic images and used racist language, TNS reported. Superintendent of Schools Joe Langowski said in a letter to the school community that a hacker had entered a digital class at a Lumberton Middle School session and displayed inappropriate material for about 15 seconds. Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said an ambulance driver who tested positive for COVID-19 was allowed to leave for Mumbai as he was asymptomatic, drawing flak from netizens on his social media accounts. On Saturday night, Sarma said on Facebook and Twitter that three persons, including the ambulance driver who drove them to Jorhat district from Mumbai, tested positive and the driver was sent back to Mumbai. "Alert ~ 3 people, incl an Ambulance Driver from Mumbai who drove the 2, test #COVID19 + in Jorhat. Driver sent back to Mumbai. 2 are at JMCH since their arrival in Jorhat," he tweeted. This created a long stream of reactions by his followers on both the platforms, who said the step was "totally not justified" and asked why the driver was allowed to leave Assam as there is maximum possibility of him spreading the infection on his way back. "Actually the driver left for Mumbai and we allowed him to go as he was asymptotic. Now on our request he has been stopped in Bihar for hospitalisation," Sarma said, defending the decision. Julin Boruah, one of his followers on Facebook, said, "I am worried about the respected driver of the ambulance... He became the pride warrior of #Covid19... If he really send back then it's totally not justified on our state Government. "Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma Dangoria please look into the matter with immediate effect. Our state should try to cure the pride warrior." A user, named Urmee_D, on Twitter expressed surprise and asked whether the ambulance carrying two women had valid documents and whether these were properly checked at Sagalia and Srirampur -- the entry points into Assam. "The ambulance entered Assam with proper permission to bring back one blood cancer patient from Jorhat who happens to be son of one of the +patient. We do not have Covid-19 testing facilities on our border," Sarma replied. Jojneswar Sharma tweeted to the minister, "This incident cautions us to check health status of driver if he is hired in red zone such as Mumbai before they are allowed to undertake such journey; even ambulance could carry virus; in this case driver should not have been allowed to leave Jorhat till report was available." Sarma said, "Then we will end up detaining thousands of truck drivers coming from different states to Assam."Identifying himself as an orthopaedic surgeon, Ananta Saikia said, "Why was the driver sent back? He should have been treated here as he took all the risks to drive our brothers back home, please look into the matter sir, one or two cases don't make any difference, we're all prepared to face it.""Sir, Why the driver sent back to Mumbai?? We could have given utmost care, treatment at Jorhat. We request you to provide him all support, assistance. Tcr of urself too," Madhurjya Protim Borah said to Sarma on Facebook. One Twitter user said: "Please treat and take the best care of the driver here in Assam itself. He took all the risk and brought the ppl back to Assam. It is our moral responsibility to ensure best treatment are being provided to him." Another said, "It was so inhumane to send the driver back, he is mentally and physically unfit to travel all the way back to Mumbai in this state of health. Please take necessary measures for the driver." The total number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 62 in the state, of which 34 have been discharged. The state Health and Family Welfare Department said in its daily bulletin that two persons have died due to the COVID-19. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has asked the Federal Government to publish the details of the suppliers and contractors, the procurement rules, including bidding processes, and all designated voucher distribution and collection sites for the implementation of the school feeding programme at home. The feeding programme was designed to cater for schoolchildren, but with the closure of schools nationwide to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disasters Management and Social Development, Ms Sadiya Umar-Farouq, had announced that government would start feeding schoolchildren in their homes. In a Freedom of Information request by the group, it also requested for information on the number of states to be covered during the COVID-19 crisis, the projected spending per state, details of the mechanisms and logistics that have been put in place to carry out the programme, as well as the role expected to be played by the World Food Programme. The FoI request signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, read in part, Publishing the details requested is in the public interest. This would help to address public scepticism regarding the ability of the government to satisfactorily implement the programme, promote openness, and allow Nigerians to track its implementation and to hold suppliers and contractors to account. Publishing the details of suppliers and contractors and the procurement rules being implemented for executing the school feeding programme at home would also remove the risks of conflicts of interest and politicisation of the programme, as well as promote transparency and accountability. We urge you to also establish online national database for all suppliers and contractors responsible for carrying out the programme to feed school children in their homes, which is expected to cover over three million households in Lagos and Ogun states, and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. We would be grateful if the requested information is provided to us within seven days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter. If we have not heard from you by then, the Registered Trustees of SERAP shall take all appropriate legal actions under the Freedom of Information Act to compel you to comply with our request. Night view of Taipei 101, Taiwan, China. [Photo/VCG] A mainland spokesperson on Saturday warned the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan over its proposal to delete words related to national unity from a cross-Straits regulation. It was reported that a legislator of the DPP proposed to amend the act governing relations between Taiwan and the mainland by removing the words related to national reunification. In response, Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said it is extremely dangerous to make attempts at "Taiwan independence" and constantly challenge the mainland's bottom line. He warned that "Taiwan independence" separatists should not underestimate the firm determination of the Chinese people to safeguard China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. When the coronavirus pandemic forced Gov. Andrew Cuomo to close schools across the state in mid-March, teachers found themselves in a totally unprecedented situation. In just a matter of days, schooling needed to shift to an entirely remote model, upending the traditional school day and lesson plans. In both the switch to online learning and planning to reopen schools in the fall, unions have been at the forefront to ensure teachers dont get mistreated while many of them are going far beyond traditional expectations. Although a handful of counties and individual school districts had already announced closures before Cuomo signed an executive order on March 16 ordering all schools across the state to shut down by March 18, the switch to remote learning needed to happen swiftly. In New York City, the district had just one week to figure out what online learning would look like, both for students and for teachers. This also meant that in just the course of a week, the United Federation of Teachers had to negotiate fair working conditions for its members who would now be working from home. Their contract, meticulously crafted, was designed for the traditional classroom. So the union and the district quickly came to agreements over best practices to ensure that demands on teachers and other staffers like guidance counselors were not unreasonable. Its been a challenge, United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said. There was no plan in place to do any of this. We dont have anything in our contract that covers something like remote learning. Look, under the emergency orders they can force us to work, but they cant force us to work for free. United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew The biggest change came in the form of an expedited grievance process, condensing what could normally take months into only about a week. Given the unusual circumstances educators found themselves in, coming to a faster resolution on issues that may arise with a new system of teaching took precedent. Mulgrew said that about 50 complaints have been filed under the new system, many simply the result of minor miscommunications and otherwise working out kinks in a system that required a quick learning curve. At the beginning, for example, some people were attempting to recreate a traditional school day, even though it was clear such a method would never work. Its been about a balance of trying to make sure that we wont allow anyone to be taken advantage of, Mulgrew said. But also at the same time, understanding that this is uncharted territory, and teachers will always go above and beyond. The same conversations were happening across the state, according to New York State United Teachers President Andrew Pallotta. Although the specifics of what students and teachers needed to ensure continued education during the pandemic varied slightly by region, districts and local union chapters quickly stepped up to figure it out. What I got from our local presidents from around the state was that there was a lot of cooperation, Pallotta said. And just like in any negotiation, theres a give and a take, and what makes sense. He gave as a somewhat extreme example that just because teachers were working from home, it would be unacceptable for districts to schedule remote meetings late at night. Rebecca C. Lewis The issue also arose of teachers working at times they were not meant to without extra compensation. Perhaps the most controversial example was that school districts, including New York City, mandated that teachers work through spring break as well as on two religious holidays, on the word of the governor. Mulgrew said he and his members understood working on the five days after Easter given the circumstances, but took issue with being forced to work on the first full day of Passover and Good Friday, both major religious observances. Mulgrew said his union negotiated a package that prevented anyone who took off those days from being penalized, but still plans to get full compensation for the seven additional work days that teachers were supposed to have off. Look, under the emergency orders they can force us to work, but they cant force us to work for free, Mulgrew said. Similar issues may arise over the summer if school districts decide to continue with classes. Although Cuomo has ordered schools to remain closed for the rest of the school year, the structure of summer school remains something that still needs to be worked out. Cuomo said decisions about that will come at the end of May. In Buffalo, for example, some districts are considering enhanced summer school programs. I would think it would be wrong to mandate that teachers have to teach summer school because some of them have other jobs that they have to do, Buffalo Teachers Federation President Phil Rumore told Spectrum News. He added that he expected plenty of teachers would volunteer nonetheless, but the situation would likely necessitate a compensation package for teachers. Pallotta said he supports voluntary summer school programming with local control over what that may look like, including the potential for limited in-person learning. With cash-strapped districts facing massive state and local cuts to funding, its unclear where the extra pay might come from. Already, many districts are warning of staff cuts if they lose funding, which Cuomo has said is possible absent additional federal aid. Pallotta said that his union will be involved in any potential cuts to ensure they dont come in places that directly impact the day-to-day teaching of children. But he said schools have long been underfunded, which is why the union had been calling for a new tax on millionaires and billionaires before the coronavirus crisis. He said that the union will continue to advocate for that tax now to avoid cuts, even though the governor has resisted calls for new revenue sources. We will fight these (layoffs) tooth and nail because you cant move this state forward if youre going to eliminate educators, Pallotta said. In addition to new state taxes, Pallotta said New York State United Teachers is also putting pressure on federal leaders to get additional funding in an upcoming aid package. He said he and other union leaders have been working closely with both U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. The next big step will come when schools are scheduled to reopen in the fall. Cuomo has ordered schools and districts to begin formulating plans for reopening. Mulgrew said that in New York City, negotiations between the union and school leaders are still very preliminary. He has been vocal about schools ensuring the safety of both teachers and students, including implementing adequate social distancing in classrooms and adding robust COVID-19 testing infrastructure at schools. If people make decisions based on politics versus safety which I dont believe were going to have then were going to fight them, Mulgrew said. Straight up, its just going to be a fight. London: They have left behind royal life as they knew it, swapping Frogmore Cottage and awaydays in Britain for the sunnier sights of Los Angeles. But Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are not quite slumming it, it has emerged, as they join the Hollywood elite in a reported $US18 million ($28 million) Beverly Hills mansion owned by a friend of their confidante Oprah Winfrey. Harry and Meghan are ending their lives as senior members of Britains royal family and starting a new chapter as international celebrities and charity patrons in Los Angeles. Credit:AP The Sussexes, who have been living in LA with one-year-old Archie since leaving Canada shortly before borders closed in coronavirus lockdown, are reported to be staying at the home of Tyler Perry, described in the US press as an "entertainment mogul", whose palatial home is in an area known to be "riddled with celebs". Two more residents have died due to COVID-19 at the Downsview Long Term Care Centre, bringing the total death toll at the facility to 35 as of Sunday. GEM Health Care Group, the operator of the North York nursing home and several other seniors care facilities, confirmed the two deaths on Sunday in a news release. We offer our deepest sympathies to the residents families and friends, GEM said. As of May 10, 62 residents and 76 employees at the facility have tested positive for COVID-19. All residents testing positive have been isolated in accordance with the public health regulations, GEM Health Care said; staff who have tested positive are at home in self-isolation. GEM is receiving support from their Nova Scotia and Groves Park Lodge teams, the Central Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), and the Humber River Regional Hospital team in an effort to increase Downsviews staffing levels. As part of the facilitys pandemic plan, it has suspended all non-essential visits and services, added extra screening measures for staff, increased disinfecting in all areas in the homes, and made sure that staff at all facilities is wearing masks. President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov received Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Colonel General Alexander Fomin. The guest arrived in Turkmenistan with an honorary mission - to take part in the celebrations on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Victory and to hand over Battle Banner of the 748th Infantry Regiment of the 206th Infantry Division of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, in which the grandfather of the President of Turkmenistan, Berdimuhamed Annaev, fought, as well as a personal file of the front-line soldier. Having conveyed congratulations on Victory Day from Russian President Vladimir Putin to President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Fomin noted heroism and courage of soldiers of the 748th Infantry Regiment of the 206th Infantry Division. According to him, they received 250 commendations on behalf of the top military leadership and were awarded 2500 orders and medals in 1943-1944 alone. Expressing confidence in the further strengthening of friendship and strategic partnership between Turkmenistan and Russia, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov conveyed wishes of health, happiness and prosperity to Vladimir Putin and the entire fraternal Russian people on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Victory. TURKMENISTAN.RU, 2022 While over 98 per cent of Africans are aware of the existence of COVID-19, 20 per cent (1 in 5) of them believe they cannot contract COVID-19, a report shows. Although relatively low compared to other continents, Africas cases of COVID-19 topped over 60,000 Saturday a third of whom have recovered with deaths hovering around 2,000. But as cases increase, a May report by the Partnership for Evidence-Based Response to COVID-19 (PERC), a public-private partnership initiative on COVID-19 in AU countries, found that certain misconceptions about coronavirus infections exist among Africans. Aside 1 in 5 of respondents saying they are immune to the disease, about 54 per cent believe hot climate prevents spread of the disease with another 29 per cent holding that COVID-19 can be contracted from any Chinese person in their country. The survey, which was conducted between March 29 and April 17, 2020, pools its data from social, economic, epidemiological, population movement, and security data from 28 cities across 20 AU countries to measure the acceptability, impact and effectiveness of public health and social measures for COVID-19. A total of 158,709 people were contacted, 16,442 of whom refused to participate, the report states. Final results are based on completed interviews conducted with 20,990 adults, it adds. Titled Responding to COVID-19 in Africa: Using data to find a balance, the report finds that governments who fail to adapt their public health and social measures (PHSMs) to local needs risk unrest and violence among their population. The proliferation of peaceful protests demanding government relief is evidence of the strain some people are already under and highlights gaps in current responses. It is crucial that member states continue to monitor and act on a variety of data to inform the public health and social measures they implement. There is still much to learn about COVID-19 and Member States need to continue to share what theyve learned with the global community, the report states. Recommendations Countries like Ghana and Nigeria, who have recently relaxed weeks of lockdown to ease tensions and restart the economy, have seen an uptick in cases. Ghana on Saturday reported over 500 new cases. The Same day, Nigeria had about 300, a day after it recorded almost 400 new cases. The report urged African governments, before considering reopening society, to build public health capacity to test, trace, isolate and treat cases. With caseloads still relatively low, the survey argues that estimates based on the infection fatality rate suggest that cases have been undercounted. As of April, the fatality rate was placed at 0.66%. By that measure, the total number of cases expected to result in 1,591 death (as of April 30) deaths would be closer to 200,000 six times the number of recorded cases. The research work also calls for monitoring of data on how PHSMs meet local COVID-19 conditions and needs, and to determine when and how to lift them in a way that balances lives and livelihoods. Engage communities to adapt PHSMs to the local context and effectively communicate about risk to sustain public support, achieve widespread adherence, and shield vulnerable populations, the report suggests. Locally made solutions have been set in motion by nations like Senegal. The West African country developed a $1 test kit to ramp up its testing capacity. Madagascar has also launched an indigenous herbal remedy named Covid-Organics, produced from artemisia, a plant said to have proven efficacy against malaria. Madagascar claims the drug cures COVID-19. PERC member organizations party to the report include: Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention; Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies; the World Health Organization; the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team; and the World Economic Forum. IPSOS and Novetta Mission Analytics bring market research expertise and years of data analytic support to the partnership. A young Italian woman returned to her homeland on Sunday after 18 months as a hostage in eastern Africa. Silvia Romano lowered her face mask briefly to display a broad smile after she stepped off an Italian government plane at Rome-Ciampino International Airport. She hugged her mother and other family members, and touched elbows instead of shaking hands with Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio. Ms Romano, 24, was working as a volunteer with an Italian humanitarian group when she was abducted in November 2018 during an attack by gunman in Kenya. A video image showing Silvia Romano walking on the tarmac after landing at Romes Ciampino airport (Paolo Santalucia/AP) Italian premier Giuseppe Conte has thanked the Italian intelligence agents who worked for her release, which took place on Friday in Somalia. Ms Romano was taken to the Italian Embassy in Mogadishu after she was freed. Rome-based prosecutors investigate crimes committed abroad against Italian citizens, and they are expected to question her about the kidnapping. Italian news reports said the abductors eventually passed her into the hands of militants linked to Somalias al-Shabab Islamic extremists. Al-Shabab has been blamed for a series of kidnappings of foreigners along Kenyas coast. People applaud from balconies in front of the house of 23-year-old Italian volunteer Silvia Costanza Romano, in Milan (Luca Bruno/AP) Friends and acquaintances in the Milan neighbourhood where Ms Romanos family lives applauded from windows, balconies and on the streets when the plane carrying Ms Romano home landed in Rome. Italian media also have reported that she converted to Islam while in captivity. Neither her family nor Italian officials have commented on the assertion. When she got off the plane, Ms Romano wore a loose-fitting garment over her hair and African outfit while she also sported a surgical mask, disposable gloves and booties to guard against Covid-19. I am not exactly a homebody, so the last week has been rough. And as Dr. Jennie Weiner, an associate professor of educational leadership, wrot Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 08, 2020 | PADUCAH By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 08, 2020 | 03:20 PM | PADUCAH St. Mary School System announced that Mrs. Mary Smith as their new Elementary School Principal effective July 1. Mrs. Smith earned her Bachelors Degree from Murray State University (B.S. P-12 and Elementary Education, Learning & Behavioral Disorders) and her Masters Degree from Georgetown College (MA in Teacher Leader- Teaching Technology). Prior to teaching at St. Mary Elementary, Mrs. Smith was employed as an elementary teacher for the Paducah City Schools. During her years as a successful classroom teacher, she assumed leadership roles as a First Year Teacher Mentor and Grade Level Team Leader, specifically in curriculum development and differentiating instruction. Mrs. Smiths deep faith-based leadership along with her instructional background in curriculum and technology will add even more depth to St. Mary Elementary School and its strong faculty and staff. We are excited to work with her to grow the school in faith and knowledge, said Eleanor Spry, St. Mary School System Director. St. Mary, founded in 1860, is the oldest school in McCracken County. St. Mary provides a strong classical education for Catholic and non-Catholic students from Preschool to 12th grade and is the proud Home of the Vikings! Visit www.smss.org to learn more about St. Mary School System. (CNN) Harrison Sheckler, a graduate student at the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College, found himself sent home like many college students due to the coronavirus pandemic. With time on his hands and away from friends and professors, Sheckler wanted to unite people through what he knows best: music. The 24-year-old flew home to Charles City, Iowa, on March 14, expecting to be home for two weeks. That expanded to include the rest of the year and also resulted in the cancellation of a planned accompaniment with the New York Philharmonic. So, Sheckler needed to channel his music and energy. He loves musical theater and worked on "Carousel" at the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati. Sheckler thought the lyrics to his favorite song from that show, "You'll Never Walk Alone," fit the need to stay positive during the coronavirus crisis. "It parallels what's going on right now," Sheckler told CNN. "We're all going through this together in a way, and we need to know that we're not alone, and if we have hope, we're going to get through this. I found comfort and solace in those words, and I thought a lot of people would resonate with it. As it turns out, they did." So much so that the project quickly changed. It started as an idea among friends but became a casting call that saw submissions from 300 musicians from 15 countries, ranging from age 9 to people in their 80s. "I had no idea where this project would go," Sheckler said. "Something good can come out of even the darkest times." 'It's a song of hope' Sheckler said he reached out to every high school choir director in Iowa to see if students could provide video submissions for individual parts, which Sheckler provided on his personal website. He also contacted friends, peers, professors and mentors, and received 240 vocal submissions and 60 instrumental accompaniments. Suzanne Chadwick, a private voice teacher who lives in Medford, N.J., said she came across Sheckler's post while counseling students on dealing with unemployment during the pandemic. "This song had such deep meaning," Chadwick told CNN. "It's a song of hope and they say, 'At the end of the storm, there's a golden sky.' So many people need to hear that message right now." Ryan Penshorn, a student at the University of Minnesota, said it was an easy decision to participate as a French horn player. "I was supposed to be in New York City this summer, working at a bank," he said. "I worked really, really hard to get to that point. And that's a common sentiment among many students that are my age. So, I think the opportunity to connect with other humans in a meaningful way through this avenue is special." Thousands of views on social media The initial deadline was pushed from Easter to April 23, Sheckler said. He then became invested in the most painstaking part of the process: combining 300 videos into one piece while making it sound like an orchestral arrangement despite participants lacking traditional recording equipment at home. "I used iMovie to put them together," Sheckler said. "It took over 200 hours to put together the final video. I think the result really turned out well." Sheckler said two friends in the Cincinnati area helped, Armin Meyer and Grant Bayer, who own Zated Records. They spent 30 hours cleaning up the audio and sending back a compressed file. "They could enhance the audio to get rid of background noise and buzzing," Sheckler said. "I know some of the recordings might be too quiet or loud; the speakers were blown out on some notes. They were able to rein that in." The result is a video that has amassed 170,000 views on YouTube since May 1. Sheckler also gained about 50,000 views on Facebook and 3,000 on Instagram. That's because of the contributions of everyone who took part, he said. "They made something so beautiful and [that is] spreading so much comfort to so many people and giving them a little peace in their day," he said. "Just knowing that, my heart is full." This story was first published on CNN.com, "A music student united more than 300 musicians to create a virtual choir to perform during the pandemic." The new measures are to stop a second wave of coronvirus transmissions Business owners can now refuse service to anyone with 'flu-like' symptoms as part of new measures to prevent a second wave of coronavirus transmissions. Australia's Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said companies can also send staff home if they attempt to work while sick. He said the government would 'protect and defend' business owners and bosses who do so. 'All of us over our lives have wanted to soldier on with a cold and a flu-like illness, but we cannot do that anymore,' Professor Murphy said on Sunday. 'If one of your colleagues or an employee or a client turns up, you have every right to say ''go away, I am not going to let you in, I am not going to treat you'', unless youre a doctor of course.' Health officials were to meet public transport authorities on Monday to ensure they are prepared for the return of large numbers of commuters as businesses and offices gradually re-open. Business owners can now refuse service to anyone with 'flu-like symptoms as part of new measures which were introduced to stop a second wave of coronvirus transmissions (pictured: Jah Bar Dee at Why Beach) A barista at Workshop Espresso Cafe in Sydney wears a protective face mask due to COVID-19 The timing of relaxation measures was up to individual states and territories, while Prime Minister Scott Morrison provided guidelines last Friday after a meeting of the National Cabinet. Each stage will last four weeks, with the first set of relaxations allowing shops to open, customers to dine-in at restaurants and cafes in small numbers, and open houses and auctions to go ahead. Employers are being asked to look at staggered start and finish times to avoid overcrowding on public transport as staff return to work. For the time being, businesses were urged to keep staff working from home where possible. Professor Murphy said it was important to space out the return of workers to ensure social distancing can be maintained. The new freedoms coming hand-in-hand with strict social distancing measures means unprecedented queuing is highly likely. Under the first stage of the new rules, restaurants and cafes will be allowed to seat up to 10 customers at a time, after months of takeaway and delivery only. New rules come as Australians prepare to head back to the office after the government began easing restrictions (pictured: A woman orders a takeaway coffee from a cafe in Canberra) Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy has also allowed companies to send staff home if they attempt to work while sick Each patron at the eateries will be required to have four square metres of personal space, meaning some small venues won't be able to accommodate ten customers. Those seeking to celebrate the coming end of lockdown with a weekend brunch will face the prospect of queueing until a table became free. The government has instructed workplaces to design social distancing measures in offices while continuing to have employees work from home if possible. Mind the gap: Commuters may be delayed by social distancing queues with possible limits on the number of passengers on board train carriages and bus services Any rush back to work could see queues for 'peak hour' office lifts, plastic shields between cubicles, the end of hotdesking and staggered start times for staff. Commuters are likely to face lines to board their train, tram or bus home, with not all seats available. Workers have been advised to avoid peak hour travel through each stage of the plan. Long queues for supermarkets such Coles and Woolworths, discount variety stores such as Kmart and Big-W and warehouses like Bunnings will are set to continue. Likewise, while smaller retail stores are encouraged to open, all will have to abide by 'COVID Safe' guidelines by limiting the number of customers inside. When gyms finally open back up under stage two of the measures, only 20 people will be allowed inside to work out at any one time. Only ten people will be allowed in open homes and auctions at a time under the first stage of the new restrictions - meaning more scenes like this Social distancing lines for warehouses such as Bunnings and other larger retailers have become commonplace Gyms will be forced to introduce booking systems or set up queues for those keen to pump some iron. Public pools will open with specific restrictions likely to allow only a small number of swimmers per lane. Renters and home-buyers will have to patiently wait their turn to inspect property or attend an auction, with limits of 10, then 20, then 100 people allowed inside. And when pubs are finally allowed to open, customer restrictions are likely to come hand-in-hand with a cold beer. The path to freedom: These are the national COVID-19 guidelines for how the states will ease lockdown measures in the weeks to come. Prime Minister Scott Morrison hopes the country will reach stage three by July All of these rules are likely to differ between the states and territories and will rely on individual businesses following the rules. The Northern Territory is already at stage one - the least restrictions - while South Australia will move to stage one on Monday and Queensland next Friday. New South Wales announced some easing on Sunday - with measures to come into effect on Friday - while Western Australia will announce its position on Sunday and VIctoria was to reveal plans on Monday. The ACT will allow gatherings of 10 from Saturday and Tasmania has not announced any changes. I woke up terrified last Friday. Or was it last Thursday? Maybe yesterday. Today? Each day bleeds into the next when in social isolation to hinder the spread of the novel coronavirus. This pandemic brings with it an acrid kind of despair, infiltrating every hour of our lives, every call we make and text we send. Its this nauseating smog in my home, where Ive had the privilege of working remotely, shut away from the world. One morning, the miasma began to suffocate me. Reports said that nearly 4.4 million people were newly jobless in the U.S., some of my friends among them. Dreadful images of overcrowded hospitals appeared all over the news, while the number of those who tested positive for the virus only continued to rise. It was hitting me that people are dying because a president too concerned about his re-election chances did not acknowledge or prepare for the oncoming global health crisis. I couldnt breathe. I opened my windows and watched my quiet Brooklyn street. I went to my dresser. Deeply stressed, I did what Id always done: I put on some perfume. Its my mothers old favorite, a scent called The Vert, French for green tea. I bought the bottle during my first summer in New York. Overwhelmed by my magazine internship and yearning for a whiff of home, I went to a LOccitane near Lincoln Center and sprayed the fragrance on my wrist. Its a clean scent, floral yet piercingCamellia sinensis with talons. My pulse steadied. My mind went from cloudy to clear. A single spritz was a vivifying hit. A salesperson came over, eager to assure me The Vert was unisex. I didnt care either way. I marched to the register with 750 milliliters of the stuff and emptied my wallet onto the counter. That evening, I ate dinner street-side (a five-dollar lamb and rice plate), as the oily halal cart aromas mingled with my new perfume. Its been a good investment. That was eight years ago and I still have that same bottle to this day. Some of my fragrances have turned bad over time, but The Vert, I think, hasnt changed much. The green tea is still there, though now it smells peppery when it tickles my nose. Ultimately, its effect is the same: Wearing it, I inhale botanical grit, my mothers eternal fortitude. And then, whatever anxiety I can release, I get to exhale. Story continues LOccitane launched The Vert in 1999. Bitter orange is the primary top note; the middle notes are green tea and jasmine; nutmeg, cedar, and thyme make up the base. Some reviews on the perfume site Fragrantica associate it with a happy summer day or a picnic at the park. But when I smell it, I conjure other images entirely. To me, The Vert is five oclock in the smoggy Manila morning. Its my mother in her blazer and pencil skirt, applying a full face of makeup in the two-hour traffic jam, dropping me off at school en route to work. The Vert is me sobbing into my mothers collarbone, hurt and confused by men in my family who told me to man up. Its her consoling embrace, her reminders that this storm will pass once we beach upon more welcoming shores. The Vert is my mother in her bedroom in Las Vegas, crying on the phone to my stepfather in the Philippines, separated from her beloved. Its me hugging her, reminding her that we have each other as we restart our lives in this strange new country. Its us finding solace in beautiful, simple thingsin shared meals, in French perfumes, in our mutual trust and friendship. As time wore on, my mother wore her perfume less and less, until she finally stopped. LOccitane discontinued The Vert in 2013, a year after I first bought it. They replaced it with the remixed The Vert & Bigarade. On Fragrantica, a reviewer called the new formula bitter and sickly, and preferred the original The Vert because it was penetrating and sharp. My mother was similar, someone who cut her own pathfor herself in the Philippines; for us both in the United States. Thats the woman I try to channel whenever I put on The Vert. I imagine walking through a cloud of atomized courage, borrowing my mothers conviction, her grace. The bloom of it on my skin tells me that, against all odds, all will be well. Im wearing your perfume today, I told my mother recently. (This Sunday? Last Tuesday morning?) Daytime in Brooklyn meant nighttime in Manila, where she and my stepfather now live together. Their self-isolation began around the same time as mine. I could hear the television in their townhouse. They were watching a press briefing live on CNN. She doesnt wear fragrances anymore, she said, so its your perfume now, anak. I said that it still reminds me of her. It comforts me, makes bearable the fact that I cant be by her side in the middle of what, on the worst days, feels like the end of the world. I wish I could see you, I told her. She smiled; I could sense it over the phone. Its safer that youre not here, she said. But I miss you too. I was supposed to visit my family this spring. But between my work schedule and preparing for the publication of my book this summer, I never got around to buying a plane ticket. This procrastination did me a favor, sort of. When New York governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency on March 7, my mother told mejokingly, I thinkthat God had willed my indolence. Just as well, we agreed. Flying from the U.S. to the Philippines would have meant going through multiple international gateways, potentially contracting the coronavirus along the way, and possibly passing it on to my mother and stepfather. Theyre getting on a bitshes in her 60s; hes in his 70sand the Center for Disease Control states that older adults are at higher risk for severe illnesses from COVID-19. Also, my mother is immunocompromised. This is because she has cancer. Again, I should say. My mother was initially diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. Treatment put her into remission by the summer of 2016; by the fall, we were visiting Rome and Paris together for the first time. Then in 2019, last summer, she phoned me with the news. Through tears, she said, Its back. The words my brain managed to pick up were stage IV, metastasized, the bones. She would have called sooner, she explained, but she didnt want to interrupt my work. I was at an arts residency in New Hampshire for the month, finishing my manuscript. So, under sudden pressure and running out of time, I completed the first draft of my book the next day, unsure how to celebrate, unsure if I should. The rest of my time at the residency, I wore The Vert. I wore it when I went to Manila to see my mother that falland again over the winter holidays, when it still felt safe to fly overseas. This year, I wore it at my pre-launch book party, when we could still gather in large groups. I wore it on a big date, when it still felt safe to dateto hug hello, to sip each others cocktails, to kiss. I wore The Vert when I woke up terrified. Have worn it throughout the pandemic thus far. Even now, as I write this essay, I wear my mothers perfume. Im not sure when Ill get to see her again. Shes doing fine, all things considered. Regarding her cancer, I can say that theres no ticking clocknot for now at least. But theres also no assured end to the coronavirus crisis. According to experts, it could take anywhere from two months to a year and a half before we can reclaim even a few routines of the pre-COVID-19 world. At the rate Im going, Ill run out of The Vert by then. Ive been putting it on every morning in self-isolation. It keeps me calm, for the most partas have the facts that I live alone; that I can do my job online; that I take a soapy shower after every trip to the grocery and liquor store; that I have books and video games and group chats to keep me entertained. But that miasma, it lingers. The Vert cuts through it on most days, but when friends ask how Im doing, I mention my ambient unease. My longing for a world we previously took for granted, a world to which we might never return. This fear, one Ive felt since last summer, of looming death. The Harvard Business Review named my anxiety when it published an article about the coronavirus that said, right in the headline, That discomfort youre feeling is grief. More specifically, anticipatory griefthe kind we experience when facing an unknowable future. In the case of the coronavirus, theres an invisible enemy still mysterious to us, shattering our sense of readiness or safety. Everything is going to change, we think, but how? Thats exactly what Ive been feeling since my mother said, Its back. Her death is around the corner. We dont know how long we have on this road, or when well make that turn. To grapple with anticipatory grief, the HBR article says, we must first acknowledge itthe terrifying days to come. Before making meaning out of loss, before mourning too fast, we must first manage the current grief with counteractive thinking. We must focus on the present. Like so: At this moment, Im fine. I have food and a home, a job and a warm bed. I am not sick. But my mother is sick. Already I feel the future pangs of loss; time-traveling micro doses of unbelievable hurt. We are already so far apart physically. Yet there will be a day, who knows how soon, when that gulf widens further, when she will no longer be just a 17-hour flight away. I will not be able to reach her by phone. My memories will fade and I will run out of The Vertthe ways I summon my mother. I wore The Vert on a date so that this boy I liked could meet her, in a way. I wore it at my pre-launch book party in order to feel her presence too. I wore it in New Hampshire to celebrate with her a milestone in my writing career. All while we still can. These days, Ive realized, I dont wear the perfume to borrow her bravery, to emulate her. I wear it to feel her near me, to alleviate the present distance between us, the future loss I dread. Like many others living in self-isolation, my mother and I find consolation in the little things: phone calls, video chats, the time we do have on earth. Im getting antsy though. I told her Ive been looking at tickets to Manila for my birthday in September, to celebrate with her and my stepfather once the pandemic is over. One day at a time, anak, my mother said. Take care of yourself first. Thats how well make it through. Shes right. Though time differences remain and continents still drift, at least the world keeps turning. If we play our cards right as individuals and as communities in this time of certain uncertainty, theres a future to hope for, to work towards. I look forward to the day when I see her again in the flesh, when we embrace and hold each other. She will get a whiff of The Vert, still sharp and insistent after all these years, and rest easy. Shell know that, wherever I goor, one day, she goesI will carry her with me always, even long after our perfume has faded into the night. But for now, I must relish the present. At this moment, shes fine. She has food and a home, my stepfather and a warm bed. My mother is alive. Its like another spritz, another vivifying hit. Originally Appeared on Vogue Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks in Downing Street as he returns to work following his recovery from COVID-19 in London, England, on April 27, 2020. (Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images) UKs Boris Johnson to Set out Plan for Gradual Lockdown Easing LONDONBritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson will set out a five-tier warning system for the CCP virus in England on Sunday when he outlines the governments roadmap for gradually easing lockdown measures that have shut down much of the economy for nearly seven weeks. Johnson will use a televised address at 1800 GMT to announce limited changes, including encouraging more of those who cannot work from home to return to their offices and factories, and allowing people to exercise more than once a day, according to a government minister and British media. The governments flagship stay at home slogan will be replaced with stay alert, a decision that drew criticism from opposition parties for being too ambiguous. We need to have a broader message because we want to slowly and cautiously restart the economy and the country, housing minister Robert Jenrick told Sky News, adding that Johnson would be setting out the roadmap for the weeks and months ahead. In a separate interview on BBC TV, Jenrick said staying at home would still be an important part of the governments message, and there would be no grand reopening of the economy tonight. Johnson posted a picture of a new government poster giving instructions such as stay at home as much as possible and limit contact with other people. Everyone has a role to play in helping to control the virus by staying alert and following the rules, he said in a message alongside it. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government, Sir Patrick Vallance, arrive for a news conference on the CCP virus, in London, UK, on March 3, 2020. (Frank Augstein/Pool via Reuters) A woman wearing a protection mask to protect against CCP virus walks over Westminster Bridge in London, UK, on April 22, 2020 (Frank Augstein/ AP Photo) Britain has reported 31,587 deaths from the CCP virus, the second highest death toll in the world after the United States, and some 215,260 confirmed infections. The Sunday Times reported that scientific advisers had told the government that deaths could exceed 100,000 by the end of the year if lockdown measures are relaxed too fast. Johnson will detail a five-tier warning system for England, ranging from green at level 1 to red at level 5 to flag the COVID-19 risk in different areas and to allow the government to increase restrictions where necessary. The government wants the United Kingdoms other constituent nationsWales, Scotland, and Northern Irelandto follow the same steps but they have the power to diverge in their measures. Jenrick said the country is currently at 4 on the scale and authorities want that brought down to 3 as fast as possible. At each stage we will be in a position to open up and restart more aspects of the economy and of our lives, he said, adding that changes would be conditional on keeping the virus under control. Color-coded systems to distinguish regions with more or less risk have been used in other countries as they emerge from lockdowns, including France and India. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Twitter that her message to Scotland would continue to be to stay at home. Opposition parties criticized the governments new stay alert slogan as confusing. There is no room for nuance, the Labour Partys health spokesman, Jonathan Ashworth, told BBC TV. Many people will be puzzled by it This virus really does exploit ambivalence and thrive on ambiguity, we need clarity at all times. By Kylie MacLellan Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 22:04:56|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TEHRAN, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday offered his congratulations to Mustafa al-Kadhimi as Iraq's new prime minister, expressing hope for expansion of bilateral ties, the state TV reported. Rouhani said that during al-Kadhimi's tenure, he hoped that Tehran and Baghdad would witness further expansion of relations in diverse areas. He also urged for joint work to establish peace and stability in the region. Al-Kadhimi on May 6 was sworn in as Iraq's new prime minister after weeks of political negotiations. Enditem Over 4,000 Odia migrants stranded in Maharashtra and Gujarat due to the lockdown, returned to their native state in four special trains on Sunday, officials said. Another 5,000 migrants are expected to reach Odisha in five special trains originating in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, they said. A special train carrying around 1,200 Odia migrants from Panvel railway station in Maharashtra arrived at Titlagarh station in Bolangir district. The returnees were sent to different parts of the state from there, an official said. The administration imposed a curfew in Titlagarh town during the day to prevent large gatherings and ensure smooth arrival of the returnees and their onward journey to their home districts by buses, he said. The migrants were offered food packets, water and other essential items before they left for their home districts, where they will be placed under institutional quarantine, the official said. Around 1,200 Odia migrant workers arrived at Jagannathpur station in Ganjam district from Surat in Gujarat, he said, adding that the returnees were asked to maintain social distancing. Two more special trains brought migrant workers from Ahmedabad in Gujarat to Khurda Road railway station from where they were sent to quarantine centres, the official said. Five more trains are slated to bring stranded Odia migrants from different states on Monday. While two trains from Ahmedabad are scheduled to reach Khurda Road, two more from Panvel and Surat will reach Titlagarh and Jagannathpur stations respectively, he said. Another train will bring back stranded migrant workers to Jagannathpur station from Chennai, the official added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Here are todays top news, analysis and opinion. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times. Karnataka sees biggest single day jump with 54 new Covid-19 cases Karnataka recorded its single biggest day spike in the number of Covid-19 cases on Sunday with 54 more people testing positive to take the cumulative tally to 848 including 31 deaths and 422 discharges, the state health department said. Read more. Thackeray set to enter Legislative Council unopposed after Congress withdraws nominee Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is set to enter the Legislative Council unopposed after the Congress on Sunday said that it would withdraw one of its two nominees for the May 21 elections to nine seats. Read more. Passenger train ops to start from Tuesday; only online booking allowed The Indian Railways will gradually restart passenger train operations from May 12, initially with 15 pairs of trains, the railways ministry said on Sunday.Read more. Kerala reports 7 new cases as expatriates, migrants threaten a third-wave Kerala reported seven new coronavirus cases on Sunday-- the highest in the last weekincluding three who returned from the middle-eastern countries. Four other cases are of transmissions from primary carriers, said chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Read more. What does the US-China rift mean for the world? | Opinion The rhetoric between the worlds two largest political powers the United States (US) and China has heated up. The trend began several years ago, during Barack Obamas presidency.Read more. How designer Neeta Lulla created Juhi Chawlas look in 2.5 hours for the Tandav song in movie Darr The 1993 Yash Raj thriller Darr remains one of the most iconic films in Bollywood till date. Actor Juhi Chawla who was the female lead in the film looked absolutely beautiful in the film and her costumes that were created by designer Neeta Lulla who had previously worked with Yash Raj Films during Chandni and Lamhe that had Sridevi as the female lead opposite the late Rishi Kapoor and Anil Kapoor. Read more. Fire sweeps through park without burning trees or grass, surreal video amazes people A video, which is mesmerising and baffling in equal parts, has gone crazy viral online. The clip shows a park covered with a white veil which burns away. Whats surprising is that the fire doesnt touch the green grass, tree barks, or even the wooden bench.Read more. Covid-19 will go away without vaccine: Donald Trump on health crisis Donald Trump, President of the United States of America, asserted that the Covid-19 pandemic might go away without a vaccine. He made the comment while being asked about the importance of a vaccine in the fight against the Sars-Cov-2 coronavirus. Trump said that after the virus goes away, there might still be some flare-ups, but the authorities would be able to put them out. Watch here. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 10 Trend: Military units of the armed forces of Armenia violated ceasefire 26 times throughout the day in various direction of the front, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijani Defense Ministry. The positions of Azerbaijan Army were fired from the positions of Armenian military units located near the occupied Goyarkh village of Terter region, Marzili village of Aghdam region, Kuropatkino village of Khojavend region, Horadiz village of Fuzuli region, as well as from the positions located on nameless hills in Terter and Khojavend regions. New Delhi: The upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament, which mostly begins in the month of June or July, may still be held as per the schedule, said Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Sunday (May 10), amid concerns that the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic may delay the session. The Speaker stressed that it was a testing time due to COVID-19 crisis but expressed hope that the session could be held as per normal schedule. "The upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament will be held as per the schedule. Till now, there are no plans to postpone the session. The decision will be taken as per the situation at that time," ANI quoted the Speaker as saying. Experts have opined that the session could be delayed until the last week of September, as the Constitution allows a maximum six-month gap between two consecutive sessions. In 2019, the Monsoon Session ran between June 20 and August 7. On March 23, the Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die in the wake of coronavirus outbreak nearly two weeks ahead of the scheduled date for the conclusion of the Budget Session. A day later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the nationwide lockdown to combat the coronavirus, which has so far afflicted 62,939. The Budget session had to be ended prematurely on March 23, over 10 days ahead of its last scheduled sitting on April 3. Earlier this week, AIIMS-Delhi Director Dr Randeep Guleria said as per the modeling data and the way India`s COVID-19 cases are increasing, it is likely that peak can come in June and July. "According to modeling data and the way our cases are increasing, it is likely that peak can come in June and July. But there are many variables. With time only, we will know how much they are effective and the effect of extending the lockdown," said Dr Guleria. The Lancaster County Health Department on Saturday reported a steep jump in the number of new cases of COVID-19 in the county, with 76 in the past 24 hours. That's the highest number reported in a single day in the community. The total number of cases in the county is now 606, with two deaths. With half of our cases reported in the last seven days, it is clear that Lincoln has not yet reached its peak, said Pat Lopez, health department interim director. The Lancaster County Department of Corrections also reported its first known case of COVID-19 within the jail. The person recently came into the facility and has had no contact with the general inmate population. The inmate tested positive Friday and is in isolation with mild symptoms, and being treated in the infirmary. It's currently the only case of the virus known among staff or inmates at the facility, officials said. Corrections staff is working directly with the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department and the jails medical provider to best address the issue. (Photo : REUTERS/Gertruud Van Ettinger ) A worker holds a sample of the CovidOrganics; the plant-based "cure", promoted by Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina as a remedy against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Antananarivo, Madagascar May 8, 2020. While scientists are still in the race on finding the right cure for COVID-19, there are online sellers boast they have "miracle coronavirus cure." This report alarms the United Kingdom Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and now urging Britons not to buy medicines that claim it can cure virus as there is no cure yet. ALSO READ: [BREAKING] COVID-19 UPDATE: WHO Confirms Wuhan Market's Role in Outbreak; Pangolins Cure Coronavirus? A Church Caught Selling 'Divine Cleansing' There had been a surge in bogus cleansing oils and sprays appearing online, and these products may "pose a risk to health," thus making COVID-19 worse, according to the U.K. (MHRA). One of the reports of the products claiming can cure coronavirus was a south London church. It said the church was caught selling 'divine cleansing oil' for 91 or $99.82, and boasted could cure the disease if inhaled. 'We have been receiving reports of "miracle cures," 'antiviral misting sprays,' antiviral medicines being sold through websites," Lynda Scammell, Senior Enforcement Advisor at the MHRA said. 'Don't be fooled by online offers for medical products to help prevent or treat COVID-19. At this time, there is no medicine licensed specifically to treat or prevent the illness. We cannot guarantee the safety or quality of these products, and this poses a risk to your health," Scammell added. Scammell explained the risk of buying medicines and medical devices from unregulated sources--one of them is that you "don't know what you will receive." ALSO READ: COVID-19 Update: Coronavirus May Be Transmitted By Children, New Study Shows; Kawasaki Disease May Be Linked to COVID-19 Jim Bakker's Silver Solution In a previous report, in the United States, Florida-based District Judge Kathleen M. Williams issued a temporary restraining order against Genesis II Church of Health and Healing (Genesis), led by Jim Bakker, to stop selling a bleach-based cure, which claims to cure coronavirus. The church and Bakker marketed Genesis the MMS as a cure for numerous diseases, including allergies, influenza, malaria, cancer, blood infections, Lyme disease, and even coronavirus, and a four-ounce of its bottle can be purchased for $28 each. Bakker had been on a hot seat since his guest, Dr. Sherrill Sellman, appeared in his show. Sellman was reportedly has a naturopathy doctorate degree from an unaccredited university. On his show, Sellman claimed that Silver Solution, also known as "miracle treatment," can kill COVID-19. After airing a segment, medical experts alarmed with the claims and said the product is "pure fraud" and must be avoided. ALSO READ: COVID-19: Social Media Companies Scramble To Remove Conspiracy-Laden 'Plandemic' Video 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Ellen Hudson hadnt really thought much about the birds for years, many years. But, when the coronavirus pandemic forced her to stay close to home and her backyard became a bigger part of her daily existence, the Harrisburg woman gave the avian visitors another look. Before I was married and started a family, I remember birdwatching quite a bit. I even made some trips to places in Pennsylvania that are known for their birds, like Tinicum down near Philly and Lake Erie, she recalled. Im sure I pointed some birds out to (my daughters) sometimes while they were growing up. But I wasnt focused on birdwatching for a long time. Then, with the stay at home orders and all, I try to spend some time every day in the backyard and I started noticing the birds again. Ive even seen an indigo bunting and I think a couple orioles. Now Im waiting for Amazon to deliver some bird feeders and a new field guide. Hudson isnt alone in a renewed or brand-new interest in birding. The pursuit seems to be booming in the time of pandemic. My first bird feeders. Patiently waiting. Nothing yet, a new member posted to the Birding Pennsylvania group on Facebook. Social media groups focused on birding, like Lehigh Valley Audubon Society, have noted a steady stream of new online members, and some real-world, paid membership in the club have followed. Downloads of online bird-identification apps are up by orders of magnitude. Two of the most popular apps, the National Audubon Societys Mobile Bird Guide and Cornell Lab of Ornithologys Merlin Bird ID, have each been downloaded at more than twice the rate as during the same period last year. Cornells bird-logging, citizen-science app, eBird, has seen nearly the same increase in activity this year. Sales of things like nestboxes, bird feeders, bird seed and binoculars appear to be bucking the downward trend displayed by other non-necessities. The Associated Press reported that sales of birding merchandise are up 10-15 percent this year, according to Panancea Products Corp., a manufacturer of bird-feeding products. One area of the birding world that hasnt been boosted by pandemic conditions is the birding festival. Spring is prime time for dozens of the annual festivals, the conservation organizations that rely on them for large fund-raising opportunities, the many vendors who sell their bird-related merchandise at them and the business communities in the hosting towns that rely on an annual bump for the local festivals. Festival websites are littered with cancellation notices, like this from the Festival of the Birds at Presque Isle, which was to be hosted May 8-10 at Erie by Presque Isle Audubon Society, Erie Bird Observatory and Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources: After much consideration related to the pandemic, Covid-19, including recommendations from the CDC as well as our own national organization, we have decided to cancel the Festival of the Birds at Presque Isle 2020. We are all very disappointed, but the health and safety of our participants is our top concern. Despite this, we encourage individuals to get out there and bird. It's still a safe and healthy pursuit. As of right now, the trails at Presque Isle remain open, however, the TREC and facilities on the park that are run by DCNR will be closed until further notice. This also means there will be no restrooms open so keep that in mind before you head out. World Migratory Bird Day on Saturday, May 9, also will be a very different celebration this year. "This years theme is Birds Connect Our World," said Susan Bonfield, executive director of Environment for the Americas, which coordinates the event. "The colorful birds returning to your neighborhood right now are connected to nature, places and cultures all across the hemisphere where birds travel throughout the year." The day this year will concentrate on birds and birding close to home, offering many things you can do right from home to protect, celebrate., and enjoy birds. Here are some bird-friendly actions recommended by the organization: Celebrate World Migratory Bird Day Right at Home. Check out online events and storytelling for kids and find out how scientists learn where birds go. Visit the World Migratory Bird Day website. Make a Bird-Friendly Place in Your Yard or Neighborhood. Provide shelter, nesting areas and food for birds. Youll be amazed by the birds and other wildlife you can attract with a few simple steps. Learn about native plants and other ideas from Audubon. Watch Birds Near Home and Share What You See. On May 9, participate in Global Big Day, and help set a record of 100,000 bird checklists submitted to eBird.org for use in science and conservation. Look out for the birds around your home, identify as many as you can and share your list. DIY Project: Make Your Windows Safer. Up to 1 billion birds are estimated to die each year after hitting windows in the U.S. and Canada. Get the kids involved in a simple home improvement project to save birds by breaking up window reflections using string, decals or paint spaced no more than two inches high or two inches wide. See quick, affordable ideas from American Bird Conservancy. Enjoy Indoor Time with Your Cat. While outdoors, cats are estimated to kill more than 2.6 billion birds annually in the U.S. and Canada. Keeping your cat safe with quality time indoors also helps protect birds and other wildlife. Have a Bird-Friendly Drink. Most coffee is grown in the sun, but shade-grown coffee preserves a forest canopy that helps migratory birds survive the winter, offers food and shelter for wildlife, and is economically and environmentally beneficial to farmers. Find out where to order Bird Friendly coffee, certified by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. Skip the Pesticides. More than a billion pounds of pesticides are applied in the U.S. each year. Avoiding pesticides around your home and in your food is a healthy choice for wildlife and your family. Find out what produce contains the most pesticides. Reduce and Reuse Your Plastics. Its estimated that 4,900 million metric tons of plastic trash have accumulated worldwide. Plastic waste is so pervasive that microplastics can be found in drinking water, and trash in the ocean entangles birds or is mistaken for food. 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. Click here to read the full article. This story appears in the June 2020 issue of Rolling Stone. Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control, flanked Donald Trump at the podium in the White House briefing room. It was February 29th, the day of the first reported U.S. death from the coronavirus, and the president fielded an urgent question: How should Americans prepare for this virus? a reporter asked. Should they go on with their daily lives? Change their routine? What should they do? More from Rolling Stone In that moment, America was flying blind into a pandemic; the virus was on the loose, and nobody quite knew where. The lives of tens of thousands hinged on the advice about to be delivered by the president and his top public-health advisers. Trump began: Well, I hope they dont change their routine, before he trailed off, and, quite uncharacteristically, called on an expert to finish the response. Bob? he said. Do you want to answer that? A tall man, with a tan, freckled head, and a snow-white chinstrap beard, Redfield stepped to the podium. The risk at this time is low, Redfield told the country. The American public needs to go on with their normal lives. This reassurance came at precisely, and tragically, the wrong time. With a different answer, much of the human devastation that was about to unfold in the United States would have been avoidable. Academic research from Imperial College in London, modeling the U.S. response, estimates that up to 90 percent of COVID-19 deaths could have been prevented had the U.S. moved to shut down by March 2nd. Instead, administration leaders dragged their feet for another two weeks, as the virus continued a silent, exponential assault. By early May, more than 75,000 Americans were dead. Even as he spoke, Redfield knew the country should be taking a different course. The Coronavirus Task Force had resolved to present the president with a plan for mitigation efforts, like school and business closures, on February 24th, but reportedly reversed course after Trump exploded about the economic fallout. Instead, the CDC director continued touting aggressive containment to Congress on February 27th. Experts tell Rolling Stone that ship had sailed when the virus made the leap from infected travelers into the general public. If youve got a community spreading respiratory virus, its not going to be containable, says Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security. You have to shift to mitigation right away. Story continues Patty Murray is the ranking member of the Senates top health committee, and represents Washington state, the nations first coronavirus hot spot. She blames the administration for a delay that overwhelmed the health care system and resulted in tens of thousands of deaths. And she singles out Redfield, in particular, for dereliction of duty. Despite months of alarms that the coronavirus was lurking at our doorstep, the Trump administration failed to mount an urgent response until the nation was engulfed and overwhelmed by the pandemic. We had ample notice to get our country ready, says Ron Klain, who served as President Obamas Ebola czar, and lists the rolling out of testing, securing protective equipment, and building up hospital capacity as necessary preventative steps. We spent all of January and February doing none of those things, and as a result, when this disease really exploded in March, we werent prepared. The government leaders who failed to safeguard the nation are CDC Director Redfield; FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn; Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar; and of course, President Trump. Together, these men had the power to change the direction of this pandemic, to lessen its impact on the economy, and constrain the death toll from COVID-19. Each failed, in a series of errors and mismanagement that grew into a singular catastrophe or as Jared Kushner described it on Fox & Friends, a great success story. Defeating an invisible enemy like the coronavirus requires working diagnostics. But when the CDCs original test kit failed, there was no Plan B. The nations private-sector biomedical establishment is world-class, but the administration kept these resources cordoned behind red tape as the CDC foundered. Precious weeks slipped by amid infighting, ass covering, and wasted effort and the virus slipped through the nations crippled surveillance apparatus, taking root in hot spots across the country, and in particular, New York City. The mismanagement cost lives. With adequate testing from the beginning, says Dr. Howard Forman, a Yale professor of public-health policy, we would have been able to stop the spread of this virus in its tracks the way that many other nations have. Instead, says Sen. Murray, the administrations response was wait until its too late, and then try and contain one of the most aggressive viruses that weve ever seen. Blind to the viruss penetration and unable to target mitigation where it was needed, the administration and state governors had to resort to the blunt instrument of shuttering the economy, says Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. And the lack of testing kept us in limbo. Our economy is shut down because we still do not have adequate testing, Jha says. We have been woefully behind from the beginning of this pandemic. If the presidents deputies made trillion-dollar mistakes, accountability for the pandemic response lies with Trump, who waived off months of harrowing intelligence briefings, choosing to treat the coronavirus as a crisis in public relations, rather than a public-health emergency. Having staked his re-election on a strong economy, Trump downplayed the virus. To the horror of public-health experts, America remains rudderless in the crisis. Obamas CDC director, Tom Frieden, says you can look back with 20/20 hindsight on lots of things. But even months into the response and despite Vice President Mike Pence nominally at the helm of the Coronavirus Task Force Frieden says he cant discern who is actually in charge of the federal response, and thats dangerous. The coronavirus would be a devilish test of any presidents leadership, but Trump has failed beyond measure. And the errors are metastasizing. The failed coronavirus response is not a story of mistakes that were made and have now been fixed, Klain says. Its the story of mistakes that continue to cost lives. THE ZEALOT The front-line agency built to respond to a pandemic, the CDC, was placed in unreliable hands. Dr. Robert Redfield is a right-wing darling with a checkered scientific past. His 2018 nomination was a triumph for the Christian right, a coup in particular for evangelical activists Shepherd and Anita Smith, who have been instrumental in driving a global AIDS strategy centered on abstinence. Redfields tight-knit relationship with the Smiths goes back at least three decades, beginning when Shepherd Smith recruited him to join the board of his religious nonprofit, Americans for a Sound AIDS/HIV Policy (ASAP). The Smiths made their views plain in the 1990 book Christians in the Age of AIDS, which argued HIV infection resulted from peoples sinfulness, and described AIDS as a consequence for those who violate Gods laws. Redfield, a devout Catholic who was then a prominent HIV researcher in the Army, wrote the introduction, calling for the rejection of false prophets who preach the quick-fix strategies of condoms and free needles. Redfield was a rising star at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, whose name had been floated as a candidate for surgeon general. But the late 1980s were benighted times in the AIDS epidemic, and Redfield championed discriminatory policies that he defended as good medicine including quarantining of HIV-positive soldiers in a segregated barracks. These soldiers were routinely given dishonorable discharges after superiors rooted out evidence of homosexuality, and left to suffer the course of their devastating disease without health insurance. It was dark, remembers Laurie Garrett, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Coming Plague, who reported on Redfields actions. It was the opposite of compassion. Redfields Army career derailed after he was accused of sloppy or, possibly, deceptive research for touting a trial HIV therapy that later proved useless. An investigation found no wrongdoing, but called out his inappropriately close relationship with Shepherd Smith, who also hyped the drug. Redfield insisted there was no basis for any of the allegations, but the scandal spurred his departure to a research lab at the University of Maryland. Still, Redfields resume religious-right bona fides, a military background, and a knack for ingratiating himself with powerful people primed his return to government. Over the years, there have been several attempts to push him into powerful slots within Republican administrations, says Garrett. I dont think most of his promoters have ever been particularly interested in the science. When his CDC appointment was announced in March 2018, Sen. Murray warned of Redfields pattern of ethically and morally questionable behavior, as well as his lack of public-health expertise, and urged Trump to reconsider. But the CDC post does not require Senate approval. Redfield sought to reassure CDC staff that his views had modernized, and that he now embraced condoms to slow HIV infection. He insisted at an all-hands meeting, Ive never been an abstinence-only person. In point of fact, Redfield co-authored a 1987 textbook, AIDS & Young People, that preached abstinence until marriage, writing that medicine and morality tell us the same thing. It warned, in all caps, against the notion of safe sex: IF YOU ENGAGE IN CLOSE SEXUAL CONDUCT, YOU ARE PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH YOUR LIFE. THE INSIDER The CDC reports to the Department of Health and Human Services, led by Alex Azar, a former executive for the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly who gained infamy, in his five-year tenure, by doubling the price of insulin. Azar is a creature of the GOP establishment: He cut his teeth as a Supreme Court clerk to Antonin Scalia, worked with Brett Kavanaugh on the Clinton-Whitewater investigation under special counsel Ken Starr, and served as a deputy HHS administrator in the George W. Bush era, before becoming Eli Lillys top lobbyist. Azar, 52, is the type of corporate leader Republicans have long touted as capable of driving efficiencies in the unwieldy federal bureaucracy. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell praised Azars nomination in 2017, insisting, Alex brings a wealth of private-sector knowledge that will prepare him well for this crucial role. Azar sought to shrink the CDC, an agency that has been on the chopping block throughout the Trump administration. In HHSs most recent budget proposal unveiled this past February, 10 days after the World Health Organization declared a global emergency over the coronavirus Azar sought an $85 million cut to the CDCs Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases program and a $25 million cut to Public Health Preparedness and Response. Azar defended the budget at the time as making difficult, prudent choices. The Trump administration had also hollowed out the CDCs China presence, slashing staff from 47 to barely a dozen. These cuts were part of a broad-reaching drawdown of Americas disease preparedness, including Trumps decision to disband the National Security Counsels pandemic-response team. In late 2018, Azars HHS rejected a proposal, solicited by the Obama administration, to buy a machine capable of churning out 1.5 million N95 respirators a day, for use in a pandemic. Despite this austerity crusade, the CDCs initial response to the outbreak was by the book. On January 3rd, Redfield spoke with Chinese colleagues about a mysterious viral outbreak causing a rash of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, and immediately informed Azar. On January 11th, the Chinese published the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus, and the CDC began creating a diagnostic test. The CDC wasnt alone in this effort. Research labs across the country were racing to come up with their own assays. Every molecular virologist I knew had a test before the CDC did, says Dr. Donald Milton, who runs the Public Health Aerobiology, Virology, and Exhaled Biomarker Laboratory at the University of Maryland. By January 16th, a German company had produced a reliable diagnostic that WHO would adopt as its own. Five days later, the CDC announced it had a working test which it used to diagnose the first known U.S. coronavirus patient, a Wuhan traveler near Seattle. Rick Bright directed HHSs Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority until his ouster in April. In a whistleblower complaint, he reveals he warned Azar on January 23rd that the virus could already be spreading in the U.S. but we just dont have the tests to know one way or the other. Bright accuses HHS leadership of a lax and dismissive attitude toward the coronavirus, and singles out Azar for downplaying this catastrophic threat. Hailing from the establishment wing of the GOP, Azar didnt have much juice with Trump. He did not reach the president to discuss the outbreak until January 18th. Another 10 days would pass before the White House created a Coronavirus Task Force, with Azar at the helm. Two days later, Azar declared a public-health emergency. This emergency declaration had the confounding effect of slowing the testing rollout. Normally, private and university labs can make their own diagnostic tests without approval by the Food and Drug Administration. But these labs become paradoxically more regulated during an emergency, says Adalja, the Johns Hopkins doctor. Azar had activated strict regulations that made the FDA the gatekeeper for coronavirus-test approval. But there was a big problem: The gate operator was new on the job, and painfully slow to pull the lever. UNREADY AT THE FDA Stephen Hahn had been on the job at the FDA for barely a month. A bald, 60-year-old of modest height, Hahn has an impeccable resume he served as chief medical executive at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center but he had no experience running a government agency. The need to engage the private sector for coronavirus testing was not only foreseeable, it was foreseen by Trumps first FDA commissioner, Scott Gottlieb. In a January 28th Wall Street Journal article, Act Now to Prevent an American Epidemic, Gottlieb warned that the CDC will struggle to keep up with the volume of screening. He said the government must begin working with private industry to develop easy-to-use, rapid diagnostic tests. If Hahn read his predecessors call to action, he did not act on it. Hahn did not lack authority; the FDA has broad discretion to relax the rules that were locked into place with Azars declaration. But Azar had, unaccountably, not included Hahn on the Coronavirus Task Force. By default, private test developers were now required to obtain an emergency-use authorization from the FDA to deploy COVID-19 testing. Companies couldnt make their own lab-developed tests, Adalja says, so you had Quest and LabCorp and the big-university labs on the sidelines. FDA officials would not speak on the record, but in extended background interviews, they defended the FDAs role in regulating lab tests as both righteous and desirable. They described an agency whose doors were always open to private companies that wanted to develop testing, and denied that Hahns inexperience hobbled the FDAs response. Hahn did not agree to be interviewed, but said in a statement that the FDA was engaged at the earliest stages of the coronavirus outbreak and at no point was FDA excluded. FDA and HHS have been hand in hand in our aggressive response. Yet the failure to activate the private sector was the key difference between the U.S. response to the coronavirus and that of South Korea, which first detected the virus in its country at the same time the U.S. did. Instead of going through regulatory hijinks, says Milton, the University of Maryland virologist, South Korea turned their biomedical industry loose, and they started producing lots of tests right away. With this massive rollout including drive-through testing clinics for patients with mild symptoms South Korea got in front of its outbreak. At the beginning of May, South Korea had recorded fewer than 11,000 cases and 250 COVID-19 deaths. The United States, Milton insists, missed the window to activate its biomedical might to achieve the same result. We have that capability, he says. We could have done that. THE BLACK-SWAN EVENT With the private sector offline, the stakes for the CDC test could not have been higher. The CDC had a peerless reputation. Despite its underfunding, it was considered a crown jewel of public-health agencies. Starting with the CDC test makes perfectly good sense, says Kathleen Sebelius, who served as HHS secretary in the Obama administration. The CDC performed ably during the H1N1 outbreak on her watch. Within two weeks of knowing what H1N1 looked like, she recalls, the CDC had millions of test kits to push out to the states and around the world. There was little reason to think that the CDC could not perform the same in this crisis. The CDC itself subject to FDA regulation obtained emergency approval of its own test on February 4th and began shipping out kits, manufactured in its own laboratories, to roughly 100 public-health labs across the country. The CDC test was complex, including two steps that tested for genetic markers of the novel coronavirus, and a third meant to rule out other known coronaviruses. But when state labs began testing, the unthinkable happened: The third prong failed, providing inconclusive results. Scott Becker is the executive director of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, the umbrella group that represents these labs and helps them interface with the CDC. On the morning of February 8th, a Saturday, his cellphone began blowing up with messages from member labs. I started to see this string of the problems, and I thought, Oh, my God, this cant be happening, Becker says. To me, it was the same moment of Where were you on 9/11? because of the enormity of what we knew was coming. If this test had a problem, we were weeks behind. He was stung by the realization that we were not going to be able to contain this. For the CDC, and the public labs that depend on its tests, this was a black-swan event on top of a global pandemic. An incredibly infectious respiratory virus was poised for a mass outbreak, and the surveillance system needed to contain it was broken. It was as if enemy ballistic missiles were incoming and NORAD had gone offline. The crisis was acute: The U.S. had a single test for the coronavirus, and it could only be run at the CDCs Atlanta headquarters, as well as a handful of state labs that had been able to make assay work. This bottleneck would require extreme rationing of tests, to patients whod traveled to foreign hot spots and tested negative for other diseases. The criteria were so strict that the CDC allegedly refused a test to a nurse who fell ill after treating COVID patients. There was another, well-functioning test on the global market, of course. At the same time the CDC was sending its flawed tests to U.S. labs, WHO was distributing 250,000 of its test kits to laboratories across the world. Sebelius, Obamas HHS secretary, insists that Azar should have recognized the bottleneck at the CDC and bypassed the agency until it sorted out its failed test. Its a real problem that we didnt immediately pivot to the WHO test, which we know was working very well, Sebelius says. We could have purchased a lot of those and pushed them out. HHS, working with the FDA, should also have taken that moment to call in the private-sector cavalry. We could have opened up the private-lab capacity, she says. And we didnt do any of that. One might excuse Alex Azar for his failure to manage up. At the time the CDC tests began to fail, Trump was in the throes of denial, praising President Xi of China on Twitter He is strong, sharp and powerfully focused on leading the counterattack on the Coronavirus and predicting the disease goes away in April with the heat. But Azar proved equally hapless at managing down. Instead of engineering a workaround to the unreliable CDC test, or leaning on his private-sector connections to jump-start commercial testing, Azar insisted that the original kit be fixed. He reportedly rejected use of the WHO test, out of concern that the test was unreliable. (CDC and HHS officials also underscored that the WHO test, itself, would have had to go through the sticky wicket of FDA regulation.) The impulse at Redfields CDC was to slow down, Becker says, to guard against producing a second, flawed batch of test kits. Hahns FDA, meanwhile, was focused on its role as the CDCs regulator, intent on rooting out the flaw in the original test it had approved. The agencies were soon enmeshed in a bureaucratic struggle so toxic that an FDA diagnostic expert sent in to troubleshoot was briefly locked out of CDC facilities. (HHS blames a scheduling conflict.) In interviews with Rolling Stone, FDA officials accused the CDC of providing incomplete and misleading information, of downplaying the number of public labs that were unable to run the test, and of signaling to the FDA that the CDC would be able to fix the problem on its own. A CDC representative, in turn, claimed that the FDA slowed the CDCs response by throwing up redundant regulatory hurdles. The FDA would ultimately conclude that the CDC did not manufacture its test consistent with its own protocol and that a manufacturing issue believed to be contamination at the CDCs lab rather than a design defect, was responsible for the flawed results. Sebelius says it is par for the course for bureaucracies to seize up in a crisis: The default position is do nothing, to stand behind the regs, and say, We cant move. But she insists that the foot-dragging and finger-pointing had a solution: leadership at the parent agency, HHS, by Azar. I can guarantee you that the secretary can get their attention, she says. Kerry Weems is a former career official at HHS, who served with Azar in leadership posts during the Bush administration and helped draw up that White House pandemic playbook. He says HHS got stuck trying to undo the failure. Its a human thing, he says. When you start out on a path, you have a tendency to stick to it. The playbook says the CDC produces the test and the FDA approves it. Thats the gold standard. And we just got stuck with path dependence, and didnt move beyond that. The crisis dragged on for weeks. Publicly, the CDC put on a brave face. Were fully stood up at CDC, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center of Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said on February 21st. There is no lag time for testing. Messonnier continued to point to false positives as the major threat: We obviously would not want to use anything but the most perfect possible kits. But the far greater danger was already apparent to anyone following the news. Days earlier, China had locked down 780 million people. The alternative to adequate testing was a blanket quarantine. Azar declined to be interviewed. In a statement, a HHS representative said, Secretary Azar has always insisted that the full resources of the Trump administration be marshaled to combat COVID-19. Any insinuation that Secretary Azar did not respond with needed urgency to the response or testing efforts are just plain wrong and disproven by the facts. Outside the administration, top health officials were exasperated. Becker tried to break the gridlock, writing to Hahn on February 24th with an extraordinary and rare request that the nations public-health labs be allowed to create their own tests sidestepping the CDC. We are now many weeks into the response with still no diagnostic test available, Becker warned. Yet this sense of alarm was not reflected at the top. In Senate testimony on February 25th, Azar insisted the administration was delivering. Im told the diagnostic doesnt work, Sen. Murray said, challenging Azar. The HHS secretary shot back. Thats simply, flatly incorrect, he said, pointing to the CDCs own ability to run the test. Azar then began spouting Trumpian self-praise, celebrating the historic response to the virus. No administration, he said, no CDC in American history, has delivered like this. Weems disagrees starkly. I hope the CDC remembers this for decades, he says, because they failed. This is what they were built for and they failed. Behind closed doors, top administration officials were starting to grapple with the seriousness of what the United States was facing and to understand, at least intuitively, what the CDCs failed testing regime was hiding: Containment of the coronavirus was failing, and economy-crippling mitigation would soon be necessary. By Valentines Day, the National Security Council had reportedly developed a memo offering social-distancing guidelines, including school closures, wide-spread stay at home directives and cancellation of almost all sporting events, performances, and public and private meetings. The role of asymptomatic carriers in spreading the coronavirus was becoming clearer, leading a top HHS official to warn of a huge hole on our screening and quarantine effort. By February 24th, the Coronavirus Task Force, Redfield included, had reportedly resolved to recommend a plan to Trump called Four Steps to Mitigation. But before Trump could be briefed, Messonnier had the grave misfortune of telling the truth. In a February 25th briefing with reporters, she warned of a wide coronavirus outbreak in the United States: Its not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of exactly when. She cautioned that under social-distancing measures, many Americans could lose income and that disruption to everyday life may be severe. Dr. Messonniers statements were right on, says Frieden, the former CDC head, who says he relied on her as one of the nations top public-health specialists in respiratory viruses. But after Messonniers comments contributed to massive stock-market losses, Trump thew a fit. He exploded at Azar and reportedly threatened to fire the CDC scientist. Trump soon announced a major change of course. Pence would be taking over the task force, sidelining Azar. Trump himself minimized the threat of the disease, calling coronavirus a flu, and insisted that infections had peaked: We have a total of 15 people diagnosed with COVID-19, he said. The 15, within a couple of days, is going to be down to close to zero. Pence was a dubious choice to head the task force. As a governor, he shared Redfields moral objection to free needles for those living with drug addiction a stance that inflamed an HIV epidemic among opioid users in Indiana on his watch. But with the change in leadership on the task force, the wheels of government suddenly came unstuck. In a maddening update on February 26th, the CDC informed public labs that they could go ahead and run their original test kits and simply disregard the problematic third prong. The original diagnostic tests, in other words, had been reliable all along. Frieden, the former CDC director, remains incredulous at how this unfolded: It took them three weeks to say, Just dont use the third component! The FDA simultaneously offered state labs a pathway to create their own tests, a route New York state used to develop its own high-speed test. Hahn had, at last, been added to the task force, and on February 29th, the FDA announced it would let private labs develop their own tests, subject to retroactive approval. They had just taken the gate down, Becker says, and said, Go. Run. Get started. The public-labs chief never got an explanation as to why. They just changed their policy, he says. The testing breakdown had left the nation blind to the true scope of the outbreak. By March 1st, the CDCs official tally of coronavirus cases had spiked from the 15 cases touted by Trump to 75. But researchers at Northeastern University have now developed models showing there were likely 28,000 infections at the time, in just five major cities, including New York and Seattle. The Seattle Flu Study bucking red tape from the FDA and CDC had begun a rogue effort to test swab samples it had collected using its own lab-developed test. By early March, the testing had uncovered a bevy of undiagnosed coronavirus infections. Dr. Helen Chu, the projects lead scientist, told The New York Times that she realized then, with horror, Its just everywhere already. At this moment, shutting down the economy was inevitable it was just a question of when the measures would be implemented. But scientists believe up to 90 percent of the human toll was still avoidable, had the government moved immediately to implement social-distancing measures. Instead, the administration persisted in its Do nothing message parade. On March 6th, at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Redfield again stood by the presidents side. I want to thank you for your decisive leadership, in helping us put public health first, he told Trump, who wore a red keep america great cap. Redfield again called the risk from the coronavirus low and insisted the U.S. had only an isolated number of clusters. He then made a claim that would be comical if it were not so tragic: Its not as if we have multiple, multiple hundreds and hundreds of clusters across the country. I mean, were not blind where this virus is right now in the United States. The next day, appearing with Pence and cruise-industry executives, Redfield encouraged American travelers to keep their reservations, and even to visit Disneyland. Within the week, the administrations denial crashed into the reality of the exploding pandemic. Disney shut its parks; Trump declared a state of emergency. Finally, on March 16th, the administration rolled out social-distancing guidelines to slow the spread, and the nations economy started grinding to a halt. Redfield declined to be interviewed. A representative for the CDC defended his conduct, insisting that Redfield had been closely tracking the global spread of COVID-19 from the outbreaks early days, that his comments were based upon available data at the time, and that at no time did he underestimate the potential for COVID-19 becoming a global pandemic. A PRESIDENT ADRIFT Having plunged the nation headlong and unprepared into the deadliest disease outbreak in a century, President Trump is now proving to be one of the greatest obstacles to an effective national response. Sebelius ultimately blames Trump for failing to end the infighting and fix the testing failure. The White House has a unique way to get agencies attention, by making it clear that they want a solution, and everybody at the table with that solution within 24 hours, she says. If the president wants this to happen, it will happen. But on his visit to the CDC in Atlanta, Trump had made an extraordinary admission: That he did not want to let passengers from a cruise ship, then suffering an outbreak off the California coast, to come on shore because the tally of patients would rise. I like the numbers being where they are, Trump said. Those comments hit Sebelius like a punch in the gut. Trump plainly saw effective testing as a threat to his political messaging that the administration was containing the virus. By standing at CDC headquarters to declare that the tests were perfect and that he didnt want COVID-19 numbers going up, the president was doing the exact opposite of demanding a fix. For the presidents deputies, Sebelius says, there couldnt be a clearer signal. The nations public labs were not fully up and running on the CDC test until March 8th, according to HHS, about the time Quest and LabCorp finally began testing in their labs. The Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche did not receive FDA approval for its high-speed, high-volume test until March 13th. This initial delay in getting testing off the ground didnt just set the country back in real time, says Johns Hopkins Adalja: Thats still why were playing catch up. If you constrain our biggest source for diagnostic expertise and capacity, its no surprise that we ended up in the situation that were in. Trump has extraordinary powers to set the country on a better course but he hasnt used them. What has been really terrifying to watch is that the federal government has refused to use the unique purchasing authority, the unique production authority, that no state can mobilize, Sebelius says. Whats more, rather than supporting governors, Trump has been undermining them, creating a system of chaos and competition, as opposed to collaboration, that has made the situation worse for most states. That includes states with Republican governors. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts had a shipment of medical equipment seized at customs by FEMA, and was forced to rely on a private plane, owned by the New England Patriots, to fly in a shipment of masks from China. In Maryland, Gov. Larry Hogan resorted to buying 500,000 coronavirus tests from South Korea and stashing them in an undisclosed location under watch by the National Guard. Frieden, the former CDC chief, says that whats required to contain the pandemic and begin reopening the economy is a box it in approach, with four components: widespread testing; isolating positive cases; contact tracing to identify people likely to have been infected; and quarantining those same people. The White House put this strategy into practice after a top aide to the vice president, Katie Miller, tested positive, and several Coronavirus Task Force members, including Redfield and Hahn, put themselves in quarantine on May 9th. Rolling out this practice nationally would be a sophisticated undertaking, requiring coordination that had not, into May, materialized from the White House. After failing to provide anything more than a gesture at a framework for reopening in late April, the administration began pushing states to rev up their economies. It did this despite internal CDC projections that COVID-19 deaths were on track to hit 3,000 a day by June 1st, while blocking release of a science-based CDC playbook for opening schools, restaurants, churches, and mass transit. Sen. Murray says Trump and Pence have abdicated their responsibility in this crisis: No one is putting together a plan! She recalls a recent conversation with Pence. He couldnt even tell me how many tests they need. If you dont have a goal, how do you produce it? Experts believe the country needs a minimum of 1 million tests a day to safely reopen; through April, it rarely exceeded 200,000 a day. Sebelius, herself a former governor of Kansas, insists that it is mission-critical for the United States to begin acting like the United States. We absolutely have to have a plan of what happens between now and when we finish a national vaccination campaign, Sebelius says. If every state is on their own trying to figure this out, well have a total nightmare. In the event that Trump is still president when a vaccine becomes available, Sebelius argues that the loose confederations that have formed in the Northeast, Midwest, and Pacific states to coordinate their reopenings may need to band together in a shadow government to sidestep Trump. Maybe governors will put together their own system, she says, and ignore whats happening in the White House. See where your favorite artists and songs rank on the Rolling Stone Charts. Sign up for Rolling Stones Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The Egyptian capital Cairo has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country, followed by the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, said Awad Tag El-Din, a health adviser to Egypt's president. Tag El-Din also sought to reassure the public that Egypt will be able to flatten the curve in the infection rate in the near future. As long as methods to identify coronavirus patients are improving, we are on the right path," Tag El-Din said in TV comments on Al-Arabiya El-Hadth TV channel on Saturday. Egypt will reach a plateau when the daily number of cases remains steady for several days, Tag El-Din said, after that the numbers will start declining and the country will pass its peak of the coronavirus pandemic, which he expects would happen soon. Egypt has recorded 8,964 cases of the coronavirus to date, including 514 fatalities. Of the total number, 2,002 people have recovered. It took Egypt 51 days to record its first 1,000 cases, eight days to record its second 1,000, and less than three days for the country to reach the latest 1,000 cases. Tag El-Din attributed the jump in the number of cases to an expected rise as part of the normal course of the outbreak, an increased number of tests conducted in recent weeks and closer monitoring by health authorities of suspected cases and those who were in contact with infected patients. Every person infected with the virus can transfer the infection to two to five people, Tag El-Din said. Operational quarantine hospitals in Egypt, now 17, have not reached full capacity yet, he said, stressing that preparing other hospitals for coronavirus patients does not mean that operating hospitals have reached their capacity. The health ministry said earlier this month it was preparing 34 chest and fever hospitals to receive coronavirus patients as part of a plan to gear up for bigger outbreak. Around 100,000 PCR tests for the coronavirus have been conducted in Egypt. But not all patients undergo PCR or rapid tests, Tag El-Din said, referring to a group of other tests conducted to help evaluate a case and support diagnosis, including complete blood count, D-dimer and CT scans. He had said earlier that a total of 1 million tests have been conducted. He also stressed that no vaccination against COVID-19 has been developed yet. We currently have experiments on medicines and treatments that help in accelerating the healing process for patients or reducing their stay in hospital. Search Keywords: Short link: May 10 : On Sunday, May 10, Mothers Day will be celebrated all over the world to honor the value of a mother. This year, we could take a few moments to admire the inspiring mothers of Bollywood. These women have managed the art of excelling in work and also keeping their families happy. Our collection of awesome mothers includes Kajol, Aishwarya, Shilpa Shetty, and many more. Of course, there are many more but for us these ladies rock their Mama roles the best! Image Source: Prokerala Kajol with children Kajol She is the Bollywood actress who strikes wonder in every role she plays. On Mothers Day, we found that she was one of the best ladies to start off with. This bubbly lady is a mother of two children: Nysa and Yug. She often has revealed that her motherhood was just fab and these kids brought out the best in her. {"title":"Actor Saif Ali Khan along with his wife Kareena Kapoor Khan and son Taimur at Shashi Kapoor's Christmas Party held at his residence in Mumbai on Dec 25, 2017.","description":"Mumbai: Actor Saif Ali Khan along with his wife Kareena Kapoor Khan and son Taimur at Shashi Kapoor's Christmas Party held at his residence in Mumbai on Dec 25, 2017."} Kareena Kapoor This fashionista of Bollywood is no new name for any of us. She married Saif Ali Khan in 2012 and ever since their love life was the talk of the town. This high profile couple has one child: Taimur. Kareena has been able to balance her motherhood along with her films also. Image Source: Instagram/madhuridixitnene Madhuri Dixit Madhuri Dixit She may be 50 plus, but Madhuri Dixit has always rocked all her roles in Bollywood. Today, she is a married woman with two boys. They are the light of her life and the reason why her smile looks so graceful and grateful. Image Source: IANS News Actors Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan with their daughter Aaradhya. (Photo: IANS) Aishwarya Rai Bachchan The former beauty queen Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is mother to one girl Aardhaya. In spite of her motherhood, she still makes sure that it is always part of the most glamourous red carpet functions in the world Cannes Film Festival. Image Source: IANS News Mandira Bedi. (Photo Courtesy: jitusavlani/Instagram) Mandira Bedi Mandira has slipped into many roles in life, from being a fashion designer to an actress and now a mother of one boy Vir. Along with that, she constantly inspires her fans to stay fit and practice various fitness regimes every day. {"title":"Actor Karishma Kapoor with her son Kiaan Raj Kapoor and daughter Samiera Kapoor at the annual Christmas lunch hosted by Sashi Kapoor in Mumbai, on December 25, 2014.","description":"Mumbai: Actor Karishma Kapoor with her son Kiaan Raj Kapoor and daughter Samiera Kapoor at the annual Christmas lunch hosted by Sashi Kapoor in Mumbai, on December 25, 2014."} Karisma Kapoor The mother of two has surely gone through a lot after having two children, then a divorce, and balancing life. She still manages to keep her life busy, fit, and super inspiring. Today, she is the face of many ads and has acted in a few films too. Image Source: IANS Mumbai: Actress Shilpa Shetty seen with family at Mumbai's Bandra on April 28, 2019. Shilpa Shetty This lady may have moved away from the glam world, but her life has secured a huge fan base from all over the world. Having married and now a mother of two small children, she never misses the chance to still focus on focus, good food, some crazy fun with her husband, and also family. Today she runs cooking videos and also fitness shows and has proven to be a fine example for all mothers. Image Source: Instagram/malaikaaroraofficial Malaika Arora Malaika Arora The mother of the teenage child could never look more lovely than her. In spite of her broken marriage, she has often motivated her inner self to be fit, practice good living, and never be sorry for ones decisions. Though many people do make fun of her love affair with Arjun Kapoor, we find that she is still bold to move on and take note of criticism that needs attention. Raveena Tandon Another mother that had to enter our Mothers Day special list is Raveena Tandon. Much before her marriage, she left the world stunned by adopting two girls. After that, she got married and was blessed with two children out of this relation with Anil Thadani. She has always inspired young women to do things that they feel is right and not follow the false society concepts that exist around the world. Image Source: IANS News Actress Sushmita Sen, who is currently vacationing in Armenia, has shared a "family selfie" along with her daughters Renee and Alisah and beau Roman Shawl. Sushmita shared the photograph on Instagram on Thursday. She captioned it: "Why so serious jaan meri Rohman Shawl. Brilliant group effort for this family selfie we fit. Love you guys." (Photo: Instagram/sushmitasen47) Sushmita Sen The former Miss Universe had adopted two girls at a very young age, thereby surprising the world with her decisions. Today, she is the inspiration of love and dreams for her two girls Renee and Alisah. Sushmita proved that women can live life on their own terms and could make a substantial difference in society. IndiGo Airline had on Friday announced pay cut ranging between 5 and 25 percent, in addition to its leave-without-pay programme for May, June and July, for senior employees New Delhi: After announcing on Friday that it was reinstating pay cuts of up to 25 percent for its senior employees, IndiGo Airlines said it would take a decision on restoring original salary "closer to the end of this financial year". The country's largest domestic airline had on Friday announced pay cut ranging between 5 and 25 percent, in addition to its leave-without-pay programme for May, June and July, for senior employees. The announcement, made through internal emails, came after a series of flip-flops on the matter as India's largest domestic airline struggled to stay afloat amid grounding of all commercial passenger flights due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown. In the emails accessed by PTI, the airline said the salary cut will be effected from May till the end of the 2020-21 financial year. It has already paid full salary of April to its employees. The airline had first announced its decision to cut salaries on 19 March when the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic was apparent, but rescinded the move on 23 April in deference to the "government's wishes". Again on Friday morning, it said it would implement the "originally announced pay-cuts" from May onwards. "While we had paid employee salaries in full for the months of March and April, I am afraid that we are left with no option but to implement the originally announced pay-cuts from the month of May 2020," IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta told employees in an email on Friday morning. Later, in its Friday night's email, the airline clarified to the employees: "At this time, we intend to run this (pay cut) through the year 2020-21." On the question if original pay would be restored whenever this pay cut is repealed, the airline said: "As a company, we will be fair to our employees and do the right thing at the right time. We will make a decision closer to the end of this financial year." Dutta had announced on 19 March that the airline was instituting pay cuts for senior employees and he would himself take the highest cut of 25 percent amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has hit the aviation industry hard. "I am personally taking a 25 percent pay cut, SVPs (senior vice presidents) and above are taking 20 percent, VPs (vice presidents) and cockpit crew are taking a 15 percent pay cut, AVPs (assistant vice presidents), Bands D along with cabin crew will take 10 percent and Band Cs five percent," Dutta had said on 19 March. On 23 March, the Narendra Modi government had asked public and private sector companies not to cut salaries or lay off employees during the COVID-19 lockdown. In his email on Friday morning, Dutta said, "In addition (to pay cuts), given the gradual build-up of capacity, I am afraid we have to take the additional painful step of implementing a limited, graded leave without pay program for the months of May, June and July." "This leave without pay will range from 1.5 days to 5 days depending on the employee group. While doing so, we will make sure that Level A employees, who form a majority of our workforce, will not be impacted," he said. With around 48 percent share in the domestic air passenger market, IndiGo is the largest airline in India. As on 31 March last year, the company has 23,531 employees on its rolls. As India is under lockdown since 25 March to curb the coronavirus pandemic, all Indian airlines have taken major cost cutting measures such as implementing pay cuts and leave without pay programs. GoAir has sent the majority of its employees on leave without pay till May-end. Vistara has instituted a compulsory leave without pay for up to six days in April for its senior employees. In May and June, the same set of senior employees will go on leave without pay for up to four days each month. AirAsia India has cut salaries of its senior employees by up to 20 percent, while Air India has cut salaries for its staff by 10 percent. SpiceJet has cut salaries of mid and senior level employees by 10-30 percent. As the majority of aircraft with Indian airlines are on lease, they are currently seeking deferral of lease rentals by six months. Though it might not have come through during Peter Webers Bachelor season, Madison Prewett says that she and Kelley Flanagan were best friends. In an interview that Prewett did with Kaitlyn Bristowe on her podcast, Off The Vine, she spoke about her relationship with the attorney. Madison Prewett | Francisco Roman via Getty Images Madison Prewett says she and Kelley Flanagan were best friends actually We were best friends actually. We were inseparable throughout the entire process, everyone joked we were the dynamic duo. Really leaned on each other through that entire thing I remember even when I landed from Australia and got home she was one of the first people that I called. She was in group messages with me and my family. We were really really close and talked 24/7, she said. Of course, now, Weber and Flanagan are dating. When the photos first surfaced of Weber and Flanagan spending time together in Chicago, Prewett said she was definitely hurt and thrown off by that whole situation. She said that, just days before it got out that they were spending time together, Weber had been texting Prewett to get back together. Weber has since inferred that theres more to the story than Prewett let on in her Off the Vine interview and former bachelor Nick Viall has called Prewett a liar. Fans have also criticized Prewett for her comments about Flanagan when they had already both dated Weber when they were on the show together. Are Madison Prewett and Kelley Flanagan still friends? It seems as though Prewett hasnt spoken to Flanagan since she found out her friend was spending time with Weber. Prewett thinks the new couples timeline doesnt add up. I havent spoken to her in a really long time I have heard things and I actually asked Peter about some of the things Id kind of been hearing about him and Kelley while we were still trying to figure our thing out, just that there had been hangouts and meetups and conversations that had been going on while he was still with Hannah Ann and while he was also trying to figure things out with me, she said. I asked him those questions and I think its very interesting because his answers and her answers very much contradict the current situation thats happening right now. Mostly, Prewett says she just expected a call or a text from Flanagan. I didnt receive any kind of a heads-up or any sort of text or explanation of why. Im not saying I necessarily deserve it but I kind of feel like I do, because we were best friends, she said. If the roles were reversed that would be the first thought that Id have. I want to take it to this person first, I want them to hear it from me first. Man, I dont know. Its one of those things that Im like Ill never fully understand people, said Prewett. Its safe to say that, at least for now, Prewett and Flanagan probably still arent on the best of terms. But Weber and the attorney seem happy together and Prewett seems to be happy with the direction her life is going in, too. Read more: The Bachelor: Madison Prewett Admits She Probably Shouldve Shared [That Shes Waiting to Have Sex] Sooner Elon Musk said in a tweet that Tesla will move its headquarters from California to the greener pastures of Texas or Nevada. The threat stems from Musk's desire to reopen Tesla's manufacturing plant in Fremont, California, as quickly as possible, despite the fact that Alameda County, where the factory is located, is scheduled to remain under lockdown until the end of May. At present, only businesses deemed essential are allowed to open. "Tesla has been informed that they do not meet those criteria and must not reopen," a spokeswoman for the Alameda County Public Health Department said in a statement. Frankly, this is the final straw. Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately. If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependen on how Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is the last carmaker left in CA. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2020 Musk also said on Twitter that Tesla would be "filing a lawsuit against Alameda County immediately." He added, "The unelected & ignorant Interim Health Officer of Alameda is acting contrary to the Governor, the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!" Musk had told employees on Thursday that limited production would restart at Fremont on Friday afternoon. California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday that manufacturers in the state would be allowed to reopen. An Alameda county official said on Friday that its health department has had many discussions with the company and recommended that Tesla wait at least another week to monitor infection rates and discuss safe ways to resume production. Musk, who sparred with California officials in March over whether Tesla had to halt production at Fremont, has criticized the lockdown and stay-at-home orders, calling them a "serious risk" to U.S. business and "unconstitutional." Story continues Material from Reuters was used in this report. Related Video: Click here to See Video >> India is set to face the biggest shortage of nurses in the world after Bangladesh, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), as many more of these health workers may have migrated abroad or have retired than government data suggests. Thousands of migrant Indian nurses are battling the coronavirus pandemic in the US, UK and the Middle East, among other places, even as there is a shortage of such workers in India. There are just 1.7 nurses per 1,000 people in India, according to Union health ministry data. Thats far less than the WHOs prescribed minimum of 3. In March, the government told the Rajya Sabha that India has 3.07 million registered nursing personnel, including nurses, midwives and nursing assistants. Experts, however, claim the governments data doesnt provide the true picture. The numbers available with the government can be misleading as the Indian Nursing Council has not yet completed the live online registry. Nurses who have retired, died or are working overseasall these categories may be part of available data," said Thankam Gomez, president, Association of Nurse Executives (India). Nurses in India are overworked, underpaid and often undervalued, forcing thousands of them to migrate overseas every year in search of better-paying jobs. Indian nurses are highly regarded in all countries outside India. This indicates that under better circumstances and experiential learning, our nurses can do a great job," she said. The current health crisis has brought to the fore the shortage of nurses, Gomez said, adding that Indias woes may worsen if covid-19 cases surge. An April report on state of the worlds nursing published jointly by WHO and the International Council of Nurses (ICN) said that the availability of nursing staff could worsen as two major suppliers of nursing staff globallythe Philippines and Indiaare facing potentially significant emerging shortages" within their own national health services. This is despite the fact that both countries train more health professionals than they need, in the knowledge that many will work abroad," said Howard Catton, head of ICN. The Indian Nursing Council has recently proposed an exit exam for registration after studies for nurses. We need to add skill-based competency assessment as well before a student nurse can practice as a registered nurse," said Gomez. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! Topics Daniel Hernandez, famously known as rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, broke the internet following the release of his latest single less than a month after his early release from prison. The 24-year-old rapper announced the release of his new song, "Gooba" on his official Twitter account on Friday. The rapper had served a portion of his jail sentence from federal racketeering and firearms charges. 6ix9ine was granted an early release due to the COVID-19 pandemic and his cooperation with government officials. His latest single embodies the rowdy and hyperactive sound that gave the rapper his fame. He was labeled as one of hip-hop's new stars in 2017. 6ix9ine Breaks the Internet The Gooba music video raked in more than 36 million views within the first 24 hours of its posting on Youtube. The eye-catching footage featured the rapper with his signature rainbow braids, a puffer jacket, and a handful of scantily clad women. IG Live Tekashi also shattered Instagram with a record of two-million viewers during his IG Live on Friday. The usually rowdy rap artist aired his grievances after critics labeled him a 'rat.' He also denounced Bronx native rapper Lil Tjay's claim of being the true king of New York. He said he never saw anyone on his level, citing the two-million viewers of his IG Live as proof. The New York native went live on the social media platform to defend his decision to cooperate with prosecutors and have his sentence reduced. He profoundly denied being a 'snitch' after he testified against members of the gang he was previously involved with. He claimed he "did nothing wrong" and he never owed anyone loyalty. His live stream topped the previous record of 300,000 viewers previously held by Drake. Arrest He also thanked his lawyers and the judge for allowing him to be released early and spend time with his family. However, he backtracks and says he never did anything wrong "in the eyes of the law" despite striking a plea deal with the government in 2019 for the attempted murder of an individual. On April 3, 2018, Tekashi and other members of the Nine Trey gang were involved in a robbery of a rival gang member at gunpoint. The incident allegedly took place in Manhattan's West Side. He was also found guilty for a June 2 shooting. According to court documents, he paid another gang member to shoot at a rival near New York's Times Square. The target was said to be Chief Keef. He identified and testified against Kintea "Kooda" McKenzie who accepted $10,000 for the crime. McKenzie was arrested on February 8 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Listen to his latest single below: Catch up on the latest news here: Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, and Eddie Murphy is among the A-list talent headlining the "Feeding America Comedy Festival" on NBC Sunday night. Read more Feeding America Comedy Festival Time: 7 p.m. Eastern TV: NBC, The Weather Channel A nearly endless list of the top comedians in the world will come together remotely Sunday for a comedy festival aimed at raising funds to help people impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. The two-hour Feeding America Comedy Festival, organized by comedian-turned-entrepreneur Byron Allen and Funny or Die, will lean on appearances and performances from Hollywood heavyweights like Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler, Will Smith, Tina Fey, Jack Black, and many, many more, most contributing two- to three-minute sketches. People are going to have a blast, because Im seeing the material come in, and it is hilarious. Some of it is simply brilliant. Some of the routines are simply laugh-out-loud, Allen told TMZ. I knew there was a lot of pent-up creative energy with all these comedians sitting at home. In addition to spearheading the effort, Allen will also cohost the festival alongside comedy legend Billy Crystal, Saturday Night Lives Kenan Thompson, and comedian and actress Tiffany Haddish. All of the money raised will go to Feeding America, a nonprofit hunger-relief organization with a nationwide network of food banks grappling with an emergency food supply severely disrupted by the ongoing pandemic. The coronavirus pandemic and the economic downturn it has created is shining a light on the fragile nature of peoples household budgets, Feeding America CEO Claire Babineaux-Fontenot said in a statement. Heres everything you need to know to watch and stream the star-studded benefit: What time does the Feeding America Comedy Festival begin? The Feeding America Comedy Festival is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Eastern and last two hours. The benefit will air on NBC10 and the Weather Channel in Philadelphia, and stream on the Local Now app (which is available on both Apple and Android devices). The festival will also air on Comedy.TV, where available. Which comedians will appear? The right question to ask would be which comedians arent appearing. The festival will feature a bevy of comedic talent, headlined by Eddie Murphy, who will reportedly put out a new comedy special later this year on Netflix, his first since the 1987 hit Eddie Murphy Raw. He also hosted Saturday Night Live last year for the first time since 1984, and the possibility of getting two minutes of new Eddie Murphy material will likely be more than enough to get stay-at-homers to tune in. Other well-known comedians scheduled to perform include Chris Rock, Kevin James, Margaret Cho, Judd Apatow, Wayne Brady, Sarah Silverman, JB Smoove, Caroline Rhea, Wayne Brady, Adam Carolla, Cedric the Entertainer, Louis Anderson, and Andrew Dice Clay, among others. Philadelphia native Kevin Hart will also appear, and was the first comedian Allen said he called when he was beginning to put the fund-raiser together. On a Monday afternoon, about two weeks ago, I picked up my mobile phone and started calling comedians, Allen told TMZ. I just kept smiling and dialing, and every comedian said, Im in. Lets go. What is Feeding America? Feeding America, founded back in 1979, is a nonprofit network of more than 200 food banks that feed 40 million people at risk of hunger through food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters. Nine Feeding America food banks serve Pennsylvania, including Philabundance, one of the regions largest anti-hunger organizations. The organization is working with food banks to provide drive-thru pantries, emergency food boxes, and long-term support during the coronavirus pandemic. You can support Feeding America through the festivals website. Other upcoming coronavirus TV specials: Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad has sought Pakistan's support for reducing violence in Afghanistan and accelerate the intra-Afghan dialogue, the US Embassy at Islamabad said on Saturday. Khalilzad discussed the Afghanistan peace process with Pakistan Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Friday. During the discussion, he also asked for help to secure the release of American navy veteran-turned contractor Mark Frerichs, who went missing in Afghanistan. The embassy said Khalilzad discussed the ongoing efforts by the US to advance the Afghan peace process. He "sought Pakistan's support in pressing for a reduction in violence, the immediate start of intra-Afghan negotiations, and assistance in helping obtain the freedom of American Mark Frerichs", it said. The embassy noted that Pakistans military leaders reaffirmed their support for the US efforts. Earlier, the Pakistan Army in a statement on Friday said during the meeting between Khalilzad and General Bajwa, issues of mutual interest and overall regional security situation, including Afghan reconciliation process, were discussed. Khalilzad appreciated Pakistan's continuous efforts for peace and stability in the region, according to the Army statement. The US and Taliban representatives signed a historic peace deal on February 29 in Doha and since then efforts were being made to start the intra-Afghan dialogue. While the WHA and its 130 or so member hospitals must meet recently announced gating measures established by the state Department of Health Services and the state Emergency Operations Center, Borgerding said hes confident the system will be able to do so. When the new data are posted, I feel pretty good they will be green, he said. Two key metrics of the system are being able to operate under established crisis conditions and concentrated testing of staff who deal with patients. Borgerding said Wisconsin hospitals have stayed under the crisis bar and should have little trouble testing patient-facing staff. A bigger problem, he said, is making sure those health systems have enough personal protective equipment. Like many other businesses and institutions in Wisconsin and across the nation, hospitals and health systems have taken financial hits as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Some might ask, How can that be if the federal government is shipping billions of dollars to hospitals to combat the outbreak? Its because those hospitals were ordered to stop doing just about everything else by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, not state government, and the COVID-19 reimbursement dollars dont cover all related costs. Washington: US Republicans are increasingly nervous they could lose control of the Senate this fall as a potent combination of a cratering economy, President Donald Trump's controversial handling of the pandemic and rising enthusiasm among Democratic voters dims their electoral prospects. US President Donald Trump. Credit:AP In recent weeks, GOP senators have been forced into a difficult political dance as polling shifts in favour of Democrats: Tout their own response to the coronavirus outbreak without overtly distancing themselves from a president whose management of the crisis is under intense scrutiny but who still holds significant sway with Republican voters. "It is a bleak picture right now all across the map, to be honest with you," said one Republican strategist closely involved in Senate races who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss concerns within the party. "This whole conversation is a referendum on Trump, and that is a bad place for Republicans to be. But it's also not a forever place." Kabul, May 10 : The Taliban released another group of 28 Afghan government prisonersin Herat province, spokesman of the militant group's political office in Doha said on Sunday. With Saturday night's release, the Taliban has so far freed 148 government prisoners as per the terms of the peace deal it inked with the US in February, TOLO News quoted Suhail Shaheen as saying. The National Security Council's office's spokesman Javid Faisal on Saturday said that the Afghan government had released 1,000 Taliban prisoners and "now it is the Taliban's turn to accelerate the release of prisoners", stop "killing Afghans" and start face-to-face talks soon. Faisal said the government released the prisoners "to fight COVID-19 and advance peace", and that those released "vowed to remain peaceful". "Delays are no longer justifiable," he added Five-hundred more Taliban detainees will be released in the upcoming days, according to the NSC. The Afghan government made an earlier pledge to release a total of 5,000 Taliban prisoners but only after the start of the intra-Afghan negotiations, and if violence was reduced in a way that leads to a nationwide ceasefire. Recently, the Taliban in a statement welcomed the move and called for an expedited release of their prisoners to "save them" from the coronavirus and pave the way for the intra-Afghan negotiations, TOLO News reported. The process continues amid hopes for beginning intra-Afghan negotiations, which have been delayed over issues around the prisoner release and other matters. On May 6, the US peace envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, met the Taliban's deputy leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Qatar and discussed the prisoner release, intra-Afghan talks and the US-Taliban peace agreement. The US-Taliban deal called for the Taliban to release up to 1,000 government prisoners, and for the Afghan government to free up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners. The police in Lagos on Saturday arrested four suspects at Bariga area of the state for allegedly killing a 16-year-old girl on allegations that she stole N2,000. Bala Elkana, the Lagos police spokesperson, in a statement on Sunday said the 16-year old victim, Halimat Sodiq, was a house help to Shade Moke of Bariga area. Mr Elkana said Mrs Moke conspired with three other suspects to torture the girl to death on February 2 and subsequently buried the body to conceal the other. On 9/05/2020 at about 1130hrs, Bariga Police Station received an information that one Shade Moke f 41 years old conspired with three others on 29/2/2020 and killed one Halimat Sodiq f 16 years old over an allegation of stealing. The victim is said to be a house help to Shade Moke. She was alleged of stealing #2000 from her madam which she denied. The madam invited the remaining three suspects who tortured the girl to death. They buried her secretly at Atan cemetery Lagos, so as to conceal the murder. The four suspects were arrested but they denied the allegations. They however, admitted slapping the girl for denying that she stole the money, Mr Elkana said. The deputy superintendent of police said the suspects claimed that the girl went into convulsion after drinking water and they took her to three different hospitals before she eventually died. Mr Elkana said the suspects said the girl was buried by her parents and the parents were contacted for their statements. Mr Elkana said the case has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Yaba for discreet investigation and diligent prosecution. The police said the suspects will soon be charged to court. The Indian Navy ship INS Jalashwa, carrying 698 Indians stranded in Maldives due to international travel restrictions owing to coronavirus lockdown, arrived in Keralas Kochi port on Sunday. The warship had started its journey from the island on Friday night. Out of these evacuees, 440 are from Kerala, 110 from Tamil Nadu and 45 from Karnataka. OP# Samudra Setu #Jalashwa with 698 Indian citizens embarked from Maldivesat Kochi, Kerala, a spokesperson of Indian Navy tweeted. According to the Indian Navy, there are 19 pregnant women among the 698 Indian nationals. Rest of the passengers are from other parts of the country including Goa (1), Haryana (3), Andhra Pradesh (8), Assam (1), Himachal Pradesh (3), Maharashtra (3), Rajasthan (3), Telangana (9), Lakshadweep (4). Each passenger was charged US $40, one of the passengers told Hindustan Times over phone. The Navy spokesman said that they were charged only to meet the expenses required during the trip which was part of series called Samudra Setu operation. The evacuees disembarked at Kochi port and will have to undergo test for coronavirus disease Covid-19 before undergoing 14-day quarantine. Kochi district administration has made all arrangements in this regard, said Ernakulam district collector S Suhas. According to initial reports, majority of the evacuees have lost their jobs due to slowdown of the economy of the island which is a major tourist destination. Teachers and medical personnel from Kerala are most sought after in the island nation which shares many similarities with the southern state. The Navy had ealier said that the INS Jalashwa mission highlighted Indias commitment to safeguarding its diaspora anywhere in the world. While travelling back to Kochi, Kerala, the warships of the Western Fleet had joined the warship. Cyber bullying is a prevalent activity around the world from the trivial trolling on social media, to more serious acts of targeted posts, anonymous stalking and the likes, online activities that can be objected to are a regular occurrence. However, contrary to public understanding, the Indian judiciary does have plenty of provisions to hold these acts accountable and dole out punishments. In light of the recent controversies around 'bois locker room' and 'girls locker room' chats on social media platforms, News18 caught up with N.S. Nappinai, lawyer at the Supreme Court of India, and founder of Cyber Saathi a digital rights, awareness and empowerment initiative. As Nappinai explains, the key is in raising awareness among the public regarding existing laws, instill a sense of responsibility as well as fear of retribution, and make the process of addressing cyber crime grievances more approachable for everyone. Here are the excerpts. What laws does India have with regards to cyber bullying? Earlier, we had Section 66A, which is now being struck down by the Supreme Court of India. With that, we even had a proper, codified law to deal with cyber bullying. But now, with this section being abolished, many believe that there are no laws to safeguard against cyber bullying. That isnt entirely true. Effectively, depending on the kind of bullying or action that is being committed, there are enough laws under IPC which can be applied. While no particular section may apply directly, there are more than enough sections and provisions to deal with such cases. Section 67 essentially deals with obscenity. If anyone publishes obscene content using electronic medium, it can be invoked. 507 refers to anonymous criminal intimidation. IPC Section 354 refers to outraging modesty of a woman. For example here, in case of cyber bullying against a male candidate, 354 will obviously not apply since it is gender specific. However, there are other sections to cover this as well. For teenage and adolescent internet users, does the Juvenile Justice Act come into play? Of course it can be. If it is an offence committed against a juvenile, in cases such as revenge porn where a child is threatened on the internet, then it is treated as an offence under a different act. But, for juvenile perpetrators, the Juvenile Justice Act will always apply. How can the common people be urged to report these offences more frequently? Particularly for cyber bullying, most people prohibit individuals against making a big issue about it, making suggestions such as why make a big thing about it?, it will die out automatically, etc. Today, cyber bullying has become an issue for the common man, and anyone can be victims of it even from a very basic tweet. Even that has a legal remedy, against the common perception of whether cyber bullying is even legally punishable or not. Most people do not have the wherewithal to understand the legal aspect of this. With proper awareness, a vast majority of the internet trolls would not do what they are doing. For this, I have been a strong proponent for establishing specific laws to deal with cyber bullying, so that a common man will know what the legal remedy is, when faced with such an issue. In fact, even before the remedy, there is a major deterrent factor at play here. But, with proper awareness, a vast majority of the internet trolls would not do what they are doing, if they knew that their acts are legal violations. Hence, having special laws regarding cyber bullying would make a big difference. Secondly, it is the governments job to ensure that there is an easy mechanism for filing a case, and through it, also show that the law takes effect. People should be made aware that they arent invisible on the internet, and yet, it is shocking to note the kind of offences happening online because people have no fear of retribution. This calls for the need for a strong and effective enforcement mechanism of laws when it comes to online crimes. There is no point in adding new laws, when the existing ones arent being put to good use. How can the young users of the internet be made more responsible for their actions? Personally, I run an initiative called Cyber Saathi. When people choose to let go of an online crime, in most instances, maybe things will die down. But, it is scary, that in many cases, they do not really die down, and the bully gets emboldened. This is akin to acid attacks on the internet. Whenever a bully gets emboldened, the ferocity of attacks keep increasing. I have personally handled many such cases, where a menial case of trolling became much worse because nothing was done about it from the start. It is scary, that in many cases, cases do not really die down, and the bully gets emboldened. This is akin to acid attacks on the internet. The idea behind Cyber Saathi is to explain to people that as victims, they are not responsible for these acts, and should not resort to self flagellation. Cyber Saathi empowers these victims to note that there are legal remedies, and they can be approached easily. One aspect about cyber bullying is that while most conversations revolve around the victim, hardly anybody speaks about the perpetrator. With Cyber Saathi, Im trying to work on the latter, and particularly highlighting cases of children as the perpetrators. Even with the locker room cases, we must also look at children as the perpetrators, over and above conversations about children being bullied. In this case, many were of the opinion that the parents should be held primarily accountable. However, we must not establish that children are not legally liable the Juvenile Justice Act does provide some retributory punishments. Such accountability would go a long way to improve situations such as these. At the same time, parents must also be compelled to be more educated about these things, and should not be allowed to get away with not knowing about what happened. If they do not know these things, then their childrens future would be impacted. The online world is primarily about treating everyone as equals, but that also brings equality for both the good and the bad, which is where accountability comes in. Nurses pose with their recognition for their work at the General Hospital of Zone 4 of the IMSS on April 20, 2020 in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Medios y Media/Getty Images Three nurses have been strangled to death in Mexico, as the country sees an increase in assaults targeting health care workers, who are being wrongly accused of spreading the coronavirus. There is no immediate evidence that the triple murder, which occurred in the northern city of Torreon, is related to their line of work, Mexican officials said. But the horrific crime comes amid a rise in assaults on health care workers in the country, which includes kicking them off public transport, barring them from their own homes, and pouring bleach on them. Mexican authorities believe that the attacks are most likely linked to rumors that doctors and nurses are responsible for spreading the virus. The country has recorded at least 44 attacks against medical personnel between mid-March and mid-April, according to data provided to CNN by Mexico's National Council to Prevent Discrimination. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Video: 4 Doctors Reveal Details of Overwhelmed U.S. Healthcare System Three nurses have been found strangled to death in Mexico amid an alarming increase of assaults on health care workers in the country, who are being wrongly accused of spreading the coronavirus. The nurses, who were all sisters, were found dead in a house in Torreon, a city in northern Mexican state of Coahuila, state police said on Friday. One of the sisters was working as a hospital administrator, while the other two were nurses for the Mexican Social Security Institute, according to Associated Press (AP). There was no immediate evidence that the attack was related to their work, and so far no arrests have been made, but Mexican officials said they were investigating the crime, AP reported. Javier Guerrero, a top official for the country's largest public health service, said that the three deaths "happened at a moment when our health workers are the most important element to face the health crisis," according to a Reuters report. Story continues The triple murder is the latest in a series of attacks on doctors and nurses in the country, which has included assaulting them, kicking them off public transport, and barring them from their own homes. A health worker wearing protective suit moves a woman suspected of being infected with the coronavirus at Hospital General de Mexico in Mexico City on May 7, 2020. Edgard Garrido/Reuters In one instance, a doctor from the western city of Guadalajara had bleach poured all over her as she walked home from a hospital shift one morning, according to CNN. The attack, which happened in April, left her with conjunctivitis and burns on her skin. "They picked me out because I was wearing scrubs. I didn't see anything I don't know who it was, but I know they attacked another doctor on the same day," the doctor told CNN. Mexican authorities believe that the series of attacks are most likely linked to rumors that doctors and nurses are responsible for spreading the contagious virus throughout the country. The country has recorded at least 44 attacks against medical personnel between mid-March and mid-April, according to data provided to CNN by Mexico's National Council to Prevent Discrimination. Mexican health authorities have since urged medical staff to not wear their uniforms or scrubs in public to avoid being targeted. The head of nursing for the Mexican Social Security Institue, Fabiana Zepeda, told reporters: "I have worn my nurse's uniform for 27 years with great pride as do doctors. But today we are taking off our uniforms because we don't want to be injured." "We beg those people who have attacked doctors and nurses to reconsider. We could end up saving your lives," she added. At the time of writing, Mexico has seen more than 33,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and around 3,000 deaths, according to Worldometer. Read the original article on Business Insider New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo insisted he's the 'favorite' in a jab at his brother, Chris Cuomo, and other siblings in a live Zoom call during his daily press briefing on Mother's Day. On Sunday, Andrew took a brief step back from updating New Yorkers on the pandemic to take claim his role as 88-year-old Matilda Cuomo's favorite son. The Cuomo family joined together for a live Zoom call during the press conference. Matilda was featured on one TV screen and two of his daughters, Cara and Mariah, were on the other. 'This is going to be over... and then you can spend more time with me. I know I am your favorite. I know you dont want to say that because Maria is there,' Andrew said, mentioning his sister Maria Cuomo. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (left) wished Matilda Cuomo (right) a Happy Mother's Day on Sunday during a press briefing 'But well get to spend time together and look back at this and well say were all the better for it,' he added. Andrew spent the remainder of the heartwarming call praising his mother. Today is Mothers Day and that dwarfs all else,' the governor said. Pictured: Matilda (left) and daughters Cara and Mariah Cuomo (right) tuning in for a family Zoom call on Sunday He added that while his father was stern, his mother was 'pure love.' 'My mother has always been pure love. Just pure sweetness, pure goodness, pure affirmation, unconditional love,' Andrew said. 'No matter what I did. No matter how stupid I was, and I can be pretty stupid. ' 'I love you so, so much and wish I was with you, but I cant be because I love you,' Andrew said to his mother. Cara Cuomo, the oldest daughter of Cuomo and his former wife Kerry Kennedy, shared a cute story about her grandmother meeting the pope. Cara Kenned-Cuomo (far right) shared a story about Matilda meeting a pope and being told 'la familia' Michaela Cuomo (left) praised Matilda (right) for being a 'good role model' for Cuomo and his siblings 'Happy Mothers Day Grandma. I was just thinking today about this story that I love hearing you tell about how you met this Pope,' she said. 'And how he looked you in the eye, took your hand in his and he said "la familia." I think he really captured your spirit. Thank you so much for teaching us what the meaning of family is, both from our own little group to the family of New York.' Michaela Cuomo, Andrew's youngest daughter who was in attendance at the press conference, said her grandmother was a 'great role model' for Andrew and his siblings Cuomo (left) said of his mother: ' 'My mother has always been pure love. Just pure sweetness, pure goodness, pure affirmation, unconditional love' Andrew took another goodhearted jab his younger brother, Chris Cuomo, in a cute Mother's Day message on Twitter. 'Happy Mothers Day, Mom,' he wrote. 'Love this photo of you with your favorite son...and Chris Cuomo.' Chris hasn't responded to his brother's light dig, but instead shared his own Mother's Day message praising both Matilda and his wife. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (left) wished his mother Matilda Cuomo (center) a Happy Mother's Day and took a quick jab at Chris Cuomo (right) 'Two women have shaped me to this point more than any other influences in my life,' he wrote in Instagram. 'Yes, I had a great pop, loving siblings and now three jewels from God and the awesome love and sense of purpose that comes with children...but...my mother showed me what love was in action; sacrificing the self for your spouse and kids and even a righteous cause; how to say less when angry and do more when it is needed.' He added that Matilda told him to marry Cristina Cuomo in the midst of the horrific September 11, 2001 attacks. 'And mama told me to marry Cristina even though 911 just happened - especially because of it. And mama was right. Cristina has provided every thing and moment that matters to me in my life,' he wrote. Chris then thanked his wife for helping him through the 'covid cataclysm' after he tested positive for COVID-19 in March. Chris Cuomo (right) shared an Instagram post where he applauded his mother, Matilda (center), and his wife, Cristina Cuomo (left) Pictured: Chris Cuomo's Mother's Day post in Instagram 'This picture has me with the two mamas who shaped me at the site of the house my mother told me I would have some day and Cristina made a reality,' Chris wrote. The two brother's have had playful on-air squabbles during recent interviews where Chris, a CNN host, speaks to Andrew about the coronavirus pandemic in New York City. In April, Chris got the upper hand when he shared an old family photo that showed Andrew as a teenager. 'I'm staying home for these two guys at the front,' Chris said in reference to the image, which showed a teenage Andrew wearing a loud pattern shirt, white bell-bottoms and dated afro-like hairstyle next to a much younger and cuter Chris. Chris clearly enjoyed embarrassing his brother with the unflattering photo while Andrew pretended to sign off from the interview The governor pretended to be unable to see the embarrassing snap as he defiantly removed his microphone and said: 'Bye, Chris.' 'No, no, no, don't do it. Put the mic back on. Don't be like that,' Chris pleaded. 'Take the picture down,' Andrew replied. Chris refused, but worked to get back on his brother's good side by offering a heartfelt explanation for his choice. Researchers at Northwell Health in New York are testing the effects on Famotidine (used in high intravenous doses) on Covid-19 patients as a potential treatment. After the hospital announced its clinical trials, it led to a drug shortage in the US. Back home, however, there has not been any surge in the demand for Famotidine yet. Image used for representational purpose. After common antacid drug Famotidine shot to the limelight for being a potential treatment for Covid-19, the demand surge for the drug has led to a shortage in the US. Some see this as an opportunity for Indian firms like Alembic and Aurobindo that make both the bulk drug and the formulation. Meanwhile, the central government, too, has taken note of the demand and decided to undertake a stock-taking exercise for the drug in case of a sudden export demand, besides procuring for Jan Aushadhi stores. So far, there has not been any significant jump in demand for the over-the-counter (OTC) drug in the domestic market. Famotidine may become the next hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). It is also a cheap drug, costing about 40 paise per tablet. However, findings of the studies are yet to come. So, it is too early to comment on the efficacy, said Dinesh Dua, chairman of the Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India. The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) added Famotidine in its drug shortages list. The shortages have come in the last one month. Researchers at Northwell Health in New York are testing the effects on Famotidine (used in high intravenous doses) on patients as a potential treatment. The drug shortages surfaced after the hospital announced its clinical trials. In the US, the drug sells under the Pepcid brand. The Northwell trial, initiated in the first week of April on 1,174 patients, is likely to come up with results in the next few weeks. These patients are receiving Famotidine intravenously, nine times the heat burn dose, the Science magazine reported. It all started in China where some doctors had noticed that hospitalised patients who were on pre-existing Famotidine dose fared better compared to others. The researchers are trying to check if Famotidine binds itself with a particular protein which helps the coronavirus to replicate. Back home, there has not been any surge in the demand for Famotidine yet. It is an old generation drug and now the common antacids are usually proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) like omeprazole. Famotidine falls under a category called H2 blockers like ranitidine. So, the demand is not very high -- around Rs 40 crore in annual sales, said a pharma industry insider. Rajiv Singhal, general secretary of the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists, the umbrella association that represents around 850,000 chemists across the country, said not many are aware of this drugs potential use in Covid-19. Hence, there has been no surge in domestic demand. In India, the well-known Famotidine brands include Famocid (Sun Pharmaceuticals), Famtac by Abbott, Topcid by Torrent Pharmaceuticals and Facid by Intas Pharma. Alembic and Aurobindo are the major exporters to the US. Alembic said it also makes the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) for the drug and can also source it from outside if demand surges. A government official said that India makes enough quantities of Famotidine. The government, nonetheless, has taken note of the fresh interest in this old drug and would now seek information from manufacturers on inventory, capacity and exports. After US President Donald Trump spoke about HCQs efficacy against the coronavirus, the export demand had suddenly surged. India is one of the largest producers of the drug (Ipca and Cadila Healthcare along with several smaller domestic players), and the country raised the production of the drug from 122.3 million tablets in March to 300 million tablets in May. There is a plan to procure (Famotidine) for the Jan Aushadhi stores as this is also an affordable drug and in case of a demand surge, it would be available with the government. However, unless clear trial reports emerge, we do not plan to ramp up production of famotidine, the official said. By Trend Armenian prime ministers irresponsible behavior negates possibility of Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts peaceful settlement, said spokesperson of Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry, Leyla Abdullayeva, Trend reports on May 9. She was commenting on the visit of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to the occupied Shusha city of Azerbaijan to celebrate victory day. Prime minister of the country, which has been violating the norms and principles of international law for almost 30 years, keeping the Azerbaijani lands under military occupation, violating the fundamental rights of more than one million Azerbaijanis, as well as heroizing fascist criminals, is talking about the "victory", "peace" and "security", which is the apotheosis of hypocrisy. Ignoring the demand of the international community to put an end to the occupation of internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan, including resolutions of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Pashinyan, speaking on victory" in the occupied Azerbaijani Shusha city, probably understands that this irresponsible behavior of Armenia justifying groundless territorial claims against Azerbaijan, nullifies the possibility of a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Abdullayeva noted. Such behavior of the Armenian leadership clearly demonstrates its wrong position in the negotiations on resolving the conflict, which is peculiar to the occupying country and the aggressor, whose sole purpose is to strengthen the dangerous status quo based on the forcible retention of foreign territories, the spokesperson said. This intention of Armenia will not be supported by anyone. Azerbaijan, unequivocally supported by international law, justice and the world community, will liberate its lands from the occupation and ensure territorial integrity within internationally recognized borders. There is no other way to resolve the conflict and ensure peace and security in the region, Abdullayeva said. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts. A driver has been given a warning by police after breaching lockdown restrictions to transport a puppy to the other side of the country. The motorist was stopped by officers in Gloucestershire who asked for the reason behind the trip, according to the regions Specials unit. The person, who has not been identified, reportedly explained that they were delivering the dog from Liverpool to Newport, South Wales. The officers gave the rule-flouter a warning letter and sent them back to the northern city. UK Government urge public to continue observing lockdown restrictions Meanwhile, police in Cumbria reported a separate puppy-related incident. The regions Roads Police unit tweeted a photo of a car pulled over by the side of the road. They wrote: This driver set off from Bury, Manchester this morning and travelled to Dundee to purchase a puppy. Again, not an essential journey. The driver agreed he wouldnt have made this journey when lockdown commenced. Nothing has changed. Fixed penalty issued." Earlier, the same force said they had caught a driver who'd travelled from London to Manchester and then to Carlisle in an elaborate shopping spree. They tweeted: "This driver set off from London this morning to purchase this Audi from Manchester. "He then continued to travel to Carlisle to purchase some speakers hed seen on EBay. "This is not acceptable. Driver issued fixed penalty." Lockdown plan emerges: masks at work, visitor quarantine and more cycle lanes In a separate incident, on the same day, they fined another motorist for travelling more than 300 miles to get some fresh air. The driver, from Southend on Sea, had decided to head over to the Lake District for a sunny day out. Another fine issued with my succinct words of advice, Cumbria Roads Police tweeted. Get the message. Stay at home. Their messages came after police complained of fighting a losing battle as Londoners headed to parks and beachgoers descended on Brightons pebbles. The apparent rise in people breaching restrictions followed reports suggested sunbathing and picnics could be permitted as early as Monday. But Cabinet minister Grant Shapps dismissed allegations that the Government was delivering mixed messages. He told Saturday's Downing Street press briefing unequivocally that people should stay at home over the Bank Holiday weekend. When asked if the Government was going to drop its stay at home message, Mr Shapps said that the guidance had not changed. He added: Its just absolutely unequivocal, people should stay at home, people should follow the guidance it hasnt changed. It is vital we dont throw away the great work of seven weeks, of people respecting the rules and guidelines. Britain has been secretly flying tens of thousands of coronavirus tests to America - Getty Britain has been secretly flying tens of thousands of coronavirus tests to America as it struggles to lift the daily testing rate over 100,000 a day in the UK, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose. The Department of Health admitted last night that 50,000 test samples were sent to the US last week as problems were reported in laboratories in the UK. The samples were airlifted across the Atlantic in chartered flights from Stansted airport. The Government insisted that "all results will be returned to patients as quickly as possible". The UK has failed to hit the hundred thousand a day target for testing for each of the past seven days, and only hit the 100,000 a day target by the end of last month by mailing 40,000 testing kits to people at home. The Government admitted on Thursday that there had been a problem in a lab in Northern Ireland, but made no reference to shipping tens of thousands of tests to America. Many people are still waiting for their results, throwing their lives into turmoil. Questions will be asked about why the Government has not disclosed the samples airlift to the US before. A Department of Health source said: "We were able to send approximately 50,000 test samples to a US laboratory earlier this week. "Validation of the results will be completed in the UK, and all results will be returned to patients as quickly as possible." The Sunday Telegraph understands that the samples are being processed at a university laboratory in the southern United States. There have been reports of long delays in getting results back to people who have been tested but it is not known if this is because tests are being sent to the US. The department source added: "Delays in the system this week arose as a result of operational issues in our lab network. "We have worked to resolve these issues and capacity is rapidly being restored. "It is not surprising when a system is brand new that there will be some teething problems in the first weeks of operation. Story continues "It is important not to draw too many conclusions from a few days worth of data. "Over one million people have now been tested in the UK and the vast majority report no issues with the process." Officials were forced onto the backfoot when daily testing figures slumped to fewer than 70,000 in the 24 hours to 9am on Wednesday, well below the 100,000 daily target set by Health Secretary Matt Hancock. Tests have only cleared the 100,000 daily target on two occasions since the start of the crisis. Speaking at the daily briefing on Saturday Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England said that he expected there to be fluctuations in the number of daily coronavirus tests being carried out. He said: "We are now really at a high plateau, in the region of 100,000 tests per day. "There is some fluctuation, and quite frankly I expect there to be some fluctuation on a day-to-day basis. "I don't think we can read too much into day-to-day variations, but the macro-picture is this is now at a much, much higher level than it ever was at the beginning of this crisis." Government sources said there had been a problem with a machine at a commercial laboratory run by private firm Randox in Northern Ireland, which had now been rectified. Randox said its staff were "working diligently to process all tests in a timely manner". Last week Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, set an ambitious new 200,000 daily coronavirus testing target and vowed to "go even higher" to contain the disease. One testing source said that the US university was being used to manage "surge capacity" in the UK as testing is ramped up. One said: "They have sent far fewer than they thought they would because their capacity is doing really well. They will get to 200,000 a day - they will not do it in four weeks but they will get there." A Department of Health spokesman said: The expansion of the UKs coronavirus testing network has involved setting up an entirely new Lighthouse lab network to process test swabs. When problems arise, we have contingencies in place which include creating extra temporary capacity for our labs or sending swabs abroad to partner labs for completion. Of course, our partner labs must match our high standards." DBS unveils new digital financial planning proposition to provide personalised financial advisory for all New digital advisory solution leverages big data and technology to provide insights and personalised financial advisory to customers All five million DBS/POSB customers can now access DBS new digital financial planning solution NAV Planner within their internet and mobile banking accounts. NAV Planner an industry-first, feature-rich digital advisory solution leveraging big data and technology enables customers to independently plan and monitor their financial goals by guiding them through insights and recommendations tailored to their life stages and financial circumstances. This is complemented by the banks extensive digital library of knowledge materials and financial literacy programmes. Technology has helped the insurance, brokerage and wealth management industries scale up and reach more customers with their services. But weve noticed that even with digitalisation, financial information is still held in silos. Those who wish to review their overall finances either need to manually consolidate their holdings or look to their financial advisors to do so for them. Others who are not subscribed to these services are inadvertently left out, said Jeremy Soo, DBS Singapore Head of Consumer Banking Group. This is where we believe we can make a difference. NAV Planner leverages our digital expertise and data analytics to create a digital advisor for everyone that can not only consolidate, but also analyse and recommend. Many in Singapore have been hard hit by Covid-19, and concerns over financial planning and having adequate protection for themselves and their loved ones have since surfaced. During this unprecedented time when most of Singapore is staying home, our new digital contact-less financial planning solution will come in handy. Helping customers get their fundamentals in personalised financial advisory right Story continues NAV Planner is guided by DBS proprietary financial planning framework which comprises principles developed by the banks financial planning experts and employs the Financial Planning Association of Singapores (FPAS) benchmarks. It has identified seven typical streams on what customers do with their money, of which the first-phase launch will focus on three: budgeting and savings; protection; and investments. By proactively managing their finances around these three streams, customers can achieve their longer-term financial aspirations such as purchasing a home, or accumulating a retirement nest egg, more easily. Through interacting with NAV planner, customers can see for themselves how a decision made in one stream can potentially affect outcomes in others. More importantly, it helps them visualise how smaller day-to-day financial decisions can lead to a substantial impact on longer-term financial goals. This fluid, adaptive approach is developed based on feedback DBS received from extensive and deep customer immersions and engagements. We noticed that most people tend to only engage with their finances on an episodic basis, that is when they need to make important money decisions, and this is something we would like to course-correct, added Soo. We believe that helping our customers review their smaller everyday financial decisions will stand them in good stead and protect their finances against a drain from unexpected volatilities, such as the current pandemic. personalised financial advisory Personalised financial advisory are provided through interactive NAV planner How NAV Planner works A personalised financial advisory in your pocket NAV Planner is an evolution of its predecessor, Your Financial GPS. Since launching Singapores first holistic digital financial advisor, Your Financial GPS, in May 2018, more than 1.5 million DBS/POSB customers have made use of the advisor, with many demonstrating positive money management habits with regular use. Integrated into DBS/POSB internet banking and digibank app, the enhanced solution provides customers with a personalised balance sheet, which gives a full overview of their cash savings, loans, insurance protection plans and current investments as they are held with the bank. Customers are also able to include external holdings to complete their balance sheet view. Using the balance sheet as a basis, NAV Planner will then provide users with insights, analyses and suggestions unique to them. Its guided advisory capability helps customers get started on their insurance and investments needs which traditionally require face-to-face consultations by computing whether the user has adequate protection coverage or funds to put towards investments, based on their life-stage. Upon identifying any gaps, NAV Planner will recommend suitable solutions and relevant educational guides for the customer. It also provides a dashboard view of the customers entire investment portfolio breaking down the different instruments they have, together with each instruments monthly performance. This feature is the first-of-its-kind to be offered to retail customers. Over the next few months, we will enhance existing functionalities and provide a new integrated retirement planning tool that helps customers better visualise and plan for their golden years, said Evy Wee, Head of Personal Finance and Investing, DBS Bank. Singaporeans now have longer life expectancy, and we want to go beyond focusing on immediate financial needs, which are addressed by many personal finance tools today. Instead, we aim to help our customers take a longer-term view of their finances and work towards their retirement nest egg. In less than a month since NAV Planner was launched, more than 300,000 customers have accessed their personalised balance sheets, of which more than 30% are new to digital financial planning. Many have also gone on to action on recommendations from the digital advisor. Among the personalised insights and nudges offered, users most favour those focused on helping them stay disciplined with their savings and growing their money through investments. DBS commitment to raise all Singaporeans financial literacy The bank will also continue to maintain and add to its extensive library of financial planning-related guides, educational video clips and articles, which are open to the public on its online NAV page. Topics are guided by DBS Financial Planning framework, and include articles written on trending topics among its customers and communities, as well as how-to guides and checklists. Together, they provide customers with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions towards better and more robust finances. DBS is committed to its plan to reach every Singaporean, regardless of their income levels, to help them get started on their financial wellness journeys. In doing so, the bank has conducted more than 50 free financial literacy classes under its new NAV University programme and has extended these sessions virtually through the DBS Burrow and POSB Parents online communities given current circuit breaker measures. DBS has also partnered with various government institutions to help educate customers on a wide range of topics, such as investing via CPF schemes and tax filings. The post Personalised financial advisory for all made possible by DBS initiative appeared first on iCompareLoan Resources. (L-R) Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, attend a briefing on the administration's coronavirus response in the press briefing room of the White House in Washington on March 2, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) 3 Key Officials Guiding CCP Virus Response in Self-Quarantine After COVID-19 Exposure Three key U.S. officials guiding the CCP virus response were in self-quarantine on Saturday after coming into contact with someone who had tested positive for COVID-19, according to spokesmen and media reports. Anthony Fauci, a high-profile member of the White House CCP virus response team, is considered to be at relatively low risk based on the degree of his exposure, according to a representative for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Fauci, the 79-year-old NIAID director, has tested negative for COVID-19 and he will continue to be tested regularly, the official said in an emailed statement. Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Robert Redfield will be teleworking for the next two weeks after a low-risk exposure on Wednesday to a person at the White House who has the disease, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing a spokesman. Redfield is 68 years old. U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn, who is 60, is in self-quarantine for a couple of weeks after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, an FDA spokesman told Reuters late on Friday. All three officials were scheduled to testify on Tuesday to a Senate committee looking at steps states and the federal government are taking to reopen businesses and schools, which have been shut in an attempt to control the spread of the highly-contagious Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, commonly known as the coronavirus. The CCP virus is especially dangerous to the elderly. According to the CDC, eight out of 10 deaths in the United States from COVID-19 have been people 65-years and older. Hahn immediately took a diagnostic test for the CCP virus and the results were negative, FDA spokesman Michael Felberbaum said in an emailed statement. As Dr. Hahn wrote in a note to staff today, he recently came into contact with an individual who has tested positive for COVID-19. Per CDC guidelines, he is now in self-quarantine for the next two weeks, the FDA spokesman said. Politico reported Hahn had come into contact with Katie Miller, U.S. Vice President Mike Pences press secretary. Miller, the wife of one of Trumps senior advisers, tested positive on Friday, raising alarm about the virus potential spread within the White Houses innermost circle. The diagnosis of Miller, who is married to White House immigration adviser and speech writer Stephen Miller, was revealed by Trump in a meeting with Republican lawmakers on Friday. A valet for Vice President Mike Pence has also tested positive. By Chris Prentice and Mike Stone, Epoch Times staff contributed to this report. A new study has revealed that anti-malaria drug Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has failed another test to prove its efficiency in treating the coronavirus COVID-19, with infected patients showing no change in their conditions after being administered HCQ. The observational study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). The study found that the use of HCQ failed to reduce the need for patients requiring breathing assistance and it also has no effect on decreasing the risk of death. The NEJM study, however, showed that HCQ had no ptential harm too. The study said that HCQ was given to 1,376 coronavirus patienys admitted at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City. There was no significant association between hydroxychloroquine use and intubation or death, the study concluded. The findings of the NEJM study are significant because they come few days after the US Food and Drug Administration warned the public against using HCQ without prescription or supervision because of reports of serious heart rhythm problems in patients administered with this drug. Notably, observational studies are not considered as conclusive as randomised-controlled trials because several drugs and therapies are often used by clinicians to treat patients. The NEJM study asserted that the effectiveness of the HCQ could only be established by igorous clinical trials. The study was funded by the US National Institutes of Health. It may be recalled that US President Donald Trump had touted HCQ as a game changer in the fight against COVID-19 and several countries including the US had urged India to supply the anti-malarial drug in order to treat the highly conteagious disease. In India, HCQ is still being used at several hospitals as a treatment for coronavirus. On April 9, President Trump had thanked India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allowing the export of hydroxychloroquine to the US. "Extraordinary times require even closer cooperation between friends. Thank you India and the Indian people for the decision on HCQ. Will not be forgotten! Thank you PM Modi for your strong leadership in helping not just India, but humanity, in this fight!" he had tweeted. The US is now pushing antiviral drug Remdesivir manufactured by Gilead Sciences to treat COVID-19 and Remdesivir has now become the first drug to get emergency use authorisation in the US for coronavirus treatment. The US Coast Guard is tapping into cellphone location data to quickly locate distressed boaters. The voluntary i911 program lets the Coast Guard access mariners' cellphone locations to help rescue crews find them faster. The software is a free service for all first responders, including the Coast Guard. It greatly decreases the time we spend looking for someone and gets the rescue crews out faster, said Chief Petty Officer Andrew Case from the Coast Guard center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The Coast Guard center in the Northeast was the first to test the system last year and it expanded on March 20 to the rest of the service. The i911 program requires someone who's in need of help to provide a phone number, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Nicole Groll. Then the mariner whether a kayaker or commercial fishermen receives a text message to authorize sharing the phone's GPS location services with the Coast Guard. Once that step is completed, the Coast Guard can access detailed information to narrow a search. Now we know where you are and we can send our rescue services directly to you, Groll said from Boston. The system doesn't take the place of a VHF radio, which remains the best way of communicating in an emergency, she said. The system only works if mariners have enabled the location services on their phones, the Coast Guard said. Depending on the cellphone service, i911 can determine locations of distressed mariners from up to 15 to 20 nautical miles (28 to 37 kilometers) offshore. During the pilot period, more than 38,000 search and rescues across the contiguous United States were analyzed, and 89 per cent took place within 20 nautical miles of shore. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As of the morning of May 10, Ukraine confirmed more than 15,000 cases of coronavirus infection. The Center for Public Health of Ukraine reports this data. So, since the beginning of the epidemic in Ukraine, 15,232 cases of coronavirus infection have already been confirmed. 522 cases of the disease were recorded per day. From the beginning of the epidemic in Ukraine, 3060 patients have already recovered (+151), and 391 people have died (+15 per day). The data from the temporarily occupied territories of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk regions and the city of Sevastopol are missing. As we reported before, as of the evening of May 9, 145 Ukrainians are being treated abroad from COVID-19, 63 have already recovered. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, most of the sick Ukrainians are in Italy (121 people). Also, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba denies reports that his Ministry allegedly banned Ukrainians from traveling abroad for seasonal work. No hot water in a court-house, hand sanitiser going missing, and suggestions that some offices were getting favourable treatment were among the complaints the Courts Service received from lawyers and officials as coronavirus began to spread. Internal correspondence reveals a catalogue of difficulties in keeping court rooms and buildings safe during the early days of the outbreak in March. The records also show how Supreme Court Justice Peter Charleton called for temperature checks for all those who enter the courts system in early to mid-March. In an email, he warned of the dangers of crowded courtrooms with situations of scrum and said the inevitable restrictions required meant a rethink on cheap methods of broadcasting proceedings. His was one of dozens of communications received by the Courts Service during March, which have been released under freedom of information legislation. Lawyers in Cork were said to be up in arms after a number of barristers had to self-isolate following contact with a positive case. They raised the matter at length before lunch so sanitisers which appear to be available elsewhere are urgently required here, said an email. Later, it was confirmed that members of the legal profession in Cork had tested positive. An official wrote to Court Service headquarters suggesting a deep clean of the courthouse and bar room. In Kerry, a number of legal practitioners complained that facilities were totally unsuitable. You might not know that there are no hand sanitisers or even hot water in the court houses in Kerry, said one email. In an email on March 10, a senior official in Dublin asked when hand sanitisers were going to be installed in the courts office at Aras Ui Dhalaigh. There is a rumour that hand sanitisers have been installed at the lifts on every floor of Phoenix House [Court Service headquarters] some of which are not open to the public and none of which have the numbers that Aras Ui Dhalaigh has in relation to footfall and the number of courts, it said. Another email from an official in Mayo on March 10 said the lack of hand sanitisers had not been addressed despite contrary claims. Unfortunately your assertion that all court offices have now been equipped with hand sanitisers is a little on the optimistic side, it said. There is none visible in Castlebar courthouse whether for staff or court users. Perhaps you might be able to assist in getting such necessities to the provinces. One solicitor wrote on March 11 that there were concerns around the Courts of Criminal Justice and that it seemed solicitors seemed excluded from any contingency planning. In another email, a barrister wrote: The lay litigant defendant I was against offered both the court registrar and I a disinfectant wipe indicating she was suffering from the flu. I asked whether she had recently returned from northern Italy [somewhat jokingly]. She replied very seriously that she had not but that her adjacent next door neighbour had, which gave me a serious concern. In an email on March 12, Judge Tara Burns said serious consideration needed to be given to jurors. Pressure on the Courts Service increased after Fianna Fail TD Jim OCallaghan tweeted on March 13 that all courts should be closed. A month ago, the Gundersen Medical Foundation cancer research team stepped out of its normal field of expertise to track the spread of COVID-19, successfully sequencing the complete viral genomes of the virus. Dr. Paraic Kenny, who introduced the team's findings in April, has continued to research the origins and evolution of the virus's spread in the past weeks, defining 16 independent viral introductions in the 21 counties served by Gundersen. The majority of introductions are from members of the same household, underscoring the effectiveness of social distancing, though 16 of 54 cases Gundersen has sequenced resulted from community spread via the outbreak at the meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa. To conduct the research, Kenny's team has been using cancer genome sequencing equipment previously purchased by the Gundersen Medical Foundation, using specimens remaining after conducting COVID-19 tests of the first several local patients with Institutional Review Board approval. "It was a really fast pivot for us," Kenny says of switching gears from cancer to COVID-19. "I think our cancer research has really helped us figure this out, and we've been very keen to see what we can do to play a role." Starting with an outbreak isolate and a control isolate, the lab performs Ion Torrent genome sequencing, mapping the reads to a reference genome, and identifying high-quality variants. GISAID, a virus-focused data sharing initiative, receives the sequences from cases identified as positive in Gundersen's COVID-19 testing lab, which was developed in March and led by Dr. Steven Callister. These sequences are then sent to Nexstrain, which tracks pathogen evolution, for selection of public sharing. Worldwide, up to 7,000 genomes have been sequenced so far, the first successful sequencing done in France in late January. As of April 4, 556 sequencing projects conducted in the U.S. had been submitted to Nexstrain, including 10 from Gundersen. Those numbers increased to 2,240 and 21, respectively, by April 14, and to date Gundersen has successfully sequenced genomes from 54 individuals. Gundersen was the 15th institution in America to share sequencing data, and has contributed more genomes than 36 states in the country. Gundersen is currently ranked 20th among all labs in the U.S. for total contributions, with the highest numbers coming out of large cities with substantial outbreaks such as New York, San Francisco and Seattle. "This is really a global initiative. None of this could be driven by one institution," Kenny says. "Places like ours are working hard with a lot of institutions around the world so we can make this approach a reality on a timeline that is useful for our patients." The majority of the outside substrains in local cases of COVID-19 traveled from China to Europe, then to the U.S., where they spread from the east coast to the Midwest. Strains found on the west and east coasts differ, Kenny says, with local cases a mix of the two. A single strand of the RNA genome has 29,903 nucleotides (letters), and about every second case of the virus will have a change in a letter. The average transmission time is seven days, with a mutation rate of two per month. At the most basic level, the virus makes occasional spelling mistakes when it copies its genome during infection and these mutations are faithfully carried in all subsequent infections by that particular virus, Kenny says. Researchers can develop family trees of individual variants to help identify and understand clusters and spread, which can be especially useful when looking at patterns of infection in health care institutions. From these patterns, it can be inferenced if precautionary methods are proving sufficient. Should an infected health-care worker share strains of the virus with a patient the worker personally encountered, this could raise "significant concerns" about the effectiveness of the personal protective equipment being used. If the strains found in the health-care worker are less diverse than those of the patient, it is less likely PPE is failing, as interaction with high-risk individuals is not causing those in contact to become infected. Rather, it is likely the virus was contracted in a non-patient setting. If several workers are infected but the strains are not representative of patient strains, this shows PPE is working well but there presumably is community spread. "Our goal is to work with the local health departments to provide them information about closely related strains," Kenny says. "If we are able to figure out the relationships between cases we can (deduce) the nexus of spread." The "million-dollar question," Kenny says, is whether the severity of the symptoms in a case of COVID-19 is related more intrinsically to the individual, or if different strains of the virus cause increased or decreased symptom levels. "Currently, we don't have evidence that different substrains are meaningfully clinically different in their impact on patients," Kenny says. "However, this is an active area of research and may change if therapies are introduced." Other pressing questions include whether infected individuals are immune to reinfection, and if the virus could remain dormant before reactivating. Hypothetically, Kenny says, genome sequence research could be used to identify more clinically aggressive substrains, and in turn researchers can look into developing alternate treatment strategies to combat those cases of the virus. "The best way to mitigate is straightforward testing for positive cases combined with traditional, boots-on-the-ground field epidemiology to contain and mitigate this in our health-care system and our community," Kenny says. Emily Pyrek can be reached at emily.pyrek@lee.net. 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. The time has come for India to adopt a "whole-of-government approach" in decisively confronting the "strategic uncertainties" looming on its horizon as well as non-traditional threats like pandemics, Army Chief Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane has said, strongly pitching for broadening the country's national security doctrine. Talking about complex geo-political power play in India's neighbourhood, Gen Naravane said the Indian armed forces are determined to "cement" the country's reputation as a net security provider in the region. "There is an entire spectrum of strategic uncertainties that looms on the horizon and a whole-of-government approach is the need of the hour to deal with them," the Army Chief told PTI. Though Gen Naravane did not elaborate, his comments came in the backdrop of Pakistan-supported Taliban's aim for a role in power structure in Afghanistan and China's persistent efforts to expand military ties with countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar and the Maldives. "In dealing with issues of global nature, the armed forces with their inherent capabilities and capacities will cement India's reputation as a net security provider in the region, taking security as a holistic concept," Gen Naravane said. India is learnt to have been worried over the extremely fragile and dynamic situation in Afghanistan after the US sealed a historic deal with the Taliban providing for withdrawal of American troops from the war-ravaged country. The Army Chief further said that India needs to broaden its understanding of national security and must examine non-traditional threats like pandemics "de-novo" as they have the potential to inflict severe damage on the country. "We need to act and prepare ourselves accordingly." He said the "traditional threats" facing India remained "unabated" and the armed forces are fully geared up to deal with them. Gen Naravane said that there has been no let up in Indian Army's "posture" while guarding the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China because of the coronavirus pandemic. The LAC is the de-facto border between the two countries. "Along the LAC, patrolling continues as before though we have put the ceremonial border personnel meetings on hold. There is also greater reliance on hotlines," he said. The Chief of Army Staff said the effort has been to adhere to the directives issued by both the governments following two informal summits between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. "As far as our deployment along the border with China is concerned, the focus is on mutual understanding and respect for the sanctity of LAC and ensuring that no untoward incident takes place due to our differing perceptions of the LAC," he said. "Our focus has been to ensure all misunderstandings are mitigated amicably through discussions and existing mechanisms," Gen Naravane said. The India-China border dispute covers 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it. Both sides have been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas. Gen Naravane said troops deployed along borders in remote and high altitude areas are at minimum risk of getting infected by the coronavirus as the areas are inaccessible to ordinary people. He said only troops who are medically validated as being coronavirus-free are being allowed to replace the personnel deployed in key formations and frontiers. "You have to keep in mind that in most of these places, due to the nature of deployment and living arrangements, social distancing is not feasible. However, wherever possible, social distancing and hygiene measures are being strictly enforced," he said. Gen Naravane said ensuring safety of his force from the pandemic is his foremost priority as the Army will be able to assist the country in dealing with the challenge if the troops are fighting fit. "The need for maintaining social distancing and hygiene norms assumes significant importance in the forces because of the higher density of personnel living inside barracks and the increased attendant possibility of the virus spreading within the forces," he said. He said all the units and formations have been issued comprehensive instructions to maintain social distancing wherever feasible and adhere to highest hygiene standards. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With the conclusion of the spring semester, here are The Red & Black culture desks top 10 stories since the beginning of 2020: 1. Restaurant closure update: Boba restaurant to replace Franklin House Cafe The Culture desk continuously updated readers about Athens restaurant closures. This restaurant closure list highlighted that Cravings, a Tawainese sandwich shop and boba tea cafe, would replace Franklin House Cafe on Broad Street. 2. 4 restaurant closings in Athens you might have missed Another list provided readers with closures they could have missed after the UGA winter break. 3. 5 restaurants coming to Athens in 2020 In January, Athens was still awaiting the highly-anticipated arrival of Jinya Ramen Bar. Check out the other openings and expansions on this list. 4. Athens restaurants closing or switching to delivery due to COVID-19 Many Athens restaurants had to adjust their business model due to COVID-19. The Culture desk continuously updated a list of restaurants offering to-go orders throughout the semester. 5. 6 restaurant openings and re-openings in Athens to look forward to Although now bittersweet to reflect upon, the beginning of March brought with it the hope of new restaurant openings. On the anticipated list are southern-fare restaurant Classic City Eats and El Barrio Tacos & Tequila in Five Points. 6. UGA students organize virtual graduation ceremony on Minecraft This one was fun: after UGA announced the cancellation of an in-person graduation ceremony, a group of UGA students organized a virtual graduation ceremony on Minecraft. So I thought to myself what is something that can make them feel better? Well, we could build Sanford Stadium on Minecraft to have a ceremony, senior biology major Nick Miller said. 7. The Falls restaurant on Macon Highway has closed The Falls, a moderately-priced New American restaurant, closed in February. Ryker Scott, the restaurant's head chef, was the youngest executive chef in Athens. 8. Athens' marijuana-themed restaurant to finally open in fall 2020 Marijuana-themed sandwich shop Cheba Hut planned on opening two locations to the UGA area by fall 2020. Read more about the eclectic restaurant from this January article. 9. Athens restaurant owners discuss the option of reopening on April 27 Governor Brian Kemp announced that restaurants could reopen dine-in services on Monday, April 27. We talked with Athens restaurant owners to see if their restaurants would reopen. 10. 5 things you didnt know you could order via takeout from Athens restaurants Athens restaurants werent only preparing take-out orders in March. Some sold toilet paper, grocery items and frozen casserole. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal A federal nursing home comparison website shows some of the more than 30 facilities with COVID-19 cases in New Mexico have five-star ratings. Others have less glowing grades. Six nursing homes with reported coronavirus deaths have one thing in common: inspectors found all had a history of lacking infection prevention and control programs, the Medicare.gov website showed. The five other New Mexico facilities with deaths werent listed or were too new to rate. As of Friday, more than half the 79 deaths in New Mexico senior care facilities occurred in the Farmington area. The Life Care Center of Farmington, which had the highest number of reported positives and 31 deaths, has a four-star above-average rating, according to the nursing home compare website. In Albuquerque, Advanced Health Care, which had 18 patients with the coronavirus, 23 staff and four deaths, received the highest rating, of five stars, according to federal data. Uptown Genesis in Albuquerque, rated as average with three stars, reported 63 patients with COVID-19, 36 staff positives and eight deaths. The toll at La Vida Llena medical unit in Albuquerque: 44 COVID-19 positive patients, 29 staff and 17 deaths. The facility is rated five stars on the Medicare.gov website. The state Attorney Generals Office has launched an investigation into alleged failures by La Vida Llena officials to take reasonable precautions necessary to prevent damage to the health and safety of its residents in the wake of knowledge of the Governors Orders and COVID-19 infections within that facility. Attorney Grant Woods told the Journal last week La Vida Llena representatives are helping AGs officials get the full picture rather than a partial picture. Most importantly, Woods said, is that everybody has worked with the appropriate entity, which is the Department of Health, to deal with this situation. Lori Mayer is a spokeswoman for Genesis Healthcare, a national firm that has 10 long-term care facilities in the Albuquerque area. We take infection control very seriously. If the virus does get in, it does not discriminate: It impacts five-star and one-star buildings alike. Albuquerque attorney David Fine said hes received phone calls from family members of COVID-19 patients who have died. But he said actual negligence has to be shown for a legal claim. It comes down to what reasonable nursing facilities should have known, he said, and were they following the laws and order that were in place? Police services in Niagara and Durham are still searching for a 25-year-old Toronto man wanted for alleged kidnapping and forcible confinement in an incident Thursday involving three victims from St. Catharines. Durham Regional Police said the man, who they did not name, should be considered armed and dangerous. In a release, they said things began at 10 a..m. Thursday when a male in a bank on Kingston Road in Pickering reported he had been kidnapped, forcibly confined and made to take money out of his account. A release from the Durham said officers arrived and located the first victim. They also found a suspect vehicle nearby, arrested one suspect and found two other victims in the car. Police said a second vehicle involved in the incident was located and followed west into Toronto before officers lost sight of it. The three victims, two males and one female in their 20s were from St. Catharines and reported they had been kidnapped by three suspects who tied them up and forced them to withdraw money from their bank accounts. The victims were not injured, and police said it was an isolated incident, not a random act. The Thursday incident led officers from both services checking for suspects at several residences in Niagara, including Welland and Niagara Falls, Friday afternoon. Members of Niagaras Emergency Task Unit searched a large area of Welland and had First, Second and Third streets closed between King Street and Plymouth Road as they checked backyards. Durham and Niagara officers arrested one suspect in Niagara Falls, while a third suspect, the 25-year-old Toronto man, eluded police at a Welland residence. A car was seen being towed from a driveway at Second and King streets Friday afternoon but its unknown what connection it had to the incident. Durham police said it's believed the wanted suspect is driving a black 2009 two-door BMW with Ontario plates CLJA-289. If anyone spots the suspect vehicle, they are asked to contact local police or call 911. During Fridays search in Welland, once residents were allowed to enter and leave Second Street they had their vehicles checked by police to ensure the suspect was not inside. Durham police said Jonathan St. Louis, 19, of Toronto, was charged with break and enter, pointing a firearm, forcible confinement, possess a weapon for committing an offence, utter death threats, kidnapping, theft of a motor vehicle, robbery and possess proceeds of crime under $5,000. St. Louis was held for a bail hearing and the man arrested in Niagara Falls was released unconditionally. Michael Nanton-Madden, 25, is wanted by Durham Regional Police for kidnapping, robbery and forcible confinement. The third suspect, the 25-year-old male from Toronto, is wanted for kidnapping, robbery, break and enter, pointing a firearm, forcible confinement, possess a weapon for committing an offence, utter death threats, theft of a motor vehicle and failure to stop for police. While he was not named by Durham police, a tweet Friday by Niagara police said Michael Nanton-Madden, 25, was being sought. Niagara police said there was no information that led them to believe there was an ongoing threat to the public in the region. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday launched a social media campaign taking a swipe at West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for staying away from the media for more than a week. The campaign is being called Bhoy Peyechhe Mamata, which means Mamata is scared in Bengali. Top state and national leaders of the BJP began tweeting and posting on Facebook, using the hashtag #BhoyPeyechheMamata to charge that Banerjee was avoiding the media because of her failures, which they said have been exposed by the Narendra Modi-led Union government. The campaign and the social media posts came on the day that Banerjees Trinamool Congress took jibes at Prime Minister Modi for never taking a question at any press conference since taking charge in 2014. West Bengals ruling party also accused the BJP of prioritising electoral interests in light of the 2021 assembly elections over saving lives in the current coronavirus pandemic. Since March, Mamata Banerjee has been at the forefront of the states battle against Covid-19 and has interacted with the press almost every day. But since April 30, she has not met the media. Instead, the states chief secretary and home secretary are briefing reporters on administrative issues, while TMC spokespersons have been actively disseminating political messages. PPE kit discrepancies, death toll embezzlement, ration corruption from the beginning till now @MamataOfficials administration has misled the people. Be patient! People will answer. #BhoyPeyecheMamata (sic), Shiv Prakash, the BJPs national joint general secretary (organisation), wrote on Twitter on Saturday. The partys national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya tweeted, Doctors crying for PPE, patients lying with dead bodies. Migrant labour not allowed to leave state. Bengalis not allowed to come back home. Hospitals not taking patients. Police attacked @MamataOfficial government is absolute disaster. #BhoyPeyecheMamata (sic). Where are you Mamata Banerjee? Covid 19 cases are increasing, no of tests are still low and not giving permission to bring back Bengali migrant labours from other states? #BhoyPeyecheMamata, Mukul Roy, BJPs national executive member, tweeted. People of Bengal are looking for their health minister, who also happens to be the Chief Minister, as number of Covid cases keep rising, doctors continue to protest, testing remains absymally low and reported data is wholly unreliable. Please help! #BhoyPeyecheMamata#SaveBengal (sic), Amit Malviya, BJPs IT cells national head, also tweeted. On Saturday afternoon, Trinamool Congress had taken digs at PM Modi for avoiding press conferences. We hold long press conferences and take all questions. Our chief minister always leads from the front at any hour of crisis. But the Prime Minister has not taken a single question from a press conference, ever since taking charge in 2014, Derek OBrien, the TMC national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member, said. OBrien alleged that while the Bengal government and the states ruling party was preoccupied with fighting the coronavirus pandemic, the BJP was focussed on the Bengal Assembly elections due in 2021. The BJP started its 2021 electoral campaign on the day the inter-ministerial central teams (IMCT) reached Bengal on April 20, OBrien said. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, the partys Lok Sabha MP, alleged that all the moves taken by the Centre regarding the handling of the Covid-19 situation in Bengal were, in reality, political moves. The Centre could not stand the fact that Mamata Banerjee was leading the battle from the front and was doing better than the Centre. IMCT had accused the state administration of negligence and mismanagement. Meanwhile, following a fortnight-long controversy and since May 3, the West Bengal government has been sharing detailed information including district and state-wise daily number of new Covid-19 cases, active cases, cumulative numbers of persons testing positive and the number of deaths. By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala on Sunday reported seven new cases of COVID-19. With this, the total number of active cases has reached 20 in the state. The new cases were from Wayanad (three), Thrissur (two) and one each from Ernakulam and Malappuram. At the same time, Kasargod, which once reported the most number of positive cases, has become free from active cases as four persons were recovered from the illness in the state on the same day. Of the seven new cases reported, three cases (two from Thrissur and one from Malappuram) were passengers of the flight that landed from Abu Dhabi at Cochin International Airport on May 7. The two cases at Wayanad is due to a local contact. Whereas two cases (one each from Wayanad and Ernakulam) had arrived from Chennai, said a statement from the health department. The total number of people who were brought under surveillance is 26,712. Of this, 26,350 are in home quarantine and 362 are under hospital isolation. 135 were admitted on Sunday with suspected Covid19 symptoms. Till date, a total of 37, 464 samples were sent for testing. Of this 36,630 samples, the result came as negative. The Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful a few days ago, shut down the MTN office at Dansoman Zodiac for flouting the social distancing rule. The Minister was reportedly passing in front of the office when she observed that a lot of people were gathered in front of the office with no regard to the fact that there is a virus lurking in the corner. Infuriated, she ordered for the closure of the office until better precautionary measures are put in place In a video shared on social media, she could be heard asking persons gathered in front of the office whether they cared more about what they were doing at MTN than their lives. Some persons have described her tone as too harsh and that she could have still sent the message across without shouting. Others also think that some Ghanaians are too stubborn and that if you are not forceful or strict as far COVID-19 is concerned, they will not listen. In an interview on Neat FM's 'Me Man Nti' program, Dr Arthur Kennedy, a former NPP presidential hopeful, agrees that the Minister could have educated the people in a more sober tone. "Her message to the public was a good message but her tone could have been better; she could have lowered her voice a little bit and be more educational; it almost seemed like a headmistress talking down to her students," he opined. Listen to Arthur Kennedy in the video below Source: Rebecca Addo Tetteh/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 michael barbaro From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today, the coronavirus is killing black Americans at staggeringly higher rates than white Americans. My colleague, Times Magazine writer Linda Villarosa, on the myth of the pandemic as the great equalizer. Its Wednesday, May 20. linda villarosa Hello? nicole charles Hello. Hello? linda villarosa Hello. Hi, my names Linda Villarosa. Im from The New York Times Magazine. nicole charles How are you, Miss Linda? linda villarosa Im OK. How are you? nicole charles Im just OK, too. linda villarosa Yeah. I think we should just accept that were, like, OK. And listen, Im Ive been hearing stories about your husband all morning and, you know, wish I had gotten to meet him. What a wonderful person he sounds like. nicole charles Oh, yes he was. Thats what he was. michael barbaro Linda, tell me about Cornell Charles. linda villarosa Cornell Charles, who goes by the nickname Dickey, was born and raised in New Orleans. He still lived in the house where he grew up. He was a family man who had two daughters. He was married for decades to Nicole Charles, his wife, who I got to speak to recently. nicole charles My husband loved to cook. Every Sunday my husband would cook you would think he was cooking for the military. linda villarosa Dickey was the king of the kitchen. Every Sunday after church, friends and family gathered at Nicole and Dickeys house. nicole charles You didnt have to have an invite to come in. Everybody knew it I want to eat something, Im going by Cornell and Nicoles. linda villarosa People knew you could just go there. The door was open. nicole charles He loved for you to gloat over his food. He wanted you to brag on it. So he would literally sit there and watch you eat it, and he was always like, OK, how it taste? How it taste? And everybody would be like, Look at the plate. What does that tell you? You know, so linda villarosa And what were his best dishes? nicole charles Oh, my god, Miss Linda. His gumbo was number one. He was definitely a seafood boiler. linda villarosa He cooked seafood. He cooked gumbo. nicole charles He also was a master of spaghetti salad. linda villarosa He also made meatballs. nicole charles He would cook meatballs the size of a baseball. So everybody would call them miniature meatloaves, because they were so big. linda villarosa And as a community man, he was also part of this club called the Zulu Club. linda villarosa Tell me about what the Zulu group meant to your husband. nicole charles It was let met see how I can it was in his blood. If I can that kind of sums it up. michael barbaro And what is the Zulu Club? linda villarosa So the Zulu Club is an organization of mostly black men in New Orleans. nicole charles He first got involved in Zulu in around 2004. My dad was Zulu governor that year. And my husband began to deal with Zulu. linda villarosa And it was started in 1909. Black people were still reeling from the end of slavery. And also, it was during the years of Jim Crow, when black people and other people couldnt afford funerals. And so the Zulu Club members came together to pool their money together to bury their dead in a dignified manner. nicole charles He was passionate about it. And he would give his all. Zulu was definitely something he enjoyed. It was a respectable organization of men. linda villarosa Most of the year, its a civic club. So they collect food. Theres scholarships, a mentoring program. But during Mardi Gras archived recording 1 All right. And now we are showing archived recording 2 The King of Zulu. archived recording 3 King Zulu, Ryan linda villarosa Its the symbol of black New Orleans. And it involves festivals, and balls, and all kinds of different events. [band music] linda villarosa The event that Dickey Charles was the most involved with was the Governors Ball. And there were thousands of people at that event. Its a party. People bring their own food. You have to wear formal clothes or else you cant get in. People are elbow to elbow. Theyre dancing. And it lasts all night. Its really fun. But as this was happening, behind the scenes coronavirus was also building. [parade sounds] linda villarosa So. nicole charles He came home from work. linda villarosa 10 days after Mardi Gras ended, Dickey Charles didnt feel well. nicole charles Then he said, I feel like Im coming down with something. Which is normal for him. I said, well, OK. You know, why dont you just take it easy? But he spiked a fever, like the next day. And Im just thinking, he got the flu. So lets give you some Tylenol and then put some fluids in you and whatever, whatever. So two or three days of that went on with his flu spiking. And my husband is a big man. Even if he was sick, he would still eat. But I couldnt even get him to eat soup, and that was his go-to thing when he was sick. So I said, Baby, you have to put something in your stomach, because he was a diabetic. He also had high blood pressure, and he also had kidney disease. Saturday morning, we wake up. Still. I said, Baby, how you feel? And he was just like, Ah, you know, Im I feel faint. And I said, OK, I dont like that. I said, go take a shower, put on some clothes. Were going to the E.R. So that was March 14. linda villarosa They checked him in to the hospital, and by the following day, it was clear that something was wrong. nicole charles Sunday, when the medical doctor came in, she said, I want you to see the chest X-rays. So I said OK. She put it up on the screen. She said, Well, you see where his left lung is clear? Left lung is fine. She said, But you see this little cloud over his right lung? I said, yes, maam. She said, well, this could be pneumonia. But she said, But Im going to start him on some antibiotics. In case thats what it is, I want to beat it. In a matter of hours in a matter of hours, they come back, and they tell me how bad his lungs are. linda villarosa And that was a clue that they needed to test him for the coronavirus, even though it would take 10 days for the results to come back. nicole charles And one of the doctors came in and said, We need to have a very honest conversation. We need to vent your husband now. So of course my heart dropped. And I said, A ventilator? And he was like, Yes, maam. His lungs will not be functioning much longer on their own. linda villarosa Goodness. nicole charles I was like, he really is my husband really is sick, which I didnt realize it was to that extent. If theyre telling me he needs to be on a ventilator. I dont want to say no and not give him a chance. Do you know what Im saying? linda villarosa Mm-hmm. nicole charles So Im like, OK. All right, lets do it. linda villarosa So for the next three days, Nicole was at the hospital. Dickeys on the ventilator. He was in a coma-like state, so hes not responding. nicole charles So linda villarosa What were you saying to him? nicole charles Oh, my god, how much I love him. I miss him. You know, pray. I need you to pray. You know, I was telling him, You may not can speak, but God can hear your prayer. And that was basically my conversation for him every day in I.C.U. You know, and we would listen to gospel music. I would pray for him anyway. And I was in the midst of praying for him which is what I did all the time. I would touch him from his head to his toe, and I would pray over his body. I was at his feet, and I was coming back up towards his head, and he opened his eyes for me. And I said, Oh, I said, Baby, you opened your eyes for me. I said, Im so proud of you. And he knew I was there, because he would nod. Now, at this time I was playing gospel music, and the phone went off. And I said, Do you want me to play another gospel song for you? And he nodded his head. Do you love me? And he nodded his head. And I said, I love you so much. I said, Im so proud of you. You opened your eyes. And he had his eyes open the whole time I was there. And the nurse who was working with him that day, she said, Mr. Charles, Ive been trying to get you to open your eyes all day, and youre showing off for your wife. And I said, Thats right, because he had to look at his wife. He heard my voice, and he had to see my face. And that was the last time I saw my husband with his eyes open. He looked good. My husband never lost weight. He never looked sick, Miss Linda. He never even when he was on the ventilator, he never looked sick. He never looked sick. And I thank God for that. Because him looking sick and being sick probably would have really screwed me up. Looking at him looking healthy, and and I you know, I told him. I said, I love you, and Im leaving you in Gods hands. I kept talking to him and just telling him how much we loved him. And how much were going to miss him. And he took his last breath in front of me at 1:33 on the 24th. He looked really, really peaceful. He did. Yes. linda villarosa He died that afternoon. And he was only 51 years old. [music] linda villarosa The next day, as Nicole was grieving, she finally got the results of Dickeys Covid test and found out that, yes, he was positive. He did die of the coronavirus. nicole charles The phone calls that I have gotten from Zulu members have been overwhelming. They have reached out via text, via phone call, sending cards. Its just so much, you know Miss Linda, and I didnt realize the magnitude of the people my husband touched until his passing. And Ive gotten so many phone calls to tell me, you know, he motivated me to do this, or he encouraged me to do that, or he was my mentor. I mean, I can just stand so proud and say he was my husband. I can stand tall and just brag that that was my husband, you know what I mean? Its so funny, because being his wife, and as much as he used to go and when I say go, he went with a purpose. Baby, Im going to Ive got to go practice this team at this time. I have to practice this team at that time. When I leave there, I have to go to this meeting, or whatever, whatever. And to realize what his purpose was now gives me such a sense of joy. archived recording Well, Since Mardi Gras Day, it has been a devastating couple of weeks for Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club. linda villarosa But he wasnt the only member of the Zulu Club to get sick. archived recording Several of their members tested positive for coronavirus. linda villarosa At the time I finished my reporting, 30 members of the Zulu Club had been infected with the virus, and of those 30, eight had died. michael barbaro Wow. linda villarosa I looked at the Facebook page yesterday and saw that on May 4 another one of them died. michael barbaro Linda, what did you, and what did the members of the Zulu Club, make of the number of members who were dying? linda villarosa At first, it felt like, oh, wrong place, wrong time situation. Mardi Gras was really crowded. Carnival season lasted for six weeks. And there were crowds. People were elbow to elbow. So it made sense at the beginning. But, frankly, behind the scenes, those of us who understand public health or who look at questions of public health started to worry, because we knew that there were going to be high death rates among black people and high hospitalization rates. But there was no data yet. So when the data started rolling out archived recording Nationwide, cities have been releasing Covid-19 data showing racial disparities in diagnosis and in death. linda villarosa It confirmed what many in public health knew. archived recording Those numbers show a disturbing trend. linda villarosa But it was still very scary. archived recording Black people are dying at a much higher rate than any other race right now. linda villarosa In the state of Louisiana archived recording Of the more than 500 people whose final breaths were stolen by this disease, the state says that more than two thirds of them were black. linda villarosa Black people comprise 30 percent of the population but 70 percent of those who have died of Covid. Then other states started to roll out their data. archived recording A thousand more cases of Covid-19 confirmed here in Illinois just today. linda villarosa In Illinois archived recording 1 More than half of all cases in Chicago are in the African-American community. archived recording 2 38 percent of Missourians who died from Covid-19 were black, but African-Americans only make up 12 percent of Missouris population. archived recording 3 The reports are startling in North Carolina, Connecticut, and Michigan, too. linda villarosa So at that point, it begged the question why. Why was this killing so many black people? Why was it having such a devastating effect on black America? michael barbaro Well be right back. [music] michael barbaro Linda, how do we explain this extraordinarily higher death rate in the black community from the coronavirus? linda villarosa Well, it was interesting. During the beginning of this pandemic archived recording (andrew cuomo) Everyone everyone is subject to this virus. It is the great equalizer. linda villarosa People started saying, oh, Covid is the great equalizer, or, the virus doesnt discriminate. archived recording From the moment the coronavirus outbreak began, health officials have preached that Covid-19 doesnt discriminate, that its an equal opportunity killer. linda villarosa But those of us who have studied public health know that that wasnt true. And in fact, we say it a different way. We say, when America sneezes the black community gets pneumonia. And for me, Im really passionate about racial health disparities. Ive been studying it for 30 years. I was a young editor at Essence magazine, and I started first writing about this. Im writing a book about it now. And we have long known that all kinds of diseases do discriminate. Its not equal. michael barbaro And how does Covid-19 discriminate against black America? linda villarosa Covid-19 is more serious in black Americans. So were more likely to be hospitalized, to have a serious case, and to also die from it. And there are three main reasons for this disparity. michael barbaro OK. And what is the first of those reasons? linda villarosa The first reason is simple. Its proximity to the virus. Black Americans are more likely to be employed in essential jobs, in frontline jobs, in jobs where they are more commonly exposed to the virus itself. Im thinking of Dickey Charles. He continued working. He was a courier for a medical company. I think of the Zulu members. One of the men who died was a postal worker. He was a mail carrier. One was a police officer who contracted Covid. Another was a security guard. And look, we dont know whether these members of the Zulu Club contracted the virus at Mardi Gras or on their jobs. But we do know that the majority of black people in this country have jobs that put them at risk. So thats the first reason black Americans are dying at such disproportionate rates. The second factor is discrimination that is embedded in the health care system itself. michael barbaro Linda, this is something you and I first talked about over a year ago when we did an episode of The Daily about black women and their mortality rates when giving birth. And you explained this concept that, essentially, racism conscious or deeply unconscious influences the kind of medical care delivered to black patients. linda villarosa Yes. And I believe that its unconscious. And its not just white doctors, its also black doctors we or doctors of other races. Because we all live in this society that has discrimination and racist images embedded in our culture. Its baked in. Thousands of studies have shown over decades that black people get unequal treatment in our health care system. michael barbaro I wonder if you can walk me through a scenario that people in public health say could or has happened when it comes to this pandemic that explains this. linda villarosa Well, you can imagine being a health care provider, specifically being a physician, and youre having to make life-or-death decisions who should get tested? Who should be admitted to the hospital? Who needs to be put on a ventilator? Who needs to be taken off a ventilator? So youre a doctor, and people that dont look like you, dont have the same culture as you, dont have the same background with you come in, you may think about them differently. Medical providers dont go into medicine to harm people, but that harm may show up, especially during a very stressed out moment, which is the essence of this moment and coronavirus. michael barbaro So, Linda, what is the third major factor here in why something like the coronavirus discriminates against black Americans? linda villarosa So the third reason is that black Americans have more of the underlying conditions that make Covid-19 worse. Some of these are hypertension and heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and asthma. So if you have these underlying conditions, youre more likely to be quite sick. That was the case with Dickey Charles. He had high blood pressure. He had diabetes. He had kidney disease. And that is also the case with so many other black Americans. michael barbaro And why is that? Why is there such a disproportionate level of these pre-existing underlying conditions? linda villarosa So at first glance, it seems like, well, if everyone just takes better care of themselves, you can avoid these kinds of conditions. michael barbaro Right. linda villarosa But that tilts toward a kind of irresponsibility among black people that really isnt fair. So a study in early April found out that people who have been subjected to long term exposure to air pollution are more likely to have serious cases of Covid than people who dont. And black people are more likely to live in areas that are polluted. New Orleans is part of cancer alley, which is an 85-mile stretch along the highway in Louisiana where theres the largest concentration of petrochemical factories in the country. And so New Orleans itself is the victim of this kind of inequal exposure to dirty air, dirty water, dirty soil. And this is where the Zulus live. This is where Dickey Charles and Nicole Charles live. So the environment is one factor that drives the underlying conditions that black Americans are disproportionately more likely to face. But a second factor is the concept of weathering. michael barbaro And weathering is the concept that racism takes a physical toll on the black body and leaves it more vulnerable to all kinds of illness. linda villarosa Thats exactly right. And its best to think of it as a kind of accelerated aging. So adversity comes in the form of discrimination. It could be discrimination in housing. It could be discrimination by police. It could be discrimination in employment. It could just be the stress of having to struggle every day. It changes the systems of the body at a cellular level. So if you are faced with a kind of adverse event, your blood pressure goes up, your heart rate goes up, your breathing becomes more rapid. And this is all part of the fight-or-flight syndrome. But it shouldnt be made to happen over and over and over again. But if youre facing that kind of adversity, thats what happens, and it wears away the body. It ages the body. So that would make sense why black people are more likely to have these kind of underlying conditions and why we get them at younger ages. michael barbaro So, Linda, putting all of this together, all these factors, you have a black population at a higher risk of exposure, just given the nature of their work; a population that already has higher rates of underlying conditions; on top of that, there is this weathering phenomenon that deepens those conditions, literally seems to age this already-not-well, vulnerable body; and finally, a medical system inclined to undertreat these people when they come in to a hospital or a doctors office. linda villarosa Yes. And that is what has created this perfect and terrible storm when it comes to the coronavirus and black people in America. michael barbaro Linda, it sounds like the public health experts you talked to, that they knew these death rates, these infection rates, this kind of disproportionateness, was going to play out with this pandemic. And now that it has, how are they thinking about it? linda villarosa I think this is a difficult moment, but its also a moment where a tragedy can be turned into something else. So those in public health have known that there are racial disparities in health. I mean, weve known since 1899 when W.E.B. Du Bois was calling it a crisis. And some of the people that I interviewed in my story have been studying this for decades and have added up the price. And so theyre hoping that now is a moment of reckoning to say, this is a horrible moment, please dont turn away. Do something about this. michael barbaro Im curious what the governments response to this pandemic, which is widely acknowledged, was slow, what that has meant for this particular group of Americans. linda villarosa So the governments slow and uncoordinated and confusing response hurt everyone. It hurt all Americans. It harmed us. But it hurt this group black people, black Americans worse. Because we were already more vulnerable to many of these health problems that make Covid-19 worse. And sometimes when I think of it, I think specifically about the men in the Zulu Club and how they were harmed by this federal response. And it had this terrible sad trickle-down effect to them on the ground. michael barbaro Right. Well, how are members of the Zulu Club and their families doing at this point? linda villarosa The entire group is reeling from what happened. I mean, theyre a brotherhood, so theyre trying to support and take care of each other. But theyre in pain. linda villarosa And youre good? Youre feeling OK? linda villarosa I also checked in with Nicole, Dickey Charless wife, just to see how she was doing. nicole charles Im feeling as good as I can be. God didnt choose me, so I have to find a way to maneuver my new life. linda villarosa This is a very hard time for her. Shes grieving this man that she was married to for three decades. nicole charles But its going to be a huge, huge adjustment. I tell people my life did a 180-degree turn within a matter of 10 days, you know. linda villarosa Yeah. nicole charles And I sorely miss my husband. Out of 30 years, Miss Linda, Ive never not slept next to him for longer than two days. In 30 years. linda villarosa Oh, wow. nicole charles If I did not sleep next to him, he was going to a football camp [music] linda villarosa More than a week after Dickey Charles died, she arranged his funeral. It was at their church. There were 10 people there 10 family members and an organist. archived recording (SINGING) I feel trust in the Lord. I feel linda villarosa It was also live streamed. Six hundred people tuned in. I tuned in. archived recording (SINGING) Oh, I feel trust in the Lord. linda villarosa I found it sad and hard, because I was thinking about someone like Dickey and many of the other Zulus would have gotten a different kind of sendoff. Would have gotten a second line funeral, where, you know, it happens in the street, and all those 600 people would be right there in person. People would be dressed up. There would be music. And that is the legacy of the Zulu Club. It was formed to help people send off their dead in a graceful, in a respectful, in a dignified way, and in a way that celebrated their life. [music] michael barbaro Linda, thank you very much. We appreciate it. linda villarosa Thank you. And please take care of yourself. michael barbaro You, too. linda villarosa Well, thank you so much. nicole charles Thank you for taking out the time and linda villarosa Take care of yourself. nicole charles I will. I will. I will. Thank you so much. OK. linda villarosa Thank you. Bye-bye. nicole charles OK. Bye-bye. michael barbaro Well be right back. [music] Are we remembering the Second World War wrong? The great historian Adam Tooze says yes, largely because recent events have made a tidy memory of that era come in handy. Maybe we misunderstand all great events, as well as being blind to the consequences that flow from them. Britain is telling itself that fighting COVID-19 has been very much like a domestic-only version of the war, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson alone in finding himself Churchillian, with PPE (personal protective equipment) being hustled on the black market and, remarkably, a gauze being cast over poverty as if it were a patriotic mission to endure it. And, as Tooze writes in Foreign Policy magazine, green activists are seeking another New Deal, presumably post-Trump, which is unlikely, while both right and left refer to the wartime Bretton Woods Conference as if it were a kind of sunlit upland. Equally, the anniversary of VE-Day (Victory in Europe) on Friday was celebrated, as always the underlying notion being that such a thing could be repeated. What they forget, Tooze suggests, is the war and what it was. Its one thing for China and Russia to use it as an emblem of revived nationalism but the weird thing in the West is the peculiarly bloodless quality of peoples collective memory. The civilian casualties of the air war over Britain were terrible, Tooze says, because a cheapskate Conservative government adopted threadbare air raid precautions, but that has been forgotten in favour of plucky Londoners in the Blitz. In the same way, national writhing over the lack of PPE might well vanish from memory in favour of Were all in this together sloganeering. In fact, the war was awful, the violence unheard of in human history, and its effects made the planet worse, not better. The point is to put into question the 21st-century memory of 1945 that leaves the violence out and imagines the world that came after as made out of the positive energies of solidarity, mobilization, and co-operation alone. We will always need daily journalism but we also need historians skepticism and precision. Tooze is dronelike, flying overhead looking for what Henry James called the pattern in the carpet. The pattern in the case of the last world war is a hideous thing, an apparition. Most people would prefer not to see it. For it may be that the COVID-19 pandemic will be largely forgotten, like the Spanish flu, because it was only the Grim Reapers first little knock on the door. Like Naomi Klein, another historian with a talent for pattern-spotting the imposition of free-market shock being one Tooze is a gifted writer. His previous books, on the Nazi economy, the global order after the First World War, and the 2008 crash, recount what happened in extreme and fascinating detail but also ask what it meant and will mean, something we may not know for a century. He offers a terrible suggestion. If there is a historical grand narrative that does justice to the significance of the 1945 moment it is what 21st centry environmental historians call the Great Acceleration, the vast and dramatic acceleration of humanitys appropriation of nature that reached a turning point in the middle of the 20th century. For the Second World War birthed the atomic age and the use of oil as the driver for economic growth. In other words, Tooze seems to suggest, that great victory we yearly celebrate, the end of the worst and most protracted human violence ever seen, sowed the seeds for the destruction of humanity through climate change. The Nazi monster had to be destroyed. The question no one asked was what that inadvertently energy-driven triumph would lead to. Out of this nettle danger, we pluck this flower, safety, Hotspur said in Henry IV, Part I. He died soon after. Equally, this pandemic is being fought, badly but devotedly, and the question being considered is what economic changes will result, same as after the war. But no one is asking a bigger question, whether it will matter. The heating planet will drive change that will dwarf anything happening now. Will COVID-19 insularity make things worse? Oh for historians like Tooze who think ahead. 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WHIPPLE CREEK REALTY WILLIAM PITT SOTHEBY'S - GT BARRINGTON WILLIAM PITT SOTHEBY'S - LENOX WILLIAM PITT SOTHEBY'S - SALISBURY WILLIAM PITT SOTHEBY'S INTERNATIONAL REALTY WILLIAM PITT SOTHEBY'S INTERNATIONAL REALTY, LENOX WILLIAM RAVEIS REAL ESTATE Williamstown Realty Group WITALISZ & ASSOCIATES, INC. WOLCOTT REALTY www.HomeZu.com 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. Cheyenne Tozzi has shared a sweet tribute to her daughter Dahlia De La Lune, one, as she celebrates Mother's Day as a single parent. The Australian model, 31, who split from Dahlia's father, male model Marlon Teixiera shortly after she gave birth in 2018, posted the heartfelt message to Instagram on Sunday. 'My little love, safe to say I was terrified to bring you into this world,' Cheyenne wrote next to a dreamy photo of herself and Dahlia silhouetted against a moody beach scene. 'You saved my life': Cheyenne Tozzi, 31, shared a heartfelt tribute to daughter Dahlia De La Lune, one, (pictured together) as she marked Mother's Day as a single parent on Sunday 'Not sure if I was going to be able to protect you and make sure you would be the happiest little girl. You have changed my world. You taught me how to love more than I could ever imagine,' the doting mother continued. 'You saved my life. You show me unconditional love. You break my balls,' she joked. 'You make me laugh, Sometimes cry at 4am, but that doesn't matter because every single day is worth it. Because I have you.' It's over! Cheyenne and Marlon (pictured) debuted their relationship in August 2017, but parted ways not long after they welcomed their first child together, Dahlia, in September 2018 The besotted mother thanked her 'guardian angels' for 'sending Dahlia' to her, before joking that the adorable youngster is the only person she'll 'allow to pee on the floor'. 'And the only person who took my heart and will never ever lose it,' she added. The former Australia's Next Top Model star's podst received a flood of responses from fellow celebrity mothers, including supermodel Megan Gale, who wrote: 'Happy Mothers Day Beautiful'. From the heart: 'My little love, safe to say I was terrified to bring you into this world,' Cheyenne wrote next to a dreamy photo of herself and Dahlia silhouetted against a moody beach scene Cheyenne and Marlon debuted their relationship in August 2017, after being introduced by their mutual friend Jordan Barrett. They welcomed their daughter Dahlia De La Lune, in September 2018. Cheyenne previously confirmed to The Daily Telegraph's Confidential that the pair split shortly after she gave birth. Rome, N.Y. Two men have died and a woman has been injured after a shooting in Rome on Saturday night, according to police. Officers were dispatched to 107 Whittier Ave. in Rome at about 6:05 p.m. after gun shots were reportedly fired, police said. When officers arrived, they found one man dead in the driveway, according to police. Officers were able to communicate with a woman inside the house, police said. She told officers a second man shot himself inside the house, according to police. Officers were able to get the woman out of the house and found the mans body, police said. The woman was taken to the hospital and treated. She is expected to survive, police said. Rome police are investigating the shooting. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Chris Libonati via the Signal app for encrypted messaging at 585-290-0718, by phone at the same number, by email or on Twitter. A hauntingly beautiful image of Korean gisaeng. Circa early 1900s. Diane Nars Collection By Robert Neff A photograph alleged to have been Queen Min but now generally dismissed as being a court woman. Circa 1890s. Terry Bennett, Korea: Caught in Time. The great Moby Dick of Korean photographs is, undoubtedly, a picture of Queen Min (Empress Myeongseong). Over the years, there have been many alleged photographs presented by various experts and collectors but all have been dismissed. It is hard to imagine a male being granted permission to take a picture of the queen (women especially those of the upper classes were generally kept from the view of strangers) and the few female photographers Isabella Bird Bishop, Lillias Underwood and Elizabeth Graham who had access to the queen make no mention of ever taking her picture. Not only are there no photographs, there are apparently no portraits. In the summer of 2017, an alleged portrait of the queen was on display at the Daboseong Ancient Art Museum in Seoul but there were serious questions as to its authenticity. So we are forced to rely upon written descriptions of the queen. These, however, vary depending on the writer. Some, like Bishop, described her as "a very nice-looking slender woman, with glossy raven-black hair and a very pale skin, the pallor enhanced by the use of pearl powder." Others had less-than-flattering opinions. The daughter of Augustine Heard the American minister to Korea described the queen in her journal as: A postcard kept of a Japanese soldier who served in northern Korea in the early 1940s. Robert Neff Collection Some of the American gold miners in the early 1900s kept postcards of Japanese geishas. Robert Neff Collection Terry Bennett's book "Korea: Caught in Time" Foreign minister says process of incrementally unlocking the country will start on Monday. Djibouti, the country with the highest prevalence of coronavirus cases in East Africa, is due to begin lifting lockdown measures in a bid to relieve pressure on its economy. To date, the tiny Horn of Africa nation that hosts major US and French military bases has recorded 1,189 coronavirus infections and three related deaths. By tomorrow, the process of incrementally unlocking the country will start in Djibouti, Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf wrote in a Twitter post on Sunday. The stakes are high but there is no other option: people need to make their living and go to work, he said. Public transport will resume and places of worship will officially be allowed to reopen, though they must follow very strict measures of protection like requiring masks and enforcing physical distancing, Youssouf added. The borders will remain closed except for humanitarian personnel who will follow an agreed protocol of prevention to avoid reintroducing a new form of the virus, he said, without elaborating. Even with those measures in place, Youssouf acknowledged that new epicentres of contamination could emerge in the capital city and said a national taskforce would continue to follow the spread of COVID-19, the highly infectious respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) says Djibouti has the highest number of cases in Africa relative to its population of about one million people, though its testing has also outpaced many of its neighbours. On March 23, the government announced a nationwide lockdown, closing borders and places of worship, banning public transport and allowing only workers in essential industries to go outside. But the measures have been largely ignored, with large crowds still common in Djibouti City, the capital. President Ismail Omar Guelleh, in power since 1999, warned last month of even tougher measures if the population did not respect confinement rules. But the strict imposition of the lockdown has prompted criticism of Guelleh, who could run for the presidency again next year after term limits were abolished in a constitutional change. Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus cases in Africa has surpassed 60,000, according to an update by Africa CDC. The new figures on Sunday showed some 2,114 people had died due to COVID-19, while 20,792 recovered. For 72 years, the members of the Round Hill Volunteer Fire Company have been responding to emergencies in the area. And when it came to the coronavirus outbreak, the volunteers have been there again. This past week, the company and its members donated more than 10,000 surgical masks and 200 Tyvek suits to Greenwich Hospital, Greenwich Emergency Medical Service, the Greenwich Police Department, the Greenwich Fire Departments career firefighters and Greenwichs volunteer firefighters. This critical personal protective equipment is in need as the town continues its fight against the spread of the coronavirus. The initiative was spearheaded by member, firefighter and company treasurer Stephanie Leone-Kim, who said she was inspired by previous donations of masks made by town residents Bob Greenhill and Mike Mahaffy, who is also a member of the fire company. We are all in this together, Leone-Kim said. We were fortunate to be able to secure the PPE through our partner Ribbon for Humanity for our community and be able to help. If others want to join our effort, we can continue to support those on the front lines fighting the coronavirus. Leone-Kim was joined by Assistant Fire Chief Sharon Strain and company Vice President David Chass to make the deliveries to the towns first responders and front-line medical workers. In April, the fire company also provided meals for the doctors, nurses and staff at Greenwich Hospital in appreciation for their efforts. They also took part in a parade around Greenwich Hospital, driving some of their trucks, including the states largest tanker, to thank the medical workers. The Round Hill Volunteer Fire Company has been serving Greenwich for more than 70 years, District Chief Rick Strain said. This is an extraordinary time and we all need to support each other and work together. Cos Cob The Greenwich Historical Societys redesign of its campus has been highly acclaimed by design experts and now it has the award to prove it. The newly reimagined campus on Strickland Road in Cos Cob, which opened in October 2018, has received a Palladio Award, the only national award that recognizes outstanding achievement in traditional design. Sponsored by Traditional Building Conference, the 18-year-old initiative celebrates techniques developed through centuries of Western architectural tradition, with a focus on design elements that enhance the beauty and humane qualities of structures. We are thrilled to have our newly reimagined campus recognized with such a prestigious national design award, said Debra Mecky, executive director and CEO of the historical society. David Scott Parker and associate John Wasilewski were extremely successful in accommodating our institutional needs for a more accessible and expanded campus that would strengthen the communitys connection to our past, to each other and to our future. Parker, principal of David Scott Parker Architects, was the lead designer of the campus. The award was for the Adaptive Reuse and Sympathetic Addition in the commercial/institutional category. The reimagined campus features the restoration of a structure to its historic Italianate appearance, the addition and integration of new state-of-the-art galleries and archives, and the reestablishment of the integrity of the exterior green space, Parker said. The project also doubled the size of the historic institutional complex. The work was completed on budget and one year ahead of schedule. Since the reimagined campus opened, Mecky said the Historical Society has significantly increased services to the community through rotating exhibitions, lectures, events and fun family programs. All of (these) help convey the crucial role or historic buildings have played in the context of American history, Mecky said. The redesign has wone several awards, including the American Institute of Architects Connecticut 2019 Award of Excellence, the 2019 Elizabeth Mills Brown Award, the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservations 2019 Merit Award and the Society of American Architects New York 2019 Design Award. Backcountry The work to rebuild Lake Avenue bridge over the Merritt Parkway in Greenwich and restore its gleaming gold beauty was recently honored with the 2020 Byway Organization Public-Private Partnership Award. The award cited the collaboration between the Connecticut Department of Transportation, the Merritt Parkway Conservancy and Mohawk Northeast Inc., the contractor for the massie project. The nonprofit conservancy plans to represent the honorees at an award presentation at the Heartland Byway Conference, scheduled for October in Leavenworth, Kan. Maintenance and repair work on scenic byways often generates conflicts with competing missions of safety, efficiency and aesthetic stewardship among agencies responsible for their immediate upkeep and the communities who use them, the conservancy said. But everyone worked together to make this project a success. The next two generations of drivers on the Merritt will live with the way we treat it today, conservancy Executive Director Wes Haynes said in a statement. Returning this bridge to structural soundness and the way it looked when it was built in 1940 demonstrates that goals of safety, efficiency and aesthetics can be met through collaboration when everyone pulls in the same direction. The $4.6 million project required a five-month traffic detour as the bridge was taken out service to replace the structural steel and concrete bridge deck. Its decorative panels and ornamental railing were cleaned and painted offsite and returned to their original locations on the new structure. kborsuk@greenwichtime.com New Delhi: The terror group ISIS has stepped up its India-specific propaganda aimed at stoking a sense of injustice among Indian Muslims in the context of recent issues and instigating them to pick up weapons. In the latest edition of its online magazine `Voice of Hind, a magazine specifically aimed at Muslims in India, ISIS has tried to make a case out of the unrest over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and highlighted the atrocities against Muslims by vigilante groups in recent months. While ISIS has vast plans in South Asian region, it has thus far not had much influence in India except for a few stray individual cases of radicalization and formation of some modules, which were quickly busted by the security agencies. However, this is the first time that an online ISIS publication with specific focus on India has surfaced, for which an organization called Al-Qitaal Media Centre by Junudul Khilafaah al-Hind, identifying itself as a pro-ISIS group, has taken credit. The propaganda has been tracked by security agencies on various platforms like Rocket Chat, pdfhost, Internet Archive, Mediafire and Nextcloud. Indian Muslims are the target audience for Voice of Hind magazine, of which there are currently three issues. The magazine attempts to appeal to Indian Muslims by trying to make a case for ISIS, comparing violence against Muslims in India to the losses suffered by ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and portraying Indian governmental policy as anti-Muslim. The magazine seeks to inculcate a sense of injustice that can be rectified through violence, a researcher at the Counter Extremism Project which tracks extremists in South Asia told this newspaper. The first two issues of Voice of Hind, released on February 24 and March 25, had focused on the Jammu & Kashmir issue and violence against Muslims in other parts of India. The third issue of the magazine, uploaded on April 22, contains an article headlined Call towards Tawheed and Jihad which states that recent constitutional changes in India are meant to deprive Muslims of their rights. It says the only purpose of the CAA was to make Muslims understand that things are working towards making India a Hindu nation. They (Hindus) wanted to show you the police are for them, the courts are for their benefit and they are only there to torture and persecute the Muslim community. Did the methods of voting and protests (anti-CAA) work for you? Have the courts and legislators (from) whom (you) seek help besides Allah done you any good, the magazine asks. The pro-ISIS group encourages attacks using knives, axe, hammers, heavy objects, petrol bombs, choking through rope or belts or using vehicles as weapons to cause fatality. 10.05.2020 LISTEN Cocaine worth more than 25m has been seized from a vehicle claiming to be taking medical supplies to a hospital. The Belgian-registered van was stopped at border controls in Coquelles, France, as it headed towards the UK. Border Force officers searching the van on Tuesday found an estimated 285kg of cocaine hidden among dry ice Belgian national Padmore Asamoah was charged with the attempted importation of a Class A drug, and appeared before Medway Magistrates' Court on Wednesday. He was remanded in custody to appear at Maidstone Crown Court on 3 June. Authorities on the French border have seized more than 25m worth of cocaine from a fake medical supplies van that had been destined for the UK. It had been claimed the vehicle - a Belgian-registered van - was passing through Coquelles, France to transport vital medical supplies to the UK in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. However after passing through UK border controls, officers were unable to uncover 285kg of the class-A drug hidden amongst dry ice, the Home Office has said. Belgian national Padmore Asamoah, of no fixed UK address, has since been charged with the attempted importation of a Class A drug. Chris Philp, minister for immigration compliance, said: "Criminals will look to exploit any situation for their advantage, including the current pandemic. "They may hope that shipments listed as medical supplies might be subject to less scrutiny, but Border Force are alert to the risks. "This seizure has taken millions of pounds worth of cocaine out of the hands of organised criminals and off our streets. Drugs are currency for organised gangs and are intrinsically linked to crime and violence. Border Force will continue to work with the NCA to bring those involved in drug smuggling to justice." Mr Asamoah appeared at Medway Magistrates Court on Wednesday where he was remanded in custody to appear at Maidstone Crown Court on 3 June. It comes just days after another 260 kilos of cocaine was stopped at the same border crossing. Criminals will look to exploit any situation for their advantage, including the current pandemic.', immigration minister says ---BBC & The Indepent UK On Europe Day, people from both sides of the border came together at several locations in order to protest border closures. Several protests and ceremonies took place across the border between Luxembourg and Germany, with protestors demanding that borders be reopened immediately. Some of these events were organised and attended by official representatives of both sides. In Grevenmacher, the European flag was raised again after it had been at half-mast for the past week. In Echternach, about a hundred people are said to have gathered on the Luxembourgish side of the border. Upon enquiry by RTL, the police stated that they had sent a patrol on site in order to make sure that people keep the mandatory distance to each other. Facebook / Martina Mueller Facebook / Marc Siebenaler Facebook / To de Facebook / Aender Vandendries Facebook / Marc Colling Facebook / Carlo Reinert Facebook / Sam Antha Facebook / Mym De Rond Roettgers Facebook / Germaine Rausch Facebook / Maria Dossantos Facebook / Linda Harsch Facebook / Mireille Furst Facebook / Helga Greenhalgh The photos published on this site are subject to copyright and may not be copied, modified, or sold without the prior permission of the owner of the site in question. Europe Day is celebrated by the European Union on 9 May. It goes back to Robert Schumans declaration which proposed the pooling of French and West German coal and steel industries. The French Minister of Foreign Affairs laid the foundations for what would become the European Union with his paper 70 years ago today. Since last year, Europe Day is an official bank holiday in Luxembourg. The European ideal has certainly suffered in the past months. Europhiles lament that member states have mostly been acting in their own interest during the virus crisis and that borders have been closed even inside of the Schengen Area. In a speech held on Saturday, Prime Minister Xavier Bettel stressed that the crisis has shown both the advantages and the shortcomings of the European Union. He for instance criticized that the first reflex of some countries had been to close the borders. "We see that we have a common problem. And we see that we can only solve it together," he said. Workers are keen to return to work if safety measures are in place. Credit: Getty Images Half of UK employees are ready to return to work if COVID-19 safety measures are in place, with younger workers being the most eager, according to a survey. People working in consumer goods are the most happy to go back to work after lockdown, some 72%, while those working in hospitality and the public sector are least confident, at just 40% and 41% respectively. The survey by global law firm DWF, comes ahead of the government announcement this evening when prime minister Boris Johnson will outline the roadmap to release lockdown. This is expected to include the continued use of social distancing and travel restrictions. If some staff are allowed to return to work, more than two thirds would be happy to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) on public transport and in the workplace, say the survey results. READ MORE: 100,000 war heroes denied state pension rises A further 79% would be comfortable having regular temperature tests and COVID-19 antigen tests. But the least popular measure would be signing up to a central government tracing app, which has less support at 62%, with 16% saying they would refuse it altogether. Of the 2,000 people polled, younger workers appeared the keenest to be allowed back to work with 68% of those aged 18 to 24 and 58% of 25 to 34-year-olds ready to return immediately. Just 8% of workers aged 18 to 24 believe now is too soon. Kirsty Rogers, employment partner at DWF said: "It is evident from the survey that the British workforce is keen to get back to work but with conditions. They expect their employers to follow the guidance coming from government, keep them informed and ensure that their workplace is safe to return." When asked who has primary responsibility for their health and safety at work, 63% of people said it was their employer, with 29% of workers believing it was their personal responsibility. READ MORE: Why meaningful work is going to become more important post-coronavirus Rogers added: "It is vital that employers have carefully considered what measures will work for them. This should be supplemented by a clear risk assessment and robust policies and procedures. They must clearly communicate changes to the workforce; help the workforce to understand steps they are taking to protect health and safety. There should be special consideration for those workers particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, or those with caring responsibilities." If you want to compound wealth in the stock market, you can do so by buying an index fund. But investors can boost returns by picking market-beating companies to own shares in. To wit, the Dedalus France S.A. (EPA:DEDAL) share price is 98% higher than it was a year ago, much better than the market decline of around 14% (not including dividends) in the same period. So that should have shareholders smiling. And shareholders have also done well over the long term, with an increase of 60% in the last three years. See our latest analysis for Dedalus France To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price. What about the Total Shareholder Return (TSR)? We'd be remiss not to mention the difference between Dedalus France's total shareholder return (TSR) and its share price return. The TSR attempts to capture the value of dividends (as if they were reinvested) as well as any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings offered to shareholders. Dedalus France's TSR of 98% for the year exceeded its share price return, because it has paid dividends. A Different Perspective It's good to see that Dedalus France has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 98% in the last twelve months. There's no doubt those recent returns are much better than the TSR loss of 1.5% per year over five years. We generally put more weight on the long term performance over the short term, but the recent improvement could hint at a (positive) inflection point within the 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. Case in point: We've spotted 5 warning signs for Dedalus France you should be aware of, and 2 of them make us uncomfortable. Story continues Of course Dedalus France may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of growth stocks. Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on FR exchanges. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading. Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10 Trend: A video conference with the participation of consuls of embassies of member states of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council) was held in the US on May 8, Trend reports citing the Azerbaijani Embassy in the US. The issues voiced at the extraordinary Summit of the Turkic Council, held by the initiative of the Azerbaijani President, Chairman of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States Ilham Aliyev were discussed at the event. In connection with the 28th anniversary of the occupation of the ancient Azerbaijani Shusha city, which is considered the art center of Turkic culture in the region, the participants of the event honored the memory of those who died during the occupation with a minute of silence. Opening the event as a chair country, the consul of the Azerbaijani Embassy in the US Emil Muradzade spoke about the preventive measures taken to combat the spread of coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in Azerbaijan. During the meeting, issues of providing consular assistance to citizens facing difficulties in the US in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, registration of citizens and their evacuation from the US were discussed. Representative of the Secretariat of the Turkic Council, Jeyhun Shahverdiyev, spoke in detail about the meeting held on May 7, 2020 by the heads of the migration authorities of the Council member countries and observer countries, as well as other structures. The participants of the meeting exchanged information on measures taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus in their countries, visa policies for foreigners wishing to visit these countries, quarantine, the rules for allowing citizens to cross borders, the resumption of commercial flights, and evacuation plans. The parties also discussed the possibilities of cooperation in this situation. At a time when the coronavirus pandemic is spreading worldwide, the Turkic Council shows itself as a successful and useful regional organization, truly capable of responding to global challenges. Along with representatives of the council, consuls of the embassies of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in the US also participated in a videoconference initiated by the Azerbaijani Embassy in the US. With great growth have come great growing pains. ProctorU had a nasty and public exchange over data mining fears with a faculty group at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In Florida, thousands of students have signed Change.org petitions against their schools use of Honorlock, a proctoring service that they say needs a more stringent privacy policy. Social media has exploded with complaints and workarounds for cheaters. The University of California, Berkeley banned online exam proctoring, concerned that poor and rural students lacked sufficient access to high-speed connections and compatible laptops. Meggan Levitt, the assistant vice provost for technology at University of California, Davis, said the school was set to expand its live proctoring deal with Examity when the coronavirus shut down the companys India facilities. Others simply report being annoyed and intimidated by the sense, even in the Zoom era, that they are being spied on. Thera Boonyamarn, a 20-year-old U.C.L.A. student who flew home to Thailand when her campus closed, said that every time she sneezed into a Kleenex because of allergies, the testing software would flag her for seeming to look away while holding what appeared to be paper. Its creepy, said Hailey Arzaga, a 22-year-old psychology and criminology major at Cal Poly Pomona who worried about what the webcam would reveal as she took a recent quiz on qualitative research methods. Like, we have you on video and audio and well record you if you screw up. Mr. McFarland of ProctorU acknowledged that the live surveillance is something to get used to. But the proctoring services say they do not sell students data to third parties and that they purge it after it is sent to the school unless a cheating investigation requires that they preserve it. ProctorU drafted and posted a Student Bill of Rights after the privacy concerns at the University of California, Santa Barbara. At the University of Californias campuses where proctors are being used, faculty generally have assured students that alternate arrangements can be made for those concerned about proctors. Still, the criticism has been unsettling, said Mr. Smetters, the Respondus founder. We dont drop in, we dont review the video after people think were doing that and were not, he said. Weve been doing this for 20 years, we love education and suddenly were the bad guys. But were the good guys! We provide tools to universities so they can ensure integrity. Govt spokesman says Tehran keen on swap talks because of fears coronavirus could put lives of prisoners in US at risk. Tehran is ready for a full prisoner exchange with the United States, according to a spokesman for the Iranian government. We are prepared to discuss this issue without any preconditions but the Americans have not responded yet, Ali Rabiei was quoted as saying by the Khabar Online news website on Sunday. We hope that as the outbreak of the COVID-19 disease threatens the lives of Iranian citizens in the US prisons, the US government eventually will prefer lives to politics. Rabiei said Tehran considers Washington responsible for the health of the Iranian prisoners, adding it seems the US has more readiness to bring the situation to an end. Rabiei did not elaborate but Iranian media in recent months said there are several Iranians in US custody, including Sirous Asgari, a 60-year-old university professor. A senior US official, who was not authorised to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said, There has been no offer and no offer of direct talks. Last week, US officials said they were making progress in efforts to secure the release of Michael White, a detained Navy veteran in Iran. But they were also pushing back on Iranian suggestions that a swap was in the works. Dire state Hillary Mann Leverett, CEO of the think-tank Stratega and a former US diplomat, noted the Iranian professor imprisoned in the US has been infected with the virus. No mechanism has been made for him to have medical furlough. Hes really in a dire state. Hes been acquitted and theres no reason why the United States needs to hold him, she told Al Jazeera. White has been released from prison on medical furlough but has not been authorised to leave Iran, she said. The COVID-19 pandemic is the most important thing happening here. But I will say there are more and more indications here in Washington that maybe there is some warming in the relationship, said Mann Leverett, noting the US decision to remove Patriot missiles from Saudi Arabia, and tweets from Irans supreme leader suggesting negotiation is a good thing to do. So theres some speculation here that theres more going on behind the scenes. But Ive seen no actual evidence of that, she said. The US has more coronavirus infections and deaths of any country in the world, with at least one detainee held in immigration custody dying last week. Iran, meanwhile, has the deadliest recorded outbreak in the Middle East and has so far temporarily freed about 85,000 people from jail in emergency measures. Rare cooperation In a rare act of cooperation, the two countries swapped prisoners in late 2019 US graduate student Xiyue Wang, detained for three years on spying charges, and imprisoned Iranian stem-cell researcher Massoud Soleimani, accused of violating sanctions. The exchange in December last year was facilitated by the Swiss government. There is no need for a third country to mediate between Iran and America for the prisoner exchange, Rabiei said on Sunday, according to Khabar Online. US-Iran tensions have escalated since 2018 when US President Donald Trump exited a landmark nuclear deal negotiated between Tehran and world powers. Since then, Washington has stepped up economic sanctions on Tehran as part of a maximum pressure campaign aimed at forcing Iranian officials to return to the negotiating table to discuss a new agreement that also encompasses the countrys ballistic missiles programme. The punishing financial measures have crippled Irans economy, triggering nationwide protests in November last year, but Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has ruled out new talks with Washington until Trump lifts the sanctions. The value of public PPE donations to hospitals in Laois and elsewhere was put into context at the weekend by the HSE chief executive Mr Paul Reid. He spoke about the cost of the Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) to the Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise and the many other healthcare facilities around Ireland. There are huge drivers of costs for use in the HSE both in terms of PPE and testing and tracing. Our PPE projections based on the high demand and price, the extra volume that we normally use and the extra distribution that we have to supply across the whole health care system. Our projections are that that cost will likely be over a year over 1 billion - 250 million a quarter for PPE. Similar costs for the testing and contact tracing. But the costs of not investing in these are much higher in terms of the cost for society of not unlocking the restrictions, he said. Mr Reid said the need for masks has gone up because they are now required for all healthcare workers That has brought our demand from a daily basis of 200,000 masks per day to over a million masks per day - 1.2 million masks per day. So, we need a supply line that gives us supply on almost a weekly basis of almost 9 million masks. ..Every country is chasing these all over the world, he said. Mr Reid said supply has been sourced in South Korea through the IDA and other contacts including a call to the President of the Asian country by An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. He expected 120 million masks to be delivered over the coming weeks to Ireland. To put the amount needed in context, Mr Reid said 9 million masks stacked on top of each other in their pallets, would be 11 times higher than Liberty Hall in Dublin. Mr Reid said the HSE is aiming to carry out 100,000 tests a week beginning on May 18. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday said 139 Indians from Riyadh and 21 from Uzbekistan have arrived in Delhi. He added that the flight which landed from Uzbekistan will be carrying back Uzbek nationals and medicines from India to Tashkent. "21 Indians from Uzbekistan have just arrived in Delhi on board UZB 3561. The flight will be carrying back Uzbek nationals and Indian medicine assistance to Tashkent. Good work by Team @amb_tashkent under Ambassador @santjha #VandeBharatMission," Jaishankar said in a tweet. "AI flight 926 from Riyadh carrying 139 Indians has just landed in Delhi. Thank @airindiain, @MoCA_GoI, Bureau of Immigration and Delhi Government for support and cooperation. Kudos to @drausaf & Team @IndianEmbRiyadh #VandeBharatMission," he said in another tweet. The Indians have been brought back under the government's Vande Bharat Mission. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 15:44:11|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KUNMING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Police in southwest China's Yunnan Province have seized a total of 17.66 tonnes of frozen meat in a recent smuggling case, local authorities said Sunday. After receiving a tip-off on April 16, police in Longyang district in the China-Myanmar border city of Baoshan inspected two suspected trucks in a local parking lot. Police officers checked the trucks and found a large amount of meat. Both drivers were unable to provide legal certificates for the meat. Further investigation into the case is underway. Enditem SK Telecom Logo. Courtesy of SKT By Kim Hyun-bin SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus are in a conflict with the government over the frequencies band extension costs for 2G, 3G and 4G networks as the term is set to expire in June 2021. The three networks take up 78 percent of the total frequency bandwidth in the country, excluding the fifth-generation (5G) frequency band that was auctioned in 2018. The three telecom companies will need to renegotiate the extension of their current frequency usage contracts next month, but a conflict has risen over the government's price assessment procedures. According to the country's Wireless Telegraphy Act, when there is high demand for selective frequencies it holds an auction, while others network contracts are extended where the price is set in consideration of the telecom companies' expected total sales. The telecom companies are urging the government to provide a more concrete and rational calculation standard as it is difficult to estimate the company's total sales figure as the contract is normally made for a five-to 10-year term. In 2016, extension costs are estimated to have cost the three telecom companies 3 trillion won. At the time, the government had slapped a levy of 7.9 percent of the telecom companies' total sales for extension costs, which telecom companies argue is much higher than other developed nations. According to communication businesses, in France 2.65 percent of the telecom companies' total sales were put in for extension costs, U.S. 2.26 percent, England 1.68 percent and Japan 0.73 percent. "We are investing heavily in the 5G network to revitalize the economy from COVID-19, but if the frequency band reassignment cost is excessive it would become a heavier burden," KT CEO Ku Hyeon-mo told ICT Minister Choi Ki-young in a meeting last month. "Please revise price-setting procedures so it would become more reasonable." However, the government says its frequency band extension costs are needed to efficiently provide the services to the whole nation and that the telecom companies need to pay their fair share to utilize the government-owned services. COVID-19: New Cases In Russia Top 10,000 For Seventh Straight Day By RFE/RL May 09, 2020 The global death toll from the coronavirus is more than 276,000 with almost 4 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. Russia Russian authorities announced more than 10,000 new coronavirus infections across the country for a seventh straight day on May 9, with the number in Moscow now eclipsing 104,000. The 24-hour national rise in SARS-CoV-2 infections reported by the country's task-force headquarters -- by 10,817 to 198,676 -- marks a very slight increase on the previous day's increase despite a stringent lockdown. Russia's measures to curb the spread of the pandemic forced officials to cancel parades and other gatherings planned to mark the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany on May 9, although President Vladimir Putin appeared at a solemn wreath-laying and gave a televised speech from Red Square. Thirty of Russia's 80-plus regions have registered more than 1,000 cases, according to the national crisis center, with a majority of those infections in the capital. The anti-coronavirus task force said 104 people had died in the past day, bringing the national death toll to 1,827. Russia's relatively low official death toll has spawned criticism that authorities may be covering up the real toll of the outbreak by failing to correctly identify coronavirus deaths as such, accusations that have been rejected by authorities. Shortages of medical equipment including personal protective equipment for health-care workers is said to be a major problem in many places. A doctor at an ambulance unit in Russia's western Voronezh region earlier this month became the third physician who'd spoken out about shortages to fall from a hospital window in the course of several weeks. The first two doctors' falls proved fatal. Officials said on May 9 that Moscow's day-to-day increase was 5,667 infections, to 104,189. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin recently estimated that some 2-2.5 percent of the capital's residents were currently infected, according to Interfax, but it was unclear where that figure came from as testing is still said to be sorely lacking. Moscow announced on May 7 that a citywide lockdown would be extended until the end of the month as new cases continued to rise. Deputy Mayor Anastasia Rakova said on May 8 that city residents will be required to wear masks in public places starting May 12 and residents not wearing masks inside public transport will be fined 5,000 rubles ($68). Shortages of medical equipment including personal protective equipment for health-care workers is said to be a major problem in many parts of Russia, although the lion's share of COVID-19 cases reported so far are in the capital. Russian activists have warned that the roughly 875,000 people held in the nation's overcrowded prisons and pretrial detention facilities -- and the hundreds of thousands of people who work in them -- could be in particular danger from the spread of the virus. Meanwhile, Russian news reports said a fire broke out at a Moscow hospital where coronavirus patients were being treated, and at least one person was killed. The TASS and RIA-Novosti news agencies said the blaze broke out around 8.30 p.m. on May 9 at the facility in northwestern Moscow. The Emergency Situations Ministry told the news agencies that some patients who had been confined to beds were being evacuated. The fire was later extinguished, reports said. The hospital, called Spasokukotsky, is one of several in the Russian capital that has wards specially designated to treat coronavirus patients. Kyrgyzstan The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says its board has approved an additional $121.1 million in emergency assistance to Kyrgyzstan to meet urgent needs stemming from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The emergency assistance was approved by the IMF's Executive Board on May 8, the IMF said in a news release. The IMF emergency support will finance health and economic relief and help shore up confidence in the government of the nation of 6.2 million people. "The outbreak of the pandemic has weakened the macroeconomic outlook and opened a balance of payments gap estimated at about $500 million," the IMF said. But the international lender said there is an "unprecedented high level of uncertainty surrounding this projection." The disbursement announced May 8 brings the total IMF emergency assistance to the Kyrgyz Republic to address the COVID-19 pandemic to $242 million. Tao Zhang, deputy managing director of the IMF, said "expeditious additional donor support" is needed to make up the difference between the estimated $500 million balance of payments gap and the $242 million the IMF has supplied. The previously approved $120.9-million disbursement came just days after Kyrgyzstan's declaration on March 24 of a state of emergency in the capital, Bishkek, and several other regions and districts in response to the spread of the coronavirus. To ensure that the loan is efficiently spent on addressing the crisis, Kyrgyz authorities have committed to strengthen procurement rules, the IMF said. With reporting by Reuters, TASS, and Interfax Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/covid-19- wrapup-may-9/30602544.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address First Minister sees new appetite for people to find Welsh relevant information but fires warning shot at Westminster press lobby This article is old - Published: Sunday, May 10th, 2020 The First Minister appears satisfied with the strength of Welsh Government messages to the public, despite his office sending London media a note that reminds them the legal and constitutional position of Wales. We asked the First Minister how he expects to take the people of Wales along the lockdown journey, and the subsequent roadmap out of the situation if they are not hearing his message. As we documented on Thursday locally there still remains a split between those who understand who is making the laws in the country and location they live, and others. Some people who are keen to engage with the Welsh Government message find it difficult due to seeing media from England, with one reader pointing out the long standing problem that they are unable to pick up any non-english TV channels despite being in Wales. We pointed out to the First Minister that even when he features on english news channels he is often third behind Prime Minister Johnson and First Minister Sturgeon. Sky News even called Mark Drakeford Mike recently, and at Fridays briefing appeared to struggle with the concept of education being devolved with England, Scotland and Wales being different places. We highlighted that the issue is not just with media, with Councils in Wales also pointing people to the Prime Minister announcement later today rather than the First Minister announcement on Friday to find out what is going on. Locally this has been seen in an update from Wrexham Council, as well as a Labour councillor unaware of the power of the Welsh Labour Government: Evening Hermitage, further to my tweets please disregard the first tweet where I made reference to 10 Downing Street, the First Minister Mark Drakeford made an announcement that Wales will continue for a further 3 weeks in lock-down (an error on my part). Cheers Graham Graham Rogers (@ClrGrahamRogers) May 8, 2020 We asked the First Minister specifically what will be changing in the future to fix the problem. The First Minister said, We work hard every day to try and get our message over to people in Wales and hundreds and thousands of people in Wales follow the messages that are provided by the Welsh Government and advertised through our Welsh media. Weve always had the situation in Wales where people live close to the border. They have a choice about where they point their aerials and where they buy their newspapers. I think that what were seeing is, is that in the Coronavirus crisis, there is a new appetite amongst people in Wales to make sure that they have the information about what is happening in their own localities. Its why we hold these daily press conferences. Its why we provide interviews in all parts of Wales. It has to be an effort that we lead, and then we rely on others to help us to get that message out. So that the appetite is there for most people to know whats going on in Wales can be properly satisfied. In a move not referenced by the First Minister, The Scotsman reporter Paris Gourtsoyannis tweeted a copy of an email, Remarkable and genuinely unprecedented: the Office of the First Minister of Wales has written to the Westminster press lobby reminding them that on the lockdown, the Prime Minister only speaks for England The text of the apparent message to London based media from the Welsh Government reads: We wanted to reiterate the following: The decision to impose a UK-wide lockdown on 23 March 2020 was made following a meeting of COBRA, based on advice from SAGE. Implementation of the lockdown is, however, a matter for the UK Government in respect of England only. Power to impose the lockdown in Wales rests with the Welsh Government and the Welsh Government has discretion about how it should be implemented. We would ask that it is made very clear in reporting that any decisions the UK Government take and subsequently announce, relate to England only. Ive attached a document explaining the legal and constitutional position in Wales hope that helps. We would be very grateful if you could circulate this to the lobby. We would be more than happy to answer any questions they have. Alberta Sims, foreground, and her sister Rosie Morris, circa 1970s. (Susan Straight) This Mothers Day, we are more indebted than ever to strangers all the people who work in hospitals, in grocery stores, in essential public services who keep our communities running and keep us safe during this pandemic. On Sunday, I will have a photograph of my beloved mother-in-law, Alberta Marie Morris Sims, beside me while I cook. In 1976, when I was 15, Alberta taught me to cook for the stranger. Alberta and her husband, General Roscoe Conklin Sims II, hosted gatherings in their short cement driveway that ended in a carport, in Riverside. It was Memorial Day, and my boyfriend, Dwayne Sims, brought me to meet his family for the first time. I thought there might be 10 people; there were about a hundred. I was a too-short, too-thin white girl wearing a halter dress Id bought at the local swap meet. I knew Dwaynes brothers from our high school, some of his cousins from my brothers Little League teams, but everyone else stared at me. Then Alberta opened the screen door and held out her hand, saying, Shes here! Come and get a plate. I went into the kitchen with her, and she began to speak, and my life was changed. She was assembling paper plates full of ribs, macaroni and cheese, greens, and ham. I had my plate, but I didnt want to leave. Thats when she said, You always have to cook for the stranger. You never know who might stop by hungry. Years later, when Dwayne and I had our first daughter, I sat across from Alberta during lunchtime, nursing the baby before going back to work. Alberta told me the story of her mother, Daisy Carter, orphaned after her mother, Mary Belle Ford, was run down on a dirt road in rural Sunflower County, Miss., in the early 1900s. She went from pillar to post, my mother. She never had a home until she came here to California. Look at that baby. Shell never want for anything. As my first two daughters grew into toddlers, Alberta cooked round steak and pork chops in gravy, then chewed pieces of meat herself and gave them to the girls in her arms. Story continues When I was pregnant with my third daughter, Alberta died suddenly, of a series of strokes. She lasted a few days in the convalescent center a few blocks from our house, and the last thing my husband whispered in her ear was that another baby was coming. My youngest child, with her graceful winged eyebrows, left cheek dimple, and high-set hips, looks like the reincarnation of her grandmother, whom she never met. That was 25 years ago, in February. This spring, I miss Alberta even more, I miss the driveway, I miss cooking for 50 people, I miss my family. All this spring, sirens screamed through my neighborhood, as ambulances left that convalescent home and so many other homes, heading to Riverside Community Hospital. Riverside County is the second hardest hit in California, with more than 4,700 cases and more than 190 deaths. Our county was the first in the nation, on April 5, to require cloth masks when outside anywhere, and to declare "that no gatherings of any number of people may take place outside of family members residing in the same home." Its been a long five weeks, and we will not gather again soon. This spring, Ive thought of Alberta when I assembled paper plates of food for my neighbors and friends. She taught me that a stranger never stays that way in a community like ours. Back in 1984, I knew I needed a side dish to bring to those driveway gatherings, and it had better be good. Generals sister Minerva made peach cobbler. Now Minervas daughter, Teri, makes peach cobbler and lime Jell-O cake. My sister-in-law makes corn salad, her daughter makes barbecued beans, and cousin Carolanne makes tamale pie and homemade salsa. The first year, I experimented with something similar to Hoppin John, a good luck meal that mixes many ingredients. I mixed saffron rice, hot sausage, black-eyed peas and seasonings in a big pot. I carried it, apprehensively, to the driveway. I have made this dish now for decades. It is called Your Rice, as in, Hey, now, you bringing your rice tomorrow? I cook it for 50 or 60 people, served in large aluminum containers, from Super Bowl Sunday to Memorial Day to Family Reunion, and often now for funerals. In March, Albertas beloved niece, Rita Butts, died at 65, of heart disease and sickle cell anemia. It scorched us with sadness to not have a funeral and repast. Rita ate Your Rice at our last family reunion, and took a container home. This Mothers Day, I will be without daughters, sons-in-law and mothers. My own mother, Gabrielle Watson, in February moved into assisted living, because of her memory loss. She is two miles away. Every day, we talk and I bring cookies, candy, magazines, but she is bereft because we have to stand six feet apart at the open glass doors. My daughters are grown now, quarantined in Austin, Texas, Albany, Calif., and Los Angeles with their partners and roommates. And because they know Alberta trained me well in this life, they will call on Mothers Day to ask sternly, Mama. Whos on the porch? Are you all six feet apart? My front porch is where, normally, my family sits and tells stories with my neighbors, who are family too. There are no strangers here on my corner. If you pass by, we will talk at the fence. On Mothers Day, in the spirit of Alberta, I will get out the biggest pot in the kitchen and I will cook Your Rice for all my people. I will deliver a large container to my brother-in-law and sisters-in-law in the driveway. I will hand over the plates at my fence, masked, as we do now. I will keep Albertas picture here in the kitchen and hear her voice forever. Your Rice (for a gathering): Ive made this countless ways, sometimes from scratch with Mahatma jasmine rice, saffron and turmeric and garlic salt and other spices, with homemade sausage from pigs freshly killed by my father-in-laws friend, with black beans instead of black-eyed peas. Ive never written down the recipe, because it changes every time. But in these pandemic times, you can make this dish with things easy to find at the store, and add whatever makes it your own familys taste. This recipe can be adjusted to serve 50 people, but heres how to make it for 8-10. 2 5 oz. packages of Mahatma Yellow Rice (already seasoned with turmeric, saffron, etc.) 1 tubular package of Jimmy Dean Hot Sausage 1 can of black-eyed peas, drained. To your familys taste: Add Lawrys Garlic Salt and ground pepper, a splash of Red Rooster, a pinch of brown sugar, and something spicy. My newest family ingredient: a teaspoon of Suya Pepper, the famed spice mix for meat from Nigeria, given to me by my son-in-laws mother, Bukola Jeje. In a big pot, brown the sausage and drain all but 1 tablespoon of the drippings. Add 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil for each package of rice to the sausage in the pot. Add 1 2/3 cups of water for each package of rice, and bring to boil. Add rice and seasonings, stir gently, and simmer on low, covered, for 20 minutes, checking a few times to make sure enough moisture remains. During the last five minutes, add black eyed peas and stir gently. Let sit for 10 minutes, then fluff with a fork and serve. Ill be making this recipe for 40, setting aside containers covered with foil to give to a hungry stranger. Susan Straights latest book is the memoir In the Country of Women. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 10) President Rodrigo Duterte is set to decide on Monday whether or not to extend the enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila and other areas with a large number of COVID-19 cases. Duterte is expected to address the issue during his weekly televised briefing, as he reports to the nation his administrations efforts in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be the Presidents third time to render a decision on the extension or lifting of the ECQ. Over the weekend, all 17 Metro Manila mayors have agreed to make no specific recommendation to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) regarding the ECQ, saying they will abide with the Presidents decision. Metropolitan Manila Development Authority General Manager Jojo Garcia said the mayors agreed that there should only be one policy for all of Metro Manila. He said having different quarantine rules for every area is not an option, citing the difficulty in implementing them considering the contiguous and porous nature of their borders. The Metro Manila Council, composed of NCR mayors and the MMDA, was expected to come up with its proposal to the IATF on whether to ease or maintain strict quarantine measures. Garcia said the mayors instead presented to the task force three possible scenarios: extend the ECQ for two weeks, place Metro Manila under a more relaxed general community quarantine, or opt for a hybrid of both. Earlier, Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano said the mayors' pitch will be a "big factor" in the final recommendation the task force will submit to Duterte. The IATF-EID will discuss and evaluate the situation also on Monday, ahead of the final recommendation to the President. Duterte will have the final say on whether to extend or ease the quarantine measures placed on Metro Manila and several provinces beyond May 15. He first placed Metro Manila under enhanced community quarantine on March 15, but it was expanded the next day to cover all of Luzon until April 12. The Luzon lockdown was then extended until April 30. Metro Manila and several "high-risk" provinces have remained under strict quarantine. As of 4 p.m. on Sunday, the Department of Health has recorded 10,794 COVID-19 cases in the country. The DOH reported 77 of the new infections in the National Capital Region, 75 in Central Visayas, and 32 more in other regions nationwide. Meanwhile, recoveries have reached 1,924 after 82 more patients survived the viral disease. Fifteen more patients have died, raising the death toll to 719. MONTREAL - The densely populated slums of Montreal's Griffintown were the subject of a famous 1897 study by businessman and philanthropist Herbert Ames, whose work on the disease-ridden tenements influenced generations of urban planners on how to develop healthy cities. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/5/2020 (619 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. MONTREAL - The densely populated slums of Montreal's Griffintown were the subject of a famous 1897 study by businessman and philanthropist Herbert Ames, whose work on the disease-ridden tenements influenced generations of urban planners on how to develop healthy cities. Ames's study, "The City Below the Hill," is just one example, say academics in urban planning, of how the development of cities has been closely tied to the management of pandemics and other outbreaks of infectious disease. A worksite is seen Friday May 8, 2020 in Montreal. As Quebec's construction sector reopens Monday following weeks of shutdown to slow the spread of the virus, the main players behind the city's building boom in neighbourhoods such as Griffintown say it's "business as usual" and are confident the market remains robust. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz More than 120 years after its publication, Montreal's Griffintown is now prosperous, gentrified and full of condo towers catering to an urban elite. But in Griffintown and other urban areas in Canada, the COVID-19 pandemic is putting stress on city life and exacerbating existing inequalities. As Quebec's construction sector reopens Monday following weeks of shutdown to slow the spread of the virus, the main players behind the city's building boom in neighbourhoods such as Griffintown say it's "business as usual" and are confident the market remains robust. Some urban planners, however, aren't so sure. The current pandemic will change cities, they predict, the way infectious disease outbreaks influenced the development of urban centres in decades past. How cities will change is still unclear, but Vancouver-based urban planner Andy Yan, director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University, said COVID-19 is making people reconsider their decisions to move into small condos and apartments. Yan cited data from Statistics Canada revealing that between 1991 and 2017, the median living area of condos in Toronto and Vancouver shrunk by 32 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively. "The grand bargain was: 'I will have a small place, but I will have a big public life,'" he said in a recent interview. Urbanites moved into cramped studios but had access to cities full of vibrant culture and gastronomic delights. But as COVID-19 has forced urban denizens indoors, condos and apartments have become substitute offices, restaurants, schools and daycares. And it's far from clear when the bistros, cafes and music venues that provided the public life will reopen. McGill University urban planning professor David Wachsmuth said cities have historically gone through cycles of densification and what he called "spaceification" for example, after the Second World War when the federal government encouraged people to move from city centres to the "healthier" suburbs. But Wachsmuth doesn't predict a flight from cities this time. "I think we are, broadly speaking, in a period where the density of cities has been understood as a positive thing, and I don't think that's going to change," he said in a recent interview. City life could get cheaper, however, Wachsmuth explained. If the pandemic triggers a longer-term economic decline, property prices will take a major hit, he said, making room for lower-income people and families to return to the space they were pushed out of as gentrification took hold. But Phil Soper, CEO of Royal LePage, says younger and lower-income people might be disappointed if they think the pandemic is going to trigger a correction in the housing market. Home sales across the country were certainly down in April according to Soper, they fell by 70 per cent in Quebec but fewer homes are being listed, easing downward pressure on prices, he explained. "The pandemic isn't providing a magic answer to our housing shortage problems and, therefore, it is not a magic wand that is going to cure housing affordability issues," Soper said in a recent interview. "The only thing that will provide more affordable housing in our big cities is additional supply and there certainly aren't more homes being built in the pandemic there are fewer. If anything it exacerbates the problem." The main players who are building that supply in Montreal have all told The Canadian Press that come Monday, when the province's construction sector fully reopens, every site they had operating before the shutdown will be up and running again. Condos have been selling during the pandemic, they say, with buyers 3D-viewing their units on computer screens rather than in showrooms and using applications to sign documents. Before the pandemic hit, one sign of Montreal's booming market was developers competing to build the city's tallest condo tower. In April 2019, development company Broccolini broke ground on its 58-story tower in downtown Montreal, called Victoria sur le Parc, which it said would be the tallest residential tower in the city. Chief operating officer Anthony Broccolini said no one during the pandemic has walked away from their down payment. His construction sites have been modified to comply with provincial rules on physical distancing and hygiene in order to protect workers, but apart from that, on Monday it will be "business as usual," he said in a recent interview. Devimco, the company that launched Griffintown's renewal, boasts the 61-story tower of its Maestria condo project, announced after Victoria sur le Parc, will be city's tallest residential tower when it's completed. Vice-president Marco Fontaine said he sold another 20 units of the project last month "without negotiation" on price. Stay informed The latest updates on the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 delivered to your inbox every weeknight. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "It's not in our plan at all right now to drop prices," he said in a recent interview. While he expects some kind of pandemic-induced market slowdown, by the time Maestria is completed in a few years, he said, he expects the market will be back. Fontaine said he appreciates, however, that many of the residents in his buildings' smaller units are working from home and will continue to do so for a while. "They are in a space that wasn't made for that," he said. To adapt to changing urban behaviours, Devimco has begun discussions aimed at equipping condos with modular furniture that can turn into workspaces. While Wachsmuth says he doesn't share the optimism of Montreal's big builders, he is still betting on cities and the sense of liberation they provide. "There is a lot happening but also, you can kind of be anonymous if you want to," he said. They "aren't universally appealing to all humans, but they are, I think, pretty durable to a lot of people," he said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2020. This week, a big thank you to Leo Varadkar for restoring a sense of reality to my poor, befuddled mind. It's not easy, as we all know, hiding from a deadly virus, in what used to be a home and has now become a lockdown shelter. When so many of the everyday things are off-limits, you can lose perspective. For instance, I was becoming quite sentimental about all those dedicated politicians, carefully spaced around the Dail chamber, doggedly going about the business of State as the shattered pieces of our futures splinter underfoot. Then I heard about Mr Varadkar having a go at Mary Lou McDonald. That's the spirit, I thought - the cut and thrust of politics, the give and take of democratic debate, the sifting of ideas, the testing of ideology... It's true that he damned her as "two-faced and so fundamentally dishonest". And it's true he was visibly agitated. Ah, but, sure, we're all a bit stressed these days. For Mr Varadkar, the political spoils of office are not enough. He needs his daily hit of moral superiority. Then Mr Varadkar scored a bullseye. "Sinn Fein ministers on their Facebook site promote the fact that they hand out food parcels to the poor - reminiscent to me of Donald Trump handing out toilet rolls after the hurricane hit the islands in the Caribbean." Ouch. (Leaving aside, of course, the fact that in Donald's case it was paper towels, not toilet rolls. But sure, isn't it sometimes the same thing when you haven't been able to get to Tesco for a couple of weeks?) Then, almost on cue, Twitter lit up with Eoghan Murphy's retweet of photos of himself delivering food parcels to constituents. Now, I think Eoghan Murphy is an awful Housing Minister. Hidebound by outdated ideology, he presides over a broken housing market. He allows profit-mongers to ensure a simple flat is beyond the hopes of countless young people - not to mention homeless families. But, I gave Murphy the benefit of the doubt on the food parcel thing. There's an element of self-promotion in the way this is done - as there may be with the Shinners - but Eoghan Murphy is as capable as anyone else of fellow feeling and the urge to help. For all I know, he might have a history of such social activism - like the Shinners. This was my response, having become a sentimental old fool, after weeks of fear, uncertainty and isolation. Thankfully, Mr Varadkar has restored my grasp on reality. He's made it clear to me that Eoghan Murphy is a cynical publicity hound, exploiting the needs of distressed people. The Shinners, too. And that guy from the pharmacy who delivered my medication the other day, what's his game, I wonder? Those nurses - hmmmm, what stroke are they pulling with those long hours in the coronavirus ward? Let's not get sentimental, right Mr V? It was with this reborn sense of scepticism that I read again the letter FG/FF sent to the Greens, to convince them they should make up the numbers for a new FG/FF government. The Greens say they want cast-iron commitments to reduce carbon emissions. And FG/FF wrote the following wondrous words. They're "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". Oh, dear. "Will commit", to act at some unspecified stage. "Developing" - not implementing, not actual measures, just working on a process that might lead to unstated measures. "An average" - ah, yes I can see it now. "Look, you Green eejits, can't you read? We didn't commit to 7pc per annum. We said an average over a decade, and you signed up. So, we'll cut 0.08pc in each of nine years and in the tenth year we'll cut 99.28pc. Cross my heart." Yes, it's a nasty, far less friendly world when you look at it through the cynical eye of our Mr Varadkar. This is the man who took the fight against social insurance (or "benefits", in his scornful language) into the housing estates and apartment blocks, urging people to rat out their neighbours. That single woman with the two kids, are you sure her boyfriend stayed over just two nights last week - mightn't he be living there, are they cohabiting? Do you suspect she might be gouging the taxpayer? Give us a ring at the Department of Constant Vigilance. Mr Varadkar suspects that, unless proven otherwise, everyone who loses their job, has an accident or a permanent disability or a temporary crisis might be a "benefit cheat". He had thousands of people ringing in with their suspicions - he had a special email address (squintingwindows.ie, if memory serves). And the pinched, darting eyes of his followers found abundant evidence of cheating. The vast majority of the "evidence" turned out (after costly investigation) to be spurious. A new secretary general of the department, John McKeon, told an Oireachtas committee: "In retrospect, I believe it was a mistake." No, it wasn't. It was a manoeuvre to solidify Mr Varadkar's base. It did that successfully - albeit at a cost of sowing suspicion and division. The same man heads a government that casually allows the cost of a children's hospital to soar from the millions to the billions. That money didn't evaporate. It went into the pockets of those venerated by Mr Varadkar. The "people who get up early" - the developers and the professionals who service them. Mr Varadkar's base. That was, of course, just an unintended consequence of the FG/FF way of doing things. Meanwhile, that fella with the limp - lost his leg in an industrial accident, so he says. Keep on eye on him and give us a ring if you think the leg's grown back. This denigration of people who do small-scale but useful work in helping others - people such as Eoghan Murphy and the Shinners - is a feature of Mr Varadkar's politics. It goes hand in hand with an implacable antagonism to the notion that those who do valuable work should have decent wages and conditions. The nurses we now cheer were forced to strike last year, as the FG/FF government resisted fairness. Contrast that with the tolerant smiles as Revenue advises millionaire tax exiles that it has got their back. To qualify for escaping Irish taxes, the millionaires can't spend more than 183 days in this country, out of 365. But, should they be inconvenienced by current travel restrictions, Revenue says it'll be tolerant. Paschal Donohoe says he'll "monitor" this, which is terribly nice of him. We won't have a campaign to urge the residents of our various millionaire enclaves to rat each other out, if they spot one of their number exceeding the 183 days. Bailouts and amnesties galore, suspicion and smearing for others. There are those who say Leo Varadkar is useless. They cite the nursing home scandal, and forcing people in direct provision to cluster, to make it easier for the virus. I don't agree. Once in a hundred years, a deadly pandemic comes along and the man is useful. We see decent, skilled people working to keep us going - medics, cleaners, scientists, warehouse workers, transport workers, supermarket workers - and that kind of thing can make a fella grow soft and sentimental about humanity. So, it's good to have a Varadkar on hand - fulminating with negativity, suspicion and enmity - to reboot my scepticism. Well done, Acting Taoiseach. KENOSHA Almost immediately after the coronavirus made its impact, consumers flocked to local stores in an effort to stockpile various goods and services. At nearly the same time, concerns about businesses price gouging their customers began to surface. But there is quite a difference between what is and what isnt allowed. That was one of several tips provided by Michelle Reinen of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection during a telephone town hall hosted by U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Janesville. There is a great deal of confusion about what price gouging is and what it is not, Reinen said. Through an order issued March 12 by Gov. Tony Evers, a period of abnormal economic disruption was declared, the first time a state law regarding price gouging had been put into use, Reinen said. From that day forward, any consumer good or service could not be priced at 15% higher than the sellers highest price within the last 60 days. There are exceptions, however. The seller can pass on the increased cost, Reinen said. As you can imagine, there are significant strains on supply chains that are increasing the cost of goods, and this can be very frustrating to the consumers. However, much of the increased pricing we are seeing is just that, increased cost to the seller being passed on. Its not price gouging. The law covers all consumer goods and services, Reinen said. She added the main complaints her department has been seeing relate to cleaning supplies, toilet paper, masks and food staples like milk, eggs and meat. Reinen said complaints also have been filed relating to online sellers who have stockpiled items and are selling those at a much higher mark up than what is legally allowed. The law covers the entire state and all sellers in the supply chain, including manufacturers, producers, suppliers, wholesalers, distributors and retailers, she said. An electronic complaint form specifically for price gouging is available at datcp.wi.gov. Consumers also can call the Consumer Protection Hotline at 1-800-422-7128. Reinen also addressed a number of scams her agency is seeing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Scams are coming in a variety of forms, but Reinen offered one piece of blanket advice. During this crisis, we want to emphasize how important it is that consumers rely on trusted sources of information, she said. And not information provided through the phone or landing in your email in box. There are a couple red flags to watch for in emails and texts, Reinen said, including poor grammar and provide what appears to be legitimate information meant to keep the reader safe and healthy. More than likely, however, those emails also contain a link that, when clicked, will load harmful software onto the users computer. It prays on fears by purporting to tell you about cases in your area and it creates a sense of urgency for you to click on those links, Reinen said. ... The (Center for Disease Control) and other government agencies are not sending emails about the virus. You can and should go directly to government sources that you are seeking information about on your own using reliable information, but do not use the links in the emails to get there. Reinen made her advice even more direct than that. If it seems suspicious or too good to be true, it probably is, she said. ... Treat your personal information like its cash. Protect your social security number, insurance information and drivers license number by keeping them safe and sharing them only with known entities that require that information. Beijing: Chinese authorities reported on Sunday what could be the beginning of a new wave of coronavirus cases in north-east China, with one city in Jilin province being reclassified as high-risk, the top of a three-tier zoning system. Jilin officials raised the risk level of the city of Shulan to high from medium, having hoisted it to medium from low just the day before after one woman tested positive on May 7. Eleven new cases in Shulan were confirmed on May 9, all of them members of her family or people who came into contact with her or family members. Shulan has increased virus-control measures, including a lockdown of residential compounds, a ban on non-essential transportation and school closures, the Jilin government said. An off-duty California Highway Patrol officer saved a 24-year-old hiker trapped in a whirlpool at Angel Falls above Bass Lake in Madera County on Saturday. The falls, a well-known feature on the Willow Creek Trail, is a popular destination that is also known for slippery conditions along the path. Deputy Sarah Jackson, a public information officer with the Madera County Sheriff's Office, confirmed that Officer Brent Donley, a 20-year CHP veteran, pulled the hiker to safety with the help of bystanders, including Donleys 23-year-old son-in-law, Daniel Pena. Donley works out of the Fresno office at the Shaver Lake resident post and has specific training in search and rescue. Jackson characterized the incident as Donley being in the right place at the right time and suggested the hiker should buy a lottery ticket, yesterday was his lucky day. The name of the hiker has yet to be released. A video of the incident released by California Highway Patrol Fresno shows Donley tying the cord from his backpack around a stick and throwing it to the hiker trapped in the rapidly swirling water. Once the hiker was able to grab the stick, Donley anchored by other bystanders pulled him out of the whirlpool with Pena grabbing him out of the water once he reached the shore. Every year we respond to calls of people drowning at Angel Falls, Jackson said of the popular trail. Many times it ends up in fatality. We want to urge people to take caution around the water when its so deep and swift like right now with good snowpack in runoff. Jackson cautioned that if you do see someone drowning not to jump in after them due to the risk of drowning yourself. 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. What Officer Donley did with paracord and rope and human anchors on shore was the right thing to do, Jackson said. All I did was use what I had and stayed calm, Donley said. I tried to make sure everybody was calm so nobody else got hurt. It was good to help somebody out who was obviously in need. Thats all it was about: making sure he was safe. Tony Bravo is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tbravo@sfchronicle.com Its Mothers Day and Google is celebrating with an interactive doodle on its homepage through which users can craft an e-card to share with their mothers via email or social media. Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, as we all practice social distancing, or were distanced by miles owing to a job or other responsibilities, the virtual card comes to the rescue. At least the six feet or more space between us physically cannot stop hearts from staying connected. Google Doodle on Google homepage for Mothers Day 2020. (Google.com) Google explains its latest Doodle saying it was inspired in part by a surge in searches for Homemade Mothers Day card and similar searches for virtual gifts and ideas for the holiday. Through its homepage, this interactive Doodle lets users create completely custom cards using digital elements based on real-life crafts including animated hearts, mother turtle with her baby, giraffes made of macaroni art, flowers, dragonflies, stars made of glitter and more. Once this virtual Mothers Day card has been created from the Google Doodle, the link can then be shared which opens the custom-created, animated card. The virtual card looks like this before sending, the white patch contains the elements you want to add. (Google.com) The second Sunday of May is celebrated as Mothers Day in India and some other parts of the world. This year it falls on May 10. Mothers Day is an opportunity for us to tell our mothers how special they are and what they mean to us. Whether it is making a card, baking a cake or doing something extra special, take this opportunity while keeping social distancing rules in place to show your mother what she means to you and that you appreciate her everyday for all she does for you. Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter Australia Backs EU Motion For Independent CCP Virus Inquiry Australias health minister Greg Hunt has confirmed the federal governments support of a European Union motion for an independent investigation to the origins of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus. We support the EU motion which includes an independent investigation, regulatory work on wet markets and also the potential for independent inspection powers, Hunt told Sky News. Since mid-April, Australian federal ministers have been outspoken about the need for an international inquiry into the origins of the CCP virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, which spread from Wuhan, China. Hunt says that the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Australia have some differences, which may further explain why the government has preferred to support an EU motion that includes the potential for independent inspection powers instead of giving powers to the WHO to investigate. Australias decision to close its borders to China on Feb 1 was the most important decision perhaps, said Hunt, despite being met by criticism from both the WHO and Chinas ambassador to Australia, Cheng Jingye. We believe we made not just the right decision, but one of the most important decisions made by an Australian government in decades, Hunt said. On May 7, Morrison met with a small group of world leaders from nations who are also experiencing relatively low numbers of CCP virus cases, to discuss economic recovery, contacting tracing, and managing any further outbreaks. Morrison expressed his support for an EU-sponsored resolution calling for the independent investigation, which is expected at the upcoming World Health Assembly starting May 18. The CCP has condemned to calls for an independent investigation of the virus outbreak, with Cheng seemingly unleashing threats of economic coercion, according to Australias foreign affairs minister Marise Payne, to ban Australian imports and Chinese travellers and students to Australia. Chengs comments have added further diplomatic strain on Australia-China relations. Summoning Chinese Ambassador The Sunday Mail reported that a federal parliamentary committee intends to summon Chinas ambassador to give evidence and explain why the CCP has economically threatened Australia both before and after the virus outbreak. The chair of Parliaments Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth, Queensland MP George Christensen, said Sunday that Cheng will soon be receiving an official notice calling on him to appear before federal Parliament as part of the committees Inquiry into Diversifying Australias Trade and Investment Profile. The request was made without the governments key cabinet ministers. This inquiry is independent of the government as it was not referred to us by Trade Minister Simon Birmingham but rather one we determined to undertake ourselves as a committee, he told The Sunday Mail. This inquiry will be the first major look into Communist Chinas infiltration of Australia, through rampant foreign investment and export market dominance, Christensen said. We will make recommendations to the government that tackle the problem of Chinas economic infiltration of our country and its economic threats against our country. It will then be up to the government to either accept the inquiry recommendations or reject them. Enough is enough, he said. Victorian Opposition Leader Michael O'Brien has cautioned his frontbench MP Tim Smith against calling the Premier inappropriate names, just weeks after ordering his shadow cabinet to curb the political aggression. Liberal MPs rallying against the government's strict coronavirus restrictions have ramped up their criticism in recent weeks, with some comparing Premier Daniel Andrews to a communist dictator, and others accusing Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton of being the government's "puppet". Opposition Leader Michael O'Brien: "I think that term loony was not an appropriate one and I've conveyed that appropriately." Credit:Luis Ascui National cabinet announced a three-step framework to loosening restrictions on Friday but Mr Andrews refused to commit to any changes until Victoria's state of emergency ended on Monday. Mr Smith described the Premier's reluctance on Sunday as "loony" and "incredibly cruel". Tesla on Saturday filed a lawsuit against the California county that has prohibited the electric car company from producing vehicles during the outbreak. The company alleged in its suit, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, that Alameda County had violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment and sought an injunction that would allow the company to operate. Its Fremont manufacturing plant is located in that county. The suit followed chief executive Elon Musk threatening in a series of tweets earlier Saturday that the company would sue and move Teslas headquarters and future programmes to Texas and Nevada. He appeared to leave open the possibility of maintaining some operations in Fremont depending on how Tesla is treated in the future. He tweeted that the restrictions imposed by Alameda County are contrary to the Governor, the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the lawsuit, the company argued that the county-level orders are inconsistent and the state orders should supersede local orders. We need to continue to work together so those sacrifices dont go to waste and that we maintain our gains, the Alameda County Public Health Department said in a statement on Saturday. It is our collective responsibility to move through the phases of reopening and loosening the restrictions of the Shelter-in-Place Order in the safest way possible, guided by data and science. The suit and Mr Musks public comments come a day after the company said it would resume vehicle production, only to again provoke the ire of local health officials, who said Tesla must not reopen. Alameda County leaders said Tesla did not meet the criteria to resume operations even as California began opening up other parts of the state. Tesla is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, which is in a different county, and it conducts much of its manufacturing at its Fremont factory. Both are in the Bay Area, which was the first major region in the nation to order residents to shelter in place, even before the state did. California this week began loosening restrictions and allowing businesses to start reopening. But the Bay Area counties have not yet followed, and state officials have made it clear that county orders take precedence. Mr Musk had started calling workers back to the factory Friday. It was at least the second showdown with the county. As Alameda County issued its first shelter-in-place order in mid-March, Mr Musk sent an email to employees telling them he would continue reporting to work, although they could stay home if they felt uncomfortable. County officials then ordered the factory to shut down because it was not an essential business under the countys definition. Mr Musks tweet came as a shock to many who follow Tesla, even as the CEO had made increasingly erratic pronouncements on and off the platform during the pandemic. The tech billionaire is known for leveraging Twitter to dispense material information, including a tweet in 2018 that said he had secured funding to take the company private at $420 (338) a share. It was unclear if that was true, and he and Tesla were later each fined $20m (16.1m) by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr Musk has also consistently downplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus public health orders, calling panic over the virus dumb, theorizing about the virus effect on children and promoting scepticism over the necessity for social distancing and shelter-in-place orders. On Teslas earnings call late last month, he launched into a profanity-laced tirade over the ongoing orders after highlighting what he saw as the serious risk posed by the factorys closure. To say that they cannot leave their house and they will be arrested if they do, this is fascist, he said on the call. This is not democratic this is not freedom. The previous day, he tweeted: FREE AMERICA NOW. Then on 1 May, he tweeted Teslas stock was priced too high, sending the share price plunging during the middle of the trading day. Mr Musk highlighted Teslas economic footprint in a subsequent tweet Friday, noting the size of its manufacturing operation in a likely attempt to sway California officials. The Fremont factory employs 10,000 workers. County court operations had largely ceased during the outbreak, but the Alameda County Superior Court division of California announced it would resume accepting almost all new civil filings beginning Monday. The Washington Post GCC ethylene glycol (EG) imports into India may be severely hurt as a result of an ongoing anti-dumping investigation targeting imports from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, UAE and Singapore, according to the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA), the regional trade body representing the common interests of the chemical and allied industries in the Arabian Gulf. The inconsistent investigative practices by Indian authorities on anti-dumping regulations raise serious concerns under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and threaten to severely hurt GCC economies, jeopardising $543 million worth of mono ethylene glycol (MEG) imports, which is equivalent to 20 per cent of total chemical imports from the region into India, according to GPCA analysis. India is the second largest importer of GCC chemicals and accounts for over a third of total GCC export volume together with China. On 6 April 2020, Indian authorities terminated the investigation for the sole imports from Saudi Arabia, and continued the investigation into imports from Kuwait, Oman and the UAE. This partial termination of the investigation is inconsistent with Indian anti-dumping rules. GPCA is therefore urging the fair treatment of GCC MEG producers and calling upon Indian authorities to terminate the partial investigation into MEG imports from the remaining GCC states, in order to restore a level playing field for all producers and allow for the continuation of exports of MEG from the GCC to India in the future. MEG is an essential raw material for the production of various end user products ranging from clothing and other textiles, through packaging to kitchenware, engine coolants and antifreeze. Polyester and fleece fabrics, upholstery, carpets and pillows, as well as light and sturdy PET drink and food containers originate from ethylene glycol. Dr Abdulwahab Al-Sadoun, Secretary General, GPCA, commented: As the regional body for the Arabian Gulf chemical industry, GPCA calls for the immediate termination of the partial anti-dumping investigation into regional MEG imports into India. This detrimental and ill-advised measure is having a harmful impact not just on GCC economies but also on bilateral trade, threatening to disrupt Indias domestic market and damage long-standing friendly relations between the nations. He added: This is the latest in a series of trade-restrictive practices introduced by Indian authorities that GCC chemical exports have been confronted with over the years. GPCA is working closely with GCC authorities to advocate for the immediate termination of the investigation in line with Indias international obligations and the fair treatment of all WTO member states. At a time of pandemic, the uninterrupted supply of chemical raw materials is essential to addressing the global health crisis and we call upon authorities to work together to ensure we maintain the materials needed in factories across the globe today to ensure no shortage of essential raw materials. Echoing this sentiment, the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA), of which GPCA is a member, recently wrote to the G20 leaders as well as trade ministries in various states, to commend their statement on easing supply chain constraints. ICCA further called upon world leaders to coordinate with the industry for the removal of trade barriers and commit to stopping trade distorting practices, particularly for materials and products, including those made from chemicals and petrochemicals, deemed essential in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. As a member of the G20, India must act now to roll back any applied or future measures that contradict its G20 commitments. TradeArabia News Service Afghan Protesters Killed in Clashes With Police By Ayaz Gul May 09, 2020 Officials in central Afghanistan said Saturday clashes between aid-seeking protesters and police have killed at least four civilians, including a journalist, and injured 14 others. The violence came as a coronavirus-related shutdown and partial border closures with neighboring countries have disrupted food deliveries into landlocked Afghanistan. The restrictions increased prices in a country where officials estimate more than 50% of the population lives below the poverty line. Saturday's clashes erupted after dozens of people gathered outside the governor's office in impoverished Ghor province to protest what they said was a lack of official assistance for their poverty-stricken families. Provincial Governor Nasar Khazi told VOA some of the protesters were carrying arms and tried to attack and set fire to his office before police opened fire to disperse the crowd. He said ensuing clashes also injured four Afghan security personnel. Demonstrators said a local radio journalist was also among the dead. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) denounced as worrying" reports of police firing at protesters. "Completely unacceptable. The AIHRC team in Ghor are looking into details," tweeted Shaharzad Akbar, the watchdog's chairperson. The Afghan public health ministry has confirmed coronavirus infections surpassed 4,000, including 106 deaths, as of Saturday. The Afghan government launched an emergency relief program this month to distribute bread to hundreds of thousands of families across Afghanistan to mitigate the economic impact of counter-pandemic restrictions. The spike in essential food prices is taking place during the ongoing Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, posing additional trouble for many Afghans. The pandemic has hit the country as an almost 19-year-old war between Afghan security forces, backed by a U.S.-led foreign coalition, and Taliban insurgents has intensified in recent weeks. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address As India enters the last week of the 54-day coronavirus lockdown, the Railways on Sunday said 15 air-conditioned special trains will operate from May 12 in a gradual resumption of passenger services announced on the eve of of Prime Minister Narendra Modi s video conference with chief ministers that is expected to focus on a a strategy for a phased exit from the shutdown. Modi's discussions with chief ministers of states and union territories on Monday are expected to revolve on steps for reviving the battered economy and scaling up all efforts to bring more 'red' zones with high COVID-19 case load into 'orange' or 'green' zones, as they push for stepping up economic activities in a calibrated manner. The Centre also weighed the pros and cons of further easing of restrictions for a graded exit from the twice extended lockdown due to end on May 17 but sources said the restrictions still in place are unlikely to be withdrawn in one go. The Prime Minister's Office(PMO) on Sunday said the video conference will begin at 3 PM on Monday. This will be Modi's fifth interaction with the chief ministers since the coronavirus outbreak in the country. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, meanwhile, said no COVID-19 case has been reported in 10 states and union territories in the last 24 hours and the recovery rate has increased to over 30 per cent, asserting India was moving fast on the path of success in the fight against the pandemic. According to health ministry data, 1,511 COVID-19 patients recovered in the last 24 hours -- the highest number of recoveries recorded in one day. Announcing the phased resumption of passenger services that was suspended from the first day of the lockdown on March 25, the Railways said in a statement that air-conditioned services will initially begin with 15 pairs of trains(30 return journeys) on Rajdhani routes and the fare would be equivalent to that of the super-fast train,. The special trains will run from New Delhi to Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi. Passengers have been asked to reached the railway stations an hour early before the train's departure. Officials said unlike Shramik Specials' to transport migrant labourers , in which only 54 passengers were allowed instead of the regular 72, these trains will run on full capacity, but no concession in fare is likely to be allowed. A total of 366 trains have transported nearly four lakh migrant workers since the first special train was rolled out on May 1. Booking for reservation in these trains will start at 4 pm on May 11 and will be available only on the IRCTC website (https://www.irctc.co.in/). Sources in the union government said the focus of the prime minister's meeting would be on boosting economic activities and pushing efforts to convert 'red' zones with high COVID-19 case load into 'orange' or 'green' zones. The Union Health ministry on May 1 classified 733 districts as 130 in the red zone, 284 in the orange zone and 319 in the green zone, taking into consideration incidence of cases, doubling rate, extent of testing and surveillance feedback. In some good in efforts to ramp up testing, Vardhan said the National Institute of Virology(NIV) in Pune has successfully developed the first indigenous test kit that will play a critical role in surveillance of proportion of population exposed to coronavirus infection. The test kit has the advantage of testing 90 samples together in a single run of 2.5 hours, so that healthcare professionals can proceed quickly with necessary next steps on their patients' triage paths, Vardhan said. "National Institute of Virology, Pune has successfully developed the 1st indigenous anti-SARS-CoV-2 human IgG ELISA test kit for antibody detection of COVID-19," the minister said in a series of tweets. Vardhan said India carried out 86,000 tests for COVID-19 on Saturday and its testing capacity now stands at 95,000 samples per day. Till Saturday, 16,09,777 tests for COVID-19 have been conducted in India, he noted. India had started from one laboratory and now there are 472 laboratories testing for COVID-19, he said after inspecting a COVID-19 care centre in the Mandoli area in the national capital. There are 4,362 coronavirus care centres across the country where 3,46,856 patients with mild or very mild symptoms can be kept, he added. "We are moving fast on path of success in the fight against COVID-19. The doubling rate for the last three days is 12 (days). The recovery rate has crossed 30 per cent. Out of around 60,000 COVID-19 patients, about 20,000 have recovered and gone home. "Our mortality rate is still at 3.3 per cent.... In the last 24 hours, there has been no case in 10 states and Union territories. There are four states or Union territories where there has not been a single case till now," Vardhan noted. India has 36 states and Union territories. At a meeting on Sunday, state chief secretaries told Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba that while protection is required from COVID-19, economic activities also need to be stepped up in a calibrated manner. Former chief economist of World Bank Kaushik Basu said it is not easy exiting from the lockdown but if India is determined the country can do it. "We must not make the mistake of locking ourselves down in a fear psychosis. This can cause an economic setback for many years to come," he told PTI. The coronavirus death toll in the country rose to 2,109 on Sunday and the number of cases climbed to 62,939, registering an increase of 128 deaths and 3,277 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry. The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 41,472, while 19,357 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the ministry said. According to a PTI tally based on data from inputs from states, the cases jumped to 67,026 while 20,469 patients had recovered and the death toll rose to 2,135. A Maharashtra state official reported 1,278 new COVID-19 cases and 53 deaths, taking case count to 22,171 and number of fatalities to 832. The union health ministry data updated in the morning showed that the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases was in the worst affected state of Maharashtra at 20,228, followed by Gujarat at 7,796, Delhi at 6,542, Tamil Nadu at 6,535, Rajasthan at 3,708, Madhya Pradesh at 3,614 and Uttar Pradesh at 3,373. As many as 334 coronavirus 'super-spreaders' have been found in Ahmedabad so far, and it is the main reason for the order to keep shops of groceries and vegetables closed till May 15, an official said. 'Super-spreaders' are the infectious disease carriers who could transmit the pathogen to a large number of people. They could be vegetable vendors, grocery and milk shop owners, petrol pump attendants or garbage collectors, who by the nature of their job carry the risk of getting infected and infecting others. Karnataka witnessed the biggest spike in COVID-19 cases in a single day with 53 people testing positive on Sunday, taking the tally to 847 and reported one more death, increasing the number of fatalities to 31. This was the biggest spike in a single day in the state, a senior government officer told PTI in Bengaluru. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Liberty Global, a US multinational telecommunications company, is expected to receive 800m (916m) from the recapitalisation of its Virgin Media Ireland business. News of a proposed recapitalisation follows a deal between Liberty Global and the Spanish telecoms company Telefonica, which combines their British operations in a 31.4bn agreement. Under the agreement, announced on Thursday, both will have equal ownership of O2, the largest mobile network in the UK, and of Virgin Media, the UKs second-largest broadband network. A statement issued following the merger said the transaction would include a series of recapitalisation financings before closing to reach the joint ventures target net leverage of around 18bn of long-term debt. Net new proceeds from the recapitalisations are targeted to be about 6bn. After taking into account the recapitalisations, Telefonica is expected to receive 5.7bn in total proceeds from the transaction. Liberty Global is expected to receive 1.4bn in total, including approximately 800m from the recapitalisation of Virgin Media Ireland. The statement reiterated that Virgin Media Ireland was not part of the deal and would remain under the control of Liberty Global, which is headed by John Malone. It is understood that Liberty Global aims to carry out the recapitalisation of Virgin Media Ireland at the appropriate time. Liberty Global has a net debt equivalent of four to five times annualised operating free cash flow. There will be no impact to the day-to-day operations of Virgin Media Ireland. Liberty Global will continue to ensure we have the support, investment and financial firepower to be a major competitive force in Ireland, said a spokeswoman from Virgin Media Ireland. Berlin: The World Health Organisation has dismissed as "false allegations" a media report that it withheld information about the new coronavirus following pressure from China. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organisation, with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on January 28. Credit:AP The UN agency said in a statement late on Saturday that a German magazine's report about a telephone conversation between WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Chinese President Xi Jinping on January 21 was "unfounded and untrue." Weekly Der Spiegel reported that Xi asked Tedros during the call to hold back information about human-to-human transmission of the virus and delay declaring a pandemic. The magazine quoted Germany's foreign intelligence agency, BND, which declined to comment on Sunday. Der Spiegel also claimed that the BND concluded up to six weeks of time to fight the outbreak had been lost due to China's information policy. : Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has instructed officials to prepare a comprehensive agriculture policy for the state with an aim to make the agriculture sector profitable. Rao said he would be talking to farmers through clusters, farmers groups such as Rythu Bandhu Samithis and agriculture officers through a video conference very soon, an official release issued late on Saturday night said. Rao, who held a review on the agriculture department, instructed officials concerned to prepare the comprehensive agriculture policy and stressed the need for everything to happen in tune with it. "The government should decide on which crops the farmers should cultivate. Planning should be done in such a way that crops should be cultivated based on the food needs of people in the state and the crops, which are in demand in the markets in other regions," Rao said. Alternative crops should be identified and suggested to farmers and cultivation done on these lines, he said, adding that the government would make arrangements to ensure farmers get better support price for their produce. "The Agriculture department should prepare an inventory and record details on the assets, buildings of the department and other such relevant information," he said. The Chief Minister wanted the officials to take the data on the number of tractors, agriculture tools, harvesters and other machines available in the villages and prepare a future plan based on this data. "Collect proper information from farmers in a format. Very soon I will discuss about the comprehensive agriculture policy through a video conference, Rao said. Agriculture Minister Niranjan Reddy, Civil Supplies Minister Gangula Kamalakar, were among those who attended the meeting, the release added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) It was autumn when Dr. Majid Sadigh arrived in Liberia. The peak of the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak that killed more than 11,000 people had recently subsided. And health officials in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone were still working frantically to combat the deadly hemorrhagic fever that would wreak havoc on the region for two years. For seven weeks, Sadigh was on the front lines, running a medical facility in Buchanan, the countrys third-largest city, and treating cases coming predominantly from remote villages near Liberias border with Guinea. With a team of medical professionals from around the globe, Sadigh traveled the countrys mud-bedraggled roads Liberia is among the worlds leaders in annual rainfall to treat and contain those afflicted with the disease. What I learned immediately for the confinement of the epidemic, you need to be very, very sensitive to cultural, historical background. And community engagement is crucial, Sadigh said Friday in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media. During his time that fall, Sadigh saw first hand the movement of the virus, its devastating effect on individuals and efforts to control its spread including contact tracing, an important practice in limiting the transmission of pathogens that spread disease. Sadigh now finds himself on the front lines again, but, at his post as director of Global Health at Nuvance Health out of Danbury Hospital, in a vastly different context. COVID challenges The novel coronavirus that has left nearly 3,000 dead statewide and infected more than 30,000, is less fatal but much harder to contain than Ebola, which in two years infected roughly 28,000. In America, especially in densely populated areas like Connecticut, COVID-19 presents its own set of challenges. One is tracking the spread of a respiratory illness that can pass via tiny particles released when a person, who may show no symptoms, speaks, breaths or coughs, while Ebola is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids. And while the exact scope of exposure remains unclear more widespread serological testing is needed the number of tests being conducted and people infected, even just in Connecticut, remains so high as to prohibit contact tracing. I think that will be the major challenge the major difference between COVID and Ebola in West Africa, Sadigh said. The dimension, the scope, was much, much smaller. Still, Gov. Ned Lamont plans to begin contact tracing as soon as this week in the hopes that the number of new cases will have dropped to the point that public health officials and volunteers would be able to identify and communicate with anyone who may have had meaningful contact with an infected individual. Contact tracing is by no means a new technique. But its one that functions differently depending on the disease. Though many folks are hearing this term for the first time during the current pandemic, its not new, said Jacqueline Vernarelli, assistant professor of health science and leadership at Sacred Heart University. Public health professionals have employed contact tracing for many types of infectious disease including HIV for decades. What makes contact tracing harder for COVID-19 is that we are now needed to trace exposure of a respiratory virus that can be spread through airborne particles. That precedent extends to Ebola, as well. Part of Sadighs work in Liberia was to isolate whomever came in contact with an infected patient. Because of the nature of the disease, treatment was limited. Doctors and nurses would give patients fluids to keep them hydrated. But the crucial step was isolating those infected, and anyone they came in contact with, in medical tents, where there was little risk of them spreading the disease through bodily fluids to others. Contact tracing in Connecticut Similar efforts would be difficult to replicate in Connecticut, Sadigh said. But, given that the majority of cases are transferred within households, according to Sadigh, its worthwhile to make efforts whenever possible. The West African Ebola outbreak had a high mortality rate the World Health Organization lists it around 50 percent, with certain outbreaks killing up to 90 percent of those affected but the disease infected relatively few people. Sadigh said the disease was contained partly because of successful efforts to isolate those affected, and primarily, because infection often occurred in remote villages with few inhabitants. In Connecticut, already the number of cases we have is beyond the scope of Ebola, because Ebola was in very remote countries, remote villages, Sadigh said. There were not many travelers coming from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea to the United States. So Ebola didnt become really more than a local epidemic. In addition, Ebola, unlike coronaviruses, is transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids of the infected individual. When a person fell sick, the family members or close friends who cared for the person were at risk, but likely not others in the community. For Ebola, close contacts, described as face-to-face interaction between two people for longer than 15 minutes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were relatively infrequent. Close contact between COVID patients and family, friends and acquaintances particularly in high-density areas are far more common. Sadigh estimated that for every person diagnosed with the virus, 20 to 30 others might meet the criteria for contact tracing. That number could rise as stay-at-home orders are lifted. Still, the number of those infected in Connecticut is on the decline. And Lamont has expressed hope that the trend will continue to a more manageable point for tracing. The state has already begun assembling a team of tracers. We estimate there are 300 existing staff members and then plan to recruit 400 to 500 students, said Kristen Soto, surveillance coordinator for the state Department of Public Health. We feel this will be sufficient, but if we find out current staffing levels are not sufficient, well work on expanding at that time. Local health departments are also reallocating workers and recruiting volunteers in an effort to scale up their contact tracing capabilities. But whether there will be enough manpower depends on several factors, Sadigh said. I think contact tracing is going to be very hard, Sadigh said. You need an army of public health experts putting boots on the ground and going to talk to each of these contacts. The percentage of positive tests per those administered will need to be reduced, particularly as the state attempts to greatly increase the number of weekly administered tests. On Friday, Sadigh said roughly 16 percent of all tests administered returned a positive result, down from about 30 percent near the beginning of the outbreak. That percentage will need to shrink into the single digits to make comprehensive tracing efforts feasible, Sadigh said. Also crucial is the continued adherence to the governors social distancing mandate, even as businesses begin to reopen. A return too soon to business-as-usual could cause cases to spike, overwhelm the system and preclude meaningful tracing efforts. The continued observance of these practices is personal for Sadigh. Sadigh is in his 70s and lives with his wife, who is in her 60s, and his mother-in-law, who is in her 80s. Three of his children are in the medical field, including a son who is working with COVID patients at Stony Brook University Hospital. For the health of his family, and for other doctors and nurses working on the front lines, Sadigh hopes people will stay vigilant. They (doctors and nurses) are tired, they are exhausted, Sadigh said. So please, my plea to everyone is please, just follow whatever the governor instructs. justin.papp@scni.com; @justinjpapp1; 203-842-2586 Organizers of a car caravan demonstration Saturday outside San Quentin State Prison called for California authorities to protect prisoners from the coronavirus, including releasing those over age 60. There are more than 20,000 confirmed cases of the virus among prisoners nationwide, according to data compiled by the Marshall Project. That includes 502 cases in California, as reported by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Saturdays protest, dubbed No state execution by COVID-19, argued that a prison sentence should not be a death sentence. Its not just about the prisoners, said Richard Tan, a lawyer and one of the organizers. If there are outbreaks in prison, it will spread into neighboring communities through the staff. Prisons will become incubators. The state of California really needs to consider releasing many more prisoners who are currently incarcerated. Thats what it comes down to. Paul Chinn / The Chronicle Tan, co-organizer Jack Heyman and speakers at a news conference outside the state prison demanded the release of prisoners older than 60; those with health conditions making them especially vulnerable to the coronavirus; pretrial prisoners who have not been convicted of a crime; those not convicted of a violent crime; and those whose sentences are almost over. State officials announced March 31 that they planned to accelerate the release of about 3,500 prisoners with less than 60 days remaining on their sentences, part of a heated legal battle over the fate of prisoners throughout California. An emergency writ of mandate, claiming the release of prisoners to date has not been large enough or fast enough to reduce the looming threat, was denied Monday by the state Supreme Court. Ohio tops the national statistics with 4,312 coronavirus cases in its prisons, according to the Marshall Project. That has been driven by a large outbreak at the correctional institution in Marion, Ohio, where more than 80% of inmates tested positive. Most of the cases in California prisons involve the California Institution for Men in Chino (San Bernardino County), with 370, and the California State Prison-Los Angeles County in Lancaster, with 112. No prisoners at San Quentin have tested positive, according to prison system data. State-wide, 173 prison staff members have tested positive, including six at San Quentin. All six have returned to work, state officials said. Tan contended the number of California prisoners with the virus probably is higher than reported, given a lack of testing. 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. Thats likely a large underestimate of the scope of whats happening, he said of the 502 total. Its definitely coming, and we have to do something about it. Saturdays demonstration involved a caravan of 60 cars, by organizers count, driving from the Larkspur Ferry Terminal to the west gate of San Quentin. Speakers included Cephus Johnson, uncle of 2009 BART shooting victim Oscar Grant, and messages were read from activist Angela Davis, lawyer/advocate Michelle Alexander and death row inmate Kevin Cooper (whose case, and claims of innocence, have drawn widespread media coverage). San Quentin officials announced last month that theyre releasing 87 prisoners. Tan and Heyman insisted that does not go far enough in alleviating overcrowding, a common issue at prisons across the state. Ron Kroichick is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rkroichick@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ronkroichick Ryan Phillippe showed off his toned arms in a tank top as he kept fit with a jog in Los Angeles this weekend. The 45-year-old Cruel Intentions star looked every inch the Hollywood heartthrob as he maintained his exercise regimen. For his latest workout look the Gosford Park actor modeled a white tank top with dark shorts, accessorizing with sunglasses. Off he goes: Ryan Phillippe showed off his toned arms in a tank top as he kept fit with a jog in Los Angeles this weekend Ryan's upcoming movie The Sound Of Philadelphia was meant to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in March but the coronavirus pandemic got the event canceled. Directed by Jeremie Guez, The Sound Of Philadelphia is a mob movie with a cast that includes Joel Kinnaman and Paul Schneider. The Hollywood heartthrob tweeted late last month that 'before the next lockdown, i gotta find me a quaran-Queen..' Looking fab: For his latest workout look the Gosford Park actor modeled a white tank top with dark shorts, accessorizing with sunglasses Ryan has been married once before to his Cruel Intentions co-star Reese Witherspoon, whom he tied the knot with in 1999 four months after the film's release. The couple split in 2007 and share two children - Ava, 20, whom Reese was pregnant with at her wedding to Ryan, and Deacon, 16. Ryan also has an eight-year-old daughter called Kai Knapp by his ex-girlfriend Alexis Knapp, who featured in the Pitch Perfect movies. Keeping it up: Ryan has been diligent about maintaining his exercise regimen, which he is pictured doing on May Day in Los Angeles Last October he reportedly reached a settlement in the $1 million assault lawsuit brought against him by his ex Elsie Hewitt. Elsie sued Ryan for $1 million in 2017 claiming he had flung her 'down a flight of stairs' on July 4, as well as having 'hit,' 'punched' and 'kicked' her, per The Blast. Ryan has dismissed the allegations by his ex-girlfriend - who was 21 years old at the time that she filed suit against him - as attempted extortion. A business class suite design by All Nippon Airways. Thomas Pallini/Business Insider As a seasoned traveler, I thought I knew all the best practices for booking travel before the coronavirus pandemic hit. But I was proved wrong. Having canceled a trip to Europe that was booked 10 months in advance the night before I was supposed to leave, I learned just what mistakes I had been making by not considering all possible scenarios. I found that saving money doesn't trump convenience in all cases and how you book matters the most. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Related Video: 15 College Students on How COVID-19 Derailed Their Lives Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the only potential issues I was worried about when booking a trip for months in the future were bad weather and catching a cold right before. Everything else, whether it be a flight delay or cancellation, I knew how to handle as a seasoned traveler. In my journeys, I thought I'd dealt with it all and booked my travel accordingly. I was so confident in the system that it took a major pandemic to highlight the errors in my ways. Like most, I never thought that a global health crisis could hinder travel in the way that the coronavirus did for many. The night of March 11, just a few hours before President Donald Trump's announcement that travel to Europe would be restricted, I had assured family members that such a massive undertaking could never be done as it would be largely unprecedented. A few minutes after the announcement, I began the ongoing, months-long process of canceling the trip and getting my money back, which still hasn't been fully achieved. Despite the worldwide lockdown, it wasn't easy to claw back the money I had shelled out for the trip. Had I done just a few things differently, I would've been able to recoup more than I did without having to fight for it. Here's how I'll change my travel booking habits moving forward. I'll no longer book non-refundable accommodations and will seek out hotels with lenient cancellation policies. Story continues A hotel room. Getty Images/Ken Ishii Hotels will often offer discounts for prepaid bookings with savings of usually $20 or more, the catch being that they're non-refundable in the event of a cancellation. The same applies to most car rentals, tours, and other activities. While the practice was generally safe for those with pre-planned trips, barring any force majeure circumstances, some hotels during the pandemic decided to hold firm to those contracts even if the reason it couldn't be fulfilled was a fast-spreading virus. I'll always look to save money on my trips and while that once included booking prepaid hotel stays, the flexibility gained from a fully cancelable stay is worth the extra charge. As the old saying goes, losses loom larger than gains so I'm seeking to minimize potential losses by paying more up-front. If a hotel offers same-day or 24-hour cancellation and the stay is looking to be inevitable, the option to do a last-minute switch to the prepaid option is always there and can save you some money. I'll no longer book accommodations on third-party booking sites and would rather deal with hotels directly in case something goes wrong. A hotel room. August_0802/Shutterstock In the past, I saw no problem booking with websites like Expedia, Booking.com, and Hotels.com for hotel stays as they are reputable, have good loyalty programs, and I never had a problem. This go around, however, was another story. Once travel restrictions were put into place, I immediately called the third-party booking site that I had made my hotel reservation with and the received a message stating that there was a technical glitch that prevented the site from taking more calls. This was the case for about a week. When I did finally get someone on the phone, the resolution process took a week as the site was inundated with similar requests. In the future, I'd rather take my chances with the hotel directly and cut out the middle man, especially as the benefit of booking through a third-party is often negligible. I'll always keep a credit card until all trips I've booked on it are completed. Credit cards. Joe Raedle/Getty Images I had booked the trip before I became financially diverse in terms of the amount of credit and debit cards I had in my wallet. At the time, I was only using one credit card but was considering investing in more worthwhile cards that offered more benefits. I ultimately settled on the Chase Sapphire Reserve and wasn't too keen on keeping my original credit card. About a month before the trip, I had firm intention to cancel the card but figured I'd wait just to make sure I didn't get hit with any surprise payments that would incur a balance after I canceled as that could lower my credit score. I didn't even think about my trip being put on the card when I booked 10 months prior. When I went to go cancel my trip, I was told the funds would be refunded back to that card and I breathed a sigh of relief for not canceling the card earlier. Had I canceled the card, I would've had worked extensively with the credit card company to get that money refunded, ultimately delaying the amount of time it would take to be made whole. I'll no longer book a trip on a credit card for no reason when I can put the cost on a debit card. Chase Sapphire credit cards. Shayanne Gal/Business Insider Most people put big trips on credit cards as it offers more time to pay off the large expense, offers travel protection, or earns points, which are all valid reasons. I learned the hard way, however, that if there's no real reason to put a trip on a credit card, besides building credit, it's better off going on a debit card. After canceling my flight tickets to Europe on a credit card that the only benefit I received was 1% cash-back, I was left with a negative $300 balance in my credit card account. I had two options, either pay down the negative balance by putting most of my charges on the card or work with my credit company to get a check for the balance, both ways would delay getting whole again. While my future bookings will go on my new credit card that offers genuine travel protection and assistance, those without notable travel perks should stick to booking on a debit card if the price allows. I'll pay more to fly an airline with a US phone line. A Ryanair aircraft taxis behind an easyJet aircraft at Manchester Airport in Manchester, UK. REUTERS/Andrew Yates I had booked travel within Spain and neighboring countries on a low-cost European airline that doesn't operate to the US and thus, doesn't have a US phone number or booking center. While this wasn't a problem in the days leading up to the trip, it became a huge problem when I tried to go cancel the flight and could only ring a UK-based phone number. The rate for the call would've been $.25/minute on Google Voice, which would add up if I was on hold for too long or if wait times were longer, which they were in the weeks following the shutdown of US-Europe travel. The price difference to take the Spanish national airlines, which had a toll-free US number, was around $20 but, again, it would have been worth it in the end for peace of mind. I couldn't have predicted that the world would be engulfed in a pandemic when I booked my trip for March 2020 back in June 2019 but now that I know these things can happen, I'll be booking my travel differently from now on. Read the original article on Business Insider The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) under the Union Home Ministry has said that the manufacturing units which will restart after the Covid-19 lockdown ends, should consider the first week as the trial period. Due to several weeks of lockdown and the closure of industrial units during the lockdown period, it is possible that some of the operators might not have followed the established SOP. As a result, some of the manufacturing facilities, pipelines, valves, etc. may have residual chemicals, which may pose risk, the NDMA said in a letter to states. While restarting the unit, consider the first week as the trial or test run period; ensure all safety protocols; and not try to achieve high production targets, it added. The order also said that state governments should be prepared to implement a disaster management plan for major accidental hazard units. To minimise the risk, it is important that employees who work on specific equipment are sensitised and made aware of the need to identify abnormalities like strange sounds or smell, exposed wires, vibrations, leaks, smoke, abnormal wobbling, irregular grinding or other potentially hazardous signs which indicate the need for an immediate maintenance or if required shutdown, the NDMA said. It also said that factories should ensure 24-hour sanitisation, especially in the common areas that include lunch rooms and common tables which will have to be wiped clean with disinfectants after every single use. For accommodation, sanitisation needs to be performed regularly to ensure worker safety and reduce spread of contamination, the guideline further said. The order has been sent to all the state chief secretaries after gas leak at LG Polymers plant in Andhra Pradeshs Visakhapatnam in which 11 people were killed. The gas leak happened before dawn, affecting villages near the factory. About 1,000 people were admitted to the hospitals with breathing difficulties. Chinese Student Future Ruined After Traveling Back to China A Chinese student studying abroad in Italy recently posted online about his recent ordeals. Hoping to escape the virus, he flew back to China but was mysteriously infected with the CCP virus while being quarantined in Shanghai. Without his consent, the hotel he was quarantined in destroyed his personal belongings, including his passport, visa, his receipt to apply for the Italian residence permit, his enrollment documents to attend graduate school in September, an iPad that stored his illustrations, cash in Euros, as well as other important personal assets. Without legal documents to enter Italy, his study abroad plans have come to an abrupt stop. In the video, the student complained: Now, I cannot go back to Italy, because I have no passport. My school documents were all inside as well. Now I cannot go to school. Netizens expressed that if global tensions rise over the next year, and if Western countries refuse to admit Chinese students into their borders, this students study abroad dream would really be dead. Independent China observer Gu He said, He flew home, believing in the CCPs propaganda that China is in better condition, or that Chinas medical treatments are superior to those of other countries. As a result, he only has himself to blame for getting infected with the CCP virus. Not having a clear understanding of the situation and the nature of the CCP will indeed have a big impact on his life and his future. Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, who was admitted in a private hospital in Raipur after suffering a cardiac arrest, has slipped into a coma, a senior doctor attending him said on Sunday. Jogi's neurological activity is "almost nil" and he is on ventilator support at the Shree Narayana Hospital, where the 74-year-old Janata Congress Chhattisgarh-J head was admitted on Saturday afternoon after he fell unconscious at his residence, he said. "His heart functioning is normal at the moment. The blood pressure has been controlled by drugs. But there was disruption in oxygen supply to his brain after the respiratory arrest yesterday, that possibly led to damage to his brain. In medical parlance it is called hypoxia," the hospital's medical director Dr Sunil Khemka said in a bulletin. "As of now, Jogi's neurological activity is almost nil. In simple words, we can say he has slipped into coma. He is on ventilator. We are making all efforts to improve his health, but the situation is worrisome at present," he said. In the next 48 hours, it will be assessed how Jogi's body is responding to medicines, the official said, adding that the leader is being treated by a team of eight specialist doctors. A bureaucrat-turned-politician, Jogi, currently an MLA from Marwahi seat, served as the first chief minister of Chhattisgarh from November 2000 to November 2003 in the then Congress government, after the formation of the state. He parted ways with the Congress in 2016 after he and Amit Jogi got embroiled in a controversy over the alleged fixing of bypoll to Antagarh seat in Kanker district in 2014. He subsequently formed his own outfit JCC-J. Despite a chilly start to the day, at least three New Jerseys state parks hit capacity early on Mothers Day on the second weekend parks were reopened from weeks-long coronavirus closures. Ringwood State Park (Skylands Section), Ramapo Mountain State Forest and Norvin Green State Forest, all in Bergen and Passaic counties, hit capacity by noon on Sunday and the parking lots were closed, park officials said. Since Gov. Phil Murphy lifted closures on state and county parks last weekend, families have flocked to outdoor parks on sunny days for a rare breath of fresh air amid the coronavirus. Parking at state parks is limited to 50% capacity and visitors will be turned away when capacity is reached. Park officials are asking people to keep their stays short and face coverings are recommended, but not required. Some parks have reopened after hitting capacity as visitors left. PARK STATUS UPDATE - updated 12:00 p.m. The following areas are FILLED TO CAPACITY and parking lots are CLOSED: -... Posted by New Jersey State Parks, Forests & Historic Sites on Sunday, May 10, 2020 New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Catherine McCabe said state parks experienced extremely high usage over the first weekend and reminded visitors to follow six-foot social distancing guidelines, wear face coverings and avoid picnicking, setting up chairs or going swimming. All parks facilities and bathrooms remain closed. She also suggested only visiting parks alone or with immediate family and going to the one closest to home. This is critical to the success of the States continuing efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19," McCabe said. Please cooperate with park police and staff to help keep us all safe, and to ensure that we all can continue to enjoy New Jerseys beautiful outdoor spaces at a time when we need them most. Sunny skies and warm weather last weekend also led to large crowds at parks on the first weekend coronavirus closures were lifted across New Jersey. Eight state parks were overrun and Corsons Inlet in Cape May County was shut down due to excessive usage and lack of adherence to social distancing," the DEP said. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo. (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Many states are racing to reopen their economies before measures such as testing, contact tracing and full-time mask-wearing are in place. But the one of biggest economic effects of a hasty end of lockdowns adopted to limit the spread of the coronavirus wont be to save businesses; it will be to kick people off of desperately needed government assistance. While almost all other developed nations are seeing their new Covid-19 cases decline as a result of lockdowns and other public-health measures, the U.S. has only managed to reach a plateau. State-by-state data paints an even grimmer picture with infections and deaths falling in the hard-hit New York City metro area but rising elsewhere.In this dire situation, it would seem imprudent to lift lockdowns nationwide. Although a few states -- Alaska, Hawaii and a handful of others -- have low case growth, copious testing and teams of contact tracers standing ready to catch outbreaks before they can spread, most are not ready yet. And in fact, most Americans want government to wait before reopening: Proponents of reopening paint it as a choice between human lives and the economy. If tens or hundreds of thousands of Americans die so that the economy can live, so be it. But this probably is a false choice. A premature reopening is unlikely to resuscitate the economy, because lockdowns arent the biggest factor keeping people in their houses. The biggest factor is simply fear of the virus itself. Most states began closing schools and large public events about March 15, but didnt issue stay-at-home orders until a week or so later. But by that time, restaurant traffic nationwide had collapsed: The obvious explanation is that the same fear that drove public pressure for states to adopt lockdowns also kept people at home. Nor has this fear dissipated as the outbreak has continued. A recent CBS News poll found that even if stay-at-home orders were lifted, 48% of Americans wouldnt return to public places until the outbreak is over, while an additional 39% say it would depend on the course of the outbreak. A large majority 71% said they wouldnt be comfortable going to a bar or restaurant. Story continues This widespread wariness will be devastating for any business that relies on foot traffic. Restaurants and shops have to pay monthly rent and other costs that dont depend on the amount of business they do. Very few brick-and-mortar businesses can survive a 70% decline in patronage. On top of this, it will be hard for many of these businesses to find workers willing to tolerate the increased risks without large increases in pay. Already, workers at meat-packing plants, which tend to be among the hardest-hit workplaces, are quitting as the plants reopen. Leaders intent on reopening might be able to force workers back to their jobs by canceling their unemployment checks. For example, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds recently declared that workers not returning to the job because they're afraid of getting sick would be treated as having quit, and they would lose the unemployment benefits that now are their economic lifeline. Other states have made similar threats. Giving workers a no-win choice between abject poverty and mortal danger will force some back to factories, stores and offices. But that doesnt mean that there will be much work for them to do. Consumers cant be forced to shop or dine out at gunpoint. As both polls and restaurant reservation data show, as long as the coronavirus is still running rampant, Americans will continue to cook at home, order goods online, cut their own hair, watch Netflix instead of going to the movies and so on. And with unemployment checks canceled, demand for local services will tumble even more. Meanwhile, if infections begin to accelerate again, consumer fear will become more deeply entrenched. In other words, premature reopenings may well hurt state economies instead of helping them. So why are governors doing it? One possibility is that for some conservative leaders, withholding government benefits for workers, consumers and businesses is a goal in and of itself. Governors such as Reynolds might be simply misinformed about the choices they face, but they might be motivated by a principled opposition to government payouts. This would be a terrible reason to reopen. Small-government principles are not worth the loss of both citizens lives and their economic well-being. Instead, states should maintain and intensify lockdowns while racing to increase testing and hire contact tracers for those who test positive. A safe reopening is within reach, but it requires patience and discipline -- two qualities that seem sorely lacking in the U.S. today. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Noah Smith is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University, and he blogs at Noahpinion. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. '... are the deep ruts and fissures in the rotting fabric of our cities and the incompetence of elected leaders and administrators,' notes Sunil Sethi. IMAGE: People maintain physical distancing to collect grain in Mumbai. Photograph: Arun Patil Here's a small anecdote that sums up the rising panic at two ends of the social spectrum. A friend's daughter, a banking professional, began to worry a few days into the lockdown that her car's battery may be run down and decided to take it for a short drive in her neighbourhood. Like most parts of metropolitan India, even well-heeled, gated areas (termed 'posh localities' by real estate agents) are serviced by slums in the vicinity, teeming with skilled and unskilled labour comprising domestic workers, tradespeople, street vendors, rag pickers, and criminal elements. No sooner had the young woman hit the main road that runs along a basti on elevated ground than she found a group of people come rushing down to surround her car. Slowing down to a stop, she asked what they wanted. "Food," they said. "Roti chahiye." They hammered on her windows and bonnet, some demanding money while others importuning for intervention with the authorities. "Didi, kuch madad karo". As she reached in her wallet to give some money, a young man thrust his hand through the window and tried to snatch her cell phone. At this the woman panicked, hastily reversed her vehicle and raced back home. Later she wondered whether her panic was justified; or whether the sudden ambush (in broad daylight on an empty road) by a group of slum dwellers was driven by the distress of genuine hunger or by thieving vagrants. What the extended lockdown has brought into harsh view are the precarious levels of urban existence. Most welfare schemes over the years (from cash transfers in banks to mandatory employment) have focused on the rural poor, tragically ignoring huge pockets of urban poverty. Suddenly evicted from jobs and homes, they now constitute an unmitigated 'migrants crisis' -- the thousands breaking cordons of quarantine shelters in Delhi, Agra, or Bareilly, spilling out in mass protest on the streets of Surat, waiting for phantom trains at Bandra, and risking life and limb on highway treks to remote villages. The further tragedy is that policymakers, statisticians, and social scientists are at sixes and sevens as to the numbers, geographical distribution, place of origin, and profile of this vast workforce. According to one estimate, there may be a shifting mass of 4 million unskilled casual labour in Delhi alone. We know, for instance, that many powerloom workers in Gujarat's textile industry are migrants from Odisha, but so are most plumbers in my neck of the woods in south Delhi. IMAGE: Labourers load wheat sacks in Bathinda. Photograph: PTI Photo Where varied social and economic groups from diverse regions generally lived in acceptable levels of adjustment in cities, a major fallout of the lockdown is that they are now increasingly at each other's throats. The daily instances of confrontation with police, violence against health workers, and fights over food and water suggest a deeper malaise, an alienation of Brechtian proportions. Among others, Rajendran Narayanan of the Stranded Workers Action Network says distress calls from half a dozen states indicate "huge levels of deprivation" and endemic food shortages four weeks into the lockdown. However, there are also reports of migrants rejecting food in detention because it was not home-cooked or not to their taste. With the Food Corporation's depots brimming with surplus grain, and chief ministers such as Arvind Kejriwal denying any food shortage, the roadblocks, quite literally, are due to dismal coordination between the Centre and states to speedily transport food to those in dire need. If these distribution failures are unresolved, food riots will become a reality. The enforced incarceration has intensified levels of anxiety, frustration, and aggression all round. Infected patients attacking hospital staff in many places are as much a panic response as the police showing the stick to rule-breakers. Doctors and nurses of Delhi's Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan Hospital, a dedicated COVID-19 facility, protested en masse at a patient's persistent abusive behaviour. The media too has succumbed to the pressure of job losses, wage cuts, hampered mobility, and dependence on rumour and hearsay to churn out unverified stories. The most grievous instance was the 2,000 migrants who gathered at Mumbai's Bandra station on hearing the baseless news that trains would ferry them back to their states. And a piquant instance of personal injury was a false TV report announcing the death of an army officer from COVID-19. 'Idiotic people I am very much alive. I am Major Ranjit Singh (Veteran), President Defence Colony Welfare Association. Apologise or be prepared to be sued', tweeted the officer, aghast. Later, he graciously forgave the reporter 'working under stress during these trying days'. As large swathes of the country are discovering, coronavirus is no great leveller, impervious to privilege or deprivation. What the scourge of COVID-19 has exposed are the deep ruts and fissures in the rotting fabric of our cities and the incompetence of elected leaders and administrators. ALBANY New York will no longer allow hospitals to discharge patients to nursing homes unless they test negative for COVID-19, and staffers in those facilities must also be tested for the virus twice a week, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Sunday. The additional protocol comes as the Cuomo administration has faced severe backlash for its handling of the pandemic in nursing homes, where the governor has said the coronavirus spreads "like fire through dry grass." If a nursing home cannot care for someone sick with the coronavirus for any reason including a lack of supplies or an inability to maintain social distancing they must transfer that person to another facility or hospital, or risk losing their license, Cuomo said. "This virus uses nursing homes," the governor said at a Capitol press briefing. "They are ground zero. They are the vulnerable population in the vulnerable location." The state has been under fire for its policies relating to the spread of the coronavirus in nursing homes, for more than a month requiring the care facilities to continue accepting COVID-19 patients. Officials had also implemented and then rescinded a policy allowing COVID-positive, but asymptomatic, employees to continue working in nursing homes. New York has seen an increasing number of fatalities in nursing homes, even as the state's overall daily death toll declines, with 43 residents succumbing to the virus on Saturday. The state also began reporting presumed coronavirus deaths in nursing homes and adult care facilities last week, disclosing 1,700 new fatalities in those facilities. But Cuomo also noted on Sunday that New York has the highest nursing home population in the United States, with 101,518 residents but has the nation's 34th-highest percentage of COVID-19 deaths in such facilities. About 12 percent of all coronavirus deaths in New York have occurred in nursing homes, compared to states like West Virginia and Minnesota, where those facilities account for 81 and 80 percent of fatalities, respectively. "If they cannot provide the appropriate care, they have to call the Department of Health, and let's get that resident into an appropriate facility," Cuomo said, adding that nursing homes have an obligation to keep their residents safe. "We have the facilities. We have the beds. It's not like we're in a situation where there's no option." All nursing home administrators must submit a certificate of compliance and a plan to the state by Friday detailing how they will abide by the testing requirement, the governor's office said in a prepared statement. Any facility that does not adhere to the new mandates may have its operating certificate suspended or revoked, and it may also have to pay a $2,000 fine for each day there are violations. The latest state data reports 43 deaths both confirmed and presumed at nursing homes and adult care facilities in the four central Capital Region counties. The majority have occurred in Albany County, but six deaths were in Rensselaer, where County Executive Steve McLaughlin wrote on Twitter Saturday night that he has repeatedly asked state officials to transfer COVID-positive patients out of Diamond Hill Nursing and Rehabilitation Center but has not received a response. Four deaths have occurred in the facility, according to state data, and McLaughlin said there were 17 new infections there on Saturday. Cuomo senior adviser Rich Azzopardi quickly responded on Twitter with a note from Health Department Commissioner Howard Zucker, who said he had offered assistance to Diamond Hill, but facility leaders said they had enough supplies and no need to transfer patients. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. "NYS DOH stands ready to assist with all of your patient and staffing needs, and please call me directly should you need any help whatsoever, including the need to move any residents out of the facility," Zucker wrote to the nursing home. The total number of coronavirus hospitalizations and intubations declined on Saturday, as did new hospitalizations, which clocked in at 521 about the same number it had been on March 20, near the start of the crisis. Daily deaths dropped on Saturday to 207, the first significant drop in about a week, as deaths held steady in the low- to mid-200s for several days. "All of this work, all of this progress of turning that tide, of reducing the rate of infection that's all thanks to New Yorkers and what New Yorkers did," Cuomo said, promising an update Monday on reopening some regions of New York. The governor also provided new information on Sunday on the state's investigation into a mysterious illness in children that may be related to the coronavirus. The state Department of Health is investigating up to 85 cases of the illness, which presents symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease or toxic-shock syndrome. Three children have died, and the department is investigating an additional two deaths. New York is issuing a notice to all 49 other state health departments nationwide to advise them of the situation, he said. Cuomo also said the state is looking into a new drug therapy, Remdesivir, that may help coronavirus patients recover more quickly. New York is treating 2,900 people at 15 hospitals, he said, with guidance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Nursing home residents or workers at the facilities account for one-third of all US coronavirus deaths, a new reports shows. A New York Times database shows that at least 25,600 residents and workers at US nursing homes or long-term care facilities for the elderly have died from coronavirus as of Saturday. More than 143,000 people were infected with coronavirus at about 7,500 facilities, according to statistics gathered by the newspaper. There are currently at least 1,346,336 cases of coronavirus in the U.S. and 79,814 deaths. More than 25,600 nursing home residents or workers have died from coronavirus in the US, accounting for one-third of all coronavirus deaths in the country. A patient is seen being loaded into a Senior Care ambulance bound for the hospital in Brooklyn, New York Long-term care facility deaths included those that occurred at assisted-living facilities, memory care facilities, retirement and senior communities and rehabilitation facilities. So, although only 11 per cent of all US coronavirus cases have occurred at facilities for elderly residents, infections stemming from living or working at elderly-care locations accounted for 33 per cent of all coronavirus deaths. An evaluation of state-by-state coronavirus infection and death statistics shows that fatalities of both residents and workers are responsible for more than half of 12 states' total virus deaths. In Massachusetts, there were 15,228 coronvirus cases reported at 466 nursing or long-term care facilities. Of that number, 2,739 people died, accounting for 58 per cent of the state's overall death toll. Although West Virginia had a relatively low 328 reported coronavirus cases at 27 elderly and long-term care facilities, the 43 deaths from the virus accounted for 81 per cent of the state's total coronavirus deaths. TOP TEN STATES FOR DEATHS AND CASES IN LONG-TERM CARE FACILITIES State Facilities Cases Deaths Share of state deaths NY 412 5,292 5,292 20% NJ 518 26,031 4,825 53% MA 466 15,560 2,837 59% PA 530 12,844 2,518 66% CT 219 6,468 1,627 55% IL 410 11,437 1,553 46% CA 525 9,348 998 37% MD 211 6,322 804 50% LA 269 3,772 784 36% GA 374 6,072 672 49% -New York Times Note: In New York, the state only reports the number of people who have died - not the amount of overall infections Advertisement The New York Times based these figures off of official confirmations obtained by states, counties and the facilities themselves, and are said to 'almost certainly represent an undercount of the true' death toll. The newspaper's statistics revealed that about 800 of 3,100 US counties have experienced at least one coronavirus case tied back to a long-term care facility for the elderly. The elderly are considered high-risk for catching coronavirus and dying from complications associated with the virus, due to often having underlying health conditions. Deaths of residents or workers at nursing homes and long-term care facilities in New York State - the epicenter of the US coronavirus outbreak - accounted for only 20 per cent of the overall death toll. The New York Times' analysis shows that 5,292 people were reported to have died from coronavirus across 414 facilities. New York State's nursing home-related death toll - more than 5,000 - is one-fifth of the country's overall number of deaths at nursing homes. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (on April 24) has been criticized over that number It's unclear how many overall infections occurred at those facilities, however, as the state doesn't report that figure, the newspaper said. Nonetheless, New York State's statistics account for more than a fifth of the 25,600 coronavirus deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. The death toll at those New York State facilities has been increasing by an average of 20 to 25 deaths a day for the past few weeks, according to a count by the Associated Press. 'The numbers, the deaths keep ticking up,' said MaryDel Wypych, an advocate for older adults in the Rochester area. 'It's just very frustrating.' The figures have resulted in New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo - who has won bipartisan praise for rallying supplies for his ravaged hospitals and helping slow the coronavirus - now coming under increasing criticism for not bringing that same level of commitment to a problem that has so far stymied him: nursing homes. In part-lecture, part-cheerleading briefings that have made him a Democratic counter to President Donald Trump, Cuomo has often seemed dismissive and resigned to defeat when asked about his state leading the nation in nursing home deaths. 'Weve tried everything to keep it out of a nursing home, but its virtually impossible,' Cuomo told reporters. 'Now is not the best time to put your mother in a nursing home. That is a fact.' Residents relatives, health care watchdogs and lawmakers from both parties cite problems with testing and transparency that have prevented officials - and the public - from grasping the full scale of the catastrophe. And they are second-guessing a state directive that requires nursing homes take on new patients infected with COVID-19 - an order they say accelerated outbreaks in facilities that are prime breeding grounds for infectious diseases. 'The way this has been handled by the state is totally irresponsible, negligent and stupid,' said Elaine Mazzotta, a nurse whose mother died last month of suspected COVID-19 at a Long Island nursing home. 'They knew better. They shouldnt have sent these people into nursing homes.' Cuomo faced criticism at a recent briefing for saying that providing masks and gowns to nursing homes is 'not our job' because the homes are privately owned. 'It was such an insensitive thing to say,' said state Assemblyman Ron Kim, a Queens Democrat who noted that it wasnt until just this past week that New York and neighboring states announced a plan to combine forces to buy protective gear and medical supplies for nursing homes. 'If we had focused on that early on,' he said, 'we could have saved a lot of lives.' A Brooklyn nursing home official said he asked state health officials if they could bring suspected coronavirus patients to the hospital ship Comfort (pictured) in New York City Officials told the nursing home official that suspected elderly coronavirus patients could not be taken to the hospital ship or to the Javits convention center field hospital (pictured) Cuomos administration defended its response to the crisis, saying it has provided more than 10 million pieces of protective equipment to nursing homes and created a database of 95,000 workers who have helped out in hundreds of New York homes. 'This was an overwhelming situation for everyone,' said Jim Malatras, who serves on the governors COVID-19 task force. 'There were deaths and its unfortunate. But it doesnt mean we werent aggressive.' One key criticism is that New York took weeks after the first known care home outbreaks to begin publicly reporting the number of deaths in individual homes - and still doesnt report the number of cases. By the time New York began disclosing the deaths in the middle of last month, the state had several major outbreaks with at least 40 deaths each, most of which were a surprise to the surrounding communities and even some family members. 'They should have announced to the public: `We have a problem in nursing homes. Were going to help them, but you need to know where it is,' said former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey, a Republican who now heads the nonprofit Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. 'Instead, they took the opposite tack: They hid it.' Further, there has been a lack of testing in several recent New York outbreaks, including one that killed 98 residents, many of whom died with COVID-19 symptoms without ever being tested. Unlike West Virginia, New York has not mandated testing in its more than 1,150 nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Nor has Cuomo followed the lead of such states as Maryland, Florida, Tennessee and Wisconsin in dispatching National Guard teams to homes to conduct testing, triage and some care. To be sure, its difficult to gauge the impact of such actions. While those states reported fewer nursing home deaths than New York, several have a larger share of nursing home deaths out of their state's totals than New York's 25 percent. 'No state is doing even close to an adequate job,' said Elaine Ryan, AARPs vice president for state advocacy. New York has faced particular scrutiny for a March 25 state health department directive requiring nursing homes to take recovering coronavirus patients. 'A number of nursing homes have felt constrained by the order and admitted hospital discharged patients without knowing what their COVID status was,' said Chris Laxton, executive director of the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. 'This order made an already difficult situation almost impossible.' The order, similar to one in neighboring New Jersey, was intended to help free up hospital beds for the sickest patients as cases surged. But critics have suggested nursing homes were already overwhelmed and a better solution might have been sending them to the virtually empty Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, which was retrofitted to treat COVID-19 patients, or an even less utilized Navy hospital ship that has since left Manhattan. As the virus was racing through his nursing home, the head of Brooklyns Cobble Hill Health Center frantically emailed state health officials April 9 asking just that. 'Is there a way for us to send our suspected covid cases to the Javitz center or the ship?' Donny Tuchman wrote. Tuchman said he was denied permission. Eventually, more than 50 residents at his home would die. Added the lawmaker Kim: 'We could have figured out how to isolate these folks. We failed to do that.' Rich Azzopardi, a senior advisor to Cuomo, said controversy over use of the convention center and the hospital ship is a 'red herring' because patients discharged to nursing homes were 'outside of what the feds would accept' at those facilities. A state Health Department spokeswoman added the state is not tracking how many COVID-infected patients were admitted to nursing homes under the directive but homes should not take on new patients if they are 'not medically prepared' to meet their needs. 'Throwing in new residents who may or may not have been stable at that point could not possibly have been to the benefit of any facility,' said Dr. Roy Goldberg, medical director of the Kings Harbor Multicare Center, a nursing home in the Bronx that has seen 56 deaths. Tasnim news agency in Iran says some foreign media and analysts got a tweet by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei wrong and portrayed it as if he was prepared to make peace with the United States. The IRGC-linked news agency said that the interpretation about the tweet in praise of Imam Hassan, the second Shiite Imam, as a peace-maker was biased. Imam Hassan is known in the history of the Shiites for making a peace deal with his enemies, while his brother the non-compromising Imam Hussain was "martyred" in the course of a clash with his enemies. Meanwhile, Tasnim charged that misinterpreting Khamenei's words would be an act of "treason" in the country's current situation. Many on social media recirculated the tweet from Khameni's accounts believing it is a move to signal his readiness to negotiate with the United States. Tasnim explained that the tweet was taken from an old speech by Khamenei. Some Iran experts had explained on Twitter that Khamenei does not personally tweet and probably a social media aide had chosen to re-publish an old statement from him. Ayatollah Khamenei translated a book about Imam Hassan and his peace deal in 1977 and used this example when he came up with the idea of heroic flexibility, ahead of 2015 nuclear deal with world power. Saturday May 9 coincided with Imam Hassan's birthday and this justified the re-publishing of the old comment from Khamenei's website. In Pics: PM Modi to inaugurate new campus of Classical Tamil institute in Chennai today India has everything needed to be hub for medical tourism: PM Modi COVID-19: Tamil Nadu overtakes Delhi, becomes third worst-hit state in India India oi-Deepika S Chennai, May 10: Tamil Nadu has become the third-worst coronavirus-hit state in the country, surpassing Delhi after reporting over 7,200 cases. Maharashtra tops the list with over 20,200 cases and at least 779 deaths, followed by Gujarat with around 7,800 cases. Delhi with nearly 7,000 cases, has slipped to the fourth spot. The spike in cases was reported from Chennai, where the vegetable and fruit wholesale market at Koyembedu was declared a hotspot. More than 1,500 positive cases were found to be linked to the market. Tamil Nadu eases lockdown restrictions in non-containment zones from Monday Of the total cases in Tamil Nadu, 1,959 patients have recovered and 47 have died. Tamil Nadu has announced major relaxation in lockdown in non-containment areas. While across the state, private offices and tea shops will be allowed to open. Shops selling essential items, fruits and vegetables will now be open in the state capital from 6 am to 7 pm. Earlier groceries, fruits and vegetable shops would close by 1 pm. Standalone and neighbourhood shops can remain open between 10.30 am and 6 pm; earlier they were allowed to open from 11 am to 5 pm. Private establishments in the city can work with 33 per cent work force between 10.30 am and 6 pm. Hotspot Chennai remains shut as Tamil Nadu eases restrictions in non-containment areas Outside Chennai, shops selling essential items, grocery, fruits and vegetables can keep similar timings -- 6 am to 7 pm. Standalone and neighbourhood shops can open at 10 am and carry on till 6 pm. The Madras High Court last week ordered the state government to shut liquor shops over violation of its guidelines, allowing it to sell online. Among Omara's best known films is One Plus One Makes a Pharaohs Chocolate Cake, a documentary which follows a musical collaboration between Egyptian shaabi music artist Islam Chipsy and Swiss electronic musician Aisha Devi Egyptian filmmaker Marouan Omara will hold an online discussion on Thursday 14 May around the topic of "Borders as a source of creativity in filmmaking", held in cooperation with 6 Bab Sharq, a newly launched arts and culture space in Alexandria. Born in 1987, Omara is an Egyptian director, video artist and photographer. After studying filmmaking at the Art and Technology of Cinema Academy, he went on to obtain his Bachelor's degree in applied arts from Helwan University in 2011. He initially directed several short films, including Taxi in 2008, a film about the societal expectations placed on women, and The Doll, in 2011, a film about arranged marriage. His more recent works include the mid-length documentaries Crop (2013), Azziara (2015), and his film One Plus One Makes a Pharaohs Chocolate Cake, which had its premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival (2017). The film follows a musical collaboration between Egyptian shaabi music artist Islam Chipsy and Swiss electronic musician Aisha Devi. Omara worked as a film instructor at the German University in Cairo and an adjunct professor for film production at the American University in Cairo. He participated as a founder/advisor for many other film educational programs such as CineDelta and since 2017, Omara is the managing director of the Regional Conference for Arab Independent Cinema RCAIC. To attend the meeting, please fill out this form provided by 6 Bab Sharq. Read more about the discussion at the Facebook event. Programme: Thursday 14 May, 10pm Online discussion, fill this form to enrol. For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture Search Keywords: Short link: Pakistan on Sunday rejected top lawyer Harish Salves contention that it hadnt complied with the International Court of Justices (ICJ) verdict in the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav, and described his allegations as baseless and inaccurate. Salve, who was Indias lead counsel during the hearing of Jadhavs case at the ICJ, said during an online lecture on May 3 that Pakistan hasnt responded to several overtures from the Indian side to free the former naval officer on humanitarian grounds. Salve also said Pakistan has not complied with the courts ruling to stay Jadhavs execution and review his conviction. Foreign Office spokesperson Aisha Farooqui responded on Sunday by saying Pakistan rejects the baseless and inaccurate remarks by Salve. She said in a statement that Pakistan has fully complied with the ICJs judgement. We firmly reject the Indian counsels baseless and inaccurate assertion that Pakistan has not complied with the ICJs judgment in the case. Pakistan has fully complied with the judgment and remains committed to continue doing so as the case proceeds further, she said. Pakistan has granted India consular access to commander Jadhav and is processing measures for effective review and reconsideration as per the guidelines provided by ICJ in its judgment, she added. Farooqui said it was regrettable that Salve made statements which misrepresent facts, adding Pakistan had abided by all its international obligations. There was no immediate response to Farooquis remarks from Indian officials. Jadhav was arrested by Pakistani security agencies in Balochistan in March 2016 and charged with involvement in spying. In April 2017, Pakistan announced he had been given the death sentence by a military court. Salve had also said during the online lection that Pakistan had refused to respond to queries about how it would carry out the ICJs ruling to review and reconsider Jadhavs case. I think we have reached a point where we have to now decide whether we want to go back to ICJ for consequential directions because Pakistan has not moved ahead, he had said. The ICJ ruled in July last year that Pakistan had violated Jadhavs rights under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and stayed his execution while calling on Islamabad to take all measures for an effective review and reconsideration of his conviction and sentence, including enacting appropriate legislation. India has rejected the allegations against Jadhav and said he was kidnapped by Pakistani operatives from the Iranian port of Chabahar, where he was running a business. Pakistan has so far granted consular access to Jadhav only once since his arrest in 2016. Around 50,000 coronavirus test samples had to be sent from the UK to the US after operational issues in the lab network led to delays in the system. The news came as the number of daily coronavirus tests fell below health secretary Matt Hancocks 100,000 target for a seventh day in a row. Following a report in the Sunday Telegraph, the Department of Health said sending swabs abroad is one of the contingencies to deal with so-called teething problems in a rapidly-expanded testing system. It is understood the test results will be validated back in the UK and communicated to patients as quickly as possible. The department said work has been undertaken to resolve the issues and capacity is quickly being restored. A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: The expansion of the UKs coronavirus testing network has involved setting up an entirely new Lighthouse lab network to process test swabs. When problems arise, we have contingencies in place which include creating extra temporary capacity for our labs or sending swabs abroad to partner labs for completion. Of course, our partner labs must match our high standards. The Sunday Telegraph reported the samples were airlifted to the US in chartered flights from Stansted airport. Earlier, at the daily Downing Street briefing it was confirmed 96,878 tests were conducted in the 24 hours to 9am on Saturday, down from 97,029 the day before. But health leaders said that they expected fluctuations in the figures, and that testing was still much higher than it was at the start of the outbreak. Deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said not much could be read into day-to-day variations. Speaking at the briefing, he added: We are now really at a high plateau, in the region of 100,000 tests per day. I dont think we can read too much into day-to-day variations, but the macro-picture is this is now at a much, much higher level than it ever was at the beginning of this crisis. Press Association Jesus replied, I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt you can say to the mountain, go throw yourself into the sea and it will be done. (Matthew 21:21) There isnt a Christian who doesnt have doubts about his or her faith. However, many of us are too proud to admit it. A lot of Christians would have those of us who do admit we occasionally succumb to doubt that we have some spiritual problem that needs to be fixed. The next time they try to punish you for your honesty, think about the above verse and ask them when the last time was that they threw a mountain into the sea. All Christians believe in God, but we dont always believe God. Thats why Jesus said, Because you have seen me, you have believed, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. (John 20:29) A supercell loomed near Quanah, Texas, as severe thunderstorms were forecast for the area on May 7. Justin Hughes captured timelapse footage of the storm near the border of Texas and Oklahoma. He shared the video to Twitter, writing in the caption that the supercell moved from southwestern Oklahoma and crossed the Red River into Texas. The National Weather Service warned of severe storms, heavy winds, and pingpong-ball-sized hail across areas of north Texas on the same date. Credit: Justin Hughes via Storyful Heather Locklear played the proud mother on Saturday when she celebrated her daughter's college graduation on Instagram. The 58-year-old actress shared her 22-year-old daughter Ava Sambora's accomplishment on Instagram while congratulating her. Because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Ava's graduation from Los Angeles' Loyola Marymount University had to be conducted virtually from home. So proud: Heather Locklear celebrates daughter Ava Sambora's cancelled college graduation as she posts on Instagram: 'Congrats baby girl!' Pretty in pink: Heather shared a photo from her home of her 22-year-old daughter's framed graduation photo next to a vase full of vibrant pink flowers Heather shared a photo from her home of her daughter's framed graduation photo next to a vase full of vibrant pink flowers. Ava was dressed in her graduation gown for the photo with a blue 'Class of 2020' stole over her shoulders. 'Congratulations baby girl!' Heather caption the photo. 'We are so proud.' Later, Heather shared a second picture from around the house featuring a life-size cardboard cutout of her daughter. Yum! Later, she shared a second picture from around the house featuring a life-size cardboard cutout of her daughter surrounded by an elegant white cake and swanky Veuve Clicquot champagne The cutout was surrounded by the same bouquet, an elegant white graduation cake decorated with pink frosted roses, and some refreshments including a bottle of fancy pink lemonade and some crisp Veuve Clicquot champagne. 'Yaaay!' she captioned it. Prior to the at-home ceremony, the Melrose Place star posted another photo of Ava in her graduation cap and long sweatshirt outside their home. 'Tomorrow is the big LMU graduation at home for my baby. Tune in for more tomorrow,' she wrote. The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills star Lisa Rinna joined in on the congratulatory comments with multiple clapping and heart emojis. Special day: Heather Locklear, 58, celebrated her daughter Ava Sambora's graduation on Instagram on Saturday with photos of her intimate party; pictured in 2013 Big day: Prior to the at-home ceremony, the Melrose Place star posted another photo of Ava in her graduation cap and long sweatshirt outside their home Heather and Ava have been quarantining together at home in Thousand Oaks, California, since the coronavirus pandemic picked up steam in the United States. She shares her daughter with Bon Jovi lead guitarist Richie Sambora, whom she was married to from 1994 to 2007, following her marriage to rocker Tommy Lee. The Spin City actress celebrated a year of sobriety last month, which came in the wake of an explosive confrontation with police officers in February 2018. When sheriff deputies entered her home after a domestic violence report, she kicked three of them and threatened to shoot them if they entered again. She was later sentenced to 30 days in a mental health treatment facility, though she seems to be on an upward trajectory now. : Seven people, including three who had arrivedfrom Abu Dhabi on May 7 in the repatriation flight from the gulf sector, tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, taking the total number of people under treatment for the virus in Kerala to 20. With this, five foreign returnees who reached the state from the gulf as part of the centre's 'Vande Matram' to bring back stranded Indians and expatriates in other countries,especially the GCC, due to the COVID-19 lockdown, has reached five. Days after the state had declared that it had flattened the curve, new cases were being reported. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, had on Saturday said the new cases were a "warning to those coming back from abroad and for other states to beon the alert." Ofthe seven fresh cases, three are from Wayanad, two from Thrissur and one each from Ernakulam and Malappuram, State Health Minister K K Shailaja said. "Two from Thrissur and one person from Malappuram reached the state on May 7 in the Abu Dhabi flight. Two persons from Wayanad contracted the disease through contact and one patient in Wayanad and one in Ernakulam had reached the state from Chennai," Shailaja said in a press release. Four positive cases were cured on Sunday and two are from Kannur and one each from Palakkad and Kasaragod. "With this, Kasaragod, which was once the hotspot of COVID-19 in Kerala has become free of positive cases now. Of the total 512 positive cases,489 people have been cured and discharged and currently 20 are under treatment in various districts," the minister said. As per the latest medical bulletin, at least 26,712 are under observation out of which 362 are in isolation wards of various hospitals across the state. The health department also informed that the state has till now sent 37,464 samples for testing. As of now, there are 33 hotspots in the Kerala. Presently,Wayanad has seven patients, which is the highest in the state followed by Kollam, Kannur and Ernakulam with three each cases. Thrissur has two cases and Malappuram and Kozhikode have one case each. Kerala was among the first states in India to report the deadly virus infection, but it has also earned global praise for having effectively tackled the crisis by being among the states with much higher recovery rates and much less spread so far. For several days in the recent weeks, the state had reported either nil or just 1-2 fresh cases. The state has also reported three deaths so far. Meanwhile, shops were shut in Kerala and vehicles were off the roads, as part of the Sunday lockdown imposed by the state government. Essential services were allowed to function. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BETHLEHEM Firefighters freed a horse from mud after a lengthy rescue effort Thursday morning. At 6:24 a.m., the Bethlehem Fire Department was dispatched for a animal rescue. Arriving units found a 2,000 pound horse, stuck up to its neck in mud in the middle of an old pond, according to fire officials. After a 2.5-hour rescue, the horse was removed from the mud unharmed, officials said. India will produce a record 700 million tonnes of coal in the current fiscal ending March 2021, helping cut down on imports, Coal Secretary Anil Jain said. India produced 602.14 million tonnes of coal in 2019-20 fiscal, marginally lower than 606 million tonnes output in the previous year. "We are on track to producing 700 million tonnes of coal in 2020-21 fiscal," Jain told PTI in an interview. This record output will help stop most of substitutable coal imports, he said. India imports 235 million tonnes of coal annually. About half of this is non-substitutable as they are tied to the power plant or user factories, but the rest can be cut down, he said. "We will able to cut substitutable coal imports with this rise in production," he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a target to expand the country's economy to USD 5 trillion by 2024, from USD 2.9 trillion currently, and reducing energy imports and harnessing domestic resources are key to meeting that goal. To meet the import reduction goal, state miner Coal India Ltd is targeting to raise its annual output to 1 billion tonnes by fiscal year 2024. Jain said FY20 coal production was lower than the target of 660 million tonnes because of flooding of a key coal mine. Power plants, which are key coal users, have stocks as high as 30-days due to the coronavirus lockdown,he said. The lockdown shut factories and offices, slashing electricity demand by about a quarter, thus affecting the use of coal and causing inventories to swell to record levels. Coal India Ltd has stocked up a record 75 million tonnes at its mines while power station inventories have surged to 44.7 million tonnes, the highest in data going back to 2008. The combined inventories are more than the two-month average of production at Coal India last fiscal. The demand for coal, he said, will pick up again after the lockdown is lifted. Jain said coal production in April was about 40 million tonnes, down from 45 million tonnes a year back. Coal's share in India's electricity generation is estimated to come down to 50 per cent by 2030 from about 72 per cent now. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Robert Price is a journalist for KGET-TV. His column appears here on Sundays; the views expressed are his own. Reach him at robertprice@kget.com or via Twitter: @stubblebuzz. China and the United States both supported a draft United Nations Security Council resolution confronting the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday and it was "shocking and regretful" that Washington changed its mind on Friday, a Chinese diplomat said. A US diplomat refuted the Chinese comment, saying there was no US agreement on the text. For more than six weeks the 15-member council has been trying to agree on a text that ultimately aims to back a March 23 call by UN chief Antonio Guterres for a ceasefire in global conflicts so the world can focus on the pandemic. But talks have been stymied by a stand-off between China and the United States over whether to mention the World Health Organization. The United States does not want a reference, China has insisted it be included, while some other members see the mention - or not - of WHO as a marginal issue, diplomats said. Washington has halted funding for the WHO, a UN agency, after President Donald Trump accused it of being "China-centric" and promoting China's "disinformation" about the outbreak, assertions the WHO denies. It appeared the Security Council had reached a compromise late on Thursday, diplomats said and according to the latest version of a French- and Tunisian drafted-resolution. Instead of naming the WHO, the draft referenced "specialized health agencies." The WHO is the only such agency. But the United States rejected that language on Friday, diplomats said, because it was an obvious reference to the Geneva-based WHO. "The United States had agreed to the compromise text and it's shocking and regretful that the US changed its position," said the Chinese diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, on Saturday, adding that China supported the draft. The US diplomat, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no US agreement on the text, which the US mission to the United Nations had sent to Washington for review on Thursday. Diplomats said that during negotiations both China and the United States had raised the prospect of a veto on the issue of whether WHO is mentioned or not. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by France, Russia, Britain, the United States or China to pass. A State Department spokesperson said on Friday the United States had worked constructively and accused China of repeatedly blocking compromises during negotiations. While the Security Council - charged with maintaining international peace and security - cannot do much to deal with the coronavirus itself, diplomats and analysts say it could have projected global unity by backing Guterres' ceasefire call. French UN Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere on Friday said "we are still trying to achieve a positive result and trying to see if there is a possible compromise." Australia will suffer a population slowdown as the coronavirus crisis discourages women from having children, leading to a slump in the birth rate that will drag down the economy. New figures show the nation's fertility rate will fall short of the Morrison government's ambitious budget forecasts amid an escalating political row over a steep dive in migration during the crisis. Pregnancies are expected to drop as couples remain wary of the crisis. Credit: The number of births was already falling in NSW, Victoria and Queensland before the pandemic forced millions of Australians out of work, leading experts to forecast bigger declines in the recession. Births fell by 2 per cent to 91,376 in NSW, by 0.2 per cent to 79,597 in Victoria and by 0.1 per cent to 62,184 in Queensland last calendar year. V Velayudham By Express News Service MALUR (KOLAR): Srivastava is just 22, but carries a big burden on his young shoulders. He is anxious about the well-being of his family members back in Patna, and with no source of income or livelihood, he thought it best to leave Bengaluru. And maybe return after three months, by which time he hopes the corona crisis would have blown over. This is what Srivastava, a cook at a restaurant in Domlur, told Central Range Inspector General of Police K V Sharath Chandra, as he waited at Malur station, to board a train to Bihar. Chandra was in Malur to inspect the arrangements made for the migrant workers leaving the state. On Saturday, around 1,206 migrant workers, including 100 women, left on the Patna train. Chandra told TNSE that a majority of people he interacted with just want to go home to their parents, wives and children, even if it meant spending money. Prashanth (32), a construction labourer in Bengaluru, and Upadhyay (41), a painter, said they came to Bengaluru to earn their livelihoods, but when the virus began to spread, they started getting anxious calls from their families, asking them to return. Chandra said that several migrants were happy that people had provided them with food and many house owners were accommodating too. Kolar SP Karthick Reddy, in association with some NGOs, had arranged packets of food, bananas and water bottles for the migrants. Interestingly, a few migrant workers have saved the police officials numbers, so they can call in case they need to, when and if they return to Karnataka. (With inputs from Rajesh Kumar) The daughter of a Filipino fisherman who has been rescued after 17 days adrift has thanked the Vietnamese authorities for helping to save her father. Anding Nadie Repil (fourth, right) and the Vietnamese fishermen who rescued him. Photo: Phan Kha The daughter of a Filipino fisherman who has been rescued after 17 days adrift has thanked the Vietnamese authorities and fishermen for helping to save her father. Anding Nadie Repil was thrown overboard after his boat collided tossing him into the ocean. He survived at sea for more than two weeks by holding on to a plastic can and eating seaweed, local reports say. After his miraculous rescue by Vietnamese fishermen, his daughter spoke of her immense gratitude to the men who saved her Dads life. Speaking exclusively to Viet Nam News, Mary Ann Sario Repil said she believed God guided the Vietnamese fishermen to find her father: We will be forever grateful for the kindness of all Vietnamese that helped and saved my father, she said. We are very thankful and feel relief. We cant imagine life without my father. He is the (best) father a daughter and son could ever wish for. We cried hard on the days we were looking for him. We couldn't even do something because of this pandemic, we are in a lockdown. So that we are very thankful that God find ways to guide and protect our father. God used Vietnamese fishermen to save our father. To all Vietnamese that helped and saved our father, you are all a hero. Her 52-year-old father has told the authorities he went fishing alone on March 19 on a small boat from the port of Candria in the Philippines. On the same day he set sail, Anding said he had fallen asleep when his boat was struck by a cargo ship, tossing him into the water around 25 miles off the coast of the Philippines. "I was wearing a life jacket, he has been quoted as saying. When the boat sank I could only hug a plastic can and began to drift." "On April 5, I thought I would perish at sea when a small Vietnamese boat appeared. But this small-capacity boat could not accommodate many people and it was heading out to sea for fishing, so the Vietnamese fishermen on board gave me a basket boat and some food. Twelve days later around 180 nautical miles off the coast of Quy Nhon City in central Binh inh Province he was picked up by another boat which took him ashore and handed him over to the authorities in Binh inh Province. Anding added: "When the Vietnamese fishermen rescued me, I was very touched and could only cry. I have a wife and four children, I have not contacted with them for so long. Now I only want to get home." The social media campaign started by Mary Ann Sario Repil after her father went missing at sea. A week after her father set sail, Mary Ann began a social media campaign in the hope of trying to find him. She created a poster and encouraged people to share it in the hope of finding her father alive. Now, thanks to the help of Viet Nam, her wish has come true. Vo inh Kha, deputy director of the Department of Foreign Affairs of Binh Dinh Province, told Tuoi Tre newspaper that after being rescued on April 17, Anding was taken care of by the provincial authorities and arranged to stay at a hotel in Quy Nhon City. He said: "Currently, Binh inh authorities has completed relevant procedures to hand over Anding Nadie Repil to the Philippines Embassy in Vietnam on May 12, according to the regulations. VNS Vu Thu Ha/Paul Kennedy Should concerns about future coronaviruses worry the world more than climate change, asks Maurice Gueret, who answers some questions about verrucae. Laws of motion Newton's third law of motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. His rules applied to classical mechanics, but it's wise to remember that everything we do, even with the best of intentions, may have unforeseen consequences down the road. When tobacco advertising was banned, the free spaces were taken up, in the main, by alcohol sponsors. When governments went all-out to protect acute hospital services during the Covid-19 crisis, it was poor and more vulnerable relations in the nursing-home sector that bore the brunt. It will be a few years before we learn all the lessons that this coronavirus can teach us. Perhaps the lazy political consensus of the last decade - that climate change poses humanity's greatest threat - is set to unravel. Dakota chicks Our current foe is a spiky little parasite from a family of viruses that first appeared on a North Dakota chicken farm in 1931. Vets will tell you that this was the first coronavirus to be identified. It affected young chicks in the first three weeks of their life. They became listless and gasped for breath as mucous collected in their lungs. This disease, known at the time as infectious bronchitis, spread readily among them, with a mortality rate variously estimated at between 40pc and 90pc. Then, in 1965, two doctors at the UK's Common Cold Research Unit isolated the first human coronavirus from the snot of a boy with an ordinary cold. They transferred it to the nasal passages of volunteers, who then also came down with colds. One generation on, we had deadly human coronaviruses - Sars first, then Mers, and now Covid-19 - all within the space of just 20 years. In memory of all those who have perished in the current wave, we surely owe it to them to be better prepared next time. We could start by ensuring we have all masks and protective gear, made to last, made to measure, and made in Ireland. Every care facility of ward size with more than 30 patients should have at least one permanent and on-site doctor. And we should get rid of the nonsense of running parallel health services on this island - one free for all and one for those with insurance. A civilised nation would insure every citizen's health and ensure they all receive the same timely care when they need it. Verruca acid A reader asked me to write about a less serious virus affecting her granddaughter. She has plantar warts on the soles of her feet. These can be unsightly, sore to walk on and difficult to treat. The common term is verruca, a Latin word deriving from 'a little hillock' or 'summit'. The causative bug is not a coronavirus, but a human papillomavirus that invades the sole and causes local proliferation of epidermis cells into a round, warty growth. Children and young adults are particularly susceptible, especially around swimming pools, showers and bathrooms. Verrucae should be covered with socks or bandages if one is sharing facilities in bare feet, and it's important not to share towels. Some die themselves without treatment. In my practice days, the weekly liquid-nitrogen clinic was a popular spot for freezing resistant ones. Traditional chemist remedies would be keratolytics, whose various doses of salicylic acid are used to dissolve warts. They often have 'sal' in the title. Occlusal solution is a strong one. Salactol paint and Salatac gel a bit milder. Over-the-counter freezing agents tend to use dimethyl ether and propane mixtures (DMEP) rather than the traditional and much colder liquid nitrogen that doctors use. The late Dr Dupont, dermatologist at Baggot Street Hospital, suggested avoiding drastic treatment in children. His book, Skin Disease - Fact and Fiction, suggests a keratolytic and a simple occlusion by an Elastoplast as enough to remove most verrucae slowly and painlessly. He had his very own verruca test. If sideways pressure on it was painful, he declared the wart to be actively growing. Body donation Finally, I'm sad to report that the Covid-19 crisis has put paid to the plans of some to donate their bodies to medical science after death. Until our universities reopen, anatomy schools will not be in a position to receive remains that had been bequeathed to them. On resumption, it's safe to assume that they will not accept remains of people who succumbed to Covid-19, now or in the future. But once universities are back to work, medical schools will welcome enquiries again. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has renewed his pledge to use all means available to extend a ban on conventional arms sales to Iran beyond October. Pompeo reiterated the vow in a statement on May 9 to mark the second anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers. U.S. President Donald withdrew the United States from the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), on May 8, 2018. Pompeo said since then the United States had built "the strongest sanctions in history and prevented Iran from funding and equipping terrorists with many billions of dollars." He also said Americans were safer and the Middle East more peaceful than they would have been if the United States had not withdrawn from the JCPOA, and he reiterated his long-standing position that the United States will never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Pompeo also referred to this week's 75th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, saying the United States and its allies stood together then to rid the world of the Nazis and their hateful ideology. "Today we face a grave challenge to regional peace from another rogue regime, and we again call on the international community to join us to stop the world's leading state sponsor of anti-Semitism," Pompeo said. The deal provided for Tehran to curb its nuclear program in return for the lifting of international sanctions. Trump called it "defective at its core" and after withdrawing from it reimposed harsh sanctions that have crippled Iran's economy. He has said he wants to force Iran to renegotiate the deal, arguing that the terms were not tough enough to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and agree curbs to its ballistic-missile program. Iran has refused, insisting that its nuclear program was strictly for civilian energy purposes, and has gradually rolled back its commitments under the accord. Pompeo first announced on April 29 that Washington now also wanted to extend the conventional weapons embargo and said he was "hopeful" the UN Security Council would prolong the restriction before it expires. Iranian President Hassan Rohani reacted by threatening a "crushing response" if the United States continued those efforts. By PTI CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh warned Pakistan on Saturday against its "persistent attempts" to spread narco-terrorism in India, asserting that the police force was "keeping a close watch" on anti-national activities across the border even during a crisis. "Our eyes are open to what Pakistan is doing," Singh said, hours after the NIA arrested a "notorious narco-terrorist" who acted as a conduit for Pakistan-based terror groups. The central agency said in a statement that it, along with the Punjab and Haryana police, arrested Ranjit Singh alias Cheeta, a resident of Amritsar, from Haryana. It said the investigation in a drug case against Singh showed Pakistan-based outfits were using narcotic trade to generate funds for terror activities in India. Assuring people that no matter how much the force has been busy with COVID duties, the Punjab chief minister said, the police were keeping a watch on the borders. "Pakistan is not letting up on its attempts to push drugs, weapons, and drug money despite the COVID crisis, clearly in an attempt to destabilize the state and disturb its peace, but we will not allow that to happen," he said. He congratulated the Punjab police, led by DGP Dinkar Gupta, for the arrest and the role played by his personnel in operations against Hizbul Mujahideen in Kashmir. He referred to the arrest of Hilal, a close associate of the banned group's operations commander Reyaz Naikoo, who was killed by security forces in Kashmir. From Punjab police to BSF, everyone was on their toes to defeat the nefarious designs of Pakistan, said the chief minister, adding the state police force was working in a sustained manner to ensure that terrorists do not get away with their wicked plans. Terrorists and gangsters had "probably thought they could use the gap created by the diversion of resources and police manpower to COVID duties to smuggle drugs and weapons to spread mayhem" in Punjab, but the Punjab police personnel were keeping a close eye on what was happening along the borders. "We will ensure that such anti-national elements are caught and put behind the bars, where they belong, he said, as per an official release here. After exiting the British royal family in early March 2020, many people expected that Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry would be laying low for some time. After all, the pair had spent the end of 2019 hiding out on Vancouver Island in Canada with their son, Archie Harrison. Therefore, amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, royal fans were stunned to learn that the Sussexes had fled Canada for the duchess hometown of Los Angeles, California. This was especially confusing considering the former senior royals plea for a more peaceful and low-key life. However, it turns out the Sussexes plan to move to LA was in place for quite some time. It was simply sped up due to the pandemic. In fact, they had a trusted friend by their side that helped them slip into the United States undetected. Prince Harry and Meghan Markles move to LA shocked everyone The Sussexes hope to launch their new Archewell brand, which apparently did not make sense to do while they were living in Canada. The pair also have a powerhouse Hollywood team at their disposal as they continue to sign on to projects that will help them become financially independent of the British royal family. Still, the royals livinh in LA still isnt sitting well with some people. They actually moved to CaliforniaI dont know why, its just so alien to me to think of the prince living here, Sharon Osbourne shared on The Talk. If they were fed up with the press in the UK, they are really going to be fed up with the press living in LA. I just think its so foreign. Im kind of disappointed, in a way, that Harry would end up here in LA. I hope they are going to move somewhere like Santa Barbara or something like that so that they can have somewhat of a normal existence. But if they are going to live in LA, right in the center, its going to be a nightmare for them with the press and the paparazzi. They would have no life at all. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have been staying at Tyler Perrys Beverly Hills mansion For now, the Sussexes have remained pretty low-key except when theyve been spotted out and about volunteering. Daily Mail is reporting that the pair ave been living in media mogul Tyler Perrys $18 million, Beverly Hills mansion. The couple and Perry were presumably connected through their mutual friend, Oprah Winfrey. The home sits on a hill within the Beverly Ridge Estates guard-gated community and boasts eight bedrooms and 12-bathrooms. Meghan and Harry have been extremely cautious to keep their base in LA under wraps, an insider told Daily Mail. Their team helped them choose the location for their transition to Los Angeles wisely. Beverly Ridge has its own guarded gate and Tylers property has a gate of its own which is watched by their security team. Beverly Ridge is an excellent place to keep out of view. The neighbors are mostly old money and mega-rich business types rather than show business gossips. It goes without saying that the location is stunning just one of the most beautiful and desirable areas in LA. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle used Tyler Perrys jet to secretly move to LA Not only is the Tyler Perry Studios mogul lending his home to the couple, but he also helped them get into the States undetected. According to Daily Mail, the couple borrowed Perrys private jet to move from Canada to LA. It was a well-planned operation that appears to have worked perfectly, a source explained. In order to remain incognito, Perrys $150 million jet left its Atlanta base at 1:35am on Saturday, March 14 on its way to pick up Harry, Meghan and one-year-old baby Archie. The Sussexes left Canada in the early morning before flying to a corporate airport in Portland, Oregon where they could go through customs and immigration undetected. From Portland, the pair flew to LAX where they could be in and out of the high profile airport quickly. They have a big support network [in Los Angeles], a source explained to The Sun. Its where their new team of Hollywood agents and PRs and business managers are based. Meghan has lots of friends there and, of course, her mum, Doria. The Plan International Ghana has observed that the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the country could have dire influence on teenage pregnancy and child marriage in the rural areas. It said the economic hardship that the pandemic has exerted on the people coupled with the closure of schools in the country could force parents to give off their children for marriage as an alternative source of income for the family. Mr Kamaldeen Iddrisu, the District Development Coordinator, Upper West Regional Programme Unit of Plan International Ghana, made the observation at a sensitisation forum at Wechiau at the weekend. Because of COVID-19, now economic activities are not going on as it used to be, so the people can be tempted to marry off their children so that they get money to do other things, he explained. Selected stakeholders including traditional authorities and Assembly Members attended the forum organised by the Upper West Regional Youth Parliament in partnership with the National Youth Authority and the Plan International Ghana. It was to sensitise the participants on the need for them to join forces towards the fight against teenage pregnancy and child marriage as the COVID-19 pandemic had increased the risk of twin occurrence. Mr Iddrisu said Plan International Ghana is committed to ensure that every child enjoyed his or her rights with particular interest in ensuring equal rights for girls. Some of the participants identified irresponsible parenting as a major setback to the fight against the menace of child marriage and teenage pregnancy. They said some parents were not willing to support other stakeholders in prosecuting perpetrators of such acts but rather compromising the process. Mr Sumaila Shaibu Poleenaa, the Speaker of the Upper West Regional Youth Parliament, entreated parents to take an interest in the development and wellbeing of their wards. He said child marriage and teenage pregnancy could thwart the development of the girl child which could affect the community and national development in the long run. Mr Polenaa implored the participants to educate their constituents on the dangers involved in perpetrating the acts as perpetrators would be prosecuted when apprehended. 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 On the eve of the 75th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in World War II, historians again spoke of the danger of attempts to distort the truth about that war and the glorification of fascist criminals. Recently, the Federal Security Service of Russia in the Krasnodar Territory declassified documents on the work of the Kuban security officers during the war. According to Krasnodar Izvestia, with the outbreak of war, the Soviet government demanded that the Chekists restructure their work in relation to wartime conditions. The main task of the NKVD workers was the fight against intelligence and counterintelligence agents of fascist Germany and its satellites, the fight against betrayal and treason. Here is one of the declassified stories. When the Nazis occupied Ukraine and Crimea, the Azov coast - Mariupol, Taganrog, Rostov-on-Don, and the enemy had the opportunity to throw agents in the Kuban. In the forest-mountainous zone of the region, gangs from among the deserters of the Red Army traded. They robbed collective farms, stole cattle, food, killed workers who tried to resist them. Of particular danger was the so-called Kuban-Armenian gang led by Abyan. In November 1941, the leader, who emigrated from Turkey, proceeded to unite all the bandit groups and individuals to fight the Soviet regime. Abyan united all the Armenian groups operating in the forests of the region into one. And this is 30 people with a permanent base. The gang members were tasked with: attracting new members and getting weapons. It was planned, as the front line approached, to strike the Red Army from the rear and go over to the side of the Nazi troops. The gang's plans were to destroy the Soviet asset, establish contacts with the German command, as well as receive weapons and further instructions from Germany. The bandits wrote a letter to the Germans asking for help. At that time, they themselves attacked policemen and foresters and took away weapons and ammunition. Given that the Germans were actively attacking the North Caucasus, the continued existence of such a gang in the rear of the Soviet troops threatened with serious consequences. The task was set to eliminate the gang. On January 18, 1942, the task force, together with naval pilots, conducted an operation to surround the criminals. But Abyan was warned by someone. He pulled his "colleagues" out of attack. Soviet officers were also killed in the shootout. Further to February, a lot of work was done to decompose the gang through agents and relatives. 14 people surrendered voluntarily, and five - were caught and arrested. On February 26, the remains of the gang were surrounded and destroyed. However, Abyan again managed to escape. Considering his active anti-Soviet activity, it was decided to use one of the members of his gang in the capture of Abyan, who realized his criminal activity and helped the investigation under the pseudonym "Leonid". He was sent to the mountains with the task of finding the leader of the gang. In the summer of 1942, an agent destroyed Abyan. More and more speculation is being heard about the war. And such documents allow us to convey the events of those years as they actually were, says Vladimir Kosyakov, a specialist in the archive of the FSB of Russia in the Krasnodar Territory. MONTREALRev. Jean-Luc Laflamme knows that Thetford Mines has seen better days. The golden age in the working-class community in south-central Quebec, best known for its now-closed asbestos mines, was in the 1950s and 1960s, he said. But life has changed in the town of over 16,000 residents, and many of the areas Roman Catholic churches, which Laflamme said once numbered five in Thetford Mines alone, have gradually been forced to shut their doors. Today, just one remains open: Saint-Alphonse, a towering, grey granite building with a white steeple that was built in the early 1900s. Normally, the church would host three weekend masses, said Laflamme, the head priest in the Thetford Mines area: one on Saturday and two on Sunday. But services have not been held at Saint-Alphonse in weeks, as the church is among thousands across Canada that have suspended all in-person services to stem the potential spread of the deadly novel coronavirus. In Quebec, where the Catholic Church historically played a central role in society but has in recent years struggled with low attendance and a lack of revenue, the closures have made an already difficult situation worse. Were not in peril, said Laflamme, but the economic impact of COVID-19 is already clear. Without weekend mass, the collection plate does not go around, and that typically brought in between $5,000 and $6,000 every month, he said. Funerals were also a place where donations could be collected, but they too have been cancelled. Meanwhile, it costs approximately $25,000 per year to heat Saint-Alphonse, Laflamme said, and the church has other expenses, such as insurance and building maintenance costs. He said some part-time, parish support staff have been temporarily let go until in-person services can resume. Some of those employees applied for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, which provides $500 per week for up to 16 weeks during the crisis, Laflamme said. The diocese also intends to apply for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, which covers up to 75 per cent of employee salaries. Andreanne Jalbert-Laramee is a cultural heritage adviser at Quebecs Religious Heritage Council, a non-profit organization that supports the conservation of historic buildings. In 2003, the group carried out an inventory of 2,751 historic churches built before 1975 that were still in use across the province. She said while the exact impact of COVID-19 of Quebecs churches remains to be seen, it will likely be considerable because several were already struggling before the pandemic. Many churches operate on shoestring budgets and rely on aging volunteers to keep running. They were able to survive on limited means but we have to say, it was a miracle, Jalbert-Laramee said. COVID-19 poses a challenge for houses of worship across Canada, but Jalbert-Laramee said churches in Quebec hold a special importance, both as landmarks in rural communities and for the role they played in health-care and education over the decades. But the Catholic Churchs place in the daily lives of Quebecers has been in decline for years. According to the 2011 National Household Survey, nearly 75 per cent of Quebecers identified as Catholic. But fewer than one in 10 said they often attended religious services the lowest rate in Canada, according to a Leger poll conducted in May 2019. Quebecers were also the least likely of all Canadians to say they strongly agree with the statement, I believe in God, the same poll found. On Montreals South Shore, Paul De Leeuw says local parishes have seen a 30 per cent drop in overall revenue since their churches closed in mid-March in line with the COVID-19 shutdown. De Leeuw, treasurer of the Diocese of St-Jean-de-Longueuil, which includes 45 parishes from Chateauguay to Contrecoeur, said the lack of Sunday collections has hit them hard. Church leaders have also hesitated to ask for annual donations from regular congregants the tithe because many families are struggling financially right now. Its hard to ask for the tithe when there are people who lost their jobs, he said. The diocese had already sold 28 churches over the past 15 years due to a lack of funds, De Leeuw explained, and today more than half of its parishes cannot sustain their daily operations. De Leeuw said he hoped the parishes would be able to make it out of the pandemic without suffering major economic losses. In the meantime, the diocese is using financial reserves to pay the salaries of priests and other staff and avoid layoffs. He said that likely would cost more than $100,000 once Quebecs COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. While stores outside Montreal were allowed to reopen last week, there has been no indication when religious services will be able to resume in Quebec. We dont have a crystal ball, De Leeuw said. We want to be optimistic, but its going to be difficult. Its going to be really difficult. Read more about: About a century before COVID-19 sent the Bay Area indoors, a different respiratory plague drove people to sleeping outdoors in the name of good health. It inspired an entire architectural movement, as well as a San Francisco con artist who tried cashing in on it. The California Fresh Air Bed Company, based in San Francisco and promising apartment dwellers a convertible outdoor bed, was apparently just another of his investment scams. Tuberculosis was the second-leading cause of death in the United States in 1900, just behind pneumonia. Its the reason the American Lung Association was founded in 1904. Like the coronavirus, it especially preyed on the urban poor, and the lack of a vaccine terrified the country for decades. Physicians endorsed lots of fresh air as a way to ward off the disease, and it was during this time that the sleeping porch became a trend in Bay Area houses, led by Bernard Maybecks Arts and Crafts style. The sleeping porch was essentially a screen-enclosed, open-air bedroom. It was preferably on the second floor, because the air was believed to be purer at higher altitudes. Many homes built from 1895 to 1920 had them, and they experienced a revival in the early 2000s. Western Architect and Engineer In 1919 the U.S. Health Service published a series of recommendations on avoiding TB, and first on the list was Sleep with windows up in bedroom or use a sleeping porch. Allow plenty of fresh air in the place where you work. San Franciscos mild winters made the sleeping porch a year-round favorite, and the city demonstrated a zeal for fresh air in the name of wellness. (It was also around this time that indoor saltwater baths were a wildly popular local health activity.) The Chronicle ran a full-page spread on fresh air in 1911, including this portion on the citys women: The San Francisco girl looks upon fresh air as her birthright. The San Francisco girl is not afraid of drafts, but rather apoplexy, pneumonia, and tuberculosis and the injury of her complexion through lack of sufficient cold air." San Francisco historian and native John Freeman told SFGATE his father-in-law, born in 1920, often slept with the window open while growing up in the Richmond District. He said his life was horrible under that regime, Freeman said. His nose ran constantly during the day, and as an adult he had asthma. He had a lifetime of respiratory problems, which he attributed to the medically recommended fresh air sleeping practices promoted in San Francisco. In March 1915, an entrepreneur named William Young Kinleyside and his partner, R.W. Michaels, vanished from San Francisco after it came to light they were selling bogus stocks to investors. Mrs. H.S. Comfort, whose husband was scammed to the equivalent of over $20,000 in todays money, told the San Francisco Examiner, If I could get hold of Kinleyside now I would horsewhip him. That is the only way men of his caliber must be treated." Pacific Medical Journal The San Francisco Chronicle reported Kinleyside was also attempting to sell physicians on another venture of his: the California Fresh Air Bed Company. The value of which, the Chronicle reported, to say the least, has not been proven. Multi-page ads for the Fresh Air Bed Company can still be found in online archives for two trade journals: In the February 1912 Western Architect and Engineer, and the January 1914 Pacific Medical Journal. Prototype images depict a revolving, dome-shaped wall separating the bed between the indoors and outdoors. When outside, the sleeper would be protected by a wire screen and storm curtains. Also advertised as the Co-Ran Fresh Air Bed, the listings claim in large type it was "highly endorsed by architects and doctors" and its owners could save space with no more cold and leaky sleeping porches. The ad in Western Architect claims that 600 Fresh Air Beds were sold during its first public demonstration at the Architectural League of the Pacific Coast exhibition in Los Angeles. The company claims two Bay Area addresses: One on 833 Market Street in San Francisco and one at 1764 Broadway in Oakland. ALSO: She admitted to stalking and murdering an SF tycoon. A jury acquitted her. The Fresh Air Bed also appeared dozens of times in the Los Angeles Heralds apartment listings from 1912 to 1913. Though it sounded more like an ad for the bed itself than an actual room for rent: "Enjoy the exhilaration of sleeping in a Co-Ran Fresh Air Bed at the LOHMAN APARTMENTS, Tenth and Georgia streets." Kinleyside had come to San Francisco from Los Angeles where, according to a person quoted in the Chronicles story, he also ran a womens tailoring business. The only possible evidence that the bed entered a Bay Area home could be found in an apartment listing for the Oakland Tribune in 1913, though again it sounds more like product placement: The only apartment house in Oakland with the Co Ran fresh air beds (you go to bed in your warm room and by moving the canopy you find yourself outdoors, completely protected from drafts or storm). Whatever Kinleysides intentions with the Fresh Air Bed Company we found only one article linking him with it and there may have been other collaborators neither he nor his beds are heard from again after March 1915. Four months after he came to San Francisco and started the National Deposit and Mortgage Company, his victims began realizing the $100 Founders Certificates they bought from him were worthless. Homer S. Comfort, a solicitor for Kinleyside who also lost money to him, said he reported to work in mid-March to find everything gone, including Kinleyside. As none of Kinleysides victims were wealthy, they didnt have the means to pursue him. Could a more legitimate businessman have made the indoor-outdoor bed work in San Francisco? Not likely, said the historian Freeman. It might have had traction somewhere, but his timing and the way housing was changing in the Bay Area was horrible, he said. In a boom period, if you need space, you dont add on a combo window seat/window bed. You move on. It also looks like it would have only worked for a small child. Greg Keraghosian is an SFGATE homepage editor. Email: greg.keraghosian@sfgate.com Nigerian Gay Rights activist Bisi Alimi has launched a N1million fund for queer people in Nigeria. Alimi took to his IG page to announce this writing; Read Also: Coronavirus: I Asked My Parents How They Wish To Die In Nigeria Bisi Alimi The impact of COVID19 on the LGBT community in Nigeria has been devastating. Many are locked home with homophobic families and even many more became homeless. Advertisement As many of them are self-employed, the lockdown in Nigeria means lack of access to funds. It is because of this that the Bisi Alimi Foundation is setting up a N1million (One Million Nigerian Naira) to support the community. This fund will go towards food, medications and other essential items they need to survive. If you know any LGBT person in Nigeria that can benefit from this, please kindly visit our Facebook and twitter page for more info. Thank you. Kabul: The incidents of crime and incidents are increasing day by day, causing a lot of trouble for the people, every day some news comes out from somewhere, which shook the soul completely. Sometimes the news of someone's death from somewhere and the horrific accidents have created havoc in the hearts and minds of people. People have started to panic even more due to the recent cases of terrorist infiltration. Death of 5-year-old child in New York remains mystery, know complete matter Six people, including a local journalist and two police officers, were killed in a shootout in an ongoing demonstration demanding financial help in western Afghanistan on Saturday. Interior Ministry spokesman Tarek Arian said the protesters had gathered outside the governor's office in Feroze Koh. They were demanding relief due to several weeks of restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the corona virus epidemic. Corona growing rapidly in China, new patients come out again He said that some people opened fire on the police during the protest, in response to which the police also opened fire. Six people died and 19 people were injured, including 9 policemen. There have been around 3,800 cases of Covid-19 in Afghanistan and at least 109 people have died in the country due to this infection. WHO warns, 'economic activities can worsen situation' Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images The allegations of sexual misconduct by Tara Reade against the former vice-president Joe Biden have caused new fault lines within the Democratic party, especially between its left wing and the establishment. Reade is a former Biden Senate staffer who has accused the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee of sexually assaulting her while she worked in his office in the 1990s. Biden and his campaign have flatly denied the allegations and major news outlets have continued to investigate. Meanwhile, liberal grassroots activists have clashed with centrist Democrats and senior party figures over how to respond to the allegations. The arguments often point to how Democrats approached previous high-profile sexual assault allegations, such as the accusations by Christine Blasey Ford against Brett Kavanaugh during the now supreme court justices contentious confirmation hearings. Peter Daou, a Democratic strategist who has argued that the Democratic establishment has moved to undercut Reades allegations, said three basic factions had emerged. Related: Who is Tara Reade and what are her allegations against Joe Biden? You have Bidens opponents on the Republican side and theyre going to seize on this, Daou said, adding that there was also the left progressives and leftists who want to see Reades allegations taken more seriously, and then the Democratic party establishment figures who are trying to undermine Reade. The latter group, Daou said, is just absolutely wedded to Biden right now, will not let go, so theyll defend him at all costs even if that means completely destroying the #MeToo movement. Daou pointed out that other women have accused Biden of unwanted touching. In response to those accusations, Biden has said he would work to better respect other peoples personal spaces. Republicans have been eager to confront as many rank-and-file Democratic politicians as possible with the allegations. The National Republican Congressional Committee has been blasting out emails targeting specific Democratic House candidates over Reades claims. Story continues Tara Reade was a staffer for Joe Biden in the 1990s. Photograph: Donald Thompson/AP The subject line of a Friday email from the NRCC read: Why does McBath not believe Tara Reade? It asked why the Georgia congresswoman Lucy McBath was yet to say whether shell stand by her endorsement of Biden amidst allegations of sexual assault, although she was quick to support Dr Ford during the Kavanaugh hearings. Similar questions are being asked by progressives and some more moderate Democratic party leaders. David Sirota, a former speechwriter and senior strategist for Bernie Sanders, has argued that Democrats have been too eager to discount Reades allegations. A small group of insurgent Democratic congressional candidates have begun to raise concerns that Reades allegations are not being taken seriously enough. Rebecca Parson, a liberal Democrat challenging the Washington state congressman Derek Kilmer, said in an interview on Friday that Biden should step down over Reades allegations. Parson said she believes Reade and thinks the charges create too much of a vulnerability for Biden in the 2020 presidential election. I want to defeat Donald Trump in November and yes, Im a progressive and Im in the left-wing of the party, but something that really unites the people in the centrist wing and the progressive wing is we all want to defeat Trump, Parson said. I dont think we do that with somebody who has all these allegations against him, especially because Donald Trump has assault allegations against him and unfortunately with Donald Trump, Trump doesnt care about being a hypocrite. Parson added: I think that Biden should withdraw and any one or more of the candidates who arent running should restart their campaign because the Democratic primary isnt over yet. Those arguments arent shared by many of the most high-profile figures in the Democratic party. The New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a leading advocate against sexual harassment and sexual assault, told reporters on Tuesday that she supported Biden amid the allegations. So when we say believe women, its for this explicit intention of making sure theres space for all women to come forward to speak their truth, to be heard. And in this allegation, that is what Tara Reade has done, Gillibrand said, according to CNN. She has come forward, she has spoken, and they have done an investigation in several outlets. Those investigations Vice-President Biden has called for himself. Vice-President Biden has vehemently denied these allegations and I support Vice-President Biden. The former Georgia state house minority leader Democrat Stacey Abrams also said she believed Biden. Related: Joe Biden denies sexual assault allegation from former staffer Tara Reade The New York Times did a deep investigation and they found that the accusation was not credible. I believe Joe Biden, Abrams said in late April. Others, including the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren and Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, have also said they support Biden in response to Reades allegations. But Parson is not alone in arguing that at this point Biden should drop out of the race. A Politico/Morning Consult poll found that over a third of Democratic voters surveyed say the party should switch out Biden as their presumptive nominee because of the allegations. Other Democrats argued that Biden can both adequately address Reades allegations and still be a viable opponent against Trump. The Massachusetts congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, a progressive favorite, wrote a Medium post arguing that the allegations can be examined without undercutting Bidens chances of beating Trump. I reject the false choice that my party and our nominee cant address the allegations at hand and defeat the occupant of the White House, Pressley wrote. Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE:ROK) stock is about to trade ex-dividend in 4 days time. Ex-dividend means that investors that purchase the stock on or after the 15th of May will not receive this dividend, which will be paid on the 10th of June. Rockwell Automation's next dividend payment will be US$1.02 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed US$4.08 to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, Rockwell Automation has a trailing yield of approximately 2.1% on its current stock price of $192.45. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. So we need to investigate whether Rockwell Automation can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow. View our latest analysis for Rockwell Automation Dividends are typically paid out of company income, so if a company pays out more than it earned, its dividend is usually at a higher risk of being cut. Rockwell Automation paid out 65% of its earnings to investors last year, a normal payout level for most businesses. That said, even highly profitable companies sometimes might not generate enough cash to pay the dividend, which is why we should always check if the dividend is covered by cash flow. Thankfully its dividend payments took up just 40% of the free cash flow it generated, which is a comfortable payout ratio. It's encouraging to see that the dividend is covered by both profit and cash flow. This generally suggests the dividend is sustainable, as long as earnings don't drop precipitously. Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends. NYSE:ROK Historical Dividend Yield May 10th 2020 Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing? Companies that aren't growing their earnings can still be valuable, but it is even more important to assess the sustainability of the dividend if it looks like the company will struggle to grow. If earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. With that in mind, we're not enthused to see that Rockwell Automation's earnings per share have remained effectively flat over the past five years. We'd take that over an earnings decline any day, but in the long run, the best dividend stocks all grow their earnings per share. Earnings per share growth has been slim, and the company is already paying out a majority of its earnings. While there is some room to both increase the payout ratio and reinvest in the business, generally the higher a payout ratio goes, the lower a company's prospects for future growth. Story continues The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. In the past ten years, Rockwell Automation has increased its dividend at approximately 13% a year on average. Final Takeaway Should investors buy Rockwell Automation for the upcoming dividend? Earnings per share have been flat and Rockwell Automation's dividend payouts are within reasonable limits; without a sharp decline in earnings we feel that the dividend is likely somewhat sustainable. It might be worth researching if the company is reinvesting in growth projects that could grow earnings and dividends in the future, but for now we're not all that optimistic on its dividend prospects. In light of that, while Rockwell Automation has an appealing dividend, it's worth knowing the risks involved with this stock. In terms of investment risks, we've identified 3 warning signs with Rockwell Automation and understanding them should be part of your investment process. If you're in the market for dividend stocks, we recommend checking our list of top dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend. 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. Chron.com is following the latest headlines on the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the Houston area. 4:28 p.m. Brazoria County officials have announced five new coronavirus cases on Sunday. Three of the five confirmed casesare prison inmates. As of Sunday, 661 people have tested positive and nine people have died of coronavirus in Brazoria County. Fort Bend County reported 14 new cases of COVID-19 Sunday. Fort Bend Health and Human Services announce that there have been eight additional recoveries and two additional deaths. 1:00 p.m. New COVID-19 testing sites are slated to open in four different Houston-area communities this week, according to the Houston Health Department. Beginning Monday, residents of Houston's Northside and Northline neighborhoods can access testing through a drive-thru test site at Moreno Elementary School. The department, in conjunction with the Texas Department of Emergency Management, is also opening a site at Holland Middle School on the northeast side of the 610 Loop. Each site can test up to 250 cases daily. United Memorial Medical Center will also open a drive-thru and walk-up test site Monday at Stimley-Blue Ridge Neighborhood Library in Missouri City. The department's mobile unit will park at the Third Ward Multi-Service Center from Tuesday to Saturday and offer drive-thru and walk-up testing. Four federally qualified health centers will also offer expanded testing this week. Residents can call the Spring Branch Community Health Center, El Centro de Corazon, Avenue 360 Health and Wellness and Lone Star Circle of Care at the University of Houston for more information. A map and directory of testing centers is available on the Houston Health Department website. 9:20 a.m. As of Sunday morning, there are now 4,051,451 million confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States currently leads the world with 1,309,698 confirmed cases, with the death toll climbing to 78,799. The total number of recoveries in the U.S. stand at 212,534. 9:11 a.m. New cases of coronavirus have emerged in the U.S. after the easing of social distancing guidelines. Officials in Pasadena, California, warned Saturday against Mother's Day gatherings after a cluster of new COVID-19 cases was identified there among a large group of extended family and friends attending a recent birthday party, despite a stay-at-home order in effect. Investigators discovered more than five confirmed cases and "many more ill individuals" linked to the party, the local public health department said. There are also reports of new clusters of coronavirus cases internationally which are igniting concerns about a second wave. China reported 14 new cases on Sunday, its first double-digit rise in 10 days. Read more about the virus cluster in this latest update. 8:15 a.m. A stark White House coronavirus task force, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have placed themselves under quarantine after contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Fauci serves as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci's institute said that he has tested negative for COVID-19 and will continue to be tested regularly. Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary, Katie Miller, tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday, making her the second person who works at the White House complex known to test positive for the virus this week. White House officials had confirmed Thursday that a member of the military serving as one of Trumps valets had tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. President Donald Trump said he was not worried about the virus spreading in the White House. Nonetheless, officials said they were stepping up safety protocols for the complex. Read the latest update here. On Saturday evening (May 9), members of Prince Edward Islands harness racing industry hosted another episode of Virtual Tack Room, the eighth episode of a series created to bring some positivity to the world of harness racing during the dark days of racing. Red Shores' Lee Drake & Peter MacPhee along with the shows co-creators - Jerry McCabe and Kent Oakes - interviewed Phil Pinkney, Jody Hennessey and Ken Murphy. Phil Pinkney, a stalwart of the Nova Scotia racing scene, was first up on the broadcast and he had a chance to reminisce about some of the great performers that hung their harness bags in his barn over the year. Mark Jonathan he made $800,000 or $900,000, well you know what Rumpus Hanover was and I think we had Out To Score for Ian Smith. We had quite a few horses for Ian Smith, and you know when you have them good horses you have to have good owners. Another memorable performer Pinkney was associated with was the three-time Atlantic Canada Horse of the Year, Dunachton Gale. Pinkney had high praise for the pacer, who wasnt always a horse that was that way. When I first started training him out, he didnt train all that good, said Pinkney. Ive had two or three horses like that. Until I get them down to a mile in 2:20, a few trips in :20 and :18 like that and then he just seemed to take right off. I remember one of the stakes races there in Truro, maybe the second lifetime start in Truro, he added. Hilliard Graves had a good colt there and Kenny Arsenault had one Seawind Romeo for Doug Heel and they kind of got in a little bit of a front end battle and at the half I was off 15 lengths and he won by 15. That was pretty impressive I thought. When asked what made Dunachton Gale such a great performer, Pinkney had a long list of qualities to rhyme off. He was full of himself. He was all horse; he was no kids horse, he claimed. He just had that spirit and he could get pretty feisty at times. He was smart and he was a great-gaited horse. He had the gait and the heart. The Hennessey name is one that is synonymous with racing in the Maritimes, and a key player from that family was Jody Hennessey who praised his parents for raising he and his siblings the right way. We come from a big family, there was nine of us, claimed Hennessey. We had five boys and four girls. And it wasnt always real easy for our mother and our father, of course. I was fortunate enough to have some great brothers and sisters and we all got along and we were in the race business and we though we had something. And we had great parents. Our father and mother were great people. We were very fortunate. Something else Hennessey was fortunate for was a spot on the starting gate in the 1983 Royal Visit Pace at the Charlottetown Driving Park. The event was a $5,000 Invitational that celebrated Princes Charles and Lady Dianas visit to the Maritimes. I was stabled in Saint John at the time and I had a horse by the name of Glen Reynolds which was a real good horse. They were having this big race the Royal Pace and it was hyped up for three or four weeks. You could only imagine when the Royal Family is coming to PEI how the people would want to be around to see it. It was quite a feeling to be able to come from Saint John and come back to your hometown with a nice horse like Glen Reynolds was to participate in that kind of a race, Hennessey added. When I came home I remember taking him off the truck. The crowd of people that was around there during the daytime before the race was unreal. Everybody was trying to get a spot. I dont think they were trying to get a spot to see me, it was the Royal Family they wanted to see. It was quite a feeling and it was quite a crowd. It almost reminded you of the Gold Cup night. Ken Murphy also hails from a harness racing family, and he was quick to reflect on a number of projects he and his father worked on over the years. Me and dad, thats what we enjoy doing the best, said Murphy. We like taking young colts on, buying them, breaking them, gaiting them up, training them down and racing them a couple of times and then selling them. And then get another colt, you know what I mean? Murphy has also had the chance of sitting behind a number of high profile pacers that possessed both speed and class. Ive had the luxury of driving Ramblinglily, One Hot Camshaft, Trace Of Purple she was a decent mare. I win in 1:55 with that mare; put a record on that mare. Machinthesand, what a great horse that was and still is. Hes training back, actually. Them horses there, all you gotta do is keep then outta trouble and pull the right line and smile because they do all the work, he added. The episode of Virtual Tack Room was produced by Universum Media and is available below. What lies beyond the pandemic? MassForward is MassLives series examining the journey of Massachusetts small businesses through and beyond the coronavirus pandemic. __________________ The vision of a fourth coffeeshop and bakery began three years ago for Alice Lombardi. Beginning with saving evolved to planning and then signing on a 5,000 square foot space on Grove Street in Worcester. The latest Bean Counter Coffee Bar and Bakery is the largest and was meant to bring the main hub for the other locations back to the city. As is the case with many other small businesses owners, the coronavirus forced Lombardi to audible. The virus, which has shut down non-essential businesses across the country hasnt dampened Lombardis optimism for opening a shop amid a pandemic. Im just older and wiser now. I've been through a lot over the last 20 years as a woman in business, Lombardi said. A lot of challenges that Ive faced, but by the end of the day, I think about having good health, especially during this time, and I feel blessed to be healthy. Despite the economic strains put on small businesses by the virus, Lombardi planned for a soft opening of the new space this week. It actually offered an opportunity for her to help employees. At the start of the pandemic, she was forced to lay off about half her staff. In opening a new facility, Lombardi was planning on hiring new staff. With a current decrease in demand, a full staff isnt required, but its allowed Lombardi to bring back all of her employees. The best part of this space, during this pandemic is the fact that I will create more work opportunities for my business staff, Lombardi said. About 50% of The Bean Counters bakery options are takeout. So in some ways, it was prepared better than some to handle new protocols issued by Gov. Charlie Baker. The flip side to that, though is many of the bakerys customers have had events canceled, whether its birthday parties or weddings. Lombardi took orders for more weddings than ever this spring and early summer - one of the reasons she expanded. All those were postponed. Nobody canceled, Lombardi said. They just postponed. I am very grateful. I have more capacity to take care of all those orders when the ban is lifted. Luckily I have the new building. Its been a real blessing. The new space is in addition to a location at Highland Street in Worcester as well as a space in Shrewsbury and Cafe Noir, also in Shrewsbury. Eventually, Lombardi plans to fully convert that coffee shop to a Bean Counter location. All of Lombardis locations have remained open during the pandemic with at least two people on site. One person is dedicated to helping customers. The other is focused on cleaning and keeping others safe. My customers are No. 1 on my list and my staff too, Lombardi said. I always believe a happy worker makes a happy customer. In navigating the pandemic, Lombardi successfully obtained loans through the first round of the Paycheck Protection Program, which also helped bring staff back. We really had no choice, Lombardi said. Therea a lot of payments, a lot of rent, a lot of utilities. I understood the need for it and I really, really appreciate it. By May 18, Gov. Charlie Baker may lift some restrictions on small businesses around the state. PPP loans need to be used by the end of June. By that time, Lombardi is hopeful The Bean Counter can inch toward business prior to the pandemic. Its been very very difficult with the situation, Lombardi said. Because were trying to provide essential service for the community and making sure that everyone is safe. MassForward is MassLive's series examining the journey of Massachusetts' small businesses through and beyond the coronavirus pandemic. Related Content: The number of COVID-19 cases in Madhya Pradesh's Indore district rose to 1,858 after 78 more people tested positive for the disease in last 24 hours, a senior health official said on Sunday. Also, two more people died of coronavirus in last two days, taking the death toll in the state's worst hit district to 89, Chief Medical and Health Officer Praveen Jadia said. "An 85-year-old woman and a 69-year-old man died due to the disease at a private hospital in the last two days, the official said. Both the victims hailed from the district's Mhow town and were also suffering from other health conditions, including hypertension. Jadia said 78 more people tested positive for coronavirus in the district in last 24 hours, taking the number of such cases to 1,858 from 1,780. So far, 891 people have been discharged after recovery, he added. The COVID-19 fatality rate in Indore stood at 4.79 per cent as of Sunday morning, as per an analysis of the data. On April 9, the death rate here was 10.33 per cent, but has sharply declined since then. Curfew is in force in the city limits and strict lockdown has been enforced elsewhere since March 25, after the first COVID-19 patient was found in the district. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi, May 10 : A Delhi Court on Sunday sent AAP MLA Prakash Jarwal and his associate to four days' police remand in the suicide case of a doctor last month. The two were produced before the Magistrate who granted their four-day custody to the police. During the hearing, the police had sought four-day custody. Jarwal and his associate Kapil Nagar, accused in a abetment to suicide case, were arrested on Saturday. "We have arrested Prakash Narwal and one of his associates Kapil Nagar in connection with the alleged suicide case. We have been questioning them in and have now formally arrested them," Atul Kumar Thakur, Deputy Commissioner of Police said. Both legislator and his associate joined the investigation on Saturday evening and were questioned. "When they were evasive during questioning, they were placed under arrest for further interrogation," said the officer. The investigators will seek custody of the accused to gather evidence in the case On Friday, a Delhi court had issued non bailable warrants (NBWs) against Jarwal and Nagar who are being probed in an abetment to suicide case. Jarwal's family was questioned in connection with the case but he along with Nagar didn't join the probe. The police then approached the court for issuance of the NBWs. Dr Rajinder Singh (52) committed suicide by hanging himself on April 18. He was a private practitioner in Durgapuri area in south Delhi and was also involved in supply of Delhi Jal Board water through tankers since 2007. The family had claimed that the accused had got Rajinder's tankers removed from water supply service and also prevented clearance of dues of a large sum of money from the Jal Board. The lawmaker's legal team has claimed that their client is ready to surrender. Speaking to IANS over the phone, a senior member from Jarwal's legal team said, "If the police asks my client to surrender, we are ready for it. Bail application will be filed soon." The lawmaker has already moved an anticipatory bail in a Delhi court in connection with the case. The Rouse Avenue court will hear the matter on May 11. In his application for anticipatory bail, Jarwal submitted that he would cooperate with the police in the investigation, as and when required. He also pleaded that there was no reason to subject him to custodial interrogation. Q. My ex-wife and I got divorced last year and as part of the divorce settlement I have to pay family maintenance payments to support our children. My employer was forced to close down as a result of the Covid-19 crisis, so I'm now out of work. My employer may never reopen. I'm struggling to get by financially and can't afford the maintenance payments. What can I do here? Danny, Co Louth A. Firstly, you need to communicate the new circumstances to your ex-wife so she is aware of the situation. You then need to assess if your lay-off is going to be permanent. If it is, assess if you will be entitled to a lump sum redundancy payment. Such a lump sum may enable you to continue paying maintenance until you obtain new employment. Some divorces can be very bitter and your ex may believe you have orchestrated your lay-off. In such circumstances, clear and transparent communication is essential, in order to avoid your ex going off to court to seek an attachment of earnings. Secondly, if you think your employer is not going to reopen, consider what your own employment prospects will be. You may need to consider options such as retraining or moving to a different region to find work. PIA payment break Q. My wife and I managed to negotiate a personal insolvency arrangement (PIA) last year after running into problems repaying the mortgage on our family home as well as with other debts. Thankfully, we managed to hold onto our home. However, my wife and I lost our jobs very shortly after the coronavirus crisis kicked off here. We're now struggling to pay for anything apart from the basics - groceries, utility bills and so on - and simply can't afford to meet the repayments on our PIA for the foreseeable future. Could we now lose our home? Could our PIA repayments be frozen until the Covid-19 crisis passes here? Declan, Co Dublin A. Payment breaks were not specified in the personal insolvency legislation but are a product of a 'protocol document' approved by the banks and personal insolvency practitioners (PIPs) in July 2016 and is binding on all parties. There are two forms of payment break envisaged. The first is a payment break from the debtors' obligations to payments to the PIP for unsecured dividend purposes. This would include money owed on unsecured borrowings such as bank overdrafts. Such a payment break can be granted by the PIP at his or her discretion. The second is a payment break from secured debt payment obligations. In respect of mortgage obligations for a principal private residence, such a payment break can only be granted with the express written consent of the first priority secured creditor, generally the lender who offered the first mortgage on the family home. The standard PIA usually stipulates that a payment break may be no fewer than two months and no more than four months on each occasion - with an overall maximum of 12 months during the term of the PIA. You should consult with your PIP to confirm that your PIA allows such a payment break. Following the banks' recent announcement of a three-month moratorium on mortgage payments - which was recently extended by a further three months - it was agreed between the PIPs and the banks that debtors within a PIA would be required to utilise the payment break mechanism provided for in the agreed protocol document. Any payment break on mortgage debt will result in the Covid-19 shortfall on the mortgage account balance (resulting from the payment break period) being recapitalised at the end of the PIA - with an adjustment on the remaining monthly repayments to repay the full mortgage within the normal term, where possible. Some secured creditors will apply an extension to the loan term, owing to the set-up of secured creditors' systems and this will be worked out on a bilateral basis, as is usual practice, with the relevant creditor. This will not impact the term of the PIA. Your PIP should forward a request to the secured creditor for a secured debt payment break with the necessary information. It has been agreed with banks that they will not unreasonably refuse a payment break. If the payment breaks provided in your PIA are not sufficient for your needs, then you will need to instruct your PIP to seek a variation to the PIA. Any proposed variation would involve a re-drafting of your PIA and must be voted in by your creditors at a creditors' meeting. Bankruptcy and Covid Q. I was declared bankrupt last year. Until recently, I was well able to honour my bankruptcy order payments. However, I had to take a huge pay cut as result of the Covid-19 crisis and I'm now struggling to meet my bankruptcy order payments. What kind of repercussions could I face if I miss those payments now? Could I take out a loan - if I could get one - to cover the cost of those bankruptcy order payments? I was hoping to be discharged from bankruptcy later this year. Tom, Co Meath A. As you know, your bankruptcy is overseen by the Official Assignee (OA). You should immediately notify the OA of your pay cut, and he will carry out a reasonable assessment to determine if you are able to continue complying with the payment order. If you are financially unable to keep up the payments, he will accept the position. It will not be necessary for you to borrow any money to keep up the payments. If your pay is reinstated before the end of your one-year bankruptcy period, the OA will oblige you to continue making the payments up to a maximum period of three years. Provided you fully co-operate with the OA, he should have no reason to delay your discharge from bankruptcy. Vat payment worries Q. I'm self-employed and pay my Vat every four months. I've run into cash-flow difficulties as a result of the Covid-19 crisis and will struggle to pay Vat for the first four months of 2020. Will I face penalties if I'm late paying Vat? Sarah, Co Galway A. The Revenue Commissioners has adopted a very reasonable approach to assist businesses to deal with the Covid-19 crisis. As part of a range of measures it has introduced, it has agreed not to charge interest on late payment of Vat for the period January to April 2020. Any non-payment of Vat for that period will not affect your current tax clearance status. While you do not have to pay the Vat liabilities for the time being, you should file your Vat return on time. Jim Stafford is a PIP with Friel Stafford (www.frielstafford.ie) Email your questions to lmcbride@independent.ie or write to 'Your Questions, Sunday Independent Business, 27-32 Talbot Street, Dublin 1'. While we will endeavour to place your questions with the most appropriate expert for your query, this column is not intended to replace professional advice. I recently remembered when I was told that curiosity was once considered a sin. It can be found in the writings of Thomas Aquinas. I come to this information as a protestant. I do not even know if this is still canon. All I know is that it piques my own curiosity. In Question 167 of the Summa Theologiae, Thomas Aquinas addresses how curiosity can become a sin. Application of the knowledge curiosity unearths is the deciding factor. Can discovered knowledge be applied to assist others, to build them up. Or, does this knowledge lead us to degrade ourselves and bring others to fault. The Curiosity of Frankenstein This deciding factor needs to be unpacked further. When it comes to an example on the sin of curiosity Mary Shellys Victor Frankenstein is definitely curious, but, is it curiosity as sin? Frankenstein desired control and mastery of the elements of creation. Curiosity is not sin when the application of the knowledge is used for the good of others. The tragedy of Shellys modern prometheus is that Frankensteins actions towards the Creature ostracise him. The Creature becomes an outcast, never finding community. Frankenstein has no goal other than knowledge and application. Foolish and unthinking, unable to see beyond his own desires. Even when Frankenstein agrees to make a partner for his Creature fear of their progeny only leads to bloody retribution. Criticisms are asked of those scientists who rarely think of the application only the journey. Oppenheimer defended the quest for nuclear fission by saying the science was sweet. Nobel, yes the same Nobel of the Nobel Peace Prize invented the means for modern artillery and arms. The Peace Prize is often seen as a way for Nobel to assuage his guilt. In the middle of the thing we are going through some claim that the current pandemic originates from scientific research. This desire for a conspiracy is a form of curiosity as well. People are out there searching for answers. Not because they are searching for truth but they want certainty and a scapegoat to blame. Wonder, Philosophy and Humility Wonder is seen as the beginning of philosophy the search for truth. Aristotle saw the end of this search to be god. That which is true and beautiful. Or in Anslems words a being than which nothing greater can be conceived. For Pascal it is admiration when you experience that which reason cannot explain. Where the infinite and finite are mixed together. How do you approach it? Descartes suggests we approach the infinite geometrically. Wheels within wheels? Pi cannot be fixed to decimal value. No wonder we marvel at it. In the face of such grandeur we are supposed to be humbled. In the light of the gospel that elevates the care of our neighbour to be considerate. A curiosity which seeks to apply knowledge to gain mastery, power, or worse, is a deadly thing. We can gain mastery over others. We have seen many take that mastery in hand recently. These people seek to gain or keep power for their own sake. To stand proudly above others. Their arrogance is clearly seen, even if they cannot see it. These people talk of liberty and freedom but it is only their liberty they seek to uphold and not the liberty of all. At the same time others lean towards scandal and conspiracy theories. These opinions deny the other due to their ethnicity, standing or class. We find ourselves lying in wait at our neighbours door, seeking supposed evil deeds on the innocent. The power and mastery elevates us while denigrating others. Our Response is Geometry Curiosity is not supposed to lead us to mastery but to wonder and admiration. At least that is what Pascal, Aristotle, Anslem and Descartes suggest. Shellys Frankensteins curiosity began as childhood wonder at the way in which creation appears interconnected. He began with wonder, but without any guidance that was able to stand in the way of his application. In this age that science has wrought we are still vulnerable to that thing which confines many in isolation. A small thing has laid low the globe killing tens of thousands. Can you not find the wonder in this? Despite all that we have discovered and the mastery we have at our fingertips we are still humbled by a virus. Surely by now we have learned the overwhelming power that is exponential growth. The Fibonacci Sequence that is mirrored in pine cones, seashells and sunflowers. All quietly reminding us of a tidal wave (also Fibonacci) that was always just a matter of time. In the face of this Descartes advice to approach wonder geometrically is wise. By Philip O'Connor (Reuters) - UFC fighters taking part at the UFC 249 event in Florida could lose their purses and bonuses if they publicly criticise the fight promotion's health and safety precautions for COVID-19, according to an event participation agreement seen by Reuters. With sporting events cancelled around the globe due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, the UFC is staging three cards in eight days in Jacksonville, Florida. Before competing, fighters taking part in the UFC 249 event on May 9 were asked to sign an eight-page event participation agreement. A non-disparagement clause in the undated agreement states that "the Participant will not suggest or communicate to any person or entity" that the events "have been or will be held without appropriate health, safety or other precautions, whether relating to COVID-19 or otherwise." The agreement goes on to say that if a fighter does breach this clause, "the Company may revoke all or any part of any prize monies or awards won ... including, but not limited to, purses, win bonuses, other fight-related bonuses and event-based merchandise royalties." Though signed exclusively to the promotion, UFC fighters are independent contractors rather than employees, and purses and bonuses form a major part of the income of almost all of the fighters on the roster. A UFC spokesperson declined to comment on the clause and the possibility of penalties being imposed on fighters, instead referring to comments Dana White gave to Yahoo in which the UFC president said that fighters would not be punished for airing their opinions about the health and safety arrangements. "If a fighter says something that isn't true if he says we didn't test anyone for this that would (violate the agreement). But if he said something that was true, his opinion, then that is different," White said. In recent weeks, one fighter has expressed reservations about getting in the cage during the COVID-19 pandemic. Story continues Heavyweight Greg Hardy, who suffers from asthma, said in a news conference on Thursday that he was "terrified" of the virus, but he went on to compete on the UFC 249 card and scored a decision victory over Yorgan De Castro. A planned middleweight bout between Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza and Uriah Hall on Saturday was called off after Souza tested positive for COVID-19 following his arrival in Florida. (Reporting by Philip O'Connor; Editing by Christian Radnedge) Shaheed Al-Hafed, 10 May 2020 (SPS) - President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, Mr. Brahim Ghali, on Sunday visited the military surgical field hospital that the Algerian authorities have put at the disposal of the Sahrawi people. During the visit, President Ibrahim Ghali, who was accompanied by Minister of Public Health, Ms. Khaira Bullahi, closely examined the military surgical field hospital, which has various modern equipment and medical facilities, and inspected the wing designated for the treatment of the patients of Coronavirus (Covid 19). In a statement to media, the President of the Republic expressed his appreciation and gratitude to the Algerian authorities and all members of the Algerian People's National Army, including the medical and semi-medical corps, for their efforts to ensure health services and alleviate suffering, especially in this situation, which the world experiences as a result of the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic. (SPS) 062/SPS/T DANURY One woman is dead and a man is in critical condition after a fire in a Ninth Avenue house early Sunday morning. Assistant Fire Chief Mark Omasta confirmed that a woman in her 30s died in the fire. He said the woman was found unresponsive in an apartment. She was pronounced dead at the hospital. A man, also in his 30s, was reported in critical condition, according to the Danbury Fire Department. Omasta said the man was transfered to Bridgeport Hospital, which has a burn unit. The names of the victims have not been released. Just after midnight on Sunday, firefighters were dispatched to a reported smoke detector activation at a home on Ninth Avenue across from the Western Connecticut State Universitys midtown campus. While units were enroute, a second call was received reporting an odor of smoke. Upon arrival, Engine 23 reported nothing showing from the front side of a two-story, multifamily dwelling. After further investigation, a smoke condition and a smoldering fire was located on the first floor in an apartment, the Danbury Fire Department posted. The incident was escalated to a working fire summoning additional units to the scene including the City of Danbury Police Department and Nuvance Health Danbury Hospital. ... Units quickly conducted a search of the three apartments. Two victims, a male and female in their 30s, were rescued from the fire in apartment and put in the care of Danbury Hospital EMS who transported both patients to Danbury Hospital Center Emergency Department, the fire department said. Units extinguished the fire quickly and worked through an extensive overhaul. The Danbury Fire Marshals Office was on scene investigating the cause of the fire which is undetermined at this time. According to Danbury property records, the house has 12 rooms. The house, constructed in 1914, has six bedrooms and has 3,054 square feet of living space. Check back for updates. Last Wednesday, lying on my hospital bed, coming out of the claustrophobia of an MRI scan, I got a supportive phone call from President Michael D Higgins. A call from the Aras did not panic me into thinking 'this is a secular version of the Last Rites'. Because President Higgins and myself go back a long way. Fifty years ago, we were both standing on the Galway Docks doing an interview for Feach. Directing behind an RTE camera, I was backing this budding Labour politician perilously close to the edge to get McDonagh's mill into the background. In the same report, Feach scooped the rest of the Irish media on the Arms Crisis by showing the front page of the United Irishman. Edited by the brilliant Seamus O Tuathail, it showed a shamrock containing the photos of three FF cabinet ministers with the captions: "Haughey he knows; Blaney, he knows; Boland, he knows." The reference was to a still-hidden plot by three FF cabinet ministers in Jack Lynch's Government to import arms for use in Northern Ireland. There has long been two rival interpretations of the Arms Crisis. The nationalist version is that a two-faced Jack Lynch tacitly endorsed the arms imports and therefore wronged Haughey and Co. The socialist view is that Haughey and Co conspired to arm the proto-Provisional right wing of the republican movement to oust the Marxist leadership of Cathal Goulding, who was weaning the IRA from the gun. Jack Lynch was not two- faced. He was a pluralist republican in a tribal party, biding his time until he could handle the Hibernian hawks who were soft on Sinn Fein. The problem has not gone away. But my chat with the President was not about the Arms Trial, but about the curse of ageism and the creepy word 'cocooning'. President Higgins is no passive cocooner. He has been planting trees which will cast their shade when both of us are long gone. After we said goodbye, I returned to brooding how a perfectly healthy population - including robust older people - had been panicked into wrecking its economy by going into a long lockdown. Last Sunday, I challenged the Continue Cocooning consensus, arguing that most of us could have continued to work by adopting sensible precautions. On Tuesday's Tonight Show, Paul Moynagh, Professor of Immunology at Maynooth, following up his interview with Niamh Horan in last week's Sunday Independent, showed how that could work in practice. He said the case for sensible, responsible behaviour, including social distancing, hand hygiene, face masks and speedy testing and tracing, was compelling. "We have been relying too much on lockdown. It has been buying time but it's time that we don't have and I think we're wasting time by prolonging it over such a long period." Sweden, which used measures like masking, but did not lock down, confirmed Prof Moynagh's conclusions. In Sweden, the number of jobless is projected to increase by only 5pc to 12pc, while in Ireland it's projected to increase by nearly five-fold to 22pc. Why did we go down the wrong road, smugly congratulating ourselves that we (with our small cities and sparsely populated rural areas) were doing better than the congested multicultural big cities of the UK? I believe we need a public post-mortem to answer that question. Because so many have been brainwashed into believing they were at risk, it will take a tough-minded inquiry to nail down the nub of the problem - three lethal decisions made about our private nursing homes. First, early in March, the HSE decided to move the most vulnerable elderly hospital patients into nursing homes - where other inmates also began to die in large numbers. Second, at the same time, the HSE recklessly began to suck staff out of the private nursing homes which could not compete with the salary and perks offered by the public sector, HSE. Third, the HSE selfishly hung on to nurses they did not need. Roughly 40,000 HSE nurses were available, but the numbers of these redeployed to nursing homes on an ongoing basis was a paltry 119. Finally, the HSE also gobbled up most of the PPE and oxygen supplies, leaving the hapless nursing home managers to cope without vital ventilators. The sacrificing of the private nursing homes to State power is yet another example of the political primacy of public sector culture in dictating public policy in Ireland. Inevitably, in spite of their heroic efforts, many nursing homes effectively became hospices, accounting for fully half of all deaths. Furthermore, the high figures from the death rate in nursing homes tended to give the public a misleading picture of the situation. First, it helped hide the fact that few people under 70 were dying from Covid-19. Second, it panicked the population into compliance with crude cocooning and a prolonged lockdown. But the actual death rate gave no reason for mass alarm, never mind the extreme step of eviscerating our economy. Covid-19 has claimed the lives of only 15 people under the age of 49, some of whom would have had underlying health conditions. In contrast, seven out of 10 people who died are over 80, half of them in nursing homes which had been stripped of staff. All of these deaths are a tragedy for their families - but their numbers did not justify pulverising our private sector, dimming the bright hopes of the young. Continue Cocooners still keep repeating mindless mantras like "you can rebuild the economy but you can't rebuild a life". It's mindless because the long lockdown is certain to kill far more people than Covid-19 for two reasons. First, unlike me, most people are still avoiding hospitals and postponing the treatment of life-threatening illnesses. Second, we will face the same downstream wave of depression and suicide - caused by people losing jobs or businesses - that followed the bank crisis. Unfairly, the biggest losers are young workers and rural Ireland. Unfairly because they are the least vulnerable to Covid-19. Guess who benefits from the television exposure during our dragged-out exit from lockdown, whose glacial progress matches that of Fine Gael ministers in forming a government? ***** Although RTE News ramped up the mass panic, Joe Duffy and Prime Time kept a grip on reality. Daithi and Maura also deserve an award for keeping people sane. As relaxed as an old married couple, free from product placement, they shine. Farewell to Sean O'Rourke, who took over his show seven years ago and never once invited me on. I still say he was perfect for the slot. But he spoiled his backslapping exit on VE day by reading out the mean myth that Queen Victoria only sent 5 for Famine relief. Actually she sent 2,000 (260,000 in today's money) out of her personal kitty. Diarmaid Ferriter failed to correct this. Finally, as I'm against ageism, I think O'Rourke should remain another 10 years, bringing up to 17 years my prolonged lockdown by his production team. Montgomery County Police Sgt. David Cohen aims and shoots Finan H. Berhe, as Berhe, holding a knife, charges at Cohen (Montgomery County Police video) Police in Maryland Release Footage of Fatal Police Shooting Maryland police released body camera footage of an officer shooting and killing a man who ran at him with a knife. The incident took place on May 6 in White Oak near Washington, officials said. The video was released later in the week by the department. Montgomery County Police Sgt. David Cohen was identified as the officer involved in the shooting, according to WJLA. For units heading to the weapons call, step it up priority, a female dispatcher is heard over the district police channel, which covers Silver Spring. Authority of 2-Ida-10. Approaching police sirens can be heard seconds later. Put the knife down! Cohen told the man as he ran towards him before stopping and backing away. Get on the ground! I dont want to shoot you! Cohen shouts before the suspect runs at him a second time. Moments later, the officer shoots the man in the chest. In all, five gunshots can be heard. Finan Berhe, 30, of White Oak, was identified as the man in the video. Officials told news outlets that Berhe was brandishing a large, butcher knife. In the clip, Cohen is heard shouting commands at Behre at least five times. A neighbor of Berhes called 911 to report that Berhe had thrown a rock at his window and told him to call the police, officials told the Washington Post. Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones told the paper that Cohen rendered first aid to Berhe, who was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Cohen, a 17-year veteran of the police force, was placed on administrative leave, which is a standard procedure following a police shooting. If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here The Maharashtra government on Sunday decided to bear the travel expenses of those migrant labourers who lacked resources but wanted to return to their home states amidst the coronavirus-induced lockdown. A Government Order (GO) stated that the migrant labourers will have to register themselves with local police and district collectors and complete the necessary health check up. Once they are eligible as per the new norms for the travel, district collectors concerned will transfer the required amount to the Indian Railways, it said, adding that the necessary amount will be transferred from the CM's Relief Fund. People stuck in other parts of the country but want to return to Maharashtra should also follow the same procedure of getting registered with local authorities, who will receive the funds from the CM's office to bear their travel expenses. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Houston: The death toll from the coronavirus pandemic reached 80,000 in the US, as families in many parts of the world marked Mother's Day in a time of social distancing and isolation. "It's time to go back to work," says Donald Trump. Credit:AP Country leaders, meanwhile, balanced optimism they could loosen lockdowns that have left millions unemployed against the threat of a second wave of infections. In the US, 80,001 people had died of the virus while 1,076,394 were infected according to the COVID-19 tracker website, which collates data from health authorities. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin predicted the US economy would rebound in the second half of this year from unemployment rates that rival the Great Depression. Another 3.2 million US workers applied for jobless benefits last week, bringing the total over the last seven weeks to 33.5 million. Melania Trump paid tribute to fellow moms across the country in a heartfelt Mother's Day address. The 50-year-old first lady shared a video to Instagram on Sunday morning at the White House, where she's celebrating the holiday with her husband President Donald Trump and their 14-year-old son Barron. 'On this Mother's Day I want to take a moment to honor and thank all of the caring, selfless and devoted moms of America,' she said with a smile. 'A mother's love cannot be replaced or replicated. Mothers provide the comfort and nurture a child needs in order to grow, prosper and succeed. Mothers serve as role models for our children, motivating us to work hard and dream big. Mothers also play a vital role in society, shaping the morals and values of future generations of our leaders and innovators. 'Today, let's recognize and honor all of our mothers, grandmothers and motherly figures for their wisdom, love and commitment to their children and our families. 'I ask each of you to take time today to thank a mother and let her know how much you appreciate her. I wish all of our mothers a happy Mother's Day. May God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.' Melania Trump paid tribute to fellow moms across the country in a heartfelt Mother's Day address from the White House on Sunday morning Melania is seen with husband Donald and their 14-year-old son Barron married Melania Knauss in 2005 and they have 14-year-old Barron Melania appeared in the video wearing a pale pink frock designed by Gabriela Hearst. She complimented the $3,000 dress with a full face of makeup topped off with light pink highlighter on striking cheekbones framed by bronze tresses pinned in a half-up hairstyle. Other leading ladies in the Trump family also marked the holiday in Instagram posts. Ivanka Trump, 38, posted several throwback photos with her mother Ivana. 'Happy Mother's Day to all the Superwomen out there, especially those who may not be able to receive a warm embrace from their children today,' the president's eldest daughter, who has three children of her own with husband Jared Kushner, wrote in the caption. 'Thank you for giving us life and love! Mom, showering you with gratitude and virtual kisses, today and always! xoxo.' Lara Trump, the wife of the president's second son Eric, posted a photo of herself holding one of their two children in one hand and a vacuum in the other. The 37-year-old paired her 'Mom Life' shirt with a hilarious expression of exhaustion. Ivanka Trump, 38, posted several throwback photos with her mother Ivana. In the caption she wrote: 'Happy Mother's Day to all the Superwomen out there, especially those who may not be able to receive a warm embrace from their children today. Thank you for giving us life and love! Mom, showering you with gratitude and virtual kisses, today and always! xoxo' Lara Trump, the wife of the president's second son Eric, posted a photo of herself holding one of their two children in one hand and a vacuum in the other President Trump paid tribute to his own late mother, Mary Anne Trump, during an interview with Fox & Friends on Friday. Mary Anne Trump, who was born in Scotland, emigrated to the U.S. at 17, married Fred Trump in 1936, raised five children, and died in 2000. 'I had a great mom. I love my mom and she loved me,' Trump said, adding, 'which is, I must tell you, is probably not easy to do but she was so good to me. 'I couldn't do any wrong, which is a big problem, which is maybe why I ended up the way I ended up.' Donald Trump had fond memories of his mom Mary Anne Trump ahead of Mother's Day; he's seen here with his dad Fred and mom Mary Anne in New York in 1992 President Trump with his mother in 1977; Mary Anne Trump died in 2000 before he became president but after he was a celebrity businessman Mary Anne Trump - who was born in Scotland, emigrated to the US at 17, married Fred Trump in 1936, raised five children, and died in 2000 - was slight of build but had an elaborate hairstyle, described as a 'dynamic orange swirl.' President Trump said in the past he got 'my sense of showmanship from my mother.' Trump's father Fred died a year before his mother. Both missed out on seeing Trump elected to the White House but did live to see him become a celebrity businessman. The president, in a rare of introspection, talked about the qualities his parents had an instilled in himself. 'My mother was somebody that gave me a lot of confidence and she believed in me,' Trump, 73, noted. 'My father was the same. I mean, he was a strong guy but he was a good man, very good human being, very good person. And he always had confidence in me so. And in our family.' Trump was married to Ivana Trump from 1977 to 1992 and had children Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka, and Eric (seen here in 2015) Donald Trump with Ivana, Ivanka and Eric in 1998 at Mar-a-Lago Trump, who has been divorced twice and is the father of five children via three wives, also said he was at an advantage for having grown up in a two-parent household. 'I had really, really good parents and it's such an advantage in life. You know, you see so much with the single families and the children growing up without a mother or father or whatever it may be. It's a very tough situation for people - a very, very tough situation,' he noted. 'If you're lucky - and there's a lot of luck involved - if you're lucky enough to have one great parent or ideally two great parents, what a tremendous advantage it is in life. It's just a tremendous thing,' he said. In 2016, the U.S. Census found that a majority of America's children - 73.7 million or 69 per cent - live with two parents. The second most common arrangement was children living with a single mother, at 23 per cent. Trump concluded his reflection on his family with: 'I miss my parents.' Trump's parents met at a dance in the 1930s. Fred Trump started a construction business that would eventually be worth millions and some of that money went on to fund Donald Trump's start in the New York business world. Trump was married to Marla Maples from 1993 to 1999 and they have daughter Tiffany (seen here in 1994) Trump married Melania Knauss in 2005. They welcomed son Barron the following year Trump himself has had three wives. He was married to Ivana Trump from 1977 to 1992 and had children Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka, and Eric. He was married to Marla Maples from 1993 to 1999 and they have daughter Tiffany. Ivana Trump and Marla Maples got solo custody of their children in their divorces. Trump married Melania Knauss in 2005 and they have 14-year-old Barron. Trump praised Melania's parenting skills during his 'Fox & Friends' interview. 'Melania has been a great mother to Barron. I will tell you that Barron is growing up, really beautifully and she's been a great mother to Barron,' he said. Most of the children are involved in the Trump family business. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric run the Trump Organization while Ivanka Trump serves as an adviser to the president in the White House. Tiffany Trump attends Georgetown Law School and Barron Trump goes to school in the Washington D.C. area. The president headed to Camp David this weekend to meet with the Joint Chiefs of Staff but was expected to return on Sunday in time to celebrate Mother's Day. I grew up traveling to Mexico. It was an easy trip into Baja from Ventura County, California, my home. We would camp on desert points and surf for days. I always found the dusty peninsula and the country as a whole surprising, welcoming and exciting. It was not until the series of trips I took there in 2017 with Josh Partlow, our Mexico bureau chief, that I truly felt afraid. Afraid for my safety. Afraid for what Mexico had become. RELATED: Grisly displays in Mexico tourist hub underline narco violence The assignment started with a text from my editor, Nick Kirkpatrick, asking if I wanted to travel to a "sketchy narco zone," in Guerrero, one of Mexico's most violent states. The stories I had read about Mexican journalists being assassinated throughout the country for covering the violence and cartels were numerous. The country is second only to Syria in the number of journalists being killed on the job. But this is Mexico, a country and people I admire and respect. I knew with proper planning this was a story I wanted to photograph. We started in the "Tierra Caliente," or Hot Land, an opium-producing region in the mountains of Guerrero that provides drugs to sustain America's heroin habit. This is a place where impoverished rural towns are terrorized by drug lords with names like "El Pez," the Big Fish, and "El Tequilero," a name that needs no translation. We met the relatives of the murdered, victims of multiple kidnappings, and vigilante groups that took up arms to protect their neighbors. It became obvious this was only a chapter of a larger story. We witnessed a mustachioed cartel member carrying an assault rifle beating a man senseless in Acapulco, the world's second most dangerous city according to homicide statistics. The once posh resort town is now a narrow beach strip frequented mostly by Mexican tourists and semi-abandoned neighborhoods ruled by gangs and violence. RELATED: Photos show death and destruction from 10 years of Mexican Drug War In the border town of Tijuana, I met Cesar, a 27-year-old heroin addict who had started using at 18, the year his mother had committed suicide. Fluent in English and Spanish and boasting an encyclopedic knowledge of music, Cesar seemed to have charm and the ability to be successful. Instead, gripped by addiction, he is emblematic of the skyrocketing domestic drug use now present in Mexico. Jalisco is one of Mexico's most prosperous states. It is dominated by Jalisco Nueva Generacion, now considered the country's most powerful cartel. We found ourselves at the scene of a homicide. Luz Margarita Ramirez Gallardo had survived two gunshots to the head a month ago, on the Day of the Dead, a traditional Mexican holiday. Now she was dead, slumped in the seat of a van outside her home in Guadalajara. The hit men came back to finish the job they had failed to complete the first time. Drug demand remains high in the United States and these areas of Mexico suffer greatly trying to fulfill that need. Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) sued local authorities in California on Saturday as the electric carmaker pushed to re-open its factory there and Chief Executive Elon Musk threatened to move Tesla's headquarters and future programs from the state to Texas or Nevada. Musk has been pushing to re-open Tesla's Fremont, California, factory after Alameda County's health department said the carmaker must not reopen because local lockdown measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus remain in effect. In a blog post on Saturday, Tesla said the county's position left it no choice but to take legal action to ensure Tesla and its employees can go back to work. The company said it had worked out a thorough return-to-work plan that includes online video training for personnel, work zone partition areas, temperature screening, requirements to wear protective equipment and rigorous cleaning and disinfecting protocols. The company said it had informed health authorities in Alameda County, where the Fremont factory is located, about its restart plans, but claimed the acting official did not return calls or emails. Alameda County's Public Health Department, which earlier on Saturday said it had been "communicating directly and working closely with the Tesla team," did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Tesla filed a lawsuit against the county in San Francisco federal court on Saturday, calling the continued restrictions a "power-grab" by the county since California's governor had said on Thursday that manufacturers in the state would be allowed to reopen. The company said Alameda was going against the federal and California constitutions, as well as defying the governor's order, the lawsuit said. Also Read: Elon Musk's 'Tesla stock price is too high' tweet shaves off $13 billion from firm value; $3 bn his own Alameda County is scheduled to remain shut until the end of May, with only essential businesses allowed to reopen. The county said it does not consider Tesla an essential business. County officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. The outspoken Musk also took to Twitter on Saturday to complain and threatened to leave the state. "If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependen (sp) on how Tesla is treated in the future," he tweeted, referring to the San Francisco Bay area facility that is Tesla's only U.S. vehicle factory. Alameda County said on Saturday that it has been working with Tesla to develop a safety plan that "allows for reopening while protecting the health and well-being of the thousands of employees" that work at the factory and that it looks forward to coming to an agreement on a safety plan very soon. Fremont Mayor Lily Mei expressed concern about the potential economic implications of continuing the shelter-in-place order without provisions for manufacturers such as Tesla to resume. Mei on Saturday urged the county to work with businesses on "acceptable guidelines for re-opening." Musk had told employees on Thursday that limited production would restart at Fremont on Friday afternoon. Tesla last year built nearly half a million vehicles at the Fremont plant and moving the entire production facility would be a massive undertaking. Dan Ives, a Wedbush analyst, on Saturday estimated it could take the company 12 to 18 months to relocate production. The threat to relocate the facility comes as Tesla aims to ramp up production at Fremont of its Model Y sport utility vehicle, which it expects to generate record demand and profit margins. Musk, who sparred with California officials in March over whether Tesla had to halt production at Fremont, had criticized the lockdown and stay-at-home orders, calling them a "serious risk" to U.S. business and "unconstitutional." Tesla shares have risen 127% since March 18, their recent closing low, including a 16.8% gain in the last trading week to close at $819.42 on Friday. Also Read: Elon Musk names son 'X AE A-12'; girlfriend explains what it means! BANGKOK When the coronavirus lockdown in Bangkok eased a bit after six weeks, the first appointment my family made was not for a medical checkup or a walk in a park. Instead, we called the pet salon. Caper, our 9-month-old miniature schnauzer, was desperate for a trim. Thailand remains under a state of emergency through at least the end of May, with almost no international flights in or out. But because of the countrys low confirmed caseload of virus infections about 3,000 cases and 56 deaths, as of Saturday certain businesses have been allowed to reopen under strict social distancing and hygiene limits. The CEO of China Modern Dairy Holdings Ltd. (HKG:1117) is Lina Gao. 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 we will reflect on how common stockholders have fared in the last few years, as a secondary measure of performance. The aim of all this is to consider the appropriateness of CEO pay levels. Check out our latest analysis for China Modern Dairy Holdings How Does Lina Gao's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies? At the time of writing, our data says that China Modern Dairy Holdings Ltd. has a market cap of HK$5.2b, and reported total annual CEO compensation of CN3.8m for the year to December 2018. While we always look at total compensation first, we note that the salary component is less, at CN2.5m. As part of our analysis we looked at companies in the same jurisdiction, with market capitalizations of CN2.8b to CN11b. The median total CEO compensation was CN3.6m. Now let's take a look at the pay mix on an industry and company level to gain a better understanding of where China Modern Dairy Holdings stands. On an industry level, roughly 84% of total compensation represents salary and 16% is other remuneration. China Modern Dairy Holdings does not set aside a larger portion of remuneration in the form of salary, maintaining the same rate as the wider market. That means Lina Gao receives fairly typical remuneration for the CEO of a company that size. Although this fact alone doesn't tell us a great deal, it becomes more relevant when considered against the business performance. You can see, below, how CEO compensation at China Modern Dairy Holdings has changed over time. SEHK:1117 CEO Compensation May 10th 2020 Is China Modern Dairy Holdings Ltd. Growing? On average over the last three years, China Modern Dairy Holdings Ltd. has seen earnings per share (EPS) move in a favourable direction by 65% each year (using a line of best fit). Its revenue is up 11% over last year. Story continues This shows that the company has improved itself over the last few years. Good news for shareholders. This sort of respectable year-on-year revenue growth is often seen at a healthy, growing business. It could be important to check this free visual depiction of what analysts expect for the future. Has China Modern Dairy Holdings Ltd. Been A Good Investment? Given the total loss of 53% over three years, many shareholders in China Modern Dairy Holdings Ltd. are probably rather dissatisfied, to say the least. It therefore might be upsetting for shareholders if the CEO were paid generously. In Summary... Remuneration for Lina Gao is close enough to the median pay for a CEO of a similar sized company . We think that the EPS growth is very pleasing, but it's disappointing to see negative shareholder returns over three years. We'd be surprised if shareholders want to see a pay rise for the CEO, but we'd stop short of calling their pay too generous. Shifting gears from CEO pay for a second, we've picked out 4 warning signs for China Modern Dairy Holdings that investors should be aware of in a dynamic business environment. If you want to buy a stock that is better than China Modern Dairy Holdings, this free list of high return, low debt companies is a great place to look. 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. New York, May 10 : The number of people evaluated for signs of stroke at the US hospitals has dropped by nearly 40 per cent during the COVID-19 pandemic, finds a study led by Indian-origin researchers. The researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis analysed stroke evaluations at more than 800 hospitals across 49 states and the District of Columbia. The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, are a troubling indication that many people who experience strokes may not be seeking potentially life-saving medical care. "Our stroke team has maintained the full capacity to provide emergency stroke treatment at all times, even during the height of the pandemic," said study lead author Akash Kansagra, Assistant Professor at Washington University. "Nevertheless, we have seen a smaller number of stroke patients coming to the hospital and some patients arriving at the hospital after a considerable delay," Kansagra added. Nearly 800,000 people in the US experience a stroke every year. It is the fifth leading cause of death and the leading cause of long-term disability. Worried by the low numbers of stroke patients being evaluated at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and hearing similar reports from colleagues at other institutions, Kansagra - along with co-authors Manu Goyal, and statistician Scott Hamilton - set out to determine how pervasive the problem was. When patients arrive at a hospital and are showing signs of a stroke, they often get a brain scan so doctors can identify what kind of stroke has occurred and choose the most effective treatment. Many hospitals, including Barnes-Jewish Hospital, use software known as RAPID to analyse such brain scans. For the findings, the research team assessed how often the software was used in February, before the pandemic, and during a two-week period from March 26 to April 8, when much of the country was under shelter-in-place orders. In total, the software was used for 231,753 patients at 856 hospitals representing the district of Columbia and all 50 states except New Hampshire. During February, the software was used for an average of 1.18 patients per day per hospital. During the pandemic period, software use per hospital averaged 0.72 patients per day, a drop of 39 per cent. According to the study, it is not limited to just hospitals in urban settings or rural communities, small hospitals or large hospitals. It is not just the old or the young or the people with minor strokes who aren't showing up Even patients with really severe strokes are seeking care at reduced rates. "I suspect we are witnessing a combination of patients being reluctant to seek care out of fear that they might contract COVID-19, and the effects of social distancing," Kansagra said. Even during a pandemic, it is critically important for people who may be experiencing a stroke to receive care immediately, Kansagra said. The risk of delaying care for a stroke is much greater than the risk of contracting COVID-19, the researchers noted. B Anbuselvan By Express News Service CHENNAI: Twenty-two-year-old Babu Ganga heaved a sigh of relief as he prepared to board a special train at the Central station here on Saturday. Having spent over 45 days in a community shelter in the city, Babu is unlikely to forget his very first visit to Chennai. It was on March 18, he, along with three friends, reached here from Odisha to attend job interview at a reputed automobile company. Like many others, the lockdown struck them unexpectedly. It was my first attempt to land a job outside my own State. Since the trains were all cancelled, I have been staying in a community hall at Vyasarpadi along with over 150 people. I hardly slept three hours a day, Babu recalled. On Saturday, as many as 1,110 people boarded the special train from Chennai to Jagan Nathapur in Odisha. While 550 of them are migrant labourers, the rest have been staying in Corporation shelters since March 23. The special train was among the four services operated from the State by Southern Railway on the day. Meanwhile, some migrant workers had to resort to agitations to make their contractors agree to relieve them. We insisted at our employer to let us go home, but he tried to convince us. After 20 of us marched towards the Central station last week, he finally agreed, said one Ritesh. The authorities made sure that no one from the Corporation shelters departed with empty hands. They were given a bag each containing rice, pulses, bread, some grocery items and water bottle. Also, ICF Womens Welfare Organisation distributed 1,200 sets of amenity kits to the travellers through Corporation zonal officer (VIII). Each kit contained a towel, biscuit packet and soap. Four special trains on Saturday Over 4,520 people from other States returned home by special trains from Chennai, Katpadi and Coimbatore on Saturday. Two special trains from Coimbatore to Akbarpur and Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh each carried about 1,140 migrant workers. The Katpadi - Bihar special train ferried over 1,140 people, most of them patients visiting the hospitals here and their caretakers. Through the special trains on May 6 and 8, the Southern Railway has carried over 7,800 stranded people to northern and eastern States. The Philippine honorary consul to Ireland has disclosed a Filipino nurse contracted the coronavirus in a Dublin hospital after she was refused permission to wear a face mask. Raymond Garrett said that nurse infected her roommate who worked in a Dublin nursing home and a third nurse who lived with them was put at risk. In her case, the promise of hotel accommodation for health workers unable to self-isolate in their homes did not materialise. The consul said he wanted to raise his concerns with the hospital but he did not do so because the nurse was fearful of coming forward. The nurse had been in Ireland three months, working in a large Dublin hospital, when the first coronavirus outbreak occurred. She became infected with the virus at the end of March. "She had a patient who was coughing and spewing. She requested could she wear a face mask, she was told no," he said. "She was told at the time this was against national guidelines because the patient wasn't a confirmed case." The patient tested positive, and the nurse was diagnosed with the virus 10 days later. Her first thought was fear of transmitting the virus to her Filipino house mates. She lives in rented accommodation with two other nurses, according to Raymond Garrett, as do many people in the community who come to Ireland alone to support families at home. She shared a bedroom with a nurse working in a care home. A third nurse in a separate room, worked in intensive care. "She asked the hospital if they could provide alternative accommodation because of this situation. They said they couldn't. She repeatedly asked, and the person she shared a room with repeatedly asked. They were told no, there was no access," he said. The nurse infected her roommate who worked in a nursing home. The third nurse did not become infected. At the beginning of April, the Minister for Health announced temporary accommodation measures for healthcare workers, including groups of healthcare workers living together and putting each other at risk. The case came to Mr Garrett's attention through the Filipino community. He heads the Philippines consulate in Drimnagh. The consul discussed raising her experience with the health authorities here and the hospital concerned but she declined. She and her roommate have recovered and are back at work. "She was very anxious that if she kicked up a fuss, she may not pass her probation period at the hospital," he said. Her family back at home had taken a "fairly substantial loan" to fund her education and she is under "tremendous" financial pressure. "My job is to protect the interests of Filipino nationals, but I have to respect her wishes. If I did not, people will stop coming forward to me, and I won't be made aware of the problems when they come up." He said he found it "absolutely shocking" that promises of support for healthcare workers living in shared accommodation did not materialise when she and her room-mate most needed it. And that she was put at such risk in the first place in a prominent Dublin hospital. The consulate supports 16,000 Filipino workers here, including 6,000 in the healthcare sector. Raymond Garrett estimates that between 200 and 400 Filipinos in Ireland have contracted the virus. Filipinos account for five to 10pc of all healthcare workers in Ireland and consequently five to 10pc the 3,800-plus health workers who contracted Covid-19. There have been a small number of fatalities. "We are providing consular assistance to families here, to bereaved families, to people who are in intensive care or coming out of intensive care," he said. "There are also undocumented workers here, people who were child-minding, and all of a sudden the schools closed, and they are out of a job." One of the most urgent problem for Filipino workers is renewing visas during lockdown. Having closed during the lockdown, the consulate reopened last Friday to assist healthcare professionals to update their work permits and papers. The consulate has introduced a face mask policy for all visitors. Michigan Gov Gretchen Whitmer says she would support a ban on weapons inside the state Capitol after armed citizens stormed the building to protest against coronavirus lockdowns. Whitmer denounced last month's chaotic demonstration during an NBC News interview, saying that lawmakers should not feel threatened when they report for work during the pandemic. 'There are legislators who are wearing bulletproof vests to go to work,' Whitmer said Wednesday. 'No one should be intimidated by someone who's bringing in an assault rifle into their workplace. And so there is conversation about changing that law.' 'I think it's long overdue, and I absolutely support that change,' she added. Michigan Gov Gretchen Whitmer says she would support a ban on weapons inside the state Capitol after armed citizens stormed the building to protest against coronavirus lockdowns Hundreds of people descended on Michigan's Capitol building on April 30 to protest against Whitmer extending a statewide stay-at-home order. Photos from the 'American Patriot Rally' made headlines nationwide as many protesters were seen carrying assault rifles Hundreds of people descended on Michigan's Capitol building on April 30 to protest against Whitmer extending a statewide stay-at-home order. Photos from the 'American Patriot Rally' made headlines nationwide as many protesters were seen carrying assault rifles, swastikas and Confederate flags. Whitmer called the scenes 'disturbing' and said they 'depicted some of the worst racism and awful parts of our history in this country'. '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,' the Democratic governor said on CNN's State of the Union on May 3. The sight of so many people carrying guns during the protest prompted the Michigan Capitol Commission to explore a ban on allowing weapons inside the building. 'We do not like seeing guns brought into the building loaded guns and I'm a Second Amendment advocate,' John Truscott, a Republican and vice chairman of the six-member commission, which oversees the building, told WILS-AM on Tuesday. 'It's the rule of law that will dictate what happens here,' he added. 'We're looking into it.' The 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 A protester holding an automatic rifle is seen on the lawn outside the Capitol on April 30 The law at issue was passed in 1931 and states that carrying concealed weapons with a license is allowed inside the building. It does not specifically prohibit open carry, so it is presumed to be allowed, Truscott said. He said the commission is seeking legal advice on what action it could take to change the law. 'We'll be getting a more comprehensive briefing at our meeting on Monday,' he told the Detroit Free Press. State Rep Sarah Anthony voiced her support for a gun ban in the Capitol on Wednesday after she was filmed entering the building with an armed escort State Rep Sarah Anthony, who is black, voiced her support for the change on Wednesday after she was filmed entering the Capitol with an armed escort. 'We were all just appalled by the lack of support and lack of security that I had, that other legislators had, and the fact that a lot of the demonstrators last week were adorning many racist, anti-Semitic signage,' Anthony explained to the Lansing City Pulse. 'I think it just triggered a lot of folks, especially African Americans.' 'I will be advocating for a change, at the very least, to ban open carry inside the building,' she continued. 'For one, it's more intimidating. Obviously, we have a right to bear arms, but concealed would be easier. 'I don't think we need to be intimidated with large firearms while we're doing our jobs.' Other state government buildings in Michigan have gun bans. Truscott said a core part of the commission's legal research is looking into whether the Capitol has any special status that would prevent a similar ban there. Cannon Beach Closes Beaches for Weekend; S. Oregon Coast Begins Slow Open Published 05/08/2020 at 12:24 AM PDT By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff (Cannon Beach, Oregon) Things are slowly opening up on the southern Oregon coast, but up north one town is closing off beaches to even locals for the weekend. Citing scofflaws and an upcoming heatwave on the Oregon coast, Cannon Beach officials have decided to close down all beaches next to the city for the weekend to residents and visitors, starting Saturday, May 9 at 7 a.m. until Tuesday, May 12 at 7 p.m. The City of Cannon Beach declared a state of emergency back in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, taking protective measures which prohibited lodgings of all kinds from operating and excluded visitors from entering the town. However, despite that order to stay out, city officials said its being ignored. The City of Cannon Beach has experienced an increasing influx of visitors defying the state and local restrictions and not practicing safe social distancing, especially on the beaches adjacent to the City, the city said in a press release. As the weather for the upcoming weekend is forecasted as in the high 70 degrees and sunny, it is extremely likely that such beach weather will further entice visitors from the Portland metropolitan areas to visit the beaches adjacent to the City. City officials said that areas flanking Cannon Beach, such as Seaside to the north and Manzanita to the south, are also closed. Thus, officials worry this will funnel visitors to the beaches of the north Oregon coast town. On the southern Oregon coast, parts of that region are reopening. Starting Friday, May 8, lodging facilities around the county will be allowed to host visitors, along with campgrounds run by the county. This does not include state campgrounds. Now its left up to individual cities, and so far Gold Beach has swung open its doors as of Friday. In a press release from county commissioner Court Boice, he said Brookings will be meeting on the matter soon and is expected to follow Gold Beachs lead, while Port Orford officials will meet soon to discuss reopening. UPDATE: However, at this time Gold Beach and county officials are apparently asking visitors to stay at home. Oregon Coast Beach Connection has been unable to reach Gold Beach or Curry County officials for comment to confirm, and inconsistent messages are being relayed to the public. A Gold Beach hotel that had earlier touted opening back up and celebrating with special prices has since rescinded those statements. More updates soon keep checking Oregon Coast Beach Connection. More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging..... More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining..... Coastal Spotlight LATEST Related Oregon Coast Articles Back to Oregon Coast Contact Advertise on BeachConnection.net All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright BeachConnection.net Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted You are here: Business A China-Europe freight train on Saturday left Dongguan, a manufacturing hub in south China's Guangdong province, heading for Vilnius, capital of Lithuania. The train of the new postal service will pass by Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus and is expected to arrive in Vilnius 16 days later. Carrying 41 TEUs loaded with 260 tonnes of international mail, including clothing, toys, luggage and electronic products, from Dongguan and the surrounding areas, it will leave China via the Horgos Port in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. After arrival, the international mail will be distributed to European countries and regions such as Spain, Britain, Germany and Italy. The opening of this China-Europe freight train service line will help promote multilateral trade exchanges and cooperation between parts of south China including Dongguan and countries and regions along the route. Terrorist who was going to kill shopkeeper in J&K gunned down Highly radicalised terrorist arrested in Punjab and not surprisingly link goes back to the UK Notorious narco terrorist arrested by NIA India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, May 10: A notorious narco terrorist has been arrested by the National Investigation Agency. Ranjit Singh along with co-accused Iqbal Singh Shera are the prime accused in case registered by NIA in connection with the seizure of 532 kgs of heroin hidden in a consignment of rock salt imported from Pakistan. The seizure was made by the Custom Authorities at ICP Attari on 29.06.2019 when contraband was discovered during inspection of the consignment. NIA files supplementary chargesheet in Guwahati fake currency case Investigation revealed that Pakistan based entities are smuggling narcotics from Pakistan into the Indian territory by hiding it in sacks of rock salt which is imported from Pakistan. This is done through an elaborate network of importers, Customs House Agents, transporters and the operation is financed through illegal international hawala channels. Investigation also established that the seized consignment was a part of a total of 5 consignments of drugs, 4 out of which had been successfully smuggled into India. First charge-sheet in this case was submitted by NIA in the Special NIA Court, Mohali against 15 accused persons including 4 companies and also Ranjit Singh who had been absconding since then. Ranjit Singh is also the prime accused in the recent Hizbul Mujahideen terror funding module which was busted with the arrest of Hilal Ahmad Wagay, a resident of Nowgam, Awantipora, Jammu and Kashmir with Rs 29 lacs in cash in Amritsar by Punjab Police on 25.4.2020. This money was being transported to the Kashmir valley to be handed over to Riyaz Naikoo (now killed), Chief operational commander of Hizbul Mujahideen. The case registered by Punjab Police in this connection, has been reregistered and taken over by NIA. NIA seizes incriminating material in Kozhikode naxal case NIA investigation has revealed that Pakistan based terrorist organisations are using narcotic trade to generate funds for terror activities in India. The proceeds of narcotic trade are transferred to Kashmir valley through Couriers and Hawala channel for terrorist purposes. J.C. Penney will file for bankruptcy, possibly as soon as this week, according to a Reuters report. According to Reuters, the filing will come with plans to close about a quarter of its roughly 850 stores. J.C. Penney is one of the countrys oldest department store chains having been in business for 118 years, but it has long been in decline, according to Reuters, and is currently $4 billion in debt. The story said J.C. Penney, which employs nearly 85,000 people, is in discussions to secure a loan of between $400 and $500 million to help keep it afloat. The report comes just a day after Reuters said J.C. Penney missed a $17 million debt payment while its also facing a $12 million missed payment from April 15 for which it has 30 days to make good on. And there are some staggering bills coming due. Accoridng to the story, it faces a $105 million debt payment in June and nearly $300 million in interest expenses. It said nearly $2 billion in debt is due in 2023. The story said roughly 200 stores would be closed following the reorganization. JC Penney has several stores in Central New York, including one at Destiny USA in Syracuse. It also has stores in Oswego, Rome, Auburn, New Hartford and Cortland. WASHINGTON (AP) As President Donald Trump tries to moves on from the coronavirus, Congress is rushing to fill the void and prepare the country for the long fight ahead. Jolted by the lack of comprehensive federal planning as states begin to reopen, lawmakers of both parties, from the senior-most senators to the newest House member, are jumping in to develop policies and unleash resources to prevent a second wave. In the House and Senate, lawmakers are pushing sweeping proposals for a national virus testing strategy. One seasoned Republican wants a war-like public health fund. A New Jersey freshman launched neighboring colleagues on a regional bipartisan task force to help guide Northeastern states back to work. This is going to be on us, said Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., a former Navy helicopter pilot in her first term in Congress. The legislative branch is stepping up in the absence of a consistent, convincing White House strategy, in much the way governors have been forced to go it alone during the nations pandemic response. In this April 21, 2020, file photo Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of N.Y., center, speaks with reporters alongside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., left, after the Senate approved a nearly $500 billion coronavirus aid bill on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)AP Congress is preparing its fifth coronavirus aid package, a Rooseveltian effort, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York put it. It's a Democratic-heavy plan that wary Republicans are watching, despite support in the party for some provisions. Unlike the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, when President George W. Bush called on Congress to create a Department of Homeland Security, or during the Great Depression, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt led the nation to the New Deal, Trump is not seeking a legacy-defining accomplishment in the heat of national crisis. Instead, Trump has turned the life-and-death decision-making away from the federal government and onto the states for the next phase of the response. He expects governors to arrange virus testing systems and find their own medical gear, saying the federal government is a supplier of last resort. The White House coronavirus task force has abandoned daily briefings. Encouraging the economic rebound, Trump said Thursday he's looking forward to "getting on with it. When the nation is in the middle of the major, historic crisis, the norm is that both branches focus on the issue, said Julian E. Zelizer, a Princeton professor of history and public policy. Its not normal for the president to just move on. The administration issued guidelines for reopening state and local economies, but shelved a more detailed 17-page report from the experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New projections say the death toll could essentially double this summer, from 70,000 as of Friday to 134,000 by early August, as states loosen stay-home restrictions, according to a model from the University of Washington. FILE - In this May 8, 2020, file photo Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, right, listens during a meeting between President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)AP It is lot for Congress to take on, Andy Slavitt, a former federal health official, told the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Friday. "Theres never been a greater time when Americans need the support of Congress and their state and local leaders." As the Senate resumed this past week while the House stayed largely away, lawmakers drilled into pandemic policy. Tom Frieden, a former CDC director, outlined a 10-point strategy in testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee. As bad as this has been, its just the beginning, Frieden warned of the long wait ahead for improved treatments and an eventual vaccine. Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the committee, was particularly interested in Friedens proposal for a new public health fund modeled on those Congress uses to pay the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, separate from budget caps. There needs to be a whole big plan, said Cole. On the other side of the Capitol, an exasperated Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., grilled officials about the national testing strategy she has pushd since early March. We cant reopen our country safely, she said, until tests are are fast, free, and everywhere. Health officials say a robust national testing effort, with the ability to trace the contacts of those who have been infected so those people isolate and prevent spread should be central to any plan returning Americans to work. Several lawmakers want the federal government to hire out-of-work Americans into an army of the estimated 300,000 public health workers needed for the job. To ensure enough medical supplies, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wants to wrest manufacturing away from China with Buy American rules to kick-start domestic industry. While many of the proposals coming from Congress are bipartisan, pushback is strong from some corners. Conservative Republicans in particular resist a robust federal government intervention, preferring a state-by-state approach. Many share Trump's view that the remedy can't be worse than the disease, as record Americans are out of work. Trump will need to sign any legislation into law. At the House hearing, Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., an anesthesiologist, argued that indefinite stay-home orders make no sense. "Were safer from death if were not born," he said. Cole, a former history professor, said Trump is constrained by the built-in balance between Washington and the states, which ensures 50 laboratories as states try different options for confronting the virus. We're going to know pretty quick whether or not these guys starting up early are right, he said. Weeks ago, Sherrill, the first-term Democrat, grew frustrated during a briefing about the lack of protective equipment for front-line workers. Were not where we need to be, she said. So the question comes up: Why? She launched the five-state task force that's trying to stand up mobile virus testing at work sites and get gear to health offices. Much the way governors have formed compacts with neighboring states, lawmakers often agree there's no one-size-fits-all approach despite the need for robust federal role to ensure equitable outcomes for Americans. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a member of the new House Select Committee on Coronavirus Crisis, said the pandemic poses a stress test for America's federalist system. This period is going to be about whether we can make the Founders vision of federalism work, he said at the Capitol, during the worst public health crisis of our lifetimes. Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) has readied the land for the construction of the first of three temporary residential complexes being built in the country for expatriate workers, reported Kuna. KNPC said it had finalised the establishment and equipment of the first of these temporary housing sites being set up as a contribution to the state efforts to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19). On completion, these three residential complexes will be able to accommodate a total of 8,332 workers, said a top official. "The first site, located in district of Ardiyah, can accommodate 1,590 persons initially and later its capacity can be increased to 3,190," stated Deputy CEO Abdullah Al Ajmi. "The second complex, to be set up in South Al Sabbahiya and the third one at Al Jahra, will both be equipped in coming days. Once ready, they will have a capacity of 4,252 persons," he revealed. On completion, KNPC will maintain these sites, secure water and power generators for the units, explained Al Ajmi. It will then hand them over to the cabinet-affiliated quarantine commission to determine how to use them, he added. The main tenant of London's third tallest skyscraper is planning to ask employees to book a place in the lift when they go back to the office. Chief executive of US software giant Salesforce Marc Benioff, said employees would also have to book specific times to travel between floors to ensure the company is following social distancing guidelines. Salesforce rents ten floors in the 46-storey Heron Tower, just off Liverpool street, which is famous for long queues outside its lifts that could create an infection spreading hotbed. Mr Benioff said they would use the company app to enact the new measures. US software company Salesforce is also planning to ask employees to book specific times to travel between floors at the Heron Tower, London's third tallest skyscraper. Pictured above is the entrance to the building before the lockdown Marc Benioff, the company's chief executive, warned this would be a new working environment Mr Benioff warned the Sunday Telegraph: 'This is going to be the new type of business. 'There's only going to be so many people allowed in the elevator at one time because we're going to have proper social distancing. 'This is going to be a whole different type of work environment, you're going to need a command centre you're going to need contact tracing, you're going to need to have workforce triage, you're going to need to have shift schedules.' The company employs around 2,000 staff in the UK, mostly in the capital. It is planning to launch similar measures at its offices in Seoul, South Korea, when they re-open on May 11. There will also be PPE available for staff, plexiglass barriers between desks and enforced social distancing inside the building, reports Quartz. The Heron Tower (first left) has 46 floors. Salesforce takes up ten of them Salesforce was embroiled in arguments over the Heron Tower in 2014, when it had the building re-named the Salesforce Tower. The developers agreed to the change after it failed to fill office space following its completion in 2011. Pictured above is the Heron Tower, London The tower had been at risk of receivership after its owners were unable to agree on how to re-finance a 315 million loan. The project comes as the country waits for Boris Johnson's 7pm announcement detailing what, if any, restrictions can be lifted. It is expected he will impose two-week quarantines for people arriving in the UK from abroad while repeating the message for workers not to return to their offices. It is also expected the number of public transport services will tick upwards. Analysts fear the announcement may offer only a slight reduction in current restrictions, as the government's failure to keep tests above 100,000 mean it is yet to establish the full scale of the pandemic. Many businesses are warning that if lockdown is extended further they may not survivie, as Britain enters its 48th day. NHS England announced a further 205 deaths from coronavirus today - the lowest tally in more than six weeks - bringing the total to 31,792. A spokesman for the Heron Tower said it controls the lifts and any arrangements made by Salesforce will not impact other tenants. 'We have issued initial guidance to all our tenants to prepare for a phased reoccupation of the building, which includes plans to prevent queues for - and overcrowding in - the lifts,' they said. 'Booking lifts does not currently form part of those plans, though any internal measures to reduce lift use by our tenants who occupy multiple floors will of course be welcomed.' Yangon, May 10 : Myanmars military on Sunday began a ceasefire for more than three months, however it will not cover areas where ethnic rebels the government considers terrorist groups are based. Among the exceptions are Arakan Army (AA) rebels, which mainly operate in the states of Rakhine (west) and Chin (northwest), the conflict with which has intensified since January, reports Efe news. The unilateral ceasefire declared by the Myanmar military, also known as the Tatmadaw, was announced on Saturday night and will remain in effect until August 31. According to the military command, the ceasefire is enforced with an objective to focus on the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The Tatmadaw, which has been accused of having committed multiple crimes against humanity, did not explain in its statement the reasons why it will continue fighting in certain areas and threatened to break the truce in others if attacked. On March 23, the government designated the AA as a terrorist organization, while only one other rebel group of the dozens operating in the country is currently classified as such - the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), whose attacks in August 2017 sparked a brutal military campaign against the Rohingya minority. The conflict with the AA, which began in 2009 with the aim to achieve greater autonomy for its territory, resumed in November 2018, leading to the displacement of 150,000 and hundreds of deaths. "It's really hard to collaborate with the government as the Myanmar Army is escalating its confrontation in northern Rakhine state," AA spokesperson Khine Thukha told Efe news. The AA and its allies announced their own ceasefire in March through to the end of May, although clashes have continued. A UN official based in the conflict zone told Efe news last month that the Tatmadaw was resorting to "more brutal means" out of the frustration of losing ground to the AA. Myanmar began its transition to democracy in 2011 after nearly half a century under military rule. However, the military reserves constitutional prerogatives which give it control of ministries such as defence, interior, and border affairs, along with 25 per cent of parliamentary seats, which provides it considerable sway in the house to veto any amendments to the Constitution. Maharashtra on Saturday notched a new single day record of 48 Covid-19 deaths with the tally of positive cases crossing 20,000, marking a grim completion of 60 days since coronavirus first entered the state on March 9 with only 2 cases. With 48 fatalities, the state's death toll shot up from Friday's 731 to 779 Saturday while the total number of cases increased from 19,063 to 20,228 -- a jump of 1,165 cases. Of the total deaths, 27 were recorded in Mumbai, taking the city toll from 489, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients in the city shot up by 740 from Friday's 12,142 to 12,864 on Saturday. Dharavi alone continued to be a major hotspot in Mumbai, notching 25 new cases, taking the total number of patients to 833, while 27 persons have succumbed to the dreaded virus till now. Besides Mumbai's 27 deaths, Pune recorded 10 new fatalities, Malegaon 8, and one each in Akola, Nanded and Amravati. Three days after a macabre video surfaced showing Covid-19 patients lying among dead bodies purportedly at the LTMG Sion Hospital, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Saturday shunted out the Dean of the hospital, Pramod Ingle, and replaced him with another senior official, Ramesh Bharmal. Late on Friday, the state government had removed BMC chief Praveen Pradeshi and appointed senior IAS officer Iqbal Singh Chahal to head the civic body. A day after he took charge, the newly-appointed Municipal Commissioner on Saturday visited the BYL Nair Hospital and the Dharavi slum for a first-hand assessment of the Covid-19 treatment and containment facilities as cases and deaths continue to gallop in Mumbai. Among Saturday's 48 Covid-19 victims in the state, 21 were men and 27 were women, and nearly 72 per cent of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problem and asthma. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (Thane Division) continued to cause major worries with 524 Covid-19 deaths and 15,595 patients. Pune Division trails a distant second with 161 fatalities and 2,513 patients. The next area of concern is the Nashik Division with 40 deaths and 857 positive cases, followed by Akola Division with 24 deaths and 345 patients and Aurangabad Division with 13 fatalities and 514 patients. On the positive side, 330 fully cured patients returned home on Saturday, taking the number of those discharged to 3,800 till date. Meanwhile, the number of people under home quarantine increased from Friday's 239,531 to 241,290 on Saturday and those under institutional quarantine went up from 13,494 to 13,976, while the state's containment zones increased from 1,139 to 1,243. As many as 12,388 teams have carried out a survey of a population of around 55 lakh in the state till date. From Sunday, at least three flights from the UK, Singapore and Philippines will land in Mumbai, carrying hundreds of Indian stranded in those countries, with more flights expected in the next week. Heres The Oregonians weekly look at the numbers behind the states economy. View past installments here. Oregon shed more than 380,000 jobs in the first seven weeks of the coronavirus outbreak, with layoffs hitting low-wage workers hardest. Thats because service industries restaurants, bars and hotels, in particular, have fared the worst. The impacts are spread more evenly across ethnic and racial groups, though, according to the latest analysis from Oregon Employment Department economist Damon Runberg. The racial and ethnic breakout of the COVID unemployed looks very similar to Oregons labor force more broadly, Runberg wrote. White, non-Hispanic Oregonians made up around 80% of those who have lost their jobs during the pandemic, according to Runbergs analysis, roughly in line with that categorys share of the workforce. Hispanic Oregonians constitute about 12% of the job losses, also in line with their share of the workforce. The same is true for other demographic categories, but there is an important caveat. About 20% of those who filed for benefits did not indicate race or ethnicity on their application so some groups may be undercounted. The nonresponse rate was considerably higher on gender more than 40% of benefits applicants didnt answer that question. Among those who did, the split was almost exactly even half are men and half are women. Runberg notes that women represented 36% of unemployment insurance claims before the coronavirus outbreak. Oregons demographic data contrasts with national numbers, which appear to suggest Hispanics and African-Americans are being hit hardest economically by the pandemic. A Washington Post poll this past week, for example, found 20% of Hispanic adults and 16% of African-Americans reported being laid off or furloughed during the outbreak. That compares to 11% of whites who say they lost their jobs. Its not clear why Oregon would be different from other parts of the country, but the economic crisis is still in its early stages and clearer data may emerge from more comprehensive studies of the effects of the coronavirus recession. -- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway | Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. A staff member at a regional Victorian hospital has tested positive to coronavirus. Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said a small number of colleagues who had been in direct contact with the worker at Kyabram and District Health Services were now self-isolating. Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos gives an update on Sunday. Credit:AAP Other asymptomatic staff members would be tested but the employee had not been in close contact with any patients, Ms Mikakos said. Premier Daniel Andrews is set to make an announcement on Monday on the possible easing of restrictions, in line with the federal government's framework to return to "COVID normal" life, revealed on Friday. The first batch of 326 Indian nationals stranded in the UK due to the coronavirus-linked global travel restrictions arrived here from London early on Sunday morning. The special evacuation flight AI 130, a Boeing 777 plane which departed from London on Saturday, landed at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) at around 1.30 AM with 326 Indians, according to a source. "1st flight 2 #Mumbai landed- crew interaction less with the passengers. Protective kit was given 2 all-along with snack n meal kept on the seat beforehand. Next #quarantine. Watch the space," tweeted a passenger onboard the flight. Coronavirus LIVE updates "Reached Mumbai safely from UK. Thank you so much to @airindiain @HCI_London, @NISAU_UK, @MEAIndia," another person said in a tweet. 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 airport authorities, in a statement on Saturday, said that the arriving passengers with symptoms will be moved to isolation centres. Asymptomatic passengers residing in Mumbai will be moved to quarantine facilities like hotels, while those from outside of the city will be transported by the state to their respective district headquarters, it said. Follow our full coverage on COVID-19 here Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 23:39:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JUBA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The easing of restrictions by South Sudan amid COVID-19 has brought relief to many people like Amin Musa, a 45-year-old businessman who deals in construction materials at the once bustling Gumbo suburb of Juba. He told Xinhua that the restrictions imposed since March 25 that involved closure of non-essential businesses amid dusk to dawn curfew, have left him hurting as his business is now mired in debts besides leaving him with little income to feed his family of six. "We, the business people are happy for resuming our work, which is the only source of our livelihoods," Musa told Xinhua on Sunday as several businesses opened up. "The loss I have incurred in terms of cash cannot be estimated but I have lost many clients during the lockdown. I was squeezed financially because my savings took a hit and had to survive on borrowing from friends which has left me in debts," he added. Many South Sudanese have been affected due to the slowdown in cross-border trade regional countries due to fears of cross-border transmission of COVID-19, tightened borders that are crucial lifelines for cargo trucks bringing in essential goods like food, and medicines to South Sudan. Juba's easing of restrictions amid rising numbers of positive COVID-19 cases has not been entirely welcomed, especially by medical experts. The South Sudan Doctors Union (SSDU) in a joint statement issued last week, described the move as reckless because it would spike COVID-19 infections, thus overwhelming the fragile health care system. Denis Duku, a 20-year-old who operates his commercial motorcycle business, despite being relieved by the relaxing of COVID-19 restrictions, also expressed fears of COVID-19 cases surging. "We were just surviving during the restrictions by violating the directives to work in search of money for food, and most often we got into trouble with security agents," he said. "We have been instructed to resume work but still COVID-19 cases are increasing which means we should keep the social distancing order to avoid contracting the virus," added Duku. The youngest nation prior to COVID-19 global pandemic was already being overwhelmed with litany of problems like food insecurity with the UN estimating at least 6.5 million people, half of its population will face acute food insecurity this year, due to combination of factors like conflict, flooding and invasion of desert locusts. Deng Garang, a 37-year-old father of four whose cloth hawking business had been disrupted, said that prior to imposition of the stringent rules, he and his colleagues had little savings which were quickly depleted during the partial lockdown. "We thank the president for giving us this chance of re-opening up the markets because we do not have any more savings or other means for feeding our families," Garang said. "We were suffering so much, the market that we relied on for the little money used for sustaining our lives got completely closed, children at home remained without basic needs, they were thirsty and hungry," added Garang who also added that the situation inflicted emotional pain as some of his children got sick. Another trader Nelson Abuna, who hawks used clothes, said he is happy to finally resume business uninterrupted as staying at home for him with his six children had come with its toll of emotional stress and costly expenses. "It is joy everywhere and joy to everybody. You cannot keep me in the house because when you close business you are left desperate and with no option other than seeking another way of survival," he said. Enditem Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Sebastian Smith (Agence France-Presse) Washington Sun, May 10, 2020 12:28 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd702bc8 2 World united-states,Mike-Pence,Donald-Trump,coronavirus,COVID-19,spokeswoman Free The US vice president's spokeswoman became the second White House staffer this week to test positive for the coronavirus, officials said Friday, even as President Donald Trump continued to go mask-free at a World War II commemoration with veterans in their 90s. News that staffer Katie Miller had fallen ill boosted fears that the White House is at risk of becoming a viral hot spot just when Trump is leading efforts to wind down nationwide quarantine measures that have devastated the world's biggest economy. Miller is spokeswoman for Vice President Mike Pence, giving her frequent access to high-level meetings. She is also married to top Trump aide Stephen Miller, the speech writer behind the administration's hardline immigration measures. A senior administration official initially said only that a member of Pence's staff had been tested and found to have the coronavirus. Trump, speaking later at an event with Republican lawmakers, identified the person as "Katie," saying she works with Pence as a "press person." This confirmed multiple US media reports that Katie Miller was the person in question. On Friday, Miller thanked people for their well wishes, and in a tweet said: "I'm doing well and look forward to getting back to work for the American people." As recently as Thursday, Miller was seen mingling with officials at an outdoor prayer ceremony hosted by Trump and attended by dozens of people, including the wives of Trump and Pence and many senior staff. Miller's positive test disrupted a trip by Pence to Des Moines, Iowa, with six people who may have had contact with her made to get off the airplane. "Out of abundance of caution we went back and looked into all the person's contacts most recently," said the senior administration official, who asked not to be named. On Thursday, a Trump spokesman said the president's valet, a member of the military who is in close contact with the president, had tested positive. Trump and Pence were tested and confirmed to be negative. Both are tested daily. The latest scare came as Trump is pressing for a quicker reopening of the US economy, which has been hammered by the fallout from mass lockdowns and social distancing. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said there was no risk of a White House outbreak or threat to Trump. "I can just tell you that we've taken every single precaution to protect the president," she told a press briefing. "We clean the facility, we social distance, we keep people six feet away from each other." Read also: Obama calls Trump's handling of pandemic a 'chaotic disaster' Trump: wind blows virus Trump has drawn criticism for refusing to follow his own health experts' advice on wearing a mask in public. Although wearing a face covering is voluntary, it is recommended by many state authorities and federal doctors. Few of Trump's staff are ever seen wearing masks. Trump's latest public outing was to a ceremony early Friday marking the 75th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. The president, who at 73 is well within the higher-risk group for COVID-19, met eight American veterans ranging in age from 96 to 100. Neither he nor the veterans wore masks, although he kept a few steps from them. "I was very far away from (the veterans)," Trump told journalists. "Plus the wind was blowing so hard in such a direction that if the plague ever reached them, I'd be very surprised." According to McEnany, the veterans "made the choice to come here because they've chosen to put their nation first. They wanted to be with their commander in chief on this momentous day. It was their choice to come here." McEnany said mask-wearing is a purely personal issue. "This president is regularly tested. This president will make the decision as to wear a mask or not," she said. Earlier this week, Trump made his first long-distance trip since the nation's coronavirus lockdown began, visiting a Honeywell mask-making factory in Arizona. Again, he did not wear a mask in public, even while addressing a room full of factory employees, all wearing masks in accordance with company policy. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: With no new Covid-19 cases recorded in 14 districts in the last 21 days, the State government has asked the Centre to upgrade them from orange to green zones. On May 1, the Centre had classified only nine districts as green zones. But with an improvement in 12 districts, the number of green zones may go up to 23. The red zones are also likely to reduce in the coming days. Speaking to the media on Friday, Health Minister Eatala Rajender said, Suryapet, Warangal Urban and Nizamabad which have been red zones have now become eligible to be classified as orange zones. We have appealed to the Central government to categorise them as orange. I have spoken to the Union Health Minister and he said that the announcement will be made by Monday. After all these changes take effect, 80 per cent of Telangana would be Covid-free and they could function normally, he added. 10 new cases Meanwhile, the number of new Covid-19 positive cases recorded on Friday were as low as 10 and all of them were from the GHMC limits. While no deaths were reported on the day, continuing the states streak of higher percentage of discharges as against positive case admissions, 34 patients were discharged on Friday. Presently, only 376 active cases are undergoing treatment at the Gandhi Hospital. While the number of positive cases recorded in the State stood at 1,132 cases, the number of deaths remains unchanged at 29. Today a 75-year-old, who was earlier in a critical condition, was discharged. Another dialysis patient who we thought would die, has been cured, he said while highlighting that the medical teams of Gandhi Hospital have also successfully performed a C-section on a Covid-19 patient. 14 districts likely to get green zone tag Mahbubnagar, Sangareddy, Medak, Kamareddy, Karimnagar, Jayshankar- Bhupalpally, Sircilla, Narayanpet, Mancherial, Nalgonda, Vikarabad, Jagtial Jangaon, Asifabad Current green zones Peddapalli,Nagarkurnool,Mulugu, Bhadradri Kothagudem, Mahabubabad,Siddipet, Warangal Rural, Wanaparthy, Yadadri Bhuvanagiri Still in red Hyderabad,Rangareddy, Medchal-Malkajgiri US President Donald Trump held a meeting on Saturday with military officials in Washington DC. The meeting was attended by senior military leadership, and national security team members, according to the White House. Without elaborating on the nature of the meeting, Trump said they were discussing "various things" and that investment in "rebuilding" the US military was showing results. Libyas Government of National Accord said Sunday at least four civilians, including a child, were killed as rockets rained down on the capital Tripoli and damaged its only working airport. The UN-recognised GNA blamed Saturdays attacks on eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar, who has been waging a campaign to take control of the capital since April last year. GNA supporter Turkey, for its part, warned that it would target Haftars forces if attacks continued on Ankaras missions and interests, citing the airport. Haftars forces fired more than a hundred rockets and missiles at residential areas in the centre of the capital, the GNA said in a statement on Facebook. At least four civilians, including a five-year-old girl, were killed and 16 others wounded in the working-class districts of Abu Slim and Ben Gashir, south of the city, the GNAs health ministry spokesman Amin al-Hashemi said. Dozens of rockets also targeted Mitiga airport, hitting a civilian aircraft lined up to repatriate Libyans stuck abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic, the GNA statement added. Turkey warned that Haftars forces would become legitimate targets if such attacks continued. Overnight Thursday to Friday, rockets fell on Tripolis Zawiyat al-Dahmani neighbourhood, which is home to the GNA foreign ministry and the Italian and Turkish embassies. At least two policemen and one civilian were killed, Hashemi said at the time. We stress that if our missions and interests are targeted in Libya, Haftars forces will be considered legitimate targets, the Turkish foreign ministry said. The attacks on diplomatic missions including our Tripoli embassy, Mitiga airport, civilian planes preparing to take off and other civilian infrastructure, and those which kill civilians or injure them, constitute a war crime, it added. Mitiga airport was badly damaged Saturday and came under renewed rocket fire on Sunday morning. An airport source said the passenger halls and two civilian planes sustained serious damage. Images of an aircraft with its fuselage ripped open and of a badly damaged runway and airport buildings were posted on social media. Libyas National Oil Corporation (NOC) said Saturday that rockets and missiles hit a fuel depot at the airport, destroying four tanks and damaging the facilitys other six. Weakness and desperation The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) called the bombardment an all too familiar but frightening spectacle. These horrifying attacks occur on a regular basis in close proximity to civilian neighbourhoods, UNSMIL said on Twitter. It called the shelling one in a series of indiscriminate attacks, most of which are attributable to pro-LNA (Haftar) forces, killing more than 15 and injuring 50 civilians since 1 May. Since Wednesday, 17 civilians and two police officers have been killed and more than 66 other civilians wounded in rocket fire targeting several areas of the capital, according to the GNA. UNSMIL slammed the attacks hitting civilians and civilian infrastructure and called for those responsible for crimes under international law to be brought to justice. But the GNA said international condemnation was not enough. We no longer pay any attention to the timid condemnations of the international community, incapable as it is of naming Haftar, holding him to account or stopping those supporting him, the GNA said. The senseless acts of the past days are proof of his weakness and desperation after the successive defeats of his militias and mercenaries, it added. Haftars forces have suffered several setbacks in recent weeks, with GNA fighters ousting them from two key coastal cities west of Tripoli in April. Backed by Turkey, GNA troops now surround Haftars main rear base at Tarhuna, southeast of the capital. Turkeys foreign ministry said the international community had a collective responsibility to stop putschist Haftar. Foreign military involvement in Libya has exacerbated the conflict, with the United Arab Emirates and Russia backing Haftar. World leaders at a Berlin meeting in January committed to ending foreign meddling and to upholding a 2011 weapons embargo, but the UN has warned that both sides have continued to receive arms and fighters. rb-ila/lg/hc FACEBOOK Goyal's appeal comes a day after Home Minister Amit Shah wrote to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to allow such trains to run. New Delhi: Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has appealed to all states to permit the operation of migrant special trains so that the stranded can reach home in the next three to four days. The appeal comes a day after Home Minister Amit Shah wrote to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to allow such trains to run. "As per the directions of Hon'ble PM @NarendraModi ji, Railways is fully geared up to run 300 Shramik Special trains everyday at short notice since the last six days. "I appeal to all the states to give permission to evacuate and bring back their stranded migrants so that we can get all of them back to their homes in the next 3-4 days itself," Goyal tweeted on Sunday. On Saturday, the West Bengal government claimed it had given clearance to eight trains to be run carrying its migrant home. Four of these trains, it said, were to depart on Saturday, which did not. Senior railway officials say the national transporter has a capacity to run around 300 trains per day ferrying around 20 lakh migrants in a maximum of five days. However, they said, clearances from states are not forthcoming, especially from states like West Bengal and Rajasthan, which till now have accepted the least number of such trains despite being a significant source of migrant population. Follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak here As on May 10, a total of 366 Shramik Special trains have been operationalised across the country, of which 287 had reached their destinations and 79 trains are in transit. These 287 trains were terminated in various states like Andhra Pradesh (1 train), Bihar (87), Himachal Pradesh (1), Jharkhand (16), Madhya Pradesh (24), Maharashtra (3), Odisha (20), Rajasthan (4), Telangana (2), Uttar Pradesh (127), West Bengal (2). EDWARDSVILLE If there is one thing the coronavirus pandemic has taught Illinois and other states, it is the importance of E-learning and what districts should look into if they have not done so. District 7 has begun to do so. Edwardsville School District 7 Superintendent Jason Henderson said that students at Edwardsville High School may soon be getting their own device to use in and outside of class. We are definitely looking into it for next year and how to ramp up our technology use a little bit all around, he said. This comes after Gov. J.B. Pritzker used his time during a daily COVID-19 briefing on April 26 urging schools to dive deeper into technology because he is not sure if in-person learning will take place this fall. I would prepare for both (in-person and E-learning) because it is still unclear what things will look like over the summer and the fall, he said. But without knowing the answer, E-learning is an important thing for us to develop either way and I think weve seen in this short period of time that weve been in this COVID crisis, really about two months. What weve learned in that short period of time is that many, many schools arent ready for E-learning, but should be. Henderson explained that the school board has budgeted for equipping all of the high school students and all District 7 teachers with their own personal devices. Since it is already budgeted for, as long as prices do not soar, Henderson does not expect any extra cost to students, faculty or taxpayers in order to become more technologically efficient. Currently, in Madison County, of the 13 districts, five are not at a one-to-one ratio for student-to-device. Edwardsville School District 7 joins Madison, Highland, Granite City and Wood River-Hartford school districts for not supplying devices to any of their students for in and out of class uses. Both Edwardsville area private high schools, Metro-East Lutheran High School and Father McGivney Catholic High School, do provide students and teachers with their own devices. Henderson expects to have a more solidified plan in mid-summer but said he is hoping that by the fall, EHS students will have a device. However, some problems are apparent given the time. Right now, devices are hard to come by but we hope to get a handle on that soon, he said. Since districts across the country have been scrambling to supply devices to their students that need them most, there has been some shortage in the market. While he did not talk specifics of what money has been budgeted, Regional Superintendent Robert Werden explained what other school districts have paid. The cost for Chromebooks, when purchased in larger numbers, is between $180 and $200 [each], he explained. Henderson did confirm that the district is looking to supply students with devices like Chromebooks and not iPads, or a tablet. While no public talks have taken place at the board level since the start of the pandemic regarding this transition, there are many routes that can be taken. Werden explained that some districts did not hire any additional staffing but had a high school technology class fix any devices and problems. He also said that a couple districts are planning on using remote learning in place of snow days. Apart from looking to supply devices, Henderson also said the district is looking to bolster the use of E-learning resources. We already have a learning management system at the high school, Schoology, where parents and students can access various items, he said. We want to put some type of that resource in at all levels. However, he explained that remote learning is hard to finalize plans for at all levels. For high school students, they work on their own with it [online programs] but younger kindergarten students need a parent with them, Henderson added. Henderson is hoping for District 7 to make the transition and to be ready to launch at the beginning of the fall semester but said if that doesnt happen, to expect the transition at some point this upcoming school year. Werden agrees with Pritzkers comments and Hendersons decision. I do agree that we need to start exploring the shift to E-learning, he said. This may not be the only time that we experience closure in the future as we do not have a cure for COVID-19. I think anything we can do to make sure our students are safe, we should. Werden also said the future of learning is likely to have a strong E-learning presence. He explained that face-to-face learning is important but that E-learning can play a large role in the ability to continue learning at a better pace and level. The government will on Monday ramp up its efforts to find "silent" carriers of coronavirus, announcing a $20 million package which includes a specialised outbreak unit to ensure that proper testing, contact tracing and deep cleaning are carried out when a cluster is detected. Mr Andrews gave his clearest hint yet on Friday that parents might be able to send their children back to school before the end of term two, saying he had always said "if we could bring it forward, we would". Ms Mikakos said on Sunday that the government had not yet made a final decision, but the crisis council of cabinet, made up of eight ministers including the Premier, would discuss the issue on Sunday night. Teachers and advocacy groups have called for a careful plan for the return to on-site schooling, if it occurred before the end of term two on June 26. Even with an announcement imminent, there is confusion about how the school environment including parents interacting at drop-off will be made COVID-safe. Loading "It's not going to be as simple as everyone turning up one day and back into it," teacher Kelly Ryan said. Ms Ryan said teachers needed time to revise their planned lessons, given they had planned for a whole term of remote learning. Henry Grossek, principal of Berwick Lodge Primary School in Melbourne's south-east, said he was considering taking safety measures into his own hands by hiring a private company to spray the school grounds and classrooms with disinfectant each day. About 50 of Berwick Lodge's 630 students have been attending the classroom, while 12 out of about 50 school staff have been working from school. Mr Grossek said three teachers with medical issues might not be willing to return to school due to their vulnerability to the virus. Berwick Lodge Primary School principal Henry Grossek. Credit:Paul Jeffers "Most schools will have a pool of [teachers with medical conditions] who may not return. How would they cope emotionally with being back at work?" he said. "We know the kids can't stay home forever but there is going to be a big problem with social distancing and logistics. "We still need to get our heads around risk management because we don't believe we'll have the level of protection the broader community has. There is a fear about going to work." Prep students and older high school students may be permitted to return first, causing further complications for families with more than one child. Jim Laussen, the principal of Overnewton Anglican Community College in Melbourne's north-west, said he also expected some immuno-compromised families to choose to keep their children at home. Loading "If you've got a prep class with 20 students in class and four at home ... we need to work out how to provide a curriculum for children learning face to face, and also providing curriculum for children learning from home." The Australian Education Union urged the Education Department to address some key issues before schools re-open, including supplying more personal protective equipment, particularly to special needs schools, and only allowing large gatherings to occur if they are consistent with health guidelines. Australian Principals Federation president Julie Podbury said a substantial period of notice for the return was essential for school staff. "We would like at least a week's notice prior to any changes occurring so that people can do the adequate preparation," she said. Loading She also said the return of prep-to-year-two students and VCE students should be prioritised. "The plan for special schools needs a lot of very careful consideration as well," she said. The Independent Education Union said several measures were key to returning students to on-site learning, including social distancing and maintaining hygiene standards. The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti says Mondays scheduled flight takes reckless to a whole new level. US immigration authorities are set to continue deportations to Haiti on Monday, with a flight that is scheduled to have at least 100 people on board, including five individuals who have recently tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to a US-based rights group. Among those facing deportation is Stephane Etienne, who first tested positive for COVID-19 on April 17 at the Pine Prairie Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Processing Center in Louisiana. He told Al Jazeera in a video call from the detention centre that he tested positive again on April 28 and has not been re-tested since. Mondays deportation flight also includes at least four others who have tested positive since April 16 at the Pine Prairie detention centre, according to the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), a Boston-based human rights organisation that has obtained information about this list. I dont know how they can do this, said Etienne, who maintains that he has never even set foot in Haiti and was born in the US. Deporting individuals who are known to be infected with the virus violates US and international public health guidelines designed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Dr Jacques Boncy, the director of the Haitian Ministry of Public Healths national laboratory, said that deporting those who have COVID-19 would also put other passengers on the flight, as well as the crew, and the Haitian population, at risk. Everybody knows the risks, said Dr Laure Adrien, the executive director of the Haitian public health ministry. We are facing a pandemic, he told Al Jazeera, adding that every positive case is one too many; any positive case is a risk. Although Haiti has reported a relatively low number of cases fewer than 200 experts fear the actual number is much higher as Haitians who work in the neighbouring Dominican Republic, which has more than 10,000 cases, return home amid lockdown measures. Haitis health system is not equipped to handle an influx of cases, experts warn. People wait to get water from a communal tap, during an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Port-au-Prince, Haiti [Jeanty Junior Augustin/Reuters] Despite the high risks of COVID-19 infection, ICE generally does not test all detainees for the virus prior to deportation. Etienne is doubtful that he would have been tested at all if he had not insisted that he be given a coronavirus test. Since he first tested positive for the coronavirus, he has been confined at Pine Prairie in close quarters with at least 11 other people who have recently tested positive for the virus, he said. ICE did not respond to Al Jazeeras request for comment. The agency said in late April that it would begin testing some migrants prior to deportation, but it did not elaborate on timing, US media reported. At least 788 detainees including 26 at the Pine Prairie detention centre have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the ICE, with 1,593 tests performed. There are currently more than 29,000 people detained in ICE facilities across the US. Reckless on whole new level IJDH Immigration Policy Coordinator Steve Forester said that while it is reckless for the US to deport people in the middle of a pandemic without at least testing them to make certain they are not carrying the virus, Mondays planned deportation flight takes reckless to a whole new level. For the United States to knowingly send COVID-positive people to Haiti is a tremendous lack of respect for Haiti and Haitians, he told Al Jazeera, adding, however, that this is in line with [US President Donald] Trumps prior statements and actions. How many other people are they deporting who they have tested positive? Steve Forester, IJDH The US has been accused of deporting the virus, with more than 100 deported Guatemalans testing positive, according to Guatemalan officials. At least three people deported by the US on April 7 tested positive for the coronavirus upon returning to Haiti, according to the Haitian Ministry of Public Health. The US has deported individuals to at least nine other countries across Latin America and the Caribbean since February, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, despite US and international guidelines that emphasise the risks that international travel presents for the spread of the coronavirus. How many other people are they deporting who they have tested positive? Forester asked. G Janardhana Rao By Express News Service VISAKHAPATNAM: Thursday's gas leak left many in RR Ventakapuram shattered. Among them is the family of an APSRTC mechanic whose 10-year-old daughter died of the poisonous gas. N Greeshma, a Class VII student, was the youngest in the family, which has been staying in the colony for more than 15 years. Greeshma's parents came to know of her death after they regained consciousness several hours later. On Saturday, they staged a dharna with her body near the LG Polymers plant. Latha, Greeshma's mother, could not control her tears as she spoke about the harrowing experience of the incident. "Until Wednesday, we were a happy family and leading a comfortable life. The gas leak from the [LG Polymers] plant took away my daughter, who was the dearest not only to us, but also to our neighbours. It is very difficult to even think that she is not here with us anymore." Latha blamed the management of LG Polymers for the death of her daughter and 11 others. "Sheer negligence on part of the management has cost several lives and landed hundreds in hospitals. Criminal action should be taken against them," she demanded. Mani, Greeshma's uncle, said he found all six members of his brother's family lying unconscious on the floor. He stays next to his brother's house. "I woke up due to the strong smell that was coming from the air conditioner. I went out of my house and saw everyone panicking. I took my family to safety and then went to my brother's place where he, his wife and his two kids were lying on the floor." He added: "First, I took the two kids to Meghadrigedda on my motorcycle as I thought it would be safe there. Then I carried others one by one to the location, from where the ambulance shifted them to a hospital. Greeshma died before she could reach the hospital. She paid the price for the factory's fault." Latha noted that all the villagers live like a close-knit family. "Everyone comes to the help of others if the latter are in any problem. That was very much evident in the wee hours of Thursday." The national death rate in Egypt has dropped 2.8% in April, the peak of the country's coronavirus outbreak, compared to the same month in 2019 and 2018, the cabinets think tank announced on Sunday. The coronavirus pandemic "has not led to an increase in the national mortality rate," the cabinet's information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) said. Deaths recorded in April came in at 42,144 deaths, compared to 43,303 deaths in April 2019 and 43,399 deaths in April 2018, it said in an infographic sent to Ahram Online. Although Cairo has the biggest number of coronavirus cases in the country according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the IDSC said that the death rate in the capital fell 7.3% in April compared to the same month the previous year. The governorates of Daqahlia, Assuit and Damietta also saw a drop in April death rate compared to the year before. The figures are based on data provided by the planning and health ministries, a cabinet spokesman said. Egypt has so far recorded 514 fatalities out of 8,964 confirmed coronavirus cases, with a mortality rate of 5.7% of people confirmed as having been infected. The IDSC stressed that the coronavirus death rate in Egypt is still within safe limits compared to [other] countries around the world. In mid-April, the death rate from COVID-19 in the country exceeded 7.5% of confirmed cases. WHO representative in Egypt John Jabbour and Egyptian health officials had earlier said that around 30 percent of COVID-19 fatalities in Egypt died before reaching isolation hospitals or receiving medical treatment. Search Keywords: Short link: The ability of Chinese Communist Party-owned companies to own the rights to water supply in Australia has been slammed as 'disgraceful' by Pauline Hanson. Unibale Pty Ltd - a subsidiary of major state-owned Chinese agriculture company COFCO Corporation - has acquired 7,000 megalitres of water in the Gwydir River system in the north of New South Wales' Murray-Darling Basin. That is despite water supply being one of the nation's most precious resources. Senator Hanson told Sky News the ability of foreign owned companies to access water and set the market price was crippling farmers, and called on the government to step in. Senator Pauline Hanson has slammed the ability of international companies to buy the rights to water in the precious Murray-Darling basin (pictured), after a Chinese Communist Party-owned subsidiary acquired access 7,000 megalitres from a river in northern New South Wales 'We are absolutely stupid to allow any foreign ownership of our water in this country and we should go back to the old way it was - if you don't own land, you should not have water rights to buy and sell on the market,' the One Nation founder said. 'This is why a lot of farmers are going under, they can't afford the water and it's been an absolute disgrace the government hasn't done anything about it. 'Water belongs to the people of this nation, not foreign interests to make a lot of money out of it.' Foreign investors began to target the region after the easing of basin trading rules in 2014, which allowed companies to buy and sell water more easily. Former Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty, who is now Inspector General of the basin's water resources, said many in the community were frustrated by the arrival of interloper companies to buy up the scarce resource. 'There is a segment of the community who says why should people own water who don't have any interest in agriculture?' he told 7.30. 'Equally, there's a section of the community that says, 'well, the government made this decision that gave us some options to trade in water and we have actually invested in that trade.'' Water is already scarce in the region which has struggled through 'extreme drought' for much of the past two years. Senator Hanson said the ability of these foreign owned companies to access water and set the market price was crippling farmers, and called on the government to step in and change the law so that only local land owners can own Foreign investors began to target the Murray-Darling basin after the easing of trading rules in 2014, allowing international companies to buy and sell water more easily (Pictured is Chinese president Xi Jinping, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party) The Murray-Darling Basin stretches across the south-eastern states and covers South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales It is not known what Unibale plans for its water supply, but Daily Mail Australia has contacted COFCO Corporation for comment about their intentions. Mr Keelty said while a foreign ownership register was introduced in 2017 requiring overseas companies to declare their interests, the register was not accessible to the public. He added the sale and purchase of water commodities was not overseen to the same degree by the government as materials like gold or minerals. 'It is a commodity and yet it doesn't have the same governance and due diligence around it as other commodities, and that's what's of concern to people,' Mr Keelty said. McCullough Robertson law firm partner Duncan Bedford said the Chinese acquisition skirted around the Foreign Investment Review Board. 'FIRB approval may be required for the acquisition of water assets when it forms part of a broader business acquisition. But on their own, water entitlements do not require FIRB approval,' he said. Adding to the frustration of farmers in the Murray-Darling region, the perceived lack of government oversight comes despite the Treasury saying it would review nearly all foreign asset purchases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Former AFP commissioner Mick Keelty (pictured) said many in the community were frustrated non-agricultural companies were free to buy up water supplies A general view of a parched Wilcannia weir on March 4, 2019 in north-western New South Wales The importance of water assets was highlighted when it recently emerged that Australia could soon run out of rice because of mismanagement of the water supply during the coronavirus pandemic. The Southern Murray, which stretches across the south-eastern states, is normally responsible for 60 per cent of the country's grain and dairy production. It is widely regarded as 'Australia's food bowl' but with the Murray in a state of zero-water allocation for the past two years, rice and dairy farms aren't growing produce. 'Rice is definitely a big risk because we haven't been using the water we've got to grow rice,' Ms Slattery, a former employee of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, said. The Murray-Darling Basin Authority has hit back though, saying: 'There is no problem with our food security and it's mischievous and misleading for vested interest groups to use COVID-19 to push their biased and incorrect positions.' KIRAN NARAYANAN By Express News Service KOCHI: As the toxic gas leak at LG Polymers India chemical plant in Visakhapatnam has claimed 11 lives so far, industrial units across Kerala have been told to check their storage facilities before restarting their operations after Covid-19 lockdown. The directive issued by the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (Peso) has asked major accident hazard (MAH) industries to strictly adhere to the norms in the wake of the gas tragedy. Though the accident isnt as severe as the one in Bhopal, during which more than 2,000 people died, the mishap showed the same kinds of human and equipment failures. As Kerala has 37 MAH factories, we have directed them to take utmost care to check accumulated toxic gas during their reopening. They will have to submit a revised emergency plan and we are in constant touch with all MAH industries through video conferences to strengthen the safety systems, said R Venugopal, deputy chief of explosives, Peso. There are several storage facilities for petrol, diesel, naphtha, low sulphur heavy stock (LSHS) and ethanol which constitute the MAH industries. Currently, these are being monitored by the Department of Factories and Boilers, and Pollution Control Board, besides Peso. We have asked all chemical industrial units to follow the pollution control measures before resuming their services. Also, a special direction has been given to units which are functional during the lockdown, said a PCB official. Major accident hazard An MAH installation is an isolated storage and industrial activity at a site which includes transport through carrier or pipeline of hazardous chemicals specified under the Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemical (Amendment) Rules (2000). If a unit has a storage of 10 tonnes of chlorine or 50 tonnes of flammable gas like LPG or LNG, then it will be an MAH industry. 37 MAH units in Kerala Out of 37 MAH units in the state, 20 industries are in Ernakulam, four each in Kozhikode and Alappuzha districts, two each in Kollam, Kottayam and Palakkad districts and one each in Thiruvananthapuram, Malappuram and Kannur districts. Besides, there are 19 LPG (flammable) storage premises, three chlorine (toxic gas) premises and two ammonia (toxic gas) premises. Travancore Cochin Chemicals (TCC), Kochi; Hindustan Insecticides Limited, Kochi; and KMML, Chavara, are handling chlorine in Kerala. FACTs Udyogamandal and Ambalamedu divisions are managing ammonia. Facilities There are several storage facilities for petrol, diesel, naphtha, low sulphur heavy stock and ethanol which constitute the MAH industries These are being monitored by the Department of Factories and Boilers, and Pollution Control Board, besides Peso A 14-day quarantine period for all travellers coming to Britain would have a devastating impact on both the UK aviation industry and wider economy, a trade body has warned. The Government will reportedly announce the mandatory quarantine as part of measures aimed at avoiding a second peak of the coronavirus pandemic. The Times said Prime Minister Boris Johnson will make the announcement in an address to the nation on Sunday, but there is confusion around the detail, with industry insiders calling for a credible and clear exit plan. Under the measures, which are expected to be implemented within weeks, all passengers arriving at airports and ports will be required to provide an address at which they will immediately self-isolate for 14 days. The newspaper reports that authorities will conduct spot checks, with punishments for those not adhering to the rules including fines of up to 1,000 and deportation. Airlines UK said it had been told by the Government that the plan will be in place by the end of the month or early June. A spokesman for Airlines UK said: We need to see the detail of what they are proposing. We will be asking for assurances that this decision has been led by the science and that Government has a credible exit plan, with weekly reviews to ensure the restrictions are working and still required. However, Airport Operators Association (AOA) chief executive Karen Dee said she has not received any details yet about the quarantine plan. Ms Dee said: Quarantine would not only have a devastating impact on the UK aviation industry, but also on the wider economy. If the Government believe quarantine is medically necessary, then it should be applied on a selective basis following the science, there should be a clear exit strategy and the economic impact on key sectors should be mitigated. The Government should commit to a weekly review of the quarantine measures and publish the evidence that informs the reviews outcome. Story continues Make no mistake, a 14-day quarantine period for passengers arriving at the UK would cause immeasurable damage to the aviation industry. See our statement here: https://t.co/4oFJIgr2jX Airlines UK (@airlines_UK) April 27, 2020 If quarantine is a necessary tool for fighting Covid-19, then the Government should act decisively to protect the hundreds of thousands of airport-related and travel-related jobs across the UK. These measures should include granting immediate business rates relief to airports and related service providers as well as relief from Civil Aviation Authority charges for the whole aviation sector. A Heathrow spokesman said: Any measures agreed must meet three key tests: they must be medically effective, meet public expectations and be deliverable by airports. We will continue to do everything we can to support the Government in tackling the health crisis whilst keeping vital trading routes open for British businesses in every corner of the UK. Heathrow is more than just an airport, it is the heart that keeps economic blood flowing for this country and it is vital our industry has the ability to bounce back quickly when the UK is ready to build back Britain together. Heathrow bosses believe there needs to be a common international standard for health in aviation and that the UK Government could provide a lead in defining this. The airport will introduce temperature screening, initially to monitor passengers arriving in immigration halls but it could also be deployed in areas for departures, connections and airport staff searches. Shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon said: The Government needs to work closely with airlines, airport operators and Border Force to implement practical solutions to stop the spread of this virus. Jim McMahon (Jacob King/PA) Ill-thought through proposals will fail as soon as they are rolled out, leaving the country back in a precarious situation. This sort of policy should have been worked through weeks ago. Its systematic of a Government that was too slow to enter the lockdown, too slow to get vital protective equipment to NHS, social care and other key workers, and too slow on testing and tracing to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. It will take a long time to recover from the impact of the virus. The Government must come up with a comprehensive financial support package for the aviation sector and its supply chain which supports almost a quarter of a million jobs. A Home Office spokeswoman told the PA news agency: We do not comment on leaks. The focus remains on staying at home to protect the NHS and save lives. The Times reported that travellers from Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man will be exempt from the quarantine. The ISU union which represents borders, immigration and customs staff called for clarity on the plans. ISU professional officer Lucy Moreton said there is a discrepancy about whether it will apply to airline passengers only or whether it will also include people arriving by boat. Speaking on BBC Radio 4s Today programme, she said: What are we going to do with the irregular migrants who dont have a private house to self-isolate in? Seemingly frustrated about no concrete information, she added: Im hoping someone will get round to telling the staff at some point. Fort Benton comes highly recommended. Forbes Magazine's list of Americas top 15 prettiest towns included Fort Benton and said the West is well preserved and celebrated there. Andrew Evans, National Geographic's "digital nomad," savored the languid Missouri River downstream of this historic river town as it passed through the famed White Cliffs area. He wrote of the experience and compared his feelings to those of Meriwether Lewis, whose passage with the expedition helped cement Fort Bentons place in history. Fort Benton is north and east of Great Falls and less than an hours drive along Highway 87. It bills itself as the birthplace of Montana a claim that history supports and a trademark protects. The town traces its roots to 1846, when the foundation was laid for the fort that would be built there. The first steamboat arrived in 1860, according to the Fort Benton information website www.fortbenton.com. Before the pandemic, before the Great Recession, before proliferating hurricanes and fires, the United States began a global war on terrorism. Its leaders fixated on a shadowy enemy abroad as life at home crumbled for millions of Americans. The war on terrorism did not end terrorism; the war itself became endless. What it did shatter was the myth that a triumphant United States could bend the world to its will. But the myth may be roaring back, albeit in a less righteous, more vicious guise. Though the new enemy is a virus, even less susceptible to verbal and physical firepower than terrorists, the Trump administration appears to be setting its target on a foreign power: China, where the outbreak appears to have started but which is hardly responsible for the United States being the most infected country in the world. As the pandemic spread in the United States in March, President Trump began to castigate Beijing for failing to contain and report on the Chinese virus. Now Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is declaring that there is a significant amount of evidence that the virus originated in a Chinese laboratory, though he has provided no proof. The accusation, although doubted by scientists and intelligence agencies, may lead the public to blame China for the pandemic, much as the George W. Bush administration, through suggestion more than outright lies, convinced seven in 10 Americans in 2003 that Saddam Hussein of Iraq was likely involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. Going abroad in search of monsters to destroy won't save Americans from pandemics, but it does risk entangling the United States in a cold war with the worlds No. 2 power. We stand on the brink of an even more destructive and less justifiable mistake than the post-Sept. 11 crusade. More than 4 million people across the globe have been infected with coronavirus while over 2.5 lakh people have lost their lives. The virus, which originated in Chinas Hubei province last year, quickly spread to the rest of the world to infect people in over 200 nations. Experts at Johns Hopkins University have released a timeline of how events unfolded in Hubei which led to coronavirus contagion taking the form of a pandemic. The timeline points out major Covid-19 events from the time when the Wuhan City government started tracing Covid-19 cases in late December 2019, till China issued a revised death and case count in April. Heres a look at the timeline: Dec 29: Wuhan City government starts to trace cases. Jan 4: Shanghai lab detects coronavirus similar to SARS. Jan 7: Pathogen identified as novel coronavirus. Jan 23: Wuhan placed under quarantine, the announcement on building a new hospital within 10 days. By this time, the country had seen over 500 Covid-19 cases and more than 20 fatalities. Feb 1: Member of the Chinese Academy of Science leads team to support Wuhan. Feb 3: First Wuhan field hospital opens; More hospitals built overnight. At this point, the number of Covid-19 cases in the country have crossed over 13,000 with nearly 500 deaths. Feb 14: Wuhan asks recovered patients to donate plasma. Also read: India, China face-off along Sikkim border, several soldiers injured Feb 19: Another team of 1,299 medical workers sent to Wuhan as city disinfects sewage. The national tally breached the 60,000 mark with more than 2,000 dead. Feb 24: China bans trade, consumption of wild animals, and postpones annual parliamentary meeting. Feb 26: Daily new cases outside China surpass those inside the country. March 12: China said its Covid-19 peak is over as new cases kept declining and the overall epidemic situation remained at a low level. Mi Feng, a spokesperson for the National Health Commission, at a press conference in Beijing said the number of new Covid-19 cases in Wuhan had dropped to single digit. April 8: Wuhan lifted restrictions on outgoing travel on April 8 after nearly an 11-week lockdown and reporting a dramatic decrease in cases. Apr 15: China issued a revised death and case count. Nearly 1,300 people who died of the coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan, or half the total, were not counted in death tolls because of lapses, state media said. May 10: China reported 14 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday. This included one new case from Wuhan where no new Covid-19 case was reported in over a month, news agency Reuters reported. The total number of Covid-19 cases in the country stands at 82,901, with over 4,600 deaths. The United States is the worst-affected nation in the world where Covid-19 cases have crossed the one million mark. Nearly 80,000 people have succumbed to death in America. In Europe, coronavirus has infected more than 1.5 million people. (With inputs from Johns Hopkins University, agencies) More than 300 migrant labourers of Bihar, stranded in Bengal since the imposition of the lockdown, left for their homes in a bus from Alipurduar district on Sunday, an official said. The district administration, in coordination with various government departments, made adequate arrangements to send home the labourers, he said. Measures were also being taken to transport another 368 labourers, stuck in Kalimpong, to different districts within the state. The district magistrate of Kalimpong has asked the North Bengal State Transport Corporation to provide 18 buses to transport these 368 labourers to their hometown in Coochbehar, Alipurduar, Uttar Dinajpur, Malda, Murshidabad, the official added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) T he Governments method of giving out numbers on Covid-19 deaths and testing is not the trustworthy communication of statistics, according to an expert. Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter condemned ministers for using daily coronavirus figures as "number theatre" rather than providing "genuine information" to the public. Sir David, who is chairman of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge, also said it is extraordinary that it is not known how many people have truly had Covid-19. He said "what's happened in this country" in terms of case numbers and death toll "is not inevitable." Asked about the Governments communication to the public about coronavirus through its daily televised briefings, Sir David told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show that he had watched Saturdays and that he frankly, found it completely embarrassing. We get told lots of big numbers, precise numbers of tests being done 96,878. Well, thats not how many were done yesterday; it includes tests that were posted out," he said. Were told 31,587 people have died; no, they havent, its far more than that. I think this is actually not the trustworthy communication of statistics." Sir David said he wished data was being presented by people who know its strengths and limitations and could treat the audience with respect. Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter speaking to Andrew Marr (BBC/The Andrew Marr Show ) / BBC/The Andrew Marr Show Its such a missed opportunity. The public out there who are broadly very supportive of the measures, theyre hungry for details, for facts, for genuine information, and yet they get fed this what I call number theatre, which seems to be co-ordinated really much more by a Number 10 communications team rather than genuinely trying to inform people about whats going on." The eminent statistician also claimed his views on the "uselessness of international comparisons" had been previously misrepresented, and sought to clarify his stance. He sent a tweet earlier this week asking ministers not to cite an article he had written on international Covid-19 comparisons. The article has been used by some, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson, to support arguments against making any comparisons between the UK and other nations in terms of statistics such a Covid-19-related deaths. Governments daily briefings "not trustworthy communication of statistics" says Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter Sir David said his article was not suggesting that no comparisons should be made, but warning against those that rank countries, such as those with higher numbers of deaths. He said: "I just wanted to say that because of the enormously different ways countries are reporting their data, it's an enormously vacuous exercise to do a sort of Eurovision between whose the worst in Europe. "I should have made much clearer that what I was talking about is the comparisons between the bad countries in Europe - the UK, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy. "I was not saying we can't make any comparisons at all, because clearly, it's important to note that we as a group is way above, in terms of mortality, a group like Germany, Austria, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, who have low fatality rates. "If only to say, that what's happened in this country is not inevitable, it doesn't mean it had to happen." Sir David also raised concerns about a lack of information on how many people have had the virus. He added that some say the infection fatality rate - the proportion of people infected with the virus who go on to die is around 1 per cent. Putting the number of deaths at around 35,000 deaths, if this is multiplied up, it would mean that around 3.5 million people have been infected. But others put the infection fatality rate at a different percentage, with some saying the infection fatality rate is half of one per cent, which would mean that seven million have been infected, while others claim half the country has been infected, he said. Testers wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) at a drive through coronavirus testing site in north London / PA Asked by Marr how scared we should be of Covid-19, Sir David said it is very important that we are aware of what the risks are. Im not saying how anybody should feel, or what they should be worried about, but my aim, as a statistician, was that peoples anxiety should be at least roughly proportional to the actual risks that they face, he said. As an example, Sir David said there are 10 million children under the age of 15 in England and Wales, and, up to April 24, there had been two deaths in this age group. This is the tiniest risk you could ever think of, so I do think that when people start talking about protecting our children, this is a bit of a delusion, he said. Obviously, Im talking about risks to the individual themselves, we have to think about the potential for spreading the virus, and thats absolutely vital. But when we talk about personal risk, for young people, its staggeringly low. Among the 17 million under-25s, there have been 26 deaths recorded, Sir David said, adding: Thats about the risk we face over a couple of days of general accidents and sudden death. In comparison, more than 1 per cent of those aged over 90 have so far died from Covid-19, in a four-week period, he said. That is 10,000 times the risk of the younger people. The Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court has "dismissed as withdrawn" a habeas corpus petition seeking the release of former Noida chief engineer Yadav Singh after the CBI raised objections on territorial jurisdiction of the court in the matter. Singh, former chief maintenance engineer in Noida, is in judicial custody since February 11, 2020 after the CBI arrested him in the third case of corruption registered against him on January 17, 2018. Besides the latest corruption case wherein he is accused of favouring companies of friends and associates in doling out lucrative contracts in Noida, the CBI has booked him in two other corruption cases. These cases pertain to misusing his official position to favour firms in awarding contracts worth over Rs 1,000 crore in Noida and amassing illegitimate assets worth over Rs 23 crore. The agency had produced 62-year old Singh before the Ghaziabad Special court after his arrest which sent him to judicial custody. His bail petition was rejected by the special court on April 17, 2020. His son, Sunny, approached the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court with a habeas corpus petition alleging that Yadav Singh has been wrongly incarcerated as only 60 days of judicial custody is permissible under Section 167 (2) of Code of Criminal Procedure and that the duration expired on April 10, 2020. A habeas corpus writ petition is filed before a competent court to secure release of a person from illegal detention. He also claimed that the maximum sentence for the charges for which Singh has been booked is seven years. The Supreme Court, in its order on March 23, had suggested the states to consider release of undertrials booked for punishments for such period in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The petition was heard by a bench of Justices Karunesh Singh Pawar and Pankaj Kumar Jaiswal recently through video conferencing where the CBI strongly countered the arguments of the petitioner. It said the territorial jurisdiction over Ghaziabad Special court is of Allahabad High Court hence, the matter should be heard by it and not by its Lucknow Bench. The agency also said there was no question of illegal detention as the accused was produced before the special court which remanded him to judicial custody. It said the accused was not in CBI custody. After hearing the arguments of the CBI, the bench noted, "A counter affidavit has been filed by the CBI wherein an objection has been raised regarding territorial jurisdiction of this Court." "Though a detailed rejoinder affidavit has been filed, but during the course of arguments, learned counsel for the petitioner very fairly prays for withdrawal of this writ petition with liberty to file a fresh petition at Allahabad along with the pleadings exchanged before this Court in this petition," it said. In view of the aforesaid, the writ petition is dismissed as withdrawn with liberty to file a fresh petition at Allahabad along with the pleadings exchanged before this Court in this petition so that no delay will occur in praying for grant of interim relief, it said. The agency had booked Yadav Singh on January 17, 2018 for corruption after conducting a preliminary enquiry on the orders of the Allahabad High Court. The agency had already booked him in the two corruption cases previously. During the course of enquiry, the agency had found that he had allegedly favoured five companies belonging to his friends, associates and family members in awarding huge contracts in Noida. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The number of daily coronavirus-related fatalities in Spain came in at 143 on Sunday, the lowest figure seen since March 18, four days after the state of alarm was implemented by the government in a bid to combat the spread of the pandemic. The total number of victims in Spain now stands at 26,621, a 0.54% rise on the day before. The figure was communicated by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Sunday morning to the countrys regional premiers, during their weekly video conference call. On Saturday the number of daily fatalities was 179, according to data supplied by the Health Ministry, after a three-day run of figures exceeding 200. A total of 48,046 health workers in Spain have been infected with the coronavirus, according to the latest figures The number of new infections confirmed via PCR tests was 621 according to Sundays data, a rise of just 0.28% of the total. For 10 days now the rate of new infections has come in below 1%. That said, all regions continue to report new cases of the coronavirus, some with a rate of more than two new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in a single day: Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y Leon, La Rioja and the Basque Country. Meanwhile, 2,214 patients were discharged from hospital after having recovered from the Covid-19 disease, bringing the total during the crisis so far to 136,166. A total of 48,046 health workers in Spain have been infected with the coronavirus, according to the latest figures from the Health Ministry. In the month of May alone, more than 8,000 medical professionals have tested positive. One in eight men and one in three women in Spain with the coronavirus belong to this collective. As for admissions to intensive care units (ICUs), these fell on Sunday to 36, after a figure of 70 was recorded on Saturday. Todays figures should be regarded with certain caution, given that since the coronavirus crisis began there has been underreporting of the data on Sundays and Mondays, given lower staffing levels at hospitals. According to the Health Ministry, Spain has now carried out 1.6 million PCR tests since the coronavirus crisis began. These tests detect an active Covid-19 infection, and are considered to be the most accurate way of monitoring the spread of the disease. There have been a total of 224,390 coronavirus cases confirmed via PCR testing in Spain. Madrid hospital The premier of Madrid, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, has announced that a new hospital will be created in the region specifically for dealing with epidemics such as Covid-19 or the flu. The center will be permanent and will be constructed in the fall. Diaz Ayuso, who has been widely criticized this week after Madrids request to move to Phase 1 of the coronavirus deescalation plan was rejected by the central government, made the announcement in an interview with Spanish daily El Mundo. If everything continues as the experts are saying, this virus is going to be among us for one or two years, she said. Madrid premier Isabel Diaz Ayuso at a Mass on Sunday. EL PAIS Doubts about masks Pharmacies in the Madrid region will be distributing seven million FFP2 face masks for free among the public, as supplied by the regional government. But the heads of preventive medicine in the regions hospitals have sent a letter to the regional administration, on the basis that such masks are not recommended for the entire population and may actually be counterproductive. The masks that will be distributed for free in Madrid from Monday. Marta Jara (Europa Press) The specialists argue that the use of FFP2 and FFP3 protection masks is not currently recommended among the general public by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the World Health Organization (WHO) or the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the United States. They say that the masks are difficult to put on, and if they are not used properly they are inefficient. The experts also argue that the continued use of these masks can make breathing difficult, and they encourage people to touch their face more frequently, thus increasing the risk of infection. With reporting by Emilio de Benito, Jose Marcos and Isabel Valdes. English version by Simon Hunter. With ballots out and the primary election looming, The Oregonian/OregonLive is helping readers make informed choices. And were gearing up to provide you with fast and accurate results on election night on OregonLive and in print the next morning. Ahead of the May 19 primary, our reporters and editorial board have been interviewing candidates, reviewing resumes and collecting questionnaires. Weve posted a wealth of information online, from where Portland City Council candidates stand on the issues to videos of the endorsement interviews with the editorial board. If you appreciate the work we do, please subscribe to OregonLive at oregonlive.com/supporter. Your support helps fund the work of Oregons largest newsroom. Our inside-the-newsroom podcast, Beat Check with The Oregonian, featured Portland City Hall reporter Everton Bailey Jr., who talked with host Andrew Theen about the myriad challenges facing reporters this election season, from the record number of candidates on the ballot to campaigns trying to navigate coronavirus restrictions. State political reporter Hillary Borrud also joined the podcast to discuss crucial legislative races. Weve published voter guides Wednesday, Friday and today in The Oregonian. And weve run the editorial boards complete list of endorsements several times. Recognizing that the COVID-19 pandemic has strapped newsrooms across the state, we organized a collaboration among newspapers to share coverage. We offered our advance article on the secretary of state race to other newspapers, for example, and published the Mail-Tribunes examination of the candidates for the 2nd Congressional District. Local newsrooms play a vital role in informing the electorate. We take this responsibility very seriously. Borrud and Bailey had plenty to cover as governments stepped in to respond to the pandemic, but they dedicated the bulk of their time to preparing for Election Day. On the evening of May 19, head to OregonLive for primary results starting at 8 p.m. Well have many reporters and editors on duty to publish the returns. Thanks to our many subscribers, both digital and print, and our advertisers for supporting our work. Therese Bottomly is editor and vice president of content for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach her at tbottomly@oregonian.com or 503-221-8434. Piers Morgan has said his criticism over Daniel Craigs choice to carry his infant child in a papoose was daft and sort of pointless. In 2018, the Good Morning Britain host incited backlash after he accused Craig, best known for his role as James Bond, of being emasculated by wearing the baby carrier. Shortly after Craig and his wife, Rachel Weisz, welcomed their daughter, Ella, Morgan captioned a photo of the actor carrying the baby in a child sling: Oh 007 not you as well?!!! #papoose #emasculatedBond. In a second tweet, the father-of-four added: Carrying a baby is harder work, but worth it for the unashamedly masculine joy of NOT wearing a papoose. The dad-shaming prompted numerous people to defend Craig and call out Morgans skewed image of masculinity. Recommended Piers Morgan criticised Daniel Craig for using baby carrier You really have to be so uncertain of your own masculinity to concern yourself with how another man carries his child, Chris Evans tweeted at the time. Any man who wastes time quantifying masculinity is terrified on the inside. In a new interview with The Sunday Times, Morgan has admitted that his criticism over the actors baby-carrying choice was irrelevant in the general scheme of things. Yeah. It was daft and sort of pointless and irrelevant in the general scheme of things, Morgan said, before explaining that the ongoing pandemic has put things into perspective. So I think this has been a recalibrating crisis in many ways. And one of the good things I hope that comes out of it is that we all calm down a bit, including myself, about stuff that actually we now know is completely insignificant, he continued. People fighting endless cultural wars over stuff that I just felt was so unimportant. During the interview, Morgan also addressed his previous criticism of Meghan Markle, which he said went too far. Have I taken things a bit too far? Probably. Do I think that will govern and temper how I talk about them going forward? Absolutely, he said. Lincoln Land Community College recognized students with academic, leadership and special awards in a virtual 2020 Student Recognition Ceremony video. The video can be seen at llcc.edu/student-life. Erica Lay of Jacksonville was named 2020 LLCC Outstanding Graduate of the Year. During her time at Lincoln Land, she was a member of Phi Theta Kappa and served as president of the Jacksonville Activities Board, leading several community service activities and increasing membership and attendance at events. She also worked as a student worker at LLCC-Jacksonville and contributed her art talents to projects at the college. She plans to transfer to the University of Illinois-Springfield to major in business. Student honorees from west-central Illinois are: Ashland Cheyenne Kesselring, Phi Theta Kappa All-Illinois Academic Team, Phi Theta Kappa public relations officer, Student Worker of the Year nominee; Danielle Ratcliff, Agriculture Club Outstanding Service Award; Dawn Smith, Health Professions Department Honor Graduate, Natural and Agricultural Sciences Department Honor Graduate. Beardstown Denisse Adrina Orriola Guijosa, Outstanding Graduate of the Year nominee. Carlinville Adam Emery, Natural and Agricultural Sciences Department Honor Graduate, Outstanding Leadership to the Natural and Agricultural Sciences Department. Jacksonville Nicholas Bauer, Mathematics and Computer Science Department Honor Graduate; Kaitlin Westrope, Health Professions Department Honor Graduate, Outstanding Club Member of Student Radiography Association. New Berlin Madison Turner, Natural and Agricultural Sciences Department Honor Graduate, Outstanding Leadership to the Natural and Agricultural Sciences Department. Palmyra Hyler Pence, Phi Theta Kappa All-Illinois Academic Team, Phi Theta Kappa Vice President for Scholarships; Caleb Rice, Health Professions Department Honor Graduate; Micah Rice, Health Professions Department Honor Graduate. Virden Christopher Richardson, Health Profession Department Honor Graduate; Aaron Royer, Health Professions Department Honor Graduate. Waverly Colin Rhea, Natural and Agricultural Sciences Department Honor Graduate, Outstanding Leadership to the Natural and Agricultural Sciences Department. Malawi Top Court Upholds Presidential Election Re-Run By Lameck Masina May 09, 2020 Malawi's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by President Peter Mutharika and the Malawi Electoral Commission and upheld the order for a re-run of the presidential election held a year ago in which Mutharika won a second term. The court said Friday some of the 137 grounds in Mutharika's appeal were fictitious and embarrassing. The ruling means the country must proceed with a presidential election re-run scheduled for July 2. Results of last May's voting had Mutharika at 38.7%, Lazarus Chakwera of the opposition Malawi Congress Party at 34.1% and Vice President Saulos Chilima, leader of the opposition United Transformation Movement, at 20.2%. In June, though, Chakwera and Chilima challenged the results in the Constitutional Court, accusing the Malawi Electoral Commission of helping Mutharika to rig the polls. In its verdict in February, the Constitutional Court nullified the poll results, citing massive irregularities, and ordered fresh elections with 150 days. Both the MEC and Mutharika appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court. Delivering the verdict Friday, Supreme Court Justice Frank Kapanda said the court found that the irregularities in the election "were not only serious but also troubling". "Widespread use of Tip-Ex [correction fluid], illegal alterations of large number of tally sheets, the use of numerous duplicate tally sheets where originals unspeakably went missing. Among other many irregularities established by the court below," Kapanda said, addind that such irregularities seriously undermined the credibility, integrity and fairness of the elections. "We agree with the court below that the conduct of the second appellant [MEC] in the management of the 12 May, 2019, general elections, which resulted in gross violations and breached of the constitution and applicable laws, demonstrated serious incompetence and a neglect of duty on the part of electoral commissioners in multiple dimensions," Kapanda said. The Supreme Court also upheld the Constitutional Court's order that the winner should get at least 50% plus one of the votes. However, it ordered that no new voter registrations should be accepted for the new polls and that only presidential candidates who participated in the nullified May elections should be allowed to run in the rematch. The Supreme Court ruling means that MEC should stop the ongoing new voter registration exercise which was expected to end June 7. MEC spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa says the commission respects the court ruling and would announce its next move at an appropriate time. Presidential candidate Chakwera said the verdict has demonstrated impartiality on the part of the country's judicial system. "I am so happy. I could dance if I had dancing legs and I think our Supreme Court justices have just continued to uphold the bar that was raised by the Constitutional Court and we believe that Malawi will sent an example not in just the African continent and across the world that if you seek justice you can find it," Chakwera said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Under such orders, she said, "my client could write a nasty letter to everyone he knows, but he's not allowed to put it up on social media. You can whisper in your synagogue, make nasty remarks about your ex-wife, but you can't put it up on Facebook." Masha Shak's attorney, Richard M. Novitch, said the ruling had an immediate, negative effect, prompting Ronnie Shak to resume his postings on social media. "Within the last 24 hours of the Shak case being issued by the SJC, he's right back at it, blowing up on social media," he said. "There's nothing that stops him." While Novitch called the decision "constitutionally sound," he said that "common sense would suggest that children should be insulated from the combat between parents." "It will give license to a lot of bad actors to say what they want, regardless of where and when and the circumstances," he said. The case underscored the role social media can play in modern divorce, as dueling parties try to win support from their circle of acquaintances. Loading Shortly after filing for divorce and seeking to remove Ronnie Shak from their shared home, Masha Shak filed a motion to prohibit him from posting disparaging remarks about her on social media. Two family court judges complied, with the second, George F. Phelan, issuing an order preventing both Ronnie and Masha Shak from posting "any disparagement of the other party" on social media until their son reached the age of 14. Phelan's ruling prevented both spouses from using four specific expletives, as well as "other pejoratives involving any gender," noting that "the Court acknowledges the impossibility of listing herein all of the opprobrious vitriol and their permutations within the human lexicon." It also banned the parents from posting photographs of their son in poses the judge considered inappropriate. "The court finds that the father's posing, taking and posting of the photo of the parties' child (then less than 1 year old) with a cigarette in his mouth was in poor taste, even if intended as a joke, and causes the Court to question the father's maturity," the judge wrote. But Phelan also put the order on hold, to be reviewed on constitutional grounds by the Supreme Judicial Court. And this past week, the court found it unconstitutional. An order preventing someone from carrying out a certain kind of speech, known as "prior restraint," is legal in the United States when the threat of damage caused by that speech is compelling. But though the state does have an interest in protecting children from "being exposed to disparagement between their parents," it is not grave enough to justify restricting freedom of speech, the ruling said. The ruling noted that one spouse, if offended by the other's speech, has the option of suing for defamation or seeking a harassment prevention order. It also noted that the judges' ruling does not apply to voluntary nondisparagement agreements. "What are people with common sense going to do? They're going to go out in the hallway and reach an accord in which each agrees not to disparage the other," said Novitch, Masha Shak's attorney. "It will be based on the agreement of the parties, not on judicial fiat." Ruth A. Bourquin, a senior attorney from the American Civil Liberties Union, the co-author of an amicus brief supporting Ronnie Shak, said she was relieved by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling. "We're so grateful that the SJC reiterated the First Amendment principles, and recognized that they applied here," she said, comparing social media to "the new town square." April cruel this year in ways no one imagined has also been muddy and drab. The rain has come, pitter-patter and slam-bang. Instead of the usual 4 inches of spring showers, many towns in and around Danbury have hit the 6-inch mark. Were sheltering in place, in part, because its been so wet. December was wet, said Matt Spies of Brookfield, state coordinator of the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network, whose volunteers now collect precipitation data in 118 stations throughout Connecticut. January and February were dry. March was average. April was wet. And despite the hosts of golden daffodils and the greening grass, it was a gray month above. Theres been two rainy days for every non-rainy day, Spies said. And cold, this weekend especially. Gary Lessor, director of The Weather Center at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, said that, normally, temperatures for May range from 60 to 70 degrees F. This weekend it will be in the 40s and 50s. Well be 20 degrees below normal, Lessor said. Some of this is to be expected. Michael Rawlins, associate director of the Climate Systems Research Center at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, said April is generally the cloudiest month of the year in southern New England. The jet stream is directly overhead, Rawlins said. Were also getting some payback now for the mild winter we had. Bill Jacquemin, senior meteorologist at The Connecticut Weather Center in Danbury, said that through most of the winter the flow of the jet stream the shifting upper wind currents that run about 11miles above North America stayed just to our west, kept in place by a ridge of high pressure. Near the end of March, Jacquemin said, the jet stream shifted over Connecticut. Its brought us the cool, rainy weather weve had as storm after storm came our way. This is what we expected the in the winter, he said. And its brought us clouds that block the sun, that rain and snow on everyone. They are complicated as well. Basically, water on earth can be a solid ice, and a gas water vapor, as well as the liquid that we drink and sail on and swim in and is essential for all life. When the sun hits the earth, it heats it up, causing liquid water to evaporate and become vaporous. That vapor latches onto microscopic particles of solid material floating in the air to form cloud droplets. Clouds cover about 70 percent of the earths surface at any given time, but only account for about one-thousandth of 1 percent of the earths total water. With high clouds wispy, mares tail cirrus clouds the droplets are frozen. Red skies in the morning and evening, the rings around the moon, and winter sundogs all glow because of cirrus clouds. Cumulus clouds the puffy ones in blue skies are middle-distance clouds. The family of stratus clouds are the low sky-covering banks of clouds that bring steady rain or snow. Fog is a cloud that forms at ground level. Nicole LoBiondo, a meteorologist at AccuWeather, the regional weather forecasting company in State College, Penn., said that people assume a blanket of clouds acts, well, like a blanket. It depends. Thick clouds during the day can be cooling, she said. Thats because they reflect the suns rays, and warmth, away from the earths surface. But at night, the earths surface releases its own heat. Thick clouds then keep that heat near us, and warm the air. Thats why on clear winter nights, it gets so cold. Were missing the blanket. Jacquemin said its also why we only get record high temperatures on clear summer days when the sun can heat up the air without any clouds intervening. Climate change may bring changes to cloud cover. Clouds may be getting thicker and forming higher in the sky. That could mean theyll block more heat that normally would radiate from earth out into space, making things hotter. Theres also evidence that that cloud formations may decrease in the mid-latitudes North America while increasing over the poles. But the gray skies now? Its just weather. Ordinarily, jet stream patterns can stay in place for about six weeks or so. Lessor of The Weather Center at Western said that means for at least the next week, we can expect more of the same. Were getting payback for the winter, he said. Contact Robert Miller at earthmattersrgm@gmail.com Kabul, May 10 : Eighteen more bodies of Afghan migrants, who were allegedly drowned by Iranian guards in a river near the two countries' border, have been found, taking the total number of victims to 34, officials said. The 18 bodies were found on Saturday, TOLO News quoted officials in Herat province as saying. One of the official said that an Afghan delegation has started investigating the incident in Gulran district. According to the Foreign Ministry here, initial assessments suggested that at least 70 Afghans who were trying to enter Iran from bordering Herat province were beaten and pushed into the Harirud river last week. The Harirud river basin is shared by Afghanistan, Iran and Turkmenistan. Last week, an Afghan official said that so far 16 of the Afghan nationals have been rescued, while 18 to 20 were still missing. On May 7, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that he was "appalled" by the reports and called on the Afghan government to open a "full investigation". But the Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry rejected Pompeo's remarks, saying some people were trying to disrupt Kabul-Tehran ties by making conspiracies. The Iranian government has rejected the involvement of its border guards in the incident. Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (25) Port City Daily A white sheriffs deputy in North Carolina is facing criminal charges after allegedly leading an armed mob to the home of a black teenager and trying to force their way inside as part of a botched vigilante mission. New Hanover & Pender County District Attorney Ben David on Friday announced the charges against Jordan Kita, a New Hanover Sheriffs Office detention officer accused of wearing his uniform while leading the group of peopleone of whom was allegedly packing an AR-15to confront a high school student at his home. Kita has since been fired from the sheriff's office. The teenager, Dameon Shepard, was playing video games late one evening when the group of men arrived at his door, demanding to know the whereabouts of a 15-year-old girl named Lekayda Kempisty who had been reported missing. Three in the group were said to be armed, carrying a shotgun, a semi-automatic rifle, and a handgun. Kita wore his New Hanover County Sheriffs deputy uniform and gun, though he had not come to Shepards house on official business. The group said they were going to enter the house and question him, the Port City Daily reports. But in addition to having no legal authority to question or detain Shepard, they also had the wrong guy. The mob was in search of a man whose first name was Josiah. Josiah had reportedly previously lived in the neighborhood, but the only thing he apparently had in common with Shepard was being African-American in the predominantly white neighborhood. The armed group reportedly did not believe Shepard when he told them he wasn't who they were looking for. Theres one in a police uniform, and he speaks to me first, Shepard told the Port City Daily. He says, Were looking for a missing girl. We were given this address, we were given your name, and we were told that shes here. So were going to enter, Shepard was quoted as saying. He said he told the group they could not come inside and tried to shut the door, but Kita planted his foot so the door could not close. Story continues According to a letter from the Shepards attorney, James Lea, Dameon became very frightened and hysterical, and kept repeating that his name was Dameon and that he attended Laney High School. Shepards mother, awoken by the confrontation, then came to the front door. The crowd was angry, and I still did not know what was going on, Monica Shepard told the Port City Daily. [Kita] kept saying, Im going to step inside, close the door, and talk to you, and I said, No, youre not. She told the vigilantes that her son was not named Josiah. Kita is said to have insisted he be allowed inside, but the mob eventually left. The missing girl, who had run away from home, was located later that evening. The whole time, I was worried the worst would happen, said Monica Shepard. Im still in shock. I dont sleep well. When Pender County sheriffs deputies arrived later that night to investigate, they made no arrests and, according to Lea, took no names. Monica Shepard said, Coming to the door like that with a mob of people with guns, what do we expect? What were their intentions? What if he was the person they were looking for or what if I was not home? What wouldve happened? I dont want to have that conversation. I dont want him to be a statistic. Its scary. Dameon and his mother Monica plan to file a civil lawsuit, according to their attorney. Lea called the sheriffs departments conduct an outrageous and egregious violation. We obviously cannot have armed groups of citizens patrolling the streets of Pender County or New Hanover County terrorizing innocent families, the lawyer wrote. Kita has been fired from the New Hanover County Sheriffs Office, and the office is conducting an internal affairs investigation, The News & Observer reports. Hes charged with breaking and entering, forcible trespassing, and failure to discharge duties. A second man, Austin Wood, is charged with going armed to the terror of the public. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. Boris Johnson has set out five key tests he insists the UK must meet before he lifts the lockdown of the population that has been in place since 24 March. Insisting the priority is to protect the public and save lives, he said the conditions were: To protect the NHS This means ensuring hospitals have enough critical-care capacity to cope with numbers of Covid-19 patients. The governments priority since the start of the outbreak has been to avoid the NHS becoming overwhelmed and unable to cope. To see sustained falls in the death rate The number of registered deaths in hospitals, care homes and the community has started to fall. The death toll had been tragic, Mr Johnson said, and the suffering immense. One initial scenario had seen the prediction of half a million deaths. The death rate appeared to peak around the middle of last month, but is still in the hundreds every day, with 269 more deaths announced on Sunday. To see sustained and considerable falls in the rate of infection With the number of hospital admissions currently in decline, Mr Johnson said: "It would be madness now to throw away that achievement by allowing a second spike". There were millions of people terrified of the disease, but also of what the prolonged lockdown would mean for them. A new Covid Alert System is being set up determined mainly by the reinfection rate. The alert levels will be one to five and the higher the level, the tougher social distancing measures will have to be. To sort out the challenges in getting enough personal protective equipment to the people who need it On the PPE shortage, he said it was a global problem but we must fix it. The BBCs Panorama reported that vital items of PPE, some of which are now in short supply, were left out of the UKs stockpile when it was established in 2009. And the British Medical Association found that half of doctors had had to buy their own PPE or have it donated. To ensure that any measures do not force the reproduction rate of the disease the R back up over one Forcing it up over one could mean "we have the kind of exponential growth we were facing a few weeks ago, he said. He said the R rate would continue to be monitored and if we as a nation begin to fulfil the conditions I have set out, then in the next few weeks and months we may be able to go further. By Express News Service BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan has solicited novel ideas from Odia expatriates living in South East Asian countries for economic development of Odisha. Interacting with overseas Odias in Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand through video conference, Pradhan requested them to think of trade and investment opportunities for India post-lockdown with special eye on Odisha. Interacted with Pravasi Odia friends residing in South East Asian countries through video conferencing. Discussed the #Covid19 situation in their respective countries and efforts they are taking to slow down the transmission and prevent further spread of the virus, Pradhan tweeted. With indications of major companies and governments moving their resources out of China appears imminent after the outbreak of coronavirus, Pradhan said India is in a better position to offer a better bargain to relocate their business because of its geographical area and huge market. He urged Odia expatriates to utilise their business links to divert investment opportunities coming to South East Asian countries to Odisha. The Union Minister said efforts are made under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to evacuate stranded citizens from countries like Uzbekistan, Russia, Germany, Spain and Thailand in the next few weeks under Vande Bharat Mission. The Prime Minister is making tireless efforts to bring all Indians back home. A week ago, he had talked to some prominent Odia expatriates in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates though video conferencing. 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 U.S. team. Global cases: More than 4 million Global deaths: More than 279,460 Most cases reported: United States (over 1.3 million), Spain (over 223,500), Italy (over 218,200), United Kingdom (over 216,500), Russia (over 209,600) The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University as of 8:00 p.m. Beijing time. All times below are in Beijing time. CHANGCHUN, CHINA - MAY 7, 2020 - Changchun University of traditional Chinese medicine welcomes the first batch of 387 students to return to school in the new semester, Changchun City, Jilin Province, China, May 7, 2020. Costfoto | Barcroft Media via Getty Images 7:57 pm: Chinese authorities flag northeastern Chinese province as potential new outbreak spot Chinese authorities on Sunday reclassified the city of Shulan in China's northeastern province of Jilin as high-risk for the coronavirus after 11 new cases were confirmed there on May 9. The city has reimposed virus-control restrictions including school closures and a ban on non-essential transport. The cases in Shulan, a city of just over 700,000, brought China's new confirmed Covid-19 cases on May 9 to 14. 5:00 pm: Spain reports lowest daily death toll since mid-March Spanish health authorities reported another fall in the daily death count from the coronavirus on Sunday, counting 143 new deaths compared to 179 the previous day the lowest death toll since the middle of March. Deaths are now at 26,621 and confirmed cases rose from 223,578 to 224,390. 4:42 pm: Indonesia cases surpass 14,000 Confirmed coronavirus cases in Indonesia grew by 387 to 14,032 on Sunday, its health ministry reported. The confirmed death count also grew by 14 to 973, with 2,689 recoveries, health authorities said. Just over 113,000 people in the country of 264 million have been tested so far. People wear masks as a preventive measure against the coronavirus pandemic at the Red Square in Moscow, Russia on March 17, 2020. Sefa Karacan | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images 3:40 pm: Russia coronavirus cases top 200,000 Russia's health authorities reported 11,012 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the country's total to 209,688. The death toll from the virus climbed overnight by 88 to 1,915. Russia has surpassed France and Germany to become the fifth-highest in the world in terms of positive coronavirus cases. 3:37 pm: U.K. wants to 'slowly and cautiously' lift lockdown Ahead of an official address from the U.K. Prime Minister Sunday, the country's housing minister Robert Jenrick said the government wants to "slowly and cautiously" ease lockdown measures to reopen the economy. Britain's lockdown is in its seventh week, and the country has the highest number of coronavirus-related deaths in Europe and the third-highest number of confirmed cases on the continent, with 31,662 deaths and 216,526 cases. "The message ... of staying at home now does need to be updated, we need to have a broader message because we want to slowly and cautiously restart the economy and the country," Jenrick told Sky News on Sunday. Any easing of measures would be conditional on the rate of the virus's spread, and sharp increases in cases could lead to re-impositions of any lockdown measures that had been lifted, Jenrick said. 3:09 pm: Singapore reports 876 new coronavirus cases Singapore's confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 876 on Sunday to 23,336, the city-state's health authorities said. The large majority of cases come from crowded migrant worker dormitories, with three cases coming from permanent residents, the health ministry said. 1:36 pm: Japan considers lifting state of emergency in some areas ahead of deadline Japan's government may lift its state of emergency in some of its prefectures that are among the least affected by the coronavirus, Japanese Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said Sunday. The nationwide deadline for Japan's state of emergency is currently May 31, but authorities are looking to lift it earlier for some areas. "Lifting the state of emergency in many of 34 prefectures that exclude those under specific cautions will likely come in sight as many prefectures have been seeing no fresh infections lately," the economy minister said. Thirteen of Japan's 47 prefectures are under "specific cautions" due to worse outbreaks and faster virus transmission, including Tokyo and Osaka. Japan had 15,777 coronavirus cases a death toll of 624 from the virus as of Sunday, according to national authorities. 12:31 pm: Cases in India top 60,000 India reported at least 62,939 cases of infections and 2,109 deaths, according to the latest information posted on its health ministry's website. The state of Maharashtra is the worst-affected, with more than 20,000 reported cases. As many as 19,357 people around the country have been cured or discharged from hospitals, according to the health ministry. Doctors and medical staff wait for their turn during the collection of samples for Covid-19 testing at LNJP Hospital, during nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus, on May 9, 2020 in New Delhi, India. Sonu Mehta | Hindustan Times | Getty Images India has ramped up testing, according to the government. "The testing capacity has increased in the country and it is 95,000 tests per day with 332 Government laboratories and 121 private laboratories," Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said, adding that cumulatively, India has carried out 1,525,631 tests so far. South Asia's largest economy went into a nationwide lockdown in late March and that has since been extended twice. Restrictions are expected to be lifted on May 18, but there has been some easing of rules, especially in low-risk areas, though most economic activities remain on hold. Saheli Roy Choudhury 11:24 am: South Korea reports slight uptick in cases South Korea confirmed 34 new cases of infection on Sunday and no new deaths, according to the latest update from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That was an uptick compared to the daily number of infections the country reported in recent days. People wearing protective face masks walk through the street at night in the Itaewon area of Seoul, South Korea, on Saturday, May 9, 2020. SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images Yonhap reported there is an infection cluster tied to clubs in Seoul's multicultural district of Itaewon, where a patron who visited five clubs and bars there in early May tested positive for Covid-19. Officials are trying to find about 1,510 people who went to clubs in Itaewon last week to test them, Yonhap said. Data showed 14 of the new cases reported Sunday were in Seoul, but the KCDC did not say how many were tied to the cluster. South Korea was one of the first major centers of outbreak outside China but mass testing and strict social distancing measures brought the daily reported cases down. Cumulatively, South Korea reported 10,874 cases of infection and 256 deaths. Saheli Roy Choudhury 10:55 am: Australia's New South Wales to further ease restrictions starting Friday The state of New South Wales will further ease restrictions starting Friday, May 15, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said. "Our community has demonstrated that by working together we can achieve positive results," Berejiklian said in a statement. "The changes will allow NSW to fire up the economy, while allowing more personal freedoms." Starting Friday, cafes and restaurants would be able to seat 10 people at a time. Households can host up to five visitors while weddings can have a maximum of ten guests. Outdoor pools would also be allowed to open, but with restrictions in place. The measures are part of Australia's three-step plan to gradually ease restrictions while keeping the outbreak under control. The country has reported more than 6,900 cases and 97 deaths, with New South Wales having the highest number of infections and fatalities. Saheli Roy Choudhury 10:16 am: China reports 14 new cases, no additional deaths China's National Health Commission said there were 14 newly diagnosed cases, of which 12 were locally transmitted and two of them were attributed to travelers from overseas. Most of the new local cases were attributed to the Jilin province. People walking in the Sanlitun shopping area which hosts numerous stores, bars and art-installations, in Beijing, China on May 6, 2020. Artyom Ivanov | TASS via Getty Images No additional deaths were reported but there were 20 asymptomatic cases, according to the NHC. Cumulatively, China reported 82,901 confirmed cases and 4,633 deaths. Saheli Roy Choudhury 9:52 am: Anthony Fauci expected to work mostly from home White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci is set to work mostly from home, and may go into his office where he would wear a face mask and practice social distancing, an administration official told NBC News. He was said to have had "low-risk" exposure to a White House aide who tested positive. Fauci is the third high-ranking member of the White House coronavirus task force to practice some form of quarantine, after CDC Director Robert Redfield and FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn. Spencer Kimball, Saheli Roy Choudhury 9:11 am: CDC Director in quarantine after 'low risk exposure' to an infected individual in the White House U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield will be "teleworking for the next two weeks," the Associated Press reported. He was said to have had a "low risk exposure" to someone at the White House who had tested positive for Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. But Redfield felt fine and had no symptoms, the AP said, citing a CDC statement. Hours earlier, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn was in self-quarantine after coming into contact with someone who tested positive. Both men are part of the White House coronavirus task force. Saheli Roy Choudhury 9:05 am: More than 279,000 people have died from the virus At least 279,303 people have died from the coronavirus, which has infected more than 4 million people around the world, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University. The outbreak was first reported in China's Hubei province late last year before the virus rapidly spread overseas. A worker sprays an escalator handrail as the MTA Subway closed overnight for cleaning and disinfecting during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Manhattan borough of New York City, May 6, 2020. Andrew Kelly | Reuters Last week, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it was distributing $4.8 billion of the $8 billion Congress allocated to tribal governments for a Coronavirus Relief Fund. While getting this money out the door is a good thing, this announcement comes weeks past the deadline and billions of dollars short. It is the definition of too little, too late while Indian Country, which is on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis, cannot afford to wait for federal resources. When Congress negotiated the CARES Act, I fought hard as the vice chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee to make sure tribes were included. We secured $10 billion $8 billion in direct relief to tribal governments and $2 billion for emergency funding for programs that serve Native communities. While this may only scratch the surface of what tribes need, it is far more than what the Trump administration and Senate Republican leadership proposed. After objecting to dedicated tribal relief in the CARES Act, the Trump administration dragged its feet and took six weeks to release just some of what Congress intended. Unfortunately, this is just part of a long pattern of this administration failing to uphold its responsibilities to tribes. Tribal governments and Native communities in New Mexico and across the country have stepped up to protect their communities. Even in the face of decades of health care underfunding and understaffing, tribes are doing everything they can to slow the spread of coronavirus. The full $8 billion relief fund and not a dollar less should have been distributed by now. Sadly, we dont have to look far to see the disproportionate toll the COVID-19 pandemic is taking on Indian Country. Over half of New Mexicos confirmed COVID-19 cases are Native Americans, even though Native Americans are only about 10% of our states population. The Navajo Nation is facing a terrible outbreak. Im hearing from Native health providers across the country whose facilities are on the brink shortages of personal protective equipment, funding and staff are mounting. This is unacceptable. Tribes have been fighting for adequate resources for decades, and Indian Country is confronting this pandemic while bearing the weight of historic funding gaps for health care, infrastructure and economic resources. Per capita spending on Native health care is less than one-half the national average. Past public health crises caused disproportionately high mortality rates for Native Americans. We must do better. So, it is especially egregious the Trump administration has done even more to exclude tribes from accessing critical resources. While negotiating the CARES Act, I fought to include tribally owned businesses in small-business loan funding. Instead, the Trump administration issued limits effectively prohibiting gaming enterprises which employ thousands of people nationwide and fund tribal community services like public safety and elder care from applying for these loans. Treasury eased its limitations after pressure from my colleagues and I in Congress, but the funds ran out before tribes could apply, once again leaving them behind. This is just one of many instances where federal agencies threw up roadblocks, forcing tribes to navigate unnecessary bureaucracy for vital funding. Now that the Senate has returned to Washington, I am working hard to get tribes the full resources they need in Congress next coronavirus response. I am listening closely to tribal leaders and am focusing on fully funding the pandemic response in Indian Country, expanding housing and sanitation funds and connecting tribal households to broadband internet. Hopefully, the Trump administration and Senate Republican leadership have come to appreciate that these resources are urgent for Native communities, and it will not be so difficult to secure needed relief for Indian Country next time. In the meantime, Treasury must immediately release the rest of the $8 billion CARES Act funding, and the Trump administration must demonstrate it has learned how to better serve Indian Country. Above all, the federal governments trust responsibilities to tribes demand that we closely consult with tribes so we have a firm understanding of their unique needs. The next relief package must meet those fully. This is not a matter of choice for the federal government. We are bound by our legal and moral obligations to serve American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians who were here long before us, and who we must support when a crisis of global proportions reaches their doorstep. Those following along with Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW) will no doubt be intrigued by the recent purchase of shares by E. Santi, Chairman & CEO of the company, who spent a stonking US$998k on stock at an average price of US$158. While that only increased their holding size by 4.5%, it is still a big swing by our standards. View our latest analysis for Illinois Tool Works The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Illinois Tool Works In fact, the recent purchase by E. Santi was the biggest purchase of Illinois Tool Works shares made by an insider individual in the last twelve months, according to our records. That means that an insider was happy to buy shares at around the current price of US$161. While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. While we always like to see insider buying, it's less meaningful if the purchases were made at much lower prices, as the opportunity they saw may have passed. The good news for Illinois Tool Works share holders is that insiders were buying at near the current price. In the last twelve months insiders purchased 7.88k shares for US$1.2m. On the other hand they divested 1115 shares, for US$187k. In total, Illinois Tool Works insiders bought more than they sold over the last year. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by individuals) over the last 12 months, below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction! NYSE:ITW Recent Insider Trading May 10th 2020 Illinois Tool Works is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket. Does Illinois Tool Works Boast High Insider Ownership? Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Illinois Tool Works insiders own 1.0% of the company, currently worth about US$517m based on the recent share price. I like to see this level of insider ownership, because it increases the chances that management are thinking about the best interests of shareholders. Story continues So What Do The Illinois Tool Works Insider Transactions Indicate? The recent insider purchases are heartening. And the longer term insider transactions also give us confidence. Once you factor in the high insider ownership, it certainly seems like insiders are positive about Illinois Tool Works. Nice! So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. For example - Illinois Tool Works has 2 warning signs we think you should be aware of. If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt. For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading. KOCHI: Indian Naval ship INS Jalashwa carrying 698 Indians stranded in Maldives has reached Kochi port on Sunday morning. The ship brought stranded Indians as part of the evacuation mission Operation Samudra Setu. The warship left the Male port on Friday night with 698 passengers including 440 Keralites, 18 pregnant women and 14 children. Natives of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Telengana, Lakshadweep, Maharashtra, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Rajasthan are also there in the ship. All passengers repatriated by the warship will be shifted to quarantine centres for which ambulances, state transport buses and taxis have been arranged. Those from other states will also be quarantined in Kochi for 14 days while the Keralites will be sent to the isolation centres in their native districts. Kochi city police commissioner IG Vijay Sakhare is coordinating the operations. Passengers with Covid 19 symptoms are being disembarked first followed by others in small groups. Thermal screening of passengers is being carried out by the Port health organisation. Symptomatic persons will be immediately shifted to hospital. Arrangement has also been made for distribution of SIM cards by BSNL and installation of Arogya Setu app in mobile phones of passengers. The arrangements are being coordinated by the district administration, Police and health department authorities. As part of Operation Samudra Setu, another naval ship INS Magar will evacuate more than 200 Indians from Maldives. They will be brought to Tuticorin port in Tamil Nadu, said Sunjay Sudhir, Indias High Commissioner in the Maldives according to reports by national media. The evacuation exercise will continue in next week. It is scary to go to work, Kevin Hassett, a top economic adviser to the president, said on CBSs Face the Nation program on Sunday. Mr. Hassett said he wore a mask at times at the White House, but conceded that I think that Id be a lot safer if I was sitting at home than I would be going to the West Wing. He added: Its a small, crowded place. Its, you know, its a little bit risky. But you have to do it because you have to serve your country. The discovery of the two infected employees has prompted the White House to ramp up its procedures to combat the virus, asking more staff members to work from home, increasing usage of masks and more rigorously screening people who enter the complex. It is not clear how many other White House officials Ms. Miller or the valet might have come into contact with in recent days, but many members of the West Wing staff who were most likely in meetings with Ms. Miller before she tested positive are still coming to work, according to senior administration officials. Late Sunday, the White House put out a statement saying that Mr. Pence would not alter his routine or self-quarantine. The vice president has tested negative every single day and plans to be at the White House tomorrow, said Devin OMalley, a spokesman for Mr. Pence. At the White House, all employees are being tested at least weekly, officials said, and a handful of top aides who regularly interact with the president are being tested daily. To get in with the president, you have to test negative, Mr. Hassett said on CNNs State of the Union program. Sixteen people tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Tripura on Sunday, taking the total number of COVID-19 cases in the state to 152, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said. All the fresh cases were reported from the 86th battalion headquarters of the Border Security Force (BSF) in Ambassa in Dhalai district, which has been designated as a 'red zone', he said. In a tweet, Deb said, "16 persons found COVID-19 positive in Tripura from 86th-Bn BSF (Official:1, Female:6, Children: 9). We are conducting max number of tests. 75 Samples from 3rd-Bn BSF tested but all reports are negative. Total active cases: 148. Transferred out: 02. Recovered: 2 (sic)." Two patients, an ambulance driver and a trucker, had left for West Bengal's Siliguri and Assam's Karimganj respectively before their test reports had come. They have been designated as 'transferred patients'. The first two COVID-19 patients in the state have been cured of the disease and discharged from hospitals in April. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The top members of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee say an increase in violence in Afghanistan has raised questions about the Talibans commitment to an agreement it signed with the United States in February. Representatives Eliot Engel (Democrat-New York), chairman of the committee, and Michael McCaul (Republican-Texas) say the dramatic increase in violence in Afghanistan is an unacceptable violation of the U.S.-Taliban peace agreement signed February 29. The Talibans continued attacks on Afghan forces make us question whether the Taliban will uphold its commitments, jeopardize progress towards peace, and prevent negotiations from moving forward, Engel and McCaul said in a joint statement on May 8. The violence has coincided with the rapid spread of the coronavirus, and Engel and McCaul said that it has prevented Afghans from focusing on the health crisis. Engel and McCaul called on all parties to stop attacks immediately, agree to a cease-fire, and support the road to peace. Their comments follow U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper's statement on May 5 that the Taliban was not living up to its commitments, adding that he also believed the Afghan government was not living up to its commitment. The Afghan government was not part of the February agreement between the United States and the Taliban, but the deal called for Kabul to release 5,000 Taliban fighters as a confidence-building measure ahead of intra-Afghan talks. The deal paves the way for the withdrawal of all international troops from Afghanistan within 14 months. In addition to an exchange of prisoners, it is intended to lead to peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban aimed at ending the 18-year conflict. But attacks by Taliban militants have increased since the deal was signed. The latest attack by Taliban militants killed a provincial police chief and two others in a roadside bomb attack in Khost Province in Afghanistans southeast, officials said on May 8. Khost police chief Sayed Ahmad Babazai was leading an operation against the militants in the province when he was hit by the bomb on May 7, Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said. Babazais secretary and one of his bodyguards were also killed, local officials confirmed. Another policeman was severely wounded in the incident. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. It comes as the U.S. peace envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said on May 7 that he had talked to Taliban leaders in Qatar about a reduction in violence and a range of other issues related to the February agreement. With reporting by dpa and Reuters FENTON, MI A Fenton pastor is in the hospital battling the effects of COVID-19. The Rev. Ryan Riley, an associate pastor at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, has tested positive for the virus. In a letter issued on the churchs website, the Rev. Robert Copeland confirms the information and notes Riley has been hospitalized (not on a ventilator) and can use your prayers. Most of the staff at St. John has been placed under a two-week quarantine and the parish offices were closed Friday, May 8. The Diocese of Lansing issued a statement on its Facebook page asking for prayers for Riley after he was admitted to the intensive care unit at University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor with hypoxia and severe dehydration. A REQUEST FOR PRAYERS: Of your charity, please pray for Father Ryan Riley, Associate Pastor of St. John the Evangelist... Posted by Diocese of Lansing on Friday, May 8, 2020 An update posted Sunday morning by the Diocese of Lansing shared a few words from Rileys Facebook page. Not much has changed. My temp just spiked to 103 again, I cant say that I have an appetite, and Im trying to suppress the cough, wrote Riley. And, my chest X-ray showed a lot of pneumonia yesterday. They did sign me up for the Remdesivir clinical trial and I had the first dose of that this afternoon. Please keep praying for me! The Fenton church has rescheduled training for the resumption of public masses until after the quarantine period is over, Copeland explained. A reopening date has been pushed back to June 1 to comply with Gov. Gretchen Whitmers stay-at-home order that was recently extended to May 28. Baptisms and first communions are being rescheduled, with the parish school expected to operate as normal with the remote learning, Copeland said. Sofo Maame Ciara Antwi, the wife of Rev. Obofour has reportedly given birth to triplets. Obofowaa, the First Lady of the Anointed Palace Chapel went to the labor ward of the Okomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital yesterday and delivered three kids. A day after bringing forth of the triplet, Sofomaame Ciara has recorded a video to sing praises to the Most High God for the safe delivery. Dressed in white on the bed, the wife of Rev. Obofour sang praises to God for safely guiding her throughout the pregnancy and labor. Watch video below I think the one issue in this campaign this particular election is going to be how did we respond to this crisis? I think all other considerations are going to be secondary, said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), who twice ran the Senate GOPs campaign arm and is on the ballot this fall. If youre an incumbent, you can demonstrate how you would react to the crisis by actually doing it. The number of active cases of coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh rose to 1,884 on Sunday, while 1,504 patients have been discharged so far, a senior official said. Principal Secretary, Health, Amit Mohan Prasad said 84 more people have tested positive for the disease. On Saturday, 1,365 samples were tested in 273 pools, he told reporters. The official said the Medical Education Department, on the directives of the chief minister, has devised a 'mentor institute system' which doctors can use to seek guidance for treating COVID-19 patients. "If doctors at the Medical College Meerut face any difficulty, they can speak to experts at the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow," he said. The Medical College in Kanpur, which caters to patients from central UP, can consult the King George Medical University in Lucknow,. Similarly, the Medical College in Prayagraj can seek advice from the BHU's speciality team. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Saturday the company will file a lawsuit against Alameda County and threatened to move its headquarters and future programs to Texas or Nevada immediately, escalating a fight between the company and health officials over whether its factory in Fremont can reopen. Tesla had planned to bring back about 30% of its factory workers Friday as part of its reopening plan, defying Alameda County's stay-at-home order. Updated: Tesla has since filed a lawsuit against Alameda County seeking to nullify the county's orders and allow the automaker to resume operations. Alameda County Health Care Services Agency and the Public Health Department issued a statement in response stating that the agencies "have been communicating directly and working closely with the Tesla team on the ground in Fremont." The agencies called it a "collaborative, good faith effort to develop and implement a safety plan that allows for reopening while protecting the health and well-being of the thousands of employees who travel to and from work at Tesla's factory." The officials said Tesla has been responsive to their guidance and recommendations and look forward to coming to an agreement. California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued new guidance Thursday that allowed manufacturers to resume operations. The guidance won praise from Musk, who later sent an internal email to employees about plans to reopen based on the governor's revised order. However, the governor's guidance included a warning that local governments could keep more restrictive rules in place. Alameda County, along with several other Bay Area counties and cities, last week extended the stay-at-home orders through the end of May. The orders were revised and did ease some of the restrictions. However, it did not lift the order for manufacturing. On Friday, the Alameda County Health Department said Tesla had not been given "the green light" to reopen and said if the company did, it would be out of compliance with the order. Story continues In the tweet, Musk said Tesla is filing a lawsuit against Alameda County immediately. In a later tweet, he also encouraged shareholders to file a lawsuit against the county. "The unelected & ignorant "Interim Health Officer" of Alameda is acting contrary to the Governor, the President and our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!," the tweet said. He followed up with another tweet claiming that Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas or Nevada immediately. "If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependent on how Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is the last carmaker left in CA," Musk wrote. Frankly, this is the final straw. Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately. If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependen on how Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is the last carmaker left in CA. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2020 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js City of Fremont Mayor Lily Mei said Saturday after Musk's tweets she is growing concerned about the potential implications for the regional economy if there are not provisions for major manufacturing companies such as Tesla to resume operations under the shelter-in-place order. We know many essential businesses have proven they can successfully operate using strict safety and social distancing practices," Mei said in a statement. "I strongly believe these same practices could be possible for other manufacturing businesses, especially those that are so critical to our employment base. Mei encouraged Alameda County to work with local businesses to come up with acceptable guidelines for re-opening our local economy. "As we have done for over a decade, the City is prepared to support Tesla as soon as they are able to resume automobile manufacturing operations and are committed to a thoughtful, balanced approach to this effort that remains safe for our Fremont community," Mei said. Palo Alto Mayor Adrian Fine also expressed support for Tesla in a tweet that said he stands ready to help. "I truly appreciate having a cutting edge company based here, employing people, paying taxes, and helping to solve the climate crisis," Fine tweeted from his personal account. Tesla has operations in Nevada; it doesn't in Texas, although Musk's other company SpaceX has operations there. The company's massive battery factory - known as Gigafactory 1 is located in Sparks, Nevada. Tesla is seeking out a new location to build a new U.S. gigafactory that will produce the Cybertruck and Model Y crossover. Some have speculated that Texas is a top pick. Sources have told TechCrunch that Tesla is in talks with Nashville officials to locate a factory there that will produce the Cybertruck and Model Y crossover. Scouting locations for Cybertruck Gigafactory. Will be central USA, Musk tweeted in March. He added that the factory would be used to produce Model Y crossovers for the East Coast market. The first Model Y vehicles are being produced at its plant in Fremont. It's been a pretty great week for EOG Resources, Inc. (NYSE:EOG) shareholders, with its shares surging 15% to US$51.45 in the week since its latest first-quarter results. Sales came in at US$4.7b, beating expectations by a remarkable 23%, while statutory earnings per share (EPS) were US$0.02, missing estimates by an equally remarkable 97%. This is an important time for investors, as they can track a company's performance in its report, look at what experts are forecasting for next year, and see if there has been any change to expectations for the business. So we collected the latest post-earnings statutory consensus estimates to see what could be in store for next year. Check out our latest analysis for EOG Resources NYSE:EOG Past and Future Earnings May 10th 2020 Taking into account the latest results, the current consensus, from the 15 analysts covering EOG Resources, is for revenues of US$14.4b in 2020, which would reflect an uneasy 19% reduction in EOG Resources' sales over the past 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are expected to crater 88% to US$0.42 in the same period. Before this earnings report, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$13.4b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$0.40 in 2020. It looks like there's been a modest increase in sentiment following the latest results, withthe analysts becoming a bit more optimistic in their predictions for both revenues and earnings. Despite these upgrades,the analysts have not made any major changes to their price target of US$57.30, suggesting that the higher estimates are not likely to have a long term impact on what the stock is worth. Fixating on a single price target can be unwise though, since the consensus target is effectively the average of analyst price targets. As a result, some investors like to look at the range of estimates to see if there are any diverging opinions on the company's valuation. There are some variant perceptions on EOG Resources, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$80.00 and the most bearish at US$41.00 per share. Note the wide gap in analyst price targets? This implies to us that there is a fairly broad range of possible scenarios for the underlying business. Story continues Looking at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can make sense of these forecasts is to see how they measure up against both past performance and industry growth estimates. These estimates imply that sales are expected to slow, with a forecast revenue decline of 19%, a significant reduction from annual growth of 15% over the last five years. Compare this with our data, which suggests that other companies in the same industry are, in aggregate, expected to see their revenue grow 8.6% next year. It's pretty clear that EOG Resources' revenues are expected to perform substantially worse than the wider industry. The Bottom Line The biggest takeaway for us is the consensus earnings per share upgrade, which suggests a clear improvement in sentiment around EOG Resources' earnings potential next year. They also upgraded their revenue estimates for next year, even though sales are expected to grow slower than the wider industry. There was no real change to the consensus price target, suggesting that the intrinsic value of the business has not undergone any major changes with the latest estimates. Keeping that in mind, we still think that the longer term trajectory of the business is much more important for investors to consider. We have forecasts for EOG Resources going out to 2022, and you can see them free on our platform here. And what about risks? Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for EOG Resources you should know about. 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. NJ colleges to students enrolled out of state: 'Think about coming home' As the state reels from the devastating financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, a coaliti He went on to impress upon the students the importance of growth and to promise them theyll never be their final selves, but that their lives will be ones of continuous change. He said the trick is always figuring out the next step. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} So the question facing every single human being is the same question facing you graduates today: How do we face a future with incomplete information, uncertain outcomes, and dangers seen and unseen? Savage said. How do we forge a proper path to the positive benefit of all? Weve paused the machine that is the world. How do we get it started again? Together, of course. After Savage, Catharine Ni, a graduate of Rowans first engineering class in 2000, accepted the Distinguished Alumna Award. Ni took a job with Lockheed Martin after graduation and is now an executive with the company in Orlando, Florida. Since she wasnt in New Jersey to be given the actual award, Ni held a bottle of wine in its stead. I challenge you all that as you go into the world and make a success in your future, make it a mission to attribute that success to the foundation that Rowan has provided, Ni said. Rajasthans Jhunjhunu, once the gateway of Covid-19 in the state, has not reported any positive case from last 15 days and has also seen a 100% recovery of all patients. Reports of all 42 Covid-19 positive cases here have came out as negative, 35 patients have been discharged already. Of the total 42 coronavirus cases, Buhana, Malsisar and Chirawa reported 1 case each while seven cases each came from Jhunjhunu rural and Jhunjhunu urban. Khetri reported 4 Covid-19 cases, Nawalgarh, 7, and 14 coronavirus patients were reported from Udaipurwati. The first case of coronavirus in Rajasthan was detected in Jaipur in a man who had a travel history to Mandawa town of Jhunjhunu district. He had come as a tourist in a group of 23 persons and stayed at a hotel. Also read: 14 states see dip in number of active Covid-19 cases, shows data The contact history of the first positive person was of 59 persons and they were sent for an examination to SMS Medical College, Jaipur. To rule out any possibility, the survey of whole Mandawa municipal area was conducted by 45 teams in which 42,28 houses were visited and 24,873 persons were screened. Total 52 (influenza-like illness) ILI cases were found who were later examined by medical officers. None of them was found suitable for sampling. The first episode got closed there, said Umar Deen Khan, district collector, Jhunjhunu. On March 14, a family, which had recently come from Italy, developed the symptoms with high-grade fever, cough. The members of the family visited the district hospital for examination but didnt get any relief. After three days, they again visited the hospital and doctors took their samples for Covid-19. On March 18, all three of them were found positive. The cases created a great panic in Jhunjhunu as well as in the state. Immediately, the additional chief secretary, medical and health department, Rohit Kumar Singh sent a team of senior officers from the directorate to handle the situation. The next day, Dr Pratap Singh Dootar, additional director, was given the charge of chief medical & health officer who had worked in Jhunjhunu for a long time on the same post. He took over the charge and worked on the future strategy with district administration to control the virus, added Khan. In order to control the spread, a strategic committee was formed which consisted of the collector, Dr Pratap Singh Dootar; Jhunjhunu superintendent of police JP Sharma; Ramniwas Jat, CEO and Rajendra Agrawal, Additional District Magistrate, Jhunjhunu. The team worked under the guidance of additional chief secretary, health, Rohit Kumar Singh; Jaipur range inspector general S Sengathir and transport department secretary Ravi Jain. The Jhunjhunu district magistrate said 1,500 teams were formed to tackle the coronavirus challenge. The teams carried out intense screening of the entire district for early detection of cases. A door-to-door survey of the whole district was conducted. The teams visited 40,2670 houses visited and screened 23,98,146 people. A total of 5,444 samples were taken out which 5,282 came out negative and the results of 120 samples are awaited. The key areas identified to contain the virus were people with a history of a visit to China Italy, Spain, Iran and other foreign countries, people who came from other states, those who participated in the Tablighi Jamat congregation in Nizamuddin, Delhi and people who had come from other districts. Information about all high-risk people was collected through various sources, said Khan For quarantine and isolation of the suspects, the district administration identified 19 places with a capacity of 3800 people. On the basis of the inputs of the teams that conducted on-ground surveys, further strategy was formed. In Mandawa, Nawalgarh and Gudha, the transmission of the virus took place through contact spread. For example, in Mandawa, three people got positive who had come in contact with the first positive case. In Gudha, 12 persons tested positive who had come in contact with another positive case. But, due to aggressive sampling and by shifting the people who had came in contact with the positive cases the chains of infection was broken and no secondary transmission took place, Khan stated. The DM said that Jhunjhunu is among the top five districts in terms of total samples test and the rate of positive cases is only 0.75%. Another good indicator is that Covid-19 has not spread in any group of service providers - administration, police and medical staff. However, we are still on our toes and not taking the situation lightly, said Khan. While the daily coronavirus death toll continues to grow in New Jersey, the daily number of new cases and total number of patients hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases keeps declining, Gov. Phil Murphy said Saturday. The state reported another 166 deaths and 1,759 new positive tests on Saturday, bringing the overall tally of fatalities to 9,116 and the total number of cases to more than 137,000, though tens of thousands of those have recovered. The daily increase in new positive tests reported has dropped steadily over the last several weeks, Murphy said, while the state continues to see more patients leaving hospitals than entering. He urged residents to maintain those positive trends by following measures on social distancing and wearing face masks in public. While Murphy announced these promising signs Saturday, officials in Washington, D.C., were scrambling as concerns over possible exposure among top U.S. officials continued to grow. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage Dr. Anthony Fauci and two other members of the White Houses coronavirus task force will self-quarantine after coming in contact with a White House staffer who tested positive, officials confirmed over the weekend. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, along with Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, will self-quarantine for two weeks as a precaution while continuing to work remotely. That news came as the number of COVID-19 cases worldwide passed 4 million on Saturday. A roundup of coronavirus news: Black, Asian and Hispanic New Jerseyans are getting hit harder by COVID-19 than white residents: The New Jersey Hospital Association has published a report showing that black residents in the state had the highest rate of deaths from the disease, while white residents were second highest, followed by Hispanics. The report also showed that hospitalized Asian and Hispanic residents were testing positive for the virus at higher rates and whites and blacks. N.J. Coronavirus deaths could be undercounted by nearly 25%: Newly released state statistics indicate the official COVID-19 death tally in New Jersey may be undercounted by more than 2,000 fatalities. Data from the states Center for Health Statistics and Informatics released Friday indicates 10,974 more people have died in the last 10 weeks in New Jersey than in years past. Based on Fridays COVID-19 death toll of 8,952, that leaves more than 2,000 deaths unexplained, meaning a potential undercount of nearly a quarter. At least 38% of N.J. coronavirus deaths have come at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities: New Jersey has reported that 3,440 of its 9,116 confirmed COVID-19 deaths about 38% have come from long-term care facilities. That tally doesnt include another 1,385 deaths at these sites that were probably related to the virus, according to officials. Airline donates pallets of meals to N.J. food pantry to help families affected by coronavirus: Alaska Airlines is donating extra food it has on hand as a result of suspending inflight service. The Alaska Airlines Foundation has donated more than a million meals to food banks since late April and one of the recipients was the Rise Food Pantry in Hightstown. The airlines foundation donated five pallets nearly 2,000 meals and snacks to Rise to help meet a growing need for help among struggling residents in the community. Trenton to ease curfew that went into effect after shootings during coronavirus: Trenton will ease up on its curfew, put in place after a series of shootings left two dead and five wounded last month. Beginning Monday, the curfew is pushed back from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Some food-related businesses will be allowed to operate until 10 p.m. NJ Advance Media staff reporters Brent Johnson, Brianna Kudisch, Len Melisurgo, Rebecca Panico, J. Dale Shoemaker and Riley Yates contributed to this report. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. BERLIN As the wave of coronavirus infections broke over Europe in March, causing reserves of medical supplies to disappear, German authorities made a nationwide appeal: More safety masks were urgently needed. At Melitta, the company that pioneered the paper coffee filter, inspiration was close at hand. The ergonomics of the thing, the fact that the filter fits exactly over mouth, nose and chin is so unbelievable that you might call it a gift from heaven, Katharina Roehrig, a managing director at Melitta, which is based in a small city in northwestern Germany. Melitta has a 112-year history with coffee filters that began in the kitchen of the woman who invented them, Melitta Bentz. The company also owns Wolf PVG, which has produced air filters and vacuum-cleaner bags for decades, providing valuable knowledge and a supply of the three-ply microfiber needed to make masks to a hospital standard. Yangon, May 10 (IANS) Myanmars military on Sunday began a ceasefire for more than three months, however it will not cover areas where ethnic rebels the government considers terrorist groups are based. Among the exceptions are Arakan Army (AA) rebels, which mainly operate in the states of Rakhine (west) and Chin (northwest), the conflict with which has intensified since January, reports Efe news. The unilateral ceasefire declared by the Myanmar military, also known as the Tatmadaw, was announced on Saturday night and will remain in effect until August 31. According to the military command, the ceasefire is enforced with an objective to focus on the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The Tatmadaw, which has been accused of having committed multiple crimes against humanity, did not explain in its statement the reasons why it will continue fighting in certain areas and threatened to break the truce in others if attacked. On March 23, the government designated the AA as a terrorist organization, while only one other rebel group of the dozens operating in the country is currently classified as such the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), whose attacks in August 2017 sparked a brutal military campaign against the Rohingya minority. The conflict with the AA, which began in 2009 with the aim to achieve greater autonomy for its territory, resumed in November 2018, leading to the displacement of 150,000 and hundreds of deaths. "It's really hard to collaborate with the government as the Myanmar Army is escalating its confrontation in northern Rakhine state," AA spokesperson Khine Thukha told Efe news. The AA and its allies announced their own ceasefire in March through to the end of May, although clashes have continued. A UN official based in the conflict zone told Efe news last month that the Tatmadaw was resorting to "more brutal means" out of the frustration of losing ground to the AA. Myanmar began its transition to democracy in 2011 after nearly half a century under military rule. However, the military reserves constitutional prerogatives which give it control of ministries such as defence, interior, and border affairs, along with 25 per cent of parliamentary seats, which provides it considerable sway in the house to veto any amendments to the Constitution. --IANS ksk/ The leasing of warehousing and industrial space has slowed down because of the nationwide lockdown but demand may rise post-COVID-19 with expected growth in e-commerce and possible shift of manufacturing activities from China to India, according to industry experts. "Industrial and warehousing is the most resilient segment in India, which is likely to emerge quickest and strongest post-COVID-19," property consultant Savills India said in a report. The demand-supply of industrial and warehousing space is expected to soften as compared to previous estimates in the near to medium term due to coronavirus pandemic, the consultant said. Higher supply contraction could lead to decrease in vacancies and optimum pricing, it added. In its report 'India Front & Center - Production & Supply Chain', Savills India has revised its estimates downwards for both absorption and new supply of warehousing and logistics space for 2020. The projection for warehousing and logistics leasing has been revised to 30 million sq ft from 40 million sq ft earlier. Fresh supply is now estimated at 12 million sq ft this year from 42 million sq ft projected earlier across top eight cities -- Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. When contacted, Embassy Industrial Parks CEO Aditya Virwani said, "Both logistics and industrial requirements will see an increase post-COVID. The digital shift to online retail has been a success during these times and that will result in e-commerce firms growing in India." Embassy Industrial Parks has facilities in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Delhi-NCR. On industrial space, Virwani, who is also COO of Embassy Group, said: "India has not been able to compete with China and other Asian countries with manufacturing investments. Now is the opportunity to capitalise on the fear of setting up in China." With the right support of the government, Virwani said the industrial space can see a boom. "Our existing clients are holding off on growth in China and looking for new markets."Rajesh Jaggi, vice chairman - real estate, Everstone Group, said the warehousing segment is considered as an essential service and has therefore largely not been affected due to the lockdown. Everstone group-backed IndoSpace is into development of logistic and industrial parks. "Leasing activity is expected to be slower in this period as companies will focus on maintaining efficiencies of their manufacturing and supply chain processes, instead of new procurement. "While we have not experienced significant change in demand due to COVID-19, the timelines to close a contract may differ under current circumstances," he said. Once the lockdown period is over and manufacturing picks up, Jaggi expects that sectors like pharmaceuticals, e-commerce and food industries would ramp up their storage capacities in line with the demand. IndoSpace is adhering to all safety and hygiene norms at its various facilities, he added. According to Savills India, the recovery for the segment could be quick post the pandemic on the back of strong inherent demand, especially from sectors like e-commerce, 3PL (third party logistics), FMCG (for essential goods/services) and pharmaceuticals. "Even during the lockdown, warehousing space requirements for players, especially dealing with essential items have witnessed increased demand - in terms of enquiries and expression of interest," the consultant said. As per the research report, more than 3 million sq ft of new contracts were signed across six locations by manufacturing, 3PL and e-commerce clients in the last few weeks. "There is a strong pipeline of development for warehousing and logistics space that is underway in the country. More than 3,000 acres of land acquisition under various stages of due diligence /closing for the purpose while institutional investment deals of around USD 600 million are currently in progress," the report said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal The federal government rolled out programs to help agricultural producers during the pandemic. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it will use about $16 billion from the CARES Act to directly support farmers. But navigating new rules is challenging with many federal initiatives like the Paycheck Protection Program. By the time everybody got up to speed, the bucket was empty, said Jeff Witte, Cabinet secretary of New Mexicos Department of Agriculture. But were seeing more success in the second round. Some industries, like dairy, have recovered slightly from the initial shock of the virus. But processes cant change overnight. Our state and national food infrastructure just isnt set up for a pandemic of this size, Witte said. The New Mexico Farmers Market Association set up a grant fund to help local farmers who had lost business as farmers markets were postponed and demand from restaurants and schools dropped. The organization had $110,000 to award in individual and collaborative grants. Co-founder Sarah Grant said they were unprepared for the massive response. About 120 individual farmers applied, and nearly 20 collaborative groups sought funding. The group hopes to receive more funding to open up another round of grants. Farmers have a lot of product with no place for it to go, Grant said. Many will use the money to buy more PPE, or to boost their Community Supported Agriculture delivery programs. Meanwhile, the New Mexico Farmers Market Association partnered with the New Mexico Acequia Association and New Mexico First to organize bulk seed orders for small farms that hadnt yet purchased seeds for their late spring and summer planting. When people got panicky and started hoarding food, they also hoarded seeds, and the seed companies are still trying to keep up with those purchases, Grant said. We had 80 farmers ask for seed. Some will also use their grant money to buy seeds. He told me that he never dated a girl more than three times, and I thought this guy is just too cocky. I'm going to date him for four or five times, and then I'm going to dump him," she said. "So that's what happened. Only I couldn't dump him, and we lasted for 74 years. Paul was six months older than Nancy, and had just graduated high school when the pair met. He went off to the University of Illinois and visited Nancy every weekend. They waited until he graduated to be married a promise they made to Pauls mom. "Just before we got married, I was waiting out in the lobby in my wedding gown and everything and looking in the mirror until it was my turn to look down the aisle. And my flowers were shaking, Nancy said. I couldn't understand why my flowers were shaking because I wasn't the least bit nervous. It was a good marriage, she added. Gale Schultz, one of Nancy and Pauls daughters, said her father was a bright, kind man you could always count on. You could always count on him. You always felt safe because you know he would never let anything happen to anybody," Schultz said. "He took care of all of us." 'Suhana is 'kinda mad' as she doesn't look like mum Gauri Khan. Image Source: IANS News 'Suhana is 'kinda mad' as she doesn't look like mum Gauri Khan. Image Source: IANS News Mumbai, May 10 : Bollywood couple Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan's daughter Suhana says she is "kinda mad" that she doesn't look like her mother. The youngster took to social media to post a black and white shot of her mother in casuals. Suhana pointed out the difference in their looks while wishing her mum on Mother's Day on Sunday. Suhana, who is at home now during the coronavirus lockdown, had earlier sharedA a few pictures in which she was seen donning make-up. "Experimenting," she had captioned the images. Suhana is studying at film school in New York University. Last year, she made her acting debut in a short film called "The Grey Part of Blue". The next government will have to consider tax hikes and spending cuts to deliver an economic recovery, the State's budget watchdog has warned. With unemployment close to 30pc and the cost of the State's emergency measures now at over 13bn and rising, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Greens are this weekend being told to reconsider the "very risky" proposal to keep the pension age at 66, as well as look at increases in property and inheritance taxes in programme for government talks. The dire warnings came from the chair of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, Sebastian Barnes, who said the State is now facing the "most dramatic" recession in its history. His comments came as it emerged yesterday that the Department of Education's most senior official has raised major doubts about being able to reopen schools in September. Sean O Foghlu, the department's secretary general, told Opposition TDs on Friday that there would be significant accommodation challenges presented by having to operate smaller classes to comply with social distancing in schools. Mr Barnes also criticised the parties' promise not to increase tax or cut welfare while promising major spending on housing, health, transport and climate action. "Given that hard choices are going to have to be made and the uncertainty, particularly because we don't know how things are going to pan out from the Covid crisis, I think it is risky to make these commitments without knowing what the whole picture is going to look like and it may complicate the hard fiscal choices that need to be made in the coming years," he told the Sunday Independent. "They're going to be faced with a higher rate of unemployment, a higher level of public debt and the need to increase the budget balance so that debt is on a downward trajectory. All of those choices are going to be much harder. "In that context, making commitments to taking large sections of tax or spending off the table are going to make it very hard to reach a good balance between the ambition on the spending side and what people want to do on tax. "Given the uncertainty, I think it's very important to keep flexibility about those things so that when those hard choices are made, they're not made even harder." With unprecedented welfare and wage support schemes due to expire next month, the Government is likely to extend them until August at least, with some modifications. Options being examined include transitioning as many people as possible who are on the 350 pandemic unemployment payment to the temporary wage subsidy scheme as they return to work. This scheme, which sees the State cover up to 85pc of an employee's net weekly wage up to 412, will be tapered down to reduce businesses' reliance on taxpayers' money. For harder-hit sectors, such as tourism and hospitality, the Government is examining employee activation schemes involving reskilling or retraining workers for other roles. "There won't be a cliff edge. There will have to be an unwinding of these things with a more flexible and targeted scheme with the policy of getting people back into work. But all of that's going to be really expensive," a Government source said. Mr Barnes said Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin's commitment in this newspaper last month to scrap plans to increase the state pension age to 67 next year - which has been backed by the Green Party - was "very risky and may well complicate life down the road". "Not increasing the pension age by a year costs 600m a year, and that cost will increase as more people reach retirement age," he said. "That's the kind of commitment that can be very costly and could bite very significantly into the amount of space they have for other things." Figures in Fine Gael and Fianna Fail privately believe the pledge in their joint document not to increase income tax may not be sustainable over the next five years. Mr Barnes said property and inheritance taxes, rather than income tax increases, should be kept on the table in government talks. "Those kinds of taxes on wealth are areas that many countries are looking at. I think there's renewed interest partly as wealth inequality has gone up, partly as governments need to raise more revenue." Mr Barnes said Ireland had seen the cost of operating unsustainable fiscal policy in the past and also raised specific warnings about "the State's over-reliance on corporation tax, which can't be sustained forever", and said major spending commitments on policies such as Slaintecare will require revenue-raising measures. "So very difficult choices need to be made and so it's for that reason that taking things off the table now seems premature," he added. It emerged yesterday that hundreds of workplaces are facing unannounced inspections and may be shut down in the coming weeks if they fail to comply with stringent new measures aimed at preventing the spread of Covid-19. The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has already carried out over 400 on-site inspections and investigations under occupational health and safety law since March and will now have the powers to enforce new mandatory public health guidance. The Government's Return to Work safety protocol includes regulations for social distancing, hand hygiene and mental health support for returning workers. Employees will also have to complete a pre-return to work form which will state that they have not been in contact with the virus. Employers will have to appoint a worker representative, who will be in charge of ensuring that health measures are "strictly adhered to" by staff. Minister for Business Heather Humphreys said: "HSA inspectors will be able to take appropriate enforcement actions under the Health and Safety Act 2005. This means if a business does not co-operate and comply with public health guidelines after being asked to make improvements, the HSA will be able to order them to shut down the workplace." HSA chief executive Dr Sharon McGuinness said every single complaint about a workplace would be followed up with an employer and this could include unannounced on-site inspections. The OECD Observer online archive takes you on a journey through half a century of public policy and world progress. Since November 1962, the OECDs experts and leading guests offer insights on the questions facing our member countries with concise and authoritative analysis, and provide our audiences with an excellent opportunity to understand policy debates and consider solutions. Each edition of the OECD Observer reports on a core theme of the OECDs on-going work, from economics and society through governance, finance, and the environment, and articles are bolstered by tables and graphs. When the COVID-19 outbreak was emerging as a real threat to Australia, the political narrative from Prime Minister Scott Morrison was that we were foremost facing a health crisis, not a financial crisis. Of highest concern was the potential death toll and capacity of the health system, but the economic impact was also weighing heavily on politicians' minds. It was a time when flattening the curve was an ambition, not a reality. Fast forward to today and it's a very different story. Australia has done exceptionally well on the pandemic front, with only 12 new infections nationwide reported on Sunday. But the financials of the economy are dire, with alarming figures starting to surface. Any suggestion that the economy will quickly bounce back now that the worst of the health crisis is hopefully over is very much wishful thinking. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has some tough years ahead dealing with the economic fallout of the pandemic. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen On Friday the Reserve Bank put the detail to the devastation. Unemployment will hit 10 per cent by June and is expected to stay above 8 per cent for some time. Wallets have been shut tight, with household spending heading south by 15 per cent in the same period. Housing investment is looking worse, down by 17 per cent. All this adds up to an economy shrinking by 8 per cent in the year to June and a record budget deficit expected to hit an eye-watering $130 billion. In the midst of the global pandemic, Northwood resident Jodie Bachtle wanted to make a difference, but didnt know how she could make the biggest impact. As it turned out, her passion for photography was the answer. During her recent COVID-induced downtime from her wedding photography business, Bachtle helped deliver Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) masks around the Worth County area. After seeing calls for the masks on Facebook, she lent a helping hand. I told them Hey Im here, I will travel, I will pick up your masks and deliver them to the locations that need them, Bachtle said. I was trying to help that way and after about a week, I felt like I really wasnt accomplishing a whole lot. Soon after, she found out from fellow photographer Laurie Cook about the Front Porch Project, a series that focused on families sitting in front of their homes, capturing images of life during COVID-19. Cook had first heard about it from another photographer in Texas, who gave her blessing to let Cook also do the project. "It's just a bunch of photographers copying everybody," Cook said, laughing. "We're all doing the same thing. I don't think it is anyone's idea, we're all just trying to cheer people up." Intrigued by the project, Bachtle reached out to Angela Wright, director at the Worth County Community of Promise, to see if they needed help with donations. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Community of Promise, which runs the local food pantry as well as the Northwood Community Center, wanted monetary donations instead of cans. I thought Thats perfect. Lets create a way that I could go out and do the Front Porch Project, Bachtle said. Its great for me because that is my passion anyway, and maybe we could help our community. That is how it started. To help raise money for the food pantry, Bachtle has been taking photos of local families at no cost, just with the request that they donate money to the Community of Promise. According to Wright, Bachtles efforts has raised approx. $1,570 in donations as of Friday afternoon for the mobile and onsite food pantry, which has helped purchase an additional 5,000 pounds of food in the past two months. That extra food has been a huge help, as the Community of Promise has seen a 250 percent increase in customers since the pandemic began, according to Wright. Donations were down before the Front Porch Project started," Wright said. "But we have seen more donations start coming in, just because of the pandemic and people understanding that we are having such a huge increase in people." Over the past two months, Bachtle estimates that she has shot just over 100 families or business for the Project. She started out by photographing a few of her friends for practice, and once word spread, Bachtle began getting a lot of requests. Everybody stepped forward and participated in the trend, Bachtle said. It was really cool to see. It happened really quickly that people started coming together and talking about it. In a spring filled with anxiety over COVID-19, she wants each family to be able to see the pictures in the future, and remember how they felt at this moment in time. Some families have a fun theme for their pictures, and Bachtle has taken photos of people posing with everything from kangaroos to toilet paper. I was there to be the storyteller, Bachtle said. It was their story and I wanted to tell it in a way that is meaningful and something they can look back on a year from now or 10 years from now. Just to say Were okay. We made it through, and this is what life was like. Bachtle received requests from all over the area from people wanting to participate, with one family even offering to pay her to drive two hours away. She turned down these requests, wanting to focus the project on local families. The enthusiasm shown by the local community has been inspiring to Bachtle. I think it was a fun experience because there wasnt the stress of coordinating outfits and making hair look perfect, Bachtle said. Part of the fun of the Front Porch Project is that people actually took photos in their pajamas and with toilet paper or animals and kids. Showing community connection and showing that everybody is still here. It's important." Readers can donate to the Worth County Community of Promise through Paypal at nwdcommunitycenter@gmail.com, or send a check to PO Box 275 Northwood, IA 50459. "More donations would be welcome," Wright said. "The 5,000 pounds of food that we purchased, we gave away that easily, if not more on top of what we regularly do. The additional food is helpful, but I think we will continue to need support over the next few months." Love 5 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Radford University was one of the first colleges in the commonwealth to announce definitive plans to reopen in the fall. And its led to speculation that decisions by Radford and other state universities to hold classes on campus in the fall were forged as enrollment figures could spell a make or break year. Within a weeks span after Virginia Tech hinted it would hold classes on campus Radford made its official announcement well before most other schools had hashed out their plans. The semester, beginning Aug. 24, will include on-campus housing, dining services, and face-to-face instruction, Radford President Brian Hemphill wrote in the announcement. Hemphills April 28 statement came as there had been discussion of making a reopening decision in June, according to an April 20 email among numerous school leaders obtained by The Roanoke Times. When asked about the situation, school spokeswoman Caitlyn Scaggs wrote in an email: Radford University did not make any decisions or issue any announcements regarding the Fall 2020 campus reopening prior to President Hemphills April 28, 2020 message to students, faculty, and staff, which was immediately followed by a public announcement. As to why the university announced when it did, Scaggs said enrollment was not a factor. We feel it is important for the University to make a commitment to our students, faculty and staff as individuals make plans for the fall, Scaggs wrote. Peter Blake, director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, a state agency that works with the states public institutions, said college presidents have been speaking more frequently to have as much coordination as makes sense in the current environment. A unified announcement might sound stronger than what theyre talking about, he said. Blake said other schools in the state have recently made similar statements about opening in the fall if conditions are right, which he believes they should be doing. They have to plan for what it looks like when they open. It would be irresponsible if they didnt, he said. The coronavirus pandemic has hit institutions of higher education at a time when many are facing an enrollment crisis. Lower birth rates 20 years ago have led to fewer high school graduates. And a strong economy, until recently, and the rising cost of college, have seen fewer students seeking a degree. Blake said Radfords announcement could have sent a message to students weighing college choices. Its certainly got some headlines, and you know that attracts attention and may attract students, he said. It might give an indication of some stability that they are hoping for and planning for, and that might appeal to students who might be on the fence whether to go to Radford or somewhere else or not to go at all. Radfords overall enrollment surged to an all time high of 11,870 last fall. The increase of approximately 2,500 students was due to the opening of the Radford University Carilion Campus in Roanoke, with 1,046 students, and the online Innovative Mobile Personalized Accelerated Competency Training program adding 2,617 students. But the school has seen a steady drop in undergraduate enrollment over the last several years. It fell from 9,166 students in 2013 to 8,090 students in 2018, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. And the schools current strategic plan projects undergraduate enrollment dipping under 8,000 through 2023. Freshman commitments for the upcoming semester were at 1,230 as of April 28, down from 1,357 at the same point last year, but Scaggs said the school extended its commitment deadline from May 1 to June 1. The school is working diligently to interact with prospective students and their families in order to maximize freshman enrollment for the upcoming fall semester, according to Scaggs. In lieu of in-person visits and campus gatherings, the University is providing virtual experiences and working one-on-one with students to answer their questions as they make decisions about their future, Scaggs wrote. Meanwhile, Radford could soon be affected by Virginia Tech. At Tech, the pandemic has jolted international admissions. That has led Virginia Tech to make additional offers to in-state students on its waitlist, with implications for Radford, according to a column Wednesday by Jeff Schapiro, a columnist at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, citing emails from Juan Espinoza, Techs director of undergraduate admissions to colleagues at other public universities. Tech had received roughly 150 deposits from international students, compared to a goal of 550, according to Schapiro. Mark Owczarski, a Tech spokesman, on Friday said he did not have data related to the universitys international student admissions. Owczarski declined to discuss the content of Espinozas emails in-depth, and said they would have to be obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The Roanoke Times is in the process of making that request. Espinoza did not respond to two inquiries seeking comment. I wont comment on Mr. Schapiros column. He is free and right to have his opinion, Owczarski said about its assessment that Techs actions could hurt Radford. I dont know if the column was citing whole emails, part emails. ... Your FOIA request will ... answer those questions. As for international student enrollment at Tech, Owczarski pointed to comments from Provost Cyril Clarke, who on Thursday said university officials are generally satisfied with its admissions turnout, but that enrollment of international students is way below the target. Owczarski said colleges nationwide are facing a dearth in international student admissions. I think what Virginia Tech does is we have enrollment targets and we use a variety of strategies to reach those targets, as every college and university does, he said. This year, as for so many years, we turn to a waitlist and that will help us reach our goal. Clarke on Thursday said the university would have a better idea of its fall class makeup by May 15, since after the May 1 deposit deadline Tech made additional offers to students on its waitlist. On April 24 four days before Radfords announcement Virginia Tech President Tim Sands hinted on a virtual meeting with university officials that Tech might hold classes on campus this fall. But he stressed no final decision would be made until June. Staff writer Henri Gendreau contributed information to this report. 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 Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced new protections for residents of nursing homes against coronavirus, after it was revealed that a fifth of all virus deaths in such facilities were in New York state. All nursing home staff must now be tested twice a week for the virus and hospitals may not discharge any infected patient to a nursing home until the patient tests negative, Cuomo said. Residents are being tested as much as possible, he said. If a nursing home cannot provide proper care, the patient must be transferred to the state, which he said has ample available hospital beds. Of the nations more than 26,600 coronavirus deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, a fifth of them - over 5,350 - are in New York, according to a count by The Associated Press. That's the highest number of nursing home deaths in the country, though other states have also struggled to control the virus in nursing facilities. Indeed, they account for a higher percentage of coronavirus deaths in most other states, Cuomo said. Critics have faulted New York for taking weeks to release the number of deaths in individual homes, for still not releasing the number of cases and for not conducting or requiring widespread testing in the facilities. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (pictured) announced new protections on Sunday for residents of nursing homes, which have accounted for a large percentage of the almost 80,000 coronavirus deaths recorded across the country Cuomo's new rules require nursing home staff tested twice a week for COVID-19. Hospitals may not discharge any infected patient to a nursing home until the patient tests negative, Cuomo said. Paramedics attend to nursing home patient this past week in Harlem A March 25 state health department directive had said nursing homes couldn't refuse new or returning residents because they tested positive for the virus. The policy, similar to one in neighboring New Jersey, was intended to help free up hospital beds for the sickest patients as cases surged. But that has now been overturned. 'Were just not going to send a person who is positive to a nursing home after a hospital visit,' Cuomo said Sunday. He said such patients would be accommodated elsewhere, such as sites originally set up as temporary hospitals. The new policy still allows nursing homes to take some people with COVID-19, such as those who are at home and need care. But hospitals are responsible for finding alternatives for the patients they discharge, and nursing facilities shouldn't take on coronavirus patients if unable to care for them, Cuomo said. If a nursing home cannot provide proper care, the patient must be transferred to the state, which he said has ample available hospital beds. A nursing home patient is wheeled out of Harlem Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation this past week The Democrat also emphasized that nursing homes should transfer any person they cant care for. For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness and lead to death. 'Our number one priority is protecting people in nursing homes,' Cuomo said. 'It's where it (COVID-19) feeds.' TOP TEN STATES FOR DEATHS AND CASES IN LONG-TERM CARE FACILITIES State Facilities Cases Deaths Share of state deaths NY 412 5,292 5,292 20% NJ 518 26,031 4,825 53% MA 466 15,560 2,837 59% PA 530 12,844 2,518 66% CT 219 6,468 1,627 55% IL 410 11,437 1,553 46% CA 525 9,348 998 37% MD 211 6,322 804 50% LA 269 3,772 784 36% GA 374 6,072 672 49% -New York Times Note: In New York, the state only reports the number of people who have died - not the amount of overall infections Advertisement While the elderly are most at risk from the virus, New York is also investigating up to 85 cases of children with a rare inflammatory syndrome believed to be linked to the infection. So far three children, who also tested positive for the novel coronavirus, have died in New York from the illness and two more deaths are under investigation, Cuomo said. The syndrome shares symptoms with toxic shock and Kawasaki disease, which can include inflammation of the blood vessels and potentially fatal damage to the heart. Despite much remaining unknown about the coronavirus and the failure so far to find any effective treatment or vaccine, nearly all 50 US states were taking steps to relax lockdown measures this weekend. While New York continues to see declines in key metrics -- with hospitalizations on Sunday falling to their lowest since March 20 -- many states including Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas are recording rising numbers of cases even as they move to reopen their economies. In addition to the loss of life, Americans are facing a devastating economic toll underscored by government data released on Friday showing the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 14.7 per cent last month, up from 3.5 per cent in February and shattering the post-World War Two record of 10.8 per cent set in November 1982. The White House has started informal talks with Republicans and Democrats in Congress about next steps on coronavirus relief legislation, officials said on Sunday, but they stressed any new federal money would come with conditions. The coronavirus has also penetrated the White House, where two staff members tested positive in recent days. As a result, three of the most senior officials guiding the US response to the pandemic have gone into self-quarantine. Anthony Fauci, a high-profile member of the White House coronavirus taskforce, is considered to be at relatively low risk based on the degree of his exposure. Also quarantining are Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Stephen Hahn. Former President Barack Obama, who has largely kept out of the fray even as Trump has blamed him for problems with the country's preparedness, on Friday called Trump's handling of the pandemic an 'absolute chaotic disaster' during a conference call with former members of his Democratic administration, according to a source. White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said Trump's response to the coronavirus 'has been unprecedented' and has saved American lives. Fire and rescue services had not been given government guidance on reacting to a UK pandemic for 12 years before the coronavirus outbreak, documents have shown. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) accused ministers of leaving firefighters dangerously underprepared and ignored repeated warnings through a decade of austerity. Downing Street and government ministers have repeatedly claimed that the UK was fully prepared for a new outbreak, but evidence seen by The Independent calls that into question. The last specific guidance on pandemics was issued to fire services in 2008, and a national framework that governs their duties has never explicitly included responses to a public health emergency. Warnings over the gaps date back to 2010, when the Audit Commission urged officials to prepare for sudden disruptions that could be caused by flu outbreaks. In 2013, ministers were told that there was no evidence that services were planning for major foreseeable risks. An assessment of the current Integrated Risk Management Plans (IRMPs), drawn up by 50 regional fire services, shows that 60 per cent do not mention pandemic or flu, and none provided detailed plans. The FBU said the lack of planning meant services had to negotiate their responsibilities during the coronavirus crisis from scratch. Firefighters are currently moving dead bodies, delivering food, supplies and medicines and driving ambulances to support the NHS. At least 2,600 personnel have so far fallen ill or had to self-isolate because of coronavirus, although the National Fire Chiefs Council has said staffing remains above minimum levels. Matt Wrack, general secretary of the FBU, said: Ministers have ignored warning after warning from across the public sector about their failure to plan for an event like the coronavirus pandemic and the fire and rescue service is no different. Firefighters react at Luton and Dunstable University Hospital during the Clap for our Carers event in support of the NHS in Luton on 7 May (Reuters/Peter Cziborra) By recklessly cutting funding for frontline services, the government has pushed services to breaking point, wiping out the capacity needed for large-scale emergencies and undermining brigades business continuity capabilities. With near-zero guidance from the government, our fragmented, localised fire and rescue service has been left dangerously underprepared. The shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, said ministers must explain why insufficient planning was in place and what they will now do to fully protect and resource these vital services in future. He added: These revelations appear to again show that in yet another area, our country did not go into this crisis with the necessary resilience. Between 2007 and 2011, a Fire and Rescue Service Health and Safety Group that included representatives from the FBU, chief officers, councils and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Fire Service College. The union said it discussed pandemic flu as a priority during this period, but the work ceased as the new coalition government implemented its austerity agenda. We came up against the same culture of complacency and disinterest in long-term resilience planning when we warned about building safety and high-rise fire preparedness before Grenfell, Mr Wrack said. This pandemic has shone a light on the abject failure of a decades-long government approach to public services. We must not go back to normal after this. Fire and rescue services are legally required to prepare for national emergencies and even before coronavirus, flu pandemics were in the most severe category of the National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies. The UKs separate Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy obliges all emergency services to ensure continuation of emergency provision and support to the wider response to a pandemic, warning that non-emergency functions could be affected by the need to redeploy due to staff absence levels. Boris Johnson: NHS prepared to deal with coronavirus But no edition of the Fire and Rescue Service National Framework, published by the Home Office, lists pandemics as a strategic priority for fire and rescue services. The document says it provides overall strategic direction to fire and rescue authorities and makes suggestions on how they spend their budget while ensuring the efficient and effective use of their resources. The most recent version, published in 2018, says fire services must make every endeavour to meet the full range of service delivery risks and national resilience duties and commitments that they face. In January 2008, the Department of Health published guidance on pandemic flu for fire and rescue services, which included advice on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and highlighted the impact of staff shortages. It did not contain information on what planning should be undertaken or mention testing strategies, and the document was not updated for 12 years. Only around 40 per cent of fire services include pandemics in their own risk-management plans, and the 2019 report by HM Inspectorate of Fire and Rescue Services warned of unjustifiable variation in risk planning between regions. The report found that half of the services inspected were not properly testing or updating their plans for continuing work during an unexpected incident. The FBU, which has submitted evidence to the Home Affairs Committee inquiry into coronavirus preparedness, said efforts were undermined by budget cuts. Since 2010, it calculated that services have lost 11,500 firefighters and control staff across the UK, cuts driven by a real-terms spending cut of 28 per cent. A government spokesperson said: Fire and rescue services have well-tested contingency plans for all scenarios including pandemics. All critical services have been maintained throughout this crisis alongside 4,000 firefighters helping paramedics and delivering food or medicines to the vulnerable. Researchers at the site study unearthed ceramics, which may deepen understanding of how the Maritime Silk Road operated. [Photo provided to China Daily] Evidence of maritime ties unearthed at UAE site Chinese ceramics have been unearthed near a harbor in the Middle East by a team of archaeologists from the University of Durham in the United Kingdom. The discovery of the fragments in Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, which have provided clues to maritime trade between the Middle East and China in the Middle Ages, has been significant for Derek Kennet and Zhang Ran from the university's Department of Archaeology. The ceramic sherdsthe archaeological term for fragments of pottery or glasspoint to extensive trade along the Maritime Silk Road. The university team, along with the Palace Museum in Beijing, wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the trade links between China and the Middle East and how the fragments ended up where they did. Kennet, an associate professor with the department, said:"It's the only evidence we have about this massive Indian Ocean trading system that came into existence. It's (evidence of) the first globalization of the world economy." Excavation sites in Ras al-Khaimah have given archaeologists a better understanding of economic and cultural links from the 9th to 11th centuries, the importance of trade during that time and how it contributed to development of the world economy. Researchers have unearthed Longquan celadonceramics produced in Longquan, Jincun and other sites in present-day Zhejiang province, where more than 400 kilns have been found. Ceramics became an important part of China's export market during the Song (960-1279), Yuan (1271-1368) and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties. The demand for Longquan ceramics flourished, and as maritime commerce grew, they were sold throughout the Middle East. Zhang, also an associate professor with the university department, said, "Longquan played a very important role in the ancient Chinese ceramics industry, and we have found a lar He added that his research had resulted in Chinese ceramics being unearthed at 100 sites in the West Indian Ocean area. Kennet and Zhang said the discovery in the UAE of the green-glazed Longquan ceramics, along with blue-and-white porcelain, proved crucial in understanding how the Maritime Silk Road operated and the "massive trade system that existed" at the time. The Maritime Silk Road refers to a section of the Silk Road connecting China to the West, boosting trade, development and culture, while also connecting with Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian Peninsula. Kennet said: "You can imagine those ceramics being manufactured in Zhejiang province or perhaps in the Jingdezhen kilns. (Jingdezhen is a city in present-day Jiangxi province). The ceramics were carried overland by Chinese merchants and also transported by boat from Chinese ports, making their way across the Indian Oceana journey of more than 10,000 kilometers." Chinese ceramic sherds have also been found in Minab, Hormuz Island and Kish Island in Iran. In 2016, the project team from the University of Durham formed a partnership with the Palace Museum in Beijing to further research on China's maritime trade and how it developed in the Middle East from the Tang to the Song dynasties. The UK and Chinese teams also worked alongside representatives from Ras al-Khaimah's Department of Antiquities and Museums. Expertise provided The joint research efforts have enabled experts from the university and Palace Museum to share knowledge about the production of ceramics, kilns and clay as well as the techniques employed. Researchers from the British university also said it gave their team an insight into how the pottery was used and by which groups of people. "The Chinese scholars are experts on the eastern end of the trade route, and we provided expertise on the western end," Kennet said. "By combining our knowledge, we could be doing something interesting that will help us to understand the world economy in medieval times." Kennet said that in addition to uncovering China's role in global trade along the Maritime Silk Road, the team is keen to learn more about the traders and merchants involved with the ceramics. "We found these ceramics in the Middle East, but we don't know anything about the merchants who traded them. They didn't keep any records and we haven't got any information about them at allthey are a historical blank," he said. "The trade could have been made from China and then perhaps have gone to (present-day) Malaysia. From there, it could then possibly have involved another group of merchants, perhaps from India, who would then take the pottery to the Gulf before another set of merchants could have carried it even further," Kennet said. "These merchants joined the world together economically in the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties." The medieval port of Julfar in what is now Ras al-Khaimah was one of the most important cities in the Middle East during the Middle Ages. Julfar was a key commercial centre in the Gulf, with the pottery trade playing a significant role in the local economy for hundreds of years. "It is an important medieval site and we have found a huge number of Chinese ceramics there. Many are rare, such as 14th-century Chinese blue-and-white porcelain," Zhang said. The team also discovered imperial ceramic sherds from the early 15th century, providing a connection between China in the Ming Dynasty and the Gulf. Zhang said, "Imperial ceramics were special to the Chinese emperor and strictly for use by the Imperial Court in the Ming and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Our excavations have shown they were traded at the Julfar site and that some of the sherds can be linked to figures from Chinese history such as General Zheng He." Zheng was a diplomat, mariner and explorer during the early part of the Ming Dynasty who helped extend China's maritime and commercial influence throughout the Indian Ocean. Beijing exhibition In summer last year, the research from the University of Durham was incorporated in an exhibition of Lonquan celadon collections at the Palace Museum. Zhang said, "It was one of the biggest exhibitions staged at the museum, and we at Durham were extremely happy and honoured to be a part of it and contribute some of our collection, knowledge and research." Since the joint research and excavation work between the university and the museum was launched, the two sides have hosted top archaeologists for seminars and conferences and have also exchanged knowledge about excavation techniques. Wang Guangyao, deputy director of the Archaeology Institute at the Palace Museum, has been to the University of Durham to study the Williamson Collection Project. Launched in 2001, the project centers on the study of more than 19,000 sherds of Sasanian and Islamic pottery. They were collected in Fars and Kirman provinces in Iran during field surveys and small-scale excavations between 1968 and 1971 by the late Andrew George Williamson, an archaeologist from the University of Oxford. The Supreme Court will hear public interest litigation on terminations and salary cuts faced by IT employees on May 15. In the last couple of weeks, Pune labour commission sent notices to IT firms after some of their employees were benched, or asked to go on leaves. Back in Chennai, there are more than half a dozen cases against IT firms pending in the Madras high court from workplace harassment to terminations. All these were filed by IT unions, Forum for IT Employees (FITE) and National IT Employees Senate (NITES), which have gained traction in the last couple of years. More so, as the cases of terminations increase at the back of the coronavirus outbreak. This is a significant development. Earlier, IT firms hardly had to deal with labour issues unlike the manufacturing firms that employ blue and grey collar workers. That is all the more reason why these developments are important to take note of irrespective of the outcome of these cases. 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 Rise of unions IT unions such as FITE started in 2014 when the industry saw mass layoffs. Elavarasan Raja, general secretary, FITE said, After we started the union in 2014, we were more or less dormant till 2017 since we were building our base. Back then we were just 10-15 members, he added. It was not until recently that they gained traction. We are 10,000 members strong now and have 30,000 followers in Facebook, he added. Raja attributed this sudden growth to more awareness and deteriorating workplace conditions in the IT sector. Also the cases we have won against termination, harassment and maternity began to resonate among the employees, he explained. FITE is one of the biggest in terms of presence across states including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, West Bengal and the National Capital Region that encompasses New Delhi and few districts from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. NITES is a Maharashtra-based IT union started by former members of FITE. Others include Karnataka State IT/ITeS employees Union that started in 2017 and the IT wing of the New Democratic Labour Front that was started in 2015. Is there a need for this movement? Yes, say the IT unions. They allege, IT firms have been exploiting the employees for years and unions were necessary to bring in the balance. IT/ITeS workers are known to work for longer hours. But unlike their blue-collared peers, they are paid better and work environment is anything but cozy. Salary aside, the IT employees enjoyed certain perks such as onsite deployment that will never be available to the blue-collared workforce. IT employees were a long way off from being considered slaves. But it cannot be said the same anymore, pointed out a member of an IT union. Take for instance Accenture. The company mandates the employees to work for 10 hours per day over a period of five days. A case was filed in Telangana High Court in September 2019 against Accenture, Cognizant and Caspex by Forum Against Corruption for making employees work longer and violating labour laws, the petition claims. In addition, implementation of leaves such as maternity benefits and termination process some firms follow are a cause for concern too, said Raja. All these together with the recent layoffs where thousands of mid and senior employees were laid off by Cognizant, have spurred the unionisation activities. Are they getting any response from firms on these? Raja pointed out to cases where employees who were terminated were taken back by the company. But there are many cases where the efforts are yet to pay off. For the petition filed against Accenture and other IT firms in September 2019, the firms did not respond till January. The same is the case for most of the notices labour commission sent in the last couple of weeks. Pune labour commission had asked Capgemini to clarify the issues related to the leave policy, which a source aware of the development said it did. The company had tweaked the leave policy to cap the total leaves at 15. Employees Moneycontrol spoke to said that company has asked the them take leaves till the balance is -5 and the tweaked leave policy will impact them when they need to take leave In the email sent to employees, the statement says, "Please enter start date as April 7th and end date as per your leave balance (up to -5)." However sources in the know explained that -5 leaves mentioned in the mail is the advanced leave employees can avail through the year and hence not mandatory. "It is a choice," added the source. At the time of COVID-19, the company had capped the leaves to 15 only till end of June as an interim measure, Capgemini said in a statement. Also the cap is not applicable for those on maternity leave, those retiring this year and employees requiring medical attention. When Cognizant laid off close to 7,000 mid and senior employees last year, the company met the labour commission after FITE filed a complaint on November 5, 2019. But the IT unions were kept out of the meeting, which did not go down well with them. The terminations still stand. Where will this effort lead to? Nowhere, say several industry watchers. An industry expert said, There are 5 million people in the industry and all these noises by the unions will lead nowhere. According to another industry watcher, this hue and cry is unwarranted as layoffs have happened time and again in the sector and is set to happen again in the future. Some experts have also pointed out that the unionisation might backfire as IT companies will now be wary of recruiting permanent employees if they have to take the backlash for business decisions during tough times. The dependence on subcontractors has increased over the years and this would only further increase. Well, that way IT firms can leave the dirty work of employee terminations to staffing companies, pointed out another source. But Raja of FITE has a different stand. "We are just a few years old. It takes years for unions to bear fruit," he said. According to him, it takes years to get the same impact and they are on the right track. Note: The story has been updated with statement from Capgemini on its leave policy All three were initially rushed to the hospital in serious condition because of the large size of of the falling plaster, but were all later upgraded and set for release on Sunday, according to fire officials. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Vernon Silver and Marco Bertacche (Bloomberg) Sun, May 10, 2020 14:00 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd7098c2 2 Health COVID-19,children,coronavirus,health Free Children with COVID-19 threaten recovery from the pandemic -- sparking increased scrutiny of their cases from scientists and policy makers seeking clues about the new coronavirus spread and virulence. While infections of those under 18 compose a small portion of the worldwide total, they number in the thousands, and in recent days have become the subject of a National Institutes of Health study. There have also been reports in the U.S., UK and Europe of a mysterious condition among children. In Italy, one model being used to guide recovery decisions has underscored the danger presented by children, who often show no symptoms and have many more daily social contacts than adults. It predicts that opening schools alone would blow out the reproduction factor -- known as R0 and pronounced R naught -- to around 1.3, above its current level below 1, which is needed to curb the outbreak. Opening the schools is a solution thats absolutely worrying, said Stefano Merler, a researcher at the Trento-based Fondazione Bruno Kessler who built the models with Italys Superior Institute of Health. It would bring very serious problems in a very short time, he said at an April 30 briefing. By contrast, opening only businesses would keep the level below 1, according to the model. An R0 rate of 1 means that for every person infected, another contracts the virus; a rate less than 1 implies the pandemic is shrinking. But more than just being vectors of infection, children around the globe have been sickened by, and in some cases died from, COVID-19. While their numbers pale compared with the tens of thousands of dead elderly people, there are now enough children with COVID-19 that hospitals have dedicated spaces for them -- including in Milan, near Rome, and in New York state, where three children age 9 and under have died, and eight of them age 10 through 19. Italy has counted 1,478 children age 9 and younger as infected, according to government data through April 28. Three had died as of May 6, including at least one boy and one girl, according to figures released today. Romes Bambino Gesu pediatric hospital, which has set up an isolated COVID-19 ward at a satellite facility outside the city center, last week had two children in intensive care, of a total 16 coronavirus patients. They included four mothers, according to Corriere della Sera newspaper. As governments around the globe weigh reopening economies -- along with their schools -- the new research points to a risk that virus transmission via children could worsen the pandemic. One such study, from Germany, found that children with the new coronavirus may be as infectious as adults, and recommended caution against unlimited school openings. The New England Journal of Medicine on May 1 published a study of Italian children with COVID-19 that showed more than half contracted the disease outside their families or from unknown sources, and hypothesized that this was the result of Italys not locking down sooner. Other researchers have questioned how much children can spread the virus. A recent analysis of global studies compiled by the Dont Forget the Bubbles pediatric blog found limited evidence that children pass the disease to others in significant numbers. Read also: Are children forgotten in the response to the pandemic? NIH tracking The National Institutes of Health said Monday that U.S. researchers will track children from 2,000 families to learn how the virus is transmitted and determine what percentage of those infected show symptoms. And in the UK, Spain, Italy and US, health authorities and doctors are warning of a growing number of children with a multi-system inflammatory state that could be linked to the coronavirus. At a news conference Friday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said its a new cause of concern, with 73 cases of the severe illness in children, challenging previously held assumptions that they were largely immune. A 5-year-old died in New York City from COVID-related complications, and the state is investigating other deaths, Cuomo said. This would be really painful news, and would open up an entirely different chapter, he said. Among children with COVID-19, the youngest have borne a disproportionate burden. In Italy, those 1 year old and under compose 37 percent of the 134 coronavirus hospitalizations of children through April 28. One familys ordeal Among the reported 49 babies hospitalized in Italy was a 2-month-old from a small town south of Milan. Her ordeal began March 15, a Sunday, when she ran a high temperature and was vomiting, according to her mother, Francesca, 37, who asked that her surname not be published to protect medical privacy. Francesca drove the two of them to a Milan hospital that specializes in infants, not knowing it would be the last time they would see the babys father and two older siblings for three weeks. She had with her only a few diapers, a phone charger and her purse. At worst, she suspected bronchitis, and says she had no idea babies could contract COVID-19. Doctors, however, had a hunch and isolated the two, testing mother and daughter. The next morning, Francesca learned from a phone call to the room that they each had the novel coronavirus. I had a panic attack, she said. I thought Id die or the baby wouldnt make it. I prayed it would be me, not her. The local hospital transferred Francesca and her daughter to the pediatric ward of Milans Sacco hospital, which has more than 15 beds, five of which are for infective isolation, and one isolation room for babies. In a room of their own, the duo were each others only company as they fought the virus. Their conditions never turned serious enough to require invasive procedures or machines to assist breathing. But their isolation -- and doctors and nurses who entered only in full protective gear -- meant they didnt see another human face the entire time. Even after they recovered from the COVID-19 symptoms, Francesca and her daughter had to wait days until they both tested negative before they could go home, on April 6. The day we got out, and I finally saw the face of the wards doctor, I started crying, Francesca said. Back at home, however, there are still lingering questions about her two other childrens health -- and by extension the rest of Italys -- as the country heads toward a slow reopening: Despite her hospitalization, the other members of her family, having never shown symptoms, have been unable to get a coronavirus test. --With assistance from Keshia Clukey, Andrew Davis and Stacie Sherman. This article, Facebook's content oversight board includes former prime minister, Nobel winner, originally appeared on CNET.com. Facebook unveiled on Wednesday the first 20 members of a new oversight board that'll review some of the social network's toughest content moderation decisions, an experiment that could change what stays up or gets removed from the site. The board includes a mix of professors, lawyers, former judges, journalists and digital rights advocates, as well as a former prime minister of Denmark and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. The members have lived in more than 27 countries and speak at least 29 languages. About a quarter of the board members are from the US or Canada. All the members, Facebook said, are committed to freedom of expression. "The announcement of the first group of oversight board members marks the beginning of a fundamental change in the way some of the most difficult and significant decisions about content on Facebook will be made," said Brent Harris, who oversees governance and global affairs at the social network. Facebook has faced scrutiny from lawmakers, journalists and advocacy groups for decisions about which content it leaves up or removes. The new board could give the social network a way to fend off this criticism, and feedback to improve its community standards. With 2.6 billion monthly active users globally, Facebook said, the board will prioritize cases that affect a large number of people, fuel public debate or threaten someone's safety or equality. While the board is expected to hear only dozens of cases in its first year, it'll be able to make policy recommendations to Facebook, which could affect all users. "We are not the internet police," said Michael McConnell, a former US federal circuit judge and constitutional law professor at Stanford Law School, who's a co-chair of the oversight board. "Don't think of us as sort of a fast action group that's going to swoop in and deal with rapidly moving problems." The board's job, he said, is to consider appeals and take a second look at Facebook's content decisions to advance "fairness and neutrality in decision making." Some of Facebook's most controversial content moderation decisions have involved political speech. The social network has repeatedly denied allegations that it censors conservative speech. Conservative commentators and politicians have accused the social network of being biased against right-wing views, citing the bans of provocateurs Alex Jones and Milo Yiannopoulos. Adding to the confusion, the company has also reversed content decisions in the past following public backlash. In 2016, Facebook pulled down an iconic Vietnam War photo of a girl fleeing a napalm attack. The company defended the removal, saying the Pulitzer Prize winning photo violated its rules on child nudity, but it changed its mind because of the image's historical importance. Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who served as Denmark's prime minister from 2011 to 2015, said social media can help us stay connected but that it also has its downsides. Thorning-Schmidt is a co-chair of Facebook's new oversight board. "Social media can spread speech that is hateful, deceitful and harmful," she said. "And until now, some of the most difficult decisions around content have been made by Facebook, and you could say ultimately by Mark Zuckerberg ." Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO and co-founder, first announced plans to create an oversight board in 2018. The idea was pitched to Facebook by Noah Feldman, a professor at Harvard Law School who specializes in constitutional studies. Advocates who pressure social media companies to ban certain speech, he told Facebook, have a good chance of getting this content removed but "no one is pushing hard on the other side of the door." One of Facebook's biggest challenges will be convincing the public that the board is truly independent from the social network. Facebook said it'll follow the board's decisions even if it disagrees with the result, unless doing so would violate the law. The board will publish an annual report that'll include what Facebook has done as a result of its decisions. "Of course, it'll be very embarrassing for Facebook if they don't live up to their end of this bargain," Thorning-Schmidt said. Other Facebook oversight board members include Tawakkol Karman, a journalist, civil rights activist and the first Arab woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize; Alan Rusbridger, the former editor-in-chief of The Guardian; Emi Palmor, former director general of the Israeli Ministry of Justice; and Katherine Chen, communications scholar at the National Chengchi University in Taiwan. Columbia Law Professor Jamal Greene and Catalina Botero-Marino, a Colombian attorney who served as Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, are also co-chairs of Facebook's oversight board. The board could grow to 40 members. The members will serve part time for a three-year term and be paid through a multimillion dollar trust. The board will have the power to select future members. It'll hear cases in panels of five people that'll be chosen at random. The board will consider cases put forth by Facebook, but users will also be able to appeal to the board if they meet certain requirements. We will continue to deal with Chinese PLA in firm, resolute manner: Army chief Indian, Chinese troops clash near Naku La in Sikkim sector India pti-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, May 10: Troops of India and China were involved in a fierce face-off and many of them sustained minor injuries in the clash near Naku La in the Sikkim sector along the Sino-Indo border on Saturday, official sources said. The troops disengaged after dialogue at the local level, they said. "Troops resolve such issues mutually as per established protocols. Such an incident occurred after a long time," said a source. India needs 'whole-of-govt approach' to confront strategic uncertainties: Army Chief This is not the first time when Indian and Chinese soldiers have faced off each other along the border. In September 2019, a scuffle broke out between Indian and Chinese soldiers on the bank of the Pangong Tso Lake in eastern Ladakh but the matter was resolved through talks between the two militaries. The Indian and Chinese troops had exchanged blows with each other last time in August 2017 near Pangong Lake in Ladakh. Kristina Keneally has done us a favour by shining a light on the uncapped numbers of temporary low-skilled or unskilled workers in Australia ("Call to cut immigration divides party faithful", May 8-9). The reason for the importation of these workers is to reduce labour costs. It is unconscionable that any government could now ignore the ability of employers to bypass the rules of fair work. Keneally was right to point out that in times of high unemployment, local workers should not be crowded out by such tactics. That critics would confuse an obvious economic argument (compassion for Australian workers with flow-on income tax benefits for the budget deficit) into an exploitation of xenophobia charge is absurd. - Alan Carruthers, Artarmon The restriction of temporary migration is simply common sense. There is no racist aspect to this. Australia is among the most ethnically diverse nations in the world. Keneally herself is a migrant. Yes, it is a disgrace that successive governments have been only too happy to take the money from international students, and in this crisis now simply dismiss their suffering. Yes, it is shameful that Australian workers have watched their workplace conditions deteriorate to the point where some businesses steal from their employees. Yes, it is absurd that mature Australians cannot find work that befits their experience. However, to pretend that these examples are not influenced by excessive temporary migration, because it might be seen as racist, is weak, and for representatives of the party of workers, traitorous. We have the right, and duty, to prioritise the needs of our citizens. Skills shortage? Stop degrading TAFE. Short-term need for labour? Pay overtime, take on genuine casual workers. Can't find fruit pickers? Pay locals more and stop the supermarket duopoly from exploiting farmers. I'm no fan of Keneally, but she is to be congratulated for her boldness on this issue. - Michael Thompson, Bexley North Keneallys call for a cut to temporary migration, post-pandemic, has limited merit. Australias economic growth has always been enhanced by immigrants. Small businesses and farmers rely on low-paid temporary and seasonal workers. Post-pandemic, an increased pool of unemployed workers is almost certain, as many businesses will not re-open. But will these jobless workers be prepared to move into low-paid temporary positions while they are seeking more permanent jobs, and are being retrained? Unless they are prepared to take these temporary jobs, then Keneallys proposal makes no sense. - Geoff Black, Caves Beach I disagree with Keneally's recent remarks about reducing the intake of temporary migrants. Just look at two of our premiers, Annastacia Palaszczuk and Gladys Berejiklian. What would have happened if these two families; one from Poland and the other Armenia, had been denied the opportunity to emigrate to Australia? We would now be minus two sterling state leaders. - Anthea Doe, Russell Lea Doom and gloom from economists and the housing construction industry because Sydney's 5.3 million population will not reach 5.84 million by 2025 ("Economic gloom ends likelihood of baby boom", Sun Herald, May 10). It might reach only 5.63 million. Most Sydneysiders would actually benefit from a fall in Sydney's population. Less traffic congestion, lower rents and property prices, and less pressure on goods, services and the environment. Those who aspire to everlasting growth are living in noddy land. - Clive Williams, Manly Mr Peter Mac Manu, leader of the 2020 national campaign team of the governing New Patriotic Party, has described his team as solid. He observed that each member is poised and well-positioned to contribute to the effective prosecution of the 3Ms campaign task that will lead to victory, the NPP, in the December general elections. He explained the 3Ms campaign task yesterday in an interview: Our campaign task will revolve around the '3Ms' of money, mobilisation and messaging. We have a strong party and candidate. What is left is to find the appropriate message that will touch the hearts of the electorate, and we will reach the people through mobilisation, and we need money for that task. Dr Abdul-Hamid Mustapha is a deputy campaign manager in charge of communications (Messaging); Mr Lord Commey is a deputy in charge of mobilisation (Men); while Dr Afua Asabea Asare is in charge of fundraising (Money). Mr Mac Manu led the party to secure an overwhelming victory in the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections. He was the party's National Chairman from December 2005 to February 2010. Before then, he had served as the Western Regional Chairman. When I was the National Chairman, Lord Commey was my Organiser and John Boadu was my Youth Organiser. Both have excellent organisational and mobilisation skills, and they will be supported ably by Sammi Awuku, our current National Organiser, who is also a solid guy. And for Afua Asabea, she has a solid corporate background and image which will enable her carry out her work effectively, he said of his team members. It is also instructive to note that the party is strongly represented on the campaign team. With the exception of Asabea, the rest are all party officers, current and past. That is very good to ensure that there is unison in the campaign in dealing with the party, government and campaign team, he added. John Boadu The party's General Secretary, John Boadu, retains his previous position as the Director in charge of Logistics and Operations for the campaign. Mr Boadu occupied that position during the previous campaign by virtue of his appointment as the Acting General Secretary, while retaining his original position as the National Organiser at the same time. Per the NPP constitution, the General Secretary is the chief operations officer of the party. His role in this years' campaign is more than mobilisation, a tasked placed on the shoulders of Lord Commey. J B, as he is affectionately called, is expected to lead the effort in ensuring complete harmony among the party, government and campaign team. Mr Boadu served with both Lord Commey and Mac Manu as national officers at the same period. A politically experienced man, he served as a polling station chairman and polling agent for the NPP at the Korle Bu Polling Station in Accra, from 1996 to 2000. From June 1999 to November 2002, he was Constituency Secretary in Ablekuma South, Greater Accra Region. In 2002, when Mr Commey was the National Organizer, Mr Boadu was elected the National Youth Treasurer of the party. He later became the National Youth Organiser between 2006 and 2010, at the time Mr Mac Manu was the National Chairman. He later became Deputy Director of Communications, from 2011 to 2013 when he was elected as the National Organiser. Lord Commey Mr Mac Manu will be assisted in his role as the campaign manager by Lord Commey, Director of Operations, Office of the President, and a former National Organiser of the party. He has been tasked with the role of mobilisation, which is more or less a sub-set of the Operations. He served as a two-term National Organiser of the party, serving with Mr Mac Manu as the Chairman in his second term. Before becoming the National Organiser, he had served as the Greater Accra Regional Secretary for the party. Mr Commey's exceptional organisational qualities contributed to the partys resounding victory in the 2000 election, when he was the National Organiser, after rising through the ranks at the constituency level at Ablekuma Central. During the 2012 election, he served as Director of Operations for the party's presidential campaign. Sammi Awuku Young, versatile and dynamic Sammi Awuku, National Organiser of the party, will be playing the role of assisting John Boadu in his operational duties, in the same way, he will be assisting Lord Commey in executing his mobilisation duties. In 2016, he served with the other members of the campaign team as the party's National Youth Organiser. Before becoming the National Youth Organiser, he worked at the Communications Directorate of the party, assisting the then Director of Communications, Nana Akomea, from 2011 to 2013, before his election in April 2014. In view of his youthful exuberance, he will also be working closely with the National Youth Organiser, Henry Nana Boakye, in youth mobilisation, just the same way he will be working with Dr Mustapha on the communications front, as a very effective and persuasive communicator Dr Mustapha Hamid. The academic-cum-politician, the current Minister of Zongo and Inner Cities Development and a former Minister of Information, is a deputy campaign manager in charge of communications. He has been charged with the duty of effectively coordinating party-government-campaign communications to ensure harmony. He will also be playing a special role in mobilising support in the settler communities across the country. Between 2002 and 2005, when Lord Commey was the National Organiser, Dr Abdul-Hamid was the National Youth Organiser. He was later appointed Spokesperson for the Akufo-Addo campaign in 2007, serving in the capacity till 2018. In government, he was first appointed the Minister of Information and Spokesperson to the President, with the current Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, serving as a deputy under him. A renowned academic, Dr Hamid, until his appointment into the Akufo-Addo government, was a senior lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Cape Coast. Dr Afua Asabea The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Export Promotions Authority is a deputy campaign manager in charge of fundraising (Money). Dr Afua Asabea Asare is a corporate and cross-cultural trainer and strategy enthusiast, known for her extensive knowledge in Integrated Communications and Organisational Development. With 26-years' worth of management experience working in a variety of corporate environments and having a knack for entrepreneurial ventures, she brings an in-depth wealth of experience to her role as the woman to spearhead the party's fundraising efforts. The former Head of Corporate Affairs at Ghana Telecom is also expected to make a huge contribution to the campaign's communication strategy, just the same way she will be playing a special role in supporting the women's wing of the party in the mobilisation of women. Dr Asare sits on a number of academic and corporate boards such as the African Leadership Academy, South Africa; IE Advisory Board for IE University, Madrid, Spain; Ghana Telecom University College, Ghana; World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF) Ghana; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ghana; Advisory Board on Trade & Investment Support Institution of ITC; Ghana Exim Bank; Venture Capital Trust Fund; and the Data Protection Agency, Ghana. She is a recipient of the 2019 Women in Transformational Leadership Awards (Governance category) and was also recently inducted into the 2019 West African Nobles Hall of Fame as an award recipient. Away from her office desk, you can find Asabea in her art studio where she paints on canvas, creates life-size mosaic works of art and ingenious handicrafts using recycled everyday household items. ---citinewsroom Hundreds of protesters gathered on Sunday at least 10 shopping centers in Hong Kong to participate in an anti-government rally, South China Morning Post reported. They shouted slogans and sang anthems of the anti-government movement, but the police banned further actions, indicating the need for observance of social distancing rules. Some of the protesters have been carried out. Earlier, the government's opponents intended to stage a march demanding the resignation of Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam. However, it was postponed indefinitely due to restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Delhi government on Sunday sought to blame hospitals for the mismatch of COVID-19 death data and issued guidelines to report such fatalities in a timely manner, even as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asserted that the number of serious patients and deaths caused by the infection is "less" in the city. With 381 fresh cases, the total no of infections climbed to 6,923 in the national capital. Between midnight of May 8 and midnight of May 9, five fresh fatalities due to the virus were reported, taking the death toll to 73, the city government said in its health bulletin. A woman contract teacher of a North Delhi Municipal Corporation-run school and her husband were among the deceased, officials said on Sunday. The woman was hospitalised on May 2 and died on May 4. Her COVID-19 test report came positive on May 5. Her husband succumbed to the disease on May 3. "The teacher had last come to work on April 18. She was supposed to come to work again on April 25 but didn't. The couple has two sons. Their home has been sanitised twice," an NDMC official said. The Delhi government has faced flak over the last few days after the number of deaths reported by hospitals was higher than the figure released in its health bulletin. In an order on Sunday, Chief Secretary Vijay Dev said it has come to the notice of the government that public and private hospitals (both COVID-19 dedicated and non COVID-19 hospitals) are not reporting deaths caused by the virus in a timely and regular manner. It has also been observed that despite repeated reminders, the death summaries of the deceased are not being provided to the death audit committee leading to submission of "incorrect or delayed reports", the order said, Officials of the 10 hospitals treating COVID-19 patients have said the number of people who have died due to the virus is higher than what the Delhi government bulletin reflects. "Every COVID-19 hospital and other health facilities will appoint nodal officers who will ensure timely communication of deaths. MS (medical superintendent)/MD (medical director)/Directors of all concerned hospitals will ensure this on a daily basis without fail," Dev said in the order. If there is a delay in reporting of deaths, the MS, MD or nodal officer of the 'defaulter hospital' will have to file a written explanation, the official order said. "Even if no death has happened, even then a NIL report shall be furnished by email to IDSP Cell for the compilation of death data," Dev said. Addressing an online media briefing, Kejriwal said that 75 per cent of COVID-19 cases in the city are asymptomatic or showing mild symptoms. "The number of serious patients is less. The number of COVID-19 deaths is very less," he said. He said those asymptomatic or showing mild symptoms need not be admitted to hospitals and can be provided treatment at home. On Saturday, Congress leader Ajay Maken sought more transparency from the Kejriwal government on the coronavirus deaths and Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari urged the chief minister to "tell the truth", saying people have a right to know about the severity of the outbreak. Kejriwal said Delhi has reported 6,923 coronavirus cases, out of which 2,069 have recovered, while 91 patients are in ICU and 27 are on ventilator support. It has been observed that 82 per cent of people who died were above the age of 50, Kejriwal said, requesting senior citizens to take precautionary measures against the infection. "Out of 6,923 COVID-19 patients, only 1,476 are admitted to hospitals," he said, adding that the rest are getting treatment at their homes and COVID-19 care centres. He also appealed to migrant workers not to leave the city, saying the situation will revive once the lockdown is lifted and they will find work. The chief minister urged the workers trying to leave the national capital to stay wherever they were, assuring them that his government was arranging trains for their return. "This lockdown is going to end soon, and everything will be back on track. You will get employed again because everything will start running again. Please do not leave Delhi," Kejriwal said. Around 150 migrants from Punjab, who were sheltered at a Delhi government facility in Nehru Vihar, left for their native state on Sunday morning. Under quarantine in Uttar Pradesh's Deoband for more than 40 days, a group of nine Tablighi Jamaat members from Delhi have urged Kejriwal to facilitate their return home following the Saharanpur administration's nod to release them upon completion of requisite quarantine period. Meanwhile, the gurdwaras in the national capital are facing shortage of ration and cash following a steep rise in the number of homeless people being fed amid the ongoing lockdown, according to Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee. Since the imposition of the countrywide lockdown on March 25 to stave off the spread of coronavirus, the DSGMC-managed gurdwaras across the city have provided free meals to around 50 lakh homeless people, migrant workers and elderly. Some of the gurdwaras have also provided shelter to around 200 health staff, including doctors and nurses, besides taking care of coronavirus positive patients in various hospitals. The Delhi Police relieved 781 calls on its helpline within a period of 24 hours till Sunday afternoon and 394 of these were regarding movement passes, officials said here. A total of 41,788 calls have been received by the city police so far on its 24x7 helpline number 011-23469526 for assistance in resolving issues being faced by the people due to the lockdown, they said. Police received 781 calls from 2 pm on Saturday till 2 pm on Sunday, the officials said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Liberal MP Tim Smith has accused Daniel Andrews of 'fear mongering' and slammed him for refusing to ease Victoria's lockdown restrictions in time for Mother's Day. Mr Smith, Liberal member for Kew in Melbourne's east, said it was 'incredibly cruel' to keep the state in lockdown after National Cabinet unveiled its road map on Friday. 'The only people who can't visit their mothers today on Mother's Day across Australia are criminals locked in jail and the good people of Victoria,' Mr Smith told Weekend Sunrise on Sunday. 'Why? Because Chairman Dan Andrews, the premier of Victoria, is obsessed with telling people how to live their lives will stop lately, the power has gone to his head and his acting like a lunatic.' 'He intends to change some of the rules tomorrow and I think this is incredibly nasty and incredibly cruel and not fair on hard-working mums across the state.' Shortly after the prime minister's announcement Mr Andrews (pictured) told reporters on Friday he was refusing to ease restrictions as the state is completing a testing blitz Mr Smith said he holds concerns for the mental health of Victorians as a result of the lockdown. 'This sort of an extreme lockdown ensures great harm is being done to people right across Australia and it should be lifted, it should be lifted now and it should have been lifted on Friday,' he said. Mr Morrison released a three-stage roadmap for lifting restrictions but said it was up to state and territory leaders to decide when they act. 'Three steps, moved at the pace of states and territories that will get us back where we need to be as quickly as we can,' he said on Friday. Shortly after the prime minister's announcement, Mr Andrews told reporters on Friday he was refusing to ease restrictions as the state is completing a testing blitz. Tim Smith (pictured on Sunday), Liberal member for Kew in Melbourne's east, said the Victorian premier was 'fear mongering' The Victorian premier is expected to announce some easing of COVID-19 restrictions on Monday. Pictured: Shoppers in Melbourne's CBD on Saturday The Victorian Premier is expected to announce some easing of COVID-19 restrictions on Monday - the day the state of emergency lifts. 'Let's not give back everything we've achieved this weekend because we are frustrated,' Mr Andrews said on Friday. 'Next week I'll have more to say about what the rest of May looks like, and the second stage then the third stage, and getting back to as close to normal as we can.' 'I want people to be getting about living their normal lives as quickly as possible, but it has to be done safely.' Among the changes will be a return to classrooms by the end of the month, The Sunday Herald Sun reported. Mr Smith (pictured) said he holds concerns for the mental health of Victorians as a result of the lockdown A man wearing a facemask waits at the lights in the Melbourne CBD during COVID-19 Grades 11 and 12 and prep and grade one students would be the first to return in the last week of May, followed by other classes progressively with new measures in place. 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 As Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday revealed a plan for a gradual return to normal, Mr Andrews indicated he would not 'throw away all the progress we have made'. Ten new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Victoria on Saturday, with four linked to an outbreak at the Cedar Meats facility in Melbourne's west. Victoria has 141 active cases, of which 75 are linked to the meatworks. The total number of Victorians to have contracted the virus is 1477. Another recently confirmed case is linked to McDonald's in the northern Melbourne suburb of Fawkner. There are now two cases connected to the fast food franchise which is closed for deep cleaning. Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said Victorians should not become complacent. There are still only four reasons for Victorians to leave their home: food and supplies, medical care and care giving, exercise, and work or education. Shoppers are seen out and about in Melbourne on Saturday despite Mr Andrews refusing to lift lockdown restrictions Rallying support from Russian communities and content creators to give back to military veterans MOSCOW, May 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Singapore company, BIGO Technology (BIGO), celebrated Russia's 75th Victory Day by donating to "Memory of Generations," a charitable foundation that provides holistic support and medical care for military veterans who valiantly fought for the freedom of the Russian Federation and aided in ending WWII. BIGO rallied its in-app communities on Bigo Live and Likee Live via popular content creators, igniting viewers' support and patriotism. A campaign was organised with content creators battling out by performing Russian revolutionary songs in-app in a nationwide talent competition, uniting millions of fans for a single purpose - to donate to the Memory of Generations Foundation in support of military veterans, especially during this difficult COVID-19 pandemic period. Popular broadcasters, Bigo Live Username "play_with_me" and Likee Username "ST??'N???" have been voted via the campaign as "Victory Day" ambassadors and will present the proceeds on behalf of BIGO to "Memory of Generations" later in the month. BIGO hopes to be a platform for spreading positive messages and maintaining social connections especially during COVID-19. During this special time, BIGO encouraged their communities to reminisce on their past victory by sharing their reflections and pictures of Victory Day memorabilia on their app wall. Through these activities, BIGO hopes to spur conversational topics surrounding their history, veterans' sacrifice and to express gratitude towards them. Over 1 million Russian viewers enjoyed the 2-day campaign which ran from 8 May to 9 May, as the apps showcased a number of different talented broadcasters. "Being a part of and contributing to such a memorable day in Russia carries significant meaning to us at BIGO. As we are a technology company that believes in bringing people together, we hope that through this initiative we are able to bring the Russian people together digitally, in a time when we are physically apart. We also hope to alleviate feelings of isolation by providing a plethora of infotainment content on our apps," Mike Ong, Vice President for BIGO Technology says. Ekaterina Kruglova, Executive Director for "Memory of Generations" says, "The Organization provides daily medical care for veterans and we ultimately aim to improve the quality of lives. Due to COVID-19, we have had to abandon our plans and most events have been cancelled; this is why we are grateful to partner with a global firm like BIGO. We believe this will amplify our efforts in building awareness and is a step in the right direction towards digitizing our communications and events." About BIGO Technology BIGO Technology (BIGO) is one of the fastest-growing Singapore technology companies, with more than 30 offices and 6 R&D centres around the world. Powered by Artificial Intelligence technology, BIGO's video-based products and services have gained immense popularity, with around 400 million monthly active users in more than 150 countries. These include Bigo Live (live streaming), Likee (short-form video) and imo (instant communication). BIGO is dedicated to connecting the world and to enable everyone to share their beautiful moments. With a vision to be a content platform that inspires one billion people's lives, BIGO aims to empower a new generation of users with an exciting new social language where they can showcase, discover and stay connected in a positive and creative online environment. About "Memory of Generations" The MEMORY OF GENERATIONS Charitable Foundation is the only non-profit organization in Russia that provides targeted high-tech medical assistance and holistic care to veterans of all military veterans of our country. The foundation was established on June 22, 2015 and their work spans the country from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1166102/BIGO_Technology_celebrated_Russia_s_75th_Victory_Day_giving_military_veterans.jpg It was recently suggested that the coronavirus was turbocharged by a mutation which made it more virulent than ever. However scienists debunk this story saying that it is not TRUE. The source of the allegation was a preprint study that was published online. It was neither peer viewed or published in a journal so the basis of the scientific claim is not valid. A report was filed by a team led by Bette Korber, a biologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. They discovered a mutation that was traced to the coronavirus that struck Europe way back in February, which spread fast soon after. It then became the dominate strain to circulate in Europe then and new countries. Referring to the super-mutation, they cited that will be more virulent than ever. With the media covering the "turbo-charged virus," it was not a good development that it will be sickening more people at an alarming rate. Knowing that the contagion may be equal to that of a tsunami, it does not make it easy for the world. Despite all the alarming overtones of the impending strain, most virus experts did not appear so flustered by it. According to them, a new strain did not exist, and "the coronavirus so far has not split into clearly distinct forms." All viruses mutate as they are exposed to hosts and environments that is the normal evolution it goes through. They added that just because a mutation becomes more common, it isn't a proof that it is altering how the virus functions. Viral mutation does not equal more virulence as claimed by the authors of the said study. Also read: How Coronavirus Infection Starts in the Body, Leading to Death Korber did not comment on the criticism of the study. By nature, mutations are small alterations in the genetic material as the proteins are replicated. Compared to other cells, the human cell is not easy to fool and mutations are deemed necessary. But the human chromosome is unique to everyone. Call viruses a sloppy joe that make more mutants than needed when hijacking a cell. So, these inferior copies are short-lived and destroyed by their very viral mechanisms. Viruses will keep the ones that are best suited, but others will become inert. Even viruses are subject to natural selection and will allow beneficial mutants to survive and spread. Though some neutral mutants can exist more by chance with a process called genetic drift. According to Sergei Pond, an evolutionary biologist at Temple University. He said,"I don't think they provide evidence to claim transmissibility enhancement." But he added that there should be two strains struggling for dominance in the same locality to force one of the strains to be more dominant. Sergei said the propagation of the coronavirus shows that mutations are also transmitted. One of these is the D614G that was traced to rise several times as the virus jumped from host to host on its own. Strains of viruses that had D614G type was not successful in populations. But the virus became the default form it had earlier, which points out a selective adaption for viruses. It was met with doubt when some posted tweets to make a critique. Bill Hanage an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health commented the results were doubtful at best. Bill Wasik, an evolutionary biologist at Cornell University, said that "they deserve a strong and good-faith peer review." Related article: Coronavirus vs Immune System: How COVID-19 Hijacks Your Body's Defense @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Two persons trapped in the debris of a partially collapsed ground-plus- two-storey residential building in Kandivli on Sunday morning were rescued by the Mumbai Fire Brigade. Search operations went on for five hours on Sunday for any more trapped persons. At 5.13am on Sunday, the west side of the ground-plus- two-storeyed Dipjyoti building located on Link Road in Kandivali collapsed. Twelve other people trapped on the upper floors of the remaining portion of the building, that had not collapsed, were rescued by the fire brigade, which rushed to the spot by 5.37am. Two other persons were rushed to Oscar Hospital by police in a private ambulance before the fire brigade arrived on the spot. The two persons rescued from under the debris are identified as Kismat Ali Malik, 45, who sustained deep injuries to his nose, eyes, ears, and both his legs and Shaikh Ba Mulis, 48, who sustained deep cut injuries and fracture in both his legs. Eyewitnesses reported to the fire brigade that five to six persons were feared to be trapped under the debris, hence search and rescue operation continued for five hours since the disaster call. One team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) also reported to the spot for search and rescue. Fire brigade first spotted seven people stranded on upper floors of the building and rescued them by breaking open a window grill with the help of a cutter-grinder. However, a total of 12 persons were rescued. Several African countries have put in orders for 'COVID-19 Organics' - a plant-based remedy championed by President Andry Rajoelina - despite WHO warnings that it is not yet proven. Madagascar is putting its self-proclaimed COVID-19 cure on sale despite warnings from the World Health Organization that the plant-based remedy is not proven. Several African countries have already put in orders for the tonic, which President Andry Rajoelina launched last month saying it had cured two people. On Friday, a delegation from Tanzania arrived to collect their consignment with foreign minister Palamagamba Kabudi saying Madagascar had made Africans proud. "Madagascar is providing, is contributing a solution to a global problem. We have been always used that it is Europe and Western Europe and other countries which do contribute to global problems." Madagascar has been giving away thousands of bottles of "COVID-19 Organics", which was developed by the state-run Malagasy Institute of Applied Research. Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Guinea Bissau have all already received thousands of doses free of charge. And it can be bought domestically for around 40 U.S. cents per bottle. Antananarivo resident Rakoto says he's been taking it for six days and believes it will cure the pandemic. COVID-19 Organics is based on the plant Artemisia annua which has anti-malarial properties. Isolated compounds extracted from Artemisia are effective in malaria drugs, the World Health Organisation has noted, but the plant itself cannot treat malaria. WHO Africa head Matshidiso Moeti said she was concerned people who drank the product might feel they were immune to COVID-19 and engage in risky behavior. The WHO has said COVID-19 Organics needs to be tested for it efficacy and any side effects. The African Union said on Monday (May 4) that it was trying to get Madagascar's technical data on the remedy, and would pass that to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention for evaluation. THREE new fatalities caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) were recorded in Cebu City on Saturday, May 9, 2020, bringing the total number of deaths in the city to 11. Cebu Province also logged one new death based on the May 9 data released by the Department of Health-Central Visayas (DOH 7) Sunday morning, May 10. The entire island of Cebu has a total of 21 Covid-19 mortalities: 11 from Cebu City, seven from Cebu Province and three from Mandaue City. The DOH 7 also logged 56 new Covid-19 patients in Central Visayas on May 9, bringing the total number of Covid-19 cases in the region to 1,685. Of the number, 23 have died (including two deaths in Negros Oriental). Thirty-nine of the 56 new patients are from Cebu City; one from Cebu Province; 15 from Mandaue City Jail; and one among the repatriates on quarantine. Cebu City still on top Based on the DOH 7 data, Cebu City remains to have the highest accumulated number of Covid-19 cases at 1,469 followed by Mandaue City with 109, Lapu-Lapu City with 41, Cebu Province with 39 and Negros Oriental with four. There are 18 Covid-19 repatriates who are in quarantine and four health care workers who are positive. Bohol logged one case, but the patient has been discharged. The four new fatalities in Cebu died of severe pneumonia, the DOH 7 said. They also had underlying medical conditions. The first mortality on Saturday was a 35-year-old male "who had a recurrent history electrolyte imbalance." The second was a 35-year-old male, while the third was a 51-year-old male with a chronic kidney disease. Both men were inmates at the Cebu City Jail in Barangay Kalunasan. The fourth mortality was a 39-year-old male with hypertensive who also had a massive stroke. Cebu Citys case fatality rate (CFR) stands at 0.75 percent; Cebu Province at 17.95 percent; Negros Oriental at 50 percent; and Mandaue City at 2.75 percent. Across the region, the CFR is 1.36 percent, which is lower than the country's CFR at 6.6 percent. Story continues In epidemiology, the CFR refers to the proportion of deaths from a certain disease compared to the total number of people diagnosed with the disease for a certain period of time. Meanwhile, the entire Sitio Bagumbuhay, formerly known as Sitio Negative, in Barangay Carreta was placed on lockdown effective 6 p.m. on May 10. On Wednesday, May 6, Sitio Alaska in Barangay Mambaling was also placed on lockdown after 106 of the 539 new Covid-19 cases logged that day in the city were from the area. 97 new Covid-19 cases As of 8 p.m., May 10, the Cebu City Health Department (CHD) logged 97 new Covid-19 cases in the city. Thirty-three came from Sitio Bagumbuhay, bringing the total number of cases to 43. Carreta Barangay Captain Marciano Ando said he tapped volunteers to distribute relief goods to the 415 households in the sitio before the lockdown. Ando said the 33 persons who recently tested positive for Covid-19 will be transferred to the Florenciano Urot National High School (FUNHS) in Barangay Mabolo on Monday, May 11. The school serves as the isolation center. The barangay also heeded the CHDs advice to move Covid-19 patients currently staying at the Carreta Elementary School to the FUNHS. The FUNHS can accommodate up to 100 Covid-19 patients. There are only three classrooms at the Carreta school provided for the Covid-19 patients, Ando said. The CHDs main concern is to feed the Covid-19 patients all at once at one place, he said in Cebuano. Ando said the barangays Covid-19 patients remain asymptomatic. He said Covid-19 cases in Sitio Bagumbuhay started with two women who gave birth in a hospital in the city. He believed the two residents contracted the disease there. In Mambaling, residents of Pagatpat in Sitio Alaska complained that they did not receive any assistance from the barangay. A SunStar Cebu video posted on May 9 shows residents complaining that they were put on lockdown without prior notice so they were not able to prepare. Some of them said there is no store in their area that sells rice. Mambaling Barangay Captain Gines Abellana, for his part, said they already distributed relief goods in the sitio in the afternoon of May 9. He said 17 families in Sitio Pagatpat received 25 kilos of rice and canned goods. Cebu City has 1,571 Covid-19 patients, based on figures released by the CHD. (WBS, JJL) Image Marcheline Bertrand with her husband Jon Voight and son James in 1975, when she was pregnant with daughter Angelina Jolie. Credit... Angelina Jolie Mothers Day is hard for anyone who has lost their mom, but this year must be particularly so because of coronavirus. So many people have lost a parent suddenly, without being by their side, able to care for them and return their love in the way theyd always imagined. I lost my mother in my thirties. When I look back to that time, I can see how much her death changed me. It was not sudden, but so much shifted inside. Losing a mothers love and warm, soft embrace is like having someone rip away a protective blanket. I got a small tattoo on my right hand after my mother died, knowing that hand tattoos fade. It looks to others like a letter m. But it wasnt an m for Marcheline, her name. It was a w for Winter the Rolling Stones song she sang to me as a baby, and that I remember loving as a little girl. It sure been a cold, cold winter, she would sing to me. And at the line, I wanna wrap my coat around you, she would wrap me up in my blankets and snuggle me. I loved my mom. She was raised Catholic on the South Side of Chicago. My grandfather, who fought in World War II, loved bowling, M*A*S*H, Benny Hill and my grandmother, Lois. My grandmother died before I was born, when my mother was in her twenties. Diamond Lois, my mothers boyfriend called her. Not because she was a socialite but because she scrubbed the floor in her diamonds. Before my grandparents moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s, they ran a bowling alley. Their parents before them ran a bar. Bermuda shorts have emerged as the unlikely star of spring/summer dressing. Its hard not to shudder at the thought of baggy shorts which fall just above the knee. They have a somewhat matronly reputation, but after decades out in the fashion cold, theyre back in the spotlight. Major fashion houses from Chloe and Tods, to Givenchy and The Row, all experimented with their own version of the retro style. These came in all colours of the rainbow as we saw at Max Mara in Milan or in different materials like the painfully cool leather versions at Bottega Veneta. The key to the 2020 interpretation of Bermuda shorts is all about tailoring. Yes, theyre are looser than denim shorts, but theyre not too baggy. Tailoring has become an overwhelming trend in the fashion industry, and its about time shorts got the same treatment. Bermudas are a welcome change to the same styles weve seen dominate fashion. Over the last decade, very little has moved on from the ever-present short shorts. Shopping for a holiday basically means wading through hundreds of different styles of booty shorts, or even worse: bike shorts. At best, youve got a nice fitting pair of mom shorts in your closet, but they still bare a fair bit of leg. While theres absolutely nothing wrong with showing off your pins, sometimes it is nice to have a bit of variety. And even though theyre a new trend, thanks to the spring/summer runway shows, lets not forget the storied history of the style. Its not a misnomer, the shorts do apparently come from Bermuda which makes sense, considering the sunny weather of the archipelago. According to The Authentic Bermuda Shorts company, the style was born during WWI when a tearoom owner cut his staffs khaki trousers short, because the room was too hot. The tearoom was frequented by navy officers stationed in Bermuda, who soon copied the style. However, it was a while before the trend made its way into womenswear, as according to Bermudas official travel site, women were only able to wear this knee-baring style in the 1950s. Bermuda shorts have remained mainly in the world of menswear, though. Just think of men on holiday, or Pharrell making it high fashion on the red carpet. But finally, the style has been given the fashionable treatment for women. How to wear them While a classic pair of denim cut-offs will never go out of style, theyre hardly appropriate for the office. Bermuda shorts are the perfect answer to work summer dressing: theyre breezy, still provide enough coverage to be modest, and the tailoring lends an air of formality. This season, its clear the coolest way to wear them is with a matching blazer. If you dont want to splash out on a jacket as well as a new pair of shorts, colour blocking will help you be bang on trend. Its simple all you have to do is match your shorts with a jumper or T-shirt in a similar hue. Luckily, this is a look which can also be dressed down with a plain tee and trainers. The key is to keep things simple Bermuda shorts are all about relaxed cool. In terms of colour, SS20 designers tended to fall into two categories. On one side, you had the likes of Max Mara who played with pastel colours: think lemons, peaches and baby blues. If bright colour feels a bit too bold, the other option is to embrace neutrals. Pick shorts in beige, stone or similar, which will give a feeling of desert chic. For patterns, keep things simple, with soft checks or faint lines. Many people worry Bermuda shorts arent particularly flattering but this isnt the case. Even when loose, tailoring means most styles have a cinched-in waist. Our top tip to avoid potential frumpiness? Stick to flat shoes, because heels are more likely to throw your proportions out of whack. Loafers or brogues will help your look feel powerful, and trainers are perfect for those off-duty days. Even if youre still firmly in the stage of not wearing anything that isnt pyjamas or gym gear, its still worth taking note of this trend. Lockdown wont last forever, and at least youll be able to return to the office with a fresh new look. With few states witnessing a spike their Covid-19 tally, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has decided to rush Central teams to 10 covid-19 hit states, which are witnessing high case load and spurt in numbers. The states include Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. "The teams will assist the state health departments in facilitating the management of the Covid-19 outbreak," said a ministry statement. The teams will comprise a senior Health Ministry official, a Joint Secretary level nodal officer and a public health expert. The teams will support the state health departments in the implementation of containment measures in the affected areas, districts and cities. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! Topics Naku La in North Sikkim became the latest theater of confrontation between Indian and Chinese troops. On Saturday, around 150 soldiers on both sides were involved in an aggressive confrontation that left four Indian soldiers and seven Chinese soldiers injured. Confirming the incident, the Army said, Aggressive behaviour and minor injuries on both sides took place. It was disengaged after dialogue and interaction at local level. Naku La is a pass in North Sikkim located at a height of 5,000 metres. The confrontation took place when both Indian and Chinese troops were on regular patrolling. This sector is not traditionally prone to face-offs between the Indian and Chinese armies that often clash at the LAC given the difference in perception of border limits. In September 2019, a scuffle broke out between Indian and Chinese soldiers on the bank of the Pangong Tso Lake in eastern Ladakh but the matter was resolved through talks between the two militaries. In one of the longest confrontations between the two sides, troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day face-off in Doklam from June 16, 2017, after the Indian side stopped the building of a road in the disputed area by the Chinese Army. The impasse ended on August 28. India has since underlined the importance of maintaining peace and tranquility along the border with China as a prerequisite for "smooth" development of overall ties between the two countries. (With PTI inputs) Cuban president grateful for Chinese donation of medical supplies amid COVID-19 Global Times Source:Xinhua Published: 2020/5/9 10:20:57 Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has expressed gratitude for the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee's donation of medical supplies amid the Caribbean nation's efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. "This is another manifestation of solidarity from China. We thank our friendly Asian nation for their support," Diaz-Canel said on Twitter. Some 60,000 surgical face masks and 6,000 N95 face masks were handed over to Angel Arzuaga, deputy head of International Relations for the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee, by Chinese Ambassador to Cuba Chen Xi during a ceremony at the warehouse of Cuban medical supplies distributing company ENSUME on the outskirts of Havana earlier this week. Chen said at the ceremony that more donations from China will continue to arrive on the island throughout the week, adding that solidarity can help address the COVID-19 crisis. Relations between the two parties and the two countries have been further strengthened in the process of jointly combating the pandemic, he said. Arzuaga said China has not only safeguarded the frontline in fighting against the virus, but also shared scientific data on the outbreak with the world. He said this year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral relationship between the two countries and the bilateral relationship is excellent. Since Cuba confirmed its first three COVID-19 cases on March 11, the Chinese government, companies and social groups have been helping the Caribbean country with medical supplies. As of Friday, Cuba has reported 1,715 COVID-19 cases with 70 deaths. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The most loyal fans of The Sopranos tend to have a list of favorite episodes, broken down by type. In one category, theyll put the most enjoyable; in another, theyll stash episodes featuring characters close to their heart (say, Uncle Junior); and in a third category theyll have what they consider the all-around best. As far as the greatest, you have to put College (season 1 episode 5) among the top episodes of the early seasons (if not the whole series). In that installment, Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) takes his daughter Meadow (Jamie Lynn-Sigler) on a tour of northeastern universities. At a stop in Maine, Tony spots Febby Petrulio, a former mob associate who ratted on the organization before going into witness protection. And Tony starts planning to deal with the rat. The problem is, hes got his daughter with him. But thats not the only major development in College. In the episode, Tony and Meadow level with one another about bad behavior in their lives. And the trip represents one of the high points in their relationship. Tony Soprano comes clean about some illegal gambling and whatnot Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) takes care of a family problem in College from The Sopranos Season 1. | HBO After a lifetime of finding clues to back her theory up, Meadow hits her father with a most direct question in the car. Are you in the mafia? she asks. At first, Tony tries to dismiss it. Then he tries to laugh it off. And after that he pretends to be offended. Finally, he owns up to it (at least a little bit). Look, Mead, youre a grown woman (almost). Some of my money comes from illegal gambling and whatnot, Tony tells her. When he asks how she feels about it, Meadow says she sometimes wishes he were like other dads. But then again some of them (she cites an ad executive for Big Tobacco) are full of sh*t. When Tony asks how hes different, Meadow gives him some credit. You finally told the truth about this, she tells him. And when Tony tries to walk back his admission (he brings up legitimate businesses), Meadow shuts him down. Dont start mealy-mouthing, she says. For fans of mob movies and TV, the scene really stands out. Not only is it well-written (Chase and writer James Manos won an Emmy for the script); the performances by Gandolfini and Lynn-Sigler are remarkable. Meadow admits to taking speed during the hectic time at school James Gandolfini poses with Jamie-Lynn Sigler at The Sopranos season premiere screening, February 2001. | Evan Agostini/Getty Images The Sopranos worked so well (and continues to attract fans) because of this family dynamic. After Tony comes clean about the dark side of his work, Meadow decides to open up about trying crystal meth during her hectic time at school. A couple of weeks ago, me and some friends, we were doing speed, she tells him at dinner. We did kind of a lot of it for awhile. At first, Tony starts to flip out, asking her where she got it and warning about the dangers of the drug. When Meadow gets frustrated by his reaction, Tony asks why she told him in the first place. You were honest with me today, she says. After wondering how he could have missed it (right under [my] nose), he stops to appreciate her admission. Im glad you told me, in spite of everything, Tony says. Im glad I did, too, Meadow replies. Im glad we have that kind of a relationship. Later, the episode takes one a whole new dimension when Tony strangles Petrulio after an extended cat-and-mouse game. In those days, you didnt see the main character of a show kill people with his bare hands. But the father-daughter scenes are almost as important to the series. On the April 27 edition of the Talking Sopranos podcast, Steve Schirripa (Bobby Baccala) recounted a story Lynn-Sigler about Gandolfini encouraging when she felt nervous shooting these scenes. Just look me in the eyes and talk, Gandolfini told her. She did that and then some. Also see: Michael Imperioli Said He Based His Sopranos Character on a Real-Life Mobster (Navigator for Jewellery Trade) - The world is changing. In most cases, new technologies become drivers of change. They enter the territory of eternal values and change established traditions. And today we are witnessing an interesting phenomenon - the diamond market is entering its new era, where diamonds created in the laboratory are a reality. Specially for readers of the Navigator for Jewellery Trade Magazine, the experts of Ultra C have prepared a market overview of gem-quality lab-grown diamonds. The first part is devoted to existing technologies and equipment for diamond synthesis, production capacities, as well as production profitability. Thanks to this and the following materials, you will get an idea about the new product, which means you can appreciate its strengths and weaknesses, which will help successful sales in the future. Valery ZAKHAROV and Galina PLATONOVA, Ultra C CONTACTS www.ultrac.ru www.ndtcompany.com www.wonderdiamond.com What is considered a symbol of luxury in the modern world? Yachts, expensive cars, business-class real estates... And, of course, diamonds are the most popular of them. The desire of the best part of humanity to possess a sparkling stone is inexhaustible. But limited purchasing opportunities created a demand for stones that looked like diamonds. On the one hand, this led to the emergence of imitations, on the other, to the creation of a diamond using advanced technologies to make the symbol of love accessible to the consumer. So, at the beginning of the third millennium, the market saw the advent of gem-quality lab-grown diamonds, which were absolutely identical to natural stones, in contrast to imitations that are not diamonds. The perfectly sparkling moissanite is chemically silicon carbide, and the most popular and affordable phianite is zirconium dioxide. They differ from diamond both in hardness and in optical properties. Just 10 years ago, the presence of lab-grown diamonds in the jewelry market was negligible and represented only a hypothetical competitive threat to diamond mining companies. But later on a qualitative leap occurred and a series of events followed, which we will discuss here further. In July 2018, the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) amended the definition of polished diamonds removing from it the word natural: "Technological advances have made it possible to create diamonds in a laboratory. These stones have essentially the same optical, physical and chemical properties as mined diamonds. Thus, they are diamonds. The definition of disruptive innovations includes the following words: "Old products become uncompetitive because the parameters on which the competition was based lose their meaning." Prior to the FTC decision, the origin of diamond was such a parameter - only what was mined from the bowels of the earth was considered real. DIAMOND is a cubic form of carbon, the hardest mineral on the Mohs scale. If cut and polished, it gives a unique play of light - sparkling (the amount of light returned from the stone), dispersion - color glare, scintillation - flashes of light on the surface of the stone during its rotation and luster - reflection of light from a polished surface. It was possible to achieve the identity of all the mentioned optical characteristics only by creating a real diamond. LAB-GROWN DIAMONDS - an established professional term that is recognized by the global professional community to refer to diamonds created in the laboratory. The commonly used term synthetic diamonds is considered incorrect. For certification, international laboratories use the term "lab-grown." Lab-grown diamonds are no longer the subject of illegal admixtures to mined stones; they flow into the existing diamond pipeline going from the laboratory to polishing enterprises and further to retail. They use the market infrastructure of natural diamonds - the prevailing sales system, assessments in independent laboratories using the 4C system (color, clarity, cut, carat) and pricing. However, manufacturers of lab-grown diamonds do not want their products to be used to deceive the buyer, or to hide or hush the origin of their stones. Therefore, they advocate that the products be declared as polished diamonds being in this case the creation of man and the achievement of modern technology. Diamond Making Methods Currently, there are two main industrial technologies for the synthesis of lab-grown diamonds - HPHT (High Pressure, High Temperature) and CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition). Lab-grown stones are among disruptive innovations that are rapidly changing our reality. In the case of diamonds, technology has invaded one of the most conservative markets, which has been resisting any change for decades. TECHNICAL INFORMATION Diamonds are grown in that segment of the carbon phase diagram where synthesis is possible from a metals melt (at the working pressure of ~ 6.5 GPa and temperature of 1600-1800 C); therefore, the High Pressure Cell (HPC) should by all means contain solvent metals in its composition. These can be iron with nickel and / or cobalt, and a number of other metals. In addition, titanium, zirconium, etc., can be added to the growth medium, which acting as nitrogen getters (substances that firmly hold gases), impede the capture of nitrogen atoms by a growing crystal. Besides, aluminum, copper, indium, and a number of other metals with a low viscosity can be included in the composition of the HPC to reduce the penetration of solvent metal inclusions into the growing crystal. In general, a cell recipe may contain more than a dozen ingredients. Each manufacturer for an established HPHT process has its own HPC recipe with temperature and pressure modes. All data, of course, is kept in strict confidence. During the evolution of the HPHT method, various press designs were used: BELT (General Electric, Sumitomo), Toroid and BARS (USSR). There are still a small number of manufacturers using Toroids and BARS, but modern technologies for HPHT synthesis of gem-quality diamonds are implemented mainly on multi-ton cubic presses. The leading manufacturers of cubic presses on an industrial scale are currently Chinese companies, including Guilin Guiye Machinery Co. Ltd., Luoyang Qiming Superhard Material Co., Ltd., Sinomach International Co Ltd. And others. According to companies that use cubic presses mass-produced in China, their basic equipment needs substantial modernization to produce high-quality jewelry. In particular, it is required to partially replace electric accessories, pumps, oil stations, etc. Retooling leads to a significant increase in the cost of equipment. For example, the basic prices set by Chinese manufacturers for the 850 series press (according to the Chinese specification) start at $ 300,000, but after modernization, its cost can grow to $ 500,000 or more, depending on the configuration. Using such a modernized press, it is possible to synthesize an average of up to 200 carats of diamonds per month, depending on the technology, the size of synthesized crystals and the number of initial seed diamonds. The number of such presses working to produce high gem-quality diamonds outside of China does not exceed 100 pieces, while there are several thousand of such presses operating in China. New diamond technology HPHT HPHT is the initial method that has been used for the large-scale synthesis of industrial diamonds since the late 1950s in the USA, USSR and Europe. This method is also used in China. Since the late 1990s and early 2000s, this country has gradually taken a leading position in the production of diamond materials. The method was based on an attempt to recreate the conditions under which the formation of diamonds in the Earth's crust took place. To start the process, a high pressure cell is placed in the press chamber. Graphite is used as a carbon source in the composition of the high pressure cell (preferably not lower than Cleanness Grade 5) and HPHT diamonds of ~ 0.5 mm in size are used as diamond seeds. By the way, at the initial stages of diamond synthesis, natural diamonds were used for seed. In other words, a diamond does not grow without another diamond - apparently, it needs genetic information. ))) Wonderdiamond CVD The first successful CVD diamond synthesis was also carried out in the 1950s. However, until the 2000s, due to imperfect technologies, the industrial use of the method seemed inappropriate. The situation has changed radically over the past 10 years. Currently, this method is used to synthesize more than a third of all gem-quality diamonds. Moreover, most of these products are large-size stones weighing more than 4 carats in their rough form. In 2003, the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) investigated the first samples of CVD diamonds of tentative gem-quality produced by Apollo Diamond these were small hazy brownish crystals to which the GIA did not dare to assign any characteristics. After only four years, some polished diamonds from the same company come to the GIAs lab bench. Among the presented samples there were colorless diamonds of mainly round cut weighing up to 0.62 carats, in colors up to E and clarity up to VVS1; also Fancy brown-pink, Fancy orange-brown and Fancy Dark orangy brown stones. TECHNICAL INFORMATION In a CVD reactor, thin diamond substrates onto which a diamond film will be deposited (i.e., where a future diamond will be growing) are placed on a substrate holder in a recreation chamber. A mixture of the corresponding gases hydrogen, methane, and others gases necessary to attain the desired properties in the final material is fed into the chamber. This mixture is subsequently ionized using microwave radiation; as a result, a plasma cloud is formed directly above the substrate holder. Plasma heats the substrate to 600-1200 C and serves as a carbon source for deposition. The synthesis process occurs under reduced pressure - 100-300 Torr. Two types of microwave radiation are used as standard - 2.45 GHz and 915 MHz. The vast majority of manufacturers use 2.45 GHz reactors. Of the well-known companies, only Diamond Foundry and IIa Technologies grow crystals in plants using 915 MHz plasma. The theoretically effective deposition area at 915 MHz is 7 times larger than at 2.45 GHz (half-wavelength corresponds to a diameter of ~ 160 and 60 mm, respectively). But an increase in size probably leads to an increase in the temperature gradient on the substrate holder, which creates inhomogeneous growth conditions for different seeds, hence, possibly, results in a high percentage of rejects. The first company to launch CVD reactors (for university research) in the early 1990s was U.S.-based ASTeX (Applied Science and Technology, Inc). In 1999, the company was acquired by the Japanese SEKI Diamonds. In 2012, SEKI became part of Corners Technologies Ltd (Japan), retaining the SEKI Diamonds brand. In total, around 500 CVD synthesis plants have been sold worldwide under the ASTeX-SEKI brand, according to Corners Technologies. SEKI is still the most famous brand of CVD reactors. Other well-known manufacturers of CVD machines include iPlas (Germany; these machines were very popular among Indian companies), Microwave Enterprises (USA, purchased by IIa Technologies), Plassys (France, mainly focused on university research, not for production), Carat Systems (USA) , Optosystems (Russia, Ardis-100 and Ardis-300 machines). As in the case of HPHT presses, despite the improvements in the basic configurations of growth units, most diamond growing specialists come to the need of modernizing the acquired reactor in the process of its use, adapting it to their own requirements. Therefore, most of the reactors that actually operate on the production sites of companies manufacturing gem-quality diamonds are significantly different from their factory prototypes. During the last few years, Indian and Chinese manufacturers have launched the production of reactors of their own design. Two years ago, the minimal price for a basic reactor started at $ 300,000, while currently, minimum prices for reactors made in India have dropped to $ 150,000. A reactor (2.45 GHz) fully adapted to specific production is capable of synthesizing up to 150-200 carats of rough diamonds per month, depending on the technique, size of substrates, and product quality. HPHT manufacturers market Today, China accounts for more than 85% of the global production of lab-grown diamonds (by weight). Until recently, Chinese products consisted mainly of medium and low quality abrasive diamond powders and finished goods based on them. Currently, the situation is changing rapidly: Chinese companies are investing heavily in the modernization of techniques and equipment, including for the production of gem-quality stones. Five years ago, the main Chinese products that came to be cut and polished were diamonds up to 1 carat (mostly polished melee up to 0.2 carats, sometimes it was possible to get stones up to 0.4 carats). At the same time, the volume of production was insignificant. Today, rough diamonds of 4-5 carats (i.e. more than 1 carat if polished) are more and more turning into mass products. Diamonds of 10 carats and more are grown in the course of experiments. With the improvement of techniques, the quality of products is also increasing. In 2019, Chinese manufacturers supplied the market with approximately 5 million carats of rough diamonds for the jewelry industry. It is China that is mass producing rough diamonds for polished melee, small-size polished goods and +1 carat stones. The yield (the ratio of the polished diamond weight to the weight of a rough diamond it was made of) of HPHT rough is quite high and reaches 35-38% for round-cut diamonds. The three largest Chinese companies - Zhongnan Diamond, Henan Huanghe Whirlwind International, Zhengzhou Sino-Crystal Diamond - account for about 75% of the Chinese market. In addition to Chinese companies, there are companies producing high gem-quality diamonds using the HPHT technique in Russia, Europe and Ukraine. These are just a few companies, but the current level of their technologies significantly exceeds those Chinese allowing them to occupy leading positions in the premium segment producing especially large diamonds of high clarity and color characteristics. Thus, New Diamond Technology (NDT), which has production facilities in Sestroretsk near Saint Petersburg in Russia, has remained to be an unchallenged record holder in the production of large-size diamonds in recent years. In 2018, the company unveiled the largest polished diamond weighing 20.22 carats (cut from a grown stone weighing 55.94 carats), Fancy Vivid Orange in color and VS2 in clarity. In 2015, NDT certified the largest colorless E/VS1 diamond weighing 10.02 carats (made from a rough diamond weighing 32.26 carats). De Beers Now about the event, which played a huge role in the fate of lab-grown diamonds. In 2018, the announcement by De Beers that its affiliate, Element 6 was launching an industrial production of CVD diamond jewelry and its own mass retail brand LightBox was a breakthrough in the industry. The initially announced investment in the project is $ 90 million. The volume of planned production is 500,000 carats. The launch of global production is set for 2019-2020. CVD manufacturers market U.S.-based Apollo Diamonds (later renamed as SCIO Diamond Technology) can be considered the pioneer in using the CVD method at an industrial scale. American Diamond Foundry is considered the most famous company on the market thanks to a successful PR campaign involving Leonardo DiCaprio. The company was established in 2012 and started production in 2015 having designed its own technology and reactors. Diamond Foundry is one of the largest manufacturers with the current annual output of about 200,000 carats of rough diamonds (as per 2019 data). Another leader is WD Lab Grown Diamonds based in the United States. It was established in 2008 and started production in 2012 using the technology and reactors designed by the Carnegie Institute of Washington. In May 2018, the company presented its largest certified CVD diamond of brilliant cut, I/VS2, weighing 9.04 carats. Another major producer is IIa Technologies, a private company run by the Indian Mehta family; it was established in 2005 and started production in 2013. In Russia, the leader in CVD technology is Wonder Technologies. The company works in close collaboration with a scientific group of the Russian Academy of Sciences. After cutting, their stones have high-grade DEF color characteristics and VS+ clarity. Since the mid-2010s, Indian companies have poured into the marketheaded by New Diamond Era, ALTR and joined by many smaller units. CVD production companies also popped up in China, including Ningbo CrysDiam, Shanghai Zhengshi, as well as smaller prolducers in transition from pilot production to commercial output. The yield (the ratio of the polished diamond weight to the weight of a rough diamond it was made of) of rough produced by the CVD method is lower compared with the HPHT method and reaches 25-27% if diamond have a brilliant cut. Totally, CVD rough supplied to the market in 2019 exceeded 2.5 million carats. Intellectual property issue While developing their technology, pioneer companies have spent huge amounts of money to penetrate a market that was not ready to accept lab-grown diamonds. Therefore, the diamond community is currently facing an emerging issue, which was viewed with a certain caution in recent years, but which did not come to the fore until some time ago - these are the aspects related to intellectual property: patentability of technologies, priority and protection of patents, etc. This problem practically does not concern the HPHT method. The main patent restrictions on the technology as a whole were lifted in the early 1980s - from the moment the main General Electric patent for this method expired. This allowed many companies all over the world to enter the market, primarily in China, which gave a boost to the Chinese diamond industry. The CVD method is a completely different story: the first patentable technologies suitable for industrial use appeared in the early 2000s. Their developers tried to subject each individual synthesis mode to patent protection, expanding its range to the maximum extent. As a result, there are currently a large number of patents covering a very wide range of operating parameters and conditions for CVD synthesis, as well as the characteristics of growth plants. Leading patent holders include Element 6, Carnegie Institute and Michigan University. On February 7, 2020, the diamond community came to know the first high-profile court decision related to the violation of intellectual property rights in the CVD industry. The court of Singapore found a patent infringement by IIa Technologies in a lawsuit filed against them by Element 6 for infringement of its patent rights in early 2016. What specific measures will be taken on the basis of this decision and what consequences it will lead to is not yet clear. In January 2020, Carnegie Institution of Washington together with WD Lab Grown Diamonds (who are the owners of the Carnegie patent) filed three lawsuits in connection with violations of their patent rights: the first against Pure Grown Diamonds and their parent company IIa Technologies, the second against the Indian Mahendra Brothers and its affiliate Fenix Diamonds, and the third lawsuit against ALTR and their parent company RA Riam. Whether this is the beginning of a full-scale patent war and how it can reformat the current market configuration will become clear in the near future. To summarize We attributed lab-grown diamonds to disruptive innovations, since they demonstrated a rapid development of technologies characteristic of this phenomenon, a fall in prices for synthesis equipment observed in the market for several years in a row, and a reduction in the cost of grown diamonds. However, today these trends have clearly slowed down as the influencing factors come closer to their current limits. It is possible that the next stage in the evolution of the lab-grown diamond market will be expanded production along with a series of mergers and acquisitions. The specific cost of production and the profitability of a business depend, of course, on the size and quality of diamonds produced, the number of operating growth plants, the geographical location of such a business (which impacts the cost of labor and electric power), as well as on a number of other factors. The calculations made by Indian manufacturers show that an industrial enterprise located, for example, in Surat (the main diamond-cutting center of India) can be profitable starting with 10-15 installed CVD reactors. In general, the average profitability in the production of lab-grown gem-quality diamonds remains at least 50%. The average cost of rough diamonds weighing 4-5 carats used to manufacture polished diamonds weighing 1.0-1.5 carats is approximately the same for both HPHT and CVD types. Currently, these methods for growing diamonds are competitive. Lab-grown diamonds, regardless of the method used in their production be it a press or reactor - are evaluated by most laboratories using the system for grading natural diamonds. Thus, it is wrong to talk about the difference between lab-grown diamonds produced in different ways. Diamond is the diamond. According to our estimates, the total production of lab-grown stones in 2019 amounted to about 7.5 million carats in their rough form. The forecast for production growth based on an increase in production capacity may reach 150% during 2020 and will exceed 10 million carats by the end of the year. In the next part of the review, we will definitely talk about the market, its prospects, pricing, consumer preferences and much more. Table. Output of rough diamonds, 2019 It turned out to be a triple delight for a pregnant Kerala nurse as she returned home from Maldives on board an Indian Navy vessel along with over 600 others and within hours gave birth to a baby boy here on Sunday -- Mother's Day. Sonia Jacob, working in a hospital in Maldives, delivered the baby boy through caesarean section (surgery) at 5.40 pm at a private hospital, Ernakulam District officials said. The woman, hailing from Eraviperoor village in Pathanamthitta district, complained of uneasiness soon after her safe embarkation from "INS Jalashwa" ship that berthed at the Cochin Port at 9.30 am. She was immediately admitted to a government hospital for women and children at Mattancherry and later shifted to the private hospital at Kalamassery. Ernakulam District Collector S Suhas congratulated both Sonia and her husband Shijo, a nurse working in the state, on being blessed with the baby on Mothers' Day. The couple had been married for six years and this is their first child. The ship was the first to return from overseas as part of the Centre's Vande Bharat Mission to repatriate Indian citizens stranded in foreign countries due to the coronavirus lockdown and carried 698 people evacuated from Maldives. Of them, nineteen were pregnant women and 14 children. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Reuters) Tokyo Sun, May 10, 2020 12:07 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd701d57 2 Books Manga,Japan,coronavirus,COVID-19,comic-book,Golgo-13 Free Japan's ruthless animated hitman has become the latest victim of the coronavirus, as the nation's longest-running manga comic announced it would take its first hiatus in its 52-year history as social restrictions to contain the virus have made it difficult to produce the hand-drawn series. The 599th installment of Golgo 13 published in the May 25 issue of Big Comic would be its last "for the time being", the manga magazine published twice a month by Shogakukan said on Saturday, citing commuting restrictions. "Given the division of labor between the series's staff of more than 10, it has become increasingly difficult to continue producing the series," the magazine's editors said in a full-page announcement in the issue which went on sale on Saturday. "I hope you understand," Golgo 13 creator Takao Saito wrote in a signed address at the bottom of the page. "We won't give in to the virus, and we are already planning the 600th installment. Please take care." Golgo, whose ruthlessness, ingenuity and womanizing ways have earned him comparisons to James Bond and Dirty Harry, will put his revolver down for the first time since the series, one of Japan's most popular, began publishing in 1968. Read also: Tokyo manga hotel makes virtue of sleepless nights Golgo 13 went on its first hiatus since his debut in 1968. It took a global pandemic to interrupt 52 years of constant comic craft. Take a well deserved break, Mr. Saitou. https://t.co/VJ9U0ulkhL Minovsky (@MinovskyArticle) May 8, 2020 Since then, the brooding, hard-boiled crime series has placed its hero at the center of scenarios often dealing with the seedy underbelly of society, from money laundering at the Vatican to the death of Princess Diana, selling nearly 300 million copies in the process. Also known by his pseudonym Duke Togo, Golgo is widely considered as a modern-day samurai warrior by manga fans and salarymen alike, and has spawned anime series, video games, and action figures, along with pachinko slot machines featuring his likeness. "It looks like Golgo is taking a break...wonder if that means that he'll contract the coronavirus in the next installment?" a fan with the Twitter handle MARObase tweeted after the announcement. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form May 10, 2005 SENNETT - Deb English spent her first day as new administrator at the Cayuga County Nursing Home looking to how she could work past one of the facility's most controversial periods last year. "The perception in the community is a bit negative," said English, 50, after unpacking some boxes in her new office Monday. "People focus on the one or two things that don't have anything to do with patient care." One of her first objectives is to help the community get over that perception. In 2004, the state Department of Health cited the 80-bed facility for multiple cleaning deficiencies and former administrator Rob Flynn resigned amid harassment charges by Rebekah DeTomaso, the home's former director of nursing. "It's hard to overcome perceptions of people. We have a challenge ahead of us to show the community what a good facility this is," said English, who lives in Elbridge. But during her first day, she took on smaller battles, like figuring out where extra parking spots could be put to accommodate families who visit in the late afternoon. English is not new to the practical problems of overseeing the nursing home. While working as Auburn Memorial Hospital's director of social work, English took classes toward her nursing home administrator license, knowing she'd eventually want to move on. She received her license four years ago. "I always wanted to make the change, and it seemed like a natural progression," she said. After 19 years with the hospital, English received a call from Cayuga County Legislature Chairman Herb Marshall asking if she would help out at the nursing home after Flynn's resignation. The facility already had Alice Amoia, former head of nursing, as acting administrator, but she didn't have the administrator license New York state requires. English didn't first come into the new job intending to staying as full-time administrator. "As the weeks went by, I saw it as a real possibility," she said. "I didn't apply until the 11th hour, but I'm glad I did." Compiled by Jeremy Boyer Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 In the past 24 hours, 224 new coronavirus cases were reported from the national capital, which now has 84 containment zones, according to the Delhi Health Department. The total number of cases in Delhi has mounted to 6, 542 while 68 persons have succumbed to the dreaded virus so far. A total of 2,020 persons have recovered from the disease till now. The number of cumulative tests conducted till Friday is 84,226, while the total number patients under home isolation is 937. There are 4,454 active cases in Delhi. As per the health department data, nearly 85.29 per cent of the deceased had comorbidity. Ninety-one patients are in the ICU while 18 are on ventilator support. Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain on Saturday held a meeting through video conferencing to review the Covid-19 situation in the national capital. Meanwhile, the Delhi government has declared three private hospitals -- Fortis in Shalimar Bagh, Saroj Medical Institute in Rohini and Khushi Hospital in Dwarka -- as Covid-19 hospitals for admitting confirmed or suspect cases. With the inclusion of these hospitals, a total of 150 isolation beds have been added. Clubsaves.com scored 41 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 24 Aug 2015, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. The total number of people who shared the clubsaves homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. The total number of people who shared the clubsaves homepage on StumbleUpon. The total number of people who shared the clubsaves homepage on Delicious. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the clubsaves homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if clubsaves has a Facebook fan page). This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the clubsaves homepage on Twitter + the total number of clubsaves followers (if clubsaves has a Twitter account). Basic Information PAGE TITLE SIGN UP TODAY! : ClubSaves DESCRIPTION Clubsaves is a free online wholesale membership club serving in neighbourhoods near you. We are committed to provide our members savings on quality brand name products with the convenience of home and business delivery without any additional cost within o KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS clubsaves, addvariable, services, supplies, paper, tissue, business CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The title found in the head section of the homepage. The description meta-tag 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 HTML 4.01 Transitional CHARSET AND LANGUAGE English UTF-8English DETECTED LANGUAGE English English SERVER nginx/1.8.0 OPERATIVE SYSTEM The language of clubsaves.com as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Character set and language of the site. Type of server and offered services. 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 clubsaves.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 Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The URL of the found Facebook page. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. The type of Facebook page. Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND MANASSAS, VA Members of the City of Manassas Fire and Rescue Department joined employees from other public safety agencies in the region Thursday afternoon to thank the staff of Novant UVA Prince William Medical Center during National Nurses Week. Crews, wearing masks, gathered at the entrances of the hospital to flash their lights and display signs showing their appreciation for the medical workers. Emergency vehicles also paraded around the medical center's campus to honor the medical workers inside the building. "For us to be able to come out and to be able to salute the heroes working in this building, it's really an honor for us," Manassas Fire Chief Rob Clemons said Thursday in a video statement. The fire and rescue department gets a lot of credit for its response to helping and treating members of the community, Clemons said. But fire and rescue members could not protect the public "without our collaboration and partnership with the hospital," the fire chief said. Todd Lupton, deputy fire and rescue chief for the City of Manassas, said the department felt it was appropriate "to recognize the nursing staff, the clinical staff and all the staff working here at Novant Medical Center during this time." In the City of Manassas, 381 people have tested positive for the coronavirus and two people have died, according to the Virginia Department of Health. In neighboring Manassas Park, 120 people have tested positive and two people have died. Prince William County has the second most positive cases of the coronavirus in Virginia, behind only Fairfax County. In the county, 2,740 people have tested positive and 48 people have died from COVID-19. Members of the Manassas Fire and Rescue Department led an effort to honor nurses and other workers at the Prince William Medical Center (Courtesy of Sarah Maroney/Manassas City Police Department) We are humbled and honored by this display of support from our first-responder partners, Stephen Smith, MD, president and chief operating officer, Novant Health UVA Health System Prince William Medical Center and Novant Health UVA Health System Haymarket Medical Center, said in a statement to Patch. During this challenging time, our nurses and team members appreciated having the chance to pause and enjoy this display of lights from local police, fire and emergency medical services. Story continues Officials from the following agencies participated in the effort to honor the nurses and other workers at the medical center: Manassas Fire Rescue Department, Manassas City Police Department, Manassas Park Fire Rescue, City of Manassas Park Police Department, Prince William County Fire & Rescue System, Prince William County Police Department, George Mason University Police Department, Nokesville Volunteer Fire & Rescue Department, Greater Manassas Volunteer Rescue Squad, AirCare 1 Medevac- Manassas, Virginia, Haymarket Police Department, Virginia State Police and federal agencies. We continue to receive an outpouring of support from the community," Smith said. "We are so thankful for the homemade masks, letters of support, food donations and lawn signs our hospitals have received." Community members who would like to make a donation to the hospital should email NHUVA.SR@novanthealth.org to find out what the medical center needs and where to drop off donations. RELATED: This article originally appeared on the Manassas Patch Kim Kardashian is one of the most followed people on Instagram, so it goes without saying that her social media posts get viewed by numerous fans around the world. This gives Kardashian a huge platform to talk about issues that matter to her. However, it also means that everything she does gets scrutinized and judged. Recently, Kardashian found herself being criticized for some Instagram posts that were deemed insensitive by fans. Read on below to find out what happened and why people are not happy with Kardashians posts. Kim Kardashian talked about the Armenian genocide on her Instagram Kim Kardashian West and Kylie Jenner | Taylor Hill/FilmMagic Kardashian is half-Armenian. Her late father, Robert Kardashian Sr, was a descendant of Armenians who fled their country in the early 1900s. Kardashian and her siblings have been very open about their Armenian heritage. They have traveled to Armenia many times and even decided to let some of their children get baptized there. Kardashian is also an advocate for the recognition of the Armenian genocide, which happened several years after her ancestors came to the United States. She has urged American presidents to formally recognize it while also trying to educate fans about the event. This year, Kardashian made several posts on her Instagram in honor of the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day on April 24. She posted photos from the genocide and told followers a bit about what happened during the tragic holocaust. These are my ancestors, Kardashian wrote. They were starved, raped, & slaughtered Today we remember the Armenian genocide so that no race, religion, or group, is ever subjected to anything like this ever again. Why fans think Kim Kardashian was being insensitive Although most fans do not have a problem with Kardashians advocacy work for her ancestral homeland, some found her to be insensitive when it comes to what she chose to post on Instagram after talking about the Armenian genocide. Several hours afterward, Kardashian began making promotional posts for her makeup company, KKW Beauty. Does anyone else feel that her Instagram story currently seems a bit insensitive? It goes from posting about the Armenian Genocide (which I have no problem with, of course, I think its good she posts this stuff) straight into makeup promotion, one fan wrote on Reddit. I get that its her job, but she cant wait 24 hours until the Armenian Genocide posts disappear to post about her makeup palette? However, some people are on Kardashians side, noting that there isnt anything wrong with what she did. Shes still a businesswoman, another fan said. It may be a little tone deaf but at least shes doing something about it I guess. Fans often have problems with Kim Kardashians ad posts This is not the first time fans have complained about Kardashians social media ads. A number of followers have been voicing their frustration about the fact that she seems to promote her businesses more and more nowadays. One fan even says that it is exhausting to follow her since they are simply getting ads for products as opposed to updates about her personal life. Some of Kardashians sisters have been the target of these complaints as well. Another fan wrote that they only follow Kourtney and Kendall because their feeds are not 50% ads like Kim and Kylie[]s. Of course, the Kardashians do have a reason for why they like to post ads. Since they are businesswomen, social media posts make up a large part of their marketing plans and often drive people to buy their products. Additionally, they can also earn big bucks advertising for other companies. Their mother, Kris Jenner, once revealed that the siblings often demand six figures per social media post. At the end of the day, the Kardashian family members make a lot of money from advertising products, so they will most likely continue to do it for as long as they can. Hailing the Indian government for its Vande Bharat Mission to repatriate Indians stranded abroad due to the coronavirus lockdown, an Indian national who arrived here on Saturday from Sharjah in UAE by special Air India Express flight narrated his ordeal and heaped praises on Centre for its endeavour. "I lost my job due to the coronavirus crisis. I did not get four months salary, my employer only gave the ticket to travel to India but not my salary. I am not sure now whether I will get my salary," the passenger told ANI on the condition of maintaining anonymity. "It was a very scary situation, markets and most companies are shut and people are scared to even get out of their homes to bring essential items. We were confined to a room. We had some food stock and some money that we used. Thanks to the Indian government for bringing us back to our country," he added. He hails from Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh and had gone to work in Sharjah last year. The Air India flight from Sharjah with 182 passengers on-board landed at Lucknow airport on May 9. The government has said that Air India will operate 64 flights in the first week from May 7 to May 13 to bring back around 15,000 Indian nationals. On day three of the 'Vande Bharat Mission', flights carrying Indians from the Gulf countries, the United Kingdom, Bangladesh and Malaysia arrived in India. -ANI Also Read: Coronavirus: Five Air India pilots test positive for COVID-19, had flown cargo flights to China The Air India Express flight that was scheduled to fly out with 181 Indian citizens stranded in Doha has been called off for now, an airport official said on Sunday. Sources told News18 that the flight was denied permission to land because of some technical reasons. It was to travel to Doha from Kozhikode around 1 pm and land in Thiruvananthapuram around 10.45 pm. "There have been some technical issues as Doha has not given the permission for this flight to land. What we are given to understand is that this flight has been called off. Now it will have to operate under a new schedule. We were fully ready to receive the flight later in the night," said the official who did not wish to be identified. The Thiruvananthapuram district collector told the media that the flight has now been rescheduled for Tuesday. According to reports, about 50 passengers booked to travel from Doha had already reached the airport there. Kerala will thus see only one flight on Sunday, and that is the one bringing stranded Indians from Malaysia to Kochi in the night. Sunday is the fourth day of a mammoth operation by the government to bring back Indians stuck abroad because of the closure of airspaces due to Covid-19. The exercise involves sending commercial passenger planes and Indian Navy warships to over a dozen countries. Earlier in the day, 572 people landed at Mumbai airport in two flights - one from United Kingdom with 329 people and another from Singapore with 243 people. The first repatriation flight from the United States took off from the San Francisco International Airport on Sunday, with around 200 people on board. In the first phase from May 7 to May 13, 14,800 Indians are to be repatriated from 13 countries. All those being repatriated will be screened before boarding and only those with no signs of COVID-19 infection will be allowed to return, the government said, adding that all would be screened on arrival also be sent to a mandatory 14-day quarantine period Libya's Government of National Accord said Sunday at least four civilians, including a child, were killed as rockets rained down on the capital Tripoli and damaged its only working airport. The UN-recognised GNA blamed Saturday's attacks on eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar, who has been waging a campaign to take control of the capital since April last year. GNA supporter Turkey, for its part, warned that it would target Haftar's forces if attacks continued on Ankara's missions and "interests", citing the airport. Haftar's forces "fired more than a hundred rockets and missiles at residential areas in the centre of the capital", the GNA said in a statement on Facebook. At least four civilians, including a five-year-old girl, were killed and 16 others wounded in the working-class districts of Abu Slim and Ben Gashir, south of the city, the GNA's health ministry spokesman Amin al-Hashemi said. Dozens of rockets also targeted Mitiga airport, hitting a civilian aircraft lined up to repatriate Libyans stuck abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic, the GNA statement added. Turkey warned that Haftar's forces would become "legitimate targets" if such attacks continued. Overnight Thursday to Friday, rockets fell on Tripoli's Zawiyat al-Dahmani neighbourhood, which is home to the GNA foreign ministry and the Italian and Turkish embassies. At least two policemen and one civilian were killed, Hashemi said at the time. "We stress that if our missions and interests are targeted in Libya, Haftar's forces will be considered legitimate targets," the Turkish foreign ministry said. "The attacks on diplomatic missions including our Tripoli embassy, Mitiga airport, civilian planes preparing to take off and other civilian infrastructure, and those which kill civilians or injure them, constitute a war crime," it added. Mitiga airport was badly damaged Saturday and came under renewed rocket fire on Sunday morning. An airport source said the passenger halls and two civilian planes sustained serious damage. Images of an aircraft with its fuselage ripped open and of a badly damaged runway and airport buildings were posted on social media. Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) said Saturday that rockets and missiles hit a fuel depot at the airport, destroying four tanks and damaging the facility's other six. - 'Weakness and desperation' - The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) called the bombardment "an all too familiar but frightening spectacle". "These horrifying attacks occur on a regular basis in close proximity to civilian neighbourhoods," UNSMIL said on Twitter. It called the shelling "one in a series of indiscriminate attacks, most of which are attributable to pro-LNA (Haftar) forces, killing more than 15 and injuring 50 civilians since 1 May". Since Wednesday, 17 civilians and two police officers have been killed and more than 66 other civilians wounded in rocket fire targeting several areas of the capital, according to the GNA. UNSMIL slammed the attacks hitting civilians and civilian infrastructure and called for "those responsible for crimes under international law to be brought to justice". But the GNA said international condemnation was not enough. "We no longer pay any attention to the timid condemnations of the international community, incapable as it is of naming" Haftar, holding him to account or stopping those supporting him, the GNA said. "The senseless acts... of the past days... are proof of his weakness and desperation after the successive defeats of his militias and mercenaries," it added. Haftar's forces have suffered several setbacks in recent weeks, with GNA fighters ousting them from two key coastal cities west of Tripoli in April. Backed by Turkey, GNA troops now surround Haftar's main rear base at Tarhuna, southeast of the capital. Turkey's foreign ministry said the international community had a "collective responsibility" to stop "putschist Haftar". Foreign military involvement in Libya has exacerbated the conflict, with the United Arab Emirates and Russia backing Haftar. World leaders at a Berlin meeting in January committed to ending foreign meddling and to upholding a 2011 weapons embargo, but the UN has warned that both sides have continued to receive arms and fighters. The UN-recognised GNA blamed the attacks on eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) called the bombardment 'an all too familiar but frightening spectacle' At least four civilians, including a five-year-old girl, were killed and 16 others wounded in the working-class neighbourhoods of Abu Slim and Ben Gashir south of the city, a health ministry spokesman said A Pickering long-term-care home that is one of Ontarios hardest hit by COVID-19 is investigating the possibility of a privacy breach with the release of resident personal health information, according to a government minister. Our government takes personal privacy very seriously, and we are continuing to monitor this situation closely, Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton wrote in a series of tweets sent on the weekend. Orchard Villa has notified the Information and Privacy Commissioner Office and an internal investigation has been conducted into the possibility of a privacy breach of personal health information, Jason Gay, the homes executive director, wrote in an email. We will not be commenting further at this time. Peter Bethlenfalvy, MPP for Pickering-Uxbridge, released a statement that said Orchard Villa is contacting the residents and families who may have been impacted by the unauthorized release of information. According to Durham Region Public Healths virus tracker Sunday, 66 residents of Orchard Villa long-term care and retirement home have died of COVID-19 since an outbreak was declared at the 233-bed facility in March. Its owned by Southbridge Care Homes, based in Cambridge, Ont. A letter sent by Southbridge last Thursday to families of Orchard Villa residents said that with the help of support teams, including members of the Canadian military, important progress has been made in the fight against the deadly virus. Contacted by the Star, personal-injury lawyer Gary Will said a privacy breach is indicative of some serious problems at Orchard Villa. His law firm is investigating the facility while deciding whether to launch a class-action lawsuit against the owners. He notes Orchard Villa has a history of pre-COVID infractions. He counted more than 15 over the last three years, including lack of proper care. On Saturday, Pickering Deputy Mayor Kevin Ashe released a statement saying that he has tested positive for COVID-19 and is in self-isolation for the next two weeks. Ashe wrote while hes not certain, he may have contracted the virus from his daughter, who is a proud and dedicated personal support worker at Orchard Villa. A federal judge has denied convicted drug dealer and Worcester restaurateur Kevin Perry Jr.s request to be released early from prison during the coronavirus pandemic noting Perry has served only 25% percent of his sentence. Perry, who was sentenced to serve 14 years in federal prison in 2018, filed a motion requesting early release in Worcester federal court citing leukopenia, a shortage of white blood cells in his body, according to court records. Perry, 49, argued the condition puts him at an increased risk for serious illness or death if he contracts coronavirus in federal prison. According to a judges decision filed Friday denying Perrys motion for early release, Perry also has a history of hepatitis C and had a past positive test for tuberculosis. Perry is currently serving his sentence at the Federal Medical Center in Devens, Massachusetts. There is no indication, however, that continued incarceration at FMC Devens, the facility where he is housed, exposes him to significant risk of exposure to the virus, federal Judge Timothy Hillman wrote. On the contrary, although the court recognizes the virus can appear suddenly and spread quickly in the prison population, FMC Devens appears to be taking appropriate measures to ensure the safety of inmates and staff. In his decision Friday, Hillman writes that there are no inmates with COVID-19 at FMC Devens. The court also finds it significant that Mr. Perry has only served approximately 25% of his 168-month sentence and that the defendant committed the acts that resulted in the present incarceration while he was on supervised release for similar drug-related conduct, Hillman wrote. Perry, the judge wrote, has not demonstrated that he meets the requirements for a compassionate release. Federal records show Perry is expected to be released in February 2029. The former restaurateur was sentenced to federal prison after he admitted to using drug money to buy two Worcester restaurants and other properties in Central Massachusetts. Perry was sentenced to prison on money laundering and fentanyl distribution charges. His estranged wife, Stacey Gala, has also pleaded guilty to a money laundering charge in the case although her sentencing has been delayed due to the pandemic. A federal prosecutor wants a judge to send Gala to prison for 32 months. Gala was never involved in Perrys drug dealing, but she did use his ill-gotten cash to renovate one of Worcester restaurants, authorities said. Galas former business partner, Joseph Herman, has already pleaded guilty in the case. He is also awaiting sentencing on charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, false statements and attempted tampering with a witness. Records show Gala and Perry owned a home and several rental properties along with two Worcester restaurants, The Usual and The Blackstone Tap. Perry spent just over $2 million to purchase all of the properties. The money used to buy those properties was hidden from federal investigators when Perry was convicted in 2005 of selling and manufacturing ecstasy. He also began selling drugs when he got out of federal prison after the 2005 conviction. The properties were seized, and the restaurants now have new owners. Herman, who was Galas former manager at The Usual, and Gala used some of Perrys hidden drug money to rebrand the restaurant under the name, The Chameleon, after Perrys arrest in 2017. Herman even lied to Worcester city regulators about where he got the money for the rebranding, authorities said. Another man, Christopher Slavinskas, and Herman retrieved the money from a storage locker where Perry hid money. Slavinskas hid some of the money in a Worcester church. Slavinskas was sentenced to two years of probation in the case for lying to investigators. Related Content: Oneida, N.Y. Madison County health officials are investigating whether Green Empire Farms failed to get a required permit to house migrant workers in local hotels. The county is also planning to inspect the living conditions of migrant workers now housed in two hotels following an outbreak of COVID-19 among migrant workers at the 64-acre farm under glass. The outbreak is the largest in Upstate outside of the cluster in New Rochelle. The workers were brought to Oneida by MAC Contracting, a migrant labor contractor from Indiana hired by the farm. The migrant workers were living four to a room, two to a bed, said Madison County Public Health Director Eric Faisst. He said it was farmworkers living conditions, not the conditions at the greenhouse, that fueled the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus. The migrant workers were also shuttled to work and back on vans and buses, another source of concern. Last week, 169 workers at the greenhouse tested positive for the virus. Two were sick enough to be hospitalized, but have since recovered. Of those workers, 83 that tested positive for the virus are living at the Super 8 and Days Inn in Madison County. There are also 82 COVID-19 positive migrant workers living in Oneida County; many are at the La Quinta Hotel. In total, there are 186 workers for Green Empire Farm living at the hotels. Madison County was not aware that the migrant workers were living at hotels until late March, county officials said in a news release this evening. And it wasnt until this past week that county officials knew the living conditions were so cramped, they said. County officials said 16 hotel workers in Madison County also were tested; none had contracted the virus. No hotel workers are cleaning the rooms of COVID-19 positive workers, county officials said. The county has asked the state for guidance on how to deal with the hotel being used as migrant living quarters and plan to inspect the hotels soon. Once we have that information we will conduct an investigation to ensure the workers are in living conditions that adhere to New York State Migrant Farmworker Housing regulations and issue citations as needed, county officials said in a statement. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources Onondaga Co. warns of possible coronavirus exposure at 8 places last weekend Onondaga Co. coronavirus: Hospitalizations at record levels, up 45% in one week; 5 more deaths Inside Green Empire Farm: Upstate NYs biggest coronavirus outbreak slams migrant workers Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com Marnie Eisenstadt is a reporter who writes about people and public affairs in Central New York. Have an idea or question? Contact her anytime: email | twitter| Facebook | 315-470-2246 Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE Even during a pandemic, David Scrase is a man of routine. The head of the states Human Services Department who was recently described by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham as our very own New Mexico Dr. Fauci is reliably up by 4 a.m., and has had coffee, done some reading, meditated and exercised by the time his daily meetings start a few hours later. For me, thats like filling up the gas tank, Scrase said in a recent interview. I feel like if I do that, Im good. The licensed geriatrician, who was the primary physician for the governors late father and her mother, says that scripted schedule has helped him get through workweeks that have sometimes exceeded 80 hours during the coronavirus outbreak. Since New Mexicos first COVID-19 case was confirmed on March 11, Scrase has emerged as a recognizable figure due to his regular appearance with the governor at news briefings and his data-focused approach to the pandemic. A former health care system executive, a published author and a public speaker, Scrase said hes leaned on his past experiences during the pandemic. I do feel like everything Ive done in my career has kind of prepared me for this moment, Scrase told the Journal. Scrase is the only physician in the governors Cabinet, and his background came in handy even before the pandemic began wreaking havoc on countries worldwide. In January, Scrase rushed to help an elderly woman who collapsed at the Capitol during a crowded news conference. As people shouted for someone to call 911, Scrase quickly made his way through the crowd and attended to the woman. She was later helped into a chair and visited briefly with Lujan Grisham before other medical personnel arrived. Scrase also continued seeing patients, on a pro bono basis, at least twice a month since the governor picked him to run the Human Services Department in 2018. But he said hes had to put that practice on hold during the current outbreak. Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, said some previous Human Services Department secretaries have struggled under the weight of running New Mexicos Medicaid program, which currently covers about 40% of the states residents. In contrast, Scrase has shown a quiet confidence when it comes to running the joint federal-state health care program, the senator said. With great calmness and efficiency, he just gets things done, said Ortiz y Pino, who chairs the Legislatures interim Health and Human Services Committee. Its been very refreshing. Health care career Scrase, 67, is a Michigan native who moved to New Mexico in 1998. He had traveled to New Mexico a few years before that time and, during a trip full of hiking and camping, decided hed found his future home. Once in New Mexico, he worked for more than 17 years with Presbyterian Healthcare Services in Albuquerque, first as the health care systems president and later as its chief operating officer. Scrase eventually landed at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, and he was a professor there and chief of geriatrics at the time of his appointment as HSD secretary. He described senior citizens as my people during one recent television interview and said the elderly have been foremost in his mind during the COVID-19 outbreak. But his career has not been totally orthodox. In 2013, under the pen name of David Roberts, which he said he adopted to protect his patients privacy, he published a book that details some of the complex cases he faced during his first years as a doctor in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He said he has already written outlines for five or six other books but hasnt gotten around to finishing them yet. Scrase also delivers annual talks at meetings of the American College of Physicians, in which attendees try to solve hard-to-diagnose cases. One such case, he recounts, involved a patient in her 70s with high blood pressure readings that were stumping doctors. Eventually, doctors discovered the patients family members had been occasionally slipping her cocaine. Extensive briefings At the governors COVID-19 news briefings, Lujan Grisham typically delivers the latest New Mexico coronavirus case figures, hospitalizations and deaths. She then turns to Scrase for a deep dive into the states latest statistical models, including the diseases spread rate and how many other people may be infected by those who have tested positive. That data plays a prominent role in guiding the Lujan Grisham administrations strategy for battling the COVID-19 outbreak, including a gradual reopening of the states economy when certain criteria are met. We have to learn to live in a COVID-positive world, Scrase said during a briefing last week. However, Scrase and other state health officials faced criticism for not publicly releasing their own modeling assumptions. After Scrase vowed to be more transparent, state officials are now publicly posting weekly modeling reports, which include input from New Mexicos national laboratories and health care experts. The latest version projects New Mexico COVID-19 cases will continue to increase over the next six weeks, with between 4,685 and 21,443 confirmed cases projected by June 14, depending on whether social distancing guidelines are relaxed and other criteria. Both Scrase and Lujan Grisham have insisted outside modeling about New Mexico coronavirus cases and deaths cannot be trusted, saying such projections do not include enough state-specific data. If you went to buy a car and they wouldnt let you test-drive it, you probably wouldnt want to buy the car, Scrase said during one recent briefing, referring to the state having limited input into how such models are formulated. Helpful presence Governors Office staffers describe Scrases outlook as one of grounded positivity. They also say hes been helpful on a personal level with tips and suggestions for dealing with the stresses of life during the coronavirus era. Everybody is having a hard time dealing with the exhaustion, stress and mental health side of things, and hes got his antenna up for that, one Lujan Grisham staffer said. For his part, Scrase wears a face covering when hes out in public, washes his hands regularly and has even brought a forehead thermometer to the governors briefings to get quick, precautionary readings from those present. Hes been mostly working from home during the pandemic, traveling to Santa Fe only on days when the governor holds news briefings. But he recently went to a home goods store to buy some supplies and said he was struck by how few people were wearing masks. Before that outing, Scrase had not been anywhere in the last two months other than his home and a few brisk walks around his neighborhood and the state Capitol, according to an agency spokeswoman. Given his early morning tendencies, Scrase said hes usually in bed every night at 9 p.m. in order to get ready for the next day. But on Friday evenings, he sometimes has a glass or two of champagne with his wife in order to decompress after a long week. One of my theories is that every person needs to have a set of coping mechanisms, Scrase said. I am a creature of schedule. Passing of Pastor Darrin Patrick: Wife Amie, Pastor Josh Surratt share heartache of loss Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment As the South Carolina-based, multi-site Seacoast Church is making plans to hold a memorial service for Pastor Darrin Patrick, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound Thursday, his wife, Amie Patrick, and the megachurchs Lead Pastor Josh Surratt shared how they're grieving the loss and how they are dealing with it. We are heartbroken beyond belief, terribly confused, and missing Darrin in ways that feel unbearable, Amie wrote on Instagram, adding that the congregations kind remembrances of him, photos, stories, and encouraging words are healing to our souls. Patrick, who founded The Journey megachurch in Missouri and served as a teaching pastor at Seacoast, died at the age of 49 on Thursday. Darrin was target shooting with a friend at the time of his death. An official cause of death has not been released but it appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. No foul play is suspected, Seacoast Church shared in an update Friday evening after announcing his death earlier in the day. The police investigation into the incident is ongoing and its unknown whether the self-inflicted gunshot wound was intentional or unintentional, a representative from the church told The Christian Post on Saturday. Amie said Patrick was the rock of our family, the great love of my life, and a fiercely devoted father to our amazing children. He was a dynamic force of nature, deeply passionate and so, so fun. Mostly though, he loved God and people in ways that will challenge me for the rest of my days. And he loved me so well... I learned so much about how God loves me through the ways that my husband saw me, knew me, and cared for me. We will be a mess for a good while, but we will be ok. We grieve deeply with unwavering hope that this world is not the end and that we will see our Darrin again. Ahead of weekend church services, Pastor Josh Surratt, one of Seacoast Churchs teaching pastors who serves on the Executive Team as the Seacoast Lead Pastor, went live to share why the Saturday evening and Sunday services would not be live. Surratt was wearing a T-shirt with the title of Patricks book, The Dudes Guide to Manhood written on it. It was gifted to him by Patrick. Surratt said Amie is one of the strongest women hes known. After Darrin died, he said, we all ... have been wrecked. Were all having our private moments I've cried more in the last couple of days than, I think, I ever have in my life. Surratt said the church will continue with its Mothers Day observance this weekend, but there will be a tribute to Pastor Patrick at the end of the service. He explained that the church had already planned to host a pre-prerecorded service prior to Patricks death, and his wife, Lisa, will preach the sermon. Actually her message is very much relevant to what we all are walking through, he said. This is because many who join the online service do not know about Patricks story and would be seeking hope for their own lives. The church and Darrins family are not ready yet for a service dedicated to his passing, Surratt added. Following the weekend's service message led by Lead Pastor Lisa Surratt, the church announced that a service celebrating Patrick's life and legacy will be held on May 16-17. The church added: God allowed us to be a part of Darrins story in a time when he needed a church family. He was a gift to us and we are thankful for the time the Lord gave him to us. His influence and impact cannot be measured. The Patrick family will always be part of ours. In a message to the church on Friday, Surratt wrote: On Thursday night we learned the tragic news that our friend, Pastor Darrin Patrick, went to his eternal home in heaven. We do not have the words to describe what our family has been processing we know that will take some time. We all loved Darrin as an incredible teacher and pastor and for many of us on staff, Darrin was a close friend. This loss is a heavy one for Seacoast and we are going to feel it for a long time. He continued: We are experiencing heartache beyond words. It is during these tragedies that we lean even more deeply into the hope that Jesus provides. We mourn, but with the hope of the resurrection firm in our hearts we know that death is not the end. So many of us are suffering in this time and we want you to know that you are not alone. He added, Grief and shock may feel overwhelming in these moments, but we know that by Gods grace, sorrow does not have to overcome us. Through tears, we celebrate Darrins life, the legacy he leaves behind and his promotion into Heaven. The church has started an online fundraiser to support the Patrick family. As we process our grief and heartache, we want to provide a way for others to give assistance to the Patrick family, and show their deep love and appreciation for what Darrin meant to them, it says. Coronavirus: The rise and rise of Amateur Radio during lockdown Bournemouth's The Breaker reports the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) have experienced a threefold increase of people wanting to sit licensing exams since the government rules on lockdown The Breaker is the news and features site run by journalism masters students of the School of Journalism, English and Communication, Bournemouth University. Roxanne McKenzie writes: Working in partnership with the NHS Get on the air to care campaign, this has been encouraging people to chat and support each other. Campaigning to improve the health and well-being of communities, who are concerned that social isolation is negative in lockdown. A whopping 75,000 licensed radio amateurs are registered in the UK, including those returning from hiatus. The Breaker spoke with Rufus Maher, foundry worker from the West Midlands, who gave us some insight on why amateur radio is popular. Read the full article at https://thebreaker.co.uk/coronavirus-the-rise-and-rise-of-amateur-radio-during-lockdown/ What is Amateur Radio? http://www.essexham.co.uk/what-is-amateur-radio Free UK amateur radio online training courses and FAQ that describes how to apply to take the Foundation exam online from your own home http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2020/april/online-training-for-amateur-radio.htm A 21-year-old man was shot and killed in Shelby Township Saturday evening. Township police in a release said they were summoned to a home on Glen Eagle Drive, which is south of 21 Mile Road between Hayes and Schoenherr roads, at about 5 p.m. with a report of family trouble. However, as officers were en route, the call was updated to report gunfire. Upon arrival, it was found a 21-year-old male had been shot during a confrontation with his brother, Shelby Township police Lt. Pat Barnard said in a statement. The subject was given immediate medical care and transported to the hospital where he later succumbed to his injury and was pronounced deceased. Police said the investigation is ongoing and the other brother has been identified and is cooperating with police. As of Sunday afternoon, no arrests had been made. Man who killed rural St. Louis woman 37 years ago wont go free Appeals court maintains prison guards lawsuit over dog allergies Auto manufacturers and suppliers prepare to reopen plants Consumers fined $10K for fire at compressor station in Armada Twp. Survey of remote work during COVID-19 shows people prefer it to the office Coronavirus challenges outlined by Macomb, St. Clair county leaders Home builders, realtors back on the job in Macomb County By PTI NEW DELHI: India has sent medical assistance to the Maldives, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Seychelles by a naval ship following separate requests from these countries for help in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. The Ministry of External Affairs said Indian naval ship Kesari is carrying medical teams, essential medicines and food items to the five countries in line with India's "time-tested" role as the first responder to any crisis in the region. "Responding to their requests for assistance in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, India has sent Indian Naval Ship Kesari to Maldives, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Seychelles, carrying on board two medical assistance teams, consignments of Covid related essential medicines and essential food items," the MEA said in a statement. ALSO READ | Vande Bharat Mission: INS Jalashwa arrives in Kochi with 698 repatriated Indians from Maldives It said the medical assistance teams will be deployed in Mauritius and Comoros to help their governments deal with COVID-19. The team for Comoros will also help the country in tackling dengue fever. "The ship will deliver consignments of COVID-19 related essential medicines to Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Seychelles and about 600 tonnes of food items to Maldives," the MEA said. In addition, a special consignment of Ayurvedic medicines is also being sent to Mauritius. "The consignments meant for Madagascar and Comoros also includes Hydroxychloroquine tablets, which have already been sent earlier to Mauritius, Maldives and Seychelles," the MEA said. The ship has been sent under India's 'Mission Sagar' launched to help the friendly countries deal with the pandemic. Coronavirus respects no borders and does not discriminate.People of the world must work together to conquer COVID-19, says Chinese Ambassador In a bid to help island nations in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) deal with the coronavirus pandemic and prevent an outbreak of dengue fever, India has dispatched a warship with two medical teams along with medical supplies to assist authorities in the Maldives, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros, and Seychelles. The Ministry of External Affairs said the Indian Navys INS Kesari was deployed in response to requests for assistance from IOR countries in dealing with the pandemic. The warship is carrying consignments of COVID-19-related essential medicines and food supplies. READ | PM Modi To Hold Video Conference With All CMs On Monday To Discuss Lockdown Exit Strategy Medical teams to help fight COVID-19, Dengue The two medical assistance teams on board will be deployed in Mauritius and Comoros to help the authorities deal with the COVID-19 crisis and also dengue fever in Comoros. Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease caused by the dengue virus and is common in tropical climatic conditions like in islands. The vessel will also deliver consignments of COVID-19-related medicines to Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Seychelles and 600 tonnes of food supplies to the Maldives. It is also carrying a special consignment of Ayurvedic medicines for Mauritius, the MEA said. READ | Indian Navy Provide Medical & COVID Essential Assistance To IORs Under 'Mission Sagar' The consignments for Madagascar and Comoros include hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) tablets, which India had previously supplied in vast quantities to the Maldives. Mauritius and Seychelles. India had also deployed a team of select medical workers to the Maldives to augment the preparedness of authorities there to fight the pandemic. The Indian Ocean archipelago had so far reported 766 Covid-19 cases and three deaths. (With inputs from agencies) READ | Coronavirus Live Updates: MHA Issues Guidelines For Manufacturing Units; Cases At 62939 READ | Indian Navy's INS Jalashwa Arrives At Kochi Harbour With 698 Evacuees From Maldives The Centre has sent at least 50 health and disaster response teams to various states since March when cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) started rising to assist state governments in managing cases and containing the spread of infection. The latest batch of experts has been rushed to 10 states from where maximum cases currently are being reported: Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The team in Andhra Pradesh from the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health (AIIHM & PH) visited Kurnool town, and expressed concern over the growing number of cases. Kurnool accounts for maximum number of 566 of the 1,980 cases and 16 of the 45 deaths reported in the state so far. The team members, Dr Madhumita Dubey and Dr Sanjay Sadhukhan, held a meeting with senior officials of the district to review the situation in the state in general, and Kurnool in particular. Dubey said the state government should come out with new appropriate strategies to contain the fast spreading virus in tune with the growing number of cases. She suggested that testing, tracing, isolation and quarantine should be done faster and if necessary, the government should take the help of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for contact tracing. She advised the government to enhance the capacity of human resources, quarantine centres, Covid-19 care centres and hospitals to face the challenges effectively in case there was a large-scale outbreak of the virus in the coming days. So far, the state government has conducted 173,735 tests, including 8666 tests in the last 24 hours alone. Dubey said the central team had come to Kurnool to extend handholding to the state and the district administration in preventing spreading of the Covid-19 further. After examining the situation in all aspects, we shall make appropriate recommendations to the state government, she said. Prof Sadhukhan said since it was not possible for the government to continue lockdown for an indefinite period, the government should mentally prepare the people to live with Coronavirus after the lifting of the lockdown. We need to educate the people on how to maintain self-restraint to prevent the spread of the virus, he said. District collector G Veerapandian explained the efforts being made by the Kurnool district administration in containing the virus and bring down the death rate. He said though the number of cases was going up in the district, the recovery was also equally faster. The director of All India Institute of Medical (AIIMS), Dr Randeep Guleria, led a two-member team that visited Gujarat to assess the situation in the state that has reported over 7,000 cases and has a death rate of around 6%, which is nearly double of countrys death rate of about 3.3%. The AIIMS, Delhi, chief, has attributed high mortality rate to underlying medical conditions in most of the admitted patients and also delay in seeking treatment. Late reporting to hospital due to stigma seems to be one cause and comorbidities in patients for high mortality rate in Gujarat, said Dr Guleria. Earlier, another set of 20 central teams were sent to 20 high disease burden districts on May 3. The main objective of sending the teams of experts is to assess the situation on ground and advise the state government accordingly on how best to implement containment measures and manage cases so that they do not turn critical. Their job is to see if there are any loopholes, and help the states plug these, said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary, health ministry, on the teams being sent to states. Agarwal last week had led a second team of experts that visited Mumbai in the past one month as the city has been reporting high number of cases since past few weeks. Apart from the health teams, the central government had also constituted Interministerial Central Teams (IMCT) to look into other aspects such as implementation of lockdown, market activities etc. and sent to places from where more cases were being reported. One of the teams was sent to Mumbai, the main problem is of congested spaces because of which maintaining social distancing successfully can be difficult. The experts had found in many congested areas people share community toilet for which people have to come out of their homes despite the lockdown, especially in slums like Dharavi.It was suggested creating separate toilet structures. And to ensure people did not stay in close proximity, the teams had suggested moving people to different areas in make-shift quarantine facilities, Puniya Salila Srivastava, joint secretary, home ministry, had said on the feedback. In Indore, Madhya Pradesh, the Covid-19 testing capacity was found to be inadequate, and lockdown measures not followed properly, by the team. One of the main reasons initially for high cases testing positive in Indore was that the chain of transmission couldnt be broken as people didnt really stay indoors during the initial lockdown period. What we saw in subsequent weeks has been a result of that, said a team member, requesting anonymity. Mostly the problems that have been found in states where the numbers are high or death rate is high that either lockdown measures were not followed properly, or they werent following the testing protocol, or late hospitalization, the expert added. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON How has lockdown progressed? No data is publicly available on how many patients are in which category. But all reports indicate that about 80% cases have no or very mild symptoms, 15% have mild to moderate symptoms, who may require hospitalization and only 5% have severe to critical symptoms, who require critical care including ventilators. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) representative also How necessary was the lockdown? It is argued that we had already seen the havoc this disease had caused in the other countries and hence it was necessary to take a decisive action right in the beginning to ensure that we nip it in the bud and do not allow it to get a foothold in our country. That was certainly a worthy goal and nobody can object to it. But the question still remains was it necessary to lockdown the whole country to do this? The best way to achieve that in the early days was to quarantine all persons coming from key foreign countries with Covid-19 epidemic for 15 days. That would have ensured that even if anybody of them had the infection, they would get cured before going to and mixing with their families. But we did not do this. Instead, we only screened these persons and isolated only those who had symptoms. This allowed many possible asymptomatic carriers to pass through and start spreading the disease in the community. Even then, in March all cases were still mainly of those who had come from foreign trips and their direct contacts. Hence, the easier option than locking down the whole country would have been to identify all those who had returned from certain foreign countries in the last one or two months and isolate them and their family members/ other direct contacts for 15 days. Most of the health experts, both those associated with the government and others, have been arguing that the goal of this lockdown was not to eliminate the virus, but to lower the peak to flatten the curve to ensure that our health infrastructure is not overrun by large number of cases leading to loss of life. This is the most persuasive argument that has influenced most of us in supporting the lockdown. But here also, the question remains even if true, what was the need to enforce this lockdown so early, when the epidemic had just started? All models, which show that measures of social distancing and lockdowns can help in reducing cases and hence deaths, also show that to be effective they should be enforced not early but later after herd immunity is significantly developed. They suggest that the week after the incidence of daily new cases has peaked and started decreasing, is perhaps the best time for implementing these measures. The same models also show that implementing these measures at the start of the epidemic not only flatten the curve, but also lengthen it, i.e., prolong the epidemic and also cause the epidemic to rebound once these measures are lifted, because no herd immunity is developed. One such model Also, if the goal was to prevent overloading of the health institutions and thereby prevent deaths, then the best way was to concentrate all energy and focus only on those 10-15% of vulnerable people, who could develop serious life threatening symptoms and not on the remaining 85-90% people who have no or mild symptoms. Was it necessary to stop migrant workers from going home? Figures suggest that if the lockdown was to be implemented at all, there was no reason why lakhs of migrant workers could not have been given sufficient time and transportation that would have allowed them to reach their homes, before the lockdown was implemented. These cases are spread over many states and not concentrated in one or two states. We should also note that these are all cases of patients who have tested positive, irrespective of symptoms. They include all those who have no symptoms or mild symptoms requiring no hospitalization, mild to moderate symptoms and critical symptoms.No data is publicly available on how many patients are in which category. But all reports indicate that about 80% cases have no or very mild symptoms, 15% have mild to moderate symptoms, who may require hospitalization and only 5% have severe to critical symptoms, who require critical care including ventilators. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) representative also said during a recent press briefing that 80% cases are asymptomatic with no symptoms.It is argued that we had already seen the havoc this disease had caused in the other countries and hence it was necessary to take a decisive action right in the beginning to ensure that we nip it in the bud and do not allow it to get a foothold in our country. That was certainly a worthy goal and nobody can object to it. But the question still remains was it necessary to lockdown the whole country to do this?The best way to achieve that in the early days was to quarantine all persons coming from key foreign countries with Covid-19 epidemic for 15 days. That would have ensured that even if anybody of them had the infection, they would get cured before going to and mixing with their families. But we did not do this.Instead, we only screened these persons and isolated only those who had symptoms. This allowed many possible asymptomatic carriers to pass through and start spreading the disease in the community. Even then, in March all cases were still mainly of those who had come from foreign trips and their direct contacts.Hence, the easier option than locking down the whole country would have been to identify all those who had returned from certain foreign countries in the last one or two months and isolate them and their family members/ other direct contacts for 15 days.Most of the health experts, both those associated with the government and others, have been arguing that the goal of this lockdown was not to eliminate the virus, but to lower the peak to flatten the curve to ensure that our health infrastructure is not overrun by large number of cases leading to loss of life.This is the most persuasive argument that has influenced most of us in supporting the lockdown. But here also, the question remains even if true, what was the need to enforce this lockdown so early, when the epidemic had just started?All models, which show that measures of social distancing and lockdowns can help in reducing cases and hence deaths, also show that to be effective they should be enforced not early but later after herd immunity is significantly developed. They suggest that the week after the incidence of daily new cases has peaked and started decreasing, is perhaps the best time for implementing these measures.The same models also show that implementing these measures at the start of the epidemic not only flatten the curve, but also lengthen it, i.e., prolong the epidemic and also cause the epidemic to rebound once these measures are lifted, because no herd immunity is developed.One such model shows that even if we implement such early lockdown for an extended period of 4 months, the herd immunity would not be created and the epidemic would rebound after the lockdown and can last for nine months. Clearly, herd immunity is the thing that ends epidemics and all other efforts that we may make to reduce the number of deaths, should be initiated after first building this immunity.Also, if the goal was to prevent overloading of the health institutions and thereby prevent deaths, then the best way was to concentrate all energy and focus only on those 10-15% of vulnerable people, who could develop serious life threatening symptoms and not on the remaining 85-90% people who have no or mild symptoms.Figures suggest that if the lockdown was to be implemented at all, there was no reason why lakhs of migrant workers could not have been given sufficient time and transportation that would have allowed them to reach their homes, before the lockdown was implemented. As we know, not only were they given no such time and transportation, they were not even allowed to walk back to their homes on their own and were stopped on the way and locked in schools and other makeshift arrangements, creating a huge humanitarian crisis. It has been argued that it was necessary to do this, as otherwise these workers would have carried the Corona virus with them to their home towns and villages and started spreading this disease there, which would have defeated the whole purpose of the lockdown. These figures, however, tell us that there was no factual basis for this fear. Given the fact that at that time, only 1 in 2.7 million people (0.36 per million) had this disease by 24 March and that too in a specific group of people returning from foreign travel and their direct contacts. This led to so many instances of absolutely inhuman treatment meted out to them like making them walk on their knees, sanitizing them by spraying them with harmful solutions, locking them up in schools and not opening the locks even for giving food and also filing criminal cases against them for breaking rules of the lockdown! This heatless treatment meted out to these poor helpless people would go down as the biggest blot on this lockdown. Was the lockdown effective? Total lockdown right from the beginning has not nipped the epidemic in the bud. On the contrary, Thus the probability of these migrants having been infected and thus carrying the virus at that time was virtually zero and that fear was imaginary. By not allowing them to go home, an impression was created that they were carriers of Corona, who must be stopped!This led to so many instances of absolutely inhuman treatment meted out to them like making them walk on their knees, sanitizing them by spraying them with harmful solutions, locking them up in schools and not opening the locks even for giving food and also filing criminal cases against them for breaking rules of the lockdown! This heatless treatment meted out to these poor helpless people would go down as the biggest blot on this lockdown.Total lockdown right from the beginning has not nipped the epidemic in the bud. On the contrary, figures show that after enforcing this lockdown, total number of cases has increased from 469 on March 24 to around 49,391 on May 6, and have continued to increase. Deaths have increased from 10 to 1,694 on May 6, and have continue to increasing. And daily incidence of new cases has increased from 95 (0.06 per million) per day to 3,400 (2.54 per million) per day during this period. These figures also show that no flattening of curve (reducing the number of new cases per day) has happened. We see some signs of flattening during April 12-17 and then in the last week of April, but thereafter the curve has started rising steeply. Similarly, if the curve is flattening, then the trend line of total cases should be seen as flattening. But figures also clearly show that far from flattening, the number of cases is actually growing exponentially. Lockdowns and social distancing can at best slow down what is happening to a certain extent, not fundamentally change the situation We may also note that we have been admitting all confirmed cases of Covid-19 to hospitals for a minimum period of 15 days, irrespective of symptoms. This has led to unnecessary overcrowding of the hospitals (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued guidelines on April 27 allowing home isolation for patients with no or very mild symptoms). Overall death rate in our country is only 3% of all confirmed cases. But if we take into account the fact that as many as 80% of these cases are without any symptoms, the case fatality ratio for all symptomatic cases comes to 17%, which is very high. How serious is this crisis at present? It is clear that even now, after 60 days from March 3, when the cases started appearing, the situation in our country is still not critical. We can only realize how fortunate we are, when we compare our situation with that of other countries/ regions, which are really in a crisis situation. Our situation in comparison with that of other countries/regions indicates that our response of extreme measures and widespread support in the society for these measures are perhaps guided more by the fear of what has happened in these countries than the actual situation in our country. It is claimed that the situation is better in our country because of the timely lockdown right in the beginning. But this is certainly not true. Lockdowns and social distancing can at best slow down what is happening to a certain extent and not fundamentally change the situation. And if that was indeed the case, then it would have got reflected. This may be either because the strain of the virus in these countries is mild with less infectivity than the one that went from South Korea to Iran to Italy to New York. Another reason of the mild epidemic in our country is that the virus entered our country only in the first week of March, when the flu season of winter had almost ended and that might have made more difficult for the virus to transmit. But another possibility is that this epidemic in our country is also not mild. The figures are still low, because it started late in our country, and our country being large and diverse, the epidemic is taking more time to develop into a full blown crisis. The way the cases have increased from about 40,000 to 50,000 in just three days clearly shows that the cases are still increasing and that there is really no room for complacency. What should be done now? As we know, the lockdown has already been extended up to May 17, albeit with certain relaxations. All districts of the country have been divided into red, orange and green districts for this purpose and green districts have been given maximum relaxations, while the red ones have been given least relaxations. The focus still is on breaking chains of transmission and containing the spread of the disease. But it is clear that when this approach has not worked so far, when the epidemic had just begun and cases were few, there is no chance of it working now, when the cases are increasing exponentially. This and the fact that it is the herd immunity that ends the epidemic, suggest that we need to change our approach radically. Instead of spending our time, energy and resources on the impossible task of stopping the disease from spreading, we need to remove all restrictions and allow it to spread amongst those who are not vulnerable, so that herd immunity is quickly built. And focus all our energies on protecting the elderly and those with comorbidities of serious disease to ensure that they do not get this disease as far as possible and get timely proper treatment, if they get it. Renowned epidemiologists like Dr. Jayprakash Muliyil of Vellore have been More likely explanation is that this epidemic has been much milder in our country with very low incidence of cases that are increasing very slowly till now. This is not true only for us. The above table also shows that the countries of South East Asia also have similar milder epidemic, although most of them have not imposed lockdowns. Similarly, Australia and New Zealand have also experienced a mild epidemic.This may be either because the strain of the virus in these countries is mild with less infectivity than the one that went from South Korea to Iran to Italy to New York. Another reason of the mild epidemic in our country is that the virus entered our country only in the first week of March, when the flu season of winter had almost ended and that might have made more difficult for the virus to transmit.But another possibility is that this epidemic in our country is also not mild. The figures are still low, because it started late in our country, and our country being large and diverse, the epidemic is taking more time to develop into a full blown crisis. The way the cases have increased from about 40,000 to 50,000 in just three days clearly shows that the cases are still increasing and that there is really no room for complacency.As we know, the lockdown has already been extended up to May 17, albeit with certain relaxations. All districts of the country have been divided into red, orange and green districts for this purpose and green districts have been given maximum relaxations, while the red ones have been given least relaxations.The focus still is on breaking chains of transmission and containing the spread of the disease. But it is clear that when this approach has not worked so far, when the epidemic had just begun and cases were few, there is no chance of it working now, when the cases are increasing exponentially. This and the fact that it is the herd immunity that ends the epidemic, suggest that we need to change our approach radically.Instead of spending our time, energy and resources on the impossible task of stopping the disease from spreading, we need to remove all restrictions and allow it to spread amongst those who are not vulnerable, so that herd immunity is quickly built. And focus all our energies on protecting the elderly and those with comorbidities of serious disease to ensure that they do not get this disease as far as possible and get timely proper treatment, if they get it.Renowned epidemiologists like Dr. Jayprakash Muliyil of Vellore have been recommending this approach from before 14th April, when the first 21-day lockdown ended. It is high time that we heed their advice now. And regarding increasing cases, we should not forget that 80-90% of them are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms only and do not require any hospitalization, let alone critical care. Thus, even with 50,000 positive cases, we have only 5000-10,000 patients, who may require hospitalization and those requiring oxygen or ventilators would be only 2500 to 5000! Adopting this approach means that: We stop all efforts to identify and isolate all infective cases and their contacts. This has not worked so far, and is impossible to implement with increasing cases. End lockdown and remove all restrictions on industries, businesses, public transportation by road, rail and air and also open schools and colleges, as quickly as possible. End compulsory enforcement of rules of social distancing wearing masks, maintaining two-meter distance, etc. Those who want to follow them can of course continue to do so. Protect elderly and other at risk persons with serious ailments from getting this infection by advising adherence of strict social distancing (masks, distance, etc.) at all times, even within homes. And as far as possible, they should remain in separate room with minimal contact with other members of the house. Provide timely treatment to them as soon as they show first signs of Pneumonia or difficulty in breathing. Allow all hospitals / physicians to treat Covid-19 patients with a condition that they shall provide daily reports of all patients being treated by them and their condition. This would ensure that all existing health infrastructure is available for the treatment of this disease. Continue to monitor the situation very closely, to know how the epidemic is progressing. Randomized sample antibody tests should be carried out at regular intervals, to know how far we are from developing herd immunity. This is totally different from what we have been doing so far and hence difficult to accept and implement. Let us hope that we have the humility and courage to change the course in the middle and fine tune our actions to the changing situation, without generating fear and panic. One of the serious results of the lockdown and social distancing rules is that it has created totally unnecessary fear and panic, where we are afraid of speaking even with our neighbours. --- *With Action Research in Community Health and Development (ARCH-Vahini), based in Gujarat. This is the abridged version of the author's discussion paper This approach of allowing the epidemic to spread to end it, is no doubt, counter intuitive and hence difficult to accept. And at the time when cases are growing exponentially, it is even scary. But we should not forget that in practice it is the herd immunity alone that ends the epidemics (unless we have a vaccine).And regarding increasing cases, we should not forget that 80-90% of them are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms only and do not require any hospitalization, let alone critical care. Thus, even with 50,000 positive cases, we have only 5000-10,000 patients, who may require hospitalization and those requiring oxygen or ventilators would be only 2500 to 5000! Adopting this approach means that:Let us hope that we have the humility and courage to change the course in the middle and fine tune our actions to the changing situation, without generating fear and panic. One of the serious results of the lockdown and social distancing rules is that it has created totally unnecessary fear and panic, where we are afraid of speaking even with our neighbours.--- As the 40-day national lockdown to protect us from the Covid-19 epidemic has been extended further till May 17, 2020, it is time to take stock of the situation and try to answer these questions as objectively and as truthfully as we can: (1) How necessary was this lockdown? (2) How effective has it been in arresting the spread of the disease? And (3) how to get out of it in the coming days and get back to the normal life? This is perhaps the first instance in the world in which a huge country of 1.35 billion people has been completely shut down to save us from the epidemic of a viral infection, and that too right in the beginning, when the epidemic had just started.And yet, the whole country has rallied behind this decision and all of us have done our best to follow the rules of social distancing and lockdown. It is heartening to see the whole country coming together and rallying behind the national and state governments at the time of crisis. Despite this support, it is important to raise and answer these questions.By the end of March 24 (when the lockdown was declared), total number of confirmed cases were 469 (i.e. 0.35 per million) from which 10 persons had died. The daily incidence of new cases were 95 (i.e. 0.06 per million per day). All these cases were confined to those who had returned from foreign travel and their family members and others who had come in direct contact with them.Incidence of new cases continued to increase after March 25, after the total lockdown. It reached to 600 (0.40 per million) per day by April 6, 1,300 (0.96 per million) per day by April 14, about 1,700 (1.26 per million) per day by April 28 and 2,600 (1.81 per million) per day on May 3 and jumped to 3,400 (2.54 per million) per day by May 6. Total number of cases from March 1 to May 6 have been 49,391 (36 per million) and total deaths have been 1694 (1.25 per million) and 3% of the total cases. By Trend Military units of the armed forces of Armenia violated ceasefire 26 times throughout the day in various direction of the front, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijani Defense Ministry. The positions of Azerbaijan Army were fired from the positions of Armenian military units located near the occupied Goyarkh village of Terter region, Marzili village of Aghdam region, Kuropatkino village of Khojavend region, Horadiz village of Fuzuli region, as well as from the positions located on nameless hills in Terter and Khojavend regions. Press Release May 10, 2020 On Mass testing SENATE President Vicente Sotto III over the weekend pressed for the increase in mass testing coverage nationwide as areas under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) anticipate their transition to general quarantine status. Sotto at the same time expressed concern that most workers will soon be allowed to go back to their workplaces even as the rate of COVID-19 infections remain high, especially in Metro Manila which is the local epicenter of the pandemic. Sotto cited the case of the Senate, where 20 employees tested positive during a rapid testing conducted on staffers who reported for work when sessions resumed last Monday. Confirmatory swab testing has been done on the employees. Sotto said medical assistance will be provided to employees who will be found sick and necessary support will be extended to their families. Sotto said the Senate experience should serve as an eye opener to government leaders and the general population who have been pushing for the relaxation of quarantine rules even while the threat of COVID-19 infection remains high. "These employees duly complied with the stay-at-home order of the government. They just stayed inside their homes for almost two months. They were not exposed to anyone who is sick of COVID-19. They did not show and feel any of the symptoms. Kung sila na nasa bahay lang at sumunod sa lahat ng health protocols ay nag-positive sa virus, siguradong mas malala ang pwedeng mangyari kung ma-lift na ang enhanced community quarantine at ang lahat ay papayagan ng lumabas ng kanilang mga bahay," Sotto said. The Senate President said that while the DOH is now conducting mass testing in all provinces, this should be expanded to cover more persons so health officials can get a clearer picture of the extent of COVID-19 transmission and infection. "Let us remember that even among the quarantined population, the threat that the virus had already invaded their communities and even homes without them being aware of it is also high. Unless mass testing is conducted, we will not know if the person whom we have just talked with, or the person beside us at the grocery aisle or the lady who was pushing the cart before us is infected," he added. Sotto said the results of an expanded mass testing coverage will also serve to caution government leaders against prematurely lifting the current ECQ in Metro Manila and other areas and rushing their transition to general or relaxed quarantine. "Magagabayan ng resulta ng mas malawak na mass testing ang ating mga lider para sila ay maghinay-hinay sa pagbuo ng desisyon ukol sa pagtanggal ng ECQ. The premature lifting of the strict quarantine regulation could lead to a worse second COVID-19 wave," Sotto said. Vice President Mike Pence told "Axios on HBO" that he welcomes the idea of bringing Michael Flynn back into government, after the Justice Department moved last week to drop its criminal case against President Trump's former national security adviser. Why it matters: Trump said April 30 that he would "certainly consider" bringing Flynn back into the administration. Since Flynn had been accused of lying to the vice president, Pence's blessing clears an obstacle to him returning to Trumps inner circle. "I think Gen. Michael Flynn is an American patriot," Pence said during the interview in Iowa on Friday. "And for my part, I'd be happy to see Michael Flynn again." The big picture: Trump lavished praise on the decision by his Justice Department to go to court to drop charges against Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. On Twitter, the president called the Justice Department's abandonment of the case "a BIG day for Justice in the USA. Congratulations to General Flynn, and many others. I do believe there is MUCH more to come!" Trump insiders say they wouldn't be surprised to see Flynn back on the campaign trail, where he was a warmup act for Trump in 2016. Go deeper: Justice Department drops prosecution of Michael Flynn But he also raised the possibility that the episode could be more complicated than it appears, an argument that angered black activists who saw it as a nod to Trumps largely white coalition. You know, it could be something that we didnt see on tape, Trump said. If you saw, things went off tape and then back on tape. A UCSF doctor, coming home after several weeks in New York City helping coronavirus patients, shared his shocking experience of traveling on a packed flight back to SFO. Tweets from cardiologist Ethan Weiss went viral Saturday after the doctor posted a photo of a full United flight. "I guess @united is relaxing their social distancing policy these days?" he wrote. "Every seat full on this 737." On April 22, United announced it was "limiting seat selections in all cabins, so customers wont be able to select seats next to each other or middle seats where available." However, the airline later clarified this does not mean all passengers will have an empty seat beside them; due to load factors or passenger requests, it's possible the flight could be full as it appeared to be on Weiss' Newark-to-SFO trip. "Though we cannot guarantee that all customers will be seated next to an unoccupied seat, based on historically low travel demand and the implementation of our various social distancing measures that is the likely outcome," United says on its website. ALSO: Why are some planes crowded even with air travel down? But because of a bevy of flight cancelations, many once-common routes are down to one or two trips per day, leading some flights to fill up. Weiss and two dozen other health care workers were being flown for free by United, but Weiss expressed confusion as to why the other passengers were flying at all. "We are about to land & I just wanted to say a few things. 1) people on this plane are scared/ shocked. 2) I have no idea why most of them are traveling. 3) I am with a group of 25 nurses and doctors who have been working in NYC hospitals for the past 2-4 weeks. We are coming home," Weiss tweeted Saturday. "This is the last time Ill be flying again for a very long time," he added. In a statement to ABC7, United did not directly address the reasons for the lack of physical distancing, but said: "We've overhauled our cleaning and safety procedures and implemented a new boarding and deplaning process to promote social distancing... and all passengers and employees were asked to wear face coverings, consistent with our new policy." CORONAVIRUS: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Newsom says California virus spread started in a nail salon SF confirms it's giving drugs to homeless in hotels in 'limited quantities' San Francisco officials outline 5 goals before reopening businesses WHEN WILL THE BAY AREA REOPEN? SF Mayor: Some businesses can 'resume operations,' offer storefront pickup starting May 18 Newsom details 4 stages to reopen California businesses Hyderabad, May 10 : The Covid-19 cases have surged once again in Telangana with 33 more people testing positive on Sunday, taking the state's tally to 1,196. Hyderabad continues to remain the only district registering new cases. Officials said out of 33 new cases, 26 were reported from Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits. Seven migrants also tested positive for Covid-19. With this, the number of cases among migrants rose to 11. Migrants returning to Telangana from other states were testing positive. Of the seven cases, four belonged to Yadadri Bhuvangiri district. However, these cases were included in the 'migrants' category. Yadadri continues to figure in the list of three districts which have not recorded a single positive case so far. The number of cases had significantly declined over last week but it surged once again. The state had Saturday reported 30 days. Thus 63 cases were recorded in two days and barring five, all were from Greater Hyderabad. The death toll remained unchanged at 30 as no death was reported on Sunday. The state also did not record any recovery/discharge on Sunday. So far, 751 people have been discharged from hospitals after completing the treatment. According to the director of public health and family welfare, the number of active cases stands at 415. Meanwhile, the number of districts which reported no new cases for the past 14 days rose to 24. Hyderabad continues to be the worst-affected district, accounting for almost all the cases being reported daily for the last few days. The state has requested the Centre to upgrade 14 districts from orange zone to green zone and three districts from red zone to orange zone. This will leave the state with just three red zone districts - Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and Medchal. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Shelling reportedly launched by the forces of General Khalifa Haftar struck in the heart of Tripoli, Libya, on the night of May 7, killing and wounding several people. This footage was posted in the early hours of May 8 by a media arm of the Government of National Accord (GNA), which is battling Haftars Libyan National Army (LNA) for control of the city. The UN reported that shelling took place in the neighborhood of Zawiyat al-Dahmani, near the Turkish embassy and Italian ambassadors residence. The UN cited reports that at least two civilians were killed and three others injured. A spokesperson for the GNA said two security staff and a civilian were killed, while the number injured stood at four. The United Nations Support Mission in Libya said in a statement that it was deeply alarmed by the intensification of indiscriminate attacks at a moment when Libyans deserve to peacefully observe the holy month of Ramadan and a time when they are battling the COVID-19 pandemic. These despicable actions are a direct challenge to calls by some Libyan leaders for an end to the protracted fighting and for the resumption of the political dialogue. Credit: Burkhan Media via Storyful A Latina Vice-President nominee in Biden's ticket will help him in his 2020 U.S. Presidential bid according to a recently published article. The Role of Latino Community in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election Latino community is the largest minority group in the United States today. There are around 32 million Latinos across the country who are qualified to vote according to the Pew Research Center. It is not a surprise anymore why all those who aspire to the Presidential position are courting the Latino community. In fact, Vice President Mike Pence launched the "Latinos for Trump" coalition last year to unite the community to support the re-election bid of President Donald Trump. The support of the Latino community is very significant for the incoming election as it could turn the tables. Five states in the country have more than 1 million eligible Latino voters. These states are: California with 7.9 million with 7.9 million Texas with 5.6 million with 5.6 million Florida with 3.1 million with 3.1 million New York with 2 million with 2 million Arizona with 1.2 million Now, Presidential candidates are doing everything just to get the votes of the Latino community. In fact, one of the Presidential aspirants, Bernie Sanders, is known for using the Spanish language in his political advertisements. However, one of his unofficial ads was criticized due to incorrect grammar. This just means that this is the time that the Latino community will be fully recognized in the country. They were once underrepresented, but now there are top officials in the country who belong in the community, and their contributions in the local and national economy are exceptional. Two Latinas Who Will Help Biden in His Presidential Bid Two Latinas can help Biden in his 2020 U.S. Presidential bid. These are Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto and New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. These two women are highly respected and recognized in the Latino community because of their historic strides. Sen. Catherine Cortez Mastro is the first Latina to serve the senate while Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is the first Latina to serve as a Democratic Governor. Having one of them as a Vice President nominee will surely help any candidate in the upcoming election. Among the two Latinas, Gov. Grisham has been in the spotlight in recent weeks because of her immediate action in handling COVID-19. She is one of the first governors to implement a stay-at-home policy to control the spread of the virus. Now, New Mexico has recorded less than 4,500 cases out of more than 1.3 million COVID-19 cases in the U.S., according to worldometers. Gov. Grisham's action has helped New Mexico, which has a population of more than 2 million, to contain the virus. It also shows her efficiency as a leader. How Can These Two Latinas Help Biden in his Presidential Bid? According to the Pew Research Center, 13 percent of the total voters in the U.S are coming from the Latino community. Next to them are the African-Americans and then the Asians. Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro said: "The Latino community is an important part of a winning coalition not only in states like Florida, Arizona, and Texas, but also in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Strong support from Latino voters is essential to defeating Donald Trump in November." He also added: "Latina leaders deserve to be fully vetted and seriously considered - this process should not just be a check-the-box exercise or a substitute for substantial community investment." Additionally, Prospero Latino CEO Jose Dante Parra also said: "There's a feeling out there that it's just about lip service to the Latino community. When it comes time to deliver for the Latino community, it isn't that top of mind. But it would mean that we are considered a top priority for the presidential ticket. And I think that could send some reverberations through the community and really excite people." Overall, it's not only Biden who needs to have a Latina leader in his ticket but all Presidential candidates. The global pandemic could change the election rhythm because farmers from the Latino and Hispanic communities have helped the country sustain its food supply making sure that every American has food on their table. Presidential candidates should not only put a Latina leader in their ticket to entice the voters but to offer the Latino community what they need like affordable housing, equality in terms of wages, equal job opportunities, more access to education, and more. Read related article: Doctors who have published children's CT scans after they contract the killer coronavirus have warned hospitalised patients can suffer lung damage. The team from Boston Children's Hospital evaluated CT scans from paediatric cases of COVID-19 to see the most common features. In one study of 20 children, almost two-thirds had ground-glass opacity, an indication of widespread inflammation. Half of the patients had what's known as the 'halo sign', which is when inflammation surrounds a mass, known as consolidation. Consolidation makes it difficult to breathe because the air sacs of the lungs are filled with substances such as fluid or infection. Children overall appear to be less severely affected by COVID-19 than adults, and are more vulnerable if they have an underlying condition. Boston Children's Hospital evaluated CT scans from paediatric cases of COVID-19 to see the most common features. Pictured: A 16-year-old girl with COVID-19 who presented with shortness of breath. Her CT images show ground-glass opacity with some consolidation In one study of 20 children, almost two-thirds had ground-glass opacity, an indication of widespread inflammation. Pictured: A, 14-year-old girl. B, a boy, 10 years old. C, a one-year-old boy A, Male, 3 years old. B, Female, 8 years old. C, Male, 14 years old. Underneath are the same patients with signs of recovery The doctors, led by radiologist Alexandra Foust, set out to compare the damage of COVID-19 with other similar respiratory diseases. They looked at SARS and MERS, both related coronaviruses, H1N1, a strain of flu, and EVALI - a newly discovered condition associated with vaping. Because SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19, is so new, evidence of its effects on health is limited, particularly for children. Data from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention suggests just 1.7 per cent of diagnosed COVID-19 cases are in under 18s. Dr Foust and colleagues pulled together five studies and noted the most obvious changes in children's lungs, publishing their findings in the American Journal of Roentgenology. One study in the Chinese city of Wuhan looked at 20 pediatric hospital patients with COVID-19 between the ages of one day and 14 years old. Thirteen were male. All patients had lesions - a portion tissue that has been damaged or abnormally changed - in the walls of the lungs. Half had bilateral lesions on the lungs, meaning to both sides, while 30 per cent had lesions on just one lung. Six in ten patients had ground-glass opacity (GGO), which is a hazy cloud over the lungs indicating a variety of problems. It can mean the lungs are partial filled with inflammed material, there is thickening of lung tissue or partial collapse of the alveoli - the tiny air sacs of the lungs. Half had consolidation, which is air spaces in their lungs filled with a substance, usually pus, blood, or water, surrounded by a rim of GGO. Radiographers call it the 'halo sign', and although it is a common lung disease feature, it may be more unique to COVID-19. The doctors behind that study, published in Pediatric Pulmonology, said 'consolidation with surrounding halo signs were common in paediatric patients which were different from adults'. Consolidation is a symptom pneumonia and can also cause breathing problems because inhaled air cant get through the mass. After treatment, six children had a chest CT followup. The lesions were completely absorbed in two cases and consolidations gradually eased in three. Dr Foust agreed the halo sign appears to be unique to COVID-19 compared with the other diseases, Medical Xpress reports. But typically the imaging features overlapped with each other. A smaller study of five pediatric patients with COVID-19 found modest patchy GGO, in three patients, which resolved over time. The study, published in the American Journal of Roentgenology, said some characteristic imaging findings 'have emerged or are currently emerging', and this can help doctors diagnosed COVID-19. The authors of the study, led by Alexandra Foust, said the halo sign was unique to COVID-19 compared with the other diseases The team reassured that children overall appear to be less severely affected than adults, with one study of 2,143 children showing 94.1 per cent were either asymptomatic or had mild or moderate cases. DOCTORS SAY LUNG DAMAGE MAY BE PERMANENT Recovered coronavirus patients can be left with damaged lungs, researchers in Hong Kong claimed. A small study of 12 patients who were discharged from hospital showed that two or three had reduced lung function. They got out of breath easier when they took a brisk walk, the scientists said. Current patients with COVID-19 have shown fluid or debris filled sacs in the lungs, which may get progressively worse as the illness develops. Dr Owen Tsang Tak-yin studied patients in Hong Kong. Hong Kongs Hospital Authority released the findings of the 12 patients on March 13, according to the South China Morning Post. The medical director of the authority's Infectious Disease Centre at Princess Margaret Hospital in Kwai Chung said two to three of 12 patients were unable to do things as they had in the past. He said: 'They gasp if they walk a bit more quickly.' Dr Tsang and colleagues found a drop of 20 to 30 per cent in lung capacity was leaving the patients slightly breathless. COVID-19 is a respiratory illness with symptoms of a persistent cough, which leads to a shortness of breath, and a fever. In severe cases, it can cause pneumonia. The elderly and those with underlying health conditions are most at risk of serious illness. A review of lung scans of nine infected patients at Princess Margaret also found patterns suggestive of lung damage. However it is too early to say if this will last long term. Advertisement The Radiological Society of North America have previously released scans of adult patients who died from COVID-19. X-ray images and CT scans showed how the disease ravages its victims' lungs. The scans showed white patches in the lower corners of the lungs which indicated GGO, which was particularly obvious in the scans of a 44-year-old man who worked at the Wuhan seafood market - thought to be the origin of the outbreak. The man was admitted to hospital on December 25, 2019 after suffering from a fever and cough for almost two weeks. Doctors diagnosed the man with pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Despite being treated by doctors, he died a week later. The CT scans of a 54-year-old woman who caught the coronavirus after travelling to Wuhan, China, show the same partial filling of air spaces. The woman was diagnosed with severe pneumonia caused by the virus after suffering from a fever, cough, fatigue and chest congestion for a week. The scan of a 45-year-old woman from Sichuan Province in China who tested positive for COVID-19 after returning from Japan shows white patches and a 'reversed halo sign' in the left upper lobe of her lung. This is when fluid-filled sacs are surrounded by a complete ring of inflamed tissue, about two millimetres thick. Research on adult patients has suggested recovered patients can be left with damaged lungs. Hong Kong doctors made the claims after studying 12 patients who were discharged from hospital. Two or three had reduced lung function and got out of breath easier when they took a brisk walk. Scans of nine patients suggested sustained damage to their organs, however it is too early to say if this will last long term. Doctors at George Washington University created an eerie virtual reality video to show how the coronavirus rapidly spreads through the lungs, causing widespread and potentially long-term damage. They converted scans of a man's lungs in to a virtual reality video that recreated his chest cavity in three-dimensions in 360 degrees. Just days before the images were taken, the patient, a man in his late-50s, had no symptoms whatsoever, according to CNN. But by the time he was in the care of Dr Keith Mortman, chief of thoracic surgery at the hospital, disease had wreaked havoc in his lungs, clearly visible in the images as swaths of cloudy, green swaths of damaged tissue. The Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLS) is calling on the government to initiate a mass testing for the Coronavirus (Covid-19) nationwide to know the actual burden the country is faced by the deadly disease. This comes on the back of a daily increase in the number of confirmed cases of the disease which was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) a few months ago. Ghanas case count as of Sunday, May 10, 2020, stands at 4,263 with a total of 378 recoveries and a death toll of 22. Having taken note of recent events and the number of COVID-19 cases reported in the country, the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists says it will be prudent for the government to begin mass testing. They believe it is the surest way to be sure of winning the battle against the pandemic as it will help ascertain the burden of the disease in the West African country. While charging the government to keep the borders of the country closed, GAMLS also wants the ban on social gathering which is already in place to stay that way with the enforcement on other measures continued to be strictly enforced. Read the full statement from the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists below: WASHINGTONThe call in early February from the White House Situation Room came as a surprise to Rick Bright: Peter Navarro, U.S. President Donald Trumps trade adviser, wanted him to come present his ideas for fighting the coronavirus, alone. Bright, whose tiny federal research agency was pursuing a coronavirus vaccine, had long been at odds with his boss at the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert Kadlec. His White House visits, twice in a single weekend, only exacerbated those tensions. Weekend at Peters, Kadlec quipped in the subject line of an email that expressed his displeasure. The hostility between these two key officials in the governments response to a pandemic that has claimed more than 75,000 American lives burst into public view Tuesday when Bright who was abruptly dismissed last month as head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) filed a formal whistleblower complaint. The document accuses Kadlec and other top administration officials of cronyism and putting politics ahead of science. Whether or not the charges are ultimately proven, the 89-page complaint, along with other documents and interviews, expose troubling infighting at the Health and Human Services Department (HHS), the sprawling agency that includes BARDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and other arms of government, as officials there struggled to combat the worst public-health crisis in a century. BARDA is the front edge of the global response, in terms of organizing the financing, laying down the bets on whats coming forward as the options on vaccines and therapies, said J. Stephen Morrison, a global health expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, adding that the infighting had consequences. They need to move with incredible skill and judgment and speed. The internal clashes extend beyond Bright and Kadlec. Fierce battles have erupted between Alex Azar, the health and human services secretary, and Seema Verma, the Medicare and Medicaid administrator. Azar has also clashed with a senior White House policy-maker, Joe Grogan. But the consequences of such clashes were vividly brought to life by Brights complaint. Email messages show that, as early as January, when Trump was saying the outbreak was totally under control, Bright was pressing for the government to stock up on masks and drugs and to commence a Manhattan Project effort to develop a vaccine. But Bright was largely sidelined by personal disputes with Kadlec and his aides, some of which long predated the coronavirus, the documents suggest. By the time the pandemic arrived in force, the relationship between them had become toxic, with Bright increasingly left out of key decisions. His ideas about battling the threat were met with skepticism, the complaint says, and were clearly not welcome. On Friday, lawyers for Bright said the federal watchdog agency handling his complaint, the Office of Special Counsel, had notified them that it had found reasonable grounds to believe he was retaliated against and was seeking his reinstatement for 45 days while it investigated. On Thursday, he is scheduled to testify before a House committee. Azar must now decide whether to reinstate Bright. An HHS spokeswoman, Caitlin Oakley, declined to comment on a personnel matter. But, she said, the agency strongly disagrees with the allegations and characterizations in the complaint from Bright. With a $1.6-billion (U.S.) annual budget, BARDA was created in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks to partner with industry to develop drugs, vaccines and other medical countermeasures that could be stockpiled to combat a bioterror attack or pandemic threat. Bright had been in charge for less than a year when Kadlec was confirmed by the Senate as assistant secretary for preparedness and response in 2017. The two men came from different worlds. Kadlec spent 20 years in the air force and helped write the legislation that created BARDA. He advised then-president George W. Bush on biodefence. Bright, who grew up in small-town Kansas, began his career at the CDC. An influenza expert, he considered a pandemic to be the nations biggest threat. Brights allies say he was viewed with suspicion in the Trump administration as an Obama holdover. One of his earliest clashes with Kadlec centred on a long-running contract BARDA had with a small biotechnology company and a consultant who, Bright said, invoked Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law and senior adviser, in an apparent effort to salvage that contract. The company, Aeolus Pharmaceuticals, was developing a drug to treat the effects of radiation from a potential nuclear attack when BARDA employees decided not to extend the contract in early 2017. John McManus, the companys chief executive, said in an interview that the decision was based on a flawed process, and appealed it directly to Bright. In August 2017, Brights complaint says, John Clerici, a consultant and Aeolus board member who is close to Kadlec, pleaded the companys case to Bright over coffee and emphasized that McManus was friends with Jared and has Hollywood connections. McManus said he did not know Kushner or anyone in his family, and he disputed nearly all of Brights claims about Aeolus. Clerici said the conversation never happened. A review of corporate, political and non-profit records shows only a distant and indirect connection between Aeolus and the Kushner family. Some of Kushners relatives have donated to National Jewish Health, a hospital that co-owned several patents licensed by Aeolus, and Kushners father and sister sit on the hospitals council of national trustees. Bright, though, said the political pressure from Kadlec and his underlings became undeniable, and had no place in a system designed to award funding based on scientific merit. In the end, he stood by BARDAs decision to not extend the contact with Aeolus. The company folded within months. McManus lost his job. In the fall of 2019, with Aeolus bankrupt, McManus landed at Partner Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based company represented by Clerici that also appears in Brights complaint. Bright said that in September 2019, before McManus arrived, Kadlec handed out a $55-million, no-bid contract to the company to prevent it from going out of business. Partner Therapeutics, with 200 employees, produces and sells a single drug, Leukine, that can be used to treat excessive exposure to radiation. In 2018, the federal government decided to buy more anti-radiation drugs for the Strategic National Stockpile. Brights division, following the recommendation of a panel of experts, had chosen California pharmaceutical giant Amgen, which produces two similar drugs. As Clerici pressed Partner Therapeutics case, Bright, alarmed by the consultants contacts with a former BARDA employee, pushed for and got an internal procurement integrity investigation. He asked investigators to examine Clericis and Kadlecs phone records, the complaint said, and even called for an inspector-general to investigate. After that, he says, he was cut out of meetings about the procurement inquiry. There is no evidence that an inspector-general investigation was ever conducted. Allies of Kadlec say he did make some changes that Bright had wanted, including supporting a directive by Congress to put the contracting team under BARDAs jurisdiction. But the request for the investigation added to the bitterness between them. Eventually, Kadlec overruled him, Bright says, and awarded the sole-source contract to Partner Therapeutics, on the basis of industrial mobilization the interest of the federal government to keep more than one supplier of an important type of drug in business. Nicole Lurie, who held Kadlecs job when Barack Obama was president and chose Bright to lead BARDA the day after Trump was elected, zeroed in on his description of political appointees overriding the decisions of scientific experts. What I find most troublesome is the description of repeated attempts to subvert scientific assessments the disregard for scientific judgments and the dismantling of the checks and balances that keep you from spending money either illegally or wrongly, Lurie said. United States President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic has been "an absolute chaotic disaster" for America, Barack Obama has said, the starkest assessment yet from the former US president about his successor's "anemic and spotty" response to the global health crisis. Obama slammed Trump during a private call on Friday night with people who worked for him in the White House and across his administration, according to US media reports. In a 30-minute conversation with members of the Obama Alumni Association, the former US president, a Democrat, said the poor response to the coronavirus outbreak served as a critical reminder for why strong government leadership is needed during a global crisis. During the call, Obama said his Republican successor's approach to government was partly to blame for the US response to coronavirus. Over 78,000 people have now died in the US and the country has 1.2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 -- both by far the highest in the world. Trump's approach to the coronavirus pandemic has oscillated. In February he dismissed it, saying it would disappear, but by mid-March he acknowledged its severity. "It would have been bad even with the best of government," Obama was quoted as saying in the call. "It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset of 'what's in it for me' and 'to heck with everybody else', when that mindset is operationalised in our government," Obama, who was US president for two consecutive terms from 2009 to 2017, said. The call was intended to encourage former Obama staffers to become more engaged in ex-vice president Joe Biden's White House bid against Trump in the November presidential elections, CNN reported. "This election that's coming up -- on every level -- is so important because what we're going to be battling is not just a particular individual or a political party," Obama, who endorsed Biden officially last month, said. "What we're fighting against is these long-term trends in which being selfish, being tribal, being divided, and seeing others as an enemy -- that has become a stronger impulse in American life." Obama used the strongest words for the Trump administration's handling of the coronavirus crisis and its worldview, CNN noted. "It's part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty," Obama commented. The comments were first reported by Yahoo News, which obtained an audio recording of the call. Obama communications director Katie Hill confirmed the call to CBS News, and said that its purpose was to "to touch base during this time, and to talk about the importance of helping elect Biden and Democrats up and down the ballot this fall." White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany responded to Obama's criticism in a statement, saying US President Trump's "coronavirus response has been unprecedented and saved American lives," CBS News reported. Some 3,000 Obama administration alumni took part in Friday's discussion, as part of a regular series of gatherings of the tight-knit network, NBC News reported. Obama shared that his two daughters, Malia and Sasha, have shown him viral TikTok videos intended to discourage voters from supporting Biden in the elections. "I'm a 58-year-old guy, I don't have the answers here," Obama said. But he said finding solutions to counter that and address it was long-term mission" for his former staff. Obama repeatedly voiced support for Biden, his vice president, on the call, but said it was not just enough to support him in the presidential race, but to ensure Democrats held the House and won back control of the Senate as well. "I'm going to be spending as much time is necessary and campaigning as far as I can for Joe Biden. We all know Joe," Obama was quoted as saying by the NBC News report. Obama also strongly criticised the decision to drop criminal charges against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Flynn was among the former aides to US President Trump convicted during the special counsel's investigation into the alleged Russian election interference in the 2016 US elections. He had pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about contacts with Russia's ambassador to the US. File image Pakistan on Sunday said that it has "fully complied" with the ICJ's judgement in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case, days after India's lead counsel asserted that New Delhi had hoped it might be able to persuade Islamabad through "back channel" to release the Indian death-row convict. Jadhav, the 49-year-old 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 International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Pakistan for denial of consular access to Jadhav and challenging the death sentence. Senior advocate Harish Salve was the lead counsel for India in the Jadhav case at the Hague-based ICJ which ruled in July last year that Pakistan must undertake an "effective review and reconsideration" of the conviction and sentence of Jadhav and also to grant consular access to India without further delay. "We were hoping that through backchannel, we may be able to persuade Pakistan to let him go. If they want to say on the humanitarian ground or whatever, we want him back. We said let him go. Because it has become a big ego problem in Pakistan. So, we were hoping that they will let him go. They haven't," Salve said on May 3 while speaking online from London. "We have written four-five letters. They just keep on denying. I think we have reached a point where we have to now decide whether we want to go back to ICJ for consequential directions because Pakistan has not moved ahead," he said. Responding to Salve's remarks, Pakistan's Foreign Office Spokesperson Aisha Farooqui said Islamabad had noted the statements made by India's legal counsel in the Jadhav case. While suggesting that India may have to go back to ICJ, Salve has made certain statements which are contrary to the facts of the case, she said. "We firmly reject the Indian Counsel's baseless and inaccurate assertion that Pakistan has not complied with the ICJ's judgment in the case. Pakistan has fully complied with the judgment and remains committed to continuing doing so as the case proceeds further," Farooqui said. She said Pakistan granted India consular access to Jadhav and was processing measures for effective review and reconsideration as per the guidelines provided by the ICJ in its judgment. Being a responsible state, Pakistan abides by all its international obligations, the Spokesperson said. "It is regrettable that Mr Salve has chosen to make statements which are inaccurate and misrepresent facts," she said. In its 42-page order, the world court, while rejecting Pakistan's objection to the admissibility of the Indian application in the case, had held that "a continued stay of execution constitutes an indispensable condition for the effective review" of the sentence of Jadhav. The bench, however, rejected some remedies sought by India, including annulment of the military court's decision convicting Jadhav, his release and safe passage to India. The ICJ upheld India's stand that Pakistan had "breached" the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations, which gives countries the right to consular access when their nationals are arrested abroad. Pakistan claims that its security forces arrested Jadhav from the restive Balochistan province on March 3, 2016, after he reportedly entered from Iran. However, India maintains that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Navy. Accra, May 10, 2020 -Today, the global pandemic COVID-19 has altered our lives in ways we perhaps never thought was possible. Holidays and commemorative days do not as much evoke the memories of togetherness or reflections that are often associated with them. In a bid to show appreciation to mothers in such unusual times, the NINANI Group has partnered with GB Foods, producers, and distributors of Gino food products, to give special hampers and cash donations to all mothers in the subsidiary companies of the NINANI Group. The act of giving to mothers is in recognition of the critical role they play in business and families. Mothers Day is a special time when we recognize and honour our mothers as well as maternal bonds. Today we doff our hats off to the many mothers across the nation. We hope that the tokens we have shared will bring a little joy and excitement to our mothers at this time of general anxiety across the world and assure them that we appreciate all their sacrifices and always have them at heart. The CEO of the NINANI Group, Joel Nettey, said. An excited mom with the NINANI Group, Sedem said, It is heartwarming to know that your business has you in mind in such difficult moments, I am really surprised and happy at this kind gesture. The NINANI Group is the parent company of five leading integrated marketing communication companies Rezultz Advertising, Innova DDB Ghana, Interactive Digital, Brand Alert, Innova Liberia, and Touchpoint Magna Carta. Kolkata, May 10 (UNI) Bengal recorded 113 deaths with 14 more succumbing to Covid-19 pandemic and new confirmed cases accounted for 153 on Sunday, while historian Harishankar Vasudevan died of suspected pandemic in a city hospital. A State Government Health bulletin said with 153 more cases, total confirmed cases touched 1939 in the state, while the count of active cases accounted for 1337. Altogether 18 laboratories in the state are conducting tests for Covid-19, it stated. While 113 people died of Covid-19, 72 passed away due to Comorbidity. Altogether 417 people have been discharged so far, while total number of samples tested stood at 43,414, the bulletin informed. Meanwhile, historian Professor Harishankar Vasudevan died of suspected pandemic in a city hospital, even as a three-member Central team, the third so far, arrived here to visit Covid hotspots across the city and coordinate with the West Bengal government to combat Coronavirus. Prof historian Harishankar Vasudevan (68), who had been admitted to Amri Covid hospital at Salt Lake died late last night with suspected Coronavirus. He was on ventilation support for the past two days before his death. He was admitted on April 4. The state health department was examining the causes of his death, official sources said. Two other deaths were also reported from the same hospital in the past 24 hours. One of them was a woman. Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar deeply condoled the passing away of Prof Hari Vasudevan. Recalling his contribution to the society, Mr Dhankhar said, " His contributions to society will be ever recalled. May his soul rest in peace. " Prof Vasudevan was an eminent scholor, UGC Emeritus Professor, Dept of History and China Centre of Calcutta University as well as Ex Director of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies - MAKSIAS, an autonomous body under Ministry of Culture Govt of India. Professor Hari Vasudevan was a specialist in Russian and European history and Indo-Russian Relations. Prof Vasudevan was also a Visiting Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation and President, Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata and these positions he made commendable contributions. He was involved in projects on Indo-Russian relations and the Radiating Globalities project initiated by Gayatri Spivak of Columbia University (New York). At ORF, he was evaluating the overlap between Look East and Look Far East policies of India and the relationship between Greater Eurasia ideas of the Russian establishment and Chinese establishment. A multifaceted person he made his mark while being involved in a formal consultative capacity with projects/institutions of the Ministry of Culture, MHRD, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India and was Chairman of the Textbook Development Committee for the Social Sciences of the NCERT from 2005. Meanwhile, a three-member Central team, including a nodal officer, arrived here today to study the pandemic's effect and its impact and coordinate with the state government to contain the dreaded virus, which has now taken nearly 100 lives for the past six weeks. The Central team would also visit the containment areas to oversee the lockdown follow-up and if the health protocol was maintained in quarantine centres and Covid hospitals. This is the third Central team. Earlier, two teams, five-member each, visited south Bengal and north Bengal and recommended some measures, including strict follow-up of lockdown regime, test as much as possible and transparency in identifying Covid patients and pandemic casualties. Meanwhile, a Sramik train from Telangana arrived with migrant labourers at Malda station. Taking to his Twitter handle, Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar said, " To divert attention from horrendous woes of people @MamataOfficial #TroikaMAP creating all is well scenario by orchestrated stage managed interviews. This optical illusion to camouflage ground reality is yet another cruel joke on hapless people in deep distress. " Meanwhile, as the common people across India are speculating if the ongoing Phase 3 lock-down to be extended or not beyond May 17, a hint is expected on the issue when Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi would conduct a video conferencing with the state chief minsters tomorrow ( Monday). The PMO India today posted Tweet saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold the 5th meeting via video-conference with state chief ministers tomorrow afternoon at 3 PM. Many health experts and strategists believe that the lock-down should be extended further since the Covid positive was on higher graph and the casualty was increasing beyond three figures everyday across India. Many also feared that the pandemic may spread further with the presence of coming migrant labourers even in the far flung villages,which yet to be affected by infection. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who attended the 4th video conferencing with the Prime Minister, had said after the meeting that the state was prepared for extension of lock-down upto May 21. The Bengal Imams Association, a major platform of the Islamic clerics in West Bengal, has appeal to chief minister Mamata Banerjee to extend the ongoing lock-down upto May 30 saying " Let people live first, celebrations ( Eid) can take place later". The BIA said at least not to lift the lockdown before Eid Ul Fitr, which is scheduled on May 25, under any circumstances. The Union government has extended lock-down till May 17. In our state, it has already been extended till May 21. The holy Eid Ul Fitr is on May 25. The government may consider relaxing the lockdown due to Eid. But, we request the Bengal government to extend the lockdown for a few more days. Let people live first, celebrations can take place later, Md. Yahiya, chairman of the Bengal Imams Association in a letter on Saturday urged to the chief minister. Imam Yahiya has opined the current lockdown be extended further till May 30. We request you to raise this demand before the Union government as well. The Muslim leadership will stand by the government, Imam Yahiya said. UNI PC-SJC AKM A new Turkish military convoy of 20 armored vehicles and trucks is spotted there Turkey continues to increase its presence in Syria, transferring troops and equipment to the country, as the Syrian Center for Monitoring Human Rights reports. A new Turkish military convoy of 20 armored vehicles and trucks transporting material and technical equipment was recorded in Syria passing through the Kafr Luzin crossing on the border with Iskenderun," the statement said. The monitoring center claims that Turkey continues to send more and more troops as reinforcements in northwestern Syria. "From February 2 to today, SOHR activists tracked the entry into Syria of more than 6,485 trucks and military vehicles, including tanks, personnel, armored vehicles and military radars," the report says. In addition, it is reported that the number of Turkish soldiers deployed over the same period in Idlib and Aleppo exceeded 10,300. As we reported before, the Kremlin rejected allegations made by the United Nations that Russia may have committed war crimes in Syria last year. According to the Russian side, the U.N. investigators are in no position to know what is happening on the ground. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal They have become a pandemic punctuation point. Wearing them has brought uniformity, caused some kerfuffles and, in some places, fines for not wearing them. But it has become clear that cloth face masks are not going away any time soon. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends reserving the N-95 respirator masks for health care workers, it calls for wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies), especially in areas of significant community-based transmission, according to its website. Locally, the public dons them for store trips; grocery store workers and delivery drivers wear them; and, now, the governor has made them mandatory for employees at all restaurants and essential businesses to slow the spread of COVID-19. Businesses are encouraged to post signs urging customers to wear masks and have the discretion to require them, the governor said. In Latin America, they have become a fashion statement and sometimes make a political point. This week, in Lithuanias World Heritage capital Vilnius, Mask Fashion Week featured 21 billboards depicting men, women and children wearing masks, which are required outdoor wear for all Lithuanians. They can be homemade, fashioned from bandanas or, in the case of Canyon Road store la boheme, commercially produced. The store, which specializes in womens clothing, textiles, jewelry and some folk art, began making face masks in February, said owner Margaret Beattie. Seamstress Ariel Harrison started experimenting with designs that now cover the front door window of the shop. Based on designs that she (Harrison) found online, she came up with her own design and has tweaked it, said Beattie. Initially, scrap material from clothing produced in the store was used, but the masks are now being made from whole fabric. Elastic is used to attach the masks to the user, but its super hard to find right now because of the overwhelming mask-making going on, said Harrison. Using scrap material for masks has its own rewards, according to Beattie. Scraps are one of the biggest polluters of the planet from clothing production, she said. For seamstress Harrison, a former wedding cake designer, the transition from flour to flower-motif masks had its genesis in personal ties. When the coronavirus pandemic started, Harrison had a friend working in a grocery store and because I am a seamstress and I saw people were making masks I had this connection to someone who really needed one, she said. That is how I broached the subject for myself of how to get involved. Harrison also has a friend making and sending homemade masks to the Navajo Nation, so she, with the help of her teenage children, has made about 100 masks for the reservation and delivered 55 so far. Im trying as much as possible, for every one I sell, I donate one, said Harrison. Beattie said that 5% of the store mask sales revenue is donated to the Youth Shelters and Family Services organization in Santa Fe. Some might consider the $32 price point on the high side, but Beattie points out that she pays Harrison a living wage and that the masks are made from high-quality, 100% organic cotton. They are all made one at a time, she said. And Im a business, I am trying to stay alive. Beattie said she tells prospective customers that less expensive mask options are out there. Beattie estimates that sales number about 50 so far. The mask patterns are in mostly floral and paisley, and have an opening if a customer wants to add a third layer. The main thing is just that there is that opening so if somebody wants more protection than two layers of cotton they have the ability to add that, said Harrison. Since a mask occupies a fair amount of real estate on your face, states the Vogue magazine website, its not surprising that people are looking for aesthetically pleasing ones. Beattie and Harrison want their product to bring protection and joy. We are hoping they make people happy to put on a mask, Harrison said of her handiwork. GET ONE NOW la boheme is open for curbside pickup by appointment only Phone: 505-982-8043 Instagram: la_boheme_santa_fe Nigeria asked a US court for permission to issue subpoenas to access documents for use in its investigations (stock photo) Nigeria has been granted an application by a US court to serve 10 banks, including the New York branch of AIB, with requests for documents as it hopes to overturn a $9.6bn (8.8bn) arbitration award related to a business deal the country contends was corrupt. The case relates to a deal the country did with Irish-founded company - Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) - which agreed to build a gas-processing plant in Nigeria. The agreement collapsed in 2010, with P&ID subsequently winning a $6.6bn arbitration award. It has been accruing interest since 2013. Nigeria asked a US court for permission to issue subpoenas to access documents for use in its investigations. The application was brought under a US law that can compel parties with a base in America to co-operate in foreign proceedings, even if not directly involved. P&ID did not oppose Nigeria's request, but described it as a "fishing expedition". It said Nigeria's claims were "spurious". US Judge Lorna Schofield has granted Nigeria's application. While not expressly named in the order, AIB was part of the original application and did not file any court papers in response. It declined to comment. P&ID has been granted reasonable access to documents Nigeria receives. It said this was "good news". Nana Akosua Frimpomaa-Sarpong, the Election 2012 Vice Presidential Candidate of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), on Sunday commended Ghanaian mothers for being resilient and a strong pillar for the survival of the family. Mothers continue to play the traditional backbone role and in modern world have also assumed frontline duties to support the family, your labour of love will certainly not be in vain. The world will continue to celebrate your special love, strength, patience, care and tenderness as mothers, sisters, aunties, guardians and friends and also make bold sacrifices for your children and other relatives, Nana Frimpomaa-Sarpong told the Ghana News Agency in an interview to mark the 2020 International Mothers Day. Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. Nana Frimpomaa-Sarpong, who is contesting for the CPP National Chairmanship, slot commended the unique strength of women which enables them to carry children in their womb for nine months, while the patience, special heart and tenderness enabled them to go through the daily struggles. Gallant mothers are, indeed, gifts which are not replaceable, as they play the role of teachers, psychologists, servants and go every length to solve the problems of their children. Their unconditional love and special hearts lead to inspire, encourage and give confidence to their children when all seem to have ended. As the world celebrates the heroic and courageous mothers, the world have every reason to be excited while they watch their day-old babies grow into boys, girls, men and women. The CPP Leading member also saluted fathers and men who are playing mothering roles in society; your combination of fathering and mothering roles is not easy but you are doing it for the sake of mankind, we appreciate you. She said to mothers facing any challenge as they endeavour to play their motherly roles of caring, nurturing and providing for their families, particularly, mothers with children of special needs, we salute your courage and faith in these special ones. She expressed the hope that all mothers in the face of COVID-19 would be strengthened to stand firm, knowing that their efforts would yield tremendous results, so that they would reap and enjoy the fruits of their efforts as mothers. As we celebrate mothers, I urge you to appreciate not only your biological mother but every woman who has played the role of a mother in your life or in a friends life. Nana Frimpomaa-Sarpong stressed that mothers were the sweetest gift from God to mankind. There is no way we can ever really thank our mothers for all they do for us. Nonetheless we must make it a habit to keep reminding ourselves of the various sacrifices they make while raising us. I congratulate every woman on their resilience, fortitude and hard work. I see this day as a very special day to give a standing ovation to all Ghanaian women across the country. The labour of the Ghanaian woman will certainly not be in vain. 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 Hundreds of people gathered at the Dealey Plaza in Dallas yesterday to call for all Texas businesses to reopening minus the restrictions. Kevin Whitt, one of the "Set Texas Free," rally organizers said, the gathering lasted for about two on Saturday afternoon. He also added that what they, "as a people, saw is there are fewer people who die of COVID-19" those who are jobless. Also, according to this organizer, they are losing the state's economy. So many people in Texas, he continued, have remained unemployed. The rally came one day after establishments like barbershops and salons were allowed to reopen for the first time since the middle of March. Then, just more than one week after, retail stores and restaurant dining rooms were allowed to restart the business, as well, though with limited capacity. Back in Operation Companies returned to operation, according to the directives of the government, should follow safety rules. Relatively gyms are slated for reopening on May 18. Other businesses, though, such as massage therapy studios and tattoo parlors, still have to wait for the day they can start operating again. Jill Glover, one of the organizers of "Set Texas Free," said, the message they want to convey to all those in the government is that they believe that people can take accountability and that they know how to be accountable for the protection of oneself, as well as others from the infection. Glover added, now is the time to reopen the Texas economy. In addition, the co-organizer also said they gathered in honor of Shelley Luther. Luther is an owner of a salon in Dallas who gained public attention after she reopened her salon late last month even though during that time, there were orders from the state and county, not to do so. Luther's Case Luther was sent to prison after Eric Moye, the District Court Judge, found her in contempt of court for rejecting to close her business even after receiving a temporary restraining order from Dallas City. And after she declined to apologize for breaking the order to temporarily remain closed, she was sentenced to one week. The salon owner was released on Thursday following the Texas Supreme Court's order. Luther said during the rally on Saturday that she doesn't feel like she is leading anything. Additionally, the salon owner also shared how she feels like her dad fighting in the wars, and all of the people she was with were war veterans from which she led the way. In this rally, Luther explained, they are trying to get back what they already fought for. Meanwhile, NBC 5 tried to reach out to Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson's office regarding the "Set Texas Free" rally. The spokesperson, in response to the news agency's query, said they were not aware of that planned rally although they'd look into it. Then, in an editorial column, Johnson wrote he avoided commenting on the details of Luther's case because the city attorney has pursued litigation. Check these out! A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737s engine damage is visible after it struck and killed a man walking on the runway of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas Thursday night (Pictures: CBS/EPA(file)) A man has been struck and killed by a Boeing 737 after he walked along an airport runway. The unidentified victim believed to be a trespasser died after being hit by the Southwest plane as it landed at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas on Thursday evening. CBS News reported that the planes pilot saw the man before hitting him, and tried to maneuver the jet out of the way, but was unable to do so. An airport driver found the mans remains on the runway shortly afterwards. Medical help was summoned, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. A photo of the plane involved shows a huge dent on its cowling (engine housing) believed to have been caused by the moment of impact. The runway where the man was struck was closed for further investigation, with Austin-Bergstroms second runway remaining open. No-one on the affected plane, which had come from Dallas, was injured, with all on board disembarking shortly afterwards. The man killed did not have any identification on him, and was not wearing an airport uniform. Police are continuing to investigate who he is, how he got onto the runway, and what he was doing there. A Southwest spokesman told Fox7: Southwest is fully cooperating with local law enforcement and FAA as those agencies investigate the event. We sincerely thank our Crew for their professionalism and swift response. *** Source: Metro UK LifeMiles is a separate business from airline partner Avianca, remains well capitalized and is insulated from Avianca's reorganization process Avianca will continue to accrue and redeem LifeMiles as normal during its Chapter 11 process and once flights resume after COVID-19 travel restrictions are lifted Avianca's relationship with Star Alliance remains strong and LifeMiles members will continue to earn and redeem miles on all Star Alliance operators Members' miles are safe No LifeMiles will expire throughout the remainder of 2020 and the validity of members' miles will continue to extend every time additional miles are accrued LifeMiles continues to add more ways to earn and redeem miles as new brands are added to its coalition of more than 550 commercial partners in Colombia, Central America and beyond BOGOTA, Colombia and SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, May 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- LifeMiles (the "Company"), Latin America's leading coalition loyalty program, today provided an update on its continued partnership with Avianca. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the travel industry, Avianca has voluntarily filed reorganization proceedings under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. This filing will preserve and protect Avianca's business, enabling it to reorganize its financial commitments and operations as demand for air travel recovers. Through this process, Avianca intends to preserve jobs, promote the economic recovery of its core markets and maintain its connectivity and operations. Given that Avianca's frequent flyers, which are LifeMiles members, are its most valuable customers, Avianca plans to continue honoring the LifeMiles loyalty program. Members will continue to earn miles on Avianca flights as well as pay for Avianca tickets using their LifeMiles as normal. "LifeMiles members can remain confident that Avianca will continue to honor the LifeMiles program, including rewarding its customers with LifeMiles and accepting LifeMiles as payment for airline tickets, as this is a critical part of Avianca's commitment to customers and its long-term success," said Matthew Vincett, Chief Executive Officer of LifeMiles. "We expect our partnership with Avianca to operate as normal during its Chapter 11 process, and we look forward to Avianca emerging from its financial reorganization stronger than ever." "LifeMiles members are valued Avianca customers, and they can expect to accrue and redeem miles on Avianca and our partners through the LifeMiles loyalty program as normal," said Anko van der Werff, Chief Executive Officer of Avianca. "Avianca remains committed to continuing to serve customers with safe, reliable air travel and high-quality service, as COVID-19 travel restrictions are lifted." How Avianca's Reorganization Process Affects LifeMiles and Shared Customers Avianca will continue to accrue and accept LifeMiles as normal during its reorganization process. LifeMiles is a separate business from Avianca, with distinct legal entities, separate shareholders, and its own majority independent governance body. LifeMiles remains well capitalized and LifeMiles' assets are insulated from Avianca's reorganization process. LifeMiles sells its miles to a wide range of businesses, including retail and commercial partners, in addition to airlines like Avianca. Historically, Avianca and its air partners have made up approximately 30 percent of LifeMiles purchased. The majority of LifeMiles are sold to banks, commercial partners, and members directly. When a member wants to redeem their miles, it is LifeMiles that pays for their rewards. LifeMiles has a strong financial position, enabling it to meet its financial commitments. In addition to members' continued ability to earn and use their miles with Avianca and Avianca's air partners, LifeMiles offers a wide array of other ways its members can accrue and redeem their miles. "LifeMiles remains well-positioned to provide strong value to our members and partners, both in the travel and non-travel related sectors," Vincett said. "LifeMiles has built an extensive network of commercial partners, enabling our members to earn and redeem their miles in the restaurant, retail and gasoline sectors, among many other segments. Members will continue to earn miles on their daily purchases via our commercial partners and our credit cards. These miles can be used with confidence for rewards now and in the future. If our members have any additional questions or concerns, I encourage them to consult www.LifeMilesNews.com, where an extensive question and answers section regarding Avianca's reorganization is available." LifeMiles Remains Strong, Supported by Broad Partner Network and Loyal Member Base LifeMiles is operating as normal, supported by its strong financial position, extensive commercial partner network, and loyal member base. The Company has 550+ agreements with a wide variety of commercial partners, including most of the leading financial institutions in each of the countries where it operates. Its nearly 10 million members can continue to earn miles through their everyday purchases by using one of more than 700,000 active LifeMiles co-branded credit cards, and by shopping in its broad network of partners, which includes premier hotels, major car rental companies, popular restaurants, and other commercial establishments such as gas stations, supermarkets and leading apparel brands. "Our members know LifeMiles are valuable when they are redeemed," Vincett continued. "Accordingly, many members earn miles multiple times on their daily spend. For example, when members pay with a LifeMiles credit card while shopping at a LifeMiles partner, they earn miles both via the credit card and via the miles rewarded to them by the retail or restaurant partner." The Company continues to add new partners regularly, including the recent addition of Uber and Uber Eats as partners across several countries where LifeMiles operates. "These partners have helped members earn and redeem their miles in services that are especially relevant during the COVID-19 crisis," added Vincett. LifeMiles has also recently taken other actions to show its commitment to its valued members, including the decision to not expire any miles between April 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020. "We want our members to feel confident that their miles are safe," Vincett emphasized. "We also want to be a responsible corporate citizen, which implies making adjustments to our programs and policies to protect our members against negative impacts from the COVID-19 crisis as much as possible. That said, we look forward to a bright future and to our members being able to 'live their miles' more than ever very soon." About LifeMiles LifeMiles is a world-class loyalty program that allows its members to earn miles through daily activities and redeem them with incredible partners. There are multiple benefits to being a member, such as earning or redeeming LifeMiles when flying with Avianca, Star Alliance and other partner airlines, as well as for purchases at commercial partners, for hotel stays, car rentals, travel care benefits and much more. Members can also earn miles through their everyday purchases by paying with their Avianca LifeMiles credit cards and earn additional miles when purchasing within LifeMiles' commercial partner network. Since 2012, LifeMiles is the only Latin American loyalty program to have won a Freddie Award, the most prestigious member-generated award in the travel loyalty industry. Altogether, LifeMiles has received more Freddie Awards (13 in total) than any other airline-related loyalty program in Latin America. In addition, in 2017 LifeMiles received a Global Traveler Quint Status award after winning Global Traveler's "Best Frequent-Flyer Award Redemption" award for five consecutive years. Contacts Colombia Julieta Rodriguez jrodrigueza@llorenteycuenca.com +57 301 5533765 Peru Anghy Covarrubias acovarrubias@llorenteycuenca.com +51 938 279 308 Ecuador Bernarda Martinez bmartinez@llorenteycuenca.com +593 99 4266500 Central America Raquel Rodriguez rrodriguez@clcglobal.cr +506 8856 4400 United States and Europe Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher Michael Freitag or Kaitlin Kikalo +1 212 355 4449 SOURCE LifeMiles Ltd Riot police disperse protesters seeking to revive pro-democracy movement after months of being curtailed by coronavirus. Small protests erupted in Hong Kong as hundreds of people gathered in several shopping centres to call for independence and the resignation of the citys Beijing-backed leader. The semi-autonomous Chinese city last year was rocked by months of often-violent demonstrations triggered by the introduction of a now-scrapped extradition bill. The demonstrations later morphed into a broader pro-democracy movement, but mass arrests and the coronavirus pandemic ushered in a period of calm in recent months. But with Hong Kong successfully flattening its curve of COVID-19 infections, there has been a revival in anti-government protests over the last couple of weeks. Small flashmob demonstrations broke out in at least eight shopping centres throughout Sunday, prompting riot police to rush in and disperse crowds of activists and shoppers on Mothers Day. At least three arrests were made while groups of officers conducted multiple stop and searches. Live footage also showed police issuing on the spot fines of 2,000 Hong Kong dollars ($260) to those allegedly breaching emergency anti-virus measures banning more than eight people gathering in public. Authorities had banned an application for a march on Sunday, so small groups of masked protesters instead played a game of cat-and-mouse with police in different shopping centres, a tactic used frequently last year. This is just a warm-up, our protest movement needs to start again, a university student who gave his name as B told AFP news agency. Its a sign that the movement is coming back to life, we all need to wake up now. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, who has been staunchly backed by Beijing, has record-low approval ratings. The chief executive has resisted calls for universal suffrage or an independent inquiry into the handling of the protests by the police. She has previously promised to heal divisions but her administration has offered little in the way of reconciliation or a political solution. On Wednesday, Chinas Hong Kong affairs office condemned protesters as a political virus, warning the territory would never be calm until the demonstrators were removed. Plans to pass a law banning insulting Chinas national anthem sparked scuffles in the citys legislature on Friday. Top Beijing officials have suggested opposition legislators who blocked the bill with filibustering could be prosecuted and have also called for a new anti-sedition law to be passed. Taliban leaders searched their ranks, including the much-feared Haqqani network, and on Sunday said they are not holding Mark R Frerichs, a Navy veteran turned contractor who was disappeared in Afghanistan in late January. "We don't have any information about the missing American," Sohail Shaheen, Taliban's political spokesman, told the AP in a message on Sunday. A second Taliban official familiar with the talks with the United States said "formally and informally" the Taliban have notified US officials they are not holding Frerichs. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. Washington's peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who negotiated a peace deal with the Taliban signed in February to allow America and NATO countries to withdraw their troops and end decades of war, asked for Frierchs' release during his meetings this week in the Middle Eastern State of Qatar where the Taliban maintain a political office. In a statement late Saturday by the US Embassy in Kabul, Khalilzad also sought Pakistan's help in locating Frierchs. He arrived in Islamabad on Friday from Doha before heading next door to India in his pursuit of a lasting peace in Afghanistan. Pakistan, where Taliban leaders have found a safe haven since their overthrow in 2001 by the US-led coalition, has worked with the US to get a peace deal with the Taliban. While it still has influence with the insurgents, a deep mistrust between the militant movement and Taliban exists. Pakistan kept the Taliban's chief negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in jail for eight years after his arrest in a joint Pakistan-CIA operation in 2010, apparently because he had opened peace talks with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai but without Pakistan or Washington's involvement. Since his release in late 2018 to push the US-Taliban peace process forward, he has returned only once to Pakistan and has quietly been relocating his family to the Middle East. Earlier this week, the FBI took the unusual step of putting out a poster with Frerichs' picture on it seeking information into his disappearance and whereabouts, something they have not done in previous incidents where the Taliban have taken hostages. Previous talks have been held quietly, intelligence gathered and often many months later hostages' fate is known, having either found their freedom or died. Khalilzad's latest trip to the region, according to a US State Department announcement, includes Doha, Islamabad and New Delhi but not Kabul, where political turmoil has stymied progress on the deal's next and critical phase of intra-Afghan talks. Afghanistan's political leaders are still disputing last year's presidential polls. A frustrated US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in March cut USD 1 billion in aid to Afghanistan after a surprise visit to the Afghan capital failed to bring about an agreement between the two leaders Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah. Khalilzad however has been pressing forward pushing the Taliban to agree to a reduction in violence in an effort to move Afghanistan toward a lasting peace. The US and NATO however have started their troop withdrawal, which will be completed by next year if the Taliban keep to their promise in the deal to fight terrorist groups, particularly the Islamic State and guarantee Afghan territory is not used again to attack the United States or its allies. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The coronavirus pandemic could cause remittance payments around the world to drop by 20%, the sharpest decline in history threatening the livelihoods of the families who rely on them, the World Bank projects. Why it matters: Families across the globe are depending on remittances more than ever as the coronavirus crisis batters local economies. Without them, millions will struggle to pay for basic needs, such as housing, health care and education. Zoom in: Mexico was the third-largest recipient of remittances in 2018 and the largest recipient of money from the U.S., the New York Times writes. Remittances account for just 3% of Mexico's GDP, but they are an "enormous boon to some of the country's poorest communities," the Washington Post writes. In the state of Michoacan, remittances make up more than 11% of the local economy. Nearly 1.65 million households across Mexico receive money from abroad, per the Post. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in April urged Mexicans abroad to continue to send remittance payments. Zoom out: In the most remittance-dependent countries, like Nepal or Haiti, they account for roughly one-third of GDP. The big picture: The United Nations says remittance payments are actually three times more important than international aid since the money goes directly into the hands of people who need it most. The state of play: Remittances in 2019 totaled $554 billion, and the World Bank expects the number to drop to $445 billion in 2020. Remittances as a share of a countrys GDP tend to be the largest in poor countries, small-island developing nations and those experiencing armed conflict. And even in countries with a strong GDP, remittance payments can act as a lifeline for some of its poorer or more rural communities. What theyre saying: The World Bank recommends countries develop long- and short-term plans to support families that rely on the payment by increasing access to health care, housing and education. Governments should aid families who rely on remittances with cash payments to cover daily expenses as well as develop more secure ways to transfer remittance payments, the World Bank says. The bottom line: Historically, remittance payments have dropped in a handful of countries at a time. This time, however, the pandemic has affected all countries, and the economic fallout is likely to vary, the World Bank writes. Go deeper: Remittances are an invisible $500 billion aid juggernaut Hundreds of workplaces are facing unannounced inspections and may be shut down in the coming weeks if they fail to comply with stringent new measures aimed at preventing the spread of Covid-19. The Health and Safety Authority has already carried out over 400 workplace on-site inspections and investigations under occupational health and safety law since March and will now have the powers to enforce new mandatory public health guidance. The Government's Return to Work safety protocol for workplaces includes regulations for social distancing, hand hygiene, first aid and mental health support for returning workers. Business Minister Heather Humphreys said: "HSA inspectors will be able to take appropriate enforcement actions under the Health and Safety Act 2005. This means if a business does not co-operate and comply with public health guidelines after being asked to make improvements, the HSA will be able to order them to shut down the workplace." HSA chief executive Dr Sharon McGuinness said that every single complaint about a workplace would be followed up with an employer and this could include unannounced on-site inspections. Under the plan, employers will be asked to develop a Covid-19 business response plan prior to reopening, which will address risk and its response to virus infections in the workplace. The protocol also states that employees, who will be returning to work, will need additional support for stress caused by financial reasons, a death of a relative or difficulties with personal relationships. They will also have to complete a pre-return to work form which will state that they have not been in contact with the virus. Employers will then have to appoint a lead worker representative, who will be in charge of ensuring that health measures are "strictly adhered to" by staff. There must also be induction training for all workers on public health guidance, how the workplace is organised to address risk, and any other relevant sector-specific advice. The protocol urges for a no-handshake policy to be implemented as well as temperature testing, social distancing, hand sanitiser and tissue provision. The wearing of face coverings is stated to be "not a replacement" for other hygiene measures. According to the protocol, remote working should be encouraged and free office space should be used as isolation areas for staff who are exhibiting virus symptoms. Under the protocols, staff who display coronavirus symptoms during the working day will be directed to this designated isolation area by a manager. A two-metre distance will have to be maintained as transportation is arranged for the worker to go home or to get medical attention and they will have to avoid public transport. Logs of work groups will have to be put in place for contact tracing and a risk assessment of any incident would have to be carried out. Plastic sneeze guards at workplaces, where two-metre separation social distancing is not possible, should also be put in place. Some aspects of the protocol will vary from different workplaces, but the document sets out "overarching principals" which must be followed. The measures will have to be implemented in businesses, offices and construction sites. "The protocol is mandatory and the HSA will be in charge of its oversights and implementation," Ms Humphreys said at Government Buildings. "This document sets the minimum measures required in every workplace. "We all want businesses to reopen and people to get back to work," added the minister. "We all want Ireland to get back to work but it has to happen safely." The plans were developed in a "collaborative effort" by the Department of Business along with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, employers' group Ibec, and the Construction Industry Federation (CIF). The Department of Health and the HSE were also involved and the Health and Safety Authority will enforce the rules. The HSA will appoint inspectors to work "collaboratively" with employers to make improvements if necessary and workplaces will be ordered to shut down if they are not implemented. CIF director general Tom Parlon welcomed the new protocols and said construction companies will be carrying out site safety assessments to 'Covid-proof' building sites around the country to prepare for a gradual return to work. "Companies are being sensible and practical and carrying out assessments, modifying sites, shutting canteen facilities, appointing compliance officers, liaising with workers representatives. "We've seen on sites in Ireland that were able to operate during the last month, and in every other EU construction industry, that these measures work," he said. ICTU General Secretary Patricia King said that employers had an "absolute duty" to implement the protocol. "There can be no short-cuts or opt-outs when it comes to matters of life and death," she said. Chambers Ireland said the protocol is an "essential framework". Ibec's chief executive Danny McCoy said the protocol "will provide confidence to employers and employees that safety and well-being can be securely managed as we begin to reopen our economy." Australians have begun to emerge from a spending shutdown during the depths of the coronavirus crisis in a trend that gives the countrys biggest bank greater confidence about an economic recovery ahead. Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn said the bank had seen a rebound in household spending over the past two weeks after a dramatic 20 per cent fall in March and early April. CBA CEO Matt Comyn. Credit:Louie Douvis But in an exclusive interview, Mr Comyn warned that some employers would collapse and some households would need continued help from their banks well after the federal government is due to end its emergency assistance in September. "The overall economic impact, particularly if you use spending as a proxy, has been nowhere near as large as it has been in some countries," Mr Comyn told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. UPDATE (5/11): 57K Pa. coronavirus cases, 3,731 dead. Wolf sends warning not to reopen early Pennsylvania coronavirus cases continue to rise as counties push to reopen. The state health department reported 1,295 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the statewide total to 56,611. Additionally, 19 more reported deaths bring the statewide coronavirus death toll to 3,707. (Cant see the map? Click here.) Residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities account for 20% of Pennsylvanias coronavirus cases and 68% of deaths. At least 227,772 Pennsylvanians have tested negative for the virus. The health department does not track coronavirus recoveries. Data in the state report typically lags over the weekend, particularly regarding deaths. (Cant see the chart? Click here.) In the Lehigh Valley, the state now reports 5,694 total coronavirus cases, 96 more than the day before. The health department has also reported 279 deaths between Lehigh and Northampton counties, similar at least in total to what the counties have themselves reported. Lehigh County, through the coroners office, has reported at least 155 deaths; the state has counted 121. Northampton County on Thursday reported 137 deaths, 123 of whom were residents; the state on Sunday reported 158. The differences may be due in part to how the deaths are logged. The state counts a death by a patients county of residence, not where they are treated, something the counties themselves may not track. The counties may include out-of-county residents or unconfirmed cases. There are also sometimes delays in the states report, something Health Secretary Rachel Levine has said is being addressed. (Cant see the map? Click here.) Regardless, nearly 300 Lehigh Valley residents have died from the coronavirus. The counties both say the average age of those who have died was about 80. Residents in long-term care facilities account for roughly two-thirds of the coronavirus deaths in each county, mirroring the statewide trend. We are reporting more than data here, Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure said in that countys latest update on Thursday. We are reporting the loss of our fellow citizens and we grieve that loss with their loved ones and friends. We encourage everyone to continue to practice social distancing, to wear a mask when they are out in the community and to get tested for COVID-19 if they have symptoms. (Cant see the chart? Click here.) Lehigh County, in an update Friday, said the county coroners office saw a 55% increase in death investigations year-over-year for the month of April. However, after weeks under a statewide stay-at-home order, Pennsylvania is beginning to reopen. Twenty-four counties moved to the yellow phase on Friday, the second level of Gov. Tom Wolfs three-tier plan. Thirteen more will do so on May 15. (Cant see the map? Click here.) The Lehigh Valley, along with the Poconos and all of eastern Pennsylvania, remains in the red phase, where the shutdown measures are strictest. State Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Lehigh Valley, after consulting with doctors at local hospitals, has asked to move Northampton and Lehigh counties to the yellow phase. State Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon, has called for Carbon County to also be reopened. Officials in Schuylkill County reportedly plan to defy the governor and reopen next Friday, the Morning Call reports. And sheriffs in Cumberland and Perry counties say they will not cite businesses that operate in defiance of Wolfs shutdown order. (Cant see the table? Click here.) For more information on the coronavirus, consult your state health department at health.pa.gov and the CDC website. Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com. Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. There will be many changes for the worse when we finally creep out of lockdown and realise that the economy has gone into shrink mode. There will be fewer jobs to go to and some of the local businesses we once supported cafes, restaurants, local bookshops will no longer be there. Gone for good. Finito. All rather depressing and, some would say, all unnecessary. There is also no doubt that cash will be a 'victim' of coronavirus. More retail businesses what's left of them will become contactless payment-only as they spurn cash for a mixture of reasons, including health issues (however misguided that may be) and convenience. Cash trends: Access to cash will shrink as more bank branches are closed and unprofitable cash machines are removed from our streets, says Jeff Prestridge Also, as I reported in this column seven days ago, access to cash will shrink as more bank branches are closed and unprofitable cash machines are removed from our streets (if you see a purple square on the outside wall of a NatWest branch, it's where an ATM once resided). Such trends less banks, fewer ATMs are unfortunate but inevitable as banks cut costs against the backdrop of a financially challenged economy. Even the network of post offices, a vital financial hub in most communities, will come under threat as some of the small retailers that host them fall by the wayside. Yet it's not total gloom on the access to cash front. For a while, UK Finance, the banking industry's mouthpiece, has been looking at ways of keeping cash on the high street. It has put together a panel under the chairmanship of Natalie Ceeney to assess how communities towns and villages especially can ensure cash lives on, enabling a mix of small businesses, residents, market traders and local charities to carry on with their financial lives. For a long while, Ceeney has argued that cash will disappear from our economy unless we actively protect it, an argument the Government supported before coronavirus weaved its evil way into our nation's fabric. Her role at UK Finance as chair of its 'community access to cash initiative' panel will now allow her to come up with solutions and test them to see if they are practical and can be rolled out on a national basis. Everything is being considered from free cashback facilities made available in every community through to 'shared' bank branches where all or some of the big banks club together to run a 'community' branch that can be used by all their customers. Head of the Access to Cash review Natalie Ceeney has argued that cash will disappear from our economy unless we protect it For the panel to test these ideas, it wants to hear from up to 20 communities via individuals, business leaders, council members that are keen to keep cash alive and would like to have a banking presence on their high street. It will then use these communities as locations to test 'pilot' access to cash schemes. If the pilots work, they could then gain national traction. Derek French, a former bank manager and a longstanding campaigner for shared bank branches, is enthused by UK Finance's initiative. He believes it could finally pave the way for a national network of community bank outlets. He senses that some banks, with branches ripe to cull, are coming round to his way of thinking. Two communities keen on being pilots are Westbury in Wiltshire, and Barton-upon- Humber the southern gateway to the Humber Bridge. Westbury, synonymous with the White Horse, has lost all four of its banks in recent years. Like nearly all communities, it has some social deprivation issues, but there's money in the town and the presence of a big manufacturer in Anchor Butter as we are reminded every time we open one of its tubs: 'Welcome to Westbury, Wiltshire... where Anchor butter is made using 100 per cent British milk.' In Barton-upon-Humber, one bank (Lloyds) remains although a mobile NatWest branch did visit until coronavirus garaged it. So, if you are keen for your community to be a 'pilot', I urge you to make an application via communityaccesstocashpilots.org. The deadline is the end of the month. In applying, you could be part of a banking revolution that helps save cash and keeps a banking presence on our streets coronavirus or no coronavirus. Kate Middleton's best friend Emilia Jardine-Paterson has welcomed her third child with husband David. The couple, already parents to sons Leo and Alexander, announced the arrival of daughter Lucia Beatrice India on March 20 in the birth announcements section of The Times newspaper yesterday. Emilia (nee D'Erlanger), an interior designer who runs her own company, d'Erlanger and Sloan, is one of six-year-old Prince George's seven godparents. A friend of William's from his teenage years and a school friend of Kate's from Marlborough College, glamorous Emilia has been credited with introducing the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Kate Middleton's best friend Emilia Jardine-Paterson has welcomed her third child with husband David, pictured together at the wedding of Pippa Middleton and James Matthews in 2017 Her husband David Jardine-Paterson is the scion of a Scottish landowning family descended from the illustrious Hong Kong banking Jardines and was a contemporary of Prince William's at Eton. Like his wife, Mr Jardine-Paterson also has a Middleton connection: his younger brother, JJ, went out with Pippa for four years. Emilia has become a fixture in royal circles and was last spotted attending a Sunday service at the Church of St Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate in King's Lynn on January 5, along with the Cambridges and Kate's parents, Carole and Michael Middleton. Heavily pregnant, Emilia looked stylish in a long green coat and a pale blue felt beret. Emilia has become a fixture in royal circles and was last spotted attending a Sunday service at the Church of St Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate in King's Lynn on January 5, along with the Cambridges and Kate's parents, Carole and Michael Middleton (pictured) Heavily pregnant, Emilia looked stylish in a long green coat and a pale blue felt beret A friend of William's from his teenage years and a school friend of Kate's (pictured during a recent interview on This Morning) from Marlborough College, glamorous Emilia has been credited with introducing the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Designer Emilia is thought to be partly responsible for the redecoration of Kensington Palace and Anmer Hall, having provided the Duchess with design tips for fabrics, trimmings and furniture. It was reportedly Emilia, rather than Kate, who was known as 'the It girl' of Marlborough College. Her school friends joked in the Marlborough College Year Book, 2000, that behind her Sloaney exterior lay 'a former Page Three girl plagued by speeding fines'. Emilia Jardine-Paterson and husband David arrive at the Chapel Royal in St James's Palace, for the christening of Prince George in 2013 She was known (even then) as 'HRH Emilia de lingerie' or 'Emilia de lankypants' and when she was 14 she was said to keep alcoholic concoctions in 'honey jars and juice bottles' in her dorm cupboard. Caught in the middle during the temporary Cambridge split, Emilia seemed to side with Kate, flying out to Ibiza with her to stay with Kate's uncle, Gary Goldsmith. When William and Kate reconciled, they attended her wedding to David, who sported tartan trousers as a groom. Ministers were accused of betraying care homes yesterday after failing to meet a promise to provide coronavirus tests for all staff and residents. Officials said on April 15 they were rolling out tests for all care workers who needed them and two weeks later extended this to all staff and residents of English care homes whether or not they had symptoms. But a survey has found fewer than one in four care home staff who fear they have coronavirus have been screened and many care homes say they cant get any tests at all. Ministers have been accused of failing care homes after failing to meet a promise they made on April 15 to provide coronavirus tests for all staff and residents Other care managers have been told tests are only available for residents who have shown symptoms for over 48 hours, which they say is useless in trying to stop the diseases spread. MPs described the situation as madness and one care home boss said there was a complete variance between what the Government is saying and whats happening. Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the daily Downing Street press conference on April 28: We will be rolling out testing of asymptomatic residents and staff in care homes in England. This means anyone who is working or living in a care home will be able to get access to a test, whether they have symptoms or not. But Rachel Beckett, chairman of the Wellburn chain which has 14 care homes across the North East, said last night: These promised tests for all just dont exist. Id say to Matt Hancock, dont stand on a platform and make a promise that you cant carry out. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in the last week of April they would be carrying out testing of asymptomatic care home residents and staff but has now been accused of making promises he cannot keep Mark Ellison, who owns Temple Grove Care Home in East Sussex, said he has had no luck getting his staff and 65 residents tested. He said: Our nearest test centre is in Gatwick so it is an hour-and-a-half round trip. Carers are on minimum wage and dont have their own cars and even if they do, if theyre feeling ill an hour-and-a-half journey is not feasible. The Government clearly hasnt thought this through. Theres a complete variance between what the Government is saying and whats happening. He has also been unable to get tests for residents through the post. Mr Ellison, 46, said the NHS had used emotionally bullying tactics to try to pressure him into taking hospital patients who had not been tested for coronavirus. He said: They told me I was not doing my bit for the country, that I was letting people down, it really was as strong as that. Jayne Connery, head of Care Campaign for the Vulnerable, said: Its a total contradiction and betrayal of care home residents and staff. Head of Care Campaign for the Vulnerable Jayne Connery says that this lack of testing is a betrayal of both the care home residents and the staff Several care home bosses said the only information they have received about testing since Mr Hancocks promise on April 28 is an email the following day from the Care Quality Commission on behalf of Public Health England (PHE), stating only residents that are self-isolating because they are symptomatic are eligible. It added: Tests should be carried out on people who have been symptomatic for more than 48 hours but less than seven days. PHE said these were tests that have always been available and were different from those promised by the Department of Health. Data collected last week by the National Care Forum (NCF), which represents non-profit providers, suggests just 22 per cent of care home staff needing tests have had them. The NCF collected data from 38 members which together employ almost 31,262 care staff. Of the 6,469 residential care staff needing tests due to displaying symptoms, only 1,436 had been tested. Just 2 per cent of staff were able to receive a test at drive-through centres through the website for employers, and no home tests were available this way. Data shows that just 22 per cent of care home staff who need tests have received them One care provider said: We have not had any success with the employer portal. Despite several emails being sent to register we have not heard anything back at all. Some care workers have been asked to travel a round trip of up to 120 miles for a test. Vic Rayner, executive director of the NCF, said: The Governments promise to provide tests for all staff is exposed as pure words. Social care needs to be systematically prioritised in each and every testing system in order for Government to live up to its commitment. Labour MP Liz Kendall, the shadow minister for social care, said: There are desperately low levels of testing. Weve heard of appalling cases where care workers in Norfolk have been told to go to Sheffield and those in Peterborough to Stansted Airport. These people are suffering with coronavirus symptoms and dont often have their own cars. It is madness the Government doesnt understand how real peoples lives work. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: As capacity has substantially increased, testing is being prioritised for both care home staff and residents with and without symptoms. Boris Johnson last night pledged to increase testing further to tackle coronavirus outbreaks in care homes. He said in an address to the nation: We must reverse rapidly the awful epidemics in care homes and in the NHS. 'We are living in fear': Terror of carers in facility where third of residents have died in outbreak By Andrew Levy Staff are living in fear at a care home where more than a third of residents have died during the outbreak, a senior manager has said. Nine elderly people have passed away at the 22-bed Westcliff Lodge care home in Southend, Essex, since last month. A carer has also died having been ill for three weeks before succumbing to the disease. The deaths came as the virus tore through the facility, despite staff imposing a lockdown a week before the Government brought in measures. Nine residents and one staff member from 22-bed care home Westcliff Lodge have died during the coronavirus outbreak Dr Jenny Smith, director of care at the independent home, said the number of staff off sick had left others under tremendous pressure. She added: Theres so much fear among the staff because this is a virus that affects people of all ages and thats a primary difference really compared to normal influenza outbreaks. Dr Smith criticised the lack of testing in the care sector, saying it wasnt timely enough. One of the elderly victims was Winnie Tilley, 86, who died four days after first developing a cough. Janice Mullin (left), who lost her mother and Westcliff Lodge resident Winnie (left, in photo) to the virus, has described the lack of testing for care home residents as 'scandalous' Her daughter, Janice Mullin, described the lack of testing as scandalous. The Government has overlooked the elderly and pooled their resources into other generations, she said. Former pet shop owner Mrs Tilley, who lost her husband Roy in 2013, died in her bed at the care home on April 15. Her daughter added she had Parkinsons disease and dementia but was in good health and there was no reason to expect her to die so soon. Another victim at the home Dom Lanuza, 83, had been coughing so much that he was unable to drink water, his son Marlon said. Dom Lanuza (left, pictured with wife Lina) is another resident from the care home in Essex, Southend, to have passed away due to the virus He first showed symptoms on April 4 and died six days later. Grandfather Mr Lanuza arrived in the UK from the Philippines in 1977 and had been married to his wife Lina for more than 50 years. She visited him four times a week before the lockdown, but had not seen him since then. Son Marlon added: We could have minimised fatalities if wed tested people and there had been proper [protective] gear to wear. Dismal failure has turned our most vulnerable into sitting ducks Commentary by Baroness Ros Altmann, Former Pensions Minister The crisis we are living through has shown the very best of Britain: from the selfless commitment of frontline NHS and social care staff to the 750,000 who came forward as volunteers. But the pandemic has also shone a cruel spotlight on one of our greatest failings: our attitude towards the elderly. As the Mail revealed on Saturday, there is growing evidence that some hospitals, in a desperate race to clear beds before coronavirus cases surged, are sending patients suffering from Covid-19 back to care homes without telling their managers. The coronavirus pandemic is shining a cruel light on this country's greatest failings - our attitude towards the elderly Now Covid-19 is ravaging care homes nationwide. Those who are most vulnerable have become, in effect, sitting ducks, while scientists fear these institutions are now seeding the infection back into the community. Since the Mail began powerfully exposing this crisis, politicians have lined up to express horror at the mounting Covid-19 death toll of care home residents. In the Commons last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he bitterly regrets what is unfolding. But it is politicians who are primarily responsible. Years of dithering, indifference, under-funding and trepidation means social care in Britain does not reflect and instead neglects the needs of an ageing population. Policy experts and campaigners like myself have argued for years that this would result in tragedy but official attitude seemed to be out of sight, out of mind. Suddenly, these warnings have become a dark reality. Until April 29, Covid-19-related fatalities in care homes were not even included in the Governments daily death toll and the initial exclusion of these figures was symptomatic of shocking abandonment. The latest figures reveal there have been about 6,000 coronavirus-related care home deaths and that number is rising. Britain is neglecting the needs of an ageing population - and it's the politicians who are responsible for this I have heard heartbreaking stories of older people who would normally have been admitted to hospital being left to suffer at home or in their care home. In one appalling case, an elderly woman was taken to hospital with a broken shoulder and sent swiftly back to her care home after it was strapped up. She was badly dehydrated and urgently needed to be put on a drip, but the hospital refused to re-admit her, demanding that she be rehydrated in the care home. A few days later, she died. This crisis is worsened by the dismal failure to carry out comprehensive testing which could have enabled infected residents to be isolated and staff to self-isolate or carry on working depending on their test result. Health Secretary Matt Hancock recently announced testing would be extended to all care workers and residents, but homes still say they are still waiting for testing and for many it is simply too late. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that testing would be available for all care workers and residents, but many have not received it and for some it is too late We need action now to arrest the carnage and to prevent it happening in the future. The Governments attention must be broadened beyond the NHS to ensure patients within the social care sector are treated with parity of esteem, not like second-class citizens. The NHS and social care should be integrated under one national body with free basic care funded nationally, rather than relying on local resources which cannot meet rising demand. We must also question the adequacy of social care oversight as The Care Quality Commission has failed to ensure decent standards. Yes, structural change will be meaningless without extra cash, but with imagination and political will, that can be achieved. Extending national insurance, possibly integrating it into income tax and introducing windfall taxes on the turnover and profits of online service providers, retailers and tech giants, could help achieve this. There should also be greater incentives for savers to put more money away for their old age as part of their pensions or innovative products such as a Care Isa or Family Care Plans. Whatever happens, the coronavirus pandemic is a call to arms. It is said that a civilisation can be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. Sadly, Britain is failing badly. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Tina Bellon and Sinead Carew (Reuters) Sun, May 10, 2020 15:17 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd70d828 2 Business tesla,Elon-Musk,california,coronavirus,COVID-19,lockdown Free Tesla Inc sued local authorities in California on Saturday as the electric carmaker pushed to re-open its factory there and Chief Executive Elon Musk threatened to move Tesla's headquarters and future programs from the state to Texas or Nevada. Musk has been pushing to re-open Tesla's Fremont, California, factory after Alameda County's health department said the carmaker must not reopen because local lockdown measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus remain in effect. In a blog post on Saturday, Tesla said the county's position left it no choice but to take legal action to ensure Tesla and its employees can go back to work. The company said it had worked out a thorough return-to-work plan that includes online video training for personnel, work zone partition areas, temperature screening, requirements to wear protective equipment and rigorous cleaning and disinfecting protocols. The company said it had informed health authorities in Alameda County, where the Fremont factory is located, about its restart plans, but claimed the acting official did not return calls or emails. Alameda County's Public Health Department, which earlier on Saturday said it had been "communicating directly and working closely with the Tesla team," did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Tesla filed a lawsuit against the county in San Francisco federal court on Saturday, calling the continued restrictions a "power-grab" by the county since California's governor had said on Thursday that manufacturers in the state would be allowed to reopen. The company said Alameda was going against the federal and California constitutions, as well as defying the governor's order, the lawsuit said. Alameda County is scheduled to remain shut until the end of May, with only essential businesses allowed to reopen. The county said it does not consider Tesla an essential business. County officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. The outspoken Musk also took to Twitter on Saturday to complain and threatened to leave the state. Read also: Indonesia asks Tesla's Elon Musk for ventilators "If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependent (sp) on how Tesla is treated in the future," he tweeted, referring to the San Francisco Bay area facility that is Tesla's only US vehicle factory. Frankly, this is the final straw. Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately. If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependen on how Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is the last carmaker left in CA. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2020 Alameda County said on Saturday that it has been working with Tesla to develop a safety plan that "allows for reopening while protecting the health and well-being of the thousands of employees" that work at the factory and that it looks forward to coming to an agreement on a safety plan very soon. Fremont Mayor Lily Mei expressed concern about the potential economic implications of continuing the shelter-in-place order without provisions for manufacturers such as Tesla to resume. Mei on Saturday urged the county to work with businesses on "acceptable guidelines for re-opening." Musk had told employees on Thursday that limited production would restart at Fremont on Friday afternoon. Tesla last year built nearly half a million vehicles at the Fremont plant and moving the entire production facility would be a massive undertaking. Dan Ives, a Wedbush analyst, on Saturday estimated it could take the company 12 to 18 months to relocate production. The threat to relocate the facility comes as Tesla aims to ramp up production at Fremont of its Model Y sport utility vehicle, which it expects to generate record demand and profit margins. Musk, who sparred with California officials in March over whether Tesla had to halt production at Fremont, had criticized the lockdown and stay-at-home orders, calling them a "serious risk" to US business and "unconstitutional." Tesla shares have risen 127 percent since March 18, their recent closing low, including a 16.8 percent gain in the last trading week to close at $819.42 on Friday. When Cheryl Roberts' five-year-old daughter learned Friday that she could finally hug her grandparents again, she turned to her mom and said, "This is the best day of my life." On Friday, P.E.I.'s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Heather Morrison, announced some COVID-19 physical distancing restrictions would be lifted, including that gatherings of up to five people are now permitted indoors. As an added treat for Mother's Day weekend, Morrison said Islanders are now allowed physical contact including hugs with one or two people. Roberts, who lives in Stratford, felt such a surge of emotion at the news, describing it as the "greatest feeling in the world." "I started to cry, my kids were screaming and yelling and running around the house, they were so excited," she said. "I've just tried so hard over the past few months to be so strong for them, and to not be upset, because my kids have had a really tough time with it. So it was very overwhelming." I started to cry, my kids were screaming and yelling and running around the house, they were so excited Cheryl Roberts Roberts' family, like many of those in the deeply connected Island province, is close-knit, and pandemic restrictions that have forced them to stay apart have taken a deep emotional toll on everyone, she said. The province did recently ease restrictions to allow up to five people to gather together outdoors while keeping six feet of distance between each person, thanks to P.E.I.'s low number of COVID-19 cases and ongoing lack of community spread of the virus. In advance of Mother's Day, Roberts had been planning a visit with her mother following these guidelines. But with snow and rain in the forecast, their plans meant she and her children would've had to stay in their vehicles, huddled in blankets, trying to have a Mother's Day visit outside in a snowstorm. Ken Linton/CBC Now, Roberts can visit her mother in comfort at her home on Mother's Day and her children can hug their "Nanny and Poppy." Story continues Jillian Trainor, a journalist who lives in the western P.E.I. town of Alberton, lives alone and has only had the companionship of her two cats through the six-odd weeks that have passed since Canadians began limiting travel outside the home to essential trips. Profound impact Going this long without any physical contact with another person has had a more profound impact than she could have anticipated, Trainor said. "You don't realize how much you touch people in a day until you can't," she said. "It's been six weeks since I've been able to hug my family and I'm really starting to feel it now, because when I visit my family my grandfather and my aunt I'd give my aunt a hug before I left and I'd give Grampie a pat on the shoulder and a kiss on the cheek and I haven't been able to do that." Trainor said getting that hug from her family was the first thing she thought of when she heard of the new lift in pandemic restrictions Friday. Her voice trembled with emotion just describing the feeling. "I'm really looking forward to that." Anita Marie Photography Savannah Belsher-MacLean of Pinette was also filled with emotion when she realized she would be able to hug her mother again, especially with Mother's Day on the horizon. She was on a video conference call for work when someone came into the call late and shared the good news. "It was all I could do to not cry when we were on the call because I was just thinking about Mother's Day coming up this weekend and just being able to hug my mom," she said. "It's been so hard to not hug my mom, and I'm not a super huggy person. I don't feel like I need a lot of touch in the run of my day, but I've really noticed it. It was such a overwhelming feeling." Sometimes when she shares hugs with her father, Belsher-MacLean says she and her sisters often do a little wiggle while they embrace, as if they are wagging their tails with happiness. 'Tail-wagging hug' "I'm missing one of those hugs right now, a little tail-wagging hug." While she is looking forward to more contact with her parents and friends as P.E.I. prepares to ease more restrictions in the coming weeks, Belsher-MacLean says she is also mindful that many Canadians across the country will not have the luxury of visiting or hugging their mothers this weekend. That's why she says she feels so lucky to live in P.E.I. one of the few places in Canada that has been something of a haven from the pandemic. As of Friday, all 27 cases of COVID-19 that have presented on the Island were considered recovered. No one who has contracted the virus in P.E.I. has been hospitalized and there have been no deaths from the illness. "I just feel grateful to be here in this little safe place in the country," Belsher-MacLean said. More from CBC P.E.I. Suranne Jones attends "BBC One Drama Gentleman Jack" Yorkshire Premiere at The Piece Hall on May 09, 2019 in Halifax, England. (Photo by Anthony Devlin/Getty Images) TV star Suranne Jones has said soaps such as Coronation Street use their girls and encouraging them to do photoshoots in a bra and knickers. The 41-year-old gained national recognition for her role as popular Karen McDonald on Corrie between 2000 and 2004. But the star, who has enjoyed success on TV dramas such as Gentleman Jack and Save Me since leaving the famous cobbles, has accused soaps of encouraging a culture of stripping down for lads magazines. Read more: Doctor Foster's Suranne Jones appears to rule out a third series of the BBC show She told the Give Me Strength podcast: The first few months was about me being whisked off and put in a bikini in Barbados. "At this time Id only been on one holiday abroad to Spain with my mates. I was like, Wow. Coronation Street characters Steve McDonald, played by Simon Gregson and Karen Phillips, played by Suranne Jones after marrying at Salford Registry Office in Manchester. (Photo by Haydn West - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images) Then I was on a celeb special for Stars In Their Eyes, then put in a magazine with a bra and knickers on. Theyd give you a glass of champagne to get you a little loose. "I remember thinking it was fun at first, but I realised it wasnt what I signed up to. There are some dodgy photos out there, theres one in a diner where I am squirting ketchup and mustard. She added it wasnt the ITV soap who was guilty though, saying: I dont think Coronation Street was alone in that. I think all of the soaps used their girls in that way. Jones left Coronation Street at the hight of her characters popularity and never looked back thanks to her continued success on the small screen. Suranne Jones during the filming for the Graham Norton Show at BBC Studioworks 6 Television Centre, Wood Lane, London, to be aired on BBC One on Friday evening. (Photo by Isabel Infantes/PA Images via Getty Images) One such role which has brought success is playing a GP named Gemma in the BBC one drama Doctor Foster. However fans hoping for a third series of the show were disappointed when Jones revealed her character is done. Read more: Suranne Jones says she vets scripts to make sure they are not too harrowing Asked by Radio Times whether the door the show, Jones said: "Yes. I haven't said that before in interviews, as I tend to say: who knows? I loved it, I love Mike Bartlett, I love [the producers] Drama Republic. "Series one was amazing, series two, equally, peaked at nearly ten million viewers and pushed in crazy directions. But I think Gemma's done." The Give Me Strength podcast is available to listen to online now. When the COVID-19 outbreak was emerging as a real threat to Australia, the political narrative from Prime Minister Scott Morrison was that we were facing a health crisis, not a financial crisis. Of highest concern to the government was the potential death toll and the capacity of the health system, but the economic impact was also weighing heavily on their minds. It was a time when flattening the curve was an ambition, not a reality. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has some tough years ahead dealing with the economic fallout of the pandemic. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Fast forward to today and it's a very different story. Australia has done exceptionally well on the pandemic front: just 12 new infections Australia-wide were reported on Sunday. But the financials of the economy are dire, with alarming figures only now starting to surface. Any thought that the economy will quickly bounce back, now that the worst of the health crisis is hopefully over, is very much in the camp of wishful thinking. On Friday, the Reserve Bank of Australia put the detail to the devastation. Unemployment will hit 10 per cent by next month and is expected to stay above 8 per cent for some time. Wallets have been shut tight: household spending has headed south by 15 per cent. Housing investment is looking worse, down by 17 per cent. All this adds up to an economy shrinking by 8 per cent in the year to June and a record budget deficit that is expected to hit an eye-watering $130 billion. Australia is hardly a lone soldier on the economic front. Only 51 per cent of American adults are in work. More than 20 million jobs were lost last month alone, a number many multiples worse than anything encountered since the Great Depression. The European Union's economy is in retreat by more than 7 per cent this year, the worst downgrade in its history. China, the third centre of gravity for the world economy, also faces some lean times despite being first to kickstart its economy. Add in the rest of the world, and the IMF has the global economy going backwards by 3 per cent. Traders at the Agblogbloshie yam and onion markets have been compelled to reduce the prices of their food items due to the impact of COVID-19. The traders who say they have lost thousands of cedis also attribute the development to low patronage and the rate at which their goods are perishing. Citi News' Nana Tuffour Boateng who was at the Agblogbloshie market reported that the sellers are lamenting the impact of the Coronavirus on their businesses. The organizer of the onion traders noted that the goods are scarce because of the closure of the border. Before the outbreak, we bought one bag at GHS450 but now we are selling between GHS220 and GHS 250 because of low patronage. So the price has decreased and currently, we are running at a loss. On his part, Daniel Lamjor, the Assistant Disciplinary Committee Chairman of the Konkomba Yam Producers and Marketing Society also added his voice stating that most of their food items are going bad because the number of customers has reduced. Look at our yams, they are getting rotten. The situation is worsening and we cannot even sell. Today we counted 500 tubers of yam but since morning not even a single person has bought one. So really, Coronavirus has affected us more. Before the outbreak, the big size of pona was around GHS10 to GHS15 but this time around, you cant like that because they are getting rotten. Food prices to keep rising due to impact of COVID-19 Esoko Meanwhile, commodity price survey service company, Esoko, has predicted that the prices of food items will continue to rise in the coming weeks due to the impact of COVID-19 on supply and production of some commodities. This is premised on the fact that for the post lockdown period, two of the major staple foodstuff, cassava and maize recorded an increase in prices across some markets surveyed in the country. Content Manager for Esoko, Francis Danso Adjei explained the factors accounting for the rise in prices for the period. If there is too much rain, it spoils the cassava; within the month of April, we didn't have a lot of rains to let the farmers uproot and sell the cassava. For the same month too, some markets also regulated how traders plied or how consumers go there to trade, he remarked. Esokos survey An analysis by Esoko which surveyed seven markets across Ghana, showed that the price of a 91kg of cassava recorded the highest increase of 28.84% to record 124 cedis in April 2020, compared to the previous month [March]. This was followed by cooking tomato and medium size of the pona variety of yam. A 72kg crate and 100 tubers of tomato and yam sold for 826 and 815 cedis respectively. Maize, followed with its price increasing by 18.11%; to record 164 cedis for a 100kg bag. On the projections for the next month, Esoko says it expects prices to rise and this Francis Danso Adjei largely attributes to the possible impact of the restricted movements on markets. We are still not clear in our minds what is the way forward, and traders are also taking advantage of some of these things and adjusting prices. We are still in the offseason coupled with COVID-19, we are still expecting that prices increase in May as well, he emphasized. ---citinewsroom New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with Chief Ministers of various states via video conference on Monday (May 11) afternoon, the Prime Minister's Office said. According to reports, the Prime Minister will review Indias progress in containing coronavirus disease while gradually restarting economic activities in a phased manner. The Prime Minister is also expected to discuss the next stage in the exit from the nationwide lockdown and will take feedback from states on further easing restrictions on economic activities. Discussions are also expected to take place on tackling the coronavirus pandemic in containment zones. Apart from PM Modi, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan along some other senior officials are expected to be present at the meet. This will be the fifth meeting of the PM Modi with the Chief Ministers since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. On May 10, the total number of coronavirus cases in the country climbed to 62,939 while fatalities rose to 2,109. On March 24, the Prime Minister had announced a 21-day lockdown as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of COVID-19. The lockdown was later extended till May 3 and later to May 17. Businesses the millions of businesses that make up the private sector of UK economy, the millions of business which employ tens of millions of British workers hate uncertainty at the best of times. And the coronavirus emergency has delivered the largest dose of uncertainty in the lifetimes of just about anybody who is today running a business. How can you employ staff, rent premises, borrow money, make investments when you dont know how long you will have to burn through cash while no revenues come through the door? How can you make any important decisions whatsoever when you simply dont know whether there will be any demand for your goods, your services, when you finally do re-open? So does Boris Johnsons first sketch of a road map for reopening society help alleviate that lethal, all-encompassing, uncertainty for UK businesses? Will it pull the British economy from whats likely to be its biggest slump in recorded history? The key word Mr Johnson used was sketch. Construction and manufacturing workers will, according to the Prime Minister, be actively encouraged to return to the building sites and factory floors in the coming days. Thats not nothing those two sectors comprise around 16 per cent of the economy. But will builders and factory workers be willing to return to work if there are concerns about safety, even with the encouragement of ministers? The trade unions are clearly unhappy about protections for workers. Some employers groups also sound rather wary. The industrial harmony that reigned when the Government unveiled the jobs furlough scheme in March seems to have dissipated. The prospect of primary schools re-opening from next month may, at least, help the those who have been looking after children to return to work. The phased re-opening of shops, also possibly from June, could be an important moment for the UK economy, with retail sales accounting for around 20 per cent of GDP. But, of course, this raises questions about what phased means exactly. There are huge questions too about the Prime Ministers hope to re-open at least some of the hospitality industry and other public places from July. Which ones exactly? Pubs? Cafes? Restaurants? While that remains unclear many businesses in this sector will be looking for the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to commit without any further delay to extend the job furlough scheme beyond June. The Prime Minister did say that these companies will have to ensure distancing between customers when they do re-open. That might help in some ways. A recent poll found that the majority of consumers would feel uncomfortable visiting premises like restaurants, pubs and gyms once restrictions are loosened. Enforced distancing might mean patrons are more likely to show up. But it will mean lower revenues in most cases as the number of covers inevitably falls. For some think of the small cafe it might prove physically impossible. The Prime Ministers statement does provide a dim glow in the dark for firms. But it certainly does not turn on the light. Theres nowhere near enough clarity for most businesses to plan ahead. One might argue thats inevitable given the dangers of a second wave of the pathogen and the sheer uncertainty about its containment. But for the economy and those whose livelihoods depend on it operating normally the disruption and the pain stretches on. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was on Sunday evening admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) after he complained of chest pain. According to sources, the senior Congress leader was admitted in the hospital at 8.40pm and has been kept under observation at the cardio-thoracic ward. The 87-year-old has been admitted to a hospital room and not to the ICU (Intensive Care Unit). He was admitted under Dr Nitish Naik, a professor of cardiology at the AIIMS. "All his parameters are fine. He is under observation at the AIIMS," a source close to him said, adding that he was taken to the hospital after he felt "uneasiness". Singh is a senior leader of the opposition Congress and currently represents Rajasthan in the Upper House of Parliament. He was the prime minister between 2004 and 2014. Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot expressed concern over the health of Singh. "Much worried to know former PM Dr Manmohan Singh ji has been admitted to AIIMS. I wish him speedy recovery and pray for his good health and long life," Gehlot tweeted. The former PM has had health concerns earlier too. He underwent heart-bypass surgery at AIIMS in 2009, in which five grafts - channels to bypass blocked arteries - were implanted in a surgery that too over 10 hours. In May 2008, he had undergone a cataract operation, and in September, 2007, he had a prostate surgery. He also underwent a bypass in the United Kingdom in 1991. BRIDGEPORT A federal lawsuit filed by the family of 15-year-old Jayson Negron, shot to death by a patrol cop in 2017, alleges the police department fosters an environment of grossly negligent, reckless, and deliberately indifferent conduct among its officers. The lawsuit, filed March 25 on behalf of the family of the teen, names as defendants the city, Police Chief Armando Perez, and James Boulay, the police officer who shot Negron on Fairfield Avenue on May 9, 2017, after a brief pursuit. James Boulays conduct was unreasonable, unlawful, and the result of a policy and custom in the City of Bridgeport, where inadequately trained officers recklessly escalate traffic stops and use excessive force that endangers lives, without discipline from the department, the lawsuit states. Boulay was found to be justified in pulling the trigger May 9, 2017, after an investigation by Waterbury States Attorney Maureen Platt. A lawyer representing him in the case, Richard Buturla, said his client is looking forward to disputing the claims in the suit. We deny all liability and will defend this matter vigorously, Buturla said Saturday. A message was left with the lawyer representing the city and Perez in the case. Reached by phone Saturday, Mayor Joseph Ganim expressed sympathy for Negrons family but declined to discuss the lawsuit. My heart goes out to them, especially in these difficult times, Ganim said. With Saturday marking the third anniversary of Negrons death, friends and family gathered at the spot he was killed for a memorial and to discuss the lawsuit. A caravan of about a dozen vehicles rolled up Fairfield Avenue with horns blaring before stopping in front of the Walgreens near the site where Negron was killed. Many held signs calling for action and chanted Justice for Jayson. Others unfurled banners with demands including Boulay to be fired and Perez to resign. One man poured Hennessy Cognac in front of a makeshift memorial with flowers and candles that had been erected in Jaysons memory. Police, meanwhile, blocked off the street and observed proceedings from a distance. Standing with her mother and brother, Jayson Negrons sister, Jazmarie Melendez, read a statement condemning the police departments report of events leading to her brothers death shortly after 5 p.m. on May 9, 2017. On that day, an undercover Bridgeport police officer called in a stolen Subaru Forester, spotted in the area near Walgreens at 1000 Park Ave. When responding officers got to the area and saw the vehicle, they tried to pull it over, but the driver, later identified as Negron, turned into the Walgreens parking lot with officers following and drove through the lot before turning left into oncoming traffic on Fairfield Avenue. Boulay, the passenger in a two-man Bridgeport police cruiser, got out of the car and approached the drivers side of the Subaru with his gun drawn before shooting one of the cars tires because, he said, Negron was using the vehicle dangerously. Platts report said Boulay then opened the drivers door and reached in to try to pull Negron out before the teenager tried to move away from the officer, putting the Subaru into reverse and stepping on the gas pedal. The states attorneys report said the door of the Subaru hit Boulay, who then fired his weapon into the vehicle, shooting Negron several times. Medics pronounced Negron dead at the scene. An autopsy summary released by Platt indicated that Negron would have needed surgical intervention within minutes of the shooting in order to survive. Melendez said the police account of the case was fabricated and said the lawsuit will prove her brothers killing was unjustified, as well as expose more systemic issues within the city. The city of Bridgeport and its neighborhoods of color are treated like a playground by the Bridgeport Police Department, who feel they can use their violence on the community whenever they want, Melendez said. They know that nothing will happen because of the political monopoly that is held here in Bridgeport. The City Council, the Police Commission, Internal Affairs, the mayor, the criminal justice system, community leaders who protect these institutions and nonprofits who claim to be doing criminal justice reform are all complicit in the violence of police and also benefit from their power, Melendez went on. Asked if the family would be willing to settle the lawsuit, Melendez said absolutely not. The city has tried to offer our family money and we have rejected the money, she said. Money will never bring Jaysons life back and there is no price that they can put on Jaysons life. Though a spokeswoman for the city said the group did not get a permit for Saturdays gathering, and at one point several people walking to the scene gave the finger to police officers who had just blocked traffic, there was no confrontation between officers and protesters. That marked a contrast to last year, when 11 protesters were arrested and a Hearst Connecticut Media reporter covering the event was also detained and then unarrested after being taken to police headquarters in handcuffs. The charges against the group were dropped last October. Staff writer Tara ONeill contributed to this story. New Delhi: Terror outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen leader Sayeed Salahudeen did not rule out today indicated possibility of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan over raising Kashmir issue. He claimed that armed jihad is the only option left with Kashmiris to come out of the current situation. "Kashmiris have reached this conclusion that they have no second option except armed jihad", News Agency quotes Sayeed Salahudeen. Kashmiris have reached this conclusion that they have no second option except armed jihad: Sayeed Salahudeen pic.twitter.com/OAoceIGY7n ANI (@ANI_news) August 8, 2016 "I can predict a 4th war with certainty because Kashmiris are no longer willing to compromise, come what may," said Sayeed Salahudeen. Whether world or Pak supports or not; UN performs duty or not, Kashmiris have pledged to fight up to last drop of their blood: SSalahudeen ANI (@ANI_news) August 8, 2016 (Also Read: Curfew in Kashmir Valley continues on 31st day, one more dead) Pakistan is duty bound, morally bound, politically bound and constitutionally bound to provide concrete, substantial support to the ongoing freedom struggle on the territory of Kashmir. And, if Pakistan provides this support, there is a great chance of a nuclear war between the two powers, tweeted ANI as Salahudeen's remark. Pak is duty, morally, politically, constitutionally bound to provide substantial support to ongoing freedom struggle in Kashmir: SSalahudeen ANI (@ANI_news) August 8, 2016 He also claimed that Kashmiris are in "no mood to compromise under any circumstances". According to him India and Pakistan have already fought three wars over the Kashmir issue and there is a certainty over the fourth. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. US tightens visa rules on Chinese journalists, likely to stoke more tensions Global Times By GT staff reporters Source:Global Times Published: 2020/5/9 16:54:42 Last Updated: 2020/5/9 19:47:19 The US government's new guidelines tightening visa regulations for Chinese journalists will deepen rancor between the two countries, and it is a reflection of the US's "lack of confidence on its own development," noted Chinese observers, adding that the move will trigger further retaliatory measures from Beijing. The regulation issued by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Friday, which takes effect on Monday, will limit visas for Chinese reporters to a 90-day period, with the option for extension. A senior DHS official, who requested anonymity to discuss the matter, said the new visa policy would allow the federal department to review Chinese journalists' visa applications more frequently, and would likely reduce the overall number of Chinese journalists to be stationed in the US, the Reuters reported. A Chinese journalist who used to work in the US by refused to be named called the new move as a disguised form of "expulsion" of Chinese journalistic workers. "It is already difficult to renew visa every three months, due to the low efficiency of the DHS and their deliberate attitude of being in a pickle with Chinese journalists," said the Chinese reporter. He noted that many Chinese journalists were "expulsed" due to their visa-related issues. Zhang Tengjun, an assistant research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, said, "The US has long labeled itself as valuing 'freedom of the press,' but its actions were full of hypocrisy. The new policy speaks of the double standard being practiced by US politicians. They continuously stress on Chinese journalists' official background, to find an excuse for cracking down on Chinese reporters' normal reporting activities in the US." Zhang explained that by enforcing stricter visa scrutiny measures, the Trump administration wants to crack down on Chinese journalists they deem as "unfriendly to the US government," adding that such a move to limit the activities of Chinese journalists is laden with a political agenda. As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread in the US, with confirmed cases and fatalities keeping growing, the US is now hyping China as a threat, and ramping up tensions between the two countries, and even mudslinging at Chinese journalists that will greatly enlarge the China-US disagreements, Zhang said. Limiting Chinese journalists' activities in the US will diminish Chinese public understanding of the US, and undermine two countries' people-to-people exchange, Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times. "This also reflected the US' lack of confidence mentality where they always see China with a cautious attitude," said Li. The two countries have been engaged in a series of retaliatory actions involving journalists in recent months, which was initiated by the US in February by designating five Chinese media outlets as foreign missions. This new regulation will also lead to retaliations from China, which might include the legal imposition of visa restrictions on US media outlets stationed in China, predicted Li. Communication and dialogue between the two countries should be based on mutual respect and cooperation. If the US disrespects Chinese journalists, China's retaliatory measures will serve as a reminder for them that they should quietly swallow the consequences, said Li adding that if such anti-China mentality prevails in the US political sphere, it will deepen the rancor between the two governments and eventually backfire against the US. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address A young man from New Mexico finds $135,000 near a Wells Fargo ATM and called the police instead of walking away with the money, according to a recently published article. Young Latino Man Finds $135,000 Near Wells Fargo ATM Jose Nunez Romaniz, the young man who found the money, was just about to buy new socks for his grandfather and needed to deposit money to pay for it online. He noticed a clear plastic bag with cash inside near the ATM when he arrived. At first, he hesitated while trying to decide whether or not he should leave it or report it to the police. He feared it might be a setup and something could happen to him. However, since the bank was closed at the time, he felt he had no choice but to report it to the police. In an interview, he said: "I didn't know what to do. I was, like, dreaming. I was just in shock. I was looking at myself and just thinking, 'What should I do?'" He also shared that he never thought about keeping the money. He was thinking, however, if it was some kind of a trick and someone could kidnap or even arrest him. A Value He Learned from His Mother Romaniz said: "My parents always taught me to work for my own. Stolen money would never last you any time. I had my mom's voice and her chancla in the back of my head." This just shows how his mother influenced him to value honesty and not to steal even a single penny. Simon Drobik, the spokesman for the Albuquerque police, said: "This money could have made an incredible amount of difference in his life if he went down the other path, but he chose ... the integrity path and did the right thing." Later, it was discovered that the money was mistakenly left by a bank subcontractor who was meant to supply the ATM with cash, according to Officer Drobik. Jose's Honesty Was Recognized in the Community Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller told a crowd at a press conference: "Whether you can believe that it is divine, or it's good luck or whatever, we were just talking about how - the irony that his career is so far leaning towards criminal justice, and he happens to be looking for a job, and we happen to be hiring." It was found that Romaniz was actually a criminology student at Central New Mexico Community College. Because of the honesty, he was kind of given an invitation to become a police officer or at least an intern. Romaniz is hailed as a role model. Mike Geier, Albuquerque Police Chief, celebrated not just the honesty of the young man but also credited him for restoring his faith in the community. He said that it is not every day you come across a man who happens to see unattended money and return it. Due to his honesty, Jose was not simply recognized, he was also awarded by the Public Service of New Mexico an amount of $500, which he can use to pursue his education, or buy his grandfather socks. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Markus Makur (The Jakarta Post) East Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara Sun, May 10, 2020 08:06 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd6f9215 1 National COVID-19,East-Nusa-Tenggara,NTT,teachers Free A headmaster and teachers of SMA 3 state high school in Borong, East Nusa Tenggara, traveled as far as 30 kilometers on their motorcycles to deliver high school graduation letters for seniors amid campus closures because of COVID-19. "We visited students houses at every corner in East Manggarai to announce their graduation amid the pandemic," Konstantinus Everson Rada, headmaster of SMA 3 Borong, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday. Konstantinus explained that teachers also distributed face masks to students and their families as part of efforts to prevent the further transmission of COVID-19. He said the school decided to deliver the letters to each student in order to prevent a mass gathering and to strengthen the relationship between parents and teachers. Read also: Volunteers travel 80 km to give COVID-19 aid to shackled mental health patients in NTT Moreover, it ensures that students who do not have access to the internet or computers receive the graduation announcement letters. "Forty-six students graduated from our high school this year," Konstantinus added. Fransiska Sindilia Jun and Damian Deveuster were among the seniors who graduated from SMA 3 this year. "We want to thank SMA 3 Borong for educating us and guiding us these past few years," Darvis said. Separately, the principal of SMA 6 state high school in Komba city, Frumensius Hemat, said his school also delivered the graduation letters directly to students' houses. "Our teachers rode their motorcycles 10 to 15 km to deliver the letters to students," Frumensius said, adding that 79 final-year students graduated from SMA 6 this year. (dpk) The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), on Monday, alleged that it has intercepted a human intelligence report that the Nigeria House of Representatives leadership was poised to forcefully pass the compulsory vaccine bill without subjecting it to the traditions of legislative proceedings. 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 to influence the speedy passage of the bill without recourse to legislative public hearing, a 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. During the current pandemic, having millions of people travel through Toronto and our airports is an obvious public health hazard one that has hurt our ability to grow international trade. But the advantages of trade to our economy are undisputed and we cant allow ourselves to turn our backs on them. Buying and selling products to the world has helped make the Toronto region the countrys economic engine. In 2018, our region exported $132 billion worth of goods, an increase of 45 per cent from just a decade before. That growth is a job creator every $100 million increase in exports translates to 1,000 new jobs, according to the Conference Board of Canada. Now, COVID-19 has put in jeopardy international open trade that has played a significant role in both increasing global prosperity and dramatically reducing poverty over recent decades. The World Trade Organization is warning that global trade could fall by up to a third. Fear and uncertainty are giving way to protectionism, and some are preaching nationalist policies of self-reliance and restricting exports as solutions. We must ensure Canada resists the temptation to adopt similar restrictions. We should show leadership in recovery by championing free and open trade, holding our trade agreement partners to their commitments and continuing to develop new ones in opportune regions. Toronto region businesses should be as ambitious with their international trade plans as they were before the pandemic hit. Maybe even more so. The desire to close ranks and hunker down is understandable, and yes, there are ways to see some growth by looking inward. For instance, by mending our fractured domestic market. Internal trade barriers fragment our already small Canadian market, making it less attractive for investment, increasing the costs of doing business, and adding nearly 7 per cent to the cost of goods we buy. The IMF Fund further estimates that Canada loses $80 billion in economic potential each year due to internal trade barriers. As governments draft economic recovery plans, harmonizing regulations across provinces must be addressed. But make no mistake, Canada-wide free trade will never be enough to offset the benefits of international trade. Our domestic customer base is just not big enough for Canadian businesses to scale up to their full potential. In many cases, reshoring production lines would have the inverse impact on our economy raising prices for consumer and industrial goods and slowing our recovery. After the 2009 global recession, avoiding protectionist policies helped speed up our recovery. Maintaining critical supply chains, resuming and enhancing pre-pandemic export plans, and ensuring coordinated support for small and medium-sized enterprises can similarly ensure the Toronto regions businesses can get back on their feet and seize new international opportunities. If this crisis has demonstrated anything, its that our businesses are adaptive, entrepreneurial and innovative. Lets lean into those qualities as we come out of this pandemic, stepping boldly back into our role as a global trade leader. Jan De Silva is President & CEO of Toronto Region Board of Trade. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 14:01:37|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SEOUL, May 10 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Sunday that his government will prepare for a post-COVID-19 era through an improved employment safety net and a digital economy as the coronavirus pandemic caused an "economic wartime situation." "It is the economy that matters. This current economic crisis is being compared to the Great Depression 100 years ago," Moon told a nationally televised special address to mark his three years in office. Moon said the world economy has ground to a halt as factories stopped production and jobless people were rapidly increasing, while global supply chains were disintegrating and trade was declining sharply across the world. The damage to the South Korean economy was "colossal," Moon said citing an export drop in April, the services industry's contraction expanding into a manufacturing industry crisis, and the unemployment fear that is spreading beyond the self-employed, small business owners, temporary workers and day laborers into full-time employees in big businesses. "This is undeniably an economic wartime situation... The government will concentrate all capabilities on overcoming the economic crisis... We will serve as a buttress safeguarding the lives and jobs of the people," Moon said. To tackle the growing "employment shock," Moon said his government will further improve the employment safety net by significantly expanding the application of employment insurance and implementing an employment support program. "We will keep the lives of all our people safe from unemployment and threats to their livelihoods. In history, human beings have expanded welfare and strengthened safety nets in times of crisis... The current COVID-19 crisis calls for further strengthening our still-vulnerable employment safety net," Moon said. The government planned to set the cornerstone for a universal employment insurance that benefits all the employed, including low-wage, non-permanent workers who are presently not covered to sign up for the insurance as well as the self-employed contract workers, platform workers, freelancers and artists. It will also implement the employment support program, which Moon called a South Korean-style unemployment allowance, as quickly as possible to provide job training and other customized employment support for low-income households, young adults and the self-employed small business owners, while offering jobseekers stipends. To turn the current crisis into opportunities, Moon said his government will foster a digital economy by combining the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data with the country's existing infrastructure and competitive edge in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector as well as the bio industry's potential and competitiveness. "We have strengths in post-COVID-19-related industries such as non-face-to-face medical services, online education and transactions, epidemic prevention and the bio industry... We will work to help the Republic of Korea emerge as a globally leading digital powerhouse with innovative business ventures and startups serving as the main driving force," Moon said. The Republic of Korea (ROK) refers to the official name of South Korea. Moon vowed to push ahead with a South Korean version of the "New Deal" to create jobs and establish the digital infrastructure by pursuing the early establishment of 5G infrastructure and the building of infrastructure to collect, accumulate and use data as national projects. The Moon government also planned to intensively foster non-face-to-face industries relevant to medical services, education and retail distribution, while combining cities and industrial complexes, roads and transportation networks, and aging national infrastructure with artificial intelligence and digital technology. Meanwhile, Moon said his country will prepare for a potential second wave of the COVID-19 later this year. "It will be a long time before the COVID-19 outbreak has ended completely. We should also brace for the pandemic's second wave, which many experts are predicting... The government will meticulously handle the COVID-19 situation, keeping in mind that we are in a prolonged war," Moon said. Moon said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be upgraded to the Disease Control and Prevention Administration to strengthen its expertise and independence, while staffing it with more professionals and building a local epidemic response system. He will also push to establish hospitals specialized in treating infectious disease and the national infectious disease research center, while appointing two vice ministers within the Ministry of Health and Welfare with the parliamentary approval. "It's not over until it's over. While keeping enhanced alertness till the end, we must never lower our guard regarding epidemic prevention," Moon added. Enditem Pizza Express is 'highly likely' to launch a restructuring of its giant debt pile, despite organising a 70million loan last month. Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's said the latest measure was agreed ahead of deadlines for two smaller loans due in August. That was 'an additional step toward a comprehensive restructuring' of more than 1billion debt. Pizza Express is due to repay 465million to bondholders next year and an additional 200million in 2022. S&P said the business now faces 'additional hurdles' turning its fortunes around S&P said the business now faces 'additional hurdles' turning its fortunes around 'amid an extremely challenging competitive environment exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic'. The 470-outlet Italian dining chain is owned by Beijing-based private equity firm Hony Capital, which has about 10billion under management, according to its website. Hony is owned by Chinese conglomerate Legend, whose subsidiaries include technology firm Lenovo. S&P rates Pizza Express corporate debt as 'CC', which it defines as having 'extremely weak financial security characteristics and is likely not to meet some of its financial commitments'. Pizza Express closed its outlets seven weeks ago alongside bars, pubs and other restaurants after being told to do so by the Government. Several days later, it decided to close its doors for takeaway and delivery customers. A statement on its website reads: 'We'll open our pizzerias as soon as it is safe to do so and in line with the latest government advice.' Pizza Express declined to comment. Indian aviation cannot resume without at least three major airports being functional. If Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Kolkata are shut, there is little chance that airlines will start flying even if the government gives the go-ahead. Photograph: Greg Baker/Reuters Airline executives have opposed the idea of restarting air transport only between cities classified as green zones, saying this will be a non-starter as major metro airports fall under the red zone. A committee of the civil aviation ministry, headed by Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola, met on Saturday to discuss the resumption of air travel where industry executives as well as some officials expressed their disagreement with the proposal. Indian aviation cannot resume without at least three major airports being functional. If Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Kolkata are shut, there is little chance that airlines will start flying even if the government gives the go-ahead, the chief executive officer of an airline said. The top six metro airports account for about 65 per cent of domestic air traffic. The Union health ministry has split 733 districts across India into red, orange and green zones based on the number of Covid-19 cases and the doubling rate of the disease. The list designated major cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Ahmedabad, as no activity zones as lockdown was extended by two weeks beyond May 4. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri recently said the government was considering gradually restarting aviation, first with flights exclusively between green zones. We will have to open the aviation sector in a gradual and calibrated manner. We can only plan for flights between two green zones. It will be difficult to resume services between red zones, Puri had said. Senior government officials said restarting air transport between red zones could be possible only if the state government concerned agreed to it. The Telangana government has already extended the third phase of lockdown till May 29. The Centre is keen to avoid confusion like the one that occurred on March 22, when Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced the shutdown of Delhi airport. The central government had later overruled the decision, pointing out that aviation was its domain. We are keen to restart economic activity, of which aviation is an important component. But the central government cannot take a decision in isolation as state governments are better suited to decide their capability, an official said. A second airline executive pointed out that close to 90 per cent of the aircraft grounded since March 24 were stored at top airports. About 180 aircraft are stored in Delhi airport, while Mumbai airport has close to 80 aircraft. The rest have been parked in other metros. Even for a marginal restart of operations, you have to restart Delhi or Mumbai airport, without which it is quite impractical to talk about air transport resumption, he said. A Maharashtra government official said the state had no plans to allow the opening up of transport. Restarting aviation is not even on our agenda now, he said. Officials working on the governments plan to resume transport said they were planning to restart the entire transport system in an integrated manner. You cant restart air transport without opening up the cab aggregator service. We are also looking to restart public transport in a skimmed manner, so that economy restarts. But for that, the state government will have to agree, said an official. State aid to public pre-K-through-12 education may be cut by as much as 20 percent statewide without coronavirus aid from the federal government. That means local school boards would need to find roughly $2,300 per pupil in cuts to balance their school budgets without going over way over the current 2 percent property tax cap. So how do they do it? Well, they don't cut art, music or sports. The solutions usually pondered by school districts trying to reduce tax rate increases and balance school budgets wouldn't even put a dent in a 20 percent cut in state aid. The kind of state aid Gov. Andrew Cuomo is pondering amounts to roughly 10 percent of each school district's annual budget. For school districts like Shenendehowa, that means a $17.7 million budget cut. For Albany, it means $23.4 million and for East Greenbush $9.8 million. Those kinds of cuts call for major restructuring, and considering New York's school expenditures don't result in higher student achievement New York spends $23,000 per pupil, as opposed to Massachusetts' $16,000 per pupil and significantly better test scores maybe now is the time to consider the options and view this as an opportunity for new growth rather than a death sentence. Consider the 75 local school districts nearest to Albany. The total budget for these 75 school districts is $2.64 billion. A 10 percent cut in the total budget for these districts amounts to $264 million. There are three ways to reduce costs without affecting student performance: Consolidate nonteaching services, focus on expenditures outside the classroom, and target programs that are not achieving the core education mission and restructure and cut there. Consider this: 1. Capital Region BOCES, Questar (Rensselaer, Columbia, Greene counties) BOCES and WSWHE (Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex) BOCES currently serve 75 school districts. Consolidate those 75 school districts into three larger school districts with one administrative, payroll, business office and instructional leadership team each. Annual savings: $36 million to $48 million. Consolidate student transportation, operations and maintenance of school grounds and buildings and food services through each of the now Big Three BOCES and create an additional annual savings of $72 million to $84 million. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. 2. Health insurance costs for the roughly 16,000 employees in the same 75 school districts is about $280 million annually. The employees on average pay about 20 percent of this cost, leaving the school districts with bills of $220 million. Take advantage of employee group size and bargain directly with health care providers, doctors' groups, hospitals, physical therapists, pharmacies, etc. and leave the health insurance folks out of the process except for catastrophic coverage. If school districts paid the rates that Medicare pays, the savings would be more than 40 percent. This strategy could save between $85 and $95 million per year. (With many health care providers struggling in a pandemic market, negotiations favor the schools.) 3. Special education programs cost each of the 75 school districts about 20 percent of their budgets when everything (employee salaries and benefits, student transportation, special education aides, legal services, administrative and clerical costs, tuitions, etc.) is considered. Unfortunately, the data clearly show the more a school district spends on special education, the lower the test scores. We shouldn't abandon our special education students, but we need to restructure parts of the existing special education program to produce better academic results. One-on-one tutoring for learning-disabled special education students outside the regular school day is more effective instructionally than any of the much more expensive special education models (integrated, pull-out, resource room) now in vogue. Switching to one-on-one tutoring for all learning-disabled students could save between $36 and $48 million per year and improve academic results. Those three options add up to $229-$275 million and don't involve cutting teaching positions, increasing class sizes or cutting sports, music or art. Global downloads of the apps Zoom, Houseparty and Skype have increased more than 100 per cent as video conferencing and chats replace the face-to-face encounters we are all so sorely missing. People are attending virtual happy hours and birthday parties, holding virtual business meetings, learning in virtual classrooms and having virtual psychotherapy. Professor Brendan Murphy and friends communicate at a Senate inquiry via Zoom. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen But there are reasons to be wary of the technology, beyond the widely reported security and privacy concerns. Psychologists, computer scientists and neuroscientists say the distortions and delays inherent in video communication can end up making you feel isolated, anxious and disconnected (or more than you were already). You might be better off just talking on the phone. The problem is that the way the video images are digitally encoded and decoded, altered and adjusted, patched and synthesised introduces all kinds of artefacts: blocking, freezing, blurring, jerkiness and out-of-sync audio. These disruptions, some below our conscious awareness, confound perception and scramble subtle social cues. Our brains strain to fill in the gaps and make sense of the disorder, which makes us feel disturbed, uneasy and tired without quite knowing why. Jeffrey Golde, an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, has been teaching his previously in-person leadership class via Zoom for about a month now and he has found it strangely wearing. "I've noticed, not only in my students, but also in myself, a tendency to flag," he said. "It gets hard to concentrate on the grid, and it's hard to think in a robust way." British actor Andrew Scott says his Hot Priest in Fleabag was a result of his quest to break away from the image of a bad guy, which he attained after working in James Bond movie Spectre and playing Jim Moriarty in Sherlock series. Scott's Hot Priest became the worldwide heartthrob soon after the premiere of Fleabag season two and the actor says starring in the series, fronted by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, gave him an opportunity to explore romance in an intelligent way. One of the reasons Fleabag' came about was that I was searching for something that wasn't villainous. After Sherlock, there were a lot of sub-Moriarty roles that were offered to me. I played a villain in one of the Bond films I was like, Yeah, I want to be in the Bond film!' and that was a really good experience. But I think after a while you have to go, No, I don't want to do that anymore.' I think romantic comedy' is very underrated; I was always looking for something that explored romantic love in a really intelligent and human way and I felt, when I first started talking to Phoebe about it, that this was ideal, the actor said in an interview with GQ magazine. The actor said even though he is not worried about getting pigeonholed, he believes it is important to keep reinventing with time. At every given stage of your life, you're associated with a particular role. The Priest was definitely a character that people were really interested in... So at the moment, that's the one that's front and center, but it's my job to smash that down and start focusing on the next thing. Fleabag had a golden run at the award season this year winning all the major trophies including Golden Globes. Scott said travelling to the US and meeting artistes he admires was an amazing experience. It's like a whole new life; you go out there for a few weeks and there are so many awards shows. You forget that there's a lot of people there who are also finding it bizarre, people who you really admire. You get to know them a little bit better, so that was cool, to hang out with people I've admired. We had a great time with all the crowd from Succession', he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tourists travel from all over the world to Egypt for the sole purpose of stepping into the past. While central hubs like Cairo have been modernized over the years, nothing encapsulates the ancient culture more than its architecture. From the towering pyramids at Giza to the cleverly hidden tombs at the Valley of the Kings, Egypt offers history buffs a chance to experience the grandeur and magnificence of the old world on a scale unparalleled by most countries. A map of prominent ancient Egyptian Architectural structures. The following is a list of ten examples of ancient Egyptian architecture. 10. Abu Simbel Temples A tourist admiring the sculptures at the Abu Simbel. Image credit: Aline Fortuna/Shutterstock.com Carved out of massive solid rock, these two temples are located in southern Egypt on the banks of Lake Nasser. They were built under the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II and dedicated to the gods Ptah, Ra-Horakhty, Amun, and Hathor. The exterior of the larger templealso known as the Great Templefeatures four twenty meter high statues of Ramesses himself, although one of the figures has been damaged due to the elements over the years. The Great Temple consists of three halls that extend 56 meters into the cliff. In 1979, the Abu Simbel Temples were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today, they are considered two of the grandest temples in all Egypt. 9. Colossi of Memnon The Colossi of Memnon. Image credit: Mountains Hunter/Shutterstock.com Located in the southern city of Luxor, the Colossi of Memnon are two giant statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. They were built out of blocks of quartzite sandstone and measure eighteen meters high. Both figures sit on thrones carved with imagery of the pharaohs mother, wife, and the Nile god Hapy. In a more ancient time, they marked the entrance to what had been the mortuary temple of Amenhotep, which was supposedly larger than anything else built in Egypt. While the distinct pharaoh shape of each statue is still noticeable today, one of the two has been partially destroyed; however, legend says the lower half is known to sing and that hearing this song blesses the listener with good fortune. 8. Great Pyramid of Giza The pyramids at Giza near Cairo, Egypt. Image credit: The Great Pyramid of Gizaalso known as the Pyramid of Khufu or the Pyramid of Cheopsis the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Built on the Giza plateau near modern day Cairo, it is the largest of all surviving pyramids in Egypt. For more than 4,000 years, it stood as the tallest structure in the world. Made out of 2.3 million blocks of limestone, it was originally 146.7 meters tall, but due to poor weather, it now measures 138.8 meters high and stretches 230 meters in length. The pyramid consists of three main chambers, but to trick thieves in search of Pharaoh Khufus treasure, numerous false passages and doors were also included in the construction. It is one of the three giant pyramids of Giza which make up the iconic image that adorns postcards and travel brochures. 7. Great Sphinx of Giza Great Sphinx of Giza. Image credit: Mareandmare/Shutterstock.com The Great Sphinx is a defining symbol of ancient Egypt. With the body of a lion and the head of a human, archaeologists believe that it represents Pharaoh Khafre, although some argue that it bears a closer resemblance to Khufu. Standing twenty meters high and 73 meters long, it guards the three pyramids at Giza. A distinctive feature is its missing nose. Rumors claim that Napoleons troops shot it off with a cannon in 1798, but ever the point of contention, other scholars believe it was lost long before the French general arrived. Like most structures from ancient Egypt, the Sphinx has deteriorated over time, but restoration efforts have been underway since the mid-1900s. 6. Karnak Temple Inside the Karnak Temple Complex in Egypt. Image credit: Bist/Shutterstock.com Karnak is the modern day name for the Temple of Amun located at Thebes. Construction began during the reign of Pharaoh Senusret I, but it was built over 2,000 years under the influence of different rulers. It was dedicated to Amun, the god of sun and air, but it was also a place for ancient Egyptians to worship Osiris, Isis, and Ptah, making it one of the most sacred landmarks in the country. Karnak houses several temples, the most famous being Hypostyle Hall, which contains 134 massive columns arranged in sixteen rows. It is considered one of the largest religious complexes in the world and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site alongside Abu Simbel in 1979. 5. Luxor Temple Luxor Temple, Egypt. Image credit: Aline Fortuna/Shutterstock.com There are several ancient religious structures in the southern city of Luxor, but the most famous is Luxor Temple. Located near the Nile River, it was dedicated to the god Amun and was the site where many Pharaohs were crowned. Made of sandstone, it was built throughout the reigns of numerous rulers, including Ramesses II and Amenhotep III. Ramessess influence is notable in the large statues of himself stationed at the temples entrance. Originally, there were two large obelisks out front as well, but only one remains; the other is displayed in Paris. Beyond the entrance is the Great Colonnade Hall. Over the years, many of the walls were torn down and used as building materials elsewhere. 4. Pyramid of Djoser Step pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara. Image credit: Murat Hajdarhodzic/Shutterstock.com The Pyramid of Djoser is located in the Saqqara necropolis, the burial ground of the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis. It was designed as Pharaoh Djosers tomb, but members of the royal family were buried there as well. With a height of 62.5 meters, it is made out of large blocks of limestone which form a multi-tiered structure that gets progressively smaller toward the top. Unlike the pyramids at Giza, it has a flat roof. Up until that point, mastaba tombs were typically rectangular, but Imhotep, architect and chancellor to Djoser, wanted to construct a much more impressive monument. Czech Egyptologist Miroslav Verner refers to the Pyramid of Djoser as a milestone in the evolution of stone architecture. 3. Temple of Edfu The Temple of Horus (also known as the Temple of Edfu). Image credit: WitR/Shutterstock.com Dedicated to Horus the falcon-headed god, the Temple of Edfu is the second largest temple in Egypt. Its most impressive feature is the massive pylona gateway flanked by two large towerswhich measures 36 meters high. The gateway leads directly to a large courtyard with 32 columns and walls carved with scenes of various festivals. The temple itself is 140 meters long and is one of the best preserved religious monuments from ancient Egypt. After the shrine fell into disuse following the persecution of pagan worship, desert sand buried it deep, but protecting most of the original structure. Excavation efforts began in the mid-1800s by French archaeologist and Egyptologist Auguste Mariette. 2. Temple of Hatshepsut Mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Deir el-Bahri. Image credit: Cornfield/Shutterstock.com The Temple of Hatshepsut is a mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahari, located across the Nile from the city of Luxor. Built under the reign of Pharaoh Hatshepsut, it was dedicated to Amun and designed to honor the queen in the afterlife. It holds a special place in the annals of ancient Egyptian history as it was constructed under the guidance of a female pharaoh, one who brought a period of peace and prosperity to the country. Modeled after the much smaller Temple of Mentuhotep II, it is recognizable by its three distinct levels connected by a series of ramps. Inside is a bounteous collection of colonnades, statues, carved reliefs, and paintings. 1. Valley of the Kings The Valley of the Kings is a mass burial site where many pharaohs and their families were laid to rest. Fearing for the safety of their treasures, the ancient kings devised a plan to conceal their tombs deep within the valley behind Deir el-Bahari. Throughout the years, archaeologists have found over 63 tombs. The most remarkable of these tombs belongs to King Tutankhamunor King Tut as he is famously known. Inside, Howard Carter found the boy king perfectly preserved as a mummy and an array of precious artifacts that can be viewed at the museum in Cairo. The Valley of the Kings was also declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. Rajesh Kumar Thakur and Siddhanta Mishra By Express News Service NEW DELHI/PATNA: A war of words broke out on Saturday between Delhi and Bihar governments over payment of rail travel cost of migrant labourers from the state. Soon after the Central government allowed movement of stranded people between states, the Delhi government facilitated the movement of people from two states Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. However, payment for the train travel has created a controversy. Labour minister Gopal Rai said that Delhi government is going to bear the cost of travel because Bihar administration did not respond to their communication regarding the same. "The reality is that the Delhi government wrote a letter to the Bihar government but there was no response from their side. Delhi government has paid to the railways for the travel of 1,200 migrant workers to Bihar," said Rai. Hitting back at the AAP, Sanjay Kumar Jha, a minister in the Nitish Kumar government, said that on one hand, the Delhi government was taking credit for sending back the migrants on its own cost and on the other hand, it has asked the Nitish Kumar government to reimburse for their travel. The tug of war took another twist after the Leader of Opposition in Bihar, Tejashawi Yadav, came out to defend the Arvind Kejriwal government and thanked the Delhi CM. Yadav even offered to pay the entire travel cost of trains carrying such migrants from Delhi. "On one hand you ( Delhi government) are taking credit saying you are sending them back on your money & on the other hand you are asking Bihar government to return the money," said Jha. BJP spokesperson Dr Nikhil Anand also accused both Kejriwal and Yadav of spreading white lies. "It would be better that Tejashawi Yadav becomes the spokesperson of AAP. The Delhi government, led by Arvind Kejriwal has lost all sense of moral decency having spoken a lie of paying the travel costs of migrants," he said. Meanwhile, migrants from Punjab will leave Delhi early Sunday morning. The state is sending thirteen buses to take around 350 passengers informed the senior official. CLAIM: Facebook removed the 'verified' blue tick from Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's account. CLAIMED BY: Social media and a prominent Pakistani journalist RATING: Mixture On Friday reports came in that Facebook has removed the blue tick from Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's official social media handle. Pakistani journalist Naila Inayat shared a screenshot of Khans Facebook page and the blue tick was missing. Sharing a screenshot, she wrote: 'Facebook removes blue tick from prime minister Imran Khan's page.' Her tweet has so far received 754 Retweets and 3.3K Likes. Blue tick returns However, just one hour after her tweet, Naila tweeted that the verification tick was back after the word 'Official' was dropped from the ID. The blue tick on social media is a verification badge by portals that lets people know that a page or profile of public interest is authentic and verified. Naila shared a screenshot that read ' What Facebook page names are allowed.' The screenshot said that terms or phrases that are abusive or violate someone's right cannot be used. Further, it stated that if Facebook has assigned a verified badge to a page then it should no longer use the word 'Official.' The verification tick is back with word 'Official' dropped from the id. pic.twitter.com/RQuq6fIIKi Naila Inayat (@nailainayat) May 9, 2020 Pakistan PM Imran Khan's page currently shows the blue tick. (checked on May 10, 08:00 AM) Fact check: Was Dr Anthony Fauci's ex-employee in prison for exposing COVID-19 pandemic? Facebook verification Republic World checked if Naila's document about 'What names are allowed' was authentic and found it to be true. Under the help section, 'What Page names are allowed on Facebook?' the social media handle lists the following: Page names must accurately reflect the Page. Keep in mind that only authorized representatives can manage a Page for a brand, place, organization or public figure. Page names can't include: Terms or phrases that may be abusive or violate someone's rights. The word "official" if the Page isn't the official Page of a brand, place, organization or public figure. (Note: If Facebook assigns a Page a verified badge the Page should no longer use the word official in the Page name. Learn more about verified badges.) Improper capitalization (example: tHe best CaFE). Page names must use grammatically correct capitalization and may not include all capital letters, except for acronyms. Symbols (example: ) or unnecessary punctuation. Descriptions or slogans (example: The Best Cafe - We serve the best coffee in town). People who manage Pages can add this information to a Page's About section. Any variation of the word "Facebook." Page names can't consist only of: Generic words (example: Pizza). Pages must be managed by official representatives of the topics they're about. Generic geographic locations (example: New York). However, you can create a Page name for an organization that represents a geographic location. For example, "New York City Mayor's Office" and "Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain" are acceptable Page names. Fact Check: Did Air India charge passengers 3x normal fair under Vande Bharat Mission Fact Check: Will Mumbai go under Military lockdown for 10 days? Fact check: Will Disney Channel shut down in the USA due to Disney+'s popularity? Dr Haliru Alhassan According to Daily Sun, a former Minister of Health, Dr Haliru Alhassan has reportedly died. A family source disclosed to this to Daily Sun in Sokoto on Sunday. The cause and time of his death are yet to be disclosed as at the time of filing this report. Late Alhassan, prince of Sokoto Caliphate, was appointed minister during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Scores of Indian and Chinese soldiers were involved in a tense face-off along the India-China boundary in north Sikkim on Saturday, two senior officials said on the condition of anonymity. The aggressive confrontation between the troops from the two sides happened near the Naku La sector (ahead of Muguthang), a pass at a height of more than 5,000 metres, said the first officer cited above. Several soldiers were injured in the border stand-off as they exchanged blows. Four Indian soldiers and seven Chinese troops suffered injuries during the confrontation that involved around 150 soldiers, said the second officer cited above. He said the face-off was resolved at the local level. Two officials Hindustan Times spoke to in the Army Headquarters denied knowledge of the face-off. The Naku La area was traditionally not prone to face-offs, a former top commander said. This is not the first time Indian and Chinese soldiers have exchanged blows along the border. In August 2017, Indian and Chinese soldiers threw stones at each other and also exchanged blows near Pangong Lake in Ladakh, close to the de facto border between the two countries. The clash near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) aggravated bilateral tensions as it happened at a time when the two neighbours were locked in a long stand-off in the disputed Doklam plateau close to Sikkim. The 73-day Doklam stand-off between India and China along the Sikkim border was likely to be the new normal, the Centre for Joint Warfare Studies (CENJOWS) said in 2017, making a strong case for building military capabilities. The stand-off ended with the withdrawal of troops by both armies. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Even when a business is losing money, it's possible for shareholders to make money if they buy a good business at the right price. 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. Nonetheless, only a fool would ignore the risk that a loss making company burns through its cash too quickly. So, the natural question for Avita Medical (ASX:AVH) shareholders is whether they should be concerned by its rate of cash burn. In this article, we define cash burn as its annual (negative) free cash flow, which is the amount of money a company spends each year to fund its growth. We'll start by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves in order to calculate its cash runway. See our latest analysis for Avita Medical How Long Is Avita Medical's 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. As at December 2019, Avita Medical had cash of AU$125m and no debt. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through AU$32m. Therefore, from December 2019 it had 3.9 years of cash runway. There's no doubt that this is a reassuringly long runway. The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years. ASX:AVH Historical Debt May 10th 2020 How Well Is Avita Medical Growing? Avita Medical boosted investment sharply in the last year, with cash burn ramping by 59%. Given that operating revenue was up a stupendous 548% over the last year, there's a good chance the investment will pay off. On balance, we'd say the company is improving over time. While the past is always worth studying, it is the future that matters most of all. For that reason, it makes a lot of sense to take a look at our analyst forecasts for the company. How Hard Would It Be For Avita Medical To Raise More Cash For Growth? There's no doubt Avita Medical seems to be in a fairly good position, when it comes to managing its cash burn, but even if it's only hypothetical, it's always worth asking how easily it could raise more money to fund 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. We can compare a company's cash burn to its market capitalisation to get a sense for how many new shares a company would have to issue to fund one year's operations. Story continues Avita Medical has a market capitalisation of AU$981m and burnt through AU$32m last year, which is 3.3% of the company's market value. 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. So, Should We Worry About Avita Medical's Cash Burn? As you can probably tell by now, we're not too worried about Avita Medical's cash burn. For example, we think its revenue growth suggests that the company is on a good path. While its increasing cash burn wasn't great, the other factors mentioned in this article more than make up for weakness on that measure. After taking into account the various metrics mentioned in this report, we're pretty comfortable with how the company is spending its cash, as it seems on track to meet its needs over the medium term. An in-depth examination of risks revealed 3 warning signs for Avita Medical that readers should think about before committing capital to this stock. 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. Whether its twirling on stage in ITVs Britains Got Talent or taking top honours at Crufts this year, its clear that dachshunds are the hot dog of the moment. But the long and the short of it is that the growing popularity of sausage dogs could put the diminutive breed at risk of health problems and illicit smuggling rings. The British Veterinary Association (BVA), said dachshunds can suffer serious back issues that leave them unable to walk. Whether its twirling on stage in ITVs Britains Got Talent or taking top honours at Crufts this year, its clear that dachshunds are the hot dog of the moment [File photo] Respected breeders will perform DNA screening but potential owners could be duped into buying unhealthy pets from unscrupulous puppy farms abroad. The dachshund translated as badger hound was bred originally in Germany in the 15th Century for underground hunting. But their short legs mean they are at increased risk of invertebral disc disease, a painful condition that affects a quarter of dachshunds and can require costly surgery to fix. Daniella Dos Santos, president of the BVA, said: The problems may not be immediately obvious to owners, but often cause lifelong misery for the pets. Helped by star owners like Declan Donnelly and adverts for insurance firm Vitality, the number of pedigree dachshund puppies registered by the Kennel Club has almost tripled in five years. Puppies can sell for up to 1,800. The BVA said dachshunds were among the list of top breeds being illegally imported. Dr Dos Santos said that potential owners should always pick health over looks. All residents returning to Himachal Pradesh from others states will be medically examined and need to stay placed under institutional quarantine before being sent home, chief minister Jai Ram Thakur said on Sunday. He was addressing a meeting of nodal officers appointed by the government to coordinate with other states to facilitate movement of stranded Himachal residents. The CM said the government is concerned about safety of both its people stranded across the country and those living in the state. All Himachalis coming from red zones will be tested for COVID-19, he said. Thakur directed the nodal officers to ensure that they keep a close liaison with their counterparts in other states so that stranded people could be brought back at the earliest. Priority will be given to students as they are the most vulnerable in this time of distress, he added. The CM said as many as 52,763 Himachal residents stranded in different parts of the country have applied for the COVID e-pass. Similarly, about 63,044 from different states are stranded in Himachal and want to leave, he said, adding that till date as many as 30,219 people from other states have been evacuated. He said a special train will ferry stranded Himachalis from Bengaluru to Una on May 11. The state government will request the Centre to start similar trains from Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal and Bihar to facilitate return of Himachal residents, he said. The chief minister said adequate arrangement will be made at the Una railway station for ensuring proper social distancing. He added that proper arrangements of masks, sanitisers and food packages will also be made there. District-wise counters will be set up to facilitate people, he said. 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. Dead to Me Its Not You, Its Me Season 2 Episode 9 Editors Rating 4 stars * * * * Previous Next Photo: Courtesy of Netflix The pressure and grief finally become too much for Jen Harding this episode, as Dead to Me starts the closing arc of its excellent second season. When faced with the prospect of her best friend, Judy Hale, turning herself in for a murder that Jen committed, or, even worse, her son getting arrested for it, she cracks. Judy blames herself for everything she always does and theres a bit of truth to the fact that Steve Wood wouldnt have been there that fateful night if not for Judy. However, Jen has been keeping the details of the evening vague, including the fact that Steve told Jen that Teds death wasnt really murder it was suicide before calling her the c-word. Jen snapped and killed Steve, not in self-defense, but out of anger. And now shes ready to confess. The arc of this episode really starts with Jen waking up next to the mirror image of her murder victim and having creepy flashes to Steves dead body while looking at a sleeping Ben. It sends her into another emotional episode, in which she excellently says, Youre fucking De Niro in every movie hes ever been in while wrapped in a comforter on a bathroom floor. Dont remember that scene in Cape Fear. Which brings Dead to Me to Katey Sagal! The wonderful, underrated star of Sons of Anarchy has joined the cast as Judys convict mother. It would appear that seeing Michelle deal with her mothers hospitalization and that chat with a cuddler made Judy long for contact with Mom. Its great casting for two reasons. One, Sagal is always good and often great. Two, especially on shows like SOA, she is the anti-Judy. She is tough-talking and tough-living two things no one would ever say about Judy Hale. And shes suspicious from minute one, claiming in a very sketchy way that she wrote back to Judy and that she can finally breathe now. She clearly wants something. And Judy almost seems jealous of moms peace behind bars. Its also revealed that Judy testified against her mom when she was younger, and that her mom has a parole hearing coming up. Maybe Judy can help? Dont do it, Jude. After breaking up with Ben (and a fun scene between Mr. Wood and an increasingly suspicious Charlie), Jen barges her way into a city council meeting after learning that they declined her stop sign petition. She gets to unload, which Jen just needs to do every once in a while. She gets to publicly shame Andrew Peters, the slimeball councilman who harassed her last season, and then gets emotional about her husbands death being related to bad driving. So much of Dead to Me is about how people dont know how to drive in California. Perhaps to raise the money for an attorney for her sketchy mother, Judy goes to Perez looking for the paintings that were confiscated from TKG Arts. Whats going on there? Are they sentimental or is there more to it than that? Does Judy think she can sell them? It may not matter because Nick joins Perez to show Judy photos of Charlie with the car of a man missing and presumed dead. They also have CCTV footage of Charlie driving the car on the day that it was burned. Thats almost enough for an arrest warrant, or at least a long interrogation. Charlie needs to know the truth. Jen talks her way out of it again and Charlie seems to go along with it, but he notably doesnt give mom the case he took from Steves glove compartment. It all climaxes in a heartbreaking, emotional scene between Jen and Judy. First, Judy reveals that shes going to take the fall. She cant let Charlie get in trouble. Shell say she killed Steve and all will be fixed. After all, she was going to kill herself the night that Steve died anyway. As emotions rise, the truth about what Steve said and what Jen did that night comes out. Applegate is so good in this scene, capturing the kind of person who often lashes out in cruel ways when they get emotional. In one moment, Jen is apologizing and begging forgiveness, and then shes suddenly insulting Judy. Like so many people, shes deflecting uncontrollable anger. She tells Judy that shell stick around for anybody, and a scene that could have been tender and tragic gets intense and scary. First, Jen wants Judy to hit her with the car, and then Judy screams before hitting herself repeatedly. It scares even Jen, who comes in and hugs her friend before she does real damage. If both ladies dont get Emmy nominations this year, something is broken. Later that night, Judy is asleep and Jen is crying while she writes three letters to Charlie, Henry, and Judy, leaving them the In Case of Emergency binder regarding what to do next. Cut to Jen knocking on the door of Detective Perez: Theres something I have to confess. Extra Counseling I dont want to ignore the Henry scene because its thematically resonant and something I always teach my kids: The lie only makes it worse. Henry isnt mad that his bird died or that Shandy killed it. Hes mad that his mom lied to him about it. As with so much in life, its the lie that covers up the problem and makes it so much worse. So does that mean Jen is now going to tell the entire truth? She cant implicate Judy, right? And will Perez even believe her? Honestly, a jury would need more evidence or theyd likely just think that Jen was covering for Charlie or Judy. Its not easy being Perez. Frances Conroy, Jere Burns, and now Katey Sagal! Liz Feldman has said shes optimistic about a third season, but doesnt the casting alone feel like more than mere optimism? Its not often a show brings in heavy TV hitters like that for cameos that arent setting them up for more down the line. And what great choices. The casting agent this season deserves an award not just for those three but Natalie Morales, Marc Evan Jackson, and more. I wonder how many will return next year. My money is on all of them. Even Jeff. This season has made a habit of bringing back familiar faces, even if just for a scene. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Tri Indah Oktavianti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sun, May 10, 2020 18:12 619 fc6853813033f564188675f8bd713186 1 National YouTube,prank,Transwomen,waria,West-Java,West-Java-Police,Bandung-Police,jail,ICJR,Kompolnas Free A video showing YouTube prankster Ferdian Paleka who was arrested on Friday for giving out "aid" packages filled with garbage to transwomen being abused by fellow detainees in a West Java jail has gone viral over the weekend. In the video, apparently recorded inside a Bandung Police jail, Ferdian and two of his friends who had also been arrested for their part in the prank were stripped to their underwear and told to do physical exercises such as push-ups and squat jumps by their fellow detainees. Ferdians head was entirely shaved in the video. The other detainees could also be heard telling the pranksters to climb into a dumpster and instructing them to say I am stupid in Sundanese. Bandung Police chief Sr. Comr. Ulung Sampurna Jaya confirmed the authenticity of the video, saying that the detainees abused the pranksters because they disapproved of the aid prank. He said the video had been taken by a detainee who had been able to smuggle a mobile phone into the jail. The police have seized the mobile phone, intensified their surveillance of the detainees and separated Ferdian and his friends from the others, he added. Read also: YouTube prankster arrested after giving out garbage-filled 'aid packages' to transwomen In a written statement on Sunday, the West Java Police said their Bandung counterparts were also investigating the officers who were responsible for guarding the jail. National Police Commission (Kompolnas) member Poengky Indarti condemned the incident but applauded the polices fast response in the matter. Even though the three had insulted the dignity of others with their prank, there should be no retaliation against them inside the jail, she said in a statement on Sunday. The police have done a good job by investigating the detainees who harassed them but also the jail personnel. The Institute of Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) also condemned the incident and said the focus should be on providing restoration to Ferdians victims rather than inflicting pain on Ferdian and his fellow pranksters. Torture and degrading and inhumane acts toward anyone, including suspects, is against both national law and international law, ICJR executive director ICJR Erasmus Napitupulu said in a written statement on Saturday. In dealing with discriminatory acts against minorities, the main focus should be returning the dignity of the victims and compensating the loss suffered by the victims. Ferdian was arrested by the West Java Police on the Tangerang-Merak toll road on Friday after the 21-year-old YouTuber posted a video of him and his friends giving out aid packages containing garbage to transwomen and mocking them afterward. The video has sparked outrage and YouTube has since removed the video for its harassment content. Police charged Ferdian under Article 45 and Article 36 of the Electronic Information and Transaction (ITE) Law on defamation, which carries a maximum sentence of 12 years imprisonment and a maximum fine of Rp 12 billion (US$ 804,000). In this Saturday May 2, 2020 photo flamingos fly in Narta Lagoon, about 140 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of the Albanian capital of Tirana. Home confinement rules have angered and anguished some people in Albania, but humans getting their wings clipped during the coronavirus pandemic is allowing flamingos and other birds to flourish in a coastal lagoon by the Adriatic Sea. (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina) Home confinement rules have upset some people in Albania, but humans getting their wings clipped during the coronavirus pandemic has allowed flamingos and other birds to flourish in a coastal lagoon by the Adriatic Sea. Local officials and residents say the flamingo population is up to about 3,000 at Narta Lagoon, an important waterfowl habitat that greater flamingos returned to in recent years after a long absence. Bird watchers also have noticed more pelicans, herons and other species this spring at the 28-square-kilometer (10-square-mile) lagoon, which is 145 kilometers (90 miles) south of Tirana, the capital. "Isn't that beautiful to see fearless flamingos all around?" Dhimiter Konomi, part of a local group that manages commercial fishing in Narta Lagoon, said as the big, long-necked birds stood in the shallow water. Operations halting at a nearby saltworks and reduced human activity of all types during the pandemic explains why birds are flocking to the lagoon, said Nexhip Hysolokaj, a regional biodiversity expert. Flamingos are "a very delicate species," and not having vehicles or visitors around suits them, he said. "They have found food and calmness, and that has likely helped them increase the numbers," Hysolokaj said. In this Saturday May 2, 2020 photo flamingos fly in Narta Lagoon, about 140 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of the Albanian capital of Tirana. Home confinement rules have angered and anguished some people in Albania, but humans getting their wings clipped during the coronavirus pandemic is allowing flamingos and other birds to flourish in a coastal lagoon by the Adriatic Sea. (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina) In this Saturday May 2, 2020 photo flamingos gather in Narta Lagoon, about 140 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of the Albanian capital of Tirana. Home confinement rules have angered and anguished some people in Albania, but humans getting their wings clipped during the coronavirus pandemic is allowing flamingos and other birds to flourish in a coastal lagoon by the Adriatic Sea. (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina) In this Saturday May 2, 2020 photo, an aerial view of Narta Lagoon, about 140 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of the Albanian capital of Tirana. Home confinement rules have angered and anguished some people in Albania, but humans getting their wings clipped during the coronavirus pandemic is allowing flamingos and other birds to flourish in a coastal lagoon by the Adriatic Sea. (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina) In this Saturday May 2, 2020 photo flamingos fly in Narta Lagoon, about 140 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of the Albanian capital of Tirana. Home confinement rules have angered and anguished some people in Albania, but humans getting their wings clipped during the coronavirus pandemic is allowing flamingos and other birds to flourish in a coastal lagoon by the Adriatic Sea. (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina) Researchers plan to study the flamingos to see if the coronavirus-induced calm is conducive to establishing the lagoon as a place where they can nest and breed. Konomi says a lagoon crowded with feathered life is a treasure that could boost tourism. But Hysolokaj is less keen to attract conventional tourists to the lagoon, which is part of a protected landscape of sand dunes, wetlands, islands and beaches that supports diverse fauna as well as birds. He described it as the "lung" of Vlora, the nearest city. "There should be a stable but alternative tourism, naturally letting campers come, beaches used, with environmental biking, educational paths and more because it's so close to Vlora," Hysolokaj said. 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Dust storms and thunderstorms were reported in several parts of northwest India, including Delhi, on Sunday with the weather department attributing them to a western disturbance (WD) and a simultaneous cyclonic circulation. Thunderstorms may continue over the western Himalayan region and some parts of the northern plains till May 12, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD)s Sunday bulletin. Another fresh western disturbance is likely to affect the western Himalayan region from May 14. It is likely to bring rain and thundershowers to the northern plains on May 15 and 16, the weather department said. There is also an orange alert for parts of Uttarakhand, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir for May 13 and 14 when thundershowers and gusty winds are expected. An orange alert implies that agencies should be prepared for extreme weather. The western disturbance on May 14 will be the fourth such weather event in May. Because of consecutive western disturbances and associated clouds and strong winds, the maximum temperature has not risen in most parts of northwest India as it normally does in this time of the year. In Delhi, we record maximum temperature of up to 45 degrees during this time of the year. But this May, we have recorded 40.8 degrees Celsius only yesterday (Saturday). Maximum temperature will fall now by a couple of degrees till the impact of WDs weakens. We are not expecting rain or thundershowers in Delhi on Monday, but it will remain cloudy. The northwesterly winds due to WDs are meeting easterly winds in the lower levels which is enhancing thunderstorm activity here, said Kuldeep Shrivastava, head, the regional weather forecasting centre. According to him, the maximum temperature may not peak until May 17. Following the dust storms and thundershowers on Sunday, the maximum temperature in Delhi fell to 35.5 degrees Celsius, four degrees below normal. In April or May, the intensity of WDs reduce. There could be many reasons for this unusual pattern of active WDs this year. It could be linked to European climate anomalies because WDs originate in the Mediterranean, mid latitude circulation features may also be impacting, M Rajeevan, secretary, ministry of earth sciences, told HT in April. Western disturbances are low pressure systems that generally originate over the Mediterranean region and are known to bring winter rain in India. Their intensity reduces in summer when they move to upper latitudes. Scientists say changes in their pattern may be due to weather anomalies in Europe, or they could also be linked to favourable sea temperatures over the Pacific. Due to a trough (area of low pressure), scattered rain and thundershowers are also likely over central and south peninsular India during next four-five days. Thunderstorms accompanied with lightning, hail and gusty winds (30-40 kmph) at some places are also likely over these regions in the same period. Heavy rainfall is likely over some places in Kerala and Tamil Nadu on Monday, and over Kerala and Coastal Karnataka on May 13 and 14. Thundershowers will continue over northeast India during next four-five days, the IMDs bulletin added. Everyone fears coronavirus, but for Augustine, a villager in Cameroon's Southwest Region, the dread is especially deep. If he were to fall seriously ill from the new virus, he would need to make a five-hour trek by road and canoe from his home in Ekondo to a health centre able to care for him. The trip would unfold in the midst of a brutal conflict in this remote corner of Cameroon between armed separatists and government forces. His first step, Augustine said fatalistically, would be to "pray intensely." Since October 2017, when anglophone militants took up arms against the French-majority state, more than 3,000 people in the Southwest and neighbouring Northwest Region have lost their lives, according to humanitarian organisations. Around 700,000 people have fled their homes. Healthcare infrastructure has been one of the collateral victims of the fighting -- 115 medical centres have been destroyed and attacks on medical personnel are frequent, leaving people in remote areas almost stripped of defences at a time of pandemic. In Ekondo, "we try to practice barrier gestures as much as we can, because we have to do everything possible to prevent the virus," said Augustine, reached by AFP by phone from the Gabonese capital of Libreville. So far, the two regions have been relatively spared from the virus -- only 30 cases had been recorded as of Tuesday. But Cameroon overall has had 2,077 cases and 64 deaths, the second highest in sub-Saharan Africa after South Africa. In addition, the country is beginning to ease coronavirus restrictions that have been especially tough for the poor, who amount to a third of the population, according to the traditional benchmark of poverty. Restaurants and night clubs, for instance, have been authorised to re-open, and it remains possible to travel between highly contaminated and uncontaminated areas. - 'Not enough mortuaries' - If the pandemic reached remote anglophone areas, "there's not enough (medical) workers, enough amublances, roads or even mortuaries to take care of the sick and the dead," said Sarli Nana, who works for an NGO helping displaced people. "Many healthcare professionals have been driven out of their jobs" and in those medical facilities which survive, "there's a lack of equipment, medicine, water and electricity," he said. Aid workers are especially worried about any virus outbreak in makeshift camps that have sprung up in the equatorial forest where thousands are sheltering after the conflict destroyed their homes. "There's no (running) water or access to care, the conditions are catastrophic," said Marc Serna Rius, coordinator of a local NGO called Reach Out. "The people who are holed up in the bush are the most vulnerable of all," he said. Many are elderly and greatly at risk from COVID-19. Because of the poor security, access to these areas by aid groups is very difficult. - Civilians in the middle - On the ground, both the separatists and the armed forces seem to have turned a deaf ear to the UN's appeal, made on March 23, for a global truce in combat zones on account of the pandemic. "Nothing's really changed," said Nana. "The separatists and the army are still carrying out attacks. People in the region are still being targeted for killings and are fleeing." The rebels, as well as the security forces, have been frequently accused by rights watchdogs of crimes against civiliians. "Several separatist attacks" have been carried out since late March, said Blaise Chamango, the head of an NGO in the Southwest Region. Last weekend, troops carried out an offensive against a separist camp in Bafut, in the Northwest Region. In late March, the authorities announced a two-year reconstruction programme for the battered regions, including refurbishing schools, water access, thousands of homes and health centres. A total of 90 billion CFA francs ($150 million / 136.5 million) has been earmarked -- but the scheme was announced before the pandemic got into its stride and inflicted widespread disruption. October 2018: Aftermath of a suspected attack by anglophone separatists in Buea, capital of Cameroon's Southwest Region Cameroon's English-speaking regions Hundreds of thousands of Cameroonians have fled the violence. These children took refuge in Agborkim, a town in Cross Rivers state in neighbouring Nigeria CLEVELAND, Ohio God has blessed me with two mothers. My first was Mary Pluto, who gave birth to me in 1955. She was a creative, emotional woman who believed in me. I remember her taking me to the Parma Library when I was very little to check out books. She read me stories before bedtime. I have become a writer and have written more books than were in my house when I was growing up. But lately, I remember her reading childrens stories to me. Mary Pluto later worked at several bowling lanes on Clevelands West Side. She eventually started the bowling program at Cuyahoga Community College West. She also taught bowling classes. She even wrote a bowling guide, which was mimeographed with that stinky purple ink and handed to her students. So, Mary Pluto was the first author in the family. While my father was the no-nonsense male driving force in my life, my mother was the unconditional loving cheerleader. They didnt get along very well, but both were super to me. The older I get, the more I appreciate them. My mother died in 1984 of a sudden heart attack. She was 58 years old. Gloria Williams and Roberta Pluto would visit their "mother" nearly every afternoon at the Village of St. Edward in Fairlawn, Ohio, in early 2020. (Terry Pluto/The Plain Dealer)Terry Pluto/The Plain Dealer MY NEW MOM About 20 years ago, I met Melva Hardison. Her daughter is Gloria Williams, a member of our weekly ministry team at Summit County Jail. That was my first connection to Melva. One day, Melva was asking me about my mother. We talked for a while. I told her about my mothers death in 1984 and my father dying in 1998 after a long battle with a stroke. So you dont have a Mama? she asked. Thats true. Ill be your Mama, she said. Like a ballplayer without a team, I was suddenly claimed on waivers. But thats Melva, who has raised five of her own children and probably about 10 others during different times in her life. She grew up poor in Alabama and came on a bus to Akron looking for work. She worked as a housekeeper and helped with young children for one Akron Jewish family. Then another. Then another. Her reputation grew and as mama. Melva often said, The Jewish people helped take care of me.'' A PSALM 68 FAMILY It didnt take long for Gloria and her Mama to become a family to my wife, roberta, and me. I love how Melva has told many people Im Terry Plutos Mama and watched their faces wondering how that could be when she is a 4-foot-6 African-American woman. But as the Bible says in Psalm 68:5-6: A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families and leads out prisoners with singing. . . God will sometimes pick a a new family" for us from people who dont look like us or have the same cultural background. Isaiah 43:19: (God says) I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. A new family can indeed make a way through the wilderness of loneliness, even if the streams the Bible mentions take some strange turns. Melva Hardison as seen through a glass door at the Village of St. Edward in Fairlawn, Ohio. (Roberta Pluto, Special to The Plain Dealer) Roberta Pluto, Special to The Plain DealerRoberta Pluto, Special to The Pl MOTHERS DAY TODAY For the last 2 1/2 years, Melva has been at the Village of St. Edward Village in Akron, an excellent three-level facility. Every day before the pandemic shutdown, she had visitors. Not just Roberta, Gloria and myself. But her son Darnell Hardison, along with granddaughter Darnetta Bledsoe and great grand sons Dominic and Domanaire Bledsoe. But that all has stopped. Now, its facetime on the phone a few days a week. Its phone calls every day. We understand why they are keeping people out because of how the disease attacks the elderly. Melva is holding up well, but other than a few brief glimpses through the glass, we cant see her. The nurses and aides have been terrific. But they are not family. She is 94. We pray there will be more Mothers Days when we will be back together. I bet many reading this understand the joy and frustration we feel right now. Joy that she is still with us. . . but frustration that we cant be fully there with her. RECENT TERRY PLUTO FAITH & YOU COLUMNS: Patient? What do you mean, Im not patient? Ill tell you who needs to be patient! The battle to keep focused on the big picture Surviving The Shadow of Valley of Death Dealing with isolation and a scary economy Feeling trapped in a tomb during Easter. Looking of the Little Miracles What to say when you dont know what to say Crossing Antietam Creek Boy was I wrong when I wanted that to happen! What? Me Worry? I know I should be grateful, but...' By Jennifer Rosen Valverde The New Jersey Legislature postponed a final vote last year on a vaccine bill that would have put an end to religious exemptions from vaccinations for all students enrolled in public and private schools and colleges statewide. The vote occurred against a backdrop of recent measles outbreaks in various parts of the state and amidst anti-vaccination mantras of, Do not touch my child! and My God. My body. My right. Despite clear scientific evidence in favor of the bill and a well-established need for vaccinations to create herd immunity to protect the health of all state residents, the state Senate could not muster enough votes for the bill to pass. Fast forward five months, and we find ourselves in the worst pandemic in a century, and possibly ever depending on how the situation evolves in the coming year, due to the global spread of COVID-19. Countries have shut down entirely to prevent the transmission of an illness that soon will have killed more than 1 million people worldwide and, thus far, shows no sign of slowing, let alone stopping, without the implementation of extreme social distancing measures. In the U.S., although the virus has infected people from all walks of life, it disproportionately has affected populations based on race and socioeconomic status in terms of both physical health and social determinants of health, namely access to health care, food, shelter, education, resources, and justice. Across the globe, the viruss secondary effects include the crumbling of economies; the breakdown of critical supply chains; and significantly increased reliance on public benefits systems and other safety nets, such as food stamps and unemployment. Many of these safety nets were inadequate before the pandemic and now cannot handle the additional need. The illness has brought to light every social injustice that has persisted for years. With limited knowledge of the illness, including its immediate and long-term effects, the race is on to find a treatment that works and to create a vaccine to prevent its recurrence and spread. Some infectious disease experts have cautioned that the only way we can safely reopen states and countries and begin to restore society to pre-COVID-19 normalcy is to develop and administer a vaccine providing immunity. If COVID-19 does not demonstrate, once and for all, the critical need for mandatory vaccinations of all New Jersey school children unless a childs medical condition prevents it, then nothing will. It is proof positive that exposure to severe illness can decimate populations, devastate economies and bring life as we know it to a halt. We must ask ourselves: When the vaccine is available, is it just and proper to allow individuals and communities to refuse it for non-medical reasons at the expense of the rest of the public? Over 100 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court, in assessing the propriety of a mandatory vaccination law in 1905 during a smallpox epidemic, answered this question with a resounding No: There are manifold restraints to which every person is necessarily subject for the common good. On any other basis, organized society could not exist with safety to its members. A society based on the rule that each one is a law unto himself would soon be confronted with disorder and anarchy. Real liberty for all could not exist under the operation of a principle which recognizes the right of each individual person to use his own, whether in respect of his person or his property, regardless of the injury that may be done to others. Jacobson v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 197 U.S.11, 26(1905). The same answer holds true today. Whether COVID-19 changes the minds of those who are anti-vaccine remains to be seen. Regardless, the state has a compelling interest in and duty to protect the health and welfare of its residents and with over 137,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in New Jersey so far, the urgency to do so never has been so clear. When the 2019 vaccine bill failed to garner enough votes, Senate President Sweeney stated, Were not walking away from it. Well, senator, the time to return to the bill is NOW. Jennifer Rosen Valverde is a clinical professor of law in Rutgers Law Schools Education and Health Law Clinic and a professor in the School of Public Health. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. The Star-Ledger/NJ.com encourages submissions of opinion. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Police in Nevada have released video of the moment an officer fatally shoots a sword-wielding man who was lunging toward him, as he tried to calm him down outside an apartment complex. Justin Charland, 40, is seen in Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's bodycam footage from after 11am Tuesday when two officers responded to two calls about the man who 'was outside his apartment yelling at neighbors and talking to himself'. The clip was released Friday during a media briefing where it was revealed how Officer Vincen Segura, 27, asked to speak with Charland and to get him help, and how the department had previously provided him with 'services related to mental health issues'. This Tuesday, May 5, video image released Friday by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police shows an incident in which a sword-wielding man was fatally shot The agitated man had a 34-inch samurai sword and aggressively approached responding cops The department had previously provided him with 'services related to mental health issues'. His sister said after his death that he was a veteran with schizophrenia After a few minutes of police being on the scene, Charland bounded down the stairs while brandishing the sword despite Segura's calls for him to put down the weapon. As the officer and Charland both spoke loudly, Charland could be heard saying he was a ninja. Assistant Sheriff Brett Zimmerman said Charland also said he was going to kill the officers. 'Im trying to understand; I want to talk to you, I want to get you some help,' Segura was heard telling Charland. 'Justin, put that down,' Segura said as Charland stood on the second floor. Charland replied: 'No, I will die.' At another point Charland said: 'You die, military style.' Justin Charland, 40, is seen standing on the second floor of the Sandland Apartments in Nevada after 11am The video shows Charland advancing toward Las Vegas police officers who say he lunged at officers while police were trying to de-escalate a disturbance call The man was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead after being shot by Vincen Segura. Now authorities are investigating use of force by police 'Don't come at me with that, Justin. Come on, man, you dont want to do this,' Segura shouted to Charland before he approached within a few yards of the officer outside the Sandhill Apartments. The video showed Segura backing up away from the approaching man who told them 'shoot me' and repeatedly instructed them to 'run'. Charland then lunged forward with the sword in front of him and toward the officers. Segura fired approximately three times, fatally wounding Charland. The encounter lasted about 10 minutes. Police released two-and-a-half minuted of body-camera footage. Charland was transported to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center but did not survive. From 2002 to 2008, Charland was arrested three times in Clark County. Charges on his wrap sheet include trespassing, disorderly conduct, battery on a police officer/school employee, resisting a public officer without a weapon, and obstructing a public officer From 2002 to 2008, Charland was arrested three times in Clark County. Charges on his wrap sheet include trespassing, disorderly conduct, battery on a police officer/school employee, resisting a public officer without a weapon, and obstructing a public officer. Zimmerman said Charland would have been arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and resisting with a deadly weapon if he had survived. Charland's sister said that he was a disabled Army veteran with schizophrenia and that police had visited his home three times. She wrote in a Facebook post that Charland was off his medication and his family had requested help multiple times after neighbors had complained to the building manager. On February 28 he changed his Facebook job status to 'immortal ring bearer'. 'Justin was left in his home UNMEDICATED to allow the situation to escalate and this resulted in him getting shot by police when he reacted violently,' Jackie Charland wrote. She added that Charland's case could help change how mentally disabled veterans and other mentally ill individuals are treated 'when they can't protect themselves or control the way the react'. 'It's wrong to KILL someone who can't tell you what's wrong,' Jackie added. A police statement said a police team was investigating the officer's use of force and that the findings would be forwarded to the Clark County District Attorneys Office for review. A different police team was examining the incident for a review focused on policy, tactics and training, a statement said. A police team was examining the incident for a review focused on policy, tactics and training The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a "biggest negative" shock to the US economy that anyone has ever seen in their lifetime, a top White House official said on Sunday, asserting that the Trump administration is gradually turning the situation back to normal. The coronavirus, which originated in China's Wuhan city, has claimed over 280,500 lives and infected over four million people in the world so far. The US is the worst-hit country with 1,314,799 confirmed coronavirus cases and over 78,930 deaths. "This is the biggest negative shock to an economy that we have ever seen in our lifetimes. And it hit an economy that in January was about the strongest economy we had ever seen," White House senior economic advisor Kevin Hassett told CNN. More than 33 million Americans have lost their jobs in the last two months due to the coronavirus pandemic that has brought the US economy to a standstill. The IMF and the World Bank have projected a negative growth rate for the country. Several states in the US have now gradually began to relax the restrictions. President Donald Trump has also urged Americans to start resuming normal life. "We basically stopped the greatest economy on Earth to save lives. I think that we're very glad. We have saved lots of lives. We're very glad that we have done that. Now we're gradually turning the economy back on. If you go from a stopped economy to an economy that's turning back on, then it kind of necessarily needs to be trajecting up," Hassett said. Where we are right now in the White House is that we have got a bunch of economies around the country, and really, frankly, around the world starting to turn the lights back on, he said. We're watching what happens both to economic activity and, frankly, to the path of disease as that happens, and so that we expect that, very quickly, we will have a picture about how quickly we can recover, whether we might have to slow the recovery back down because the disease is spreading and so on, Hassett added. Referring to the USD nine trillion COVID-19 stimulus packages announced by the government, he said the money is still in the process of reaching out to the people. "There's still a bunch of it that's going to be delivered over the next month, we think that we have a little moment, the luxury of a moment, to learn about what's going on, so that the next step that we take can be prudent," Hassett said. More than 27 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits as they have been laid off due to coronavirus pandemic that has resulted in more than 95 per cent of the country's 330 million population under stay-at-home order. "The monies we have already passed to the State can be used for first responders. I think that was an important bit of help that the governors were grateful for. And, of course, if we go to a phase four deal, I think that President Trump has signalled that, while he doesn't want to bail out the states, he's willing to help cover some of the unexpected COVID expenses that might have come their way," Hassett said. I think, right now, the key is to watch the data and to make sure that the next move is as smart as the previous three, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BEIJING, May 9 (Xinhua) -- China's banking regulator on Saturday announced an investigation into China CITIC Bank for the leakage of confidential client information. In March 2020, the bank provided transaction details of a personal bank account to a third party without the authorization of the client, the customer protection bureau under the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) said in an online statement. The bank has failed to fulfill its confidentiality duty to depositors and is suspected of violating the legitimate interests of customer, said the CBIRC. The bureau will initiate the investigation procedures in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, the statement said. Earlier this week, a Chinese stand-up comedian accused China CITIC Bank of disclosing transaction information of his personal account. Federal data shows that many people of different races have been apprehended for illegally crossing the border of the U.S. and Canada, according to a recently published article. Trump's Success in Reducing the Number of Illegal Migrants President Donald Trump has successfully reduced the number of illegal migrants who are crossing the Mexico and U.S. border. The new immigration policy of Pres. Trump's administration made it harder for a foreign individual to enter the country illegally. President Trump intensified his campaign against illegal migrants in the southern border by asking the Mexican government to send their troops as well to guard the border. While it is true that the present administration has successfully cracked down on the number of people who illegally cross the southern border, it is now ironic how many people illegally cross the northern border. Number of People Who Illegally Cross the Northern Border According to the federal data obtained by a news outlet, the number of people who cross the US-Canada border has increased in the past three years. The data shows that many of the apprehended persons were Mexican. People apprehended identified themselves as Romanians, Haitians, and Indians have significantly increased also. The number of people indicated in the federal data is only limited to those who were apprehended and does not include those who overstayed in the country. In the data obtained, 446 out of 1,586 Mexicans illegally crossed the northern borders during the 2019 fiscal year. It was also found that it is easier to cross the US-Canada border than the US-Mexico border. How People Illegally Cross the Northern Border One of the Mexicans who now works in a Vermont dairy farm shared on how they illegally crossed the northern borders. He chose not to be named for safety purposes and for him not to lose his job as well. According to Diego, he arrived in the country in 2017, and he decided to cross the northern border rather than the southern border because it was cheaper and more manageable. His trip cost him $2,500, and he was with other people. One of the factors seen as to why it is easier to cross the northern border is because Canada lifted the requirement for Mexican citizens to apply for a visa before they can enter the country. This was done by the Canadian government to strengthen its relationship with Mexico. In 2017, a similar change was made for Romanians. Diego shared their journey from Canada to Toronto. He said that there were five them, and each paid $2,500 just to cross the northern border through a guide that they trusted. However, later on, he heard that the person who arranged their trip was arrested and deported back to Mexico. Despite this, the Canadian government said that they are monitoring the immigration system of their country closely, and lifting the requirement restriction is not a guarantee that they can cross the borders of the U.S. and Canada illegally. They also added that they would suspend the said provision if necessary to preserve the immigration integrity of Canada. Read related article: Trump's Immigration Policies Decrease Illegal Border Crossings The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Wyoming surpassed 500 on Sunday, rising by nine to 504. The new cases come from Fremont (seven), Laramie (one) and Lincoln (one) counties. No new probable cases were reported. No new confirmed or probable coronavirus recoveries were announced either. 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 662 cases 504 confirmed and 158 probable and 443 recoveries 312 confirmed and 131 probable recorded in the state, as well as seven deaths. Less than 62 percent of confirmed patients have fully recovered, a number that grows to 66.9 percent when factoring in probable figures. Officials caution that the reported numbers are low, even with the addition of probable cases. Natrona County health officer Dr. Mark Dowell has called the data falsely low. On April 2, the Wyoming Department of Health began restricting testing to six priority categories; potential patients who dont fall in one of those categories had to be tested by private laboratories. However, the department announced April 23 that it would be able to resume testing patients outside of those six categories, although priority patients samples remain at the front of the line. Patients have tested positive for coronavirus in 21 of Wyomings 23 counties. Only Platte and Weston counties are without confirmed cases. Wyoming has the lowest recorded number of coronavirus deaths of any state. Alaska has the second fewest deaths related to the virus, with 10, according to the New York Times and state health departments. More than 13 percent of Wyomings cases required a hospital stay. In 18.5 percent of the cases, health officials dont know if the patient was hospitalized. The virus has disproportionately affected people of color throughout the United States, a trend that is also reflected in Wyomings data. Less than 50 percent of confirmed cases in Wyoming are white, 29.6 percent are American Indian, 13.1 percent are Hispanic, 1 percent are Asian, and 1.6 percent are black. The racial identities of 7.9 percent of confirmed cases in Wyoming are not known, and 3 percent of confirmed cases identified as other races. According to 2019 census estimates, Wyomings population is 83.8 percent white (not Hispanic/Latino), 10.1 percent Hispanic/Latino, 2.7 percent American Indian/Alaska Native, 1.3 percent black, 1.1 percent Asian and 2.2 percent two or more races. In 47.8 percent of the cases, the patient came in contact with a known case. In another 12.3 percent of the cases, the patient had traveled either domestically or internationally. Community spread has been attributed to 15.3 percent of the cases. In 11.3 percent of Wyomings cases, health officials dont how the person was exposed to the virus, and 16.7 percent of cases are pending investigation. Wyoming has more cases per 100,000 people (113) than seven states, a number that was once as high as 20, according to the Times, which includes probable counts where they exist. (Natural News) The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is keeping busy scrubbing all evidence from the website of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) that in any way implicates this controversial research institution in the unleashing of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) upon the world. The latest thing to go is a series of photographs, all of which have been memory-holed, that show scientists at various WIV laboratories working on experiments without proper safety equipment. All references to visits by diplomats from the United States who later sounded the alarm about the schools work involving bats have also been scrubbed. This latest wave of censorship comes after President Donald Trump announced that intelligence he has been shown gives him a high degree of confidence that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic originated at the WIV. British Cabinet Ministers had likewise announced similar findings roughly a month prior to this, backing Trumps later claims. There are clearly questions that need to be answered about the origin and spread of the virus, stated a spokesman for Boris Johnson, a British Member of Parliament (MP). One of the pictures that was removed from the WIV website depicted school staff members entering a cave to take swabs from bats carrying various coronaviruses. None of these staff members were wearing proper protective equipment in the photo, suggesting that they may have contracted the virus from these tainted bats. The WIV also removed a reference on its website to Rick Switzer, a science and technology expert from the U.S. embassy in Beijing who visited the institute back in March 2018. Switzer had warned the State Department not long after his visit that he observed serious problems with the handling of bats and other related experiments. During interactions with scientists at the WIV laboratory, they [the diplomats] noted the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory, reads one of the cables that Switzer sent, warning of serious safety failures at the facility. One refrigerator at WIV holdings 1,500 coronavirus strains had a broken seal Back in April, British media reported on a photo, also now scrubbed from the WIV website, that showed a broken seal on one of the labs refrigerators. This refrigerator was reportedly holding some 1,500 different coronavirus strains, any or all of which could have escaped because of this. It remains unclear if this is the same photo that was shown to President Trump when he indicated at a recent press conference that he had, in fact, seen evidence to convince him that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) probably escaped from a WIV lab. I cant tell you that, Trump responded when pressed about the issue. Im not allowed to tell you that. Meanwhile, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, representing various three-letter spy agencies in the federal government, issued its own statement indicating that the 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. Interestingly, the WIV itself admits that the work conducted there is risky. Alongside a website photo of staff members standing next to a communist flag, the institute has published a description of what goes on there indicating that highly pathogenic microorganisms are handled there, adding that once the test tube for storing viruses is opened in the laboratory, it is like opening the Pandoras Box. These viruses come and go without a trace, a senior British security source added. There are various protective measures, but the experimental personnel still need to operate carefully to avoid danger due to operational errors. This same official added that the U.K., the U.S., and several other countries are all conducting investigations looking at all possibilities as to where the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) originated based on this evidence. U.S. government funded coronavirus experiments on bats captured in Yunnan, located 1,000 miles away from Wuhan Part of this investigation will have to look into the many U.S. connections to the WIV, which, as weve reported, include multiple prestigious universities and research institutions, not to mention agencies within our own federal government. One specific piece of information that deserves greater attention is the $3.7 million granted to the WIV by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to conduct experiments on bat coronaviruses. Bats captured more than 1,000 miles away from Wuhan in an area of China known as Yunnan were taken back to WIV labs where they potentially mixed with other coronaviruses to become chimeras, and where one of these chimeras may have later escaped in the form of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). This is still speculative, of course, but sequencing of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) genome has already determined that it did, in fact, come from bats living in the caves where WIV scientists had entered unprotected to collect samples. This alone is highly suggestive that the WIV is directly responsible for the release of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) into the general public. President Trump has since ended all NIH funding to the WIV, even as the CCP insists that all of these suspicious links between the WIV and the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) are merely coincidental, calling them baseless conspiracy theories. But this can hardly be the case when video evidence has since surfaced showing Chinas own government workers admitting on camera that the work being done with coronavirus bats is risky and has the great potential to unleash a pandemic. We can easily get contact with the feces of bats which contaminate everything, says Tian Junhua, a researcher who works at the nearby Wuhan Centre for Disease Control, about what he has witnessed as far as bat samples being collected from area caves. So it is highly risky here, he adds. I feel the fear. The fear of infections. You can watch the full video featuring Tian and others at this link. You can also keep up with the latest news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) by visiting Pandemic.news. Sources for this article include: DailyMail.co.uk NaturalNews.com Leading up to Wisconsins dreadful April 7 primary, the state failed to dispatch absentee ballots to thousands of voters in time for them to be postmarked by Election Day. Widespread covid-19-related poll closures meant these voters had to choose between risking their health in long lines at a handful of polling places and not voting. Ohio officials struggled with a surge in absentee voting in their just-completed primary, and many voters found it difficult or impossible to participate by mail, despite a mail-in ballot deadline extension of more than a month and exceptionally low turnout two factors on which officials must not rely come November. It's not you. It's us. The new Malibu Times website is coming soon! We are doing some maintenance on our site. It won't take long, we promise. Come back and visit us again tomorrow. Thank you for your patience! CLLR Emmett OBrien says he will no longer be silenced by the mayor doffing his cap for Chinese economic investment when our economy is now ruined by a virus originating in China. The Independent councillor issued a statement to the Leader. Last September, as Hong Kong citizens democratically protested against the divesting of their freedoms by the mainland Communist Party of China, Cllr OBrien proposed a council motion of support for those like-minded democrats in Hong Kong. It was rejected by the councils corporate review committee and when I requested permission from Mayor Michael Sheahan to mention my support of these democrats he refused me permission and in effect silenced me on the issue suggesting any criticism may impact Chinese investment, said Cllr OBrien. Now, some nine months on, he says he will no longer be silenced by the mayor doffing his cap for Chinese economic investment when our economy is now ruined by a virus originating in China. The coronavirus cover-up of the emergence of the disease in China, at best, through negligence, has caused unprecedented economic devastation not just to Ireland but to our European neighbours. If an economic powerhouse like Germany can send an invoice to China in the sum of 350 billion for loss associated with the virus I trust Mayor Michael Sheahan wont be afraid of offending the Chinese governing Communist party and encourage his party leader and Taoiseach to seek similar reparations from China, said Cllr OBrien. There was no response to a media query asking the council if they would like to respond to the comments on behalf of the mayor and/or the council. Meanwhile, the Adare-Rathkeale councillor said there is a growing sense of tiredness and frustration at the continued lockdown with no national economic plan for recovery post lockdown. The people of Limerick have done their patriotic duty and adhered to the lockdown but now it seems clear the Fine Gael caretaker government wants to continue on a lockdown with a phased reopening with so many riddles and caveats you wouldnt see at a Papal Curia! In plain speak people want small businesses open and to get back to work. Ireland is incredibly slower in reopening than other European countries but people will be ahead of the curve and start opening up their businesses regardless, he said. End ZIP code gap Re: SAISD boss sees vastly different schooling in fall; And he says bond is needed, Front Page, Wednesday: SAISD Superintendent Pedro Martinez is looking ahead to the fall when new realities of the coronavirus will weigh heavy on his high poverty district in the citys urban core. Martinezs 48,000 students are of the highest priority as he considers how to educate and keep them safe in the face of this pandemic. The bond proposed in November will help; however, this fall, like last fall, things will pretty much remain the same in terms of economic segregation meaning the stark inequality we have in our schools will remain. We speak often in America of our ideals. We see America as a place where all are created equal, yet the education we offer our children is anything but equal. If we truly value education and our childrens future, ZIP codes should no longer contribute to achievement gaps. Maybe the coronavirus, which is certainly a scourge upon us, will push us into thinking of new ways to reimagine how we fund schools and, at the same time, offer us a way to live up to those American ideals we so freely espouse. Nancy Draves On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio ISD superintendent plans to open schools Aug. 10 Required reading Thank you for the excellent coverage contained in the special section of the paper on the novel coronavirus. The information is current, and includes local, state, national and global updates on this disease, which has had such a widespread impact on all of our lives. This section of the paper is now generally the first that I read as the information is balanced, well-written and, for me, essential reading. Geraldine Uecker Profits over people The rush to reopen the Texas economy shows significant disrespect for our fellow Texans, especially the average worker. Already living paycheck to paycheck, these workers are now being exposed not only to less than a living wage, but also to unreasonably heightened danger to their health. An early opening puts profits over people. It shows our political leaders have little concern for the well-being of the majority of people they represent. And tells the world that those arrogant individuals who challenge science-based health regulations with ignorant chants about their liberties and rights are the real Texans. I know Texans to be tough, courageous and logical people who care dearly for each other and appreciate the value of everyone. Am I wrong? Only time will tell if Texas is still the state that generations of my family helped build or if weve become merely petty profiteers unconcerned about the well-being of each other. Curtis Doebbler Give the feds credit Re: Texas should follow local plan to reopen, Editorial, Monday: The Editorial Board praises the importance and applicability of the guidelines by the local health team representing San Antonio and Bexar County. While the four listed elements, which are necessary prerequisites to any reopening, are valid, they exactly mirror the criteria delineated by President Donald Trumps expert and highly professional Coronavirus Task Force on April 14 as necessary before any state or municipality should move into Phase I or any subsequent phase of reopening. While I agree that all governors, including Gov. Greg Abbott, should delay taking reopening steps until these criteria are met, I am perplexed as to why Dr. Barbara Taylor of the local team and the Express-News both failed to give the White House team proper credit for these Guidelines for Opening Up America Again. If the mayor and county judge were to have their staff follow the very specific federal recommendations, maybe they wouldnt need so many local experts to reinvent the wheel. Richard A. Goldman, M.D. On ExpressNews.com: Editorial: Texas should follow local plan to reopen Abbott disappoints Gov. Greg Abbott, there was great disappointment when you opened even more businesses before letting the two weeks of data guide your decision. Personally, I am proud of San Antonio and Bexar County for their careful leadership. Texas has the worst statistics on so many things: school inequality, medical insurance and womens issues, to name a few. I beg you to listen to science and use the creative minds in this state to redirect us away from business as usual. I have only admiration and respect for Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff. Thank you, residents of San Antonio, for doing the right thing. Linda Mockeridge Being human I am so glad columnist Cary Clack is back at the Express-News. He comes to my rescue just when I was ready to give up on this world, cancel my subscriptions to everything and pull the plugs on my TV and computer and head for the hills. Cary comes along and writes as only he can about what it means to be a human being. We come in all shapes, sizes, colors and temperaments, but we all have a heart somewhere for each other. In these trying times, we all need to be reminded of that. Thank you, Cary. Milton Clare New Delhi, May 10 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said out of the total 6,923 coronavirus cases in the national capital, about 75 per cent are asymptomatic or showing mild symptoms, and are being treated at home. He said as per the new guidelines, those who are asymptomatic or showing mild symptoms are not required to stay in the hospitals. The Chief Minister also said there are few serious patients and even fewer deaths reported from the infection. He said 73 people have died due to the virus so far in the city. "There are 6,923 positive cases in Delhi, only 1,476 cases are in the hospital. All the other cases are either asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms. Out of these 1,476 cases, 91 cases are in ICU and 27 cases are on ventilators. I am personally monitoring the serious cases and working day and night for their recovery." About the asymptomatic patients, he said: "Our team makes an inspection of their house to check whether a separate room and toilet is there or not. The health teams are in regular touch with such people and if needed, family members of affected people can contact officials." Kejriwal said in case there is not sufficient space in the house, the patients were shifted to Covid-19 care centre where they can stay for 14 days. He also said that the requisition of private ambulances has been done for government services. "I have been intimated often that people have to wait for hours for ambulances to arrive. We have issued orders for the requisition of private ambulances for government services. These ambulances should be available for government duty as and when required, along with continuing to operate for their hospitals as well." The Chief Minister said he is disappointed over the remarks of the Opposition and mockery on the provision of special facilities for Covid warriors. He said that it is the responsibility of the Delhi government to care for the people who are risking their lives, and also questioned the opposition's mocking of compensation of Rs 1 crore by the Delhi government on the death of any Covid warrior. Kejriwal applauded the Covid warriors for being on the frontline and helping the people in these times. "Our doctors, nurses, teachers, civil defence volunteers, Asha and Anganwadi workers, etc are our Covid warriors and are at the frontline of fighting a battle against corona. They are risking their lives to work for the people. It is our responsibility to do whatever we can for all of them. We have attached five-star hotels with the Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital, which has been declared as a dedicated Covid hospital. If any of our Covid warriors get affected by corona, they will be treated in those hotels. It is our responsibility to take care of them because they are working and taking care of the people all this time." He appealed that this is not the time to do politics but to work collectively for the people and the nation in these tough times. "Please help each other, work together against these issues, and work for the society." Mukesh Ranjan By JHARKHAND: Severe water scarcity, repeated crop failures, indiscriminate deforestation and erratic weather patterns for 28 years, Simon Oraon saw it all from his thatched house at Khaksi Toli village under Bero block, about 45 km from Ranchi. Despite being endowed with six waterfalls, farmers in the region struggled to make their ends meet in absence of a water restoration system. With little option left, more and more farmers were forced to migrate to the cities in search of better livelihood over the years. Pained by the repeated crop failures, Oraon in 1960 decided to build a check dam to store rainwater. In the subsequent years, he undertook a massive tree-plantation drive, well and pond digging initiatives. Today, the Bero block boasts of lush green fields, dotted with small ponds that are linked with dams which act as water reservoirs. Today, Bero block boasts of lush green forests and fields, with small ponds linked with dams, which act as water reservoirs, thanks to Oraon. In the last six decades, this Class I dropout has transformed the lives of thousands of villagers in Jharkhand with his massive tree-planting and water conservation efforts and turned Bero Block into an agricultural hub. Recognising his efforts in forestry and water conservation, Oran, 85, also known as the 'waterman of Jharkhand', was awarded the Padma Shri the fourth highest civilian honour in India in 2016. "When I was of 13, I used to discuss with my father why the crops in the area failed despite having six waterfalls. Despite our hard work, intensive rain would wash away everything. Hence, a plan was chalked out to construct a check dam," says Oraon. But Oraon knew that it was easier said than done. "I tried to convince people of my village, but initially, they were reluctant to donate their land for the purpose. After three long years, I finally succeeded in convincing them," adds Oraon. Initial failures The first dam near his village in Narpatna was constructed in 1961 when he was only 28. But the dam was washed away during the next monsoon. In fact, Oraon had to face many subsequent hurdles as several dams failed to withstand the monsoon water, till the water resource department stepped in to build a strong check dam. In following years, check dams were also constructed in Jharia, Narpatna, Kharia, Gaighat, Deshbali and a few other locations in nearby villages. Today, Bero block produces more than 20,000 metric tons of vegetables which are also supplied to adjoining states such as Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal. Protecting flora Oram has also been working in 51 villages under the Bero block to protect natural flora for decades and has played a key role in the construction of six ponds and a number of wells for cultivation. It was only due to Oraons life-long efforts, we have greenery throughout the year the region, said Block Development Officer, Bero, Vijay Kumar Soni. Struggle is far from over Oraon himself struggles on the personal front. He along with his wife in a thatched house the roof of which leaks during the monsoon. But enter his house, one would see Oraon proudly displays all the certificates that he has received over the years and newspaper cuttings on his movement on the wall. A large chunk of his income comes from his farming and herbs which he prepares at his home. A fire broke out in a high-rise building in Sector V area of Salt Lake on Sunday morning, officials said. There was no report of any casualty in the fire, they said. Fire brigade sources said four fire tenders worked for about one hour to put off the flames at the server room on the 10th floor of the 12-storied building. Flames were first spotted in the server room at around 10 am and the maintenance staff and security personnel informed the fire brigade. The fire was extinguished by the fire brigade personnel. The building houses BPOs and consultancy offices on different floors but due to lockdown there was none in the offices except security and maintenance/electrical staff, the sources said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) There are short-term trades and long-term investments. Then there are forever investments. These rare companies, in my opinion, must have two key characteristics: an ability to survive forever and appreciate over time. To put it another way, I dont want to invest my hard-earned savings into a company that might disappear in a few years. I also dont want to hold a stock that stays flat for the next five decades. Companies that meet these criteria are exceedingly rare. However, I think Ive found three of these growth stocks listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Here they are. Couche-tard Alimentation Couche-Tard (TSX:ATD.B)(TSX:ATD.A) tends to fly under the radar while investors focus on discount and luxury retailers. This convenience store giant has silently delivered a stunning 24,600% return between 2008 and 2020. Now, the stock is down 13.7% from its all-time high. Investors are obviously pricing in lower sales and less foot traffic in Couche-Tard stores as everyone remains confined to their homes. However, I believe the recovery in road traffic will be much quicker than air or public transport as the pandemic is gradually resolved. In other words, Couche-Tard could be poised for a V-shaped recovery in sales. Meanwhile, it has enough financial strength to survive the crisis. Debt is low (10% lower than equity) while cash is substantial ($1.85 billion). The company can keep expanding its global footprint forever via foreign acquisitions. Management has also invested in electric charging stations to prepare for the upcoming disruption to the auto sector. In other words, its a future-proof growth business. Constellation Software Companies driven by acquisition tend to perform best in times of crisis. When valuations are lower, resourceful conglomerates like Constellation Software (TSX:CSU) can swoop in and claim attractive deals. This acquisition-driven growth strategy has worked out well for the company thus far. The stock has delivered a 33-fold return over the past 10 years alone. Given how vast and capital-light the software industry is, Constellations potential for growth could be nearly infinite. Story continues During this pandemic-induced crash, the company acquired two software providers in the fashion industry and a legal software provider based in Brazil. It seems the team was busy making deals while the rest of the market was panicking. The team still has $326 million in dry powder to fuel its acquisitions this year. Constellation could be one of the few companies to emerge from 2020 stronger than before, which makes it the ideal forever stock. Brookfield Asset Management One of the worlds largest asset managers has been cautious about the market for years. Last year, Brookfield Asset Managements team said they were focused on hard assets and alternative investments to diversify the portfolio. Those investments should hold up better than the stock market during this crisis. Brookfields exposure to infrastructure and renewable energy is likely to offset losses from its core investment and commercial property businesses. Nevertheless, the company has enough financial strength to survive this downturn. In fact, it could make some major deals now that asset valuations are compressed. Brookfield delivered stunning returns for long-term shareholders after the previous financial crisis. Theres no reason to believe this time could be any different. The post 3 Growth Stocks I Would Buy and Hold Forever appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada. More reading Fool contributor Vishesh Raisinghani owns shares of ALIMENTATION COUCHE-TARD INC. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Brookfield Asset Management and Constellation Software. The Motley Fool recommends ALIMENTATION COUCHE-TARD INC and BROOKFIELD ASSET MANAGEMENT INC. CL.A LV. 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 TDT | Manama The Chief Executive of the National Communication Centre (NCC) Ahmed Mohammed Al Mennai yesterday affirmed the centres ongoing efforts to highlight Bahrains development and civilisational achievements. The NCC Chief Executive praised the relentless efforts and the support accorded to the centre by all parties for being an active partner in the reform and modernisation march spearheaded by HM the king. Al Mennai said the centre published 160 works in local, regional and international media, overseen the invitation of media persons to cover press conferences of the national task force, organised 12 visits to the field Intensive Care Units (ICUs) at the Military Hospital and the field hospital in Sitra. He added this resulted in publishing 75 news and reports in local, regional and international media and responding to 120 queries from regional and international mass media. Sunday Life will not be silenced by vile death threats from a loyalist crime mob. We will continue to investigate and expose those gangsters, both loyalist and republican, from right across the country who are involved in all forms of criminality including the South East Antrim UDA which has become one of Northern Ireland's most dangerous organised crime gangs. Human rights organisations and politicians have called for the warnings issued by the South East Antrim UDA to the Sunday Life and Sunday World newspapers to be lifted. Peter Vandermeersch, publisher at INM which owns Sunday Life and Sunday World, said "threats against journalists should not be tolerated in any free society". "It is depressing that thugs still believe they can silence the press through intimidation. We will continue to publish stories that shed light in dark corners," he added. Ulster Unionist leader Steve Aiken described the threats to journalists are "simply inexcusable". "Whatever your opinion of individuals are, a free and unfettered press is a mark of democracy. The PSNI must investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice," he added. His Upper Bann MLA party colleague Doug Beattie, a former Army captain who won the Military Cross medal for valour, condemned the threats as "fascism at its finest, with beer-bellied thugs directing spotty faced kids". The SDLP's Mid Ulster MLA Patsy McGlone added his voice to the condemnation, saying: "Solidarity with journalists at Sunday Life and Sunday World threatened by thuggish fascists. Threats to a free press are threats to democracy." Alliance Party MP for North Down, Stephen Farry, said: "Full support for Sunday Life and Sunday World journalists in continuing to do their job and shine lights into dark corners. Threats must be condemned and investigated." Amnesty International described the threats against the journalists as "disgusting". Spokesman Patrick Corrigan said: "Such threats are a disgusting attempt to intimidate journalists from doing their jobs, and constitute an attack on freedom of the press in Northern Ireland. We send our solidarity to the journalists concerned. "Northern Ireland continues to be the most dangerous part of the UK to be a journalist. This practice of attacking the messenger must end." The Sunday Life and Sunday World journalists were targeted by the South East Antrim UDA because of exposes in both titles about its criminality, drug dealing and involvement in the January murder of terminally ill Glen Quinn in Carrickfergus. Police visited the journalists' homes during the early hours of Friday morning, with one being told of a potential under-car booby-trap attack. The South East Antrim UDA controls turf stretching 20 miles from Larne to north Belfast, along with pockets of Newtownards. It is led by veteran loyalist Gary Fisher who took charge of the organisation in 2003 when its former boss John 'Grugg' Gregg was murdered during a feud. National Union of Journalists (NUJ) general secretary Seamus Dooley branded the newspaper threats as "a vile attempt to intimidate editors, journalists and publishers". He said: "This threat should be lifted immediately and unequivocally by the South East Antrim UDA. We appeal to anyone who may be in a position to influence these people to immediately intervene. While these paramilitaries are trying to intimidate journalists and their families, key workers - including journalists - are making huge sacrifices for their communities." Last year writer Lyra McKee was shot dead by the New IRA during rioting in Derry and in 2001, Sunday World journalist Martin O'Hagan was gunned down by the LVF in Lurgan. He was targeted because of his investigations into the gang's drug dealing and criminality. Open source Pirates attacked the ship Rio Mitong off the coast of Equatorial Guinea and reportedly abducted a Ukrainian sailor. The director of the Consular Service Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Serhiy Pohoreltsev said this in a comment to Ukrinform. According to the diplomat, a pirate attack occurred on May 10 near the port of Malabo (Equatorial Guinea); Rio Mitong sailed under the flag of the Comoros, and thge shipowner was Belgian company Smart S & P SA. "According to preliminary information, as a result of the attack, one citizen of Ukraine, a crew member of the vessel, was captured and taken to an unknown destination," Pohoreltsev noted. He said that the Embassy of Ukraine in Belgium is establishing contact with the shipowner and the operator of the vessel regarding verification of this information and clarification of the circumstances of the case. In addition, the Ukrainian Embassy in Senegal, which is responsible for Equatorial Guinea, and the Ukrainian Embassy in Nigeria, which is the closest diplomatic institution to the scene, applied to the local competent authorities to confirm the capture of a Ukrainian citizen. As we reported before, a Ukrainian citizen was captured due to the attack of pirates on the Tommi Ritscher ship. The raid took place off the coast of Benin, in Africa. The four-year-old son of a woman whose throat was slashed her Melbourne home asked where his mum was during his first Mother's Day without her. The body of Ellie Price, 26, was found in her townhouse in South Melbourne on Monday afternoon, but police believe she was killed several days earlier. A nationwide manhunt for mafia figure Ricardo 'Rick' Barbaro continues after the grisly discovery of his on again-off again partner. Daily Mail Australia does not suggest Barbaro killed Ms Price, only that he is wanted by police for questioning. Ms Price's devastated four-year-old son Mostafa will be 'wondering all day where mummy is,' her cousin Rebecca Lehner said. 'No kid should have to grow up without a parent. That poor little boy. How do you explain to a four-year-old that his mum isn't coming home?,' Ms Lehner told the Herald Sun. Ms Lehner said her cousin tried to give Mostafa the best possible life she could while studying for a beauty diploma. The four-year-old son of Melbourne woman Ellie Price (left) asked where his mum is during his first Mother's Day without her. Pictured: Ms Price, 26, with her son Mostafa, four The body of Ellie Price, 26, was found in her townhouse in South Melbourne on Monday afternoon, but police believe she was killed several days earlier She said that over Christmas, the family overheard Ms Price speaking lovingly on the phone to Barbaro, with whom she'd planned to settle down and buy a house. 'Ellie sounded happy, she was just her normal self. There were no red flags at the time I knew of,' Ms Lehner said. Ms Price's mother Tracey Gangell said spending Mother's Day without her beloved daughter was heartbreaking. 'The pain... you don't think it happens to you, you think it happens to everybody else but not you,' she told 7News. 'She thought [Barbaro] loved her,' Ms Price's grandmother Sherry Bradford added. Ms Price grew up in Tasmania and had planned to move back with her four-year-old son Mostafa. Ms Gangell said not being able to protect her daughter will haunt her for the rest of her life. 'I feel so bad because a mother is supposed to protect their kids and I didn't protect her. I couldn't be there to help her,' she said through tears. 'She lived for her son... My heart's just broken into a million pieces for her little boy.' Ms Bradford said they can now see Ms Price when they look in Mostafa's eyes. Mostafa has been living with Ms Gangell in Hobart after starting school this year. Ms Price would frequently fly down to see her son, even if it was just for the day. More than 40 of Ms Price's family and friends gathered on Mother's Day for a final send off in Hobart. Hundreds of pink balloons were released by her devastated loved ones into the sky on the suburban street. Ms Price grew up in Tasmania and had planned to move back with her four-year-old son Mostafa Plumes of pink smoke - Ms Price's favourite colour - travelled into the air as a V8 Commodore circled the cul de sac while mourners watched on. Dozens of bouquets of flowers were left outside Ms Price's South Melbourne apartment, with her family taking to Facebook to share their grief. 'Rest in paradise our beautiful Ellie. Love you then, loved you now, always loved you. Until we meet again,' one post read. Ms Price's luxury Mercedes-Benz was was found on Thursday night at Diggers Rest, northwest of Melbourne, and it will undergo forensic testing. Police say Ms Price likely suffered a 'violent' assault on April 28 or 29 and may have been dead for up to five days before her body was found. The hunt for 33-year-old Barbaro continues, with detectives from the homicide squad, fugitive taskforce and other police units searching for him. Anyone who sees Barbaro should not approach him but call triple zero or Crime Stoppers. Police believe Barbaro could be travelling in his white 2009 Toyota Hiace van, with registration 1OZ 8PC. More than 40 of Ms Price's family and friends gathered on Mother's Day for a final send off in Hobart A nationwide manhunt for mafia figure Ricardo 'Rick' Barbaro continues after the grisly discovery of his on again-off again partner Barbaro's stepmother Anita, who is married to Barbaro's father Joe, said the situation was devastating and passed on her condolences to Ms Price's family. 'Firstly to Ellie and her family, words cannot describe the heartache we have for you all, especially for her little boy, we can't possibly imagine how he must now face life and continue living without his Mummy,' she said in a statement to 9News. 'Ricky, we're extremely worried about you, we're in complete disbelief as we know you to be the man who is gentle and loving, you're a great father and brother to all. 'Ricky Son, if you've done anything wrong please come forward and do the right thing for the sake of this poor young woman and family, and the incomprehensible pain they must be suffering, you need make contact with somebody.' Barbaro is described as 185cm tall with a solid build, black hair and olive complexion. S Lalitha By Express News Service BENGALURU: The running over of 16 migrants sleeping on railway tracks by a goods train on Friday morning at Aurangabad has spurred the Indian Railways to ask its drivers to be extra cautious when steering trains and to blow the whistle more frequently to alert trespassers. Since Friday morning, the Indian Railways has also been reaching out to public through all forms of communication. Speaking to The New Indian Express, Divisional Railway Manager, Bengaluru Division Ashok Kumar Varma said that the Safety department of Bengaluru branch of the South Western Railway has been sending bulk messages to the database of passengers available with Indian Railways. "Be careful, goods and maintenance trains are running. Crossing, walking, sleeping on railway track is dangerous and a crime." South Western Railway was also using social media to caution public, he added. Goods vehicles carry massive loads of atleast 4,500 tonnes and so such trains could stop only at a distance of 800 metres even if emergency brakes are applied and after crossing 1200 metres in case of normal brakes. "As a general rule, Loco Pilots or Assistant Loco Pilots steering trains have generally been instructed to whistle loud at six locations to alert passengers or animals that are in the vicinity of railway tracks: at level crossings, railway stations, curves of railway tracks, in locations where visibility not being clear and in areas where railway construction activity is going on. We have now asked them to be extra cautious and to whistle at more locations just as a precaution in the aftermath of the recent mishap," the DRM said. In addition to that, railway patrolmen have also been told to be on constantly on the look out for any cases of trespassing on tracks, Varma added. AMIT RAWAT, 30, NEEDS SPINAL SURGERY Amit Rawat, 30, cannot sit or lie down because of an excruciating back pain. He was due to undergo a spinal surgery, which was scheduled to take place right before routine services at Delhis All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) were stopped due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak. I have been under the care of neurosurgeons from AIIMS since August last year. I was advised a surgery and got a date for February. However, it was later deferred to March. But the lockdown was enforced by then and I could not get the surgery done, Rawat told HT. He received tele-consultation and was asked to continue taking the painkillers he had been prescribed. But the pain worsened, and he was rushed to the AIIMS emergency department on May 2. The doctors there told me that I would not die if I did not get the surgery. While that may be the case, I am in so much pain. The medicines let me sleep only for half an hour before the pain gets unbearable again. And, the drug store nearby even refused to give me the medicines once saying that I had been on them for too long and it might affect my kidneys, he said. When he asked for a date for the surgery during another tele-consultation on Friday, he was told to come back to the neurosurgery department when the services resume. Routine services have been halted for the moment because of Covid-19. However, if someone has an acute problem, then they can always come to the hospital emergency and any required procedure will be done. However, we have to trust the opinion of the doctor, which might be different from the perception of the patient. The other option is to seek their doctors opinion via teleconsultation and if the doctor feels that they do need surgery urgently then they can always ask the patient to come to the hospital emergency, said Dr DK Sharma, medical superintendent, AIIMS. MEHFUZ ALI, 65, NEEDS DIALYSIS TWICE A WEEK Mehfuz Ali, 65, is in kidney failure, and needs dialysis twice a week. The Laxmi Nagar resident went to Dr Ram Manohar Lohia hospitals emergency department in desperation on May 2. He hadnt received dialysis in nine days because private hospitals where he used to go previously refused to perform the procedure without a Covid-19 report, because another patient in the hospital had tested positive. My brother took him to a hospital to get tested on April 24, but the sample collections for the day were over. The next day, he took him to RML hospital. You know how hard it is to travel during lockdown. We had to get an ambulance on both days, which cost us 4,000 in total. The sample was collected and they said the reports would be in by April 30, which means he would miss the April 28 dialysis session, said Fouzia Raza, Alis daughter. But the family did not get the Covid-19 report even on April 30, so they started enquiring at other private centres for dialysis. No centre wanted to take in a new dialysis patient. They were saying every slot is full. One of the centres asked for our names, and then refused. I think they probably declined because we are Muslims, Raza said. With no alternative, the family decided to go to RMLs emergency department, pleading with them to either give his report or admit him for dialysis on May 2. He was having breathing difficulties by then. Still, the hospital refused to admit him. Finally, in the evening we received his report, which showed he was Covid-negative, and took him to a private hospital in Patparganj for dialysis, she said. We try to take in every patient who comes to our hospital. However, there are a limited number of beds or dialysis machines that we have. So, in case we are at capacity, we even try to reach out to other hospitals that can provide the required care to the patient, said Smriti Tiwari, spokesperson from Dr Ram Manohar Lohia hospital. SABEENA, 31, nine-months pregnant Sabeena, a 31-year-old pregnant woman, travelled from Loni in Uttar Pradesh on May 3 for medical attention at a hospital near Jama Masjid. She was in pain and complained of blood spotting. All her check-ups during the pregnancy had happened at that hospital, so we wanted to take her there despite the lockdown. However, when we reached Delhi, doctors told us that some people in the hospital had tested positive for Covid-19 and they could not admit her, said Asim Ali, her husband. They were asked to go to a hospital in Shahdara. We had taken an auto from home, and it dropped us to the hospital, but left soon after. However, doctors there kept asking us to go back to the first hospital. We did not know what to do, he said. He then contacted a volunteer with a local NGO, who took them to Lady Hardinge Medical College in his car. Even there, the doctors said they could not admit her as she had not been undergoing her ante-natal check-ups with them. It was only after the volunteer requested the doctors that they admitted her. By then, she was in a very bad condition, Ali said. They had left home at 4pm and Sabina was admitted to a hospital only at 11.30pm. We do not deny admission to anyone, but yes there might be some delays when it comes to deliveries. This is because we have 91 beds in the orange section where those suspected to have Covid-19 are admitted and all precautions such as doctors wearing PPE kits are taken. However, these beds are always at 100% capacity and we cannot admit more than one patient on each bed like it used to happen before because social distancing has to be maintained, said Dr NN Mathur, director, Lady Hardinge Medical College. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Anonna Dutt Anonna Dutt is a health reporter at Hindustan Times. She reports on Delhi governments health policies, hospitals in Delhi, and health-related feature stories. ...view detail Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-10 13:10:26|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NEW DELHI, May 10 (Xinhua) -- At least five migrant laborers died and over 10 injured in India's central state of Madhya Pradesh on Saturday night when the truck they were travelling in overturned, said local media reports on Sunday. The mishap occurred near Narsinghpur city in the state, on National Highway No. 44, nearly 200 km away from state capital Bhopal. State Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan expressed grief over the accident. "I am deeply saddened at the untimely death of several people and those injured in the accident at Narsinghpur. My condolences. Local administration officials are present at the spot to attend to the injured. I pray to God for speedy recovery of the injured," he tweeted. According to local media reports, the migrant laborers hailed from Agra city of northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Amid the suspension of transport facilities due to ongoing countrywide lockdown to fight COVID-19, they were hiding inside the truck carrying mangoes in a bid to reach their respective homes. The truck was headed from Hyderabad, capital city of southern state Telangana, towards Uttar Pradesh. One of the injured laborers showed symptoms of COVID-19, following which samples of all of them were taken and required tests being carried out, according to media reports. In a separate incident, 16 migrant laborers died on Saturday morning while they were walking down along the railway tracks in southwestern state of Maharashtra to reach their homes in Madhya Pradesh. Those injured and survived later revealed that on being exhausted of walking they decided to take a rest on the railway tracks and soon fell asleep. An empty oil train tanker ran over them killing 16 on the spot. Enditem THE ISSUE: The Trump administration holds up aid to the U.S. Postal Service as it pushes for self-defeating changes. THE STAKES: If the USPS can get out from under crushing debt and unreasonable rules, it could survive. ....... Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor ... political machinations? The U.S. Postal Service is in dire straits, and President Donald Trump smells blood in the water. He vowed to withhold a badly needed loan unless the USPS raises package delivery rates for online merchants such as, oh, to choose an example entirely at random, Amazon. And now he has installed an ally and top Republican donor as postmaster general. Especially now, with millions relying on postal delivery to safely fill orders for things like prescriptions and household necessities and with mail-in ballots scheduled to play a vital role in the November elections Congress must protect this essential government agency from the president's irresponsibility. Holding the USPS loan hostage until it hikes package rates is classic Trump: He's long made it clear that he'd like to stick it to Amazon's Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, and he has no qualms about using government to go after his enemies. But would it harm Amazon? In fact, the real victims would be smaller online merchants and consumers. Higher rates also would make it harder for the USPS to compete with private shippers, potentially crippling it further and, who knows, maybe that's the Republican endgame here. It doesn't take a lot of ink to draw a line from Mr. Trump's ramped-up efforts to hobble the USPS to the growing call for voting by mail in the general election. Installing North Carolina businessman Louis DeJoy at the head of the agency adds another card to the president's hand. Politicization of the post office did not start with Mr. Trump. Consider the 2006 mandate that the USPS prepay retiree health benefits, pushed through Congress by Republicans who had long sought to privatize mail service. That's a requirement no other government or private entity must meet. The USPS' package rates aren't to blame for its woes and raising those rates couldn't begin to address the debt it has incurred from that mandate. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Congress, fortunately, has options to aid and improve the Postal Service, both in the short and long term. To begin with, House Democrats are pushing to include USPS aid in the next pandemic assistance package. That must happen. The Postal Service is essential to our economy, full stop. It cannot be left to default. Congress could also eliminate the USPS' outstanding debt, as some members of Congress have called for. And lawmakers must pressure postal officials not to give in on rate hikes. In the longer term, Congress can end the prefunding mandate. They can also re-evaluate whether, given the declining volume of first-class mail, the U.S. still needs delivery six days a week. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's recent proposal to allow post offices to offer banking is also an intriguing idea, one that could strengthen both the USPS and communities across the U.S. It could especially benefit low-income Americans who, lacking bank accounts, end up at the mercy of predatory lenders. That's the kind of intervention the USPS needs: innovations that help it to better serve the American people not to serve as a tool for Mr. Trump's vindictive ends. RICHMOND Virginia will slowly begin to reopen on Friday, as state leaders tout metrics suggesting the spread of the virus here has slowed. But testing numbers still havent met many of the key goals laid out by public health experts, federal officials and the states own leaders. Virginias hospitals are no longer reporting supply shortages, demand for hospital beds remains below the states capacity and the number of people in intensive care for COVID-19 has remained flat, Virginia health department data shows. Still, public health experts reached by the Richmond Times-Dispatch said that testing capacity is the key to safely lifting the social and business restrictions that have kept cases from overrunning the states hospitals. Virginia remains far from Gov. Ralph Northams goal of 10,000 tests per day and is not meeting the testing goals laid out by leading health researchers. The states already low testing numbers are inflated by unreliable antibody testing. And the states contact tracing workforce remains below national standards and the states own goal. The restrictions were a pause button. The virus is still out there, said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist and pandemic planning expert at Johns Hopkins University. Nuzzo said that if restrictions are lifted and social interactions resume, states need to have strong testing and contact tracing programs to contain new cases from becoming outbreaks. We have to do those measures, which will require even more expanded testing. Unless were able to do that in the next phase, we will see case numbers go back up, Nuzzo said. We could go back to the point where we were before this started. Testing in Virginia remains far below Northams own goal of 10,000 tests per day, with the latest weekly average at about 5,200 tests a day. On Wednesday, officials reported a peak of 9,000 tests, but the daily figures vary widely. Two days prior, the state reported just 2,500 tests. A more conservative goal laid out by federal officials and researchers at Harvard suggests states should test 2% percent of their populations every 30-day period. Virginia has tested about 1.4% of its population in the last month. Leading researchers agree that a low number of positive cases among all tests performed roughly 10% would show that the state is testing most people who are likely sick with COVID-19 along with a sizable sampling of the general public. The positive rate here, while steadily declining as test numbers rise, is at 16% over the last week. But the real number is likely higher. The Virginia Department of Health confirmed Friday that the states rising test numbers touted by the Northam administration as a sign of progress include the results of antibody testing. As those tests inch their way into the market, Virginias own health officials have said that commercial antibody tests have not been vetted by federal regulators and are not yet reliable sources of data. The state doesnt know how many unreliable tests are among those in its count. A spokeswoman for the health department said the agency was working to disaggregate them from the other test results. v v v Like elsewhere in the country, Virginia has been home to heated political debate about how and when to lift the restrictions meant to slow the spread of COVID-19. A movement to reopen the state has yielded several protests on the outskirts of Capitol Square. The sound of honking from protesters has served as an occasional backdrop to press briefings on the pandemic. For Northam and other state leaders, theres risk in every decision as they weigh the crippling impact restrictions have on the economy against the possibility of opening too soon and triggering a spike in cases and deaths. In laying out his vision for the states reopening, Northam said Virginia has a growing supply of personal protective equipment, hospital capacity is adequate, testing is going up and the rate of positive test results is declining. The first phase will be tempered. Social distancing restrictions will largely remain in place; restaurants will be closed to indoor dining; and gyms will stay closed. But the state will no longer be under a stay-at-home order, and retail businesses can open to 50% capacity, meaning that dozens or hundreds of shoppers could potentially crowd a store at once. Wearing a mask and staying 6 feet apart is recommended, but not mandated. Phase one is expected to last two to four weeks, Northam said. Albeit slowly, the barriers that have so far kept COVID-19 from overwhelming the states hospitals are coming down. v v v Despite an April dip, testing in Virginia has seen sustained increases in recent weeks, rising from about 2,200 a day on April 17 to about 5,000 a day as of Friday. Without a vaccine, widely available treatment, or a reliable understanding of immunity for survivors, widespread testing remains the only way to contain an otherwise untamable virus. Testing is everything, said Erin Sorrell, a virologist and public health expert at Georgetown University. It is absolutely critical when considering reopening. Sorrell agreed with a figure published by Harvard University, which suggests that the country and states should be testing 2% of their populations within a 30-day period to have an adequate sampling. Officials with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have cited the same figure as a suggestion to states, according to The Associated Press. If youre able to test 2% in that time frame, youll have a better indication of spread, and where outbreaks are happening, Sorrell said. In Virginia, roughly 1.4% of the states population was tested for COVID-19 in the last 30 days. To reach 2%, Virginia will need to test roughly 170,000 people every month more than the 150,000 tests it has reported since COVID-19 appeared in Virginia in early March. The 2% goal averages out to about 5,700 tests per day a benchmark the state exceeded four days last week. The Northam administration has laid out a more ambitious goal of 10,000 tests a day, though its unclear how the administration arrived at that figure. (Nearby Maryland, which has 2.5 million fewer residents than Virginia, adopted the 10,000 daily test goal a week before Virginia did.) Virginia remains behind other states in testing, a trend that has held since mid-April, when testing lagged at around 2,000 people per day. Other states rushed ahead, contracting with testing companies in Virginia to do so. Virginia has not been able to catch up, ranking near the bottom in number of tests per 100,000 residents, ahead of only Puerto Rico and South Carolina, according to an analysis by Johns Hopkins University updated Friday. Beyond the sheer number of tests, the positive rate of cases here shows the state is not sampling a valid share of the population. The fear that I have is that with a rate of positivity so high, they are missing many cases and their view of how much illness is in the state is not accurate because they havent tested as much as they need to, said Nuzzo, the public health expert with Johns Hopkins. Nuzzo said she is troubled by states like Virginia that are lumping together antibody tests with more closely regulated diagnostic tests. She said the mixing of the two types of tests yields a murkier picture of the spread of COVID-19. Antibodies are proteins that help fight off infections, and their presence in a persons bloodstream can be signal a previous infection such as COVID-19. Public health experts hope these types of tests will eventually help separate a population that may be immune from the virus from those still at risk. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is currently reviewing the validity of over a dozen commercial antibody tests in the market after an evaluation by the National Institutes of Health found that a concerning number of the tests yielded poor results. Aside from regulatory oversight, Nuzzo said its hard to understand who is accessing these tests, which likely carry higher costs than approved diagnostic tests. I dont care what the results of antibody testing are. They should be reported separately, Nuzzo said. It is a totally different type of test, and its not clear what the validity of those tests is. Virginias own lab director, Denise Toney, said she remains wary of the test and is awaiting further federal guidance before the state contracts with any antibody testing providers. Its unclear how they came to be a part of the states overall testing numbers despite public officials questioning their validity. In response to a request for data related to antibody test results received by the state, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Health said: The [agency] does receive serology (antibody) test results. We are working on methods to disaggregate them from the other test results. Current reporting includes serology (antibody) tests. Even distorted with antibody test results, Virginias testing rate remains low. v v v Em Stephens, a state epidemiologist working on the team analyzing COVID-19 trends, said Virginia health officials are internally working to test 2% of the population in May and eventually reach a 10% positive rate. That is the goal, Stephens said. We are not doing enough testing right now. Hopefully its clear that we are ramping up. Once we expand testing capacity, we can start looking in places where we are less likely to find it. Karen Remley, Northams choice to lead a testing taskforce to troubleshoot the states testing woes, said her team is working hard to boost the number of people tested in Virginia. Remley said the state has enough capacity to test 10,000 people per day, but is still working to connect doctors and people with mild illness to testing providers. Were slowly but surely moving our way up that curve to 10,000, Remley told reporters Friday. My hope is that by the end of next week, thatll be a consistent number that we will be able to reach. Virginias contact tracing workforce remains understaffed with less than a week to go before the phased reopening. In a position statement last month, the National Association of County and City Health Officials said that during normal times, the baseline number of health care workers doing tracing work should be 15 workers per 100,000 people. During a pandemic, they said, that number should double to 30 workers per 100,000 people. Virginia officials said publicly Wednesday that they werent sure how many tracers were employed by the states health districts, even as they pledged to hire 1,000 more workers. On Friday, Northam said the state currently employs 325 tracers far below the 1,275 workers Virginia would need under normal times, according to NACCHO, and even further from the 2,550 workers they recommend now. How Virginias governor and public health officials will reconcile their targeted reopening day with any shortages in testing and contact tracers, should they persist four days from now, remains to be seen. We will move forward cautiously, with science, data and safety as our criteria, Northam told reporters Friday. Plumas Street in downtown on Tuesday, May 5, 2020, in Yuba City, CA. Sutter and Yuba counties, both north of Sacramento, are allowing businesses and restaurants to reopen, defying Gov. Gavin Newsom's statewide stay-at-home order due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times) To the editor: As many restaurants are anxious to reopen, the Silver Dollar Saloon in Yuba County, which opened in defiance of state orders, shows exactly how it should not be done. ("2 counties defied Newsom and reopened. Now California warns restaurants could lose licenses if opened too early," May 7) Pictured mingling with customers shoulder to shoulder and with sneakers propped up on the opposite bench, apparently the waitress is not aware of how the coronavirus is spread. I can imagine responsible business owners looking at the front-page photo, cringing and thinking, "This won't help us open up." Tony Baker, Rancho Palos Verdes .. To the editor: "Resistance" is a word that usually describes action taken against tyranny, not against rules that are made the save people's lives. Is it really worth risking death for a tortilla or a beer? ("An Orange County cafe opened in defiance of Newsom. Now its the center of stay-at-home resistance," May 8) I guess calls by President Trump, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and so many other Republicans for people to be willing to risk their lives to bring back the economy resonate with some very hungry and very thirsty people. They may be willing to die, but most of us would rather live and not have the virus spread. Susan Harris, Glendale .. To the editor: Seeing the picture of people standing close together without masks at a San Clemente restaurant, I was reminded of what Heraclitus, the pre-Socratic thinker, wrote: "Stupidity is better kept a secret than displayed." Rod Hagenbuch, Pacific Palisades : The Chennai Koyambedu connection had a clear reflection on the number of fresh coronavirus cases in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday as the border districts of Chittoor and SPS Nellore reported 16 and five in the last 24 hours as the states overall tally shot up by 50 to 1,980. The official bulletin showed one fresh Covid-19 death in Kurnool district and put the overall count at 45, as the one fatality reported in Vizianagaram on Saturday was not added to the table. Over 160 people with contacts to people who returned from the Koyambedu wholesale market in Chennai were traced in Chittoor district and tests so far revealed 27 COVID-19 positive cases in the last two days, official sources here said. With the fresh additions, the number of active cases in Chittoor rose to 38. SPS Nellores tally also crossed the century mark to 101 but the number of active cases here was 36. Nellore too had the Koyambedu connection and officials were busy tracing the contacts of the Chennai returnees. The prime COVID-19 hotspot Kurnool district maintained its steep curve, adding 13 cases to take its overall tally to 566. Kurnool also reported one more death, making it 16 in all so far. The other hotbeds Guntur and Krishna added six and one, besides Anantapuram five and Visakhapatnam one COVID-19 case. The total number of patients discharged from hospitals now increased to 925, leaving 1,010 active cases in the state. With 8,666 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, the aggregate rose to 1,73,735 in the state, including 1,71,755 negative, according to the Covid-19 Dashboard. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) TUNIS (Reuters) - Shelling of Tripoli's Mitiga airport early on Saturday, part of an intensified barrage of artillery fire on the capital in recent days, hit fuel tanks and damaged passenger planes, the Transport Ministry said in a statement. Mitiga is the last functioning airport in the Libyan capital, though civilian flights stopped in March because of repeated shelling even before the country imposed a lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic. Brega Petroleum Marketing Company, part of the National Oil Corporation, said its jet fuel tanks at Mitiga caught fire after coming under attack and firemen were working to control the blaze. The Transport Ministry, blaming eastern-based forces of Khalifa Haftar, said one of the damaged planes was preparing to fly to Spain to retrieve Libyans stranded in Europe by the coronavirus lockdown. Video shared with Reuters by an airport worker showed plumes of black smoke billowing over the apron. Photographs showed shrapnel damage sprayed across the nose of a passenger plane. Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) has been fighting for more than a year to capture Tripoli, seat of the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), with frequent shelling of the capital. According to the United Nations, four fifths of the 130 civilian casualties recorded in the Libyan conflict in the first quarter of the year were caused by LNA ground fighting. Late on Thursday, Turkey and Italy said the area around their embassies in Tripoli was shelled, leading the European Union to condemn the incident, which it said was "attributal to Haftar's forces". LNA spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari denied the LNA had shelled the area. He has not yet commented on Saturday's shelling at Mitiga. However, pro-GNA forces have retaken some territory from the LNA around Tripoli during an escalation of fighting in recent weeks with the help of Turkish-supplied drones. The LNA, which is backed by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia, says Turkey has established a military drone base at Mitiga, but the GNA denies this. (Reporting by Hani Amara in Istanbul and Maher Chmaytelli in Dubai, writing by Angus McDowall, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Christina Fincher) Japanese automaker Mazda has requested a loan of 300 billion yen ($ 2.8 billion) from three large banks in Japan following losses amid the COVID-19 pandemic, TASS reported referring to Nikkei. The automaker's sales volume in February this year decreased by 14%, in March - by 33%. On March 24, Mazda suspended several of its plants in Japan, Mexico, and Thailand due to a drop in demand for the automaker's products. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Japan exceeded 16.4 thousand, while 270 infected were in serious condition, 637 deaths were recorded. Regenerate wrote: bigge2win wrote: Regenerate wrote: In crazy times, companies will need advice. The more I learn about Ross, the more impressed I am. Its quite the opposite when there are crazy times. Companies slash costs, meaning less need for consulting services. It doesnt take consultants to tell companies where to cut. Plus, they hire people to do that internally, who at times have to re-do work that consultants dont because their assumptions are flawed and processes for their analyses arent automated or intuitive. Hence a lot of consolidation in the industry in recent years. The tech industry rarely even uses consulting firms for any work, except to maybe farm off some implementation work. Its quite the opposite when there are crazy times. Companies slash costs, meaning less need for consulting services. It doesnt take consultants to tell companies where to cut. Plus, they hire people to do that internally, who at times have to re-do work that consultants dont because their assumptions are flawed and processes for their analyses arent automated or intuitive. Hence a lot of consolidation in the industry in recent years. The tech industry rarely even uses consulting firms for any work, except to maybe farm off some implementation work. I'm not asking you to agree with me ... nor acknowledge I said nothing about the amount of advice givers companies would hire it tough times ... but the fact remains, good advisory services are always needed. Who do you think works for bankruptcy court judges? Workout and turnaround specialists. Those folks are essentially hybrid consultants / IBers / operators. So I stand by my earlier comment ... Companies always need advice. My opinion is rooted in 25 years of experience of giving it. Wisdom doesn't have an expiration date. Quote: Nonetheless, Ross is still better for consulting and tech together. The Michigan network and brand will go a long way when you look for tech companies regardless of whether youre doing on- or off-campus recruiting. Posted from my mobile device IMO, Ross is probably better at developing the mindset of a wise advice giver than Tepper. That's all I was trying to communicate earlier. I'm not asking you to agree with me ... nor acknowledge I said nothing about the amount of advice givers companies would hire it tough times ... but the fact remains, good advisory services are always needed.Who do you think works for bankruptcy court judges?Workout and turnaround specialists. Those folks are essentially hybrid consultants / IBers / operators.So I stand by my earlier comment ... Companies always need advice. My opinion is rooted in 25 years of experience of giving it.Wisdom doesn't have an expiration date.IMO, Ross is probably better at developing the mindset of a wise advice giver than Tepper. That's all I was trying to communicate earlier. Yeah, the bankruptcy part is valid, although I wonder how much of that work goes to MBB vs. Alix or a bankruptcy specialist.Maybe you've worked in the industry for 25 years, but you can't deny that consulting has changed quite a bit in the past decade or so. Fortune 500-1000 companies are hiring strategists in house, so they don't need as much or any of the pure strategy work that firms were valued for 15-20 years ago. Hence, why McKinsey and all the other strategy shops following suit to build up practices to do implementation projects. It's hard to sell just strategy anymore, since companies need more than just fancy decks and endless analysis that they can do in house, plus the execution. Sure, companies could use advice in different ways, but you also can't deny that consulting services aren't needed as much during bad times. Companies are trimming the fat and any discretionary spending, which includes employees, enterprise software, and consulting services. Otherwise, hiring for consulting firms wouldn't decrease or be stagnant.